Deliverance

by Brittany Comeaux

  The sounds around him were becoming more and more inaudible. The last thing he heard before blacking out was Crystal crying and Gavril muttering, “What was he thinking?”

  CHAPTER 13

  When Blaze first awoke, he thought he was dead. His whole body felt numb and when he first opened his eyes, he could not see anything but black. It was when he heard Crystal’s voice that he knew he was alive.

  “Blaze? You’re awake! Thank Caris!” she cried.

  He felt a hand touch his forehead and his eyes were starting to adjust enough to see Crystal’s figure. He could see that he was in his room at the rebel hideout. Though his mouth was parched from thirst, he managed to mutter in a weak voice, “What happened?”

  Crystal sniffed and wiped her face. Even though he couldn’t see her face well enough yet, he didn’t have to in order to be able to tell she had been crying. She worriedly uttered, “You saved my life, but you almost killed yourself doing so!”

  Blaze’s eyes were nearly focused again, and he could see that his torso was bandaged up. When he tried to sit up, he felt a sharp pain in his left side and winced. Crystal put her hand on his chest and said, “Don’t move a lot! Your injury is still bad!”

  “Just how bad is it?” Blaze asked hazily.

  “Well, fortunately, the thief leader’s dagger only grazed your side, so even though the cut was deep, we were able to stop the bleeding long enough to get you stitched up and bandaged. Gavril wrapped his cloak around you and help arrived with a cart and a horse to carry you back to the hideout. You lost a lot of blood, though, and you’ve been unconscious for two days! I am just so thankful you are all right!” Crystal explained.

  “Honestly, I didn’t think I would be,” Blaze muttered.

  Crystal wiped another tear away from her face and asked, “Why did you do it?”

  Blaze looked at her, puzzled, and asked, “What do you mean?”

  “Why did you jump in front of me? You could have easily been killed and yet you never hesitated!” Crystal cried.

  “I . . . don’t really know. I mean, I wasn’t thinking about what I was doing,” Blaze replied.

  Crystal smiled and said, “Thank you. I never thought you would do a thing like this, but I just want you to know that I will try to repay you for what you’ve done. I owe you my life.”

  Blaze shook his head, and replied, “Forget about it.”

  Then Crystal did something that Blaze didn’t expect; she leaned closer to him and lightly kissed his cheek. Blaze must have had a very confused look on his face, because when Crystal pulled away from him, her expression changed to embarrassment.

  Her cheeks turned red and she began to stammer, “I-I am so sorry! I . . . I should go.”

  Before Blaze could protest, however, Crystal got up, walked over to the door, and left the room, closing the door behind her.

  Blaze lifted his hand and lightly touched the spot on his cheek where Crystal kissed him. He didn’t know what to make of it. He didn’t understand why it didn’t bother him, either. Four months earlier, he would have laughed at her, but now he actually felt better. He wished that she hadn’t left, and he didn’t know why.

  He was still wondering what the meaning it all was by the time he fell asleep again.

  ****

  For the rest of the day, several people went in and out of Blaze’s room. The medics changed his bandages every two hours, and not long after Crystal left, they brought a small bowl of soup to try to get Blaze to eat. Every time he was left alone again, he soon fell back asleep. The pain was still intense, but he was feeling somewhat better and was even able to sit up on his own after the medics showed him how to put light pressure on the wound to lessen the pain.

  Blaze continued to drift in and out of sleep for the rest of the day. He awoke sometime in the evening, judging by the window in his room, to the sound of his door opening and closing again. With his eyes still closed, Blaze groggily muttered, “How many times are you going to change my bandages? Dammit I want to sleep!”

  “I am not here to change your bandages, Blaze.”

  Even before he opened his eyes, Blaze knew that the person who spoke was Gavril. Aw hell, he thought. He opened his eyes and saw Gavril standing by the door with his arms folded. He had his usual overly serious expression on his face.

  “What did I do now, General?” Blaze asked.

  “A very brave and noble deed,” replied Gavril, “Albeit, a little insane, to say the least.” He then crossed the room, grabbed the chair from the corner, set in down next to Blaze’s bed, and sat down.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” asked Blaze with an annoyed tone.

  “You saved Crystal’s life when I failed to, Blaze,” replied Gavril. “I have spent the past few days feeling like I let her down. I felt like I let her father down. I finally summoned up the will to come down here, and now all I can say is . . . thank you, Blaze.”

  Blaze could not believe his ears. Was the general actually thanking him for something?

  “I seriously misjudged you;” Gavril continued, “You must care a lot for Crystal to do such a thing.”

  “What? Why do you think I care about her?” Blaze asked.

  “Well, there is only one reason that a man would take a nearly fatal knife wound for a woman,” Gavril stated.

  “And what reason is that?” Blaze asked.

  Gavril shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Because he values her life more than his own.”

  Blaze laughed, much to Gavril’s surprise and retorted, “Look, old man, I wasn’t thinking straight. I was unarmed, moved without realizing it, and got stabbed. It was a momentary lapse of judgment that almost got me killed.”

  Gavril didn’t push the subject further. Instead, he said, “Well then, I suppose you want to rest.” Then, just when he was about to get up from his seat, Thaddeus entered the room.

  “Oh, I am sorry, did I interrupt?” the old mage asked.

  “Not at all;” replied Gavril, “Oh, good, I see you’ve finished the tonic!”

  Blaze then saw that Thaddeus was holding a small bottle with green liquid inside.

  “The what?” he asked.

  “I’ve been preparing a special tonic for you, Blaze;” Thaddeus replied, holding up the bottle, “It will make your wound heal much faster. Here you are then, drink up!” Thaddeus then approached Blaze’s bed and held out the bottle. After slowly sitting up—and wincing from the pain of course—Blaze held out his hand and hesitantly accepted the bottle from the old mage. He then removed the cork and took a slight sniff with his nose.

  Blaze jerked back after the strong scent of the tonic made the inside of his nose burn slightly. He then wrinkled his nose and muttered, “It’s . . . strong.”

  “Yes, I apologize. It’s a work in progress, but I assure you it will work well enough. Once I can figure out a few more things, I will be able to make more tonics in the future that are less overwhelming in smell;” Thaddeus explained, “Go on then, drink up.”

  Blaze hesitated again, but eventually took a quick swallow. The liquid felt cool as it traveled down his throat and became warm as it entered his stomach. After allowing the taste to settle, Blaze said, “Hey, it’s not that bad. What’s in this stuff anyway?” He then started drinking again.

  “Well, I had to send for a few herbs from the City of Magi, but there were a few herbs that grow here in the mountains that I used. I also used a few I grow myself, like the sap of a special Elven flower, spicy root . . .” Thaddeus explained. He then paused for a moment and added, “Oh, and fairy excrement!”

  As soon as Thaddeus had uttered the last few words, Blaze spit the liquid in his mouth across the room. Thaddeus laughed loudly as Blaze gagged and wiped his tongue on his bed sheets while Gavril shook his head and buried his face in his hand.

  “Relax lad! It was just a little joke!” assured Thaddeus as he walked towards the door.

  Blaze stared at the old mage in utter disbelief.

  “Oh,
” Thaddeus said, stopping himself before he left the room, “But I am sure it will please you to know that Crystal helped me make the tonic.”

  “What do you mean?” asked Blaze, trying to hide his temper.

  “Well, considering you jumped in front of a knife for her . . .” the mage replied, trailing off at the end.

  “Why does everyone assume that I have a thing for Crystal?” asked Blaze, no longer hiding how annoyed he was.

  “I never said that, Blaze,” replied Thaddeus. “You did.”

  Before Blaze could respond, the old mage began laughing again and left the room. Gavril tried in vain to hold back a laugh. Blaze gave him a cold look, which made the general clear his throat and try to stop again.

  “Sorry Blaze;” Gavril said, “Thaddeus has . . . an odd sense of humor.” He then choked back yet another laugh.

  Blaze lay back down and muttered, “He’s a senile old coot.”

  “Well that may be so, but Thaddeus means well. And he only plays his silly jokes on people he likes. If the rest of the rebels come to trust you as Thaddeus does, then that tracking mark will no longer have to burden you. I can assure you that you have gained my trust as well, and if I can learn to trust you, everyone else here can,” Gavril said. He then rose from the chair and added, “Well, I will let you sleep now. By tomorrow, you should be able to at least get out of bed and stretch your legs. Just finish drinking the potion so you can recover quicker,” He then left the room in silence.

  Blaze felt tired again, but could not bring himself to close his eyes. Thoughts flooded his head in a confused mess. Even he knew that his lapse-of-judgment-and-won’t-happen-again theory was about as true as Bogdan was a saint, but he couldn’t understand why he did what he did. Could the others have been right?

  All Blaze knew was that he desperately needed a drink, and not the tonic he held in his hand. Still, he sat up enough to swallow the last bit of liquid in the bottle in hopes that he wouldn’t need to be in bed much longer. After all the crap the rebels had put him through, he was going to need an entire barrel of ale.

  ****

  Gavril wasn’t kidding when he said Blaze would be able to get out of bed by the next day. In fact, Blaze was well enough to walk around the hideout almost normally, aside from the fact that moving his left arm too much made him feel sore. He didn’t even need to wear bandages anymore because the gash in his side was already almost sealed up. Even his ribs, which he was told were broken and cracked in some places by the impact, seemed to have healed already. Even so, Thaddeus advised him against training for about a week. Blaze’s clothes had also been covered in blood, so Gavril had given him another shirt to wear. This one had long sleeves and was cream white in color, and Blaze wore it with his usual trousers and boots.

  Even though Blaze had nothing to do, he was just happy to have a chance to get out of bed. He exercised his legs by walking around the hideout, but he was not just doing it for fun. He still could not grasp the reason for why he jumped in front of the knife for Crystal, and he needed to talk her not only about that, but also about why she kissed his cheek.

  To his annoyance, every time Blaze asked someone where Crystal was, they smiled and sometimes chuckled before telling him that they didn’t know. He also kept running into people that constantly thanked him everywhere he went. Why the hell are they thanking me? I didn’t save them, he thought.

  By the time night fell, it seemed like Crystal had vanished from the face of the earth. Blaze checked everywhere, and no one had seen her in hours. When he finally became fed up with asking everyone, Blaze decided to look on his own, but after crossing the hideout back and forth four times, he still couldn’t find her.

  It was when he cocked his head back to moan in frustration that he noticed something silhouetted against the moon. It was a cliff that he did not remember seeing before, and on top of it lay an enormous white tree. On one of the branches, Blaze could see what looked like a person sitting upright.

  Could it be her? he thought. Blaze decided that since he checked everywhere else, he might as well give this new area a shot. He ventured in the direction of the cliff, all the while checking frequently to make sure that the figure he saw was still there, and eventually found a path that led uphill towards the cliff. It was hidden behind a warehouse that he had checked inside several times, but obviously he missed the path before. He began to walk upward, never taking his eyes off of the tree.

  As he came closer to his destination, he could see that the white on the tree was made up of thousands of flowers that decorated it. The night wind blew stray petals that lightly brushed across his face and danced around his feet. Finally, Blaze’s suspicions were confirmed when he was close enough to identify the figure as Crystal. She must have heard him approach, because she turned her head and faced him.

  “What are you doing here?” she asked.

  “I should ask you the same question;” replied Blaze, stopping a few feet before her, “Being a loner isn’t your style.”

  Crystal turned around, dropped to the ground from the tree branch, and landed on her feet. She then walked to the edge of the cliff. From where he was standing, Blaze could see more of the Dwarven Mountains in the distance and what looked like the ocean several miles beyond them.

  The wind began blowing Crystal’s hair behind her, which took Blaze’s focus away from the scenery. He couldn’t help but take a few steps forward, but even though he was intrigued, something in the back of his mind made him keep his distance.

  “I come here every now and then when I feel sad or lonely;” Crystal said without facing Blaze, “My parents used to have an enormous white tree like this one in the castle gardens, and my mother would often read to me while I sat on my father’s lap on a bench underneath the tree. Coming here makes me feel like they are still around, and it comforts me.”

  “Why would you feel alone? You have no reason to,” replied Blaze.

  Crystal turned around and said, “What are you talking about?”

  “Hell, you have all of Cierith following you the end. You have friends out the ass who worship you, and I must have been thanked by every rebel in this damned hideout at least twice since this morning, so they obviously highly regard you. The only reason I ever got that kind of respect was because my father scared everyone into giving it to me, but then he dropped me like garbage when he had no more use for me! If anything, I should be the one who—” Blaze suddenly stopped and trailed off.

  Crystal’s faced softened and she suddenly walked toward him. His head was telling him to back away, but something else that was unknown to him was urging him to step forward. Caught in a struggle between the two forces, Blaze’s feet remained planted firmly to the ground.

  Crystal then wrapped her arms around Blaze and held him. The first time she had done this in Ordale, Blaze felt too proud to return the gesture, but this time, he found embracing her back. Even though he did it hesitantly, he could tell that Crystal appreciated the gesture, because she held him tighter when he did it.

  “No matter who you are, who you associate yourself with, or however happy you may be, everyone feels lonely at some point,” Crystal whispered into his shirt. She then released her hold on Blaze, looked up at him, and said, “But sometimes, you just need to know that someone is there for you in order to feel better.”

  Unsure of how to respond, Blaze silently stepped back and leaned against the tree trunk. His chest hurt, though he didn’t understand why. Then he remembered that he wanted to ask Crystal about the kiss, so he used that as an excuse to change the subject.

  “By the way,” he began, “I wanted to ask you why you kissed my cheek yesterday?” His face suddenly grew hot with embarrassment, but then he saw Crystal’s face turn red in unison and she suddenly looked away.

  “I’m so sorry!” she stammered, “I really don’t know what came over me!”

  “Don’t worry about it. I was just curious; it didn’t bother me,” Blaze replied quickly, trying to calm her do
wn. He then turned away from the tree to hide his embarrassment.

  “Well I guess I wasn’t really thinking;” said Crystal, “I just wanted to thank you, and for some reason, that was the best way I could think of.”

  Blaze turned back around to see her leaning against the tree trunk and staring at the ground. He suddenly had an amused look form on his face as he said, “Funny, I suppose we aren’t so different after all. I impulsively save your life, and you impulsively thank me by kissing me.”

  Crystal gave out a little laugh. Blaze found himself staring at her smile and in a way, it made him feel better knowing that he put it on her face.

  “I guess you’re right, Blaze,” she muttered. Crystal then looked right at him, and even though he felt like a weirdo when he was staring at her, he still didn’t look away. Before he knew it, his feet were moving, carrying him closer to her. Even when he felt he could control his movements, he still didn’t stop. The unknown force that opposed the feelings in his head seemed to have won control over his body.

  When Blaze’s face was finally inches from Crystal’s, he stopped momentarily after placing his hand gently on her waist and whispered, “But for future reference, I would have preferred this kind of ‘thank you.’”

  When he saw that Crystal’s puzzled expression soften and she stayed her ground, Blaze tenderly cupped her face with his free hand, leaned closer, and without any further hesitation, kissed her lips.

  For a split second that seemed like hours, he could hear his heartbeat ringing in his ears. What the hell are you doing? his mind screamed at him, but his mind, along with the rest of his body, relaxed when he felt Crystal’s lips move with his and her arms wrap around his waist.

  Blaze then inched his hand down Crystal’s hip, pushed his body closer to her, and pressed her against the tree trunk. Crystal moved her arms from Blaze’s waist and wrapped them around his neck. After his body was relaxed and the kiss felt more natural, Blaze then slipped his tongue into Crystal’s mouth. He felt her wince, but it seemed that it was only because she didn’t expect it. Her body soon relaxed again and she pulled Blaze closer.