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Foreword

…the Ancients’ curiosity grew into obsession, while vanity clouded their judgment. Enhancing their own strength and abilities turned into a priority, and that spread over everything. The strongest and most talented ones risked their lives inventing newer and more powerful sorceries and artifacts. And some clans got so powerful that they dared challenge the ruling dynasty and the Lord of Hasara. And that turned into a dangerous confrontation… And that turned into the Great War of Hasara!

The Spheres once joined with magical portals drowned in blood and suffered heinous destruction. What was a single and prosperous World once, collapsed now. The portals network between the Spheres was in ruins, and the ancient Ringar dynasty was dethroned and destroyed. For one entire century, Hasara plunged into a horrible and endless fight for power.

And there was only one man who was strong enough to stop the chaos.

The great sorcerer Ederon the Liberator assembled a huge army and took the power to stop all the disagreement among the clans thus starting a new dynasty of the Lords.

Ederon had four sons – Unar, Archus, Hardle and Issin, each of them strong and endowed to rule the Element.

To avoid another war for the power, the father divided the people and the Spheres among the brothers, which brought to light four new Worlds – Elisar, Targos, Jargal and Helsur. Unar, followed by Elses who ruled water, went to Elisar; Archus took the fire people to Targos; Jargal became home to the Earth sorcerers who chose Hardle to be their Ruler, while Helses who were so talented in the air magic went to Helsur and swore allegiance to Issin.

That was how a new Epoch started – the Epoch of Four Elements.

From “Hasara Chronicles”

Year 984 after the Division

The Vernor

Wind… It was blowing me right into the face, nearly tearing off the hood. Everything around seemed to be smashed and rush past me, never even giving a chance to catch a line or a color. I was running along a path that ran through the valley in some snaky windings.

Birds were singing somewhere far and away… It was spring, which came to make the people of the Highlands happy with its bright colors, sounds and scents. The mountain snowcaps that had got so fat through winter were getting thinner and thinner falling into the valleys with fast and noisy streams.

However, now it all seemed far in the distance. All the sounds appeared muffled, the smells got mixed, and it was next to impossible to hear any of them clearly. And I had no time for that, actually. I was in a hurry to complete Mammy’s special commission – to deliver a special elixir to Truvle, a blacksmith who lived on the outskirts of a small town near Karun. And I had to bring it to him as soon as possible.

The elixir belonged to the category of fillers, which means it could deliver magic or certain properties to other things. And this time it was definitely to be used for some weapons. The thing was that I did not have the time to ask what power exactly Nargara had filled it with – she had another customer, and if I had interfered with any questions that would drive Mammy really mad.

Okay, I could ask Truvle, then, so I decided to move even faster. Well, at least it would have seemed faster to anyone around.

For me, though, everything seemed to be freezing and turning into a slow and heavy mass, while in my temporary space, I was moving quite well.

Fast walking is a rare gift among Elses, and Gods were definitely generous when decided to endow me with it (don’t even know what made them think I deserved it). I have no least idea how I do it, and it doesn’t matter, to be honest. Most citizens have already got used to seeing me show up so brightly and unexpectedly in the streets of Karun, and only those who met me for the

first time would have their jaws drop and whispered, “Not even each supreme sorcerer is up to this!”

And this fast walking helped me deliver things fast, moving around all the parts of the Highlands, which earned our family a stable living.

We lived away from the big world, out in the cut, you could say. But it was right here, in the mountains of Elisar, where nature brought together all the rarest of riches. Funny animals that you would never see anywhere else, galloped on the stones, and the hillsides were covered with herbs to be found nowhere. A perfect place for a wise witch, as Nargara noted once. And she was really wise and experienced, just take my word for it – she knew how and when to collect herbs, she could feel when the time was just ripe and the herbs were in their full strength, and she remembered hundreds of secret details: what to mix with what, how to cook it, what was to be air-dried and what – sun-dried, and finally how to prepare elixirs with exactly the properties she needed. I didn’t really fancy all that boring stuff and always had trouble staying patient while making another complex thing. Alchemy was definitely not my cup of tea. Taking pains sitting over books and measuring all the tiniest components for a potion – that was killing! However, I always admired that persistence coupled with precision in Nargara.

My sister, even though more patient than myself, was neither particularly eager to learn that important yet tiresome skill. Mammy would fight with us while trying to drive at least something into our stupid heads, always saying just one thing – we were the only two troubles that had made her head so gray. By the way, Mammy does not seem like turning gray any time soon, unless Elcha and I help her, so to say.

My nature, as my family said, matches my hair – fire-red, riotous, with large curls falling down to… well, just below the waist. And even although in the morning my caring sister helped me have it all braided, yet some unmanageable strands got out spreading proudly over my shoulders.

Elcha and I resemble each other, just like two people related – olive skin, dark and slightly raised eyebrows, and plush lips. The only thing that is different is the eyes. My sister has them bright green, the color of emerald, while I have an iris that features a rare turquoise shade, which offers a sharp contrast to my red curls.

The appearance was somewhat unusual for the World of Water, yet rather common for the Highlands. Here, unlike the rest of the world, all types of redheads prevailed, so my sister and myself never stood out of the crowd.

In the south, just like in the capital, Highlanders were often called “the Saarts”, which

could be roughly translated from Ancient something like “burning” or “flamy”. And there, down in the south, it did not always sound like a compliment…

Survival takes warmth in a cold winter, while through a hot summer it is coolness that saves. That made locals respect the kind of magic that could offer them a comfortable life. Southern Elses appreciated the Ice Water skills, whereas the northern ones valued Burning. And people developed numerous fables and tales about it, and even more, beyond any imagination. Women of the South mocked those from the North, getting something similar in return; and even men would not miss a chance to crack a joke.

By the way, there was no man in our family; nor were there any plans to get one. And it was not just a common decision but rather mine. First, all the suitors were not very much of suitors – between hay and grass, if I may put it that way, and second, the typical custom in Elisar was for the woman to go to her husband’s house after the wedding, and I just couldn’t leave my Mammy and sister alone.

As for Nargara, she would reject any courtship inevitably keeping men at bay, even though she did accept gifts from them. As for sister, she was still a little girl, seen by boys as a friend and an accomplice in all sorts of dirty tricks and mischief, rather than someone to fall in love with.

The wind was still howling in my ears as I rushed past a pillar with a sign reading “Great Master Blacksmith Truvle” and featuring an arrow showing the way. I had hardly stopped and let the time go its conventional pace when the door to the shop opened with the “Great Master Blacksmith” appearing in the doorway, wearing an apron all black with smoke, a wrinkled shirt, his face and hair all wet. He must have just chilled himself with a bucket of ice-cold water, which he always did.

“Hey, dear!” he greeted me with his low yet tender voice.

“Hey, hope you are having a nice day here! Saw me coming?” I sat on an enormous bench at the door.

“Could not miss you, of course. You are just an arrow fire when moving, could see you from far away. Must have covered a long way, huh?” he chuckled. “Brought my stuff?”

“I sure did!” I gave a nod producing a beautiful deep blue flask out of my pocket. “Listen, Truvle, what is this? I did not have the time to ask Mammy but judging by the flask this is not a common order,” and I gave him a sly look.

“Well, I guess it didn’t take you long to figure out that one,” he said and returned the look. “How long did you travel this time? Another record set?”

“Nope…,” I gave a deep sigh, a little forced, probably. “The valley is full of water again, up to your knees, the waterfalls are getting strong. Last time I spent less than an hour… and now – longer. It’s all the water.”

“Yeah, spring is early this year, lots of water,” he uttered watching the clouds hugging the hillside like a blanket would cover a little child sleeping.

The road from our place to Truvle’s workshop ran through the Falls Valley, which looked like an oval-shaped bowl, where from its northern side, five waterfalls – each of different power – fell on both sides, thus creating a whitish water mist, which, turning into clouds, hid most of the valley.

Further on, they all came together creating the Full-Flow River, which rushed out of the valley leaving a happy and sound roar behind.

Typically, that way would take one whole day to cover. For me that was a couple of hours’ job. Round trip, I mean, which gave a major advantage to our family business, so to speak. Elixirs and medicines would not wait a day or two to be delivered to the customer. A healing brew had quite an acceptable shelf life retaining its effect for up to two months. Elixirs, Fillers, though, had an effect that never lasted long – no more than three days, and then they broke up into totally stupid ingredients. And there were even some that lived just several hours. So, judging by the flask, it was one of these that I had just brought to Master Truvle; it means it must have had some enormous effect. So I went on fiddling with that piece of blue and shimmering glass, yet again trying to fathom its magical purpose.

Seeing my eyes glued to the flask, the blacksmith decided not to torture me any longer and snapped, “Come on. Will show ya something. Guess you’ll like it!”

And a fast sly smile that flashed across his face in the next moment was a dead giveaway behind his anticipation.

As we stepped into the shop, dry heat and a slight smell of cinders overwhelmed us. The place was small and lit by bright and smooth light of a humming forge.

Truvle’s forge was not a simple one either – it had the happily crackling Everlasting fire, which had become so popular in the Highlands. Of course, that was due to our family’s contribution as well. Nargara likes experiments, so when the blacksmith asked her to help him make his craft better, she took it up with great enthusiasm. That was a path of cut and try, where Nargara spared neither time nor her ingredients. But the outcome was worth it – she exceeded even her own expectations. The fire proved really bright and smooth. And it was powerful indeed.

That made Master Truvle famous throughout the entire area given the quality of the steel he forged and hardened. Besides, he got more and more orders for magical blades; they were tailor-made, which, in turn, made them very expensive, and that made happy not the honored Master alone, yet also the quiet witch and her daughters.

The point of the magic here was not the fire itself, as many would believe, but the wood. A piece of wood impregnated with a special concoction just never burned away. And now the blacksmith had three of such logs, and the heat they produced was just right.

A red-hot blade was on the anvil, as if it was a great king sitting on his throne in solemn silence, and throwing one single glance at the weapon was enough to see that the blacksmith had vested it with his entire skill and power.

Truvle loved making weapons with a secret, which typically was quite tough to crack. Once he would come up with a short blade that fanned out each time you turned the gem on the handle, then he forged a sword, which would fork out into an unseen steel snake tongue as soon as you turned the guard. Well, that was his hobby – not to create just a weapon, but make some sort of a deadly masterpiece. Apparently, he did it to have the victim of that very work enjoy the beauty so much as to be happy to get killed.

Another thing he loved was giving names to his creations – an arbitrary right he, as a typical creator, would never concede to anyone else. Each of the things he made was one of a kind, so Truvle’s clients were not just commoners, and never poor.

And now, with some crazy fanatical gleam in his eyes, he looked at the weapon and whispered, “Order from the capital. Some extremely powerful Mister… perhaps even from the Supreme…”

“Why perhaps?” I could not resist asking.

“The order was brought by a servant… a very strange person, all wrapped in a cloak. I couldn’t even see his eyes from under the hood… Just whispered he would be back in seven days, and then stuffed into my hand a note listing all the details he wanted in his weapon, and disappeared,” the smith sounded thoughtful and a little nervous.

“You didn’t like him, did you?”

“Him? No… the voice was really strange… as if rustling… But the moment he paid me I nearly fell in love with him,” Truvle chuckled picking the tongs.

I smiled. Yeah, people coming to this area were strange sometimes but a good order they placed would immediately excuse anything we did not like about them. I took another curious glance – the blade was solid and well-balanced, nothing less to expect from the Master, though.

It took a gracious turn coming to a thin and sharp point, while the body itself was decorated with curls and whorls resembling waterfalls. They went up to the handle getting larger and more visible, while at the crosshead the streams of metal hugged tenderly a huge light-blue gem and then split into two peculiar lines getting lost in the tight handle. Despite the red light coming from the flame, the gem shimmered blue. And the back of the handle featured a special mark – tongs crossed with a hammer all enveloped in flames – Master Truvle’s trademark that stood for the top quality.

“Beauty…” I gasped. “Truvle, you outdid yourself!”

“Oh, come on! Just spare my blushes!” the blacksmith was definitely happy with the praise, and I could tell immediately he was proud of his own work.

However, I was rather skeptical seeing his face red with the heat, and tried to see if I could make it even brighter, and here the blade caught my eye again: What was the secret that the genius blacksmith hid here this time?

I gave it another glance… looked intently at the handle … Okay, patience was definitely not my strong point! I waved my hand.

“Well, giving up! What is it this time?”

“You know, nothing special this time… Strange as it is but it is all about the right filler here. And the transformation elixirs your Mammy makes, they are unbelievable,” his voice was full of respect and even revealed a shade of awe.

I noticed that sort of admiration several times before when this strongman mentioned Mammy. It looked like the honored Master was not indifferent to the equally honored Witch. I even tried to make fun of him from time to time.

“Today, the elixir will do the job. The customer insisted so…”

“And the gem? What is it?” I was once again impatient to learn more.

“It’s a topaz. The client brought. Must be not just a simple pebble either, but that would be too much beyond my mind,” Truvle frowned.

Topaz… what was there in the book about it… Ah, got it!

“Topaz is one of the varieties of vergil. The coloring of the mineral resembles the color of sea water, i.e., from light to deep blue. Belongs to the group of the most powerful gems in magic, which are able to enhance the man’s potential. Topaz corrects human thoughts making them clearer; concentrates magical flows and energies. Good only for the water element; gets destroyed when used by other elements,” I quoted a paragraph from the Book of Elements.

“Wow! You aren’t that hopeless!” Truvle gave me another sly smile as he was taking the

red-hot blade to the anvil. “I think Nargara is a little wrong when she calls you numbskulls! There is at least something that fails to get lost in your young red heads!” He was definitely mocking me now.

I grimaced trying to show my discontent with the irony, and was just about to retaliate with another joke when the blacksmith said something that made me forget everything and stand still in anticipation of a miracle:

“Let’s start, then?” He stretched out his hand in a demanding gesture. I obeyed putting the flask with the elixir into his huge palm. “And remember, whatever happens, don’t even think about touching it!” he warned me pointing to the blade that looked so peaceful at first.

“Got you!” I snapped.

The blacksmith nodded and took the lid off. He carefully brought the container to the weapon and started pouring the liquid onto the blade moving his hand slowly from the handle to the point.

The hot metal hissed furiously as it absorbed greedily the dark liquid. Nothing was happening in the next few minutes, and then…

The blade surface ruffled as if a wave was passing through it. The ornament of curls gave some bluish radiance, and then suddenly the blade spread… just spread like mercury, wrapping the bright blue topaz. And the metallic liquid froze still.

I gave a scream of surprise and stepped back. “Wow! Is it going to remain… like this… errr… blur?!”

“Wait a minute! Now the elixir is bringing structure to the metal! Just wait,” Truvle was piercing the work of his magic blacksmith art with his gaze now.

And there we were waiting… a minute… two… and three… After a while I got really bored so I decided to find something more interesting looking through what the Honored Master Truvle had made in the past days. The table at the opposite wall was full of weapons ready to go – all types of swords, daggers, stilettos and lots of other stuff I did not even know the name of. And the throwing knives, of course! I knew that most of them had a secret – a little hollow in the blade, filled with mercury through forging. When turning in the air the mercury would hit against the wall from inside thus adding to the knife’s power and straightening its course. No magic, actually! And yet, Truvle never had trouble attracting customers willing to buy that deadly weapon.

As I was lost in my thoughts Truvle’s voice broke the silence. “Here it starts!”

I turned round to see the blot-shaped thing on the anvil get back in shape turning rapidly into a blade.

The curly pattern glowed even brighter than before, and the gem turned deep blue. But that was not the end of transformation. The blade was streaming again, and for a few moments flickering metal streams rushed to the hot gem gathering into something looking like an octopus, which wriggled and coiled. And as soon as the metamorphosis was complete we could see a bracelet – wide and beautiful, featuring the same curls and the bright blue gem right in the middle. The shape and size – slightly rough and tough – were proof that it was all designed to serve a man.

As I bent down to get a better look at the shining ring Truvle shouted, “Ricka! I told you not to touch it!”

“Yeah, I know! Didn’t even think about it!” I said as I jerked my hand back.

He gave me a look of mistrust and frowned while I was trying to compose a totally innocent and attractive face, as if saying, “Well, it wasn’t even me!”

“You can’t touch it before I add the fixer. Otherwise all work is a mess!” he mumbled and turned to the cabinet to take some flask. This time the bottle was of an unusual red color.

He opened it, came up to the anvil and splashed the bracelet with the liquid that turned into red streaks.

“It’s blood!” I realized.

“Blood…” Truvle replied, “its future owner’s blood.”

“Do you mean it’s a Vernor?” I was shocked now.

“You beeet!” and the man gave a happy chuckle again.

A Vernor was a weapon that remained faithful, and submitted to, one master alone. Should the master’s enemy get such a thing… well, all we can say is it would never make that enemy happy. It might remain safe only if given by the owner himself to someone else, yet it would lose its magical powers immediately.

“Well, finished now!” Truvle was definitely happy as he patted my shoulder with his enormous hand. All I could do was just utter a squeak – his hand was heavy enough to kill a bull. And then, realizing he had nearly crushed me, Truvle said, as if by way of apology, “You know, I’ve got you a gift!” I could see his eyes full of sparkle. “Sorry to come a bit late with this, just had to find the right metal.”

The Master went back to the same closet in the corner and took a midsized box. I rubbed

my shoulder and stared at what he had in his hands, all fascinated. What did he get for me this time?

We had known this man since childhood. And when in Karun, he would visit us bringing inevitably all sorts of yummies. Elcha and I used to look forward to his visits that always seemed something of a miracle – we were rather poor those days, so sweets were a luxury we could never afford. And for our birthdays he would always make something beautiful for us – bracelets, hairpins or earrings.

I leaned over the box that had already been opened for me, and as soon as I looked in my eyebrows went up – two blades at the bottom of the box.

“Star Ore!” I exclaimed.

“Well, that’s what I meant saying it was no easy job to get it!” Truvle smiled totally delighted with the effect his gift had produced.

“How would you ever get it?!” I was ready to jump with delight or hug him like a five-year-old girl getting her best doll for birthday. But as soon as I could get back to my normal senses I looked at him with sincere regret and said: “Truvle, I can’t take the gift. Too expensive…”

Star ore was really expensive stuff as it was nothing short of cosmic iron. And that was far from a common thing in Elisar.

“Stop being stupid! Take it … Should have done it long ago, actually! Perhaps nothing would have happened if you had had something to protect yourself!” he spat out and stopped immediately.

I lowered my eyes as I knew perfectly well what he meant…

The Beast

That day…

I was on my way back from the fortress that belonged to an extremely powerful man, of a disgusting appearance and the worst temper you could ever imagine.

Well, of course, I was talking to him with a broad and happy smile on my face, and

agreed with all his silly remarks, nodding all the time yet deep down inside burning with the desire to get out of there as soon as I could.

Finally, taking a hefty fee for the elixirs I had delivered, I dropped in a small local market to buy some bread and milk, and left the place. The Sun was about to set, and half way through I stopped to have a bite. I stepped off the path leading to Karun and sat down on a small rock.

The tame Sun was sending its rays down bringing some dim light to the mountains whose snowcaps created the feeling of a surreal picture once painted by an unknown artist and stuck to the horizon…

I was sitting there admiring the landscape and listening to the mountain river roaring nearby. That was a place I often stopped at since it was one of the most beautiful places in the area, offering a perfect view of the entire Falls Valley. And that fresh mountain air… I filled my lungs with it and smiled thus enjoying the chill and the view of the reluctantly setting sun.

But in a couple of moments I got some completely different feeling, something strange and uncomfortable. As if feeling somebody’s gaze, I jumped up to look around and find the source of that discomfort. What was it?

The strange feeling was growing, and then, out of sudden, I realized it was perfect silence around, as if all sounds of this world had been turned off at a clap. I could hear neither the sound of grasshoppers jumping all over the grass nor the chirping of birds that were arguing furiously a moment ago about whose song was better…

Then I decided it was time to go on, put quickly all the remaining food into my bag, and rose up about to move… And there I froze, with my heart sinking into my boots.

There, right in front of me, was standing a creature looking at me point-blank. It didn’t take more than an instant to become aware I could expect nothing good from it. It was all black as ink, quite tall – the size of a decent horse, with a long muzzle resembling that of a horse, too; its entire body was covered with a strange pattern, as if carved with some sharp tool. Two large burning eyes, huge nostrils gulping air in, fangs the size of my index, and some strange long shoots looking like a lion’s mane, which were moving in the air as though trying to feel something invisible and intangible…

I backed away, thinking frantically what I could do, and seeing more and more clearly that I was in a trap. The ugly monster cut me off from the only escape way… the only way, to be exact… Now in front of myself I could see a path, with the monster standing on it; a rock to the right of it, and an abyss to the left, while the way back was shut with impenetrable bushes…

That’s it, a thought flashed through my mind… I had no weapon to fight with, and the

only advantage I had was my fast speed. I moved to the right, trying to slip between the monster and the rock, and applying a maximum of acceleration to this. Some hope of that! This beast rushed across, not a tiny bit slower than me. I barely managed to bounce back, totally discouraged and even feeling a little offended.

Until that day, I had remained perfectly sure that I was the only one who could move so fast. Yes, high self-esteem is abundant in me! And then it was something that might cost me my life.

Meanwhile, the beast was not in a hurry to attack, still pulling in the air with its huge nostrils, which produced a lot of noise. And only the tentacles on its neck started moving faster. I was at a loss about that, and then, as if reading my thoughts, it jumped forward, leaving me with no choice but the only thing I could do – rush through the bushes! Those plants that might seem so lovely at first sight, with all those small beautiful flowers, proved to have huge thorns, which were now ripping off my clothes together with my skin. But I was only gaining speed as I could still hear the deafening crack and crash of branches behind…

A stroke in the back, and then pain… I screamed and slowed down a little, but getting myself back together I rushed on. The burning pain in the back was unbearable. The beast gave a crazy roar and I could hear the crackling behind getting closer – it was catching up.

I was running down the hill, still wondering what I was to do in case it did get me, and I had to admit it was just a matter of time… And at that point I felt a blow that threw me to the stone ridge. My eyes dimmed and pain pierced through my entire body, which cut my breath. I gasped, and could feel the air wheezing somewhere inside.

Must be broken ribs, I thought barely paying any attention. There was some terrible noise in my head, I opened my eyes and pressed myself into the ground… The monster was approaching smoothly, and its disgusting tentacles stretched forward. That terrible view must have made my life instinct work up to its fullest. My mind got clearer instantly even though my head was still full of noise…

But wait… this noise… It must be something else… It’s water… Waterfall! No time to waste!

I grabbed a handful of sand and threw it right into the beast’s eyes. Then I chased it with a large stone, and rushed toward the noisy water. I could hear a crazy howl behind, full of ugly menace – the stone must have found the target. The pain sent flashes through my whole body, and I was out of breath again, yet running, for my life literally, and it was my last chance to survive, shrinking inevitably second after second. And as I ran up to the cliff edge, I looked up

praying and asking for a safe landing (or safe splash, to be exact), and jumped off. As I was falling into the fast and raging river that seemed more like an eternal hollow, I heard a terrifying wail, full of fury and hatred of the prey that had just escaped. And then it was the water that covered me and the world around went all dark…

Everything after that was in a fog – some vague is and voices that sounded familiar from time to time, my own moans, torch light in the dark, and pain that was subsiding only to come back in a new wave.

I woke up in my room, and my mind cleared up in an instant, as if someone had turned it on. I saw Nargara standing in front of me with a cup in her hands, and Elcha sitting on a chair a little away. And then I felt a disgusting bitter taste on my lips which came with a very peculiar smell, the smell you would never mistake for anything else – mours decoction.

Mours was a little plant looking like moss, which could be found deep into caves. This meant that my family had to take pains searching through all the known or, actually, unknown caves in the area. The thing was that the decoction had one very important property – it was a surefire remedy to bring someone unconscious round. Besides, it also meant that they had already tried everything else and my case could not be worse…

“Ricka!” my sister rushed to hug me as she could help crying. I moaned as pain filled my chest.

“Elcha! Are you crazy? She got all her ribs broken!” Nargara shouted. But I also could hear relief in her voice.

“Is it that hopeless?” I asked trying to get up.

“Stay there,” Nargara’s said in a voice that left me no choice but obey. Then she came up to me smiled sadly, and only that moment I could see how exhausted she looked. She had to try beyond her best, I guess, to get me back at least, let alone talking… Much beyond her best…

Nargara was a beautiful woman – black braided hair down to her waist, large light-brown eyes, high cheek bones and a perfectly straight nose – the features typical of nobility rather than of a local witch. She never looked her age and for someone from outside she might look like a woman around thirty. The only part that would give away her age was the eyes. They radiated with so much wisdom and sound judgment that you would see immediately she was someone who had seen a lot of what the World could offer. And not that World alone, maybe…

And now the eyes were full of tears.

“What was that, Ricka? Do you remember?” she asked taking a sit on my bed.

“What beast was that?” Elcha jumped in rubbing her running nose.

“How do you know it was a beast?” I was surprised.

“Oh, you should see your own back. The wounds are worse than awful! Mammy could see right away those were from some huge claws! Did that ambush you? I think you would have escaped otherwise, wouldn’t you? I know you can be real fast,” my sister was rattling away as she sat next to Mammy.

“Elcha!” Nargara warned her in a menacing pitch. “Don’t be running ahead of the hounds! You are getting her exhausted with your chit-chat!”

Elcha had to shut her mouth and put on some injured look pursing her lips, and only her eyes revealed how impatient she was to hear my story.

The Witch’s eyes were equally inquisitive, by the way, so I started.

“I don’t even know what creature was it! Had never met before! I just stopped at the River Hill to have a quick bite, and here it was. Looking at me first, with its swelling nostrils, and then rushed… All I could do was run through the bushes… And my back, yes, it hit quite badly just when it was catching up. Fast beast, indeed! I would never believe an animal could move so fast! You told me it is so rare, and I have never met anyone like that in our area… And the strange tentacles, you know, like a lion’s mane, and moving like snakes, as if…”

“What?!” Nargara jumped up, all pale and her eyes full of horror.

I fell silent as her reaction frightened me. Why was she so scared?

Nargara always was very balanced, and I had never seen any trace of fear on her face. But back then she was scared, and I could tell she was scared a lot. A cold shiver ran down my back. Elcha was silent too, and terrified.

“Tell me more! And what sort of tentacles?” she asked getting her composure back.

“Well, it was all black, with a horse-like muzzle, large, and the skin was very peculiar, as if decorated with some pattern. And the tentacles moving on the back of the neck. Looked like they were trying the air around.”

And even though Mammy tried to keep her face calm, I could see her hands were trembling.

“Was it alone?” she asked in a dry voice.

“Yeah. Do you know what species it was?” I dared to ask.

“That was not an animal” she was definitely hiding something as she took her empty gaze away. “And, Ricka, you can’t even imagine how lucky you were.”

She sat back on the bed and I could feel some kind of tension in her movements. Or she was just tired. As I did not understand it, I went on scrutinizing her face and waiting for

explanation, but next moment she changed the subject.

“We spent about a day looking for you. The Sun had set and you were not to be seen. First I sent a message to Gorhar, and the answer came that you left the Fortress long before. Then I took Elcha, Truvle, Yoos and a couple other men asking them to help me comb through the way from the Fortress to Karun. And it had not been before the next morning, at break of light, that Truvle noticed some footprints. We followed them and came out to the cliff, and the place was all in blood…” she paused, apparently appalled at the picture that her verbal recollection brought back to her mind, and then continued, “Yoos said that the prints led to the waterfall, and then disappeared, so we decided to move along the river. And after a while Truvle found you… When he brought you in his arms, my heart stopped…” she fell silent again and brushed a tear from her cheek, which left a wet path on it. Elcha was sobbing, too. And I got some ugly tension turning into a feeling of emptiness, which began to spread through my body. Even the thought of what they had to experience there, at the river, and that I could see them never again, made my heart shrink in pain.

“We thought you were dead, but Uncle Truvle could feel your pulse – just a thread, but it was there. And then we got all these decoctions, just forcing them down into you, in smallest drops, for almost two weeks.” Elcha said as she wiping his face with a sleeve.

“Forgive me, Ricka, my fault!” Nargarra said in a squeezed voice, “We shouldn’t have relied on your speed…”

“Oh, come on. I’m still here! And where did you find the mours? Yuck!” I smiled and made a wry face as I looked at the bowl Nargara had in her hands.

“You’ve been in bed for nearly three weeks. The wounds skinned over in around ten days but you remained unconscious, so I had to turn to some radical measures,” Nargara smiled, too, and then added in a tough tone, “but don’t even think about getting up just yet! The bones will be knitting wrong and then you’ll remain twisted forever!”

“And nobody will marry you,” Elcha laughed through tears.

I smiled, and it was a sincere smile as my heart felt relieved a bit.

“By the way, Sorren came again; nearly broke the door asking to see you, but Mammy wouldn’t let him in anyway. She told to come again as soon as you are up, and he promised to come with his folks to propose to you.”

“Again!… Please, tell me this is a joke!” I moaned pulling the blanket over my head. As I looked out of the shelter I added, “Why not tell him I did not survive?”

That made everyone laugh.

The Birthday Gift

I stayed another three weeks in bed, strict supervision over me. All that time, Nargara made me drink all sorts of potions. I had never taken so much bitter and smelly stuff in my life. However, it all worked, so my fractured bones were getting better rather quickly. By the third week my patience was exhausted and no matter how hard they tried to keep me in bed, I got up for the first time.

And when the pain in the ribs subsided, Nargara said our family business proved rather dangerous a venture, so I should know how to protect myself, and then told me to go to Yoos to study some hand-fight. On top of that, she made all sorts of protective amulets, so with each step I made my travel bag now clinked as it was full of flasks containing rather dangerous liquids called proudly Battle Elixirs. And every time I opened my bag I gave all those things a suspicious look – no, not that I feared for my life. I was rather anxious not to mix them all up and give one of them to a customer – and then, instead of getting healthier and younger, one of them would turn into a handful of ashes.

Nargara laughed as I told her about my fears, yet, just in case, she tied different color ribbons to the bottles thus making it easier for me to tell which was which. And she also decided to place the elixirs for customers separately, in a special little birch box.

In other words, they did their best to have me armed as heavily as they could ever imagine, and Truvle tried to keep up…

They both were average size and turned out surprisingly light. The weapon looked like two claws – slightly elongated and bent at the ends. The blade splashed some bright patches of the Sun reflected from the intertwined light and dark metal. The butt had three little grooves, while the handle was bent up at tang, thus running away from the blade, which kept it fixed securely in the hand. Just another unbelievable piece of work by Honored Master Truvle.

I felt on top of the world! My own weapon! I just could not believe that I would be allowed having it. I wanted to scream and jump with joy. Even as a teenager, I could watch for hours, all fascinated, a piece of weapon – some truly murderous beauty – taking shape under the hammer. And now one of these masterpieces was mine! But then I noticed Truvle’s mocking

glance, full of irony, as if he was watching a child who was given a book and just enjoyed holding it never even realizing it could also be read.

“So, what’s the secret you put here for me?”

“You try and find it,” Truvle smiled and sat on the anvil.

I examined the blades. Nothing special at first sight… smooth blade, bent like a claw, a little rough handle…

No, it was always about some tiny details – Truvle loved them. The tang, the blunt side of the handle, had several gems, all red. Ruby. I pressed them a bit but nothing happened; then I tried to turn them – all in vain. Impatience was growing inside me. I turned the blades trying to have a better look from each side but that never brought me any closer to the secret. I was getting really angry – I pursed my lips and stared at the blacksmith who was definitely having great fun.

“Shall I help you?” he offered smiling at all thirty two.

“I will mana…,” and I felt a little bump under my thumb, pressing it automatically… Nothing! And then I swiped my index aside and it moved – the ring in the handle did move.

“Aha! Here you come!”

Snap! And something got in its place. I gave a triumphant scream. But at that moment the blades got out of the handle and dropped on the floor with a clink full of resentment. I was shocked, and stood there, not able to move, holding what remained from my beautiful blades.

And Truvle was laughing so hard I thought he would bust a gut. He laughed so that the floor was shaking, and his already red face got burgundy.

“I imagined this moment more than a dozen times while making these,” he moaned with laughter. “But you still went beyond my expectation!”

And he went on laughing wiping the tears streaming down his round face.

I could feel my face going crimson. Not with laughter, though, but anger. What the heck were his tricks?! Why the broken blades? Not funny!

“Okay, dear, just don’t get mad,” he seemed to be reading my mind. “A joke … a little one. And you have a closer look at the piece now.”

I looked down and saw the same two blades on the floor, yet this time I could see iron chains connecting the blades and the handles I was still holding pressed tightly in my hands. The chains were thin, thinner than my little finger.

“Well… And this is…?” I was still puzzled.

“Look here,” Truvle got up, came closer and took the handles. “You turn the ring to the right and the chains come out; turn left – they get in…”

Next moment I could hear a click and the chains, like two snakes, rushed back into the handle.

“Makes it some kind of a claw-tipped whip,” Truvle said turning one of the blades between his fingers.

“Well, it does look like something… er… sophisticated,” but how would I ever manage all this? The moment I try to use it I will kill myself, so the enemy won’t even have to attack,” I still had doubt whether I would ever learn how to use the weapon.

“Don’t worry. I have talked to Yoos. He will teach you. By the way, we designed these together. Yoos told me that you are no good in a close fight, not strong enough… So you will need a weapon to keep the enemy at bay. One of the advantages these blades offer is the surprise effect. The enemy will never even imagine you get him before he comes close enough. This is first. And second… Take the blade,” Truvle ordered quitting hold of one the chains. “What do you say now?”

I bent down and took the blade carefully. It was cold and smooth, with the pattern playing at the intersection of the two metals. As I was moving it in my hand, I could feel the gravity center change…

“Mercury inside?” I asked knowing already I hit the bull’s eye.

“Yes, a little cavity with mercury,” he smiled. “It will bring more precision to your attack.”

And then he struck the other blade into a wooden shield on the wall. The chain shot, and the claw gave a bang as it stuck into the wood. Given the way his face changed, he had definitely targeted a different part of the shield.

“Wow! Yeah! That’s what you call precision, huh?” I was sarcastic.

“Well, my hands are good for a different type of craft, but Yoos was really great with this stunt,” the blacksmith tried to explain even though very much confused. And then, as he gained more confidence, he added, “I think you will learn quickly!”

I couldn’t fully share his optimism, but of course, I was happy to get the gift.

“Who knows… Ok, we’ll see what we’ll see…”

When about to go back, I cast another glance at the bracelet with the blue topaz in the center again and asked, “And what happens to those who take it with no permission?”

“The effect is like that from the bite of a deep-bottom cobra,” Truvle’s voice reached me from the closet – he was producing something out of it.

I had a look full of respect at the seemingly innocent thing. Yes, that was a real protection

against a thief or an enemy. The deep-bottom cobra poison means a slow and painful death. It never kills the prey immediately but makes its flesh go rotten slowly. A Vernor is a vengeful weapon…

“What’s the name you put to it?” I could not get why but for some reason the gem stirred a lot of interest inside me. Just one glance was enough to send me burning with a desire to touch it… Even though I did not realize the reason behind it.

“I can’t say, Ricka,” Truvle apologized. “Not this time, please. It’s only the future owner and myself who can know the name. This is not a conventional Vernor. It has a magic artifact in it,” he pointed to the gem, “anyone who gets to know the name can take it and control the gem’s power. When the customer comes to pick it, I’ll have to drink the oblivion elixir to forget the name forever. That’s part of the client’s terms.”

I whistled in surprise. “Not a common order, I see.”

“Yes, I got quite a fee for it,” he said thoughtfully. “’I’m going to start a new shop somewhere closer to Karun. This one is too old, falling apart…”

I smiled here – this shop was built once as a little fortress and pulling it down would prove no easy job. Of course, he wanted to get closer to us to have more visitors than just customers. Besides, Truvle was a stubborn guy, so he still hoped to conquer the witch’s heart.

“Well, and I won’t have to run long ways then, so we’ll be here, just a stone’s throw away! I guess Nargara will love the idea,” I chuckled as I shoved the blades into the sheath, which I had on my belt, and which I had taken from the same box I got from Truvle.

He was a bit embarrassed and gave me a broad smile. “It’s a deal, then. I’ll get the shop somewhere close to your home and move there around fall. Ready to give me a hand choosing the place?”

“Sure! Any time you need”.

“Great!” he drew a sigh and rubbed his hands with relief.

“Truvle, I got to be going now. Want to get home before nightfall”.

“Of course, it’s time, yes… And this is for Elcha. I don’t want her to have her lips pursed seeing your blades and left with no treat from me.”

I took the boxes and put them into my worn-to-the-thread bag.

Coming out of the forge, I had a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, which was especially sweet after the smith’s heated workshop. Saying another Goodbye to Truvle and kissing him in his scrubby unshaven cheek, I moved back, gaining a decent speed as soon as a few seconds later. The world around was floating by, as usual, just zipping past me. When I

heard the blacksmith’s fading voice from behind “Take care, Ricka!” I once again waved my hand and speeded up.

The Bird with a Sting

Already at sunset I was at a fork, where one of the roads led to Karun. Further there, beyond the hill, a beautiful view of a mountain gorge opened up, which I had always admired for its unbelievable beauty, and my expectations were not upset again. Just as soon as I climbed the pass, I could see that unique landscape.

The entire gorge was filled with the rays of the Sun that was already leaving. The crimson light played all of its shades on the cliffs. The valley below was carpeted with young spring greens. The entire right side was fields, and left, as if climbing a cliff, was Karun. The city resembled a large cluster of mushrooms clinging closely to a mountain ledge next to the roaring monster – Karhus Fall. Karhus in the Ancient language meant Thunderous, but the locals, who had long been accustomed to its frightening view, nicknamed it The Noiser.

The fall poured out in a powerful stream right behind the city, with an impressive lake under itself, which further let out a silver snake – a river stretching around the local rock and running far to the western part of the valley.

That might seem quite a questionable settlement. However, the people of water could never stay away from their own element, which was a vital feeder for the sorcerers. And in case there was no magic, then no crop could be grown, no Temple could be built, and even running common life would be much tougher. Generally speaking, there were more pros than cons, so to say.

I went down the hill to the main gate, and the sound of wind in my ears gave way to the blurred sounds of the urban rush. Conversations, laughter, creaking carts, mooing cattle returning from pastures…

There, from the turret above the gate, a voice came, “Hey, Ricka!”

Judging by the voice, it was Prit. And right behind him I could hear more young male voices shouting their Hallos to me. The guard must have just made a shift change, because it was Yoos’s squad who were on duty in the morning. Not even looking back, I waved a hand to them and hurried on. Darting through the square, the bazaar and another half of the place, I ended up

in the upper neighborhood, where we lived.

Our home was there, a little away, at the very top of the slope. Despite so many buildings nearby, the large glade around our home was empty, and it looked like no one was going to claim a spot on it. There were no fools dreaming of living next door to the witch, especially after last fall’s incident when the roof on this very house was demolished – Elcha had mistaken an elixir. Nargara loved experiments, and we tried to never lag too much behind.

In general, we had more than enough sorts of incidents while mastering the witch craft. Once, Elcha and I even occasionally turned all the local white sheep soft purple. The two of us really liked it, but we could never see why all the people around didn’t. Later, however, a rumor reached us that the purple wool sold twice as expensive in the capital town’s markets, but we still caught hell from Nargara for that sort of performance.

I ran in when the Sun was already dim and twilight descended into the valley.

In the living room, as usual, some people were sitting and waiting patiently for their turn. The door to the witch’s room was closed, which meant some work was underway, and there was no way to disturb her. A little further, there was a staircase leading to the second floor, which I took to rush into my sister’s room.

Elcha was on the floor, reading something. When I swung open the door, she jumped up and shoved her reading under the bed, pushing it with her foot even further, just in case.

“Phew! You scared me to death! Ever heard about knocking first?” she grumbled. “I thought it was Mammy.”

“Reading again something you aren’t supposed to! You’ll be for it one day, Elcha! And me, too, for covering you.”

“C’mon! Cut the whining!” she waved me off. “Better see what I got!”

She got under the bed to produce a little book all covered in Runes. Right in the center you could see the Water symbol.

“Experimenting again? This is water magic! What’s your use of it?”

“And here’s the use!” she said as if instructing me. “This is a guidebook to water magic for kids. It shows how to make up and use the most common spells. And here’s what I think, why not try and use this scheme to build fire streams? I’m gonna try it with the symbols I found in our books … Just imagine I succeeded! I’ve already learnt how to have fire on my hands, and the last time I even could light a torch…”

“Better keep that fire away from home,” my look was full of reprimand.

“Ricka, I’ll be the soul of prudence. Just let me try, half effect…” she was begging now.

“I told you!” I pointed. “And don’t forget to have a bucket of water at hand when running your experiments. I know your crazy ways… Get your room burnt down – I will never let you set your foot in mine!”

Yes, we both were firesses, which means with due training we could make good fire sorcerers, both endowed with the capacity at least.

But what training could a Tars get in the World of Water? Next to none! Just because there was nobody to teach you properly. Especially in this middle-of-nowhere. The only magic you could get here was the Water magic. Moreover, Nargara never talked much about our abilities saying that people were the same everywhere, and they wouldn’t be particularly happy to do business with someone belonging to an opposite magic type, nor would they ever trust them that much.

In cities like Ozeron or Targeld, everyone was used to those belonging to different other elements, while in province prejudice was still strong. And Nargara believed it might pose a serious risk to work. My speed was perceived by all as a manifestation of the Water magic; watermen happened to have some control over the time pace. And Elcha, too, knew a couple of tricks, so generally everyone was pretty happy.

At times, though, Nargara seemed to be going too far with all this secrecy and was too much meticulous with the entire issue. I was especially curious why she would always use lots of herbs to dye our natural fiery-red hair attaching to it some gold-copper shade, which was more typical of the Highlands. I couldn’t get how it might ever affect customers’ satisfaction yet I did not dare to argue with Mammy.

“Here. Truvle got this for you,” and I pulled the birch box out of my bag.

In a split second Elcha was next to me, bobbing up and down in anticipation. She snatched the gift from my hands and it took her only one flash-like movement to drop all the contents onto her bed.

The gift turned out to be a finely made bird with a long tail, studded with gems and decorated with patterns. The only point was that the bird’s head was missing. Elcha and I stared at each other, both puzzled.

I took the box from my sister’s hands, and feeling that there was something behind it all, tapped the bottom. The missing part dropped on the bed. The bird’s head transformed smoothly into a small dagger, thin and sharp, made of the same star ore casting its bright highlights.

“What is it?” Elcha gasped.

I picked both parts and found the groove joining them together. The dagger entered the

sheath… Click! The two parts became one.

“Hairpin,” I said, still examining the thing. “That’s what you call the Master Truvle style. Typical!”

An outside man would never get to the secret in this little thing.

Elcha took the hairpin and looked closely at it. She then pressed softly the bird’s eye, a green piece, and pulled it. Click! The blade yielded and came back smoothly.

“Wow!” she exclaimed, and just next moment her hair was already gathered in a bundle fixed with the gift.

She circled in front of the mirror in admiration. But then she froze settling her enthusiastic gaze on my face.

“And you? What did he give to you?”

I could not help smiling as I held the cloak open. Elcha screamed as she swept her eyes over the daggers. “Show them to me! Show! Any secret, too?”

“Yes, here,” I exposed the blades and let the chains out trying to be as cautious as I could. That made my sister’s eyes pop even more, and even more questions showered on me.

I told her about Truvle’s making an ass of me, and how I witnessed a Vernor being made. Elcha was listening, all absorbed in the story and looking at the daggers with her eyes full of dreams.

But then her face grew dark and she added, in a quite serious voice, “Nargara must have been really scared then, so even I have to get a gift with a sting now.”

Despite her young age and talkative nature, Elcha had an amazing capacity to notice, at certain points, the very essence of things.

“Yes, really scared…” I confirmed thoughtfully. “And now I have to learn from Yoos how to manage these claws. But you know, this is all the better… Much better than feeling helpless… Right now I can do nothing but run away, and this, as it turned out, does not always help.”

Elcha’s face got totally grim.

“Let’s drop this! I do hope I’ll never again meet such terrible creatures!” I shivered at the memories that proved so unexpectedly sharp and fresh, then hugged my sister and pulled her closer.

“The best part is that you are alive and it’s all over,” she said quietly, as she was stroking my hair. For a moment it felt like I was her baby sister, and not the other way round.

The Training

Next morning, Nargara got us up at dawn, so two red arrows started dashing around the house and the area, busy with the instructions we got. Elcha went to the meadows to collect herbs.

Me, having filled a bag, rushed around the customers to deliver elixirs, drugs and ice-messages – efils.

Efils are small round bubbles with water frozen inside. In ancient times, the Watermen, experts in this element, discovered a very peculiar feature about the liquid – it can perceive, accumulate and store the information transmitted to it.

However, this feature is not so easy to use. The fact is that water records everything, and it is nearly impossible to isolate the right piece of information from the abundance of it coming in.

Many centuries ago, though, some Elses managed to solve the problem. They had tried hard and long before they developed a spell that could help freeze water so that it did not melt back even when subjected to the worst heat. Little by little, this knowledge spread around, and the exchange of liquid messages got its leading role.

To begin with, the native element was more familiar, more convenient and faster to use.

Second, the pictures and is were very accurate here, which could not be done through conventional handwritten letters. With proper skill, actually, you can charge an efil even with the subtlest emotion – your feelings, smell perception, sounds, visual is and fantasies. In other words, the whole range of sensations in a single small bubble.

Third, water messages can be better and easier protected compared to paper. This technology has been improved through ages, and every sorcerer now has excelled in this just as the whim takes them.

I heard that in the capital, Ozeron, there is the Efillit, a large crystal, which held the records of the entire history, on from the moment the Watermen learnt to use liquids to store information. This huge crystal of frozen clear mountain water is in the heart of the capital, next to Ozirion – the palace where the Lord of the Water World resides. And it never stops growing. Year after year, it expands with the information about all the new developments and changes around the empire. People say that this jumbo can be seen on the Lower Square, standing high above all the houses in the area, always sparkling in the Sun and emitting a slightly white radiance in the night, and remaining ice even in the hottest days. That is definitely magic.

Now, this day I had three efils to deliver. Two had to be taken to customers in Karun, a third one to be taken beyond – to Mount Eagle. There was a guard detachment, which was in charge of the main trade route running around the city and stretching far to the east.

The guards often exchanged messages. Sometimes I had to run delivering efils between the detachments several times a day.

Having delivered the remedies and the ice mail to all the customers, I headed for Mount Eagle, deliberately making it my last destination for the day. That day Yoos was on duty with his squadron, and we had scheduled a training session to practice some hand-to-hand combat.

Actually, I didn’t fancy all those things – they made my whole body hurt afterwards. And Yoos, to put it mildly, never had a heart and would drive me just as much as he did all of his

guys.

But now I did not just run there, but I flew, with a bright picture of my training session circulating all over my mind. And with a real weapon in my hands! My own weapon in my own hands!

The city was already left behind, and the Sun, looking over the mountain range, lit up the road ahead. The day had to be warm.

Several times I came across carts, all creaking under a pile of goods carried for sale. Once I saw a flock of sheep. I swept among them, which scared the poor animals half to death. Frightened, they rushed all different ways, and I could hear a good deal of expletive from the shepherds behind.

A couple of hours later the northern slope of Mount Eagle could be seen. The garrison was in its right part, so I just got round another rock and went straight there.

The Eagle’s Nest fortress seemed relatively small, yet quite strong. It was built of huge gray stones whose color matched the main rock, and which gave the impression that the fort was part of the rock.

Nearby, a cheerful waterfall was running noisily in fast mountain streams. Not as big as in Karun, though, yet showing some strength.

Nargara told once that the fortification was built quite a long time ago, when the trade way running through Karun was much busier, and there were more than a few robbers in the area. No better place for them! Deserted mountains, no guard, lots of carts transporting piles of goods – that’s what paradise for criminals must look like.

The local merchants soon got fed up with the robbers, and after a while, Lord Sakhord – the current ruler’s great-grandfather, ordered several fortresses be built around, with guardians patrolling the entire path far and wide. Two of them were built here in the Highlands – one in Karun, the other – on Mount Eagle.

I slowed down as I approached the fortress gate and gave a loud shout. The guard stuck his head from above, and the next instant the gate yielded open with a creak.

“Hey, Ricka!” Tonar greeted me from above. He was a young guard from the junior garrison. Apparently, he had been put there as the gate guard, which must have made him enormously proud.

“Hi, Tonar! They must have appreciated some merit of yours to put you here today, right?” I asked. I knew the rule there – only the warriors of the senior and more experienced garrison were allowed to the gate duty, while younger ones could earn the accolade for some special act only, so each of them tried hard to take up the post. I still found it quite strange a system of encouragement, but men will remain men, so never even try to get their logic.

By that point Tonar had already had the I-am-the-happiest-of the-boys smile all over his childish face, being absolutely sure I was extremely impressed.

“I won the sword tournament yesterday! Now am here the whole week,” he replied happily.

“Atta boy!” I tried to look fascinated. “Just go on that way and one day I’m going to see you the junior squad commander.”

The smile on the guy’s face got even broader, while he also got his shoulders straightened up thus showing he was up to that kind of change in his life.

Yoos often arranged fight contests in his squad, and a couple of times he even put me against his soldiers, but each time they made short work of me. Yes, it’s hard to stand long against someone who stands two heads taller and is twice as large.

“Met Yoos today? Any idea where I could see him?” I asked as I threw my bag onto my other shoulder.

“Well, this morning he was out in the training field. Looked quite out of humor, by the way. Got everyone up before dawn and has been riding them hard since then, non-stop. Poor guys must be dying now.”

“Is that so? I see…” now I could feel absolutely nothing to make me go there.

And step after step it got even worse.

“Hey! Keep your chin up,” he shouted and threw me a small bag. I already knew what was inside. Tonar was the son of Mr. Kold, the bakery owner in Karun.

As I took the bag I was overwhelmed with the smell of fresh cinnamon rolls that I really loved. As he knew this, Tonar often brought a couple to treat me after training.

“Without me today,” he smiled.

“Thanks!” I replied and dragged my feet to the drill field with no single trace of the enthusiasm I had had before.

Passing through the barracks where the guards were dwelling, I ended up in an open ground with about thirty people standing there.

The place was full of sounds – beats, clash of weapons, groans of the trainees; somebody was fighting hand to hand, while others used their swords, a couple of guys only working out to build some muscle.

Everyone was naked waist up, all tanned, tall and handsome. The selection procedure for such squads was a tough one, so you would never see any mama’s boy or a milquetoast there. The service there was very prestigious. On top of all that, it paid rather well since those merchants wanted their carts to be always under reliable protection.

The cacophony of clanging, exclamations and creaks was overlapped with the thunder of Yoos’s voice. He was yelling at his people never trying to mince any of his words.

“Dickheads! Hey, Sith! Who ever keeps a sword like that? Who taught you that, y’idiot? Just chop it with your both hands! Visar, keep your stupid head covered with your shield! Why are you letting it twist like a rag? In a real fight you would have already got three crossbow bolts in your coconut! You, pussies! Fighting like girls! No, you are even worse!”

He did not even slow down when he saw me, “Look! Ricka can already do it better than all of you together! This girl is already doing it better!”

Then he thought for a moment and spat down giving his final conclusion, “Jerks!”

I raised one eyebrow skeptically. I still remembered him giving quite a different opinion (to say the least of it) of me during the previous class.

For a while, Yoos stayed in the role of a tyrant torturing his people even more, and then headed toward me.

He was of average height, flat-bellied and shapely built, with dark short hair sprinkled gray on the temples, and light gray eyes that stood so brightly out against his bronze skin.

The commander of the Karun guard was not young, over forty, actually. Yet, he was definitely in an excellent physical shape – kind of a tough wolf that had been around and had collected an honorary collection of scars on his half-battered skin. One of the scars ran through his chest from the left shoulder to the right side.

When he came closer, I just handed him the efil.

Yoos opened the flask with his teeth, spat out the cork, whispered the spell so I could barely hear it and closed his eyes. The ice in the bubble melted instantly, and the contents spilled onto the warrior’s palm. A couple of seconds later he looked at me again, frowned for some reason.

“I’ll be right back, start without me,” he threw and headed to the Head building.

I nodded silently and moved toward the assault course, the right side of which was my training area.

As soon as Yoos disappeared into the building, all movement on the training ground

stopped, as if time itself had stopped. The crowd breathed a sigh of relief through a few dozen of healthy men’s throats. Weapons fell onto the ground followed by the exhausted guards.

But as I approached the poor squad, the blades on my belt caught their eyes, and the huge mass of human bodies on the ground seemed to come back to life. Then I heard a familiar voice right near me, “What is that you got there?”

I lowered my eyes – Visar, breathing heavily, was getting up coming closer, as his eyes seemed to be glued to my waist.

“Can I have a look?”

“Sure, please,” I handed him one of the blades.

He took it, looked from all the sides around, played throwing it from one hand to the other trying the balance, gave a closer look, and then his eyebrows jumped up.

“Is that Star Ore?” he exclaimed. “Wow! There were a couple of carts robbed last week. Was it you?”

The guy hooted with laughter pleased with his own joke. As for me, I just looked at him expressing total indifference and holding my arms folded, thus showing that it was not at all funny.

“Where is Star Ore?” I could hear voices from behind. A few guys jumped up and were already next to me. I knew many of them pretty well.

They had taken me as a friend rather soon, which came as no surprise – for over a month then we had been sweating side by side through the assault course and collecting all the bruises and cuts that were coming. I think Yoos was never bothered by the fact I was a girl.

During that time, the guys had more than a few chances to witness my shame. They would often laugh and crack jokes, yet always in a friendly and somewhat kind way. They all remembered their own bruises and misfortunes after the first workouts, so nobody appeared arrogant. Besides, the guards often asked me to take messages to their families in Karun. And I tried to never refuse their requests. They, in turn, helped me through my training with their practical and timely advice.

I have to admit, however, that not all of them viewed me as an associate. Some of them were flirting openly, and I even suspected that the entire squad had plunged into some hidden rivalry over my heart. It seemed that Soren was in the lead – he had already come twice to propose. He was clearly one of the leaders, always determined and persistent, and at some point I even felt respect for him.

And now, he was darting adoring glances at me, which made me shiver. Should expect some matchmakers to come my home again!

“Wow! Can I get a look?”

“Hey, I want to see it, too. Don’t keep it too long, pass it over here”

The blades went circulating from hand to hand, each time met with exclamations.

“This is Truvle the blacksmith’s work! Look, here is the seal,” someone said. “It’s definitely him!”

Now they all turned to me with their eyes full of respect.

“Ricka, where did you get these?” Luz asked, holding up the weapon that finally fell into his hands, and not even trying to conceal his admiration.

“Got from Truvle for birthday,” I smiled getting embarrassed for some reason.

The crowd buzzed with approval, once again discussing the metal and the balancing that was unmatched.

Truvle’s stuff was well known here, he made swords for all the commanders in the garrison, while youngsters could only dream of it.

“Can’t even imagine how I’m going to fight you now! Compared to your blades we got tins,” another guard, Sith, said.

The guys laughed, while someone even clapped me on the shoulder.

“It’s not about the weapon that makes the warrior, but the skill!” Yoos’s voice sounded out of the blue right over our heads. “And I can’t remember ordering any rest! Daggers back to the girl! Everyone ready for training!” he shouted at the crowd that was dissolving rapidly.

A second later, I stood completely alone, with my weapon pressed hard in my hands.

“Okay, well… Well, show me what Truvle has conjured this time,” he said, coming closer.

I unfastened the daggers and handed them to him… But already next instant I froze with my jaw dropping down to me feet. The old warrior was doing something that went far beyond my imagination! The blades were spinning in his strong much-practiced hands. They were sparkling in a movement that my eyes could barely catch, which turned the two silhouettes in the air into two spheres.

“Good! Great!” exactly what we need. “He improved them to make just perfect,” he said approvingly.

Snap! And the chain shot sending the claw deep into a log of wood on the ground near us. Then Yoos made an intangible movement and the blade slipped out of the wood that had been holding it so tightly a second ago.

Yoos stepped away to the training area center and the chains spun around him producing various shapes and combinations of these in the air. They were wriggling obediently as if being just part of his body. And Yoos resembled an octopus with long moving tentacles.

The whole squad, me included, was following that show in an ecstatic daze. Of course, the youngsters adored him because the commander was an expert in this military art, and no single cart had ever been sacked while he was on duty through all the years he had been serving! He was feared and respected by all – the guards, the local residents and – oddly enough – even robbers.

Having played a little more with the chains, Yoos came up to me. “Well, fine, now put them in your bag. We will learn in a safer way, both for you and for the rest.”

I automatically stuffed the weapon into my bag, and then, bewildered, looked at him. All the hopes I would be allowed some show-off time with the blades in my hands, melted away immediately.

“Nort!” Yoos shouted so that I jumped up. “Bring me two whips from the stables, a couple of those we use for the horses.

One of the guys rushed to the buildings nearby.

“Whips? What the hell do I do with whips?!” I was indignant.

“I still believe I may need you alive,” the warrior gave me a wink. “You will have to learn how to manage with a usual whip first, and then we go to your claws.”

I did not even try to argue being perfectly aware that he was right.

At that moment, Nort was already approaching us with two whips in his hand. I could see the guy was out of breath, which was the effect of his hurry carrying out the assignment. Yes, Yoos could impose iron discipline on people.

Yoos took the whips and handed one to me.

He had to give a few more orders, after which they brought us a basket of melons, old broken pots and a bunch of round logs.

All this was carefully topped on a wooden table, a little away from the trainees.

Yoos walked closer to this still-life-looking thing, took a tighter grip on the whip, gave a sharp swing… A whiz and a brief crack! The same instant one of the melons exploded into small pieces, as if it had been blown up from the inside. Another swing – and a pot turned into a pile of clay bits. After that he turned to the neatly arranged logs. He was wrapping them, as a wizard, with the end of the whip and throwing at a mannequin used for practicing stabbing skills, inevitably hitting it nowhere but at the head. Every single time!

“Swing, acceleration, hit! Set the direction as accurately as possible. And then stop sharply in the end. That will bring more force to the strike. That must produce this crack!”

He took another swing, and the whip made that very specific sound, leaving another pot shattered.

“Wanna grab something with it – you make a swing, stretch your hand following the whip, and then, in the very end, pull it back a little. This will help it pick the thing. Do not worry if it doesn’t work out right away. You will get your feel of it anyway. But you have to feel the movement, as if this was part of your body, part of your arm… Here, look,” he demonstrated all of the above, and another pot hit the same poor dummy.

“Well, we will learn the throwing a bit later. Get skilled in the lashing and grabbing first.”

I looked shyly at the whip in my hand. It seemed so easy while I was watching Yoos. However, I quickly realized how deceptive that impression was as soon as it was my turn.

“You do everything, exactly the way I showed. Try, learn,” Yoos said, while still throwing the logs at the dummy. And as he was doing so, that very same Nort was running around and arranging carefully all the logs back on the table, each time risking getting one of them hit him on the head. “I got to leave now. Will be back in the afternoon to check everything. Got it?”

I nodded hastily, and Yoos, throwing a couple of brief instructions to someone as he was walking, retreated, leaving me face-to-face with a new batch of neatly stacked household stuff.

Even though I took pains, I made no progress, to be honest. And yet I went on and on swinging the whip. It definitely refused to obey, every time trying to get me, its master, actually. Yes, I was right then telling Truvle I would kill myself before I would hurt any enemy.

Once I did manage to pick a log, but it made me so happy I pulled it too hard, and then it flew off somewhere to get lost in the crowd. Next thing I could hear was a scream of pain and a joyful exclamation. My unexpected back-up must have helped someone win a sword fight. I spread my arms in a gesture of apology, but there was no one to come forth with a complaint.

Some of the guards approached me a couple of times offering help, yet each time they realized quickly that no support or advice – sincere as it might have been – helped even a tiny bit, so finally they all had to leave and mind their own business, while I had to stay there, just none the wiser.

That was how I spent the rest of the day, and as it drew to its end my sole desire was to bite off my right arm up to the shoulder as I could no longer stand the pain.

Yoos came later to let me go, thus making me happy beyond words… My right arm even happier…

Having covered the distance between the fortress and Karun (and that never took me long) I was approaching home when the Sun went down behind the mountain.

Elcha, short in breath, jumped out shouting that she was going to pick some Dartor plant, and disappeared.

Mammy was not at home, so I had a quick snack enjoying absolute silence, and went to bed.

The Strange Talk

Elcha was walking down a dirty path leading to Water Mount, where the Noiser was pouring down from the western part taking its roaring streams to the city.

She was in a hurry as she had to reach the meadows by sunset – Dartor flowers would be opening then, and they had to be picked within the first half hour, before they lost their best power.

Actually, she had not had in mind any herb picking that day, planning to do it the day after as Mammy had loaded her up with a bunch of things long before. However, as for the day after, Elcha got an invitation from Selena who was throwing a birthday party, so she decided to have all Mammy’s errands complete in advance and then enjoy the following day’s afternoon.

Crickets were chasing one another in the grass, and twilight was hugging the mountains gradually. The path ran round another huge rock, and Elcha did not immediately notice two silhouettes standing a bit further away. Frightened, she quickly sat behind a stone, watching them intensely and trying to make sure there was no danger in approaching them. Judging by the shadows, they were a man and a woman discussing something quietly. As Elcha was about to leave her refuge and follow her way, bits of conversation reached her. It was the man talking, judging by the voice.

“You have to realize – she attacked once she will attack again! They have found us now! And there is less and less time left! Even if we do kill her, others will come, more of them… They know now that you are here.”

Elcha found the man’s voice somewhat familiar, as if she had already heard it before. However, as she was too far, and it was too dark already, she could not distinguish the face.

The woman replied something that Elcha failed to grasp. The man got indignant, “It’s not under control! How come they found you? You must be missing something. What if she attacks again? Should she do so all your cover-up is beaten! Literally! It was nothing short of a miracle we survived last time… She is no child now… That would be too much.”

The last words got drowned out by the infinite crackle of nocturnal cicadas so Elcha could get nothing again.

“Yes, he is teaching her! But I am afraid of…”

The woman’s low whisper sounded like a question, and the man’s exhausted answer came next, “He has torn it all apart. No lead… No clear sign or trace to catch at… I am not sure Arr has a hand in it… It’s proven all too much complicated…”

The woman answered something again, too quietly, and the man hissed, “We cannot return now… We’ll have to present some evidence. Right away, before everyone has time to know what is what…”

For another while they spoke too quietly for Elcha to get a word but at last the man raised his voice again, “Message came today. She was seen near the Azure Ridge and the Gray Hill. She

moves really fast since she manages to reach different parts of the mountains. And you should be perfectly aware that she will not escape this time.”

“Doesn’t matter, actually. The valley is sealed,” the woman’s quiet voice came, yet again so softly that the voice itself could not be recognized.

“Then keep them here all year round. Not a single step out of here!” the man hissed again. “I’ll have the perimeter sealed, too. I really hope your plan will work!” the man raised his voice and was almost screaming. “No magic to be used here, just block it all!”

Then they went on whispering again, after which Elcha could get another bit. “As long as the first is alive, they don’t need the other one… the older blood is more important! Goodbye! See you in a year.”

Next moment it was only the woman standing there in her dark cloak, her head covered with the hood. Another moment… and the path was completely empty.

Elcha was still waiting as she did not want the two to see her eavesdropping.

Strange talk, she thought. I wonder who they were and who they were discussing. Besides, she got quite curious about the valley being sealed. It means that our valley got some guarding spell cast on. But why? And who against? I think I’ll have to tell Mammy or Ricka, she decided finally.

Elcha stepped out of her refuge and rushed up the hill. Just a bit more, and then Dartor would lose its power – too dark. As she ran out into the glade covered with flowers, she hurried to pick them to stuff up her bag, then lit a light on her palm so she could see the way, and went back.

That time, somewhere far and away up in the mountains, a triumphant inhuman howl could be heard, and two coal-black creatures darted between stones. One stopped and pulled the air with its nostrils, then chose a more accurate direction and rushed into the crevice between the rocks, as the second snarled and followed it.

The Premonition

Next morning I woke up all in cold sweat. Nightmare!

I saw a fire, and it was everywhere – everything around was in flames. And it was burning m from inside. I could not stand the heat and screamed. Then some shadows came out of the fire. They resembled the beast that had attacked me in the mountains. And there were more and more of them. Then I saw a woman’s face. She was either crying or singing a song, or chanting a spell. And then she shouted something through the roaring flame, and shoved a bag into my hands as she asked me to take care of it. The shadows surrounded her, and at that point it felt like I fell into darkness… And I was falling way down… The feeling was sickening, just horrible… And then I woke up.

I had seen the dream before, more than a few times. But each time it would change a slight bit – once the woman was seized with fire, resembling a fiery goddess; another time the fire around turned into a fiery beast, or some man appeared, whose face I could not see, to shout something to me. But the effect was inevitably same – the woman disappeared all enveloped in flames, and then I fell somewhere deep down, into an abyss, pressing the bundle tightly to my chest… And fear, terrible fear, a feeling of helplessness, which left me sobbing in silence…

For several minutes I was lying still trying to recover, my heart pounding.

I got up and sat on the bed. There was some bitter feeling squeezing me deep from inside. Every time I had that dream, I was out of humor for the entire day ahead, and it looked like that day would be no exception.

But then it was something different. Either my subconscious decided to play tricks or someone invisible wanted to play with my subconscious. Anyway, my nightmare got a whole army of monsters – all with their manes moving – crawling in.

I shook my own mane, shaking my head from side to side to dump the obsession. The Sun was already staring into my bedroom window, as if giving me a gentle hint that I had been sleeping too long.

I could hear the door squeak, which meant Elcha was already up, so it was time for me to get down to something, too. I got dressed, braided my hair and went downstairs.

There were some people waiting in the hallway, while the door to Nargara’s study room was closed. That meant she had a customer in.

I greeted everyone politely and turned left into the kitchen. Elcha was already laying the table – pies, honey and cottage cheese. There on the stove I saw a small clay teapot, which was sending forth a delicate and fresh scent of thyme and lemon balm.

“Want some tea?” my sister said cheerfully.

“Sure,” I accepted right away and sat at the table.

Elcha was fast bringing cups, sugar and spoons, after which we got to breakfast.

“Nightmare again?”.

I tried really hard to look calm but my sister was no spring chicken when it came to

seeing people through.

“Yeah, again,” I replied reluctantly and ran my hand through my face trying to drive away all the is that were still haunting me.

“How about some herbs in your tea before bed? I picked a lot yesterday. Could prepare the right mix for you. Will make you sleep like a bab…” Elcha stopped half-word and then went on rattling yet in a lower voice. “You know, yesterday, when on my way to pick some Dartor, I overheard some strange talk.”

“You are up, aren’t you? Great!” Nargara came in. “Lots of delivery today. Ricka, you take two boosters – one to Kold’s bakery, the other to the Meekle brothers… And four efils…”

“It’s Friday, so I got to go to Truvle’s. Why not visit him fir..?” I asked.

“No, Truvle is coming himself to pick his elixirs,” Nargara cut me short showing she would not tolerate any argument.

I exchanged looks with Elcha. The smith never wasted his time on things like that. He never liked having to drop his work even for a minute. And visiting us would take at least two days.

“Anything wrong?” I asked, even though the answer was more than obvious.

“That beast. They saw it again near the valley,” she exhaled and rubbed the temples with her hands as if trying to relieve herself from inner tension.

I exchanged another look with Elcha. Frightened already, both of us.

“Ricka, from now on you are working within the valley only. No single step beyond. Got it?” Nargara raised an eyebrow impatiently.

I was so shocked with the news I could only nod my head fervently, “Gotcha.”

“Elcha, and you too! Pick herbs only on the inner slopes.” Elcha followed me nodding.

“Good, then. And another. You remember the ban on any magic, right?”

We nodded again, as if one.

“Perfect,” she lowered her voice and went on, “and please take that seriously. I don’t want any of our customers to learn that the Karun witch’s daughters are firesses. That would bring about too many questions. We don’t want our reputation stained.”

“Nor do we want it fried,” Elcha giggled.

I could barely strangle a laugh.

“Hey, girls, I need two sacks of Talker flowers today. The guards got a couple robbers, now want to make them sing, so they ordered a couple elixirs. Go get some on the east slope in the afternoon. Together. And once again – don’t even think of going beyond the valley! I mean it.”

“You mean it,” we echoed.

Then Nargara charged Elcha with a few more tasks, after which we quickly finished our breakfast and ran, each of us about her own business.

The morning time flew as we were up to the ears in fuss. I ran to Kold’s bakery taking him the booster for sourdough. It made yeasted dough rise instantly, while the baking turned out just great. Kold, as usual, stuffed my bag with a whole bunch of rolls and cinnamon buns saying I had to eat more given my kind of work. I was too thin, he added – all skin and bones. As for him, he definitely never limited himself with his own product, which you could easily see from his fat cheeks and a stout build.

After that, I went to the Meekle brothers’ brewery taking a similar booster for beer, where

they treated me to a bottle of delicious lemonade they were selling in their shop along with beer. Then I delivered all the four efils and headed home.

Elcha was sitting on the porch waiting for me.

“Ready? Got the bags?” I asked.

“Yes, here,” she waved two gray rags. “And I also took some meat pie.”

“And I got lemonade and fresh buns,” I bragged pointing at my bag.

“Well, then we don’t have to hurry back home, could stay till sunset,” she hit me cheerfully with her idea, which I accepted with a nod, and there we went.

Walking a little through the city’s snaking streets, and passing through the square and the market, we approached the eastern gate and moved along a dirty road heading out of the place. After a while, we turned to a familiar path, which ran up into the mountains.

I had to walk alongside with Elcha, which was very tiresome as I was used to moving fast, so now the habit backfired. It felt like we were crawling like a couple of old turtles and the entire thing was nothing but a waste of time. Patience was definitely not my strong point.

Elcha could notice my irritation immediately, so she tried to distract me with a talk. And she succeeded after a while, to be honest. She was really fond of chatting, and loved asking hundreds of questions even more. Just asking, I mean, never waiting for all the answers to come. And that day my sister was asking me about my training with Yoos. “Well, tell me, how you are doing there. Using the blades yet?” she chattered. “I’m dying to know! He must have shown you lots of his best tricks.”

“Well, not actually… To be honest, it’s all much more complicated than I expected…” I said and frowned a little as I began to tell her about the latest training session.

The conversation made the rest of the way not so long, so it seemed quite soon that we came out to the stony slope where we usually collected little grass called Pyris. People, though, nicknamed it Talker.

“Hey, you don’t have to worry. You are just starting it. You always manage to get everything right, I know you. And this will be no exception,” my sister tried to reassure me. And yes, I have to admit I was really disappointed with my military failures. Not that I expected much success right away, but waving the whip all day to never hit the aim… That was way too bad for me.

“It’s like with magic. At first I couldn’t even hold the light on my palm. And now, look here,” and her palm flashed with a clear little fire gleaming gold around. I whistled in surprise.

“Wow! When did you learn this?”

“Well, around a month ago, I guess. I just never show it at home so Nargara doesn’t know I can and I do play with fire. And also, look now,” and she threw a fiery arrow into a nearby stone cracking it immediately, after which Elcha stood, arms akimbo, looking at me with conscious superiority. “See now?”

“Well, Mammy will never be happy with this. Remember what she said this morning?”

“Oh, c’mon,” she waved her hand at me, “there is no single soul around! And no one can see us here! You know, sometimes I think she takes it too seriously. Had she let us practice it to the fullest, you would have mastered your flow control long ago, so we would not have to use things like blocking.”

I dropped my eyes. The thing was that my magic skills left much to be desired, or were even worse, to be exact. My stream was totally chaotic, and which was worse, I had no clue why

it acted so. Once I could not stir it at all, but then fire came out, and so strong, it could literally burn everything around. For me it never was dangerous, but for those around – deadly. I could burn them alive. Mammy got worried about that all after an incident long ago, when I almost burned one man. That old fool decided to give me a slap in the face for some sort of a prank, and I felt so insulted I suddenly burst into flames, scaring to death both myself and everyone around. We had to move once again to another place after that, and Nargara blocked my magic thus preventing me from getting into any big trouble. Can’t say I was too much disappointed, actually. Trying to use magic that will never obey you may cost too much, you know. I had my fast walking, and I could manage my speed perfectly, so that seemed more than enough for me.

Elcha, though, got a real itch to use that gift. Anytime! And despite the ban, she would polish her skills.

Meanwhile, talking all the time, we began collecting small Talker flowers stuffing them into the bags and tamping them down from time to time to fit more.

Once the bags were full to the top and tied firmly, we went down the slope to the mountain river, sat on the grass, took out supplies and started waiting for the sunset.

That long trip made our legs hurt incredibly, so we decided to put them into the fast stream running down the mountain, and were enjoying its coolness.

“I was just thinking the other day, why not practice some archery? I think I could ask Yoos to teach me. Think he would agree?”

“Well, at least you could try asking him,” I smiled, “if you really mean it, of course. But keep in mind that he is not going to be any softer on you just because you are a girl.”

“Oh, I’m very serious. And my sister is so cool! Really tough and awesome! And me? I am no worse, you know. I’ve already made up my mind!” she announced putting on some oh-I-am-so-totally-determined-now look, yet could not keep it for long and burst out laughing.

“Hey, you, with your mind made up! Just don’t shoot off somebody’s nose,” I said ironically and splashed water in her face.

Elcha closed her face with a sleeve, jumped to her feet and shouting something like “That’s what you are up to!” began to splash back. We were chasing each other along the river bank, splashing and squealing like two young kids. Then, all of a sudden, she slipped on a wet stone while I tried to grab her. Next instant, clinging to each other, we collapsed into the fast stream, which picked up its prey instantly carrying the two girls, both twisting and puddling, away from the place where they fell into its soft yet firm grip.

For some time the river was spinning us in its captivity, but then its strength and depth began to decrease gradually, as if offering us a chance to crawl out.

Drenched to the skin and freezing, we fell on the grass. We looked at each other and burst into a hearty laugh – we looked so stupid. Both dripping, hair tangled and stuck to the foreheads, like the tentacles of a red octopus.

Having had enough, I got up and looked around. The river had taken its riders to the other side of the mountain ledge and thrown into a small ravine.

“It took us out of the valley. Better be careful, remember what Nargara said today,” I warned Elcha looking the way we came from.

“Please, gimme a breath! We aren’t that far, just half an hour on foot. It’s about five minutes for you, over there,” she pointed putting a hand to her forehead and looking that way.

The Sun was about to set.

“Let’s dry our clothes first,” I decided, and, running lightning fast along the river, I gathered a large pile of branches.

“Get one of your fire arrows, that’s where we’ll see the use of it,” I added, throwing out the dry branches under our feet.

Elcha had a short wave of her hand, and fire, breaking off her palm, hit the pile embracing it instantly with its red tongues.

“Ta da!” my sister said ducking a curtsy. “Welcome! Contact me any time!”

We got closer to the fire and began drying our clothes, which did not take long as the fire emitted a lot of heat. My face must have been really sad as I shook out of the bag what once was the buns, now all soaked with water. But the sight of the bottle of lemonade, clean and intact, brought so much delight to our hearts that we finished it the same instant.

Elcha was rattling away telling something about Selena’s birthday they celebrated the day before; she was telling everything, never leaving out a minutest detail, making funny faces and gestures all the time. Then she started to talk about the strange couple she met as she was walking to pick Dartor, and about their conversation that she could not comprehend in full…

But I could not focus on her chit-chat, just had to listen half-ear, as I was still thinking about my nightmare. I didn’t like having that dream as it would inevitably leave some unpleasant impression on my heart, and that time it was growing into anxiety.

I took my eyes up to look at my sister. She was still talking.

“… and then he says to the woman something like ‘I will seal it, too. Just to be on the safe side.’ And also…”

“What seals do you mean?” I asked feeling that I had already lost grip of the story.

“Ricka, you haven’t been listening to me all this time!” she screamed. “There is someone casting spells in our valley, and we have no least idea!” she was indignant. “I’ll have to tell Mammy about….”

But I still could not focus on what she was saying as I got some strange, yet familiar, feeling crawling in my chest. I shook my head trying to see what was wrong, and next moment my hands, all by themselves, touched the daggers on my belt.

Silence… It was absolute silence around, disturbed only by a distant sound of water and Elcha’s chatter. The rest of the world seemed not to exist. I looked at my sister who was sitting on a large boulder and trying to shake sand out of her boots. My glance ran over her shoulder… And there I froze, seized with horror that made me forget how to breathe.

Right behind her, on a steep wall, pressing its claws into the stone, the beast was descending quietly, with its moving mane stretching the tentacles forward, its nostrils swelling large enough to draw in not just the air but all the stones around, and never blinking or moving its violently burning eyes off its prey.

Elcha cut her story and stared at me, bewildered – my face must have had too eloquent a palette of colors that were enough to get my feelings without a word.

“Run, Elcha, run!” I screamed pulling the blades out of the sheath and rushing to cover her. She immediately realized everything and, jumping off the boulder, tried to rush to the river, yet was definitely too slow against the monster. It jumped, too, and would have got her right there, but ran into my claw – I had released one of the chains a split second before.

The creature roared and fell onto the stones, while I quickly pulled the blade out still

wondering how I had managed it.

“There! Fast!” I pointed toward a small cleft between the rocks hoping the beast would prove too large to squeeze in.

I could hear stones rustling behind and then a growl followed, which was getting closer. I grabbed Elcha by the arm and ran pulling her along.

She is too slow, I realized with horror, but we have to make it, no choice, the only desperate thought was beating in my head.

As we reached the cleft, I pushed her thus both adding her some acceleration and attaching direction to her movement. She flew into the crevice like an arrow, and I turned around. The beast was running at breakneck pace yet came to a dead stop the second it saw me standing on the way, daggers in my hands. Now it was standing opposite, growling.

“What now, you stupid rubbish? Never seen anyone fighting you back?” I shouted. “Wanna try once again?”

It growled again, teeth bared, and I could hear real menace in it.

“There is a way here!” Elcha’s voice came from behind.

“Elcha, run as far as you can, don’t look back,” I shouted over my shoulder, never taking my eyes off the monster. That moment, on my right, with my side vision, I could notice some more movement. And as I turned my gaze I froze. Another beast was emerging slowly from the bushes, its eyes glued to me.

“And you?”

“I’ll catch up!” I said slowly, trying to keep my voice stable. And there I had a click in my mind, I won’t catch up with her, no way! I won’t even leave this place now. Ever!

“Ricka! You crazy! I’m not leaving you here!” she was not just panicking, I could hear she was nearly crying.

“Elcha, just leave!” I shouted at the top of my lungs still never taking my eyes off the beasts. “Leave now!”

I could hear quick sounds of two feet running over the stones and getting lost in the distance.

The monsters were grinning and growling, yet did not dare come any closer, just standing there with their tentacles stretching forth.

Only then I could see they were different. The one I already knew was black as ink, while the other one had a slightly whitish mane. But the pattern on their skins was the same.

I wished I had not left my bag behind, Nargara’s special action elixirs would come in handy indeed.

My heart was nearly jumping out of my mouth, but at the same time I felt some strange and frightening calmness inside. The main thing was to stretch the time thus giving Elcha a chance to go as far as possible.

“What now, you stupid mongrels? Got your tails between your legs?” I tried to stick a smile on my face, but I think even someone sentenced to the rope would have a happier smile before the execution. “Afraid of getting your miserable skins spoilt? Expected to get me on a silver platter, didn’t you? You, two ugly things! And you couldn’t get me last time, so now you brought help, right?” I asked the black beast stuffing my voice with as much sarcasm as I could.

They both let out a hoarse growl and began their advance.

And the next moment, the one with the whitish mane rushed forward.

I was so frightened I shot both claws, which left a dull sob behind as they entered the flesh. The beast bellowed with pain and collapsed onto the grass having jumped short of me. However, as it fell down, my chains remained under.

Here, Truvle! Really great! Tell me nobody can get me with this weapon. So it was neither Truvle’s work nor the lessons I learnt from Yoos that could help me anymore. I tried pulling the chains with all might, and pulled again, but all in vain. They chains stuck under the ugly carcass. Out of my eye’s corner I saw the other beast ready to jump, and despair seized me. I threw the handles and darted to the passage. Something cut through my shoulder, getting deep through both clothes and skin. I uttered a moan, my teeth still pressed tight.

And then suddenly I was blinded by a bright flash, and a disgusting howl nearly ruined my ears, followed with the smell of burning flesh. I yet took a few steps forward, stumbled upon something and tried to pull focus. It was Elcha – standing right in front of me, her face harder than stone, and her hand ablaze with fire.

“Have been dreaming so long of trying this!” she said as she gave a wolfish smile, and then a huge fireball jumped off her hand. The fist creature, which had my blades under it, was already up and rushing at us. Everything around seemed to be slowing down.

“Elcha!”

She turned around and let another spell at the beast, which was already halfway jumping. The ball got right into its disgusting jaws, throwing it back, and us – the opposite way.

I was quick to jump up and drag my sister to the cleft seeing that the black monster was once again on its feet, already shaking its head to come round.

“Oh, shit,” I couldn’t hold anger, “they are up again… We got to run now.”

We ran down the narrow crevice in the rocks, dodging between stones. The cleft was soon left behind and we jumped out of the other side of the cliff.

The Sun had already set, and twilight came. We ended up just a little way off the Karun valley, and now there was a huge green field stretching before us.

I knew the place. Local shepherds often brought cattle to graze here. A little left, there was the trade route, and further down it, was the Eagle’s Nest fortress.

“There,” I waved to the side where the city lights were flickering, and then turned to Elcha. She was standing there, staggering, all pale and her face fallen. I even thought for a second that she had grown several years older within just the last minutes.

“I read somewhere that combat magic drains your power. But I could never have expected the feeling to be such a nasty one,” she smiled tightly.

“Hold on,” I whispered, casting a nervous glance at the cleft. “Looks like we’ve broken off, despite the thin odds. I don’t think they’ll squeeze through the crevice. Now all we got to do is get home,” I grabbed her hand and dragged along.

“We need to get to the valley entrance… the valley is sealed, they said, sealed, they said they would not go there…” she muttered indistinctly under her breath, “now I understaaand …” she drawled and giggled.

I gave her a look full of suspicion.

Looks like she is delirious, I concluded, as she went on slurring over her words, “They picked up the trail, hee-hee… there was only a year left, he said, all you have to do is just hold out for another year, hee-hee-hee … and he also said, while one is alive we don’t need the other one. Yes, that’s what he said… And there was something else, something about the danger of

fights…”

“Who was saying that, Elcha?” I snapped. I was all in goosebumps seeing her going insane.

And what if she goes completely nuts and stays that forever!

“Who was that, Elcha?” I asked again and gave her a strong shake.

She looked up at me, distracted, her gaze blurred, and smiled absently.

“I mean those two, wearing cloaks, I told you earlier today,” she murmured in a strange and dreamy voice.

“Okay, we got to cross this field right now, as quickly as possible, too visible here,” I said and looked around.

Some growl came from behind, my entire body got tense instantly, and I looked back still keeping Elcha with my one hand and bringing her behind my back.

The two monsters were approaching, both growling and their eyes shooting fire in the dark.

“That’s just perfect!” my sister said giggling again, which made me so mad I wished I had something heavy in my hand to bang her on the head.

Apparently, I was losing my nerve, too. And she seemed to be right, the situation was just perfect – no weapon in my hand and no place to hide, open area around only.

“What the hell do you want, finally?” I shouted, full of despair rather than courage. “Are we going to be so delicious or something? No more wild goats to eat?”

Elcha gave another giggle full of nerve, then raised her hand and let another clot of fire into the creatures. They jumped aside still remembering the previous fight, yet did not intend to leave, just stood at a short distance.

Okay, we’ll get to Elcha’s nervous breakdown later. The major part now is to survive…

“Elcha, listen to me now,” I said, “you beat them with magic whenever I tell you, just don’t waste your power, okay? And we are moving now to the city, fast, just as fast as we can.”

She replied with an estranged nod.

But my plan failed. A few seconds later my sister fainted, so I got her hanging in my arms like a huge sack, completely exhausted. The only part of me still able to move fast was my thoughts rushing around in my head.

I sat on the ground and embraced my sister, my eyes all sore with tears and indignation.

The beasts brightened up and began to approach us feeling much more confident.

Just another couple of seconds and it’s all over. I think I did have a chance to survive, alone, but I never – NEVER – even thought of leaving my sister behind.

I was up already, watching silently them approaching us. Next moment, one of them rushed at me, knocked me to the ground and pressed down. The smell streaming out of its mouth hit my nose. Disgusting! I looked up and saw the monster’s face right over mine, its teeth bared in an ugly grin, and its tentacles nearly reaching my face.

As they touched me it felt like electricity running through my body, and then I realized that I could make no slightest movement.

But suddenly the beast lost all its interest in me. They both mover toward my sister, then one of them bit her arm and started dragging her away. Elcha moaned with pain. The other at that time was moving its head to Elcha’s neck, as if trying to pick the right spot for an assault.

They are going to tear her apart, flashed in my mind. Tears were streaming down my

face, yet I could do nothing. I screamed, but I could not hear my own voice. Despair, rage and fear overwhelmed my head and were burning me from inside. I was rushing through that inner heat looking desperately for a way out of that all, and then it came to me… It was the way out! The heat that I could feel with my entire soul was the way out. There was a fire tearing me apart as if trying to get out… a flame of incredible power… a flame, pure and naturally primitive. And I could no longer tell where it was me, and where it was the fire! I was the fire.

The beasts turned sharply to see what was going on. As our eyes met, their tentacles began to move feverishly; they were both raging around the same spot, greedily catching air with their nostrils. One even began to whine with excitement.

But I took no notice of that already; I was all burning from inside. I glanced at my hands – they were all in flames looking more like scarlet tongues, and then the fire spread all over my body, sweeping me from head to toe. My hair sprang up filled with a force struggling to break out. The grass around flared and crumbled in ashes, spreading the fire further down the slope.

Some unearthly sensation of euphoria and invincibility filled me. There was nothing burning from inside – I myself was burning, just like anything else around.

I stood up, stepped toward the monsters, and, imitating Elcha’s movement, sent all this fire their way, charging it with all my rage, despair and fear.

A flash lit up all around. The light was so intense it looked like daytime for a moment. The space around seemed to be ringing and buzzing, and a deafening bang followed… and then darkness shrouded it all.

That very instant, all the unearthly sensation vanished as if it had never been there, giving way to some deaf emptiness and complete impotence. It felt like I was going to turn into ashes and get scattered around like burnt grass.

Semiconscious, I sank to the ground, curled up and drifted off.

The Accident

I came round feeling water poured on me. They must have poured more than a few glasses, actually. And then I felt on my lips that very nasty bitter taste that always made me sick, after which I saw Nargara’s face, all worried, looking me right in the eyes.

“She’s back! Praise to the Worlds!”

She waved her hand to somebody and I got seated. I spat out that sickening stuff and looked around. Mours again! Then I got surprised seeing I was covered in a blanket, and further then got terrified realizing there was nothing else covering me under that.

Next to me I saw Truvle, who was keeping me from the back and expressing some smile that was too shy to be a real one, actually.

The field around that was green once, was a desert, with all the ground cracked and burnt down to the last straw.

A bit further aside, I saw my sister lying on the ground and covered with ash. But I could not see her face. Nargara and Yoos bent over her and were busy doing something. The only green piece was around her body. Unlike me, she had still the same clothes on, even though much shabby.

“Elcha,” I sighed getting shocked with my own voice, or what was left of my voice, to be exact.

“Alive, lost lots of blood though’” Truvle said sadly.

“The beasts?” I continued huskily.

“Dead,” the smith said and hugged me, which was quite unexpected. “It’s all over, calm down.”

The sky was already getting bright as the first rays got out from behind the horizon.

Mammy approached us quickly and helped Truvle get me up on my feet.

“You can walk, can’t you?” she asked giving me a look full of concern.

I shook my head.

“Truvle, take her then. We got to leave right now, fast. Got to leave before a soul sees us,” the witch snapped, and that very moment the smith’s strong arms took me up.

Yoos was already standing nearby, holding Elcha in his arms.

She was unconscious, all pale, with sunken eyes and bluish lips. One of her arms was wrapped with a narrow strip of white cloth.

“Sorry, Truvle. I lost your gift,” I complained as I buried my face into his shoulder, “lost the blades near the river…”

“You really care about that sort of rubbish, baby? There, look! Your blades, I mean,” and he pointed at Yoos who was carrying Elcha. I looked out from behind his powerful shoulder and saw my weapon dangling at the old warrior’s belt.

“Where did…” I was baffled.

“When you got beyond the valley,” Truvle started, “Nargara could feel that right away. I had just come to Karun and was approaching your home when I met her. Then we called Yoos as we were rushing here. He was on watch, at the eastern gate. And then we followed your footsteps down to the meadows, and then got down the river still with no single where you went afterwards. We saw lots of prints, all mixed, and then found your claws and bag. When Yoos could make sense of it all, he said that the beast was not alone, and we went on to finally end up at the crack in the rock… and then there was an insane explosion that left the mountains buzzing,” he fell into silence for a few moments, and then drew a tight sigh, “Nargara rushed that way, and we still had to roam through the rocks before we could finally come out of the maze to find you,” he stopped again, and then, piercing me with an extremely intense look, added, “and the very thought something could be wrong with you two… We had real frights of our lives.”

“It was creepy,” I confirmed, still surprised with the severe looks on his unshaven face, which, in a moment, gave way to sorrow.

“When we got closer, you both were on the ground, not a single movement. I thought you were dead,” he had real trouble uttering the last words.

I gave a sob and buried my face in the shoulder again.

“Okay. C’mon, girl. Everyone is alive, and that’s what matters.”

“Alive…” I echoed still not sure it was true.

Strangely enough, but there was no pain in the body, and yet I felt broken, which must have muted all the sensations somehow. Nor could I realize clearly what had happened.

It came later when we were at home. They gave me a whole bunch of healing elixirs and put me to bed. I slept the whole day. When I woke up, there was no one around. The previous day’s is spun around in a vivid dance, leaving a clearly cut and indelible impression in my mind.

And there I lay, living through every single bit anew. Trying to understand what had happened out there in the field. I was perfectly aware that my power had broken the blockage, yet it still remained total mystery what the explosion was, and where that strength came from to fill me.

As Truvle was carrying me through the field, I saw that a huge part of the valley was burned down to the remotest slopes. The ground was burnt and cracked. The rocks in the distance were charred, and one – the one that was closest – had cracked and split apart.

No, it couldn’t have been me! How was that any possible?

The thoughts made me uncomfortable, to put it mildly. I had never met fire sorcerers, nor had I known anything about their powers or its manifestations. But even the little that I had heard and read about was very much different from what I saw that day.

I knew that every Element had its Strongest sorcerers, and they, in turn, could possess spells of the Highest Level…

The people of water had Ertar, a huge wave that could sweep away anything that came its way, and destroy cities; or Inglas, an enormous whirlpool that would draw in anything it came by. The thing was it could occur not in the ocean only, but could take a walk on the shore looking very much like a waterspout.

The Earth sorcerers knew how to create monstrous earthquakes, to crack apart the ground or turn it into quicksand that could suck in one whole army of people.

The strongest spell for the sorcerers of air was that of Sartun Hurricane, which swept

away any life from the Earth’s surface, or even worse – Jansoul spell. Once they cast it, all the air around disappeared and all the living beings simply choked.

I read a lot of stories about the Division of the Worlds, with numerous descriptions of the effects that the disasters inflicted by ancient sorcerers had had. Not everyone had wanted any change in the World order, which finally brought them all to a civil war, while many opposed the Division. Of course, it all seemed more like a fairy tale in our times, no more than an epic narration of a sequence of events through history, an exaltation of ancient sorcerers’ powers. But the charred land and the vast destruction left in the valley brought to my mind the fiery spell of Armaron that I once had read about in some book.

Overwhelming and destructive fire, of monstrous power, that could leave behind charred earth only, all covered with ash. The only “but” there was that I did not know the spell! No single clue what that could be. As the description said, the flames devoured anything it came across, the sorcerer no exclusion. It was something disposable, to be used only once, and the fiery man who dared use it was nobody but a self destroyer!

As for Elcha and myself, we were left totally intact, which, of course, could not but make us happy yet brought about even more questions.

Not able to stand all those thoughts anymore, I sighed deeply and stood up. I could hear some voices coming from the first floor. They were engaged in rather heated an argument, once getting louder, and then going quiet.

I got dressed and went down the stairs.

“Guess we all got to calm down,” a female voice threw. Nargara was definitely not in her best mood, so her voice bore some steel shade.

“Yeah, you’re right,” a man said, and I could instantly tell it was Yoos.

“I’ll get us a drink,” Mammy added in a softer way and, judging by the steps I could hear, she left the room.

“Got to do something about it. Rather soon!” Truvle insisted.

“I said earlier it is too dangerous to stay here,” Yoos was irritated. “They know the girls are in the valley. The longer we stay here the more we tempt the fate.”

“Now, where are you going to hide them?” Truvle’s question was full of irony.

“I would say Ozeron,” Yoos replied not a slightest bit confused with the dig.

“What?!” Truvle gagged. “In capital! You nuts?”

“That’s where nobody will ever come to find them. Besides, there are lots of people of fire, and water, and air. Just get lost among them all.”

“Never,” Truvle snapped. “I think Karun is a safer place. And there is nothing but two handfuls of ashes left from the Goortans. None to come after us again.”

“You know that there may be more of them. Many more. And those behind them – they will never stop trying,” Yoos’s voice was sulky. I could easily imagine him frown with his lips curved with anger. “They’ve been trying to get us for so many years… I doubt they will give up now.”

“Anyway, they won’t get into the valley, the magic is too strong; even the ground is soaked with it, so the mountains around are just one huge shield-artifact. And Nargara was good covering the tracks. It’s like our fortress now. So even if they do know the aim is here none of those wishing us ill can get through. They try, they die,” Truvle sank into silence for a moment

and then added, “and as for the capital, it’s too far, not much of a chance to get their alive. I was out in the square today…”

“Any news? What are they saying?” Yoos asked again.

“You know people! Thanks to the Worlds, they can invent stories, each better than the previous one,” Truvle chuckled, “and that’s all full of buzz. Some are saying it was a fire sorcerer who got lost in his experiments getting his own powers to kill him, others argue they know better – it was two fire guys engaged in a fight eventually killing each other. Some even say they witnessed it, yet never mention how come they survived. Yet others scream arguing it was a scourge from above, and all that stuff, you know. But I bet it’ll finally be the second option. I guess Karun will love it best.”

I froze with my left foot in the air as I was going downstairs, listening to the conversation, my breath held. These two were talking as if they had known each other for a hundred years. But I had never seen them before even being mutually friendly. They would only talk to each other when necessary – just nods, Hi’s and quick handshakes. Occasionally, when Truvle was in Karun, they met in our house. Now it turned out that they knew each other. Had known for a long time, yet had always just acted. But why?

Surprised by the discovery, I stepped back a little and in the darkness got something with my foot, sending a flask down the steps. As if that was not enough, it got followed by a pot – a traitor that fell down with a crash, thus announcing there was a shy listener in the dark staircase corridor.

Silence fell on the room.

“Ricka or Elcha?” Truvle’s voice broke the silence.

“It’s Ricka,” I squealed and went down.

Truvle was sitting by the fireplace looking at the fire, his face all reflective. Yoos was standing a little aside, silent, too, with his hands resting on the back of the chair. I was desperate. Of course they could guess immediately I was eavesdropping, and that made the whole situation extremely uncomfortable.

“How long you been there?” Truvle spoke first, stretching his lips into a smile and turning to me.

“Well, since around ‘it is too dangerous to stay here’, I tried to be honest.

The men exchanged glances. Truvle gave a short hum as Yoos drew in air through his nose a couple of moments letting it out just as slowly, obviously to subdue some strong language as long as I was there.

“You mean the entire place knows?” I was full of emotion.

“Yes, my girl, they all know about it but don’t know who that was, actually, which is good. The valley is sealed. Goortans are dead. Now all you and Elcha got to do is just never even bat an eyelid. Just live the way you used to.”

The glance Yoos gave to Truvle who was trying to reassure me was too skeptical and yet he said no word.

“We got to discuss it with your Mammy, she knows better. And, Ricka …” Trawl hesitated, as if pondering over something, and went on, “we have to tell you something else. I do not want you to learn it from people on the street…”

“What?” I sat on the bench at the wall getting prepared.

“You just…” he paused, “…just don’t take it too close to your heart.”

“I don’t get you,” I turned my eyes to Yoos who was still silent with a stony face expressing completely nothing.

“There is more…” Truvle hesitated and ran his hand through his hair as if collecting his thoughts. But Yoos stepped in there, “The explosion rolled all over the northern part of the valley and reached… It got to Mount Eagle…”

I felt a chill of some bad premonition crawling inside my chest, but I remained silent, waiting for more.

“The fortress is intact,” he said hastily, “but those who were on the gate and the walls at that moment…” he stopped short and fell silent again.

“What… what happened to them?!” I squeezed out the words still not knowing what they were getting at.

The men exchanged glances.

“They’re dead,” Trawl turned away.

I froze, staring at them my eyes open wide.

“How many?” I said with a voice that was not mine. Tears caught my throat.

“Eleven… And five more are with the healers now. Burnt badly.”

I could not hold my tears.

I killed eleven people! Eleven innocent people! How could this ever be possible? What was it going on with me? This is not right, no… it can’t be like that. Like I … I am a monster!”

Apparently, I involuntarily pronounced the last part loud since Yoos was right there next to me. “Listen! You are not a monster! Look at me, Ricka. You aren’t to blame for this. You had nothing to do with all that.”

I raised my eyes, full of tears and obedience, and looked into his weather-beaten face. As our eyes met, I realized he was lying to me. Both to me and to himself. It was my magic power that killed them, and nothing else. Our lives, Elcha’s and mine, had cost them theirs. And Yoos had known many of those people. I could read lots of pain in his gray eyes. And Captain of the Karun guard could not hide it, no matter how hard he was trying. I could also see he blamed himself. Not only he, by the way. Truvle was biting his lips every time he thought that no one was looking at him.

“Ricka, it’s all my fault!” Nargara entered the room, “and please…”

“No!” I jumped up, driven by anger and despair. “Don’t you ever lie to me! It’s all me! I killed them! I’m a monster! A killer!”

All of a sudden I could see my closest people’s faces get filled with fear. Truvle stepped forward stretching out a hand in a warning gesture.

But Nargara’s cold voice stopped him, “Truvle, don’t even try!”

I looked down at my hands and saw fire tongues crawling along, getting bigger and bigger. I tried to shake the flames off yet they went on spreading stubbornly over the skin, as if sticking to its master.

Suddenly, the room got freezing, and a white frost pattern crept across the floor and the walls. It was approaching me, stretching forward its curls as if begging for help.

“Ricka, calm down!” Mammy’s tough voice ordered. “Ricka, can you hear me, my girl? Please, don’t…”

I took my gaze off the fire and looked at her. Nargara’s eyes glowed somewhere deep

inside. His hair swayed as if supported by an invisible air stream. And only then I noticed that the same was going on with my hair, only my curls were sparkling with golden flames. A flow of heat was running from me to her outstretched hand, and turned into ice as it approached her.

Nargara is using her magic against me, I realized. And as I got it, I felt my anger and indignation taking another surge and kindling the flame anew. It enveloped me all over again, the euphoria was growing and spreading through my entire body.

It felt like it was not me but someone else. All my senses got dull, there was no more fear, and only my power was increasing. I felt fear coming off the people standing in front of me, and I saw confusion on their faces. However, for some reason I didn’t care a spit about it… My new self could no longer put up with anyone daring to suppress me with magic, and it stirred another wave of indignation inside me.

“Don’t? You really mean it?” my voice sounded mocking already as a wry smile touched my lips. “Don’t what?”

“We don’t want anyone else to die,” her quiet reply came.

The witch’s words seemed to freeze me and turn into an ice cube, even without magic. The fire went out instantly, and I slid down the wall, burying my face in my hands.

All the three rushed to me. I felt strong arms take me up and seat in a chair.

“Water,” Nargara ordered, and Yoos arrow-dashed to the kitchen coming back a couple of seconds later with a glass of water in his trembling hands.

“Okay, it’s over, my girl. You calm down, everything will be fine,” Mammy said while giving me a hug and stroking my hair.

“Block it… block the flow, like you did before… Please, do. I don’t want it again!” I began to scream through sobs.

“Can’t do it anymore,” she said softly, hugging me again and pressing my head against her chest, “your source is too strong. You have to learn how to control it. It’s all… All that happened in the Fortress was just an accident. Don’t blame yourself,” her quiet voice came.

I clutched at her arms, as hard as I could, and gave way to my loudest sobs, as if it would bring any salvation from all the horror I had gone through.

The Secrets Long Past

As I calmed down a little and began to come back to my senses, Mammy gave me a drink of elixir. I could not tell which exactly since a veil of tears had filled my eyes. However, it sent some nice warm feeling spreading all over my body further bringing a slight relaxation bordering on indifference.

“Baby’s sleep,” I realized. If taken in a small dosage, it worked as a sedative, while a full dose turned it into a sleeping drug.

They pushed my chair closer to the fire, which seemed angry as it was cracking and roaring at the wood that would not submit to its tongues. The everlasting fire in our home included thirteen logs – seven in the master fireplace in the hall, four in the kitchen, another two resting in the stove on the second floor. That was good enough to heat the house even through the worst winter colds. In summer though we never put it down either, only removed a few logs, which left us with an inevitable bit of special comfort. I was looking at the fire, feeling much surprised that after all that had happened I could still enjoy its warm and peaceful crackle. Apparently, it was because the fire in the fireplace was different from the magic fire on my hands.

Meanwhile, the conversation in the living room went on – the men were arguing again about what to do next, leave or stay.

Elcha was sitting next to me, looking into the fireplace, too, and biting her lower lip silently.

She already knew about everything.

Awakened with the fuss downstairs, she jumped out exactly the moment I had just been put in the chair. For a while, my sister sat beside me squeezing silently my fingers until the elixir took its effect. Her hand was bandaged up to the shoulder and rested in a sling on her chest. Her face was pale, eyes sunken and shining of some tough determination. She was no longer that very noisy and fussy girl that would chatter incessantly a day before. Now she had her lips tightly pressed, and her gaze totally focused. She seemed to have grown a couple of years over a night. Then, as if making a decision, she got up and addressed everyone sitting in the living room.

“Well, why don’t you start telling us something at least? I still believe you do know much more than we do,” she curved her eyebrows and pierced everyone with one of her most inquisitive looks.

“What is it you wanna know?” Nargara asked and moved her tired glance onto me.

“First,” Elcha started, “who were the beasts? Second, why is it us they wanted to get? Third, how did they find us?” she was walking as if measuring the room as she darted the questions. “And fourth, if it was so dangerous, then what the he… Mammy, why did you ban us from using magic?!” she turned sharply to face Nargara while her eyes were beaming with so

much ferocity that even Yoos, so gloomy a minute ago, started smiling as he looked at the witch expecting her to respond. But she remained silent.

“And another, just one more thing to ask,” she stopped for an instant thinking over something and then went on with the interrogation, “Who of you were there, on the northern slope, the night before last. I could hear and see two of you, and now, after all that happened, I guess it was us you were talking about.”

Mammy’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Elcha, and her confusion was so manifest she couldn’t have hidden it even if had tried. The moment was so ripe that I jumped right in concluding my sister’s shower of questions, “Enough of your secrets. Looks like they may cost us too much.”

The men looked at each other, puzzled, both moving their eyes at Nargara thus giving her a free hand making the decision.

She exhaled trying to pluck up her courage.

“If we answered your questions now, that would bring around even more of them, and we cannot explain everything…”

“Why?” Elcha immediately asked in the most assertive manner.

“Because we are all bound by the oath of Erion,” Mammy replied quietly.

Now it was our turn to exchange glances.

“Any level to it?” I tried to clarify once I managed my shock.

“First,” Nargara answered in even a lower voice, and fixed her gaze on the fireplace.

We were perfectly aware what it meant; read about it in the Book of Elements.

Erion was a sacred oath with three levels and a great conquering power. It was somewhat different for each of the Elements, yet the point was always the same.

The third level oath was an oath given in words, and if broken it would inflict physical cripple on the guilty party. For life.

The second level oath – magic; if broken, would cut off all the sources taking away the magic powers.

The first level – and the most dangerous – oath on blood. It would kill if violated.

Elcha’s emotions ceased immediately and she sat on the bench at the wall, with some absent-minded expression on her face.

“Any time constraints?” unless expressed that question would have blown my mind.

“Seventeen years… Over in a year’s time” Truvle answered, at the same time answering my next question even before I could ask it.

Silence fell on the room, except the fire cracking monotonously. Nargara broke it first.

“The oath was taken in a small circle of folks, and you weren’t there with us then.”

“So we can’t tell anyone else, that’s the worst part,” Yoos added.

“You mean there are some secrets that concern us, yet we are the ones who won’t learn them, right?”

Yoos nodded.

“That’s the paradox,” Elcha frowned.

“Yes, that’s the side effect we couldn’t have predicted. And there was no need to do so, actually,” Truvle said while stroking the scrub on his chin.

“But there is at least something you can tell, right?” even though the things took quite an unexpected turn Elcha was still not going to give up meekly and unconditionally.

“I can tell you everything in a year, no earlier. But I think I’ll try to explain something…” Mammy said after some thinking, still featuring her typical confidence in the voice. And then slowly, as if tasting every word first, she began it.

“Those creatures… They are called Goortans. They are very dangerous. They’re bloodhounds, and they feel magic with their manes, much like dogs smell with the nose. But they do not act on their own, there serve forces much stronger, and they…” her voice fell silent for a moment.

“I can’t,” she stammered, and a painful expression covered her face.

Truvle came up to her chair, sat down on the floor and took her hand silently thus offering her support.

“Goortans don’t hunt you both, just Ricka. They need the older one.”

“As long as the first is alive, they don’t need the other one…” my sister said, and everyone looked at her in surprise. She smiled shyly and spread her arms.

“There, on the northern slope, it was me, and I want to know now what exactly you could hear from that conversation,” Nargara gave her a look of reprimand.

That made Elcha blush a little, yet she still could give quite a smooth account of what she had managed to eavesdrop.

“Yeah, that’s definitely not that little,” Truvle hemmed.

“Well, it may even be all for the better,” Yoos added.

“The man you spoke to, who was he?” Elcha asked showing the same inquisitiveness as earlier.

“He plays on our side,” Mammy replied evasively and, waiting a little, she added, “A friend, a good’n old friend.”

But there was so much sadness and pain in her voice it was clear immediately that the man was anyone but a friend… They usually talk like that about someone so dear yet lost forever.

Besides, I could see Truvle frown, as if even the mention of that man was too much of a trouble to him. However, he could quickly pull himself up and put some mask of indifference on his face.

“And you, there, you talked something about a gift… Was it about me?” I asked carefully. I don’t know why but that was the part that caught my attention most in Elcha’s story.

“Yes, it was about you. I blocked your gift then, when you were still a child. Not because I was afraid of it, Ricka, no. But because for them it was like a beacon, so that could make us an easy prey to them, in any of the four Worlds. They know the trace your magic leaves.”

“How come?!” my question escaped my lips even before I could know it.

Nargara tried to say something again, but stopped and waved her hand slightly through the air, so making it clear I would get no answer to that one. It was all about their oath.

A moment later she continued, “I hope you get now that the ban on magic is not just my whim. I have kept you hidden for so many years. I muffled down your source, and took you from place to place, and I mixed elixirs for Elcha to drown her magic background… Where… Where did I go wrong?” she uttered with anger and disappointment, throwing aside her handkerchief that she was twisting nervously in her hands.

I searched through my mind and could recall some elixirs she used to give to Elcha. Yes, Mammy gave her, from time to time, some kind of potion, saying that it was just good for overall health. Some bitter and smelly brew that Elcha would not drink anyway, only pretended, and so it

had gone on for at least two years.

I also could remember that my sister’s gift began to grow stronger a couple of years ago, which made her just itching to use it whenever she could grab a chance. She gathered any bit of knowledge that might be useful; she hid books, wrote spells, adjusted them to the Element of Fire, sometimes even trying totally incomprehensible combinations. Of course, most of them never worked. But I could only admire my sister’s perseverance seeing her go on experimenting and studying day after day.

And then it crossed our minds! We could see where Nargara had gone wrong. She gave too much of her care to me, while leaving my sister with none of that, and the latter grew, just like her magic skills did. While up to her ears in other stuff, Mammy just lost the sight of Elcha’s mischief – that which now inflicted a lot of suffering and trouble upon the lot of us.

“We have got relaxed, spent way too much time in Karun,” Captain said, “we believed there was nobody hot on our tails, so we took our guard down. Just failed to recognize.”

“No, Yoos, I don’t think so,” Mammy said in a calm voice and looked at us. “And now, my girls, here is the last question I want to ask you. For fifteen years I have been keeping your abilities secret. Now, how come they found us?

We looked at each other and sank our heads into shoulders. But there was no use trying to conceal anything.

And then Elcha said quietly, nearly in whisper, “It’s me. Yes, it’s my fault. They found from our magic print. I led them straight to ourselves, I did some magic,” she exhaled and pressed herself into the bench taking her head in her hands.

Yes, you did lead them, I thought, more than once, actually. And it was Nargara who saved us from being torn into bits that night. Once she said she had sealed the valley that meant the valley was not just sealed but from then on it was stronger than any fortress.

The witch nodded seeing her worst fears prove true.

“So, young Lady, how long have you been playing with fire?” Yoos inquired slightly leaning forward.

“I don’t know,” she was confused, “Well, I…”

“Had it been just a couple of times they wouldn’t have got the smell,” Truvle shared his observations.

“Well, the milk is spilt now, no way back,” Nargara looked at Elcha, “but I think you are using the source just all-anyhow, which exhausted it so fast. By the way, what were your patterns there? Have never seen anything like that before.” She gave us an unexpected smile that brought so much comfort to the entire place.

“Oh, yeah! I think that was the first time I saw fire employed so stupidly,” Yoos added still keeping his eyes fixed on my sister.

“I learnt it from water sorcery, for beginners. Just used their schemes and got something from the Book of Elements.”

“Water sorcery? You mean you did manage something out of it?” Truvle whistled in surprise. “Okay, then. Hey, Captain, guess you got to apologize for saying something like stupidly.” Truvle wagged his finger at Yoos as the latter spread his arms in a gesture of apology.

“The major thing now is what we do next,” Nargara was fast to get everyone back down to the earth.

“Just live like we lived,” I repeated Truvle’s idea, still not much sure it was any possible.

“I think there is nothing else left to us. And all we have to wait is another year,” Yoos was lost in his thoughts as he was saying it.

“And what happens in a year?” I asked finally the question that would not let me stay calm.

“You are turning 21 in a year’s time, and then one of the most amazing events in your life is coming,” the witch said while her face lit up with some kind of unique delight, as if she had just recollected something.

I was ready for more explanations but all the three were looking at the fire silently. It felt they were making it clear that I had to wait to get the answer… for a year at least.

The Last Chance

In the morning, Nargara announced she had to leave for a couple of days just to sort something out, yet never said where exactly she was going. And then she reminded, “We live the way we did before, as if nothing had happened.” And instructed us, “Girls, please, just stay out of harm’s way, okay? No more trouble. Quiet as lambs. And no magic whatsoever!”

Finally, apparently to keep us busy, she gave us a whole list of chores to tackle.

However, it was no longer possible to live as before, at least because the entire city was buzzing like a bunch of angry bees discussing the recent events.

There were more people than ever on the marketplace, and of course the major thing under discussion was the battle of the fire people and the burnt down desert instead of green meadows at the path leading out of the valley.

“Where are the guards looking?! We have to comb through the city. They still may be walking among us, and we don’t even have the least idea! What the heck brought them here? This is our World and we don’t want any of their stupid fights. Get them roll outta here and burn their own place, we don’t care!” someone was shouting as the crowd roared with approval.

I pulled my head into shoulders as I passed by, and walked even faster.

The scrap of paper that Mammy gave me had a whole list of foods and various glass vessels for elixirs to get at the market.

As I approached a counter with vegetables I saw two women standing there, one of them whispering, “I hear the news has reached the capital… They say people in the Palace are very much worried about all this!”

“They should be, I guess,” the other one replied, “those fire folks have gone too far this time! How could they ever do that in our lands? And it killed our guards! Earlier that might have ended in huge conflict between the Worlds. But now you can’t say a thing to anyone. Just look at what is going on here in our own World. Complete mess!”

As I walked on, two men passed by, both discussing still the same thing, and I could only catch a bit of that, “Poor Kold… So young, just a boy. And this…”

As the name reached my ears I froze and nearly got crashed into by a woman. I knew the one they were talking about – Tonar, Kold the Baker’s son. The guy who would always treat me all those buns after each training session.

I remembered that he had just been put on duty at the Eagle’s Nest fortress gate. And then he fell prey to that terrible night. I felt everything inside clench with pain and guilt, and before I knew it my legs were already taking me to the southern part of the city, getting faster and faster with each step.

The bakery was closed, and the shelves ever-smelling of fresh and hot buns and bread were empty. But I still had the courage and knocked on the door. The door swung open a moment later, and Mr. Kold appeared in the doorway, his face pale, and dark areas under the eyes.

He tried to smile, as always, but it turned out too forced. Running his hand over his face, he waved to me inviting me in. I followed and even wanted to say something, but a lump in the throat would not give way to even a sigh.