Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 57

A R I

Ari had never missed a single class. Even the classes she hated, like Practical Winter Magic. Last year, she had a perfect attendance. This year, she'd always assumed her record would continue.

But when there was still no news of Bell, Ari found she had no reason to get up and go to class. So she remained in the small bed in her room, deep under the covers. There was no window, so whether it was night time or daytime, she had no idea. She didn't go to the dining hall. Someone left food outside her door occasionally, but she didn't know who it was. Maybe Sanna. She didn't eat much of it at all.

Ari wasn't sure what day it was, when someone entered her room. She didn't really register who it was, or the words they said. But a few hours later, when she was more awake, she realised that they'd left behind a bag. Ari pulled it open to discover the few items that belonged to Bell.

Two school uniforms, folded neatly. A few school books, with messy notes in the margins. A few pairs of trousers and jumpers that Bell had worn outside of school. A beautiful hair pin, that Ari recognised as one belonging to her grandmother. And tucked into a side pocket was a colourful pouch. Ari opened it to find a few loose leaves of estellaine.

She was sorting through these items when there was another knock on her bedroom door. Ari contemplated pretending to be asleep, but before she could move, the door opened, and Sanna stood in the light of the doorway, bearing two cups of tea.

Ari pushed the bag away, and pulled the covers up. She was embarrassed at the state of her hair, completely untamed, and the clothes she'd been wearing for days. Sanna set the two cups on the desk beside Ari's bed, then lit candles, before sitting down on the chair.

"Is that estellaine?" she asked.

Ari looked down at the colourful pouch, and then back up at Sanna.

"It was my sister's."

"Have you tried it?"

Ari shook her head.

"May I?" Sanna asked.

Ari found herself handing the little bag to Sanna, who delicately removed one leaf from inside, before handing it back to Ari. "You should have one."

Ari complied, taking a second leaf, before pulling the drawstring closed. She placed the leaf on her tongue, allowing it to soften in her mouth for a moment, before she chewed. The leaf turned to a thick, gummy tar that stuck to her teeth. It tasted like wood and cloves. It instantly made Ari feel calm, and content. She leant back against the wall.

Without asking, Sanna moved to sit at the bottom of Ari's bed, across from her, so that both girls were leaning against opposite walls, facing each other.

"This was my grandmother's," Ari said, staring down at the pouch in her hands. She couldn't believe she hadn't recognised it before. She remembered her grandmother's wrinkled hands, knobbly with joints like walnuts, knitting the colourful thread together.

"She was also called Isabella," Ari continued quietly. "She chewed a leaf every day. Her joints hurt, and stella helps. But she told stories of when she was young. She was a dragonrider. She spent her days on the open ocean, defending the fishing boats from the sea monsters."

Ari's memories of her grandmother were of a wizened woman; old and frail. She'd had her only son very late, after spending her young years as a dragonrider. She lived her whole life on Isla Zanteresa, in a wooden house by the beach. Ari and Bell had lived there with her, for a brief time before the war came to their shores.

"Do you want to talk about your sister?" Sanna asked gently.

Ari took the cup of tea from the desk, just so she would have something warm to hold onto. Her mind was full of images, of Bell on the beaches of Zanteresa, swimming with the local kids, and getting into scuffs, while Ari had found somewhere in the shade to sit and read whatever she could get her hands on.