Page 96 of Blood of the Stars

“Sounds a bit like Gahldric Valley.” Cyrus’ wistful tone made Aeliana pine for something else, a sense of belonging, a family to make a place feel like home.

She grabbed another arrow. “We’ll get you back home with Bartholem.” She stumbled a bit over his grandfather’s name, wanting to tag on his grandmother’s name too, but Della wouldn’t be waiting for him to return.

“After we get you to your mother,” he said. “Somehow I think you need her as much as she needs you. And far more than I need to return to Lorvandas.”

The priest in him found ways to see straight to her core. What might have been unnerving was more of a relief. Having him understand without having to explain was so much easier.

“Besides,” he added, “if the Stars intend for me to return, I will.”

She raised her arrow against her cheek. “Save that discussion for my training session with Sylmar. I like seeing him get worked up over your theology.” Her arrow missed its mark, a testament to her lack of focus rather than a weakness in her magic.

Cyrus chuckled. “Jasperus gets adamant about it too. Tried telling me about a book called The Sins of the Stars. The title alone is so blasphemous I have trouble imagining what words it might contain.”

“Velden told me it’s their version of the Great Divide,” Aeliana said. “Says it explains how the Stars went against the Sun’s wishes by dividing the lands and putting up the barriers. That they thought it was for our good, but really it was their pride. They thought they knew better than the Sun.”

Cyrus shuddered. “I find that scarier than those dark spirits of yours.”

Aeliana grimaced as she let loose another arrow. They continued while the others set up camp, and before long, Holm and Velden came back with an antelope they’d shot in the grasslands. It was the largest thing they’d hunted since the journey had begun, and Aeliana couldn’t take her eyes off the way it lay at an odd angle when Holm set it down by the fire, how the breeze ruffled the tuft of hair at its throat. Holm placed a hand on the antelope’s flank, then surprised Aeliana by reciting some sort of prayer or blessing.

“We thank the Sun for your sacrifice. You were blessed with life and now you bless us with life. May the Sun’s light always shine upon you.” He paused for a moment, then patted the flank once more before pulling out his knife.

Aeliana turned away, catching sight of Cyrus’ wrinkled brow. He’d spent so many nights out worshipping the Stars, while the Vendarans often said a quick prayer to the Sun when they rose. She tilted her face toward the Sun, which now hung low, nearly ready to sleep. She sensed it energizing her blood, her starlock. She could understand why the Vendarans, especially the progenies, worshiped the Sun.

While growing up, Aeliana’s trips to the Stargazers had become fewer and fewer as Arvid and Vera had tightened their hold. Still, she’d grown to love the Stars even if she didn’t understand why they would create things and people so bent on destruction. But it hadn’t been her way of life like it had been for Cyrus. She didn’t mind if the Vendarans served a different creator. It was how her parents would have raised her, and that alone was something she wanted to respect.

Holm and Kendalyhn made quick work of skinning the antelope and dividing up the meat to cook. Lukai raised his eyebrows and beckoned to Aeliana. The scent of food cooking was quickly becoming her cue for more training.

They settled at the edge of camp, where Lukai brought her through the same exercises Sylmar usually did: enhancing senses, pushing and pulling energy in and out of the starlock. The repetitive skills calmed her, putting her back in a better frame of mind. The chirps and chittering in the trees around her grew louder even without her enhanced senses as the Sun slid beneath the canopy of trees.

“Healing is simply taking things a step further,” Lukai said. They sat on a bed of grass and leaves so thick that Aeliana was unable to tell if the trees had shed or if vines grew along the forest floor. “Instead of enhancing your senses, you enhance your awareness and understanding. As you become aware of what’s wrong with a person’s body, you can adjust it. Sometimes it takes the smallest of tweaks, a simple push or pull of the energy around it. Sometimes it’s more like a yank or a shove. Think of it like bringing scales back into balance.”

She nodded even though his words sounded too theoretical to actually apply.

“Cyrus,” Lukai called over his shoulder.

Aeliana straightened. With her senses still heightened, she became acutely aware of her heart’s increased rate. Cyrus grinned as he sat next to them, rubbing his hands together.

“Am I getting boils? A fever? A broken bone?”

Aeliana grimaced.

“A cut.” With the flick of his wrist, Lukai pulled out his knife and made the slightest cut on Cyrus’ finger. It was more like a needle prick than anything else, but still, Aeliana gasped.

“I told Sylmar no cutting.” Her words came out on a growl.

“I don’t even feel it,” Cyrus reassured her.

“No.” Aeliana moved to stand, but Lukai grabbed her wrist. For a moment, panic wove through her, but his touch was gentle as he kept her by his side.

“I will not torture him. I will not cut him in the ways you’ve been cut over the years.” His hand moved to slide over her scars, and she couldn’t stop the shiver that came at his touch. “But he’s the best person for you to practice this type of injury on. You’re still weaning from the buildup of magic in your system. But there’s more to it than that. Starblood draws you to use it because that’s how you were trained. Any time starblood is drawn, you’ll sense its pull.”

She yanked her hand away from Lukai’s and glanced at Cyrus’ finger. A tiny drop of blood beaded up around the broken skin. It didn’t call to her the way her own had. Instead, there was a tug, a desire to find blood she could use.

This was the idea he’d gotten from their discussion earlier. To maim Cyrus because he didn’t have starblood to tempt her.

“When you need to heal a half-light, you won’t have time to wonder if you’re using the magic in their blood or in your starlock. If you start developing your opposite spoke, you’ll have the same problem in battle with the Zealots.”

“My opposite spoke?”

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