Master of Elements

by Sonya Bateman

  “Okay, then. I’ll just find him myself. Nice talking with you.” I shrugged and walked between them, knowing there was no way they’d just let me go. But if I was going to fight them, I’d do it out in the open.

  I felt surges of magic behind me and turned in time to see both of the gate guards glowing, and getting bigger. Much, much bigger. The glow faded away from two impossibly large, very angry polar bears.

  Unlike Nylah, they were not adorable. And they were charging me.

  I’d expected harpoons and arrows, not two thousand pounds of muscle with teeth. Despite my best efforts to stop it, my brain locked into pure primal fear that drove my reactions without any real thought aside from constant, gibbering panic. I went invisible reflexively and launched myself into a crouch, slamming both palms against the ground. As the earth magic flowed into me, I pushed it toward the bears and thought how much I needed them to not eat me, expecting to just surge a bunch of dirt up and trap them long enough to get away.

  Instead, the ground cracked and rumbled like an earthquake, and sharp stone spires shot up in rapid circles around the furry death machines. One of them skewered the bear on the left under a front leg and carried it into the air with a roar of pain and surprise. The sheer weight of the animal snapped the spike, and it fell back into the circle. The ground shook with the impact of a ton of bear.

  Damn. My magic really had some kick around here, for some reason.

  I pulled my hands away from the ground so I wouldn’t accidently shoot more rock spikes through the bears. Even though they’d been bastards to me, I didn’t want to kill them. Yet. I left them roaring and imprisoned, and headed further into the place beyond the wall. Ian had to be here somewhere.

  Hopefully I wouldn’t have to fight any more bears before I found him.

  Chapter 12

  Someone had probably noticed there was an ‘intruder’ here by now, so I decided to stay invisible until I found Ian. It also helped to hide my astonishment at the sight of this place.

  It was a far cry from the cold, tumbledown squalor of the Annukhai village.

  Behind the wall, the temperature was comfortably in the mid-fifties. Most of the ground was course dirt, almost like wet beach sand, with occasional large stones and long tufts of green-white grass. Their houses were well-made igloos and a few wooden structures organized around a large, central log building that reminded me of a lodge, like the Order of the Sacred Moose or whatever those old-boy social clubs were called.

  The village was built along the shores of an ocean choked with ice floes. And the water was purple.

  There shouldn’t have been an ocean here at all, let alone a purple one.

  Feeling uneasy, I closed my eyes and reached out for Ian. I sensed him almost immediately, just about choking on impatience and irritation with a huge helping of concern mixed in.

  Aw, he was worried about me. How sweet. I’d try not to tease him too hard about that.

  Seeing through his eyes was a little harder to force. It happened naturally with extreme emotion, usually pain, but making it happen was a different story. I had to really open up to his vibe and immerse myself in what was typically an unpleasant cocktail of feelings.

  I managed it for a few seconds, long enough for a glimpse of a long table packed with food, a lot of white-haired people, and log walls. He was in the lodge.

  As I headed that way, I started to wonder why Ian was sitting down to a feast instead of looking for me. He’d been my first concern after the Annukhai stopped trying to kill me. But apparently I didn’t rate the same, in spite of the worry I sensed from him, since here he was lounging around with the wrong clan.

  The door to the lodge was open, and the table full of food and djinn was toward the back of the big room the entrance led to. I walked through, still invisible, and looked around for Ian.

  It took a minute to spot him, because he was wearing a huge, ridiculous headdress.

  He sat at the head of the table, ramrod-straight with his arms folded across his chest, scowling at everything. There was some kind of whole fish bigger than his head on a plate in front of him. A female djinn to his left, who looked around late-forties, appeared to be droning on and on at him, and the thirty-something male to Ian’s right stared at the female with vague confusion, or possibly terror. The rest of them at the table, a few dozen in all, talked amongst themselves and occasionally stared at Ian.

  Before I reached him, Ian suddenly shot from his chair and tore the headdress off, dashing it on the floor. “Enough of this!” he shouted, bringing all the chatter to a screeching halt. He turned his fury toward the woman next to him. “Your scouts should have located him by now. You are wasting my time, and his. I will find him myself!”

  I almost laughed as I dropped the invisibility. “You know, Ian, it’s a good thing I overheard that or I might’ve been a little pissed off. I was starting to think you forgot about me.”

  “Donatti.” Ian practically sagged in relief and stalked away from the table. Now most of the others were staring at me — and the female he’d been talking to looked extremely angry at the interruption. “What happened to you?” he said. “The storm cleared, and you were gone.”

  “What do you mean, it cleared?” I frowned and watched as a handful of the djinn at the table got up and headed toward us, including the two who’d been sitting next to Ian. The male stopped with a sad, lost expression to pick up the headdress Ian had been wearing, but the female moved fast. And she wasn’t getting any happier. “Ian, I think there’s something very wrong here—”

  “Who is this child?” the female interrupted as she stepped up next to Ian. Like the rest of them, she had dark eyes and radiantly white hair, but instead of pants and a tunic she wore long, flowing robes and an expression that would’ve killed me if it could. “This cannot be your champion, Gahiji-an.”

  His champion? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

  Just as Ian opened his mouth to respond, the two guards I’d tangled with at the gates rushed into the building, weapons at the ready. “There he is!” the big one with the harpoon shouted. Obviously the brains of the operation. They slowed and halted several feet away, looking embarrassed, and then Harpoon Guy addressed the robed female. “A thousand apologies, Meriwa. We could not stop him,” he said. “He has the totem.”

  “Stop him?” Ian said sharply. “Stop him from what, exactly? Your people were supposed to be looking for him!”

  “Please. Everyone, relax.” The female, Meriwa, held a hand up in a calming gesture and was suddenly all warmth and smiles. “I believe there has been something of a misunderstanding, here, and I would like to speak with our guests.” She looked at me when she said that, and the cold in her stare unsettled me. “If you would all please return to your homes or duties, we will gather again tonight.”

  There was a lot of muttering and whispering as most of them started to leave. But even though Meriwa had dismissed everyone, a few stayed behind — the confused sad-sack male, who still clutched the headdress Ian had thrown off with a vague air of proprietary concern; a female seated at the table who looked in her seventies, which in djinn terms probably meant she was thousands of years old; and a male who appeared fifty-something and wasn’t Alqani, unless some djinn polar bears had green eyes and black-streaked, grayish-white fur.

  The guards were the last ones to leave. Without being asked in any apparent way, they closed the doors behind them, and Meriwa turned a charming smile on Ian. “If you and your champion would join us, I am certain we can clear all this up,” she said.

  “Yeah, I’d really like to see them try,” I said in English.

  Ian threw me a startled look. “What is going on here?” he asked, taking the hint and switching languages. “Why were they trying to stop you?”

  I glanced at Meriwa, who was glaring daggers at me where Ian couldn’t see her expression. “They didn’t want me coming into their precious village, or finding you, apparently,” I said. “Listen, whatever th
ey told you about scouts looking for me, I’m pretty sure that isn’t the only thing they lied about. Those guards would’ve killed me if they could. And there’s more … a lot more.” I wouldn’t mention the rest of it yet, because I had the distinct feeling that if Ian and I didn’t leave this village somewhat peacefully, we’d never leave it alive. “I don’t know what else they’ve told you, but it’s probably bullshit.”

  I’d seen Ian furious plenty of times. But right now, his expression eclipsed all of them — and that was really saying something. If I didn’t know that rage wasn’t directed at me, I would’ve been running for cover.

  “Excuse me,” Meriwa said loudly. “I am not familiar with Dehbei customs, but among the Alqani it is considered rude to speak in secret tongues while in the company of others.”

  “Ian, don’t,” I said quickly before he could start raging on her. I was still using my ‘secret tongue,’ because screw her. “Let’s hear them out, but then we need to get out of here, quietly. I’ll tell you the rest when we do.”

  He nodded and calmed himself down with visible effort, and I was relieved that he trusted me enough not to ask questions. “My apologies, madam,” he said smoothly in djinn, as if he’d never been angry at all. “We would be honored to join you for a talk.”

  Meriwa gave a cool nod and led us to the table.

  She had Ian and I sit on one side, with the four of them across from us, and made introductions. Besides Meriwa, there was Ujura the puzzled and distressed headdress-clutcher, and Shadahni the very, very old. The three of them apparently made up the Alqani council, and since only one was male, I assumed he was the one Malak told me about — his girlfriend’s father. Not quite as fearsome as Kemosiri, after all. And the fourth one, Balain, was the ‘representative’ for the Annukhai members of the village.

  It pissed me off that some of the Annukhai actually lived here, ignoring their own struggling clan.

  “Allow us to apologize for the treatment of your champion,” Meriwa began when the introductions were finished. “It seems that we did not fully understand your explanation of him, Gahiji-an, because our watchers mistook him for a common thief.”

  Ian came close to laughing. “Perhaps we should inform them that you are a most uncommon thief,” he said in English under his breath.

  I damn near choked. “When did you get a sense of humor?” I whispered back, grinning.

  Meriwa cleared her throat and looked at us sternly. “At any rate,” she said, “as I have already explained to Gahiji-an, I am afraid that you have made your journey for nothing. We have handled the problem that Khanaq sought assistance for, and there is no need to re-cast the spell.” She extended her arm and made a sweeping gesture. “As you can see, we live quite peacefully here.”

  Yeah, they sure did. Unlike the remains of the Annukhai clan, and all the kids these assholes had abandoned.

  It was a real effort not to say any of that. Instead, I decided to take an indirect approach. “What problem did you handle, exactly?” I said.

  “Why, the Wihtiko, of course,” the mousy Ujura blurted, and then sent a guilty, almost terrified glance at Meriwa. “I, er …”

  Meriwa shook her head and frowned. “The creature is no longer an issue,” she said. “Therefore, Do-Nothing, we have no need of your services. So, if you would return the totem to us —”

  “Hold on,” I interrupted. “First of all, it’s Donatti. And second, this bracelet belongs to the Annukhai clan. Not you.”

  Ian made a small, choked sound. “Donatti … the Annukhai have been decimated,” he said slowly. “Only a handful remain, here among the Alqani.”

  The bottom dropped out of my stomach and I stared intently at the table, so none of them would see the horrified rage in my eyes. I knew they must’ve lied to him, but I never thought they’d be this brazen about it. They were completely denying the existence of the other village.

  As I struggled to compose myself, I sensed the presence of at least a dozen djinn — they were outside, surrounding the building. I’d never been able to sense that much through a floor before. Usually I had to be in direct contact with the ground. But I didn’t have time to figure out why the hell I had so much extra juice here, because I had to focus on the serious trouble I suspected we were in.

  “If you would prefer to return the totem to the Annukhai, young champion, I will be honored to take possession of it,” the one called Balain said. “You would be doing a great service to my clan.”

  “Uh, yeah, fine. Just give me a minute, okay?” I said in djinn, and then elbowed Ian under the table and switched to English. “We need to get out of here, immediately,” I said. “These assholes can’t fly, can they? I mean, they’re polar bears.”

  Ian kept his expression neutral, but I could feel the sharp concern rising in him. “No, they cannot.”

  “Okay. Just go invisible and follow me.”

  “Now?”

  I looked across the table at Meriwa, who wasn’t bothering to hide her rage anymore. “Yeah,” I said. “Now.”

  So much for leaving quietly.

  We both vanished at the same time. I knocked my chair over when I floated out of it, but Ian managed a bit more grace. When Ian and I disappeared, all but the ancient female shot to their feet and started shouting at once.

  “Sukkayati!” I heard Meriwa call out. Shit, that was a snare spell — it shorted out invisibility in a given area. I’d just have to hope that area was inside the building.

  I rose higher in the air as the shimmer that said I was invisible fell away, and looked back to see Ian matching my course. Below, the doors to the lodge slammed open and the djinn I’d sensed outside started pouring in. They were all armed.

  “Bring them down,” Meriwa snarled.

  Arrows and spears flew instantly. I managed a few clumsy dodges and started casting lockdowns at them, then saw Ian doing the same. I tried to fly faster. “We’re not using the door,” I called to him, deciding to stick with English until we got out of here. “Just stay with me, okay?”

  “Fine. There had better be one hell of an explanation for this,” he growled. “Ela rey’ahn!” His wind spell knocked two of them across the room and smashed them into a wall.

  “Wow. Humor and human cussing, all in one day.” I couldn’t help grinning as I flew straight at the log wall about six feet above the doors and pressed both hands against it. I needed to make a hole, really fast.

  The moment I thought that, several sections of log exploded outward in a shower of splinters, leaving an opening that was more than big enough to get through.

  “Come on!” I shouted at Ian as I flew through. Outside, I waited the few seconds it took him to follow and then tried going invisible again.

  It worked. Which was a good thing, because half a dozen oversized polar bears were charging toward the lodge from the ocean.

  Unfortunately, that was when I realized Ian couldn’t follow me if he couldn’t see me.

  “Goddamn it,” I said, flashing back into sight again. The few djinn who hadn’t gone down in the lodge were coming out, targeting us again. “Ian, grab my ankle. Don’t argue.”

  He gave an irritated snort, but he did it.

  I vanished again. “Sorry, man. It’s just until we’re past the barrier,” I said as I started for the wall at the edge of the village. “I’ll explain everything then.”

  “What barrier?” he shouted.

  When he spoke, an arrow whizzed past me, inches from my face. “Don’t talk,” I whispered loudly. “They’re still trying to hit us.”

  I was actually surprised when he shut up.

  At least the combination of silence, invisibility, and flying threw the Alqani off enough for us to get away. Instead of the guarded entrance, I headed for a spot above the black wall, charging the totem again just before we passed through the barrier — which wasn’t visible from the inside. That must be why Ian didn’t know about it.

  I kept going with Ian gripping my ankle until we were hal
fway across vast snow field between the wall and the forest. “Okay, you can let go now,” I said to Ian. “We’ll walk from here.”

  When I felt him release me, I turned off the invisible spell and floated down at a much more manageable speed than the one I’d landed in this field with the first time. Ian had reached the ground first and stood there staring at me with mingled shock and outrage.

  If he was already this furious, he was going to be loads of fun when he learned the rest of the truth.

  Chapter 13

  I tried to walk through the forest in a straight line while I told Ian about the Annukhai village, and all the kids over there, and what the Alqani did with their own offspring. I’d also pointed out the soap-bubble film of the barrier spell above the wall before we headed away from the polar bears. That was the start of the emotional landslide.

  By the time I finished, Ian had gone white with rage, too furious to speak.

  “So what happened to you in the storm, anyway?” I said after a few minutes, figuring a change of subject might let him process all this. “I guess you must’ve gotten blown away in the opposite direction from me.”

  His tight anger broke into a questioning raised brow. “Blown away?”

  “Uh, yeah. Didn’t you …” I frowned. “Okay, let me back up a little. The wind tore me off you, picked me up and battered me around like a rag doll in a tornado for a while, and spat me out in the sky. I fell, broke some bones, and then a bunch of Annukhai tried to kill me. But we worked it out, and they showed me where I’d probably find you.” I blew out a breath. “Now it’s your turn. What happened?”

  “Nothing,” he said. “You were there, and then gone. The storm raged, and then it stopped. I walked into the Alqani village. And they lied to me about absolutely everything.” A murderous expression sizzled across his face. “That is all that happened. I do not understand how we were separated.”

  “Holy shit. I think I do.” I glanced at the bracelet, the wolf charm that was now ordinary carved stone instead of glowing white effigy. “It must’ve been that damned barrier spell,” I said. “I only got through because I activated this thing, but it wasn’t active when we went into the storm. It bounced me off and let you pass, because you’re old enough.”