by Ellie Margot
Riette didn’t speak.
“You can’t tell me you don’t want to leave here. Tell me there’s something else stopping you other than fear.” Corin nodded once when Riette said nothing.
Corin continued. “Whatever can save us is outside of these trees because there’s nothing in here that can. We would have found it already. That kind of fire can’t be put out. Not with all the water powers in Vitan.”
“It’s a magic flame.”
“So only magic can stop it,” said Corin. “Whatever we need is something we don’t have. We would have been able to handle it with our elemental powers if it was possible. We need someone who can do something.” She took a step forward.
“What about Cassian?”
“Cassian would never let me leave.”
“And he would never forgive me for letting you go.”
“Then don’t tell him. Say you didn’t see me.” Corin turned.
Riette put her hand on her arm, and Corin stilled.
“I can’t lie to him.” Riette knew it was true before she said it. She had never lied to him before. “This is going to kill him, let alone Mekhi.”
“Then come with me. All of you. Convince them. I’ll wait down there. Everything we need to find could be at the bottom of the hill.”
“Cliff.”
“Down there. We could all cross the Broken Seas together, and we’ll return together. Vitan will be better for it.”
“Corin.” Riette’s words were lost in the sound of the leaves crunching underfoot as Corin walked away. “Corin!”
Corin touched a tree at the forest’s edge and looked back at Riette.
She waved her hand in a small wave, and then she was gone, deeper into the woods, headed toward the cliffs and into a world that neither of them knew.
Chapter 5
She’s gone.
Riette swallowed and pulled the ends of her hair. She kept looking at the edge of the forest, waiting for Corin to appear, willing it to happen, but nothing did. Taking slow steps, one following the other, she drew closer.
Shit.
Riette turned, her body in full running form. Every ounce of energy she thought she’d lost rushed back into her body. She ran, and she pushed herself.
Mekhi was closer to her from this side than Cassian was. All the Elves with water powers were closest to the sea. Their tree houses were clustered together as if by proximity, they could get more life-giving energy.
Maybe they could.
Riette ran faster. The forest wasn’t as dark now. Though the sun hadn’t fully risen, the edges glowed against the tree cover.
Mekhi’s tree came into view. Riette’s hand flew up to summon the vine. As if sensing the urgency, the vine wrapped quickly, enveloping her. She whipped into the air and landed on the stoop before she knew it. The house was larger than many others, Riette’s excluded. It had two great doors and open windows down each side. The roof was thatched in natural covering, and the house itself was quiet.
No one in the house was awake yet. Mekhi had several siblings, all much younger. Being related, Riette knew that one of them being up would set off all the others.
She quieted her steps, walked through the doors, and moved to the door to Mekhi’s room. When she cracked open the door, Mekhi was still sleeping, part of his head barely sticking out from under layers of bedding. He cocooned himself in sleep like she did as a child.
Riette smiled for a second before being sobered by her fear for Corin. When she pulled his arm, Mekhi awoke instantly, the warrior in him coming to life as he jerked out of bed, throwing the bedding to the floor.
“What’s wrong, Riette?”
“Corin.”
“Is she okay?”
“I don’t know.”
Mekhi put his hands on her arms. “Tell me what happened.”
“She left. I saw her sneaking out, and I tried to stop her, but she’s gone. I tried to talk to her, to stop her, but she didn’t listen. She shrugged me off and went on already.”
Mekhi held her. His hold wasn’t hard, and his breath shuddered, and then he released her before running a hand through his hair and down his face to gather his thoughts. A curse escaped from his lips, and his mouth formed a frown.
A moment passed while Mekhi seemed to process this new disaster, and Riette’s stomach clenched as she watched him.
“Does Cassian know?” he asked.
“I came here first. You were closer.”
“What did she say when she left you?”
“She told me she’d wait for us if we wanted to join her but that she couldn’t stay here anymore.”
Mekhi turned. He walked to his closet and pulled out a shirt to throw over his torso. He kept the pants on that he wore.
“Let’s go tell him.”
They made it to Cassian’s in record time. They vined to the top of his structure and prepared to walk inside his house, but they didn’t have to. He was already sitting there, the darkness his companion, with a cup in his hand. No one else was around. They did a cursory glance. Cassian stood.
“They’re sleeping,” Cassian said, answering the unspoken question. He took a sip of his drink before focusing his attention on Mekhi. “I know Corin isn’t home. I’ve looked. Where is she?”
“She’s gone,” Riette said. She stood in front of Mekhi, trying to pull Cassian’s attention from him.
Cassian stood. “What do you mean she’s gone?”
“She left. I caught her sneaking out.”
“I knew the second she left. I thought she was trying to meet him.”
“We don’t sneak out,” said Mekhi.
“Bullshit.”
“One time doesn’t make a habit.”
“If I had thought for one second she was doing anything else, I would have done something.”
“The bigger issue here is that Corin has left. I saw her walk away myself. I couldn’t see her anymore. The brush was too thick.” Any other possibility gave her pause. Riette cleared her throat. “She said she’d wait for us if we wanted to join her.”
“It’s fucking suicide,” said Cassian.
“We’ll get her back,” said Mekhi. His voice was strong and didn’t waver, and he squared his shoulders.
“We will,” said Riette, walking over to Cassian and grabbing his hand. “We will.”
He nodded.
“We’re going,” said Riette. “We have no choice. She can’t go down there alone. If we hurry, we can still catch her before she makes any more mistakes. We need to pack, though. We can’t go into this blind.”
“Did she have anything with her?” asked Cassian.
“A bag. I know her lieng is in there. I saw the tree peeking out, but her bag was small. It can’t be holding much.”
“She didn’t want me to catch her leaving. Fuck, if I had just done something.”
“No, there’s no time for blaming yourself,” said Riette.
“She’s right. We can’t beat ourselves up and save her at the same time.”
“Get some stuff. Just in case, essentials only, and we’ll meet at dawn to leave before too many people are awake.”
“You don’t think it’s too late to save her?” asked Cassian. To anyone else, this would sound callous, but Cassian needed absolutes, especially when it came to the people he loved.
“We will find her,” said Riette, and no one said anything else.
Chapter 6
Riette summoned a vine first to leave Cassian’s. She had waited a moment, but no one had said anything else. What could anyone say at a time like this?
Cassian turned, his shoulders hunched, but he didn’t need any help to be haunted. She feared that the idea of losing Corin would push him over his own edge.
Mekhi joined her, his hand summoning. The vines found them quickly, wrapping and wrapping, and then floated them down to the ground. They walked a short distance before Riette turned and faced Mekhi, hugging him before he could prepare for it.
His han
ds wrapped around her, and he shook a little after settling into the hug. She hadn’t needed to hear anything from Mekhi to know how much it was weighing on him. He was a water power. They felt everything more fully, so it wasn’t something that needed to be said. And Mekhi loved Corin in his own way, even if it was new and confusing.
They let go of each other and walked to their separate homes. Riette vined to her landing. She wanted to visit her father’s grave before they left because although she wouldn’t say it out loud, she knew there was a good chance she’d never get to visit his grave again, and she could swing it timewise, but barely. If she died, her father’s grave would go unvisited. She knew that much. She had to get her things first, though. Her mother would be up any minute, if she wasn’t already.
Riette went to her room, grabbed the biggest bag she could reasonably manage, and threw in some clothes, choosing the new fire-wielder additions to her wardrobe over her old favorites.
There was an emergency pack of Vitan tree twigs she knew she needed. She could recharge naturally in Vitan, but even with her limited knowledge, she knew she couldn’t have access to her powers really without them.
Bark would help too. She whistled for it, and the small sapling appeared in her window, jumping inside the opening into her room. The lieng was barely a stick, and any other family would have rooted him already, but Riette couldn’t stomach the idea of losing him.
Her father had given him to her. Bark was the first bit of responsibility she’d had. He could be annoying, but he was hers. She gestured for him to get into the bag, but he ran to her instead, rubbing against her leg. It had a face and mouth, arms and legs, but it couldn’t speak in a traditional sense.
“In the bag,” Riette said.
Bark couldn’t talk, but he shook a little to show his displeasure at the idea.
“Now, Bark.”
He yipped, his eyes narrowing, and he showed some teeth at it. At least he got into the bag, though. Riette made sure he was comfortable before moving to the dresser.
She opened the top dresser drawer and grabbed one of the main things that mattered to her on this earth, the necklace her grandmother had given her when she was very young. Even then, Riette had known it was special. A soft, pliable stone in the center glowed when she touched it, but she still didn’t know what power it held.
She slipped it into the bag with everything else, though part of her worried Bark might eat it. He tended to eat anything that was pure mineral, wood excluded. She shuddered at the idea of how many splinters would be in it when she got it again.
With everything in her bag, she slipped to the awning edge in the main room. Setting her intentions on the graves, she summoned the vine.
Riette thought she heard the rustlings of her mother behind her, but she couldn’t be sure, and she didn’t look back to confirm it.
With the wind whipping around her, Riette landed in the center of the sacred area. She walked to her father’s grave and lowered herself to her knees, dropping the bag beside her and looking at the stone that marked his grave from the others.
“I’m leaving.” She touched the stone, and her tattoo tingled at the contact. She rubbed it to quiet the energy. It worked but only slightly, leaving the hum of the magic underneath her skin still there.
The wind rustled again.
“Somehow, I don’t think you’d fight me on this. Is that crazy?”
She shook her head, biting her lip, and a tear seeped out.
“I don’t even know what took you from me,” she said, her voice barely a whisper. “I’m going to fix this. Everything. I’ll save Vitan or die trying. I promise you.”
Her hair flew into her face, making it impossible to see.
“I’ll be back, Grandmother. Don’t worry.” The wind whistled through the leaves again, and Riette knew it carried the essence of her grandmother with it.
Her hair smacked her face.
“Okay, I know you don’t worry about anything, but I’m saying I’ll be okay. I always am.”
After the wind settled again, Riette stood, grabbed the bag, and turned to leave. A vine wrapped around her middle and squeezed.
“I love you too.”
The vine let go but not before wrapping around her leg and tugging.
Riette almost fell before the vine pulled her again. Hard. She landed on her stomach and looked up at the tree.
“What the hell, Grandmother?” When she tried to stand up, the vine yanked her again. Riette hit the ground in frustration and pulled back when something stuck her palm. Small Vitan vines were all over the ground in front of her, all the way to her father’s grave behind her. The leaf pattern they had reminded her of something.
The arm bands. The ones her father had given her. She had forgotten.
“I’ll get them,” she said, and the vine released her. Riette stood, wiping off her clothes before leaving by vine right then. It would be a miracle if Alluette was still sleeping at this point, and she didn’t have any time to lose.
The vines dropped Riette off on the landing, and she moved into a crouched position. Placing her hand on the floor, she slipped the bag off her back and listened for the tell-tale noises that would let her know that her mother was awake. She didn’t hear any.
She walked into her bedroom and opened the closet once more. In the back, in a small box, was one of the last gifts her father had ever given her, the arm bands. They weren’t a normal accessory for Elves. In fact, Riette had wondered why her father had given them to her at all. She’d asked him as such.
“Because one day, you’ll need them, and you’ll be glad I did.”
“Not if I don’t know what they do.”
“It’s what they keep you from doing. You’ll know when you need to.”
The memory brought a smile to Riette’s face. She didn’t know if she needed them now, but if something did happen, maybe they would help her out of something. She held them in her hands, but then her door opened, and she turned to see her mother watching her.
“I haven’t seen those in years,” Alluette said.
“I got sentimental after the other day.”
“It’s hard to avoid when you make a habit of visiting.”
“You don’t go? Ever?”
“That’s far from the truth, but I go to visit. You go to find something.”
“Find what?”
“I was hoping you’d tell me.”
“Maybe I want answers,” Riette said. She knew she didn’t have the time or the ability to get the answers she needed from her mother. It had been a while since her father had passed, and Alluette still refused to talk about what happened. His heart, she’d confessed once, but what about it, she’d never told her.
And then there were the trees on fire.
“Don’t we all, my girl. Don’t we all.” Alluette walked farther into the room. She touched Riette’s face. Riette tried to not to flinch under the scrutiny. A quick glance outside showed that she’d already run out of time. The last thing she wanted was for the others to think she had chickened out. She couldn’t.
“Do you have plans this morning?” her mother asked. The question was innocent, but her face was pinched in the bridge above her nose. Alluette knew something was wrong. Riette knew better than to think otherwise, but knowing it was something wasn’t the same as knowing the truth. Being suspicious could be its own problem, though.
“Cassian is waiting on me,” Riette said. “And Mekhi.”
“Ah, Cassian.”
Alluette’s tone brought a flush to Riette’s cheeks. She never thought of Cassian like that. Everyone thought otherwise, though, her mother more than anyone else.
Riette hugged her mother, cutting off her own rebuttal in the process.
“I love you,” Riette said. She squeezed her again.
“Riette?”
“Pardon me for interrupting,” said Jackson. He was Alluette’s main aide. If the Elves had an army, he would be the general. They both turned, and Riette rel
eased her.
“Your briefing.”
“Of course,” Alluette said. She cast another look at Riette, one that Riette couldn’t read fully, and walked out of the room. Riette let out a sigh. She’d hoped something would stop the moment because she wasn’t sure how she would be able to.
Riette stepped out into the main living space and saw her mother deep in discussion. Keeping an eye on them as she went, Riette crossed the distance to what used to be her parents’ joint study. In a drawer was a map of the outside. It was probably shit as far as maps went. It was older than Riette was, from a time long before.
Riette walked to the perch while her mother was still busy. It was a large platform, with greenery stretching from the trees wrapping the wooden rails on the far sides. After a few steps toward the edge, the vines wrapped around her, and though she knew the mission was just to get Corin and get right back, the sensation of the vines wrapped around her tightly mirrored a tightening she felt in her chest.
Mekhi and Cassian were downstairs. The first thing Riette noticed was that they weren’t talking. She didn’t speak of it though.
“Are we ready?”
“Let’s get her and get back,” said Cassian. He started to walk ahead of them. Mekhi and Riette shared a look behind his back but followed close behind.
People were already about. Some looked at them, but most didn’t. The three of them being together wasn’t anything new, but they knew they would be stopped if they weren’t careful. There was little reason to be out of the center where everything happened in Vitan. People outside of that center got questioned.
They went to the outskirts of the town, tripling their trip, to avoid raising suspicion. They couldn’t afford to be questioned. It would make them lose too much time. The farther they got from town, the sparser the tree houses and the people became.
“I’m sure she’s there,” said Riette. The silence they had been sharing made her head hurt. Too many thoughts had too much room to play with nothing but silence to distract her.
“The problem is we don’t know what’s in the unknown with her,” said Mekhi. His hand gripped his bag harder, adjusting it higher on his shoulder. His was a wrap bag across his chest. It held more than the others, but he was the stockier one between him and Cassian.