Citadel of Fire (The Ronin Saga Book 2) (57 page)

Liam shouted louder, urging the horses on, but Meira’s mind was consumed in pain, watching Sithel’s burning, black gaze. Her mind warped, and she clutched her head, clenching her eyes shut. Their escape became a blur, barreling down a series of narrow alleys and cluttered backstreets. At last, they turned a corner, and her mind and power returned. She breathed in sharply and noticed the other Reavers return from the darkness that was Sithel. Meira shivered, glad to be as far away from that cursed object and man as possible.

“Liam, you mind explaining what just happened?” she asked, still shaken.

“Ah, my late entrance? Added to the thrill of the moment, did it not?”

She ground her teeth, silently. She knew her eyes spoke volumes.

Liam glanced at her, and he swallowed, the man’s ever present smile wilting. “I am sorry, but I had a bit of trouble with some feisty guards claiming I couldn’t use that alley.”

“But that
wasn’t
even the right gate,” she said.

“Ah, but it’s the right package. That’s all that matters!”

She shook her head. “How?” she asked. “How did you find us?”

Liam gave a thin-lipped smile. “Ah, you underestimate that man you carry, my lady.”

And Meira looked through the slot behind her. Ezrah was now in the center of the wagon. Her guardian sat beside his still form, trying to wake him unsuccessfully. “But… He’s not even awake. That’s impossible!”

“He is an Arbiter—nothing is impossible,” Liam replied, suddenly humorless. Meira felt suddenly small amidst the weight of events transpiring around her. Liam flicked the reins, and they emerged onto a wide thoroughfare and blended with the sudden crowds.

A majestic cry pierced the air.

Meira looked up as several gryphons passed overhead, swooping over the crowds and briefly eclipsing the bright sun. With the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, and eagle talons upon their forepaws, the proud beasts stood as a symbol of the Kingdom of Fire. Just as all Great Kingdoms had a creature, gryphons were the representative animals of Farbs. The gryphons screeched again as they flew towards tall turrets in the distance called Perches—huge manmade nests used as a hub for all air travel in and out of the city.

All around Meira, the marketplace roared with life.

Liam’s colorful cart became one of many.

Smells, sights, and sounds bombarded them—cooking food, blacksmiths’ hammers, hawkers’ cries, and much more. She’d almost forgotten how chaotic the streets of Farbs truly were. Several guards maneuvered on horseback through the throng, their eyes roving, searching.

Discreetly, Liam flipped his vest inside out, showing purple instead of white, and then swapped out his floppy cap for a conical wide-brimmed hat—the notorious garb of a Serian.

The guards neared, weapons in hand.

Liam shouted at a man moving too slow before them, “Move it, man! Make way for his Grace, or the Crown of Seria will have your head! Quickly now! His High Noble Yunta is inside this cart, and he suffers no man!” The man moved aside and the guards ahead took note. Meira was impressed. The wiry old man pulled off a Serian retainer to near perfection. And she wondered if perhaps he wasn’t Serian himself. He had the bold nose for it.

Meira hid her face as well, pulling her scarlet robes over her mouth and nose, as if to shield her from an assault of dust and the smell of a nearby tannery, which admittedly
was
foul smelling. The last of the guards passed, moving onward, and Meira gave a shiver of relief, recalling a sudden memory as a Neophyte, flopping onto her tiny cot after a tireless day of training.

Finally safe.

“Is the safe house prepared?” she asked.

“As requested,” Liam said, and then peered over his shoulder through the slot of the cart himself. “It’s quite comfortably sized and luckily so, as I didn’t exactly expect this many. It seems my lady makes companions quite easily.”

“It wasn’t intended,” she replied.

“And who are these new friends of yours?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she answered warily.

Liam’s grip tightened on his reins. “Can they be trusted?”

“We will see,” she replied, and then looked at her guardian. The young man’s gray-green eyes were pools of mystery as he hovered over Ezrah.
Wind…
she thought again in equal parts amazement and dread. In all her decades, she had never seen anything like it. The element of wind.
How could it be? Who is he?

Meira hadn’t realized she’d asked the question aloud until the wiry old man squinted and squawked, “Who?
Ah!
Yes! That must be him!” Liam said with a loud chuckle, “That old rascal.
Fates indeed!”

“What are you talking about?” she questioned, again doubting Liam’s sanity. He had seemed trustworthy before, but now? If Ezrah had spoken to him, did he work for her or the Arbiter? She shook her head.
Does it matter?
Ezrah is the only one I can trust.
Meira sighed. However true that was, she felt strangely used.

“The boy…” Liam said. “The Arbiter told me he would be coming.”

“
Him?”
she questioned, eyeing Gray.

Liam nodded.

“Then he must be important.”

“You could say that,” the old man said mischievously.

Her eyes narrowed. “What aren’t you telling me? Who is he to the Arbiter?”

Liam smiled, his wrinkles creasing, then answered, “Family.”

The Tranquil House

S
CROLLS OF AMBER LIGHT FROM THE
nearby window lit Ezrah’s face, making him appear divine.

It was dusk now and they were on the second floor of the safe haven, which Meira and the other Reavers had begun to call the Tranquil House.
Gray sat in a chair beside the man’s bed, reading. Well, not really reading. That would imply that he knew the words. The language, however, was not one he could decipher.

In his hands sat the book Mura had given him so long ago—nearly a lifetime he felt—the same one that had been lost when the Vergs and Saeroks had sacked their home. He wished he could see Mura, though the book did give him comfort, as if part of Mura were still with him.

Gray’s hands felt across the surface of the book, feeling its raised emblem of wind upon the cover.

Inside, he scanned the pages, wondering what the words meant. Several times he saw other symbols, all symbols he had seen before—water, stone, metal, flesh, moon, sun, leaf, and fire.