Abased - The Exiled Warrior

Chapter 17.1 - Rebirth

Much to Alam's surprise, neither Sapphire, nor the dargu, had killed him and Clarisai. Instead the blue dragon gave them a room to recover in. It was a large, almost square, black-stoned chamber in the dead black dragon's caverns.

As with other rooms in the dragon's domain, the walls and floors had been polished perfectly smooth while the ceiling, high above them, had been left in its original cavernous state. Large sections of the walls were decorated with mosaic designs depicting dragons in full flight. So smooth were the walls and floor, that they would have been mirror-like had it not been for the decades of accumulated dust and that covered the floor, and rubbish that lined the walls. Disorganised piles of wood, mounds of discarded ashes, broken pieces of crude pottery, along with other, less identifiable pieces of trash, turned what would have once been a spectacular room into a dump.

Alam and Clarisai sat on the cold floor with their backs to the walls. Tajar's still body lay beside Alam. The three of them were nestled between a pile of gravel, on one side, and a towering stack of twigs and sticks on the other.

"I'm so glad he's alive," Alam said for the third time.

Tajar's breathing and pulse may have been weak, but at least they were there. Alam gently shook Tajar's shoulder.

"Come on, Tajar. Wake up." He looked at Clarisai. "Why won't he wake up?"

"I wish I knew," she replied. Her eyes were such a vibrant, glowing red they cast dim red illumination in the direction she faced.

To distract himself from worry of Tajar's unconsciousness and Clarisai's eyes he turned his mind to another puzzle.

"Do you think you could find your way out of here?" Alam whispered. Although no one else was visible he did not trust the way sound echoed and travelled through the subterranean passages and caverns.

"No, I am completely lost," Clarisai confessed. "You?"

Alam simply shook his head. "But we have to get out of here somehow. And fast. Who knows what Sapphire has in store for us? Whatever it is, it won't be good."

"You think she will abandon her promise to free us?"

"Of course," Alam snorted.

"That is my fear as well," Clarisai said. "Assuming we did know how to escape these tunnels, where would you have us we go?"

Alam leaned over Tajar and scooped up a handful of pebbles from the pile next to him.

"Back to the Empa clan lands."

"Really?"

"I'm pretty sure that a couple of days ago, when I was carrying you towards Sapphire's lair - or home, or whatever her white walled halls are called - I saw them in the plains below us. I'm not completely certain, but I could clearly see a river to the east that could have been the main river in our lands. If it is, we are only three, maybe even two, days away from the Empa clan lands."

Clarisai's brow wrinkled as she turned her head towards him.

"Tajar said you were banished from your home on pain of death."

Alam tossed one of the pebbles in his hand to the far side of the room. It bounced off of the opposite wall with a satisfying tink sound.

"Yes," he begrudgingly admitted.

"You may wish to try returning to your home," she said kindly to him. "Perhaps you will be welcomed back. But I can not take that path. I need to travel to my homeland. The desire to see my parents, my friends, and the land where I was raised is only growing stronger within me."

That was not what Alam wanted to hear.

"But it's winter and your land is on the other side of the mountain," Alam pointed out. "We don't even have any food. How do you plan to get across the mountains, skirt past the Morcham border without being captured, and reach your homeland without proper clothing or food?"

"This is not proper clothing?" she smiled as she held out her arms to show off her burnt, torn and blood-stained dress.

"There is no occasion that that dress would be considered 'proper' any more," he smiled back.

"A pity," she mused as she examined the damaged sleeve. "I did like it very much. It was a gift from my mother."

Alam gave a sympathetic little smile and threw another pebble across the chamber.

"Is your mother also magical like you?"

"Yes, and no. Most Evara are able to change the balance of life-force to varying degrees. My mother is particularly skilled with water. And, as you know from the story, she has far-seeing visions in her dreams. The differences between us are that I can change the life-force of a wider range of objects, and more importantly, she can control her power. She can use it without hurting her friends." She looked at Tajar momentarily before dropping her eyes. "I am yet to learn that."

An impulse seized Alam. He sat upright and turned towards her.

"Come with us to the Empa lands," he urged. "At least to see out the winter."

She met his gaze. A wrinkle of thought forming between her brows. When she did not answer he pressed on.

"They are good people. Kind people." He reached over and took her hands in his. They were cool, soft and smooth. "You will be looked after. My mother will look after you like a princess, well you are a princess already, but you know what I mean. You will be warm, and safe, and fed."

She squeezed his hands and turned her body to face him.

Words started tumbling out of him. "You can't risk going to your homelands until it's safer. It just doesn't make any sense. A comfortable two day walk to safety compared with months of extreme danger and certain death? You have to come with us."

A smile touched the corners of her mouth. She gently rubbed her thumbs over his knuckles and his heart quickened.

"I am a stranger, Alam. Do you truly think your people would accept a strange looking woman who is followed by danger?"

"You're not strange looking," Alam countered and found, to his surprise, that he meant it. His gaze traveled over her face, small and fine featured, lit only by the red glow of her eyes.

"It's true you don't look like women from The Plains..."

"Like Shaleh?" she interrupted him in a low voice.

"I'm not thinking about her at all right now," he said and leaned towards her.

Her smile grew into a shy grin. Alam steeled himself to say what had been on his mind lately, but he had been afraid to utter, knowing that, if rejected, the words could not be taken back.

"As I was trying to say, you may not look like you're from The Plains, but I find you very beautiful. But there is more to you than beauty. I find your kindness, cleverness, even your accent very attractive."

The words were not as graceful as he wished they were, Tajar certainly would have been more charming, but they were true.

Clarisai looked down, smiling but abashed. He found his gaze resting on her lips and wondering if he dared to try to kiss them.

Her thumbs rubbed over his fingers and brought resolve to his heart. He leaned over and gently pressed his lips to hers.

Heaven.

"Aaaah!"

Suddenly Tajar cried out and sat bolt upright. Both Alam and Clarisai flinched in surprise and dropped each others' hands like thieves caught in the midst of burglary.

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-Y V Qualls