by Frank Morin
"Don't load them too fast. I'm going to have to adjust the lift force to keep us aloft while people get on board."
Bruno nodded understanding, and she was grateful he came along because his deep, commanding voice instilled a modicum of order. Jean forced herself to not pay attention as the elfonnel systematically destroyed the Builder compound, drawing dangerously close to where they were loading. If it decided to target them next, they were all dead.
Thankfully Gisela rushed out of a nearby doorway, waving and shouting. "Stop! Taking me with you!"
"Hurry!" Almost everyone was aboard, and the wagon was barely holding them all aloft, even though she had nearly maxed the lift force. Jean pulled Gisela up beside her.
"Where were you?" Jean asked, breathless with relief at seeing Gisela alive.
"I having gone to make sure all people are knowing to run."
"If they're not out now, it's too late." Jean hated deciding some people couldn't be saved, but as a healer, she knew that hard decisions were necessary.
"Bruno, push this wagon around or we're not going anywhere," she cried.
They had drifted to within five feet of the nearest wall. Maybe that's why the elfonnel hadn't noticed them yet, sheltered under that eave. Bruno leaped down from the bench and shouted for the last two men to help.
As the wagon sluggishly turned, Jean and Gisela pulled Bruno up beside them. "All on. Go two times!"
Jean moved the keystone to the rear thruster lever and twisted it hard. The thrusters released a whirlwind against the nearby building, cracking the wood, and driving the wagon slowly away. The tightly-packed mass of people cheered.
Gisela hugged her. "I not believing we all fit."
Jean switched the keystone to the lever controlling lift thrust and turned it all the way, pulling the last reserves from the huge thrusters. As the wagon began to climb, she looked for Dierk.
She’d gotten everyone, so it was the perfect time to get that bomb from the last workroom. The big door was already open. It was a miracle the elfonnel hadn't destroyed the long row of workrooms yet. It had just turned toward the southern end of the compound, ripping apart buildings and rampaging through the structures like a child smashing play blocks.
Her wagon clawed sluggishly into the air. It seemed to take forever to reach eight feet. She didn't dare apply more push thrust until they got higher.
She spotted Dierk rumbling back toward them in the empty windrider. He was flying lower than last time, aimed toward the last workroom and the huge bomb.
The elfonnel turned back toward the north and spotted him. It stood over fifty feet tall, and if it glanced farther to its left, it would spot Jean's helpless wagon.
It made a grabbing gesture. The waters that had been beating against the badly leaning inner barrier gathered together and formed a gigantic hand that snatched at Dierk's wagon.
Jean wanted to scream at him to look out, but she didn't dare draw the elfonnel's deadly gaze. Dierk rolled his wagon right onto its side, and the push thrusters, now aimed horizontal, threw the wagon off its previous course. The aggressive move saved his life, and the snatching waters missed by a terrifyingly small margin.
Even as the initial wave fell back, more water leaped after him. Dierk pivoted the wagon away and threw wide every thruster, again firing the puking dooms built into the wagon's bottom. Water struck from two sides, and for a second he was concealed in a billowing cloud of fire, water, and hissing steam.
Then the windrider erupted from the cloud, ascending at a steep angle away from the Builder compound. Grasping tendrils of water snatched after it, ripping away pieces of railing and the entire rear gate, but not gaining enough purchase to stop the powerful wagon from rising further.
"He has escaping," Gisela breathed, then cast a worried glance back at the elfonnel that was still focused on the retreating Dierk, its face twisted into an ugly expression of hate.
Jean risked applying some directional thrust for a moment to pivot their wagon farther to the left. Until they rose above the tall building housing the Builder workrooms, they would remain mostly concealed from the angry elfonnel's view.
She straightened out a moment later and risked adding more push thrust. They had to get more distance from that monster. She glanced to where Dierk had risen to over a thousand feet and begun to bank back toward the Builder compound. The elfonnel was still watching him, rippling watery arms raised in fury.
She realized with cold dread that Dierk would die if he tried to land again.
He could not get the bomb out.
Her wagon was rising very slowly, but maybe it would be enough. The waters no longer built into towering waves against the inner barrier. The elfonnel had breached the defenses around other parts of the compound, and waters were flooding in there. Her wagon was slowly accelerating, pointing more or less in the right direction.
They did not need her any more.
Jean adjusted the lift thrusters until the wagon leveled out at ten feet. Then she turned to Gisela. "Listen. When you reach those hills, the wagon should run aground, so make sure everyone jumps clear before it crashes. It'll probably start ascending as the weight decreases, so make sure no one stays aboard."
She shuddered to think of anyone getting trapped on the wagon. It'd ascend until the lift thrusters gave out and then plummet back down.
"What you talking about?" Gisela exclaimed, a renewed look of terror on her face.
Jean took a deep breath, not wanting to accept what she had just realized. "What do you think that thing's going to do once it finishes destroying the Builder compound? None of us are going to be safe unless we can find a way to slow it down until help arrives."
"What are saying?" Gisela asked.
"Dierk can't get that bomb, and it's the only chance we have."
Jean was out of time. They weren't going fast, but were still accelerating. She gripped Gisela's hands in farewell, then waved to Bruno. "Thanks for your help. Without you, none of us would have survived."
Then she jumped.
Chapter Forty
"A single petal of the rose, though ripped asunder by the torrent, hints at the beauty of the flower thus destroyed."
~Evander
The Storm tore through the air with Hamish at the controls, every push thruster roaring at max power. Connor sat behind Hamish, ducked low to shield himself from the brutal wind. Verena sat beside Hamish, their helmets protecting their faces from the beating. She had offered to take a turn piloting the Storm, but he had refused.
Kilian sat on Connor's right, behind Verena, and Martys sat to his left. Aifric, who had leaped aboard when they landed at Harz, had fallen asleep not long after they took off. She slumbered without moving, despite the roaring thrusters and the rushing wind that whipped her hair.
Connor worried about her lingering weakness. Once they verified Jean was all right, she really needed to take a closer look at Aifric. If that failed, he would try the power of his sculpted sandstone pendant. It unleashed such a torrent of healing power, he barely had to direct it to accomplish miraculous healings. Certainly with Aifric to guide him, he could figure out how to resolve her problem.
First they had to reach the Builder compound.
Kilian had met them at the keep. He hadn't wanted to leave while the battle still raged, but he'd agreed that the strategic value of the Builder compound couldn't be ignored either.
"I think Wolfram's lines will hold," he had said as they lifted off and soared away from the fortress. "I was helping only in subtle ways. Their training with mixing elements is really paying off."
They hadn't spoken much in the hour and a half that followed. Hamish pushed the Storm to its uttermost limits, his hands clutching the control rods, even though it didn't need constant attention once they reached cruising speed. Verena had expressed worry at one point that he might exhaust the thrusters before they reached the Builder compound if he continued pushing so hard.
Hamish had only said, "We have spare
s. We'll figure out how to replace them in the air."
Verena had shared a worried look with Connor, then placed a comforting hand on Hamish's shoulder.
His expression turned anguished and he said, "I couldn't do anything for Ingrid, but I will not allow Jean to die. We have to save her."
"We all want to save her," Connor assured him.
"Then look for ways to help, and don't suggest I slow down again."
So far the plan appeared to be working. The thrusters were holding. Hamish had found a good tailwind that gave them extra speed, and they had raced north over Granadure faster than birds or clouds.
Connor hoped it would be enough. He didn't think Shona had been lying, but he hoped she had been. Attacking the undefended Builder compound was a master stroke, so it made sense that Dougal had thought of it. Connor spent several minutes mentally kicking himself for not having suggested some kind of defense for that vital strategic target.
All of a sudden, Kilian sat bolt upright, his eyes blazing with living fire, and he grabbed Hamish's shoulder. "Stop!"
"Why?" Hamish asked, although he did ease the thrusters and slow so they could actually hear each other talking over the wind.
"We've been fooled," Kilian growled, looking south, back the way they had come. "An elfonnel has risen south of Harz. Fire bound."
"Oh, no," Verena gasped.
Connor tapped marble and flung out feelers of thought toward the south. He felt it too. Something vast and terrifying was moving far to the south, like a distant thundercloud in his marble senses.
"How can you tell where it is?" he asked.
"Practice." Kilian was frowning. "By why isn't it at Harz? It feels more distant, almost as if . . ."
His voice trailed off and he muttered something in Grandurian that had to be a swear word.
"What is it?" Verena asked. Everyone but Aifric was leaning closer to hear. She was still lost in that deep stupor.
"Emmerich Quarry is southeast of Harz. It was one of the locations I sent messengers to request they hunt for an obsidian weakening stone."
"How could Dougal know we were looking for that?" Verena asked.
"I have no idea, but it can't be coincidence. The sense I get is that it is moving north. It won't take long for an elfonnel to lay waste to the quarry and move against Harz. The battle will still be raging, and everyone will be distracted. It'll take them by surprise from the flanks."
"They'll be slaughtered," Hamish said, his face white with horror.
"Shona lied to us," Verena growled, glancing at Connor.
"It appears so," Kilian said,
Connor shook his head. "I still think she believed what she told me."
"Then maybe her da be more of a fiend than we thought," Martys said.
"Or maybe she thought she could win you back some other way," Verena told Connor. By her tone, it was clear she was thinking Connor was still susceptible to Shona's wiles. "If she thought the lie would distract us all long enough to win at Harz, she might have figured it was worth it."
Kilian said, "Whatever the reason, I have to go back. This is exactly what I feared might happen."
"I'm not turning around," Hamish said, gripping the control levers tighter, as if ready to fight over them.
Kilian opened his mouth to argue, but then he gasped, "Another elfonnel! Water bound."
"How is it possible?" Connor asked.
The thought of one new elfonnel terrified him. Kilian's stories of how multiple elfonnel had ripped the continent apart and cast it into the broken waters made him cringe. Not even Dougal could be that vengefully stupid, could he?
"Where?" Verena asked.
"North. The waters north of the Builder compound have risen."
Connor embraced soapstone, and as soon as he focused in that direction, he felt it too, like a tempest looming dark and ominous on the distant horizon.
"Shona wasn't lying." Life would have been so much simpler if she had.
"But it appears she wasn't telling us the whole truth either," Verena retorted.
"We have to go!" Hamish shouted.
"Yes, you must," Kilian said, his expression grim. "But I cannot allow the army to be overrun either."
"We can't stop an elfonnel alone," Verena protested.
"You must try. Connor, if you must use one of your aunt's stones, do not attempt to ascend. You're not ready, and the attempt would kill you. Do not give in to the elements, either. They'll tempt you to surrender to them, but that path leads to destruction."
"Don't you have any positive advice?"
They'd barely survived a fight with the elfonnel at the Carraig, and that was with Evander helping, and with an army at his back. "I might need some porphyry if things go badly."
He kept his expression calm as he spoke, but his fingers shook with an intense reawakened desire to get his hands on the dangerous, purplish powder. Porphyry had saved him at the Carraig, and if he needed to fight another elfonnel to get Kilian to share some with him, maybe it would be worth it.
"If the compound still stands, Verena knows how to find it," Kilian said after a brief pause. "But attempt it only in a moment of utmost desperation. Death by porphyry could be worse than death by elfonnel."
"I'll be careful," Connor promised, but his heart sang.
He glanced at Verena, and swallowed his excitement. She was frowning, her expression worried. He'd have to shield how badly he wanted it, or she'd never agree to show him where it was hidden.
For a second, he worried about that ravening hunger for porphyry. It didn't seem healthy, somehow. He didn't want Jean to die, but he didn't want to die either. He'd been forced to nearly die for a good cause enough times that the novelty had worn off.
He could survive porphyry. He'd done so before, and with every other affinity, it got easier to master with use. Could porphyry really be so different?
Kilian said urgently, "I left defensive wards in place around the Builder compound that should help delay even an elfonnel, although not for long. Connor, you must distract it until the rest of you can get the people out."
"We'll bring them to Faulenrost," Verena promised.
"That's a good start, but it may not be enough. I'll send aid, or come myself as soon as possible."
He gripped Connor's arm and his gaze grew freakishly intense, with one eye blazing with blue fire, and the other filled with frothing white water. "Take no unnecessary chances. Trust yourself, but don't get cocky. Water elementals hate fire, but your best chance might be to open a pit and swallow it in the earth."
"How big of a pit?" Connor asked while Hamish growled, "we have to go!"
"Big enough to stop an elfonnel."
Could he really make a hole that big? To move so much ground would weigh . . . well, more than he could calculate. He might not have a choice, because come Tallan or tombstones, he would not allow the monster Camonica had just unleashed to kill Jean.
"Good luck," Kilian said, then rolled over the side of the Storm. Flames blasted out from his feet and hands, and he shot away, angling down toward the silvery ribbon of a distant river.
"That man's got style," Aifric muttered, sitting up in the back row and rubbing her eyes.
Connor said, "He's been saving up. Hasn't needed it much in the past couple hundred years."
As soon as Kilian dropped away, Hamish threw wide the release rate on the push thrusters again, and the Storm accelerated again.
Connor got a sudden idea and clambered past Aifric to the cramped bed of the Storm. He picked up a couple spare thrusters out of one of the crates in the back, braced himself in the wagon bed, then gestured Martys to join him.
"What be ye thinking, laddie?" Marty asked as he squatted in the space beside Connor.
"Verena, can you activate these for us?" Connor asked.
She understood immediately. "We should have thought of that before."
"Didn't really need to," Connor said as she jumped nimbly to the back row of seats and leaned over him. "T
he Storm's crazy fast, and we hadn't felt the elfonnel yet."
Verena slid a caressing finger down his cheek, then touched the stone he held against his chest. Air erupted from the back of it, driving it against him so hard that he had to tap granite to keep it from crushing his ribs.
"Better tap granite, Uncle," he groaned as Verena shifted to Martys. His skin faded to gray half a second before air blasted out of his thruster too.
"The sacrifices we make for our friends," Martys growled.
"I can feel the difference," Hamish shouted from the front. "Verena, give them breathstones. I'm going to ascend higher to look for a faster tailwind. It might get hard to breathe."
Connor hoped he found one. Jean was running out of time.
Chapter Forty-One
"Storm crows gather to feast upon the battlefield, but the strong heart must endure."
~Evander
Jean rushed into Verena's workroom, sprinting faster than ever before. The ground shook, and water was starting to seep in through the far door. She tore through the room, barely slowing to snatch up a catch-fall harness before rushing back outside. Behind her, wood splintered as the inner wall of Verena's workroom collapsed.
The elfonnel had finally targeted that building.
Cursing herself for jumping out of her best chance of salvation, Jean sprinted to the last workroom. Timbers groaned and metal shrieked as the elfonnel laid waste to Verena's workroom behind her, but Jean refused to listen.
She raced inside, then nearly screamed in frustration. The doors were already open, and the windrider sat right there, with that giant bomb in the bed, but it was pointing the wrong way.
Jean scrambled aboard the high pilot bench. She placed the keystone over the third lever, the one that should control slip-spin-turning, pressed it into place, then slowly twisted it.
Nothing happened.
The sounds of destruction were growing closer, and Jean's heart beat so fast she could barely breathe. The clinical part of her mind recognized the onset of panic. It began documenting all of the issues that came with that, including the loss of rational thought and fine motor control, which she needed to handle the keystone.
