The Blaze Ignites (7 page)

“Probably.”

Gods! That is such an awkward feeling. How
can she stand it?

“Well, maybe it’s not a constant thing for
her. She’s got that ‘other world’ to retreat to when she needs a
break—though that must be lonely. She only gets company when she
pulls her followers to her while they sleep and gives them
orders.”

Goodness, I’d hate to feel like that all the
time.

“Well, she’s just starting to come into more
power. She’s been in your subconscious, that ‘other world’ place,
for years and she’s just breaking free now. I’m sure she’s been
lonely all that time when she wasn’t making plans with her
followers, but I doubt it was a constant detached state of
being.”

I’m getting a headache.

He smiled sadly. “It looks to me it’s more
than your head that aches.” My ribs screamed in pain again and I
grimaced. Rabryn’s face shadowed with concern. “You’re getting
worse as we speak. Try to go to sleep. It will lessen the pain
until I can get you to Addredoc.”

On one condition
, I thought, my eyes
already drooping.

“What’s that?”

Get out of my head. It’s creeping me out.

He laughed softly. “Yes ma’am.” I felt his
power withdraw from me and I was very quickly asleep.

Azrel

It began with me walking in a field of white
grass. The place I was in even had a white sky. I had on a very
graceful white dress, with white beads and lace lining it. As I
walked across this field, gazing at its beauty, I saw Rabryn,
Ortheldo, Addredoc and Acalith in the distance, lying curled up on
the side of a small white hill. They clutched their stomachs as if
they were in great pain.

I started running to them in a panic. As I
drew closer, the white of the world gradually turned deeper and
deeper shades of grey. Just as I reached the foot of the hill, the
world became a very dark grey, almost black. The only white left
was a small light behind my four companions.

From this light
I
emerged—only in my
White Warrior form.

I stopped running and looked in astonishment
as White-Warrior-me held up her blade to me, almost in warning to
stay away.

Rabryn, Ortheldo and Acalith turned to
White-Warrior-me and seemed to strengthen as they reached for her.
I watched gladly as they became almost fully healed. When
she…I…bent down to take their hands, they all smiled. Before they
could take hold of her, though, the entire world went black, save
for the white light illuminating from my White Warrior form, which
shone brightly over the other four.

I suddenly felt a breeze blow around me—the
me in the dress observing this—and when I looked down at myself I
froze in horror! A black, transparent, human outline surrounded me.
I somehow knew it was Hathum, his chin resting on my right
shoulder.

I wanted to get away from him, I wanted to
run, but I was suddenly put in black, full-body armor and I was
holding a sword that was ablaze with Black Fire.

White-Warrior-me stepped out bravely in front
of my companions and took a battle stance, while they held onto
each other for dear life behind her. I was approaching, holding the
black sword high above my head. White-Warrior-me glared at me
challengingly without a trace of fear. I was attacking her . . . I
was attacking
myself
!

Or so I thought. Hathum made me slice the
Black Sword straight down, not hitting White-Warrior-me, but
cutting a black fiery line straight up and down in front of my
eyes. The stream of fire hung there for a second and then more
black streams burst forth from it and stretched to White-Warrior-me
and my friends. I watched, terrified as all of them were burned to
ash when the black currents of energy touched them.

Even as I awoke, my own screams of pain and
horror echoed in my mind.

“Please tell me that’s not Azrel you’re
carrying,” I heard Ortheldo plead.

“I’m afraid so. She’s gotten worse since I
found her. Where’s Addredoc?”

“Inside. Here, let me take her.”

I felt him try to slip his hands under my
back, and even that slight movement felt like a knife was jabbed
into my side. I cried out in pain without moving my jaw.

“No, don’t! She’s got some broken ribs. I
can’t move her too much.”

“Gods,” Ortheldo breathed and I felt Rabryn
carry me away.

Though my eyes wouldn’t open, I had a sense
he’d carried me into some sort of building. Then I heard everyone’s
voice at once, people asking what happened and whatnot. Rabryn
kneeled on the floor, setting me down gently.

“What’s the damage?” Addredoc’s voice asked,
sounding close.

“Broken ribs, one side of her jaw is in four
pieces, and the entire bone itself is driven backward into her
face. Her chin and nose are dust and she’s swelling rapidly. She
wasn’t nearly this bad when I found her.”

I felt Addredoc run his fingers lightly
through my hair and then he rested his hands on my cheeks. I sucked
in air and whined from the pain of his touch.

“You’re hurting her!” Ortheldo yelled.

“I’m sorry, Azrel. I have to hurt you to help
you. You’re very damaged.”

I heard myself whine but it was cut short
when I screamed in my throat, unable to open my mouth, as his
fingertips pressed hard into my cheeks. I lay in agony, screaming
as I endured the merciless force on my face. Soon though, it melted
away and I felt the gentle warm tingle of healing magic slither
through my cheeks and all the way down to my ribs, mending my
broken bones and taking away the swelling. Finally, I was breathing
with ease. I opened my eyes.

Addredoc smiled down at me. “My debt is
repaid.”

I smiled back. “As if you couldn’t have
healed
your own
jaw.” We both chuckled.

His smile melted away then, and he looked at
me with regret. “Azrel, I truly apologize for what happened at my
house. I didn’t…”

I sat up and waved my hand dismissively.
“Don’t worry about it.” He looked like he wanted to say more, but I
really didn’t want to talk about it. He and his parents had saved
my life today. I gripped my jaw with one hand and moved it from
side to side. “Oh! Very nice, Addredoc. Very nice.”

He smiled again. “It was an honor and a
pleasure.”

Rabryn suddenly gripped my face, turning it
towards him and examining me closely. After a moment he smiled and
looked at Addredoc. “You make it look so easy!” he cried, and we
all laughed—all except for Ortheldo.

He sat on the floor away from me with his
head bowed. I wasn’t sure how I felt right now. My father had told
him more about his past than he’d told me. My father had loved him
more and I hated Ortheldo for that, but was it really Ortheldo’s
fault? I should hate my father just as much, but I couldn’t bring
myself to hate my father, my teacher. If I couldn’t hate my father
for this, it didn’t seem right to hate Ortheldo.

“Are
you
okay?” I asked him.

He looked up at me, his eyes sad and
regretful, then shook his head and looked back down. “I had a bad
feeling about him the minute I saw him. I left you alone with him
because he’d embarrassed me, because he’d made me look like a fool.
I
knew
I should have stayed! I wish I . . .”

“Ortheldo, stop,” I said and crawled to him
on my hands and knees. I kneeled in front of him and put my hand on
the side of his neck. “We were both jerks.”

“You being a jerk didn’t almost cost me my
life!” he snapped. “That was no reason to leave you with him! I was
an idiot and I’ll make it up to you. I swear.”

“Will you stop? Everything is okay.” I
embraced him tightly. “Just forget it.” He held me tight and I felt
safe, like nothing else mattered in the world except him holding me
like this. I couldn’t indulge myself though and pulled away,
looking around the decent-sized, one-room shed Addredoc had built.
“Where’s Nekinda and her son? Are they alright?”

“We’re here, White Warrior,” I heard a gentle
voice say from the back of the room.

The Redians parted to allow me a view of her
sitting against the back wall, her baby still in her arms. She’d
been crying. She looked at me helplessly. I crawled over to her,
not fully trusting my legs to work after so recently being healed.
She just stared at me with tears in her eyes.

“How is he?”

“Worse.”

“Let me take him?” I said and held out my
arms.

She gently handed me her child. I cradled
him. He had gotten worse. He was pale and the entire blanket in
which he was wrapped felt hot enough to catch fire.

I looked up at Nekinda, gently rocking the
boy in my arms. “Thank you for your warnings to not cry or use my
magic, even though I was going to help your son. That was very
brave and very selfless, my Lady.”

She nodded. “I knew if your identity got out
prematurely, more lives would be in danger.”

“Jonoic kidnapped you and forced you to play
along with him, is that right?”

“Yes.” She wiped a tear from her cheek.

I gazed at her scarf covering her hair. “He
made you wear that to hide your race.”

She nodded and began to untie the scarf under
her chin. “He thought you would immediately get suspicious of him
because interracial marriages between us”—she took her scarf off
and I saw the white Sallybreath flowers dotting her hair—“and
humans are very uncommon.”

My eyes went wide. “You’re from Galad
Kas.”

Nekinda’s eyes shifted behind me and she gave
a little nod of recognition. I assumed the Redians were bowing to
her in formal fashion. “Yes, we’re from Galad Kas.”

I gently pulled the blanket off the child’s
head and stared in awe of his beauty. He had his mother’s auburn
hair, but it was straight. The back of his hair was worn long
enough to just touch his shoulders. The front reached his jaw. He
only had about seven white Sallybreaths dotting his dark locks.

“I don’t understand. How can your son be
dying of illness if he’s a Salynn?”

She gave a barely-there, bitter smile. “His
father was human.”

I smiled. “I thought marriage to humans was
rare among Galad Kasians.”

“Marriage
is
rare.”

“I see,” I said and nodded my
understanding.

She looked at her son. “He was a traveling
cloth merchant and came to Galad Kas often. We fell in love and
conceived our baby our first night together. I wanted to leave
Galad Kas and be with him, but he told me didn’t think it was fair
to me that I should commit to him, since he was a human and I was a
Salynn. So, regrettably, I stayed and had Cairikson on my own.

“He came to visit more often but because
Salynns age slower”—her eyes filled with tears again—“he never saw
Cairikson grow out of infancy before he died of the same disease my
baby has now.” She covered her eyes with one hand, composed herself
for a moment, then looked at her son again. “I left Galad Kas when
I found out. First I wanted to try to find where he’d been buried,
but then Cairikson fell ill as we traveled and my quest quickly
became a search for a human Herbest who might be able to cure this
human disease. Years of searching have led from one dead end to the
next, and now I don’t know what to do.”

The story of Cairikson’s father oddly
reminded me of Derweldo, Rabryn’s father. Derweldo’s death had
never made sense to me since I’d found out my brother and he were
Salynns, but perhaps Derweldo’s father had been a human as well,
and thus able to die of illness.

I looked back at the Redians. “Addredoc, can
you do anything?”

“Perhaps. But I would need to know what’s
wrong with him first. I can’t even diagnose it. It’s completely
alien to me.”

I looked down at Cairikson’s precious face.
He was so sick. He probably wouldn’t live to see his birthday in
two weeks. Well, I had something to say about that! I rested my
hand on the boy’s burning forehead and poured my magic into him. I
would
not
let him die! First my hand began glowing white,
and then so did Cairikson’s entire body.

I smiled. “Open your eyes, little one,” I
whispered.

His eyes opened to reveal the biggest most
stunning pair of blue-green eyes I’d ever seen. I heard Nekinda
wail her son’s name, and from the corner of my eye I saw her try to
reach for him, but my brother stepped forward and held her
back.

“Hello sweetheart,” I whispered softly to the
boy. “We’re going to make you all better now, okay?”

I saw my own glowing white eyes reflecting in
his eyes, and I stared into the whiteness of them. Soon, a darkness
in my sight developed, which I somehow recognized as his illness. I
couldn’t really describe it except that it was there, and it was
huge. It was killing this little Salynn boy before he even had a
chance to live.

I focused my sight on the darkness of the
disease that was growing and multiplying rapidly, and concentrated
my magic into it. Soon the edges of the darkness began glowing
white and, unbelievably, began to shrink. I watched, half stunned
and trying to concentrate, as the spreading illness got smaller and
smaller until finally it was completely gone and all I could see
was the white light of my eyes.

I withdrew my magic, and immediately the room
began to spin. I felt suddenly weak enough to pass out for at least
a week. I forced myself to stay awake as I smiled down at the
child. My pounding headache from forcing unconsciousness away was
worth it to be able to see the baby smile up at me and say, “Am I
all better now?”

I smiled. “You sure are.” I looked up at
Nekinda. She was staring at her son with big tear-filled eyes and
was covering her mouth with both of her hands. “You’re right, he is
a good talker.”

Cairikson turned his head to look at her.
“Hi, Mama.”

Nekinda smiled and her tears spilled over
when her eyes crinkled with the smile. “Hi, baby,” she squeaked,
her voice cracking.