Chased By Fire (Book 1) (15 page)

There was a strange click in its throat.
 

The Aeta closest to the lisincend burst into flames. Fire engulfed her quickly, burning as if from inside, ripping through her flesh and clothes. Everyone took a step back. Someone cried.
 

The woman’s scream, a horrible cry splitting the night, ended abruptly as she crumpled to the ground in a pile of char and ash.
 

Tan struggled not to vomit. How was such a thing even a thing even possible?
 

Pushing Amia before him, he tried to move away, but there was nowhere for them to go.
 

One of the hounds sat not far from them, blocking escape to the stream. Bright eyes stared at him. Tan almost imagined a hungry smile across its lips. He stopped, turning to see another hound watching them near the edge of town. As if waiting for him to run.
 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered to Amia.

She looked up at him, wide eyes softening. “You’ve nothing to apologize for, Tan. You did what you could.”

In any other time, he would have melted at the way she said his name. Worse than being unable to do anything, he’d probably hastened her death. He felt shame and he looked away, unable to meet her gaze. “This is my fault.”

She reached a hand up to his face and forced him to meet her eyes. She laughed softly. The sound surprised him, so out of place with the terror he felt. “The fault lies with Incendin. You give us the hope of freedom.”

A knot formed in his throat. Tan couldn’t look away from her.

“Where is the girl?” the lisincend asked again.

The Mother breathed heavily as she looked deliberately at the fallen Aeta. “There is no girl such as you seek.” She took another careful step toward the stream.

The lisincend flared heat again. It was angry. Was that part of the Mother’s plan?
 

There was another
click
, followed by a slow hiss. Another Aeta burst into flames.
 

They screamed and the rest took a quick back, trying to move across the dark jumble of weeds at the edge of Velminth toward the stream.
 

The unnatural fire of the immolated Aeta briefly illuminated the night. She writhed in pain until stopping, moving no more.
 

“How many more of your people will you sacrifice for her?”

“How much longer will you defy the accords?” One foot touched the stream, barely sinking into the water.

The lisincend laughed again. “How much longer will you cling to them? The day soon comes when the world will see the last of the Lost.” It clicked again. Another of the Aeta shrieked as flames engulfed him.
 

The lisincend let the fire linger, reveling in his torture of the Aeta, slowly burning the man to a char. The heat around it faded, clearing the haze and the veil. A smile could almost be imagined tugging its lips.

Only three Aeta remained.

“You will leave this town.”

Amia spoke behind him, startling him with the intensity and command in the words. A beautiful anger hung about her. She blazed with energy.

“You will leave these lands.”

Power to her words thrummed through him, past him, and directed at the horrible creature. The lisincend did not answer.

“You will honor the accords.”
 

Amia hammered each word in such a way that Tan felt them tear through him. He could not imagine defying her request.

“Get out of my
head
!” The lisincend flared heat and disappeared behind the shimmering veil.
 

Another Aeta vanished in a flash of flame and smoke, dying without a word, leaving only the Mother and Amia. Amia flinched behind him and he felt her stagger, nearly falling. He turned to help keep her on her feet.

She stared past him, toward the lisincend. Her eyes flashed fury at the creature. Her forehead was reddened, almost as if slapped, and her hair smelled like it had been singed, as well. Amia took his hand. Tan held it, too afraid to run.

The lisincend turned its rage on the Mother. Heat rose around her. The veil around the lisincend parted, splitting like a curtain in the shimmering haze, and the creature stepped forward, grabbing the Mother and lifting her chin. Her face sizzled and smoked as it touched her. Somehow, she did not flinch. The scent of burnt flesh hung pungent in the air.

“You still deny that she exists?” He stroked a long nail along her cheek, leaving a blistering streak where it touched.
 

The Mother kept her expression blank and did not meet the lisincend’s gaze. Her mouth mumbled something silently and she stared down at the stream she had barely touched. Amia pressed into his back, her soft hand reaching up to his shoulder and squeezing. Tan felt her shaking.
 

The lisincend’s lips parted and a long red tongue darted out. “She will help the Incendin find great power,” it growled. The lisincend continued the stroking motion along the Mother’s cheek, searing her flesh with each flicker of its nail, leaving blistered and burned skin behind.
 

“You know nothing of power,” the Mother whispered. “Only fear. Report that to Fur when you grovel at his feet.” She tilted her head back defiantly.

A low rumbling came from deep within the creature. Smoke started at the Mother’s feet. The fire spread gradually, a controlled crawl. Tan couldn’t imagine the agony the Mother felt. Yet she said nothing to the lisincend.

Then she turned. Her eyes met his, growing wide. Her breathing quickened. “Protect her,” she whispered to him.
 

He felt compelled to answer. The look on her face begged his help, but what could he do? “I can’t do anything.”
 

The Mother smiled then and a wave of compassion flowed over him, through him, as it surrounded Amia. “You can do more than you know,” she said. Her eyes widened as the fire spread up past her waist. “For the sake of your people and mine, protect her, son of Zephra.”
 

The last was said so quietly that Tan found himself leaning to hear over the crackling flames rising up her body, enveloping her clothing and spreading to her hair. Heat and smoke and ash filled the air. Tan coughed and leaned away, pressing Amia back with him as he did.
 

Finally, the Mother screamed. The lisincend’s mouth twisted in a horrible smile.

The Mother fell in a pile of burning ash and bones as the flames consuming her leapt brighter, fed by some invisible fuel. Amia pulled on his shoulder and he turned to look at her.
 

Her face was a mixture of emtions. Rage. Sadness. And disappointment.

“Give her to me,” the lisincend commanded. “I am no longer amused.”

Tan stepped back, shaking his head. One of the hounds growled, a low threatening rumble. The lisincend laughed, a horrible raspy sound that tore into his ears. The heat around him increaseed as his feet began to burn. Knowing what would come next terrified him. But he refused to move away from Amia.

“Release us now,” Amia said.
 

Her words carried an energy to them, a command, and Tan could not imagine the lisincend doing anything but releasing them.

The creature only laughed again. “I know your trick now. You can sacrifice this boy, but he cannot protect you much longer.”

Tan cried out as the heat flared. Fear coursed through him, pounding, paralyzing him. He smelled the leather of his boots burning yet he could do nothing to move.
 

Amia looked at him. Her eyes pierced his fear. “Protect me.”
 

Her voice was a soft command in his mind. He could no more ignore her request than the day could ignore the rising sun.
 

Pressure suddenly flared behind his ears, building so quickly that he didn’t know what he could do to release it. It felt as if his eardrums would burst. Tan screamed from the burning at his feet and the pounding pressure building in his head.

Protect me.

The lisincend smiled again.

That was the last thing Tan saw clearly.

As the pressure in his head mounted, he felt the growing compulsion from Amia’s words.
 

The wind whipped into town in a torrent, sending dirt and mud and leaves flying, nearly knocking Tan off his feet. The heat the lisincend radiated was blown away. The creature stared in the direction of the oncoming gusts of wind before turning its fiery gaze upon Tan. Sheets of rain poured down from the sky. Thunder rolled continuously overhead, beating like a drum, almost in time with Tan’s heart.
 

The pressure behind his ears built even more.

Protect me
.

Another gust of wind threw Tan and Amia forward. He had no sense of direction. He couldn’t see street or buildings through the whipping wind. Mud and flying leaves blasted past his face.
 

Protect me.
 

Entwining his fingers into hers, he pulled her along with him. The force of the wind pushed them, sending them practically flying. The hounds howled against the raging wind, growing stronger, and then another powerful gust blew in, drowning out the hound’s horrible sounds. It nearly lifted Tan and Amia off their feet as it threw them from the town. Tan clung on to Amia.

Protect me.

Another gust sent them airborne. They flew over a small cart. Tan pedaled his legs frantically as he flew, squeezing Amia’s hand so he wouldn’t lose her.

Then they landed in a tumble.
 

The wind knocked from his lungs and he lay there, only for a moment, before leaping to his feet. Amia came with him and they ran, letting the wind push them.

Then they were within the trees. The wind still whipped and blasted him forward but the intensity had died. They ran blindly, moving as quickly as he could, afraid to rest and with no clear path in mind. Behind them lay death.

Over the noise of the wind and rain came another sound, something unlike Tan had ever heard. An earsplitting roar raged through the night, flaring hot and wild, before dying quickly, drowned by the wind and rain.

The lisincend screamed in rage. And it was targeted at Tan.

He shivered, running hard, clenching Amia’s hand tightly in his own as he ran into the night on exhausted legs. The horrible scream echoed again before it too was put down by the wind and rain. Tan dared not stop.

They raced through the thick pines of the forest. Harsh wind whipped around them and a cold from the upper mountains seeped into his bones. Rain came down in icy needles upon his skin. He dared not slow.

Amia clenched his hand tightly. Any other time he would enjoy the sensation of her soft fingers resting on his, but for now, he thought only of taking another step. They ran blindly, moving along the slope. Tan chose not to run them uphill or down, uncertain where he was and not wanting to disorient himself further. They ran from Velminth, and for now it was enough.

Each step grew harder as a growing exhaustion from the day began to settle into him. From Amia’s slowing steps, he realized she felt the same. Still, Tan dared not slow. The words Amia had spoken to him in Velminth still echoed in his head.
 

Protect me
.

The wind gradually lightened as they moved through the forest. Over the sound of the wind he heard the now familiar howl, the ringing call of the hounds. He cringed without thinking about it. Amia squeezed his hand, saying nothing. The gesture provided reassurance.
 

As he listened, sensing the forest, he realized the hounds were far in the distance. Other voices answered the first, each farther than the next. There seemed an angry edge to their baying.
 

The wind began to shift, growing colder with the crisp bite of the northern wind, blowing down from the upper slopes and through the tight passes. After the dry radiating heat of the lisincend, the cool northern air was a welcome return and provided a reassurance that they put distance between them and the lisincend.
 

Amia must have felt the same way. She released his hand as they slowed from running to a fast walk. The downpour changed to a gentle cleansing rain. Tan glanced at Amia. She wore a tight expression and he knew she did not allow herself time to grieve. Yet.
 

“Do you know where we are?” she asked quietly, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.
 

Tan glanced up at the sky, wishing for a sight of the near full moon.
 
It remained hidden behind the dark and low-lying clouds. “I’m not sure. Probably south of Velminth, but…” He trailed off. The strang wind that had blown them from Velminth left him unable to tell where they were. As far as he knew, they could be anywhere. “I don’t know how we escaped. I don’t think the lisincend are near. Or the hounds.”

A question hung upon her lips left unasked. “Nor I,” she finally said, looking behind her as if wondering if the hounds and the lisincend were truly gone. “But I’m thankful we did.”

They walked for a while, silent. Fatigue pressed on him, threatening to collapse him under the weight of everything he had experienced. An elevated tree root seemed to reach up and grab his ankle, and he stumbled, righting himself as Amia grabbed his shoulder. She had been lagging behind, each step slowing slightly, and caught up to him in time to prevent him from falling into the detritus along the forest floor.

“We need to stop. Rest for the night.”
 

Amia nodded. Her eyes drooped, though her head turned at any small sound in the night. “Do you think it safe?”
 

He felt the pull of the words she had spoken to him earlier in the night.
Protect me
. “I think so.”

She brushed a hand through her golden hair, pushing it away from her face, looking around the forest. Even the hounds could not be heard any longer. Finally, she nodded.
 

Trees thinned in places as the ground became increasingly rocky. Dark, low-hanging clouds had been replaced by gray wisps and the moon occasionally lit the forest with muted light, enough for them to move more safely. Rain finally stopped; only occasional light drops still fell on them.