The Hungry Fire: a high fantasy adventure by A.M. Obst

Author:A.M. Obst
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A.M. Obst

21. Betharad

Half of Betharad’s morning slid away while she combed through the Archive for any relevant information the others had missed. She was not so naive to believe there would be a convenient document which contained a neat answer to her problems as they stood, but the most tangential hint might have proven useful. Even so, she admitted to herself that her real motivation was to become lost in the search, and forget her life was falling apart around her.

In the end, she was wasting her time; Urzed’s previous defeat had been accepted as final, and the knowledge she needed had died along with her parents.

As she emerged from the basement, frustrated and exhausted, the angle of the sun told her she had stayed much longer than she should have. Her grandmother had taken several large baskets of food to the protectors who were out searching for the twins, but she’d be home by now. Their house was much too large, too empty, with only herself and Elian in it, and they both needed each other more than ever. She pushed through her lassitude to hurry back.

The cloud cover was now almost complete, but their shape and colour said they would offer no relief in the way of rain. The humidity was getting more and more suffocating.

By the time she opened the outer door of their house, Betharad had convinced herself she was fully prepared for the eerie quiet inside, but the sound of echoing voices stopped her in her tracks. Hope surged in her breast that the twins had returned while she was tucked away in the Archive. She all but ran along the short corridor to the inner courtyard.

It was only when she’d almost reached the kitchen door that she stopped and listened. A loud argument was in progress inside, and while the words were muffled by the closed door, she recognised one of the voices—it was unusual to hear Elian arguing with anyone, and she sounded on the verge of shouting.

Whoever she was haranguing did not sound like either of the twins.

Betharad was weary in mind and body, and was tempted to slip upstairs to the sanctuary of her room. Why should she be the one to solve everyone else’s problems? Elian sounded more than capable of holding her own. But if the argument was relevant to the problems mounting up around them, Betharad was never going to pass up the opportunity to find out for herself.

She took a deep breath and placed her hand on the handle. The door wasn’t closed fast, and as it swung slightly ajar she heard an unfamiliar voice, say, “...made worse by the serious dereliction of your duty!”

“If you had given me the support you promised,” Elian retorted in the most hostile tone Betharad had ever heard her use, “the situation may not have become this bad!”

The tension needed to be eased; Betharad opened the door fully and the heated conversation broke off.

Her grandmother stood with her back against the iron stove.

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