The Blaze Ignites (19 page)

When the change was complete, Reese stood
there! I wanted to fall to my knees in shock, but the White Warrior
stood strong and even smiled.

A corner of Reese’s mouth went up in an
amused smirk. “Are you rusty or something, old girl? Fali almost
nailed you in your coffin.”

I chuckled softly. “I’m not rusty, nor old. I
just wanted to see if you had any talent left in that bow string of
yours.”

Reese’s brows went up. “I hope I haven’t
disappointed you.”

“Not with your talent as an archer. But, tell
me, would it break your fair face if you smiled once in a
while?”

Reese threw his head back and laughed. “I
don’t know. I never tried.” Then he jokingly took his chin and
turned his face from side to side. “Am I still intact?”

Now it was the White Warrior’s turn to laugh.
“Yes, and just as handsome as ever.”

Okay, apparently they knew each other.
Perhaps the White Warrior communicated with him in that “other
world” Ortheldo and Rabryn kept talking about.

“What do we do with them?” Reese asked,
indicating the twenty trembling beings.

I sighed regretfully and looked down. “I’ve
got it covered.”

Then I looked up towards the balcony and my
jaw dropped at the sight—or it
would have
if I’d been in
control. I couldn’t believe what unfolded before me. From behind
the stone wall that ringed the balcony stood the rest of the
residents of Rocksheloc Mountain. All of them had bows loaded and
aimed at the twenty shaking beings. I couldn’t believe it! Had they
been up there hiding behind the wall the whole time? What was more
shocking was that Rabryn, Ortheldo, Acalith, Addredoc, Thrawyn, and
Meddyn were all up there with them. Even Reese loaded his bow
again. What was I seeing?

My head nodded, and then came the sound of
over one hundred arrows being launched. They snapped and whistled
through the air. Then there came the dull thuds of every single one
of them hitting their target. All the beings before me fell to the
marble floor with loud smacks, each with about seven arrows in
their body
.

When it was over, I looked up at the beings
up on the balcony. They were well organized and prepared—and they
had saved my ass. I’d had nothing to do with it. The White Warrior
did.

The White Warrior stepped out onto the floor
and shook her head slowly. “What a mess,” she muttered to herself
sadly. She then looked up at Beldorn and the king. “I did
everything I could to try and get them to leave.”

“I know that, White Warrior,” Beldorn said.
“You turned most of them away. For that, you should be proud and
grateful.”

She sighed through her nose and looked at the
bodies again. “Sure.”

I realized she was upset at what she’d done
and my heart sank. Maybe all of them could have been spared if I
hadn’t pushed her away when I did. I should have let her handle
it.

The White Warrior then took in a deep breath
through her nose, spread her feet shoulder width apart and tilted
her head back. Her arms were straight down at her sides and white
fire dripped from her fingertips like rainwater. The drops
collected on the floor and a soft white fire spread along the floor
underneath the dead bodies. They glittered faintly with white
magic, then slowly faded away from sight.

The White Warrior blew out a slow breath when
they all disappeared and bowed her head. “I put them in your
cemetery,” she said. “They’re buried already so I could keep my
magic underground so as not to be seen.” She didn’t even lift her
head to look back at the king.

“Thank you, my noble White Warrior.”

I suddenly felt a comforting hand on my
shoulder and Reese stepped up beside me. “You did what you had to
do.”

My head nodded but didn’t look up from the
floor. “I’m sorry that Fali got his hands on Sepp. I wish I could
have spared your brother for you.”

Reese looked down, “Sepp needed to die just
like the others.”

“How’s Haliser?” My voice asked.

“He still can’t believe Fali had anything to
do with wanting to destroy you. But after explaining it was most
likely Hathum’s work, I think he understood. I saw him on the
balcony with the rest, so I think he realized that his brother also
needed to die.”

“You say that so callously,” my voice said a
little crossly, but she was still looking at the floor.

“My apologies, White Warrior,” Reese replied,
his voice low and shameful.

I sighed and finally looked at him. “No, I
apologize. I’m not angry with you. You’re right in what you say,
but the fact that it’s true is what upsets me.”

“I understand.”

“Thank you for agreeing to disguise yourself
at Haliser to try and talk some sense into Fali.”

“I mostly agreed so Haliser could be spared
being a part of his brother’s death. They were very close.”

The White Warrior sighed, “I know they
were.”

“You did everything you could to save him,
White Warrior,” Reese gently assured me. “Haliser knows that.”

She sighed again, “I know. It just doesn’t
seem like enough.”

Suddenly I came back into control of myself.
Weary from recent events, I dropped to my knees. Looking down, I
watched my appearance fade. My hair turned brown again and my white
outfit faded into the blood covered goldish brown shirt and white
pants Acalith had given me.

Reese was squatting at my side, his hand
resting gently on my back. “Are you alright?”

I nodded unconvincingly and stood up. The
shame and the questions swimming round me made me want to pull my
hair out. For some reason I really wanted to talk to Acalith, but
when my party approached me she wasn’t with them.

As my company approached, I rested my hand on
the back of my head. No hole, no bump, not even a scratch. Given
the force with which I’d been hit, I was surprised nothing was
there. But then again, that’s how it always was. If I was injured,
like with my broken shoulder with the Dirty Thirty, I was healed
after I transformed into The White Warrior. She must heal me in the
process of changing.

I looked unhappily at them all as they came
forward. “Acalith’s gone?”

They all nodded. I gritted my teeth. I just
happened to look at my brother in that moment. I saw something odd
in his eyes as he looked at the floor. No, I
couldn’t
be
seeing what I thought I was seeing. My eyes narrowed at him. “I
wish she would stick around once in a while,” I said, having
questions to ask her, but also wanting to find out if what I saw in
Rabryn’s eyes was right.

He looked up at me. “That makes two of
us.”

I looked at him, trying not to show my shock.
I
had
read them correctly. He liked Acalith. He liked her a
lot! It didn’t matter because he was a naive seventeen-year-old. He
was too young to think he liked her as much as he thought he
did.

I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at
all of them as they stared back at me, rather surprised at myself
that I wasn’t happy to see them. “Any one of you care to explain
why you left me alone outside, in a place we
all
had
established as threatening?”

“It was Sepp’s doing,” Reese said, coming to
their defense. “He was a part of Fali’s plot, but didn’t want to
wait for everyone else. He wanted you for himself first, so he went
outside Fali’s plan. He first disguised himself as Wizard Beldorn
and told them all to go inside and that he would watch over you.
Then he disguised himself as Wizard-Redian Addredoc to attack
you.”

“How in the name of the Light Gods Sanctuary
do you know all that?” I cried.

“When I heard you were coming, I was told to
magically link myself to my brother when he started acting
suspiciously. I knew his every move from the moment Wizard Beldorn
arrived until he was killed.”

“If you knew all this was going on, why
didn’t you try to stop him? Why didn’t you tell me so I could be
prepared for this mess? Why didn’t anyone say anything to me about
anything?” I cried, my body trembling. I felt overwhelmed. I felt
sick and lightheaded. Why did they all let this happen?

“The White Warrior was calling all the
shots,” Addredoc said stepping forward. “That’s why she needed you
to sleep so much. She needed to coordinate this defense for you.
She met with all of us and planned for every possible path this
event might take, all in one day.”

“I can take care of myself!” I yelled, not
sure who I was really angry at. Was I angry at them for not telling
me about this attack, or The White Warrior for doing all this and
making me feel like a pathetic, useless infant who needed to be
babysat?

“She specifically told us not to interfere,”
Addredoc went on gently.

I looked at the floor and pressed both my
hands into my forehead. This was a nightmare! She’d set up this
organized defense of one hundred people in
one day
? And
they’d all followed her plan, no objections. They just did what she
told them because they trusted her. That was leadership I would
never have the privilege of knowing. Maybe I
was
an infant
in need of a babysitter. Then a terrifying question surfaced. If I
wasn’t the White Warrior, then what were the twenty years with my
father good for?

My stomach lurched. I was so sick and tired
of this! Why couldn’t I just go home to the Sky with my family?
What in the name of the Light Gods was I really here for? I wasn’t
the White Warrior!
She
was! I could never be her!

Suddenly I felt very aware of the one hundred
sets of eyes on me. I felt every penetrating gaze as the beings
gathered around, probably wondering as much about me as I was
wondering about myself. Who was I? What was my purpose? I had none.
She did. She had a job to do and I was in the way of that.
Casdanarus was going to die because I was blocking the White
Warrior from freely existing and saving them.

Unable to take their eyes anymore, I ran. I
fled from those eyes that wanted me to be something I wasn’t—their
savior, their legendary warrior in shining white armor. They wanted
a leader and none was more worthy than the White Warrior…but I was
in the way of that incredible power being unleashed. I ran down
twisting hallways, and up and down stairs, not caring where I was
going as long as I could escape the eyes.

A thought came to me and I ran faster. Run.
Run. Run! Run away so fast, you can run away from her and separate
yourself. She can exist and save them and you can go home. Run!
Run! Run!

I ran for a long, long time, as fast as I
possibly could. The walls and décor were a blur. I could barely
feel the carpet and stone under my feet. I just ran. I screamed at
myself to go faster.
Run away from her. Separate yourself!
Run!

Over an hour went by, and finally I couldn’t
run anymore. I was still stuck here like this, two people in one
mind. I hadn’t outrun her like I’d foolishly hoped. I collapsed to
my hands and knees against a wall of some hallway, and screamed in
agony until the sobs came. I clutched my stomach, which burned
intensely, and finally collapsed completely, falling onto my
shoulder on the red-carpeted floor. I curled up on my side, wishing
that this wasn’t happening to me, wishing a lot of things, but I
knew wishes were stupid.

“Azrel!” I heard Ortheldo’s voice echo down a
hallway. I closed up tighter and hoped the mountain would swallow
me up before he found me. “Azrel,” he said in relief when he turned
the corner. I really didn’t want him near me right now, but he ran
up and kneeled next to me, panting and dripping with sweat. He
gently brushed some of my own soaking wet hair out of my face.
“Azrel, what’s wrong?”

“Leave me alone.” I sobbed.

“Why? Tell me what’s wrong. Please?”

“Why should I!” I screamed unexpectedly at
him and sat up glaring at him. “Don’t pretend you care about me
now!”

“What are you talking about?” he asked,
shocked at my reaction.

I sunk back to the floor and wrapped my arms
around my head again. “You all left me alone.”

“Addredoc explained that to you. We thought
it was Beldorn.”

“Not just that!” I cried. “All of you left me
alone to fend for myself against Fali and his hundred and fifty
creeps. You didn’t tell me I was going to be attacked; you just
left them to it.”

“Azrel, we really didn’t see the choice we
had. Acalith and everyone explained the orders to us and said it
was to save your life. How could you expect Rabryn and me to do
anything else, in that case, but follow direction?”

My face scrunched and I tried to hold in a
sob but it squeaked out anyway. “Leave me alone.”

“I can’t. Everyone is worried about you. I
had to damn near wrestle Rabryn to the floor so he would stay where
he was and calm down. He was ready to knock some heads off,
including mine.”

I pressed my arms around my head tighter. I
didn’t want to hear this. I just wanted to be left alone. I felt
like such a burden to myself. Ortheldo rested his hand on my arm
and gently began to lower it from around my face. I didn’t bother
fighting it and just stared at the opposite wall.

“Azrel,” he said softly, “tell me what’s
wrong.”

I let out a breath of defeat. “The White
Warrior and I are two separate people, Ortheldo, so what is the
purpose of my existence? Nothing. It’s
her
that the world
needs, not me.”

“I could name a couple of people who need
you. And the White Warrior is one of them.”

“Spare me,” I scoffed, refusing to look at
him.

“You think I’m joking?”

“I know you’re not, which makes what you’re
saying even more ridiculous.”

“She does. That’s why she set up that defense
for you.”

“That’s what I’m talking about!” I cried
sitting up again. I looked him in the eyes for the first time,
those pretty periwinkle eyes. “If she wasn’t so busy saving my
pathetic hide she might actually get some useful things done!” I
looked at him, desperate for him to hear me, to understand. “She is
everything I am, Ortheldo, except she has the advantage of useful
magic. And not just
any
magic, but white fire! She has the
Light Gods’ power on Earth! Goodness itself! What do
I
need
to be here for?”