Who Walks in Flame Read Free

elect generals to serve under my command. I will see that every idea is heard and considered fairly. I will be your figurehead and your bond.”
    At that moment, old King Hugix bends his knee and swears that he will follow her. Seeing him concede, the others all agree, even those still apprehensive. Bless your fondness for my voice, Hugix. You have loved me better than my own father.  
    Bregissa touches Kerenthos’s cheek. My death looms before me. My doom has come. But at least Kerenthos will live on, guarding the Sacred Isle that bears the seed the Goddess had me leave, for whatever her purpose must be.
    “You will remain here, Kerenthos, Champion of the Isle. I command it. In name and with love.”
    Please go along with it. I don’t have the heart or the authority to make you. I can’t bear to have you come along and face a certain death, but I’m afraid to go without you. 
    Scowling, he replies: “If that is what you wish.”

    ***

    Later that night, under the Dark Moon, Kerenthos alone journeys to the heart of the Sacred Isle and approaches the charred Oak of Antenin. Neither spell nor divine wrath strikes him down. He is here, reluctantly, because of a prophecy given to him by the Goddess: 
    “When you see that the Sacred Oak of Antenin, struck ill by my wrath, is barren no longer,” the Sun said to him in a vision, “that it carries a human seed, a choice you must make.
    “The One Who Rides Through Flame will grant you eternal life and kingship if you stay behind and guard the Sacred Isle. Humanity shall continue, albeit diminished and enslaved for a thousand years. But if you choose to go out and fight against this enemy, humanity will either live on or die free, and even the gods do not know the outcome. Choose carefully, for you are choosing for everyone.
    “If you choose to go, you must fertilize the seed placed in the Oak of Antenin. It will be the last hope of humanity should the enemy prevail. If you choose to stay, offer the seed to the One Who Rides Through Flame.”
    I’d rather live free or perish , he thinks. But what of other men? What choice would they make? He has wrestled with this decision for three months, ever since word first came to them of the Scorch Walker. May the gods forgive me, I must decide for my own selfish reason: To protect Bregissa. I would follow her into Torment if necessary, even if I had to take everyone else along with me.
    His decision made, Kerenthos does what he must.

    ***
     
    Bregissa delves deep into the caves beneath The Tower of the Skald. She ventures down here only when the need arises. Her need now is the greatest it will ever be. She must visit the spirit of Orthinn, her father. Her adopted father. A man with a tongue so silver that death refused to take him for 150 years. A man adored by everyone but Bregissa.
    There is no one she hates more. Because unlike everyone else, she knows him for who he is. A man who would sacrifice his own wife and child for power and then steal another’s child and proclaim it his own.
    From Orthinn, Bregissa learned the arts of the Skald, though she has only a fraction of his power. He knew she wouldn't have much talent. That's why he didn’t fear teaching her. Once grown, she was going to be his pawn to use against men, for he knew she would be beautiful like her mother. 
    Bregissa killed him on her 18 th birthday, after one final day of his brutal instruction in the Art. She had spent years researching a spell that would give her revenge, and her dream: To be a true Skald of the Land. Not for her own gain, as Orthinn had done, but to help people make their lives better.
    She opens a locked door and boldly steps into the last cave, a small dome-shaped chamber. Runes cover the floor, radiating out from a pedestal in the chamber's center. Over that pedestal hovers the ghostly spirit of Orthinn. Faded and missing his feet already from previous drawings of power. Dark spots on his chest yet show where she stabbed him