Messenger in the Mist (17 page)

The humming grew louder near the bottom of the canyon as they descended. It vibrated inside her like an alien song from another land. Star felt an unnatural force surrounding the place and had to convince herself to continue down into the depths.

“Look.” Leer pointed to the canyon floor.

Star strained her eyes. If she concentrated, she could just make out strange bumps resting at the base of the gorge, like the backs of giants wrapped in quilts, their forms rising and falling in deep slumber.

“What are they?” she whispered, afraid to rouse the strange beings from their hibernation.

“It seems to me,” Leer guessed under his breath, “they are Elyndra in an early stage of life.”

“No.” Star stopped in her tracks, raising her hand to her mouth in disbelief. “It can’t be.” But the closer she looked, the more the wrapped objects seemed like cocoons writhing with black legs inside. Her goals seemed to materialize in front of her. They’d succeeded in at least one aspect of the quest: they’d found the Elyndra’s lair and their offspring.

Leer stepped toward her, his head above hers, looking down so that his breath moved strands of her hair. “You did it, Star. You found what you were looking for.”

A sudden rush of camaraderie rose up inside her. “We did it.”

He shook his head. “All I did was make sure you didn’t do anything foolish.”

Star’s eyes crinkled in skepticism. “Isn’t that the other way around?”

But the sight before them distracted Leer, his eyes returning to the alien bodies spread below.

Star squinted. “What is it?”

“There are shapes moving in the mist.” Her hand shot immediately to the torch at her side, but Leer held her back. “They’re not big enough to be Elyndra. In fact, they look like people.” Leer’s mouth twitched in disgust, his jaw clenching.

Star tugged on Windracer, turning around. “Then we must save them!”

Again Leer held her back, this time grabbing her arm like he did that fateful night she brought him Zetta’s letter. She did not fight back but let him hold her in place. Rogue that he was, he had gained a certain measure of her trust.

“You don’t understand.” Leer locked eyes with her own, his gaze intense as fire. “They seem to be caring for the cocoons.”

“What?” Star tried to make sense of his words, but no logic came. “Why would people be helping the awful monstrosities? You must be mistaken.”

Leer frowned as though he wished he was wrong.

Star leaned forward over the ledge, relying on Leer’s solid grip of her arm. She looked down into the depths of the mist, thinking she saw thin figures waver in and out of the haze, but the people were too far away and her eyes blurred. “Do they walk below that mountain?”

“Wait.” Leer peered over the ledge in silence. When he did speak, his voice held awe laced with a current of deep dismay. “That’s not a mountain. It’s a machine.”

“It can’t be. It’s too big.” But somehow the way the surface caught the faint rays of sun was unnatural, like the exterior was slick with oil and paint. Star’s stomach lurched with the sheer thought of it.

“That’s not all.” Leer pointed to the apex of the monolithic structure. “Look.”

Star gazed up, her hood falling behind her shoulders, and beheld the root of all their fears. A hideous concoction of terror blew its twisted whimsy over the countryside like foul breath. White smog poured out from its summit, the device churning it out with glee.

Star stumbled back. “It’s a mist-making machine.”

Her mind flooded with complex emotions. Every event in her life seemed to bring her to this culminating moment, this intended purpose, as if she was predestined to be its destroyer. An iron edge tinged her voice. “I’m going to stop it.”

“Hold your horses, Miss Save the World.” Leer put both hands on her shoulders. “First we have to find a way past them.” He pointed back behind his shoulder. “Not an easy task, I’m sure.”

Star squirmed with frustration. She was so close and yet her goal seemed more far away than it had ever been. It was two of them against an entire sleeping army and who knew how many caretakers. Star stifled her urge to rush down there and destroy the machine right then and there as she tore her eyes away from the hideous scene to face Leer, feeling lost. “What do we do?”

“Find a hiding place first, that’s for sure.” Leer cast a stray look over his shoulder. “One big enough to hold two horses. Then we craft a plan.”

Sacrifice

They found a crack in the rock surface toward the bottom of the incline. Leer investigated first, disappearing into the darkness with a match set aflame. Star pulled the horses close to the wall, hoping the thickness of the mist hid their outlines. For once, the blurry substance was an aid, not a hindrance.

The figures below continued to survey the cocoons, walking between the lines of bodies in a slow, methodical manner. They didn’t seem too concerned with the sky or the trail leading up toward the plateau.

Leer emerged a few minutes later. “It’s safe. And there’s enough room for both horses.”

Star sighed, relieved. “Good. I don’t know how often those robed men come up this incline, but I don’t want to be in plain sight when they do.”

The horses struggled as they led them through the narrow crevice of stone. Finicky as they already were, the claustrophobic space seemed to unnerve them even more. Star was relieved when it opened to a larger cave and a pool of trickling rain water.

They made camp as best they could, but neither Star nor Leer had a stomach for food. After tending to the horses, Star slumped against the stone wall as Leer returned from surveying the grounds below.

“What did you see?”

Leer shrugged. “More of the same. I estimate fifty or so workers and a hundred sleeping Elyndra.”

Star shook her head. Everything she saw questioned her own sense of reason and logic and her view of the world.

Leer stood beside her, raising a hand above the rock to lean in by her face. “What’s the matter?”

“I don’t understand who they are. I know no one from either Ravencliff or Evenspark would live in such a place, tending to such horrible creations. How could we have lived so long near them and never know who they are?”

“Seems to me they didn’t want to be found.”

Star guessed Leer was not a philosopher but she had to vent her frustrations. “Why do they do such things? Why are they here?”

Leer brought his hand down, resting it on her shoulder. The gesture was oddly comforting in such a harsh, cold place at the end of the world as they knew it. “I don’t know, but you‘re right. They must be stopped. And I promise I’ll help you succeed.”

The intensity of Leer’s words and his steady gaze made Star blush. It was not a time for such feelings, nor the place or the person with whom to start a lasting romance. Star picked up a rock to hide her sudden rush of emotion and squeezed her hand around it. “The odds aren’t favorable.”

Leer’s eyebrows quirked in a challenge. “The odds are never good.”

Star was in no mood for jests and spoke through clenched teeth. “I need to get close enough to destroy the machine undetected and I need time to find out how to do it, to look for a weakness.”

Leer’s eyes flickered to the cavern entrance and back. Star knew he weighed the options like a predator caught in a cage. His words were dire, his tone dead. “We can’t stay here forever.”

“So what do we do? Ride home in retreat?” Star shook her head. “There’s no way we can march an army through that forest, never mind through the open mist, and no one can ride as fast as we can. The mist is rising each day. It has to be done now.” She felt so anxious and frustrated she thought her heart would burst. She squeezed her hands together until the tips of her fingers swelled with uncirculated blood.

Leer, on the other hand, was stoic and contemplative. He sat next to her, resting his back against the cavern wall. “There is only one way.”

Star swished her head toward him, white hair flinging against his chest. “And what is that?”

“I ride out toward the field of cocoons and set them on fire, causing a ruckus to draw the workers away. You sneak into the machine and destroy it.”

“But that’s too dangerous. It’s suicide. There’s no way you can make it back to the ridge. If you succeed, it will blossom to a blazing inferno, and if they catch you—”

“How do you know this is the only way out?” Leer countered, but his words were empty. Both of them knew of the slim probability.

“No.” Star jutted out her chin. “I won’t do it.”

Leer spread his hands out, palms up. “It’s the only way.”

She locked her gaze with his. “We ride together.”

His eyes widened. “Then we both die.”

Star turned away, her cheeks hot with tears. “I can’t…I can’t let you go.”

Leer sat forward, his body only inches from her own. “And why is that? We both know I was a dead man back in Ravencliff.” He reached across the distance between them and took her chin in his fingertips, raising her face to look him in the eye. “Why’s it so hard to let me go now?”

Star felt a rush of emotion at the touch. Leer was such a mystery to her, all rough around the edges but passionate and soft at the core. The one thing she was certain of was that he would never kill Valen. “Because I know you’re innocent.”

He leaned in so close his breath fell on her lips. “And is that all?”

Star pulled her head back from his hand. She wasn’t ready to deal with her rising emotions head on. “Isn’t that enough of a reason right there?”

Leer looked away, disappointed. “It’s getting late. Let’s try to get some sleep. We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow.”

Unable to come to any agreement on the plan, Star and Leer rolled themselves up in their travel blankets and the cave fell silent. Star drifted off to sleep as night closed in. Her dreams were feverish, her mind ranting about secret passages and wings, sleeping monsters and ominous machines. In each dream, she battled hard and lost every situation, leading to only one possible outcome—their own demise.

* * * *

When Star woke, light filtered from the crack in the stone face. The mist had crept into their hiding place during the night and it gathered around her sleeping form, watching, waiting and biding its time. Star waved it back, swinging her arms in front of her face until the substance thinned and she could see the rest of the cave.

Windracer and Wildfire slept soundly, unmoving. But Leer was gone. She shot up from her travel blanket, eyes scanning the cavern back and forth. Stupid rogue! Star cursed under her breath. Had he already gone without her? Still numb from restless sleep and her legs full of anxious energy, Star strode to the cavern entrance to have a look for herself.

On her way, she bumped into a dark figure and almost screamed. The man held her close and put a gentle hand over her mouth. It was Leer. “Shh, let’s go back inside.”

“What were you doing out there?” Star felt like a mother scolding her son. “You could have been killed!”

Leer smirked. “I was scouting, looking for the best possible way down and across the cocoons.”

“You’re not going out there by yourself again.”

But Leer seemed like he wasn’t listening. He went straight to Wildfire, fastening the reins on tight. When he spoke next, his words were heavy and solemn. “All my life, I blamed myself for Valen’s mother’s death.” He adjusted the stirrups and Star stood shocked and unable to move. Leer meant to tell her the truth. “I felt undeserving of his good will.” He turned to face her. “But now I can make it up to him, to the entire population of Ravencliff.”

Star gritted her teeth. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to create the distraction you need in order to break that hideous machine. Then the rest is up to you, Star. Destroy that contraption, make it back to Ravencliff and marry Prince Valen.” Leer gave her a smile more wistful than anything else. “It’s a lot on your shoulders, but I know you can do it. All you need is time and a decent diversion.”

Star stumbled forward, barely able to speak. “No.”

But Leer’s resolution was much stronger than her meager attempt to stop him. He walked to meet her, pulling Wildfire behind him. “The truth is, I don’t know who was behind the assassination attempt. I was involved to try to find out and clear my name and reputation with Valen forever. You caught me before I was able to pinpoint the person at the top of the chain of command.”

Star went to speak but Leer held a finger to her lips. “That’s all right. This has worked out much better. Not only will I be able to help with this threat to Ravencliff, but I’ll take as many of those awful beasts with me as I can.”

She could not hold back the tears flowing in a stream down her cheeks. She knew he had made up his mind long before she could talk him out of it, but she had to try to stop him. “Fallon, don’t do it.” Her professional demeanor had been a barrier she’d held up the entire journey, and now it melted away like ice in the summer sun.

Leer’s eyes brightened when she said his first name. “It is the only way.” He bent down and kissed the hot tears on her face before touching his lips to her own. His hand traveled up her neck to cradle her head as they stood there together, heated bodies pressing close. His arms surrounded her and for a moment she forgot all about the Elyndra, Ravencliff and even Valen.

Then he tore himself away. Before Star could react, Leer exited the cave, pulling Wildfire behind. Her hand reached for his cloak, but her fingers closed on thin air. She ran after him, but it was too late. After all, Leer had been a messenger himself, and he rode faster than her by a landslide.

Shaking, she ran back into the cave and jumped on Windracer. She would not fail him, and he would not die in vain. If she had anything to do about it, he would not die at all.

Promise

“Funny thing, I’ve always secretly thought of the mist as a blessing.”

Commander Rile stood over the prince with concern sketched in his timeworn features. For Valen, it seemed time had stopped once Star and Leer left only a few days ago. He’d been staring into the mist for hours, his eyes glossed over with opaque shadows and wispy tendrils. The familiar sound of a human voice called him away from the dreamscape, calming his frayed nerves.