Kayla ran to catch up. “Aunt Marda, it is then. I’ve only known Uncle Tomas and always wanted an aunt.” She knew she was rambling, but couldn’t help it. “Mother will be thrilled. She’s been looking for you for so long.”
Marda stopped and looked at her, surprise obvious on her face. “Really? Last I talked to Kalandra, she wanted nothing to do with me.” There was a bitter note to her voice.
Kayla took a guess here, but somehow knew she was right. She put her hand on her aunt’s shoulder and met her eyes. Blue, like her mother’s. “She has regretted it ever since.”
A wave of relief seemed to cross over Marda. She nodded, blinked hard for a moment, then smiled and headed back up the stream toward her daughter. Kayla didn’t know if her words meant anything, but she hoped they did. Somehow she would get these sisters together once again.
When the Wolfchild reached the top of the lava flow and bounded around it, her companions close behind, Kayla was almost nervous. She wondered once more if Brant was truly right and that she was the player, one of the chosen ones, and not Ember.
When the group reached them, Ember shifted to human once more and went to her mother. “Who’s this?” she asked, using her chin to indicate Kayla.
“Kayla, meet my daughter, Ember Shandae.” Kayla watched Ember for a response, but she didn’t get one. The girl didn’t seem impressed at all, and Kayla began to wonder if she was wrong about this Wolfchild. She took a chance.
“I recently became guardian to one of the keystones, the Sapphire Flute, and was told to guard the flute until I found the player, and I’ve always assumed that would be you,” she said, holding the flute out to Ember. The girl searched Kayla’s face, and looked at the flute, entranced—then slowly, she put her hands behind her back and stepped away. “I’m not the player,” she said, meeting Kayla’s eyes at last. “You are.” She paused for a moment as if considering what to say, then added quickly. “I’ve dreamed of you since I was young. You’ve always been the player. I won’t take it from you, though I’d love if you would help me in collecting the other keystones.”
Kayla nodded. “I assumed as much when I heard about you. I’d be honored to help, Mistress Ember,” she said.
Ember held up a dirty and torn hand. “Just Ember. Please.”
Kayla grinned.
“Oh, and one other thing,” Marda said. “Kayla is your cousin. My sister’s daughter.”
Ember turned to stare at Kayla. “Truly? I didn’t know you had any family, Mother,” she said.
“Oh, yes. A sister and a brother. I had two other sisters, but they were—killed.” It was as if she were about to say something else, but changed her words at the last moment. Kayla would have to look into that later.
Several people ran up at that point. The golden man Kayla had seen before hugged Ember. “Are you all right?” She nodded and introduced Kayla, just as T’Kato and Shiona walked up.
“This is T’Kato. He isn’t as scary as he looks.” Ember’s three step-brothers, one older and two younger twins, approached and were introduced as well. It seemed strange to have a family reunion in the midst of a battle, but it didn’t last long.
Kayla was about to ask Ember about her ability to shift shape when the river of lava stone began to melt and move toward the mage tower once again.
Kayla looked around, trying to find the source, and there, down the river, stood the man and woman pulling the lava from the rock and directing it up the hill against gravity, the same couple Brant had attacked earlier. Where was Brant, anyway? Evidently he had run out of power before finishing them off. That was where the fight needed to be taken.
She pointed. “Look! There they are!” Ember’s twin step-brothers, Tiva and Ren, she thought their names were, and the glowing DeMunth ran down the hill and leaped over the lava at a narrow channel, then went to battle with the man and woman. That left Ember’s older brother, Aldarin, Aunt Marda, T’Kato, and the girl who fought with Ember, Lily, behind with Ember and Kayla. Most of them watched, but Kayla decided to do something to help. Once again she froze the lava and sent her cold spell out toward the two who were fighting to push the molten rock up the hill.
She sent a wave of cold that caught them unprepared and they froze in place. Then the golden man swung his sword at them, and in an instant, they went from living beings to puffs of dust floating down to the village. Lily cried out and fell to her knees with their destruction. Kayla looked at her oddly until Ember leaned over and whispered, “The man raised her as his daughter, evil and hateful as he was. She didn’t know until recently that he was not her father.”
Kayla’s heart panged for the girl then. She knew what it felt to lose a loved one.
Ember turned to Kayla. “Well, that was easier than I imagined it would be. The Shadow Weavers are gone, thanks to Tyese, and now the spies in the academy are gone”—she glanced at Lily, then back to Kayla— “thanks to you and my brothers. It looks like things are over.” Ember grinned, greeting her brothers as they returned.
Kayla wasn’t so easily convinced. She turned in a circle, but saw no one else to fight. A group of scraggly children were coming back to the school, and another group of battle-weary wizards marched directly toward Marda. Kayla prepared herself by keeping the knife her father had given her ready to be used, just in case.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t watching the children.
As they neared, one of the boys broke off and came toward the group. Everyone had their backs to him or were occupied with other things. Only Kayla saw him approach, but never realized what a danger he was until he shoved one of Ember’s twin step-brothers into the lava that still burned hot, his hands and face hitting the stream and sinking through the thin layer of frozen magma. The smell of charred skin reached her even there, and his scream was a sound she would never forget. Kayla wanted to rush to the boy, but his brothers beat her to it. He screamed again as they pulled him out, his blackened flesh dropping off like an overly cooked chicken.
Everything slowed down and Kayla was stuck on the outside, unable to help. She didn’t understand why, except to wonder if someone had cast a spell on her. She wanted to help. She’d been useless to Brant and so many others, and here she was with a flute in her hands and she couldn’t raise it to her lips to play.
Ember also stood frozen, her mouth open in obvious horror. She spun, saw the boy who had pushed her brother, and her eyes narrowed. They obviously had some history. She pulled magic to herself and thrust it at him, but he deflected it back at her, then ran toward her with a knife. She dodged to the side, but there was nowhere to go. She was pinned between the lava and the people.
The Wolfchild tried pulling the fight away from the group, but the boy followed her, tossing small bags of some kind of dust. She turned her head and held her breath every time they came near. People all around them were dropping to the ground, frozen as they inhaled whatever was in the bags. Kayla wondered if she had inhaled it herself, then realized that could not be. She was still standing. All the others were flat on the ground.
That was when she realized what held her frozen in place, and it surprised her to no end.
Fear. It was simply fear.
The understanding freed her. She raised the flute to her lips and played, pulling ice and air to her again, then realized, she no longer had to battle alone. She sent out a request to the flute and suddenly Brant was there. He went after the boy, and most likely to defend Kayla’s newfound cousin, but before he could get there, T’Kato stepped into the fray.
The tattooed man disarmed the boy of his poison by slicing the child’s belt off without breaking the skin. That left them in a more fair fight—except that one of them was a huge, trained warrior, and the other just a little boy. Kayla called out to him. “T’Kato, no! He’s just a boy!” But the tattooed man wouldn’t listen. He and the boy circled one another, one dashing in for a strike, and then the other, and very quickly Kayla came to realize this was not just an ordinary boy. Despite his age and
size, he was a match for T’Kato.
A dome of fire spun up around them just before Brant reached the two. He howled in frustration, his fists beating the ground near Ember, but there was nothing any of them could do. The power of air that Brant lived with would just spur the flames higher. Only water could battle the shield, and none seemed to be in sight.
The girl who had fought with Ember, Lily, began to glow with purple light. Dark clouds gathered above her and the battling man and boy. The clouds pulled moisture into them, and within seconds, it had begun to rain.
Kayla watched, fascinated, and as soon as the fire shield was down, she began to play her flute. Brant was fading fast and she needed to power him, even if she had to pull it from herself.
He glanced at her, then at the fight, and back at her, then shook his head. Even from that distance she heard his voice. “I can’t battle if it will hurt you, love. Another day, maybe, but today you aren’t strong enough.”
In a swirl of air he was gone, back into the flute, and she was left alone and unable to do anything as the fight between man and boy heated up. Despite the fact that T’Kato fought with a sword and the boy with a knife in each hand, it was unclear who was winning. Kayla stepped to Ember’s side and watched, feeling helpless.
And then the tide turned. Lily jumped into the battle, knife in hand, trying to put an end to the boy. T’Kato raised his hand to stop her, yelling, “No!” But it was too late. The moment T’Kato’s guard was down and his arm raised, the boy threw his knife at T’Kato’s armpit, the one place where he could get in a fatal shot. T’Kato cried out and instantly went to his knees, blood spurting from beneath his arm. Kayla cried out and ran toward him, her stomach sick with dread. She’d already killed Sarali’s brother. Would her friend ever forgive her if she let T’Kato die?
Everyone ran to him, and the boy was forgotten in the race to save T’Kato. Only Kayla saw the child look up at her, his expression the most evil one she had ever seen, save only C’Tan. He disappeared in a flare of smoke.
Kayla reached him first and fell to her knees to press strips of cloth she tore from her dress to his wound. T’Kato’s hand covered hers and pressed against the hole under his arm, but the blood came fast, and Kayla knew that he most likely would not recover from that wound. Perhaps the flute could save him like it had helped heal her? She pulled it out and tried to play, her fingers covered with T’Kato’s blood, but no sound came forth. Shocked, she tried again. And again. And again.
The flute would not sound. Evidently Brant was serious when he told her she wouldn’t fight today. It was Brant’s death all over again—only this time, he had control of the flute. It wasn’t fair! Kayla went to T’Kato’s side. Ember’s older brother, Aldarin, knelt at the big tattooed man’s other side and held his hand. “What can I do for you? Is there any magic to fix this? I’m not sure how to help,” he said, trying to get the breastplate off and fumbling with buckles he obviously didn’t understand. The tattooed man put his hand over Aldarin’s and got his attention.
“There is one thing you can do for me, boy. I sense that you are a good man. Are you a good man, Aldarin?”
He nodded, though reluctantly. “I try to be, sir.”
“Good,” T’Kato nearly whispered. “I have a charge for you. Will you fulfill my last request?” He was getting weaker by the moment.
“Yessir. If it’s in my power to do it, I certainly shall,” Aldarin said, holding both hands now.
“Take my magic, son. Take it and return it to my people high in the Ketahean mountains. Do this for me. Please. A last request of a dying man and disciple of Klii’kunn.”
Aldarin’s eyes grew wide at that. “But—how, sir?”
“Don’t you worry,” T’Kato whispered. “Giving you the magic is my job. Getting it to Ketahe is yours.” T’Kato squeezed Aldarin’s hands. “Thank you, son, for son you are, taking this magic. Are you ready?”
“For what?” Aldarin asked, obviously confused.
T’Kato grinned. “You’ll see,” he said, then lay back and gripped Aldarin’s hands hard. The tattoos on his skin began to swirl, from head to hand and every bit that Kayla could see through her tears. Aldarin began to shake and cry out with pain as the tattoos crept from T’Kato’s hands to his, then up his arms, under his sleeves, and disappeared for a moment, only to reappear crawling up his neck, face, and into his hairline. For a long moment he glowed blue, then, as T’Kato’s grip on him relaxed, Aldarin sat back on his knees, his entire body stiffening as the blue glow shifted quickly to orange that flared as bright as the flowing magma, then settled into his skin.
When the glow was gone, every bit of showing skin was covered with T’Kato’s tattoos in bright, vibrant orange, and the huge Ketahean lay dead at Aldarin’s feet.
Kayla didn’t even have tears to cry, though T’Kato deserved them. She had failed again. Another beloved man dead and she could do nothing to save him. What good was the flute if she couldn’t help the people she loved?
Numb with grief and having to handle too much for too long, Kayla sat down on the ground and stared at her protector, now minus his tattoos. Sarali was right—he wasn’t much to look at, but he had a heart of gold. He was strong and kind and did the right thing, even when it was hard.
Inside, Kayla found parts of her were softening, and others strengthened by knowing this man. Here was a man worth emulating, a man who had given her an example with his life. He was the kind of person she wanted to be. Her grief for Brant, she now realized, had been selfish, focused inward, on her life and how it affected her.
In T’Kato’s death, she realized, he had given her a gift—one that let Kayla see that the guardianship of the flute was not easy, no, but what made one worthy to hold it was the kind of life one lived, and until now, hers had been rather shallow.
But no more. Kayla stood, walked to T’Kato’s body, and knelt beside it. Taking his blood-soaked hand in her own, she made a promise she knew she would keep. “I’ll live like you, T’Kato. I’ll devote myself to the flute. I’ll fight for right and forget myself. You taught me that. Thank you, my friend.” She bent her head over his hand and finally cried. When she was done, she left her tears with him. It was time to leave them behind.
Chapter Fifty
C’Tan watched the fight from the side of the mountain, her power allowing her to zoom in on parts of the battle at will. She was angered when Magnet and Seer were destroyed, but had not been surprised. She hadn’t expected them to survive this attack. She had rejoiced when Ian had killed the big Ketahean. He had been bothersome for many years and she was glad to have him gone, though she would have been happier if Ian had managed to capture or kill the Chosen One.
Evidently the hard jobs were left up to her, and she still had one agent in place. With Lily standing in the midst of her enemies, perhaps they could get this job done properly.
C’Tan clambered up the side of her dragon and strapped herself in, then pulled her red leather hood up over her hair to keep it out of the way as she rode into battle. She pulled a handful of throwing daggers from that special place where she kept things, between reality the void, and prepared herself. She nudged Drake, and without a word he took to the air and dove directly toward Ember and Kayla. Finally she had the two girls in the same place. She’d be happy to destroy one, but if she could get them both, her master would be extremely pleased with her, and she could really use his favor.
The girls didn’t seem to be aware of who was coming. She kept quiet and bided her time until she was close enough for her daggers to do some good. She waited until the perfect moment, then drew back and threw two daggers at a time as fast as she could.
The first two daggers missed, but the third and fourth riccheted off the shield of the priest who wore the Armor of Light and a smaller man who was covered head to toe in orange tattoos. It was not a color she would have chosen for herself, if she had been one to be tattooed, but people were strange.
She continued to throw daggers u
ntil suddenly a shadow shield went up before the group and pushed C’Tan and her dragon away.
Stunned, C’Tan hovered above the lava river for a moment before she called out. “Lily? Do you dare challenge me now? I thought you were made of noodles, for the backbone you’ve had.”
Lily’s voice came from the cloud. “I’ve never wanted to be like you, Mother. I just never felt I had a choice with you and Rahdnee as parents, but finding out he was not my father made me realize I didn’t have to be you. Ember is my friend. I won’t let you hurt her.”
C’Tan had mixed feelings. Part of her was proud of her daughter for standing up to her. Part of her was livid that the girl would dare oppose her. And another part was just sad that it had come to this. “You may not have a choice, child. Just let me have Ember, and I’ll leave everyone unharmed.”
“No, Mother. You can’t have her.” Lily said, standing firm. The shadow cloud didn’t move.
“I’ll only say it once more, child. Give me the girl and everyone will live.” C’Tan was quickly losing patience.
“And I said no. I’ll die first.”
“That can be arranged,” C’Tan said, then dove into the shadow. It was cold and wet and her dragon bellowed in pain at the moisture, but she pushed on until she was past the cloud and could see her daughter standing next to Ember, but her daughter, it turned out, was not the problem. The strange tattooed man was on the other side of the girl and the man in the Armor of Light was in front of her.
The only one who stood unprotected was Jarin’s wife. She had aged, but C’Tan knew her. The wife of her half-brother. She could reach no one else, but taking the Wolfchild’s mother might make things go her way.
Quickly diving, C’Tan’s dragon took hold of Brina and pulled her into the sky. One of the girls screamed, probably Ember, and the magic started shooting toward her. C’Tan put up her own shield of fire, surrounding herself, the dragon, and Brina, who dangled below her mount like Kayla had the week before. She moved away from the scene of the fight as quickly as she had moved toward it, then went to the mountainside where she had waited all morning long, put Brina down, and tied her up while she still shook with fright.
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