The Blaze Ignites (46 page)

Looking at Reese in this light, I squatted
down in front of him and looked into his face. He didn’t meet my
eyes, but he didn’t have to. His eyes were open and I saw what I
needed to see. The guilt and shame he felt about what he’d just
done were having a more torturous effect on him than any physical
damage Ortheldo or I could do. I doubted I’d ever be able to trust
him again, but I wasn’t going to kill him, not for this.

I summoned my magic into my palm and rested
my hand on his cheek, healing him from Ortheldo’s beating. When I
dropped my hand to my side, his chin and the skin under his eyes
quivered, and he looked up at me stunned. He was flabbergasted as
to why I didn’t kill him.

I let my tears fall before his could.

We didn’t say anything. We didn’t have to. He
knew what he had destroyed in me and in us. A trust. A friendship.
I wasn’t sure I even liked Reese anymore. I didn’t have to tell him
that. He knew the damage he had done. He saw it in my eyes. Without
a word I stood up, gathered my things, and headed back up the cliff
staircase without looking back at any of them.

My head was down as I walked. I felt so
alone. I wished I could talk to someone, but at the same time I
didn’t desire anyone’s company right now. I needed to be alone, but
I needed to talk.

My mood brightened suddenly as I looked down
at my bathing liquids. Forfirith had to have arrived because these
vials had been in my packs he carried. I turned to the south and
headed for the Galad Kasian stables. He didn’t want to talk to me
again for some reason, but he always listened, and he was always
there with some form of encouragement or comfort.

Finally I stopped atop the small hill of land
that looked over the stables. The stables were three long buildings
stretched out side by side and vertically from where I stood. They
were very long buildings. They had to be large in order to house
all two thousand horses Galad Kas owned, one horse for every Salynn
here. When I first came here I’d wondered why they even had horses.
The island Galad Kas sat on was not large enough to need a horse to
travel the length of it. It was perhaps a four-hour walk from one
end to the other and the Salynns here rarely, if ever, ventured
beyond their island. Isadith had told me they didn’t keep horses
indefinitely—they only collected and kept horses in the days of
war. I sighed when I realized the stables were full right now.

A waterfall from the cliffs made a lovely
backdrop. The stream it joined flowed out to either side in a wide
upside down U shape around the plateau of land that the stables sat
on before disappearing out of sight on both sides. The grass on the
plateau was rich and thick, and of course manicured to
perfection.

A few male Salynns were tending to the horses
at the moment, brushing and feeding them and even giving some
medicine. Medicine. My thoughts went to the necklace. That gem held
the power to those medicines working. The Anarran gem in my
possession was the root of every healing aide given to the horses
right now, or that was mostly likely being given to an ailing child
or two in the world. I needed to get to Triple Peaks now and
hopefully get Candletars help in finding the owner of the gem
before hell broke loose and the Second Shadow really started to get
aggressive.

I held my chin high in that moment, suddenly
proud of myself for not killing Reese for his betrayal. There were
bigger problems in the world than my hurt feelings. I needed to
start tending to those bigger problems right now and I needed to do
it alone. I could not have my own emotions be the focus any longer.
I had bigger problems to take care of. I needed to find out how to
end this separation between me and my magic and kill Hathum,
hopefully before he found out who I was. I was the White Warrior,
but at the same time I wasn’t. If he found me now I was dead, and
the world with me. Maybe Candletars could help with this odd
separation I was dealing with, too. As much as I loved Galad Kas, I
had to get out of here.

I went down the small hill to the closest
Salynn, who was putting some grain in a tall wooden box.
“Excuse
me,”
I said in his own language,
“could you tell me if you
have a horse—”

“Your horse is in the front stable in the
first stall, my lady,” he replied with a smile.

I smiled back.
“Thank you.”

I jogged to the first stable, which was to
the right, and saw Forfirith as soon as I rounded the corner. I put
my clothes and bathing liquids on the ground and looked at him. He
was happily eating some hay with his eyes closed. He made me grin.
“How can you stuff your face when we’ve got work to do?” I teased
him.

His eyes snapped open and he saw me. He
dropped the hay from his mouth and started neighing and hopping up
and down on his front legs. He brought his head over the stall door
and nudged my chin affectionately.

I chuckled and pressed my forehead to his
face and petted his neck, “I’m happy to see you too. Have you
gotten any rest or sleep?” He nodded his head. “Ready to get a move
on?”

He looked at me with deep concern and
confusion and jerked his head six times in the direction of Galad
Kas’ center, indicating my six traveling companions. He was
questioning if we were to going to go without them.

I sighed. “We’re heading out on our own
again, boy.”

He looked at me with his brows drawn and I
knew what he was saying. I remembered how well setting out on our
own had worked for us last time when we left Narcatertus. If my
company hadn’t followed me, I would have been killed by that pack
of Legan’dirs.

I sighed again. “We’ll just have to try
again.”

He also sighed and conceited defeat. Then he
drew his head into the stall. When his head appeared again, he had
a mouthful of hay. He dropped it at my feet and nodded once towards
me.

I couldn’t help but grin widely. “No, I’m not
hungry right now, thank you.” That was a lie. I was filthy and
famished. I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday. I
picked up the hay and put it back in his stall. “I’m going to
bathe, and then we will go. I’ll find a Salynn to saddle you
up.”

When I turned around the kind Salynn I had
spoken to was rounding the corner already with my saddle in his
hands. “I figured your coming here meant you were not staying
long,” he said with a smile.

I smiled back. “Thank you.”

“You can bathe behind the waterfall. There is
a small rock cut out back there with plenty of room.”

I smiled again. “Thank you so much.” I picked
up my bathing liquids and clothes and headed across the ankle-deep
stream to the waterfall with only Triple Peaks and Candletars on my
mind. I had to get there soon.

Ortheldo

“
You haven’t seen her at all?”
I asked
the stable attendant in his language.

“No, Master Ortheldo.”

“
Then where did her horse go?”
I
cried. The young Salynn flinched at my tone. I pressed the heels of
my hands into my eyes. I was so tired. Obviously there was no sleep
to be had last night and the sun was coming up.
“I’m sorry,”
I said more gently.
“I’m not angry at you.”

“I just came on shift a little while ago,
sir. Perhaps Sorna, the one I relieved, saw her. But he said he was
going for a walk in the forest if anyone asked.”

I patted the Salynn’s shoulder. “Thank you.
We’ll figure something out.”

“So she’s taken off again,” Rabryn said as I
walked back up the hill to where he stood. I nodded. Rabryn sighed.
“I knew she would.”

“We need to go,” I said. “We know she’s
headed to Triple Peaks. We can catch her easily enough.” I glared
at Reese. “Why don’t you go wake the others, since it was your
little stunt that made Azrel take off like this.”

Reese’s eyes dropped closed. He had yet to
look at me. “I was doing what I was told,” he said barely above a
whisper.

“Yeah I got that. Just go get the
others.”

Without a word Reese turned and left with his
head still bowed.

“Ortheldo, take it easy on him,” Rabryn said.
“This wasn’t entirely his fault.”

“Look! I don’t want to hear anything in
Reese’s defense. He’s as much to blame as the White Warrior is for
putting him up to that!”

Rabryn pushed himself away from the tree he’d
been leaning against. “No,
you
look!” He fired. “I know
you’re upset and worried about Azrel, I am too. But for a bloody
second would you put yourself in Reese’s shoes? He was just
following orders. As a warrior and a prince—” I shot him a
dangerous look. Former prince,” he corrected, “I know you yourself
understand the concept of obeying the orders of your commanding
officer. That’s all Reese is guilty of.”

I looked away from him. I didn’t want to
sympathize with someone who had just hurt Azrel so badly. I tried
to walk away, but Rabryn caught my arm, stopping me. I looked at
him over my shoulder to see him glaring at me stubbornly. I
snatched my arm from his grip and walked a few paces to another
tree and pressed my palm to it. It was all that was keeping me from
falling to me knees. I replayed Reese’s explanation to us last
night after Azrel had walked off. He was crying and wailing the
entire time, saying over and over again, “I didn’t want to. I
didn’t want to hurt her. I wish I didn’t have to. I was just doing
what I was told.”

I sighed and my eyes dropped closed in
defeat. “You’re right. I know you are.” Then my teeth clenched.
“That’s a stupid lesson to want to teach Azrel. And who in the
Light Gods’ Names gave the White Warrior the right to teach Azrel
anything?
If anything, the White Warrior could use a lesson
or two from Azrel about love and gentleness and kindness and
humanity.”

“I agree,” Rabryn replied venomously as he
sunk down to sit on the ground against the tree trunk next to me.
“I think I need to have another word with the White Warrior.”

“I think so, too. Only this time I won’t
stand there idly silent.” I vowed that! If the White Warrior dared
show me her face again, she was going to hear exactly what I
thought of her, nice and loudly.

“I’m sorry the plans Acalith and I had for
you and Azrel didn’t happen,” Rabryn said unexpectedly.

I looked down at him and saw the return of
some small innocence in his eyes as he looked at me with sincere
apology, as if it was his fault they got ruined. In this very
moment I was incredibly happy to see that innocence in him, to see
in his face what the world looked like through vulnerability. His
eyes had gotten harder since leaving The Pitt, which wasn’t a bad
thing because the awareness and hardness would help keep him alive
out here, but it made me sad to see the innocence go. He was
learning the hard way that the world was not a big basket of
dreams, and that hope was often depressing; hence the miracle of
Azrel’s father being able to use such a fragile thing as hope to
bring the world back from the depths of Shadow. The world was evil
and cruel and would eat innocence like Rabryn’s for breakfast if
Azrel and I weren’t with him on this journey.

I smiled at him and sat on the ground with my
back to the tree trunk. “It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault.” The
White Warrior had ruined that too.

Rabryn and Acalith had planned a surprise
dinner for Azrel and me at the western falls for just the two of
us. Acalith even had Isadith magically remove Azrel’s clothes to
insure Azrel would only have a robe on during this dinner. But
Acalith had come to us in a panic, telling us the link that told
Acalith where Azrel was at all times was blocked, and that only the
White Warrior herself was powerful enough to block that. She’d
ordered us to search the eastern side of the island and then took
off to order another search before Rabryn could tell her he still
felt where Azrel was. So Rabryn and I had casually headed to the
eastern bathing pools because that’s where he’d felt her presence.
Rabryn had been hoping to salvage the date he and Acalith had
planned for us, but then we saw what we saw and everything went to
hell after that.

“What makes this whole thing worse,” I said
out of the blue, “is that the horrid lesson the White Warrior
wanted to teach Azrel was learned.”

Rabryn sighed in frustration and I saw him
clench and unclenched his fists. “I know. Hopefully this is damage
that can be repaired though.”

“I hope so too.”

The lesson was that Azrel couldn’t trust her
heart. Her heart wanted Reese to be me in that pool, so she didn’t
question why I didn’t quite look right. Because her heart wanted it
to be me, she believed it was me, and she’d been hurt by what her
heart wanted her to believe. “She said Azrel needs to start
thinking with her brain and not her emotions,” Reese had
explained.

I sighed. “The White Warrior is a miserable,
heartless…thing!” I cried. “She’s a force of magic, not a shred of
humanity about her. She doesn’t know what emotions
are
so of
course she doesn’t see the value in them!”

“I know,” Rabryn agreed, “but Azrel is human
and emotions are a part of humanity. I don’t think this lesson
could ever fully be learned. Azrel will be okay.”

I rested my head back against the tree trunk.
“I have to admit I’m hoping the other lesson the White Warrior
wanted to teach her was learned.”

“I do too!” Rabryn agreed eagerly. “If she
can see the bigger picture outside her own emotions, she will be
more at peace.”

I nodded. “We’ll have to talk to her when we
catch up with her. I think she did learn it, though, because she
didn’t beat the snot out of Reese like she normally would have.”
Rabryn nodded in agreement. I paused and I let my brows drop. “I
think I’ve actually decided I don’t like the White Warrior.”