The Atheil Chronicles: A Call to Fire

Chapter 7

The next morning, Ariana found herself in a particularly good mood. She had gotten amazing sleep, not even waking when Henry apparently slipped into her room and curled up behind her knees. She had nearly sent him flying when she woke up in the morning to go to the bathroom and, not realizing he was there, threw her covers back a little too enthusiastically. He had been fairly grumpy after that and she hadn't seen him much for the rest of the morning.
She was even up before her mom, clearly leaving her rattled at the rare instance. When she had rounded the corner at 8 and saw that Ariana was already at the table eating a frozen waffle and flipping through a photography magazine, she literally stopped in her tracks. "This is certainly a surprise." Was all she had said before throwing on a kettle of water to have her morning tea and sitting down across from her.
Ariana spent most of the rest of the morning hanging around with her mom, dutifully following her around her garden and pulling weeds until her gloves were stained green from it. After that, Ariana had helped her re mulch with some lovely red mulch that they bought that morning at Sadler's in the garden section. It took a lot longer than Ariana thought it would and it was almost 3:30 by the time they had raked out the last of the flowerbed, finally satisfied with their work.
Ariana marched to her room, leaving her mom on the front porch drinking lemonade in her dirt stained coveralls. She stripped off her own dirty clothes, grabbing the denim shorts and rose colored v neck that she had set out for herself on the dresser that morning. She re-tied her shoes, deciding on her favorite pair of worn out Nikes that she loved to go for runs in. She figured that it would be a long trek through the forest anyway, she might as well be comfortable.
Ten minutes later when she finally made her way out onto the porch, her mom was finished with her lemonade and reading the same book from the night before. She glanced up as Ariana let the screen door shut behind her and took in her new outfit. "Let me guess," she said, raising a thin orange eyebrow and giving Ariana a look she couldn't quite figure out. "You're going for a walk?"
Ariana bit her lip and took a deep breath only to let it out in a heavy sigh. "Yeah, actually." She said after a moment of hesitation.
Her mom narrowed her green eyes at her and set her book down on her lap. She shifted in the chair. "You've been going on a lot of walks lately." She observed. "A lot more than usual, even for you."
Ariana wasn't sure what to say to this and simply looked at her mom. She noted, vaguely, that her eyes were more of a bright green whereas Ryonen's eyes were a deeper green, like an emerald, but with undertones of light blue in them. Then she shook the thought away, trying to meet her moms gaze with focus. "I've just been enjoying the nicer weather." She said, tapping the door handle with her hand absentmindedly. "It's that weird time between spring and summer where it's just so nice outside all the time. Soon it'll be sweltering and walks won't be as enjoyable. I'm just trying to get them in while I can." She finished, realizing she had gone into a bit of a ramble.
Again, her mom gave her a hard look and Ariana tried not to look guilty of lying. She felt terrible to be out-right lying to her moms face, but she didn't want her to know about Ryonen. "Well," she said, slowly, "have fun, I suppose."
She nodded and started down the porch. She was only a few steps away when her mom yelled out her name. She stopped and turned to her with a quizzical expression on her face. "Be back before dark, okay Honey?"
"Of course." Ariana responded automatically. "Before dark."
* * * * *
Ariana had only just gotten herself comfortable under the oak tree when she saw Ryonen emerge from behind some trees about 20 feet away. She gave him a small smile as he approached and, in turn, he gave her a crooked smile before finally taking a seat across from her.
After a few minutes of silence in which they both kept glancing at each other and then looking away, Ariana felt like she needed to break the ice. "You came back." She observed.
This made him chuckle, the low sound reverberating in his chest. "I did say I would."
"Still," she said, "I didn't know if you would."
Ryonen fiddled with the sword at his hip. When he sat down, he adjusted it so that it was mostly laying on the ground behind him. The jewel on the hilt was reflecting rays of green light at her and she once again wondered why he had a sword. Was it even real?
"What's with the sword?" She asked, giving in to her thoughts.
Ryonen stopped playing with the hilt, perhaps only now realizing that he had been doing it in the first place. "Nothing." He said, shrugging. "It's a family heirloom."
"And you wear it when you go camping." She clarified.  She tried not to sound as skeptical as she felt.
He nodded and then looked down at it. "I only took a few things with me when I came. This," he said, pulling it out of the sheath and laying it carefully on his lap, "is something that is very important to me. So I brought it along."
Ariana leaned forward and stared at the blade. It was clearly real, the metal shining brilliantly in the cascading light from above. It looked wickedly sharp, if not a little bit worn. No, she thought, looking closer at the silver surface. That wasn't scratch marks in the metal, but words etched into it in some strange language.
She reached out a hand and ran her finger over the words. Her hair cascaded over her shoulder in light auburn waves as she turned her head to examine the etching closer.  "What does it mean?" She asked, looking up at him.
He was watching her closely and Ariana felt a flush creep up her neck at the intensity of it. Ryonen reached over and tucked her hair behind her ear, his light touch making her shiver. After a brief moment where they looked into each other's eyes, he dropped his hand and said. "It says 'Child of the East." He paused. "Where I'm originally from, my family lived in the Eastern region."
She leaned away from him, pressing her back to the cool surface of the tree. Eastern region, she thought. That must explain the clothes; it sounded like his family was foreign, maybe from some Eastern European country. Maybe this was part of the traditional garb there. "And where is that again?" She asked.
"You don't know it." He said, looking as uncomfortable as he did the first time she had asked him that same question.
She sighed. "You said that before but you don't know that." She said, confused as to why he was so adamant to not tell her. Was he ashamed of where he came from? Surely not, she thought, considering he just said that one of his most prized possessions was his sword.
"I do." He said, and he sounded so sure of himself that Ariana let it go.
But over the next few days of meeting with him, it started to become a running theme with them. They would meet at the tree, talk a little bit, mostly just small stuff like how life was for them growing up and how their parents were, and then Ariana would ask the question. He would always answer her the same way, "You don't know where it is."
Today, Ariana was determined to get a straight answer out of him.
It was a beautiful day out, like usual, and Ariana sat with her back against the oak tree, her long porcelain legs thrown out in front of her lazily. She was absentmindedly pulling at the hem of her favorite lavender shirt when she heard Ryonen approaching.
Like every time they met, he took his place across from her, leaning back on his palms and smiling. While he seemed to have at least 4 or 5 different outfits that were the same basic concept of tunic and leggings, today he was back in the outfit that he was wearing when she first saw him in the clearing. The earthen green tunic set off the green tones in his eyes and made them seem more emerald than jade today. Something that she hadn't noticed the day she met him was that the sleeves were again embroidered, this time with a hunter shooting an arrow.
Noticing her watching him closely, Ryonen smirked. "What?" He asked.
Ariana raised an eyebrow at him and tilted her head appraisingly. After almost a week of them meeting up everyday, you'd think he would know what was coming. "So," she said, all business, "are you finally going to tell me where you're from? I'm dying to know."
Ryonen locked his fingers together in his lap. "This again." He said. It wasn't a question, but merely a statement.
"Come on, Ryonen," Ariana said, trying to sound convincing. "You do know that I can just go home and look it up if you tell me. You can't leave me hanging forever. "
"I probably could, though." He said, but he sounded like he was starting to think about it.
Ariana pressed on, taking his uncertainty as permission to keep hounding him. "I really don't understand why it has to be a secret. It's not like I'm going to follow you home." She laughed and even Ryonen let out a chuckle of appreciation.
She turned her head to tell him that she was going to start guessing randomly, and to stop when she got warm, when suddenly Ryonen lunged at her, pushing her flat against the ground by her shoulders. He was lying on top of her, his body pressed firmly against hers, and his head turned toward the tree. 
"What are you doing?!" She exclaimed, trying to shove him off of her. His hair was falling over her face and obscuring her view. Even before the words had left her mouth, an arrow whizzed through the air and landed in the tree inches from where she had been sitting.
Ryonen rolled off of her gracefully and stood up, grabbing her wrist and pulling her to her feet hurriedly. A barrage of arrows began raining down on them, landing in tree trunks and sticking in the ground like giant black thorns. He quickly pulled the arrow out of the oak tree before pulling Ariana across the way until they reached the hidden path. She didn't even think, she just followed him on pure instinct, the sound of breaking branches behind her pushing her to keep moving forward.
As they ran through the sloping tunnel, Ariana could hear the rustling of the bushes as whoever was chasing them entered the path and then the clashing of arrows as they ricocheted off of the stone walls behind them.  Ahead, she could see a faint light indicating the end of the tunnel. When they reached the rows of dense trees on either side of them, Ryonens hand slipped from her wrist and Ariana instinctively laced her fingers with his before hurrying her pace to match his. If she considered herself a fast runner, Ryonen was even faster. She had to keep reminding herself that they were running for their lives in order to force herself to keep going, hardly being able to keep up with him. Ariana felt an arrow whiz through her hair, landing in a nearby tree. She widened her eyes in shock and tried to swallow past the dryness in her throat. That was way too close, she thought, her heart pounding wildly in her chest.
Just when she felt like her legs could not possibly run any further, they reached the edge of the clearing. Ariana realized in horror that they were going to be trapped. She was just about to convey this to Ryonen when she saw him wave his free hand in front of him. A mist began rolling through the clearing, blanketing it in what seemed to be a thick fog. In the next instant, the mist had dissipated and the pond appeared in the middle of the clearing, its waters shimmering brightly under the sun.
They were running so fast now that Ariana didn't even have time to wonder how any of this was even happening. She was just beginning to wonder what Ryonen was planning on doing when he quickened his pace even more. Ariana realized with growing horror that he was leading them to the pond. They were going to be trapped there, completely vulnerable to the people pursuing them. She was about to reject but, before she knew it, they were leaping over the rocks and into the water. Except they didn't get wet.
Ariana felt her body rise as if suspended in the air and then a cool wind wrapped around her, it's cold embrace squeezing her until she felt like she could hardly stand another second of it. Just as she felt like she was about to be crushed to death, she suddenly fell through a silvery blue haze before being deposited roughly onto a bed of soft grass. Ryonen landed on his feet next to her and waved his hand at the pond that was somehow behind them now, making it disappear before turning back to Ariana.
"Come on." Ryonen urged, holding out his hand to her. He pulled her to her feet and they began running into the trees, Ryonen pulling her along with him as Ariana once again struggled to keep up, her body aching from the hard fall and still not recovered from their first run. Giant, odd looking leaves smacked her in the face as she desperately tried to push the pain in her legs to the back of her mind.They ran in silence for a few minutes and Ariana began to wonder where they were going when Ryonen looked behind them and then took a sharp right through a set of bushes.
They crashed through the exterior leaves, revealing a hollow inside that cut through what seemed to be a wall of trees clustered together. He slowed his pace, but just barely. This gave Ariana a chance to catch her breath and she began gasping for air as they came upon a large mass of rocks that formed a sort of wall. Great, she thought, another dead end. She looked behind her, fully expecting a bunch of people to come bursting through the trees at any minute.
Just as she thought this, Ryonen broke the silence. "We need to stay somewhere safe tonight." He said, somehow managing to sound perfectly at ease despite the fact they had been running for a solid 10 minutes or so.
Ariana's stomach did a flip but she didn't have the breath to answer back. While she had always been an avid runner, she had never even attempted to run at the pace she just had with Ryonen. Nothing can really fully prepare you for running for your life, she thought, clutching her chest and willing her rapidly beating heart to calm down.
When they reached the wall, Ryonen walked up alongside it, his fingers moving over the cold surface as he seemed to search for something. After a moment, he pointed to a barely visible opening in the lower left side of a particularly large cluster of rocks that Aleigha had mistaken for a shadow.
He held out his hand for Ariana to stay put and then headed toward the opening, venturing inside. She looked behind her, suddenly feeling more paranoid at his departure. She kept imagining that she could hear the sound of distant footsteps, but no one ever came. Instead, an eerie silence fell around her and it struck her that this forest was dark and spooky and utterly unfamiliar to her. Suddenly, Ryonen popped his head out of the opening, startling her. He beckoned for her to follow him and she cast one last look behind her before she stepped through the opening and into the darkness.
It took a moment for her to adjust to the change of light but, when her eyes finally did adjust, she could see that they were in a somewhat large cave. The inside of it seemed to be roomy enough, with the circular space being about 12 feet in diameter, and the ceiling was tall enough for both of them to stand up straight, although it was close for Ryonen.
Ariana sat down on a flattened rock on the furthest wall of the cave and pulled her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them tightly.
Ryonen cast her an uneasy glance before sitting opposite her, leaning against the rock. They were both silent until Ryonen finally spoke. "Are you alright?" He asked quietly.
Ariana considered this for a moment before biting her lip. "I don't know." She said slowly, knowing that this was true. She had absolutely no idea what was going on and she certainly didn't know how to feel about it. It all felt surreal.
"I guess I have some explaining to do." He said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
Ariana didn't answer, just looking at him blankly. "That's an understatement." She said after a long time. Her mind was reeling with the events she had just experienced.
"I don't really know how to tell you this." He started saying, shuffling his feet awkwardly. After Ariana still didn't say anything, he continued. "This is all my fault." He said, wringing his hands with anxiety. "I think that by talking to you, I've involved you in something dangerous."
"What do you mean?" She said, taken aback. "How is this your fault?"
"I knew the rules, I knew that I shouldn't talk to you, but I couldn't help myself." He was rambling now, talking more to himself than to Ariana. "They've been following me, that's why I came to your forest. I didn't think that they'd follow me there too. Then I saw you that day by the pond and you piqued my interest. You shouldn't have been there." He looked up at her through his long eyelashes, his green eyes pleading with her across the room. "I never meant for all of this to happen, you have to understand."
"Ryonen, what's going on? Why was someone shooting arrows at you? And better yet," she said, remembering the pond and their strange transportation out of the clearing, "what the hell is up with that pond?"
He chose to ignore the ladder part. "Not just me." He corrected her. "You, too."
"Me?" Ariana blanched at the idea of someone trying to kill her. "No way." She said.
"I'm afraid so." He said sadly, lowering his gaze down at the arrow in his lap.
"But-"
"Ariana, the arrow landed where you would have been. That's no coincidence." He picked up the arrow and rolled it in his hands slowly. "And this is no ordinary arrow."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"This arrow belongs to a group of assassins." Ryonen looked back up at Ariana with a concerned, but thoughtful look.
"I don't understand." Ariana said, feeling as if the air had been punched out of her. "Why would assassins try to kill me?"
"Well," he said, "I think they might have thought you were involved with me somehow. Like I said, they've been tracking me and they must have seen me coming to visit you all this time. The only thing I can think of is that they believe that capturing you would lure me into a trap."
"Great." Ariana said, pushing her hair back from her face. "So, if they were following you first then does that mean you know who sent them?" She asked.
Ryonen looked down at the arrow in his hand. "This arrow is unmistakable. It's from a group called the midnight assassins. They're trained killers from the Dark Kingdom. The only person with the power to send them is Malor." He rolled the horrid black arrow in his hands as if it could give him all the answers he needed. "But even if they saw me talking to you, I can't wrap my head around why he would send his best people to try to capture you, too."
Ariana's mind was reeling. Dark kingdom? Malor? Assassins?
She must have looked as confused as she felt because Ryonen let out a puff of breath. "I'm sorry." He said. "I'm getting ahead of myself." He scratched his chin thoughtfully before leaning forward toward her. "Here," he said, bringing his hands out in front of him to hover above the space between them, "I want to show you something".
Before Ariana had a chance to answer him, Ryonen's fingers clenched and suddenly a bright green fire sprung to life on the cavern floor, it's green flames licking the air greedily.
Ariana started, backing up quickly until she felt the cave's cold wall against her back. "What-"
Ryonen put a hand out toward her like she was a wild animal he was trying to calm. "Don't be afraid." He said, moving toward her slowly. His eyes bore into hers. "I know that this is all really confusing."
"Okay." Ariana said, strangely calm. She took a shuddering breath and brought a shaking hand up to her face, covering her mouth.
Ryonen looked concerned by her behavior, but took her silence as encouragement to continue. "These people that are after us, they're not from your world. Neither am I."
Ariana raised her eyebrows at him, resisting the urge to pull a face beneath her hand. "Then what are you?" She asked.
"An Elf." He said, watching her face for her reaction.
She continued to stare at him, trying to process his words. An Elf, she thought, mulling this over, like snap crackle and pop? The very idea made her want to burst into hysterical laughter. "Wait," she said, finally hearing the other part of what he said, "if you're not from 'my world' then where are you from?"
"Atheil." He said, simply, throwing out a hand to gesture around him.
"And we got here-"
"Through the portal." He thought for a moment before deciding to clarify further. "The pond."
"This is almost too much." She said, rubbing her temples and looking down at the fire. It was still alive, somehow, despite the fact that there was no wood for it to feed on. "No," she corrected, "this IS too much."
Ryonen looked at her sympathetically. "I know." He said, sitting back down on his rock and staring at the fire. "I didn't know what else to do. I thought that if I could bring you back to Atheil with me then maybe I could protect you."
Ariana felt the blood drain from her face as she suddenly had a dark thought at his words. "Do you think they know where I live?"
Ryonens eyes shifted away from her in an almost guilty manner and she felt her stomach lurch. "I don't know." He said finally, with a tone that basically answered her question.
Ariana stood up quickly, her head whipping around as her heart began pounding in her chest. "We have to go back!" She yelled, her breath catching in her throat. The panic was making her feel hot and, in desperation, she began running toward the exit of the cave. "My mom-"
Ryonen stood up, too, his arms blocking her way as she tried to push past him. "You can't!" He exclaimed. "It's not safe, Ariana."
Ariana knew that he was right but she still protested. "It's my mom, Ryonen." She said weakly, suddenly feeling sick to her stomach. She was beginning to feel increasingly hot and she tugged at her collar. "I barely even know you! This is just way too crazy for me! Listen," she said, pleading with him now, "if you take me home right now I swear I'll forget all of this ever happened. You can just go back to wherever you came from and these assassins will just follow you, right?" Ryonen shuffled his feet uncomfortably and wouldn't meet her gaze. "Right, Ryonen?" When he still wouldn't answer her, she said. "Please. I can't just leave her behind." The last word came out as a sob.
Ryonen put his hands gently on her shoulders and guided her back to her spot, easing her down onto the rock. He crouched beside her, trying to meet her eyes. When she finally relented and looked up at him, he spoke. "I know you haven't known me that long, Ariana. I get it; this is new for both of us and I'm so incredibly sorry for getting you into this mess. But listen, as soon as it looks safe out there we'll go back. I promise. You're just going to have to trust me."
She watched him for a moment, the green flames seeming to dance in his eyes as he looked back at her unflinchingly. Even though she had only been hanging around him for a week now, she felt the truth of his words wash over her and she knew she did trust him. She felt the tension release from her shoulders as she gave in to him. "Okay." She said finally.
He squeezed her shoulder once more before crossing back over to his spot across the fire from her. Ariana watched him go, her mind racing. Finally, she spoke. "Tell me more about these assassins."
Ryonen let out a breath, tilting his head to the side. "Are you sure that's a good idea? Ariana, you're upset-"
Ariana shook her head defiantly. "I need this." She said, her voice coming out stronger than she felt. "I need something to focus on, I need facts." Her fingers found the hem of her shirt and she curled them around it, giving herself something to hold on to.
After a moment of Ryonen looking at her hard, he seemed to relent. "Okay," he said, his tone still sounding unsure. "They've been trying to track me for a while now. I thought I could shake them off if I crossed the portal and came to your world but I guess they caught my scent." He leaned down and swiped at the dirt on the cave floor. "I got sloppy. I didn't take as many precautions as I should have and they found me. Who knows how long they've been watching me, and if they've been watching me, that means they've been watching you, too."
Ariana shuddered at the thought. "But why go after me?" She asked. "How does that factor into the equation?"
Ryonen scrunched his eyebrows. "That I don't really get. I would say that you were just an afterthought, but it doesn't seem that way.
"Why?" Ariana asked. "Isn't it possible that they were just taking advantage of the situation and going after you then?" Even as she said it, she didn't really believe her own words. Wasn't the whole point of an assassin that they were specially trained killers? She had seen enough mission impossible movies to know that. So if they were really only after Ryonen, how come they screwed up so badly?
"No," Ryonen said, confirming her fears. "The midnight assassins never mistake a target. It's obvious that they've decided that you're a person of interest now, too. And" he added, "they weren't aiming to kill. That arrow would have hit your shoulder if I hadn't pushed you out of the way."
Ariana sighed. "Well, that's a comforting thought.  Not only have I been driven into hiding, but I've also got a group of trained assassin's intent on capturing me for God knows what reasons." She let out her breath in a frustrated huff. "And by the way, who is this Malor person, anyway?"
Ryonen's face grew dark. "He's a war lord here. Very powerful and just as evil. You don't ever want to meet him."
Ariana shuddered at the thought. "I guess not." She said, leaning back against the cave wall. "So what did you do to piss him off?" She asked.
Ryonen swallowed and looked away. "That's a long story." He said, a note of finality to his voice.
In the silence that stretched between them, she could feel the weight of all that had happened that day begin to wash over her. Suddenly, she felt the exhaustion that she had pushed away coming back, the pain from her fall through the portal now making her legs and back ache.
Ryonen seemed to notice the shift in her mood and waved his hand over the fire, making the intensity of it go down until it was just a light flicker of green against the cave walls. "Try to get some rest." He said gently, leaning back and crossing his arms across his chest. "I'll keep watch while you sleep. We'll go back to your house first thing in the morning. I promise."
Ariana nodded, realizing just how tired she was as the words came out of his mouth. She eased herself onto the cave floor, trying her best to get comfortable despite the rocks poking into her side. As she felt herself drifting off into sleep, she kept her eyes on the flames, all the while with Ryonen keeping watch over her.