The Soothing Scent Of Earth (Elemental Awakening, Book 2) (5 page)

"Concrete pathways surround the building for ten meters on all sides," he added, the significance of the statement lost on me for a moment. His eyes searched my face. "I can't get you to the Earth until we pass the buffer, until then you will be vulnerable and weak. But if we can make it that far undetected, then you can call on your
Stoicheio
and use the Earth to shield us from view."

I blinked. Several concerns warring for attention inside my head. In fact, too many to separate them initially. I tried, but it was useless. As the doctor said, without my
Stoicheio
I was vulnerable, below par. I couldn't even work through what set my nerves on edge from what he had just said.

"We'll duck along the building's outer wall for ten meters to where the shortest route to the trees is," the doctor suggested. "If we can hide ourself in the shadows 'til then, and make a dash for it when the Guards are looking away, we might just make it."

I nodded. We had no other choice.

"Ready?" he asked again. I wasn't, but my head just kept on nodding.

He sucked in a deep breath of air, his eyes scanning the visible space before the doorway, then lifted his hand up, in a palm up motion, to make me stay still while he took a small step away from the threshold. He took a quick glance towards the left, upward - making me believe he was looking at the Guard post, probably a tower - and then again to the right. Then stepped back into the relative safety of our hidden doorway.

"Now," he whispered, without further delay.

Grabbing my hand he pulled me left out of the overhang area, sliding our bodies along the wall as though attempting to make us small enough to blend in with the concrete. The bright light of sunshine blinded my eyes, wiping all possibility of vision. It had been months since I'd seen the sun, since I'd been doused in natural sunlight. I stumbled, clasping the doctor's hand tightly in mine, while I blindly followed in his footsteps.

Despite not being able to see, the world seemed to be spinning around me, making me dizzier by the second, and making my sense of balance disappear. I fell forward, thankfully into the doctor and not out from the wall where I could be seen, and gripped his arm for stability. The Macaws kept singing, if you could call their screeching a song. But other noises invaded my ears, melding the birdsong with the click of a beetle, the chirp of a grasshopper, the buzz of a wasp, and the scratch of little, tiny feet in soil.

I let go of the doctor and covered my ears. I hadn't realised how silent my cell had been, but with the reintroduction of nature's sounds I was losing grip on reality.

"Breathe," the doctor encouraged, as his hand came up to cup my own over my ears. "In through your nose," he added. "Scent the Earth, Casey. Centre yourself."

I shook my head, the noise climbing to a cacophony of sharp edged sounds. A whimper escaped my lips, followed by an indrawn breath through my nose to compensate.

Oh sweet Lord in heaven. The pungent odour of rotting leaves. The sweet scent of an orchid. The fresh smell of rain dampened air. I sucked in breath after breath and felt the world settle; the sounds of the rainforest changed from a drumbeat to a background soothing hum.

I opened my eyes and stared into the dark blue of the doctor's. Concern coated his fine features, a crease of a frown marring his perfect face.
Athanatos
were truly beautiful beings.

"Better?" he asked, and I offered my rapidly becoming signature nod. "Good," he said simply, clasped my hand in his again and moved us further along the wall.

The sun was high, but its position was in our favour. A shadow existed along this stretch, that despite me wearing what was once a white sheet and white shortie trousers, managed to hide us enough to reach the designated spot the doctor had chosen. I looked out across a small expanse of concrete to a large Kapok Tree, its seed pods already bursting open with fibrous cotton.

It was tall and the trunk massive, the wide spread boughs offering shade, but little protection from the Guards in the towers either side. However, the exposed roots, reminding me of a Moreton Bay Fig Tree, were almost high enough to hide an upright adult in between. Our first task would be to reach one of those alcoves created by the roots and hunker down.

If I approached this one step at a time it might just be achievable. Thought of what would follow was too debilitating.

"Ready?" I said to the doctor, making his face jerk towards me. Yeah, I wanted out of here. There was no stopping me now.

He nodded, a small amused - or impressed - smile gracing his lips. We both checked the Guards, waited several torturous moments while they looked away simultaneously... and then ran.

I expected shouts of alarm to sound out immediately. Maybe even the sharp retort of a gun. What I had forgotten was, that I was inside a
Gi
compound. And while my feet still touched concrete, those guarding the area had access to the Earth.

A sense of burgeoning
Stoicheio
was the only warning we got, before we were both thrown sideways by roots projecting from the edge of the concrete, like some supernatural-nature security alarm system triggered to attack. I had nothing to defend with. No power, no Element. Just my forearm raised to protect my neck. I lost sight of the doctor and went flying several meters across the concrete, feeling a vine wrap around my ankle and start to haul me across the rough surface towards what was definitely going to be a trap.

But they'd forgotten something too. Three months of being separated from the Earth, only tasting it through the sadistic power of my interrogator, had made my body crave contact. My soul cried out for communion. The moment the vine touched my flesh my
Stoicheio
flared to life.

I was no longer defenceless, but a little power drunk.

I moaned with abandon, rolled over the concrete neglectful of the rough surface scraping my skin, and forced the vine to break flesh, to sever a vein and touch my blood.

Tingling rippled through my body, as finally shouts of alarm sprang up from either tower and more
Stoicheio
filled the air. But it was too little, too late. The Earth had been denied my touch, my blood, for three months also, and it sang with joy at the first crimson drop.

You are here
, it whispered on the wind, in my mind.
We missed you,
it complained, and sighed out in bliss as more of my blood flooded down the vine until it reached soil.
Run,
it commanded, a sense of urgency replacing the euphoria.
She knows you escape,
it added, sending a wash of chills down my spine.

I sprang to my feet, the vine already releasing my ankle, scanned the ground for the doctor, but couldn't spot him, and so, with one regretful breath in, I bolted for the fence behind the Kapok.

The Guards commanded the Earth to attack, but with a swipe of my arm before me, those vines and roots it sent my way fell uselessly to the ground. My bare foot touched down on grass, dirt sifting between my toes.

The Earth cried its happiness.

The Kapok Tree started to groan, its boughs swaying in the still, thick air, the leaves rattling and the cotton from the seeds flying free. White fluffy clouds rained down, creating a fibrous haze of cotton-candy-like feathers wafting in the non-existent breeze. I soon became engulfed in it, but somehow not suffocated.

The Earth was shielding me from sight, giving me a fighting chance to escape unseen. Oh, the
Gi
Guards knew I was there. The
Basilissa
, according to the Earth, also knew I was here running for my freedom, for my life. But none of them could actually see me. I was coated in, surrounded by, Kapok cotton balls of fluff.

The fence loomed before me and I ordered a vine to rise from the soil at my feet and pierce my wrist. Blood dripped down my fingers, splashing in the dirt and being absorbed by the Earth.

Make a gap, please
, I asked it, my breath coming in ragged pants as the delay in escape made my blood pressure rise.

A massive branch from the Kapok slammed down over my head, crushing the chain-link and creating a path over its fallen limb. I clambered across tattered leaves and scraped bark until I made it through the opening and only the dense forest met my eyes.

I turned back slowly and took in the wall of cotton fluff that hung suspended unnaturally in the air between where I stood and the bunker I'd been imprisoned in for three months.

Hurry
, the Earth urged.
She comes,
it added.
We cannot hold her off like the Guard,
it whispered ominously in my mind.
She is too strong.

I nodded, wished the doctor was still with me, and then ran.

The forest opened up before me, a beckoning treasure trove of scents. Branches parted, providing a makeshift path, leading me further and further away from the chaotic shouts and commands of the
Gi.
I ran until my lungs were fit to burst. Until my legs ached and a trembling had started up in my frame. Until I had to stop and vomit surged up my mouth.

It had been hours since I'd eaten my meagre meal of bread and cheese, but within seconds my stomach was emptied. Sweat coated my brow and I wiped it frantically, feeling the stinging bite of salty water in my eyes. I blinked, sucked in heavy, hot air, and tried to catch my breath.

The dizziness was back. The trees moving in a warped fashion that had nothing to do with my
Stoicheio
and everything to do with the fact I was about to pass out. I staggered, laid a supporting hand against the rough bark of a nearby tree and felt my fingers dig into the trunk seeking relief, seeking a solution to my compromised and extremely dangerous situation.

Help me, please
, I pleaded with the Earth, knowing that any moment now it wouldn't - couldn't - follow my commands. Once the
Basilissa
was close enough she'd take control and my weakened
Stoicheio
would be no match.

Take me deep,
I pleaded, thinking a cell within the Earth was surely better than a cell surrounded by concrete.

No
, the Earth replied, confirming my worst fears.
Someone approaches,
it added.

Those final words rang out inside my mind, stealing all my recently returned confidence, sealing my fate. I sunk to my knees in amongst fallen leaves, feeling the coolness of the rotting vegetation seep into my clothes, as the scents tried to ground me.

I sucked in a shattered breath of air. Three months imprisoned. What felt like only three minutes free and in touch with my
Stoicheio
. And now I would have to return.

A frustrated, defeated sound escaped my lips as my fingers dug into soil. Grounded. Surrounded. For this brief moment in time, safe.

The branches of the thick foliage before me quivered, shook and made a tinkling sound similar to those I'd made the Rimu Trees at home bordering my drive achieve... and then they parted.

I closed my eyes, prolonging the moment of capture, for what it was worth, and heard the footfalls of my captor approach.

One last blast of
Stoicheio
. One last reminder that I am like them.

I opened my eyes as the command formed in my thoughts, and watched as a root emerged through the leaves and soil three feet in front of my face and sprang directly at the doctor's neck.

Aktor had told me to
always
aim to kill.
"Aim for the neck, Cassandra. Sever the head before they sever yours. Do you understand?"

I screamed at the horror of my mistake, as the doctor yelped, and then raised both hands to protect his vulnerable throat.

Too little
, I thought.

But then his eyes, which were usually dark blue like mine, and flashed green when he called on his
Stoicheio
, flashed... gold.

Pyrkagia gold
.

And the root incinerated before our eyes.

What... the freaking hell... was that?

"You're...you're
Pyrkagia
," I stammered, unable to get my head around what I had just seen.

"What?" the doctor replied, stunned. Whether it was stunned at my question, or still stunned from being attacked by a root because of me, I'm not sure. But he was stunned.

"Um," I murmured, suddenly doubting what I had seen. Then my eyes landed on the charred remains of the root. I pointed a shaky finger toward the evidence. "
Pyrkagia
," I said simply, then flicked my eyes to his.

He stared down at the root for several moments and then smiled. It was an amused smile.

"Oh," he offered and pulled a lighter from his trouser pocket, flicking the flint-wheel ignition and making a burst of tall, robust flames flow from the top. More powerful than normal lighters.