Tempering earth, p.20
Tempering Earth, page 20
Or did he?
Dove’s face was pale, much paler than it ought to be at the thought of his friend being an amputee. “What else? I know there’s something else,” I asked. The wind whipped my hair into my mouth, and I tasted the blood that had stained the tips of my hair red. I was losing control, I knew it and still couldn’t stop it. Didn’t care to stop it.
“He still won’t wake up.” The scattered leaves in the corners of the courtyard joined the wind, and I could hear the pebbles on the ground clink together from the force. “I tried, Della. I fixed everything I could. Physically he’s fine, he’s healed, not even a scar where they took… where he lost–”
“You’ll have to try again, Dove. You just didn’t do it right!” My voice seemed to float on the wind around us like a howl, and gravity lost its battle against my anger when the small pebbles beneath our feet joined the swirling fray around us.
“I did everything I could.” He stumbled back a step, then another, and another. Pushed. Bent, further and further back until he was pressed against the red brick of the hospital. There was a part in my brain that told me that he loved Cash too, that he was hurting, too… but it was being drowned out by the part that wanted to squish him for failing, liked I’d squished the Clade that had hurt Cash in the first place.
“You didn’t try hard enough!” I shouted, using all the control I had left to only use my voice and not my power to strike him.
“There’s something wrong with his soul, Della. His Spirit. I don’t know how to fix it, my ability only works on the physical. The most I can do is sense it. There are gaping holes in it, Della.”
The Clade, he’d been draining Cash. Stealing his Spirit to fuel his own power. I’d seen the golden energy leave his body and enter the Clade’s, seen the Clade’s aura grow stronger as a result. I was too late to prevent it. Too slow to save him in time.
The wind around me died down when I realized where the true fault lay. Dove took a deep sigh, walked towards me, and wrapped me in his arms. I let myself be comforted by him; by the warmth of his power healing the bruising I’d been too distracted to fix for myself.
“He’s going to be okay, Della. I called Clara, she should be here soon.”
I pulled myself out of his arms, not wanting to feel the false sense of safety I always felt with him. “How can your sister help?”
“She has more of our grandmother’s abilities as a spiritual healer. She’ll have a better idea on how to help Cash.” I remembered then that Dove’s grandmother had been a medicine woman for her tribe, but still had no idea what all that meant. It seemed like years had passed since our first date, and the conversation about his sister’s abilities.
“So she can heal him, right?” I hated how small my voice sounded, how much I needed him to say yes.
He hesitated before answering. “I don’t know. But she can try. Either way, she’ll know what’s wrong with him.”
“One of the Clades we were fighting, he started draining him. I couldn’t… there were too many of them, and by the time I realized Cash needed help he was already-“
“This isn’t your fault, Della,” Dove’s eyes were firm, serious as he said that to me.
“I never said it was.” I hadn’t said it, but I knew it was true. He wasn’t there, didn’t know. The Clades were after me, I should have left with Ezra when he asked, then none of this would have happened. “I’m going up to see him. You coming?”
“Yeah, I’m going to stop by the food court first to fuel up,” he said, making me notice for the first time how tired he seemed. I wanted to tell him to go home to get some rest and that he’d done enough, but I kept my mouth shut. Enough would have resulted in my cousin being awake right now. Cash might still need him, so he’d better stick around.
I pushed my way back into the hospital, taking a deep breath as the warm air rushed over me. Quickly, I realized I didn’t know where Cash would be now. I didn’t want to go back and ask Dove, so I Tempered Fire and started walking the maze-like hallways of the ICU until I saw the right color auras of my family through the room door. I paused outside the doorway, using the hand sanitizer located on the wall next to the entryway just to give myself something to do while I prepared myself to enter. Rubbing the cool gel over my hands, I took a steadying breath, then with hands still wet from the disinfectant, I reached down and opened the door. Ellis stood up and rushed to my side, still wearing her house-shoes. My stomach turned at the site of her tear-stained face, and I ignored her questions about my own well-being and walked up to Cash.
He looked considerably better than he did just a short while ago, and I knew that Dove really had done a lot to heal so much in so short a time. I was amazed he was still upright. Cash’s left eye no longer looked ruined, and you would never know that only a short while ago the bone was peeking through his arm. As I got closer to him and the beeping of the machines, I let my eyes trail down, superimposing the injuries he’d had with what he was now. He was covered with a blanket up to his mid-chest, but you could clearly see the outline of his body through the blue fabric covering him. When I got to his legs, my heart clenched. Below his right knee the outline stopped. There simply wasn’t anything below it. I could see the bulge of his knee, then about two inches below it, then nothing. I remembered what had been there before the surgery and felt the bile rise in my throat.
No. I would not throw up again.
I slammed down another layer of Shielding to help keep some of the pain at bay, and Bent a chair into place to sit down next to him and opposite from the chair my aunt had just vacated. I grabbed his hand with one of my own, and with the other I traced the triquetra tattoo on my arm, staring idly at the matching one on Cash’s before I remembered what Dove had said about the gaping holes in his Spirit. So I Tempered again and looked for myself, and once again had to hold in the bile. The gold energy that made up his aura, his life-force, didn’t just have holes in it. It was cracked, crumbling, and there was nowhere near enough of it left to heal naturally.
A hand squeezed my shoulder, causing me to jump. I’d been so intent on my study of Cash that I didn’t see Connor when he came back in.
I quickly stood up, turned around, and forced myself to make eye contact. It was easy for Ellis to be kind to me, she was a part of this war, but her family had never seen the frontline. She didn’t know the importance of watching someone else’s back in battle. She wouldn’t fully understand the extent of my failure. But Connor? He would.
“Tell me what happened,” ordered the voice of a general; of a Dux. No matter that we were technically equals, I’d let my family down; I’d let my best friend down. I owed him an explanation of how things had gone. How I refused to leave with the Clades. How I was too cocky, and had let my guard down and it might still cause Cash his life. I owed it to him, and I told him. Everything. About us going out, about the tattoos. I told him about going to the pier to watch the storm before going home. He listened patiently, making no remark at the offer the Clades made me, and only flared his nostrils when I described the gold energy leaving his son. My voice was clinical, and left out no detail. Well, I left out one. I left out Ezra being the Clade that offered to take me with him. I didn’t tell him that I could have prevented the whole thing if I had only listened. But I couldn’t share that, not yet. Ezra was a still a Clade, and my uncle would view that as the worst type of betrayal.
“Della, you did the right thing.”
My jaw dropped. “Right thing? How was that the right –”
“They’re Clades Della. You were right not to go with them. We would have lost you both, because they wouldn’t have let Cash live, and once they had you, they’d never let you be free. And that’s if they didn’t just kill you. At least this way my son–” his voice broke on that word. “–has a chance. That’s because you were there to save him.” I knew the exact moment that he stopped being a general, and started being a father again. His shoulders sagged, and his hard eyes lost their intensity and gained… despair. He reached one hand over to me and squeezed my shoulder, before walking over and taking the chair next to his wife to help her hold vigil over their son.
I took a deep breath, and turned to do the same when the door opened behind me. I threw up a Shield and turned to greet the newcomer, unconcerned with the fact I was being paranoid. She stopped inches away from my Shield, clearly sensing it was there, and I finally got a good look at her.
“Clara,” I said, finally recognizing the metallic sheen of her amber eyes that she shared with her brother. Her long black hair was hanging to the side of her neck, thick and wavy, and the smattering of freckles on her face stood out more since she was pale with worry. My voice drew the attention of my aunt and uncle, and Ellis stood and rushed across the room to greet her, forcing me to drop my shield suddenly or let her face-plant into it.
“Thank you so much for coming! Dover said that you would be able to help,” my aunt’s voice was rushed and full of hope as she tugged Clara to the bed.
“Dove said that there was something wrong with Cash’s spirit energy. That’s all I know though, he was using a hamburger as a pillow in the cafeteria when I found him to get more info. Mom and Dad are on their way to come–“ she took one look at Cash and rushed out of the room, unable to finish her sentence.
Alarmed, we all followed her out the door, only to see her heaving into the nearest trash can. I knew the feeling. Ellis, always thoughtful, grabbed several tissues from the empty nurses station, and held a few out while Connor talked to a young doctor who was hardly old enough to be out of med school. Something about a girl puking in the middle of the ICU must not be kosher. If Cash were awake, I’d be making fun of him for making two girls sick on sight in the same 24 hour period, but he wasn’t. Finally, an older doctor that was a little more aware of the situation came by to help my uncle smooth things over, giving him the universal head nod of respect while he ushered the young intern past.
Finally, Clara grabbed the handful of tissues held out to her, wiped her mouth, and peered at us with a look in her eyes that made my stomach drop to the floor. She went back into the room without saying anything, leaving us to trail behind her again like a flock of birds.
“What is it?” I asked her as soon as the door closed behind us.
“I–I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it. What happened?”
“A Clade was draining him, I could see him taking the energy.”
“What happened to the Clade?”
“Me.” I left it at that. What I had done to him was going to haunt my nightmares for the rest of my life, I didn’t want to rehash the sound his skull made when it finally succumbed to my power, or the proceeding stench as the pressure made him loose control of his faculties.
“Oh.”
“Why, did we need him?”
“No, I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “This is new. I’ve never heard of someone surviving a Clade’s drain before.”
“With other things, the energy just starts growing back. Why isn’t that happening with Cash?” Life grew more life. Cash was still alive, so he should be healing himself.
“I don’t know. This is completely new to me.”
“Della, do you think you can give him some energy, like with the ambrose?” my uncle asked. It was a brilliant idea, and I could have kicked myself for not thinking of it already. I concentrated on my own aura and pushed it into Cash like I was taught to do with anything else, and for a moment I though it worked. But the white-hot color of my energy wouldn’t blend with the gold of Cash’s. I was too other. I tried again, this time pulling the energy I’d begun to store in the stones of my armlets, but it wouldn’t attach either, just would sink in without changing anything. I gave him more and more of what I had, getting desperate and shoving Elements in him as well, to no use.
“Della.”
I stopped and looked over at Clara.
“It’s not working. Della, I’m not sure that will work at all.”
“Then tell me what will work.” I kept from raising my voice, but only because I knew Connor and Ellis were in enough pain right now, and didn’t need to worry about me losing my temper.
“Maybe ask the Elfennol if they can help. They have the same abilities as the Clades, don’t they? They should know how to fix this. All I can do is keep him attached.”
“Attached? What do you mean?”
“Our spirit energy, our aura, is what connects our soul and our body. Without a soul, a body will die, and without his aura there’s nothing keeping his soul in place. I can anchor him, make sure that doesn’t happen until we figure out how to heal the damage.”
I absorbed this new knowledge, tuning out Clara explaining exactly what she’d need to do while Connor and Ellis asked furtive questions.
The Elfennol didn’t know how to fix this. They’d said themselves, bragged even, that they’d lost much of the knowledge of Spirit-Gathering long ago. They’d purged all the powers they felt were dark and had led to the destruction of their own world so long ago, and disowned any who showed interest in that lost knowledge; kicked out and turned Clade all because of curiosity.
The Clades. They would know. They had to know. And they were going to tell me. I walked back over to Cash’s side, and leaned down.
“I’m going to fix this, Cash. I swear, if it’s the last thing I do, I’ll make sure you survive this. Just don’t hate me for what I’m about to do,” I spoke so softly that no one else could hear me, unless Connor had been Tempering, and he wasn’t because I would have been able to tell. The last thing I needed was for one of them to try and stop me; they wouldn’t be able to, but I didn’t have the control to guarantee that no one would get hurt in the process. I knew where to go. Ezra should be with the Elders by now, and he had a little tracking device around his thumb that would lead me straight to them.
Chapter 24
Journal,
Luke has disappeared again. He apparently left shortly after his fight with Toby. I’m glad he is gone, that he has run away again. He is unable to change, unable to grow, and because of that he doesn’t fit here. Not anymore.
My Readings have been focusing more and more on the key. I feel like there is something important about it. The number six keeps popping up, but I don’t understand why.
Toby and I have compromised on the subject, and until the baby is born I will only do one Reading, in his presence, per week. It is just too easy to fall, like Alice, into the Rabbit Hole of this mystery.
*****
I wasn’t surprised when the trail led me to Bermuda. Thank God I’d actually read a few of those tourist brochures when I’d visited the island, or else I never would have known about the extensive underwater caves beneath it. Because even if I had been led there by my own energy in Ezra’s ring, the direction would have confused me, stalling my progress while I figured out how it was possible. It was clever, because all the humans nearby ensured their safety. Not only because of the human auras hiding their own, but even if the Elfennol did find them, they’d never jeopardize so many innocents by bringing a fight to the Clades.
I carefully made my way through the coral, following an invisible pull leading me straight to the entrance. I felt a moment’s hesitation for what I was about to do, but it was too late to change my mind now. My energy was nearly gone; I used so much so fast, that even my super Gathering ability wasn’t enough to sustain me for much longer.
This must be what Dove felt like after a tough Healing, and I hoped he was recovering well. I’d run into Heather while leaving the hospital and her face was pinched in concern; everyone loved Cash. She’d explained that they’d already rounded up Dove and her husband was taking him home before coming back to the hospital to help. I knew a lot of her concern was for her own son. It was dangerous for Dove to give so much of himself in a healing; he could have killed himself. It was a stark reminder that our split was a good thing. I hadn’t thought of the consequences to Dove if Cash had been too close to death. When you loved someone, you thought of that. But my concern for my cousin was bigger than anything else I had. The guy I was supposed to be with, I’d be equally as concerned about him and I hadn’t given Dove a second thought. The last of my doubts about our split had vanished with that realization, and I really knew I’d done the right thing. Not just the logical thing, but the right thing. If only I’d been smart enough to do the right thing and protect Cash like I should have, then I wouldn’t be in this mess and about to possibly do the dumbest thing in the history of dumb things.
I desperately hoped that Ellis and Connor had seen the note I left by now. They wouldn’t be able to follow me, not here, and the Elfennol couldn’t even if they wanted to. They had no idea where I’d be, and there was a good chance they’d just snub their noses at me if they did. Once you go Clade, there’s no turning back. Even if you’re only going to find out how to save someone you love. Briefly, I thought of Alexander and wondered if he were even still alive. I had a feeling he would understand, and stand up for me within the Elfennol, even though he’d never explained himself earlier.
Finally, I saw the entrance to what must be the Clade compound. I entered a maze-like cave system, which was vastly different than the Elfennol entrances for their base and city, but it was still so familiar. The water slowly thinned to air in the same way, and the entryway had the same runes, same doorway, and same magic for lack of a better word. I placed my hand in the center of the circle on the door, but I wasn’t surprised when it didn’t open for me.
But that didn’t mean that I was going to give up.
I used some of the last bits of my energy to pound the door, knowing that the Clades would be able to see and feel the energy-light I was emitting with each pound like a really loud strobe light. My knees buckled, my Well nearly empty, but I wouldn’t let myself fall. Not yet.
