Elements (Tear of God Book 1) (5 page)

Mink saw his counter-strike open in a split-second. The handle of his paddle was close to Nyam’s rib. She must have seen it too, the way she jerked her arm in to protect herself. Instead of blocking the attack, she caught the handle with her elbow and inadvertently helped him jam it against her. The force of the blow elicited an “Oomph,” followed by a roll of her eyes. In a blur, she ran off to start her chant over.

They continued their battle for three hours past lunch, yet Mink was the only one sucking wind. Juré, conserving energy, hadn’t done much more than taunt his son. Nyam’s lack of fatigue prompted Mink to believe she set up a secret Fire to revive herself, and not all of her disappearing acts were for chants. Hunger and exhaustion would soon get the better of Mink, and he wondered how he could make it through the rest of the day without a break.

“Any chance of a time-out?” Mink wheezed. Not surprisingly, neither parent said a word. There wasn’t any reason for a stalemate considering how much his parents overpowered him. The purpose of this training was to identify his Element, but all it did so far was keep Mink away from food. He worked up some energy to move the fight closer to their campsite so he might find an opportunity to grab something to eat.

He made it about halfway before Nyam was on him, using Quick Legs to give the impression that she was Attacking him from two-sides at once. The hours of using the paddle as a fan, shield, and edged weapon had taken their toll on Mink’s shoulders. It felt three times as heavy as it had in the morning, but he still managed to block his mom and make some forward progress.

Juré rushed into the fight. The sudden change in battle dynamics gave Mink an adrenaline rush and second wind. As soon as Juré arrived behind Nyam, she jumped in the Air, forcing Mink into a high guard. It was difficult for Mink to track Juré’s movements while blocking Nyam’s kicks over his head, but he did glimpse the flash of a weaponized dust tube extended toward him.

He spun on his back heel and swung the paddle to fan the dust away from him. Nyam and Juré quickly backed off to avoid the fanned dust. Much to Mink’s dismay, his paddle caught a fair amount of the dust. The crackling and fizzing sound confirmed that the dust was Imbued with Lightning, canceling out Dreh’s Wood effect. Nyam wasted no time punching Mink’s paddle and pulverizing it into splinters and shards.

M
INK STOOD
and stared in disbelief, weaponless, breathless, hungry, his hair clinging to his skin with sweat and dirt. The electric cloud of dust floated and crackled between Mink and his parents, who showed no sign of slowing down their offensive. Conversely, Juré had stepped up his game. Without a paddle, Mink had no way of avoiding Nyam’s touch, even if he were at full energy.

Desperate to protect himself, Mink wanted to make for the cliff-side of Rift Ridge and take his chances jumping down to a ledge for cover. What happened instead was his leg gave out when he stepped, dropping him to his knee. His eyes pleaded with his parents. He didn’t think he could move anymore. The last of the weaponized dust settled into the ground and Nyam wound up a punch.

Juré seemed to have a difficult time looking Mink’s way. Twice, he glanced over, but quickly dropped his gaze. Setting his jaw, Juré finally looked Mink in the eye and implemented by uttering, “Spear.”

Instantly, a sharp pain shot through Mink’s chest and extended far behind his back as his Spirit was stretched out and pinned about twelve feet behind him. A completely unfamiliar buzzing sensation mixed with the pain. He recognized Juré’s instant-kill effect on an intellectual level, but he couldn’t rationalize that his father had actually used it. The last of Mink’s Spirit was pulled out the back of his head. He died with the snapping feeling of the severance of Body and Spirit.

Death consciousness was nothing like when his mom turned his Body into a statue. Mink felt both as small as a speck of dirt and as large as Georra. Peace washed over him. He noticed the absence of any physical sensation, and felt no curiosity about anything, let alone his Element. His remaining consciousness focused on his parents with a dim familiarity. Time stopped.

But, there was something else—another presence. Mink’s awareness expanded to include a personal vehicle on the cliff three miles up the ridge from where his Body lay. A person moved quickly toward the vehicle through tunnels inside the mountain. Tracing a line east from the vehicle through the ground and downward from the person approaching it, Mink’s focus honed in on a very large crystal. It was huge, encapsulated by a geode as large as any of the buildings in the Capitol. Mink was overcome with the sense that he now knew many things that were once important to him. He began to resonate with a different dimension.

He snapped back into his Body to see his mom with an outstretched fist as he fell hard and fast on his rear, very much alive and sore. “Time! Time out!” Mink screamed, scooting away on his butt. “I rotting died!”

“Language, Mink,” Nyam admonished.

“Did you not hear me? I died!”

Juré helped him to his feet. “Mink, your Element should kick in to try to save you now that it knows you can die. This is our next-to-last resort. Trust us. You won’t suffer any permanent damage.”

Nyam folded her arms. “We need to exhaust you and take your weapons away so that you’ll only have your Element to rely on. You’ve probably gone so long without identifying with it that it’s retreated deep inside you. We must draw it out. This is for your own good.”

So that was their game. Wear him out, destroy his paddle, and then strike him simultaneously. One of them was bound to hit a fraction of a second earlier than the other. Long enough for Mink to experience death, but not so long that the second Attack couldn’t cancel the first, bringing him back to life. Had Nyam been any later taking action, there would be no turning back.

Something had happened while Mink was dead, although not even a second had passed. Had he made any kind of connection with his Element? He racked his brain for any sense of it. Only a flash, whatever it was. Then, Mink remembered what he saw.

“Wait! After I died, I saw someone.” Mink pointed in the general direction. “Three miles up the ridge. A Machinist. Some ore scout, or something. He found a huge crystal buried inside the ridge.”

Nyam turned to Juré with an unquiet look. He returned her gaze with a combination of recognition and disbelief. They paused in prolonged silence. Finally, Nyam spoke to Juré, “What do you want to do? We’re not prepared for this.”

“We should investigate,” he replied adamantly. “If it is what I think it is, we can’t let the Machinists know about it.”

Nyam had sprinted up to where Mink indicated within just a few seconds while the other two huffed to catch up. She crouched and peered over the edge. Backing up, she signaled for her boys to approach quietly. She became impatient and sat, flicking small stones across the plateau, while she waited for them to bridge the distance she had managed to cross in no time.

“Still there?” Juré asked in a hushed voice once they had arrived.

Nyam leaned over to check and nodded. “The vehicle is. I don’t see the scout though. He may not have reached it yet.”

Juré turned to Mink. “Is he alone?”

“As far as I could tell. And it was like I was seeing all over the place, even through things.”

“Juré, you should report this. We can’t do anything else about it.”

Juré peered over the cliff and got a good look at the vehicle. He scooted back and looked west toward Freeland.

“I’ll go inside his mind once he appears. Hopefully, I’ll be able to find out what he knows and what he plans to do. Maybe he didn’t see the crystal, just ore deposits.”

“Well then,” Nyam said. “You better get the chant ready. He could come out at any time.”

M
INK GAZED
with growing fascination upon the vehicle. A few hundred yards below, it clung vertically to the cliffside by way of anchors at each wheel dug into the rock. He imagined that operating such a contraption would be fun. Elementalists ridiculed the need to use machines, but without an Element to use, he hardly felt superior. It wasn’t unheard of for Elementalists to abandon their abilities and defect to Freeland. In fact, part of Juré’s job was to identify and facilitate dissenters. Still, Mink’s unique perspective helped him see the beauty of the vehicle and he felt like his life could be easier if machines were allowed back home.

The scout was taking forever to emerge from inside Rift Ridge. Of course he didn’t know that people were waiting for him and, had he known, he might not even come out. Waiting was not one of Mink’s strong suits. He got that from his mom. It actually crossed his mind that he might be able to see how close the Machinist was if his parents killed him again. He obviously needed a distraction.

Juré couldn’t say anything until the scout emerged lest he have to recite his chant over. By then, the risk of the Machinist getting out of Juré’s sight was too high. If his parents weren’t so serious, Mink thought to entertain himself with trying to get his dad to make a sound and ruin his effect. Nyam entertained herself by throwing rocks at a tree a couple miles down the slope of the ridge. By the way the tree shook, Mink could tell when she landed a direct hit.

“Do you think he decided to camp inside for the night?” Mink asked.

“Shh!” Nyam warned. “We can’t give away our position.”

Mink’s restlessness got the better of his tongue. “Hey, Dad,” he whispered. “When you’re in his head, see if you can make him drive his vehicle up here and let me take it for a spin.”

At that, Juré became cross and almost uttered a sound. Instead, he gave Mink a knock on the head with his knuckle.