Yuma nodded and dismounted. Lysandros also leaped off Fractica’s back, and the ground rang with a deep thud.
Parting the grass that came up to her waist, Yuma walked on. They had to be very careful from this point on. It might have been a mistake to bring an outsider here. Or to say what she was about to say.
“We’re here.”
“There’s nothing…”
But then it began. Yuma pointed upward to the night sky. Lysandros looked up.
The stars were moving. Lysandros stared as the stars in the sky began to gather right above their heads.
“What is this…?”
Yuma repeated the words the Host had said to her years ago when she was first appointed the Chief Herder.
“A long time ago and today, in both the east and the west, we all believed the destiny of peoples and their lands were decided by the stars. Once a year, the strands of destiny gather in this place. What is forged here can never be undone, and what is decided here can never be undecided.”
The stars continued to gather. Then the starlight became like solid strands, falling down from the dark sky and filling the space where Yuma and Lysandros stood, making the spot as bright as day.
“This is where I swore to look after the oroxen and the herders and the people of our city as the Chief Herder of Danras.” She took a step closer to Lysandros. “You said you came here in the name of peace and friendship. But the Grim King is at war with the Empire, trying to prevent your people from coming here. As long as the Grim King rules Merseh, there can be no peace or friendship with the Empire.”
Lysandros only smiled softly, not saying a word.
Yuma reached into her pocket and took out her two nullstones. “Do you know what these are?”
He looked down at them. “No. But I can see the stones have Power. There are ripples.”
“The Grim King gave these nullstones to me. He ordered me to stop Fractica with these and then capture you. But I didn’t use them. You stopped Fractica before I did. If you hadn’t, things might’ve happened differently.”
Lysandros looked taken aback. Yuma took a deep breath.
“You came to Merseh to convince Danras, right? To foment rebellion against the Grim King, and help your Empire in your war against Cassia?”
“Eldred,” replied Lysandros, as Yuma gasped audibly, “is not the King of Merseh. Just a sorcerer with too much power. I am here to meet the real King of Danras, the most powerful person in Danras.”
“Danras has no king.”
Lysandros looked directly into her eyes.
“All of Merseh knows that Chief Herder is the true King of Danras in all but name.”
Yuma stopped breathing. Lysandros continued.
“The Empire will bring the whole world into one. Trade will flow like rivers, wars will disappear. That is the destiny of the world. I want Chief Herder to be with me in that.”
The white starlight swirled around them. The chill of the late-autumn air was forgotten. Yuma dropped her hat on the ground and took a step closer. Lysandros looked down into her eyes. Yuma held his iron frame in her hands.
“Swear to me. Here, in the starlight. A promise that cannot be broken.”
Lysandros’s hands, making a mechanical whirring sound, rose to gently grasp her shoulders. She could feel both the cold of the frame and the warmth of his hands.
“I swear, as an emissary of the Empire, that I shall use all my power as an inquisitor of the Imperial Office of Truth to aid Yuma, the Chief Herder of Danras, to save Merseh from Eldred.”
Answering Lysandros’s oath, the starlight around them intensified. Yuma let go of her last bit of hesitation and decided to believe. That they could rid their land of the Grim King, that the centuries of deathly tyranny was to end, that Danras would have a true king.
The stars slowly returned to their places in the sky. Lysandros pointed north. There, a star had remained fixed the whole time, immobile as the others swirled and settled around it.
Yuma said, “The polestar never moves. It will watch over the oath you made.”
