Chapter 44 #2
At last, Serafine sinks to the ground, charred and bleeding.
Blayze limps to her side, horror and despair warring in his torn, bloodied face. Maris rushes after him. The feather I’m still clutching in my fist crumbles to ash, spiralling to the ground like ghoulish confetti.
I stand there, rooted to the spot. My heart drags towards Serafine, but my mind pulls towards the Starlight Staff. Serafine is still breathing, but barely. She won’t survive her injuries.
Serafine is gone, but I still have a chance to save my mother.
The night-birds are no longer a mortal threat. Now’s my chance to seize the sceptre. Before Arden does. And with that thought, my heart joins my head.
I rush towards the outcrop and claw its base.
The shards of crystal shred my skin and rag my nails.
There’s pain, but it’s strangely distant, my focus so trained on loosening the stone.
At last, it gives beneath my hands. I prise the crystals loose and rifle the damp earth beneath until my fingertips graze something cool and solid.
I’ve found it.
Warmth bubbles up through my chest, but then I remember Arden. I hold my breath and glance behind me. Long seconds pass. No sign of her. I let out the breath and brush the earth aside. At last, the Starlight Staff glimmers up at me.
It’s made from silver. Moonstone cabochons of different sizes, carved to resemble stars, stud its length, along with smatterings of opals and amethysts.
A starstone crowns the sceptre, almost three times the size of the fragment in the Celestial Chain, and more brilliant still.
I dimly remember my fears about Noelani’s sceptre, my worries about it being a cursed artefact.
But standing here, those fears dissolve.
My fingers itch to hold it – to claim it – and the Celestial Chain urges me forwards too, drawn into orbit again, as with the Wishing Star.
It wants its sister.
But I can’t lift it from the ground. I tug, tug again, fingers slipping and sliding against the glossy metal. But it won’t budge.
‘The ritual,’ I murmur.
The others are gathered around Serafine on the far side of the cave, their heads bowed. I don’t want to ask them to do this – not now they’re grieving – but every second might be the difference between life and death for my mother.
‘The sceptre,’ I croak. ‘We need to perform the rite.’
Astrophel and Tansy turn immediately, Maris and Delphine a heartbeat later. But Blayze stays on the ground with Serafine.
I stand. Take a few steps towards him. ‘Blayze, please…’
He doesn’t react, just cradles Serafine, murmuring to her in Flametongue. Guttural, lilting sounds with a tender melody. My throat tightens.
‘Blayze…’
He looks up. Eyes glittering – wild and desperate. Very slowly, he stands. Blood drips from his gashed cheek.
I only need a drop of it.
‘I’ll give you my blood,’ he says, reading my thoughts as I wish I could his. ‘I’ll help you get the sceptre, and afterwards, I’ll help you find the others. But only if you help me.’
I swallow. ‘I don’t understand.’
He looks down at Serafine. ‘One wish, you said?’
Ice sweeps my veins. He can’t mean that – couldn’t possibly ask that of me.
‘But-but my mother,’ I stammer, praying I’ve misunderstood him.
‘Your mother might still have time, time for us to find some other way to save her – but Fifi…’ His voice cracks, his shoulders slump. ‘Look at her. She’s got minutes, maybe not even that. Please.’
It’s that last broken plea that tugs at my heart, thawing even the icy callous that’s hardened there. Blayze begs for nothing, to no one. But he’s begging now.
It’s hard to look at Serafine, but I make myself. I force myself to study her charred body, her chest that’s barely rising. She risked herself for us – for me – to give me the chance to fulfil Noelani’s prophecy. Can I really let her die? But my mother’s face swirls before me too.
If Blayze refuses to help me, I can’t claim the sceptre, can’t earn the wish at all.
I look again at his ravaged face. I could take blood by force, but he’d never forgive me.
Besides, Noelani’s letter said the offerings must be freely given.
I need Blayze to agree to search for the other lost sceptres; without those I can’t save Arcelia.
But if I do as he asks, my mother will die.
There is no other way to save her – my father tried everything, spared no expense.
And then I think of the garden of neverborns, of Lulana’s ruined fields.
Of Tansy’s children. Of Delphine. Of the clansmen forced to eke out a pitiful existence in an underground prison like this every moonsrising of their sorry lives.
More will die than just Serafine if I refuse him.
It’s saving one life, or saving all life.
My body sags. I know what I have to do.
‘Fine.’ The word is barely a whisper.
‘Swear it,’ he growls.
I lift my chin. ‘I swear.’
His hooded eyes dart and narrow as they search my face. I’ve given him no reason to trust me.
‘You have your dagger?’ he says at last.
I exhale and point to his slashed cheek. ‘I can gather from this.’
Still staring into my eyes, Blayze raises a hand to his throat and wrenches at his torc, sends it clattering to the ground. ‘From the brand you said – that’s how the Elemagi did it?’
There’s a collective gasp as the others realise what he’s said – what he is.
I try to keep my voice steady. ‘Tansy, the vessel please.’
She nods, fumbles in her pocket and hands me a small earthen vial.
‘Do it quickly. We’re running out of time,’ Blayze urges.
Seizing hold of my stiletto, I press its point against his brand. I hesitate, but Blayze grasps my hand, holds my gaze. His calloused fingers clamp around mine. Together, we guide the blade home.
Blood beads the incision and I siphon a few garnet droplets into the vessel. Once I’ve taken his offering, Blayze falls again to his knees, rocking Serafine. He doesn’t spare me a second glance.
‘Astrophel, take this.’ I hand him the vial. There’s a sharp pain as I slice my wrist and silver blood wells in the centre of my own brand. I motion for Astrophel to collect my offering. His eyes narrow, intent on mine. Once it’s done, I take back the vessel.
I approach Maris next. She and Delphine are both still staring at Blayze, like they’ve seen a ghost.
‘You’ve no secret brands, I take it?’
Maris shakes her head, hurt and confusion flickering in her eyes. ‘You knew?’
I nick her finger with the blade. ‘I found out recently.’
Proper explanations will have to wait.
I take the offering from Tansy last, then turn back to the sceptre.
Kneeling in front of it, I tip the vessel, my hands trembling. Our blood dribbles over the relic. There’s a hiss as the viscous liquid touches the crystal. I set the vial on the ground and make the sign of the Star.
Please let this work.
‘Stronger together.’ I speak Noelani’s charm clearly. The words echo around the cave, becoming a refrain.
I place my hand on the sceptre again, let my shaking fingers close around the smooth metal. I pull, pull again. It doesn’t move.
Serafine’s given her life for nothing.
Everyone’s watching me. Their faces fall as I spread my hands and open my mouth to deliver the awful news.
But before I can speak, thick plumes of shadow unfurl from the lost sceptre, and Arden’s high, cruel laugh peals through the cave. Where is she? Is she really with us at this very moment, hidden from mortal eyes?
I don’t wait to find out. I reach through the curling shadow and clasp the sceptre again. I can’t let that monster claim it.
This time when I tug, it wrenches free. I laugh in shock, but the laugh withers, turns to a gasp. An icy rush streams across my palms, flushing through my body. My fingers flare. And soon, it’s not just my hands. My arms, my legs, all of me is luminous – even through my damp clothes.
Distant cries. A jolt as the floor gives way beneath me. A feeling of weightlessness. I look down. I’m floating – floating in mid-air. A scream hovers on my lips, but before it can rip through my throat, my back arches.
Then there’s only darkness.