by Frank Morin
He blinked open his eyes, then blinked again, but the view didn’t change. He still stood in his mindscape with Verena and the elementals.
Queen Dreokt had joined them.
She wore full regal finery, complete with flowing silver-and-gold gown, delicate golden crown, and a scepter of office shaped an awful lot like a battle mace. She pointed the scepter at Connor and shouted, “You fool! Surrendering to the elementals is death for us all!”
For a second Connor was too surprised to react. He had thought he’d broken the chert connection with Queen Dreokt, but a link must have remained through Verena, and somehow she’d sensed what was happening and shoved herself into the conversation.
Verena didn’t hesitated. She lunged and punched the queen in the jaw.
There in the mindscape, the queen lacked her physical prowess. They were all just mental projections, and Verena’s mind was very strong. The blow rocked the surprised queen back a step, and Verena followed up with a second punch, right in the queen’s throat. Unlike when she’d used that move on him in Alasdair, she did not hold back, but drove the flat of her hand hard.
Queen Dreokt choked and sputtered, and Verena growled, “This is a private conversation.”
“You are not welcome here,” Fire added. “You wasted your chance to serve us and will suffer the consequences of your folly.”
That motivated the queen. She knocked Verena back shed the effects of her blows, then gestured at the four elementals. “You young idiots! You can’t decide to destroy everyone and pretend such a choice is a private one.”
“We don’t have a choice,” Connor admitted. He hated the queen, but if she had an idea how to stop the elementals from rising, he welcomed it. “If we don’t offer them a gateway, they will destroy Nicklaus and use him instead.”
She shook her head. “No. For once, listen to your elders, boy. I will stop this.”
“How?” Verena asked. The elementals drew closer, scowling. Water started to say, “Poor little mortal—”
But Queen Dreokt pointed her scepter at Water and shrieked, “I will stop it!”
Then she disappeared.
“I hate that woman,” Verena muttered, glancing back at Connor, a flicker of hope in her eyes. “But if she can . . .”
“Make your choice!” Water cried, rushing toward him.
Connor threw out a hand and said, “Give me a second.”
He closed his eyes and willed himself awake. The mindscape faded, replaced by the real world. The barren plateau, the torn ground, the broken remains of Evander’s giant, the roiling clouds and shrieking, chill wind, and Kilian rushing in toward the queen’s back, water and fire in hand like twin scimitars. Queen Dreokt stood nearby, holding the ancient sculpted slate high.
Connor realized what she intended, and for a second his heart soared. Of course! With the power of that stone, she might be able to destroy the mechanical Nicklaus was using and prevent him from ascending.
Then his hope splintered and he remembered the problem with that plan. He raised a hand to shout a warning.
Too late.
Queen Dreokt staggered and screamed, a sound of ultimate horror and pain, the sculpted slate stone locked in her hands. Through his earth senses, Connor felt her presence grow a hundredfold in strength, as if her affinity swallowed an avalanche.
Then her strength rebounded back against her as that avalanche exploed.
Verena had max-released the power of that stone, crafting it into some kind of higher mechanical, poised to unleash all its energy in one titanic event. The queen must have max-tapped it.
Just like Nicklaus, she learned that was a bad idea.
Connor felt so very confused. He should be exulting that the long-shot chance Verena nearly sacrificed her life for was actually working. Except if they hadn’t altered that stone, could the queen have stopped Nicklaus and blocked the elementals’ devious plan?
Would she then have killed him and everyone in the army as well?
Probably.
Would that be worse than releasing the elementals?
Kilian shot past his distracted mother, fire and water slashing across her face, throat, and hands. It looked like he wanted to decapitate her and sever her connection to the sculpted stone at the same time. That might have helped, but his attacks deflected away a hair’s breadth from her body. He skidded to a halt beside Connor, frowning. “Tell me this is a good thing?”
Connor tried to shake off his shock. Maybe he could get the stone from the queen, get Verena to shutter its power again, then use it himself to stop Nicklaus. “Things have gotten complicated.”
Kilian started to respond, but Queen Dreokt’s mind slammed into Connor’s like a speedcaravan car at full speed. He blinked, and the real world was gone, replaced by a mindscape he didn’t recognize. He stood in a long laboratory with whitewashed walls, full of bright steel machinery, glass cabinets, and piles of various stones in wooden crates. Queen Dreokt stood nearby, dressed in a white jacket. Is this where she invented Petralist affinities?
She rushed to him and grabbed his battle jacket, her eyes wide with terror, her face ashen. “You fool! You and your Builder have sealed our doom.”
“I didn’t know the elementals would do this,” he protested. He should strike her down, but her fear wrapped him like bands of ice, reinforcing his own terror that they’d inadvertently destroyed the one chance they actually needed to survive. They’d devoted all their energy to defeating Queen Dreokt. Now that he realized the elementals posed a more dire threat, he felt unsteady, shaken, and confused.
The queen staggered away, clutching at her own body as if wracked with fever chills. She collided with a worktable, upsetting delicate glass tubes and vials that fell to the floor and shattered with surprisingly musical tinkling notes. Blue and green liquid sprayed across the white-tiled floor. “I can’t believe this is happening!”
Then she spun back to Connor and straightened, pointing an accusing finger at him, her fear switching to fury. “It’s your fault! I’ve fought to protect our world from this evil ever since the day my poor Triath died, and now you’ve made it happen! Curse you, child! You’ve undermined everything I’ve done and given birth to my greatest fear!”
“I didn’t mean it,” Connor protested.
“You didn’t think!” she screamed.
“In my defense, your attempts to kill everyone I love or wipe out their minds made it hard to see any other dangers,” he pointed out. There had to be a way to salvage the situation.
She scowled, took a step toward him, then collapsed, convulsing on the floor. The wall behind her vanished, revealing a sharp edge and the abyss of her affinityscape, filled with boiling, gray mist.
Connor groaned, his hope curling into the back of his mind in a fetal position, whimpering with fear.
The queen’s islands, floating in that abyss, were burning and crumbling, the top-layer bridges connecting them decaying before his eyes. Wood and stone melted and dripped into the abyss of boiling gray smoke, all except for the elemental islands. They were growing and moving together, their top-tier bridges overlapping to become a wide path for the four elementals already standing on the middle.
All of them were pressing forward, trying to take that critical step onto the queen’s side. They were dressed in finery that rivaled anything Connor had seen from kings and queens. Water wore a glittering gown of miniature waves, crashing against each other, creating little puffs of foam that fell gently around her. Her eyes looked like gemstones cut from ice, and her luxurious, black hair swayed back and forth like waves flowing up sandy beaches. Fire stood beside her, encased in sheets of interwoven flames that crackled and danced wildly. Air’s gown of silver silk sported hundreds of cloudlike tassels that floated gently about her, while Earth’s suit looked like it was constructed of layers of strata extending down into the heart of the planet.
They looked exultant, and when Water spotted him, she gave him a stern look. “You have wasted the moment
of your glory, Connor. We will cross this bridge and consume this wretch who has denied us for so long.”
“And we’ll destroy the boy Nicklaus too,” Fire said, sounding extremely satisfied.
“Why?” Connor demanded. He felt a growing dread that he was witnessing the end of all things he knew and loved.
“Because we can,” Air said, tilting her head up slightly.
Earth added, “The boy is standing in the threshold even now. One final step, and I will have him.” He extended an arm toward Air. “Shall we rise through his gateway together?”
She took his arm with a graceful nod of her head. “I never thought you’d ask.”
Queen Dreokt staggered over to Connor and seized his jacket again, blubbering with fear. At the closer contact, his connection to her deepened and an image popped into his mind. He saw what was happening to her. She was getting dragged back through the threshold of serpentinite, screaming, clawing at the ground so hard her nails tore and she left bloody scratches behind her, but she couldn’t stop her slide.
Connor sensed that once she fell back through the threshold, the elementals would have their path to freedom. He gripped her shoulders and tried pushing strength to her. He needed to help, but wasn’t sure how to. Linking his mind closer to the madwoman made his head hurt and his own emotions grow even more turbulent and raw. His breathing quickened and his heart raced. Fear built within him until his fingers shook and he wanted to turn and run.
Except there was nowhere to go.
Water scowled at him. “Don’t interfere, boy. You’ve already earned our ire.”
“Let him try. We no longer need him, and he’s proven his cowardice. We’ll punish him and lay waste to these lands,” Fire spat.
“I’m not the one who has to murder a child to get what I want,” Connor shouted back. He needed to think, to come up with a plan, but what?
Through his connection to the queen, he sensed her slide back into the third threshold, driven by the reverse pull of tapping that sculpted stone. She screamed in pain and terror, her thoughts scattering as her fragile grip on sanity shredded and she descended into a panic-driven madness. Her mind was like a boiling whirlpool that threatened to suck Connor down with her.
He braced himself against the pull, but that weakened his connection, reduced the strength she was drawing from him. Water shouted with victory and took a single step over the middle of the bridge. The entire affinityscape shook, and thunder rumbled in the distance. The air turned chill, and in the laboratory behind Connor, the steel cabinets started eroding, the steel pitting and turning black from rust. Glass cabinets cracked, and grime crept over them. Dreokt’s connection to her human roots was fading fast. Soon there would be nothing left but an empty shell, a vessel through which the elementals could rise into the world.
She screamed again, her turbulent thoughts coalescing into a single thought. “I will die before I let you through!”
Somehow she stopped her slide through the threshold, but Connor could feel the strain growing. She was racked with intense pain, the same kind of agony Connor had felt trying to ascend through that threshold. Remaining stuck there for long would tear her apart. She clearly wanted it to, but he sensed she’d weaken and slide through the rest of the way first.
He shuddered in horror. He had been about to open himself to that same process, had hoped the elementals might honor their oaths, protect his life, and spare his people. They had made no such promise to Queen Dreokt and left her exposed to the full, brutal intensity of her fall.
Fire grabbed Water’s shoulder. “Do not cross without me!” He looked nervous that he might get left behind.
“I enjoy the deepest connection with our vessel. She ascended first with me,” Water retorted, trying to shake him off. They might like flirting with each other, but in that moment of potential freedom, it appeared their loyalty meant less than their individual freedom. Could he use that against them somehow?
“She ascended second with me,” Fire shouted, trying to pull her back. “You can’t have her to yourself!”
“We all need a path,” Air said, looking nervous by their progress. “Earth, why aren’t we walking the boy’s bridge?”
“We will,” Earth promised. “Come. Let us join him for our moment of victory.”
The two of them faded from the affinityscape. Connor hoped that might help Dreokt hold on a little longer, but it also meant those two powerful beings were leaving to destroy Nicklaus. The thought of that brave little boy suffering like the queen was made Connor angry, and super frustrated, because at the moment it was a helpless anger.
Queen Dreokt dropped to her knees and looked up to meet Connor’s gaze. For a second, her madness parted and she hissed, “You must kill me before they can complete the crossing!”
Connor blew out an annoyed breath. That was just what he’d been trying to do. “Any suggestions on how to do that?”
Water shouted, “No! You cannot deny us now!”
She seized Fire’s hand and said, “Together. We must take her now.”
He nodded, and their clasped hands melded together, turning into crackling lightning. The air began to hum, and the hairs on Connor’s arms rose. He sensed charges building, and realized they were combining into strum and magnis.
Together, the two elements took another step.
The queen’s momentary lucidity evaporated. She fell to the ground, screaming and ripping at her own face. Connor’s connection to her wavered as her madness shook the roots of her mind. He retreated before getting swept into her insanity, and blinked open his eyes.
Kilian was staring at his screaming mother, looking openly concerned. The slate stone had melted, as if from some invisible, fervent heat, and now encased her hands. Her eyes had turned black, transformed into miniature globes of absolute darkness.
“What’s going on?” Kilian asked softly, gripping Connor’s shoulder.
“Verena activated the stone, and it’s dragging her back through the third threshold. I can’t stop it. We have to kill her now!” he shouted, tapping basalt. He left Verena behind and rushed the queen, seizing every elemental affinity and slashing at her from every side. If he could tear her apart, they could still maybe save Nicklaus before it was too late.
“I thought we wanted that to happen,” Kilian said, racing after him, fire and water appearing in his hands again.
Connor raced past the queen, slashing at her with all his strength, but his strike deflected away like Kilian’s had. Kilian struck with white-hot fire, interlaced with water, but failed to reach her too. “How can she do that?”
Connor slowed to a stop near the queen, trying to figure out how to reach her. He sensed the elementals around her, their wills filling the air and actively warding her. He could never penetrate that space to her using the powers of the very elements intent on preserving her.
“We did, but Nicklaus activated a super mechanical the elementals tricked him into building. They’re pushing him to ascend the Builder threshold.”
Kilian gasped, looking more frightened than when facing his deadly mother. “No! That will destroy him.” He hurled fire like a thunderbolt, but it rebounded from the queen and exploded back against Kilian, knocking him staggering. He looked absolutely shocked.
“They’re fighting for her now?” he breathed.
Connor nodded, hating how helpless he felt. Through his affinity senses, he could feel the queen’s connection to water and fire growing, the elements melding together as they combined into their higher forms of power. “Your mother wanted to stop Nicklaus. She thought maybe with the stone she could, but . . .”
Kilian muttered a curse in Havaen. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know. Water and Fire are pushing her to madness. I tried to help, but nearly got caught in it too.”
“Just like my dad.” Kilian’s expression turned hopeful. “He rose into an elfonnel, but we destroyed him before the elements gained freedom. Can we do that and still help Nickl
aus?”
“Maybe if she surrendered to one element alone,” Connor said. Through his own affinities, he clearly felt the air growing charged and dangerous. Dreokt might be fighting the elementals to give him and Kilian time to do something, but the elementals were determined to rise through her together before they could. That fight was opening a door to a new threat, something they’d never considered facing before.
“What else is there?” Kilian demanded.
“Strum.” The words seemed to hang in the air, taunting him.
Kilian groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He wished he was. The queen suddenly screamed again, her entire body convulsing, hands flinging out wide. She slowly rose into the air as the clouds high above her roiled and began to spin like a newly forming tornado.
Definitely not good.
Everything was lined up all wrong. She was supposed to go mad, create a common elfonnel they could destroy. Maybe it was because she was using such a powerful sculpted stone, or maybe it was because she was fighting so hard against the elements, or maybe the elementals were just more motivated than ever. Connor had never imagined anyone could turn elfonnel with strum, but he could feel it happening.
Fire and Water appeared in the air beside Connor. Water looked pleased, and Fire chuckled, rubbing his hands together. “We never considered pushing her beyond her limits together. Thank you Connor for helping us find this doorway.”
“It will offer unprecedented access to your world,” Water said.
“You should have joined us,” Fire said, his eyes points of white flame.
Beside him, Kilian was looking scared for the first time ever. “I have no idea how to respond to this.”
Connor rushed back to Verena’s limp form and gently lifted her into his arms. The healing power wrapping all of her bones and infusing her to bursting would heal her eventually, even if he was not nearby. “Take Verena. Try to find a way to help Nicklaus.”
Kilian took her, cradling her against his chest. “What are you going to do?”
