Maybe it’s better not to know.
Soon, and spider-free, thank fuck, we end up in a small cavern that is lit by a single lamp. The room is littered with drawings, maps, paper scrawled with ancient hieroglyphics, and ashen shards of burned-out, old jadu crystals.
“We’ll be safe here,” Aran says. I’m glad to see that he’s completely healed from what had happened in Nyriell.
I sink down, the exhaustion of the last few hours catching up to me. “Why can’t we portal from here?”
Aran sniffs. “We need jadu to do that.”
Roshan shoots me a reassuring look. “Don’t worry, we will get to Coban.”
“If what you’ve told me is true, we need to get her to Eloni,” Aran says from where he stands, his eyes unfathomable. “To the temple. Think about it, Ro, it makes the most sense for her safety. And everyone else’s.”
Roshan glances at his cousin. “What happened exactly? Your message said our cover was blown. How?”
I’m still in shock that they are relatives and slightly irritated that he kept such information from me. I suppose it doesn’t truly matter, but I thought we were past having secrets by this point.
“The palace placed an astronomical bounty on her head,” Aran said. “Enough to turn some of our own. Someone let it slip that she was in Nyriell.”
I don’t miss the tension underpinning his words, but my mind is elsewhere. “Ineedto go home. I have to ensure my family is safe.”
“They’ll know that’s where we’re headed,” Aran says, still looking at Roshan.
Roshan nods grimly. “Probably.” He lets out a breath and removes the helm from his head. “For now, we should eat and get our strength up. Then we figure out the portal.”
Aran tosses a tin from a nearby pile to me, and I force myself to open it despite an unsettled stomach. The smell of honeyed beans wafts up, and my belly cramps. Wincing, I tip some of the slop into my mouth and chew. It’s cold and coagulated, but I know the nourishment is important.
Roshan finishes his own tin quickly and then moves to the chamber entrance.
“Where are you going?” I ask him.
“To check that everything is secure,” he says over his shoulder. “I’ll be right back. Try to get some rest if you can.”
After Roshan leaves, I make myself comfortable on a chair on one side of the room, warily eyeing the rough-hewn ceiling of rocks. So far, we’re safe enough here, but I can’t help feeling like we’re treading a precariously thin line between survival and stupidity. I need to get back home to make sure my family is safe. And the truth is I just want all of this to be over.
Though I don’t even know what that means.
Will there be war? Will the prophecy come to pass? Will we survive whatever is coming? Things can’t go back to the way they were, but what if the only thing that lies ahead for all of us is death?
Panic slices down my spine. The utter inability to control anything at all makes me feel untethered, as if I’m drifting in an endless sea at the whim of fate.
Breathe, Suraya.
I glance over at Aran, wondering if he can give me some more concrete answers—at least a foothold to not feel so powerless. “You said you wanted to get me to the temple in Eloni. Why?”
He stares at me for a long time, then glances toward the narrow tunnel where Roshan had disappeared. “For help, perhaps. Protection, too. The House of Fomalhaut believes that the Starkeeper has very special magic, one that can be used and twisted. If the power you bear is indeed a weapon of this magnitude, you must be safeguarded at all costs.”
The crone’s prophecy whispers through my brain. “From the twin gods.”
“Not both, just one,” Aran replies. “The twins hold equal but opposite dominion in the realms of light and darkness. Fero is the one you need to worry about.” My heart quakes at the sound of the name. “As Saru was seen as a creator, his brother, Fero, was the destroyer. The entire world was their playground as they competed for mortal souls.”
“And the Royal Stars?”
“The four Royal Stars were the instruments of the twins, fated to guide all life. Venant is the keeper of the northern sky and the brightest star in the darkness. His magic is transformative, a soul energy, and he is the summoner of the Starkeeper—the hand of the gods created by the four of them. You, in this case.”
Grimacing, I don’t inform Aran that the guardian of the northernmost Royal Star has manifested to me as a woman named Vena. “You really think I’m this mystical weapon of the stars?”
“I don’t think, Suraya, I know. Youarea weapon, one that is neither good nor evil, but a fusion of the two. Akasha runs in your veins. Until you become a master of your magic, you must serve it. And as its servant, you are bound to the will of your creators... the Royal Stars.”
