Page 77 of Upon Buried Embers
My shoulders tense at that. “I don’t want that,” I whisper, my eyes fluttering as his thumb continues to smooth over my cheek.
“It’s our way. I claimed you, and any punishment must go through me, but as she’s a mother and she reacted in the face of her child upset. I’ll be lenient with her.”
I nod.
“Now, do not ever try to hurt yourself again. Understand?”
I take in a shuddering breath and nod again.
We stare at each other, him looking for something I’m not sure of, and me gazing at the purple around his pupils.
“You are an interesting little thing,” he murmurs.
“I’m just me,” I say just as quietly.
“And you are more than I think you know.”
My brows furrow. “And what is that?”
“A little spark, an ember still burning, waiting.”
“Waiting for what?”
“For a place to ignite.”
A dragon’s roar, that usually causes me to jump every time I hear it, sounds in the distance, and after one last pass of his thumb on my cheek, Rohan drops his hand.
“Come.”
I rise and follow him. He leads me out of the cabin and we walk along the outskirts of the camp, through some trees. A few stragglers join us until eventually we come upon a lake.
I stand at the back with Rohan on a small incline as everyone gathers before us.
There is a raft, I think, in the water, and upon it lies two bodies. I quickly realize it must be Ethal and Aron, wrapped in cloth with weapons laying next to them.
Cries fill the air, the happiness of earlier disappearing as a heavy sadness settles over the clan.
Drogonah flies overhead, roaring into the night sky, a burst of flames appearing. The clan look up, and I wonder why. All of a sudden, Drogonah turns, swooping down and releasing fire once more, only now it’s aimed at the raft that is floating away.
“This lake doesn’t freeze with the dragons setting it on fire over the course of winter,” Rohan tells me. He stands tall, arms crossed. I eye the ribbons wrapped around his forearms. “But there’s no joy in sending the dead to Morana with dragon fire, no matter that it’s what we wish for when we die.”
He turns and looks at me intently, the reason no doubt to do with the poker.
I look back to the water, the cries growing louder now, the raft is completely engulfed by flames. The words,May Morana guide you, pass amongst the clan.
There’s no joy if the people who love you die, but I haven’t been loved in a very long time.
“I think there’s beauty in fire,” I say, and I feel his stare upon my face. “Sometimes things need to burn to start anew.”
He’s quiet for a long moment, but his reply feels like an omen. “And sometimes things just need to burn.”
Twenty
Elf
“Wear a cloak,” Rohan says, and I grab the one I’ve been using, covering the pants and tunic. “We’re going to meet the other clan leaders today. You don’t speak, you don’t look them in the eye and you stay behind me. Do as you’re told at all times, understood?”
This wasn’t what I expected coming back here after my morning chores.
