Fire Study - Study 03

CHAPTER 30

“NO! DON’T,” I YELLED. “Let the children go and I’ll come with you.”

“I know you will,” the Warper said. “I am more concerned about the Ghost Warrior.” He looked at Valek. “Put your weapon down.”

Valek placed his scimitar on the ground, but as he straightened, he flicked his hand twice. A small dart pricked the Warper’s neck. The man jerked in surprise.

“Move,” Valek ordered.

I twisted, avoiding the spear’s thrust, but I wasn’t fast enough to stop the sharp edge from cutting a gash across my neck. A line of stinging pain registered in my mind. It was forgotten as soon as I saw the Warper turn. Fire erupted under the barn’s door. He collapsed beside his colleague, finally overcome by Valek’s sleeping potion.

Smoke reached my nose, igniting memories of dread and fear.

“Valek, go!” I waved him on and whistled for the horses.

They came and I raced toward the barn. Kiki help! I said.

Valek had gotten the burning door opened, but flames crept toward the roof. Topaz and Onyx shied away from the acrid smoke, but Kiki and Garnet braved the heat.

“Tell them to move to the left side,” I yelled to Valek over the roar.

He sprinted through the opening and I led Kiki and Garnet to the right side. I waited for two horrible seconds then banged on the barn’s wall.

Kiki. Garnet. Kick. I dived to the side. The animals aimed their back hooves and punched a hole in the wall with their powerful legs.

When the opening was big enough for the adults, I stopped the horses. Pulling a few splintered boards clear, I looked inside and called to the captives. Even with the bright firelight, the room was obscured by smoke. But a person grabbed my hand. I pulled coughing children through the hole, counting them as they came out.

The smoke thickened and the inferno advanced.

When Councilor Greenblade’s husband crawled out with a small child clinging to his back and a baby clutched to his chest, my count totaled ten children and one adult.

“Where’s Gale?” I asked.

Hacking with the effort to expel the smoke from his lungs, he pointed through the opening. “Collapsed.” He wheezed for air. “Couldn’t take…them all.”

I moved to go in, but he pulled me back.

“Roof.” He coughed.

We shooed the children away from the barn mere moments before the roof buckled with a shower of sparks and an explosion of sound.

I counted children again. Ten. One adult. No Gale. No Valek. He was still in the barn!

Horror and anguish twisted around my throat and shredded my heart. I bolted toward the blazing building. The heat rolled off the structure, pushing me back. Roof beams had fallen on top of the Vermin. The flames lapped at their bodies and sucked their souls into the inferno.

A porthole into the fire world opened in front of me. I could have grabbed one of the Vermin’s souls and returned to the Fire Warper. But I wasn’t ready. I had a few more things to accomplish and a few goodbyes to make before I embraced the fire.

Then I would crave the fire. Living in this world without Valek held no appeal for me.

The blaze raged all night. By morning it settled into a large smoldering heap. Still too hot for me to search among the ruins for some sign of Valek or Gale. Instead, I led the children over to Diamond Lake to get cleaned up and tried to ignore the grief burning inside me.

Councilor Greenblade’s husband, Kell, helped feed the children and tend their wounds. Kiki and Garnet drank from the lake, and I washed the soot from their coats. The water was clear. The red color came from the bottom of the lake as if someone had painted the rocks and gravel. Perhaps they had. After all, it was a man-made lake.

When everyone’s needs were met, we headed back to the campsite. We found Marrok engaged in the grim task of burying bodies.

“Guess I slept through the battle,” he said. “Did we win?” He inclined his head to Tauno. “Or lose?”

“Both,” I said. My anguish over Valek threatened to push from my throat. I bit down hard on my lip, tasting blood.

“Care to explain?”

I filled him in on what had happened. He accepted Tauno’s betrayal with a cynical snort and a wry twist of the lips that reflected his black thoughts about trust.

After I finished, he said, “At least your little friend is all right.”

“Friend?”

He pointed to a nearby tree. “I thought he was dead, but when I went to pick him up he flew off. Scared the heck out of me.”

I went over. My bat hung upside down on a low branch. The creature opened an eye halfway then closed it again, contented. Somehow I had created an emotional link with the bat that was similar to my link with Kiki.

Contemplation about my affinity for animals would have to wait, though. More pressing matters needed to be addressed—finding Valek’s body, for one. But I said, “We have to find a safe place for the Councilors’ family members.”

Bavol Zaltana’s daughter, Jenniqilla, pulled at my cape. “I want to go home,” she said. Although happy to be free, sadness touched her eyes and weariness lined her young face.

I crouched down next to her. “I know, but I need you to pretend you’re still a hostage for just a little while longer. It’s really important. Can you help us out?”

Determination filled her eyes, reminding me of Fisk. I assigned all the older children small jobs, and they moved about with a renewed sense of purpose.

“What about me?” Kell Greenblade asked.

The Greenblade lands were east of Bloodgood’s. “Do you know anyplace where we can hide all of you?”

He gazed off into the distance. Tall and wiry, he resembled my friend, Dax, another member of his clan. I hoped Dax and Gelsi were all right, and the thought of them being the next victims of the Kirakawa ritual made me restless to get moving.

Kell sensed my mood. His attention focused on me. “My sister has a farm outside of Booruby that could hold all of us.”

“In the Cowan Clan’s lands?”

“Yes.” He tsked. “She married a flatlander, but he’s a good man and will help us.”

I looked at the ragtag group of children. Booruby was farther east than I had wanted to travel and it would be a slow trip.

Kiki nickered at me. Get wagon, she said.

The wagon was burned in the fire.

I felt her huff of impatience. Horses run off. Take wagon.

Where are they?

Stuck. Come. Kiki flicked her tail.

Marrok came with me. We mounted Kiki and she went southwest through a small wood.

What about Onyx and Topaz? I asked her.

I felt her sorrow. Can’t smell.

We reached the wagon. When the fire had erupted, the panicked horses had bolted through the woods until the cart wedged between two trees. The animals had calmed, but their raised heads and alert ears meant they felt unsafe.

The wagon had been filled with empty coffin-shaped crates, but we found a toolbox underneath the floor. Getting the wagon free was difficult and time-consuming.

While fixing the broken wheel, Marrok lost his patience and shooed me away. “You’re rushing and making it worse. Go take a walk, Yelena. This is a one-person job anyway.”

When I hesitated, he added, “Go look for him or you won’t find peace. And we won’t either.”

Being busy had been good. Walking through the quiet forest, there was nothing to distract me from my flaming thoughts. No respite from the wrenching pain deep inside me. It felt as if I had swallowed a red-hot coal.

The barn’s ashy remains drifted in the air. Only a few beams at the edge of the structure retained their shape. Everything else had been reduced to gray and white cinders. Smoke curled from a few hot spots, but otherwise a pine-scented breeze blew the acrid fumes away.

The crunch of my boots on the residue echoed a lonely and final sound in my ears. All hope disappeared when I found Valek’s knives. Blackened and misshapen, the blades were half-melted. I collapsed to my hands and knees and sobbed, turning the ash under me into slurry. Gasping, ribs aching and throat raw, I tried to expel the smoldering sadness within, only stopping when all moisture was gone from my body. I sat back on my heels and wiped my face, smearing soot and tears.

Once my breathing returned to normal, I scooped up a handful of the ash near Valek’s weapons and let the wind scatter them. Soon, love. I’ll join you soon. The knowledge of our reunion in the other world was my only comfort.

Eventually I returned to Marrok. He had fixed the wheel. After looking at my face, he squeezed my shoulder. I had washed off the dirt, but I knew my eyes were red and puffy from crying.

Marrok steered the wagon, but finding a road around the wood used up our remaining daylight.

By the time we returned to the camp, Kell had settled the children next to the fire. I wanted to wake everyone and get moving, but Kell convinced me the children would be upset by being roused and hidden in those crates at night. After recalling my own horrible experience with the boxes, I agreed.

If Valek hadn’t shot the Warper, I would have been shoved inside one of those crates. The Councilors’ families would still be hostages, but Valek and Gale would still be alive.

I stared at the sleeping children. Jenniqilla had a protective arm over Leevi and the baby curled next to him, sucking on his thumb even while asleep. In that state, they embodied innocence and peace and joy and love. Valek had known the risk when he went into the barn and he hadn’t hesitated. I would have done the same. Eleven living beings for one unselfish act. Pretty good odds.

Even with the wagon, the trip to Booruby lasted four days. Four days of worry, frustration, hunger, sleepless nights and noise. By the time we arrived, I had a new appreciation for parents, and was as glad to see Kell’s sister as she was to see us. She wrapped Kell in a tight embrace for many heartbeats. I bit my lip and turned away. My empty arms ached.

Located about two miles south of Booruby, the farmstead appeared to be isolated from its neighbors, but her husband was quick to usher us inside. The children were fed their first hot meal in weeks. Marrok and I made plans to return to the rendezvous location to join the others. I kept my mind focused on action; otherwise, I knew I would surrender to the grief consuming me from the inside out.

We would risk crossing through the western edge of the Avibian Plains. Garnet and Kiki’s gust-of-wind gait would make up for the time lost traveling to Booruby.

Before leaving, Kell asked me, “How will I know when it’s safe for the children to return home?”

I considered. “If everything works out, you will receive a message.”

“And if it doesn’t work out?”

Emotion choked his words, reminding me that his wife was one of the Councilors. If I failed, she would be among the first of many casualties.

“If you don’t hear anything after fourteen days, that means the Daviians are in charge. Send the children to their homes and hope.”

“Hope for what?”

“Hope a person in the future will be strong enough to rebel against the Daviian Vermin. And win.”

Kell looked doubtful. “We have four Master Magicians and a Soulfinder, yet they still managed to take control.”

“It has happened before. One person can bring peace to Sitia.”

I didn’t add that the man had leveled the Daviian Mountains in the process. But it did lead me to wonder if the Sandseeds’ legendary warrior had had help. My mind reviewed Moon Man’s story about the origins of the Sandseed Clan and I remembered the warrior’s name was Guyan. Guyan had imprisoned the Fire Warper, and his descendant, Gede, had freed him. A complete circle.

Marrok and I said goodbye to Kell and the children. We traveled northwest, planning to skirt Booruby on our way to the plains. My little bat hung from Kiki’s mane and didn’t appear to be bothered by the jostling motion.

Our plans changed when I spotted Opal’s family’s glass factory in the distance and I had a sudden idea.

Before I could fully explore my intentions, we stopped outside their gate. Marrok accepted our detour without concern.

“Should I wait here?” he asked.

“Yes. I won’t be long.” I left Kiki with him.

As I approached the door to their house, Opal came out of the factory. She hesitated, but drew nearer, eyeing Marrok and me with suspicion.

“Can I help you, sir?” she asked me.

I had forgotten all about my hair. At least I knew my disguise worked. I smiled for the first time in days.

She squinted at me. “Yelena?” Then she glanced around in concern. “Come inside! There’s a price on your head!” She ushered me into the house.

“Thank goodness you’re okay.” Opal squeezed me in a quick hug. “What happened to your hair?”

“It’s a long long story. Is your family around?”

“No. They went into town. Father received a shipment of sand that was full of rocks so he went to complain and Mother—”

“Opal, I need more of your glass animals.”

“Really? Did you sell the bat?”

“No. However, I discovered I can use your animals to communicate with other magicians far away without using my own magic. I’d like to buy as many as I can.”

“Wow! I never knew.”

“How many do you have?”

“Six. They’re in the factory.”

She set a quick pace as we crossed the yard and entered the factory. The heat from the kilns sucked all the moisture from my mouth. I followed her through the thick air and roar of the fires. Lined up on a table by the back wall were half a dozen glass animals. They all glowed with an inner fire.

Opal wrapped the animals and I counted out coins. Another idea flashed in my mind when she handed me the package.

“Can you show me how you make these?” I asked.

“It takes a lot of practice to learn.”

I shook my head. “I just want to watch you make one.”

She agreed. Picking up a five-foot-long hollow steel pipe, she opened the small door to the kiln. Bright orange light and intense heat emanated from the doorway, but, undaunted, she dipped the end of the pipe into a large ceramic pot inside the kiln that was filled with molten glass. Turning the pipe, she gathered a taffylike slug and pulled it out, closing the door with her hip. The slug pulsed with a red-hot light as if alive.

“You have to keep the blowpipe spinning or the glass will sag,” Opal said over the noise. She rolled the slug over a metal table to move the glass off the end of the pipe and shaped it so the pipe looked as if it had a clear ball attached to its end.

Her motions quick, Opal then rested the pipe on the edge of the table and blew into the other end. Magic brushed my arm as her cheeks puffed. The glass on the opposite end didn’t inflate with air. Instead, a thread of magic was trapped within its core.

“It’s supposed to expand, but mine never does,” she said as she went back to the kiln and gathered another slug overtop the first. She took the pipe to a bench designed to hold it and other metal tools needed to shape the glass. Buckets of water sat within easy reach.

Opal grabbed a pair of steel tweezers and pinched and squeezed the slug with her right hand while rolling the pipe with her left hand the whole time. “You have to move quickly because it cools fast.”

Within seconds the ball transformed into a cat sitting on its back legs. She stood and put the cat back into the kiln, but this time she just spun the pipe above the pot. “You have to keep plenty of heat in the glass or you can’t work with it.”

Sitting back on her bench, Opal exchanged her tweezers for another set. These were bigger and as long as her forearm. “Jacks, a great all-purpose tool. I’m putting in a jack line so I can crack the piece off the pipe.”

When the groove was to her liking, she took the tweezers in hand again and dipped them into the bucket of water. She dribbled a few drops into the jack line. “You have to be careful not to get water onto your piece. So you move from the pipe down.” The glass hissed and a spiderweb of cracks spread over the glass on the pipe.

She carried the pipe to another oven close to the kilns. Shelves of trays had been stacked inside and Opal banged the end of the tweezers on her pipe. The cat fell onto the tray. She closed the door.

“If the glass cools too fast, it’ll crack. This is an annealing oven.” Opal pointed to the tracks underneath the oven. “To slowly cool the piece, the oven is pulled away from the kiln over the next twelve hours.”

“Why do you blow into the pipe if the glass doesn’t expand for you?” I asked.

“It’s a step I have to do.” She made a vague motion with her arms as if casting about for the right words. “When Mara does it, she makes beautiful vases and bottles. Mine always ends up looking like an animal and if I don’t blow into the pipe it doesn’t look like anything at all.”

She cleaned up her work area, taking the tools from the water and drying them before replacing them. The bench needed to be ready for the next project, and working with glass didn’t give you time to search for tools.

“I love creating things. There’s nothing like it,” she said, more to herself than to me. “Working the glass. Turning fire into ice.”

I thanked Opal for her demonstration and rejoined Marrok. He leaned against Garnet.

“I think your definition of ‘won’t be long’ doesn’t match mine,” he said by way of a greeting. “Did you encounter another change in plans?”

“Yes. You might as well get used to them.”

“Yes, sir!” He grinned.

“Sarcasm? You’ve been hanging around with Leif too long. What happened to the tough old soldier who mindlessly follows orders?”

His demeanor sobered. “He lost his mind. And when he found it again, his priorities had all been rearranged.”

“For the better?”

“Only time will tell.”

We mounted and headed to the western edge of the Avibian Plains. Once in the plains, Kiki and Garnet broke into their gust-of-wind gaits and flowed over many miles. We camped outside the plains at night. I hoped our passage wouldn’t attract any unwanted attention. My thoughts lingered on Opal’s glassmaking skills. Better than giving in to the deep despair that threatened to overwhelm me whenever I thought of Valek.

Our journey to the rendezvous location lasted three days. During that time, Marrok had spotted signs of a large army that had crossed from the Avibian Plains and turned north toward the Citadel. At night, the glow of many fires lit the distant sky and wood smoke tainted the air.

We had agreed to meet Moon Man and the others in Owl’s Hill, a small town within the Featherstone lands. According to Leif, the Cloverleaf Inn’s owner could be trusted not to report us. “He owes me one,” had been Leif’s explanation.

Owl’s Hill was located on a small rise about three miles northeast of the Citadel. The four towers of the Magician’s Keep were visible from the road into town. A bright orange radiance shone from within the Keep’s walls. The Fire Warper’s home fire?

Still disguised as Krystal Clan traders, Marrok and I entered the town. Situated near the main crossroads, the Cloverleaf Inn’s common room bustled with activity, but the stable was only half full. The stable lad suggested we arrive early for dinner as the inn was a popular stop for caravans.

“One less night of road rations,” the boy said as he helped me rub down Kiki. “And the merchants prefer camping near here instead of overnighting in the Citadel.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“The rumors have been wild, so I don’t know what to believe. But the merchants who do come back say everyone is afraid of these new Daviians and they say the Daviians have convinced the Council to prepare for a war.”

“With Ixia?”

“Don’t know. They’ve drafted every able-bodied person. Benn said the Daviians are in league with Ixia, and once a person’s drafted they hypnotize him. They plan to use them in the army to turn Sitia into another Ixian Military District. MD-9!”

The boy regaled me with even wilder speculation. I knew the Commander wasn’t in league with the Daviians, but the possibility of using the Sitian army against Sitia sounded like a Vermin tactic.

When we finished with the horses, I entered the inn. Marrok had already paid for two rooms for the night.

“We’re running out of money,” he said.

“Are the others here?” I asked.

“Ari and Janco are in the dining room. Leif and Moon Man haven’t arrived yet.”

That worried me. It had been thirteen days since we had left to rescue the hostages. Plenty of time for them to discover anything about the Keep’s emergency tunnel.

In the back corner of the inn’s common room, Ari and Janco held court. Drinking from tankards of ale, they were surrounded by a group of merchants. Serious expressions gripped all their faces and they peered at us with suspicion.

Marrok and I picked a table on the far side of the room. Eventually, the knot of people disbanded and Ari and Janco joined us. Ari had dyed his hair black and both of them had darkened their skin.

“Janco, do I see freckles?” I asked, failing to suppress a snicker.

“Don’t laugh. It’s this southern sun. It’s the middle of the cold season and it’s sunny! Bah.” He looked at me. “Although, I’d rather have freckles than be bald!”

I put my hand to my hair. “It’s growing.”

“Enough,” Ari said, and the mood around our table immediately dampened. “Were you successful?”

The question stabbed into me as if his words were flaming daggers. I struggled to collect my thoughts; to shoo my emotions away from the black, burning grief that refused to die down. Marrok saw my inability to answer and he told them about Tauno, the rescue and about Valek. To see my pain and shock reflected in my friends’ eyes became unbearable. I excused myself and went outside.

Taking deep breaths of the cool night air, I wandered through the town. A few people walked along the dirt streets, carrying lanterns. I felt a tug on my cape as my bat landed on my arm. He stared at me with a sense of purpose in his eyes then flew off to the left. He returned, swooping around my head and again flew to the left. Getting the hint, I followed him until we reached a dilapidated building.

The bat settled on the roof as if waiting. I pulled the warped door open with trepidation, but the interior held a collection of discarded barrels and broken wagon wheels. When I turned to leave, I stepped on a wooden ball. A child’s toy. I picked it up and examined it. My bat wanted me to find or see something in here.

I squashed my growing frustration and concentrated on using my other senses. Closing my eyes, I inhaled. The musty smell of decay dominated, but I detected a faint whiff of lemons. I followed the clean and pure scent—not easy as I tripped and banged my shins on the clutter—until I stood in the back corner. There a tingle danced on my skin, raising the hair on my arms. Instinctively I whispered, “Reveal yourself,” and opened my eyes.

Gray light bloomed before me and transformed into a young boy. He sat on one of the barrels.

A ghost. A lost soul.

“Where is my mother?” he asked with a thin, tentative voice. “She was sick, too. She went away and never came back even when I cried for her.”

I moved closer to the boy. The light from him illuminated the room. The rusted remains of a bed frame and other items indicated the area had been used as the child’s bedroom long ago.

My bat fluttered in and circled above the boy’s head. I waved it away and muttered, “Yes, yes, I know. I get it.”

With a squeal sounding like an exasperated finally, he flew out.

I asked the child questions about his mother and family. Just as I suspected, they had lived and died here many years ago.

“I know where they are,” I said. “I can take you to them.”

The boy smiled. When I held out my hand, he grabbed it. I gathered him to me, inhaling his soul before sending it to the sky.

The true job of a Soulfinder.

Not to save souls and return them to their bodies, but to guide them to where they belonged. My true purposed flared to life finally. Stono and Gelsi should have both been released to the sky. Their personalities changed because they were unhappy at being denied peace.

Death was not the end. And I knew Valek waited for me, but he wouldn’t want to see me until I finished finding all the lost and misplaced souls and sent them to their proper destinations.

There hadn’t been a Soulfinder in over a hundred and twenty-five years. Why wasn’t Sitia filled with lost souls? Perhaps they were rare.

Renewed determination to find a way to defeat the Fire Warper spread throughout my body. I left the building and stopped. Five souls hovered in different locations along the street. The leathery flap of wings announced my bat’s arrival. He settled on my shoulder.

“Did you call them?” I asked the bat. “Or did I?” I guess I should have been more specific when I called to the boy. Either that, or now I’d learned a trick I couldn’t shut off.

I gathered and released souls as I headed back to the Cloverleaf Inn. Most went to the sky. One dripped with hate and when he sank into the ground, I worried I might have increased the Fire Warper’s powers.

Before I could enter the inn, the clatter of hooves sounded behind me. I spun in time to see Leif stop Rusalka. His panic reached me before his words.

“Moon Man,” he gasped. “Moon Man’s been captured!”