Niri leaned back against the rock wall behind her, feeling Sinika’s pulse and keeping it slow and steady. It was the last connection that existed between them. The water was rising quickly. It touched her legs where she sat. She willed herself to move, but couldn’t find the energy to stand. She could not face the miles of stairs left to climb. Before she realized what had happened, the water rushed over head.
The feeling of being submerged brought her quickly to her wits. Niri was knocked off the steps by the force and tumbled through the swirling water. She pushed herself toward the surface, but it was climbing upwards faster than she could swim. The currents buffeted her sideways and down, even as she tried to steady them. Acute panic filled Niri as she began to lose to her own element.
The air in her lungs ached. She could control water, usually, but not breathe it. Unlike the Curse, she could not grow gills. Niri funneled all her strength into pushing herself upwards, fighting the sucking downward pull of the massive hydraulic. Her body and mind called for air, a desire greater than twisting water currents to her will. Whiteness rimmed her vision. Niri could not stand it any longer. She gasped for air.
To her surprise, she drew in a breath. Niri’s eyes flew open, focusing once more as she sucked in another lungful. A tiny bubble had formed around her, called into being by her need. It was then she remembered the letter: Talent in one Element meant latent skills in others. Niri shivered with understanding in how important that sentence was.
Her skill was not strong. She fumbled with the bubble. It nearly broke apart and it was a desperate twist of will that reformed it around her. It was an odd sensation, one that she had to concentrate on like she had not needed to do with water since she was young. Not like her touch to liquid, it was a sense of dryness, a lack of fluid.
Niri concentrated on that, an area of no water. The bubble enlarged. There was plenty of air in the water mixed with the tumbling mass. She kept the bubble refreshed and pushed herself more slowly to the surface. Without panic, she could move in her element easily again and found the upward current to ride.
The entire sinkhole was filled and still when she finally managed to push herself above its embrace. Niri clung to the sandy rim, too tired to pull herself out. She was just happy to breath and feel wind on her face. She half laughed and sobbed with relief.
She felt the footfalls through the sand under her but could not summon the will to turn her head. Her eyes were closed as hands pulled her from the water. A second set helped to support her weight.
“Niri, are you okay?”
The voice was Ty’s. Niri choked on her reply. He cupped her face gently, cradling her to his chest. Niri opened his eyes and saw his widen in shock. Ria gasped behind him.
“Your eyes . . . they’re lavender,” she whispered.
Niri began to tremble, but tried to push herself upright. Her voice came back to her finally.
“We have to leave. Ci’erra escaped and Sinika is alive . . . down there. I couldn’t kill him.”
Ty hugged her for a moment. Behind him, her eyes fell onto what had been the Temple of Dust. A lake stretched out amid the desert, the sand in the water settling now. Streaks of the setting sun were reflected in the motionless water.
Niri was so tired, she was numb. Ty relaxed his hold, pulling Niri to her feet as he regained his. He looked to his sister and Ria.
“Get the camels.”
CHAPTER 32
FOUND
Ty swayed in his saddle. The heat that washed over him was hotter than any forge. It sent pinpricks across his skin in its wake. Heat rash, sunburn, both, Ty didn’t really think there were names for the agonies the desert sun and sand brought. Probably because no one survived, he thought miserably.
It was two days since the Temple of Dust. Would it be called the Temple Lake now, he wondered. A new home for Water Elementals like Niri, who have left the Church behind. The ground shimmered and moved sickeningly. Ty barely righted himself before he fell off his camel.
“Let’s stop here.”
It took him two tries to speak. Blinking his eyes just made it feel like the sand ground in deeper. There were only more dunes to see anyway and the sun, which was almost overhead. It was late to stop. Ty felt sorry for the women. He was asking a lot, pushing all of them. Stopping cost them time, slowed their pace. Only movement would get them through the desert.
Ria and Lavinia dismounted as their camels sank onto the sand. Without a word and with motions slower than the sun’s incremental journey of a day, they pulled out a cloth to erect a sunshade. Feeling no better himself, Ty fell more than dismounted and walked to where Niri’s camel was tied behind his.
She was oblivious to the world. He actually envied Niri that. After what she had done in the Temple, to the Temple, she had barely roused enough to eat or drink. She was light as feathers shaped into a woman when he lifted her down. He knew it was delirium born of the heat, but he dreamt often that Niri would evaporate like water under the desert sun. She was light enough that he half believed it.
The four of them sat in the meager shade as the brightest part of the day passed overhead. They baked like the strange twisted formations of glass that dotted the rolling dunes. They had amazed him at first, until the day before. That was when he had seen the sun scorch the sand so intensely it had burst into flames. An inferno erupted only yards away from him, twirling and twisting skyward in a rising updraft. When it had burnt itself out, a tower of glass stood as a sentinel to the desert’s heat.
No doubt it froze solid last night. Ty sighed. He wasn’t sure which was worse. The heat of the day that burned the skin and lungs or the cold of the night that threatened to freeze him to death before morning so that he welcomed the sight of the sun as it rose. Until he felt its heat.
Lavinia handed him the canteen. Under her gaze, he tipped it up letting a dribble wash over his parched tongue. He pretended to swallow several times. Satisfied, Lavinia looked away. Ty savored the moisture in his mouth and then swallowed for real. He stashed the canteen, satisfied with its weight.
Lavinia suspected he wasn’t drinking his share but hadn’t said anything directly. She didn’t understand. Ty had seen Niri at the oasis. He half suspected that Niri’s comatose state was from more than exhaustion. A naiad lost in the desert. It worried him. Niri stirred next to him, but did not waken. He dropped a hand onto her shoulder where she slept in the sand. She sighed and fell back asleep.
Niri woke fully as the sand released the day’s heat. They had stopped again for a brief break and to change into the heavier clothing the night required. Crossing the desert had become more important than sleep. They rarely stopped for long.
Niri struggled upright, her arms barely supporting her weight at first.
“You can sleep. You don’t need to get up.”
Lavinia was by Niri’s side when Ty turned, startled as he realized who his sister was speaking to. Niri shook her head weakly.
“No, really, I am feeling better . . . comparatively.”
Niri slipped her legs under her, sitting straighter as she leaned on one arm. Lavinia handed the leather canteen to Niri, who sipped from it gingerly. Niri’s lavender eyes glanced around, taking in the desert, the camels, and her companions.
“Where are we?”
Ria bit her lip. Lavinia’s shoulders drooped while she looked beyond Niri to her brother. “I’m not sure. Ty says west of Karakastad.” Lavinia’s voice was thin.
“West?”
“Yes,” Ty said as he walked over, camel hair blankets in his arms. He knelt in front of Niri so that she would not have to turn to see him. “I thought if Sinika and the other Elemental knew we were in the Temple of Dust, then the Church must know we were in Tabook. We can’t go back.”
Niri’s eyes half closed as she took in what he said. Her head inclined with the beginnings of a nod.
“So you took us west.”
“I thought we would swing north, toward Bakk, eventually. Our tracks will lead into
the desert and hopefully be erased by the wind and sand.”
Niri let out a breath. It was visible in the chilling desert air.
“How long has it been since . . . .”
“Two days,” Ria replied, taking Niri’s hand.
Niri did not respond, but blinked a few times. Niri refocused, looking from Ria to Lavinia and finally resting her eyes on Ty’s face. She understood what he had not told Ria or his sister, how very far the distance to Bakk would be, he realized.
“Then we should keep going. We are still too close to Karakastad.”
They rode all night, drowsing in their saddles. The camels’ great breaths bellowed in the moonlight while they huddled in blankets, heading finally north. Dawn streaked the eastern sky and still they did not stop. Only the sun’s heat brought them to a standstill as they spread blankets to block out the searing light.
Even to Ty the days were beginning to blur. All thought was burned from him except to travel north, conserve water, and avoid the sun. At dusk and dawn, strange slender lizards the color of the desert rose from the sand. Ty wondered what else lived unseen deep within the vast dryness. Everything felt distant. The heat and thirst belonged to another version of himself, while he moved in a dreamlike state. The last canteen, nearly empty, chilled him awake.
It was another morning. The sun was only a faint promise of rose streaks on the eastern horizon. He pulled his camel next to Niri where she rode behind Lavinia and Ria. Both girls were asleep in the saddle. Reaching out, he touched Niri on the shoulder. She sat upright abruptly.
“Niri?”
Roused, she shifted the blanket wrapped about her so that she could see him. Her lips were cracked, he saw as she moved them to form words. No sound came.
“Do you sense any water?” Worry deepened his tone, pulling his lungs so that they ached.
Niri’s eyes flickered wider, focusing clearer. She looked at his face for a moment. Then Niri closed her eyes and bowed her head as if in prayer. Ty rode beside her, feeling the cool bite to the wind on his skin, listening to the now familiar hiss of sand moving. His chest was pulsing.
Ty hated to ask Niri to use her power, afraid the feat of calling the sea into the desert had somehow been too much. He feared Niri would try to use her power and either it wouldn’t be there or it would pain her. But she rode silently beside him. He swallowed now simply worried about her answer.
He had been so afraid since he had chosen this route from Karakastad that it was too far and that he led them to their deaths. But he had seen the flashes of fire deep within the sinkhole. Watched in awe as a flood of water swept between dunes, washing away dry desert buildings before hurtling down into the Temple. Niri had faced off against two Fire Elementals. What would be waiting for them back in Tabook? What if Ria used her power with Niri beyond reach after the a strain on hers. What if they faced the Curse? The pulsing in Ty turned to a pounding in his chest echoed in his temples. He rubbed the headache wearily, wishing he was beyond worrying.
Niri breathed in deeply, looking up across the desert before she turned to him. There was an apology in the line between her brows and downturn of her mouth. Ty bowed his head, his chest aching with his effort not to break down. He had not realized how much he had hoped she would find something.
“How much water do we have left?” Niri’s voice was soft.
Ty doubted he really needed to answer her. Niri would know, if anyone did, how much was left on the camels. He swallowed down his fear so that he could answer her in a steady voice.
“Not much. Not enough to make it to Bakk.”
They rode side by side in silence as the sun rose. It highlighted distant buildings with fragile gold and violet spiraled turrets. Green palm tree fronds were visible above the glistening white city walls. Ty sighed.
The first morning Ty had seen the desert city, hope had burned in him hotter than the sun. They had traveled all day only to see the image at sunset, still the same distance away. Morning had brought the same situation. He watched it without hope now. It could have been Bakk or the Church of Solaire. They would never reach it. Anything that gave hope in the desert was a mirage.
They made it two more days before the camels refused to walk. The night sky was mesmerizing above them, the stars so clear that they hung like jewels in a velvet indigo sky. Even over the ocean, Ty had never seen them so bright or colored like a fractured rainbow scattered across the night. Lost in beauty, it took him a second to understand what the noise was behind him.
Ty turned as Lavinia’s camel groaned and sank onto its front knees. It stopped half down, but the motion unsettled Lavinia. She tumbled from her saddle into the sand. Ty was first off his camel to reach his sister, Ria tripping in her stirrup as she stumbled off her camel’s back.
Lavinia struggled upright, unhurt but rubbing her shoulder. Her camel dropped the rest of the way in a great moan. Then Niri’s did the same, followed by Ria’s and Ty’s as well as the two spare. There was no going further unless they walked, which ensured death.
Niri sank next to Lavinia in the sand. Ria, with tears in her eyes, put her arms around Lavinia and sat down as well. Ty remained standing, unable to give up. Finally his knees decided what his will would not accept. He collapsed into the sand.
Morning dawned with the promise of blistering heat to come. The need to protect his sister, Ria, and Niri pricked at Ty. He stacked the saddles and spread blankets between to create a shelter. He knew it was futile though. The one thing they really needed he could not provide.
Ria and Lavinia slept side by side on a blanket spread over the sand. Lavinia sobbed once dryly. Her hand reached for her necklace, her fingers gently encircling the wooden pendant. Ty ached so that he trembled as he watched his sister. Her restless motions slowed and she drifted off into a deeper sleep.
Niri was sitting, her head against her chest as she leaned against the saddles. He knew she wasn’t asleep no matter the appearance. He slipped next to her, taking her hand. She sighed and leaned her head against his shoulder without opening her eyes. He sat beside her, wishing he could help her search.
The riders came two days later just after the hottest part of the afternoon. Their mounts were horses with fine, long legs and wide nostrils flared to breath the desert air. Seeming to have risen out of the sand, five riders suddenly rode around the group in opposing circles. Dark eyes barely seen through the cloth wound around their faces looked down at them. Their flowing robes rippled in the breeze stirred at their passing.
Ty watched them, unable to tell if they were from the Church or were desert riders that had stumbled upon them. For the first time in days, Ty’s pulse picked up its tempo. He had his knives, his sister her sword, but there was no way they could fight. The desert had won the battle against physical exertion days before.
One of the men pulled his horse from the circling. The horse’s haunches kicked up a plume of sand as it stopped abruptly, tossing its head and rearing. The man cupped a hand to his mouth.
“Nohl takrat.”
The voice rolled on the ‘r’ with a guttural growl Ty had never heard before. Ria grabbed Niri’s hand, her olive eyes wide. Three more riders came over the dune. The middle one pulled up his horse and looked down at the group in silence. Unlike the rest, he wore a cowled hood which cast his entire face in shadow.
His horse picked its way down the dune, sinking to its fetlocks in the sand. As he dismounted, the other riders stopped circling, standing to the side. Lavinia stirred next to Ty. She leaned forward into the sun beyond the shade, her eyes widening. She leapt to her feet and met the cowled man halfway, throwing her arms around him as he caught her.
“Darag!”
CHAPTER 33
REUNION
The force of Lavinia’s embrace knocked Darag’s hood back. Most of his awareness was on Lavinia, the physical feel of her in his arms. But he saw as he closed his eyes Niri sink slowly to her knees while tears ran down Ria’s cheeks.
“Behdwah soka noh
le,” Darag said without opening his eyes.
He wanted only to feel Lavinia’s heart beating against his chest. She was so light in his arms, her body lost in the folds of loose fabric she had used to hide from the sun. But there was power in her arms. She held him like she would never let him go. A tremble raced through Darag, choking closed his throat.
Lavinia squirmed against him, pulling back. She reached out and pulled up his hood, shading out the sun. Her hands stayed cupped against his cheeks. What Darag saw on her face did not help the worry in him. Her skin was tanned and wind burnt, lips cracked. Her blues eyes were luminous though, brighter than the sun filled sky.
Lavinia led Darag to their shelter, hand entwined with his. A foot before the shelter door, the sand was damp. Darag was amazed to see the smallest trickle of water bubble up through the sand. He pulled his gaze up from his fixation on it. Niri smiled at him over the canteen he had asked the riders to give them.
Ty stood slowly at his approach. He and Darag eyed each other in silence. Then Ty stuck out his hand.
“We have yet to really meet properly. I’m Lavinia’s brother.”
A wry smile pulled on Darag’s lips. He lifted one brow a fraction. “I’m Darag, Lavinia’s husband.”
Ty started to chuckle as he clasped Darag’s hand. “Gods, we are glad to see you.” Ty leaned forward and gave Darag a one handed embrace. “Brother.”
Darag closed his eyes a moment, not sure he could take much more joy or heartache. As soon as he and Ty released each other, Lavinia threw herself into her brother’s arms. He was in worse shape and her weight collapsed him to his knees. Darag smiled and sat next to them on the shaded blanket.
“How?” Lavinia asked, returning to his side.
Darag ran his hand through her river of midnight dark hair. “Later, tonight I will tell you. Rest now. Though I will say one thing.” Darag looked across to Niri. “You were right. The Kith are true Earth Elementals.”
Born of Water Page 27
