The Tantalising Taste Of Water (Elemental Awakening, Book 4)

by Nicola Claire

  And decided.

  Whatever malevolent being was wrapped up in the fog was worse than any of Nero’s creatures under the ocean could ever be.

  I stood up and dived over the side of the dinghy, just as the mist touched my ankle.

  I didn’t feel anything until the Water closed over me, and then I only felt calm inside.

  But I knew I shouldn’t be calm. I knew the mist had meant something. I knew I shouldn’t have let it touch me, at all.

  And then I knew why.

  Screams woke me up, out in the night. Theo sat bolt upright. Nico called out something in Greek. Pisces roared. Lightning flared. There was a burst of Fire outside.

  “Aetheros,” Theo growled, staring out of the now open entryway to the tent. “Alchemists,” he snarled.

  And I’d led them here.

  Chaos bloomed outside. I struggled to right my clothing as Theo burst out of the tent into the night. Flashes of lightning, booms of thunder, the roar of a sea creature sounded. The ground shuddered. I could hear rocks falling off in the distance. An explosion brightened the sky.

  I crawled out of the tent and took in the battle, searching for Theo first, and then Sonya. I couldn’t spot my best friend, but I also couldn’t spot Aktor. So, I had to assume he’d ferreted her away, out of sight. Theo, though, was engaged with our visitors, flaring Fire, shooting jets of flames. Magnificent in the brightness.

  Twelve Alchemists formed a row of seething power on the other side of the campsite. Meeting each thrust of Pyrkagia as if swatting at flies. These were not low-level Alchemists. Not like my brother, who wielded Air and Water impressively, but not all-powerfully. No, these humans wielded their stolen Stoicheio with such precision, I had difficulty telling them apart from the Athanatos at my side.

  Hip threw a bolt of lightning. Pisces sprayed Water in powerful arcs. Isadora sent shot after shot of Fire at a white eyed Alchemist, who simply waved his hand before his chilling eyes, making the flame snuff out.

  My heart stuck in my throat; I couldn’t breathe. They attacked without compunction. Striking to sever heads. They had no intention of seeking a dialogue with us. They just wanted us dead. If I’d had any preconceived ideas of negotiating a truce with the Alchemists, they were dashed right here on top of Table Mountain.

  We needed balance. We needed it for them as well as us. What were they doing? They’d once worshipped Aetheros.

  “Stop!” I yelled, but thunder cracked, drowning me out. “Stop it!” I screamed, using Air to boost the volume of my voice.

  It echoed into the distance, bouncing off the occasional outcropping of rocks.

  The Alchemists paused. Offering only defence not attack.

  And Pisces struck.

  His spear met the chest of a man in the middle of the row of Alchemists, cutting through the human’s borrowed wall of Water. Parting it, as though butter cut by a knife. A sickening crunch sounded out as a rib broke. A gurgling sound added to the mix as blood welled up his throat and spilt out of his mouth. He clutched at his chest, fell to his knees in the dirt, and then slowly toppled over sideways.

  Oh, shit.

  The Alchemists let out a roar of rage and attacked again.

  “Casey!” Theo yelled. “Get out of here! Go!”

  Not a chance I’d leave him behind.

  “Aether!” Pisces roared above the cacophony of horrid sounds. Whether his roar was to warn me not to leave or to reiterate Theo’s command, I couldn’t say. I was having trouble thinking good thoughts of Pisces right then.

  “Miss Eden,” Aktor suddenly called from behind me. I spun on my heel and found the old butler hiding behind one of the tents. Hardly a protective covering in an Elemental fight.

  He waved his gnarled hand at me, calling me to him. I knew Sonya would be with him, shaking with fright, hiding behind his body. I knew I could get them out of here. I could get her to safety. The Alchemists were busy, engaged with a fuming Theo and a still raging Pisces. I knew I could slip away and save at least one precious person tonight.

  My gaze returned involuntarily to the fight. Lightning sizzled, crashing into a bolt from the other side. The blinding light of it exploding made dots of white appear before my eyes. I shaded my gaze, my arm up above my forehead. But for a second I could only see flashes of brilliant light.

  By the time my vision cleared, the Alchemists had shifted. Almost surrounding us on every side.

  I heard Sonya squeak. My head swept from the battle in front of me to the tent at my back and then returned to Theo again immediately. Desperation clawed at my chest. He met my eyes. Determination and a calmness reaching out to me.

  “Go!” he mouthed. I shook my head. Sonya screamed. “Go!” Theo yelled.

  I was up and sprinting in a flash. I skidded to the ground beside Sonya and Aktor as an Alchemist lifted his hand to attack and then paused. His eyes on me, blazing a mixture of white and green. Air and Earth.

  I had a thought.

  Can you stop him from calling on you? I asked the two Elements.

  He has every right, both Aeras and Gi replied.

  For a moment I was so stumped I just stared at the Alchemist as he stared at me, and Sonya cried at my side.

  “Miss Eden,” Aktor urged.

  He has every right. What did that mean?

  I’m Aether, I growled in my mind.

  And we are yours to command, the recalcitrant Elements supplied.

  Then I command you to stop him! I silently cried.

  We will try.

  I let out a breath of air I hadn’t realised I’d been holding and waited for the light to dim in the Alchemist’s eyes.

  Green faded. White blazed brightly.

  He is too strong, Aeras said calmly. Soon, it added, making no sense to my battle fogged mind.

  The Alchemist smiled. It was chilling. Or maybe that was his command on Air. Frost coated my eyelashes. Sonya shivered. Aktor flexed aching fingers. The temperature continued to drop.

  I flared Pyrkagia. The icy air abated slightly. And then a wind began to howl.

  “Miss Eden,” Aktor said on a choked breath, his lips turning blue, his eyes rolling back in his head, almost out of sight.

  I snarled, baring my teeth at the Alchemist. I didn’t understand how they were stronger than me. I didn’t understand how borrowed or stolen Stoicheio overpowered mine.

  I reached out a hand to Aktor, grasped Sonya’s frozen fingers in mine and willed a tornado of Water to surround us, blocking us from the Alchemists' sight. I could hear the battle still raging; I wanted to look over my shoulder. To check on Theo. To get one last glimpse of his golden eyes. But taking my attention off the threat before me seemed unwise.

  I sucked in a shaking breath of air, sent a little prayer up to Aetheros to keep them all safe, and then pictured Manaus. Imagined the Amazon bursting with life. Birds and leaves and the sweet smell of vegetation.

  With a crack of lightning, we were gone, and the storm was replaced with utter silence. No birdsong. No over populated city. No scents of smog or low rumble of vehicles. No lush smell of fallen leaves. Just the scorched earth beneath our feet and utter, utter silence.

  “Where are we?” Aktor immediately asked.

  I turned around slowly, searching for a sign of life.

  Are we in Manaus? I asked Air.

  Yes, Aether, it replied.

  Earth! I cried, falling to my knees in the dust.

  Aether! it wailed in reply.

  “Cassandra!” Aktor shouted, rushing to my side.

  I hadn’t realised I was crying, great racking sobs that clutched at my chest. Heaving breaths that felt incomplete. Blurred vision, tears stinging my eyes.

  The Amazon was gone.

  “Oh, Aetheros,” I managed to croak. Oh, no. The world was doomed. We were doomed. My hand lifted to my stomach, hovering over the precious life from within.

  “Cassandra,” Aktor said softly. He’d figured it out. “Genesis did not discriminate, and they would have be
en cut off from their Stoicheio at the time.”

  I’d told Isadora that the Gi would have fought for the Amazon. But how could they have, if they like us had been separated from their Element?

  I let out a sob.

  “What are we going to do?” Sonya asked meekly off to the side.

  “Find shelter. Establish a base,” Aktor said succinctly.

  I dragged my eyes from the desolate scene before me and saw that the old butler had grabbed a pack.

  “Here is as good as anywhere,” he said. His eyes searched mine. “Are you going back?”

  Am I what? Suddenly I was on my feet, hands frantically swiping at the tears as I cleared my vision and sucked in ragged breaths of air, filling my aching lungs to capacity.

  “Yes.”

  “Be careful,” was all he said.

  “Casey?” Sonya called. I glanced at my frail friend. “You got this,” she offered with a small smile and a goofy double thumbs up.

  My chest constricted. My eyes filled up with moisture again. I sniffed unattractively.

  Be strong. Be true. Be well. Be brave. Know this is not the sum of your days.

  He might have talked in riddles, but the shaman had offered the wisest of advice. Some of what he’d said, I’d like to forget. But some should be remembered.

  I sucked in another shuddering breath, straightened my shoulders, let Pyrkagia fill my upturned palms, and then pictured Table Mountain.

  Lightning struck. And never ended. A storm raged in South Africa. The unnatural silence of the Amazon was replaced with the fury of battle. I could hear Pisces raging still. The sound of his spear as it sliced through water. He seemed to have an unending supply of spears to call on, like an archer with a quiver of arrows. The wind whipped around in not-so-mini tornadoes, little bits of grit rising and striking directly at the Alchemists’ eyes. Fire raged almost out of control all around us, flickering as tall as the stars that still twinkled in the sky. Thunder boomed. The atmosphere crackled.

  I took a moment to absorb it all and then ran towards my group of friends, sending a heated blast of anger into the ground beneath us.

  The Earth shuddered. Table Mountain shook. For a split second, everyone paused. Time slowed down.

  I felt myself skid to a halt, the eye of the Elemental storm surrounding me, as the pressure of so many Stoicheio being used built to a crushing crescendo inside my mind. I staggered. Theo cried out something. Pisces roared. And then I was on my knees, wanting nothing more than to cover my head, to curl into a ball and whimper.

  With the last of my strength and willpower, I called on Nero. The tantalising taste of the sea touched my tongue; I licked my lips greedily. A warning shout sounded out from the Alchemists, but I reached further down inside, finding my inner ocean, calling on Nero’s help. Calling on dolphins and crabs, whales and sharks, jellyfish and seaweed. Pulling strength from a place that was only visible in the distance. Table Mountain looked over Cape Town out toward the Atlantic Ocean. But my feet weren’t wet. Not on top of a mountain. I stood on Earth and called on Water.

  And Nero rose to the invitation.

  I felt the Alchemists trying to subdue it. But Theo’s hand slipped into mine, bolstering my Stoicheio with his through the Thisavros connection. Nero answered, rising to the Thisavros call. Savouring it. Dancing with it. Singing a song of euphoria and elation.

  Pisces began to purr. My siren’s call reaching him first before any of the others. Nico rushed in, preventing the big Nero from pushing Theo out of the way. Stopping a war we did not have the time nor energy right then to wage. My eyes met Mark’s and Hip’s. They both nodded in understanding. Mark grasping Isadora’s hand, Hip raising his to the sky, calling down the atmosphere to hide us.

  The Alchemists fought it. Somehow they connected their Stoicheio and used the combination of mixed Elements to battle our attempts to escape. But Theo simply raised his palm to the back of my neck, centring me, as Nico’s fingers slipped into mine.

  I panted through the effort required to fight the Alchemists combined powers, Hip’s atmosphere altering abilities only adding a small reprieve from the pressure inside my mind. The world began to fade at the edges.

  “Aether!” a voice yelled, and for a moment I thought we’d missed someone. I ran through our group’s names. Aktor, Sonya, Mark, Nico, Isadora, Hip, Pisces and Theo. We had them all. I had them all. I shook my head to clear it.

  Then pictured a bubble around us, bigger and stronger than the secrecy bubble I’d used back in Atlantis. If someone was calling, I didn’t want them to reach us. Drawing on Theo’s Pyrkagia, my own and Hip’s Aeras. On Nero and Gi, I pulled it all toward me. Hip staggered. Theo had stopped breathing. The Alchemists roared.

  “Aether!” that same voice shouted. Desperate. Aching. Full of apology.

  I blinked. Lightning flashed. And the Alchemists burst the bubble.

  Water rained down all around us, soaking us to the skin, as ozone wafted in the wet air. Clouds boiled overhead in the dark sky. The wind whipped at our hair. Electricity crackled. Thunder boomed. Mark and Isadora winked out of sight in a bolt of lightning. Hip was down to one knee in the dirt.

  I swayed. Theo steadied me; white light started to blind my eyes. But through the mist of lightning, I saw him. Being held back by two hard-faced Alchemists with blazing green and white eyes. Earth and Air. The two most powerful Stoicheio. I hadn’t realised until then that they were. That most of the Alchemists who had cornered us had control of those two particular Elements.

  But one certainly didn’t. Had he fought alongside them? Had he changed his mind and that was why now he was being held back by his comrades? Or had he seen that I was slipping away and was desperate to catch me before I was lost to them?

  Noah wielded Earth and Fire. Not Earth and Air. Still powerful. Still strong. But not as strong as those Alchemists holding him.

  Noah. The Gi doctor; who had helped me escape imprisonment in the Amazon.

  She is ours to protect.

  His words, once spoken to another Alchemist through the flames of a Pyrkagia fire, were the last things I heard as blackness overtook me.

  His words…and the empty resonance of utter silence.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  They’re Here

  It was like a desert. Barren. Dry. Unforgiving. The last time I’d been here, it had been lush with sub-tropical heat. The Amazon bristling with life and nature’s music. The sharp caw of a macaw. The soft buzz of bees. The lazy flight of a butterfly. The hiss of a predatory snake. There’d been such life. And now there was nothing.

  “Where are they all?” Isadora asked, spinning around in a tight circle as if she had missed something.

  I rubbed at my forehead, my mind still a little hazy, my body aching. Breathing was difficult, and it had nothing to do with the dry heat.

  Or maybe it did. Brazil was not meant to be dry. Hot, yes. But not dry. Not like this.

  “Are we in the right place?” Isadora demanded. I’d never seen her look so lost before. So uncertain of her place in the world.

  No one answered. No one had a voice with which to speak.

  “This can’t be right,” Isadora muttered, starting to pace. She walked several steps away from where we stood and sat and were collapsed in varying degrees of shock and pain. Then stopped. Her back to us, her eyes on the horizon, her shoulders rising and falling much too quickly. I thought I might have just heard a sob.

  Isadora had never appeared a compassionate person to me, but I guess when you spy on people, for such a length of time as she did the Gi, it makes you feel.

  “What now?” Nico asked softly. He was nursing a nasty cut to his upper arm, which Sonya was attempting to bandage from our now meagre supplies.

  Several pairs of eyes turned towards me. I didn’t have an answer.

  “They can’t be gone,” Theo offered. “The Gi are Athanatos. Practically immortal. Their heads would have to roll in order for them to perish completely.”


  “Whatever happened here was…” Pisces didn’t finish. Even the Nero was grieving.

  “This was a thriving city,” Mark said hollowly, always thinking of the humans. “Almost two million inhabitants. Where have they gone?”

  “If they survived, they have fled,” Theo said softly. “This part of the continent is now barren.”

  “They couldn't have survived here if they had remained,” Aktor agreed. “No food.”

  “No shelter,” Nico added.

  “Nothing,” Pisces said on a surprisingly fragile breath of air. Was he imagining the same thing happening to Atlantis? Had they not been under the sea when Genesis hit, would they too now be “nothing”?

  “Aeras survived,” Hip murmured. “We found a way. Perhaps the Gi did too.”

  “Pyrkagia is still standing,” Nico added. “But only just. Genesis was random in the degree with which it attacked.”

  “The Gi were rotten,” I whispered, but everyone heard me. “More so than any other branch.”

  “Are you saying that Pyrkagia, Nero and Aeras are not?” Mark asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders, too exhausted to offer an explanation. But that’s basically what I was saying. Sure the Pyrkagia Rigas was going mad, but the Pyrkagia Elementals themselves were not. And the Aeras, although insular, were all quite sane. Nero had the advantage of all that water hiding them, even if they had forgotten their ways. But none of the other branches was quite as rotten as the Gi.

  I rubbed at my chest.

  “Well,” Theo said into the silence, “for whatever reason they are not here.”

  “Case?” Mark said softly at my side. “You’re very quiet, Sis. What are you thinking?”

  My fingers found the dirt at my sides, and I dug into it. Earth sighed; so pained, so desolate. I cupped the grains in my palm and then tipped my hand over, letting it fall like water rather than granules. It should have been wet earth, not desert sand. It should have been mud, not cracked soil.