Right. Here's another short update, elemental to the plot. nod Much necessary.

Chapter 38: The Trickster's Stars

The stars glimmered faintly above his head, light in a blanket of blue, and he twisted his head to see if he could see them clearer. Everything seemed to blur before his eyes, a complete mess of things, until someone touched his forehead. A cool, feminine hand ran down the side of his face and he turned his eyes to his mother.

"You shouldn't be out here," he said hoarsely. "You'll get sick."

"Don't be ridiculous," Cielos countered gently. Calius tried to figure out why he couldn't see anything clearly.

The feel of a single line of water running down his cheek solved that problem.

"We'll be fine, Calius," she promised. "We'll be fine."

"How can you say that?" Those sharp royal blue eyes narrowed in on the queen. "My father is dying from a curse that is in no record and no thought! Kellan and a group of people, including my sisters, are walking to their doom. I have to –" he choked. "I have to find a wife. A wife. In the middle of a war. Explain it to me, Mother. How are we going to be fine?"

Cielos' face darkened. "You knew this would happen. This is war, Calius, not your normal day in the kingdom." Calius sat up, dashing tears away angrily. "You will marry and you will lead an army. You will protect your brothers and you will believe that Kellan and your sisters will come back safe."

"I pray to Sanam every day," he said coldly, standing up. His mother stopped in her tirade, her mouth open. "No one will ever be good enough to be her replacement."

"You barely knew her!" Cielos cried out at his retreating back.

"That's what made her special."

ooo

Ricardo and Joseph sat on the swing together, arms crossed haphazardly over each other's shoulders, glaring into the darkness. They hid there, together, brother and brother, trying to fathom what exactly was happening around them. An unearthly silence descended on the wild, wrapping around the stars and the moon, ringing danger in the brothers' ears.

Joseph drew his dagger and Ricardo jumped out of the swing, sword in hand. Emerald eyes glanced over at their counterpart in blue before they both took off running towards the palace, adrenaline and fear laced through their veins. In the shadows of the forest, something rustled. Orange eyes gleamed as they settled on their prey.

Something whooshed through the air.

"Take cover!" Ricardo yelled at his brother.

Joseph didn't have time to react.

The senescent black claws dug into his back and Ricardo's yell mingled with the cry of triumph from the monster merman. Infected with alcohol and infuriated with desire, Ferus lowered his mouth to the neck of the younger man. The royal's sword slicked through the air.

"Help! Someone please help! Joseph's been attacked!"

Ricardo fell to his knees, yanking out the beast's claws brutally. Joseph whimpered into the grass and Ricardo saw his brother's dagger sticking out of the beast's gullet.

"Don't move, brother," he whispered. "Don't move." Joseph's smile was stained with blood. "Don't you dare die on me." His voice cracked. "Don't you dare die on me. Who else am I going to steal food from the kitchens with? And who am I going to have to help with tricking Kei?"

"You can – train Lara." Joseph's voice was scratchy in his throat.

"No. No, Jose..."

"Rick. Don't be a fool." He coughed up blood and the elder prince felt the tears splash down his cheeks as lights turned on at the palace and he could see the doctor's beginning to run over the open field he and his brother had landed in. "You killed him, Rick. It's not your fault."

Matching eyes in green and blue clashed in open air, trying desperately to understand. Joseph began to tremble in Rick's arms and Rick pulled off his jacket, covering his bloody brother, seven, eight inch deep gashes running down his back. The glimmer of mischievousness in those eyes, the stars of perpetual delight, faded slowly.

"Hadrian thought it was time for me to go."

The clouds sailed over the trickster's stars.

"No – Joseph – please! Don't you die! Don't you dare die on me!"

ooo

Don't you dare kill me.

...Please let me live?

Your suddenly depressed author,

Summer Goose