Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (44 page)

“
But you know what would be
really
great?” the kid asked, eyes
gleaming mischievously. “If you escaped.” The wind picked up and
something hit the ground at Ezra's feet. He and Mat looked down.
There was the wormhole controller, completely undamaged. Ezra
reached for it reverently. It was real. He flicked it on, and
watched in amazement as the display came to life. “How?” he
whispered eyes looking up to the little boy, but finding only air
where he had sat.

Mat gaped at the lip of the crater, then
whipped his head back and forth, eyes searching. “Must've hit it
really hard,” he muttered. “Couldn't have been-”

He was interrupted as another fork of
lightning exploded into the far side of ridge, kicking up dirt and
stone. The water-seer darted out of the cave, stopping to scan the
area until her all blue eyes settled on them. Ezra could see the
fierce satisfaction written on her face as she leaped into a
sprint, smoother and faster than he would ever be able to manage.
“Maybe now isn't the time to worry about it,” Mat said quickly.
“Ezra, you might want to get that thing working fast, or I doubt
we'll have much time to regret it.”

Ezra was already working. He jumped back to
the first coordinates in his log, drew power from the matrix that
stretched out from the generator within the cavern, and connected
the wormhole. The black rock and gravel underfoot was replaced with
smooth, hard stone. The scene before them vanished, leaving a
breathtaking view that had captivated Ezra so long ago in its
place. Ezra grabbed Mat and Sarah, heaving them back into the cool,
rocky side of the mountain behind them and disconnecting the
wormhole as soon as they were clear. He let out the breath he had
been holding in as a tiny laugh of relief, turning to look up at
the overcast sky.

Mat swung his head around, trying and
failing to figure out where they had ended up. “Where are... Ezra,
where did you take us?”

Ezra gulped down his laughter, wiping at his
eyes as all of the turbulent emotions of the day came crashing down
on him, leaving him mentally and physically exhausted. “I didn't
have any locations inside Sanctuary programmed in. I mean, I know
them, mostly, but throwing a port to an existing terminal that's in
range of my sensors is one thing. Picking out exactly the right
coordinates is something else entirely. So I used one I knew would
work.” He gestured toward the gently swaying grass in the field far
below, the line of trees off in the distance. “This is the first
place I ever went outside of Sanctuary. The place where it all
began,” he finished quietly.

“
I
don't see how this helps us...”

Ezra shook his head. “I can hack into any
wormhole connection in the city from where we are. Jack a little
power, and I can drop us anywhere in-”

“
You should have seen her face!” a merry voice interrupted him,
laughter bubbling through it. Just on the edge of the of the rocky
shelf, the dark little boy stood looking out at the world. He
turned to the team, enormous grin on his face, eyes dancing. “She
screamed and screamed. Oh, it was priceless.” He let out a long,
delighted laugh.

Ezra found himself on his feet, wormhole
controller gripped tightly in his hands as if it were a sword. How
had the kid followed them? They were thousands and thousands of
kilometers away... it didn't make any sense.

“
It was all just fantastic. You know, I really worried when you
decided to strike out from Helena. I thought that maybe the
adventure was over,” the kid continued, completely ignoring Ezra's
reaction. “But then, there was more! You three, you're my
favorites. Everywhere you go, it's always an adventure!” He
vanished, and his voice suddenly coming from the far side of the
ledge, where he threw a punch into the air. “Action!” Again he
disappeared, reappearing behind Ezra. “Mystery!” Next he had his
arm over Mat's shoulder. “And a little lusty romance,” he snickered
as he poked Mat in the side. Suddenly he stood back on the cliff's
edge, arms spread wide. “The best I've seen in decades!”

Ezra's mind was whirling, trying to put
things together. “Who... what are you?” he whispered.

Something changed in the
little boy's expression. The smile altered slightly, no longer that
of a pleased child, but something more... sinister, more knowing.
The gleam faded from his eyes, replaced with something unreadable,
unknowable, calculating and, above all, ancient. Those eyes were
older than the stones behind their feet, old as the sky and the
moon and the wind. “Ah yes,” he said softly. “And you even spotted
me, twice for that matter.” He chuckled, a sound so filled with
knowing intrigue that it could never come from a child. “Go on,” he
urged, “figure it out. I love it when your kind gets
clever
.”

It clicked in Ezra's head.
The book,
The Will of the
Elements
. “Clever Wind,” he breathed in
disbelief, “swiftest of the Elements.”

Wind threw back his head and laughed,
clapping his hands with child-like joy. As he did so, he drifted
off the ground, away from the ledge, until he was floating over
open space. “You can't believe everything you read in Lightning's
little book, though. After all,” he sniffed, “I'm at least two
hundred years older than him.”

Ezra's mind was racing, trying to catch up
to the ramifications. The Elements, physical personifications of
nature... they were real. So Fire had really come to Stephen in the
night. Earth had literally crowned Gaav. And what Wind had said...
he had just implied that he was old, older than any record they had
in Sanctuary. What kinds of questions could he answer? What light
could he shine on...

Something tickled at the
back of Ezra's mind, some question he'd been carrying with him.
Mat's words echoed in his head:
When man
controls nature, every disaster in man-made
. “It was you,” he looked at the floating boy in horror.
“Southedge. Helena. You killed the village elders. You made that
firestorm, you tried to destroy the city. That's why there wasn't a
wind-scarred, or a fire-kissed, because it was you, the whole
time.”

Wind gave Ezra a crocodile
smile, eyes glittering maliciously. “Oh
very
good. I was afraid that you
might not notice my hand in things. Did you like those two? I
personally thought that giving the little knife-scarred piece of
mortal trash something to take credit for was inspired. And using
fire to ravage that pathetic valley, what did you think of that?
Forcing the tart to pick someone in a hurry. She's so good about
following the Pact and never interfering directly. And it pinned
the blame on him so nicely in the process. You should hear him
scream; Val is a genius when it comes to breaking a man. I love
watching her work.”

“
Why?” Ezra croaked. “All those people. Why would
you...”

“
I
was bored,” Wind shrugged, looking for all the world like a kid
trying to amuse himself with whatever was at hand. “I can only
watch you grubs running around for so long before I have to do
something, or I'll simply go out of my mind with-”

Something flickered past Ezra's ear, and one
of Sarah's wicked daggers sprouted from Wind's left eye. His head
jerked back sharply, and he tumbled out of sight. Ezra shot a
startled glance back at Sarah, who was gritting her teeth against
her obvious agony as she tried to get her other knife out.

Then that sinister, delighted laugh rolled
up from below. The boy floated back into view, plucking the knife
from his eye and toying with it absently. He wasn't bleeding. He
wasn't even hurt. “Insolence!” he cried out, a merry peal of
laughter accompanying the word. “I love insolence! Do you know how
long it's been since anyone has dared to be insolent with me?” His
eyes narrowed on Sarah's prone form, his voice becoming quiet,
dangerous. “I think that deserves a reward.”

The wind on the little plateau picked up
suddenly, throwing Mat and Ezra back against the wall and pinning
them there. Sarah let out a gasp as she was lifted from the stone
in a tiny whirlwind, hovering a few centimeters off the ground.
Wind regarded her thoughtfully, knife tapping his chin. His free
hand flicked at the wrist, and a long, smooth cut curled its way
across Sarah's forehead, around her terrified eyes, splitting into
elegant, fractal-like spirals as it traced its way over her body.
Delicate whirls of crimson stood out against her pale flesh, only
to be covered by a sheet of blood flowing from the impossibly fine
cuts above.

She began to scream.

“
Sarah!” Mat cried hoarsely over the rush of wind. Her body
began to slowly turn as the cuts worked their way around, shredding
her clothing as graceful patterns etched their way into her skin.
“Let her go!”

Wind didn't respond. He just continued
staring at Sarah, an artist focused on his work. Ezra struggled
against the invisible bonds of air holding him in place. If he
could just load his wormhole hacking program, maybe... just maybe.
He winced as Sarah ran out of air, her scream dying off. She took a
ragged breath and began anew. It seemed to go on forever. Mat
somehow managed to get the bolt-thrower aimed at the immortal
child. The dart launched out, and passed through the boy as if he
wasn't there at all. He may as well have not been, for all that he
noticed. Finally, Wind nodded and they abruptly fell free. “Done,”
he sang out.

Ezra didn't care. He leaped toward Mat and
Sarah, activating a portal as he went. It didn't matter where they
ended up; anywhere was better than here. The sound of Wind's
laughter followed them as the mountainside was replaced with a
perfectly cultivated lawn. Ezra killed the wormhole, eyes darting
around. The university plaza. Inside Sanctuary. He let out a sigh
of relief. They were safe, at last.

The DOLT agent on duty at the university
port station gave them a look of startled terror. Someone screamed.
Ezra looked down. Sarah's blood was everywhere. She lay listless on
the smooth surface of the terminal's floor, breath coming rapidly,
tiny whimpers of pain escaping her lips. As he was tackled to the
ground by an officer of the law, Ezra considered the possibility
that he just might have a difficult time explaining all of
this.

==

“
It's over now, you Legacy piece of garbage.”

Ezra sighed, rolling his eyes toward the
door. Back in the interrogation room, again. With Jeffries,
naturally.

“
I
knew you were sick,” Jeffries spat, “but cutting up the Hughes girl
like that? They're going to give me a freaking medal, Hawkins.
We've had a warrant out for your arrest, but of course, you know
that. Assaulting two officers, impeding an investigation, and now
this. I don't know how you've avoided us for the past week, don't
know where you were hiding... but this is it, game over. Your
accomplice has already told us everything. The best you can hope
for is life behind bars, but only if you come clean right here,
right now.” Jeffries tapped the table for emphasis.

Ezra looked at him in
amusement. He knew that the man was doing his very best to be as
intimidating as possible, but he just couldn't bring himself to
even feign fear. Compared to the last few hours, Jeffries was more
of an annoying insect than anything else. All he could think
was,
if you can't burn me to cinders, flay
me to the bone, or stop my heart with your mind, you really just
aren't that scary
.

“
Gonna play it like that, huh? Tough guy, trying to be all
macho and silent,” Jeffries chuckled as he shook his head. “Ezra,
Ezra, Ezra. What would your parents say if they could see you
now?”

Ezra smiled a little at the obvious attempt
to get a rise out of him. He snorted, trying to hold it in. Then
Jeffries scowled and opened his mouth to launch into another angry
tirade. That was it, the last straw. Ezra burst out laughing,
laughing himself breathless at the impotent man. He pounded the
table as Jeffries fumed at him. One look at the enraged officer was
enough to send him into a fresh bout of merriment. Jeffries growled
something under his breath as he stormed out of the room.

Ezra's laughter slowly died out. He
remembered the last time Jeffries had been sent storming from the
room. Mr. Blair, and his offer that had started all of this. He
remembered Gal, and sobered immediately. Gal, with her playful
smile and teasing manner. Gal, wearing those ridiculous sunglasses,
looking smug as a cat in the sun. Gal, who had loved him, so much
that she was willing to die to save his life. It had always seemed
like she was playing a game, just an idle way to pass the time. He
blinked at the tears that stung his eyes.

The door to the room slid open. Ezra looked
up, expecting Jeffries or, if he was lucky, Mr. Blair. Instead, a
distinguished older man stepped into the room, flanked by two
efficiently dangerous looking men in black suits. The elderly man
was fit, his full head of hair a stately silver and matched by a
neatly trimmed beard. His eyes were a faded gray, like a cloudy day
threatening to burst into sunlight. He looked grandfatherly, smile
lines wrinkling his face as he saw Ezra, who abruptly came to his
feet.

“
Mr. Chancellor, sir,” Ezra stammered out, stunned mind
reeling. Why was the leader of Sanctuary here? What did it
mean?

“
Please, Mr. Hawkins,” the man gave him a reproachful look.
“None of that here.” Ezra's eyes bulged as the Chancellor set the
wormhole controller that the DOLT officers had confiscated gently
on the table. “Not after everything you've done for us.” He took a
seat and gestured for Ezra to sit as well. The guards stayed at
attention by the door.