Exile in the Water Kingdom (The Elemental Phases Book 3)

by Cassandra Gannon

  Isaacs didn’t want to die.

  He especially didn’t want to give that asshole Parald the satisfaction of killing him. He would see, again. Isaacs wouldn’t die with nothing but distorted shadows around him. He wanted to die like a soldier. He wanted to die killing Lansing, of the Dust House.

  And possibly Gion.

  In a way, Gion had really done this to him. And now that bastard was living the sweet life with eyes that fucking worked. Safe in the Water Kingdom, Gion could kick back and raft around swimming pools or whatever the hell they did in that bohemian Shangri-la.

  Isaacs had never actually been to the Water Kingdom, but he envisioned it as something out of a “Visit the Mediterranean” travel poster. Sun bleached blue sky, breezy cabanas on the sand, and perfect ocean views in every direction. Gion could From Here to Eternity up and down the beach with his curvy little red head and, meanwhile, Isaacs would be scrubbing dishes.

  Or maybe even worse.

  Parald might not let a blind guy near the Air House china. Who the hell knew what kind of degrading plans were in store for Isaacs, now.

  No.

  He squeezed his useless eyes shut and took a deep breath.

  No.

  Parald wouldn’t get away with that.

  Isaacs’ mind went to murder. Killing Parald would solve his most immediate problem, but there would certainly be some real challenges with it, too. Not being able to see well enough to aim for Parald’s neck, for instance. Also, if decapitating that asshole was really an option, Gion would have already done it, right? The fact that Parald still had his head attached made Isaacs suspicious that he’d missed a memo somewhere along the line.

  So how else could he get through this?

  Isaacs thought back to the question he’d asked himself sixty times a day as a young warrior: What would Gion do?

  What would Gion do if he’d been blinded and humiliated and marked for death?

  Easy.

  He’d survive. He’d get the hell away from the Air Kingdom.

  Amnesty.

  From out of nowhere, Isaacs heard Ty’s voice back in the Agora:

  Isaacs, if you help me, I can get you out of the Air House. I’ll give you amnesty in the Water Kingdom.

  Well, he had helped her, right? And he had information he could offer her, too.

  The Water Phases were a bunch of bleeding heart, Kumbaya-ing, “let’s give our food to crippled orphans,” do-gooders. Like something out of the It’s a Small World ride, where all the little robots sang in ear bleedingly cheerful unison. While the Air House children drilled on mathematics and memorized that damn Be the Perfect Air Phase book, the Water Phase kids probably went on nature hikes for pretty seashells and danced around maypoles.

  Isaacs had always found the Water House pathetic. After suddenly becoming a crippled orphan, though, they suddenly seemed a hell of a lot more useful.

  He pushed away from the sink and stalked back into his bedroom.

  Amarna was still in there, cleaning up the eye care supplies. Isaacs felt her looking at him when he entered the room. Felt her pity.

  Fuck her.

  The world was about to find out that Isaacs, of the Air House still had some tricks up his sleeve.

  “We’re gonna talk.” He said flatly. “Now. I’ve been in charge of security here for a week and I already know about the rebels.” Which meant that Gion must’ve known about them, too. Under other circumstances, Isaacs would have held that against the dickhead. Now, it seemed like Gion’s switching loyalties had done him a favor.

  “The rebels?”

  Damn, she was a cool little thing. “The rebels that you’re organizing against Parald.”

  “I think the pain must be confusing…”

  “Shut-up, alright? Jesus! Do you think I give a rat’s ass about you and your crusade? Kill Parald, don’t kill him, I don’t care anymore. This is about me.”

  Silence.

  “You’re gonna help me.” Isaacs continued, spurred on by her stillness. “Because, if you don’t, I’ll tell him who the leader of the rebels is and we’ll see which of us he kills first.”

  “You’re not his favorite person right now.”

  “Maybe, but at least I’m not a servant.” Yet. “Which one of us do you think he’ll believe? I mean, do you really think he’ll even take a chance that I might be right?”

  More silence.

  “What do you want?” Amarna asked after another long pause.

  Isaacs smiled grimly. “I want to talk to Ty, of the Water House.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating;

  to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... these are some of the

  rewards of the simple life.

  John Burroughs- ‘Leaf and Tendril’

  “So, once we get rid of all those houses there,” Gion pointed out over the edge of the porch to the empty town beyond, “we open up our line of sight. You see? No one will be able to use the buildings as cover, if they try to get into the palace.”

  Brokk followed Gion’s gaze and then looked down at the map of the Water Kingdom spread out over the wrought iron picnic table. “Your father was a Wood Phase?”

  Gion frowned at the question. “Yes.”

  “I can tell.” Brokk stepped back from the table. “You are very skilled at security.”

  Gion didn’t know what to make of that. No one in the Air House gave compliments for simply doing an adequate job.

  Behind them, the balcony doors stood open. Someone was playing Guns N’ Roses’ Welcome to the Jungle inside the palace. The sound of it blasted out amid the gently billowing curtains. Anywhere else, rock music and pastel castles would have seemed strange. Since he’d come to the Water Kingdom, though, Gion had become immune to odd.

  “It’s good that you’re here.” Brokk allowed. “I can’t conceive of the many defensive measures for the House that you can.” He shook his head. “It takes so much tedious planning. That’s difficult for me. I am more… direct.”

  “You helped protect Ty.” To Gion, that was all that mattered.

  “I try to protect Ty. She makes it very difficult.”

  Gion certainly couldn’t dispute that. “You just keep doing what you’re doing and I’ll do the rest.”

  “Agreed. I’ll continue installing more of the plastic windows, while you do this boring paperwork, then.” Brokk smiled. “It’s a pleasure to have you working for me, Gion.” He gave a thumbs-up sign and headed back into the palace.

  Working for him?

  Gion scowled.

  Like hell.

  Muttering to himself, Gion went back to his “tedious planning.” Using a ruler, he ruthlessly crossed out half the buildings on the map. With three Water Phases left in the universe, the deserted town was a liability. The music switched to I Will Survive and Gion rolled his eyes. Disco. Of course. Muttering to himself, he marked through all the obsolete structures with thick, black strokes of his marker.

  “That’s the church you just obliterated.” Ty said from beside him in a dry voice.

  Gion’s head jerked around to stare at her in surprise. This tiny woman was the only creature in the universe who could sneak up on him. “You’re supposed to be in bed.” He’d left Ty sleeping in her room. Well, first he’d held her for an hour, just watching her sleep. Then, he’d forced himself to get back to work.

  Gion had never taken a break in the afternoon before, but he didn’t regret the lapse in duty one little bit. Seeing Ty stretched open on her bed like that, crying out his name as the Air powers rocked her to completion had been the greatest moment of his life.

  “Are you busy?” She asked nervously. “I mean, if I’m interrupting...”

  “No, you’re not interrupting. But, Freya said not supposed to get up for the rest of the day. You have a head injury, Ty.”

  Ty murmured something he didn’t quite catch.

  “
I beg your pardon? What’s your wonderful excuse for ignoring doctor’s orders to stay in safely horizontal?”

  “I said, I missed you.”

  Gion’s brows soared. No one had ever said that to him before.

  Turquoise eyes flicked up to him and then away.

  The girl was a mass of contradictions.

  It amazed Gion that Ty could’ve been so bold in the bedroom and so shy out of it. Before, naked and smiling, she’d been talking Gion through a personalized sexual fantasy and now she wasn’t meeting his gaze.

  Gion had spent the past few months reading everything he could on psychology. He’d been researching the best ways to help Ty with her panic attacks, but he’d also learned quite a bit about how people thought.

  Ty’s self-confidence was shot and she constantly second guessed herself. Her insecurities made her pull back, for fear of rejection.

  Gion could relate to that. He used cold sarcasm to keep people away, because they never accepted him. Ty used her shyness to keep people away because her self-esteem was so damaged. It amounted to the same thing. But, he’d be damned if he let Ty hide in her shell. If Gion was working to be less autocratic and cold, then she had to keep talking and moving forward, towards him.

  It was only fair.

  “I missed you, too.” Gion said truthfully. And not just today, either. Gion had missed Ty desperately every day since Clea’s recital eleven years before. Ty had been too young to approach, then. Not even Gion would break that law. But, walking away when he knew Ty was his had just about killed him. “You’re supposed to stay in bed, though.” He wanted her resting and healing.

  The block with her energy worried him.

  A lot.

  Ty didn’t respond to that, but she edged closer to him. She’d changed back into her clothes, but she hadn’t put her shoes on. Even her toenails were feminine, decorated with peppermint colored polish. The woman must stay up nights, thinking of ways to torture him.

  “How do you feel, angel?”

  “Fine.”

  “Do you want to see what I’m doing?” Gion suggested, pulling out a patio chair for her. Whenever he saw Ty, Gion’s had the overpowering instinct to lure her closer.

  Plus, maybe this way he could get her to sit down. Whatever was going on her with her powers scared the hell out of him. He needed to talk with Freya himself and, until then, Gion considered Ty more delicate than spun glass.

  Ty slipped past him, taking the seat. She studied the map. “You want to raze my kingdom, huh?”

  “It’ll all be in my report.” Gion couldn’t stop himself from running a hand over the streak at her temple. “You sure you’re alright?”

  “Yes. I’m just tired of being in bed.” She leaned into his palm and Gion’s heart melted.

  “Alright.” He relented. At least, here he could keep an eye on her. He took the chair next to her and began explaining his intentions to control-burn half the houses in the Water Kingdom.

  Ty clearly wasn’t convinced. “Most of these buildings are millennia old. The Elemental historians will hate you if you tear them down.”

  “They all hate me, anyway.”

  “But, these buildings are part of our heritage. They’re art.”

  “Well, they’re artistically blocking my line of sight.”

  “We can’t destroy art, Gion.” The sun shone off her hair, making the color an indescribable shade of golden fire. “Not even for security.”

  “The houses will probably be destroyed, anyway, if the kingdom’s invaded. Which is what my plan will help prevent.”

  “Maybe, but the ends don’t always justify the means.”

  Gion absolutely didn’t believe that. And he wasn’t giving up on his perfectly reasonable plan to improve the Water House defenses. “No one even lives in those buildings, Ty.”

  “Not right now, but I have high hopes that more Air Phases will come here for amnesty. We could fix those houses and…”

  “More Air Phases?” Gion didn’t like the sound of that. “Who?”

  “I don’t know all their names. Tharsis is handling their emails.”

  “No one comes here without me clearing them.” Gion added a note of that on his clipboard. “Anyway, those houses will need a lot of work before anyone can live in them. It would be easier to tear them down and start over, at this point.”

  “Easier isn’t necessarily better. The buildings are special. They were here before us and they have a right to exist.”

  God, she was sentimental little thing. Gion leaned forward and gestured with the marker, tapping it against the map. “Look, you get to keep all this over here.”

  Ty frowned. “Those buildings weren’t built by my ancestors, three thousand years ago. Burn them down, if you want to remodel so badly. Let me have these,” she gestured to the neat row of X-ed out Elemental landmarks, “and you can destroy all the newer buildings over there.”

  “The newer ones aren’t in my line of sight, though. That won’t do me any good.”

  “Well, leave all of them alone, then.”

  Gion eyed her in exasperation. “The novelty of having you argue with me is wearing off.”

  Ty blinked, obviously unsure whether he was serious or not.

  “I’m teasing you, angel.” Gion’s mouth curved.

  “Oh.” She relaxed. “Good. Because, I won’t just let you have your way all the time.”

  “Most of the time?”

  She laughed. It was a beautiful sound. “Not about torching my historic architecture. No.” Ty looked out over the deserted kingdom for a moment and shook her head. “My parents would never forgive me. They treasured our commitment to art and culture. This used to be such a beautiful land.”

  “It still is.”

  “I know, but it used to be alive. It’s hard to see it so quiet, now, instead of vital and energetic. The baby will help bring some of that back.” Ty smiled at him. “Thank you, for watching over Nia at the Home Depot, by the way. I knew that I could trust you to protect my family.”

  Gion lifted a shoulder in a shrug, embarrassed by the praise. He still needed to go kill Chason, but he didn’t want to spoil the mood by bringing that up. He wouldn’t leave Ty alone until he was sure she was well, so it could wait. Every time the girl wandered out of his sight, she got into trouble.

  “It’s not all quiet.” He pointed out. The song inside the palace had changed to Kiss the Girl from The Little Mermaid. Never let it be said that the Water Phases didn’t have eclectic tastes.

  Nia was probably playing DJ. Gion had checked on her earlier and she’d been painting a room upstairs a shocking shade of Barbie’s Acid-Trip Pink. Nia wanted him dead, but Gion didn’t let that stop him from doing his job. Ty asked him to watch out for her family, so once an hour they all got head-counted, whether they liked it or not.

  “Well, compared to what it was like once, the silence is like a tomb sometime.” Ty endeavored to look innocent. “You know, we could hold concerts here, again. Live music would liven things up and you could play…”

  “No.”

  “But, you have such a gift…”

  “No.” Gion would eat razor blades for the woman, but he wasn’t going to do that. No way in hell.

  Ty made an exasperated face. “Fine. Be a jerk. Anyway, I’m not going to rip down huge chucks of my niece’s kingdom, before she even gets here, so….” The fountain in the courtyard was visible from the patio and it seemed to catch Ty’s attention.

  It was the fountain that she’d almost died in front of.

  Gion glanced at her from the corner of his eye, his heartbeat speeding up. He wasn’t sure what Ty remembered about the mob attacking her during the Fall, but she clearly didn’t recall his presence.

  Gion was sort of relieved by that.

  He didn’t really want Ty to know he’d been there. At one time, he’d thought that she might remember and realize that he wasn’t entirely bad. But, now that Ty seemed comfortable with him, Gion didn’t want to bri
ng up any memories that might rock the boat. The way she just stared at the cascading water broke his heart.

  “Ty.” He said quietly.

  She jolted, her head whipping around to face him. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I can get rid of that fountain for you, too.” He’d blow the damn thing into dust if it bothered her.

  Silence for a beat and then, “I was almost decapitated next to the fountain. I thought it would be the last thing I’d ever see in this world.” Ty sounded far away. “It was night, and water was pouring down, and I thought, ‘I used to play in that fountain when I was little girl.’ I wish those were still the memories I had when I looked at it. Nia and I playing in the water.”

  Gion jaw tightened, wanting to kill those fucking rioters, all over again. About fifty mental health textbooks agreed that discussing traumatic memories was the best way to deal with them, though, so Gion took her suddenly willingness to share with him as a very positive sign. He tried to give her an even bigger opening. “What happened to you during the Fall was…”

  “I don’t want to talk about it, anymore.” Ty interrupted, giving her head a clearing shake.

  “It’ll only get better if you share with someone, though, angel.”

  “It’s over and I don’t want talk about it.” Ty repeated. She’d done the same thing when he asked about Parald trying to rape her. Just completely shut down.

  Gion couldn’t push. He had to coax and that would take time.

  Ty watched him stubbornly.

  He let out a frustrated breath. “Alright.” Gion went back to his security plans. “Well, in other news, I replaced that door I accidently broke with Cross’ thick head.”

  “Does it match the others?” She seized on the subject change.

  “Others what?”

  “The other French doors in the living room.”

  “No, but they’re all getting switched out, too. The new doors are composite, three inches thick. There’s no way any Elemental can get passed them.”

  Ty’s eyebrows climbed. “Can you see through them? Are they French doors?”

  “No. I think they’re black.” Or grey. Gion didn’t care about the color, so he couldn’t really remember.