Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1)

by Sky Corbelli

  Chapter 49

  Complications

  “Taking the shot,” Sarah murmured. The railgun made an odd zapping sound as it kicked back into her shoulder. Both wind-scarred thrust their hands out and the bolt slowed to a stop a scant few centimeters from the fire-kissed's face. A tiny spark of electricity licking out from it to sting her nose.

  The beautiful woman stumbled back in shock, staring at the thin piece of metal for a brief instant before it rocketed away, spinning back toward the team on a wave of air. Mat pulled Sarah back from the edge, as the shot clipped the stone arch of the tower, sending out a shower of sparks and broken stone. It ricocheted into the bell, letting out a responding tone as it bounced harmlessly away.

  “What is that?” Stephen yelled over the bell's deep gong as it swung back and rung in earnest.

  “Ezra! Get us out of here!” Mat shouted, blood welling up along his cheek where a flying shard of rock had cut him. Ezra fumbled with his controller, coordinates already set for their jump to safety. Sarah leaned back to scoop up the weapons she had left on the floor, hands shaking. The portal materialized around them, and Ezra thought he might have seen the flash of a black robe cresting the tower before the scene was replaced with the cool quiet of the cave, their skiff idling a few meters away.

  Ezra took a deep, shaky breath as he tried to get his heart rate back under control. Sarah let out a breathless laugh and swept him into a fierce hug, kissing him hard on the cheek before grabbing Mat and pulling him over too. Her laughter turned to sobs after a few seconds, then she let go and waved them both away, wiping her eyes. “I think,” she said, swaying on her feet a little, voice exhausted, “that we should get out of here.”

  Mat stared at her for a few moments in silence, then burst out laughing, deep and rich. Sarah's face quirked as she tried to hold her own laughter in, but it still spilled forth, merry and delighted, a celebration of life. Ezra looked at the two of them like they were crazy, but the smile on his face quickly evolved into a few chuckles, and it wasn't long before he was wiping tears of relief from his own eyes. They all took a few moments to catch their breath then mounted up on the skiff, Mat navigating them back out of the cavern.

  “By the way, Hawkins,” Sarah said, eyes dancing. “You should really be careful with how much time you spend in the sun, especially after ill-advised swims in freezing pools of muck. You've got a fever again.”

  “Blight and thunder,” Mat exclaimed, swerving and narrowly missing a rock before he straightened out. “Again? I swear, Ezra, you're the most delicate Legacy pansy I've ever heard of. And thanks to your brilliant plan, we're out of fever reducers, so if you get heat-stroke and pass out on me, I will personally help Sarah dunk you in waterworks until you're the color of puke.”

  “I keep everything we need right here.” She tapped a storage compartment with her foot.

  “Ha, ha, guys,” Ezra said sarcastically, still smiling. “But it's no big deal. I mean, I've been sweating since the first night we were here. Once we get out of this blighted valley from hell and find someplace cooler, I'll be fine.”

  “Yeah,” Mat snorted, “someplace cooler. Like after we got rained on for two straight days. You were doing great then.”

  Ezra searched around for something to throw at Mat, then started patting himself down in panic. “Oh no,” he moaned. “I lost the book.”

  “Book?” Sarah asked.

  “The Will of the Elements. And only three days after I got it too.” Ezra groaned. “Gal's gonna kill me.”

  Sarah burst out laughing again as the mouth of the cavern yawned into view. “It's really not that funny, Sarah.” Ezra scowled at her.

  “No, it's not that,” she gasped. “It's... just imagine the look on that fire-kissed bitch's face when she gets to the top of that tower and finds another fire-kissed, all tied up, with an old copy of the thunder-struck holy book.”

  Mat chuckled along with Sarah. Ezra really tried to be upset, but the image of the enraged Besmirched puzzling over the nonsense scene was just too much. He couldn't help but smile as they came back out into the afternoon sunlight.

  ==

  They were forced to go about a hundred klicks in the wrong direction as they spent the rest of the day dodging two small black shadows that swooped back and forth across the valley, blocking the way they had come.

  “We should be able to turn off once we get clear of those mountains to the north and head for the portal in the Faringway Hills.” Mat scratched his stubble, looking the map over critically. “At least this way we won't be hunted by insane fire-kissed hotties and creepy wind-scarred twins. Still got a good three hundred klicks until we're in range to get a transmission through so the Guild knows we're coming, though. Unless...” He cocked an eyebrow at Ezra, nodding to the wormhole controller.

  Ezra shook his head. “No way, it'll suck this thing dry and probably won't even engage a port for more than a split second. Plus, we'd have to leave the skiff behind, and I'm done getting yelled at for recklessly endangering Sanctuary.”

  “Yeah, I figured,” Mat sighed, rubbing his head.

  Sarah eased them along a narrow gully carved out by a little creek. The fire's ravages had suddenly vanished, leaving untouched ground all around them. Ezra wondered idly if it had been caused by a fire-kissed after all, from the way it seemed to have been directed down the valley toward the Helena. They'd started sweeping the area every few kilometers for any unusual heat sources as soon as they cleared the last of the blackened earth. So far, nothing had come up.

  Ezra glanced at the maps. “So what's in the Faringway Hills?”

  “Meteoric iron,” Sarah said. “Lots of it. Or at least there was. Used to be a regular hot-spot of activity. The Besmirched were so keen to get their hands on the stuff that they took certain... liberties to encourage local cooperation. The Guild had a team out here at least once every other week dealing with one thing or another. Solid little city, Faringway. We have more friendly contacts there than on the rest of the continent combined.”

  “Some big-shot earth-crowned eventually came out there and settled it up for them. The town got a small fortune, and the crowned pulled about a hundred tons of the stuff out of the ground for the Besmirched and sent them on their way.” He gave Sarah a very direct look. “We're not stopping there, Sarah.”

  “But... but Hawkins has never tried Black Crater triple malt!” Sarah protested. “We can't go past Faringway without stopping by to see old Lou. She'd never let us hear the end of it, and it's been ages, Mat.” Her tone turned pleading. “Please? Just five minutes, for old time's sake.”

  “You can get Blair to send us out there some other time. We don't have to go within a fifty klicks of the place, so we won't, not while we've got information this hot.”

  Sarah grumbled for the next few hours. Daylight faded and the lightly wooded terrain became increasingly littered with rocks and boulders. They skirted around a small mountain that gave way to a flat plain. Off in the distance, like some giant's graveyard, huge rectangular shapes, some leaning at odd angles, stood out against the twilight sky.

  “What is that?” Ezra asked in a hushed voice.

  “One of the old cities,” Mat said reverently. “From back before the war.”

  “Do you know which one it is?” Ezra's eyes were still glued to the bizarre skyline, black against deep purple. “Have you ever explored one?”

  Mat shook his head. “We don't really go near them. No one does. Something about them just feels... wrong.” He shivered and pulled his coat around him more tightly. “Anyways, we should be close enough to send a message through to Sanctuary now. Ezra, care to do the honors?”

  Ezra connected to the skiff's net and broadcast a quantum tunneling message to the location of the wormhole. The message would find the connection path, made more obvious due to frequent use, and transmit the information back to Sanctuary instantaneously. “Um, this is Ezra Hawkins from research team eleven, calling home. Come in home.” He
waited for the response.

  It didn't come.