Page 26 of The Healer and the Warlord

It was long moments before I could see again, and my ears still rang as I blinked stars from my vision, desperately trying to focus on Alyx. My gaze found her easily, as she was the only person that remained standing in the clearing where battle had been waging on. Everybody lay on the ground as if knocked over by an earthquake. Lord Avis had fallen from his mount and was sprawled at Alyx’s feet.

He blinked dazedly, until his eyes focused on his daughter’s face. I could not see it, as she stood with her back turned to me, but I could see the steely determination written in the set of her shoulders. It reverberated through the bond between us.

“Alyx!” he shouted as he gained back his breath. “Stand aside and let me dispatch this kidnapper.” He tried to struggle to his feet, saber still clutched in his hand.

“No,” she said firmly. “He is not a kidnapper. I am choosing to stay with Clan Katal.”

Lord Avis’s lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl. “He’s hoodwinked you, and you’re too naïve to realize it. Get out of the way and let me free you from his influence.”

My hackles rose, and the magic that was still close at hand after the giant shockwave I had let out began to crackle in my veins. It burned me from the inside out, and I itched to use it on a parent who would so casually dismiss a daughter so kind and wise as Alyx.

“Listen to me, father,” she insisted. “I will not have you spill blood on my behalf when my decision is final.”

All the other people in the clearing now staggered to their feet, but they did not begin fighting again, all watching how this confrontation would play out.

“You do not command Clan Padra,” he scoffed. He was on his feet again, and he raised his saber, the tip angled toward Alyx. At the sight, the power that had been whispering in my mind grew in volume, hammering at the inside of my head as if desperate to escape.

I grit my teeth against it and tried to step around Alyx to put myself between her and the blade. She turned though, maneuvering so she still stood between us with one hand outstretched at each of us placatingly.

I lifted my chin and growled at Lord Avis, “Maybe she would be a wiser commander than you.”

Anger flashed in his eyes. “I will not stand for this insult. Clan Padra will attack Clan Katal again and again if we must, until your memory is wiped from the sands.”

“I will level your entire encampment if I have to,” I rumbled, sparks beginning to dance at my fingertips. It was not an empty threat. Somehow, more power was bubbling in me than ever had before.

My magic waxed and waned with the desert’s will—granting me strength whenever there was something particularly important she wanted done. If she wanted me to turn every rider of Clan Padra to a red stain on the sand to keep Alyx safe, I would.

Alyx’s voice cut through the haze beginning to cloud my vision. “It will never end, will it? There is nowhere in the desert we can be free and live in peace together, is there?”

Even as she stood between us, her voice held so much sadness that I heard my heart crack. She had made me dream of more. She had believed in me and told me that I could shake the very foundations of the desert if I dared, but in all that bottomless power, I could not give her peace.

The power of the desert pulsed in my mind, as if trying to get my attention. I frowned, turning my focus inward to the storm roiling in my chest. It spread out through my limbs and began spilling off my skin in tremulous waves.

“Kelvar,” Alyx said, sounding concerned as the ground began to shake. She stepped toward me, even as others in the clearing began backing away. Lord Avis hesitated, but the shadow of fear now darkened his eyes.

Still, I did not stop. I dived headfirst into the storm, and the rumbling of the ground intensified. But the desert in my mind urged me forward. I could give Alyx the peace and the freedom she deserved if I just dug deep enough. For Alyx, I dared to shake the foundations of the desert, and I would remake it in her vision. I would craft her a place where she could be free and safe.

I fell to my knees and laid the palm of my uninjured hand flat on the ground, trying to get as close to the desert as possible, even as she swam inside me. Everybody but Alyx began running from the clearing. Screams and shouts sounded, but they all blended into the screech of my magic.

“Kelvar!” Alyx cried, falling to her knees beside me and putting her hands on my shoulders.

I shook my head.

“For you, Flower. All for you,” I grit out, before my consciousness completely shattered.

I was the desert and her shifting sands. I lived in every rock and every creature, all woven together in a complicated web.

And at the edge of that beautiful tapestry, I envisioned a place of peace and beauty. A home where all would be welcome and peace would reign. I thought of Alyx’s smile and the way she shattered apart in my arms. I thought of her softness and quiet strength and the way she had made me dream.

I imagined a place made of all those things, and I didn’t relent until the desert bent to my will.

Time lost all meaning to me, but eventually a familiar touch brought me back to myself. Gently fingers traced along my cheekbones and soft, warm breath feathered across my face.

It reminded me that I had a face and body to come back to, when all I could feel was the tangled web of life and death that spread from the mountains to the ocean.

“You did it Kelvar. You can come back now.”

The voice whispered sweetly in my mind and in my ears. Sound filtered in after touch, and I realized the world had gone quiet after constant rumbling and shouting.