Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (18 page)

“
Oh, and, uh... I'll try to keep Mat from coming around if I
can, as well.”

Kirsten heaved a sigh of relief. “That would
be appreciated; I don't know how long I can stand doing that.” A
look of concern flashed across her face. “But only if you can
manage it without tipping our hand.”

Ezra gave her a confident grin, mimicking
her tone. “You can count on me.” He turned and, without looking
back, marched through the door.

Once outside, Mat turned to him and said,
“You know, I think I'm finally growing on her. Ladies just can't
resist the old Matanane charm for long!”

Ezra laughed out loud, not wanting to hurt
his friend's feelings over this. Who knew, maybe he really would
break Kirsten down, some day. He lowered his voice and asked, “So,
what's really going on?”

Mat glanced around, checking for
eavesdroppers in the early morning mist. “Got a flag almost an hour
ago. Fire-kissed up in the central region, near the blight
line.”

“
Blight line?” Ezra asked, always looking for a little more
knowledge. “I saw it mentioned a few times in mission reports, but
it was never explained.”

“
Tough to explain the thing,” Mat responded cryptically,
“You'll see.”

“
You guys never tell me anything,” Ezra complained.

“
What's the fun of having a newbie if you don't torment him?”
Sarah ghosted up to them through the mist. “Mat. Hawkins.” She
nodded to each of them. “Keep your voices down. I don't know any
more than you. We'll be briefed when we get to the
Guild.”

They made it to the Conservatorium, in to
the phone booth, and down to the Guild of Sundry. Ezra even got to
dial himself in this time. He felt very not-white-rabbit.

Mr. Blair was waiting for them in the
wormhole room and briefed them on their way down the stairs to the
hangar. “You'll be heading to a small town called Southedge located
on the southern edge of the blight line. We have a small problem
with this flag. Thirty six hours ago we confirmed a sudden, violent
windstorm in the area which culminated in a tornado touching down
on the outskirts of the town and then dispersing. This leaves us in
a dilemma with the red flag, which notifies us of a fire-kissed.”
Blair sighed as he keyed in a code to open the hangar door. “The
town itself is a small trading post, which is not too surprising
given its proximity to the sky stream and the blight line. I took
the liberty of appropriating a small stock of the provisions you
brought back from your last mission for something exactly like
this. You will be able to pose as traders getting in one last run
before the onset of winter.”

“
What's our relationship with the contact in the area?” Sarah
began looking through the weapons, picking out two of the knives
she favored.

“
Jeremy Haldis believes we're... demons, or something. Show up
at night in full tactical gear. He's actually part of our problem
here. We've dealt with Mr. Haldis several times, and his
information is always concise, clear and useful. If he says there
is a fire-kissed I'm inclined to believe him. It's possible that
the wind-scarred moved on and a fire-kissed came into the area
looking for him, but has instead stayed on and is causing trouble.”
Mr. Blair's voice said he wasn't quite buying into the theory.
“This situation may very well be cut and dry, but it seems complex
enough that you may need to do some reconnaissance before actually
engaging your target. There may be as many as two elementalists in
the area, so tread lightly. I wish you all luck.” He patted Ezra's
shoulder as he left the hangar.

“
So...” Ezra began, “...the hangar.”

Mat grinned. “Nearest port is almost eighty
miles southeast of the town, hidden in a bunch of rocks. We'll be
taking a skiff to get in and out.” He let out a bark of laughter.
“Remember when we set that one up, Sarah? Rob was all like, 'No,
you need to get it further back there, what if someone happens to
be climbing these rocks out in the middle of nowhere and-'” Mat
stopped abruptly, eyes widening, glancing over at Sarah worriedly.
She had frozen, hand supporting herself on the weapon rack, eyes
squeezed shut. She trembled a little as she took a slow breath.
“I'm sorry.” Mat said quietly, turning back to the clothes in the
nearby locker.

Ezra looked back and forth between them,
then sidled up next to Mat and started to ask in a low voice,
“Who's-”

“
Just drop it,” Mat muttered harshly, “bad things happen.” He
looked Ezra over. “You'll need a set of tactical gear along with
the rest of this stuff. Let's see what we can do.”

They readied themselves in silence. Sarah
picked out several weapons that looked like what crossbows hoped to
be when they grew up. “Fire-kissed mess with explosions just by
being there,” she said to no-one in particular, voice flat and
emotionless. “Guns don't work right around them.”

Mat picked up a high-powered rifle with an
oversized scope. Ezra gave him a questioning look. “In case we have
to deal with a wind-scarred.” He shrugged. “Tornadoes take a bunch
of power to make, but the wind-scarred who develop the muscle for
it usually can't handle finer techniques. Only takes one good
shot.” He loaded the gun into the waiting skiff.

Ezra checked his shoulder harness to make
sure it was secure, then looked for a knife. Mat cleared his throat
and Ezra turned to him. He was smiling and holding out a belt with
a twin to his own sword sheathed on it. “You might be passable by
now with one of these.” Ezra grinned and took the belt.

“
Let's move out.” Sarah got into the driver's seat of the skiff
as Ezra jumped on board and Mat keyed in the wormhole destination.
A portal opened up and cold, heavy rain began pouring
through.

“
Aw, you're kidding me,” Mat lamented. He quickly gathered up
some rain gear and threw it on board as the puddle around the
wormhole grew. “Bet it's gonna rain the whole time. Won't be any
girls out in that.”

Sarah brought the skiff to life and shot
through the wormhole. They were slapped in the face with a wall of
the coldest water Ezra had ever felt. The wormhole closed behind
them as they made their way up out of a narrow crevasse and through
a tumbling of rocks and boulders. Ezra shivered with cold, pulling
his rain gear around him more tightly. “So where's this blight
line?” he yelled to Mat over the pounding water.

“
Don't forget about your communicator.” Mat responded through
his wryly. “Won't pass too near it till we get close to the town.”
He squinted up through the rain at the cloudy sky. “Should still be
dark enough when we get there to make contact. I'll spot for you
and Sarah.” They skimmed on in silence, rain-blurred landscape
sliding into view and then vanishing back into the
night.

Just under an hour later they came to a
stop. Ezra strapped on his night vision goggles and looked around
the rain-streaked terrain. He squinted at something off to the
north, and adjusted the goggles to zoom in. A solid line of
glistening black came into view, and Ezra drew in a breath.

“
The blight line,” Mat confirmed quietly. “It stretches nearly
around the world, more or less straight, broken only by lakes and
oceans. The ground there was superheated until it turned to glass.”
He shook his head as he readied his rifle. “We don't know what did
it, but it's been there since before Sanctuary, so it's a safe bet
that it happened during the war. That much power...” His voice
sounded slightly haunted. “I don't think we could have done that.
Hell, I don't think we could do it now.”

“
People out here are scared to death of the blight line
itself.” Sarah adjusted her belt and engaged the hologram that
would hide their skiff. “But they make roads beside it, since it
cleared the ground for kilometers around it on either side. They
actually have bridges to cross it in some places, where they can't
use the sky stream.” She looked off toward the small town in the
distance. “Come on, our meeting place is on the blight side of
town, in a little cave.”

They made their way through the night until
a small group of rocks, tilted together to almost form a tent,
appeared. A bedraggled red flag flopped around near its peak. Mat
took off at his loping run to get a view of the inside of the cave
and the surrounding area. Sarah and Ezra slowly crept around it to
come in from the north, as if they had come off the blight. Ezra
saw a weak red flicker inside the cave. Someone had lit a fire.
Just before they slipped inside, Mat's voice came through their
communicators. “Hold. Jeremy Haldis is not in the cave.” Sarah and
Ezra froze, waiting for Mat to continue. “There's a young woman
inside, huddled up next to the fire, trying to stay dry. She's
looking around every few seconds. I'd say she's here for us. Sarah,
how do want to do this?”

“
I
don't like surprises.” Sarah's voice was as hard as it had been all
night. Or morning. Whatever time it was. “You spot anyone else
around? Heat signatures?”

“
Nothing,” came Mat's reply. “That little fire isn't enough to
hide someone else, either.”

Sarah cocked her head slightly, as if
weighing options. Ezra stared at the little copse of stones for a
handful of seconds, then asked, “Mat, how does the girl look?”

“
She looks miserable and...terrified. Like she's expecting
something to jump out of the shadows at her any second.”

Ezra nodded. “Almost like she's out near
midnight waiting for demons to show up?”

“
Heh, yeah, I guess it could look a lot like that.” Mat
chuckled grimly.

Ezra turned his attention back to Sarah.
“Okay,” she said. “We'll check it out. Keep us covered and apprised
of any changes in the situation.”

“
Roger that. You are green to engage.” Ezra took a deep breath
as Mat gave them the go ahead.

“
Making contact.” Sarah's voice came back, cold and detached.
They made their way into the shelter of the cave, making no effort
to hide as they stalked inside.

Ezra thought the girl was going to faint.
“Sweet Mother preserve me!” she gasped, scrambling back away from
them. She looked young, maybe sixteen or seventeen, homespun dress
smudged with mud, her reddish blonde hair pulled back from her
face.

“
You raised the flag,” Sarah stated.

“
I-I... yes, I raised the flag, as my father before me, great
ones.” The girl watched them with terrified eyes, getting to her
knees and bowing before them. “He... well I suppose you know, what
with his soul and... since you're here, and y-you knew that I'd...”
She gulped loudly, then closed her eyes and stammered out, “I,
Jenna Haldis, will make any c-compact that pa... that my father
made with you, only... p-please, you must help us, like you did
b-before, the other times!” She was practically sobbing at this
point. Ezra felt horrible.

“
The compact will be kept.” Sarah's voice still sounded alien,
void of any emotion or inflection. “You will tell us what you wish
done, and we will judge.”

The girl, Jenna, opened her eyes and gazed
back up them, and Ezra couldn't tell if her tears were from fright
or hope. “He... he came the day before yesterday. My father and the
other village elders, t-they were meeting at the edge of town.” She
took a trembling breath. “The wind-scarred, he killed them all. He
didn't ask for anything. We didn't even know he was there until he
walked in, all covered in bandages except his hands, and they were
a mess of scars so we knew, we knew he had done it. And then this
storm came and we just...” An edge of anger began to tinge words.
“He demanded... things, from us, from many of th-the women,
whichever ones he fancied. Took anything he wanted and said that
the elders were just an example, that if we didn't, that he... that
he would...”

“
How do they know it was him?” Ezra murmured to Sarah and Mat.
“It could have been a freak wind storm.”

“
In hundreds of years of watching, there's never been a natural
disaster,” Mat said quietly. “When man controls nature, every
disaster in man-made.”

The anger that had entered Jenna Haldis's
voice as she spoke flared into hatred, hatred at the man who had
done this to her and her family, hatred at her own inability to do
anything about it. “I don't care what you do to me,” she spat, “but
I want him to suffer. I want to see him die. Make him pay!”

Sarah stared at the girl unnervingly until
she visibly remembered her place, cowering again. Mat's voice came
back through the communicators. “No fire-kissed then. Girl probably
knew her dad did this when there was trouble, but didn't know which
flag to use. Have to slip her a cheat sheet on that before we go.”
Ezra nodded slightly. The girl shifted her gaze to him, all anger
and terror.

“
We shall do as you ask,” Sarah said, then turned and stalked
from the cave.

Ezra quickly followed, trying to walk like a
demon until they were out of sight. He heard the girl sobbing in
the flickering fire light behind them. “Oh thank you. Mother help
me, thank you.”

“
Can't say I like whoever set up this contact,” Ezra muttered
as they made their way back to the skiff.