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Chapter Six

It was only a few days before Kairin and Leaire arrived at Daret. Faeria had been left behind, to her disgust, in the wilderness a few miles back. The town had clearly been spared by the Urgal's raid, but the roads were scarcely more populated than Yazuac's had been. Simply by riding through the main street, Kairin and Leaire attracted looks of all type, ranging from terror to pure hatred. Mother's clutched to their children as the pair rode by. Out of apprehension, Kairin linked with Faeria.

"This is worse than I'd imagined." Through Kairin's eyes, Faeria could see the town. Kairin felt her vague surprise as she took in the barricaded streets and boarded-up houses.

"They couldn't have been unaffected by the massacre at Yazuac, but even so, it was months ago. Something must be happening here."

Leaire, who was steering her horse close alongside Eriere, slid her hand into Kairin's. She gave her a quick glance that simply said: Be careful. Leaire slid off of her horse and began to lead him by the bridle; Kairin followed suit. They walked into the town square.

It was a generic center to a city; round, with shops and a well. But all the streets besides the one that Leaire and Kairin had come from were barricaded off with debris from buildings, wagons, and Kairin could even make out the gears from a clock tower. The shops were dark and closed, and the well boarded up. Everything gave off a vibe of hostility. There were only three people in the square, who hadn't retreated behind the barricades. One was a tall, stocky man who sat on the closed-up well. The other two were behind the counter of a slapdash trading post, little more than a lean-to with goods to sell.

Leaire approached the man on the well; he was obviously in charge. He stood up and spoke before she had the chance.

"I don't care about where you've been or where you're going," he began shortly. "There's nothing that can convince me you aren't lying anyway." Kairin couldn't prevent her eyebrows from shooting up. The man obviously cared very little about pleasantries. Leaire, however, was hardly fazed.

"We need supplies, as many and as much as you can supply." The man blinked twice.

"Fine. We don't let travelers into our regular shops anymore, but we have a booth up there for people like you." Kairin looked over at the shoddy stall, and for the first time looked at the people inside it. They were two gaunt, pitifully emaciated young women with terribly sunken eyes. Kairin's heart froze.

"I thought that the slave trade hadn't spread past Gil'ead," remarked Leaire icily. As she spoke, Kairin noticed the manacles on their wrists. The man spoke up immediately, his voice suddenly lacking its previous hardness.

"We've been seeing a lot more Empire soldiers down here of late," he began almost conversationally. "They pedal their slaves to us instead of actually paying for their goods. They seem to think they're doing us a favor," he said angrily before quickly falling silent, his jaw tightening. He obviously thought that he had said too much.

"Then you should free them." Kairin spoke up for the first time. "If you don't want them, free them." Her hands began to shake with rage.

"I can't do that," the man said haltingly. He was obviously uncomfortable with the way the conversation had turned. "It's against Empire law to free any slave, no matter whose ownership it's under."

"'it'? You're calling a human being an 'it'?" Kairin's voice became shrill. Leaire quickly seized Kairin by the forearm and pulled her away, towards the stall. Kairin could not look at the two women as Leaire bought supplies from them; she stood glaring fixedly in the other direction. Leaire hurried her through the town, trying to forestall making a scene. Kairin's hands were still shaking.

Kairin hardly noticed that they were almost out of the city until the huge gate suddenly loomed before them. Four men stood in the portcullis, and even from far away Kairin recognized their shabbiness.

"It seems that they need slaves to guard their gate for them as well," Kairin spat, speaking quickly. Leaire said nothing, but attempted to move Kairin faster to the outside. As they passed under the portcullis, Kairin couldn't help but stare at the slave guards. They were just as starved as the women, with the same sunken eyes. Each one held a sword, but in their untrained hands they looked little more than metal clubs. As she stared, something caught Kairin's eyes that made her mind explode with fury.

Around each man's neck was a cruel iron ring attached to a chain that ran into the ceiling. The chains were so short that the men were forced to stand up straight at the risk of hanging themselves with their own collars. Kairin stopped walking as her mind exploded with fury.

"How dare they? How dare someone take ownership of another person like this!" she ejaculated. Kairin didn't notice that her gedwey ignasia had started to glow. "What good does this do? This is pitiless!" She was nothing short of screaming now. Suddenly, something in her mind shattered away, leaving her thoughts clear and precise. Without thinking, Kairin threw her hand towards the chains on the ceiling.

"Brisingr!" She shouted, knowing not where it came from. The chains melted in a shower of sparks, causing the men to drop their swords and flee. The four slaves sprinted out of the gate and onto the path outside. Within moments, they were gone.

"Kairin!" Leaire's voice was frightened. "We have to get out of here before someone finds us!" Kairin said nothing and obliged, throwing herself onto Eriere and galloping out of the city, Leaire at her side.

They rode until the sun had begun to dip into the treetops, leaving the land bathed in twilight. They came to a small clearing in the forest where a tiny brook flowed through the roots of a tree. Leaire slowed her horse to a walk and then to a full stop, dismounting wearily. Kairin mechanically followed suit. Faeria was on her way; Kairin could feel her in the back of her mind.

"That was some performance you had back there," Leaire said in a voice that was clearly supposed to be disapproving, but somehow fell short. "You could have gotten us arrested."

"But I didn't," Kairin replied, unable to stifle a smile. "And I freed those men."

"You have no idea," Leaire began again, this time without an ounce of leniency in her voice. "How on earth do you think they'll survive? You saw how starved they were. They're kept that way by law, so that they're weak and won't try to escape. Those men don't last a chance in the wild, Kairin."

The weight of Leaire's words sunk in. Kairin's bubble of self-righteousness was popped. She slipped to her knees and onto the ground in horror. Seeing this, Leaire fell to the ground beside her and laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You don't need to dwell on it, but still don't forget. You did what you thought was right, but you must remember the consequences of your actions." Kairin made no response, and Leaire gave her a soft kiss on the forehead.

"If I was any sort of credible Rider trainer, I would be ripping you apart right now," she continued lightly. "But I personally think that your little discovery deserves a celebration." She untangled herself from Kairin and crossed to her horse; she began to rummage through her saddlebags.

"Discovery?" Kairin spoke up. "What discovery?" She suddenly remembered the feeling that had overtaken her back at Daret. She felt the barriers in her mind snap, her mind being flooded with that sharp, cool power. She remembered the words that she hadn't told herself to speak and the fire shooting from her fingertips. She sat up poker-straight.

"Leaire… what was that? What did I do?" Leaire turned to face her, her arms full and face beaming.

"That was something that Riders usually don't discover until they're halfway through their training. That… was magic." Leaire's eyes glittered in anticipation, but Kairin could say nothing.

"I'm sure you know that elves have powers," she said, putting the bundle in her arms on the ground. She straightened up into a serene stance, her palms pressed together in front of her and her eyes closed as if in prayer. She stood that way for a moment before her hands were suddenly forced apart by a crackling blue thunderbolt. The streak of flickering lightning danced around her fingers as Leaire let it wander free, smiling down at it as if it were some kind of pet. Leaire snapped her hands together again with a sharp clap, destroying the lightning all too soon. Once it was gone, Kairin realized that she had stood up and was leaning towards Leaire; her eyes alight like a child's. She drew back, embarrassed.

"You mean to tell me that I can do that?" Kairin lifted her own hands for inspection, unable to imagine the blue lightning threading through her clumsy fingers. Leaire took Kairin's outstretched hands in hers and squeezed them in excitement.

"You will! I swear that you will perform magic far greater than that. All Riders are blessed with magic that rivals that of the elves." Kairin's eyes widened.

"An elf?" she laughed out loud. "In my wildest dreams I never imagined that I might be as strong as an elf!" Leaire took an awkward pause before her smile widened, slightly more forced than before. Kairin scarcely noticed, for the air was suddenly filled with the sound of Faeria's wings.

"Have you heard this, Faeria?" Kairin spun to greet the silver dragon as she dropped out of the darkening sky, weaving between the trees.

"I'm proud of you," she hummed.

"I'm glad you're here, Faeria," Leaire began to rummage through the bundle she'd gotten out of her saddlebags before emerging with a long cord of rope. "I'd like to measure you, if you don't mind," she asked politely, brandishing the rope towards Faeria. Faeria shuffled her feet, setting her scales to rattling.

"She may," she conceded, bored.

"She said you can," Kairin translated. "What are you doing?" She watched as Leaire wrap the rope around Faeria's neck and shoulders at all different angles, marking the places with her fingers and whispering softly to herself.

"You'll see," she said simply, unwilling to be distracted. When she was finished, she set the rope aside and unrolled a huge patch of thick leather. She began to mark the leather with mud from the brook.

"Leaire, tell me what you're doing!" Kairin's natural curiosity was fully alive now. Leaire just smiled, keeping her eyes on her work. She began to cut shapes out of the leather with a thick, short knife from her boot until the entire length of leather was lying in strips and pieces on the ground. Her nimble fingers moving quickly, she began to tie and fit the leather together until she had a faintly familiar shape in her hands. She stood up, holding it out towards Kairin, a smirk on her face.

"This is for you."

"Oh come now, stop teasing," Kairin scolded, giving Leaire a wry grin.

"It's a saddle, Kairin," said Faeria, vibrating with excitement. "It's time for you to become a true Rider." Kairin's eyes snapped back to meet Leaire's.

"A saddle? Truly?" Enthusiasm bubbled up in Kairin, and she threw a glance over to Faeria, who stretched her wings expectantly. Kairin's eyes swept the huge span before resting on the hollow in her neck where the Rider was meant to sit. The enthusiasm bubbles began to pop as pure apprehension took over. Suddenly Faeria seemed very hard, and her spikes seemed very sharp. She looked up into the night sky and the stars seemed farther from the ground than ever before.

"I'll take care of you, Kairin." Faeria touched her nose to Kairin's.

"You don't have to try tonight," Leaire stepped in, reading the nerve's in Kairin's face easily. "Wait until you're ready." Kairin gave her a small, grateful smile.

"But let's not get lazy. Come now, draw your sword!" Leaire pulled her rapier out of its scabbard on the ground and turned to face Kairin, a corner of her mouth turned up in a half-smile. Leaire and Kairin had taken to sparring every night, as part of Kairin's training. She had yet to put up a real fight for the elf, and the bruises on her body proved that. Kairin eyed Leaire's rapier with apprehension.

"But Leaire, we'll cut each other to ribbons if we use real swords!" The two of them had always fought with tree branches before, for fear of actually wounding each other.

"I think it's time to see how well you can summon up your magic, Kairin." Leaire placed the tip of her forefinger to the point of her rapier and spoke loudly. "Gëuloth du knífr!" A spark appeared on her finger, and she ran it down the length of the blade on both sides. When she was finished, she shook her hand and extinguished the spark, offering the rapier to Kairin.

"Touch it. Go on, feel the blade," she urged. Cautiously, Kairin pressed her finger to the sharp metal. To her surprise, the weapon had been dulled so that all she felt was the cool, smooth metal. She pressed hard and ran her fingers across it, something that usually would have sliced her open. Gleefully, she went for her scabbard.

The unexpected fear she found in the thought of riding Faeria had shocked Kairin. She was resolute in finding a way to channel her disappointment. The blade made a resounding metallic note on its scabbard as she pulled it out. Determinedly, she mimicked Leaire and put her finger on the tip of her sword.

"Gëuloth du knífr!" she said, halfway confident. Nothing happened. Kairin pressed down slightly, an felt the poke of the sharp blade. "Gëuloth du knífr!" she barked again, still to no avail. Frustration swelled up inside her, but she hurriedly pushed it away. This time she concentrated, glaring at the sword in her hands, her head beginning to ache with the effort. Unexpectedly, some intangible wall inside her mind broke, immersing her thoughts in the same cool concentration that had overtaken her at Daret. "Gëuloth du knífr!" she said again, this time in a calm assurance. A spark flickered to life on her fingertip and she moved it down the blade, as Leaire had. When she was finished, she eagerly rubbed her hand across the blade, ecstatic to feel that it had lost all it's sharpness.

"Bravo, little one!" Faeria cheered. Leaire nodded in rigorous approval, to which Kairin beamed.

"Are you ready? Go." Leaire spoke softly, and began to circle. Kairin followed suit, the heavy sword feeling unfamiliar in her hands after weeks of sparring with sticks. She flexed her fingers around the metal, trying to get used to it. Before she was entirely prepared, Kairin feinted, spinning her sword halfway to Leaire's face, who began to block. Taking advantage of that, Kairin tried to spin around to the other side, but wasn't quick enough to beat Leaire, who switched hands like lightning and beat Kairin's sword away. Their blades met with a bone-jarring crash. Kairin's sword spun away, and Leaire jabbed her rapier towards her chest. Kairin squirmed ungracefully out of the way and spun, maneuvering herself to Leaire's side and slashing towards her sword arm. Unable to block, the weapon smashed into the elf's arm, bruising the fair skin. Leaire tossed her rapier and caught it with the other hand, flexing her injured arm to rid herself of the pain, her eyes never leaving Kairin's. They began to circle again. At the same moment, the two lunged for each other, their weapons meeting in the air with a musical crash. Both of them struggled for a moment, trying to gain the advantage, before Leaire suddenly danced away, leaving Kairin strumbling to regain her footing. Leaire switched her rapier back to her dominant hand, waiting for Kairin to recover. Before she was completely oriented, Kairin leapt, delivering a flimsy strike that Leaire blocked easily. Leaire returned the blow, which Kairin blocked by luck alone. Kairin attempted to force Leaire's weapon down so she could get a hit in, but Leaire was too quick. She pulled her rapier away from Kairin's and it flashed to her throat.

"You're dead," Leaire said simply. Kairin dropped her sword in disgust and fell to the ground, breathing heavily. Leaire sat beside her, and Kairin could see that she was hardly even winded.

"That really was excellent," said Leaire.

"I still lost," replied Kairin.

"That is to be expected," Leaire said soothingly. "You're less experienced than I, and I am-" Kairin cut her off.

"You're what, an elf? I know Leaire. I'm painfully aware of my humanity. Even as a Rider, I can never be as strong as you." Her voice was filled with reproach as she glared at Leaire. The woman shook her head, dumbstruck.

"I… I wasn't going to say that," she began. "Kairin, I need to tell you…" she began somewhat awkwardly. However, Kairin was no longer paying attention to her. Faeria, who had been dozing off curled around the trunk of a giant tree, was now fully alert, staring into the distance with her nostrils flared.

"Faeria? What's the matter?" Kairin asked aloud. She got to her feet to cross to the dragon, hands outstretched, and didn't see Leaire's hand stray to her rapier. Faeria's only reply was a long, rumbling snarl. Suddenly a voice made Kairin spin around.

"A reunion among friends is something quite wonderful, is it not?" The syrup-sweet voice made Kairin's blood turn to ice. Standing just outside the circle of firelight, shadows playing across his face, was Durza the Shade.

Slowly, he drew his sword.