Fallen Allegiance

Chapter Three

Sayer was a fast runner, actually, that was an understatement. Even Ward couldn't run that fast. It probably had something to do with the fact Sayer was a warrior. Dwynwen was even faster than me with her short legs. I was panting and sweating by the time we reached the tower. I gaped up at the beautiful, but dangerous, red flames.

"How.. the h-hell am I me-meant to st-stop that?" I said in between gasps.

Sayer folded his arms and stared curiously at the flames, "That's one naughty pixie." he said. He wasn't even breaking a sweat! His breathing was even steady! Sheesh, my new friends were fit. I wiped my forehead with my hand and nodded weakly.

"I'll have to fix it, seeing you can't use your stone and Sayer is better at water stuff," Dwynwen muttered, reaching into her pocket and bringing out a stone. "Ah! This was Khadi's stone, she couldn't use it, it didn't work for her. Maybe you will have more luck, here." Dwynwen threw the stone at me and I quickly snatched it out of the air.

Looking down at it, the stone fit comfortably in the palm of my hand. It looked like my father's stone, a clear white but when held in different lights glittered different colours. I gasped as suddenly the stone heated up, burning my skin. I dropped it in shock and clutched my hand to my chest. Sayer look at me in amusement.

"That never happened to Khadi," he said, smirking at me. I rolled my eyes, I wasn't Khadi, he should get that in his head.

"Enough chit chat, let me focus," Dwynwen snapped at us and Sayer immediately was quite, to my surprise. Dwynwen was muttering things to herself, her left hand closed around something small. Closing her eyes, I saw Dwynwen wave her right hand over her left and as she opened her left hand a small red stone spun up, hovering in the air. Still muttering thing, Dwynwen waved her hands around the stone and it started to turn a brighter red.

"What is she doing?" I whispered to Sayer, keeping my eyes on Dwynwen.

"Controlling the fire, she has a natural talent for it," he said. I turned to glance at him, he seemed to be in some sort of trance and was staring at Dwynwen in awe. I looked away quickly, I doubted Sayer wanted me to see him looking at Dwynwen like that. It was a strange look, almost a longing look. A look you might give something in a shop you want badly but couldn't have, and I saw no reason for Sayer to be looking at Dwynwen like that. I pushed the thought to the back of my mind, it really wasn't any of my business.

Dwynwen's eyes finally opened, glowing red, and she reached forward toward the flames swirling around the tower. I gasped as the flames reacted to her gesture, spitting out red sparks and crawling down the stone walls. Dwynwen was breathing quickly, her stone growing bigger and bigger, still radiating red light. The flames crawled down to the pavement and started to slither towards Dwynwen.

I yelped, jumping backwards into Sayer, taking him by surprise. He grabbed my arms firmly and pinned them by my side, forcing me to stay still. My heart quickened as the flames slithered closer, I could feel the heat from where I was standing, beautiful to look at, deadly to touch. The flames circled around Dwynwen, dancing around her. She laughed as the flames pricked her skin and I cringed, wasn't that painful?

Footsteps coming towards us made Dwynwen quickly summon the flames into her stone where she trapped and extinguished them. Quickly slipping her stone into her pocket, Dwynwen folded her arms and came to stand behind me and Sayer.

A shadow appeared around the corner and at first it was so big I thought it was some sort of giant, but soon it shrunk to human size and a tall girl appeared from behind the corner. Giants, what was I thinking? The girl had shoulder length brown hair and a fringe which flicked in front of her accusing hazel eyes. She seemed to strut forward but then seeing me faltered and held her arms up in surrender.