Andrea Höst: And All the Stars

"Do you think they regret asking you to submit a design?" Noi asked, as they emerged from the screening trees and stopped, gazing up at the replacement for the Archibald Fountain.

"Maybe. I did sometimes, during the fuss. But there were a lot of other submissions, and they decided by public vote."

"Beautiful and terrible," Noi murmured. "I can almost look at it without cringing."

The statue rose twenty metres, a graceful curve of white shot with central veins of blue clustered into a semblance of a human figure. The base was suspended in a clear block, giving it some necessary stability, and beneath was a patterned non-slip grid to drain the water which fell in a single sheet from the outstretched, kite-like wings. On hot days children would be able to play in the near-mist of the fall.

"He liked water," Madeleine said.

They walked on in silence, ignoring the small scatter of people who recognised Noi and looked closely at her companion. In the mist, tiny rainbows were visible, shimmering in the fine liquid sheet.

Arms slid around Madeleine’s waist, warm and familiar, and Fisher rested his forehead wearily on her shoulder. "What mad impulse made me agree to be a speaker?"

Madeleine leaned back, knowing perfectly well he’d done it to make it easier for her to refuse. "When are they bringing them?" she asked instead.

"Just after dawn."

"What’s this?" Noi asked. "Bringing who? Oh, wait – do you mean the Goat Island crowd? Seriously?"

"It seems to be important to them." Fisher tightened his arms briefly, then shifted to Madeleine’s side, catching hold of her hand. "And kept absolutely quiet for obvious reasons."

In Australia twenty-seven Moths had survived a choice to surrender. After interminable debate the Government had recognised Pan’s offer of amnesty and collected them all on Goat Island. Not every country followed suit – some were still struggling to form a stable enough government to make a ruling – but there were still several hundred En-Mott around the world. And, of course, endless rumours that this or that prominent Blue was really an undiscovered Moth.

Fisher didn’t work directly with the team which had spent years creating a way to communicate with the remaining Moths, but occasionally he was drawn into issues surrounding them, just as he had been all through the months immediately following the fall of the Spires. The En-Mott would ask for him, because Théoden had become as much a hero to them as he was to the Blues he’d saved. Every time, the discussions gave Fisher nightmares, and he would seek Madeleine out and start talking – about art, about whatever he was studying at the moment, or the latest book he’d read. Talking until the knots relaxed, and the tension flowed out of him.

A shout summoned attention, and it was time to greet long-absent friends, be introduced to new, and ignore the people taking photos of the rare sight of the original Blue Musketeers all in one place. After the initial excitement had eased, Madeleine broke away from the crowd and drifted with Fisher to a simple plaque set in the paving right on the edge of the mist.

His profile as he gazed at the curve of blue and white above took all her attention, and she was immediately distracted into planning a canvas. "Will you sit for another portrait?"

The expression he wore when he looked down at her became another that she urgently wanted to capture, stealing her breath with its intensity. "Do you remember what I said the first time you asked me that?"

"I’m not likely to forget." He’d said Always , voice shaking, and kissed her immediately afterward.

"It meant you’d started seeing me. You asked that question and I –" He paused, glancing at the audience behind them, and offered her a faint, wry smile. "For you to see me, ME, was everything."

"Now I feel bad because I was simply glad that I’d finally figured out how to paint you."

His smile became sardonic. "By that point I’d noticed you draw a great many people, but only seem to urgently want to paint those who matter to you."

She’d not thought of it that way, but it was true enough, making another similarity between them, since he spared time from his studies only for people he considered important. There had been times, even after Tokyo, when she’d struggled not to give in to divided feelings, but she’d never regretted choosing to go to Melbourne. And had been rewarded by a slow return of the total confidence she’d felt when she first held her hand out to a boy more complicated than anyone guessed.

"I wonder if Noi and Lee would be interested in a double wedding?" she asked, standing beneath mist and rainbows.

Fisher’s hand tightened on hers. "Are you proposing to me?"

"I think I must be." The dust-catcher was a mercy, her face surely crimson. "I can’t imagine ever not wanting to paint you."

Fisher gave her his response silently and completely, turning to take her free hand, every line of him shouting joy as the mist-fine fall drifted around him. She was glad this had happened here, the place where it had begun and ended, and wasn’t even annoyed by the faint awareness of camera shutters whirring. The Musketeers had helped her along by maintaining to a very interested world that "Fisher and Maddie got together in Tokyo", but she wasn’t ashamed of what she’d felt for Théoden. He had given her many gifts, and it felt right to share this with him.

Keeping a firm clasp of Fisher’s hands, she looked up at rainbows, then down at the stone plaque they stood before.

"Théoden," it read.

Beneath the name, three words:

ONE FOR ALL

Thank you for reading And All the Stars

For information about other books by Andrea K Höst visit http://www.andreakhost.com/

Avinash (Nash) Sharma

Emily (Millie) Wright

Fisher Charteris

Lee (Pan) Rickard

Madeleine Cost

Min Liang

NaengNoi (Noi) Lauro

Henry V , William Shakespeare

King Lear , William Shakespeare

Peter Pan and Wendy , JM Barrie

Romeo and Juliet , William Shakespeare

The Three Musketeers , Alexandre Dumas