7. Maren
Maren
Imoved slowly at first, cautious at my obscured vision.
My timepiece vanished. Love had warned me of the burning cosmos, but I’m not sure any spoken warning could match the celestial discord ahead.
Cracks of lightning robbed me of anything but pale hues as the stars crashed into one another.
They lit in instant wonder, shuttering out the same breath, leaving my pupils desperate for light again.
I could see them sometimes, when they tumbled close enough.
Watching them was like watching mountains fall, though I knew they were larger than any mountain I’d ever seen.
Planets circled the shooting stars around me, some of them with their own little moons.
Mihauna had been the goddess I’d spent my life praying to, but watching the warring stars here, she suddenly felt very small.
I pushed on, a mouse sneaking through the grass under a blazing battlefield. Until two of them collided in the path ahead. Two white, radiant giants, etched in living fire.
They sent the silver path scattering as easily as a sigh aimed at a dusty book, and took my only means of travel with them. The trail dissolved to nothing ahead, nothing but the night sky and countless stars below, a drop into the eternal. I stumbled back to avoid tilting completely over the edge.
The thunder that followed their collision sent me to my knees, hands over my ears, a rattle in my chest and lungs and veins that remained after the crash had ended.
But then a shockwave knocked me flat. Lines of heat left everything a blurry, dancing whir, my arms and cheeks singed and stinging from the fire, branding my skin with charred flesh.
Death forced his wing under my arm and into my neck, pushing me to my feet.
I swayed, struggling to find balance. Tears from the heat carved through the smeared ash on my cheeks.
Death glided into the backs of my thighs, but I dug my heels in.
“There’s nowhere to go,” I shouted over the noise of the flaming massacre, pointing at the broken trail.
Burning fragments of the stars lay ahead, debris of the cosmos. “The pathway is gone!”
Death drifted forward, tilting back at me. I shook my head, but he flew on, sailing where the ash ran out. It gathered under him, pulling back into place by his flight.
Another boom behind us threw me forward, two more stars colliding behind my back.
My fingers raked the glittering dust, hair blown over my head and into my eyes, the backs of my calves as scalded as my arms. I scrambled upright and Death hovered forward, the trail returning for him, his eyes locked on me.
There was one way out of the cosmos. I had to trust Death.
“Okay,” I yelled, shaking the burn from my arms. “Okay. But you’d better not let me fall.”
Death soared ahead, waiting.
The only option was to run and hope we weren’t hit. Lingering heat waves spun around me in the first few sprinted steps, the ash path drawing itself together under Death’s wings. He carved ahead, bridging the gap to the silver that waited ahead, but I was only a step behind.
Stars flew. My arms swung. My legs pumped.
Death vaulted to the right, and the road of ash curved to follow him just as a burning giant plummeted into our path.
I skidded to change my trajectory, leaning into the silver to drag my fingers through hot dust as flames from the star licked down my side.
The edges of my byssus dress curled and smoked fire, blisters on my leg rising in a line, but I managed to return to my feet.
And then we ran again, until my skin was too tight with heat to move, my throat cracked and bleeding from inhaling smoke.
I paused, desperate for water. Maybe a human could have kept running. I was a siren, born for the sea. My hair and dress had long since dried, but I’d heard the ocean still swishing in the basin of Kye’s baldric as I ran.
Death swept back to me as I unbuckled it, tossing the sword down to the sand and upending the baldric over my head. No more than a handful drizzled into my crown, but Mihauna, what a sweet handful it was. Cool and clean as it dripped down to my chin, even as the salt burned where it found blood.
I unclasped the knife’s sheath as well, discarding the blade and drinking seawater like a shot of whiskey, sharp and silvery over my tongue, a hint of starry smoke down my split throat. I cleared it loudly, throwing back my head to catch the remaining beads as they dribbled free.
I cleared my throat again, reaching a shaking hand to the steel I’d thrown. “All right,” I croaked. “Lead on.”
Death sewed us through the cosmos in wide arcs and steep hills, a needle guiding silver thread.
I churned after him, ducking under burning stars, choking back the taste of ash and stone.
Until the haze spit us out, and clear skies opened before us.
I glanced over my shoulder as the path wound to the side wide enough to gaze past the storm.
Aalto called me like a beacon, the gleaming star almost at the top.
Beyond us, at the end of our trail, the cratered crust of a moon floated in an ocean of starlight.
A veil shivered through the air around the moon. A luminous ocean crashing against shores of gleaming silver.
Perpetuum.
I burst toward it. And the mend Love had placed on my leg gave out.
I’d forgotten about it under the warfare of the shooting stars.
It collapsed under my weight, sending me sideways into the dust, firing pain in sharp rods through my bone.
Death raced under me as I fell off the edge of the road, dust gathering to catch me in a net below.
Frustrated tears sprang from my eyes as I climbed back up, arms shaking, my leg useless.
I sat on the fringe, panting through gritted teeth.
Death lowered himself to the dust at my side almost like a housecat.
Dull fire lanced through my leg as I turned my foot, testing the boundaries of my range of motion. I tried to push myself upright. It immediately crumpled beneath me.
I tried again. And again. And folded each time, dropping onto the silver trail, sliding back into Death’s net. Anger trickled through my veins, warming my blood at each soft pound of my heart. Death watched as I staggered to my feet one last time.
The star almost at the top of Aalto’s circlet throbbed in the sky.
I met Death’s eyes. “Can you help me?”
But he just gazed at me, patient and kind.
With a low growl, I pushed to my knees and crawled, my leg dragging behind me. Dust ventured into my mouth and eyes. I sent small plumes of it airborne in the wake of my hands, the current within me slow and vicious. Death followed, a silent shadow at my side.
Precious minutes passed. My chest heaved, the only sound amongst the distant stars other than the soft stroke of Death’s wings. But slowly the familiar whoosh of a tide beckoned my attention forward.
I’d never make it in time while crawling.
My teeth ground together. I pushed through the fine dust, grunting and growling, ignoring the burn every movement sent into my lame leg. The star at the top of my timepiece twinkled, almost in its ending position at the top.
The last few minutes of the third day.
Rolling onto a hip, I gazed down at my legs. Burns covered them both, the flesh of my right leg fractured just above my ankle in a sickening angle. The star I’d been watching flashed, fully aligned with the one below it. Once. Twice.
I was down to moments.
I screamed as I stood, fresh tears carving tracks through the grime on my cheeks. And then I ran. Fractured starlight broke softly through the boundaries of Perpetuum, refracting below as it slowly spiraled away.
Starlight dusted my eyes. Up my nose and down my throat. My legs carried me forward through dull fire, and I reached the edge of the trail, which flattened into a wide beach.
The star flashed. Six.
Five.
Steps. Mere steps, and I’d reach it.
Four.
A veil floated ahead. An eternity of stars sat in the distance, but here, just beyond the veil, color waited.
Hiding like a painting under a sheer tapestry.
Shining waves and lush beaches, golden warmth and light.
A shape stood on either side of my path, tall and strong, peering at me from behind the silver curtain.
My heart skipped.
Three.
I forced my foot forward, trembling over the scream and fire in my blood. My opposite foot followed, and I bit back a yelp as I rushed to transfer my weight back again.
Two.
The shape pressed a hand against the veil, fingertips poking through, vibrant with warmth against the silver. He tried to step through, but the sand under his foot fell away, refusing to carry him.
One.
One last heartbeat. One last footstep. One last breath.
I ran short of each.
Aalto dimmed back into the twinkling constellations above. And the dust under me gave out.
For a moment, I was weightless in the air. Death veered around like he might try to slide under my feet. But then he spilled softly apart, silver sand crumbling away, no longer my guide to the afterworld.
Fingers outstretched, I fell.
But a hand broke through the veil, clasping onto mine.
And the shape fell to his knees, a second hand grasping mine, leaning enough through the silver sweep of Perpetuum’s boundary to see the dark gold curls of his hair.
He hoisted me into the afterlife, gathering me into his chest, sweeping the hair from my face so he could see my eyes.
“Hello, girl from the islands,” he said.
I gave a breathless sound; something between a gasp and a laugh and a cry. “Hello, boy from a castle.”