The Blaze Ignites (43 page)

Suddenly a slim hand stealthily snuck in
front of Acalith and gripped her shirt. With a small jerk, Acalith
was spun around and was faced with Lady Isadith’s glare and flaring
nostrils. Without a word Isadith’s opposite fist came back and
slammed hard into Acalith’s mouth.

“I’ve had enough of your arrogance!” Isadith
fired angrily but still somehow gently. “And I’ve only looked at
your soul for a brief moment.” Acalith stared at her with blood
trickling out the corner of her lip. “You are completely blinded by
your status and ego and it’s making me ill as I look deeper.”

Acalith tried to make a start for the
beautiful Salynn, but the tip of Azrel’s sword appeared at her
chest. “That’s enough,” she said in a deep tone of warning. The
White Warrior was gone.

Acalith shook so violently that her face
turned red. Then she spun and walked away from everyone until the
trees swallowed her up.

Azrel sighed and sheathed her sword, then
looked at Isadith and gently smiled. “Thanks for coming to
Ortheldo’s defense, but was hitting her really necessary?”

“No,” Isadith replied, still looking in the
direction Acalith left in. “I just wanted to.”

Azrel just shook her head, amused.

I had to admit it was about time Acalith was
brought down a notch, but I wasn’t about to have a chuckle at my
leader’s expense. She wasn’t the White Warrior, though she acted
like it most of the time. As she’d gotten closer to Rabryn, her
condescending attitude had mellowed. She’d seemed gentler somehow.
But now that Rabryn had told off the White Warrior, Acalith was
back to her bossy self.

“Azrel,” Rabryn said, stepping forward,
“what’s going on?”

“This entire ambush was the White Warrior’s
doing,” Azrel responded. “She planned it.”

“When? How?”

Azrel smiled condescendingly. “She’s the most
powerful being on the earth. She can do just about anything she
wants.”

“Except have a soul,” Reese mumbled, earning
a minor glare from Azrel and a smile from the rest of us.

“When we stopped at the hill, before you even
headed into the woods, she left me.” All of us exclaimed with
confusion and horror.

“You mean your magic left you?” I asked.

Azrel nodded. “Just temporarily. She can’t
survive on her own without a body. She does need me.”

There was a ring of pride, and even a sense
of peace, in her tone. For the first time since I met her, Azrel
was glowing. The White Warrior needed her. She didn’t feel like
useless baggage anymore. She’d finally realized that she and the
White Warrior were two halves of one whole. Azrel knew she had a
purpose now…they had a purpose
together.

That’s why she’d looked so radiant when she
jumped off the tree branch. She’d realized finally that the White
Warrior needed her. Perhaps the White Warrior realized she needed
Azrel too, which I could only imagine was wounding her pride right
now.

“She left me to meet with Palpanor,” Azrel
continued. “She gave him this location and orders to have every
Salynn able to wield a weapon rally here. She knew the power of the
necklace would draw the Shadow creatures to us. Once they were all
gathered, she let me and the Whiteians know. That’s when I jumped
off the branch so I could get their attention and the Galad Kasians
could attack.”

Palpanor stepped forward. “Our woods were
filled with these creatures. They were scattered broader than my
people could handle.” He smiled at Azrel. “But with your help we
were able to get them all at once. Our woods are clear and safe
once again.”

Azrel grinned. “Rabryn, will you please go
get Acalith?”

“Why me?” he fired back a little
childishly.

“Because I’m asking you to. Please?”

Ortheldo patted him on the back and nodded,
silently warning him not to be a baby about it and to just go. So
there was still a little innocence left in Rabryn after all. I
found that relieving, but I also knew it wouldn’t last much longer
out here with a Second Shadow at hand.

Rabryn straightened his back and sighed
through his nose. “Very well.” He kissed Azrel’s cheek and started
in the direction in which Acalith had gone.

Azrel’s incredible blue eyes met mine.
“Addredoc, could you please clean up this filth?” She smiled and
winked. “Give the Salynns a good show.”

I smiled in return.

“Yes,” Lisswilla barked, “give them a good
show
, like some pathetic traveling circus.”

I grinned at him. I refused to be bothered by
him right now. “It’s okay to be jealous. I would be too, if I were
you.”

His eyes went slightly wider. “You
wish
I was jealous of you!”

“Just like you wish you could wield my
incredible magic.”

Even under the mask I could see his jaw
clench.

I held my hands out as they started glowing
with my powerful red magic. First I pulled out each and every
arrow, cleaned them off, and sent them all into various directions
back to the Salynns who originally fired them. They all “oooed” and
“ahhhed” as their very own arrows landed back in their quivers. I
glanced at Lisswilla. His face was red and he looked away
stubbornly. After pouring out energy for a few seconds, I let my
magic release, and with a loud, thunder-like crack the thousand
dead black bodies vanished. Then I took the time to clean up every
drop of black blood from every single leaf that covered forest
floor. The applause was gentle but enthusiastic. Azrel’s proud
grin, though, meant more to me.

I nearly flinched in shock when I realized
something: I had an answer to her question. She had asked us a few
nights ago who we loved, her or the White Warrior. In that moment,
with her smiling and proud of me, I realized I loved Azrel. I felt
a surprising relief with that knowledge. There were no more
questions. I was just ready to die for Azrel.

I wondered about my protective shield though.
I wondered if this realization about how I felt about Azrel
strengthened it or weakened it. After all, I only loved half of who
Azrel was. I was sure Acalith, the only one who could detect its
strength, would be all too pleased to let me know when she
returned. I sighed and decided to enjoy being with Azrel right now,
in case my shield was weak enough for Acalith to banish me from
Azrel’s side.

Rabryn

I was never gladder for my silent Salynn
steps than at this very moment. Without them I would have missed
what I was seeing. Acalith was on her knees with her head bowed and
her shoulders shaking from crying so hard. I had been listened to
her sobs nearly the entire way here, but I wasn’t sure I’d been
hearing correctly.

I feared making any noise for a moment,
worried I might embarrass her, but then I remembered I was angry
with her. “So you
are
capable of human emotion,” I fired at
her back.

She froze and sucked in a breath. I saw her
swallow a couple of times so she could try to sound like she hadn’t
been crying. “Go away.”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m a Salynn. I’ve been
able to hear you bawling for the past ten minutes.”

She looked back at me angrily with red-rimmed
eyes. Fresh tears dripped down her cheeks. “Were you enjoying
yourself?”

I wanted to feel compassion for her but she
hadn’t shown any to my sister; therefore, she deserved none from
me. “Are you kidding? I was shocked that you betrayed some
humanity.”

Her eyes narrowed further. “You’re a
jerk!”

I shrugged. “Takes one to know one.”

She quickly got to her feet and threw her
arms out wide to her sides. “How am I a jerk when all I’ve been
doing is my
job?
”

“It’s
how
you’ve been doing your job
that makes you a jerk!” I hollered back at her.

“What are you talking about? What have I done
that’s so terrible?”

“You did nothing!” I cried. “That’s what you
did wrong. When the White Warrior was attacking Azrel, you did
nothing!
I
protected Azrel that night. I did
your
job!”

Acalith glared at me. “My job isn’t to
protect, or even defend, Azrel; it’s to protect and defend the
White Warrior.”

Now I threw my arms out to my sides. “Then
what the hell are you doing here?”

Acalith blanched as if I’d slapped her.

“Huh?” I pressed.

“My job,” she said softly but firmly.

“You want to protect the White Warrior?” I
asked. She stayed silent. “The White Warrior isn’t here!” I cried.
“She’s locked up in my sister’s mind until Azrel lets her out,
which in case you haven’t noticed isn’t very often. So if the White
Warrior isn’t here, what are
you
doing here?”

Acalith set her jaw and crossed her arms.
“Fine, I’m here to protect Azrel too, but from physical harm, not
verbal abuse of the person who outranks her—and who outranks
me
for that matter!”

I felt like I was talking to a stubborn
child. I narrowed my eyes and shook my head. “You don’t get it, do
you? Azrel and the White Warrior are the
same person!
One
cannot exist without the other. The White Warrior needs a solid
body in order to exist, and Azrel needs her magic to live. If you
think your job doesn’t consist of protecting
both
of them
from
every
kind of abuse and harm, then you have no business
being here at all.”

I turned and started to walk away. Boy, did
she have her job description warped. Protect one and not the other
when they were in the same body? That didn’t even make sense. Well,
nothing about my sister’s condition made sense, but they were
essentially the same person. Both of them needed to be protected by
their Deralilya. It’s not like Azrel had one Deralilya and the
White Warrior had another!

“I fear her!” Acalith suddenly cried out. I
paused and looked at her over my shoulder. She was crying again. “I
thought maybe if I acted as abrasively towards Azrel as the White
Warrior did, maybe she would trust me more…maybe she would…like me
more.”

I turned to face her. “Well that’s
ridiculous,” I said more softly. “If the White Warrior asked you to
choose between her and Azrel, what kind of Warrior of Goodness is
she? As far as I’m concerned, if she made you pick between two
sides of Goodness—her or Azrel—she doesn’t deserve to wield The
Light Gods’ power on earth.”

Acalith remained quiet and looked away in
thought. I waited for her to argue with me further, but she
surprised me. “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Which is it? Do you
suppose
it makes
sense or
does it
make sense?”

She looked at me quickly, ready to fight
back, but relaxed when she saw I was smiling a little. She smiled
slightly in return. “It does make sense.”

“Then where does this need to pick sides come
from?”

“Well you’ve clearly picked a side—your
sister’s.”

I shook my head, refusing to get upset about
that comment. I was already worn out from showing more anger in the
last five minutes than I had in the last five years. “My anger
towards the White Warrior has nothing to do with who I like more,
or where my loyalty lies—my loyalty lies with Goodness and the
Light Gods, period. I’m angry with the White Warrior because she
had no reason to attack my sister like that. The bitter, sarcastic
tone she used in talking about Azrel was blatantly mean and
uncalled for. Azrel has survived more battles, and loss, and grief
than the White Warrior has ever faced, and she’s come out of it
still caring, graceful, and kind. Yes, she has emotional issues
because of her torture and abuse, but that only makes her more
undeserving of the way the White Warrior talked about her, like
Azrel was some Shadow creature who needed to be squished under her
sparkly white boots!”

Acalith shrugged hesitantly. “I can see why
she is upset, though. Azrel’s emotional issues are standing in the
way of the White Warrior coming into her full power.”

My eyes narrowed. “Do you realize how evil
that sounds?”

Acalith’s eyes went wide suddenly and she
looked away towards the ground. “I see your point.”

“Azrel doesn’t care about great power. She
just happens to have it. Evil is the only thing that eats up power
and takes more than it should while hurting people in the process.
It bothers me that the White Warrior is so impatient for her power
that she verbally attacked Azrel like she did that night.”

“But can’t you understand why?” Acalith
cried. “The Second Shadow is coming! Azrel needs to hurry up and
get over these issues because she
needs
the full force of
her magic
now!
Dwellingpath has already fallen to
Hathum!”

I sighed and tried not to let the tremble I
felt come out in my voice at the thought of the Shadow Gods ruling
the world again. “I trust the Light Gods. Azrel will have the full
force of her magic when she’s supposed to have it. If all of
us
can be patient with Azrel and The Light Gods’ timing,
then the White Warrior should be
doubly
able to be patient,
since she was
created
by the Light Gods. She, above anyone
else, should trust Them.”

Acalith shook her head. “You don’t know her.
She’s fought the Shadow Gods’ power before, when The Nameless One
ruled. Yes it was in a different body, that of Azrel’s father, but
it’s the same magic. Asking her to sit still and be patient and
happy is like asking you to close your eyes and stand still when
someone is charging at you with a knife raised in his hand.”

I sighed and looked away. “I guess I never
thought of it like that.”

Acalith nodded, grateful that I was hearing
her on this. “Remember also, that the Light Gods stripped her of
the full force of her power when Azrel’s father fled battle. Her
trust in Them is shoddy at best.”