Everflame (34 page)

The M
essenger took the opportunity this small distraction had afforded him and shot his palm toward Ben, paralyzing the man in blue light. The Messenger moved in to strike him down, but Evercloud was quicker, knocking the Messenger to the ground. The Messenger looked back up at Evercloud in slight astonishment, but quickly jumped back to his feet, and then the fight began. The Messenger threw blow after blow at Evercloud, but he was quick enough and strong enough to block every one.

“I’m
impressed,” said the Messenger.

They moved through the snow, back and forth, no one able to land a strike. Suddenly,
a roar came from the sky. The Messenger looked up to find Riverpaw, diving at him through the air. The Messenger dove away as Riverpaw crashed into the snowy mountain, shaking the ground.

Tomas ran over to Iolana, helping her to stand. “Are you all right?” he said.

“He killed Father,” she cried. “He’s here to kill you and Ben.”

“Why?” asked Tomas.

“I don’t know,” she said. “But Tomas, he has powers, he’s not normal. You must stop him.”

“All right. Stay here,” said Tomas and headed back toward the fray.

Evercloud was upon the Messenger before he had a chance to recover and slashed the man’s ribs with his claw. The man grabbed at his torso to find that Evercloud had drawn blood. Unfortunately, it only angered the Messenger and he came at Evercloud with even more ferocity than before. As the Messenger attacked, a voice entered his mind.

Use caution. They have unleashed one of the Ancient Evils.

The Messenger never yielded in his assault, but his eyes widened in astonishment.
These are the first real foes that I have faced
, he thought.

Evercloud and the M
essenger continued to battle each other, and Evercloud was beginning to lose ground. The Messenger was backing him against a wall of rock, pinning him with nowhere to go. The Messenger drew his fist back, ready to strike. But just before he could, Riverpaw hit him from behind, throwing the man through the air. His body came down in a heap, yards away.

“Thanks,” said Evercloud.

“Don’t mention it.”

The M
essenger got back to his feet, just in time to see Tomas releasing an arrow at his head. The Messenger watched as the arrow flew directly for him, it would not miss its mark. Just as the arrow was about to pierce the man, he reached into the air with incredible speed and ripped the arrow from the air. Without stopping his motion, he spun around and sent the arrow flying toward Evercloud.

It all happened so quickly, like a strike of lightning. Evercloud looked down and saw the arrow buried deep inside his chest. His face went blank and he fell to the ground.

“No!” roared Riverpaw and charged at the Messenger.

“Evercloud!” screamed Iolana and ran over to him, dropping to her knees beside his body. He looked up into her eyes and smiled, but the arrow had struck deep. He coughed and blood came from his lips. Iolana began to cry as she looked at him. She bent low, wrapping her arms around him
, and then came the light. White light surrounded Evercloud; it was all he could see.

Everyone, including the M
essenger, had stopped to stare at the white light that now enveloped both Evercloud and Iolana. Across the mountaintop, Ben fell to the ground, once again able to move.

“No,” he said. “Iolana. No.”

The voice once again returned to the Messenger.

It is time to leave. I am coming.

The light faded away from Iolana and Evercloud, and Evercloud looked down at his chest. The arrow and the wound were gone. There was no more blood. He was all right. Iolana stood up as if she were dizzy and stared down at him in confusion.

“Who? Who are you?” she said. “Where am I?”

Just then, in the sky, a blue light appeared and sped toward the mountaintop. Evercloud got to his feet and looked into the sky to see the figure of a man, seemingly made of lightning, inside an orb made of the same crackling energy.

“The Tyrant,” whispered Riverpaw breathlessly. Then
, collecting himself, called out in warning. “The Tyrant!”

Before anyone could think of how to react, the Great Tyrant had swept down and
collected both Iolana and the Messenger and disappeared from the mountaintop.

“No!” screamed Ben as he knelt up
on the snowy ground.

“No. No. No. No,” said Tomas, walking in circles with his hands in his hair. “We’ve failed. Failed!”

Evercloud walked over to Tomas and shook him. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t get it,” said Tomas. “You don’t understand. That was the Tyrant. He has her! We’ve failed!”

Evercloud pulled Tomas close to his face so that he would understand him well. “We have not failed, do you understand me? We will find your sister. We will save Iolana. By the Everflame, I swear it.”

Tomas hung
in Evercloud’s grasp, defeated.

“Iolana isn’t my sister,” said Tomas. “Iolana is Chera.”

Chapter 32: The Cycle

Nikolas Floyd walked along the path that led home. The sun was far from setting for the day, but Nikolas had been fortunate in his hunting and figured he’d return to his wife early. Two brown rabbits hung over his back as he walked in the light of the mellow-gold sun. The light hit him at an angle that softened his wrinkles and yellowed his silver hair, making him look years younger than he was. It had been that kind of day so far.

Maggie will be happy
, he thought.
She loves rabbit stew.
He thought about her beautiful smile, and in turn, thought of the sparsely toothed smiles of his two young boys, Ben and Tomas. Ben was eight and Tomas had just turned five.
Good thing I caught two rabbits. Growing boys. Such a handful. Good thing for Iolana
. Iolana was Nikolas’ sister who lived with them in their forest cave, just outside the village of Hendrick. As he thought of Iolana, his happiness waned just slightly. Iolana had been noticing things lately, things that made for difficult conversations.

It had all started a few months ago when Nikolas’ father had passed away. It had been hard for Iolana and she had shed many tears when he had been buried. It must have been all the thoughts of death and of aging that had brought about her new curiosities. One day, while the family had been down at the stream, she had made a comment about the ever-widening wrinkles on the faces of Nikolas and Maggie. Iolana had a
sked if they were becoming ill.

“No,” Nikolas had replied, “just getting old.” He had not eve
n needed to wait for the follow-up question to be asked, in order to answer that too. “The years have been kind to you, Sister. Not so much, to us.”

He wondered how long it would be before that excuse no longer worked.
I’ll think of something,
he told himself.
I have to
.

He looked up ahead on the forest path and saw Iolana and his two boys coming toward him. Young Tomas ran to meet his father.

“Dad! Dad! Auntie Iolana said she’d take me and Ben to swim in the stream! Can we? Can we go?”

Nikolas smiled at the boy. “Sure,” he said. “Just make sure the three of you are back before supper.” Nikolas held
up the rabbits for them to see.

“Yeah!” cheered Tomas, running circles around his father’s legs with an uncontrollable energy th
at only small children possess.

“Don’t worry,” said Iolana to Nikolas. “We wouldn’t miss out on Maggie’s rabbit stew.”

Iolana and the two boys continued walking to the stream and Nikolas headed home. When he arrived at the cave, he brought the rabbits inside and presented them to Maggie with a smile that betrayed his pride, and then he kissed her on the cheek.

“Rabbits,” she said surprised. “Looks like those reflexes still have a little quickness left, old man.” She giggled at her own teasing and smiled to show Nik
olas that she was only playing.

“Very funny, Maggie. Very funny.”

Unfortunately, Maggie’s smile melted away too quick, as she had to deliver Nikolas some bad news. “She’s asking questions again, Nikolas, and I don’t know how to answer them. She’s asking why we don’t live in the village.”

“She’s asked that before, Maggie. Just stick to the story. We like our space, that’s all.”

“There was a new question today though.”

“
Oh?” Nikolas raised an eyebrow.

“She wanted to know if she wasn’t supposed to find a husband.”

“What did you say?” asked Nikolas.

“What could I have possibly said to that, Nikolas? What answer would have even made sense? I just changed the subject.” Maggie put her hands on her hips. “She’s noticing. She’s figuring it out. It won’t be long before, before…well I don’t know what. I don’t know how your family has kept it up all these years.”

“I’ve wondered that same thing myself,” said Nikolas. “We need to find the others, Maggie. They’ve got to be out there.”

Suddenly, yells came from outside of the cave.

“DAD! DAD!”

Nikolas and Maggie rushed outside
to find Ben, running down the path.

“What is it, Ben? What’s wrong?” asked Nikolas.

“It’s Tomas,” said Ben, trying to catch his breath. “He fell on a rock, down by the stream. He’s bleeding all over. Come quick.”

Nikolas didn’t slow his pace for his wife and son to keep up. He ran as fast as his aging legs could carry him, leaving them far behind. When he reached the stream, he saw Tomas
, lying belly up on the ground, with Iolana kneeling next to him. Nikolas stared down at the boy in horror. Whatever rock he had fallen on had gashed his stomach open and he was losing a lot of blood.

“Dad, it hurts,” cried Tomas in between gasps. “Make it stop.”

Nikolas knelt down to the boy, knowing that there was nothing he could do. He pressed his cheek to Tomas’ as tears welled in his eyes. “Shh,” he said to the small boy as he ran his fingers through Tomas’ hair. “It’s gonna be all right. It’s gonna be all right.” Nikolas looked up at Iolana, who knelt on the other side of Tomas, and tears fell from his cheeks. Tomas was dying.

Then, without knowing why she was doing it, Iolana put her hands upon Tomas’ wound. She closed her eyes and her skin began to glow white like the midday sun. Nikolas fell back as the light grew
, until it enveloped both Iolana and Tomas. It was so bright that Nikolas had to shade his eyes. Then, she began to sing. Her words flowed soft and fast like the stream they knelt beside. Words and sounds reached Nikolas’ ears that he had never heard before. Sounds so sweet they pulled at the strings of his heart, threatening to tear it from his chest. Then, as quickly as it came, it was gone. The light faded and Iolana collapsed, unconscious, next to Tomas’ body. Nikolas scrambled over to the boy, his wound had disappeared, he was awake, blinking, alive.

“Dad,” said Tomas quietly, “am I dead?”

Nikolas picked him up and held him tightly to his chest. “No, Tomas. You’re alive.”

Maggie ran over and ripped her son away from Nikolas, hugging him and kissing him and crying.  Nikolas leaned over Iolana who was still unconscious.

“Iolana,” he said. “Iolana?”

Without waking, she spoke:

“
In the world’s most desperate hour of need,

Earthly elements shall be set free
.

And evil tyrants should beware
,

The coming of an unlikely pair
.”

Then, Iolana slowly opened her eyes and stared, confused, at Nikolas.

“Iolana?” he asked.

“Who are you?” she asked. “Where am I?” She sat up and looked around at everything, as if seeing it for the first time. Finally, Nikolas understood. This was part of the cycle.

“My name is Nikolas,” he said
, looking at her. “Your name is Iolana and you are my si… You are my daughter.” She looked at him and blinked. “You had a bad fall, but you’re all right now.”

“Father?” she said.

“Yes, Iolana. Let’s go home.”