Fire's Song

by J E Mueller

  A dark figure came into view.

  “Speaking of,” One of them muttered, and then said more clearly, “I’m sure you can see that the unthinkable has occurred.”

  “Not unthinkable,” the person said in a gritty voice. “No, not at all.”

  Person two and three looked at each other nervously while person one kept their cool. “My apologies. Of course you are much more prepared than us. We fumbled in your absence and need guidance to repent for our errors.”

  The person nodded and removed his hood. I didn’t know the face or voice. “All right. Use your training and bring her back. Do it together or alone. I don’t care. You have five hours.”

  “Thank you!” person two and three said as they scrambled to study the footprints.

  Person one gave a nod. “I will find her in that time.”

  The person who had just appeared gave a firm glance at the other two and returned from where he came. Person one headed in my direction. When they were about a yard away from me, they crouched in the woods and waited.

  Person two and three began to freak out more and decided to head into the woods behind the hut. Person one slowly stood up and looked in my direction. “We’ve got five hours. Let’s move.”

  I didn’t move at first, silently calling their bluff.

  “Dammit, I know where you are and didn’t give you that tray by accident. Let’s move.”

  Slowly standing I met her eyes.

  “Yes, yes, I’ll explain everything as we move.” She waved off my concern and headed off deeper into the forest.

  “You don’t seem concerned that you’re going against whomever this leader of yours is. The others are terrified.” Following her anyway, I let her explain.

  “Your boyfriend made a compelling argument.” she replied, removing her hood. Her nut brown hair was a mess. Part of it was still tied back, but the curls were springing out at will. “I think his plan would work on more of the misguided people, but we’d need to get rid of our leader first. I’d give you his name, but I swear it summons him so we’ll just call him Lord Evil.”

  “I love dramatic title, but how do you know Lee?” I didn’t bother to correct her. If we survived this, we could worry about trivial things like my relationship status later.

  “You split up into teams. I was in charge of watching Prince Zarek while Lord Evil decided to go ‘put an end’ to the rescue party. Apparently he had trouble.” She glanced my way and I nodded happily. “Anyway, there was a fight and Lee convinced me there was a lot better use for my magic and that non-cursed magic users didn’t actually hate Cursed magic users. My bad experience was not the standard.”

  She paused, thinking for a moment before going on. “Anyway, long and short, they leave and the boss arrives with his second. I make up a story about being knocked out and explain about the magic wielder with elemental abilities that can counter my curse fire. Somehow that’s not unheard of and he buys it. Wish I had known about it sooner myself…. Anyway, he senses you coming and tells his second to handle it. His second creates an illusion while I am sent to hunt them down. No idea what Lord Evil did at this point, but I did my part and found them. I then warned Lee and we got back to you just in time. The boss returns and sees that there’s a chance of defeat and nabs you, but thankfully he didn’t notice me. I chose to retreat and went back with him to give you a chance. Hopefully Lee figured that out. Your other friends were fine when your shield dropped.”

  “Oh good.” I didn’t realize how much of a relief it would be to hear that everyone was still safe. “And Lee should know. He’s able to see a short distance into the future.”

  “Heh. More than that.” She laughed. “Cassandra by the way. Ria for short.”

  “Key,” I supplied. “But what do you mean more than that?”

  “Oh, yeah you completely blacked out and have no idea.” She stopped walking for a moment and I nearly bumped into her. “In that moment, when he stabbed the demon, Lee figured out he isn’t complete human. He is of god blood.”

  “Wait, what?” I stared at her more in disbelief than confusion. It sounded so fake and unreal.

  “Yeah…” She started walking again and I rushed to catch back up to her. “Not only did he spear the second man through the gut, but he killed the second’s lingering demon-buddy. Can’t do that without god blood.” Ria paused for a moment. “He was equally surprised, so that is what gave Lord Evil time to grab you and escape.”

  “What did he want to do with me?” I asked. “Clearly, I was not the biggest threat.” I didn’t want to buy into the god-blood thing, but there was truth to the idea. Normal people can’t kill demons.

  “I think that’s part of it. You’re bait and he’s done a grand job of rounding up a whole lot of us cursed borns. There’s eight curse born in his group. Well seven now, since the second died. You’ve got to admit, it’s tough growing up. Being promised acceptance and power… You can lose yourself before you know it. Never having a moment where you thought you were safe, where you can be you…” Ria let out a long sigh. “Let’s just find Lee.”

  “Are you sure this is the right direction?” I asked, unsure where we were. There was too much to suddenly figure out.

  “No. But this is the direction where the camp was. I figure it’s our best bet. Either way, we’ve got to keep moving. Lord Evil can move very quickly. Soulless bastard. Literally. His soul is sold. He can move quicker, use his magic longer, and doesn't seem to need much sleep. If we don’t find Lee soon, it’s likely we’ll be dead. Or at least I will be. He may still decide to use you.”

  “You didn’t have to take this big of a risk,” I said. “I could have gone on my own. Actually, I still can. You can say you caught sight of me but I gave you the slip.”

  “No, my lack of fear will give me away. He probably already suspects something and will likely be on my tail sooner rather than later. This is my only chance to live.” Ria gave me a sad smile. “Whatever hinders this jerk’s plans I’m down for. We Cursed born… we don’t need more lies and anger in our lives.”

  “Well, what’s the likelihood that the other two are following us?” I asked.

  “Zero.” She glanced back to be sure. “I’ve known their magic for months and sense none of it. Why?”

  “Then we’ve no reason to worry about making noise. Let’s run as far as we can. We need to make as much distance between us and them as possible.”

  Ria smiled tiredly. “Let’s go.” She sounded reluctant, but she didn’t offer any alternatives.

  We ran for as long as we could, and switched back to walking, repeating this cycle for as long as we could. Finally, we had to pause and rest.

  “Why couldn’t our curse powers include visions? Why is it only destructive?” I complained.

  “Right?” Ria huffed, agreeing with me as we caught our breath. “We’ve got to be nearly out of time.”

  “How far were we from the camp when we began?” I asked.

  “We rode on horseback for about four hours… so around eighteen miles. We can walk about a mile in fifteen or twenty minutes.”

  “This is not the time for math.” I was aching more now than I had earlier.

  “It would take about six hours for us to travel the same distance.” Ria replied regardless of my protest. “We’d never make it to the camp in time, but I doubt they sat idle either. I just don’t know where they are.”

  “The worst seeking game you can play is with two teams traveling in a woods looking for one another. One should stay put. Not that we have much choice… Ugh, Lee where are you?” I complained loudly.

  “They may have a plan different than ours. Or a better one.” Ria offered as an answer.

  “Or things have gone horribly wrong and they’re not going to make it… or are dead. I doubt they’re dead though. I think if Lee was going to die I would have accidentally killed him by now.”

  Ria shrugged. “Not going to lie, he seems like a tough to kill dude. Then again, anyone with mi
xed blood like his or ours is hard to kill. Not that we can’t take on one another. You just need to be more creative.”

  Glancing in the distance, Ria’s face paled.

  “We’re out of time,” I guessed.

  “So fucking out of time,” she admitted, took a deep breath, and readied herself.

  Mimicking her, I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. I had no idea what to expect, but at long last, I finally knew who was behind all this nonsense.

  No name, no soul, just a man who wanted to rule it all, stepping on any who dared to get his way.

  His presence was announced by the sudden silence of the forest. Everything stopped all at once, and the lack of even a slight breeze made the silence almost deafening.

  Abruptly, with a strong gust of wind, he appeared in front of us. The trick was flawless and would have been startling if we hadn’t been expecting him.

  “Cassandra…” he whispered angrily, pulling back his hood. You could see the hatred in his eyes. “You had such potential. Why did you lie to me?”

  “I didn’t,” she replied. “I said I would find her. I never said I’d bring her to you.”

  “You know the price for treachery.”

  “It’s the same price for tripping over your own two feet. There is no leeway with you, no understanding. You don’t want to make us great… you’ve just been using us to make you great. A lovely lie painted on an even prettier pedestal.” Ria spat. “Now we can fight, or we can skip it. Either way I don’t give a damn about your goals and lies.”

  “I should have had you cast your soul aside sooner. There would be no chance of redemption then.” He clicked his tongue, letting his disappointment show for a brief moment.

  Powering up a shield around us, I shook my head. “You’re not going to get her that easily.”

  “Yes, yes, the kid who overuses magic. You’ll black out soon and things will go back to my plan.” He rolled his eyes, making me feel as useless as I had felt earlier.

  Ria smiled at me and started adding her magic to my shield, giving it an extra boost. “At least if we go down, we will go down in brilliant flames.”

  I snickered at the bad joke. “Best way to go.” At least together we wouldn’t die instantly.

  Lord Evil tried throwing his magic at us to crack the shield, but together we held it firmly against him. It was a comfort to know he couldn’t just overpower us, but it left us at a standstill that couldn’t be easily won. If we were to release the shield, it was likely his magic would disable us and he’d win. Without a soul, his demon gave him extra power that we likely couldn’t match. We needed a miracle, and I prayed Lee would show up as a distraction so we could kick this guy’s butt. I had no doubt the three of us could win.

  The fixed points Lee had mentioned came to mind and it caused my heart to flutter. There was a chance we would be at a point like that. He never said if they were uncommon or not, and I wished I knew more. There was a chance we could die even if he did make it here. Pushing away that fear I turned to Ria.

  “We need a plan.”

  “I guess we can’t rely on backup if they don’t know our plan,” she agreed. Her eyes showed her concern, but she stood in a defensive stance. “I’m ready for anything you’ve got.”

  Taking a deep breath I made my suggestion. “We can fight with all we’ve got or wait until the shield runs out and hope help comes before that.”

  “You don’t think help will make it here first?” Ria smirked.

  “We can’t count on it. It could go either way.”

  “I would rather go down fighting.” Ria agreed, staring down her former master.

  “You’ll fail either way.” Lord Evil shrugged while glancing at his nails.

  Nudging Ria, I dropped the shield and together we started our attack. While we were strong, he was stronger.

  Any advantage we had gained was quickly lost. Our attacks were only a bother to him, while his stung and pierced us. There was a hardly a bruise on him, but any hit from him gave us a black and blue mark or gash.

  We were quickly beaten. The shield was remastered around us.

  “I could crush you. Such a pathetic attempt to remain alive.” he commented, looking nonchalant. He didn’t even appear to be winded.

  “I hate my life,” I grumbled, already collapsed on the ground. In that moment I had no doubt he had been holding back.

  Ria was still standing. “Yeah… we’re fucked.”

  “I’ll tell you what. I’ll let you both live if you give up your souls and bow down to me,” Lord Evil suggested.

  “Can’t bow, I’m already laying down,” I replied sarcastically. Why not let him hate me more?

  Ria doubled over laughing. “Can’t bow, can’t take death seriously.” She gasped, amused by my bad joke.

  Anger filled his eyes, and as promised he smashed the shield. I rolled away and Ria leapt back. Our fight resumed, but it was a losing battle. My arms were covered in open cuts and gashes, my face was sticky with sweat and blood, and I wasn’t sure if my ankle was broken or if I was just dying.

  The impact on my shield hurt me inwardly because it was a direct attack on my magic. My vision blurred here and there, but I didn’t give in. I couldn’t afford to black out again. I might never wake up.

  He wanted us right where we were, hurt and scared. Ria was much better at this than I was. Her control over her magic and fighting form was amazing, and I wished I had spent more time on both.

  I carefully pushed myself up but I wasn’t ready for the next hit. After a sharp blow to the ribs, I couldn’t get up again. Ria gave him a good kick to try and buy me time, but she was knocked away and sharply hit her head against a tree. I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead. Fear finally took over.

  “You should have sold your soul. Do you want to change your final answer?” he asked, offering me his hand.

  My vision was spinning and blurry, and I couldn’t concentrate on his figure anymore. This had to be it. My final moments. Closing my eyes, I replied with the attitude Ria would have loved. “Go fuck yourself.”

  Heat rushed around me and I felt as if I was on fire. The pain was terrible and I screamed. The fire itself wouldn’t leave burns on my skin or boil my blood. No, the gift he used of fiery cursed magic couldn’t kill me itself. It could make me wish I was dead, though.

  A moment of relief came and I expected him to say something. Maybe he would make another offer or say a final word before he ended this. My eyes were closed and I could smell blood and taste dirt.

  Instead, the sound of fighting resumed. Swords clashed and I willed my eyes to open. It was hard to focus, but I saw Lee and two others fighting Lord Evil.

  My head was pounding as I pushed myself back up. Blood ran down the side of my face, barely missing my eye.

  Every movement made me want to scream, but I pushed myself to move and check on Ria. I was too badly hurt to fight anymore, but maybe I could help her.

  I just about collapsed at her side and listened for a heartbeat. Hearing nothing, instead I listened for a breath. It was faint, but it was there. I took her hand in mine and felt her magic latch onto mine. I tried moving some of my magic into her, in the hope that it would help her regain energy. It did for a moment. Her eyes flickered. Seeing me, she smiled and her eyes shut again.

  “Come on, Ria. We’re not out of this yet,” I told her. My voice was raspy and tired.

  In response she sent her magic to me.

  “That’s not going to help you get up,” I said, trying to stop the flow of power.

  “Take it,” she insisted. Pain filled both words.

  Not wanting to argue, I let her have her way. The extra magic was like a surge of adrenaline. It didn’t help me feel any better, but I could concentrate again.

  Ignoring the pain as best as I could, I stood once more. I could see that Lee, Jameson, and one other working together to try and wear down the evil lord. I hoped I could tip the scale in their favor.

  My step
s were pained, but I could walk. It was more of a shuffle. My careful movements caught Jameson’s eye. With what little force I had left I summoned up a fireball. Jameson nodded and dodged out of the way so I could hit my target. My magic struck Lord Evil, distracting him so that Lee and his ally could attack.

  There wasn’t much magic or energy left in me for another attack. Making a small shield, I pushed it within reach of the group. The evil lord had to dodge away from me, but I kept it pressed towards him. It wouldn’t kill him. I didn’t know what effect it would have on someone who was soulless. He still tried to avoid me, giving the others the opportunity to take better shots at him.

  Jameson scored a cut on the evil lord's side at the same time the Lord Evil struck Lee. The evil lord recovered quickly, but Jameson took out a dagger along with his sword, and dropped it.

  For a moment I was baffled as the fight continued, but then I saw the genius of Jameson’s unspoken plan. As they moved away from the spot it was dropped, I forced myself to move and pick up the dagger. Still keeping the shield up, I left it on its own, stuck in place, and prepared myself to strike.

  The evil lord wasn’t expecting it. I flanked him and managed to stab him in the gut and he turned to run his sword through me. In that moment, I saw Lee make the killing blow. It filled me with relief, but everything felt cold and my vision blurred. I hadn’t realized that Lord Evil had actually stabbed me. Shoving the evil lord aside, Lee rushed to me. I couldn’t understand his words. I could see his fear, and I felt my own.

  “I’m sorry, dear,” I said as I tried to fight the darkness. I wanted to say more, but I tasted blood. There was more than I had already been tasting. It felt like I was drowning, and the world wouldn’t stop shaking. As the pain increased I welcomed the wave of darkness, hoping it would be the end of my pain.

  Chapter 31

  The pain didn’t end. Something kept jolting me back into the world of the living. It hurt too much to move and I wanted to beg the darkness to come back and claim me. I wasn’t sure if my cries were heard or if they fell silent on my lips. The only consistency was the warmth I felt before the darkness reclaimed me.