The Five Elements (45 page)

"Why did you help us at Wildemoore?" It was something he'd wondered since the moment he saw her enter Ansanom's laboratory.

Serena replied in a small voice. "Because I was tired of watching Ansanom hurt people. There were others. He used them while he was building and testing his machine. You saw—know—what he did."

Yes, Aaron knew.

"Did he ever hurt you?" Aaron asked.

"Me? No, never. My parents were paying him too much money for him to ever hurt me." Serena explained how, every month, one of her family's stewards would visit Wildemoore with a dual purpose. To deliver a lender's note to Ansanom but also to gauge her well-being. It was an arrangement that satisfied her family's desire that she develop her talent while Ansanom filled his coffers with the coin he needed to carry on his experiments and procure whatever special materials and equipment he needed. Of course, Serena's family knew nothing of the diablerie Ansanom was working, nor had Serena been given any opportunities to inform them of it, their family steward's visits having been closely monitored.

"Oh!" Serena sat up straight. "I suppose they'll be wondering if I'm dead after the next courier sees what happened to Wildemoore." She slouched so that she half-leaned into Aaron. "I'll have to get word to them somehow."

"We will."

Serena said nothing in response to that, but asked, "Did you have many friends here?"

"No, not really. A few." Aaron paused to take in a breath. He let it out slowly. "One, really."

Serena didn't need to ask who that one had been. "You liked her a lot, didn't you?" she said in a whisper.

"Yes."

They said nothing else as they watched the sun rise above the distant horizon. Serena rose sometime after that, excusing herself but promising to return later that day. She made it as far as the spot where she and Ensel Rhe had crossed paths when Aaron's voice stopped her.

"Wait!"

He stumbled after her. When he caught up, Serena asked, "Done fishing?"

"For now."

Aaron's gaze wandered past her, to the cliffs. He'd been walking up and down the trails for days, yet he'd never really stopped to look at them. They were so different, made all the more so by the absence of Regrok surmounting them and, once rising above even that but no longer, the spired towers and high buildings of Norwynne. All of it—Graggly's Tower, Ellingrel, Lord Vuller's palace, the Underkeep, all the nooks and crannies he and Shanna had discovered—were gone now. Aaron’s gaze returned to the crashing waves. Maybe he'd stay here, down by the shoals, for just a little—

"Tell me about her," Serena said.

"What?"

"Tell me about Shanna." She held her hand out to him. "Walk me to the top and tell me about her."

Aaron stared at her hand for a moment, then he reached out and took it. He started at the beginning, his first words coming out in a stutter that smoothed once he'd fallen into a rhythm. He did not have to search his memory for what they'd said to one another, nor did he have to dig very deep to remember what she'd been wearing or even what she'd smelled like. He remembered everything about her.

Nor would he ever forget.

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Scott Marlowe divides his time between writing fiction, mountain biking, and designing software systems for the accounting and medical industries. He currently lives in Texas with his wife and two crazy dogs.

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