Ivo halted at the peak of a tall dune, startled by the abrupt change in the scenery ahead. The rolling sand dunes flattened, giving way to a desert plain of bare red rocks, striking arches, pillars, and cliffs that seemed very familiar.
“This is like the desert near Stone Hold,” Emaranthe said. She shaded her eyes against the late afternoon suns. Sweat-matted streamers of hair clung to her flushed cheeks. “But that is far north and east of here, isn’t it?”
“Should be. Perhaps the valley is larger than we figured.” Ivo frowned at the stunning scenery, the sense of deja-vu unnerving. “I bet if we were to follow that river we would find ourselves there once more. Look.”
The rocky land tipped downward gradually until it reached a river. The far bank raced straight up. A cliff. Set atop and farther away a plateau stood jet black against an endlessly blue sky. All around rugged pillars of red sandstone jutted up like fingers pointing at the suns, their shadows as good as any sun dial.
“There’s no way up the cliff?” Jadeth asked. She slipped and skidded down the sandy slope until her leather boots crunched rock. Her gaze narrowed on the wall of stone across the river. At the edge of the water, she halted. “The ravine narrows upstream. I can’t see any sort of bridge or path across.”
Gabaran rolled his eyes. “Why can’t Water-Boy make us one?”
Jaeger spun about and faced the old Elf, his heavy boots sinking into the shifting sand of the dune. He ripped his helm off and shoved past his brother to glare, nose to nose, at Gabaran.
“Call me Water-Boy again and I’ll—”
“Jaeger?” Emaranthe whispered. “Please?”
“What the hell,” he muttered. He shot her a withering glare and dragged his fingers through his wild mane of hair until it stuck up. He shouldered past the smirking Elf and started down the dune, grumbling. Thankfully, the rush of the water drowned out the unflattering words. With one last sour glare at the Elf, he turned to study the river for a long, tense moment.
“What was that about?” Gabaran asked Ivo. His smirk melted into a frown when he caught sight of Emaranthe shrugging deeper into her cloak. “I was joking—”
Ivo glared at the Elf and followed his brother to the river’s edge, leaving the Mortal Hunter standing atop the dune with Emaranthe, his question unanswered.
“Jaeger often refuses to wield his power. Like me, he bears the gift that murdered him… and his wife and child.”
Gabaran’s gaze shifted to the male now standing in what should have been knee deep in the water. The current flowed calm, but swift and, where he stood it parted, leaving him dry. Impressed, he watched the sinuous water ripple and weave into the air at the Warrior’s bidding. All Immortals bore some semblance of magic, not all of it based in nature. Some gifts were small, relatively useless, but others were supremely powerful… and dangerous. He eyed Ivo, then Jadeth. What were the odds?
“Gabaran?” Emaranthe frowned up at him. He was startled, his tangle of thoughts still roiling, but another thought crystallized.
“Why can’t you shift over there?” Gabaran asked. He gestured to the hundred-foot cliff. “I’ve see you on our ice mountains, Little Sister. Heights are no match for your power.”
She frowned, eyeing the cliff face, doubt clouding her gaze. “I’ve not gone so far before, brother, but perhaps if I pull more power…”
Gabaran snorted and crossed his brawny arms over his chest. His eyebrows shot up in a silent, smirking dare.
Emaranthe scowled, peeled off the hooded cloak, and shoved it at him.
“You forget, Big Brother, that you shall remain behind to face their wrath, not I,” she laughed when he froze, half buried beneath the wad of linen, his eyes wide with rapidly fading humor.
Small and thin, without yards of cloth to separate her body from the world, she stood in a simple tan colored tunic and patched brown trousers. Eyes closed she tipped her face to the southern sun hanging low in the sky, her braids bouncing down to her butt. The sun’s magical warmth touched her skin and soaked in, the energy, heat, and power strengthening her innate gifts with each passing second. The air shimmered, rippled, and her loosely braided hair writhed into the air on a surge of power.
Gabaran wisely backed up and wisely didn’t glance down at the trio at the river’s edge when the ripple of energy hit them.
A shockwave tilted the ground beneath Ivo. He turned, stunned, and broke into a run at the sight of the tiny Mage tangled in a nearly invisible shimmer of power. His heart dropped out of his chest.
He called up to her, “Emaranthe?”
“Stay back!” Gabaran shouted at the warrior. “Don’t interfere!”
The three raced with uncanny speed up the dune. Their faces would have sent the old Elf into shameless chuckles any other moment. He wasn’t sure just which emotion would have been funnier… the unadulterated rage aimed at him by Jaeger and Jadeth… or the heart wrenching fear on Ivo’s face.
Ivo made the crest of the dune well before the others. His helm went one way, his gauntlets the other. Energy rippled and spun around Emaranthe, distorting the air into prismatic shards.
“Emaranthe, what are you doing?” he gnashed his teeth and leaped forward when she didn’t respond, his large hands outstretched to grab a slender arm.
“Ivo, stop!” Gabaran yelled. He charged between them. The fear coating his tongue tasted horribly familiar. “Don’t touch her when she’s pulling pow—”
They collided. Hard. Twin grunts of pain and rage mingled with growls. The warrior’s momentum drove them sideways into Emaranthe in a cartwheel of punches and kicks. Soft flesh bounced off hard iron and muscle.
“No!” Ivo roared, the sound a warped, guttural cry. They rolled, twisted, snarled, as he and the giant Elf tumbled to one side. Sand exploded into the air. Growls drowned out the seething crackle of fiery energy… and the sound of a small, feeble cry.
“Emaranthe!” Gabaran growled and wrestled against the tide of gravity throwing them down the dune.
Ivo’s left hand gripped at the Elf’s upper arm as the sky swapped places with the sand. Gritty dust choked his throat shut. His fist slammed into the older male’s jaw as they cartwheeled to an abrupt halt at the foot of a boulder. Gabaran’s head snapped sideways, digging his cheekbone into rough stone. Blood scribbled a path on the sharp rock.
Unfazed, the Elf shoved Ivo with his free arm, throwing him off with astonishing strength. Ivo lurched backward, rolled, and twisted into a crouch before the Elf could struggle to his feet. Breathing heavily, Gabaran eyed the enraged Earthlander behind straggling strands of white hair.
Ivo growled and the sand at his feet stirred into the air. His anger bled into the atmosphere, turning the stale air into a sharp wind that wove a dusty path around the two males and blotted out the late afternoon suns. Teeth bared, sword long forgotten, Ivo fed his rage into the wind.
The wind whipped into a numbing roar. Peppered with sand and debris, both males leaned into it and lunged for each other, teeth bared. Ivo ducked beneath Gabaran’s fist and shoved with an iron-plated shoulder. The hard contact spun the Elf around. He caught himself on the boulder before he could sprawl on the ground amid the churning wind and sand.
Ivo rushed him again, but Gabaran stilled when the howl of the wind hesitated, and the once drowned out sounds filtered through to them. He twisted and looked for the source, startled by the vehemence of the cries.
Ivo froze, fisted hand mid throw and inches from Gabaran’s already bloodied nose, when one particular cry ripped his heart from his chest and dropped it on the ground beneath his feet. He spun, the old Elf forgotten. Beyond the wall of dust-laden wind, a pool of energy hovered over the dune, but was the shapes huddled over a fallen one that drove his imagined foot to stomp on the heart in the sand.
“Emaranthe?” Ivo mumbled. He squinted at the sand and wind blurred scene, not quite ready to believe his vision.
Gabaran pushed off from the rock to stand beside him, a frown twisting his lips i
nto a grimace.
Little Sister…
“She… we collided with her,” Gabaran took in the odd scene and fear slithered with a shiver down his spine at the sight. He glanced at Ivo, his gaze widening and catching Ivo’s maddened green. Though they did not burn and swirl with power like Emaranthe and Jaeger’s, the Warrior was a Keeper of the Wind, and could wield it with the strength of a thousand hurricanes if he were to lose control.
“Ivo, go!” Gabaran cried out. He staggered, stunned, and shoved the Warrior toward the unsettling scene. He ignored the stinging bite of rock and wind and stepped into the wall of scouring sand behind him. He was too old now to care how many scars littered his body, but he would be damned if his foolish actions cost Little Sister one of her precious lives. “Ivo! She needs you!”
Ivo lurched forward and bolted through the wall of gritty wind. Rock exploded off his battered armor and scattered with hollow plinks. The wind dissipated as he emerged, his wild gaze searching the dune for the source of the cries.
The absence of the wind brought Jadeth and Jaeger’s calls into stark relief in his mind. Their words echoed, turning his blood cold.
“Ivo! Hurry!” Jaeger called, his voice tense. An orb of crackling energy hovered in front of him and he’d placed himself between it and the women.
“Emaranthe,” he lunged up the dune, blinking stinging eyes to clear the blurry figures. He half feared what he would see when his vision sharpened.
Jadeth ‘s hammer sat forgotten several yards away, the green glow almost eclipsed by the light from the hovering orb. Jadeth knelt over Emaranthe, a cascade of unraveling braids half hiding her unmoving body. Quick, efficient hands felt for unseen wounds.
Jaeger, his attention fixed on the orb, stood with his axe drawn. Ice frosted the blade he held mere inches from the ball of light.
“What happened, Ivo?” he asked as Ivo shouldered past and fell to his knees.
Shaking fingers curled into the hot sand. In her simple tunic and trousers, Emaranthe made a tiny, broken figure in Jadeth’s lap. He gathered her close, his massive arms enveloping her completely. Limp and unresponsive in his arms, something in Ivo broke.
His soul.
His heart.
“Please,” he swallowed thickly. He smoothed her hair from her face, revealing a streak of blood trailing beneath her nose. Her freckled nose. A long fan of dark eyelashes couldn’t hide the shadows beneath them. “Oh, please. I can’t lose you.”
A gentle hand curved over his bicep. He shook it off with a possessive growl. It returned and clutched tightly at the ties of his armor and tugged to gain his attention.
Jadeth whispered tersely, “She lives, Ivo, she escaped injury but for a severe knock on the head, and a small cut. I healed the concussion, but I can’t give her the power that orb stole”
Ivo’s arms convulsed around her. He remained silent, shuddering with the guilt that comes from hurting the one who had trusted you implicitly. The one you love. Green eyes, unashamedly damp, lifted to see the old Elf at the base of the dune fall to his knees and hide his weathered face in trembling hands.
“It was an accident,” Jadeth added, seeing the myriad of emotions rove over Ivo’s face as he turned to the Elf Hunter. “It could have happened to any of us—”
“Not her,” Ivo interrupted gruffly.
He continued, “I promised, Jadeth. I promised not to hurt her. Long ago, she asked if she could trust me. I…told her yes.”
“Not even Ivo, Keeper of the Wind, can control accidents, brother,” Jaeger turned away from the ball of energy to study his brother. Helmless, his sandy hair stood up as if he’d been hit by lightning. “It was not your fault.”
“It is my fault for putting her in danger. For being the danger.”
“She’s going to be unconscious until her energy returns,” Jadeth said. She turned and eyed the suns hanging low in the sky. They would set soon and at almost the same time, bringing a pitch-black night at this time of the year. “There isn’t enough sunlight in the day. What do we do?”
No one had an answer to give.
“And what about this?” Jaeger asked. He poked at the hovering ball of energy with his axe. Tiny shards of lightning crackled in warning. “What is it?”
Gabaran topped the dune, his face bloodied and grim. Jadeth gasped, startled, at the mess Ivo had made of his face. The old Elf ignored her and focused on the one thing he could fix.
He grimaced, his gaze roving between Ivo and Jadeth.
“It’s all but the entire sum of Emaranthe’s power fully focused into one thing. It… tore free when we collided with her. I thought you knew about this ability. It…was just supposed to be a bit of fun. I never meant to hurt her, Ivo. Know that.”
“Oh, gods,?” Jadeth clapped her hand over her mouth. “What was she doing?”
Gabaran looked away, unable to meet her accusing blue glare. “She was gathering extra energy from the suns.”
“She can do that?” Jaeger asked. “Another power?”
“Of a fashion,” Gabaran said, his voice pained. “We spent ten years discovering her abilities at Anat. Some to varying degrees of danger or success. She can gather energy from the sun if she minds how much she pulls or gives. She can also create portals to travel short distances, but only as far as she can see. The little fire flicker trick is but a shortcut she learned. ”
“She didn’t tell us,” Ivo swallowed. “Did she not trust us?”
Gabaran glared at the warrior. “If you think Little Sister would hide this from you purposely, then you know nothing of her soul, Ivo.”
Ivo grimaced and his arms tightened around Emaranthe’s unmoving body.
Gabaran continued, “No, Warrior, she learned from my people about the power of silence. That gifts such as hers were rare and enticing. No need to temp the dark underbelly of our already cruel world to want to take it, or her, for dark purposes.”
Jadeth flinched, swallowed. She’d seen those dark places in the world. Not every Immortal had been given a moral compass.
“Why did she leave your people then? Was she not loved?” Jadeth asked. She stared straight into Gabaran’s startling gaze and waited.
“No,” he whispered. “She had captured few hearts within my people, despite her every effort, and mine. She chose to leave and I had to let her go.”
Gabaran stared pointedly at Ivo.
Ivo stood, shifting Emaranthe’s slight weight until she was gently sheltered against his armored chest. He wished that the cold metal wasn’t between them, that he could feel her breathing, her warmth against his skin. Clenching his jaw until it ached, he shoved those wishes aside. Wishes were for dreamers, and dreamers had no place in a world ruled by death and destruction. He swallowed, forcing his gaze away from her and to the large elf she called brother.
He said, “Thank you for caring for her, Gabaran. We owe you.”
Jadeth draped the fallen cloak over Emaranthe with a sharp glance between the two men.
Tears swam in her gaze as they flicked between him and her unconscious friend in Ivo’s arms.
She studied Gabaran. “Now what?”
The old Elf twitched at her words, turned to face her. “She-Elf, that is just what I want to know.”
Jadeth gaped at him, puzzled.
Broad hands reached for the orb and at his touch it flattened and spiraled wide. Trailing crackling lightning and fire, it stretched until it resembled the one other orb portal he had ever seen.
“I had wondered if Emaranthe could create portals ever since I took her in. She had been dying, you know,” Gabaran said. “That was the first time I saw Light.”
He focused on the gently spinning portal.
“Thus I was gifted with the knowledge that she did exist, and had higher plans for me and mine. I gained a Little Sister… and hope.”
Ivo stared at the giant Elf, stunned, his racing mind having finished the tale before it was spoken. “Light had found Emaranthe, dying, and given her to you
r care?”
“Yes. Light created a portal in this same way for us.”
“Where did the portal take you?”
“It took me where I wanted to go. Home.”
“You didn’t follow Light,” Ivo stated flatly. His gaze dropped down to Emaranthe, to her slender arm draped over his massive bicep. Her small, gloved hand swung limply with each heaving breath he took. “You took Emaranthe to safety, to help, instead.”
Gabaran’s head lifted, his broad shoulders squared. “Yes.”
“You abandoned a quest for a god to save a dying woman not of your own race?” Ivo asked.
The old Elf turned, smiled wryly. Starlit eyes brightened again.
“Not abandoned,” he said. “Started.”
Chapter Five
“Now what?” Jaeger asked. He stepped closer to the portal, mesmerized by the lazy, static spinning. The center was blurry, vague, like eyes clouded by water, he realized, or fog.
“Now we don’t waste her gift to us,” Gabaran said. He inhaled and turned back to it. “Stand back, I’ve never done this part before.”
Everyone scuttled backwards. Out of habit, Jadeth and Jaeger stood between danger and their youngest friend.
Ivo held Emaranthe close, felt the slight shift of her slight frame as she breathed, and thanked The Four that she yet lived. His entire body vibrated with tension, fear. Fear for her… and fear for the rest of their world if something happened to her and he lived to witness it.
“Are you ready?” Gabaran asked. He didn’t dare turn around; take his eyes off the smoky disturbance shifting the surface of the flattened oval.
“I doubt that a ‘no’ will do much good,” Jadeth mumbled. She swallowed, shooting Jaeger a sideways look. He looked as green as she felt. “So, yes.”
Ivo’s arms tightened around Emaranthe. He didn’t speak. Didn’t have to.
The two suns sank behind the opposing mountains, turning the stark light of the portal into a dangerous beacon that cut through the creeping twilight. If they didn’t move soon enemies would see it, and them.
Gabaran stared into the chaotic swirl until it sharpened and focused. The static inside shifted, dulled, until the oval field of energy framed an image of a tall plateau within. It swam lazily, flickered, but settled, and the stunned Immortals could see the plateau as if it stood directly before them and not a dozen miles away.
Allies & Enemies Page 6