Chapter 31
FIRE AND WATER
Sinika leaned his hip against a wooden desk, arms crossed in front of him. The slight gray at his temples was more pronounced than she remembered. But otherwise, though it felt like years since Niri had seen him, he was unchanged. It had really only been a few weeks.
Niri’s heart did not even skip a beat. A seed of certainty that Sinika would be waiting for her in the Temple of Dust had lodged in her ever since she had read Laith Lus’s journal and heard him speak of the war. Now, it had been fulfilled. With her finger tips on the letter condemning the Order of Fire, she felt balanced on a pinhead of time. With the next breath or the first words, Niri would know Sinika’s intentions. That he was there waiting did not bode well. She could only be thankful for the twist of luck that she stood facing him alone.
The faint smile on Sinika’s full lips died. His brow creased as Niri stayed where she stood, each watching the other.
“I thought you knew I would come here to wait for you. To help you.” His voice was warm and deep, laced with affection. Above his refined cheekbones and thin nose, his hazel eyes were warm and soft.
“By the light’s goodness, Nirine, I’ve been waiting here for weeks. I was beginning to think you’d never come.”
Sinika’s tone tinged with distaste for the ruined Temple and impatience. The pace of Niri’s heart picked up, bringing a bloom of warmth to her chest.
“I had some trouble. I’m surprised you waited down here, Sinika, and not on the road from Rah Hahsessah or in Karakastad. I never expected to see you lurking in the bowels of the earth.”
Sinika waved a hand. “It was too long of a wait to stay in the desert. There is nothing up there.” He slid a hand through his hair. “This ... this pit is the only shelter for days and this room, it gave me something to do while I waited.”
Sinika looked over at her, a smile flowing across his lips. When he spoke her name, he said it slowly as if he savored it. “Nirine, I’ve been worried about you. It has been weeks. Longer than I thought it would take you to bring the girl. Why don’t you come to me? What is wrong?”
Niri vibrated with emotion. One word had dropped like a stone into a pool, breaking the stillness with waves radiating and reflecting. She looked away from Sinika.
“Why don’t you come to me, Sinika? Have you been waiting for me or for the girl? You know it is a girl, so you’ve been a part of the search. What do you want with her?”
Sinika took a step closer, coming further into the circle of light. It softened his red-brown hair, but cast his eyes into deeper shadow. “Is she here?”
“I could tell you I came alone. Did you?”
Anger flashed across Sinika’s face, his high forehead wrinkling in irritation. Then, he smoothed his features once more.
“We don’t intend to hurt her. Is that what you are afraid of? The Church could use her ... and protect her from herself. How better to keep her from the Curse? We want to understand why this trait runs so deeply in her family. If her gifts could be combined with an Elemental’s ...” There was a hint of greed under his consoling tone.
Niri’s stomach twisted. She wished for nothing more than a way to warn Ria and Lavinia, berating herself for having brought them. But if she yelled, there was as much of a chance that they would come running rather than leave.
Niri bowed her head, closing her eyes. She could feel her hands shaking. In her most chastised tone, she confessed to Sinika.
“It has been so difficult. I could not bear to be cast out of the Church. How can I come to you, Sinika, when I am no longer a Priestess? I am unworthy to ever enter the Temple of Solaire again. Is there no hope for me? I ... I only want to return somehow.”
She heard Sinika walk toward her a few steps and stop. A tear slid down her cheek.
“Hush, child.” He came the rest of the distance. “You only ever needed to give us the girl. Of course we will take you back.”
He took her into his arms to demonstrate the Church’s willingness to receive her. She hid her head against his shoulder, her body tense as ice. She hoped Sinika would take it for anxiety.
“I didn’t know what to do. All she wanted was to go home. She was so lonely and afraid.”
The tension coursing through Niri caused her to tremble. It was all she could do not to gasp and give herself away. She needed just a few more minutes. She turned the catch in her throat to a sob instead.
“Where is she?” Sinika murmured softly into her ear, brushing the hair from Niri’s shoulder with a familiar gesture. “Just tell me where she is and we will get her together, you and I. Then we will go back to Solaire.”
Niri grabbed the fabric of his shirt, pulling as if she struggled to find words. Sinika’s fingers spread against her back, supporting the shift in her weight, but not letting her go. The moment hung suspended between them for a breath.
“Fool!”
A woman’s sharp voice cut through the lower level. Sinika stiffened. His embrace became confining.
“There is water flowing. Can’t you hear it? She is summoning water from some forsaken place.”
“No.”
Sinika grabbed Niri’s chin roughly and forced her head up. She opened her eyes. Sinika’s grip loosened slightly when he saw the lavender and blue of her power. Niri glared at him. The tears of her effort slid down her cheeks.
Sinika stumbled away, too shocked to react immediately. Whoever was with him was less easily distracted. A burst of fire exploded from deeper in the rows of bookcases, flashing across the scribe’s desks. Heart rising to her throat, Niri threw herself aside.
She landed hard on her shoulder. It was cool and damp now. Niri smiled. Sinika was scrambling after her, pushing aside the table she had ducked behind. Niri rolled and launched herself to her feet, running toward the staircase.
As she ran, she pulled at any thread of water she could find in desperation. Ty had been right, the stone was sealed shut for yards into the ground. The retort of rock splitting resounded through the room followed by the sound of water cascading onto the floor.
Sinika paused, looking back over his shoulder. “How? How can she be doing it? The water was sealed off when the Temple was defeated.”
The only forthcoming answer was another burst of fire. It hit the wall of a narrow tunnel a few feet from where Niri paused in the room beyond it as she tried to catch her breath. She darted through the dark expanse, dodging bookcases as the room was lit again by wavering flames. A fireball exploded into a bookcase behind her.
Niri ducked but didn’t slow. She pulled a layer of water, now an inch deep on the floor, onto her skin. It hissed as sparks and a splinter of shelf fell against her. Niri dove into the alcove as light erupted behind her. She felt heat and a brief searing, then she was around the first twist of the staircase.
She took the steps two at a time. All the while she pulled and called water toward her. She balled the desire for water tighter and tighter, winding her will around the need until it was her only reason for existing. It was her only thought besides running up the stairs.
Niri ran headlong into Ty. He caught her but went backwards, sitting sharply against the stairs behind. Ty sucked in a breath as he hit. Niri’s heart lurched at the thought he could be hurt, just when they needed to run.
“Are you?”
“Fine,” Ty rasped.
“Where?”
“Above, they hadn’t made it down this far. I told them to go up to the main level.”
“Good. Go, it won’t take Sinika long to follow us.”
There was a brightening glow in the staircase below them. Ty grabbed Niri’s hand, turned, and ran. Pain lanced into Niri’s side from her effort and lack of breath. Ty pulled her forward faster than she thought she could go. Niri hurled the pain into her demand for water, feeding it until she ached. She was the desert calling out to become the sea floor. Above her breath, the sound of rushing echoed in the empty rooms of the library. A rivulet began to splash down the stair
s.
There was enough water now that Niri could sense where it touched Sinika and the woman. She could ‘see’ as she had once in Mirocyne, finding the outline to the rooms by the moisture clinging to walls. Below them at the lower level, the water was already mid-thigh deep. But Sinika was wading to the stairs, the water proving a small hamper to his progress.
With the moisture flooding the Temple, Niri felt the fireball sent up the stairwell before it neared them. She grabbed Ty, halting his racing steps, and pushed him against the wall. She channeled the water from the stairs above to change course. It gushed over them as the staircase illuminated angry red. The fireball, already diminished by moisture and distance, swept past them in a waft of heat, fizzling further in size.
“How?” He asked her, spitting out a mouthful of water. “I thought you said there was no water.”
“There wasn’t any close. But I learned with the well in Sardinia there is always water underground somewhere. You just have to find it. We only have a few moments before they make it up the stairs. We have to keep going,” Niri said, pushing Ty ahead again.
Ty burst onto the main level of the library, stumbling from the alcove. Lavinia caught her brother, keeping him upright. The water across the polished floor of the library was ankle deep. A weak burst of flames licked the entrance to the staircase and faded. Niri glanced back and then to Ria’s wide eyes.
“You have to leave.”
“No, I can help,” Ria’s voice was high and thin, but she stood tall and ready to hold her ground.
Niri shook her head. “No, we can’t fight the Curse and both of them. The Curse could be near if they are here. And I can’t fight Sinika and protect you.” Niri looked despairingly at Ria. “I never should have brought you here.”
Ria’s eyes filled with tears. She hugged Niri quickly, unable to speak. Niri held her, but then pushed her away.
“You have to go. Lavinia, protect her.”
Lavinia paused, her expression caught between arguing to stay and accepting what Niri said. A stronger burst of flames shot from the stairwell. Lavinia grabbed Ria’s hand as she spun and bolted for the door.
With a twist of her will, Niri sent more water raining down the staircase. A current tugged at her ankles as the water hurried to do her bidding.
“Niri ...”
“Ty, go help your sister and Ria. I’ll ... I’ll be right behind you.”
Under his gaze, Niri could not pretend she was not worried about what she faced. As her confidence wavered, Ty’s expression changed from battle ready to heartfelt anxiety. He swallowed hard. Niri trembled. He reached for her the same moment she collapsed in his arms, his fingers tangling in her hair as he cradled her head against his shoulder. She clung to him, heart pounding.
“Ty, you have to go. Your sister and Ria need you to get through the desert and back to Tabook.” Niri couldn’t stop shaking.
He pulled back to look her in the eye, brushing wet hair from her face. “I won’t leave without you. We’ll be waiting.”
Niri nodded, knowing her eyes were wide and frightened. Ty leaned his forehead against hers, closing his eyes for a second. As he let her go, his lips brushed across her cheek. The moment he released her, Niri pushed him after Ria and Lavinia. She pulled back the water before him so that his path was clear.
Ty raced to the front door, not slowing as he burst through the colonnaded entrance. Niri felt both where Ria, Lavinia, and Ty ran across the damp ground toward the staircase, while Sinika and his companion waded upwards through the falling onslaught of water to reach the main level. Niri stood alone.
She walked slowly to the library door, the water allowing her to pass like it was air. Lavinia was just making the entrance to the staircase, Ria behind her. Niri kept the water, three feet deep now across the sinkhole’s floor, pulled back to bare ground. Water cascaded down from open windows and breaks in the rock walls above her. The tumbling patter and spray of water against stone filled the sinkhole with a ceaseless, growling hiss.
Ty made the stairs, pausing to glance back before he plunged into the opening. The path through the water closed behind Ty as he began to climb, no longer in the water’s reach. Water was her element and it was filling the Temple of Dust. She found comfort in that.
Without needing to worry about Ty, Lavinia, and Ria, Niri turned her attention back to the water. She called it again with all of her will, fueling a basic need to simply bring water to her. Liquid burst from the walls, cascading into the air to fall hundreds of feet to the floor below. She could feel the lower rooms of the library submerge.
Niri walked away from the library. It seemed wise to be away from the building when Sinika and his companion reached the main level. But she also wanted to be somewhere visible so that they would not look for Ria. When Sinika and the woman emerged from the library, Niri stood in waist deep water in the center of the sinkhole.
It was Niri’s first chance to see the woman clearly. She had short, spiky blond hair and a strong jaw line. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Niri. The air before her rippled like the air above the desert. She formed fire out of nothing and launched it at Niri.
Niri reacted instinctively. But instead of throwing up an arm to protect herself, she threw up waves. The fireball sank into a sudden tower of liquid and disappeared with a hiss. Hope began to unfurl within Niri.
“Ci’erra!”
Sinika pulled on the woman’s arm as she began to form another fireball. It sparked in front of her before dissipating. Sinika pointed to the rim of the sinkhole. Water was beginning to pour over the edge in a sheet. It careened off rocks along the wall. The roar of it reverberated from every ledge until the sound of it made Niri’s eardrums ache. When it finally reached the bottom, the force of the pounding water dropping from such a height caused the stone under Niri’s feet to shake.
The onslaught thickened. The water was stained dark from the amount of sand it carried. At the base of the sinkhole, the water was now up to Niri’s chest. The stream of falling water widened and began to brush the library building. The colonnades shook and the massive lintel wobbled. Sinika and Ci’erra jumped from their perch into the embrace of roiling water and sand. Niri cautiously began to move toward the stairs, feeling where Sinika and Ci’erra struggled to find their footing on the veranda of a nearby building. The water level in the bottom of the sinkhole was quickly rising.
“How?” Ci’erra demanded of Sinika. “It’s sea water, for the Maker’s sake. I can taste the salt!”
From where she had swam to a ledge across the floor of the sinkhole, Niri could see the anger on Sinika’s face. Drenched and petite, Ci’erra’s wide eyes reminded Niri for a brief moment of Beite. Sinika turned toward her. The air rippled as he hurled heat and flame at her before the fireball was even formed. Niri extinguished it in a wall of water.
Sinika’s look simmered. The air around Niri changed, humidifying as water evaporated from her skin. With a yelp, she pulled water onto herself. Sinika continued, vaporizing the water on her almost as fast as she could build it. Then he tried to ignite her hair.
Niri ducked under, the flames dying as he created them. Without surfacing, Niri felt for where Sinika perched partially in the water. Hands of fluid grabbed his legs. Sinika fell into the water. She thickened the liquid around him. He managed to come up, gasping and fighting with the watery bonds just as the Curse had. Ci’erra grabbed his hand. Niri pulled Sinika under with such force that Ci’erra tumbled in as well.
Ci’erra surfaced, looking truly terrified. She clung to a rock lintel, dividing her gaze between Sinika's struggle and a nearby window in the sinkhole wall. Ci’erra pushed off and headed for the way out. Niri was at a loss.
The lower levels of the Temple were completely filled. The salty waterfall born of the sea pounded into the sinkhole. The water swirled and roiled as it filled the main shaft. Niri could not feel Ty or the girls and hoped that meant they were on the surface. She had no idea how much time had passed. Even
with her skill, it was all she could do to split her attention between keeping herself from being smashed into the cavern wall by the current and fighting Sinika. Now Ci’erra was only a few hundred feet away, nearly to the window.
Niri released Sinika. He came up gasping for air, barely able to keep his head above water. She bit her cheek and eyed Ci’erra, uncertain what to do with the Fire Elemental. Flames that felt like they had the intensity of the sun formed behind Niri. She was about to dive under, knowing the anger that had formed this fire would not be so easy to drown. But to Niri’s surprise, they froze.
The flames towered, their heat intense but not moving forward. Instead, they shot skyward, reaching halfway to the top of the sinkhole. Niri looked over at Ci’erra in wary surprise.
Ci’erra perched on the windowsill. Her hand was held out in front of her and eyes slit as she concentrated on controlling Sinika’s outburst of flame. The coiling wall of heat and light slid back a foot. Niri’s heart hammered. Ci’erra was the more powerful of the two.
Ci’erra knew it, too. She pushed back Sinika’s flames with an arrogant flip of her wrist, her smile cold. Ci’erra turned her attention to Niri.
“How are you doing this?” Ci’erra demanded, her voice harsh over the thudding of water. “No Water Elemental can defeat fire. The Church would never allow it. Such skills are not taught!”
“There is more than just the Church and what it teaches," Niri replied, glaring at Ci’erra. She waited for Ci’erra to attack.
Doubt flickered across Ci’erra’s face. She looked at the writhing flames that danced upwards above the water.
“I do not want any part of this. Sinika can deal with his own acolytes.”
“I can’t let you just go.”
“Fine.”
A wind of fire swept at Niri, forming so close that she barely had time to duck under the surface. When she came up for air, Sinika’s wall of flame was dissipating in coiling ribbons toward the sinkhole’s upper edge. Ci’erra was nowhere to be seen. Sinika was livid.
Sinika tried another fireball. But Niri pulled him under as he formed it, snuffing it before it began. Sinika kicked at the water holding him as if he could fight her directly by injuring it.
Niri let him bob to the surface as she slipped into a window. The turbid waterfall was doing more than stirring the water in the sinkhole. Hydraulic suction pulled at Niri so that she needed to constantly steady herself. It was time to follow Ci’erra’s action and make it to the staircase. Water lapped at her heels as she began to run up the steps.
A fireball burst through the window in front of her. Niri threw up an arm automatically. Though the flames mostly ricocheted off the wet well, their warm tongues lapped at her. She slowed on the other side of the opening, cautiously glancing out. Sinika had managed to gain a foothold on the rock wall opposite the seawater flow. He scanned the windows looking for her, one hand raised to call fire. Sinika was not going to give up, Niri realized with dread.
Ahead of her, Niri could see a space where the stairs crossed an open expanse without an outside wall to protect her. She paused, biting her lip in indecision. The water on the steps rose to her ankle as she hesitated. It spurred her on. There was no other way but a race to the surface for any of them.
Moving again, Niri threw up a curtain of water in front of each window she raced past. By the time she had reached the open set of stairs, Sinika had found his way through a window, and stood a quarter of the way around and a level below her. On a steady perch, he could concentrate on her fully again. Water around her hissed as it evaporated.
The sound of falling water was deafening in the cavern. If she’d wanted to speak to him, it would have been impossible to hear. The distorted rage on his face left her little doubt of his intent. Niri walked forward slowly, her pulse louder to her ears than the waterfall. The air around her shimmered as if she stood in the very center of the desert on the hottest day.
Niri pulled water up over herself, becoming a core of liquid as flames ignited around her. Sinika meant to burn her alive. Niri exploded water outward. Steam thickened the air as water met fire. There was simply too much liquid in the sinkhole for the fire to find purchase. Despite Sinika’s anger feeding it, the flames sputtered and faded.
Above her a new sun formed in the sky, hovering over the sinkhole where the air remained dry. It began to descend as Niri made the choice she had been dreading. She reached out and slowed the water in Sinika’s veins.
The falling fireball snuffed out as Sinika staggered. His hand reached out to catch the wall and missed. He fell onto the stone floor.
Tears streaked Niri’s face as she hesitated, holding the flow of his blood to a slow and steady pulse. He was not dead, but he was not able to react. The water on the platform where he lay rose an inch. Niri trembled at the choice before her. She and Sinika had been lovers for three months before her journey to Mirocyne. Though now, she wondered if lover was the right word.
He had taught her new ways to use her power: the summoning spell and how to better focus. His attention could be cruel and impatient, but he had given her time, if not kindness. Even after facing him here, she could not imagine killing him. He had been the one Priest who had given her something to look forward to within the confines of Solaire. She had once thought she loved him before she had seen Lavinia and Darag’s joy.
The water rose to cover his nose. Sinika couldn’t breathe. Niri could feel liquid entering his throat. With a sob, she pushed the water out of his lungs. She fell to her knees crying. Forcing herself to concentrate, Niri floated Sinika into the small room behind him. His pulse throbbed in a slow rhythm which resonated in her chest and palms.
Once he was in the room, Niri pushed the water out. She slid onto a step, shaking with physical and emotional exhaustion. The water rose along the doorway to the chamber where Sinika lay, but did not enter the room itself. Niri waited and watched the water cover the doorway completely, sealing the air and Sinika within it.
The chamber was over halfway below the top of the sinkhole and not on the main stairs. She doubted very much that it would hold him for long, but it would keep him trapped for a time. Anger like his would find a way to burn through even that much water. She would have to deal with him again, but not anymore today.
Niri leaned against the rock wall, feeling Sinika’s pulse and keeping it slow and steady. It was the last connection that existed between them. But the water was rising quickly. It touched her legs where she sat. She willed herself to move, but couldn’t find the energy to stand. She could not face the miles of stairs left to climb. Before she realized what was happening, the water rushed overhead.
The feeling of being submerged brought her quickly to her wits. Niri was knocked off the steps by the force and tumbled through the swirling water. She pushed herself toward the surface, but it was climbing upwards faster than she could swim. The currents buffeted her sideways and down, even as she tried to steady them. Acute panic filled Niri as she began to lose to her own element.
Her lungs ached. She could control water, usually, but not breathe it. Unlike the Curse, she could not grow gills. Niri funneled all her strength into pushing herself upwards, fighting the sucking downward pull of the massive hydraulic. Her body and mind called for air, a desire greater than twisting the water currents to her will. Whiteness rimmed her vision. Niri could not stand it any longer. She gasped.
To her surprise, she drew in a breath. Niri’s eyes flew open, focusing once more as she drew in another lungful. A tiny bubble had formed around her, called into existence by her need. It was then she remembered the letter: talent in one Element meant latent skills in others. Niri shivered with understanding of how important that sentence was.
Her skill was not strong. She fumbled with the bubble. It nearly broke apart, and it was a desperate twist of will that reformed it around her. It was an odd sensation, not like her ability to control liquid. Instead, it was a sense of dryness: a lack of fluid.
Niri concentrated on that: an area of no water. The bubble enlarged. There was plenty of air in the water mixed with the tumbling mass. She built the bubble while pushing herself toward the surface. Without panic, she could move in her element again and found the upward current to ride.
The entire sinkhole was filled when she managed to push herself above its embrace. Niri clung to the sandy rim, too tired to pull herself out. She was happy to simply breathe and feel wind on her face. She laughed as she sobbed with relief.
She felt the footfalls through the sand under her, but could not summon the will to turn her head. Hands pulled her from the water, although she didn't open her eyes to see whose. A second set helped to support her weight.
“Niri, are you okay?”
The voice was Ty’s. Niri choked on her reply. He cupped her face gently, cradling her to his chest. Niri opened her eyes and saw his widen in shock. Ria gasped behind him.
“Your eyes ... they’re lavender,” she whispered.
Niri began to tremble as she pushed herself upright. Finally, her voice came back to her.
“We have to leave. Ci’erra escaped and Sinika is alive ... down there. I couldn’t kill him.”
Ty hugged her. Behind him, her eyes fell onto what had been the Temple of Dust. A lake stretched out amid the desert, the sand in the water settling. Streaks of the setting sun were reflected in the motionless water.
Niri was so tired she was numb. Ty relaxed his hold, pulling Niri to her feet as he regained his. He turned to his sister and Ria.
“Get the camels.”