Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) (41 page)

“
I
don't know,” Gal said with a frown. “It won't be safe to wander out
there just yet. They've been hunting us for a few days now, and
they got pretty close out there with the skiff.”

“
We could get help from town,” Sarah said. “Lou owes me a good
turn from the last time-”

Sebastion shook his head sadly. “Lou's dead,
Sarah. There's no-one left to help. The blighted thunder-struck got
them all.”

“
What?” Sarah's face went pale. “Everyone? How could they
have...” She suddenly whipped her head around, scanning the cave.
“Where's Xavier?” Gal and Sebastion remained silent, staring at the
floor. “What happened?” Sarah asked quietly.

“
Five days ago,” Sebastion began slowly. “God, has it already
been five days? We were sent out here looking for a fire-kissed.
Figured that the Besmirched had run out of iron or something and
had come back for more. So we got here and I set up as spotter but,
I mean... it didn't seem like we needed one. It's Faringway, for
thunder's sake,” he spat.

“
Xavier and I went in, doing the traveling performers bit,” Gal
continued softly. “I was juggling and he was tumbling. They all
started clapping and circled around us...”

“
Everything looked fine,” Seb said bitterly. “We couldn't have
known.”

Gal nodded. “They went from appreciative
audience to angry mob in a heartbeat... I got lucky. It turns out
big, burly men aren't so tough when you nut 'em with a flaming
torch.”

Mat and Ezra both flinched a little and Seb
laughed darkly. “Our little Doe was a regular whirling dervish;
they were only too glad to let her go. I covered her as she made it
out. Then our skiff went offline and I heard my railgun begin to
hum... I remembered the talk Blair gave us about using them when a
thunder-struck was around, and threw the strucking thing as hard as
I could.” He chuckled to himself. “I think it blinded the
elementalist bastard who was sneaking up behind me when the
capacitors went up. I slit his throat and ran like hell.”

“
We met up at our secondary spotting point,” Gal picked up the
story. “Took inventory, then got close enough to town to see what
we could do for Xavier.” She shook her head. “They had him tied to
a stake, and a thunder-struck was standing over him, giving this
speech about how soon Lightning would smite the unfaithful, that
the days of the Forbidden City were numbered. Then he told Xavier
to repent.” The corners of her mouth turned up in a sad little
smile. “And oh, he repented. He repented for doing the
thunder-struck's mom nine ways from Sunday in excruciating detail.
He asked if anyone had a sister, so he could repent about them too.
He leered up at the sparky prick, just daring him to do it, and the
blighted struck called lightning down on his head...”

Sebastian laughed mirthlessly, “...and blew
himself and half the town to kingdom come. Xavier used to complain
about how it wasn't fair that they all got to blow up when they
died, while we had to eat it quietly like normal people. The
lunatic must've been packing some serious volatiles, and while he
was tumbling too. The blast left a crater in the town inches deep.
After that, we ran. The portal was already blown, so we went to
ground. Gal found us this cave, with a bunch of nice metal deposits
running throughout it that should limit what a struck can throw
around without grounding himself out.” He nodded to the little
pond. “Fresh water, too, fed by an underground current. We
scavenged what we could from our skiff the next night; apparently
no-one out there was willing to go near it. I set up a potential
power grid like you showed me, Mat, to power the lights and listen
for friendly chatter.”

“
And the crème de la crème,” Gal announced with a flourish.
“Enough explosives to bring down the mouth of the tunnel leading
in, with a remote trigger. The cave system behind us is massive,
but we found an exit under a bunch of foliage next to a little
river, in case we need to rabbit.” She smiled broadly. “Better than
home.”

“
We should really get back to the skiff,” Ezra said softly,
looking around. “The sooner the better. We have... information that
needs to get back to Sanctuary right away... and that controller is
our only practical way out of this. If it's there, and they take it
or destroy it...”

Sebastian looked at Gal. “I'd rather wait
until tomorrow night, but if we're going to do this, we better do
it now,” she said. “We won't have a chance in broad daylight, and
we'll be pushing dawn as it is.”

Ezra nodded. “Let's get moving then.”

==

“
It shouldn't have been this easy,” Gal whispered pensively as
they crawled to the edge of the crater. The sky was just beginning
to brighten with early morning sunlight, making the shadows of the
crater all that much darker. “There's no way they'd just let us
have this thing.”

“
Even thunder-struck have to sleep sometimes,” Sebastian pushed
himself into a crouch. “Don't borrow trouble, Doe.”

Sarah checked her bolt-thrower. “Okay,
here's the plan: Mat and Seb make a run for the skiff. Gal and I
will cover you from here. Ezra, stay out of the way.”

“
I'll need to disconnect the wormhole controller if it's
intact,” Ezra whispered urgently. “If there's a power surge and it
isn't disconnected properly, it could short something out. We
do
not
want to go
messing around with wormholes using a damaged system.”

“
Ugh, fine. Ezra you can go along with them-”

“
I'm going too,” Gal said resolutely. “Seb's a better shot
anyways.”

Sebastian looked like he was about to argue,
then shook his head, holding out his hand for the weapon. “Fine.
You better keep them in one piece, Doe.”

“
Even Mat?” she protested.

“
Just try to keep up, Doe-girl,” Mat teased.

“
On my mark,” Sarah was already scanning the area, weapon held
ready. “Three.”

“
Sword,” Gal demanded, holding a hand out to Ezra.

He blinked at her. “But I-”

“
Two.” Sarah sounded slightly amused. Gal cleared her throat
and looked expectantly at Ezra. He grumbled, but unsheathed his
sword and handed it over.

“
One.” Gal flicked the sword through a few rapid figures,
testing the balance. Ezra's body tensed, eyes focused on the
crashed skiff.

“
Mark.”

Mat and Gal exploded from
their cover. Ezra was shocked to find himself keeping pace with
them.
I guess all that training paid
off
, he thought as the thin layer of black
gravel crunched under his feet. Thirty meters. Twenty. Ten. He
could smell the smoke and see where a bolt of lightning had hit the
skiff's plating, melting a hole clean through. Then they were upon
it.

Ezra coughed, covering his mouth against the
smoke as he vaulted over the side and rapidly searched the front
console for the wormhole controller. Sarah shouted something from
behind them, and Ezra looked up wildly.

Two thunder-struck emerged from behind the
crater's lip, directly opposite where they had come from. The
morning light briefly dimmed as a cloud passed before the sun, but
Ezra could still clearly make out the Son and Daughter of
Lightning, flickering halos of electricity illuminating their
faces. A tiny, strong hand clamped around his upper arm and yanked
him back behind the cover of the fallen skiff just as the first
lightning stroke fell. Ezra yelped as the blast pushed the skiff
into his back, nearly knocking him over. A second bolt struck to
their right, throwing up chunks of loose earth and searing a line
across Ezra's vision.

Fingers of lightning flashed out above his
head, hammering the crater where Sarah had been standing.

“
Did you get it?” Mat yelled over the deafening thunderclaps
that accompanied every strike.

Ezra shook his head. “It wasn't there, but
it wasn't destroyed either! The console was off, it must have
fallen out!”

“
Blighted hell,” Mat cursed as Ezra peeked through the hole in
the skiff. The Daughter of Lightning was standing on the crater's
edge, pointing imperiously at the skiff as bolt after bolt of
lightning fell around them. Her partner was limping, and Ezra saw
him pull a bloody dart from his leg, tossing it aside as he loosed
a fresh volley of lightning toward Sarah's hiding place and
continued stalking toward the skiff.

“
Okay, one of them is almost here, what are we going to do?”
Ezra glanced back and forth between the combat veterans. Mat nodded
and drew his sword, staying low as he moved to the far side of the
skiff. Another bolt struck a few feet from Gal and Ezra, hurling
them apart. Gal fell into the wounded thunder-struck's line of
sight, and he snarled as his hand extended toward her. Mat yelled
and rounded the skiff, sword gliding up a textbook lunge. The
struck saw him coming and adjusted his aim, catching the blade in a
flickering cage of electricity. The sword was wrenched up into the
air, pulling Mat off the ground as he held on for dear life,
unwilling to surrender his weapon.

The Daughter of Lightning oriented on Gal,
smiling cruelly and lifting her arm, sending streamers of lightning
up into the clouds as she prepared her strike. She never saw
Sebastian coming. His bolt-thrower hummed as it sent its deadly
payload through her temple, dropping her instantly.

“
No!” the Son screamed, releasing Mat and reaching for his
partner. Her lifeless body arched as a tremendous bolt of lightning
leapt up from it, blinding Ezra as he dove back behind the skiff.
The air sizzled as the death spark answered the will of the Son of
Lightning. He drove his fist into the ground and sent Mat, Gal, and
even the skiff flying in a concussive wave. Ezra watched as the
ship tumbled lazily over his head, dropping its contents all around
him. Then he was alone with the thunder-struck. Power crackled
madly through the air, buzzing and popping. The Son of Lightning
held up a palm and electricity leaped to obey, coalescing into a
ball that floated just above his hand. There was murder in his
eyes.

Ezra scrambled away from
him.
I'm going to die
, some part of his brain noted with clinical
detachment,
there is absolutely no way I
can survive this
. His hand bumped into
something small and round, and he glanced at the broken storage
unit behind him.
Oh, that's
good
, another part of his brain
chuckled,
do that
.

Ezra's fist closed on the lightly glowing
orb. He rolled to the side and hurled the little globe at the
thunder-struck. The elementalist's eyes flickered to the projectile
and, from the writhing sphere of energy in his hand, a veritable
blade of light flashed out. It sliced the waterwork in half,
spraying luminous blue liquid everywhere. The Son's eyes bulged as
he abruptly powered down, killing the electrical currents that
crackled around him. He stared down at himself in confusion.
“Wait,” he said, picking at his clothing, “this isn't water. What
do you-”

Ezra slammed the top of the containment unit
into the man's head. Then he hit him several more times, just for
good measure. He stood there panting, lid held poised and eyes
glued to the man lying senseless at his feet. He nearly jumped out
of his skin when Gal rested a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Whoa,
settle down. I think you got him, Ezzy.” Ezra let out a breath he
hadn't realized he was holding and deflated a bit, improvised
weapon falling from his limp fingers. “Next time,” Gal said, eyes
dancing, “I'm letting you keep the sword.”

==

“
Okay, I understand that because we couldn't find the wormhole
thingy, we decided to get back to the cave and try to make a new
plan. There's just one thing I'm unclear on: remind me again why
we're keeping this one alive?” Sebastian muttered as he secured a
pair of cables to the bottom of the little pool in their cave. “I'm
nearly certain that he wouldn't have given a blighted damn about
us.”

“
Because someone's been leaking information about the Guild's
movements to these strucking bastards,” Sarah grunted as she and
Mat dumped the still unconscious man into the pool and began
securing his arms and legs with the heavy metal cables they had
retrieved from the skiff. “And it's past time that we got some
answers.”

Mat peeled back the thunder-struck's eyelid.
“We're not getting them tonight,” he said. “I don't have anything
on me to get him up, so we're just going to have to wait it out.”
He shook his head. “Did you have to go all barbarian on the guy,
Ezra?”

“
Sorry, Mat,” Ezra winced as Gal pulled a makeshift bandage
tight over a gash on his arm that he hadn't even felt happen. “The
next time a crazy guy carrying a ball of lightning tries to kill
me, I'll take a moment to consider the greater strategic value of
only mostly incapacitating him.”

“
Well,” Gal said, sitting back to admire her work. “I guess
that means that we all get to sleep before a fun afternoon of
interrogation?”