Deliverance (34 page)

Blaze, however, couldn’t respond out of
shock, but Crystal wiped her face and managed to reply, “Gavril is
still alive, Althea! I’ve known him my whole life, and Blaze knows
him too!”

A hopeful smile grew on Althea’s face and
she stammered out, “But, how did he survive?”

Crystal then told Althea the story of how
her father found Gavril floating on the raft and then brought him
to Cartigo where her mother healed him. She told him how he became
her father’s general, how he and her father were best friends, and
even tearfully told her how he hid with her and watched Bogdan kill
her parents. She also told Althea about how she and Gavril met
Blaze and recruited him with the rebels, leaving out the details of
how Blaze and Gavril fought on a regular basis, of course. She then
concluded by telling Althea what a great man Gavril was and how he
dedicated his life to protecting her.

Althea cried tears of joy and said, “I am so
happy Gavril is alive! I only wish I could see him again!”

“You can, Althea,” the guardian said.
Everyone jumped when they heard him speak, having forgotten he was
there.

“How can I see him? Please tell me!” Althea
begged.

“Just as you can show others your memories,
you can view the memories of others. In this case, it is necessary
for you to receive closure and as a result, for your soul to be set
free.” the guardian explained, “Place your hand on Crystal’s and
you will see Gavril.”

Althea stepped towards Crystal with her hand
out, and Crystal smiled and did the same. When their hands touched,
Crystal felt a chill over her whole body, and Althea gasped and
closed her eyes.

“Oh my goodness,” she muttered. She then
smiled and said, “I see him! He’s much older, but there’s no
mistaking his eyes. I see him by your side, protecting you. He’s a
wonderful fighter! He’d always wanted to learn to use a sword. I
see him training you too! I’m so happy he’s all right. Now I see
him . . . oh, he’s looking at the ocean. He looks . . . sad
here.”

Crystal’s heart sank again and she replied,
“Yes, I sometimes found him staring at the ocean when we were near
it, and when I asked him what he was doing, he would say, ‘just
wondering what it would be like to live on the beach.’ I never
understood what he meant until now.”

“I hate the thought of him feeling sad for
me,” Althea said softly, “but from the sound of it, he’s led a
great life!”

“Yes, he has,” Crystal assured.

Althea then removed her hand from Crystal’s
and wiped a tear from her face. She was still smiling, and she
looked at Blaze and then back at Crystal and said, “You two love
each other, right?”

Crystal and Blaze both smiled and
nodded.

Althea looked at Blaze again and said, “I
want you to take good care of her, understand? Whatever you do,
don’t take her for granted.” After Blaze nodded, Althea then added,
“Now I need you to do something for me, Blaze. Only you can do it
and I therefore cannot get Crystal involved, so I will whisper it
in your ear. Will you take this burden and lift it from my
soul?”

“Yes,” Blaze answered quickly.

Althea then walked over to his side, put her
hand in front of her mouth, and whispered into Blaze’s ear. Because
she was much shorter than he was, Blaze had to lean downward a bit
for her to reach.

For several minutes, Crystal watched Blaze’s
breathing quicken again and his eyes growing wider. Suddenly, the
color drained from Blaze’s face and the Gaull shard slipped out of
his limp hand and fall with a CLANK onto the floor. Althea finished
whispering and then backed away.

Blaze’s legs began to shake, and Crystal
rushed forward to catch him before he collapsed. They knelt down on
the ground together and Crystal wrapped her arms around him. She
wished she could ask what it was his mother told him, but she knew
that he would not tell her.

Just then, Althea knelt down in front of
Blaze and said, “I wish I was alive so I could hold you right now,
Blaze. I want you to know how much I love you.” She then turned to
Crystal and said, “I want to thank you for turning him into a good
man and for being there when he needed someone.”

Crystal realized then that Althea saw her
memories of her first encounter with Blaze. She smiled at her and
said, “He always had the ability to be a good man; I just showed
him the good he couldn’t see in himself.”

“M-mother . . .” Blaze muttered. The two
women looked at Blaze, who had his head turned down. He looked up
with a tear-soaked face and said, “I swear that I will free
you.”

Althea smiled and said, “I know you will. I
love you.”

“I love you too,” Blaze muttered weakly.

With a flash of light, Althea’s form faded
and turned back into a spirit orb and floated away.

CHAPTER 21

Bogdan angrily paced back and forth in the
castle library in Cartigo. Saitar, standing petrified a few feet
away, had just informed the king that there have been no sightings
of Crystal and Blaze. He waited in agonizing silence, wondering
when the king would snap. Saitar feared that if he said anything
before Bogdan spoke again, his neck may be broken by the end of the
evening.

“They couldn’t have just disappeared!
Someone had to have seen them and they just aren’t coming forward
to report it! If it gets out that the princess is alive, the people
of Cierith will surely rise against me,” the king shouted.

“What do you think we should do, my king?”
Saitar stammered.

Bogdan paced for a little while longer,
muttering to himself, before finally saying, “Send an announcement
out to every village saying that anyone withholding information
will be put to death.”

“Yes my king,” Saitar replied and obediently
bowed. He then turned around and left the library.

Bogdan had enough to deal with without those
two slipping through his fingers again and again; he was also
getting nowhere finding the last Gaull shard. The only person who
claimed to know where to find it wasn’t talking, despite nearly a
week of severe beatings and torture. Bogdan then felt it was time
to pay his special prisoner another visit. After a quick gulp of a
full glass of scotch, he left the library and headed to the west
wing of the castle.

Bogdan climbed the spiral stairwell in the
old western tower of the castle. At the top was where he kept his
prisoner in a room that had filthy, rotting, wooden floors. It had
been abandoned since the invasion, so Bogdan couldn’t think of a
better place for him to have private talks with his prisoner.

Two guards were stationed around the clock
outside of the door, and when Bogdan approached, the guards saluted
him and granted him entrance. One of the guards unlocked the door
with a key tied to his belt and the king entered into the dark
room, shutting the door behind him. The only source of light was a
tiny window that was too high for anyone to see out of. The dim
light coming from the window barely shined into the room enough to
reveal the silhouette of a figure huddled against the wall.

The room was void of a bed or any other
furniture, so the rebel, Gavril, was forced to lie alone on the
floor. Bogdan stared at Gavril, who did not look up when he
entered, for several silent minutes. Even through the cloudy light
passing through the window, he could see the cuts and bruises on
his body. He almost smiled at the memory of putting them there.

“Are you ready to tell me where the shard
is?” Bogdan finally asked.

A weary and broken Gavril lifted his head
with all of his strength and replied, “What shard?”

“You know damned well ‘what shard.’ Stop
toying with me!” Bogdan rebuked.

Gavril managed to sit upright, despite
having several cracked ribs and a broken arm, and through the
bruises on his face he muttered, “What can you possibly do to me
that you haven’t done already? Nothing you can do to me will be
worse than what you did all those years ago.”

“I did not defile another man’s marriage!
You deserved the punishment I gave you! You should have known what
your fate would be when you decided to lie with my wife,” Bogdan
growled. He began pacing back and forth in front of the wounded
man.

“Althea didn’t deserve her fate,” Gavril
argued.

Bogdan inhaled fiercely. “I gave her riches,
jewels, and a life of luxury! How did she repay me? She not only
spread her legs to you but she was also going to take my son away
with you as well! You both deserved more than what you got!”

“She didn’t want riches or jewels! She just
wanted love. I gave that to her because you are incapable of loving
anyone!” Gavril shouted through the pain.

Out of anger, Bogdan then grabbed Gavril by
the neck and squeezed. Even though his was already bruised and
painful, Gavril stayed his ground and did not show weakness.

“Why won’t you give in?” Bogdan screamed. He
then tossed Gavril by the neck back onto the floor.

Gavril coughed and hacked for air, which
only hurt more, and rebuked, “I told you, no physical torture can
be worse than the mental torture I went through all those years
ago. Do you have any idea how it felt to make love to Althea
knowing you would rape her the second you got home, and that there
wasn’t a thing I could do about it? Not to mention, the pain I felt
every time I saw a bruise on her body! When I watched her son get
ripped out of her arms, it destroyed me! Perhaps the worst part was
the look you gave me before making me watch you drive a knife into
her heart!”

Bogdan then drove his fist into Gavril’s
already cracked ribs and grinned with satisfaction when he felt
them break under his knuckles. Gavril screamed with pain and fell
flat onto the ground. He struggled for breath again but despite
being broken and battered, he said nothing more.

Bogdan rose to his feet, brushed himself
off, and said, “Well, I believe I’ve relieved enough stress for the
time being. I have other important matters to attend to, so I will
be back later.”

With those last words, the king strolled out
of the room as casually as if he had just been visiting an old
friend.

****

The Guardian of the Lost led Blaze and
Crystal back to the entrance of the Lost Realm. Crystal clutched
the Gaull shard in one hand and held Blaze’s hand in the other. His
face was still pale and he was covered in a nervous sweat. Crystal
could not imagine what Althea told him to do, but it seemed like
even though she couldn’t know, she would have to try and find a way
to comfort him and help him accomplish his task in any way she
could.

“You must not travel with the last shard
while people are looking for you.” the guardian said after stopping
at the archway, “Therefore, I will transport you both back to
Cartigo.”

“We have our horse tied up about a mile
outside of the forest,” Crystal said.

“Do not fret, your horse will be sent there
as well,” the guardian assured.

“Thank you,” Crystal replied. She then
turned to Blaze, kissed the scar area on his neck, and whispered,
“I’m here for you.”

Blaze turned to her, squeezed her hand and
smiled. She could tell he was still too much in shock to feel like
talking, and she felt helpless watching him suffer.

“Stand in the middle of the platform,”
commanded the guardian. Crystal and Blaze obeyed, and once they
were standing still, the guardian then said, “Good luck to the both
of you.”

With a flash of light, the scene around
Crystal and Blaze disappeared and within seconds, the forest
outside of Cartigo surrounded them.

“Bear!” Crystal cried.

As the guardian promised, their horse had
been transported right next to them. Crystal hugged Bear’s neck and
brushed her hand across his black mane.

“Why are you so attached to him?” Blaze
asked.

Crystal had been so used to Blaze not
talking that when he finally did, it startled her.

“I like animals,” Crystal replied, “And this
one has been so loyal and sweet! I guess I also feel attached
because he will always remind me of the journey you and I have been
through.”

Blaze smiled and embraced Crystal. She
wrapped him arms around him in return and they held each other for
several minutes.

“I don’t know what will happen once we go in
there. I have a feeling that this will be the final battle with
Bogdan, and before we face him, I want you to know that I will love
you until the end,” Blaze whispered.

“I love you too, Blaze,” Crystal whispered
back.

Blaze then pulled away from her and kissed
her. Crystal felt her knees weaken and she held onto Blaze’s neck
for support. He pulled his lips away from hers and stared into her
eyes briefly.

“Let’s go,” he whispered.

“All right,” Crystal responded.

****

Thaddeus was beginning to feel tired again,
despite having slept for several days. After waking from his first
magic sleep and instructing Blaze to rescue Crystal and take her to
the elders, he put himself to sleep again so that Saitar would not
see them going to the City of Magi. He suddenly woke from his
self-induced sleep after three days and realized that he could no
longer see through Blaze’s eyes, so he felt better knowing that he
and Crystal could achieve their mission without being caught.

Thaddeus’s old body was crouched in the
corner of the same cell he was sheltered in for nearly two weeks.
His comrades were growing as weary as he was as they all
desperately tried to get comfortable, but their efforts were in
vain. Kerali had been a nervous wreck worrying about Breuvial, for
he did not know what became of his fiancée after hearing that the
hideout was destroyed, and the elf prince feared the worst. The
twins, Maryn and Taryn, huddled next to each other and comforted
one another, and even Sigurd wasn’t even pretending to not feel
weak anymore.