Chapter 52 - To Rekindle a Flame

  “So much for settling our score,” Aki said.

  “So much for it,” Aaron agreed as he bound the barkeep to a strong wooden post.

  “Coward.”

  “Oh, so we're being petty now, Aki?” There was a twinkle in the barkeep's eye. A part of Eksa was still beholden to her, and that made Aaron hate Aki. Odd though how mellow those feelings had become after sharing a brief moment as allies in a battle. “We'll settle it one day, this I promise,” he said, tugging on the ropes hard to bind her wrists. He put a lantern to the binds to check the knots and make sure they'd hold. One day. After all, I still need to prove myself superior to her.

  Aki's eyes narrowed. “Settle through a wrestling match?” she asked.

  Aaron rolled her eyes. “I'm not releasing your binds just because you can get me hard, woman.”

  “Many thanks for your admittance, brat. What's happened between you and the girl anyhow? She cringes at your presence.”

  Aaron paused for a breadth of a second while turning to leave. He then carried on, leaving the barkeep's question unanswered. He found Eksa waiting at the bow, staring into the perilous stalagmites barring the way farther to the south. A lantern next to barely lit one half of her. Wood splinters from Dillon were scattered about her feet, while the wreckage of the ruined ship still floated.

  Aaron sucked in a breath and came to stand a few feet away from her. “We can't leave yet,” he said.

  Eksa shuffled farther from his side. She was chewing on lock of her own hair, all of which was soaked from the rain and stuck to her face like seaweed. The shine upon her face from the low light at her side made her oh so gorgeous in that moment. Aaron felt his mouth dry. She isn't mine. I cannot claim this beauty. I've lost that privilege.

  “Why not?” she slowly asked.

  Aaron faced the cave opening in the cliff wall. “I have to go there,” he pointed.

  She turned toward him, giving him a sharp stare. “To finish off the serpent?”

  “No. It's… I cannot say. I just have to. Trust me on this?”

  “Trust…”

  Aaron cringed. Right. Why would she trust me?

  “No,” Eksa said. “We're returning to Kovar. That's final.”

  “This matter is not up for debate, Eksa. I'm going. Feel free to leave without me. I'm not deserving of you after all.”

  “Now you listen—”

  But Aaron wasn't listening at all. He identified a large plank of wood that he might use as a raft from Dillon's wreckage. Then he jumped overboard, landing in the cool water with a splash. For a moment, he flailed, but his fingers caught the wood board and he somehow managed to get atop of it.

  Someone else fell into the water a moment later, and for a second, Aaron thought Eksa had followed him, but Viper was the one to surface soon after. “Should I have followed you?” the Shadow Walker asked as Aaron pulled him on to the raft.

  “No,” Aaron said. “But I'm grateful for it all the same.”

  ***

  Eksa found her breath stolen from her. He jumped. Aaron had just jumped. And Viper followed him. Together, they were slowly paddling toward the Cliffside using planks of wood as makeshift oars.

  No you don't. You don't just get to disobey me like that and run away. Not the least without an explanation either. Eksa felt rage bubble within her. But she felt fear also. Aaron was going to the cave. He was willingly going to the serpent creature that had nearly killed them all. Her heart was relieved to be away from his presence, but it wailed with the thought of what might become of him in that cave. “I hate you,” she mumbled. “I hate you so much.”

  “Sooo, are we following them?" Jackrin asked from behind. He had his mask on again.

  Eksa swept away her tears with haste, nodding. She steadied herself with several breaths, giving orders to the crew to hold position before finding a board of wood below and jumping overboard herself, Jack following suite. I hate you Aaron.

  ***

  Sea water did not flow too far into the cavemouth. Aaron and Viper hauled their small raft on to land then turned to face the utter darkness set before them. Not soon after, Jack and Eksa arrived with their own little raft, the latter holding two lanterns.

  “Thought you might need these,” Eksa said bluntly, holding them out. The rusted holds of the lanterns creaked as they swung back and forth in her hands.

  “You should go back,” Aaron said, taking both lights from her and giving one to Jack.

  Eksa unexpectedly stepped forward and jabbed a finger in his chest. “No! You don't get to tell me what I should and shouldn't do. I get to make those decisions. I'm here because I want to be, understood? And you're here against my will.”

  “I…” Aaron scratched his head. It wasn't safe for her to be here. But how would he tell her that? It isn't safe for her to be anywhere near me for that matter. Not after what I did. “Can you at least wait here—”

  “No!”

  Aaron sighed. He didn't know what to tell her in that moment. He turned around and carried down into the bowels of the cave, the lanterns barely lighting the path forward for a dozen feet or so.

  ***

  “I'm scouting ahead,” Viper said, disappearing into the Umbra.

  Eksa nodded, as if those words had been meant for her. He was probably talking to Aaron. It was uncanny how the Shadow Walker fell forward and just disappearing as if having sunk into the ground.

  The trek through the dark continued on for what felt hours. Eksa's arm twitched and her breath caught often when clarity caught up with her drifting thoughts, telling her that she was walking alongside Aaron. The sleeves of her coat and his touched a number of times. She unconsciously stepped a half an inch closer to him. The pain in her heart was more readily borne than the fear she felt from the darkness of the surrounds. Eksa gazed at him, wondering if he might notice. The memories of that night did not return. She moved another inch closer, testing her own comfortability as one might when dipping their toes into water. Her hand was just shy of touching his, and she wasn't cringing at it.

  Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Something sharp cracked beneath Eksa's foot. She jumped with a yelp, clinging to Aaron's arm. He gave her a curious frown and she backed away. “Um…”

  Jack knelt to examine the ground. “Rotten and dried wood. This could easily have been here decades if not centuries.”

  Aaron waved his lantern around, discovering more dead planks and a half broken post that might easily have been used to tie a line to once upon a time. “Flames,” he breathed. “This is a landing. Water used to flow here long ago. Ships used to visit this place.”

  Eksa's mouth parted as she took in better measure of her surrounds. She felt a new round of goosebumps form as all manner of imaginations took the helm of her thoughts. A place formerly visited by people, but of which no record now remains. Her explorer's curiosity was piqued. “What if there's a hidden city?” she thought. “What if there's treasures and all manner of other things just waiting to be discovered?”

  Both Aaron and Jack were frowning her way. She blushed, realizing she'd spoken aloud. “Anything or anyone that might have been here has probably been ruined or eaten by that serpent,” Jack said.

  Eksa scowled. “Just a thought. Way to sour the mood.”

  “Oh my bad, why don't you try being tossed in the air by a giant scaly, fire breathing, acid spewing, serpent with three heads that's trying to both eat you and kill you at the same time and not have a cynical outlook on the state of its lair after the fact.”

  Eksa put her hands on her hips. “Well when you put it like that…”

  “Anyway, are you sure our ever peril braving crew won't sail without us?” Jack asked. “Cause I can't swim. We left in a hurry.”

  Aaron turned to her. “Me neither,” he said slowly. “You did leave appropriate orders before following me, right?”

  Eksa stared at the two with an open jaw. “You mean to tell me you both decided to board a ship without knowing how to swim, and you didn't think to learn for the past however many years we've been together?” she asked, ignoring their question. They nodded like a pair of guilty children. “I can't believe you! And Viper called me the stupid one!”

  “And I'm not inclined to change that opinion,” the Shadow Walker claimed, suddenly rising out of the ground like a sprouting tree growing in the span of seconds. “You're all standing here in a monster's cave bickering without even thinking to whisper, while that beast is waiting but a few hundred paces ahead in a pitch black opening, hiding inside of a spring. I couldn't confirm its depth, but there's eggs across the spring, Eksa. I can see why it doesn't want us here.”

  There was a pause between the four of them. Eksa wondered if she was thinking the same as everyone else. When no one spoke up she said “So are we going to steal an egg? I mean, after killing the thing of course. It is intelligent. You're not going to actually claim it wasn't speaking are you?”

  “… It was,” Jack admitted.

  “So that means that it's intelligent,” Eksa proclaimed. Wild imagination took hold of her. “So if we raise a baby as our own, might we have a three headed serpent to command…?” She looked toward Aaron for approval. He was chewing on his lower lip.

  “I'm not inclined to steal a mother from her children,” he finally said.

  What? How could he mention that so offhandedly? How could he just dampen her mood and hopes? That thing was a terror on the seas and he'd just casually stabbed her in the chest with a knife labelled 'guilt'. She glared his way while his was a look of grim resignation. He turned to face the bowels of the cave and stalked forward like a spectre come to haunt its ancient lair.

  What was it that he'd come here for, truly? And why is it I decided to follow?

  ***

  Aaron held his sword, feeling useless still with the measly strength it supplied him with. The deeper he delved into the cave, the more familiar he felt with his surrounds. The only thing out of place was the sheer darkness all around. He had a strong urge to deny it. These passages were not meant to be void of light. He did not recall them so black and cold.

  Old dead layers of snakeskin lay here and there, greyish brown in color, and crusted. There were dozens of them, each and every one stretching for as long as the beast must have been. Flames knew how long it'd been occupying the cave.

  “Strange,” Jack muttered, “that men driven to recklessly charge warships would more readily cower before a single creature hidden in the dark.”

  Aaron spared the half-breed a glance. Had that been an admittance of fear, or a rhetorical statement?

  “People fear what they don't understand or see as different to themselves,” Viper said. “They fear retribution at your hands at Eksa's behest, but to them, you are but a person stronger and crueler than any they know. Warships are just another obstacle manned by people. And people is a concept they know. The serpent is not.”

  “Hm,” Jack said. He stuck his hands in his pockets, letting out a heavier breath than normal. Then he paused. “I hear its heartbeat. It sends ripples through the spring water it hides in. I feel the vibrations in my feet.”

  The wide passage of the cave was coming to an end. The clearing beyond was made visible by the bare reflections of orange light coming from the mostly still spring water. At the edge of it sat a grey wooded canoe pressed up against a bank of gravel with a single cracked oar leaning out the side. On the far end were several eggs the size of grown men.

  And beyond it all, was the source of Aaron's familiarity, the reason for which he'd come, the duty he need carry out.

  Behind the dull white eggs was an altar. A hair's width flame danced upon it, its light nonexistent. An Eternal Flame so close to death, so ill and small that it exhumed no radiance at all, let alone spreading warmth and serenity. A flame in desperate need of rekindling.

  And a mother desperate to protect it to save her precious eggs. Protect it from a Flame Bearer who might rekindle that light.

  “So… who's boarding the boat?” Jack asked aloud.

  Eksa shot him a scowl and pressed a finger to her lips. He shrugged and threw a rock into the water, drawing a gasp from her and a groan from Viper who hid comfortably away in the Umbra.

  “What?” Jack said. “We know it's here. And it knows we're here. Teasing any further will just sour the play.”

  As if his word's had been a curtain call, the three headed serpent burst from the spring with a mighty roar, waves sent crashing from its eruption, dousing Aaron and company, and pushing the little canoe closer to their feet. The boat had holes in it. Wholly useless.

  “HOW DARE YOU STEP INSIDE!”

  All six of the serpent's eyes glowed, adding six further threads of light in the cavernous space. A number of its wounds leaked dark liquid. Aaron willed himself to suffer from his past, but no shadows called to him here in the presence of an Eternal Flame. The weapon in his hand was ill better than any other iron blade, feeding him naught but a trickle of strength that might easily be wrought from a sugary treat.

  Jack had snapped on his mask and had a pair of knives in hand. “Hey, guys, we happen to have nowhere to run if it decides to breathe fire down on us.”

  “She won't use her fire,” Aaron said, certain of the fact. “It's a limited power she's saving for her eggs. Jack, Viper, I have to get to the other side. Somehow. Any which way.”

  One serpent head shot forth, jaw open. Aaron tackled Eksa out of the way while Jack lunged to the opposite side. “LEAVE,” the other two heads hissed.

  Eksa got up and began hacking at the head, her cutlass deflecting uselessly off the serpent's blue scales. Only its underside was vulnerably to sharp edges. The head jerked to the side, snarling at her. Eksa was trembling, gripping her one handed cutlass with both hands, and staring at those golden orb eyes as the head inched toward her, teeth showing and dripping noxious liquids.

  Aaron stepped between them and —reluctantly, hacked at the serpent's eye. It jerked back and almost seemed to smile. Aaron's instincts made him turn only to see the open jaws of another head coming straight for them both. Viper chose that moment to jump out the Umbra, spinning and armed with both blades. He caught a golden eye with one and the serpent shrieked, retreating. Jack threw knives with its underside exposed, but such small blades barely scratched past the creature's skin.

  “TRICKERY AGAIN! CURSE YOU!”

  Aaron's heart was pounding. He felt his mouth dry. Eksa was gripping his arm for dear life. “I… I think we should retreat,” she said, eyes wide and full of regret. “We need a proper plan. We don't even have the ballistae, and damn it all, none of you can swim, not that that would even help here. I don't want die here. And I don't want any of you to die. I need all of you.”

  Aaron carefully pried Eksa's hands away from his arm. A cloud was cleansed from his mind. Eksa had actually held him. She hadn't cringed at his touch or presence.

  “I'm sorry Eksa, but I need to go there. There's a Shrine of Flames on that side.” Rekindling that fire is my duty.

  “A shrine of what?” Eksa gasped. “So the serpent really is an evil thing…”

  Aaron spared her but a glance, feeling a dagger in his chest from her words. Not you too. His eyes sunk and at last darkness came to him. Betrayal were the feelings induced from her words. A mere few words. I love her, he admitted to himself, and she too despised Flame Bearers. She too understood that same lie as truth. She too will hate me once she knows who I am.

  Aaron channeled his newfound fury into Butter Knife and felt untold amounts of power seep into his very bones. He ground his teeth and squatted down, sucking in a breath and preparing himself to lunge at the serpent.

  “What are you doing?” Eksa asked. “Aaron? Are you going to extinguish the flame?”

  “No,” he said. “I'm going to rekindle it.”