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I cried like a heart-broken child, exhausted beyond all comprehension. It was not until a cool wind caressed my cheek that I looked up. Again, I knelt by the white oak, and I groaned. In the distance, the lights of the Inn gleamed once more. I blinked, disbelieving. I knelt on my hands and knees, trembling with exhaustion and confusion.Again, Krolaun came running up, as if he could sense my presence. I stared at him, placing my hands on the shield. I momentarily let some small hope arise in me as he placed his hands over mine on the shield.
"Kat. . ." he murmured, his grey eyes staring right into my very heart and soul.
"Krol," I sobbed.
He continued to try and soothe me, but I could find no relief from the anguish in my heart. I could not stand this.
"This isn't real. . ." I whispered, taking my hands away and turning from him.
"Katja," Krolaun gasped, his voice full of his grief, "Kat, please look at me."
As I looked up at him, thunder rolled and lightning arced in the clouds above. The elf looked up, cursing Sekhmet, the Tyberan Goddess, but he stepped closer to the shield. It shrank, as if reacting to his anger, but he threw his arms around it heedlessly.
"Oh gods," I whimpered miserably, "Leave me be."
A star-white lash of lightning streaked down from the sky, striking the orb. Krolaun cried out, hugging close to the shield. He was, again, blasted away, but unlike the last time, he did not vanish. He recovered and was at my side all in the space of a breath.
I lay in a heap on the ground, unable to even summon the strength to rise. He took me in his arms, silencing me when I tried to speak.
I wanted to tell him how sorry I was. I wanted to tell him how much I--
But I knew better than to argue with him. In a blink, we were in my personal room at the Inn. He gingerly laid me upon the deep blue coverlets, his eyes filled with concern.
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© 1999 E. Angeli Mansfield
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