Weird tales vol 50, p.23
Sister of the Stars (The Children of Lyr Book 2), page 23
Lyr, to his credit, was quiet, allowing me to wallow in peace. The rest of the crew were not so generous. The second I got back to Mathonwy Manor, they were on me, dragging me into Reina’s kitchen and forcing me to sit through their sham of a war council meeting. I feigned interest, but my thoughts were unfocused. What did I care if the whole world went to shit? The person who might’ve cared had conveniently fucked off.
Ellian was persistent, something I hated to admit I admired. And even if we were far from friends, it was good to feel needed. Though I knew deep down I’d be as useless at war strategy as I was at sailing. I was not a fighter, or a captain, or a leader. I was an actor, playing whatever role kept me in the best light.
“I know what I heard, Griffin.” His tone was sure, a true leader despite his apparent exhaustion. Though I’d never tell him, he was good at being a councilman, despite the hurdles Connor threw his way. He rubbed a tired hand over his face before repeating himself for a third time, irritation clear in the set of his scowl. “Orwellin scholars have been working on the poultice for ages. It kills crops. The first attack already happened in Bachtref. Ir’de and Pysgodd are next unless we warn them. They plan on starving people, and then when they become desperate and rise up, they’re going to purge them.”
My stomach clenched, empty though it was. The Deyrnas was flawed, and I didn’t want to care for it. But starving masses and government-planned slaughter was enough to stir the dragon in my chest once more.
If only I knew what to do, I might be able to help. But I was useless. Who was I to stand against the entire High Council? What could I do to stop plague and war from marching across each island and dragging us all to the Otherworld?
I took another swig of my drink.
“Lyr’s balls, it’s just so dark.” Griffin echoed my thoughts, hanging his head in his hands. Rhett rubbed his back gently, but his face was just as drawn. “Why do it? What is there to gain from killing everyone? There is no Council if there is no Deyrnas.”
Ellian scoffed, an edge to his voice. “I don’t know, but if we are going to stop this, we have to figure it out.”
The table sat in silence, the weight of the responsibility hanging like an anvil ready to crush us beneath. Even Reagan was stony, chestnut eyes turned to hard mountain passes. I hated seeing her dragged into this; she deserved so much better. But I had apparently forfeited any say in her upbringing when I hid from her for two weeks, so I kept my mouth shut.
So did everyone else. We were all lost for words, for actions, for solutions. We were not the people who would solve this conflict. We were not Captains. We were the forgotten few, those not capable enough to do anything, but stupid enough to still care.
If Keira were with us, she’d have a plan. Or she would say exactly the right thing at the right time, inspiring one of us to find the missing piece.
The dragon stirred in my chest, enraged at her for leaving us behind, but also at myself for not being better. I hadn’t deserved her in the first place. What would she think of me now, hiding and whining, letting her people starve and die when she trusted me to do the job? Keira would’ve fed the entire Deyrnas with her own supper first if it meant sticking it to Connor. And she would be ashamed of us now, sitting comfortably in Reina’s kitchen, picking at our dinner like the rest of the world wasn’t hungry.
“We need to keep people fed,” I blurted out, not realizing I’d said it out loud until Ellian rolled his eyes at me.
“Yes, I know. We are working on it.”
The beast in my chest growled at the impertinence in his tone, as if I had any pride left to protect. But the spark felt good. Like Keira was somehow watching me, whispering in my ear to ‘figure it out, Mr. Mathonwy.’
“If you’ll let me explain before biting my head off, Councilman...that’s the first branch of this.” I sat forward, trying to draw a map in my mind. “Connor is smart. People will not fight on an empty stomach. Feed them, and Connor will have to work harder to put us down.”
Rhett looked at me, the heaviness falling from his broad shoulders as he straightened his back. “Good thing we know a couple of talented smugglers.”
Griffin grinned at him, mischief brimming in his gaze. “We have two ships, and I could send some letters to old friends in Ir’de. If we can get half a dozen ships sailing...Ir’de has enough money and resources that even with the council meddling, they should be alright for a while if they are willing to share. Pysgodd, too. If we organized, it’d be easier.”
Nods and grunts from around the table signaled agreement, life stirring itself back into the crew. But my brow still furrowed. It was easier said than done. How did Keira do it? How did she always manage to find the answer, even when fate and foe were both against her?
“Even if we do find a solid food source and start smuggling items, we won’t stand a chance if Connor brings the full weight of the Deyrnasian guard on us.” The words tasted like ash on my tongue, fire extinguished by reality once more. “If he catches wind of this, we’ll be snubbed before we can even feed a single mouth.”
“So let’s not get caught.” Tarran squared his shoulders, his boyish face lined with youthful determination and a newfound sadness. “That monster killed my father. Papa wasn’t a good man, but he deserved better. The Deyrnas deserves better.”
I offered a pitying smile, but it was shallow. I didn’t have the heart to crush his spirit with the truth. His father had earned his fate a dozen times over, but as Keira once said, there was no use tarnishing a dead man’s reputation. Tarran needed a hero to idolize. There were so few options left.
Saeth stayed silent, her lips pursed, so much more perceptive than her twin. There was no hiding the truth from a woman like her. Made of the same steel, she could sense it better than either of Griffin’s swords ever could.
“We need a distraction.” Reagan crossed her arms, pulling us back to the task at hand, dragon eyes narrowed. “Something shiny to pull Connor’s focus while we set up some trade routes.”
My attention snapped to my youngest cousin, another piece falling into place. The dragon in my core purred at the waning sliver of hope that stirred with her words.
“Like?” Ellian cocked his head, eyes lighter than they had been the entire conversation.
“Like a certain raven-haired outlaw.” Reagan shrugged and folded her hands in her lap, a dealer at a cards table holding the ace. “For whatever reason, he needs Keira gone for this to work. That’s why he framed her, right?”
Her name hurt worse than a gunshot to the gut. The flicker of warmth in my chest extinguished like a match in a hurricane. Of course, the only viable plan any of us could come up with was centered around Keira. Sometimes, it felt like my whole world revolved around Keira, like she was the sun and we were only planets in her solar system.
“Well, he succeeded, because she’s gone.” My voice was detached, but anger simmered underneath, at both Connor and myself for our equally-guilty parts in her disappearance. Fresh hurt welled in my littlest cousin’s eyes at my tone, but I looked away before I could feel guilty for that, too.
“Aye, we know that.” Saeth caught on first, her voice low and dangerous, like the way the tide pulled back from the shore before a tidal wave. In the lanternlight, the sharp lines of her face seemed even more severe. “But he doesn’t. All he knows is that she escaped.”
Something locked and unlocked within me, a missing part of myself slipping out of its cage and roaring to life.
Keira always said Saeth was the cleverest among us, but now, in the dimness of the warm kitchen, I saw her for what she truly was: ice and frost incarnate, sharp enough to slice and cold enough to burn. Saeth may have been born a Branwen, but she was a dragon through and through. Together, she and Reagan were going to reforge the world in ice and fire.
Griffin, blind as ever, groaned, “Do you want to start making sense, Saeth?”
“What if we made him believe Keira was still at large?” Reagan answered for her, a wicked grin spreading like wildfire across her features. “What if we could show her sailing all over the place, making noise wherever she went, loud enough to draw out Connor and make him act on his personal vendetta against her?”
Truth blazed through my core, hot as fire.
They were right.
“And do you have a magical way of producing our disposed Captain that we aren’t aware of?” Griffin waved his hands at the girls dramatically. “If so, please let us know.”
“We don’t need Keira here,” I said aloud as the tapestry of their plan revealed itself, clear as daybreak on the horizon. “We just need the story to spread.” The story of Keira, the one I was still clinging to. The one I’d told Reagan over and over again on nights much like tonight, in this very kitchen. The story of a girl with the heart of the sea and eyes like stars, who could outsail Lyr himself.
“You want a fake,” Rhett laughed incredulously as realization dawned on him, too.
“Aye.” Saeth leaned back in her chair. “Outside of Porthladd, most people only have a vague idea of what she looks like. We need the legend, not the person right now.”
The legend of the NightMare of the Four Seas, who could scare even the Dark God into submission. Who could drag her own good-for-nothing husband back from the Otherworld with her will and a spring alone.
It was brilliant. If we could fake it, even for a little while, Connor would come. He wouldn’t depend on Leary or Locasta or anyone else to do his bidding, not after Keira escaped his clutches yet again.
“Uncle Cedric used to say a good story was worth a thousand men,” Griffin mused, finally wrapping his head around it.
Reagan folded her arms. “Keira is worth a thousand and one.”
“More.” I swallowed down the ball of emotion in my throat, pride sparkling through me as I regarded the little dragon’s bravery and cunning.
Keira was worth the world. And my youngest cousin was worth just as much. I had missed the moment, somewhere along the way, when she grew up. When she learned to out-think and out-maneuver a room full of trained adults, where she learned to speak her truth and not be stunted by someone else’s shortcomings. Where she learned to spread her wings, the proud dragon she was, and take to the skies.
“What about when she comes back?” Tarran’s brow furrowed, shoulders still slumped. “Will there just be two Keiras?”
Silence steeped the room.
His innocence almost made me believe, too. Made me want to dive into that fantasy like it was the spring, letting it weightlessly carry me away to a world where it was true.
She wasn’t coming back. She was going to hide for as long as Connor was hunting her. Or longer, if she felt guilty enough about Weylin’s death to blame herself. And with that mark on her shoulder…
I couldn’t bear to finish the thought.
The muscle in Rhett’s jaw clenched and unclenched as he cast me a furtive glance. “What if she doesn’t? I know no one is saying it, but it could be.”
“It’s a good plan.” I cleared the sorrow from my throat, shoving it down and focusing on what we could control instead. I spoke directly to Ellian, the default leader among us. “Reagan and Saeth are absolutely right. Connor has had it out for her from day one. If he thinks she’s evaded him again, he’ll hunt her himself this time.”
Ellian weighed it, wringing his hands as he thought, before deciding. “It’s a start. It’ll buy us time.”
“You all are missing a big point,” Griffin interjected, tapping his fingers anxiously against the table. “Who is going to fake it? Reagan and Saeth are too young…sorry, Shrimpy.”
He ruffled Reagan’s hair, but she swatted him away, unamused. “Saeth could pass.”
“Saeth is built like a twelve-year-old boy,” Tarran snorted at his twin, then cringed at the arrowed looks both she and Ellian shot him.
“You’re a prick, Tarran.” Saeth crossed her arms over her flat frame self-consciously. Her voice was softer when she spoke again. “But he’s right. Keira is young, but she has a presence. No one is going to believe that I’m the NightMare of the Four Seas.”
I agreed, but for different reasons. Saeth had the presence, a young dragon coming into her own. But Keira was in her early twenties and had years of experience adding to the swagger of her walk. Saeth was too blunt, too sharp. As wild as Keira was, she was also a Captain. We needed someone with the same regal grace.
My heart sank as I realized how one-of-a-kind my wife truly was.
“I’ve always wondered how I’d look with dark hair,” Reina said by way of an introduction as she swept back into the kitchen, sticking a hand to her hip. The smile on her face made it clear how long she’d been listening.
It took me a moment to process what she said. Saeth, as usual, caught on quicker. “That might actually work. No one really knows your face, not even in Porthladd. You’re ten years older, but with the right cosmetics...”
The world froze. “Reina—”
She held up a hand to silence me, a queen commanding her subject. “No, Ronan.” Head held high, she shifted her weight, mimicking Keira’s stance almost perfectly as she addressed the room. “I’m tired of hiding. It’s time to help.”
Twenty-Three: Fortunes and Family
KEIRA
I was going to see Ronan.
It was the only thought in my brain as I lived through the motions for two full days after the bonfire night, tending the fields during the day, stopping only to eat and sleep when my body demanded it. It was an easy routine, and aside from Siobhan, the women had fully embraced me as one of theirs, an easy rapport building in a short span of time. Marina and Laureli taught me which crops worked best in the damp heat, while Nelle and Gennevieve cooked my favorites the second night, intent to make me feel as comfortable as possible. Even Cassryn stopped glaring at me over meals, her contempt dissolving into general disinterest.
Vian adjusted beautifully, and spent most of his time with Gennevieve, the little duck and the lark two birds of a feather. To my absolute joy, he even helped cook the feast, his orange chicken a near-rival to Reina’s signature dish.
But with every joke and chuckle, every seed planted and meal shared, my mind drifted to what waited in Laureli’s hut. What I left behind in Porthladd.
Finally, as the sun sank below the horizon on the second night, I snuck out of the quiet hut, the moonlight my only guide. She seemed larger tonight, brighter, as if she knew I needed her steady guidance to get through whatever the night brought. Laureli’s hut wasn’t very far from mine, only a few dozen paces. I just had to make sure Siobhan and her patrol weren’t around to catch me.
Vian was hot on my heels, as usual, whispering against the quiet music of Hiraethean nightfall, “Keira, this isn’t a good idea.”
I did my best to tune out the worry in his tone, as I did the distant whispering of the island. The last conscious night I’d spent on Hiraeth was a nightmare. I needed tonight to be better, even if it was wishful thinking. “I need to know if he’s alright, Vian. If you don’t want to come, go back to the hut.”
“There are a lot of scary things on this island,” Vian hissed as he stumbled after me. If I was being honest, I was grateful for the company. Whatever the wind was whispering to him might prove useful if the women tried to lie again. The Soul Wind had a funny knack of blowing away the bullshit and revealing the truth. But if he stood in my way, I would leave him behind.
“I’ve seen them. I’m not afraid.” My voice held a glimmer of the authority I used to hold as Captain. I was going to see Ronan. There wasn’t a beast in the world scary enough to stop me, Hiraethean or not.
Vian huffed but stayed quiet until we rounded the corner and Laureli’s hut came into view. Marked by deep green curtains that blocked out any light, the hut was dark, but a single column of smoke spiraling from the bamboo chimney confirmed that life stirred within. I knocked three times, as she’d instructed me.
“So, you came.” Laureli opened the door and leaned casually in the frame, blocking our view of the inside as she gave Vian a cold stare. “I thought I said alone.”
I pulled Vian closer, lifting my chin. “He goes where I go. If you want him to leave, I leave, too.”
She paused, lips in a tight line as she weighed her options. I stood firm, fingers still wrapped tightly around Vian’s wrist. Finally, with an eye roll, she pushed off the door, allowing us to step through and into the hut. “You’re Cedric’s kid, alright. Get inside before the watchdog sees you.”
Pride bloomed in my core at the mention of my father. Being his kid was the greatest accomplishment of my lifetime. There was a swagger to my walk as I stepped inside.
The interior reminded me faintly of rich Ir’desian markets. Paper lanterns cast warm pools of amber light across the small space. Plush rugs and pillows were scattered around the main room, upholstered in deep gemstone-colored velvet more expensive than Madame Jessa’s brothel. Lining the walls, crates made from deep stained wood with jeweled faces promised further mystery inside. From the ceiling, dried herbs and woven dream charms swayed in the breeze floating from the open windows, basking the air in a floral aroma. Silk tapestries decorated the walls, depicting creatures in iridescent metallic paints. On the largest one, a dozen or so sirens with fins of every color swam around a symbol that made my heart drop to my toes.
“You gave Ronan his tattoo.” I stared incredulously at the symbol, etched in gold right in the middle of the tapestry.
“Nelle did, actually. Come sit.” Laureli eased herself onto one of the plush pillows. Reluctantly, I tore my eyes from the intricate design and sat across from her, Vian nestling into my side. His back was straight with tension, but his face was a picture of calm. I wished I could say the same for myself. My nerves were tied in a knot deep in my gut, woven tighter than any of Laureli’s silks.
Laureli closed her eyes, breathing deeply for a moment in the suspended silence. When she opened them, she reached for a nearby crate decorated in deep emerald jewels in the shape of a kraken.
Vian and I gasped in unison as she opened it, pulling out a glass orb the size of a melon. Swirling inside was a giant eye, larger than my head, an unnatural yellow iris peering back at us.
