Free Burnt by Lyn Lowe

know you’re scared. But…”
    Sojun sighed again and dropped his head against his knees. Kaie listened to his friend suck in several long breaths. “Destroyer take me.”
    “There weren’t any spirits, no spirits. There was just water, lots of freezing water. If there was another way…”
    The other boy looked up, his eyes so wide they were more white than brown. “I know. There’s not. You couldn’t carry her if you weren’t half dead. I’ll do it. Gods.”
    Before the fire, before the visions, he would be furious about the implication that he was weak. Now he couldn’t summon up enough energy to care about the half dead part. “Ok. I need a minute.”
    Jun scoffed and rolled his eyes, making a pretty decent attempt at good humor, for all that he was obviously frightened. “Take five, Rosy. For me.”
    Before they left he convinced Sojun to pull the lamp out of the wall. Neither one of them wanted to spend any more time in the darkness. Kaie took the light, Jun took the Lemme. Hand pressed firmly against the wall, he led the way back to the pool with eyes open.
    The trip was easier now. The distance that seemed so impossible transformed into a short distance just off the main path. The circle of light he carried made them blind to ever ything outside its small radius but it made all the difference in the world. He was still exhausted, still hurting, but all his fear seemed to be banished to the darkness outside the span of light. They were at the pool before his shaking could really get started again.
    The darkness around the water refused to be broken, so Kaie still couldn’t tell how large the pool was, but it was clearly big. Even the small stretch the lamp illuminated was more than enough to get lost and drown in. At least one of the gods were with him, that he found his way out and back to where he needed to be. He could almost believe it was a sign they were going to be ok.
    Sojun settled down with the Lemme near the pool. Much as he longed to lay down himself, Kaie crawled over next to them and began scooping water up to her. It took a great deal of coaxing, but they got her to drink. She waved them away before he thought she got enough, but no amount of wheedling would get her to swallow after that. So, giving up, they let her go to sleep.
    A few minutes later, Kaie knew exactly how she felt. Once the Lemme was down, the other boy turned all attention to him. His head was poked at, his eyes checked, water was shoved down his throat until Kaie feared he was drowning, and he came dangerously close to being stripped and bathed by his best friend. It was a singularly horrific experience, and if Sojun wasn’t clearly struggling for distractions from the fear that kept the boy’s eyes far too wide, Kaie would be pissed off about it.
    He let it go as long as he could stand it in the hope that his friend would relax when the spirits continued to leave them be. But he was not one to be fussed over, even when he was sick. “Jun, I love you, man, but you’re not getting my pants off.”
    He didn’t get a laugh, d idn’t get much of anything. Sojun looked up slowly, as if not seeing him. When the other boy spoke, there was no question what Jun was really looking at. “Why did you leave me, Kaie? I know I’m not as fast as you, but I could’ve helped.”
    Kaie cringed. What answer could he possibly give to that? Nothing he said would make up for the fact that Jun went to sleep next to his friend in a peaceful village and woke up to a world on fire, all alone. His own experience was bad. That would be so much worse. And that was on him. “I didn’t. Not like that. I went before anything was happening, to talk to the Lemme.”
    Sojun focused on him, but just for a moment. Then the other boy’s eyes dropped. “You changed your mind, didn’t you? You were going to take exile.”
    Kaie dropped down to the ground, not caring that it was cold and hard. “I don’t think it matters anymore.”
    “I knew