Deliverance (19 page)

“This canyon has a lot of ground to cover.”
stated Sigurd after observing how wide apart the canyon walls were,
“How are we to find the shard with only the four of us?”

“The shard emits an aura that draws humans
towards it,” Gavril explained.

“Why humans?” the dwarf asked.

“Only a human can use the Eye of Gaull
because we have the most darkness in our souls of any race.”
Crystal explained to the dwarf, “The shards emit the aura to call
humans towards them to tempt the human that finds it into using
it.”

“So all we have to do is let ourselves be
drawn to the shard and we will find it,” Gavril added.

“I don’t feel the presence yet, though, so
it must be further into the canyon,” replied Crystal.

Suddenly, Blaze said from the back of the
group, “Everyone stand still.”

The other three all stopped walking and
turned around to face him.

“What is it?” Crystal asked him.

“I thought I heard something,” Blaze
responded, turning his head around to find the source of the noise
he heard. Suddenly, he looked in Crystal’s direction and grabbed
the sheath of his sword. Before he could act, however, Crystal
heard a cry of pain from behind her and turned in time to see a man
in a hooded cloak collapse behind her with an elven arrow plunged
into his back.

“You’ve got good ears, Blaze!” exclaimed
Crystal.

“Good thing the elves have good eyes as
well,” Gavril added. He then turned to Crystal and asked, “Are you
all right?”

“Yes, I’m fine. He didn’t lay a hand on me.
I’m mostly just a little shocked,” Crystal replied.

“Better be more careful! We don’t want to
speak too loudly again and draw more attention to ourselves,”
stated Sigurd.

The rebels traveled through the canyon well
into the day. Every now and then, they ran into more criminals, but
fortunately, none of them were very strong, nor did they appear in
groups bigger than three or four people. As Gavril pointed out,
criminals usually don’t trust each other, so none of them ever
stuck together for too long and most of the time kept to
themselves, and Blaze couldn’t help but notice the funny way the
general kept looking at him when he spoke of criminal behavior.

By early afternoon, the group had traveled a
little more than halfway across the canyon, and they finally began
to feel the shard’s presence.

“It’s definitely a shard.” Gavril stated, “I
fear that if the aura is this strong, we will have more dangerous
criminals to deal with here.”

“Yes, I am afraid you may be right; the
criminals we fought so far weren’t very strong, so the shard must
be in the hands of a fairly nasty one,” said Crystal.

“Either way, I won’t hesitate to kill anyone
who gives us trouble,” Blaze stated.

“Just don’t be reckless, Blaze,” Gavril
pleaded.

“Whatever,” Blaze muttered back.

In another hour or so, and after fighting
off a few more criminals, Crystal spotted a group of huts off to
the side of the canyon against a cliff. They walked over and
stopped about twenty feet before the nearest one.

“The presence is strong here, so maybe we
should check inside,” she stated.

“I agree, but we need to approach
cautiously. You three cover me as I peek inside,” Gavril said.

Gavril walked slowly into the first hut with
his sword drawn. Crystal stayed right behind him with her hand on
the hilt of her short sword and Blaze and Sigurd faced the other
direction to keep the other two from being flanked. Gavril
concluded that the hut was empty, and the other three he checked
were also empty.

“Damn! I was sure we’d find it here!” Gavril
spit in frustration.

“I still feel the presence though, so it
can’t be far,” Crystal assured.

Suddenly, without warning, Gavril faced
Crystal and in a split second lunged toward her and pulled her to
the ground. She lay on her back and he had landed next to her on
his side. Crystal then heard a loud THUNK and looked up to see a
large dagger stuck in the wooden door frame of the hut. It was
still wobbling after hitting the wood and judging from the angle,
it would most likely have nailed Crystal right in the head if
Gavril had not pulled her out of the way.

After uttering a quick “thanks” to Gavril,
Crystal got to her feet and prepared to fight off the person who
threw the knife. Blaze and Sigurd already had their weapons out and
were facing a group of seven angry-looking criminals. One
particularly aggressive-looking thug had a Gaull shard strapped to
his belt.

“The shard!” cried Crystal.

“You mean this?” asked the thug, pointing to
the spot on his belt. The half dozen criminals that surrounded him
laughed. It was quite apparent that the thug with the shard was the
leader. He then said, “I don’t blame anyone for coveting this
pretty gem. It is more than valuable; it has given me strength
beyond belief! No one can stand in our way as we pillage more loot
than ever!”

“You common thieves do not know what that
gem is capable of! You need to hand it over before it gets you into
deep trouble,” Crystal shouted.

The thieves burst into laughter and the
leader stepped forward and said, “And I suppose you know how to use
it, beautiful?”

Crystal groaned with disgust.

“Be careful.” Gavril whispered, “He doesn’t
look like he will be a pushover like the others.”

“Looks that way,” Crystal whispered
back.

“We are the Seven Storms, the most feared
thieves in Cierith!” yelled the leader, “You stand no chance
against us!”

With that, the thieves charged toward the
rebels. Blaze and Sigurd charged forward and Gavril began to follow
close behind. Crystal stayed a ways behind and cast several spells
from afar, wounding one of the thieves. Blaze then sliced through
the thief and killed him. Blaze and Crystal then began to fight
each another thief. After slicing another thief’s knife out of his
hand, Sigurd managed to defeat the thief by landing his axe into
his shoulder. The thief then bled out in seconds after hitting the
dirt.

Gavril, on the other hand, was being
overwhelmed by the two remaining thieves and the leader while his
friends were distracted. It didn’t take long for Gavril to lose his
grip on his sword and fall to the ground helplessly. The leader
stood above him with a possessed look on his face and attempted to
drive his knife down upon the unarmed general.

Just then, the knife was blasted out of the
leader’s hand with a fire ball delivered by Crystal. She had
defeated her second opponent just in time to disarm the leader and
send his dagger flying fifteen feet away. He cried in pain as the
fireball burned through his glove and finally managed to rip it
off. He furiously patted it and his burning hand into the dirt
until the fire went out.

The two other thieves tried to attack
Gavril, but Sigurd and Blaze blocked them off and engaged them in
battle. Gavril shot a thankful look at Crystal and rushed over to
his sword, which was lying several yards away.

Blaze had lost his grip on his sword after
his enormous foe knocked him to the ground, but he managed to
retrieve his hidden dagger from his boot and he sliced the large
thief’s leg open. The brute fell to the ground and Blaze managed to
get on top of him and stab him in the throat.

Crystal had just cast an electric spell on
the thief that Sigurd was fighting, when the leader of the thieves
suddenly lunged at her and shouted:

“You bitch! You burned my hand!”

At that moment, no one realized what
happened until everyone, even the leader of the thieves, had fallen
still out of shock. The leader had charged toward Crystal after
retrieving his dagger and attempted to stab her while her back was
turned. However, before the leader could reach Crystal, Blaze
stepped in the way. The prince stood before the leader of the
thieves with the dagger plunged into his left side, and everyone
stood in horror as he dropped to the ground, bleeding heavily.

Blaze’s vision began to leave him and his
body was covered in cold sweat. The sharp, intense pain in his ribs
was suddenly being pushed on to stop the bleeding. It made the pain
worse, and even though Blaze couldn’t hear it, he knew he let out a
cry of pain. He could barely make out Crystal’s cries above his
own.

“Blaze! Hold on!” he heard her cry. All
sounds he heard were muffled, but he could still hear the
desperation in her voice. He then heard who he thought was the
thief leader yell and then heard something hit the ground hard.

“The leader’s dead! Sigurd, grab the shard
from his belt!” he heard Gavril shout, “Quick! Wrap this around
him!” He then felt some kind of cloth behind wrapped tightly around
him, and even though the pain grew, he no longer had the energy to
cry out. It was soon, however, that Blaze’s body grew numb.

He then barely heard the dwarf shouting to
someone, “We need help! The bloke’s been stabbed! Quick!”

The sounds around him were becoming more and
more inaudible. The last thing he heard before blacking out was
Crystal crying and Gavril muttering, “What was he thinking?”

CHAPTER 13

When Blaze first awoke, he thought he was
dead. His whole body felt numb and when he first opened his eyes,
he could not see anything but black. It was when he heard Crystal’s
voice that he knew he was alive.

“Blaze? You’re awake! Thank Caris!” she
cried.

He felt a hand touch his forehead and his
eyes were starting to adjust enough to see Crystal’s figure. He
could see that he was in his room at the rebel hideout. Though his
mouth was parched from thirst, he managed to mutter in a weak
voice, “What happened?”

Crystal sniffed and wiped her face. Even
though he couldn’t see her face well enough yet, he didn’t have to
in order to be able to tell she had been crying. She worriedly
uttered, “You saved my life, but you almost killed yourself doing
so!”

Blaze’s eyes were nearly focused again, and
he could see that his torso was bandaged up. When he tried to sit
up, he felt a sharp pain in his left side and winced. Crystal put
her hand on his chest and said, “Don’t move a lot! Your injury is
still bad!”

“Just how bad is it?” Blaze asked
hazily.

“Well, fortunately, the thief leader’s
dagger only grazed your side, so even though the cut was deep, we
were able to stop the bleeding long enough to get you stitched up
and bandaged. Gavril wrapped his cloak around you and help arrived
with a cart and a horse to carry you back to the hideout. You lost
a lot of blood, though, and you’ve been unconscious for two days! I
am just so thankful you are all right!” Crystal explained.

“Honestly, I didn’t think I would be,” Blaze
muttered.

Crystal wiped another tear away from her
face and asked, “Why did you do it?”

Blaze looked at her, puzzled, and asked,
“What do you mean?”

“Why did you jump in front of me? You could
have easily been killed and yet you never hesitated!” Crystal
cried.

“I . . . don’t really know. I mean, I wasn’t
thinking about what I was doing,” Blaze replied.

Crystal smiled and said, “Thank you. I never
thought you would do a thing like this, but I just want you to know
that I will try to repay you for what you’ve done. I owe you my
life.”

Blaze shook his head, and replied, “Forget
about it.”

Then Crystal did something that Blaze didn’t
expect; she leaned closer to him and lightly kissed his cheek.
Blaze must have had a very confused look on his face, because when
Crystal pulled away from him, her expression changed to
embarrassment.

Her cheeks turned red and she began to
stammer, “I-I am so sorry! I . . . I should go.”

Before Blaze could protest, however, Crystal
got up, walked over to the door, and left the room, closing the
door behind her.

Blaze lifted his hand and lightly touched
the spot on his cheek where Crystal kissed him. He didn’t know what
to make of it. He didn’t understand why it didn’t bother him,
either. Four months earlier, he would have laughed at her, but now
he actually felt better. He wished that she hadn’t left, and he
didn’t know why.

He was still wondering what the meaning it
all was by the time he fell asleep again.

****

For the rest of the day, several people went
in and out of Blaze’s room. The medics changed his bandages every
two hours, and not long after Crystal left, they brought a small
bowl of soup to try to get Blaze to eat. Every time he was left
alone again, he soon fell back asleep. The pain was still intense,
but he was feeling somewhat better and was even able to sit up on
his own after the medics showed him how to put light pressure on
the wound to lessen the pain.

Blaze continued to drift in and out of sleep
for the rest of the day. He awoke sometime in the evening, judging
by the window in his room, to the sound of his door opening and
closing again. With his eyes still closed, Blaze groggily muttered,
“How many times are you going to change my bandages? Dammit I want
to sleep!”

“I am not here to change your bandages,
Blaze.”

Even before he opened his eyes, Blaze knew
that the person who spoke was Gavril. Aw hell, he thought. He
opened his eyes and saw Gavril standing by the door with his arms
folded. He had his usual overly serious expression on his face.

“What did I do now, General?” Blaze
asked.

“A very brave and noble deed,” replied
Gavril, “Albeit, a little insane, to say the least.” He then
crossed the room, grabbed the chair from the corner, set in down
next to Blaze’s bed, and sat down.

“What the hell are you talking about?” asked
Blaze with an annoyed tone.

“You saved Crystal’s life when I failed to,
Blaze,” replied Gavril. “I have spent the past few days feeling
like I let her down. I felt like I let her father down. I finally
summoned up the will to come down here, and now all I can say is .
. . thank you, Blaze.”