Igniting Spirit (Gathering Water Book 3) (15 page)

Journal,

Hah! Gabby 1, stupid brother 0.

Connor ambushed me again yesterday about practicing. This time, instead of yelling at him for yelling at me (even though I was really tempted) I agreed.

Sorta.

I told him I’d meet him last night at Jockeys Ridge and he had to throw everything at me. If he still didn’t think I was ready afterwards, then I would agree to more practice.

I don’t get to show off very often. I’ve been practicing by myself since Mom died and Connor was Tested. When I got there my typical five minutes late, Connor looked all honorable, like he was feeling sorry for me since I’d have to admit I needed more work. What he asked at first was just simple beginner stuff.

I completed those easily — Bend each element. He even brought a bottled water for me to use! AND a lighter! As if I couldn’t created my own.

I played along. Next task, create a Shield with each element, one at a time. Then Temper, one at a time.

I got bored.

“Connor, seriously. This is taking too long. What’s it going to take for me to be able to go home and go to bed already?” I asked him. I wasn’t actually tired, but I faked a yawn. He mumbled something about being disrespectful.

“We’re going to spar, Connor. And when I beat you, you’re going to leave me alone, and bat for me next time Dad starts, okay?” I told him. I smiled when he laughed.

It took less than five minutes. Connor is physically stronger than me, and no matter how much I Temper, he’ll always be stronger than me if he’s Tempering too.

But I’m fast, and my Bending abilities are great. There’s not a waking hour that goes by that I don’t use them, and just because I’ve never sparred with my brother doesn’t mean I’ve never sparred. A lot of the locals have their own abilities, not to mention the cousins. If Connor didn’t take the time to find out how good I’d gotten, that’s his own fault.

I created a hole under him, then closed it like a grave once he fell in. Then I pushed him back up, took the water from my Well, and shot it at him in a fine spray like a water gun, just hard enough to sting. Once I was done with that, I created a Shield around him, blocked the sound
and
sight from it, and flung it through the air. Of course, while my brother was mid air, I gave him back his ability to see and hear, and set the Shield on fire, then brought him back down to the ground and let the Shield fall so he dropped to the ground in a heap.

He laid there, gasping. Then laughing, hysterically. I walked over to him and looked down, holding one of my hands out to help him up.

“Okay, you win. I’ll get dad to back off. You’re more than ready for whatever the Elfennol throw at you,” he said once his laughing subsided. He took my hand and stood up, but pulled me down so I landed face-first in the sand.

“Don’t make me kick you butt again, big brother,” I told him once I got to my feet and wiped the sand from my face.

“Yeah, now that I know you can do that, I’ll start fighting dirty, baby sis.”

I’m looking forward to it. Seriously. And it’s nice to have Connor on my side again — nice to have him trust me. I need to remember to thank Derek the next time I see him, whenever that may be. I hope he’s had the chance to prove to his people he’s strong enough, too.

*****

It wasn’t long before we got word that the Council had been sighted about an hour out. The scouts who had discovered them sent word to Ezra through the gemstones, and Ezra directed them — and all the other scouts in the area — to follow at an extreme distance. My palms started to sweat on the car ride over. It would have been faster to run, but Alexander said it would do the other Council members good to see that we all could fit into the human world. The threat of exile would not hamper our goals in the least. Really, I would have taken the Jeep anyway since Connor and Toby were both attending the meeting, and there was no way I’d let them drive while I ran ahead — not that I feared for their safety, but it felt rude. It wasn’t hard to find the site that my dad had chosen with my Fire Tempered sight, though it was difficult to look at because of all the light from the energy. There’s no way that he’d gathered all the members of the Leoht family to attend, but it looked as if there were at least a few dozen in attendance.

When we got out of the car, I warily walked over. It was the perfect place: several acres of land with the ocean on one side, and the sound the other. No way an enemy could sneak up on us. The Council was due to arrive at any minute and I had no idea what to expect. I had no idea if the crowd of people Derek had brought together would really stand with my father if things went poorly. When Ezra grasped my elbow, I realized that I was geared up for a fight. I allowed myself to deflate a little. If I went into this meeting expecting a physical confrontation, then it would definitely happen — and I would probably be the instigator.

Right as I let my shoulders droop from the realization, Laurel and I spotted each other. She was in the typical militant-styled garb used by the Effenol soldiers, and it still surprised me that she looked as much herself in them as she did in the flowing chitons she draped herself in at Eurybis. Laurel all but ran over to me, stopping just short of Ezra. Unease washed over her face, and I didn’t know if it was because Ezra was a Clade, because he was Kaylus’ son, or because she knew enough to be afraid of his Thanatos abilities. Either way, I instinctively stepped closer to him, close enough that our aura’s snapped together, and her eyes widened and mouth dropped open a fraction as a result.

“Would you fight for it?” she asked me after her features fell back into a more neutral expression. It took me a second to understand what she was saying. A few months back, we’d had a frank conversation about my relationship with Dove, and whether I knew if it was worth fighting for. I responded rationally — that it was too early in our relationship to make a kind of assumption like that. She basically told me that if I didn’t already have an idea, then it wasn’t worth it. Real love, or real “pre-love” isn’t rational. It takes hold of you like a dog with a bone and, if you’re smart, you hang on as tightly as you can and try to remember who you are as you spiral into the promise of forever. I looked at Ezra beside me, who remained stoic under both our scrutiny. When I looked back at Laurel, my friend, I gave a small nod.

“Absolutely.”

She grinned, reached over, and hugged me. “Good,” she said softly into my ear. When she pulled back, she reached a hand out to Ezra and quickly introduced herself, apologizing for not doing so immediately.

Ezra relaxed beside me at her obvious approval, and it made me realize how stiff he’d been. I didn’t comment, though. It’s better to be a little uptight than too at ease in situations like this.

“I’m assuming the table is for the Council? How is this going to work? It seems a little big for just the Council.” Looking around showed only the one table, not nearly large enough to fit everyone in attendance, but too large for just the Council, my father and I. Of course, it had no chairs, so I couldn’t tell how many people the table was intended for. That wasn’t unusual, the custom in Eurybis being that it was so easy to grow your own chair, it was pointless to have them hanging around taking up space, so you just built one when you needed one.

Laurel turned and looked at the large oval table that filled up an entire chunk of the space of what was obviously a campsite. “Lord Derek thought it best to have a larger table so there is extra room between the council and you. He thinks the extra space will make them realize that he stands with you no matter what.” She looked around, and stepped even closer and dropped her voice. “I think he’s planning to leavethe Elfennol and wants the other two council members to know that he is by your side no matter what.”

We stood quietly for a few seconds. I knew my father was prepared to do that, or at least I knew he
said
he was prepared to do that. But faced with the possibility made my head spin, and I was almost swallowed up with the burden of causing such a thing. Then I remembered
why
and instead of feeling that weight on my shoulders, I felt pride that my father was the type of man willing to do something because it was the right thing to do, even if it was the uncomfortable thing. That he was willing to stand by me and the rest of the Clades despite being raised to believe they were the epitome of evil — that he was willing to trust my word — well, I was honored to be his child. Humbled by it.

“Where is everyone else going to be?” I asked her, finally.

“You, of course, will be sitting to Lord Derek’s right, as his heir. Dux Neale will be on his left, with Ezra beside him. Your Grandfather, the former Dux Neale, will be on your right. I believe the Clade Elders will be on either side of your uncle and grandfather. Alexander, of course, will be standing behind you and Lord Derek,” she answered.

We started walking towards the table, where my father was standing and speaking to Ian. The two men looked uneasy in each other’s presence, but it was good to see that they were already trying to move past several thousand years of bad blood between their peoples.

“Why does Ezra need to sit on the other side of Uncle Connor. “ I really wanted to ask why he couldn’t just sit by me, but that sounded beyond clingy.

“I was told that if you two are seated close together, the Council will assume that your human half has allowed you to be manipulated by Ezra. But now I think it has just as much to do with not letting them see what happens when the two of you touch,” she answered, just as we came to a halt in front of my father.

“So you’ve seen it, Laurel?” Derek asked, as he and Ian adjusted their positions to include the three of us. I turned and looked for Connor and Toby, and was surprised to see that they were talking with another group of humans. I recognized a few of them as cousins from Thanksgiving and, as I watched, Steven and Heather Balint joined them. I almost forgot that there were humans besides my immediate family joined in this alliance. Ezra’s arm brushed mine, bringing me back to the conversation and merging our auras together. He’d been so quiet, I almost thought he’d wandered off somewhere. But he was just doing a great impression of Alexander instead. 

“How could I not?” She gave a pointed look in our direction. “Do you know what it means?” she asked him.

“No, and until I find out, I’d rather not have the Council see it first hand,” Derek answered, looking at me and Ezra with a heavy gaze.

“Excuse me,” Ezra’s voice was low, but firm as he addressed my father. “I’ve just gotten word that the other two council members will be here within five minutes. Our scouts say that there are about two dozen armed people with them.”

Well, that explained why Ezra had been so quiet — he’d been communicating with his, ahem,
our
people. His aura was flaming wildly and I knew there was something wrong.

I raised my brows at him, silently asking him what was up. He gave a small shake to his head and shrugged a shoulder. He wasn’t sure what was wrong.

Alexander took that moment to rush over. “My Lord, I’ve just received word that Lady Etta and Lord Richard will be here soon. It seems that Lord Richard has brought around a score of the best fighters from his house. Lady Etta has two people with her, as is typical for traveling such a distance.”

My father shifted the full weight of his gaze on Ezra, and I believe he was surprised that Ezra was able to relay the information before Alexander did.

Derek finally turned around to face the table. “We should be seated when they arrive.” He then made chairs for me and him. Or thrones.

They were made to be impressive, and I knew this was just another reminder for the rest of the council who was leader. My father’s was the largest, and at first I was a little surprised that they were the dark beige of the sand here instead of the black stone that he favored back in Eurybis until I remembered that the Ethnos could only make objects out of the available material. That meant sand, here.

“Lord Derek, do you mind?” The title slid awkwardly from Ezra’s mouth. I don’t think the Clades referred to their Elders by any type of title. My father nodded, and I enhanced my Temper to watch, curious, to see what he was about to do. I could see Fire and Earth energy wrap around the chairs. The ribbons of energy were too thick to see what was happening clearly, so when a fast jet of Air replaced them then just as quickly dissipated, I gasped at what I saw. The loa had turned the three chairs into glass. They were thick enough that I wasn’t worried about them holding my weight, though they didn’t look remotely comfortable. They were definitely eye catching enough, however.

“This will do nicely, Ezra.” Derek sat in his, and I followed suit while Ezra helped the rest of our party glassify their chairs as well before attending to his own and sitting.

I craned my neck around and look at the members of my Elfennol house standing behind us, supporting us — ready to protect us if need be. Grouped to the left were representatives of the Dunamis allies of my human family. It was clear they were uncomfortable being around so many Elfennol, and I knew it had been at least a couple of generations since there had been any reason for the humans to be around so many Ethnos at once. Laurel was front and center, and she winked at me when I caught her eye. Alexander, unsurprisingly, stood behind my father and I, so close I could feel his body heat radiating on the back of my left arm. The people behind us quieted as if on cue, and I fought to not hold my breath when I saw our potential adversaries approach.