by Sky Corbelli
Chapter 25
Dark and Stormy Night
Two long strides carried him through the room. He swept up the little girl, still stiff as a board, a human statue. A third step and he lifted his foot to kick down the door leading outside.
Sarah caught him before he could fall. It was a very well-made door. She let out a disgusted snort and stepped past him, deftly unlatching and opening it in a highly undramatic exit. Ezra smiled sheepishly at her, following as she rolled her eyes and stalked out into the rain. They sprinted around to the front of the inn just in time to see Mat come careening down the street in the skiff, kicking up waves of mud and water as he banked toward them.
Mat's wild eyes darted toward the building, the broken window gaping at them. He blinked at Ezra, then scowled at the little girl shoved under his arm. “No,” Mat said firmly.
“We don't have time for this, and you know what happens if she stays!”
Mat's eyes turned pleading. “Ezra, we can't. Bad things happen. You can't save everyone.”
Ezra scowled and squared his shoulders belligerently. “But we can save her.”
“Girl shows a little interest and you think she's begging to be carried away from it all.” Something almost like amusement danced behind Sarah's eyes as she hopped into the skiff. “Gal's gonna love this.”
Mat shook his head angrily. “Struck me for a thundering idiot,” he muttered, “get in. We'll figure something out.” Ezra nodded and had barely gotten on board when Mat hit the accelerator, knocking Ezra to the floor of the skiff. They barreled off into the night, thrusters kicking up a wave of mud and water from the street below.
We must be moving pretty fast, Ezra thought as he scrambled into a seat, the rain pounding into his face with a stinging force. “It feels like we're driving into a river,” he muttered into the communicator, trying to wipe water from his eyes. “And going upstream too...” Ezra trailed off, a fresh thrill of panic spreading its wings in his gut. He whipped around to look back at the inn, eyes wide.
Water was flowing in through the window. Streams converged on the ground into miniature rivers, racing up the walls. Rain diverted from its course, funneling into the dimly lit room through the shattered glass as if the house was breathing it in, forcing it to defy the will of the storm, wind, and gravity itself.
“God, no,” he heard Sarah whisper.
A pulse shuddered through the rain, radiating from the broken window and jumping from raindrop to raindrop, faster than thought. Ezra heard the sound of millions of droplets resonating for the barest of instants. He held his breath, ready for whatever was coming next.
Nothing happened. The rain resumed its normal course, a dull, pounding beat. Ezra let out a sigh of relief and gave Mat and Sarah a shaky thumbs-up.
Then the building exploded. A geyser of water blew a hole through the front wall and roof of the inn, coalescing into a wave that bore the enraged water-seer out into the empty street, a small flood of dirty water and humanity spreading out in her wake. Ezra could feel her fury as she turned toward them, just as Mat rounded the corner. She let out a scream of frustration, thrusting her arm out in a sudden, vaguely martial gesture, and Ezra thought he saw a handful of raindrops leap out in their direction before the woman disappeared behind the building.
“Get down!” he yelled, throwing himself at Mat and Sarah, driving their heads down and forward.
“Hey, what are you–” Mat began, just as they heard what sounded like a dozen gunshots go off to their right. Several small pings sounded and Ezra felt a stinging pain in his right shoulder. The gunshot sounds repeated on their left half a heartbeat later.
Behind them, a section of the house they had rocketed past was a mangled wreck where the raindrops had ripped their way through. The same scene was repeated on the house that had been to their left and just ahead of them. Ezra put a hand to his shoulder. It came away slick with blood. He blinked at his hand as the rain washed it clean. Those little water bullets had cut him. Through his clothing. And his tactical body armor. Sarah's face turned very pale as she stared at the injury. Mat audibly gulped, then set the skiff weaving as he tried to coax every ounce of speed out of it.
They cleared the edge of town in time to see the water-seer crest the tops of the buildings, riding a growing wave of rainwater. She surged after them, launching another volley of raindrop bullets that never got close to reaching them. Ezra anxiously watched her for a few moments, a cautious smile growing on his face as he realized that they were pulling ahead. Sarah let out a whoop of triumph and grabbed Mat in a fierce hug. Ezra sighed with relief and slumped back into his seat.
Kelly had regained enough function by now to start sniffling as the tears in her eyes overflowed. “M-Maaaaamaaaa! Papa!” she wailed miserably. The girl began making clumsy efforts to push herself as far away from her rescuers as she could, still sobbing and keening at the top of her lungs.
“So,” Mat's voice sounded distant in Ezra's ear. “The girl.”
“I couldn't just leave her,” Ezra muttered in reply. “You heard what was going to happen. It was just so... wrong.”
“Not saying what you did was wrong,” Mat responded firmly. “Not even saying that I wanted to do any different. But it was a bad thing to do.”
Kelly's cries had turned hysterical as she stared desperately into the darkness, back the way they had come.
“What are we going to do with her, Hawkins?” Sarah asked gently. “Drop her at some village where she'll just be a runaway, to be found by the water-seer later or left out on the street to starve? Take her back to Sanctuary? What can we give her there? She'll have to be hidden away, end up turned into someone's science project.”
“No, I... I don't know.” Ezra voice came out weakly. “I just thought... anything would be better than that. You saw how that water-seer looked at people. Like... like she was pricing them out, determining what they were worth and filing the number away. They weren't people to her, they were just things, and she–”
“We understand Ezra,” Mat said, glancing back at him seriously. “But you know this kid can't handle herself alone, and we can't be there to hold her hand. What about her family, huh? You think that water-seer's just gonna back off 'cuz her prize got kidnapped? What do you think she'll take from them now?”
Ezra's imagination treated him to an image of the water-seer storming back into the inn and ruthlessly killing the sickly little boy in his mother's arms. He shuddered. “I... I just don't know.” He looked over at the girl as she wailed into the night.
“Struck it,” Mat continued, “we can't even take her back to the wormhole; can't let her know it's there. And we're not taking her with us, that is not an option.” His voice took on a faraway sound. “Sanctuary's no place for an outsider.”
“Just give me a second to think, okay? I'll come up with something.” Thunder crashed as he stared out at the ground whizzing by over the side of the skiff, illuminating the translucent, glowing liquid spraying out into the darkness. Ezra blinked down at the trail stretching out behind them. “Uh, Mat?”
“That was fast,” Mat snorted, “this should be good.”
“No, no, I mean, not yet,” Ezra stammered, then took a deep breath. “Mat, where are the fuel cells for the skiff?”
Sarah gave him a confused look. “They're in the same place they always are, a bank along the right...” Realization washed over her face. “Mat,” she said cautiously, eyes still glued to Ezra, “how much fuel do we have?”
“Oh, thundering blighted water-seer.” Mat's voice came back in disbelief. “She must have hit our reserves in that attack. We've got maybe another two hours. Tops.”
“What can you tell us?” Ezra asked quietly.
“Well, the good news is it's biodegradable.” Something hopeless entered his voice. “And hey! So are our bodies! So when the thundering seer gets through with us, at least we won't be leaving a strucking negative footprint behind.”
“That's not what we were
asking–” Sarah began.
Mat made a cutting gesture. “I know,” he sighed quietly. “We've been going pretty hard for a while now. Away from the portal home, too. If we turn back now and beeline for it, we'll still be looking at a five mile hike in this.” He gestured angrily at the sky that was still intent on drowning them. “Blight and thunder,” he muttered, struggling out of his waterproof poncho and throwing it back to the shivering little girl. She flinched away from it, then pulled it around herself in jerky motions, her cries devolving into pathetic little hiccups punctuated with the occasional heart-wrenching sob. “She wouldn't make it,” Mat continued softly. “We'd have to detour toward Southedge, assuming we can get past the crazy seer behind us. It'd take fuel, too. Double our walk. Ten miles. Rough, unknown terrain. In the rain. In the dark. With an elementalist trying to kill us.” He swallowed hard. “I just don't see how–”
A black wall rose up out of the darkness in front of them. Mat swore loudly as he tried to pull the skiff away from it, but only managed to slam them into the barrier broadside instead of hitting it head on. The jarring impact threw a very surprised Ezra out of his seat and clear off the ship, only to send him rebounding harshly against what felt like solid stone. A huge black shape hurtled out of the night, landing heavily on the skiff.
Sarah had a gun out, trained on their assailant and shooting before Ezra could catch his breath. Mat's sword flashed in the darkness, darting for the giant's leg. It came away missing the top third of the blade. Sarah's bullets didn't even make the monster flinch. It rolled one massive hand and bands of earth shot from the wall, wrapping around her waist and arms and pulling her against the stony surface, pinning her in place. Ezra found his feet and jumped up as the huge figure caught Mat's second slash barehanded and threw him from the skiff with effortless ease.
Kelly let out another terrified sob from where she had fallen, somewhere behind Ezra. He glanced down, surprised to see his own sword held ready in his hands. Lightning flashed, and Ezra clearly saw the spire of gray stone protruding from the crown of their assailant's head, smaller stones hovering majestically in a loose circle behind it.
The earth-crowned's eyes took in the situation: the skiff idling against the wall, Kelly crying on the floor, Ezra facing off against him. His voice rumbled, quiet and implacable, an edge of anger sharpening the words as one enormous hand clenched into a fist. “What is the meaning of this?”
