A Starsong Tale

Lexis looked at the starlit sky and sighed. Even under the bars of his metal cage, he could still point out the constellations his mother had taught him. Tonight was the constellation of the wolf, representing freedom, risk, the hunt, and full bellies. Lexis snorted at the bitter irony of his situation. How could everything have gone so wrong?

It was a simple job. Lure some noble dame from the heart of the party, enchant her with a little magic that made her a little more… disposed to the charms of a certain aristocrat, then leave a richer man.

If only he knew that ‘noble dame’ was herself a mage, and had no doubt seen through his façade right from the start. He tugged at the magic-sealing collar at his neck. Now, he was broke, a criminal, and no closer to paying off the slavers’ debt of his beloved Rione. The last point struck a chord in him, reopening a window of speculation as to what would happen to a beautiful, young, slave with no friends or family.

He instinctively tried to draw into his magic to stuff the idea back into the recesses of his mind, but it was like lifting a boulder with his shoulders forcibly dislocated—a futile effort. Lexis roared in frustration and struck his head against the metal bars.

He forced himself to take deep breaths as he looked around his tiny confines, looking for a way out. There was none. However, in the distance, Lexis spotted a woman, flanked by two burly guards, walking by rows of cages. He squinted his eyes as she gazed in his direction. Lexis froze. He recognized that dress, that auburn hair tied in a bun, the jewellery she wore that could free thousands from a lifetime of indentured servitude.

The woman closed the distance. “So you’re the one that tried to entrance me. My name is Princess Eloria. And yours?”

“Lexis,” he answered hoarsely. “What do you want?”

“Do you really not know? Magical talent is a treasured gift in my father’s kingdom, and your talent as a soothsayer is especially useful to the royal family.”

Lexis kept his head low as a wave of fear and dread washed over him, numbing his skin and wrenching his heart.

“Of course, I cannot simply forgive and forget the advances you made on me.”

Lexis let out a soft, almost muted whimper. He remembered Rione’s smile, her gorgeous emerald eyes, the feel of her lips…

“In light of this, I propose a compromise. In exchange for your complete unwavering loyalty, you will receive a royal pardon, a lucrative position in court, and a debt bond to me.”

Lexis looked up at Eloria with a wry smile, his eyes alight with the fire of determination. “I suppose it couldn’t be worse than the gallows. I accept these terms.”

*

It has been a month since Lexis was forced to work for princess Eloria and he was no closer to his goal of freeing Rione. Sure, he was fitted with fine clothing and granted the amenities and salary of any prestigious courtier, but he remained collared and under watch, unless he was needed to sway an important vassal or sour a dangerous alliance. At this rate, it would take years for him to pay off his debt bond to Eloria, assuming she wouldn’t find ways to indebt him further.

Lexis sat in his quarters, staring out of the window overlooking the palace courtyard. It was a flurry of activity as servants, squires and other menials hurried about their duties at the crack of dawn. This time, however, the well-rehearsed monotony was broken by a caravan of wagons.

Slave traders.

Lexis gritted his teeth as he watched dozens of shackled men, women, and children get offloaded from their mobile prisons. They were a scrawny haggard bunch, no doubt infested with bloodworms and severely malnourished. However, despite their severely diminished appearance, there was one woman that stood out.

Lexis rose from his velvet seat and pressed his palms into the window. She was wearing a collar much like his, though she lacked the finery he was endowed with. Although her body was cloaked with thin rags and dried dirt, her figure was familiar to Lexis, like the nostalgia from an old lullaby.

She slowly took a look at her surroundings, scanning the hundreds of windows that lined the royal palace. When her gaze finally passed Lexis’ window, she saw him. Her emerald green eyes shone like a lonely star on a cloudy night. She hid her surprise and hastily joined a line of other female slaves as they were led to the menial’s quarters.

Lexis felt his heart thud at an unsteady pace with unprecedented force. Rione was here, no doubt bought at a slaver’s auction to work as a menial in the kitchens or stables. He sat back down, rubbing the stubble on his chin. Breaking out the both of them while under heavy scrutiny would be far from easy, and they would die if they got caught. However, Lexis let the warmth in his heart gently settle and smother the cynical, pessimistic parts of him.

Rione was alive and close, and for her sake, Lexis allowed himself to hope.

*

“Ho, Jonas,” Lexis greeted.

“Ho, Lexis,” Jonas replied while kneading a large pile of dough.

In the proceeding weeks since Rione’s arrival, he had been spending more of his few free hours at the kitchens, though he had not seen or heard her since that fateful day. Most of the staff here barely tolerated him, except for the chief baker, Jonas. They both had roots in the northern principalities, which made them fast friends.

“You look rather busy,” Lexis remarked.

“The king ordered the kitchen staff to prepare for another banquet tonight,” Jonas complained, carefully eyeing the guard attached to Lexis. “Which means we’ll have to work round the clock to provide enough fresh loaves for both the daily feasts and the banquet.”

“I suppose getting a fresh loaf for breakfast is too much to ask?”

Jonas shook his head. “Sorry, snow-brother, all we got are some ruined loaves some novice tried making. Here, let me get you one, it’s unsightly, but should fill your belly all the same.”

Lexis nodded in appreciation as Jonas reached for a half-destroyed loaf of bread. It was deformed, torn in certain places, and smelled absolutely fantastic. He took a small bite, and suffice to say the taste complemented the scent like warm soup on a freezing winter night.

He kept his back to the guard as he took another bite, digging his hand into the loaf’s warm centre. He felt for the hardtack that should have been stuffed into the bread and felt a flutter of relief as he felt the solid brick in his fingers. Inscribed upon it was a message Jonas had left for him. Lexis felt each inscription and the words began to form in his head.

RIONE — NO — SEE — MATCH — DESCRIPTION

NO — NEW — PALACE — MENIALS

NO — INFO — SLAVE — WAGONS

YES — INFO — BANQUET

MEET — ME — SUNDOWN — STABLES — IMPORTANT

Lexis quickly swallowed the tough biscuit. This was troubling news. If the slaves were not meant to work as menials, why were they bought in the first place? Lexis pondered as he awkwardly ate the loaf in the middle of the kitchens. Perhaps they were sent to work outside the palace? An unlikely story, to say the least. And how was the banquet relevant to this? Does the steward not have servants aplenty to cater to the king’s many guests and dignitaries?

While Lexis was lost in thought, a hand suddenly came upon his shoulder. With a jolt, he saw his guard staring down at him with a demeaning stare. “Enough dawdling,” he demanded. “You have an appointment with the princess.”

*

“Ah, Lexis, you’ve arrived,” Eloria said as she combed her hair. “Please, sit.”

Although she had her back turned to him, Lexis still gave her a deep bow before taking a seat.

“You requested my presence, your highness?” Lexis stiffly inquired.

“Indeed I did,” Eloria replied, turning to looks Lexis in the eye. “You wouldn’t lie to me, would you?”

“Of course not.”

Eloria’s eyes shimmered ever so slightly. “Why are you spending so much time in the palace kitchens?”

Lexis recognized mental magic when he saw it. If he had access to his magic, he could have easily evaded such an attack. Instead, he would have to fall back on the second means of resistance—creativity.

I wanted to find allies to help me find Rione. “I wanted to make some friends.”

“Did you make any friends?”

Lexis nodded. “I made friends with a baker named Jonas.”

“Are you aware of any mages around the palace?”

Rione likes to call herself a magician. “No.”

“Do you know what the Scarlet Devourer is?”

“No.”

Eloria smiled. “I have a new assignment for you. There will be a visiting dignitary from one of the northern principalities, the Frostfire clan. His clan holds significant leverage over the trade of… sensitive goods. I want you to manipulate him to accept terms that favour us.”

Frostfire? The clan that owned Rione! If I can get back at those heartless vultures, I’ll get it done! “It will be done,” Lexis said, rising from his seat.

*

“You know, I didn’t expect to be having supper with a fellow northerner,” the dignitary guffawed, his face red with heavy drinking.

“It’s a small world,” Lexis smiled politely, allowing a lace of magic to intermingle with his words.

The dignitary’s tongue loosened further. “I really wonder though, how in the name of the devourer did you climb so high up in this southern court? I mean, a magician could, but if you were one, you would be collared like a flaming slave!”

“Yes, it is unfortunate for magicians to be collared just because of the hand they were dealt at birth.”

 “Unfortunate for them, very fortunate for us!” the dignitary burped.

“Fortunate?” Lexis pressed, exploiting his uninhibited mind for more details.

“You daft? That’s why I’m here, ain’t it? To sell collared magicians to feed this bloody devourer of yours!”

Lexis gaped, silently thanking the privacy this small and empty dining hall afforded. He struggled to compose himself and push further, but luckily the dignitary’s loose lips did all the work for Lexis.

“I swear, you lot are buying more slaves every season. I mean, as long as you pay well, I’m not complaining.”

Why in the reckoning of flames would they take a MAGICIAN to work as a menial? Rione wasn’t the only collared one! All the slaves were collared! I was just too stupid and love-addled to notice the truth, staring at me right from the start!

The dignitary didn’t seem to notice Lexis’ silence. “I swear if it wasn’t for the good of the world and all, I would almost feel bad! I mean, there were some real pretty faces I had to sell before I could break them in you know—”

Lexis interrupted with a soft voice. “Do you remember Adeline?”

“What?” the dignitary sputtered.

“Adeline, she misses you, back in the snowy peaks and hot springs. She wants you to come back. Go back to her.”

“Adeline…”

Lexis lashed out, searing his magic deep into the man’s malleable mind like a hot knife through butter, causing the dignitary to slump into his seat, snoring. Lexis had struck in anger. The man would never wake again.

Lexis felt his pulse quickening, his hysteria rising, but he tapped into his magic, gently sapping away the fuel that fires his illogical feelings. As far as anyone knew, the dignitary had one too many drinks and passed out. Lexis called for servants to take him to his quarters, with strict orders that he must not be disturbed until morning.

Lexis turned to his guard and took a step back as the burly man moved to place the collar back on Lexis. “Do you remember Madaline?”

“What? Come here you—”

“Madaline hates you, you know? Why would you do this? You. Monster,” Lexis growled, intertwining his words with the most potent magic he could muster.

Tears streamed down the guard’s face as he crumpled into a fetal position, sobbing. He would never forgive himself. With that, Lexis made haste to the stables.

*

“Lexis! You’re a little late,” Jonas chided. “And where’s your collar? Don’t tell me you—"

“I don’t have much time,” Lexis interjected. “What was so important about the banquet?”

“I have a cousin who’s close to the Frostfires, he knows where the magician slaves are taken—”

“They’re sacrificed to the devourer. I already know.”

Jonas lifted an eyebrow. “Anyway, the ritual is underneath the kitchens, behind some secret passageway. It’s happening tonight, so all the collared slaves must be there, follow me.”

The pair hurried to the strangely deserted kitchens, save for a couple of guards. Lexis dispatched both of them before they could draw their blades. They crumpled into the warm embrace of apathy. Jonas pushed aside a brick and pushed a button, activating an intricate set of magically powered machinery which opened a secret stairway.

“Here,” Jonas called out as he tossed a set of keys to Lexis. “I managed to swipe these from the guards, I think they’re for the collars.”

“You’re not really a baker, are you Jonas?”

“And you’re not really a pansy soothsayer, are ya? We all have our secrets, wordsmith. Good luck, I hope you get out alive. Maybe we can catch up back north.”

With that, he was gone. Lexis turned to the ominous passageway before him. Things were moving fast, he needed to be faster.

*

Lexis sprinted down the dark stairway, trusting his other senses to compensate for his lack of sight. The stairway abruptly ended in a large, well-lit, circular chamber. Within was princess Eloria and half a dozen guards, two of which held down Rione.

Lexis took a step forward, noting the dozens of locked collars surrounding a strange amalgamation at the centre of the chamber. It was a beast of rusted steel and bright-red flesh, with no discernable eyes or mouth, yet it made a terrible moaning noise wounded prey tended to make when cornered.

The Scarlet Devourer.

Rione screamed and struggled as two guards attempted to shove her into the beast without being dragged in themselves. Before the guards had the sense to simply throw her at the monster and call it a day, Lexis breathed in his magic.

“Hello, everyone!” Lexis called out. Eloria and her guards froze and stared at him.

“Lexis, what are you—” Eloria gasped, but Lexis refused to give her ground.

“Don’t you find it a little odd that everyone is on fire? I mean, that cannot be right!”

Eloria shimmered with a golden glow for a brief second, warding off Lexis’ attack. Her guards, however, started screaming and fell on the floor, quickly succumbing to their imagined pain.

Rione took this opportunity to headbutt Eloria, causing her to fall hard on her head. “Showing up just before its almost too late, just typical of you,” Rione cried with relief.

“I was a little predisposed,” Lexis replied with a smile, before turning to Eloria.

Eloria looked up at him with a dazed stare. “You… you don’t understand. I don’t know what you have with this girl, but she needs to be fed to the devourer. If the devourer isn’t fed, thousands will die!”

As if confirming Eloria’s assertion, the devourer roared, shaking the foundations of the secluded basement. Lexis ignored her pleading. Instead, he unlocked the collar around Rione’s neck. She smiled, and her hands shimmered a bright, terrific, green. One of the locked collars on the floor vanished and suddenly reappeared around Eloria’s neck.

Eloria whimpered as she tugged on her collar. Lexis loomed over her. “How many northern magicians have you thrown at this thing? How many have you killed?”

“It’s for the greater good!” Eloria cried. “Mage flesh keeps it sated and docile. Please, you have to understand—”

“It’s a thaumaturgic construct,” Rione interjected. “This beast was crafted by human hands. Your hands.”

Eloria sobbed. “I… I tried to bring it to heel, but it wouldn’t obey. I wanted to kill it, but it resisted every attack I tried.”

Lexis growled, “and you spill northern blood because of your hubris. And not once did you think to pay the price for your own mistakes.”

“NO, I… I can’t die. My knowledge of the devourer is second to none! If I die, there will be no one who can stop it! Please—”

“Didn’t you already mention how you couldn’t kill it?” Lexis pondered.

“You know, I’m pretty sure she did,” Rione added.

Eloria whimpered as she eyed the devourer, looking for a way to outrun her fate. There was none.

Lexis took Rione’s hand. “Let’s get out of here.”

Rione rolled her eyes. “We’ve got the magic, but I need a memory to displace us. Unless you want us to suffocate in—”

Lexis planted his lips on hers. And at that moment, the moaning devourer, teary-eyed princess, the months of separation and longing, were all swept away in this brief and glorious moment. The couple shimmered a brilliant hue of green and vanished.

*

Lexis and Rione laid on a snowy bank of an unnamed valley. “Where are we, exactly?” Lexis asked.

Rione shrugged in response, staring at the starlit sky. “It’s the place of our first kiss, by the gods its been years, but I still remember it clear as day.”

Lexis followed Rione’s gaze, staring at the vibrant and beautiful night sky. Tonight was the constellation of the crow, representing cunning, creativity, clairvoyance, and catastrophe.

Lexis laughed.

The world may be approaching disaster, but at least he would have Rione.

And she would have him.