Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (16 page)

I pulled both swords from my sides and anchored myself in the ground. The connection to the earth quivered under me, and as I asked for power, the humming that had spoken to me earlier all but leapt with what I could only describe as glee. Strength like I’d never known snapped and roared through me. I brought my hands around and slid the weapons back into their sheaths. I wasn’t going to need them for this fight.

Beckoning large stones up from deep under the ground, I laid them out in a line around me. Perfectly round stones, like small cannonballs. I bent and hefted one in my hands. There was no way I would be able to hit the elementals from this far away. But the power that rolled and frolicked through my veins told me otherwise. Not only was it possible, but it was expected of me. If the storm continued to rage with the elementals powering it, hundreds upon hundreds, even thousands, of lives would be lost.

That was unacceptable.

I threw the first stone and it shot through the air like it had indeed been released from a cannon. Sailing across the water in a blur, it missed the Sylph in the middle of the hurricane by mere inches. She dodged and ducked, and that brought her attention to me. I already had another stone in my hand and threw it down at the Undine. But the elemental riding the waves was warned and ducked out of the way, diving below the water. In another time, I would have been afraid that I’d blown my cover. But that strange power that I called to me made me confident beyond anything I’d ever felt before.

I wasn’t sure if that was good or not.

I held a hand out, palm facing down, and the sand under the ocean raced upward. I wrapped the fine granules around the Undine and pulled her under the waves. I couldn’t drown her, but I could keep her away from the fight for a time.

The waves slowed but didn’t stop altogether.

The Sylph, though, was not deterred. She rushed at me, her features becoming clear as she drew close. She was one of the younger daughters of the old queen, Aria. No doubt cast out when she caused problems with the new young queen, Samara. Not that it mattered. I would have to deal with her either way, regardless of her bloodline.

The hard way, no doubt. I picked up the rocks at my side until I held two in one arm, and one in the other. I threw them in rapid succession and the Sylph dodged the first two. The third caught her in the head as she hovered right over the edge of the cliff. She let out a cry and fell, her long silvery white hair flying out around her like a broken doll falling from a shelf.

The storm did not abate. I knew it would take time. Time for the elements to realize they were no longer being driven.

Leaning into the wind, I pushed my way to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

A hand snaked up and grabbed my ankle, jerking me off balance. “You bastard. I’ll kill you, you piece of shit Terraling! Weakling!”

I was in open space for a moment being flung out over the water before I was grabbed from behind, my one forearm engulfed in Norm’s three-fingered paw. “Got you, friend.”

He yanked me onto solid ground, but the Sylph hadn’t let go of my ankle, which meant she came with me. We hit the ground at the same time and I scrambled to get on top of her, to pin her hands down and knock her out. The last thing I needed was—

I tried to draw breath but the air was sucked away from me. I didn’t slow in my rush to her, though already I could feel my head spin from lack of breath as the oxygen was compressed out of my lungs, collapsing them. I climbed on her and slammed a fist into her chin. Her eyes rolled and I sucked in a big breath of air.

Typical elemental. She’d been raised to believe she was powerful, but had never been trained to fight with her hands. That was part of the secret of the Enders. That was why we were successful so much of the time. We were trained to fight where the normal populace, even the leaders of our realms, were not. In fact, they were encouraged not to.

And a good thing, too. I sat back on my heels and behind me, Norm yelped. I spun in a crouch. Two Sylphs floated above our heads, dressed in the white Ender leathers of their people. I swept my cloak back so they could see my Ender’s vest. Slowly they dropped to the ground and approached me. One of them snapped his fingers and a bubble of air slammed down around us, blocking the raging storm.

“Ender Ash, you saved us some time,” he said. I recognized him.

“Not intentionally. I am on my own hunt, Ender Rio.” I’d met him a few times, but I would not call him a friend. The other Ender was young, and I didn’t recognize him.

Rio nodded and dropped to a crouch beside the Sylph I’d taken down. “Who is it you seek?” He pulled a knife out and cut the throat of the young woman as though he were cutting a loaf of bread. I didn’t flinch, but Norm let out a cry.

“Why did you kill her? She was pretty,” the Yeti whispered.

Rio didn’t even look at him and I kept my back to Norm. I could not explain to him that this was the only way to stop a banished elemental from destroying the world. It was impossible to know which way an elemental would swing when they were cast out.

Banished, and then we were sent after them. It seemed . . . counterproductive. Then again, there weren’t that many banished elementals until recently. “I seek the old Terraling queen. She tried to kill our king, and deceived our family.”

He straightened. “I’d heard rumors of Cassava losing her mind. It makes me nervous to see her son courting Samara.”

My heart seemed to freeze in my chest. No good could come of this news. “Raven is courting Samara?”

His eyes locked on mine. “By your words, you see it is not a good thing, too?”

I shook my head. “He was working with his mother. If I could kill him, I would.”

“Shit,” Rio wiped his knife on the dead girl’s clothes and put it away, “I must go, then. I can still stop Samara. She trained with me before she was raised to be our queen.”

“Wait,” I put a hand on his forearm, “Raven can control your mind. He has power over Spirit. If you go in bold, he will stop you.”

Rio’s face hardened and his jaw twitched. “And you have not killed him why?”

I raised both eyebrows. “Did you not just hear me? He can control your mind. He has power over all five elements, Ender. Do not go in bold. Kill him in his sleep.”

He nodded slowly. “I do not like it. That is the coward’s way.”

“Then be prepared to live under a madman’s rule.” Already I could see how Raven would play it. He would claim he was displaced from his family, a family that had not banished him but instead cast him aside. That he needed only a place to live a little while, that he would help them if they would allow him a measure of peace.

Samara was far from soft, but Raven was handsome and charming. If he used Spirit on her, there was no way she would deny him. I wanted to pull my hair out in frustration at the thought of Raven getting away with destroying another of the elemental families. Though the Sylphs were not my favorite cousins, they
were
cousins, and I would not wish Raven on them.

Rio and his companion stepped back, and the bubble around us burst and let in the raging storm once more. We watched as they rose and swept away to the east, back to the Eyrie. Silently, I wished them all the luck in the world. They would need it if they were going to have a chance at Raven. For a moment, I thought I should call them back, tell them that I would help them take him out.

No, Cassava first. Take out the root and kill the plant.
The words were not my own as they echoed in my skull, but I agreed with them, as a shiver ran down my spine.

Norm put his hands over his ears and grimaced. “This is shitty, friend. I want to go back to the mountains.” At least, that’s what I thought he said over the roaring torrent of wind that cascaded over us.

I nodded, pointed at him to move, and then I turned away from the cliff. That last was a mistake.

Because within the water I’d left an Undine alive, banished and mad with the loss of her home.

An Undine who was pissed as hell with me for stopping her storm.

ater raced up the cliff behind us and washed over me in a single gulping wave. Norm yelled once and I spun, trying to get my hands or feet on the earth, anything to anchor myself. But the water held me away from it, keeping me only inches from salvation—tempting me with a possibility that wasn’t there.

This was the fear of many Terralings: to be dragged to their deaths in the watery bowels of the ocean. We were considered weak because the other elements could so easily overpower us. Only, what I’d learned and seen from Lark was that our family was far from weak.

That I was far stronger than I’d realized.

In a blink
,
we were pulled into open space and then drawn down into the frothing waves at the base of the cliff. I caught a glimpse of a grinning mouth and a pair of wild, madness-filled eyes, but then the vision was gone and I was tumbled about over and over, crashed against the rocks and pummeled from one end of my body to the other.

As I was smashed into a particularly large rock, I grabbed the edge and held on tightly. Using the power of the earth to strengthen me, I climbed up and got my head out of the water. Barely able to see, but at least I was out of the water and could breathe. I stared at the hurricane-induced waves, looking for the white fur that would be Norm. He was nowhere.

“I’m on the shore!” he crowed, and I spun to see him completely bedraggled, slicked to the skin and clinging to the edge of the rock cliffs of Moher. Not what I’d call the shore, but he was at least not in the full force of the water.

“He is not the one you should worry about,” came the gurgling voice of the Undine. I pulled my right-hand sword and swept it back in a single smooth motion, without even looking. There was a cry that cut off in mid-vocalization. I spun and watched as the Undine’s head fell from her shoulders and into the water, pale blue blood flowing from the stump where the head had been only a split second before.

“Wow, that was good, friend!”

The water eased around me, as though with its master gone it could finally begin to relax its stance on battering the cliffs up and down the coastline. The hurricane still raged
,
though, and even as I thought it, the elements around us picked up again. Though the Undine and the Sylph were dealt with, they had started something that would have to peter out on its own, to whatever ending that might be. At least there was no force driving it now, no madness powering it.