Page 49 of Stars May Fall

She nodded and explained in her soft yet clear voice about her visit, Gregane, and her run-in with the Originals.

I was left gaping. “That all just happened? Just now? By the kingdoms, are you all right?”

She half smiled. “Yes and no.” She shrugged weakly, and her smile turned sad. “When I close my eyes I still see them trapped down there. Those poor pitiful things chained in the dark. It makes me want to free them.”

I shifted, uneasy in my seat. Lyrason and Father…I still struggled to believe it. I moved on before I became too lost in thought.

“But that means the haemalcomy experiments are still going on.” I shook my head as I considered the horrors of that reality. “Why do you want to find a cure? And why would you risk so much for the mere chance of one?”

She met my eyes with a firm impression, and I suspected I wasn’t going to like her answer. “What do you think Lord Lyrason intends to do with the halfsouls? They’re still being made. What if another of us is bitten? We must find out their purpose and have a way to cure anyone who is bitten.” She looked down, almost apologetically. “We’re also after any evidence that the king and Lord Lyrason are working togetheron the halfsouls. If the king is involved, it makes all of this much harder to stop.”

I flexed my fingers on my teacup, looking away. “They are. Though I think the truth is worse. I think my father is the one behind everything. I overheard them discussing it. Lord Lyrason said he’d been following my father’s orders for years and was cross that Father hadn’t defended him against Kasten. It made sense in the context that he was referring to the halfsouls.” The moisture in my mouth dried up. I had finally admitted the truth, and it felt as if I were only just realizing it myself. I continued in a hoarse voice, though I knew I should probably stop before I said too much. “I fear that my father was directly ordering these experiments. He’s even more to blame than Lyrason.”

Sophie was leaning forward, drinking in every word I spoke. “Do you have proof? Proof we could potentially display to the law courts?”

I sighed and shook my head. “No, just what I overheard through illegal kryalcomy.”

I doubted Father would ever let the courts receive evidence of his involvements with halfsouls. Not unless it was done with enormous social pressure. Venerick might know a way, but I didn’t want to involve him in this unless I had to. I couldn’t predict his loyalties, and I didn’t want to put him in such a difficult position when we still barely knew each other.

Sophie’s forehead crinkled in puzzlement. “But I don’t understand why. Why would the king order something like that?”

I took a sip of my tea, still debating what to say. What I decided to tell Sophie would have significant consequences that I couldn’t take back. Still, it felt good to share my worries with somebody else, somebody who wasn’t telling me to ignore everything and pretend, always pretend. I was so confused, and I hated not knowing what to do. I didn’t meet Sophie’s eyes. “Theyare trying to keep somebody healthy, I think. Potentially more than one person.”

Sophie inclined her head. “We guessed that too. But if it’s just one or two people, why do they need so many halfsouls? Why have they been experimenting downtown with getting it to spread through bites?”

I shifted and sipped my tea again. This was the question I had been avoiding asking myself. I looked up to Sophie and saw no judgment in her eyes. I was grateful for that. “I don’t know,” I admitted quietly. “But Sophie, I really want you to believe me that Father is a good man. He wouldn’t do anything bad unless he had a good reason. He’s thoughtful and kind in so many ways and cares about his people. He’s a good father. He even personally taught me to fence.”

To my surprise, Sophie’s eyes crinkled in sympathy. She reached out and took my hand. All at once I was crying. It was stupid. I hadn’t even realized I was at risk of breaking down. Somehow Sophie’s empathetic touch made me realize how much I had been bottling up.

She handed me a handkerchief embroidered with yellow flowers. “He’s certainly a better Father to you than mine was to me. Mine never hid the fact he would destroy anyone to gain money, power, or stability. I still used to think he was a great man. It took me a long time to realize he is quite the opposite.”

I dabbed my eyes and shook my head. “But I really don’t believe my fatheristhe villain.”

When Sophie only gave me a sympathetic look, I shook my head, determined to convince her. “I think he did it to save Stirling. And maybe help my mother too.”

Sophie straightened. “What do you mean?”

I put down my tea cup and twisted her handkerchief between my fingers. Now that I had told her, I might as well share everything. “When Stirling was five, he caught pneumonia. Hewas very ill. I remember the physician saying he might not make it, although I was only four at the time.” I frowned at the hazy memory, still trying to piece bits together as I spoke. “He got better very slowly, and he was still weak. He wasn’t allowed to exercise or exert himself in any way. I was forever reminded to be gentle around him and that he was ‘fragile.’ He would cough a lot, and he was thin, eating a lot less than me—though my nanny often teased me about my huge appetite. Pretty much all we were allowed to do together was read or play board games. He gradually got worse. Then about a year later, he became completely better. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. Sick people often get better eventually. But a few days ago, I overheard Lord Lyrason saying he saved Stirling and helped my mother…” I trailed off as my throat constricted again. Saying it out loud was hard but cathartic. I hadn’t realized how badly I had needed somebody to speak this through with. “He’s barely had a cold since.”

Sophie’s expression was troubled. She stirred her spoon around and around her teacup as if she was unaware what her hands were doing. “But if Lord Lyrason has been stealing health from others to give to Stirling since he was six, that means he has been experimenting with this for about fourteen years.”

I nodded. I hadn’t wanted to think about those facts, because deep down, I knew what they pointed to. “I know. But Sophie, you can’t blame my father for trying anything to save his own son. Most parents would do anything for their children.”

Her expression became tender once more. “Everyone is somebody’s child, Annabelle. And they’ve killed hundreds.” I didn’t miss the crack in her voice as if speaking the words caused her pain.

My own tears came again, and I wiped my face angrily. “Maybe it’s not been working well enough. Maybe Father and Lyrason are still perfecting how to keep Stirling alive. And tokeep my mother’s illness at bay. Mother has always been sickly, but recently, she contracted heart failure. She’s coping at the moment, but the physician said she would only get worse.”

Sophie inclined her head. “Maybe. Or maybe when the king successfully beat death once, he got a hunger for it. And now he wants to do it on a large scale. This morning, Mister Gregane called what they were working on an elixir of life.”

I scoffed in surprise, and I dabbed under my eyes with her handkerchief. “That sounds like something grand, as if from a fairytale.”

She nodded. “Yes, like something that would bring eternal life.”

My chest tightened and I put down my tea, not trusting myself to hold it steady. “You think that is what they seek? To bring about eternal life? If they harvest enough vitality from halfsouls, would that be possible?”

Sophie tilted her head slightly. “I don’t know, but it would make sense, wouldn’t it? I mean, if they release halfsouls, which can each infect more and more people, and all their life was harvested, that would keep a large group of people alive and healthy until somebody put a stop to it, or the population they were infecting all died. It would be a form of immortality.”

I suppressed a shiver and sat back shaking my head and spreading my hands. “But they can’t let the halfsouls loose in Adenburg. If it was on that scale, they wouldn’t be able to control them. The whole city could be wiped out.”

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