by C. K. Rieke
Veranor’s dark eyes fixed on Burr but didn’t respond vocally. His posture and demeanor spoke well enough for him.
“You’re not the leader of this pack,” Burr said. “We aren’t your murderers, to send wherever you please. We do what is best for her, not for you. So what if there is someone watching from afar. Let them attack us! What force could reckon with us? With Lilaci here? I think you’re just nervous being out on the sands. You are the most wanted man in all the Arr. Any peering eyes might not even be looking for Kera—they may be looking for you! You endanger her. You should leave, disband for us and draw their gaze off us.”
Veranor stood, motionless, his glare burned into Burr. “You finished? Can we get going now?”
“He’s got a point,” Roren said. “You may put her more in danger than any help you could offer.”
“The girl told us not to fight you,” Burr said. “But she didn’t say anything about you taking your traitorous rear and heading off.”
“If you want the girl to survive the next few weeks,” Veranor said, folding his arms over his chest and spreading his feet out wide, “I’m the best chance she has of hiding and releasing the next dragon. I know more about these lands, and the gods than all of you combined. If you don’t believe that, then you’re a fool. And what is more dangerous to Kera? A skilled and educated soldier, or a fool?”
Burr shifted his feet, leaning forward. “I’m only a fool because I’ve allowed you to come this far with us. I’m only a fool because you still draw breath.”
“Demetrius, calm yourself,” Lilaci said. “He’s trying to anger you.”
“It’s working,” Burr said in a gruff voice.
“Whoa,” Fewn said, putting her hands up above her. “This is getting tense.”
Burr and Veranor stood there a few moments, without speaking, anxiety growing in the air.
Lilaci broke the silence, “You two done?” Burr’s posture seemed to relax and Veranor scoffed, looking up at Lilaci with a subtle smirk. Fewn went over and they spoke to each other.
Roren came over and stood next to Burr. “What would have been our strategy?” he asked.
“Roren . . .” Lilaci said, almost as if ashamed.
“I’m just saying if things escalate—you can’t blame me for wanting a plan.”
Burr opened his mouth to speak, but Lilaci cut him off. “I’m not going to be a part of this. For now, we are all on the same team. Just because Kera’s asleep doesn’t mean we should be plotting an attack on one another. If you two want to—go ahead, but that’s only going to plant the seed even more. We should be focusing on how to use our strengths together to accomplish our next task, not waste time and energy squabbling.”
She turned and went over to Fewn and Veranor. Once they sensed her presence they ceased their conversation. “What are they talking about back there?” Fewn asked her.
“Nothing,” Lilaci said. “Look, Veranor . . .” His dark, mean eyes looked deeply into hers. She felt his intent was to intimidate her, but it didn’t. “You’ve got to stop with this nonsense. One of these times Burr is going to flash steel.”
“And?” he said.
“He’s stronger than you know,” Lilaci said. “We need more numbers, not less now.”
“You think Burr could best him?” Fewn said.
Lilaci stared back into Veranor’s eyes. “Yes, I do.”
“My girl is becoming a woman,” he said, his brow slightly furrowed. “Showing her teeth, I like it.”
“I’m not your girl. I never was. And you’re not going to get under my skin like you do with the men. Everything I was is dead, all that is left in me is my training and the Sanzoral.” A purple fire erupted in her hands then, drifting up her arms. She lifted her hand and with her index finger pointed straight between his eyes, the violet fire inches from him. “If you don’t want to be a part of this mission to aid and protect Kera, then leave. You know they’re right, the gods may be sending out an army out after you, before they seek out Kera. Their wrath is seething, and their eyes are on you for your treason.”
He didn’t respond.
Lilaci could sense that Burr and Roren were looking back over at them, perhaps ready to draw their swords. She let the fire die from her grasp, and she turned and walked back to the tent, where Kera slept soundly.
We need to find the next dragon egg and quickly. I don’t know how much longer we can all walk together without blood being spilled. I promised Kera I wouldn’t hurt him, and I don’t want to break that promise.
Chapter Five
An uneasiness grew in Lilaci, and she felt it form into a knot in the pit of her stomach. That evening with their shadows long before them, she knew what laid before them in their journey east. We’re walking toward them. Everything and nothing lies ahead. All three of the cities, each mounted on a Great Oasis. Beyond the cities, out to the Sea of Barrakka is Arralyn, home of the gods themselves. And here we are, walking toward it all, out on the open sands. This is suicide. Our only chance to remain hidden.
On their walk that day, the grand dunes grew as they wove their way around each of them. Kera now walked next to Lilaci. As the sun slipped away beneath the rolling sands behind them, they set up their camp on the backside of a dune. Even with the hot sun that day, the Wendren winds blew through in the twilight. They formed their camp, so the wind would blow on the other side of the dune, giving them some reprieve from the chill. Roren made a fire at the center of their small tents. Veranor slept alone under the stars. Lilaci knew one thing about Veranor sleeping out by himself, even without someone on watch, Veranor would sense any attack a mile off before they could get even close to their camp.
Roren arranged the pyramid of kindling together, and with a loose bundling of tumbleweed at its center, he sparked the flint and steel. He lowered his head down to the smoldering smoke and blew. They watched as the embers turned to flames, and he lay larger pieces of dead wood. The fire quickly grew.
Kera yawned, and Lilaci turned to look at the girl, obviously fatigued. Her pale silver eyes were glazed over, and she was struggling to stay awake. Lilaci stood to retrieve a blanket for her but was surprised to see Fewn kneeling behind Kera to wrap her in a warm, tan blanket of her own. Lilaci sat back down.
“Go on,” Fewn said. “Lay down. Get some rest.”
In a soft voice, so innocent and weak that Lilaci’s heart sank, Kera said, “I’m hungry.” Roren pulled another piece of cactus from his pack and held it out for her. She shook her head, pouting her lips out. “I’m tired of cactus. Its slimy and gross, I don’t want to eat it raw, or even boiled.”
“You need to eat,” Roren said.
Kera shook her head, with her mouth shut tightly, and then laid on the blanket, wrapping it around her, and covering her head with it.
“I’ll go out,” Roren said. He unpacked the bow from his pack and put the quiver at his back.
“Not alone,” Lilaci said. “If there’s something that’s been after us that would be the perfect time for an attack. They could pick us off one by one.”
“I’ll be fine,” he said.
Lilaci, not wanting to leave Kera’s side, looked to Burr, who met her gaze. He looked down at the girl, tired and malnourished. He grunted and stood slowly with his hand on his knee. He shifted his belt and walked with Roren until they were out of the light of the fire.
Kera breathed in and out slowly, she’d given into her sleepiness. Another night of them falling asleep hungry.
“Cactus and insects aren’t going to keep us strong,” Veranor said in a strong voice from the other side of the fire. “We’ve got a long walk ahead of us going in this direction.”
“How long?” Fewn asked.
“We are in the region of Dakaran now, and if we continue on this path, we will arrive at the Xertans where Dakaran meets the Barra region.”
“So you think we’ll be far enough from the queen’s reach in Voru?” Fewn said. “I do hate the idea of getting within even a thousan
d miles of any of the cities in our present company.”
“I’d say we’ll be less than two-hundred miles south of Voru,” he said. “If we follow the dragon’s path.”
Lilaci shook her head, looking down into the fire’s flames. “No, that’s too close.”
“That’s where the dragon’s path takes us,” he said. “And that’s what the Dragon’s Breath wishes.”
“I’m not taking her that close to danger,” Lilaci said.
“We’re always in danger,” Fewn said. “That’s just going to be a part of our existence from now on. At least once we get to the mountains of the Xertans we will have cover.”
“You know how long it’s going to take us to get to the Xertans from here, Fewn?” Lilaci asked. “A month, at least. A month of this walk on the open sands, every step taking us closer to their sights.”
“Forty days,” Veranor said. “If we are on foot.”
Lilaci shook her head again. “No, this is a bad plan.”
“That’s why we shouldn’t go on foot,” he added.
Lilaci and Fewn both looked up at him in unison.
“There’s a supply troupe traversing Barra this week,” he said. “We should be able to intercept them, they’re only going to be three of them. If we simply kill them, we’ll be supplied enough for our journey. Kera won’t go hungry, or even have to take another step of her own.”
“What kind of caravan?” Fewn asked.
“Three of ours,” he said. “They do a long trek from Voru to a small outpost on the Cape of Arrall four times a year. They should’ve just left the Palace of Erodoran twelve days ago. I could find them in the next couple of days.”
“Three Scaethers?” Lilaci said. “Do I know them?”
Veranor looked at her and nodded.
Lilaci was unsure if she approved of killing them, to take their supplies. She wanted the supplies certainly. And she knew the Scaethers were evil, but they were only evil because of Veranor’s training and the gods. Veranor seemed too eager to kill his old pupils. Is there another way? Or is death the only way in these lands to freedom?
“I will leave at first light,” he said.
“I’ll accompany you,” Fewn said.
“No. I will go alone,” he said.
My first thought is he wants to go alone because he’ll be able to attack with more stealth alone. But I know the truth. I know what the dark fire in his eyes is saying—he wants the kills for himself. Even if they are his former students. But are any of the Scaethers innocent? Am I innocent?
“You should stay here with us,” Lilaci said to Fewn. “To stay with Kera.”
“Fine, can’t argue with that,” Fewn said, throwing her hands back behind her head and falling onto the soft sand to look up at the stars. “Sure will be nice to have an Iox or two, hopefully.”
The group grew quiet, and the air was still. Then, a few moments after, Veranor broke the silence. “Lilaci.”
She looked over at him but didn’t respond.
“I’ve been wanting to tell you, you look older.”
“It’s been a while since I left Voru, and much has hap—” she began.
“No,” he said. “There’s something inside of you. Something growing. You’re aging. I’ve seen it before. What did you do?”
Lilaci couldn’t tell if it was a look of concern, or a matter-of-fact statement. “Nothing,” she said. “I don’t know what you’re going on about.” She looked down at the fire, yet she felt his gaze continue on her, examining her.
“Burr said her and Roren are cursed,” Fewn said, sitting up abruptly. “Lilaci didn’t believe it.”
Veranor crossed his arms and looked at Fewn as she said that, then back at Lilaci. “Is this true?”
“No, it's a tall tale, just a fable to scare children.”
“What tale?” he asked forcefully.
“It’s nothing!” she said.
“The Garen Pixie tale,” Fewn said.
“Fewn!” Lilaci groaned.
Fewn shrugged. “I’m just saying . . .”
“The Garen Pixie Curse?” Veranor rubbed his chin. “Well, we’ve got to find that pixie and kill it.”
“We’ve got more important things to concern ourselves with than hunting down one pixie,” Lilaci said.
“Hard to do important things if you’re an old woman,” Fewn said.
“Fewn!” Lilaci said. “Shut it, please.”
“I’m just saying . . .”
“We’ll have to lift the curse,” he said. “We’re going to need the Sanzoral in the fight ahead. Honestly, I care not for Roren, if he indeed is cursed. But we’ll need your magic.”
“I don’t feel any older, I don’t look older, and I’m not cursed!”
“If we can’t find the pixie,” he said, “then we’re going to have to make the tonic that cures the curse. You listened to all three of the pixie’s tellings, I take it?”
“Yes, she did,” Fewn said.
“It’s going to take time to collect all three ingredients then,” he said. “The first is the easiest to find, but the trickiest—”
“Yes,” Fewn said. “Three hairs plucked from the head of a queen.”
“The other two must be found—the first is two drops of sap from the Everwendren Tree, only visible in the light of a red harvest moon. The last ingredient is one drop of poison from the silvereen eel, a rare sea eel that’s rarer than gold.”
“Do you know where to find those things?” Fewn asked.
“I know where they most likely would be, yes,” Veranor said. “With a bit of luck, we should be able to acquire them all within the next couple of years.”
“Years?” Fewn said, her lower jaw hung open.
“Yes, the tonic is somewhat of a quest in itself,” he said. “That is why I first mentioned we need to find that Garen Pixie and kill it.”
Lilaci scoffed and turned away from the fire. “There’s no curse on me,” she said, laying her head to a blanket on the sand. She lifted her hand up to look at it. Scanning the back of her hand in the firelight behind she thought, Are those new wrinkles?
Chapter Six
In the brimming light of a new red dawn, the party stood and watched as Veranor, commander of the Scaethers, and now a traitor to the crown and gods walked alone back out into the desert. His cloak tales rolled along the flat sands as a slow wind crept past. A long shadow fell to his right as he walked stoically southward. With wispy clouds that glowed like burning red cotton above, Veranor was soon little more than a speck of black on the horizon.
As Lilaci watched she wondered, Should we abandon him? Should we hide out on the dunes alone, without his help, or his endangerment? He, just being here, worries me. But what chance would we even have of hiding from such a man?
Once Veranor was out of sight completely, the others packed up their belongings and made ready for another day on the rolling sands. They prepared to head just south of the city of Voru, into the mountains. That was the direction Herradax headed.
They walked long and hard, trudging on through the blazing sunlight that beat down on them with a hot fury that rivaled a dragon’s fire. After the few days they’d been walking, Lilaci worried about an attack. It’d been days since their fight with Gorlen, and not a sign of a Reevin or Scaether. No signs of them, or any sign of a person in the great expanse of the desert. It seemed they were finally left to their own fate, but Lilaci knew better than to expect the best from the Arr. She knew something eventually would come for them, whether it be a group of Reevins with who knows what kind of foul beast, or the armies of the three kingdoms would come.
“How’re you holding up?” Lilaci asked Kera as the girl walked lightly on the dense sand at their feet.
Kera shrugged but didn’t meet Lilaci’s gaze. Poor girl, she needs rest. This prophecy has given her little to no time to rest. Ever since she’s been in my life, I can’t say I would do better with a full day to sit and relax. But I know there’s no chance of that happen
ing until we find shelter, and safety.
“We’ll find somewhere soon to get you some water,” Lilaci said to Kera. “Just keep walking, remember, one foot in front of the other.”
Lilaci drifted back next to where Roren walked, at the flank of their line. “I’m worried for her. She seems mature to us, almost like a young adult, but her body is still that of a child. Did she have to walk like this even when she was a child with you and the order?” she asked.
“No,” he said. “Not like this. This is every day, nonstop. Back then, we had scouts who’d survey the area around us constantly. When we found a good spot to camp, we stayed, no more than five days, but she was left to play and frolic, like a normal child.”
“A normal child,” she said. “Isn’t that sad we use those words to compare her to another person her own age.”
“Were you not much different than her yourself?” he asked. “You were no normal child, I’m sure.”
“No, normal is not the word for a Lu-Polini child, but I’m sad to say once you’re taken from your family . . . you feel normal within the camp you’re trained. Life did become normal, once you forgot about your past.”
“You mind if I ask you . . . about the boy?” Roren asked, his voice was almost timid.
“Oh, you mean Gogenanth?” she said. “Sure. What do you want to know?”
“I suppose, I wanted to ask . . . Did you love him?”
Lilaci laughed at the question. “What?”
“Did you love him? Gogenanth? The boy that was taken from you?”
“I-I don’t know,” she said. She searched her mind for the sweet memories of her with the boy in the light of the moon. “I . . . maybe, I suppose. He was kind, and caring, and I cared for him. I guess that was the closest thing to love I experienced. Besides my love for Kera, of course. Why do you ask?”
He paused, looking down at his feet. Lilaci had never seen him act so shy when asked a question. His kind eyes looked troubled, like he was eager to ask her something. Then he looked up at her, his blue eyes dark like the deep-sea glowing on his dark-skinned face. Remembering Gogenanth then, and the way he made her feel free, she thought that Roren reminded her of him. A kind, dedicated warrior, who was possibly the most dependable person she’d known. “How did you know you loved him? What did it feel like?” he asked.