The Blaze Ignites (47 page)

Rabryn and I both turned our heads to look at
each other for a moment. He rested his head back against the tree
and looked up at the sky. “I’m glad I’m not the only one.”

“Do you think that’s evil?”

Rabryn shrugged helplessly. “I don’t know. I
still love Goodness and the Light Gods and I bet I would have loved
Azrel’s father, but this situation is so unique and screwed up I
don’t know what it means.”

“I wish their two personalities would just
join already, so things would make sense.”

“I agree. When they do become one person, I
hope Azrel doesn’t change.”

“Me too. I wish the White Warrior personality
would just disappear and Azrel could have access and control of her
magic.”

“Exactly! Same here,” Rabryn said, then
sighed. “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

We stayed quiet for a moment and then Rabryn
suddenly got to his feet. I jumped to my feet with him. “What’s
wrong?”

“Nothing. Someone’s coming.”

We waited a few moments and a saw a familiar
small figure approaching us. The sight of him made me grin
immediately and I walked up to meet him. “Hey, Cairikson.” He
smiled and held his arms up to me. I picked him up and tucked him
into my hip. “What are you doing over here?”

“I wanted to come say goodbye to you before
you left.”

I smiled, “Well, I’m glad you did.”

“Azrel already left, didn’t she?” I nodded
and he sighed. “I’m going to miss her.”

“She will miss you too, no doubt.”

“I’m going to miss all of you.”

I smiled. “Well you can say goodbye to
everyone else when they get here.”

His brows dropped in confusion, “But everyone
else left already.”

Now my brows dropped. “What do you mean?”

“I saw them. Addredoc made the horses appear
near Acalith’s room and they left a few minutes ago.”

I spun around and met Rabryn’s eyes. Rabryn’s
face turned red and then a look of utter rage contorted his
beautiful features into something I’d never seen before. He spun
around and ran down the hill to go saddle our horses, his cloak
flying out behind him from the speed he was running at.

“I was wondering why you weren’t with them. I
figured you were getting your horses and came here so I could say
goodbye.”

I could practically read Rabryn’s thoughts:
How dare they go after Azrel without us!
Not only were we
the closest to her out of anyone in the company and had known her
the longest, but Rabryn was her only invincible protector! What
were they thinking leaving without
him?

I quickly put Cairikson down and kissed his
cheek. “We have to go, buddy. I love you.”

Cairikson looked up at me with his big
blue-green eyes filled with unshed tears. “I love you too. Please
don’t die in this war, Ortheldo.”

I grinned. “I will try, but”—I sighed—“you
know I can’t promise that.”

He nodded. “I understand.”

I petted his hair. “You be safe.”

He nodded again and then I ran down the hill
after Rabryn.

Rabryn shocked me by already having both
horses out of the stables and saddled. He was already mounted on
his. “Let’s go!” He barked in a voice I barely recognized.

I threw myself over the saddle and we bolted
to the right towards one of the main Galad Kas roads. “The bridge
should be on the west side of the island at this hour,” I cried
over the thunder of hooves.

Rabryn looked at me with detached interest.
“It
should
be.” I looked at him, confused. “I already moved
it,” he said as he looked out ahead of him again. “It’s waiting for
us as soon as we get to the east side of Galad Kas.”

“You…” I narrowed my eyes in confusion. “You
moved
the Galad Kasians’ bridge? A bridge sustained and
controlled by their magic for the past three thousand years?
You…
moved
it?”

Rabryn looked over at me again. “My magic
works by instinct, emotion and need. I’m pretty emotional right
now, my instincts say Azrel is in trouble without us, and we need
to get to her—so that makes me very powerful at the moment. In
fact, I’m pretty sure I could defeat Addredoc in a wizard duel
right now!”

I smiled at him. “Let’s go! Ha!” We both
kicked out horses up to full speed, ducking our heads low against
the wind, and headed for Azrel.

She would be heading for Triple Peaks, which
lay to the east of Galad Kas. We’d get to her before the others
did–unless they realized too quickly that the bridge they’d need to
cross the lake wasn’t where it was supposed to be, and Addredoc
transported them across the lake to the east. I had a feeling that
was what was going to happen. We’d see them soon. I was still
debating if I was going to run any of them through or not.

Azrel

I took a bite of my apple as I sat against a
tree and gazed out over the clearing towards Triple Peaks. The
three giant mountains stood tall and proud against the light grey
sky. I felt myself getting slightly nostalgic as I looked at them.
While I’d never actually been there before, technically the memory
of when my father claimed it back from the Shadow was mine. Or it
s
hould
have been mine. It was in the memory of my magical
alter ego, though, which was probably the cause for the
nostalgia.

Triple Peaks had been the last stronghold of
Goodness to be overrun by the Shadow in ancient times. I was
looking at the very first place that my father had penetrated and
freed as the White Warrior. I sighed as I thought about what could
have been going through my father’s mind when he did that. Had he
been scared? I doubted it.

I couldn’t wait to see Triple Peaks, but at
the same time I felt ashamed to go there because I was not my
father. The memory those people had of him had survived ten
thousand years. I would not leave an impression like he did, that
was for sure. I couldn’t even fully control my magic, and even when
I did use it, I became exhausted from doing so. Furthermore, my
magic, the White Warrior, couldn’t even reach her full potential
right now because she was limited without us having earned the
diamond crown back from The Light Gods.

I sighed and looked away from Triple Peaks. I
couldn’t worry about leaving a fantastic impression on them. I just
knew I had to go. Candletars would have the best idea about who the
owner of this necklace was, and then I could finally cast off that
burden and figure out what to do about this Second Shadow coming
into the world. I still had questions that needed answering before
I could know what my next, and first, move was going to be in this
coming war. Hopefully Candletars would be able to help me with
these answers too.

I had to stay hidden for now, though. Triple
Peaks was not overly brutal when it came to the White Warrior’s
history like some realms, but they were not fully loyal either.
They were the most neutral territory in Casdanarus as far as my
father’s history goes. If I was going to sway them to not hate me,
I had to be careful.

I took another bite of my apple and turned my
mind to other things, like my clothes. I chuckled gently at what
had been provided for me and wondered how Isadith would react if
she actually saw me wearing these. The top was a beautiful dark
blue color with crisscrossing thick pieces of material that went
from the neck down my chest, revealing a little more cleavage than
I was used to showing. The sleeves were cinched at my wrists,
leaving small ruffles that grazed my hands. The pants were just
plain tan with floral embroidery going up the entire outside of the
seams. It was something I wasn’t used to wearing, and it had gotten
a little filthy after two days travel, but I couldn’t bring myself
to take it off yet. I felt closer to Isadith wearing this.

I sighed and rested my head against the tree.
I started debating again whether I should wait there for my
companions. I knew they weren’t far behind me. I sighed again and
decided to just leave. If Triple Peaks weren’t in my sights right
then, I’d probably have waited, but it was only a one day ride
across the clearing.

I got to my feet, brushing the leaves and
dirt off my pants, and went to Forfirith. “Ready to go?” He nudged
my cheek with his mouth and I smiled. “Alright then.” I mounted
him. “Let’s go.”

We had been riding for a couple of hours when
I heard the horse hooves. Well, they had caught up with me,
finally. I smiled and turned to greet my friends riding up behind
me, but no one was there. My brows dropped. I looked around the
clearing, seeing no one, and I could see at least thirty miles in
every direction. My brows dropped deeper as I listened to the horse
hooves still coming towards me. I pulled back on Forfirith’s reins,
stopping him, and continued to swivel my head, looking for the
source of the sound.

In slight desperation I looked at Forfirith,
who was looking to the left. “Please tell me you hear that too.” He
nodded. I followed his gaze to the left, but even as I did his head
jerked forward to look out in front of him. I followed his gaze
again. Nothing. He then looked to the left and I did too. Suddenly
and cautiously, Forfirith started to back up. Something was
wrong.

The minute I thought that, the shadow in my
mind exploded and in the same instant a small army of Legan’dirs
burst out of some invisible wall in front on me. Too shocked to
think, I couldn’t even direct Forfirith, but he knew to turn and
run back towards the woods. I looked over my shoulder at them in
wide-eyed shock.

This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening!
This wasn’t happening again!

I suddenly gritted my teeth and took hold of
my sword, pulling it out of the sheath. I would not allow myself to
have to be rescued by my friends again! I would not! I could take
care of my own damn self! Time to prove it. This was going to
hurt.

I let Forfirith run a few more paces, then I
violently turned him to the side and in the same instant summoned
my magic to my sword. I arched it out horizontally towards the
fifty monsters, and with a scream of exertion, sent shafts of white
fire straight into their black faces. I used so much magic that
each shaft of fire that hit a Legan’dir went straight through its
head to hit the Legan’dir behind it. I felt my ears pop and start
to bleed from their unified scream of agony, but I didn’t even have
the strength to bring my hands up to cover them.

My entire body went limp and I fell off
Forfirith, lacking the energy to even put my hands out and brace
myself against the fall. My shoulder and head just cracked onto the
ground, and I could only lie there limp and panting, on the verge
of passing out. Apparently, however, I hadn’t used enough magic to
actually
pass out.

My heart started pounding when I heard horse
hooves coming at me again. It sounded like only a single rider now
though. I tried to look around the clearing but could only manage
to move my eyes. If I was attacked right now, I’d be completely
helpless. Without a word from me, my sword and the necklace
disappeared in a small burst of white flame. Uh oh. If The White
Warrior was hiding them, this wasn’t good.

I kept trying to search the clearing and
finally saw the lone rider coming at me from the direction of
Triple Peaks, where the Legan’dirs had come from, though the
invisible wall was down. I recognized the shining deep red armor
and leaf and berry crown on his head as he approached.

“Yarin,” I said in relief as he dismounted
his horse. “I’m so glad to see you.”

He looked down at me in the most peculiar
way. His face was impassive, expressionless, very unlike the bright
shining smile that had greeted me when we first met.

My brows dropped. “What’s wrong?”

Suddenly I realized he was alone. The
Gleo’gwyns were not with him. Something was wrong.

I looked up into his eyes. “Where is everyone
else?”

Suddenly his eyes filled with a black light
that consumed the blue and white of his entire eyeball. He
stretched a fist out towards me and a cord of black fire erupted
from his knuckles, wrapping around my neck, choking me. The cord
lifted me completely off the ground and brought me towards him
until I was directly in front of his face with my feet kicking in
the air.

I couldn’t…this wasn’t real. This couldn’t be
happening. I wasn’t ready! I wasn’t crowned! I wasn’t even in
control of my magic!

It was Hathum!

I watched with wide eyes as the leaf crown
disappeared in black fire and the deep red armor faded into regular
black clothes. The rest of him stayed the same. I would have
screamed if my air hadn’t been cut off! How could we be meeting
like this? This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. We were supposed
to meet on some gigantic battlefield after I had millions of
soldiers in my army. I had no one! I hadn’t even convinced the
world not to hate me yet, never mind follow me into battle. Most of
the world didn’t even know the White Warrior was back. This
shouldn’t be happening like this!

I desperately grasped at the solid current of
magic, trying to ease the grip of it, but it was no use. Burning
pain filled my chest from the lack of air, but even more terrifying
than death was looking into the eyes of Hathum, the deadliest and
most powerful Shadow wizard in the entire world. Even the lack of
air in my lungs couldn’t compete with looking into his horrifying,
evil black eyes. I wanted death to come in this moment, if only to
save me from looking into them. He was the Shadow Gods’ very living
prodigy, as I was
supposed
to be the Light Gods’.

The edges of my vision started turning black
from no air but suddenly, with a grunt, Hathum heaved me backwards
about twenty feet. I hit the ground hard but I was too busy sucking
in gulps of air and coughing to feel much pain. Forfirith was in a
mad panic. I managed to look at him and saw he was now stuck in a
small box of Hathum’s black fire magic. Forfirith was throwing
himself into the walls of the black fire and rearing up on his back
legs to try to kick it down but it wasn’t working.