Fire Stones

Fire Stones - By Kailin Gow


Prologue

I had a dream – that was not at all a dream. I had read those words before. The poetry of Lord Byron – some English class – the ninth grade. He was one of the few writers we read who wrote before the Erosion – so often, for us, it seemed that nothing pre-Erosion mattered. The seas were rising; the lands were vanishing into the waves. Sand grew wet and scattered; the earth succumbed to the swamp and the darkness. How were we supposed to care about the lives of those who had lived back when the world was a mass of great continents, when we did not have to worry about the ever-shrinking ground beneath our feet.

But the lines of that poem stayed with me for a long time after I learned them. I had a dream, that was not all a dream. For last night I too had a dream, and although the splendid phantasmagoria, the surreal sense of flying, the echoes in my ears all told me that I was dreaming, there was something within my dream so strong, so clear, that it was more real still than my waking days. My dream was strong enough to eradicate anything that was not my dream at all. The world didn't exist. My waking life didn't exist. High school, Aeros Academy, the popular girls, test grades – how petty they all seemed, how vague! As if it were of those things I had dreamed – and now, now at last, I was awake.

Where were we? I looked around and my eyes were shining. This place, so glorious in its splendor, alive with the shine of pure white fire – it was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Even the most beautiful vistas of Aeros – its high mountains, its dark seas – could not compare to this splendor. Yet it did not frighten me. I was not afraid, nor intimidated, by the awe-inspiring grandeur of this place. It was my home. I belonged here. Of this I was sure. I commanded these golden flames; they lapped and licked at my command. I owned them. I looked around – the clouds were mine, the earth beneath my feet was mine, the flames were mine: and I knew in my heart the truth of the matter. I was Queen of this realm. It belonged to me.

But I was not alone. A man was at my side, his flesh sweet-smelling with fire and a hint of sweat, the warm smell of action and vigor. His skin glistened in the firelight; he wore no shirt, and his olive-dark stomach rippled with tense muscles – like the tensing of a lion's body before the kill. His hair was long and dark; his blue eyes were penetrating. I could feel his skin against mine, the warmth and the smell of his skin against mine, and in ecstasy I knew he was with me – in a sense deeper than the greatest depth of magic. He and I were one, fused together the way the flames of the firelight fused together – two tongues of the same eternal fire. We were dressed in fine rainment – in the clothing of great kings and queens. Our bodies were weighed down with glimmering gemstones – red, orange, yellow, green – and fine golden silk caressed our skin. Where is this place? The part of me that remained Mac, that remained myself, was confused.

But a still-greater part of me knew exactly where I was. I was home – sitting upon my throne, with my love at my side. Vesta's throne. I could feel a shiver run through my body. This was where I belonged. This is where I had always belonged. All my life up to this point had been a vague and frenzied search for this moment of eternal, perfect bliss. I could feel my love's lips against my shoulder, nuzzling my neck.

“The Great Goddess Vesta,” a servant was bowing at my feet, so low that I could not make out his face. He touched the earth with his forehead. “I have come to do the Ritual Honors. I have come to bathe and prepare you for the ritual.”

“What sort of preparation?” My love smiled – a cocky, familiar smile that spread slowly and rapturously across his face. Chance?

“Fine scented oils,” the servant said, bowing low once again. “A massage.”

“A massage?” There was a twinkle in my love's eye. “Why, do you think to deprive me of the chance to touch these proud, these agonizingly beautiful shoulders?” He put his hands upon my shoulder blades, his fingers finding my tension, seeking my release. “No, my good man, you are dismissed. These particular honors I wish to do myself.”

“As you wish, Lord Mars.” The servant shuffled away, leaving me alone with him. I moaned softly as I leaned back into his hands, letting him knead my skin into ecstasy. I turned my head to face him, and in his eyes I saw the shining power of love. This man loved me – he wanted me – his desire so intense it seemed to radiate like beams of light from his eyes. I wanted to sink into his desire, to let it wash over me like a warm bath. How could I resist this joy, this feeling of absolute pleasure that came over me the moment his fingers touched my smooth, bared skin.

“You are my love,” he murmured softly, “my one, my only. The two of us – twin flames. We are destined...” And here he kissed my shoulder. “To be together for always. We are destined to be united, the two of us. I shall never let you go.”

I laughed, shooting him a flirtatious smile. “And if I ran away?”

“Then I would spend eternity finding you again,” he said, his smile belying a strange gravity to his words. Although we joked, I had no doubt that he meant every word.

“Fear not,” I whispered back, sinking into his kiss. His lips were sweet and spicy at once, like cinnamon. “My love for you shall not allow us to be divided. Neither time nor place shall ever divide us. We are one, and destiny has decreed it. We are to be together for eternity. For we know the ancient magic, and its ways are great. Only together can we command the power of the Flame. Only together can we command the world – the great power of life. Destruction and rebirth – the sacred power of fire.”

Chance pulled me in for another kiss, this time rougher, more savage. His desire was stronger now. He looked up and pulled my hand over to a basin of fire, over which a clear glass bowl was being heated. No matter how hot the fire grew, I knew, it would not burn us; the bowl would not shatter. We had command over it. And in the bowl I saw five gemstones, each burning more brightly than the last, composed of five different colors – each glowing brightly, as if a storm were brewing beneath the smooth surfaces of the gem. I touched each of the stones in turn, feeling their warmth against my skin. “If you ever lose me,” I said, smiling. “If ever fate should separate us – then fear not. These five stones will lead you back to me. Always.”

Chance looked at the stones, feeling them in his hand, turning each one over in turn. “I know your ways, my love,” he said. “I know how it amuses you to transform rocks – mere stones – into things of great beauty. You hold a pebble in your hand and it becomes an amethyst, or else a garnet, a sapphire, an emerald, topaz – all splendid creations, but none so beautiful as you. But today, my love, you have outdone yourself. These stones are brighter than even the sun itself. Look – they are shaped like the full moon, whose pale whiteness fades in comparison to your dark beauty.”

First I picked up the emerald. Green flames burst from its core. “All stones have power,” I said. “This is the power of vision – its magic will provide those who hold it with the second sight. The holder of this stone will have the power of clairvoyance, the power to ward off trouble before it comes. But it has another power, too.” I smiled seductively. “The power to enhance love, to create joy.”

Chance kissed me and pressed the stone to my breast. “Then you must wear it always.”

I picked up the second stone, a glimmering red garnet. “The color of my heart's blood,” I said, Vesta's power coursing through me. “It is the symbol of my love. When you are afflicted with pain, with anger or sadness, this stone will offer you relief. When we meet, this stone will you possess, for our meeting, like the stone, will destroy any sadness. A stone of protection and affection.”

I picked up the next stone, a shining amethyst. “This one,” I said, “will forge dreams. It will provide courage. And the fourth stone...” here I picked up a night-blue sapphire, “can heal wounds, and bring peace.” Chance played with all these stones in turn.

“But the last one,” I said, “is the most powerful stone of all.” I picked up the topaz, glimmering with faint gold. “And it is the most dangerous. This stone provides to the wearer a very great strength: the power to become invisible to the human eye. And, for those mortals who wear it – the power of immortality. The ability to defeat death itself.”

“You have outdone yourself, my love,” breathed Chance. “These are truly exquisite creations. You are the cleverest and best of divinities, my darling. Yet I fear...” his face darkened. “These stones, so beautiful, yet magical – all creatures in the world will want them. Human, non-humans. Mortal, immortal. They may seek to steal them from you, from us.” He held me close, enveloping me in his arms. I inhaled his soft, sweet musk. “My Queen, my goddess...I can only hope...” He sighed heavily. “That I never have to use these stones to find you. That we are never separated. But if we are – if we must enter the Mortal Realm, into mortal bodies, I hope that then they shall prove worthy of those who possess us – and possess them.”

As he finished speaking, he leaned in to kiss me once again, and I sighed with pleasure as I vanished into his kiss.





Chapter 1

“Mac?” A voice from far away – not soft and caressing, as my dream-voice had been, but laughing and jocular. “Ma-ac? Are you sleeping?”

“What?” I murmured, my eyes still closed. “No – go away – five more minutes...”

“Ma-ac?” The voice came again, laughing as it did so. A man's voice. Familiar. Arrogant. Cocksure. A voice that made me melt.

“Chance?” I opened my eyes, leaning up on my elbows. “What happened?”

Chance was standing relaxed, beside me, his brilliant blue eyes staring into mine. On his lips I could discern a playful, jocular smile. “Really,” he said. “Unbelievable. I tell you to meditate for five seconds and you fall asleep on me.”

This wasn't the Chance of my dreams – clothed in flame and beauty. But he was as handsome as ever, and a sudden blush sprang to my face. “But...where am I?” The dream had been a heavy one, and I still staggered to make sense of the waking world. Had it really been Chance who had held me so close, who had pressed his skin, his lips, his tongue against my body? Had it really been Chance who had taken those stones, which still glittered like small suns in my memory?

“You're doing it!” Chance grinned. “Well done, Mac!”

“Doing what?”

And then I remembered. My stomach dropped; my mouth fell open. I looked down. I was currently suspended in mid-air – at least five hundred feet above the ocean. Flying.

“No...” My heart started to flutter and throb as I began to panic. “No, what the...”

I was falling, plummeting faster and faster towards the dark, freezing-looking seas below. “What the – help!”

Instantly Chance's arms were around me, wrapping me tightly. I could smell him again, and he smelled as he had done in my dream – that hot cinnamon smell of desire. I stopped falling, and we remained in the air.

“Focus, Mac,” Chance cried. “You were doing it – you just lost your confidence, that's all. You were flying. You were in the air. Listen, you can do this, I promise you. You're doing this. Right here, right now. Here.”

“Because you're holding me up!” I couldn't help crying. “That's why. That's how I'm able to do this.” Terror seized me in a vice-grip. I looked down, and saw the ocean far beneath my feet. This isn't possible....people can't fly...this is a dream...a trick....

“Confidence, Mac!” Chance said, his voice strong and hard. “Don't look down, Mac. Look at me.”

“I can't!” I started kicking against Chance's grip, my heart pounding with panic. “Let me down!”

“Look at me!”

I looked up at him in shock. “Chance, this is...”

Something in his eyes stopped me from speaking. His brilliant blue eyes, gazing into mine. Enough to send me into a trance. “Think about it, Mac...” His voice was softer, now. “If you can fly – it means that you might be the Goddess. That you might be the one – the one I'm meant to be with. That we can be...together...” He began to pull away slowly, gently, still staring into my eyes. “You have to trust me. I'll be the one to catch you, I promise. But you have to do this for yourself. You have to find the goddess within.”

“Chance...” I whispered, as his fingers slipped away from mine. I was no longer holding onto him, I noted – but I was floating of my own accord, suspended in mid-air. I kicked my legs, but there was no resistance. I wasn't falling. I was simply letting the sky carry me aloft. “Chance – I'm flying!”

“You are, my darling!” Chance's face broadened into a smile. “My goddess, my Mac! I always knew you could do it.”

I wasn't quite ready to let go of my nervousness just yet, but I was able to manage a small smile as I looked around. All of Aeros was laid out at our feet, so small from this great height. So beautiful. The cliffs that had once seemed so large and impenetrable – where Chance had rescued me from the mysterious mountain people – were so tiny from this angle. It had only been a some Saturdays ago, but it felt like an eternity. With school, with work, with life at the Cutter Imperial Hotel, it had been difficult to find time to spend alone with Chance, especially since I'd found out who – or rather what - he was. But at last we were able to spend time together, to feel that electric spark that connected us reignite once again as our bodies touched.

Chance floated alongside me, his shoulders against mine. He grabbed my hand, pulling me into him, and I could feel sparks of desire in my blood, coursing through me like adrenaline. How I longed for him to pull me closer into him, to press his lips against mine, to kiss me as he had kissed me in my dream, sending me into throes of ecstasy. I could see it in his eyes – he wanted it as much as I did. His eyes had the same burning, passionate gleam I had seen in my dream. He wanted me; he wanted to kiss me. He wanted to touch me.

But he didn't. Instead he pulled me down with him, flying towards the very top of the cliff where he had rescued me last. Gravity began to catch up with us, and as we approached the cliff our measured floatation became a frenzied fall, and at last we fell onto the soft, sweet grass in a heap, Chance's strong, muscular body on top of mine. I couldn't help but laugh. How extraordinary it was, I thought, to be on safe ground – safe, sound, earth; I laughed with relief. Chance's laugh echoed my own, and on his face I could see pure joy.

Would I ever have expected this, I wondered? After all, only a few weeks ago, I thought the glowering, brooding Chance was an arrogant pillock, thinking himself too good to lower himself to smile at a friend or lover. He had never smiled, then – only smirked in that cocksure way of his. But now on Chance's face I could see pure, unrestrained happiness, a sincere smile that, I knew, represented the purest part of ecstasy.

His face grew more serious, but the look of joy on his face remained. “I can't tell you how happy I am, my goddess,” he whispered, holding me tight. “To have you back in my arms at last.” He pulled me into him, his hand behind my neck. He lifted my head towards his, our lips meeting in a passionate kiss. At the touch of his lips I felt a new wave of fire coursing through me, a desire so strong that I felt as if I were shaking. I kissed him back, violently, my arms twining around the back of his neck. His hands were on the buttons of my shirt; I was fumbling with his clothing, my body and soul both frenzied with the desire to feel his naked chest against my hands.

And then I realized that I was soaked.

Chance and I looked up and laughed. It had started pouring rain – claps of thunder sounded out from the heights of the sky. The beautiful sunny day we had been experiencing only moments before had vanished; the sky was dark-black with clouds, the rain pouring forth in torrents.

“We didn't even notice!” Chance laughed, pulling me to my feet. “Come on, I know a place.” He grabbed my hand and ran with me across the side of the cliff, both of us breathless with exhaustion and desire. We stopped, panting, at the mouth of a cave; Chance pulled me inside, pressing me up against its stone walls, kissing me again – even more passionately this time. He encircled my waist with his arms, and I could feel his fingers adapt to the contours of my skin. He brought me in for another kiss, and then another, each kiss more joyous, more ecstatic than the last.

I had always wanted it to be like this. From the first time I had met Chance Cutter, I had wanted this. I might have pretended otherwise – pretended to dislike him, even to despise him – but deep down, I knew, I had wanted nothing more than to feel his hot lips on mine, feel his hands fumbling expertly with the folds of my skirt. He had been afraid – I knew that. Afraid to hurt me as he had hurt Jana. He had held back. But I had convinced him – I had set us both free, free to fall in love at last. Until we couldn't help it any longer. We had no choice but to give in to our desires.

But something stopped me from going further. Something from my dream. That love I'd experienced in my vision – Mars and Vesta united on their thrones. Was that dream meant for me? I knew Chance was Mars – that much was clear. But did Chance love me the way Mars loved Vesta? Or was there someone else out there, some other girl, who represented his true destiny. How could I risk loving him, knowing that there was a chance that some other girl was meant to be his Queen?

I stopped suddenly, gazing into his glimmering blue eyes. “Why does it hurt?” I whispered. “When we're so close – why does it hurt to be together?”

Chance furrowed his brow. “Does it hurt?” he asked, his fingers stroking my neck gently. “For you to be with me?”

I nodded silently. “Yes,” I said at last, looking down. “I'm afraid. I want so much to be with you – to fully love you – but something stops me. I feel like I can't – no, that I shouldn't. We can't...not yet. Not until we're sure that I'm...who you think I am.” I wanted the tears that had sprung at the corners of my eyes to vanish. “If you still have some doubt about me being Vesta...I don't want to...” Go all the way? How could I – when we were still so unsure?

“You're so beautiful,” Chance sighed, tracing my face with his fingers. His eyes were filled with pain – his gaze earnest and heartfelt. This was not the ironic, jocular Chance I had known at school. “It's just that I don't want to lose you. I love you – you, Mac – whether or not you're Vesta. Others have died trying to prove that they're her – and I was sure with them, too. How can I let you take that chance, when taking that chance might mean losing you? And I couldn't live with that.”

“And if I'm not Vesta?” I couldn't resist asking.

Chance held me tighter still. “I'd rather tear my own heart out than keep up this search – this pain...” There were tears in his eyes, too. “I want to be with you. Vesta – she...you...I don't know. We had this love: an eternal love. And I know my destiny is to find her, to restore the lands in a way that only the united power of Fire can accomplish. But when she...you...I don't know...when Vesta left me, it left a cleft in my heart even centuries have not healed. If you are Vesta – then...how can I get over your leaving me once before? And if you're not...I could start over...”

“A clean slate,” I said. “Like all the embodiments here on Aeros Island?” I shook my head. “But none of us are clean slates. None of us on this island are new to this earth. Look, Chance – I had this vision. When we were flying. I don't know what happened – when you thought I fell asleep. I saw you, Chance. I saw us. We were in this place, this beautiful place, with fire everywhere. And we were in love, and we were happy, and there were these gemstones...”

Chance's eyes flew wide open. “Gemstones?” He turned to me, his expression serious. “Describe them.”

“They were shaped like the moon...” I thought back to the vision. “And inside there were these flames....there was an amethyst, and a sapphire, and an emerald...a garnet...and a topaz.”

“The Fire Stones,” said Chance softly. “She created them. Vesta did. To bring me back to her. Her Embodiment, whoever she is, should be able to find them – that's part of the Embodiment's test, to prove that she is Vesta. If you had that vision, Vesta's memories, surely it must mean...”

“I don't know, Chance,” I said. “I felt like I was Vesta in that dream – but it could be a mistake. An illusion. Maybe I wanted so badly to be Vesta that I dreamed I was in her place...” I shook my head. “But I can't live with not knowing who I am. I have to figure out my identity – I have to go through with it. Not just for your sake, Chance, but for mine.”