Page 77 of Inferno

But having lived this long, there was now a far bigger danger facing Nerik; that of the fire-fever. It was what a human might call being drunk on power. Merging his essence with fire, becoming one with the flame, was a heady experience. There was an overwhelming freedom and intoxication that came with being free of physical restraints. He could go anywhere the fire could go. He could travel from one end of the forest to the other in a heartbeat. He could devour a tree in a single breath, or smoulder for weeks on end inside the same log. He could become so enamoured with the power of the fire that he forgot himself entirely. And far from being its salvation, it was possible that he could become this city’s destruction.

So don’t let that happen, Nerik told himself, as he began to run forward, towards the fire front. It was moving swiftly, fanned by strong winds, and as it reached him, he leapt into the flames, embracing the rush of power, but keeping his mind on his greater goal; save Minia, and in doing so, forge a path for the Chalandrians to have a future here.

Despite his anticipation of the power of the fire, Nerik was nonetheless overwhelmed by it in the first few moments. The wind driving the flames was strong, and the forest was dry. He was swept southward, helpless but to ride the flames until he got his bearings. He stretched out his senses, to the right and left, feeling for the edges of the fire, testing its heat, its movements. Gods above, this thing was huge! It stretched out to the west, all the way past Stanley’s farm to the river where the forest gave way to farmland. And to the east, it was rapidly gaining speed, with nothing but forest for a hundred miles.

Nerik made a few fast calculations. The western flank could be left to burn itself out. It would destroy a couple of cottages – unfortunate, but not a catastrophe – then it would hit farmland, and peter out in the short grass. The eastern flank could be brought under control if he moved quickly.

In a flash, Nerik moved his consciousness to the eastern edge of the fire. At his command, trees that were fully alight faded out to scorched bark and browned leaves. He left logs smouldering, with not enough time to put them out entirely, but he was certain that a team of volunteers would be along before nightfall to mop up any spot fires.

Then, over to the west, he caught wind of a new pocket of fire, one that hadn’t been there before…

Alfrix curse them, it was those blasted unicorns! The ones who had started this fire in the first place. And from the looks of it, they were doing their best to drive the fire further towards the town, flanking it from the west and blocking people in.

Not on his watch. Nerik surged through the flames, cutting off the malicious equines by throwing up a wall of flame right in front of them and halting their rampage. There was a little horde of deelees with them, urging them on. Deelees were short, slender people, with red skin and black tails. They were entirely cantankerous by nature, and had likely paired up with the unicorns only to create as much destruction as possible.

Nerik surrounded the entire lot of them with a wall of fire, curving it inwards in a miniature tornado. The deelees paused for a moment, seeking a way out, then panicked as they realised they were trapped.

Nerik wasn’t vengeful enough to actually kill the trouble-makers – for all that they’d tried to kill a town full of humans – but he wasn’t going to let them go unscathed, either. He took a moment to centre himself, pouring his full concentration into his next move… and then he drew the fire tornado inwards, tightening the circle inch by inch, keeping a close eye on the terrified group in the centre. The unicorns, too, had backed up into a tightly bunched huddle, eyes wide and hooves stomping. They, at least, realised that this fire was nothing natural, and one or two of them bowed their heads by way of apology. It might have been decades since any of them met an infernal, but they knew the work of one when they saw it.

Nerik kept tightening the circle until the deelees’ clothes began to smoulder. The deelees would be feeling the heat now, and in another few moments, their clothes would catch alight…

With a thought, Nerik extinguished the flames, gratified to see a coating of soot on the deelees’ skin, and terrified expressions on their faces. He walked out of the burning forest towards them, his own body fully alight. He couldn’t truly speak in this form, but he could still leave the deelees with a firm impression of his anger. He built up the fire behind him, the flames leaping twice as high as they had been moments ago, and let out a roar, hot air forced through narrow channels in a fiery scream that the deelees would not soon forget. Sure enough, one of them fell to the ground, pleading for mercy, while the others looked contrite. Nerik could forgive their desperation – for desperate they surely were, trapped in famine and drought on the far side of the gate – but he would not forget their casual disregard of human life, and if any of them dared to try settling in Minia itself, they would soon face his wrath.

But he’d wasted enough time on errant troublemakers. There was still the rest of the forest to deal with. Plunging back into the bulk of the fire, Nerik travelled eastward, back to the wall of flame that was now far, far closer to the edge of Minia. And in his absence, it had grown twice as large.

◊ ◊ ◊

Rimdolen had carried Yorin as far into the forest as they dared to go, stopping when they came to a small river running westward. The air was thick with smoke, making it difficult to see more than a few metres in front of them. Yorin slid off Rimdolen’s back and took off his shirt, wetting the fabric in the river, then tying it around his face to filter the air. Rimdolen, unfortunately, had no such option.

“You should go back,” Yorin told the unicorn. “Thank you for bringing me, but you shouldn’t stay here. It’s not safe.”

Rimdolen peered northwards, where they could already see flames leaping above the tree line.There’s no guarantee that Nerik will be able to control this,Rimdolen warned him.I have seen infernals consumed by such fires back in Chalandros…

“He’ll do it,” Yorin said, steadfast in his belief in Nerik – not because he knew anything about the abilities of an infernal, but because he knew what Nerik wanted. And that was to prove to the humans that the so called demons were not all bad. Yes, a group of them had reportedly started this fire, but if a demon could stop it, then it might force the humans to realise that the peoples of Chalandros were more than just fiends bent on destruction. “I’ve got the river here, if anything goes wrong,” Yorin reassured Rimdolen. “Now, go on. Get out of here.”

Godspeed, Rimdolen replied. Then he turned on his heels and bolted back down the road, away from the advancing fire front.

Once he was gone, Yorin turned to face the wall of flames, apprehensive about his next move. Reading between the lines of what Stanley had said, Nerik was somehow at risk of forgetting what he was doing, up there in the fire. Forgetting which side he was on, maybe? Yorin had no idea how that could work, or even if he was right in his guess, but Stanley had seemed certain that Yorin’s presence was necessary to keep Nerik on track.

Two different thoughts hit him, as he stared up at the advancing wall of flames, both of them equally terrifying. The first was that Stanley didn’t actually want him to help at all, but rather, had sent Yorin out here to get killed in the fire. Stanley’s opinion on humans forming attachments to Chalandrians had been crystal clear. But a moment later, Yorin dismissed his misgivings. Even if Stanley was that malicious – and Yorin firmly doubted that he was – then there was no way in the world Rimdolen would have brought him here, knowing he was sending Yorin to his death. The unicorn held too much respect for Nerik to kill someone he cared about.

But that left a second problem, this one far more realistic. Yorin believed wholeheartedly that Nerikwantedto stop the fire. But he’d also given them all a clear warning that he might not beableto.

Yorin took a slow breath, planting his feet firmly and sending up a prayer that he hadn’t miscalculated his course of action. Nerik could do this. He believed that with every fibre of his being.

Now all he had to do was convince Nerik of the same thing.

A swirl of wind buffeted the trees, blustering in all directions now, rather than blowing directly south. A change in the weather? Or some conjuring from Nerik to aid his cause? Could infernals manipulate the wind?

The fire seemed no closer… but a quick check to the left and right told a different story. The fire front was holding to the north, but closing in from the east and west. Then, as Yorin watched, the eastern most flames suddenly receded. But not for long. A few moments later, the wind whipped up, and a treetop that had just gone out lit up again. To make matters worse, small spot fires were starting up ahead of the main fire front, as embers were carried forward by the wind.

Yorin felt a burning sensation on his neck, and cursed as he brushed a glowing ember off his skin. He rushed over to the river, dousing the rest of himself in water, until it was running out of his hair and dripping down onto his boots.

“Nerik!” he shouted at the fire. “You can do this! But you’ve gotta do it now, buddy. If you cross this river, there’s no more fire breaks until you reach town.”

He watched and waited… and sure enough, the fire to the west was suddenly suppressed, even while a tree directly in front of Yorin burst into flames. It went out again a moment later, only for the tree beside it to catch alight.

In a macabre sort of way, it was fascinating to watch. Yorin was no stranger to fire. He’d grown up using fire to cook and heat the house with. He’d seen houses catch alight due to a poorly tended cooking fire or a candle knocked over by careless hands, and he’d even seen a forest fire, once when he was about ten years old. He knew how fire moved, how air currents travelled around it, how various materials burned. That Nerik was interfering with this fire was as plain as the nose on Yorin’s face. But somehow, he just wasn’t getting on top of the whole thing.