Page 54 of Sea of Stars

“Mahlia?” I tried instead. The snow began to fall faster. I wasn’t dressed warmly enough for this weather. I wrapped my arms around myself to try to block out the cold. My eyes spotted a light reflecting off the snow. I looked up and saw light shining from the windows of one of the large houses to the right. Only a brutarian would reside in such a massive structure. The door started to open and I turned and fled.

I ran and ran. My own footprints trailed behind me, but no one would be able to see them in the dark. Hopefully by the time they awoke, the footprints would be covered by snow. I felt the tears burn my cold cheeks for a second before hardening to ice. The Iron Gates was impenetrable. The mission to save Mahlia was futile and had cost Jeremody his life. I ran into the darkness, knowing that as I did so it was blackening my heart.

I kept my eyes shut as I listened to the hushed voices. They were a welcome distraction to the memories that haunted me. I moved my face toward the ground so that more of my hair would be free to hear.

“Garret, what are you doing here?”

I was certain it was Harish speaking.

“I was on the blood dagger expedition when I met a man named Lyntel who claimed there was a new divinare ruler. We kidnapped him and his supposed follower, Trench, and made them lead us right to this group of gullible divinares. They were both humans, Harish. Damn traitors."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Harish and the human were friends and they were both loyal to King Septon II. I stayed quiet, wanting to hear what else the two would say when they thought no one was listening.

“Now we just need to convince these idiots to take us to the drop spots," Harish said. If we can get the rest of the blood daggers

for the king, we’ll be heroes.”

“It does seem that Achates knows their locations. But finding the daggers is my assignment. You can't abandon your mission, Harish,” Garret whispered. “You have to assassinate the girl. Boy was I close to slitting that little bitch's throat. I saw her. The whole plan went foul though. These stupid owls attacked us. I'm the only survivor from the expedition. I carved this emblem into my chest to blend in and I pretended to be friends with Trench. I waited for him to rat me out, but he stayed quiet. Turns out the bastard had his own plans, and he stole her in the night. If I see him again I'll kill him too. I got really lucky though. As Lyntel was dying, he tried to warn them not to listen to me, but his warning was cut short when Achates shot him square in the throat. The old fool.”

“You should have killed them all when you had the chance. But odds are that the girl's already dead if she was kidnapped. Can you untie me?”

There was a pause in the conversation. Garret must have been considering whether he should untie Harish’s hands from behind his back. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Garret was a traitor and Mahlia's grandparents had no idea.

Finally he whispered, “I need to complete my mission. I don’t want to risk them finding out that we know each other. Sorry mate, you’ll have to stay a prisoner for a bit longer. As for the girl, King Septon II will want proof of her death.”

“You can back me up. It’s the least you can do for keeping me like this.”

“I won’t lie to the king for you. Let’s just finish both jobs.”

“Fine,” Harish hissed. “They won't abandon their idea of finding the girl. So we'll have to figure out a way to take care of her first. Then we'll convince them to lead us to the daggers. Agreed?”

I heard a smacking noise and knew that Garret had slapped Harish on the back as a sign of agreement.

"And speaking of lying, the king doesn't know that..."

I didn't get to hear the rest of Garret's statement. The sound of him slapping Harish on the back had startled Achates awake. He began to grumble just like a child who has been awoken from a nap.

As everyone else got up, I slowly stood and yawned too. I stretched my arms above my head to pretend that I had only just woken up. What had Garret been about to say to Harish? I wondered to myself.

"Catch," Achates yelled.

I turned just in time to grab a piece of bread. I nodded at him and then sat down cross-legged. I ate the bread in silence as I listened to everyone else begin to fight about what we should be doing. They had all believed that Trench was working for me and that I had orchestrated her kidnapping. So they had traveled to the divinare castle to rescue her. Now that this idea was ruled out, the humans were the next best lead for finding her.

Denton’s hands had been untied during breakfast, but Harish's remained bound. I was relieved that they truly believed Denton’s depiction of what happened over Harish’s. Now I just needed to find a way to tell everyone that Harish and Garret were working together.

“You’re wasting your time,” Garret said, slamming his fists down on his legs. “King Septon II had nothing to do with this.”

“You are being awfully defensive of this king you supposedly left,” Achates replied, just as angrily.

“I’m being defensive because you’re old and senile and are trying to lead us in the wrong direction. Going to Celeseth is futile. You won't find her anywhere near the human capital. What we need to do is go to the Iron Gates.”

Harish had no reaction to Garret’s words. He was good at not blowing his cover.

"Well if we aren't going to pay the human king a visit, I'm staying right here," Achates growled. "We sent the other owls off to go find Mahlia. None of them have come back yet, so we should just wait here until we have a lead. No use wandering around aimlessly."

“The symbols on her back did suggest that Mortwar would be the cause of her death, Achates,” Augury interjected. “Maybe we should be going to the Iron Gates.”

Achates fumed. “But you said yourself that fallen doesn’t mean dead. The two predictions don’t have to align to be the same. They’re two distinct fates. She’s alive and that vile human took her.”

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