Starborn Read online

  “But no one can take us to Eris,” I pointed out. “It is impossible. Everyone knows that the storms surrounding the continent are impossible to pass through without perishing.”

  We both turned to look at Quinn, who was now peering into the ale jug. “Damn. That went fast. Barely had a taste of it and now it’s gone.”

  “The ship that’s sitting out on the sand bar,” Hallow said slowly. “I don’t suppose that’s yours?”

  “The Tempest? Aye, she’s mine.” He rocked back in his chair. “Dexia! Do we have any more ale?”

  The childlike voice wafted in on a putrid breeze. “You drank it all.”

  Quinn swore.

  “And would that ship—or rather, the captain whose life cannot be removed from his body—be able to sail to Eris?”

  “Ah, mate, you have no idea what you ask,” Quinn said, shaking his head with obvious regret. “As your bloodthirsty, if delectable, wife said, it’s death to cross the waters off the coast of Eris.”

  “Unless I’m mistaken, vanths come from Eris, and since I doubt if the Harborym brought your little ward with them, that means you must have been there. And returned.” Hallow’s eyes glittered with a light that I recognized. It didn’t bode well to anyone who crossed him.

  Quinn was silent for a moment, his eyes on the scarred surface of the table. He traced a shape that had been carved into it, that of a sailing ship. “The talisman makes it impossible to refuse a penitent seeking aid from me. The goddesses ensured that I can’t pick and choose jobs, but even though it’s true my life cannot be torn from my body, that doesn’t give you any such protection.”

  “Can it be done?” Hallow asked, his blue eyes as pure as a midsummer morning. “Can you get us to Eris without having to use the moonstones? Can we sail there on your ship, with you at the helm?”

  Quinn was silent so long, I thought he might not answer the questions, but at last he moved forward, the thump of the front chair legs hitting the floorboards sounding particularly ominous. “I’ve been to Eris twice. Both times I lost my crew and passengers. The last time, I barely made it through the storms with Dex and me whole. If you demand of me that I sail you to Eris—or try to—then I will have to comply, but I urge you, I very strongly urge you to find an alternate method. One that won’t end up with everyone save me dead.”

  “We’d need the stone for that,” I said, somewhat grumpily; I’d reached the end of my patience. The captain of the guard—I had a hard time thinking of him as Simon—had promised us that Quinn would help us, and here he was being no assistance whatsoever. I got to my feet with a scrape of the three-legged stool on the floor, and snapped, “And since you say you don’t know where it is, then I don’t see what good—”

  “I never said I don’t know where it is,” Quinn said calmly, scratching his goatee. “I just said that I didn’t have it.”

  I looked at Hallow. “If I used both swords and chopped him up into little pieces at the same time you blasted him with your magic, and then we roasted the leftover bits in the fire, do you think he’d survive to plague us more?”

  Hallow laughed and pulled me against him to give me a swift kiss before releasing me and then pinching my behind. “No, my heart, you may not chop him into pieces.”

  “But he’s so irritating,” I said, then stopped myself at the whining tone in my voice.

  “He has been difficult, but our goal is within our reach. Don’t let frustration ride you so strongly.” He turned to Quinn and asked, “Dexia?”

  The former nodded.

  “I suppose a vanth is as good a guardian as a lifebound captain. How soon can you be ready to sail?”

  “To Eris?” Quinn asked, his face a picture of wariness and regret.

  “To Aryia.” Hallow smiled, filling me with joy. Although I was determined to do whatever was necessary to rescue Deo and the queen, the thought of sailing through impassable storms left me with a feeling of dread. It would be far easier to simply create a portal using the stones and travel that way. “With luck, we should pick up the second stone just about the time Israel gets the first from Lord Jalas. And then, my wife—who would indeed geld any man who tried to lure her away from my side—and I will use them to go to Eris.”

  “Nothing good can be found in the land of shadows,” Quinn intoned in a voice that sent a skitter of worry down my back.

  “Do you refuse to help us?” Hallow asked.

  I wasn’t surprised by the note of steel in his voice, but Quinn evidently was. He gave Hallow an assessing look, then answered, “I couldn’t if I wanted. You bore the talisman. I am obligated to help you…not that I would refuse to take you to Aryia. It is a short enough journey, and one that poses no particular danger.”

  “And then?” I asked.

  He shook his head again. “I’m no adventurer despite what my brother may have told you. What you do after I deliver you to Aryia is your own business.”

  There wasn’t much I could say to that, even though I was thinking that it might be handy having a man who couldn’t be killed in our company.

  He gave Hallow a little nod of the head, and said just before he left the shack, “I will see to the ship and crew if you will handle the supplies. We will leave when Bellias is at her strongest.”

  “Why do I feel like sailing when the moon is at its highest is a bad omen?” I asked Hallow, rubbing my arms.

  He gave me a hug before gently pushing me to the door. “Because you are Kiriah’s priestess and thus have an aversion to doing anything by the light of Bellias Starsong. Come, let us get the stone, then we will arrange for the supplies we’ll need for the journey.”

  “Ale?” I asked, following him. “Or the alewench?”

  “The former.” He thought for a moment, then made a little bob of his head. “Or possibly both. We’ll just have to see what this Grimalkin looks like.”

  I stayed silent while Hallow talked Dexia out of the stone that she had hidden away in some grubby inner pocket. I glanced upward at the high clouds that blotted the sun from view. I had an uneasy feeling that Kiriah was separated from us by more than mere clouds. It was as if a shadow had fallen between her and us…one that was filled with ill omens and an unformed menace.

  Chapter 6

  Hallow heard the voice before he saw the bird.

  —sailed to Aryia without telling me, not that you can talk to me when I’m in Starfall City, and you’re Bellias knows where, but still, you should have warned me of the possibility that you would be sailing when I went to look for you. It’s just lucky that I’m not a real bird, or I wouldn’t have been able to fly for all this time to find you. Did you get the stone? You must have—you don’t look annoyed. Why are you riding so hard? Your horses are lathered, and Allegria looks furious.

  The shadow of a swallow flickered across the sun-baked ground, circling over Hallow before settling down on the top of the wooden staff strapped to his back.

  “Hello, Thorn. Yes, it is lucky you’re not real. The stone is safe. Both of them, that is, although we had a little bit of trouble with Lady Sandor not wanting to relinquish the one she held.”

  “That is the biggest understatement I’ve ever heard,” Allegria said, grimacing. “Blessings of the goddess upon you, Thorn. Is there news of Darius?”

  “I suspect he’s about to tell me. My heart, does that look like a dust cloud created by the mounts of a number of angry priests riding in formation?”

  Allegria glanced back over her shoulder, squinting against the afternoon sun. “Kiriah smite them! I can’t believe Sandor would carry out her threat to hunt us down so she can string us up by our toes before she applies honey and stinging ants to our tender flesh. She’s changed since I left the temple, Hallow. She never used to threaten people with torture. She’s much more…intense…now. I blame the Harborym.”

  He couldn’t keep from smiling at her. “Tyin
g Lady Sandor to a chair so that you might steal a valuable object given into her care has no doubt caused her to become a bit testy with us.”

  “I wouldn’t have had to tie her to the chair if she hadn’t threatened to strike us down with Kiriah’s own power,” Allegria answered, a decidedly disgruntled expression on her face. One tinged by self-righteousness, Hallow was amused to note. “This is the Fourth Age, after all! It’s supposed to be a time of peace, not a time of priestesses turning into masochists and threatening other priests just because they want to borrow a stone. One she’s not even using, I might add. I don’t know why she’s making such a big fuss about it when she knows the stone will be perfectly safe with us.”

  He laughed outright, his delight with Allegria the one constant in his life.

  Allegria stole the stone from the head priestess of her order? Thorn asked, sounding both awed and aghast.

  “Allegria likes to refer to it as borrowing the stone, but yes, that is basically what happened. Lady Sandor refused to give the stone into our keeping, and Allegria…well…”

  “I wasn’t going to take no for an answer,” she told Thorn, looking even more righteous.

  I like her a lot. I did a good bit of work convincing her to marry you, Thorn said with satisfaction.

  Hallow decided not to comment on the fact that it took a few months before Thorn stopped complaining that Allegria was a bad influence on his life. “What news do you have from Starfall?”

  Although I would like to have seen her tie up the priest…what? Oh, nothing beyond what you already knew. Darius has taken over the city and claims that no one shall enter Genora without his permission. He states openly that Queen Dasa is dead, and that he will fulfill her destiny and unite Genora to bring glory back to the Starborn.

  Hallow quickly repeated the information to Allegria, adding, “It sounds as if he’s determined to be king. I wonder if he truly feels the queen is dead, or if he’s simply taken advantage of the situation for his own purposes?”

  Allegria snorted while Thorn flapped his wooden wings. “Definitely the latter. Such a mealy-mouthed, weak-minded twit. He couldn’t organize his way out of a dark room.”

  Hallow felt his lips twitch. There were many things that enchanted him about Allegria, but one of the most enjoyable was the way she said exactly what she thought. “I agree that he has an inflated opinion of himself, but if he has actually formed an army—”

  He hadn’t. He had an arcanist named Lyl call up the army.

  “An arcanist? I thought it was a magister who was aiding him.” Hallow searched his memory of Exodius’s less than comprehensive records. “I don’t recall mention of an arcanist named Lyl.”

  Before your time. He slipped away when Exodius had just taken over for me, and that fool apprentice of mine never did bother to chase him down and make him adhere to the rules of the order.

  “I think they’re catching up to us. How can they move so fast on fat mules that don’t get more exercise than it takes to walk from the barn to the paddock?” Allegria grumbled, glancing over her shoulder again.

  “We’re almost at Deacon’s Cross. I’m sure Quinn will be ready to sail as soon as we arrive.”

  “Assuming we get there before Sandor catches us. I don’t suppose you know a slowing spell?”

  “I do, but I would need to be closer to cast it, and I don’t want to risk being caught by the fat mules or your head priest. Thorn, if you’ve recovered from your trip, can you fly back and see how many are pursuing us?”

  Only if you promise to tell me again how Allegria tied up the head priestess, and how she threatened to hang you by your toes.

  The bird was off before Hallow could do more than roll his eyes, and a half hour later, they galloped into Deacon’s Cross, a small, but busy, port town.

  By the time Hallow had returned the rented horses to the stable and fetched Allegria from where she was watching for the priests, Thorn flew back.

  They’ve turned around, he said with a disgusted note in his voice. Priests these days don’t have the same stamina they had in my time. Who’s the man with the goatee who’s ogling Allegria? Is that a vanth that’s perched on the figurehead? Where are we sailing? I thought you were going to the High Lands to fetch the third stone?

  “We need to leave as soon as possible,” Hallow told Quinn, frowning when he noticed that the roguish captain was indeed giving Allegria a look that was far too warm for his liking.

  “Lucky then that I spent the last day resupplying the ship. I assume you wish to sail to Abet? That is, if you fetched the moonstone you were after.” Quinn dragged his gaze from Allegria, who had, after a few minutes, noticed the attention, and made a fine show of wiggling her fingers in a ‘gelding with the light of Kiriah’ sort of motion.

  “We do, and we have. Quinn the Mad, this is Thorn, former Master of Kelos, and now a valued member of our company.”

  Thorn detached himself and flew a few circles around Quinn and Dexia before landing back on the top of the staff. Tell him how I was an integral part of ridding Genora and Aryia of the Harborym, and how I went through the portal for you to Eris and had to go back into the spirit world in order to return. You may also inform him that I was a far greater arcanist that Exodius ever was.

  Hallow duly repeated the outrageous statements, knowing he’d have no peace if he didn’t.

  “Your staff…talks?” Quinn looked as if he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to laugh or be horrified.

  “Only to the current Master. How long will it take us to reach Abet?”

  It took Quinn a few seconds of eyeing Thorn before he shook his head and answered the question. “Less than a day with favorable winds. Are you in a hurry?”

  Tell him that of course we’re in a hurry. We have battles to fight, and Harborym to defeat!

  “We are if Lord Israel is there with the third stone,” Allegria said, moving to Hallow’s side and sliding her arm through his in a way that never failed to warm his soul. “The sooner Hallow can use the stones to open up a portal, the better I’ll feel.”

  “My heart, I’ve told you time and time again that it is not your fault that Dasa and Deo went to Eris.” He felt, as he always did, both her pain and guilt that she hadn’t been able to close the portal in time to keep Dasa safe and to stop Deo from heedlessly following his mother. “I know you are worried about them both, but the queen is a warrior, and you, yourself, know how strong your boyfriend is. We will find them both hale and hearty.”

  They’ll be fine. Going through the portal is nothing. I did it without ruffling a single feather, Thorn reassured him, regardless of the fact that his feathers were made of wood.

  “Boyfriend?” Quinn asked, looking from Hallow to Allegria, speculation rife in his eyes.

  “You don’t know that,” Allegria told Hallow, sighing heavily even as she rallied a weak smile and squeezed his arm. “You’re right, of course. The queen is frighteningly brave, and Deo is the strongest person I know—you excluded—but I worry about the change that affected him right before he went into the portal.”

  “Your wife has a boyfriend? Is that allowed?”

  “When his runes altered in appearance?” Hallow remembered that horrible moment when he’d almost been sucked into the portal, and Allegria had channeled Kiriah herself. Deo’s runes had changed from the usual red to a blinding gold, the same as Allegria’s had once been. “I have a theory about that.”

  “Is she taking recommendations for qualified applicants? If so, I’m told that I am quite well versed in the art of bed sport, and I have an unparalleled appreciation of a fine bosom. Of which she has one of the most spectacular I’ve ever seen.”

  That captain is ogling Allegria again. Shall I shit upon his head?

  Allegria gave Hallow a long look. “Because his runes were golden, like mine, not black, as they were when the portal was tainting his mag
ic? Do you think Kiriah gave him her blessing?”

  “In a way.”

  “I’m also told that the ladies enjoy the feeling of my whiskers upon their delicate flesh,” Quinn said with a waggle of his eyebrows. “They say it prickles them. In a good way.”

  It feels good to be doing something again, Thorn told him, still flitting around the deck. Have you something I should investigate?

  Hallow held Allegria’s gaze, his mind sorting through facts and fitting them together in a way that made sense. “I think when you channeled Kiriah Sunbringer, you not only burned the chaos out of yourself, but you did the same to Deo. Or rather, diluted it, changing it from pure chaos to something unique.”

  “Both upper and lower areas of delicate flesh, if you take my meaning, and I hope you do, because I wouldn’t at all mind being one of your wife’s boyfriends.” Quinn’s smile was both hopeful and broad.

  “That makes sense, although I don’t know how I could affect Deo’s magic…” Allegria turned to stare at Quinn at the exact moment that the captain’s words sank through Hallow’s thoughts.

  “No?” Quinn asked, still looking hopeful.

  Hallow lit a blue arcane flame under the man’s feet at the same time Allegria spread wide her arms, speaking an invocation for Kiriah to bless her with her power.

  “A simple ‘the position is filled’ would suffice,” Quinn yelped, dancing up and down until the flames died down.

  “I don’t have a boyfriend, no matter what Hallow says,” Allegria said, stopping her invocation before turning back to Hallow. “Do you think Deo’s magic would protect him? Or hinder him?”

  He took both her hands and kissed them, disliking the worry evident in her eyes. “You said it yourself—Deo is the strongest person you know. That we both know. He will be fine. Instead of worrying about what the chaos magic is doing to him, let us focus on getting to Eris. Assuming Israel is back in Abet, we should be able to open a portal immediately. What? Oh, Thorn, yes. I have a message to be taken to Lord Israel if you think you can find him.”