Page 29 of Bound By Stardust
A nasty smell rose to meet me as I got closer. It wasn’t as strong as it had been inside the palace, but it still lingered, a smell I called death and rot. My stomach knotted again at the reminder of the demons, but moments later, I burst out of the forest onto a knoll.
Immediately, I stepped back, for the knoll led to a cliff, and in front of me werethree Masters with chariots and horses, unloading items and tossing them over the cliff. Peering out from behind the tree, I squinted against the light, making out the items.
My skin prickled.
Bones.
White bones with no flesh, the kind I tried not to look at when I was in the boneyard collecting stardust.
The Masters pulled a body from the chariot that wasn’t all bone, and my heart plummeted. I gripped the tree branch so hard, the bark made indentions on my palm and my breath turned shallow.
I knew that person.
Charlotte.
She’d been chosen only last year, but a few years earlier, she’d fallen ill with body sores and a terrible cough. Her mother and father thought she might die. I’d sat with her through the night while she lingered on the edge of life and death. Eventually, she responded to the tincture and began to heal. She’d recovered fully, and now…
Now, the Masters had killed her.
She was young, vibrant, given a second chance at life only for it to be snatched away. She was only a few years younger than me, and tears of anger burned my eyes.
I snatched the vial of stardust from around my throat, holding up the bottle, ready to throw it.
This was what the Masters did.
They came to kill and steal and destroy. They weren’t our saviors protecting us from the monsters, but our jailers, and someone had to stop them.
That someone would be me, except I needed more stardust.
I imagined myself stealing one of the chariots and riding it down to my cottage, where I’d collect the remaining buckets of stardust. I’d return and rain them down on the Masters, burning each and every one of them.
Darkness surged in my chest, and my fists tightened around the vial as I took a step forward.
A whisper filled the air. “Asira.”
It came from behind me, and I felt a zing, an intense sensation of relief and joy as I spun around.
Eyes shining, Drazhan walked toward me.
22
Drazhan
Asira. I hadn’t been able to find her anywhere. I’d spent a sleepless night roaming the palace, entering rooms, leaving stardust where I’d gone until my hands were empty and there was only one place I dared not look: the place where they dumped the bodies.
Surely not.
They had a reason for capturing her. Would they kill her so quickly just to hurt me? Had she died due to their violence?
It happened sometimes, although Alder was displeased and punished those who cared so little for human life. Dead humans served no purpose, and Alder was adamant that they should be kept alive at all costs.
As I crept to the cliffside, she appeared, back to me, dressed in one of my own robes, the sun shining like gold on her head. My throat swelled up tight, making it difficult to whisper her name. She must have heard me, for she turned, pressed a finger to her lips, and pointed.
Just beyond her, the Masters were tossing bones over the cliff.
Blurred memories returned, of being stabbed by Iscariot, the life draining away from me as I was tied up, then dragged to the edge. I didn’t recall being tossed over, but that’s how I’d ended up in the boneyard.
Why did she have to discover this ugly secret?
