The Seven (Fist of Light Series) (26 page)

“Now I’ll let some of the girls in, and we’ll see how you cope,” Jeeves told me.

My panicked face must have been quite the spectacle, because Jeeves just chuckled as two of the fire elementals were ushered inside my little circular boxing ring. Groaning loudly, I prepared myself to command Water, pull it from the air around me, and blast the suckers with it. Unfortunately, to my dismay, there wasn’t enough moisture in the air to do as proposed. The ground was similarly parched, which meant my luck had run dry. I had already witnessed what happened when Air was hyper-oxygenated and fire was added into the mix. That left Fire.

I mixed and matched apprehension, fear, and exhilaration together in the forefront of my mind. I outstretched an arm in the widely recognized come-hither gesture and focused as the two fire elementals closed the distance between us. The only way this adventure was going to be deemed as a success involved absorbing the elementals’ essence and hoping that I could control such sizeable, untamed quantities without going supernova.

My senses drifted toward one of the elementals, and I tugged its fiery energy toward me. A red line of Fire arced between the elemental and myself, causing the two of us to start a tug of war match for its life energy. I had been hoping that the elemental had just been a thoughtless creation, devoid of thought, absent of feeling. That would have made my task much easier, because there would be less resistance from an opponent with no regard for a particular outcome. Except the elemental did possess ability for intellectual thought, and it was tugging with all its might at the fire I was leeching from its whirling body.

Cursing and circling back around, I tried to create distance between the raging torrents of flame and myself, which, in turn, brought me up against the periphery of the enclosure, leaving me with no further room for retreat. Additional heat singed the back of my white cotton shirt. Trying to maneuver my way out of this mess, I discovered I wedged between a rock and a hard place. The second elemental was weakening, however, and he lagged slightly behind the other. If he died sooner than later, then it might be within my grasp to make some additional space between me and the remaining challenger.

Bending down on one knee, mostly for the awesome effect, I strained against the sentient Fire, which had major qualms about entering the afterlife prematurely. Beginning to feel its rage and unquenchable thirst through our contact, uncontrollable shivers shook me. Sweat beaded upon my brow and dripped down, partially occluding my vision. Ten feet. All of my strained will was put to task as the whirlwind of energy started to visibly dwindle. Five feet. My skin was hot and feverish; the hairs on my forearms began to crisp, singe. The smell of burnt hair pervaded my nostrils, while I forced my roiling emotions to coalesce and strike. My desperation and force of will overcame desperation. My body was on fire. It would be inadvisable in the extreme to continue to contain the energy. I leaped back in dismay as red tendrils of energy began to seep from underneath my skin. Considering this definitely was not my forte, it seemed the better course to avoid prolonged exposure of this type. Deciding to fight fire with fire, the crimson energy banging around in my head and beginning to exude from my body was flung outward from an outstretched hand.

“No, not
that
!” Jeeves shouted, but it was already too late.

My Fire smashed into the elemental, actually driving it backwards a few feet before it halted, wavering. Then it began to grow exponentially before my astonished eyes, and I gulped. Once again, my efforts were expended in a hasty bid to command the water in the air to coalesce, but the product was a minute sphere that quickly dissipated when directed at the towering inferno before me. If I used Air, experience dictated that I would merely burn faster. Lightning would hardly bother something so incorporeal, so I was stuck with a volatile element that I wasn’t on the best of terms with, which needed to be utilized properly in order to destroy this behemoth. Gritting my teeth, I clashed wills with the elemental, and was rocked backwards by the force of its combined might.

This guy wasn’t a pushover like the other twister of doom, and already there was a draining sensation that was beginning to border on hazardous. Streams of intertwining fire shot out toward me, and I rolled frantically out of the way, feeling the blast pass over my head, singing off my eyebrows. Backpedalling furiously in my mind, I began rooting out possibilities that might have been overlooked. Clenching my fists impotently, I extended my senses in every conceivable direction. There, in the depths of this desolate wasteland, was a vast reserve of water. Punching those two fists downwards in adrenaline-fueled triumph, I commanded the water below to surge upward.

A geyser burst forth from the arid ground, as I brought a torrent of water to the land and its fiery inhabitants. The other elementals arrayed outside the barrier were rendered impotent and harried off by the wholly unexpected alteration of the status quo. I ignored them and focused upon the enemy before me. My twisting watery tentacles frothed and mammoth waves splashed. The fire elemental began to show its true colors. Rather than the whirlwind of flame previously advertised, it transformed into a figure of fire, a towering inferno stretching twelve feet high. A roar split the air, as deluges of water began to snuff out its remaining life force. The pivotal point arrived, and weariness struck, causing the constructs of water to become highly unstable.

I gasped. “Wait,
no
!”

A wall of flame crashed into me, reducing my body to nothing more substantial than ash, a wispy specter of mortality. Pain enveloped my mind, my body, my soul. Surely there had to have been an attempt to cry out in agony, but I no longer possessed the means to do so. The Water was no longer listening to my commands, and I felt out my source of power, that glowing sun that shone so bright within me. When I stumbled upon the locus of my being, I gazed desperately at the orb. It was dark and sordid, slippery and insubstantial, shrunken and disheveled.

“Come on!” I smacked my hand through the structure, trying to suck a semblance of power out of it.

“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you,” Jeeves advised from my shoulder.

The reflexive response that blurred my hand backward was brought on by the undertone present in my maestro’s voice. “Why not? Don’t you want me to kill the elemental?”

Jeeves expressed his sentiments by tapping me hard on the forehead. “You must outthink and outmaneuver your enemies, not rely upon superior strength of arms to win out the day. If you rely solely upon muscle in dire situations, rather than your wits, you will find yourself dead in the water. No one will be there to help you, because they surely would have been killed off by your incompetence. Remember that, when you find yourself embroiled in a life-or-death confrontation.”

I rubbed the spot where his fingers had made contact. “So, all these lessons, then? Why didn’t you just tell me this in the first place?” My voice came off as slightly peeved.

“Tangible evidence of this development was required for the lesson to be properly ingrained into your mind. When power is squandered unwisely, you will lose the boon it provides when it’s most indispensable. Do you not think that your enemies will have frontrunner troops? If you expend all your energy before embroiled in genuine conflict, you will already be at a sore disadvantage.”

“You speak of these enemies as if they already exist and you know who they are.”

Jeeves huffed, puffed, and prepared to blow my house down. “You are not prepared for such delicate information, and there are complications in which I cannot predict, foresee, nor entangle myself from. At this point, I am powerless to do anything except further your learning. Which we shall continue, since it has been determined that you have satisfactorily acquired the basics of our trade.”

I blew up. “I’m tired of all these redirections, obscure statements, and partial awareness, Jeeves! If you’re here to assist me, then why are you holding out on me, damn it?”

“Because,” he informed, deflated, “I am incapable of providing the relevant information until the appointed time and place.”

“By who!” I raged. “Who would even know to command something such as you, and have the power implement it? Why not just kill us both, if this person’s so hostile to providing me with knowledge. That’ll be the end product anyways, if I don’t know what I’m up against! What use am I to them dead?”

“Something neither benign nor malignant dictates my movements, and I am powerless to defy that which created me. You are far more important than a singular battle upon the horizon, boy. What is coming is a war for all of humanity, and you’re in the eye of the storm.”

My scowl deepened. “So you’re saying that… I’ve been played? I’m being led like a dog on a leash, a puppet on invisible strings?”

Jeeves’ features became hooded, shadowed. “No. Your nature guides you as a product of your own decisions, not those looking to manipulate you. You are compiled of judgments, mistakes, emotions, and memories. You are who you are
because
of these collective experiences. Do not mistakenly believe that you have been led to your destination; you have brought yourself to an inevitable transition. What is chosen henceforth in pivotal actions and decisions will determine your allegiance: an instrumental pillar for the Light or a relentless force of Darkness.”

I paced amid the chaos engulfing my mind, which was lit up like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Anger was foremost among my emotions, and it threatened to pitch reasoning out the window. I wanted to lash out at something, anything, but I apprehended that thought before it was acted upon. Though numerous statements, insults, and heated ultimatums were developed, all were discarded.

Finally, I came up with an appropriate response. “I am what I am, Jeeves, nothing
more
, nothing
less
. I don’t fit into such categories as Light or the Darkness. If my thoughts and decisions are made based on my own reasoning and conscience, then my fate is no one else’s to determine.”

Jeeves nodded, accepting, and beneath the ambiguity, I sensed a certain satisfaction. “You must tread your own path through the chaos, the bowels of Darkness. But I fear that you will be forced to choose sides, or perish.”

Some of my anger returned, and for a second I even imagined a spark or two dance across my knuckles. “Whatever the course that is decided upon, I’ll decide it. I won’t be an expendable chess piece on the board of reality, to be discarded at another’s whim.” “Splendid.” A faint smile appeared on his face. “If you follow your heart and judgment, I believe you might just might survive.”

The last vestiges of my anger dissipated with Jeeves’ words. In his own way, he believed in my ability, if only I lived long enough to enact my will. I couldn’t hold it against him that he had a gigantic mover and shaker riding his back.

Jeeves stopped before entering his own sphere of influence. “Just remember, belief is a potent, whimsical power of creation.” He paused, emphasizing his words clearly to ensure that my attention had been riveted. “The more people believe in something, the more real, the more powerful that thing is. Where people believe strongly enough that their crops will yield harvest, their dreams will be realized, or their children will be healthy, there is power. And when more people believe in a singular article, idea, natural occurrence, God, gods, there is power abounding. There is power in the mundane just as there is the magical, whether you may realize it or not. Remember this.” He tapped his finger to his temple meaningfully.

“I’ll remember,” I promised.

“Jas, come here!” Jeeves was already beside me, watching in his incorporeal form.

The news was on again and the camera was set upon a landmark that most people have heard of, if not been to. Alcatraz was a badass fortress created in the mid 1800’s, built in response to the California Gold Rush. Although not many made it rich as they had hoped, the fort was born. The military posted on the island were never forced to fire their plethora of cannons, and so it was converted to an island of detention for those charged with treason. For a further hundred years, “The Rock” housed the criminally insane, serial killers, rapists, murderers, and other unsavory characters of their time.

By the 1970’s, the island was turned into a national park, a part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. A million tourists frequented the island each year. With such a mass of people coming and going at any given time, I wasn’t surprised that the body count piling up over the past couple of weeks had been overlooked. That is, what remained of the bodies, which were
believed
to be human. It was tough to tell, when there was merely a foot here, a sightless head there, or a leg bobbing in the water nearby.

Something had made its lair upon the island of Alcatraz, and it had gone undetected for nearly a month. The camera only panned the scene for a second, but the image was burned permanently into my mind. A monster of epic proportions had dug out a cavity in the tough underbelly of The Rock, made itself a place to hide and partake of its meals. It had excavated itself an underwater cavern, complete with a dry plateau.