The Blaze Ignites (21 page)

“I think you’re just pissed about their
kiss.”

I clenched my jaw. “Rabryn, at this point, I
don’t care anymore. The Azrel I fell in love with is dead!”

“I don’t believe that any more than Addredoc
does, and neither should you!” he cried. “I agree that it’s only a
matter of digging up who she used to be, and I know she can do
it!”

“Yeah? Well either way it’s something she has
to do on her own. I’m not going to wait around and lick the wounds
of her petty past for her.”

Suddenly I felt heat at the back of my head.
“Petty?” Rabryn screamed.

The next thing I knew I was being pulled
backwards off my horse by my hair and thrown to the ground by what
had to be Rabryn’s magic.

Before I could recover, the sound of hooves
made me spin onto my opposite shoulder as a stampede of horse legs
was about to trample me. Just as I covered my head with my arms,
the Redians pulled on the reins so hard the horses reared up on
their hind legs. Addredoc desperately held onto Cairikson to keep
him from falling off as they guided their distraught horses away
from me.

I looked at Rabryn as he stormed towards me,
his fair face twisted in such ugly rage that I actually felt afraid
of him for a moment. He slapped both hands down onto my chest,
taking up a fistful of my shirt, then pulled me straight up and
slammed me hard into a tree trunk without my feet even touching the
ground.

“Don’t you dare assume you know
anything
about my sister’s past! I don’t give a damn how
angry you are! You know
nothing
of what her life was like or
what she went through!
Nothing!
”

Some of my own anger threatened to spill
forth, and though I was helpless, I still let some go. “It couldn’t
have been
that
bad! Not enough to turn her into that
creature I just spoke with up in the mountain. I have my own
abusive past to face every day and I manage. My world should have
ended
when I lived with my brother, but it didn’t. I
survived!”

“So has she! She just doesn’t know it yet!”
Rabryn growled. Tears formed in his eyes. “I don’t believe what
your brother did to you was any worse or better than what was done
to Azrel, but I
will
make you see what she went through!
Maybe then you’ll understand and quit bitching about what she’s
become.”

He held his hand up next to his face, his
palm out towards me. A line of gold spiraling smoke came at me from
his hand. I tried to back away from it, but I was caught between
Rabryn and the tree. Before the smoke reached me, I saw a tear fall
from Rabryn’s eye. “I
dare
you not to be sick when this is
over.”

I felt the smoke seep into my sockets, as if
my eyes were drinking in syrup, thick and almost painful. It
traveled up into my skull and gathered behind my eyes. I squeezed
them shut to try to block out the queer sensation.

When I opened my eyes again, Rabryn was gone
and it was dark. I found myself in The Pitt, where a party seemed
to be going on. Tents were scattered all over the clearing. There
was dancing in the center and campfires scattered over the land.
The voices I heard were soft, sounding like they were miles away,
and the commotion of the party echoed like a dream.

Suddenly the world flashed away in a blinding
gold light. When it was gone, I found myself standing next to a
young woman sitting on a log with a little boy on her lap. As I
cautiously drew nearer, I saw it was Azrel with Rabryn.

“He just came out of nowhere!” Azrel was
saying. “I couldn’t believe it!”

Rabryn laughed. He was so small I had a hard
time linking the little human boy in front of me to the brave adult
Salynn I’d seen a moment ago. “But you beat him, right?”

Azrel held her chin high, “Of course I did.”
Then they both laughed together as Azrel started tickling his
stomach.

“I love you, Azrel,” Rabryn said as he threw
his arms around her neck.

“I love you too, little brother,” she
replied, embracing him. Her voice got sad. “You make life here
worth living.”

He pulled away, keeping his hands clasped
behind her neck. “You’ll be happy here, won’t you Azrel?”

She smiled softly at him and brushed some of
his brown curls out of his face. “As long as I have you to love me,
you bet I will.”

Rabryn hugged her again. “I’ll always love
you.”

Suddenly the scene flashed gold again. When
it disappeared I found myself in one of the tents. At my feet Azrel
and Rabryn were cuddled up next to each other, fast asleep. Someone
else was in the tent though. I squinted and realized that three
females were at Azrel’s head, each of them holding a huge chunk of
Azrel’s long hair…and a razor blade.

I sucked in air and ran to stop them, but
they hacked the three clumps of her hair off before I could reach
them. I dropped to my knees and looked on in horror as the three
girls sprinkled Azrel’s cut hair over her face while she slept.
Azrel sat up with a gasp and started peeling away chunks of her
hair from her face. The three girls ran out of the tent, laughing
hysterically. Azrel trembled as she pulled at the short, uneven
ends of what was left of her hair.

Rabryn awoke. He took one look at Azrel and
started crying. “Azrel what…what happen to your hair?” He wailed.
Azrel just grabbed him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

Another gold flash.

A new scene was before me and I stood up,
looking around. It was a grey day and Azrel was in front of me. Her
hair had been evened out and grown in some, but it was still short.
She was standing in the middle of a circle of girls and Rabryn was
in front of her, his back pressed into the front of her legs. She
held his shoulders protectively as she stared at the surrounding
group.

“Let Rabryn go home, then do what you want
with me,” she said.

A young woman who seemed to be in charge
looked down at a little girl beside her who was about Rabryn’s age.
“What do you think, Cluna? Should we let him go?” Azrel’s face
turned red. She seemed to be gearing up for a fight if they didn’t
let him go.

The girl looked from Rabryn to Azrel, then
back to Rabryn. “Fine.”

Azrel pressed her lips together, then got
down to Rabryn’s eye level. “Rabryn, I want you to go home right
now.”

Tears streamed from Rabryn’s eyes, but there
was also a look of determination on his face. “I won’t leave
you!”

“Rabryn, do as I say. Go home and…”

Suddenly the young woman who had spoken to
Cluna brought the end of her broomstick crashing down into the back
of Azrel’s skull, slamming her face into the ground. I started
shaking so badly I couldn’t even stand on my feet anymore. The
entire group closed in and beat Azrel all over with broomsticks. I
clutched my stomach as I watched blood stream from of her mouth. A
broomstick crashed into the side of her eye and then into her cheek
as she lay on the ground.

Why didn’t she fight back? I wanted to
strangle her for just lying there and taking this beating! She
could have taken all of them on, and I knew it!
Take out that
sword at your side
, I wanted to scream.

Above the commotion I heard Rabryn’s young
screams from somewhere outside the mob. “No! Please don’t hurt her
anymore! Please! She’s my sister! Azrel! Azrel come home with
me!”

Flash!

Another scene filled my sight. It was dark
again, but by the moonlight I could see the wounds visible all over
Azrel’s face. Three girls were gripping her arms, which were held
behind her back, and another girl was gripping Azrel’s hair as they
roughly led her forward. Azrel’s face was expressionless.

Suddenly I realized that Azrel’s hair fell
just to her shoulders now! Time had passed, which meant that these
horrific wounds on her face were brand new! She had endured
another
beating of the same magnitude! I felt my stomach
lurch. Her lip was cut in three places, blood trickled out of both
her nostrils, and her face was swollen and bruised.

Flash!

I was inside a cow stable. Azrel was forced
to the edge of the upper loft, then tossed off the platform. She
plummeted down into a pile of manure. I pressed my hand to my
mouth, feeling my breakfast threaten to come up. While Azrel tried
to pull herself out of that mess, the girls shoveled more manure on
top of her and made cow noises at her, yelling out things like,
“Stupid heifer!” and “How do you like this, you piece of
trash!”

Azrel finally emerged from the mess, her eyes
wide as she stared at the girls. I knew that look. She was ready to
fight! It was about time! But she didn’t move. Even as the girls
began to throw bales of hay at her, covering her in straw which
stuck to her, she didn’t attack.

Sobs from the corner of the barn caught
everyone’s attention. Out stepped Rabryn from the shadows. The
moonlight from a high window illuminated his tearstained face and
the loaded bow in his hands. He looked about thirteen now.

“Get away from my sister!” he said through
his clenched teeth. He pulled the bowstring back farther. “I’ll
kill you, Cluna! I swear to all the Gods I will!”

“Rabryn!” Azrel called in a commanding tone.
I looked back at her as she stepped out of the manure. “Put it
down.”

Rabryn started crying heavily. “I don’t want
them to hurt you anymore!”

“Killing someone isn’t going to solve
anything. Now put it down!”

Rabryn closed his eyes, tears spilling from
the corners as he slowly and reluctantly lowered his weapon. Cluna
suddenly stormed towards Rabryn with her palm raised for a hard
slap. Azrel darted forward and grabbed the girl’s wrist just as she
swung.

The two glared at each other, Azrel looking
like a sister scolding her young sibling, before she shoved the
young girl towards the group of older women (who, for some reason,
were following the orders of this prepubescent little whore,)
stepping between them and her brother.

“Do what you want to me,” Azrel said, “but
don’t ever,
ever
touch my brother!”

Cluna sneered at Azrel. “Let’s go, girls. It
reeks in here.” They all turned and left out the back way.

Flash!

It was daytime and Azrel was in the stream
washing off manure. Rabryn, who was sitting on a rock with his back
to her, looked a little older. Azrel had been thrown into manure
again
! He was looking down at the ground as he spun his bow
against his palms and the ground. I heard those hateful mooing
sounds and insults again and turned around. The same group of girls
stood nearby. They couldn’t even leave her alone while she tried
wash off the filth they’d thrown her into!

Flash!

Azrel was walking up some stairs onto a
wooden stage, the surrounding crowd clapping and smiling for her,
but the smiles were more transparent then glass. Rabryn, who looked
about fifteen now, was standing next a beautiful woman in the front
row. Both of them were clapping for Azrel as she headed up to the
podium, unsmiling.

Flash!

The next thing I saw was a bucket of bloody
animal entrails being dumped over Azrel’s head. The entire crowd
was rolling on the ground, clutching their stomachs as they
laughed. Rabryn was screaming in agony, tears filling his eyes.
Then he and a woman, who I guessed was Priweth, their mother, ran
up onto the stage. Priweth held her stunned, blood-soaked daughter
in her arms. Both she and Rabryn cried while Azrel stared, blankly,
into nowhere.

Flash!

Another scene filled my eyes and I finally
dropped to my knees. I couldn’t handle this anymore. I already felt
sick, I already felt guilty. I wanted to go hold her and tell her
how sorry I was that I hadn’t been there for her when she needed me
the most! I wanted to tell her I loved her and how much I missed
her the years we were apart. I didn’t want to see what was going to
happen now. I didn’t want to see my Azrel in such pain and agony,
such humiliation! Tears were in my eyes already and I had to force
my gaze to the scene, knowing Rabryn would keep torturing me with
this if I didn’t.

It was dark, but the moon revealed Azrel up
against a wooden pole, her arms tied mercilessly behind her back.
The same group of girls was standing in front of her, and Cluna
held what looked like a piece of birthday cake.

“Happy Birthday, Azrel. How old are you
again?”

Azrel was silent.

Cluna punched her in the jaw. “I asked you a
question, you ugly demon spawn, and I want an answer!”

Azrel stayed silent.

Cluna gritted her teeth and shoved the cake
into Azrel’s face so hard that her nose started to bleed. I moaned
in agony and tried not to sob.

A sickly sweet smile came over Cluna’s face.
“I personally don’t care how old you are, but I’m sure you’re in
your late twenties, aren’t you? Well, we find that interesting
because”—she brought her face close to Azrel’s and gently rested
her knuckles against her cheek in a loving caress—“here you are, an
old hag.” Cluna then slowly licked the crushed cake off of Azrel’s
upper lip, getting a portion of Azrel’s blood on her tongue, and
swallowed it. “Yet you haven’t aged a day since you arrived.”

Cluna pressed herself close to Azrel and
caressed Azrel’s breast, then suddenly twisted her nipple so hard
that Azrel threw her head back and cried out in pain. “See,” Cluna
purred, “We think you’ve cast some spell to make yourself youthful
forever.” Cluna brushed her lips over Azrel’s and looked
seductively over her face and lips. “Is that true?” When Azrel
stayed silent, Cluna looked into her eyes for a moment, then took
Azrel’s bottom lip into hers, dragging her teeth over it, and bit
down hard. Azrel screamed in pain. Only after blood was pouring out
of Azrel’s mouth did Cluna back away, and evilly lick her own lips,
taking Azrel’s blood into her mouth again. Cluna finally pushed
herself away and went back to the group, taking a lighted stick
from another girl.