The Fire Eye Refugee

by Samuel Gately

  “Don’t put yourself out on my account.”

  “It’s not fair for you to be sidelined because of your blood. I can’t fix everything but I can at least do that. But first I need to see to something else. Take care, Margaret.” Kay turned back towards Yamar and Elmer as she saw Joah breaking away from the cluster of orphans.

  Kay only got one step before she felt a hand on her sleeve, saw the Wrang soldiers ahead of her all tensing up. She turned and saw the Lady Garret, strong lines of age across her face. “Is it…? Are you Keara?” Garret asked in a quiet voice. The sound of that voice, a sound she had once feared so deeply. It had seemed so full of power. Now it was just aged and frail.

  A piece of her screamed for closure. A repudiation of who she’d once been. A chance to vent anger at the Lady Garret’s inability or unwillingness to protect a broken and desperate girl with no one else to care for her. But a bigger piece of Kay was driven forward. Away from her past and its thousands of traps to pull her back. She’d seen what happened to those who couldn’t move forward. She had something important to take care of. “No,” Kay said and walked away. She didn’t look back.

  “What’s the word?” she asked Joah as she returned to the small group. “Wait, where’s Amos?”

  “Right behind you,” he said, sliding into the group. His face was still bruised from last night’s fight with the Straps, what felt like years ago. His shoulders had a particular way of rolling. She felt like she could easily pick him out of a crowd just by his silhouette. He walked more like a boxer than a soldier. Kay felt a fierce passion rise up in her chest. She didn’t know if it was some sort of love. She’d never been in love, but it felt good and right. She reached back and gripped his hand, for once not caring who was watching. He returned her squeeze and gave an appreciative grunt. He looked a little embarrassed, maybe too much affection in front of his boss and so many others. But he leaned against her for a moment and she felt that same rightness. Maybe if she failed this test, he’d stay with her until she broke. She might have a while before she lost her mind to her fire lust, away from the healing influence of the Fire Eye.

  Yamar and Elmer were staring impatiently. Kay gave Joah a nod, prompting him to speak. “They put the woods a little to the southwest. Maybe ten minutes ride. Saw what looked like flames, only a little more erratic. Said they were joking about it being haunted, trying to scare each other, but seemed like there was something unusual going on. More than…I don’t know. Something.”

  “Can you find it based on what they told you?”

  “Yes,” Joah answered.

  “Then let’s ride. The Winden would have had to go all the way around the camps. We’ve still got a chance. Let’s get as close as we can without them hearing the horses. Then we walk. We can’t go in hot or they’ll just kill the child. Our only chance is to get to Enos before they know we’re there. Agreed?”

  Everyone agreed. Kay made a gesture and the group broke, everyone headed to horses or the two carriages. Amos squeezed her hand again and left to ride with the Pathfinders. She walked towards the nearest carriage, past Joah. He was looking towards the Lady Garret, who was still watching the group along with all the other Farrow. “Are you okay?” he asked Kay.

  “I will be if we find the child,” she said. She looked a little closer at him. “Are you?”

  “Right by your side,” he said, flashing a smile. “You can have the Fire Creep. I call the third man.”

  “Get in line,” she said, watching the Pathfinders grimly mount up, remembering their powerful hatred of the Winden. Alban was joining them. She didn’t like that. “Killing the Winden won’t be the challenge. Or the point. Remember we’ve got to save that kid. That means getting him safe back inside the walls. We won’t be accomplishing anything in the Dynasty’s eyes if we just help transfer him from one foreign threat to another. Keep your eyes open.”

  Chapter 29. Battle of the Branches

  Joah had stopped the group when Kay felt the first unsettling pull at her core. They were before a tall cluster of thick trees rising up from a ravine just ahead of them. The Fire Creep was close and was summoning her, as he’d done the night before. Whatever piece of her he had access to was humming, calling her towards the group of trees. Much stronger than what she’d experienced last night. How could he touch her? What was he reaching out and grabbing? He’d called it her spark. And then had said it was broken, same as the old man back in Ferris.

  Kay would have had little doubt that the group of trees hid the Creep even without the feeling in her. There were flashes of light in the high branches. A sense of wrongness, like the dream where the streets had been lined with matches. She could see why the children had assumed the forest haunted.

  The Pathfinders and Wrang alike were dismounting and checking weapons. Kay didn’t wait for them to form up, instead walking through the group towards the trees. Amos was at her side in a moment. “We should check the area if we don’t want to alert them,” he said in a hushed whisper.

  “No point. He knows I’m here. He knows we’re coming.” As if to illustrate her point, the next few steps brought them to the lip of the ravine and a winding path lit by torches came into view. Kay led the group along it. As they dipped below the level of the setting sun, the night enfolded them. The path let out at the ravine floor, a sort of doorway made of thick trees in front of them. They pushed through. There was the sound of shouts and laughter from the other side.

  They found themselves among the trees, pockets of clearing around them. Firelight filtered through the branches. The brightest lights drew the group forward, the Pathfinders sliding into the lead. Kay could have found the Creep blindfolded the way he was pulling on her, but she let the others use the light and noise to guide them.

  Amos had her arm. Kay barely noticed, but when he gave it a sharp tug, she jumped. He pulled her forward into a run, seeing something in the signals the advance team was raising. In seconds the whole group was racing through the trees, running towards the light. They burst out into a large clearing, blinding firelight coming from a bonfire to the left. On the other side a huge wooden structure rose up into the sky, next to the tallest tree in the ravine and nearly matching it for height. Between the two the Fire Creep danced, wildly laughing.

  As Kay came into view the Fire Creep turned to face her, face blissful. Ignoring the Pathfinders closing in on him, he laughed and spun, pointing at her like a carnival barker. Kay had never seen him unrestrained. He’d taken off his mask. Lunacy lay underneath. The entire clearing had no sense of reason. It felt like an out of control celebration, one crazed and disturbing.

  “He’s a madman,” Kay heard Yamar say in an awed voice. Elmer grunted in agreement.

  “Keara!” the Fire Creep was screaming, “Keara is here! She’s come to dance with us! Everything has changed, Keara. No one shall stay lost. Lazurli has asked us to offer a challenge! Huh, come and dance, Keara! When the structure falls, the Dynasty hangs! Go get him, Keara! Fetch, fetch! Climb, huh!”

  As part of the dance punctuating his wild shouts, he was pointing to the top of the wooden structure. Kay ran up it with her eyes and felt a blast of cold fear wash over her. At the top, noose around his neck, was Enos, a tiny shape far above them. It was a gallows, the tallest she’d ever seen. Stairs wound up around the interior. A gallows and a trap, just as the other one had been a trap, but she had no choice.

  She looked at the dancing Fire Creep, still oblivious to the approaching Pathfinders. “Kill him,” she said to Amos, “he’s getting stronger.” She took off running towards the structure. It, and everything around her, radiated a sickness, a wrongness. Some foul corruption had been visited within these trees. Whatever rituals had been done to prepare a Dynasty sacrifice to the bloodthirsty Winden god had fouled the air.

  The Fire Creep gave a howl of delight as she began running. Over the shrill sound, Kay heard the flat whish of an arrow cutting through the air followed by the grunt of one of the Wrang as it struck hom
e. The Pathfinders and Wrang alike scattered. The Fire Creep wasn’t alone. The third man was out there somewhere too, the one who’d helped plan this madness, still a threat from the shadows of the trees.

  The Pathfinders were nearly on the Fire Creep, which would hopefully prevent him from setting the structure holding Enos aflame, when Kay hit the first steps. She charged up the interior, head ducked, scraping knees on the uneven steps. She’d gotten up maybe two flights when she heard the laughter of the Fire Creep. He’d escaped and was still alive. The consequences of that became clearer a moment later when the base of the wooden structure below her burst into flames. Yamar was cursing, denied his opportunity to follow her up towards the child. Kay kept going, winding up and up, the rough wood attacking her hands with splinters as she used them to pull herself up the cramped and narrowing space. The trees around her were on fire now and the smoke from the base was rising.

  Finally she was at the top, climbing onto a level wooden platform. Enos stood, terror in his eyes, hands bound and noose around his neck. He was on his tiptoes, gasping for air, panicked. Still wearing his pajamas from the night before, looking small and innocent. Kay quickly checked the noose. The rope which held it rose up towards a thick branch of the tree next to them. Far too far to jump. The structure was the only way down. And fire blocked their path.

  “Choose, Keara!” The Fire Creep’s voice drifted up. “The noose or the fire, huh. Lazurli wants to know!”

  The heat was growing and flames were beginning to lick the edges of the platform. Soon the supports would fall away and they would be left with nothing but the noose. Kay reached into her belt and drew out her jar of pearl ash. Dumped it around the platform at their feet. It might save them from being roasted alive. She ripped the noose roughly off Enos’ head, trying to give him a reassuring look as she did so. No idea if he caught it amongst the chaos. The structure shifted below their feet, hinting at the coming collapse.

  She looked around desperately, one hand clutching Enos’ shirt, the other on the noose. They couldn’t get over to the tree or up to the limb. They needed the rope, but how could they hang on after the gallows collapsed? If she put a hand or arm through the noose, they might live for a few more moments. She’d lose it, but it would be better than dying. She was getting ready to slide her left arm through when she realized she was thinking about it wrong. Instead she slid her baton through the noose and pulled it down hard, locking it into place. She wrapped her arms around the baton, pulled herself up, then threw her legs around the confused Enos. At that moment the structure collapsed below them, falling away to a fiery crash far below, screams rising from the men down there as the flames spread across the dry clearing. She was left dangling in the air, holding the child of the Dynasty tight to her, her cloak flapping in the wind around them.

  There was relief, but it lasted only seconds. The rope creaked alarmingly. Though the fire and smoke had retreated a bit, letting some sanity back in, her situation was still precarious. The child was heavy and was becoming heavier by the second.

  “Enos,” she said, “Enos, you remember me?” He was clinging tightly to her midsection, burying his face in her stomach. “Enos, I need you to climb the rope, Enos. It’s the only way, Enos. Look at me.”

  He did, eyes rimmed with fear.

  “It’s the only way,” she said. He was shaking so hard, nearly limp with fear. “Enos, you’re meant to be a Melor, part of the Dynasty. That means you’re meant to be a leader. But you can’t just be born on high and expect to stay there. You need to climb, Enos. You’ve got to earn it. Climb. So much is depending on you.”

  Her strength was going, but she felt him nod against her. He threw an arm up, clumsily grabbing to her shoulder, pulling. “Enos,” she said. “Enos, look up. Look up. Somewhere up there is the Fire Eye. Can you find it?”

  He slowly unburied his face from her midsection and looked up. Kay said, “Yes, like that. Look for it. Climb to it.”

  It did the trick and the kid started climbing. There was a rush of pain as he crawled his way over her, but as he gripped the rope firmly the burden began to lessen. Then he was up away from her and she was left supporting her own weight. She took a deep breath and began climbing the rope herself. Slowly, awkwardly she fought her way upwards. She could see the Fire Eye above them in the sky, shining through the embers of the fires raging below and around them. Enos threw a leg over the branch above them. Kay kept going, focusing on the rope, hand over hand. As she neared the branch she looked up in surprise, realizing Enos had braced himself and was extending a small, shaking hand down towards her. There was hope for this one yet. She brushed it aside and drew herself up onto the branch.

  A wave of vertigo struck her as she looked down for the first time. There was nothing under them but the fire that raged along the forest floor, far below. The single branch, seemingly too narrow to support them both, swayed in the wind. The neighboring trees were aflame, fires rising. They had to get down. If their tree caught, they’d burn to death among the branches.

  Kay was closer to the trunk and began inching that way. She heard Enos following her. Once she reached the thicker trunk, she turned and pulled him in. She pushed her back into his front and grabbed his sleeves, pulling him onto her back, nearly falling in the process. He gripped her tightly and she began a harrowing descent down the tree.

  She traversed branch to branch, sliding painfully along the bark, knees and elbows raw, back aching from balancing Enos’ weight. She had only made it about halfway down when she realized the tree was on fire, dry leaves flaring bright and hot as the flames spread. She could hear the laughter of the Fire Creep from below, still down there somewhere, and the shouts of fighting men.

  Kay stumbled and slipped off a branch, overbalancing and crashing into a lower tree limb. She landed on her chest, losing her breath, only saved by Enos catching the branch above her and keeping his weight from driving both of them off the relative safety of the tree. She looked up, gasping, and saw the fire curling towards her, crawling up the branch like a living thing.

  The Fire Creep could control it. He had a spark. So did she, so he’d said. He also said she could be taught to do what he did. Could she do something with the fire? Make it obey her? She watched it move and focused on turning it to the side. Move it away. She poured every ounce of her energy, of her spirit, into the flame in front of her. Move. Just this once. Move for me. Nothing happened. The fire drew closer.

  Despair washed over her. She was too weak, too broken. Suddenly the call of the fire came strong and hot, willing her to join it. Feed it. Satisfy her lust. She’d opened herself to the flame and her bug had crawled back in. It would be so much easier to give in. Just watch the fire take them all, burn down everything in this pointless world. Take it to ash. Ash didn’t threaten, or terrify, or force you out of your home, into a dirty laundry room, onto the street, into a shed, off to a strange country you didn’t belong in. All the fire wanted was to breath and restore its own kind of order. Kay reached a hand out, wanting to watch the fire crawl over her hand. To bless her and clean her. Restore her.

  She was brought back to herself as Enos began screaming, the flames coming at him from above. The child. He needed her. Kay shook her head. Today wasn’t the day the bug won the struggle. Not with the Fire Eye above and the Fire Creep below, needing to die.

  She stabilized herself on the branch and reached up to pull Enos onto her back again. She moved swiftly down the branches, the path ahead of her narrowing by the second as the flames claimed more of the tree. Abruptly they were on the lowest branch, their momentum pulling them forward towards the ground. Kay fell out of the tree, landing hard on the dirty ground, flames all around, the Dynasty child on her back.

  She struggled to her feet, breathless from exhaustion, eyes stinging from the smoke which was roaming through the woods in dark curtains. One such curtain swept aside, revealing the Fire Creep standing just before her, one of his hands on fire, held just in front of his fa
ce. His eyes gleeful, he took a deep breath and breathed fire out over Kay.

  Chapter 30. The False Eye

  Kay dove towards Enos, pulling him to the ground and flinging her cloak up over both of them as the fire came. The cloak provided some protection, but the heat still penetrated and burned. The blast subsided quickly. There was a sharp pain on her legs as she realized the cloak had caught fire. She threw it off and looked up to see the Fire Creep lurking just above them. Still holding a burning hand in front of his face. He drew in another breath. Kay had no defense ready. She waited to die.

  A dark object flew in and cracked into the Fire Creep’s face. Amos was charging in from the side and had come through with another well-timed rock. The Fire Creep’s glee had vanished and he looked furiously at the Farrow. But that wasn’t the Creep’s only problem. Yamar was coming from the other side. Kay watched as the Creep took a step back, looking from side to side. He held the hand up in front of his mouth again. He opened his palm, level to the ground, and she could see the fire was floating in the air just above it. Then he blew out sharply while swinging his head from side to side. It painted the air with billowing flames all around, creating a barrier between him and the men.

  Yamar drew back, shielding himself from the cloud of fire before him. Amos dove straight through without hesitation. He took one step inside the ring of fire and lunged at the Fire Creep with a blade held out before him. The Fire Creep vanished, leaving only a silhouette of fire behind. Amos’ sword slid into the fire to no effect. Wild laughter came from off in the forest. Amos looked around in frustration as the flames around them fell back.

  Kay was on her feet, pulling Enos up behind her. “Yamar,” she said, holding Enos’ arm out towards him, “get him out of here.” Yamar took one look at Enos and nodded briskly. He gave a call and more Wrang sprung up around them, Elmer with them.