Children with Stars in their Veins (Chapter 26)

a/n: hey, thanks for checking out Starry Veins! This is the novel I wrote for Round V of LMS, and it's still a first draft! While I don't discourage any feedback, I prefer not to receive feedback on grammar! I'm not polishing this draft up yet, so I'm not as concerned about editing. I am, of course, open to all feedback, but I ask that you keep this in consideration! Thanks <3

*

[Rowan]

Rowan watched the motions of Enoch preparing camp, while the rest of them sat bound and idle on the road nearby and couldn’t concentrate on anything.

The gag that sat in their mouth was soaked and cold, saliva precipitating on the corners of their mouth and their cheeks. They tried to focus on that, and on their discomfort. They needed to think of some way to escape.

Our sweetest Eugenia.

If you’re reading this, it means that you are old enough, or that something has gone wrong. You have never been one to like skirting around issues, so we will describe it plainly.

You and the other children are not of the Chroniclers’ Guild. The six of you are a legacy, you carry the blood of Stellarsyl in your veins. You have, no doubt, been told of trueblood by this point, and the magic and power it carries. That trueblood, the blood of kings and queens and the powerful, runs through you. You are the daughter of Chromium, of Queen Inga. The girl in your place, Princess Eydís, is a decoy, planted by the Chroniclers’ Guild.

It is believed by the council that trueblood could be the key to accessing the ruins across the lands, as trueblood runs back to the foundations of Stellarsyl and is older than the ruins themselves. An explorer of relation to Summermount’s truebloods was the only one who ever got close to the ruins. Until he disappeared, of course, en route to the Viridian Isles.

I don’t know how you will, or are, taking this information. Regardless of your feelings, you have always been family to Florence and I, and we both love you very deeply.

Yours with most sincerity and love, Genevieve and Florence.

A warm breeze was rolling through the outpost tower. Enoch had opened all the windows and was crouched in front of the fireplace now, attempting to start a flame with little success.

They needed something to focus on. They needed something else to think about. Most importantly, the others had to know, soon.

Ember was watching Enoch like he was a puzzle. Enoch was an adult, arguably more competent and matured and smarter than they were, with a sword and a nasty attitude, but the way Ember was looking at him… Gods help him.

And Ember’s fire… That wasn’t natural magic. There was something profoundly wrong about her magefire.

Artemesa made a sound in her throat, her tiny snout scuffed from the rope. Cassius looked at her mournfully and glanced towards Enoch. Their kidnapper had his back turned to them.

Cassius began fumbling with the rope to remove it, eyeing Enoch as he did so.

Ember was not watching Cassius. She put her elbows on her knees and leaned forward, face in her hands. “What’s the point of keeping the gag on Ori anyway? They’re not going to do anything.”

Enoch turned. There was half a second where Rowan saw his eyes flicker towards Cassius. Enoch saw Cassius fumbling to remove the rope from Artemesa’s snout. Then he was looking at Ember again and frowned. “Who the— who’s Ori?” Enoch asked. Another glance so quick if one blinked, they’d miss it, this time towards Alanna, who kept glancing at Cassius unsubtly.

“That’s Ori.” Ember pointed towards Rowan. “Short for Oriole.”

“But you called them Rowan before.”

She nodded wisely. “Yeah. They’re also Oriole.” Ember turned and held out her hands towards Cassius. “That’s Rascal. And that’s Little Pika. We have names for each other.”

Cassius immediately put his hands in his lap when attention was directed at him. The rope was clearly hanging off Artemesa’s snout, not longer secure, but she remained still and didn’t attempt to knock it off.

Enoch wrinkled his nose. “Your bird better not bite me, or my things,” he said. “Or I’ll put something worse on her.”

Cheeks darkening, Cassius nodded. Tentatively, he reached out with his still-bound hands, and began to slowly remove the muzzle from her snout. He tossed it nearby when Enoch made no motions to stop him.

“What’s yours then?” Enoch asked, sitting down on the stone floor and leaning against the fireplace, looking back towards Ember.

Her brow creased. “What’s my what?”

“Your name.”

Ember’s cheeks darkened. “Ember. It doesn’t matter. Why are you asking? Why do you care? You suck at starting fires anyway.”

“Ori could start a fire to you if you took their gag off,” Cassius mentioned casually. He was gently rubbing the irritated skin along Artemesa’s nose, to which she was cooing and pushing her head into his hand.

“So, they can burn me, and you can all escape, I assume?”

Cassius shrugged. “I can do magic too, and you haven’t gagged me.”

Enoch scowled. “I might just gag you anyway.”

This provoked a giggle from Alanna, which she quickly attempted to cover up. She sat up straightened and glanced away, as if pretending to look more regal everyone would pretend that hadn’t happened.

“I could keep talking until you ungag them,” Cassius suggested, tilting his head.

“I could gag you too,” Enoch pointed out.

Ember leaned towards Cassius which a honey smile. That was her smile when she Wanted something. “Can you gag all of us?” she asked.

That was a stupid question. Of course, he could. It would be a sure thing to stop the annoying children you’d kidnapped to simply stop talking.

But Enoch just… turned away, back to the fire, with an irritated grunt. “The four of you should sleep. There will be a long walk tomorrow, and I won’t have you brats whinging about it on the way.”

They caught Ember’s eye and made a go on gesture with their hands, as best they could with the ropes. She smiled and gave him a thumbs up.

“Where are we going?”

For a moment, with the only sound a distant lull of birdsong and the crack of flint as Enoch attempted to light the fire, they thought he was going to ignore her.

Then, in a low tone, Enoch said, “North.”

* * *

Rowan had to tell the others.

Enoch had taken their gag off last night. There was a possibility that it was to stop Ember and Cassius’ antics, but… he had allowed Artemesa’s muzzle to come off. He had taken Rowan’s gag off. There was something off about this, about Enoch. They glanced towards the sword strapped to his hip, and the emblem of Chromium at its hilt.

It was only nearing noon, and there was already sweat clinging to their clothes and skin. The sun bore down upon them, lighting up the industrial road like polished silver and soaking into the darkness of their clothes.

If they Rowan had known they needed to wear clothes to travel in and wear comfortably for a good while… well.

How long were they going to keep up this charade with Enoch anyway? He made it sound as though he was heading towards Glacier’s Keep. Wasn’t Glacier’s Keep in a fit anyway?

Because of us.

Ember sidled up at their side and gently bumped their shoulder. They blinked and shook their head to clear it. It didn’t help.

“What’d the note say?” she whispered, so quiet they could barely hear her.

Their stomach turned, and they stared forward. Enoch was paying them no attention, but that didn’t make it any easier. From the corner of their eyes, they spotted Cassius glancing over curiously.

“They said they’re sorry. Your parents. For lying.” They swallowed hard, their throat dry as the Ruby Desert.

Ember tripped but caught herself. “What?”

“Shh,” Rowan advised her, as Enoch’s shoulders twitched. After a few moments had passed, and Enoch no longer seemed to be on lookout, they leaned closer and faced away from him. “Em, you know how Glacier’s Keep and Summermount are missing their trueblood heirs?”

She nodded, keeping herself focused ahead.

“All of them are missing. The letter says that we’re the trueblood heirs.”

Ember reeled back, tripping and catching herself on the rope by grabbing it. Enoch glanced behind and gave them a tug. The rope jolted on Rowan’s wrist and Ember fumbled to keep herself steady.

“Keep moving,” Enoch grunted, and turned away again.

For a moment, Ember’s face screwed up, like she was trying to figure out a complex problem. Then she gave them an incredulous look. “That’s ridiculous,” she said under her breath. “The truebloods are… No, we’re not.”

“But it makes sense.” It did, after horrible contemplation. Margaretta had known the truebloods heirs were all missing, and how else but that she had them under her thumb all along?

But why? For power? For control? For chaos?

“Tell the others,” they whispered. Their stomach rolled jarringly and clenched. They glanced down at their hands. “Please. Margaretta knew the heirs were gone. The meeting Cassius overheard, the grey masked men looking for us at the Citadel. They were after us. They knew too. It adds up.”

Looking uneasy, Ember shuffled over to Cassius on her other side, and leaned in so close to him it was hard to tell which one was which. Save for the stark orange of Ember’s hair in contrast to Cassius’ paler, fawn coloured curls.

Rowan glanced towards Alanna, on their right. How would she take this kind of information? They needed to figure this out together, not with anyone else’s involvement. And Alanna was so young…

They leaned down close to her, and she side-eyed them.

“There was a letter in Em’s pocket, from her mums,” they said, softly. “Do you remember when we spoke about the truebloods? That day in the village?”

Alanna nodded, listening studiously.

“The trueblood heirs are all missing because we’re the truebloods, Pika,” they murmured, and then drew away. Their pulse fluttered. Alanna deserved to know as much as any of them.

The second child of the north was never found. It fit together far too perfect, too conveniently. If they were right, Isadora was then the eldest heir of Glacier’s Keep, and Alanna the second princess that went missing. That would make Mishal the prince of Summermount, themself the heir of the Viridian Isles, Cassius the prince of Heaven’s Keep, and Ember the princess of Chromium.

Alanna looked suddenly and deeply troubled, concern etched out in full detail across her young features. “But truebloods are royalty. That would mean—”

“If I hear any more whispering about your conspiring plans to escape, I’ll gag the four of you. Or maybe I’ll just scalp you,” Enoch growled over his shoulder.

Enoch, even after a few days, seemed to be entirely bark and no bite, but that didn’t mean that Rowan wanted to learn whether that was true or not.

Presented with a new dilemma, Alanna looked confused, eyebrows dipping down quite far. “You’ll shave our hair off?” she asked, alarmed. “But if you’re taking us north, it will be cold.”

Rowan glanced down at Alanna and felt a sharp pang against their heartstrings. She was so young and for all her mind now, she was still so innocent.

They reached over awkwardly, arm bent at an angle, and put it around Alanna’s shoulders. She leaned into them instantly, head resting against their side.

If Margaretta knew that Isadora and Mishal were vitally important to the political landscape of Stellarsyl, why had she taken them on a perilous adventure to the forsaken ruins?

word count:

1,900