Iyana made ahmfphnoise, and crossed her arms so quickly it forced Altair to hold her tighter to keep her from falling off the horse.
“You may ask me your questions, prince,” Altair said. Iyana’s jaw dropped in shock.
“Traitor,” she muttered under her breath. Interesting. Maybe the Aztiawasn’t the one in charge after all.
“Think, my star. He may have valuable information for us as well.”
“Thank you.” Zane nodded his head in respect. “I already know Emmeric is the Kanaliza, and Talon is his best friend, which explains their involvement, and from what I can gather, Kaz simply happened upon your group and decided to stick around. But I can’t work out how you figure into this, Altair.” He was still confused about whatthiswas, other than running from his father, but there was some sort of plan unfolding.
“I’m the star your father is searching for.”
What? Zane’s hands jerked on the reins, causing Ryunn to shake his head in annoyance.
His brain raced to comprehend what Altair had said. Zane had been working under the assumption that the star was a rock of some sort, not a person. Then he recalled Uther questioning Iyana in the throne room.
A star fell here in Arinem. You will tell me where they are.
They.
He remembered thinking it was an odd choice of words at the time, but it meant his father knew the star would appear in the form of a human. How could he possibly know that? Zane was an avid reader, and not only of fiction. He had always studied history with a vigor, confusing even his tutors, but he never revealed it was because he did not want to repeat his ancestor’s mistakes when he became emperor. It was clear his father was only interested in the wealthy, or people who would benefithimin some way, and not the entirety of the Athusan populace. But in all of his studies, he had never come across anything to suggest stars were anything otherthan what they appeared to be. That being said, there weren’t a lot of books written on stars other than constellation maps for navigation.
Now that he knew Altair was a star, Zane realized the signs were there all along—he just didn’t know to be searching for them. The chiseled features, the golden-colored irises, and there was an otherworldly glow about him. Had he always glowed, and Zane was blind? Or had he been dimming himself somehow?
“I can hear you thinking, prince,” Altair said.
Zane startled. “You can do that?”
“He can,” Iyana said. “It’s incredibly annoying.” She glared at Altair over her shoulder.
The star chuckled. “Come, astalle, you love it when I’m inside you.” Iyana blushed, flicking a glance at Zane.
“Please, don’t stop flirting on my account,” Zane said, smiling—which only made Iyana blush harder.
They spent the rest of the day bouncing questions back and forth. Zane asked about the stars, the Aztia, and the Kanaliza, and Altair asked about Uther—what were his goals, how large was his army, did he own any artifacts he probably shouldn’t. Zane answered as best he could, admitting his father did not tell him most of his plans and Zane tried to avoid court as much as possible. Altair gave him a plethora of information Zane had never learned—the creation of humans and magic, the old gods deciding to sleep (except for Yrza, apparently, according to Kaz, which she refused to elaborate on), and he fleshed out the history of the Aztia and Kanaliza more.
Altair’s attitude and willingness to answer questions changed when Zane brought up the scroll he had found deep in the castle’s library.
“Do you have it with you?” Altair asked.
“No, I left it hidden in my room. It seemed too delicate to travel.” Was it Zane’s imagination or did Altair breathe a little sigh of relief? “But I memorized it.” Altair stiffened.
“What did it say?” Iyana asked. She’d been slowly warming up to him during their conversation, actually answering some questions. During their conversation, Iyana had revealed that she and Emmeric had only recently been thrust into this and had limited knowledge based only on what Altair and her grandmother had told her.
“The Aztia and Kanaliza were hand-picked by the goddess Zaya, who was awoken from her deep slumber by the strife she had detected in the gods’ most favorite of creations—the humans. The Aztia was a woman already endowed with strong magic, and the Kanaliza a human man with no magic. Zaya gave them the ability to rescue humanity from their plight. The Aztia and Kanaliza ended the conflict in Arinem and retired peacefully, never to be heard from again. We owe them our lives. Their names shall go down in history forevermore. In every generation, a new Aztia and Kanaliza are born to maintain order between humans and—
“Then most of the rest was too damaged to read. The only things I could see in that section werepowerful,beware, with large gaps between everything, thenAztia has the ability to, another large gap, and finallysave humanity.”
“Oh, good,” Iyana said. “No pressure, just need to save all of humanity.”
“What conflict are they referencing?” Zane asked Altair.
“I think we should stop to make camp for the night,” he said, dodging the question.
“But the sun is still up,” Iyana said.
“Sunset comes on fast in this part of the continent,” Altair replied. Which was true, but Zane wondered why Altair didn’t want to answerthatparticular question after being fairly open all afternoon. He filed the information away but knew the star couldn’t be fully trusted.
Emmeric and Talon agreed it would be a good idea to stop for the night. Kaz and Iyana brushed down the horses and gave them their allotment of oats and apples while the men spread a tarpaulin out on the icy ground. It hopefully would keep most of the chill away while they were sleeping. Altair started a fire, which was Zane’s first glimpse of actual magic. Fascination tinged with a hint of envy filled him at the casual display of power.
