Starlighter Read Free

I’m going to find a way to help them. Someone has to.”
    “You’ll get in trouble.”
    Koren grinned. “Only if I’m caught.”
    “I think I have it memorized,” Natalla said, reaching for the book. “Stephan is next. He’ll memorize his part quickly. You can count on that.”
    Koren laid the book in Natalla’s hands with a mingled sense of relief and loss. The book of the Code was a precious thing, and while in her possession it was her responsibility. If her master found it, every human on Starlight would lament its destruction. And keeping it out of Arxad’s sight for much longer wouldn’t be easy.
    As her fingers slid away from the treasured book, Koren made a face. “Tell your brother that if the bees are hostile, I might need some help today.”
    “Don’t get stung!” Natalla swatted at imaginary bees flying around her head.
    “I won’t.” Koren stood and hoisted Natalla to her feet. “Come on. I have an idea.”
    “An idea? What?”
    “The beehives are near the cattle camp. Maybe I can sneak a meal inside, at least a hunk of bread.”
    “But there are dozens of children,” Natalla said, “and you might get trapped in there.”
    “I know, but if we’re going to sacrifice for the paupers, we need to start somewhere, and helping them one at a time might be the only way.”

Two
    J ason stared at the message flashing on the side of the silvery tube. Deposit genetic material for access.
    Now this was different. Why would Adrian have a Courier’s message cylinder concealed under their bedroom floor? Marcelle wouldn’t be communicating with him, not after Adrian’s latest refusal to battle her in a tournament. And she certainly wouldn’t encrypt it with a genetic identification filter. She wasn’t one to worry about who heard what she had to say.
    Kneeling as he held the tube, Jason looked at the hole in the floor he’d made while searching for the newsletter. Adrian often kept a copy hidden under the wooden panels, but a Courier’s tube was used only for official communications from Governor Prescott or his staff. Surely Prescott would have nothing to do with the covert operations of the Gateway.
    Jason rose and looked out the door. The hall was empty. Now, with harvesting and school hours finishedfor the day, Adrian would return from the castle soon. He wouldn’t mind that his brother had been snooping around for the latest newsletter. After all, Adrian had long wanted Jason to accept the teachings of the Gateway and join their ranks, but maybe this tube was meant to be secret. Yet why would that be? Since Adrian was the governor’s ceremonial bodyguard, he wouldn’t have to hide official communications at home. And who could have sent it?
    Shaking his head, Jason laid the tube back in the hole. There was no doubt about it; Adrian’s secretive ways had shifted from abnormal to bizarre.
    Jason scanned the room, letting his gaze drift from the arched entry to the two thin sleeping pads on the wooden floor. Without pillows or blankets, the beds, if anyone would call them that, had only wadded blue sheets on top, not much protection from the cooler nights that season three had recently ushered in.
    As if on cue, a breeze blew in from an open window, brisk, damp, and smelling of wood smoke. Jason stepped over the beds and stuck his head through the window. Outside, a thin mist veiled the governor’s castle and the forested hill it sat atop. Somehow the white curtain made the castle seem distant, as if it would take more than the usual hour to make the journey on the forest path and up the grassy slope.
    At the foot of the hill, the fog completely shrouded Jason’s two-story school. It had been clear earlier in the day. Perhaps the quick change portended a late-night storm. The smoke in the air proved that many were preparing for a cold, wet night.
    A loud thwack caught his attention. To the right, his father swung an axe and split a short log down the middle,raising another sweet,