Starsinger

Infection

Gavran stayed by Raelyn's side. For a while Aaron tried to help as the old avian brewed his medicines, but he soon realized he was just in the way. Jace was a far better assistant. Anything to keep his hands busy. Delia made a chair out of the piles of clutter and pushed it up to the table where she could braid Raelyn's auburn hair. Raelyn was unusually silent, so Delia told her stories, her words a soft and constant murmur as the princess stared into empty space.

Aaron escaped into the cool evening air. From where he sat he could see the sun dipping low and Rhea's Teeth cutting jagged shapes in its radiance. All around him the avians were stirring from their nocturnal sleep, waking with the sunset. The ground was still warm beneath him, but not for long.

He was furious at Sapphire for running. Furious at himself for letting her. Furious at Raelyn for bringing the delicate balance crashing down.

"Sapphire come back yet?"

Aaron ignored the empty pit in his stomach. "No."

Jace dropped into a crouch beside him. Gavran must have sent him out for air. "Any idea why she ran?" he asked quietly.

"Hell if I know." That was why Aaron had come out here in the first place, to give himself a chance to think. In the fire of their near-death moment, the animosity between the scout and the princess had crystallized into something else entirely, but he couldn't figure out what, or why. He'd been watching closely for so long, observing everything with the practice of a master archer, but when he tried to piece together the puzzle all he felt was lost. "Something personal."

"We can't afford personal right now. We need everyone focused." Jace sighed and rubbed his jaw. "I hate being short-handed."

"This mission needs a full kyrsquad." A whisperer, specifically. If anyone could fill in the gaps, it'd be Felicity. And Mason to keep us centered and Whitley to rig up some contraption to get us out of these mountains safely and protect us from whatever else is waiting... Gods, he missed them.

"Did your sisters ever fight like this?" Jace asked.

The question felt so out of place that Aaron almost laughed. "You think this is just how women fight?"

Jace crossed his arms. "Makes as much sense as anything."

"It doesn't. Rachel would knock your teeth out for saying so. Felicity probably would too, for that matter. And besides, Raelyn and Sapphire aren't sisters."

They've just both got a complicated relationship with the same mother. Aaron had never thought of Queen Tatiana as somebody's mother before. A charismatic leader, a guarded politician, but never a mother. It felt strange, like a coat that didn't quite fit. Was that why she neglected Raelyn? Why she kept such a close eye on Sapphire? They both spoke of the queen in the same way, with a fierce reverence and startling bitterness. Did she mean to spark this enmity between them? Did the king know? What are you playing at, Tatiana?

Jace shook his head in frustration. "This is why I hate working with nobility. Always thinking their secrets are more important than their lives."

Aaron reflected on the intel he'd gathered over the past painstaking weeks. Raelyn was afraid of something, something besides Crolton. Something connected to the black-eyed assassin. A Raven, the mercenary had called him. The mercenary had also ranted about fatemongers, but that cult had died with the Division. Hadn't it? Then there were murmurings about the Astral Cycle, and the Resonant Stone, and the legends of the vlynnkhora, and it was all tied up together, somehow.

And the queen. Queen Tatiana was a part of this too. She was the one who guided the Conservatories into the study of magic and fueled its resurgence. The one who'd chosen Sapphire to guard Raelyn. Keep your eyes open, Talus.