Fire Angels

Chapter 8 Part 1 Shad

Dion finds out about Shad's past and where her sister really came from.  

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As I dressed Tomas' wound and brewed a potion to kill his pain, Shad busied himself filling the water barrel. By the time he'd brought the last bucket in, it was raining quite heavily.

"Good," he said. "The rain will wash away any signs of our passage. The Witchhunters have been known to use trackers when magic fails them. You don't look so good. Here. Take a swig of this."

He offered me the bottle of potato spirit and I took a small pull. It was savage stuff, but warming.

"How long will Tomas take to get better?" I asked, looking at the inert form of my brother. He had slid into a kind of half fainting sleep.

"It takes three or four times as long without healing magic. And he will most probably be feverish for the next few days. I shouldn't worry too much though. He seems a strong man. I've seen people recover from much worse."

"You're not a woodcarver, are you?" I couldn't resist saying.

"I was a woodcarver, once," he said. "Though there was not time to take my Master's papers in the end. But the last three years I've been hiding out in the Red Mountains. There was a group of us called the Shattered Light. We've been fighting Hierarch Jarraz, stopping his prison trains and trying to help the prisoners escape. Fighting against Fire Angels this last year or so."

He turned to me, his face filled with excitement.

"I've seen two mages die trying to do what you did today. How did you do it?"

"I'm just strong," I said. "That's all."

"Your brother called you Demonslayer. What did he mean?"

I shrugged. People never understood why talking of those times gave me no pleasure.

"It was back in Gallia," I said...

"Gallia. You're the Demonslayer of Gallia. We heard rumors about a young girl who killed a demon. We thought they must be exaggerated. You really are her?"

I shrugged.

"You really did kill a demon?"

"Not killed it. Dispelled it. Sent it back to its own place."

"Alone? Just by yourself?"

"No there was another woman ..."

"Another woman mage! Another here on the peninsula!"

"Not a mage. An ordinary woman. She struck in the right way and in the right place and with a pure heart. That counts against demons."

I was back in Norval's hideout, struggling with the demon in my arms, hearing again Andre's smooth sweet tempting voice, drawing me in, promising me joy... I had not wanted to resist, I had been at the point of giving in and suddenly there was Kitten Avignon, who should have been dead, striking down with the knife.

He had said something.

"I beg you pardon?"

"You must be a very powerful mage."

The admiration in his face - I didn't deserve admiration. I deserved disgust.

"There's more to good magery than power," I snapped.

I got up and went to Tomas' side. His breathing seemed all right.

"We need certain herbs," I said. "It should be possible to get most of them in this wood."