Roses on Fire ~ The Tale of Roses and Thorns 2.

The sorceress took them to a sparsely decorated backroom, with small windows. Adrastos and Rhetta were talking on a low voice, and as the door closed behind them, they started arguing, on the same low voice, but with huge gestures, and it seemed that they could start fighting any minute.

Finally, the two of them calmed down, and Adrastos walked back to them.

“She’ll take us to Hiwaya.” he said simply and walked back to the woman.

Rhetta led them out of the castle, to a huge wooden gate, facing the mountains behind the town. The guards let them through but eyed them distrustfully. Ivelle winced when the gate closed behind them and looked forward at the road.

It was a narrow stone road, leading high up to the mountains...at least as far as Ivelle could tell. She looked behind her, at Áedh who gave her an encouraging smile.

They walked in silence for hours without stopping even for a minute. Ivelle was already exhausted and hungry. The road was steep, and every now and she tripped in a protruding stone.

It was already dawn when they finally stopped before a cave. Rhetta grabbed a branch, that was lying on the ground and set it on fire with magic. Adrastos and Cirillo did the same, while Áedh just blew at the branch, which immediately caught fire. When he saw Ivelle staring at him with wide eyes, he winked and grinned at her. Ivelle turned away and shook her head. Of course he could set a branch on fire with his breath. He was a dragon. How could she forget?

Cirillo walked up to her and handed her a branch too.

“Thanks.” she murmured and walked into the cave after the others.

Rhetta and Adrastos made fire in the cave, while Adrastos left to find more firewood. As Ivelle sat there, leaning against the wall, she got more and more tired. She wasn’t paying attention to the others anymore. She just stared at the fire and slowly she was overcome by sleep.

When she woke up it was completely dark. The fire must had gone out. She stood up and tried to find the others in the darkness.

After a minute of walking around she sighed and started calling the others’ names.

“Adrastos?”

Nothing.

“Áedh?”

Nothing.

“Cirillo?” she grew more and more desperate.

Nothing.

“Rhetta?”

For once again, nothing. No answer. No tossing and turning. No snuffles. Nothing.

She was panicking. They couldn’t leave her there. Right? She walked up and down with pounding heart. She became more and mor distraught. She sat on the ground and took a few deep breaths.

“Hello?” she shouted. Her voice echoed in the distance. She stood up and took a few steps. She tripped over something. Maybe a stone. A loud roar came from somewhere. And then another. She could hear steps. They came closer and closer and now she could hear the roar closely. She backed but bumped into the stone wall.

“I’m going to die...” she was frightened. Something came closer to her. It looked at her. It had red eyes. Just like Áedh. It couldn’t be him, could it? It came closer and closer... Now she was scared to death. That... something attacked her, she bucked and covered her head with her arms.

She heard claves reaching the wall and stones were falling on her. She grabbed his knife, in her pocket, and started crawling. She couldn’t see a thing, but she crawled as fast as she could. She had to get away. The creature attacked again, and Ivelle rolled over. She cut its, legs, but it only made it angrier. It cried and tried to step on Ivelle.

She stood up and ran. Which wasn’t a good idea, since after a few meters she ran into the wall. Her head was aching, she was scared, and the creature followed her. She froze. What was she supposed to do?

She heard another voice from the distance. Human voice.

“Help!” she yelled.

“Ivelle?” she recognised Adrastos’s voice.

The creature attacked again and scratched her forearm. She cried out in pain as she heard the footsteps getting closer. The creature scratched her again, now on her stomach. She cried out again.

“Get Ivelle, I’ll handle it.” he heard a voice from the distance.

Someone made fire. She saw Áedh, and Adrastos at the other end of the cave. Adrastos was standing with his arms reaching towards the ceiling. Ivelle looked up and saw that the whole ceiling was covered with smokeless fire.

She looked at Áedh who crouched and turned into a great black dragon in front of her eyes. She tried to get up, but the shooting pain in her stomach stopped her. She felt sick, and sleepy. Her eyesight was getting blurry. She saw Áedh fighting the other dragon.

She tried to stay awake, but it was too hard. She was so tired. All she wanted was to fall asleep.

“Ivelle!” Someone bent down next to her. She turned her head feebly. She could take out the blurry figure of Cirillo. “Stay awake, you hear me?” he patted her cheeks lightly, but her lids were as heavy as leads now. She couldn’t fight anymore. She closed her eyes. “Shit.” she heard Cirillo’s voice before she gave herself over to a sleep with bewildered dreams.

She opened her eyes and saw the blue sky. She blinked a few times to clear her sight and looked around. Next to her was a fire pit with charred sticks and branches. On the other side of the pit was sitting Áedh, leaning against a stump with his back. His head was leaned back, and his eyes were closed. There was a deep cut across his chest. Ivelle sat up, groaning from the pain.

Cirillo appeared next to her and examined her with his eyes.

“You’re alright?” he asked, with worried look.

“Yeah.” Ivelle looked at her forearm. Her clothes were torn, but the scratch disappeared. She examined her stomach, under the torn shirt. There were only scabs.

“Rhetta healed you as much as she could.” explained Cirillo still examining her.

“What about Áedh?” she asked looking at her friend.

“He’ll be fine in a few hours.” answered Cirillo simply. Ivelle nodded and looked around the clearing. Adrastos was standing under a tree talking to Rhetta.

“They get on pretty well.” said Ivelle not taking her eyes of them. Cirillo followed her eyes.

“No they don’t.” he said with a sigh. “Adrastos was extremely angry when we got out of the cave. He yelled at Rhetta and drew his sword. He was...terrifying. Even for me. I haven’t seen him act like that ever since his mother died.” he looked at the grass. “About that... ”

“Áedh told me everything. ” cut it Ivelle short “No need for explanation. ” she said, and when she heard footsteps, she turned towards the sound.

Adrastos was walking towards them. Cirillo stood up and went over to Áedh, to have a look at his scar. Rhetta joined him, and they started talking in a low voice, while Rhetta cared for Áedh’s wound.

“What was that thing?” asked Ivelle while Adrastos sat down to the place where Cirillo had been sitting. “It looked like a dragon. But why would a dragon attack us? ” she asked looking at the man.

“It was a tarasque. ” he said looking into Ivelle’s eyes “They are similar to dragons in appearance, but that’s all. They are not sentiment being. They can’t change into human form. They are just bloodthirsty animals. ” he explained.

“Have you seen one before? ”

“No.” he sighed ” I just heard about them. Lucky that Áedh was with us. He’s the only one who had a chance. ”

“It’s the second time he risks life and limb for me. ” sighed Ivelle and started picking the grass “He has to stop doing it. ” Adrastos watched her silently.

“It was the second time, and maybe not the last. ” he said finally “You became part of this war, and it seems, that you’ll have a bigger role, than we thought before. You have to get used to people risking their lives for you. ”

“But-”

“Remember, every war has it costs. And someone has to pay it. ” he stood up “Rest now. As soon as Áedh’s up, we’ll leave. ” he went over to Rhetta and started talking to her.