Playing With Fire (11 page)

"I
beg to differ," Vaze said with his mood darkening. "You almost killed
yourself."

"She
used Al as a hostage!" I snapped. The mood went from happy and joking to
the brink of a fight. "I wasn't just going to let him die!"

"There
are better ways to save people than giving up your own life!" Vaze argued
back. "You have no idea what you could have caused if you went through
with it!"

"Why
do you even care?" I yelled at him. "It's over now!"

"Because
it's a weakness you can't show!" He fumed at me. "Velkire is the son
of the Devil, Scarlet! He will use anything to get what he wants. Nothing is
below him! Any weakness you show he will exploit and use against you! If you
really want to keep your brothers safe, you’re going to have to be safe as
well. When you show a weakness in this world it can cost you your life, and
when you die, each and every one of your brothers will follow soon behind you.
You have to trust me on this."

Vaze's
voice softened at his last sentence and the anger in his eyes melted into
sadness and concern. But my anger was still red hot and threatening to explode.

"Fine,"
I hissed, and stormed out of the room fuming. I made my way down the staircase
and into the main hallway without so much as taking a second look back. The
castle had transformed from a vampire’s crypt to a beautiful sight. The
curtains had been removed and each golden chandelier that hung from above was
lit with the same beautiful blue stones from the cavern that led into the
castle, flooding the entire castle with a warm bluish silver glow.

 I
didn't take any notice of how nice the castle looked, though earlier I was completely
mystified by it. I was too mad to notice much of anything, but I wasn't as mad
at Vaze as much as I was at myself. Even though I loathed admitting it, Vaze
was right about one thing, I had shown weakness. I didn't really care so much
that I had shown weakness, but that I couldn't have prevented it. If I had been
able to use my fire, the fight could have been over a lot sooner than it was,
and Al would have never got into a hostage situation. Something was wrong with
me, and I had to find a way to fix it, but I felt obliged to keep it a secret.
I turned a corner, and ran into the new king of the castle, Gabriel. His deep
green eyes lit up at the sight of me and he smiled.

"I
was just about to go find you," he said. "You've saved me the
trouble."

"Well
isn't that a coincidence," I said sarcastically. My words sounded like
venom, but Gabriel didn't notice. Gabriel glanced at my clothes and frowned.

"You
didn't like the gown I gave you?" he asked a little hurt.

"I'm
not a big fan of gowns, or dresses, or anything difficult to move in," I
said trying to get away from him as quickly as possible.

"Oh,
well anyway, I have a question for you," he said eagerly.

"Can
it wait a little bit?" I asked impatiently.

"I
won't take longer than a minute, I promise," he replied, trying to keep my
short attention span concentrated on him.

"How
would you and your brothers like to stay here?" he asked.

"We
did," I answered. "We were here for longer than we should have been."

"No
I mean live here," Gabriel corrected. "You would all be safe, and you
wouldn't have to worry about any harm coming to any of you."

"I
don't think that's a good idea," I replied with a fleeting thought of
Enzio coming to mind.

"Please,"
he said while taking my hand. "Please stay here with me."

The
thought hung in my mind for a minute: my brothers and I all together, safe and
happy in this luxurious castle—seeing Gabriel return the forgotten castle of
wine back to the world; Jezebel coming out of her state of depression. Maybe,
just maybe—Enzio and Velkire would never find us here. Then the vision
shattered in my mind. Gabriel's castle was a castle of wine, not warriors.
Velkire would eventually find us and kill us.

"We
can't," I said while snatching my hand away from his. "In fact, we
have to leave now."

"Alright,"
He said in bitter disappointment. "If that is what you wish."

I
didn't bother to stay for what he said last as I went to gather my brothers.
Like me, my brothers didn’t prefer fancy clothes, and took the clothes that
were still nice, but less flashy. We would be mistaken for rich people if we
wore them, and even if we didn't they would be ruined. I collected Vaze last,
and was surprised to find that he had the same intentions as I did.

"We
need to leave," he said after we had nearly collided from my turning a
corner too fast.

"Yeah,
I already told everyone else and I was about to get you," I replied,
trying to forget our earlier conversation.

"Oh,"
he said while trying to look at anything but my eyes. "So, I heard the ex-leech
prince gave you an offer."

"How
did you know that?" I asked suspiciously.

"The
maids talk a lot," he answered innocently.

"It
was five minutes ago," I said in a 'Do-you-really-think-I'll-buy-that?' tone.
"They don't gossip that fast."

"Well,"
Vaze started while taking a sudden interest in the ceiling. "I was going
to apologize to you, and I sort of overheard it."

"You
were eavesdropping!" I said.

"No,
I had no intention of it, it was an accident," he said quickly. I scoffed.

"So,"
he began again after a pause. Something outside a window seemed to catch his
attention. "Why didn't you take the offer?"

"Velkire
would find us eventually," I answered, reliving the harsh realization.

"Oh.”
There seemed to be a slight disappointment in his tone similar to the regret
one would have if they found a treasure chest and when they opened it they
found out the treasure inside was just a shoe. "You're right about
that."

"I
guessed. I wouldn't really care if I was wrong anyway," I said.

"Yeah,
better cautious than dead," he replied distantly.

We
left soon after with brief good byes and one small sack of food. As we made our
way through, I realized that I was no longer afraid of the Forrest of Death, I
was too eager to recover our pace and reach our destination. Within a few hours
the sun greeted us on the other side of the forest. With it were the feet of an
immense snowcapped mountain.

"Welcome
to the Ilam Range my friends," Vaze said sarcastically optimistic. The
mountains were like giants and looking up at them I could faintly remember
gazing at their figures in the distance when I was a child. I never thought I
would get to see those mountains that had always cast my mind into awe so close.

"That's
real nice, now how do we get past them?" I said skipping right to the
point.

"There
is a split in the range where we can go that will avoid most of the cold, snow,
and climbing all together," Vaze said. "But it has its risks."

"Risk
that… too dangerous this…. can we just go already?" I protested
impatiently.  Vaze shot me a look that told me to shut up and let him talk.

"The
split in the mountain pass used to be the route that everyone took, until it
was overrun by bandits a decade ago. Eventually the bandits used up all the
resources the mountain had to offer, and they supposedly left, but I think there
might be some still living here." These words meant nothing to me. As far
as I knew bandits were just thieves, which is basically a step below my family.

"If
there aren't any bandits, then we have nothing to worry about," I said.
"But if there are, then we'll deal with them when we get there." Vaze
let out a defeated sigh.

"Fine,
have it your way," he said. After a short walk a giant split in the
mountains appeared before us. Amazingly, it was hidden from sight entirely
until we got close enough to it.

No
one spoke as we entered, but by the bewildered looks on my brothers’ faces, I
knew they thought it was breath taking. The two halves of the mountains shot up
to the sky like stairways to heaven, but the dark rocky soil of the mountain
made it seem more like archways to hell. All it was missing were hellhounds and
the grim reaper.

The
farther we went, the less light there was and the colder it got, even though
the snow of the mountains was far above us. Hardly anything grew besides stubby
bushes and scattered clumps of grass. The distant sounds of goat hooves dancing
on the rocky terrain echoed every so often. Light at the other end was always
visible, but even when the night fell and grew old it seemed as if we were
still as far away as when we started. Eventually we had to stop from
exhaustion, but I knew we weren't going to actually stop to sleep until we made
it to the other end. My brothers gathered a few of the stubby bushes, and I
struggled to start a fire. I only made a small spark, but the pain came over me
like a crashing wave. Thank goodness the bushes were extremely flammable and
dry, because I wouldn't have been able to conceal the pain if I had to try a
second time.

Soon
enough we were all sitting around a pathetic fire huddling as close as possible
without getting burned, except for me of course. I got so fed up with the cold
I literally shoved my hands in the flames, letting it's warm tongues lick my
hands as if the flames were a bunch of happy dogs. I found, to my delight, my
ability to not be burned by flames had not left me. Darren scoffed.

"Lucky,"
he said like a jealous five year old. I rolled my eyes at him and went back to
enjoying the heat. Seth's eyes darted back and forth frequently, and I found
that Jake and Vaze both harbored the same amount of restlessness. I looked
around, trying to find the reason why they were so uptight, but only found the
light of the fire casting shadows that danced on the craggy walls of the pass.
Just when I was about to give up, something caught my eye. A dark wooden post that
was almost impossible to see against the rock jutted up like a tree with no branches
or leaves. More and more of these posts began to reveal themselves to me, and
more and more detail began to show itself. Each and every post was rotted and
covered in black moss. Similar posts were stuck in the rocks, and seemed like
they had broken off from the larger posts.

"You
notice them too?" Vaze asked beside me. He spoke in hardly more than a
whisper yet it shattered the silence like glass. I nodded, still observing the
strange posts and discovering more and more every second.

"They
really did just pack up and leave, didn't they?" Seth asked knowing right
away what we were talking about.

"It
really looks like that, doesn't it?" Jake piped in.

"What
are they?" I asked Vaze.

"The
posts are the remains of the bandits’ kingdom," he replied. "Even if
it is in ruins now, we can't be certain they have all left."

The
sobering reality sank into our minds that we could very well not be alone.

"So
how do we know if they're still here?" I asked.

"We
don't," was Vaze’s straightforward answer. "They are like rats:
sneaky and conniving." Jake stood up and stomped out the flames.

"Then
let's not sit here waiting for them to come and find us!" he said.
"We can't be too far away from the end right?"

"No,
just a few hours more," Vaze replied, while getting up as well. "But
the night would hide them."

"Light
works both ways: if there isn't enough to see them, then there won't be enough
to see us," Jake argued, leaving no room for argument.

We
all agreed with Jake's wisdom, and once again we were trudging through the
supposedly abandoned pass. Now that I knew what to look for, signs of the
bandits past haven were everywhere. It was the same sight most of the walk, but
the remnants began to be more and more frequent, and started to look newer.
Right when I was about to point it out, the exit greeted us, allowing us to see
the dark, early morning sky.

"Well,
that was anti-climactic," Al mumbled. His statement was true, and I
couldn’t be happier. I was relieved we had finally gotten through something without
having another near death experience.

“Well,
I guess they are gone after all,” I said while turning back to Jake and Vaze. The
second my eyes reached them, I wished I had never looked back. He may have been
just a small speck among the rocks, but the movement against something so still
made my eyes catch him instantly. A dirty archer stood aiming an arrow at my
oldest brother. He drew his arm back and released it. Time slowed down before
my eyes as the arrow raced through the air towards my brother. I screamed his
name and ran to him, but I knew I would never make it. With one feeble attempt
to save the boy who saved me so long ago, I set the arrow in a blazing fire, and
incinerating it to dust just inches from Jake’s head.

As
relief flooded my mind, pain flooded my body, but this time it was worse than
ever before. I collapsed and let my body crumble. I had my midsection in a
death grip. The pain didn’t leave with the fire this time. With every passing
second, it got worse and worse, as if someone was shoving pound after pound of
broken glass into my skin. Screams and shouts exploded from the silence all
around. I forced myself to look up, and found a horrifying sight.