Daughter of Ice and Fire

Thirty-Four

Kisari carefully laid the items on the ground before her. The small fire burned brightly and she tossed a few more sticks on for good measure. Gracefully rising to her feet, she let the cloak drop to the ground, shivering slightly in the pre-dawn chill. Picking up the small bowl and her knife, she approached the sacred spring and placed them alongside. Dropping to her knees, she placed her forehead on the ground and whispered a soft prayer. Rising once again, she retrieved the knife and slashed her palm, then held it over the water, letting several drops fall. Watching as the ripples spread, she waited until all signs of the blood were gone before stepping into the water.

A languid warmth spread through her and when she reached the center, she allowed herself to float. Her hair spread around her in a black halo, and she closed her eyes as soft tendrils of mist caressed her body. Slipping into a half-daze, she cast her mind back to what she had discovered outside what had once been Swanhaven.

It was as the guards had said. She had left the wagons several leagues away and approached the area on foot. Slipping past the patrols had been easy. The simple spell she wove caused them to look elsewhere as she darted past. By the time it wore off, she was deep inside the village. Or what remained of it.

She had initially been surprised at the lack of guards inside the village itself. But the minute she passed the burnt timbers of the first house, she understood why the men stayed away. The place was haunted.

Reaching the center of the former village, she was overwhelmed by the enormity of what surrounded her. The spirits' keening was deafening, drowning out the sighing of the wind or the rattle of the leaves skittering across the barren ground. Standing in what had been the village square, she closed her eyes. Spectral shapes flew around her, their mouths open in horror and despair. Tears coursed down her cheeks as the ghosts shrieked their stories in her head. What had happened in Swanhaven was nothing short of evil. The townspeople had been tortured before their deaths. But the deaths themselves had neither been swift nor easy. Most of the people were still alive when the guards set fire to their homes.

Kisari dropped to her knees, sorrow at what the people had endured consuming her.

What felt like hours passed. The tears dried and she rose, apologizing silently to the spirits for her inability to put their souls to rest. Only revenge would do that, and it was not hers to dispense. Hardening her heart against their wailing, she turned slowly, letting her senses search for what may have been the cause of all this. Detecting a slight trail of...something, she followed it, ending up in front of the blackened ruins of a home.

This was not the only place that held the essence, but it was strongest here. Goosebumps rose on her arms as she entered. She realized what she was detecting was magic. But not any magic she had ever encountered before. Not evil, what the uninitiated referred to as black, but not white, either. This lay somewhere in between. To her well-trained senses, it was unschooled. Whoever or whatever had wielded this magic had never been trained. She frowned, moving through the home as she tried to puzzle it out.

Arriving in what she assumed was the sleeping area, she stopped short. More evil was here. Not the same evil that she felt outside. This was an evil darker than she had ever encountered before. She sometimes felt fear in the presence of evil but what she felt here went deeper than that. Terror gripped her limbs, and she had to fight for each step she took. Arriving on the far side of the room, she hugged herself tightly. Digging her nails into her skin, she focused on the pain as she closed her eyes once again.

A single spirit stood in front of her. But unlike those outside, this one remained quiet. Kisari could see the pain written on the spirit's face and feel the evil that surrounded it. But the spirit itself wasn't the source. In fact, behind the darkness, she detected light. And love. Surprised, she reached a hand forward as if to touch it. But before her fingers reached the insubstantial being, a sharp pain radiated up her arm. Jerking it back with a cry, she uttered a quick spell. A shriek blasted through her skull and the pain disappeared. Wrapping her arms around her middle, she remained still, eyes still closed.