Starrlings 1: House of Fire

chapter 71

L U M I

She was wrenched from sleep by foreign hands, shaking her.

"Huh?" Lumi said, blinking at the harsh light streaming through the windows. It felt like only seconds ago that she'd closed her eyes, and she thought she would never have been able to get to sleep with her thoughts racing. But now it was morning.

"Someone came looking for you," Chiru said. "You're supposed to go down to the kinnhouses."

Lumi frowned. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know," Chiru said. "A caval came to see you."

Rita, the caval, was waiting for her when she arrived. The expression on her face told Lumi that something was seriously wrong.

"You'd better come see him," Rita said in a hush. "He doesn't have long."

Lumi let out a blurt of a response and pushed past Rita, into the kinnhouse. Panic flowed through her quick and hot, and made her heart race, but she hardly noticed. She just knew she needed to get to Jinni.

They'd moved him into an individual stall, where three vets were huddled around him. He lay on his side, with blood crusted into his fur, and a tangle of a paw flopping clumsily in the wrong direction. As Lumi watched, one of the vets took a razor and shaved through his magnificent orange and black stripes, revealing the wounded skin underneath.

"This was a deliberate attack," Rita said. "It's possible gang violence. Your kinnling seems to have been fed estellaine. He may have hurt himself, or it may have been an attack with a weapon, although we haven't found anything. Officers from New Ham are on the way, and intend to treat this as a criminal investigation, because of the recent fire, and the attacks in the city. Whoever did this may have wanted to hurt you, Lumi."

Lumi crouched down in front of Jinni, making sure not to touch him where he was injured. His eyes were slits, barely open, and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth. He panted heavily through the pain. She took his huge face in her hands and stroked at the soft fur above his nose, between his eyes. There was a cut above one of his eyes.

"Dear sweet Jinni," she murmured. "Please, please, please, be okay. I'm so sorry I wasn't here for you, my sweet boy." Her vision blurred as her teardrops fell onto the tiger's brow. He blinked and heaved a shudder, and Lumi felt a pang of love from him. She pushed at that surge of energy, wanting to give everything back to him. She wanted to give him all the power and energy in her body, so that he could be strong and get through this.

"We need to move him, but we need to sedate him first," Rita said. 'The college clinic is the best in the nation, and he'll be given the best chance of life there.'

Lumi swallowed. "He has to live," she said. "He's my kinn."

"Come on now, love," Rita said, placing her hand on Lumi's arm and easing her up with more strength than Lumi had expected. "Let's leave the experts to handle him. They know what's best. You can't do anything now."

Lumi allowed Rita to steer Lumi out of the kinnhouses and into the biting cold of the new day. She realised numbly that she wasn't even wearing a coat. She hadn't noticed just how frosty the morning was until now. Even the two suns, low in the sky, weren't enough to warm up the morning chill.

"Applied with strength and velocity, water can be used as a serious weapon," Rita was saying, as she led Lumi back up the hill. "You see it in champions leagues all the time. Dragons are ferocious, and their starrlings are just as dangerous."

Lumi swallowed, trying to rid her mouth of a biting metallic taste.

"Vastien gangs in New Ham have been doing damage, the papers say," Rita said. "It's not a good look for the King. Well, he's doing all he can, of course, but many of us want stronger border protections."

Lumi blinked. "I need to go to... find my brother," she said automatically, because she had no idea what else to say.

"You watch out for yourself, now," Rita called out. "Your brother should look after you."

Lumi had no intention of finding Tai, but it was too cold to be outside without a coat, so she found herself wandering back to the House of Fire. Students were leaving the house in a steady stream on their way to the Old Building for breakfast. Lumi knew if she tried to force a mouthful of the bland Lombardian fare into her mouth, she'd be sick. Anyway, she wasn't hungry.

Someone had attacked Jinni.

The weight of it crashed into her as she entered the warmth of the common room, and she almost stumbled, losing her footing as she imagined her poor tiger being attacked. Who would do such a cruel thing to a creature? Who would hurt a kinnling?

All she wanted to do was be able to turn to Tai. He'd always been her brother, through it all. She had always loved and respected him so much. She'd always looked up to him.

But after last night, she knew she couldn't face him. She couldn't turn to him in her greatest hour of need. She was truly alone.

• Author's Note •

Thank you for reading, and an extra big thank you to those of you who vote! ;)

What's your favourite ice cream flavour?

elle xx