by David Ekrut
Zarah placed her hands in her lap and made an obvious effort not to smile but failed to keep the mirth from her eyes. Elwin turned away from her and pulled back the curtain on his side of the carriage to avoid her gaze. Thoughts of Zarah fled from him and his breath caught as he really began to look at the city. How had he not seen it before?
Fire from the poles gave a clear view of stone buildings rising from the side of the cobblestone road. Small alleys separated most of the buildings, while some had been built one right atop the other. A few of the buildings had a small fence to bar passage to the doors of the buildings from the road. The shortest structure stretched taller than even his Poppe’s inn, and he couldn’t see the tallest without sticking his head out the window and craning his neck upward, which he almost did but stopped himself. Zarah already thought him a country bumpkin. He didn’t want to give her more evidence to support that theory. Even if it was true.
“It’s so big,” he said.
He could see Zarah’s smile in his periphery and closed his mouth. So much for not making a fool of himself, gaping like a simpleton.
“Maybe on the morrow I can show you around,” Zarah said in a casual, almost bored tone. “It would be a shame if you got lost and never found your way back to the castle.” Her look suggested that without her help, this would happen.
“No,” Jasmine said. “It will be some time before I will want him leaving the confines of the castle.”
“The castle?” Elwin said.
As if summoned, the coach made a turn and Elwin saw a castle come into his view. He felt his jaw loosen but did not attempt to hide his awe. The castles described in his books could never compare with the monument before him. Beyond a tall wall made of grey stone, round towers reached into the sky and disappeared into the growing darkness.
When the carriage rolled to a stop, Elwin found himself unable to move. The driver, a man named Javus, opened the door and offered Zarah his hand, then Jasmine. Javus only nodded to him as Elwin climbed out after them.
His legs stiffened as he took a few steps into the stone courtyard. The vast space seemed even larger by the emptiness. Two boys, both a handful of years younger than him, hurried to the horses and began to care for them. Deft hands worked at harnesses and bridles.
Then a thought occurred to him.
“Where did all the soldiers go?”
“Hmm?” Jasmine said. “Oh. They have gone to the barracks. It is near the docks district.”
“They don’t stay in the castle?”
“New recruits?” Zarah said laughing. “In the castle? Bhalindra’s vein would hemorrhage.”
“Bhalindra?” Elwin said scowling. It had been an honest question. Why wouldn’t soldiers stay in the castle? Every story he had ever read had soldiers in the castle.
“She is the mistress of maids,” Zarah said, still smiling. “She gets upset over the slightest mess. And you can always tell when she is angry because the vein in her temple bulges. And soldiers are messy with their marching in the mud and dirt and all.”
“Zarah,” Jasmine said. “That is quite enough. Escort Elwin to the lecture hall.”
“The lecture hall?” Zarah said. “But it is late. And we have been traveling for a tenday. I always get the evening off when we get back. I do not see why I need to be treated like a novice when Elwin is the one—”
“It is late,” Jasmine said in a terse voice, “so do not argue. I need to grab the tuning sextant to test Elwin. Now, off with you.”
Zarah’s lips pouted, but she didn’t argue further. “This way,” she said to Elwin as she stormed off.
Elwin had to run a few steps to catch her.
As they approached a side entrance to the castle, Elwin looked up. Light escaped from balconies and windows on almost every level as far as the eye could see. A guard opened the door for Zarah as she neared. She stopped to face the man.
“Hargin,” she said, raising her chin into the air, “even though he looks like a simple farmer, this is Elwin of house Escari. He is under the tutelage of my mother and is to be confined to the castle grounds until you are told otherwise.”
“Aye, milady.”
She walked past the guard without a backward glance. Elwin couldn’t say why his cheeks heated at Zarah’s words or why he avoided the guard’s cold stare. There was no shame in the way he looked. He was a farmer.
He had to hurry down the dim hallway to keep pace with Zarah, but he made it a point to remain several feet behind her. Maybe he should apologize? But it wasn’t as if he had meant to interrupt her earlier. She was talking around the point and putting him to sleep. And he hadn’t asked her to escort him to the lecture hall. Apologizing wouldn’t do any good if he had nothing to be sorry about.
All of the doors they passed were closed, and most of the sconces were cold, making it difficult to see the details of the paintings or tapestries lining the grey walls. Not that he had much time to take in any of the scenes.
Zarah raced around several corners and up several sets of stairs without ever turning to look in Elwin’s direction. He had a good mind to stop following her just to see if she noticed. But if he got lost, he would never find his way. And the other guards might wonder why a farmer roamed about the castle.
He would have to find a way to make things right between them. Once more, he considered apologizing and rejected it. Zarah had a smug way of making him feel as if a half-wit was smart by comparison to him. If he apologized, she might hold it against him.
Were all girls this … bah! He didn’t have the word.
Wilton seemed to know how to get on with girls. If he ever got a chance to mingle with the soldiers again, he would have to ask about Zarah. The way Wilton made his cousin, Dasmere, and the rest of the girls of the town giggle, surely he would know how to handle this situation. Not that he wanted Zarah to giggle. Well, maybe he did.
Elwin hadn’t known Zarah had stopped until he ran into her. His feet tangled in hers, and he bulled over her, sending them both to the ground. He landed roughly atop her and laid stunned.
“Get off, you … you!” She pushed him aside and scrambled away.
He staggered to his feet, offering her his hand. “I’m so sor—”
She batted his hand away and stood on her own. “Are you simple or just a clumsy oaf?”
“I …,” Elwin began. “You stopped, and I …”
“So it’s my fault you tackled me?” Her voice was incredulous.
“No,” he said quickly. “That’s not what I meant!”
“Hmmph.” She opened the door and stepped much wider than necessary and said, “After you. I insist.”
Holding one arm with the other, he walked into the room feeling the fool. From his periphery, he could see her glowering at him as he passed her.
The room was dark, so he took two steps into the room and stopped.
“Don’t break anything while I turn on the lantern.” Her voice dripped with venom.
She took an obvious effort to step wide of him, pressing flat against the wall to move around. She reached up toward a lantern by the door and clicked a lever. A light flared into being inside a glass case. Elwin felt heat much like he had with the firestarters outside.
“An ever-candle,” Elwin said.
“Yes,” she said smugly. “Do you not have one on your farm?”
“Zarah,” Jasmine’s voice said from the hallway.
Zarah jumped as if goosed and turned toward the door. They both turned to see Jasmine standing in the doorway.
“Your attitude is unbecoming, young lady,” Jasmine said. “Do you need a penance to remind you how to behave?”
“No,” she said in a voice that sounded only slightly petulant.
“Apologize to Elwin. Now.”
Elwin met her gaze and flinched. The heat in her eyes could have roasted him wher
e he stood and razed half the castle besides. Yet her voice sounded as sincere and heartfelt as any apology he had ever given.
“I am so sorry, Elwin. I am weary from travel and not accustomed to … I am sorry. Will you ever forgive me?”
“Of course,” he said. “I am sorry, too. I should have been watching where I was walking.”
She gave him a tight smile. “It is quite alright.”
“Very good,” Jasmine said. “Now both of you have a seat.”
Elwin turned around. The light from the single ever-candle filled the whole of the small room. Across from the door, Elwin could see moonlight enter from a small window near the ceiling. In front of him and to the right, four small tables with wooden chairs beneath them faced the western wall, where a slate tablet as long as the wall hung behind a larger desk. The back of the room had a large wooden contraption. The top had a round face with hands pointing to numbers. Beneath the face, a large pendulum made of gold swung back and forth.
“If you would please?” Zarah said in a tight voice. “I am trying to reach my seat.”
Elwin walked to the desk closest to the window, but stopped when Zarah cleared her throat. Her raised eyebrow and hands on hips told him that he had done something wrong. He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath.
Before he could ask what he’d done this time, she spoke in a tight voice. “That is my seat.”
“Zarah,” Jasmine cautioned.
She gave him a polite smile that did not touch her eyes. “But, you can sit there today.”
He pulled out the chair, plopped into the seat, and faced the front of the room. From the corner of his eye, he could see Zarah do much the same. Only, instead of plopping, her movements were graceful, and instead of leaning on the table, she placed her hands in her lap and sat straight-backed. Trying to appear nonchalant, Elwin sat up straighter.
Jasmine sighed and placed a metallic object on the front table. Rounded on the bottom, two long metal spokes protruded from the base.
“This is called a tuning sextant,” Jasmine said. “By placing the Elements onto the tines, we can determine which of them will tune to you.”
She grabbed the sextant and brought it over to place on the table in front of him. Up close, he could see symbols etched into the metal. He had seen a few of them written into the margins in some of the books he had read. But he never knew what they meant.
“What do these symbols mean?”
“Ah,” Jasmine said. “These are eloiglyphs, the language of elementalists. This is how we converse with one another. Eloi, in the ancient tongue means Elements and glyph means etchings. These glyphs provide instructions for recreating the sextant. In time, you will learn each of these. Alright. Now, we need to find your gifts. Try to relax.”
He looked at the apparatus again. The metal pieces protruding from the base came to fine points. Leaning back from the device, he said, “What am I supposed to do?”
“Nothing,” Jasmine said as she dug in a pouch at her belt. “You just need to be close to the device so that it is close to your essence.”
She pulled a flint and steel out, along with a wax candle. “Hold this candle Zarah.”
Zarah frowned, but complied without complaint. Jasmine struck the flint and steel until the wick caught. Taking the candle from Zarah, she held the candle up to the fine points of the sextant. She made a small motion with her wrist and the flame’s tip slid onto the ends of the two spokes. Tiny wisps of smoke rose from the wick and the smell of sulphur filled the air.
“Step away Zarah,” Jasmine said as she moved back herself.
Zarah rose from her desk, watching the flame with an intense stare. By her curious expression, Elwin guessed she hadn’t seen this either. But that didn’t make sense. Why had Jasmine not tested Zarah? Or, surely Jasmine had trained others.
She moved to stand next to Jasmine but didn’t take her eyes from the device.
“Zarah and I are not gifted with fire,” Jasmine said. “But, we do not want to confuse the sextant with attempting to tune with either of our essences.”
Elwin watched the small flame, wondering how it burned without any fuel source. Before he could voice the question, he felt the source. He could feel heat stir from around the sextant and move into the metal. In the same moment, the sextant began to rock on the table. At first, the motion was gentle, but after a few seconds, it rocked so violently it looked as if it would fall over.
Jasmine moved as if to grab the sextant, but as she did the flame vanished in a puff of smoke. Her hand froze a few inches from the device and blinked in disbelief. After a moment, it stopped rocking.
“That has never happened,” Jasmine said.
“What does it mean?” Zarah asked. She peaked over Jasmine’s shoulder at Elwin. Her eyes weighed him in the same fashion his father appraised a prize horse.
“It means Elwin will be very powerful with fire,” Jasmine said. Her gaze had a similar feel as Zarah’s. Elwin frowned.
“Step back,” Jasmine said to Zarah. The seriousness in her tone made Zarah jump, and she moved away from the table. The look Jasmine gave Elwin reminded him of the look Momme had given him after finding the stinkweed Feffer hid beneath the bar in the inn. His mouth became dry like it had then.
She pulled a flask from her pouch and opened it. Elwin licked his dry lips as Jasmine poured a single drop of water on the tip of the sextant and stepped back to stand next to Zarah. They both stared at him, unblinking.
He shifted in his seat, trying to make himself relax, but his lips felt as if he had not drank in days. He moved his tongue around in his mouth, trying to generate moisture without success. The drop of water in front of him seemed like all the water in the world. He could feel the curves of the droplet. As he focused on the drop of water, his mouth seemed to feel less dry.
Again, the sextant began to rock violently. After a moment, the water became like vapors and the sextant stilled.
“Three,” Zarah said. “Abaddon had said—”
Jasmine shot Zarah a look so tense, it silenced her. Elwin’s mouth began to feel dry again. What about Abaddon? He had been about to ask, but not wanting that gaze turned on him, he thought better of it.
Jasmine walked up to the desk and pulled a polished stone from her pouch. Her hand gave a slight tremor as she placed the stone atop the sextant. Her eyes touched Elwin’s for the briefest of moments, and the intensity in her gaze made him want to lean farther back in his chair. But he dared not move a muscle. Jasmine backed away from the desk without taking her eyes from the sextant.
Elwin could feel his heart beating. He wanted to look away from the stone, but he couldn’t take his gaze from the fine polish. It looked like any rock he could find on his farm but smoothed into a sphere. There was something more to the stone, like an ancient song. He felt more than heard reverberations in the piece of earth.
Once more, the sextant began to move back and forth. Slow at first, the stone swung back and forth with the rocking of the base, then it sped to the same intensity as both times before. The resonance of the stone increased to a whine in his mind. When it seemed the sound could go no higher, the rock crumbled to dust that rose into the air and vanished with tiny flashes as if falling into some invisible fire.
When the sextant became still once more, he looked up to Zarah and Jasmine. He had expected some sort of explanation. Despite the weariness he felt, he almost welcomed another lecture. Instead, both women looked at Elwin as if a viper had appeared in their midst.
The wideness of Zarah’s eyes could have been awe, fear, or complete surprise. The twisting of her mouth moved without words. Under her gaze, Elwin felt his face flush with heat to such a degree that sweat began to bead on his forehead. What had happened? He would tame all four Elements. What was the big deal?
Elwin glanced to Jasmine for support. Her face had paled, and she stared wi
th an unreadable expression. Jasmine said taming four was rare, but why was she looking at him like he had grown horns and threatened to devour her firstborn? What had he done?
He glanced back and forth between them, waiting on either of them to say something. Anything.
The silence stretched on until he broke it in a shaky voice. “What is wrong?”
Zarah jumped as if woken from a dream. “All four,” she said just above a whisper. “He is … all four.”
Jasmine stood up straighter, regaining some of her normal composure. But her words seemed distant, as if she did not believe her own words. “Some day you will tame all four Elements. As I have said, none have tamed all four Elements since before the Shadow Wars. I knew you were strong, but I had no idea …”
As her voice trailed off, Jasmine shook her head as if shaking off a spider. “None of this matters now. Right now we—”
“But Mother,” Zarah said indignantly. “The prophecies!”
“Prophecies?” Elwin said. “What is going on? Did I do something wrong?”
“No Elwin,” Jasmine said in a firm voice. “You have done nothing wrong.”
Zarah opened her mouth to protest, but Jasmine spoke over her with an ere of finality. “Zarah speaks out of turn. We do not need to concern ourselves with the prophecies.” The words were spoken with a touch of reverence. Her voice hardened as she continued. “At least not right now. All I know for certain is that you need to be trained. This will be our focus.”
“Born as one there will be two wielding the Elements true,” Zarah said in a poetic voice. “Who is the second?” If her confident voice didn’t suggest it, the gaze she gave Elwin spoke in no uncertain terms who she thought the first was.
“That is quite enough!” Jasmine said, raising her voice for the first time Elwin could recall. Then, a touch softer, she said, “To bed with you. Both of you.”
Zarah narrowed her eyes at Jasmine and made a petulant sound of protest as she stalked toward the door.
“Zarah, child,” Jasmine said.
Zarah stopped at the door and turned to look at her mother. She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and glared.
