Heavenly Bodies

Chapter Thirty-Four

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

When Gem entered Elara’s room a few hours later, whatever Eli had painted inside her mind seemed to work. After giving one last desperate sweep, Gem departed, a mutter of ‘waste of my fucking time’ on her lips.

For the first time in days, Elara was cognisant enough to account for her surroundings. And her body was pain-free enough to move.

She slowly sat up, looking around her room. There on her bedside table was a glittering sapphire crystal ball, carved from the crystal caves of Verde. Her father had gifted it to her, a prized possession from before Asteria had closed their walls. In a framed painting directly opposite her was a rendering of ‘The Nightwolf and the Silver’, the white-haired maiden kneeling in snow with the wolf before they both met their ends. So many parts of her old life, preserved. As though she’d open the door and her mother and father would be waiting. As though nothing had happened at all.

She looked once more to her dragun-painted ceiling. There was Myth-eater, with his lilac hues and scrawls of ink that morphed constantly upon his parchment wings. The gatekeeper of stories. Dreamdancer, with a hide of swirling clouds, who would take her mortal dreamwalker companion soaring through the Dreamlands. Nightkeeper, who spewed shadows so black the Light could never penetrate with him near. And her favourite of all, Starfeared. She was absent from The Mythas of Celestia , but Elara had discovered her on just one nondescript slip of parchment stuck within the Mythas section of the palace library. It was Starfeared that she had inked upon her spine, the mirror image of the gleaming silver dragun above her, her maw alight with pearly fire.

Elara crept off the bed, wincing at her tense and locked muscles, her aching stomach, her weak limbs. She drew her silk curtains back and tried the window. It was unlocked. Heart pounding, she slid it open, scoffing at the arrogance of Gem and Ariete to not bother locking it. With the cool Asterian breeze kissing her cheeks, she peered into the inky lake that kissed the banks of her palace. She couldn’t count the amount of times she, Sofia and Lukas had swum in it. She could swim through it, all the way to the woods on the other side. Surely it would be a better fate than what waited with Ariete. But she could never leave Sofia. She pushed the window shut.

She went to the door, placing her hand on the doorknob.

Her fingers froze. This was too easy. She had to be dreaming. But a quick check-in with her magick told her she wasn’t dreamwalking at all. And so, she tentatively twisted her hand.

The door opened.

A dark, empty corridor stretched before Elara as she formed a plan. Her fingers flexed, and she could feel the well of her magick fill—Eli’s blood was helping, preventing Ariete’s venom from suffocating her power. Carefully, she weaved a veil over her, blending her into the shadows as she hurried down.

Only one thought was on her mind— Sofia.

Elara knew the palace better than anyone in Asteria. Her years trapped within its towers had their merits. She dodged and twisted through passageways and stairwells towards the dungeons, taking a specific shortcut she remembered. A look at the violet sky outside told her that the hour must be late, as she slipped out of a hidden passageway, before staggering to a stop.

Ariete was stood only a few yards away, speaking to someone shrouded in shadow. His back was to her and she held her breath, wrapping more illusions around her until she was nothing but air.

‘She does not know.’ Fear swept through Elara as she heard Gem’s soft voice. ‘I have swept the girl’s mind. Made her beg and scream. There is nothing in there but shadows and an incessant worry for that captain’s daughter.’

Ariete stretched his neck and made a grunt of frustration, then lifted his head up, looking to the ceiling. ‘Do you feel the shadows growing darker?’

Gem shook her head. ‘You’re seeing things, my king. They are the same as they have been for centuries.’

Ariete made a dissatisfied sound. ‘And what of her masked date?’

‘Nothing yet. Only that he is a Helion.’

Elara’s jaw clenched, and she made sure not to move so much as a muscle as Gem took a step closer to Ariete.

‘What if you truly are destined for the Asterian?’ she asked.

There was a callous laugh. ‘Would you be jealous?’ Elara frowned, as she saw Ariete caress Gem’s cheek.

‘I know you don’t belong to me,’ came the bitter response.

‘That’s right,’ Ariete said coldly. ‘I don’t.’

He began to walk away. ‘The ballet, Gem. Ensure it goes off without a hitch.’

And in a breath, the two Stars disappeared.

She waited minutes before easing from the door, delving further into the palace. Who in the Stars’ names did Ariete think she was? What was the ballet?

Leaving these questions for later, she passed where the Stars had been standing and took a left, arriving at the entrance to the dungeons. One guard sat before it, snoring. She recognized him—Riccard. A guard who had once slipped her sweets at a boring meeting she’d attended with her parents. Something ached within her to see the familiar face, now serving someone with a heart as black as Lukas’s. Above his head, etched upon the black stone of the dungeon’s doorway, were the words that had always sent shivers down Elara’s back, the last words that Asterian prisoners saw before their freedom was stolen from them: May the Dark cast judgement upon your soul. May Piscea cast your fate. So worship her. So fear her.

Making sure that her illusions were wrapped tightly around her, she darted towards the guard, focusing in on the belt he wore—and the set of dungeon keys upon it.

She hoped with everything she had that her shadows were strong enough to lift them. But alas, while the tendrils of darkness were awake and accessible, they were as ghostly and insubstantial as ever.

She crouched by Riccard’s side, reaching a tentative hand out, hooking her fingers around the ring of keys. Gritting her teeth, she reached her other hand across and slowly, ever-so-slowly, unclipped them from his belt.

They jangled—and she held her breath as Riccard’s snoring stopped. He shifted on his seat, and she forced herself to be entirely still. Finally his snoring resumed, and she carefully lifted the ring of keys up, away from his belt loop.

Letting out a long breath, she slipped past him into the dungeons beyond.

When she arrived at the cells, the dim fire in the sconces lighting her way, she wasted no time, running between the iron bars until she arrived at the last cell.

Inside, Sofia was curled upon a pallet of hay, still in her ballgown, now filthy.

‘Sof,’ Elara strangled out.

Sofia sat up. ‘Lara?!’

‘I’m here.’ She was already pushing key after key into the lock, none fitting. She cursed, as Sofia scrambled up.

‘How did you—’

‘Later,’ Elara said, shoving the next key in. To her relief it fit, and as she twisted the lock clicked.

The gate swung open, and she ran into Sofia’s arms, holding her tightly. ‘Now, Sof. We’re leaving.’

Beads of sweat ran down Elara’s forehead as she worked to hold an illusion over them both as they slipped through the palace. She followed the same shortcut, through the hidden passageway, up the back stairwell. The door of her room swam before her, and she blinked. Eli’s blood must be wearing off. Only a few more metres. She yanked Sofia with her through the door.

And the figure sitting on the bed smiled as they tumbled in.

‘You never were that good at escaping, were you, Lara?’ said Lukas.