Kashur

The little girl looked so much like his sister, it was uncanny, but there was no time to get into that now. They had work to do.

“The Emperor is breathing, but barely!” Kashur reported, using celestial healing. The Emperor was already sickly, and then he’d touched the crystal, been enveloped in crystals. There were flecks of purple in the boy’s pale skin, and his heartbeat was slow. He might be beyond Kashur’s help. “How is the Dwarf?” he asked Nyla.

No, not Nyla, he reminded himself. Nyla’s daughter. She had to be.

The girl was on her knees, rocking over the Dwarf’s prone form. “Bayne, wake up! Please wake up! Please!”

They were close enough that Kashur could see the purple flecks on the Dwarf’s face and bare arms. What had the alien matter done to them?

And what had they done to it? The girl had switched on a device and disintegrated it.

Yelora made her way to his side. He’d never seen her so afraid.

“He’s stable, for now,” Kashur said, finishing the healing sequence. “I don’t know if or when he’ll wake up. Do you want to try?” The Elves had their own version of healing magic. From what he could tell, the boy needed all the help he could get.

But Yelora was staring at the stout little figure that had arrived with the girl. Yes, that was a surprise, too. This day was full of them.

“I guess you didn’t kill the only Elemental in all of Terris after all.” He grabbed her hand and tugged her down to her knees, shifting the boy’s head to her lap. “Congratulations. Now heal!”

He switched to Bayne’s side and stretched his hands over the Dwarf’s prone body.

“No!” the little girl shrieked, shoving at him with her small hands. “Stay away from him! Don’t touch him!”

Kashur held his palms out. “Whoa, whoa! I’m trying to help him!”

Tears made shiny ribbons down her dark cheeks. “You’re a Wizard! This is your fault!”

His heart sank. “I’m not that kind of Wizard, Nyla.”

“My name’s Ivy!”

Kashur placed his hands in his lap. “Ivy,” he said gently. “Bayne needs my help. That’s all I want to do—help him.”

“He doesn’t need your help,” she said, collecting her device. She knelt down and laid it beside Bayne, then proceeded to pick up one of his fingers and plug it into the compartment beside a shimmering slice of opal.

Kashur frowned. “I’m not sure that's such a good idea.”

Her dark eyes flashed. “He says it is.”

Kashur’s gaze flicked to the Elemental, whose only expression seemed to be an eternal glare. “Are you talking about Baby Elemental? He hasn’t said a word.”

She rubbed her neck and grimaced. “He talks to me. In my head. And he says this will work.”

She turned on the device. Bayne’s body bucked and seized, but she held his finger in the device anyway. Kashur gritted his teeth at what looked like an electrocution, but couldn’t be because the girl was touching him, too. Still, it was... disturbing.

“Okay, I think that’s enough—” He reached for the device, but a rock clamp on his wrist stopped him. It was attached to a rock arm and a rock body, and a rock head with two unblinking, glittering eyes.

“Okay, okay! I won’t interfere,” Kashur cried.

The Dwarf stopped seizing, rolled over, and retched. The purple flecks were gone from his skin. He just looked tired as he sat up and blinked, running a hand over his short, red beard.

“Bayne!” Ivy dove at him with a hug.

He patted her back. “What happened to me?”

Kashur took a deep breath. “You had a...” He trailed off, trying to find the right words. It wasn’t technically a seizure. He tried again. “We think maybe you...” He halted with a grimace. “Honestly, we have no idea, but you seem okay now. Can you get up?”

Bayne tried to get to his feet and failed. “I think I need a mite of a rest.”

Ivy turned to Kashur. “We need to make camp.”

Well, it was good to know who was in charge at least. He swiveled to where Yelora sat with the Emperor. “How’s the boy?”

“Not well,” she said. “He has no healing ability of his own.”

“He’s too weak for the machine,” Ivy said. “He needs to rest, too.”

“Let’s make camp, then,” Kashur agreed, looking around. “There’s a nice sheltered area over there—” A low, groaning sound interrupted him, and he turned back to see that the Elemental had drawn the earth up into a cozy, hollowed-out hillock, complete with a tree-shaded canopy and a fire pit. They didn’t even need to scout for firewood. It was already there.

“Or we could stay here.” He gave Yelora a shrug and a grin.

While they settled in, Ivy treated the horse with her machine, and the Elemental created a pasture and pond for her. It also provided drinking water, fire, and even a clay bowl filled with wild nuts and berries. Kashur popped a handful into his mouth. Not a gourmet meal, but better than nothing. He handed the bowl to Yelora, but she stood up instead.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I’m going hunting.”

“I’ll keep you company.” He threw a quick shade spell over the camp and fell into step beside her as she stalked off.

“Don’t bother.” She ran her fingers through her hair before re-braiding it over her shoulder. Her rapid fingerwork was mesmerizing. “I’m not hunting anything you’d want to eat.”

“You’re going after Gorlo,” he said, trying not to look at the long, smooth swath of her neck.

“He’s the key.”

“I highly doubt that.”

“He’s the key to the Elves’ survival.”

“Right. Of course.”

They lapsed into silence, the only sound the crunch of leaves under their boots and the birdsong overhead. At the remnants of the battleground, Yelora found a bow and quiver and slung it over her shoulder while Kashur gathered up some fishing gear and studied an elegant, curved sword.

“It suits you.” Yelora smiled at him as she twirled her fingers in the air. An abandoned horse immediately trotted over to her, ready to do her bidding.

Had she cast the same spell on him? It felt like it.

The horse’s saddle was sliding to one side. Yelora slipped it all the way off, and the bridle, too. The way she looked at Kashur while she did it made him want to watch her undress something other than a horse.

When had that happened? When had she started looking at him that way?

“Let me catch you dinner at least?” He wiggled the fishing pole.

“Perhaps another time.”

“We might not get the chance.”

“You were in my vision, weren’t you? That means we’ll see one another again.” Her smile was sadder than he wanted it to be.

“What was I wearing?” He chuckled at the slip. “What I meant to say is... What was I doing? In your vision.”

“What you must. And I’m doing what I must.”

The resignation in her voice was like a dagger. Without thinking, he stepped forward and seized her elbow. “Don’t go,” he whispered.

“I have to.” She wasn’t angry. He’d expected her to be angry at him for grabbing her. For questioning her. For deigning to speak to her so, when she was a queen and he was just a man who had stumbled into becoming a Wizard.

“But there is something you can do for me,” she added.

Her green eyes tore him apart, and now he was sure she was casting some sort of spell, although her hands weren’t moving. “Anything.”

“Fly me high, so I can see which way he went?”

She hadn’t yet twisted her arm out of his grasp, so he lifted it and placed it around his neck. She brought her other arm up to join it, and he pulled her against him, chest to chest, stomach to stomach. Her breath smelled like mint leaves and her hair was like a wild rainstorm. Those eyes were shards of emerald that he wanted to worship like a Dwarf. When had he started letting himself feel this way?

He watched her watch his lips as he intoned the spell and made the token. The sight of her sleepy gaze so close and the feel of her body against his was... not fair.

No good could come of this.

He wanted it anyway.

They launched skyward together, like two dandelion seeds caught in an updraft. Above the tree canopy, the air was thin and cold and fresh, all the smells of battle and camp and the strange new magic absent in a way that made Kashur suddenly realize how present they were only a moment ago.

Directly below them lay the sobering remnants of that morning’s battlefield and the charred, smoking land east of it. His people had done that. Mol Morin had done that. There were bodies everywhere, and patches of dead Terris underneath every goblin corpse, some of them already blooming with deadly purple gardens.

Further north, the two golems they’d taken this morning were visible, one still lying inert, face down, the other standing like a rigid sentinel glowering northward. Kashur’s shade spell hid their camp, but the odd new landscape features the Elemental had created were all there.

Even further, across the thick green bunches of treetops, they could spot the Dwarf and Imperial armies marching toward the crash site.

“They’re close!” Yelora said, her breath warm against his chilled cheek. “Only another day’s march.”

“Close to where?” Kashur didn’t see anything but trees.

“Oh no,” she breathed. “It’s happening there, too.”

“What’s happening?”

“Snap your fingers.”

He loosed his hold on her enough to do so, and the facade flickered away. He gasped at the sheer size of the crash site. It had grown since he’d last been there, evil purple gardens like the one they’d just encountered springing up and spreading. A sick feeling roiled his stomach.

“There’s Gorlo!” Yelora cried. Clinging to him with one arm, she pointed to a small creature at the river’s edge, cupping water into his mouth. “You can take us down now.”

But Kashur didn’t take them down. While all he wanted was to fall apart in her arms, everything around them was falling apart and she was the only thing strong enough to stand with him against what they were facing. He couldn’t let her run away.

“Your Highness, do you not see how this cancer is spreading?”

Her emerald eyes flashed. “Of course I do! Now take us down. I know where I need to go.”

“We need to stand against it. United. All the peoples of Terris.”

“Of course we do!” She wriggled, helpless in his grasp. “Take us down, Summoner. This instant. I demand it.”

“We need a leader to unite the factions against our common enemy.”

Her face screwed up in anger. “You be that leader. My responsibility is to my people!”

He shook his head sadly. “I can’t lead an army against Mol Morin. He knows me too well. Knows my strengths and weaknesses. I love him like a father. I owe him too much. And in a few days, when the convergence happens, his spell will take away my curse, forever. He’ll use that against me, and I don’t know if I’ll be strong enough not to let him. It’s all I’ve ever wanted.” His gaze fell to her mouth, her bowed, pink lips, pursed a bit even when they were at rest, like they were perpetually waiting to be kissed. “Well, almost everything.”

“Summoner,” she growled, eyes shining with menace. “This is not about you and what you want—”

“Yes, it is,” Kashur interrupted, the boldness in him growing. “It is about me and what I want, because what I want is to save my world and I can’t do that by myself. Listen, Yelora. Listen to me, please. I’m sorry I couldn’t help you bring an Elf baby into this world. I wish that I could have, because I know that would have made you very happy. And I know you’re afraid, and I know you want to do right by your people. I get that, I do. But if we don’t stop what’s happening here, there won’t be a Terris to bring a baby into. Don’t you see? The Sprites, they’ve been showing me the way from the start. They led me to you and then they led me to Ivy and Bayne and the Emperor, and now this Elemental is in the picture. Terris is asking us, no, begging us, to save her. She’s giving us all the tools we need. We just need to be brave enough to pick them up and go to battle. Now, I don’t know if Gorlo is a part of this equation or not, but I know you are, and I have to believe that in the end, if we do our part, Terris will make the Elves whole again. But you need to believe it, too. You have to trust this. Trust me. Trust us.”

She stopped fighting him. He waited for her to say something: yes, no, let me think about it. Instead, she just stared at him with a combination of surprise and desire and a kind of endearing and perplexed hopefulness that made him feel both woefully inadequate and like a king at the same time.

Then she grabbed the back of his head and kissed him.