Blaze (18 page)

"Mother!" Mercy snapped.

"No. My foster father. He rescued me from the madhouse in this village."

"Madhouse?" Mercy wrinkled her nose. "I knew it. Only a madman would have attacked those raiders."

"What raiders?" Aura glanced from her daughter to Blaze.

"A couple of those Black Raider bastards were enjoying themselves at the expense of me and the children. Blaze stopped them. Actually, that's not a strong enough phrase. He beat the hell out of them."

"Blaze, it
is
you." Aura stepped closer and reached out a tentative hand toward his face.

Blaze's brow furrowed and he resisted the urge to turn from her touch. This wasn't the reaction he had expected.

"By the Spirit." Aura embraced him tightly. For a moment he wasn't sure whether to step away or return her gesture. He opted for the latter and hugged her briefly.

She released him and drew a deep breath. "I'm not sure what to say to you."

"I wish someone would say something to me." Mercy folded her arms beneath her breasts.

"Mercy, this is your brother."

Chapter Ten

Blaze glanced from Aura to Mercy. His sister's reaction was one of total surprise, but she regained her composure quickly.

"No wonder you seemed familiar to me." The girl smiled. "You have eyes like Mum."

"So do you," Blaze noted.

"Why did you not tell me my brother was alive?" Mercy turned to Aura. "I don't understand, Mum. According to the rumor in the village, he died in the madhouse. You never denied it."

"It had to be that way." Aura sighed and sank into one of the chairs around the small, round table.

She looked at Blaze. "I suppose you want an answer, too?"

He shrugged, though he desperately wanted to know. "You owe me nothing. I have belonged to another family for thirty four years."

"Have you been happy, Blaze? You look wonderful. I never imaged you would grow up to be so handsome, so. . ."

"Sane?" he supplied.

"There was something odd about you as a child. When I looked in your eyes, I never saw insanity, but something neither I nor anyone else in this village could understand. Please sit." She motioned toward another chair. "You, too, Mercy. I might as well tell you, too."

Blaze sat, his pulse quickening. Though he had come to flaunt his accomplishments in the Ruby Order, he had also wanted to vent the anger he'd been harboring over the years. Not anger because

his parents gave him to Sir Mahir, but because they had locked him in the dark, filthy madhouse.

Now, when faced with his mother, he found he didn't hate her and was more curious than ever to hear her side of the story.

"Mercy, you already know this part. Your father was a violent man, prone to heavy drinking and heavier hitting. After Blaze was born and we realized that he wasn't like other children, he turned most of his abuse on him. Everyone in the village considered you mad anyway, Blaze, so I thought by sending you to the madhouse, it would at least get you away from your father."

"Do you know how some of the guards treated us? My life was probably little different there than it would have been with you and him." Blaze wondered if his disgust showed on his face at the mention of his father. He was actually glad he didn't have to look at the bastard.

"I didn't know what else to do." Aura held his gaze. "At times you were impossible to communicate with. You would talk to people who weren't there. You couldn't seem to learn as a normal child would."

"Mahir found a way. So did others at Rubyshire."

"Because they could. Your father would not allow it. I am sorry about what happened to you, but I did the best I could. I have the scars to prove what kind of a man he was. I'm only grateful that he

died before Mercy had a chance to truly feel his wrath."

"Mum." Mercy edged her chair closer to Aura's and placed an arm around her. "You should have told me before."

"What good would it have done? Your father was dead and your brother was long gone."

"But it must have been awful for you, hiding the truth for all these years."

"I probably should be grateful to you." Blaze’s earlier anger faded. His mother wasn't a cruel woman, just a weak one who had been bound to a brutal man. "Because you gave me to Mahir, I've had wonderful opportunities."

Aura looked hopeful. "You've been happy then?"

"Yes. Most of the time I've been very happy."

"What have you done with your life? Have you a family of your own? I would like to know."

"So would I." Mercy smiled.

"Growing up with the Knights I learned more than I could possibly tell you in one conversation.

Mahir was an excellent father. He's a strong man who reveals little of himself through blatant emotion, but he has endless patience and a great understanding of others. Shortly after I came to the order, he fostered another boy, an infant. His name was Torn. He's my brother and a great man. He's second in command of the entire Order."

"What about you?" Mercy pressed, then glanced at her mother. "He talks so little about himself that I practically had to drag his name out of him when we met."

"I'm also a Knight."

Mercy drew a sharp breath, her eyes widening. Aura smiled, surprise in her expression.

"Toby was right, then. You are a warrior."

"I think of myself foremost as a healer."

Mercy narrowed her eyes at him. "If you're a Knight, why didn't you draw your sword against those raiders?"

"Because it wasn't necessary." Blaze wasn't yet ready to tell his mother and sister everything about himself, such as his position in the Order and the problems that had urged him to Vivondra.

Though he liked them, he still didn't know them well enough to reveal the intimate feelings and experiences of the past month.

"What about the madness?" Aura asked. "Or whatever it was that plagued you as a boy?"

"It wasn't madness or a curse of any kind. I was lucky enough to—" Blaze paused, sighing deeply.

Talking about the spirits was still so painful. He could scarcely believe they were no longer with him. "I was lucky enough to have the ability to communicate with the spirit world."

"I don't understand," Aura said.

Mercy's brow furrowed. "Do you expect us to believe you're some kind of witch?"

"I don't expect you to believe anything. She asked why I was different, and I'm explaining. I saw and spoke to the spirits of the dead as easily as everyone else speaks to the living. That's why I seemed to talk to myself. That's why I didn't learn normally. The spirits taught me many things,

and because they sometimes spoke in strange codes, I conversed that way as well."

Aura shook her head. "But you seem so normal now."

"It's because the spirits are no longer with me."

Mercy and her mother exchanged looks. He nearly laughed aloud. They thought he was insane, after all. Well, why wouldn't they? Here he was, a strange man sitting in their house talking about communicating with the spirit world.

"If you're a Knight, why aren't you in uniform?" Mercy asked.

"Because I'm taking personal time right now." He doubted they believed him, but it was the truth and the only answer they would get. "Tell me about these raiders plaguing you."

Again they exchanged glances. They didn't trust him. Of course that was to be expected, but he needed answers. If the Black Raiders were terrorizing this village, and most likely others as well, then the Ruby Order would need to be notified.

"At least arrange for me to meet with Vivondra's leader."

"All right." Aura stood, Mercy beside her. "He should be at the meeting house now. Come with us."

Blaze followed the women out of the cottage and down the dirt road. They passed several vegetable carts, a blacksmith shop, and a cobbler’s shop. As they emerged from behind a barn, Blaze noted a crowd gathered around a mid-sized building made of rock.

"Something's going on at the jailhouse." Mercy quickened her pace. Blaze and Aura followed.

"What's going on?" Aura asked a woman.

"There's going to be an execution."

"Who?"

"Some warrior woman attacked two men just outside the village." The woman lowered her voice and whispered to Aura, "Two of the raiders. She brought them to the jailhouse. Of course the men were freed, but now they want to hang the woman."

Blaze's brow furrowed as he used his height to advantage to stare above the crowd. Terror filled him when he saw a fat, balding man emerge from the jailhouse followed by two burly guards.

Chained between the guards and looking furious, was Melody.

* * *

Fear mingled with pure rage as Melody tugged the chains binding her hands and feet. The guards, dressed in similar uniforms to the men she had brought to the jailhouse an hour ago, hauled her towards a scaffold where the noose awaited her.

Earlier, she had been on her way to Vivondra when she found two men tied to a tree. They called for her to help them, saying they had been beaten and attacked. Their bruised and bloody faces seemed to confirm their story. Once Melody freed them, however, they turned on her, trying to steal her weapon and she cringed to think of what else. She fought them off, tied them up again, and brought them to the jailhouse where she was promptly arrested. It seemed the thieves were part of a group of warriors in charge of the village. After a mock trial judged by a blubbery man whose rodent-like eyes refused to meet hers, she was sentenced to death by hanging.

Perhaps she should have simply waited for Blaze to return. Now she'd never see him again. Other than an innate human fear of death, her biggest regret was that she would not marry the man she loved more than anyone in the world. Glancing out at the crowd of villagers, she saw him. Her pulse raced. Blaze!

"Wait!" He shoved his way through the crowd. The onlookers stared and the guards drew their swords.

"Who are you?" the pig who called himself the village leader demanded.

"By the Spirit, I have been looking for her for weeks." Blaze reached for Melody.

Her brow furrowed and she almost spoke, then thought better of it. Whatever idea he had hatched, she needed to go along with it. What other option did she have?

"I'm so sorry if she has caused any trouble."

"Who the hell are you?" one of the guards snapped.

"My name is Preston. I work in a madhouse in the village of Sophianna. This woman escaped from my charge and I have been searching for her."

"She tells us she's a Dame of the Opal Order. She attacked two of our soldiers on the outskirts of the village and by law she must be executed."

Blaze slapped a hand to his forehead and groaned. "Goodness. Oh, goodness. Not the Dame fantasy again. She's a Dame of the Opal Order like I'm a Knight. Ridiculous. The poor woman suffers from delusions. I do hope the men she bothered weren't badly injured."

"No, they're—"

"Hey!" Another guard stepped out of the jailhouse, his face bruised and bloody from his attempted attack on Melody. "He's the one who tied us up! Jake, get out here and tell me this ain't the man who got us this morning."

Melody's second attacker, leaning heavily on a cane, peered out the door. Rage gleamed in his eyes.

"That's him."

"My goodness." Blaze's eyes widened. "I had no idea these men were part of the village's security.

I heard a group of children screaming and saw them roughing up a young boy and girl so I assumed they were bandits of some sort. Please forgive me for the mistake."

"He should be on trial, too," the man with the cane snapped.

"Perhaps you would allow me to pay for the damages?" Blaze said. "For both myself and this poor, crazy woman."

"Why should we do that?" the pig faced leader growled.

Blaze leaned a bit closer and murmured so the crowd wouldn't hear, " I'm related by marriage to the Mistress of Sophianna. Should anything happen to me or my charge, her soldiers would look for us."

All over the islands of Travelle, it was known that Honey Wine, Mistress of Sophianna, ruled fairly but with a heavy hand on those who harmed her kingdom and her people. Her marriage to Sir Torn and her friendship with the High King of Travelle was also known. If these raiders were truly blackmailing this village, they would not want to risk a clash with such formidable enemies.

Melody nearly smiled. Whatever Blaze's plan was, it seemed to be working. The guards exchanged glances and pig face began sweating profusely.

"Come with me." The blubbery leader waddled back to the jailhouse. "You guards, bring the woman, too."

Melody's gaze met Blaze's and he nodded slightly. Inside, she stood with the guards. The heavy chains on her ankles and wrists chaffed her skin. She could scarcely wait to be rid of them.

"My name is Shaw, leader of this village." Pig face settled into a chair behind a wooden table. He nodded for Blaze to take a seat across from him. "You're Preston, eh?"