Flame Caller (35 page)

Lord Balor led her down the spiral
staircase. When they reached the bottom floor, they turned away
from the throne room and rushed down a back hallway. As they
approached a turn in the hall, they slowed and her father raised
his hand, telling her to stay behind him. He peered slowly around
the corner, spotting a pair of Fire Warriors standing at the end
with their backs to him. Her father raised a finger to his lips and
led her quickly around the corner. They slipped into a side passage
before the warriors turned toward them.

The side tunnel led out of the castle.
They were soon running along the edge of the cliff surrounding the
keep, the lava flow burning brightly far below. Ahead, Sammy could
see a familiar natural rock bridge leading across the chasm. The
far side of the bridge disappeared into a dark hole in the cavern’s
wall. She knew the way and knew more than one path that would lead
back to the surface.

As they reached the near end of the
bridge, her father pulled up short and leaned over, resting his
hands on his knees and breathing heavily.

“
Come on,” Sammy said. “We
need to hurry.”

Lord Balor stood straight and shook
his head. “I’m sorry, Sammy. I’m not coming with you.”

Sammy grabbed his wrist and stared
into her father’s eyes. “No, we need to go together. They’re going
to know what you did. You can’t stay.”

“
When you became a Fire
Warrior, I knew what it meant for your future. The Fire Elemental
had laid claim to you and I, in my cowardice, agreed to help him.
You know what it feels like when it strips your power by force.
It’s excruciating. I was scared, so I went along with whatever it
said. For that, I’m sorry.”

“
Okay,” Sammy said
hurriedly. “Your apology is accepted. We need to go.”

“
My place is here, with my
people. I’ve risked everything to protect you and I need to be
ready to do the same for any of the other Fire Warriors that need
me.”

Sammy opened her mouth to protest but
her father put his hands on her shoulders.

“
You were right. The
Elemental is going to know when you’re gone. The only chance you
have is if I buy you the time you need.”

“
What will you do?” Sammy
whispered.

Her father shook his head. “Don’t you
worry about that. Worry about getting yourself to safety. Get to
the surface and get as far away from here as possible. As long as
he doesn’t have you, he’ll stay trapped in his prison. No one else
can contain his power without immediately burning up.”

She embraced her father and laid her
head on his chest. She couldn’t remember the last time she had felt
so close to him.

“
Dad, I just wanted you to
know—”

“
I know,” he said,
nodding.

He gently pushed Sammy away and
pointed toward the bridge. “Now go. You don’t have much
time.”

“
We’ll see each other
again,” she said as she stepped onto the bridge. “I
promise.”

He nodded. “Of course we
will.”

She turned, ran across the bridge, and
disappeared into the darkness on the far side.

The Fire Elemental was coiled in its
room, its tail wrapped tightly around its slumbering form. At once,
the Elemental’s eyes opened and it stretched its long neck
upward.

The dragon’s forked tongue flickered
from between its sharp teeth. A low growl escaped its wide mouth.
The growl quickly became a roar.

Fire Warriors rushed into the room in
response to its anger.

“
What’s wrong,
Master?”

“
Lady Balor has
escaped
,” it hissed. “
Find her and bring her back to
me
.”

The woman on the bed of animal furs
was frail. Her skin was marred with liver spots and her skin was
translucent enough that Xander could see the blue veins lacing her
arms and neck. The edges of her skin seemed unfinished, however.
Her flesh seemed to dematerialize into wisps of gas as he watched,
though she didn’t seem in any threat of losing her coherence. He
looked over his shoulder and the aunts and uncles raised their
eyebrows inquisitively. The old woman suddenly spoke again, her
voice belying a hidden strength.

“
What I need to say is
for you alone, Xander. They will be safe outside while we
speak.
”

After all they’d been through, he had
to believe that she could be trusted. As though reading his
concerns, everyone outside nodded their support and found places to
sit while they waited.

“
Please
,” the woman
said, “
close the door behind you.
”

Xander closed the door. It should have
cast the room into darkness, since there weren’t any windows around
the perimeter of the tiny, one-room cabin. He was surprised at the
glow that filled the room. The illumination seemed to radiate from
the prone woman.

“
You’re really her, aren’t
you? You’re the Wind Elemental. You’re real.”

The Elemental smiled and nodded.
“
I’m real and I’ve been waiting for you for some
time.
”

Xander knelt beside the bed, since
there wasn’t any other furniture in the room. “If you’ve been
waiting for me, then you know why I’m here. We need your help. The
world is on the edge of being destroyed by—”

“
The Fire Caste. I
know.
”

“
Then you know why we need
your help. I’ve tried to stop them myself and I can’t. We need your
power.”

She smiled again. “
Yes you do, far
more than you even realize
.”

Xander sat back on his feet and set
his hands on his legs. “I can’t help but feel that you brought us
here for a purpose. I don’t think we could have gotten through that
hurricane by ourselves, which means you helped us with that too.
Why do you need us so bad? What can we possibly do to help someone
as powerful as you?”

“
Not ‘us’, Xander.
‘You’. I brought you here for a purpose
.”

“
Why me?”

“
That’s a far more
complicated question than you realize, young warrior
.” The
Elemental looked up toward the exposed beams that crossed the
ceiling. “
Forgive the history lesson, but you need to understand
where all this started before you can fully understand the part you
play in this game
.

“
Millennia ago, we four
Elementals gathered to decide our role in the future of humankind.
We knew that we each had something to offer the youthful creatures,
but disagreed on how best to help. We didn’t always agree with one
another, you have to realize. Fire and Water bickered often. Earth
was stoic and unbending in his ideas. Even I was lured into the
disagreements, despite my agreeable nature. In the end, we realized
that we couldn’t hope to help humanity if we were forced to work
together. To that end, we made a pact in which only one element
would exist on Earth at any given time
.”

“
The Earth gives way to
the Water, the Water bows to the Wind, the Wind feeds the Flame,
and the Flame burns the world of man down to the Earth. I’ve been
told it once or twice. Is this where it came from?”

The Elemental looked over to him, her
eyes milky with early stages of cataracts. “
The words to
describe it came much later but yes, our meeting was where it
began. We agreed to take our turns, starting with the Earth
Elemental. He had the power to create the land that would support
humanity. Next came the Water Elemental, who ensured humanity had
all it would require to sustain life. When humanity had grown
enough, I awoke to lead humanity to a higher level of
consciousness
.

“
I’d like to think I’ve
done a good job with humanity. Under our guidance, they built
cities and roads, flew through the air, and walked on the moon. We
were muses for invention, poetry, and prose. We truly helped
humanity reach its fullest potential.
”

Xander shook his head. “But the Fire
Caste is going to ruin all that. They’re going to burn everything
you did to the ground. But you already know this. It was part of
the prophecy from the beginning. ‘The Flame burns the world of man
down to the Earth.’”

He stood and stretched his legs, which
had already grown stiff from kneeling. “I don’t get it. Why bother?
Why go through all the effort of cultivating humanity if your plan
all along was just to destroy it?” He felt himself growing angry.
“Why give us hope at all?”

The Wind Elemental sighed in a very
human manner. “
Because we made our decisions about humanity
before we ever knew you. The young creatures we knew when we made
our pact were juvenile, hardly capable of speaking a formal
language or using tools. We hoped, but could have never known,
exactly how you would turn out. Believe me when I tell you that
we’ve grown to love you and don’t want to see you
destroyed.
”

“
Then help me stop the
Fire Elemental,” Xander said. “If you don’t want to see us
destroyed, then get out of bed and help us.”

“
I—we—already
have
,” the Elemental said with a smile. “
We gave the world a
chance when we made you.
”

Xander stopped his incessant pacing.
“Me?”

“
You. You’re humanity’s
future
.”

“
How? What can I do that
you can’t?”

“
You were created to be
the next stage of the elemental evolution. When the Fire Elemental
awoke, it argued that humanity had overstepped its bounds, causing
irreparable damage to the planet. It no longer took into
consideration the needs of the world when it blasted through
mountains, pumped toxins into the air, or polluted the oceans. Fire
argued that it was time to fulfill the prophecy and burn down the
world of man, letting the world reset after humanity was gone. We
could try again with whatever took humanity’s
place.
”

Xander sighed and sat heavily on the
floor beside the bed. “He’s not wrong, you know? We’re not exactly
good to the planet.”

“
But he was wrong about
it being irreparable. Humanity has the potential to fix its
mistakes. Earth, Water, and I understood that and argued the point,
much to Fire’s chagrin.
”

“
I’m sure he took that
well,” Xander smirked. His experience was that the Fire Caste
didn’t have much of a sense of humor.

The Wind Elemental cackled. “
No, he
was quite upset at what he viewed as a coup against his right to
rule. We knew we could never convince him to see the wisdom of our
words, so we tricked him. Earth trapped Fire deep under the ground
in a cavern too small for him to escape. While he was gone, we set
to work finding a salvation for humanity.
”

The humor bled from the Wind
Elemental’s face as she continued. “
You were our
salvation
.”

“
You still haven’t
explained what I can do that you three Elementals
can’t.”

“
You have youthful
exuberance, Xander. When you’ve used your powers, have you noticed
the sense of an unending well of power within you? We created you
to be able to hold vast amounts of power.”
She looked at him
sternly to ensure he understood what she meant.
“Vast amounts of
pure, Elemental power.
”