You can read Chapter Six here.
Sonja didn’t look at Erval. She focused instead on the sleeping face of the wraith-touched. His skin was pale, his hair slowly turning grey at the roots.
“Do all wraith-touched look like this?” she asked.
“Yes.”
She could feel her fire flaring up again. Breathing slowly, she placed her hand on his chest and it burst into flames. The man’s eyes shot open and he gasped, his torso arching off the ground. Erval hurried over and forced the man’s shoulders down onto the bed as he writhed. Sonja gritted her teeth, concentrating on the sliver of darkness until it disappeared. With a deep sigh, the man relaxed and closed his eyes.
He was sleeping.
“How did he escape?” Sonja wondered aloud. “And how did he find his way here?”
“That’s what I would like to know,” Erval replied. “There was no amulet on either of them, and not many people manage to reach Esmair without one.”
Sonja turned to look at him. “Is that what this place is called? Esmair?”
“Yes, it’s a little refuge from the rest of Eraune. I never imagined it would become a true refuge.”
It must be truly secluded, if the Queen’s soldiers had been unable to find it. Maybe they didn’t even know it existed.
Erval smiled at her. “Would you like me to show you and your friend around?”
Sonja hesitated. “We should be getting back to our own village. Could you show us around the next time we’re here?”
“It would be my pleasure.”
As Sonja stepped outside the little house, she wasn’t surprised to see the rest of Esmair waiting outside along with Rael. She tried not to shrink back from so many curious eyes.
“Why are we even letting her leave?” a young man demanded. He gestured furiously towards Sonja and Rael. “There’s over thirty of us and only two of them! Why don’t we just keep them here?”
Rael whipped her sai out and pointed them at him. “Try it. It will be your last mistake.”
“Nobody is being kept against their will,” Erval announced, his gaze roving over all the villagers.
“He’s right,” a woman with dark hair said. “If we keep them here, we’re no different from that witch sitting on the throne.”
Sonja took a deep breath. “I’ll come back here again. I promise.”
Sonja and Rael started to walk towards crowd, which slowly parted to let them through. Rael shot the young man a warning glare, hands clenched around the handles of her weapons. They moved through the silent village and then the trees; neither of them said a word, but Sonja could feel tension radiating from her friend.
When they were back at the pool, Sonja placed the green amulet around both their necks and they stepped into the water, then out into the cool blue of the glade.
As soon as the amulet was off her neck, Rael whirled around and cried: “What were you thinking?”
“They were in trouble, and I knew I could help them. What was I supposed to do?”
“But they know what you are.”
Sonja looked her friend right in the eye. “And if they do?”
Rael stepped closer. “If soldiers find that village and recognise those two men, they will know they’ve been healed. You heard what Erval said. The men you healed were wraith-touched. That means there is an ice wraith in Eraune.”
“No. She’s not just in Eraune. She’s ruling it.”
Fear flickered over Rael’s face. “The General might not know what a soulfire is,”she said, “but the Queen will.”
Sonja dropped her gaze. She was just one person, one soulfire; what good could she do?
One flame can make a difference against the darkness.
“Then we’d better be ready in case she does find out. I need to learn more about my powers, and learn how to use them. Does that book say anything else about soulfires…or about shadow powers?”
Rael smiled slowly. “Let’s find out.”
They sat side by side on the grass and turned the pages of the old book. Eventually, they came across another picture - one of a man with long, black tendrils weaving around him. His stance was that of a fighter, and the tendrils seemed to be coming out of his palms.
Rael got to her feet. She closed her eyes and began to breathe deeply. Then she took out her sai and started to move. Her dance was one of power and grace; the weapons flashed silver in the half-light.
Something dark began to swirl around the weapons. The shadows in the glade grew longer and deeper. Rael did not stop her movement even as the darkness began to pool around her feet and dance around the two sai.
Without warning, she jumped into the air and slammed the sai into the earth. Shadows whipped out all around her like a dark wind. Sonja landed hard on her back; she lay where she was, the air knocked out of her lungs.
“Sonja? Sonja!” Rael’s voice was like a whisper through fog. “Are you all right?”
Sonja sat up. Her upper back ached, but that didn’t matter. “Yes.”
Rael helped Sonja to her feet. She stared at her sai in amazement. “I have never done that before. It was as if…as if I became the shadows.”
“Do you want to try it again?”
Rael grinned. “Oh, yes. But this time, stand well back.”