Elements (Tear of God Book 1) (21 page)

W
HILE MINK
was busy gladhanding the last of the crowd congratulating him on his marksmanship, four Wood users built a stage at the very back of the yard, complete with a wall behind it to amplify acoustics. When they had it finished, Pirk jumped onto the stage to thank everyone for coming to her fifteenth birthday. Now Mink understood why the party was so huge. The fifteenth year of age was a very big deal to Elementalists, beginning the first ten-year phase of adulthood. He had taken Pirk to be twelve or thirteen. Before leaving the stage, she introduced a band comprised of her classmates.

Mink had celebrated his fifteenth about a year and a half ago. At the time, his humble gathering with Dreh and Pulti was perfect. He had stayed up all night with just the people who cared about him the most. There wasn’t a crowd, no big mess to clean up, no need to buy extra food. But now that Mink was part of a full-on fifteenth birthday party and actually enjoying himself, he wished he could have had a bigger celebration.

As the band took the stage and the attention away from Mink, they looked very much like wannabe musicians trying too hard to be professionals. But Mink was impressed as soon as they started playing. He urged Dreh and Pulti to follow him closer to the stage. This might be a good chance to start hooking them up, if the band would just play a song they could dance to.

The trio wove their way through the crowd, Mink receiving the occassional pat on the back for his skill with the spikes, but the notoriety was fading fast. Not that Mink minded a whole lot. For the first time he could remember, he was at a party without having effects put on him in jest. Pulti went to gather some more nutties.

Mink felt compelled to work his way right up to the stage, and even started dancing. The whole area surrounding the stage was alive with partygoers stomping, spinning, shaking, and singing. Pulti came back with a Wooden bucket of frosty bottles which she proudly set at Dreh and Mink’s feet. Mink grabbed one, uncorked it, and took it in greedily. Dreh and Pulti hopped and twisted close by.

A few dozen Air users got above the crowd and danced with their Sky Step effect over everyone’s heads. Mink laughed at the sight of them. He felt in love with the world. Catching sight of Blin, he even gave him a smile and a nod. Blin returned half a smile before turning his back to Mink.

“I’m really glad you brought me here,” Mink confessed to Dreh, putting an arm around his buddy’s shoulders.

“I thought you would be. I guess it’s a good thing you came back early.”

This sobered Mink a bit. He had temporarily forgotten about his parents being out at Rift Ridge. Worry crept into his mind, but he flushed it out with nutty. The group did an excellent cover of one of his favorite songs and he lost himself in it to further escape the things he couldn’t control.

Pulti latched onto Mink’s arm. “Dance with me.”

Mink noticed that standing was a tad difficult for her, let alone dancing. Still, if she was in the mood to dance with someone, this might be his best shot at playing matchmaker. He waved Dreh closer.

“Pulti needs a dancing partner. I’ve got something to do right now. Can you dance with her?”

Dreh frowned at Mink. “What on Georra have you got to do that’s more important?”

“Watch.” Mink gave Dreh a wink and a smile.

He pried Pulti from his arm and presented her to Dreh. She made a grand theatrical gesture and laughed. Mink thought to himself, so far, so good. He turned to the stage and leaned up to the singer.

“Are you taking requests?” Mink asked at the end of the song.

“Depends. What’ve you got in mind?”

“As the Falling Rain.”

The singer asked around to the six other band members. Four of them thought they could do it, but the singer returned to Mink saying, “I don’t know it that well. Sorry. You got another one?”

“Back me up?” Mink pressed.

“What?”

“Could you back me up? I can play the runhammer and lead on vocals.”

The singer laughed and extended a hand to Mink. “Sure, sharpshooter. I could use a break.”

That’s exactly the break Mink could use, too. The singer took some Water and addressed the crowd. “By now, you all know this guy,” he indicated Mink, who was already putting the strap of the runhammer over his head. “He’s going to join us for a tune and you might want to get those spikes ready in case he rots.”

Mink positioned the runhammer diagonally across his Body and slipped the tips of his fingers into the hammer keys. He checked the glide over the strings and it ran comfortably from shoulder to hip. This one was quality, made from natural Wood, unlike his beat-up, second-hand Materialized Wood instrument at home. As he checked the tune, the slits carved into the base resonated with delicious sound.

Mink played the intro and the rest was automatic. It was a song he knew very well. He didn’t have the best singing voice, but hoped his runhammer skills would make up for it.

“I found you in a chain.

They said you were insane.

Danger was your name.

Your soul I felt I could tame.

All you needed was a day

Without a game to play.

You showered me in pain.

As the falling rain.”

As he sang, Mink watched Dreh and Pulti dance. The chemistry seemed off, but he hoped it was improving. He turned his attention to the crowd which, thankfully, was helping him sing the song.

“As the falling rain.

As the falling rain.

You played your part and filled my heart

Until I spilled with love unfulfilled.

As the falling rain.”

Then, down in front, to the left of the stage, Mink saw her. Gyov watched him and swayed to the song. She wasn’t dancing with anyone and that made Mink glad. Her long brown hair swung around her head and shoulders. She wore a billowy dress, cut to her figure, and just a shoulder jacket on top. Mink kept singing, but now he sang only to her. Her deep brown eyes stayed on him. She smiled.

“There was something in your tone.

You said you shouldn’t be alone.

You led me to your home.

Sat me inside a dome.

I could tell it wasn’t wise,

But I was trapped inside your eyes.

When your nature I was shown,

You cut me to the bone…”

M
INK AWOKE
with a pounding headache and no idea what time it was. He recognized his room, but wasn’t sure if he had laid down in his bed, or was put there. Dreh probably brought him home, but the fact that he couldn’t remember made him worry about what else had happened. Pulling memories off the nails in his head proved impossible.

His room, conversely to Dreh’s, showed no discernable trace of attention to cleanliness. He considered it to be a certain arrangement of organized chaos. Everything Mink owned, he could see and identify. Even in his impaired state, he quickly selected and put on a clean undershirt, pair of undershorts, socks, pocket pants, and a long-sleeved jacket.

Having dressed, he felt more awake, but still unwell. This level of dehydration required either a Water user or a trip to the kitchen. Scooting out of his room, Mink spied his runhammer propped on the wall by the door. His serenade of the previous evening came back to him in a rush of embarrassment, and his head pulsed with pain. What on Georra had persuaded him to be so bold?

“Mom? Dad?” Mink called out into the ether, still disoriented as he exited his room.

Only after making his way downstairs did he recall that his parents were still out at Rift Ridge. His heart sank, burdened by not having any way to know how they were doing. He wanted to tell them that he had made it, that plans for their rescue were already underway, and how all the Advocates had been impressed by his delivery of the news. He also wanted his mom to make this hangover go away. His dad would just tell him to drink kwona. Mink had never made it himself and decided against that idea, since it involved grinding roasted seeds to a proper grain, and measuring specific ratios of grounds to infuse with boiling Water.

The kitchen had an eerie calm and cleanliness to it. Mink sipped Water and spent the better part of an hour rummaging repeatedly through the cabinets. Nothing appealed, but he couldn’t risk overlooking the perfect remedy. He eyed the fruit on the counter as he drained his glass. It looked really good, but he figured the acids would aggravate his already compromised stomach.

It was time to descend to the basement and check out cold storage. Nyam had converted most of the basement into a well-organized warehouse storing family heirlooms, decorations for their eight seasonal holidays, linens, household tools, and dry goods. There was a large gap in the order of things where their camping equipment should be. The cold storage room sat all the way back in the far corner, as far as possible from the kitchen, which Mink never could quite understand.

The glow crystals in the ceiling hurt his eyes, so he concentrated on the stone floor in front of him. He thought back again to being on stage at the party, performing for a couple hundred people just to get Dreh and Pulti to dance together. With a start, he remembered seeing Gyov in the audience. The thought of it crumpled Mink to the floor. He liked having the cool stone pressed against his forehead. If only it could erase the past, or at least his memory of it.

“Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.” Mink wanted to stay in the basement for the rest of his life. Perhaps his father could be reassigned to a different prefecture. He could change schools. Dreh and Pulti would have to come with him. They were his only protection in this cruel world.

Picking himself up off the floor, Mink continued to the far corner. Until he cleared his head, he wouldn’t be able to come up with a decent strategy for damage control. He unlatched the thick Wood door to cold storage and it swung open stiffly. The blast of cold Air gave Mink instant relief. How long could he manage to live in here? The first things he saw were neatly arranged rows of nutty bottles, which he immediately swore off until next time.

He took a quick inventory of the rest of the provisions, realizing as his toes chilled that he wasn’t wearing shoes. Meat and drinks abounded in the small, frigid room, with only one little section reserved for sweets and jars of Nyam’s culinary experiments. Mink pulled out a few thick slices of smoke-cured bushtusk and exited with a dance-like shuffle to keep his feet from freezing.

Back in the kitchen, he set the slabs on the stove’s hot rocks to warm while he selected some dipping sauces from a cupboard. So what if he had made a fool out of himself on stage? Everyone else was likely having too much fun to care, and he had received such applause for being the big winner of Dreh’s spike game. Transferring the meat onto a plate, Mink even laughed about how bold he had been at the first party he’d actually attended in years.