by K. Gorman
A knife wound.
“How’s he better?” Carson asked.
Leloni slipped into Carson's arm and leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. “Because he’s so much more useful than a matchbook.”
Her hand snuggled underneath Carson’s, tugging at the back of his shirt. She glanced back at Ketan, her dark eyes bright with her usual mischief. A half-smile revealed the edge of her teeth.
Ketan had a sinking feeling that he knew what was coming next. But he didn’t stop her. It was a small price to pay for crashing at her place, for the benefit of whatever community she’d cultivated.
Besides, no one said ‘no’ to Leloni.
She grinned and stood on the tips of her toes to kiss Carson again. “Ketan’s a Fire Elemental.”
Carson looked down at him with renewed interest. “No shit? Let’s see. Light something.”
Like a monkey on display, Ketan thought as he raised his hand. Warmth sparked between his fingers as he tugged on his Element. Flame fluttered into life, blooming up into the air like a torch. Part of it licked the side of his face like a warm, loving pet. Whatever snowmelt had been left in his jacket evaporated into the air.
The fire reflected in Leloni’s eyes, made their pale blue dance with liquid gold.
“Huh.” Carson wore an odd sort of expression on his face. The muscle worked in his jaw. He backed away from the door, making room for Ketan to enter. “Cool. You know there’s another Fire Elemental down here?”
Ketan closed his fist. The fire snuffed out. “Yeah. I’d like to meet him.”
Leloni giggled. “Meese is a her.”
“Meese?” What kind of name was that? “You know her?”
“Not exactly. She’s famous, though. Some say she’s the Mage’s kid. Hard to miss. They’re both redheads.”
His skin burned up. Every time he used his Element, he got hotter. He tugged at the zipper on his jacket. The Element provided a latent warmth in general, but really kicked into overdrive when he called it. Sweat trickled down his chest.
The room was ratty. A single bulb burned in the ceiling, providing a stark source of illumination for the furnishings. A mattress had been shoved into the corner, the sleeping bag on top twisted in disarray. Two couches sat near the center of the room, facing a coffee table made of cinder-blocks and plywood. A single-burner camp stove sat on top, its gas canister propped out to the side. A can of beans stood open next to a translucent, blue-tinted glass bong.
Leloni slipped by him, careful not to touch him in front of her boyfriend. The hardwood under her feet was dusty and smudged with dirt.
“Is she the one that lit the shield?” he asked.
Three months ago, Ryarne’s shield had inexplicably caught fire, burning for nearly a week before the fire had gone out. The event had splashed across international newslines. Although the headlines attributed the phenomenon to the Fire Mage, rumor had it that Meese had been the one to cause it.
“That’s why she’s famous. That why you’re looking for her?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool. You hungry? Come light the stove. I’ll tell you all I know.”
Chapter 15
Meese, as it turned out, was not her real name. Can’t say I didn’t expect that one. Names had a fluidity in his circles—about half the people he knew didn’t use their birth name. Besides, ‘Meese’ sounded like it should have been some bastardized plural form for mouse. Or moose.
It made him wonder what she looked like. ‘Redhead’ wasn’t much to go on. And neither Leloni nor Carson had actually seen the girl, which made their description based solely on rumor.
After a while, Ketan’s sleep cycle caught up with him. As Leloni and Carson watched a movie on a beat-up laptop, he took his shoes off and settled into the second couch.
When he woke up a few hours later, all was quiet.
A spring poked into his shoulder. By the edge of the cushion, a seam had come loose, and stuffing puffed out of the tear. The fabric smelled faintly of mold and strongly of marijuana.
Sleep tugged at his brain, but all of his senses were awake and aware.
Something had woken him up.
He lay still, keeping his breathing even. The room was quiet. A draft stirred against his cheek, briefly lifting the room’s stale air. The floor creaked by his feet. Something clicked on the table. A knife?
He cracked his eyes open.
The figure bent over the table was neither Leloni nor Carson. It took him a few tries to identify a gender. Male, he thought, but with an effeminate look to him. He had a sharp, jagged cut to his dark hair, and the bulb overhead highlighted a splash of bright blue down the side. He was slighter than Leloni, and the skinny jeans on his legs made them seem too thin.
One of his new roommates? Leloni had mentioned there were two more.
Ketan stirred and sat up. The switchblade dropped to the bottom of his sock as he righted himself, clunking against the floorboards. He rolled the stiffness out of his shoulder and rubbed the area where the spring had poked into him.
The stranger glanced over, eyes bright and alert. Spots of acne edged his cheek, and his face had an angular quality to it—like a younger teen, though Ketan pegged him for older. Street life stunted growth.
The teen smiled an apology. “I’m sorry. Did I wake you? I tried to be quiet.”
He stifled a yawn. “No worries. I’m awake now.”
The youth straightened. “You must be Leloni’s friend. I’m Rain.”
He held out a hand. Ketan took it. The kid’s grip was light and cold.
“Ketan.”
When he let go, Rain retreated back to the table. Ketan saw a green bell pepper on top, half-sliced. Other vegetables lined the edge of the cutting area, and a bottle of dark sauce gleamed under the naked light, its packaging fresh and new.
“I was just making dinner. Tired of beans, you know?”
“Dinner?” It had to be closer to noon by now. Ketan couldn’t tell. His phone was his only clock.
Rain shrugged. “I work the night shift. Dinner is when I get off work.”
Ketan grunted. “Living underground must fuck with the system a bit.”
The knife thunked against the board as Rain got back to slicing. “Oh, yes. Not that it matters right now. Haven’t seen the sun in months. Too many clouds.”
Ah, yes. He had heard of the Ryarnese winters. “You work aboveground?”
“Yeah. At the Millennial Movie Theater in Uptown. I clean floors and sell popcorn. Two nights a week. Not exactly a living wage, if you get me.”
“Yeah.” He had a history of shitty, low-paying jobs. He expected to get another one soon.
The room fell into silence. Nothing but the slicing of Rain’s knife against the plywood. Thunk, thunk, thunk. Ketan leaned forward and retrieved the switchblade from his sock. It fit neatly into his back pocket.
He had a feeling he didn’t need to hide it much, not down here. From what he’d heard, Underground law was less concerned with what one carried than what one used it for. So long as he didn’t flaunt it, everything should be fine.
His foot nudged the bowl of beans from earlier, scraped empty. He picked it up, scanning the room for a sink. From what he saw, he’d be lucky if there was running water. They seemed to barely have electricity.
“Hey,” he said. “What’s the setup here?”
Rain glanced back over to him and the bowl. “We buy drinking water from the Core, haul it in. For the rest, there’s a pipe up the street—not safe to drink, but fine for washing. A place on the next block has a working shower. Hey…” Rain turned toward him fully. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something.”
Ketan looked up. “Yeah?”
“Are you a Fire Elemental?” Rain asked. “I mean, Leloni said you were, but she can be full of shit, y’know? And I don’t mean to pry, but it’s just—”
“I am.”
“Oh, good. Hey, can you do me a favor? I was actually planning to wake you up a little later
for this, but… can you light the stove for me? It seems we’ve run out of lighter fluid and matches. I blame it on our smoking problems.”
Ah. Another monkey show. Well, at least, it was a practical use of his power. Ketan stood up and slid his bowl onto the edge of the table. He was nearly a foot taller than Rain, and probably twice as heavy. Now that he was standing, he could see the entirety of Rain’s meal. Tomatoes, mushrooms, spinach, bok choy, and some oblong purple vegetable.
“Looks delicious,” he commented.
“Better than beans, anyway.”
As Ketan reached for the stove, Rain eyed the bowl. The gravy had dried to the side, making it look like dirt-encrusted diarrhea.
Ketan grunted. Gas hissed as he turned a valve. Flame caught with a hushed whumph. He’d had his Element for over a year now. It took less than a thought to light things.
He turned the stove down until the flame turned blue, just kissing the bottom of Rain’s wok.
Rain stepped in as he backed away, adding oil. The smell of cooking vegetables soon freshened the stale air.
Ketan turned back to the couch and grabbed his jacket.
“Say, you going out?” Rain asked.
“Yeah?”
“Bring back a water jug, and I’ll let you eat some of this.”
Ketan grinned. “You got it.”
*
It would be hours before Rain saw the water.
Ketan thumped down the stairs, shouldered open the door, and revisited the street from earlier. It had become custom, for him, to have a good wander through every new area. Maps weren’t his thing. He had a good head for direction, and it always made more sense, to him, to get the feel of an area. You couldn’t get that from a map. A map couldn’t tell you what the neighborhood was like, or if there were shortcuts, places to avoid, that sort of stuff.
Besides, he doubted there were any accurate maps of the Underground. It was too new. Too hard. If what he’d heard was true, it had multiple levels, as well. The Core might have been the only fully excavated part of it, but there was a myriad of tunnels that branched off into other residences and areas.
He retraced his footsteps, following the paths Leloni had led him through a few hours before. There were more people out now than there had been earlier, milling in the streets, commuting on bicycles. A group collected garbage bags from the sidewalk and threw them into the back of a jerry-rigged bicycle-wagon. No cars in the Underground, he guessed. Not enough of a sky to vent the exhaust. More bags waited for them up the street, tied and labeled.
Maybe he could get a job as an incinerator. Another practical use of his Element.
He reached the Core in ten minutes.
It was easy to tell the Core apart from the rest of the city—it was more populated, more developed, and much nicer-looking. It could have been a normal aboveground street, except for the missing cars, lack of snow, and the heavy supports that straddled the pavement.
He looked up between the rafters. He hadn’t had time to look at them much before. They lifted much higher than he thought they did—at least twelve stories, if he had to guess. They reminded him of bridge supports, or the beams from a geodesic dome. The largest beams stretched from side to side, anchored into the face of the buildings with concrete and steel fittings. Smaller supports crisscrossed upwards, into the darkness beyond the street’s light. Up high, a few isolated windows of light shone in the shadows.
He wondered if anybody walked up there. It seemed it would be easy enough to put a ladder between the beams, make a bridge. He’d have to ask Leloni. She’d know.
But first, he needed to find someone.
The Underground had two Elementals, if rumor was to be believed. Two Elementals and three Mages. Water, Earth, and Fire. Ketan hadn’t met others like him. He’d heard of them, back in Terremain, but had never seen them. They didn’t run in quite the same circle of friends.
Terremain. Hard to believe it had fallen. The war had seemed so… stagnant when he’d left. A constant, unmoving presence—as if the city would have a permanent front line on its outskirts. What had happened? Had Swarzgard found something to disable the shield? Leloni had said they’d breached the front line. But how? And what was their plan? Were they, even now, marching on Ryarne?
The shield couldn’t hold that back, could it?
He passed the same bakery from earlier. The same two women moved around inside, puttering between the front and the back. An industrial kneader worked on the next batch. Although the store was empty of customers, nearly half of the front display had been sold. Maybe they'd gotten a morning rush.
His stomach twisted at the sight of the bread. Maybe he should bring some home to go with the dinner Rain was making.
As he turned the corner, checking the wallet in his pocket, someone blindsided him.
Pain exploded in his elbow. He rolled with the blow, twisting away. A fist connected with his shoulder, a second with his chest. He skipped away as a third blow glanced past his cheek.
Ketan blocked the next, his arms snapping up to protect his face. He hadn’t been in a fight for months, so his reactions were slower than usual. Another blow knocked into his arm, the bony fist bouncing off his muscle. He got a glimpse of light brown hair, a dark blue hoodie. His opponent was lighter than him. Smaller. Had less power behind his punches.
Didn’t have his Element, either.
Footsteps ran up the street. Ketan blocked another blow and turned toward the sound. The three guys running up the street looked bigger. Military. One had a gun.
He retreated further, dropping his guard. Heat welled inside him, but as he caught sight of his attacker, he forced his Element back down.
“Devin?”
He dodged another blow, ducking back. They hadn’t seen each other in nearly four years—it had been that long since Devin’s sister had dumped Ketan. The teen—what was he, fourteen now? Sixteen?—was barely larger than Rain, and probably weighed a good forty pounds less than Ketan. Wicked with a knife, though.
But if he hadn’t pulled a blade yet, he wasn’t going to.
The other three caught up. Two pulled Devin back, each taking an arm. The man with the gun hung back, watching. His straight, professional stance reinforced Ketan’s first assumption. He gave Ketan a solid onceover.
Then, he turned back to Devin.
“I take it you know him?” Sarcasm curled around his tone.
Devin stopped struggling. He had a flat face, as if someone had pressed him up against a concrete wall as a child. Thin lips curled into a snarl. Ketan dropped his hands by his side, careful to keep them well within sight.
“Back in Terremain. He fucked my sister.”
Four sets of eyes looked at Ketan.
He shrugged. “She started it.”
Gunman grinned. Devin struggled against his captors. They held him easily, their muscles bulging under their matching black jackets. Maybe they shopped at the same place. Or maybe…
“You guys part of the enforcement down here?”
One of the men holding Devin smiled. “How could you tell?”
“He can see police coming from a mile away,” Devin sneered. “He’s from the streets.”
“Like you,” reminded the man holding Devin’s other side. He glanced back up at Ketan. “Don’t worry, we don’t discriminate.”
“You new here?” Gunman hadn’t moved, though his position had eased toward casualness.
“Arrived this morning.”
“Welcome. I hope not everyone attacks you on sight.”
“Me, too.” I haven’t fucked that many sisters. Not that everyone needed to know about his love life, or lack thereof. Street living created dynamics more like Leloni and Carson. He hadn’t wanted to get involved in that scene.
That, and his Element had manifested. Try having a normal relationship when you’re worried you’ll, quite literally, burn up.
Which gave him a thought: Devin didn’t know about his Element. He’d left before that.
Gunman was inspecting him further. “You got a place to stay? A support group?”
“Yeah. Crashing at a friend’s.”
“Good. Friends are good. You came from Terremain?”
“Yes.” Where else was there to come from? It wasn’t like there was any other way to get into Ryarne.
The man cleared his throat. “You’ve, ah, heard the news?”
Oh. Ketan sobered. No wonder he was prying.
“Yes. I heard.”
The man relaxed. “Good, good.” He stepped forward and held out his hand. “I’m Chen. Shift supervisor.”
“Ketan.” Fire Elemental.
He had a strong, firm handshake. “You fight pretty well. Devin…” He turned to the boy the other two held. “We’re going to let you go now. If you attack this gentleman again, I will shoot you. Capiche?”
“Capiche.”
The guards relaxed their grip and stood back. Devin rolled his shoulders, adjusted his jacket, and turned his gaze back to Ketan. Ketan stared back. They were like dogs, sizing each other up. Maybe he should pee on Devin’s shoe.
He squashed the thought.
They turned to leave.
“Hey, wait—do you know where I can find Meese?”
They stopped. The two who had been holding Devin looked at each other.
“In the hospital, probably,” one said. “She didn’t look so great. Are you a friend of hers?”
Devin put it more bluntly. “Did you fuck her, too?”
Ketan raised an eyebrow. At least, Devin had made it easy to dodge the first question. “No, Devin. Despite what you think of me, I have not had sex with every woman alive. Is she okay? What do you mean, ‘didn’t look so great’? What happened?”
Chen tilted his chin. “The Earth Mage happened. She’ll be okay. Cuts and bruises, from what I heard. She’s in good hands. I can’t imagine she’ll be back down here today, though.”
“Wasn’t Roger recruiting her?” Devin asked.
