Darkness and Stars
A nna looked but could not see whatever it was that the king and the Eletians saw at the spot beneath the boarded window. She glanced at Donal and Fastion who moved closer to the king. They wore perplexed expressions but looked ready to leap into action, no matter what.
She edged closer. A flutter, a shimmer of light.
“Karigan!” King Zachary cried. He knelt near the spot.
Enver stepped closer, his body tense and expression avid.
A figure flickered into existence. And then out. Hope rose in Anna. It had to be Karigan trying to come back.
The figure reappeared, crumpled on her side wearing strange armor, though sections were missing.
“Karigan,” the king said. He dropped to his knees beside her and reached for her.
“No,” she said in a strained voice. “Dangerous.”
And she vanished once more.
Anna could not see the king’s face, but he seemed to quiver. Everyone stood unmoving where they were, waiting. Anna had to remind herself to breathe. They waited and waited, but Karigan still did not return.
“I’ve lost her,” the king said. “I’ve lost her.” Then he whispered, “Please come back.”
Darkness fell early in winter and the shadows deepened in the ballroom. She glanced at Lhean. He looked a little less sure, though Enver’s attitude had not seemed to change.
“There!” cried Fastion, pointing.
The figure of Karigan sputtered back into existence. Armor disintegrated from her legs.
“Stay away,” she warned the king. “The danger—”
“My lord—” Donal began.
He listened to neither of them and threw himself over her. They both flashed out of existence. A look of horror crossed Fastion’s face. No one moved, no one seemed to know what to do. The king was gone.
When they reappeared, the king had his arms wrapped around Karigan. “—got you! I’ve got you!”
Enver was only a hair faster than Fastion who threw himself on them both as if to anchor them, but even then they faded. Donal fell to his knees and grabbed the king’s ankles. The fading stopped.
“I won’t let you go again,” the king whispered to Karigan.
“He has saved her,” Lhean murmured. “He has saved her.”
Fastion removed himself from them. Enver, too, but he did not move far.
The king sat there on the floor with a limp Karigan cradled to his chest. The armor was all gone. She was dressed in the fancy longcoat the Eletians had given her with the gold sash, same as she’d been attired for the ball. She did not move or speak. Was she even alive?
“I won’t let you go,” the king murmured to her again and again. “I won’t let you go.”
Anna took a deep breath. The ballroom seemed cast under a spell and its occupants turned into silent statues. Well, she thought, someone needed to move and get practical. She ran up the stairs and out the entryway where a pair of Green Foot runners were stationed.
“Sasha,” she said to one, “go to the menders and fetch Ben Simeon. He’s needed immediately. Tell him it’s Karigan.” She turned to the other. “Fenley, go to Captain Connly right away and tell him the same.”
They set off without question.
She returned to the ballroom and started lighting a few wall sconce lamps to stave off the dark.
Then she tended the fire in the big hearth, stirring the embers and throwing on more wood, because surely the king did not need to catch a chill sitting on the floor like that, nor Karigan, if she was alive.
Anna’s experience as an ash girl resulted in a very fine blaze and the bleakness of the room dissipated. It brought more color into everyone’s cheeks, save Karigan’s.
Enver hovered over Karigan and the king. Telagioth and Lhean had moved to either side of him as though to restrain him, if need be.
Oh, dear, she thought, there was much more going on than she understood.
Telagioth then knelt beside the king and Karigan. He placed his hand against her cheek.
“Dama,” he said quietly.
Was it Anna’s imagination, or did a little color return to her face?
“Dama,” Telagioth said, followed by some words in Eltish.
Anna turned to Fastion and Donal. “You two need to help.” They exchanged glances, then looked at her questioningly. She reined in a flash of annoyance. “Your king is on the floor. Help him up. Menders are on the way and we can meet them instead of just waiting.”
Her words seemed to snap them awake. They helped the king rise while still holding Karigan. He would not allow anyone else to take her.
“I’ve got you,” he continued to murmur to her. “I won’t let you go. Ever.”
Anna’s cheeks warmed at witnessing her king in so vulnerable a state, his love for Karigan fully unveiled.
Then he was off, carrying Karigan across the ballroom and bounding up the stairs as though her weight was of the air itself.
Donal and Fastion scrambled to keep up, and Anna followed behind.
She glanced over her shoulder to witness Telagioth and Lhean restraining Enver.
She didn’t think she wanted to know what that was all about.
They didn’t get far from the ballroom before they encountered Ben and a fair phalanx of menders. His hands already radiated a blue healing glow as he ran up to the king. He pressed his hands to Karigan’s head, a frown of concentration upon his face.
“Let us take her to the mending wing, sire,” he said.
“No,” King Zachary replied. “To the royal apartments.”
A few glances of surprise passed among the menders, and there was a moment of awkward silence before they were off. Anna did not follow for Captain Connly trotted down the corridor just then.
“Anna, report,” he said.
She gave him a rundown of what had happened.
“The royal apartments?” he said incredulously after she finished. He shook his head and frowned. “Keep that bit to yourself, please.”
“Yessir.”
He placed his hand on her shoulder. “Well done, Rider. I guess I’m off to the west wing to find out what I can. Please inform Lieutenant Brennyn of what has happened.”
“Yessir.” Lieutenant Mara would be happy to hear of Karigan’s return, but would Karigan be all right?
“W here the hells am I? Put me down! Put me down!”
Zachary gasped and nearly dropped Karigan as she came to life like a wild thing in his arms even as he climbed the final stair into the royal residential corridor.
“You are home,” he told her.
“Thank the gods. Please put me down.”
“No.”
She paused her struggling and looked up at him. It seemed to register with her in that moment who he was. “Please, Your Majesty?”
“No. The menders need to check you out.”
“I don’t need to be carried.”
She struggled some more but he just snugged her more firmly against his chest.
“There is a thing I can do to make her more manageable,” Ben Simeon said from behind.
“Don’t you dare,” she said. “I will break your finger.”
“No need,” Zachary told him. “Karigan, as your king, I insist you settle. And there will be no breaking of fingers.”
A rebellious expression crossed her face but she stilled. “As you wish, Your Majesty. But I wish to make it clear for any reports that may be written that my legs are perfectly capable of supporting me.”
Her obstinance amused him, though he dared not show it for fear of becoming the target of her sharp tongue.
More than amusement, though, relief and joy filled his heart that she had returned to him whole and acted true to her stubborn nature, not some misty wraith of the netherworld, despite whatever strange paths she had traveled.
“You may make as many statements as you wish,” he assured her, “but I’m not putting you down. If you prefer, I could throw you over my shoulder.”
That silenced her, but she pursed her lips as if pondering what sort of retort she could get away with.
By now he had reached rooms set aside for visiting family. They were empty, but always in a state of readiness to receive unexpected guests. He did not pause until they reached the bed chamber, where he set her down on the commodious feather bed.
She looked about in consternation. “This is not the mending wing.”
“No,” he replied, “it is not.”
“Um, why?”
“It wasn’t as far to carry an intractable Green Rider.” Before she could protest, he leaned down and whispered, “I intend to keep a close eye on you.”
When he straightened, she sat right up. “I’m fine.” Then she closed her eyes and fell back into the pillows. “Woooah, maybe a little dizzy.”
“You shouldn’t sit up so fast,” Ben chided her.
Faint color returned to her cheeks, but Zachary also spied the glint of stars in her eye when she gazed back at him.
“Thank you,” she said, “for not letting me go. But you shouldn’t have put yourself at risk like that.” Then she scowled at Fastion and Donal. “And you two shouldn’t have allowed him to.”
Even as she spoke, Zachary recalled the intense pain emanating from the remnants of the avatar’s armor when he had grabbed her.
Had it been undamaged and she was wearing a whole suit, he had no doubt the star steel of the gods would have killed him.
Falling, falling, he recalled, and slipping into a cold so frigid it burned.
Surrounded by infinite spaces. The only thing that had kept him from panicking was her in his arms and his need to save her.
“I’m fine,” she was telling Ben Simeon.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” he replied.
“You will obey the menders,” Zachary ordered.
“But—”
Then it happened again, and she began to fade and slip away.
“No!” He grabbed her arm. The cold, falling, midnight, and the ping of distant stars...“Stay with me. Come back.”
A blue glow infused his vision and within moments he was back in the world, and she with him. He blinked and saw the blue glow emanating from Ben’s hands.
“Well, that was different,” the mender said with a bemused expression on his face.
Karigan had gone pale again, and Zachary sat beside her and drew her back into his arms. “I will not let you go. I will not let you go.” She held him so tightly in return it was hard to breathe.
He decided that a watch must be kept on her in case she continued to slip away so they could pull her back, anchor her.
“In the meantime,” Ben told her, “you need rest. I can tell you are exhausted.”
She receded back into her pillows. “Look at me. I’m resting.”
“Karigan,” Zachary warned, but she gave him a wan smile, and he saw the depth of her exhaustion.
“It’s a good start,” Ben said. “Let’s have a look at your eye, though.”
“My eye? Why?”
“I’m just ensuring all is well.”
She pouted but did not argue when he leaned over her and reached for the eyepatch.
“I don’t want to forget,” she told Zachary, “to tell you about the gray—”
Instead of removing her eyepatch, Ben touched the bridge of her nose and she was out. “I didn’t mean to cut her off like that,” he said in chagrin.
“Yes, that was unfortunate,” Zachary replied. Had she been about to tell him something about the gray entity that had broken the stained glass down in the records room? Had she information or a warning?
“She needs the rest,” Ben said. “I can sense how much.” He shook his head. “How she was even conscious, I don’t know. I mean, overall, she seems healthy, but some of her energies are odd.”
“Like darkness and stars?” Zachary said.
Ben shuddered. “Yes, sire. The corona of a distant star...” He shook his head as if snapping back to the present.
“Whatever is generating those energies. We can question her later, but without rest she would not remain well.” He sighed.
“She’s going to kill me when she’s up and about.
Or, at the very least, break my finger.”
While Zachary wished no harm to come to Ben, he hoped Karigan recovered to possess such vigor, for now she was so deeply asleep, so pale and seemingly lifeless, it unnerved him. He sat in a chair beside her bed determined to ensure she woke up again.