Soul Blaze (16 page)

I ducked, narrowly avoiding someone’s pipe as they
threw it, still lit. I watched it shower burning tobacco
leaves on someone’s head as it flew over them, the embers
setting the man’s hair alight. Before he’d noticed, I
dumped my tankard of wine over his head, dousing the
flames. He rounded on me, obviously thinking the attack
unprovoked. I dodged his clumsy blow and then delivered
one of my own. The man had been so drunk that when
my fist connected, he dropped to the ground, unconscious.
I looked around anxiously, but no one had noticed. I
nudged the man under one of the tables, and then turned
back to the fight.

The blonde youth was in the thick of it, standing on a
table using a broken chair leg as a sword, laughing
manically at all of it. I watched in horror as three men
lifted the table he was standing on and threw it in my
general direction. I didn’t have a chance to cry out before
the youth ploughed into me, knocking us both to the
floor.

I lay on the floor, stunned, the youth on top of me. He
smelled like sour wine. I shoved him off as the crowd
roared for his punishment via further brawling. I was
about to let them until I caught a glimpse of the youth’s
face. My mouth fell open.

“Eleanora?”

~Chapter Fourteen~

She looked up at the sound of her name. Her long
blonde hair had been cut back to her ears and her purple
eyes were only faded amethyst now, but it was her. A scar
ran from the bridge of her nose to her left cheekbone,
marring her perfect skin. I saw recognition flicker in her
eyes and she groaned.

“Brilliant. Just when I thought this day couldn’t get
worse.”

A bottle smashed near us and we scrambled to our feet.
Our side of the pub had cleared out, and we were now
facing down the other half who were brandishing
tankards and bottles, roaring at us.

“Last place I expected to find you.” I said to her as she
picked up the chair leg she’d been using previously.
“Thought I’d finally gotten rid of you,” she snapped
back. “Come on, you sons of bitches!”

She laughed that maniac laugh again as her comment
infuriated the men. One man charged at her, breaking
away from the bunch and she took him out with a swing
of her chair leg. I was distracted from watching her
further as they realised that I was apparently in league
with their quarry. One man tried to take me unawares
from the side, but I dodged his attack and gripped his arm
as it went past. I spun, elbowing him between the
shoulder blades. He barely noticed the blow, but
Eleanora’s chair leg dropped him cold at our feet. I
punched another man square in the face as Eleanora
delivered a kick to another’s kidneys. We were holding off
the masses, but only just.

“Guards!” We all turned to the door at the cry. The
barmaid had somehow gotten to the door and was calling
out into the street beyond. “Tavern brawl! Guards!”

The men went berserk, trying to leave the building
before the guards could answer her call. All tried to
stampede the small doorway, getting jammed halfway
through. I turned to Eleanora just as she heaved her chair
leg out of one of the only windows, shattering the glass
and creating a bolt hole just large enough for us both. We
hopped through it, landing awkwardly in the alleyway
beside the tavern.

Only then did I notice how drunk she was. She tottered
as she climbed to her feet, holding her arms out to steady
herself. I grabbed a hold of her before she could plough
into the side of the next building, and then looped her arm
around my shoulders.

“Where do you live?” I asked her.

“This way,” she responded thickly, and began to drag
me down the alleyway towards the lower district,
occasionally leaning on me as she swayed. “I don’t need an
escort, Sky.”

She tugged away, and I let her. I watched her teeter
into a street, wondering if I should follow. When she
started staggering towards a vendor selling ceramics, I
decided that I should. She wobbled as I reached her and
then promptly threw up in a vase. I seized her arm and
dragged her away from the stall before the vendor could
notice. I felt immensely bad about it, but I’d dropped my
purse during the brawl. I’d try to remember this location
and return with compensation.

Eleanora didn’t seem to notice that I was guiding her
again. She rambled about something arm wrestling related
as we wove our way through the people still dominating
the main streets. We ended up outside a tall building, and
she leant against the door, scrabbling at the door knob. I
twisted it open for her and we both fell inside.

I groaned as my eyes adjusted to the dim light inside
the rickety building. Stairs led up to floors above us, and
when Eleanora began to clumsily climb the stairs, I sighed
and began to lead her up the stairs.

We reached the second floor, and she slumped against a
doorway. I tried to turn the knob, but it was locked.
“Keys?” I asked her hopefully.

She was almost asleep against the door and mumbled
something that I didn’t catch. I fidgeted for a second
before I noticed a long leather thong hanging around her
neck. After a second’s hesitation, I hooked the thong
around one finger, and pulled it up. She batted my hand
away, but I lifted the thong over her head, holding the key
attached to it triumphantly. I unlocked the door and
dragged her inside.

She wrestled free of my grip once again and fell face
first onto an un-kept bed. I watched her for a second, but
when she began to snore obnoxiously, I pulled off her
tattered boots and covered her with one of the ratty
blankets from her bed. I shut the door carefully, and then
looked about.

I was standing in the middle of a dank room, her single
bed taking up most of the space. A small dressing table
with an empty bowl stood on it, a dry cloth hanging over
the side; it obviously hadn’t contained water in a long
time. Clothes spilled out of the drawers and I couldn’t help
but shove them back in and close the drawers properly.
Through the moonlight spilling through the single
window, I spied a small oil lantern and a flint sitting next
to the empty bowl. I lit the lantern successfully on the
second shot, golden light filling the room. I spotted a chair
in the far corner next to a small table, and dragged it
towards her bed.

I had some questions for her when she sobered up, and
I was so far from the palace that I wasn’t sure if I was
going to be able to find this place again if I left. I sat
heavily in the chair, grateful that I at least had some light.
No sooner had I finished the thought when the light
flickered. I glanced over; the oil had run out. I sighed,
accepting my fate. The light dimmed completely, leaving
me in the moonlight. I closed my eyes, and somehow
managed to sleep.

~

“Oh… you weren’t a nightmare.”
I cracked open my eyes. Eleanora was sitting on her
bed, trying to finger comb the tangles from her short hair.
Sunlight streamed through the dirty window, illuminating

the room.

“No, I’m not. But you look like one.” I groaned, sitting
upright again. My muscles complained painfully about
sleeping in the chair all night. “Eleanora, what are you
doing here?”

She regarded me warily.
“I could ask you the same thing. Weren’t you banished
or something?”

“Was. Past tense.” I stretched. “I’m staying in the city
with some of our classmates. Does Dustin know you’re
here?”

“No,” she retorted. “No one does. And you’re not to tell
them.”
“Fat chance.”

“Sky,” for the first time, she was looking vulnerable.
“Please… I’m a joke, a failure. I’ve lost everything and I’m
not handling it too well, if you haven’t noticed. I don’t
want anyone from the Academy knowing what’s
happened to me.”

“What
has
happened to you?” I asked. “I know that
you’ve lost your magic-”

“Yes, you can thank your gods-cursed soul mate for
that,” she snapped, head in hands. “What happened to
him, by the way?”

“He’s exiled,” I said, feeling ill. “Iain and Netalia exiled
him to Orthandrell.”
“Should’ve banished him in my opinion,” she said.
“Forget what should’ve happened. Can you tell me
what did happen? How did he take it?”
She watched me for a few long seconds.

“When you left, Phoenix… changed. I’d known him
before you were both discovered – was that before or after
he broke up with me? Actually I don’t want to know,” she
ran her hand through her hair, making it stick up. “But I
still tried to comfort him. I couldn’t possibly know then
what he was going through, but I tried to be there for him
as much as I could. And how did he repay me?” She
pointed to a small scar under her jaw-line. “He rested his
hand on my neck, right here, and took all of my magic.”

She turned to the dressing table as I sat, mute with
disbelief. But she wasn’t done.

“It felt horrible… I’ve never experienced anything like
it. It felt like my soul was coming up through my body,
being sucked right out of my skin. And then the
withdrawal symptoms,” her whole body shook and she
gripped the table with both hands. “I know they took your
magic too, Sky, so you must’ve gone through them as
well.”

“Yes,” I said quietly. I was in two minds about telling
her that I got my magic back, but before I could decide
anything, she continued.

“Iain and Netalia tried to help me. After all they could
take magic, maybe they knew some way of extracting it
and replacing it. But everything they did made it worse.
The damage was irreversible. Phoenix had made me nonmagi.”

I sat in my chair, limp. There was so much that needed
to be said but I didn’t know what to filter. I didn’t know
whether or not to tell her that I was the new monarch or
that Phoenix was probably being crowned King at this
very moment. But one thing was certain; I had to do
something.

An arrow in the wall caught my attention. Another sat
just above it, both embedded deeply in the wooden
panelling. A bow had been leant against the table from
which I’d stolen my chair. As I looked at it closer, I saw
that two notches had been made in the wood of the bow.

Two arrows?
“You still practise then?”
Eleanora glanced over and followed my gaze.

“When I can. I have to wait for new tenants every time
I want to shoot; the arrows go straight through the wall
and my landlord isn’t happy about it.” She approached the
arrows and tugged on one half-heartedly.

“Are you still as good a shot as I remember?”
She looked over her shoulder at me.
“Better.”

Ryman’s guards weren’t going to take kindly to being
reigned in. I would face resistance, maybe even rebellion
from some of them. If I wanted control, I was going to
have to replace their leader with someone that I could
trust.

Or Eleanora.

“Listen,” I began carefully. “Very soon, I’m going to be
coming into a position of power within the city. I’d like
you to join me.”
“No power can bring me back into honour.”

“This power can, I promise you.”

She looked over at me, and I could almost see the cogs
turning in her brain. Suddenly she straightened up, her
mouth opening slightly in understanding.

“My gods… you’re it, aren’t you? You’re the new
Queen.”
Blood rushed into my cheeks and my face burned.
“Yes,” I made myself admit. “They tell me I am.”

I watched her face as she realised all of the new
implications. My return, Phoenix’s exile, our relationship,
and then finally:

“So you got your magic back?”

“And then some,” I decided brutally honest was the
way I was going to go about this. “I’ve entered the city as
an ordinary citizen to get a feel of the place first.”

“So why would Her Majesty want me by her side?” her
voice had taken on a sarcastic edge, and I felt myself
bristle.

“Because Her Majesty wants the best of the best there
to guard her,” I responded in the same tone, standing up
finally. “I’m going to meet resistance from the governor of
this city and I need someone I can trust to help me.”

“You trust me?”
“Not in the slightest.”

“Not yet,” she finished for me. “You’re seriously
offering me this? It wouldn’t grant you any favours with
my family; they disowned me.”

“I don’t want favours with your family. I don’t know
them.” I met her gaze. “But I know you.”
She frowned.
“You haven’t known me for a year. I’ve changed.”

“I can tell.” I’d spotted the empty wine bottles under
her bed earlier. “But you’re standing here talking to me.
Eleanora from the Academy barely granted me that.”

“I think you have to take some of the blame as well.”
I gritted my teeth.
“I know,” I admitted finally. “What do you say to my
offer?”
“When will it come into effect?”
“I’m not sure. I know I have to take the crown soon,
but-”
“It’s daunting.”
“Just a little.”
“What would you want me to do?”

“Take command of the guard,” I said, and she blanched.
“You’re the best archer I know, and apparently you’ve
gotten even better. It’s a position of power, and honour. It
would restore your status and you’d have all of the practise
space you wanted.”

She stood staring at me for a few moments.

“You understand I’ll have to consider your offer,” she
said finally, and I kept my face straight. “The command of
the city guard is a huge undertaking.”

“It won’t be easy,” I warned. “Take all of the time you
need to consider.”
She watched me closely for a few seconds and then said
quietly:
“When do you think you’ll take the throne?”
My stomach rolled over, and I crossed my arms so she
couldn’t see how my hands shook.
“I… when the time is right, I suppose.”

“You mean that you’ll wait until your hand is forced,”
her faded eyes were almost kind. “I understand that. It’s
one thing to take command of the city guard, another
entirely to take control of the country.”

So many people had been pressuring me to take the
crown now that her understanding came as a complete
shock. And from
Eleanora
! I clutched my arms in tighter
and then met her gaze.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I’d better head back to the
palace now.”

She nodded, and I shuffled awkwardly towards the
door. Halfway through it, our gazes met and she lifted her
hand in a half wave. I nodded, and then closed the door
between us.

I was further from the palace than I’d ever been. It took
me most of the morning to walk back, watching the city
people go about their daily business. My feet were aching
and my stomach rumbling by the time I reached the
portcullis.

The guards let me through without comment; their
blank, vacant expressions reassured me that Jett had
removed their memories of the day before. Seff was
hidden in the castle, something that made me breathe a
sigh of relief. There was something about the girl,
something that made me pause when I thought about her.
She was familiar in a way, but I was certain I’d never met
her before. I got the feeling the governor would love to get
his hands on her, but that made no sense. Seff was a street
kid, a cutpurse, one of hundreds that resided in the capital.
Ryman didn’t know she existed.

So why was I so eager to keep her a secret from him?