Kelfor (The Orthomancers)

Chapter 19

I come to after what feels like some minutes. It could have been longer. I don't know. I just know that the Thrall is dead, and that I am safe. We are all safe.

I ask the firehorns to take me to the tree bridge, where I find Furian waiting. He and Jethran saw me fall past with the Thrall and they have been on tenterhooks ever since.

Furian grabs at me and points speechlessly at my neck. I put a hand to it and find that it comes away covered in blood.

He picks me up bodily and runs with me to the cave with Jethran running alongside. He deposits me beside Karith. Jethran and Linnith begin to tend to the slashes across my neck.

There is no time for all this. "I ... I have to get back up there. Torch ... Zivan ... they will be worried about me."

Furian nods. "We will all go as soon as we can. But those cuts must be attended to."

"Zivan! ... Zivan is hurt too."

"We will take first aid up with us. Shush! This will only take longer if you make a fuss."

I submit. They are, after all, only trying to help. Not that I could have stopped them. They are all white-faced. I tell them about the Thrall. I explain that it is dead.

"We know." Furian is tight-lipped. "We saw what happened."

"I am all right."

His whole face is rigid. "You nearly got yourself killed! You are very far from all right."

"I ... why are you all so cross with me?"

"Because you shouldn't have simply taken off like that. Don't you realize that now we all depend on you?"

I hadn't. Not until now. I begin to see. If I had jumped off that rock up there, then I would have been condemning all of them to certain death. They could never have got back along the tunnels past the Forest of Flame, not after the cave-in. They would have been trapped forever in the Chasm of Kelfor.

I look down, ashamed that it didn't occur to me at the time.

It should have. When I became the orthomancer I became responsible for everybody else in Kelfor.

It also makes me feel constrained, trapped. I don't like the sensation. However, Furian is right.

"I am sorry. I won't do that again."

Furian nods curtly. "Good."

Kalyka has snuggled up to me, to give me her body warmth. Hers is a comforting presence. "I'll take us all up to the surface in a moment," I tell her. "We have to decide what to do, remember?"

There is a sudden flurry of movement from the tree bridge. The others turn to push me out of sight behind them, clustering to protect me. Furian and Jethran step forward, ready to defend us all.

Then there are gasps of surprise. It is Torch, with Koban and Zivan. They have appeared, in mantles of firehorns, where the vortex almost meets the tree bridge.

Torch leaves Koban to hold up Zivan and runs along the tree toward me, shedding firehorns as he comes. His face is desperately worried.

He lurches to a stop in front of me. Then he abandons all his principles and hugs me tightly. His face is all twisted up with worry. He's making little wailing sounds of worry.

I burst into tears. "How did you get here? Is your mother badly hurt?"

He shakes his head and walks with me aside from the others, out of hearing. He holds one finger out to me in answer to my first question. Seraph is perched right on the end.