Fire & Shadow - Forbidden Love

A Statue

Rhyode spun as the blade swept past him. With a scream of metal he drew a sword that jarred against the elf’s. It would have beheaded him, Zhira realised with dread. He’d be dead. I’d be dead. She clung with icy fingers to the bank, steadying herself against the current and fighting to breathe. She was so cold. The air burned her lungs. Hope had surged and warmed her for a moment, but the final surge of energy had left her bereft. She curled her hands around a boulder and clung to it, her feet still held by the swirling waters. The river wasn’t going to give her up easily. If he died, then she would never understand why he had kissed her. Worse, he could never kiss her again.

She could see Rhyode, sword in hand, circling with the elf through the branches of the willow tree. They were two dim, dark figures, seeming blurry as the elf moved fast, first to the left then right. The swords flashed, and the sound of steel rang out over the river. Zhira couldn’t see who was winning. Rhyode, she thought silently, she could only hope that he was as good a warrior as Ede and Fraelyn had thought. But nothing about the man was simple. Was anything she'd known true?

She was tired, as if she had been in the water. The battle between the man and the elf was a dream, too fast to follow, and they grew darker and less constant, sliding into the background shadows of the tree. They could have been two birds wheeling in the sky or spring hares leaping in circles. It seemed impossible that they could move so quickly. How was Rhyode as fast as an elf?

Zhira laid her head on the boulder. The frost bit into her cheek and she shivered constantly. Her body pulled itself taut with the convulsions. She couldn’t fight them. Her cloak lay heavy on her shoulders, and everything was pulling her down, deep into the frozen earth. She kept kicking her legs in the water, wriggling her toes, but as time passed the kicks and splashes grew slower.

I should get out of the water. The thought was slow. Her eyes were heavy and she could feel sleep calling. She tried to push it away but it offered comfort, and a part of her, the part that was exhausted, welcomed it. The air turned white when she breathed out. It covered her vision. She could see crystals forming on her nose. When the mist cleared, she saw her hand turned white with cold. She was a statue after all. Frost was forming on her skin. It glistened.

A spark of fear twisted through her heart and Zhira jolted. She couldn’t see Rhyode any more, or the elf. Had they both died? Maybe they’d fallen into the water. What had she been thinking? The necklace. The flicker of worry grew and she managed to ease her hand up from the boulder. Had she lost the necklace? It was the only thing she had, to remember the parents she had never know. Her body felt foreign to her, she didn’t recognise the sodden wool of her dress as she sought for her belt. When she found it, she tugged at the leather, pulling it around until, sure enough, her pouch, soft and warm, was in her palm. She prised it open with her thumb. She reached in, fingers brushing against the black stone. She let out a small sigh and her shuddering convulsions eased. She had found it. She could breathe again. The air slipped more easily through her lungs.

Zhira pulled the stone out and gripped it. It was still warm, and not even wet. It fitted neatly into her palm. She rolled carefully on to her side bringing her hand up to her face so she could study the stone more closely. It was such a simple, beautiful thing, with a dark leather band running through the hole in its centre. The stone itself held her rapt. A dart of sunshine broke through the shadows and made it shine like a warm blaze on a summer’s night. She’d never before noticed all the flares and flickers of colour in it. Blue, white, purple, orange.

She twisted the stone slowly in the light and felt warmth on her face. Twice today she’d been a statue, a girl frozen. Now Zhira felt herself thawing. Her feet were numb and she gathered her strength to lift them out of the water, tucking them under her. She felt the pool of liquid spreading beneath her and shut her eyes, pulling the stone to her chest. Instead of sinking into cold earth or water, she floated into warmth and darkness. It slid over her like a blanket.