The Tantalising Taste Of Water (Elemental Awakening, Book 4)

by Nicola Claire

  She looked young, but she may well not have been. Tall and broad in the shoulders, rather like a mythical Amazonian woman, in fact. With dark blue eyes that flashed a little vibrant green at the edges, sharply defined cheekbones slanting across her cheeks, and long brown hair hanging down her back in a single braid. She was the epitome of Gi.

  I should have hated her on sight.

  But she walked with the grace of a jungle cat, she smiled with the serenity of an ancient standing tree, and she gave off a sense of calmness that seemed to invade me. I could have sworn I smelled the soothing scent of Earth as she approached us.

  “Aether,” she said in greeting.

  “Not for much longer,” I offered, and she grinned.

  “You have chosen,” she said after a brief pause. “Are you sure?”

  Was I? No, and yes. The choice was right; the consequences were punishing.

  I didn’t reply. I just touched her shoulder, and she melted back into the crowd without comment.

  “They are small in number,” I said to Theo. “Their burden the greatest of all. Without the Amazon, the world is doomed anyway.”

  I finally looked up into his eyes and felt myself falling. Breaking apart and tumbling into nothing.

  “I don't want to leave,” I said, voice and heart broken.

  Theo growled low in the back of this throat and stepped close enough to scorch me.

  “I told you once, Casey Eden, that I would find a way for us to be together. That I would find a way back to you. One that the world cannot fight against. You are mine. My Thisavros. Eternally.”

  I wasn't sure he could fight this. The balance of the world was far greater than our love story.

  We’d always be Thisavros to each other. We’d always be parents to the small wonder that was growing inside me. No one could take that away.

  But I needed to be in Gi, rebuilding the rainforest.

  And Theo needed to be in Pyrkagia, rebuilding his family.

  I choked out a sob, allowed myself one last embrace, one last Pyrkagia flare and tangling.

  And then I stumbled back and said, “I’m ready.”

  Theo stood before me a proud Prince with tears streaking his cheeks.

  Pyrkagia swelled, not just his but that of his family.

  The ground shook. The heavens opened up. A wind wrapped around us and cried mournfully.

  Stars burst out, and Aetheros sighed. Contentedly.

  You have chosen well, child, he said, his voice booming.

  And suddenly I wasn't in Auckland anymore; I was standing on the packed dirt of the Amazon plain. In the distance stood what had regrown of the Amazon rainforest. Before it my new family.

  The Gi stared at me, and I stared at them.

  And then I broke down completely.

  Epilogue

  For All Of Us

  I waddled out of the meeting room and stared down from the tree house’s balcony. Earth reached out and soothed me; taking away the aches and pains from my lower back. I stretched out a hand and caught a seed pod from a nearby Kapok tree in my palm.

  Gi were running about beneath the heavy leaves. A bird cawed from up in the branches. Earth let out a pleased sigh, making the leaves rustle and the ground roll beneath our feet.

  “Stop that,” I chided.

  “It is being playful today,” Rhea said from beside me. She’d become a much-needed friend and confidante. A Gi I was beginning to think I could actually trust.

  “The world feels more settled,” I agreed.

  “And soon there will be one more to make the Elements sing.” She reached over and rubbed a hand across my distended belly. The kid kicked back ecstatically giving me heartburn.

  I scratched at my chest, at the ache that never really left me. Happiness was hard to grasp when sadness ate you up completely.

  “You spoke with your Thisavros last night?” Rhea asked.

  I shook my head. “Aktor said he was in a meeting and wouldn’t be contactable until tonight. The challenge to rule has caused its own problems, but at least Pyrkagia is now free from tyranny.”

  “Your Prince will make a good King,” Rhea agreed. “And you make a good Queen.”

  I sighed. “This again?”

  “Always this. We will not settle until you agree to be our Queen.”

  “Why me?”

  “Why not you?”

  “That’s not an answer,” I snapped.

  “Nor is your question a valid question. Of course, it would be you. You saved us. You cleansed us. You gave us back our powers and our freedom. You think we do not love you? We adore you, my Queen.”

  “Stop that.”

  “Now you chide me like a naughty Element?” She arched her brow at me, a haughty look crossing her features.

  “You should be Queen.”

  She burst out laughing, slapping her thigh and grinning from ear to ear.

  “I’d shoot an arrow into every councillor who crossed me. You are much more diplomatic.”

  Rhea did have a tendency to go everywhere with her bow and arrows. That’s why I liked her, I realised. She stood up for herself, didn't take any shit from anyone, and constantly made the Gi men run away like frightened little children.

  I hadn't asked her where she had been when I’d been imprisoned in the former Gi stronghold. No one spoke of it; we’d all silently agreed to let bygones be bygones. Davos was dead. The former Gi Rigas and Basilissa were dead. I hadn't had any further contact with Gi while I’d been held here. Just Noah the doctor, who had turned out to be an Alchemist and not a Gi. Rhea might have been a guard, and she might have fired at Noah and me when we escaped, but she hadn't been part of the Gi regiment I had killed in the Amazon.

  We all had our guilt to bear. It was time to let it go.

  “Queen, huh?” I said mildly, staring out over the tops of the trees.

  The forest was growing at an alarming speed. Earth rejuvenated beyond any of our expectations.

  Aetheros had been right. Gi had needed me. And maybe I had needed them.

  But the sacrifice…It hurt. More and more with each passing day.

  “I will arrange the ceremony,” Rhea announced as if the decision had been made.

  I huffed out a laugh and felt the baby kick enthusiastically. I rubbed a hand over my belly and soothed him.

  “He is frisky today, eh?” Rhea asked.

  “Too frisky. He’s excited about something.”

  “Maybe he will be born soon?”

  “I don’t think so. I'm only about seven months along. It’s too soon.”

  “But you said so yourself; this one is special.”

  “Every mother says that,” I said with a self-deprecating laugh.

  “Ah, but not every mother has been blessed by a god.” She leant forward and kissed my cheek and then bent down and whispered something in Greek to the baby. I’d been taking Greek lessons, but quite frankly, it was all still Greek to me.

  I sighed as she smoothly glided away to the council room to advise the councillors of the good news. Yippee! A coronation.

  If I were honest with myself, I’d always known this would be the outcome. The Gi had wanted to ask me back when we rescued them, but I’d avoided any direct conversation with them until it was too late. And by then the world had been balanced, and I’d made my decision anyway.

  I chose Gi. I chose my first Awakened Element. I chose the Stoicheio that felt the most real. The one that had started it all. The one that had needed me so desperately.

  Nero were doing OK. I spoke to Pisces almost daily. They’d had a freaking lot of those satellite phones. So had the Alchemists, and they had been in touch too, via Noah. But relations with them were slow going. We were all wary. Distrust still so prevalent. You could have balance and still have disharmony.

  It worried me. But we were working on it. We had open communication. And I even had a written apology from the new Alchemist leader for the harm they had caused. Not in so many words, but I think the ap
ology had been for killing Gramps.

  Justice is a strange thing. I felt I hadn't received it. But then, we’d all paid a price during Genesis. And we’d all lost somebody.

  I still couldn't believe how close I’d come to speaking to my grandfather again. How close I’d come to forgiving him in person. But some things are just not meant to be.

  Mark walked up to me then. Drinking a lemonade made by the Gi women in our communal kitchens. He grimaced. Then swigged a bit more, leaning against the railing and staring out across the Amazon.

  “Nice drink?” I enquired.

  “No sugar. Why does it take so bloody long to grow sugar cane when you can grow a friggin’ Kapok tree in under two weeks?”

  I smothered a laugh and felt a twinge in my belly. I rubbed it absently as I watched the Gi hunters chase a makeshift ball around the courtyard for their fitness training.

  The Gi enclosure was no longer a stronghold, but a series of tree houses joined by rope bridges. We still had guards, but they were mainly there for the animal population. Hunters outnumbered guards two to one.

  Mark had arrived in new Gi a day or two after we did. He’d been here ever since and hadn’t once mentioned Isadora or Auckland City. I thought he might be happy, but it was hard to tell with Mark. He hid a lot of his emotions. For instance, I had yet to see him cry over Gramps.

  He sipped his drink and stood beside me in companionable silence.

  I broke it when I said, “I agreed to become their Queen.”

  Lemonade was spat out in an undignified fountain, making the hunters below holler out in laughter.

  “Prepare a man, why don't ya? Don't just drop a bomb like that while he’s sipping his drink.”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s no big deal. I always knew it would come to this.”

  He studied me for a moment and then said, “You happy, Sis?”

  Was I?

  I was happy it was over. I was happy I’d have a bundle of love to hold very soon. I was happy my brother had chosen to live here.

  None of it, not a single part of it, outshone the sadness I felt at losing Theo.

  I started to cry, silent tears trickling out of my closed eyelids. I felt Mark’s arms embrace me, the hard press of his chest against my cheek, his unique brother-scent invade my nostrils. He held me and let me cry for a good five minutes, and then he pinched me on the arm and swatted me on the back of the head.

  “Ow!” I cried out. “What was that for?”

  “Told you I’d always be there to wake you the fuck up.”

  “What?”

  “Wake up! It’s a new world. Tell Theo to move his arse and shift Pyrkagia to here.”

  “He can’t do that. Pyrkagia is in Auckland.”

  “Why?”

  Because it had been in Auckland for years. Hundreds and hundreds of years. Since the branches split and the Ekmetalleftis left Greece. And the Alchemists stole all those Stoicheio. But why the Pyrkagia had chosen New Zealand to settle in, I didn't know.

  The Gi chose Brazil because of the rainforest. The Areas chose Peru because of Mach Picchu and the Andes Mountains. The Nero chose Atlantis because of the sea. But why did the Pyrkagia choose New Zealand?

  The volcanoes?

  No, that wasn’t right. They could touch the molten lava, but they couldn’t command the volcanoes. That was all on the Gi.

  “I don’t know why,” I finally said.

  “Ever thought it was because of you?” my brother said.

  “Don’t be stupid. I wasn't born when they moved their lives to Auckland.”

  Mark shrugged and grimaced through another sip of lemonade.

  “Who’s to say that freaky Aeras shaman didn’t tell them something before the branches split. Every single branch of Ekmetalleftis wanted you, Case. You think the Pyrkagia were any different? I bet your arrival was foretold.”

  Freaking hell, he sounded like a believer.

  Ah, shit. Gramps.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I said, sounding about as forlorn as I was feeling. “Somewhere along the way their Rigas forgot.”

  “That’s what the imbalance did,” Mark said sagely. “But we’re no longer imbalanced now.”

  “Aetheros still watches,” I murmured.

  “Thank fuck for that. An absent god is a dangerous god.”

  Thunder boomed, making Mark jump.

  I chuckled. “Don’t piss the very present god off by swearing at him.”

  “I wasn’t swearing at him. I was just swearing.” Mark ducked his head and looked up at the sky. Silently, I think, he was apologising.

  I smiled down at the hunters below us and watched their antics for a while. When I came back to my senses, Mark had gone.

  Sometimes I wondered if I imagined him.

  But no, there he was, down with the Gi, kicking their “soccer” ball around.

  Mark could wield Water and Air. He shouldn't have felt so at home here with the Gi. But they accepted him, as they seemed to have accepted me. I wondered if they’d accept the Pyrkagia.

  I waddled back to my tree house and picked up the satellite phone. I looked up at the sky through the open window and gauged the time to be about half past three. Which meant it would be after midnight in Auckland.

  Theo’s meeting had to be over by now.

  I dialled his satellite phone and waited for the orbiting satellites to do their thing. The phone rang and rang but no one, not even Aktor, answered. I powered it down and sank onto my mattress, staring at nothing.

  Another twinge woke me up several hours later. Followed by the baby doing somersaults again. I wondered if I might go into labour soon, but the twinge disappeared, and the baby happily kicked away as if he had all the time in the world to percolate in there.

  “You know,” I said quietly, rubbing my belly. “It would be nice if you slept when I slept.”

  I received a particularly decent kick for that one.

  I drifted off for a while and then woke up at some time in the early hours to pee. The kid and I had another conversation at some stage when a particularly nasty lightning storm rattled our bones. But carrying around the embodiment of an Elemental god with his father’s good genes and my penchant for misadventure coursing through his veins made for a tiring experience.

  I was constantly battling not to sleep.

  So when shouts and cries of greeting sounded out in the wee hours right before dawn, I rolled over and covered my head with a blanket, mumbling to the baby about inconsiderate Gi.

  I didn't wake up again until much later when the sun was high in the sky, and my body was overheated. I tried to fling the blankets off me, but they seemed a lot heavier all of a sudden.

  And then an arm pulled me back, and a hard chest met my shoulder blades, and hot breath washed across my cheek.

  “Oraia,” Theo whispered, and I thought perhaps I was dreaming. “Missed me?”

  I sat bolt upright in bed and almost screamed.

  “Shh,” he murmured, running his hand over my shoulder and down my arm. He brushed my hair away and reached up to cup my cheek, bringing his forehead against mine.

  “You’re here,” I said. “You’re really here.”

  I kept touching him. I couldn't stop touching him; needing to reassure myself.

  “Of course, I'm here. Rhea told me you are showing early signs of going into labour.”

  “You spoke to Rhea? When?”

  He looked startled at the anger that tinged my voice.

  “Ah, yesterday, I think,” he said carefully.

  “Yesterday! Yesterday, when I phoned twice, and you were in meetings? That yesterday?”

  “Cassandra.”

  “Don’t you ‘Cassandra’ me!”

  He smiled. It looked devastatingly good on him. I tried hard not to melt into a puddle.

  “Sweet, sweet Casey Eden,” he purred. “I have missed you so much.”

  I couldn't stop myself then. I flung my body into his arms and kissed him soundly. Our little
kicker giving as good as he could in the small space between us. Theo kissed me back while running his hands over my stomach. Soothing the baby and seeking that tactile connection the Pyrkagia love so much.

  “How long can you stay?” I asked, frantically pulling his t-shirt over his head.

  “Um,” he managed.

  “Doesn’t matter,” I quickly assured him. “You’re here now. We’ll just have to make the best of it.”

  “The best of it, Oraia?”

  “Strip,” I demanded, getting to work on my own clothes.

  “Where has my sweet, innocent Casey Eden gone?” Theo muttered.

  “You lost her a long time ago, Pyrkagia Prince.”

  He reached toward me, clasped a hand behind my nape and kissed me soundly.

  “And gained a fiery Gi Queen instead,” he rasped against my lips.

  “Did Rhea tell you that, too?” I demanded.

  “Tell me what?” he asked as he kissed down my neck and onto my naked chest.

  “Tell you that I’ve accepted their request to become Queen.”

  His head shot up, and he stared at me for a moment, and then a slow smile spread across his cheeks.

  “Theo?” I asked uncertainly. He looked like the cat that had got the cream.

  “Enough talking. More kissing,” he growled and rolled me beneath him.

  It took a few tries to find the right position, but we managed. Pyrkagia didn’t tangle, but it did tempt with its touch, just as Gi soothed with its scent; both of them wrapping around our thundering hearts and making our pulses flutter excitedly. And as our bodies reconnected in the most primal and basic of ways, I felt for a brief time complete again. Theo would always be my Thisavros, and I would always be his. Nothing could take that away.

  And as his Pyrkagia flared and the earth shuddered beneath us, and a flock of startled, brightly coloured birds burst from the canopy and flew up into the air, I could have sworn our god was laughing. Full of joy and love and happiness. Stars sparkled, but they didn't hold the sadness of Aether. That Element had retreated, no longer needed, but we had our god.

  And Aetheros blessed us, even as a part of me mourned Aether’s loneliness. Which made me realise I had no reason at all to feel sad about the distance between Theo and me.