The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (38 page)

Large mounds of sod and whip-like accurate bursts of soil attacked us. Boulders the size of small cars landed in ground quaking thumps no more than three metres away. Theo and I started half crawling, half running back towards the
Aeras
village, but the rolling effect of the earthquake had reached the narrow path into Machu Picchu and begun to block our way.

Probably a good thing, if we had taken that route, we would have surely ended up crushed under all that weight; rocks, stones, landslides full of uprooted trees and loose soil and rubble.

Even being on top of a ridge hadn't completely protected us. The mountain ranges on either side actually looked like they were swaying, like a high rise building fluctuating with the rhythmic swing of an earthquake. Any moment now I was sure they would collide with ours.

But they weren’t our immediate concern, there was enough on our mountaintop to be worried about. The slopes above the
Gi
had all crumbled in the quake, no perfectly timed attack, simply tumbling down on top of the Guards without warning. Theo and I weren't faring any better. Although more in the open than the
Gi
had been, the ground beneath our feet was now threatening to slide down the side of the mountain into the Valley of the Incas below. A long way below.

"Climb on top!" Theo shouted above the continuous roar of the Earth moving. "Get above it all, or you'll get crushed."

He reached out a hand to clasp mine, mud from the rain coating his fingers, making them slip free at the last second, as the soil beneath my feet gave way. I screamed, as the world turned upside down, my head connecting with a rock, blood pouring into my right eye immediately, and a blinding headache starting up to accompany it.

It happened so fast; one minute I was above ground, the next I was buried beneath the rubble. But I was unsure if the
Basilissa
had commanded my burial, or if my control of
Gi
was really that tenuous, that I was about to inadvertently kill myself. Dirt poured into my mouth and shot up my nose, making me cough and choke and scrabble for purchase. I couldn't hear Theo shouting anymore. I couldn't hear the wind howling, or the thunder booming overhead. Just a ringing noise in my ears that made everything seem surreal.

My legs felt crushed beneath the weight of the entire mountain, the bones in my left hand crunched against each other painfully, as pressure built from all sides. I couldn't breathe, but even if air was present, my chest was too restricted to move oxygen to my lungs now.

How pathetic. I wield
Gi,
I have
Pyrkagia
to back it up, strengthened with that of my
Thisavros
, and yet I was still at the mercy of the Earth.

You can stop, now,
I said in a whimper inside my head.
It hurts
.

Breathe easy, Aether
, the Earth responded calmly.
Not long now
.

Yeah, that was what I was afraid of: not long now until I died.

I'm not sure how much time passed, but I closed my eyes at some stage and stopped fighting. Cocooned in my prison of Earth. I idly wondered if this was what Nico had felt when I trapped him beneath the ground back in Auckland. But I was sure he'd been in a cell, not pulverised by the weight of a mountainside above him.

I lost a little time, coming in and out of consciousness; the part that makes me immortal kicking in when the part that makes me need air to breathe conked out. Finally, the ground stopped shaking, the soil stopped shifting, and silence - not ringing - took over instead.

We have done all we can,
the Earth suddenly said, making my heart thunder in my veins.
Be careful
, it added, just as the soil above me shifted and the darkness of night seeped into my black hole.

I crawled out, my bones stiff, my skin scratched raw. Blood trickling down my temple and over my cheek. I blinked back white spots from my vision, my eyes taking a moment to focus and clear. The sky was no longer cloudy; stars twinkled overhead, as though nothing horrendous had happened below them, at all. But the mountaintop we'd been on had been transformed into a
desolate wasteland of rubble and overturned earth. The path down the mountain completely obscured, any trees that had existed were gone.

So were the
Gi,
from what I could determine. The Earth, using my
Stoicheio
, boosted with Theo's
Pyrkagia
entwined with mine, had decimated the
Basilissa's
army.

A smile started to stretch across my face, cracking the dried mud there, as my head shook softly from side to side at the evidence of all that power, and the successful outcome it had caused. And OK, the
Aeras
would have to do some remodelling, and the humans would think the rain had undermined the soil and caused a landslide, nothing more. But the
Gi
were gone, and the Air Elementals of Machu Picchu were safe.

And so were we.

"Theo," I cried out, my voice scratchy and sounding too dry. I swallowed, trying to lubricate my throat, but ended up hacking up brown muck from my lungs. "Theo!" I tried again, receiving no answer.

For the first time, since I crawled out of my Earth prison, doubt filled my mind.

Where is he?
I demanded, and the Earth sighed. Not a happy sigh, a resigned sigh. The type of sigh that changed the world.

I scrambled to my feet and turned in a circle, trying futilely to see a hand or a foot, or
any
sign of Theo. My head hurt, I think my ankle was sprained or broken, and I'd lost a fair amount of blood from various deep wounds.

I didn't feel any of it.

Panic took root inside my heart and mind, and I frantically started scouring the mountainside, digging my hands into mounds of dirt; searching, searching, searching.

Oh, God. Please.
Please
. I'll do anything, just make him be alive. Please!

Minutes ticked by and the Earth remained silent. I called out Theo's name until my throat was hoarse. Tears turned the dirt on my cheeks to rivulets of mud. The skin on my fingertips were scraped raw, I'd lost my nails aeons ago.

It was useless, he'd simply vanished, but I refused to believe he was dead until I saw his severed head. I would dig and dig and dig until I found him. He had to be somewhere on this mountaintop, buried beneath all the rubble. He had to be.

He just had to be.

I caught sight of clothing, my heart leaping into my throat, threatening to cut off all air. I fell to my knees and dug like a maniac, soil and stones flying in all directions, as I pleaded with God for it to be Theo.

It wasn't. It was a
Gi
Guard. Headless.

I moved on, another pile of rocks and dirt and tree roots. Another ten minutes of futile excavation, nothing to show for the blood that coated my hands.

A sob escaped my lips, as I spun frantically around in a circle. My eyes landing on a dark piece of material. Even before I stumbled across the space that separated me from it, I already knew it wasn't a piece of Theo's suit jacket or borrowed coat. But still I dug the
Gi
Guard out. A morbid sense of the inevitable spurring me on to determine he was headless.

Tears had caked my cheeks in mud like plaster, making it impossible to frown or open my mouth fully and gasp for air. Like my heart, my face was caught in a vice-like grip, fear and dread and utter loss making it immobile.

But still I kept searching, digging, ripping the flesh off my fingertips in an empty effort to retrieve Theo.

A hand reaching toward the sky from behind broken tree limbs caught my eye.

Gi
Guard. Headless.

A tuft of hair poking out between broken pieces of a boulder.

Gi
Guard. Bodiless.

An exposed bone protruding through raw, ripped flesh, dirt and mud mixing with blood around
it.

Gi
Guard. Headless.

A shoe poked out from behind a pile of rubble. I banged my knee into a hard rock when I collapsed beside the foot. Combat boots, not dress shoes as Theo had worn. But something still made me uncover the body... just to be sure.

Gi
Guard. Headless. Again.

I sat back on my knees staring at what was becoming a familiar sight.

Did you decapitate all the Guards?
I asked the Earth, pulling on what little Fire I had access to, now that Theo was gone. Reinforcing my question, turning it into a command.

Yes
, it whispered, a sense of wicked joy coating that one word. The Earth was pleased with itself, for eliminating the
Basilissa's
Guard. Protecting me.

I blinked, stunned. Evidence of the power and accuracy of the Earth making me momentarily motionless. I'd recognised how much could be accomplished with the power of the Earth, but until you saw it, you didn't really comprehend.

Where is he?
I demanded, again. I'd keep asking until the Earth answered.

Behind you
, it whispered back, and this time there was no twisted mirth, or self-satisfied pride. It sounded hollow, a little like how I felt.

I spun around, hoping,
praying
to see Theo standing there. Knowing, from the tone of the Earth, that it wasn't to be.

But I didn't expect what was.

The
Basilissa
stood there, barely a mark on her. A smear of dirt across one cheek, her hair tangled, but dress still flowing wrinkle free in the night breeze.

And her taloned hand - like that of a bird of prey - wrapped around Theo's throat.

Green blazed from her eyes. Theo's lids were closed, so I couldn't see any colour change there, and from the way he hung limply, I was guessing gold would not be present.

We'll see about that.

I pulled on
Pyrkagia
, using my rage at this woman as fuel. I told it, that its Prince was in danger. To fight for him. To rise up in flames and take back what is ours.

Gold coated the mountainside and blinded the night sky, making everything on the ridge resemble an Inca treasure trove of precious artwork. The
Basilissa
hissed, a sound reminiscent of a snake, making me think - what with her talons as well - that she used animals as fuel for her
Stoicheio
as much as, if not more than, plants.

I hoped with her Guards dead, she was feeling a little empty in the tank right now.

We stared at each other. Not exactly a stand-off, as she held all the cards. Or at least my
Thisavros
. I had nothing up my sleeve. But I did wonder how she'd captured him in all that chaos. How out of every square inch of this ridgeline that had been destroyed, she had just so happened to stumble upon Theo. The Earth shook softly beneath my feet on those thoughts, a sense of discomfort invading my soul. I think it was the Earth's, not mine. Although I was feeling pretty uncomfortable right now.

But the sensation, the Earth created in me, led to only one conclusion.

You gave her Theo,
I said, my mind voice sounding empty. Abandoned again, when would I learn?

A fair trade
, the Earth replied.
Him for her Guards
. It thought it had done the right thing. I pushed the disappointment aside.

"So, what now?" I said aloud, letting my words float across the space to the
Basilissa
.

"Now, we negotiate," she said, almost pleasantly. "Him for you."

I didn't have to think about it, there wasn't a need to weigh the odds. For Theo's life I would sacrifice anything. But I also knew, you couldn't trust a
Gi
.

"OK," I replied, flexing my fingers surreptitiously at my sides. "But you have to release him first."

She laughed. It was more like a cackle. Or the squawk of a Macaw.

"You think I trust you, creature?" she snarled.

"I know I don't trust you," I shot back. "So if you want me, without a fight, you release the
Pyrkagia
Prince first."

She cocked her head at an unnatural angle, like a bird eyeing a worm wriggling in the dirt. It was beyond freaky, making my heart miss a beat at the odd, and I admit frighteningly unnatural sight she made.

"You can bind me with roots, hold me in place," I offered. "While you let him go."

Her eyes blazed green; she liked that idea. Then without voicing her agreement, long, thick vines shot out from the loose soil at my feet, winding around my ankles, up my calves, and over my thighs. Thorns bit into my flesh, as the twisted ropes of vegetation continued their painful trek up my body. The
Basilissa
enjoyed my grimace of pain.