by David Ekrut
In front of the inn on the road, there were two of the White Hand, lying still, near charred horses and a damaged wagon. On the other side, in the middle of the road Lord Zaak Lifesong raised his sword in the stance of earth. Of all the forms, earth provided the strongest defense against so many opponents. Four dark savants approached him.
Feffer tried to run faster, but his legs still ached from days of climbing and running from giants. The inn was still too far away.
Two of the enemy facing Zaak held swords of crackling light. One of the dark savants jabbed with the sword, while the other jumped back with a spear of light appearing in his hand. He threw it at Zaak, and the large man dodged with a quick side-step. Zaak’s sword became a beacon of yellow light as it blurred through his hands, deflecting bolts of lightning and sword thrusts. The other two dark savants circled around to Zaak’s rear.
Dust rose around one savant and earth-toned blades thrust through the cobblestone road toward Zaak. He rolled to the side avoiding the blades, but a spear of light struck his armor and knocked him from his feet. He rolled with the blow and bounced back into earth form before Feffer could open his mouth to cry out.
A blue glow emerged around the fourth savant, and mist began to accumulate around Zaak’s legs. Steam rose from his legs as the mist turned the color of ice. Zaak jumped backwards and struck at the blocks. The ice shattered into steam at the touch of Zaak’s glowing sword, but his lowered blade gave his opponents an opening. Zaak flung himself to his back to avoid the crackling blade, then flipped backward to his feet.
Beyond the wagons, Feffer could hear more sounds of battle. A large axe rose above the wagons in tune with a deep-throated yell. A short, thick man rolled into view, swinging his axe at the head of a dark savant without even attempting to dodge a spear of lightning. A bolt hit him in the chest and sizzled, as fire would on water. The axe sunk into the neck of the black robe with a loud crunch. Then the short man charged other figures behind the wagon, leaving Zaak alone with the four.
Two of the savants had their backs to Feffer, and the other two were fixed on Zaak. By the Lifebringer, they didn’t see him. Feffer charged the one surrounded in mist, but as he got closer, the figure turned to face him. A blue sword materialized to deflect Feffer’s downward strike.
Steam rose off the other blade like ice melting in the sun, but it looked sharp. Feffer moved into water form and pushed his attack. Though he knew them all, this was the form he had practiced the most. The icy blade deflected each of his attacks but never countered. He pressed his opponent away from Zaak.
After a moment, his feet began to grow cold. He glanced down to see mist forming around his boots. He tried to jump backward, but the mist followed him. His feet became heavy, but he still moved through the forms. The icy sword came faster forcing him to retreat.
A downward strike from his opponent gave Feffer a glimpse into the hood, and he almost dropped his sword. The pretty face of a young girl had fixed into a sneer of determination. He continued to retreat, just deflecting her blade.
A girl? She was just a girl.
Her gaze wandered past Feffer for a second, and her advance stopped. A moment later, brown fur streaked by him. Her sword moved to intercept the rushing bear, and Fefffer blocked it. Taego never slowed. He leapt onto her and sunk his teeth into her throat.
As Taego took her to the ground and ripped at her neck, the hood fell away to reveal the girl’s face. She had fair skin and a few freckles beneath her blue eyes. Her empty stare looked up at him. Feffer backed away from her, almost losing the grip on his hilt.
“She’s my age.” He shook his head. “Younger.”
Daki ran past and struck at one of the two remaining on Zaak.
On the other side of the battle, Feffer could see another dark mound at Zaak’s feet. The cowl had fallen away from the savant’s face. A young boy looked up without blinking. His lifeblood leaked from the neat slice running across his upper torso.
The sword tumbled from his hand. He didn’t want to watch, but he couldn’t look away.
“Wait,” he said to others. “Children. They are just children.”
If Zaak or Daki heard Feffer’s pleas, neither spared him a glance. They struck at their opponents, who retreated into defensive forms. Taego began to circle around and squatted as if getting ready for another charge.
The savant in the rear still threw spears of lightning, but they were angled to make Zaak and Daki dodge rather than direct throws of one pressing an attack. Each spear struck the ground with a flash of thunder, forcing Zaak or Daki to jump backward.
The savant in front held a blade of crackling light but used it to deflect blows from Daki or Zaak, while trying to gain ground between them. As the savant jumped back, Feffer winced as Zaak’s blade missed her head by a hair.
The cowl fell away to reveal a tanned face framed in short black hair. She couldn’t have been a year older than him. Her eyes darted back and forth between Zaak and Daki as she fought off their blows. Now that he was looking, the black robe curved around feminine curves.
He took a step toward her but stopped. There was nothing he could do. She was a dark savant. Why did he even care? He needed to grab his sword and help his companions. His Lord. But he couldn’t make himself move. All he could do was watch.
“Now,” she called out.
The other savant threw two spears at once, and at the same time, the girl threw her sword at Zaak’s face. The blade dissolved before it reached him, but Zaak and Daki both jumped back from the attack.
Both savants sprung backward and flew into the air. As they moved higher, each formed a spear of lightning. Both bolts flew toward Zaak. He dodged one and swung his sword at the other. The light soaked into the blade. Without pausing Zaak aimed the tip of the sword at the girl, and the bolt exploded from the blade and flew back toward the girl.
Feffer held his breath as she dodged. The bolt missed, but it came close enough to singe the bottom of her robe. He only let his breath out when the bolt vanished in the distance.
The girl’s eyes brushed his for a moment, then light shimmered around the two floating figures, and they vanished.
Zaak held his sword high and watched everywhere at once. Daki mirrored the stance. No enemies were in sight, but the sounds of clacking steel echoed in the side street beyond the inn.
Feffer’s eyes settled on the girl at his feet. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from her ruined throat. Her wide stare seemed to accuse him. His stomach became ill, and he fought not to wretch.
What had they done? What had he done?
Feffer began to step backwards. It all felt wrong. It was wrong to kill children. It was wrong to send children to fight.
Who could do this?
The memory of Bentonville came to his mind, and he reached to feel the toy soldier in his belt pouch. Feffer clenched his jaw and looked around for the shadowy figure. Zeth was responsible for this. Zeth had caused these children to die. He looked once more into the dead girl’s eyes and reached for his sword on the road.
Two hands emerged from the cobblestone and grabbed at his ankles. He tried to jump away from them, but the hands latched on before he could take a step. And he tripped.
“Feffer!” Daki ran toward him.
As he reached for Daki’s hand, something wrapped around his middle and pulled him into the ground. Darkness filled his vision as rock and dirt pummeled his face. He took deep breaths that tasted like dirt and metal.
Feffer could remember a time when he was younger. He was outside playing with Wilton. They were throwing rocks at a target painted on a tree behind his Da’s shop. Feffer got really excited and walked in front of Wilton’s throw. The rock had bounced off the side of his head, and he had awakened several hours later.
He could never forget the concern in his Da’s eyes as he held Feffer’s face. The image was the last he saw as
something smashed into his nose.
Pain filled his thoughts, and then there was nothing.
Chapter 31
Defeat
Zarah eased Elwin onto a flat boulder overlooking Goldspire. His green tunic had been stained beyond repair, and he smelled as if he hadn’t bathed in months.
She placed a hand on his chest and tamed the power of Life to feel for Elwin’s life force. His heartbeat was strong. A sigh of relief escaped her lips, and she delved further to find his ailments. It only took her moments to realize Elwin’s pain was not physical. His essence had been depleted. She had never met another elementalist with so much power. How had he moved so fast? It just was not possible.
She felt a shiver go up her spine. Was this fulfillment of the first prophecy? Was this lost knowledge made new?
He had tamed all four Elements. Mother would be angry when she learned of it. Burning his essence like he had, the fool bumpkin. He could have culled his essence or worse. He could have untethered his essence and died.
There would be time for chastisement later, now she needed him to be conscious.
She opened her mind’s eye to look for his essence and gasped when she found it. It floated limply behind him, and his eyes were closed. An elementalist never had her eyes closed, unless she completely burned through her essence. Biting a curse, Zarah moved her essence to join his and placed all of her focus on their joining.
Zarah had only practiced this talent a dozen times, but lending was so similar to linking, she had no trouble with the taming. She took a deep breath and began feeding some of her essence into his. Just enough for him to become conscious.
Zarah felt her essence become smaller by the moment. After flying all day and her short-lived fight, she felt the effects of her shrinking essence rather quickly.
She began to fear she would not have enough to wake him when the eyes of his essence fluttered open. He regarded her with a confused expression.
“Where are we?”
It was more difficult to talk through her essence when her consciousness resided in her body. She knew her speech sounded slow, but she forced the words out.“You need to wake.”
His essence merged with his body. A moment later, his crystalline eyes looked up at her. His cheeks were tanner than when last she had seen him, but he was still as handsome as she remembered. For a country bumpkin.
He lifted his head as if to rise, but laid his head back down. “What happened to me?”
“Do not try to tame the Elements,” she instructed. “You must spend a good amount of time in the shadow realm before you can do much. Your essence is drained. What you did was more than foolish. All four Elements? Where you trying to cull yourself? ”
“We need to get back,” he said.
“No!” She placed a hand on his shoulder when he tried to get up. It didn’t take much effort to hold him down.
“Feffer and Daki are down there!”
“There is nothing we can do for them,” she said, “and I have my orders. You and I are clear of the fight. We need to wait here. If the city is lost, we will need to report to the king.”
She tried not think about what would have to happen to her parents for the town to be lost.
Elwin laid on his back, breathing hard for several moments with his eyes closed. Finally, he spoke.
“I wasn’t in the shadow realm just then. This isn’t the first time. When I fell unconscious in the woods, it was like that too.”
She had been preparing further chastisement to give him, but discarded it when he didn’t press going back to Goldspire. Still, her tone held the reprimand he deserved.
“You were in the shadow realm,” Zarah said. “Your essence was so depleted that your consciousness could not manifest. Because you acted like a foolish, country bumpkin.” In case he missed her tone, she had decided to add the chastisement after all.
His eyes narrowed. “If I recall, I saved your life. Fasuri would have killed you had I done nothing.”
“I had him handled,” Zarah said. “What you did was dangerous. Did you not listen to Mother’s lessons on culling?”
“Um.” His forehead scrunched like it did when he was deep in thought. She rolled her eyes at him. His tone suggested he was guessing. “It has something to do with hurting my essence?”
Zarah used the best imitation of her mother’s lecture tone that she could muster. “This is why you should not daydream during lecture. Part of our training is learning our limits. The limits will change as we grow in our power, but we will always have limits. If you push those limits too fast or too hard you can cull your ability completely. In bumpkin, that means you will never be able to tame the Elements again. Ever. That is if you don’t just die.”
He winced, and his face took on the proper amount of chagrin. A moment later he lost it by giving her a boyish grin. “Well, at least I have finally learned the lightning hurl. Well … kinda.”
“That was not the lightning hurl. I am not sure what that was, but it felt like you tamed Fire and Air together. It came from your hand. The lightning hurl is more like tossing a rod. Mother will be livid when she finds you have been experimenting.”
He forced himself into a sitting position. “I didn’t experiment. I just …knew how to do it and threw everything I had at him. If I hadn’t burned all the Earth or thought to use Water, I’d have tamed that too. What? Don’t look at me like that.”
Zarah felt her scowl slip for a moment, but forced her eyes to narrow and stared him without blinking.
“Look,” he said. “I’m sorry. I only wanted to help.”
“I do not want your excuses. You can tell them to Mother.”
“But I—”
“No buts. We follow her rules for a reason. And I …,” The smell of burning wood filled the air. It was faint at first but was increasing in intensity. “Do you smell that?”
“Smoke,” Elwin pointed.
In the city, two buildings had caught on fire.
“We have to get back down there,” he said.
“Have you been listening to me?”
“This isn’t the time for a lecture,” he said with irritation in his voice. “We need to get down there.”
Zarah sniffed. She disagreed. Elwin did need a lecture. Maybe two. But, that could wait. He needed to learn what it meant to follow orders.
“We wait here.”
He stood on shaky legs and looked down. Zarah followed his gaze down the mountainside. After a short drop, the land sloped toward the city.
“You can stay here if you want, but I’m going.”
She stepped up to him. It irritated her that she had to look up to meet his gaze.
“No. You. Are. Not.”
“I can feel that my essence is too weak to fly, but my legs will still support me. I am climbing off this ridge with or without your help.”
She crossed her arms beneath her breasts and flinched when his gaze dropped to her chest. She almost slapped him. How dare he? He actually had audacity to glance at her … her bosom.
He met her gaze and said, “Fine. Without it is.”
Turning from the ledge, he began to look for a path into the city. In the distance, smoke continued to rise. The fire was somewhere behind the inn, and she could no longer see any signs of battle. She could feel that the tamings had stopped and no clangs of steel rung in the air.
“Wait,” she said. “I will take you. But I will speak with Mother about your insubordination.”
He turned back to face her and stretched his arms out in exasperation. “Fine. Whatever. Tell her. Just get me down there.”
She sniffed and decided to give him one more lecture.
“When our powers grow, we will be able to lift others with Air. Mother has begun my training on lifting objects. It is always better to practice with chairs and tables, rather t
han people. Though, when flying with people, we call it carrying. In the meantime, I will pick you up like a useless log and tote you.”
Elwin gave her a flat stare but said nothing.
She let a few moments pass for him to brood. After his eyes narrowed to a satisfactory low, she said in a chipper voice, “Are you ready?”
He gave her a terse nod and stepped closer.
For some reason, her heartbeat became faster when she embraced him. Her nose and lips touched his shoulder. It was probably the smell that caused her stomach to flutter. She had grown used to the smell, but now it filled her nostrils again. As his body pressed to hers, she feared he would feel her increased heartbeat and get the wrong idea. She almost took a step back to slap him. He had no right to gape at her bosom like he had.
Instead, she focused on the task at hand and opened her essence to Air. As it filled her, she tamed flight. Elwin tightened his grip on her as they ascended, but his body still slid down hers. She felt her cheeks flush as his chin settled on her shoulder, and she squeezed him tighter. To keep him from falling, of course.
She flew low to avoid breathing in the smoke and to hide amongst the buildings.
“I can’t hear anyone still fighting,” he said in her ear.
She couldn’t either. More importantly, she still could not feel anyone taming the Elements.
As she neared the inn, she could see her father and the others in front of the burning buildings two streets to the north. Had this been Justice, such a fire would have been difficult to control. The distance between the homes had saved Goldspire from complete destruction.
On the road by Tharu, there was another young Chai Tu Naruo and a bear. A bear! She had never seen a bear up close. Even sitting on his haunches, he was larger than her books described.
She had read that many of the Chai Tu Naruo walked with animal companions, but she could not get Tharu to explain the unnatural bond. When Zarah was young, Tharu had walked with a large black cat. One day, the animal was not with him. He would not speak of it.
