Chapter 13
Chapter thirteen
Kelvar
One moment, I stared down the charging Lord of Clan Padra, ready to cut him from his horse as his blade swung down. The next second, Alyx was between us, the sword headed straight for her chest.
Magic had already gathered in my mental grasp, but panic snapped every vestige of control I had. Power detonated out of me, screaming in my ears and turning my vision white.
It was long moments before I could see again, and my ears still rang as I blinked stars from my vision, desperately trying to focus on Alyx.
My gaze found her easily, as she was the only person that remained standing in the clearing where battle had been waging on.
Everybody lay on the ground as if knocked over by an earthquake.
Lord Avis had fallen from his mount and was sprawled at Alyx’s feet.
He blinked dazedly, until his eyes focused on his daughter’s face. I could not see it, as she stood with her back turned to me, but I could see the steely determination written in the set of her shoulders. It reverberated through the bond between us.
“Alyx!” he shouted as he gained back his breath. “Stand aside and let me dispatch this kidnapper.” He tried to struggle to his feet, saber still clutched in his hand.
“No,” she said firmly. “He is not a kidnapper. I am choosing to stay with Clan Katal.”
Lord Avis’s lips drew back from his teeth in a snarl. “He’s hoodwinked you, and you’re too na?ve to realize it. Get out of the way and let me free you from his influence.”
My hackles rose, and the magic that was still close at hand after the giant shockwave I had let out began to crackle in my veins. It burned me from the inside out, and I itched to use it on a parent who would so casually dismiss a daughter so kind and wise as Alyx.
“Listen to me, father,” she insisted. “I will not have you spill blood on my behalf when my decision is final.”
All the other people in the clearing now staggered to their feet, but they did not begin fighting again, all watching how this confrontation would play out.
“You do not command Clan Padra,” he scoffed. He was on his feet again, and he raised his saber, the tip angled toward Alyx. At the sight, the power that had been whispering in my mind grew in volume, hammering at the inside of my head as if desperate to escape.
I grit my teeth against it and tried to step around Alyx to put myself between her and the blade. She turned though, maneuvering so she still stood between us with one hand outstretched at each of us placatingly.
I lifted my chin and growled at Lord Avis, “Maybe she would be a wiser commander than you.”
Anger flashed in his eyes. “I will not stand for this insult. Clan Padra will attack Clan Katal again and again if we must, until your memory is wiped from the sands.”
“I will level your entire encampment if I have to,” I rumbled, sparks beginning to dance at my fingertips. It was not an empty threat. Somehow, more power was bubbling in me than ever had before.
My magic waxed and waned with the desert’s will—granting me strength whenever there was something particularly important she wanted done. If she wanted me to turn every rider of Clan Padra to a red stain on the sand to keep Alyx safe, I would.
Alyx’s voice cut through the haze beginning to cloud my vision. “It will never end, will it? There is nowhere in the desert we can be free and live in peace together, is there?”
Even as she stood between us, her voice held so much sadness that I heard my heart crack. She had made me dream of more. She had believed in me and told me that I could shake the very foundations of the desert if I dared, but in all that bottomless power, I could not give her peace.
The power of the desert pulsed in my mind, as if trying to get my attention. I frowned, turning my focus inward to the storm roiling in my chest. It spread out through my limbs and began spilling off my skin in tremulous waves.
“Kelvar,” Alyx said, sounding concerned as the ground began to shake. She stepped toward me, even as others in the clearing began backing away. Lord Avis hesitated, but the shadow of fear now darkened his eyes.
Still, I did not stop. I dived headfirst into the storm, and the rumbling of the ground intensified.
But the desert in my mind urged me forward.
I could give Alyx the peace and the freedom she deserved if I just dug deep enough.
For Alyx, I dared to shake the foundations of the desert, and I would remake it in her vision.
I would craft her a place where she could be free and safe.
I fell to my knees and laid the palm of my uninjured hand flat on the ground, trying to get as close to the desert as possible, even as she swam inside me. Everybody but Alyx began running from the clearing. Screams and shouts sounded, but they all blended into the screech of my magic.
“Kelvar!” Alyx cried, falling to her knees beside me and putting her hands on my shoulders.
I shook my head.
“For you, Flower. All for you,” I grit out, before my consciousness completely shattered.
I was the desert and her shifting sands. I lived in every rock and every creature, all woven together in a complicated web.
And at the edge of that beautiful tapestry, I envisioned a place of peace and beauty. A home where all would be welcome and peace would reign. I thought of Alyx’s smile and the way she shattered apart in my arms. I thought of her softness and quiet strength and the way she had made me dream.
I imagined a place made of all those things, and I didn’t relent until the desert bent to my will.
Time lost all meaning to me, but eventually a familiar touch brought me back to myself. Gently fingers traced along my cheekbones and soft, warm breath feathered across my face.
It reminded me that I had a face and body to come back to, when all I could feel was the tangled web of life and death that spread from the mountains to the ocean.
“You did it Kelvar. You can come back now.”
The voice whispered sweetly in my mind and in my ears. Sound filtered in after touch, and I realized the world had gone quiet after constant rumbling and shouting.
“Alyx,” I murmured, regaining control of my movements.
“I’m here,” she confirmed, her thumbs stroking my cheekbones more insistently.
Finally, my eyes opened—opened to find her pale, silvery eyes filled with tears.
“There you are.” She sighed in relief.
“I’d never leave you,” I promised.
A breathy laugh of relief escaped her. “I have no doubt. You reshaped the very fabric of the desert for me.”
Now I blinked. Thinking of the place I had imagined—a home for me and Alyx.
“Did I…”
Alyx moved from my line of sight, instead sitting down next to me where I still kneeled in the sand.
I faced the mountains, but no longer were they just a steep slope of gray rock climbing up toward the sky.
Sprouting from the mountainside, were geometric squares.
As I blinked in confusion, my vision started to organize itself.
Buildings and roads all stacked on top of each other, climbing up from the foot of the mountain.
A city that could house hundreds—thousands—carved straight into the rock.
The concentric layers climbed upward to an incredible palace, from the top of which emerged a tower with an impressive spire.
From there, one would be able to look out over the whole desert.
I even imagined you could see the ocean sparkling on the horizon, though, I knew it to be hundreds of miles away.
My mouth hung open as I let my gaze drift down over the geometric architecture to the sight immediately before us.
Encircling the brand new city was a high wall, carved out of the same stone as every other bit of it.
It appeared completely solid and unbroken, presenting a beacon of absolute safety, apart from the large, arched entrance directly in front of where Alyx and I kneeled.
I scrabbled to my feet in shock. Alyx stood next to me and slid her hand into my own. If her delicate fingers had not squeezed mine so reassuringly, I might have thought it was a dream. My boots seemed rooted to the ground, but she tugged me forward.
“Let’s go look,” she prompted.
I stared at her, dumbfounded. She just smiled.
“Can we?” I asked dumbly.
She nearly laughed, but she seemed just as dazed as I was.
“You pulled this marvel from the mountainside. I don’t know why we wouldn’t be able to,” she pointed out.
I let her tug me along. We passed under the stone archway, and something deep in my gut shivered at the magnitude of the stone around us.
The familiar feel of sand giving way underfoot turned into the harsh slap of my boots against solid rock as we entered a large courtyard.
Branching out from it were paths in a variety of directions, along with one large road, climbing up and up through the stacked stone levels toward the palace at the top.
I stood in the center of it all and pivoted in place, taking in my surroundings. My heart stuttered. Alyx had made me believe I could do anything, but even I had not imagined this until the desert had whispered in my mind to try it. But I had wanted a home for Alyx, and so it had become.
A growing wave of whispers and voices distracted me. I had nearly forgotten that we had been surrounded by other people—people who had fled the vicinity when the ground started to heave and shake with my efforts to reshape it.
Now, they hesitantly approached the open archway into the new city.
At the front of the crowd stood Lord Avis.
His eyes were wide and his mouth hung open.
I understood the feeling of shock written on his expression, but I raised my chin.
I pulled Alyx closer and exchanged my hand in hers for putting my left arm protectively around her waist.
My right arm still hung uselessly by my side, but such things barely seemed to matter right now.
I hardly knew what to do with this new place I had wrought—with the fact that I could accomplish such a thing—but Alyx smiled up at me, and nothing else mattered.
She was wise and kind, and I trusted her.
“Come in!” she shouted, beckoning to those who hesitated outside the arch.
Slowly, the group trickled in and looked around in awe.
I watched the riders warily, knowing they had been fighting just before I had gone into my trance, although it felt like lifetimes ago.
The change in events seemed to have at least temporarily sapped the fight from them, though.
“What is this place?” Lord Avis asked first, stopped several meters from where I stood with Alyx.
She looked at me, and I nodded to her. This place was for her, and it could be whatever she wished it to be, as long as she and I could share it.
“This is a new beginning,” she declared, loud enough for all the gathering crowd to hear. “This new city will be a place where any rider of the desert can be at home and the divisions between clans disappear.”
She trailed off as titters ran through the crowd, but the hazy vision that had driven me forward as I shaped the rock became solid and real. “This will be a place of peace,” I shouted. “And all those who try to bring war within its walls will answer to me.”
The shuffling of feet and unsure glances people shared told me that no one here today would be quick to cross me after such a display.
Still, Alyx turned her face to me and beamed.
Dirt smudged and rumpled as she was, she already glowed like a queen, and I could think of no better gift for her than her own kingdom.
Now she spoke, confident and sure, all traces of the stifled woman I had abducted burned away with her power. “This great city shall be ours, and we will call it Kelvadan.”