Oh, God. Please. Please. I'll do anything, just make him be alive. Please!
Minutes ticked by and the Earth remained silent. I called out Theo's name until my throat was hoarse. Tears turned the dirt on my cheeks to rivulets of mud. The skin on my fingertips were scraped raw, I'd lost my nails aeons ago.
It was useless, he'd simply vanished, but I refused to believe he was dead until I saw his severed head. I would dig and dig and dig until I found him. He had to be somewhere on this mountaintop, buried beneath all the rubble. He had to be.
He just had to be.
I caught sight of clothing, my heart leaping into my throat, threatening to cut off all air. I fell to my knees and dug like a maniac, soil and stones flying in all directions, as I pleaded with God for it to be Theo.
It wasn't. It was a Gi Guard. Headless.
I moved on, another pile of rocks and dirt and tree roots. Another ten minutes of futile excavation, nothing to show for the blood that coated my hands.
A sob escaped my lips, as I spun frantically around in a circle. My eyes landing on a dark piece of material. Even before I stumbled across the space that separated me from it, I already knew it wasn't a piece of Theo's suit jacket or borrowed coat. But still I dug the Gi Guard out. A morbid sense of the inevitable spurring me on to determine he was headless.
Tears had caked my cheeks in mud like plaster, making it impossible to frown or open my mouth fully and gasp for air. Like my heart, my face was caught in a vice-like grip, fear and dread and utter loss making it immobile.
But still I kept searching, digging, ripping the flesh off my fingertips in an empty effort to retrieve Theo.
A hand reaching toward the sky from behind broken tree limbs caught my eye.
Gi Guard. Headless.
A tuft of hair poking out between broken pieces of a boulder.
Gi Guard. Bodiless.
An exposed bone protruding through raw, ripped flesh, dirt and mud mixing with blood around it.
Gi Guard. Headless.
A shoe poked out from behind a pile of rubble. I banged my knee into a hard rock when I collapsed beside the foot. Combat boots, not dress shoes as Theo had worn. But something still made me uncover the body... just to be sure.
Gi Guard. Headless. Again.
I sat back on my knees staring at what was becoming a familiar sight.
Did you decapitate all the Guards? I asked the Earth, pulling on what little Fire I had access to, now that Theo was gone. Reinforcing my question, turning it into a command.
Yes, it whispered, a sense of wicked joy coating that one word. The Earth was pleased with itself, for eliminating the Basilissa's Guard. Protecting me.
I blinked, stunned. Evidence of the power and accuracy of the Earth making me momentarily motionless. I'd recognised how much could be accomplished with the power of the Earth, but until you saw it, you didn't really comprehend.
Where is he? I demanded, again. I'd keep asking until the Earth answered.
Behind you, it whispered back, and this time there was no twisted mirth, or self-satisfied pride. It sounded hollow, a little like how I felt.
I spun around, hoping, praying to see Theo standing there. Knowing, from the tone of the Earth, that it wasn't to be.
But I didn't expect what was.
The Basilissa stood there, barely a mark on her. A smear of dirt across one cheek, her hair tangled, but dress still flowing wrinkle free in the night breeze.
And her taloned hand - like that of a bird of prey - wrapped around Theo's throat.
Green blazed from her eyes. Theo's lids were closed, so I couldn't see any colour change there, and from the way he hung limply, I was guessing gold would not be present.
We'll see about that.
I pulled on Pyrkagia, using my rage at this woman as fuel. I told it, that its Prince was in danger. To fight for him. To rise up in flames and take back what is ours.
Gold coated the mountainside and blinded the night sky, making everything on the ridge resemble an Inca treasure trove of precious artwork. The Basilissa hissed, a sound reminiscent of a snake, making me think - what with her talons as well - that she used animals as fuel for her Stoicheio as much as, if not more than, plants.
I hoped with her Guards dead, she was feeling a little empty in the tank right now.
We stared at each other. Not exactly a stand-off, as she held all the cards. Or at least my Thisavros. I had nothing up my sleeve. But I did wonder how she'd captured him in all that chaos. How out of every square inch of this ridgeline that had been destroyed, she had just so happened to stumble upon Theo. The Earth shook softly beneath my feet on those thoughts, a sense of discomfort invading my soul. I think it was the Earth's, not mine. Although I was feeling pretty uncomfortable right now.
But the sensation, the Earth created in me, led to only one conclusion.
You gave her Theo, I said, my mind voice sounding empty. Abandoned again, when would I learn?
A fair trade, the Earth replied. Him for her Guards. It thought it had done the right thing. I pushed the disappointment aside.
"So, what now?" I said aloud, letting my words float across the space to the Basilissa.
"Now, we negotiate," she said, almost pleasantly. "Him for you."
I didn't have to think about it, there wasn't a need to weigh the odds. For Theo's life I would sacrifice anything. But I also knew, you couldn't trust a Gi.
"OK," I replied, flexing my fingers surreptitiously at my sides. "But you have to release him first."
She laughed. It was more like a cackle. Or the squawk of a Macaw.
"You think I trust you, creature?" she snarled.
"I know I don't trust you," I shot back. "So if you want me, without a fight, you release the Pyrkagia Prince first."
She cocked her head at an unnatural angle, like a bird eyeing a worm wriggling in the dirt. It was beyond freaky, making my heart miss a beat at the odd, and I admit frighteningly unnatural sight she made.
"You can bind me with roots, hold me in place," I offered. "While you let him go."
Her eyes blazed green; she liked that idea. Then without voicing her agreement, long, thick vines shot out from the loose soil at my feet, winding around my ankles, up my calves, and over my thighs. Thorns bit into my flesh, as the twisted ropes of vegetation continued their painful trek up my body. The Basilissa enjoyed my grimace of pain.
By the time the restraints securely wrapped around my throat, multiple trickles of blood ran down my body, pooling in the dirt at my feet. The Earth sighed its contentment. I was hoping the Basilissa took it as a sign of its satisfaction at having me contained. And not relief at receiving my blood again.
"Now the Prince," I demanded, feeling every single prick of the thorns, as my throat moved on those words.
The Gi Queen simply tossed Theo away. He landed in a dull thud several metres from where she stood, and as she started slithering - and it was a type of slither - towards me, the distance between Theo and her expanded, giving me some measure of relief and hope.
I couldn't tell if he was breathing, but his head was attached, so for now, I put him out of my mind.
"What are you going to do to me?" I asked the approaching evil.
"Use you to fix the break in our people." I was surprised she'd bothered to answer, her eyes were blazing green now, full of hunger and greedy satisfaction.
She came closer still.
"I'm not sure I can fix what is broken," I pointed out, trying to keep the conversation going.
"You are different from us, but close enough to strengthen our weak link. It is not a perfect solution, but it will do."
"There are other options," I found myself saying. And what the hell? Reasoning with this crazy lady had not been the plan, but part of me couldn't stop myself from trying.
Just as the Queen opened her mouth to reply, movement caught my attention over her shoulder. A dishevelled and painfully weak looking Theo lifted blazing eyes of gold to meet mine.
"I do not believe you to be Aether," the Queen was saying. "Our God has forsaken us, he would not offer a guide such as that. No," she said, head shaking, eyes glinting green like the Amazon forest. "You are an imposter, but an imposter with Gi DNA. You'll do. In fact," she added, finally reaching me. She stood a mere foot away, close enough for me to smell her perfume.
She stank of rotten vegetation and overripe fruit.
I held her gaze, raised my eyebrow in interest...
And struck out with a pure line of Fire. Straight for her neck.
I thought I had her. I thought I'd caught her off balance. But this was the Gi Queen and although her Guards were no longer present to strengthen her, Machu Picchu is not without other animal life to fuel her Stoicheio.
Out of a now cloudless, treeless night sky came a flash of bright orange. Lit up by the flames of my Fire, matching the depth of colour; intense, vibrant, alive. The squawk of a bird, the piercing cry as it shot through the air, accompanied by another and another and another. My line of Fire abruptly stopped, midway between me and the Basilissa, when an Andean Cock-Of-The-Rock bird interrupted its flow. Feathers burst out in a dizzying array of bright orange. The bird disintegrated before it hit the ground. But it was not alone.
A horror movie image met my widened eyes. Making my heart leap into my throat, Fire frantically incinerate the vines that contained me, allowing my hands to rise up to protect my face. One after the other the brightly coloured birds attacked, dive bombing my head with ear piercing battle cries.
The cackle of the Gi Queen's laughter made an eerie accompaniment, as beaks scratched my coat sleeves, and tiny taloned feet gripped my hair tightly and then rose. The sharp sting of follicles being torn from my scalp broke the almost paralysed state I'd fallen into. Pyrkagia swelled. Fire flared out around me, and several of the bombarding birds burst into a flurry of burning orange feathers.
"Casey! Use Gi!" Theo yelled above the ever louder squawk of approaching birds.
Not only were there bright orange Andean Cock-Of-The-Rocks, but now also the red and grey of Scarlet Macaws, the jewel-like green and yellow of Hummingbirds, and the horrifically large and ominous black of the Andean Condor. The vultures blocking out the stars as they dove in units of three or more.
The noise was deafening and for a moment I couldn't quite work out what Theo had said. Pyrkagia still blazed around me, offering what little protection it could from the onslaught of birdlife the Basilissa commanded. I couldn't even see her through the flock of feathers and wings before me, but I could feel the Earth's cries of pain as she wielded that Stoicheio in a vice-like grip.
It had suffered enough. The Amazon so depleted. Machu Picchu Mountaintop flattened. The Andean Cloud Forest threatened by the avalanche of soil and boulders and rocks. These birds had risen from there, at the Queen's direction. She would sacrifice them all to prove her dominion. She didn't care for the Earth Element she reigned over.
She may have cared for the infertility her people suffered, but it was at the blind indifference to her Stoicheio's health.
I reached for my Gi, felt Theo's Pyrkagia entwine with mine and reinforce it, then stumbled to my knees, digging my hands into the loose soil at my feet. Earth rushed through me, wrapped around my Fire, and began to swell.
I had no idea where the Queen was, but the birds were becoming more frantic, screeching their anger, her anger, that I was touching the Stoicheio she controlled.
Save us, the Earth pleaded. Me or her, I did not know. Help us, it begged, and tears began to coat my cheeks, burned dry in seconds by the Fire that raged almost out of control around me.
"You're killing them!" I yelled, unsure if the Queen could hear, or if she'd even care. She was beyond anything but her own agenda now, reason would not sway her mind.
The ground shook beneath me as the body of a Condor crash landed less than a metre away from where I crouched. One wing broken at a painful angle, the other stretched out, as though reaching for the sky in one final futile attempt to fly free. The enormous bird was still breathing, straining for air. Its intelligent beady eyes stared at me, willing me to end this madness.
Roots shot up from the ground, trying to impale me. My Fire cut them off before they reached their goal. The Earth shuddered, the Queen screamed, the birds squawked, wings flapped and Fire crackled. And for a second I thought the insanity of the moment would swallow me whole. Pressure had built inside my mind, making my vision blur and my hold on my Stoicheio waver.
I saw her then. A psychotic vision in white, brown hair framing a green glazed look in her eyes. She held my gaze, lifted her hands in that theatrical motion she had used back at the diner. Evil stared back at me; corrupt, foul, and broken.
I knew what would happen when she brought her hands together above her head. I knew it, but I couldn't move to stop it. Pain stole all function, only comprehension of the end was within my control.
"Theo," I whispered, the sound of my Thisavros' name devoured by the cacophony of noises on this ridge. I couldn't reach him. I couldn't reach the Queen. I couldn't even save the broken Condor which watched on with accusing black eyes.
I sucked in a breath, said a silent apology to the Earth and then released my hold on my Stoicheio, unable to grip it any longer.
The world dimmed, as a rush of wings sounded out by my head, the swoop and flap causing the heat of the flames around me to fluctuate, die down and then swell up to an impossible height again. I blinked, felt Theo's Stoicheio stroke tender fingers down my cheek, over my heart, and then leave me in a sudden exodus entangled with my own.
The Condor beside me squawked, its broken wing flapped uselessly, and then the Fire before my eyes parted enough for me to see the remaining birds in the sky dive on the Queen.
She screamed. Anger, frustration, disbelief, shock. It all mingled together to make one atrocious sound of defeat. As the birds did what they'd been instructed to do, just not as the instructor had intended.
They attacked her. Not me.
She'd wanted me alive. At the very least long enough to harvest my blood for further DNA testing. So the birds didn't kill her outright, they incapacitated her, brought her to her knees in a shocking splash of crimson blood and torn flesh and severed arteries. She began healing immediately after each strike, but there were so many. She'd culled the Cloud Forest of all its winged creatures in her endeavour to defeat me.
But the Earth responds to health, far better than it responds to rot. It took my Stoicheio, boosted by Theo's, and used it to cull the decay, to excise it.
She struggled. She was a Queen, she used every ounce of her power to stay alive. And perhaps she would have, but Theo appeared over her shoulder, his eyes holding mine, gold blazing bright and true. Then with a simple movement, honed by centuries of being a Scout, he twisted her head, and tore it from her neck with a shouted cry to show the effort he'd used to achieve such a brutal move.
For a moment I just knelt there, visions of the green light dimming in her eyes, the shocked look on her face just before her head separated from her body, filling my mind. Theo was breathing heavily, a grimace of pain or disgust on his face. He took a step, staggered, and then I was on my feet somehow, managing to run to him, as he picked up speed and met me halfway there.
His arms wrapped around my waist, my body lifted off the ground as he hugged me tightly to his chest, and his face nestled into the curve of my neck. He inhaled, one hand coming up to tangle in my hair, his lips pressing intimately into the soft flesh behind my ear.
"Holy freaking hell," I whispered. "We did it."
Chapter 27
Et tu, Brute?
Theo nodded against my neck, still unable to voice a word.
But we weren't done yet. This hellish day held much more in store.
With no time to recover from the shock, or rejoice at our unbelievable success, out of a still cloudless dark sky lightning burst forth. One single sizzling bolt, loud enough to send my heart rate sky-rocketing all over again.
For a second I wondered if it was a cosmic reaction to the death of a powerful Ekmetalleftis Queen.
But as Theo and I both jumped, the electricity in the air making the fine hairs on our skin rise, a solid form replaced the blindingly bright white of lightning.
Hip stood before us a sad smile on his face.
And naively, I still thought it was because of the loss of an Athanatos Queen. Something we should all mourn. But Theo stiffened, his arms resolutely wound around my frame, as he turned us both to face the Aeras man.
"The Basilissa is dead," Theo announced, his tone sounding a little too imperious. "Machu Picchu is safe."
Hip nodded, glanced around the desolate and destroyed mountaintop, and then brought tired pale blue eyes back to our faces.
"We've been ordered to return you to your Rigas," he said, making all air leave my lungs in shock.
"No," I mouthed, unable to utter a sound due to lack of oxygen.
I'd been wrong. This had nothing to do with a murdered Queen, and everything to do with the son of a King. Or perhaps his Thisavros.
"We can't go back," Theo insisted.
"And we can't offer asylum," Hip countered.
Silence.
This was not good. Theo was meant to be in exile. I was considered an enemy of Pyrkagia. So why would the Rigas order the Aeras to hand us over?
But even more worryingly to my mind right then, how the hell did they even know we were here?
"Isadora," I snarled. It had to be Theo's ex who had betrayed us in the end. Just as I'd always suspected she would.
Theo looked thunderstruck. He shook his head. Still unable to think of her as anyone else but his Dora.
My fists clenched as Theo asked, "How long have we got?"
"My instructions are to deliver you immediately or they will declare war."
The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) Page 27
