The Five Elements

by Scott Marlowe

  Ensel Rhe ducked behind one of the work tables.

  "No," Aaron croaked. "There was no one else. Just me."

  Ansanom hovered close to Aaron’s side. Something was in his hand. He held it to the dim light and shook it for a moment.

  "This is strange," Ansanom said, shaking his head as he examined the vial. "The engine's output is more than sufficient to generate the reaction within you, yet I see nothing. How—" Ansanom froze, then he whirled around. For one moment, Ensel Rhe thought he'd somehow detected his presence. But the sorcerer had not. He headed straightaway for a table where he picked up a piece of parchment thick with scrawlings. Ensel Rhe rose from his place of concealment. He'd not give Ansanom another chance to get near Aaron. While the sorcerer's attention was fixed on the parchment, Ensel Rhe stepped around the table with his knives ready. A sudden outburst from the sorcerer stopped him.

  "This—How...?" Ansanom crumpled the parchment. "It would only make sense if... if..." Silence, then his fists slammed down upon the table in unison. The vial of blood in his hand shattered. "No... No...” His head shook. “No! No! No! Elsanar! You tricked me!" Ansanom spun around, his face contorted with rage.

  His eyes went wide when he saw Ensel Rhe.

  The knives flew, but it was too late. With a flick of one wrist, Ansanom sent both knives veering off-course. One disappeared into the shadows. The other embedded itself in the table Aaron lay upon precisely between his right arm and his head.

  The knives had barely left his hands before Ensel Rhe had khatesh and dagger drawn. He made it all of three steps before Ansanom lifted the eslar from the ground as easily as he'd diverted the knives, flinging him away so that he slammed into the ragged subterranean wall. He remained there, half a dozen hands from the ground, pinned and helpless.

  Ansanom approached his newest captive. "What did you know of this betrayal?"

  "The only betrayal I know of is yours," Ensel Rhe hissed.

  Ansanom flicked his wrist and the eslar was no longer pinned but flung across the chamber. He hit the opposite wall with a bone-crunching thud. His weapons fell from his hands.

  "You were Elsanar's man," Ansanom said, addressing Ensel Rhe from the center of the chamber now. "You must have known something. Or were we both duped, eh? Are you as big a fool as I?"

  When Ensel Rhe said nothing in reply, Ansanom looked away. He rubbed at his forehead with one hand as he went on. "Erlek told me this boy was of the ancestry of the mighty Tarn Galangaul. If it were true, his attunement to the earth would be enormous. Did Elsanar fool Erlek as well?" His hand dropped so that both hung at his sides, clenching into fists. "Instead the boy is an empty vessel." He looked up again. "He is worthless!"

  "If that is true, then let him go," Ensel Rhe said, his voice calm, but strained, as if the pressure exerted on him robbed him of breath. "We came to you seeking safety, not treachery. You were supposed to keep Aaron safe."

  "Safe?" Ansanom took a step toward his newest captive. "Safe? No one is safe!" His voice boomed from the earthen walls. "Not as long as Erlek Abn Nee possesses even one of the Elements! What you saw at Norwynne was nothing! You have no idea what destruction that ghoul will wreak upon the world should he gain them all. Only I stand in his way! By now he will have two of the Elements. Perhaps even the third. Only I, with the power of the Elements, can stop him."

  "And once you are done dispatching Erlek," Ensel Rhe said, heaving in a breath, "what destruction will you then wreck on the world? How many more poisoned bottles do you have ready and waiting?"

  "Bah! You understand nothing."

  "You're wrong, sorcerer. I understand greed and the lust for power more intimately than you ever will. I know what such things do to men. I know how far one will go to satisfy their call. You speak of what this Erlek Abn Nee will do with the Elements. I worry more what you will do with them, for while Erlek may have evil in his heart, it is your treachery I have seen with my own eyes."

  Ansanom, tired of the conversation, brought his fist down. In response, Ensel Rhe crashed to the ground. A wave of the sorcerer's arm and he was flung across the nearest of the work tables, scattering glass and metal paraphernalia to the floor as he plowed through the table's contents. Clear of the table, he kept sliding along the floor until he crashed into the far wall. There was no movement right away, not until first one arm stirred and then another. With visible effort, he stood and then took a single step toward the sorcerer. That single step was all he was allowed as, once more, Ansanom froze him in place.

  "Perhaps all is not lost here," Ansanom said as he strolled across the laboratory. "You must know something of the Five Elements. Elsanar never mentioned them to me. Aaron claims he knows nothing of it. I wonder, then, how much do you know?"

  "I have already told you all I know," Ensel Rhe said. "But even if I knew every last secret about them, still I would tell you nothing."

  "Oh, I think you will tell me everything." Ansanom held out one hand and clutched the fingers of it together like a vise. Ensel Rhe shuddered. "You will tell me—" Ansanom gestured to the ceiling with his clenched fist. Ensel Rhe flew vertically, in a straight line, up and up until an audible thud announced his impact with the ceiling. "—everything you know—" Another gesture, this time toward the far wall, as Ensel Rhe slid across the jagged ceiling. "—about the Five Elements—" The wall's presence brought his flight to an abrupt halt. "—or when I am done with you, I shall do the same to the boy." The wizard released his hold and Ensel Rhe, who was crumpled into a ceiling crevice, slid down the wall to crash into a shadowed corner. There was a noise from the darkness—a gasp of pain, a heaving of breath, then the sound of spitting. Then a thing—a shambling, hunched, man-like apparition, twisted and contorted, each step heavy and slow, emerged from the shadows. One arm hung uselessly at the thing's side. The opposite leg was twisted so that its booted foot slid sideways along the floor as it moved. It stopped, swaying once. Then it spoke. "You… will not… harm him." Despite this thing's appearance, it still spoke with the hard, unforgiving, and deadly voice of Ensel Rhe.

  "Still such bravado," Ansanom said, sighing. He curled a finger and the eslar dropped to his knees. Ansanom moved to stand directly in front of him. "Now," he said, "let us discuss what you know."

  * * *

  Aaron watched as Ensel Rhe entered the room and approached Ansanom. The old sorcerer asked Aaron a question. Aaron responded, hoping he instilled enough despair in his voice to satisfy the circumstances and not betray his rising sense of hope. Then, just when it looked as if Ansanom was about to get two knives in the back, the wizard launched into a verbal tirade, turned around, and spotted Ensel Rhe. The knives left the eslar's hands, but it was too late. With a gesture, the sorcerer deflected them. The one went into the shadows. The other, coming straight for him, caused Aaron to close his eyes. Ansanom was already tossing Ensel Rhe about the room by the time he opened them.

  "Stop!"

  Aaron tried to yell the words, but his throat was so dry it emitted only an inaudible croak. He slumped against the table, his bonds the only thing holding him upright. Then, from the corner of one eye, he saw Ensel Rhe's knife. He reached for it, straining against the straps. He was just able to grip the handle. But it was stuck fast. Mindful of Ansanom, Aaron worked at it, pushing and pulling as best he could. At first, it didn’t move at all. His strength, never enough on his best day, was diminished significantly. Still, he kept at it, until he was able to shift the blade back and forth. Finally, it came free. He almost dropped it.

  A moment of panic gave way to relief as he firmed his grip on the knife's handle. Slowly, he started sawing at the bonds holding one hand. Despite nicking his hand more than once, he worked the leather strap to a thread. A quick yank broke it loose from the table. Then he went to work on the others. Ansanom had momentarily halted his abuse of Ensel Rhe as he rambled on about something. Aaron didn't know—didn't dare take the time to look—if Ensel Rhe had seen his progress, but the eslar did his part, keeping the o
ld sorcerer engaged in conversation while Aaron loosed the last of his bonds.

  He lowered himself from the table, careful to remain quiet and mindful that his body remained weak, drained by the extraction process. Thinking he'd no more use for the knife, he placed it quietly on the ground. Ansanom was a distance away, his neck craned nearly towards the ceiling where he'd trapped Ensel Rhe. The sorcerer's back was to Aaron and the extraction engine. Aaron slinked down its length, heading straightaway for the controls. The machine's innards were mostly exposed, much like a clock with its housing pulled away. Aaron saw spiraling tubules, metallic vats, thin pipes, rods, and gears of all sizes. The controls were a mix of levers and dials. The engine continued to emit a low hum. Knowing any change in that monotone was sure to attract the wizard's attention, Aaron dared not pull a single lever or twist a single dial. Instead, he studied it. He dismissed everything else, blocking out Ensel Rhe's words of defiance and deafening his ears to Ansanom's rebuttal until there was only the extraction engine and its continuous hum. Wanting a better view, Aaron did not hesitate to find purchase for one foot and then the other as he hoisted himself up one side. A brief pause dispelled a moment of dizziness, then he followed the lines of tubules and pipes that led away from the controls and into the heart of the machine. It was pressure-controlled, with valves that opened or closed based on the configuration of the levers and dials at the control station. Fluids under pressure were housed in the vats. Pipes carried the fluids throughout the assembly. Some of them were strictly for lubrication of the gears and other moving parts. These were of no interest. Aaron was principally concerned with the ones that sprung from the crystalline quills and their associated apparatuses. He followed the pipes there, scrambling for footing as he checked to see if the quills came loose. They did. Then he followed the pipes out to a series of smaller vats interconnected to one another. These were the engine's collecting tanks. Aaron almost wished he had more time to study the whole of it. Despite what it had been designed to do, it was still a fascinating piece of machinery. For now, though, he had all the information he needed.

  Ansanom was still engaged, speaking to Ensel Rhe. More importantly, he hadn't noticed Aaron's movement. Though Aaron had not followed their conversation, it was not hard to figure out that Ensel Rhe had maintained his defiance and that it had done him no favors. Just as Ansanom hurled Ensel Rhe across the table, Aaron activated the extraction engine. He pulled on one lever and gave a half-turn to one of the dials. Above him, he heard Ensel Rhe, under Ansanom's power, crash into one wall and then another. The engine's hum heightened, but only subtly. Ansanom, so enraptured by his manhandling of the eslar, noticed nothing. Aaron pulled at another lever. Gears trembled into motion, pipes shook as pressurized fluid flowed, and glass tubules glowed with ever increasing energy. Satisfied, and with no time to spare, Aaron made several random adjustments: levers and dials he knew would have no affect but which might help confuse Ansanom. Then he ducked around the other side of the engine, stopping at the collecting vats to tighten—and seal—the intake valve. Ansanom wasn't going to extract anything from anyone ever again. Aaron stayed in place, hidden, waiting for Ansanom to notice the engine's activity.

  His wait was short. Though the whir of gears and the pumping of fluid had not grown as loud as when Ansanom had used the engine on Aaron, it was loud enough that he now noticed it. The sorcerer turned away from Ensel Rhe, who'd been brought to his knees, took one look at the re-activated engine and the table where he'd bound Aaron—empty now—and said, "Eh? What's this?" There was no worry in his voice, but he hurried to the engine's controls. Aaron stayed hidden, positioning himself behind one corner of the table and just beneath the crystal quills. He let the old wizard reach the panel, then he detached both of the quills, careful that the tubules connecting them to the engine did not come loose.

  As Aaron had hoped, Ansanom saw the alterations he'd made to the controls and immediately saw to correcting them. It was all the distraction Aaron needed. With one quill in each hand, Aaron ran at the sorcerer. Trailing behind him, the tubules uncoiled. He was almost to the sorcerer when Ansanom saw him. Aaron's muscles froze as the sorcerer's magic took hold. Ansanom stared at him, his brow raised and the beginnings of a smile just forming on his lips. The next instant, the smile became a gasp as the point of a sword erupted from his midsection. Behind the sorcerer stood a snarling Ensel Rhe.

  The force holding Aaron lifted. As if he'd never stopped, he ran at the sorcerer. The moment he was close enough, he stabbed the quills into him. Energy exploded all around the wizard, knocking Aaron and Ensel Rhe away, but the quills held fast. The wizard howled in pain, his form instantly growing so brilliant Aaron had to look away.

  Aaron found Ensel Rhe. The two nearly fell into each other's grasp, leaning on one another for support.

  "We have to get out of here," Aaron said.

  They'd crossed half the lab when Serena came running through the entry. She took one look at her master and his predicament and, without a word, ran to the table where the Element of Water lay. Cradling the urn beneath one arm, she joined Aaron and Ensel Rhe. Together, they started towards the exit. Behind them, the air sizzled with energy as Ansanom howled in pain.

  They threw themselves from the chamber, stumbled down the passage, and hobbled up the flight of stairs. The dining room was a blur as they made their way to the manor's front door. All three piled out into the cool night air. They made it a dozen paces when Aaron and Ensel Rhe stumbled together and toppled to the ground. Serena, who currently possessed more vitality than the two of them combined, encouraged them to rise.

  "We cannot go any further," Ensel Rhe said, his breathing labored. He pointed, a half-hearted gesture. "Not until we deal with them."

  Aaron and Serena followed the line of Ensel Rhe's finger. From the dark, his broad-bladed death dealer held in one hand, emerged Krosus. Behind him came his hounds.

  Ensel Rhe tried to stand, but he faltered and fell to the ground. Aaron did likewise. Only Serena, with the Element of Water grasped in both hands, remained standing to face the pack.

  Behind them, Wildemoore Manor shuddered as noise from the overloading extraction engine swept over them. It rose to a fevered pitch, drowning out everything. The manor trembled again as the earth shook. A boom sounded from below them, the shock of it nearly tossing them into the air. It was enough to knock Serena from her feet. She did not rise, but instead huddled alongside the others. In the next instant, Wildemoore Manor, home of the great wizard Ansanom, exploded in a shower of rock, timber, and earth.

  18. Amongst the Clouds

  THE GRIFFIN'S ENGINE SPEWED SMOKE and heat through the deck's exhaust pipes as the airship sailed up and away from Cauldron Mountain. Once the fires of Anaktoa were a pinprick in the distance behind them, the Griffin began a steep ascent, rising higher and higher until they approached the very underside of the clouds. An unspoken signal must have been conveyed, for crewmen started breaking out an assortment of gear: heavy wool jackets, fur-lined boots and gloves, and, most striking of all, masks that covered the face and that had tubes extending from a mouthpiece to small, belt-mounted tanks that Shanna learned were full of air. Right away, as the Griffin ascended through the lowermost clouds, she recognized their necessity, for gradually, as if someone were stealing her very breath, it became more and more difficult to breathe. She took deep breaths to compensate, but it did no good. Her head swam and she felt faint.

  "The air is thinner here," Erlek said from next to her in a dry, monotone voice.

  Shanna started. She'd neither seen nor heard his approach. Though she loathed his presence, the suddenness of his appearance at least forced her to shake off the slow grip of panic brought about by the thinning air.

  "We will remain this high only as long as it takes to secure the next Element." From the ship's foredeck, he probed the way ahead as if he could see through the mistiness of the clouds. "Two of them are ours now. Soon, we shall have the third."

  Shanna
didn't say anything right away. At first, she hoped the man would just go away. She hated the way he always stood so close. She leaned away, taking a small step from him in the process. The movement jostled the satchel that still hung at her side. The bowl that was the Element of Earth remained within. It was joined by a small obsidian box where rested the Element of Fire. The obsidian box was necessary, Erlek had said, to contain the Element lest it set the airship ablaze. Shanna thought about excusing herself and returning to her cabin, but her curiosity got the best of her. "The third. But what about the fourth?"

  "The fourth has already been retrieved," Erlek said. "I only need meet with its caretaker to exchange for it."

  A shiver went through the man. Shanna saw his breath as visible puffs. It was cold, she realized, seeing many of the airmen buttoning tight their wool jackets. Strange she hadn't noticed anything herself. But for the thinning air, she felt perfectly fine.

  Shanna was just about to probe for more information when the mist parted and suddenly the Griffin was above the clouds. Her question died on her lips as she was overwhelmed by a night sky she had hereto only imagined. Millions of pinpricks blazed across the dark veil, twinkling, signaling, almost calling to her. They were so close, too, as if she might reach out and grab hold of them if only the Griffin would climb just a little higher. Shanna relished the sight for as long as she could, or at least until she realized that Erlek still stood close. It was with some disappointment that she returned her attention to their discussion.

  "What about the third then?" she asked.

  While Shanna had been delighting in the night sky, the Griffin had leveled off, the rush of her engine diminished, so that she now just skimmed the tops of the clouds.

  "The Element of Air lies ahead. Those entrusted with hiding the Four Elements thought they were clever, hiding each of the artifacts deep within the elemental sphere to which it belonged. I learned that Earth was deep underground. Water, immersed beneath the sea in a sunken city. Fire, in the bowels of a volcano. And Air. Killius Roe was the elementalist entrusted with the Element of Air. Much like ourselves, he soared aloft, searching for a place to secret away his charge. What he found, hidden amongst the clouds, was Valacia. Its name means 'Palace of the Skies'."