Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (25 page)

“
Oh, you wouldn't know it by looking at him,” Mat punched Ezra
lightly in the stomach, “but my boy here's got the kind of guts
they write songs about. Course, you can't blame him, what with me
teaching him a trick here and there.” Mat smiled lopsidedly as he
let Ezra go, “And let me tell you, honey,” he handed back the cup
and softly caressed the girl's cheek as she turned her gleaming,
almost hungry eyes back to him, “I know every trick there is.”
Gently, he pulled her forward. She growled and dropped the jug,
spilling water everywhere as her arms twined around Mat's neck,
crushing her mouth to his.

Ezra blushed even harder and tried to find
somewhere safe to look.

The girl released his teammate, slowly and
luxuriously bending to retrieve the fallen water pitcher, eyes
burning up at Mat's chest from behind heavy lids. She swayed away,
obviously appreciating the stares Mat and Ezra were giving her,
caressing the edge of the building as she shot a hot look back at
them before vanishing from sight. Mat blinked a few times, then
turned to Ezra, who had abruptly realized how thirsty he was,
staring forlornly down at the spilled water. “Well,” Mat said,
scratching his chin, “guess I need to be more careful with these
small-town girls.” He slapped Ezra on the back and laughed. “Enough
lollygagging around, Ezra. You're gonna make us look bad!” And with
that, Ezra was thrust back into the bustling town.

Mat hung around to help
with the manual labor until noon, when he saw the overworked
physician attempting
to close up a wound
where one of the other workers had torn a few crude
stitches.
Mat scowled and wiped his hands
clean with an antiseptic-soaked cloth that he produced from a small
pouch on his belt.
With a grunt, he brushed
the beleaguered healer aside and deftly removed the remaining
stitches, pulling a small tube from a pocket with his other hand.
“This'll sting,” he muttered as he squeezed a small line of the
substance out into the wound then quickly pressed the sides
together. The injured man winced, but when Mat released him he
looked down in awe as his skin literally knit itself back together
before his eyes. “Get lots of rest and try to stay out of spatial
distortions,” Mat rattled off as if by reflex, then caught himself
and grinned wryly, “but I guess that won't be a problem for you,
huh?” The physician, once he had recovered from the shock of modern
medicine, wasted no time in appropriating Mat to help with the
injured, losing himself in Mat's explanations of bone setting
techniques and general field knowledge of infections and
disease.

The local doctor was studiously watching at
Mat's elbow when Sarah whistled Ezra over to the forge. “I need
someone with steady hands and a little manual dexterity,” she
murmured as she removed a thick pot of glowing liquid from the
furnace. She gestured to the other set of tongs, which Ezra
promptly grabbed and used to help her steady the load. They
carefully maneuvered their cargo to the window molds nearby, where
Sarah paused for a moment and gave Ezra a flat look, nodding down
at the pot between them. “You mess up even a little bit here, and I
will personally make you drink this.” He gulped and spent every
ounce of concentration he had on getting the molten glass out of
the pot in good working order. And away from Sarah. Getting it away
from Sarah was also high on his priorities.

He spent the rest of the day assisting at
the forge. He measured out bits of what remained of the mineral she
had gotten earlier, after it had been thoroughly baked into a white
powder. Potassium carbonate, or pearl ash, as Sarah had called it.
He mixed it with the rest of the glass substrate and fed it into
the furnace, or helped pull out liquid glass that was ready to be
poured. Sarah shouted directions to him every few seconds and
generally terrorized him throughout the entire process, taking over
any difficult or especially involved part with brisk
efficiency.

The sun finally set on a physically and
mentally exhausted Ezra, sitting in the dirt, ignored by a crowd of
burly, grizzled old men loudly exclaiming over the clearest glass
they had ever seen. Sarah stood, smiling proudly with her hands on
her hips as several of them begged her to marry this son or that
cousin. He was eventually hustled into the newly repaired inn and
given a bowl of something hot, a piece of bread and some cider. He
numbly ate his meal, carefully moved his dishes to the side, and
fell face first to the table, fast asleep.

Ezra woke to an urgent prodding in his
side.

“
Hawkins,” came Sarah's harsh whisper, “time to go.”

He yawned and looked around at the darkened
inn, stretching and wiping drool from his face. “Is it morning
alrea-”

Sarah's hand clamped firmly over his mouth
as she brought her finger to her lips. “Not that we aren't all
having fun, but we've got a long walk ahead of us, and I don't see
two days spent here cleaning things up making it any shorter.”

Ezra met her eyes and nodded. She removed
her hand and he carefully made his way to his feet. It took a few
tries. Sarah scanned the room while he worked out where all of his
limbs were. “Where's Mat? He isn't answering his communicator,” she
whispered, “I thought I saw him eating with you.”

Ezra blinked at her a few times while his
brain came online. “Yes, eating. There was... food?” He vaguely
remembered something about food, he was sure of it.

Sarah seemed to be doing some kind of
calculation in her head, then she made a disgusted sound and
ghosted through the room and out the back door. Ezra followed, more
like a zombie than a ghost, but quietly enough that no alarm was
raised in his wake. He found Sarah walking briskly down the road,
glancing at each house until she found one that seemed to satisfy
her. She knelt at the door, pulled something out of her hair, and
deftly began picking the lock.

“
Wait here,” she instructed tersely. “Let me know if anyone
starts moving around. This will only take a minute.” The lock
sprang open and Sarah disappeared silently inside.

Ezra looked around nervously, and shivered,
wiping his nose with one arm and sniffling. “I'm getting a cold, I
know it,” he muttered.

“
As interesting as that is, please try to act like you're
keeping watch out there,” Sarah's sarcastic reply came over his
communicator. Ezra promptly shut up.

Just under a minute later, Sarah stormed
from the house, blushing a deep red and dragging Mat by his ear.
Mat was wincing and hopping along, trying to pull on his pants,
when he spotted Ezra and flashed him an enormous grin, dropping his
pants to give two enthusiastic thumbs up. “Jenna Haldis and her
sisters really have a thing for dark strangers. Get a little sun on
you, and I think you've got a shot.” Ezra stared at Mat,
dumbfounded, as Sarah released him in disgust and stomped toward
the edge of town.

Mat finished getting his pants on and
trotted to catch up to Sarah, laughing under his breath. Ezra
realized he was getting left behind, rubbed his nose again and ran
after them. Mat looked up at the night sky and let out a sigh of
contentment. “Never see stars like that in Sanctuary. Kinda makes
you wonder why we-”

Mat fell on his face. Ezra probably would
have found it funny if something hadn't just grabbed his ankle,
tripping him as well. Sarah caught herself and spun, then looked
incredulously down at their feet.

They were all chained to the ground by
shackles of solid stone.

“
It really is beautiful, just after a rain,” Gaav's voice
rumbled at them from just off the road. There he sat, legs crossed
and hands resting lightly on his knees, looking out toward the
blight line. “I sentenced you to three days' labor, so I can only
conclude that you came out to enjoy the night air.”

Mat cleared his throat as he stood up and
tested his restraint, then peered off toward where the
earth-crowned was sitting. “Gaav? Is that you? You must have come
out here to check on any residual damage too!” He took an
exaggerated look to the left and right. “Well, this part of town
seems pretty secure. Yep, looks like everything's just fine.” He
gave a theatrical yawn and stretched. “Oh well, early day tomorrow,
we should probably just turn in. Enjoy your night air, Gaav.” Mat
took a step back toward town, but the stone manacle didn't
budge.

“
Well,” Gaav said, slapping a hand to his knee, “I wouldn't
want you to miss the sunrise. I can assure you, it is quite a sight
to behold.” He rose gracefully, clasped his hands behind his back
and started walking back toward the inn. “You'll have to tell me
how it was in the morning. Have a pleasant evening.” He nodded to
them as he strode past.

Ezra pulled his knees up and rested his head
against them. He sniffled loudly. “Yes,” he said, “definitely
coming down with something.”

==

“
I
told you I was getting sick,” he sniffed at Mat and
Sarah.

They were back at the inn, their stone
shackles having disintegrated a few hours after people started
moving around in town. The other two were taking entirely too much
pleasure in Ezra's unfortunate circumstances.

“
They not give nanos to you Legacies or something?” Mat grinned
as he checked Ezra's temperature. “I swear they take care of little
things like this.”

“
They said that exposure to space shorted them out or
decompression messed with a thingy and now they won't work or
something,” Ezra grumbled back at him.”Never seemed like a big deal
until I spent three thundering days sitting in the rain freezing my
blunted-”

“
Blighted,” Sarah corrected seriously as she fought a
smile.

“
Thank you. Freezing my blighted ass off in the middle of
nowhere. So you can both go strike-”

“
Struck,” Mat interjected as he looked through the contents of
a small pouch.

“
-struck yourselves for all I care. And that doesn't even make
sense,” Ezra concluded miserably.

A booming laugh made them all jump as Gaav
strolled up. “The mouth on this boy. Better make sure none of the
Sons or Daughters hear you, or they may think you're lacking a
sound religious upbringing.” He chuckled as he picked up Ezra's
discarded dishes from the night before.

“
This'll help with the fever,” Mat said patiently, dropping a
pill into Ezra's hand, “but you'll just have to tough the rest of
it out.”

“
Thank you,” Ezra grumped, “well, guess we better get started.”
He got to his feet and started reaching for a nearby
hammer.

“
No!” Gaav, the local physician, and several men nearby all
shouted at Ezra in unison. He froze, not sure what to
do.

Gaav cleared his throat and gave a small,
encouraging nod to the others, who slowly sat back down, watching
Ezra warily. “What we meant was that...” the huge man looked around
briefly, then his eyes lit up, “you're sick! Yes, yes, you look
very, very sick. And we wouldn't want you to strain yourself.”

“
Bad for the healing,” chimed in a man by the bar.

“
Wouldn't want it to spread,” the physician volunteered
gravely.

“
As if he hasn't already sent enough people to the-ow!” a man
with a well-bandaged foot came down with a sudden case of
elbow-to-the-side. “I mean, uh, gotta think of your health, young
lad like you.”

“
We'll just have to get by without you for the day.” Gaav
placed a conciliatory hand on Ezra's shoulder. “Try to get some
rest.”

“
Excuse me,” Sarah said politely. She got up, walked to the
bar, picked up a cup and brought it to her mouth. Choking sounds of
poorly stifled laughter immediately began coming from behind the
cup as she looked back at Ezra, her eyes dancing
merrily.

“
I
could use a little air,” Mat said hurriedly as he sprinted for the
door. The whole town heard his guffaws the moment he was
outside.

Ezra looked around the room, then sniffed
loudly again, grumbling as he shuffled toward the stairs.

Ezra sat in bed staring out the window. It
was sunny out. Of course it was sunny out, now that he was stuck in
bed. And sick. Who got sick anymore? People with partially
decompressed bodies who ended up outside of Sanctuary running
around in the rain, that's who. He sighed. Well, on the plus side,
at least he wasn't hauling around lumber.

His eyes wandered around the landscape until
they came to rest on the blight line. Tiny rivulets glistened in
the sunlight as water ran off the slick black surface, pooling here
and there, throwing back the day's brilliance in odd colors. It
stretched off to the horizon, just endless, lifeless, blasted land
as far as the eye could see. “How did you get there?” he whispered
to himself.

“
You don't know?”

Ezra started and turned to see Kelly
standing in the doorway with a bowl of broth for him. She looked
concerned. “Everyone knows about the blight. It's in the Will,” she
explained as she handed Ezra the bowl, “and the Son of Lightning
who comes every few months, he always likes to remind us of
it.”

“
I
must have missed that lesson,” he gave a hopeful smile.