Fire Study (13 page)

The blazing Warper pointed and a line of fire appeared between me and my

weapon. I jumped to my feet. The heat singed the hair in my nose. The moisture

evaporated from my mouth. I tasted ashes. A wall of hot air pushed against me and

the Warper was before me. Yet his connection with the burning wood remained.

“Fire is your downfall, little bat. Can not call it. Can not control it.”

My body roasted as if I had been staked to a spit over a giant campfire. I cast my

awareness into the jungle, hoping to find help. Nothing but the panicked thoughts of

my friends and one curious necklace snake nearby.

Just when I thought I would faint, he extended his hands and a bubble of cool air

caressed my skin. The break from the heat was an intoxicating relief. I swayed.

“Take my hands. I will not burn you. Travel with me through the fire.”

“Why?”

“Because you belong to me.”

“Not good enough. Many others have made that claim.”

“I need you to complete my mission.”

“Which is…?”

The flames on his shoulders pulsed in amusement. He laughed. “Nice try. Take

my offer or I will burn you and your friends into a pile of ash.”

“No.”

Flaring brightly, the flames jumped in size before he shrugged. “No matter.”

The cold air disappeared and I gasped. The heat’s intensity robbed my lungs of

air.

“I need only wait until you go to sleep, little bat. Then I will take you.”

My throat strained as my vision scrambled. Sleep was a nice way of describing

the process of suffocation. It was a strange notion, but it gave me an idea.

With my last bit of energy, I grabbed a capsule from my pocket and crushed it in

my hand. The sticky liquid coated my palm, dripping down my arm. My legs

buckled as I collapsed to my knees. The last thing I remembered before the world

melted was a brown and green coil reaching for me.

I woke, shivering. Chestnut’s concerned face peered at me. He waved a large

leaf, fanning me with cool clean air. Exhaustion lined his brown eyes.

“I guess that’s one necklace snake who’ll go away hungry,” Chestnut said.

“What do you mean?” I asked, wincing at the sharp pain in my throat. When I

tried to sit, I realized we were on a tree branch.

Chestnut helped me. “If you died, I told the snake he could eat you.” He smiled.

“I’m sorry to disappoint him.”

“No matter. Perhaps we’ll have some extra Vermin to feed him.” His grin faded.

I jerked as my memory returned. “The Fire Warper! My father! The others!

What—”

Chestnut raised his hand. “When the snake grabbed you and pulled you into the

trees, he distracted the Warper long enough for Leif to break through the wall of

heat. With Moon Man’s help, Leif was able to quench the link between the main fire

and the Warper.” Chestnut glanced away. “The Warper disappeared.” He

shuddered. “The remaining Vermin ran off, with Moon Man, Tauno and Marrok

chasing after them.”

“And Leif?”

“Below with your father.”

Before I could ask, Chestnut said, “He’s fine. Although I fear Stono will not live

to see the dawn.”

Sudden purpose energized me. “Help me get down.”

My limbs trembled as I slid and crashed through the lower branches. I hit the

ground hard, but didn’t stop until I stood next to Leif. He had Stono’s head in his

lap. My gaze shied away from the gruesome mess that used to be Stono’s stomach.

My father and the other scout lay on the ground next to them, unmoving—still

paralyzed by the Curare. I couldn’t see my friends.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“They haven’t returned,” Chestnut said. He sank to the ground next to Leif and

took Stono’s left hand in his own.

“At least he isn’t feeling any pain,” Leif whispered. Streaks of soot and sweat

lined Leif’s face. Burn holes peppered his clothes. He reeked of smoke and body

odor.

I knelt beside Leif. I put two fingers on Stono’s neck and felt a tentative

heartbeat. Stono groaned and his eyelids fluttered.

“He’s not paralyzed like the others so the Kirakawa ritual could work,” I said.

“Can you save him?” Leif asked.

Stono’s wounds were fatal. I hadn’t healed anyone with such extensive damage

before. Tula’s windpipe had been crushed when she was killed. I was able to repair

the damage, but couldn’t “wake” her without her soul. Why not? According to

Roze’s fire scenario, I had the power to create a soulless army.

“Yelena.” Leif’s impatience cut through my musings. “Can you save him?”

Would I be able to save myself once I assumed his injuries? I drew in a shaky

breath. Only one way to find out.

Closing my eyes, I pulled power and wrapped thick strands of magic around my

stomach. I reached for Stono and forced myself to examine the bloody distended

mass, seeing his wounds through my magic. His wounds pulsed with an urgent red

glow as I focused on them.

Without warning, Stono’s heart stopped its labor and his soul rose from his

body. Instinct drove my actions as I breathed in his soul from the air and tucked it

into a safe corner of my mind. I ignored his confused thoughts, concentrating on his

injuries. My stomach exploded with the pain of a million sharp knives digging deep

into my guts. Clutching my abdomen, I curled into a ball. Blood coated my hands,

arms, and pooled on the ground. The air filled with the hot stench of body fluids.

I struggled to push the pain away, but it clung to me, eating its way through my

spine and toward my heart. Leif’s voice battered at my ears. He wanted something.

Annoyed by his persistence, I transferred my attention to him for a moment. His

energy flooded my body. We stopped the advance of pain, but we couldn’t conquer

it. It was only a matter of time before our strength failed and we would lose the

battle.

Moon Man’s resigned voice sounded in my mind. I can not leave you alone.

What made you believe you could counter the power of the Kirakawa ritual on your

own?

I didn’t—

Know? Think? Does it matter now?

Moon Man’s blue energy added to Leif’s and together the three of us banished

the pain.

I reached for Stono and laid my hand on his smooth stomach. Go back, I

instructed his soul. A tingling sting pulsed down my arm. When I felt his gasp for

breath, I pulled my hand back.

Too exhausted to move, I fell asleep where I lay.

At one point a hand shook me into semiconsciousness.

“Theobroma?” Leif asked, his voice a distant call.

My tired thoughts slogged through a fog. “Pack,” I muttered.

“Where?”

Leif shook me again. I batted at his arms, but he wouldn’t stop.

“Where?”

“Backpack. In jungle. Snake.”

“I’ll go,” Chestnut said.

His retreating footsteps lulled me back to sleep.

I woke choking on a foul-tasting liquid. Coughing, I sat up and spit.

“You still need to drink the rest,” my father said.

He offered me a cup.

“What is it?” I clasped the mug. The green-colored contents smelled like swamp

water.

“Soursop tea. Restores the body’s strength. Now drink.”

I grimaced and put the cup to my lips, but couldn’t produce the nerve to

consume it.

Esau sighed. Blood and dirt matted his shoulder-length gray hair. He looked older

than his fifty years. Weariness pulled at his broad shoulders. “Yelena, I would like to

get home. And your mother must be having fits by now.”

Good point. Cringing at the rancid flavor, I gulped the tea. My raw throat burned

as I swallowed the liquid, but, after a few moments, I felt more awake and energetic.

The sun loomed high in the sky and the clearing was empty. “Where is

everyone?” I asked.

Esau grunted. “I’ll tell you on the way home.” He stood.

Spotting my backpack nearby, I checked through the contents before shouldering

the pack. My bow rested on the ground next to a wide scorch mark. I hefted the

weapon, running my hands along the ebony wood. It appeared to be unharmed. A

nice surprise since, during the skirmish, I had thought the Fire Warper had reduced

my bow to a pile of ash.

A hot flush of fear raced over my skin when I thought of the Fire Warper. I had

never encountered magic like his. I had been completely unprepared to fight him, and

I couldn’t think of anyone in Sitia who could match his power. But what about in

Ixia? My thoughts turned to Valek. Would his immunity to magic save him from the

Fire Warper’s flames? Or would he be consumed?

“Come on, Yelena,” Esau said.

I shook off my morbid thoughts and followed my father from the clearing. He set

a quick pace, and, once I caught up to him, I asked him what had happened after I

had fallen asleep.

He huffed in amusement. “Passed out, you mean?”

“I had just saved Stono’s life. And yours, too.”

Stopping, Esau grabbed me in a tight hug. “I know. You did good.”

He released me just as fast as he had seized me and continued through the jungle.

I hurried after.

“The others?” I asked.

“You were asleep for a full day. We thought it best for Leif and Chestnut to take

Stono and Barken back to the homestead. The Sandseeds and the other Ixian fellow

never came back.”

I stopped. “They could be in trouble.”

“Two Sandseed warriors and a swordsman against three Daviians? I doubt it.”

“How about against three Vermin with Curare?”

“Ah, hell!” Esau spit. “I wish I had never discovered that foul substance!” He

pounded his fists on his thighs. “I had hoped the supply they stole from the

Sandseeds would be almost gone by now.”

“You extracted the drug from a vine in the jungle?”

“Yes.”

“So how do they know how to make more?” I wondered out loud.

“And where are they making it?” Esau glanced around. “Maybe in the jungle. I’m

going to cut down every single Curare vine and burn it,” Esau vowed.

I put a hand on my father’s arm. “Remember why you searched for it. There’re

plenty of good uses. Our immediate concern should be for Moon Man and the

others. I’m going to try to contact him.”

Gathering power, I projected my mind into the surrounding jungle. My awareness

touched a variety of life. Valmurs swung through the tree canopy, birds perched on

branches, and other small creatures scurried through the underbrush. But I couldn’t

locate Moon Man’s cool thoughts.

Did the Vermin have him hidden behind a null shield? Was he dead? I searched

for Tauno and Marrok, also to no avail.

My father said, “Let’s go home and figure out a way to find them. All of them,

including the Curare-making Vermin.”

He reminded me of the other Vermin guards we had sprayed with the snake

perfume. “We can question the Daviian guards. Are they at our homestead?”

Esau tugged on his stained tunic as if deciding how to tell me something

unpleasant. “When you were picked up by that snake, the creature wasn’t happy to

discover you weren’t a female snake. So in order for Chestnut to keep you from

being devoured, he had to concentrate all his efforts on saving you.” He paused.

“And that means…?”

“He lost control of the other snakes.”

“The guards are dead?”

“An unfortunate development, but there is an upside,” Esau said.

“Which is?”

“Now there are four very full necklace snakes who won’t be bothering the

Zaltanas for a long while.”

I washed as much dried blood and sticky gore from my body as I could in the

small stream flowing underneath my clan’s homestead. My mother would worry and

fuss over my disheveled appearance despite the fact I would be standing before her

safe and sound.

Climbing the ladder into the tree canopy, I mulled over recent events. There might

be a group of Daviian Vermin working in the jungle, gathering vines and distilling

Curare. I had no idea where Ferde and Cahil had gone or where my friends had

disappeared to. And there was a Fire Warper on the loose who could possibly jump

out of any campfire in Sitia. My life in Ixia as the Commander’s food taster sounded

like a vacation in comparison.

Why had I wanted to leave Ixia? An order for my execution for being a magician

had been one compelling reason to escape to Sitia. That and wanting to meet my

family, whom I had no memories of until Moon Man unlocked them. Well, I’d met

my parents and the execution order had been revoked. The thought of returning to

Valek and Ixia tempted me.

I reached the top of the ladder and arrived into a small receiving room made of