Deliverance (30 page)

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Gavril said
smoothly.

Bogdan pointed a finger at Gavril and
bellowed, “You are supposed to be dead!”

“Well, obviously, I’m not.” Gavril muttered
sarcastically, “I see that you’re scar is looking well too.”

“Because you did this,” Bogdan pointed at
his white eye when he said the word “this”, “I had to relearn my
sword play with half my vision! I don’t know how you are still
alive, but I guarantee that you won’t be after tonight.”

“But that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?”
Gavril said, “Why just kill me? I already told you that I know
where the last shard is, and I am the only one who knows. Now, I’m
daring you to beat, torture, or do whatever it takes to get it out
of me, but only if my friends and the other rebels are left alone.
If they are unharmed, you can do whatever you want to me, and maybe
I can be convinced to reveal where the shard is.”

“And how do I know you aren’t bluffing about
the shard?” Bogdan asked.

“That’s true. I could be lying about the
shard, but even if I was, you and I both know damned well you would
still have fun trying to get it out of me. You’ve already caused me
more pain than most people could even imagine, so you can’t do much
worse,” Gavril said.

Bogdan chuckled, stared Gavril down within
inches of his face, and in a growling whisper, replied, “Believe
me, I will enjoy nothing more than proving you wrong.”

****

After waking up in the City of Magi, Crystal
and Blaze thanked the elders over and over again before preparing
to leave for their journey. Each of them had their clothes cleaned
and brought back to them so, before leaving, they changed out of
their borrowed clothes and garbed their own.

The elders had stayed up several hours
longer than they had, and of course, Crystal felt terrible that
they did the research while she and Blaze slept. She found the
elders in the library waiting for them when they awoke.

“You are the ones who have to go on this
journey.” Orwynn assured, “You need all the rest you can get!”

“Besides, we may have found something,” Ydon
added.

The elders then explained how there was an
area just outside of the southeastern border of Cierith that was
unclaimed territory. As Bredewig told it, the area was nothing but
a wasteland of dead forest that no one dared to venture near. He
then read an entry from one of the books aloud:

As I looked upon this cold forest, I stared
at the dwelling of death itself. I gazed at the rotted trees that
still somehow had dead leaves attached, and as I tried to inch
closer, my steed jumped back in terror. This cold, gray place did
not seem worth my curiosity, for I feared I would go mad if I spent
more than a minute in its deadly grasp, I would go mad.

“That was your ancestor, Crystal,” Bredewig
explained after closing the book. He then added, “He was known as
Mortimer, King of Cierith over three hundred years ago. He was not
the first who fled from this forest, nor was he the last.”

“So, do you think that this is the Lost
Realm?” Crystal asked him.

“Not the Realm itself, but after reading
this book here,” Bredewig then carefully picked up a very old book,
“I believe the entrance is in the forest. You see, this book is
well over a thousand years old. It is a diary, to be precise, and
it contains an entry about someone who actually went to the Lost
Realm to free a loved one of his.”

Bredewig then slowly opened the diary and
flipped ahead carefully until he found the page he was looking for.
The pages appeared so fragile that if not handled carefully, they
would burst into dust. They were darkened with age and the black
ink was faded, but the handwriting was still legible. Bredewig
adjusted his glasses and read the entry aloud:

I see the entrance to the realm. There is
only one source of life in this dreadful place, and that is the
pool of silver water I see before me. This area is surrounded by a
clearing, but from here, all I see is gray sky like I did when I
approached the forest, even though it was sunny before I came
closer. I fear what I may find once I venture down those stairs,
but my love calls my name, and I have searched too long to give up
on her now.

Bredewig stopped reading and carefully shut
the book. Crystal and Blaze then exchanged glances.

“That’s all?” Crystal asked.

“That’s the end of the entry,” Bredewig
replied.

“What about the next one?” Blaze asked.

“That was the last entry in this diary.”
Bredewig responded, “The rest of the pages are blank. We don’t even
have a name for this author; I bought this diary at an auction. I
am a collector of old books, so naturally when I saw it, I wanted
it. When we started researching the Lost Realm and Ydon found that
entry from the king, I remembered the how last entry in that diary
perplexed me and brought it to everyone’s attention. I then
realized that the two authors must have been talking about the same
location, so we all concluded that the forest area southeast of
Cierith is where you will find the entrance to the Lost Realm.”

“I guess since it’s our only lead, we need
to pursue it,” Blaze said.

“Yes, of course,” Crystal said hazily.

After a brief silence, Bredewig asked her,
“What is on your mind?”

“Well, Malcolm told Thaddeus that I needed
to go to the Lost Realm to learn holy magic, and we all know that
people can only go there to free souls who are trapped there, and
so I’m worried that . . .” Crystal then trailed off, “. . . my
parents are there, or at least my mother is. She was the last holy
mage, after all, and maybe she knew how I could become a holy mage,
but never got the chance to tell me.”

Bredewig thought for a moment and adjusted
his glasses, then said, “I hope you are wrong, but from what we
know, I fear that may be the case.”

“Well wait, Crystal,” Blaze said, “we know
that the last shard is there, so maybe that’s all we’re needed
there for. Maybe Malcolm is still waiting there for us to give us
the shard and when he gives it to us, he’ll be set free. Calling
Thaddeus may not have set him free.”

“That’s right!” Halmez exclaimed.

“I shudder to think of Malcolm being trapped
in that place.” Leldor said, taking off his hat and holding it to
his chest, “Even though we do not know what lies beyond the
entrance to the Lost Realm, the thought of the forest itself makes
my neck hair stand on end.”

“Don’t worry, we will do everything we can
to get Malcolm out of the Lost Realm if he is indeed trapped
there,” Crystal assured the elders.

****

Later that day, Blaze and Crystal were well
on their way south of Cierith. After the elders had given them
supplies and money for the journey, Blaze retrieved his horse from
the stable, strapped on the horse’s saddle and bridle, and rode him
out in front of the Elder’s Hall to meet Crystal.

“If only we had any extra horses in the
stables, then we could give you one so that you two didn’t have to
share that one,” Halmez said to Crystal as Blaze helped her mount
onto the spot in front of him.

“You’ve all done more than enough, and I
thank you for it,” Crystal responded politely.

“So do I,” Blaze said.

“Good luck, you two,” Halmez said.

For the rest of the day, Blaze led the horse
south until they came about twenty miles from the northeastern area
of what used to be the Elven Forest. As Blaze said, there were a
lot of soldier camps in that area since the forest was right next
to the sea border of Cierith, so he suggested the avoided that
area. The two of them then turned southwest and settled down in a
small village for the night.

They checked into the village inn, and
Blaze, not wanting to leave Crystal by herself, insisted that they
be given a room together. The innkeeper then took their money and
gave them a key to a room on the second floor and told them which
door it opened. However, the innkeeper assumed that Crystal and
Blaze were married, because he gave them the key to a room with
only one bed.

“We have to go downstairs and ask for a
different room,” Crystal said.

“Maybe we shouldn’t. If we draw too much
attention to ourselves, we might attract soldiers. If the guy
thinks we’re married, he’ll tell the soldiers he hasn’t seen us,
since they all know we aren’t married,” Blaze pointed out.

Crystal then glared at Blaze and he backed
away slightly.

“What?” he asked defensively.

“You just want to sleep with me, don’t you?”
Crystal muttered.

“Oh come on.” Blaze said, “I just meant that
it will help us keep a low profile. I promise I won’t seduce you .
. .” Blaze paused for a few seconds and then added with his eyebrow
raised flirtatiously, “. . . unless you want me to.”

Crystal rolled her eyes and walked into the
room. Blaze smirked and shut the door behind them and as a
precaution, he placed a chair under the doorknob after locking it
to make sure they would awaken if soldiers tried to break in and to
give them time to prepare to fight them off.

Crystal carefully slipped off her boots and
placed them next to the door. She also took her belt and pendant
off and placed them on the small table, and she put her azure sash
and robe neatly folded on another chair in the room. After turning
to the bed in just her dress and stockings, she saw Blaze staring
at her amorously.

“What that’s it? No more?” he asked
playfully.

“Stop watching me undress, you pervert!”
Crystal scolded amusingly.

“It’s a tad hard not to look when you’re
undressing right in front of me,” he muttered back.

Crystal did not say another word, but
plopped down on the bed after removing the sheets. She covered
herself up and laid her head on the pillow. Blaze removed his
jacket, shirt, boots, gloves, and belt and then removed the sheets
on the other side.

“You had better not try anything,” Crystal
warned.

“Don’t worry; I’ll try to keep my hands to
myself. You can even tie me up, if it’ll help,” Blaze retorted.

“Nice try.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Blaze lay next to Crystal for several
minutes and just as she was falling asleep, she heard him whisper,
“Why are you afraid of intimacy?”

Crystal opened her eyes to see Blaze’s blue
ones staring straight into them. Even though the intense color was
intimidating, his expression was soft and nurturing. Crystal never
thought she would see him give her a look like that, and it made
her feel instantly comforted.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

“One minute, you’re letting me lie on top of
you and kiss you with everything I’ve got, but it seems like you’re
afraid to have sex with me,” Blaze replied.

“I’m not . . . afraid.” she began, “I’ve
always been taught that even sharing a bed with a man, like I’m
doing with you now, was inappropriate unless you were married to
him.”

“Well, I guess it’s understandable that you
were taught to be all prim and proper as a princess,” Blaze
muttered.

“Yes,” Crystal whispered.

“Not that I have room to talk, seeing as
I’ve been ridden by more women than I care to remember. . .” Blaze
paused at this point when he saw the way Crystal stared daggers at
him, and then continued, “. . . but why would it be such a sin to
have sex with someone if you were in love with them? If you know
that you would never love anyone else the same, why should it
matter?”

“I suppose that’s true, but that’s not why I
avoid the subject.” Crystal muttered, “You see, I’ve never
experienced any kind of sexual tension. Every man I’ve known before
you was someone I grew up with. Gavril is like a surrogate father
to me, Thaddeus, having raised my mother, is practically my
grandfather, and the other men in my life are more like brothers or
even uncles. You were right when you said I had never even kissed a
man before you, but I also never felt an attraction like that to
the opposite sex. You are the first man I have ever felt that
for.”

“You didn’t even have a harmless little girl
crush? You know, something that you knew would never happen, but it
still slipped into your mind?” Blaze asked in disbelief.

“With everything that happened after the
invasion, I’ve never had the opportunity.” Crystal admitted, “I
know nothing about making love so naturally I feel a little
uncomfortable thinking or talking about it.”

Blaze sighed. She could tell he felt a
little guilty about teasing her earlier. She silently let him know
it was all right by hugging him and pulling him closer to her. He
gently kissed her forehead and held her back as she rested her head
against his bare chest.

“I’ll give you all the time you need to feel
comfortable about it. I won’t lie; I want you like crazy right now,
but I’ve always felt that if a woman doesn’t want it as much as a
man does, then it’s pointless. It’s only enjoyable if both sides
want it all the same,” Blaze replied.

“Thank you.” Crystal whispered, “I love
you.”

“I love you too,” Blaze whispered back.

Crystal then fell asleep to the sound of
Blaze’s steady breathing and his arms wrapped tightly around
her.

****

The next morning, Blaze and Crystal awoke
and set out again. The innkeeper’s wife offered to give them
breakfast, but they politely declined and thanked her anyway. They
both knew they couldn’t stay anywhere too long, and it was quite
clear that they wouldn’t be able to settle into villages anymore
after seeing bounty notices posted outside the inn describing them
and offering a huge reward for their return to Cartigo.

“Can you imagine our luck that the soldiers
didn’t bother to check the inn to see if we were staying there?”
Blaze asked once they were out of the village.