Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (46 page)

Ezra was humbled by the passion of Kirsten's
words, by the intensity behind them, giving him a glimpse into what
made her who she was. Years of trying to groom him to be a man
others would envy, to make the Hawkins Legacy the greatest there
ever was or ever would be. And here he was, wanted by the
Department of Ordinances... by the Chancellor himself, accused of
horribly mutilating another human being, bringing shame and
disgrace upon everything his parents had built.

“
I'm so sorry,” he whispered. “Kirsten, I'm so sorry that I
doubted you. I know that I'm not... what you wish I was. But I
promise you, I am doing everything in my power to do what's right.
Please believe me when I say that I can't tell you what that is
right now. I swear upon the memory of my parents that one day I
will explain everything to you, but right now I just don't have
time.” He swallowed and looked down at the data sheet. “I need to
find Mat, and I need to find Sarah, and we need to get somewhere
safe. I wish I could tell you more.”

Kirsten studied his face for nearly a
minute, then nodded and pulled up her net interface. “Mr. Matanane
left a message for you. He said that he had been released with a
clean bill of health and would be training, if you wanted to meet
up with him.”

Ezra thought about what that meant for a
moment, then asked, “What were his exact words?”

Kirsten deftly pulled up a screen. “'Dearest
Kirsten, light of my life and fondest hope of my heart, I must
apologize for my recent absence and hope to find you in-'”

Ezra cleared his throat. Stupid Mat. “You
can skip that part, Miss O'Donnell. The part about training,
though...”

Her lips quirked up slightly as she scanned
the rest of the message. “Ah, here it is. 'I will be training in
various and sundry locations, should you wish to join me.' That's
all it says.”

Ezra nodded confidently. “Thank you,
Kirsten. I... will be going away for a little while. You won't be
able to reach me, but I hope that I'll be able to find some way of
contacting you.” He called up a set of documents he had prepared
for this occasion. “Until I return, I am naming you the sole heir
to my family's Legacy.” Kirsten's gasped, eyes fixing on Ezra as he
quickly made the documents official. “You will have full access to
everything, to be used at your sole discretion. In the event that I
do not return, I trust you to see to the disposition of the
family's assets and data banks. Please act as you see fit, Miss
O'Donnell.”

“
I... that...” her eyes rounded with genuine fear. “Where will
you... no, you're not telling me that. Damn you, Ezra James
Hawkins.” She spun on a heel, pulled up a new terminal, and began
entering data furiously. Pausing just outside the room, she turned
her head, displaying a lovely profile. “Will that be all, Mr.
Hawkins?”

Ezra gave her a sad little smile and nodded.
The door slid closed, and Ezra went back to work.

“
And she just let you leave?” Mat asked incredulously as he
scanned a set of consoles in front of him. “No passionate good-bye
kiss or anything?”

Ezra smiled wryly at Mat. “If she'd tried
it, I'm pretty sure I would have died from the shock.”

“
Wasted opportunity there, man,” Mat shook his head. “Blight
and thunder, I can't believe the Chancellor was in on it the whole
time. And there I was, just giving him what he needed to know. He
deserves that strucking Besmirched princess he's in bed with.” He
paused for a moment and the corners of his mouth ticked up. “Well,
you know, if she was ugly.”

A soft noise sounded from outside the room
they had appropriated, and Ezra whirled toward the door, leveling a
gun on it. The footsteps passed by and he relaxed a little. “How
much longer, Mat?”

“
It's not like circumventing hospital data security is my
specialty, Ezra,” he scowled. “It'll be done when it's
done.”

Ezra nodded, checking his wormhole device
again. “I just hate to think about what kind of twisted experiments
they could be performing on Sarah. We practically handed the
Chancellor a captive wind-scarred, and he's not going to pass up
something like that just because she only got that way by fighting
against Wind himself as best she could.”

“
I
know, I know. I just... got it! Room five seventeen, the
coordinates should be... there! You get that?”

Ezra punched in the coordinates for the
hospital room. Just as he was about to engage the wormhole, the
door slid open. Mat and Ezra responded immediately, guns coming to
bear on the intruder with trained precision. Mr. Blair stepped into
the room, seemingly unconcerned. The door whisked closed behind
him. “Mr. Hawkins, Mr. Matanane,” he said severely. “Explain
yourselves at once.”

Ezra glanced at Mat, who nodded to him.
“Well, sir, we came across some... rather interesting information
in our last field mission, from which we have just returned.”

“
Yes, yes,” Mr. Blair motioned irritably. “I've already read
Mr. Matanane's mission report. I imagine you've found the answer to
your question about where the elementalists come from, Mr. Hawkins.
What I am wondering, gentlemen, is what you are doing
right now
in one of my
away team staging areas armed to the teeth and hacking your way
through Sanctuary hospital security.”

Ezra swallowed at the lump in his throat.
“Sir, it's... the Chancellor. He came to my interrogation room.”
Mr. Blair's eyes narrowed in suspicion. “He has all of the
information about the last mission. Sir, he's the one who has been
supplying the Besmirched with weapons. He plans to use the
thunder-struck attack on the space station to end life outside
Sanctuary, then leave the planet behind. We have to stop him, sir.
And we have to stop the Children of Lightning too.” He looked at
Mr. Blair defiantly. “I don't think that you're with him, sir, but
I can't let you stop us. They have Sarah, and we're getting her
out.”

Mr. Blair crossed his arms
and drummed his fingers for a handful of seconds. “Well, I always
knew that this was a possibility. The Chancellor has long pressed
for a stronger field presence, and less regulation on the use of
extreme force. The
Millennial
Legacy
project was his idea, you know. A
step toward space expansion that was,” he glanced apologetically
toward Ezra and cleared his throat, “prematurely terminated. All
right then Agents, if it wouldn't be too much trouble, please, tell
me your plan. Will you try to assassinate the Chancellor himself,
then launch a campaign of destruction against the strong points of
the Children of Lightning?”

“
Uh...” Mat shuffled his feet sheepishly. “We... hadn't thought
quite that far ahead yet, sir.”

Mr. Blair smiled slightly. “If you wouldn't
mind, I do have a few thoughts on a suitable course of action for
an event such as this. It's important to note that this problem is
a bit larger than the Guild of Sundry is equipped to deal with.
Your first steps should be securing outside help. You will at the
very least need to gather a talented group of wind-scarred and
fire-kissed to mitigate any potential damages should the worst case
scenario come to pass. I am not personally acquainted with Miss
Valerie Estavon, however judging from your report, you may wish to
approach the Beloved on the fire-kissed front.” He pulled up a net
interface and typed in a few commands. “They are based in the city
of Blessing. We've never had a chance to get very close, so proceed
with the utmost caution. Go to the city of Eastpoint and make
contact with a group called The Eye, they may be able to supply you
with the wind-scarred you will need. Tell them that I sent you, and
try to keep an open mind. They are not exactly the most...
reputable group of individuals. After that, you'll just have to
play it by ear.”

Mr. Blair opened a new screen and frowned at
it slightly. “I've taken the liberty of preparing a long-range
skiff for your travel needs. With consideration to the usefulness
that your controller displayed, Mr. Hawkins, I've supplied several
over-sized power generators, along with solar, wind and
hydroelectric recharging capacities. It will be waiting, unguarded,
in the hangar bay. And for the love of all things holy and some
that are not, do not return to Sanctuary until this situation has
resolved itself. I cannot protect you from the Chancellor within
this city.” He came to attention, and saluted sharply. “Good
hunting, Agent Matanane, Agent Hawkins. Give my regards to Agent
Hughes.” With that, he briskly turned and left the room.

“
Well...” Ezra stared at the closed door for several seconds.
“That was... entirely more helpful than I expected.”

“
I
wish more people would surprise us like that,” Mat agreed. His eyes
flitted to his private time display. “We should get moving. The
sooner we get Sarah out, the better.”

“
Right,” Ezra connected the wormhole, and the sudden antiseptic
scent of the hospital filled his nose.

Mat's mouth quirked. “Smells kinda like
home,” he said wistfully.

Sarah was a mess. The blood had been cleaned
up, and she was dressed in a hospital gown, but every inch of
exposed skin was still a hideous pattern of rent flesh, whorls of
red cutting through her fair complexion. Mat checked the various
displays monitoring her health, then nodded. “Nothing wrong with
her, other than... you know. She's not on any kind of life-support,
just a mild sedative to help with the pain and keep her sleeping. I
should be able to...” he fiddled with a display, then pulled out a
small syringe. With practiced movements, he gave her the injection
and disposed of the used needle.

Sarah's eyes fluttered open a few seconds
later, and Ezra clamped a hand down on over her mouth. She grimaced
in pain and shot him a hateful glare, then tapped his hand lightly.
“Sorry,” Ezra whispered, drawing his hand away.

She punched him in the arm and wincing as
her hand struck, “Where are we?” she asked, then glanced down at
her arms and froze in horror. “Oh god,” she breathed. “Am I... I'm
one of them now, aren't I?”

“
Sarah?” Mat caught her eyes, which were beginning to well up
with tears. “I need you to listen me, this is important.” He
quickly explained about the Chancellor, the guns and the space
station, and Mr. Blair's assignment for their team. Ezra listened
at the door for anyone approaching. “We're not leaving you here
Sarah. You're coming with us, one way or another. We're a
team.”

Sarah cursed as a stray tear fell, salty
water hitting one of her cuts. She blinked her eyes clear and
nodded to Mat, who quickly began modifying the consoles around her.
“I think I can give us a little time, if I can loop the data from
your vitals for the last few hours and then we-”

“
Shh,” Ezra hissed. “Someone's coming!”

From the hallway outside, Ezra heard a pair
of footsteps approaching. “I just don't understand it, Mr.
Chancellor.” A doctor's voice was muffled by the door. “It's almost
like there's something flowing through the cuts that's keeping us
from healing them properly. I'm afraid that the girl is going to
have some fairly serious scarring over her entire body.”

“
Well,” the Chancellor's kind, grandfatherly voice intoned, “I
know you're doing the very best you can. I'll have my private
physicians take over the poor girl's care. You just leave
everything to me.”

Ezra's eyes widened as he searched for the
door's locking mechanism. He hit it, and immediately turned his
attention to the wormhole controller, scanning the Guild of Sundry
area for the deepest and furthest port - the one that should be the
hangar bay. “No time,” he muttered to Mat and Sarah. “The
Chancellor is right outside the door.”

“
That's odd...” the doctor's voice trailed off. “This door
shouldn't be locked. Hold on, let me pull up the access
code.”

A shuffling noise came through the closed
door, followed by a heavy pounding. “Mr. Hawkins,” the Chancellor's
voice was stern. “I know you're in there. Just come out now and I
promise, no harm will come to you or your friends.”

Ezra ignored him. The wormhole engaged and
the trio left the hospital, the Chancellor, and Sanctuary
behind.

Sky Luke Corbelli is probably a bad person.
I mean, seriously, did you see how he ended the book? What a
jerk.

He lives in sunny California with his
beautiful wife, writing code, playing chess, swimming, and
generally wasting time whenever possible. He grew up at the San
Francisco Zoo, where he tried to set some kind of record for being
bitten, scratched, constricted, quilled, footed, or otherwise
assaulted by more animals than most people could shake a stick at.
Sometimes he climbs mountains.

Oh, and he would also like to thank you for
taking a chance on an indie author. He knows there's lots of stuff
to read out there and is honestly thrilled that you decided to read
what he wrote. He sincerely hopes that you enjoyed the beginning of
his little story, and looks forward to sharing the rest with
you.

You can find his progress and whatever else
might be going through his head at his website (
www.skylukecorbelli.blogspot.com
). Feel free to stop by and tell him what you thought about
the book!

Last, but not least, turn
the page to get an exclusive teaser of
The
Will of the Elements, Book 2: Water-Seer.