by Blair Drake
By the time he stopped, he was spitting sand. Zora and Zandui stood guard over him, both of them holding their weapons and scanning the area.
Blue skies. Red dunes. And nothing more than ripples of sand as far as the eye could see. The only hint of anything unusual was the circular green gateway hovering in the sky above top of the sand dune.
"Aaargh!" Yeorfac plunged out of the shimmer of green mist in the sky and landed with an "Oof."
Then he catapulted down the dune to Elijah's side and landed face first in the dune. Yeorfac yanked his head up, spitting sand. It clung to his beard, and Elijah would have laughed if it weren't for the fact they were in a life-and-death situation.
He hauled Yeorfac to his feet.
"What sort of monster are we supposed to be looking for?"
"Could be anything," Zandui said tersely. "But we're in the Zolotel Desert by the look of it, which narrows it down to sand wyrms, ghouls, and ifrit."
"It's going to be an ifrit," Zora muttered, sheathing her sword. "You know it's going to be an ifrit."
"And an ifrit is?"
"A djinn," Zandui said. "A spirit of the deserts, created from pure Current. They can manifest in a physical body of monstrous strength or evaporate into spirit form, and they have the gift of wind, fire and storms, depending on what sort of djinn they are. The ifrit is the most powerful, and wields both fire and wind. If a lonely traveler meets one out in the desert, you can play a riddle game with them in exchange for wishes, but it rarely ends well."
Oh, a genie. Or djinn.
"But they don't like iron." Zora patted her hilt. "If we can get it to manifest, the ifrit is mine."
"Or maybe we just trap it in a lamp?" Elijah suggested.
They all looked at him like he had two heads.
"To find the gateway home, search for the sign of the storm to find the heart of darkness," Zandui repeated.
Not a cloud in the sky. The sun hammered home upon them.
Zandui uncapped the water flask tied to his belt. "The heat's going to be our worst enemy out here. Make sure you drink enough water. But ration it, just in case we get lost."
"Which way?" Yeorfac grunted, shaking sand out of his boots and flapping the hem of his leather shirt.
Elijah commiserated. He had sand in places he didn't want to think about.
Four sets of tracks wandered away from them. Two went west, one to the north, and the other east.
Zandui looked toward the north, holding his medallion in his hand for a long moment. "This way."
The sand eventually gave way to a small mountain range and then a desert canyon. Elijah stumbled along, his mouth dry. He wanted more water, but they needed to ration it. They'd been walking for what seemed like hours, and he was certain his new boots were rubbing a blister on his heel.
Out of all of them, he seemed to be in the best condition. Living a life in the tundra and mountains meant the Thanasian's worst enemy would be the heat. Elijah had managed to rip the hem off his tunic and wore it like a turban, with the end draped down his neck to protect him from the sun. He'd fashioned a similar one for Zora, and Zandui and Yeorfac shared strips of Zandui's tunic.
At least the canyon provided some shade.
"Keep an eye out for ghouls," Zora murmured. "They live in caves mostly, though they also bury themselves in the sand to trap the unwary. They're undead, and eat human flesh. The best way to kill them is to cut their heads off."
Elijah rested his staff over his shoulders. "Of us all, I feel the least qualified to be removing heads."
"Then keep out of my way." Zora flashed him a grin.
A small pool of water bubbled out of the rocks as they turned the next corner. Green reeds circled it, and a pair of palms drowsed sleepily at the far end, their fronds barely stirring in the minimal breeze.
Elijah's mouth watered, but something about the way the others were looking around made him tense. "I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but should we be drinking any of that?"
"I have no idea what the first part of your statement meant," Zora replied, "since there are no horses here, but I concur that the water might be poisoned. We know the Isthenians are ahead of us somewhere."
Yeorfac sighed. "I hate these games already."
They circled the pool, and Elijah watched the water carefully, searching for bubbles. They expected a threat from the sand and the cliffs, but not from the water. Every inch of his skin crawled.
But they made it past the pool and nothing leaped out at them.
Elijah swallowed again, his mouth dry. "Well, that was disa—"
Someone screamed ahead of them, the sound echoing through the canyon.
Elijah's head jerked up, like a hound on the scent. The others drew steel and fanned out in front of him. He clenched the staff tightly. "What was that?" he whispered.
"Think we just found whoever we've been tracking," Zandui murmured, creeping forward carefully.
The sound of yelling reverberated off the canyon walls. Steel rang on stone, and then a low groaning sound chased it.
Zandui cursed. "Ghouls."
"Curse the skies," Zora hissed.
"Help!" someone screamed. "Maia!"
Every nerve in Elijah's body was on edge. It sounded like a kid was crying. "I can't just stand here and listen."
He started sprinting toward the noise, trying to open himself up to the Current.
"Elijah, wait!" Zora cried.
The others pounded after him, but if there was one thing he was good at, it was running.
A high-pitched scream cut through the air. Elijah hammered around the corner of the canyon, and came upon a scene from his worst nightmares.
Three of the Havistock kids battled back-to-back against a hissing pair of ghouls. He'd been expecting a zombie straight off the big screen, but their skin was tinged a light gray color, and they were completely bald with white eyes that showed no pupil. Ropes of muscle bound their body together, and as he watched, one of them darted forward and snatched at the boot of one of the girls. She hit the sand, and it yanked her away, scuttling on three limbs toward a slit in the canyon wall.
The other leapt onto a boulder, then turned and launched itself through the air toward the boy trying to defend the youngest girl.
Elijah didn't think.
He flung his hand forward and a razor-sharp icicle sprang from his fingertips. It hammered into the ghoul's chest, sending it smashing to the ground.
"Maia!" The youngest girl of the group leaped after her friend, hurling a dagger at the creature.
The boy tried to grab her, but he was too late. The ghoul Elijah had wounded was on its feet, faster than Elijah could blink. Black blood dripped from the wound in its chest, but it didn't seem to notice the icicle at all. It launched into the air toward him, a leap of almost twenty feet, and—
"Elijah!" Zandui shouted. "Down!"
He hit the sand, as an arrow whizzed over his head, slamming into the ghoul. The arrow exploded, raining chunks of flesh across the canyon.
The world seemed to erupt into mayhem. Zora hurtled past him, hacking what was left to pieces with her blade. The fingers on one of its dismembered arms still twitched, before suddenly flopping to the sand lifelessly as Zora took its head off. Elijah pushed himself to his hands and knees.
"Maia!" The girl was peering in the hole in the canyon wall, trying to see where the other ghoul had taken her friend. Tears marked tracks down her dirty cheeks.
The boy grabbed her under the arms and hauled her out of the way. "It's too late. She's gone, Lalie. She's gone."
The girl hit him, turning her sobbing face into his chest, and as Elijah slowly gained his feet, he couldn't help feeling the vibration begin to heat within him. Rage burned in his chest. Helplessness.
These kids hadn't even wanted to enter the Ascension.
A bearded face was suddenly in his.
"We need to have a little discussion about your tendency for heroics," Zandui snarled, and it was the
first time he'd ever seen the unflappable man lose his shit. "You could have gotten yourself killed!"
"So I should have just waited until it was all clear?" he yelled back.
"You didn't know what was around the corner," Zandui snapped, clenching a fist. "And you didn't have a damned clue how to kill a ghoul. Heads, Elijah! Off with their heads! It could have ripped you apart before we even arrived."
"And we couldn't have that," he shot back. "Who'd rescue your precious Yarlstone then?"
The throb of the bass got louder. Elijah turned and threw his rage, his incandescent fury, at the canyon wall, before he did something stupid, like slug Zandui. The entire wall iced up, crackling loudly as the blossoming frost flowers spread. A chunk of rock fell beneath the sudden weight, and ice and rock smashed across the canyon floor. Before the wall was coated, it was already starting to melt, drips of water racing down the frosty rime.
Silence fell.
Elijah sucked in a panting breath, his head lowered and his shoulders slumped. A hand settled on his shoulder, and he felt like a flighty horse being calmed before its rider sidled closer. He'd been expecting Zora, but when he turned it was Yeorfac.
"Easy," Yeorfac said, squeezing his arm. "It's done, Elijah. Save your magic for the enemy."
What had he done? Elijah pressed the heels of both hands into his eyes. The pressure was getting to him.
"I'm only concerned for your safety," Zandui said, in a gruff voice. "This team is my responsibility. Yarlstone or not, I don't want to see any of you die on my watch."
He lowered his hands. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...."
"I know." Zandui's glance raked the frozen wall, and he looked troubled for a second. "How do you feel?"
"Fine." His hands trembled. "A little shaky."
"You just threw one impressive punch of magic." Zandui's lips twisted. "If you can do that with no training, then what can your counterpart do with years of it?"
Ezra. Elijah tried to brush his palms on the edge of his tunic. "Hopefully we won't find out."
Zandui clapped a hand on his shoulder as they turned to the pair of frightened teenagers.
The Havistockian kid held a knife out, the young girl thrust behind him. "Mage," he whispered, his face pale.
"We're not here to hurt you," Elijah said, holding his hands up. "I'm sorry your friend was taken."
"Friends," said the girl, whose eyes were dry now. It looked like she'd seen her fair share of loss over her years, for she was focused on the task at hand again.
Him.
"We could work together. Six is a better number than four," Elijah suggested. And they were just kids.
They'd be slaughtered out here without help. They'd already lost half their group.
"Elijah," Zandui rebuked softly.
He looked around. Saw the expressionless faces on his companions.
"Alliances are dangerous," Yeorfac muttered. "Only one team can win."
"They help us get to the Yarlstone," he countered, "and we agree to protect them. The winner of the Ascension gets to choose who they take out of the labyrinth, no?" He swung back to the boy, who was still glaring at him. "If you help us to the Yarlstone, then we'll choose you to exit the labyrinth with us."
"This is a bad idea," Yeorfac muttered.
"We can't just leave them here," he argued.
"Elijah's choice," Zora said, audibly ramming her sword home.
Elijah's shoulders relaxed.
"You're a mage," the kid blurted, as if he refused to trust him. "Why would you help us?"
"Mages killed our parents," the girl replied, with narrowed eyes that said she'd knife him in the back the first chance she got.
Elijah didn't know what to say. "I...."
"I know how you feel." Yeorfac stepped up beside him. He looked like he was chewing gravel. "Mages killed my parents too. I was barely twelve when I woke to find the cabin on fire. They'd barred the doors so no one would get out, while they stole our cattle. I was the only one who could fit up the chimney." He took a sharp breath. "And yet, Elijah saved my life the first time we met. He threw himself between an ice troll and me, and drew it away. He didn't have to do that." Yeorfac glanced at him. "And now he's arguing for your lives. And he means it. He's not like the mages I know, regardless of whether he has access to the Current as they do. I never, ever believed I would call a mage my friend, but I do."
Elijah stared at him. Mages killed Yeorfac's parents? Was that why the gruff hunter hated him so much when they met?
Yeorfac looked embarrassed to have shared the tale.
Elijah choked down the lump in his throat, and reached out to sling an arm around him. "I'm honored to call you friend, too."
Yeorfac colored up. "If you hug me, I shall hit you."
Elijah changed the intended hug into a fist, and bumped it against Yeorfac's knuckles. "Dudes don't hug. Got it."
"Malalie is my sister." The young boy hauled the girl to her feet. He took a deep breath. "We shall come with you, and assist you if we can. I am Rutrik. We're both Archers."
"I'm keeping my dagger," Malalie challenged.
"Keep it," Zora replied. "But if you use it against Elijah, I'll take it off you."
The two girls exchanged looks, and Elijah knew a showdown when he saw it.
"To prove our alliance, we shall show you where the cave is," Rutrik said.
"The cave?" Zandui stepped forward.
"The one with the lightning bolt engraved in the stone above it," Rutrik replied. "That's where the ghouls attacked us."
Chapter 17
A sign of the storm. A heart of darkness.
Elijah stared at the jagged carvings that streaked the rocks above the gaping cave mouth in front of them. It didn't quite look like lightning, but he suspected that had been the intention.
"Do you think there will be ghouls inside the cave?" Elijah asked.
Zandui struck a torch he'd been carrying in his pack, and stepped inside the cave mouth, sniffing. "No. The air smells dry. Ghouls stink, and their caves are rank with the scent of rotting flesh."
"But keep a sharp eye out," Zora said, following Elijah inside the cave, "just in case."
Elijah focused on following the flickering flame ahead of him. He thought he heard something whisper in the dark, and spun around. Nothing. Only Zora's pale face, her eyes black in the darkness. Malalie stood behind her, the girl's golden braid draped over her shoulder, and her hand on her knife.
"What is it?" Zora asked.
Elijah looked up, and around. It didn't feel like the Current. Maybe the ghost of the Current. The hairs down the back of his spine rose. "It feels like we're not alone."
"Ifrit?" she mouthed.
He couldn't see a damn thing. Or sense it. But the feeling something was wrong wouldn't go away. Elijah shrugged.
Zora drew her sword. Iron could kill it, if it manifested a physical form. He was staying out of this fight.
They moved on, Yeorfac and Rutrik bringing up the rear. A pale green glow began to light the dark, and they began to hurry. The tunnel ended in an enormous cavern, a single beam of sunlight spearing down upon them from far above. Black waters glistened at the end of the cavern, blocking their way, but deep within the water, something green glowed.
"There's the gateway," Elijah said.
Beneath the water.
Of course.
Elijah carefully stirred the pool with his staff. Nothing moved within the inky depths, but he couldn't avoid the feeling he was being watched.
"Who's going first?" he asked hopefully.
Zandui handed his torch to Yeorfac, and began to slip his pack off his back. He yanked his boots off and tossed them aside, before putting his dagger between his teeth. "I'll test it out. If I don't come back within five minutes, then don't go any further."
Wading into the water, he sank up to his waist, took a deep breath and then plunged under.
"Z's either crazy or doesn't know when to flinch," Elijah muttered.
>
The flame on the torch flickered. The only reason Elijah noticed was because he was staring right at it.
He stilled.
"There's no wind in here, is there?" he stage whispered.
The others looked at him sharply, and then followed his gaze. Zora shoved the torch toward Malalie, and then drew her sword. "Can you sense where it is?"
"Should we wait for Z?"
Zora stared around the cavern. It was so dark, Elijah almost didn't notice the black smoke towering over her, until it was nearly formed.
"Get down!" he yelled, tackling her.
Mocking laughter rang through the cavern as the ifrit formed into solid flesh. Gilded scales covered its arms, and a pair of horns curled from its monstrous head, but its eyes captured his full attention. They looked like burning pits in the hellish landscape of its face. Rivulets of lava smoked through cracks in its body as its chest fused together, vanishing the cracks.
"And there's the ifrit," Yeorfac said grimly, hefting Zandui's axe.
"Mortals," it breathed, it's voice so deep and low, it sent a shiver down Elijah's spine. "You dare trespass in my world?"
"Just passing through!" Elijah called.
Fire flared to life, chasing itself along a gutter that circled the cavern. The world lit up, flame darting toward the ceiling. Yeorfac slid onto his knees as it swept a backhand toward him, and tried to bury the axe in the back of its calf as he skimmed past.
The monster vanished in a cloud of black smoke, and all of them turned in small circles, trying to see where it went.
"There!" Zora leapt forward, bringing her sword down as the ifrit reformed.
She missed, and spun back the other way, her sword slashing through the ifrit. It vanished in a puff of black smoke, the passage of the blade stirring it into roiling clouds, before the ifrit manifested, right behind her.
"Behind you!" Elijah yelled.
Zora spun, bringing the blade around in a sharp slash, but it was gone again, smoke pouring through the cavern.
Mocking laughter rang out. "Bring your iron, girl," it whispered. "Show me how well you can dance."