by David Ekrut
He glanced over at his friends. Feffer’s jerkin had spots of blood as well, and he gripped his sword as if he was ready to use it. Daki appeared to have no red stains on him, but his hands rested comfortably on the hilts of his blades.
The hammer shook in the smith’s hands. “Wha... What do you want from me?”
Feffer’s voice held no compassion. “Tell us how to get to the Hammer Forged Inn. Is that a pie I smell?”
Elwin sighed.
It was just past noon when Zarah saw Goldspire in the distance. The red-tiled roofs matched the redwood boards that constructed the buildings. Only a few of the buildings stood taller than the others. One was the Miner’s Guild and two others were inns. The mining community had a few small shops but not much else here. Most of the gold and metals the miners pulled from the earth went to the king, but the supply gave the small city a bit of wealth as well.
Her mother flew next to her. Below her were the three remaining wagons traveling along the cobblestone road. She wished she could will the wagons to move faster.
Over the last tenday of travel they had seen no more signs of skeletal warriors, but she had not stopped worrying over Elwin. When she had finally been allowed to talk to Kyler, the man had not been able to tell her any more. He had dreams he couldn’t quite remember.
If Elwin had gotten himself killed, she would kill him. What if he had become Death bound? It was not possible. He had to have won.
Again she glanced at the wagons below. It appeared as if they had not moved an inch, but they had. She knew they moved several paces, in fact. It was the height that made them look as if they were parked on the road.
She tried to battle down the frustration. Impatience was beneath her station.
But now she could see the city. He could be here. But instead of flying ahead, she watched the slow wagons inch their way up the road.
“We should join the others,” her mother said above the rush of wind in her ear.
Zarah stopped the flow of Air and fell toward the ground. The rush of the wind surrounded her as she plummeted toward the earth. She angled her body to move to her father’s horse at the front of the caravan. Hulen sat atop his horse next to her father, and there was no sign of Tharu.
A few paces from the ground, she tamed enough power to slow to a stop. Similarly, her mother landed next to her. Father’s horse came to a halt in front of them. The procession stopped as well. Zarah suppressed a sigh.
“We arrive within the hour,” Mother said. “I do not know if Elwin has arrived before us. But, more importantly, we do not know how far Zeth is behind him. The black savant could already be here. He could have already taken Elwin. We must be prepared for anything.”
“Tharu has not seen any more tracks that suggest an army,” Father said. “But Zeth could have come with few others. Or even alone. He attacked Benedict without aid.”
“You are right, my love,” Mother said. “If Zeth only desires to capture Elwin, then he would likely have left his army behind. It is not easy to hide an army.”
Tharu appeared next to her. She knew Tharu couldn’t tame a veil, but she would love to know how the Chai Tu Naruo could disappear into thin air and reappear without taming the Elements.
“As far as I can tell, the city has not seen any attack.” Tharu turned to face the city. “The miners still go in and out of the mine, and people walk the streets without fear.”
Father nodded. “Perhaps, we have arrived first.”
“Mother and I can fly ahead,” Zarah said. “We will be able to sense any Death bound.”
“No,” Mother said. “We will move together.”
“We could go under a veil just to scout out, then return to tell Father.”
“No,” Father said. “You will not go another step without permission. Understood?”
She nodded.
“And do not pout,” Mother said.
Zarah opened her mouth to protest. She had not been pouting. She had been annoyed. It was time they stopped treating her like a child.
“Flowers bloom in ways that are not of our choosing,” Tharu said. “We have but one choice. Allow the flower to grow of its own volition, or pluck it and watch its beauty fade.”
Hulen laughed, “Ye shouldn’t talk vulgar, there’s a child here.”
Father and Tharu shared a perplexed look. Zarah wasn’t quite sure what Tharu had meant, but she had seen nothing vulgar about his words.
The dwarf stopped laughing. “It wasn’t supposed to be vulgar?”
“No,” Tharu said. “It is a saying amongst my people. Zarah is becoming a woman before our eyes. Soon, Zaak and Jasmine must allow her to make her own mistakes.”
“But not yet,” Mother said. “Zarah, you and I will travel with the others as your father said. Climb up. If Zeth is here, I do not want our taming to warn him of our presence.”
Zarah climbed atop the first wagon and sat next to her mother. She sat up straight and proper, but she did not meet her mother’s gaze. She was not pouting.
When Father nudged his horse forward, Bender snapped the reins to urge the coach into motion. A very slow motion.
The road into the town of Goldspire was surrounded by forests coming down from the mountains. Fewer redwoods dotted the forest than in the south, but she could see several rising above the smaller evergreens.
It became a chore not to fidget as the city grew closer, but Zarah managed to retain her posture as the coach crawled toward Goldspire. The main road led past the Hammer Forged Inn. They had stayed there on the recruitment expedition the previous year, so she knew the way. If she tamed Air and flew, she could have reached the inn in minutes.
She busied her thoughts by watching the city and their people.
The populace was a fraction the size of Justice, but the homes were larger than most of those from the capital city. And each building had wide spaces between them. The red-tiled homes lined the road, leading in from the west. Each garden had a variety of vegetables, and most of them had a fruit tree, mostly pearnut or appletwig trees. In a way, their lifestyles could be envied.
In the capital city, all of the homes and structures were almost on top of one another. Except, of course, those in the Nobles Quarter.
Children played in the cobblestone streets without fear of being run over by merchant’s carts or rushing horses. Well-groomed dogs ran along with them. Young boys had long slender sticks and played at swords, while young girls had dolls and wooden tea sets. Several of them stopped to watch the procession with wide eyes. She smiled and waved to the children, and they giggled, waving back. As their wagons passed, the children turned back to their play.
Their wagons approached the largest building in the center of the town, and her father stopped in front, halting the procession.
“The Hammer Forged Inn,” Zarah read the sign. “We are finally here.”
Her mother began to dismount. “We will get rooms and consider our options. If we do not …,” She stopped mid-step and began to stare at the inn as if a snake had appeared.
“What is it, Mother?”
“Zarah stay back!” She raised her arm as if to protect her.
Then Zarah could feel it. Her essence began to quiver in a way she had never felt. Her stomach became ill. It was as if she had inhaled open refuse or had tar dumped on her. She focused on her essence to find where the stench had come from. The power of Spirit radiated from within the inn, but it had been twisted and deformed somehow. Her breath caught when the realization hit her.
Death bound. At least a dozen of them. They were here.
Chapter 30
The Capture
“We are almost there,” Elwin said. “The blacksmith said the next street would lead us to the inn.”
Feffer reached the broad cobblestone street ahead of Elwin, and then he stopped. His knuckles gripped his
sword hilt. Elwin followed Feffer’s gaze down the broad road, and he froze. Rising above several smaller buildings, the inn stood a dozen stories high.
In front of the inn was chaos. No other word could describe it.
Several black-robed figures poured out of the inn and began to surround three wagons. Steel glinted as swords left the scabbards of the men on horses and atop the wagons. Women screamed as they grabbed children playing with sticks and ran into alleys and buildings.
Elwin’s eyes found the tall figure standing atop an upward balcony. He had long, dark hair and pale skin. Even at this distance, Elwin recognized Zeth. His heart began to beat faster. It felt like his dream that was not a dream. Only, he knew this time was real.
Elwin felt a burst of heat coming from Zeth as he tamed Fire. A flame appeared from his hand, forming the shape of a sword as he leapt from the balcony. Then, the foreign power emanated from Zeth. It felt like taming, but was different somehow. It was the same that he had used in Bentonville.
As Zeth moved, his arms and legs darkened, and his body morphed into something not human. Light fled from him, and his arms elongated like the night he and Feffer escaped.
A figure in a white dress rose from the ground to meet the shadowy form. It was Jasmine. Wisps of light surrounded her, and javelins of crackling energy formed in both hands.
As the shadowy form fell toward her, Jasmine threw both javelins upward. They streaked through the air toward Zeth, and struck his chest with a thunderous sound. But, his path never wavered. His fiery sword swung toward her.
A burst of Air and Water made the space in front of her shimmer into a dome. The sword dissipated in a puff of smoke when it struck. Jasmine continued to rise, catching Zeth in the dome. A different power pulsed in her, and Zeth was flung in the opposite direction. He fell behind the inn, and Jasmine pursued him, disappearing from Elwin’s view.
“Elwin,” Feffer said beside him. “What should we do?”
The entire exchange happened within two heartbeats.
They needed to do something, anything to help. Before he could decide what that should be, another black-clad figure flew out the balcony. His bald head shimmered in the afternoon sun. It only took Elwin a moment to recognize Fasuri. This had been the man Wilton had spoken to. The one who had ordered Wilton to murder his friends and family.
Javelins of lightning appeared in Fasuri’s hands, and he threw them toward the wagons. Wood splintered with the crash of thunder as horses and soldiers were flung in odd directions.
Several other men and women, wearing black robes, rushed out the front door of the inn. Elwin knew he should be afraid, but the fear was somewhere outside of him.
Another figure in white flew between Fasuri and the wagons.
He felt a torrent of Air and Water surge through her, and a shimmering dome appeared in front of her. It had the same shape as Jasmine’s had, but it was much thinner. Javelins flew from Fasuri’s hands and battered into the shield. The thunder clap was muted, but the impact knocked Zarah backward and sent her tumbling backward.
An image of Asa came to Elwin. A man in black held the innocent babe with a knife point to her throat. With that image came the memory of the power that could save her.
Thoughts ceased.
Elwin opened his essence wide to the power around him. First came Air like a storm entering into him. Ripples of dust rose through the cobblestones and vanished as it merged with his essence. He pulled heat from the ground at his feet and from the warmth around him. As the power of Fire filled him, red embers appeared and disappeared. Moisture accumulated around him and vanished into blue wisps as it fell toward him, giving him the power of Water.
All four Elements fused with his essence to the point of aching, and Elwin felt a clarity, a focus, like never before. The men moving in front of the inn seemed to slow, and he could feel the vibrations stomping onto the cobblestones.
He could almost see the ripples of wind between Fasuri and Zarah. He could count the droplets of sweat on her face and feel the heat of her breath. For that moment, they seemed frozen in the expanse above the buildings.
He flew toward them and felt the wind push against his body until he could move no faster. His body ached against the force slamming into him, but he did not slow. Taming Air, his mind formed a buffer around his face and body, and the pain vanished.
Elwin caught up to Zarah and the bald man in an instant and cut between the two as a javelin of light soared past. He aimed a wind thrust at an angle and tamed a trickle of Air to send the javelin wide of Zarah. A thick odor like spoiled candles burning hung in the space where the lightning had been.
His heart raced in his chest, but Zarah and Fasuri moved oddly as if in thick water. He saw the same was true of those below. Zaak was there with Tharu and Hulen. They moved through black-robed figures and swung blades as if moving through a pool of thick molasses.
A part of his brain wanted to stop and puzzle through how any of this was possible, but his gaze settled on the man before him. The scar beside Fasuri’s eye traveled up his skull and twisted as his dark eyes stretched wide.
The Elements burned inside Elwin faster than he could refill his essence. Earth seemed to vanish the fastest of all. He pushed the thought from his mind, and focused on the man before him. The man who had ordered the deaths of his loved ones. The man who had tried to kill Zarah.
Then it occurred to Elwin. The power of Air moved just above Fasuri and merged into the other man’s essence. He could feel the power of Air sustaining the man’s flight.
Elwin opened his mind’s eye to see with his essence. If he could grapple the other man’s essence, Elwin could steal his flow of Air. Moving into the aggressive stance of fire form, Elwin approached Fasuri’s essence and prepared to grapple.
The other man resisted Elwin’s hold, but Fasuri’s response was too slow. He grasped the other man’s essence on his first try. When he had touched Zarah’s essence, Elwin had felt a softness like a thousand roses with the strength of a lioness. Grappling Fasuri’s essence felt like touching the scales of a snake that had slithered through pond scum. This man would kill anyone to further his own ambitions.
Reaching with his mind, Elwin ripped the flow of Air from Fasuri’s grasp. The surprise in his eyes came as slowly as his other responses.
As he fell toward a tiled roof, Fasuri yelled in a slurred voice. “Yoouu’rrre hiiiiiim. Sssonnn ooofff Baaaiiin.”
Fasuri’s essence moved, somehow breaking Elwin’s grapple. Air began to fill the man again.
A lightning hurl. He had to strike before Fasuri did.
Taming Air and Fire, Elwin gathered power in his hand like Jasmine had told him. A different memory replaced Jasmine’s instructions. He didn’t stop to think of where the thought had come from. Instead of the solid shaft of a spear forming, a ball of burning white began to grow above his hand. He threw it toward Fasuri and pushed all the Air and Fire he had left into the taming. Power flowed through his arm. White heat leapt from his hand, leaving blue streaks as the bar of light struck into the man’s chest. Fasuri crashed through the tiled roof of a small building below.
Elwin’s heart slowed down and everything around him sped up.
His awareness of his surrounded vanished as if closing his eyes. His vision blurred and his body became wracked with pain. His head throbbed and his lips felt dry.
Fighting to remain alert, he reached for more Air to sustain his flight, but he felt as if he was trying to get water from an empty cup. The world spun closer to him, and distant houses grew larger and larger.
At least Asa is safe.
The thought was distant, as if someone else had placed it in his mind. For a moment, the brief smell of lavender and lilac filled his senses.
Feffer tried to call out, but Elwin had flown ahead toward the large inn. The thunder his leaving made still echoed in his ear. Feffer
had never seen Elwin fly at that speed. He had never seen anyone move that fast.
Elwin crossed the space between here and the inn within the blink of an eye. Then he had thrown a beam of light at the man in black, all before Feffer could take three steps. His heart lurched when Elwin began to fall, but Zarah caught him before he struck the ground. With Elwin in her arms, she flew toward the tall ridge to the south.
Feffer continued to run toward the inn with all the speed his legs could produce. Sparing a glance over his shoulder, he could see Daki hadn’t moved. He stared at the sky as if torn between what to do.
“Come on,” Feffer yelled. “We can’t help him.”
He turned his attention back to the inn, not waiting to see if Daki and Taego followed.
Feffer didn’t remember drawing his sword, but he tried to hold his sword steady as he ran. This was what he had trained for. He took deep breaths and tried to ignore the thunderstorm in his chest where his heart should be.
The battle was still fifty paces away. The front of the Hammer Forged Inn had double doors, which were wide open. Several people in hooded black robes were running out the front door. A dozen maybe? All of them wore hoods.
Zeth and Jasmine had disappeared between the buildings, and the hooded figures rushed toward the remaining soldiers.
Two of the soldiers had chain shirts under red tunics, bearing the white hand. They wore swords at their hips, but both soldiers wielded halberds against their attackers. Fiery swords appeared in the hands of the three black robed figures facing them. The soldiers used the reach of their weapons and coordinated their strikes to back the two figures toward a building.
One of the soldiers swung his halberd too low, and the sword of Fire sliced through the wooden shaft. Without pause the soldier drew his sword. Feffer was surprised when the metal deflected the fiery blade. Both soldiers moved through complementing forms. One used earth stance, while the other used the stance of air. When one switched to water, the other switched to fire. Together, the two soldiers pushed black-robed figures into a retreat, and the soldiers gave chase.