Page 42 of Stars May Fall

Callum started to stand. “I don’t think…”

I cut him off with my hand. My breaths didn’t seem to contain enough oxygen. “What sort of experiment?”

He grinned. “You just have to walk from one end of a corridor to the other.”

Callum threw his hands in the air. “Yeah, like I believe that. What isinthe corridor?”

The man steepled his hands and grinned. “The Originals.”

I wasn’t sure how much longer my courage was going to hold up. I wanted to be strong for Kasten. I knew I could be strong. I had survived all that my father had thrown at me, and still never told him our secret. “What..” I took another breath and tried again. “What are the Originals?”

He danced his fingers in the air. “What do you call our creatures? Halfsouls, yes? Well, we need incubators for the modified disease to keep it alive and replicating. Obviously, these incubators need to be alive themselves to create the right environment for the disease. They’re the original halfsouls, only a bit different than the average ones we’ve released downtown. We’ve only drawn out a little bit of their vitality—enough that they’re too weak to defeat the infection and so it replicates well in their bodies—but not enough that they die. Well, most of them won’t die—we lose about twenty percent a year. They have a full dose of aggression, however. When they bite a newcomer, they infect them. We then get a disposable standard halfsoul we can experiment on for the day or two it lives.”

I looked down to hide my disgust and sorrow at the treatment of these pitiful creatures. I also avoided looking at Callum after the confirmation they were still experimenting withhalfsouls. I needed Gregane to keep talking, keep allowing us to be here.

Meena stood up in suppressed rage and towered behind my chair. “Are you suggesting we let Lady Sophie be attacked by the original halfsouls? Is this some sort of sick joke?”

Callum, however, seemed intrigued. He steepled his fingers as he leaned toward Gregane. “How do you stop drawing their vitality? They must have the same metal inside them as the other halfsouls since it's attached to the infectious agent. Don’t your metal disks receive vitality from all of them at once? How can you make it specific to exclude them?”

Gregane scowled. “Why would you want to know that? I thought you weren’t interested in how to make halfsouls?”

Callum grinned and spread his hands. “I just find this whole subject fascinating.” He cleared his throat. “But why on earth do you think Sophie would walk into a corridor filled with halfsouls? You don’t think Kasten would burn this place down if she died?”

Gregane leaned back in his chair and folded his spindly arms. “Oh, don’t worry. They’re locked in cages. I just want to see how they react to her. She wouldn’t be harmed.”

Meena folded her arms and continued to loom, her displeasure radiating. It was obvious she didn’t think I should agree to this.

I blew out a concentrated breath. “All I have to do is walk up and down, past some cages?”

Gregane nodded with a wide, thin-lipped smile.

Meena’s hand rested on the back of my chair. “If Lady Sophie agrees to this, I want you to walk up and down the corridor first, so we know it's safe. Then me. Then her.”

He chuckled and shrugged. “Why not? It will help me see the contrast in their behavior. If there is any.”

I frowned. “What exactly do you expect to see?”

The corners of his lips turned down in a smug expression. “It’s best if you don’t know. I don’t want to add bias.”

Callum looked between us all, his mouth hanging open. “We’re really doing this? Really? By the kingdoms, Kasten is going to kill me.”

I swallowed. I’d been a coward my whole life. I would show them I wasn’t any longer. I would show the world I deserved to be Kasten’s wife. Getting this metal would lead to the cure that could ensure our safety and that of our people.

I stood up and hoped I looked less nervous than I felt. “I’ll do it.”

Gregane interlocked his fingers. “Excellent. I’ll take you there now.”

The haemalchemist was slightly hunched as he walked as if his body was too gangly, and he was trying to compensate. As he opened a door revealing cold stone steps going down into pitch blackness, dread filled me, growing with every step down.

Lyrason’s guards remained behind. For some reason that unnerved me more than if they’d stayed with us.

The only sounds came from our footsteps, harsh against the stone. I hated the dark now. Ever since Father had locked me in that dark room a month ago, I felt like something unspeakably horrible was lurking within. As soon as it became clear that Gregane wasn’t going to turn on a light, I fished out the small kryalcomy lantern on my belt. I was grateful when Callum and Meena did the same. My guard no longer bothered to hide her weapons and carried a freisk knife in the other hand.

My detector picked up a new whine, not the gentle drones coming from Callum and Meena, but high and uncomfortable. Then another, the whine becoming a screech. Still, we climbed down and down. Wherever we were going was buried far, far below the manor. If we were locked down here, could our detector alarm signal still be heard? Could Kasten’s pyramidaltracking device still pick up my location through all those layers of dirt and rock? I shivered again and tried to keep my breathing steady as I felt increasingly trapped.

The high-pitched screeches jarred as a third and fourth was added. How many were there?

At last, we leveled out to a small space next to a thick wooden door with an iron grate across the window. Various levers and metal rings stuck out from the plain stone wall. The flight of stairs continued going even deeper to one side, and I dreaded to think what else was down here. Gregane reached up and twisted a knob below a kryalcomy lantern that hung from the wall. It flared to life, blue light giving everything a silvery hue. Answering shrieks came from the other side of the door.

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