Flame of Cytherea: Cytherean Chronicles book 1 (7 page)

She rolled away from him and at first he was confused, then
he understood, she had decided to follow the rules tonight.
 
His arms felt empty.
 
It had only been two days, there was no way
they were ready to move in with each other.
 
There was no way, it was like an engagement here, or a tryout for being
mates.
 
It would be absolutely insane for
him to ask, as bad as his power blurting out he loved her.

He looked over and meant to say goodnight, but what he
whispered was, “Will you sleep with me tonight?”

He cringed as her back stiffened and cursed himself for
being stupid and not listening to what he himself had thought.
 
But despite knowing her such a short time, he
already knew, there was no point in denying the love he felt now.
 
It may not last, but they could try, see how
it went… right?
 
He just wished he had
sounded more confident when he asked.
 
He
waited, his mind on pins and needles, for the answer.

Katrina’s back stiffened in surprise, and she felt her eyes
moisten.
 
She wanted nothing more than to
crawl back into his arms.
 
After her
confusion all day, it had been their earlier talk, as he held her so gently
while she explained the three levels of commitment.
 
First showing interest, then staying
together, then to mating.
 
Then he had
asked her that question and it had horrified her.

But as she explained that denying love, any love, would be
heresy it had struck her in an unexpected way.
 
She had fallen for him, she had been lying to herself all day.
 
She herself had been denying love.
 
She was ready to live with him to give it a
chance and see if it led to kids, or failure.

She was terrified though, even with the flames showing her
he loved her.
 
She wondered if it was
just temporary, just based on the fact she was all he knew of this world
really.
 
She had taken him in and given
him work, because she could tell he was a good man, explained things to
him.
 
She blushed, then she had seduced
him…

Is it any wonder his feelings would grow so quickly in light
of that?

Was that all it was?
 
A temporary infatuation?
 
She knew
she was being foolish, she didn’t even know if her feelings were more than
temporary, but she had been hurt before.
 
She knew she was attractive, but at least she didn’t have to worry that
it was just lust, his power activating had proved it wasn’t, and had made her
deliriously happy.

So why was she lying ten feet away instead of feeling warm
and safe in his arms?
 
She dried her eyes
out, decision made, and rolled onto her knees and stood.
 
She walked over and he looked questioning
until she lay down beside him and cuddled into his warm hard body.
 
She kissed him softly.

“I would love to…”

-------

Nora caught that last bit with her wind ability.
 
She hadn’t been spying exactly, but every ten
minutes or so she had used the wind to carry their voices to her, she figured
it was better than invading their privacy in person to see if they were done
yet.
 
She was exhausted, although not as
much as she would have been if she hadn’t been restored by Justin’s white
flames earlier.

She started walking back to the camp, ready for some sleep,
when she saw something out of the corner of her eye.
 
She looked up and gaped as a very large bird
flew over their position.
 
It had wings
of pure fire, and the body and head of the bird were sheathed in bright flames.

Nora growled, “Fucking hell, what is that girl thinking,
nothing but air between her ears.”

She turned and started to chase her, then stopped, looking
back at the camp.
 
Well this is a fine
thing she thought angrily.
 
The king
would want her to go after the princess, but she needed to protect the
Flame.
 
She considered it shortly then
stomped back to the camp.

She spoke to them in a growl, so much for her toning it down
she thought, “Listen, I just saw princess Nicole fly over.
 
I don’t know what the hell the girl is
thinking but she is probably going to the southern towns to help me kill the
sons of… invaders.
 
So stay here, don’t
move, I can run much faster alone… I’ll be back in two hours, maybe three.”

The both nodded to her in agreement so she turned and ran
for the south, cursing the princess the whole way…

--------

Captain
Danth
frowned at the scout
that was reporting.
 
Apparently the
entire force of fifty soldiers was currently burning in a deep pit a mile south
of the town.
 
He was a little worried
about that, only having thirty soldiers and not knowing what happened to fifty,
but he really had no choice.

He ordered a pair of scouts to return and report what
happened to
Arnath
.
 
In addition they needed to report that he was about to take the town and
pacify it.
 
He ordered the other scouts
to report the results of that but to only get close enough to the town to
watch.
 
If he blundered into the same thing
as the other captain, at least it would get reported back.
 
Scant comfort but there it was.

He ordered his men forward in three teams of ten.
 
Teams were usually six but he wanted to be
sure of it, he ordered two guards on the front and back door as the other six
entered the houses and hoped to hell that would be enough…

---------

Nicole was coming up to the first town, she was nervous
despite the fact she was a phoenix.
 
She
wondered how she was going to locate Nora so she circled the first town she
came to.
 
She saw some enemy soldiers,
they were patrolling the streets, and she filled herself with a steely
determination and dove.
 
Her wingspan was
thirty feet, her body was about the size of a wagon and fire fell from her long
feathered tail.

She flew up the street, just a few feet off the ground at a
very high speed, but she could still see every detail around her.
 
Soldiers on both sides of the street caught
fire as she passed, dying in seconds, turning to dust a few seconds after
that.
 
One in her way turned and pushed
wind in her direction.
 
She cawed loudly
in contempt as her fire absorbed it and the sheathing flames grew larger, she
brushed the man with her tail as she passed, incinerating him in less than a
second.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, the eighteen year old
innocent girl cried out in horror at the slaughter she was causing, but the
part of her in control was an eighteen year old bird of prey, these were
invaders, enslavers, followers of a dark god.
 
Death would be their reward.

She flew to the next street and watched in frustration as
the soldiers dove into homes and businesses.
 
She didn’t want to burn down the whole town, and in human form she would
still be formidable, but much easier to kill.
 
Maybe when she found Nora they could come back.
 
She winged off to the next town which was
Nerin
.

It was fifteen miles away and took her less than ten
minutes.
 
As she flew up the road she saw
a large contingent of thirty troops approaching the town but still out in the
open.
 
She shrieked a challenging cry and
dove for them.
 
She cursed herself for
not remaining silent as four of them lifted their hands.
 
She was grabbed by telekinesis and held in
the air.
 
She saw a nasty smile on one of
them, then felt pain explode in her head.

She felt her magic slipping from her grasp and knew if she
lost it she would change back to human and be killed.
 
She panicked and gripped harder despite the
pain and flashed her wings to a burning white flame almost as bright as the
sun, for just a moment, as she shrieked as loud as she could.

She felt the pain and restraints fall away, all of the
talents attacking her were off balance and temporarily blinded from the bright
flashing light and the very loud high pitched screech from her beak.
 
She wasted no time and flew over them,
burning them all as she struggled to remain conscious.

She passed out from the pain, the desperate burst of magic,
and using the last of her power to burn thirty men at once, too many.
 
Luckily she was just a few feet from the
ground when she crash landed and changed
form
…

--------

The scouts considered walking over and killing her, but what
if she woke up?
 
Plus, she was real close
to the town, and they were ordered not to enter it for any reason.
 
As they argued they saw a woman appear out of
nowhere, look down at the passed out woman and shake her head with disgust.

They clearly heard, “At least she killed a ton of the
fuckers,” in a grudging approval.

They watched as she picked up the unconscious woman, threw
her over her shoulder, and then started running north.
 
Obviously the escaped wind user lives.
 
They decided they made the right decision in
staying hidden else they would probably be dead.
 
They headed back to report to
Arnath
.
 
They drew
straws to see who got stuck doing it, they were pretty sure that scout was
about to die.

----------

Sally was terrified and there was a war going on in her
mind.
 
She didn’t look like much of a
threat, she was only just over five feet tall.
 
She had long raven black hair which was rare this far south.
 
Her eyes were a deep brown and her skin was
much darker than most, it was more a light brown.

Her neighbors, the town she lived in, were good people.
 
She thought they might not care about her
secret, but she had promised her mother to never reveal it.
 
Her mother had told her about their homeland
to the north of Abelaweth named
Uleni
.
 
Uleni
was an even
harsher place for women, and their family secret revealed meant death.

Her mother had told her if her talent became known, even if
the villagers here didn’t care, word would eventually travel of the dark
skinned woman with great power, and
Uleni
would hear
of it, and send assassins.
 
Uleni
regarded any woman of power with suspicion, though
tolerated them as long as they followed the rigid rules of their society.

But her family secret was even worse, mages in
Uleni
were revered, but if the talent fell to a woman, she
was branded a witch, an outcast, an evil, and summarily killed.
 
Sally’s secret was her bloodline, every
daughter born of her family, according to her mother, was a mage… a witch.

So she had promised to never reveal her ability, ever.
 
Yesterday afternoon she wouldn’t have dreamed
of questioning it.
 
Life and family were
more important than power, and she would never break a promise, break her word.

Yet, here she was, close to the Egerian border heading for
the mines, where all the people here would be worked until death.
 
How could she not reveal herself?
 
What good was dying as a slave just to keep a
secret.
 
Yet she was afraid, she did not
want to be hunted by her former countrymen, she did not want to break the
promise she had made her mother.
 
But…
how could a promise be more important than all these people’s lives?
 
Would not her shame be worth the cost?

The very people she had grown up with.
 
Perhaps if it was just her, she could stay
strong, look for another way out and hope.
 
But all these people.
 
Tears ran
down her face as she looked around.
 
There were only five guards, she could see their magic and feel it.
 
One had fire, the rest were earth, affinity
for weapons, clean/refresh and balance.

She whispered, “I’m so sorry mother,” as she gathered clouds
in the sky, bringing a storm overhead.
 
Maybe they would not be able to tell where the power came from.
 
She brought the rain and the wind… then the
lightning.

Her friends were all gasping as the five soldiers fell to lightning
and looked fearfully up in the sky.
 
She
felt a little stab of guilt at that and the storm dissipated as quickly as it
had formed.
 
No one else moved so she
walked over to the head guard and fished the keys off his blackened corpse and
started to remove everyone’s cuffs.

She noticed they started to look at her suspiciously and her
hopes to keep it a secret died.
 
Of
course they knew.
 
They already knew
everyone else’s talent, it was only hers they didn’t know, it wasn’t hard to
figure out.

Then she saw their looks were hard, questioning.
 
She understood of course, why let them be
taken to begin with, why let the soldiers take their town.
 
She lowered her head in shame and tried to
explain.

“My old country,
Uleni
, they kill
woman that show mage powers.
 
Mages are
well known, and if my family secret gets out they will send assassins.”

Her friend Hanna shook her head, “Does that matter now?
 
How many lives could you save if you use the
power the goddess gifted you with?
 
Can
you really continue hiding it and let all those die that you could save?”

She shook her head in despair, “No, I cannot.
 
But I am now an oath breaker, and I must find
a way to make amends.”

It seemed no matter what she did, she would be shamed.
 
Keep a promise and let people die, or break
it.
 
Keep breaking it really, since she
had already done so.
 
She knew what she
had to do, she would go north, seek out a worthy end for herself.
 
Perhaps if she died the
Uleni
will not bother to investigate the rumors.