Chased By Fire (Book 1) (23 page)

Watch over us
. Tan sent his message out and over the lake. He doubted that the nymid would even hear him.

As he drifted to sleep, though, he distantly heard a thought circling in his mind that he should not have been able to hear.
 

We will
.

Tan opened his eyes slowly, squinting against the light of the sun. Roine crouched nearby, tending to a small, crackling fire, roasting something over the flames. Tan’s mouth salivated at the thought of fresh meat. He couldn’t remember how long had it been since he’d last eaten.

“Good,” Roine said. “You’re awake.”

“How long have you been up?”

Roine shrugged. “Long enough.” He frowned at Tan before turning back to tend the fire. “You know, I must say I’m surprised that you’re alive.”

Tan shrugged, not quite ready to explain the nymid. “I would say the same to you.”

Roine laughed. “I’m not killed as easily as Fur would believe.”

“You think Fur survived?”
 

Roine frowned, setting his hands upon his legs and working his fingers for a moment before answering. “Fur is the oldest, and most powerful, of the lisincend. Perhaps once I could have destroyed him. Perhaps. Now I’m no longer strong enough.”

“Why not?”
 

Roine laughed softly. “There are many answers, probably. The simplest is likely the most true. Strength takes confidence—some would say arrogance—and I’m not the same man.”

Tan watched Roine while he rotated the meat over the fire. “Who are you, then?”

Roine looked up and there was a playful smile about his face and reaching his eyes. “I am Roine.”

“You mean
roinay
,” Tan asked, repeating the word as Cobin had said it. The meaning, as Cobin had explained it, was ‘tainted.’
 

Roine smiled again and shrugged, not offering an explanation.

“What does it mean?” Tan asked.

“You seem to know what it means.”

Tan looked out over the lake. The pull of Amia’s shaping still drew on him. “What of Theondar?”
 

“Theondar?” Roine said the name comfortably and with a wistful tone. “He is gone, lost to the world almost two decades ago.”

“But
you’re
Theondar.”

“No,” Roine said, his tone firm. “No longer. Once I claimed that name. Once I thought I could shape the world.” He shook his head. “Years grant wisdom, I think. Now I’m no longer him. Just Roine. That is enough.”

Tan didn’t push, though wished he knew more. “The lisincend feared another shaper,” Tan said instead, changing topics. “When you came, they thought you were someone else.”

Roine turned to him, eyes growing more alert. “How’d you hear this?”

“I was in the water then,” he answered. “Moving to try and save Amia. When the wind came in, the lisincend said they smelled someone, smelled their shaping. Then the rain came and they were surprised.”
 

“They expected someone?” Roine looked to the sky his eyes went blank. He sat motionless like that for a long moment before opening his eyes again and staring at Tan. The sudden tension that had surged through Roine seemed to ease.

“What did they mean?” Tan asked.

Roine shook his head slowly before answering. “I hadn’t expected this. You’re certain?”
 

Tan nodded.

“There have been rumors,” Roine began. “A warrior, though not of the kingdoms. One who’s never made his alliances known. I’ve long wondered if he could have sided with Incendin.”

 
A warrior. What was the name he’d read in his mother’s book? “You think it’s Lacertin?”
 

Roine’s eyes widened. “How is it that you know this name?”
 

Tan hesitated before answering. “My father,” he said. “There were letters he sent my mother. I…I don’t think he meant for me to see them.”

Roine tilted his head and his face wrinkled. “He mentioned Lacertin in the letters?” he said, speaking the name distastefully.

Tan nodded. He didn’t want to say what else the letters said.
 

Roine fell silent for a moment. And then he sighed. “Once,” he began, straightening his back and looking out across the water with a distant expression, “there were twelve of us. Twelve warriors. We served the kingdoms as the king commanded. There had not always been this twelve. There had been more, many more warriors long ago, but something changed. A connection lost. The scholars have never been able to learn why.”
 

He took a deep breath and looked over at Tan. “Lacertin may have been the most powerful. He was certainly the most ambitious. We served the kingdoms, always at the direction of the king. Yet Lacertin did things his own way, defying the king in subtle ways.” Roine shook his head. “I suppose we all did to a certain extent. Probably why we overlooked his faults. For they
were
faults.

“And then Genan died. The first of the twelve lost. Lacertin and Genan had been fighting off an invasion of the Talin riders to the south when Genan was lost. Lacertin was never able to fully explain what happened. There were many who wondered, even then. It was only later we realized we should have pressed Lacertin further.”

Roine fell silent, his eyes unfocused, as he worked the meat over the flame. After a while, he motioned to Tan and handed him a chunk of steaming meat. Tan took it wordlessly and chewed it slowly, savoring the taste as his stomach rolled with hunger. They ate in silence. Roine saved meat for Amia who still slept, her breathing slow and easy.

Tan decided to ask the question then, uncertain how Roine would react. But knowing that he was Theondar, he needed to know. “What happened to Ilianna?”
 

Roine looked away, but there was a pained expression to his eyes, still fresh and raw after all these years. “I had everything to do with her death,” he answered softly.

Tan felt shocked. He’d thought Theondar innocent. “Why did Lacertin leave the city?”

“Lacertin,” Roine spat. “We should have exiled him long before.” He turned back to face Tan, his eyes welling with restrained tears. “I couldn’t protect her. I should have suspected him. I knew he had ambitions, and I should have protected her.” He stopped and took a deep breath.
 

“I’m sorry,” Tan said.

Roine looked at him and sighed. “We’ve all lost much, Tan. Some wounds never fade.” He turned to the fire and Tan thought that would be the end of it. “Ilianna didn’t have to die. That’s the worst part for me. All he wanted was the heirloom.”

“What was it?”

Roine shook his head. “Only the women of her family knew. It was passed from woman to woman through the years. I still don’t know why Lacertin wanted it. I’ve never been able to learn.”
 

“I’m sorry,” Tan said again.

Roine offered him a weak smile. “How could you have known? So many years ago, yet I feel it and see it like it was only yesterday. If only I’d been there when he attacked, it might have been different.”

“Could you have stopped him?”
 

Roine shrugged. “Lacertin was always a powerful shaper, perhaps more than Theondar.”

“Now?”

Roine shook his head. “I’m no longer that man.”

Tan didn’t say anything more.
 

Slowly, Amia started to awaken. She looked up at Tan and met his eyes. “How?”
 

Tan wasm’t sure whether she spoke or whether he heard her question in the same manner he heard the nymid speak. “You are awake.”

Amia pushed herself up, propping against the log as she huddled near Tan. She pressed one hand up to her face, brushing the hair away before looking at Tan and seeing his badly damaged shirt hanging in tatters from his chest. “How?” she asked again.

Roine watched them both. He handed the remaining meat to Amia and she took it carefully, smelling it for a long moment, before taking a tentative bite. She seemed to understand that Tan did not want to speak of what had happened and fell silently to eating.

Roine walked over and sat facing Tan and Amia, staring at him as if suddenly seeing him for the first time. “How did I not notice?” he asked, reaching out and fingering Tan’s shirt. A calloused hand brushed the tattered remnants of his shirt away and he looked at his slightly pink chest. “What happened here?”

Amia looked from Tan to Roine, chewing slowly as she did. “I saw the blast Fur aimed at you. You should not have survived.”

Roine’s eyes widened. “Fur did this?” He leaned and smelled the edges of the shirt. “That should have killed you.”

Tan hesitated. For some reason, he was reluctant to speak of the nymid, uncertain they wanted their secret revealed. He suspected that they were water elementals, and powerful enough to heal him. More than that, they had been nothing but helpful, saving his life and providing a means of saving Amia’s life, as well.

“Tan? How is it you survived what should have killed you?”

Tan looked from Roine to Amia. She watched with a question in her eyes. He felt a soft pressure behind his ears and Amia frowned briefly and closed her eyes. When she opened them, she nodded.
 

Tan looked out toward the water. The soft reflection of the sun almost made it seem to glow. Would the nymid care if he shared their secret? They wanted Amia saved, likely helping him only so that he could rescue her. But how would they feel about Roine knowing about them? Or Theondar?

“I shouldn’t have survived,” Tan finally said. “I was thrown out into the lake, and sank, and was rescued by creatures of the water.”

Roine’s face tensed. “What kind of creatures?”
 

Tan paused, feeling another moment of hesitation. Would the nymid care? If only he could speak to them, could hear how they felt about sharing their secret. Tan didn’t have the energy to try and communicate with them and wasn’t sure whether they would answer in the daylight.

But they wouldn’t care if Amia knew of them. He would just have to trust Roine. “They called themselves the nymid.”

Amia stared at Tan, a strange curiosity and a hint of recognition upon her face, but she said nothing. Her eyes flickered out to the lake, looking from the water and then back to Tan, all while wearing a strange expression.

Roine had a different reaction. “Nymid? How do you know that name?”

“They told me.”

“You
spoke
to them?”
 

“I didn’t really speak to them. I think they communicate with thought.” Tan worried for a moment that Roine did not believe him.

Then Roine stood, pacing to the edge of the water. He knelt there and touched the water, swirling a finger through it. “None have seen the nymid in centuries.”

Tan felt surprised. “You know of them?”
 

“They are water elementals. They are old, thought to be nearly as old as the great elementals, and powerful. I understand now how you survived.” He stared out into the water, a wistful expression upon his face. “I still don’t know how you spoke to them.”

Elementals. At least that much confirmed what Tan suspected. “Why?”

Roine stared out into the lake. “Few have the ability,” he began. “Once, when others knew the nymid, the ability to speak to them was a gift seen only in the most powerful—”
 

He cut himself off, not finishing his thought. He turned from the peaceful water of the lake and looked carefully at Tan, watching him intently. “No matter,” Roine decided. “What matters is that they healed you. I wish I knew why.”

“They wanted me to save Amia.”

She smiled at him with a hint of amusement though did not appear surprised. “I wish I could thank them.”

“I can try,” Tan offered.

“It won’t work outside the water,” Roine said.

Tan frowned, remembering the attack. Had he been in the water when he called to the nymid asking for help? He didn’t think he had, and wondered whether that was important.

“How were you able to penetrate the barrier?” Amia asked.

Tan remembered the cage of fire and the strange armor the nymid had given him. He could think of no other word for it. “The nymid helped.”

“The nymid healed you and they helped save Amia?” Roine asked, obviously surprised.

“They healed me to save the Daughter,” he answered.

Amia’s smile deepened.
 

“You were attacking when I reached the shore. After I killed the hound, I couldn’t get near enough to Amia and called to the nymid. They shaped me some sort of armor,” he said, wondering if he still wore it. “It let me to tolerate the heat to save Amia.”

“You called to them. And they answered.” Roine looked as if he did not believe.
 

Tan nodded. “They helped another time, as well.”

Roine waited.

“When you were fighting Fur. During the second wave. The nymid helped.”

Roine looked out to the water again. “That makes sense,” he admitted. “I was nearly spent and would not have been strong enough to finish Fur. But why would they help?”

Tan shrugged. “They called the lisincend ‘Twisted Fire,’” he said.
 

Roine snorted. “Twisted Fire?” A strange smile came to his face. “Fitting. It suits them.”

Tan looked over the lake before turning his attention to the mountain rising overhead. They were nowhere near the mountain pass—the reason he’d left Nor with Roine to begin with—and now he was even more tightly tied to what the king wanted. After everything he’d been through, that should bother him.
 

He looked over to Amia. She sat with her hands holding her head, chewing the strip of meat. She’d lost as much as him. Possibly more. And for no reason other than Incendin wanted more power.

And then there was Roine. How much had he gone through over the years? Whatever happened with Ilianna still troubled him, even years later. Yet he still served the king. Just like his mother even after losing his father.
 

He sighed. “What now?”
 

Roine looked at him and seemed to understand the emotions working though him. “We still need to reach the artifact. Fur was slowed, but he’ll come again.”