Page 221 of Salt in the Seas
She strode away without a single glance for Mayvus’ body, and returned to her mother’s still form, kneeling beside it. By this time, Rildan had found Emeris, and along with Marnok, the three formed a strange huddle as they mourned her together.
It left Gaeren feeling like an outsider, especially since part of him wondered if she’d been too harsh. Had Emeris asked Sylmar to sacrifice her? Hadn’t Aeliana asked Gaeren to do the same to her that night on the Myndren Mountains’ balcony? If he’d followed through on her request, the others likely would have responded the same way she did now. But he would have done it because she’d asked him, and it would have felt like a loving way to free her, even if he despised himself for it.
He stared at Sylmar, hating that he continued to find ways he and this man were alike. It terrified him enough that he pulled a soldier from the ranks and demanded he lock the older man up along with the Ahmranans, just like Aeliana had requested.
Around them, the battle that had barely begun was over, and yet the room remained flooded with people unsure where to go from here. The winex slunk from the room, carrying out their dead without anyone trying to stop them. Felk nodded his farewell before he left, his face long as he took in Aeliana’s anguish.
Gaeren watched her a moment longer too, wishing he had something to offer, but right now she needed her father more.
He turned away. And then he did something he hadn’t expected to do for at least a decade or more. Something he hadn’t thought he’d have to face without Enla. He gathered his father’s broken body in his arms and headed for the highest tower. It was time to take the king to the Stars. It was time for them to release him to the Sun.
CHAPTER 86
Time passedin a strange haze that Orra couldn’t hold on to. She kneeled on the balcony until every last Star had taken to the skies, leaving her shivering in the night air. Even Andreas had left her, but with the deaths that had occurred this night, it wouldn’t be for long.
She imagined them all reflecting the Sun’s brilliance. If she opened her eyes, she might see them dancing in the sky, but she suspected their anger and grief might hold their dance at bay. Even so, she waited, knowing they would return.
While waiting, she imagined the fullness of the Sun’s glory hitting her celestial body. The way it had always felt like a fire that cocooned her in the Sun’s embrace. She longed to share in that sensation with her brothers and sisters now, but it was lost to her. And she didn’t know if she could ever gain it back.
She knew she was undeserving, but after seeing the other Stars making the same mistakes, carrying out decisions that would have as equally disastrous consequences as her own, she couldn’t help wondering why they still received the blessing she’d lost.
It felt like days or years had passed until the sounds of footsteps coming up the stairway met her ears, and then it felt like mere moments. Had the people she’d grown to love aged and withered away like all the rest while she lay lost in her misery? Or had her sorrow been a cage for her mind that stretched out time?
The figure that emerged from the stairway looked wrong—the shadows too wide with too many appendages. When he stepped from the darkness into the moon’s light, the single figure became two. An aged man being carried by his son, who had somehow aged himself a fair amount since the last time she’d seen him.
Her fear of time passing rushed through her once more, but as Gaeren drew closer, she saw it was a trick of the light, along with sorrow marring his features. It was his soul that had aged, not his body. Gaeren lay the brittle blue shell of his father down on the cold slab of stone, his pinched features looking almost angry. If Orra hadn’t known him, she might have thought he hated the man before him. But she’d sensed the conflicting emotions in Gaeren in the past, the way love warred with hatred and anger fought with sadness.
“When we love well,” she whispered, “we can be cut deeply.”
He blinked over at her as if just now noticing her presence. “Will you sing him to the Sun?” he rasped out.
She nodded, then began her hum. She thought he might stay, but he backed away before lumbering down the stairs. By the time her song grew words, he’d come back with the body of his mother, as well as several frozen pieces that had broken off each of them, and he laid them side by side, placing his palms on their cheeks.
He whispered words Orra caught only because she knew how to listen for those final prayers. His regrets joined with laments, a desire to look and remember the good even if little had been there. A promise to do more, to be better.
As her song faded, so did his tears. He stood, wiping the remains of them with the back of his hand.
“Thank you.” His eyes never left their bodies as he spoke. Then he laid out their starlocks on each of their chests.
The sorrowful empathy that had filled Orra was quickly replaced by a renewed hope. This was what she’d been waiting for. Her eyes shot to the heavens, and while she couldn’t see the light of her fellow Stars, she sensed a growing nearness.
“Quick,” she warned. “Get below. The time is near.”
“But there are others.” He gestured toward the door leading to the rooms below.
She shook her head. “Take them to a different tower. Now go.” She didn’t watch his retreat. Instead, she closed her eyes and held out her arms, beckoning for Andreas to return. He would come for the king’s starlock, and Lumina would come for the queen’s.
The heat grew to a burning fire that should have made her afraid. But she trusted Andreas. As he approached, the heat faded to a dull warmth, signifying they were taking on their human forms. Before she could fully recover, Andreas was wrapping her in a hug.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered, his words harsh with fear.
The tears that sprang to her eyes came from relief, from the reminder that she wasn’t as fully outcast as she’d thought—that someone still cared. Over his shoulder, Lumina looked on warily, arms folded over her chest and tangled in the black tresses reaching her knees. Orra couldn’t remember if the other Star had sided with Reyna in the end or if she’d backed up Andreas.
She pulled back to study Andreas’ face. Weariness lined his features. “What’s going on with the Stars?”
He sighed and looked away. “Reyna and some of the others are making decisions and plans we don’t all agree with. When you led us astray”—she flinched at his words even as she appreciated his straightforward manner—“we were in the minority. We acted alone, and the others refused to help. But now, Reyna’s not in the minority, and I fear her actions will have consequences that reach even further than yours.”
“So there’s a war among the Stars?”
