The Blaze Ignites (16 page)

I took it from her and gripped my sword with
my other hand, feeling the hard diamonds under my palm. “Thank
you,” I said with no small amount of shame.

“I want to apologize to you,” she said.

I looked at her stunned. “Apologize? For
what? You’re the one who just saved me . . .
again
.”

She smiled and looked down for a moment. Then
her eyes came up to meet mine. “I didn’t know about your past. The
White Warrior just recently showed it to us. You’ve dealt with
enough in your life without someone, who’s supposed to be on your
side making you feel any worse than did those creatures you had to
live with in The Pitt.”

I smiled at her. “There’s a bruise on
your
pride.”

She chuckled. “I’ll take that to mean you
kindly accept my sincere apology.”

I nodded. “I do. Thank you.” I gazed around
nervously. It was nearly dark out. “Acalith, would you mind staying
with me? Just until I find my frie—” I looked back, but she was
gone, with only a neatly folded pile of clothes left where she had
been. I sighed, then got to my knees and unfolded the clothes.

It was a set of relatively fine traveling
garb that included a goldish brown top that fit a little too snugly
around my shape but was lovely nonetheless. Two strips of cloth
made an X over my chest, revealing a little more cleavage than I
was used to. There was also a cloak of the same gold brown color, a
pair of snug white leggings, and black shiny boots.

I debated whether to clean the blood off me,
then decided to leave it alone so I could send a loud, effective
warning to anyone else who tried a stunt like this. I didn’t want
to be here any more than they wanted me here, and I was going to
make sure they knew it. I also wanted to make sure that they left
my friends and me alone until we were gone.

A comb had been laid out with my outfit and
with it I smoothed my hair, glaring at the dead body of the Salynn
the entire time. It was really going to be a shame to have this
creature’s blood on such a nice outfit, but it had to be done.

“Forgive me, Acalith, for not giving you
credit for this kill,” I said aloud.

When I was ready, I put my sword in my belt
and the necklace in my pocket, and then picked up the Salynn’s
body. I looked towards the soft orange of the horizon and knew
dinner would be in progress already. Good. This would work better
with an audience.

Azrel

I got to the throne room and peeked through
the crack between the closed double doors in front of me. The
tables were set up horizontally from where I viewed the room,
starting at the foot of the king’s throne and stretching out to my
right. My friends sat at the head table at the foot of the throne.
I spotted Addredoc and found myself smiling; he was still my
friend. I couldn’t stop wondering, though, why they’d left me alone
outside like that. Beldorn was standing next to Elraramir, who sat
on his throne. Fali was at the second table from my friends. I
expected Reese would be with him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Humph! I was surprised it hadn’t been
him
outside trying to
rape me. Everyone was looking very nervous, chatting hastily,
wondering where I was.

I shook my head in disgust. “Try looking
outside where you left me, you morons,” I said softly to
myself.

I waited still. I wanted to make a memorable
entrance, one that none of them, friend or foe, would ever forget.
I waited until the dead Salynn I was holding in my arms became
impossible to hold any longer. By this time, people were sweating
and pulling at their collars. My party looked around, seeming ready
to call for a full-fledged hunt for me.

It was time.

I took a few steps back and got a small
running start. With a scream, I kicked open the doors with one foot
and went into the throne room. Beings jumped up so quickly that
chairs fell to the floor behind them. After a split second of
silence, everyone started talking at once. Seeing blood all over
me, Rabryn and Ortheldo started forward, only to be held back by
Addredoc and Thrawyn. The crowd erupted as I got closer and they
realized what I was carrying. Some women even screamed.

I stopped before the line of tables and
tossed the body of the Salynn on the floor. My glaring eyes panned
the crowd as I waited for them to quiet down. Finally, I could
speak and be heard. “
This
is what happens when a lesser
being tries to overpower me! You end up
dead!
” I glared into
every pair of eyes I could, daring anyone to say a word. “I want to
know who he is and who sent him,
right now
!”

“His name was Sepp,” the king replied
standing up. “What
is
the meaning of this outrage?”

“You tell me!” I cried, glaring at him. “One
minute I’m sunbathing with my company, the next I find myself
alone
,” I said, directing the emphasis of the word towards
my friends, “and being attacked by
him
!” My glared deepened
at the king. “He wanted to kill me, so I killed him first.”

“You’ve committed murder!” the king
bellowed.

My teeth clenched. I really wanted to hit
him. “I defended myself!” I screamed. I took a step forward and
pointed at him menacingly. “You want to throw me in the dungeon for
that? Then I wish you a lot of luck because you
will
die if
you try.”

The room exploded in gasps and chatter and
the King’s mouth dropped. “How dare you thre . . .”

“Shut up!” My head pounded with the force of
my voice. My glare panned the crowd again. “Any one of you who even
thinks
about bringing harm to me or my company, I
will
destroy you in the most slow, brutal way possible,” I
hissed. “If any of you try to succeed where Sepp failed, you’d
better make damn sure you have enough people to overpower me
because I can put up one
hell
of a fight!” I paused a moment
to let my threat sink in. “If you think a few riffraff like
yourselves will outdo me, you’ve got another thing coming! You have
no
idea who you’re dealing with!” I saw a few people’s
throats bob in heavy swallows and watched nervous glances get
exchanged. “I hope none of you try to find out again because you
will
regret it. This is a fair warning to
all of
you!
” I glared at the table where all my friends stood looking
stunned and ashamed, then turned and stormed towards the hallway
that led back towards my cave.

I was still angry, but it felt better to get
that warning out to all of them. I felt a little more secure now,
but wasn’t stupid enough to think any of us were actually safe. If
only we didn’t have to wait for those stupid maps! I stopped in my
tracks and stared down the hallway in thought. I wondered how truly
accurate the old maps were. Maybe we could just take them and use
Ortheldo’s land savvy skills to determine where hostile and
potentially evil territory might lay now. He’d traveled all over
Casdanarus looking for me for nine years; he must have at least a
pretty good idea of where we could and couldn’t go.

I turned and headed for the closest winding
stairway in that hall. Using old maps would be better than staying
here like sitting ducks in a pond of water dragons. I wasn’t
staying another moment longer than I had to. By revealing Sepp’s
body, I’d just blown a trumpet into this sleeping hornets’ nest,
and the hornets were going to be pissed.

I headed toward the North side of the
mountain, where the History Room was, though I had no idea how to
find one room in this mammoth mountain. “Come on, White Warrior,” I
pleaded. “Help me find this room so we can get out of here.” I
wasn’t sure if I should be considering her another person if it was
so imperative that we become “joined” like Rabryn had said, but I
didn’t know how else to approach this. I sighed and tried to let my
instincts take over so they might lead me to this room that I
desperately needed to get too.

Suddenly an impulse told me to turn right. As
it came, it felt like I was practically jerked to the right and
down another hall. Then another jerking feeling took me into a door
on my left. I went through that and it led me up a staircase. In
the next hall I was pulled left again through another door.

At the end of this short hallway was a set of
double wooden doors with a rounded, convex shape, as if a giant had
pushed them outward from the inside and they’d stayed like that.
Two large gold handles shone in the lamplight. I pulled open one of
the doors and peeked inside. Right in front me were the narrow ends
of bookshelves, with a skinny path going down between them. I
smiled and slipped inside, making my way down the path in front of
me.

At the end of the aisle I looked around in
awe. The circular room wasn’t huge, but it was beautiful. Soft,
off-white carpet covered the entire floor and lines of dark wooden
bookshelves surrounded the upper part of the ring where I stood. I
stopped at a gold banister that went around the edge and noticed
two sets of short steps on each end that led down into the lower
circle below me. The lower ring looked like a classroom. Desks were
neatly lined up with papers, books, scrolls and numerous drawings
all over them—left behind by the mapping team, I guessed. Large
lamps mounted on the ends of each bookshelf bathed the entire room
in warm golden orange light.

I dragged my fingers along the gold banister
and made my way to the short flight of stairs on my left that led
to the lower ring. Though there were no windows, unlike in my
accommodations, it was warm and comfortable in here.

“I had nothing to do with that.”

The unexpected voice made me jump. I looked
and saw Reese coming down the other set of steps, his arms loaded
with books. He didn’t even look at me as he set them down at the
desk in the far left corner, which was already overloaded with
books and papers.

I wanted to go over and knock his teeth in.
He
did
. I crossed my arms over my chest. “Had nothing to do
with what, Reese?”

He looked up at me as if I were an idiot.
“The fiasco that got you covered in blood.” I looked down at myself
and turned red; I’d forgotten I hadn’t cleaned up yet. He sat down
at the desk with his back to me. “Besides, I happened to be on the
balcony when you stormed in with your ranting and little spree of
threats.”

“You think my threats were little?”

He looked at me over his shoulder and
something odd passed over his eyes before he looked down at his
work again. “Yes, as a matter of fact I do.”

Shaking with anger, I yanked my Salynn blade
from my thigh, tossed it into my right hand, and stormed towards
him. I snatched his hair and jerked his head back, putting the tip
of my knife against his throat. “How’s this for a ‘little’
threat?”

His nostrils flared with each breath, but his
composure and placid expression never wavered. His eyes, however,
darted around a little bit as if he was avoiding looking into mine,
focusing instead on
any
other part of my face. “You won’t do
it.”

I yanked his hair, forcing his head back
farther, and pressed my knife harder into his skin. “Oh yeah? What
makes you think that?”

“Because you would have done it already.”

I added more pressure and took satisfaction
in the little gasp of pain he let out as I drew some blood. “It’s
not too late.”

He sat silent a moment before he spoke again.
“Fine, do it. But you’ll never get those maps done. With my team
believing you killed Sepp, you just lost the researchers who were
working on them.”

“I’ll take my chances with the old maps.”

“Fine.”

Then he allowed his eyes to finally meet
mine. I instantly got a queer feeling, like a cold breeze was
sweeping through my insides. It felt like his eyes were reaching
through me. His eyes then took on a look I didn’t think I’d ever
see again in anyone. It was such a bottomless pit of agony and
sadness that I was reminded what it was like to look into Norka’s
eyes. Reese wanted to die. I couldn’t believe it was even possible
that Reese could have endured the same amount of pain Norka had
been through. He had no right to look so suicidal!

I withdrew my knife and released his hair. He
slowly lifted his head and watched over his shoulder as I
retreated. I put my Salynn blade away. “I see you
want
death
for some reason. But I’m not about to do you any favors.” Without a
word he turned around and went back to work. I swallowed hard and
looked away. “Where are the old maps?” He looked over his shoulder
and our eyes met again. I glared at him. “I wouldn’t want you
bothering yourself with drawing new ones. This way I’ll be out of
your way faster.”

“I thought you weren’t about to do me any
favors?”

My glared deepened. “I’ll be doing
myself
the favor.”

Reese stood up and went from desk to desk in
an organized fashion, piling papers on top of papers until he’d
amassed a stack about three inches thick. He handed it to me and
went back to his desk. I noticed the paper was indeed ancient and
discolored and the drawings were so faded that they were nearly
impossible to make out. “They’re from your father’s time. You’ll
need Salynn eyes to see anything.”

I scowled. “In case you didn’t notice, I have
four Salynns with me.”

“Then you should have no problem. I trust
you’ll be leaving tonight.”

His sudden dismissal stung for some reason,
but I held my chin high. “Yes, I will.”

“Have a nice life, then.”

He didn’t even glance at me. I narrowed my
eyes, then turned and left without a word. I walked countless halls
until I found my room. I removed my cloak and lit the lamp on the
bedside table. I sat against the stone headboard and drew my knees
up, resting the pile of papers on my legs. I was starving. Trying
to ignore my hunger, I went through the papers and found them to be
in decent enough order. I moved some pages about putting them in
the proper order of where my father taught me the lands of
Casdanarus lay. I was pretty sure that was how it went, but I’d
have Ortheldo double check.