The Dragon's Flame (The Chronicles of Terah # 2)

by Morgan, Mackenzie

  “That’s guilt talking. You need to get rid of that right now.”

  “How?!” Kevin asked, exasperated. “I just killed a man!”

  “A man that needed killing. You did what you had to do. There’s nothing to feel guilty about.”

  “Everyone keeps saying that.”

  “Because it’s true.”

  “But …”

  “No buts. It just is. Get over it!”

  “It’s not that simple,” Kevin said softly.

  “Yes, it is. That’s why we train, so that when the time comes, you react instead of think. If you had thought about this, you’d be dead and he’d be walking around with the keys. Can you imagine what a man like that would do to Terah? Or to Earth?!”

  Kevin frowned as he pictured Gaynor terrorizing the people of two worlds. “That would be terrible. I have to agree with you on that. But I should have been able to find another way.”

  Glendymere slowly nodded his massive head. “You did, several times. First you let him stay in Camden and work as Warren’s assistant, and then, when he took advantage of that, you exiled him instead of killing him. He’s the one who chose death, not you.”

  “No, he chose to kill, not to die,” Kevin argued.

  “He chose death the instant he decided to go up against you. It was his choice. Once he made his, you had none. He made yours for you.”

  Kevin thought about that for a while. “Maybe you’re right.”

  “Of course I’m right. I’m always right!”

  Kevin smiled in spite of himself.

  Then Glendymere said, “Let me ask you a hypothetical question. Suppose the result had been reversed. Supposed you and Warren were the ones reduced to ashes and Gaynor was the one who survived. How much time do you think he’d have spent feeling guilty over your deaths?”

  Kevin didn’t say anything, but there was a subtle change in his eyes. They didn’t look quite so haunted.

  “Now, go back to the castle and eat a good dinner. You need it. And get some sleep. I want to see you bright and early tomorrow morning,” Glendymere said sternly.

  “What for?”

  “You owe me another day’s practice this week. You didn’t show up Tuesday, remember?”

  Kevin frowned. “I don’t know …”

  “I do,” Chris said. “He’ll be here.”

  Chapter 37

  Saturday

  Kevin didn’t sleep much Friday night and he could tell it when he got up Saturday morning. His eyes burned, his stomach felt nauseous, and he was irritable. He dressed and went out to the meadow to run through his magic routine, hoping it would help him settle down.

  Chris hadn’t slept all that well either. He heard Kevin moving around in his room shortly before dawn, but he didn’t get up until he heard Kevin’s door shut. Then he quickly dressed and settled down on his couch to watch the magic over the treetops.

  Kevin began slowly, barely creating enough of a glow for Chris to recognize that he had started. Chris frowned. Kevin hadn’t been that weak since the first month of his training. As Chris watched, Kevin’s energy level improved a little, but it was still awfully low. He knew that Kevin wasn’t concentrating, that he was going through the motions, but there was nothing behind it. By the end of the routine, Chris was really getting worried.

  He stood up and started to leave his room to go down to the kitchen to get some coffee when he realized that the faint glow of magic was still hanging over the willow trees. He sat back down and watched. Surely things would get better. As Chris watched, his frown deepened. There was no improvement. Halfway through the second routine, he decided he might as well go get the coffee. It wasn’t doing any good to sit there and worry.

  Laryn was standing at one of the windows in the dining room drinking a cup of coffee when Chris walked in. She motioned with her head towards the meadow and raised her eyebrows.

  “I know,” Chris said.

  “What are we going to do?” she asked.

  “I don’t know. We’re supposed to go out to Willow Canyon in a little while. Maybe Glendymere can bring him back around.”

  Laryn looked back at the window and mumbled, “I hope so.”

  Chris went into the kitchen, poured two mugs of coffee and fixed a plate of fruit, cheese, and pastries. Then he put it all on a tray and took it back upstairs to Kevin’s room. He had just set the tray down on the coffee table when the door opened and Kevin walked in.

  “Were you watching?” Kevin asked as he reached for the coffee.

  Chris nodded. “For a little while.”

  “Pretty bad, wasn’t it?”

  “You’ll get past it.”

  Kevin shrugged and sipped his coffee.

  Chris didn’t say anything else. He reached for a pastry and began to eat breakfast. After a little while, Chris realized that Kevin wasn’t eating. He was still holding the first piece of fruit that he’d picked up. Finally Chris asked, “What time do you want to go out to Willow Canyon?”

  Kevin looked out the window. “I don’t know. I didn’t get much sleep last night. I may wait and go tomorrow.”

  Chris shook his head. “No. You need to go today, Kevin.”

  Kevin kept staring out the window. Then he stood up. “All right. I’ll go. By myself. Right now.” He took the key from under his tunic, turned it, and vanished.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  When Kevin materialized in Willow Canyon, Glendymere was curled up in the large cave that he used for receiving guests, waiting for him. He looked into Kevin’s mind and said, “So, you want to quit.”

  Kevin slowly nodded. “I want to go back home. Let someone else do this.”

  “It’s not that simple. Who would take over?”

  “I don’t care.”

  “All right. But there are a few things you need to take care of first.”

  “You’re actually going to let me go?”

  “I don’t see that I can stop you. You have the key. All you have to do is use it.” Glendymere paused for a moment and then asked, “Are you going to take the others with you?”

  Kevin hesitated. “It depends on what they want to do. If they want to go, sure.”

  “And you’re just going to leave the others here to muddle along on their own?”

  “Well, Theresa has the Sisterhood.”

  “And a seated sorcerer who wants to arrest her and kill her for helping a runaway slave.”

  “She has her pendant. It’ll protect her.”

  “And now one of the sorcerers has one, too. Probably the very one who’s after her. Or have you forgotten about that?”

  Kevin glared at Glendymere for a few minutes. “I thought you were going to take care of that.”

  “I will. I’ll go to the next council meeting and find him. Then I’ll kill him and Brena will get her pendant back.”

  Kevin frowned and started to tell Glendymere he couldn’t do that, but stopped as he realized that it wouldn’t be any of his business. He’d be on Earth.

  “What about the others?”

  “I think Steve will stay. He and Laryn are getting pretty serious. At least I think they are.”

  “Too bad they won’t be able to stay at the castle, but maybe one of her brothers or sisters will take them in,” Glendymere said with a nod. “What about Chris?”

  “I’ll ask him and the others what they want to do. If they want to stay, they can. If they want to go home, they can go with me.”

  “All right. But first, you’re supposed to bring Theresa and Hayley out here this afternoon, and Sari is so excited that I can’t bear to see her disappointed. You have to take care of that before you go.”

  “Okay. Will you take care of seeing to it that they get back home?”

  “Hmm. I don’t know. I can’t exactly fly them into Milhaven, but don’t worry about it. We’ll figure out something. Maybe they can just stay here.”

  “But Hayley’s interested in Marcus, a sorcerer who works for me. He lives at the castle.”

&n
bsp; “Well, he won’t be living there long, will he? The new Seated Sorcerer of Camden will pretty much clean house, don’t you think? He definitely won’t want another sorcerer living under the same roof.”

  Kevin thought about that for a few minutes. “Would a new sorcerer be likely to kick the staff out?”

  Glendymere nodded. “From what I understand, the staff at your castle is made up of free men and women, not slaves. Whoever takes over will probably prefer slaves. After all, you can’t order free servants around like you can slaves. You can’t beat them for not doing what you say, and you certainly can’t kill them.”

  Kevin didn’t say anything as flashes of Neiven and Miranda popped into his mind. Then he thought about the pages, and Alex, and Rigel, and the list went on and on.

  Glendymere felt Kevin’s resolve to go back to Earth begin to weaken a little. “If you leave, I imagine that castle will be a totally different place within the month, but don’t worry about it. You won’t be there to see it. You’ll be back on Earth, back in an office, keeping records of someone else’s money.”

  Kevin turned up his nose. He did not want to go back to that. The thought of returning to his old life on Earth made him feel positively sick. “I don’t want to abandon all those people,” Kevin said, more to himself than to Glendymere. “They were there when my father was alive. Neiven knew my father most of his life, and so did Miranda and Cryslyn. When he got sick, they looked after him and the castle. They helped Laryn make the decisions she had to make. I can’t just let them be kicked out.”

  Glendymere shrugged his massive shoulders. “You can quit and go home, or you can stay, but you can’t do both. You have to decide what you want to do.”

  Kevin walked around the chamber and thought. Finally he looked at Glendymere and said, “Maybe I should stay for a little while, try to get things sorted out with the council. Then, once things settle down, I can find someone to take over for me, someone who’ll keep the castle as it is.”

  “Good luck on that,” Glendymere said. “And while you’re at it, you might give some thought as to who can teach Landis. Remember, she and Taelor are going to be in grave danger from Rolan. Whoever takes her on as an apprentice has to be strong enough to protect her or she’s going to end up a pile of ashes.”

  Kevin felt his stomach churn at the thought, and a brief image of Rhianna flitted through his mind, but he simply nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Fine,” Glendymere said as he stretched out his legs and stood up. “Now, we better get started. You’ve got quite a few things to do today, and we need to put in at least a good hour’s practice.”

  Kevin nodded and walked out of the cave. As soon as he stepped outside, Glendymere threw the first bolt. Kevin’s reflexes took over and before he realized what he was doing, he threw an answering bolt and tossed up a shield. Glendymere immediately fired another one, and then another one after that. He kept them coming so hard and fast that Kevin didn’t have time to think, only to react. Before he knew it, his mind had cleared and he was performing at full strength. Even so, Glendymere remained relentless in his attack. He didn’t give Kevin a moment’s peace, and at some point during that intense workout, Kevin realized that he’d be all right. He’d never get over Gaynor’s death, but he would come to terms with it.

  When it was over, Kevin collapsed on the ground. “You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

  “What?” Glendymere asked innocently.

  “You used guilt against me, just a different guilt than the one I was feeling,” he said, still breathing hard. “Those people at the castle, they’re my family. I care too much about them to just walk away. I care about Terah. I don’t want to go back to Earth.”

  “I know.”

  After a few minutes, Kevin stood up and brushed the dirt off his clothes. “Where’s Sari? I want to see her for a minute before I go pick up Theresa.”

  “She’s over in Rainbow Valley, putting a few last touches on the caves. She really is excited. I wasn’t making that up. It would break her heart if they didn’t come.”

  “They’ll be here,” Kevin said as he lifted off the ground and floated over the mountain towards Rainbow Valley.

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  When Kevin landed, he was standing in front of the cave entrance. It was the first time he’d been back to the caves since they’d left, nearly eight months earlier. He felt a wave of nostalgia flow over him as he walked into the cave. He picked up one of the torches that always hung near the tunnel and unwrapped the glowstone. The limestone caught the light from the glowstone and reflected it, adding bits of color to the warm glow. About a hundred feet down the tunnel, a smaller tunnel veered off to the right. Kevin didn’t follow it, but he knew that at the end, there was a stable large enough for a dozen horses. The large room that opened on the left side of the main hallway was where they had stored their wagons.

  Kevin continued along the main tunnel, which snaked around limestone columns for about the length of a football field, and then opened into a huge chamber. An entrance hall separated the chamber into two main areas: a large sitting room on the left, and a dining room and kitchen on the right. Kevin sniffed the air. The smells of fresh baked bread, strawberry preserves, and coffee floated through the air, bringing back even more memories.

  Kevin glanced to the right. The dining area and kitchen were almost like they had left them. The large table was still in the dining room, as well as the rug Ashni had made, but instead of the eight human-sized chairs that they had used, there were now four human-size chairs on one side, and two chairs that were large enough for a giant on the other.

  Beyond the dining room, there was a “U” shaped kitchen, complete with wood stove, sink, pantry, and worktables. Sari wasn’t in there, so Kevin turned left, towards the sitting room.

  The two couches, coffee table, and dark green rug were in the same places that they had been the last time he’d been there. The only thing that had changed was that one of the three over-stuffed chairs that sat in a semi-circle off to the side was large enough for a giant.

  Kevin walked through the sitting room and into the tunnel that led farther back into the cave system. After he had walked about forty feet down a twisting walkway, a smaller hall led off to the left. Kevin turned down that hall and continued walking until he came to a fork. The left fork led to a large bedroom, the one that Karl and Joan had stayed in, but it was dark down that way. The right fork led to the room that had been Theresa’s and Kevin could see light coming from that direction, so he took the right fork. When he got to the bedroom, he could hear humming.

  The room was rectangular, with a bed along the wall to the right of the doorway. The end wall had a few pegs for cloaks and a small shelf about a foot off the floor for boots. Next, there was an easy chair, lamp table, and glowstone lamp. A chest of drawers stood against the wall directly opposite the bed, and next to the chest there was a large wooden desk with a straight back chair.

  Across the room from where Kevin stood was a second door. It was open too, and the humming was coming from that direction. Kevin grinned to himself. Sari was in the workroom. He followed the short hallway to the workroom.

  The room was set up as a combination workroom and storeroom. It was nearly square and there was a stream running along the far wall. Scattered along the walls were a worktable, a sink, a cart on wheels, a large storage cabinet, and extra shelving. Sari was at the worktable, repotting some herbs.

  Kevin didn’t want to startle her, so he quietly backed up into the bedroom and knocked on the doorframe. As he knocked, he called out, “Sari? Are you in there? It’s Kevin.”

  When he stepped into the workroom, she was wiping her hands on her apron and grinning. “Are they here? Where did you leave them?”

  Kevin held up his hand and shook his head. “They’re not here yet. I wasn’t sure you were ready.”

  “I am. I was just killing some time.”

  “All right. I’ll go get them. Where do you wa
nt to meet them?”

  Sari looked around. “I had not really thought about it. Where should I meet them?”

  “How about outside? At the cave entrance,” Kevin suggested. “Theresa knows her way around, but Hayley’s never been here before. You might want to escort her in.”

  Sari nodded. “That is a good idea. When do you think they will be here?”

  “In about ten minutes,” Kevin said with a smile. “I imagine they’re ready now. I was supposed to pick them up before lunch, and it’s getting close to lunchtime.”

  “All right. I will head out now and meet you out front.”

  ~ ~ ~ ~

  When Kevin materialized in the backyard of the chapel in Milhaven, he saw two bags on the back porch. He climbed the steps and knocked on the door.

  Theresa opened it with a frown. “Where have you been? I was expecting you a couple of hours ago.”

  “Something came up. Sorry about that.”

  “Is everything all right?” Theresa asked as she looked closely at Kevin. “Something’s happened, hasn’t it?”

  Kevin nodded. “I had to defend myself yesterday.”

  “Oh, no” Theresa said quietly. “Are you okay?”

  “I will be, I think,” Kevin said with a weak smile. “Anyway, are you ready to go?”

  Theresa nodded. “Hayley’s saying goodbye to Marcus.” Then she laughed. “Actually, they’ve been saying goodbye for about two hours now. I’ll go get her.”

  Kevin waited on the porch for a few minutes, and then Theresa came back out with Hayley following close behind.

  “Shall we go?” Kevin asked as he picked up the bags.

  Theresa nodded and she and Hayley both touched Kevin’s arm.

  When they arrived at the cave entrance, Sari was waiting for them. As soon as Hayley saw the young giant, her eyes widened and she took a couple of steps back. Then she blinked a couple of times and took a good look at Sari.

  Sari was close to nine feet tall, but she looked just like a human, only larger. She had an oval face with soft features and sparkling green eyes. Thick black hair hung loose to her waist, and was held out of her face by a maroon headband with green geometric designs. The light brown dress she wore fell halfway down her calf and ended in several inches of fringe. A sash made out of the same woven pattern as her headband circled her waist and held a leather sheath that housed a long, narrow dagger.