The Destroyer Book 3

by Michael-Scott Earle

  "No!" I screamed again and I felt the island quake beneath me as I pulled Earth into my body. Grass died beneath my feet, the hard dirt and clay beneath it turned into dust, and the whole island seemed to crumble underneath me. My scream grew louder until the only sound I heard was the ringing in my ears.

  I fell while I screamed. The impact with the ground below startled me and I realized what I had done. The four islands above me were nothing more than a few scraps of falling rock and dusty sand. I somehow destroyed them by withdrawing too much Earth. I had never seen that happen, but I had never used the Elements here.

  If I could pull Earth to me that strongly maybe I could also pull Air?

  I should have spent more time thinking about the consequences, but the distant dot on the horizon reminded me that Nadea was almost gone. I felt the Air swirl around me. It was a gentle breeze that I latched onto and yanked toward me like I was pulling a blanket tight around my chest.

  Entas taught me that all of the Elements could be drawn into our bodies and harnessed like Earth. The Earth was just the easiest to understand and use. Entas always warned me against using Water, but he had never given me a reason. I had gone against his wishes once and almost killed Shlara with it during a sparring match. I had used the same technique to rip the Water from a dragon that was decimating our army, easily destroying a creature that thousands of my warriors could not hurt. The unbridled power it had given me was terrifying and intoxicating at the same time. But I could not hesitate with Nadea at stake.

  The Wind pulled to me and entered my body in a way that was very similar to Water. Earth pulsed like a heartbeat and infused slowly. Air was violent initially, but as soon as I absorbed it, the energy quelled to a gentle lull that would turn into a storm when given the tiniest of outlets.

  Sand and dirt flew at me. I held my arm up over my eyes and squinted to see through the storm. Trees folded sideways and leaned toward me. Water from a stream two hundred yards away leapt out of its bed and arched in the air before splashing to the ground at my feet.

  I needed to pull harder.

  In the distance, the islands began to spin toward me, like rafts pulled into a whirlpool. The trees bent and snapped, limbs and leaves hurtled toward me. Rocks and boulders rolled by, some slammed into my body. My skin was ripped open by sand, tree branches and birds caught in my vortex. I was not moved. My bones were broken tens of thousands of times as rocks and trees bashed against me. As each object collided with my body, I ripped the Earth or Water from it and turned them into the smallest particles of the cosmos and used them to heal my body.

  The nearest floating island hit mine with an incredible sound. The impact reduced each island to half its former size, sending tons of loose matter into the air. All of it flew toward me. My pull was stronger than gravity.

  Another island slammed into my island. Then one from below and one from above crashed into me. I should have died there, crushed between the huge slabs of land, but there was too much power flowing through me. Almost as soon as the massive floating chunks of earth, water, and vegetation touched me, they split into millions of pieces and channeled their energy into my body.

  I couldn't hear anything but the wind, the sound of islands crashing into me like thunderous rain, and the screaming of the Elements in my body.

  Or maybe it was me screaming.

  I pulled my arm away from my face. My eyes were gouged out by sand and rocks, blurring my vision momentarily before they healed again. I no longer stood on an island. It was now a landmass stretching for endless miles of broken mountains and ruined trees. Nadea’s ship landed a few hundred yards away and dragged itself across the tortured landscape in a desperate struggle to escape me. Nadea clung to life on the rails of the broken teal deck. Soon she would lose her grip and be flung toward me. If I wasn't careful, I'd instantly kill her and absorb her into me as I had everything else in this dream world.

  I stopped pulling Air and the world was enveloped in a sudden silence.

  Then it all became lifeless and crashed.

  Islands collided. Some continued to float, others struggled to break away from the packed confines of the continent I had created. They ripped free and fell into the abyss at the bottom of my dream.

  Nadea's vessel quivered on the bare rock like a dying whale. Within half a second I covered the small distance to reach her. Her face remained impassive. She should have been happy to see me. Or shocked by the destruction I had wrought.

  "Nadea!" I yelled again as I reached down to pull her into my arms. Her body felt as I remembered: lean and toned. Her small breasts pushed into me when I embraced her. She was warm and smelled like weapon oil and sweat. I brushed her thick brown hair back from her face and stared into her eyes. They were dark and textured like fertile soil, yet they looked glassy and dazed. It seemed as if she was distracted by something. Her body hung against mine limply and her beautiful face showed no expression of recognition.

  "Nadea?" Her eyes moved to meet mine. My left hand circled her waist and squeezed her body tighter against my chest. My right hand came up to her neck and cradled her head.

  "Nadea?" she echoed my question. Her voice was weak and she slumped against me. I cursed and pulled her head back so she would look at me again.

  "Do you remember me?" I noticed she had a small brass key on a leather tie around her neck. The hilt was decorated with a tiny engraved mountain range.

  "Kaiyer?" She looked at my face and her lips turned up into a slight smile.

  "Yes. Do you remember?"

  "Kaiyer." Her eyes seemed to focus on mine and I saw a spark of recognition.

  I woke to her whisper and sat up in my chair in her tent. Sun streamed through the flap in the canvas, the air inside was warm and close. It was midday, which meant I had been asleep for three or four hours. My fatigue had faded. In fact, I could only recall feeling this invigorated once before, when I had drained the Water from the dragon.

  “Kaiyer.”

  The whisper was so faint, it had to be a remnant from my dream. My brain sought to work through the frustration I felt over my inability to save Nadea.

  "Kaiyer." This time it originated from her comatose form lying next to me.

  "I'm here, Nadea." I almost kicked my chair across the tent in my rush to her side. My hand fished through the blanket that covered her until I found her fingers.

  "Am I dead?" her voice was scratchy and pained.

  "No. You are alive!" My brain tumbled through a thousand words in my non-native language as my mouth searched for the right ones to express my joy. Then I remembered that she would need me to guide her through the next few days.

  "Not so loud." Her face winced in pain.

  "Do not open your eyes," I said softly and rushed over to the table of medical supplies and grabbed some of the spare towels stored there. I unfolded one and laid it across her brow before taking her hand again.

  "Where am I? I feel," she paused and took a deep breath through her mouth. "I feel and hear too many things. My mind," she sobbed and her body started to shake. I squeezed her hand again and she overcame the seizure before I continued speaking.

  "I am going to guide you through this. Do exactly as I say, or you will be in terrible pain. Understand?"

  "Yes. How are you alive?" she croaked out. She turned her head toward my voice.

  "We will talk about that later. Take shallow breaths through your nose until I tell you to stop. I will tell you to inhale and exhale. Inhale now."

  Nadea obeyed me and took a deep breath through her nose.

  "Too much air. Breathe shallowly through your nose. Exhale slowly through your mouth." She exhaled through her nose and I counted to fifteen.

  "Inhale." She did and I counted to another fifteen.

  "Exhale."

  We repeated this for a half of an hour until I could tell her body relaxed and her mind was more at ease.

  "Continue the pace of breathing I have given you. I will no longer tell you to inhale or e
xhale." She said nothing but her breathing continued. I waited a few more minutes before I spoke again.

  Now we will focus on your hearing. You are hearing everything and it is overwhelming your mind. There are only three things you need to listen to right now: the sound of my voice, the beating of my heart, and the beating of your own heart.”

  I waited and watched her concentrate on this until her jaw relaxed. Her breathing remained steady and slow.

  "Now you will only hear the beating of your own heart," I said in a soft whisper. Entas had helped me develop this method initially and Malek had tweaked it to perfection. It was still a painful, trying process, but it was a thousand-fold improvement over what the Elvens had done to their changed humans. They had just locked us into robust cells and waited. After a few weeks of hell, a quarter of us had survived with our sanity, the rest were exterminated.

  “Listen to your heart beating. You will also hear the sound of the Earth. You are pulling it into you with every beat of your heart. The Earth bears you no hatred. It simply wants to exist through you. It wants to give you power. Just allow it. Let it grow stronger through you.” I kept my voice calm, soothing, and soft. Entas had told me that presenting the Earth to someone in this way would push the knowledge into the primal part of their brain. The same part that controlled our urges of lust, hatred, love, and survival.

  “Now, soften the beating of the Earth,” I said after a few minutes passed. I felt the power surge through her body and into my scarred left hand holding hers. I felt the Earth leave her almost instantly.

  “Good. Now, make it beat stronger and louder again. Match its tempo to your own heart.” I could hear her heartbeat and feel the power pulse through her.

  "It is your blood now, coursing through your body, feeding your muscles, increasing the acuity of your senses, making your brain work faster. It was doing this before, but now that you know it is there, you can silence it." My droning voice continued in its gentle tempo.

  “Focus it now through your ears. Listen to my heart again. Ignore all other sounds.” I waited until her heartbeat matched the tempo of my own. It was an unconscious effect of tuning the Earth to the sound of someone else’s heartbeat.

  “Listen to the sounds outside the tent. There are thousands of voices and noises. It is overwhelming to attempt to discern each one. Choose one voice and follow it. Then, focus on that person’s heartbeat and breath.” I waited. She nodded slightly and I told her to practice the same technique on a different person.

  “Bring your hearing back to this room. It will take some time to perfect your ears. Just continue practicing as I have shown you. Try not to get frustrated if it takes some time. That is normal.” Nadea was used to excelling at everything she attempted. I worried she would not have the patience to master this and grow angry when it did not happen immediately.

  “I am going to remove the cloth from your face now. Do not open your eyes until I instruct you to do so.” I released her hand and gently pulled the towel from her face. I went to the tent flap and poked my head out.

  "No one is to enter. Not even Runir or Gerald. Understand?" The two guardswomen nodded and I returned to my spot next to Nadea. I grasped her hand again and she squeezed hard enough to almost break it.

  "Reduce the Earth flowing through you," I commanded. She took fifteen seconds to get it under control.

  "Slowly open your eyes. Look at the apex of your tent, not at me. Keep the Earth silent in your body." Her lashes parted half a second before her eyelids opened. Her pupils were huge, dilated so far that only a thin sliver of brown iris was visible. I watched her pupils shrink and expand as she focused on the ceiling of her tent.

  “Focus on each thread in the cloth. Think about what you want to see and then slowly allow the Earth to come back and beat with your heart." The Earth was remaking her eyes so she could see like a hunting falcon.

  "Don't think too much about your vision, just think about what you want to see and the Earth will do the rest. Close your eyes." She complied and I almost wished I had not asked her to. I wanted to look into her eyes again. I had missed her.

  “As you inhale, pay careful attention to the scents in the tent. A candle on the dresser behind you is half burned. As you focus the Earth through your body, you will smell its wax, the burned wick, even the lingering smoke, though it hasn’t been lit today.”

  "You smell wonderful," she whispered. "I missed you so much." It sounded like her throat was made of broken glass.

  "Don’t speak. I missed you as well, Nadea." I took a deep breath and sighed. "We are almost done. You are doing well." I squeezed her hand again and she returned the clasp.

  I spent the next half hour running her through basic Earth exercises. Her senses became tuned to the power and I taught her the basics of how to push the Elements through her body. She had much more to learn, but now she would not be driven insane from the overstimulation of her newly heightened senses.

  "I'm going to get you some water. Then we can talk." I found the guard. Normally attendants came to check on us every few hours but I had lost track of time since I had awoken from my dream.

  "I need an abundant amount of water and food," I told the guards at the door. One nodded and ran into the camp with urgency. I guessed they knew that Nadea had awoken. They probably heard us talking through the thin canvas.

  "Do not let anyone else in but the food and water. Announce when it is here," I reminded the woman standing guard.

  "Yes, sir." She saluted. "No one will enter."

  "Kaiyer," Nadea's voice called me and I moved back to her side.

  "Continue your breathing. When food and water get here we can talk."

  "Okay." Her voice was a rasp. "Is my father here?"

  "I need you to concentrate on this. No more talking until you drink and eat." I smiled at her question and thought about how happy she would be when I told her of Beltor.

  I listened to Nadea's breathing continue for ten minutes. Then a sound of rattling utensils and plates pulled me to the entrance of the tent. I made my way there and grabbed the plates of food and water jugs from the guard without a word. Then I returned to my friend's side and helped her sit up in the bed.

  "Drink," I commanded after I handed her a wooden cup filled with water. She did as I asked while I uncovered the rest of the food. It was eggs, venison, and steamed cabbage. Nadea took a plate from me and dug into the food without speaking. I sat back in my chair, took a few mouthfuls of the eggs, and then swallowed some water before I spoke again.

  "What is the last moment you remember?" I started. Nadea didn't look Elven, but she definitely wasn't human. The most disturbing thing about changing her had not been this realization, it was that she had not seemed to experience any pain.

  She put her fork down and looked at me. Her dark hair was a wonderful mess of sleepy tangles, but her eyes met mine and seemed to reflect what little light danced into the tent. The gray blanket had fallen around her waist when she sat up, but Gerald had changed her out of the servant's clothes I had originally found her wearing. Now she wore the simple brown garments of the soldiers in her camp.

  She closed her eyes and took a long breath. "Nanos. He stabbed me with the knife I wanted to kill him with. Did I kill him?"

  "He is still alive."

  "You were there! I thought you had died. How did . . . how are you here? How am I here?"

  "We can get into the details tomorrow after you rest."

  "Last I saw you, we were in your bathroom." She smiled at me and then covered up her lips with the cup of water.

  "We were in the hallways of the castle and I ran after an Elven into the city. It was foolish of me; I should have realized that it was a trap." Her eyes widened. "They ambushed me in the thick of the streets. I managed to get away and kill most of them. Just as I was about to return to the castle, I heard horses racing out of the west gate. I saw three Elvens on horseback. One of the Elvens was carrying Jessmei."

  "Nanos betrayed us to
the empress," she said as she set down her cup. Her mouth made a hard line.

  "I didn't have time to come back, I just set off after them. Jessmei is safe. She is in Merrium, a small dairy village about a week's ride north of us."

  "Jessmei is alive?"

  "Yes." I couldn't help but smile. "Greykin and your father should be there, along with the queen. Runir sent a few dozen men north to get them."

  "My father is alive?" Her face cracked and tears streamed from her eyes. I got up from my chair to touch her but she met me halfway, scattering our plates of food across the floor of the tent. My arms circled her shoulders and hers came around my chest. She buried her face in my tunic.

  "At Merrium we learned of Nia being sacked. The news was grim, but I didn't want to believe it. I set off on my own and got back to the castle." I continued my story when her sobs seemed to ebb, "I found Greykin in a tavern on the south side of the city and we exchanged tales. He intended to travel through the sewers and make his way through the dungeon of the castle. He had a small group of men and planned on saving whomever he could from the royal family."

  "I am glad he is alive. Last time I saw him he was defending Paug and I from half a dozen Losher soldiers." Nadea pulled her face away from my shoulder and looked into my eyes with a faint smile.

  "We got separated under the dungeons and they ended up making it there before me. I put on servant's clothes and was going to get my feeling for the workings of the castle, but then I met your father. He had taken over as one of the managers." Nadea laughed and hugged me again.

  "That is just like him. Genius." The sensation of her body laughing against mine made my head spin.

  "Beltor's men found Greykin's and the three of us discussed what to do next. He had heard no news of your death, so he imagined that you were somewhere in the castle. He knew that Nanos was being kept as a prisoner, but he did not know that the prince had betrayed us."