Elemental - Softcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Antony John (www.antonyjohn.net) won the Schneider Family Book Award for Five Flavors of Dumb. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his family.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

AFTER THE STORM CAME THE PIRATES. . . .

I’d been lying awake for half a strike when the door flew open and Dennis’s footsteps pounded against the stairs. “Thomas, we need you,” he shouted. “Something’s wrong.”

Alice was up in a flash, long legs flying across the shelter and onto the steps. I sprinted after her. Outside, I took a deep breath and followed their gazes across the sound to our colony on Hatteras Island.

“I can’t see anything through the cloud,” I said, rubbing my eyes.

Alice shook her head. “That’s not a cloud. It’s smoke.” She took a hesitant step forward. “Our island is on fire.”

OTHER BOOKS YOU MAY ENJOY

Black City  Elizabeth Richards

Champion  Marie Lu

Crossed  Ally Condie

Fire  Kristin Cashore

Firebrand  Antony John

Fractured  Teri Terry

Legend  Marie Lu

Matched  Ally Condie

Orleans  Sherri L. Smith

Phoenix  Elizabeth Richards

Prodigy  Marie Lu

Reached  Ally Condie

Slated  Teri Terry

CHAPTER 1

Thunder rattled the aging wooden cabins, but no one stopped to listen. There wasn’t time for that. The coming storm was written in every distant flash of lightning, and in the sick, heavy clouds hanging over the ocean. The pelicans flying by in tight formation groaned in warning. Even the air tasted strange and unnatural.

So how had Kyte, Guardian of the Wind, missed it completely?

Usually Kyte predicted storms a day in advance. He’d tell us how strong the wind would be. With a Guardian of the Water, he’d warn how high the ocean would rise. And though I found it hard to imagine the clear blue sky roiling with clouds, and the usually calm ocean turned inside out, I knew better than to doubt him. It was his element, after all.

“Swell rising,” yelled Kyte. He crouched beside a stick planted firmly in the sand. It marked the highest point he expected the ocean to reach. As everyone turned to look, the water washed right over it and dragged it out to sea.

He closed his eyes. Tension carved lines in his face. He was engaging his element, but it had never looked so difficult before.

“Wind speed increasing,” shouted another Guardian.

“I know. It’s my element,” exclaimed Kyte, as though he owned the wind itself, not just the ability to read it.

Meanwhile, my father stood side by side with my older brother, Ananias, at the colony’s rainwater harvester. They looked alike: same thick, dark hair and serious expression. They conjured sparks from their fingertips, tiny flames that grew and combined into a white-hot glow. Ananias directed the heat onto a bent nail while our father straightened it and drove it back into the oak paneling. However bad the storm might be, we couldn’t afford to lose our only water source.

All the Guardians were busy now, their elements in full effect. As the first and only child born without an element, I watched them enviously. I couldn’t summon fire, unearth food, predict storms, or catch fish barehanded. But I could toss sandbags against the stilts supporting our cabin, and so I did—one after another, as my arms burned and sweat poured down my forehead.

“Shouldn’t you be loading the evacuation canoes, Thomas?” Kyte’s voice was low and threatening.

“Alice is taking the last bags now,” I said, pointing to the girl sprinting across the beach—sure-footed and powerful—two bulky canvas bags slung across her shoulders.

He followed my eyes, and shouted: “Do you like having to do everything yourself, Alice?”

As she turned her head, the wind tousled her dark hair. She peered at Kyte from the corner of her eye, but she didn’t answer.

“I’m talking to you, Alice!”

She dropped the bags. “Does it matter what I like?” Her eyes drifted to me, and she cocked an eyebrow. “Anyway, you’ve spent years trying to keep Thom and me apart. Why do you want him to help me now?”

Kyte’s face reddened. “How dare you speak to a Guardian like that? You’re not an Apprentice yet, remember.”

“And I hope I never will be.” She smiled. “Are we done now?”

The other Guardians stopped what they were doing, and watched with interest. Kyte obviously knew it too. He’d have to take action—punish Alice yet again—just to save face. It was all so predictable.

Couldn’t we have just one afternoon without Alice battling the Guardians head-on, when she could be spared their pointless attempts to tame her? The storm would be upon us soon. There wasn’t time for this.

“Why do you think you missed this storm, Guardian Kyte?” I asked. The words came out quickly, a thinly veiled attempt to distract him. “Since your element is wind.”

Kyte’s mouth twisted into a mocking smile. “Why? Did you foresee it before me, Thomas? Did you just forget to mention it to us?”

I sensed the Guardians’ stares shifting to me. “I wasn’t meaning to criticize. It’s just strange. Almost like your element
didn’t . . .”

“What? Like my element didn’t what?” Kyte lifted a sandbag as though it weighed nothing and launched it several yards. “I’d think that you of all people would have more respect for the elements.”

Without a sound, my younger brother, Griffin, joined me. Being deaf, he’d learned to read the Guardians’ body language better than anyone. Having him beside me should have been a warning to say nothing. But I’d only spoken up to save Alice.

“I’m just trying to understand.”

“And you think now is the time for that?” Kyte raised his hands toward the darkening sky. “Some of us have work to do, and not enough time to do it. Can you at least respect that?”

My pulse raced. Anger coursed through me. “You wouldn’t be in such a hurry if you’d predicted the storm like you’re supposed to.”

“Until you have something to offer this colony,” he spat, “I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself.”

“Exactly,” echoed my father. I hadn’t heard him approach. He placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder, but his voice was loud and fierce. He fixed his eyes on Kyte. “After all, those with elements should always be allowed to speak.”

“True. And if Thomas discovers an element, I’ll be sure to listen.”

“And how do you suggest he finds one?”

Kyte shrugged, but the mocking smile was back. “It’s difficult, for sure. Especially so late in childhood.”

My father’s grip tightened. Pain swept through me. “As things stand, he’s nothing.”

“As you say,” returned Kyte smoothly. “Nothing.”

I felt anger flash through my father’s claw-like fingers—sharp enough to make me wince—and then he pulled away. I waited for him to come to my defense again, to match Kyte word for word. He’d supported me for sixteen years. I expected nothing less now. But when I looked at him, it was as if he was done fighting. Or worse, as if he agreed with Kyte.

Nothing. The word hung in the air like a fork of lightning seen long...