Song of Wind

Chapter 2

      When she came back too, Ember immediately registered flaring pain from her back. She was missing her shirt, but her pants were there thankfully. She reached her hand back to touch the open flesh, but her fingers brushed the soft wrappings of bandages. Someone must have dressed her wounds. Very slowly she sat up in bed hissing through her teeth as she did so. Her room inside the warehouse was small, but pleasantly spacious at the same time. It consisted of a small bed, and a dresser for her cloths. She never bought or collected anything she didn't need. She had to be able to pick up and go if she had to on a whim.

     She jumped, as her door banged opened. Her sister stormed in, dressed like a soldier ready for battle completed with her wild green eyes. The Salore eyes were of the wildest green, like the grasses that grew in the plains in the east cities.

"I took mercy on you sister, I decided to have someone tend to your wounds." Falon looked at Embers wounds with utter disgust, "I have need of you on the council."

"Very well, rebel leader" Ember inclined her head towards her sister. One thing she had learned is that if her sister granted you a favor you were to respect her greatly. You had to be pick and choose when to stand up to Falon. One wrong move and you could easily be dead, no matter how high ranking you were. Ember gets off a bit easier as she was her sister, but that wouldn't stop Falon from punishing her as she saw fit.

"Get dressed, and meet me in the council room." With that her sister left shutting the door behind her. Slowly so she wouldn't rip the stitches, ember dressed as swiftly as she could manage.

-

      In the council room, inside her warehouse, Falon Salore looked down at the map that showed all of Uswea using a dagger as a paper weight; she studied the far south across the slave slums of Aterica. A faint pounding headache was stressing her between her furrowed eyebrows.

"If we contact the lord in the south, he will come to our aid." advised Holister, head bowed, running a finger along the south. Holister was a bald aging man of forty, he was her most trusted war general on her council. Holister had seen the bloodiest of wars, he even fought in the great war when Uswea was untamed barren land, ready for the taking. He fought alongside the old king's men against a overlord who lived across the great sea. He later joined Falon's rebels as the old king shriveled away in his bed, and the newly crowned king took over.

"I have already sent out my swiftest falcon with a letter sealed for him." With a sigh, she rubbed her temples with her forefingers. "The falcon should be halfway to the south by now." Her head was whirling with the thoughts of impending war. Falon had sacrifices to make, and deals to uphold.

       Her latest deal was for a thousand strong Duraki to add needed numbers to her army. The cost had been a part of her portion of land when she took hold of the throne. The creatures were strange beings, dwelling in the West where the great forest of Garap grew. They lived alongside the many ancient creatures that dwelled in the Garap. Big, hairy, and burly with horns like rams on their bald heads. Dark and sinister as they were, Falon connected with them more than her own sister. Clenching her fist, knuckles turning white.

     Anger arose within her at the thought of Ember. Everything Falon did he did so she could get revenge for her parents. Her sister just got in the way of those plans, always stepping on her shoes. She had raised Ember from a baby, maybe she had once loved her but that was long gone now. Alas, Ember was now near full grown with a mind of her own. Too falon no matter what her sister may call herself, she was no true sister of falons, only merely a piece in her rise to power. Once she ascended the throne she could discard her sister with a wave of her hand.

      Falon had given her sister as far a leniency as she could. Her soldiers knew the severe penalty for treason. And last night Ember had paid that price, Falon was done with her sister. She would not sit here and watch her sister disobey her commanding leader without punishment for what she had done. It was a mercy to even dress her wounds, but falon had not intended to let Ember die from infected festering wounds. She needed her sister for important plans that were to unfold themselves bit by bit. Puzzle pieces that were yet to be set into place. By telling the king, he now knew a taste of the rebels, but she could work around that.