“I would be. Assuming I was still alive.” She waved away my questioning look. “I died a long time ago, but I’m trapped between life and death. My connection to the Spirit Goddess and my magic lets me watch over you and sometimes manifest for a brief period, although it takes a lot out of me so I can’t stay for long.”
“Why are you trapped?”
She pursed her lips before responding. “That is a longer tale, which needs to wait for another visit. The short version is that the way to the afterlife has been closed for the last thousand years. Everyone who dies is trapped—not only me.”
“Everyone?” Horror crept over me as I imagined how many people that would be after all this time. And now Tash was one of them, along with everyone else I’d known in the village. “So those souls that can’t find peace…is there any way to save them?”
“There is. You must defeat Nysa.”
Easier said than done. I’d been determined to stop the Dragons earlier, but now my task seemed even more challenging. “Does she control the shades?”
“Yes, she does.”
As I suspected. I dragged a hand through my hair. “What about the elementals?”
“No. The elementals hate both the Dragons and the shades.”
Finally, a small bit of good news. I rubbed my eyes, suddenly exhausted. “How am I supposed to defeat her and the other Dragons? They’re so much more powerful than we are.”
“I’ve noticed.” She snorted. “You need to train more. Now that you have two bonded mates, practice combining their elements.”
“Combining…how?”
She rolled her eyes up at the roof of the tent like I was a complete fool. “Fire and earth together make lava. Water and air make fog. It’s all fairly obvious.”
I nodded slowly. “And fire and air make lightning.”
“Exactly. Your mates will be able to combine their magic through their connection with you. Then you’ll all be able to summon the joint elements.”
That explained how the Dragons had summoned lightning during our fight at the Air Temple, and how Stoneham had been covered in lava. If we could figure out how to combine our magic in such a way we might have a chance. Or at least more of a chance than we had now.
“I wish I could tell you more, but the other side pulls at me already.” She pressed a wrinkled hand to my cheek and stared into my eyes. “Stay strong, Kira. The journey is long and fraught with danger, but you’re on the right path. Keep going and you’ll find your way.”
I pressed my hand against hers, wishing she didn’t have to leave. It wasn’t fair that as soon as I’d found another member of my family, I was losing her again. “I will…grandmother.”
She faded away before my eyes, until it was like she had never been in the tent at all. I rubbed my weary face and thought on her words. I’d tried to deny that the Black Dragon was my mother, hoping it hadn’t been true, even when my gut had told me it was. There was no denying it any longer, but that didn’t mean I had to become her either. Enva, the White Dragon, had proved that. She had been helping me all this time, so she must disapprove of her daughter’s actions and wanted Nysa stopped too. That couldn’t be easy for her, but perhaps she’d grown tired of watching the world tumble into chaos and had to do something to help stop it. I’d have to ask her at her next visit, whenever that would be. I shuddered at the thought of her trapped between life and death, along with all those other people. Nysa must be the cause of it somehow, if stopping her would put an end to it.
At least now I had an idea of what to focus on: figuring out how to combine the elements.
9
Auric
Kira’s eyes burned with determination as she stood before us. “We need to make lightning.”
It was the morning after we’d discovered Stoneham had been destroyed, and she’d told all of us about her visit from Enva while we’d had some bread and cheese. Then she’d insisted Jasin and I train with her immediately while the others prepared for us to depart. The tone in her voice had left no room for argument, and now she stood before us with her hands clenched in fists, her shoulders stiff, and a fierce slant to her lips.
All night long I’d tossed and turned, worrying about how she was doing and wishing I could comfort her, but she’d made it clear she wanted to be alone. Any time one of us tried to talk to her—and we’d all tried—she’d sent us away. Now I wondered if I should have tried more. I wasn’t sure I liked this new, rage-filled Kira that had emerged after she’d spoken with Reven. Gods only knew what he’d said to her to make her turn her grief into fury. I’d never seen her like this before and wasn’t sure what to make of it…or how to undo it.
Jasin arched an eyebrow at her. “And how are we supposed to do that?”
My brow furrowed. “Yes, you said we needed to combine the elements, but it doesn’t seem like Enva gave us any actual information on how to do that.”
Kira crossed her arms. “It must not be that hard to figure out. We’ll just have to try.”
I sighed and looked over at Jasin, who shrugged. We stood near the river we’d camped beside, away from the others and within reach of water in case things went wrong during training. I summoned a ball of swirling air in my palm, while Jasin did the same with fire. We moved closer and raised our hands to combine the two elements together—but all it did was snuff them both out.
“Well, that didn’t work,” Jasin said. “Now what?”
“Maybe I need to do it,” Kira said. She summoned both elements in her hands and tried to force them together, with the same result. We’d been practicing with air in the few moments we could find since we’d left the temple, and she’d picked up the basics of controlling it quickly. I sensed she found it easier—or less intimidating—than fire. Of course, it would take a lot more training before she was a master. After all, I was still learning new things every day, including lightning it seemed.
“Gods!” Kira yelled, as the elements disappeared from her hands. Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped them away with quick, angry strokes. She was trying to mask her grief by channeling it into fury and action, but it was still there under the surface. She would have to deal with it at some point, but not today I supposed.
“We’ll get it eventually,” I reassured her. “What else can we try?”
“I don’t know.” She turned away, her face twisted with frustration. I hated seeing her like this, but wasn’t sure what to do.
“Remind us again what Enva told you,” Jasin said, in a tone one usually reserved for trying to calm a wild animal. I could tell this was tearing him apart too.
Kira scowled. “She said you’ll be able to combine your magic through your connection with me.”
I nodded slowly as I considered her words. “Maybe she doesn’t mean we should literally combine them, but somehow access the other’s element through our bond.”
“Is that possible?” Jasin asked.
I spread my hands. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Can you feel each other through the bond like I feel the two of you?” Kira asked.
I shook my head. “Not that I’ve noticed, but my bond with you is still so new. I’m only beginning to feel your presence.”
“It gets stronger when we’re touching,” Kira said. She reached for both our hands, linking the three of us together. From the corner of my eye I saw Slade, Reven, and Brin packing our things and giving us curious looks. They had to be worried about Kira too, but they knew better than to interrupt us during training.
My bond with Kira burst inside me at her touch, much stronger than it had ever been before. Waves of grief, anger, and guilt washed over me and it took me a moment to realize they were coming from her, along with a sense of desperation and determination, plus a dash of frustration and impatience. I sucked in a sharp breath as I sorted through her emotions and found my way back to my own self again.
“I think I can feel Auric through the bond,” Jasin said. “But it’s very faint.”
“I sense you too, but only barely,” I said.
“Try to access each other’s magic,” Kira said.
I reached through the bond for Jasin’s flame, but it was faint and elusive. I felt a slight tug inside me and wondered if it was him doing the same. We faced the river and in front of us the air shimmered with a slight buzzing sound, like a spark being struck. Kira’s face tightened and her hand gripped mine harder, but then the sound vanished. We’d lost it.
Sweat beaded on Jasin’s forehead. “Almost got it, but the bond is still too weak.”
“Maybe it will get stronger with time,” I said. “The Dragons have been bonded for hundreds of years, after all.”
“We don’t have time!” Kira said, obviously exasperated. She dropped our hands and pinched the bridge of her nose. I longed to pull her into my arms and tell her everything would be all right, but I knew she would only push me away right now.
“We’ll keep trying until we get it,” Jasin said.
Slade trudged through the brush toward us and called out, “We’re ready to leave when you are.”
Kira sighed. “I suppose we should get going if we’re going to reach the Resistance by nightfall.”
I rested a hand on her back. “It was only our first attempt. We’ll get there eventually.”
We began to follow Slade back to the camp, when a loud splash caught our attention. We froze and turned toward the river, my magic rising as I prepared to defend against a potential threat, and I felt Jasin do the same. Reven and Brin rushed to our sides, both holding their swords and ready for battle. Kira stood in front of us, facing the river like a warrior queen as she slowly drew her sword.
If the Dragons had found us, we weren’t going down without a fight.
10
Kira
The river was wide and flowing fast, and farther down it something large flailed about in the water as if drowning. I couldn’t make out what it was—an animal or a big man perhaps—but it seemed to be fighting against a rock, or perhaps holding onto it. No, I realized as it drew closer, the thing splashing about was the rock.
“It’s an elemental!” Auric said with a gasp.
Jasin immediately summoned fire into his palms. The only way to stop elementals was with magic—we’d learned that when a group of water ones had attacked our boat while we were at sea. But this elemental didn’t appear to be attacking us—it seemed to be in trouble.
“It’s small for a rock elemental,” Slade said.
As its stony head burst above the water and tried to drag in a breath, I realized why it was so small. I dashed toward the river, leaving the others no choice but to follow. “It’s a child!”
“What are you doing?” Jasin asked, as he trampled through the brush behind me.
“We have to save it!” I called over my shoulder. The small elemental was clearly drowning, it’s body too heavy and dense for it to stay afloat. It must have fallen in the river, and there didn’t seem to be any other elementals around to rescue it. If we didn’t help, it would die.
We reached the edge of the river where the elemental struggled against the current. My mates spread out around me, still wary, while I tried to figure out a rescue plan.
“This isn’t safe,” Slade muttered.
Auric nodded. “If there’s one elemental here, there must be others nearby.”
“For all we know this is a trap,” Reven said, crossing his arms.
“I don’t care. We have to help it.” I knew I was taking a big risk, but I wasn’t letting a child die on my watch, whether it was human, animal, or elemental. “Reven, use your magic to rescue it.”
He scowled, but made a lazy gesture toward the river. The water changed from rushing past us to slowly creeping forward. While the current brought the elemental closer to us, Jasin and Auric watched the trees for an attack. I waded out into the river and tried to grab hold of the elemental’s rocky body, but it let out a terrible sound, like steel scraping against stone.
“It’s okay, we’re trying to help,” I told it. I had no idea if it could understand me, but hopefully the sound of my voice would show I wasn’t a threat. The elemental’s glowing eyes widened, but when I reached for it again it didn’t fight back. But I couldn’t move it on my own—the elemental was nearly as big as I was and a lot heavier than I expected, even though it was small for its kind. Slade jumped into the water next to me and grabbed the other side of the elemental, and together we heaved it out of the river and onto the grassy banks.
The elemental coughed and water ran out of its mouth, its eyes still huge and glowing bright gold. I tried to pat it on its back, but wasn’t sure if it had lungs or not—it seemed to be made entirely of thick, gray stone. Now that it was out of the water I could see it had a large, rounded chest that made up most of its bulk, along with two thick arms and short, stumpy legs.
“You’re all right now,” I said to it, as I kept patting its hard back. The elemental was shaking, but it didn’t try to escape, so it must have sensed we weren’t going to harm it. The others kept their hands near their weapons, but they wouldn’t attack unless they thought I was in danger.
Movement caught our attention, and four much larger rock elementals emerged from the trees down the river. They moved surprisingly fast considering their squat legs, and their glowing eyes fixed on us with obvious malice. Brin and my mates tensed beside me, sensing a looming fight, but Enva’s words last night gave me the idea to approach this differently. If the elementals weren’t working for the Black Dragon, that meant they didn’t need to be our enemies…assuming I could reach them somehow.
“Don’t attack,” I said to my mates quietly. “I want to talk to them.”
“Talk?” Jasin snorted. “Elementals don’t talk. They attack.”
“I want to try.”
I helped the elemental child to its feet, making sure it could stand on its own. It suddenly spotted the other elementals and let out that strange sound again, then rushed toward them. The larger elementals quickly surrounded it, as if making sure it was all right. I walked toward them slowly, waving for my mates to stay back. This would have to be handled carefully, or it would all go wrong…and we would likely only have one chance.
One of the elementals broke apart and faced me. Its face was stony and incomprehensible, with a gaping mouth full of jagged rock and those eerie glowing eyes. We stared at each other without moving, and then it asked, “Why did you help him, Spirit Dragon?”
The voice that came from the elemental was like the deep rumble of an earthquake, and the words were spoken slowly, as if it wasn’t used to our language—but it was speaking. My heart leaped at the knowledge we could communicate with them.
“I didn’t want him to drown,” I said. “We mean your kind no harm. We only want to talk.”
“We are no friend to the Dragons,” he grumbled.
“We’re not like the other Dragons. We want to stop them and restore balance to the world. A world where both humans and elementals can live in peace together.”
“Perhaps,” the elemental said, obviously unconvinced.
The other elementals were now watching us, and the small one made a sound I didn’t understand. One of the others replied, and they carried on for a few seconds in their gravelly language while I looked on. The leader rumbled something back at them, before turning to me again.
“We are in your debt, Spirit Dragon.” The elemental did not sound pleased about that, but it was hard to tell with its strange voice. I was too surprised to respond immediately, and then it was too late, as they all stomped back into the forest.
“That was incredible,” Auric said, moving to my side. “I had no idea the elementals could speak our language. I need to record this immediately.”
Jasin put out the fire in hi
s hands. “It was still risky helping them. They nearly attacked us even after we saved that little one.”
“Yes, but it was worth it,” I replied. “Now we know they can communicate with us, and if they hate the other Dragons as much as Enva said, we might be able to convince them to become our allies.”
“That seems unlikely,” Reven said.
Slade rubbed his beard. “It’s worth trying.”
“Kira will make it happen,” Brin said. “Especially now that they owe her.”
I stared after the elementals for another moment, then turned toward my team. “We’ll worry about that another day. Right now we need to find the Resistance.”
11
Jasin
Auric pointed one of his talons at a mountain in the distance and I nodded. We both tilted our wings slightly to adjust our course, and exhilaration took hold as the brisk wind rushed over my scales.
Being a dragon was incredible. I could fly for hours without growing tired, cross great distances faster than any horse, and was stronger than ever before. Even with Slade and Brin on my back, along with half of our supplies and equipment, I barely noticed the weight. And with fire burning in my lungs, along with my sharp talons and fangs, I could defend Kira better than I could before.
Auric and I flew closer to the snow-capped mountains, and the air around us grew colder. We knew from Cadock’s mark on the map that the Resistance base was somewhere on the edge of these mountains in a cave, and he’d instructed us to look for a rock in the shape of two breasts, but so far we hadn’t spotted them.
“There,” Brin said, from my back. Her arm stretched over my right wing and I followed it’s direction to the base of a mountain where two large, rounded boulders pointed at the sky. I didn’t see an entrance, but assumed it would become more obvious once we got closer.
Her Elemental Dragons: The Complete Series Page 37
