Taming the Elements: Elwin Escari Chronicles: Volume 1 (20 page)

“Dragons take me,” Gibbins cursed. “Looks like I’m going to have take him to the temple for healing.”

Feffer blinked as much from the curse as from the idea of healing. Swearing by dragons was a bad omen, but the idea of having another person use the Elements on him didn’t seem much better.

Lord Lifesong looked at Gibbins with an emotionless mask. His words held little inflection. “Yes. That would be wise.”

Feffer closed his eyes again.

Chapter 9

Escaping the Inquisition

Feffer awoke in a bed.

The thick cushions beneath him suggested he was somewhere other than his bunk. Light came in from windows all around the room. Outside, he heard the sounds of someone shouting, but he couldn’t make out the words. The inflection of the voice had the sound of a city crier. He had heard a few throughout the city upon their arrival.

He sat up to get a better look at his surroundings. The large room had several rows of beds covered in white sheets. As far as Feffer could tell, he was the only occupant.

“He wakes,” a woman’s voice said from beside him.

Feffer jumped, almost falling off the bed. He turned to see a woman not more than a handful of years his senior sitting in a chair at his bedside and smiling at him. Even beneath her simple white robe with yellow trim, he could make out the round shapes of ample breasts. On her shoulder was a teardrop falling on a yellow flower. Her round eyes seemed too big for her narrow face, and her nose came to a sharp point. He found his eyes drifting back down to her breasts.

“Uh,” Feffer said. “Where am I?”

“This is the Temple of Life,” she said. “By His powers of Life, you have been healed.”

“Healed?” Feffer said not bothering to hide his confusion. “Why did I need to be healed?”

She laughed as if he had said some great joke. Her bosom bounced in a pleasant fashion, and he found himself grinning at them. Uh. Her.

“Oh,” she said. “Well. Your skull was cracked by a practice sword. Do you remember being brought here or any of the events before or after your incident?”

Feffer frowned, making himself look up at her face. Incident. What incident? He remembered training in the yard with water form. Then, he had learned the sweeping tide one.

“Gibbins,” Feffer said. “I was in the yard and … Wait. He cracked my skull?”

“And three of your ribs,” she said with a smile. “They are healed now. What else do you remember?”

He reached up to touch his skull and found cloth wrapped around his head. “What’s this? If I’ve been healed, why do I need a bandage?”

“It soaked up the blood,” she said. “We will move you to the bath and have you cleaned up after you have had some stew. Now, what can you remember?”

Feffer closed his eyes and tried to think. He could feel the moves he had learned working through his mind. A large part of him itched to grab a sword and go through all of the maneuvers. The match with Gibbins was fresh in his mind, all the way up until the sound of cracking wood. No. Not wood. That had been the sound of his skull being cracked. Everything after that was a blank. He told her as much.

“This is a very common symptom,” she said, her smile never wavering. “You will need to eat to get your strength up. Here.” She placed a wooden bowl in his hands. “Take this.”

It contained a brown broth with chunks of something in it.

“What is it?”

“It’s a stew of sorts,” she said. “Eat it all.”

He grabbed the spoon and tasted it. The texture did not have the consistency of meat, and it all tasted like … salt and sage? Still, it wasn’t any worse than the porridge and stew in the mess hall. He ate it in large bites, trying to get it into his belly as quickly as possible.

“Very good,” she said in a patronizing tone. “I will have more brought to you shortly.”

She stood as if to go, and Feffer grabbed the sleeve of her robe. “What am I supposed to do?”

“You are to rest.”

“For how long?”

“Until you are better.”

Feffer gritted his teeth. “How long will that take?”

“Oh,” she said in a reproachful voice. “Irritability is also a symptom. Rest will make you feel better.”

The sounds from outside became louder as if a crowd had gathered. A second crier joined the first, and Feffer could just make out the words.

“A Death bound has been captured! Bear witness to the trial! Come see the trial of Elwin the Dark!”

Feffer dropped his spoon into the broth. He shook his head and strained to hear the crier. He repeated the phrase over and over.

“What in the abyss?” Feffer said.

For the first time, the woman’s smile faded. “Mind your tongue. You are in the Temple of Life.”

“Did he say Elwin?”

Her lips thinned into a frown and her voice sounded remorseful. “Yes. Some young boy murdered a soldier in some small town to the east. A pity one so young was corrupted by the power of Death.”

“Dragons take you for a fool,” Feffer said. “He isn’t a thumping Death bound.”

The woman’s mouth dropped open, and she stared at Feffer as if he had grown a tail and breathed fire. Her jaw worked for several moments without producing any words. She crossed her arms beneath her ample breast, making some of her cleavage show at the nape of the neck. Feffer felt as if his eyes had become attached to her milky skin by some invisible string.

She quickly covered her breasts with both hands and spoke in a shrill voice. “Young man! You will mind your tongue, or I will take soapstone to it.”

He felt a profound sense of disappointment at no longer being able to see her cleavage. The feeling became replaced by an intense anger.

“Where is this trial?” Feffer said, getting out of the bed. His legs wobbled beneath him, but he forced them to work with sheer will. And anger. “The Seeker take you all. Where is this thumping trial?”

Elwin stared at the Temple of Life, while standing to the side of the cobblestone road to avoid the flow of traffic. He hardly saw the people leading carts or walking with wicker baskets filled with goods. The temple seemed to loom over him.

Made of plain stones, the front of the building made a giant L. The shorter part of the L jutted toward the street, while the longer part running parallel to the road had several windows. A fenced garden rested in the crook of the building facing the street. Flowers of many colors surrounded tall redwood trees.

Behind the L, tall walls stretched into the sky as if trying to reach the sun. Several of the windows on the upper floors were stained with colors. The top most window looked like the tip of a candle flame, but the lower glass held an array of patterns that didn’t seem to look like anything at first. But, when he looked at the building as a whole, the windows formed a red crescent with a golden circle inside it.

“We should go,” Zarah said.

Elwin jumped at the sound of her voice. Though she had led him there, he had forgotten she was with him. He felt his cheeks burn and felt a nervous laugh escape his lips.

She smiled at him. “Are you ready?”

He nodded.

Though the double doors were propped open, two guards stood to either side of the entrance. Standing against the wall, each man struck the same rigid pose with a hand resting on the hilt of his sword, eying passersby down the length of his nose. Both men wore a tunic with the symbol of a golden circle resting between the tips of a red crescent moon.

When Zarah approached the door, they regarded her without blinking. She walked up the steps as if she had every right to the place, not even bothering to glance at the men standing at the entrance. The guards regarded her for the briefest of moments, before their eyes settled on him.

He attempted to mirror her confidence, but he couldn’t stop himself from looking at their faces. Cold eyes seemed to pierce his thoughts. He quickened his steps, eager to cross the threshold of the temple to move beyond their gazes.

Once inside, Elwin stopped.

Light spilled into the expansive courtroom from the entryway, but no windows lined the walls to give light to the room. Bare walls surrounded several rows of wooden pews, split by a center aisle, facing a raised platform at the other end of the room. Sparse lanterns made the space between the rows of benches seem darker at the front, but provided enough light to see seven ornate chairs atop the platform. Beyond the chairs, a hollow doorway opened up to darkness.

Zarah grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the last row. “Let us sit.”

“Are you sure we are in the right place?”

“Yes,” she said. “We are half an hour early. Others will come.”

He let her guide him to the middle of the pew and sat next to her. Half an hour. He wanted it to be over with, but at the same time …

He never wanted any of this.

Biron had brothers and sisters, a mother and father who would miss him. A man was dead because of his actions. It was an accident, sure, but did that excuse it?

The sound of boots came from behind him. He turned to see a woman with brown hair tied in a tail enter with a balding man. Their movements were rigid, as if each step landed on pikes. Several children of varying ages followed the first two. The one who stood out to Elwin was a pretty girl no more than a handful of years older than him. She carried a young child and glanced at Elwin and Zarah as she passed by.

Elwin flinched when her eyes settled on him. Her lips quivered as if she might cry at any moment, and her eyes appeared swollen as though she had already been crying for some time. One by one they walked to the front of the room and filled the first two rows and part of the third.

Biron’s family, Elwin realized. It had to be.

Elwin could hear town criers start to yell in the streets. “Come see the trial of Elwin the Dark!”

“A Death bound has been captured! Bear witness to the trial!”

“See the Death witch crucified!”

Zarah leaned into him and gave his hand a gentle squeeze. “It will be alright,” she whispered. “Nothing is going to happen to you, I promise. They just do not understand.”

Elwin didn’t look at her. He couldn’t take his eyes off the family at the front of the room. Other people began to fill the empty seats. The criers continued shouting, and before long there was not an empty seat. People began to line the walls around the courtroom. Eventually, men bearing the same crest as the guards out front began to push their way through and stand at even intervals along the walls. Several would-be witnesses to the trial were displaced. Two more men stood by the doors and crossed halberds to prevent further entry.

Elwin could still hear a crowd at the front of the building. He couldn’t hear individual curses, but he heard several words that conveyed their intent.

“Burn …”

“… Witch …”

“Behead …”

No windows to escape through and a crowd blocked the exit.

Sweat tickled his forehead, and he found his mouth too dry to swallow, as if cornmeal had stuck in his throat. Breathing became labored, and his vision began to blur.

Zarah leaned over and whispered into his ear. “Shh … you are going to be alright. They do not understand us. It is alright. It will be over before you know it.”

He closed his eyes and felt tears roll down his cheeks. Taking several steadying breaths, he forced his thoughts to relax as he did when searching for his essence.

Elwin could feel the Air in the room connecting all of the people. He could feel it pulsing with life and power. He felt his heartbeat. There was peace in its rhythm. All the while, he heard Zarah’s soothing voice whispering in his ear.

He continued taking slow steady breaths. Calm washed over him.

He opened his eyes. Elwin felt the man’s gaze to his left. When he looked at him, the man narrowed his eyes and looked away.

Elwin heard metal slide across metal from behind him. The halberds had uncrossed, and the crowd at the doorway parted. Jasmine walked through them and marched down the center aisle. Her face was a portrait of calm serenity.

The crowd quieted somewhat with her passing, but Elwin heard several people whisper Jasmine’s name. Many people avoided looking at her all together.

She stood several paces in front of the central chair.

Many people believed that an elementalist could control a person’s mind
through direct eye contact. Jasmine had spoken of using the Elements for compulsion, but she didn’t tell him how it worked. Still, it didn’t make sense. These people were afraid of her, yet her purpose was to protect them.

Waves of silence filled the room, and Elwin followed the crowd’s gaze to the front of the court.