Page 52 of Sea of Stars

I didn’t dare complain that my whole body ached. I rose, trying to ignore the pain, and followed her out of the cave. It was nighttime. A small fire flickered in the wind. I saw Denton and Harish crouched by the fire with their arms bound behind them like mine had been. Denton's eyes were filled with fear. My body was protesting, sore and tired, but I followed the woman toward them. Except for Denton, the rest of the group was staring into the sky. I followed their gaze.

The woman broke the silence. “What do you see?”

I turned my eyes from the sky and looked at her. She pointed up, and I glanced back at the sky, searching for the answer. The sky seemed darker than usual, but that happened sometimes. It was nothing to fret over. What answer lies in the sky? I always felt so small when I looked up at the stars. They seemed so far away. They were tiny, but I knew that they were powerful Lords, looking down and apparently protecting us. They glowed with all their false glory.

“He’s too self-centered to even notice, Augury,” Achates said gruffly.

“Just wait a second,” Augury, said.

Then suddenly I saw it. A star shot through the sky and disappeared. A few seconds later another chased it. The stars were abandoning their posts in the sky.

“What’s happening?” I said, bewildered. The sky seemed to grow darker with every star that fell from the heavens.

“The Lords are abandoning us!” Achates yelled. “They’re leaving us to fend for ourselves! All is lost.” Despair dripped from his voice.

“I tried to warn you,” the brutarian interrupted. “I told you I felt the mountains tremble. Something is rising up out of the earth.” He turned to me. “You didn’t just kill that sweet, innocent girl. You’ve killed us all.”

Chapter 19

I tried to process their words. “You’re wrong,” I said. “There must be an explanation.”

“There is no other explanation,” Augury replied calmly.

“You’re wrong,” I said again, shaking my head back and forth. I looked back up at the sky. This couldn't possibly be happening. I must have imagined one of the stars falling.

“Challenge the fates and the Lords shall call," chanted Augury. "Whatever demons are crawling out of the hells below are what the Lords called. And now the Lords are leaving.”

“Probably because they can’t bear to watch what happens next,” Achates sighed.

“You don’t think it’s just a coincidence?” I asked.

Everyone around me shook their heads.

“So what? We just wait to die?” I asked, staring at them.

Augury responded, “No. We go find Mahlia and pray that it’s not too late. Despite what everyone else thinks, "fallen" doesn’t necessarily mean dead. But it does mean that she needs our help. She’s our only hope at survival, and we're hers.”

We were all quiet. “How can she save us now?” I asked.

“She’s the only one with the gift. She was born with it for a reason. I think she can unite the three races. If we don’t work together, none of us will survive.”

“King Septon II will never join forces with the brutarians,” Harish said.

I ignored Harish and brought up my own concern. “The humans and brutarians don’t need us. They have the blood daggers.”

It was Augury’s turn to be stunned. “That’s impossible. They were hidden years ago.”

I staggered over to Harish. I reached behind his b

ack and pulled the knife from his belt. The blade burst with a blue glow. “This one belongs to King Septon II,” I said. “Who’s to say he doesn’t have more? And what if Mortwar has one too? How many are there?”

“Twelve,” Achates answered with confidence. “King Averis left behind twelve blood daggers.” Achates twisted his beard with his fingers, completely lost in thought. He pulled his hands away from his beard and began pressing his index finger onto the fingertips of his opposite hand. It looked like he was counting.

“This is terrible. The blood daggers’ powers are too dangerous. They don’t know how to properly interpret the markings,” Augury said.

“So they’re useless to them without a Divinare to interpret them,” I said, glaring at Harish.

“Don’t you know anything?” Achates snapped. “It’s not just the predictions, boy. It’s the blood itself. The healing abilities. The killing abilities. They're powerful. They're the only magic left on this earth.”

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