Fire Weaver (Fall of the Fey #1)

Chapter 4

The sun was setting when they arrived at the base of the Nine Ladies. The steep incline started and jagged rocks stood out, seemingly defying gravity and sparse trees clung to the rocky ground, growing in suborn defiance of the terrain. Zereth and Tharoe had begun to get antsy over not hearing anything from Vivalda. Carmel, knowing that they wouldn't see Vivalda without fire, began collecting wood while the two men paced like predators locked in a cage.

'What are you doing?' Zereth asked her. It was more of an exclamation of incredulity rather than a legitimate question. 'They'll be able to see the smoke!'

He reached forward, but she slapped his hands away and said: 'I didn't tell you before, but we need fire to see Vivalda. I'm only lighting a small one.'

'Why didn't you tell us this before?' Tharoe asked folding his arms over his chest, which was possible only because of the placement of his shoulder blades. If he was built like a true, wolf he would never have been able to cross his arms.

Carmel sighed before answering. 'Would you have travelled at all today if you'd known or just sat, waiting around a fire?' Neither of them responded and she nodded. 'That's what I thought.'

She rubbed her hands together and placed them on the wood which, in turn, began to burn and there was a whoosh as fire exploded across the branch she held. She let go of it and leaned back.

Carmel twitched nervously, feeling the warning tug, a prickling tightening all over her skin, of the spell wrapped around her. She shouldn't have done that, it was an unnecessary use of power, but she didn't think using her natural heat would have counted. Maybe the spell was just reminding her that it was there.

'I thought you weren't supposed to use your powers while outside of the Willow-wood,' Tharoe observed, echoing Carmel's thoughts as he sat in front of the fire. She wondered idly if she should be so open about the rules of her test, having filled Tharoe in on her proving during their walk. Being so open about things with the humans had certainly worked against her. Carmel's mouth twisted at the thought. She hadn't considered that people would be so vindictive and crafty. They were more like Fey than she had realised. Although, Fey would never have gone back on an agreement, like Will did.

'I was using my body heat, it isn't magic.' Carmel told Tharoe, leaving out the warning tug the spell had given her. The glow of the flames made his face look more sinister than usual and for a moment she felt bad for anyone who got on Tharoe's bad side.

'What do we do now?' Zereth asked her and she shrugged.

'we wait.'

***

Tharoe watched the flames silently. He didn't quite know what to make of Zereth now that he had met him, but Tharoe was glad to see that the creature had survived. Although, Tharoe wasn't impressed that Zereth knew who was poaching off his land. Tharoe knew when he had saved the creature that he could be part of the group stealing from his land, but he had hoped that Zereth wasn't.

The outside world was not what he had expected. There was so much; so much sound, light, smells, space. When he had left his forest, he had been blown away by the sky, which he had only seen glimpses of. Words in the common tongue and even his own language failed to express how vast it was. Tharoe didn't want to admit that he was a little overwhelmed by it all. He kept getting distracted by a slight unfamiliar noise, occasionally he'd pick up an enticing smell and get the urge to track it to its source. It was not how he expected to feel; he wanted to go home. Where he knew every crevice and smell and where the sky was only as high as the tallest trees. Maybe this was why his father had let him go, to show Tharoe that the world was too much for his kind. He wondered if finding the people stealing from them was secondary to giving Tharoe the skills and knowledge to lead his people.