I have nothing left now—no fronts to put on or role to play—only a single lie that I must tell more convincingly than any I’ve told before.
“She found it in Starfall,” I gasp, my eyes finding Caledon’s black gaze. “The stars are hidden there, beneath the tallest tower. She’s using their power.”
The Grand Bearer smiles, and something releases inside me. It’s done now. I’ve succeeded. I can rest.
I hope I have done enough to make it to the Eternal Realm. But I will accept the gods’ judgment. They shall decide what fate I’m worthy of.
The black of Caledon’s eyes expands, stretching out across the sky until it blocks every scrap of light and dappled tree. I close my own eyes, floating away into the dark.
Chapter 34
Morgana
Starfall is a ghost town. There’s not a soul to be seen in the streets, an eerie quiet hanging over the city. If there’s a single dryad left in Agathyre’s capital, they’re staying hidden.
“It’s smart,” Drisha says when Tira brings it up. “They can’t fight—wouldn’t know how even if they wanted to—so it’s better they keep out of the way.”
After we made sure Caledon had seen me use my death power, we moved northeast, abandoning the front line to meet a dryad guide who led us far away from the fighting and up to the city’s outskirts. She told us Sophos made it to Caledon safely, and now we just have to trust that he’ll deliver the message about Starfall.
And if he fails, or Caledon doesn’t believe him? There are other things we could try to force the Grand Bearer into contact with the cursed star. Drastic things that would cost us precious lives. I hope it doesn’t come to that.
We head toward the center of the city until the towering spire of Aquila Hall looms over us. Seeing it again makes this plan take on a new kind of reality for me. Inside that building liesthe main clutch of gaidonesti and—if all has gone well—now the cursed star from Filusia too. As we turn the final corner, I spy a short figure standing in front of the hall doors. I squint, trying to recognize it, then my heart squeezes in my chest.
“Etusca,” I breathe. My old nursemaid hurries to meet us halfway down the street, and I dismount, pulling her into a hug. It feels both wonderful and terrible to have her in my arms after losing Will. The two of them were the closest people to parents I ever had, and now one of them is gone forever. The bittersweetness of it threatens to make me cry again.
“What are you doing here? Why didn’t you evacuate with the others?” I ask, blinking back the tears. I wince when I hear how angry my voice sounds, but I can’t help it. One mentor has already died today trying to protect me; I don’t want to lose another.
“The star has been placed down among the others,” Etusca says. “They had a nerve-racking time trying to remove the protections from it, but it’s in position now. Still, none of us know exactly what that maniac will do once he gets here,” she looks defiantly at me, expecting my disagreement. “You need someone with you who knows this city, just in case.”
She means just in case this plan goes wrong, and we need an escape route. It doesn’t surprise me she has her doubts about whether we can pull this off. We’ve asked the dryads to do something huge by inviting their invaders right into the heart of their nation. I pray we’re not about to destroy them alongside ourselves.
“If they stood back and did nothing, everything would be destroyed,”Leon reminds me, trying to ease the guilt gnawing at my insides.
“With a bit of luck, what Caledon will do is fall straight for the bait and chow down on that poisonous star,” Stratton says. He, Hyllus, and Alastor joined us right before we went to meet our dryad guide—I assume summoned by Leon. He accepted us splitting up in battle, but this is a mission he’s not willing to go into without at least some of his soldiers by his side.
“But it still might not kill him,” Alastor points out with his trademark honesty. “And if it doesn’t, we’re handing him a bunch of extra power from the gaidonesti.”
“He’s already able to draw on the whole forest,” Leon says. “I don’t think we should bother worrying about what throwing the stars into the mix will do.”
I look around at my guard, seeing the doubt on their faces to match Etusca’s. I don’t want them to lose morale before the plan has even properly begun.
“As usual, what Alastor says is true.” I try to meet each of their eyes as I address them. “The dark star might not kill him, but our hope is it will at least weaken him, put some cracks in his invincibility, and then we can strike. He can’t use celestial power to heal like me, so no matter how much magic he takes from the gaidonesti, he shouldn’t be able to fight any effects from the star’s poison.”
Captain Drisha nods, and the rest of my guard follow suit, accepting my explanation. The others nod as well, but the truth is, I’m not so worried about convincing them—I know my friends would stick by us even if they thought we were riding right into a trap. My thought seems to trigger another in Leon, because he casts a look around the street.
“We should relocate. If Caledon finds us here when he arrives, he might suspect a trick,” Leon says.
“Yes, and we need to be certain he’s absorbed the cursed star’s power before we ambush him.” I turn to my old nursemaid. She’s right that we need her, and I won’t jeopardize our chances because of my grief over Will. “Etusca, is there somewhere we could hide near the gaidonesti?”
She frowns. “Maybe, but?—”
“We need to move, now,” Hyllus says, his voice cutting through the quiet of the empty street. It sends a jolt right through me.
“What do you hear?” Leon asks.
“Caledon’s on the outskirts of the city,” Hyllus says. “I just heard him dismiss some clerics. Now he’s heading this way.”
I feel a rush of relief and fear all at once. The bait worked—Sophos did it. But now things are really in motion.
