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The night explodes in a burst of flame all around me. I look to my side and see the man named Rorik holding onto his ruined throat as his lifeblood pools around him. Fire surrounds me, and I roll over to find its source. Peliel is standing there like the sun, a beacon of light and hope.My savior.
The remaining men try to fight back, but they are hopeless against Peliel’s raging flames. In moments he burns them all alive, their terrible screams filling the quiet desert with the sound of death.
Peliel’s arrival brings me back to reality. My reason to live has returned.
“Arie,” Peliel’s voice says in a fearful tone. I feel him grab hold of me, his embrace careful and comforting. He touches my wounds lightly, examining each of them in turn. Then, he lets out a heavy sigh of relief, cradling my head against his chest.
“You will live, Arie,” he says. “I arrived just in time.”
I turn my head to look up at him. “Yes, I will live. Thanks to you.”
We lay there for a moment, comforted by each other’s embrace. After a moment, Peliel begins to dab at my wounds with the shirt of a dead man, soaking up the blood and slowing the bleeding.
“You are safe now, Arie. I promise. Nobody will touch you again.”
I look up into his eyes and smile.
“I know, Peliel. I know. I am safe with you. Always safe when I am here, in your arms.” My words are fractured and slurred as I fight through the delirium of my head injuries, but I hardly feel the pain right now. A feeling of supreme comfort and safety washes over me the longer I lay in Peliel’s strong arms.
“I love you, Peliel,” I say, lacing the words with as much emotion as I can muster.
Peliel puts a hand softly on my cheek, looking into my eyes.
“I love you, Arie. Nothing will ever hurt you again. Nothing. I would burn Protheka to the ground for you.”
“I know you would,” I respond. “I know.” Faintly, I feel him lift me up off the ground. I’m beginning to slip out of consciousness again, but I know I’ll live. The rush of air around us tells me we are flying now. I can hardly keep my eyes open, but I know he is taking me home now.Home. I have a home.
My last thought is of Peliel’s face as the darkness closes in around me, the sound of my mother humming returning to usher me into a healing sleep.
29
PELIEL
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you to safety.”
She is so tiny in my grasp. I could crush her if I’m not careful, and with the events of today, I find relief in her continued existence.
I walk, rather than fly, back to the cavern. In spite of the potential danger of encountering more aggressors in the harsh desert, I would not dare risk injury to her already frail body.
My journey back through the night gives me a stoic appreciation for the lives these humans lead… for the kind of quest Arie must have undertaken to reach me. In the boundless expanse of sand, without the eyes of flight, I find myself all too easily lost within the desert.
Though my first instinct is to simply pull back, looking around me with one of my many eyes, I fight the instinct and let myself remain lost instead. With Arie held tight and resting in my protective grasp, swaddled by one of the blankets from the human camp, I brave my way through the elements, even enduring a passing sandstorm as it rushes over us.
The creatures of the desert have learned not to trifle with me, but as I look upon sandwurms and beasts alike, I realize that all of them would pose a great threat to one whose life was held together by a tether, delicately suspended above an infinite void by the threads of fate.
“You’re a miracle. You know that?”
The sentimentality feels sour in my mouth, but I fight the urge to say something vile or cynical, and smile down at her instead.
Eventually, I reach my cave, standing dozens of feet above the ground. I feel tremendous relief that Arie is still safely asleep. The bright sun is rising over the desert, and I think I see a pool of water decorating the landscape ahead.
“You’ve traveled far for somebody so powerful.”
I wheel around in place, carefully holding Arie. Before me stands a pale blonde woman with eyes of blue, a woman whose tan skin shines bright like the sun, two hardy-looking orcs, a thin and tall elf, a small child wearing desert boots, and a raven-haired woman, who faces away from the group and is silently hunched over.
My immediate instinct is to kill them all, but after the violence of today, I decide against it.
“I’ve had a long day,” I say. “Walk away, and I might let you live.”
