Flameseeker (Book 3) (10 page)

Omari gritted his teeth. “
You
are not
going. This is business between me and Master Glace. Just give me that
confounded map.”

Nester’s smile fell and he crossed his arms. “Nay,
I ain’t givin’ you my map! My Uncle Nickle gave it to me!”

“Unfortunately,” Jarial interjected, “it seems we
have no choice in the matter.” He glowered at the brownie. “All right, Nester.
For your sake, you had better provide accurate directions. Now let us all go.”
He strode off past them, and Omari followed.

“See you later, beautiful!” Nester saluted Zarya,
then fell in behind Jarial and Omari.

Zarya’s gentle voice called out, “Wait ... please.
Mister Glace, sir.”

Jarial stopped in his tracks and glanced over his
shoulder. Zarya approached, her movements more graceful than a swan’s.

“Our last trip to the Pyre involved bandits,
slayers, trolls, and more. May I offer my aid to your group with healing and
protection?” she asked politely.

Jarial opened his mouth to respond, but Nester
spoke first. “Aye, just what I was thinkin’! Of course you can come!” He added
with a smirk, “An’ I bet Kaijin’ll be ’appy to see you, too.”

Zarya looked up, apparently surprised. A hint of
pink flushed her cheeks.

Omari’s head snapped to Jarial, and he muttered,
“Master Glace, are you seriously going to—”

Jarial held up his hand, silencing the other mage.
“M’lady, it would be an honor to have you accompany us. Favor will be upon our
group, with the goddess’s blessings bestowed upon us.”

Zarya smiled.

Nester’s head whipped back and forth between them.
“All right, all right. So let’s get goin’, eh? Oh! We should get Aidan, too. I
can’t count ’ow many times that big bloke saved all of our ’ides!”

“Aidan?” Jarial repeated, then recalled the half-Dragon.

Omari grumbled. “Must we? He will bore me with his
confounded pacifism.”

“Perhaps we should,” Zarya said. “It is going to
be a long trip to the Pyre, and after all the dangers we’d gone through on our
last journey, it might not be a bad idea to have someone like him with us.
Let’s at least ask him, yes?”

“Actually,” Jarial said, “we’re not going to—”

“All right! Let’s get ’im!” Nester exclaimed,
bounding ahead.

It was Jarial’s turn to grumble, and he shook his
head.
What have I gotten myself into?

“You two go ahead,” Zarya offered. “I’m going to
get my things from the aurorium, and let the clergy know that I am leaving for
a time.”

Jarial exhaled. The woman’s soothing voice calmed
his nerves.

“Very well. Meet us at the east gate.” He turned
and regarded Omari sourly, then with a tilt of his head, gestured for him to
follow.

They returned to the orphanage where Jarial had
last seen Aidan. All they discovered was some of the children playing outside
in the street. Nester wandered toward a group of orphans, and as Jarial approached
to nab Nester by the back of the collar, the brownie skittered away to another
group.

“At this rate, we might as well look for him ourselves,”
Omari murmured to Jarial.

Jarial sighed, his patience already thin. “Yes,
unfortunately.”

He approached a little boy sitting on a bench
against the wall of the orphanage. The boy, who looked no older than eight, was
very clean-cut and handsome compared to some of the other orphans Jarial had
seen. While the other children played, he kept to himself, reading a book.

“Excuse me, lad,” Jarial said.

The boy slowly looked up from his book. His big
brown eyes regarded Jarial with curiosity. “Yes, sir?”

Jarial glimpsed arcane runes on the book’s cover
and realized the boy was reading a book about magic. A warm feeling filled
Jarial, and his thoughts turned to the days in Easthaven and Kaijin as a boy,
reading similar books.
Kaijin ...

Sable meowed, breaking Jarial’s reverie. He
glimpsed his familiar and Percival nearby, just as they were being fawned over
by a group of little girls. Jarial returned his attention to the boy, smiling.
“I’m looking for Aidan. Have you seen him lately?”

The boy’s face lit up. “Oh, yes, sir! He’s inside,
helping Miss Ophelia. I hope he will play with us again today. He is really
nice to us, always bringing food and new toys. And he’s really,
really
strong!”

Jarial heard Omari sigh from behind him but didn’t
acknowledge the other mage. “Thank you for the information, lad. And ... I hope
you are enjoying that book.”

The boy beamed. “Oh, I am, sir! It’s a book about
magic. I really want to learn magic at the Citadel. I’m waiting on one of the
older kids to take me to the big event there today. I can’t wait!”

Jarial’s mouth went dry, and his stomach tied in
knots. The boy’s enthusiasm was very similar to Kaijin’s at that age.

The orphanage’s main door swung open, and Aidan
emerged, ducking beneath the door frame and nearly bumping his head. The
children all stopped their games and swarmed the half-Dragon before he managed
to make it fully outside.

“Aidan, will you play hide-and-seek with us?” one
child asked.

“No, I wanna hear another story about the
Dragons!” another exclaimed, jumping up and down.

“No! We can get some cinnamon buns at the bakery!”
the youngest child of the group suggested.

“Yeah! Yummy cinnamon buns! Hooray!” other children
agreed unanimously.

Aidan beamed down at the eager children, revealing
his fangs. “Of course. We can do all of that and more. Aidan just needs to ask
Miss Ophelia first, and—”

“Aidan! Nay, you gotta come with us, mate!” Nester
called from amongst the group of children. He emerged from within the startled
cluster and stood before the giant.

Aidan’s smile fell. “What do you want now,
Nester?”

“We’re goin’ to th’ Pyre to see Kaijin again,”
Nester said. “It’s gonna be a long trip, y’know. We could certainly use you
to—”

“No, Aidan is staying here. He has obligations to
children now.”

“But ... But ... Who’s gonna ’elp us cross rivers?
Or stop slayers dead in their tracks?”

Aidan let out a low, guttural growl. “Find someone
else. Aidan is done with adventuring.”

“Is it another big adventure, Nester?” one of the
children asked. “Like the one you and Aidan told us about before?”

Nester turned to the little boy. “Aye! An’ there
are big, evil, nasty slayers causin’ problems again. They kidnapped my best
mate, Kaijin, they did!”

Jarial blinked.
What!

Omari’s jaw dropped, and he muttered to Jarial, “I
cannot believe I am hearing this.”

“You and me both.”

The children regarded Nester with widened eyes and
newfound awe.

Aidan scoffed. “Enough, Nester. You are making up
stories now.”

“Nay! Th’ slayers really
did
kidnap Kaijin
from the Pyre an’ are plottin’ their revenge for what we did to one of their
leaders. We need your ’elp, Aidan!”

“Aidan, you should go save the world again!” one
of the older children said.

The half-Dragon whipped his head to face the child.
“No, Aidan is not—”

“Aidan! You’re not afraid of the bad people, are
you?”

“Yeah! Beat up those evil nasty slayers!”

“Can you bring back a baby Dragon for my little sister?”

“I wanna be just like you when I grow up—beating
up the bad people and saving Dragons!”

The children continued their chatter, and Aidan
backed into the doorway, nearly bumping into Ophelia. He glanced helplessly at
her.

She smiled sweetly and squeezed past him to confront
the children. She silenced them all with a wave of her hands. “All right. Enough,
children. I’m sure Aidan is very busy today, and he won’t have time to play
with you all.”

A little girl raised her hand frantically. “Miss
Ophelia! Miss Ophelia! Aidan said he’s gonna save the world again!”

Her outburst brought a massive cheer from the
other children, and they chanted, “Aidan! Aidan! Aidan!”

Ophelia raised her eyebrows and looked toward the
giant, who rubbed the back of his head, smiling sheepishly.

“Don’t worry, Aidan,” one of the older boys
assured him. “We’ll take real good care of Miss Ophelia and the orphanage while
you’re gone. We’ll do our chores and be real good, so we can hear all of your
stories when you get back.”

“Aye,” Nester piped. “We should get a move on, eh?
Everyone agrees. Come on, Aidan.”

Aidan’s mouth hung open. His body slumped, and he
helplessly trudged to the brownie. The children cheered excitedly as he passed.

“Aidan, promise you’ll come back and tell us a
story about the Dragons,” a little boy pleaded.

Aidan looked over his shoulder toward the boy and
sighed heavily. “Yes ... Aidan promise.”

Another wave of cheers erupted. Finally, after
saying their good-byes, the children were rounded up and Ophelia led them
inside the orphanage.

Jarial stood frozen, dumbfounded by what he had
just witnessed. “I’ve seen it, and I still can’t believe it,” he muttered.

“You and me both,” Omari said.

* * *

Omari and the group met up with Zarya at the
eastern gates a short time later. They immediately set out, with Master Jarial Glace
leading the way.

“Why do I gotta feelin’ that we should’ve gotten
some ’orses before we left?” Omari heard Nester mutter behind him.

“There’s no need,” Jarial said, apparently having
heard the brownie. “Our trip will not be long. We just need to be away from the
city.”

“’Ey now, ’ow do you know th’ trip won’t be long?”

Jarial hissed through his teeth. “I do not have to
explain myself to you, brownie. Now, enough of your frivolous questions.
Follow.”

Omari walked just behind Jarial and Sable.
Percival moved onto Omari’s other shoulder and, with a happy squeak,
acknowledged Nester, who came up beside them.

Omari looked down at the brownie. Nester, his
chest puffed out, strode quickly to keep up with everyone.

“Should I even ask how you managed to get Aidan to
join us like that?” Omari inquired.

Nester shuffled closer to Omari, smirking mischievously.
He replied in just above a whisper, “Well, y’see, Aidan’s gotta bit of a soft
spot for kids.”

“Dare I say that you took that story to the extreme?”

Nester rolled his eyes. “Well ... Maybe just a
li’l. But it worked, aye? Now relax!” Nester waved him off.

Omari gazed back at Aidan, who brought up the
rear. The giant was straining to scratch his back, but he had trouble stretching
his burly arm behind him.

The group continued down the main road for several
minutes, where autumn had revealed itself over the landscape. Vibrant fiery
leaves were being carried off by cool northern breezes, whisking through bare
branches, while some fluttered to the ground.

When Ghaeldorund was no longer in view behind
them, Jarial detoured off the road and made his way toward a dense thicket. “Come.
We need to be off the road and away from the eyes of passersby for me to
perform the spell properly.”

“What spell?” Zarya asked.

“Oh, didn’t I tell you, my dear? Forgive me, but I
intend to teleport us all there.”

Nester stopped in his tracks. “What? Soddin’ ’ells!
You didn’t say there would be any fiddlin’ like
that
involved!”

Omari scoffed. “Because you never gave him a
chance.”

Aidan stopped beside Omari and crossed his arms.
“Surely there is better way to get to that place quickly.”

“There is no better, quicker, and more reliable
way than through my spell, which I stayed up half of last night studying,”
Jarial snapped back at them.

Omari hurried after Jarial as he disappeared in
the thicket. “Stop your confounded complaining and follow Master Glace!”

Jarial paused in a small clearing and brushed
leaves, twigs, and debris away with his foot. He found a long stick and began
drawing a circle in the dirt. Sable settled herself comfortably in a bed of
leaves and kept her intent gaze on her master.

Omari watched attentively as Jarial prepared the
teleportation spell. It would be a long while before he himself would master
the spell—if he ever did—but he found it intriguing to watch. Jarial acted so
confident, as if he were performing a simple cantrip. Percival, who was
clutched on Omari’s shoulder, tilted his head to the side as he watched.

Zarya, Nester, and Aidan stood outside the circle
and remained silent while Jarial worked.

“I will need to see your map, Nester,” Jarial said,
without pausing. “As for the rest of you, I want you to tell me everything you
remember about what the Pyre looked like, to the finest detail.”

Omari looked at Aidan, Nester, and Zarya, wondering
who would start first.

Zarya rubbed her chin and looked pensive. “I need
to think on that a little more. Why don’t you go first, Aidan?”

“Aye, Dragons are known to have great memories—at
least, that’s what my Uncle Nickle once told me.”

“He is only
half
Dragon,” Omari corrected.

“Omari!” Zarya gave him a dirty look.

“What? It is the truth, is it not?”

Aidan frowned at the group, then thought for a moment.
“Aidan remembers ... being high up in the mountains. The Pyre looked like big
golden building—maybe brass.”

“Too vague,” Jarial said. “Envision you are
standing before the Pyre right now. What do you see?”

Aidan scratched the back of his head. “Ah ... Aidan
sees ... Two gold—or brass—arched doors with patterns of flames on them. And
runes, too, but Aidan doesn’t know what they say. The ground is grey sand mixed
with ash and full of sharp rocks that bother Aidan’s feet.”

Jarial nodded. “Better.”

“A shallow staircase leads up to the ornate
doors,” Zarya added. “A bright red tapestry with golden tassels hangs over the
entrance, emblazoned with Ignis’s symbol in gold. There were braziers burning
on either side of the entrance. Two, I think.”