Deliverance (28 page)

Just as soon as Blaze untied the horse and
mounted him, sitting right behind Crystal, he kicked his legs and
the horse then began to gallop east towards the City of Magi.

For three days, Blaze and Crystal rode
through the plains and wooded areas of Cierith. Each night, Blaze
and Crystal took turns keeping watch while the other slept, and by
the end of the journey, both were so exhausted and hungry that the
sight of the mountains on the third morning elated them both.

“We should be at the city gates within the
hour,” Crystal said.

“It just occurred to me that I have never
seen the city itself,” Blaze muttered. He steered the horse while
sitting behind Crystal and allowed her to lean back onto his
shoulder.

“The city is a lot nicer if you aren’t
sneaking around underground,” Crystal teased.

“I just hope the elders aren’t still sore at
me,” Blaze muttered.

“I will assure them you have changed. They
trust me, so I will convince them you are trustworthy too,” Crystal
told him.

Just as Crystal predicted, less than an hour
later, the two of them arrived at the city gates. The guard above
the gate, who just so happened to be the same guard from the first
time Crystal was there, looked down and said, “State your
business.”

“It is I, the leader of Deliverance,”
Crystal called back.

“Oh, Miss Crystal! I almost didn’t recognize
you!” the guard replied.

“I need to speak with the elders right away.
It’s urgent!” Crystal said.

“Very well, I’ll send a message to them,”
replied the guard. He then called to the other guards, “Open the
gates!”

As soon as the enormous gates opened, Blaze
urged the horse forward and the three of them entered the city.

“It looks like they’ve rebuilt everything
already!” Crystal said, admiring the new buildings.

“That’s good . . .” Blaze muttered.

Crystal sensed the guilt in his voice, and
so she leaned back a little closer to him in an effort to comfort
him. It seemed to work, because he put his arm around her and
pulled her closer. When they finally reached the Elder’s Hall,
Crystal and Blaze were greeted by members of the council.

“Welcome Miss Crystal!” said a councilman,
“The elders have already been informed of your arrival, so let us
take your horse into the city stable and bring you inside.”

After dismounting from their horse, Crystal
and Blaze were then led into the meeting hall and were greeted by
the five remaining elders.

“Miss Crystal, we received word that you
requested to speak with us immediately.” Elder Halmez said in his
usual rough voice, “Is something wrong?”

“I’m afraid so,” Crystal ruefully
replied.

“Is, that . . . ?” asked Halmez, gesturing
to Blaze, “It IS him!”

“Why did you bring him back here?” Orwynn
asked sternly.

Blaze leaned in behind Crystal and
whispered, “I think they’re still sore.”

“Please, elders, I promise you that Blaze is
a changed man!” Crystal assured.

“How are we supposed to just let him walk
back in here after what he’s done?” Halmez exclaimed. He then
looked at Blaze again and commanded, “Leave, now!”

Blaze turned around without a word and
despite Crystal pleading for him to stay, he walked away until he
heard someone say, “We can trust him.”

Blaze and Crystal both turned to see Elder
Ydon stepping forward.

“You used your telepathy, Ydon?” asked
Bredewig.

“What the hell is telepathy?” Blaze
asked.

“It means he can read minds, Blaze,” Crystal
answered.

“And generate my thoughts into other minds
as well,” Ydon added. He then turned to Blaze and said, “Forgive me
for intruding your thoughts, but I had to be sure if you were in
fact trustworthy. I saw how you risked your life to save Miss
Crystal, and now I know that you can be trusted.”

“Could you at least warn me next time you
decide to hijack my mind?” Blaze retorted, walking back to
Crystal’s side.

“I will not do it again. I promise,” Ydon
replied. He then turned back to Crystal, “I would also like to
apologize for reading your thoughts as well. When you first came to
the City of Magi and gave your speech, I thought it was odd that
you were so willing to help us and yet tell us nothing about
yourself, so I read your mind and discovered who you really
are.”

Crystal’s eyes widened, and Ydon shook his
head and added in assurance, “Do not worry, your secret is safe
with me.”

“What secret?” Halmez asked.

“I am sorry, my fellow elders, but I am not
at liberty to say. Take my word for it: Crystal has a noble reason
for her actions,” Ydon replied.

“Very well, we trust your words,” Leldor
said.

“Actually . . .” Crystal began. Everyone
turned to look at her curiously and she continued, “There is no
point in concealing my true identity anymore, because Bogdan has
discovered it. That’s actually one of the reasons we came.”

“Well then, will you begin by telling us you
real name?” Orwynn asked.

Crystal looked back and forth at the elders,
and then after she felt Blaze place his hand onto her shoulder, she
took a deep breath and said, “It’s Amelia. To be specific, it’s
Princess Amelia Atteberry of Cierith.”

The elders remained silent and all of them
except for Ydon bore a surprised expression. They looked back and
forth at each other and Halmez finally spoke, “I see we have a lot
to discuss. Why don’t you two get washed up and we will all talk
over dinner. We will have someone waiting by the stairwell on the
third floor to take you to the dining room when you’re done.”

Crystal nodded, and not long after that, she
and Blaze were led to separate rooms on the same floor where
Crystal spent the night the first time she was there. The servant
who showed Crystal to her room pointed to another room in the
corner and told her a hot bath was waiting for her.

“Just leave your clothes on the bed. There
is a spare outfit waiting for you in the bathroom that you can use
until your clothes are clean. When you’re done with your bath, just
leave the water alone and someone will clean up while you eat
dinner,” the old woman said.

“Thank you very much,” Crystal replied.

As soon as the servant lady closed the door
behind her, Crystal walked over to the bed next to the bathroom and
stripped naked. She then walked into the bathroom and saw a full
tub of steamy water and stepped in without hesitation. The water
felt scorching hot against her skin, but she didn’t care. After a
while of sitting in the hot water, her skin turned pink and
adjusted to the heat.

Crystal bathed for nearly half an hour. She
washed herself head to toe with sweet-smelling soap, which relaxed
her tremendously. She was so relaxed that she nearly dozed off in
the water, but somehow managed to coax herself to get out and towel
off. After squeezing almost all of the water out of her hair, she
walked over to the outfit that hung on the door.

It was another robe similar to her own, but
it was a pale green color and instead of having bell sleeves that
only reached her mid-forearm, these had longer, thinner sleeves.
The robe was about the same length of Crystal’s, but it was solid
down the middle so that instead of wrapping it around her and
snapping in down the middle, Crystal would have to pull it over her
head. The robe also came with a fabric belt and matching boots.

Crystal dressed herself in the spare clothes
and even threw on her pendant purely out of habit and eyed her new
look in the full body mirror. She figured she looked pleasant
enough, so she decided to head over to the dining room. Her hair
was still damp, so she quickly toweled it off some more and left
the room.

As she emerged from her bedroom, she heard a
voice call from the other side of the door, “Finally! I swear you
women take forever.”

Crystal shut the door to see Blaze waiting
for her. He was clean as well and was wearing a long-sleeved white
shirt with a deep, turquoise tunic vest, gray pants, and dark gray
boots. She could tell he had bathed too, because his hair was
slightly damp. He leaned against the wall with his arms folded and
his legs crossed slightly, looking amused.

“You look nice,” she responded, choosing to
ignore his remark.

He then smiled back at her and to her
surprise, he replied, “So do you. That green is a nice color on
you.”

Crystal smiled and softly replied, “Thanks.
I’m sure you are as hungry as I am, so let’s go to the dining
room.”

“Okay then, let’s go,” Blaze said.

****

As Halmez promised, a servant waiting by the
stairwell on the third floor led Crystal and Blaze to a large
dining room. A dark wooden table covered in a silvery cloth sat in
the middle of the room. Dozens of trays of delicious food lined the
table and seven chairs, five of which were filled by the elders,
lined up six on either side of the table and one at the end.

Elder Halmez sat at the head of the table
while Orwynn, Ydon, and Bredewig sat on his right and Leldor sat on
his left with two empty seats beside him. Crystal figured that when
Saitar and Malcolm had been around, Malcolm sat in the head seat
and the others sat around him. Now that he was dead and Saitar had
left, there were two empty seats for Crystal and Blaze to join
them.

“Ah, there you two are!” Halmez greeted,
“Come and join us.”

Crystal sat in the chair next to Leldor and
Blaze sat next to her.

“Thank you for the spare clothes,” Crystal
said.

“Anything to help our allies.” Halmez
replied, “As the newly appointed High Elder, I will honor Malcolm’s
wishes to aid your cause.”

“You are the new High Elder?” asked Crystal.
She then noticed that instead of the light gray robe he used to
wear, Halmez now wore a white robe like Malcolm used to wear.

“Yes. After Malcolm’s death, the people
appointed Halmez because of how well he led the defense of the city
during Bogdan’s invasion,” Leldor said.

“Once a High Elder either retires, dies, or
is, unfortunately, removed from his or her position, another elder
is chosen. An elder must serve for at least ten years before
becoming the High Elder. Halmez has served for fifteen,” Orwynn
explained.

“So what about the other two spots for
elders?” Crystal asked.

“We have announced for the people to make
nominations of worthy candidates, and once there is a small group
of people to choose from, the people cast their votes and after
they are tallied, the new elder will be chosen. In this case, we
will be choosing two of the candidates,” explained Ydon.

“Well now,” Halmez replied, “enough talk
about all that. Let us get on with why our guests need our
help.”

“Oh, right.” Crystal said, “Well, I already
told you my true name, but if it’s all the same, I would rather be
called ‘Crystal’ until Cierith has been freed. My true name
represents the freedom of the people; I cannot take my name back
until they have their freedom.”

“Very well, we will honor your wishes, Miss
Crystal,” Halmez replied. The other elders nodded in agreement.

“Thank you,” Crystal replied.

For the next hour, she told them the events
that took place after they had departed from the city the first
time. She explained how they recruited Blaze and about the tracking
mark that Thaddeus put on Blaze, and then explained all the shards
they went after, even though she excluded most of the details about
the incident at Valamar’s mansion.

As soon as she mentioned Valamar, however,
Bredewig mentioned, “Quite . . . an eccentric fellow, that man.
There were several brutish men who came here looking for you,
Crystal, and they said that Valamar sent them. The guardsmen at the
gates did not let them enter the city, but they passed the message
along to me that Valamar wanted to speak with my granddaughter. I
found that quite odd, but perhaps you could shed some light on
that?”

Crystal and Blaze exchanged disgusted
glances and then Crystal said, “We’ve already had the displeasure
of meeting him.”

“Mainly a ‘kick to the groin’ kind of
displeasure,” Blaze added.

Crystal explained to Bredewig how she used
his name and claimed to be his granddaughter to gain entrance to
the Valamar estate and apologized to him for the inconvenience to
him, but he brushed it off as no big deal.

Crystal then told them that Blaze changed in
those months and even told them how he was injured trying to
protect her. The elders listened intently as Crystal told them
about being captured and how she and Blaze escaped, and then she
asked the elder’s about removing Blaze’s tracking mark.

“Not a problem.” Bredewig muttered, “I know
the book that the counter spell is in and I can get that off after
dinner.”

“Thanks,” Blaze muttered back.

Crystal went on to tell them about what
Thaddeus said about the Lost Realm she then finished up her
explanation by telling the elders how Gavril helped them sneak out
of the castle, but went back in saying he’d make sure their friends
weren’t hurt.

“Something makes me uneasy about what he
said.” Crystal said, “‘I have something I have to do,’ is what he
said.”

“Well, that Gavril fellow seemed like he
could handle his own,” Leldor assured.

“Yes, he is very strong.” Crystal agreed,
“He’s always been there for me and has never once let me down.”

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Orwynn assured.

“Yeah, it would take more than a few of
Bogdan’s guards to scare that guy.” Blaze muttered, “He’s a tough
old man.”

Crystal laughed, but then cleared her throat
and continued speaking.

“So why do you think Malcolm said that I
would need to find the answer to using holy magic in the Lost
Realm?” Crystal asked the elders.