by Nichelle Rae
“They’re tending the fire.”
“Fire?”
She nodded. “They burned the bodies of those men that, well, that…that you killed.” Her uneasy expression softened into a forced smile. “They’ve been gone since,” her smile faded, “well, since you’ve been out, so…um…they should be back soon.”
“How’s your head?”
Ibalissa was quiet for a moment. “It feels better, thanks to you.” she replied barely above a whisper.
“Good.” I looked up at the sky. The storm I had seen earlier was closer. This was going to be a nasty one. Suddenly, I heard soft sobs. I looked at Ibalissa again. Her chin rested on her chest and her closed eyes spilled droplets of tears. “What’s the matter?”
She sniffed and covered her mouth as if to keep the sobs inside. She took in a shaky breath and tilted her eyes to the sky before lowering her hand to speak. “Here you are, lying in enough pain to make you pass out, and you’re asking how I am.”
“Well, yes. You are okay, aren’t you?” I asked with sincere concern.
She looked down and nodded. “I was terrible to you, though, and you…and you were so kind to me. You saved me from those…men. And healed my wounds.” She broke down into heavy sobs, covering her eyes with her trembling hands. “Can you ever forgive me?”
I painfully sat up and pulled her into my embrace. “Of course I can. It’s okay. I understand you acted the only way you knew how.”
“Not only for my actions at the inn,” she paused and swallowed heavily, “for this as well.”
Suddenly pain exploded in my back! My jaw snapped open! I couldn’t even scream! It took…it took a moment, but…she’d driven a knife into my back! My arms went limp and dropped to my sides. I was frozen and stunned, feeling the metal buried into my tissue and muscles. I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. It hurt too much.
I couldn’t take my eyes from the sky, but her tear streaked face came into my line of sight. “I’m sorry!” she wailed. “He said he’d do terrible things to my father if I didn’t do this! He said he’d torment me even as I slept! Please don’t hate me! I’m sorry!”
I barely heard her. All I could feel, all I knew, was that a knife was inside my back. I felt a river of blood soaking my beautiful robe. My robe! Norka’s gift! It was destroyed by my own blood, by my own stupidity. The feeling in my legs was completely gone. They could have been severed in that moment and I wouldn’t have felt it. My face trembled with the silent scream I wanted to let out of my slack jaw. The edges of my vision started to fade to black. I was heading into a tunnel of darkness and death.
But suddenly the most amazing—yet frightening—pair of eyes imaginable filled my fading vision. They were an incredible, intense, bright green color. They were so bright that they appeared to glow with deadly rage. An unspeakable challenge was in those terrifying eyes. It was a challenge that dared me to die in this moment, a challenge that also said if I did die right now, this person would bring me back to life just to kill me again.
I was about to take that dare and die when the green eyes shifted to Ibalissa and seemed to grow more deadly and intense. I forced the blackness away from my vision so I could look at those eyes longer, curious as to what they were going to do.
The face they belonged to, I realized, was covered from the nose down with a tan cloth. The head was also covered with a matching tan hood of a cloak. Not a single strand of hair peeked out from that hood. This green-eyed person was holding something in both tan gloved hands and was consumed by bulky tan garments. The beautiful green eyes were even more bright and frightening as they stood out against the clothes like candles in an attic. When I focused more, I realized it was a wooden paddle the stranger held. The edges of the wood were sanded deadly thin.
With a mighty swing the stranger brought the deadly edge of the paddle across Ibalissa’s head. I flinched as it exploded in a cloud of bone, brain and all sorts of other gore. It spattered all over my face and the front of my robe. As I fell face forward over Ibalissa’s remains, Ortheldo and Rabryn burst through the trees, weapons drawn. The green-eyed stranger was already gone.
“Noooo!” Rabryn screamed as he ran toward me. He was quickly behind me, pulling my limp body up by my shoulders. Ortheldo grabbed two fistfuls of Ibalissa’s dress and heaved her remains aside like a bag of garbage. He was soon on his knees in front of me, though I couldn’t lift my head to see his face.
Rabryn’s hands gingerly roamed the part of my back where the knife was embedded. “Gods of Light, don’t you dare take my sister away from me,” he whispered with tears choking his words.
“I’ll…I’m…I’m okay…Rabryn,” I said between labored breaths.
“What happened?” he asked himself more than anyone.
Ortheldo then lifted my hanging head so my eyes met his. He was crying!
The mere sight of seeing his tears for the first time gave me the strength to keep my head up. He cupped my face in his hands, his fingertips in my hair, and I watched as two big tears fell from his eyes.
“You…you’re,” I whispered, and with an effort, brought my arm up and touched the tears on his cheek. “You can’t…you can’t cry.”
His eyes took on a pleading look as his hands held my face more firmly. “Azrel, I —”
Before he could finish I screamed long and loud as the knife was suddenly yanked from my back. I fell forward against Ortheldo as I began to bleed out. Quickly my vision faded to black and sound faded from my ears.
“Rabryn! What did you do?” I faintly heard Ortheldo scream.
Suddenly, the feeling of healing magic danced in and around my skin where the knife had been. I felt my wound pinch together and the bleeding stop. I sighed deeply in relief when death faded and feeling returned to my legs.
I took a moment to catch my breath, then slowly looked over my shoulder at my brother, who was still kneeling behind me. He was staring wide eyed at the spot on my back where the knife had been. My eyes went wide. “Rabryn,” I whispered. He looked up at me, and we stared at each other in silent shock. “Did you just…?” I couldn’t even finish my sentence, but with my brother I didn’t have to. He nodded slowly, looking terrified of the fact.
“What’s wrong?” Ortheldo asked.
I looked back at Ortheldo. “He just used his Salynn magic to heal me.”
Ortheldo’s wide eyes went to my brother. “I thought you didn’t know how to use your magic.”
“I don’t.”
I smiled and embraced my terrified brother, who warmly accepted. “I’m so proud of you,” I whispered. We hugged for a long time. Finally, I pulled away and kissed his forehead. “Thanks for saving my life, little brother.”
He smiled. “You’ve saved my life more than your share of times. I’ll save yours when I can.” He sighed. “Maybe then we’ll make it through this in one piece.”
I smiled and rested my hand on his cheek. “Thank you.”
“Azrel,” Ortheldo said behind me, “we really need to talk.”
I sighed and nodded. “That we do, my friend.” I placed my hand on my brother’s shoulder and pushed myself to my feet as Rabryn guided me by one of my forearms. “I’m going to get dressed.”
“We’ll clean up this mess,” Ortheldo said, indicating Ibalissa’s body.
I nodded and walked away toward the frontier of the bushes to get my sword and the necklace and put my clothes on. When I came back to the clearing, the boys and Ibalissa’s body was gone. My guess was they had taken her body to the fire. Good; I needed to check something.
I sighed and walked over to two puddles of blood—mine and Ibalissa’s—and crouched low to the ground. I looked at the grass for a moment, lightly running my hand over the top. Indeed, the grass was bent and broken with fresh boot prints, smaller than Ortheldo’s and heavier than Rabryn’s. The unearthly green eyes hadn’t been a dream. I scanned the trees surrounding the clearing but saw nothing.
What really distracted me was why I hadn’t seen Ibalissa’s
attack coming. Usually when danger was near, that familiar shadow in my soul would tell me about it. I couldn’t help but get nervous. Had it stopped working? As much as I hated it, it was rather handy.
Perhaps Ibalissa wasn’t the danger.
I shook my head at that thought that seemed to come out of nowhere. I didn’t want to think about that, but her final words echoed in my mind. He said he’d do terrible things to my father if I didn’t do this! He said he’d torment me even as a slept! Please don’t hate me! I’m sorry!
I blew out a breath and ran my fingers through my hair. “Beldorn,” I said aloud and looked up at the sky as if he’d be there. “I need you.”
“A woman?” I shrieked. It was too good to be true—exactly the reason for my concern. “Are you sure it’s her?”
“Yes, my Lord. She uses the same fighting style as the one before her.”
I gave him a look that would scare him out of any reason to lie or exaggerate to me. “Have you seen her use that fighting style?”
The big man began to sweat and tremble before me. “Well, my Lord…that is, well…no. I…”
I slammed my fist straight down into the table, putting a crack down the length of it. “NO?” my voice riveted off the walls. “How dare you come to me with this and have no evidence!” I pressed my palms into the table and leaned over heavily. “I have been looking for the White Warrior for 3,000 years. Can you possibly even fathom that amount of time?”
He was shaking like a leaf. “N-no, my Lord.”
Gritting my teeth, I held out my fist and released a cord of my power. It coiled around his thick neck. I lifted him off the floor and brought him to me. “Have you seen her at all?” I said in a low voice, trying to keep myself under control. Choking and sweating, he managed to shake his head no. I squeezed his throat harder and used my perfected gift of mind magic to get into his head since I was preventing him from being able to speak. How, then, do you think you know she uses the same fighting style?
M-my Lord, I have Glessar on the hunt for your rival, and he’s recently shown me the results of a battle that some Gibirs got into. One creature managed to escape and described the woman’s fighting style to Glessar, and he described it to me.
But neither you nor Glessar saw it for yourself?
N-no, my Lord.
I squeezed his throat harder, feeling the blood vessels break and begin to bleed under his skin. You’re getting my hopes up by telling me what an ignoramus like a Gibir thinks he saw? I asked in a dangerously low voice. I was trying hard not to squeeze his neck until it was as thin as my little finger. Unfortunately, this one had proved the most gifted of my minions in the art of mind magic.
I’m sorry, my Lord! He cried, finally realizing his mistake. I just wanted to keep your hopes alive. Please say they still are! I didn’t mean to upset you! I just wanted to give you hope! Forgive me, I beg you, my Lord!
I dropped him to the ground, leaving him gasping and coughing. “No hope is better than false hope,” I said to him. “With no hope, no one can take it away from you because it isn’t there to begin with.” I turned my back to him. “You are one of my most talented men, Jonoic, usually immune to failure. Don’t disappoint me again in this search. I don’t want to look at you again until the White Warrior is found. I want either you or Glessar to personally see the fighting style, the magic, or the white tears. Do you understand?”
“Yes, my Lord. Thank you, my Lord.” I heard his footsteps retreat out of the throne room.
I sighed and tried to relax my shoulders. Something was wrong, and thinking about my suspicions made my muscles tense. I should have found the White Warrior by now. I glared at the ceiling. The Light Gods had to be getting involved again. I had to remind myself that it was no matter. I had outsmarted Them before. I could do it again.
My eyes narrowed and I shook my head in frustration. It was as if the White Warrior completely fell off the face of the earth for 3,000 years. I still wasn’t sure if he had died, if the Light Gods had made another one, or if he was still alive after all this time. It was almost ridiculous to consider! He would had to have hidden himself at the bottom of the sea—no, five miles beneath the sea bed—to elude me for so long! He couldn’t have hidden himself that well unless—my lip twitched in disgust—the Light Gods were interfering, as I suspected.
But They had no reason to protect him. He had shamed and dishonored Them. The only thing that made sense was that the White Warrior died 3,000 years ago. That would explain why I couldn’t find him. But that would mean the one causing this new uneasiness in me had just been created, and The Light Gods were protecting him.
But They couldn’t protect him, or her, for long. Eventually he would have to expose himself because of the recent activity of the Gibirs, Gorkors, Legan’dirs, Welptacks and all the other glorious creations of my Shadow Gods. While I had command of these beasts, I still wasn’t sure what had brought them out of hiding so recently. The new White Warrior must have something to do with it.
I decided just to watch the creatures for now and see if they led me anywhere interesting. My Shadow Gods were cooking up something, and the White Warrior would be revealed very soon.
Azrel
Rabryn gave a low whistle. “Guys, we seriously need to work on our communication skills.”
I was barely listening to him as I stared up at the sky. I still felt as exhausted as I had when I first woke up, so Rabryn had me lying down again with my head on his lap. He was idly combing his fingers through my hair as I digested the information that was just revealed; the talking white mist, what was said, what had happened.
“Have we decided that this theory is definite?” Ortheldo asked.
“Nothing is definite,” I replied half heartedly, too deep in thought and worry to consider that their suggestion might actually be true.
“How else can you explain it?” Rabryn asked.
I shook my head lightly, “I don’t know.”
“I still don’t understand why she said ‘that doesn’t help my purpose’ when Rabryn was talking to her as a separate person.”
“Because maybe she’s not a separate person like you suggest!” I cried, which made my head throb from overexerting myself. I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to calm myself down. Why was I so tired? “Ortheldo,” I said softer and looked at the sky again, “we don’t know anything for sure. Right now, my least concern is what’s wrong with my magic. I want to know what terrified Ibalissa so much that she was motivated to kill me. I also want to know where such strange green eyes came from and who they belong to.”
“Well, that tan stranger scared the wits out of us when we heard you were about to be murdered,” Rabryn said, stroking my hair away from my forehead.
“I was rather concerned myself when I felt that knife getting shoved into my back.” Both of them chuckled when they saw me smile.
I sighed and took my brother’s hand from my forehead and pressed it to my cheek. Then I took Ortheldo’s hand and held it to my other cheek. I relished in the comfort of having them both with me. Only now was I seriously getting concerned that this search for the necklace’s owner would take them both away from me. I began to tremble at the thought of losing them. I pressed Rabryn’s palm to my lips and kissed it, then Ortheldo’s. I clutched both their hands under my chin and held them tightly. My boys.
“Azrel, are you okay?” Ortheldo asked compassionately.
I closed my eyes and nodded as I fought the tears that threatened to burst forth. “I’m okay. I just want to feel you both near me right now.”
I couldn’t lose them; I wouldn’t! I made a vow to myself, then and there, that my mission now consisted only of keeping my boys alive! It would be my life before harm came to them. The necklace was no longer my primary concern; I was just along for the trip.
I kissed their hands again and gave them a squeeze before slowly sitting up. “Alright, we should get going. We’ve delayed our travels now by about a day and we need to make up some t
ime.” My eyes were on the dark sky to the east as Ortheldo pulled me to my feet. That mean storm was heading our way and fast.
I packed up my beautiful robe that was now ripped and blood stained and went to Forfirith. “Hey, boy,” I said, petting his face, “we’ve got some time to make up. Looks like it’s going to be a miserable, wet trip through the night. Do you feel up for it?” He blew out an annoyed breath and held his head high, seeming to peer down at me and scold me for questioning his bravery. I chuckled. “Forgive me, my friend. I spoke without thinking.” He made a throaty noise, which I took for his laugh, then he bent his head down to nuzzle me. I stroked his neck and then mounted. “Let’s go.”
The rain came down in complete sheets! Thunder and lightning was relentless in the furious storm. The freezing rain had already soaked through our cloaks, our clothes, and seemed to seep down into our very bones. I shivered in the constant waves of rain and clutched my cloak at my throat with one hand; the other hand, leading Eleclya, had long ago lost feeling. My shoes were merely pieces of cloth with leather soles, so my feet were beyond soaked and freezing. Mud oozed between my toes from occasionally stepping in knee deep puddles. Right now, I was swishing the mud around with my toes so they wouldn’t go numb. If I kept them moving I might be able to warm them up.
People in their homes that happened to be looking out as we passed must have thought we were mad. Some people came outside and asked if we needed a place to stay for the night. I sighed thinking of their warm fires and hot, fresh food. Azrel or Ortheldo, however, would kindly turn them down, using the excuse that we had a sick relative to visit. That sick relative would be me before long. I felt a hard twang of longing when I watched those people head back inside and we were stuck in this! I wished that they would take someone up on their offer. Anyone!
I was regretting very much that we’d lost a day of travel and had to endure this. The night was pitch black, save for the jagged bolts of lightning that raked across the sky every few seconds. The wind constantly blew my hood off my head. Since I was already soaked down to my entrails, I just let it be after the eightieth time. The lightning served as our only light for the path we trod. In a way, it was good that it was pretty constant, otherwise all our horses would have broken a leg by now.
