Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (18 page)

Leesa sighed. If this was a movie or a book,
this would be the perfect moment for two lovers to share a passionate moonlit k
iss. But not for her and Rave—i
t was simply too dangerous to chance. Instead, she turned her head and kissed the top of his hand.

“Let’s go,”
she said. She grinned.
“For some reason, I’
m more anxious to get to
Balin
’s
now than ever.
”

Rave laughed and dropped his hands from her shoulders. They
resumed walking up the roadway, with Leesa paying a bit more attention to where she placed her feet

Balin’s
cabin was exactly that—a one-room log cabin, built by Balin himself. The thick logs were rough-hewn, just like the pictures of old cabins Leesa had seen in
her
history
books,
and the cracks between the logs were chinked with dried mud, though the mud was not visible in the darkness.
As
she and Rave drew nearer, Leesa
couldn’t see any light through the windows.
A surge of disappointment flowed through her.
Sh
e wondered if perhaps the old volkaane
had gone out somewhere.
She hoped not, because if Balin wasn’t home, any kissing was going to have to wait.

“It doesn’
t look like he’s here
,” she said as they turned up the path toward the front door.
“There’s no light inside.”

Rave heard the disappointment in her voice. “Don’t worry, he’s here,” h
e said. “I can feel him.”

Leesa had forgotten
that
volkaanes could sense each other’s presence when they
were close. And i
f Rave could sense Balin, then that meant that Balin knew Rave was approaching. Sure enough, the cabin
door swung open
when Leesa and Rave were still a few steps away
.

B
alin stood silhouetted in the doorway
, a very faint
orange-yellow
glow behind him.
As usual,
he was
wearing
a
homemade
bu
ckskin shirt and buckskin pants
. Leesa had never seen him
dressed in anything else. His long dark gray hair showed only streaks of the dark copper color common to all volkaanes. With the door open, Leesa could smell the savory aroma of
Balin’s
deli
cious stew
.
She had never visited here without Balin having a big pot of stew simmering in the fireplace.
She felt her
stomach rumble
.

“
Ahhh
, young Rave and his lovely wizard girlfriend,” Balin said, smiling. “What a delightful surprise.”

Leesa grinned at
Balin’s
greeting. Rave had been “young Rave” to Balin when Rave was a child and he remained “young Rave” to this day, more than one hundred and fifty years later. And no one had ever directly called her a wizard before.

“Hi, Balin,” she said. “I hope it’s not too
late for us to stop by
.”

“
No, o
f course not.
Do come in.”

Balin stepped asi
de so they could enter
.

The interior of the cabin was
even
more spare
than Rave’s home. It was about
six paces wide and ten paces long, furnished with simple, handmade wooden furniture
similar to the stuff at Rave’s
. A rectangular dining table with a split log bench on either side filled most of one end of the cabin, and a buckskin sleeping mat stuffed with straw lay upon the plank floor at the other en
d. In the middle of the room was
a brown bearskin rug so old the fur had worn away down to the skin in several places.
The fire in the fireplace had burned down to glowing orange and gold embers, which is why Leesa had been unable to see the light from outside.

Balin quickly lit a couple of candles on the wall with his finger.

“There,” he said as the candles’ golden glow filled the room. “That should be a bit better for human eyes.
” He looked from Leesa to Rave and then back to Leesa. “I
haven’
t seen either
of you latel
y. Even young Rave has not been coming by to practice
Rammugul
. I’m sure there must be a good reason behind it.”

Leesa nodded. So much had happened in the last few days, she had almost forgotten about
Rammugul
, the
ancient volkaane technique for extinguishing and then bringing back their fire. It hadn’t been used in centuries, and was difficult to master and dangerous to use. The last time Balin had seen it employed, the female volkaane had been unable to bring her fire back. Nothing was more devastating to a volkaane
than losing it
s fire, bu
t
Rave was determined to master the technique
so that he and Leesa could kiss without danger.

“You’re right,” she said. “A whole lot has happened. We’ll tell you all about it in a little while.
But
t
here’s some
thing I want to do first
.”

Balin’s
eyes seemed to twinkle in the candlelight. He smiled. “Something romantic, I take it?”

Leesa smiled back. “Yeah, it’s been way too long.”

“
Okay. But no
trying to use
Rammugul
and no letting the kiss go on until I sense Rave’s heat building. That almost got you killed
last time. I will count to five
and then you must stop. Agreed?”

“
Agreed,” Leesa
said,
her smile widening. “
But count slowly.”

She
turned to
face
Rave
, waiting.

Rave laid his hands tender
ly on her shoulde
rs and locked his dark eyes onto hers.
Leesa
’s
heartbeat
immediately
quickened, reminding her why they needed
a ch
aperone when they kissed—it would be way too easy
to lose
herself
completely
to these feelings
.
While she still had some control of her thoughts, an idea came to her. She hoped she would remember to try it.

She kept her eyes open until the las
t moment, soaking in Rave’s beauty
. Just before his
famil
iar warmth shot through her
,
she mouthed t
wo words inside her head, not sure if
it would work
or not
. And then Rave’s heat was in
side
her,
filling her
to her core with an array
of fe
elings far beyond description. Impossibly, s
he was flying,
floating and
falling
—all at the same time. Her knees felt weak, but somehow
, she
also
felt stronger than she had ever been. She wanted to scream, to laugh, to cry, to sing. The sensations seemed to go on forever, but all too soon she felt Dominic’s hands upon her shoulders, easing her backward, away from Rave. She sighed deeply and opened her eyes. How something could seem to last forever and yet
still feel
much too brief
remained
beyon
d her comprehension
, but it was like this every time.

When she finally opened her eyes, she saw Rave gazing down at her, wide-eyed.

“Wha
t
did…you
do?” he asked. His voice was throaty and filled with wonder. “Kissing you is always amazing…b
ut there was something even more special
this time.”

Leesa grinned.
Her plan had succeeded.

“I’m always feeling your magic when we kiss, so I decided to try to add
a little of my own
this time
. I pictured the illumination spell on the tip of my tongue.” She
rubbed
her index finger
tenderly
across his lips. “Looks like it worked.”

Rave shook his head slowly. “I’ll say
it did
.” He smiled. “It wa
s tough
enough not to kiss you before this—now you’ve made it even harder.”

“Now you know what I’ve been going through,” Leesa said. “Welcome to the club.”
She turned to Balin. “Can we do another?”

Balin placed his hand on Rave’s cheek. “Young Rave is feeling a bit warm. I think it
might be
best
if
you two wait a bit. Why don’t you tell me what you have been up to these past few days,
and
then you can
try another kiss
before you leave.”

13.
MAGIC COMES AND MAGIC GOES

“Let’s sit down and you can tell me everyth
ing that’s happened,” Balin suggested
.
He
had met Dominic
once
and knew about Leesa’s nascent magic
and
about the existence of
the black waziri
, bu
t he had no idea what had occurred during the last few days.
“Does anyone want a drink before we begin?
Some mead, perhaps?
Telling tales can be thirsty work.”