“No!” I shouted in return. “We captured twenty of the enemy and incapacitated nine!”
“They could have turned their magic on you.”
“They did not get the chance,” I told him what he had to have seen. “And now we must help Silence find the rest.”
But I had lost his attention. Two Dellish soldiers had approached.
“Guard them,” Wallace ordered the men, jerking his head to the sorcerers caught in the flaming circle.
I took that opportunity to turn my attention back to the battle.
I was not a military genius, but it was not difficult to see that the surprise arrival of the a four-nation contingent was unexpected, as was the incapacitation of their sorcerers.
Two catapults and three trebuchets were ablaze, scores of enemy soldiers were on their knees with their hands held behind their backs, True and Mars with some of their men were racing after enemy cavalry that was trying to escape, and Cassius and Elena, with their unicorns in the lead, were galloping into The Enchantments at the edge of a blazing forest fire.
Florian approached us, and had not stopped before he shouted my way, “Can you bring the rain?”
I looked to the fire building not only in The Enchantments but spreading into Airen.
And doing this quickly.
Good gods.
“Farah! Can you bring the rain?” Florian repeated urgently.
I could not.
I nevertheless pulled the reins of my horse, and touched her sides with my heels, taking her speeding directly towards the flames.
“What are you about?” Wallace, riding at my side, yelled.
“I cannot bring the rain, but maybe I can blow it out,” I told him.
“Wind feeds fire,” he reminded me.
Still racing that way, I looked to him at my side and suggested, “Then maybe I can smother it.”
“Maybe?” he asked.
I felt the heat of the blaze and pulled back at my mount. Regina halted, skittish and unsure under me that close to the growing, and spreading, inferno.
“We must ride out, evacuate,” Luther, approaching us, called.
I said nothing.
I was concentrating.
If I could bring the winds, perhaps I could also take them away.
“If True sees Farah this close to the flame, he’ll have all our balls!” Bram, joining us, shouted. “We must go!”
I ignored him too.
I closed my eyes.
I then visualized the fire.
The area around it…
And that was when it struck me.
The earth.
The leaves.
The sensations came again at the small of my back, up my spine, radiating, spreading.
I placed both hands on my belly.
Pressing in, I expelled all the breath from my lungs…
And then on a rush, I threw my arms out and up, opening my eyes, and sucking in as much air as my body could take.
Doing this, a great blanket of wet leaves rose from the forest floor and swooped out and up, to the pinnacle of the burn.
I brought my arms down and the leaves, and the flames, collapsed in on themselves, and with a great whoosh of hot air, a cloud of billowing smoke and an almighty screech that scored at my ears, the leaves returned to the earth.
And the flame flashed out.
Upon which, I slid out of Regina’s saddle and fell to the ground.
I regained consciousness in the arms of my husband.
I could smell scorched earth. I could feel his strong, solid body all around me, his warmth penetrating my heavy clothes.
But all I could see was his face.
And I could not read it.
Though his eyes were ruptures of green so intense, it was as if they were alive.
“We had to do what we could,” I defended myself (and Silence) before he could say a word.
“You…that is you, my Farah, singlehandedly saved The Enchantments, and much of the Argyll Forest, I suspect, from burning to the ground.”
Although I was most pleased with what I’d been able to do, this might be an overstatement.
“It is wet. It rained just yesterday.”
“Not in The Enchantments.”
I blinked up at him.
“You saved the home of all Nadirii,” True went on.
“I—”
“Today, you became legend.”
I shut my mouth.
True smiled at me.
“I then collapsed off my horse,” I whispered ashamedly.
True stroked the hair from my face with his fingers, telling me, “Elena shared this is because you used much magic to douse the blaze. She has some potions you can take, rituals you can do to assist in building it again in you. And she advises you must rest. These things you will do. For although what you accomplished today saved homes and probably lives, I sense it will be important that you nurture the power within you.”
I sensed he was correct.
“You must know, you have been unconscious for some time,” he shared. “My men reported you did not hit your head when you fell from your steed, but Elena said that this is also not unusual after an effort the magnitude of which you gave today.”
“How long have I been asleep?” I asked.
“Perhaps three quarters of an hour.”
Oh my.
“I…” I trailed off, studying him before I stated quietly, “I thought you might be angry at me.”
The surge of green dimmed in his eyes, even if the pride remained in his expression, as he said, “If I had my chosen world, and I could safeguard you in it, we would be in Wodell, preparing for winter, the festivals we have then, which are joyous and heartening and break the monotony of cold, short days that seem, as time passes, like they will never end.”
He gathered me closer where he sat on the leaves in the Airenzian forest with me in his lap.
“But I do not have my chosen world, and I cannot safeguard you from all you might see, and all you might need to do. That said,” he gave me a squeeze, “knowing the beauty of your bravery and power fills me not with anger, but with pride.”
“Then now you know how, every day, I feel about you.”
The green surged in his eyes again as he curled me up at the same time he bent into me in order to take my mouth in a deep kiss.
When he ended it, I had my arms around his neck but slid one hand to his jaw.
“What was lost today?” I asked.
“No warriors, several treehomes of Nadirii that were situated close to this border, though, the sisters who lived in them were unhurt. There was some loss of life on their side, none on ours. In the end, mostly, we just have a great number more prisoners.”
His gaze went vague in a manner I called questioningly, “True?”
It took him a moment to speak his next words, and I would know why when they came.
“Two of the sorcerers at whom Silence hurled fire perished. Several others are forever maimed.”
Oh gods.
I was uncertain how Silence would cope with that.
“And…my wind?” I queried.
“The three Wallace reported you sent soaring over the treetops, darling…”
He trailed off but I pressed my fingers into his jaw and urged, “Tell me.”
“Two sustained significant injuries it is likely they will not survive. One died, landing upon his head.” He shared this and then rushed to say, “Farah, they meant to—”
“I know what they meant to do, True. Do not forget, I am proud to be Queen of Wodell as I am thus, standing at your side. But I am born Firenz and we do not vacillate in doing what must be done to those who have earned it.”
“You can say this to yourself, and perhaps it is true,” he replied gently. “But if thoughts come up in you, know to your soul what I hope you know in your heart. As you have been for me, I will be there for you.”
As you have been for me…
I smiled at my
husband.
“I would hold you forever, no matter where I am, even sitting on wet earth in Airen. But there is much to do, and we must get on doing it,” he remarked.
I nodded and my husband tightened his hold on me as he took his feet, before he put me on mine.
And before we set off to do what was next that we needed to do, I caught him at the sides of his neck with my hands and held tight when he gazed into my eyes.
“I love you, True,” I whispered, knowing it was felt, in times like these, that these words needed to be spoken so they were understood, when in truth, this sentiment should be expressed in all times.
True was not ignorant of this, which was why his face softened and his hands came to mine at his neck, not to remove them, but to curl his fingers around mine and hold them warmly against his skin.
“And I love you, my Farah.”
We held each other’s eyes.
We took our moment.
And then we turned in order to set about doing what there was next to do.
Queen Silence
Northeastern Border of The Enchantments
AIREN
“Leave us,” Mars ordered on his approach to where I stood not far from the smoking circle I had doused when soldiers had arrived to take custody of the captured sorcerers.
I watched men and women from four different armies scatter at my husband’s command.
As for me, I waited until he got close before I lifted my hand, palm out his way, and demanded, “Don’t even start. I am fine. Farah is fine. We—”
I said no further words, for I was up, and then I was down, my cloaked back to a blanket of wet leaves, my husband atop me.
“Mars,” I whispered.
“Kyril told me the lot of it.”
Balls and begorrah.
Bloody, big-mouthed Kyril.
“Mars,” I repeated.
“I am the Fire King,” he stated.
I opened my mouth, though I did not know what I would say.
Regardless, whatever it would be, I didn’t get to say it.
“And you,” his hand spanned the side of my face, “are the Fire Queen.”
I stared up into his eyes that were twin sparks of red flame.
“No thought,” he said. “No hesitation. No fear. Kyril saw you ride. You dug your heels in your mount and did what had to be done.”
I did what had to be done?
That was all?
“Y-you’re not angry with me?” I asked.
“Mio ardente, mio amore, today, you…became…legend,” he declared
Legend?
“A man does not get angry at a legend for doing what makes her thus,” he finished.
“I-I just…well, I didn’t do anything more than what Elena does all the time.”
His brows shot together. “And that makes it less important, what you did today?”
I didn’t have an answer for that.
“The veil protecting The Enchantments was falling. The Enchantments would have burned. With the veil down, the parts that didn’t would have been vulnerable to attack along the entire Airenzian border. If you and Farah had not intervened, even if we routed their warriors easily, we could not have saved a nation,” he decreed.
“Well, I guess that was pretty…excellent of me and, erm, Farah.”
He grinned down at me. “Yes, it was pretty excellent.”
I didn’t think it was a good idea to remind him of my next, but much had happened that day, and the day before, and the months before that, and I knew we were likely not close to done.
Thus, I wanted it all to be out now, rather than have Mars rethink his reaction to this occurrence, which would mean we would revisit it.
“You did not want me close to danger,” I reminded him.
“I did not, I do not,” he agreed. “And I did not when I did not know you could wield fire, also when I knew. You are treasured by me, and if my choice was omnipotent, I would have you live your life reading your books and concocting your extraordinary gowns and the most vexation you’d experience is attempting to design a seating chart for a royal dinner that won’t have warring clans spilling blood in our dining room. I am not omnipotent. But I am fortunate. There have been many times, my Silence, since I met you that you have surprised me about me.”
“I have surprised you about…you?” I asked.
“Indeed, for one year ago, if you told me my heart would be taken by a petite, raven-haired beauty with skin as pale as pearls and eyes of mercury, who was smart enough to observe before speaking, think before doing, except when it came to chasing through the forest after traitors, I would call you mad. Indeed, but a week ago, if you told me my wife would go chasing through the forest after traitors, I might have been moved to find some way to intern you so you would not harm yourself. But now…now…”
The banking flames burst anew in his eyes as he dipped his face closer to mine.
“Now, my Silence, you must answer me. Do you matter?”
I felt my throat close as I stared up into his flames.
“Tell me, my love, do you?” he pushed.
“Yes,” I whispered.
“You did before,” he stated. “I am just glad now you see the strength of it as I have always seen, and yet it grows more day to day, from the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
“I very, very much love you, my darling husband,” I told him with no small amount of fervor. “And you must know, you are treasured by me too.”
“This is good, for I very, very much love you, my beautiful, brave wife.”
Beautiful and brave.
I smiled up at my king right before he kissed me.
But he was Mars. As much as we both enjoyed the kiss, I had my back to the damp leaves, and being Mars, he had a mind to that.
Thus, he finished the kiss all too swiftly, pulled us both to our feet, and murmured there were decisions that needed to be made so we must join the others.
However, as he walked us to where they were huddling, I noticed something I’d never quite noticed before.
It had been there, it just had not dawned on me.
As my husband moved with me tucked close to his side, he did this with a pride of bearing that had a great deal to do with who he was, what he was, and how he was.
But he also did it because he had me on his arm.
He was proud of what I did that day.
But truly, he had been proud of me since our beginning.
Because there was something of which to be proud.
And this something was…
I was me.
127
The Women
Tedrey
Abandoned Stable, Twenty Miles West of the Ancient Ritual Grounds
WODELL
Tedrey stood next to Moira, one of the young women who had been rounded up by Fenn and Thom to sacrifice in order to surface the Beast. She had been the one who had first helped him release the other girls.
And they were all still with him, seven in total, either because they were far too terrified to find their homes by themselves after what they’d experienced, or smart enough to know that traveling together was safer.
He wished to escort them all safely home.
But with the Beast unleashed, Tedrey not only had no coin, they had no horses. He further had no weapon in case they ran into trouble (and with the way things were in all realms these days, Zees or highwaymen could be the least of their worries).
And last, he just simply did not have the luxury of taking the time such an endeavor would require.
He had to get to Notting Thicket. He had to get to Birchlire Castle. He had to find some way to gain an audience with King True and share the dire news.
He worried naught could be done.
This was, of course, the Beast.
But they must try, and he did not have the power to do it himself.
First, however, he had to find someone who would see to the women. Their families had to be worried to dist
raction. If he could find one soul he sensed he could trust who would take charge of them, he had no doubt they would be safe at their own hearths in little time.
With the Beast risen, he just had even less than “little” time to give.
In that moment, in a stable that Tedrey had noted on the way to the Ritual Ground (so he’d led the women there in the rain after they’d fled, and at least it had provided shelter, if not warmth, and they’d spent the night there), Moira had hold of a long stick.
She was using it to draw a rough map of eastern Wodell in the dirt.
“We are here,” she pointed with her stick. She then moved it what Tedrey considered a disheartening distance away and dug a little hole in the dirt, finishing, “Notting Thicket is there.”
“Yes, Moira, but as I shared with you, I need you to guide me to someone you can trust who will take in these women and see to it they are safely home. I have to do that first, before I head to the Thicket. But it must be done quickly. So please, tell me if you know of someone who is close that you would trust with this task. Or, perchance, there is a temple nearby where there is a priest or priestess who would take on this duty?”
“I live in the Lesser Thicket, Tedrey,” she replied. “Northeast of here. It’s at least fifteen, perhaps twenty miles beyond where we started. I do not know this place at all.”
That was not stellar news.
Further, her home was at least two days’ walk, if they could manage a good pace and do so for hours and hours without even a morsel of food amongst them.
Which would take him four days’ out of his way.
He glanced at the other women.
Moira knew what he was thinking, all of it, for she said, “We will go with you.”
He looked back to Moira and replied quietly, “You know we must get them home.”
“I know those men had you for whatever purpose they had you, though as they seemed to be saving you for last, I can only imagine it was worse than what they did to those girls, which is impossible to fathom,” she retorted.
He did not know if she was right. The Beast seemed to dispense with the men without delay.
Whereas what Thom and Fenn had done to those women…
“You got yourself loose,” she continued, “and you did not run. You helped us. And after you’d freed us, you made sure we’d escaped, positioning yourself to block the path between them and us. But when you returned to us, you looked like the Beast had been awakened and you shared with me you had to make haste to Notting Thicket.”
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