Master of Elements

by Sonya Bateman

  I gasped as the vision vanished and I returned to the fire, and Ian. A hundred solemn exclamations and sarcastic remarks ran through my head and vaporized before they reached my tongue. I couldn’t think of a thing to say about what I’d seen, and felt. How he’d loved them both so strongly, even then, despite all the bluster and attitude.

  “You need not say anything,” Ian said. “I feel your thoughts. And yes, I was a wretched and terrible child,” he added with a crooked smile.

  I laughed, but only because I knew he’d managed to laugh at himself. “Well, I guess we’ve only got a few more hours that could be the rest of our lives,” I said. “Are we going to spend them training, or what?”

  Ian made a face. “If I could choose what to do with my final hours of life, they would not be spent training,” he said. “They would be filled with something far more soft and inviting than steel and dirt and sweat.”

  “So … feather pillow fight?” I said with a grin.

  “Akila, you dolt.”

  “Oh. In that case, I’ll be sure to let her know that she’s more inviting than dirty sweat,” I said. “I bet she’ll think that’s really romantic.”

  “You would be surprised at my wife’s ideas of romance,” Ian muttered, smiling to himself. “And no, I will not share them with you.”

  “Good, because I don’t want to hear them,” I said. “But since you might have to spend your final hours stuck with me, what do you want to do?”

  He raised his cup. “Drink.”

  “Perfect,” I said, and grabbed the pitcher. “Let’s top up.”

  Chapter 32

  Fifteen of us set out just before dusk, one short of the number we’d planned on. At the last minute, Toklai had asked to stay behind, to help Nate and watch over the little ones. Malak, who knew how much this fight meant to his brother, actually tried to change his mind before we headed out. But Toklai wouldn’t budge. He was determined to be responsible.

  Malak walked alone for the first leg of the trip, so no one could see the tears of pride in his eyes.

  His wasn’t the only strained goodbye, either. While we were helping to make sure everyone in the village made it into the hold, in case something went wrong during the fight and the Wihtiko came here, Nylah refused to leave Ian. She clung to him until everyone else was beneath the platform. He finally told her that he had to go, but he promised to come back.

  She’d nodded and cried silently. Then she whispered something in his ear before he handed her down to Toklai’s waiting arms. I had no idea what she said to him, but he’d wiped away tears of his own before he walked off the platform.

  When we passed into the clearing from the forest, the elders were already heading across the field from their side. My heart sank a little when I realized how few of them there actually were. I hadn’t done a head count or anything, but my impression from the size of their village was about a hundred, at least. This was thirty-five, maybe forty, mostly Alqani with a fraction of Annukhai.

  So it was fifty of us against the Wihtiko. Fewer than the aid’ha we’d found trapped in the seal, not even counting the remains of those who hadn’t been consumed. We weren’t anywhere close to the numbers of the Annukhai warriors who’d fought this thing before — and lost, badly.

  I could see Ian making the same calculations and coming to the same conclusion.

  Maybe we should’ve had that pillow fight, after all.

  The two groups met around the blasted pit I’d cleared yesterday. All of the elders, including Meriwa and Shadahni, wore the blue tunics and pants they usually did. But they also had full-breast leather armor, gauntlets, and leg protectors, while those on our side wore only the clothes on their backs.

  Meriwa stepped forward with a taunting smile. “I see you have all come prepared for battle,” she said. “Is this how you equip your armies, rayan? I doubt your people have conquered many lands, if you enter battles so meagerly protected.”

  I just about pulled a muscle holding myself back from going after her. I had to show some restraint, because I figured I’d need to focus on keeping Ian from ripping Meriwa into small, bloody shreds. But he wasn’t pissed. He actually looked slightly amused, and completely impervious to her petty attempts at insulting him.

  The same couldn’t be said for Balain.

  The elder Annukhai shoved to the front of the crowd and grabbed the top of Meriwa’s breastplate, jacking her off the ground one-handed. Her feet kicked the air helplessly. As her face twisted in anger and she drew in breath to scream, he bellowed, “Keep your mouth shut, or I will rip your spoiled tongue from your mouth and strangle you with it!”

  Meriwa stopped moving. “Put me down this instant, barbarian,” she rasped, her lips trembling beneath wide, terrified eyes.

  “When I choose to do that, you will apologize to Gahiji-an. And you will mean it,” he said, every word a barb flung in her face. “Do you understand me, you wretched, petulant child?”

  “Yes,” she whispered. “Please put me down.”

  “Do not test me, Meriwa. I will end you.” He glared at her for a moment longer, and then lowered her slowly until her feet touched the ground. Then he released her with a shove. “As you were saying?” he growled coldly.

  Meriwa straightened and tugged at her armor, instantly contrite. “Please forgive me, rayan,” she said without a trace of rancor or stubbornness. “I was out of line, and I am truly sorry to have insulted your clan.” She bowed to him.

  Then, one by one, the rest of the elders did too.

  Ian fell back a step, shaking his head. “You are forgiven, madam, if you will only stop bowing,” he said. “We are all equals here on the battlefield.”

  The whole group straightened again, and Ian breathed a sigh of relief. “That was incredibly awkward,” he muttered to me in English. “I do not understand how my father put up with such ostentatious nonsense.”

  “They respect you. Deal with it,” I said, flashing a grin at him. “You’re a respectable guy.”

  He snorted. “I beg to differ.”

  Meriwa actually waited patiently until we were done talking, and then nodded toward the ground. “Shadahni and I will uncover the seal, and then the earth magic users can repair its walls,” she said. “But I would ask that you all move away, so that you do not get caught up in the cleansing.”

  “How far should we go?” Malak said.

  “Well …” The corners of her mouth tightened in consideration as she surveyed the ground slowly. She moved away from the cluster of elders and spread her arms to the sides, palms out. A strange bubbling sound rumbled from the ground.

  Then a line of steam raced across the snow, rapidly forming a melting circle that must’ve been a hundred feet across. The circle closed just behind the Alqani.

  “Anywhere outside this circle,” Meriwa said as she flexed her hands and lowered her arms. “Perhaps you should join us on this side, rather than moving all the way across? After all, we are allies.”

  Balain must’ve terrified the last of the smug out of her, because she sounded genuinely concerned and inviting.

  It took a few minutes, but we all got together on the Alqani side of the circle and retreated a good fifty feet. Whatever the cleansing was, nobody wanted to get caught in it. Meriwa and Shadahni stood at the edge of the melted snow line, conversing in low tones for a few minutes. Finally, they walked back a ways and turned toward the buried seal, joining hands. Both of them gestured at the same time.

  This time the bubbling sound was much louder. The center of the circle hissed and steamed, forming a transparent pool of slush that poured out in both directions and divided the circle in half.

  Then a wall of water gushed suddenly from the dividing line, rising twenty feet in the air before it split and crashed down in two massive waves that carried the thick crust of snow off the remainder of the Great Seal, and flushed the passageways clear of the debris and remains that littered it.

  Most of the kids, and a few of the elders, mad
e awed noises of appreciation. A few of them even cheered.

  Meriwa flushed slightly as she led Shadahni back to the group, but she didn’t take credit or demand any attention. “The rest requires earth magic,” she said. “Now, it is all up to you.”

  Ian and I went with Yurai to work on the seal. We had the raw power, he had the knowledge of what it was supposed to look like. The three of us pressed our palms onto the wet soil, and I could feel my vision of the stone walls unfold in my mind like an enormous flower. With the young djinn’s direction, we rebuilt stone walls, repaired cracks, and repositioned shifted foundations until the symbol was right. When Ian and I finished the heavy lifting, the young storyteller reached out and laid a hand on the outer edge of the stone maze, face scrunched tight with concentration.

  Eventually, he leaned back and wiped his brow, leaving a smudged streak of mud on his exhausted face. “It is done. The ritual etchings are restored.” I grabbed the poor kid before he fainted as Balain and the other elder Annukhai helped to clear out the remaining rubble and crusted earth.

  When it was finally ready, no one seemed particularly eager to power up the seal and call down the final battle with the Wihtiko.

  Ujura was the first to issue a call to action. “We must bring the creature, before it decides to return to the Annukhai village,” he said. “Who will join me in activating the seal and casting the summoning spell?”

  “I will,” Pahna said quietly, walking over to her father. “Bala, if anything should happen to you, or to me …”

  He smiled at her. “You do not have to say it, aiba. I know,” he said. “And I love you, too.”

  A sob escaped her, and she threw her arms around him.

  Two more of the Alqani volunteered to help with the summoning spell. They walked to the four corners of the symbol, each of them taking out a knife or a dagger and slashing their palms. Then they knelt and placed their bleeding hands on the outer walls. A purple glow started to spread through the stone.

  Almost immediately, black clouds rolled across the twilight sky above, and the snow began to fall.

  “Shadahni and I will attempt to hold the storm back, so you can see what you are fighting,” Meriwa said, her voice shaking a little as she tilted her gaze to the skies. “Be ready. The creature will come quickly. Whatever you do, do not look the beast in the eyes.”

  As if she’d given a cue, a piercing, unearthly scream of rage and frustration rolled through the air like a thunder-crack, and an enormous winged shadow sped across the field from the forest.

  I was running toward it before I gave myself time to think. The summoning spell would bring it down to the seal, and I didn’t want to give the beast a chance to snack on any sweet, tasty children’s souls. Ian shouted something from close behind me, but I couldn’t hear him over the Wihtiko’s terrible cry. The beast reached the pinnacle of the seal, and then went into a rapid dive. I jumped into flight with my dagger extended and immediately regretted my recklessness. As I passed the boundary of the Seal, I felt my already dubious flying skills vanish, leaving me tumbling in mid-air over the gigantic stone maze.

  Before I had a chance to crash to my screaming death, a taloned foot closed around my body and hauled me into darkness.

  Chapter 33

  I hit the ground hard, and what felt like a ton of hot, dry bones landed on top of me, reeking of dust and death.

  The scaly toes were still wrapped around me, but its grip loosened on impact. I crawled halfway out before the creature convulsed and squeezed, trapping my legs in its claw. It thumped around clumsily, trying to regain its feet in the space we’d landed — the center well of the seal, where all the weapons had been stockpiled. Each awkward step of the monster sent its four talons deep into my flesh, and I clamped my teeth shut to hold back my scream of pain and terror.

  Since the seal was activated this time, I wouldn’t be able to use magic down here. The prospect of trying to stab this thing to death didn’t thrill me, but my options were limited. And I’d lost my dagger somewhere in the fall. I reached into my pocket for the brass-knuckle knives Ian gave me, threaded my fingers through one of them and slashed hard across one gray, scaly toe.

  The Wihtiko hoot-screamed like an exploding sawmill and let go of me, hopping away on its uninjured leg.

  I scrambled away and bounded to my feet, hastily putting the other knife on. Shouts and roars sounded somewhere above me, and I knew the rest of them had launched an attack.

  Maybe I should’ve waited for them.

  This was the first time I could actually see the monster, not just its shadow. ‘Owl’ was the closest association my mind could draw, but it was an owl conjured from nightmares and horror movies. Ten feet tall, covered in dirty white feathers and draped with thick, filmy gray tatters that might have been cobwebs, or something much nastier. It had a black horned beak with serrated edges, a thick ruff of matted fur at its throat, and long feathered antennae that swept out and up like antlers. Its bulbous, yellow-orange eyes were the size of pumpkins, and they glowed with the light of a thousand jack-o-lanterns.

  The creature took a thunderous step toward me, just as spears and arrows flew across the space above. One arrow lodged in its side, and it screeched again and spread its massive wings, using them as a shield to block the attacks from above.

  I threw an arm across my face as a blast of foul air from the Wihtiko’s wings swatted a dozen sharp objects from my team across the central clearing. I tried to sense where the monster was, but without access to my earth magic, I had no choice but to lower my arm and risk a peek. I blinked, confused about the bright light surrounding me as the creature leaned closer, bobbing down until its ghastly face filled my vision.

  And I couldn’t look away.

  My body went slack as my mind filled with screams and burning and death. A parade of terrified faces flashed in front of my eyes, mouths open in silent cries of anguish, and I realized I was seeing the Wihtiko’s victims. Watching them die in front of me, one by one, as the creature siphoned my soul. Distantly, I felt thick, hot fluid pouring from my mouth and nose, burning like gasoline. I realized dimly that my life force, my very soul, was being dragged forcibly out of my body and into the beast’s gaping maw.

  Once it had stolen enough from me, I’d be gone, lost like all those other tormented spirits trapped inside this nightmare’s body while my empty shell rose up to try and kill my friends. I tried to calm myself and summon enough strength to tear my gaze from the Wihtiko’s lighthouse stare.

  Damn it, I was not going to die like this.

  I heard a faint shout of support through the yawning void inside me, and realized it was somehow Ian. Our link was giving me a few moments of extra time as the Wihtiko desperately tried to drink both of our souls through one straw. I had to act now, before this ending up killing us both.

  Trying to force my eyes closed was impossible. With the horrendous visions filling my head and replacing the world with relentless death, I couldn’t even tell where my eyes were, much less operate them. But I knew where my hands were. Jai’s knives were solid and cool and real. And the ground beneath my feet was real, too.

  I let the shape of it form in my senses, and thrust a hand toward where its face should’ve been, arcing the downward-pointed blades at the monster.

  A deafening scream replaced the dying faces, and my vision washed over black. I felt my knees hit the ground and forced myself to focus in time to see the Wihtiko’s visage retreating, with one glowing eye distorted and leaking reddish-black gunk where I’d slashed it open. The gash made by the blade had clipped the stalk-like base of one antenna, making it droop crookedly.

  The creature flapped its mighty wings, hitting me with a gust of sour air as it rose clumsily and slammed me against the wall like a scrap of newspaper. The second it cleared the top of the labyrinth walls, a hail of arrows pelted it, and three snarling flashes of white fur jumped into it, knocking out of the air.

  Polar bears tackling a giant owl might
have been the strangest thing I’d ever seen, at least this week.

  “Gavyn!” a voice shouted, penetrating my fuzzy, pounding head as I tried to get up. That sounded like Ian, but he never called me Gavyn. Except when he thought I was dead. “Where are you?”

  A moan was the best I could manage for the moment, but I lifted both arms and waved them over my head. Ian — at least, I was pretty sure the tall, brownish blob was Ian — rushed over and yanked me off the ground.

  His anxious face finally came into focus, and I smirked. “Careful. Sharps are knife,” I slurred, and then a brief coughing fit overcame me.

  Finally, I regained control of myself and straightened on my own. “I’m okay. Thanks to you,” I said. “The monster can cast a soul drain with a look, but our link let me hold on before it did any permanent damage.”

  Ian let go and stared at me strangely. “Are you certain of that?”

  “Uh, yeah,” I said. “Is my hair on fire or something?”

  He shook his head. “It is nothing. Come on. The battle is not over yet.”

  We had to climb one of the walls to reach the top of the seal. It wasn’t actually as hard as I thought, especially with Jai’s knives to give me purchase. When we got to the edge of the wall, we flew around the maze, circling toward the sound of the continuing fight. There was no clumsy takeoff or mid-air faltering for either of us. Ian really did have a lot more juice without the shackles of the tether holding him back.

  My brain chose that moment to remind me that meant I could die here. I told it to shut up and fight. It turned out a lot worse than simply dying was on the table if we didn’t end this, now.

  I only had time to take quick stock of the situation. The Wihtiko was perched at the top of a wall near the outer edge of the labyrinth, flapping its wings and screeching as it tried to lunge out of the seal and onto the field. Two polar bears clung to its back, biting and slashing, and a line of four young Annukhai stood in front of it, ramming it with spears. The creature snapped its beak at the darting figures between lunges, but they danced out of the way.