Children of the Elementi (21 page)

Karl rolled his eyes.

“He’s fighting with a sword, not any powers. I can help.”

“...In for a Hars, in for a Heral.” She nodded at Kiera and they touched their crystals again. Karl was gone.

The air was still on the ship when Karl materialized, but the ship was still rocking slightly. It took a second to get his bearings before he looked up to find his friend. He grabbed hold of the railing for support when a large sailor spotted him. With a roar the man lunged at him with a dagger. Karl ducked and brought his sword up in a swift sharp jab to the kidneys. The man collapsed yelling. Karl paused, breathing hard. He’d never hurt anyone before. He’d ‘killed’ while fighting but that was play-acting. This was real.

A shout to his left brought him out of his reverie. Jake was in trouble. Karl left the man groaning and leapt over a barrel that had rolled towards him. The seas were getting choppy. Mirim and Shenella were using their powers to distract. Problem was it was distracting him as well. He smiled grimly; he knew what was happening though. Any advantage was a good advantage.

Jake had managed to get to Aras, but Karl could see another sailor out of Jake’s line of sight about to strike.

“Jake! Behind you.”

Jake turned with surprise to see Karl, nodded in recognition and looked behind him. Jake threw up his dagger, reversing it, before shoving it behind him. It sliced through the air and pierced the man’s stomach like butter. Still in his hand, he threw it up again to reverse it to parry a thrust from Aras. Jake was good!

More sailors came up the ladder from the decks below. Karl groaned. He charged forward and met the first one. They fought, parry after parry. The other man was bigger and drove Karl back, step by step, but Karl was quicker. Eventually Karl found himself back to back with Jake.

“This is like old times,” grunted Karl.

“A bit more dangerous,” Jake muttered in return.

Jake had never been more happy to see his friend. They moved as if choreographed. Each knew how the other would react after years of fighting mock battles together. His friend spun off fighting two sailors, one with the sword he brought and the other with the dagger he’d picked off from a fallen foe.

Jake turned back to Aras. He was a good fighter. But the older man had been ill and the strain was starting to show.

“Why are you doing this?” shouted Jake. He brought his sword above his head to avoid another fatal blow.

“One of us must die.” Aras aimed low. Jake jumped to the side but tripped over a rope. He fell heavily. Aras shouted, seeing his chance. Jake rolled on to his side and swept his legs against the other man’s, tripping him up. Aras fell trying to grab hold of a rope. He missed. A sailor fighting Karl bumped into him from behind and Aras fell forward over the railing. They heard him yell as he fell into the sea. A roar erupted from the higher deck. Jake looked back for his friend.

“We have to go Karl; there’s too many of them. Aras has gone.”

Karl ran over to him and looked overboard - there was no sign of the Emperor. Turning quickly he brandished his weapons at the advancing guard.

“Take us back!” Turning to the men advancing Karl shouted.

“There can be only one!”

Jake groaned at his friend. It wasn’t as if any of these had ever seen any films, let alone Highlander! Shaking his head, he took out his crystal and connected to the Matrix.

“Kiera, Mirim, bring us back!”

Lights swirled around them, became brighter and Mirim was sat in front of them.

“You made it!”

Jake moved off and took his place beside the other two. Karl moved off to the corner of the room to watch. The scenes on the screen in front changed as they watched to see what was happening now that Aras was gone. To their horror more Deocs were appearing above the ships. There were hundreds! By unseen command, the Deocs moved together as one towards the Citadel. Jake looked at Mirim.

“They don’t need Aras!”

There was a large crack above them and the sound of shattering glass. Kiera’s grasp of the shield collapsed.

The room was suddenly filled with Deocs. Jake acted quickly. He grasped them all into a mind merge and created a dome of power over their heads. The Deocs flew over them, obviously incensed.

“I can’t hold them for long!”

Karl was standing under the shield. He wished he could help. Beside his foot, Karl felt a surge of heat. He looked down. It was a crystal, just like the others were carrying. Curious, he bent to pick it up. It was warm to the touch and red fire swirled in its depths. Images began to form in the flames. The pictures shattered and reformed in his mind as the crystal gently glowed. Memories began to surface. He gasped as he remembered. He was the Fire King? The boy - he saw what had happened now. The boy was a cousin. He was family. Karl’s eyes burned as he realized the only family he had left died before he ever knew him.

Jake’s shield glowed white and it lowered against the combined power of all the Deocs. The Matrix urged Karl through the crystal. He jumped at the unfamiliar intrusion and remembered that he had been connected before when he was a child. Karl hadn’t had time to be trained before he was sent to Earth, but his father had shown him a couple of tricks. He knew what to do.

Feeling for the familiar energy of fire, he concentrated on the nearest one. As he focused inwards, he matched his energy signature to the Deoc in front of him. Its yellow eyes briefly blazed with sudden fear as it realized what the boy was doing. To the others he seemed to melt towards the boy and flow into him.

Jake looked blankly at his friend.

“How?”

“I’m the Fire King, you idiot. I was sent to Earth too but I never had the crystal. It was given to my cousin when a Deoc took him to safety thinking he was me. I remember now. Kind of explains why I didn’t think it was too weird that you could read minds, doesn’t it?”

Karl twisted and a few more Deocs flowed into him. He was invigorated. All that raw energy. It was amazing.

“It’s working!” Mirim exclaimed.

Emboldened, Karl concentrated on the other creatures. It truly was exhilarating, the energy sucked in from all sides. To the others he glowed a deep red with the energy. As each Deoc disappeared, they heard a small fizzle.

Kiera recovered from the shorting of the shield, began gathering the magnetic field again. This time she grimly thought it was going to be strong enough to beat off five hundred of those things. The air shimmered around her. Jake let the dome drop. An opaque green shimmering light surrounded the Citadel.

“It won’t stop anything physical, only energy,” she warned.

“Impressive.” Jake put his hand out of the broken window. The light fizzled but let him push it out and back in again.

Suddenly they heard a crash. As they were linked to the Matrix, they instantly knew one of the outer buildings had been hit. Rushing back to the light screen they saw what must have been a general directing cannon fire at them.

“They’re about a mile and a half away; we need to do something quick.” Jake ducked instinctively as another cannon ball shook the Citadel.

“Mirim, Shenella, can you create a storm? We need to sink those ships before they get any closer.”

They nodded. He watched them sit back at their consoles deep in concentration. As he watched, clouds from miles around began to move towards the ship. The water began to get choppy. Still in the mind merge, Jake could feel the tremendous energies played by the two.

“Kiera, you need to keep the shield up. They’ll probably send more Deocs now they know they broke through the first shield.” As he spoke more were forming beside the ships. “Karl, you need to create lightning. If we can punch a hole in the hulls, maybe we can sink them quickly.”

The storm was building in front of them but they still needed to charge the clouds. Jake dipped into Kiera’s shield and sent a bolt of energy up to the clouds a mile away. Karl caught it with his mind and separated the charge turning the upper clouds positive and the lower negative.

The waves below were now thirty feet high, and the ships were going out of control. The sailors who were manning the cannons, rushed to the sails to help stabilize the ships. Without the cannon fire, the Elementi were able to redouble their efforts. The charge built up in the clouds and Karl aimed at the first ship. A crack and jagged lightning hit the mast and the first ship began sinking. The sailors took hold of rigging and swung to safety to a nearby ship. The mage at the aft was unable to jump in time. A lightning bolt hit him and fifty ships disappeared. Everyone cheered.

Talik was standing on the deck watching with horror. He never realized their power was that strong. He rang the ship’s bell. His men scrambled to grab hold of the ropes, sails moved as they used the wind to their advantage. They regained control of their ships.

The Merpeople reported to Shenella that only five ships remained. It was time to get serious.

“Grow the storm,” Jake ordered. Mirim inclined her head and increased the wind, Shenella moved the water in its path, and together they created a giant whirlpool. The ships juddered in the water. The mages suddenly lost interest in fighting the Citadel and fought to stay on the decks. Huge waves crashed against the sides of the ships, sending men overboard. On the view screen in the Citadel they saw four ships remaining.

Jake sent up another bolt to the clouds, energizing the electrical field. As the energy built up Karl shaped them into bolts and sent them down on to the ships like acid rain.

“I feel like Zeus!” Karl shouted.

Bolts of lightning crashed from all directions above them to the waiting ships below. Shenella aided by Mirim created a tsunami and watched it grow and roll into the whirlpool. The ships veered from side to side and moved faster as the waves crashed in. Karl and Jake joined forces and sent in one more bolt of lightning, blinding them for the moment before destroying the whirlpool and the ships trapped inside it.

All five stood there stunned.

The whole battle had only taken half an hour.

They stared at one another grateful to be alive. Outside the sky was clearing as they let go of the pent up power. There was no trace of Aras or his ships. Slowly, they looked back at one another.

It was over.

EPILOGUE 

The next day, the sky was bright and clear. As Mirim waited by the door, she released a sigh of happiness. She had done everything her mother had asked of her; the Elementi were together and they would rebuild what was once lost.

A splashing to her left announced the arrival of Shenella with a companion. Irritation briefly flew across Mirim's features but she hid it before the girl could see it.

“Good morning, Your Highness.” Mirim smiled brightly.

“It is.” Shenella replied looking around. As she spoke, water dripped off her. Her clothes were as dry as if she'd hadn’t come out of the ocean just seconds ago. “This is Sori, my advisor and friend.”

Sori looked startled at bring described as a friend. As well he should thought Mirim. One did not make friends with advisors. He shouldn't even be here!

Mirim nodded and led Shenella and Sori up the main staircase into the meeting room where the others were gathered. Three of the five chairs were already occupied. Evenly spaced around a circular table the chairs were engraved with family symbols on the headrests.

 Shenella gratefully sunk into the seat with the fountain crest while Sori stood with his arms folded behind her.

Jake immediately gave Mirim a glare and stood up to dive out of the room. Everyone jumped at the sudden movement. Karl smiled when he realized what Jake intended. Moments later Jake returned, dragging back a chair from the anteroom.

“We’re not having any of that elitist stuff here.” He placed the chair by Shenella’s nodding at Sori to sit.’

“Jake!”

“Yes?” His eyebrow soared up to his hairline.

Mirim backed down. “Your Majesty.”

“Karl and I talked last night, and we think that we are going to have a go at this. Kiera was right when she said we wouldn’t return to much on Earth. Here, here we can help people make this world a fairer place.”

Shenella smiled and looked at Sori. “This new king is nothing like Aras,” she ‘pathed to him.

“You are right. We are in for some interesting times, Your Highness,” Sori replied silently.

Mirim looked quizzically at the pair. “I can’t hear you.” She was confused. “I can tell you are talking but I can’t understand what you say.”

Sori smiled. “It is a natural function of the Merpeople. Your Highness, we are able to converse telepathically in secret and it is the skill of the water power to understand us, something which perplexed your ancestors. We all have skills the others need, and that is why the Elementi were so strong when you were united.”

“Whatever, people, we are here to talk about what to do next. Aras is gone…”

“Did you see him die?” interrupted Mirim.

Kiera rolled her eyes. “Let Jake speak, Mirim.”

“As I was saying, Aras is gone but the Capital is still under the control of the Magi. The wizard who captured Mirim and me is still around and we need to bring the peoples together.”

“The wizard could also tell Aras’ cousins in the Dark Continent,” interjected Sori.

“...so we need to think about what we are going to do next. I, Karl and Kiera don’t really know this world, whereas Shenella and Mirim were brought up here.”

“We need to recover the chain.”

“Sorry, Mirim?”

“The chain, it was always with the Focic crystal. It is a technology long gone but it magnifies your power so you can magnify one of the elements to the strength one of us holds.” Mirim spread her arms out to the rest of the table. “It must have got lost or at least given to someone for safe keeping. It was powerful in its own right and they wouldn’t have risked sending that to Earth. It may even have been possible for a human to control an element with the power of that. Not the way we can, but enough to cause trouble.”

“Not to mention the Dark Continent. Someone will have to go there and see if they know what has happened and if they do what they plan.” Kiera said quietly referring to Sori's earlier point. “That probably should be Shenella as she has had experience in a court. Our world hasn’t had that set up for centuries.”