Elemental Rush (Elemental 0.5) (2 page)

So I hovered out of arm’s reach of the door, waiting, listening with my ears and my mind. Nothing stirred in the hall, and I cocked my head, accessing my airmaking Element to use the air to amplify sounds. I could eavesdrop on conversations this way, or send messages through the air. My Element did much more than simply make wind.

All was still. I couldn’t even hear anyone’s thoughts.

I opened the door and found an envelope of parchment on the cobbles. I hastily scooped it up and closed the door, re-bolting it as I peered at the ivory paper.

My name was scrawled in crimson ink, and I suddenly knew what the envelope contained.

My assignment.

I retreated to my bed to open it, partly because the floor in my room held the winter’s chill, and partly because I wanted to open it near the window so I could read the assignment better.

I counted myself lucky that I knew how to read and write. Besides Elementals, sentries were only one of two tiers of society that learned how. Teachers obviously had to know how to read and write, but nobody else got the chance.

I slid my finger under the envelope’s flap and ripped it open. A single sheet sat inside, and I pulled it out. I held my breath as I read.

Adam Gillman,

You have been summoned to serve Firemaker, Councilman, and Supreme Elemental Alexander Pederson with your skills and abilities, as a sentry-guard, with loyalty and honesty. If you can accept this assignment, please report to the Supremist’s Council chambers with your squadron leader, Felix Gillman, at nine o’clock a.m. on the fifth day of the second month.

Best,

Alexander Pederson

My heart clogged my throat, and even the air from my Element didn’t make it easier to breathe. I had done it. I’d made it onto the elite squad of sentries that would serve and protect the Supremist.

I fell back against my pillow, a low laugh escalating through my throat.

Six months later

I still woke
before the sun, though I didn’t need to, which was saying something, because in the summer, it almost felt like the sun never went down. And if it did, it certainly didn’t stay dark long enough.

But I couldn’t re-train my body to sleep past four a.m. I’d gotten up at the ungodly hour for almost twelve years, and old habits were hard to break.

Now that I was an active and assigned sentry, I had more privileges, one of which was that I didn’t have to work out for an hour every morning. In fact, I didn’t have to report to the Supremist until eight o’clock. Felix made sure he and I got the coveted morning shift so we could spend the afternoons filing paperwork and sparring. That was the preferred method of staying fit—fighting other sentries. We all worked five-hour shifts, with the rest of our time devoted to meetings, councils, paperwork, and sparring.

I slipped out of bed, noting that I had slept a little later than I normally did. The first rays of light were starting to make the blackness gray. I dropped to the stone floor and put in fifty pushups before the dawn spread through my bedroom.

Another old habit I couldn’t break. Not that I wanted to. A sentry needed to be in peak physical condition at all times, and sparring didn’t always provide the needed workout.

I’d gotten used to the monotony of my life. Most of the time I stood outside the Supremist’s chambers. I’d been sent to Gregorio once when Supremist Pederson heard of a rebellion there among the Unmanifested.

It turned out to be nothing. Certainly not anything the Councilman in Gregorio—a man by the name of Michael Davison—couldn’t handle himself. By the time I’d arrived with three additional sentries, he had everything under control. There’d been no evidence that a rebellion had even happened.

I’d accompanied a newly apprenticed Council to the city-state of Hesterton, a city on the western edge of the United Territories. The Firemaker had talked, and talked, and talked. As a sentry, I’d been trained to nod and grunt, except when reporting to my boss.

That didn’t work with this guy. He was worried about his apprenticeship in Hesterton, and it tortured me to listen to him fret about how much he had to learn in the next decade. I’d wanted to smother him with my air just to get him to stop speaking. Even when he did, his voice was so ingrained in my head that I couldn’t block his thoughts as easily as I could others.

By the time we dropped him off at the fortress, I was glad he was finally the Councilman’s problem.

I liked staying in Tarpulin the best. When on a mission, I had to sleep with the company, and that meant I couldn’t exercise my airmaking Element. I couldn’t get up early, put in my pushups and stand on my balcony as the sun rose. I didn’t have a single second to myself. And I’d grown used to the long hours alone.

I lived in the fortress now, with a room dedicated entirely to sleeping. My bathroom was easily as big as my former studio, and I had a living area complete with a supply of board games and cards. I’d never used them, couldn’t figure out why I’d want to entertain myself with games.

Sentries did not have time for such things.

At least that’s what Felix thought—and I knew, because I’d heard him think it.

I dismissed what my brother thought. I needed to start thinking for myself. It was a new concept I hadn’t yet embraced. Felix had taken care of me for so long, I had a hard time separating my opinions from his.

I stepped onto the balcony. It didn’t quite fill an entire wall of the fortress—I wasn’t the Supremist’s Airmaster, though I would like to be. He had a whole wing. But I had a balcony I could pace back and forth on, and it faced east so I could watch the sun rise.

The wind blew hard off the ocean, and I sucked the air into myself, feeling it expand until it filled my whole being. I adored the rush, the way I felt like I could fly. I didn’t need to breathe, not when I’d taken in enough air to fill me from head to toe. I exhaled, keeping all the air contained except what was in my lungs.

As the first rays of golden light crested the city walls, I finally released the air. It blew my hair off my forehead and whizzed away with a buzz of sound.

“Adam?”

I spun, my hand automatically seizing the knife I kept on my person at all times and coming up to throwing position. I adjusted the blade minutely as I located who’d spoken. Felix stood with his head cocked to the side, appraising me with his arms folded. He was dressed already—a shock at only six a.m.—and a distinct scent of aftershave wafted toward me.

I immediately listened for his thoughts to determine if he’d seen me use my Element.

…he still standing there like that? Why does he look afraid?

I dropped my knife and turned back to the sunrise. “What are you doing here so early?” I asked, employing my many months of sentry training to keep my voice even, emotionless.

“I came to see if you’d gotten your new assignment.” He joined me on the balcony, his mind still wondering why I’d reacted so strongly. “Your performance reflects on me, you know.”

I hadn’t woken in the middle of the night, writhing in pain from the movement of the electronic pieces of my tattoo. “I haven’t received a new assignment,” I said. “And you know, you could knock before entering. Then I won’t embed a knife into your heart.”

Felix frowned. “I’ve never had to knock before.”

“I’ve never been active before,” I replied.

He squinted at me, but I kept my gaze on the horizon past the city wall. The water glinted like gold, and I suddenly wanted to use my Element to leap off this balcony and over the walls, soaring through the wide-open sky to the beach.

Instead, I stuffed only my lungs full of air and hoped Felix would make a hasty exit.

“Well, it should be coming soon, and it won’t be pretty. Alex sent me to warn everyone who’s going.”

“Going where?” I asked. Maybe if I could get him to tell me, the rotating agony would be lessened. Not to mention the near-deafening message that came through a wire connected a fraction from my eardrum.

“Don’t report for duty until you get it,” he said. “It’ll hurt, and you’ll be useless.” He strode toward the door, leaving me with a cold pit of dread in my stomach.

I was nearly finished with my shower when my new mission arrived.
It’ll hurt
was nowhere near an accurate description of the pain. White, hot barbs shot from my upper back to my lower back and into my legs. I fell to my knees, and then curled into a ball, as the lightning spread to every extremity.

The electronics in my tattoo expanded, feeling like needles raking across my entire torso. The hot water from the shower pelted my tender flesh, only adding to the agony. I fumbled to turn it off, but missed the faucet.

I moaned and clenched my eyes closed as the message began, the robotic voice so loud in my head I couldn’t hear myself think.

“Rogue Elementals have fled Tarpulin. Believed destination: Hesterton. A team will be dispatched to eliminate the dissenters.”

At least the messages were short. Still, I lay gasping on my shower floor for another five minutes until the pain ebbed to a dull ache. My head throbbed as I wrapped a towel around myself and stepped to the mirror.

I blinked, desperately hoping the blood vessels around my eyes hadn’t burst again.

“Tornadoes,” I cursed when I saw the redness across my forehead and over the bridge of my nose, shaped almost like a mask. I hated this weakness in myself, this flaw I couldn’t control with a well-placed knife or fierce concentration.

I turned from my reflection in disgust. I told myself that there was nothing I could do about the facial flaws as I got dressed.

My quarters were the farthest from Alex’s conference room, but that was only the length of his fortress. Still, I was the last to arrive, probably because I was the last to receive the assignment.

Pain still edged the eyes of every sentry in my squadron, except Felix. He stood with his back so straight it must’ve hurt, and he barely flicked his gaze to me when I entered.

“The rogue Council is led by Firemaker Reggie Avis,” a man began. His name was Carl Belfast, the Unmanifested member of Alex’s Council. “Reggie refused to complete a direct assignment from the Supremist, instead removing his Council from the Unmanifested village of Trenton to the nearest Elemental city.” He thunked a map with his fist. “Hesterton.”

He paced away from the map, pinning each of us in turn with his hard, coal-colored eyes. “Hesterton is a soft city, led by a forgiving Councilman. They will allow the defunct Elementals to hide within their walls.” By the time he reached the end of the line, and stared me straight in the face, I knew what was coming next.

“I expect you’ll return with five bodies,” Belfast said. He clapped his hands, and an assistant raised the map. A picture of a young man, maybe the same age as Felix, now took up the wall.

“Reggie Avis is a talented Firemaker from Crylon. Do not suppose that simply because Crylon lies hundreds of miles to the north that he was not well-trained. He was.” He nodded at the assistant, who hastened to lift Reggie’s picture. I memorized his angular face, his dark eyes, his curly black hair, before the image was replaced.

“His Airmaster is Shane Mendelson. He’s not the most powerful with air, but he can smother and suffocate quite effectively. He should be dispatched first.”

As I studied the ginger-haired Airmaster, I felt a craving deep within myself I didn’t quite understand. As the leader of the Council, I assumed Reggie would be the first to be dispatched.
Does an Airmaster have more power than a Firemaker?
I wondered.

I suddenly wanted to train with a Firemaker, see what we could do with flame and oxygen together. I wanted to work with my Element every day, all day, learning what I could and couldn’t do with it. The few minutes each morning I let my air ruffle my hair hardly seemed fair to what other Airmasters enjoyed.

I snapped my focus back to the wall when I heard Belfast say, “Isaiah Hawking is one of the most powerful Earthmovers we’ve ever educated in Tarpulin.”

I had a very hard time remaining silent. I knew Isaiah Hawking. His dark skin and bald head was hard to forget. His eyes were as sharp as knives, and he’d been the only Elemental to catch me lurking in the rafters during one of my covert training operations.

It had happened about seven months ago, just before I’d been assigned to Felix’s squad to protect Alex. If Isaiah had reported the sighting—like he should have—I would’ve never gotten my assignment.

Since that night, Isaiah and I had met several times to blow off some steam. I knew his favorite food was sweet potato puffs; I knew his preferred pastime was singing; I knew he was in love with— “Catherine Browning,” Belfast continued. “Watermaiden. Also extremely talented. She sings notes that can bring tsunamis. She should be silenced before much else happens.”

I’d never met Cat, but I felt like I knew her for how much Isaiah spoke about her. From his descriptions, I recognized her dark hair, her porcelain face, her brown doe eyes. She was smiling in the picture on the wall, but I’d seen Watermaidens sing people into a watery grave, and I had no doubt Cat could do such things.