Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (42 page)

“
With the added possibility of some mild torture,” Mat growled.
“I'll take first watch, you all get some rest.”

“
Wake us if he does anything funny,” Sebastian yawned. “Like
breathing too much.”

Sarah checked the restraints again, then
nodded and stalked over to a wall, sitting back against it and
closing her eyes.

“
Come on, Ezzy,” Gal grabbed his hand and pulled him deeper
into the cavern. “This place is more a maze than anything else.
You'd be amazed how fast you can get out of earshot in
here.”

“
That's... nice?” Ezra looked around in the rapidly darkening
cave. “Shouldn't we try to stay close, in case something happens or
he wakes-”

Gal abruptly pushed Ezra against the wall
with a growl, pressing her body to him, lips cool and delicious on
his mouth. She trailed a line of chilly kisses along his jaw.
“You're so warm,” she breathed into his ear, “I think I like that.”
She gently nipped his neck as her lips continued exploring him.

“
Gal,” he gasped as his hands wrapped around her sweetly curved
waist of their own accord. “What are you-”

“
That image,” she purred, nuzzling his neck. “You, charging the
thunder-struck with nothing but a waterwork.” A shiver ran through
her body. “Sarah said you were too brave for your own good, but I
didn't know it would be so
hot
.” Her nails left little thrills
of sensation across his shoulder as her leg wound its way away
around his.

Ezra tried to get his thoughts in order. He
was pretty sure they were supposed to be doing something, but just
couldn't remember what...

Her leg hooked behind his knee, forcing him
to slide down the wall, easing their way to the floor. Gal
straddled him. She shifted her hips maddeningly, grinding against
him, and thinking became the last thing on his mind. Her eyes
glimmered triumphantly in the darkness, swallowing him up in their
depths as her lips curled into a knowing smile. A soft kiss was
pressed to his lips, hunger burning through it. Lithe and supple,
Gal's body writhed sensuously against his, her wicked little mouth
slowly tracing its way over his flesh. Every breath was a half
heard sigh, a physical thing, tickling and arousing as her clever
hands deftly removed the clothing between them.

Ezra lost himself, knowing nothing but the
feel of her, the smell of her, the taste of her.

Ezra woke gently, feeling better than he
could ever remember feeling. He glanced around. It was still dark?
Oh, he was in a cave. So that was a rock digging into his back. In
fact, now that he thought about it, his body was awash with aches
and pains, so why did he feel so-

Gal stirred pleasantly
beside him. “Mmm, you really are just so warm...” she yawned and
stretched, body shifting sinuously. “A girl could get used to
this.”
Oh
, he
thought in a happy haze,
that's
why
.

She sighed and snuggled closer for a few
moments, then slapped his chest lightly and reluctantly rolled
away. “Come on, get dressed,” she said, clothes rustling in the
darkness. “We should make a token appearance before they start
really laying into him.”

His eyes flew open as the events of earlier
in the day came back to him. “Oh,” he gasped, looking around for
his pants. “Was it okay that we... um...”

“
Well,” Gal's voice was muffled as she pulled a shirt over her
head. “You could use a little practice, but we can work on that
later.”

Ezra blushed furiously, dropping his shoe
and knocking his head against the rock wall as he tripped over his
own foot. Gal laughed richly. He could make out the shadow of her
hips swaying as she started back toward the others. “Come on, Ezzy,
let's get back to the real world.”

Ezra felt a brief chill go down his spine,
and peered back into the darkness further on in the tunnel. Not
seeing anything, he shook his head and followed after Gal's echoing
laughter.

==

“
And what have you two been doing?” Sebastian asked, waggling
his eyebrows as Gal and Ezra rejoined the group. “Aside from
dodging your turns on watch.”

“
I
was showing Ezra how a woman claims what she wants,” Gal replied
lightly.

Ezra blushed hotly and mumbled something
incoherent. Mat laughed and clapped him on the back as Sarah rolled
her eyes. Sebastian smiled, then turned his gaze to the
elementalist still chained to the floor. “'Bout time we woke him
up. Hope you're not too tired, Doe.”

“
Oh, I'm always up for more,” Gal stared at Ezra, licking her
lips. He blushed harder, grabbing a canteen from Mat and quickly
taking a drink.

Mat chuckled as he took the canteen back,
then casually walked over and dumped the contents on the
thunder-struck's head. He woke up with a sputter, looking around
blearily. Mat tossed the water container aside and cracked his
knuckles. “What's your name, sparky?”

“
What? Where... where am...”

Mat kicked him in the stomach, eyes hard. “I
asked for your name.”

Low, broken laughter wheezed from the Son of
Lightning. “That's right,” he coughed. “Now I remember.”
Electricity formed a halo around his head as the man suddenly
pulled against his restraints. He screamed and went stiff as the
water and metal conducted the lightning right back into him. He
fell to his side, panting, his body steaming from where he lay,
half submerged in the little pool. Mat looked on calmly as Sarah
handed him a fresh canteen, which he proceeded to dispassionately
empty on the thunder-struck.

“
Now listen, sparky,” Mat said as he squatted down, still
pouring water over the Son's head. “This doesn't have to be hard.
You tell us what we want to know, and we'll leave you here. Maybe
someone comes to get you, maybe someone doesn't. It's a better deal
than you'll get if we stick around.” He let the canteen fall
straight onto the other man's face, sending it bouncing and rolling
away. “So, what's your name?”

The thunder-struck wheezed out a weak laugh,
“And I will be delivered from mine enemies, and see them cast down
into the pit, that all may know the glory of-”

“
Suit yourself.” Mat grabbed the captive's head and slammed it
against the stone floor, then stood and began kicking
him.

Sebastion and Sarah rushed forward and
grabbed his arms, pulling him back before he could land a third
blow. “They were my friends you bastard!” Mat yelled. Gal jumped
forward, thrusting her hands against his chest, glaring at him.

“
Whoa, hey!” Ezra glanced down at the Son of Lightning, who was
lying on his side, trying to curl into a ball, still laughing
hoarsely.

“
I'm cool,” Mat said, shrugging his shoulders and taking a few
steps back. “It's just... bad things happen.” He paced over to a
wall and punched it. “Bad things happen,” he whispered to himself,
haunted eyes glued to the wall.

Ezra eyed him warily, then turned to the
thunder-struck. “Listen, we need to know: how did you know that
we'd be here? Who told you?”

The Son of Lightning made his way painfully
back to his knees, and gave Ezra a mad grin. “The Voice of Thunder
hears all,” he rasped. “You cannot stand against us. Lightning
speaks, giving us the words you send through air. He bids us, His
chosen, to hunt the blasphemers to the ends of the earth.”

Ezra looked around, worried. “You're
intercepting our communications?”

“
You, who would dare to use the gifts of Lightning from the
seat of His very throne,” his voice grew steadily stronger as he
spoke. “Your time is short upon this world. Lightning has made
known His will, that those who would sin against Him and corrupt
His gifts shall fall beneath His hand. Repent and be judged! Let
the purifying will of the heavens burn away your unworthiness, that
you too might know the majesty of the Great One!”

This was fast devolving into a sermon. Ezra
sighed and shook his head. “What about whatever the other guy in
town was talking about? The end of the Lost City or something?”

A maniacal gleam shone through the Son's
eyes, his pupils dilating. “The great work of the Children. Even as
we bring down your warriors in the field, the way is prepared by
our Father. We know of your doors in the air. We know of your
lifeless beasts of burden and your perverted mockeries of the
chosen that spit fire and lightning and earth.” His grin grew,
nothing but teeth, as his eyes burned with an insane intensity.
“And most of all, we know of your castle in the sky. We shall reach
our hands up unto the heavens and bind it to the will of our
Lord.”

“
And we shall bring it down upon your heads.”

Ezra stared at the obviously unstable man
before him. He turned back to the rest of the group. “Castle in the
sky? What does that...” Ezra trailed off, his brain putting
together the pieces. Doors in the air... wormholes? Lifeless beasts
of burden, that must be skiffs. He supposed that modern weaponry
would seem to be their means of imitating the power of
elementalists. And so the castle in the sky... “The space station,”
he whispered in horror. “They're going to crash the space station
into Sanctuary.” He glanced at Mat and Sarah, their eyes widened
with understanding. “Can they do that?”

Mat bit his lip, then wiggled his hand
uncertainly. “Thunder-struck have worked together to do big things
before. Their largest churches are all made almost entirely from
metal that they've magnetized to hold. It's impressive stuff.
But... they'd need some way to reach up that far... air is an
insulator, so it would be working against them the whole
way...”

Sarah shrugged. “They'd probably have to use
the space elevator, but the carbon pico-tubes it's made of don't
conduct electricity. Doubtful.”

Ezra got a sinking feeling
in his stomach, remembering... “It's happened before, though,” he
said quietly. “It was an electrical discharge from the space
elevator that destroyed the
Millennial
Legacy
. I saw it happen.”

“
What?” Sarah's eyes snapped to him. “You mean you actually saw
a current ride the elevator?” Ezra nodded mutely. “And you never
told anyone? No, no I doubt they would have believed you in any
case...” Sarah's eyes squeezed shut. “That's... that could be
bad.”

“
Maybe you'd like to explain it to the rest of us?” Sebastian
prompted.

“
It's...” Sarah ran a hand over her hair, collecting her
thoughts. “Okay, look, about a hundred and twenty years ago, my
great great grandmother theorized that, after sufficiently long
exposure - say a few hundred years - to a sufficiently cold
environment - such as space - the chemical make-up of our super
solids would undergo a subtle shift, allowing for, among other
things, conductivity. She wanted us to tear down the space elevator
and replace it. But the Chancellor killed the project, saying it
was a blatant power grab in the face of emerging wormhole
technology. So... yes, it's possible, if they start high enough in
the atmosphere.”

“
The space station's made almost entirely of ionizable solids
too,” Mat said, stroking his stubble in thought. “It had to be, to
get all the pieces up there and in place efficiently. Get enough
thunder-struck behind that... yeah, if they can reach it, they
could pull it down. Wouldn't even be especially hard, at the
point.”

“
Uh... this sounds kinda big, you guys,” Gal said. “We should
probably let someone know about this... like, as soon as we
can.”

Ezra nodded emphatically. “We better find
out what else he knows,” he jerked his head back toward the struck,
who had begun laughing to himself again. “Any information is better
than what we have.” He turned and stalked back to the Son of
Lightning, setting his jaw. “Now listen you,” Ezra reached out to
grab the man's shirt, intending to pull him up painfully against
the cables. A spark of static jumped out and bit his finger. “Ow!”
He stuck his finger in his mouth, scowling, then looked closely at
the softly glowing man. His hair was dry. So were his clothes. In
fact, he was only sitting in about a half centimeter of water, and
the little liquid that remained was rapidly retreating along two
small streams toward the back of the cavern.

“
Water-seer!” Ezra yelled, stumbling back from their captive.
The water left in the pool surged forward, wrapping around his foot
and freezing solid. He stared at it in disbelief.

A blue-gray blur darted from the shadowed
recesses at the back of the cave, a shimmering tail of liquid
streaming out lazily in the water-seer's wake. Sarah yelped and
took cover just inside the main tunnel leading into the lair,
dropping to a knee and lining up a shot. The thunder-struck turned
and glared at Mat, gritting his teeth. Gal tackled Ezra's teammate,
knocking the two of them into Sarah as a bolt of electricity leaped
from the Son's forehead, sizzling into the rock where Mat had been
standing. The three of them fell out of sight, tumbling down the
hallway leading out. The thunder-struck, still bound with
conductive metal and sitting in a small puddle, jerked violently
and bit back a cry of pain.