Quest Of The Dragon Tamer (Book 1) (43 page)

One question stood out in Fraul’s mind. Was love worth the pain?

The betrayed’s torpid eyes widened and she tentatively reached up to touch Aaron’s cheek. All people had heard the story of the Avenger. Everyone knew his look and his compassion. The betrayed’s eyes filled with tears, endowing them with a vitality previously absent. The edges of her mouth rose into a semblance of a smile. It came close to breaking Fraul’s heart.

The girl began to relay the story. Ren was mentioned. Fear for both Ren and her brother was evident in her broken voice. Fraul slowly became aware of who lay before him: Manda of Crape.

As Manda’s tale started to unfold, Aaron became almost blinding to look upon. Sparks circulated outside his clothing as if they were too multifarious to remain confined.

When Manda finished speaking, Aaron hugged her close.

“I want to watch you do it,” she said. “Let me come with you. I want to see him die.”

Aaron pulled back. “No, my child, you must wait for me here. I’ll be back, and then we’ll find your brother.”

Aaron lifted Manda and put her in Fraul’s arms before jumping on his black stallion and turning in the direction of Stardom. Although Valor would be dethroned, Fraul felt no joy. The girl in his arms drained all elation from him. Fraul gritted his teeth. If Manda’s fever didn’t break soon she would die of malnutrition. He would kill Alezza for this.

Fraul glanced up and watched in amazement as the Avenger’s stallion left the ground and galloped paces above the terrain, almost too fast for the eye to see.

- - -

The horse took to the air upon the Avenger’s command, galloping on air particles that had formed a bridge over the castle wall. As he landed on solid ground the guards sounded the alarm, but when they recognized him they fell back, stumbling as they went. He was used to the sight. He had lived it for centuries.

His name was whispered among the onlookers like a plague. Some faces drained of color. Other mouths gapped open in awe.

The Avenger spurred his mount forward, barely taking notice of the people. He had witnessed the scene a thousand times before. Those backing away were those who had betrayed friends and loved ones. The others, the ones transfixed by the sight of him, were pure. Not many were pure.

Now that the final avenging power surged inside him he saw all the betrayals of those he passed. A guard to his left hung his head in shame for claiming it was his arrow that hit the mark, not his friend’s, which advanced him into the king’s guard. Another had betrayed a lover, insisting it was she who seduced him into fornication. Another had denounced a prominent man in an accusation of molestation. Yet they weren’t the ones Aaron came for. He only avenged betrayals that could cause death.

His horse’s hooves were the only sound ringing across the courtyard, but no one moved to stop him. To try and destroy him was sure death. One spark of his pain was too much for any mortal to bear.

He concentrated on the road ahead, feeling his anger building until it reached a zenith. Then love welled in his soul for the girl he had held in his arms, caressing the anger. When the love reached the point of hurting, the pain built even higher. And so it continued: the anger, the love, and the pain. He was like a rod electrified with the three internal elements. Just as the anger reached a high, the love overwhelmed. Just as the love culminated the hate, the pain surged into a profusion of anguish.

All the while Manda was at the foremost of his mind. Something was special about her, something almost sacred. She had been in unspeakable pain, but not for herself. Her only concern was her brother. It was the mark of true beauty: caring for another so much you were oblivious to your own pain.

Valor had betrayed both his children.

Anger rose inside Aaron like a torrent of darkness. It almost blinded him.

Stardom’s main entrance was open. The guards beside it had run for their lives.

He dismounted, letting some of his power remain around his horse. The black stallion sizzled with sparks, protecting it from any who may try to stop him, though he knew none would.

Aaron drew his golden sword in the silence that had descended upon the castle and lifted his head to the balcony where he felt the betrayer’s heartbeat. A breeze swooped down from the north, causing his cape to billow behind him like wings of death.

His eyes locked on Ista’s deformed face. Her gaze displayed no concern. She knew he didn’t seek her. She hadn’t betrayed anyone for she had never loved anyone, and she had never insinuated otherwise. But she was black with deaths, and her soul was condemned hundreds of times over.

Then he saw the betrayer backing into the shadows. The Avenger shifted his gaze, watching the betrayer watch him. The betrayer’s heartbeat quickened in the Avenger’s ears. The king of Crape, ruler of Newlan, turned this way and that, seeking escape.

The betrayal sword began to sing a song of blood. It hungered for it. The Avenger turned and strode into the now deserted hallway.

The betrayer’s heartbeat continued to sound in his temples. Valor’s murmurs echoed like screams in the Avenger’s mind. The Avenger thought of Manda again, her lost innocence, her broken body, and her tears. He wanted to make this betrayer suffer a long time.

He continued onward, drawn by the betrayer’s blood. The guards he passed fell back. Some cowered like wounded animals. The Avenger walked on, his footfalls tolling like knells of death.

As he entered a long-domed hallway, Aaron recalled the stories Fraul had told him about Ren. He could judge enough about people through others to realize this Ren was someone he would be proud to know. In a strange way he felt like he was avenging Ren as well. It was the betrayer who had taken over the crown prince’s kingdom.

As he walked up the black marble stairs leading to the upper reaches of the castle his vision narrowed into one path, directly to the betrayer. A doorway to the left was where the pathway stopped. The Avenger marched on. With each step his blood pumped with a greater drive toward vengeance. With each step he breathed in more of the betrayed’s pain.

The Avenger reached the landing and turned toward the door. He clutched the golden sword tighter. Its hunger for the betrayer’s blood escalated in intensity. When he opened the door the betrayer looked at him with the same green eyes as the betrayed. The ruler of Newlan fell against the stone balcony, begging for forgiveness, weeping in fear.

The golden betrayal sword now sung with a deafening pitch, shrieking its hunger for the blood of the betrayer. The Avenger licked his lips in anticipation, yearning to feel the sword’s tip find the betrayer’s heart and drink the blood of a man who didn’t deserve to live.

The Avenger raised his sword and put its tip over the betrayer’s heart, pinning him to the balcony. The betrayer murmured to the Maker, but the Maker had already turned his back on the scene. The Avenger was the Maker’s righteous judgment. When Aaron was born the betrayer had lost all chance of salvation. Slowly, the Avenger sunk the golden tip of the sword into the betrayer. The power surged through the Avenger like a deluge, flowing through the sword and inside the betrayer. The Avenger began reliving all the pain of those before Manda. Their pain rose inside him, seeping into his sword and out the tip into the betrayer’s heart.

The betrayer screamed in agony as the sword’s magic began to work. Both the physical and the mental pain churned inside him, condemning the betrayer to the fates of every betrayal Aaron had ever avenged. Valor was burned, drowned, raped, beaten, starved, cut, and skinned.

Aaron felt it all as well, surging inside him, sending all the pain with white-hot fury into the betrayer. But the Avenger was used to the pain, the betrayer was not. As Aaron relived every sin of every betrayer and felt the pain of each betrayed Valor died as the horrors of each betrayal happened to him, was condemned as all of the betrayers’ sins weighed on his shoulders, and through it all Valor felt no remorse.

Then Manda’s own pain surfaced: the cry for her father as she realized the horror of his betrayal, her rape, her beating and her suffering for Chris. All came in a torrent of force. Valor released an agonizing cry as Manda’s pain tore through him. The Avenger stood in judgment, watching as his own hand took the life of another. Although he hungered for the betrayer’s blood there was no joy in the act, only profound sorrow that he had to stand in judgment at all.

Valor’s punishment was unmatched by any other before, just as the last Aaron’s sword had pierced was unmatched by his precursor. With each additional betrayal there was that much more pain. The Avenger watched Valor’s body slowly begin to incinerate as the love and pain of the betrayed damned his soul.

After Valor collapsed in death, the Avenger turned to look at the woman crouched in the corner. Ista’s eyes were wide, but they held no fear. She only cowered to avoid the sparks from his body. He could see her trying to determine how she could capture him, use his power, as she had done, and would continue to do to many others.

Aaron stepped closer, feeling as if he were wading through diablerie as he did. Despite the repellent sensation he leaned down until he was only a hair’s breath from Ista’s face.

“You want me, Ista?”

She remained quiet, but her eyes flashed with hunger. Aaron breathed in his power, letting a few sparks fall dormant to the ground. “Make this sword turn gold again, Ista. You can have all of me then. I promise you that.”

Ista’s eyes flickered to where the betrayal sword had turned its true silver, satisfied with the betrayer’s blood.

Aaron waited until Ista’s eyes refocused. When he spoke his voice was low, grating. “May choice evade you, may chance turn from you, and may the Maker’s fates condemn your soul.” It was an ancient curse, one he had never spoken before.

Turning, he strode back the way he had come. No one stopped him. No one dared. The Avenger walked with righteous judgment, and all knew they were deserving of his sword.

- - -

When Lazo left the tunnels the Mar had yet to claim him, but he could feel it swelling inside him like an underground stream. Soon the stream would overflow and he would be drowned.

Lazo was tired. His back ached from the weight of his emotional burden and the blazing sun left him parched. His bare feet already had blisters from the rugged terrain and it was just after midday.

Ever since he was born he had been in schools and palaces, obtaining knowledge and training to become an advisor. The extent of his travels had been from one school to another, and during those travels he was either reading in a private room on board a ship or being read to as he rode across country.

What was he to do about food? He knew all about animals and vegetation, weapons and strategies, but nothing about making a trap or carving an arrow. If he lived he would entreat the Advisor’s Convent to teach its pupils how to survive without castles and servants.

Lazo was so engrossed in his thoughts he didn’t hear the pounding hooves until it was too late. He began to run with all his might but his lungs were on fire and his feet stung with each step. Then the horse was beside him. Lazo fell to his knees, knowing escape was futile.

“Running from Stardom?”

Lazo looked up into golden eyes. Small pinpricks of power surged over a muscular body.

Lazo nodded, unable to find his voice.

“Ally of Ren.” It wasn’t an inquiry. It was a declaration.

Lazo nodded again.

The Avenger studied him, dark hair billowing in the wind. The Avenger looked into Lazo’s soul, stripping him of all sin, dissecting each action and each step his life had taken. The Avenger extended his gloved hand. Lazo took it and swung up behind him. Profound relief flooded through him as the horse began to move faster than the wind. He turned to watch Zier become only a small dot on the horizon.

It was the end of his life as he knew it. He would never hear Jasta or Justin’s quiet murmurings. He would never share with them a silent inner smile. He would never again be part of something as wonderful as their siblinghood.

Lazo collapsed on the back of the horse. The grief he hadn’t allowed himself to feel stole over him like a thief. The stream rose higher. A silent trickle of despair leaked free.

He fought to damn the water. He couldn’t give into the Mar. It was too soon. The water stilled. The trickle abated.

When gentle hands lifted him from the horse, Lazo opened his eyes. The Avenger still glowed with a soft light but it had lessened. A gray-haired man looked up from where he knelt by a fire. Something tugged at Lazo’s memory. It was Fraul, Ramie’s captain. Lazo noted the concern in Fraul’s gray eyes as he looked down at the girl bundled in blankets beside the fire.

“I’ve broken her fever, Aaron, but she won’t stop shivering.”

Lazo was shocked. How had Fraul met the Avenger? It seemed they were close. Lazo questioned his former conclusion. Maybe he had been mistaken?

No. The man glowed with power. The man’s horse rode the wind. There could be no mistaking the man’s identity.

The Avenger walked over and knelt beside the girl, whispering words in a foreign tongue. Lazo stepped forward, feeling out of place but somehow drawn to the bundled form by the fire. His eyes fell on the mound of red hair.

“Manda!”

Aaron turned. “You know her?”

Lazo nodded, leaning down to take Manda’s hand. Her face was severely battered, her jaw broken. Fates! What had happened to his Manda!

When Manda had first visited Stardom they had grown close. She followed him everywhere, fascinated by his contrasting eyes. He tried to coax her to play with other children, but she always replied he was the only friend she needed. It had touched him deeply.

Every year thereafter when she visited Stardom they spent countless days together. Manda told him it was her mission in life to see him smile. And smile he did. Manda’s cheerfulness and winsome charm could bring a smile to any man’s face. The older she became, the closer they grew. They would sit for days and discuss books and history. She was voracious for knowledge, soaking up every morsel of information he could give. He loved to teach and she loved to learn.