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If I wasn’t so exhausted and covered in mud, I probably would’ve killed the guy. He’d just barreled out of the hedgerow and froze, looking around bewildered. “What happened?” he asked, even though the mud made things pretty clear in my eyes.
I balled my fists and glared, stalking towards him. “What happened,” I growled. “Is that we got ambushed by some thieves with a grudge that were hired by the Wind Tribe who showed up and stole the crystal shard and then proceed to give us a very unfair fight!” I took a deep breath. “Now what on earth are you doing here?”
He ignored my question, his face pale. “You let them take the shard?”
Tired as she was, Fera still managed to have flames dance on her arms. “Let them?”
“How stupid do you think we are?” I practically yelled. “They STOLE it!” I clenched my fists and pulled a tight rein on my anger. As angry as I was at him in particular, it wouldn’t do me any good right now. “And what are you doing here?”
The guy oh-so-tactfully looked away from me. “I came to help.”
“You’re help is about five minutes late,” Fera pointed out.
At least he looked embarrassed. And somewhat defensive. “I got here as soon as I could,” he said, “it’s not exactly easy to follow your blazon cross-country trek.”
I raised an eyebrow. “And yet you’ve managed all this way.”
He opened his mouth, and then shut it. ‘Not easy to follow’ – what a wonderful excuse – it had so many holes in it, and I questioned what else he could possibly have been doing. Then I reminded myself that I shouldn’t bother with that at all. It wasn’t like he was an actual ally.
He was just some strange elementalist who had helped in unintentional ways that I really resented.
I turned away from him and with a tired flick dried off my sister. She sent me a grateful look, even as her hair frizzed from the flames on her arms. I shivered suddenly, and realized I was still wet. The very idea of drying myself made me want to pass out. I was better off soaked.
Our follower watched us for a minute with hooded eyes. “You . . . you two are okay, right?” If it hadn’t been so impossible, I would’ve thought I heard concern in his voice.
“Little disoriented from multiple soakings,” Fera grumbled, “otherwise I’m fine.”
“Likewise,” I said. “I’m just worn out. Controlling water without moving is not something to try again.”
He stared at me. “You managed to do it with your mind?” I gave him a curt nod in response. A grudging smile grew on his face. “Impressive.”
I turned away so he couldn’t see I was blushing. I still wasn’t sure how I’d managed to do that. Perhaps it was because I’d gained the crystal shard, and the god-given item had briefly acknowledged me in some way. Or perhaps the waters in the lake were different somehow, more attuned to water elementalists. It had gone all glowy and smooth the night before.
Fera gave me a curious look, and I scowled at her. She was undoubtedly wondering the same thing I was.
My thoughts were interrupted by a low voice saying, “So this is how it played out. Good bye, then.”
I spun to stare alongside my sister as Mister Unknown turned and began to walk calmly off. Fera and I looked at each other, and her opinion was clear. Find out more. Why was this designated to me?
I sighed and hurried after the guy. “Hold up,” I said. “That – that’s it?”
He stopped and looked at me. “Well, yes, I suppose so. I thought you and your sister would be happy to see me go.”
“Well . . .” my voice faltered for a second. “It’s just that you’ve been following us this whole time, and we . . . I know we lost the shard, but . . . it kinda feels like you treated us like – like we were just your guides or something. It’s insulting! And you’ve barely explained things.”
An expression I didn’t quite get shadowed his face for a moment. “I followed you to help, even if it’s hard to believe. I could care less if the crystal remained lost forever – I’d actually like that to be the case, but it’s not. Now that the Wind Tribe has what they want, you two should be safe enough. I can see you have enough smarts to deal with ordinary thieves, should you come across them.”
“But they took the shard! Shouldn’t – shouldn’t we try to get it back?” I protested.
“They already got it from you once, how exactly do you expect to steal it from them?” he asked. I didn’t have an answer. He sighed. “Look, the Crystal and all it’s shards are the responsibility of us aether elementalists. We’ll keep an eye on the Wind Tribe. If they get any clues to the other shards, then we’ll interfere. You tried, but now you can leave it to us.”
“But –!”
“It’s no longer your responsibility, okay? I’ll absolve you of the guilt, if that’s what it takes. The Wind Tribe is finished with you, so you can both go back to your normal lives. I’d like it if we didn’t have to meet again, because then you’re safe, only I doubt either one of you will go back to a quiet life.” His smile was amused. “Until we meet again, Mira Dublay.” He nodded to Fera, and then left as I was standing there gaping like an idiot.
In the blink of an eye, he went through hedge and vanished. I stared angrily after him as Fera stepped up beside me. “Uh, what just happened?”
I took a moment to collect my thoughts, and make my tone sound more civil. “He’s going. He plans to stop the Wind Tribe however he can. Now that we’re ‘safe’ as he put it, he’s just leaving.”
I decided not to mention to Fera that he thought we’d meet again. I had a nagging feeling about that too, only my sister was likely to go in all flames after him.
We were quiet for a minute. I looked around at the stretch of lakeshore. It had clearly been through a battle. The ground was churned to pure mud, imprinted with hundreds of footsteps and a rut from the pot Fera had been in. I still couldn’t believe I’d managed to move it. I had expected the water to just flow out.
The two of us were practically brown from mud, and the stuff felt sticky and cold where it had gotten under my clothing. Fera, on the other hand, was turning into a walking dust cloud as the dried mud flaked off of her hair and clothes. I’d do my best to wash us off later, after a meal and a really long nap.
Fera was still looking at the gap in the hedge, glaring and thinking. I folded my arms and waited to see her reaction. I kept looking at the gap too, half expecting someone to appear.
“So, our stalker just vanished, again,” she said. “Good riddance, I say.” She tilted her head to the side. “Hey, did you ever get his name?”
“. . . No,” I sighed. That, I think, irritated me the most.
I turned around to face the lake and sat down, ignoring how the ground squelched and slipped. It felt good to sit. Fera grumbled to herself and made a face and she plopped down as well.
We sat in silence for a couple minutes, resting, and in my case trying not to dissolve into a snivelling mess. We’d come all this way, gone through so much, just to have the shard stolen from us by the very people we had wanted to keep it from. It just wasn’t fair. How could this happen?
I covered my face and took a few deep breaths. No. Now wasn’t the time to break apart and blame everything else. We simply hadn’t been good enough. That was it. Next time, we’d have to be better.
The realization hit me like a bucket of icy water. Next time. The scroll mentioned four pieces. So had the stalker. This wasn’t over. There were three other shards hidden out there, all in danger, all capable of increasing the power of the Wind Tribe.
Wrapping my arms around myself, I got up and walked to the water’s edge, staring out at what had so recently been a weapon. Were there more clues down there? I didn’t think so. It seemed the Tribes had hidden their pieces independently.
And I doubted the other tribes had made it easy for any clues to be found.
“What now?” Fera asked me.
“I – I don’t know.” I turned around to face her. Her face was pale, though what exactly had brought that on, I couldn’t be sure. Too much had happened. “We lost, and we made things worse. We didn’t stop anything. Uisce’s waves, everything is our fault, again!”
I squeezed my eyes shut and steadied my breathing. “We have to beat them,” I said in a low voice. “Somehow, we have to find the other pieces. If we do nothing, then it’s only a matter of time before the Wind Tribe gains more power. They’ll reassemble the Crystal, all because we lost this one. We have to get the other pieces, and we have to protect them.” I looked in Fera’s eyes, a mirror of mine. “There isn’t a choice left.”
Fera bit her lip. “Couldn’t . . . couldn’t we just turn back?”
“I think the time to turn back was when our parents didn’t believe us,” I told her honestly.
“Maybe somebody else will decide to stop them.”
“Like who, the stalker? We still got here before him. I wouldn’t trust him to do this.”
She nodded. “Right. Still, we’re two untrained girls against a whole tribe. What are supposed to do? We’re practically in the middle of nowhere, and we’ll be lucky if we have any money or food left. Not to mention we don’t know where other pieces are.”
She had a point; in that we were all but stranded. “Try to get someone to help us – not those aether people, though. I don’t like it, but we have little choice. And then . . . head home. Try and find clues on our own.”
Fera got to her feet. “Home?” The word sounded almost alien. “I suppose you’re right. We have nowhere else to go, and our parents must be going crazy with worry. It’ll be safe . . . and warm . . . and dry . . . best place to regroup. Maybe another hint will be hidden in the passages. We never know.”
“Maybe,” I admitted. “So – home?”
“Home.” she agreed, tossing me my bag and offering her mud splattered arm. I managed a smile at her, knowing she was trying to perk me up, and took it.
Arms linked, we made our way towards the break in the bushes that would take us back to the beautiful archway of trees. I deliberately made my pace slow, glancing back over my shoulder.
This place would be scarred for a long time, until the grass and wildflowers grew back in spring and the magpie birds carried off the forgotten blades once they were made shiny by the rain.
There was a sharp tug on my arm, and I faced my sister. She smiled at me, and I mustered one in return. I always had her. I would need to remember that, in what was to undoubtedly come.
Together, Fera and I went through the hedge and began the long trek back home.