The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2)

by Claire, Nicola

  "Time to get going," I said aloud, about to ask the Earth to give me some guidance. I had no choice. Noah still held the compass, I was as good as lost in amongst the dense trees of the Amazon.

  But I didn't get a chance to voice that command in my mind, because the fire crackled and spat, hissed and popped and then a sound, like men talking, came out from its depths.

  I jumped back, startled and full of fear. Was someone nearby? Had the other Gi Guards appeared already. I swung around, trying to spot the origin of the voices, but already knowing the answer. I turned slowly back towards the fire, which still licked flames up into the air in a lazy burn.

  My heart beat painfully fast in my chest, my skin felt too tight over my bones. I clenched my fists, took a small tentative step towards the flames, and leaned in closer to hear what was being said.

  "Has there been any news out of Manaus?" voice one said and I collapsed to my knees in heart-aching pain.

  "Not yet, sir. But have some faith, we will hear something soon."

  Tears started trailing down my cheeks. This was cruel. The Fire was teasing me. What a wicked joke to play.

  "Stop," I whispered, and the first voice in the fire said, "Did you say something?"

  A whimper escaped my lips. Please, just stop!

  "No. It wasn't me. Is someone contacting you through the Fire?"

  "Hello?" voice one said, and my hand cupped over my mouth to hold the sob inside.

  My head shook from side to side, my eyes blurred with the copious amounts of tears that accumulated. My heart ached. Oh, good Lord how it ached. I gasped through my fingers, my free hand pressing into my chest to stem the agony that was unfurling deep inside.

  This wasn't happening. This couldn't be happening. I was hallucinating, which meant only one thing. Gi were near and were channelling Hederin.

  I struggled to my feet, the world spinning in a hazy array of different colours. And ran.

  I didn't even extinguish or smother the fire, just left it burning and prayed the Earth would work with Fire and put it out. I just ran, no idea where I was running to, only conscious of where I was running from.

  They were close. Too close. I had grown complacent with the after effects of Pyrkagia burning through my veins, my body, my soul. Drunk on Stoicheio and had made an almost fatal mistake.

  Minutes ticked by as my feet pounded the ground, the Earth somehow matching my rapid and frantic footfalls with a softening cushion beneath each one. My heart thundered, blood pounding through my temples, making a headache start up behind my eyes. I panted for breath, each exhalation a grunt, each inhalation a wheeze of forced air.

  But I still couldn't shake the thought that the Gi were just over my shoulder. I turned, while still running hell for leather through thick bush, to see if I could spot a Guard. And crashed through an oversized spider's web I'd failed to see and dodge. There was only so much the Earth could do for me, but if I didn't pay attention I was on my own.

  I danced around the narrow path I was on, flapping my hands at my head and hair, trying to dislodge the sticky web and certain I could feel the tickle of spider feet all over my body. I slapped at skin, scratched at my face and sobbed, feeling more and more unhinged by the minute.

  Breathe, the Earth urged. Let us ground you, it suggested. Inhale the soothing scent of Earth, Gi.

  I stopped struggling with imaginary creepy crawlies and took a shattering deep breath of air in through my nose. Sweet orchid blooms, rich succulent fruit, sharp pungent excrement of animals. A sob of relief replaced the cries of fear from earlier. I leaned my hand against the bark of a tree and allowed the Earth through my shaken frame, settling my heartbeat, comforting my soul.

  I'd covered a lot of distance. A glance at the sky let me know I'd been running longer than I had realised. Half an hour, maybe more. The sun had shifted lower, almost beneath the horizon of the tree tops. Night was approaching and I didn't have a safe harbour to rest.

  And rest I needed. Despite my recent refuelling of both Stoicheio I'd burned a lot of juice just now, not just physically, but mentally. Fleeing for my life and dodging rainforest hazards in a zigzagging line.

  When I could actually hear my own thoughts I checked with the Earth to see how safe I was. It wasn't necessarily a sure-fire way to find out. The Earth could be controlled by Gi in enough numbers to override me, and I wouldn't even know. But what choice did I have?

  Am I safe here? I asked, crossing my fingers for good luck.

  This way, the Earth replied, parting branches and opening up a hidden path from the more obvious one I'd just run on.

  I let out a slow breath of air and having no other option but to trust my Stoicheio, took off at a gentle trot down the track Earth showed me. Twenty minutes later I came to a clearing in amongst some beautiful Banyan Trees.

  Here, the Earth said. This will be hard for them to find.

  I stared around the enclosure and wondered how true that statement actually was.

  Use your Pyrkagia, the Earth suggested. Together we are stronger.

  I hoped that meant strong enough to combat a horde of Gi.

  I gathered firewood and dried leaves for a fire, then set about collecting berries and nuts for my dinner. I didn't have it in me to search out a stream and attempt to capture fish. And although, should I have requested, the Earth would have provided further nourishment in the form of some other edible animal for me to cook, I thought I'd asked enough of it for one day. Berries and nuts would have to do.

  I set the wood in an appropriate fashion for a fire and stared at it for a long minute. This was it. The moment I actively accepted I was part Pyrkagia as well as part Gi. It took an awful lot more courage than I had expected. So much had happened today. Hell, so much had freaking happened in the past few months, I was on information and transformation overload.

  But I needed warmth, about as much as I needed Pyrkagia to help the Earth keep the Gi away. I couldn't afford to be hesitant, to be unsure of what I could achieve. I may question what I was becoming, but I didn't have the luxury to question what I could do.

  My life had altered beyond recognition, with me along with it. I just had to do what I needed to do to stay alive.

  I stretched my hand out over the wood pile and watched as it shook with tiny tremors. Nothing happened, just an increase in trembling, now rising up my entire arm. I sucked in a deep breath, rolled my shoulders and muttered, "Here goes nothing," under my breath.

  Burn, I instructed the Fire and a spark flared from the tip of my fingers and lazily drifted down into the twigs and dried leaves at its base. Within a second the fire roared to life, so much more impressive than had I attempted to light it with a Zippo.

  A laugh escaped my lips, a smile spreading them wide. "Way cool," I murmured into the flames.

  Heat washed up my face, Pyrkagia congratulating me on my first command.

  "Thanks," I whispered, settling in to stare hypnotised into the flickering yellow-red glow.

  A hiss. A crackle. A change in pitch, and then...

  "Casey? Oraia, is that you?"

  Oh dear God, not again.

  Chapter 7

  And The Hits Just Kept Coming, Didn't They?

  "Don't run!" Theo's voice sounded out from the flames of the fire I had just lit.

  "This isn't real," I whispered, backing away from the warmth of the glow and staring blindly into the darkened forest that surrounded my makeshift camp. "Where are you!" I shouted, my fists clenched, my breathing ragged.

  I couldn't run again. I didn't have it in me. I'd have to stay and fight. But the thought of what had happened last time, sent my stomach rolling and my head spinning. I was too tired for this. Too beaten down. Too damn alone to go on much longer.

  "I don't know how you're doing it," Theo in the fire said evenly, "but you're communicating though Pyrkagia flames."

  "No," I shook my head from side to side, staring accusingly at the fire as though it was its fault for tricking me in such a harsh fas
hion. "It's Hederin," I explained, to myself, to whoever was channelling the essence and making me believe this cruel joke was real. "I know what you're doing!" I shouted. "It won't work. He's dead."

  "Casey?" Theo sounded distressed. My heart broke again for the millionth time.

  "I can't do this anymore," I whimpered, a sob following up that wretched acknowledgement.

  "Oraia," he murmured. "Please tell me you are safe."

  I glanced around the clearing. Still no Gi Guards. Why were they waiting? Why weren't they chuckling in dark humour, enjoying the mortification and angst on my face? Cowards!

  My eyes automatically came back to the flames of the fire, which licked higher and higher into the air, as though responding to my stress level.

  Are they here? I asked the Fire.

  You are alone, it replied. We shield you. You are safe from physical harm.

  I sank back on my butt astounded. So much to take from those simple words. The Gi Guards weren't here. Weren't close enough to use Hederin. Fire and Earth protected my clearing from detection. All good news, all welcomed.

  But I couldn't help notice the choice of words Fire had used. You are safe from physical harm. Mental? Emotional? I was on my own, there was nothing my Stoicheio could do about those.

  A breath of air escaped me as dawning comprehension entered my frame. I started to shake. A full body tremor. Uncertainty and excitement duelling inside my stomach, making for an acidic cocktail in my gut. I rubbed it absently, as I continued to stare almost blindly into the flames.

  Theo. Was it possible the Hederin, Davos had used to make me see Theo's death, was an actual illusion, not just an hallucinated vision of what had transpired?

  "Theo, is this real?" I asked the flames and heard his distinctive rumble of laughter.

  "Sweet little Gi, this is real. I don't know how you've done it, but I'm standing in front of my fire in the parlour of my home, carrying out a Pyrkagia communication with you."

  "I watched you die," I said, my voice beyond shaky.

  "Cassandra. I am a Prince of Pyrkagia, it takes more than a spindly vine to sever my head."

  Ah, there was the Theo I had come to love with all my heart. Arrogant, princely, superior.

  I started to cry. Full body sobs that racked my frame, wrenching achingly poignant sounds from deep inside, pouring copious tears down my cheeks, and threatening to consume me.

  "Oraia, please. I'm fine. I'm healthy. I'm safe." A pause, his voice stronger, harder. "Are you safe?"

  I couldn't answer him at first. Too far gone in my convulsive sobbing to stop it now. Theo waited. The flames continued to crackle and hiss. Heat from Fire wrapped around me, the soothing scent of Earth centred me, but it took several long seconds for me to finally gain some semblance of control.

  "Theo," I murmured, my voice cracking on his name, my throat so raw, my heart not much better. "I'm in trouble, Theo," I added, my words barely audible above the sound of the wood burning.

  The fire flared brighter for a second and then Theo's voice urgently demanded, "What sort of trouble?"

  Oh, freaking hell. Where to begin?

  I still couldn't quite comprehend that this was real, that Theo was talking to me through the flames of a fire. But what had I just been thinking? Don't ask why, just trust what I can do. And I could command both Gi and Pyrkagia Stoicheio. Therefore I could potentially communicate through the flames of Fire like I'd seen Theo do back in Auckland city.

  I still had no idea how this had happened, but similar to the unanswerable question of why, I just had to push past the confusion and doubt and do. It had to be related to Noah calling me an Aether, but for some reason I felt it necessary to abbreviate my story for Theo right now. Fire was new to me. I'd been let down by the Earth, could I fully trust the ability of Fire to keep this conversation secret?

  I couldn't chance it. Not yet.

  But there was some of what had happened I felt safe in divulging. And this was Theo, my Theo, I needed him like I needed air to breathe. Distance would never halt that desire. He'd said the same thing back in Auckland to me. "You are my Thisavros... Nothing can change that. Not the rules. Not the fact that you are Gi and I am Pyrkagia. Not even distance."

  And he was my Thisavros too.

  The rules had changed, the world Theo and I thought we'd lived in had altered. Gi were after me. Alchemists were after me. Pyrkagia was not the safe harbour it had once been. But Theo was mine. And somehow we'd been given a second chance. When I'd thought him dead for three months, mourned him for three months, and then had him returned to me through the flames of a camp fire in the middle of the Amazon rainforest.

  My heart hadn't stopped racing, but now it swelled with joy instead of being cut to shreds with pain.

  "I'm in the middle of the Amazon, trying to make it to Manaus on foot," I started, somehow feeling his anxiety through the lick of heat from the flames. "The Gi thought me an imposter." He swore in Greek. "I've been their prisoner for the past three months."

  Holy freak fire show. The flames roared up to the treetops, crackled and hissed with Theo's outrage.

  "What did they do?" he demanded.

  I didn't reply. The absence of my answer was answer enough. I heard Theo's shout of unmitigated anger. I felt the heat of his rage. Over all of it another voice sounded through the flames.

  "Miss Eden, keep the fire burning. He just needs a minute and he'll be back."

  Aktor. Theo's sweet old butler, there to help calm his irate master and soothe my frayed nerves.

  I nodded, aware he couldn't see me, but unable to voice my compliance aloud. I dug my fingers into the soil at my sides and let the Earth wash through me. And waited.

  The flames continued to fluctuate with whatever was happening on Theo's side of the world. They flickered differing colours of red, yellow, orange, scarlet and gold. Truly beautiful in their splendour, despite the reason for their unusual colour combination.

  Minutes ticked by, longer than Aktor had suggested. But I had nowhere else to be. No one else to turn to. So I waited, eventually standing up and stretching my muscles, and pacing around the edge of the fire.

  The flames had settled at some point and I was aware it was just an ordinary fire burning through wood. I gathered some more dry kindling and added that to the flames, ensuring the fire would burn for as long as Theo and Aktor needed it. Fully prepared to forgo sleep in order to keep this tenuous link to Theo alive.

  My stomach growled out of hunger, even world altering, life changing events, couldn't keep the need to find sustenance at bay. I nibbled on nuts, sucked the sweet juice from berries and continued my march around the camp fire.

  Exhaustion came half an hour after Theo had flipped out. I settled in a ball on my side, letting the Earth cup me and Fire keep me warm, and waited with half closed eyes. My wait eventually paid off, the flames flared briefly, the crackle of wood burning changed pitch, and I sat myself back up rubbing my blurry eyes.

  "Cassandra," Theo said out of the flames. "Oraia, are you still there?"

  "Yes," I breathed, a sense of incomparable relief washing through me.

  "I'll be in Manaus in just over one day."

  Simple words. A short sentence. And my world suddenly shone so much brighter.

  I wiped at stray tears and forced myself to reply.

  "I should be there by then," I said to the flames.

  "I'm sorry I have no way of offering you more support. Are the Gi tracking you?" he asked.

  "They've caught up once already." My stomach flipped at the memories of that encounter. "The doctor who helped me escape was captured, I think. So far, I've kept hidden from them." I offered a small smile he wouldn't have seen, but hopefully heard in my voice. "I'll avoid them. I have my talents."

  "Oh, sweet Gi, don't I know it," he purred, making heat lick up my cheeks at his sensual tone. Silence as we both reminisced. Then, he added, "Are you injured, Casey. Has your Stoicheio replenished?"

  I couldn't risk
talking about the Alchemists calling me an Aether. And although anyone listening in would know I'd tapped into Pyrkagia Stoicheio to talk to Theo right now, confirming I'd had an Awakening experience, similar to my Gi Awakening in that pit of dirt, was a chance I couldn't take. For now, all communications via this method needed to be vetted, carefully phrased, not to give any enemies material to use against me.

  Theo wasn't an enemy. Never was, although at times we'd been set on that course unwillingly. But full disclosure of what had happened would have to wait until I met him in Manaus. Keeping my lips sealed was one of the hardest things I'd done to date. The desire to shed the load, to share the burden with my Thisavros, was intense in its pull, in its temptation.

  But I was not safe, and the more I dragged Theo into this, the more unsafe he would become too.

  "I'm recovering from injuries," I finally admitted truthfully. "My Stoicheio is making a difference every day I am back in touch with it."

  "They cut you off from Gi?" he asked incredulously. He shouldn't have been surprised. He'd once threatened to do the very same, when he first found out I was Gi. Athanatos are very paranoid creatures. He worked through that urge, once he'd realised I wasn't an imposter or agent of the Gi sent to Pyrkagia to spy.

  I chose not to remind him, instead I said softly, "I'm free now, Theo. Let's just concentrate on the next few hours until I can be in your arms again."

  A sound so pained came through the flames, as though he had been suffering this entire time along with me. It made a corresponding burst of pent up agony slip from my lips. The Gi, and in particular the Basilissa, had done a lot of damage. But I refused to let them win.

  We would get past this.

  "Very well, Cassandra," Theo said finally. "Stay safe and get some rest. This time tomorrow light a fire and Aktor will communicate with you. I'll undoubtedly be landing not long after. But in case I'm held up, Aktor will be there to talk to you in my stead."

  "OK," I murmured in reply, not wanting to end our fire talk, wanting to stay up all night and listen to his voice, hear him speak, feel closer to him than I had done for months. I wanted to know what he'd been up to. How he'd managed to recover from the Gi attack. How the Gi had escaped retaliation from the Pyrkagia. There were so many questions to ask, which he could have answered easily through the flames of this fire. But there was one question that kept springing to the forefront of my mind, wiping out all the rest.