Page 91 of Blood of the Stars

Riveran let out a sound of disgust and stepped away, but Gaeren was already walking through the remaining thorny vines, a small prick on his cheek reminding him of his own vulnerabilities. Inside the cave, the rush of water echoed from all directions, deafening Gaeren and leaving him on edge. He waited for his eyes to adjust, allowing time for Riveran to pull out his daggers. They moved as one, the years they’d spent apart vanishing as they came back to back like they’d trained, shimmying sideways through the cave.

Trust Riveran to have your?—

Gaeren shook away the memory of Enla’s words, not wanting to acknowledge the remainder of her advice. As the space grew smaller, Gaeren replaced his sword with the daisy dagger.

Nothing stirred, or at least nothing they could see. Moonlight faded behind them, but an iridescence came from the cave walls, some type of luminescent algae lighting their path with its eerie glow. The deeper they walked into the cave, the more the sound of rushing water faded, replaced by the plink of water dripping deeper within. Eventually, to Gaeren’s relief, the space widened, and he swapped out his sword once more.

“Is this the end?” Riveran asked, his voice hushed. The cave extended to twice their height, branching out in a near circular shape that was as wide as it was tall. They turned in a circle, greens and blues reflecting off their blades, but besides the path they’d come from, there seemed to be no other entrance or exit. Piles of small critters’ bones rested at the edges, blood dotting various parts of the ground and walls. There was more rock than soil beneath their feet, but, strangely enough, a handful of flowers grew from a small patch of dirt. The unnaturalness of it bothered Gaeren more than anything else he saw in the cave.

For a moment, Gaeren was disappointed. He’d wanted a confrontation. He’d wanted to pull information about Daisy out of the creatures who’d hurt her by hurting them back. He mentally shook himself. This was better. Orra had said Daisy was fine, and without the sprites here, it would be easier to look for the cutlass.

Gaeren drew energy from his starlock, pushing it out to form a small light in the palm of his hand until it grew to fill the room like a torch. He systematically searched through the bones, then palmed the walls of the cave until Riveran did the same.

“Maybe if I knew what we were looking for,” Riveran said, “I would be able to help better.”

“A weapon,” Gaeren said. “You’ll know it when you see it.” He clenched his jaw, afraid the full answer might come tumbling out otherwise.

Gaeren wasn’t sure how long they searched, but they left nothing unturned. He even pulled up the roots of the strange flowers, pawing at the soil in case the sword had been buried.

“It should be here!” He pounded a fist on the wall. Maybe there was a hidden room, a hollow space behind all the rock. He hit the solid surface until the sides of his hand were scratched and raw. Finally, Riveran pulled him to the center of the room, wrapping Gaeren in a bear hug from behind to protect them both from Gaeren’s flailing limbs.

“Why did you come here? What are you looking for?” Riveran’s words felt loud in Gaeren’s ear as the other man pinned his arms at his sides. Gaeren went limp, and his starlock’s light snuffed out, but still Riveran stayed at his back, clearly anticipating that Gaeren would get a second wind.

Trust Riveran to have your back.

“A cutlass.” It was almost painful to admit the words out loud. “A starbridge.”

Riveran dropped Gaeren’s arms, coming around as if assessing his face for truth. “So you did learn something from the book.”

Gaeren shrugged. “More like Orra.”

“So she’s leading you to the starbridges? I thought maybe it was the girl.”

Gaeren sighed. Might as well come clean about everything. “She’s leading me to both.”

Riveran went still. “She found Daisy?”

“The light we saw last moon—it was a starbridge. Same as the light I saw when I was a boy.”

Riveran’s eyes flashed with understanding. “You think she came back.”

“I know she did. Or Orra knows she did.” He hated revealing these things to Riveran, of all people, but it was also a weight off his chest. A sense of freedom came with sharing the burden, especially with someone who already knew the history of his obsession.

“You finally figured it out.” Riveran grinned, shoving Gaeren’s shoulder like he had when they were friends. “Wait, then why are you still looking for a starbridge?”

“I’m being extra thorough?” Gaeren gave Riveran a weak smile, not really sure why he’d gotten so angry over the missing cutlass. It was like his inability to find the thing represented how much his hands had been tied in this whole hunt for Daisy. Just one more thing he couldn’t reach. “Orra made it sound like the starbridges are important. Even if I can’t figure out why Orra wants them, if I can get across the barriers, maybe Enla would see my itch to travel as an asset. I could form alliances with other nations on her behalf instead of being stuck back at the palace.”

“Ah. Such a noble excuse to keep adventuring.” Riveran’s dry tone earned him a punch to his shoulder.

Then, trusting Enla’s instincts instead of his own, Gaeren told Riveran everything, from the handwritten notes in his copy of The Sins of the Stars to Orra’s suggestion that Enla was keeping Gaeren from Daisy. By this time, they’d settled comfortably in the cave, the glowing algae and the things it lit up or left dark no longer threatening.

Riveran traced his finger in the dirt, taking everything in with a frown. “Can Orra be trusted? It seems like you should trust your sister over a stranger. Orra has her own agenda, and like you said, she knows too much. She could be twisting everything to fit her plans.”

“It’s something I’ve considered.” Gaeren shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m just not sure how dividing Enla and me would fit into any of her plans.”

“She’s not exactly forthcoming with her plans,” Riveran pointed out. “She just keeps guessing yours.”

“She wanted me to come here, or, at least, she didn’t stop me. Even though she knew Enla didn’t want me coming here.”

---