Deliverance (41 page)

“Yeah, she did,” Blaze replied, still
embracing his father.

They finally let go of each other and Blaze
returned to Crystal’s side. She held his hand and leaned against
him.

“I’m really proud of you for your skills in
the battle. You really saved the day,” Gavril told Amelia.

“We all saved the day, Gavril. You, Blaze,
and everyone else who fought in the final battle as well as
throughout the years have been more than brave and honorable,”
Amelia replied.

“But if not for your holy magic, all would
have been lost. You were able to forgive your worst enemy, and to
be honest, I hope I can do the same someday,” Gavril replied.

“You mean you would be willing to forgive
Bogdan?” Amelia asked.

“In a way, yes, because even though I
suffered tremendously and lost the love of my life, I wouldn’t
change what happened,” Gavril said.

“Why not?” Blaze asked.

“Well, you see, Amelia never knew the whole
story about when her father found me and her mother healed me.
That’s all true, of course, but there’s more to it than that. When
August found me in the river and brought me to Cartigo, his
chancellor, who was a mage, told him about the last holy mage in
the City of Magi. The king requested her presence immediately and a
week later, I awoke to Elaine smiling at me and telling me I was
going to be all right. You see, Amelia’s parents never would have
met and therefore she never would have been born if it had not been
for my tragedy,” Gavril explained.

Amelia was stunned by this revelation. She
bowed her head and thought about what he said. Her heart ached for
Gavril and she couldn’t imagine the sadness he must have gone
through watching her parents fall in love after losing his own
lover. She then realized the strength he had to have in order to
look past his own grief to be happy for them and she gained even
more respect for him than she thought possible.

“Gavril . . .” she whispered.

“I don’t care what anyone says, Amelia. I
wouldn’t take away your parents’ happiness for anything, and I know
that Althea would feel the same way. I know I will see her again
someday, and I treasure the time we had even more now that I know
that something great came from our love,” Gavril said, and with the
last words, he turned and looked at Blaze.

After smiling back at Gavril, Blaze then
turned to Amelia and said, “After things are settled here, I will
be going back to Daldussa for a week to get Gavril settled into the
castle there and to publicly crown him as the new king. Once that
is done, we will both come back to Cartigo and we can then have the
wedding. Then Gavril will return to Daldussa afterward.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Amelia
replied.

A little while later, Gavril bid Amelia and
Blaze farewell and left them alone to enjoy the rest of the
afternoon. The two of them relaxed on the stone bench with Amelia
sitting up and Blaze lying on his back with his head rested on her
lap.

After a few minutes of silently relaxing
with the summer breeze lightly brushing their skin, Amelia then
asked Blaze, “So after step two, what is step three going to
be?”

“Well,” Blaze replied, “I can’t give you
back the family you lost, so step three will be giving you a new
family.”

Amelia smiled at the thought of little
children running through the castle and Blaze swooping them up in
his big arms.

Amelia brushed Blaze’s hair softly with her
hand and said, “Well, I think we will both have a lot to learn
about being parents, but I think that we should treat each day like
a new journey and cherish it.”

“There is also a step four, by the way. It’s
the final and most important step,” Blaze added.

“What is step four?” Amelia asked.

Blaze paused, sat up, and looked Amelia in
the eyes before answering, “I will love you and our children until
the day I die.”

Amelia felt her heart flutter after what he
said. She kissed him again for some time and when she pulled away
slowly, the only words that could escape her lips were, “I’ll be
looking forward to doing the same.”

EPILOGUE

“There he is, Lorn! Don’t miss this time!”
whispered an excited eight-year-old boy.

“Hush, Gareth! He’ll hear us!” a younger,
calmer boy whispered. He was only six years old and was pointing a
loaded slingshot at a disgruntled dwarf. The two boys hid behind a
thick brush in the castle courtyard in Cartigo, Cierith. When the
dwarf had his back turned, the little boy named Lorn released his
grip and the slingshot flung a pebble right into the dwarf’s metal
shoulder armor and made a loud dinging sound.

“Where are you blasted kids?” the old dwarf
angrily shouted. The two boys giggled as quietly as they could, but
the older boy accidently let out a loud snort that gave away their
hiding place.

“AHA! There you are!” the dwarf shouted and
then trotted in their direction.

“RUN!” the older boy cried.

The dwarf was always their main target for
pranks because the boys always got a laugh at how red his ears
became when he was angered.

“Sigurd sounds really mad this time!” Lorn
cried. His brown, curly hair flopped around back and forth as he
ran through the castle corridors.

“Just keep running!” Gareth replied. He had
black hair that was straight and neater than the other boy, who
just so happened to be his younger brother.

“Mom and Dad are gonna kill us!” Lorn
whined.

The brothers ran through the corridors of
the castle towards the front entrance. They were in the foyer when
they realized that they lost track of Sigurd, so they stopped
running to catch their breath.

“Let’s get to the festival in the town
square.” Gareth said, “We can tell Mom and Dad we were there the
whole time.”

“You know better than to lie to your
parents, Gareth.”

The boys jerked when they saw their father
standing at the top of the stairs looking down at them with his
arms crossed. He was in his early thirties and was tall with black
hair and intense blue eyes. Although Gareth resembled his father
quite a bit, his eyes were green like his mother’s. Their parents
were in fact the king and queen of Cierith.

“Oh . . . uh . . . hi Dad!” Gareth stuttered
out.

“You two weren’t playing pranks again, were
you?” the king asked.

Before the brothers had a chance to make up
an excuse, Sigurd came waddling into the room out of breath. When
the dwarf saw the king, he blurted out, “Dammit, Blaze, your boys
were pelting me with pebbles again!”

King Blaze Fletcher walked down the steps
and glared down at his two sons, who hung their heads and avoided
eye contact with him. He grabbed them both by each an arm sternly,
but not enough to hurt them. He faced them towards the dwarf, and
said, “Tell Sigurd you are sorry, now.”

The boys both stammered out apologies to the
old dwarf, who snorted, but said, “Fine, fine.”

“Good, now let’s go to the town square to
meet your mother and sister,” Blaze said, releasing his grip on
their arms.

“Is grandpa here yet?” Gareth asked.

“Yes. I already greeted him and he just left
to go into town,” Blaze answered.

“Good, I wanted to greet him too. I haven’t
seen the bloke since your youngest was born,” Sigurd said with a
grin.

“Yeah, let’s go meet him!” Gareth
cheered.

Blaze then led his two sons across the
drawbridge and into the town with Sigurd trailing a ways behind
them. The streets were covered in decorations and littered with
people dancing and celebrating. He happened to glance over at the
stables and saw his horse, Bear, and a smile grew on his face. His
wife was right; Bear was a reminder of the time the two of them
spent growing closer.

Several people bowed as Blaze and his sons
walked by, and he felt comfortable now that the people had seemed
to have forgiven him for the past. Ever since Bogdan’s death, Blaze
not only took his true father’s last name, but he also spent the
last ten years keeping the promise he made all those years ago.

“So how long has it been since Cierith was
freed?” Gareth asked.

“Ten years today,” Blaze answered. He found
it hard to believe that ten years had passed already, it still
seemed like it had only just happened the day before. He then
added, “It all happened before your mother and I were even
married.”

“I don’t understand, did Grandpa take over
Cierith?” Lorn asked.

“No, Lorn. It was a very bad man who ruled
the throne before Grandpa that invaded Cierith twenty years ago,”
Blaze replied.

“But then how did Grandpa become king of
Daldussa and you became king of Cierith?” Lorn asked.

Blaze chuckled and replied, “It’s a very
long and complicated story, but I promise I will explain it one day
when you are older. For now, let’s just enjoy today.”

Blaze then grinned and picked up Lorn and
slung the little boy over his shoulder playfully. Lorn laughed and
pretended to be flying while Gareth trailed behind and made funny
faces at him. Lorn then pretended to shoot invisible rocks at
Gareth with the empty slingshot. Gareth comically pretended to be
hit in a very overly dramatic manner.

They finally reached the town square and
after a quick scan, Blaze spotted his wife, Amelia, and his
daughter, Alene. Alene was their youngest child at only three years
old and she had long wavy black hair and big blue eyes. They were
kneeling and praying before an enormous stone memorial in the
middle of the town square. The memorial was erected not long after
the liberation of the kingdom and it had the names of all the
people who gave their lives in the fight to save Cierith.

The statue atop the memorial was in the
shape of two crossed swords and a large dove perched in between
them. This was meant to symbolize the newfound peace the two
kingdoms, Daldussa and Cierith, thanks to the sacrifices made by
the people whose names were listed on the plaques below it.

“There you two are!” Amelia said when she
looked up saw her sons.

“Hi Mom!” they both exclaimed and embraced
their mother. Amelia was now thirty years old and her tiny daughter
sat in her lap clutching a doll. The little princess’s eyes lit up
when she saw her father approach and she immediately and ran to
him. Her little white dress bounced around her feet as the tiny
girl ran excitedly, and Blaze couldn’t help but smile and
laugh.

“Daddy!” she cried.

Blaze laughed and scooped Alene up in his
arms. She giggled as she hung onto his neck with her tiny arms and
Amelia couldn’t help but smile at the gentle way her husband held
his little daughter. It was a familiar experience to her, and it
always warmed her heart to see that Blaze kept his promise he made
to her own father.

Gavril then suddenly walked up to the
memorial and said, “Well, I hope I get a hug too.”

“Grandpa!” the princes both cried out in
unison.

King Gavril Fletcher then bent down to catch
his grandsons as they ran for him. In his mid-fifties now, Gavril’s
hair had much more gray than black, but his warm brown eyes and
heartening smile never changed.

The boys released their grip on their
grandfather and he stood up to walk back to their mother with
them.

“How are things in Daldussa, Gavril?” Amelia
asked.

“Surprisingly well these days. At first, a
lot of people were so used to Bogdan’s way of doing things that
everyone had a hard time understanding why I was suddenly crowned
as king in Blaze’s place. I never got any complaints, but I could
see in their faces that they were weary of trusting me. Eventually,
though, things got a little easier, in more ways than one,” Gavril
explained.

“What do you mean?” Blaze asked.

Just then, Maryn and Taryn approached the
group and greeted everyone.

“Hey Gavril, long time no see!” Taryn
exclaimed. After ten years, it seemed that both he and Maryn only
aged about three or four years, and even then, Gareth and Lorn were
already taller than the twins. They also wore nicer clothes, but
Maryn, ever the tomboy, still wore trousers.

“We’ve missed you!” Maryn added.

“My, you two have grown!” Gavril
commented.

“But they haven’t matured one bit!” Sigurd
growled as he came trotting up to the group, glaring at the
twins.

“What do you mean?” Maryn asked
innocently.

“I know it was you two who taught Gareth and
Lorn to play pranks on me! They’ve been shooting pebbles at me all
morning!” Sigurd barked.

The twins exchanged glances and Taryn said,
“Aw come on, Sigurd. We don’t do that stuff anymore.”

“Yeah, ten years has really matured us!”
Maryn said with a smile.

Sigurd glared at them again and then at the
princes, who clutched Gavril’s hands and tried to look as innocent
as possible.

“I’m onto you,” Sigurd growled at the
twins.

The second he turned and walked away, the
twin halflings walked up to the princes and smirked.

“Nice job with the slingshot!” Taryn said,
laughing. He then gave each boy a high five and the four of them
laughed until the three adults gave them hard looks.

“Uh . . . hey boys, let’s go see Kerali,”
Maryn said.

“Yeah, he’s over there with Breuvial,” Taryn
added, pointing in the direction of the tavern. Sure enough, Kerali
was visiting with a group of dwarves with Breuvial, who was now his
wife. They were both dressed in pale green and other earthy shades
and Breuvial wore a long gown with her hair pale down. After the
Daldussan soldier camps were cleared from the area, the elves
returned to where the forest used to be and began to rebuild their
homes and replant trees and all other forms of life.

The elders were also with Kerali and
Breuvial, including the two new elders that were elected not long
after Bogdan’s death. The halfling twins then led Gareth and Lorn
over to greet the elves and elders and as soon as they were out of
earshot, Gavril began to continue what he was saying.