The Star Child (The Star Child Series) (23 page)

She was teasing me, so I smiled at her as I said, “Thanks so much, princess.”

“I’m not a princess.”

“Oh, I forgot—goddess.”

She rolled her eyes at me and we continued the rest of the way in silence.

Before I met Calienta, I’d hated flying. Yet there was something about flying with her, soaring into the night with utter abandon. Every moment with her was magical. I was so tuned in to Calienta that it was no time at all until the landscape changed.

When we’d left Dillion’s, the forest was dense with trees that I’d have expected to see in the woods back home—maple, oak, pine, even cherry. Now the trees had changed. The place reminded me of every haunted forest in every book I’d ever read. What made this one stand out, however, was that each tree was white and bare of leaves, giving the forest a chilling, skeletal look. It was difficult to tell if I was looking at the same species of tree. Each was crammed practically against the other, so they appeared as though they were blocking any visitors from landing. There was no open space anywhere, so we stayed airborne.

Calienta broke the silence. “You know, you were impressive back there, remembering the picture and the text. If you hadn’t, we wouldn’t know where to go.”

I blushed at Calienta’s compliment. How humiliating. “You may not want to thank me when we get there. It sounds like this Upside-Down Ocean place sucks bad. My question is how do we know where to look?”

“We don’t. We look for a white animal, a stag.”

“That will be a piece of cake with this landscape.” That was the end of our conversation for the time being and I returned to staring at the ground, looking for any sign of the ally that we sought.

After what must have been hours in flight, we decided to land in the first clearing that we came upon. The forest was covered in frost and shrouded in darkness, but the strangest part about it was the silence. There was not an animal in sight, no sound of any creatures stirring in the woods. As my feet touched down upon the cold ground, it started to snow.

Calienta pulled on my hand and we began to walk. “We need to keep moving.”

The search began again on foot. It wasn’t as rough going as it seemed from the air. The trees were far enough apart that we could walk side by side. There was barely enough light until Calienta held up a lantern. Its bright light helped guide us, rendering the dark less intimidating. The only sound was from a small silvery brook that ran alongside the path. Though we could have taken a different direction, there was an unspoken assumption between us that the stag would come to the brook to drink. We stayed with the brook.

“How are you doing?” It was a lame question, perhaps the worst one that can be asked when someone loses a father. I didn’t know what else to say, though, because I hadn’t missed Stephen in years. Decades.

She understood my meaning. “I can’t think of it. I can’t see it as real.” She didn’t look at me when she spoke, keeping her gaze trained on the land around us.

“Obviously I have no idea what you’re going through.”

She stopped then and touched my arm. “Kellen. You don’t see it but you know what I am going through. It was you who lost his father before you were even born. You were denied the hope, the chance for a father. You know.”

A safer topic was needed now. “Will the Glacadóir Anam find us here?”

Calienta opened her mouth to speak, but I didn’t get a chance to hear the words. My legs collapsed underneath me and I felt myself starting to fall toward the ground. Bound like a rope had been wrapped around me, I was unable to move my arms or legs and my chin slammed into a flat rock on the snowy ground. Blood seeped into my mouth from the spot where I’d bitten the inside of my cheek. Its rusty flavor made me sick.

Stupid. I’d been stupid and careless talking about the creature out loud. I’d probably alerted it to my presence simply by speaking its name. Calienta was standing beside me, staring off into space; the creature was impacting her. Whether it was because I’d fought off the Soul Snatcher before or out of sheer luck I didn’t know, but somehow I still had my head and suddenly I could move my limbs. It probably wouldn’t last long.

Taking advantage of the situation, I grabbed the knife from my jeans pocket and lunged forward. The knife had helped me so far; would it work to destroy the Snatcher? The creature hissed at my attempt but nothing changed. If anything I’d angered it more, made it more determined to take me out. Anticipating the Snatcher’s actions, I reached into my pocket before my legs started to go numb, and threw a handful of salt blindly up into the air.

For a moment, there was nothing as I fell on the ground. The shrieking began after that, and I was able to see, for an instant, the shadow of a decaying man hovering in the air. It stared into my eyes with hatred, which scared me even more. What looked like steam began to emanate from all parts of the shadow, like someone poked holes in it and its contents, all of its substance, was escaping. It howled with rage as it evaporated directly in front of me.

This action was enough to shake Calienta and we rebounded. Grabbing my hand, she took us back to the sky, the cold wind rushing past my ears, chilling my body. My stomach contracted in revulsion as we removed ourselves from the presence of the damaged creature.

Calienta sounded ill as well. “Normally, they are too afraid to come to this part of their world. This is known as a sort of holy land. They are getting bolder and that’s not a good sign.”

“I’m not surprised. That one had a bit of a beef with me. I ran into him before.” Then her words caught up with me as I looked at her, looked anywhere but at the ground. “A holy land buried in Faerie, huh?”

“In every place of darkness, there is always some light. There is always both good and evil.”

“That’s an optimist’s viewpoint. Some people are just evil; there’s no good in them.”

“You speak of your father.”

“Who else?” I looked ahead, not wanting to think of Stephen anymore. I was still kicking Calienta’s earlier words around in my mind and I wanted to think of something else besides my dysfunctional family and imminent death.

“But yet your mother fell in love with him. Even he must have some good in him somewhere.”

“That I’d like to see.” I’d wondered about that myself. There were the letters that my mother had written that I’d barely had a moment to look at. Maybe they contained an explanation for the choice that Addison had made in Stephen…although there was little point now in discussing any potential merit that Stephen might possibly possess.

The snow continued to fall at a persistent pace, the wind whipping it this way and that as we carried on in the darkness. Again we decided to land in another clearing, north of where we’d encountered the Soul Snatcher, but still close to the brook.

The landscape sloped here to form more of an incline, and it was not as easy going as it had been initially. The woods became thicker as we pressed on, closing in around us to the point where it began to feel claustrophobic. We had to walk in single file to pass through the thicket of ghost trees.

“Where could he be?” Calienta didn’t try to hide her anxiety.

“I don’t know.” I was haunted by the growing concern that we’d never find the stag in this wintry maze. Yet my eyes never strayed from our search.

We’d walked in close quarters for days, possibly, when we were both taken aback. The pair of us happened upon a clearing that was about the size of an American football field. Stepping out from behind Calienta I walked around, savoring the openness of this place and inhaling the crisp, clean air.

Here the snow didn’t fall, though it lay on the ground like a fluffy white blanket. The air was still in the darkness. The moon, large and translucent, shone in the sky above. A small pond lay tranquil in the clearing. There was no other sound except for our breathing as we looked around, our fingers still entwined.

Calienta let her breath out in an audible huff. “I feel as though we will never find our way out. My powers are mostly useless here, we’ve been tricked at every turn, and my father is already dead. I’m not sure what more I can do.” I sensed that it cost her to admit this to me, even though we’d grown so close. She didn’t want me to know that she had any weaknesses.

“We can keep searching, that’s what we can do. The stag is here. We have to keep searching.” My words weren’t getting through to her and I was thrown off by this discouragement; it was so unlike her. I wasn’t sure how to catch this curve ball. “Don’t be afraid of letting me see what you’re feeling. You aren’t the only one who’s afraid.”

She pivoted on the spot. “I’m not afraid. Goddesses do not fear anything.”

“You’re lying.”

Showers of blue sparks shot from her eyes.

I rushed my words to try and repair the damage. “You don’t have to pretend with me. I’ve felt your every emotion since we met again. I know you’re afraid.”

“You what?”

“Why is that, I wonder?” I’d wanted to ask her since that first day but never got around to it. “Do you feel all of my emotions too?”

Her face was a picture of astonishment. “No, I don’t. I can guess, but I don’t actually feel what you’re feeling.”

“Do you know why I can feel that with you?”

She shook her head. “No. I don’t think it will hurt us. Though I am a bit jealous.”

“Don’t be. You’re kind of moody.” I feared the admission would cost me, but she laughed at my words.

“It’s simpler for me not to let my fear, my weaknesses show. I usually only acknowledge it when the challenge, the experience that caused my fear, has ended. That’s my way.”

“I guess it’s mine too.” As we looked around the clearing, I searched my mind for our next course of action. “Maybe we should take a moment and ask for guidance.”

“Like a prayer?”

“Yes, well, I guess like a prayer. There must be something greater than all of us in this world. We can ask for wisdom, for strength. These are things that we all have inside of us.” I was so stupid. “Look, it was a dumb idea…”

However, before I could say more, she’d gone down on her knees and looked up at the sky. I knelt down and joined her, taking her hand.

Neither one of us spoke our wish aloud. Instead, we kept our thoughts and concerns internal, choosing to mentally ask for help.

Show us what to do.
We are lost
, I thought. In my mind, I repeated the mantra over and over again:
Show us what to do. We’re lost. Show us what to do. We’re lost. Show us what to do. We’re lost.

Time was not important; I didn’t know how much of it passed. We knelt there in the darkness as the snow began to fall again, this time covering the clearing. After a time, I figured that we’d probably gotten the message across as best we could. Slowly I opened my eyes and looked to the far end of the clearing. Standing there was the most beautiful creature ever to appear in my sight.

It was larger than any deer that I’d seen in real life, with antlers in a pale pine color and a nose the shade of damp tree bark. Most animals would have been skittish, but there was an unusual aura of calmness about this one. Boldly, I looked directly into his piercing blue eyes, unlike any I’d ever seen. The eyes that I met told a story of glory and despair, a story of triumph and tragedy.

My logical mind told me to hide, to flee from this large beast whose antlers were certainly longer than the length of my legs. Dillion said that this beast could kill us if he chose to. Yet I wondered if that was just propaganda, something shared among the Children of Danu to keep them from seeking help, from trying to leave. I believed the stag was too kind, too patient to take a life on a whim. It was intuition that spoke the loudest and it told me that I was not to fear this gentle creature.

He approached us slowly, almost as if he feared us. Despite our nervousness, Calienta and I bowed our heads in respect and continued to genuflect, although my head remained raised as I followed the animal’s progress. I listened for the crunch of hoof against snow as it made its way forward, but only the soft rustling of the steadily falling flakes disturbed the quiet. The stag held its head high, with the air of royalty. Though it was tentative, it was also proud.

At last it came to a stop several yards away from us. Its eyes held sadness as it looked down upon us. Once again, I was struck with the impression that this animal wouldn’t hurt me.

“You have sought me, my children,” the stag addressed us.

Calienta raised her head. “Yes, great one.”

“You may speak.” His voice held a note of authority and I wondered if I hadn’t been too bold in meeting his eyes.

“We came to this place to save my father, and we have become trapped here for far too long and we are lost. Both my father and brother have been destroyed.”

“Yes, I know of this. What do you ask of me, young one?” The stag inclined its head to the side.

“Excuse me, please, but we came here to find the back way into the heavens, to save her father. He’s been destroyed and the world has been plunged into darkness. Only we can stop what happened.”

The stag listened but didn’t interrupt, so I continued. “We need to go back through time to four years ago so that we may travel through the underground ocean to the Ellipse. We must save the light before it is too late.”

“You speak the truth. The state of the world since Lugh’s demise saddens me. The evil that has arisen in his son has become so great that he cannot be stopped even by all of the angels in heaven. Only the one that the prophecy speaks of can end this.”

Calienta looked to me. “Kellen is the one from the prophecy.”

“Yes. That is why I will help you. Only a great warrior can stop him.” The stag looked from Calienta to me.

“Unfortunately, we’re a little short on great warriors at the moment.” My voice held no small amount of sarcasm.

The stag smiled and asked, “Are we?”

Warmth started to spread throughout my body. It was a welcome feeling after traveling through the snowy landscape for so long. My body began to float up into the air until I was suspended more than ten feet above the clearing. The hunger disappeared, as did my aches and pains as my body filled with energy. I’d morphed into the best version of myself—the one who got a full night’s rest and plenty of Snickers candy bars.