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Krolaun looked at me anxiously, "Kat, this is not good. I have to get out of the city. If they find me before I find the Queen...this all goes to hell in a handbasket."I looked out the window, for sunset was not far off. Spinning on my heel, I jerked the door open without summoning a glamorie. Resignedly, I stated, "Then we give them something else to go after..."
"What are you doing?" Krolaun demanded, "I'll be damned if you're going out there!"
Olan slammed his hand on the door, closing it, before I could exit, "He's right, Kat. You wouldn't last five minutes out there. They know you."
As I glared at my brother, Krolaun proceeded, "What if they find the magic-user?"
Olan looked at him, "They will make a Cleansing look like a tea party."
I could not help but flinch at the mention of the Cleansing. Memories flooded my mind of the pain and agony I had suffered. There was no way I would allow them to subject Krolaun to anything like that. I clenched my hands into a fist, intending to reach for the door again. My eyes were hard as Olan glared at me.
"I'm going Olan," I growled, "Even if I have to break your arm to do so."
Krolaun slid in between me and the door, his grey eyes full of anger, "Then you'll have to kill me first, because I'll be right behind you."
I turned my blazing green eyes upon the elf, wanting nothing more than to get him to move out of my way, "You always said I should get up and do something. To quit moping around and letting Shard kick me around. Well, now I'm doing something."
"No!" he protested, his grey eyes pleading with me to stay, "End of discussion."
I could feel my resolve begin to break, and I used my anger to refuel it, "I didn't realize there was a discussion."
"Don't give me that!" Krolaun said harshly, "You are not going out there."
My jaw clenched and I was about to argue further, but somewhere distant a gong sounded. Olan looked up, gathering his sword as he threw his cape over his shoulders.
"I'm sorry. I have to go. Evening Council is meeting. I'm sure something of this will be said there," he looked at me, "Don't do anything stupid," then he looked at the elf, "Don't do anything stupid, and don't let her do anything stupid."
With that, he departed, leaving me with the elf. I glanced at the door, but the elf stood entirely too near for me to make an escape. I glared at him, my jaw still clenched in my anger, preventing me from saying something I would regret, again.
"You can be angry with me all you want, but that won't change a thing. You are not leaving," he looked at me with those grey eyes of his, "Kat, please. . .You know what will happen."
I stalked over to the chair before Olan's small desk, sitting in the chair, my back rigid with my anger, "I will not sit here and be a hapless victim. Not again. If they start the Mage-scan, they will find you. And what they'll do to you would not compare to what they'd do to me...again."
"No," the elf insisted, "I refuse to lose you. Not to them or anyone else. If they find me, then that's it. It will be up to you to go to the Queen and expose Shard for what she is. Someone will have to."
"Go to the Queen and say what, ‘Shard is a charlatan, you need to get rid of her'?" I scoffed, "I don't think they'd be inclined to believe me."
It pained me to anger him so, but I had to go. There was no other way. If they caught him, I knew very well what they would do. Him being branded as a sorcerer from the Outlands, they would sooner Cleanse him and execute him than show him any mercy. I knew that if I had barely been able to crawl away from a Cleansing, then Krolaun, with his light elven frame and Shard's driving anger behind his Cleansing--I knew he would not survive.
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© 1999 E. Angeli Mansfield