The Legend of the Morning Star Read online

was strong-willed and brave, for she kissed him, and taught him how to kiss her in return, and I very much believe that they eventually lay together beneath the trees, in the dappled light where even spirits of fire would not notice unless they peeked carefully through the leaves.

  I cannot say how long they continued as lovers. Perhaps it was a fiveday, as intense and hot as a bonfire. Perhaps it was a season, burning steadily as a hearth-fire. Perhaps it was even a year, smoldering as banked coals that flared from time to time, when given fuel.

  However, eventually Alyyon noticed that one of his servants was never there to answer his call. For sure, he had other servants aplenty, and could easily spare Kiro. But the gods were petty and jealous, and suspicious.

  So Alyyon had his other servants lie in wait, to spy when Kiro returned. And then . . . Alyyon followed the trail Kiro had left, until he came to where Kasinda lived. There, he walked invisibly among the mortals, and none of them knew that he was anything more than the heat waving in the air. When he came to Kasinda's room, where she was brushing her hair before bed, he saw how lovely she was – and knew that Kiro had lied.

  At once, the god put on a cloak of human form, and appeared behind Kasinda. She did not spin in terror, though she did become still, her hand on the brush.

  Alyyon bowed to her. "Fair princess," he said. "I am here to warn you."

  "Warn me of what, mysterious stranger?" Kasinda asked.

  "I very much fear you have been misled by an evil spirit," the god told her. "A creature who has been cast out, twisted and tainted. He must surely seek to steal the beauty of your eyes and form, and the grace of your hands, beguiling you with wicked spells."

  "Those are cruel words you speak. I should like to know if you have proof, lord stranger," Kasinda said.

  "Why, of course." He reached out and touched a lamp that hung nearby. "I have cast a spell upon the lamp. When you hold it near your visitor, you will see his true form, and he will be driven from you by its purity."

  Kasinda asked, because she was clever herself, "But how can I know if the lamp's light reveals truth in all cases?"

  The god smiled. "Hold it near anyone, and you will see truth by its light. And now, I must flee." And he cast off the cloak of human form, vanishing to her sight. Indeed, he did not linger, for he had spoken truly – the lamp was enchanted to show truth, in the most pure, raw form possible. He did not need to be present to cause trickery, and the sooner he returned, the less Kiro would have a chance to suspect his treachery had been found out.

  Kasinda did indeed test the lamp. She looked at love-notes she'd been sent, and could tell at once which ones were true attraction and which only sought to flatter her for her father's wealth. She looked at the watchdogs, and saw which ones were vicious and which were protective. She looked at her parents, and saw them as they were. She looked at the servants, and knew at once which ones were stealing little things, and which were honest. And so she trusted that the new stranger had spoken truth about the spell upon the lamp.

  Furthermore, since he had not lied about the spell, she began to worry that he had not lied about her fire-spirit lover, Kiro, either. She began to fret that he had been flattering her and fooling her, seeking to steal away her own advantages for himself. She could barely sleep, for her heart told her that Kiro loved her so much that he would defy the sun's god – but her wits said that there could well be merit in the other stranger's claim.

  So the next morning, Kasinda walked only in her family's lush garden – though the more private parts of it – until Kiro came to her, just past dawn. The fire-spirit opened his arms, but Kasinda did not run to him as she had done in the past, and he became worried. He asked her, "What is wrong, my love?"

  "I . . . have been thinking," she said. "I know so little about you. You have never shown me your true form."

  Kiro froze, like a flame trapped in an icicle. "I am just a sunbeam, a small fire-spirit. I am warmth upon your face. If I cast aside this form . . . At most, you might see me as a ripple in the air."

  "But then I'd know," Kasinda said, simply and quietly. "I will not ask you to touch me, in your true form. You have already said that would be dangerous to me."

  Kiro was much worried. He warned her, "I have been so much in this form, I might be too hot when I burst forth. I might damage the plants around me."

  The princess said, "They will grow back, or we will plant new ones."

  "You must stand back from me, for I do not wish to burn you," Kiro said, and Kasinda did so, sitting upon a bench. Behind the bench was the enchanted lamp. One of her hands stole down to grip its handle.

  And though Kiro was worried, he began to shed his human form, and Kasinda's wits told her that her heart had perhaps been right – for why would he be so easily convinced to show his true form if it was flawed? Her hand relaxed on the lamp, and she made to draw it back into her lap, leaving the lamp behind.

  And the god was suddenly behind her, invisibly, for he had been spying, eager to see misunderstandings and suspicions drive the lovers apart. He whispered in her ear, "He has already stolen pieces of your beauty, princess. He will show you a mask like a mirror."

  There was too much sense to the argument, and Kasinda took hold of the lamp again. Then, as Kiro let his human form fall away, she raised it and aimed it at him, the light of truth shining from it.

  Quick as a flickering flame, Alyyon leapt from behind her to beside Kiro. He reached out and with his god-power, he made Kiro a bigger fire-spirit, part of the sun's flame and heat, even binding a piece of his own godly power into the spirit.

  Kiro realized what the lamp was, and what it would show, and cried out, "NO!" with all his heart, seeking to drag his human form around himself once again and protect his lover from the cruel, bright, blinding fire that he had become.

  He would have been too late, save that Kasinda's heart could not bear to see her lover proven false, even though her wits demanded that she know the truth. Thus, she had closed one eye and peeked through the other sidelong, her head half-turned away. And so the searing truth only half-blinded her.

  In pain, her skin scalded by Kiro's heat, she fell to her knees, crying out and covering her face. At once, Alyyon was beside her, murmuring sweetly that she was safe, for he was there to protect her from the evil spirit. But she pulled her hands from her eyes, and squinted at him in fury. "I think you are evil," she said, and thrust the lantern into his face.

  Well, if a god-touched fire-spirit is dangerous to see truly from the other side of a garden bower, it is even more dangerous to see the sun's god, in all his power, beside one. Alyyon had wrought his spell too perfectly, and the lamp's magic worked on his own human seeming, letting his true form and power spill out like a pot boiling over. And, just as a boiling pot will scald the unwary hand, so did Alyyon's power burn Kasinda.

  Kiro cried out again, flinging himself at them to try to protect Kasinda from the god's power. But again, he was too slow. He could only grasp that which was Fire within her. But that piece of her, he did grasp, and hold close to him, and in his grief, he used all his power – and remember, the god had put some of his own power inside Kiro, to make him more potent. So that, too, went to Kiro's heart-wish. The Fire of Kasinda, though women have more Earth and Water to them than Fire, spun out of Kiro's flame-hands like a bird released, and flew into the sky. And as the ribbon of Kasinda's Fire spun from his hands, he gave it more and more power, until, at the end, he winked out, a flame extinguished.

  But a new star burned in the morning sky, brightest of all save the sun itself. And because Alyyon's own power had helped put it there, he could do nothing to steal away its light. And so the love, courage, and fury of a mortal woman mocked him every dawn thereafter, until the dragons slew the gods.

  And that is the story of Kasinda, the Morning Star.

  ###

  Author's Afterword

  About the Narrator

  Ches is a priest of the Wind, who journeys between towns and cities in
the Empire, bearing news, telling stories, and flirting shamelessly. Ches has some firm opinions about the vanquished gods and their personalities.

  About the Author

  Elizabeth McCoy's fiction has appeared in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress #7, in the Best In Show anthology by Sofawolf, and in the fanzine "Pawprints" (published by Conrad Wong & T. Jordan Peacock). Her tabletop RPG writing is published by Steve Jackson Games. As her author bios in SJ Games' material continually state, she lives in the Frozen Wastelands of New England, with a spouse, child, and assorted cats.

  Connect with me online:

  https://elizabethmccoy.dreamwidth.org/