Page 81 of The Source of Storms

But he did not act on his obvious desire.

“You’ve had a big day, and I can tell you have a lot on your mind. We need to rest,” he said. “And I don’t want to rush this. I want to take my time with you.”

I could not argue with that, although I wanted to. He pulled off his pants and climbed into bed behind me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me close to him. I felt him hard against my bum, and snuggled back into him. He traced his fingersgently up and down my side, my arm, over my breasts. I wanted him so badly that every part of me ached. But, eventually, my exhaustion drowned out my desire for him, and I drifted to sleep in his arms.

I awoke to wind shaking the window. Rain hammered the roof. The clear night hadn’t lasted long, and another northern spring storm was making landfall from its distant ocean origins, raging and wild. Yet I was warm and safe, wrapped entirely in Byrgir’s arms, his chest rising and falling in slow, peaceful rhythm against my back. I could have stayed there forever. Could’ve become part of that room, that bed, part of him. I drifted back into a blissful, warm sleep.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

We made swift progress on the return to Rhyanaes. The storm dissipated further inland, turning to a steady rain rather than wind-driven downpours. We opted to ride into the night and camp in the sheltered woods, rather than staying in the roadhouse we passed. As much as I wished to just spend the next few days in an inn room with Byrgir, Eilith was still imprisoned, and we needed to return to the others with answers and devise a plan.

The morning of our last day of travel, we rode through the wooded foothills of the Gloamspire Mountains. The rain had ceased, and I caught the scent of smoke on the breeze. We climbed a low hill and came into a meadow near the crest. Near the meadow’s center, just off the road, stood a great ash tree.

The top of it had been broken––a large chunk of it blown off and smoldering on the ground, surrounded by scattered branches––but most of the trunk still stood. The center of the tree glowed an infernal orange. The tree’s heart had been transformed entirely to burning charcoal, flaming crimson and black, visible through a massive split down its center. The outside of it still stood, the bark unburned.

“Lightning,” Byrgir said. “Must have happened just last night.”

We both stood looking at the glowing tree for a while. Then I raised a hand, whispered a spell, and summoned rain over it. It popped and sizzled as the fire was quelled.

We rode on. Bird songs sounded through the forest, little invisible denizens calling out their locations to mates and rivals alike. The trees around us still dripped with the remnants of the storm. I was sore and tired, ready for a bath in the huge tub and a long sleep. Not long now.

Byrgir turned to me suddenly, wide-eyed and focused. “Fuck, an attack. Rhyanaes. There’s an attack!”

“What?” I turned in my saddle and scanned the trees around us.

“In Ryhanaes, right now!” he repeated, halting his horse and dropping to the ground. He pulled his leather and plate armor from his saddle and tugged it all on with practiced speed. “Get yours on,” he growled as he strapped the greaves over his thighs.

I was already following suit. I pulled on my armor and laced it tightly, slung my quiver across my back, buckled on my belt of daggers and my sword, and grabbed my bow. I leaped back into the saddle and thundered down the road after Byrgir and his black mare. I stood in the stirrups and let the reins loose. Anam took the invitation and surged into a gallop.

“How do you know?” I called over the pounding of hooves.

“Crow!” he called back, his only word of explanation. We must have been close enough for Crow’s messages to reach him.

We weren’t far from Rhyanaes now. I could feel the great wellspring that became the river on the periphery of my awareness, its power tugging at my bones. And as we grew closer, I could feel everything else. The bright pinpricks of life, their signals heightened by adrenaline and terror. The swirling chaos of forces as the city’s other Sourcerers harnessed and unleashed their own power.

We could see the break in the trees now, knew that we’d soon be at the valley’s edge.

“Halja!” Byrgir called across to me, sharp and direct, and I met his gaze as we galloped down the road. In a lower tone,heavy with sincerity and with the weight of a command, he said, “Stay close to me.”

In an instant we cleared the trees and broke into the light of the heather-speckled mountainside, the valley and its forest stretching out beneath us.

Rhyanaes was ablaze. Towers of flames rose among the trees as screams of pain and fear carried up the hill to us. Smoke rose, blackening the sky in dark stains. The clash of steel echoed off the mountain walls.

We did not hesitate. We had lost too much time already. As we plunged down the hill I drew two deep breaths, as Eilith had taught me, and split my focus. With one level of my mind, I began to repeat an incantation. The power came to me easily, eagerly with my proximity to that sacred river. The water was accessible, simple to draw into the air and condense. The temperature shift took more focus, but built upon itself in a cascading effect once I started the process.

I worked the incantation over and over as we rode, building, compounding, swirling the power above us. The sky darkened and I felt a raindrop, then several, then a driving, drenching downpour. Lightning cracked behind us, splitting the air as rain turned to stinging sleet.

A heavy, dark thunderhead drove us on, roiling and rumbling behind us as we flew down the hill. Over the cracks of thunder, I heard the familiar singing of Byrgir’s sword leaving its scabbard. The wolves ran behind, flanking our mounts on either side, and I felt a rush of fear for them. I hated how soft and fragile their flesh seemed compared to the sharp steel that flashed in the city streets beneath us. But I could not stop them from fighting.

Our enemies were in sight now, many engaged in combat with Ironguard, others chasing fleeing citizens down streets between flaming buildings. The sizzle and pop of fireextinguishing behind us added to the din of combat as my storm crashed down upon the city. I raised my bow and fired an arrow at a soldier crossing blades with an Ironguard Keeper. The arrow found its mark in the exposed strip of the back of his neck above his plate armor, and he dropped. Byrgir’s blade met the neck of another soldier as we galloped past, whose head flew from his shoulders, carried by the momentum of the swing.

We raced further into the fray and my heart pounded. I was too overwhelmed with fear to process what I had just done, and what I must do again many times if I intended to survive this. My body hummed with adrenaline like I had never felt. Surrounded by chaos, the sky darkened by smoke, the streets crowded with fighting and fleeing bodies. The smell of burning wood and the stench of burning flesh choked me.

Ahead of us, the lumbering form of a great grizzly bear swatted at attacking soldiers alongside the dark haired woman I’d seen in the street with El. She parried a blow and struck the soldier who had swung at her with a kick to the chest, sending him stumbling back into the bear’s range. The bear slammed him down with two strong paws, grabbed his head in his jaws, and pulled. His skull collapsed beneath the power of the bear's bite and his scalp tore off, dangling from his teeth. My stomach turned. We charged ahead.

Buildings and trees burned around us, flaming boughs and timbers raining into the streets. As we slowed our gallop I glimpsed a group of soldiers attempting to break down the door to a home. While the storm I had conjured still raged, I raised a hand to the sky and pulled on a sliver of its power with the other side of my focus. No hesitation, no second thought, only focused fury. I brought down a blinding explosion of lightning, an earsplitting crack and answering boom in the sky above. Debris flew and Anam reared, dancing away. When the flashfaded and my eyes adjusted, the soldiers at the door were only ash and scattered, smoking body parts.

I wheeled Anam around and raced after Byrgir. I didn’t know where he meant to go, but he was headed further into the city, deeper into the chaos. Maybe aiming for El’s house? I loosed arrows at Paragon soldiers as we passed, and saw other emblems on shields as I rode after Byrgir: A gold ash tree with a red rose on either side on a field of green. The coat of arms of King Evander.

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