Page 30 of Sea of Stars

I walked over to a more comfortable chair, closer to the door, and pulled a blanket up over my body. I listened to Augury hum the tune my father so often had. Sleep quickly came.

***

“Yes, I’m sure,” Mortwar hissed to a fellow brutarian. “Why else would I have allowed them to breed? That stupid girl can’t be the only one with the magic. And I don’t have time to wait.” The minion nodded and exited the room.

Mortwar picked up his whip and tucked it into his robes. He left through the same door a few moments later with a hungry look on his face. He bounded up the stairs of the stage and looked down at a line of young female divinares. Their children clung to their hands with worried expressions. Mortwar motioned for the first woman to come up on the stage. She hesitantly climbed the stairs. A newborn baby was asleep in her arms. Mortwar tore the baby away from his mother and placed him face down on the wooden planks. Tears began to stream down the woman’s face. Mortwar gestured for her to leave the stage. She remained still, staring at her baby lying helplessly on the bloodied wood. Mortwar took a step toward her and shoved her hard down the stairs. She landed in the dirt at the base of the stage.

The mother looked up anxiously at Mortwar and then back at her baby. Mortwar pulled out the whip he had hidden under his robes. The woman stared in horror. He raised his whip and slashed it against the exposed skin on the baby's back. The child cried out and the mother’s hair stood on end. The woman shakily rose and took a step toward the stairs. Mortwar turned and stared into the woman’s eyes as he drew the whip down onto the baby again.

The woman shrieked and charged up the stage. The brutarian that Mortwar was speaking with earlier emerged carrying a large axe. Mortwar nodded at his minion. The brutarian bounded a few steps towards the young mother and sliced the axe clean through her neck. Her head rolled down the steps, pounding each stair with a sickening thud.

Mortwar whipped the baby a few more times and then pushed it aside with his large foot. “Next!” he called, staring at the line of divinares, who all stood frozen in fear.

***

When I awoke, Achates sat at the table staring at me. A single candle lit the room. As the flame danced, the shadows changed across his face. But no matter the shadow, the expression on his face was always one of sorrow. He had noticed me stir.

“You look just like her,” he said quietly. “My baby,” he sniffed.

Despite the fact that Achates seemed unstable, I rose and ran over and hugged him. His body tensed uncomfortably.

“Sit, sit,” he grumbled, and patted the stool next to him. When I pulled away I could tell he looked pleased with himself. “We knew your mother would be born with the power of the Moira. Augury has a sense about these things,” he shrugged his shoulders as he said it. “And your mother confirmed it early on. Her first prediction was about you.”

I looked up at him expectantly. When he didn’t elaborate I pressed him: “What did she see?”

“Well, most little girls play with dolls and pretend to be mothers. It took us a while to even understand that she wasn’t playing make-believe.” He glanced down, studying me. “One morning she woke us up early. She was so excited, going on and on about her Mahlia. We had no idea who she was referring to.” He shook his head, smiling, remembering.

“We asked her to explain. And she could barely tell us, laughing with excitement. ‘My daughter Mahlia will come here,’ she had exclaimed. And she said it so knowingly that it was quite startling. She told us she saw it in a dream.” He sighed. “That is when we knew for sure.”

I looked up at my grandfather. His shoulders were slumped and his face held such sadness. I was beginning to realize that losing a child is different than losing a parent. I placed my hand on top of his and this time he didn’t tense. “Did she say what would happen after I came here?” I asked.

The old man shook his head. He took a deep breath and looked at my hand on his. Then suddenly he sat up a little straighter. A huge grin spread across his face. “Yes, yes she did.” He laughed a deep laugh, not one of his crazy giggles. “She said you would save us.”

Shivers rose up my body at my grandfather’s words. The image of Mortwar striking a newborn baby came back to my mind. “How could I possibly save the divinares?”

He shrugged his shoulders and replied, “The markings on your skin may give us a clue.”

A couple knocks made us turn toward the open door. Augury was watching us. “You two are up early,” she said, her right eyebrow arched. My mother used to arch her eyebrow the same way. “Come,” she said, waving her hand towards the open door. “A hot bath will help us to be able to see those symbols. And more blumberries for breakfast will help the blue glow brighter.”

I sighed and hopped off the stool. I hoped neither of them noticed my eyes drop at the mention of blumberries making the symbols easier to read. Breghton had been feeding them to me nonstop.

Dawn broke as I finished bathing. The sun streamed in through the windows, making my red hair even brighter. The removal of the grime left me with pale skin adorned with glowing blue symbols. All the bruises and cuts on my body couldn’t draw your attention away from the markings. I pulled the clean, loose dress that Augury had left for me over my head and tied the cord around my waist. The cloth was sleek and light, and the dress fell right above my knees. Its brilliant shade of blue reminded me of the glowing ocean. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever worn. The low cut of the back of the dress would make it easier for them to see the symbols.

As I made my way into the kitchen, every tiny noise set my hair on end. I had grown used to my hair being dirty. I sat down at the table and slowly ate my blumberry meal. Breghton may have tricked me into eating tons of this fruit, but it really was delicious. There were a few things that I left out in the version of my journey that I had told my grandparents. Some things I forgot or thought unimportant, but mostly I left out some details about Breghton and my relationship. All they knew was that I had trusted him and he betrayed me by stealing my dagger and fleeing. But that’s all that really mattered. He was trying to become the next king and I had to stop him.

My hair picked up the sound of my grandmother sketching behind me. She was drawing the symbols that were on my body. I knew it was a hard task by the way she would pause and stare at my back with her head tilted. Most of the symbols had healed, leaving strange scars on my back. They were hard to see intertwined with the traces the whip had left. The symbols that currently burned my sk

in, however, shone bright blue and were easy to see.

Augury stood up and placed the paper in front of Achates. I guess Achates was the only one who could decipher the old language. The old man held the paper far from his face and tried to put the symbols together into a meaningful interpretation. After a long silence, Achates cleared his throat. I stared over at him expectantly. He stared back, shaking his head.

“Mahlia, the fates are supposed to appear when you are old like us, when your skin is weathered and aged. When you were whipped, these symbols were forced to show up early, it is unnatural to know. You are too young to carry this burden.”

My spoon clattered against my bowl. I had to know.

Augury placed her hand on Achates shoulder. “She is more mature than her age. Tell us what it says.”

Achates looked like he was going to protest, but then he held the paper back up. Slowly he said, “One you trust will betray you. And then there’s a symbol for the word 'death.' So I guess it means the prediction will result in death."

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