Soul Fire

by Legacy, Aprille

  I headed for a tree with many low hanging branches. When I reached it, I propelled myself into the branches, pulling up my feet as the animal skidded to a halt at the base of the trunk and roared its displeasure. I continued climbing desperately, my sweaty hands slipping on the bark.

  The creature reared up on its hind legs and swatted at me with an enormous paw. I pulled my feet up, tucking them close to my body as I clung to a branch. I was getting near the top of the tree now, the tree that shook as the creature braced itself against it, and the branches were thinning. I glanced down to see where the creature was, and then immediately wished I hadn’t.

  It was a creature of nightmares. It had the body of a lion, was the size of a horse, but was covered in black scales like armour. Steely claws dug into the bark of the unfortunate tree I’d taken sanctuary in, and I shook with the tree, almost losing my grip. Its hot breath reached up to me, smelling like a thousand dead things.

  I had no idea where Phoenix was. I could only hope that he’d seen the creature and gone back to camp for help. I certainly didn’t want him coming after me on his own, not with this beast about to scale the tree for a tasty morsel of mage.

  Mage! I made a fist, letting my magic seep through to its corporeal form. A fireball formed in my hand, and I wasted no time projecting it downwards, engulfing the creature in green flames.

  While it certainly didn’t like the magic in its eyes, the beast wasted no time regaining its footing, the rest of my magic showering off of its armoured hide. That’s what it’s there for, I realised. This beast is a mage eater.

  I abandoned my magic, reaching for the small dagger at my hip. I unsheathed it, feeling a bit better about having a sharp blade in my hand. When the creature lifted a paw, claws outstretched, trying to reach me in the branches, I swiped at it with the dagger. The blade cut the flesh between its toes, and the creature reared back and roared in pain.

  I didn’t have to worry about someone coming for help now. People on the mainland surely had to have heard that.

  My dagger had come in handy. Now I needed to take it up a notch.

  I looped one arm around a branch, wrapping sweaty fingers around the hilt of the small knife as the creature began to attack the tree with renewed frenzy. With my other hand, I carefully grasped the blade, hissing as the blood of the creature burnt my skin like acid. I kept a hold on it, whispering the spell we’d learnt in Magic Prac. The blade glowed and then elongated. I now had a small sword.

  This part was tricky. I couldn’t rely on magic to hold my aim true, and I wasn’t the best thrower as it was. I looked down into the beast’s red eyes, fixing it with a glare, letting it know it had attacked a force to be reckoned with. As though recognising such a glare, the creature snarled up at me.

  “That’s my cue,” I muttered to myself, and bracing myself in the branches, hurled the sword downwards, point first.

  My aim was true; the sharp point of the blade bit deep into the creature’s left eye, and it dropped to the forest floor, snarling. It howled, and I slammed my hands over my ears as it built in pitch and intensity. The creature rubbed its head on the ground, desperately trying to dislodge the knife. With one desperate yowl that made my vision swim, it collapsed to the ground, shaking the leaves of the trees all around.

  I stayed where I was, not believing it to be dead. I think I would’ve stayed there all night if Phoenix hadn’t burst through the trees, Jett and my classmates with him. Together they took in the scene; me high up in the branches of my life saving tree, and the creature crumpled on the ground, the hilt of my dagger protruding from its eye.

  “Sky!”

  Phoenix climbed into the branches and held out a hand to me. I gripped it, steadying myself against him as I climbed down.

  “What is it?” I asked Jett, who was looking over the beast.

  “A Du’rangor,” he said, kneeling in front of it. “But how-“

  “A Du’rangor?” Phoenix asked. “But how is it here?”

  “What do you mean?” I asked him, confused.

  “Du’rangors are native to Gannameade, and only to that country. They aren’t found anywhere else.”

  “Except the Paw Islands of Lotheria, apparently,” I said, unwilling to go near the thing.

  Jett gripped the hilt of my dagger and pulled, wincing as the blade refused to come free from the sucking mass of what was left of the Du’rangor’s eye. When he did finally get it free, only a small portion of the blade was left with the hilt; the rest seemed to have been burned away.

  “Du’rangors are poisonous,” Jett lifted the remainder of the blade to show the class, who wrinkled their faces as eye goo dripped from it in long strings. “And very difficult to kill. How did you do it, Sky?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” I asked.

  “You shoved a knife in its eye, but that alone shouldn’t have killed it. What else did you do?”

  “Nothing. I mean, I made the dagger a little longer using that spell you taught us, because it was only a little knife.”

  “So you threw a blade soaked with magic into its brain,” Jett concluded. “That would do it, and evidently, it has.”

  Everyone gathered around the Du’rangor, but I didn’t go a step closer. They hadn’t seen it in action, the way its muscles moved like liquid steel as it reached for me in the tree, death in its eyes. I looked at it slumped on the ground, noticing how much smaller it seemed now that one couldn’t see the two inch long claws retracted back into its paws, the long teeth and the foul smelling maw were hidden from view by its velvet muzzle, the only part of the animal apart from its paw pads that was fur.

  I hardly noticed when Phoenix left my side and Dustin replaced him, too engrossed in my thoughts, reliving parts of what had just happened.

  “What will happen to it now?” I asked Jett.

  “We’ll burn the body, and then we should leave the island,” he said. “I don’t want to find out the hard way that this wasn’t the only one here.”

  I shuddered involuntarily.

  “What were you doing out here by yourself?” Dena asked, wrapping her arms around me as the rest of the group came over.

  “I wasn’t alone, Phoenix was with me. Don’t do that,” I told her as she sent a very untrusting look to Phoenix, who’d slunk behind the group. “I was collecting black berries, because our food bag is empty.”

  “No it isn’t,” she said, frowning, which sent her glasses slipping down her nose. “It can’t be.”

  I noticed Ispin behind her go bright red and begin to shuffle from foot to foot.

  “I must’ve misjudged how much food to bring,” I said quickly, before anyone could look over at him and put two and two together.

  Dena admonished me as my mother would have, and Ispin sent me a grateful look that I dare not acknowledge.

  We packed up quickly and headed for the beach as the sun dropped even lower. We rowed out to the waiting boat, and I watched as the island dropped behind us, a thin belt of smoke rising into the evening air as the body of the Du’rangor burned.

  Once safely aboard, we began to sail back to the mainland. The jetty slowly came back into view, alight with torches so we could find our way home. The sailors moored it with expert ease, and we disembarked on wobbly legs, tired from so much travelling over the day.

  It was only this morning that we left, I mused in wonder. A lot had happened in a day. I’d almost died, and I’d spent time with Phoenix.

  I grumbled to myself as we headed back to our old camp. Why did he have such a strong grasp over me? Maybe it was like this with all soul mates, though I wouldn’t know as I hadn’t much experience with mine.

  Echo greeted me with as much gusto as ever, which faded quickly when she realised I didn’t have treats for her this one time. I stroked her velvet nose, wondering how the nose of the Du’rangor would’ve felt.

  Suddenly a hot ball of pain wrenched my insides. I’d just killed a creature. A large, living creature that was trying to kill me. Suddenl
y everything rushed me at once, how close I’d come to death. Jett said it had been poisonous; if one of those razor sharp claws had so much as nicked my leg and drawn blood, the blood in my veins would’ve bubbled with acid and I would’ve died.

  I sat in the sand dunes and curled up into a ball. It wasn’t everyday one managed to succeed in killing something that was threatening their life. I should feel elated, even more confident in my abilities than before. But I knew I’d been grossly outmatched, and had I had my twin swords with me, I more than likely would be dead in that tree. Because I would’ve thought myself a match for the beast. I would’ve stayed on the ground to face it as an equal, realising my grievous mistake far too late.

  Cold sand brushed my cheeks and I shivered in the brisk sea wind. Behind me, I could hear someone, Dena, I think, calling for me. I didn’t answer her, instead hugging my knees to my chest tighter, closing my eyes against the grains of sand that sailed on the wind.

  “You’re in shock.”

  I opened my eyes and saw Phoenix sitting a little way down the dune from me. How long had he been there?

  “What?”

  “In shock. You’re trying to deal with the fact that you almost died.”

  “So what if I am?” I said, moody and defensive. “Where did you go, by the way? One second you were there and the next I was being chased up a tree.”

  “I saw you being chased by it and went to get help. I left you alone for only a few minutes. Du’rangors are intelligent; it would’ve waited for you to be alone.”

  “Why? It could’ve killed us both, easily.”

  “Yes, but it was also hungry. The Du’rangor is a cursed beast; it poisons what it kills, and if it eats what it has poisoned, it dies.”

  “How does it kill without poisoning its prey then?”

  He swirled a finger in the sand, not looking at me.

  “It frightens its prey to death,” he said finally. “That howl? It overwhelms the senses, drives its prey insane.”

  Lucky I’d covered my ears then. I remembered its final, desperate yowl, the way my head had swum and my vision blurred. I thought back to the night Dustin and I had heard it howl on the beach. Even at that distance I’d been physically affected by its howl; the terror that had pierced my heart had been the Du’rangor setting all of us up for a tasty meal.

  “Gannameade must be an awful place,” I mumbled. “If there are creatures like the Du’rangor running loose all over the countryside.”

  There was no answer. I looked up. He was gone.

  “Sky,” I looked over my shoulder at Jett. “Are you alright?”

  “I’m fine,” I lied, though my heart hung heavy with Phoenix’s abandonment. Too bad, I thought, we’d almost been having a conversation. “I was just coming back.”

  ~Chapter Eleven~

  Dena doted over me back at camp. She’d managed to procure some food from somewhere (a lot of it looked like the mash we made for the horses) and made me eat most of it. She’d checked me out thoroughly on the boat here, and whilst I was physically in perfect health, I knew she was expecting me to have some mental breakdown.

  Too bad I’d already had it.

  We spent the rest of the break playing on the beach, but I anxiously counted off the days until we could return to the Academy, the big, safe Academy. On our second to last day, I succeeded in teaching the Lotherian boys how to play softball, though Petre found it a little difficult to

  grasp the concept of ‘out’.

  “Out!” I called, as Red Hair caught it on the full. Petre kept sprinting to the next base and I nodded at Red Hair, whom we all had noticed had almost perfect aim.

  Red Hair ditched the ball at Petre, catching him in the legs and sending him sprawling in the sand. Despite our laughter, Petre started wriggling on his belly to the next base. I’ll give it to the bastard, he was determined. I stood over him as he planted one firm hand on the tent bag we were using as second base.

  “You’re out,” I told him pointedly.

  He dragged himself up and brushed himself off. “It was worth a shot,” he said haughtily, and sailed off

  to his teammates.

  I rolled my eyes at Rain, who ignored me. The next morning we set off early, and I determinedly did not look towards the island as we left. I hoped that I’d never see it again, and if I ever did, it would be too soon.

  Phoenix had resumed ignoring me. I let it go, tired of trying to squeeze a friendship or any kind of common ground out of someone who so obviously didn’t have the time of day for me.

  I rode with my group, chatting about the new term, though nothing would’ve changed. We still had the same classes, the same teachers, the same classmates.

  I wondered why our class was so small. Jett had once explained to us that we were reaped every three years, so we ranged from eighteen to twenty. I would be twenty by the time I finished my study at the Academy and then...

  And then what? There was a hollow feeling in my chest as I contemplated this new thought. I’d never thought of what I’d do after I finished my studies. Would I travel this new world, explore everything this realm had to offer? Yes, that sounded very appealing, but I had to be realistic. I would just have to hope that my magical talents would reveal themselves to me over the course of my tuition, and then I’d aim to secure a position, a paying position.

  I realised I was floundering out of my depth. I didn’t even know the value of the coins in my belt purse. I made a mental note to ask Jett about prospective careers after the Academy.

  I would really like to travel though, I decided. I have a whole new world to explore, and nothing’s going to stop me from seeing it.

  When we made it past Keyes and the Academy came into view everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Though we had to resume our study, it would be far less dangerous than term break.

  ~ After the break, I hardly ever saw Phoenix. He stayed by Eleanora’s side as if she were a life support. Communal meals in the mess hall grew quieter and quieter, until I asked Jett if I could eat alone; I was tired of everyone glancing at me and whispering. I noticed that the whispers seemed to be from the Lotherian mages only.

  “Don’t fret about it,” Dena said when I mentioned it. “Just ignore them.”

  The whispers came to a head in our first riding class of second term. Professor Alena, impressed with our progress, was letting us have a gymkhana of sorts. We split into two teams, and I managed to end up on the opposing team to Eleanora. My stomach shifted nervously and Echo, sensing my discomfort, shifted anxiously beneath me. I pretended not to see the malevolent looks Eleanora was shooting me, and tried to calm myself.

  Since the Du’rangor, I’d been more on edge. I didn’t like the dark, I hated loud noises and when Ispin had surprised me around a corner, I managed to curse him so bad that he couldn’t speak for a few days.

  “Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” Rain had said, patting me on the shoulder.

  But I hadn’t meant to do it. The magic had just burst out of me, and had someone asked me to do it again, I probably couldn’t have.

  So already I’d managed to gain a reputation of late. I wasn’t the girl who had killed a Du’rangor with only a knife; I was the girl who jumped at loud noises.

  So that hot afternoon, the sun beating down on our shoulders, I knew, I just knew, Eleanora was going to do something. I wasn’t sure what, but I knew it wouldn’t be something I was going to enjoy. As a result, I was even more on edge.

  I watched Dena race Petre and win, in the barrel race. Someone had dobbed in Echo and I for the sprint, and my heart sank when I realised I was going up against Phoenix, who’d been pitted against me by his girlfriend. I refused to look at him as we lined up.

  “To the marker at the other end,” Professor Alena said, and Phoenix and I peered ahead, to where we could just see a post in the distance. “Ready? And... Go!”

  Echo was off before I could do anything. We barrelled down the course at a full gallop and I felt as though I
was riding an avalanche down a mountain side. I leant forwards, urging her faster, her hooves flashing beneath us. On our right flank, Phoenix and Validus didn’t even try to pull even.

  Hang on? Was he trying to let me win?

  Before I could pursue this thought anymore, I caught a glimpse of what looked like a purple ribbon streaking beneath Echo’s hooves. She immediately shied away from it, whinnying. I fought to keep my balance, but then lost it completely as she reared in terror. I felt myself leaving the saddle and quickly kicked my feet free of the stirrups.

  I hit the ground hard, on my left side. I felt the air shoot out of my lungs at the same time I felt a sickening crack jolt up my left arm. I curled into a ball as Echo snorted, still prancing, her sharp hooves hitting the ground close to my head.

  Oh geez. I was going to be killed by my own horse.

  I was dimly aware of Phoenix bringing Validus to a halt as Dena and Professor Alena ran to us. Luckily we hadn’t gotten very far down the course.

  Phoenix immediately went to Echo, catching her bridle as she tried to rear again, murmuring to her. She calmed down, her ears flicking forward as she listened to whatever he was saying.

  I clutched my arm and gasped at the pain. I knew straight away that it was broken.

  Phoenix knelt down next to me, having calmed Echo to a point where she no longer needed his attention.

  “Let me see it,” he commanded, reaching for my arm.

  “Don’t touch me!” I cried, scooting away from him, the pain making me irrational.

  He promptly ignored that and put his arm around my shoulders, helping me sit up better. Dena arrived in a flurry of dust and frantic worrying.

  “Let me see it,” she said quickly, seeing me clutch my arm close.

  I held it out to her, completely trusting of my best friend. I thought I noticed Phoenix’s shoulders slump as I showed Dena the trust I refused to show him. She’d barely probed it with gentle fingers when I yelped with pain, my arm growing simultaneously hot and cold.