“It’s why this wasn’t my first suggestion,” Etusca says.
It turns out there’s another way into the gaidonesti chamber beneath Aquila Hall, through the very temple the dryads healed Ana in on our last visit. It makes sense, given the gaidonesti in that building are connected to those forming the floor beneath the hall—all part of the same, densely packed mosaic of fallen stars. However, it seems whoever built the tunnels expected it to only be used by those with dryad proportions, which are generally quite a bit smaller than fae ones.
Hyllus took one look at the tunnels and offered to act as lookout in case Caledon has some forces headed to Starfall after all. The rest of us were forced to push our way into the narrow passage or risk Caledon draining the gaidonesti before we’re there to witness it.
After a maze of left and right turns, lit only by the flame provided by Ana’s incendi guard, something glows up ahead.
“Stay quiet now and watch your step,” Etusca whispers as she creeps up to the light. Soon, my eyes adjust, and I see it’s coming from the cracks around a slim door. Etusca eases it open, then nods.
“It’s empty.”
We file through to find ourselves at the very edge of the huge gaidonesti chamber. This side is bathed in shadow, the light of the gaidonesti glowing about a hundred feet away. As Etusca promised, we’re the only ones here. Caledon must still be navigating his way through the maze of Aquila Hall. I step forward, examining the structures by the door that Etusca clearly plans on hiding us behind: rows of large, open crates.
I sniff, smelling the familiar scent of earth.
“What are all these flower boxes doing down here?” Tira asks, beating me to it.
“We’re not growing flowers,” Etusca says. “They’re gaidonai—star mushrooms. They’re wonderful for gut diseases, and they love the mix of darkness and starlight down here.”
“They grow medicines in here?”I ask Ana, disbelieving.
She shrugs.“That’s dryads for you—a hugely powerful source of magic in their basement, and they grow mushrooms from it.”
We quickly arrange ourselves behind the boxes, aware Caledon could arrive at any moment, though I suspect he won’t be wary enough to check the room for intruders. He believes he’s invincible now. What does he have to fear? I’m confident he’ll only have eyes for the stars the moment he gets his first taste of their power.
“Where’s the dark star?” I murmur to Etusca while I still can.
“They set it into the floor, at the edge of the others,” she says.
As I squint through the gloom, trying to locate it, I take in the scale of the chamber once more. When Ana and I were herebefore, we never even saw this side of it, but it’s easy to orient ourselves because the center of the room is lit by the gaidonesti’s silvery, ethereal light.
It illuminates Caledon as he enters the chamber from the other end, casting strange shadows along the side of his face, making him look only half human. He walks to the center of the room and starts to bend down, examining the floor with a hungry look, but he finds his movement impeded by everything he’s carrying. With a flash of annoyance crossing his face, he shucks the bow off his back, tossing it aside. It skids across the floor with a clatter. Then Caledon unfastens his belt. It’s heavy with the other three tokens fixed to it and hits the floor with a thud. He kicks it aside.
A fresh surge of hate runs through me. I’m not one for reverence, but those artifacts are powerful objects, touched by a god. My fatherdiedto hide one of them, and the moment they’ve served their purpose, Caledon tosses them like trash. They mean nothing to him now he’s got his greedy eye on a new, shiny source of magic.
He places his hands against the glowing stones and closes his eyes. Ana’s breathing grows shallow beside me, every muscle in her body tensing.
The gaidonesti’s reaction to Caledon’s touch is almost instant. The glow of the stars swells, swallowing up his hands, climbing up his wrists, then his arms, until it spreads out from his shoulders, enveloping Caledon in its white light. I watch carefully, but I have no idea if he’s drawing on the cursed stone too. There may be some of its magic in that light, but there’s no way to tell right now.
Ana makes to get to her feet.“We should move closer while he’s distracted. We need to be ready.”
But the light around Caledon is already changing, and my hand shoots out, grabbing her. She looks down with wide eyes.
“What is it?”
“Look, something’s wrong,”I reply.
Caledon flings his head back, eyes staring into nothingness as he absorbs the gaidonesti’s power. But the ethereal glow from before is dimming, and something’s pooling around his feet, spreading like a puddle of ink.
It’s black, the low light giving it a sinister gleam. With a shudder, I realize I’ve seen something like that substance before. It looks exactly like the tarry liquid Fairon used to cough up while he was sick—the same darkness Ana said she saw stifling his celestial flame when she healed him.
At first, I think it’s rising up through the stones, drawn from the cursed star, but I’m wrong. The tar is seeping from Caledon’sskin, soaking through his robes and dripping off his legs and arms in thick globs.
“Is it working?” Tira whispers. “Has he been poisoned?”
I shake my head, unsure. Whatever’s happening might be grotesque to watch, but Caledon’s expression is pure ecstasy. He looks too happy to be in any kind of pain, and the way his shoulders are pulled back with his chest pushed out tells me he feels strong.
Ana shifts under my grip, a part of her still wanting to seize the moment, but she sees the change in Caledon too, and it makesher hesitant. Moments later, he releases his hands from the stones and stands, an elated smile spreading across his face.
