The Huntsman of Adamos (Quartet)- draft

CH FIRESTORM OF MEMORIES

“Rieth, Yuli won’t wake up. It’s like he’s been dosed, they’ve all been dosed,” Fleur cried out in panic. “There’s burning liquid, some kind of fire magic. I can feel it’s energy creeping across the floor like lava.”

“Stay here,” Rieth muttered harshly. He climbed the wall to the second floor and punched in a window.

Fleur could feel him using the full scope of his magic and realized Rieth was a huntsman, not just a forester. He was like Lord Yurieth, but then again he was nothing like the Lord Yurieth she remembered. She turned and felt her way to the door of the smithy. Her fist pounded on Gand’s door, but the old man wasn’t there, so she kicked the door in and felt her way upstairs. She knew that there was a door to the roof of Rieth’s shop and he kept his lumber up there. With the street being only four stones (meters) wide, she prayed she could make the distance. Oddly she felt strong, faster as she focused on the jump. She sprinted to the edge and leapt across, catching her toes, she tumbled across the flat roof of the Whispering Woods. She crawled around feeling for the door to the stairway down when it burst open.

Standing, she rushed toward the sound. Brie and Siger were staggering out into the clean air, coughing. She grabbed a plank and stood it up by the ledge, it fell slowly then a thump confirmed it landed on the edge of the smithy’s roof.

“Rieth bring them up here,” she shouted into the open door then she did the same with two others planks. She walked across, felt the edge was overlapped enough to be secure and hurried back.

“Brie!” She demanded because he felt confused and sleepy, she suspected he was still dosed and fighting it. Siger wasn’t any better.

“Daisy, you’re back . Why did you cut your hair and bleach it?” Brie muttered as he staggered against her.

She ignored his rambling, “Come on, Brie, we have to get to the other building. You have to crawl across.”

“Can’t we just float down? There’s no water below.” His head lolled to one side as he tried to step onto her makeshift bridge.

She had no idea what he was talking about and blurted out, “You’re floating enough, now crawl. Come on, Siger, just follow us.”

Rieth stumbled out of the smoke carrying Yuli, Dosander, and Deanna. He laid them by the wall, “Fleur, the children are here.”

His voice sounded louder to her than she had ever heard it as Brie and Siger finally made it to the other side. “I’m coming,” she shouted back.

Siger rolled onto his back coughing and said in a strange, old dialect that for some reason she understood, “My lady, we are betrayed.”

The smoke and Fleur’s shouting had brought help in spite of the late hour, as she struggled to lift both Yuli and Deanna, someone dropped beside her.

“It’s okay, Fleur, we’ll help you.” It was the woman from the coffee booth. “My nephew can carry them.”

Fleur could hear the woman’s niece in the street below shouting at another to bring the guardsmen as the hiss of steam rose her. There were people throwing water on the fire below. Desa and Stacy were carried up by Rieth while Fleur and the woman carried Dosander across. They rushed back as Rieth emerged with Finn, the roof was hot and soft under their feet as they struggled to get Finn to step up onto the planks. Suddenly, the nephew appeared and hoisted Finn over his shoulder.

“Hurry, Auntie Pha, the roof is going.” His voice was so familiar, Fleur hesitated, then she turned and shouted above the inferno, “Hurry, Rieth. Hurry!”

Pha grabbed Fleur and dragged her across as Fleur shouted for Rieth. As they jumped down onto Gand’s roof, Rieth’s shop began to collapse. Fleur screamed his name as he landed beside her with Bolton over his shoulder. He carefully laid the injured butcher next to Finn then hugged Fleur tightly as he coughed.

“I’m here. I’m okay,” he wheezed.

“We need to get you to the healers, everyone to the healers.” Fleur insisted to Pha and her nephew, “Can you help us?”

“Of course,” Pha said, glad that Fleur couldn’t see them and hadn’t realized who they were.

Pha and her family had left as soon as they arrived at the Healers’ Hall, insisting they didn’t need thanking, or a fuss made over helping a fellow citizen in a time of need. It had begun clouding over and they needed to prepare for the rain expected tomorrow. After they left, Fleur sat anxiously with Yuli as Cassie and Callie tended the others. All of them had been dosed with a very strong sleep potion and enchanted molten fire had been placed on the floor in front of the door. Bolton must have woken when whomever attacked them entered because he had been hit in the head. The intruder had almost killed him and if he had not had a synth-bone plate from a war-wound, he would have been forever dead from the force of the blow.

Reith coughed into his oxygen mask and Fleur rose to walk over to his bed, most of his beard and hair had been singed, and inhaling the heated air had irritated his damaged throat to the point he couldn’t speak. Cassie had said he was remarkably unscathed for someone who had run into a burning building multiple times. Fleur got a basin of cool water and a cloth and washed Rieth’s hands and arms as he lay there breathing the purified air concentrate. As she dabbed at his face around the polymer breathing mask, he caught her hand and tapped on her wrist.

‘Are you hurt?’

Fleur shook her head but there were tears in her eyes. “No. Just trying to remember something that has bothered me all night. I know it’s important. Something that happened before... I need to tell Shadz, but the harder I try to remember, the worse it hurts.”

‘Then stop before you have a seizure.’ He drummed next to her pulse point.

“I can’t...” She shook her head. “There was a murder using a kind of magic lava... a room filled with it... and... ”

Rieth sat up and put his arms around her. She could feel his love fighting the source of her pain. His breathing mask hissed in her ear as she fought for the memory.

“And... and two people died... they... they...had tried to murder... to murder the princess... I... I...” Her eyes glowed as she tried to use her magic, the pain was excruciating. Suddenly everything went numb, blank, and he realized she had done that trick where she turned off everything. He leaned back and looked at her. Her expression was completely void. Her voice had an empty, synthetic quality. “Kaleth thought there was a traitor in the Guardsmen Corps. It was the only way someone could get into the prisoner holding cells and know to shut down the surveillance feeds. We did not know who the traitor was. After we returned from Thanos Four, he made me put in a secondary system only he and I could access. Only he and I could delete anything permanently. What happened tonight, happened before, during the resettlement of Aetheria. Those who attempted to assassinate the Princess were murdered in their cell. Corbin and Sebastian were on duty that night. Sebastian was the traitor, perhaps Corbin was too.” She stopped speaking as they gaped at her.

“Daisy?” Brie said softly. She didn’t move or respond.

“My Lady Oracle?” Siger seemed to be holding his breath.

Fleur’s eyes fluttered and she cried out in pain before collapsing against Rieth.

‘She made herself remember. She purposely remembered a specific event and not a random moment!’ Rieth exclaimed into their minds as he gathered her into his arms. He gulped air from the mask while he looked down at the tears leaking from her eyes. ‘She overcame the magic for a moment because she knew she needed to tell us this information.’

“What’s going on in here?” Cassie demanded.

They all looked at her but none of them were going to tell the healer who had been keeping Fleur dosed with memory suppressants that she had a break through memory.

Rieth tapped something to his brother and Brie said smoothly, “Rieth said she hasn’t been sleeping.”

Cassie eyed them suspiciously like she didn’t quite believe them, but she said, “You are all very lucky. The magical molten fire that was used on Rieth’s shop, spread out to three other building before a mage was summoned to put it out. The Guardian is coming to investigate.” She gave them a forced smile. “I am sure Fleur’s nerves are shot, all this excitement isn’t good for her condition. I am releasing you all in the morning, go home to Soldiers Cove and get some rest. I’ll tell the Guardian he can take your statements after you’ve recovered if he needs them.”

Her eyes held Rieth’s with a piercing gaze then she turned and went out. Rieth sighed in relief, then said to Brie and Siger’s minds. ‘I don’t know how she doesn’t know who I am or why she hasn’t confronted me about the possibility of being the Huntsman of Adamos, but let’s go as soon as we can.’

Two days later, Reith returned to Lumberton with Brie. The Guardian Lord Kalen questioned them in front of the ruins of the Whispering Woods Shop where everyone could see. That night at the Slumbering Pines, Rieth told Vela all the things the Guardian had asked and revealed that he had kept Fleur out of it and warned his brother to say nothing of her or her son. Vela told him Cassie had only given the Guardsmen the report of the men and Stacy being in the building. The Coffee Vendors who had helped them had left the next day with most of the other vendors who had come for the festival and weren’t questioned.

Brie and Siger had sought out Corbin, but the former protector and traitor had vanished again. As Rieth laid in bed, he worried about Fleur. No one knew Serapha, Kalen, and Jenna had come to Arbor in the guise of coffee vendors to dose Fleur with the first dose of the last step of her cure. The women had remained behind in a rental house in Arbor Port when the other vendors left and Kalen had made his appearance as the Guardian. They were preparing to harvest Fleur’s grief. The magic was breaking and as soon as it did, it would be a race to save her. Rieth’s weather sense told him the weather was changing, a storm was coming, and he knew he and Fleur would be at the center.

Fleur was struggling to prepare for the storm. Her head was pounding and her medicines weren’t working. The only thing that made her feel better was the precious dark coffee grounds Rieth had purchased for her at great expense. The worst part was the nightmares. Two nights in a row, she had screamed herself awake and terrified her son. She needed to go to Brightwater and see Cassie and Milo, or perhaps write a letter to Shadz, but the announcement had been made that the King’s sister had birthed a daughter and a son only a month ago. Fleur didn’t want to disturb Shadz’s time with their new children.

Fleur shook her head as she caramelized onions and spices for a beef broth-based onion soup to go with roast beef sandwiches, considering if she should let Desa keep the cafe open all winter. As she stirred the onions, she wondered again about how she had learned to cook. Wasn’t she the person who could burn boiling water? She remembered Mara teasing her many times as she finished starting the soup. She could remember trying to cook with Mara and another woman, Mara looked so young, like she was still a child. The king came in dressed in jeans and a simple teeshirt, then Fleur remembered something even stranger. She was standing in a small pond. King Karstien picked her up and held her like a bride, he was asking her if he was her new puzzle. Why would the King be a puzzle? Her thoughts and memories made her think she was well and truly going crazy.

While the soup simmered, Fleur put her head down on the smooth marble counter, falling asleep and straight into a nightmare. Prince Damien, King Karstien’s brother, had taken her prisoner. She was surrounded by darkness and he was doing terrible things to her; hurting her, violating her body, and killing her repeatedly just so she would suffer the pain of reviving.

“Fleur! Wake up!”

“Leave me alone, Damien,” Fleur muttered.

“Fleur!” Desandra’s voice broke through into her dream and startled her awake.

Fleur jumped to her feet, panting. She was shaking and could feel her cheeks were wet with tears.

Desa pressed a cloth into her hand. “Oh sweetie, you were having a terrible nightmare. Who’s Damien?”

Fleur looked in her direction in a panic, she knew but she didn’t. “I... he...” An intense wave of pain and horror hit Fleur like a physical blow and she crumpled to the floor with her fists pressed against her temple. She screamed with all her strength before she passed out as Desa shouted for help.

Fleur woke in Rieth’s arms. He was carrying her up the hill toward her house. She could feel the freezing drizzle on her face and somehow the sweep of the lighthouse as it passed overhead. She knew that Banth or Yuli had started the light. The storm had arrived.

“Rieth,” she whispered, and he squeezed her. “I think I’m going mad. I hurt and nothing makes sense. My medicines aren’t working anymore, I need to go see the healers in Brightwater after the storm. Please take care of Yuli.” Her eyes were squeezed shut against the pain.

Yuli opened the door for them and Rieth carried her inside and up to her room. As soon as he set her on her feet, Fleur had dropped her cloak and dress onto the floor and curled in a ball under the covers. The wind was starting to gust so he decided he would stay in the guestroom. Serapha had warned him that Fleur would get worse before she got better but seeing her suffering so was as bad as when they had both been trapped in the Dust Dimension and he felt just as helpless. Since the fire that destroyed his shop and the memory she had forced out but didn’t remember later, Fleur had remembered nothing but horror. Her nightmares had Yuli terrified.

In the kitchen, Rieth made hot cocoa for them. Yuli stirred the cup more than he drank it.

“Yuli, do you want to stay with Brie and Siger at my house tonight?” Rieth asked in a quiet voice.

The boy shook his head, “No, Mom needs me.”

“But you need rest, I will sit with her.”

Choking out a sob, Yuli threw himself at Rieth and cried as Rieth held him. “I... I don’t want Mom to die.”

“She won’t, if I have to tie my life-glow to hers forever, I won’t let her die,” Rieth promised.

Wiping his eyes, Yuli looked at him, “I’m glad you’re going to be my dad, then you can teach me all of your magic so I can be strong enough to protect her.”

“You want me to teach you?” Rieth asked.

“Yes, Mom says I will grow up to have the same kind of magic you do, but that mine will be stronger.”

Rieth could only nod, he already knew his son’s magic would be stronger than his own.

After Yuli fell asleep, Rieth carried him to his room. He found Fleur sitting in the window seat wrapped in her robe. He went back down and came up with a cup of pain soothing tea. She turned her face toward him as he pressed the warm mug into her hands.

“Why didn’t you tell me you were a huntsman?”