Knight of Flame

by Scott Eder

  “See you at the gateway?” Wren smiled big, full of hopeful enthusiasm as she backed out the door.

  * * *

  “Wouldn’t miss it.” Not now anyway. Dev did his best to slap on a sincere smile and hoped he succeeded. He didn’t need to bring her down with his own issues or send her on the mission second guessing either her ability or the strength of the other members of the team.

  They’ll be fine without me. The place will probably be empty and make Dronor look like an idiot…again.

  “The throwing knives are beautiful.” Cassidy’s voice filled the room. “Magnus filled me in on a couple of things.”

  Startled, he swung at the heavy bag, more to hide his embarrassment than to make a dent in the canvas, and caught the curve to send it twirling.

  Cassidy laughed, an infectious trill that made him smile. “That was pathetic,” she said and shouldered him out of the way. “Step aside, rookie.”

  Eyebrow raised, he gave her room and watched as she set her feet and punched. Jab. Jab. Right hook. Jab. Upper cut. She bobbed and weaved and dodged imaginary strikes while landing some solid body blows.

  Good form and balance. Power behind her punches. Graceful. He nodded. Nice. She must have had some training at some point. Straight forward, toe-to-toe, can probably take a hit too. Hmmm, reminds me of someone.

  Out of breath, knuckles pink and raw from the rough canvas, skin glistening in the crystal’s pale light, Cassidy winked. “Now that’s how you do it.”

  “Is it now?” Dev sidled over, raking her warmed up figure with an admiring glance. “I’ve seen better. The bag doesn’t hit back.”

  A left jab fired to his chin. He knew it was coming, watched her casually shift her feet to get in position for the strike while pretending to focus on something across the room, and slapped it away before it got close.

  Game on. Excitement fired his element and little pinpricks of energy raced across his skin. “You’ll have to do better than that, lady.”

  She squared off, a different stance than she used against the bag—weight on her back foot, hands open.

  Nonchalant, Dev stood within striking distance and made a show of buffing his nails against his leather vest. Then he stretched, exposing his torso for an easy hit. Too easy. He even yawned, a big stretching affair that took his eyes off his opponent.

  She struck, punching him low in the gut and following with a round house kick, waist high, in anticipation of where his head should be.

  But it wasn’t there. The punch was stronger than he expected, but not enough to bend him over the way she intended.

  Sound tactic though. He brushed off her follow up kick. “Is there a draft in here?”

  Dev’s temperature rose, along with his amusement. Sparring with Cassidy felt different from the life and death matches with Magnus, exciting in an entirely different way that made his spirit tingle. He didn’t want it to end.

  Cassidy wrinkled her nose and bared her teeth. If her eyes were lasers, they would have burned a hole through his waist. She circled, forcing him to turn to keep her in sight.

  Anticipation of her next attack spiked his flame. He watched her subtle movements, waiting for the twitch or bend or lean that would give her away. Well balanced, she was obviously comfortable in her own skin and didn’t care that her shirt had come untucked allowing an inch of tender skin to peek out.

  Round and round she glided. Body crouched, ready to spring.

  This is crazy. What is she doing? Mind wandering, he blinked and jumped at an imagined attack. Cassidy remained poised, ready and on the move.

  “Getting jumpy are we?” Cassidy smirked.

  She’s playing games now. Fine. Let’s fire this up.

  Dev stopped following her movements. She continued until directly behind him then stopped in his blind spot. He lifted his arms out to his side, inviting her to attack.

  Cassidy screamed, flung herself on his back, locked her legs around his waist, and flailed her arms like a maniac. As if he she weighed no more than a flea, he stood firm and waited for her energy to play out.

  Changing tactics, she wrapped her arms around his neck in a choke hold, but he slid his hands through before she cinched it tight.

  “You need to try harder than that,” Dev said, maintaining the block on her stranglehold.

  “Don’t worry,” she tried to wedge her hand under his block, “I’m just getting started.”

  “And here I thought you were almost done.” Dev refused to let her past his guard. Breathing hard, her chest heaved against his back, sending his element into a frenzied surge to combat the unprecedented chill that prickled his flesh.

  Her weight shifted to the right and she bit his ear.

  “Ow.” Dev jerked his head and tried to swat her away, but she dodged his swing. “That hurt.”

  “What’s the matter, you big baby, did I surprise you?”

  Dev heard the smile behind her words. So she is enjoying this too.

  “My turn.” He spun in her grasp. Too fast for Cassidy to adjust, they ended up smile to smile. Surprise and mischief twinkled in her eyes.

  “That was a bold move, sir,” she whispered, her breath tickling his nose. “When did you think of that one?”

  Bad idea. Acutely aware of her legs clamped tight around his hips and her heels pressed tight against his butt, Dev felt the heat flare in his breast then flash to other parts of his body like wildfire.

  “I…uh…didn’t…,” his voice faltered. “…mean to…” He needed to move, to get free of her before something happened. But he didn’t want to. She feels so good. His body trembled.

  Her lips quivered as if she tried to hide her amusement, but that only made her more adorable.

  Dev gazed into her eyes, desperate for the same tranquility that quenched his rage during that first glimpse on the bridge. Instead, he found something else. Like gasoline poured on a roaring fire, Dev went up with a whoosh. Throwing Cassidy clear, he bolted from the room as flames coated him in their elemental embrace.

  Chapter 37

  THE WARREN OF HALLWAYS IN THE Cradle confused Cassidy, almost as much as did the Knight of Flame, and turned what should have been a short stroll back to her room into a major ordeal.

  What was that all about? One minute we’re getting to know each other and the next he’s tossing me across the room and pulling a Houdini. I didn’t even see him leave.

  After leaving the gym, she reversed the directions and thought she took the right path, but must have turned right when she should have gone left or zigged when she should have zagged.

  Where the hell am I?

  The hallway she trod looked just like all the others. They should put up signs with those ‘You are here’ stickers and nice arrows pointing to the important places. But nooooo, just more freakin’ rock walls. Ah, hell. She leaned against the wall and looked first left then right.

  A song, barely in the range of hearing, played from down the hall. She couldn’t make out the words, but the tune…Where have I heard that before?

  Faint strains of mumbled voices grew into recognizable lyrics as she got closer to the source until she stood before the black felt curtain drawn across the doorway through which it played. She poked her head into the darkened room lit only by bright images on a screen.

  Are you kidding me? Rows of plush seats faced a large screen on the front wall where the characters in an animated film trained for medieval warfare.

  Amy used to watch this one all the time, the one with the Chinese girl who takes her father’s place in the army.

  The chairs were empty, but she noticed someone sitting on the floor up front, bobbing her head in time with the music.

  Wren.

  She thought to leave the girl alone, let her watch the movie in peace, but hesitated when she remembered the devastated look on Wren’s face in the portal room, a look that she herself had worn many times over the years.

  Cassidy slipped inside. “Want some company?”

&nb
sp; Wren started. “Uh, sure...sure.” She rubbed her eyes and started to get up, but Cassidy joined her on the floor.

  “Shouldn’t you be getting ready to go?” Cassidy asked.

  “I am ready.” Wren pointed to her leather armor and new brace of throwing knives slung across her chest. “I was nervous and this is one of the things I do when I’m nervous.”

  Cassidy turned her attention to the screen. “My daughter really liked this one. Watched it a couple times a day for like two months straight. At the time it drove me crazy, but now…I donated all of her movies when she died.”

  “How long ago?”

  “Two years.”

  “I saw her pictures. She was beautiful.”

  “Yeah she was.” Cassidy blinked back the tears.

  Wren turned down the movie’s volume, but kept her focus on the screen. “I lost my parents when I was six. A helicopter accident over Tokyo Bay.”

  “I’m so sorry, Wren. I can’t imagine what you went through.”

  “Things were okay for a while. My mother’s friend in Tokyo, Emiko, took me in.”

  “Didn’t you have any other family?” Cassidy asked.

  Wren snapped her gaze to Cassidy. “You researching a new article or something?”

  She’s young and upset, let her snipe.

  “Sorry. It’s my nature to ask questions,” Cassidy spoke in a warm, friendly tone. “I didn’t mean to pry.” She started to get up. “I just thought you might like a little girl talk. I’ll leave you to your movie.”

  “No.” Wren grabbed Cassidy’s hand, pulled her down. “That’s okay. You can stay.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Wren nodded, and returned her focus to the screen. “I don’t know about my father’s side of the family, but I did on my mother’s. Not that it mattered. Once Mom married an American sailor, they wanted nothing to do with her. Mom, Dad, and me, we lived off-base at Yokosuka, and my Mom’s older sister lived right across the street. I never met her, but I might have seen her once or twice.” She huffed. “Look, Cassidy, I’m not really good with this whole friend thing.”

  “I think you’re doing fine.”

  “So, what now?” Wren wiggled her fingers. “Are you gonna do my nails?”

  Cassidy laughed, glad the young girl was opening up. “We’ll save that for after the mission.”

  Wren leaned back on her hands and kicked her legs out front. The flashing lights from the movie glinted off her new knives.

  “I’m glad you and Dev made up,” Cassidy said.

  “He’s stubborn.”

  “Just like you.”

  Wren smirked. “Whatevs.” She waved her feet in time with the beat.

  “So how did you two meet?” Cassidy inched closer.

  “Really? You want to hear about that?”

  Absolutely. “If you’re up to it.”

  “I guess.” Wren sat up, pulled her knees in tight to her chest. “After my parents died and Emiko took me in, life was okay for the first year or two. I went to school, but there was no true place for a half-breed. Kids can be vicious little assholes.”

  Cassidy remembered Amy coming home with a bloody nose, and how furious she’d been. She’d raced back to Barden Heights Elementary, lambasted the principal as only a protective mama bear could. After, we went out for chocolate chip ice cream to make it all better.

  If I knew where they kept it, I’d get Wren a big dish right now.

  “On the upside, I learned a lot,” Wren said. “I learned how to run, how to hide. After the first broken arm, I learned how to disappear into a crowd. Got pretty good, actually, settled into the rhythm of life on my feet, but then the bottom dropped out. Emiko died of a drug overdose.”

  Wren sniffed, and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “She was good to me. Helped me through some tough times.”

  Do I reach out to her? Touch her arm? Offer some level of comfort? Cassidy moved her hand, but pulled back when Wren continued in a stronger voice.

  “A little bit older, maybe thirteen, fourteen, I could have made it on the streets. I was quick, knew some people, but they put me in an orphanage. Everyone who came in was looking to adopt a cute baby or an adorable toddler. They didn’t want an older half-breed. I found a way to make life bearable. Once my chores were done, I had some freedom. I snuck out, got into trouble. Over time, I found a group of kids like myself, fellow outcasts. We called ourselves a gang, but compared to the real thing, we were just a club.” She shook her head. “We thought we were so tough. Smoked, drank, picked the pockets of gullible tourists.” Wren chuckled. “Actually, that’s how I met Stillman.”

  “You picked his pocket?”

  “Yup. Old man. Pin stripe suit. Cane. Looking all around like he was lost. I did the old bump and run then disappeared into the crowd. Easy. Big take too. Three hundred American. When that ran out, I headed back to the same spot, found another old man. This one seemed more alert, but still an easy mark.”

  “It wasn’t Stillman again, was it?”

  Wren nodded sheepishly.

  “Oh, geez.”

  “I know, right.” Wren’s eyes opened wide. “What were the odds? Back then I didn’t sweat the small stuff like, you know, faces and details. Only this time, when I peeled off to a side street, I had a tail. Two blocks in, a strong hand grabbed my arm, spun me around.”

  “Dev?”

  “Yeah. Tall, bald and beautiful. I looked into his ash-gray eyes and melted. Then he smiled at me. Oh Cassidy, I couldn’t breathe. I’d never seen anyone like him before. He had dimples, and perfect cheek bones, and…uh. He held out his hand and said, ‘You’re good kid. Quick. Embarrassed my…friend. You could be so much more.’ Without a word, I put the stolen wallet in his hand and watched him walk away. Well, ‘walk’ isn’t the right word. Prowl. Stalk. A panther doesn’t walk through the jungle, it glides—agility and violent potential sheathed in muscle. That was Dev.”

  Can’t argue with that.

  “When I got back to the orphanage, I saw a police car parked outside. That was nothing new. They came out pretty often. Then I saw the old man’s silhouette in the window, and I knew they were there for me.”

  “That’s when Stillman adopted you?”

  “I wish that were the end of the story.” Wren’s face turned to the floor. “When I saw him, I panicked, and ran. Made a few too many turns and ducked into a building without realizing where I was. I found one of those other gangs, a real one that didn’t play around.” She twisted a string that stuck out from the end of her pant leg. Her voice softened. “There were five of them, older, bigger, used to getting what they wanted. When they saw a young girl lost and alone, they decided they wanted me.”

  Cassidy didn’t like the turn of Wren’s story, wanted her to stop before a cruel reality crapped over her illusion of innocence.

  “They grabbed me, dragged me deeper into their world. I was too scared to scream. It wouldn’t have mattered if I had because there was no one around to hear it.”

  Oh Wren.

  “I knew what was coming. But still, I didn’t think it would really happen. I hoped it was a bad dream, that I’d fallen asleep watching one of the princess movies with the little kids and Sister Momoko was going to wake me up the way she usually did, with a smack on the back of the head. Little girls and their dreams, right? They always wanted to watch the princesses sing and dance and get rescued by their handsome princes. I thought it was a bunch of garbage.”

  “What did you dream about?” Cassidy asked.

  “Huh. Good question. I knew there were no princes out there, not for the likes of me. When I got some time to myself, it wasn’t often mind you, but as a reward for babysitting the younger girls, I got to watch something just for me. I always picked this movie.” Wren looked back at the screen as the girl donned her armor and prepared for battle.

  “She was tough. Learned how to fight, to defend her family’s honor. I don’t remember much about my parents, but one of the clearest memories I
have is one in which my mother is talking to me about our family, that we were descended from one of the traditional samurai families of old. She even had a katana mounted on the wall. I wonder what ever happened to that old blade. Supposedly it was my great, great, great grandfather’s or something like that. I don’t know. But you know what’s funny? Despite the fact that her family cast her out, she clung to her heritage. Honor and loyalty, they are the two words that sum up my ancestry.”

  Cassidy knew Wren was ditching the talk about the building, taking her down another path, but she felt there was something important going on. And while she didn’t want to cause this girl any pain, Cassidy believed Wren needed to talk it out.

  “After watching the movie,” Cassidy said, “Amy would grab a whiffle ball bat and chase the dog pretending it was her duty to protect the house from evil creatures.”

  Wren laughed. “I practiced the moves outside when no one was looking. I wanted to be as tough as her. Thought I was.”

  Cassidy heard a sniffle, but kept her eyes on the screen.

  Wren continued. “The leader, he wore sunglasses and a red bandanna, and sucked on a straw while the others tossed me around between them. I fought back, but they were stronger and faster. After a few minutes, he must have got tired of the game because he came into the circle and ripped my dress down the front. I remember thinking that the Sisters would be furious as I stooped to pick the buttons off the ground. That’s when I noticed the sharp, sour smell, like old milk.”

  Cassidy took Wren’s hand, expected her to pull away, but instead she gripped it tight.

  “The other guys took the hint. Two held me while the other two tore off the rest of my clothes. I was twelve, so, you know, certain things were starting to grow and sprout, right.”

  God, I remember twelve. I was too self-conscious to change in gym class. I couldn’t imagine going through this.

  “And it was summer so I shouldn’t have been cold, but my arms and legs were covered in goosebumps and I was shaking so bad I could barely stand.”

  “Oh Wren.”

  “When the leader approached me, he wasn’t expecting a fight, came in all gentle like he was my boyfriend or something. After the first kick in the balls, his attitude changed. I held my own for the first minute or two, but then the rest of them grabbed my arms, bent me over the trash can. I told myself not to cry, to be brave.” Wren sniffed, wiped her eyes. “I don’t know why I’m telling you all this. I’ve never told anyone the whole story before. Not even Dev knows the truth.”