Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (39 page)

All of the surviving townsfolk were pulled,
prodded or dragged into the town square in a frenzy of activity,
lined up, and pushed to their knees before Valerie Estavon. Sarah
eased back into position with the railgun, and the fire-kissed's
voice abruptly sounded in their ears. “-and I don't want to spend
any more time in it than I have to,” her previous throaty purr had
given way to an authoritative voice as she paced before the
assembled town. “So, I'm going to ask you a question. You will
answer it quickly and honestly, and I will let you all live.” She
stepped up to a battered man at one end of the line. Ezra
recognized him even from a distance as Ernest, the barkeep,
bloodied and bruised but somehow still alive. Val stroked the side
of his face in an almost soothing gesture. Her fingers slid around
the back of his neck and tangled playfully in his hair. “Where is
the fire-kissed?” she asked gently.

Ernest wobbled a bit and coughed. Val's
fingers tightened in his hair, pulling his head back sharply.
“Where is the fire-kissed?” Val repeated more slowly.

The beaten man spit at her, only to have his
act of defiance caught by the wind and thrown back in his face. Val
let his head drop and began walking to the next person in line. As
she did, tendrils of flame wrapped around the broken man. He
screamed and thrashed, trying to escape, but the fire continued to
slither over his flesh like a burning serpent. As his cries became
more and more desperate and his voice cracked in terror, the
elementalist grabbed the chin of the old woman Stephen had helped,
pulling her face around roughly. “Where is the fire-kissed?” she
asked again in the same maddeningly gentle tone.

Ezra felt his fingernails bite into the palm
of his hand, arms shaking in anger.

“
Whazzat... wha's goin on,” Stephen slurred as he startled
awake, bound legs kicking weakly.

Val's head snapped around, her golden eyes
fixing directly on the bell tower.

“
Taking the shot,” Sarah murmured. The railgun made an odd
zapping sound as it kicked back into her shoulder. Both
wind-scarred thrust their hands out and the bolt slowed to a stop a
scant few centimeters from the fire-kissed's face. A tiny spark of
electricity licking out from it to sting her nose.

The beautiful woman stumbled back in shock,
staring at the thin piece of metal for a brief instant before it
rocketed away, spinning back toward the team on a wave of air. Mat
pulled Sarah back from the edge, as the shot clipped the stone arch
of the tower, sending out a shower of sparks and broken stone. It
ricocheted into the bell, letting out a responding tone as it
bounced harmlessly away.

“
What is that?” Stephen yelled over the bell's deep gong as it
swung back and rung in earnest.

“
Ezra! Get us out of here!” Mat shouted, blood welling up along
his cheek where a flying shard of rock had cut him. Ezra fumbled
with his controller, coordinates already set for their jump to
safety. Sarah leaned back to scoop up the weapons she had left on
the floor, hands shaking. The portal materialized around them, and
Ezra thought he might have seen the flash of a black robe cresting
the tower before the scene was replaced with the cool quiet of the
cave, their skiff idling a few meters away.

Ezra took a deep, shaky breath as he tried
to get his heart rate back under control. Sarah let out a
breathless laugh and swept him into a fierce hug, kissing him hard
on the cheek before grabbing Mat and pulling him over too. Her
laughter turned to sobs after a few seconds, then she let go and
waved them both away, wiping her eyes. “I think,” she said, swaying
on her feet a little, voice exhausted, “that we should get out of
here.”

Mat stared at her for a few moments in
silence, then burst out laughing, deep and rich. Sarah's face
quirked as she tried to hold her own laughter in, but it still
spilled forth, merry and delighted, a celebration of life. Ezra
looked at the two of them like they were crazy, but the smile on
his face quickly evolved into a few chuckles, and it wasn't long
before he was wiping tears of relief from his own eyes. They all
took a few minutes to catch their breath then mounted up on the
skiff, Mat carefully navigating them back out of the cavern.

“
By the way, Hawkins,” Sarah said, eyes dancing. “You should
really be careful with how much time you spend in the sun,
especially after ill-advised swims in freezing pools of muck.
You've got a fever again.”

“
Blight and thunder,” Mat exclaimed, swerving slightly and
narrowly missing a rock before he straightened out. “Again? I
swear, Ezra, you're the most delicate Legacy pansy I've ever heard
of. And thanks to your brilliant plan, we're out of fever reducers,
so if you get heat-stroke and pass out on me, I will personally
help Sarah dunk you in waterworks until you're the color of
puke.”

“
I
keep everything we need right here.” She tapped a storage
compartment with her foot.

“
Ha, ha, guys,” Ezra said sarcastically, still smiling. “But
it's no big deal. I mean, I've been sweating since the first night
we were here. Once we get out of this blighted valley from hell and
find someplace cooler, I'll be fine.”

“
Yeah,” Mat snorted, “someplace cooler. Like after we got
rained on for two straight days. You were doing
great
then.”

Ezra searched around for something to throw
at Mat, then started patting himself down in panic. “Oh no,” he
moaned. “I lost the book.”

“
Book?” Sarah asked.

“
The Will of the Elements
. And only
three days after I got it too.” Ezra groaned. “Gal's gonna kill
me.”

Sarah burst out laughing again as the mouth
of the cavern yawned into view. “It's really not that funny,
Sarah.” Ezra scowled at her.

“
No, it's not that,” she gasped. “It's... just imagine the look
on that fire-kissed bitch's face when she gets to the top of that
tower and finds another fire-kissed, all tied up, with an old copy
of the thunder-struck holy book.”

Mat chuckled along with Sarah. Ezra really
tried to be upset, but the image of the enraged Besmirched puzzling
over the nonsense scene was just too much. He couldn't help but
smile as they came back out into the afternoon sunlight.

==

They were forced to go about a hundred
klicks in the wrong direction as they spent the rest of the day
dodging two small black shadows that swooped back and forth across
the valley, blocking the way they had come.

“
We should be able to turn off once we get clear of those
mountains to the north and head for the portal in the Faringway
Hills,” Mat scratched his stubble, looking the map over critically.
“At least this way we won't be hunted by insane fire-kissed hotties
and creepy wind-scarred twins. Still got a good three hundred
klicks until we're in range to get a transmission through so the
Guild knows we're coming, though. Unless...” he cocked an eyebrow
at Ezra, nodding to the wormhole controller.

Ezra shook his head. “No way, it'll suck
this thing dry and probably won't even engage a port for more than
a split second. Plus, we'd have to leave the skiff behind, and I'm
done getting yelled at for recklessly endangering Sanctuary.”

“
Yeah, I figured,” Mat sighed, rubbing his head.

Sarah eased them along a narrow gully carved
out by a little creek. The fire's ravages had suddenly vanished,
leaving untouched ground all around them. Ezra wondered idly if it
had been caused by a fire-kissed after all, from the way it seemed
to have been directed down the valley toward the Helena. They'd
started sweeping the area every few kilometers for any unusual heat
sources as soon as they cleared the last of the blackened earth. So
far, nothing had come up.

Ezra glanced at the maps. “So what's in the
Faringway Hills?”

“
Meteoric iron,” Sarah said. “Lots of it, or at least there
was. Used to be a regular hot-spot of activity. The Besmirched were
so keen to get their hands on the stuff that they took certain...
liberties to encourage local cooperation. The Guild had a team out
here at least once every other week dealing with one thing or
another. Solid little city, Faringway. We have more friendly
contacts there than on the rest of the continent
combined.”

“
Some big-shot earth-crowned eventually came out there and
settled it up for them. The town got a small fortune, and the
crowned pulled about a hundred tons of the stuff out of the ground
for the Besmirched and sent them on their way.” He gave Sarah a
very direct look. “We're not stopping there, Sarah,” Mat said
levelly.

“
But... but Hawkins has never tried Black Crater triple malt!”
Sarah protested. “We can't go past Faringway without stopping by to
see old Lou. She'd never let us hear the end of it, and it's been
ages, Mat.” Her tone turned pleading. “Please? Just five minutes,
for old time's sake.”

“
You can get Blair to send us out there some other time,” Mat
told her firmly. “We don't have to go within a fifty klicks of the
place, so we won't, not while we've got information this
hot.”

Sarah grumbled for the next few hours.
Daylight faded and the lightly wooded terrain became increasingly
littered with rocks and boulders. They skirted around a small
mountain that gave way to a flat plain. Off in the distance, like
some giant's graveyard, huge rectangular shapes, some leaning at
odd angles, stood out against the twilight sky.

“
What is that?” Ezra asked in a hushed voice.

“
One of the old cities,” Mat said reverently. “From back before
the war.”

“
Do you know which one it is?” Ezra's eyes were still glued to
the bizarre skyline, black against deep purple. “Have you ever
explored one?”

Mat shook his head. “We don't really go near
them. No one does. Something about them just feels... wrong.” He
shivered and pulled his coat around him more tightly. “Anyways, we
should be close enough to send a message through to Sanctuary now.
Ezra, care to do the honors?”

Ezra connected to the skiff's net and
broadcast a quantum tunneling message to the location of the
wormhole. The message would find the connection path, made more
obvious due to frequent use, and transmit the information back to
Sanctuary instantaneously. “Um, this is Ezra Hawkins from research
team eleven, calling home. Come in home.” He waited for the
response.

It didn't come.

Mat frowned at the display. “That's weird...
here, Ezra hand it over, you probably did it wrong.” Ezra shrugged
and transferred the communication interface to Mat. “Attention
Sanctuary, come in Sanctuary. Research team eleven requesting
information, over.” They stared at the interface in silence for
several minutes.

“
There might be... a mountain or something in the way.” Mat
said doubtfully. “Or... I don't know, some kind of anti-wormhole
thing blocking communication?” He turned hopeful eyes to
Ezra.

“
Um... well, I mean, all matter has some quantum
uncertainty...” Ezra began cautiously. Mat's face fell, and Ezra
hurried to amend, “But of course, it could cancel itself out! There
are practically an infinite number of possible pathways between any
two points in space that
wouldn't
support a wormhole, so it's not... terribly
surprising that the transmission would fail...” Ezra intentionally
failed to add that there were also a limitless number of paths that
would work just fine.

“
Right,” Mat said a little more steadily, slapping his knee.
“So we just wait a little while and try again, no problem.” Ezra
nodded slowly, worry gnawing at his stomach.

They tried making contact again every five
minutes for the next two hours. Finally, Mat dismissed the terminal
in frustration. “Why don't they answer?” he growled. “We're within
a few klicks of the portal, but without a connection to Sanctuary
we can't even tell exactly where it is.” He peered out into the
gathering darkness, scowling up at the light cloud cover. “We may
as well stop here,” he called over to Sarah. “We can look around
for some landmarks in the morning.” Sarah nodded woodenly and began
reducing their speed.

“
Wait!” Ezra said, pulling out his wormhole controller. “I know
it's not perfect, but my controller already finds the best quantum
tunneling location when it creates a portal, so if I slow the
process down so we can watch it happen...” The holographic display
lit up with data, mapping out the best places to begin a wormhole
and telling him nothing useful. He frowned at it, then slapped
himself in the forehead, “Of course, it would help if I expanded
the range of the sample data. Then we can use it to track areas of
higher quantum uncertainty, and using a regression mapping
algorithm I should be able to-”

“
Hawkins, try again, this time like you're talking to people
who don't have degrees in wormhole travel.” Sarah sounded tired and
grumpy.

“
Yeah, man, slow down,” Mat said. “I thought you said you
couldn't create another usable wormhole from the skiff's remaining
power supply.”