Stretching as she sat up, Jozef looked at her thoughtfully. She had slept enough to get up, even though it wasn"t quite dawn yet."I feel as if you have something important to tell me," he said as she pulled a blood orange out of her pouch.
"I"m not sure I know what you mean," she said, popping a slice into her mouth and putting the peel into her pouch to get rid of later.
He sighed, obviously realizing she wasn"t going to tell him anything, and sat back in his chair to watch her finish the orange.
"What deity did the demons use to worship?" Aella asked.
"Why?" he asked, suspicious.
"We believe there may be a tie between the heroes and their powers with that deity," she answered.
"Aella, I know that I should know the answers, but I can"t remember. Find the sculptures I told you about, that were carved on the walls of the outposts in the northern mountains. They should answer your questions. I don"t remember anymore; it"s been too long."
She sighed. Standing up and looking around, Aella decided it was time to go. Without another word to him, she teleported to Bridgette"s room in the inn. Spying her key, next to the dirty plate from the night before, she grabbed it.
Tossing it up and catching it, "I bet the innkeeper would appreciate getting you back."
Shutting the door firmly behind her, in the predawn light, a knife was suddenly at her throat. No sooner had the metal touched her, then her cloak grew up and formed a neck brace the blade wouldn"t be able to cut through.
"Where"s Bridgette?" Alfred whispered in her ear, not noticing the brace.
"In a library," Aella answered, without hesitation, turning and looking at him, causing the knife to sc.r.a.pe against the brace, but he only raised an eyebrow in surprise at her movement.
"Well, c.r.a.p," he said, sliding the knife back into its sheath at his waist. "We"ll never get her back now."
"I have some stuff that"s important, to tell you," began Aella, wondering if she could get him back to his room before the others woke up, but Robert opened his door, across the hall, with wide eyes.
"Fire," he breathed, glancing around, and for a moment, Aella wondered if he had lost his mind.
"Where?" asked Alfred, jumping into action, heading to Josephine"s door and knocking on it.
"Just outside the town, and getting closer. It"s hungry, and big," breathed Robert, almost panting. His wide eyes focused on Aella for a moment, before sliding away. He was far too preoccupied to keep his focus on anything for long.
"Wake the townspeople!" Alfred called over his shoulder as he dashed down the stairs.
Aella scrambled after him, yelling at the bartender. Soon, half the town was outside, in the streets, looking at the billowing black smoke from the approaching fire. In the predawn light, it looked monstrous, but the sound was really the stuff of nightmares. The roar of the fire was as if a giant beast was rushing towards them.
"There"s no way the town can survive that," whispered one of the demonesses. "Everything is built from wood, and it hasn"t rained in such a long time…"
"Maybe we can outrun it, make it to the river! Everyone! Grab your horses and children!" shouted the innkeeper, turning to rush back to his inn, but Alfred laid a hand on his arm. The innkeeper was too tall for Alfred to reach his shoulder, but it was enough to stop the demon.
"We"ll stop this inferno," he promised, nodding to Josephine and then to Robert.
The demons looked at each other in confusion, before the realization that they must be the heroes, dawned on them. At first, their fear of the heroes themselves erupted over their faces, but the growing roar from the forest fire quickly snapped them back to reality.
"We"ll form a bucket brigade in case any sparks come this way," said the innkeeper, but Josephine shook her head.
"Your well is low, from the drought. If you try to haul too much water up, you"ll empty it. We have this."
He nodded at her, confusion and doubt written plainly on his face.
"See if there"s any water you can summon to aid us," shouted Alfred as he studied the situation. "Robert, calm that fire down!"
"It"s so hungry, and there"s so much food," he drawled, trying to fight some urge. "I can turn it one way or another, but I can"t calm it."
"Can you split it?" asked Aella.
Alfred looked at her for a moment before nodding and heading off to do something. Josephine went with him. Curt stood at the gates, watching with the other demons.
"Yes, why?" Robert answered, not looking at her, but at the forest where the first hints of heat could be felt on their faces.
"Split it, and keep it in the two columns, then when it gets closer, turn it to burn the bits in the middle. There won"t be anything left for it to burn and it will stop."
Aella watched as he seemed to fight the urge to argue with her, but finally overcame it. With a quick nod, he held his arms up and began to use the ability he was born with. As the fire started to become visible, and the smoke billowed closer and closer, Aella stepped back and gently pushed the air up, so the smoke wouldn"t be in their faces.
She didn"t do much, so no one could tell she was doing anything, but the urge to fan the flames. .h.i.t her hard. The air knew it could make them hotter, stronger, burn brighter, and higher. Shaking her head to focus her thoughts, she clenched her fist with the elemental command ring, and the urge left. Breathing hard, she saw Josephine was urging a trickle of water over the roots and along the ground, to the town walls, soaking the wooden wall.
Alfred returned to Aella"s side as the flames broke through to just beside the city walls, then turned, to burn the center section of forest, that Robert had urged it to ignore. Every last flame sought to consume those trees, then faltered, when the last tree was gone. Robert had tears streaming down his face as the flames almost had a mind of their own, crying out in agony as they died down to nothing more than embers, and then even those were gone.
"Good job, Robert!" cried Alfred, clapping the man on his back.
Josephine murmured her agreement, but everyone else was standing there, looking at the swath of black ash that stretched as far as the eye could see.
"Alfred, we best be leaving now," said Aella, watching Robert look like he was about to break down and start bawling.
"Aella"s right, we need to make sure there aren"t any other patches burning," said Josephine, waving for Curt to catch up.
Alfred grabbed Roberts arm and pulled him along, as the man tried to get over the shock of what just happened.
As soon as they were a mile, or so, away from the town, Alfred turned to her.
"You said you wanted to talk?"
"I took Bridgette to a library last night, and she found out that there used to be outposts in the northern mountains, that depict the history of the heroes," said Aella quickly, before anyone could ask any questions.
"We knew Bridgette was gone," said Curt softly. He seemed to be rather subdued, and Aella wondered if it was a side effect of last night, when she almost killed him, or if he was overwhelmed by the fire. "Alfred already asked us if we knew where she had gone."
"Where is this library?" asked Josephine, eyeing Aella.
"It"s a secret library, that can only be accessed with magic," said Aella. "I found it, but couldn"t get inside without a Sage. I spoke to Bridgette about it last night, and she all but ordered me to take her there."
"That sounds like Bridgette," muttered Josephine.
"Do you know where in the northern mountains?" asked Alfred.
"No, just that they are old buildings, and they are located in the northern mountains."
"We don"t have time to be gallivanting all over the place," said Robert, starting to sound like himself again. "We have to get to the palace, to kill the Demon King."
"The King has given up on waiting for you to get there, and is heading to the mountains right now," said Aella, trying hard to keep telling the truth. She HAD given up on the heroes, and she WAS heading to the mountains.
"How did the king find out about the buildings, if Bridgette only found out about them last night?" asked Alfred.
"I didn"t say the king knew about the buildings, just that the king was heading to the mountains. There have been a lot of griffons attacking the people who live up there," said Aella.
He studied her for a moment before nodding. "She"s telling the truth."
"Then we go to the mountains and try to find the king there, to kill," said Robert, turning back the way they had been walking.
"The king has never left the palace before," said Curt, worry evident in his voice.
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"The heroes have never taken so long to kill him before, either," snarled Robert, back to his normal blistering mood.