Reign the Earth

by A. C. Gaughen

He rushed out of the room, and I put my palm to my racing heart. Light caught my attention, and though I tried to stay away from the window, I saw the remains of a hot, fast flash of fire burning the leaves of a tree.

  It wasn’t long before Galen came back into my room, but I had guessed what he would tell me—Danae was gone, and by morning Calix would know where we had been.

  We were all awake before the gray dawn, quiet and efficient in our preparations to leave. Ten horses had arrived in the night for us, but it meant that not everyone could come with us. Considering that Calix would never let me go willingly, it didn’t put me at ease to have a smaller group.

  The remaining men readied the Elementae to travel due east for the coastline and a ship to take them to the islands. Iona was trembling as she hugged me good-bye, but I told her I would see her as soon as I was able.

  Galen hadn’t spoken to me at all, but every time I caught his gaze—which was often—it felt like it was obvious in his eyes what had happened between us, and it made me feel hot and ever so slightly dizzy. He came and put his hands on my waist to help me onto my horse, and I couldn’t breathe as he did.

  “Let’s go,” Rian called gruffly.

  I smiled at Galen, and he nodded at me and went to mount his own horse.

  The ride was uneasy. It took us most of the day to make it to where the land bridge used to stand, and as we rode, I stretched my powers, clearing rocks from our path, piling up dirt when we were too exposed.

  My power had shifted. It wasn’t like reaching for threads anymore; it was like my body was made of threads itself, all part of the same fabric. Using my power was as simple as thinking, as wishing, as breathing—it was there with me, responding to me, part of me.

  I didn’t know if it was my growing relationship with Galen, or my child, or my freedom, but something within me had settled into my self, and my power grew exponentially for it.

  When we saw the castle that Vestai Atalo lived in, we slowed, and I looked at its tall, strong walls with a shiver.

  Kairos sent Osmost flying into the air to scout ahead of us, and I watched him, watching the bird, seeing how he turned and shrieked.

  “You’ve gotten better at that,” I told him.

  He grinned and lifted an eyebrow. “Indeed I have.”

  He waited a few moments more and called out to Rian and Galen, leading the line. “No one’s ahead, but if men are in the castle, Osmost won’t be able to see, and we won’t know until it’s too late.”

  “Can we go north?” Galen asked. “If Shalia’s building a bridge, can’t we just do it anywhere?”

  “It’s not the bridge,” I told them. “That shouldn’t be too hard. It’s the pass—this tunnel is blocked, but there’s one about a hundred feet down in the cliff. If I can forge a bridge to that, we’ll be in much better shape.”

  “An alternate exit in case of cave-ins,” Rian told Galen. Then he seemed to remember they weren’t on good terms and frowned.

  “Shalia isn’t the only Elementa here,” Kata reminded, giving me an arch look. “And there’s plenty of water in the river down below. If they come while she works, I can repel them.”

  “Very well,” Galen said. “Move fast. Shalia, you go first; Rian and I will follow you. Kairos, stay to the middle and keep the hawk in play. Kata, toward the back so you can fight first. Men, you know what to do.”

  Everyone nodded, and I led my horse up between Rian and Galen. My heart was beating hard as I looked at the open stretch of road. “I just ride for the edge?” I asked, pointing. The road was still in shambles from where my power had wreaked havoc, and I couldn’t ask if my family had been burned here or somewhere else.

  Not in the sands of the desert, that was for sure.

  “Yes. Wherever you need to be to use your power,” Galen told me. He reached for my hand and kissed it, and Rian growled. “You can do this,” Galen said, ignoring my brother. “We’ll keep you safe.”

  “That, at least, we can agree on,” Rian grunted.

  “We agree on much more than that, old friend,” Galen told him. “If we die today, you need to remember that.”

  “We’re not dying today, if only so we have more time to fight about this,” Rian snapped at him. “Shalia, go!”

  I went. I spurred my horse hard and covered the thousand or more feet between the castle and the pass. It seemed to take an eternity, long enough for my heartbeat to match the beat of the horse’s hooves.

  And then the edge of the cliff loomed before me, broken and jagged where the land bridge used to be.

  I heard shouting, and I saw Trifectate soldiers swarming out from the castle, and then Kata holding her hands up and water cresting up from the crevasse and swirling in the air. With a rush, it arched down in front of her, hitting the road and knocking the soldiers off their feet.

  With a deep breath, I reminded myself that the best way to help everyone was to get them across before the battle got much, much worse.

  I turned back to the open air, the impossibly deep drop, even as I watched more water flying up to come to Kata’s aid. I could see the dark smudge of the lower tunnel, and I shut my eyes, calling up stones and dirt, slamming the boulders into place to form a rough, uneven kind of stairway to bridge the gap.

  The sound of rushing water behind me stopped abruptly, and I turned. Kata was on the ground, and Kairos was crouched beside her. The rest of the men were in a line, standing as soldiers ran at them. The two lines slammed together with a clash of violent steel.

  “Shalia!” Kairos yelled, picking up Kata. “Focus!”

  I looked back toward the crevasse. There were several stairs lifting up from the lower outlet. I lifted my arms, focusing again, watching the rocks rip out from the mountain and bash themselves into place.

  “What happened?” I asked as Kairos came beside me with Kata limp in his arms.

  “Arrow,” he said, showing me her side. “And she hit her head.”

  “Leave her here. Keep fighting,” I told him. He hesitated, but I shook my head. “Go!” I told him.

  Kairos nodded, turning back to whatever was raging behind me.

  Three more stairs slammed into place, the noise shuddering my feet.

  “Shalia, hurry!” It was Galen’s voice.

  I turned for a moment. There were more soldiers rushing out of the castle, and the Resistance was about to be utterly overwhelmed.

  “Almost done!” I yelled.

  “Go!” I heard, and this was closer. Men peeled away from the line of battle, and the first one ran past me at full pace, leaping into the air to the uncompleted bridge. He caught the edge, slipping down, and with a gasp, I sent a rock up under him, pushing him higher. He popped up with it, running down the stairs as soon as he was able.

  Men started running after him, but I could still hear fighting behind me. I turned again and saw Rian, Galen, and Kairos fighting men, and Osmost screaming and plucking at the eyes and face of another, who was flailing under the hawk’s talons.

  The next wave of soldiers was only seconds away. “Now!” I yelled. “We have to go! Kair—”

  My words were cut off as something slammed into my side, pulling me to the ground and falling on top of me. The breath was knocked out of me as I saw my husband’s face swim before my eyes.

  He was faster than I was. He sprang up, wrapping his arm around my throat and hauling me up. I clawed at his arm as Galen, Rian, and Kairos halted in front of me.

  “Brother,” Calix growled at Galen.

  Galen put up his hands, stepping forward slowly. “Let her go, Calix. You’ve done enough.”

  My eyes darted to Kairos. His eyes lifted up. Osmost. If I could knock him off me, Osmost would take him.

  “You’ve betrayed me, brother. I always knew you would. So disloyal you would choose a woman—my woman—over your own brother.”

  Galen swallowed, and I called up a rock without any way to know how far behind Calix’s head it was. “I didn’t betray you,” Galen said. “You h
ave debased this family and this country for so long that this was all I could do.”

  The other soldiers had arrived, but they hung back, making a half circle around us and the edge of the cliff. Trapped. There was one extremely tall soldier, and I recognized him instantly. Zeph.

  “Shy, now!” Kairos snapped, and I tried to hit Calix’s head with a rock. It missed, but he dropped me to dodge it, and I ran forward as Osmost shrieked downward.

  Calix hit Osmost’s talons away, but Kairos was right behind him, tackling Calix around the waist and heaving him onto his back dangerously close to the edge. Kairos reared up, slamming punch after punch to Calix’s face, and we all ran forward.

  Calix bucked him off, rolling over to hit Kairos, but Kairos turned them once more and landed more blows.

  Calix slammed his fist up through Kairos’s jaw and pushed at the same moment, and Kairos’s body flipped over the edge.

  With a scream, I reached out with my power, and I felt rocks shearing off the cliff, but I couldn’t see what I was doing. I couldn’t tell if I had caught him or if I had hit him in the head with a boulder. I ran to the edge, kneeling to look over, but I couldn’t see him.

  “Shalia!” Galen yelled, snatching me back from the edge.

  Galen dragged me toward the bridge and Rian ran to meet us as Calix yelled, “Kill them! Kill them all!”

  There was still an unfinished gap on the bridge, but Galen jumped, and without a question, I jumped after him. He caught me, landing on the highest step and swinging me aside so Rian could jump after us.

  The Trifectate men nearly caught Rian, but a big shape cut them off.

  “You’ll have to go through me,” Zeph said, and I saw him turn to face the semicircle of men.

  I saw Theron move forward, shaking his head. “This isn’t how I wanted this to end, old friend,” Theron said.

  Zeph didn’t respond, lunging forward with his khopesh. Rian jumped and stumbled down a stair as the men hesitated, then bellowed as they closed in on my brave guard.

  “Go,” Galen ordered Rian. He started running down the stairs, and Galen tugged my waist. “Shalia, go!”

  “Not yet!” I yelled, raising my arms and calling up thousands of tiny stones as Zeph twisted and moved, fighting hard.

  “Shalia, Calix!” Galen yelled, pointing to where Calix was approaching the stairs.

  Taking one of the larger stones, I launched it at his head. It hit him square in the temple, and Calix fell to the ground.

  Stretching my fingers, with a shout I sent the brute force of the rocks flying into the faces of the men around Zeph. It wasn’t very precise or fatal, but it earned a moment of distraction.

  “Run!” Galen shouted at him.

  Zeph ran hard for us, barreling over the edge and hitting first Galen, then me, knocking us back.

  Rather than falling onto the stairs, I fell off the side.

  For long seconds, I fell through the air. Galen shrank in the air above me and I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

  Was this what Kairos felt?

  Suddenly, without my intention, a rock came up beneath me, cradling me and easing my fall before stopping it completely.

  With a gasp of relief, I got to my feet, holding my hand to my belly as the rock began to rise. I looked down—I couldn’t see Kairos, or where he might have fallen.

  A shout from above drew my attention. Other soldiers had jumped across the rock, and Galen and Zeph were fighting them off, struggling to keep their foothold. Zeph drove his fist into a man’s jaw, and the man careened off the rock.

  “Down!” I shouted, pointing at the tunnel.

  Galen pushed Zeph, and the two men started running down the stairs. I started collapsing it behind them as another soldier jumped and fell into air.

  My heart seized, and I sent a rock out to catch him and send him back to the edge of the cliff.

  Flying the rock back up to the tunnel, I saw Rian talking to Kata, pale and sitting, clutching her side as blood came through her fingers. “Go into the tunnel and get Kata to the water so she’s stronger. I have to go look for Kairos!” I yelled.

  I started to turn away when Galen leaped off the edge, landing on my rock and tilting it hard. I grabbed him, and he wrapped his arms around me. “Whoa,” he said, steadying.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “Coming with you,” he said.

  “Galen—”

  His hands rubbed my arms a tiny bit. “No matter what you find, I don’t want you doing it alone.”

  “Duck!” Rian shouted, pointing as an arrow flew, falling short and dropping into the crevasse.

  “Go,” I told him. “I’ll be up as soon as I find him.”

  He nodded, fixing his stare on Galen. “Keep her safe.”

  Galen’s throat bobbed, and his arm wrapped around my waist. “Always.”

  Galen brushed a kiss on my cheek, and I nodded at Rian, letting the rock drift downward. I curled my arms around him, leaning my head on his shoulder so I could look one way and he could look the other. I brought us all the way to the churning water in the bottom of the canyon, the wind blowing at my skirt and face and hair, cold where the rest of my body was warm against Galen.

  I slowed the rock as it skimmed along the river.

  “I didn’t even know there was a river here,” Galen whispered in my ear.

  I nodded. “My father took me here once, when I was a child and we hadn’t found food for a long while. We came to hunt.” I pointed behind his back. “Far over that way, there’s an old staircase. It took us hours to climb it.” My fingers curled against him. “Maybe Kairos would go toward it.”

  “Shalia,” he said softly. “Do you think he would have survived the fall?”

  I shuddered against him. “I don’t know. I tried to catch him,” I said, my voice going so rough it barely escaped my throat. “But I couldn’t see him. I could have—I could have hurt him.”

  “Or you could have caught him,” he said.

  “Keep looking,” I said.

  He nodded against my head.

  We floated west first, going to where the mountains began to fold together, the river just emerging between the rocky crags. My eyes caught on rocks, and sticks, the movement of a fish, and every time, my heart leaped.

  We turned east, going slower, looking at every inch of the riverbed. As we grew closer to the ocean, Galen pulled away from me to tug his jacket off his shoulders, putting it around me. I frowned up at him.

  “You’re shaking,” he said, holding me tight again.

  I looked up at his face and saw a sadness etched there. “I’m sorry,” I told him. “That you had to fight your brother.”

  “I should have killed him,” he said, but the words lacked fire and instead sounded defeated.

  “He’s your brother,” I reminded him.

  His throat worked. “Someday, I’ll have to be the one to kill him, Shalia. I need to make peace with that.”

  I held his hand tight. “Maybe so. But it’s all right if you haven’t just yet.”

  He nodded, kissing my head, and I focused on the river again.

  When we reached the ocean, the stone halted, faltering a little. “He’s not here,” I breathed.

  “Not finding his body—that could be a good thing,” he told me softly.

  “ ‘Body,’ ” I repeated. “I can’t—I can’t lose him, Galen.”

  His arms tightened around me. “Let’s check again.”

  “Rian will worry.”

  “He’s safe. Worrying won’t hurt him.”

  I nodded, moving the rock down the river again.

  Legend

  I didn’t know how much time had passed when I finally gave up. The light was dimming in the sky and I couldn’t feel anymore. I didn’t feel cold, or tired. I couldn’t look at anything anymore. Kairos was gone, and I had lost one more beloved thing, one more piece of me removed that I didn’t know how to survive without.

  Galen tucked me deep in h
is arms as I let the rock rise up.

  I didn’t trust myself to walk, so we stayed on the rock and floated into the tunnel. Within moments, the light behind us died and I shut my eyes. My power could feel the rock around me better than I could see it, and I just moved us along.

  Rian wasn’t in the tunnel. No one was.

  “They’re not here,” I murmured.

  Galen brushed my hair back. “They would have gone ahead. We’ve been gone a long while.”

  I nodded and kept the rock floating down the passage.

  Soon we saw torchlight, and I slowed down. I saw Zeph first, his big body looming even larger in the flickering light.

  “Something’s wrong,” Galen murmured, holding my hand as he jumped off the rock. I followed him.

  “Zeph?” I called.

  Zeph turned, and I saw blood cascading down his arm. “What happened?”

  Kata came forward. She looked paler and weak. “He’s wounded. It’s bad. I couldn’t heal it completely.”

  Zeph’s uninjured shoulder lifted. “I can’t really move my hand,” he huffed.

  “How are you standing?” Galen asked.

  He pointed to himself. “Legend,” he said with a heavy sigh, before instantly slumping against the wall. Kata sighed and caught him with her power, lowering him to the ground.

  “He’s fine,” Kata told me. “Or he will be.”

  “Where’s Kai?” Rian asked, walking around Zeph with a torch in his hand. He let it fall to the ground where it still burned, coming to me, looking around me. “Where is he?”

  I covered my mouth. Words didn’t come out—the horrible words, that I couldn’t find him, that he wasn’t there—but tears did, and Rian grabbed me, hugging me hard.

  “We didn’t find the body,” Galen murmured. “But—”

  “Of course he’s alive,” Rian growled. “You don’t know anything about my brother.”

  I pulled back, nodding. “He has to be alive, right? Kairos—Kairos can’t—”

  Rian pinched my cheek. “Kairos is the most clever man I’ve ever known. Of course he’s alive.”

  “There’s a branch of the river close to here,” Kata said softly. “If I can get to the water, I’ll be able to try again to heal the guard.”