Darach (5 page)

Cautiously, he touched the wall, tendrils of his Fire following, the scarlet inquisitive. Feeling the stone delicately, he traced one seam of pure quartz in the granite, looking for an opening, anything where the granite wasn't entirely solid and impenetrable.

"What are you doing?" Darach asked, and Ceithin grasped Darach's arm, encouraging him closer. The rock was solid beneath his touch, but he sensed the water, the path of a thousand tiny streams passing through the rocks around them. Carved by erosion, these hollows could be expanded. Inspiration was there in an instant. Darach had fire so blue it was incandescent and near white in places. Water, the element, was driven with the blue Fire in a symbiotic relationship, and if he could manage to pull Darach into—

"I need to get us out of here," he half-whispered, his voice low. "I can cast the magik, but I need your element as well."

"I don't understand. My element? I don't have—" Darach looked bewildered, and Ceithin just stopped him there and then with his own input.

"The Fire, the element, water. Look, just give me—"

Words weren't going to explain this. He moved his own hand to Darach's and laced their fingers, placing them flat against the stone, mumbling the words of ancient power and taking another step closer to the sudden vortex that opened in the rock. The swirling aura was stable at least ten or so feet ahead into the mountain, but the space was tight. Steam swirled in a corona around them as the Fire and Darach's element worked to hold back the quartz.

"No—"

Darach near whimpered a
s he tried to
pull his hand back,
but
Ceithin
couldn
'
t let him
. T
hey had
to keep the
magik
in place
or they would become a permanent part of the Earth
.
He
tightened his grip
and yanked hard
. The solid rock in front of them was now altogether something different
. The
watercourses inside
split and
widen
ed
, and the motion of the
magik
ed barrier
was
dizzying and bright. Darach tugged
away
,
frantic
, a single word on his lips
;
n
o
.

"Stop it," Ceithin snapped, pulling Darach into the space, sensing water and earth parting to let them through. Darach's element was so deeply hidden in the younger man it was a wonder Ceithin could get a hold of any of it. He thought he heard Darach whimper again. Terror filled the tiny sound, and a part of his hardened heart splintered.

"Nearly there," Ceithin said simply, his way of attempting to reassure the young man, concentrating on the vision of the sky that would be evidence of their survival. The oppression of the magik and detested, enclosed spaces caused his breathing to hitch. He desperately needed the wide open stretch of grass and trees. At last, the wash of cool air touched his skin as he stumbled out of the rock and fell to his knees, Darach collapsing beside him, heaving great lungfuls of air.

He looked up at the face of the rock through which they had just passed. It was closing even as he tried to still his breathing, until finally there was nothing left to prove what had just happened. The rock was a sheer face, the towers of the old City thrusting skyward above them and the glass of the new city sparkling in the sunlight off and away to the right. This place where the City lived was such a contradiction in terms, a jumbled mess of old and new.

Ceithin flopped his head to the left and had his first proper look at this Darach that Kian had told him about. Impulsive, loyal young Darach. He was slight, the same as Kian had been, pale-skinned, and his hair as white-blond as Kian's. His eyes were nothing like Kian's, though. They were not the forest green that had entreated him so earnestly for help. No. These eyes, these gorgeous eyes were an incredible blue, perfect enough to incite poetry. And his face… He was pretty. It was the only word for it. Pretty, and so damn young. He had Fire, sapphire sparks that traveled his skin, so he had to have reached the maturity age of twenty-one, but he looked so much younger. He was lying flat on his back, still breathing deeply and rather loudly, and Ceithin was suddenly concerned his companion would start to hyperventilate. He reached over, touching Darach briefly on the arm, allowing a small amount of scarlet to filter in past the skin and chase down the panic in the boy's chest.

He narrowed his eyes as Darach twitched at the simple contact, but he didn
'
t pull back from his charge.
He s
imply filed away the spark of connection between his Fire and Darach
'
s.
There
was nothing more than anger and distrust
between them,
and
no way on this earth
was there
anything like a real connection. Not with the boy. Not with
him
.

Stifling his train of thought, he cast a net of protection about them and clambered to his feet. He held out his hand to help Darach up.

"
Who
are
you? And how did you do
that
…
wall thing?
"
Darach asked
. He was
immediately on the attack
,
although his knees wobbled and he shivered in delayed
shock
,
his
gaze
flicking to the solid rock behind them.

Ceithin
noticed the sharp look and considered how the hell he was going to explain the
concept of the whole element
s
/Fire thing
to the
near
virgin standing before him. Instead of worrying about
it
, they needed to be concentrating on getting away from
t
he Council
and the
ir
stone fortress. They needed
a way of disappearing into the forest.
Ceithin
knew the forest like the back of his hand, and no one followed in there where Cariad marauders waited to kill and rape and main. Horses
. T
hey needed horses.
Ceithin
focused for a second on locating a likely source.

"I said, Cariad… Who. Are. You?" Darach was persistent, whimpering less and speaking with more confidence. Ceithin gave him that. "And how do you know Kian?"

"We don't have time for this. You stay, you die a traitor. Simple."

"No, but I'm not a traitor. I'm not going with you. Why should I go with you? Do you—"

"Enough questions, youngling," he snapped. His patience was low as he began the cautious steps towards the transport he could see in his mind's eye. Horses, and not far.

"I am not a youngling," Darach answered quickly, and not without a whole lot of posturing. "I have my Fire, you know."

"
And one day,
youngling
, I am sure you will learn to use it.
"

"
I
won
'
t
stand here,
Cariad
, and—
"

"Enough, I said." He spun on his heel to face Darach, who took a step back in response, his sapphire Fire throwing up a slight barrier in defense. "We need to get away from this godforsaken City before the Council knows we are gone. The forest is our best place to hide. We need to find horses." If anything, Darach grew paler, but Ceithin couldn't get a sense of whether it was the mention of the Council or the mention of the horses.

"Horses? I haven't… I don't… Can't we use—" Darach was flustered and waved his hand in front of him. To indicate what, Ceithin didn't know, although it made Darach look pathetically hopeless. "Not horses."

Great. It was the horse thing scaring Darach and not fear of the Council who ruled by keeping the population blind to what was around them, the Council who demanded killing, kidnapping, and banishing with no rhyme nor reason. No, it was fear of the gentle beasts that would be carrying Darach to safety.

"No, we can't use a fueled vehicle, and yes, you will ride a horse." There. He had said it firmly, the tone of his voice leaving little room for Darach to argue. "Come on."

He didn
'
t wa
it
for Darach to follow
. T
hey didn
'
t have time for contemplation
or contention.
Guardian would
discover
their
escape,
because
his Fire was amber gold and all
-
seeing.
T
he pathetically
-
easy
-
to
-
break wards
Ceithin had cast to cover their tracks wouldn
'
t last long and
would
quickly
fall under Guardian
'
s hands. He had
little time to get his new charge away from the
stone and glass C
ity fortress and to the Valley
.

"
I
'
m not going with you
.
A
ll I want is answers to my questions, and then you can go
.
"
Darach stood with crossed arms, his expression stony and unyielding.
"
I
am not getting dragged away from the city
,
Cariad
bastard.
"
The word Cariad was
spoken
venomously
, spat out with hatred
,
which
only
intensified
the wrongness of a word so foul coming from
the innocent-looking mouth.

Annwn
,
it
wasn
'
t a new thing
.
Cariad
he was
,
and
Ceithin
had been
born
the
bastard
son of parents who
'
d
never joined with the full ritual of
Council ordained
marriage
;
he
had heard worse. The population of this world had little time for the old ways or the travelers
that
banded together and held
traditions
close. Darach damn well was coming with him, because if he knew Kian, then he
might
know something about
Trystyn
;
and
that
was information
Ceithin
was determined to get out of him.

"Yes. You are." A simple statement, and one Darach had better listen to and abide by.

"No, I'm not. You will stand here and talk to me—"

Ceithin stepped into Darach's space, drawing to his full height, easily half a head taller than Darach, and gripped hard into the soft silky material of Darach's coat.

"You helped a Cariad escape from the Council. You crossed Guardian to do so. Clearly, you're a Cariad sympathizer. Your sentence is instant death or, worse, removal of Fire and a death so slow it will drive you insane with grief. You want to stay to talk, then you stay to die. We run. Now."

"I didn't have anything to do with… I didn't help… I know it looks bad, but when I explain."

"Explain what exactly."

"That I just wanted to ask… to find out…"

Obviously, facing the Council and Guardian was a fate better than staying with Ceithin. He leaned in an extra inch, schooling his features into a tight, furious mask. "Do. You. Want. To. Die?"

"You're probably going to kill me anyway, you filthy Cariad!" Darach shouted, pulling back insistently, and Ceithin let him stumble away as he released his grip.

"Maybe, youngling, maybe. But at least I have honor and would do it quickly." He left it at that and turned on his heel, bringing his attention back to the task in hand.

He smirked to himself when Darach followed him after a few seconds, grumbling something in Ancient under his breath. It was a surprise to hear Ancient syllables from someone who wasn't a Cariad. He didn't question it. There would be time for questions later, when the immediate need to escape had passed.

Sooner than he expected, they stood outside a tavern with smoke-soiled, dirty windows. He considered, and summarily dismissed, the vehicles lined up in dust-covered rows. The oil-run monstrosities had no place in the Cariad world. Then he switched his attention to the small group of horses tethered along a metal bar to one side and out of the main view. He was never so happy that some in the City held to the old ways even as toxic machines started to make their presence known. Horses would be a more efficient and less traceable way of getting deep into the forests around the fortress. Cautiously, he approached them, keeping himself out of sight. Laying a hand on the nearest, he gestured for Darach to stop. Darach stumbled clumsily into him.