The Elemental Read online

  THE ELEMENTAL

  CHAPTER 1

  “Protect her Allen” Telrin the Lifted said as he looked into the young mage’s eyes. David was on track to become one of the four Elementals of Atropia, the name given to those who were found to be blessed with one of the five disciplines. Magic was rare but not unheard of in Atropia, the difference that set Allen and the other Elementals apart was that he could not perform any of the other disciplines. Mages, as all magic users were called, typically could perform all of the five disciplines, fire, earth, water, life and air. The strength of the mage depended on how much magic reserves they held and of course some mages were better at one type of magic than the other. Elementals on the other hand were thought to be the embodiment of the forces of nature, Allen had been told that he held magic inside of him that made him greater than any mage.

  “What do you mean protect her?” Allen cried. “Why don’t you protect her, I don’t have magic the way you do.”

  “My place is to die alongside the King” Telrin replied hastily as he kept glancing back at the sleeping toddler he had dragged to Allen’s bed. “The Elementals exist to protect the royal family, Aldo and Beni have already fallen from the assault, I need to make my last stand as well.”

  “What do you mean Aldo fell?” Allen asked scared. “He was a healer, why would anyone kill him?”

  “Because the people no longer want a king Allen” Telrin replied. “They want to elect their leader and to do so the king must die.”

  “But he helped give us our power” Allen cried out.

  “Listen to me Allen” Telrin replied. “The procedures that have happened to you boosted your strength but they were more for loyalty and to tie your life force to the blood of House Godfrey. You were already strong, this would have been the first time in a millennia that five elementals were found after hundreds of years of none being discovered. What should have been the kingdom’s greatest year has turned into its worst one. The king has made contingencies for this outcome, it still wont be easy but it will be better than nothing. Take care of yourself Allen, I must go stand with Arian.”

  Allen watched Telrin leave and could have cried. Telrin was the Air Elemental, a man capable of feats he had never thought possible. If anyone could hold off the attackers it would be Telrin, the fact he had Arian, an always angry man who controlled water meant the attackers would be at a disadvantage. Allen looked at the sleeping form of the princess, Allen had never seen her or any of the other members of the royal family up close before until now. She had big blond curls all over her head and Allen knew she had the big blue eyes of the king. Allen picked her up from the bed and looked around his room just as the sounds of battle hit his ears. Loud booming sounds were heard followed by the screams of men, Allen let himself smile a little as he thought about the men trying to take down Telrin.

  No elemental could create something out of nothing, unlike what a normal mage could do. A mage could conjure water, fire or any of the other disciplines to a degree, Elementals could manipulate what was already around them. That was the reason Beni always carried a torch with him wherever he went. Telrin didn’t need to keep something on him, air was all around and it sounded like he was using it. Allen thought an hour had passed before the booming stopped, he could hear a cheer go up and knew the worst had happened. Allen didn’t know what to do, should he run out of the room? If he did then he would most likely die, anyone that could take on Telrin could kill him easily. Allen could hear the sound of men running down the hallway and kicking down doors. Allen was still learning his magic and did not trust it to see him through a battle. Besides there was only so much that could be done with earth magic, fighting with it would be foolish, it was more suited to defense. That was the reason Allen went with the weapon his father had carried with him, the crossbow. As soon as his door was kicked down a wild eyed man came storming inside and looked over at Allen, it was the last sight he would see as Allen closed his eyes and fired. The bolt tore through the man’s left eye as the sound of Princess Mary crying made Allen open his eyes to see the results of his shot. Allen hurried to reload just as a woman appeared in the doorway, this woman though would be a tougher fight than the man Allen had killed, this he was sure.

  The woman was wearing a long white robe and stuck out her hand just as Allen fired, a gust of wind shot out from her outstretched hand and made Allen fire a little to the right as he was slammed back against the wall. The woman looked pained as she had both palms facing Allen like she was trying to physically hold him up on the wall. Allen was able to pull out the boot knife he kept in his right boot and tried to throw it when the wind picked up. Allen dropped the knife as the woman turned to scream to someone in the hallway.

  “Hurry up and help me get this kid” the mage said as she turned her head to the left. “I may have to fry him to stop him from doing something else stupid. Allen narrowed his eyes as a man came into the room and raised his sword. Allen was hit hard on the side of his head with the pommel and lost consciousness.

  ~

  Allen woke up in a different room, this room was primarily made of stone and only had a straw stuffed mattress in the corner which Allen was sitting up on. Allen could feel the bump on his head and the pain that came with touching it, Allen wanted to cry out until he remembered about the princess. Allen stood up quickly and focused his eyes on the wooden door, Allen could work the wood like clay and walked over to it. Before Allen could do anything the door swung open and a man wearing a red robe came inside. Allen took a step back, he wasn’t sure if this man could do a lot of magic but his red robes meant he was a fire mage, the most dangerous type to fight.

  “I see that you are up” the mage said as he rubbed his black goatee. The motion made the man look even more sinister, he was tall and skinny with long black hair and bushy black eyebrows. His gray eyes seemed to bore into Allen who took a few more steps back.

  “Who are you?” Allen said as he stumbled backwards and fell on his behind.

  “You are smart to be scared of me boy” the mage said looking down at Allen. “I thought you were the first born of some noble, if any of my people recognized you, you would have already been at the chopping block with the rest of the nobles we could find.”

  “Where is the princess?” Allen asked remembering his bravery. Allen silently thanked his father, before they were separated, he taught Allen as much as a young boy could be taught about weapons and showing bravery, even when scared.

  “There is no princess” the mage said coldly. “Not anymore, the time of nobles have passed. No one should be in power or rule based upon their birth.”

  “That is a lie” Allen replied remembering what Telrin had told him. “Those who come from wealthy families will still have power and that will be based on birth. The son of a poor peasant and the son of a wealthy businessman will still be judged by their birth.”

  “The nobles must have dug their claws deep into you boy” the mage spat. “You aren’t even one of them Allen.”

  “How do you know my name?” Allen asked as he climbed back to his feet.

  “Because the Tenkay the Bold left a will in case of his passing” the mage replied. “Despite what the nobles think, we are not evil men. We are just tired of being taxed and pushed around. The old king wanted Mary left in your care but you are just a boy yourself. He was delusional in thinking we would send you off with a sack of gold, that money belongs to the people, not some lackey lucky enough to know the king.”

  “I am not some lackey” Allen replied. “I have magic.”

  “Sure you do” the mage said and shook his head. “You have no magic well inside of you and before you start with that elemental nonsense I don’t believe in fairy tales.”

  Allen wasn’t g
oing to try to talk him out of it, Telrin had told him how the outside world, especially mages viewed the idea of Elementals. Elementals were talked about like dragons were, something of myths and fairytales. Elementals were ultra rare, hundreds of years could pass by before there was even one and just yesterday there were five. Telrin had told him it would probably be hundreds of years before another Elemental would be born, he had some formula worked out on how often an elemental would be born and it just happened to all coincide within the same century. Mages had thought Elementals were just strong mages, a rumor Elementals also spread. Only the reigning monarch knew for sure, any who tried to discover the secret found it hard. All real mages had a magic well inside of them, it determined how long they could cast for. Some life mage spells let a mage use something called magesight, it was useful only at identifying other mages and looking at power levels. Since Allen technically had no well he would look like any normal person to a mage who didn’t know what they were looking for. If this scary mage did know what to look for he would see that although Allen didn’t have magic in his well, he would have noticed something else. All humans had the capacity to do magic, all humans had a well but most were empty, it was what separated the mages from everyone else. Mages, even when they had used up all of their magic, their magical wells were constantly regenerating magic. The fire mage in front of him was looking for any sign of magic and had not seen any, it took a mage at least three days from being completely drained to refill but some magic should have been inside of Allen if he was a mage. A normal well was said to show as an empty place in the chest, Allen was told he had one but that it branched out into his arms and legs which let him manipulate his element.

  “What are you going to do with me and the princess?” Allen asked.

  “There is no princess” the mage said once again annoyed. “There has been at least one person offering to take her in to raise as their own. That would be ridiculous, with enough dedication anyone with power could stir up trouble once they have loyalty from someone with a claim to the throne. Instead I am sending you both to an orphanage across the country, if Mary was meant to be great then she can make it on her own merit. If you were meant to be something other than a child of one of the advisors of the dead king then you would find your fortune as well.”

  Allen screwed up his face at that statement, the mage was making no sense. First he talked about killing noble children, but it was obvious he meant to spare Mary. He made Allen out to be the child of some advisor when in reality his father had died long ago and he doubted his father ever knew the king. Finally he just implied the king was dead, did they already start the executions?

  “What is wrong boy, spit it out” the mage said as he crossed his arms.

  “You said if I were a noble you would have killed me” Allen asked.

  “You are wondering about the girl” the mage replied. “No one will look at killing one that small, especially a girl as justice. And we can say it was one final act of kindness to a wicked king. You are leaving only with what you have on your back in a few hours.”

  “You said the king was dead” Allen said. “Nobles run the orphanages.”

  “No one is going to dissolve those boy, now get yourself ready.”

  ~

  Allen looked around at the other kids from the orphanage working in the fields with him and knew it was about time he left. The woman running it was a lot meaner than the people back with the king, she always had a reason to yell. Allen though about the various things the people in the palace put him through, what Aldo helped put him through were extremely painful but afterwards he was taken care of and Aldo would take all of the pain away. Here there wasn’t a lot of physical pain but he barely ate. Being one of the older kids meant he had to work to earn his keep, something he wasn’t exactly sure was legal. Allen knew the orphanages got by on donations from the king, yet Ms. Wells as she liked to be called loaned him and most of the other kids out all day as cheap labor. While Allen always came back tired, the older girls always came back with a defeated look in their eyes. Allen could only think about what was happening to them, or why the same few men always seemed to need the help of one of them. These men had never once asked for a boy and although some of the girls were a little older than he was, Allen was sure he was just as strong if not stronger. Is that what Ms. Wells had lined up for Mary? Only the smaller kids were spared from working but they really weren’t taken care of. Mary was used to be spoiled and played with, here she was shaken when she wouldn’t stop screaming or she would be locked into a room with the rest of the young kids. After two weeks Allen decided he had seen enough.

  Before he came to the attention of the king, Allen had been a drifter with his father. Allen’s mother had died during childbirth and his father had taught him as much as he could about life on the road. Of course Allen had only been eight the last time he saw his father but remembered a lot of the lessons about not trusting people and how to get an easy meal. Allen thought it would be difficult but not impossible for him to take Mary and survive. The first thing he needed to do was quit the stupid work he was doing.

  “I quit” Allen said as he stood up and straightened his back.

  “You better sit back down before Job comes over” Ryan said as he looked around nervously.

  Job was the name of the man watching out over them as they picked fat grubs off of the five leaf plants some men like to smoke. It always left their backs sore from being hunched over and if they did a poor job then they wouldn’t get fed from the orphanage. Job took his job serious and went off of something he called the two mark rule, if he caught you goofing off he would give you a mark. If he caught you twice then he would give you a bad report.

  “I ain’t scared of him” Allen replied. “I’m leaving.”

  “What do you mean you are leaving?” Ryan asked.

  “As in I am not staying here anymore” Allen replied.

  “How are you going to live?” Ryan asked. “The young ones have a chance at finding a family, not us.”

  “What do you mean they have a chance at finding a family?” Allen asked.

  “Just what I said” Ryan replied. “Your sister might find a good family, every month Ms. Wells lets people come to pick out any kid they like. They have to pay her a bit of money but they get a kid in return. Normally the younger ones go first followed by the cuter ones. We are too old though for anyone to want to pick us up, so it doesn’t matter. Tomorrow we will still get to look at all the people who don’t want us while they pick up the kids they want.”

  “You aren’t making sense” Allen replied. “Are these people coming today or tomorrow?”

  “All the kids under three summers will be seen today and picked up tomorrow” Ryan replied as Allen took off.

  Allen knew his way back to the orphanage, it wasn’t that far away and Allen thought he could make it within the hour. If Ryan was telling the truth someone might want the princess, she was cute in a way that defined the kingdom. She had typical noble features, golden blonde hair with some of the brightest blue eyes ever seen. Her skin was fair and when she laughed her cheeks lit up a reddish color, no one looking for a child would pass her up. Allen wondered if that would be such a bad thing, Mary could be better taken care of than what he could do. Then Allen remembered the oath of the Elementals, to protect the House of Godfrey. Allen remembered the painful procedures he went through to grow his magic, he was told the king had especially dedicated himself to making Allen stronger. The other Elementals were old men, Allen was considered to be the only one that would be around when Joseph came into power, Mary’s older brother. Joseph most likely had been killed, he was older than Allen and there were stories of Kings being as young as twelve on record. Because of this Allen was imprinted that his first priority was to see to House Godfrey, Mary was all that was left. Allen had to see her grow up safe and ran even harder.

  Allen reached the city and kept running until he was at the orphanage, already he could see t
here were people inside that shouldn’t have been there. Allen could see a woman was holding a crying Mary and trying to pacify her with a biscuit. Mary looked at Allen and reached out to him, everyday Allen had played with her and tried to comfort her.

  “I’m here” Allen said as he reached out to grab Mary as a man next to the woman swatted his hand away.

  “Unhand my child” the man said looking down on Allen. The stranger was big, Allen thought he was at least as big as some of the guards he had seen.

  “This is my sister” Allen said fixing his face and staring at the big man. “And she is unhappy.”

  “Madame Wells where are you?” the big man said as he started looking around the room. The stranger had long dirty blond hair which whipped through the air as he quickly turned his head from left to right.

  “Mr. Wallace” Ms. Wells said walking over before settling her eyes on Allen.

  “This boy is here trying to take my child” Wallace said gesturing to Allen who was now holding Mary who stopped crying. “This is unprofessional, are you trying to make some money or not? I don’t want a boy and the money you are asking for would go a long way for helping pay for things around here.”

  “My sister is not for sale” Allen said holding Mary tight.

  “Put the girl down” Ms. Wells said eyeing Allen.

  Allen’s father had always told him to trust his instincts, Allen turned and ran through the assembled people. Allen could feel Mr. Wallace snatch at his collar and had even ripped it, Allen did not stop running though and ducked into the room he slept in with all of the other boys. Allen closed the door behind him and raised the ground under it slightly. Someone would have to break down the door to get it open, Allen thought it should buy him a few minutes. Allen ran towards the corner of the room and put his hand on the wall, the wall parted before him like a curtain as he slipped outside. Allen closed the opening behind him, the boys who would have to sleep there didn’t need to do it in the cold. The wall looked different than it did before but it couldn’t be helped Allen thought as he held Mary close and went running through town.