Chapter Five:
Felix didn’t say anything as we labored toward the gate. He didn’t know I was an Airmaster—no one did—so when he’d said, “His own Airmaster suffocated him?” I’d seized onto that prospect.
I used to despise being able to hear everyone’s thoughts, but on the march out of Hesterton, I actually wanted to know what the other sentries were thinking. They all accepted that the Airmaster had murdered his Councilman. All of them except Felix. He riddled it around in his mind, constantly asking himself, But why?
As he had advised me, I kept my mouth shut.
As we approached the gate, I saw the Hesterton Council clustered together. Their orange robes fluttered in the slight wind, and one of them kept glancing at us as we drew closer.
Felix quickened his step so he could reach them first. “What’s going on?” he demanded. I almost cringed at the dominance in his voice. I wondered if I sounded like that when I interrogated people. Of course you do, I told myself. I’d been trained to sound like that.
The Councilman met Felix’s gaze. “The Elementals you are searching for have turned themselves in.”
Felix peered behind the Council, like Isaiah and his Council were being concealed. “Where are they?”
“I have them contained at my fortress. The Airmaster confessed to killing his Firemaker, and they wish to negotiate their return to Tarpulin.”
I heard the inner workings of Felix’s mind, and he didn’t want to negotiate anything, least of all the survival of four people he’d been commissioned to kill. He wondered if Alex would approve. He wondered how many more Elementals he’d have to kill if he didn’t agree to the negotiations.
I stepped next to him. “Let’s hear them out,” I said very low, so no one would overhear me.
“Our mission—”
“The Earthmover has considerable talent. Perhaps Alex would take him on his Council. Doesn’t Alex need a new Earthmover?”
I’d said the right thing, thankfully. I sensed Felix’s acquiescence before I heard it come from his mind and out of his mouth.
I didn’t feel satisfaction as we retraced our steps toward the Hesterton fortress. I only had room for relief.
#
“Each Councilmember will be isolated,” Felix said, nearing the end of the negotiation. “Each Elemental will be escorted by three sentries back to Tarpulin. Once there, each will be required to register his or her services to the Supreme Elemental, who is holding field trials for the vacant positions on his Council.”
Among his Council, Isaiah alone appeared calm. He’d spoken for them as a group, and he’d avoided my eyes more than once. “The terms are satisfactory,” he said. I noticed the tight grip he had on Cat’s hand, the fear in her eyes.
The Elementals were split, and I made sure to shuffle myself close to Felix. I wanted to accompany Isaiah, but at the same time I needed to ensure that Felix’s Elemental would return to Tarpulin alive.
So I was assigned to the Airmaster, along with Felix and Victor, another sentry. Just as we were preparing to leave, Felix groaned. He fell to his knees, and a flash of orange light emanated through his sentry uniform.
“He’s getting a new assignment,” I said, pressing people back to give him the space he needed to control the pain. He’d obviously had much more experience with pain, because he was able to regain his feet after only a few minutes.
“I need to go to Cornish,” he said, sounding a bit breathless. “And I need the Watermaiden with me.”
He said nothing more, and no one questioned him. I let his thoughts become louder, and I found nothing nefarious. He glared at me as if he could sense me trying to access his new mission. I felt a sting of betrayal—he’d always told me about his missions; I didn’t even have to ask.
But he wasn’t telling this time. The assignments got shuffled around, leaving the Unmanifested Councilmember with only two sentry guards, and we all set out.
#
I listened to Felix’s thoughts constantly on the road from Hesterton to Junction, a city-state that sprouted roads in every direction. We’d separate in Junction, me and the rest of the contingency heading south to Tarpulin, while Felix and Cat continued east to Cornish.
For some reason, I was worried about her going anywhere alone with him.
He never thought of his assignment, or what he needed to do once he arrived in Cornish. I knew he was thinking about corned beef sandwiches and building sandcastles purposely to keep me from asking questions.
I glared a hole in the back of his head, but he never turned. My anxiety grew with each passing mile. I fretted over the secrecy of his new mission, and what could that possibly mean? I labored over why he needed to take Cat and no one else. Not even another sentry.
I caught Isaiah’s eye when we reached Junction. I couldn’t read his expression, but I could tell he was worried too. He kept looking at Cat, who refused to look up from the lump of bread she’d been given. After she finished eating, she kept her eyes on the wild grass.
When it was time to move out, she cast a panic-filled look to Isaiah, who was powerless to help her. I felt the same sense of hopelessness. But unless I broke ranks and disobeyed orders, my path laid to the south. I lingered near the back of the pack, watching Felix and Cat until I couldn’t see them anymore.
I reluctantly followed my squad, moving to position myself next to Isaiah. He didn’t know I could read minds, but now he knew I was an Airmaster. We simply walked next to one another. For the sake keeping up appearances, I pretended to be nothing but one hundred percent loyal to my Supremist, my sentry squad, and Felix.
But as I moved further and further from my brother, a splinter worked its way into my mind. Sentries never completed assignments alone. We operated in pairs for our own safety, as well as to ensure accurate reporting. Yet no one else in the squad had received a transmission carrying a new assignment.
Perhaps Alex is sending someone from Tarpulin to meet him. This thought satisfied me for a good long while. I kept out everyone’s thoughts and maintained a respectable distance from them all as we bedded down for the night.
In the morning, the air felt different. Too heavy, choked with debris. I had awoken first, of course, and strained to see anything in the still-dark sky. I smelled nothing, but suddenly I knew the air had been poisoned with smoke.
Quickly, before I could reason or think, I stole away from the squad. When I felt like I had put enough distance between me and them, I called on my air.
It filled my very soul, whispered through my hair, and dashed around me in playful patterns. I didn’t know much about what I could and couldn’t do, but I knew Airmasters could ride the wind. And I needed to get to Cornish as fast as possible.
I pulled the air currents into a cushion, stepped onto it, and flew.
#
I arrived on the outskirts of Cornish at dawn, all barricades against the thoughts of others down. I sent the air away, opting to enter this Unmanifested village without my Element. A thin ribbon of gray smoke lifted into the sky, and I hurried toward it.
The ashes of a once-large building still smoldered, but there was no sign of anyone around. Footprints pocked the ground, and I crouched to appraise them. I discovered Felix’s heavy sentry boots, and the lighter imprints of Cat’s shoes.
They’d been here, and not long ago according to the wetness still contained in the mud. I stood, scanning the village in every direction. This building had stood in the center, with several log cabins clustered nearby. The fire had kissed some of those, but not consumed them. I moved between two structures and found more houses, not as neatly or as elaborately constructed. The market lay to my right, the well to my left. Beyond the city center, dwellings filled the village. No one seemed to be awake yet—or perhaps they were simply staying indoors today.
I didn’t know what or who had caused the fire. I didn’t much care. Cat and Felix should be nearby, and most likely out in the open. It took me less than a half hour to circumvent the city, and they were not found. Frustrated, I stopped, closed my eyes, and listened.
A few faint thoughts came from inside the nearest house, and they were filled with fear. Maybe the job isn’t done, I thought.
I strode to the front door of the house and knocked on it several times. A startled gasp came from within. “Open the door,” I said, hating how authoritative my voice sounded. “I need the location of the sentry and Watermaiden who were here.”
Several long seconds passed before the door cracked an inch. “I don’t know anything.” A man stood in the doorway, his body and face concealing the view inside the house.
“You know what happened here,” I said. “Tell me that.”
“A Firemaker came and set our village offices on fire.”
I blinked, unsure of how to respond. Why would someone do that? Whose orders were they acting under?
“And the Watermaiden?” I finally asked.
“She put the flames out.” The narrow strip of face I could see contained only one eye, but fear dominated his expression. “I don’t know what’s going on in the Elemental world. We didn’t do anything.”
“Where is the Watermaiden now?”
The man looked over his shoulder, though I couldn’t detect anyone else’s thoughts within the house. “I heard that they’d found refuge in a house on the west side of town.”
“Which house?” I asked. I couldn’t waste any more time trying to find Felix’s thoughts. He could be asleep, or shielding me, or already gone.
“It’s yellow.” The man frowned. “I don’t know anything else.” He closed the door, and the lock clicked into position.
I leapt from the porch, heading west. I searched for any hint of yellow, somehow feeling desperate and like my time was almost up. Time for what, I didn’t know.
After only a few minutes, a run-down, yellow house came into view. The backyard of the house bordered the wild, and in this village without a wall, the wild grasses and weeds looked like they were making themselves at home.
I hurried up the steps and tried the doorknob. Locked. I sprinted around the back, only to find that the house had no backdoor. I peered in a window, finding a dirty kitchen and a mismatched table and chairs.
No Felix. No Cat.
I listened for their thoughts and heard only silence.
Adrenaline pumped through me as I moved back to the front of the house. This was the only yellow house on the street. The only yellow house I’d seen at all.
Suddenly, a scream rent the air. The sound came from inside the house. I was up the stairs and kicking the door before I could think. Once inside the house, I heard Felix’s thoughts, loud and pulsing.
She’s mine. I want her. I deserve her.
I knew what he was going to do, and it wasn’t what Cat wanted. I didn’t take the time to find her thoughts. I didn’t take the time to think. I lifted my hands, gathering the air currents and coaxing them into alternating patterns. When they were furious and competing, I unleashed them into the atmosphere.