Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (26 page)

             
They smiled, and then they leaned into each other’s lips.  It was a light peck at first.  And then they pulled back from one another.  She played with his hair, and he gently put his hand on the back of her head and pulled her face to his.  Then they kissed and the emotions of the past few months rolled over them as it became more passionate.  Harold felt more than just the heat inside of the forge as he kissed her... 

             
...It too was fire...

             
...But it was a different kind of heat he felt for her...  It burned like the flames of a hearth in mid-winter...  Warmly... tenderly... protectively...  This fire was not raging... it was meant to chase the dark away... warm the body and soul... and bring peace to the mind...  It was the life-giving fire of the sun... and it burned hotly as he kissed her and caressed her face...  She twirled his hair and rubbed her hands over his arms as they continued kissing for nearly a minute... 

             
Then, she just stared into his eyes, smiling, as he swayed with her, returning her gaze.

             
“I love you,” she said.

             
“I love you too,” he replied.

             
“You have to come back, Harold,” she said.  “I don’t know what I would do if you don’t come back.”

             
“I’m coming back, Sarah,” he replied.  “And I’m coming back with the children.”

             
“I don’t know why I believe you,” she said.  “But I do.  The things you can do must be for a reason.  You can do things that the High-Born will never expect.”

             
“I know,” he replied.  “And that’s why I’ll win.  I doubt they’ve ever fought anything like me.”

             
“Where are you going to go first?” she asked.

             
“Colonel Foxx’s mansion,” he said.  “I don’t really know where else to start.  The kids may be there.  If they’re not, I figure I’ll find him there, and make him tell me where they are.”

             
“If he doesn’t tell you,” she said with a vengeful look.  “Burn him until he does.”

             
Harold nodded.

             
She gave him another kiss.  Harold could feel her tenderness for him, and he tried to show her his too.  She seemed to understand, and she stood up.

             
“I’m going to the house to help them,” Sarah said.  “You need to rest.  There’s a mattress in the back.  I’ll be back to wake you in a couple of hours.”

             
“Thank you,” he replied as she walked out.

             
Harold quickly found the mattress and then he lay down, and closed his eyes.

             
Harold looked around, and didn’t know how he had gotten there, but he was in the middle of a great black nothingness. 

             
He turned around and suddenly he realized that he was in the middle of a burning city.  It was as bright as day, but the entire sky was dark.  There was also something strange about the flaming buildings.  They didn’t seem to be made from concrete and steel, they were made completely of shadows. 

             
Movement in the distance caught his attention.  He quickly looked that way, but saw nothing.  Then, far in the distance, he saw two red specks peer around a corner of one of the buildings.  A shadow darted across the street to hide behind a building that was a little closer to him.  He looked at the corners of the other buildings.  There were dozens of red eyes peeking just around the corners at him.

             
Then he heard something in the distance.  It sounded like the cawing of crows mixed with the rush of rocket engines.  The shadow things hiding around the corners of the building all stepped out from behind their cover and began walking towards him.  They had bodies similar to monkeys and their heads were like rats with mouths full of razor sharp teeth.  They had rat-like tails and their limbs were unnaturally elongated.  They walked slowly, grinning maniacally with blood-stained teeth.

             
The cawing of the crows increased in intensity and Harold knew that he would soon be surrounded by the crows as well.  Slowly, one by one, the rat-monkey shadows began stooping to their all-fours as they closed in on him.  Though they could walk like men, they preferred to stalk like beasts as they crept towards him.  He took a step backwards and prepared himself to fight as the first of the crows began to appear above him.  But they weren’t exactly crows, they just strongly resembled them.

             
He felt a rush of cool air and he looked to his right.  He found it strange, but a small whirlwind that radiated white light was next to him.  Though it was spinning furiously, it only issued a light wind in his direction.  Whatever it was, it comforted him because he felt tremendous power coming from it.

             
A shadow rat-thing belched an orb of darkness at him, but it caught fire just before it struck him.  Then, a crow swooped down on him, pecking and clawing.  He grabbed it and it burst into flames.  Then the rat-things began belching orb after orb in rapid succession, and the crows began dive bombing, cawing as they scraped him with their talons.  He grabbed crow after crow, and every time he touched one it disappeared in a pop of flames. 

             
A fierce wind was whipping all around him, and he glanced at the whirlwind of light.  Miniature cyclones were spinning out from it, hitting crow and rat-monkey-things alike.  As the smaller winds hit them, they tore apart with shrieks.  Despite the pain from the attacks, he and the whirlwind were holding their own.

             
Then the fighting suddenly stopped, but only for a moment.  He was once again surrounded and he heard himself shout, and he heard something from the whirlwind also.  Suddenly, it grew into a tremendous flaming tornado that shot out in all directions, and he saw many of the shadow buildings disappear as the fiery tornado consumed them.

             
Everything was quiet for a moment, and then he heard a horrible noise.  He fell down and he looked at the whirlwind.  It was barely spinning at all and its light had been greatly diminished.  He could hear something in the distance.  It was the cawing of many crows.  He looked at the buildings in the distance.  The rat-things were pouring around the corners, many more than there had been in the first assault.  The sky had turned orange and had nearly been blotted out with the crows that were now circling.

             
Harold looked down and he could see blood on the ground in front of him.  As the crows and rats closed in on him, Harold hoped that his death would be quick.

             
Then, he heard a rush of wind, and felt the ground shudder.  The rat things closest to him were blown backwards while the ones farther out in the city actually stumbled.  Then he saw what had caused the earth to shake, and was confused by it. 

             
A gigantic, glittering stone was in front of him. 

             
When it had hit, it had caused large cracks and jagged rocks to form in the ground.  Many of the rats had been impaled by the sharp rocks and some of the rat-things fell into the cracks.  Harold could also hear something other than the crows.  The noise was still some distance away, but he thought that it was the calls of eagles.  The crows began diving and the rats began belching orbs, but they just struck the stone and seemed not to harm or move it.  Though they were trying to get to him, the stone stopped every attack.

             
An explosion sounded above him, and Harold looked up.  In the center of the sky was a bright light from which billowing flames raced outward.  As the flames crawled across the darkness above, Harold noticed that the crows and rat-things seemed to scurry beneath the light and they came into focus, and were much easier to see now.  He was sure now, but the sound on the edge of his hearing had been the calls of eagles because they were much closer.  Harold noticed that the shadow forces began looking at the sky.  Then six or seven white eagles with glowing eyes flew into the crows, breathing fire as they sped through the them, dropping swarms of stinging hornets as they attacked. 

             
Harold felt the ground shake and he saw a massive silhouette of a man in the distance.  Then, he realized it was the giant.  He was holding up the sky, shaking it with one hand as he swatted at the crows with the other.  The sky began breaking apart and falling on the shadow things as dozens of screaming eagles filled the sky.

             
Two of the white eagles swooped down into the city, and caught rat-things with their talons.  Three more streaked in from above, breathing fire that stuck to more rat-things.  As he watched one of the white eagles fly back into the sky, he saw that it was full of fighting eagles and crows.  They darted back and forth as they looped in and around one another, screeching their awful battle cries while pecking and clawing one another.

             
Two of the eagles landed next to him and the whirlwind, and began screaming at the rat-things that were still coming after him.  Their calls seemed to cause the rat-things pain.  Harold also noticed that there was a rat-trap at his feet that kept snapping on a white rat with red eyes.  But the strangest thing of all was the river that suddenly appeared.  It spiraled around him, and then began rising as it encircled him, the stone, and the two eagles.  Some of the rat-things tried to cross the river, but chunks of ice and gushes of water swept them under.

             
Harold looked back to the sky and noticed that no more crows were there, just the giant, his white eagles, and the other eagles.  They were all looking down at him, while guarding the flaming sky.  One of the two eagles that had landed beside him then stretched out its talons towards him.  Harold was surprised at how gentle their claws were when they folded around him.  He saw the second eagle clutch the whirlwind, and then they took him and the whirlwind into the sky.

             
After he flew for a moment, he turned and looked back behind him.  The giant was yelling a battle cry and swatting at something that Harold couldn’t see clearly.  His white eagles were breathing fire toward the darkness behind them, and the other eagles were screeching in defiance at whatever lay there.  Harold caught only a glimpse as the fire from the white eagles lit up the sky.

             
There were black dragons lurking in the darkness. 

             
Or rather something that looked like a bat crossed with a dragon.  The bat-dragons roared as they flapped their wings, and the eagles called while the giant shouted in fury.

             
Harold opened his eyes.

             
He could hear someone coming down the hall, and he sat up in the bed as he saw the outline of Sarah behind a lamp.

             
“Are you awake?” she asked.

             
“I woke up when I heard you coming down the hall, but I got a good sleep,” he said as he sat up.  “I feel great.”

             
“It won’t be long before the sun is up,” she said as she handed him a mug of water and piece of warm cornbread.

             
“Thank you,” Harold said as he took a bite of cornbread.  “Did y’all just cook it?”

             
“Yeah,” she said.  “We used the wood stove.  The others are waiting for you in the forge.”

             
“Okay,” Harold answered.  “I want to check on Scape before I leave.”

             
He walked into the other room and saw Scape laying there with his eyes closed.  Harold could see that he was breathing and seemed fairly strong given what he had just experienced.

             
“We’ll take good care of him,” Sarah said.

             
“I know you will,” Harold answered.

             
He gave her a quick peck on the lips, and they walked into the forge.  Aunt Nean had a knapsack of cornbread, cheese, biscuits, and some pieces of smoked meat in her hands.  Willie had some trousers and a long-sleeved shirt that Harold had never seen him wear, and Annie-Jane had a pair of gloves.  Willie gave Harold the clothes and a pair of wool socks.  Then, they all turned while he changed into them, and as he put on the socks, he realized that he couldn’t remember ever wearing socks.  Then he put on his boots.  Harold stepped towards his armor, but Aunt Nean stopped him. 

             
Willie picked up the chest piece and helped him into it, and Sarah buckled on a shin guard while Aunt Nean buckled the other.  Annie-Jane helped him with his forearm pieces while Aunt Nean and Sarah put on his thigh pieces.  He slid on his gloves, and put on his helmet.

             
“Okay,” Aunt Nean said.  “Let’s see my boy in action.”

             
“Yes, ma’am,” Harold replied as he lifted his sword.

             
Harold concentrated on the air just above the surface of his armor and red flames blinked into existence.  His eyes burned from within the darkness of his helmet, and he held his blade down by his side.  He focused his thoughts on it, and fire twirled around it…