It meant my Eclipse was destined to be covered in dust. It didn’t matter if I washed the car unless it had rained recently. A single trip to the ranch was enough to make it look like it hadn’t been washed in months. As we left the gravel and hit the first paved road, I reached over and pulled the lever that triggered the release of windshield wiper fluid and the wipers to clear Layla’s vision.
“Thanks,” Layla said. “Wasn’t sure how to do that.”
I nodded and reclined my seat back. My head was still spinning. I closed my eyes.
Aerin stroked my hair from behind me. Layla glanced in my direction briefly before fixing her eyes back on the road. She didn’t say anything, but I could tell she didn’t appreciate Aerin’s gesture. Since I knew that when Aerin touched me, she had…urges, I wasn’t sure what to make of it myself. But I was too out of sorts to care.
Alternating waves of heat and cold coursed through my body. A sense of gritty heaviness in my gut and an airy sensation in my lungs. That accounted for four of the five elements. Only aether, or spirit, wasn’t producing any discernible sensations.
I closed my eyes. It helped a little. I wasn't sure if it was the elements inside me or a simple case of car sickness exacerbated by my otherwise disoriented state of mind. However, with all the other sensations swirling around my body, minimizing visual stimuli calmed my nerves.
Cool air blew against my face. I didn’t remember the Eclipse having such a powerful air conditioner.
I opened my eyes.
I was staring down at the top of the Eclipse, hovering over the car. I shrieked. I wasn’t in my body. Not completely. A golden tether of some sort ran between me and my body. Was I an astral projection or something? I’d read a little about astral projection. Cool idea. Never thought it was real. You know, like other things that weren’t supposed to exist, like elves or magic.
I focused my mind and forced my consciousness back into my body. The other sensations, those produced by the other elements, immediately returned.
“Doing all right?” Layla asked.
“You didn’t see that?” I was trying to catch my breath.
“See what?” Layla asked.
“I was outside of my body, hovering over the car. I think all the elements in my body are going haywire.”
“They need a release,” Aerin said, “some way to manifest. The elementals within you are not just powers; they are entities. They need to be regularly expressed.”
“Like walking a dog?” I asked.
“Or letting children out to play,” Aerin said. “Can’t coop them up too long without them getting restless.”
“How close are we?” Layla asked.
“Just a few more miles down the highway,” Aerin said. “I mean, I think. I only went there once before, and I had a driver.”
I snorted. “So you don’t know for sure how to get there?”
“I think I do,” Aerin said. “Just keep driving, Layla. I’ll recognize the turn when I see it.”
I was too focused on trying to keep myself inside my body to worry about directions. The women would figure it out, I assumed. But what if fire got out while we were all cooped up in the car? Even water, or air, and certainly earth, could be devastating in their own way.
“I don’t know how much longer I can contain all this,” I said, clenching my fists.
“Right there!” Aerin said, pointing at an exit sign through the front window. “Exit there and turn right.”
Layla pulled off the highway and followed a series of turns that Aerin said seemed familiar. Hopefully, her sense of direction was better than mine. I often make wrong turns when I’m in places I don’t know well because something—a tree on a corner, a little sign, whatever—looks somehow familiar. We couldn’t afford to get lost right now.
I just hoped Aerin’s dad didn’t hold a grudge and that his stone circle would work to harness my magic.
We pulled onto a dirt road. Not even gravel. With the ruts in the road, I wasn’t a hundred percent certain that the Eclipse wouldn’t bottom out. They must not have been as deep as they seemed. If it had been raining, though, we wouldn’t have made it without getting stuck.
The road was mostly covered by the trees on either side, the branches forming a canopy above us.
“Right here,” Aerin said. “Just through those trees.”
“I don’t see anything,” Layla said.
“It’s there,” Aerin said, getting out of the car. She opened my door and, taking me by my arm, helped me out and onto my feet.
I wasn’t just seeing double. Maybe triple. With so many trees around us, it felt like they were closing in as we walked down the narrow path between them. Like the forest was swallowing us.
Layla came up from behind and took me by the other arm. “I’ve got him,” she said.
Aerin stared at her briefly before nodding and releasing my arm.
A cat fight was probably brewing. It was just a matter of time. But the tension between the women was the last thing on my mind. For the moment, given all the other sensations swirling in my frame, the tension between them was just a mild annoyance by comparison.
I didn’t have the mental resources to waste worrying about it. It took every bit of focus I had to keep from exploding into a mushroom cloud of elemental magic.
We reached what looked like a makeshift cottage. I’d seen tool sheds bigger than this place before. Aerin knocked on the door.
“Here goes nothing,” Aerin said. “I half expect he’ll just slap the door in my face.”
The door swung open.
“Aerie-berry!” the aged drow man who opened the door exclaimed. He had a long, white beard that nearly reached his waist. He was slight of build, his arms so thin if I was seeing them correctly that I thought I might be able to wrap my whole hand around them.
“Hi, Dad,” Aerin said.
The man enveloped Aerin with a hug. “It’s about time. I wondered how long it would take before you came looking for me.”
Layla and I exchanged awkward glances.
“Princess Brightborn, I presume,” the man said, nodding at Layla. “And Naayak Nightshade!”
I snorted. “How did you…”
“I saw the trials. I might live a simple life out here. But I’m no neanderthal. I have the internet on my phone.”
“Dad,” Aerin said. “I’d love to catch up. But we really need your help.”
“Of course you do,” the man said. “Name’s Elrand, by the way. Elrand Nightshade.”
“Nice to meet you,” Layla said.
I nodded. “Yeah, me too.”
“You’re my son-in-law!” Elrand said. “I presume, based on that ring on your finger, Princess, that you’re my daughter-in-law, too?”
“Something like that,” Layla said, looking to the side. “Please, sir. We don’t have much time.”
“Naayak’s power is overwhelming him,” Aerin said. “I know you have a stone circle you’ve been using to prevent your magic from being detected by the fairies.”
Elrand bit his lip. “Been spying on me, daughter?”
“Just one time,” Aerin said. “I was checking up on you.”
Elrand nodded. “Come with me.”
We followed Elrand down another trail that led from the back of his cottage farther into the woods. Layla held onto my arm as I stumbled behind Elrand, focusing my eyes on the man in an effort to find my balance.
“I presume you’ve also come to summon the Furies,” Elrand said.
Aerin, walking beside her father, turned and looked at me. I shrugged. “How did you…”
“The entrails of an opossum revealed it to me,” Elrand said.
“You can’t be serious,” Aerin said. “Examining entrails to tell the future?”
“It’s a well-known practice, daughter,” Elrand said. “Well attested to by the ancients.”
“I just didn't know that it really worked,” Aerin said.
“Of course it does! How else would I
know why you came? Everything is already prepared. Once Naayak releases his energy, the Furies will pay us a visit in the stone circle.”
“Wait,” Aerin said. “We aren’t ready for that yet.”
“I know, I know. There’s a giant you hoped might also come and appeal your case to the Furies,” Elrand said. “But no worries, daughter. Once we’ve evoked them, we’ll have a full cycle of the moon to make our appeal before they judge our case.”
“Our case?” Aerin asked. “Dad, I appreciate your help. But this isn’t a matter that concerns you.”
“Of course it does, daughter! I’ve been preparing for this day ever since you sent me here.”
Aerin grunted. “I thought you’d be upset about it. I wasn’t sure you’d even want to see me.”
Elrand laughed. “Baby girl! I could never be angry at you for doing your duty. All those things happened to prepare us for this very moment in time!”
Everything they were saying, I had to admit, was quite fascinating. I didn’t have a lot of thoughts about it. Mostly because I didn’t have any mental faculties to spare. It took everything I had to both stay upright and put one foot in front of the other while also holding myself together. The elements were all coursing through me, giving me several sensations at once. I couldn’t discern one from the next. Extreme heat from the fire, the ice-cold sensation of water, the heaviness of earth, and the lightness of air. They all melded together into one giant sense of incredible discomfort, like my body was being ripped apart from the inside out.
“Have you evoked the Furies before?” Aerin asked.
Elrand laughed. “I couldn't, until now. Without all five elements, it’s simply not possible. The only elements I can wield are earth and aether.”
“But now Naayak can…”
“Indeed, my girl. Such is what I believe the chosen one was always destined to do!”
“To unite the peoples,” I said, managing to get a few words out. “Means to first unite the three guardian races.”
“Precisely!” Elrand exclaimed. “I like this one, Aerin! You did well!”
Layla firmed her grip on my arm. “Are we almost there?”
“Yes, Princess. Just through the clearing ahead.”
We stepped through an opening in the trees. Five stones—which looked like ten to me on account of my double-vision—were arranged in a perfect circle.
Still holding onto my arm, Layla helped me into the middle of the circle.
Elrand stepped to the perimeter. “Come, both of you. He is the only one who can be within the circle when the elements are released.”
Layla put her hand on my back. “You’ve got this, Caspar.”
I nodded and stumbled into the middle of the circle.
“Now, Naayak. Release the elements! Each one will settle on its corresponding stone, and the Furies will appear!”
Once everyone was outside the circle, I exhaled, relaxing my body. The power pulled my hands skyward and five, distinct energies poured out of my fingers. Blue, red, green, white, and golden power blasted into the sky.
The elemental powers swirled together in a tornado of unrestrained energy.
The cyclone of power surrounded me and pulled me off of my feet.
As I hovered in mid-air, spun by the magic, each element left the tornado one by one. The element of fire flowed to one of the stones first, turning the entire stone red to match the color of its magic. The others followed suit. As each elemental power left the tornado, it slowed, gently setting me back on my feet as the last element, aether, settled on its respective stone.
I looked down at my feet, ensuring that I had a good footing on the ground. Then, I looked up.
Three identical women stood there. They were tall, at least seven feet in height. Their hair was golden in color. Not blonde, literally golden, and their skin radiated with white light.
I shielded my eyes with my hand.
“Tell us,” the three women demanded, speaking in unison, “why you, human, have dared to call upon the Furies?”
Chapter Ten
I looked around. The five stones glowed so brightly that I couldn’t even see Layla, Aerin, or Elrand standing beyond them.
“I am the one they call Naayak,” I said. “The chosen one of the elven prophecy.”
“We know who you are,” the three Furies responded in concert. “Or at least, we know who you claim to be.”
“Then you know why I’m here,” I said. “I represent the elements and also the giants. I come to beg you to reconsider the alliance between the fairies and the elves.”
“Your race has become a parasite on the Earth,” the Furies replied. “The elves are your just judgment.”
I shook my head. “The elves seek to use the Earth’s magic for war. In their world, that’s all they’ve known. They’ve turned the power of life toward destruction and bloodshed.”
“It is not the elves who have polluted our waters and skies. It is not they who have done violence to our forests and lands or have used the power of fire to destroy. Humans have lost touch with aether. They are no longer true to their own spirits.”
“The elves will do far worse if they take control of this world,” I said. “If you need proof, just consider what they did to the giants.”
“What are you speaking of, human?” the Furies asked.
“They killed them! All of them! Only one still survives, and he is the one who told me I should summon you to beg your reconsideration.”
The three Furies exchanged glances with one another. “How can we know that what you say is true? You would not be the first human to invoke us and attempt to persuade us with lies.”
“I can bring him to you,” I said. “He’ll tell you himself what the elves did.”
“If this is your end, why do you approach us in the company of elves?”
I shook my head. “They are not aligned with the elven king, the one who hopes to destroy us. They are here to help.”
“Then why does one of these harness the power of celestial beings?” the Furies asked. “Such power was meant to be attained by the chosen one.”
I sighed. “I gave it to her to save her. Her father, the elven king, would have allowed her to die otherwise. I had no choice.”
The Furies all looked at me, furrowing their brows. “Then she is the one the elven king believes to be the chosen one.”
I shook my head. “He knows the truth. He’s trying to convince the elves that Layla is the chosen one. He had her stabbed with a blade charged with this…angel magic in order to force my hand, to use me to kill a man who’d stolen the rings that contain this power and to give it to her instead.”
“You did what?” the second of the Furies, the one in the middle asked, speaking for the first time on her own.
“I had no choice," I said. “The elven king forced my hand.”
“But a man has died by your hand no less,” the same Fury responded.
“But it was the elf who acted in jealousy,” the Fury on the far right said. “Not the human. Had it not been for the king’s envy, his desire to name the chosen one himself, Naayak would not have had to act in turn.”
“Then it seems,” the Fury on the left said, “that to decide to whom we should declare our loyalty falls to me. I am Allecto the angry. The king, I believe, acted in anger. This human acted out of love. Although the elf who holds the angel power is the king’s daughter, he was moved by love above all else.”
“That’s two to one, right? So you will side with me?” I asked.
“We will not,” the three responded, again in unison.
“But two of you took my side.”
“The Furies do not act if our will is divided. We require unanimous consent.”
I looked at the middle Fury. “What can I do to prove that I had no choice?”
“I am Tisiphone, the Fury who avenges murder. What does choice have to do with whether a man is guilty of bloodshed?”
“Everything,” I said. “Murder
has to be premeditated. I did not want to kill the man. Because my life is bound to Layla’s, and also Aerin’s, the princess of the drow, if I allowed Layla to die, we all would have died. It was either kill Fred, the man who’d stolen angelic magic, and one life would be tragically lost, or all three of us would have died.”
Tisiphone cocked her head. “If you three had died, the guilt would have fallen on the king.”
I sighed. “If I am guilty, then I took that guilt upon myself in order to save two others.”
“You did it to save yourself, as well,” Tisiphone said.
“But as the Fury of jealousy and pride,” the Fury on the right said, “I sense it was his love for the elf who holds the magic now that he acted. Not for his own sake.”
“You may have assumed guilt for the sake of love,” Tisiphone said, “but you cannot claim guilt without also bearing the consequences. More, you used the magic of the elements to accomplish the deed.”
I scratched my head. “You’re right; I can’t justify what I did. Sometimes, I believe, we are forced to make unfortunate choices in this broken world. We must sometimes choose the lesser of evils, even if it means we must bear sin in our souls. But you three, you were made by another. I don’t know if you were really created from Uranus’ testicles, but I believe in a God who is above all of us. A God who believes in redemption and atonement. I believe in a God who gave His own Son as a sacrifice so guilt would not forever stain our souls.”
The three Furies stood, again, in silence. They all three narrowed their eyes as if looking into my soul. “Tell us what you propose to offer to atone for your guilt.”
I sighed. “I believe we are saved by grace through faith.”
“We are not speaking of your eternal salvation or damnation, human,” the Furies said. “We are speaking of your guilt and its consequences. You must still endure the punishment prescribed for your guilt in your mortal life. Tell us, human, would a man who killed another be exonerated of his crime in your human courts merely because he’d done good deeds before or after he committed the offense?”
Junkyard Dogma (The Elven Prophecy Book 4) Page 6
