Starfallen Read online

  Starfallen

  A Lost Stars Novella

  Brandon Clark

  Copyright © 2019 by Brandon Clark

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  Sara, we’re making a habit of this, aren’t we?

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Acknowledgments

  Also by Brandon Clark

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Kairk swore as another wave of Gentori crashed against the line of shields.

  “Hold,” he yelled to the men and women straining beneath the assault. four rows of soldiers stood tall, pressing their overlapping turtle shell shields back against the mass of bodies battering them.

  “Strike!”

  The wall shifted, and Gentori screamed in pain as a storm of razor-sharp spears pierced their flesh.

  The Gentori recoiled, but the respite was short-lived as they surged forward again.

  Kairk’s force held firm against the renewed attack, then struck again.

  From the back of the Gentori formation, Kairk saw a swarm of arrows launch into the air.

  “Shells!” Kairk shouted.

  The Travani raised their shields in unison, those in back pressing close to cover the man or woman in front of them with part of their shield forming an overlapping armored shell.

  Kairk felt someone press up behind him, covering his shield. A second later, hundreds of arrows pelted down on their shields. A cacophony of arrowheads bouncing off shells swallowed the whole formation, but the none made it through.

  “It’s almost romantic,” Cora whispered in his ear. “Sounds like rain.”

  Kairk glanced back at his wife. “I’m a little preoccupied here.”

  “Got to take our pleasure when, and where we can,” she said. Despite the hundreds of men wanting to kill them, her voice was somehow playful.

  The wave of arrows stopped.

  “Lower,” Kairk yelled, and the formation reverted to its original shape.

  In the shuffling of shields, Kairk felt something pinch his neck. He looked over his shoulder, and Cora licked her lips and winked at him.

  He grinned at her, but the sound of Gentori screaming brought him back to the task at hand. He looked past his wife and saw their village through the steep sides of the canyon where they’d intercepted the raiders.

  Behind their line, a light dusting of snow was almost pristine. Only a thin line of footprints where the Travani had marched to meet their enemies marred the ground. Below the line of shield’s though, the white snow had turned dark brown, as the dirt mixed with the blood of the dying.

  Fortunately, it had mostly been Gentori blood so far.

  Kairk grunted as the wall was pushed back another step, and the man in front of him bumped into him. The hill rose behind them, but if they had to fall back much farther, the Travani would be forced back past the canyon’s natural choke point. If that happened, their line would be stretched thin, and the Gentori could flank them.

  “Where is Jawn?” he said instead.

  Cora’s face slipped back into the icy focus of a soldier ready to kill.

  “Should be here any minute,” she said. “They acknowledged the signal the same time we did.”

  “Hold the line,” Kairk hollered. “No one loses their dawnstone today!”

  The Travani soldiers screamed as one, and they surged forward. The Gentori staggered back, slipping on the semi-frozen slush and blood slick rocks on the canyon floor.

  They continued to fight, Kairk dispatching Cora and her reserve spearwomen where the fighting was fiercest. Occasionally, a Gentori sword would find an exposed bit of flesh, and a Travani fighter would stagger out of formation. The Gentori tried to rush through the gaps, but more Travani were quick to fill in. Most of the wounds were not fatal, and the injured Travani stumbled to the back of the formation.

  The fighting was brutal, and even though the Travani were outnumbered, they held firm.

  Unfortunately, so did the Gentori.

  And there were enough of them to crush Kairk and his squad in a mountain of human bodies.

  “Step,” Kairk called.

  After the next flurry of spear thrusts, the Travani took a coordinated step back, but the Gentori quickly swarmed to fill extra space. One of the spearmen in the front line slipped as he stepped back up the hill, and before anyone could react, three Gentori grabbed him and started dragging him backward.

  The two soldiers next to the man stepped forward, spears thrusting into the bodies of the assailants.

  The third man dodged the spears and reached out, a dagger in one hand.

  Kairk watched as the dagger fell toward the downed man. He twisted at the last minute, and it plunged into the earth.

  The momentum of the strike carried the Gentori forward, but he landed on the fallen man. There was a brief scramble, and the Gentori pushed himself up.

  He held a glowing gem in his fist, his eyes wide and lips curled up in a triumphant smile. He turned and started running back through the ranks of attackers, many of whom whooped and cheered as he ran with his hand held high.

  The man he’d stolen the gem from rose and tried to jump after him, but his companions grabbed him and pulled him backward. He howled in protest and tried to wrestle free. His friends dragged him back to the line, letting three others from the second line fill in.

  For a moment, the fighting stopped as the Gentori around turned to watch. Several Travani stepped forward and killed the gawkers.

  The screams of the dying snapped the Gentori back into action. They rushed forward with a renewed aggression, emboldened by captured dawnstone.

  “Hold,” Kairk called again. He pushed his way through to the man who’d fallen. He stood behind the lines, a blank look on his face as he stared down the hill. Kairk knew he was following the thief by the glowing dawnstone still in his hand as he weaved through the darker mass of Gentori. A medic was slathering a wet paste over a cut on his thigh, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “Raab,” Kairk said.

  The man blinked several times and dropped his chin.

  “Don’t pull that with me,” Kairk snapped. “I need you.”

  “I lost my dawnstone,” he said. “My father will never forgive me.”

  “You’re alive,” Kairk said. “Which is more than I can say for a lot of them.”

  He pointed back toward the Gentori, many of whom were pushing forward over the bodies of their comrades.

  “I’ll never find it,” Raab said. “I’m a disgrace.”

  “You let any of your battle brothers or sisters die because you’re back here moping, and you will be.”

  Raab finally raised his eyes to meet Kairk’s.

  “Get back in there,” Kairk said. “Finish this, and we’ll all help you.”

  Raab’s face hardened, and the muscles in his jaw tightened. He nodded once, then looked down at the wound on his leg for the first time.

  “Good?” He asked the medic.

  “Good enough,” he replied.

  Raab nodded. “I won’t let you down.”

  “Shells!”

  Kairk, Raab and the medic dropped to a knee and raised their shields as
another wave of arrows pummeled them. As the thunder of arrowheads stopped, Kairk put a hand on Raab’s shoulder.

  “You’re more important than a stone,” he said. “Even a dawnstone.”

  Raab’s confident mask faltered for a moment, but he set his jaw, nodded once, and rejoined the others.

  “Cora,” Kairk yelled.

  She spun from the far side of the line. Kairk motioned for her, and she finished giving her second in command instructions before jogging over.

  “I need you to find Jawn,” he said. “We’re dead if he doesn’t get here soon.”

  “I’m not running,” she said. “You’re not sending-”

  “Find Jawn,” Kairk said. “Go.”

  Cora’s lips pressed into a thin line, but she took off at a jog up the hill without another word. Kairk felt a small weight lift as he watched her go.

  He wheeled as another set of screams rose from the front line. The Gentori had renewed their attack.

  The sun was starting to cast shadows over the canyon, but the rocks had been baking long enough to make sweat pool against Kairk’s chest and stomach beneath his turtle shell armor. A slight breeze rolled up the hill from behind the Gentor, carrying the smelled of blood and death into the Travani’s faces.

  Kairk’s feet ached as he ran up and down the line, encouraging his men, or giving orders. He was about to turn and head back down the line when he heard a fresh scream from the center. Spinning back; he saw a gap emerge as one of his men fell in a spray of bright blood.

  A massive man strode forward, smashing a club the size of Kairk’s leg sideways into the soldiers on either side of the fallen Travani. The force of the blow sent the man on the left flying back into his fellows, opening a more massive hole in the wall.

  Kairk leapt forward and drove his spear toward the giant. But the man saw him coming and stepped sideways with extraordinary speed Kairk hadn't expected.

  Kairk’s spear met only empty air.

  The giant’s hand snapped out and grabbed the shaft and yanked.

  Rather than fly back into the middle of the Gentori mob, Kairk let the spear go. The men to his left were still scrambling to their feet, trying to fend off the normal-sized enemies while covering their comrades, leaving Kairk on his own.

  The massive Gentori bellowed again and brought the club back.

  Kairk reached to his belt and tugged his hatchet free.

  Unlike the silvery, rough-cut spearheads, the hatchet’s blade was pure black that seemed to swallow any light that hit it. And instead of polished, leather-wrapped wood, the shaft was made of a pliable material that molded to the palm of his hand perfectly and stuck to his skin no matter how wet it was.

  His opponent laughed, and swung the club down, trying to smash Kairk into the ground, and he likely would have succeeded if Kairk had attempted to catch the blow on his shield.

  Instead, Kairk slid forward and brought the hatchet down.

  The blade cleaved through the giant’s ankle like it was a newly forged blade slicing through snow.

  There was an explosion of red mist, and the stump of the man’s leg slid sideways, leaving the foot still firmly planted in the muddy snow.

  Surprise lit up the man’s face, but before the pain registered, Kairk reversed his swing and buried the hatchet in the man’s side.

  Once again, the blade cut through flesh and bone with ease. The man’s ribs separated, and Kairk felt a hot spray hit his face.

  He tried to pull the hatchet back, but it was too deep in the man’s chest, and he couldn’t free it before the man fell sideways.

  He was dead before he hit the ground, the hatchet’s handle sticking out of his chest like a new sapling just starting to grow.

  The men on both sides of the shield wall saw the giant fall. The Travani screamed in triumph and rushed forward around their Captain, while the Gentori shrank back. The Travani pushed the attackers back down the hill.

  Then Kairk heard another war cry, but it wasn’t from his men or the Gentori.

  He looked up and saw Cora and Jawn standing on the edge of the canyon walls. Behind them, a hundred men and women stepped up and drew their bows.

  The Gentori recognized the danger, though Kairk wasn’t sure whether it was from the war cry or the first arrows that streaked down from above.

  For a moment, they seemed enraged, pushing forward in one last desperate attempt to overwhelm the Travani.

  But the line held, and finally, the Gentori lost their nerve.

  It started as a whispered call but swelled to full-throated screams for a retreat. Those at the back of the formation broke and ran, some managing to keep their wits about them enough to back away with weapons raised to discourage pursuit.

  Arrows continued to rain down. Gentori died and rolled down the hill, knocking their fellows down as their momentum carried them.

  The Travani cheered at the retreating Gentori, and Kairk smiled up at Cora. She blew him a kiss before turning and disappearing behind the cliff’s edge.

  Kairk stepped forward and gripped the handle of the hatchet. He pulled it free with a wet crunch, then wiped the black blade on the fallen giant’s ruin clothes before replacing it in his belt and letting out an exhausted sigh.

  Another day then.

  Chapter Two

  “To Jawn,” Kairk yelled, the Jeeva slopping over the sides of the mug. “Your timing was as impeccable as your navigation is terrible.”

  The men and women in the hall laughed as they raised their mugs. Most were carved wood, with varying degrees of ornamentation, but a few were dented metal with colorful handles. Kairk’s was one of those, handed down from his father and his father before that. The original owner's name was etched into the material, barely legible after all the years of use.

  The big man at the other end of hall laughed and raised his cup, a semi-transparent metal that allowed Kairk to see how much of the purple Jeeva he’d had.

  “Only thanks to Cora,” Jawn replied. “Thank the Starfallen she found us.”

  “No one could miss your stench,” Cora said from the side of the hall where she stood with the spear woman in her squad. Her teeth had a reddish, purple tint, and Kairk heard her slurring her words ever so slightly.

  Jawn laughed again; this time, the whole hall joined him.

  Kairk smiled as he drank. The hall was ancient. The liquid stone his ancestors had used to build it, and many of the other buildings in the village, had started to crumble in places and he could see the browner patches where they’d made repairs over the years. Tapestries of woven reeds hung from the rafters, but the only other decorations were racks of spears and shells lining the walls.

  A long table made from the trunk of an ancient tree dominated the center of the room. Kairk didn’t know how the thing had made it into the building. It wouldn’t have made it through the door, so he could only guess that his forefathers had built around the thing. Men and women sat on either side, eating and drinking as they recounted the battle.

  Each of the four corners had metal boxes where they’d made fires. The heat warmed the room, warding off the night’s chill and giving them a place to cook.

  The smells of grembal meat and roasted corn wafted through the hall, and Kairk’s mouth watered as he watched the men and women eat, even though he was already stuffed.

  The fireboxes in the corners threw orange shadows across the hall; the majority of the light came from the glowing dawnstones of the Travani.

  Most the stones were small enough to fit on necklaces or bracelets, and almost all the attendees wore at least one glittering gem. Cora’s betrothal necklace had six of the glowing stones.

  Larger gems dangled from the wood beams overhead by lines of rough cord, throwing small pools of blue light throughout the room.

  But the majority of the light came from the Morning Star.

  The massive, glowing rock hung in a web of straps and ropes, like a ghostly chandelier. Slightly larger than Jawn’s head, it cast a pale blue ligh
t over the hall, and the light pulsed and twisted like a caged animal that sent swirling patterns across the walls like they were several feet underwater.

  “Travani… Travani… Lukas Travani… Where is my brother?”

  Kairk turned to face his father. The older man was rocking back and forth in his seat, his grey beard dangling from his chin at various lengths where he’d tried to trim it himself. His eyes were milky, and scars and sunspots pocketed his skin from a lifetime spent outdoors.

  “It’s ok, Dad,” Kairk said. “You’re ok.”

  He put a hand on his father’s arm, and the man's head snapped toward Kairk like he just realized that he wasn’t alone.

  “Lukas?”

  Kairk’s heart nearly broke, just like it did every time his father had a bad day. He looked back and caught Jawn’s eye.

  His brother put his mug down enough to look at their father, then back to Kairk, a question in his eyes.

  Kairk shook his head, then pitched his voice low.

  “I’m here,” he said. “You need to eat.”

  His father grinned.

  “You left me some, did you?” he asked. “Just like you to take all the meat from the grembal I killed.”

  Kairk sighed but continued to play along.

  “That you killed? Only after I’d worn it down. You’re lucky I felt sorry for my little brother.”

  “Bah,” his father waved a hand dismissively. “You wouldn’t know which end of the spear to poke it with.”

  “Spoken like a boy,” Kairk said. “You going to eat that or not?”

  His father snorted and grabbed the shank of meat with his hands and started to devour it in a frenzy. But after a few bites, he slowed to a more sedate pace.

  Kairk sighed and leaned back. He closed his eyes and relaxed as the sound of conversation and drinking washed over him. His muscles ached, and he knew he didn’t have much longer before the exhaustion took him out for the night.