Chael's Luck (A Knights of Dorathan Novel) (12 page)

“Oh?”

“You say you’ve never been with anyone but
that you’ve thought of it. What I’m wondering is this; have you
kissed anyone?”

I grinned. “As a matter of fact, I have.” I
felt him go still behind me. I maneuvered so I was facing him. “And
now you’re wondering who?”

“I am.”

“Well, I may have been a runt of a Knight,
but it seems the Princess Katheryn has a thing for smaller
men.”

“No!”

I started to laugh. “Yes.”

He joined in my laughter. “You are something
else altogether, Chaela.”

“So you keep telling me.” I turned away from
him once again and didn’t object as he pulled me close. A new calm
pushed the other more confusing emotions out of the way for the
time being. “Goodnight, Ian.”

“Sweet dreams, Chaela.”

*****

Ian wiped his brow with his arm and smiled at
me. “Maybe you were right. Maybe we should have gone through the
mountains.”

I took a long drink of my canteen and nodded.
“Of course I was right. It’s too bloody hot out here.”

We’d been in the sand plains for the past
four days and it seemed to get hotter with every day we spent
there. I found myself looking forward to when night fell and the
heat of the day disappeared with the sun. I glanced at Ian and
smiled to myself. Maybe it wasn’t just the fact the night brought
cool air I was looking forward to. Since I’d spent the night in his
arms, it had become the usual way for us to sleep. He never did
anything other than to pull me close and hold me. I also noticed
that since my melt down, we’d had fewer arguments. Whether this was
due to the fact that he didn’t like to see a woman cry or because I
had managed to make some sort of peace with myself, I had yet to
figure out.

“Look!” I pointed ahead. “There’s water!”

Ian shook his head. “It’s an illusion. If you
try to get to it, it will simply stay just out of reach.”

I frowned. “We’re going to need water
soon.”

He nodded. “Just because we need it doesn’t
mean we’ll have it. Maybe we’ll get lucky tonight and it will
rain.”

“It rains here?”

“Only at night and not very often.”

The breeze picked the sand and blew it into
our faces. Klora shook out his mane and snorted to clear his nose.
I gave him a pat.

“Two more days, Klora. Two more days of this
hell and we’ll be in green woods once again.”

A sand snake slithered along to our left and
my horse shied away from it. Ian rolled his eyes.

“Honestly, Chaela, what do you see in that
horse?”

“He’s a good horse. He’s gotten me out of
more binds than I can count.”

“He’s unreliable.”

“On the contrary, he’s very reliable. I can
always rely on him to be a meathead.”

Ian laughed. “I suppose there is a
predictability to his unpredictability.”

“He’s never let me down, Ian. We’ve been
through thick and thin together. I mean, besides you and Whisk,
he’s the only one I have that I can trust.”

Ian smiled. “Did you just say you trusted
me?”

I blushed. “I suppose I did.” I frowned.
“What’s that noise?”

Ian’s eyes widened as he registered the loud
roaring. He pointed behind me. “Sand storm! Chaela, run!”

He spun Klard and spurred him forward. The
stallion dug into the sand and propelled himself forward. Klora
didn’t need any encouragement. His ears flicked back to the sound
of the approaching storm before he bolted after his sire.

“Ian! Where are we going? We can’t outrun a
storm!”

“There’s a sand bank up ahead! It’s where we
were going to stop for the night!” He glanced back under his arm to
see where the storm was. He paled and spurred his horse.

“I don’t see anything but sand!” I tried to
stay calm, though I knew that if I was being honest with myself, I
was close to panicking.

“You see the next hill? It’s darker than the
rest of the sand!”

I could see the one he was pointing out.

“They’re caverns. We need to get to them!
Go!”

I spurred Klora and looked back under my arm
to see if Klard was keeping up. Ian waved me ahead.

“Go! I’ll be right behind you!”

I let Klora have his head and aimed him where
Ian had said we would find safety. I turned my horse into the
biggest of the caverns and slid off.

“Easy boy.” I rubbed his face in an effort to
calm him down. “Ian, where are you?” The entrance to the cave was
starting to be impossible to look out of. I moved farther back into
the cave to avoid the sand blowing in. A few large shadows moved
through the blowing sand though it was impossible to tell if it was
just more sand blowing up with the wind or a couple of horses
trying to find shelter. The wall of moving sand parted and Klora
reared back to get away from the creature jumping at us.

I laughed and patted Whisk on the head. “Did
you see Ian out there?” I looked up, praying for all I was worth.
“Please, Chael.” I looked up to the sky through the cavern’s
ceiling. I said a prayer to a few of the other gods for good
measure. The sound of the wind and sand was deafening.

Klora spooked again and I ran forward to grab
True’s reins. Ian dismounted and I threw my arms around him.

“Thank the gods, I thought you’d gotten lost
out there.”

He crushed me to his chest and pressed his
lips to my sandy hair. “Are you alright?” He took a step back from
me and shook his head like a dog, the motion creating his own
little sand storm around his shoulders.

I nodded and watched as he brushed the sand
from his clothes and coughed up whatever sand he’d managed to
inhale through his tunic. My throat tightened as I realized how
easy it would have been for him to lose his way out in the storm. I
swallowed hard.

He frowned. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head and his expression softened.
He held out his hand and pulled me to him when I took it.

“I’m here,” he whispered.

I nodded and took a deep breath. “I think I
just realized I’d miss having you around if anything happened to
you.”

He chuckled and kissed the end of my nose.
“I’m glad.” His hand rested on my cheek and I closed my eyes at the
feel of his thumb running over it. He took a deep breath of his
own. “I’m here.” His forehead touched mine and we stayed in this
position for a few minutes, simply touching to reassure ourselves
that all was well.

He pulled back and smiled. “Hungry?”

I grinned. “Starving.”

He rummaged through his pack and pulled out a
loaf of bread. “It’s going to be a simple supper tonight, I’m
afraid. You don’t want to light fires in these.” He laughed. “I
learned that one from experience.”

“Is it bad ventilation?” I could imagine that
the caverns would fill with smoke quite easily.

He shook his head and spoke up over the howl
of the storm outside. “Have you heard of flame spirits?”

“Only in the same context as wood elves.”

He grinned. “They’re not as friendly as wood
elves. They also live in these caverns, though they don’t seem
interested in coming out unless you start a fire in them. I think
the flame attracts them.”

I stared at him with wide eyes before
glancing deeper into the cavern. “What do they look like?”

“Little tiny men made of flame. I can’t be
sure because I spent the better part of my time in their presence
trying to put out the fires they were starting, but I’d say the
tallest one was about six inches tall. That’s what they do, by the
way. They find anything flammable and they touch it. Instant
fire.”

“How did you get away?”

“I’m not ashamed to say I ran. I left
everything but True behind. Let me tell you, I was one very hungry
and thirsty man by the time I’d made it to the Wood Elves. Just you
wait until you see the ocean. It’s amazing.”

I smiled. “How far did they chase you?”

“Just to the edge of the cave. Then, they
turned back to the things I’d left behind.”

I looked back to the darkness behind us.
Ian’s eyes widened as my eyes met his.

“No.”

I grinned. “Yes.” I stripped the saddles off
of the horses while Ian set up our blankets. “I want to see
them.”

“You’re crazy.”

My grin grew and he shook his head before
finding one of the horse brushes and getting to work getting the
sand out of the horses’ hair. The last thing we needed was for one
or all of them to get sores. I took a step back from Klora before
brushing him. I chuckled.

“Look, Klora. You’re grey!”

My horse seemed to take offence to this and
gave a whole body shake, a cloud of dust and sand rising up and
away from his body.

“You’re right. You look much better as a
black.” I took the brush and finished what he had already
started.

“Have you ever thought of why he was born
this way?” inquired Ian.

I shrugged. “It seems like a pointless thing
to think about. This is just what he was born.”

“You’re not even slightly amazed that in a
land where every single horse in history has been grey, yours was
born black.”

“Well, for one thing, he wasn’t born to be
mine. It could have happened to any other horse.” I stopped my
objection. “Actually, I’m lying. Dad did breed him for me. He made
sure I got to see him drop. It was amazing. Either way, it doesn’t
matter. The only ones who might have been able to control what
color he was going to be would be the gods, but why would they
care? To be honest, I always thought it was Chael playing another
of his games with me.”

“Have you asked him?”

I raised an eyebrow at him.

“You’re the one who said you talk to him. I’m
just wondering if he’s ever talked back.”

I shook my head. “I can talk all I want, but
it seems I’m just talking to myself.”

As the storm outside slowly died out, our
conversation turned to the book, what its purpose might be, and who
might want it. As usual, we talked ourselves into a dead end.
Frustrated, we sat on our blankets and played cards, another habit
we were getting into before settling down for the night. After
losing two of three hands, Ian rolled his eyes and, with a grin,
accused me of cheating. I swore, Knight’s honor, that I hadn’t and
that he simply couldn’t stand the fact that he lost to a woman more
often than not.

Ian checked the entrance to the cave, for
what, he didn’t say, and came to lie beside me. I felt his arms
wrap themselves around me and tried to hide a shiver as his lips
pressed against the back of my neck.

“Good night, Chaela.”

“Sweet dreams, Ian.”

*****

The following morning, we packed our things
and I smiled at the way Ian kept glancing at me.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

“Then why do you keep looking at me like
that?”

“Like what?”

“Like you’re worried I’m going to do
something crazy.”

“Because I am.” He tightened his cinch and
started to lead Klard and True out of the cave. He glanced back to
make sure I was following. I rolled my eyes, gave my cinch one last
pull, and walked out into the already smothering heat.

“I hate it here. Just for the record, I am
never coming back here.”

Ian laughed and pulled himself into his
saddle. I handed him my reins.

“What are you doing?”

I ignored him, pulled a couple of hay cubes
from my saddle bags, and walked back into the cave.

“Chaela! I said they didn’t follow me the
last time. That doesn’t mean they won’t this time!”

“I’m going to leave them a present.”

“What?” His voice rose an octave and Klora
stepped away from him.

“Will you calm down? You’ll spook Klora.” I
pulled some scraps of material I had cut this morning and set them
in little piles around the cave then grabbed my flints.

“Why the hay cubes?” Ian was still obviously
against the idea, but his curiosity was getting the best of
him.

“They won’t burn out right away. I should
think the flame spirits would enjoy them.” I struck my flints until
one of the pile of rags caught on fire then ran to the horses. I
took my reins back from Ian and got into my saddle. Both of us
stared into the cave.

When nothing happened, Ian caught the look I
sent in his direction.

“I swear, I wasn’t lying.”

Whisk growled and the two of us quickly
looked at the light that was starting to illuminate the back of the
cavern. My heart started to pound and I glanced at Ian, suddenly
unsure of my actions. Ian’s eyes widened and I caught my breath at
the sight of four flames running toward the entrance of the cave.
Three of them passed the cloth piles, intent on us. The fourth
stopped short and touched one of the hay cubes. If it made a noise,
we couldn’t hear it, but the others stopped and turned to look at
it. I was sure my heart was going to beat itself right out of my
chest. The tiny beings looked exactly like flames. The main flame
split into thinner ones to arms and legs. Their bodies flickered
just like the fire I had started with the cloth.

The first three bypassed the cubes and
quickly did away with the rest of the cloth piles while the fourth
touched the hay cube. It warmed, smoldered, and finally lit. All of
the little fire beings looked from one another then turned back to
admiring the crackling cube.

“They like it,” I whispered to Ian whose
mouth hung open in wonder. I dismounted, took six more cubes from
my saddlebags and cautiously made my way toward the mouth of the
cave.

I heard Ian’s mouth snap shut. “Chaela!” His
whisper was more of a hiss. “Get back here!”

The bigger of the flame spirits, the one
who’d found the first cube, turned toward me. I held my hands out
to show what I was holding.

“I thought you might like these,” I said,
unsure if they could understand. They seemed to feel my hesitation
and stepped away. “I don’t imagine you have much to burn around
here. I wonder why you live here, of all places.” I bent and put
the cubes down a few inches apart then stepped back out of the
cave. I mounted Klora.