Page 4 of Sea of Stars

So many of the people who came to the camp died soon after arriving. Swishel was one of the only divinares still alive from when I was first brought here, and that was because Mortwar needed her as a healer. I was friends with everyone else in my hut, but I was closest to Jeremody. His parents had been killed by Mortwar as well. We never talked much about our pasts, but he was always there to comfort me. Together we had endured so much at the Iron Gates. During my first whipping after Jeremody's arrival, he had run up on stage and punched Mortwar in the shin. We were just little kids, but I'll never forget how selfless he had been. Even though it resulted in him being whipped alongside me, it was also the beginning of our friendship. Jeremody and I were lucky to still be alive. I didn't want to think about Jeremody's luck running out before I was able to come back for him. He was the only family I had left.

On the opposite side of the camp stood black stone houses, large enough for at least a dozen divinare huts to fit inside. They were constructed out of rocks from the surrounding mountains. Mortwar and his men resided in the bigger structures. As I looked at the tall, metal rods that protected the camp, my pulse began to slow. A smile crept over my face. I was free! Taking a deep breath, I turned away from the prison. I wanted to skip and dance and laugh. I dropped on my side and rolled down the hill, laughing all the way to the bottom. I put my hands behind my head, looked up at the morning sky, and felt the sun’s warmth against my face. I felt like a child again, like I could do anything.

My hair fluttered as Mortwar's screams pierced the morning air. I sat bolt upright, scrambled to my feet, and began running once again. My smile faded as quickly as it had come. I would never truly be free of this place. Mortwar would find me. He would find me and kill me just like he had killed my parents.

After hours of running through the open hills, barely pausing to rest, I was exhausted. I had entered a dark forest a while back, but I knew I was still fairly close to my former prison since I had been able to see this distant forest from Mortwar’s camp. My feet guided me through the trees and foliage. The soft crunch of my tread on the dried leaves seemed impossibly loud. Every few moments I'd pause to listen for any movement around me before continuing on. I was comforted by the thought that the leaves would allow me to hear a brutarian lumbering toward me from at least a mile away.

Suddenly the forest grew bright. Rays of sun shone through a break in the trees. I walked into the middle of the large clearing. The forest floor seemed to glow in the warm light. All around me were twisted trees with sharp bark sticking out their tops and sides at strange angles. It looked like the trees had been set on fire, but it had to have been a long time ago since they were no longer black. A large tree stump that almost looked like the top had been ripped off of it jogged my memory. This was Murkthed Forest. During my childhood I had spent a lot of time under these trees. I backed up slowly as memories flashed before me. I remembered Mortwar ramming his minion's head into that tree, causing the tree to snap in half. The last time I had been in these woods, my parents had been murdered. This clearing was where my parents had died, I was certain of it. After I had been kidnapped by Mortwar, the flames must have spread, licking at the trees, igniting them in their blaze.

I sat down outside the clearing and hugged my knees to my chest. My parents had acted so strangely the last night they were alive. Ever since their deaths, I would have nightmares about it, always ending with their muffled voices saying "goodnight". I had heard what I wanted to hear, and from then on I remembered that night as I wanted it to be. As I looked at this empty part of the forest, though, the word "goodbye" seemed to echo around me. That night they had been giving me advice and talking in the past tense. They had said goodbye instead of goodnight. All this time

I had been lying to myself.

But how had they known they would die and I would survive? I thought to myself. Why did they willingly surrender to Mortwar? My eyes burned and I could feel the tears forming. I bit my lip and tried to stop the tears from falling. All these years I had been devastated by their deaths, but now I was mad at them. I was furious that they left me with Mortwar without a fight. They had abandoned me.

I'm not sure how long I sat there, but the light was quickly fading. I would never know the answers to my questions and it hurt not to know the truth. But my parents were gone and I was alone in the Murkthed Forest. Swishel had risked her life to help me escape from the Iron Gates. I needed to keep moving so that I wouldn't be caught and brought back to the camp. I turned away from the clearing and began to walk into the darkness, trying to shake the feeling that I could be drawing my last breaths in the Murkthed Forest as well.

Eventually, I began to crawl, too tired to stand. No divinare could outrun a huge brutarian. The tallest we could grow was about two and a half feet, and I was short, just a few inches over two feet. When I reached a tree, too tall for even Mortwar to reach the branches, I climbed up the trunk. My small hands were perfect for tree climbing, finding all the small grooves in the bark that would be undetectable to a larger creature. I made my way into the golden leaves above and hid as far toward the middle as I could.

I lifted the bottom of my shirt and touched one of the symbols on my side. The symbols burned even hotter than they had at the lake yesterday. I put my index finger in my mouth to try and cool it off. When I pulled it out, I saw a line etched across the skin. A piece of the symbol was now burned onto my flesh. But it didn’t hurt as much as before, since my whole body was too exhausted to be fully aware of the pain on my finger.

I spread my long hair all around me, ensuring that the tiniest noise would wake me from my slumber. My metal bracelets clanged together. Bringing my hand down from my hair, I looked at the bracelets on my wrists. I was so used to hearing the metal clang together that I was almost numb to the sound. Divinares were very quiet, so Mortwar had forced us to wear the bangles. That way he could always hear us moving about. I pulled them off, one by one, and hid them in the branches around me so that Mortwar wouldn't be able to see them if he came this way. My arm felt light without the heavy metal. I gripped my naked wrist. Mortwar didn't own me anymore.

I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind like my mother would tell me to do before I would fall asleep beside her. Jeremody wasn't here to comfort me if I woke up screaming from nightmares, and if I cried out in the night, Mortwar would be able to find me easily. Images of Mortwar sent Swishel’s fate creeping into my thoughts. Mortwar would suspect that the healer would have been the last one to see me. Swishel was as wise as she was odd, though. Hopefully she would be able to convince him that I had escaped before she had come to retrieve me from the stage.

Hoot, hoot!

My eyes opened wide. I must have drifted asleep. The left side of my body burned, causing me to hunch over in pain. I pulled up my shirt to see blue light flickering from the symbols. Suddenly they dimmed completely and my skin began to heal in front of my eyes. Apprehensively, I touched the skin with my fingertips, but this time it didn’t scorch me. I leaned over the branch I was perched on and vomited. The clumps dropped from leaf to leaf, which made me hurl some more. My whole body trembled.

I pictured the last time I saw Swishel, her head bobbing up and down. My dreams had shown me a horrific image. I no longer had to think about Swishel’s fate, because she was dead. Taking a deep breath, I tried to tell myself it was just a dream, but it had felt so real. Over the years I had grown suspicious of my mother's constant reminders of clearing my mind before sleeping. She had warned me that if I fell asleep with my mind wandering, that my dreams would no longer be dreams. Instead, I had vivid nightmares of whatever I fell asleep thinking about. But recently, I had a terrible feeling that the nightmares were real. Maybe my mother hadn't meant that my dreams would turn into nightmares, but instead that they would be visions of reality. If my mother had similar dreams, this could explain how she knew that my she and my father were going to die in Murkthed Forest that night. If I didn't have strange, unrelated symbols on my body, I would have guessed that this was the gift of the Moira. Nothing seemed to make any sense.

I scrunched my face up, trying to prevent the tears from trickling down my cheeks, as I tore open the knapsack Swishel had given me. My hand rummaged through the bottles full of strange liquids and other oddities until it found a single sheet of paper. Carefully, I wiped away the tears from my eyes, not wanting to smudge the important words Swishel had left with me. While I was running from the Iron Gates I had been thinking of all the questions I should have asked Swishel. Hopefully I had all the answers right here. I unfolded the paper and looked down at the short message.

“I do not have time to explain what divinares once were. But I can tell you what they have become: sacred. Many people will stop at no end to hunt you down, especially when they discover you have the gift of the Moira. The symbols on your body are meant to be your own, but Mortwar has tricked time. Others will do the same, so beware even the friendliest of sorts. As for the symbols burning blue, I refuse to burden you with their meaning. You are too young to understand. But if someone sees that you have them, I fear not even the Lords can save you. You must go and find more of our people. We are from the lands in the south. It is your only hope.”

I read the note again, trying to understand the words before me. I shoved it back into the knapsack and sighed. Swishel had promised she left me with everything I needed to know, but this was barely a glimpse. I bit my lip, thinking about what Swishel had said to me in the early hours of the morning. I was blessed with the power of the Moira. This should have inspired me, but I didn’t have a clue what it meant. The only thing she had told me was that my mother had the same gift. My mother never had glowing symbols on her body though. The last word of the letter bothered me the most. Hope. I placed my chin in my hand. I thought of my parents, all the divinares that Mortwar had whipped to death, and now Swishel. There was only one hope in this world: to leave it as soon as possible.

A light breeze cascaded down on me from above. My eyes darted up and spotted an owl adjusting its wings. He was as white as the snow that blanketed the Iron Gates during the winter. His eyes were a crystal blue and there were a few specks of gray on the top of his head. The bird cocked his head to the side and gave me a quizzical look. I glanced farther upward past the golden leaves and saw the sun high in the sky. The owl should have been sleeping, but instead his eyes stared into mine, captivating me. I began climbing the tree, entranced. As I climbed closer to the bird, I noticed that he was larger than me. He had to be at least three feet tall. He was even bigger than Mortwar’s pet forge crow. I pulled myself up to the branch he was on and reached my hand out, trying hard not to startle him.

The owl continued to study me. Then, slowly, he hopped over to where I was perched. He brought his head down to mine and looked into my eyes again. I drew my face closer toward his, studying his eyes. They seemed familiar somehow.

Hoot, hoot.

I lost my footing and stumbled, slipping from the branch. I reached out to grab for the limb, but my hands were too small to grip it. I was falling. My hands searched for anything to hold onto, but they only found crunchy leaves. Right before I would have slammed onto the ground, the owl grabbed me gently with his talons. He flew me to where I had been resting earlier, set me down, and then nudged my knapsack towards me. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder.

I walked over toward him again, taking extra care with my footing. I reached up to pet the owl’s fuzzy head and found it to be surprisingly soft. Once again, he bent down to my height. There was urgency in the owl’s eyes now. He hooted softly this time and turned around, his back facing me. He spread out his wings and adjusted them, leaning down as low as he could. I had always dreamed of flying in the clouds.

Without hesitation, I hopped onto his back and we took off into the sky.

“What was I thinking?!” I screamed. Wind whipped across my face as I wrapped my arms around the owl’s neck. My cloak fluttered behind me, its blue hue blending into the color of the sky. His wings were enormous, and their span was probably three times my height. I looked down and then instantly shut my eyes tight, scared of the deadly drop. The owl flapped his wings feverishly as he tried to gain height. I held my breath and prayed to the heavens that had long ago abandoned me. I felt his body heaving beneath mine, using all his energy to bring us to the clouds. I tried to forget about the rushing wind and the long plummet below. The owl felt warm against my arms. I nuzzled my head into the soft feathers of his neck to try to feel safe.

Eventually the climb to the sky ceased. The owl leveled off and began soaring flat. My tight grip on his neck eased a bit. I opened one eye, and then the other. This time when I looked down upon the earth I didn’t fear the drop into the abyss. Instead, the height empowered me. Being only a little over two feet tall meant looking up at almost everything. It was a rare and invigorating experience to see the earth from above. Being this high up seemed an impossible thing, but here I was, soaring amongst the clouds. The brief excitement I had felt earlier after my escape from the Iron Gates returned. I felt alive again. The wind no longer felt like it would pull me to my death. Instead it danced around me, lifting away my anger and hopelessness. “I’m flying!” I yelled into the breeze. The words blew away as fast as they were spoken.

The forest below me passed by so quickly, so beautifully, as I looked down from above. The trees were just dots of red, yellow, green, orange, and brown, all intertwining together. We seemed to be going impossibly fast. Each time I blinked I was afraid I'd miss something magnificent below. Without this owl it would have taken me days to journey so far, and who knows what dangers I would have faced.

I hugged the owl close and nestled my head down upon his back. “I’ll call you Chinook,” I whispered into his soft feathers.

Instead of his usual hoot, I swore I heard him say “Who, who,” into the whipping wind.

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