by Elina Vale
Stepping aside from the road, Boa entered the woods. From here on, he knew there was a huge, endless areas of forest, up until the seashore on the east. A sudden sound behind startled him, and Boa swiftly turned around, pulling his blades out expecting to face his tormentors. But only an owl stared at him with its button eyes. Its eyes were fixed on Boa and he shivered.
“Get away!” Boa shouted at the bird, which took on its wings, screaming.
Boa glared around, but the forest was silent. He straightened his shoulders and continued his journey.
After walking for a few more miles, he noticed that someone was following him. While he stomped the muddy fields, he came to a realization that he wouldn’t survive this. He could never serve them or the evil master. When thinking about his past, he was unhappy. He may not have had the chance to prevent the death of his family, but surely there could be something he could do. Maybe Karla was right, maybe he could help. But now, when he knew who was following him, he could only feel bitterness and disappointment. He had thrown his chances away. Eavan could have helped him somehow. But now, he had to face the three senatai that had killed his parents alone, and there was no way he could win the fight. Even the saying said it: A smart man runs when seeing a senatai, a fool one ends up in the boat with his demons.
If Boa had to fight them, which he was beginning to be sure of, he would want to choose the place. He didn’t really stand a chance against three senatai, but he could fight as hard as he could. He was a good swordsman, and sneaky, according to his mates in the Band. He would fight, and maybe he could kill at least one of them.
Boa scouted his surroundings and saw a big rock formation nearby. He could keep the rock behind his back, and that way no one could surprise him from behind. Also, he couldn’t get away. He hurried forward, the sun had begun its journey down and the shadows grew longer all the time. The forest ended, and there was a small, muddy meadow in front of him. And behind it, a rock hill reflected against the golden orange sky, colored by the setting sun.
Boa stomped the meadow, now knowing the three senatai were right behind him. He heard their steps on the wet ground, and fear caroused through him. He didn't turn to look.
When he was finally by the rock, he heard a voice that sent shivers down his spine.
“The lad has grown up. You’ve been running from us.”
Boa turned around. The three senatai. One big as a barn door, one skinny like a straw, and one a redhead with a dark skin. They looked exactly the same he remembered. Boa’s hand squeezed into fists, and at the same time there was a cold lump in his stomach. He was scared to death, but was determined not to let it overcome him.
Boa gritted his teeth and ogled them. “I’m never gonna surrender to you. You know that, right?”
The skinny one laughed and tilted his head. “Oh, you will. You can try to run and fight, but we all know that it’s not gonna end well, right? And for running from us, ignoring our calling… You will suffer and learn to obey.”
The redhead stepped forward, the look in his eyes intense and feverish. “The Star will be found. Soon. And when it is, the senatai will rule this land, as it should be. Your lives are insignificant and meaningless! Pft! Normal people. Without magic, you are nothing! Slaves.”
Boa had no chance surviving this, but at least he could make them believe that there was someone else who knew about this. He would stir their confidence.
He took an arrogant look on his face. “I know all about how you’ve been murdering innocent people during your quests. But you should know that I’ve passed the message forward. I’m not the only one who knows about your master and dark magic anymore… You should’ve killed me back then! It’s too late now!”
“He’s bluffing. His father hadn’t yet told him, I dug it from his head back then…” The big senatai growled.
Boa gave out a forced, fake laugh. “Did you really think that my family was the only ones who knew about this?”
The senatai looked at each other, and the tall one approached Boa. Boa backed further, his back scratching the rock behind him.
He spoke with a low voice. “What are you talking about?”
“Your plans… They will never work. Too many know about this already!”
Roots shot from the ground, exploding the earth, sending dirt around, wrapping around Boa. He squirmed and tried to reach for his knife, but his arms were tied to his side and there was nothing he could do. He would die just like his parents had, in the hands of these senatai!
What had he accomplished in his life? He hadn’t been able to kill the senatai that had murdered his parents. He hadn’t made anything to get magic forbidden, or made any difference at all in this world. And now he would sail the streams of the Underworld, prepare to meet the Mistress of Death who would take him to his boat with his demons... If he only had told Karla’s story to Eavan… Boa closed his eyes. He should have told her. At least the world would still have some hope!
“What’s happening here?”
Boa flashed his eyes open. Eavan was here. At the same time it felt good to see her, and painful knowing that she would die.
“Nothing that concerns you, senatai. What’s your name?” one of them asked. Eavan tilted her head. She looked so confident, so alive. Maybe Boa could get her to leave. She could still live, even if Boa’s life would end.
She frowned and looked at Boa. “I think it does concern me, as that is my—” Boa shook his head slightly and hoped that Eavan would understand to stay quiet.
The redhead spoke. “You know this man?”
“He has my map. He stole it from me,” Eavan said quietly.
Boa wanted to sigh from relief, but didn’t dare to. The big one lifted his hand, and a ball of fire emerged, hovering above it. The the ball traveled through the air, closer to Boa, and soon the ball hovered in front of his face. It was burning hot, sending nearly painful heat to Boa’s face.
“Where’s this map she’s asking for? It’s not polite to steal from a senatai, is it?”
“I’m not gonna tell you!” Boa shouted. He had to make them think that the map was all Eavan and he had common.
“You’ll tell us, or—”
“Just look from his backpack!” Eavan said, and shrugged.
The redhead wiggled his fingers, and Boa’s bag’s straps were simply cut off, and the bag floated through the air to Eavan. She opened the bag and took a paper from there. “Got it. Thank you, brothers.”
The redhead stared at Eavan. “You should probably leave, Sister. We have some business with this one here.”
Eavan locked her eyes with Boa’s, and his heart had a small flip. This was it. There were things he would like to say to her, but it would risk her life, and Boa stayed quiet. He had learned to like her, and thinking that he would never meet her again, not until she would join him on the fiery islands of the Underworld, filled him with sadness. Eavan didn’t even blink, but turned her back to him and to the senatai, and vanished behind the trees.
Boa was alone, and now that the map was with Eavan, was actually fairly content. He wasn’t afraid to die, so he faced the senatai without hesitation. He only wished he could take one of them with him. If there only was a way to get away from these strains…
“Now. Time to stop the play. The curse will stick forever, Riverson. That’s the name you use nowadays, isn’t it, Borgan Drognaban?”
“I’m not gonna serve you!” Boa shouted.
“You will! You will be the perfect example for all others we will curse. We will tell them that this one here tried to resist, and we had to cut off his tongue to prevent him from talking.”
The senatai’s eyes lit up with magic, and Boa’s heart raced wildly. He would kill himself before he would be their slave. He struggled in his strains and growled in despair.
“There’s no way out of this, Riverson! You will obey!” the big senatai yelled.
“We will cut your tongue and torture you unt
il you learn to obey. You will be ours, and you will kill for us, you will torture for us, you will bow to us!”
“Never! I’d rather die!”
“We won’t let you die! You will live your whole life serving us the way we please, and—”
The senatai who had made the roots wrap around Boa suddenly fell down. There was an arrow sticking from his chest. And when he had fallen down, the roots fell off Boa like the dead branches that they were.
Two other senatai glanced up to the direction where the arrow had come, and that’s when Boa jumped. He pulled his blade from its sheath and charged towards the big senatai, who had already created a fireball and was aiming it somewhere over Boa’s head, on top of the rock. Boa knew who was there, naturally.
An energy wave of some kind burst from the top of the rock, hit the redhead, and pushed him through the air ten feet further. Boa sliced with his blade, but the big senatai dodged. The fireball had vanished and he wiggled his fingers. Boa cursed all the magic again in his mind—he had no idea what he was creating with his wiggling fingers. With normal weapons, he could at least see what was he up against.
Three small daggers emerged from the senatai’s sleeves like they were alive, and rapidly flew through the air. Boa flattened himself on the ground, but one hit him on his shoulder, causing him to cry out from the pain. Forcing himself, Boa ripped the dagger away from his shoulder.
“Oh, Sister, you really shouldn’t have betrayed us!” the redhead yelled to Eavan, who was running towards him further in the field where he had landed. He stumbled up and shot a fireball towards Eavan, but she simply stepped aside and it flew past her.
“This is not the senatai way! Just wait until the Order of Senatai and the High Master Aldemar hear about this!” Eavan yelled.
The senatai burst into a laugh. “The High Master of the Spike? Oh, he knows. He—”
“Shut up, Rogan!” the big senatai shouted, and fired another set of blades towards Boa, who tumbled on the wet, muddy ground like a snake rolling down a hill, and managed to dodge the blades once again. He watched terrified as the blades the senatai had just thrown shot back up in air from where they had landed, and flew back to the senatai, making Boa dodge again. The magical daggers were nearly too fast and impossible to block!
Eavan had stopped. “The High Master knows about this? You must be joking!”
“Eavan! I know something you need to know,” Boa shouted, and swung his blade to block the flashing dagger aiming to his heart. “A drokashai told me that dark magic is rising, and it has something to do with a man called..ah..Ordal!”
Boa finally had stumbled up, but was forced to step back again when the ground in front of him suddenly vanished and a big hole merged in front of him. Eavan shot a fireball towards the redhead almost casually, focusing on talking with Boa. “What does that mean? Does that have something to do with your curse? I remember the stories about Ordal, but are you saying that those stories are true?”
“Yes! Aah!” Boa shouted, and screamed when another flying dagger scratched his arm. “Run, Eavan! You must stop this dark lord who wants to revive the dark magic!”
“Our master will get the Star! And he will rule the world with it! You, Sister, know too much, and therefore you must die.” The redheaded senatai thrust both his hands forward, and a wall of fire roamed from them, swallowing Eavan as a whole. Boa couldn’t do anything but stare in horror and keep dodging the gaps in the ground and the flying blades.
“There. Too bad, I never like killing a senatai. But like my master says, we must clean the nest someday…. We must keep only the loyal ones. Only the true senatai who understand our cause.”
The big senatai who was still fighting with Boa sighed. “Let’s end this game and get back to Ironflare. I miss my servants.” One of the flying blades then hit Boa in his stomach, ripping his insides apart. Boa fell down, slumping on the ground, his head hitting a rock. The flames were dancing in his eyes. Eavan was inside the fiery inferno. She was gone. It was suitable that flames would be the last vision he would ever have. Just like they were meant to be. He should have died the day his parents had. He should have gone too.
Suddenly the fire exploded, spreading its burning heat all around, and Eavan stepped out from inside it, her hair a bit scorched, but looking otherwise unharmed. The redhead had got hit by the exploding flames, and he was on fire. Horrible screams echoed in the air, reflecting from the rocks and trees until he collapsed on the ground. Then Eavan jumped, with the help of magic, a massive jump, ten feet, and towards the senatai who had stabbed Boa. The senatai lifted his arms high, ready to cast a spell on Eavan still on the air, but Boa rolled over, ignoring the pain in his stomach, and kicked the senatai’s legs. He stumbled and lost the concentration, and then Eavan was by his side. She thrusted her right hand forward, palm towards his head, and he fell down on the ground on his back, wiggling like a fish on a dry land.
He twitched his arms and legs, unable to move them. “Do you think you can keep me tied like this, girl?” he spurted. “I’m much more experienced with magic than you are, and… Wait? What is this? Where is my fountain? WHERE?” There was shere panic in his voice. Sweat covered his face. “I can’t draw any magic!”
Eavan grinned and squatted by his side. “Oh, that? Sorry to say, but I blocked it. You can’t draw from your fountain.”
“No… That’s impossible.”
“Not to me. My name is Eavan Firestone.”
“You? You are the one they all talk about, the most powerful air-talent senatai that has lived for hundreds of years?”
Eavan let out a light laugh and looked at him through her eyelashes. “Maybe it's a bit exaggerated, don’t you think? I mean, dozens of years, sure. But hundreds? In the plural, at least? A bit thick.”
Hate beamed from his eyes. His face grew dark. “You won’t stand a chance when my master gets you. I will make sure you will die. I will rip you into pieces and feed your heart to my dogs!”
Boa pushed himself up with horrible pain, and wobbled to Eavan and the senatai. Boa was bleeding, and he had a severe head wound, making him a bit dizzy, but was able to stand up. Knowing that he needed to do the most important thing, he lifted his blade and struck it into the senatai’s heart. Eavan gasped, jumped up, and stared at Boa. The light left the senatai’s eyes, and he died.
“Why?” Eavan cried. “We could have… Ask him… Maybe we didn’t need to kill him?”
Boa grabbed Eavan by her arm. To make a point, but also to stay up on his feet. “If he would’ve gotten away, he would’ve told about you and your situation to this…master of his.”
“But I still can’t believe… Senatai aren’t supposed to kill! Not like that at least.”
“I’m not a senatai,” Boa whispered. “Eavan, these were the ones that cursed me. These are the ones that killed my parents.”
“Why? Why would senatai kill your parents?” Eavan asked.
Boa grimaced and held his hand on his stomach. “That has something to do with Ordan and black magic, but I...ah, I need to tell it to you. But..”
She wiped her eyes and then studied Boa’s injuries. She sighed and gestured with her hand. “Sit down. I’m gonna fix you. Though I’m not sure if I have any energy left. I used quite a big amount of magic back there. You know, creating a protective wall of air around oneself to prevent the fire actually takes quite a lot of energy.”
Boa sat down, frowning. “I don’t need any healing. I just need a bandage and a minute to—aaaah! Burning bitches!” A hot, tingling feeling washed over him. It was a scary, weird sensation, like he had been on fire and frozen at the same time. He looked at his arm. The cut was gone. The pain in his head, gone.
He was shaking. “Eavan! You… You can never use magic on me! Never! I can’t… Eavan?”
Boa stumbled up and leaned over Eavan, who lay on the ground, breathing heavily, like she had just been running for miles. Her eyes were closed and sweat dripped on he
r forehead.
“Are you alright?” Boa asked, and wiped the sweat away from her forehead. Eavan slightly opened one of her eyes. “Oh, I will be soon. I need to rest a while.”
“Don’t heal me without my permission, okay? Here, Let’s get away from here,” Boa said. He grabbed his backpack and tied it to his back. Then he leaned over Eavan and lifted her into his arms.
“Boa, no. You’ve been stabbed. I need to rest a while, and then I’m good to go.”
Boa glanced at her pale face and closed eyes.
“You can sleep, Eavan Firestone. I’ve got you.”
She sighed and relaxed in his arms. “I know. I know I can trust you with my life, Boa Riverson.”
CHAPTER 8
The fire crackled in the darkening evening. Rain clouds that Boa had seen earlier had luckily passed them, and the night was warm and dry. Boa had searched a clearing from the forest, far enough from the dead senatai. He had spread his cloak on the ground and laid Eavan on it. She had curled as a ball and slept now comfortably.
Boa observed Eavan sleeping next to the fire, and watched the shadows dance on her beautiful dark skin. Eavan’s trust in him, her last words before she had curled against Boa, had stuck in his mind. Was he really worth the trust? With his travels with the Band of Five, Boa had encountered dangerous situations many times, but never before he had faced near certain death, not like today. It had made him reflect his own actions and motives, and he felt torn apart. His vow to his parents about avenging their death and destroying the senatai and the art of magic had been such a huge part of his life the past five years, that he hadn’t thought what he would do without it. Now, the senatai who had cursed him were dead, and he was a free man. But not really. He held a burden of the secret. The black magic, Ordan, all of it.
Karla. She was somewhere, alone, ready to fight the darkness this master was trying to reveal. And then there was Eavan Firestone, a woman who was fearless, brave, and funny. And a senatai.
