by Nichelle Rae
“No, you don’t.” She looked up at me angrily for a moment before her expression turned to that of defeat and anguish. She shook her head and looked back down at Cairikson as she put on his shoe. “My father was created by Them to protect and wield Their power on earth.” She looked up at me again. “And they repaid his hard work and effortless loyalty by scorning his name, taking everything he knew and loved away, and making him believe everything was all his fault? They destroyed him! And for what?” She shook her head and continued with Cairikson. “You couldn’t possibly understand. I doubt my father even understood.” After a few moments, she looked up at me again. “Why couldn’t my father tell me?”
I didn’t have an answer for her, but Rabryn did. “He probably didn’t want you thinking the things about the Light Gods that you’re thinking right now.”
She sighed and shook her head, then went back to dressing Cairikson. But she quickly looked up at me again. “Why did the Gods make him think his fleeing battle was his fault? I don’t understand that!”
I sighed and shook my head. “I don’t know, but it took a couple centuries for him to realize that he actually hadn’t fled the battle.”
“Why did he lie to me though? He told me he ran!”
“Perhaps,” Rabryn piped in again, “not telling you that he was truly pulled from battle made you the kind of person you are now, which will prove to be an advantage sometime in the future.”
Azrel looked at him as if she couldn’t believe he would dare speak to her about her father. “Shut up!”
Rabryn looked stunned, then angry. “These are guesses, Azrel! You wanted answers so badly, and this is the best we can do. Your father isn’t here to ask, so our guesses are all you’ve got!”
Before Azrel could say something to her brother that she might regret, I moved to put myself between them blocking their view of each other. “He might be right,” I said softly, putting my hands on her shoulders. “Maybe your father kept this from you deliberately, and told me deliberately, because he knew I’d tell you at some later date. Then, your realizing the terrible, unforgivable wrong done to your father would fire you up to avenge that injustice. Maybe your father hoped it would cause you to fight harder to restore his good name. You’ve already been fighting like hell to restore it, though you thought he fled battle. How are you feeling now, knowing that though he didn’t, the whole world and the Light Gods blamed him for fleeing?”
“It pisses me off,” she screamed.
I simply smiled. “I guess your father’s plan worked then.”
Azrel looked down, still red faced and panting through her nose, but I could see her slowly calming down as she thought about this.
Wow, Rabryn’s voice suddenly said, genuinely impressed. I never would have thought of all that. You know, you’re a lot wiser then you give yourself credit for.
No, I’m not. I just knew Azrel’s father really, really well, I replied.
Azrel started busying herself again with getting Cairikson’s legs in his pants. “Alright, let’s get this over with. What else don’t I know?” she asked, still with some heat in her voice.
“Everything about the Deralilya,” I said.
“Oh I know something about her, all right. I know she doesn’t like me and I definitely don’t like her.”
“What makes you think she doesn’t like you?” Rabryn asked from behind, a little defensively.
“Oh I don’t know, Rabryn. Does this ring a bell? ‘Because you Azrel, are too busy getting in your own damn way to give me a steel weapon.’”
I looked over my shoulder and saw Rabryn roll his eyes. “All she meant by that was—”
“Was that she doesn’t like me,” Azrel said, snapping her head up to try to look at him. I was still in the way of her gaze, so she continued with Cairikson. “And that’s fine by me because the feeling is mutual.” Azrel shook her head in disgust. “She can be respectful and loyal to the White Warrior all she likes, though not to me—because I’m apparently in the way of her getting something from her precious White Warrior.”
For the first time in days, Rabryn was speechless. He had no argument because she was right. Damn it, he said in my head. I suppressed a smile.
“My apologies for being disrespectful to you, Azrel.”
All of us turned at the sudden sound of the voice. There was Acalith, on the bank just behind where Rabryn sat on the rock. She was on one knee in a bow, masked and heavily dressed as usual.
Once she recovered from the shock, Azrel sneered. “I bet that leaves a big bruise on your pride.”
Acalith raised her head to meet Azrel’s eyes defiantly. “As would an acceptance of my apology leave a bruise on yours.”
Rabryn and I mightily tried not to repeat the mistake of laughing at Azrel’s expense. We didn’t want a repeat of Narcatertus, but I loved how Acalith wasn’t intimidated by Azrel’s sharp wit and tongue. Hers was just as sharp.
“Shouldn’t you be disappearing somewhere in the next five seconds?” Azrel stood up, holding Cairikson, and made her way towards the shack Addredoc had built.
“No. My homeland won’t be expecting to see me for a few days, so I can travel with you during that time.”
Azrel turned and gave her an exaggerated grin. “Oh goody, I’m sure we’ll have loads of fun biting each other’s heads off, and maybe we’ll even end up killing one another before we get to Rocksheloc.” She gave a single glare to Acalith, then turned away.
“I’m not worried. The White Warrior won’t let you touch me,” Acalith said, then casually pretended to be examining her gloves. Azrel froze in her tracks.
Uh oh, Rabryn said in my head. It’s not a good idea to challenge Azrel right now.
I couldn’t have agreed more.
Azrel turned around, her face grim. “You think not?”
“Of course not,” Acalith said with a careless shrug. “I hold the highest, most important rank of hers. She needs me.”
Not good, not good, Rabryn was chanting, clearly very worried. She doesn’t know the window is open.
Window? I thought.
The window I came out here to talk to you about. It’s the window that separates Azrel and the White Warrior.
What! I cried. It’s open?
Only a crack, but a crack is all it’s going to take to kill Acalith. The White Warrior can’t take full control of Azrel to stop her.
“You can be replaced,” Azrel growled.
“Maybe, but she won’t let you draw a weapon to me anyway.”
“Have you forgotten the White Warrior is a part of me or are you just as stupid as you look, dressed in those heavy garments?” Azrel advanced towards her menacingly. I stood up.
“She’s more powerful than you.”
“Who existed first?” Azrel asked venomously, as she placed Cairikson in my arms, keeping her eyes locked on Acalith’s. For the first time Acalith was speechless.
It was true the White Warrior had existed first in her father, but the White Warrior in Azrel had been formed long after Azrel was born, making this White Warrior younger, more new than Azrel. Also it was Azrel’s hatred for her magic that made her bury it so deep that it became a completely other person, making Azrel stronger than the White Warrior in that way as well.
“What? No witty comeback, Acalith?” Azrel asked.
Azrel was still advancing when she yanked out her sword with such quickness that if I had blinked I would have missed it. Acalith jumped and started to back away, only to be stopped by a tree.
Azrel placed the tip of her sword at the base of the Deralilya’s throat. “I’ve put up with enough people like you my entire life,” she growled. “People who hate me because I’m different or odd. People who laugh at me because they think they’re better.” Azrel put more pressure on the sword so that it deeply indented Acalith’s clothes. “People who underestimate me because they’re fools.”
I was holding my breath by this point. I wanted to jump in and help, but I felt like I wou
ld be betraying Azrel if I did. Rabryn was standing just as rigid as I was, apparently feeling the same way.
“I won’t put up with it anymore. I’m sick of it!” She held her chin high. “Dislike me all you want, but stay away from me while you do! If you don’t”—Azrel added more pressure to her blade and a small drop of blood seeped through the tan cloths—“the White Warrior will have a position to fill.”
“Forgive me, Azrel.” Acalith breathed deep, completely terrified.
“Stay away from me,” she said slowly and firmly, then turned away and sheathed her sword. She walked towards me with a gentle, but clearly forced smile as she took Cairikson from me. Resting him on her hip, she started to walk away. “How would you like to meet my talking horse?” she asked sweetly.
“Talking horse?” he replied excitedly.
“Yup,” she said, her voice fading in the distance. “Of course he doesn’t talk to me, but he talks to the White Warrior.” Cairikson’s laughed floated over the air, and then they were gone.
I blew out the breath I’d been holding and looked at Rabryn as he did the same. We both looked to where Acalith had been. She was gone.
“That was close,” I said.
“Sure was.”
“So,” I said and began gathering Cairikson’s and my old clothes up. “The window is open?”
“Yeah,” he responded, also stooping and gathering the clothes and Azrel’s vials of liquid, which were already full again.
“So she can use her magic at will?”
“Some of it, but not much. She said it was her doing when she killed the last Legan’dirs, and the cake appearance was probably her too, but that might be about all she can do on her own.”
“And of course threaten the Deralilya’s life.”
I said that to maybe get a chuckle out of him, but he suddenly looked sad. “Yeah.”
My brows dropped. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
I twisted my mouth to the side and looked at him. “I’m not stupid, Rabryn, and I’m insulted you think I am.”
He gave me a small smile but it quickly faded. “I don’t know. It’s just…” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand. “I feel like I’m losing my mind. I can’t stop thinking about those green eyes.” I found myself grinning, knowing where this was going. “It seems every waking moment I’m thinking and wondering what the Deralilya’s face looks like, her hair, her smile. It’s so aggravating how she comes and goes. She doesn’t say two words to me and she leaves. I just…I don’t know. I’d just…” He sighed. “I’d give anything to sit down and talk to her.” He sighed again and shook his head. “And I’d give everything else to see her face.”
My grin widened. “My friend, you have a love bite.”
He looked at me skeptically. “A love bite? How can I love her? I don’t even know her, in case that wasn’t too obvious.”
I chuckled. “A love bite doesn’t mean you’re in love. It just means there is some serious potential to fall in love.”
“No way,” he said smiling and turning a little red.
“Trust me. I know these things,” I said and tapped my temple with my index finger. “I was bitten too, a long time ago, but I was too young, troubled and self-absorbed to feel it or know what it was.” My heart sank at the memory of the worst day of my life. “It took my losing her to realize what had happened to me, and that I was already in love with her. Just be glad you don’t have to find out the way I did.”
“Why?”
I smiled bitterly. “Try to imagine how it feels—the very second you realize you love someone, she’s being taking away from you, maybe forever.”
He cringed at the thought.
I nodded. “Like I said, be glad you don’t have to find out like I did.”
It was quiet for a moment. “When were you bitten?”
I felt myself smiling at the memory. “The moment I first saw her.”
“Really?”
“Really.” I let my mind drift to that day. “I was young, but I’ll never forget the way she looked in my eyes. I was ten, and she was thirteen. She was jumping stones across the creek. The sun was shining in her hair. She looked like a Sky sent angel just for me because, when I saw her it was like…it felt like…everything bad I’d been through just went away. It just vanished.” I still felt the smile on my face as I went on. “I watched her for a long time. Of course I was making excuses to myself like I was only watching her for so long because ‘I have to have a good attack strategy’”—we both laughed—“or ‘I have to wait for the right time to…to execute my battle plans.’” He laughed heartily and I shook my head. “No. I watched her for so long because when I did, I just knew…I just felt that everything would be okay. She was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. Just by looking at her I felt something happen to me, even as young as I was. She’s my reason to breathe, my reason to hope. She’s my safety and my peace.”
“I hope I get to feel like that someday.”
“You will,” I said clapping him on the back. “You will.”
Rabryn sighed. “Well, we’d better get back. See what Azrel has for us to keep us strong for a while, since we clearly can’t rest.”
I laughed. “Let’s go then.” We both headed for the shack.
Chapter Five
Hathum
Fool! I wondered what Jonoic had done to screw this one up.
“Great plan,” Glondra said flatly. “Are you ready to listen to me yet? Or do two more of your ‘best’ men have to fall victim to her before you’ll accept the fact that she’s the one you’ve been searching for?”
I spun on her. “Glessar and Jonoic weren’t killed by the assumed White Warrior,” I screamed. “Glessar fell victim to the Deralilya and you saw for yourself that Jonoic was killed by that blasted Gold Flower!”
“Uh, speaking of which,” Thaybo piped in, “did either of you happen to recognize that Gold Flower?”
I snarled, “Of course I did.”
“Oh okay. Just making sure you’re on top of the game, which you’ve failed to prove to me since this search of yours began.”
I spun on him, grabbed his throat in my hand, and bent him backwards over the table. “I don’t need to prove anything to you, you slime! You’re below me!”
Thaybo laughed heartily, “Are you going to kill me, Brother?”
I gave his throat a final squeeze while he chuckled. “If only I could,” I said, releasing his throat.
Damn him! Damn them both! I knew I shouldn’t have called them in on this! It only made concentration more difficult. I gripped the back of the chair and bowed my head in thought. I had no proof the woman was the White Warrior. I wondered though, whether if I got close enough to her I would be able to feel the force of the White Fire of the Light Gods’ Power beneath the negative, black folds of humanity. I could not assume the White Warrior was someone who had darkness inside her like this woman had. I’d never heard of the Child of the Light Gods having any speck of darkness, but this woman’s soul was swimming in it. I could tell from the distant glimpse Jonoic got of her before he was obliterated by that Gold Flower that something was wrong with her. I could probably manipulate the darkness she had, but what was the point if she wasn’t who I wanted?
“Come on, Brother!” Glondra cried. “You know it’s her! I know it’s her! For the Abyss’ sake, Thaybo knows it’s her! Now is the time to stop being a fool and start practicing your victory dance!”
I gripped the chair harder, but not in time. My fist flew around and cracked her in the jaw. She went sprawling to the floor. “You need a reminder of your limits when dealing with me, Little Sister! Don’t talk down to me!”
She was quickly on her feet, glaring. “Then listen to me when I tell you what action to take and when! Then I won’t have to talk down to you! I’m smarter than both of you, Hathum! Haven’t you realized that yet? And if you hit me again, you’ll never see victory.”
I sneere
d at her. “You act as though you felt that.”
“That’s beside the point. Now sit down, shut up and listen to my plan.”
“Why should we?” Thaybo piped in. “You left on a mission to find out some secret behind the woman’s uncanny beauty. Could it be, maybe because she’s the White Warrior and blessed by the Beauty Creators?”
“I’m still working on that, which is more than what you two are doing in any case!”
My teeth clenched. Damn it. I hated arguing with her! She was always such a bitch about being right all the time! Why couldn’t she be quiet and agreeable, like Thaybo was most of the time? I supposed, though, nothing would get done that way.
“What does this ‘brilliant’ plan of yours consist of?”
“You’ll need to contact your minion in Fayithjen Forrest and work my idea out with him. He needs to make some arrangements there.”
“Glugnus? I don’t know if he’s still loyal.”
“I guess you’d better find out then!” she said, hands on her hips. “He took out that snake sorcerer’s family, didn’t he? I’m sure he would have taken out the snake himself if things hadn’t turned out the way they did.”
“What does Glugnus have to do with this?”
“You’ll have to hear my plan to know now, won’t you?” she cried. “Light be damned! You are the most stubborn, thick-headed, proud immortal ever to exist!”
I glared at her. “You call that an insult?”
“No, but shut up already and listen to me.” All three of us sat down and she began to explain.
Chapter Six
Azrel
Finally! At last we were outside the mammoth gates of Rocksheloc Mountain. Rocksheloc was one of the realms Beldorn and I had only passed by. I’d never actually been in there. The mountain was about 25,000 feet at the summit, making it the second tallest mountain realm in Casdanarus, second only to the 30,000 foot summits of the three mountains of the Triple Peaks realm. While Rocksheloc was the second tallest mountain peak in Casdanarus, it was still only a single mountain. It was a mountain that seemed almost out of place because it was surrounded by completely flat plains. Rocksheloc didn’t have a single foothill to speak of.
