Born of Water: Elemental Magic & Epic Fantasy Adventure

by Autumn M. Birt

Chapter 39

  THE TEMPLE OF THE WINDS

  “Please tell me this is an illusion,” Ria whispered to Zhao as she sank to her knees.

  Zhao looked down at her, his jaw slack and silver eyes wide. Ria did not need him to say anything to know that what she saw was the same for him. The wide rocky flatness of the mountaintop held only a stone wall with the remains of one lofty, arched window. All else was empty.

  Anger and frustration flooded through Ria, filling her eyes with hot tears. “This can’t be everything!” she shouted to the cool evening air. “Everything!” echoed off the lower peaks beneath them, filling the voids with sound. “No!”

  Ria leapt to her feet and raced by Zhao as he grabbed for her. She was in the center of what should have been the Temple before she thought to care if the ground around her was real. Rising sobs cut off her breath. Ria fell to her knees, body and spirit spent.

  The hike inland had taken four days, all of it climbing upwards. Forested slopes led up foothills until they ascended from a ravine to meet the wind-blasted heights of a ridge. Under their feet, the soft litter of needles had become rock. The humid, pine scented air changed to cold, thin breezes. It took two days of wandering to find the first steps carved into the mountain and two more to climb up them.

  It could have taken only one. But early on the first day of the old path to the Temple, Zhao had grabbed Ria roughly. She had led the way, impatient to see this last Temple where her hope to find answers to free herself lay.

  “What are you doing? The path is this way.”

  Ria wrenched out of Zhao’s grip. “Very funny, Zhao. That is just a rock wall.”

  He darted forward and grabbed her again as she took another step. Ria struggled against his grasp.

  “Stop it. Are you crazy? There is a cliff there! Can’t you see it? Nothing but ... air.” Zhao let out his breath with the word, falling motionless at the same moment as Ria. Both looked at the other, faces pale.

  “What do you see, Zhao?” Niri asked, one hand against the mountain as she caught her breath from the climb.

  “There is a cliff to the right, where Ria was about to step. The path goes to the left through a narrow gap in the rocks.”

  Ty ran a hand through sweaty damp hair. “I see the path hugging the mountain to the right. It is just a rock wall to the left.”

  “Illusion, a trick of air ... did you know of such things, Zhao?” Darag asked, quietly.

  Zhao shook his head, Ria holding on to him rather than struggling. “Which way do you think is right?” he asked.

  “It is the Temple of the Winds made by Air Elementals. I’ve never heard of them using illusions when I was at Solaire, but ... there seems to be as much the Church knows as it doesn’t. What you see is real, Zhao. We will follow you.”

  “But you can control air,” Zhao argued.

  “It doesn’t make up for having it as a birthright.”

  Zhao waited another moment before pulling away from Ria. He kept her hand as he walked to the left, disappearing from view when he met the rock wall. Ria followed, closing her eyes as she stepped through. But when she opened them, the trail was in front of her again and behind her she could see the sober and tired faces of Lavinia, Darag, Ty, and Niri.

  Relief filled her, but once they were beyond the illusion, doubts rose. She no longer believed what she saw. Zhao led the way. But she worried that if he walked too far ahead, he would step across another illusion and be lost from view. It left her nervous and added to the strain of hiking and climbing in the cold air. As the fourth day since leaving the Dhazoh dawned, conversation died and the only sound was footfalls and the wind.

  Until they had rounded a corner and the mountaintop came into view.

  Niri came and put a warm hand against Ria’s back, Lavinia wrapping her arms around her as well. Sobs shook Ria, wrenching her so that she trembled. Dimly, she couldn’t understand why she was crying. As the tears dwindled, Ria felt hollow as if she might blow away in the winds sweeping off the mountain and be lost forever.

  Ria dried her eyes with the heel of her hand. As her vision cleared, Ria saw Zhao slumped with his head in his hands, elbows resting on his knees where he leaned against the lee side of the solitary, remaining wall. Ty sat next to him, gathering bits of moss, twigs, anything he could find that would burn. The sun set an hour later this high but it was close to dusk now. As she breathed out, Ria could see her breath.

  Darag walked alone across the mountain top, scanning the ground. Lavinia stood and joined Darag, a frown on her face. He glanced up at the last second to catch the slap that Lavinia sent at his chest. There were tears in Lavinia’s eyes as he caught her and pulled her against him.

  “You don’t know what is an illusion. You shouldn’t walk around like that.” Lavinia said, voice high and strained.

  “I can feel the ground, Heart of Mine. I know when it is real.”

  Darag held Lavinia, who looked as if it was only his arms that kept her upright.

  “You should have said,” Lavinia said, pressing her cheek against Darag's chest. Ria felt a few last tears slide down her cheeks.

  “What are we going to do?” Ria asked.

  “We are going to eat and we are going to sleep. Tomorrow we will decide what to do," Niri said. She helped Ria to her feet, keeping an arm around her as they walked back toward the tiny fire and the shelter of the wall.

  The fire and some soup helped. Niri could find or conjure water anywhere, or so it seemed to Ria. Ria was contemplating her bedroll, wondering how close she could get to the fire and how long the scant flames would last when Darag broke the silence.

  “I don’t think this was done in a battle.”

  Darag leaned against the wall, Lavinia against his chest with a blanket around both of them. If it was anyone else, Ria would have worried about the wall collapsing, but she guessed Darag would have fused it solid and anchored it to the mountain itself before he allowed Lavinia to sit in its shadow.

  “It isn’t like what I saw at the Temple of Ice. The stones don’t show fire or water damage on them. There is no sign of an earthquake. It is like the Temple was blown apart and the pieces scattered.”

  “They knew they were going to lose. The Air Elementals destroyed the Temple rather than let it fall.” Zhao’s face was downcast as he looked into the flames. “I don’t know why the Elders forbid us to come to this place. There is nothing here.”

  “We don’t know what came to pass,” Niri said. “There are Air Elementals in the Church now, and there is you and three others who are free. Who knows what else there may be?”

  Zhao met Niri’s gaze. He sat up a little straighter when he looked away. Ria sighed and pulled open her blankets. She lay and listened to the wind howling along the ridge top and scraping the stones over the wall. Sparks from the fire drifted into the air slowly to be whisked upwards by the higher drafts, their light joining the stars. Ria thought about reaching out to touch the bits of fire, changing them in the way she had learned. She wished it would feel natural. The stars wavered in her vision. Ria fell asleep with cold tears on her cheeks.

  —

  When Ria opened her eyes, Niri, Ty, and Darag were already awake. The fire burned hot even though there was little fuel. Warmth radiated from the stones of the wall. Ria guessed that was due to Darag.

  But there was something else that picked at her senses. The look on her friends’ faces was somber, even a little strained. Niri frowned, a line between her brows. Ty sat near her, but leaned back on his arms, his body tense. Darag’s expression was hard to read. He sat with Lavinia’s head in his lap, his hands brushing her hair as she slept. But the air around him was thick with the potential of a brewing storm. It was as if they had already made a decision. One that was not popular. Ria sat up.

  Nothing was said until Zhao and Lavinia woke a few minutes later. Zhao looked forlornly around the scant remains of the Temple, his Temple. He didn’t seem to feel the weight of the silence, but Lav
inia did. As soon as she sat up, her eyes darted from Darag to Niri then to her brother. Darag put his arm around her.

  “I think there is only one thing we can do,” Niri said as they sat around the fire, which blazed on moss and twigs. “We will call the Curse and fight it here.”

  Ria started to tremble. Lavinia stiffened, pulling away from Darag.

  “No!” Lavinia exclaimed. She turned to face Darag, putting a hand on his chest. “You don’t know what it can do. You haven’t seen it.”

  “Dear Heart, I saw the boat. I know.”

  Lavinia rested her forehead against Darag’s shoulder, hair sliding forward to hide her face. Ria looked away to find Niri’s eyes on her.

  “I ... I don’t know. I’m not sure I could fight it. My power won’t let me kill anything. I don’t know what I could do.”

  Niri’s gaze didn’t waiver. “It is used to hunting down Spirit Elementals when they first use their abilities as children. Not an Elemental who can fight back, must less one that can use the other four elements.You are not alone. I was able to bind it for days the last time I fought it. Together, we can find a way to defeat the Curse and free you.”

  Ria felt like she was going to throw up. She looked away from Niri, breath coming fast and shallow so that the world spun and she couldn’t think.

  Darag’s voice cut through her frantic thoughts, “You will have me, as well.”

  Lavinia gave a muffled noise, pushing herself upright. There were tears in her eyes which flashed with anger. “If you are going to stand and fight, I will as well,” she said to Darag. “I will help you, Ria.”

  Darag gathered his wife back in his arms. “I never expected anything less.”

  “You have me,” Zhao said. “It is my fight now, too.”

  There was no one but her who looked afraid. Not one other person voiced an opposition to a plan that would surely lead to their deaths. Ria looked at her friends for some sign they were joking. Her gaze landed on Ty.

  “Ty?” Ria croaked.

  His downcast gaze flicked upwards, tracing across Ria to land on Niri.

  “Not here.”

  Niri blinked in surprise, her steady resolve melting. A fond smile flitted across Ty's face. He brushed a lock of Niri's hair away from her cheek.

  “There is no water here. What will you do, make it rain?” Ty teased her halfheartedly. “Ria uses the essence of life. What will she draw on, rocks? We will go down to a place near the stream, someplace where we will have the advantage.”

  Ria’s last hope faded, tasting ashes in her mouth and cold mud in the pit of her stomach. Ria knew she was going to die.