by Graeme Ing
The heat was intense, singeing my eyebrows and the hair on my arms. Windows exploded, and glass tinkled as it showered onto the cobbles about us. I’d been here before. I snapped up my Cleansing Shield, dragged Ayla inside it, and we both breathed deep of the frigid air.
Most buildings stood four floors tall with stores on the ground level. To my right, a roof buckled and collapsed, ejecting a man from a flaming window. He plummeted, arms flailing. His short cry ended in the horrible sound of crunching bones. Screams echoed from every direction as women and children appeared at windows, coughing and crying, clothes held to their mouths, searching for a way down.
“Help them,” Ayla said.
Nausea gripped me. I couldn’t help them all. Bodies already littered the road, many still burning.
“Damn you to The Deep, Fortak.” My hands clenched into fists. How could he do this to our glorious city?
I turned to tell her that we couldn’t save everyone, that hundreds would burn for each life we saved, but she was rushing toward a handful of people picking their way through the carnage. They had arms around each other, helping the wounded, dodging the fire billowing from every building. The worst of the fire lay behind them. Gods, I’d only reached the edge. So much for my gaining an advantage.
Then I spotted the oily smoke snaking along the ground, stalking them.
“Ayla, the smoke. Come back.”
She glanced toward it but hurried onward to assist a limping old man. She yelled at the people to move faster but their pace barely increased. The smoke lapped at their legs and coiled upward.
“Leave the wounded.” I hurried forward. “Hold your breath and run. Run or you’ll all die.”
Magic seethed in my core, but I kept it lidded. I needed every ounce of power for the elemental. Trapped victims wailed from every direction and I spun around. Who was I to pick who lived or died? It wasn’t fair to make me choose.
The group coughed and choked, almost completely concealed within the black smoke. I caught glimpses of shadowy shapes as I scrambled over a mound of rubble, scraping my elbows and legs. I gritted my teeth.
A girl Ayla’s age lurched away from the others toward a flaming manhole.
“No,” I screamed, so loud that I tasted blood in my throat.
She flung her arms above her head, twirled like a dancer, and plunged into the hole. The last I saw of her was her flaming hair like a wick on a candle.
Enough of this! I had to protect Ayla.
I leaped over a pile of flaming wood, caught Ayla within my shield, and yanked her away. Her eyes were wide and feral. I slapped her twice and shook her, not stopping until her gaze finally focused on my face. She shivered in my shield’s icy grip and I knew she’d be all right.
A fight had broken out between two men. One of them snatched up a chunk of wood, oblivious to the bent nail that pierced his hand. He clubbed the other man, while blood poured from his own palm.
Ayla recoiled with a gasp, wrapped an arm around my waist, and steered us away.
One entire side of the street gave way with a crash. We ducked against the cascading hail of bricks and brushed the glowing embers from our clothes and hair. I tucked her loose bangs behind her ear and a tiny smile spread along her lips. When the cloud of ash and dust settled we were alone. Nothing else lived in the devastation.
I’d already wasted too much time with no saved lives to show for it. I pulled Ayla close, set my teeth, and marched into the inferno, trusting everything to my magic shield. Anger had weakened my control last time. I wouldn’t make that mistake again.
We had gone less than a hundred feet, picking our way through the rubble, before my shield could no longer hold back the searing heat. A wasteland of burning buildings, bloody, burned corpses, bricks, and the broken remnants of people’s homes lay around us. As last time, curious blue flames sizzled around the dead bodies, and then spiraled up into the air. A roar like a thousand bellows thundered around us, but the real mass of the elemental had yet to show itself.
This was insanity. What did I think I could do here? My pulse pounded.
Thick smoke tendrils prowled like demonic hounds. They picked up our scent and rippled across the ground toward us. I planted my feet wide, clapped my hands, and cast Shadowfire. The spell fizzed blue and turned the smoke into a powdery ash that drifted to the ground. More coils of smoke circled, and I imagined them sizing us up.
Magic tickled my feet. I glanced down to see minute threads of light emerging from the ground, only to dissolve and fade before they could strengthen. Ayla’s face was scrunched in concentration. I opened my mouth to offer advice, then decided to leave her be. Cling spirits were her thing.
I drew my Ashtar dagger from its sheath, grasped it firmly in both hands, and then gathered most of the energy from my core. The time had come.
All right, elemental. Let’s see what you make of this.
I shaped the magic into a massive Dispel and projected a dazzling sphere of energy. A visible shock wave blasted into the surrounding buildings, gushing through the gaping doors and windows. In an instant the flames were extinguished, heralded by an ominous whumping noise. The scorching heat and background roar ceased abruptly, replaced by the popping and cracking of the remaining embers. Steam billowed from the ruins, blowing ash everywhere. I coughed and spat and shook it from my hair.
That should get its attention. Recognize me, elemental? I’m back.
The gem in my dagger swirled yellow. My secret weapon was intact, imprisoned inside.
The ground trembled. A column of flame thundered out of a sooty manhole barely ten feet away. I pumped power into my Cleansing Shield an instant before a fireball burst over Ayla and me. The pillar of fire rocketed into the sky, and from half a dozen such holes, the sewers puked the elemental. The sky flashed every shade of red and orange, spewing fire across several city blocks.
Lak and all his demons!
The very heavens seemed ablaze—a boiling firestorm of whirling flame and superheated gas. Fragments of thousands of shrieking voices sounded on the wind: Free us. Save us.
Fingers of fire groped downward. I grabbed Ayla and dodged behind the heaped remains of a fallen building. Fire flashed out of the boiling clouds as if the creature was trying to snatch us.
“Belaya, Lady of Justice,” Ayla cried.
I followed her gaze upward, to where a fiery vortex swirled in the sky like a chomping maw. I cowered, expecting the creature to slurp us up and devour us.
Once more, flickering threads of blue fizzed from the ground, running up Ayla’s legs like tattoos. She placed her palms on the cobbles, intensifying the flow of the pulsing, shimmering wisps.
This was far worse than last time. If I had any sense, we’d be running like everyone else. The ovens of Lak had been unleashed upon the world. I couldn’t help but think that by day’s end, our city would be reduced to a desolate landscape of bloodied ash. What lunacy had inspired Fortak to unleash such a monster?
Blasts of superheated gas jetted from the flame storm above us, forcing us lower until we groveled like cowards in the slurry of charcoal, brick dust, and blood that ran in streams down the steep road.
Why had I put Ayla in jeopardy once again? I gawked at her attempts to keep the cling spirits from burrowing back into the ground. They had more sense than either of us. Her teeth were clenched and her eyes narrowed. For all her inexperience, she made a superior partner to Hallum.
I punched a fist into one palm. I was letting events control me again. It was time to test my theory. If I was wrong then we’d soon join the ash blowing in the wind. I scrambled and slithered to my feet. Leaving power in my shield, I drew everything I had from my gut and dispatched a barrage of lightning into the sky. It tore into the elemental, and the roar changed pitch. It screamed in frustration, and then flung a ball of fire as large as a house at us.
My legs wanted to run, my stomach wanted to heave, and my bladder wanted to burst. I wouldn’t allow any of those things. Instead,
I thrust the dagger into the air like a lightning conductor. I shrieked a battle cry. Melodramatic, but satisfying.
Right before the fireball hit me, I freed the soul wraith from my dagger.
The shock wave pummeled us. My dagger bounced and clattered away. There was no immolation, no searing pain, only a blast of icy air that neutralized the fireball. An amorphous cloud of blackness climbed the column of fire, chasing it into the sky. The dark cloud writhed and expanded as it consumed the flames. Lightning crackled through the firestorm.
Ayla pulled me to my feet and we stared as the wraith consumed the elemental, smothering it like a blanket. Fire and hot gas streamed into the wraith as it bled the elemental dry. Wails, murmurs, and sighs accompanied the streams.
Ayla took both my hands in hers and jumped up and down, beaming a pretty smile. “You did it. You did it.”
While she bounced around me, spinning me, I stared at the sky. It was like peeking into the Fury of the Gods at the creation of the world. Red and orange swirled around blackness and vice versa, mixing and diluting each other.
She stopped. “What’s happening?”
The wraith was unraveling. Fire engulfed it, smothering it. A horrific screech set my teeth on edge. Kristach.
“Do something,” she cried. “Before it’s too late.”
“I’m drained. I’ve used it all.” I dragged her away down the street.
She resisted. “We have to help the wraith.”
I blinked twice. That would have been comical at any other time.
“It’s gone. It’s over. The plan failed. We have to go.” I tugged her forward.
The wraith had shrunk to a mere smudge. A cauldron of fire once more filled the sky, spitting gobbets of flame that burst and splashed across the ruined houses, and turned to steam against my Cleansing Shield.
“Run,” I yelled.
A large force thudded into my back, pushing every breath from my lungs and sending me flying through the air. I crashed shoulder-first against a collapsed wall and crumpled into a heap. When I tried to sit up, pain split my body in two and I flopped back down, cracking my head against a rock. My vision blurred to a ghastly sea of orange everywhere I looked.
Then the orange became blue. A web of blue sparks crawled over me, tingling and stinging like an army of ants. In the midst of it all, Ayla peered down at me, her sweat-soaked hair draped across her face. I blinked soot from my eyes. She shouted something but I heard nothing. A blinding blue aura shimmered about her, and once again a river of immense, cool energy flowed through me.
A ball of flame streaked down from the heavens, exploding behind her. She stumbled forward but remained upright. Her hair began to smolder. I grabbed greedily at the source of power and pushed out a renewed Cleansing Shield, screaming at the ice searing my veins. Frost dappled her hair, putting out the burning ends. Our breath froze as we doubled over, panting. My ears popped.
“Can’t stay here,” she cried and dragged me to my feet. Cling spirits writhed all over her, flickering and pulsing white and blue. It was like Belaya herself stood before me.
I glanced around us, dazed. Total destruction. I’d been transported to The Deep. That had to be it. I had no sense of my whereabouts until I looked downhill, and through the smoke caught glimpses of intact buildings stretching down to the river.
No trace of the soul wraith remained.
A crowd labored up the steep road, armed with picks and shovels, and behind them three pairs of kalag strained at their harnesses to drag heavily laden fire carts.
“Stay away,” I yelled. “Go back.”
The cart wheels had become stuck in the rubble, but the men continued to approach.
Ayla’s cocoon of cling spirits was bright enough to cast shadows. I squinted at her through half-closed eyes. My body throbbed with power, so much power. I could still win. I had to win!
I flung my hands above my head and unleashed a barrage of Death’s Spark and Shadowfire. Lightning and purple flares tore apart a fireball in midair, splashing it across the entire street. I stumbled. If I’d learned one thing, it was that my spells were no match for the might of the elemental, no matter how much power I wielded.
The men halted and brandished their picks.
“He’s a necromancer.”
“A blue demon fights by his side.”
“This is all his doing. Filthy death bringer.”
Not again.
The men cast rocks and bricks that bounced and crunched around us. A sharp stone hit me on the arm. I shook out the pins and needles. My dagger glinted nearby and I snatched it up. Fire erupted in a building adjacent to the men. The stone throwing ceased, but not before a sizable chunk hit Ayla squarely in the chest.
She crumpled to the ground. The web of cling spirits dissipated like phantoms after a Dispel. The river of energy ran dry. Cramps filled the void in my gut and my stomach heaved. Vomit splattered my legs and boots, adding a decomposing vegetable smell to the stench of burned flesh and acrid smoke.
I crawled to where Ayla lay. Her chest rose and fell erratically. I cleared debris from beneath her head and gently tapped her cheeks.
“Wake up. Ayla, wake up.”
I gave her a shake. She groaned but remained unconscious.
“If you’ve hurt her…” I cried at the men.
Another fireball arced from the sky, exploding close to the fire crew. The kalags reared, tipping a cart sideways. The men flocked to right it while uttering a stream of curses and shouts. They hadn’t even gotten the water flowing. The whole neighborhood burned and they had wasted time hurling stones. These were the idiots I was risking my life to save?
“Come on.” I willed myself on, fighting the exhaustion that had seized me. I scooped Ayla into my arms and stumbled into what remained of an alley, now little more than a gap through the ruined buildings. I focused the dregs of my power into my shield, warding off the black smoke that followed, sniffing at my heels.
I hadn’t remembered a moment of Ayla dragging me to Boattown, but this time I remembered every weary step that it took to carry her from the same situation.
I slept through the morning and past midday, and when I finally rolled out of my bunk, a minor storm of ash blew from my singed robe, settling throughout my cabin. The bed resembled the burned-out street. My bones cracked and my muscles twinged in sympathy. I could see why the masters enjoyed sitting behind a teaching desk. That was what I needed, a cushy classroom in the bowels of the Guild. Saving the city hurt. A lot.
I limped out into the narrow hallway, pausing at Ayla’s open door. Her back to me, she plunged her head into a bucket of water, then rubbed soap flakes into her hair. Ash dusted the floor, disturbed only by her footprints. Her shirt looked worse than my robe, equally as black with large scorch marks and holes. I’d severely underestimated her. I knew few men with her guts.
She noticed me leaning on the door frame, and jumped. She raked her fingers hastily through her hair.
“Don’t stare at me. I’m a mess.” Her cheeks reddened.
“Sorry.” I stretched, regretted it instantly, and groaned.
“Can I finish up here, please?”
I turned away. “Of course. I’ll make a start on lunch. Take your time.”
When she eventually joined me in the galley, I had filled a couple of bowls with diced meat, cheese, and vegetables, and was shoveling wood into the stove’s firebox. She moved to the table and ground coarse brown seeds with mint leaves. The air exploded with a fresh aroma.
“What’s next?” she asked. “Now that your plan failed. I mean…it was a great plan, only…”
“We’re on the right track.” I rubbed my nose. “The soul wraith did more damage than I ever did. We just need ten more of them.”
She grimaced and scooped the mulip ingredients into a pot I had boiling on the tiny stove.
“It was kicking the elemental’s butt,” she said. “I was certain we’d done it.”
I scratched my jaw. I really oug
ht to shave.
“Negative energy,” I murmured.
“Hmm?” She placed a pan on the other hot plate, added a glob of fat, and rolled it around, letting it melt.
“The elemental is positive energy,” I said. “Light and heat. The soul wraith is negative. Dark.”
“They both consume souls. Aren’t they the same?”
“It’s complicated.”
She dumped my chopped ingredients into the pan, and they sizzled. She faced me with a scowl. I guess I hadn’t taught her anything, really. I’d been a lousy teacher, but I could fix that.
“All right, I’ll explain. The elemental is physically in our world. It is real, comprised of positive energy. The wraith was non-corporeal, like a ghost, a projection into our world from The Gray. That’s negative energy. Furthermore, the wraith destroys souls, whereas the elemental traps and feeds off them.”
“I understand.” Her tongue popped out the corner of her mouth. I’d grown to like that habit of hers.
“We need more negative energy,” I said, “though only the Gods know how. I’m not stalking more soul wraiths even if I thought they’d make a difference.”
Truth was, the creatures were rare. Having met one now, I wasn’t unhappy about that.
“Talking of power, how were you doing that thing with the cling spirits?”
She shrugged. “They seem to like me. You’re the necromancer. You tell me.”
I squeezed onto the bench by the table, and eyed the mulip brewing on the stove. My fingers drummed on the wooden table.
“You were absorbing the power of cling spirits. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before. More importantly, you were channeling it.”
“What does that mean?”
“You were sharing power for me to use. Very few necromancers can do that. Common among the Elik Magi, apparently.”
Her mouth made an O.
“You did it in the barrow too, and saved my life.”
“I was so scared. The soul wraith was killing you.”