“Where’s my grandpa?”
Giovanni motioned to the far side of the rubble. Before Xander could fly in that direction, he felt Giovanni’s hand close over his arm.
“You need to know something, Xander. Your grandfather was already weak from his fight with the Fire Warrior general. Alicia told you before that he shouldn’t have been moved but I didn’t have a choice when everything was falling apart. He’s in bad shape. I don’t know if I helped or hurt him even more by flying him out of his house. I don’t know how much longer he has. Go to him.”
Xander turned to Sammy to explain but she didn’t need one. “Go. I’ll catch up.”
Xander launched into the air and soared over the rubble. From the air, it was easy to see the other aunts and uncles stretched out on a churned stretch of grass and mud. Between them, his grandfather lay prone on a blanket.
He touched down in the middle of the ground, landing directly beside his grandfather. The elder man’s eyes were closed but they opened slowly as Xander knelt at his side.
“You look terrible,” his grandfather croaked, staring at the streaks of tears that cut through the smudges of dirt on his face.
Xander laughed lightly. “You still look like a million bucks, Grandpa.”
“Xander,” his grandfather said seriously. “We have too much to talk about and I don’t have nearly enough time to go through it all with you.”
“Are you kidding?” Xander joked, not ready to admit how serious the situation was. He wouldn’t have guessed it possible before his return to the island but his grandfather looked thinner and weaker than he had been. His burns looked infected and they oozed through the bandages wrapped tightly around his body. “You’ll outlive us all.”
“Enough of your crap, kid. I’m dying. And before I go, there’s something you need to know.”
“You’re special, Xander,” his grandfather began, after he had taken a sip of water. “I don’t mean the window-licker kind of special either. I’m sure you’ve noticed that you tap into a power that most of us can’t. And you’re young, way younger than all of us.”
“I know,” Xander replied, “but I don’t know what it means.”
His grandfather coughed painfully. “It means you were chosen. I can’t think it’s just some coincidence that you come along when the Fire Caste is ready to burn the planet.”
Xander shook his head. He didn’t want to contradict his grandfather but he didn’t believe he was destined to stop the Fire Warriors. “I don’t know, Grandpa. I don’t exactly have a great track record when going up against the Fire Warriors. I just don’t know if my power is enough.”
His grandfather looked at him sternly. “It’s not, that’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.”
The growl in his voice led to another coughing fit. Alicia stooped beside him and rolled him onto his side, letting the phlegm spill onto the edge of the blanket as he coughed. As the fit subsided, she rolled him gently onto his back once again. His grandfather took a deep breath and Xander could hear the rasp in the elder man’s lungs.
“He shouldn’t be straining himself right now,” Alicia said. “It could kill him.”
His grandfather reached up and pushed Alicia aside. “If I speak, I die in the next couple minutes. The alternative is, if I don’t talk, I die in the next hour. Three may be a bigger number than two, but both of them sound pretty crappy to me.”
Alicia nodded and stood, taking her place beside the other aunts and uncles. When he was satisfied she wasn’t going to interfere again, Xander’s grandfather turned back toward his young grandson.
“I respect your drive, boy. I like that you’re willing to fight back against the Fire Warriors. I even like that you’ve lit a fire under these other slackers. I guess that was a bad choice of words, huh?”
Xander laughed abruptly, surprised by his grandfather’s continued ability to be abrasive even when injured and dying.
“But you’re not strong enough on your own,” he continued. “You’re just not tough enough to stop the Fire Caste alone.”
“That’s exactly why we need you. You hold this group together.”
He had wanted to say that his grandfather was the rug that held the room together but he doubted his grandfather would get the pop-culture reference.
“We can’t do this without you,” Xander said. “We just don’t have enough of us left.”
“I’m not talking about me, boy,” the elder replied hastily.
He coughed again and Xander feared the man would be overcome with another fit. Every time his grandfather was overcome with a coughing fit, there was a greater chance he wouldn’t recover. They were fighting against the clock but Xander knew he couldn’t force his grandfather’s hand. Whatever he had to say, he would say in his own time.
The cough faded as quickly as it had come and his grandfather was able to continue shortly thereafter. “We’re tough but we’re too few. We can’t stop the Fire Warriors alone.”
“Who else is there?”
His grandfather smiled softly and Xander knew they had reached the crux of the conversation. “The Elemental.”
Xander shook his head and looked up for sympathy from his aunts and uncles. They seemed stunned, though he couldn’t tell how much of that was from his grandfather’s comment and how much was due to the violence of the situation they had just survived.
The elder man’s hand flashed up and slapped Xander across the cheek. “I’m dying. I’m not senile. Quit looking at them like I’ve lost my mind.”
“The Elemental is a myth, Grandpa,” Xander replied as he returned his gaze to the old man. “They’re not real.”
“And you know this how, oh wise boy who just finished going through puberty?”
Xander frowned but didn’t really have a response.
“Where do you think we came from?” his grandfather asked. “Or a better question would be—where do you think the Fire Caste came from? You think it was some strange mutation that just happened to occur right in line with a prophecy that’s existed for generations? You think it started with one guy who could start a fire, who had a kid who could start a fire, who had a couple kids who could start a fire, and so on and so on?”
Xander hadn’t really considered where their enemies had originated. He had fairly willingly accepted that they just were.
“Our powers came from somewhere. It wasn’t just chance. It didn’t just happen by accident. Someone made us Wind Warriors just as much as something made the first of the Fire Warriors. They may have grown because they had kids, just like we did—just like how you got here—but they started with a big group of Fire Warrior clans all around the world.”
“Then where are they?” Xander replied angrily. “Where is the Wind Elemental, if it really exists? And why have we been fighting and dying while it did nothing to help?”
“She. I always thought of the Elemental as a she.”
Xander clenched his fist in frustration. He knew his grandfather wasn’t senile. Whenever he gave a nonsensical response like he just had, he was trying to diffuse Xander’s rashness.
“She’ll help you, Xander, if you let her,” his grandfather continued when he saw Xander relaxing again. “You just have to find her.”
“Where? No one’s seen her in generations. That’s why she’s a myth now. If no one’s seen her, how am I supposed to find her?”
His grandfather sighed sadly. “If I knew, I would have found her years ago.”
Sammy rested her hand on Xander’s shoulder and he was glad to feel her warmth coursing through his shirt and soaking into his sweaty skin. Her presence also gave rise to another concern.
“If we have an Elemental, doesn’t that mean that they do too? Even if I find the Wind Elemental, wouldn’t I still have to contend with a Fire Elemental?”
“You’re putting the cart before the horse, boy,” his grandfather laughed. “A second ago you didn’t even believe in the Elemental. Now you’re thinking about what you’re goin
g to do after you find her. Maybe you should start looking for her first.”
Xander wanted to push for more information but his grandfather was consumed by coughs. He was able to roll onto his side by himself this time but Xander saw the splash of bright red blood fly with the spittle from his lips.
“Grandpa,” he said, rubbing his grandfather’s back. He doubted it did anything helpful but he couldn’t think of anything else. He hated the feeling of helplessness.
“I’m okay,” he croaked as he wiped his lips with the back of his hand.
Xander looked to the others and saw their shared concern. They were all helpless as they watched an amazing man waste away before their eyes.
“Help me roll onto my back,” his grandfather asked.
“I think it’s better if you stay on your side, in case you start choking again.”
“I didn’t ask what you think, Xander. It won’t matter now how I’m facing. I’d rather look up at the sky when I go. Now roll me over.”
Begrudgingly, he rolled his grandfather onto his back. Xander wiped away the tears in his eyes as he clutched the old man’s hand tightly.
“Find the Elemental,” his grandfather said quietly, his voice barely over a whisper. “Promise me you’ll find her. She’ll know what to do.”
“I will,” Xander cried. “Anything you want. Just don’t die. You’re all I have left.”
“I don’t have much of a say in that. Not anymore.”
His grandfather gestured for him to lean closer so that he could be heard.
“Be safe, boy. There are plenty of people that are going to try to stop you. Don’t ever give up. You’re the last chance the planet has to survive.”
“I won’t,” he sobbed.
“I love you, boy.” His grandfather’s words were accompanied by a quiet sigh. The old man’s hand went limp in Xander’s and the younger man had to clutch it tightly to keep it from slipping to the ground.
The ocean around them boiled angrily and seawater sloshed onto the canted island. Dark clouds gathered overhead with flashes of lightning dancing across the sky.
Xander didn’t bother looking up when his aunts and uncles cried in surprise. A towering wave slammed into the higher end of the upturned island and a deluge of water coursed through the cobblestone streets and poured like waterfalls over the fallen blocks of stone. The young Wind Warrior cradled his grandfather’s head to keep it out of the draining water. He ignored the frigid water that soaked through his thin pants. He rocked the elder man’s body as he cried, his sobs lost in the crashing of thunder.
The planet seemed to cry out in pain at the loss of the oldest of the Wind Caste.
They buried his grandfather in a grave covered in marble stones. He was buried alone, since the cairns for Bart and his parents had been swallowed by the ocean.
Xander had cried as he carried his grandfather’s body to its new resting place, but by the end of the haphazard funeral service, he had run out of tears. His sadness was replaced with anger and thoughts of revenge. The words of his grandfather—telling him to fight the Fire Caste for the benefit of mankind instead of personal vendettas—were pushed to the back of his mind.
“What will you do?” Thea asked in a surprisingly compassionate tone. “Will you find the Wind Elemental?”
Xander sorted through the rubble that had once been his house and scavenged what clothes and personal belongings he could retrieve. He shoved them unceremoniously into his backpack until it was straining against its zippers.
“Eventually, but I have something to do first.”
“You can’t hold this anger in your heart,” Giovanni offered. “Your grandfather would have told you the same thing, if he were here.”
Xander threw his bag onto the ground and turned sharply toward his aunts and uncles. “But he’s not here, is he? No, he’s dead. Just like my parents. Just like Bart and Robert.” He threw his arms up in disgust. “Open your eyes for once. You’re going to give me some Yoda crap about how I should be a better man than the Fire Warriors but guess what? I’m not. I’m not better than they are. They want us dead because we’re standing in their way. Well, if they want me, I’m going to oblige them. I’m going to find them and I’m going to kill every one of them.”
“Xander,” Sammy said softly, stepping to his side.
“Don’t,” he said, brushing her outstretched hands aside. “Just don’t right now, okay?”
Sammy bit her bottom lip. “Don’t push me away, please. You can’t just go rushing off, hunting down Fire Warriors.”
Xander laughed hysterically. “No, of course I can’t. I forgot that you wouldn’t want me to harm any of your kind.”
“My kind?” Sammy replied angrily. “I’m here with you, aren’t I? Not with them. God, you’re starting to sound like Patrick.”
The Irishman shrugged but refused to leave, despite Alicia’s urging that they all give the young lovers some time alone.
“Maybe he’s not all wrong,” Xander retorted, though he immediately regretted his comment as soon as the words left his mouth. He didn’t really believe that. He was intentionally being hurtful and he knew it.
Sammy nodded but he could see the tears glistening in her eyes. She stoically raised her chin and refused to let them fall. “Fine. You want me to leave? Is that what you want?”
Xander shook his head. “No, I don’t. I don’t know what I want right now.”
“Think about it, Xander,” she continued. “Remember the monster that I saw behind my… in the Fire Caste’s cavern? What if it’s the Fire Elemental? Have you considered that it could be pulling all the strings? The Fire Warriors aren’t evil. Even your grandfather knew that. If it is the Fire Elemental, then it’s guiding their actions. They don’t deserve to die.”
“I hate to break the news to you, lass,” Patrick interrupted, “but neither do we. If they are being controlled by the Fire Elemental, then we’re doing them a favor by putting them down like dogs.”
“Especially Lord Balor,” Thea added.
“You can’t,” Sammy responded vehemently. She stopped as she saw the odd looks at her sudden outburst.
“Behind your what?” Xander asked skeptically.
“What?” she asked.
“You said, ‘behind my’ and then you stopped yourself. Behind your what?”
Xander stared at her reaction. He had been willing to accept her concern for the Fire Warrior’s safety when they were in White Halls. He knew that despite her betrayal, she still had a deep connection to the people with whom she had grown up. Her reaction, especially to the mention of Lord Balor, seemed beyond the normal level of concern. It could be a form of brainwashing, he presumed. Spend enough time among evil people and you stop seeing the evil they do.
Sammy looked away nervously. It was confirmation enough to Xander that she was hiding something.
“Sammy?” Giovanni asked.
“Behind your what?” Xander repeated.
“Behind my… my… my clan’s castle,” she stammered.
“She’s lying,” Patrick said.
“Shut up, Patrick,” Xander demanded of the Irishman, though his eyes never left his girlfriend. “He may be a jerk but he’s also right. Tell me the truth. Why are you so opposed to us going after Lord Balor and the rest of the Fire Warriors?”
She muttered something inaudible as the first tear fell from her eyes.
“What did she say?” Patrick asked callously.
“Shut up, Patrick,” Xander ordered.
“Because he’s my father,” Sammy yelled as she turned sharply toward the aunts and uncles. “And it was ‘behind my father’s throne’.”
She turned much slower toward Xander. He tried to think of what to say in response but couldn’t find the words. They’d been struggling to survive against Lord Balor and his assassins and this entire time he’d been not only living with, but also dating, his mortal enemy’s daughter.
“Please say something,” Sammy said weakly.
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Xander grinded his teeth in anger and frustration but said nothing.
“Xander?” she asked.
“Lord Balor ordered the deaths of my parents and my grandfather. He sent his men after us and killed Bart and Robert. They would have killed all of us—myself included—if they had the chance. And you somehow didn’t think it was necessary to tell me that you were his daughter?”
“I…” she began but he quickly turned his back on her.
“Don’t. Don’t waste my time with any explanation. I don’t want to hear it.”
He heard her sob loudly but her cry couldn’t pierce the coldness that wrapped its icy fingers around his heart.
“I want you to go,” Xander said, his voice quivering with anger.
“Go where?” she asked.
“Off the island. Back to the mainland. To the middle of the ocean. I don’t care. I want you out of my sight.”
“Xander, please.”
He spun quickly toward her and steeled himself against her tear-streaked expression. She hadn’t bothered to wipe away the tears running down her cheeks. She had crossed her arms over her chest and rubbed her shoulders nervously.
“Please,” she sobbed quietly.
“Sammy,” he said softly.
“Yes?” she asked hopefully.
His frown deepened. “I want you out of my sight and off my island.”
She cried louder as Alicia stepped to her side. The older Wind Warrior wrapped her arms across Sammy’s shoulders and led her out of the ruined wall of the house.
“I’ll take her,” Alicia said over her shoulder. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Xander turned his back dismissively, not bothering to say goodbye to either of them.
They flew in relative silence. The quiet was broken on occasion by Sammy’s emotional outbursts but she quickly regained her composure. Alicia looked over sympathetically toward the younger woman. Despite her equal feeling of betrayal, the Wind Warrior hated to see Sammy looking so devastated. If nothing else, it confirmed that she had genuine feelings for Xander.
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