Jealous Flames

Helena was roused by the sentry’s horn. Before she could rise Astor had somehow cleared his own bed and was already tying his quiver to his armor. The past several nights they had worn their armor to sleep as the threat of attack loomed over Serenisa. “Which horn?” she asked him.

“Sounded like Gerould’s.” Astor replied. A moment later the sound came again, and Helena saw him frown. “Yep. I can hear that hole in his horn from here.”

“The ice spider caves?” Helena said in horror.

Astor replied with a nod, then he threw his bow over his shoulder and hurried out of the barracks with his still-sheathed sword in hand. “Take care, my love.”

“You too, love.” Helena replied as she picked up her staff. The ice blue crystal shone bright at her touch. It was ready for another fight.

The Northmen come again. She took one glance around. A dozen beds lay empty, ten that had not been slept in for weeks. Sasha and Correll had died together not three days after their graduation; Nahale had fallen holding the Garuda pass all alone, saving a thousand refugees and being honored with a statue in the city square. Orrin and Calisto were also gone, dying to emberhounds during the last attack. Haley had joined the recon patrol after Orrin died, and Regis was somewhere to the west aiding the evacuation of the lesser villages.

And Keres,...

Helena shook her head at the bittersweet memories and hurried out the door. She could make out Astor running all alone ahead of her, his long gait unmistakable even in the moonlight. She could see members of the other barracks just starting to emerge. Knowing Astor would take stock of the situation before acting, Helena hurried to the closest group. “Astor believes the Northmen are in the ice spider caves.”

“I told you it was Gerould’s horn.” Willa exclaimed before she hurried after Astor.

“But why has it only sounded twice?” Hugh asked as they started to follow Willa. “It should still be sounding so that we can be sure.”

Helena felt her heart seize. Hugh was no fool; if Gerould had stopped his horn, either he was already dead or something was dangerously wrong. “Where would you go if it is a diversion?”

“Easy, the opposite gate.” Bennett remarked. “It is the closest one to the palace, after all.”

“It would be,” Hugh said, “but the refugees are by the Tempest Gate. An agent of the Northmen could have gotten in with them.”

“The horn called us to the Cave Gate!” Willa shouted from twenty paces away. “No other horn has sounded a diversion.”

“But Hugh has rarely been wrong.” Dinah replied meekly.

“There’s always a first.” Vincent said.

“I’m telling you -” Hugh and Willa cried in unison.

“Enough.” Helena barked. The others froze their voices and turned to her, even distant Willa. “Willa and I will go with the rest to the Cave Gate. Hugh will take the rest of you to Tempest and check on his theory. If he’s wrong, I will vouch for your actions. If he’s right, hold them until we arrive.”

“Understood.” Vincent replied. “Keep the gate upright until we arrive.”

“We will.” she said. “Signal if they get through Tempest.”

“We will.” Hugh said, then the party split. Helena quickly caught up to Willa.

“Do you really think Hugh is right?” Willa asked.

“Can we afford for him to be right and do nothing?”

Willa had no answer. Everyone had an empty bed these days. Time felt like it was running out.

By the time they reached Cave, the battle was fully committed. Somehow the gate had been swung open, the fell beasts and their masters trying to force their way through the tight ranks of the guarding infantry. Helena split off and climbed onto a rooftop to get a vantage point.

No sooner had Helena reached the spot when she saw Willa yell her battlecry and use her wind magic to leap over the line and crash into the heart of the Northmen with her axe. Other frontline mages leapt in after her. Four blasts of lightning then fell from the wall and lit up the area around her before the fell beasts could turn. Helena tracked the jagged trails back to their master. Astor was raining down death as fast as he could draw his bow, even shattering several of the ice spiders. Several other ice mages were picking off two or three Northmen or a single emberhound, but there were too many coming through.

Helena channeled her magic into her staff and loosed a bolt at the base of the gate. It struck and encased a dozen men in a spiked wall. She loosed several more bolts as she tried to seal off the gate. The fire mages of the Northmen burned against the wall she was building, but other Serenisi saw her plan and together they formed a barrier twenty feet tall.

She turned to the battle below. The confident Northmen should have started to panic with their retreat being cut off, but instead they continued to press forward.

Before she could question why, the building beneath her sagged. Barely able to collect her footing, Helena formed an ice bridge to the roof across the lane and hurried over it as the building collapsed into the ground.

Moments later, Northmen and their fell beasts emerged from the hole.

Helena hesitated at the sight, then turned towards the new threat. She only loosed a single bolt before a boulder was thrown towards her. She dove to the side as the boulder shattered the place she had been standing.

Then she rolled too far, slipping off the side of the roof. Helena tried to form a ramp to smooth her fall, but the impact was still jarring.

Northmen were upon her almost immediately. The staff’s crystal flashed as she froze those closest to her. Behind her, she could hear the footfalls of the infantry coming to aid her, but for now she fought alone. With a thought, a blade of ice formed over the head of the staff and she engaged her foes face to face.

The Northmen were the easier foe to fight. Their leather armor wasn’t quite thick enough to stop the edge of her blade. Though many proved to have some skill, the staff gave her the range to either retreat or hit them with an ice blast should the threat call for it.

Ice spiders were feared by almost everyone, but they are more attuned to the element of ice than any creature and will not challenge a force greater than themselves. With her staff in hand, they instinctively avoided her.

The blazehounds that emerged were a different and far deadlier problem. While she had little worry about the weak embers, blazes could resist the ice long enough to sink their teeth into a mage’s neck. While a number of them took off down the streets, three turned to their masters’ plight and charged her as one, the Northmen scrambling out of their way.

Helena exhaled, focusing her mind on the power needed to chill the blazehounds’ fire. The first beast closed in, its heat cutting into the frosty aura that began to swirl. It leapt at her with a howl.

She threw her staff like a javelin. It flew almost clean through the hound, which fell dead beside her.

As the other two howled and charged, she took hold of the head of the staff and pulled it through the hound before diving away. The two were not so big as the dead hound, but together their heat was like an oven. The ice she formed at their feet turned to water in a matter of moments.

Something stirred behind her. Instinctively she turned and let loose a stream of ice. Four Northmen who had tried to surprise her were caught in the blast.

A snarl was the only thing that saved her from the leaping blazehound’s jaws, but she was taken off her feet. Helena heard the hound over her, then it gave a yelp of pain. She rolled over and slapped her hand on the ground, sending out a jagged wall of ice that impaled the creature.

Turning to her right, she saw the flames of the final hound covered by a tall shadow.

“How ya holding up, love?” Astor asked nonchalantly before he lunged and bisected the leaping blazehound with his sword.

“Still fighting.” She replied as another line of Northmen were encased in ice. “You?”

“I’m down to two arrows and I saw you get hit. Figured you might need some help.”

“I appreciate it.” The two then weaved around each other, his sword and her staff cutting down their foes while their allies encircled them. Helena heard Willa’s battlecry echo again as the Northmen began to despair.

Then they began to rout.

Her joy lasted only a moment before a horn echoed into the night. It was from the direction of the Tempest Gate! “Hugh!”

“Go to him.” Astor said as he placed himself between her and the Northmen. “I’ll finish up here.”

Helena smiled, then stepped towards him. Astor heard her footfall and knew her well , and the two shared a quick kiss before she started towards the call of the horn, leaving several opportunistic Northmen either frozen or electrocuted.

She made it to the citadel in record time. The battle seemed over by the time she got there, with the fell beasts killed and the Northmen rounded up. But there was no sign of Hugh or the others.

“They’re in the citadel!” a soldier exclaimed when she asked. “One of the mages got through and they pursued them.

Helena hurried into the citadel. The walls were scorched in several places. At the foot of the stairs she found Bennett burned, only recognizing him by his armor. Up another flight was Vincent, barely burned but with a massive gash from hip to shoulder. Near the sanctuary she found Hugh with a broken skull.

Then, by the great balcony of the sanctuary, she saw Dinah struggling to get up.

“Dinah!” Helena exclaimed. She got only a few steps towards the healer before a blast of fire struck her. She was lifted from her feet and blown against the far wall. When her vision cleared, she saw a mage with raven hair and a commanding presence. “Keres?”

“I’m so glad you could join us, Helena.” the traitor mocked as she walked over to Dinah. “You don’t know how upset I was that Willa wasn’t with her squad so that I could kill them all, but it will all be worth it to have you.”

“Leave her alone.” Helena said coldly. “She never did anything to you.”

“That’s true,” Keres said as she aimed her staff at Dinah, “but you did. Why should I do anything for you?”

A jet of flame crashed against a block of ice.

Keres laughed as she let a fiery aura engulf her. Helena felt her heart skip a beat. Now Keres could summon an aura like hers? “Freezing Dinah will only keep her alive for so long.” Keres chided. “In her condition, I think she’ll succumb in a few minutes. Then you will have killed her.”

“ENOUGH!” Helena launched herself at her former friend. The air began to fill with steam as Keres led her deeper into the citadel. Helena struck again and again, switching between her martial and magical prowess with all the skill she had learned. Every strike was denied by her childhood friend. Even after months apart Keres knew what she was apt to try.

Nothing had changed since they were little girls, testing their magic against one another and playing games with the boys. Nothing had changed from the time in the academy building their friendly rivalry. In the end, Keres had caught up as she always did.

And yet Helena knew she couldn’t back off, nor could she back down. She was the one who had mastered her aura first even if she was weaker than Keres. She had become the squad leader over Keres. She had been the one to win Astor’s heart.

Astor… “You’ll never win Astor now.” Helena said.

For a moment she wished she had remained silent. Keres’ flames surged with her rage. “I won’t lose him to the likes of you!” She threw Helena back with a blast of fire, then nearly stumbled over the ice Helena had formed around her feet.

“You don’t need my help for that.” Helena said as she powered up her aura.

“As cold as you are, I wonder if you can even keep him warm at night.” Keres said as they crossed staves again. “Or will he even accept you into his bed?”

Helena didn’t respond. Keres didn’t deserve her words. She was too far gone now, and Helena channeled her anger into a furious onslaught as Keres kept talking. Helena refused to hear the words.

Then Keres missed a parry. She lay wide open to a slash from the icy blade. Helena started the strike.

And hesitated.

Keres took advantage and threw her back with a burst of flame that even seemed to consume and extinguish the fiery aura around her. “You think I would accept your mercy?”

Before Helena could rise, another blast struck. Then another.

Then another.

“What’s the matter?” Keres called. “Am I too hot for you, ice queen?”

A quiet twang sounded behind her. Keres’ eyes snapped to the sound, then her hand caught the arrow loosed at her. Helena saw the small jagged sparks encircling it and fell back to the ground.

She felt the shockwave of the explosion, and when she looked up Keres was staggering to her feet, her eyes wild with malice and twisted enjoyment. “Well, if it isn’t Astor. I knew you would co-...” Somehow Keres’ eyes grew even darker.

Helena turned to Astor, and her heart leapt as she saw Dinah huddled next to him. “You’re okay!”

“How dare you, Astor?!” Keres stormed, her body once again in flames. “You knew it was me! Why didn’t you come immediately? Why would you save her instead of saving Helena?”

“I believe in Helena.” Astor replied coldly as lightning began to course around his bow, the arrow ready to fly. “And I trusted your jealousy. You wouldn’t just kill her at once.”

Keres’ eye twitched. Then she grinned wickedly. “If you know me so well, then why did Vincent and Hugh and Bennett have to die? Did you want to get rid of them, too?”

“Clearly I never knew you that well.” Astor lowered his draw, his finger tapping the shaft twice as he did so. Helena began to channel her magic at Astor’s signal. He continued to glare at their fallen friend. “I didn’t think you could be so weak-minded.”

“I was always the stronger of us. She will understand that.”

“You let your desires consume you.”

“And I am the greatest of us because of it. Can’t you see that?”

There was silence for a moment. Helena saw a battle warring on Astor’s face. Then he said, almost with no emotion, “I hate you.”

Keres’ fires went out, and even Helena was shocked by the words. “You can’t mean that.” Keres said meekly.

“Look what you’ve become.” Astor said in that same tone. “You may be a master of fire, but your heart is as cold as ice.”

Helena watched as tears began to well up in Keres’ eyes. It pained her, even after all her friend had done. No attack she could unleash could have hurt Keres so much.

Then the flames started to light in the fire mage’s eyes again.

“NOW!” Astor commanded.

Helena slapped the ground, a trail of ice lancing out to encase Keres’ legs. Keres’ gaze turned to them, and Astor’s last arrow struck her with a shower of lightning. She let out a cry as the energy tore through her, then she slumped over.

It was over.

“Dinah, try to stabilize her.” Astor said gently.

Helena turned to them and saw the hesitance in Dinah’s eyes. She wasn’t the only one in the room who wasn’t sure what to think, but Dinah finally nodded and shuffled over to where Keres was. Helena and Astor went with her, with Helena manipulating the ice so that Keres was reclined and her limbs entombed.

Sure enough, Astor’s arrow had buried into her shoulder. Dinah set to work tending to the wound.

“Why?” Helena asked.

Astor shook his head. Even his posture revealed how unsure he was. “Even with all she has done, I couldn’t aim to kill her.”

Helena started to reply, but she held her tongue. She had also hesitated to strike the killing blow. “What now?”

“The Masters will deal with her.”

“And then?”

Astor stared into her eyes. “I don’t know.”

Willa came storming into view, a dozen soldiers with her. When she saw Keres, she almost took the traitor’s head off. Helena stopped her, and Astor said, “The Masters will pass judgment on her.”

“But she -,” Willa started, then cursing under her breath she lowered her axe. “At least let me deliver her to the Masters. For my squads sake.”

“Of course.” Astor replied. Willa then took Dinah and the soldiers and departed with the icebound and unconscious Keres, leaving Astor and Helena behind.

“I wish there was something we could have done for her.” Astor said.

“I know.” Helena replied. She then turned to him. “Promise me you won’t let me become like her.”

Astor gave her a sad grin, then he reached out and held her close. “Only if you’ll do the same for me.”

She placed her arms around him as a tear fell onto her. “I will.”