The Knife's Edge

Chapter Twenty-One

“How close?”

She smiled with a light in her eyes. “Very.”

He swallowed. “You’ve still yet to prove anything. Do not think I’ll trust you blindly. I’ve lost my memories, not my mind.”

She laughed and it stirred his blood. “Kirin’s fire still burns within you it seems.” She approached and snatched his wrist, too fast for him to react. But he didn’t retract. Instead, he watched as she twisted his hand in her cold fingers and pulled back his sleeve to expose his black marking. She grabbed her own sleeve and pulled it back. A black insignia was scrawled across her wrist. It was the same mark. “Do you trust me now?” she asked.

A vision filled his mind. A woman stood in a courtyard of green and he stood beside her while others trained. The woman turned to look at him. It was her. “I remember,” he whispered and gripped her arm. “Why are you here? This place is not safe.”

“That’s sweet, Kirin, but I’m afraid you’re the one in need of saving. Surely you know what tracks you.” She scanned his little camp, his makeshift fire, its flames now sputtering, and his pack. “He was here, not long ago, wasn’t he?” A sudden fire lit her voice, and the sputtering flames roared.

“Who?”

Vera turned on him, eyes venomous. “Don’t play with me, Kirin.” She snatched his shirt with surprising strength. The fire snapped and popped and her eyes burned, reflecting its intensity. “Tell me,” she seethed, “he was here wasn’t he?”

Gray pushed away. “He was, but he’s gone now. Long gone.”

“I’m sorry,” she said breathless. “I shouldn’t have done that. I...” she looked up and pain roiled in her eyes. Such pain... he wanted suddenly to hold her. He settled for taking her arm and helping her to sit on a nearby rock. Still, he kept his distance. “You see,” she began, “He has taken much from me. From all of us, and though I know I cannot face him myself, I would give everything I have to see him pay for what he has done.”

“What has he done? Who is he?” Gray questioned.

“Kail,” she whispered. Gray’s mouth went dry. “So you know who he is?”

“Yes.”

“He has many names,” she said, eyeing the woods. “The blight-seeker, the cursed one, but of course most commonly... the wanderer, not to mention, the rightful bearer of Morrowil, the sword you now hold. Of course some say he lost his mind when a loved one died, or that his power grew too much to handle, or that the bloodshed of the Lieon took its toll. But the real truth is that the blade in your hand is the grand sword, an object of horrible power that tainted him. It is the reason he is now mad. That blade is the destroyer of men, and it will destroy you too.”

Gray looked down at the blade, torn between sheathing it and keeping it close at hand. “You still haven’t answered what you are doing here.”

“It’s a long story,” she said.

“I have time.”

She rose and circled him as she spoke. “Once I heard you’d left the Citadel and crossed Death’s Gate I couldn’t believe it. I was hurt, but I needed to know what happened. I talked to the guards at the gates and a few gave accounts of a man bearing your description, and carrying a strange sword. That very night, as I was walking back to the Citadel, an attempt was made on my life. I survived, but the next day I found that the guards I’d talked to had been killed.” She breathed a heavy sigh. Gray felt her breath at the nape of his neck. “Naturally, I knew I needed to find out more about that sword. Researching in the old libraries was purely forbidden, but I had to know. And that’s when I found out it was Kail’s. He killed all those who saw the blade. He needs it to fulfill the Return and destroy the world as he tried to do long ago.” She paused, her face a breath away from his. “Don’t you see? As long as you hold that blade, you won’t be safe. I... I don’t want to even imagine what he would do to the bearer of his sword. I knew he would hunt you down, and that’s why I had to find you first.”