Free Darkness Possessed (Order of the Blade) by Stephanie Rowe Page B

not be stopped, sort of like what meth did to humans. The only disadvantage the rogues had was that they were insane, which gave the Order the benefit of intelligence and strategic thinking when trying to defeat them. The idea of a rogue Calydon who was also in possession of his mental faculties…it was almost unthinkable to contemplate how unstoppable that warrior would be.
    Rohan nodded. "They are not good men."
    And there it was. The issue. Power always had the potential to corrupt, and power in the hands of an amoral lunatic was dangerous indeed. He whistled softly, beginning to understand the level of threat they were dealing with here. "What's their plan?" But even as he asked it, he grimaced. His job here was not to take on a bunch of enhanced bad guys terrorizing some South American jungle. His mission was Thano. "How does that relate to Thano?" he amended, changing the focus of his inquiry.
    Rohan leaned forward. "José is in possession of a staff that he uses to bring his warriors back from the state of being rogue. You must retrieve that staff."
    Retrieve the staff. That was such a concrete solution to saving Thano: a staff that brought warriors back from the rogue state. Hope leapt through him, the first hope he'd felt since Thano had gone rogue. Was there really a way to save him? All he had to do was find José's staff and use it on Thano? A part of him wanted to jump up and head out after José right then and end this thing, but he was too experienced for that. So, instead, he took a mouthful of the stew while he considered this new information. A simple statement, that was obviously very deceptive. "Why can't you get it? Why do you need me?"
    "Because you have fire."
    Zach went still at the words. "Fire?" he repeated softly.
    "Fire. It's the only way." Rohan gestured at the torches that surrounded him. "These torches will keep us safe tonight, but they aren't enough to get the staff. You are the only way, Zachary."
    Zach closed his eyes as defeat tried to overtake him. Thano's survival depended on him being able to use fire? Son of a bitch. He hadn't been able to summon fire for a battle for more than six hundred years. His fire had been fading for a long time, and over the last day or two, the final vestiges of it had deserted him. "Why is fire needed?" His voice was soft, hoping that Rohan's answer would give him another option.
    "Because he's a fire god."
    Rohan's reply was so unexpected, that all Zach could do was stare at him. "A fire god? What are you talking about?"
    Rohan served himself some more stew. "Are you not familiar with the ancient Greek and Roman myths? Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and all the others?"
    "Well, yeah, of course I am. But those are myths. Stories of fantasy and imagination."
    "Yes," Rohan acknowledged. "Many of the stories are the product of human invention. However, most of it is grounded in some level of fact. Very powerful beings that control the fundamental aspects of life exist. Call them gods if you wish, for want of a better term. They don't bother with the earth realm much these days, but sometimes they show up here. When they do, it's generally not a good thing for any of us. Most of the gods have no moral compass whatsoever."
    Zach ran his hand over his jaw, scraping his knuckles against the rough stubble. A god? The kind that could create a tsunami simply by sneezing? Shit. What was he getting into? "If you're correct that we're dealing with a fire god, why would the torches stop him? What if he just sticks them in his armpits and uses them as a nice little self-massage tool?"
    "The fire wouldn't stop him," Rohan agreed. "But it seems to appease his minions when they hunt. They never bother us if we have fire." He nodded at the moat. "That's just in case one of them changes his mind. It won't stop them, but it might give us a fraction of a second longer to react and defend ourselves."
    "So why do you think I can make a difference?"
    "José controls fire. He bends it to his