Flicker of the Flame: A YA Epic Fantasy

by Evelyn Puerto

  The commander jerked his head to look at her and frowned. “What is it?”

  Heart pounding, Tereka answered. “My mother. Her name was Iskra Mukujuk before she married, then she took the name Shirdelo. I heard a rumor she was here. Is she, and does she live?” She held her breath and knotted her hands. Maybe, at long last, she’d have an answer to at least one question.

  The commander took a few steps away then turned back to gaze at Tereka. He shook his head. “In my time as commander we have had three prisoners on a list of those who had committed the worst crimes against peace, safety, and the Prime Konamei. One has died, the other two still live.” His eyes narrowed and his expression hardened. “The one you ask about is on the list.”

  Tereka gasped. “She’s alive?”

  “She lives.”

  Alive. Her mother was alive. She could barely draw breath.

  “The same will not be said of you for long. Even mentioning that person’s name

  is treason,” the commander continued. “You cannot go free. Your inquiry has sentenced you to the salt mines.”

  Her stomach clenched as if he had punched her.

  “Since no one is to know the fate of such a criminal, or even hear the name,” the commander said as he strode down the line. “I retract the promise of freedom. For all of you.”

  Relio cursed. Several others gasped. Tereka’s knees wobbled and she swayed. What had she done?

  The commander spun on his heel and faced the muttering prisoners. He pointed at his lieutenant. “Take them to the salt mines.”

  50

  “What did he say?” Tereka grabbed Poales’ shoulder.

  “We’re g-going to the salt mines. Thanks to you.” He jerked away from her, his glare raking her face.

  A guard seized Tereka and hustled her from the room. Those who’d fought alongside her shouted, pleading with the commander to reconsider as they were shoved from his office, saying they’d had no idea Tereka was going to name a forbidden name. She scrunched up her face. What had she done? The others didn’t deserve this.

  The guards lined them all up in the yard. The four condemned men were pulled to the front and forced to kneel.

  “No. Please.” The men stared with horror-struck eyes as two guards bearing large swords approached them. They begged for their lives, their entreaties scraping Tereka’s ears.

  “Now!” the lieutenant shouted. With swift strokes, the guards beheaded two of the kneeling, pleading men. The other two cringed. One shrieked. In a moment, they were dead as well, sprawled in pools of blood that mixed dark red with sandy clay.

  The lieutenant looked at the prisoners standing before him. “Any trouble from any of you, and you’ll end up like them.” He gestured at the headless bodies lying in the red-stained dust.

  “Move along!” The guards herded the prisoners into a holding cell. They swung the door shut and locked it with a clang. Tereka’s eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dim light when she was punched in the face. “You fool! You could have got us all killed on the spot!”

  A fist collided with her stomach and she doubled over. A harsh voice cursed. She struggled to draw a breath and clenched her teeth waiting for the next blow. She couldn’t fight all of them off. Her insides were hollow like a dead tree. For a heartbeat, she was the girl sprawled over the kitchen table, enduring Groa’s beating. Powerless and helpless. But this time she deserved what she got.

  A hand grabbed her arm and yanked her nearly off her feet. Sebezh put his face next to hers, so close his week-old beard scraped her face, his foul breath filling her nostrils. “You’re mine now, zhalapu. And when I’m done with you, anyone else can have a turn.”

  She recoiled from his breath that reeked as if he’d eaten carrion even the vultures would scorn. Her ears rang and spots floated before her eyes. Sebezh twisted her arm behind her back and jerked it upwards. Her shoulder screamed in protest. She let out a whimper.

  “Enough.” Naco shoved his arm between Tereka and Sebezh.

  “You want to fight for this valach?”

  “Don’t call her that.” Naco grabbed Sebezh’s throat and squeezed. Sebezh tightened his grip on Tereka’s arm even as his face turned purple. A vein throbbed in his neck. He released her and flung her to the floor. Naco stood in front of her, his arms crossed, glaring at Sebezh. “Leave her alone.”

  Why would Naco risk himself for her? Tereka shook her head. She didn’t deserve it.

  Sebezh made an obscene hand gesture at Tereka. “Because of that kenhyr, we’re headed for the salt mines.”

  “And if it wasn’t for her, the pirates would have killed you.”

  Tereka pushed herself upright. She couldn’t blame Sebezh for his anger, no matter what vulgar names he flung her way. Her shoulder ached and one eye was swelling. Her tears threatened to spill over. Naco defended her when most of the men in the room probably agreed with Sebezh. And she’d feel the same if she were one of them. This wouldn’t end well for Naco.

  “A quick death would have been better.” Another man stood next to Sebezh. “I want a piece of her. She owes me.”

  Three other men, fists clenched, joined the first man next to Sebezh. Their stony glares chilled Tereka. Then Alikse strolled over to Naco’s side. He stretched out his beefy hands and cracked his knuckles. Sebezh shuffled his feet and took a step back.

  Naco pulled himself to his full height. “You’re so sure they were going to give us freedom? After they made a deal with the pirates?”

  He was echoing Relio’s suspicions. Tereka’s skin tingled and her eyes widened. She struggled to remember Relio’s words. Don’t make a deal unless you’re sure the other intends to keep it. She clapped a hand to her forehead and dug her fingernails into her scalp. Why hadn’t she listened?

  Poales moved to stand next to Naco. “D-didn’t you wonder why the pirates just showed up as we got there? Like they’d been invited?”

  Sweat dampened Tereka’s face. The rapid pulse in her ears nearly blocked out the muttering of several men. Murlat stepped forward. “She healed me after I was shot. I’ll not let you hurt her.”

  “Is that a challenge?” Sebezh made a fist. He glanced over his shoulder. “Who’s with me?”

  A few more men joined him. Savinnia crouched next to Tereka and took her hand. Tereka held her breath and tensed her muscles. Sebezh would come after her first. She wouldn’t give in to him easily. She ground her teeth together.

  Relio sauntered between Sebezh and Naco. “Look, you fools, we need to be smart. Naco’s right. We don’t know if we were really going to be freed.” He paused and spat at Tereka. “Thanks to you, girly, we’ll never know.” He spun to face Sebezh. “You’ve heard the rumors of what goes on in the salt mines. None of us have a chance unless we all stick together. Twenty of us as a group can hold our own. If some of us are beat up, we’re weaker.” He pointed at Tereka. “She’s proven herself to be a fighter, and, a healer, and seems to have more lives than an alloe rat. She’s more use to us alive.” He poked a finger into Sebezh’s chest. “And unharmed.”

  Tereka bit her lip until she tasted blood. Five, ten, twenty heartbeats passed. One of the men standing with Sebezh stepped back and sat along the wall. After a few heartbeats, the rest followed. With a curse, Sebezh joined them.

  Savinnia helped Tereka to her feet and led her to the opposite wall. Tereka’s knees gave out and she sank to the floor. Tereka pulled her legs up and laid her aching head on her knees.

  What had happened? She’d learned her mother was alive. That joy had caused her heart to soar in the air, high like an eagle, only to fall to earth like a stone when the commander decreed their fate. Poales dropped down next to her. “What were you thinking?” He spoke through gritted teeth.

  Naco and Relio squatted in front of her, their eyebrows drawn together, their eyes narrowed and their lips pressed into thin lines.

  “Now see what you’ve done.” Relio’s voice was low and threatening. “I’ve a mind to kill you myself. We took a ch
ance on that insane venture, managed to survive, yes, thanks to you. But now you’ve put us in worse shit.” He grabbed Tereka’s chin. She winced as he pressed on the bruise forming where she’d been hit. “You’d better be able to do a few more tricks. Or you’ll be the first one dead.”

  “I’m so sorry.” She rubbed her aching forehead. “I had no idea this would happen.”

  “What are you gonna do now?” Murlat raised his eyebrows.

  “What makes you think I know?”

  “I don’t know what magic you used to save us, and to heal me, but it has to be something.”

  “There’s no such thing as magic.” Tereka dabbed at the blood oozing from her nose.

  “Oh? Then how did you get that arrow out of my arm? It barely hurts.”

  Relio narrowed his eyes. “You healed me, too. How’d you do that?”

  Should she talk about the amulets? It might be her only chance to keep them from tossing her to Sebezh. “When I told you the sky-god helped me find the weapons. You laughed.” She took a breath and winced. “I’ll show you his power.”

  “You have a dragonfly?” Murlat asked.

  Tereka forced her swollen eyes open to stare at him. “How did you know?”

  He smiled. “The Prime Konamei thinks he can kill ideas just by forbidding anyone to talk about them. A few of us know about the Riskers and their amulets. And the power behind them. We just don’t chatter about it.”

  Gingerly, Tereka reached for her amulets, wincing with every move. She managed to grasp one of the larger ones and hold it to her eye. In a heartbeat, the swelling was gone and she could see clearly.

  She paused, giving them a chance to examine her face. A few jaws dropped. Poales and Murlat simply nodded. She touched her throbbing shoulder with the dragonfly. The pain ceased. She opened her hand to show her friends the amulet, then she stashed it back in its pouch. “I think it would be wise if you didn’t talk about what you just saw.”

  Wide-eyed, they all nodded.

  “So what’s the plan?” Naco asked.

  “Plan?”

  “You got us into this. You need to have some plan for getting us out.”

  “No. No plan. I hadn’t gotten that far.”

  “Then think of something.” Relio curled his lip. “And fast.” He stood and stalked to a corner of the cell and sat down.

  Tereka sagged against the wall, the tightness in her chest making it hard to breathe. She closed her eyes and tried to think, to come up with some way to escape. The light streaming through the single barred window advanced along the wall and faded and she still had no answers. Relio was right, she was a fool.

  Her throat ached. She was to blame. She let her shoulders slump, as if a weight crushed her to the floor. She didn’t know what to do. It was bad enough to be sent to the salt mines, but to be in a trap of her own making, that brought others down with her through no fault of their own, was far worse. She squirmed, writhing with shame. If only she could die and never have to face another day.

  Da was right. Her insistence on knowing all the answers had gotten her in trouble. She’d blamed Da for not telling her about her parents. He’d done the best he could, as he thought best. None of it was meant to hurt her, but to protect her. And she had raged at him for not being able to save her parents when it wasn’t his fault. He’d had no way to know the pursuit would be so hot. How could she have been so arrogant, to assume that everyone else in her life was to blame? Life wasn’t fair. Wishing for it to be fair wouldn’t make it so.

  What could she do to save the others? She peeked into the bag that held her amulets. They glowed with a soft purple light. She begged them to tell her what to do, but she got no reply. Instead, a deep sense of peace settled on her like a blanket, warming her. With a sigh, she rested her head against the wall of the cell and closed her eyes.

  51

  The creaking of the door opening disturbed the gloomy darkness that had shrouded the cell for hours. A guard entered and stamped his feet. “Get up.”

  Tereka struggled to her feet, her cramped muscles protesting. Shuffles and muttered curses told her the others were also in motion.

  Both moons were new, one invisible, the other just a sliver of a crescent, so the only light came from the stars and a few lanterns held by some of the guards. Tereka shivered as the guards herded them toward a wagon, prodding them with wooden poles. “Line up,” one snarled.

  A guard seized Tereka’s arms. He fastened iron cuffs around her wrists and iron bands around her ankles. Then he pushed her to the wagon. He pointed to the benches that lined the two sides. “Sit.” He pushed her to a seat closest to the front and she stumbled and plopped onto the hard wood, bumping her right elbow against the back of the driver’s seat. Explosions of tingling pain shot through her arm and tears jumped to her eyes. She gripped her elbow with her left hand. A loop of metal protruding from the cuff on her wrist poked into her forearm.

  Another guard followed her onto the wagon. He tied a rope to a bolt on the seat next to Tereka. Roughly, he seized her hands and threaded the rope through the loops on her wrist irons, wrapping it tightly and pulling her hands securely together.

  While the first guard held her hands immobile, a second one roped her ankles to a bolt in the floor. Then he moved on to Poales, who sat next to Tereka. Once his feet were secured, the rope from her wrists was passed through the loop on his. She looked into Poales’ dark eyes, shining in the starlight.

  He shrugged. “They sure d-don’t want us to escape.”

  “No talking.” The guard punched Poales in the chest.

  Closing her eyes, Tereka slumped over her knees, her head hanging. This was her fault. She looked up to find Naco on Poales’ other side, a guard bolting him in place. In the dim light, she couldn’t see who was next. Her chin trembled. They would never get out of this alive. She wasn’t sure they wanted to survive long, not where they were going.

  Two guards took their places on the seat of the wagon. Several others on horseback assumed positions behind it. The driver slapped the reins against the horses, the wagon jerked, and Tereka fell against Poales. The wheels creaked and they rolled out of the prison gates. They rode silently, the only sounds the muffled hoofbeats of the horses, an occasional cough from a prisoner or curse from a guard. Tereka started when a hand gripped her knee. She raised her head. The sky in front of her was rosy pink. Poales spoke in her ear. “Can you hear what they’re saying?”

  She leaned toward the guards and strained to listen.

  The driver murmured something she didn’t catch.

  The guard next to him spoke softly. “Let’s… ” he mumbled the rest. “ …dump the bodies there.”

  Bodies? For a moment, Tereka couldn’t comprehend what she’d heard. The driver murmured a response and laughed before the guard said, “Which one of the girls do you want?”

  Tereka’s blood froze. Who were they talking about? Killing them all, raping her and Savinnia? She stared into Poales’ face, only the whites of his eyes visible in the early dawn light. He gestured with his head to Naco on his other side. Tereka leaned over. Naco was staring at the guards. She caught his eye and he nodded. He leaned over to Sebezh and whispered to him. Sebezh jerked, frowned, and hit his knees with his bound hands. Naco whispered to him again. Sebezh nodded and whispered to the man on his other side.

  Stretching her foot, Tereka tapped Savinnia, seated across from her. Savinnia’s hands trembled, her white palms shining in the silvery light.

  The guards made a few ribald jokes. Tereka gulped. She leaned to Savinnia, and mouthed, “We’ll fight.”

  Savinnia nodded. “Oh, yeah.”

  Next, Tereka tipped her head toward Relio, seated next to Savinnia, who jostled the big man with her elbow. He sat up with a start and Savinnia put her mouth to his ear. He raised his eyebrows, then glared in the direction of guards. Then he turned to Murlat. She watched the message get passed along. If the guards had their way, they weren’t going to make it to the salt m
ines alive.

  Poales murmured in Tereka’s ear. “Twenty of us. Six of them. We might be able to do this.”

  She nodded. Might. They were tied, with only broken arrowheads as weapons. The guards had swords and bows. She pulled at the rope tying her to the wagon. Her breath caught when the knot loosened. How careless of the guard to not be sure it was tight. How stupid of her not to check before. She worked it free and slid the rope from her wrist irons, then nudged Poales. With a glance at the guards behind, he slid the rope out of his irons. He turned to Naco.

  Holding up her free hands just enough to make them visible, Tereka brushed Savinnia’s shin with her foot. The corners of Savinnia’s mouth turned up. She pulled at the knot that kept her bound.

  The wagon slowed and Tereka frowned. They didn’t have much time. She needed to free her feet. She jerked her foot up, trying to loosen the bolt, and gasped when her knee nearly hit her chin. She poked at the wood of the wagon’s floor. It was soft and rotten. In a few heartbeats, her other foot was free.

  Next to her, Poales was already tearing out his bolts. She looked at Savinnia, who was copying Poales. A short time later, Savinnia was free, as were Poales, Naco, and Relio. At least the rotten board extended that far. All she could do was hope that Murlat and some of the others had managed to free themselves.

  “Whoa.” The driver spoke to the horse and the wagon stopped. Tereka twisted her head to look over the side. The dawn light shimmered on a softly flowing river. Her heart pounded in her chest as if it were attempting to flee.

  Three of the guards on horseback dismounted, tossing their reins to the fourth. One tapped the first prisoner on the head. “Get out. One at a time.” He bent over and unlocked the ankle bolts holding the man to the wagon and untied the end of the rope. Once the prisoner was released, the guard held the rope tightly, keeping the remaining prisoners bound. Tereka hoped whoever had the other end of the rope kept a tight grip on it. Otherwise, the guards would know something was up.