The Elemental Sisters: Spirit

I headed to the wall and climbed up Huricana's makeshift ladder, hoping to speak to the army and convince them that I could protect them and their families.

I looked down at the faces of the soldiers; they were yelling and arguing amongst themselves but soon quieted when they saw me. The ground was dry again, improving the conditions of their imprisonment. The men were quiet, I cleared my throat and spoke, "I want to let you out of this cage, but first I need to know who my brother was working with and why you would choose to betray me?" I yelled down at them. One man stepped forward and bowed, "We can't say, Prince Tyr."

"I will help you protect your families from the enemy, I swear it."

"You can't swear anything, Prince Uda is the future King." Another man yelled in response.

"If you do not cooperate with me, I will not release you from here."

I tried to reach into the men's minds and find out what they knew, but came up with nothing. They were all focused on the safety of their families.

"Prince Uda has just become a traitor to our Kingdom and those that follow him have as well, will you take punishment alongside him?"

The men looked at each other, then back to me, "We can't."

This was getting nowhere. I didn't want t resort to torture, but I may not have a choice. "I will give you till dawn to tell me who has ordered this treason, if you do not, I will have no choice but to use force."

I looked at the faces of the men and not one budged. Frustrated, I climbed down and went back to the fire where the others were.

"Well?" Ezryn requested.

"They won't tell me anything. I have given them until Dawn to tell us who ordered this and if they don't, they will stay behind and we will head back to the Kingdom." "If we leave them here, who will stay behind?" Mohan asked.

"I will leave the care of the men with Bram and Ward." I decided before looking at them. They nodded in agreement. "You can pick ten men to stay behind and help you." They nodded, then headed off towards what remained of the loyal men.

"We will leave in the morning, if they don't tell us what they know, Bram and Wards men will get the information from them, and we will bring Prince Uda with us to face the King."

"Sounds like a plan, I will gather food and supplies from the forest for the men that are staying behind." Gia informed me.

"Thank you." I told her as she got up and headed into the forest.

I looked around, "where is Akasha?"

"She is in the tent; seems your brother reopened her wound. She is fine, though. Your pig of a brother said she would be his Queen. Like we would let that happen. He would die if he tried to take her." Ari told me as she eyed the dagger in her hand.

"I would kill him first." I snapped before heading into the tent.

I found Akasha in the back of the tent, sitting behind a screen, unwrapping the bandages around her waist.

"Let me help you." I said, walking over to her. She jumped when she heard my voice.

"My gods, you scared the crap out of me." she berated me.

"Sorry," I chuckled as I kneeled beside her. I helped unwrap her wound and clean and re-bandage it.

"I asked you if your fight with Prince Uda reopened your injury, why did you lie?" I asked her.

"I didn't lie, I just didn't know it had reopened."

"Hmm." I replied as I brushed my fingers over her naked skin. She pulled a clean slip on over her head, and I groaned in disappointment.

"What?" she laughed.

"Nothing was just enjoying the view until you ruined it." I teased as I pulled at the slip.

"Stop it. We are in camp and what would my sisters think?"

"I think we are past what your sisters think, don't you?"

"You are a troublesome elf." She scolded me as she leaned over and kissed me quickly, then stood and pulled on a black peasant style dress. "Tease."

"You love it, come on, the others are waiting outside, do we have a plan?"

"Yeah, I told the others already, the traitors won't reveal who they are working with, so some men are going to stay back with them and get the information by force, and we will head back to the castle in the morning and speak with my father."

"What about the Drow?"

"We don't know where they are, we can't do anything if we can't find their location."

Akasha nodded. "That makes sense, it would be nice to know who thought of this, your brother doesn't have the intelligence to."

“I agree he has no battle strategy or skills to speak of, so whose idea was this?"

"You'll find out." She smiled as she left the tent with me behind her. Huricana ran up and hugged me.

I looked down at her confused, "What's going on?"

Tears in her eyes she says, "Betrayal comes from all sides, in the darkness it hides, hold on to what is yours, he is trying to shut the doors."

I looked up at Akasha, "What does she mean?"

Ari, who was sitting on a fallen log outside the tent, pulled out her book and started writing in it. I could tell by her thoughts that she was writing what Huricana had said.

"No idea." Akasha frowned, "The betrayal has already happened, some of your army has betrayed you on your brother's orders."

"What does it mean, Huricana?" I asked her as she released me and backed away.

"Betrayal and closed doors, betrayal and closed doors." She mumbled repeatedly, as if stuck in a trance.

"There is no point right now, she won't make sense until the effects of the air's whisperings wear off." Ari told me.

I couldn't help the sense of unease that ate at me, hold on to what is mine? The army was usually mine and the crown should be mine. Was it referring to the crown? Or was it Prince Uda's interest in Akasha? Frey grabbed Ari's book and ran off with it, laughing. "Frey, you big jerk, give that back. It's important. He flipped through it, reading the contents."

"Looks like a bunch of gibberish to me."

She ran up and pushed him, landing on top of him when he fell to the ground.

"Learn to read, it is not gibberish." She scolded him, grabbing the book, "I keep track of everything that Akasha sees or Huricana hears, so we can refer to it. Huricana's are a puzzle sometimes."

He smiled up at her, and her face turned red, "I like this position, don't you?" he teased her.

Gia walked back from the forest with her skirt pulled up to make a basket. It was filled with fruits and vegetables; she headed over to the tent and unloaded her haul into the provisions baskets that sat empty there. Ari looked at us and jumped up when she realized we had been watching them.

Gia laughed, "you two need to get a room." As she took a seat next to the fire.

Ari walked over and punched her in the shoulder, "You know damn well why I can't."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind a singe mark or two." She laughed.

"Gia, you shut it or else."

"Sorry, just having some fun."

I sat down by the fire and Akasha joined me, sitting beside me; I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer as she rested her head on my shoulder, watching the flames.

Ari sat down beside Akasha, then jumped up again, getting closer to the fire.

"What's wrong?" Akasha asked her.

She was talking and pointing to the flames, but it was in a language I had never heard before.

"I don't understand what you are saying?"

Ari raised her voice and yelled, but it was still in another language. Akasha shook her head, unable to understand.

Pissed off, she looked back into the flames. After a few minutes, she again tried to tell us what she was seeing, but no one could understand her.

Her eyes were orange with her power, but nothing happened.

Akasha looked at her, confused.

"What's wrong?"

"Usually when she is angry or has a strong emotion, she sets things on fire right now. It doesn't appear that her abilities are working." "Maybe she saw something in the fire." Sunama suggested.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because something obviously caught her attention and when she went to tell us, she spoke in another language."

"It is possible. Our powers are always changing; Maybe this is just another one of her abilities." Akasha told Sunama.

"If all she does is lose her abilities and speak in an unfamiliar language, it doesn't seem like much of a consequence." Gia frowned.

"We don't choose the consequences. They are unique to each of us." Akasha pointed out.

"We will just have to wait for the effects to wear off to find out what she was trying to say." Gia shared.

Akasha was looking off to the side, "Are you sure?" she asked what seemed like thin air.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Karm says she is speaking Draconian, he said he recognized a few of the words."

"Which words?" Sunama asked.

Akasha was silent for a moment and said, "Death, stolen, trap."

"What does it mean?" Tyr asked, worried.

"I don't know, we would need the whole prophecy for it to make sense."