Deliverance (31 page)

“Thankfully most Daldussan soldiers are
incredibly lazy,” Crystal responded.

“If Bogdan only knew . . .” Blaze muttered
with a laugh.

Deciding they had traveled far enough away
from the areas with soldier camps, Blaze steered the horse south of
the village. They rode throughout the day, only stopping for a few
minutes every few hours to eat. Crystal eventually came to like
their horse and asked Blaze if he had given him a name.

“I’ve never really given a name to a horse
before,” he said to her. Crystal had just finished eating her food
and was giving the horse some oats.

“Well he’s been a huge help.” Crystal said
while rubbing the horse’s nose, “We have to give him a name.”

“You can name him,” Blaze replied.

“All right. How about . . .” she then
trailed off, thinking for a minute or two, and then came up with a
name, “. . . Bear! My father had a horse just like this a long time
ago and that’s what he named him.”

“Fine with me,” Blaze replied.

After their meal, Blaze and Crystal mounted
onto Bear and rode off. The afternoon began approaching before
long, and eventually, the sky began to get dark with the sunset.
Blaze found a place to settle down for the night in a rocky area
that was several miles east of the remains of the Elven Forest. He
suggested they settle down before dark so that they wouldn’t have
to set a fire, and Crystal set up a few magic traps in the area
that would explode and warn them if someone approached.

“For some odd reason, I can’t help but feel
like I know this place,” Crystal told Blaze after he began setting
up a tent.

“What do you mean?” Blaze asked her.

“I don’t know, but this area seems familiar
. . .” Crystal muttered, trailing off.

“Well, I don’t know, but thankfully there’s
enough rocky terrain here so we can keep out of sight. I’m leaving
an opening so that when the sun rises, we’ll be woken up by the
sunlight in time to get packed and—” At this point, Blaze turned
around to face Crystal, but instead, he saw her crouched down
several yards away with her back turned to him.

He rose to his feet and approached her
slowly, realizing that she was staring at something sticking in the
ground. As he got closer, he saw that the object in question was a
rusted sword that someone had plunged into the dirt. When Blaze was
standing right behind Crystal, he then noticed that tied to the
hilt of the sword was what looked like a faded blue ribbon.

Blaze suddenly heard Crystal sniff, and when
he knelt next to her, he saw tears forming in her eyes.

“I can’t believe it’s all still here!” she
whispered.

“What is this?” he asked her tenderly. He
then wiped a lone tear that fell down her cheek.

“The night we escaped from the castle,”
Crystal began with a teary voice, “Gavril had the soldiers wrap my
parents’ bodies up and take them with us so we could give them a
proper burial. We wanted to wait until we had gotten to the Dwarven
Mountains, but two days after our escape, Gavril decided that we
shouldn’t just let them rot in the caravan anymore, so he found a
place to bury them. This is it, Blaze; this is where my parents are
buried.”

Blaze looked at the sword again and noticed
about six feet behind it lay two, large, flat stones. His heart
sank at the realization that the two people that meant the most to
Crystal as a child now lay several feet underground before him.
Blaze put his arm around Crystal’s shoulders to silently let her
know that he was there for her.

“Why is this sword here?” Blaze asked.

“It was my father’s. Gavril plunged it in
front of their graves and I tied this to the hilt,” Crystal
replied. She then held her hand out, grazed her fingers on the
ribbon, and then added, “My mother made me this ribbon after I
begged and begged her to for days. After she finished it, I wore it
all the time, even to bed. I was wearing it the night they were
killed.”

Blaze then saw the letter “A” that had been
delicately embroidered onto one of the ends of the ribbon. It had
faded so much after being exposed to the weather and time that the
once white threads had become a dirty, creamy color that mixed with
the blue dye of the ribbon.

Crystal then began to sob, at which point
Blaze wasted no time in embracing Crystal and letting her cry on
his shoulder. She held him back and leaned on him for support,
which he responded to by holding her tighter. He felt helpless at
the thought of not being able to take her pain away, but he knew he
had to do something for her. He wasn’t the one who actually raised
his sword to her parents, but he blamed himself for helping Bogdan
destroy Cierith in the wake of their death. Being near their
daughter alone insulted their memory, and Blaze decided that he had
to find some way to make things right.

Later that night, after Crystal fell asleep
in the tent next to Blaze, he lay awake contemplating what he was
going to do. He decided that Crystal meant more to him than anyone
or anything, and so, he set into his mind a plan of action. He
carefully slipped out of the tent without waking Crystal and
quietly walked back over to the gravesite.

The moonlight glittered on the surface of
the rocks that marked the graves of the king and queen, but the
sword at their feet was so rusted with age that nothing but decay
reflected from it. Even though he knew that it was a safe bet that
no one would hear him, Blaze still knelt in front of the graves,
bowed his head, and said. “Hello, uh, Your Majesties.”

Blaze spoke almost in a whisper. He
instinctively turned to see if Crystal was still asleep, and when
he saw that she had not stirred, he continued talking. “I want you
guys to know that you have a great daughter. From what I hear, you
two were well-respected and loved, so I can see where she gets it
from. As for the king, if you’re anything like Gavril and Crystal
said, you probably would have run your sword right threw me the
second I announced that I love your daughter. I’ve done horrible
things and I know that I don’t deserve to be with her. I doubt you
would want the son of your murderer marrying your daughter anyway.
Even so, I want to atone for my wicked past.”

Blaze then put his hand on the scar on his
neck where the tracking mark used to be and said, “I am glad this
scar is here, because now I have a reminder of who I used to be,
and it will also remind me to never go back to that life. Crystal
is my life now, so if you give me the strength I need, I swear that
I will spend the rest of my life making up the things I have done
to her. I will always do my best to protect her and, if we both
survive and we do stay together, I will love her until the day I
die. I promise.”

Blaze hung his head, feeling slightly silly,
but in a way, he still felt better than before. Even if the king
and queen didn’t hear him, he had to get all of that off his chest.
He eventually rose to his feet, walked over to the tent, and
crawled inside. He was relieved to find Crystal still asleep, and
when he lay down beside her, she moaned and stirred a little, but
did not wake. Blaze lightly kissed her forehead and prayed that she
would be his forever until he drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER 20

The fifth day after Blaze and Crystal left
the City of Magi, they finally came face to face with the decayed
forest. The southeastern border of Cierith was empty of any soldier
camps and it wasn’t hard to guess why. The air seemed to grow
colder as they drew nearer, even though it was summer. As they
figured he would, as soon as they came close to the forest, Bear
became agitated and eventually wouldn’t take another step
forward.

“Looks like we’ll have to walk the rest of
the way on foot,” Blaze said, trying to calm Bear enough so that he
and Crystal could dismount.

After tying Bear next to a nearby pool of
water with a bucket of food, Blaze and Crystal then set off on foot
in the direction of the forest. The closer they came, it seemed,
the darker the sky became. Crystal knew now that they were indeed
closing in on the entrance to the Lost Realm after remembering the
diary entry that Bredewig read to them.

Up close, the forest revealed black and gray
trees with similar, brittle leaves and twigs still holding onto the
branches. The air felt stale and decayed even several yards from
the edge of the forest. The air was cold, but instead of a chill,
it gave Blaze and Crystal more of a clammy feeling. The eeriest
part of it, however, was the silence. No sound of wind blowing,
birds chirping, or even bugs or snakes crawling came from the
forest of death.

Once they read the edge of the forest,
Crystal was overcome with a sense of sadness and grief. She began
to cry, and she could not understand why.

“It’s just . . . there! I am not thinking of
anything sad and yet I can’t stop crying,” Crystal said. She looked
at Blaze, who had his hand on his chest.

“I don’t feel sadness; I feel guilt. My
chest hurts too,” he said.

Crystal grabbed his free hand, squeezed it,
and said, “I think the forest is bringing out our negative
emotions, or rather, the Lost Realm is. Let’s just stick together
and help each other through it.”

“Agreed,” Blaze responded.

They then walked forward with their hands
interlocked despite their growing fears. Blaze led the way,
striking dead branches out of the way with his sword, and Crystal
stayed with her hand in his close behind him. As they ventured
further, the trees grew more and more crowded together and it was
getting increasingly hard to navigate through the thick, dead
brush. The dead grass crunched under their feet, and if it wasn’t
for that and the sound of Blaze’s sword slicing through the brush,
Crystal felt she would have been driven mad by the silence in the
air.

They continued walking until suddenly, Blaze
stopped, turned to face Crystal, and said, “What?”

“What?” Crystal repeated.

“You said my name, what’s wrong?” Blaze
said.

“I didn’t say a word,” Crystal replied.

Blaze gave her a confused look and then
shrugged and said, “It must be my mind trying to make up for the
lack of sound. Let’s keep moving.”

They walked along some more and after a
while, every step involved stepping over a tree root.

Blaze suddenly snapped his head back to
Crystal again and said, “Okay, I definitely heard it that time. Did
you say my name?”

“No, Blaze. I am not saying your name! I
don’t even hear it,” Crystal assured.

“This place is creeping the hell out of me,”
Blaze muttered, turning around and marching forward again.

Eventually, Crystal spotted a dim light up
ahead and a faint sparkle. When she pointed it out, Blaze marched
right for it. They finally came across a small clearing where there
was a rock formation covered in dead vines. At the bottom of the
formation was a small pool of water, but neither Crystal nor Blaze
could see the bottom, even though it didn’t look deep.

“It’s not muddy, but it’s so opaque that it
looks like a bottomless pit!” Crystal exclaimed.

“Where are the stairs, though?” Blaze asked,
“The diary entry said the traveler came across a set of
stairs.”

“That’s right,” Crystal remembered. She and
Blaze then circled every inch of the clearing, but found no secret
passageways hidden under the rocks or even the brush.

“Dammit!” Blaze cursed, “It has to be here!
We better not have come all this way for nothing!”

“I’m sure we’ll find it,” Crystal said,
trying to calm Blaze.

Out of frustration, Blaze then picked up a
palm sized rock and tossed it into the water. However, instead of a
splash, the two of them heard a CLANK several times after the stone
hit the water. They heard the noise continue and then slow down and
grow softer.

“The water didn’t ripple!” Crystal
exclaimed.

Blaze then added, “That noise almost sounded
like something tumbling down a flight of—”

“Stairs!” they both exclaimed
simultaneously. They then knelt down in front of the water and
tried to see past the surface, but could not. Blaze then daringly
stuck his arm into the water and saw no ripples form. Then, after
he pulled his arm out, he discovered that it was completely
dry.

“It’s just an illusion,” Crystal stated.

Blaze grabbed another rock and handed it to
Crystal, saying, “Think your magic fire can light this?”

“Sure, magic fire can light anything,” she
replied.

“Good. Light the rock and throw it in the
water, or illusion, whatever it is. Maybe it will light the path,”
Blaze said.

“Good idea,” Crystal praised him.

Crystal concentrated on the rock in her hand
and it was immediately engulfed in flames. She then tossed it onto
the water and they immediately saw a set of stairs as the stone
passed over them. The stone bounced down several steps and once it
stopped, they could see the path.

“Well, let’s go. I’ll light the rest of the
way,” Crystal said. She held her hand up like she was holding a
lantern and her hand suddenly erupted in flames. Blaze grabbed her
other hand and then the two walked side by side down the stairs and
into the unknown.

****

As Blaze and Crystal stepped down the first
few steps, the surface of the water once again lie still and did
not stir. Once their heads were under, they realized that they
could breathe as well, so they both relaxed. They continued down
the stairs completely dry and with Crystal’s hand still providing
light.

“I can barely see where we are going. We’d
better be careful not to trip,” Blaze warned.

“I can fix that,” Crystal replied. She then
held her hand out in front of her and the flame turned blue.
Suddenly, a dozen small orbs of fire danced away from her hands and
lined up on either side of the stairs. The orbs stretched roughly
eight steps in front of them, so Blaze and Crystal were able to see
the next step and avoid falling.