The Winter Sun

Chapter 42

The fire cracked, its saps popping. The orange flames danced on Ezri's face, intensifying the fire in his eyes. "What do you mean a boat from Mias is coming?"

"I sent one of my soldiers to Mias. As we speak now, a boat must be coming our way," Amaya frowned. "You have to come with me," he repeated clearly and concisely, but the words failed to make sense to Amaya.

She shook her head. "I can't come with you, Ezri." The old man's words bumped into her mind like an echo. You can't go back to Ornuv. But she didn't let them bounce on her decision."I have to go back to Ornuv." She held her eyes firmly on him.

Ezri inhaled deeply. "Amaya. You can't go back, and you know that. You are in danger. This is a death sentence for you." You will die. The rusty, weathered voice resonated in her mind again, but she kept her lips tight and chin high.

"I can't leave my people." She would not let her people down, not like her Father.

"A war is only waiting to arrive. You can't prevent this." Ezri's voice was weighty, as if to crush her will.

She could see the fear in his eyes, the impatience in his tone, the jitteriness of his body, but Amaya had made that decision the moment she left the castle. "Then I will fight."

You don't know what you are talking about," he almost yelled, his voice rushing and rippling with anger. "You don't know war." He scooted closer, "You don't know the feeling of hot blood on your hands; you don't know what it is to see a comrade fall all around you and not be able to do anything. You haven't seen a blood bath, Amaya." He paused as if reviving that moment, recoiling as if he could smell the rotten flesh as they retrieved the slaughtered days after they fell. Horror printed on his face as if he could still hear the screams of his soldiers. He was there again, and his eyes clouded, his breath itching...

"Ezri." He looked up to Amaya, blinking. "I am sorry for what happened to you, but I can't let go of my people. I have seen what happened in the castle."

Ezri's chest settled. "This is nothing compared to what is coming must a war on the Continent arise."

"I am prepared."

"No one is ever prepared for that," he said, the sorrow deep in his cloudy eyes. "Not even the best soldier."

"What are you asking me to do?" Shock crossed Amaya's features. "To leave my people to fend for themselves while I hide?" The sole thought jolted her skin. "I can't. I hid for ten long years. I will no longer hide." She crushed the jewel of her mother under her grip. "I will finish what my mother started."

Ezri frowned hard, tightly. "Listen. Go back to Mias with me first, and then I will ask Father to gather an army for you. You won't be able to fight without an army."

She searched for the lie, but his gaze was steady. "What about my friends?" She looked to the side. Her gaze found Lach sitting alone on a trunk, a stick tracing the ground before him, marinating in his thoughts, and for some reason, her heart tightened.

Ezri watched him, too, and his eyes fell into a slit. "They can't come with us."

Amaya whirled her face back at him. "What do you mean they can't come with us? They helped me all the way here. It's thanks to them I am still alive today."

"How long have you known these people?" He threw his good arm to the side. "For what? A few days? I don't trust them, Amaya." He said intently.

Amaya took a step back. "I trust them. Lach saved me, and he left his family to be here with me. Bett helped us, too. I can't-"

Ezri pressed a hand on her shoulder, and she stilled. "It does not matter because as soon as My Father becomes aware of the situation of Ornuv -if he isn't already- he won't let anyone from Ornuv enter the territory. Not anyone besides you, of course."