Page 27 of The Eighth Isle

My legs took me forward and I didn’t even need to think about it. I was climbing the spiral stairway, my eyes still stuck on the paintings, on the lights, on the strange things displayed on those stands, covered in glass. And when I no longer saw them anymore, three balls of light seemed to befollowingme as I went, giving me enough light to see each new step.

I couldn’t see Reeva, though, but I heard her—sometimes laughing and sometimes singing. It was all so strange, and my body was moving so fast—I wasrunningto get to her without really meaning to, and those balls moved with me. Howdid they know to follow me? How did they know which way I was looking, and where to cast their light for me?

Yes, so strange. So…unrealistic. I’d more readily believe I was in a dream than in the real world, but I kept on climbing those stairs, chasing after Reeva. I wanted to call out to her and tell her to wait, hold on, that I couldn’t see her and I needed to know where we were going, but for some reason the words were stuck in my throat and I couldn’t say them. All I could do was climb those stairs and chase those lights—until there were no more steps left.

Everything came to a halt suddenly.

“Welcome, Autumn Hayes, to Nella Lexis—the Star Reader,” Reeva said, arms spread to the sides to show me the round room we were in.

Star Reader.

Grey had told me once that the witch hat was supposed to be a telescope because witches used to be very good at star reading when they had magic, before Syra cursed the land and destroyed Ennaris. He’d told me that, and I’d been so fascinated.I’d wondered—I’dyearnedto know how they did it, what the structure even looked like on the inside.

Now, here I was.

Shelves and baskets full of scrolls. Two long tables on either side of the room. More of those framed letters on the walls, handwritten, all in Faeish.

The room wasn’t even half in size of the one downstairs, and the ceiling was made out of the night sky, with blues and purples and whites merging together, and a million stars twinkling on it as if we were really looking at outer space.

But in the middle of it was the strangest thing I’d ever seen—a telescope bigger than my whole body atop a flight of stairs, and up there with it were more baskets filled with scrolls, as well as glass vials full of colorful liquid that glowed just like those balls of light. Pinks and purples and yellows and reds—they had a vial in every single color.

“Come on. Get up here,” Reeva said as she climbed the stairs to the telescope—entirely made out of gold and brass, so masterfully carved it looked like a drawing rather than real.

“This is…this is…” I shook my head as I followed her. “Wow.” I had no words yet.

Reeva laughed.

“You know what I did the moment I felt the spell unraveling?” She turned to look at me, resting her hip on the wooden table that extended from the railing of the platform atop which was the telescope and all the way to the wall. She crossed her arms in front of her and sighed, like she was finally at peace here in this room with outer space over our heads and glowing liquid trapped in vials by our feet.

“What?” I asked absentmindedly, my eyes moving up to the ceiling again and again—was it real?Howhad they managed to make it look like that? How were those stars twinkling exactly like realstars did?

“I came in here,” Reeva said. “I came in here as soon as I recognized my magic coming back to me. I came in here and I didn’t leave for three days.”

Finally, I focused on Reeva.Three days?“What did you do for three days?”

I knew whatI’ddone for three days when Valentine began to undo the spell of the curse—I’d hidden away in a cave with Grey. I’d been with him every second of every day and felt more alive than ever. I’dlivedin those three days—and all it had taken was food, water, and Grey.

“I read the stars, young one,” said Reeva, and the smile that touched her lips broke my heart, especially when she looked on the verge of tears.

My stomach tied in a million knots. “And what did the stars say?” I asked but my voice was only a whisper because at this point I believed what she said before with all my heart—Ididn’t want to knowwhatever she was about to tell me. Despite my curiosity, I really didn’t want to know what had put that look in the eyes of a woman as fierce as Reeva Lorein had seemed to me that night.

“Come. Let me show you,” she said, waving her hand for me go closer, before she leaned down near one of the four baskets by her feet, and grabbed a scroll. She turned to the table she’d been leaning against, spread the yellowish paper open over it, and then used these pieces of rock that were by the edges to hold the ends. Such strange pieces—like they were carved out of that ceiling over us. Their colors, blacks and blues and indigoes, while the edges shimmered white as if with stars, made you think they were indeed a part of outer space.

“What is this?” I asked as I took in the drawing and the letters on the open scroll. It was a mess of dots and lines, curved and straight, and the paper was separated into two by another line, this one bold and as thick as my finger. Below it were thosesymbols I’d seen before—Faeish letters I couldn’t even begin to understand the meaning of.

“This is a readingof the stars my ancestors did back in the day, before the end came upon us,” Reeva said, her voice small now, a whisper. She touched the drawings of what I assumed were stars, the lines, the symbols underneath, as if with longing. “Before Syra ruined everything.”

My hand shook as I reached for it, completely hypnotized, thisneedto touch that piece of paper so strong it surprised me. It was smooth against my fingertips. Warm.

And real—very, very real.

“They had simple telescopes then. They didn’t need fancy potions or rituals to enhance their magic like we did—they had plenty of it in their blood, as it should be,” said Reeva, waving her hand at the vials on the floor, attached with small tubes to the large golden telescope. “Eventhisdidn’t work for us, though. Not until the spell was broken.”

“What does it say?” I wondered because whoever had read those stars back in the day had translated them into symbols. In Faeish—and I had no doubt that Reeva could read them.

Another deep sigh left her lips, this one not in relief at all, and she closed her eyes for a moment. “This reading was done three weeks before Syra,” she said, touching her fingertips to the drawings of the stars. “It says,Fall of Ennaris.”

Shivers ran up and down my body, raising every hair on my skin at attention. “They foresaw it.”

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