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Cleansing Flames
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Cleansing Flames |
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Ron
Administrator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-05-19
Posts 8669Michigan, US 
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Yoni's couldn't stop the brand of fire in her hand from trembling, and she refused to light Rand's pyre until it did. To the east, the as yet hidden sun washed the sky with dawn's pale brush, light grays and lighter blues, exposing the shadowy clumps littering the site of Rand's funeral as corpses. Long dead corpses, only recently destroyed. Vampires. It was fitting, she decided. Yoni had built the pyre herself, with her own hands, allowing Keli and Danar to gather the wood and dried brush and no more. Each stick was marked with the sweat of her hands, the stains of her tears. She had built the pyre here for expediency, unwilling to leave Petar and Arron unguarded in order to find a more suitable, more peaceful spot farther away. But it was fitting for Rand to leave this world amidst the carnage of battle. Rand had never directly told her why he chose to spend his life fighting the vampires. He was a quiet man, withdrawn, never asking questions, rarely answering any. His friends were the trees, his confidantes the clouds. But once, just once, when she was only a child, he had accidentally called her by another name. "Who is Chara?" the young Yoni had asked. And she had felt his tears, his immeasurable sadness, even as he brushed aside the question. "Another little girl," he had said, his face a careful mask. His little girl, Yoni had guessed. She could sense Keli and Danar standing ten feet behind her. Since her healing by Arron, since her journey into his mind and what had happened there, her gift had grown strangely more powerful. She could feel their presence more readily than if she had turned to view them with her eyes. Keli was sad over the loss of Rand. But she was a priestess of Life, not Death, and her greater compassion was reserved for Yoni. Keli thought she should be able to ease her friend's pain, and it bothered her greatly she didn't know how. Danar, too, was sad. And feeling guilty. He thought he should have been able to save Rand, thought the man's death was his own personal failure. Both of her friends, wrapped in their own feelings and thoughts, waited expectantly for her to begin. Yoni had thought she was prepared for this. Her entire life, for as long as she could recall, had been spent under the falling sword of Death. She had lost countless friends to the War, good people she had sometimes known well. Too well. When Reanne had died four years ago, Yoni had cried uncontrollably and promised herself she would have no close friends. It hurt too much to lose them to senseless violence. She would turn her heart to ice, expect the inevitable death, and care about no one. But within a month she had discovered it didn't work that way, and it took Rand to make her understand why. "War doesn't make you care less about people," he told her. "It makes you care more. It creates a bond stronger than blood, making brothers and sisters of all whom share your struggle." But it hurts so much, she complained. "There is that," he nodded, knowingly. "Even love and friendship have a cost. You learn to pay it. You learn to go on." Rand was dead. Unbelievably, unacceptably dead. And if the cost was great, that was because the love was great. She would pay the cost, as he would have paid it. She would go on. Steeling herself, Yoni stepped to the foot of the pyre. Her hand steady, as he would have wanted it, she touched the fire to dried brush and tear-stained sticks. Flames licked Rand's worn boots. Moving quickly, she circled her friend and teacher, the torch lowered and touching here and there. The long summer had sucked the moisture from the land, and Winter's first storm had done little to replace it. Within seconds, the fire hid Rand's body from her view. The white smoke turned black as leather burned. The comforting scent of wood disappeared beneath the cloying, too-sweet smell of burning hair and flesh. Yoni watched as Rand left her world. She watched as the weight of his body crashed through the burning pyre, raising a crackling column of flame and sparks as if they would give birth to new stars in the sky. She watched as the sun inched into the sky, greeting the day, the first day without Rand in her life. She watched as the flames rose, then slowly died, leaving behind a smoldering mass of char and a scorched, blackened sword. She watched and said her good-byes to the man who had given her so much. When it was over, when only the smallest flames remained, she turned and walked between her waiting friends, retracing her steps to their small camp. Later, she would let Keli comfort her. Later, she would assure Danar he had done his best. For now, the only thing she wanted was to be close to Arron. The Avenging Son still slept. She sensed his exhaustion had given way to normal sleep, and she lowered herself beside him without touching him, unwilling yet to wake him. He had been so grievously tired. When first she had awoken and felt his unnatural weariness, her joy had turned to dire concern for him, but that had quickly given way beneath a deeper sense that he was safe. Keli somehow understood, and Yoni's gift, stronger than ever, had helped her to share that understanding. Mages healed by using the Source to tap into a wounded person's strength, simply accelerating a natural process of Life. The person awoke healed but tired, and required several days of additional sleep and food to restore the strength stolen from them. Arron did it differently. He healed with his own strength, knitting flesh and bones by will alone, giving entirely of himself. It was magic, but of a kind she didn't understand. There was so much about Arron she didn't understand. "We should leave this place now," Danar said. He stood opposite the campfire, his thumbs hooked in his sword belt. His gaze was on the river, but his nose wrinkled in distaste, and Yoni sensed he wanted to be away from the smell of death. More, he wanted to resume the journey, to regain the sense of purpose he felt suddenly missing. "Not yet," Yoni answered. "I think we should wait for Arron." She saw his lips tighten, felt his resentment, and knew she had chosen the wrong words. "With Rand gone, I am the senior leader now. Arron can get his beauty rest in the boat as well as here." "You are the senior," Yoni acknowledged, "But you are out of your element here. You know nothing of the land, nothing of what we will face between here and Bal Odeum." "What is there to know?" Danar shrugged. "We get in the boat and follow the river. If we are attacked, we fight. And if there is anything else I need to know, I have you to advise me." "The Son of Isis should lead us now," Keli said softly. She had taken up position opposite Yoni, on the other side of Arron, with a large gulf of several feet separating them. Surprised by Keli's words, Yoni was even more surprised by what she sensed within the priestess. Keli loved Arron. Not as Yoni loved him, not as a woman loves a man. In some ways, it resembled the love Yoni felt for Yon, but it was also more than that. "You know who he is, then?" Yoni asked, her eyes shifting from Danar to Keli and back again. "The Avenging Son," Danar nodded, trying to look unimpressed. "Keli guessed it. Arron admitted it." "How did you know, Keli?" The priestess shrugged a single shoulder, carefully keeping her injured arm immobile. They had bound the wound tightly, stopping the flow of blood, but the vampire sword had cut deeply through flesh and into bone, and Yoni knew it hurt badly. "I have known the touch of my Goddess since I was a child," Keli explained with meaningless words, describing a relationship Yoni would never understand. It was said Isis could still reach across the gulf of worlds to some few people like Keli, both to guide them and to protect them. The priestess believed she could not die at the hands of the vampires. Whether she was right or wrong, Yoni didn't know, but her total lack of fear, coupled with moderate skill, had gained her a position of leadership within the city rare for one so young. "When Arron healed me in the Valley of Life, I knew." Yoni nodded. She doubted anyone could be healed by Arron and not recognize his power. "He is just a man," Danar said. "He is a God in the shape of a man," Keli insisted. "No one but Arron can lead us now." "Whatever he is, I am still the senior officer." "Danar, you spent most of a night with Arron in the Valley of Life," Yoni said, interrupting an argument based not on logic. She was making a guess about that night, but it was based on what she knew of Arron and what she had heard of the legends surrounding the Avenging Sons. "I think even you must have felt what he is that night. When a decision was needed, who made it? You? Or Arron?" Danar stiffened, and what she sensed in him told Yoni she had guessed right. But would he admit it? "He did," Danar said, sullen and hurt. Her life-long friend was arrogant and prideful, but he was also honest and had more honor than any ten other men. "And when I disagreed with him, he convinced me I should follow his lead." "The Avenging Sons always lead," Yoni said softly, hoping to console Danar's wounded pride. "It is a part of their nature, just as it is part of ours to follow them." "Maybe," Danar said. "But if I know too little of the land, what of him? He knows nothing of what lies ahead of us. He knows next to nothing about our enemies and less of how to fight them. He is a stranger to Askaris, ignorant of our ways and even ignorant of his own role. How can such a man lead us into anything except disaster?" Yoni winced inwardly, nearly recoiling outwardly at the power of Danar's emotions. He didn't hate Arron. Not yet. In some ways, Danar respected the Avenging Son, admired him for his courage and strength. But his resentment was so strong it would take very little, the tiniest shove, to drown that respect and admiration beneath hate. And Yoni knew she was the cause of Danar's spite. It should be someone else defending Arron, anyone but her. "As you said, Danar, I will advise him in the ways of the land." Yoni felt a flare of anger, though Danar's face masked it well. Those were not the words he wanted to hear. "And I will teach him of his role among us," Keli whispered. "I think maybe that is why I am here." Yoni nodded, sensing a deep truth in Keli's words. "Maybe that's why each of us are here." She turned her eyes to Danar. "That would leave the last to you, I guess. Will you accept this responsibility, Danar? Will you teach the Avenging Son how to fight our enemies?" She sensed Danar's confusion, his reluctance to believe. He lacked Keli's strong faith, and both Yoni's and Keli's experiences with Arron. But his entire life was built around the power of the Source, a life he'd spent fighting Death and defending Life. In his own way, he, too, was a disciple of Isis. And he was no stranger to the rigors of duty. "I will teach him," Danar said at last, "Though I doubt he'll listen." It was enough for now. Danar would take his pledge seriously, though she feared there would still be trouble between the two men because of her. Yoni knew her role wasn't to teach Arron about the land. Indeed, she suspected that each of them would ultimately be surprised by what the Avenging Son was meant to learn from them. But that was only part of what left her feeling so ill at ease. Yoni rose, stepped over Arron, and crossed to the boat. Petar was weaker today. The close proximity of the vampires they fought had taken a heavy toll on her brother. She knew it had required all of his discipline, and most of his strength, just to stay in the boat during the battle, to ignore the insistent call within his mind. He had nothing left, and she grieved deeply over his inevitable death. But there was more. If each of them had been brought to this time and place by a destiny none understood, then that had to also include Petar. He was a part of this, too. And she couldn't help but wonder, and fear, what part of Arron's education would be neglected by Petar's death. |
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| © Copyright 2002 Ron Carnell - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
Please submit chapters 1-22.  Challenge more than adequately met. So say I.and I beat Christopher! More, please. |
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Poet deVine
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-26
Posts 22612Hurricane Alley |
Ron, your characters are amazingly defined - and the description of the funeral pyre is excellent. I swear I could smell leather burning. You must know your characters like they are family - it would be wonderful to see this published.  |
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Christopher
Moderator
Member Rara Avis
since 1999-08-02
Posts 8296Purgatorial Incarceration |
next? the worst part about this is that i'm missing the rest of the story... and you said Jordan was bad!  you have a skill here Ron, depicting a scene and developing it... i think perhaps there could be some trimming of a few extraneous adjectives, but as a whole, it reads smooth... doing what only the good stories can: make you see the story instead of reading it... if i forget i'm reading something, it works very well. thank you for posting this. i do appreciate it. Chris |
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Severn Member Rara Avis
since 1999-07-17
Posts 7704 |
Haven't read your work before Ron..going to make a point of doing so now..when it's around that is...  K |
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AceoConas Junior Member
since 2002-04-20
Posts 27AK, anchorage |
Man!!You need to post the rest!! :darklol:Aceo:darklol: |
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Kethry Member Rara Avis
since 2000-07-29
Posts 9082Victoria Australia |
Ron, perfect flow and exceptional imagery. Excellent storyline and strong characters, now I have to find chapters 1-22 and 24 to end. I would love to read this as a book, are you going to publish? Keth Here in the midst of my lonely abyss, a single joy I find...your presence in my mind. Unknown |
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Nan
Administrator
Member Seraphic
since 1999-05-20
Posts 21191Cape Cod Massachusetts USA |
I'm smiling, M'Dear...  You are, as always, a true Inspiration for me...  |
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Mysteria 
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328British Columbia, Canada |
Well like a doh-doh I decided I was not reading this Chapter first before reading all the rest. So...without reading these comments I went looking all over the place for them, and ended back here to find you are teasing us? Okay, this was absolutely fantastic writing, (and I happen to like adjectives), so when you publish it, can you please just put me on the list for one, thank you. (*winking*) Excellent Ron, but then if it weren't I would be so shocked. (here is where an eek smilie would go it this was not to you). |
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Mysteria
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328British Columbia, Canada |
Sheesh! Under the "soon" category right? Merry Christmas Ron. I read this again last night, and thanks for the nightmare |
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rhia_5779 Senior Member
since 2006-06-09
Posts 1334California |
Please submit more of this. It was really good. |
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