Rise of the Erifs (The Fire Song Chronicles Book 1)

Chapter 9

Latainia

TORIN STARED ACROSS THE TABLE AT HIS MOTHER IN DISBELIF.

"You just let him go?"

Jenna held his stare. "He was doing what he wanted."

"I don't care what he wanted. He was doing something incredibly stupid!" Torin said, close to shouting.

"It's not like I didn't try to stop him! I did! I tried to talk him out of it but his mind was made up," Jenna said, her own voice rising.

"You still could have stopped him!" Torin shouted, so loudly the windows rattled. 

"How? The only way would have been to chain him down!" 

"Okay everybody, let's try and keep calm," Kalani said. "Let's get the facts and work from there."

Torin stood up and paced the room. "So when exactly did he take off on his mission of lunacy?"

Jenna sighed. "He left the same day you did."

"So two and a half days ago," Xenon said, seated at the head of the table.

Torin closed his eyes. "A lot could have happened in that time."

"He could still be alive. He could even have got Crimson to listen to him," Kalani said, pushing her breakfast glass away. 

"She won't listen," Torin said, shaking his head. "We just have to hope he can get out alive."

Everyone was quiet for a moment. 

"I can't believe you just let him go," Torin mumbled.

"I did what I thought was right," Jenna said.

"But he's probably dead!" Torin shouted, angrily. 

Kalani slammed her glass down on the table. "He won't be dead." 

All eyes turned to Kalani and she elaborated. "Crimson isn't going to let an opportunity like this slip through her fingers. Jaydar is worth more to her alive than dead."

"Kalani is right," Xenon said. "This is the first opportunity Crimson has had in decades to really hurt Latainia. She'll either use him as a shield or demand a ransom."

"You're forgetting one other option she has," Torin said, quietly.

Everyone waited for him to continue.

"She'll torture him for all he knows. Jaydar knows our battle strategies, our defences and our generals as well as I do. The information he knows is worth more than gold to Crimson," Torin said, grimly.

There was a stunned silence. Torin had voiced everyone's worst nightmare. They knew Jaydar would rather die first than give up anything about Latainia.

"So what do we do?" Kalani said, in a small voice.

"We go get him." Torin stood up. "I'm leaving right now. I'm going to rip Keppar apart stone by stone until I find him."

Xenon slowly shook his head. "No, Torin. We can't just go charging into Keppar swords raised. We must wait and think this through. If Crimson has Jaydar she will undoubtedly send word to us."

"But..." Torin tried but Xenon continued over him.

"We wait. Once word arrives then we'll decide which course of action is best," Xenon said, doing his best to remain calm.

"But we can't just leave him at their mercy! They'll kill him!" Torin shouted.

"They won't kill him. You said it yourself. They need him." Xenon stood up and put a hand on Torin's shoulder. "I know what you're feeling. You want to rush in there and tear the place apart. That's how I feel too. But you're young and impulsive and in this situation we need to tread carefully. Crimson is waiting for our reaction. We mustn't give her the satisfaction of doing exactly what she wants. We must outsmart her and we will."