Winter Warrior (Song of the Aura, Book Two) (10 page)

   
Lauro smirked triumphantly and wrung his arms to get the feeling back into them. Wind striding was tiring work, and he needed to be ready for-

   
-But he never finished the thought. The draik recovered faster than he had thought it could, twisting in a way no natural animal could to get on its feet and charging again. He hurriedly conjured a blast of wind and swept it up towards the monster’s head to lift it off balance again, but the draik dug its iron claws into the ice and kept its head low, riding out the whirlwind and charging forward again as soon as it was done.

   
It can’t reach me in time,
Lauro knew, raising his arms for a grand finale of striding. But the draik knew it too, and it didn’t have to reach him to do what it wanted. Before it could be pushed back again it sucked in the cold night air and blasted it out in a hellish inferno of white flame that engulfed the stout prince immediately.

   
“No!” he shouted, cowering, but the torrent never reached him. It was diverted on two sides by a dark form that sprang in the way at the last second, black against the evil light of the flames. Even then Lauro was knocked flat by the heat and the air that accompanied them. “NO!” he shouted again, “ELIA!”

Chapter Seven: Speech of Mastery

   
Elia had just reached the
wessiles
; pale-hulled wave-riders unique to the Treele; when she realized the draik was no longer following her. Spinning around, she caught sight of the wind Strider boy flopping head-over-heels across the ice, the monstrous draik struggling to rise to its knees with a twisted neck from the impact.

   
What does he think he’s doing?
She wondered frantically, but she already knew.
He’s giving me a chance to escape. He’s trying to save me.
He was no coward, for sure. Foolish, but brave.

   
For a moment she stood, undecided, wanting to flee and make good her escape but knowing she could never live with the death of her new friend. While she rocked nervously between the two ideas, she noticed a darker shade of night behind the shadows of the draik and the prince. Gribly! The hapless thief was running up behind the monster, still yelling at his friend to stop. What was wrong with him? He was going to get them
both
killed!

   
“Father of Sea and Sand, protect me,” she whispered, setting out at a run up the slight incline of the Berg to reach her friends before it was too late.

   
As she ran, she tried to gather her thoughts for her next move. Her only chance was her gifts, but so far she had little to no luck wave striding with snow, let alone ice. Picking up her pace, she tried to imagine the ground beneath her molding to her feet and pushing her forward a little faster than she could go on her own. She thought she could feel her speed increase, but then again… she knew she could be imagining it.

   
Either way, it wasn’t fast enough. Up ahead Lauro was being charged by the draik, and some wound or injury was keeping him from flying away.

   
“STOP!” she screamed, but at that moment Lauro began to summon wind and use it to fight the predator. Her voice was drowned out in the shrieking gale the wind Strider brought to bear on his enemy. The sheer power of his attacks surprised her so much she slowed down, gaping at the scene with little comprehension.

   
What Lauro apparently didn’t see when he threw the weight of his wind striding against the draik was that Gribly had almost reached the duel. The force of the wind knocked the Sand Strider down at the same time it flipped the draik on its back. Gribly fell and didn’t get up. Elia forced herself to go faster despite the burning in her lungs and the pounding blood in her ears. She had to get there- had to
do
something!

   
A hundred feet between her and the deadly battle, she pushed herself to cross the last distance faster than she had run since her home was burned.

   
Fifty feet. The draik seemed to be resisting the wind better. Lauro paused in his attack and the beast surprised him with its speed and resilience.

   
Ten. The draik clung to the icy ground and withstood the wind Strider’s powers without injury and opened its maw to blast the prince with fire. On the far side of the combat, Gribly sat groggily up, and his eyes locked with Elia’s.

   
She never knew afterwards just what in the boy’s face made her do what she did. Without thinking, riding on an instinct that had never been there before… she flung herself in the way. She hurtled forward, sailing through the air and landing between the monster and its prey. Flames gushed out of the draik’s open jaw, swirling in deathly patterns around her and rushing at her from all directions in a hypnotic display of light and heat.

   
Cringing, she threw her hands up in front of her face, wrists crossed. Her arms and splayed palms burned like they had been dipped in molten rock, but the rest of her stayed strangely cold. Her chest heaved manically as the shock of the blast threatened to overwhelm her. Then, as suddenly as they’d started, the flames stopped. She looked up, shaking and frightened.

   
The inferno hadn’t touched her. She was standing in a pool of steaming water where the fire had melted the ice, but the flames had left her unharmed.

   
“How in…” Lauro gaped behind her, rattled at her sudden and startling intervention.

   
She turned back to him. “I don’t… I… I don’t know.”

   
“LOOK OUT!” he shouted, and she spun back to the draik, just as it leaned back and delivered another, stronger blast.

   
With nothing else to guide her, Elia threw her palms outward again, crying “No!” in her shrill, frightened voice.

   
Once more, the flames parted mere inches from her hands and spurted to each side, searingly hot on her arms and hands but ultimately harmless. The second burst lasted longer than the first, but she waited it out. Though it hurt her eyes she kept them open, to convince herself that she really was, apparently, stopping the flames.

   
“Impossible,” she breathed, but there it was- she was staring death in the face and yet…
not
dying. She lowered her arms experimentally- no more than an inch- and immediately felt a fatal increase in heat. She quickly returned to her former position, wondering how much longer she could stand it.

   
How was she doing it? She had no idea, but it seemed similar to… No, it couldn’t be. Could it?

   
Was she striding fire like she did to water? Was it even possible to stride more than one thing? She could think of only one way to test it.

   
When the draik lessened the flow of flames to see if she had succumbed, Elia kept her arms angled toward the last of the torrent as it shot off to either side. Squeezing her fists shut, she tried to imagine that it would obey her and stay lit where it was. For a moment the flames coalesced into two separate balls of fury, whirling in on themselves- then they went out. It had lasted only a second, but it had been enough to convince her.
I can stride fire!

~

   
A hundred yards. Gribly kept running and shouting, hoping against hope his friends would hear him.

   
“Stop! You have to stop! It’s too strong! I’m the only one who can stop it in time!”

   
Fifty yards. It wasn’t working. Lauro was too high to hear and Elia was too far. If he could only reach the draik before it hurt either of them! Why couldn’t he run fast enough, blast it?!? He was pushing himself so hard he thought his heart might pound itself right out of his chest. The wind whipped his hair back in a fluttering flag of pale yellow behind him as he sped through the night, pumping his legs and slamming the ice with each foot as they fell faster and faster. One-two-one-two-one-two-one!

   
Twenty yards. He raced on and on, ignoring the pain from the hard ground against his soles. Whatever footwear the Zain had given to him he had lost in the Ice Demon’s storm. Now only rags bound his feet, but he was used to such conditions from his life in Ymeer.

   
Ten yards. Thirty feet. Lauro was battling the draik with wind, but it could only last so long. He could stop it, if only he reached the prince in time!

   
Ten feet. Gribly whisked paste the charred skeleton of a Treele tent and bounded the last few steps towards the battle.

   
He reached the draik and was about to do as his dream had shown him when Lauro threw a stormy gust of wind across the empty space and blasted the draik off its feet. The force of the gale flipped the Sand Strider on his back like a helpless beetle, and he cracked his head hard against the cold ground.

   
The world shuddered and went all red-black. Gribly thought he had died until a fresh burst of pain from his skull and the return of his sight assured him he was not.

   
“Gah…” he sat up unsteadily and leaned on one arm. The stars danced circles in the sky above him as he struggled to stay upright. His stomach heaved and he gagged over the ice, but nothing came out.
Haven’t eaten in days…

   
His friends needed him! Forcing himself to his knees, he looked up just in time to witness the draik roast Lauro in its belly-fire.

   
“No!” he shouted hoarsely, “Stop!” But his wavering voice could not be heard over the wild fighting. He tried again: “STOP!” But again he wasn’t loud enough.
Blast- blast- blast!

   
He scrambled weakly to his feet just as the draik let its fire die. He expected to see the charbroiled corpse of his friend, but instead he rubbed his eyes, sure he’d seen wrong. Not only was Lauro alive and ugly as ever- but Elia was there too! The nymph was standing between the wind Strider and his monstrous opponent, bent over slightly as if she had just stopped the fire herself.

   
No…

   
She
had
stopped the fire herself!

   
Gribly watched in something between wonder and horror as the draik let loose another torrent of fire that engulfed the girl. A few tense seconds passed, and when the fire abated Elia was still unharmed. More than that- it looked like she was actually c
ontrolling
the flames! She was
striding
them!

   
The draik roared angrily when it saw it had been foiled twice. Gribly woke from his stupor with a jolt, realizing he had only seconds to act. Elia was more powerful than he had realized, obviously, but she couldn’t stop the draik’s charge. Lauro was sprawled out behind her and had just scrambled to his feet when the monster barreled forward.

   
Elia lifted her arms and flung up a wall of water from the melted ice in a futile attempt to slow the beast, but it splashed through and thumped her hard with its snout. It must have been an accident- the thing had obviously meant to claw her or kill her- but she flew back into the wind Strider, knocking them both down in a topsy-turvy pile.

   
“NO!” Gribly screamed, sprinting after the draik. “STOP! I COMMAND YOU!!!”

   
Silence. Elia and Lauro were slow in moving, dazed from the melee. The draik halted mid-charge, skittered to a stop, and wheeled on Gribly, snorting in disbelief and anger.