Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (27 page)

             
…Then he brought his sword up in front of him, holding it in the center of his body, letting it split the dreadful glow coming from his eyes.  The others all stood there, awe-struck at the terrible sight before them.

             
“Now that is something I wouldn’t want to see coming after me,” Willie said as tears of hope welled in his and Annie-Jane’s eyes.

             
“I always knew something was going to be special about you, Harold,” Aunt Nean said as she tried to keep her voice steady, but to no avail.  “You get my babies back.”

             
“It’s why I’m here, Aunt Nean,” he replied.  “I love you, and I thank you for everything you’ve ever done for me.”

             
She nodded as she wiped her eyes.

             
“You certainly live up to your name,” Sarah said.  “You are, Harold, The Blazing Knight, slayer of High-Born.”

             
“I like that name,” Harold said and doused his flames as he took off his helmet.

             
He walked to Willie and shook his hand, and then gave Annie-Jane a hug.  He hugged Aunt Nean for nearly a minute, and kissed her on the cheek.

             
“Walk with me to the edge of town,” he said to Sarah and held out his hand.

             
She took it and Aunt Nean’s bag of food.  Then they walked out of the blacksmith shop.

             
They didn’t talk as they walked down the road Harold had walked his entire life.  They barely took their eyes from the gaze of the other as they moved ever closer to the edge of town, and they squeezed the other’s hand as if they could crush the destiny forced upon them.  When they reached the edge of town, she handed him the bag of food, and he hooked it to his belt.

             
He put his forehead against hers and pulled her close, and she managed to somehow get her arms around his shoulder piece.  They kissed and then he nodded at her as she let him go.

             
“I love you,” he said.

             
“I love you more,” she replied as he put on his helmet.

             
Then, he walked a few steps into the darkness, and turned.  He looked back into Foxx Hole.  It was all he had ever known, and despite the harsh life he had there, it was his home.  Some small part of him felt sad about leaving.  But a life of slavery was not worth having.  He knew that the fire within him was meant to forge a better day.  However, he also knew that his fire was going to have to burn much before it could build that world.  He glanced back at Sarah, and waved goodbye, and she returned his wave.  Then, he turned towards the mansion, took a deep breath, and disappeared in a flash of flame.  

Chapter 23

              Harold materialized quite some distance from Colonel Foxx’s mansion.  He knew it wouldn’t have been smart to just run into his mansion without taking a look around first.  He looked at his surroundings.  It was still very dark, but he focused his fire on his eyes and the world seemed to grow brighter.  He looked up into the tallest tree he could find, and found a branch that would support his weight.  He was pleased with the relative lightness of his armor.  A grown man could’ve worn it with little problem.  It wasn’t as light as a feather, but it was far from being unmanageable.

             
He leaped onto the branch, catching the branch above it to maintain his balance, and quickly climbed to the top of the tree.  He looked around.  He was about 300 yards from the mansion’s front door, and to the right of the house was the chain-link fence that surrounded the pond.  The security lights illuminated enough for him to see without the aid of his fire.  Then he sat there for several minutes just studying his surroundings.

             
There was nothing that gave him pause.  He found it slightly insulting given what had happened in Foxx Hole earlier.  He would’ve expected to see a few armed guards, but there were none that he could see.  The arrogance of the High-Born had grown to the point that they didn’t fear anything a Low-Born could do. 

             
That will soon change
, Harold thought.

             
He looked at the balcony on the third floor.  He didn’t know why, but he had always thought that Colonel Foxx lived and slept on the third floor.  If there were guards inside, they probably wouldn’t expect anyone to come in there.  He squatted on the branch, and concentrated on the balcony.

             
He appeared on it.  He drew his sword and reached for the doorknob, only there wasn’t one.  There was something with a blinking light where it should’ve been, and a grid of square lines.  He tried to push the door, but it wouldn’t open, and he realized it was locked.  He thought about kicking it in, but instead he decided to air-burn to just the other side of it.  He focused his thoughts on the other side of the door, and he vanished.  It was dark inside, and he called to his night vision.  He slowly moved his eyes from side to side.

             
He was in a large room.  In front of him there was a very large table lined with large chairs that had obviously been made to accommodate the size of the High-Born.  He could see shelves full of books all around him, and various pieces of artwork.  A huge chandelier hung from the ceiling, and there was a large, lit archway at the far end of the room.  He was still squatting and then he moved his head to the right.

             
The lights all came on and a terrible racket filled the room.  The blaring noise startled him to his feet, but he quickly regained his composure and began jogging to the open archway at the other end of the room.  When he reached the corner, he looked outside of the room.  A walkway with red carpet went in both directions, and he thought he could see stairs at both ends.  In front of him was an open guardrail of some sort, and below it was a large open area.  He thought he could hear metallic footsteps running up the stairs towards him.

             
He ran to the edge of the rail and looked below him.  He could see a single High-Born soldier looking up at him.  He was not dressed in battle gear, but he did have a pistol that he was drawing.  Harold stepped back slightly to use the underside of the walkway to cover himself.  Coming up both flights of stairs were two things made completely of metal that resembled people.  They seemed to have some sort of gun attached to the upper side of their forearms.  Their heads were too small for them to be people, so he immediately realized that they had to be a robot of some sort.

             
Flames rose above the surface of his armor and twirled down his sword.  He brought the flaming blade up to his shoulder and concentrated.  He air-burned towards the first robot and shouted as he appeared out of nothingness right in front of it, and it fell in two pieces with a loud explosion.  Before it had even hit the ground, he emerged from the air behind the second one.  It too exploded as he slashed it.  Then he looked toward the High-Born at the bottom of the floor.  The soldier turned his head just as Harold flared into existence behind him.

             
Harold stood there, glaring at his back.  The High-Born didn’t even know that Harold was behind him.  He was easily more than a foot taller than Harold and his pistol was trained on the archway far above.

             
“I’m behind you,” Harold said.

             
The High-Born whirled around but Harold’s sword sliced through his pistol and Harold spun, kicking him in the gut.  A loud gasp of air came out of him as he flew backwards, and he smashed into the wall several meters away.  Harold air-burned and seized him by the throat as he slammed him into the wall.  Harold burned him for a moment, and then doused his flames, but drove the High-Born to his knees by choking him.

             
“Where are the children?” Harold shouted.

             
The High-Born could do nothing but make a gurgling sound.  Harold noticed that his face was turning red, and he released his grip, and the High-Born fell to his all-fours.  He took two deep breaths, and looked up at the glowing-eyed monstrosity.  Harold could see what was coming, and as the High-Born swung at him, Harold flashed from sight...                …And caught his throat in the crook of his elbow from behind.  Harold held nothing in reserve and stopped just short of breaking the High-Born’s neck.  Harold held him like that until he stopped struggling.

             
Harold let him fall to the floor, and in just a few seconds he was conscious again.  Harold picked him up and flung him across the room.  Then flashed to land right in front of him.  The High-Born was on his knees, holding his arms up in front of his face.

             
“Tell me where the children are,” Harold’s flames rippled above his armor, and his eyes flashed orange, “Right
now
!”

             
“They’re not here!” he shouted in near-hysterical fear as he scurried backwards.

             
“Where is Colonel Foxx?” Harold shouted.

             
“He’s with the children,” the terrified High-Born said as he backed into a wall.  “And they’re not here.  Please don’t kill me.”

             
Harold walked towards him, sword raised.  The High-Born screamed as he put his hands up.

             
“Take me to them, or I’ll burn you to death,” Harold held his blazing sword in one hand and formed a crackling fireball in his other palm.

             
The High-Born nodded his head rapidly, “We’ll have to take my air-taxi, they’re probably a hundred kilometers from here by now, if not farther.”

             
“Then we’d better get started,” Harold doused the fireball and his flames.  “Get up!”

             
The High-Born nodded as he rose to his feet and began walking.  After several rooms filled with lavish artwork and ornate furniture, they walked into another room full of vehicles of various kinds.

             
Harold air-burned in front of the High-Born and he stepped back in stark terror, “If you try to run, you will not get far.”

             
Harold flashed and was standing behind him.  The High-Born turned and nodded his head.  Then he pointed toward an air-taxi.  It was shaped like most of the cars in the room and had a very sleek design and was painted red with black stripes.  Harold decided that he like the way it looked.  The High-Born opened his door with the click of a device in his hand, and Harold’s door also opened for him.  The High-Born got in first and then Harold.

             
“Let’s go,” Harold said.

             
The High-Born nodded and turned on the engine.  Harold felt the air-taxi slightly rise from the ground and the driver pressed another button on the dash of the vehicle.  Harold then saw a large door rising in front of them.  It quickly reached the top of the garage and the High-Born pushed on the controls of the air-taxi.  Harold felt his stomach turn slightly as the driver urged them into the sky, flying above the pond.  The High-Born turned the air-taxi toward Foxx Hole, and they began accelerating.  In just a few moments, they passed almost directly above Aunt Nean’s house, and Harold even managed to catch a glimpse of Sarah walking down the road back toward the town circle.  He watched her stop and look up at them, and though he knew she couldn’t see him, he nodded to her.  After one last glance at her, he turned his attention to the direction the High-Born was taking them. In another few moments, they passed above the town circle, and turned slightly to the right, almost directly above Phil’s house.

             
Then, they left Foxx Hole behind.

Chapter 24

              They had been flying for more than a half-hour, and Harold noticed that the sun was coming up over the horizon to his right.  As they flew, the High-Born would occasionally look at Harold, only to quickly look back at the sky ahead of them.  In a few more minutes, the sun was illuminating everything below them.  As Harold looked around, he noticed that they were flying a comfortable distance above the trees.

             
He could also see a seemingly never-ending strip of gravel below them.  After a few more moments, Harold couldn’t help noticing that they seemed to be loosely following the path that it laid out.  Every so often, he would lose sight of it as they passed over a large section of trees, but the winding path of asphalt and gravel would eventually come back into view.  Harold could see things that somewhat resembled the air-taxi scattered here and there along it.  He eventually realized that it was an old road, and the metallic things he was seeing were actually old, and abandoned vehicles.