Elements (Tear of God Book 1) (8 page)

Using both hands, Nyam dug upward through stone and dirt as Mink rode on her back. They were both impervious to being pummeled by the debris, and Mink had forgotten to agonize over the solidification of his Body. He had no idea how far below they were from the surface of Rift Ridge, but he knew the more his mom dug through the Soil, the weaker she would get. Mink panicked at the possibility that she might run out of strength before they broke through.

S
WEAT POURED
off Nyam in rivulets of mud. Digging straight up took a toll on her. Every few seconds she needed to stop and catch her breath for half a minute. They had made enough distance from the geode that Mink’s hearing had returned partially, but he felt too much pain from the Hard Body effect to care. He tolerated this pain once it occurred to him that, should his mother’s strength give out, both of them would fall straight down the tunnel she had just dug.

In the light of the glow crystal, Mink recognized the sheen of metal ore beside them as they continued slowly upward. His mom was actually digging through raw metal! Fighting his immobility, Mink strained in vain to grab the protruding ribbons of ore to use as hand holds. If his mom would just loosen him up a bit, he could help take some of the load off.

Nyam toiled away for several more worrisome minutes. When at last a blinding shaft of light assaulted them, she wasted no time hooking an arm through the opening and pulling them both back up onto the ground of Rift Ridge. Fighting for breath, she crawled a few feet away from the hole with Mink still strapped to her back. She stood on her knees and grabbed her head to expand her chest while she drew deep breaths. Until she could control her breathing, she had no chance of making it through the Dispelling chant to free Mink from Hard Body.

He could hear perfectly well at this point, but would have rather not been an audience to his mother’s gasping. Reflecting on what she had just accomplished, Mink welled with pride. He might have occasionally bore witness to his mother struggling, but he had never seen her fail. After a long, deep breath, Nyam managed to chant,

“May Curpo undo the effect.

Take back the power which you gave.”

Nyam tapped Mink’s shin. He felt lightheaded and warm as blood began circulating again and his Body returned to normal. “I hate when you do that one,” he complained, flexing his arms and legs.

“Sorry about that. I didn’t have much of a choice,” Nyam spoke through deeper breaths. “We have to get back to your father now.”

As Nyam carried them, Mink scanned the plateau and saw the cliff of the ridge more than a mile away. Following the cliff line south, Mink hoped to locate where his father waited. He couldn’t see anyone. His mom ran quickly, but it certainly wasn’t the incredible speed she was known for. She made a straight path to a specific point on the horizon. It took Mink a moment to recognize what he thought was a rock as his father.

“We’re back,” Nyam announced as they came upon Juré, who still looked over the cliff.

Juré took time to fully appreciate their muddy and exhausted condition as Nyam and Mink worked together to remove the harness. “Where did you come from?” He asked as he plucked a clod of mud out of Nyam’s hair, amused. “What happened to you?”

Nyam gushed between gasps, “It’s real! We found a Tear of God. Absolutely incredible. You should see the size of it. We would need about a dozen Body users to get it out of the ground, but that’s all. The stone will give them all the strength they need to get it out.” Nyam ran at the mouth, giddy from the rush of their discovery despite being nearly exhausted. “I dug a tunnel straight through to help the team locate and extract it. I touched it. You should! Direct contact makes you understand things… I can’t explain what very well. After you break contact, the knowledge part doesn’t last long. But the power, the strength you gain—I dug through about two miles of dirt! Two miles! I can’t believe I did that!” Nyam beamed, catching her breath, and looked down at the copse where the scout slept. “How’s your man doing?”

“Well, after I broke off the Silent Signal Fire with Mink, I maintained the Eavesdropping effect on the scout,” Juré explained. “I learned from his memory that he has a direct communication to his superiors from inside the vehicle, so it won’t take days for them to find out. He’s just waiting until he finishes writing his speech, convinced that they’re going to record the announcement for posterity. He is aware of being asleep in his vehicle now, so he won’t be sticking around long.”

Mink wasn’t sure how he felt about his time in the cavern yet, and he didn’t have any way of describing it. His mother’s take helped him fill in some gaps, but he knew their experiences were very different. Even with improved strength, he couldn’t imagine a hundred Body users moving the geode, let alone lifting it straight up two miles, then carrying it all the way back to the Cradle of the Citadel. Maybe his lack of an Element restricted his understanding. And, he reminded himself, he didn’t actually make physical contact with the crystal.

Nyam spoke to Juré in a hushed tone, hesitant for Mink to hear. “We need to kill the scout.”

“I agree,” nodded Juré. “Too much risk.”

“Hold up,” Mink interjected. “You don’t have to kill him. Dad, you can put him in a coma.”

Juré shook his head. “I won’t have enough strength for that until tomorrow, and by then he’ll be long gone.”

“Then what about making him feel like staying here for a couple more days without telling anybody?”

“His desire to become famous is too great. Even if I could convince him to finish his speech here, that wouldn’t take long enough. We need to allow almost a week for us to get back with the news and have a team come out here. Trust me. We don’t have another way of buying time to prevent the Machinists from claiming the Tear of God. We must secure it for our country.”

Mink wondered about the scout’s life. But the more he thought about it, the more convinced he was that he didn’t want to know. He invented all kinds of reasons that made the scout out to be a horrible person. None of them gave Mink the feeling that he deserved to die.

Thinking back on his own brief death experience, he realized that the Machinist’s consciousness was about to expand over the whole area, becoming aware of Mink in the same way Mink had become aware of him. He hoped that he would feel the same kind of peace that he had experienced. Perhaps with the universal knowledge he would gain, the scout would understand why he had to die, and even agree. Then he’d have one up on Mink.

Nyam put a consoling hand on Mink’s shoulder. “I need to do this while I still have enough energy. It will be quick and painless. Why don’t you go take your dad back to camp and stoke up the Fire?”

“Will you be okay on your own?” Juré asked his wife.

“Sure. The river will give me a chance to wash off this mud,” Nyam replied shakily. Mink was relieved to see that Nyam was at least uncomfortable with her dark errand. Maybe she wouldn’t kill the scout, just smash his vehicle to bits and blind him so he would be later returning to Freeland. Mink decided a quick death was better than spending days scared and starving in the wilderness, only to wind up dead anyway.

Nyam sighed heavily, then rushed over the edge of the cliff. Mink and Juré turned toward camp and walked in silence. Mink knew his father never killed unnecessarily. It wasn’t in his nature. He hoped his mom was the same way. As much as the logic of killing the scout rang true in Mink’s mind in the context of their plan, he kept trying to think of another way to accomplish the same goal.

“It’s a putrid business,” Juré said, breaking the silence. “I almost feel like I got to know the guy.”

“Yeah?” Mink didn’t want to encourage further conversation, but he felt like Juré needed some acknowledgment.

“I learned a lot from him about the current state of affairs in Freeland. If they get the Tear of God, they will make a weapon capable of wiping out Octernal. Any of us who survive will be their slaves. I tried to think of a way to break the news to your mom before she said it on her own. This really is for the best.”

“I know, Dad. It’s… whatever, right?” Unable to find the words to express his concern, Mink ended the futile conversation.

N
YAM RETURNED
to the camp clean of any mud, but more haggard and weak than Mink had ever seen her. The Fire that Mink and Juré had prepared lapped up the Air with greedy intensity. Without a word, Nyam plunged her arms down under the logs. She let out a long, satisfied sigh and pulled out two fistfuls of embers, recovering quite quickly as she rubbed them on her arms and massaged them into her neck.

“I just need to get my strength and then I’ll run back to the High Council and convince them to send a team.” Nyam kicked off her shoes and sat with the soles of her feet in the flames.

“You can’t leave us here,” Juré protested.

“We don’t have enough time. I’ll get there much faster alone.”

“Exactly. We don’t have enough time. Even if you could be at the Capitol by morning, the soonest a team could make it here would be at least four days from now. And realistically, it would take you two days at peak condition. Assuming the Machinists send a search and rescue team in two days, they could still have an army here before our team. Mink and I won’t be able to hold them off. I need you.”

“They won’t find the scout or his vehicle. That’ll slow down their response, but I see your point.” Nyam lost herself in thought, rolling a burning log between her hands.

Juré’s words made grim sense to Mink. The Machinists’ vehicles transported multiple people over long distances with great speed. Rift Ridge was closer to Freeland and, from Juré’s description of their imaging, the Machinists had better maps. The more people they sent, the greater the chance that some of them would have an Elemental affinity for Body or Water, in which case Juré couldn’t use any effects on them. Not favorable odds when Machinist weaponry could kill all Elemental types.