Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 69

A R I

The tigers were kept in a long row of kinnhouses, made of stone. It was easy enough to slip inside, but once she was inside, there wasn't much space to hide. Ari would have hidden in the cemetery across from the House of Fire, but it was too cold to be exposed to the weather for too long. Which meant Ari needed to be in here, in the warm den of the fire tigers.

A few tigers lifted their heads as Ari entered, but none of them seemed to care too much about her, and they went back to sleep. Most of them were housed in separate stalls, but Ari knew that the flimsy metal gates between tigers would not stop a tiger from jumping over and attacking her if it really wanted. So Ari endeavoured to tread carefully, and remain nonthreatening, clutching at her body with fear. It felt like stepping into a nightmare.

There was a storage loft about the tigers heads, full of bales of hay, and Ari pulled herself up the ladder into the loft, where she could safely stow herself for hours. Here she would be out of sight of the tigers, and out of sight of the door. Here, she could wait for the fire twins to return.

She'd just fallen asleep against the hay when they finally returned, and she woke with a start.

The Kaio twins eased open the main door and let their tigers in.

They spoke in soft voices, in Kaio, so Ari understood none of their conversation, but she understood their tones. Tai was at once condescending, controlling, and dominant in his delivery of whatever he was saying, while Lumi's voice was barely a whisper, and her words were small.

Ari watched their conversation with interest, trying to gleam anything possible that she could from their expressions and body language, because she couldn't understand the words. Because she was watching Tai so closely, she knew he would hit Lumi before Lumi had even realised.

Tai slapped Lumi across the face, and Ari let out a gasp. She clamped her hand to her mouth, but the two below her seemed not to have noticed, fixated as they were on the argument they were having.

Tears sprung into the fire princess's eyes, but she stayed silent, and after a moment she fled from the kinnhouse. Tai went after her, leaving the tigers behind.

The two tigers seemed to have been disturbed by this interaction, and Tai had to push them back with a blast of fire before slamming the doors to the kinnhouses shut, leaving Ari up in the loft, reeling at what she'd just seen.

It made Ari feel sorry for Lumi. She imagined that this had been going on for a while, and it explained a lot about why Lumi was so quiet and timid. Her brother truly was evil.

Ari seethed with anger at the fire prince, and she was so resolute in her anger as she clambered back down the ladder, to follow the two of them back through the school, that she didn't hear the movement outside the kinnhouses until it was too late.

The stable doors opened again, and Ari froze on the ladder, terror washing through her. It was so dark that she barely saw the figure in the dark gap of the door, but she knew instantly that whoever it was could see her, exposed as she was on this ladder.

Tai stepped back into the kinnhouses, and let the large door close behind him silently.

Ari jumped from the ladder. Tai had already seen her, and she didn't want to be stuck up it if he tried to attack her.

Ari sprang for the door, reaching out to grab the handle, but faster than Ari could have imagined, Tai shot out a burst of flame towards the handle, forcing Ari to pull her hand back. She turned to face him.

"You were waiting for me," he said with a smile. "How kind."

Ari scowled. "Ready for round two?" she asked him. "You didn't come out too well last time."

Tai grinned. "You really think you won that easily?"

"What were you and your sister doing out so late?"

Tai chuckled. "Should I tell you? I don't see why not. I was in New Hamilton, meeting with my men, and putting into place the final pieces before the... main event."

"The main event?' Ari asked. She wanted to stall Tai, to see if she could get away. She glanced around the kinnhouses, at the tigers packed tightly into their cosy corners, who watched Ari and Tai.

"Midwinter, every year, one event truly brings together the people of Lombardia."

"The Kinnling Champions league?" Ari asked, surprised.

"Even in the Fire Lands we follow the sport, although we have a league of our own," Tai said. "Everyone loves to watch the beasts fight. Lion versus dragon, like the stories from the old wars. Or tiger versus wolf, always a favourite match. I hear tickets for the grand finale in New Hamilton sell for thousands of guilders."

"You're going to attack the championship?" Ari said with panic, looking back at Tai. "But there'll be Kaio people there. There are so many innocent people."

Tai raised his hand, and within a second, a spark of fire burst to life in his palm. He held the flame out, admiring its light. The fire reflected in his eyes.

"Your trick with the estellaine was smart," he said. "I like that you can think on your feet... even if your powers are pathetically limited."

Ari swallowed.

Tai reached into the pocket of his coat, and pulled out a glass vial of crushed estellaine. "I wondered if I could give you a taste of your own medicine, and this seems to be your favourite medicine."

"You should have learned your lesson," Ari snapped. "That stuff is strong, especially if you've never smoked it before. I'm Vastien," Ari said, and as she said it, she realised she'd never said those words before. She'd always defiantly called herself Lombardian. But here, in this moment, she felt more Vastien than ever. "My people chew the leaves of the stella plant their whole lives. Even as kids. It doesn't have the same affect on me as it does on you. You can't do to me what I did to you."

Tai grinned. "Apparently not," he said.

Ari followed Tai's gaze. He was now staring at the two tigers who belonged to the twins. The bigger one was Lumi's, and it was ferocious. It was glaring directly at Tai. As Tai approached the tiger, it bared its teeth.

Ari had a only a fraction of a second to realise what that meant. If Lumi's tiger bared its teeth at Tai, it meant that Lumi harboured strong feelings of hate towards her brother. Kinnlings mirrored their starrling master's emotions and feelings.

But then Tai held the fire in his hand higher, and opened his vial of estellaine.

He glanced back at Ari. "The use of estellaine in global competitive kinnling fighting has been banned for hundreds of years," he said. "Although in Alamadi I know they still have underground fighting rings, with lions high on estellaine."

• Author's Note •

Thanks for reading!!

Question for the chapter:

Who's your favourite villain in any book/movie/tv show/etc?

See you next chapter!

elle xx