Fire And Lies

Chapter 3

Chapter 3The night air moved in as Kallan lay within her bedroll. She had waited for most of the Ljosalfar to pass out before daring to crawl into her own bed. Rune had insisted she sleep among them. She had insisted she not sleep at all. Rune had compromised by letting her sleep at the edge the camp. She had endured the incessant ridicule and a death threat from Bergen as she settled into her bedroll where the grass grew into the sand.

Kallan lay awake, staring at the moon's crescent and pondering where Rune was among the sleeping Ljosalfar, knowing he wasn't too far away. Deciding she didn't care, she rolled to her side and stared into the dark of the forest.

She breathed in the cool, clean air of Alfheim infused still with the Seidr. Too well, she remembered the thick, heavy air of Midgard. The Seidr had been dormant too long among Men, and no longer infused the land with the energy that granted the elding to the Alfar. Kallan recalled the aged and worn faces of the Men she and Rune had encountered in Migard. They would be dead within a few years. The thought pulled at Kallan's chest and, desperate to force the tension from her thoughts, Kallan rolled onto her back with a sigh.

The loneliness left by the Ljosalfar entombed her, secluding her with her solitude. The isolated company was colder and far crueler than the dank caves of the Dvergar where she had expected no less than the beatings they gave.

From his tethered tree, Astrid snorted, and hope flickered to life in Kallan. She could be home within a day, if she left now. The evening was still young. She could gain several hours before the Dark One caught up to her.

Kallan gathered her skirts and quietly scuttled from her bed. She didn't breathe as she crept along the edge of the camp, timing her footfall with the snores of the Ljosalfar as she made her way to the horses.

Slowly, she reached for the reins and Astrid shook his head. The clinks of the bit sounded like a smith's hammer in the silence.

“Sh. Sh. Sh,” Kallan shushed. Her hand closed around the leather reins.

Just as she moved to untether the bridle, a hand dropped to her wrist like a shackle. Kallan delivered a punch to a face, ripped her pouch from the hand holding it, then bolted into the forest. Bergen's laughter exploded as Rune clutched his nose, wincing against the red that pooled into his hands and the fire that spread from his nose to his eyes to all over his face.

“Stay here,” Rune said through the instant congestion as he smeared the bloody mass on his face.

Bergen threw his hands up in forfeit.

“Hey, she's your guest,” Bergen said between pockets of laughter.

With Gramm sheathed at his side, and his hand still pinching his nose, Rune bolted into the forest after her.

Kallan rushed through shrubs and trees, desperate to find the thicker foliage that could hide her. The rustling behind her grew louder. Unsure who had found her, she fired her Seidr and fled deeper into the forest, uninterested to learn who followed. The unmistakable roar of Rune's Shadow Beast confirmed her pursuer long before he called to her.

“Kallan!”

Pooling her Seidr, Kallan held her curses as Rune came into view and stopped, pausing to catch his breath. Fueled by the rage he stoked within her, Kallan lunged, sending her Seidr ablaze and catching Rune off guard. She felt his Beast rise up and swallow her Seidr, consuming her flame and giving Kallan enough time to reach for her dagger at Rune's waist. In a single motion, she unsheathed the blade and slashed, forcing Rune to draw his sword.

“Kallan!” he cried, barely blocking her dagger.

She slashed, suddenly aware of the hate, the anger, and the helplessness she had carried through Midgard. Kallan slashed. Knowing the Seidr was useless against Rune's Beast, Kallan allowed the raw hate to carry down to her blade as she dove and swiped with her dagger.

“Kallan!” Rune said.

Kallan shrieked as she leapt again.

Pivoting, Rune waited until Kallan stabbed at the air. Swiftly he stepped behind her, and wrapped his arm—sword and all—around her waist. Evoking another shriek from Kallan, Rune slipped his hand into her pouch and withdrew an apple moments before Kallan attempted to drive her elbow into his gut. Rune released her in time to miss the elbow and stole a quick bite from her apple as Kallan re-established her balance, turned to face Rune, and lunged again. The pain from Rune's face subsided.

“Kallan!” Rune said, blocking each blow with his sword. Rune managed another bite of the apple.

The blood stopped flowing and the fire in his face eased. The hole in his shoulder, which Kallan had patched up, re-knitted itself, and Rune sidestepped another blow. With his energy quickly returning, he managed another two bites before Kallan forced him to drop the apple and grasp Gramm's hilt with both hands.

“Fool!” Kallan's voice shook the trees, leaving behind an echo that filled the sleeping forest.

She sliced through the air with unpredictable madness. Gramm barely caught her dagger at the hilt.

“Wretch!” she screamed, springing again.

Rune pivoted, ready for the next attack.

“Coward!” Kallan ended her affront and dropped her arms. Her dagger hung limp at her side.

“You humiliated me!” she shrieked.

Kallan gasped as her body shook with a rage she could no longer contain.

“Did I?” Rune shouted back.

“With your bantering—your coddling! You make me look weak to them!” Kallan said. “You don't understand the position I'm in! They think me weak! They think me frail! And your coddling only reinforces the weakness they see in me!”

“Would you have me leave you to the rampant will of the wolves?” Rune asked and extended his sword arm out, pointing at the camp with Gramm.

“That is exactly what I expect you to do!” she said.

Rune dropped Gramm to his side.

“No.” He smirked, shaking his head. “I know what they would do to you! I've seen what they do to women like you.”

“They do exactly what men in their position are expected to do!” Kallan said. “What makes you think I don't know that? What makes you think that I can't handle myself? That I'm not capable?” She lunged with her dagger, slamming the blade onto Gramm's hilt.” I handle you just fine, don't I?”

As Rune moved to sweep Kallan's legs with his foot, Kallan slid their blades down to the ground and connected his nose with her elbow, re-breaking his face and sending Rune stumbling back just as Kallan shoved her blade to his neck.

Rune froze under the knife, putting an end to their fight.

“Don't you see that we have no other choice?” Rune asked, undaunted by the dagger poised at his throat. “If you go back to Lorlenalin now, this whole thing starts again. More die until no one is left. Is that what you want?”

Kallan maintained her stance, unmoved as she peered through the slits of her eyes.

“Is it?” he almost shouted. He could see her chest rise and fall with each heated breath. “Then kill me!” he said. “Kill me and go home!”

Kallan didn't move.

With a scoff, Rune shoved her hand away from his neck and shook his head. Kallan let her arm fall as Rune turned, wiping the blood from his nose. He scooped up the half-eaten apple as Kallan dropped the blade. Her shoulders sagged and Kallan fell to her knees.

Without a look back, Rune sheathed Gramm and sunk his teeth into the muddy fruit. For a second time that night, his nose reknitted itself and, with more vigor, he proceeded to wipe off as much of the blood as possible.

“Why?”

Rune stopped and looked at Kallan, who remained on the forest floor. Tears streamed down her face as she raised her eyes to his.

“Please answer my why,” she said, her voice hoarse from screaming.

Rune stared, panting to catch his breath as Kallan pushed herself up and forward, falling onto her hands as she called out.

“Why did you follow me? Why did you find me? Why didn't you leave me to die with the Dvergar?”

Kallan buried her fists into the earth.

“And you still don't know,” Rune muttered.

“I was dead for you.” She tried to scream. “I was lost to the Dvergar in Midgard. All you had to do was go home! Take my father's city and win this war! Instead, you find me! You free me! You drew me from the lake. You brought me back here…” Kallan shook her head.” Over and over, when you had the chance to leave me to die, you saved me. Why?”

“Why,” Rune whispered.

“Why!” Kallan screamed. “Please! Answer my why?” She punched the ground. “When this war could have been won and the last of the dying could have their peace, why did you save me?”

Rune's rage, at last, boiled over. Her eyes so like the lapis stone pleaded like he had never known before…as if imploring him to confirm what she so desperately wanted to know.

Dropping the apple, he fell to his knees and, clasping her face in his hands, he kissed her hungrily. He kissed her long and hard, until she sat up and pushed into him, until her fingers dug into him and drew him closer for want of release—until the black eyes of the Shadow Beast flew open and the Beast unleashed a bear-like roar. It lunged for Kallan's Seidr, hungry to reach down into her and draw the Seidr right out until none was left for her and she was only a cold corpse lay in Rune's arms. Rune released Kallan too suddenly, too scared to think what the Beast would have done if it had the chance to touch her.

“That…” he said, staring into her wide, frightened eyes and knowing she sensed the Beast too, “…is why.”

Rune stood, battling back dark thoughts of the beast he harbored and wanting too much to lay back down with Kallan right there. Too quickly he turned and headed back to camp, leaving Kallan there on the forest floor with her pouch.

Aaric raised his eyes from his papers. Cold sweat formed on his brow. With a shaking hand, he ran his hand over his face as if to wipe the worry away.

“She lives,” Aaric whispered. At once, he leapt from the chair in his chambers and took up a travel sack he quickly crammed with a handful of potions, herbs, and poisons.

I'll have to move fast. If I felt Kallan's presence here in Alfheim, there is no doubt that Fand felt it too.

“Drui.”

Fand's velvet voice slid down Aaric's spine. Too late, Aaric turned to the balcony where the Fae goddess perched, lax and cool. He had no doubt why she had come at this hour. Her players were aligned right where she wanted them.

“It's time,” Fand said. With a curious gaze, she looked over Aaric's bag. “It seems you're going somewhere?” She asked the question too sweetly.

“Leave this alone, Fand,” Aaric warned.

“And why would I do that?”

“She isn't yours,” he said. “You have no right.”

“She is Drui,” Fand said. “I have every right.”

“I'll not let you take her.”

“You can't stop me.”

Aaric threw his bag to the floor just as white flames burst to life in his palm. Fand dropped her smile.

“You wouldn't dare—”

Aaric doubled the surge of his Seidr, and the flame doubled in size. The humor was gone from the Fae goddess perched on the railing.

Aaric turned over his second hand and pooled the Seidr. He'd need all he had to take her out.

“You'd be a fool to try,” Fand warned, but Aaric was set. Flame roared to life in his other hand and sleeved his arms as he charged.

Fand leapt down from the balcony's railing and raised a hand, palm side out, just as Aaric lunged. A blast from Fand filled the room, freezing then catching Aaric in an invisible web that drained his Seidr and held him, several feet in the air. Slits of gold made up Fand's eyes as she brought Aaric toward her until his face was inches from hers.

“My kind made you, Drui,” she said. “Your powers don't begin to outstrip mine.”

Aaric tried to speak, but her Seidr bound him inside and out. He was fortunate that she let him breathe.

“You will march the troops to Gunir, and lure her out of her keeper's care,” she said.

“I will not,” Aaric said as soon as he found she was allowing him to speak.

“Shhhh.” Fand placed a finger to Aaric's mouth and resumed her smile as she slid her hand over his cheek then down the back of his neck.

Aaric tried to move, to slap her hand away and fight against the Seidr that bound him.

“You have no choice,” she said.

For a moment, she studied the runes she had etched upon his neck ages ago. They remained black and vibrant, and now reached the strong line of his jaw. Fand gazed into his eyes as if she stared into the eyes of a lover.

“Such hate,” she whispered. “It wasn't always like this.”

“You're vile,” Fand permitted Aaric to say.

In response, she slid her fingers too gently into his hair and slid her mouth over his. She kissed him slow and deep. When she slid her tongue into his mouth, Aaric felt her Seidr strings force his response, reminding him how little he could control. He pushed against her Seidr that froze him, forcibly holding his own Seidr inside him. Only the sick in his gut and his rage still flowed within his control.

At long last, Fand released his mouth and slid her cheek alongside his. Aaric ached to cut out her eyes with the blade she wouldn't let him reach.

“I will march the troops to Gunir,” Fand whispered in his ear. “I will lure her out of her keeper's care.”

He had no choice. Like this, she could puppet him if she wanted to—if it came down to it, she would take that risk. It would leave him no room to run. And running was the only option he had left.

Not without Kallan.

“I will march the troops to Gunir,” Aaric answered.

Fand smiled in victory.

“I'll have the papers signed and sent out at once,” he said, doing his best to sound defeated. Aaric felt Fand's Seidr withdraw and he fell to the floor.

“See that you do,” Fand said, and before Aaric could pull out a blade and slice her throat, her body became a raven and she took flight.

Aaric lay on the floor of his chambers. The clear air confirmed the Fae was gone. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, as if to undo her kiss, and stared into the night.

He'd have no choice now but to march the Dokkalfar into battle, right to Gunir's walls. If Kallan still lived, she would find a way to escape, and he would meet her there. That was the only way.

Aaric picked himself off the floor and returned to his table. Within the hour he had the orders written, sealed, and in the hands of the courier.