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Brantham raises his fist and hits Renxel again. I am filled with fury.How dare he hurt my man?My mind is screaming at me to do something. I cannot sit here and watch them kill Renxel.
I manage to get to my feet and launch myself at the pair on the floor. But I hadn’t reckoned on Spinth. He rushes me and shoves me over.
“Oh, no, you don’t,” he says.
I go down hard, unable to break my fall with my hands. For a moment, the world spins and I can’t see clearly.
When I regain my senses, it is in time to see Renxel cast Brantham aside like a rag doll. He leaps across the distance between us. “Are you okay?” he demands.
“Yes,” I say weakly. “I’m okay. Look out!”
Renxel moves like lightning. He grabs Spinth by the throat and casts him across the room. Spinth stumbles by the fire, sending sparks everywhere.
“Shit,” I say as I watch several small fires start up amongst the hay.
I have to get loose from my bonds. I need to help, even if it’s only to stop the barn from burning down.
Spinth screams as he tries to pat out his burning clothes. He has terror in his eyes as he frantically slaps at his burning pants.
Suddenly, I notice Brantham’s discarded knife on the floor. It’s so close. Renxel and Brantham are circling one another on the other side of the barn. Neither of them are carrying a weapon now, and they keep testing one another for weakness.
I scramble toward the knife. No one is paying me any attention. There is a rush of triumph in my chest as my fingers close around it. I fumble the knife around in my hands, trying to get a purchase on it. But it is harder than I realized to cut my bonds behind my back without cutting myself in the process.
Spinth, who has managed to put out the fire on his clothes, runs out of the burning barn, clearly choosing to save himself. I can’t really blame him, though his cowardice surprises me.
My fingers fumble with the knife, watching desperately as the flames inch across the floor of the barn. If they get much further, there will be no stopping them.
Finally, I give up. I drop the knife in frustration and clamber awkwardly to my feet. I have to stop the fire from spreading at all costs.
By the time I get to it, I’m afraid I might be too late. I stamp on the burning straw, grateful that my clothes are still damp from my soaking earlier. I manage to smother the flame, watching it warily to make sure the fire is really out.
A strangled cry makes me turn. Renxel has Brantham pinned to the floor and is strangling him. Brantham's legs kick wildly and there is abject terror in his bulging eyes.
“No, you can’t kill him!” I say. “They’re driven by ignorance. All killing him will do is to make the rest of the Purists madder.”
“He hurt you, Mira, I cannot forgive that,” Renxel says, looking at me desperately.
I cross the intervening space and kneel by his side. “No,” I tell him gently. “They will never learn if you kill him.”
Reluctantly, he releases the pressure a little on the prone Bransham’s throat.
“I love you so much,” I tell him earnestly. “And I’m so happy that you came to save me. I know they have done wrong and they need to be punished, But killing him will solve nothing. All it will do is incite more hate.”
Brantham is looking at me desperately. He knows I am all that is standing between life and death for him.
I watch as Renxel wavers. I silently will him to stop. It will hurt his soul to take the life of this man, and I want him whole and by my side.
There is a look in his eyes, and I know he has made his choice.
26
RENXEL
Her eyes look so pale and intense, they are almost glowing a soft amber. I sink into their depths and a calm washes over me. All I can see there is a pure and wonderful love.
I know, deep in the very roots of my soul, that Mira’s words are right. Hate begets hate. The only thing that negates hate is love.
A wave of pity washes over me for these men who have clearly never known love. I feel sorry for their hearts which are so full of hate they cannot bear for others to be happy.
