by Ben Wolf
“In the Desert of the Forgotten,” Lumen replied.
Another low growl rumbled from Riley’s throat.
Axel folded his arms and smirked at Lumen. “Well, I suppose if we gotta do this, it’ll be a lot easier with you around.”
“I am not going with you,” Lumen replied.
“What?” Axel let his arms slump to his sides as he gawked at Lumen.
“I am not going with you,” Lumen repeated. “I must remain here. There is much work to do in preparation for our uprising. That is why I need you to gather the army on my behalf.”
Calum had suspected that would be the case when Lumen had first proposed the idea, but it still left him feeling abandoned. He’d done so much already, yet Lumen insisted there was still more to accomplish before all could be made right.
It made sense to Calum, but a part of him had expected it to be easier once Lumen was freed. He’d hoped Lumen would shoulder most of the burden from then on, but that didn’t seem to be the case. It left Calum wondering if he’d simply had the wrong expectations going into all of this.
Axel clenched his fists. “You mean to tell me that after all we went through to set you free, after all we suffered, after all those miles we walked through Kanarah, now we have to do it all over again without your help?”
Lumen just stared at Axel with those blazing white orbs, and his eyes narrowed.
“Perhaps you’re forgetting that Lumen spent the last millennium in isolation, Farm Boy.” Condor smirked at Axel. “Comparatively, we still have it pretty good.”
Axel frowned at him. “I just don’t see why he’s not coming with us.”
Without so much as a word, Lumen pointed to Kanarah City. In the distance, a crowd of hundreds of people had spilled out of the city and started toward the crater. Among them stood Jake and those of his crew who had survived, staring at Lumen in awe.
“Those people saw what I did. My displays of power. They now come forth to join me, to join us in bringing our rebellion to the King.”
Calum squinted. Perhaps hundreds was too low an estimation. Far more people came out of Kanarah City than the number of soldiers Matthios had brought against them. Calum had never been good at sizing up large groups, but there had to be at least a thousand people streaming toward them.
“Some of those people will stay, and others will return to their daily lives. Many will side with the King. Those who remain with us must be trained, taught, and cared for. I cannot do those things if I must also raise an army from the other half of Kanarah.”
Lumen’s gaze fixed on Axel for a long moment, then he shifted it to Calum. “But you can help me, as you have helped me so much already. You can unite all of Kanarah in my name, and together we can free everyone from the King’s grasp once and for all.”
A swell of purpose rose in Calum’s chest, banishing the doubt that had threatened to take root there. “I want to, but no one will believe me. I’m nobody. Why would anyone listen to me?”
Lumen extended his fingers toward Calum. “Give me your left hand.”
Calum reached forward, and Lumen’s long armored fingers curled around it, enveloping it as if Calum were nothing but a child. Compared to Lumen, he supposed he was.
A white light emanated from Lumen’s palm. A subtle burning sensation spread through the tendons and nerves in Calum’s fingers. The light shone through Calum’s hand and remained there even when Lumen pulled his hand away.
“This will serve as a sign to all who would doubt your claims that I am free and that I intend to liberate Kanarah. To summon the light, you need only to command it with your mind, and it will shine from your hand,” Lumen said. “May it light your way in dark places, should you need it.
“Then, once your task is complete, I will grant each of you power, real power to do miraculous and impossible things. You will be my generals, my imperators, but not until you return with an army to command.”
“Good.” Axel rubbed his hands together. “We’re gonna need it.”
The light in Calum’s hand flared with every command, no matter how subtle, that he allowed to cross his mind. When he commanded it to fade to nothing, it extinguished altogether, but it came back just as quickly as he summoned it, bringing the subtle burning sensation with it. The burn annoyed him, but it didn’t stop him from exploring his newfound power.
Regardless of what Axel said or thought, Lumen had already granted Calum real power, if only a small measure of it. It would be more than enough to rally the people of Western Kanarah. If they could see his hand, touch it, examine it, and know that the power came from Lumen, how could they resist Lumen’s call?
“We accept.” Calum scanned the eyes of his companions. Even if he had to go alone, he would find a way, but he remained optimistic that he wouldn’t be going alone. “We’ll get you your army, won’t we?”
Lilly nodded. “Yes. We will.”
Her agreement sent a happy shudder through Calum’s chest.
Condor shrugged. “I go where she goes.”
Magnus exhaled a long hiss through his nose. “I have been away from home for far too long. If nothing else, I will relish the surprise in my uncle’s eyes before he kills us all.”
“Let’s try to avoid that last part, alright?” Calum hoped Magnus wasn’t serious.
Magnus smirked at him. “If you insist.”
Calum turned to Riley. “What about you?”
Riley growled again. “The last place I wanna go is that desert, but if you go without me, you’ll get yourselves killed, or robbed, or lost, or all of those things. I can go with you, but I’m bringing the last of the Wolves with me.”
“Fine with me. They’ll be useful to have around.” Calum looked to Axel next. “You coming, or not?”
Axel glared at him. “What do you expect me to say? I don’t like how this is playing out, but you’ve been right about basically everything else since we left. If I keep saying ‘no’ all the time, I’m gonna start lookin’ like a fool.”
“You ‘started’ that a long time ago,” Magnus muttered.
“At least I still have all my parts, Scales,” Axel sneered.
Magnus snorted and rolled his golden eyes. “Even without my right hand, I am still more than a match for you, boy.”
“So you’re in?” Calum interjected before Axel could fire back.
Axel pursed his lips and huffed. “Yeah. I’m in.”
“Excellent.” Lumen nodded. “I can take you as far as the center of Trader’s Pass, but from there you must go alone. For now, you must rest. In three hours, we will depart.”
Lilly stretched her legs and lay on the ground, her eyes fixed on the clear blue sky above. In her periphery, golden wheat waved around her.
When her eyes had opened nine months earlier, after Roderick had hit her with that arrow, she’d seen much the same view, except that back then, Calum’s, Axel’s, and Magnus’s faces had come into view as well.
She had once laid claim to the sky. Owned it. It had been her playground as a child, her escape in her adolescence, and her battlefield as she entered womanhood. Through all of it, she had ruled the air. She had tamed the vast blue ether over Kanarah.
But now that confidence, that youthful impression of dominion, had died along with Falcroné. With the exception of Lilly’s time in Roderick’s captivity and her return trip home, Fal had flown at her side almost every day since she was born. And now he was gone, crushed and eaten by the Jyrak.
The memory, still fresh in her mind, churned her stomach. While she was dazed and vulnerable, he’d darted between the Jyrak’s fingers, jammed his sword into its middle finger, and kept it from squashing her. He’d bought Condor a few precious seconds to grab Lilly and pull her free, but not enough time to save himself as well.
Lilly shut out the sky with her eyelids, and tears streamed down the sides of her head toward her ears. The last thing she’d really said to him was…
Well, she’d said she loved him. They had argued high
up in the crow’s nest on Jake’s ship, and he’d accused her of loving Calum. Then Falcroné had released her from her engagement to him.
And though she had insisted that she loved Falcroné, they both knew it wasn’t true—at least not in the way she loved Calum. He exhibited qualities unlike anything she’d ever seen in anyone else before.
Kindness, but not weakness. Mercy, but not without a sense of justice. Empathy, but not without action to back it up. She probably could list them forever. Calum embodied everything she wanted to be.
Though she couldn’t bring herself to admit it to Falcroné then, or even to herself in that moment, she’d come to fully realize the truth of it: she did love Calum. With everything she was, she loved him.
“Hey.”
Lilly opened her eyes and saw Axel standing over her. She wiped the remnants of her tears from her face and looked up at him. “Hey.”
“Mind if I join you?”
Lilly raised her head a few inches off the ground and glanced around, but all she saw from her vantage point was wheat waving in the wind. Golden wheat, only a few shades darker than Falcroné’s hair, but close enough that it still reminded her of him.
“Lilly?”
She refocused on Axel and hesitated. After their exchange in her chambers back in the Sky Fortress, being alone with him made her uneasy.
“Calum and Condor are talking with Lumen. Magnus is resting, and Riley is rounding up the rest of his pack.” Axel cleared his throat. “So… do you mind if I join you?”
Lilly sighed and lay her head back down. Whether out of a baseless sense of obligation or a boundless hope for reconciliation—or perhaps both—she replied, “Sure.”
Axel lay down next to her, but to his credit, he left a solid six inches between them. Even so, she wished it had been more, but she didn’t dare scoot farther away. Perhaps if she lay there, still, he’d leave her alone.
In the quiet that followed, aside from the hypnotic hiss of the swaying wheat, Lilly didn’t dare close her eyes, no matter how much she wanted to. Not with Axel right there.
He’d already made two moves, the kiss and his tantrum, and Lilly didn’t know how she would tolerate a third. Frankly, she hadn’t tolerated his second, and he wouldn’t have gotten away with the first had Calum not walked into the room before she could do something about it.
Now, with Axel lying next to her, she wondered if she was sending the wrong signal to him—the signal that this was somehow alright.
Axel cleared his throat again, but it sounded more like a grunt this time. “I’m sorry about Fal.”
“Only his friends called him Fal, Axel. You weren’t one of them.”
Too harsh? Maybe, but after Axel had attacked her, Falcroné wanted to tear him to shreds, so Lilly’s statement was true. Plus, it would serve as a reminder that she held no interest in him nor ever would.
Axel’s jaw hardened. “What’s your problem?”
Yep. Too harsh. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I came over here to tell you I was here if you needed anything, and you snapped at me.” Axel frowned at her. “Did I do something to offend you?”
Lilly sighed. “Recently?”
Axel cleared his throat. “Look, I know I was wrong before, but—”
“I said don’t want to talk about it.” Lilly stared steel into his dark-blue eyes. “Any of it.”
“Do you mind if I stay here with you anyway, or would you rather be alone?”
In truth, she would’ve welcomed company from anyone in their group other than Axel. Processing Falcroné’s death was hard enough, but Axel being there only made things harder. She regretted ever letting him take a spot next to her.
“You can go,” she finally said.
Without hesitation, Axel pushed himself up and stood over Lilly. “Fine. If you decide you want someone to talk to, I’m around.”
“Thanks.” Lilly’s voice flattened.
She watched him go, her muscles tense and ready to propel her into the air if she had to, but he melted into the golden grain and didn’t return. She lay there, on edge, until she couldn’t resist her body’s calls for slumber any longer, and she fell asleep.
The King crouched next to a bed of red roses that ran along the back wall of his garden. Though a myriad of flowery scents permeated the air, everything was not as it should be.
He touched the withering petal of one of the smaller roses and frowned. “Ursula?”
Within seconds, a short woman in brown work boots, grass-stained tan trousers, and a green tunic strode to his side and bowed low. As she stood upright, she wiped her exposed forehead with the back of her gloved hand and mussed up her close-cropped red hair. “Your Majesty?”
“These roses need attention.”
“Right away, Sire.”
As Ursula trotted away, a soldier in silver armor emerged from the archway that led back into the palace. The King recognized his face.
“What is it, Torreon?”
“Your majesty, Matthios is returning. He’s—” Torreon choked on his words. “—alone.”
The King stood to his full height and scowled at Torreon with his fists clenched. Rage seeped into his chest and spread like wildfire through his veins.
“See him to my throne room,” the King ordered. “Immediately.”
Chapter Four
Within seconds of stepping into Lumen’s portal, the Golden Plains evaporated from Calum’s view, replaced by the dull gray of Trader’s Pass and the nearby Tri-Lakes.
Calum’s stomach sloshed, and this time he almost threw up. He’d hoped he might get used to the sensation, but so far, no luck.
Together with Magnus, Axel, Lilly, Condor, Kanton, Riley, and three of his Wolves, Dallahan, Embry, and Janessa, Calum surveyed the familiar surroundings.
“We have arrived.” Lumen also scanned the barren wasteland with those fiery eyes of his then looked toward the Central Lake and smirked. “I do not expect you will run into any Dactyls. They are likely feeding on the Jyrak’s carcass and will be for quite some time.”
“Good.” Axel straightened his back and sucked in a deep breath. “I’ve encountered more than enough of them to last me a lifetime.”
“Make haste. Build this army, and bring our forces back across Trader’s Pass to the Golden Plains. From there, we will launch our assault on the King and put an end to his destructive reign.” Lumen’s gaze fixed on Calum. “You will succeed, with my blessing.”
Before Calum could say anything else, Lumen entered another void of white light, which promptly twisted into a spiral of white light and disappeared.
Wind whistled over the valley, the only sound until Axel spoke up. “Are we just gonna stand here, or what? This army’s not gonna build itself.”
Calum nodded. “He’s right. Let’s go.”
“Can’t you humans speed things up? We would’ve been there already if you could fly.” Condor winked at Axel.
But Axel didn’t find anything about Condor’s presence amusing.
Ever since Falcroné died, Condor had lingered closer to Lilly than usual, and it bothered Axel to no end. Granted, they’d only started their journey from the center of Trader’s Pass a few days ago, and Lilly had named him her Captain of the Royal Guard alongside Falcroné…
But did Condor always have to walk so close to Lilly? He really didn’t have to let his arm would brush hers sometimes, and he definitely didn’t need to keep touching her shoulders when she seemed sad.
It all bothered Axel.
Though he’d never liked Falcroné, Axel had respected his prowess as a fighter. Of course, when Falcroné died, it had stunned Axel like the rest of the group, but his death also meant Axel had another shot with Lilly.
Perhaps it was callous to think about such things while Lilly still grieved her loss, but she had to move on with her life eventually. And when she finally did, he intended to be in the picture. But in order for that to work, he couldn’t abide Condor behaving this way
around her.
The last thing he needed was interference from another Windgale, especially from someone like Condor. Yes, Axel would have to do something about—
“Hey, Farm Boy.” Condor’s voice snapped Axel back into real life. “Taking my joke a bit hard over there?”
Axel furrowed his brow. “I’m fine.”
“No need to get worked up over it.” A wry grin curled Condor’s lips. “We all know you can’t help being slow.”
Axel’s scowl deepened. “Just remember who set you free from that cell in Oren’s fortress.”
“I most certainly will. And you’d best remember who saved you from Oren himself.” Condor winked at him again.
Axel’s stomach twisted. He shouldn’t let Condor get to him so easily, but his words somehow always managed to penetrate Axel’s armor and prick him from the inside out.
“You look as though you’re chewing on sour meat all the time. Cheer up.” Condor made it to Axel’s side in an instant, and he hooked his arm around Axel’s armored shoulders as they walked.
Axel grunted and ducked away from Condor’s. “Don’t do that.”
Condor raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Really? You’re upset that I put my arm around your shoulders in a gesture of friendship?”
“All I’m saying is you might not like what happens if you do it again.” Axel stared steel into Condor’s vivid blue eyes.
“As tempting as your offer is, I can’t be bothered to gratify it with a response.” Condor’s expression hardened and his eyes communicated a dangerous promise of their own, but only for an instant. Then they reverted back to nothing but cheers and celebration. “Today is not our day, Farm Boy.”
Before Axel could respond, Condor leaped into the air, landed next to Lilly’s side, and walked with her again, too close for Axel’s liking.
The three Wolves barked and yipped behind Axel amid chattering conversation. As if dealing with Condor wasn’t bad enough, he also had to put up with the Wolves’ near-constant snarling, periodic sniffs, and their zigzagging forms racing through the rest of the group.