Fearless (The Blue Fire Saga) (17 page)

Rave pushed the door open—there were no locks anywhere in the settlement—and stepped aside for Leesa to enter.
She moved a few steps into the room, and
Rave glided in behind her, followed by
Dral
and Bain.

Inside, the place was as Spartan as Leesa had expected. The door opened into a large central room that reached from the front to the back of the house. A big stone fireplace dominated the far wall—volkaanes
loved watching fire burn
and also used the fireplace for cooking. A small fire was crackling inside the hearth, and Leesa could feel its warmth even from across the room.
The floor was made of bare wood
worn smooth by the years
, and the only furniture was a bunch of homemade wooden chairs
scattered about and a rectangular wooden table flanked by two benches. The walls were bare of any decoration save for a line of evenly spaced black metal sconces holding flickering candles. A glass oil lamp sat on the center of the table, but it was not lit. Naturally, there was no television, refrigerator or any other electrical appliances.

A single doorway had been cut into each of the side walls. Long pieces of brown and tan woven cloth hung from the top of each doorway, separating the rooms behind them from the main room. Leesa
would have called the hangings blankets, but volkaanes had no need of blankets, of course. She
wondered wheth
er the space beyond was divided
or just one room. She hoped she and Rave would have
at least a little privacy.

“We’re on this side,” Rave said, crossing to the right doorway.
He pushed the
cloth aside for Leesa to enter.
She stepped through.
Dral
and Bain remained behind in the central room.

Not much light filtered in through the doorway, and when Rave let the cloth fall back into place the room grew darker still.

“Let me light some candles
for you
,” Rave said.

He crossed the room quickly, his volkaane eyes easily piercing the darkness. A tiny blue flame flickered from his index finger
as he
reached for a candle on the wall.

“Wait,” Leesa said before he could light it. “Let me try.” She took a deep breath and then held out her palm.
“
Illuminati
verdus
.”

A glowing yellow sphere immediately flared up above her palm, surprising her with its brightness. It was
the size of a tennis ball this time, and was
easily more than twice as bright as any
light she had created previously. The glow allowed
her to see the entire room, albeit dimly.

This section of the house
was even
more sparsely furnished
than the main room.
H
alf of the area held
a small square table and
three
homemade chairs
identical to the ones out front
. The other
half was divided into three
sections by more cloth hangings.
The cloth
didn’t provide much
separation, but with the volkaanes as communal as they were, Leesa supposed she should be happy for even this amount of privacy.

“Charming,” Leesa said, smiling so R
ave would know she was not bothered by the simplicity of his home
.

Rave returned her smile. “I knew you’d like it.
”

The light above Leesa’s hand
winked out. It had lasted more than
ten seconds though, pleasing Leesa immensely.

Rave quickly lit three
candles with his finger.
Each of the
wicks burned blue for a second or two before changing to a normal yellow color.
He sloughed Leesa’s backpack off his shoulders and set it down atop the table, then
pointed to the
hanging blanket on the
right.

“
That one is mine,” he said.

Leesa pull
ed the cloth
aside to take a look. The area was
maybe five
feet wide an
d seven
feet long. E
xcept for
a straw-filled sleeping mat
on the floor
, the space was empty
. Knowing how little
sleep volkaanes seemed to need, she was not surprised to find the sleeping a
rea
so
small and
spar
s
e
.
She didn’
t care, though.
When it came time for
sleep, she would lie
on a bed of nails if it meant having Rave next to her.
She let the blanket fall back into place.

It had been a long day, but she was not the least bit tired. Her ride in Rave’s arms had relaxed her, but the unexpected presence of three black waziri outside her dorm and the
n later the
even more unexpected appearance of zombies
inside
the dorm had left her unsettled. She knew she was as safe as she could be here, but in the last few days, the dangers Dominic had warned
her
of had suddenly become very concrete and real.

Rave sat down one of the chairs, sitting sideways so he was still looking at Leesa
.

“I expect you’
re going to want to practice some magic tonight, right?” he asked.
“Especially after that little display a few moments ago.”

Leesa sat down on the chair beside Rave
.
“Yeah, for sure.
”
She smiled, remembering how easily the spell had come to her.
“
The brightne
ss of the light was
a
pleasant surprise
, all right
. I’m not sure where it came from
, though
. I usually have to be
either
very angry or very tir
ed to make
sudden
leaps like that.
I don’t feel either
one
tonight.”

“
I wonder if it might have
something to do with where you are right now,” Rave said.

“What do you mean?”

“
You’
re surrounded by a lot of magical energy here. Our
volkaane
energy is different from yours, of course, but on some level, all magic is similar. That’s why
Destiratu
affects volkaanes, vampires, wizards and who knows what else.
Perhaps you are feeding off some of our magic.
”

Leesa thoug
ht about that
. She didn’t notice any difference in her ability between when she was with Dominic and when she practiced alone, other than Dominic’s guidance, of course. But Dominic was just one wizard. There were scores of volkaanes here in the settlement. She couldn’t know for sure, but Rave’s idea made
some
sense.

“You might be right,” she said. “If you are, then maybe I can make some really
good
progress these next couple
days.
That would be awesome.
”

“Do you want to
get
start
ed
now?”

She did,
for sure,
but she also had something else she wanted to do.
And she wanted to do it first.

“
Ummm
,..
I was wondering if
maybe we
could go say hello to Balin first. It’s not too late
for a
visit, is it?”

Rave smiled.
“Not at all.
I’m sure he’d love to see you.
”

“Good. It seems like the polite thing to do.”

Rave’s smile widened. “Yes. I’m sure
politeness is just what you’
re thinking about.”

Leesa grinned. Rave knew exactly what she was thinking, but she didn’t care.

She got to her feet. She
could almost feel Rave’s lips pressed against
hers already.

12
.
AN EXTRA
SPECIAL
KISS

B
alin’
s
cabin was just a short way
back up the narrow roadway from Rave’s house. Holding hands, Leesa and Rave strolled unhurriedly through the beautiful night.
It looked to Leesa as if
there were even more stars twinkling
in the sky than before. With her eyes fastened on the jeweled canopy above
, she tripped on a ridge in the rutted road
and wo
uld have fallen
had
not been
for Rave’s strong grip on her hand.

“Sorry,” she said when she regained her balance.

“Don’t worry,” Rave replied, turning to her and smiling. “
Lately,
I find myself distracted by beauty all the time.”

Leesa felt herself blushing. She hoped Rave wouldn’t see it in the darkness, but with those darn volkaane eyes of his, she was pretty sure he could.

“Maybe so,
” she said, “
but you don’t stumble
like some clumsy oaf
because of it.”

Rave draped his hands over
Leesa’s shoulders and stared down into her eyes.

“Maybe n
ot on the outside,
anyhow,
”
he said.