Flicker of the Flame: A YA Epic Fantasy

by Evelyn Puerto

The prisoner climbed down stiffly. Two guards seized his arms and marched him to the river. A third ran him through with his sword. The man shrieked and collapsed to the ground. Tereka clenched her jaw and sweat trickled down her neck. This is why they made her and Savinnia sit in the front of the wagon. They planned to kill all the others first, then have their way with them.

  The next man in line screamed. “Don’t kill me. Kill them.” He held his bound hands up to the guard. “They’re planning to break out. I know, they’re planning something.”

  With a shout, Relio jumped to his feet. “Now!”

  Tereka seized the bolt at her feet and sprang up. She slammed the bolt on the head of the guard sitting in the front of the wagon. He slumped to the side. One down. The driver slid off the seat and leaped out.

  Naco vaulted over the side of the wagon, followed by Relio and Murlat. They charged the nearest guard, the one still on horseback, and ripped him to the ground. Startled, the horse fled in a panic, followed by the rest of the guards’ mounts. Relio seized the guard’s sword and stabbed him through the heart.

  “Move, you fools!” The sergeant swung his sword and sliced the throat of a prisoner. He stabbed another one.

  “Let’s go!” Tereka shouted as she grabbed Savinnia’s arm. She bounded from the wagon, Savinnia behind her, still clutching her iron bolts. The other prisoners who’d freed themselves had done the same.

  One of the guards jumped onto the wagon and killed the five prisoners who remained. Tereka’s heart raced. Relio was the only one with a sword. Naco had a rope, the others their iron bolts. She pressed her lips together. Not much good against swords.

  Relio drove the sword into the belly of another guard. That’s three. What could she do to help?

  Alikse cracked the neck of the driver. Tereka shuddered. Two left.

  The sharp point of a sword tickled her neck. “Tell your friends to stop fighting, or you’ll be dead.” The guard behind her clutched her arm with fingers like steel pinchers.

  She’d be dead anyway, but maybe her friends could get away. She stood frozen, not wanting to provoke the man, but she kept silent. Her pulse thrummed in her ears. Only one other guard remained. If he was killed, could she fight this one off before he slit her throat?

  Savinnia screamed. The other guard had wrested the sword from Relio. He charged, his own sword upraised. He swung at Relio’s neck.

  The big man danced back a few steps and jumped over one of the bodies on the ground. Murlat charged toward him and the guard.

  “Stop or I kill her!”

  Murlat skidded to a halt.

  The pressure from the blade against Tereka’s neck eased. She stamped on the guard’s foot and spun away from him. His blade sliced into her shoulder and down her arm. She scrambled away, running toward Naco and Alikse. Murlat tackled the guard attacking Relio and brought him down. Sebezh grabbed a rock and smashed the man’s skull.

  Tereka tripped over a fallen prisoner and fell sprawling on the damp soil. The guard lunged for her and stumbled. Alikse dashed over and cracked the man’s neck, throwing him down like a broken toy.

  Panting, Tereka slowly rose to her feet. Her hands shook and her breath came in jagged bursts. Savinnia leaned against the side of the wagon, sobbing. The others slumped, hands on knees.

  When Tereka’s heart ceased its thumping, she looked at the stinging wound on her arm. Blood had soaked her sleeve. The ground shifted and black spots swirled before her. Her legs gave out and she fell to her knees.

  “Here.” Naco tore a piece from a guard’s tunic and tied it around Tereka’s arm. She smiled, then reached for an amulet. The sting eased. She took a shuddering breath and looked around. Poales, Naco, Relio, and Alikse were unhurt. Sebezh was breathing hard, as were the two men by his side. Tereka wrinkled her forehead. What were their names? Fejaro and Hinat. Two other men she didn’t recognize stood behind them. Eleven left. “We’ve got to get away from here,” she said.

  Relio snorted. “Think so, girly?”

  “But where is here?” asked Savinnia.

  Poales pointed at the river. “I think this is the Selengu.”

  Sebezh drew his eyebrows together. “Could we follow it all the way to the mountains?”

  With a shake of his head, Relio answered, “Only if we want to get caught.”

  “That’s right.” Tereka nodded. “Once they know we’re gone, they’ll assume we’ll stay close to water.”

  “So what do we do?” Savinnia asked.

  “Go north, through the desert,” Tereka suggested.

  “But there’s no food or water.” Murlat folded his arms across his chest.

  Naco smirked. “Then stay here and wait for the guards to bring you some.”

  “There’s w-water if you know how to find it,” Poales said. “I say we head north. Our only hope is to hide in the wilderness until they give up looking for us.”

  Tereka nodded. “It’s the best we can do. And we should go now.” She looked up at the sun. “That way.”

  “Not so fast, girly.” Sebezh shook his head. “Who put you in charge?”

  52

  Tereka gaped at Sebezh. “Does it matter?” She strode up to him, stopping only a foot away. “We need to get away from here now. And you want to argue about who’s idea it is where we go?” She spun on her heel. “I’m going north.”

  A man with a scar running down his cheek shook his head. “You want us to walk through the desert? We’ll be dead by sundown.”

  “What else are we doing to do?” Relio asked.

  The man pointed. “Follow the river.”

  “To where?” Relio waved an arm downriver. “The pirates?”

  The man shuddered. “Of course not. But we’d have water and food. No one lives down that way. We could find a place to live.”

  He had a point. Sticking close to the river would mean water. On the other hand… Tereka shook her head. “But that’s where they’ll come looking for us.”

  Naco moved to her side. “Yeah. And they’d catch up with us in less than a day.”

  The man crossed his arms. “Not if we’re on horseback, free of the wagon.”

  “Except, there are twelve of us and two horses.” Tereka tipped her head to the side. She hadn’t thought about the horses.

  A man with arms as thin as a doe’s legs tossed a sword to the one with the scarred face. He darted over to stand next to him, brandishing a sword of his own. The two of them held the blades high. “We’ll fight you for them,” said the scarred one.

  “You’d fight us, when we just helped you survive?” said Tereka, scowling at them.

  “A big group will be easier to track.” The scarred man took a step forward. “We don’t want any part of that.”

  “You want a fight, we’ll give it to you.” Alikse cracked his knuckles and made a twisting motion with his hands.

  Tereka ground her teeth together. They didn’t have time for this. “Maybe we can make a trade.”

  The scrawny man spat. “What’d you have in mind, trader girl?”

  She strode to the front of the wagon and hopped onto the seat. She bent, then straightened, holding a bow with an arrow nocked on the string. “We’ll let you have the horses if we can have five of the swords, and the bow and arrows. And the waterskin.” She aimed the arrow at the scarred man. “You can have one sword.”

  Sebezh let out a guffaw. “Good thinking, girly.”

  The two men looked at each other. The scrawny one dropped his sword. “Deal.”

  Poales stepped forward and picked up the weapon. “We need to g-get moving, where ever we go. I’m heading north with Tereka. Who’s coming?”

  Naco, Savinnia, and Murlat nodded.

  Alikse rubbed his chin. “North seems best to me.”

  “And me as well.” Relio said. “If they come after me, I’m going to make it hard for them to catch me.”

  “But the horses— ” Sebezh took a step toward the man holding the sword.

  Relio put h
is hand on Sebezh’s arm. “It’s not worth it and you know it. If they have a death wish, let them go.”

  The two men unharnessed the horses from the wagon. They swung themselves astride and urged the horses into the river. They made their way across, then turned to follow the river downstream.

  Sebezh scowled. “We should have killed them.”

  Tereka wrinkled her nose. He could be right. If those men were caught, and they most likely would be, they’d reveal that the rest had gone north. Too late now. They’d just have to risk it. She went to the river, stooped, and drank until she was no longer thirsty. Then she drank some more. As the others did the same, Tereka looked to her right. The current flowed away from her. How far to the sea? No sense wondering. She gritted her teeth and turned from the water. And stepped to the north, toward the desert.

  They trudged along until they reached hard sand, sand that was littered with pebbles and stunted thorn bushes. The shaft of a sun-bleached bone lay half-obscured in the shadow of a withered tree. Tereka forced herself to ignore the image of her bones drying under the relentless sun.

  An hour later, the sun had fully risen. The right side of Tereka’s face burned, the dried sweat itched. She slogged up one hill and down another. They needed to find water. And soon.

  What were those ripples in that gully? She blinked, and blinked again. She walked faster. She stepped over a fallen log and slid down the pebbly slope. Her shoulders sagged. Nothing but dry sand.

  A scream behind her made her jump. Fejaro was near the fallen log, hopping on one foot, shrieking. Then he toppled over, twitched, and lay still.

  Poales held his arms out. “Everyone stay b-back.” He approached Fejaro, stared at the ground, then pointed. “There.” A small red snake lay coiled in the shadow cast by the man’s body. “W-watch where you walk. They like to hide in the shadows. It must have been under the log.” Poales backed away. “We need to move on. The vultures will come. It’s as good as leaving a signpost telling the guards we were here.”

  Tereka pointed to four massive birds circling in the sky. “I think they’re already here. Time to go.”

  They trudged on for another hour. Tereka’s mouth was as dry as if she’d been eating wool. Dry air rasped her throat. The bow weighed down her shoulder like a millstone. She stumbled after Poales. Water. They needed water.

  Relio grabbed her arm. “Do you hear that?”

  She listened. Barking dogs. She stared at Relio, eyes wide. When the guards failed to return, the commander must have sent out a search party. Tereka looked at Poales. “How do we get away?”

  “We run.” Poales sprinted up the slope, Tereka right behind him. A shout from below told Tereka they’d been spotted. Six guards on horseback rode behind the trio of yelping dogs.

  “Surely, this isn’t the end,” Tereka said. Her breath came in gasps.

  Naco shook his head. “It is, unless you’ve got some more magic.”

  Poales looked at Tereka with a frown. “Magic? Is that what we’re calling what you can do?”

  “I don’t know what it is.” She reached in her pouch and grasped the amulets. She closed her eyes for a moment, then smiled. “This way.” She ran along the ridge, looking to her left. She darted around an outcropping and kept going. When she reached a sheer wall, she ran her hand over the stone, gently pressing.

  “Hurry up, girly. They’ll be on us in a heartbeat.” Relio leaned over her shoulder.

  Tereka ignored him. There had to be a door. The amulets were hot.

  The barking and the howls grew louder. Tereka’s hand shook as she pressed against the stone. It shifted, rotating inward. “Come on!”

  They crowded into the dim coolness and pushed the stone door shut, blocking out the heat and dulling the barks of the dogs. “You couldn’t have found a place more like a tomb, now, could you?” Poales said.

  “Shh.” Tereka could hear the dogs sniffing on the other side of the stone. She held her breath. From the silence, she assumed the others were as well. If only her heart wasn’t pounding so loudly.

  “They’re gone,” a guard said. “Must have gone up over the hill.”

  “Why did the dogs stop here?”

  “They’re tired? They smell rabbit? Who knows? Come on, we’ll catch them on the other side.”

  Many heartbeats later, when the sound of barking had faded to silence, Tereka slid down to sit on the ground. “Let’s wait until dark. Then we’ll leave.”

  “And how will we know when it’s dark?” Poales asked.

  “Look up.” She laughed and pointed to a tiny circle of light high above them.

  “If you can find a way out of here. If they aren’t waiting for us. If we don’t step on a snake.” Sebezh slumped to the ground. “If we don’t die of thirst.”

  Tereka pressed her lips together. Sebezh was annoying, but right. How would they find their way through the desert? She couldn’t just hold the amulets in front of her and expect to be guided every step of the way.

  Snakes. Vultures. Dogs. Guards in pursuit. No water. No food. What next? She leaned back against the wall. She didn’t know how they would survive. She took a sip from the water skin and passed it to Savinnia. Not much left. One skin didn’t go far among nine people.

  Every minute the air grew staler, made pungent by nine sweating, filthy bodies. Tereka pulled her tunic up to cover her nose and stared at the light overhead. When the circle dimmed, she struggled to her feet, her muscles stiff and aching. She pushed open the rock door, filled her lungs with cool, fresh air, and yawned. That’s better. Now if we can just find water.

  Poales pointed to a star. “North is that way.” He led them up a hill.

  Though her head no longer baked in the sun, Tereka’s thirst was a torment. Her tongue swelled and stuck to the roof of her mouth, aching for any kind of liquid. She squinted in the moonlight. Where could water be?

  Murlat staggered over to a stunted and prickly apple tree. He grasped the stem of an apple and pulled it down. He handed it to Tereka. “Careful.”

  She grasped the fruit. “Ouch.”

  “Told you. Watch the spines.”

  After she found a rock to sit on, she picked at the edge of the peel. Slowly, she eased it back. Another spine pierced her finger and lodged in her skin. She ignored it and peeled another section. The others, who’d also taken apples, muttered and cursed around her. Sebezh and Hinat seemed to be having a foulest-language competition, while Alikse mocked their efforts. Within a few heartbeats, it seemed they all had spikes in their fingers. Tereka bit into the peeled apple, grimacing at the sour taste. But the wetness took the edge off her thirst.

  “Almost not worth it.” Naco stood up and tossed the pit away.

  “How much further?” Savinnia asked.

  Poales shrugged. “Until we find water.”

  Tereka let her head sag. There didn’t seem to be anything to say to that. And she was so tired.

  A sudden roar jolted her into alertness. “Desert cats!” Murlat yelled. “Run!” He took off.

  Two black cats, larger than horses, leaped out of the shadows and chased after him. Tereka reached for her bow, then gasped. She’d forgotten it when they left the cave. She took a step forward but Poales grabbed her arm. “Don’t. It’s too late.” She watched, eyes glued to the horror, as one of the cats bounded on top of Murlat and dug its teeth into his shoulder. He screamed. The cat shook him, then banged his head against the rocks and the screaming stopped. The first cat stood over the man’s lifeless body, roaring at the other cat. It circled him, then put out a paw to swipe at the corpse. The other roared again, then lunged forward.

  Naco touched Tereka’s arm. “We should go, while they’re busy.”

  She gulped, a tear dampening her cheek. She followed the others, creeping away, trying not to make a sound. She took shallow breaths until she could no longer hear the growls of the fighting cats. Her head hung. Murlat was dead because she was careless.

  Savinnia let out out a sob. Tereka st
ifled one of her own. Less than a day and two were dead. She barely knew the first, but Murlat? She pressed her fist to her mouth.

  “Steady.” Poales patted her shoulder. “We just have to keep g-going. If we stop now, we’ll never get up.” Tereka nodded, unable to form any words around her dry, swollen tongue.

  The moons set, first Dabrey, then Zlu, taking their light with them. The sky lightened from black to indigo. Pink tinged the horizon to their right. The sand ahead shimmered. Was it water? Tereka ran toward it. She blinked and the shine disappeared. She dropped to her knees. It was too much. She couldn’t go on.

  When Naco caught up with her, she was still kneeling. He helped her to her feet. “Don’t go chasing things until you know they’re real,” he said. He squeezed her shoulder. “You have to keep walking.”

  Staring at Naco’s footprints, Tereka followed, placing her feet in the same spots where he had walked. Her mouth was sand, her eyes burned, her legs were weak. She squinted against the sun. She wondered if the sky-god had forgotten her. She stumbled over loose stones and skidded into a small depression, falling flat on her face. Her strength ebbed from her like water from a leaking bucket. She closed her eyes and the world went black.

  53

  Tereka spat and coughed. Why was there mud in her mouth? She squinted and held a hand over her eyes to shield them from the sun. A shadow fell over her face and water that tasted of dirt and decay dripped onto her cracked lips. She held a hand up to push the caster of the shadow away.

  “Don’t fight it.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them to stare into Naco’s tawny ones. “Why are you trying to kill me?”

  “I’m not. You led us right to water, if you can call it that.”

  “Tastes like mud.” She groaned and sat up.

  “It’s not much more than that.” He slipped an arm around her and pulled her to her feet. “Come and drink.”

  Black spots circled before Tereka’s eyes. She leaned heavily on Naco, allowing him to half lead, half carry her to a tiny pool at the bottom of the gully. The others were scattered around, some seated near the pool, others in the scant shade the rock walls offered. Brown water seeped from a crevice in the rocks and oozed into the pool. She knelt and dipped a hand in the brownish-green water and drank. “Ugh.” She worked the warm moisture in her mouth and spat it out.