"Are they really so innocent. They let their rulers, their Church, their Council persecute Fireweavers. We're not talking about the Lightless. No. These are people who have the power to change things, but they make no effort to help us. They accept the lies of their rulers."
"But those lies have become so ingrained," Rella said. "People have been raised to believe certain things. Change isn't easy." She hesitated. "That doesn't mean they can't change, though. They simply need the proof that they've been wrong. If Atarin gets his way, he'll prove everything they've ever believed about Fireweavers—that we truly are evil. Is that what you want?"
Andra paced the campsite. "You make a strong point. That's why I can't bring myself to support Atarin fully. How do his beliefs make us any better than our oppressors?"
Rella thought she heard a distant sound and glanced up the rocky slope to her left. When the sound didn't happen again, she decided she must have been mistaken.
"What about Halarik?" she asked. "Do you worship him?"
"I respect his power, but I don't worship him. That's the biggest thing that separates the Brotherhood and Halarik's Chosen. Halarik's Chosen are the people who actually worship Halarik, who believe Fireweaving is a gift rather than a curse."
"But doesn't Soren believe that?" Rella asked, recalling the altercation back at the caravan, when he'd said just that.
Andra bit her lower lip. "He does, but that doesn't mean he's a bad man. He grew up with those beliefs, in a family that supports Halarik's Chosen."
"Do the rest of you really trust him?" Rella asked. "He makes me nervous."
"He's a good bandit."
That wasn't a proper answer, and Rella had the feeling Andra wouldn't give her one. It seemed there might have been something between Andra and Soren. She was very quick to defend him, and how could anyone defend Soren's behavior?
Rella heard a sharp crack and glanced up the slope, seeing movement through the trees. She put a hand on Andra's shoulder. "You see that?"
Andra kept her voice low. "Yes, I think it might be a snow giant."
The shadow up the slope stepped closer, branches snapping as it moved. Rella's heart pounded. Had it seen them?
It growled and stomped down the slope, directly toward them. The closer it came, the more she could make it out. The legends were true. It had to be at least ten feet tall and covered in thick white fur. It stood upright like a person, but was a little unsteady on its feet.
Rella trembled as she turned to Andra. "What should we do?"
"Wake the others."
Chapter 12: The Frozen Lands
Rella raced over to Kae, Tharik, and Soren and nudged them awake. Soren greeted her with a curse, but Kae and Tharik leapt to their feet, glancing up the slope.
"Have you spotted a snow giant?" Kae asked with remarkable calm.
Rella pointed up the slope, at the approaching snow giant. Kae followed her gaze, then nodded and grabbed her sword. Tharik gathered his bow and nocked an arrow on the bowstring.
He loosed an arrow, striking the snow giant in the chest. The creature let out a horrible growl, pulled the arrow out of its chest, and kept approaching.
Rella's legs trembling. "Should we use Fireweaving?"
"We'll have to," Kae said. "That growl alerted any others nearby."
Rella shuddered as she prepared to use her powers. The snow giant continued down the slope, brushing aside all Tharik's arrows as though they were nothing. It growled again and again, and more growls sounded from a distance.
"And this is why you should've turned yourself in," Soren said, glaring at her.
Rella ignored him, joining the others at the edge of the campsite and watching the snow giants descend the tree-lined slope. In the dim firelight, they looked more like shadows than anything.
"Why did we keep the fire going?" Rella asked, standing a little behind Kae and Tharik, who stood at the front of the group. Andra and Soren both hovered off to the side.
"It wouldn't have mattered," Kae said. "Snow giants have only average eyesight, but their hearing and smell are quite strong."
Rella's stomach lurched. "Then Andra and I might have attracted them. We were talking."
"Don't blame yourself," Kae said, focusing on the approaching creatures. "They most likely would have smelled you anyways. Just stand ready to attack them."
Rella wished she could feel ready for that. Yes, she was powerful, but she'd only ever been in one battle, the one with the bandits. She hadn't had many opportunities to test her abilities. Would she freeze when faced with actual danger?
"Do you have an attack plan?" she asked Kae.
"No. I've never fought snow giants before."
"None of us have," Soren said. "Thank you for getting us into this situation."
Rella ignored him, watching the snow giants, which stood perhaps fifty feet away, in a thick cluster of trees. She wove Green and Blue, directing the weave toward one of the trees. The evergreen twisted, and she manipulated its branches, hoping to trap one of the snow giants.
The tree proved too weak, though, and the snow giant broke free, growling and increasing its pace. The other snow giants followed, thundering down the hill.
"We could alter the ground," Andra said. "Try to trap them."
"I'm good at Yellow/Green weaves," Kae said, "but I'm not that good. I need time to set up the trap. We don't have time."
"I might be able to do it," Rella said, trying to convince herself as much as the others. "I'll need some help, though. Who else can do Yellow and Green?"
"I can," Soren said, "but I don't think this is going to work."
"What other choice do we have?" Rella said.
"We'll all lend our power," Kae said. "Even if we can't do the weave ourselves."
Rella focused her mind, drawing power from the core and weaving the colors within her. Heart pounding, she directed her energy toward the slope ahead of them. Six snow giants were lumbering down the slope, closer than ever.
The ground shifted with a low rumble, but the movement was slow. Too slow. She gritted her teeth, praying to Aralea that this would work. Finally, the ground shifted enough, and a large hole opened beneath the six snow giants. They fell into the hole, which Rella and the others closed around them, trapping them. Rella doubled over in exhaustion, her mind fuzzy.
"Well, we stopped some of them," Kae said breathlessly. "But there are more." She pointed up the slope.
To Rella's horror, another ten or so snow giants marched behind the first line. She'd used up all the Yellow and Green she'd drawn from the core. She'd have to wait at least a few hours before she could recharge it. Fireweavers had an advantage over Sunweavers in that they could recharge at night, but it wasn't immediate.
Rella turned to the others. "Does anyone else have Yellow and Green left?"
"A little," Kae said, "but not enough to do anything on my own."
"I'm out," Soren said, sounding as exhausted as Rella felt. It was dangerous to deplete the reserve of any color because it left you feeling like this.
"We have only one choice," Rella said. "Red and Orange."
Soren looked at her sternly. "Do you want to set the whole forest on fire?"
"It's that or getting killed," Rella said. "I see no choice."
"Rella's right," Kae said. "Let's all do this weave."
Good, Rella thought. With five people weaving Red and Orange at the same time, they stood a strong chance of creating an impassable wall of fire. She exchanged a quick glance with the rest of the party before they started the weave.
The snow giants growled more fiercely than ever, as though sensing the danger. Rella drew her power from the core, feeding it through her body and performing the weave. Beside her, the others stared forward with grim intensity. Moments later, a wall of flame appeared, standing between them and the snow giants.
They directed the flames toward the snow giants, and soon the fire enveloped the beasts, which let out growls worse than ever. Rella almost felt sorr
y for them.
Some of the snow giants died. Others raced back up the slope. Rella and the others let the fire die. This time, Rella didn't feel so exhausted. She'd always been better at Red/Orange weaves.
"That was quite impressive," Soren said, turning to Rella with a grudging smile. "Maybe you're not as useless as I thought." He gazed up the slope. "We've never done anything like that on our own."
He turned back to Rella, his unnerving gaze lingering on her for a long moment.
"Let's not hang around here," Kae said. "We aren't strong enough to stop those snow giants if they come at us again."
Rella thought she might manage, but she kept that opinion to herself. The others didn't need to know how powerful she was in some aspects of Fireweaving. Her father had always told her she should keep her talents secret.
They returned to their small fire. After they gathered their belongings—very little in Rella's case—Kae extinguished the campfire with some snow. Then they continued to the south through the pass, glancing up the slopes every few seconds.
The night was cold, and a bitter wind blew. As morning neared, snow began to fall, and Rella wished she'd brought a heavier cloak. She was not dressed well for the elevation, or for how far south she might go. She'd have to find new clothing in the Frozen Lands. Surely they didn't all freeze to death. The bandits, after all, looked warmly dressed in their thick brown furs.
Morning brought a dull gray sky and more snow. Rella had always wondered how Sunweavers felt on cloudy days. Did they strain to gather their light reserves? Her father had told her it made a difference, but most people never faced situations where they needed a lot of power.
The mountain path wound along, narrow in some places, wider in others. Rella thought a few times that she saw movement up the slopes, but nothing threatened them.
At last, they reached the other side of the mountain, where the ground leveled out and they entered a forest of thickly clustered evergreen trees. The snow had stopped falling, but Rella still shivered in the bitter cold.
"How much farther to Rindel?" she asked.
"A few hours," Kae said. "We'll get you some warmer clothes when we get there."
"Thank you," Rella said. She appreciated everything Kae had done for her. These bandits could have let her starve or freeze to death on their own. They'd faced danger by bringing her with them. She'd never thought she'd think bandits were decent people.
Well, she had her doubts about Soren, but the others were all right.
Kae's prediction proved correct. Later that morning, they stepped through a thick cluster of trees on a large hill, and in the valley ahead of them sat a city. To Rella's surprise, it looked a lot like cities back home. She didn't know what she'd expected, but she'd expected something different. Then again, perhaps Fireweavers were not so different from Sunweavers.
"Do you have a place that you stay here in Rindel?" Rella asked.
Kae led them down the hill. "The Brotherhood offers a place for us. It might sound strange, but bandits are highly valued around here, and we're good at what we do."
Rella didn't like the sound of that. To her, good bandits were efficient killers. These people didn't seem like that, but she couldn't be sure.
"Do you usually spare the people you rob?" Rella asked, fearing the answer.
"We try to," Kae said, "but sometimes we run across people like Rendir. Regrettably, we must sometimes kill them." She pushed through some branches. "However, we never kill people who don't resist. I can't say the same for all Fireweaver bandits, but that's our code of honor."
Rella exhaled with relief. She should have known they were decent people despite their occupation. She had to learn to trust her instincts and stop overthinking everything.
Soon they reached the edge of the city, a place marked by rocky, uneven streets. Many, many Sunlamps lined these streets, providing the first warmth Rella had felt in a long time. It was strange to think that Fireweavers could produce Sunlamps even though they didn't get their power from the sun. Yet another reason Sunweavers and Fireweavers weren't so different.
Tall stone buildings stood all around them. As in Tarileth, there was little wood.
Many people walked the streets, going about their daily business in light fur cloaks. The people appeared surprisingly upbeat, though they did hang close to the Sunlamps. The buildings looked clean and well-kept, only a few cracks showing in the stone.
The bandits removed their cloaks, and Rella did likewise, for she was already sweating. It was a lot like home, strangely. Only the wilderness was truly cold.
"I expected Fireweavers to be struggling a lot more," Rella said.
Andra shrugged. "Well, we can do everything Sunweavers can, and more. After all, we can draw power whether it's day or night."
"That's why we're better than they are," Soren said. "If we wished to conquer Tarileth, we could. They should be much more afraid of Firelord Atarin than they are."
Rella didn't like the way Soren spoke of conquering Tarileth. He sounded excited about the prospect. How could the other bandits not see that he sympathized too much with Atarin? No matter what the world of Sunweavers had done to her, she couldn't bring herself to support its destruction. She wanted to change it, wanted to show them the truth of their world.
Perhaps she'd fit in well with the Brotherhood, but she had her doubts.
They passed many stone buildings. In a wealthier part of town, a few were made of wood, but stone remained more plentiful. Yellow/Green Sunweavers and Fireweavers could form that stone into the shape of buildings much faster than doing so by hand.
Kae led the party to a large building in the center of the city, a district where the roads were even and horse-drawn carts crawled along through throngs of people.
"This is where we live," Kae said, pointing at the building, the exterior of which showed no cracks. She led them inside, into a well-lit chamber filled with people chatting quietly. "We'll have to talk with our local leader, but there shouldn't be a problem about letting you live with us, at least for the moment." She paused for a few seconds. "Have you given any thought to what you want to do now? We could use someone like you in our clan. You have a lot of talent."
"I don't know," Rella said. "I'm not sure banditry is the life for me."
Kae nodded, a little sadly. "I understand. This life isn't for everyone."
"But what else can I do?" Rella asked, looking around the building. People sat in cushioned stone chairs, paying little attention to the new arrivals.
"There are other ways to help the Brotherhood," Tharik said. "You probably don't want to hear it, but the political divide in the Frozen Lands has grown stronger, much stronger. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we're on the brink of a civil war."
"He's right," Kae said, leading them off to the right side of the chamber. "Firelord Atarin wants war. Without the support of the Brotherhood, though, he lacks the numbers to be certain of winning. If he can find a way to unite us, or force us to obey his will, he will attack Tarileth, and he will kill every Sunweaver and Suncaster there."
Including my father, Rella thought with a shudder. She felt a strong pang of homesickness. How were Azira and Tarell faring without her? How had her father taken the news? Was he disappointed in her? Could she have made a different choice?
No. She couldn't think like that. She had to focus on the future. The past was the past, something she could never change. She had opportunities now. At last, she didn't have to hide her powers. She could embrace them and develop her talents to their furthest extent.
Kae knocked on a large stone door. Moments later, a voice said, "Come in."
Kae opened the door and motioned for Rella to follow. The rest of the bandits remained outside, making their way to some other place, probably the chambers where they lived. Rella's chest felt tight as she followed Kae into the room.
Inside, a bearded man sat behind a large, cluttered stone desk. He had a smile for Kae but looked at Rella with a frown. "Sit d
own," he said to both of them. "Who is this, Kae?"
Rella and Kae settled down in stone chairs, and Rella felt as though she were some prisoner in a cage, being watched. She took deep, calming breaths, but they didn't help.
"Rella is from the caravan we raided," Kae said. "She was a Fireweaver in hiding. In the altercation with us, she exposed herself as a Fireweaver, and the Sun Guard with them tried to arrest her."
The man turned his discerning gaze to Rella. "Why didn't you kill the Sun Guard?"
Rella shifted in her chair. "I don't believe in killing someone simply because it's more convenient for me. That Sun Guard is a misguided man, but still a good man deep down."
Rella's entire body felt tense. Had that been the right answer? She glanced over at Kae, but the bandit leader looked on with no discernible expression.
The man stroked his dark beard. "Many people would not have made the choice you did. Some say it takes courage to kill. I say it takes even more courage to spare someone when killing them would benefit you."
Rella relaxed a little. Perhaps she could find a place for herself here.
"I'm Aram," the man said. "Local leader for the Brotherhood of Fire. Pleased to meet you, Rella." He nodded in greeting, and she returned the gesture. Then he said, "I can gather from your actions that you're not a supporter of Halarik's Chosen."
"No," Rella said. "I don't believe we should kill Sunweavers simply because their society has oppressed us. Many good people would die." She took a moment to gather her thoughts. "My mother was a member of the Brotherhood back in Tarileth. She married my father, a Sunweaver, and they loved each other as much as anyone I've ever seen."
"I gather your mother is no longer with us," Aram said.
"She was executed," Rella said, feeling the upwelling of emotion that hit her every time she talked about her mother. Would the pain and injustice of it ever fade?
"I'm sorry to hear that," Aram said, and his sympathy sounded genuine.
"Thank you." In the silence that followed, Rella drummed her fingers on the arm of the chair. "I was wondering if I could see what information you might have on my mother. I'm not even sure if she was born in Tarileth or the Frozen Lands."
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