The Blaze Ignites (38 page)

Pride boiled in my chest at that moment and I
refused to apologize for kneeling to her. “I’ll try again when
you’re ready to receive it,” I said in such a low voice that not
even the Salynns would hear me. But the White Warrior would.

“That’s a long way down the road, little
brother,” she said equally as softly.

“And I’ll be ready when that day comes.”

“You’re going to be waiting a long time,” she
replied.

I smiled at her. “It will be worth the
wait.”

She sighed heavily and passed me, purposely
shoving her shoulder into mine and knocking me off balance. My
smiled just widened as I turned around to join the group at the
camp fire.

Acalith was digging through her packs,
pulling out clothes and putting them on over her beautiful
Deralilya uniform. She saw my look of curiosity and smiled. “I
can’t have the world knowing who I am,” she said. “As long as Azrel
needs to stay hidden, so do I.”

I nodded, still unable to look at her and
speak at the same time. I looked back at Azrel. “What else is on
the agenda to discuss?”

Azrel blew out a breath. “Well, Lisswilla has
done some reconnaissance work while he’s been in Casdanarus waiting
for our paths to cross.” She looked pointedly at Ortheldo. “He
found out that Dwellingpath has been overrun by Shadow forces.” An
ominous hush fell over everyone. “And there are rumors that Hathum
himself is residing there, commanding Dwellingpath’s soldiers for
his purposes.”

I watched Ortheldo for the longest time as he
sat motionless. I thought he’d fallen asleep with his eyes open.
“Okay.”

Azrel’s brows dropped. “That’s all you have
to say?”

“What do you want me to say?”

“Don’t you care that your kingdom is now in
Hathum’s hands?”

I knew Azrel could be ruthless, but the
weakened state she’d been in lately made me forget how much.
However, even I found that a little harsh on Ortheldo.

Everyone’s eyes went wide and Ortheldo jumped
to his feet with his brows drawn. “That is
not
my kingdom!
You know damn well that it’s not, Azrel!”

Azrel was on her feet just as fast. “It
is
your kingdom and you know damn well that it is!” The two
glared at each other silently for a moment before Azrel spoke
again. “You have royal blood, Ortheldo. While you can deny the
responsibly of that, you cannot deny it to be true!”

Ortheldo was set back. He looked at her in
stunned agony for a long time. I nearly stood up to speak in his
defense, but Ortheldo spoke first. “Do you think less of me for
denying that responsibility?”

Azrel looked at him, seeming to experience
inner turmoil. When I blinked, her expression had softened
considerably.

“Of course not,” she conceded, then held her
hands out to her sides helplessly. “Look at me. My father and I
have denied our responsibility as the White Warrior for thousands
of years. How can I hold you at fault for doing the same?”

They shared a soft gaze for a moment before
they both sat back down. Ortheldo blew out a breath. “So he’s
exposed himself.”

Azrel nodded. “He’s bringing on the Second
Shadow to lure me out of hiding so he can finish what The Nameless
One couldn’t with my father.” She looked around at the camp
helplessly. “I’m not ready to face him. I don’t know if I ever will
be, but I just can’t seem to stop existing and let the White
Warrior take over. Believe me, I’ve tried.”

“That’s because you both are half of a
complete whole,” Addredoc piped in. “If you cease to exist, then
the White Warrior becomes only half a person and she will not be
able to defeat him either.”

“So what do we do?” Azrel asked.

Everyone was silent.

I hated this! I hated being alive during this
dark time! Couldn’t the Second Shadow have waited until I was dead
so wouldn’t have to deal with it? No, that was selfish of me. Azrel
needed all the help she could get. I didn’t know much about
Dwellingpath, but I knew enough to determine that Hathum had to
have an extremely vast army already if he’d overrun the largest
kingdom in Casdanarus. We were just seven beings. We needed an army
and fast! It seemed like a solution that a simpleton would have
come up with, but actually doing that with only seven people was
going to be near impossible. We needed allies, and lots of them, to
go on a scouring mission like Lisswilla had done. We needed to
find, not people with Hope like Lisswilla had done, but people
with
out
hatred for the White Warrior.

Suddenly the world went black!

I started to panic because I was still
awake—I knew I was! Had I suddenly gone blind? Was this some evil
spell? Had Hathum found us?

“Azrel!” I called, my arms going out to my
sides to feel for her next to me…nothing! “Azrel!” I screamed
louder.

Suddenly a green light faded into my vision
and I was standing. Yet I hadn’t stood up! I spun around to look
behind me, only to stagger back when I saw a crowd of people
standing not far from us. There had to be a hundred of them huddled
together. Thoughts of a defense went through my mind, but I soon
realized that all their attention seemed to be on something on the
ground in front of them rather than on me.

Slowly sound reached my ears and I heard lots
of chattering and worried murmurs. An all-too-familiar voice
screamed above them all. “Don’t you dare lose faith now! Don’t you
dare!
” Azrel screamed.

I looked at the crowd closely, now having
suspicions about where I was, and almost right away I spotted
Reese. He shook his head and spoke to someone I’d never seen, then
turned his attention back to whatever was so interesting on the
ground. As two people moved to the other side of the mob, I caught
a glimpse of Addredoc looking down at what was on the ground with
utter sorrow.

“Rabryn!” another familiar voice called from
behind. I turned to see Ortheldo running up to me.

I sighed in relief and let my shoulders sag
as he came to stand at my side. “Boy am I glad to see you.”

“Same here! What’s going on?”

“I think we were just forced into one of The
White Warrior’s meetings.”

He looked at me, stunned for a second, before
looking at the crowd. “That explains why everyone passed out at
camp.” Ortheldo scanned the faces. “I wonder what she called us
for.”

“Looks like trouble to me.”

“Don’t! Don’t!” Azrel—or the White Warrior
rather—screamed.

“Come on,” Ortheldo said, backhanding my
shoulder. We both jogged towards the crowd. We pushed and shoved
and shouldered our way through the sea of people. As we did we got
lots of looks, some of wide-eyed wonder, some of curiosity. The
Salynns in the crowd placed their fingertips in the middle of their
foreheads and bowed at the waist. I heard some faint whispers as we
passed.

“They’re here.”

“They’ve finally come.”

“That’s the brother!”

“He’s the first and only flawless
protector.”

We finally emerged from the front of the
crowd. First I saw Acalith standing on the opposite side of where
we emerged from. She had her arms crossed as she looked down at the
White Warrior across from her. The White Warrior was on her knees
with her back to me in the center of this circle, leaning heavily
over the something that everyone was looking at with concern.
Addredoc and Reese stood just behind Acalith. Their eyes went wide
at seeing us. Addredoc gently pulled at the back of Acalith’s
shirt. She turned and looked at him, then followed his gaze to us,
her eyes widening. I started to wonder if Ortheldo and I had been
brought here by mistake.

Acalith squatted down. “White Warrior,
Ortheldo and Rabryn are here,” she whispered softly.

“I brought them. Get them over here.”

Acalith walked over to us. “Come. She must
need you.”

Confused but staying silent, Ortheldo and I
made our way to stand across from the White Warrior. It was then
that we got our first look at what she was cradling in her
arms.

“Azrel,” I said, unsure if I should be
calling her that. “What…or who is this?”

The form she held was dark, nearly black, and
faded slightly as if she were holding a black ghost. But I could
see enough detail to know it was a human, a
badly
beaten
human. I could make out lots of blood trails, long cuts, and
swollen bumps all over the dark face and the half-naked body. The
fingers were all broken so badly that they stayed bent at
excruciating angles, as did the toes.

“Yarin?” Ortheldo squatted down over the
black figure and cupped its face in his hands.

“Who is he?” I asked more insistently.

“The leader of the Gleo’gwyns, the Metallic
Riders.”

My eyes went wide and I squatted down next to
Ortheldo, mostly due to the sudden lack of strength in my legs.
Yarin had saved Ortheldo twice before and had saved Azrel and Reese
so recently. He was a good man. “What happened to him?”

“You listen to me, Yarin,” Azrel said to the
ghostly form. “I have not abandoned you! I’m here, aren’t I?
Holding onto you for dear life? Come to me and take a recess from
your pain.”

“But the pain will still be here when I come
back!” Yarin cried more forcefully than I thought he could manage,
though his mouth didn’t move. His form quickly faded, becoming more
transparent.

“Don’t!” Azrel screamed.

The fading paused, clearly beyond any will of
Yarin’s. “Just let me go,” he begged.

“No! You’re not going anywhere!”

“You’ve forgotten me.”

Her arms tightened protectively around the
dark figure. “No, I haven’t,” she said more gently. “Azrel is
coming to get you, I swear it! I need you. Please, please be strong
and hold on a little longer. Please!”

“I can’t,” Yarin now sobbed.

“How about a little incentive?”

The dark form solidified a little bit.
“You’re going to bribe me?”

“Damn straight. I have two people here I know
you’re eager to see. They’re traveling with Azrel and are going to
help her get you out of there.”

Yarin’s form solidified slightly and
brightened to a dark gray color. “Who?”

The White Warrior’s eyes met Ortheldo’s. “Say
hello.”

Ortheldo’s eyes were brimming with tears I
knew he would never shed. He forced a smile. “Hey partner. You look
like hell, as usual.”

Yarin’s brows went up, the first movement
he’d made, and then gasps broke out as Yarin’s face tilted up
towards Ortheldo’s voice. “Ortheldo,” he breathed, his mouth
finally moving as he spoke.

“Yeah,” Ortheldo replied smiling.

“It’s been so long.”

“It has. It seems your life has gotten a
little more interesting than riding wild through Casdanarus saving
people.”

A soft smile formed on Yarin’s face, but it
quickly vanished. “Yeah, a little bit.” Before Ortheldo could get
more information out of him, Yarin spoke again. “You found
Azrel?”

We both stared at The White Warrior. Azrel
said the Gleo’gwyns had helped her and Reese in battle just a week
ago. How could Yarin not know that Ortheldo had found Azrel? The
White Warrior simply closed her eyes and shook her head, telling us
not to ask. Then she nodded down to Yarin, indicating that Ortheldo
needed to respond.

“I did,” Ortheldo said. “Thanks to you and
your team saving my pathetic hide so I could get to her.”

Yarin managed another small smile and his
formed brightened to a grey color. “I’m so glad to hear that.”

The White Warrior beckoned me closer.
Confused, I moved closer to Yarin. Did she want me to pretend I
knew him?

“Yarin, I have someone here with me I’ll
wager you never thought, in your wildest dreams, you’d ever get to
meet.” She smiled down at him slyly. “You’ll have to open your eyes
to see him.”

What was she doing? Why would this man so
eagerly want to meet me? I didn’t know him from Zoloft’s house
cat!

“Who is it?”

“It’s your best friend’s son.”

“What?” I asked.

“Rabryn?” Yarin breathed and his eyes snapped
open. The encircling crowd burst into screams and cheers as Yarin’s
form completely solidified and brightened into normal colors and
all of his wounds disappeared. The White Warrior sighed heavily in
relief, then dropped her forehead to Yarin’s shoulder.

He smiled. “I guess I can stick around for a
while.”

The White Warrior lifted her head and looked
down into his eyes. “Thank you.” She helped him sit up. Not knowing
what to do as this stranger looked at me with awe and recognition,
I simply straightened and held out my hand to help him stand. He
took it and I pulled him to his feet. The crowd dispersed,
including Azrel, while this man and I stood in front of each
other.

He smiled as he studied my face. “You look
just like your father.” I flinched. “Except for your eyes.”

“You knew my father?”

Yarin nodded. “We grew up together.”

“You’re from White Veilvin?” My eyes
immediately went to his flowerless blonde hair.

Yarin smiled a handsome smile. “My story is
much like Lisswilla’s,” he said, nodding in the direction of the
crowd, who were now standing and talking among themselves. I
spotted Lisswilla talking with Acalith and the White Warrior.
“You’ll find quite a few Salynns that the White Warrior saved
without returning their Sallybreath Flowers or their magic.”

“Well, how…when…” I didn’t even know where to
begin with my questioning.

Yarin chuckled as he gently gripped the sides
of my neck. “Stories for another time, Rabryn. Right now I need to
greet an old friend.” He glanced at Ortheldo before smiling at me
again. “I’m sure the White Warrior will bring you to more meetings
so you and I can talk.”

“I look forward to it,” I said, hardly able
to believe it. My father hadn’t told me much about his life before
my mother. He’d said it didn’t matter. It might be nice to learn it
from Yarin.