"Stay back here, Talal," she called out to the boy, who'd wandered halfheartedly to follow the globes. She heard the scrape of feet on stone and Talal's voice, echoing back to them.
"The tunnel slants down!" he called out. "Spikes on the walls, but the bottom's clear."
Through her exhaustion, the words came to Meisha sluggishly. Spikes on the walls.
Memories of her own trek through the caverns came rushing back from a buried place in her mind.
With an incoherent shout of warning, Meisha came to her feet. She ran in the direction Talal had wandered, knowing even as she skidded down the slant that she would be too late.
The boy's foot touched a pressure plate identical to the one Shaera had encountered on her ill-fated journey farther up the Climb. Meisha heard Morgan shout as the thief recognized the danger, but her eyes were only on Talal.
She pushed off, using the slanted stone for leverage, hurling herself into the boy. They crashed together to the floor as rocks rained down on them.
"Meisha!" Kall shouted, but his voice was lost in the hail of battering stones.
Meisha heard Talal screaming in her ear. She felt the impact of the stones against her back, smashing ribs and bruising flesh.
"No," she whimpered, when Talal's screams abruptly cut off. She felt the boy go limp in her arms. In Meisha's mind, all she could see were Shaera's dead eyes, all she could hear was the prayer to an unknown god the girl had whispered in the dark. Talal had no one to watch over him. He was alone in the dark.
Shaera's blood-covered visage . .. Varan's ruined eye .. . Laerin's blood on a demon's claws.
Something inside Meisha broke. Without thought or hope, she called the fire.
Flame blazed from her eyes, her mouth, from every wound torn open by the falling stones. Meisha's pain disappeared, replaced by raw burning—a heat that should have incinerated her body but did not. The fire did not even singe her clothes. Instead the flames shielded her, casting away the falling stones or burning them to smoking blisters before her eyes.
Meisha had never experienced this kind of release. The power within her swelled, and for the first time in her life, she felt nothing could harm her. The fire consumed all, taking thought and emotion and turning the world black inside her mind. Safe in the flaming cocoon, she could exist as one with her element and never have to feel the pain of the world again.
Is that what you want?
Dantane's words echoed in her mind. "Yes, oh yes!" she screamed, crying tears of black flame.
Let me stay this way, always.
"Meisha!"
She heard the voice near her ear, frightened but insistent, distracting her from her paradise. Meisha tried to ignore it. The fire beckoned her, seductive and soft, a lover's touch that banished all her memories. She did not even recognize the voice calling her.
"Meisha."
Hands gripped her shoulders, shaking her and sending waves of cold through the inferno. Meisha shuddered at the icy touch.
"Go away," she snarled, hearing the flames in her own voice. "Leave me be!"
The hands shrank back, and for a moment Meisha thought they would retreat. Then she felt the slap across her cheek, sharp and brutal. The hands shook her again, harder.
Meisha reared back, prepared to burn her attacker to cinders, when she heard the choked cry of pain. The voice spoke her name again, this time in anger.
"Meisha—stupid, flame-kissing Harper—have done!"
Meisha opened her eyes. The flames drained out of her body, leaving her weak and quivering. She collapsed on top of Talal, who squeaked in fresh agony.
"How many ways are you trying to kill me!" the boy screeched, pushing her off and scrambling away.
"You're alive," Meisha said wonderingly. "The cave-in ... I thought it had killed you. It killed her—Shaera."
"Is she all right?" came Kall's voice from somewhere above her head.
"Babbling something, but I always knew her mind was addled," Talal said. The boy snorted, but his eyes were filled with concern when he looked down at her.
"How?" Meisha asked.
"Your fat bulk shielded me from the worst of it," the boy said, grinning. "Got a nasty bump, though." He touched his head and winced. "Your back's going to have some pretty scars on it."
He reached under her arms and felt for broken bones as Kall and the others approached.
Meisha caught Talal's wrist and saw the blistering burns on his palm. Her eyes filled with misery. "I burned you," she said bleakly. "I could have killed you."
"You could have killed us all," said Kall, as Garavin knelt beside her and muttered a prayer. "But you didn't."
Meisha looked at Dantane. She felt the dwarf's healing wash over her, closing the worst of her injuries. Talal was right, she thought. Some of the scars would never heal.
"I felt the power," she told the wizard. "The element. I was fire. I wanted it so badly."
Dantane nodded, understanding, but Talal scoffed. "Showing off was what she did," he said. "Boom! That's all you sorcerers are about."
Meisha touched the boy's wrist. "Thank you for telling me when to stop," she whispered. This time, moisture trailed down her cheeks rather than fire.
Talal's face scrunched up at the sight of the tears. He looked more panicked than he had when she was on fire. "Get me out of here, Lady, and we're even. Sune's teats, I swear this is the last time I'll ask."
"Can you continue?" Kall asked her.
With Talal's aid, Meisha got to her feet. "I can," she said.
He nodded. "Let's go, then. There's still a long climb, and the Shadow Thieves are waiting."
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Keczulla, Amn
5 Marpenoth, the Year of Lightning Storms (1374 DR)
When Kall emerged from the Bladesmile estate and saw the black cloud hanging in the sky above the Gold Ward, he didn't realize it was alive. He'd been on guard for a Shadow Thief ambush, but the portal room, both in the Delve and the estate, was deserted, the gates active and waiting. He'd been certain it was a trap, but there was no sign of the Shadow Thieves or Varan.
When the black cloud shattered, the birds scattered throughout the city, some dropping from the sky impaled with arrows, others on fire, reeling wildly in the air like dying phoenixes. Kall knew at once where they'd come from.
"Take Garavin to Waukeen's temple," he told Morgan and Talal. The dwarf still walked in a haze, his strength depleted. Kall didn't know how long it would take for him to recover from his experience. "Meisha, Dantane. Come with me." He offered no other explanation; he simply ran toward his home.
He was almost to the line of dark hedgerows that led up to the main entrance when Meisha and Dantane caught up. With surprising strength, the Harper yanked him down behind the hedge while shadows moved in front of the burning house.
Kall grabbed her by the front of her jerkin, both in fury and to steady himself. "If you're not going to help me," he snarled, "get out of my way!"
Meisha glared at him. "Clearly you've forgotten whom you're speaking to," she said, nodding to the house. "They have Varan. I will merrily tear your home apart to find him if it pleases you, but I would rather not die until Balram is writhing safely in the deepest Hells." She leaned close. "I have held myself in check; now you will do the same. Remember your promise, Kall."
They held each other's gaze, and then, jarringly, Kall's face split in a grin. "Fine—tear the place apart. But clear a path for me first. Remember the garden?"
* * * * *
The guards stationed at the double front doors were shocked when they saw Balram and his two companions re-enter the hall, bleeding from scores of scratches and bites. At the same time, light—bright as a bonfire blaze—filled the vertical windows aside the front doors.