Amira

A few hours later, we were back in our lands and it was safe to stop. I couldn't have gotten luckier then to come to a farm when we did. Perhaps, Dzrog the god of good fortune, was smiling on me for once.

The small hut lay in the middle of a vast valley with rolling hills and a small pond. The smell of wet wool clung in the air along with wildflowers. It smelled like a long lost memory. Why did it smell like home?

I got down from my horse and helped Elias down from his. He was still so weak that even with his small protest, I helped him to the front door.

"You're going to be fine, Elias," I said.

I was trying to reassure myself more than him. He smiled grimly, but didn't say anything as he held his side. Elias. I knocked on the door tentatively trying to shake the feeling of familiarity. I heard some movement from inside a few moments before the door opened.

It was a tall male ice demon with short trimmed hair and a well trimmed beard. His face was angular and like most of our kind, his eyes were a beautiful sheen of silver, but there was something about him I couldn't shake. He had a strong build to him and smelled of pine and wool. He tilted his head to one side and furrowed his brow not saying anything for several moments.

"Amira?" he asked in a hushed tone after several moments. "Amira, is that you?"

"Aye…?"

His eyes finally fell to Elias's form I was barely able to hold up. "Can you… can you help him please? He's badly hurt."

He opened the door wide. There would be time later to ask how he knew me, but for now, I needed to get him tended to. The tall man helped me bring him in without another word.

****

Elias was asleep by the fire stripped from the waist down except for the fresh bandages I had helped put on. I don't think I had ever heard him snore before. Once we were done with him, the man tended to the cut on my shoulder without question.

"When did you leave the temple?" he finally asked.

I looked up at him curiously. How did he know that.

"Sir, how… how do you-"

"Amira, I'm your Da- has it been that long?" he asked.

His voice was full of hurt.

I looked at him with a renewed gaze and glanced around the house. Small snippets started coming back. Time before I had been taken to the temple to save me from the life I was now living. Fate was a funny thing.

"Da?" I asked.

The word fell off my tongue as if it was foreign. I had never called Andre that. It was always father and only because he pushed it.

He nodded.

"Where's mama?"

"She's in town trading," he said simply. "She'll be so glad to see you."

I bit my lip.

"We can't stay, da," I said quietly. "I have to get back with Elias."

His eyes jumped to the form on the floor and then back to me.

"Elias Makar?" he whispered.

I nodded. "Aye."

"I'm so sorry," he said as he pulled me into his arms. "This is exactly what we feared would happen by keeping you here…"

He knew that I was now one of Andre's pawns.

"I chose, Da," I whispered. "It was the only way to save my sisters…"

He pulled me away from him his eyes burning with a new light.

"You're brave, Amira."

Brave. I almost laughed. I was anything, but brave.

"Thank you," I whispered a few tears welling in my eyes. "As soon as he wakes, we will set out."

Elias couldn't know he was my father. Being here was dangerous because of that. He would stop at nothing to make sure Andre and him were the only family I had.