Elemental Magic: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters (11 page)

Thaddeus ran.

*   *   *

By the time the sun was almost touching the western slopes, Thaddeus was completely lost and exhausted. Although he’d headed in a mostly northeastern direction, with all the steep slopes and trees in his path, he would be amazed if he had made more than ten or fifteen miles.

He long ago stopped questioning what possessed him to run in the first place. It was madness, pure and simple. A sane man would have owned up to his debt and made an arrangement to work it off. A sane man would not have run into the wilderness without any supplies nor any plan. Still, he kept running, sure that he would hear horses and gunfire behind him at any moment. The sheriff and his men would probably look for him along the roads first, but it wouldn’t take them long to realize he wasn’t on any of them and to start searching the mountains.

Thaddeus’ lungs were burning. It was the only thing that kept his mind off the numbing cold in the rest of his body—his already inadequate coat had been torn to shreds by the pine trees, so he’d abandoned it hours earlier. He vaguely hoped that someone hunting him would find it and aid in his capture. Spending several nights in a jail cell would be better than freezing to death in one night out here.

The first stars of evening were coming out now, and Thaddeus couldn’t push himself any farther. He stopped to catch his breath before facing the decision that could save his life or end it: keep going, hoping to stumble upon even the smallest sign of civilization, or find whatever shelter he could here, and hope that the early November night wouldn’t leech the last of the warmth and life from his body.

As he pondered his equally grim options, a loud
crack
echoed from the northeast. Thaddeus bolted upright, sure that a posse had finally caught up with him. But he didn’t hear any sounds of men or horses approaching. A moment later, there was a low rumbling and the same
crack
. It didn’t sound like gunfire or a mining explosion. Curiosity got the better of Thaddeus, and he headed toward the sounds.

The trees thinned out, and the ground sloped down into a valley. There were no signs that this place had ever been seen by man, though that seemed unlikely. It was 1901, after all, and prospectors had been over most of the Colorado Rockies by now.

But something else had caught Thaddeus’s attention more than the pristine beauty. There was magic here, very strong Earth magic. He could feel it throughout his numbed body. But surely, with a place this strongly steeped in Earth magic, he would have felt it, even faintly, in Forest City. So it couldn’t have been the valley itself, rather something in it that had recently appeared. When the rumble and
crack
repeated, he saw it.

It was a sight that took away what little breath he had regained. Down in the bowl of the valley, two great creatures were doing battle. Mesmerized by the sight, Thaddeus began to descend toward them without thinking.

The larger of the two was a giant, terrifying bull, dark and shimmering and easily three times as big as a normal bull. As Thaddeus carefully approached, he recognized the shimmering as the fading light reflecting off crystal. His senses tingled, telling him it was indeed a large beast made out of quartz. An Elemental perhaps, or a golem of some kind. He’d never heard of either being made of quartz crystal. Whatever it was, it snorted, stomped, and paced in front of its adversary, acting like a normal bull in every way.

Its adversary was as magnificent as the bull was terrifying: a stag of perfect white fur, shining with an inner radiance that was just short of blinding. It was easily twice as tall as even the largest elk any man had ever seen, but it was still clearly a creature of flesh and blood. But as Thaddeus watched only several dozen yards away, the size difference didn’t stop the stag from pressing the attack. It circled around the bull, stamped the ground, and charged.

The ground rumbled as bull and stag ran at each other, heads lowered. Thaddeus knew what would come next. The beasts collided, their horns interlocking with the same
crack
he’d heard before. They struggled for a moment before the bull threw its head back and sent the stag flying backward. It landed only a few yards from Thaddeus, who was rooted to the spot. The stag got to its feet, snorted and shook its head, and then prepared itself for another charge.

Thaddeus wasn’t sure what possessed him to speak just then. Just being near the white stag and in the presence of such strong Earth magic filled him with courage he had never felt before.

“Wait!” he shouted, “There, where the legs meet the torso. The two edges of crystal come together. Strike there, and the quartz will shear clean in two!”

The stag’s ears flicked back, snorting once. Thaddeus was sure that he’d been heard and understood. He would know very soon if such was the case, as the stag lowered its head, stamped the ground, and charged once more.

The bull stood its ground as before, waiting for the stag to get close. Its dark horns lowered once more, ready to meet the stag again. In the last few seconds, the bull rushed forward and the ground rumbled under its hooves. But this time instead of the loud
crack
of their horns meeting, the stag darted aside, ducked its head, and brought it up as hard as it could exactly where Thaddeus had told it to.

The bull reared up on its hind legs with a mighty bellow that rang throughout the valley. Just as Thaddeus had predicted, the quartz crystal of the bull’s chest split at the leg from the force of the blow. The stag had seen this, too. It ducked its head once more and then lunged up as hard as it could, driving its horns into the bull’s chest.

The roar that followed was deafening, but final. The beast fell to the ground and shattered. Tiny fragments of quartz flew everywhere, and Thaddeus panicked and threw himself face-first onto the ground with his arms over his head. But that turned out to be the least of his worries. A few seconds after the bull fell, the ground itself began to tremble, shaking with a fury Thaddeus had never felt before. Birds for miles around took to the air and cried in alarm. The tremor lasted nearly half a minute, as if the earth were letting out its pent-up fury.

It was over as quickly as it had begun. The birds settled and the valley was quiet again. Thaddeus was alone with the stag and what remained of the bull. Thaddeus approached carefully. The stag was kneeling on the ground a few yards away from the remains; its radiance had all but died away. Its brilliant white coat was covered in gashes from the explosion of quartz crystal. Some of the shards were still embedded in its hide.

Thaddeus knelt beside the stag. His brain whirled as he tried to think of anything he could do to help. Perhaps some Earth magic that could at least lend some energy to this creature and help heal it.

The stag seemed to sense his thoughts and shook its head with a snort. It nudged Thaddeus’ hand towards the remains of the bull. Thaddeus nodded, stood up, and approached them. To his continued shock, what he saw instead of a pile of smoky quartz was a large man—seven feet tall if he was an inch, but a man nonetheless. If not for the fine robe, Thaddeus would have taken him for a simple mountain man.

The hem of the robe caught Thaddeus’ attention. The old runes and wards sewn into it told the true tale; this was no mere Earth Magician. This was an Elemental Master.
And you thought Colorado could use another Elemental Master, did you?
The bartender’s words came to Thaddeus clearly, and with them their true meaning.

Glancing back at the stag, he realized that he’d just witnessed nothing less than a grand battle between two Earth Masters. Not only that, but he’d helped in it. As selfish as it was, he wanted something to remember this moment by. In the fading light, Thaddeus caught a glint of gold. He looked closer and saw a chain around the Master’s neck. As he did so, his sensing talent flared up within him. There were shards of quartz all around him but this was something that stood out even from that.

Pulling the end of the chain out from under the Master, Thaddeus saw a pendant made of the same smoky quartz. Holding it up, he saw that it had been carved into a bull. It must have been the Master’s focus. He couldn’t possibly take such a thing, even if the Master had no further use of it.

Thaddeus was startled by the stag suddenly at his back. He hadn’t even heard it stir. The stag insistently nudged him to his feet. Thaddeus still had a firm grip on the pendant and the chain broke as he rose. But before he could protest, the stag lifted him up and began to run. Thaddeus clung desperately to its horns and clumsily mounted the animal.

With a horn in one hand and the pendant in the other, Thaddeus held on for dear life as the stag ran through the night at incredible speed. He lost all sense of time, and even dozed off a couple of times. But each time he jolted awake to find that the stag had him firmly on its back, not letting him fall.

It wasn’t until the sky began to grow brighter in the east that Thaddeus felt a different sensation. Whenever he actively tried to sense quartz, he had to concentrate on one area at a time. Now, with the Master’s focus in his hand, he had a sense of a very large deposit of it off in the distance. More curiously, the focus was letting him know where it was.

Thaddeus said, “More to the east. There, where the slope folds in on itself.”

He wasn’t sure exactly why he had instructed the stag, but it obeyed without hesitation. The feeling grew stronger the closer they came to the spot, and he was sure it was the right thing to do even, if he didn’t know why.

The stag topped the slope and entered the tiny valley behind it. There was nothing here that Thaddeus could see; the area was clear of any trees and the northern face was sheer and insurmountable. But he was sure this was where he was meant to be. The quartz sense vibrated within him stronger than it ever had.

Thaddeus slid off the stag’s back and looked all around him. As he did, the animal slumped to the ground. Alarmed, Thaddeus turned around and knelt beside the stag. The wounds it had received from the exploding quartz hadn’t stopped bleeding, and it had been running at full speed all night with Thaddeus on its back. After all that, he couldn’t just let the magnificent creature die.

“Please, let me help you,” begged Thaddeus. “If there’s any spell I can cast, even just to give you the energy . . .”

The radiance that Thaddeus had first seen surrounding the stag flared back into life. It died down just as quickly, but as it receded, the stag took the form of a young man. When the light died completely, he smiled at Thaddeus.

“You’ve already done more than I could alone,” said the Master quietly. “I truly thank you.”

Thaddeus was taken aback. “I don’t understand, Master. What is this all about?”

The Master reached up and placed his hand on the one with which Thaddeus held the focus. “Find the treasure within the mountain, and all will be explained.”

With those words, the Master’s hand fell to the ground and he began to sink into the ground before Thaddeus’ eyes, returning to the earth.

Numb, Thaddeus stood up and looked at the sheer mountain face. Not knowing what else to do, he grasped the focus and approached the face, reaching out with his quartz sense. Almost immediately, he was drawn to a particular spot on the rock wall. The focus glowed briefly and the rock slid back as easily as a door.

“Enter, Master. For you are safe here.”
The voice came from the rock itself, but Thaddeus heard it speak inside his head. Rattled but determined, he set off down the tunnel.

The tunnel quickly opened into a grand hall. As he entered, crystals in the walls lit up like torches. The hall was a wonder to behold, carved from the earth itself by powerful magic. His sense drew him in farther, until he came to a dais covered in ancient runes.

“Step onto the platform and you shall have your treasure, Master,”
said the voice.

Thaddeus was hesitant, but his quartz sense was stronger than ever before, and the focus drew him closer. Taking a deep breath, he stepped onto the dais. Immediately it began to sink into the ground. He closed his eyes and gripped the focus tightly, willing out his fear.

He opened his eyes again when the stone stopped sinking. Thaddeus blinked and rubbed his eyes to make sure what he was seeing was real. It was like the hall above, only each alcove held huge quartz crystals in every possibly color, larger than Thaddeus had ever seen, and each pulsing with great magic. He wandered over to each, marveling in their size, beauty, and power.

At the far end of the hall there were two great chests, made of perfectly clear quartz. Thaddeus peered into the first one and let out a low whistle. Inside was a delicately carved crystal mansion, complete with grounds and miniatures. It radiated magic as well, and Thaddeus could only assume that it was created in such a way. Such fine detail would be painstaking, if not impossible, simply by hand.

Thaddeus reluctantly turned away from the tiny wonder and looked at the second chest. He stopped dead in his tracks once more, his breath caught in his throat. Lying inside was a woman, pale yet beautiful, her skin like milky quartz. Thaddeus leaned in closer, his heart thumping. He couldn’t tell if she was a real person, or some kind of magical construct. Looking closer, Thaddeus saw a faint rise and fall of her chest, and a ribbon of her blouse fluttering slightly. She was breathing, which meant she was very much real and very much alive.

Suddenly her eyes snapped open, wide with panic. Thaddeus leaped back out of reflex. But the woman quickly calmed down and said, “You’ve come to save me! Please, break the latch and let me out, I beg of you!”

Thaddeus didn’t think twice. Finding the latch, Thaddeus cast a quick spell to make his hand as solid as stone and brought it down as hard as he could. The latch shattered at once and Thaddeus put all of his strength into moving the chest lid. It slowly slid over and fell to the ground with a dull thud. The woman sat up and threw her arms around Thaddeus’ neck as he lifted her out.

“I knew someone would come for me,” said the woman, lifting her head to gaze happily into Thaddeus’ face. “I did not know who, but I knew someone would. Oh, thank you, Master Mage!”