The Blaze Ignites (18 page)

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Are you afraid I
just might
be
the White Warrior?”

All the smiles were gone immediately. Fali
peered at me through a narrowed gaze, as if unsure I’d really said
that to him. “What?”

“You heard me,” I said raising a brow. “I
think you’re afraid you might be wrong and that I
am
the
White Warrior.”

Everyone started looking really nervous. They
glanced around at each other wondering what they should do. Fali
gazed around the room. “She’s bluffing! She isn’t the White
Warrior!”

“Stop talking and prove it to them, Fali! I’m
getting bored real quick with your mouth.”

Everyone was stunned silent for a moment.
“Fali,” one human nearby whispered at last, “look what she did to
Laxford.”

“Luck,” Fali snapped, then turned his glare
back to me. “Nothing but pure luck and I’ll prove it,” he said and
took a step towards me.

“Good.” I took a deep breath through my nose
and blew it out of my mouth, as my father had taught me, so I could
gain my focus. I turned to the side, setting my feet apart and
bending deeply at my knees, and took an empty-handed fighting
stance that would look strange to them since no one else knew this
fight style. “I haven’t used my fight style since I killed the
Dirty Thirty.”

Gasps suddenly went through the crowd and the
tension grew. Fali stopped in his tracks and I gave him a smug
smile. Regaining composure, he clenched his fists. “She’s a
liar!”

“Oh, you haven’t heard? I suppose if you’d
been entitled to hear the conversation between me and Beldorn when
I first arrived, you’d know all about how my travels have gone for
the past three weeks. They’ve gone quite well—on my behalf anyway.”
I looked up to the ceiling and pretended to be thinking hard about
it. “Let’s see, I’ve killed the Dirty Thirty. . .um, about eighty
humans in Narcatertus.” More gasps and chatter. “Err. . .about
forty, maybe fifty Gibirs.” More noise erupted from the crowd. “Now
what am I forgetting? Oh yes!” I brightened as if just remembering
and tightened my stance again. “And eight Legan’dirs.”

The crowd erupted in a loud panic as most of
them looked around for the nearest exit. I wanted to laugh, but
held myself back.

“She’s lying! Don’t you all see that?” Fali
called desperately.

“I will spare the lives of any of you who
believe I am the White Warrior and leave now,” I called over the
ruckus. Without question, about half of them turned to go.

Fali nearly went mad. “If any of you leave,
I’ll kill you when I’m through with her!” About half of those that
had turned to leave changed their minds. If I couldn’t’ save them
all, at least my idea to try to save some of these Humounts was
working.

“I’ve also used my magic to heal,” I called
out. “Those of you that were playing those shadow tricks on me, or
those watching for amusement, must have seen me hit my friend
Ortheldo and break his nose.” A low murmur and a few nods came as a
reply. I smirked at Fali. “How’d he look at dinner?”

A few curses were shouted out as they
realized Ortheldo indeed had no broken nose at dinner. I suppose
they could have guessed that one of the Salynns with me could have
healed him, but still, many more turned and left. I was only stuck
with about forty bullheaded Humounts.

“You’re all dead! Do you hear me?” Fali
screamed in a near panic.

My brow twitched. “Care to try me on for size
yet, Fali?”

His face was red and his fists were clenched
at his sides. “I’m going to tear you apart,” he said, advancing
towards me.

“By the way!” I called, stopping Fali again
and grabbing everyone else’s attention. “If any one of you see a
single move I’m about to make, I will have to kill you when I’m
done with Fali.” Several of the remaining Humounts glanced
nervously at each other. I shrugged, making it clear that
destroying them all would be no big deal. “It’s nothing personal. I
just have to look out for my own safety right now. I’ve got Hathum
looking for me.” Every single pair of eyes widened in that room,
even Fali’s. “So if you see any proof of who I am, like the
fighting style I’m about to use, I’ll have to kill you so he won’t
see in any of your minds that the White Warrior has returned.

Half of the group left without a word,
leaving twenty for me to deal with. I liked those odds a lot
better. I really didn’t want to kill any of them, but I’d done
everything I could to turn them away. I was glad that I could at
least save the hundred and fifty or so that had left.

The remaining Humounts closed in around me,
glaring hatefully—all except one. I looked at the Salynn standing
to Fali’s immediate left. I read his eyes for a moment and saw that
he was scared out of his mind. The only thing keeping him in the
room was some obligation.

“What is your name?” I asked the young
Salynn, and the group paused in their advance. He looked like a
human of about fourteen or fifteen years.

“Haliser,” he replied nervously.

“Haliser, why are you still here?” He
twiddled his thumbs and chewed on his bottom lip as he glanced from
me to Fali. His fine blonde hair came pin-straight down to about
two inches below his jaw, loosely framing his youthful, fair face.
“I have a talent for reading eyes,” I said gently. “Do you know
what yours are saying?” His forehead creased with worry. “They’re
saying, ‘I want to leave! I know it’s her! I believe her. I don’t
want to die. Why am I still standing here? Because I have to.’” I
gave him a sympathetic glance. “Why do you have to?”

He only stared at me in silent shock.

“Because he’s my little brother and he
doesn’t
believe you,” Fali said, eyeing Haliser evilly. “You
read his eyes wrong, or can’t read them at all. More proof of your
lies.”

I looked back at the young Salynn. “If you
want to leave, then leave. I won’t let your brother stop you. But
if you stay, young one, I will really regret having to kill you.”
Fali started towards me again, so I immediately looked at him and
took a firmer stance.

Haliser suddenly rushed forward and grabbed
his brother’s arm, stopping him. “Fali, please don’t,” he begged.
“That
is
what she saw in my eyes. I believe it’s her.
Please, let’s just leave her be. I don’t want her to kill any of
you. Can we just go? Please?”

Fali paused for a moment, almost seeming to
consider it, but then snatched his arm away. “Get off me, you
coward!”

Haliser looked down. A tear dropped down his
cheek.

“Haliser,” I said gently and his red-rimmed
eyes looked up at me. “Go on. If your brother wants to fight me,
you can’t stop him. He’s a fool to want to die, but you can’t save
someone who doesn’t want to be saved. Save yourself.” I nodded my
chin towards the door. “Go.”

“Go!” Fali shouted at his brother. “Get out
of here! I don’t want you here! I’ll take care of her myself! When
you see her spoiled dead body being brought out, you’ll be begging
for my forgiveness.”

Haliser looked down for a moment and I
waited. He finally looked up at me, two tears running down his
cheeks. “I believe who you are, but I can’t abandon my brother
despite his foolishness. Even if it means my life.”

I was in awe of those brave words. It was a
kind of loyalty and courage you couldn’t help but admire. He was
going to stand by his brother, even if his beliefs were completely
absurd, and the difference meant his own life.

“You are very noble, young Haliser.” I looked
at Fali. “Those are some mighty words he speaks, and what he’s
willing to do in the name of his loyalty to you is admirable. If
you think him a coward, you’re farther beyond rational help than I
first thought. Stay blinded by your own pride and you will never
appreciate the pride you should be feeling for your young brother.”
I said the words, but I hadn’t thought them up. Obviously the White
Warrior was speaking.

Before I could contemplate that further, Fali
was at me. His fist flew at my face. He would have cracked my jaw,
had not my hand shot straight out. There was a loud smack and crack
as his fist crashed into my palm like he’d punched a stone wall.
Fali’s mouth opened in a silent scream of agony and his forehead
creased in pain as he looked at his fist, which was practically
embedded in my palm.

“You’re going to have to do better than
that,” I said.

He pulled his hand away and stared at me with
loathing deeper than any I could imagine. Some
serious
hatred was driving him on! I could see in his eyes that he knew who
I was, but he still insisted on attacking me.

He came at my face with his other fist. I
grasped his arm and turned my body around so my back was against
his stomach. I back-elbowed him in the ribs and then up into his
face before pulling him over my shoulder and laying him on the
floor at my feet.

I looked down at him with my hands on my
hips. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

He smirked unexpectedly. “This.”

Pain exploded in my head. It was so intense
and blinding that I was forced to my knees and then onto all fours.
The room was spinning and I felt sick with dizziness and agony. All
I could see was intermittent darkness with bursts of color.

I was so intent on Fali that I’d forgotten I
was outnumbered. I seemed alone in the world, alone with the pain
that took my breath away and blood that ran through my fingers down
my back. If that wasn’t enough, I suddenly felt another blow come
across my left cheek. The impact sent me reeling to my shoulder and
I desperately tried to hold onto consciousness. Blood flowed out of
my mouth and the world was a blur. I couldn’t move, unable to
determine where I was or what position my body was in. I didn’t
even know which way to roll to get myself up onto my knees.

Then I heard the laughter. As my vision swam
in black, I heard them laughing at me again. When my blurred vision
found where the group gathered, I could just make out Fali
massaging his injured hand. Another being standing beside him held
a dark metal pipe.

“You know, I think I was wrong,” Fali said.
“You could be the White Warrior. You’re a coward just like he
was.”

Coward.

Coward.

Coward.

The word echoed in my ears and my blood began
to boil. I felt myself slipping into the memory of when my father
died. I hated that word! It had been undeservingly used against him
for so long. It had ruined his life and mine! “Don’t give anyone a
reason to call you a coward. Don’t make the same mistake I did,” my
father had said to me. By the Gods in the Sky and the Depths I
would
not
allow that word to be used to describe me!

My pain vanished. My sight focused and became
clearer and sharper than it had ever been before. The group
continued laughing at me. The seams of my sanity exploded as a
storm of emotions swept through me, pounding at my insides to be
released! It was the White Warrior! This was how
she
demanded control of our body!

Suddenly I threw my head back and screamed,
allowing myself to be thrown into that detached state where she
took over. She screamed long and loud with me, as if that word
“coward” was a knife twisting in her gut too. White fire ignited
around me and I was lying in a white bonfire, as I had twice before
when my sanity temporarily had slipped off the edge. My scream fed
the fire until I was completely in my White Warrior form, healed
and pissed off.

As the fire faded, I sat up. My teeth
clenched as I got to my feet and turned, glaring at the twenty
beings that stared at me in horror. The Salynn holding the metal
pipe started to tremble and dropped it. He wet himself as it
clattered to the marble floor.

I eyed each and every one of them that shook
in my wake. “Label me what you will—a bitch, a liar, even weak. But
don’t ever,
ever
label me a coward.”

Panic surged through the entire group and
they all went screaming for the nearest exit, pushing, shoving and
falling over one another. I glanced at the first open door as one
group reached it. I slammed it in their faces with a mere thought.
I did the same to another door, then another, and another. When all
the doors were shut, they ran to the two open hallways adjacent
from each other. I glanced at each opening and suddenly a wall of
white fire bubbled up from the floor to the ceiling closing off
each hallway. The group all glanced around frantically for another
way out.

“I told you,” I said, making them all jump,
though my voice wasn’t raised, “ that if you saw any proof of who I
am, I would have to kill you.” I touched my shining white hair with
one hand and pulled at the top of my silky white leggings with the
other. “You can’t get much more solid proof than this.”

All of them dropped to their knees, crying
and begging for forgiveness. I heard more than once, “It was all
Fali’s doing! Fali made us!”

Where
was
Fali?

I suddenly felt a presence behind me and spun
around. Fali was standing right at my back, his arms raised and
holding up a sword he’d ripped from the display wall.

I moved to defend myself, but suddenly an
arrowhead came through his chest and a shower of blood sprayed my
face. I flinched and saw Fali’s fair face melt into shock. The
sword slipped from his grip, clattering to the floor. He dropped to
his knees before me and stared up at me a moment before his eyes
rolled into the back of his head and he fell to his side, dead.

I looked up to see where the arrow had come
from. There stood Haliser with his bow in hand. Even as I watched,
though, he started to change. His short blonde hair began to
lengthen and it also deepened a shade of blonde, to brown, to dark
brown. His face strengthened and matured and he even grew taller.
His blue eyes darkened to grey and his shoulders broadened.