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

by Nicola Claire

  “Perhaps we should remain here one night to recuperate,” Theo said, answering for me. I could tell he was worried. I could tell he was concerned for my mental and emotional wellbeing. But I didn’t have it in me to reassure him. How could I reassure anyone when the Amazon had vanished?

  Its importance in the world was too great.

  What kind of place were we bringing a child into? What sort of hope remained for their future?

  My heart ached. My soul cried. Earth mourned with me.

  I watched on silently as Aktor and Hip erected a tent, smaller than our last one, but big enough for Sonya to shelter in. Theo suggested I should rest in there, too, with my best friend. But Earth was calling me, and all I could do was sit on the ground and play in the sand.

  Nico built a fire, even though it was warm. Manaus was several hours behind Cape Town, so night was still in full swing. No other fires dotted the bleak horizon. For as far as the eye could see there was nothing.

  “Perhaps tomorrow it will look less daunting,” Aktor said as he stirred something in a billycan above the flames.

  “I have never seen such vast swathes of sand,” Pisces grumbled. “It is unnatural.”

  “Genesis is not natural,” Nico spat.

  “It is natural,” I argued, albeit softly.

  “How can this be natural?” Nico demanded.

  I looked out over the bare land lit by only moonlight and shook my head. Theo’s palm wrapped around my neck and squeezed softly.

  “Natural or not,” he said, “this is a disaster.”

  There. It had been said. We’d all thought it. All felt it. Now the words were out in the open, floating away on a dry breeze.

  “The scales tip,” Hip murmured quietly. “Balance is lost. Our world needs Aether at all costs.”

  Theo raised an imperious eyebrow at the Aeras guide. “Have you not got something new to offer?”

  Hip just smiled brightly; so incongruous here.

  “I have never claimed to be a shaman,” he said. “But I have a knack for remembering every word my grandfather has uttered.”

  “Grandfather!” Theo said with sudden urgency, turning toward me. “Did you manage to make contact with yours?”

  Mark shifted closer, eager for news of Gramps. My eyes met his. I shook my head, pain lancing my chest. He swore softly and threw dirt in the fire, lacking anything else to throw at hand.

  “No dream visit?” Theo queried. I bit my lip. “Cassandra?”

  “There was a dream visit,” I admitted reluctantly. “But Gramps wasn’t in it.”

  “Who was?”

  “The Alchemists,” I said, my voice barely above a whisper. “It’s how they found us.”

  No one said a word for several seconds, then Mark swore, loudly this time, Aktor said something reassuring which I didn’t catch, and Theo just wrapped his arms around me.

  For a moment, time stopped.

  Then Isadora slowly approached the fire; drawn to the Pyrkgia like a drug addict. She lifted her hands and warmed them, gold shining from her eyes. If it weren't for the burnished glow, I would have said she’d been crying. And for the fact that this was Isadora Petros, of course.

  “How have they become so powerful?” she asked, her eyes locked on the flickering flames. The Alchemists. How had the Alchemists become so powerful?

  “That was a surprise,” Aktor agreed.

  “Earth and Air,” I said quietly. I couldn’t seem to raise my voice here. Too many ghosts. Too much emptiness.

  “What about them, Case?” Mark pressed.

  “The strongest Elements.”

  Isadora snorted with derision. “You think your Gi is stronger than Fire? Absurd.”

  “Nero is strongest,” Pisces offered. “Water is life.”

  “Aether grounded in Earth stands strong, against all that man does wrong,” Hip said. He flicked a twig into the glowing ashes of the campfire. I had no idea where he had managed to find one. The place was a wasteland. “Aether lifted on Air flies high, facing those we fear with just a sigh.”

  “Well, that proves it then,” Nico drawled. “How does the rest of it go, grandson-of-the-freaky-shaman?”

  Hip eagerly provided the rest of the riddle. “Aether wreathed in Fire burns bright, lights the darkness of the night. Aether doused in Water lives on, another day to fight is gone. Aether wrapped in Quintessence feels brave, courage enough to do what’s grave.”

  “There you have it!” Nico said.

  ‘I’m not so sure I follow,” Aktor drily replied.

  “Well,” Nico said enthusiastically, leaning closer to the old butler as if to impart a juicy gem, “Fire lights the darkness. We’re the strongest.”

  “Water provides life!” Pisces growled in return.

  “Water drowns you,” Isadora snapped.

  “Fire burns you,” Pisces snarled back.

  “I think Quintessence is the strongest,” Mark offered, stirring up trouble with relish. “Bravery, now that’s what Casey needs.”

  “She needs to live,” Pisces roared.

  “She needs to light up the night!” Nico shouted.

  I flicked my wrist and made the flames of the campfire explode into the sky. The ground beneath our feet shuddered. A mini tornado picked up loose dirt and made it twirl and dance. Clouds formed overhead, the first drop of rain landing hard on the cracked earth.

  “She needs some peace and quiet,” I said into the silence.

  The pitter patter of rain surrounded us, but the fire remained dry, and so did the people sitting around it. All of which were staring at me, various looks of amusement on their faces.

  “Spitting the dummy, Sis?” Mark drawled.

  “Shutting you lot up so I can think.”

  “And what are you thinking?” he asked.

  “That it doesn’t matter which Stoicheio is more powerful. That this…” I swung my arm out in a useless gesture indicating the destruction all around us. “This is too big for one person.”

  Silence.

  And then Theo said, so very softly, so very surely, “But you are not just one person, Oraia.”

  “Hell no,” Mark offered.

  “I’d die for you,” Pisces added, quite melodramatically.

  “Not quite as vocal as the big guy,” Nico said, “but, you know, ditto the sentiment.”

  “Miss Eden,” Aktor murmured quietly. “You have friends. Family. We are with you until the end.”

  My eyes found Hip’s. He just smiled.

  “The shaman said…” I started.

  “My grandfather says a lot of things, Aether,” Hip replied, his smile turning wry. “Not all of them are easy to comprehend.”

  “But he’s always right,” I guessed. The Aeras guide nodded.

  “So, I do have to do this alone.”

  “But do what?” Hip asked. “Everything? Or just one small action, one small decision. One small thing.”

  I’d never thought of it like that. The shaman had made it sound like I couldn’t have a Thisavros. That Theo couldn’t come along on this journey, I’d been forced to undertake. And now this. His grandson questioning my interpretation. I wasn’t sure how to take this.

  But I’d take the slim possibility he was right.

  “One small thing,” I said softly.

  Could I believe it?

  Belief is a tangible thing.

  I let out a soft huff of breath.

  “Here,” Theo said, handing me a bowl of stew. “You need to eat.”

  I nodded my head, my mind tumbling.

  “We all do,” the old butler said, handing out portions for everyone.

  We ate in silence as I realigned my thoughts. Well aware the others would be doing the same thing. One small thing. I wanted to believe. But somehow I doubted it would be small in the end. Genesis wasn’t. It was a type of annihilation. A type of devastation that was unfathomable. An entire rainforest destroyed. The land reformed. As if a huge tractor had come through pulling a plough behind
it and overturning the crops on God’s land.

  Turning the field to fallow.

  My hand stilled, the spoon I was using raised halfway to my lips. I stared at the fire for several seconds and then put the bowl down and got to my feet.

  “Casey?” Theo called.

  I took a few steps away from the warmth and glow and looked out over the scarred ground. We couldn’t see details in the moonlight, but the absence of trees and buildings told us much. This part of the world had been scoured. Just like a crop field on a farm.

  “Casey?” Theo said at my back. I turned to look at him, my heart beating too fast.

  “It’s ploughing the land,” I said breathlessly.

  “Excuse me?” Theo asked.

  “Genesis. It’s ploughing the land. Letting it lie fallow. Restoring its fertility.”

  “Genesis?” Theo asked and then looked all around him.

  “We couldn’t see it in Wellington; not everything had been wiped clean. Nor in Athens or Cape Town, but I see it here. Where the rot was the greatest. Where balance was most out of whack. It’s cleaning the land, Theo,” I said urgently. “It’s giving us a blank slate to start again.”

  “Bloody hell,” Nico muttered.

  “I think she is right, Theodoros,” Aktor added.

  “Of course she’s right,” Theo said with a huge smile. “Casey is brilliantly clever. That’s why Aetheros has chosen her.”

  “Because of my intelligence?” I said with an arched brow.

  He took the few steps needed to reach me and cupped my neck and cheeks with his hands.

  “Intelligence. Loyalty. Compassion. So much wrapped up in one person. One human. So much of what Aetheros holds dear. Of what this world should be like. Our god saw it in you, Cassandra. He saw the beautiful woman you are. The loving, caring, giving human being. The strength behind the warm-hearted façade. This is why you are Aether. You see things we have forgotten. Casey, sweet, sweet, Casey Eden, never doubt yourself. Never doubt for a moment that you can do this. That you are meant to save our world.”

  His eyes blazed the brightest gold I’d ever seen. Pyrkagia flared, reaching out to tangle with mine. Oh, how Theo loved to tangle our Pyrkagia. Without thought, our Stoicheio entwined. A Thisavros reaction. A natural connection. Like to like. His hand slipped up into my hair, a look of desperate love and hunger washed over his features, and then he leant down and pressed his lips to mine.

  The kiss was hot and hard and full of everything he felt and had said and wanted to say but couldn’t. Not with so many people watching, and the Amazon gone, and Gi missing, and still so much to do. But he let me know his heart. Through that kiss that ended much too quickly. Theo let me know he loved me. That he was very proud of me. That I meant the world.

  Perhaps literally.

  I giggled when we parted. He smiled, flashing teeth. Then gently rested his forehead against mine.

  “All is not lost,” he murmured. “If Genesis is cleaning house, wiping our sins away, Aetheros has every intention of letting us live.”

  I hadn’t considered he’d doubted his god. That Theo had thought Aetheros would kill us. Take our heads once and for all. But then, what is Genesis if not a part of Aetheros? The world was imbalanced, the Athanatos god absent, but he would have left behind failsafes to guide his wayward children to the light.

  Aetheros had not abandoned his children. He had been forced to leave. And he couldn’t return until his children put things right.

  We needed the Gi now more than ever. We needed the Pyrkagia as well. We needed everyone united. Human, Alchemist, Athanatos.

  Genesis had paved the way; now we had to put things right.

  Before The Reckoning pronounced our end.

  I let out a long breath of air, a little shocked, a little relieved, a whole lot lost. How did we do this? How?

  Earth! I called out inside my mind. My go-to Stoicheio.

  Oh, Aether! It cried. Help us. Save us. Oh, Aether!

  I shuddered. It had sounded like a thousand voices. My Earth but not. More than just my favourite Element. Gi multiplied.

  “Casey?” Theo queried, seeing something on my face, at a guess, which set off alarm bells.

  “What’s happening?” Mark demanded. I shook my head and started pacing.

  “Has she finally lost it?” Isadora asked politely.

  “Can it, Princess. Let the adults talk.”

  “Oh, screw you!”

  “No, I screwed you. Biggest mistake of my life.”

  “Enough!” That was Theo, but I was already several steps away…and then I started running.

  “Casey!” Theo yelled.

  “What the hell?” Mark exclaimed.

  “Stop!” Theo again.

  “Aether!” Pisces this time.

  But Earth was calling. And I kept running.

  And then lightning struck the ground two feet in front of me, making me pinwheel my arms trying to stop in time.

  White blazed from Mark’s eyes; soft whorls of electrified smoke curled upwards before me.

  “What the fuck?” my brother demanded, standing where lightning had just struck dry earth.

  I was panting, already sweating, my heart thundering inside. My vision flickering with the bright flare of Mark’s light.

  “They’re here,” I said breathlessly.

  “Who’s here, Case?” Mark asked, approaching me as if I might be wild.

  I stared at the empty landscape, remembering the Amazon as it had been. Manaus back there. The Gi village over there.

  I met my brother’s still blazing eyes as the sound of footsteps sounded out over my shoulder.

  “Cassandra?” Theo asked.

  I turned to look up at my Thisavros, excitement and hope warring inside.

  “They’re here,” I repeated for his benefit, but I didn’t let him reply. “The Gi. They’re still here.”

  Gold flared. He took a step closer, wrapping his fingers around my shoulders. Holding me tight. “Where?”

  “Underground.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Stay Still

  We shifted camp. The Gi village was some distance from where Manaus had been, and our earlier lightning expedition had taken us there and not to what had at one time been dense rainforest and the Earth Elementals’ home turf.

  But even here, miles away from former Manaus, the ground was barren. And as dawn crested the horizon, a horizon that shouldn’t have been visible because of the rainforest’s trees, the ground revealed cracked dried dirt, covered in a thin layer of sand. As if the hot breeze that blew here had eroded the packed dirt already, grinding it down to sand.

  But there was absolutely nothing revealed of the Gi.

  “You are sure they are here, Aether?” Pisces asked.

  “They’re here,” I said resolutely, pacing the packed earth and staring at the ground.

  I could feel them. I could feel Earth’s disquiet at having so many of its Athanatos beneath the ground’s surface. I could feel their Gi weakening.

  They couldn’t get out.

  “They must have asked Earth to bury them deep somehow,” I mused. “During Genesis.”

  “But during Genesis, we were all without our Elements,” Nico pointed out. “How could they have avoided being cut off from theirs?”

  I shook my head. I didn’t know. Maybe Earth had done it during Genesis. Maybe Genesis had done it. The Gi were rotten to the core. Maybe Genesis was throwing out the trash.

  But unlike Wellington, where we lived out Genesis’ attack, here nothing of the Athanatos who’d resided in the rainforest were left at all. We had survived, crawled out from beneath broken buildings into a crushed world. Here the Gi had not crawled out of anywhere. Here the Gi were hidden from sight.

  Much like the Nero had been.

  I turned to look at Pisces. His eyes were already on me. I had a feeling they very rarely left. He was either taking his role as security guard very seriously, or the guy was turning into a st
alker creep.

  I was relieved he didn’t smile when our gazes met. Because: sharp teeth.

  “You lost your Stoicheio, too, at the time of Genesis?” I asked.

  “Yes, Aether. It returned to us unexpectedly. A blast of power unlike any I have ever felt. It rolled over Atlantis, making the domed ceilings rattle. It felt like a punch to the stomach and a soft caress combined.” His eyes glazed over slightly as if remembering. From the looks of it, he hadn’t been fazed by the punching part.

  “Yeah, that’s our Casey,” Nico drawled.

  “I do not understand,” Pisces said in his low rumble. “The return of our Stoicheio was because of Aether?”

  Theo stepped forward, placing a protective, or possessive, hand on my shoulder. “Yes, Nero. You have my Thisavros to thank.”

  Pisces stared at me, ignoring Theo’s posturing. And why Theo was posturing at all, I couldn’t say. And then the Nero’s eyes flared ice-blue, and a hungry look graced his hard face.

  Ah, that’s why. Theo knew what the Ekmetalleftis was thinking.

  “I must inform my father,” Pisces announced.

  “Um…” I managed, unsure how that would transpire. The Nero couldn’t communicate through Fire.

  But then Pisces pulled a satellite phone from his pack, proceeding to turn it on and align it with an orbiting transmitter. I snorted. With all the devastation wrought by Genesis, I kept forgetting some of us still had access to working technology.

  Pisces walked away several paces to relay this latest bit of news to his father, and I returned my attention to the task at hand.

  “I don’t know how they ended up under the ground,” I said softly, staring at the offending ground itself, “but they have their Stoicheio now. I can feel it, although it’s depleted.”

  “Depleted?” Isadora demanded. “Why?”

  “The rot?” I guessed.

  “You are fixated on this rot,” Isadora snapped.

  I ignored her. I was getting better at that.

  Turning to look at Theo, I said instead, “I’m going to need your help.”

  “Of course. Whatever you need, Oraia,” he rushed to say. Isadora humphed and turned away.

  Two thousand years couldn’t be erased in so short a time, I realised. More and more she wore her heart on her sleeve. I noticed Mark watching her, a contemplative expression on his face. I shook my head. She’d never be what he wanted her to be.