Starbinder: An Eye of Eternity Novella by Mark Timmony

Author:Mark Timmony [Timmony, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ravenhawk Publishing

Chapter Five

REIANA STARED IN horror as the shadows around the voidsworn Evay were burnt away, and his skin began to melt beneath the light. Blood ran, flowing down his limbs. Bone emerged as his flesh dissolved, and his hair burst into flame. The Dasha’vay’s scream became primal, a hapless call of horror so profound Reiana could feel it even after the spheres exploded in a soundless detonation. Reiana had to turn away from the sight.

A wall of force pushed her forward, and she stumbled, catching herself on one of the broken pillars. At her touch, runes around its base began to glow, and lines of light appeared across the paving stones, stretching into the ruins and illuminating the ancient complex before her.

The night fell back before the golden lines of light.

Reiana looked over her shoulder at the dark forest. She knew she should make her way back to the camp. To find Toban. But doing so would mean passing Pren’s body, lying on the ground where he’d fallen, and she couldn’t bring herself to do that. Tears burned her eyes. Not yet. And if what the Dasha’vay had said was true, her grandmother had sent her here to get rid of her. Could she even go back to the camp?

No. No, she wouldn’t believe that. She couldn’t.

And there was the voice that had called to her. Who was that?

Reiana took a breath, wiping the tears from her face.

She could feel the power of this ancient place stirring from a long slumber, and she turned her attention away from the lies of the Dasha’vay, away from Pren’s body—she wanted to wail at the thought but pushed it down—instead, she tried to recall the stories she’d been told of the Shaluay. Of the great complexes that were places of healing and knowledge. Home to the Starwells, the fonts of Shaluay power in the world.

This place must have lain forgotten since the Sundering. So much had been lost to them. Mountains had moved, and seas had swallowed realms. Cities collapsed, and forests had burned and rivers had shifted course while new forests grew where none had been before.

She stepped forward, away from Pren, and made her way deeper into the ruins.

As she ventured in, more runes and geometric sigils ignited, revealing broken walls and leading Reiana down an arcade to a dais that held a dark, empty well.

Reiana stepped forward on trembling legs, up onto the platform that held the well.

The space before her was larger than the wells she was used to. It was maybe sixteen feet across with a small wall of stone that came halfway up her shin, running around its edge, guarding the unwary against falling in.

Stopping just before the edge, Reiana peered into its dark depths and saw that the well wasn’t empty at all.

It was filled with stars.

Every constellation of the heavens sat in its correct house and position, and as she watched they began to move, to spiral around a central axis.

The stars swelled up out of the confines of the well into a column of glittering pinpricks.

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