Deliverance

by Brittany Comeaux

  “I never thought the general had it in him to actually have a lover. He’s always so damned serious,” Blaze remarked.

  “He’s a very nice man; he’s just hard to get to know sometimes. Anyway, after my father found Gavril floating down the river, he brought him back to the castle in Cartigo and my mother healed his wounds. After Gavril recovered, he joined my father’s army and eventually became general. All the while, he and my father became best friends. Even though my father never found out about what happened to him before he found him, he never pushed Gavril to talk about it. He did, however, assure Gavril that he would listen when he was ready to confide in him. When Gavril and I both watched my parents die at the hands of Bogdan, he vowed to bring justice,” Crystal explained.

  Blaze stopped walking and said, “You watched them die?”

  Crystal stopped too and muttered, “Yes, when I was only ten years old.” When she saw his puzzled expression, she added, “It happened in the throne room. My mother brought me out of my bedroom and brought me in there to meet my father. He and Gavril were ordering soldiers to different posts, and I remember my father embracing us both when he saw us. The castle was surrounded by Daldussan soldiers and there was no way of leaving, so my father instructed Gavril to hide with me behind a large mirror that covered a secret compartment for that specific purpose.

  “At first, he told my mother to hide too, but she insisted upon staying with him. Gavril and I hid behind the mirror, which turned out to be a one-way mirror, so we could see everything in the room even though no one could see us. That way, we could see when it was safe to sneak out. I remember the exact moment when the doors to the throne room flew open and Bogdan walked in.”

  Blaze then remembered the enormous mirror in the throne room. He had always wondered what the mirror was for, but never did he imagine that it was for hiding.

  Crystal then continued. “My father agreed to surrender if Bogdan just left his family alone, but Bogdan just laughed, claiming that it didn’t matter if my father surrendered because he had already defeated him. He then heartlessly plunged his sword straight through my father’s chest, and when my mother screamed and tried to embrace him as he fell, Bogdan grabbed her and stabbed her as well. I remember Gavril covering my mouth before I could scream once I saw my father get stabbed, and then he hid my face in his cloak once Bogdan stabbed my mother. It didn’t do any good to shield my eyes, though, because hearing her shriek was just as terrible.”

  At this point, Crystal began wiping away tears that soaked her cheeks. Blaze just stood there awkwardly, unsure of how to respond.

  “So after witnessing the murders of his closest friends on top of the murder of his lover, he vowed to protect me, his best friend’s daughter, with his life,” Crystal finished.

  Blaze sighed. He felt uneasy sitting there while Crystal poured her heart out onto him. He then saw a stone bench and gestured for her to sit, and he did the same.

  Once Crystal was seated, she cleared her throat and said, “So, can I ask you something?”

  “Shoot,” he said.

  “We all know who your father is, but what about your mother?” she asked gently.

  “What about her?” Blaze asked.

  “Where is she?”

  “Buried in the ground near the castle in Daldussa; she died when I was a baby,” replied Blaze.

  “Oh . . . I’m sorry.” Crystal muttered gently, “Well, what do you know about her?”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know . . . how about we start with her name?” Crystal responded.

  After a short pause, Blaze muttered, “Althea.”

  “What a beautiful name!” Crystal exclaimed, “What was she like?”

  “I have no idea. Like I said, I was a baby when she died,” Blaze replied.

  “Well I just thought someone must have told you about her. How did she die?”

  “Fa—I mean Bogdan told me she got really sick after I was born and died a few months later,” Blaze said.

  “Oh, that’s so sad . . .”

  “It doesn’t matter. She’s gone now and not coming back,” retorted Blaze.

  Crystal stared at him and said, “How can you say that? She was your mother!”

  “That I never knew. In fact, all I know is what I just told you, her name, that I like just like her, and how she died. I don’t know what she was like or who the hell she was at all. And if she’s anything like Bogdan, maybe that’s a good thing,” Blaze muttered. He then rose and walked off without another word.

  Crystal was grateful that Blaze finally decided to open up for a change, but she still felt like there was more to him that he didn’t want to show. She wondered why he was never told anything about his mother other than what he had told her.

  Crystal was still wondering about it all when Kerali suddenly came running towards her and shouted, “Another shard has been spotted!”

  CHAPTER 12

  “The shard is in Typhoon Canyon,” Kerali explained everyone in the meeting room. He and his troop of elves, which of course included his fiancée, Breuvial, had returned from the northern territory between the hideout and Cartigo. Crystal and all of her friends were sitting in the room with her and they all exchanged worried glances.

  “You mean the same canyon that is home to hundreds of criminals that escaped justice, including murderers, rapists. and thieves?” asked Gavril.

  “The very same, I’m afraid,” responded Breuvial.

  “What’s even worse is that these regularly violent criminals are beginning to act even MORE violent than usual. When we first heard of that, we suspected that a shard was involved, and we then confirmed this when we heard that a nearby village was raided by a group of thieves recently, one of whom was seen holding a dark red gem,” explained Kerali.

  “The dark aura from the Eye of Gaull must be making them more aggressive. That is certainly not good news for us,” Thaddeus stated, stroking his beard.

  “We will have to be very careful when we go there. Who knows what kind of trouble we will run into,” Crystal said.

  “I agree. If these thugs are even more violent than before, this will not be an easy task for us,” said Gavril.

  “So what are your orders, Crystal?” asked Kerali.

  Crystal looked down at her feet and pondered the situation carefully. Everyone remained completely silent while she thought, and then she finally broke the silence by saying, “Let us get several teams together. I believe I have a plan.”

  ****

  Crystal decided that she and several other rebels would travel into Typhoon Canyon and a few separate groups of rebels would wait in the neighboring villages to protect the residents in case there was another raid. The group that actually ventured into the valley would be smaller so they would not attract a lot of attention, but another group would wait just at the top of either side of the canyon walls to make sure that the main group was not flanked.

  The main group would consist of Crystal, Gavril, Blaze, and Sigurd. Kerali would wait with the elves on one side of the canyon and shoot arrows at anyone who tried to jump the main group, and Maryn and Taryn would sit with the halflings on the other side and be ready to throw knives or darts if necessary.

  However, Typhoon Valley, as they had discovered, was well over half a mile wide and ten miles long, and Gavril worried that the groups at the top of the canyon would not be able to see them or help them every minute they ventured through the area. However, Thaddeus came up with an idea to remedy such a situation if it were to occur.

  Just as they had done in Ordale, Thaddeus agreed to stay further behind so that he could see the group through Blaze’s eyes and warn everyone if there was danger. Everyone agreed with him and the elves assured Thaddeus that they would sit by him once he entered his trance and would be ready to act the second he sensed danger.

  Though Blaze was still peeved by the tracking mark, he did not voice his annoyance. He did, after all, have to admit that it made things easie
r in most situations. He didn’t want to admit, of course, that he was starting to feel comfortable with the rebels, especially not Crystal.

  The morning after she had received the news, Crystal then gave the order for all rebels to leave and find their posts. None of the rebels who guarded the villages were to state their true business, but to claim they were simply travelers that wanted to rest for a day. Each group left at a different time and took different routes, as usual, and by nightfall, everyone had settled into their areas and sheltered themselves until morning.

  The opening of Typhoon Canyon was in a very arid and rocky area a ways north of the hideout. The dried up canyon opened and traveled northwest for roughly ten miles. Crystal and the rest of the main group approached the opening of the canyon, which sloped downward from ground level and then stayed level for many miles. By the time the four of them had reached the deepest part of the canyon by late morning, the canyon walls were over eight stories high.

  “This canyon has a lot of ground to cover.” stated Sigurd after observing how wide apart the canyon walls were, “How are we to find the shard with only the four of us?”

  “The shard emits an aura that draws humans towards it,” Gavril explained.

  “Why humans?” the dwarf asked.

  “Only a human can use the Eye of Gaull because we have the most darkness in our souls of any race.” Crystal explained to the dwarf, “The shards emit the aura to call humans towards them to tempt the human that finds it into using it.”

  “So all we have to do is let ourselves be drawn to the shard and we will find it,” Gavril added.

  “I don’t feel the presence yet, though, so it must be further into the canyon,” replied Crystal.

  Suddenly, Blaze said from the back of the group, “Everyone stand still.”

  The other three all stopped walking and turned around to face him.

  “What is it?” Crystal asked him.

  “I thought I heard something,” Blaze responded, turning his head around to find the source of the noise he heard. Suddenly, he looked in Crystal’s direction and grabbed the sheath of his sword. Before he could act, however, Crystal heard a cry of pain from behind her and turned in time to see a man in a hooded cloak collapse behind her with an elven arrow plunged into his back.

  “You’ve got good ears, Blaze!” exclaimed Crystal.

  “Good thing the elves have good eyes as well,” Gavril added. He then turned to Crystal and asked, “Are you all right?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. He didn’t lay a hand on me. I’m mostly just a little shocked,” Crystal replied.

  “Better be more careful! We don’t want to speak too loudly again and draw more attention to ourselves,” stated Sigurd.

  The rebels traveled through the canyon well into the day. Every now and then, they ran into more criminals, but fortunately, none of them were very strong, nor did they appear in groups bigger than three or four people. As Gavril pointed out, criminals usually don’t trust each other, so none of them ever stuck together for too long and most of the time kept to themselves, and Blaze couldn’t help but notice the funny way the general kept looking at him when he spoke of criminal behavior.

  By early afternoon, the group had traveled a little more than halfway across the canyon, and they finally began to feel the shard’s presence.

  “It’s definitely a shard.” Gavril stated, “I fear that if the aura is this strong, we will have more dangerous criminals to deal with here.”

  “Yes, I am afraid you may be right; the criminals we fought so far weren’t very strong, so the shard must be in the hands of a fairly nasty one,” said Crystal.

  “Either way, I won’t hesitate to kill anyone who gives us trouble,” Blaze stated.

  “Just don’t be reckless, Blaze,” Gavril pleaded.

  “Whatever,” Blaze muttered back.

  In another hour or so, and after fighting off a few more criminals, Crystal spotted a group of huts off to the side of the canyon against a cliff. They walked over and stopped about twenty feet before the nearest one.

  “The presence is strong here, so maybe we should check inside,” she stated.

  “I agree, but we need to approach cautiously. You three cover me as I peek inside,” Gavril said.

  Gavril walked slowly into the first hut with his sword drawn. Crystal stayed right behind him with her hand on the hilt of her short sword and Blaze and Sigurd faced the other direction to keep the other two from being flanked. Gavril concluded that the hut was empty, and the other three he checked were also empty.

  “Damn! I was sure we’d find it here!” Gavril spit in frustration.

  “I still feel the presence though, so it can’t be far,” Crystal assured.

  Suddenly, without warning, Gavril faced Crystal and in a split second lunged toward her and pulled her to the ground. She lay on her back and he had landed next to her on his side. Crystal then heard a loud THUNK and looked up to see a large dagger stuck in the wooden door frame of the hut. It was still wobbling after hitting the wood and judging from the angle, it would most likely have nailed Crystal right in the head if Gavril had not pulled her out of the way.

  After uttering a quick “thanks” to Gavril, Crystal got to her feet and prepared to fight off the person who threw the knife. Blaze and Sigurd already had their weapons out and were facing a group of seven angry-looking criminals. One particularly aggressive-looking thug had a Gaull shard strapped to his belt.

  “The shard!” cried Crystal.

  “You mean this?” asked the thug, pointing to the spot on his belt. The half dozen criminals that surrounded him laughed. It was quite apparent that the thug with the shard was the leader. He then said, “I don’t blame anyone for coveting this pretty gem. It is more than valuable; it has given me strength beyond belief! No one can stand in our way as we pillage more loot than ever!”

  “You common thieves do not know what that gem is capable of! You need to hand it over before it gets you into deep trouble,” Crystal shouted.

  The thieves burst into laughter and the leader stepped forward and said, “And I suppose you know how to use it, beautiful?”

  Crystal groaned with disgust.

  “Be careful.” Gavril whispered, “He doesn’t look like he will be a pushover like the others.”

  “Looks that way,” Crystal whispered back.

  “We are the Seven Storms, the most feared thieves in Cierith!” yelled the leader, “You stand no chance against us!”

  With that, the thieves charged toward the rebels. Blaze and Sigurd charged forward and Gavril began to follow close behind. Crystal stayed a ways behind and cast several spells from afar, wounding one of the thieves. Blaze then sliced through the thief and killed him. Blaze and Crystal then began to fight each another thief. After slicing another thief’s knife out of his hand, Sigurd managed to defeat the thief by landing his axe into his shoulder. The thief then bled out in seconds after hitting the dirt.

  Gavril, on the other hand, was being overwhelmed by the two remaining thieves and the leader while his friends were distracted. It didn’t take long for Gavril to lose his grip on his sword and fall to the ground helplessly. The leader stood above him with a possessed look on his face and attempted to drive his knife down upon the unarmed general.

  Just then, the knife was blasted out of the leader’s hand with a fire ball delivered by Crystal. She had defeated her second opponent just in time to disarm the leader and send his dagger flying fifteen feet away. He cried in pain as the fireball burned through his glove and finally managed to rip it off. He furiously patted it and his burning hand into the dirt until the fire went out.

  The two other thieves tried to attack Gavril, but Sigurd and Blaze blocked them off and engaged them in battle. Gavril shot a thankful look at Crystal and rushed over to his sword, which was lying several yards away.

  Blaze had lost his grip on his sword after his enormous foe knocked him to the ground, but he managed to retrieve his hidden dagger from his b
oot and he sliced the large thief’s leg open. The brute fell to the ground and Blaze managed to get on top of him and stab him in the throat.

  Crystal had just cast an electric spell on the thief that Sigurd was fighting, when the leader of the thieves suddenly lunged at her and shouted:

  “You bitch! You burned my hand!”

  At that moment, no one realized what happened until everyone, even the leader of the thieves, had fallen still out of shock. The leader had charged toward Crystal after retrieving his dagger and attempted to stab her while her back was turned. However, before the leader could reach Crystal, Blaze stepped in the way. The prince stood before the leader of the thieves with the dagger plunged into his left side, and everyone stood in horror as he dropped to the ground, bleeding heavily.

  Blaze’s vision began to leave him and his body was covered in cold sweat. The sharp, intense pain in his ribs was suddenly being pushed on to stop the bleeding. It made the pain worse, and even though Blaze couldn’t hear it, he knew he let out a cry of pain. He could barely make out Crystal’s cries above his own.

  “Blaze! Hold on!” he heard her cry. All sounds he heard were muffled, but he could still hear the desperation in her voice. He then heard who he thought was the thief leader yell and then heard something hit the ground hard.

  “The leader’s dead! Sigurd, grab the shard from his belt!” he heard Gavril shout, “Quick! Wrap this around him!” He then felt some kind of cloth behind wrapped tightly around him, and even though the pain grew, he no longer had the energy to cry out. It was soon, however, that Blaze’s body grew numb.

  He then barely heard the dwarf shouting to someone, “We need help! The bloke’s been stabbed! Quick!”