Elemental

  Elemental

  By Tam Chronin

  Elemental Copyright © 2017 by Mary E Simon. All Rights Reserved.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Cover designed by Noelle Barcelo

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Tam Chronin

  Visit my website at www.tamchronin.com

  Independently published

  To Sabrina,

  You were there from the moment I started writing this book,

  You've been here, asking for more

  As I struggled with every word.

  There were days I only kept writing this

  Because of you.

  Friends who stay friends as long as we have been

  Become family.

  To Grandpa Alan,

  For the art, for the stories, and for all the things.

  I miss you every day.

  Elemental.

  In the world of Kayan, it is a word full of implication.

  Three-hundred years ago, it was an epithet. A curse.

  Today it is a description. A title. Another word among many.

  Elementals are wizards, born with the power of creation, set to inherit the rule, the responsibility, the very fate of a country. They are the most dangerous creatures in Kayan, including the gods themselves.

  They are the carefully trained, accounted for, numbered, humbled, kept in check.

  Any one of them could doom the world.

  Or save it.

  And the most powerful among them has disappeared.

  Part One

  Iam human.

  Let no words you find here or elsewhere convince you otherwise. No myths, legends, rumors, or tales should cloud your thinking. No matter what the other wizards or elementals say, I am human.

  I entered into this world from my mother’s womb just as naked and helpless as any other babe. My parents loved me while they still lived. While that and other things may make me more fortunate than most, it reinforced in my heart the knowledge that so many other elementals lack. The knowledge that we all enter the world the same. Naked and afraid.

  "Agrad!"

  My fears didn't have a face until I was nine years old.

  "Agrad, wait up!"

  Until a wizard visited our small town.

  "Mother sent me with an extra apple today." My friend, Garim, hurried to catch up with me that morning.

  He was round faced and friendly, nearly always smiling. His hair was a light shade of brown, almost blond, which was unusual in our town. Most people in Lesser Stonegore looked more like me, with dark hair and brown eyes. Garim stood out.

  "Thank you," I said, taking the apple. I put it into my lunch sack and handed Garim a candy I found inside. Garim loved sweets, but I preferred fruit. Candy was a little too sweet, I thought. We traded like this most days.

  That morning was a typical morning. It was summer, and I remember the air was heavy and warm. I wasn't sweating yet, but my hair was getting warm in the sun. I remember wondering if Garim's hair got this warm when something else caught my attention. A mother was scolding her small daughter for throwing a fit. "Stop crying so loud, you'll call a wizard's wrath down on us all by making such a noise."

  The little girl just cried harder, of course. How many times had my own parents said the same thing to me when I was that small?

  Garim and I exchanged a look of mutual exasperation with the mother before us. Her girl was crying harder now, of course. She was obviously scared, because now a wizard was going to come and take her away and gobble her up, just like in the stories.

  It was the fate of disobedient children in nearly every tale we'd heard. We grew up thinking a wizard was twenty feet tall and had skin of smoke and flame. They ate babies for breakfast, when they weren't too busy with destroying villages or blighting crops for fun. We learned better in school, but it was an image I'd had that was hard to shake off.

  "Yes, scare her to death, that'll get her to be quiet," Garim said in a hushed tone, rolling his eyes.

  I nodded. "If I ever have kids, I'll never say that. Ever."

  These were thoughts and opinions we'd shared before. We walked past the mom and her girl, convinced of our superiority.

  "Oh," Garim stopped me before we reached the scribe's office. "Denie taught me a new spell last night. I'll show you later, right?"

  I grinned, excited. "I'll see if I can go play tonight. See you later."

  He nodded and continued on to the common classes. As for me, I had an aptitude for magic and had a private tutor. I opened the door and slipped in quietly, setting down my things. "Good morning, Master Kavidrian."

  "Agrad," he said. "Your practice work is on the slate."

  It was all so very routine. I did my work silently until Master Kavidrian completed whatever he was in the middle of. About half the morning passed with the usual work, assessment, and discussion. I can remember that day so much clearer than I can remember every other lesson I've ever had. We were discussing the Arcane Wars and the ascension of wizards to power. Before then the human world had been run by priests. Mages had rebelled against the priests and had declared war on the gods over three hundred years before. Seventeen of them survived the war and became wizards.

  "They were powerful enough that they killed seventeen gods in the battle and took their power," Master Kavidrian explained.

  "How do you kill a god?"

  "There are three wizards left who know how, since they're the ones who did it," he said. "You could ask one of them if you want, but I have never plucked up the courage to do so myself." There was a twinkle in his eye that invited levity in response, and I grinned at him obligingly. "The rest of the wizards who rule today are just as powerful as the original wizards, but they're called elementals. Do you remember why, from last night's reading?"

  I nodded. "They have the element of a god's power when they're born, but they didn't do the spell themselves. So, when a wizard is killed that element goes to a baby, and the baby gets to rule the wizard's country." I paused for a moment. "But, if the wizard is as powerful as a god, they should be just as impossible to kill. So, if someone kills a wizard, shouldn't they be the next wizard?"

  "It doesn't work that way," Master Kavidrian said. "So far, the only people who have been able to kill wizards are other wizards or elementals. You might--"

  He was interrupted by a messenger. It was a common enough occurrence that I paid it no mind, opening my history text to read silently. Master Kavidrian was frequently given correspondence for farmers or other laborers who had better things to do than read for themselves. Their literacy was limited to simple spells that were necessary to their labor.

  This time was different, though. He did not say, "I will be visiting with Farmer Tarrinus for a few minutes," or "I'll be wasting another lunch, so you had better enjoy yours thoroughly." I looked up curiously and silently to see him watching me with a thoughtful frown.

  "Sir?" I said.

  He shook his head and folded the note. "This town needed some excitement anyway," Master Kavidrian said as he dismissed the messenger with a coin.

  I waited expectantly, but he turned his attention to something on his desk and began writing. He didn't even look up when he spoke. "Our lessons the rest of the week will be canceled. An old acquaintance will be arriving tonight. Let your parents know."

&nbs
p; "Yes, sir," I said, grabbing my things and leaving. It was clear we were done for the day, as well.

  Curiosity tagged along with me, whispering questions and inspiring a string of what-ifs. What sort of acquaintance would he have, that I wouldn't know? Hadn't he lived here his whole life, like everyone else? At that age, I still had a difficult time imagining any adult had a past at all, let alone one I didn't know about. He was my tutor. He was the town scribe. He served as a mediator when necessary. That's who he was, just as my parents were spellsmiths. Garim was the son of the only store's owners, and he would own the store when they were done with it. My friend Natali would likewise succeed his parents as farmers. Everyone had a place, and everyone's place was decided since long before I was born. No one left who didn't come back. No one arrived, except temporarily. Messengers and traveling merchants were the only ones who weren't a permanent fixture upon my life, and even they were familiar faces in their comings and goings.

  I was stopped no less than ten times on the way home. At first I expected to be stopped for not being at my lessons, but I was surprised. The news that there had been a messenger had already hit the town and painted it with wild speculation.

  "Master Kavidrian had a messenger today," I said. "That is all I know."

  "You probably know more than I do," many of them would say, or words similar enough to mean the same thing as they turned to share the news with someone else.

  Even Wydram Longbar, our local enforcer, stopped me in passing. "Messenger, huh?"

  I just nodded, trying to make my way home and yet not turn my back on him disrespectfully.

  "Agrad, you know--" he began, but stopped himself with a shake of his head. "Never you mind that right now. You just keep a low profile, hear me? There's whisperings of a wizard on the move, and your tutor used to be friends with their like. Get me?"

  "Yes," I said quietly.

  "Don't 'yes' me just because you think you should," he grumbled darkly.

  "Sorry, sir."

  "It can't be Verwyn," I heard someone nearby say, and I recognized the name of a country from maps I had seen in my lessons.

  I turned, trying to see who had said it. When I looked back at Enforcer Longbar, he had already turned and walked away. I crept closer to the couple who were talking.

  "Lorwyn," the other said. That was the name of our country, and the name of the wizard that ruled us.

  The man beside her shook his head. "Our Lord would invite Master Kavidrian to visit his castle, not come here. He's done so before. More likely Ceolwyn or Kaelwyn. They're more active and have ears everyw--" He caught sight of me listening in on them and closed his mouth abruptly. It was Garim's father, Master Dayle, I realized as I saw his face. He was talking to Mistress Cesana, his sister. I hurried along home, shamed to have been caught eavesdropping by people who would probably give my parents an earful about it.

  By the time I made it home my father was fixing lunch while my mother was in the midst of repairing some charm.

  "Aren't you early?" Mother said. There was a sparkle in her eye as she saw me, despite her tone of admonition. There always was when I walked into the room.

  "Master Kavidrian sent me home," I said, setting my bag on the table and taking out my lunch sack. "There was a messenger, and Master Kavidrian told me classes are canceled for the rest of the week."

  "A messenger?" Father asked. He took my lunch sack, setting the apple aside and putting the rest in the preserver. It was like an icebox, but it worked with magic since ice could be hard to find this time of year. It also kept things at the temperature you put it in at, instead of making everything cold. I thought that was just one of the perks of having spellsmiths as parents, since preservers were so rare that I didn't know anyone else who had one.

  "Master Kavidrian said a guest is arriving tonight," I said, giving my mother a tight hug. "Enforcer Longbar said a wizard's on the move, and that Master Kavidrian was friends with wizards. Is that true? And I overheard Garim's dad talking about it, too. He said it couldn't be Lorwyn, because then Master Kavidrian would just go there. Do you think a wizard is really coming here? Or an elemental?"

  My mother's arms had gone stiff around me. She held me tight, holding her breath, looking over at my father. I couldn't see their faces, but I just knew they were looking at each other.

  "Agrad," Father said stiffly. "We don't gossip in this house. It is none of our business what sort of friends your tutor has, or who might be visiting. Come and eat."

  "Yes, sir," I said, feeling small from his rebuke. Lunch was eaten in almost perfect silence.

  It made me anxious. They were tense all day, finding busywork and chores for me the rest of the day. When I asked to go play with Garim they said no. They looked scared by the question. We had a handful of guests, and most were immediately turned away. Only Mistress Cesana wouldn't be turned away. My mother stepped outside to talk with her, and I stayed glued to the window the entire time.

  I expected Mistress Cesana to point to me and yell about my indiscretion earlier, but that's not what happened. They talked quietly and calmly, at length. I had nearly given up when I saw that my mother had started crying. Mistress Cesana gave her a hug, patting her back, and they stood there until my mother had calmed.

  The thought was a disquieting one. Was my mother crying because a wizard was coming? Perhaps they were more terrifying than I realized. The image of a monster of smoke and flame, gobbling babies and destroying everything in their path, returned for a moment. I shook it off and returned to putting away the dishes to keep myself occupied rather than dwell on those thoughts.

  Raised voices kept me awake that night, though I couldn't make out the words they exchanged with such impassioned urgency. It worried me so much that I pulled the covers tight over my head. Their silence held me awake even longer, when it finally came.

  The next morning my mother was cleaning furiously. I quietly ate the apple I had forgotten the day before. It bothered me as much as her crying had. She never cleaned like this. Most of the time she was creating messes with her wild experiments, meaning to clean and never finding the time or attention. It fell on my father to tidy up after her, until the calm after the storm broke and she would laughingly declare a few days off to catch up.

  "Stay near the house," Mother told me, putting the last of the books neatly away on freshly-dusted shelves.

  "Let the child have fun," Father said. "Agrad will be fine, and it will draw attention if--"

  "It's a little late for that!" Mother threw her hands in the air in frustration.

  "I'll stay out of sight," I promised meekly as I slipped out the door to let them argue some more. There wasn't much I could do, anyway. My friends were all with their own tutors or in the common classes, like Garim. Those were held for all the children between the ages of seven and twelve. After twelve it was widely held that a general education was unnecessary, since everyone needed to focus on what they'd be doing the rest of their lives. It wouldn't make sense for me, for example, to learn more than the very basics of harvesting or carpentry, since I had no aptitude for growing things or using hammers and chisels and other such tools. My gift was for magic. I'd be much more helpful if I made spells to sharpen plows than I would be trying to guide one through the soil.

  The weather that day was perfect. I spent time hiding alone by the stream near my house, or in the clearing a bit upstream. I grew bored quickly on my own, and despite my promise to stay hidden I crept closer to town. From the top of a hill I climbed a tree and watched from a distance, looking at the carriage in front of Master Kavidrian's house and thinking I'd never seen anything so fancy in my life.

  I watched people come and go. A couple of them were well-dressed strangers, and I wondered which one was the wizard. Was it the girl with the golden hair and scarlet dress? The man who simpered around and avoided the mud holes with such obvious distaste that I could see it even from my distant vantage? Would wizards fear getting dirty, or would they just dry up the mu
d with magic? I thought a moment and decided that's what I would do, if I didn't want to get dirty. Zip, and the earth would be dry until I was past it, and then it could be muddy again at my will.

  I smiled and climbed down the tree, heading back to safety again. There was nothing to worry about, there. The wizard couldn't be worth a thing if he was afraid of mud holes, or if she showed off her prettiest dress when there wasn't even anything going on.

  I came back the next day, emboldened by my success in watching the visitors from afar. I came closer this time, still hiding, but determined to get close enough to see their faces if they walked out. I'd brought a peach with me and ate it slowly as I walked, pretending to be too wrapped up in eating it to notice where it was I was going if anyone asked. I suppose it was child logic that told me that it was a good excuse to be so close to the strangers, but I did not need it. I saw no one that day, but I thought for a moment that I felt eyes peering at me from the darkness of Master Kavidrian's house. I took a step closer, curiously, nearly taking a step from the patch of tall grass I'd hidden myself behind.

  "Agrad!"

  I jumped, turning to see Master Kavidrian behind me, carrying a bread basket and a handful of other items from the general store.

  "Get home before they see you out here," he muttered, walking past me without looking at me.

  I stared after him, watching as he walked into the house and light spilled into the empty parlor. The door shut quickly and I hesitated only a moment more before I dashed home. That was close enough to get to a wizard, I decided as I walked. If they made even a powerful man like Master Kavidrian act so jumpy, I wanted nothing more to do with them.

  I did stay close to home the next day, staving off boredom by enchanting rocks into a row of toy soldiers and letting them loose to fight each other. I was supposed to be too young to do magic like that by myself yet, but that didn't stop me and my friends from doing this when we were together. Tychel's brother hand taught him the spell once, and we all learned it and kept it a secret. I wondered if the spell Garim had talked about the other day would have made things more exciting, but I hadn't been allowed to see him so I could learn it.