Elemental

by Antony John

  Everyone maintained a sympathetic silence. My mother’s murder was one of the colony’s greatest tragedies. But we couldn’t dwell on that now.

  “The Guardians must have used the contingency plan,” I said, referring to the plan developed in the aftermath of the tragedy. “Does anyone know the details? Alice?”

  Alice shook her head.

  “Well, they have to be on Hatteras somewhere.” I tried to keep my voice steady. “Come on, think. Where would they go?”

  “I don’t know,” said Rose. “But even if you’re right and they used the plan, what would’ve stopped them from coming to get us first?”

  No one answered. We just lay flat against the dune, quiet and still, willing everything to make sense.

  When the sound of my beating heart became as loud as the breaking waves and crying gulls, I took a deep breath and shimmied to the top of the dune. I lifted my head slowly and peered over it.

  “Well?” Rose’s voice still carried a hint of hope.

  Without the binoculars, I could barely make out the rectangle of black cloth atop the mast. But I could see all too clearly the way the ship yawed as it turned to face its new target.

  Us.

  CHAPTER 10

  I slithered back down the dune. “We have to go.”

  Only Alice seemed to understand. Rose and Dennis just stared at me blankly.

  “They’re coming back,” I tried again, louder.

  “Let them,” cried Dennis. “Maybe they’ve got our parents in that ship.”

  “I’m sure they do,” said Alice. “There aren’t any bodies on the beach, and they wouldn’t drag the Guardians out to sea just to kill them there instead. But we can’t let them take us prisoner too.”

  Rose reached for her brother’s hand. “What if it’s the only way to see our parents again?”

  “What if it’s not?” I shouted. “You know what the pirates did.”

  Silence. No one would look at me now.

  “Look, they’re coming back. So they must have seen us and they must want us,” said Alice. “We can either wait for them or make them look for us. At least it’ll give us time to think.”

  “How long have we got before they reach us?” I asked.

  “The wind is northerly, twelve knots,” Dennis said.

  “The current’s not helping them,” added Rose.

  We turned to Alice, whose dead-reckoning skills were the best in the colony. “They’re almost two miles away. Probably be able to lower anchor and row ashore in less than one strike. Maybe half a strike.”

  “Half a strike? We’ll never make it back to the shelter that quickly.”

  “We may not have to. We just need to make sure we’re not here.”

  When Rose reached around Dennis and pulled him close, it was clear she agreed with Alice. Whether he wanted to or not, Dennis would be forced to run away from the only place he’d ever called home.

  “Wait!” Alice scanned the ground. “The dune boxes . . .”

  I pointed to the box in Griffin’s hands.

  Rose reddened. “I put ours down on the beach.”

  Alice tapped hers. “Two out of three. It’ll have to do.”

  “I can run down and get it.”

  “No. We haven’t got time. Anyway, I don’t want the pirates getting another look at us. The less they know, the better.”

  Dennis furrowed his brow. “Is it true what they did?” he asked me. “To your mother, I mean.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. It almost reduced him to tears.

  Above us, smoke hung in the air. I could still hear the fire crackling and smell the burning frames of our cabins. I wanted to climb over the dune one last time and take in the sight of our former homes, but I knew I couldn’t.

  Besides, it wasn’t home anymore.

  Dennis was first to move. He crawled to the base of the dune and sprinted toward the trees. As we ran after him, I wondered how quickly the pirates would be able to chase us down. And whether they would be carrying the mysterious weapons that were such an awful part of their legend.

  * * *

  Halfway across the sound, Rose and I were lagging behind Alice and Griffin again. Rose’s shoulders were shaking as though she was cold . . . or crying. I told her to stop paddling, and crawled around Dennis to the front of the canoe.

  I tried to turn her hands over, but she pulled away. Slowly, reluctantly, she revealed her palms. Strips of skin had been torn back because she’d been gripping the paddle too tightly. Spots of blood pricked the exposed flesh. She wasn’t used to all this paddling, not like Alice and me. Her skin was soft and smooth because she mostly stayed indoors, and ventured outside only when the colony needed her to. Now it would take days for her to heal.

  “I’m sorry, Rose,” I said. “Here, let me—”

  She tucked her hands against her sides and shook her head. I wanted to help her, but she seemed miles away now. And when she looked at me, it wasn’t at my eyes, but at my forehead—dripping with sweat—and my mouth. With each of my ragged breaths she seemed to shrink back farther.

  “I . . . can’t,” she murmured.

  Can’t what? I wanted to ask. Her hands were shredded. Pirates were heading for the remains of our colony. She couldn’t afford to turn down my help. There wasn’t time for this.

  “I’ll take over for her,” said Dennis as I leaned forward again. “We have to keep moving.”

  I went back to the stern as they swapped seats. As soon as Dennis was ready I thrust my paddle into the water and drove us onward. My arms burned and my chest ached. I hoped that the pain might block out the images plaguing my mind: Rose pulling away from me; my mother’s murderer.

  It didn’t.

  * * *

  I leaped onto the platform and tethered the canoe with a simple bowline knot. There wasn’t time for anything more.

  I placed the strap of Rose’s bag over her shoulder and gathered my own bag and dune box. I wanted us to travel through Skeleton Town together—it might have felt comforting—but Griffin and Alice were already a hundred yards ahead. Dennis didn’t know whether to race after them or wait for his sister. Somehow our tiny group had already splintered.

  Back at the shelter, everyone rushed inside. I couldn’t stop thinking about the approaching pirates, though, so I raised the binoculars and focused on the fuzzy distance. The tip of the ship’s mast peeked above the trees on Hatteras Island, its black flag still fluttering. Nearer, dark-clothed figures emerged from the trees that bordered the marsh, led by the man with long dark hair and colorful arms. As soon as he had a clear view of the sound, he raised a telescope to his eye. It seemed to be pointed directly at me.

  I jumped through the doorway and pressed my back against the wall. “They’re here!” I yelled.

  Alice raced up the steps. “Here? In Skeleton Town?”

  “No. On Hatteras. One of them has a telescope.”

  She glanced at the binoculars in my hands. “Did he see you?”

  “No.”

  “Why were you looking?”

  “I needed to know if they were coming.”

  “Why else would they turn the ship around?” She pounded downstairs to where the others stood still and silent. “What? This isn’t a mystery. By now the pirates are probably crawling all over Hatteras, trying to find us. Eventually they’ll cross the bridge. They won’t stop until they get us.”

  Rose frowned. “How do you know? Anyway, who put you in charge?”

  “No one. Just like no one put your father in charge of the colony. Seems he did it himself, and look how that’s turned out.”

  “Enough!” I stepped between them. “We need to work together. Listen, Hatteras is narrow, but it’s also several miles long. If they think we’re there, they won’t cross the bridge until they’ve searched it. Th
at gives us time.”

  “Who says they’ll cross the bridge at all?” asked Rose. “They might just paddle over like us.”

  “No. Their ship is moored on the ocean side of Hatteras. The only way they can get smaller boats into the sound is to drag them across the island. I can’t see them doing that.”

  “What about Ananias and Eleanor’s canoe?”

  “Even if they find it, it’s only good for three people.”

  “I suppose so. Still, someone should keep watch so we know when the pirates cross. We could watch from the water tower.”

  Alice shook her head. “Too exposed. They might see us. But there’s a building halfway between here and the bridge. Used to have two floors, but the roof has gone completely and the top floor is mostly destroyed now. If we watch from there, we’ll have a good view. Should be able to stay out of sight too.”

  “That’s crazy,” said Dennis. “Have you forgotten what happened to your grandfather? For all you know, that might’ve been the building where he died.”

  “It’s not. I’ve searched it top to bottom, and it’s safe. Anyway, we don’t have to worry about keeping watch yet. It’ll take the pirates a while to search Hatteras, like Thom said. For now, we need provisions.”

  “Where are we going to get provisions?” I asked.

  Alice was gripping her dune box so tightly that her knuckles had turned white. “Just . . . explore this place, okay? If you find something useful, bring it back.”

  A silence descended over us. Rose fingered her tunic, which was smeared with blood.

  “You’ve got to bandage your hands,” I said. “Better clean them too.”

  She bit her lip. “We’ll need water for that.”

  “There’s a water tower right next to us,” Alice reminded her. “I’ll fill the canisters now before the pirates start watching.”

  “How will we know if the water’s safe?” I asked.

  “I’ll know,” replied Rose confidently.

  I wanted to ask more. Catching fish barehanded and testing the purity of water were entirely different. Besides, she was still a full year from becoming an Apprentice. So why was she speaking with a Guardian’s confidence? Had someone been working with her in secret too, the way Eleanor had with Dennis?

  I wondered then if everyone knew things they shouldn’t, and if I was the only one in the dark.

  CHAPTER 11

  Alice tucked our water canisters into her bag and slid the strap over her left shoulder. She climbed the ladder nimbly, and clambered onto the top of the tower’s giant tank. It looked decrepit, but didn’t shift at all under her weight.

  We lost sight of her for a while. When she reappeared, she tossed full canisters over the side. I cushioned the fall with my own bag.

  It was almost evening and we were hungry. The trout was inedible by now, its flesh burned so badly that it crumbled into pieces when Alice retrieved it from the spit. We couldn’t afford to make another fire either—a plume of smoke would give us away.

  Rose handed out the canisters. “It’s all right to drink.”

  “How can you tell?” I asked.

  “It’s my element. I can see and smell the quality of water. I can taste the impurities in a single drop.”

  I took a long swig. The water tasted good. “Thanks. We’d be in trouble without you.”

  Rose stared at her hands. She’d used her cloth hair band as bandages for her palms, and now her hair draped across her face. “We’re still in trouble. And I don’t think water’s going to change that.”

  In the silence that followed, I tried to think of something reassuring to say. But what? Rose was hurt. Dennis was scared. Even Griffin still seemed to be in shock, a full day after his seizure. I wondered yet again what he’d foreseen. Lora’s death? Our father’s death? The death of every Guardian? It seemed more important than ever to know, but I couldn’t ask. How would I forgive him if he’d known everything that would happen, and hadn’t warned me?

  With maybe one strike of daylight remaining, we left the shelter to search for supplies. The air was still, the sky dotted with wisps of clouds. The fires on Hatteras must have been extinguished, because the smoke was gone. Through the binoculars I saw only one or two men walking the shore. They clearly didn’t know we were on Roanoke, which was a relief.

  Rose announced that she’d scout the land just beyond Skeleton Town. Alice said she’d forage for food in the area around the shelter. Dennis and I joined her.

  We passed battered buildings on either side of the main road. While Alice and Dennis pressed on, I stopped to peer into each one. Most were only one floor, just like our cabins. They were large, though, and made of a smooth rock-like material that seemed immensely strong. The shells were fairly intact—about half the buildings still had roofs—but the guts had been destroyed when the windows had broken. It was hard to see the floor through all the debris.

  Finally I stood beside a doorway that looked eerily familiar: the shattered glass, the handle locked fast. Memories from the previous night flooded back. I ran my fingertips over the itchy scabs that dotted my forearms.

  I couldn’t go back into that building. Not yet.

  To the right of the door, something glinted. It was a small, tarnished metal sign, so faded I could barely read it. As I ran my hand across the surface, I felt the indentations of letters spelling out the word clinic. It was the same word that Guardian Lora had used.

  “Thomas, look!” Dennis shouted. He stood in front of a gray building across the road from me. His arms were full.

  “What have you got?”

  “Clothes. Lots of them.” He held them up. “Can you believe it? If only the Guardians had known about this place.”

  He was right. Fabric was always in short supply. When clothes were damaged, they were repaired, or the material was saved for future repairs. Rose was already expert at crafting new clothes from worn-out pieces of material that the Apprentices gave her. She also worked harder than any of us to make sure those clothes lasted. Nothing was thrown away.

  But if Lora knew about the clinic, how had she not realized there were clothes just across the road?

  “Where’s Alice?” I asked.

  “She’s gone. Showed me this place and then ran off.”

  Dennis hurried back inside. I didn’t want to return empty-handed, so I walked to the next building. It had no door at all, just a hole where one used to be. Inside, the walls were bloodred. Row upon row of shelves were piled high with objects I didn’t recognize, all of them broken. The floors were dusted with the crushed remains of colored glass bottles.

  I thought of Lora’s dead husband as I shuffled across the floor, first one foot, then the other. It felt firm, but I kept my weight behind me, just in case.

  In the far left corner, a plain white door had been left ajar. The handle had been destroyed. I figured that if someone was willing to break the door to get inside, I should take a look.

  It was a small storage area with a single narrow window high up the wall near the ceiling. But where the room outside was cluttered, here everything had been carefully organized into piles. There were plates and bowls of various sizes; small wooden boxes; even shoes. A container of metal knives, forks, and spoons caught my eye. There was more in there than we had possessed in our entire colony. The Guardians would be staggered by my discovery, if they ever got to see it.

  I threw a handful of cutlery into my bag and kept looking. On the shelf above was a row of dusty water canisters. I added them too.

  There was a small black object on the next shelf. I couldn’t see it clearly, so I tried to turn it over. Before I’d even lifted it, it made a sound—a low buzzing that made me step back. It rolled onto the floor and broke into several pieces.

  I nudged the scattered pieces with my shoe. They were tiny, in shapes I’d never seen before. I wanted to in
spect them, but the sun was setting and I could barely see anymore.

  I raised my arm and ran my hand across the top shelf. Dust coated my fingers. Halfway along, I brushed against several round, smooth objects. I held one up to the window. There, in the waning light, I saw a piece of smooth red glass, attached to a strip of leather. It was identical to the one that Eleanor had been wearing around her neck for as long as I could remember.

  Did Eleanor know about this room?

  I remembered Alice calling the object a pendant. I dropped it in my pocket to show her later.

  I stepped out of the room and retraced my path through the building. Outside, my thoughts returned to the pirates. I sprinted back to the shelter.

  Alice arrived at the same time as I did, and we joined the others in a circle on the grassy area beside the shelter, away from prying eyes on Hatteras Island.

  “They’re not coming yet,” said Rose. “We’ve been checking.”

  “Where’s Griffin?” I asked.

  “In the shelter. I gave him some food, but he wouldn’t even look at me.” She seemed frustrated. “I figured he was feeling better after he paddled across the sound earlier.”

  I could tell the others were concerned too. It would be hard enough for us to survive, without having to look after Griffin.

  “Look, I don’t know what he saw yesterday,” I said, “but it must’ve been terrible. Think about it, though—if he could paddle earlier, it’s only a matter of time before he can do even more.”

  “Are you sure we have that much time?” asked Rose.

  “I’m sure we need him. Griffin’s smart. He sees things the rest of us don’t. Trust me: He’ll be all right.”

  I sat down and emptied my bag, mostly as a way to change the subject. The canisters and rusted cutlery paled in comparison to Dennis’s bundle of clothes, but Alice seemed fascinated.