Cigarette's Arc

Chapter 1 of 5

Cigarette pressed her hand to the wall of the crystal tower and felt her fingers pass through it. The stone had gone soft as smoke. All morning the kingdom had done this—towers flickering, spires half-fading into another world. The thief had stolen the starseed three nights ago, and without it, the whole court was slipping loose from this world. Cigarette had one goal now. Find the trail before her people vanished for good. But there was no trail. She had searched every garden and every spire. The thief left no tracks, no scent, nothing. She had no idea where the starseed had gone. Inside the throne room, King Four Loko paced on legs thick as tree roots, his gauzy wings twitching with every step. He was small but built like a fist, and right now that fist wanted to hit something. "You found nothing," he said. It wasn't a question. "The thief left no trail," Cigarette said. "I can't chase what I can't see." Beside him, Queen Smirnoff sat still. Silver lines glowed faint across her skin, dimming as the room flickered. She was fading too, Cigarette realized. The queen lifted one thin hand. "Then don't chase the thief," she said quietly. "Chase the starseed. It's alive. It calls to its own." Cigarette stopped. "How?" The queen rose. Her long dress dragged through a patch of floor that had turned to nothing. "The seed and my blood share one light," she said. "Cut me, and the drop will lean toward it." King Four Loko grabbed her wrist. "No. You're already fading fastest. You give blood, you might slip away first." Queen Smirnoff pulled her wrist free. Her purple eyes did not blink. "Then I fade knowing I helped." She looked at Cigarette. "Do it quickly." Cigarette's hands shook. She did not want this. But the tower behind her had gone half-clear, and through it she could see stars that did not belong to this sky. Time was almost gone. She took the queen's hand and pricked one finger with a thorn. A single silver drop welled up. It trembled, then rolled sideways across the queen's palm—against gravity, pointing north through the wall. "There," Queen Smirnoff whispered. Her voice was fainter now. Her whole arm had turned to mist. Cigarette watched the drop hold its line, steady as a needle. She finally had her direction. But the queen swayed and sat hard on the throne, her legs already gone see-through to the knee. "Go," King Four Loko said. His voice cracked. "Follow it now. She bought you the trail. Don't waste what it cost her." Cigarette pressed the drop into a small glass vial and sealed it. The silver still leaned north. She turned toward the fading wall and stepped through where the stone used to be. Behind her, the queen's light dimmed one shade more.