Page 92 of Ash and Feather

“I’m here to help,” I assured him.

More gasps and trembling followed this pronouncement. The guards exchanged a wide-eyed look, clearly unable to believe I was actuallyspeakingto them.

I didn’t have time to deal with their unnecessary reverence on top of everything else.

“Leave the wall to me,” I ordered, in what was hopefully a tone that rang with divine authority. “Move deeper into the training compound and bring the ones there a warning: There are enemies at your gates. More elves than I believe you’re prepared for, coming from both over the ground and below it.”

They hesitated only a moment before nodding. With his eyes downcast, the Storm-marked human spoke: “The gods show us favor by sending you to us in this hour of need, protecting us from the Fallen and wicked ones.”

I was suddenly glad for his downcast gaze, as it meant he couldn’t see me flinch at his last words.

Whose side are you on?

As the man chanced a quick glance up at me, I gave him a single, curt nod. He reacted as if I had promised to bless him and the rest of his bloodline for all eternity, his hands clasping together in prayer before he dropped into another bow along with his fellow guard.

I fought the urge to cringe. I waited until they had risen, hurried away, and fled down a nearby ladder, before I let any discomfort show.

A strange sense of power itched through my veins as I watched them disappear. A different sort of power than the one that came with controlling fire—and one I had no real interest in learning how to wield.

I thought again of my conversation with Cillian.

Have you already forgotten what it was like to live in this realm?

No human had ever bowed to an elf. Not even in the earliest days, when some of the most powerful elven houses were still clinging to some of their authority.

And contrary to what Cillian thought, Ihadn’tforgotten about the frustrating trips I used to take into human villages, desperate to find someone who would sell me the basic goods we needed to survive. Even on the rare occasions when I had plenty of coin to spend, the human merchants would take one look at my pointed ears and send me on my way with nothing but curses for my efforts.

My scarred face and clawed fingers often earned me even more violent reactions.

But the two guards hadn’t seemed to notice any of those things. As soon as the divine fire appeared, they’d seen me as a higher being. One worthy of respect and awe.

“Fools,” I muttered to no one.

I paced the top of the wall, letting the fire around me continue to build. Uncomfortable as I might have been with it, I still preferred pouring my energy into magic rather than thinking about those guards and their ridiculous worshipping.

When the flames around me became too large and wild to hold on to, I paused in the center of the wall. I picked two points on the ground below, then guided the flames between these points, stretching the inferno along my chosen path with steady, determined hands.

The two guards were still close—I heard them below me, in between the walls, shouting at their fellow soldiers. Telling them not to panic at the sight of the flames. Assuring them that the divine were here to help them.

And I was.

I wasn’t going to go back on what I’d told them.

But how strange it felt to help, when I’d spent so many years cursing the gods for the lack of help they’d givenme.

I wiped beads of sweat from my forehead and summoned even more flames, guiding them into the wall I’d created until it roared to a terrifying height. A blistering hot wind kicked up all around it, driving back anyone who dared to approach it.

It was eye-wateringly bright and uncomfortably hot, even to me. Even from a distance. I didn’t care. I just kept building it brighter. Taller. It was fast becoming a compulsion. I couldn’t stop adding to it because it was the only thing I felt in control of just then.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dravyn’s wall rising as well. I told myself I needed to build higher than even he could. I lost myself in the competition. Or tried to.

In truth, I was trying tofindmyself, to find something like solace and certainty in the flames I was creating—something that would make me feel like I was giving myself to the right cause. The right side.

I gave until I was out of breath. My head pounded. My chest ached. I made myself stay upright, narrowing my gaze on what little I could see of the other side of my fiery barricade.

Nothing there…at least, not that I could make out.

The voices directly below me had ceased as well, the guards having moved inward as I’d instructed them to. More and more followed them as I watched.

---