Cast in Fire Read online

  “Uh… I… ice?” the red-haired girl stammered.

  Zelia fought back the urge to save the girl. She knew all too well she’d only make matters worse. At least if she did it, she could spare her some pain and make it quick.

  Asenten’s face looked even more evil when he grinned with wicked delight. “Fire it is!”

  Zelia’s gut wrenched at the sight of his glee, never would she get used to that sight. She spun around and snatched the red and black speckled stone from the cavern floor. With a deep breath, she withdrew behind a wall in her mind and it left a dead look in her eyes. She numbed herself to the world, it was the only way she could cope with what she was about to do.

  Asenten flung the girl to the floor, and the girl pleaded from her knees. “Please, please don’t do this. I just stole food for my little si—” the girl saw the look in Zelia’s eye, her plea cut short.

  Zelia held back the tears that threatened to spill over and clenched her fist around the stone as her open hand raised towards the girl.

  In a flurry of panic and fear, the girl leaped at her. She knocked Zelia to the ground and landed on top. Zelia’s breath whooshed out, and the stone rolled from her grasp. The girl jumped up and ran. Before Zelia had even caught her breath, Asenten dragged her to her feet by the hair of her head.

  “Go get her, kill her!” Asenten demanded with a shove towards the cave entrance.

  She caught the girl stumbling around near the dark entrance of the cave and lit her ablaze. When Zelia realized something was different, her gaze dropped to her empty palm. She staggered back. With the cold cave wall at her back she looked back to the girl, who gave one last scream and collapsed.

  “But… but, how? I didn’t have the stone.”

  She raised her gaze to Asenten’s as he towered over her.

  “You’ve lied all these years, decades.”

  She raised her hand towards him. She didn’t care if burning him killed her, she wanted him dead. But his staff connected with the side of her head before she could burn him, and she collapsed in a heap. In that still moment before unconsciousness all she wanted was to get away, to be free of this place.

  >

  A warm light shined through her eyelids as she stirred. “Where am I?” she wondered. A shadow moved across her still closed eyes and dimmed the warm light.

  “Do you feel that?”

  “Feel what?”

  “The presence of someone else.” It sounded as though it came from her, only it wasn’t her voice.

  “Steffon, I think Rog has lost it.”

  Rog? Who’s Rog? Where am I?

  Her eyes flicked open, and she glared at the strange, yet familiar, boy, the urge to loathe him fell over her. She tried to look away, but her gaze was unmoving.

  “Who’s there?” the unfamiliar voice sounded through her head as if it were her own. She tried to reply but he didn’t seem to hear her.

  Am I dreaming? But why would I dream this? Where am I? An arena? She pulled as much of her surroundings in as she could, blurred forms dotted the huge stone stairs that led up to the blue sky. Sky, oh how she missed seeing the blue of the sky, even if all she could see now was from the corner of her vision, as she continued to stare at the strange boy.

  “Rogath, sword up!” yet another voice interrupted her train of thought. Her head shook. “No more games, come on.”

  “I’m not playing, I feel someone else’s presence!” There was that voice again, the one in her head. She felt her irritation with the blond-haired man rise, only it didn’t seem to be her own irritation.

  “Maybe if you didn’t play tricks on everyone all the time someone might believe you. Now, raise your sword.” The tip of the sword gleamed in the midday sun before her. “Well go on, back to the pells. Good job Terik, go again.”

  Rage swelled up and splinters of wood flew away with each hack at the post.

  So I, or whoever’s head I’m in, must be Rogath, the other boy must be Terik, and the boy, Terik, called the man Steffon. Why and how am I here, and where is here?

  Steffon’s coaching faded into the background, she wasn’t sure if it was her doing or Rog’s. With each turn, she focused on as much of her new surroundings as she could, the chipped and splintered posts, the wooden racks of weapons, the large wood targets, and the glorious white stone seats that sprawled in all directions.

  They were on the verge of exhaustion when Steffon released them. “That’s enough for today boys. Try to be a little more focused tomorrow, Rog.”

  With a roll of his eyes, Rog slid the sword into the wooden rack. It amazed her how he seemed to glide up the stadium stairs even when exhausted. They skirted the edge of a strange, yet familiar city and she marveled over the beauty of the stone buildings and enormous carvings of god-like men.

  Rog glanced down the river and traced the line of a bridge. A pang of joy fell over them, a mix of emotions from her and Rog. A round building seemed to float at the end of the bridge that jutted out past the edge of a waterfall. Something about it drew her to it, but they continued to move towards the golden building. Guards dressed in gold armor gave a curt nod as they passed and she, or rather Rog, returned the gesture.

  She couldn’t help but feel odd, and out of place in such a building, yet it felt as though it was home. They passed column after column. Hallways led in every direction. Each one appeared the same as the last. Soon she wondered less about where she was and more about how much Rog could feel of her, as she felt his every emotion.

  They sat through a dinner with barbaric men who spoke of wars long since passed. She found how they spoke of death as this glorious thing to be off-putting. Part of her wished she could see death as they did, but she knew better.

  Halfway through his meal, Rog pushed back from the table.

  “Where are you going?” Terik asked.

  “To speak with Mother.”

  “Okay… have fun with that.”

  Their eyes rolled again, and they returned to the hallway. They soon came upon a brown-haired woman wrapped in rippling waves of silvery cloth.

  “Mother?”

  “Yes, Rogath? What’s the matter?” she asked.

  “Mother, I feel someone else’s presence as if they are a part of me, yet not.”

  “Oh, Rogath, you and your overactive imagination. How about you just go get some rest, I’m sure the feeling will go away soon enough.”

  “Alright, Mother.”

  The kind and gentle women leaned over and kissed them on the forehead, a warm feeling fell over Rog. Zelia longed to revel in the feeling, but her heart felt heavy with memories of a time she once felt love directed towards her.

  Rog laid down in his plush bed and she stirred awake, back in the cave.

  >

  Was that real? Her head spun with a hollow ache.

  She rubbed the back of her head and her vision focused, only to fall on the charred remains of the girl she had just killed. She recoiled at the sight, looking down at her own hands and recalling what had happened.

  She swallowed back the knot in her throat and raised her hand towards the girl’s charred remains. The chill of the cave had long since stolen the heat from the fire and yet the flames sparked to life to eat the last of the girl’s body until nothing but her charred teeth remained in the darkened spot.

  A single tear ran down her cheek. It wasn’t just a nightmare. She was the sole reason behind their deaths. No longer could she blame their deaths on these objects the wizard had led to believe were the source of her powers. She knew she was always to blame, but she needed something, anything, to ease the guilt.

  She recalled her past in search of any shred of information that could explain her powers. Time and time again all she could recall was the screams of those she’d killed, like the chorus of the dead screaming from the depths of Fregnar’s realm. For h
ours, maybe even days, she sat and stared at her shaking hands, sick of her actions, yet knowing that the wizards would make her kill more in the future.

  4

  Click, click, click. What used to be her fire stone made a weird hollow noise as she made a new mark for her height. She couldn’t track the days, or even the years, so her growth had become the tale of time. She was now maybe a foot or so shorter than Asenten, about the same height Alrindel had been the last she had seen him.

  With a sigh, she sat and picked through the rest of the food Asenten had left her. When she heard a yelp and the crack of a tree just outside the mouth of the cave she jumped, it was rare to hear something so close. A little black pup stumbled at her feet as she rounded the last bend of the cave.

  “I’ve got you now!” a deep and garbled voice boomed.

  A thick hand as big as her waist pushed through the vines.

  “Why do you even bother with such a little thing?” an almost feminine voice asked.

  “Pack leader’s pup, leave no one to get revenge.”

  “Enough!” Zelia yelled.

  The wolf pup cowered behind her. As the hand pulled back, she stepped closer to the entrance, being careful not to get too close to the barrier that held her there.

  “Who’s there?” The ogre separated the vines so he could see. “Oh look, the main course.”

  “Oh, shut up.” The other ogre shoved him aside. “It’s just a little girl. Come here darling, we’ll keep you safe.”

  “Or you could wait, and there will be more. Someone bigger, more flesh to eat.”

  Zelia thought of Asenten, she couldn’t hurt him, but the ogres could.

  “We don’t have time to wait, get out of the way.”

  A hand reached in again and this time grasped her waist before she could move away.

  “No!” she screamed as she hit the barrier and the parts of her that touched it burned to ash.

  She let a wall of flames erupt in front of her and the ogre threw her away as he drew back.

  “Why you little…” the feminine voice half growled as another hand reached in and swatted at her.

  It too she lit ablaze as she pressed her burnt shoulder against the cold stone and waited for all to be still outside the cave.

  “Wha... what are you?” the little pup asked as he backed away from her.

  “It’s okay.” She drew a deep breath and suppressed her pain. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

  “Wait, you understand me?”

  “Yes. Are you hurt?”

  The little pup shook his head, and his stomach growled.

  “You’re hungry I take it. Well, give me just a second.”

  She pushed herself to her feet and held a flame out in front of her as she went back around a bend in the cave to retrieve the last of her food.

  “It’s not much, but you can have it.”

  The pup sniffed it before gobbling it up.

  “What’s your name?” she asked.

  “Dain and yours?”

  “Zelia. How far off is your pack?”

  As if on cue, a faint howl sounded in the distance and the pup’s ears perked forward.

  “I have to go, mum’s calling. I’ll be back though. Thank you for saving me.”

  The pup squirmed through the vines and left her alone once again.

  >

  “Look, ogre tracks. There must be a cave around here somewhere,” a deep voice spoke with a tinge of disdain in the dwarven tongue, not far from the mouth of the cave.

  “More like a pile of ashes.”

  Something stirred the ashes of the ogres and she coughed as the breeze blew them into the cave.

  “Shh, did you hear that?”

  Zelia grabbed the leather bag at her feet and moved deeper into the cave as metal scraped on metal, the telltale sound of a sword being drawn. If someone found her Asenten would make her kill them, even if he had to track them down first. The vines parted, and she froze in the blinding light.

  “You there.”

  “Shh, you’ll scare her.” The young Dwarf pushed past his grey-haired companion. “It’s alright, we won’t hurt you. I’m Prince Connan, what’s your name?”

  “Prince Connan?”

  She shook her head. The young Prince gasped when she turned, revealing her ash covered burn. For a moment she thought of lying, but what could the truth do to her now.

  “I’m Zelia.”

  “Why are you in here?”

  “I...” Her shoulder burned and reminded her why she couldn’t leave. “I like the cave,” she lied.

  “The ogres are gone. You needn’t hide here. Come, where’s your family?”

  “I know they are. I killed them.” She glanced at the charred remains of another she had killed and lowered her head. “And my family is dead, they have been for a long time.”

  “You could come with us.”

  She shook her head. She knew she couldn’t pass the mouth of the cave. She had tried, and the ogres were just a reminder. Prince Connan reached for her and she bolted deeper into the cave.

  “Leave her.” There was a bit of a struggle behind her. “I’ve never seen this cave before, and we have no light. We’ll come back.”

  “She’s just a little girl.”

  “There’s something more to her, she’s not from The Trading Town, her accent doesn’t match. We’ll come back with light.”

  “Fine.”

  She could hear their footsteps fade and the rustle of the vines as they passed outside. She waited in silence for a long while before retrieving the pack. If Asenten saw it, he would lock her deeper in the tunnels again. The barrier kept her from leaving, but with access to the cave mouth, she could at least breathe the fresh air when the wind blew up from the south.

  When she snatched the pack from the floor, she noticed something by the vines. With a flame lit in her palm, she scooped up a leather pouch. She let the flame creep up her arm so she could use both hands to untie it. As she pulled it open the smell of fresh seasoned meat hit her. It wasn’t something she had liked when she was little, but now the jerky was the best thing she had. She ripped off a little piece of the tough tangy meat and settled down next to the vines. A storm had rolled in, and the wind was misting the mouth of the cave.

  What am I going to do when they come back? Asenten will make me kill them if he learns they saw me. He’ll make me kill them all when he finds out.

  She stared down at the shriveled piece of meat in her hand. The jerky burned a little as she swallowed, the Dwarves always liked spicy things. She stuffed the rest back in the pouch. Who knows how long it will be before I’m given food again?

  I’ll just have to hide when Connan comes back, just like I’ll have to hide this.

  Lightning crackled outside, lighting up the dark hole for just a moment. She covered her ears as the thunder boomed, amplified by the acoustics of the cave. Then she waited for the echoes of the thunder to settle before continuing deeper into the cave.

  She tucked the jerky into a little hole low and out of sight, then she curled up with the rough leather pack tucked under her head as a pillow.

  I have to keep Asenten from finding out, she thought and drifted asleep.

  >

  “Rog!” Terik half growled.

  Rogath laughed and darted between the wooden posts that served as training pells in the arena.

  What did you do now? Zelia thought.

  “Rogath.” Steffon sighed and rubbed his temples.

  Rog stopped behind Steffon and peered around at Terik. Terik stomped towards them, his hair dripping, and clothes plastered to him.

  “No magic at practice!” Terik threw himself at Rog.

  Rog didn’t even bother to dodge him, getting caught was all part of his plan. He rolled with Terik in the sandy d
irt, thoroughly coating the other boy. Rog jumped to his feet and ran for the stairs as he dusted the few particles of sand from himself.

  “That’s enough for the day. Go clean up, Terik,” Steffon conceded.

  Rog slowed as he neared the bridge over the water.

  “Hello again. You’ve been visiting a lot, I may not be able to see or hear you, but I can feel you,” Rog said.

  Zelia sighed, Rog had become more perceptive of her presence over time and she had found she could sometimes sway his decisions when he was in the best of moods.

  “I don’t think Terik is quite done with you, Rog. What did you do this time?” a guard asked.

  She could almost feel Rog’s grin as he looked over his shoulder at Terik and picked up his pace.

  “Want to watch the sunset? It won’t be long,” Rog said as he climbed a tall staircase.

  Even a brief mention of the sunset or the stars was enough to stir Zelia’s longing to see them again with her own eyes.

  “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  He skirted a few long halls and came to a balcony where he sat on its edge.

  “You know, one day I will find a way to hear you, to free you.”

  He sighed and leaned back against a column. They watched as the sky turned from blue to gold and then darkened until the stars twinkled on the horizon.

  >

  “There you are. Zelia.”

  A wet nose nudged her cheek, and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

  “Dain?”

  “I need your help, there’s a hatchling, I found it stuck under one of the trees the ogres knocked over while chasing me,” the pup rambled on.

  “Wait, slow down.” Zelia took a deep breath. “Where is it?”

  “I left it at the mouth of the cave. I was hoping you would know what to do with it. Mom wanted to eat it, but it’s my fault it’s tree got knocked over.”

  She scratched Dain’s head and stared towards the mouth of the cave. What can I do? I don’t have any food. Then she thought of the jerky. Prince Connan will be back, I can leave it out for them if I can keep it alive that long.

  “Do you care if I pick you up?”

  “Why?”