The Blaze Ignites (28 page)

“Azrel,” Lisswilla said, stepping up to me
and resting a hand on my shoulder. “This was not your fault. They
joined you on their own and some evil made them weary at their most
vulnerable moment. You had nothing to do with it. Do you
understand?”

“You sound so sure,” I said a little
defeated.

“I
am
sure.” I looked up at him and
saw his eyes were smiling again as he dropped his hand from my
shoulder.

I took a deep breath and forced a smile. “So
where does one with such confidence come from?” I said as I walked
towards the road. “You must be a Salynn if you have the magical
ability to be invisible to one’s eyes.” I looked at him over my
shoulder. “Unfortunately I don’t know much about Salynns outside of
Casdanarus. Care to educate me?”

I faced forward again, then nearly fell
backwards onto my butt because Yarin suddenly stood stone still
right in my path. I pressed my hand to my chest trying to slow my
pounding heart. He hadn’t been
near
me when I had looked
over my shoulder!

“Yarin you scared the wits out of me!” I
cried as I gathered my composure.

“I’m sorry. I came to see what was keeping
you and Reese.”

“We’re coming,” I said and continued past
him.

“Educate you on what?” Yarin asked as he fell
into step beside me.

“What?”

“Before you faced me, you asked Reese to
educate you on something.”

“Oh um,” Lisswilla didn’t want to be seen,
and I would look like a loon anyway if I told him I was asking a
Salynn from outside of Casdanarus about his history. “I was asking
Reese to tell me,” I came to the edge of the road and stopped in my
tracks and my eyes went wide again. I still couldn’t believe how
many dead, “I was asking Reese to tell me how these Gorkors were
all burned to death in a second!”

Yarin pursed his lips. “Well if you get
educated on that, please share it.” He shook his head. “None of us
have any idea how this came about, but it saved our lives. That’s
for sure.”

“Gods!” I looked back over my shoulder at
Lisswilla, still standing where I’d left him. I suspected he was
responsible for this. His eyes twinkled mischievously. He winked
and then held his hand out, palm up, and I watched as a yellow ball
of wizard fire erupted in his hand. My mouth dropped! He was a
wizard!
Suddenly, before my eyes, he vanished in a puff of
yellow smoke.

“Azrel?” Yarin said.

I closed my mouth then turned again to the
grotesque sight of the battle. I jumped back when I saw Lisswilla
standing on the other side of the road. I may not have been able to
see his lips, but I knew he had to be smirking under that mask. He
stood casually with his arms crossed over his chest, his back
leaning against a tree with one foot up against it. I placed my
hands on my hips and playfully glared at him, wondering if that was
really necessary. He threw his head back and laughed.

“Azrel, are you okay?” Yarin asked.

I huffed a sigh. “Yes, I’m fine. Come on,” I
said to Yarin. All of us except for Lisswilla began to help bury
the men and burn the creatures.

The sun was setting by the time we lowered
the last fallen Gleo`gwyn into the ground. I could barely hold my
white tears back all day, unable to stop blaming myself for their
deaths. I felt utterly responsible. I could have been more useful
in the battle if I’d used my magic to save them, but I hadn’t. I
couldn’t! Not yet.

When the last pile of Gorkors was set on
fire, Reese and I embraced. I really needed his comfort right now,
comfort that Ortheldo usually offered, but after today I was about
three days behind him now. Yarin approached us with a hanging head.
I put caution to the wind as the last orange haze of sunlight lit
the distance mountaintops and I wrapped my arms around his neck. He
graciously returned my embrace and buried his face in my neck.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered to him. “I wish I
could take back what happened to them. I’d give anything to return
them to you, Yarin. They were good men.”

He nodded and pulled away. “Yes, they
were.”

I looked towards Forfirith, who had been
anxious and moody all day. He seemed to really want to get out of
here. I couldn’t blame him though. I was so far behind the others
I’d have to ride fast, with no sleep or rest for days. He knew it
too, because every hour I stayed here was another hour of rest he
was going to miss.

“You’re going now?” Yarin asked.

I looked towards him again and nodded. “Rest
your men. We’ll meet again someday, Yarin.”

He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Yes, we
will.”

I turned and walked towards my horse with
Lisswilla and Reese in tow. I threw my leg over Forfirith and
mounted, then looked at Reese as he attempted to mount his. He was
so exhausted that he couldn’t even manage without Lisswilla giving
him a boost into the saddle.

“Reese, I’m not asking you to come with me.
If you want –”

“Please don’t finish that sentence Azrel,” he
interrupted, “unless you take delight in insulting me.” His tired,
red-rimmed eyes twinkled and a small smile came across his lips. “I
go where you go, always. If I can’t prove myself now, when can I
ever?”

I pressed my lips together and sighed. “Very
well, but I need to warn you that we’re not stopping.” Reese only
nodded.

“Here,” Lisswilla said as he mounted his own
horse of grey and white. “Drink this.” He handed Reese a water
skin. “It will help keep you strong and alert for two days. But
when those two days are up, you’ll crash into such a deep a sleep
that a battle like this won’t even wake you. Nothing, not even
riding full speed on a horse, will wake you up for twelve
hours.”

Reese smiled and pulled open the skin. “That
suits me just fine.” He drank the entire thing. Before he even
lowered the skin from his lips he became wide awake. “Whoa!” he
cried, then shook his head vigorously. “Where has
that
stuff
been my whole life?”

Lisswilla chuckled. “In my wizard closet back
home. It’s my own special recipe. I
lived
on this stuff
during my journey here.”

“All right, Mr. Wizard,” I said looking at
Lisswilla with a small smile. “What’s your story?”

“Another time, Azrel. We’re in a hurry.
First, I have to ask you”—his eyes became intense and full of
concern—“where is the Anarran Gem?”

Rabryn

A week! It had been over a bloody week since
we’d left Rocksheloc and there was still no sign of Azrel. Ortheldo
and I seemed to be the only ones concerned. Acalith was the most
collected of us all, though none of us communicated with her
much.

I found myself completely captivated by her.
The mystery surrounding her went so deep I was memorized. I knew
little more about her than her name, but she fascinated me. When
once I did manage to talk to her, I asked her if her homeland
(wherever that was) would be missing her, making it clear (after
realizing how that must have sounded) that I wasn’t trying to get
rid of her and was only worried for her safety. If she were found
missing and discovered to be of highest rank in the White Warrior’s
chain of command, the consequences could possibly be sever.

The corners of her eyes went up in a smile
that was forever hidden by that tan mask. “I’m quite capable of
taking care of myself.”

I turned red. I knew she could take care of
herself. I quickly felt like a fool for trying to talk to her.

“Thank you though,” she said, her eyes
sparking with a kind light. “It’s been a long time since anyone has
taken my welfare into consideration.”

And that’s where it ended.

Ortheldo sat across the fire from me right
now with Cairikson asleep in his arms. Addredoc was lying on his
stomach, studying the maps we retrieved from Azrel’s room. Thrawyn
and Meddyn sat a few feet away against a tree, Thrawyn holding his
wife in his arms. They looked so peaceful and so beautifully
angelic as they sang a lovely song in Salynnian. I couldn’t
understand the words, but the small woodland we sat in seemed to
fill with the soft music of their voices. I let it flow through me
so just maybe I could be as at ease as they were, even with Azrel
gone.

“I have such a weakness for music,” Ortheldo
suddenly said. I looked at him as he stared wistfully into the
fire, cradling Cairikson in his arms. “I always have for some
reason. When I hear any music, it’s like my heart reaches back to
some long distant memory from when I was a child.”

I looked at him, having never seen him so
peaceful and content. I found myself suddenly very curious about
his life before he met Azrel and her father, but I feared if I
spoke I would destroy this moment for him. He stared into the fire,
and as Thrawyn and Meddyn began their song again, his eyes dropped
closed and he began to sing with them in the common speech.

Come Lonely Warrior the Time is Near

Time to Face Your Greatest Fear

Done is How the Past Ever Stands

Look to the Future, For It’s In Your
Hands

Go Forth with the Courage You Know You Have
Inside

Evil has Harkened and Its Time It will
Bide

Fear Not what Has Been, but Fear What is To
Be

If the Warrior Stays Buried ’Neath the Past
’Neath the Sea

Accept Yourself and Who You Are Inside

Dig Her from the Past and Allow her to
Survive

O Azrel, Lone Star in The Sky

Shine Mightily Bright from Far, Upon High

I smiled at the full translation of it, and
at Ortheldo’s rather lovely singing voice. Addredoc nodded in
admiration towards his parents, and I nodded to Ortheldo. He turned
a little red and looked down at Cairikson.

I sighed and turned my eyes to Acalith. I
gazed longingly in the direction in which she looked, the direction
from which hopefully Azrel would come soon, and I absently started
biting my nails. This was the longest amount of time we had ever
been apart since the day we met. My mind suddenly started racing
with wonders and thoughts.

How odd that only a month ago I had been at
the Spring Arrival Celebration in The Pitt. I hadn’t cared about
anything in the world except for Azrel. Now I was riding across
Casdanarus with people I barely knew, but loved like family, in a
race against time to find a magic necklace owner in hopes of saving
Casdanarus. All the while, I’d been watching Azrel battle her inner
demons, even as she was being hunted by the most vile Evil the
world had ever known, an Evil she was supposed to destroy.

The return of Shadow to the world. The
magnitude of that was too much for me to grasp, and I didn’t even
know
anything about the first Evil, The Nameless One, that
had taken over the world over ten millennia ago. All I knew was
that it was an Evil so great that the Light Gods Themselves had to
interfere to defeat it.

Every time I found myself considering what a
Second Shadow meant for existence, I became overwhelmed and pushed
the thoughts away. I was going to lose my mind if I kept thinking
about it.

“Are you okay?” Ortheldo asked.

I stopped my nail biting, nodded, and looked
into the fire. “I just wish Azrel were here.”

“Because you think if she
were
here,
you would have a better chance of striking up a conversation with
Acalith?”

I glared at him from under my brows, then
chuckled when the wide smile came to his face. I tossed a berry at
him. It hit him square in the nose and bounced to the ground. “No,
I’m worried about Azrel.”

Ortheldo nodded and looked to the Northwest,
“Me too.”

“I do find it odd though that we’ve spent the
past week with her, everything about her, even her face, is still a
mystery.”

“It could be one of two things,” Addredoc
piped in, keeping his eyes on the maps. “She doesn’t want any of us
to recognize her, or she’s not allowed to show her face until Azrel
officially names her the Deralilya and gives her a steel
weapon.”

“So you’ve never seen her face either?” I
asked, rather surprised. Addredoc shook his head. “You haven’t
asked her anything about herself during those meetings of
yours?”

He looked up from the pile of papers. “When
the White Warrior meets with us, it’s strictly business. We don’t
have time for side conversations with each other.”

“Oh,” I said and looked towards Acalith
again.

She stood up a moment later and came towards
us. “All of you get some sleep. I’ve got first watch.”

I smiled. “As always.”

The corners of her eyes went up. “As
always.”

I felt my face heat up as she crossed my view
on her way to begin her watch. I probably had the most ridiculous
grin on my face as I watched her walk away because, as soon as she
was out of sight, Addredoc and Ortheldo started snickering. When I
glanced at them they both started laughing at me and I only turned
a deeper shade of red.

Ortheldo stood next, tenderly holding
Cairikson in his arms. He laid the boy down first in his sleeping
gear, even kissing his forehead, then covered him up and laid down
behind him. I took up the bucket of water at my side while
Addredoc, Meddyn and Thrawyn all settled in. After stealing one
last glance at Acalith’s back, I poured the water over the
fire.

I lay there awake for a while, thinking about
my sister. I was getting a little frightened without her. I knew I
was just being childish, but I wanted her there to talk to, to
laugh with.

My eyes then settled on Cairikson. It was his
birthday tomorrow. If Azrel showed up, it would be the best gift he
could get. The best gift we
both
could get.

I was awoken at the first light of dawn by
someone shaking my shoulder. When I opened my eyes I saw Acalith
looking down at me, a little alarmed. “Rabryn, get up. We have to
get out of here,” she whispered urgently.