Fire of Magic (Soul of Magic Book 4)

EIGHT

Silence descended heavily upon the cave as Morgan, Freya and the Knight all stood still in their spots and looked at one another; the silence growing so much later on that it seemed to take on a life of its own.

But out of all the three, Morgan happened to be the one most unsettled by the state of things. Thing is, on one side, the pale-blonde boy had his sister whom at that moment he was very displeased with for getting him into the complicated situation with the Knight. But the other side was the Knight himself whose presence was causing his heart to pound furiously in his chest in a mixture of fear and excitement; excitement that after all his years of wishing he finally got to see him up close and personal, and fear because the mysterious swordsman's weapon was pointed right at him.

That unsettled state didn't last for very long though as Freya suddenly broke out of the impromptu stare down and grabbed the chest off the table; throwing it at Morgan to catch and nocking an arrow on her bow in a movement so swift that it was almost like the wind. "Don't you dare take another step," she said to the Knight, pointing her arrow squarely at him when it seemed like he was about to. "Believe me, you may be dressed in full armour but I swear I'll take you down before you can even think to raise your sword at me."

Through her visor, a little frown crossed Kyra's face as she surveyed the pale-blonde archer in front of her. Judging from what she had learnt of her earlier that day, she knew that she was someone very dangerous, a girl who had an expert eye for death even at such a tender age. It was also of no secret to her that the young girl wouldn't hesitate to tap into that power if need be; case in point being the captain that now laid dead in the snow somewhere.

But contrary to what might be expected of her after the discernment, Kyra clutched her sword even more firmly in her hands and spoke to Freya in the gruff voice that had now become associated with the Knight. "Drop the weapon, little girl," she said. "True, you may be able to get me before I strike you.” And then she turned her attention. “But tell me, are you willing to wager the same for your brother?"

It was in that moment that Freya finally followed the Knight’s gaze towards Morgan and the steely look in her eyes wavered. As it turned out, her throwing the chest at him had caused him to move a few feet away from her and he was now closer to the Knight than he was to her; a fact which didn't exactly help in her show of strength against the Knight. And truth be told, it wasn't that the pale-blonde archer had exactly spotted a c***k in the Knight's armour either; which wasn't surprising really as the armour was made out of pure high scale steel instead of the low level metals that the soldiers of the Barren lands used for theirs.

But what unsettled Freya the most was that although she had vehemently denied it to herself all the time, the fact remained that the Knight was as good and quick with his sword as she was with an arrow; perhaps even better. If she did anything stupid to the Knight, he would most definitely find a way for Morgan to pay the price.

However, Freya didn't relent her stand. She pulled her bow tauter as she said as sternly as she could, "Why don't you take a step and see, Knight?"

"Okay, enough!" Morgan suddenly shouted, breaking into Freya and the Knight’s challenge. "Look, perhaps there's a way to do this without any of us getting hurt," he said to them.

The both of them turned to look at him and they saw that the chest was now at his feet and a parchment in his hand; apparently the parchment was what was inside the chest all along. "What have you done?" Kyra shouted at him in the Knight's gruff voice.

"Hey!" Morgan returned, raising his hands to show that he meant no harm before any could be done to him, "I'm only trying to help you here."

"And how is opening the chest without my permission supposed to be help?"

Morgan threw her the parchment, much to Freya's disapproval that is. “See for yourself,” he assured her.

Inside the helmet, a look of confusion crossed Kyra's face as she surveyed the material in her hands. Thing is, only scribbles and symbols could be seen on the parchment, all of them written in positions so strange that they made absolutely no sense even when turned to different angles.

"Judging from your silent gaze and the fact that you haven't walked away by now, I take it that you don't understand what's on the parchment," Morgan said after a while, confirming what he had suspected all along. "Well, the reason for that is because what you're looking at is a code devised by the first settlers of the Barren lands long ago to communicate secret messages across the region, a code which I so happen have the knowledge to break."

"You can decode this?" she asked him, her voice so soft that Morgan almost noticed the woman beneath the armour.

"Yes," he replied, smiling smugly. "And even better, I'll lead you to exactly where it wants you to go."

"Morgan, we don't have time to go on a quest," Freya cut in just then, apparently having had enough of her brother's talk. "The warlord will be arriving anytime soon, remember? You said so yourself."

"And all of a sudden, you care about the warlord and his coming, is that it?" he returned at her, making sure she felt every drip of the sarcasm in the statement. "Come on Freya, support me for once."

"I want to support you, Morgan," she replied, "but not when it comes to this quest with the Knight."

"Freya, this is our chance to do something that really matters. I can feel it in my bones," he said to her with a passion so intense that it made his eyes shone. "I'm doing this with or without you, sister."

And in that moment, Freya finally realised what she had felt coming for a very long time; she was never going to be able to protect Morgan like she had done since they were little children anymore. He was a man then; a man with a mind of his own.

"Alright," she finally concurred after a while. "I'll help you."

"Good. So, what is it that we're looking for and where do we go to find it?" the Knight asked, seeing that they were now settled.

"Actually, the parchment didn't say exactly what we're going to find," Morgan said as he put the parchment on the table and began to trace his fingers over it in a pattern that only he could understand. "But it so happens that to find it, we have to go to somewhere of great importance to the Barren lands itself.” He looked up to smile a smile of mystery and adventure to the two in front of him. “We’re going to the incending creek."