The Rising (The Rising #4) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,22

the edge of a blazing forest fire.

Florian approached us, and had not stopped before he shouted my way, “Can you bring the rain?”

I looked to the fire building not only in The Enchantments but spreading into Airen.

And doing this quickly.

Good gods.

“Farah! Can you bring the rain?” Florian repeated urgently.

I could not.

I nevertheless pulled the reins of my horse, and touched her sides with my heels, taking her speeding directly towards the flames.

“What are you about?” Wallace, riding at my side, yelled.

“I cannot bring the rain, but maybe I can blow it out,” I told him.

“Wind feeds fire,” he reminded me.

Still racing that way, I looked to him at my side and suggested, “Then maybe I can smother it.”

“Maybe?” he asked.

I felt the heat of the blaze and pulled back at my mount. Regina halted, skittish and unsure under me that close to the growing, and spreading, inferno.

“We must ride out, evacuate,” Luther, approaching us, called.

I said nothing.

I was concentrating.

If I could bring the winds, perhaps I could also take them away.

“If True sees Farah this close to the flame, he’ll have all our balls!” Bram, joining us, shouted. “We must go!”

I ignored him too.

I closed my eyes.

I then visualized the fire.

The area around it…

And that was when it struck me.

The earth.

The leaves.

The sensations came again at the small of my back, up my spine, radiating, spreading.

I placed both hands on my belly.

Pressing in, I expelled all the breath from my lungs…

And then on a rush, I threw my arms out and up, opening my eyes, and sucking in as much air as my body could take.

Doing this, a great blanket of wet leaves rose from the forest floor and swooped out and up, to the pinnacle of the burn.

I brought my arms down and the leaves, and the flames, collapsed in on themselves, and with a great whoosh of hot air, a cloud of billowing smoke and an almighty screech that scored at my ears, the leaves returned to the earth.

And the flame flashed out.

Upon which, I slid out of Regina’s saddle and fell to the ground.

I regained consciousness in the arms of my husband.

I could smell scorched earth. I could feel his strong, solid body all around me, his warmth penetrating my heavy clothes.

But all I could see was his face.

And I could not read it.

Though his eyes were ruptures of green so intense, it was as if they were alive.

“We had to do what we could,” I defended myself (and Silence) before he could say a word.

“You…that is you, my Farah, singlehandedly saved The Enchantments, and much of the Argyll Forest, I suspect, from burning to the ground.”

Although I was most pleased with what I’d been able to do, this might be an overstatement.

“It is wet. It rained just yesterday.”

“Not in The Enchantments.”

I blinked up at him.

“You saved the home of all Nadirii,” True went on.

“I—”

“Today, you became legend.”

I shut my mouth.

True smiled at me.

“I then collapsed off my horse,” I whispered ashamedly.

True stroked the hair from my face with his fingers, telling me, “Elena shared this is because you used much magic to douse the blaze. She has some potions you can take, rituals you can do to assist in building it again in you. And she advises you must rest. These things you will do. For although what you accomplished today saved homes and probably lives, I sense it will be important that you nurture the power within you.”

I sensed he was correct.

“You must know, you have been unconscious for some time,” he shared. “My men reported you did not hit your head when you fell from your steed, but Elena said that this is also not unusual after an effort the magnitude of which you gave today.”

“How long have I been asleep?” I asked.

“Perhaps three quarters of an hour.”

Oh my.

“I…” I trailed off, studying him before I stated quietly, “I thought you might be angry at me.”

The surge of green dimmed in his eyes, even if the pride remained in his expression, as he said, “If I had my chosen world, and I could safeguard you in it, we would be in Wodell, preparing for winter, the festivals we have then, which are joyous and heartening and break the monotony of cold, short days that seem, as time passes, like they will never end.”

He gathered me closer where he sat on the leaves in the Airenzian forest with me in his lap.

“But I do not have my chosen world, and I cannot safeguard you from