Quiet Courage

12

Cienn didn't stop running once he'd met the camp's edge. He tumbled down the scree at the edge of the ruins and dove head first into forests beyond. He raced onward, unheeding of impeding branches, stumbling rocks or turns in his path. A large beech tree stood in his path. He skidded along the edge of its massive trunk, tearing the edge of his tunic on a chink in its smooth bark. A pile of rocks slowed him down next, but he clambered over them and moved onward into the wilds of the Skytouch Mountains. He trudged on relentlessly until he came out of the forest onto a short plain overlooking a long, fertile valley. Wind whipped at his growing hair and took his breath away. For a moment he completely forgot why he had been running as he took in the unmarred natural beauty. The wind died however, and as its blast left his face his worries and fears returned in an instant. He stood there on the plateau, running his hands worriedly through his hair.

"What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" he asked himself and the sky above. He didn't expect an answer. How could this have happened? Gerall was dead, that was what everyone had told him. Had Kerny lied to him all those days ago? And who was it that they'd hung at the harbor mouth?

But Cienn knew that all of that was a lie. Gerall had been brought as a scare tactic for the Crown troops they said, but he thought it was for a different reason. Cienn was convinced this was a message from King Kadesh. He was telling Cienn that he knew the boy was alive and that he would find him wherever he went. No one was safe as long as he was there. He would never be able to go back now. It would be better that way for everyone he'd met at Bylis. Kain would certainly be better off now. He wouldn't go back and risk their lives by being there. However he realized he wouldn't be able to save Cerenae now, and she knew even less than he did about their fledgling powers. She and his family would most certainly be lost.

He couldn't go back to save them and sacrifice all of his friends in the process. And besides he doubted they would be safe once he was captured anyways. Because surely he would be upon his return. Why did they have to find Gerall? Cienn felt hot tears burn down his face as he sobbed angrily into the wilderness. The sight of that man, a man he hadn't realized he still had feelings for, so destroyed and broken was too much for Cienn to handle. He didn't want Gerall to be alive it made things too complicated. And that was the worst part Cienn realized, that he wanted someone else dead. Someone he had loved more than himself. Someone who had betrayed that love and trust so deeply he surely deserved the death he had supposedly received. How could they have let him live? He felt hatred bubble up in his stomach. Hatred at Gerall for living, hatred at the Crown for this horrid cruelty just to make a statement, hatred at Kain for loving him despite how horrible he had been. Hatred at the Gods for putting him on this stupid path and most of all hatred at himself for feeling all these things.

He yelled, kicking a rock angrily over the edge.

As quickly as the rock tumbled off the ledge a great red bird rose up into his line of sight. Cienn screamed and fell back onto his rear. With a sound like ringing church bells it came from the clouds in a burst of light. It glided down on elegant ruby wings toward the terrified Cienn. He arched himself backwards trying to escape this monster that glowed with a heavenly light. The bird creature lighted onto the ground and bent its head down toward him. As it's beak touched Cienn's forehead he experienced a sudden mental clarity as to this creature's identity.

"A phoenix," he whispered as the great winged creature crested the ledge and spread its wings wide, casting a shadow on Cienn below.

"Quite right," the phoenix spoke, his voice sounding decidedly masculine. "I have come at the behest of my Mistress, Bitepu."

The Goddess of the Seasons, Cienn thought as the creature landed on the plateau next to him. As it furled its brilliant scarlet wings its shadow and its radiance dimmed. It almost looked like a regular creature but for a slight gleam to its body as it moved.