Sky of Wind by Emily Deady

Chapter 36

As Sol brought Ezra back into the cavern, Meena hoped she had not pushed him too hard. He did not have to befriend Ezra, but together they could accomplish far more.

Sol handed a string of the beads to the chaos magic user.

“I can draw the chaos out,” Ezra said. “But it still has to go somewhere.”

“The small flashes of lightning from the two I did were harmless,” Sol responded.

“That was two beads,” Ezra responded. She gestured to the rest of the room. “To do the same with the rest at a faster speed would collapse the entire cliff side.”

Sol nodded.

Meena bumped her fist against her forehead, recalling the little she knew about the magic.

“Let me siphon this out,” Ezra said. “At the very least, we can see how much chaos there is.” As she spoke, Ezra held the string of beads in one hand, dropping it slowly into the other. She moved the string in a circular motion until sat in a comfortable spiral in the palm of her hand.

Tensing her fingers around it without fully closing her hand, she inhaled and dropped her head forward.

Meena could see Ezra’s hand start to tremble and the tendons on her forearm stood in stark relief to the rest of her arm.

Ezra then held out her empty hand, opening the palm out flat. A purple orb began to gather in the space above her palm.

Meena instinctively shrank away from it. The glowing sphere reminded her of the curse that the mage had used to attack Aden.

Ezra opened her eyes. Her face was calm, but her closed fist and opened palm still trembled slightly. “That’s all of it.” Her voice was tense, but not strained. Since she had drawn the chaos from the orb, she did not have to put herself through pain, only concentration.

“Now what?” Meena asked.

“We have to channel it into something to disburse it,” Sol replied.

Aden’s curse had been cured when Isa kissed him, offering him a life-giving love. She’d unknowingly used the power of harmony to cancel the chaos.

“Can you use your harmony magic to cancel the chaos magic?” Meena asked Sol.

“I don’t have enough magic to replace,” he replied. “I’m already almost out.”

“And there’s no way we could just carry it out here?” Meena asked. “And disburse in the middle of the sea?”

Sol shook his head. “We wouldn’t make it halfway to the boat before they captured us all.”

“We have to do something with it,” Ezra replied.

“And quickly,” Meena added.

“Maybe the wind could carry it away?” Sol said.

“How?” Ezra asked.

Keeping his eyes on the purple orb of power, Sol intoned a note in his throat. His face looked both purposeful and peaceful.

A fluttering wind whispered through the enclosed cavern room. It circled around Meena, picking up speed.

The hanging glass beads around her clinked lightly as the wind swept by them. As it passed Ezra’s outstretched hand, the wind picked up strands of the purple orb, carrying them with it out the open door.

Within moments, the orb was entirely depleted.

The wind left the room.

“That was incredible,” Meena said. “I’ll handle the beads, Ezra can withdraw the magic, and Sol can summon the wind.”

She didn’t wait for confirmation before she scooped up an armful of beaded strands.

Handing a new one out to Ezra, she took the magic-depleted strand and started

Holdingout a new one to Ezra, she swapped it for the magic-depleted strand. Ezra began her process again, and Sol closed his eyes to access his harmony magic.

Meena dropped the empty beads in a specific spot so she could organize them as they went.

The wind rushed through the room around them, playing an ever constant melody with the hanging glass beads.

Ezra did her part as quickly as possible, keeping Meena on her toes—literally, as she twisted around the small space—passing the strands back and forth.

At first, Meena felt cold as the wind rushed around her, but her body soon warmed from the constant movement.

After a short while, it became clear that the floor would be difficult to navigate if she kept dropping the empty beads. She started re-hanging the empty strands back on their wall hooks. She kept a broad space between the two sets of beads so she would not lose track.

Despite the never ending strands of beads, they made quick progress through the room.

They were perhaps halfway finished when Jules stumbled into the room, pressing with all his might against the outgoing wind.

“A storm rolled in,” he said. He was dripping wet from head to foot. “It’s getting pretty bad.”

Sol looked at Meena.

Her watery eyes blinked, so she smiled and blinked a second time.

Sol smiled.

It was a tired, small smile, but she could tell he was laughing at her.

“We can’t leave it half finished,” Sol told Jules. “You can wait in here if you want. It’s unlikely anyone will be able to scale the cliff if it’s as bad as it looks.”

Jules nodded and stepped across the room to stay out of their way. Within moments, he was standing next to Meena, helping her pass and organize the strands of beads.

They increased their speed.

Meena worked without thinking until something wet and cold soaked through her slippers. She looked down to see water pouring into the room from the outer tunnel.

“Oh no,” Jules said, as he noticed the same thing. “It’s getting bad out there. That’s a lot of rain to have traveled this far inside.”

Meena looked up at the final wall. They only had a quarter of the beads left to drain. They needed to finish quickly.

“Do you think we are causing the storm?” Ezra yelled above the wind and water.

Meena froze. That made sense.

“You’re right,” Sol said. “The chaos needs to be dispersed somewhere.”

“If we keep going, it will only get worse,” Meena said. She looked around the room at the flooding floor and remaining beads. “We might be able to carry the rest,” she suggested.

Neven burst through the door on the other end of the room. “They’re coming,” he said, breathless.

Meena ran to the wall of remaining beads and began filling her arms with as many as possible. “Jules, help me. Neven, here too.”

Sol and Ezra had already turned toward the door, hands ready in a defensive position.

Councilor Younn burst through the door with a squadron of soldiers behind him.

“Go!” Meena pushed Neven and Jules out the opposite door. They had managed to gather most of the remaining beads. Meena could get the final handfuls herself.

“Stop them!” Younn yelled, his face enraged. He held up his hands to protect himself from the harsh wind.

Meena had the remaining strands in her hands. “Let’s go!” She stepped back into the getaway tunnel.

Ezra and Sol kept their bodies facing Younn, but they began to back toward Meena.

“Ezra,” Younn sounded shocked. “Why am I not surprised?”

As he was speaking, he held his hands forward, dropping his last word into a high pitched note. “You cannot steal magic from a magic user, you fools!” he yelled into the wind.

He inhaled, his hands spread wide to the hanging beads.

After a few moments of nothing happening, he looked quickly down at his hands, as if expecting them to be not empty. “No!”

He quickly looked back up, panic rising as he realized what was happening. Drawing his hands back toward himself, Younn stood taller.

Meena instantly guessed he was going to draw on his chaos—or someone else’s, since the beads around him were empty.

Clutching the beads, and now wet and cold from the rain and wind, Meena was tempted to slam the door closed and run down the tunnel to safety. The inflowing rain water was now powerful enough to hold the door firmly in place. At the very least, it would be very difficult to open the door against the flow of water.

That was it. She glanced back up. Sol and Ezra were still standing inside the door.

“Now!” Sol yelled.

Clutching the strand of pearls that was already in her hand, Ezra yelled a powerful screech. The wind inside the room had settled since Sol stopped controlling it. But that just made the thunderous storm outside all the louder. Ezra’s high voice carried above the thunder.

Purple ribbons shot from her hands. They wrapped around Younn, immobilizing him. As they continued to stream from Ezra’s hand, the ribbons wove around through the squadron of soldiers, stopping their movement as well.

Younn breathed heavily, though he could not move his limbs.

Though she couldn’t hear it, Meena could see Younn shape his mouth, preparing to sing again.

He could still access his magic.

“Run!” Meena screamed. “Now!”

Sol had already noticed, but instead of running out the door, he leaped toward Younn and, pulling a white ribbon from his pocket, he wrapped it around the councilor’s neck.

A small jewel dangled from it, but because of Sol’s position, the jewel swung over the man’s shoulder.

“Ezra,” Sol called as he tied the ribbon as quickly as he could. “Fill it.”

Ezra shrieked again. Meena heard true pain in her loud voice. She was using her own chaos to fill the gem.

Ezra slumped against the wall, her fingers still held out toward Younn.

Meena rushed back into the room, throwing her free arm around Ezra’s shoulders to support her.

Younn let out a low rumble, and purple power gathered at his fingertips.

The gem on his shoulder flickered briefly, stopping his voice before he’d finished.

But the purple magic had already gathered at his fingertips and he shot it forward, striking out as two bursts of lightning toward Ezra. The purple magic at his fingertips shot through the air, striking out as lightning toward Ezra.

Without the time for thinking, Meena used all her weight to pull Ezra straight forward.

Meena landed with a splash on her back, still clutching the beads in both hands. Water splashed over her face, dripping down her nose and throat. Ezra, already slumped over, landed on top of her as the lightning attack struck the wall where her head had been.

Sol lifted Ezra and half carried, half dragged her to the getaway door.

Meena scrambled after them, pushing off the ground with her hands. Coughing the water out of her lungs, she stopped for a brief moment to slam the door shut behind her with one foot.

It closed with a slam, carried even faster by the momentum of the running water.

Tripping after Sol and Ezra, she dove headfirst into the heart of the storm.