A Voice That Thunders (Voice that Thunders #1)

by Cully Mack

  She’d assumed he lived inside the mountain but maybe he had somewhere else to stay. Wherever he’d been, he hadn’t done much sleeping as he unhooked his cloak to reveal dark shadows under his stunning blue eyes.

  ‘Ready?’ he asked, his mind switching with faultless ease to the task at hand.

  They paired off and Nate slid his arm gently around her neck, ready for her to break out of his hold.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  Her bottom lip quivered, and she pressed her lips together attempting to regain control.

  ‘Where’s your necklace?’

  She couldn’t speak. She couldn’t explain that she’d taken the pendant off for fear of the chain breaking. She couldn’t tell him about Neviah’s accusations. ‘I can’t,’ was all she could say.

  His other forearm cleaved around her waistline as he drew her back against his body, holding her still for the briefest moment.

  She desired to lean into him, to let him shoulder the weight of her burdens but Shayla’s words pinched at the edge of her memory. She didn’t even want to know if he’d held Shayla this way.

  A waft of cool air swept up her spine as he let go and pivoted around to face her. He scrutinized her, searching for what ailed her. His cool blue gaze acknowledging her need for silence.

  ‘Let’s try defence from a dagger?’

  Mirah’s attention strayed to the sandy ground.

  ‘Never take your eyes off your opponent,’ he commanded, and with the softest touch, his hand lifted her chin. His eyes were stern, urgent but no sign of aggression but even so, as if trying to prove a point, the sharp tip of a blade pressed into her abdomen.

  ‘They’re not my enemies,’ she reminded him.

  ‘Maybe not, but they won’t know that. You need to focus. Whatever this is snap out of it before it gets you killed.’

  ‘Fine.’ She stepped back from the dagger. ‘Show me.’

  He manoeuvred around her, coming at her from all directions, the blade shimmering in the fall of the moonlight. His precision with the dagger so controlled, never once did she think he’d cut her as she defended against his advances.

  After over an hour of turning, dodging and stepping to the side of his blade, a glistening blue, watery cascade of sunlight reflected off the mountain and danced across the courtyard’s floor.

  ‘It’s getting light,’ Nate said. ‘It’s time to go.’ He sheathed the dagger at his side. ‘You need more practice. I’ll come and find you later,’ he announced before walking over to the fountain.

  Neviah and Zeev joined them. ‘They’re not speaking,’ Zeev said, cupping water in his hand and slurping.

  Mirah sensed Nate’s eyes on her but she refused to connect with his gaze.

  ‘I don’t need a babysitter,’ Neviah said, and stormed off towards the chasm and to the Taphas waiting inside.

  Acknowledging her obvious unease, Nate said, ‘I’ll escort you to the Taphas chamber. I’ve arranged for Galia to oversee your training.’

  ❊

  The tall slim woman who had wielded water in the Taphas demonstration greeted them. Her silver hair swirled like waves over her shoulders enhancing calm grey eyes that revealed nothing within. Nate introduced Mirah and then left.

  ‘My name is Galia. I’ll be training you today. Follow me.’

  Without waiting for a response she led Mirah back towards the tunnel she’d just come through. Neviah ignored her departure, preferring to watch a Taphas woman wield balls of fire against the far wall.

  Galia swaggered out through the courtyard and under the gatehouse. Nate and Zeev were nowhere to be seen.

  ‘Where are we going?’ Mirah asked.

  Without glancing back, she said, ‘We need more water.’

  In the outside plaza, men busied themselves setting up carts, whilst their horses munched on hay.

  They crossed over and exited heading east. Galia led with silent footsteps through an affluent area of well-spaced clay brick towers, complete with their boundary walls. On the walls, an assortment of inlaid tinted glass shards, designed in a variety of mosaic patterns, sent a kaleidoscope of colourful reflections on the path.

  Galia twisted and turned through the shimmering rainbow passageways until they came around on the eastern side of the mountain onto a carpet of luscious green grass.

  ‘Just up here,’ Galia said, leaning into the steady incline.

  Beyond the ridge, a forest of conifers spread out before them, giving shade to numerous aqua, green terraced pools. All of them linked by small waterfalls and trickling shallow streams.

  ‘Follow me.’ Without pausing, Galia descended from the ridge and slowed when reaching the trees. ‘I love that scent,’ she said, inhaling pine and citrus perfumes. ‘Not much further.’

  Mirah didn’t mind, the forest reminded her of home and she could have strolled through its leafy embrace all day.

  Shaded from the scorching heat, she found the chirping birds both calming and stimulating. Three strange red fury creatures with large amber eyes followed them, leaping from branch to branch as they went. Their chattering grew louder, and another larger than the three scurried along a branch towards them. The three bolted away from its advance.

  Galia halted before a small raised pool. ‘Freeze it.’

  Mirah shifted on her feet. ‘What?’

  ‘Freeze the water.’

  ‘I can’t do that,’ Mirah said, rubbing the ring on her finger.

  Galia swirled her hand in the pool. ‘How do you know what you can and cannot do? Until the other day you couldn’t form ice.’

  ‘How does wielding work?’

  ‘Wielding is a gift from Shemyaza. Now show me what you can do?’

  Mirah dipped her finger into the pool and found it cool. She concentrated on the water, willing it to ice over. To her surprise, shards of ice formed spreading their icy white web across the pool.

  Before she had a chance to grasp what she’d just done, Galia said, ‘Good, and now this one.’

  Galia led her onto the next pool, more voluminous than the first. By the time she had reached the lake, Mirah still had no real idea how she’d frozen several pools each one larger than the one before.

  ‘Now I want you to create an ice path from here to the other side of the lake. Be careful of the fish. I don’t want you killing them.’

  Mirah stood before the lake assessing the water, the way it flowed and how to make a pathway from here to the other side.

  You could freeze the whole lake if you wanted. Let me show you.

  Unnerved by the strange voice in her head, she focused on the knowledge that Galia cared for the life forms hidden beneath the waters. She held her hand over the edge of the water, sensing the gentle pull of its current. A glassy pathway of ice crept out before her, crackling and grinding as it expanded across the lake.

  ‘Good,’ Galia said, stepping onto the ice.

  A symphony of groans and whipping acoustics echoed up from underneath them as they crossed over to a small sheltered beach coupling the lakeshore.

  ‘Now we are away from prying eyes let’s find out what you can do. Concentrate on not freezing the water. Do it like this.’

  Galia swirled her hands in the air and water spiralled up out of the lake, breaking off from the expanse. She guided the liquid to create the shape of an eagle which flapped its translucent wings. It rose high in the sky, soaring above them before swooping down over Mirah’s head. Almost invisible, the eagle circled around them. Its form changing colour, as it flew past the towering windswept conifers behind them, up and then up into the clouds hovering in the deep blue sky.

  Mirah watched in awe. ‘That’s amazing.’

  The eagle swooped over her head.

  ‘Stop gawking and wield.’

  Taking the hint, she stepped up beside Galia and attempted to create a bird of her own. The shape was clumsy, something like the slush of melting ice, neither one form nor the other and difficult to manoeuvre through the air.
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  ‘Don’t hold on to the water so tight,’ Galia encouraged. ‘Let each molecule bind together to create its form.’

  Mirah relaxed her hold on the fluid and it collapsed, spraying them both with the memory of what it once held.

  ‘Try again,’ Galia said, as her eagle swooped over their heads.

  Her second attempt lifted out of the water. It was more equally formed but still held a slushy texture. Galia’s eagle swooped from above and as much as Mirah tried to lift her bird out of its way, watery talons punctured its liquid membrane and it fell to the ground with a splash.

  As if sensing her dismay, Galia said, ‘Don’t worry it will come with practice.’ She edged away from the lake towards the trees. ‘Show me how you threw that ice spear yesterday.’

  Mirah threw out her hand sending an unyielding spear of ice into the trunk of a conifer tree.

  ‘Again.’ Galia’s censored grey eyes inspected Mirah’s ring, her hands, the way she focused as each spear formed and flew through the air. ‘Your technique is sloppy. You will need to work on it but still, I can’t see how you do that.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Sit, let’s eat.’

  Galia pulled a tin pot from a leather skin bag and filled it with water. Before Mirah realised what was happening, Galia had guided two small fish with whiskery barbels through the water. She picked them up, prepared them with a knife and set them in the tin. She rummaged in her bag and added basil leaves to the air bubbles now rising to the surface. Mirah watched in admiration.

  ‘Wielding water has more to offer than fire or air,’ she said, passing Mirah a handful of dates. ‘Esha believes fire is the strongest of the elements but I know she is wrong. Fire is destructive, eating everything in its path but water can quench out their flames. If you’re a strong enough Water Wielder, which I think you are, you will even be able to wash away Esha’s flames.’

  Galia prodded the fish with a stick which Mirah hadn’t noticed she’d picked up.

  ‘Air can be trickier to outmanoeuvre but I will show you some ways. I can show you how to construct ice walls, tsunamis, even freeze a man’s blood to the core.’

  Checking the fish cooked to her satisfaction, she pierced one with the stick and handed it to Mirah before preparing her own.

  They ate in silence and Mirah considered how much she could trust her. Galia appeared to be as calm as small waves lapping a cooling embrace over heated sand but her muted grey eyes concealed the person held within.

  When Mirah had finished, she traced little shapes with the stick in the sand. ‘Why are you with me and not one of the others?’

  ‘I’m the best Water Wielder we have, and the Captain requested me personally.’

  I’m sure he did, Mirah thought to herself. She rushed to scratch out the sweeping inner curves and the deep-set eyes that replicated Nate’s from the sand. ‘What is the Captain like?’

  ‘He commands from the front and would gladly sacrifice himself for any of us,’ she said without hesitation.

  She looked a few years shy of thirty, old enough to have been a Wielder for some time and wore a wavy, gold band and amethyst stone amulet on her arm.

  Mirah returned to her doodling in the sand, careful not to draw anything resembling faces. ‘Have you ever been to the front lines?’

  ‘Yes, many times.’

  ‘What’s it like?’

  ‘I remember the old ways before Shemyaza arrived. I was a child but I’ll never forget laying awake at night fearing those beyond our borders. They always came under the cover of darkness, butchering with spiked wooden clubs any who stood in their path.’

  Galia picked up the tin and bent down to the edge of the lake to rinse it. With her back towards Mirah, she said in a low whisper, ‘My parents, my brother I lost them in those days.’

  Crouching by the lake edge, silence swirled up around her and Mirah gave her the space to remember.

  Galia stood and shook water droplets from the tin. ‘The battles were blood-filled and ruthless and often. Shemyaza put a stop to all that. Now I am older and strong enough to protect what we have.’

  Mirah tilted her head to face her. ‘What do you have?’

  ‘Peace. For the first time since any can remember we have peace in our lands and I will do what it takes to defend it.’ Galia’s gaze drifted to the ring on Mirah’s finger. ‘What made you choose that amulet?’

  ‘I don’t know. I guess the ring looked the least conspicuous compared to the rest.’

  ‘Interesting,’ she mused, before wiping her mouth and putting the tin back in her bag. She walked over and inspected the spears of ice impaled in the conifer tree. ‘The way your ice penetrates through the wood; the same way it did with the rock. We’ve never seen this before.’

  Her face lit up and her eyes widened as she brushed her fingers along the ice where it breached the now fractured wood.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Ice, it’s good for piercing through soft materials, like flesh but—’

  ‘Is there something wrong with me?’

  ‘No, not at all. It’s something new. I—’

  ‘Galia,’ Nate yelled.

  They both looked over to find Nate ducking under a low branch as he exited the tree line.

  ‘Wait here,’ Galia said, and then she sprinted off towards him.

  Mirah studied their interaction from a distance. Galia respected him that was obvious as he listened with interest to whatever she told him. He glanced over and she quickly turned and faced the lake.

  One set of footprints shuffled in the sand but she didn’t need to turn to know who was approaching.

  ‘Galia tells me you did well,’ he said, sitting beside her.

  ‘Didn’t she tell you I couldn’t even form a bird?’

  ‘It will take practice, just like your defensive training. Should we get started?’

  ‘If I say no, will you force me?’

  ‘Of course not. Although I could probably convince you.’

  She heard the humour in his tone and turned to see him smiling.

  ‘I’m too tired.’

  He sat in silent contemplation and she distracted herself watching rings appear on the lake as a little fish surfaced.

  ‘Do you want to talk about Neviah?’

  ‘Not really.’

  He sighed, and she understood that whatever his motive, he was trying to reach her. ‘I took my necklace off because I didn’t want to break it,’ she confessed.

  ‘I see. Well, you needn’t worry. The linkage is stronger than it appears.’

  She wondered what he saw and why he was sitting here beside her. ‘Don’t you have somewhere you need to be?’

  Her stomach tightened at her question, without Neviah she was alone and what if he was just appeasing her and preferred to be with Shayla?

  He let out a half chuckle. ‘I have a multitude of things I should be doing but they can wait a little longer. Besides what sort of man would I be if I left you here by yourself?’

  ‘I don’t need your pity.’

  ‘It’s not pity,’ he defended. ‘Tell me, when you were in Barakel, besides healing, what did you like to do?’

  She had to give him credit, he wasn’t going to give up and let her stew in her own misery. To be fair, she didn’t crave to stay there either. ‘I liked to make pictures in the sand.’

  He rose and went to the tree line and she heard snapping branches.

  When he returned he stripped off the excess shoots with his dagger. ‘Show me,’ he said, offering her one of the branches.

  She looked across the sand. ‘It’s too dry.’

  ‘Aren’t you a Water Wielder?’ he challenged.

  ‘I don’t know how?’

  ‘Well, with that I can’t help you. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.’

  He set to stripping offshoots from the other branch. Mirah stared at the sun dried sand. Until recently she had never sensed the water but she could feel its presence now. S
he wielded water to the surface, and the sand sank into a golden blank canvass. He smiled but didn’t look up from his dagger.

  ‘What would you like me to create?’

  ‘Whatever is in your heart Mirah.’

  She might not be able to wield an eagle like Galia but she knew she could paint one. Dipping the branch into the sand she outlined its form. Nate stepped further away and began a creation of his own.

  For hours she sculpted the eagle, its wings spread wide in flight and she imagined it soaring high above the skies canopy, making its nest somewhere in the stars. When she traced out its talons, she imagined the eagle gripping hold of her, carrying her off to safety and her resting under the shade of its wing.

  When she finished Nate came over. ‘I should have known you’d be able to capture its beauty.’

  He walked around, absorbing her creation and she couldn’t help feeling satisfied by his look of admiration.

  ‘What did you draw?’ she asked, taking steps away from her achievement. She stopped in awe when she saw her portrait in the sand.

  ‘Do you like it?’

  ‘Is that how you see me?’ she asked in shock.

  Her long flowing hair rested in waves across her shoulders, the star pendant prominent on her neckline and the warmest smile expressed on her face.

  ‘It’s how I imagine you would look if things were different.’

  Sadness overwhelmed her as she realised she’d never smile like that again.

  ‘Don’t cry,’ he said, wiping her tears from her cheeks.

  Grief bubbled up from her midsection and hitched in her throat. He drew her into a comforting embrace. She leaned her head on his shoulder and sobbed. She sobbed for the missing parts of herself, parts that never would be. As much as she knew his warm, strong body yearned to absorb all her grief, she held back something so deep she didn’t dare risk opening.

  ‘I’m sorry. I never meant to hurt you.’

  When she could speak, she said, ‘I’d like to return to my chamber.’

  ❊　11　❊

  The following morning Mirah made her way to the courtyard alone. Neviah had not waited. Throughout the night one restless image haunted her. She hadn’t seen it coming, the loss and the lingering shadow which remained.