Firesoul

Chapter 2

 Ryan walked along, kicking at the ridges in the dried mud until he could stay silent no longer. Which admittedly, wasn't that long.

"Tabarion, you've got the wrong person."

"Ah ha, welcome back to the world," Tabarion said. "You have not spoken a word since we left the Council. I was beginning to wonder if you had gone mute in honor of the occasion."

Malzie laughed, her frilly dress swaying playfully in the breeze. Ryan jolted. They were passing through Old Man Bolverick's fields near to the Dark Oak Inn. Had she been with them the entire journey?

"Where are the horses?" he realized aloud.

"It was urgent that we reach the Council quickly," Tabarion said. "It was not, however, necessary to return to the inn in an equally time efficient manner, and consequently not worth the risk of being stopped by Imperial soldiers. You punched one of them this morning, and we are both lacking the necessary documentation. I have not paid the horse tax in more years than I would care to admit – or in other words, I have never paid it at all, because no one should have to pay a tax to ride his own horse. And I believe your last payment was made the same time as mine. But fear not, my boy," he continued. "I will bring them back to the inn safe and sound after dark."

"You'd better," Ryan said. "Or Dicra will leave me hanging from those blasted rafters until my bones have crumbled into dust."

Malzie made a bizarre noise that sounded suspiciously similar to a snort.

"What is so funny?" Ryan said.

"You are!" she said unabashedly. "We've been walking for almost an hour. Did you really just notice?" She snorted again, exploding into uncontrollable laughter.

"All right Malzie, that is enough," Tabarion said. "The boy has already been through a good deal today. He did not even know the Council existed before this morning."

"What?" Malzie squeaked.

"I had heard of it," Ryan said. "I just thought it was an old story to comfort the weak and hopeless."

"You didn't believe it existed?" the girl said. "Emperor's beans!"

"Now Malzie," Tabarion said. "It is never fair to judge someone by your knowledge and experience unless theirs is identical, which – as far as I am aware – is never the case. It has been easy for you to believe in the Council because your mother has been a member of it since before you were born. Ryan has not had that same advantage."

"Your mother is on the – wait, that doesn't matter," Ryan said. "None of this matters to me, because you've got the wrong person. I am not the 'son of the Kings.' I haven't the faintest idea who this 'foretold Warrior' is – or whatever you call him. Tabarion, I really thought you knew me by now, as I assume did you, but apparently we were both terribly wrong."

"But Ryan, you're a firesoul," Malzie protested.

"I don't even know what that means!" he yelled, frustration igniting his anger.

The girl gasped. "You don't?"

She was not laughing anymore.

Tabarion sighed. "Ryan, maybe you had better sit down."

"Where?" Besides the thick mud, the field offered only the stubby remnants of last fall's harvest.

"Malzie, would you care to..."

"Certainly!" she said, pulling the large flower from her hair and unceremoniously dropping it into the mud. But when she picked it up, it was not a flower. It was a small stone, nearly identical to the one resting in Ryan's pocket. He watched, unbelieving, as she dropped it again and a large velvet cushion took its place when it hit the ground.