The circle of stones was cleared, and Garon and Riular used Kiri’s bedroll to carry the body of the fallen guardian to the very center.

Kiri’s shoulder had started to burn more and more while they worked. She kept it to herself, but Garon must have seen her flinching, or maybe she’d gone pale. He’d made her sit at the edge of the circle while he and Riular finished the preparations. Riular wasn’t in perfect shape either. His skin still looked tight and cracked along the lines where the Thief Lord’s ice weapon had struck him, but he refused to rest.

“When it is done,” he said. “Then I will rest.” And Kiri was sure he didn’t mean just burning Riulin’s body. As the last remaining Guardian of Fatefall, he was determined it would be brought back safely, and didn’t intend to take any breaks until that happened.

Kiri chewed her nails. She hated not to be helping, but Garon was right. She was getting dizzy, and she needed her strength back. They couldn’t afford for her to be laid up now. At least she would be helpful soon. She knew she would be better in the coming fight if she let herself heal now.

Riular had fretted about the need to gather fuel.

“It takes a great deal,” he explained. “There must be enough to completely consume his body or he will not rejoin the air and reach the heavens.”

“Don’t worry, about it, Riular,” Kiri said. “We don’t actually need any fuel at all. You’ve got me, remember? And I’ve got this.” And, just to emphasize her point, she’d made a little ball of flame. Sometimes, she couldn’t help herself.

“We’re ready, Kiri,” Garon called. She dusted herself off and came to stand by him and Riular, about ten feet away from the body, at the edge of the cleared circle of stones. Riular said this place had been specifically made to honor the dead, and their guardian ancestors since the time of Eldan kings had all been sent back into the air here. It must have been a long time since one of them died. It had taken hours to clear away the encroaching plants and brush away the debris so they had a smooth, fireproof surface. The stones were plain, all black as coal, and polished smooth despite their great age. They must be very hard for the rain and wind not to have carved them at all over the years.

“Should I go ahead?” Kiri asked hesitantly. “Or do you want to, um, say something?”

Riular looked at her, puzzled. “Say what?”

“Okay,” Kiri said. “Never mind.” She gathered energy, focusing on making it hot. Her whole arm warmed, even the air around her hand started to distort with heat. Finally, pointing her palm outward, she let it go.

Ruilin’s entire body flared instantly into flame, but Kiri poured on the energy a little bit longer. It seemed very important to Riular that the burning be complete, and she didn’t intend to fail at this one thing she could actually get right. Not after failing so badly with Fatefall.

The heat was intense on their faces. The body burned fast, so fast the fire made its own wind as it pulled in more air to fuel the flames. The air between them and the flames shimmered with heat. Soon, the guardian would be ash, and it would be time to decide: what next?

~

The tea wasn’t as good this time. Garon made it, and he’d never used a pot quite like the Eldan’s before. Kiri wondered how Riular got the tea. Maybe there was a merchant who knew about the Eldan, and provided them with supplies. Most of the things here they could’ve gotten themselves. The meat they ate could easily have come from this forest. And the fruits in their wooden bowl were clearly indigenous, but so far as Kiri was aware tea grew only in Hilland. That was why it was so expensive back home. She would never have had the luxury of a second cup in a day in Westfall Valley. Not that it felt like a luxury, she reflected, picking a tea leaf off her tongue. Garon needed a lesson in how to use Riular’s strainer. Maybe they snuck the tea from passing merchants at night. It was hard to imagine anyone keeping a secret like this. Eldan had been living for hundreds of years in the Brightwood, and it didn’t get out? Kiri looked at her hand and its light and almost laughed. Secrets can be kept if the motivation is strong.

“Where do you get the tea?” Garon asked.

“Garon,” Kiri scolded. “It’s not the time…”

Garon held up a hand. “I don’t care about the tea,” he said. “I just thought that you might have some kind of contact, someone who could help.”

“It’s a Hilland merchant,” Riular said. “We only meet him once a year. He won’t be of any help. He has no idea who we are. We’re always in disguise. He took over from his father, but he has no idea how many generations back our arrangement stretches.”

“So no help there,” Kiri said.

“Our only hope is that Riulessa managed to bring the thief down before he killed her outright,” Riular drank a sip of his own tea and made a face. He threw it onto the fire where it splashed and hissed away as steam.

“What about the Power?” Kiri asked. “Do you have anything we could use? You said the kings used to contact each other mind-to-mind. If we could contact Riulessa that way-”

Riular jerked to his feet. “If I could have, I would!” he said. “That Power was lost long ago. Like the Traveling stones were supposed to be.”

“So maybe it’s still possible,” Kiri said. “We just have to find…”

“She’ll be dead before we could ever, even if there is a chance.” Riular shook his head. “I have no idea where we would begin. I would never have guessed about the Traveling stones. I did not know, until I saw…”

“Well…” Kiri looked at Garon. “We did know about that. The Thief Lord has had those for at least a year.”

“Those?” Riular’s eyes narrowed. “How many?”

“A lot.” Garon said.

“He’s right,” Kiri said. “We’ve even used one.”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“But you don’t have one now?” Riular said.

“Nope,” Kiri said. “So no help there, either.”

Riular sat back down and poured hot water straight from the kettle into his empty cup. He took a sip, not bothering to brew it into tea first.

“So we’re all agreed Useph is the Thief Lord?” Kiri said.

“Who?” Riular said.

“I always thought he was,” Garon said.

“You would say that,” Kiri said. She waved a dismissive hand at Garon and addressed Riular. “We know who he is,” she said. “But what’s more important is that we know where he lives. As far as I can see our only choice at this point is to confront him there.”

“But you call him a lord,” Riular said. “Does he not have soldiers who will prevent you reaching him?”

“Well, yeah,” Kiri said. “But his wife is a friend of mine, and Garon’s sister. We might be able to walk right in.”

“What?” Riular set his cup down so hastily a little sloshed over the edge. “What?”

“No chance,” Garon said. “He saw us. There’s no point in him keeping up the charade. We’re enemies and we all know it now.”

“You’re right, and I wasn’t even wearing my mask,” Kiri said. “He’ll have plenty of time to declare us enemies of the desert before we get there. He probably doesn’t care as much about keeping up appearances in his own palace, even if he would in Laed, and that Sceptre is probably his endgame anyway. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s ready to reveal himself to the King, now. We have no way to get ahead of him. He’s got a Traveling stone, and we’ve got what? One horse?”

“You can’t get ahead of him,” Riular said. “But we do have some tools of the Power left to us, here. There’s no reason to keep it here anymore, with Fatefall gone. You seem skilled with the Power, would you like to see more of what it can do?”

Kiri stood up, rocking the teacups dangerously as her leg bumped the table. “Yes, please!”

~

It didn’t look like much. Kiri studied the little acorn in her hand. If she dropped it, she might easily lose track of it among its many fellows on the forest floor. Besides a slight glow (which Garon said he couldn’t see) there was nothing to distinguish it.

“So this is the power of the Brightwood?” Kiri asked.

“Yes, essentially,” Riular said. “I believe the expression is ‘in a nutshell’?”

“Ha,” Kiri said. “So-how do I use it?”

Riular looked puzzled. He gestured at the leafy earth at his feet.”How? You use it. I do not understand the question. You have used the True Power before.”

“Yes.”

“Then you know already,” Ruilar said. “You simply use it. Like opening your eyes to see.”

“Actually,” Kiri said. “I practiced and trained myself to use my power. A lot.”

Ruilar cocked his head to the side. “Hmm. Perhaps it is because you are human.”

That didn’t really inspire confidence. Kiri shrugged. “Well, maybe if I knew what it could do? That might help.”

“It can do many things,” Riular said. “But I can give a small demonstration. If I may?”

Kiri placed the acorn in the hand he held out. He didn’t close his fingers around it, but held it loosely in his palm. His face went flat, losing the tension it had held since Riulessa disappeared, and he stared at the ground.

There, in the earth, vines were springing up and twisting along the ground, growing at impossible speed. They were glowing brighter than all the Brightwood trees around them. One snaked to Kiri and wrapped loosely around her ankle. She allowed it. Riular couldn’t demonstrate the power if she was too jumpy to let him. But she need not have worried. The vine never tightened or tugged at her, although she felt sure it could have if Riular had wanted it to.

“I can see how that could be useful,” Kiri said. She stepped carefully out of the loop of vine and took the acorn as he offered it back to her. She held it like he had, and closed her eyes to concentrate. The acorn did seem different from other acorns, now that she was paying the right kind of attention. It seemed to almost be vibrating with energy, and her hand holding it felt charged, somehow. Kiri didn’t like the feeling in her hand, and pushed it away toward the ground. She he felt the energy moving, and opened her eyes. The glow of the Brightwood, now not attached to any living thing, was just sort of floating in a tiny cloud in the air in front of her. It was the raw power of the Brightwood, and if she could bring it to a plant she guessed she could direct it as Riular had the vines.

Just past the mound of new-grown vines, Garon was sitting with his back to a tree, dozing. He had come out to see the Brightwood Power, but apparently they weren’t interesting enough to keep his attention. Kiri thought he might be asking for it a little, catching a nap while she was working. So she sent the cloud of light to a little mound of wildflowers at his feet. At first the cloud moved hesitantly, but Kiri soon had it sinking into the foliage. The plants grew, and flowers opened up all over, huge flowers many times normal size. Kiri pushed, and one flower, bigger than her outstretched hand, leaned over and brushed Garon’s nose.

“Gah!” Garon scrambled up, wide-awake at once, and pressed his back against the tree. Wide-eyed fear quickly gave way to annoyance as he spotted Kiri grinning at him.

She showed him the acorn. “I made it grow with this!” she said. “Amazing, right?”

Garon edged around the oversized wildflowers and came over to Kiri and Riular. “It’s good in the wood,” he said. “But will it work in the desert, or in a palace? Because that’s where we’ll probably find the Thief Lord.”

Kiri shrugged and looked to Ruilar.

“Anywhere there is life,” he said. “The Brightwood can affect it.”

“Life at all?” Kiri said. “Or just plants.”

“Plants, not creatures,” Riular said. “And not humans or Eldan, either.”

“So, it’s good to a point,” Garon said. “We’re going to need more than this to get that Sceptre back.”

Kiri clucked her tongue and elbowed Garon. “Thank you so much, Riular,” she said. “This will help to defeat the Thief Lord, and get the Sceptre back.”

Garon did not look happy. His grim expression didn’t change as they went back to the caves and helped Riular to pack for a trip to the outside. The Eldan seemed weak, still suffering some effects from the Thief Lord’s ice attack, but he wouldn’t hear of staying.

“The Sceptre is gone,” he said. “My duty is no longer here.”

So he was coming with them, and Kiri tried not to worry about the chance of someone noticing they had an Eldan with them. His cloak wasn’t that convincing a disguise, but then, who was likely to think it was an Eldan under there? Their minds would turn to more likely explanations. Maybe they’d think he was a circus performer walking miles on stilts for practice.

Dinner was tense, with Riular in shock still, and Garon grim and quiet. Kiri could tell he had something on his mind; he wasn’t just upset about how things had gone so badly, but was mulling something over. There was no point asking what, and for once Kiri managed to hold her tongue. When he had worked it out to his satisfaction, he would speak up.

Finally they went to bed, and Kiri was grateful for silence that didn’t feel like it needed to be filled. She fell asleep right away, hardly having a moment to worry that maybe they should have set a watch.