Wind Warrior (24 page)

“
I couldn’t have said it
better myself,” Sammy said from behind him.

She placed her outstretched hand on the back
of his cloak and the garment caught fire. He spun around in a
panic, trying to control the growing flames but Sammy wouldn’t
release the cloak. She slid her other hand to his pants leg and set
it on fire as well.

General Abraxas screamed as the fire quickly
spread across his pants and up into his armor. It spread
unnaturally quick as Sammy fed the flames with her power. Her
beautiful blue eyes turned vibrant red as she focused, pushing her
body to its limit.

The General finally broke free from her grip
as she grew dizzy from exertion. Fully engulfed in flames, he
turned away from the warriors and fled into the woods.

Sammy dropped beside Xander and cradled his
face in her hands. Her hands were painfully hot but he didn’t push
her away. Blood trickled from a gash at her hairline and a faint
bruise was growing along her cheek.

“
Xander, I’m so sorry,” she
sobbed. “I tried to stop him. I tried.”

“
I know,” he said weakly.
He slid his arms around her neck and pulled her into a tight
embrace.

They held each other for a long moment until
they both felt strong enough to stand again.

As they stood, tears filled Sammy’s eyes.
“Xander, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…”

Her words were lost as he kissed her. He
could feel the heat radiating from her body and could taste the
saltiness of the tears on her lips. The tension fled from her as
she melted into his arms. Sammy slid her arms around his neck as he
cradled her close to him.

As their lips parted, Xander felt at least
some of the weight of the last few days’ events lifted from his
shoulders.

Sammy rested her head on his chest and
nuzzled under his chin. Glancing past her, Xander looked over at
Bart, who hadn’t moved since the attack. Reaching up softly, he
pulled Sammy’s hands free from his neck and walked over and knelt
beside him. His hands shook as he reached out and put his fingers
against Bart’s wrist, searching for a pulse.

“
Is he…?” she
asked.

Xander shook his head sadly and gently
placed Bart’s hand over his chest. Though he was tired, Xander
summoned a wind and blew away the rest of the clinging dust cloud
that blanketed the area.

With the air clear, he saw Giovanni crouched
over his grandfather. The Italian was shirtless and his long hair
was coated with mud and dirt. As the wind cleared away the rest of
the dust, Giovanni looked over and saw the younger warrior.

“
Xander!” Giovanni said,
relieved. “Hurry here!”

Xander rushed over and froze short of his
grandfather. The old man’s face was painted with anguish and sweat
mixed with the tears in his eyes. Giovanni’s shirt was draped over
his grandfather but Xander could still see the burnt arm jutting
from underneath. He feared to pull the shirt aside and see what
other damage had been done.

“
Grandfather,” Xander
whispered.

“
Hush,” his grandfather
said. “Don’t you worry about this. I’ll be back on my feet in no
time.”

Xander smiled politely but didn’t believe
the elder man. “I’m sure you will.”

“
We Siroccos are
stubborn.”

“
To a fault,” Xander joked
with a strained laugh.

“
Is Bart…?”

Xander shook his head. His grandfather let
out an exasperated sigh, closed his eyes, and fell silent. For a
moment, Xander feared he was going to lose his grandfather as
well.

His grandfather opened his eyes again and
looked at Sammy standing by Xander’s side. “Is this her? Is this
the Fire Warrior that you won’t stop talking about?”

Sammy blushed and Xander nodded. “This is
Sammy.”

His grandfather smiled. “She’s just as
beautiful as you described.”

Sammy slid her hand into Xander’s and he
clenched it tightly, for fear of ever letting her go.

“
We need to leave here,”
Giovanni offered. “People will be coming soon. We can’t let them
find us here.”

“
Can you carry my
grandfather and… and Bart?” Xander asked, fearing that Giovanni was
too exhausted to make the trip back.

“
I will make it
happen.”

He turned toward Sammy and looked into her
blue eyes. Reaching up, he brushed aside some of the blonde hair
that had matted in the blood on her forehead.

“
Come with us,” he said. “I
don’t know what it’ll mean for us. I don’t know where we’ll go or
what we’ll do but at least we’ll be together.”

“
Yes! But you have to know
they’ll come for us,” she said. “They won’t stop coming for all of
you.”

“
Then we’ll face them
together,” he said, squeezing her hand.

She slipped her hands around his neck and he
created a buffer of wind beneath them. Giovanni cradled his
grandfather carefully in his arms before pushing off from the
ground and joining the other two in the air. Bart’s body floated
gently behind him, wrapped lovingly in the wind that held Giovanni
aloft. As a family, they flew back to the island.

The Fire Warriors walked through the dense
undergrowth of the woods, pushing aside clinging tree limbs. The
trail of burnt ground and foliage was obvious as it cut a swath
through the forest.

Leaves were curled aside from the heat.
Limbs were blackened overhead and embers on the ground still
smoldered red hot beneath their quickly cooling white exteriors.
The woods were silent as all the animals had fled ahead of the
fire.

The warriors crested a shallow ridge and
found the valley consumed in thick, black smoke. They slid nimbly
down the muddy slope on the back side of the ridge and entered the
heart of the small forest fire.

The flames burned in a ring, consuming brush
and tree bark in waves of crackling fire. In the wake of the
flames, the ground was charred black. The warrior’s boots shattered
burnt plants as they stepped through the forest fire and into the
soot-filled aftermath.

In the center of the burning ring, a man lay
prostrate, his face buried in the ash. More soot and ash filled the
air around him, settling over his naked form.

The closest Fire Warrior removed his cloak
and placed it carefully over the burnt man, concealing the twisted
and scorched skin underneath. At the touch of the cloak, the man
stirred and opened an eye.

Slowly, the man pushed off the ground until
he was standing on mangled legs. He looked up at the evening’s sky
through his one good eye. He huffed at the stars that were emerging
as dusk settled over the valley.

“
General Abraxas,” the Fire
Warrior said.

“
Did you follow them?”
Abraxas said through lips that had partially fused together in the
flames. “Did you find them?”

“
We lost them when they
flew out over the ocean.”

“
But?” the General said
dangerously.

“
But the fishermen around
the shore remarked that there has been strange weather far out in
the ocean. We’ll find them there, I’m sure of it.”

“
You had better be,”
Abraxas said. “Your life depends on it.”

He closed his hand into a tense fist. “We’ll
find them, then I’ll have my revenge!”

The people that helped me put this book
together are practically too numerous to mention. A tip of my hat
goes to Josh, who will always hold the title of “my first fan”. He,
Amanda, Matt, and Justin read my works when I was nothing more than
a hobbyist and have stuck with me ever since.

More recently, heartfelt gratitude has to go
out to my amazing editor, Cynthia Shepp. Without you, I’d still be
using, what I would consider, to be far, too, many, commas.

I think the greatest amount of gratitude has
to be extended to the amazing ladies that run Clean Teen
Publishing: Rebecca, Courtney, Dyan, and Marya. This book was only
written on a whim as part of one of their anthology competitions.
They read my novella and saw the potential for a true series. They
were willing to take a risk on me and I can only hope I can repay
their kindness. And from the marketing, web design, advertising,
and cover artwork, they’ve been nothing less than amazing.

Finally, I wanted to say thank you to all my
fellow indie authors, of which you really ARE too numerous to name.
They’ve listened to my story lines and helped me work through
troubling story arcs. They’ve cheered my successes when so many
others were willing to put down my accomplishments. I can only hope
I can stand by each of their sides as they cheer their own
successes.

Jon
Messenger
,
born 1979 in London, England, serves as a United
States Army Major in the Medical Service Corps.  Since
graduating from the University of Southern California in 2002,
writing Science Fiction has remained his passion, a passion that
has continued through two deployments to Iraq and a humanitarian
relief mission to Haiti.  Jon wrote the "Brink of Distinction"
trilogy, of which "Burden of Sisyphus" is the first book,
while serving a 16-month deployment in Baghdad, Iraq. Visit Jon on
his website at
http://www.JonMessengerAuthor.com
.