Blood of the Tallan (The Petralist Book 7)

by Frank Morin

  Earth grinned. “That is the Builder threshold! No Builder has ever successfully crossed it before today.”

  “You will be the first, and the greatest!” Air added enthusiastically, gesturing him toward the doorway. She wanted him to go through it so badly, he decided he didn’t trust her after all.

  “Verena is the greatest Builder, and Hamish is the other greatest,” he stated.

  “But you can be greater,” Earth insisted, his deep voice as smooth as the tiled floor leading to the hated bath.

  Air dropped to one knee, looking confused by his reluctance. “Boy, don’t you realize that once you step through that gateway, you’ll be able to unlock almost limitless power by drawing directly from the sylfaen. You won’t be limited to the paltry scraps like everyone else.”

  That did sound like fun. Maybe he was being overly cautious. He was talking with elemental beings, after all. Maybe they weren’t manipulative like adults. Nicklaus knew how to find out.

  “What can I do with Sylfaen power? Can I make better quartzite thrusters to fly?”

  Earth chuckled, a deep rumbling that made Nicklaus smile. “Of course, child. You could channel ten times the power through quartzite as any other Builder. You will fly higher and faster.”

  “And heal better, and make more amazing mechanicals,” Air added eagerly, reaching for his hand. Her skin was cool, like a breeze from a cave on a hot afternoon. She tugged him toward the gateway, and Nicklaus followed. The promises did sound amazing. He needed new thrusters, and it would be so much fun to fly with Hamish and teach him new tricks.

  Earth walked on the other side of him, grinning as happily as Air. It felt nice to please the elements, but as Nicklaus drew close to the shimmering doorway, he felt a growing reluctance. Something wasn’t right.

  “Does it hurt?” he asked.

  “Does what hurt?” Air asked at the same time Earth said, “No, of course not.”

  That answer was too quick, and his doubts returned in a flash. He stopped again, pointing at the doorway. “Going through there, becoming ascended. Connor said ascension is hard and that it hurts.”

  “Not for Builders,” Earth said.

  Air glanced from him to the doorway, her expression as hungry as the hunting cat he saw once at the king’s zoo. Nicklaus tried pulling his hand out of her grasp, but her fingers tightened around his and her pleasant smile vanished.

  “Just step through, and everything will be clear,” Earth said, his tone turning harder.

  “I don’t want to.” Nicklaus pulled harder, but Air would not release him. The wind that had been pushing him gently from behind gusted so hard, he stumbled a step closer to the doorway.

  They were definitely not telling the truth. Nicklaus dug in his heels and asked, “What do you get if I go through?”

  “Clever boy,” Earth said again, but he no longer sounded pleased. “You will step through that door. You cannot stop now. You activated the mechanical, just as I instructed you.”

  Air’s expression had turned fierce. It frightened him, and he tugged harder against her, but her grip was like iron. She pulled him another step closer. He was barely ten feet away from the doorway now. She hissed, “When you step through that doorway, you will open a path for us to escape our imprisonment. You will set us free just as you fight to free your own nation. Don’t you want to help us?”

  “Free,” Earth echoed softly, staring at the gateway. “No restraint, no boundaries. The world will be open to us with none to limit us ever again.”

  Nicklaus fixed them both with his most serious expression. “You’re really old, so you should know better than that.”

  “What?” Air asked, looking surprised.

  “No one gets to run free with no restraint, not even the king. Everyone has to follow laws, or the world would be crazy.”

  “We’re not human, so your laws do not apply to us,” Earth snapped.

  “The greater your power, the more restraint you need,” Nicklaus said, repeating the words Christin loved to recite to him. He couldn’t believe he was saying it, but since she wasn’t there to hear, she couldn’t remind him about it later. “You could do good, or do bad. It’s your choice, but if you choose bad, you could hurt a lot of people.”

  Christin would be very proud of him. He usually didn’t like her lectures because they were aimed at getting him to stop sneaking out at night, or to stop testing Builder battle mechanicals without supervision, or to stop him from breaking into the locked pantries for snacks at night. He would need to figure out how to justify doing all those things still, even though he was using the lecture on the elementals.

  “We choose to hurt everyone,” Earth stated, his voice cold and scary.

  “And you’ll be the first,” Air snarled, yanking his arm so hard she would have dislocated it in the real world. She pulled him right off his feet and hurled him at the gateway.

  They weren’t in the real world.

  The thought was like a lifeline, and Nicklaus seized it with all his strength. The elementals were liars. That made them as bad as the very bad man or the terrible queen, and Nicklaus did not like liars.

  With an effort of will, he stopped close enough to the gateway that his breath condensed upon it. He hung in the air of that affinityscape, fighting the current trying to drag him in. A knotted rope appeared in front of him and he seized the lifeline. It extended up into blackness, linking him back to the real world.

  The wind intensified into a mighty gale, screaming around him, tearing at his clothing. He clung to the lifeline back to the real world, and the knots dug into his hands, but he wouldn’t let go. That close to the gateway, he sensed the vast power on the other side, and the temptation to stick a single finger through to test it was as great as any temptation to sneak another sweetbread. But when Nicklaus glanced back at the shocked elementals, he was no longer tempted.

  “You cannot deny us!” Earth bellowed, charging, huge hands raised to slam Nicklaus through the gateway.

  “You should know better than to try to force me to do anything,” Nicklaus said and yanked as hard as he could on the rope. He shot upward, just barely avoiding Earth’s grasping fingers, and returned to his mind in a rush.

  He swayed, feeling sick as his senses returned. He was kneeling over the Time Out mechanical, a simple, square block of slate that he had painstakingly layered six dozen commands dictated by Earth.

  The liar.

  The battlefield was quiet, with soldiers standing in uneasy ranks, staring at the giant mounds of threatening earth. The smell of smoke and ash and mud assaulted his nose, and he smiled, relaxing a little. Those smells reminded him of lots of adventures he’d enjoyed around New Schwinkendorf.

  Aifric dropped to one knee beside him, her expression worried. “Nicklaus, what’s wrong? I feel earth changing. It’s like it’s angry, and the air suddenly feels threatening.”

  “Oh, they’re really mad. They lied to me. They want me to let them out to do bad things.” Nicklaus focused on Time Out, felt the crack of its power, and slammed it shut.

  That should take care of things.

  Except it didn’t.

  Every giant earthen monster lunged upward, bursting through the shell that made them look vague and unclear. The enormous creatures of earth were shaped like every imaginable nightmare. Some sported multiple arms, some multiple heads, all had scary fangs, and some carried clubs.

  In unison, they roared like earthquakes. The nearest ones, both humanoid creatures, had risen to flank either side of the Lossit gateway. They both swiveled toward Nicklaus, and one of them spoke with Earth’s voice.

  “You cannot stop us now, child. You touched the gateway, and we have begun our journey. The queen herself provides the path to our full escape, and you all will suffer for your insolence.”

  “Ah, Nicklaus, what’s going on?” Aifric asked nervously.

  Nicklaus tapped his universal speakstone, still linked to every piece of quartzite on the battlefield, and sho
uted, “Look out! Earth and Air are angry. They want to hurt everyone.”

  All across the battlefield, earthen monsters turned toward the nearest soldiers and charged. Wind suddenly shrieked past, raking at soldiers and whipping dirt into the air. High above, the huge Battalions twisted under an unexpected onslaught as gale-force winds pushed them east.

  Aifric muttered, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  The two monsters near Nicklaus lumbered toward them, enormous, rock-like fists rising.

  That was more like it. Most adults knew better than to try forcing him to do bad things, and now he was back in the real world with access to all his mechanicals. He’d show them.

  As Aifric moved to intercept the monster to his left, Nicklaus activated his hand thrusters. They wouldn’t provide a lot of thrust for a big man like Hamish, but for Nicklaus, they worked pretty well. He shot into the air, aiming straight at the right-side monster. It swept huge hands to swat him out of the sky, but he activated blind coal. He still had a little left. It would be enough.

  He shot through the grasping hands and dropped an activated piece of soapstone right down the monster’s open mouth before activating directional thrusters to dodge out of the way.

  Water exploded out of a reservoir barrel in a nearby shop and poured down the creature’s throat. It turned after him, but so much water cascaded into it that it quickly turned to mud and disintegrated. Nicklaus landed and kicked the melting head, stomping it into the muddy pile. That was a lot of fun.

  “Don’t do bad things,” he shouted at the melted creature.

  Nearby, Aifric and her sisters had severed the limbs of the other earth monster and were drowning it like he had. It seemed that Earth hadn’t escaped his prison nearly as much as he had claimed he had and didn’t seem capable of regenerating them. The liar.

  Many of the soldiers around the battlefield weren’t so lucky, though. Nicklaus saw a lot of brave soldiers getting stomped or swatted away. The Spitters and Sentries couldn’t stop all the monsters. Up in the sky, the Battalions’ thrusters roared, fighting the winds, and all their weapons began to fire again. Hopefully they were targeting the monsters.

  Then a blur of orange and silver shot over the central waterfall on the western edge of Lossit Valley. It arced down into the lower valley floor and shot through the embattled soldiers, somehow missing men and women, but exploding right through ten of the earthen giants. The blur crossed the valley, turned to shoot along the highway, then slowed nearby and skidded to a halt in front of Nicklaus.

  “Uncle Kilian! Can you show me how to run like that?” he cried, delighted by the idea.

  “Maybe later,” Kilian said, dropping to his knees beside Nicklaus and lowering Verena to the ground. She looked badly hurt, and Aifric immediately joined them to tend to her. Nicklaus hated seeing Verena hurt, and he felt even angrier at whoever did that than he did at the elementals.

  Uncle Kilian grabbed his shoulder and said, “I thought the elementals were pushing you through a gateway.”

  He usually looked happy, even when other people looked worried, but at the moment he looked concerned. Nicklaus didn’t want Uncle Kilian to worry, so he shrugged and said, “They tried, but they were liars, so I didn’t go.”

  Kilian laughed and hauled him into a fierce embrace. Nicklaus laughed with him and said, “Can we go kill earth monsters together? Earth is angry and so he’s trying to kill everyone. Air is throwing a tantrum. I thought they were old, but they sure aren’t acting it.”

  Uncle Kilian heaved a sigh of relief. “Leave the monsters to me. We’re not safe yet. Despite the wind, I think you should head up to Battalion One with Jean. Can you get up there?”

  “I think so.” He had extra pieces of quartzite he could use as makeshift boost thrusters until he got some more boots. He bet Hamish had extra pairs. Jean would know where to find them.

  “Good. Now make sure to listen this time and get right up there,” Kilian said, his tone and his fire-filled gaze making it clear he would not tolerate detours. Nicklaus figured he should probably listen, for once.

  His speakstone spoke in Lady Jean’s voice. “Nicklaus! I need Kilian!”

  “What’s going on?” Kilian asked, leaning closer. Lady Jean sounded scared, and that made Nicklaus scared too.

  “Aonghus has Hamish. He’s killing him. I’m coming, but can you help?”

  Uncle Kilian scowled, with points of fire glinting in his eyes. “What’s that boy thinking fighting Aonghus?”

  He rose and turned, scanning the area. “There!”

  Nicklaus lifted ten feet into the air using secondary thrusters and spotted Aonghus, the very bad man. He was shouting at two of the earth monsters that were lumbering toward him. Hamish was stuck in some earth next to Aonghus, his face bloody. The sight enraged Nicklaus and he leaned forward, calling upon all of his thrusters. He hated not having boot thrusters because he accelerated so slowly. He would shoot Aonghus for hurting Hamish.

  Uncle Kilian jumped up and grabbed him right out of the air. “Oh, no young man. Not you. Stay here with Aifric until I get back.”

  Aifric joined them and took Nicklaus’ hand before he could rush off. She looked worried and asked, “Are the elements really turning against us?”

  “It’s complicated. We need to deal with them until Connor destroys the gateway they’re trying to use.”

  “What gateway?”

  “My mother,” he said grimly.

  Aifric paled, and Kilian leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips. “Don’t worry so much. We’ll figure it out.”

  Then he rushed off, with flames trailing behind him. They seemed a little brighter than before, and he ran super-fast again, flashing past Aonghus before the very bad man even felt him coming. Kilian knocked him flying before again running right through the earth monster that had been advancing on him.

  Hamish shouted, “Don’t kill him! He’s mine.”

  It was good for Hamish to be so brave, but maybe he should be a little more careful. Nicklaus looked up and giggled. Aifric was staring after Kilian, mouth agape, one hand raised to her face, cheeks bright. It didn’t look like she had expected that kiss.

  “You’re Uncle Kilian’s girlfriend!” he laughed.

  “I certainly hope so,” she breathed, and Nicklaus heard the faint sound of a whole lot of ladies cheering.

  Then the ground all around Hamish and Aonghus disintegrated under an intense barrage from the Battalions. High explosive and penetrator rounds detonated with thunderous reports, shredding the ground and covering everything in billowing clouds of smoke and dirt and debris. Fire and shrapnel and clouds of pumice billowed out, consuming everything.

  58

  An Elemental Conspiracy

  Connor remained alone on the broken plateau, with the mad queen rising slowly into the air nearby. He felt confident Kilian could keep Verena safe, and although he would have loved Kilian’s dauntless support dealing with his mother, at least he wouldn’t be responsible for getting Kilian killed like he had Evander.

  “I am not completely dead yet,” Evander’s voice reached him from the corner of his mind where the giant now resided.

  “Good. Please share any ideas you get on how to deal with your grandmother,” Connor replied as he shot into the air toward the queen.

  She’d risen slowly higher, arms thrown wide, head back, black-eyed stare vacant, mouth open in a silent scream. Although he’d severed the chert connection to her mind, she was screaming inside her head so loud he couldn’t entirely shut her out, and her mad shrieking echoed all around like faint whispers from desperate ghosts.

  He didn’t want to feel sorry for her, but it was hard not to. Yes, she was an insane, cruel murderess, but her overwhelming terror rattled him right through his mental shields. Emotion pouring off of her like heat from an out-of-control heatstone oven, wrapping him in mindless terror that threatened to undermine his own courage. She understood the trap she’d fallen into, had feared that very fate
for centuries, and was fighting it with all her power. She wasn’t going to win.

  Her terror did not change the fact that he had to kill her to stop her suffering, end her reign of terror, and stop the elementals from rising to wreak untold destruction across the world.

  Connor pushed aside his worries and focused on his target. The queen seemed oblivious to her surroundings, entirely trapped within her own mind in the battle to slow the elementals from destroying her. He should be able to finally hurt her.

  So he wove water and fire, earth and air together into an elemental blade fifty feet long. As he shot past, he slashed it across her torso, hoping to sever her limbs like Daulah’s whip-sword had done.

  His sword deflected aside bare inches from her skin, and he muttered a curse. She wasn’t making things very easy for him. Or, more likely, the elementals were protecting their vehicle to freedom.

  Connor switched tactics, slowing to a hover twenty feet from the queen, about seventy feet in the air, and wrapped her in all of the elements. He added serpentinite to the mix, using the sound of Verena’s laughter to reinforce the mix, then he spun up the mixed elements, forming a whirlwind around the queen, pressing it inward with all his strength.

  The whirlwind scraped around her, but even with serpentinite, he couldn’t quite gain purchase. Attacking her with elements was simply not going to work. Connor floated closer, releasing the elements so he could press his hands against the queen’s invisible shielding. It formed an unbroken seal around her, about three inches thick, totally impervious to his touch or his elemental affinities. It was the most comprehensive shield he’d ever encountered.

  That was super annoying.

  Water appeared in the air beside Connor, and she looked mad. “We will not allow you to destroy our vessel, Connor.”

  “You’re not free yet,” Connor protested. “You can’t stop me.”

  “We have crossed enough of the bridge to manifest our will upon this land in small degree. You can never breach our shield using our own powers against us,” she replied confidently.