Chapter 23: Alive

Azrael watched the skies, as Borvir circled.

Then he turned, and flew forward, toward the horizon.

Azrael narrowed his eyes.

"He has them. Mount up! We're moving!" He commanded.

The barbarians scrambled to their feet.

"Where are they?" One of them asked, folding his jagged sword away.

"We follow the dragon." Azrael replied, gripping the orb tightly under his cloak. "Move quickly! They will not slip out of our fingers again!"

He charged forward, the barbarians trundling after him, across the snowy ground.

Azrael glanced back for a moment, at the collection of brigands and sell swords he had assembled.

And he lamented that they were quite slow.

Nothing like the clan of warriors he had once ruled. He gripped the orb a little tighter.

He would improve them. In time.

Each yard was agony. Each mile, nearly impossible.

Rayla continued along the ground, the elevation increasing, as she desperately forced herself to keep going.

What could she find? She was moving at a snails pace. She couldn't be close to civilization. There was no civilization out here, as far as she knew.

But she knew that with every painful movement, she was still alive.

Every inch was a defiant rebuke of Talon, of Azrael, of everything they had done.

A rebuke of all her failures.

Nobody could call her a failure as she dragged her broken, dying form across these snowy peaks. Nobody else could've survived this.

"I'm not...Im not finished yet..." she said, more to herself than anyone. Her body was screaming at her to rest.

She refused. She grabbed a tree root, and used it to pull herself forward, across the snow.

"Come on Rayla...don't you dare get tired..." she snarled in frustration.

Her upper body was in agony. Her legs weren't cooperating enough to lift her. Her stamina was fading.

She let out a breath. Trying to coax herself onward.

Callum. Ezran. They were waiting. They had to be.

She paused. Spitting out a bit of blood onto the snow.

No they didn't.

For all she knew, they never left Etheros.

For all she knew, they died in those catacombs she led them to.

Her shoulders sagged, and she felt the despair wash over her. Tears began to run down her face.

They couldn't be dead. They couldn't be. Not after everything they'd been through. The odds they'd beaten.

The miracle they'd achieved.

And then there was a spark in her mind.

Flashing back to her fight with Talon.

"I'm going to kill them."

That's what he's said.

Rayla's tired eyes widened, as she thought back on those words.

"You...you haven't...found them...yet." She said with a wide grin. "They're still out there."

And then the unlikeliest of reactions from the dying elf.

She rolled over, and began to laugh.

"All that...dark...magic...and...runnin around...lookin like loonies...and ye cannot find the wee king or his brother...hahaaaaaa..." she wheezed.

She leaned against a tree, coughing some more.

"Please...get home...I love you guys..." her expression saddened. "I'm so sorry..." she said, feeling deaths grip on her grow tighter.

She had nothing left. No energy at all. Nothing to push with.

She had failed as an assassin. Failed as a bodyguard. And now, her final failure.

"I'm sorry Callum..." she whispered, her head pressing against the snow, as she tried desperately to lift herself up.

There was a glow on the snow in front of her. She tried to lift her head up, but found even that made her whole body shake.

"Oh dear." A soothing woman's voice spoke. "Oh my dear. No no, save your strength..."

Two four fingered hands reached down, wrapping under her arms.

She felt herself losing consciousness as she was lifted up.

Callum climbed into the guest bed, staring out the window as more snow fell gently outside.

Night came quickly this time of year.

"You okay?" Ezran asked.

Callum frowned.

"You've been asking that a lot lately." He said, turning back to Ezran, who was on the opposite bed. Bait lay at his feet.

"Yeah. Because I don't think you're okay." Ezran replied. "Without Rayla."

Callum sighed.

"I'm gonna be fine, Ez. One way or the other. I'll be okay. You've got enough to worry about anyway."

"Yeah. But you're my brother." Ezran said, rolling over to look at him. "You and Rayla are super weird but...you make each other happy. And you haven't been the same since we lost her."

"Super weird?" Callum asked. "Ezran, you can telekinetically talk to animals, Rayla and I are super weird?"

"Yeah. I didn't say it's bad. It's good. Just super weird." Ezran said with a chuckle. He paused. "Were mom and dad super weird together?"

"Sooo much weirder." Callum replied with a smile. "Every time I was in a room with them. Just so much weirdness." He said, laughing as he remembered them. "But he was the king, and she was the queen. Maybe I'm the only one who thought it was weird. I was like...six."

They sat in silence for a moment.

"I wish I knew mom, Callum." Ezran said, lifting his head up off the pillow. "Like really knew her. She was just a voice...I remember her face a little, but it's all fuzzy...I was like two."

"You weren't even two." Callum said, before looking over and noticing the seriousness of Ezran's expression, as he stared off into space.

"Hey." He said, sitting up in bed.

Ezran turned to look at him.

"Mom would be so, so proud of you, Ez."

Ezran shook his head.

"People have died for me, Callum. And here I am. Running. In my own kingdom. What is there to be proud of?"

Callum got up out of bed.

"Hey. Stop it. Look at me."

Ezran turned to look at his older brother, and he put his hands on his shoulders.

"You're ten." He said, looking into his eyes. "You should be in school. Instead you're the king of Katolis. You've already done so much to change the world for the better."

"Callum, all those people I brought to Etheros with me, they're dead...i should've stopped that from happening..."

"Ezran there was nothing either of us could do." Callum stated. "There are bad people out there. Bad people who do bad things. No matter what you do, or who you are, that doesn't change those people. You did everything you could. None of this is your fault."

Ezran nodded, looking at the floor, and Callum pulled him into a hug.

"I love you kid." He whispered.

"I love you too, Callum. Thanks." Ezran replied, hugging his midsection.

He looked up, and his eyes widened.

"Callum. I just saw something out the window."

Callum frowned, pulling away, and running to the window.

He looked up at the starry sky.

He could see the outline of something, flying across it, blocking out stars as it went.

"Callum...?" Ezran called.

"Oh no." Callum replied, turning to Ezran. "We have to get everyone out of here. Now."

"That's what makes her a hero. That's what makes her...Rayla."

Rayla's eyes opened, and she sat up quickly.

Sending a wave of pain shooting through her body. She groaned.

She was in a bed. An extremely comfortable bed.

A bed she'd been in before.

She was in a robe. Her armor, bloodied, tattered, hung in the corner.

There were bandages over her stomach wounds, and the bleeding had stopped.

All evidenced by the fact that she wasn't dead.

She looked around the small room.

And saw a figure pouring tea in the corner.

She placed it on a tray, next to a warm, wet rag.

Then walked over.

Rayla's eyes widened, as Lujanne smiled warmly at her.

"Welcome back to the land of the living, my dear." She said cheerfully.