"Why don't you just head on back up the hill," I suggested, feeling an inevitability that wasn't worth fighting. I kept my eyes on the access point to their village, while I waited for Hip's reply.
"I've been instructed to watch what you do," he said, from a short distance over my shoulder.
"Make sure we leave with whoever is coming, you mean," I corrected.
I could almost feel his shrug from here.
"Your welcome has run out," Hip added, his voice a little softer with those telling words. "I am sorry."
I couldn't really blame them. Whoever, or whatever, approached was doing so because I was here. The Aeras were particularly focused on protecting their people. I was as much a threat as the attacking army. They wouldn't fight along side us, but maybe...
"I don't suppose you'd offer a little cover in the form of a storm?" I asked, turning around to face all the men.
"What are you thinking, Cassandra?" Theo queried.
"We lead them away from Aeras," I replied levelly. Theo started shaking his head.
I took the steps necessary to reach him and lifted my hand to cup his jaw and cheek.
"I'd rather keep the Aeras as potential allies, than have their village decimated because I didn't act," I whispered.
"Casey," he said, leaning his face into my palm. "It's suicide."
"Not if Hip agrees to offer a distraction. If we can get past that narrow entrance into Machu Picchu, we can fight them further down the mountain. They may never have to enter the Aeras village, at all."
I turned to look at the man in question, his Guards behind him, scowls in place, eyes flashing threatening white.
"I can do that," Hip said slowly, receiving shocked looks from his men. "A little storm is hardly engaging, now is it?" he said to his Guards. After a lengthy pause they both shrugged their shoulders. "But you need run along now, if you're going to make it out of the access-way before they arrive."
I nodded. Then looked down at my abused dress and high heeled shoes. It was hardly an outfit for battle, let alone traipsing over the side of a mountain almost eight thousand feet up in the air.
"Take your shoes and coats off for the Aether," Hip instructed the closest Guard. My eyebrows rose at his command.
The Guard didn't grumble, just removed his outer clothing and slipped his oversized shoes off. His socks followed, as did the other Guard's, and finally Hip's.
"Put them all on, so the shoes fit," he explained.
I quickly did as instructed, and despite the added layers, found myself floating inside the boots. But it was a vast improvement on the heels, that was for sure. The coat swamped me, but I immediately felt warmed once it was on; it was specifically designed for high altitude and due to the size, came down to my knees, covering my bare thighs. I noticed Theo was donning the other Guard's jacket now, too. We were as prepared as we could be.
Once dressed we all stared at each other, white shining from all three Aeras men's eyes, gold glinting in Theo's, and a mixture of green and burnished yellow in mine. We must have made an interesting sight, standing up there on top of a tower, under the rapidly forming black clouds above.
"Go," Hip whispered, "And may Aetheros be with you."
"And with you," Theo said, an almost subconscious response to Hip's words.
At the top of the stairs back down, Hip stopped us with a shout.
"Aether!" We turned back to look at him, noting he was blazing white from his eyes, the clouds spinning over his head now. "When Aeras is Awakened within you, seek me out. I should like to be your ally."
I held his mesmerizing, yet very weird looking gaze, and nodded. Then led the way down the steps in a run, setting Theo and myself off at a pace we'd need in order to beat the approaching threat to the narrow path that led into Machu Picchu.
Running at this altitude soon took its toll, but Theo urged me on, and the notion of what could happen if we were trapped on the narrow path spurred me to keep going, despite lack of oxygen to my lungs. I soon became overheated in the puffy outer coat the Guard had given me, even though my bare legs felt frozen from the cold. Perspiration began to form on my naked skin, which would surely freeze solid out in the open.
I ignored all of those distractions and concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other, and not tripping over and breaking a leg. At some point the clouds opened up and rain began to pelt down, and we weren't excluded from the downpour. Fork lightning lit our path, spasmodically. Offering a strobe like effect to guide our way. Further ahead of us flashes of bright light lit up the night sky, showing the route we needed to take to avoid getting trapped.
Despite the Aeras Rigas' commands to not interfere, Hip was doing what he could to help us out. I wondered if we survived this, whether Hip would feature in our lives again. He wasn't a bad sort of person to have around, his upbeat personality could at least lighten the grave mood my role as Aether created.
Just how I was going to seek harmony for the world was still beyond me right now, though.
The path eventually opened up into a wider expanse of green grassed mountaintop, the peaks of various neighbouring mountains could be seen when each flash of lightning struck down. The valley that lay out before us would have been spectacular during the day, but right now it seemed an insurmountable hazard to cross.
Theo and I came to rest, gasping for much needed air, and took in the scene before us. Across the opened space, on the far side of the ridge we were on, with what I presumed was the Sacred Valley of the Incas behind them, stood a dozen people. From here it was difficult to make out who they were, but with each progressively closer lightning strike, I could just distinguish the colour and length of their hair.
Brown and long, with the odd reflected flash of green in their eyes.
"Gi," Theo said, almost spitting the word out.
"So, no Alchemists as yet," I offered, not sure if I was relieved my grandfather hadn't arrived to rescue me, or not.
"I have a debt to pay this woman," Theo ground out, his eyes blazing gold as he stared at the figure in the forefront of the line of warriors we faced off against.
The Basilissa herself had come to capture me. I couldn't believe she'd given up on the idea of me being the solution to their fertility issues, so it made sense she would be aiming to immobilise me. But probably shooting to kill Theo.
From everything I had learned over the past three months of imprisonment in Gi, and the handful of days in Pyrkagia leading up to it, I knew this would be a fight to the death. And the Basilissa would use anything in her arsenal to win.
We had a storm to distract, but not offer anything else in way of weaponry. We had two Pyrkagia wielding Athanatos, and what I could siphon of Gi. Hardly an army against a dozen powerful, well trained Guards and their Queen.
"We're in deep shit," I announced, and received a huff of expelled air from Theo.
"I don't suppose you feel an Awakening coming on any time soon?" he quipped back.
And wouldn't that be fun, right now?
I shook my head, but didn't voice an answer. Instead I asked, "What do we do? You're the Scout. What does your training suggest?"
Theo glanced at me, but didn't turn his body away from the threat.
"My training would suggest I run like fuck and get the hell out of here," he replied levelly.
"We're outnumbered," I agreed.
"Out gunned," he added.
"Trapped," I said.
"I wouldn't go that far," he shot back. I flicked my gaze towards him, eyebrow raised. "OK," he said, pointing off briefly to the mountain ridge over the Gi's right shoulders. His hand returned to his side before he went on, probably to minimise what the opposition saw of his plans. "We trap them."
I glanced back at where he'd pointed and took in the steep incline off to the side, covered in trees. In front of it was a cut in the mountainside, bracketed by another steep incline fifty feet in front of the group on the other side.
"We hit the right first," he ins
tructed. "Then when they move, time the left so they have to take refuge in the gap between the two sides."
"Then what?"
"Then we burn them. Like a camp fire, sheltered from the wind and rain, air funnelling down the narrow cut-out, fuelling the flames."
I grimaced at the image he described. My stomach not up to the carnage we could inflict, but my mind aware that we - or at least Theo - would suffer worse, if we didn't strike first.
Aim for the neck, Cassandra. Sever the head before they sever yours. Do you understand? Aktor's words of wisdom came back to me, reminding me of what type of evil I was up against.
"OK," I said, swallowing back bile. "But they'll come at us with everything, my control of the Earth will be short lived."
"Then, let's make it worthwhile," Theo whispered back, offering a squeeze of his fingers in mine.
I sucked in deep, soothing gulps of air, in an effort to centre myself and prepare for what lay ahead. The Basilissa hadn't attacked yet, I could only assume she was waiting to see what we did, and would tailor her trap around that. If she struck first, our reaction could compromise her prize. She used patience like a tool. It wasn't a peace offering.
I reached deep within myself and found my Gi side, asking for a thorny vine to sprout from the almost bare green covered soil around us. The Earth sighed out its welcome, a frisson of anticipated angst in its tone. It knew what was about to happen, and it couldn't stop it. The Basilissa alone would be too powerful, but with a dozen Guards she was unstoppable.
But I was no longer just a guest to Gi, I had a little edge in the form of Fire. I pulled on my Pyrkagia Stoicheio, feeling Theo's automatically rise and swell around my own, twining with it, like it had back in the hotel room in Manaus. It lifted the embers of Fire up on the air, making sparks dance in the darkened sky. No actual flames rose around us, but as though our Stoicheio were made to be entwined, I felt the surge of heated energy blossom inside me, coating me with a sense of power I'd not had access to before.
"Aetheros," Theo breathed out beside me, feeling the sensation of burgeoning potency between us. "You are remarkable, Oraia. Truly magnificent."
I'm not sure why he thought it was all because of me, I was just as much a passenger on this ride as he was. But I didn't bother to answer, just shielded my command to the Earth with the awesome combined strength of our Fire.
A root shot up from the soil, piercing my outstretched palm. It happened so quickly, the Gi didn't have time to react. Blood dripped freely from the cut in my flesh, landing in thick splats of dark coloured liquid into the grass at our feet. The Earth shouted out its ecstasy as the ground trembled and the mountains shook.
Shouts of alarm could be heard from the Gi, a siren went off over the hillside behind us at the Aeras village. The crashing thunder of crumbling bricks, and the screeching of shattering glass joined the tornado of wind howling above us. The clouds turned black, with streaks of bright white light across their surface. The rain stopped, as we all held our breaths, waiting for what my Stoicheio would do next.
An ominous sound started out in the distance, like a continuous roll of thunder. But it didn't originate in the heavens, as Hip's storm had. It was coming from deep within the Machu Picchu Mountain. It rolled towards us, as unequivocal as impending death. Louder and louder, as it gained momentum. Resonating in our chests and rumbling in our heads. Letting all who stood on this mountain peak know, we were no longer in charge.
"Holy freak," I muttered, taking an involuntary step back. Theo glanced at me, then retuned his attention to the oncoming freight train beneath the ground at his feet.
"You're doing that, right?" he asked, his voice drowned out almost completely by the horrifyingly loud roar.
"No!" I shouted. I may have started it, but the Earth was fully in charge now.
Theo swore, putting himself in front of my body protectively, as if that could stop what approached in a deafeningly frightful, but relentlessly unavoidable rumble.
The Gi blazed green from their eyes, trying - I guess - to counteract my command. Whether it was just to save themselves or this ancient site, I couldn't tell. Knowing the Basilissa, it was a completely selfish act.
Trees toppled, soil ruptured, the mountain shook from a giant's fisted punch. Theo and I toppled to our knees, unable to stay standing any longer.
And with dawning horror at what I had done finally reaching me, I watched, stunned immobile, as the higher peaks that framed this open mountaintop we all cowered on, came down around our ears.
Chapter 26
Holy Freaking Hell
Large mounds of sod and whip-like accurate bursts of soil attacked us. Boulders the size of small cars landed in ground quaking thumps no more than three metres away. Theo and I started half crawling, half running back towards the Aeras village, but the rolling effect of the earthquake had reached the narrow path into Machu Picchu and begun to block our way.
Probably a good thing, if we had taken that route, we would have surely ended up crushed under all that weight; rocks, stones, landslides full of uprooted trees and loose soil and rubble.
Even being on top of a ridge hadn't completely protected us. The mountain ranges on either side actually looked like they were swaying, like a high rise building fluctuating with the rhythmic swing of an earthquake. Any moment now I was sure they would collide with ours.
But they weren’t our immediate concern, there was enough on our mountaintop to be worried about. The slopes above the Gi had all crumbled in the quake, no perfectly timed attack, simply tumbling down on top of the Guards without warning. Theo and I weren't faring any better. Although more in the open than the Gi had been, the ground beneath our feet was now threatening to slide down the side of the mountain into the Valley of the Incas below. A long way below.
"Climb on top!" Theo shouted above the continuous roar of the Earth moving. "Get above it all, or you'll get crushed."
He reached out a hand to clasp mine, mud from the rain coating his fingers, making them slip free at the last second, as the soil beneath my feet gave way. I screamed, as the world turned upside down, my head connecting with a rock, blood pouring into my right eye immediately, and a blinding headache starting up to accompany it.
It happened so fast; one minute I was above ground, the next I was buried beneath the rubble. But I was unsure if the Basilissa had commanded my burial, or if my control of Gi was really that tenuous, that I was about to inadvertently kill myself. Dirt poured into my mouth and shot up my nose, making me cough and choke and scrabble for purchase. I couldn't hear Theo shouting anymore. I couldn't hear the wind howling, or the thunder booming overhead. Just a ringing noise in my ears that made everything seem surreal.
My legs felt crushed beneath the weight of the entire mountain, the bones in my left hand crunched against each other painfully, as pressure built from all sides. I couldn't breathe, but even if air was present, my chest was too restricted to move oxygen to my lungs now.
How pathetic. I wield Gi, I have Pyrkagia to back it up, strengthened with that of my Thisavros, and yet I was still at the mercy of the Earth.
You can stop, now, I said in a whimper inside my head. It hurts.
Breathe easy, Aether, the Earth responded calmly. Not long now.
Yeah, that was what I was afraid of: not long now until I died.
I'm not sure how much time passed, but I closed my eyes at some stage and stopped fighting. Cocooned in my prison of Earth. I idly wondered if this was what Nico had felt when I trapped him beneath the ground back in Auckland. But I was sure he'd been in a cell, not pulverised by the weight of a mountainside above him.
I lost a little time, coming in and out of consciousness; the part that makes me immortal kicking in when the part that makes me need air to breathe conked out. Finally, the ground stopped shaking, the soil stopped shifting, and silence - not ringing - took over instead.
We have done all we can, the Earth suddenly said, making my heart thunder in my veins. Be care
ful, it added, just as the soil above me shifted and the darkness of night seeped into my black hole.
I crawled out, my bones stiff, my skin scratched raw. Blood trickling down my temple and over my cheek. I blinked back white spots from my vision, my eyes taking a moment to focus and clear. The sky was no longer cloudy; stars twinkled overhead, as though nothing horrendous had happened below them, at all. But the mountaintop we'd been on had been transformed into a desolate wasteland of rubble and overturned earth. The path down the mountain completely obscured, any trees that had existed were gone.
So were the Gi, from what I could determine. The Earth, using my Stoicheio, boosted with Theo's Pyrkagia entwined with mine, had decimated the Basilissa's army.
A smile started to stretch across my face, cracking the dried mud there, as my head shook softly from side to side at the evidence of all that power, and the successful outcome it had caused. And OK, the Aeras would have to do some remodelling, and the humans would think the rain had undermined the soil and caused a landslide, nothing more. But the Gi were gone, and the Air Elementals of Machu Picchu were safe.
And so were we.
"Theo," I cried out, my voice scratchy and sounding too dry. I swallowed, trying to lubricate my throat, but ended up hacking up brown muck from my lungs. "Theo!" I tried again, receiving no answer.
For the first time, since I crawled out of my Earth prison, doubt filled my mind.
Where is he? I demanded, and the Earth sighed. Not a happy sigh, a resigned sigh. The type of sigh that changed the world.
I scrambled to my feet and turned in a circle, trying futilely to see a hand or a foot, or any sign of Theo. My head hurt, I think my ankle was sprained or broken, and I'd lost a fair amount of blood from various deep wounds.
I didn't feel any of it.
Panic took root inside my heart and mind, and I frantically started scouring the mountainside, digging my hands into mounds of dirt; searching, searching, searching.
The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) Page 26
