Page 61 of Starside

Zane just takes another bite of the muffin. Chews. Swallows. “For the magic, obviously.”

She tilts her head, my fingers slipping through her hair, making me lose my place. I start again. “You’re from a Great House. You live in paradise compared to the rest of us. Can’t have been easy to leave everyone behind, hike down that mountain, and get east to the platform.” She juts her chin forward. “So why? Why risk your life for this? And don’t just say the magic.”

Even though Kira’s tone is slightly accusatory … I’ve been wondering the same thing. I finish one side of the braid, before moving on to the other.

Zane just leans against the side of the boat, then stretches his long legs out in front of him, feet nearly reaching us. Finally, he says, “On a clear day, at the top of our mountain, I could see the glimmer of the gates. But never anything past them. There was … a fog, wiping everything from view.” He lifts a shoulder. “I just wanted to see what was on the other side.”

Kira snorts. “You’re risking dying brutally at the hands of creatures or immortals … for curiosity?”

He shrugs again. “The mountain is paradise, as you say, but it’s cut off from the rest of the world. I’ve known the same small group of people my entire life. There’s no advancement. No changes. Just everything we’ve done for centuries. Our resources will one day dry up. Everyone tries to deny it, but we’ve all seen the signs. The Helmhawks leaving. The mines producing less and less. I’m not the eldest. There are four brothers ahead of me in line. My life will never mean anything. Unless—”

Unless.

Zane’s mountain could be transformed with magic. His motivation might not be the same as Kira’s, or mine, but it doesn’t make it any less true. He’s trying to save his people. Even if their suffering isn’t imminent, if it’s anything like the rest of Stormside, it is inevitable.

He sighs, leaning back. “And I think everyone should go on a wild, transformative journey at least once in their lives.”

He’s probably right. “So now that you’re here, what do you think of the world?” I say over Kira’s shoulder as I finish the second braid, then begin weaving them together. “The world outside of your mountain?”

He shakes his head. “I’m thinking I probably should have stayed put.”

I laugh first. Kira joins in. Then all three of us are shaking with laughter and perhaps a bit of regret.

“You know what? I’m not scared of dying. I’m scared of not having lived in the first place,” Kira declares.

Something in me awakens at that—a foolish shred that mourns the life I might have lived, if I wasn’t rushing into my almost certain death. So I decide that I’m going to drink up all the wonder of this place, while I can. As I work to finish Kira’s hair, I look around, watching as the forest along the bank changes. It becomes lusher, full of trees I’ve only seen the skeletons of, in the bare woods of Stormside. Pines, covered in needles. Willows, hunched forever in mourning. Birches, with their curls of peeling bark. I wonder what kind of creatures lurk within these woods—and if they’re watching us back.

The braid is done. I curl it up and slip it through the gap made by the two braids, just like I do for myself, again and again, until nothing else hangs down. Then I slip one pin from my own hair and use it to secure Kira’s. I’m finished. She turns and beams at me, reaching up to touch my work. “I look like you now, don’t I? Wonderful. How’d you get so good at this?”

“I had a sister. Once,” I say, surprised by the words spilling out of me. Just like when I told her where I’m from, seconds after meeting.

I guess I just want someone to know. Because if I stop talking about where I’m from, and who I lived there with, then that’s when they’ll all be truly dead.

Her grin fades. She knows about what happened to my village. Everyone knows about the place that was burned down by the wrath of the gods. It was used as a warning. People whispered that we must have done something wrong to invite their fury.

“You’re the only one that survived, aren’t you?” she says.

“Yes.”

She squeezes my hand. “If you survived that … you can survive anything,” she says, nodding, like she’s already decided my fate.

If she knew who I was hoping to go up against, I don’t think she’d be so sure of that. But I nod back anyway.

“Here.” Zane looks like he doesn’t really know what to say, so he reaches into the basket and shoves meat pies and muffins at us. “You should … you should both eat.”

Kira smiles wryly at him. “You don’t have sisters, do you?”

“Only brothers.”

She laughs loudly. “Now, look at you. Stuck with both of us.” She takes a bite out of the meat pie, then says, mouth full, “Holy gods, I want a magical kitchen.”

I crack a smile. “I’m sure a few drops of claimed magic would do it.”

It’s not why she’s on this journey. We both know it. But for a few moments, it’s nice to pretend that the greatest thing we need is food prepared at our every whim.

Kira hums. She leans back in the boat, lying beside Zane’s legs. “Now that I’m thinking, I could also use a magical goblet that refills with wine whenever I want. Good wine.” She looks over at Zane. “Like the type you drink up in your fancy mountain.” He rolls his eyes, and she nudges against him. “What ridiculous dreams will you use drops of magic on, Sterling?”

Zane shifts. His expression is serious. But his voice is light as he says, “A magically refilling bath would be nice.”