The Fires of Esus - Ranger's Apprentice

Chapter 8: ... and Half-Truths

"Do you believe in magic, Ranger Will?"

Will sat, rendered speechless and silent on the steps of the dais. He refused to look at the King, only at the window behind him, where he could see the trees swaying in the wind. It was a hypnotic sight, so ordinary and serene. Calming for him and his mind, which had just been turned upside down. Not that I believe what he says. Do I think he's lying? Does his story even make sense?

The King had backed off after Will's realization and was now pacing across the top of the stairs, directly in front of the throne. "I hesitated to tell you about this because I know you do not believe me. I saw it, in a vision, that you would not believe it. I am a fool to have thought you ever even had a chance. But I told you anyway. Do you want to know why?"

Will had no answer.

"Because I was hoping that you, out of all people, would believe because you had seen it." The King threw out his arms in what seemed like disbelief. "You witnessed an act of power before your very eyes, one of the few ordinary people in this world to see it. I hoped maybe you would not immediately dismiss it like you just did." He let his hands fall back to sides, his head tipping down towards his chest in disappointment.

Without warning, Halt's voice rose unbidden in the back of Will's mind. It is always better to stay open to possibilities than to assume something isn't real. "I was taught by someone much more knowledgable than me, to never dismiss something I'd never seen for myself. Since I haven't ever seen this power before, I cannot say I believe or disbelieve in it."

His brow was furrowed, Will's words didn't seem to comfort him at all. "But you did see it! And you still reject it! I should have known..." He ran his hands through his hair, pulling on the roots with his small hands so hard some of hair might've fallen out.

"King Carr, I'm sorry, but I truly don't know," Will's voice careful and soft. His thoughts were still a wreck, a tumble of tangled strings he could not hope to sort out at the moment. But he was confident of one thing: that he could fill in a few more of the holes in the story the King was trying to tell. A story that made more and more sense, even if he was a bit insane. "Back to your story. Are you implying that a druid tribe, that worships and does the bidding of a fire god, can manipulate fire using their... powers?"

He was still angry, but now it morphed into a strange glee. "Precisely, you saw it, as I said before! Do you remember the flames? What were they like?" He was excited now, like a child opening a present. He turned toward Will and the glow was back in his eyes, piercing beams of light coming out of his silhouette by the window. "Those powers are very rare, even among the most devout and powerful druids. I have never seen one, even though I dream one day I will. To see someone blessed so richly by Esus, is a miracle. Describe the fire."

"Esus?"

The King rolled his eyes. "The name of the fire god, of course. Who else?"

"Oh, sorry." The King never told me that, even though he seems to think he did. He's almost off the rails, but not quite. Will blinked and flashed back, albeit reluctantly, to the burning inn, to how the smoke and flames curled up through the floorboards, seeming to have a mind of its own. "Everything burned quickly, they spread faster than any fire I've ever seen. Nothing could put it out, my cloak burst into flames instead of smothering it."

"It burned quickly? That's it? There must be more, it's a wondrous power! What else did you see?" The King's hands twitched toward Will, and he imagined him grabbing the collar of his shirt and pulling him in close enough to smell his breath, shaking him like a rag doll to extract answers to his rapid-fire questions.

The image startled Will enough that the answer came out with a stutter. "The smoke, the way it rose and moved. It was like... like fingers. The flames, too, they reached for me. I thought it was just another strange hallucination..."