“I’ll carry him.” Torrent’s eyes are tired but as hard as steel.
“I’ll help you, I’ll hold his torso.” I move to the body, and with the Tage’s help, we struggle to lift Smoke back onto Torrent’s shoulder. Torrent has hold of his legs in front. I lower my head and put my shoulders underneath Smoke’s torso. My head is right at Torrent’s back, as I take the extra weight onto my shoulders and neck.
“Think we can run like this?” Torrent asks.
“We have to try.”
“I’ll be behind you,” Tage says, her hand on my hunched back. Smoke’s arms dangle on either side of me. His body is unnaturally cold.
“I’ll go in front.” Dr. Mara moves awkwardly around us. “Ready? Let me run across first, in case I stumble or fall.” She takes off, not as fast as Ash, but quick for a middle-aged woman.
The gas hisses to the ceiling. We involuntarily take another step back.
The gas stops, disintegrating. After a while, we hear the doctor call out she’s okay.
“Ready? Let’s go,” Torrent shouts.
We make our jog, going as fast as we can, but we can’t full-out run. We trot as one, moving our legs in sync. The gas shoots up all around and in front of us, the smell acrid and burning my eyes and throat. I’m face down and get it full-on. I try to hold my breath, but we’re moving fast with a dead weight, and I’m heaving the burn down my throat, even with the face mask.
I cough and we try to move faster. Torrent has his arms to the walls to steady us.
My feet are getting heavy; the weight on my back is pushing me down. I stumble and Tage grabs my belt, keeping me from falling.
Torrent is going slower now, as am I.
“Keep going, soldiers! Move,” Tage shouts, her voice being the whip we need to keep moving forward.
“Come on, come on,” Ash and the doctor are calling from somewhere ahead.
The gas keeps shooting ahead of us, blowing into my face. I squeeze my eyes shut, but they’re watering like crazy.
Torrent stumbles and pitches forward. I fall right onto him, the body pushing us to the ground, Tage running into me from behind. Then my head overflows with spinning dizziness and everything goes black.
Chapter Forty-Nine
Nausea washes over me as I open my eyes, turn over, and puke all over the painted stone floor. Then I’m dry-heaving, my throat parched and sore.
Finally, I take a deep breath, sitting up. Dr. Mara kneels by me and cleans the mess with toilet paper. “You okay, Ridge?”
I nod, too sore and dry to talk. “Where am I?” I rasp.
“We thought we lost you guys. But we managed to drag all of you out—you were near the end of the hall.”
I blink and look around. The sickness keeps moving over me in waves. I cough. Tage is next to me, also looking pasty. Ash and Torrent are dragging the corpse out of the gas. We’re sitting well beyond the trap, where the hallway widens again before a closed stone door. The hissing stops but I smell it entering my nose again. I hack and sneeze.
“Ridge, can you stand and open the door?” Dr. Mara helps me to my feet. Using the wall for support, I walk to the door and put my hand on the sign. The door grates open.
Beyond is a dark chamber. Ash comes in and lights it for me. There are fewer braziers in here, not fully lighting the medium-sized room full of black and white paintings, hints of gold, red and blue here and there.
We look inside. The ceiling is high and there are several black sarcophagi spaced evenly across the room. Four are closed and sealed, Egyptian writings etched in white on the sides. Two are open, their lids leaning against the outside of the boxes.
“This is the Chamber of Holy Serpent,” Dr. Mara is reading the symbols over the door.
Torrent crouches next to the body, his face white. “We can’t keep going like this, carrying Smoke. We almost died.” His voice is a rough whisper. “He wouldn’t want that.”
Tage is holding Smoke against her again, as if she’ll never let go, her head down.
Dr. Mara sighs. “I know. We won’t survive another trap, carrying a body.”
“No fucking way, we’re not leaving him.” Ash is standing in the doorway, hands on her hips. “I’ll carry him myself.” She stomps to Tage, and with Torrent they lift Smoke onto Ash’s shoulder. She stumbles, almost falling, the other two steadying her.
We get to our feet to follow Ash, already shuffling into the chamber.
“Holy Serpent? Dammit.” Ash breathes heavily as she struggles forward one step at a time. “This is the room we need, right? Fuck.”
“Yes, this room contains the Earth Rite,” Dr. Mara whispers. “Everyone, spread out and search as quickly as you can. Tage, I need your reading abilities, we have to cover this room now that we are short a person. Torrent, keep watch.”
Ash barely makes it to the middle of the room and then stops, swaying. Tage stays close to her, trying to help, glancing at the doctor. I start scanning the walls when the horrible grating sound makes me jump.
Ash and Tage shriek as Smoke’s body falls, landing with a sick crash and thud. His head bounces on the stone floor, his body in a weird contortion.
We all stand still as statues, waiting for the door of death to rain on us, too drained to do anything about it, horrified that Smoke was dropped like that.
She can’t carry him. We can’t keep carrying him.
After two minutes of nothing, Ash screams, roaring flames out of her hands. She stalks to the wall, screaming for all she’s worth, shooting fire as high as the ceiling from her palms by her side.
If she keeps this up, will she turn into fire herself? She’s so bright now I can hardly make out her features, encased in raging flames.
Tage is re-arranging the body, making him look like he’s sleeping, tears streaming down her face.
I look at Ash. She’s hurting, she’s hurting like I hurt for my family.
I walk to her, trying not to get burned as I approach. Torrent joins me. Together we inch closer. She keeps flaming in great bursts, turning the wall black with soot.
Torrent grabs my arm, coursing coolness through me like water. Together we reach out, each putting a hand on Ash’s shoulders, right into the flames. My hand sears with pain, but Torrent somehow keeps my temperature just cool enough; I can tell it’s not actually burning me.
The fire flicks out for a second, and Torrent pulls Ash into a tight hug. I keep my hand on her shoulder, standing near.
This is my family now.
I don’t belong to Zabbaleen anymore.
We’re not like other people.
We’re orphans.
I can’t help the tears falling out of my eyes, joining with Ash and Torrent as we cry together, letting it all out. I move in and we cling to each other. Tage joins us, her arms around us all.
Our crying echoes about the dark, dead chamber.
Dear Reader,
I hope you enjoyed EARTH GUARDIAN.
I am earth. I am nature. I am vengeance.
My name is Pamin Garber, and I’m being hunted.
I’m a street rat who survives in the slums of Egypt. Nothing is special about me—until I meet a group of soldiers and discover that I have the power to bend the earth to my command.
War erupts. I have no other choice but to follow the soldiers into the Egyptian pyramids to escape those who pursue us. My friends are rare elementals, like me … but the government wants to use us for a sick purpose.
I have no control over my magic. To understand my powers, I must perform the Earth Rite and hope I don’t kill us all in the process.
Not everyone makes it out alive. Time is running short.
I AM THE EARTH GUARDIAN.
Continue the journey in AIR GUARDIAN!!
Acknowledgements
This is my first attempt at a historical Egyptian elemental magic story. It involved a ton of research; months! And just when I thought I knew what I was doing, my wonderful development editor I hired knew a crap ton mor
e. Which was awesome, by the way. I often wonder if she felt bad for all the red, but I didn’t feel that way. I hope that the amount of detail that came out in this story makes it believable and realistic. I wouldn’t have been able to pull it off without her.
So a very heart-felt thank you to my wonderful Development Editor, Melissa A. Craven. You are the Hermione of this book (aka Smoke).
Lea, you are the very best Copy Editor!!
Mallory, you make such beautiful covers for this series. I love this one so much!! Thank you!!
Thank you to my wonderful hubby. Who I know doesn’t fully understand all the book lingo. But you bear with me until the end of the final product. Without you and your support, none of these stories would come to life.
About the Author
USA TODAY bestseller, Amazon bestselling, and award-winning young adult author, Kristin D. Van Risseghem grew up in a small town along the Mississippi River. Currently, she lives in Minnesota with her husband and a pomsky named Elsie. Kristin also loves attending book clubs, going shopping, and hanging out with friends. She has come to realize that she absolutely has an addiction to purses and shoes. They are her weakness and probably has way too many of both.
In the summer months, Kristin can usually be found lounging on her boat, drinking an ice cold something. Being an avid reader of YA and Women’s Literature stories, she still finds time to read a ton of books in-between writing. And in the winter months, her main goal is to stay warm from the Minnesota cold!
Kristin’s books are published by Kasian Publishing LLC.
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Table of Contents
Part I
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Part II
Chapter Fourteen
(Untitled)
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Part III
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Chapter Forty
Chapter Forty-One
Chapter Forty-Two
Chapter Forty-Three
Chapter Forty-Four
Chapter Forty-Five
Chapter Forty-Six
Chapter Forty-Seven
Chapter Forty-Eight
Chapter Forty-Nine
Dear Reader,
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Earth Guardian (Deities Series Book 2) Page 16