Elemental (4 page)

“What’s wrong?” Part of me really didn’t
want to know.

“We need to find a place to hide.”

“Why?”

“Not everything on this planet is dead.” He
paused. “Something lives.”

I gulped. “What?”

“Dammit!” He pounded his fist against the
control screen and pushed the vehicle to what I guessed was its
capacity for speed. The thing rocked and stuttered, yet kept
lurching forward.

I pressed my dry lips together and dug my
nails into the soft fabric of my seat.

“We’re not going to make it to Izbet.” He
moaned the words, making my heart beat faster.

My head swam. Black spots dotted my vision
and my chin dropped to my chest. “What is it, Meir? Please! Tell
me!”

He jerked the speeder to the left and headed
straight for a small grouping of boulders.

“Meir…” I was way past trying to control the
whine in my voice.

He hushed me. I clamped my hand over my
mouth. We were coming up to the boulders too fast. I started to
worry that my rescuer had gone mad. The crazed look in his eyes
didn’t help alleviate my fears. But before I could say anything, he
jerked the vehicle to the right in a hairpin turn and cut the
electromagnet. The speeder dropped and skidded sideways across the
ground—sending up a thick cloud of dust and chunks of dirt—until we
stopped with a thump against the grouping of rocks that stuck up
like a giant’s fingers reaching to the sky.

I gasped and rested my head against my
knees.

“Sorry,” he mumbled. “The brakes went
out.”

Of course. I’d known no smart person would
ever get into this thing.

He jumped out of the speeder and ran around
the front to my side. His calloused hands grabbed my arms and I
made no move to stop him. I didn’t make a move to help him, either.
I would’ve helped if I could’ve, but my body responded like mush.
It was a bad time for me to go into shock, but it was overdue,
too.

Meir didn’t seem to have any trouble
dragging me out of the vehicle and carrying me into the close
confines within the outcropping of rock. I imagined my body didn’t
weigh too much—he didn’t even breathe heavily from any
exertion.

After he lay me down on the cool ground, he
walked back to the narrow entrance of the peculiar shelter to look
for something. He fidgeted and pulled at his beard—still
worried.

I lifted my head off the ground. “Meir?”

He sighed, but didn’t say anything for
several long moments. “The sun is almost set.”

“And?”

“And the Shakai will come out when it
does.”

“Shakai.” One-word responses were really all
my mind could handle at this point. Meir seemed to grasp that and
backed away from the small opening to sit by me. He placed his hand
on my good shoulder—a gesture that quickly soothed me despite the
obvious tension in his muscles.

He sighed again, debating whether or not to
tell me. I decided to push him a little.

“I want to know.”

He dropped his gaze to the ground and said,
“This planet was decimated millennia ago by a meteor. The Shakai
are…” His eyes rolled back like he was trying to find the right
word and pluck it from his mind. “…insects—the biggest ones can
grow to be a little larger than a man’s head. They survived the
initial blast and thrived through the resulting centuries of
settling ash. With each generation, more and more offspring were
born that were hypersensitive to the severely filtered light.
Eventually, those creatures dominated the gene pool because all the
others died from starvation and lack of sun.

“When the Mamood came to settle this planet,
we set up atmospheric generators all over the surface and cleared
away the ash. It was too late for the Shakai. They had lived under
too many years of darkness and no longer carried any genes that
would allow their offspring to live in the light. So now they only
come out at night, preying on their weak because there are no other
food sources—except for anyone foolish enough to be out in the
dark.”

I gulped. “Like us.”

“Like us.”

“Are they strong?” I didn’t know why I asked
the question. I couldn’t actually think I could fight them off. And
yet, I did think that.

“They are many.”

Meir’s arms shook violently around
me—terror—and yet I remained surprisingly calm. My fear from just
moments before seeped away and left nothing but a blank numbness.
Though my mind tried to reason through the lethargy, it didn’t get
very far. Instead, happier conclusions of escape and long life
seemed the only logical answer. I couldn’t have been allowed to
escape prison only to become food for some oversized hive of
insects. Surely our situation was not as dire as my savior implied.
Life just wasn’t that unfair.

And then I heard them.

At first, the sound was soft and almost
pleasant, like the rustling of dry leaves. If I hadn’t known what
it was, I might’ve found it comforting. But after a few moments,
the rustling grew into shrieking, ripping, and tearing. The ground
shook around me as thousands, possibly millions, of feet clattered
along its surface, drawing closer to us.

I wanted to scream, and almost did, but
pressed my lips shut instead. The shrieking ripped through the air
all around us now—ear-piercing wails followed by grotesque
gurglings of death. They were eating each other.

I squeezed my eyes shut and pressed myself
tighter against Meir’s chest. He responded by clasping his fingers
around my arms as if afraid we were going to be ripped apart. I had
to admit, it seemed like a possibility.

Then I heard a new sound that sent my heart
pounding against my chest—the sound of claws on rock.

Meir dug his fingers into my skin and
shuffled us to brace himself on the rock wall behind us.

There were just a few click-clicks of feet
at first as the ones in front tested the structure, drawing closer.
Something hard brushed my cheek and slid down my neck. It twitched
across my skin, feeling, probing. Meir tensed against me, and I
shuddered. The hard thing paused and then a screech tore through
the air right by my ear. The click-clicks turned into an avalanche
as the Shakai swarmed our hideout.

Chapter Four
:

Escape

They crawled on top of us, beneath us, even
burrowed between us. Meir’s fingers dug into my arms, latching us
together. And then he was gone. Dozens of the Shakai crawled all
over me, pulling my hair and ripping my skin with sharp-edged
pincers.

I didn’t register the pain at first. Though
their claws dug and ripped through my skin, sending warm blood to
run down my arms and legs, my mind moved too slowly. Someone’s
screams echoed in my ears and I was surprised to realize they were
mine. Then the pain rolled through me, and I screamed louder until
the Shakai digging at my face choked off my shrieks. Hooked pincers
slid in my mouth and tore at my tongue as they fought to get down
my throat.

As I swiped my hands at the bugs, ripping
one off only to find five more take its place, my body started to
warm and tingle. At first, I thought maybe I was passing out, but
the tingling turned into a sharp burning. Pain scorched through my
veins, charring me from the inside out. I couldn’t even feel the
Shakai ripping me apart anymore.

I clenched my teeth against it, willing my
body to ignore the throbbing—but it wouldn’t be ignored. The pain
seeped into my head and I screamed, ready for it to explode. My
eyes bulged, pushed from beneath by the sheer force of the agony.
Too exhausted to fight anymore, I gave in and let the pain have me,
praying for death.

The moment I let go of my control, the pain
vanished, replaced by hunger—for what, I didn’t know yet. All I did
know was that every cell of my body ached to
devour
.

My vision changed. Instead of black,
creeping shadows in the night, the Shakai turned into bright,
pulsing orbs. I could see every molecule in their blood sprint
through their veins in a coordinated dance. The air, too, swarmed
with bright molecules that dotted the space around me like stars.
When I thought to bring my hand up to touch one of the red points
of light, the molecule flitted through the sky to my hand before I
could even move. I stared in wonder. The others danced in front of
me, ready and waiting.

Aware once again of the Shakai pouring over
my body, eating my flesh as they went, I ordered the points of
light to bend to my will.

Fire erupted in the air and surrounded me.
My skin tingled with the power and I moaned in ecstasy as the
hunger was fed. The Shakai shrieked and scurried away, dying and
burning in the growing flames. Their bodies popped and crisped,
sending up hazy smoke in the air.

When I sensed all the nearest fuel for my
flames had been thoroughly consumed, I fought to pull the fire back
but the hunger was not yet satiated. And so the flames spread,
searching and devouring without restraint. The force poured through
my veins, sapping me of my wavering strength, and yet also filling
me with a sick need for more—part of me
wanted
the
destruction. But it was too much, and my legs gave out. I fell to
the ground, letting the blackness pour over me.

I awoke some time later on a hard bed with a
thin sheet draped over my body. A dim light hovered above my head,
casting shadows around the room.

I licked my parched lips, tasting copper,
and swallowed. I had no idea how I’d gotten to this room with its
whitewashed walls that were almost too clean. The charred remains
of my prison clothes sat on the floor at the side of my bed. My
eyes opened wide as I realized
my clothes were on the floor
.
Heat trickled beneath my cheeks when I thought about what Meir must
have seen.

Meir.

Panic fought through my still hazy mind,
clearing my thoughts. He’d been ripped away from me by the Shakai.
Where was he now? How did I get here? I tried to sit up, but my
head swam and nausea swelled up in my stomach before I’d cleared my
head off the pillow.

I moaned and swallowed back the bile.

Someone came in then, drawing more light
into the room through the open door. I clenched my stomach and
turned my head just slightly to see who it was.

My lips pulled up at the sides—an automatic
response to seeing my savior alive. I made a quick assessment—he
was mostly covered by his robes, but his face was cut up and his
hair disheveled. Other than that, if he was in worse shape, I had
no way of knowing.

Meir smiled back at me, the most beautiful
smile I’d ever seen—gleaming white teeth set against ebony. My
heart fluttered. And I knew right then that, yes, not only could
this man be like a father to me, I wanted it more than
anything.

“I brought you some food.” He cradled my
head in his arms and pulled me up gently. “I’ve been so worried,
waiting outside your door for hours, just listening for any signs
of waking. I wondered if you would make it.” His anxious eyes
traveled down and up the length of my body until finally resting on
my face.

I followed his gaze with my hand and gasped.
Nearly every inch of me had been covered in bandages—some of them
wet with blood.

“We’ll have to get those changed soon, but
first, I want you to eat something.” He rested a bowl of soup in my
waiting hands and began feeding me himself.

It was a simple broth—no sign of solids in
sight—but it was delicious, and my stomach ached for it. He
couldn’t bring the spoon to my mouth fast enough. I lifted the bowl
and brought it to my lips, carelessly letting the golden drink
spill past the corners of my mouth. Most of it made it down my
throat, though, and I ignored the searing pain of the much-too-hot
liquid. When it was gone, I smacked my lips and sighed. It was a
very
good soup—much better than my usual diet of stale bread
and water.

Meir took the bowl and set it down on a
table next to my bed. He dabbed at my neck and cheeks with a cloth,
cleaning away what I’d spilled.

I smiled at him again. I couldn’t help
it—for some reason, having him around made everything feel
okay—safe. I knew now that my rescue had been sincere; he had no
intention of turning me in for a reward. His eyes grew sad and the
crease between his brows returned. I tilted my head at him,
questioning.

“What happened, Meir?” My voice barely
reached a whisper. “How did we get here?”

He pressed his thick lips into a tight line
and shook his head. “I don’t really know what happened. After they
dragged me past the rocks, I blacked out. I woke up a little before
dawn and found you lying on the ground, ripped and bleeding,
surrounded by the charred and smoking remains of dozens of
Shakai.”

I gulped. That part of the evening began to
come back to me with increasing clarity.

“I tried to wake you,” he continued, “but
you wouldn’t respond. So I carried you the last few miles to Izbet,
snuck past the blockade, and brought you to my friend’s home.” He
grabbed a piece of my hair—a stray that had wound its way across my
neck—and pushed it behind my ear. “You’ve been asleep for hours.
The day is nearly over.”

“Is your friend a Praeori, too? Does he know
I’m the Shadra?”

A dark chuckle passed his lips. “No to both
questions, and it’s best that he doesn’t know.”

“How did you convince him to help,
then?”