“These,” his grandfather explained, “are you aunts and uncles.”
Four middle-aged men and women stood on the tiled mosaic on which Xander and his grandfather had landed. They looked as different from one another as they did from him and he doubted they were truly related by anything more than the power that coursed through them all.
“Hi,” he offered weakly.
A long-haired man stepped forward. His black hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail from which wisps of hair escaped. Xander extended his hand to shake but the man brushed his hand aside and embraced him in a massive hug.
“My name is Giovanni,” the Wind Warrior said, his thick Italian accent making him hard to understand. His words came out in a broken cadence that told Xander that English wasn’t his first language. “We have been waiting for you for a long time. Welcome.”
Xander smiled at the warm welcome. In turn, he was introduced to the three others. A tall, muscular woman was introduced as Aunt Thea. Her posture and graceful movements left Xander feeling intimidated in her presence.
The other woman was Alicia. She seemed far more the doting grandmother type than dangerous warrior. She flashed a disarming smile as she hugged him.
The final man was introduced as Uncle Patrick. His flaming red hair matched his fiery personality. Instead of a hug from the enthusiastic Irishman, Xander was punched playfully in the shoulder.
As they resumed their places around him, Xander had the chance to look at the gathered group. His smile faded slowly and sadness crept into his eyes.
“Is something wrong, dear?” Alicia asked. Xander wasn’t entirely sure if she would pinch his cheeks or offer him cookies if he seemed upset.
“I just expected more of you,” he said.
His heart felt heavy. Just the small group of Fire Warriors that ambushed him and his grandfather greatly outnumbered the small group sitting on the floating island.
“This isn’t everyone,” his grandfather said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. “There are two more of us.”
Xander frowned. “Just two more?”
“I warned you that we were a dying breed. You don’t know how much it means to see a young Wind Warrior joining our ranks.”
“So where are the other two?”
Giovanni jerked a thumb over his shoulder. Xander followed the gesture to the domed marble building that sat in the center of the island. “Robert keeps the island afloat.”
Xander turned slowly and admired the wall of water that was drawn upward by impossibly strong winds. “Just one man is doing all this?”
“We may be few,” Thea said without humor, “but we’re more than a match for a handful of Fire Warriors.”
“Your Uncle Bart is watching your parents,” his grandfather said.
Xander’s heart fluttered with relief at the news. He hugged his grandfather, who groaned as Xander pushed against the minor burns on his chest and ribs.
“Thank you,” Xander said.
“They’re my family too. I didn’t want to leave them, but I sure wouldn’t leave them undefended. Bart will protect them for us.”
Looking behind him, Xander noticed an outcropping of marble shaped haphazardly like a bench. He walked over and collapsed onto the seat.
“Is something the matter, lad?” Patrick asked.
Xander rubbed his hands together furiously, as though trying to remove a stubborn smudge of dirt.
“I appreciate you guys bringing me here and this place is amazing. It’s just… there are so few of you. Even with the other two, there are only eight of us left? Against the entire Fire Caste?”
The aunts and uncles all exchanged nervous glances. His grandfather nodded solemnly and took a seat beside Xander. Xander knew this wasn’t a conversation he was going to want to hear.
“I didn’t bring you here to form an army. I brought you here to learn to control your powers, so you could reach your fullest potential as a Wind Warrior.”
“They’re going to destroy the planet,” he pleaded. “How can you all just sit here and accept that?”
“Because it’s the way it’s supposed to be,” Giovanni said as he came over and knelt before Xander. “You are young and, as you may have noticed, we are not.”
The aunts and uncles laughed amongst themselves.
“We’ve had a lot of time to prepare for this. Before you came, we were ready to grow old and die, knowing that the reins had been passed to the Fire Caste. With you, it changes things. You’re another chance for the last of the Wind Caste to make a difference in the world before we go.”
“How can you be so calm about it?” Xander asked. Gone was the vitriol in his voice. He spoke instead with a quiet reservation.
“Because it doesn’t matter if we like the next stage in the world’s evolution,” Thea replied. “We’ve done our job over the past few thousand years. Our kind has been the inspiration and the muses for humanity. We’ve breathed the life of creativity into their minds. We’ve helped them build skyscrapers that reach toward the heavens. We’ve helped them build planes that let them feel the wind in their faces. We’ve inspired them to fly to the stars. But our time is coming to an end and the Earth needs to be reborn. That’s the role of the Fire Caste.”
“But they’re willing to kill us to get there,” he said softly. He wasn’t yet ready to accept the end of the world so easily.
“Aye,” said Patrick, “and if it’s a fight they want, then it’s a fight they’ll get. We’ll accept the Fire Caste when we’ve all grown old and died but I’ll be damned if we’re going to let those greedy buggers kill us off before our time.”
Xander smiled—glad to hear the fire still burned in the bellies of the other Wind Warriors. “Then train me.”
“We will,” Alicia said, again flashing her disarming maternal smile.
“Come,” his grandfather said as he stood from the bench. “Let’s get you cleaned up, changed, and, most importantly, rested. You’re going to have a lot of work ahead of you.”
That night, sleep refused to come. Despite the exhaustion he felt, Xander’s mind swirled with hundreds of individual thoughts. He climbed up the stairs of his small, two-story marble cottage and opened the shutters, letting in the cool night’s breeze. Within the flume of water, the roar was barely noticeable. It sounded like a distant waterfall, soothing and peaceful. In the heart of the hidden island, it was easy for him to forget that an entire army of supernatural people were trying to kill him.
Of all the thoughts flitting through his mind, the thoughts of Sammy emerged time and time again to the forefront. He should hate her, he knew, but he couldn’t help but feel drawn to her.
Xander climbed out the window and onto the red clay shingled roof. His sandaled feet clicked against the shingles as he climbed toward the pinnacle of the house. Just short of the peak, Xander sat down and laid back. Far above his head, he could faintly see a circle of twinkling stars. He had often looked out the window of his home in White Halls and admired the stars on cool nights like this. On the island, however, there were virtually no lights. The painted strip of the Milky Way was framed behind the brightly glowing stars. Somehow, he knew that Sammy would have loved sharing this view with him.
He was so engrossed in his stargazing that he didn’t realize someone else had arrived until he heard the click of feet stepping on the loose tiles.
Xander sat up hastily and began summoning an orb of air between his outstretched hands.
“Calm yourself,” Uncle Giovanni laughed, his arms held out wide defensively. “It’s just Uncle Giovanni.”
Xander sighed and shook his head. Giovanni had scared him nearly to death, which was exactly what he didn’t need after the past couple days.
“Can I sit?”
Xander nodded and the Italian took a seat beside him. For a long moment, he didn’t say a word. Giovanni craned his neck backward and enjoyed the same stars that Xander was admiring.
“I used to come up on the roofto
p too, when I was younger. But when I was younger, I came up here usually to get away from my brothers and sisters.”
Xander looked over at the older man. “Did you have a lot of brothers and sisters?”
Giovanni laughed into the still night air. “We are Italian. Of course I had a lot of brothers and sisters!”
He smiled at the Italian. Like he had always felt with his grandfather, Xander instantly felt a connection with the man.
“What happened to them?” Xander asked hesitantly.
Giovanni waved a hand dismissively. “They passed away some time ago. We have many brothers and sisters because we don’t live long enough. Too much good Italian food and wine.”
“Were they all Wind Warriors?”
“Some. Not all. But we loved each other like we were all of the same caste.”
Xander smiled at the man. He tilted his head back and stared back up at the stars. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to have a huge family, wrestling and joking together. There was a time when he really thought he wanted a family. Granted, Xander knew he was too young now but sometime when he was older, he could envision kids of his own. Of course, that seemed less and less likely now. Inexplicably, his thoughts drifted again to Sammy and a small smile spread across his face.
“What is her name?” Giovanni asked.
“Excuse me?”
“When a man comes out here on his own and stares up at the stars with a wistful smile on his face, he is always thinking of a woman, no?”
Xander blushed in the darkness. “Her name is Sammy.”
“Sammy,” the Italian said. “It’s a good name. So tell me about this girl.”
“It’s complicated.”
“So, make it simple for me,”
“She’s a Fire Warrior.”
Giovanni whistled into the night air. “Oh, yeah, that makes it complicated. It’s a good thing you have me for a teacher.”
Xander propped himself up on an elbow. “Why? What is it you’re going to teach me?”
“First thing I will teach you is how to pick a better girl,” Giovanni laughed. “But later, I teach you how to fly.”
“You’re going to teach me how to fly?” Xander asked, sitting straight up on the rooftop.
“Of course. How do you think I got onto the roof?”
Xander hadn’t considered it before. He had just assumed that Giovanni had climbed out the window, like he had.
“Teach me now.”
“About the girls or about the flying?”
Xander smiled. “The flying.”
“Okay. Come to the edge of the roof.”
Together, they cautiously slid down the sloped shingled roof until they were at the edge of the rooftop. Xander looked over the edge as he stood and realized the ground was a dizzying distance below. In the gloom of the night, he could barely make out the tall bushes below.
“So what do I do? Do I make a wind to keep me aloft? That seemed to be what my grandfather did.”
“Sure, do that,” Giovanni said.
The Italian shoved him from behind and Xander tumbled from the roof. He tried to focus on creating wind but his mind was gripped with panic as he fell head over feet. With a crash, he slammed into the bushes before landing hard on the ground.
Giovanni floated down to the ground and landed lithely beside him.
“How do you feel?”
Xander groaned. “Like I just got run over.”
“It was a good start. We’ll do better next time.”
He pushed himself up until he was on his hands and knees. His ribs ached and his shoulder was bruised but he didn’t seem to have any other injuries.
“What do I need to do different next time?”
Giovanni scratched his chin. “Next time? Focus less on falling and spend a little more time flying. Now, back to the roof.”
Xander groaned as he walked back into the house and climbed the stairs back to the second floor.
Wind Warrior Page 11
