Kindling Ashes: Firesouls Book I (14 page)

/That man there.
The one sleeping.
Can we get his sword
?/

She looked at where he pointed his gaze an
d found one of the raiders snor
ing on his back, unfazed by the water drops plopping off the trees from where it had rained earlier.

Not his sword. Not a chance – they’d see
us and he
’d feel it.

Maybe there was something else they could do though to take advantage of him. He was the closest; they’d been placed away from the fire and all the other raiders were circled around it. She stretched muscles that were aching from being in one position
all day
and shuffled. She could move. Tess glanced at her, but said nothing. She moved again, towards the sleeping raider and trying to make as little sound as possible. It wasn’t too hard. The wind was strong enough that all the trees around them were rustling and hid the noises she did make.

One of the raiders turned to glance their way and she froze, trying to look bored. It seemed to work because he just returned to the current loud conversation about the best alehouse in Tyrun. Were they going back to the capital then?

It didn’t matter
.
S
he wasn’t going with them. She shuffled until she was close enough to the sleeping raider to see if there might be anything useful. Glancing back she found she hadn’t moved that far. It had seemed to take forever.

The sword was definitely out. It wasn’t strapped to him, but it was held tight in one hand. Giselle had a feeling that if she even nudged it he would be jumping up, alert as if he’d never been asleep. A smaller knife was strapped to his waist though. It wasn’t meant to be for fighting but it would do. Now… how was she meant to get it off him with her hands tied behind her back?

She stared at it for several long moments before realising it would be impossible. She turned her attention back to reassess the sword.
Maybe if she didn’t try and take it.
Maybe if she just pulled the hilt down so she could rub the rope against the blade. She turned herself so that her back was facing the sleeping raider so she could move the hilt of his sword – and found two of the raiders at the fire staring straight back at her.

“Oi!”

She froze – it wasn’t like she could do anything else, tied up like this. She couldn’t run. She could only attempt to shuffle further away as one of them approached. She had barely moved from the sleeping raider before he reached her, grabbing her under one arm and lifting her to her feet. He kicked the sleeping raider at the same time so he jerked awake.

“Ungh?”

“Idiot, Yale. Nearly let wild girl get your sword.”

Yale squinted at them both but Giselle was being dragged away. She was dumped next to the
fire,
now part of the circle the raiders had formed.

“Keep an eye on you here,” the man
who had brought her over muttered.

Her personal raider – the one she had stabbed – sent her another scowl, but he was the other side of the circle. She got a few more looks, but mostly the others continued their talk from before.

She sighed, gazing into the fire and not worrying how it left black splotches in her vision. She guessed now that Baltair’s influence had been the reason she’d never quite had a healthy enough fear of fire, but it didn’t make her want to look away. She gazed into it and let Baltair gaze too.

The flames flickered high, a glowing mix of yellow and orange. It licked the firewood beneath it into a fine white powder. Occasionally something popped.

“Look at her,” the raider to her left said, breaking through her reverie. “She hasn’t looked away from that fire once. It’s been twenty minutes.”

“Who knows what effect that dragon’s had on her. Steffan told us all how wild she is.”

“I saw her fighting too. Like an animal,” someone added. “Almost expect flames to come out of her, or claws to grow.”

She decided to ignore them and return to staring into the fire, but Baltair prodded her.

/Listen. You might be able to use it against them
./

“You’re all talking superstitious nonsense. I feel sorry for
her,
she’s just a kid. Bet she didn’t ask for this.”

“Sorry for her?” Giselle would bet
anything the speaker was the man
she had stabbed, but she kept her eyes on the fire to make them think she wasn’t listening. “They’re all tainted! Need to be put down. You wouldn’t keep a rabid dog alive because you felt sorry for it.”

“That’s you,” someone else retorted. “Money is good, only reason I’m here. Only reason most of us are here. You’re not killing anyone.”

Silence filled the circle for only a few moments before there was a whisper.

“Do you think they can do anything… more than normal people?”

“Dragons used to be able to talk to each other without words, through their heads… do you think they can do that? Is that why they’ve been so quiet, because they’re talking to each other?”

“No, didn’t dragons read minds? She could be reading our minds right now.”

“Don’t be idiots. I doubt she’s smart enough to read anyone’s mind. Look at her.”

Giselle felt all eyes turning on her. She focused on the fire as best she could.

/Giselle. I have an idea
./

What idea?

/Just trust me. Do what I say, okay
?/

Okay,
Giselle agreed. She pushed aside the instinctive dubiousness at following a plan when she didn’t know what it was. She trusted Baltair.

/Tell them, ‘You have no idea.’/

“You have no idea,” Giselle whispered. She heard them jump in surprise, but continued to stare at the fire.

/That’s good. Keep looking into the fire. ‘You don’t know who we are.’/

“You don’t know who we are. What we’re capable of. No idea,” she hissed
, continuing to mimic Baltair’s
.

Some of the men started muttering, each voicing their uneasiness. Even the one who had spoken up about only doing it for the money edged away from her.

“What do you mean? What are you capable of? You’re just a girl.”

/Laugh
./

Giselle chuckled humourlessly. It was easy. So many people had said that to her over the years. Even Jox had when she’d first asked for smuggling work, before she’d
proven herself
. “A girl?”

“A girl who’s tied up,” the man said, trying to sound firm but the nervousness sneaking through in his voice.

“You think tying me up will stop me?” It was strange to hear Baltair’s words in her voice. She had never sounded so confident about anything before, but somehow just mimicking Baltair made it easier. His confidence seeped through to her and she almost believed everything she said.

“Stop you doing what?”

One of the men grabbed her arm and pulled her round to face him. She didn’t flinch – instead she stood, managing to keep her balance despite her feet being tied up. Years of climbing around Tyrun had paid off.

“Wouldn’t you like to know.
”

“Tell us!”

The fear was clear in the man’s voice now. She stared straight back at him and shrugged.

“I could help you find out for yourself.”

“…What?”

She grinned, enjoying how she could have this effect on someone so much bigger and stronger than her. She marvelled at the genius of Baltair’s next words and said them with relish.

“You think my dragon is stuck within me? You think he can’t move around as he pleases?”

The man’s eyes widened and he glanced at his companions. Giselle let her gaze leave him for a second to glance over at Tess and Garth. Garth was asleep, but Tess stared over looking shocked. She knew it wasn’t true, or at least she should do, but the other Firesoul seemed as taken in as the raiders. Something about the conviction and strength in her voice must be working.

“You’re lying.”

“Why would I lie about that?” Giselle hit back, without even pausing to hear Baltair’s instructions. “You wanted to know what else he could do – oh.”

This time she listened to Baltair and grinned in anticipation at the reaction her next words would evoke.

“He’s gone. Enjoy.”

“
What?
” She wasn’t sure who’d exclaimed then but she turned back to the circle to face them. They were all standing now and she was by far the shortest and smallest, but they shrank back from her.
‘Little girl’ indeed.

“One of you can feel him now. One of you can feel his flames rising up. He could send you up in smoke in an instant, if he wanted to. But who is it?”

Panicked mutters filled the circle of men and Giselle watched with a rising feeling of hope as several of them stumbled back and started looking around at each other. A sense of grim satisfaction emanated from Baltair.

“It’s not me!”

“Well it’s not me!”

“Jarrod!”

“
No!”

They
lurch
ed around, not paying attention to her as they pushed and peered into each
others’
eyes. She shuffled closer to the fire and dropped down to her knees. No one paid any attention – their shouts were getting louder and their shoves more forceful. She turned herself around so she was facing outside of the circle and stuck her hands down on a
white hot
branch poking out. It hit her palm instead of the rope and she bit her tongue to keep herself from swearing. The raiders still yelled at each other, stumbling about in a panic. On the next attempt she got it perfect. She could feel her wrist blistering as the rope fizzled then caught alight and she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain.

“She’s burning herself!”

She felt herself be grabbed and pulled away the fire and could only sag against the man who held her.

“She’s crazy, I told you!”

She blinked several times to ground herself, but managed to ignore the pain when she felt the rope give. It was still aflame and tickled at her wrists, but then it dropped away. Her hands were free.

She headbutted the man holding her and knocked him back, setting at the ropes around her ankles. Her wrists smarted as she pushed at it, wiggling her feet as fast as she could as she waited for someone else to come at her. But no one did – instead more shouts filled the air and the campsite was filled with people. The rope came free and she jumped up, looking around and understanding immediately that they were being rescued.

She didn’t waste time waiting for that. She ran at two raiders who were still half–arguing and pulled a knife from one of their belts, darting away towards Tess and Garth.

“Is Baltair really in one of them?” Tess murmured in astonishment as Giselle knelt to cut through her wrist ropes.

Giselle shook her head. “’Course not. Just said it to freak them out.” She turned to Garth and had to shake his shoulder for several long moments before he stirred. She could see the effort it took him to focus on her.

“Wake up, we have to get out of here!” He struggled to move, but he was so slow she could tell that they weren’t going to get anywhere. Eian arrived from nowhere and lifted him with surprising ease. They turned together to move away from the raiders – but two of them were waiting. One was the raider she had stabbed yesterday. He limped as he moved forwards, but his muscles still rippled with power.

“Just to freak us out, huh?” the other one muttered, lifting his sword.

Giselle gripped her knife and held it up as he approached. There was no way she could fight against that and no point in trying. She sprinted off to one side, leading the raiders away from the other Firesouls and off into the forest.

CHAPTER
14

C
orran swung his sword and it met in a clash with one of the raider’s. The man was bigger and stronger than him and it brought back a strange memory of fighting in preparation for the tournament. He’d lost then, but that had only dented his pride. If he lost now, he’d be dead. But this man was not skilful in how he fought; he should be no challenge.