Streams to ashes, p.17
Streams to Ashes, page 17
“You tyrant,” Anna declared, red with anger. She nocked her own arrow and aimed at Ivar. “Kill him!” she commanded her troops.
In response to her orders, the confused warrior women hesitated.
“Kill him!” Anna repeated.
“No, Anna!” Promise cried out, stumbling to her feet.
Ivar pivoted and stalked toward the castle. Some warriors followed in chase, jumping out from behind their hiding places.
“Don’t kill him! Stop!” Promise cried after them. Her lungs burned as she raced after Ivar. Abbott panted alongside her.
“How are we going to deal with him? He thought we were leading a coup,” she breathed.
“Well, it appears as though we are now!”
“No!”
“If that arrow had found its target, he would have felt no remorse for taking your life. He tried to kill you, Promise! If I hadn’t pushed you to the ground, you’d be dead. How can you be so forgiving towards him?” Abbott panted alongside her, grabbing at her arm to make her stop.
“It’s a misunderstanding. He thought I committed treason. He thought we were leading an invasion.”
Abbott grasped her shoulder and brought her to a halt.
“He thought? Why didn’t he stop to find out the truth? His army took the time to talk to you, but he singled you out. He wasn’t firing at the Lisbons. He was aiming at you. Promise. He tried to kill you! Get away from him before he finds his mark! Go find Martim. Let me confront him alone.”
“No!”
Abbott forged ahead into the courtyard, and Promise ran after him. “Don’t go to him!” she cried. “Let me talk to him. It’s not safe. Please don’t,” she begged.
They stepped over rubble in the courtyard, holding the hems of their tunics over their noses so as not to breathe in the smoke and dust that had turned everything to a chalky white. When they reached the entryway of the palace, or what was left of it, they stopped, the heat of flames inside too overpowering to enter. If they were to go any further, they would have to use magic to protect themselves.
“I must talk to him, first,” Promise repeated.
“He’s a madman. I’m not letting you near him.” With a gesture of his hand, he put an invisible shield around himself and moved toward the ingress.
She raced in front of him. Being overwhelmed by the heat, she also created a magical barrier to protect herself.
“Is your intent to kill him?” she asked.
He stopped and stared at the inferno that was once a palace. Sweat beaded from his forehead, a strand of hair stuck in a curl around his ear.
“We can’t kill Ivar. But we can help him return the magic. Somehow, we must convince him. There’s a way, I know there is.”
“Not alone.”
The doors tilted on melted hinges. A section of the wall crumbled to ash when they brushed by, and Promise stepped over the smoldering debris. The remnants of a royal corridor surrounded them, its stone walls blackened by fire. In some places, the bricks had erupted and were still bursting further down the hall, sending chunks of stone and mortar popping into the aisle. The pillars groaned and swayed, and the ceiling trembled above, as if it might collapse at any moment.
What remained of the throne room doors lay in a pile of rubble, and the orange glow of the flames in the chamber lit up the entryway. A pile of molten gold glinted in the place where the royal throne had stood, and Ivar stood behind it, a triumphant smile on his lips. His shield glowed around him, and though it protected him from the flames, his body burned with an unnatural, visible heat that Promise presumed was Silvio’s magic, now ignited with wrath.
“You!” Ivar’s voice resonated above the sound of the roaring blaze. “You returned, now? Of all times to come back. Why? To gloat over my end? Is that why you’re here?”
“No,” Promise answered, stepping toward him. He moved backward.
“Then why did you come? You brought two armies with you. Not one, but two. Why?”
“I did not bring any army, Ivar. I came alone.”
Ivar looked at Abbott. “Alone?”
“The others are here for the magic.”
“The magic?” He laughed and spat at her. Abbott bolted toward him, but Promise grabbed his arm.
“You’re no better than Hacatine or her snake sister Donis. Well, if it’s magic you want, then why would I stop you? Come and get it.” Ivar held out his hand, palm up. A ball of light spun atop his fingers.
“I don’t want it for myself. I want Silvio to have it. It’s his.”
“Ah, so you admit that it’s Silvio you love?”
“No. Ivar. It’s you I love.”
His laughter resounded over the crash of a wall collapsing in the hallway. Abbott spun around.
“Tell me more lies, Promise. You can’t love a human being. You’re a sorceress.”
“I can love whom I please. There are no rules, Ivar. I can love you.”
“You cannot love me if I have no magic!”
Ivar stretched out his hand, the sickening energy of stolen spells raced from his fingers and drilled a hole through his protective shield. Promise and Abbott jumped away and the walls behind them exploded. If it weren't for their own shields, the stones would have crushed Promise and Abbott as they sailed through the air. They dodged the falling rubble. Promise’s fear transformed into rage, and she clenched her fists, fighting every ounce of her being to keep from lashing out at Ivar.
“Stop this destruction! Listen to me. You don’t need that power to survive. Everything you could want is at your fingertips. You have a family. You have me. My father will bless you!”
Taking a step nearer to her, Abbott assumed a defensive stance, prepared to guard her.
“Your father? Is this your father?” Ivar asked, regarding Abbott with a frown.
“Yes. Please, Ivar I came to make peace with you.”
“How can I believe you?”
The words of Promise went unheard as Anna and her troops, protected by their bucklers, stormed the throne room. Ivar’s eyes widened, and the scowl returned.
“You lie! Traitor!” He roared at them and pointed at Promise. “You have turned all of Taikus against me.” He moved forward, his wrath visibly pulsating through his veins. “But you have failed. You will see Taikus destroyed before I die!”
The power of his anger pushed them all out of the room, forcing them through the hall and into the courtyard. Promise was the last to leave, her father beside her. When she turned to face Ivar, the surrounding light shone so brilliantly she could not bear to look at him. She fled with the others. Outside, they might stand a chance, but with a collapsing building, they would all perish.
Once in the open air, Ivar flung his cape at the foot of the stairs, adding heat to the already burning fortress. Intense flames licked the sky and scattered sparks that set buildings in the city on fire.
“Telamande will go down and Taikus will sink under the sea. You women will not usurp me. You will perish and all the wizards and sorceresses with you.”
“Ivar, please understand what she’s saying.” Anna cried out from the other side of the flames. “Promise is here for you. You are mistaken to be hopeless. You have a future here!” she said. She then faced her troops. “Smother these flames!” she ordered. Hesitant the women looked at each other. Anna leaped to the fire and used magic to extinguish a burning pile of rubble.
“Put it out!” Anna cried. “Help me!”
One by one the women joined her and soon every soldier that had come to the castle with Anna followed the fire’s path gradually making their way back to the castle, snuffing the fire. Smoke billowed into the courtyard.
Ivar laughed as he watched them. “Your efforts are fruitless, Anna. Do you think that will stop me from taking revenge on the world? Promise will die. You will all die.”
Abbott stood in front of his daughter, his shield doubling with hers.
“Why do you hate her so, Ivar? She saved your life,” Anna asked.
“Like everyone else who saved my life? Why would I be indebted to her and not to Amleth?” Fool woman. Their allegiance to each other spoils their reason.”
“She loves you, just as you do her!” Anna returned.
Her words drew a groan from Ivar, and he turned away bent over as though in pain. It must hurt, all that fire and energy racing through his body with nowhere to go. He was isolating himself in a bubble that shielded him from the flames of the outside world, but the fire inside him burned hotter. Promise felt a powerful sense of affection for him. She tried to get near to him, but he had cast a spell that kept her away.
“Love, Promise? You gave our love to scoundrels, to insignificant paupers of the high seas. To people who were your enemies. You call that love?”
“Neither the Kaemperns nor the Lisbons came to attack you. That was Donis’ cunning trick to cause a war that you would lose,” Promise said. Her eyes swelled as she watched him struggle.
“They came to kill you, too,” he said, doubling over and falling to the ground. “I’m ready for you. I’m ready to destroy you—.” His body shook with sobs as he stumbled, and his knees buckled under him. “—all.”
“What’s wrong with him?” Anna asked.
“He’s burning from the magic within him. He’s dying.” Promise choked on her words and ran to him. The force he had established against her had weakened. Even the shield he had created melted at her touch. She fell on her knees next to him.
“Ivar, please forgive me.” Her tears poured down her cheeks as she held his head on her lap. When her father’s shadow covered them, she looked up.
“Silvio’s power is killing him,” Abbott whispered. “I can heal the fleshly burns from the fire, but I cannot heal his heart. Without giving back what belongs to the wizard, I cannot save him.”
Taking Back What’s Ours
To everyone’s surprise, the fighting had stopped. Even though the Lisbon soldiers fired an occasional shot, no longer did the Taikans send an arrow or a bolt of magic. A thick layer of smoke hovered over the city. The deserted streets of upper Telamande left Cassie with a sense of dread as she walked the lonely road behind her parents with Jimmy at her side. He stayed next to her, like a protective brother, and she appreciated his presence. What she liked most about him being with her was that he appreciated the relationship she had with Martim, more so than Mom and Dad. Jimmy had been a loyal friend the last time she was here, from the time he helped her pull Silvio out of his slump to rescue him from the forest fire to the day they fought alongside each other against Valerio’s troops.
Jimmy had saved her life, once, too.
Sanchez and several of his troops marched ahead of them. The other troops had gone before in a more furtive manner, combing the alleyways of Telamande in search of the enemy. Every update the scouts delivered reported that they saw no Taikan warriors. Neither did they see Brad nor the Kaemperns, though the word had spread that some of their ships were in the harbor. Somewhere.
The residents of Taikus had drawn their shutters, and as Cassie walked by the windows of the white stone homes scattered along the dirt road that led to the docks, she tried to peek into them. If she were alone, or just with Jimmy, she’d be knocking on doors and searching each house looking for Martim. But Sanchez refused to do that, and the villagers shut themselves tight into their homes like clams protecting the contents inside. What were they hiding?
“Why is it so vacant?” she whispered.
“Fear,” Abbi answered.
“Just who are they afraid of? Us? Ivar?”
“If you had ever seen Donis you would know,” Ian added.
“I’m surprised Sanchez isn’t suspicious of the villagers being sealed away so tightly,” she whispered to Jimmy. “Anyone of them could hide Martim and we would never know.”
“Trust him,” was Jimmy’s only response.
Even without a guide, Maestro acted as if he knew exactly where to go, as if he had some kind of psychic intuition. It wouldn’t surprise her. Sanchez had been like a father to Martim, and she had witnessed the bond they had with each other. If anyone loved him more than Cassie did, it was Sanchez, and so, as Jimmy suggested, she laid her trust in him. Still, the silence unnerved her.
“Is Donis that frightening?”
“Not if you like snakes hissing at you, I guess,” Ian replied.
“Then you think these people know she’s here.”
“It appears so.”
Cassie cringed at the thought of encountering a snake sorceress.
The smoke that drifted over the town grew more putrid as they descended toward the harbor and the palace. Her eyes burned and she covered her nose with her collar. As they reached a bend in the road, a soldier signaled for them to hurry into a nearby alley.
“The wharf is swarming with Taikan warriors and guards. We caught this fellow running from the palace and thought he could give us some information.”
They had with them a young man, probably sixteen years of age, who wore a tunic embroidered with the symbol of a golden lion, a soft, felt hat that bent over the side of his face, and who carried the stink of burning wool. Ashes had fallen on him, so Cassie presumed he had been in the palace. He trembled despite someone having wrapped their uniform coat over his shoulders.
“Who are you?” Sanchez asked.
The boy gave Maestro a side glance but didn’t answer.
“He won’t talk,” the soldier said. “We’ve been questioning him and all we get are sneers.”
“He’s terrified. Let me try,” Cassie suggested. She saw the despair in the boy’s eyes and felt a connection to his pain. The way he curled up in fear reminded her of the Lisbon children when Valerio had conquered the city.
Sanchez stepped back while the soldier went on.
“We’re not sure who is down there on the docks, but I think it’s the northerners.”
“The Kaemperns?”
“Yes. We patrolled all the alleys, and it seems the enemy has retreated. There was a group of Whisperers heading for the mountains and we followed them but lost their trail. That’s when we came across this boy and seized him. We hoped he could give us a clue. If they were the Whisperers we were following, we’d end up in a battle and feared Ivar’s army would attack as well. Cut off from the rest of the battalion, we didn’t figure that would be a promising idea.”
“You did the right thing. Any leads on the whereabouts of Martim?”
“Not yet. We dispatched more scouts to explore the area. We’ll wait here until they return.”
Sanchez motioned to Cassie, Jimmy, and her parents to rest in the alley and so Cassie took the captive boy’s hand and coaxed him to follow her to a more private place where she sat on the ground with him.
“What frightened you?” she asked. The boy snickered with his head bowed.
“What did you come to do? Attack us as well?” he asked. “Why are you trying to destroy us? We’ve done nothing to you.”
“You’re assuming something that isn’t true,” Cassie said. “No one here is looking for a fight.”
“Then why are you here?” He looked up at her, his freckled face red with emotion, his voice accusing. “You’ve got soldiers sneaking around in the streets.”
“We’re here to find the king of Alisubbo who was taken prisoner and brought to this island.”
“Well, Ivar didn’t do it.”
Cassie sat up, shocked that such a young person would call the king of Taikus by his first name. Or that he would boldly assert his claim, leaving no room for doubt or argument.
“We were told that this morning,” she said.
“Who told you?” he asked.
“A woman named Promise.”
“Promise?” His eyes widened. “You know Promise? She’s here?”
“Somewhere. She went to the palace to find Ivar.”
The boy sighed as if someone had suddenly lifted a heavy weight from his shoulders.
“She’ll find him. And she’ll stand up to Donis, too.” He squinted at the distant city, the towering castle walls just barely visible at the end of the alley. “Let’s hope that he forgives her. They don’t want to admit it, but they love each other.”
“Well, that’s fine and dandy. I hope they have a happily ever after!” Cassie scoffed. “But it doesn’t help us one iota. Do you have any idea where Donis might have taken our king?”
“No. I know nothing.”
“You knew everything a second ago.”
“I know nothing about your king.
“Promise said a woman named Cepha has him.”
The boy sneered at the name. “That witch? If that’s the case, good luck rescuing him.”
“Where would she take him?”
The boy lifted his shoulders in a gesture of indifference and then sat there in a contemplative stance. “I don’t know.”
After a moment of silence, and Cassie sighing with frustration, he grunted.
“Well, I might know where Cepha would take him. Hacatine had tunnels all over the city and she often used them as prisons for the wizards she didn’t want in her dungeon. It’s an underground labyrinth. I know those burrows the same as a rabbit knows its home. I was the only page that would go down there.” He shuddered. “Creepy place.”
“Can you guide us there?” Cassie asked.
The boy looked up at the soldiers who were resting in the alley, sharing a canteen of water, and murmuring among themselves. He glared at Cassie with disgust written on his face and didn’t answer.
That response was even more maddening, especially when she thought she was getting somewhere.
“What’s your name?” Cassie asked. When he didn’t answer, she huffed in annoyance.
“Travis,” he mumbled, and looked away.
“Why are you afraid to help us?” she asked.
“I’m loyal to my king. And someday Promise will be queen. If you are their opponent, then sharing knowledge of the tunnels with you would make me disloyal. And I’m not! I don’t know what to think of you and those soldiers. I don’t want any harm to come to Ivar or to Promise.”
“We aren’t here to harm them. We’re here to rescue the king of Alisubbo. And if what you say is true, that your king had nothing to do with the abduction, there would be nothing to fear.”
