Born of Water

by Autumn M. Birt

  Niri gripped the fabric of his shirt, pulling back slightly as if she struggled to find words. Sinika’s fingers spread against her back, supporting the shift in her weight but not letting her go. The moment hung suspended between them for a breath.

  “Fool!”

  A woman’s sharp voice cut through the lower level. It caused Sinika to stiffen. His embrace became confining.

  “There is water flowing. Can’t you hear it? She is summoning water from some forsaken place.”

  “No.”

  Sinika grabbed Niri’s chin roughly and forced her head up. She opened her eyes. Sinika’s grip loosened slightly when he saw the lavender and blue of her power. Niri glared at him. The tears of her effort continued to slide down her cheeks.

  Sinika stumbled away, too shocked to react immediately. Whoever was with him was less easily distracted. A burst of fire exploded from deeper in the rows of bookcases, flashing across the scribe’s desks. Heart rising to her throat, Niri threw herself aside.

  She landed hard on her shoulder against the floor. It was cool and damp now. Niri smiled. Sinika was scrambling after her, pushing aside the table she had ducked behind. Niri rolled and launched herself to her feet and towards the staircase rooms ahead of where she was.

  As she ran, she pulled at any thread of water she could find with desperation. Ty had been right, the stone was sealed shut for yards into the ground. The retort of rock splitting resounded through the room followed by the sound of water cascading onto the floor.

  Sinika paused, looking back over his shoulder. “How? How could she be doing it? The water was sealed off when the Temple was defeated.”

  The only forthcoming answer was another burst of fire. It hit the wall of a narrow tunnel a few feet from where Niri paused in the room beyond as she tried to catch her breath. She darted through the dark expanse, dodging bookcases as the room was lit again by wavering flames. A fireball exploded into a bookcase behind her.

  Niri ducked but didn’t slow. She pulled a layer of water, now an inch deep on the floor, onto her skin. It hissed as sparks and a splinter of shelf fell against her. Niri dove into the stair’s alcove as light erupted behind her. She felt heat and a brief searing, then she was around the first twist of the staircase.

  She took the steps two at a time. All the while she pulled and called water toward her. She balled the desire for water tighter and tighter, winding her will around the need until it was her only reason for existing, her only thought besides running up the stairs.

  Niri ran headlong into Ty. He caught her but went backwards, sitting sharply against the stairs behind him. Ty sucked in a breath as he hit. Niri’s heart lurched at the thought he could be hurt, just when they needed to run.

  “Are you?”

  “Fine,” Ty rasped.

  “Where?”

  “Above, they hadn’t made it down this far. I told them to go up to the main level.”

  “Good. Go, it won’t take Sinika long to follow us.”

  There was a brightening glow in the staircase below them. Ty grabbed Niri’s hand, turned, and ran. Pain lanced into Niri’s side from her effort and lack of breath. Ty pulled her forward faster than she thought she could go. Niri hurled the pain into her demand for water, feeding it until she ached. She was the desert calling out to become the sea floor. Above her breath the sound of rushing echoed in the empty rooms of the library. A rivulet began to splash down the stairs.

  There was enough water now that Niri could sense where it touched Sinika and the woman. She could ‘see’ as she had once in Mirocyne, finding the outline to the rooms by the moisture clinging to walls. Below them at the lower level, the water was already mid-thigh deep. But Sinika was wading to the stairs, the water proving a small hamper to their progress.

  With the moisture flooding the Temple, Niri felt the fireball sent up the stairwell before it neared them. She grabbed Ty, halting his racing steps, and pushed him against the wall. She channeled the water from the steps above to change course. It gushed over them as the staircase illuminated in angry red. The fireball, already diminished by moisture and distance, swept past them in a waft of heat, fizzling further in size.

  “How?” He asked her, spitting out a mouthful. “I thought you said there was no water.”

  “There wasn’t any close. But I learned with the well in Sardinia there is always water underground somewhere. You just have to find it.”

  “We only have a few moments before they make it up the stairs. We have to keep going,” Niri said, pushing Ty ahead again.

  Ty burst onto the main level of the library, stumbling from the alcove. Lavinia caught her brother, keeping him upright. The water across the polished floor of the library was ankle deep. Niri bent over as she emerged from the stairs, struggling to catch her breath. A weak burst of flames licked the entrance and faded. Niri glanced back and then up to Ria’s wide eyed face.

  “You have to leave.”

  “No, I can help,” Ria’s voice was high and thin, but she stood tall and ready to hold her ground.

  Niri shook her head. “No, we can’t fight the Curse and both of them. The Curse could be near if they are here. And I can’t fight Sinika and protect you.”

  Niri looked despairingly at Ria. “I never should have brought you here.”

  Ria’s eyes filled with tears. She hugged Niri quickly, unable to speak. Niri held her but then gently pushed her away.

  “You have to go. Lavinia, protect her.”

  Lavinia paused, her expression caught between arguing to stay and accepting what Niri said. A stronger burst of flames shot from the stairwell. Lavinia grabbed Ria’s hand as she spun and bolted for the door.

  With a twist of her will, Niri sent more water raining down the staircase. A current started to tug at her ankles as the water raced to do her bidding.

  “Niri . . . .”

  “Ty, go help your sister and Ria. I’ll . . . I’ll be right behind you.”

  Under his gaze, Niri could not pretend she was not worried about what she faced. As her confidence wavered, Ty’s expression changed from battle ready to heartfelt anxiety. Tension left his forehead while his eyes dilated. He swallowed hard. Niri trembled. He reached for her the same moment she collapsed in his arms, his fingers tangling in her hair as he cradled her head against his shoulder. She clung to him, heart pounding.

  “Ty, you have to go. Your sister and Ria need you to get through the desert and back to Tabook.” Niri couldn’t stop shaking.

  He pulled back to look her in the eye, brushing wet hair from her face. “I won’t leave without you. We’ll be waiting.”

  Niri nodded, knowing her eyes were wide and frightened. Ty leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes for a second. As he let her go, his lips brushed across her cheek. The moment he released her, Niri pushed him after Ria and Lavinia. She pulled back the water before him so that his path was clear.

  Ty raced to the front door, not slowing as he burst through to the colonnaded entrance. Niri felt both where Ria, Lavinia and Ty raced across the damp ground toward the staircase while Sinika and his companion waded through the falling onslaught of water to reach the main level. Niri stood alone.

  She walked slowly to the library door, the water allowing her to pass like it was air. Lavinia was just making the entrance to the staircase, Ria right behind her. Niri kept the water, three feet deep now across the sinkhole’s floor, pulled back to bare ground. Water cascaded down from open windows and breaks in the rock walls above her. The tumbling patter and spray of water against stone filled the sinkhole with a ceaseless growling hiss.

  Ty made the stairs, pausing to glance back before he plunged into the opening. The path through the water closed behind Ty as he began to climb, no longer in the water’s reach. Niri gasped out a breath and filled her lungs, holding the air a moment until her chest no longer wanted to constrict. Water was her element and it was filling the Temple of Dust. She tried to find comfort in that.

  Without need
ing to worry about Ty, Lavinia, and Ria, Niri turned her attention back to the water. She called it again with all of her will, fueling a basic need to simply bring water to her. Liquid burst from the walls, cascading into the air to fall hundreds of feet to the floor below. She could feel the lower rooms of the library submerge.

  Niri walked away from the library. It seemed wise to be away from the building when Sinika and his companion reached the main level. But she also wanted to be somewhere visible so that they would not look for Ria. When Sinika and the woman emerged from the library, Niri stood in water up to her waist in the center of the sinkhole.

  It was Niri’s first chance to see the woman clearly. She had short, spiky blond hair and a strong jawline. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Niri. The air before her rippled like the air above the desert. She formed fire out of nothing and launched it at Niri.

  Niri reacted instinctively. But instead of throwing up an arm to protect herself, she threw up water. The fireball sank into a sudden towering wave of water and disappeared with a hiss. Hope began to unfurl within Niri.

  “Ci’erra!”

  Sinika pulled on the woman’s arm as she began to form another fireball. It sparked in front of her then dissipated. Sinika pointed wide eyed to the rim of the sinkhole. Water was beginning to pour over the edge in a sheet. It careened off rocks along the wall. The roar of it reverberated from every ledge until the sound of it made Niri’s eardrums ache. When it finally reached the bottom, the force of the pounding water dropping from such a height caused the stone under Niri’s feet to shake.

  The onslaught thickened. The water was stained dark from the amount of sand it carried. At the base of the sinkhole, the water was now up to Niri’s chest. The stream of falling water widened and began to brush the library building itself. The colonnades shook and the massive lintel wobbled. Sinika and Ci’erra jumped from their perch into the embrace of roiling water and sand. Niri cautiously began to move toward the stairs, feeling where Sinika and Ci’erra struggled to find their footing on the veranda of a nearby building. The water level in the bottom of the sinkhole was quickly rising.

  “How?” Ci’erra demanded of Sinika. “It’s sea water for the Maker’s sake. I can taste the salt!”

  From where she had swam to a ledge across the floor of the sinkhole, Niri could see the anger on Sinika’s face. Drenched and petite, Ci’erra’s wide eyes reminded Niri for a brief moment of Beite. Sinika turned his face toward her, the air a rippling shot forward as he hurled heat and flame at her before the fireball was even formed. Niri extinguished it in a wall of water.

  Sinika’s look simmered. The air around Niri changed, humidifying as water evaporated from her skin. With a yelp, she pulled water onto herself. Sinika continued, vaporizing the water on her almost as fast as she could build it. Then he tried to ignite her hair.

  Niri ducked under the water, the flames dying as he created them. Without surfacing, Niri felt for where Sinika perched partially in the water. Hands of fluid grabbed his legs. Sinika slipped into the water. She thickened the liquid around him. He managed to come up, gasping and fighting with the watery bonds just as the Curse had. Ci’erra grabbed his hand. Niri pulled Sinika under with such force that Ci’erra fell into the water as well.

  Ci’erra came up looking truly terrified. She clung to a rock lintel and divided her gaze between where Sinika struggled and a nearby window in the sinkhole wall. Ci’erra pushed off and headed for the way out. Niri was at a loss.

  The lower levels of the Temple were completely filled. The salty waterfall born of the sea pounded into the sinkhole. The water swirled and roiled as it filled the main shaft. Niri could not feel Ty or the girls and hoped that meant they were on the surface. She had no idea of how much time had passed. Even with her skill, it was all she could do to divide her attention between keeping herself from being smashed into the cavern wall by the current and fighting Sinika. Now Ci’erra was only a few hundred feet away, nearly to the window.

  Niri released Sinika. He came up gasping for air, barely able to keep his head above water. She bit her cheek and eyed Ci’erra, uncertain what to do with the Fire Elemental. Flames that felt like they had the intensity of the sun formed behind Niri. She was about to dive under, knowing that the anger that had formed this fire would not be so easy to drown. But to Niri’s surprise, they froze.

  The flames towered, their heat intense but not moving forward. Instead, they shot skyward, reaching halfway to the top of the sinkhole. Niri looked over at Ci’erra in wary surprise.

  Ci’erra perched on the windowsill. Her hand was held out in front of her and eyes were slitted as she concentrated on controlling Sinika’s outburst of flame. The coiling wall of heat and light slid back a foot. Niri’s heart hammered. Ci’erra was the more powerful of the two.

  Ci’erra knew it too. She pushed back Sinika’s flames with an arrogant flip of her wrist, her smile cold. Ci’erra turned her gaze on Niri.

  “How are you dong this?” Ci’erra demanded, her voice harsh over the thudding of water. “No Water Elemental can defeat Fire. The Church would never allow it. Such skills are not taught!”

  “There is more than just the Church and what it teaches.” Niri glared at Ci’erra, her breath caught in her chest as she waited for Ci’erra to attack.

  Doubt flickered across Ci’erra’s face. She looked at the writhing flames that danced upwards above the water.

  “I do not want any part of this. Sinika can deal with his own acolytes.”

  “I can’t let you just go.”

  “Fine.”

  A wind of fire swept at Niri, forming so close that she barely had time to duck under the surface. When she came up for air, Sinika’s wall of flame was dissipating in coiling ribbons towards the sinkhole’s upper edge. Ci’erra was nowhere to be seen. Sinika was livid.

  Sinika tried another fireball. But Niri pulled him under as he formed it, snuffing it before it began. Sinika kicked at the water holding him as if he could fight her directly by injuring it.

  Niri let him bob to the surface as she slipped into a window. The turbid waterfall was no longer just stirring the water in the sinkhole. A hydraulic suction from its force pulled at her so that she needed to constantly steady herself. It was time to follow Ci’erra’s action and make it to the staircase. Water lapped at her heels as she began to run up the steps.

  A fireball burst through the window in front of her. Niri threw up an arm automatically, the flames mostly ricocheting off the wet well. Their warm tongues hardly lapped her. She slowed on the other side of the opening, cautiously looking out. Sinika had managed to gain a foothold on the rock wall opposite the sea water flow. He scanned the windows looking for her, one hand raised to call fire into being. Sinika was not going to give up, Niri realized with dread.

  Ahead of her, Niri could see a space where the stairs crossed an open expanse without an outside wall to protect her. She paused, biting her lip in indecision. The water on the steps rose to her ankle as she hesitated. It spurred her on. There was no other way but up and to the surface for any of them.

  Moving again, Niri threw up a curtain of water in front of each window she raced passed. By the time she had reached the open set of stairs, Sinika had found his way through a window and stood a quarter of the way around and a level below her. On a steady perch, he could concentrate on her fully again. Water around her hissed as it evaporated.

  The sound of falling water was deafening in the cavern. If she’d wanted to speak to him, it would have been impossible to hear. The distorted rage on his face left her little doubt though of his intent. Niri walked forward slowly, her pulse louder to her ears than the waterfall. The air around her shimmered as if she stood in the very center of the desert on the hottest days.

  Niri pulled water up around herself, become a core of liquid as flames ignited around her. Sinika meant to burn her alive. Niri exploded water outward. Steam thickened the air a moment as the water and fire met. There was simply too much liquid in th
e sinkhole for the fire to find purchase. Despite Sinika’s anger feeding it, the flames sputtered and faded.

  Above her a new sun formed in the sky, hovering over the sinkhole where the air was still dry. It began to descend as Niri made the choice she had been dreading. She reached out and slowed the water in Sinika’s veins.

  The falling fireball snuffed out as Sinika staggered. His hand went out to catch the wall and missed. He fell hard onto the stone floor.

  Tears streaked Niri’s face as she hesitated, holding the flow of his blood to a slow and steady pulse. He was not dead, but he was not able to react. The water on the platform where he lay rose to an inch. Niri trembled at the choice before her. She and Sinika had been lovers for three months before her journey to Mirocyne. Though she wondered if lover were the right word.

  He had taught her ways to use her power, the summoning spell, and how to focus. His attention could be cruel and impatient, but he had given her time if not kindness. Even after facing him in the Temple of Dust, she could not imagine killing him. He had been the one Priest who had given her something to look forward to within the confines of Solaire. She had once thought she loved him before she had seen Lavinia and Darag’s joy.

  The water rose to cover his nose. Sinika couldn’t breath. Niri could feel it entering his throat. With a sob, she pushed the water out of his lungs. She fell to her knees crying. Forcing herself to focus, Niri floated Sinika into the small room behind him. His pulsed throbbed in a slow rhythm resonating in her chest and palms.

  Once he was in the room, Niri pushed the water back out. Niri slid onto a step, shaking with physical and emotional exhaustion. The water rose two feet along the doorway to the room where Sinika lay but did not enter the room itself. Niri waited, watching the water rise to cover the room completely, sealing the air and Sinika within it.

  The chamber was over halfway below the top of the sinkhole and not on the main stairs. She doubted very much that it would hold him for long, but it would keep him trapped for awhile. Anger like his would find a way to burn through even that much water. She would have to deal with him again, but not any more today.