Stars May Fall (Stars May Burn #2)

15. Sophie

SOPHIE

I knocked on the door of Lord Lyrason’s manor house. A guard slid open the peep hole. I gave him a bright smile. “Hello. We’re here to see Mister Gregane.”

The guard narrowed his eyes. “Who are you? Do you have an appointment?”

I didn’t let my smile drop but kept my expression eager and earnest. “Tell him Sophie and Callum are here to do a trade. He’ll be interested.”

The guard looked me up and down again before letting us through the wooden gate. He hesitated when Meena trailed after Callum and me. All her weapons were concealed, but her height and build alone were intimidating. She had the confident smooth walk of a soldier. I hoped they would still let her in.

After a brief hesitation, the guard gestured to a small stone building next to the gate that only consisted of one round room. “Wait in there while I see if he’ll meet with you.” He turned, then lifted a finger. “Your names again?”

“Sophie and Callum.” Beside me, Callum flourished a bow.

He seemed confused by the lack of titles. “Eh, all right. Wait here. There’ll be a guard on the front door, so stay inside.”

I sat down on one of the sparse benches adjacent to the small fireplace. Callum stretched out his legs beside me. “If this works, I’ll eat my own freisk knife.” He suddenly sat up straight. “Hang on, that could make me immune to halfsouls.”

I snorted, mostly sure he wasn’t being serious and just trying to break the tension. But I could never be completely certain with Callum. “Of course you wouldn’t. You’d be dead. But even if you just swallowed small lumps of yadum, it is unlikely to be absorbed into your bloodstream.”

He leaned back, theatrically nodding to himself with a frown. “Ah, yes, yes.”

Meena remained by the door, watching through the window with her fingers hovering over the hilts of her concealed knives. “It's an honor to guard you, Lady Sophie, but I swear, you make my job so much harder than it needs to be.”

I gave her an apologetic smile. “I’ll make it up to you. Kasten’s always telling you not to get lazy or rusty, isn't he? Well, then it’s good to be kept on your toes.” My voice didn’t sound nearly as confident as I’d hoped.

She raised one eyebrow with a stoic expression. “I don’t think this was what he had in mind. Just don’t disappear down a hidden staircase this time. And keep your detector turned to sensitive, even if it’s overwhelming. We don’t know if there’ll be halfsouls in there.”

I nodded, the worry in her tone doing nothing to slow my heartbeat. I hoped I wasn't making the wrong choice, but I couldn’t leave Kasten to take all the risks. We needed that cure and we needed information. And it felt so good to finally be doing something useful.

Callum whistled an intricate tune in the silence until the guard came back to the door. He looked uneasy. “Mister Gregane will see you on the condition that you let guards accompany you at all times. He said he means no offense by this but hopes you understand.”

I glanced at Meena, and she nodded. Callum stood up and stretched. “Let’s get on with this then.”

I folded my hands in the skirts of my simple dress and followed the guard up the long driveway, which was flanked by tall lime trees. A cold wind was blowing despite the sunshine, and brown leaves rolled under our feet as our footsteps crunched in the silence. I missed the warmth of Kasomere. I glanced beside me, glad Callum was here. I hoped I could share some of his nonchalance in the face of danger.

I climbed the wide marble steps to the front door which was promptly opened by footmen. An ordinary-looking man stood inside wearing a simple brown suit that was slightly too big for his thin frame. His limp brown hair was slightly too long, forcing him to constantly push his fringe to one side. I assumed this was Gregane.

Callum grinned and clapped him on the shoulder as if he were an old friend and not a conductor of unspeakable crimes. “Ah, Tyler! Here we are again. Funny how fate draws us together.” I frowned. Hadn’t their last meeting ended with Callum threatening Gregane with a knife in order to get the disks linked to the haemalcomy still inside me?

The man pulled Callum’s fingers off one by one with a grimace. “It is not fate if you simply walk up to somebody's house and ask to see them.” His voice had a slight nasal inflection. He turned his small eyes on me but couldn’t maintain eye contact. “Lady Sophie. I’m glad to see you have recovered.” He only gave Meena a brief glance before he gestured to another door. “Come, let’s sit in the parlor.”

I followed. The palms of my hands were sweating so much, I wiped them in my skirts. If this next part didn’t work, we would likely be kicked out. Or worse.

“Your master is out?” Callum asked as he followed close behind the haemalchemist. Two of Lyrason’s guards brought up the rear, blocking our retreat.

“Of course. As is yours.” Gregane didn’t even glance at him as he spoke. He gestured to some wooden chairs padded with simple silk that were gathered around a low drinks table. “Sit down and tell me what this visit is about. It is most… unexpected .” He looked at us like we were complete fools. Doubt niggled.

Callum grinned and smoothed back his curls. “Well, as you know, we’re great admirers of yours.”

The man blinked slowly and pushed aside his fringe. “ Admirers . Of haemalcomy. Is that what you are? Hmm?”

Callum ignored the interruption. “So I thought we could facilitate a trade of knowledge. You know things we’d like to know and vice versa.”

“So you’ve moved on from simply taking what you want from knife point, have you?” Gregane leaned back in his seat. “Do you really think I’m just going to give away Lord Lyrason’s secrets? What sort of a fool do you take me for? Does General Batton even know you’re here?”

It seemed the right time to take over. I leaned forward in my seat. “Mister Gregane, I haven’t had the chance to thank you for healing me. I’m very grateful.”

He tilted his head to one side and studied me far more closely than he had Callum or Meena. “I didn’t exactly have a choice. But the fact you survived so well is…interesting.” He folded his arms. “Now what do you want? Tell me quickly before I throw you out and tell Lord Lyrason you were snooping.” He lowered his eyebrows. “Or I could decide to just keep you here, I suppose, and get the guards to pat you down for any interesting kryalcomy.”

I held up one finger, resisting the urge to touch my detector or reserve and trying to hide my nerves. “I found traces of metal still in my blood. You’ve never had a survivor before, correct?”

Mister Gregane leaned forward slightly, and I saw I had sparked his interest. “Go on.”

“Well, we’ve confirmed I’m not infectious.” I really hoped I wasn’t blushing as I thought about kissing Kasten. “And my emotions and character traits are as before. I appear to be healthy. My body doesn’t seem to be reacting to the metal. I’m guessing it’s defeated whatever infectious agent you attached it to, leaving just the metal behind.”

Gregane didn’t confirm or deny my theory, and his expression remained neutral.

I drew in a deep breath. “Well, we wish to know what this metal is composed of. That way, we can work out how to remove it completely from my body.”

Gregane scoffed. “Knowing its component parts won’t help you. You have no experience with haemalcomy. Just because you’re a kryalchemist doesn’t mean you can do what I can do.” He ran his thumb across his lips. “And if you’re hoping to use this knowledge for your own experiments—or to create your own elixir of life—you don’t have the skills.”

I sat back, raising my hands. “That’s definitely not our intention.”

He scoffed. “You act all righteous now, but all it took was one of you on death’s door for the general’s moral compass to crack. When the people we love are threatened, there is nothing we wouldn’t do to save them. I suspect the same is true of you.”

I licked my lips, and my voice became quiet. “Who is it? Who are you saving?”

Gregane’s lips pressed into a hard line.

I swallowed and glanced at Callum who gave me a small nod. “We wish to trade knowledge or objects. We want to know how to make the metal inside me and its qualities. In return, we will tell you how to make a detector. It picks up anyone using kryalcomy on their person.” I paused to gauge his reaction. “We assume you know we have these, since you invented the collars to stop us from tracking the halfsouls.” I looked to one side and parted my hair to show the device attached to my skull as a show of good faith.

Callum and I had discussed what to offer at length. The detectors seemed like a good choice. Lord Lyrason and Gregane had already combatted their effectiveness, and if they became common knowledge, we would still have enough other secret kryalcomy to maintain our edge. When I’d asked Callum if we needed Kasten’s permission to give one away, Callum said Kasten had always been clear that his kryalcomy inventions were his alone, and he was simply grateful for the gift.

Gregane shook his head. “No, give me something more interesting. Tell me about the weapon the general wielded. I’ve never seen anything like that before.”

I shook my head with an apologetic wince. “Its power has been exhausted, I’m afraid. It was created by accident and can’t be recharged. And what little we know about its forging, we’re unwilling to share.” I tightened my hands in my skirts below the table. “Think about it. If you have the detectors, the king would be very happy for knowledge of our kryalcomy. He would give you a large reward.”

The thin man scoffed again. Then stopped with his mouth open, his eyes on the table and his hand suspended in the air. “I’ll tell you what I will trade the metal for, however.”

His eyes flicked up, shadowed by the angle, and something in his look sent a shiver down my spine. It reminded me what this man did for a living and the unspeakable things it must involve. Beside me, Meena shifted and became poised.

“I want to use you for an experiment. You’re a survivor, and I have questions about your current properties.”

Cold flooded my insides.

Callum started to stand. “I don’t think…”

I cut him off with my hand. My breaths didn’t seem to contain enough oxygen. “What sort of experiment?”

He grinned. “You just have to walk from one end of a corridor to the other.”

Callum threw his hands in the air. “Yeah, like I believe that. What is in the corridor?”

The man steepled his hands and grinned. “The Originals.”

I wasn’t sure how much longer my courage was going to hold up. I wanted to be strong for Kasten. I knew I could be strong. I had survived all that my father had thrown at me, and still never told him our secret. “What..” I took another breath and tried again. “What are the Originals?”

He danced his fingers in the air. “What do you call our creatures? Halfsouls, yes? Well, we need incubators for the modified disease to keep it alive and replicating. Obviously, these incubators need to be alive themselves to create the right environment for the disease. They’re the original halfsouls, only a bit different than the average ones we’ve released downtown. We’ve only drawn out a little bit of their vitality—enough that they’re too weak to defeat the infection and so it replicates well in their bodies—but not enough that they die. Well, most of them won’t die—we lose about twenty percent a year. They have a full dose of aggression, however. When they bite a newcomer, they infect them. We then get a disposable standard halfsoul we can experiment on for the day or two it lives.”

I looked down to hide my disgust and sorrow at the treatment of these pitiful creatures. I also avoided looking at Callum after the confirmation they were still experimenting with halfsouls. I needed Gregane to keep talking, keep allowing us to be here.

Meena stood up in suppressed rage and towered behind my chair. “Are you suggesting we let Lady Sophie be attacked by the original halfsouls? Is this some sort of sick joke?”

Callum, however, seemed intrigued. He steepled his fingers as he leaned toward Gregane. “How do you stop drawing their vitality? They must have the same metal inside them as the other halfsouls since it's attached to the infectious agent. Don’t your metal disks receive vitality from all of them at once? How can you make it specific to exclude them?”

Gregane scowled. “Why would you want to know that? I thought you weren’t interested in how to make halfsouls?”

Callum grinned and spread his hands. “I just find this whole subject fascinating.” He cleared his throat. “But why on earth do you think Sophie would walk into a corridor filled with halfsouls? You don’t think Kasten would burn this place down if she died?”

Gregane leaned back in his chair and folded his spindly arms. “Oh, don’t worry. They’re locked in cages. I just want to see how they react to her. She wouldn’t be harmed.”

Meena folded her arms and continued to loom, her displeasure radiating. It was obvious she didn’t think I should agree to this.

I blew out a concentrated breath. “All I have to do is walk up and down, past some cages?”

Gregane nodded with a wide, thin-lipped smile.

Meena’s hand rested on the back of my chair. “If Lady Sophie agrees to this, I want you to walk up and down the corridor first, so we know it's safe. Then me. Then her.”

He chuckled and shrugged. “Why not? It will help me see the contrast in their behavior. If there is any.”

I frowned. “What exactly do you expect to see?”

The corners of his lips turned down in a smug expression. “It’s best if you don’t know. I don’t want to add bias.”

Callum looked between us all, his mouth hanging open. “We’re really doing this? Really? By the kingdoms, Kasten is going to kill me.”

I swallowed. I’d been a coward my whole life. I would show them I wasn’t any longer. I would show the world I deserved to be Kasten’s wife. Getting this metal would lead to the cure that could ensure our safety and that of our people.

I stood up and hoped I looked less nervous than I felt. “I’ll do it.”

Gregane interlocked his fingers. “Excellent. I’ll take you there now.”

The haemalchemist was slightly hunched as he walked as if his body was too gangly, and he was trying to compensate. As he opened a door revealing cold stone steps going down into pitch blackness, dread filled me, growing with every step down.

Lyrason’s guards remained behind. For some reason that unnerved me more than if they’d stayed with us.

The only sounds came from our footsteps, harsh against the stone. I hated the dark now. Ever since Father had locked me in that dark room a month ago, I felt like something unspeakably horrible was lurking within. As soon as it became clear that Gregane wasn’t going to turn on a light, I fished out the small kryalcomy lantern on my belt. I was grateful when Callum and Meena did the same. My guard no longer bothered to hide her weapons and carried a freisk knife in the other hand.

My detector picked up a new whine, not the gentle drones coming from Callum and Meena, but high and uncomfortable. Then another, the whine becoming a screech. Still, we climbed down and down. Wherever we were going was buried far, far below the manor. If we were locked down here, could our detector alarm signal still be heard? Could Kasten’s pyramidal tracking device still pick up my location through all those layers of dirt and rock? I shivered again and tried to keep my breathing steady as I felt increasingly trapped.

The high-pitched screeches jarred as a third and fourth was added. How many were there?

At last, we leveled out to a small space next to a thick wooden door with an iron grate across the window. Various levers and metal rings stuck out from the plain stone wall. The flight of stairs continued going even deeper to one side, and I dreaded to think what else was down here. Gregane reached up and twisted a knob below a kryalcomy lantern that hung from the wall. It flared to life, blue light giving everything a silvery hue. Answering shrieks came from the other side of the door.

“This is what we call The Nursery. The Originals are contained within. I will walk from one end of the corridor to the other to demonstrate what I want you to do. Then you can.” He waved his hand dismissively toward Meena. “And then you.” He smiled and inclined his head at me. “Afterward, I will give you a decent sample of the metal in your blood. I will even include a simple ingredients list if you wish. You can then perform whatever kryalcomy you wish to remove it from your body.”

I breathed in through my nose, the air damp and stale, and nodded. Gregane took out a key and unlocked the thick door.