Born of Water Read online

  Voices floated up carried on the sea air as the sound of footsteps disappeared.

  “Come on Ty! I want to see your boat.” The voice was Ria’s, overflowing with laughter. Higher on the stairs replied the voice of a reluctant Ty.

  “It is late, Ria. We should go back. The lower city is no place for unescorted young women.”

  Tension deepened his voice, the effect causing Niri to stiffen and hold her breath. Niri couldn’t hear him moving even though she guessed he was only a few dozen steps below her.

  “You’d better hurry then!” It was Lavinia’s voice faint as the fading light, but still audible. They had to be near the bottom.

  Ty cursed under his breath and started down the steps at a quick pace to catch up to his sister and friend.

  Reality bit deeper into Niri’s earlier childish joy of freedom. She glanced along the empty street. Darkness oozed from between buildings and from the mouth of every portico as inescapable as the Church. It wasn’t just the two young women, who needed to be worried. Niri’s heart was beginning to beat quickly. She was far from the safety of the public complex and barely recognizable as a Priestess from the Order of Water. She itched to touch water, hold water. The power of her blood thrummed through her veins, spurring a need that burned beyond desire.

  Reflexively, she reached out with her mind and sensed immediately the sea beyond, its vastness a calm comfort to her nerves. Pulling in, she could feel the dampness in the air now that the sun had finally set. Moisture clung in a shimmering wall on the tiles of the street and the stucco of the buildings. The entire city was outlined in Niri’s mind by a thin line of water.

  A wet world was alive around her, a sensation that Niri had never experienced before. Born as a Water Elemental, the Church had taught her to purify water, bless it, and to call it for crops. But never to see the world, sense it, like this. Niri realized the legacy of her birthright held far more potential than what she had ever been told. A little dazed but far less nervous, Niri slipped between the buildings and started down the stone steps, following the three.

  Chapter 2

  DISCOVERIES

  Ty’s footsteps had nearly reached the bottom of the staircase. Niri hurried down the steps as quickly as she could in the fading light. But there was no sound of the three when she reached its end in the depth of the lower city. Niri paused between buildings, her chest heaving as she leaned against the cool damp stone. She tried to hear over her ragged breaths and pounding heart.

  A light hearted laugh echoed oddly from her right, the sound like a strange bird calling suddenly in the night. Niri moved quietly off in the same direction, hoping she would be able to find her way back to the steps and the public complex before dawn. The sense of stolen freedom was gone now, replaced by purpose underlain with worry. This spate of disobedience needed to end soon.

  Niri could sense the sea more than hear it a few blocks to her left, paralleling the street she walked along. Considering this was the lower part of the city and of less standing than the houses located above the cliff, the street was broad and clean. It widened out ahead to a small square containing a pool of water held in a low granite wall.

  The pool had no fountains or ornamentation beyond a softening of the worn lip on its stone base, but the import was clear. Water was sacred, feared and loved this close to the docks and the sea. Through the widened common, Niri saw a flash of darkness against the dull gray stucco of the houses. The word ‘back’ drifted to her before being lost amid the empty sounds of the night.

  That would have to be the three.

  They were heading towards the docks. Obviously the girls still wished to see Ty’s ship.

  How he explains that he doesn’t belong to one, as Niri was certain he didn’t, will certainly be an interesting conversation to overhear.

  The alleyways leading towards the harbor were narrow and dark and full of sea smells: salt and low tide, seaweed and fish. Niri barely noticed as she shortened the distance between the trio and herself, keeping easily to the shadows now in the darkened city. With any luck when they stopped in confusion at Ty’s nonexistent boat, she would find a way of approaching and speaking to Ria.

  At the intersection of the next street, Niri could see the girl’s hesitate as they peered ahead trying to find the way through the deepening night. Ty caught them at last, grabbing both of their arms in a quick lunge.

  “We are going back. You aren’t children anymore and this is no place for the two of you.”

  He was angry, the dark lines of his shoulders tense and his manner rough as he pulled the girls a step backwards. It frightened them, this sudden switch from childhood spirited adventure to adult seriousness. Ria grabbed at Ty’s arm, pulling back while Lavinia tripped against her brother.

  “You’re hurting me, Ty!” Ria’s voice was authoritative. Only a lilt at the end betrayed her nervousness.

  “That isn’t very nice, Tylee.” The voice was low, a grating echo emitted from the darkness. Niri pushed herself deeper against the wall of the house she had stopped beside. She tried to hide in the shadows of the colonnades while craning to see from where the voice had come.

  Ty stiffened, freezing in mid-reach to steady his sister. It was too dark to see the expression on his face, but fear was palpable in his sudden stilled motion and the tensing of the lines of his back and shoulders.

  “I want you both to run. Get out of here and don’t stop until you get home. Don’t wait for me.”

  Ty whispered the words so low and fast to his sister that Niri could barely understand them. His pulse raced so quickly that for a moment Niri could sense the water in his blood pounding through his body, willing him to action. With deliberate slowness, he turned, trying to locate the speaker.

  Ria clutched her friend’s hand ready to run. Lavinia looked towards her brother, unwilling to leave him behind. Balanced on the balls of his feet and looking for danger, Ty was the first to see the glint of the knife slicing through the air. He threw himself forward. His movement sent Lavinia a step further after her brother. She stepped directly into the path of the hurled blade. As a sense of panic rose into Niri’s throat, the knife froze in mid-air. It hung arrested in motion like it had struck home in an invisible wall.

  The whole tableau paused for an instant: Lavinia reaching for her brother and realizing her fate, Ty losing his fighting form while the knife he had pulled from his belt to send back into the darkness fell towards the cobblestones as he reached towards his sister, and Ria standing tall and unmoving staring at the knife inches away from her best friend’s head. But it was what no one else but Niri could see that held her spellbound. Power like lightening flowed toward Ria from the ground and air, amassing around her in a halo of potential clearlyx visible to Niri.

  The power emitted from Ria was immense and, though flung instinctually to protect her friend, was held by a firm mind. The aura of energy did not waiver or dim as it swirled around Ria, a thin tendril reaching out to hold the knife still. With terrified awe, Niri dismissed that Ria was simply an Elemental like herself. There was no combination of skills that could do what she had done. Besides the fact Niri could feel Ria’s connection to power outside of herself, unlike the internal blood skills of Elementals.

  As Ty’s knife clattered to the street and his finger tips touched the outstretched hands of his sister, four men walked into view from the shadows. Their astonishment at what they had witnessed was evident as they stopped and stared at the three, talking swiftly with gestures most often in Ria’s direction. Stunned by what she had done and mesmerized by the power singing through her, Ria gave a slight tremble and let the strings of magic dissipate back into the night, unaware that the threat was not gone.

  Niri’s surprise wore off as the men took another eager step forward toward the three youths. Lavinia was now wrapped in her brother’s embrace while both glanced between Ria and the approaching men. Instinctually, Niri pulled at the water coating the buildings and stones of the road. She flung t
he moisture into the air creating in an instant a thick mist, as confounding as day turned night. The sudden fog shielded the trio from the men, but Niri knew the safety it brought was illusionary. It would only take the men a moment to decide to wade through it and find their way across the intersection.

  If I were a dryad, I could build a wall from the stones of the road. The wish flashed through Niri’s mind with an old ache. Water was a weak element to control, as she’d learned during her years in the Temple. Shoving the old shame away, Niri rushed forward to where the three stood still as rooted trees.

  “This way, quickly.”

  Niri tossed back her cloak and herded the three ahead with open arms, feeling like a farm girl driving wayward geese. Overcome by what had occurred, the three obeyed the authority in Niri’s voice without question.

  She swept them forward down the street, knitting the mist behind into a thickness that belied all senses. Without thinking, Niri wove through the streets and alleys, making a random pattern of turns that led them further away from the assailants. The mist formed behind them while the way ahead Niri held clear.

  At the mouth of a narrow alley, Niri paused. Listening above the sound of waves, she did not hear any footfalls. The mist was still, undisturbed by anything trying to move through its blinding bulk. But the men were no longer Niri’s biggest worry.

  “You have to leave,” Niri said aloud while she looked skyward. The fear that had been nipping her calves as she led the three away from men had caught her, encasing her core in frozen stone.

  “What do you mean? We need to go home.” Ria spoke first, her chin tilting up as she recovered her composure. Ty’s eyes narrowed as he looked Niri over where she stood with cloak open over her white robes. But it was Lavinia who recognized her first.

  “You’re the Priestess from the ceremony.”

  Concern chased by fear filled Lavinia’s eyes as she turned toward Ria. Ria’s face paled as her frame stiffened. She crossed her arms tightly as she leaned away from Niri against the alleyway wall.

  “No,” Ria moaned. Tears welled in her eyes as she shied away. “I will not go with you. I’m not like you!”

  “I’m not taking you to the Church, child. You are right. You aren’t an Elemental. You are not like me. And you need to leave now or it will mean your life.” Lavinia and Ria clasped hands, simultaneously seeking comfort in each other.

  “You will not harm her!”

  The anger in Ty’s voice pushed Niri back a step. She turned to face him, his boiling hatred fanning heat towards her like a dark sun. Ty was tensed again, ready for a new fight. But this time it was against her. Niri paused, uncertain how to play this change of scene.

  “It isn’t me she needs to fear.”

  “No, it is the Church, all of you!” Lavinia glanced at her brother in surprise.

  “Yes.”

  The assertion knocked Ty’s reckless anger back a fraction. He blinked, startled. For Niri, the desperate need to explain warred with the awareness of time passing. She did not know how to make them understand quick enough. Tears of frustration filled her eyes.

  “What do you mean, I’m not like you?” Ria spoke into the tense silence. Her green eyes pleaded for one thread of hope.

  Niri took a breath, testing her voice. “I heard you speak earlier of being happy not to have been chosen today. You don’t know what you did?”

  Lavinia bit her lip while Ria’s eyes widened, dying dreams filling them with tears. “I stopped the knife. I am an Elemental.” Her voice wavered, drawing out an ache in Niri she had thought long buried. Niri reached forward toward the girl, but Ty stepped between them.

  Withdrawing her hand into her wide cuffs, Niri looked down a moment. To the darkness and stones, she spoke.

  “There are worse things than being an Elemental. There is another gift, one of magic. It isn’t spoken of . . . the Church has outlawed it.” Niri looked up again, her glance sliding off Ty’s uncertain gaze to Ria.

  “I don’t understand. I’m not an Elemental?” Confusing was giving birth to hope again. Niri plunged forward hoping to kill whatever thoughts wafted through Ria’s head.

  “The skills I contain are in my blood. I can only control water and my ability cannot grow beyond the strength with which I was born. Magic is different. You tapped into the life force, the power of all living things. Your abilities are beyond . . . I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?” Ty was not going to let Niri gloss over anything concerning Ria. His challenge stiffened her spine and balled her hands into fists inside her sleeves.

  Tilting her head up to stare him down, Niri answered, “I don’t know because anyone who has ever used magic is immediately killed as soon as they are discovered.”

  Lavinia and Ria gasped as one. Ty’s disbelief only slowed him a second. He stepped forward.

  “You will not . . .”

  “Do you think I mean her any harm? With what?” Niri tossed open her cloak to show her plain priestess robes and unadorned belt holding no knife or bag.

  “I am not the one to fear. If I were, would I be chasing after the three of you at night, alone?” Niri slashed her hand between herself and Ty, anger overcoming doubts. She gestured toward Ria.

  “You used magic, which isn’t allowed by the Church. You have unleashed the Curse, the Church’s way of tracking and dealing with those who use magic and it is coming for you right now. You must leave tonight if you hope to survive until the dawn.”

  Ria’s eyes were twin olivine stones set in the palest white. “I’m not leaving. I don’t want to leave. I want to go home to my family.” Ria crushed Lavinia’s hand in her own as she leaned forward as if to be sick or faint.

  “Are you certain?” Lavinia asked in desperation, glancing between Niri and Ty. “Are you sure she used magic and is not an Elemental? She could be a strong Air and Earth combined, couldn’t she?” Lavinia’s voice trailed off as she realized she was arguing that her friend was an Elemental, trying to convince a Priestess of this fact.

  Niri paused and looked from Lavinia to Ria. Studying the pallid girl, Niri could only feel the draw to Ria like iron to a magnet. It was the same feeling she had to anyone of the old blood.

  Could I be wrong? Could she be a powerful Elemental? Now, Niri could not see anything beyond a frightened girl who possessed a gift. Ty realized it and gave her a cold smile.

  “Then we are going home.”

  “Would you risk her life?” Niri challenged.

  Lavinia held Ria’s hand. Her other against Ria’s back where she stayed bent over, sucking air as the world around her tilted.

  “Isn’t there anything else we can do? Some way to be sure,” Lavinia’s voice was choked and cut through the stalemate between Ty and Niri.

  Niri’s expression softened as a thought occurred to her.

  “There is some way you can tell, isn’t there?” The relief in his sister’s voice backed Ty’s anger down. Ria sat up, leaning into Lavinia with lost hope.

  “There is, but I need some basalt.” Ty’s eyebrows pulled together as he stared questioningly at her. “There must be a shop down here in the lower city that will sell . . . ingredients for homemade blessings?” Niri asked, trying not to cast judgement on something she found herself in need of.

  Lavinia nodded as Ty replied, “Yes, I can take you to it. But I don’t think it will be open this late.”

  Niri shook her head quickly. “No, I cannot go. They will recognize me and no one must know I’ve left the public complex.” Niri spoke without thinking and then froze, wishing she could undo her words.

  The three teenagers looked at her sharply. Niri had lost whatever tenuous control over them she had. Ty sucked in a breath, his heated anger returned. “You snuck out.”

  “Yes.”

  “But you don’t want anyone to know so you can go back.” Ty looked at her as if she were something distasteful.

  “Yes,” Niri replied again, but the certainty died in her
voice. She hadn’t thought of not going back. The possibility had never existed to her before Ty questioned her. She shoved the strange thought and uncomfortable emotions it created aside. Ty ignored whatever look crossed her features.

  “Then I will not trust you alone with Ria.”

  It left only one option. All eyes turned to Lavinia. Her pale skin took on a glassy appearance as she realized what was being asked of her.

  “But those men?”

  “They were after me, not you.” Ty said gruffly while he unbelted his sailor’s knife and put it around her waist. If anything, this drained even more blood from her face as she looked at her brother with a myriad of questions in her eyes. They resolved into one expression. With a look, Lavinia begged her brother not to make her do this.

  “You know the store, right?” He asked without meeting her eyes.

  Lavinia nodded stiffly. Niri thought for a moment she would cry, but she bit her lip and seemed to rally.

  “Any basalt will do. Get it and meet us back at the pool near the bottom of the stairs. Do you think you can find it again?” Niri asked as they walked with her to the mouth of the alley.

  Lavinia moved her head more fluidly. “Yes, if I don’t get lost in this fog.”

  Niri gave her half a smile. “The fog won’t bother you.”

  Lavinia’s mouth formed a small ‘O’ as Niri pulled back the mist to form an open tunnel. Even Ty sucked in his breath and glanced towards Niri from the corner of his eye. With a push from her brother, Lavinia was silently off down the street. Her slim figured clothed in the dark blue dress was quickly lost to their sight in the night.

  Niri waited a moment before closing the mist behind Lavinia’s form. Ty made a gesture as if to stop her as his gaze looked after his vanished sister. The anger fell from his features, leaving him looking worn and tired.

  “We should go to the pool and wait for her.” Niri said softly, the mist moving with her breath.