Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (35 page)

He looked back at the angel. Didn't she know
that there was no sound in space? Asking him nonsense questions
like that, and where no-one would be able to hear her, to boot. It
was too bad, she had a pretty voice. But then again, it was just so
cold out here, and she was just so lovely, he couldn't bring
himself to be too upset with her. Instead he smiled and closed his
eyes, letting go.

Sudden heat pressed against
him, heavenly in the numb darkness. Her lips crushed to his. She
tasted of something spicy. Nutmeg? His mouth burned with it. Then
his throat, his lungs, until he was on fire.
Must be the oxygen deprivation
, he
thought in a daze.
My body must be
shutting down
. Her breath rushed into him.
His lungs expanded and his eyes fluttered open. The angel fell
away, but now it was Gal's face looking back at him serenely. “See
you later, Ezzy,” she called, completely ignoring the fact that
there was still no sound in space.

He closed his eyes in frustration, and was
just about to let her know that talking was pointless when a cool
hand pressed to his forehead. Kirsten's face glared down at him.
“Ezra James Hawkins, don't think you can get out of your date with
Miss Parnasus just by pretending to have a fever,” she said
severely.

“
No!” he yelled.

==

“
Not that!” He jerked awake, disoriented.

“
Blighted thunder,” Mat cursed from where he had crouched, one
hand reaching for his sword. “Scared me half to death!” He put a
hand on his knee and blew out a breath.

“
Quiet,” Sarah snapped, peeking out at the town to make sure
the outburst had gone unnoticed. Both she and Mat were dressed for
infiltration, homespun clothes deliberately baggy to allow for
hidden weapons.

Ezra wiped the sweat from his brow. He had
been sweating? Right, because everything was still so warm from the
fire. That must have been it. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Ezra
stumbled to his feet. He blinked out at the sun, just barely
peaking over the valley's rim.

“
No movement in town yet,” Mat jerked his head toward the
staircase. “Better take care of business before you pick up your
watch.”

Ezra nodded and hurried downstairs. After
relieving himself, he made his way back to the top of the tower,
accepting a cup of instant soup from Mat with a nod of thanks. The
first sip scalded his mouth. “Anything interesting happen last
night?” he asked with a grimace, blowing on his meal.

Sarah shook her head. “Not on my watch. I
spotted your fire-kissed. Seems to be staying in one of the
makeshift hostels with everyone else. Can't say that I've seen one
of them willing to rough it with the common people... but then, we
never deal with saints.”

“
The ground cooled off a bunch during the night,” Mat noted as
he finished his soup, slurping the noodles down. “I checked for any
other big heat sources out there. Nothing came up.” He shrugged his
big shoulders. “I don't know, Ezra. If another fire-kissed was
close enough to start that fire, he must have gotten out of here in
a pretty big hurry afterward. Not saying that you were wrong, but
I'm still not seeing any way that kid out there wasn't
responsible.”

“
Guess it's time to get some more information then.” Ezra took
a long drink from his cup.

“
Okay,” Sarah said, sheathing a dagger with professional ease.
“Think you can drop us about two miles out of town, behind those
hills?”

Ezra nodded. “Shouldn't be a problem.” He
set his soup down and began mapping out the wormhole.

“
Merchant interests looking for... I don't know, did you see
any gems in that cave last night?” Mat asked Sarah, examining a
blackened walking stick he'd picked up the night before.

She rolled a shoulder. “Sounds as good as
anything else. I know I saw some fool's gold at least around that
stream where we dropped the rods. And we're out of Eastpoint, that
should be believable.”

“
Ready to go,” Ezra announced as he finished priming the
portal.

“
Right,” Mat nodded, he and Sarah stepping close together. The
floor beneath them flashed to the burnt turf of the road outside
Helena, then they were gone.

Ezra picked up his soup, idly sipping it as
he watched the town come to life through the railgun's scope. A
gangly teenager hoisted a barrel around the back of the tavern. The
vender he'd seen the night before began opening his shop as young
women came and left with baskets containing produce or other
miscellaneous household items. Switching to thermal imaging showed
him the fire-kissed about ten seconds before he left the hostel,
yawning and stretching. Various people throughout the square called
friendly greetings to him, and he smiled and waved in response.
Ezra shook his head. There was no way that kid had caused the fire.
Something else was going on here, and struck him if he couldn't
find out what it was.

Reaching around the scope, Ezra fiddled with
the controls until the remote audio indicator came on, immediately
syncing it with his earpiece. “-sure that everything's ready?
They're not gonna spook 'cuz of the fire, are they?” Ezra blinked,
glancing down through the scope to see what he was listening to.
Toward the back of the tavern, near the bar, stood two dark-skinned
men. One of them, the bartender, was calmly cleaning a glass while
the other glanced around nervously.

“
Oh yeah, Ezra,” Mat's voice came over the communicator. “I
think you should tell us-”

“
Wait a second, Mat,” Ezra said quickly, keeping his sights
trained on the men at the bar.

“
Bert, when have you ever heard of a Besmirched being scared
off by a little fire?” the barkeep snorted. He nodded as the gangly
teenager shuffled past. “Stop worrying. We've already gone over the
new plan a dozen times. So shut your mouth and make sure your boys
are in place tomorrow.”

“
I
don't know, Ernest...” the shifty eyed man, Bert quickly shot a
look over his shoulder. “Doesn't sit right, you know? Thought we
were done for with that fire yesterday, then the kid wakes up a
fire-kissed... you sure they didn't catch wind of it
or-”

“
They will if you keep flapping your mouth,” Ernest snapped at
him. “Now get out of here and stop acting suspicious.” His eyes
tracked the fire-kissed as the youth snuffed out the lanterns.
“Nothing's changed. Now we just have one more reason to do what
must be done.”

“
Ezra, you okay up there?” Mat sounded concerned. “Did
something happen or...”

“
Sorry Mat,” Ezra continued to scan the town, picking up
snippets of conversation as he went. “Just stumbled on two shifty
looking men at the local tavern talking about a plan and a
Besmirched coming to town tomorrow or something. They made it sound
like the fire-kissed in town only got his powers yesterday, and
after the fire started.” Ezra briefly outlined the conversation,
along with descriptions of the men.

“
Interesting... hey, speaking of your kissed, what does he look
like? I don't want to bump into the wrong guy on the street and end
up getting blown to cinders. I like these boots.”

“
Oh, yeah,” Ezra reoriented on the fire-kissed. “Medium height,
slight build. Dark skin, just like everyone else in town. Hair
looks dirty blonde and unruly.” A thought popped into Ezra's head.
“Hey guys, how does a fire-kissed end up as one of the Beloved or
Besmirched? I mean, they don't just wake up with their powers one
day and already know which side they're on, right?”

His question was met with a few seconds of
silence, then Sarah answered, “We're not... sure what happens. Word
of mouth around the Guild is that when a new kissed gets his
powers, both sides know about it somehow. Depending on how strong
the new fire-kissed is, the Beloved and/or Besmirched will send out
parties to whisk him away for indoctrination and initiation into
their ranks... but don't take that as gospel truth, no-one's ever
actually seen it play out.”

“
So... what if the Besmirched knew that this kid was a
fire-kissed, and they burned down the valley to keep him in place
so they could collect him?”

“
Maybe...” Mat let out a frustrated sigh. “Look, we're walking
into town now. Keep an eye out while we try to get to the bottom of
this.”

Ezra continued scanning the area, keeping an
eye out for trouble. He noticed when his teammates entered the
town, based on the distrustful glances being thrown their way.

“
Hi mister,” a child's voice came over the communicators. “What
are you doing out here?”

“
Minding our own business,” Sarah replied in a cool voice. Ezra
saw her flip a coin to a small boy with mocha skin and dense, curly
hair. There was something familiar about the kid's huge smile as he
snatched the coin and ran off, but Ezra couldn't quite place
it...

“
And watch where you're going!” Mat yelled after the retreating
boy good-naturedly. “Ah, good to get off my feet,” he said with
deliberate casualness as they took the outermost table at the open
air tavern. “The road out there is hot as thunder-struck's head.
Barkeep! Can we get some water and a meal over here?”

Panning to the bartender, Ezra saw the man
grimace as he gestured to the lanky serving boy, who ducked into a
back room and emerged with two mugs and a plate of what looked like
cold ham and hash. “Don't have the hearth going yet,” he growled at
Mat, “so you can eat the same as the rest of us.”

“
No problem, friend,” Mat said jovially. “Must have been a bad
time of it yesterday. We saw smoke coming from this valley like you
wouldn't believe. Well...” he looked around the obviously
devastated town. “Maybe you would believe it.”

“
Hng,” the barkeep grunted noncommittally, as if the town
around him wasn't mostly burned to the ground. “Where was it you
said you were from again, friend?” He asked the question in an
off-hand kind of way, although his voice sharpened at the last
word.

“
Just heading home from a little tributary off the
Silverstream,” Sarah answered smoothly. “We represent the interests
of a minor gem merchant out of Eastpoint, looking to expand. We
came by way of the blight road heading here, thought we'd take the
scenic route going back.” She looked around in obvious
distaste.

“
I
know the place,” the man behind the bar nodded slowly. “Quite a
walk for just the two of you out there.”

“
Well, they don't pay us to lay around,” Mat laughed easily.
“And we don't want Velor coming down on us for giving Eastpoint a
bad name, you know?” He gave another significant look to the burned
out section of town. “Who's the fire-kissed in these parts,
anyways? And what's he on about with all this?”

“
We don't got no fire-kissed out here,” the gangly youth chimed
in, scowling. “Don't need one, neither. But one of them Besmirched
is comin' out here, sayin' we's part of their territory. But we'll
show the blighted sons of-”

“
Jeremiah,” the barkeep barked sharply. “I think you forgot to
move that barrel out back, boy.”

Jeremiah's eyes widened slightly, then he
bowed and hurried sullenly out the back door.

“
You seem awful curious about fire-kissed for gem merchants,”
the barkeep's hands vanished behind the counter, his voice hard.
“Might want to keep that to yourself around these
parts.”

Mat quickly raised his hands in the air.
“Whoa, whoa, we're not looking for any trouble, friend,” he
exclaimed. “Bad things happen, you know? Just thought we should
know who to avoid. Can't blame a man for that, what with the ground
burnt black as far as the eye can see.”

Mat and Sarah received calculating looks,
then the man sighed. “Been a little tense,” he mumbled. “Stephen
over there is the only fire-kissed you'll find for a hundred miles
around here, and he was just kissed yesterday. Boy woke up with it
right in the middle of the firestorm that did all this.” A sweep of
his hand encompassed the destruction. “ Must've been a little spark
out in the brush... the wind caught it up and it got out of
control.” His voice took on a quiet intensity. “That boy saved us
all as surely as I'm standing here talking to you. My advice? You
two should pack up all your questions and head back to your
thundering gem merchant. You won't find anything you're looking for
out here,” he growled out the threat.

Mat gave Sarah a significant look. “Well, I
was tired of sitting down anyways.”

“
If you can't find happiness on the road,” Sarah grumbled,
“Where can you find it?” She dropped several coins on the table and
nodded to the bartender. “My thanks for the meal. Good luck to
you.”

They quietly and efficiently left through
the ruined section of town, following the road out opposite the way
they had come in. Ezra watched the barkeep, Ernest, follow them
with his eyes until they were out of sight. He glanced back to the
other side of the tavern, where Bert was suddenly sitting, all
nerves and restless energy. Ernest nodded to him curtly, then went
back to polishing the bar. The shifty looking man glanced around,
then quickly walked out of the tavern and into a nearby house.
Moments later, two hard looking men prowled out of the house with
predatory grace. The followed the path Mat and Sarah had taken,
quickly vanishing from Ezra's sight.