Chased By Fire (Book 1) (19 page)

Roine listened for long moments before snapping his eyes open. “Off the path! Now!”

Tan didn’t argue. They hurried into the light underbrush of the forest. Their horses had to move slower to avoid the tangles and roots, but were able to pick up speed across the level ground.
 

What did Roine fear?

A wave of heat answered his question. His eyes and mouth went dry. His skin felt boiled and tight.
 

Roine kicked his horse forward, moving in front of Tan. He held his hand out before him. A gust of wind pressed forward, sweeping through the forest.

One of the lisincend stood before them. The creature was horrible and immense, and radiated heat like a raging fire. A smile pulled at its lipless mouth and what Tan saw of the thick and scaled hide seemed as if it was peeling away. Its tongue lashed out quickly as it smiled at them. The creature wore dark black leather. No…that wasn’t quite right. Rather, the leather was so red that it appeared black, the shirt and pants pulled tight across the creature’s muscular frame.
 

“Theondar,” it hissed. “The girl. That is all. Then you may live.”

Roine eyed the creature for a moment. “That is all you want? Then you will leave my kingdoms?”

Tan’s heart raced at Roine’s words. Would he give Amia to the lisincend? Tan wouldn’t allow it, realizing it a moment before hearing the echoing command in his head.
 

Protect me
.
 

Amia clung tightly to him, trying to hide within the folds of his cloak.
 

“Your kingdoms?” the creature asked. “You are king now?” It laughed, a dry crackle. “You have always wanted to rule Theondar.”

Roine shook his head. “You have no idea what I desire, Fur. I would like to know how you penetrated the kingdoms.”

The lisincend appeared to smile again. “You would.”

Roine frowned and the lisincend crackled again with the strange sound that could only be laughter. “I can’t hand over the girl.”

The lisincend hissed again. “Give me the girl. Now.”

“Leave. Now.” Energy sizzled with the words, though nothing like Amia’s commands.
 

The lisincend only laughed again. “Then you will die. And I will still have her.”
 

It raised its arm and a torrent of flame shot from its arm. Roine was ready and brought his own arm up. A surge of water shot as if from his palm. Roine raised his other fist, bringing it down, and the ground rumbled, nearly splitting at the feet of the lisincend. The creature started to stumble, righting itself, then laughed again.
 

“Weak, Theondar,” the lisincend hissed. “You spent too much on my hounds.” It chuckled, raising its long-clawed hand. “And you have barely injured them.” A chorus of howls cried out in answer.

Tan felt power building moments before he felt the heat that came with it. Roine’s eyes grew wide as he realized what the lisincend prepared.
 

He had been played.
 

He thrust one hand in front of him and another toward Tan and Amia. There was a surge of energy, much stronger than any Tan had felt before, building to a near ear-splitting level of pain. It stabbed into his skull like a knife.

The pressure built until could no longer take the pressure and pain.
 

He felt it behind his eyes, through his head, and under his skin. It built so quickly that he trembled with the energy, more afraid than ever.
 

He prayed for some kind of release.

Roine looked over to him. “Hold on to Amia!”
 

Tan spun, grabbing onto Amia and hugging her. Her body shook and he felt her fear in his mind with the silent command to protect her.

He did not see the explosion.
 

Tan felt the release of pressure and pain within him like a dam bursting then heard something loud, a horrible roar, followed by screaming. It was only later he realized it had been him screaming, yelling as he was thrown in the air, caught in a torrent of wind up and over trees and forest, holding Amia as they flew across the sky propelled by the immense blast.
 

There was another surge of energy, something foreign and powerful, that caught him, leaving his skin tingling and his ears pulsing with its thunderous energy. It pulled upon them, streaking them higher and farther across the forest, and they sped like a loosed arrow. The wind howled around them. Droplets of glistening water formed on his arms and eyes and he blinked to clear his vision as they streaked through the air.

Then they were coming down. The ground flew up to meet them. Amia met his eyes, a mixture of fear and acceptance written upon her face. They crashed through trees and brush, landing with a splash in a small lake.
 

Tan stood shakily. They had survived. Somehow.
 

The lake was not deep where they landed, and he pulled Amia out of the water. Both of them shivered. He barely made it to the shore. Amia breathed but didn’t move. He barely dragged her to dry rock before passing out.

Tan awoke slowly. He rested against the trunk of a tree and his back ached from the position. His head throbbed, a slow pulsing, and he closed his eyes again, hoping it would help. Pain stretched everywhere in his body and he worked his legs and arms, slowly realizing that nothing was broken.

Opening his eyes, he saw the lake where they had landed. A green film covered the water and his prints led from the water’s edge toward the tree. Massive trees, huge roots curling up out of the water, lined most of the lake. Farther down the shore it turned rocky. Stretches of sandy beach interrupted the rocks. A small mountain peak rose up at the far end.
 

Amia lay next to him, still breathing but not awake. Leaving her covered with his cloak, Tan let her rest and stood carefully to investigate, feeling a wobbling dizziness as he did. He was disappointed to realize he’d lost his bow somewhere. He’d need time to make a new one, especially if the hounds closed in on them again. At least he still had his hunting knife.
 

Near the lake, a small feeder stream flowed slowly enough that the water was still clear. He drank thirstily. The encounter with the lisincend had dried his mouth, and he worked his tongue over his lips to moisten them. Tan sighed as he finished drinking, standing again. Still lightheaded, at least he was a little better and able to stand without holding his hands out for balance.

The lake was set into a small valley in the mountain. Tan didn’t recognize anything around him. How far they had been thrown?
 

Or pulled? The vague memory of another energy pull on them echoed in his mind.

What he should do now? Wait for Amia to awaken, but then what? Roine had convinced him of the need to find the artifact. If nothing else, Incendin couldn’t be granted the power Roine thought it possessed.

But how could he do that? Follow Amia’s shaping? Without Roine’s compass, would it even work?
 

Or did they wait for Roine? If anyone could survive the blast of energy from the lisincend, one of the warriors could.
 

As he walked along the shore of the lake, he stopped. They couldn’t wait for Roine. This task was his now. Somehow, in spite of everything, he still had to serve the king.

But the alternative—letting Incendin pass easily into the kingdoms—was not acceptable. War would return. Other towns might end up like Nor or Velminth. How many would die?

Tan sighed. Were they even safe here? He closed his eyes and let his focus wander, sensing the forest around him. There was no unusual sound in the forest. There was the underlying buzz and hum of the late summer insects. He heard the quiet burbling of the stream and smelled the pungent algae growing within the lake. Somewhere far in the distance, a lone wolf howled plaintively, a reassuring sound, though Tan sensed that it was very far away. A circling hawk cried overhead before it fell silent. There was a rustle of the wind through the leaves of the trees, cool and steady across his face as well, and the air smell of crisp pine.
 

All of this felt reassuring.

Over everything, he felt the shaping Amia had made. It was clear and bright within his mind, like a streamer of light pointing up and over the nearest peak. He wondered again how it was that he saw it.
 

He made his way back to Amia. She had sat up and looked around, eyes touching on the lake and the mountain in the distance.
 

 
“What happened?” she asked.

Tan shook his head. “I’m not entirely sure. Roine did something and then we were here.” He motioned around him. “Whereever this is.”

“I remember an explosion.”

“There was that,” Tan agreed, laughing softly. “And something else. Do you remember landing?”

She looked at him with her dark eyes and frowned. “No. Why?”

Tan laughed quietly again. “Your body will remember for you.”

“That’s why I am so sore?” Amia looked at him. Pressure built behind his ears, the sign of a sensing or a shaping. “You’re uncertain.”

Tan smiled.
 

Amia placed a hand on his arm. “But that’s not all. You blame yourself. You think the hounds followed you to Nor.”

“No secrets from you?” Amia just smiled. Tan shook his head. “They followed my scent. I know I couldn’t help it, but if I hadn’t tracked them into the forest, would they have come after Nor?”

“You lost everyone.”

He grabbed her hand. “So did you.”

A pained look pulled at her face. “We’ve been chased away before. As Aeta, we come to expect that. But what Incendin did…what the lisincend did to my people…the Mother…”

“I’m sorry.”

She sniffed. “Why? If not for you, I’d be dead too. What you did gave me a chance.”

“If we don’t find this…artifact, it won’t be much of a chance.”

“You’ll go on without Roine?” Amia asked.

“What choice do we have? If we do nothing, everyone suffers. If we try—”

“Then we might suffer.”

Tan laughed. Considering everything they’d been through, it seemed they’d already suffered enough. “Better that then watching when we could’ve helped.”

“That’s not your real reason. Not all of it.”

Tan sighed. How could he put words to why he wanted to make sure Roine’s task was completed? Amia touched his arm and a wave of relief washed over him. Tan wondered if he’d been shaped, but didn’t really care. “Since my father died, my mother has wanted me to go to Ethea.”

“The university?”

Tan nodded. “You know of it?”

Amia breathed out softly. “Mother always tried to avoid Ethea. She was afraid one of the shapers there would recognize my…gift. You have to understand, not visiting Ethea creates challenges for my people. The trading is always good there, the prices better than we can get anywhere else, and there are things we just can’t trade for anyplace else. Not visiting Ethea is a sacrifice made for me.”

“Do your people resent you for it?”

Amia smiled. “They understand the reasons. And we follow the Mother where she leads. I can’t say I wouldn’t like to visit Ethea some day. I’ve heard the castle is breathtaking. Shaped by your earth shapers in such a way that can’t be replicated by masons.”

Tan shook his head. “I wouldn’t know.”

“You don’t want to visit?”

Tan sighed. “My place isn’t in Ethea. My place is…was…in Nor.” He looked around. “I’m an earth senser like my father. It’s not a skill with much use anywhere else.” He didn’t say anything about not wanting to serve the king. Not as his father had served. Still, he suspected Amia knew anyway.

“Then why do this?”

Tan looked over at the distant mountain. “It’s the last thing my mother asked of me.”

Amia squeezed his hand and they sat there for a long while. “It’s out there,” she said. “I feel it, trailing into the mountain. Closer than before.”

Tan looked over. He could practically see the shaping, it pulled so strongly on him. “Will you help?”

“What else can I do? At least this way I can do something to stop Fur.”

He pulled her to her feet. “We should begin.”

They circled around the lake, following the shore, and moved through soft leaves and detritus. All the recent rain had made the ground soggy and Tan led them away from the shore, toward the trees. Though they didn’t gain any speed, he no longer felt as if the ground was trying to suck him under with each step. The lake was much longer than it was wide, filling much of this part of the valley, and fed by several small streams running down from the mountains.
 

“There’s a lot of water around here,” he said as they stepped through another small stream.

“Do you know where we are?”

Tan shook his head. His sensing hadn’t told him much. “South and east of Velminth,” he said. That much he’d determined. “Other than that, I can’t say. I’m not certain we’re still in Galen.”

Tan kept expecting to see the edge of the lake as they continued forward but did not. Amia pointed them down the lake. The white-tipped mountains never seemed nearer. The clouds managed to block the sun and they traveled by an overcast light. After everything they’d seen, the dour day fit his mood.

After a time time, a distant howl rang out from the forest. He froze, tensing with the sound. It was the unmistakable cry of one of the Incendin hounds.

“If they reach the valley…we won’t be able to outrun them,” Tan said.

“First the hounds…”

They ran.

Had the air grown warmer? A breeze blew through the valley and across the lake, but had it not been a cool wind? The sky was darkening and the cloud cover made it difficult for him to gauge the time, but he suspected night was coming.

There was another howl, nearer now, and they froze, looking in the direction of the sound, before starting forward at a run. The wet ground slowed them.
 

“We have to move into the trees,” Amia said.

“Stay near the water,” Tan said. “Lisincend. Fire shapers.” He knew little of shaping, but he knew how sensing was paired. “Fire is tempered by water. Earth by wind.” He struggled for a few more steps to catch his breath. “Safest by water.”