Wind Warrior (13 page)

“
He’s new to his powers,”
she explained. “He’s still trying to figure them out but he’s a
quick learner.”

“
And yet he defeated you,”
General Abraxas hissed. His voice was like a serpent, sliding
between his sharpened teeth.

“
I wasn’t prepared for his
level of skill. I’d be better prepared if we met again.”

“
I’m glad to hear you say
that, my daughter. You’re going to have another chance to redeem
yourself. You’re going to return to the surface and find this Wind
Warrior. And this time, you won’t fail me.”

Sammy’s heart pounded in her chest. It was
more than she could have hoped for. Her father was going to send
her back to Xander, completely unaware that she couldn’t harm him
if she wanted to.

“
And to make sure you don’t
fail me again, you’ll be accompanied by General Abraxas. He will
ensure the Wind Warrior dies this time.”

Her breath froze in her throat. Abraxas was
ruthless and unstoppable. There was no way Xander could survive
against him.

“
Is that absolutely
necessary, Father?” she asked. “This new warrior is little more
than a child. He doesn’t pose a threat to us. I expected him to be
like you always described the Wind Caste to be: violent, unstable,
and dangerous. He wasn’t any of these things. Couldn’t we
just—?”

“
Silence!” Lord Balor
yelled. The room seemed to shake in response to his rage. “You will
find this boy and this time you won’t come home until you
succeed.”

General Abraxas smiled wickedly, his
sharpened teeth glistening in the torchlight. He leaned dangerously
forward from his place beside the throne. “And this time when you
two meet, you’ll make sure that either he dies… or you do.”

Lord Balor shot an angry glance at his
general before returning his glance to his daughter. “Don’t fail us
again.”

“
Yes, Lord Balor,” she
replied sheepishly. Tears stung her eyes and she kept her head
lowered so her hair concealed her face. Her heart ached and her
stomach twisted itself in knots. She didn’t know how to save
Xander, especially from someone as maniacal as Abraxas. If there
was a way, however, she knew she’d figure it out.
Somehow.

The large throne room doors swung shut as
Sammy left. General Abraxas took a step down from the raised dais
and stood before Lord Balor. The bald General ran a hand over his
sweaty scalp and exposed his rows of filed teeth.

“
She’s going to be
trouble,” he told the Lord.

Lord Balor’s stern gaze remained on the
closed door as though he didn’t hear Abraxas speak.

“
When the time comes, she
won’t do it,” he continued unabashed by Balor’s seeming
indifference. “She has feelings for the Wind Warrior. She won’t be
able to kill him.”

“
Then you’ll do it
yourself,” Lord Balor said finally as he rubbed his chin
thoughtfully. “That should be the only thing that concerns you
right now. Leave my daughter to me.”

“
If she fails, our master
won’t be happy.”

Lord Balor slammed his gauntleted fist down
onto the arm of the throne. The sound exploded into the large room,
echoing around its vaulted ceiling.

“
Don’t you dare lecture me
on the will of our master!” he bellowed. “And don’t you ever
threaten my daughter again. Need I remind you of our master’s plans
for her?”

General Abraxas bowed apologetically.
“Forgive me, my Lord. I haven’t forgotten our master’s plans.
Perhaps I overstepped my bounds. I meant only that Sammy walks a
dangerous path.”

“
Then it’s your job to keep
her safe, Abraxas. Our master won’t accept any harm coming to
her.”

Lord Balor stood from his throne and walked
around behind the raised dais. He brushed aside one of the hanging
tapestries, revealing the stonework wall behind it. He ran his
fingers along the wall until they found a small, recessed gray
stone amidst a sea of others. A grinding noise filled the room as
he pressed the innocuous stone. The rest of the stonework before
Lord Balor parted, revealing a secret passage that led deeper into
the volcanic cavern. Heat far more intense than that within the
throne room washed over the pair of Fire Warriors as they stood at
the precipice.

He turned away from the opening and faced
the General again. “You told my daughter that either the Wind
Warrior dies or she would. I make you the same promise, General. If
any harm comes to Sammy, I will give you a quick death, which is
more than our master would grant you. Keep her safe or don’t bother
coming back.”

General Abraxas bowed again, though his
expression held nothing but contempt for the Lord.

Lord Abraxas stepped through the secret
passage and the stonework closed behind him.

Abraxas dropped the pretense of piety and
walked back to the dais. He climbed its narrow steps before turning
toward the empty room. With a flourish, he collapsed into the hard
throne. A wicked smile spread across his lips as he surveyed the
room and imagined the Fire Caste prostrate before him in
reverence.

Sammy watched through the narrow crack
between the throne room doors. Her eyes widened as her father
disappeared through the hidden doorway behind the hanging tapestry.
Even from the great distance, she could practically see General
Abraxas’ contemptuous snarl as the warrior took his seat on Lord
Balor’s throne.

Ignoring the General, her gaze fell back
onto the tapestry that now concealed the secret opening in the
rock. She had lived in the castle for nineteen years, leaving only
in her attempt to kill Xander, and yet had never seen that opening
before. Whatever lay beyond, Sammy felt irrevocably drawn to it. It
pulled on her in much the same way Xander had when they first met.
It was a surreal feeling, as though forces outside her and beyond
her control were pulling her through her own life like a
marionette.

“
What are you doing there?”
a Fire Warrior guard asked as he approached her from
behind.

Startled, Sammy spun quickly toward the man.
When the guard realized he was addressing the daughter of Lord
Balor, he quickly averted his eyes and his stern expression
softened.

“
Forgive me, Lady Balor. I
didn’t realize it was you.”

Sammy cleared her throat, uncomfortable with
being addressed as part of the Fire Caste royalty.

“
What can I do for you?”
she asked, her mind drifting again to the secret passage and
whatever lay beyond.

“
I was ordered to escort
you to your quarters.”

Sammy looked longingly over her shoulder
toward the crack between the doors before sighing. She nodded
wordlessly and followed the guard away from the throne room
doors.

The wail of fire sirens split the silent
night’s air. Sean pulled back the apartment’s curtains and looked
outside. In the distance, flickering flames illuminated the
relatively dark town. The swirling red, white, and blue of fire
trucks and police cars converged on the scene in a dense roar of
sirens. As he watched, another fire truck rushed past his apartment
complex.

A knot formed in the pit of his stomach as
he looked out the window. The fire was clearly coming from the area
of town in which Xander lived. With everything else happening to
his best friend, it didn’t seem at all far-fetched to believe that
Xander was somehow involved.

He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket
and dialed the number again. The phone rang over and over with no
answer. Finally, the voice mail picked up with an automated
tone.

“
You’ve reached Xander,” it
said. “I can’t come to the phone right now. Leave a message and
I’ll call you back.”

Sean swallowed hard as his eyes fell on the
firefighters battling the visible blaze. Sighing, Sean waited
patiently for the beep.

“
Hey Xander. This is
message number forty-six or so. Where are you? Give me a call when
you get this.”

He hung up the cell phone and slid it into
his pocket. Sean let the curtain fall back into place and he
turned, sitting heavily onto the worn couch. His gaze drifted to
the mound of clothes and college textbooks piled on the edge of the
couch. Xander’s backpack was still discarded on the floor, in the
last place it had been left before he disappeared.

At first, Sean had enviously assumed that
Xander had gone home with Sammy after the spring formal. The fire,
however, changed that. Seeing its budding beginning had been enough
to send Sean’s mind down a dark path, one that assumed his best
friend was in grave danger. The fact that Xander wouldn’t answer
his phone only added to his growing fear.

Sean felt a nervousness building in his
ample gut. It wasn’t like Xander to disappear. If there was one
thing about his best friend, the man was unerringly predictable.
That was before his powers appeared, Sean had to remind
himself.

He pulled out his cell phone once again and
looked at the time. It was already past midnight and most of White
Halls was sound asleep. Sean looked down the narrow hallway leading
from the living room and saw his own bedroom door, still sitting
partially open. His bed was inviting, and his body was certainly
tired enough to sleep, but his mind was still blazing with concern.
He knew that trying to sleep would be a wasted effort.

Instead, Sean picked up his keys from the
coffee table and walked toward the front door. It might be late but
he couldn’t go to sleep until he knew what was happening. If Xander
wasn’t at the apartment, there was only one other place Sean
imagined he would have gone. If Xander’s parents didn’t know where
he was, then Sean would truly worry.

He hurried down the narrow steps of the
apartment and let the small bell above the door jingle as he walked
outside. The parking lot was full and dark; only a single lamppost
illuminated the area and it resided on the far side from where he
had parked. Had it not been for the insanely low crime rate in
White Halls, Sean might have been concerned. As it was, he walked
to his car with barely a glance upward.

He slipped behind the wheel of his car and
started the engine with a loud sputter. A noxious cloud of black
smoke that shot out of the tailpipe accompanied the rattling
engine. The smell within the car quickly became atrocious and Sean
rolled down his window as he backed out of his parking spot.

He put on his turn signal and prepared to
ease onto the traffic-less road. He was so engrossed with checking
on Xander that he never noticed the blonde-haired man watching his
apartment from the deep shadows across the street. As Sean pulled
away from the apartment building, the man stretched his fingers
wide and a small flame erupted in his hand.