The Drowned Ones by Ellen Renner

Author:Ellen Renner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Nosy Crow
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

At the sight of the pounding waves, the spray shooting into air high as the mast of a ship, Rekka reared back, her snake of lava coiling round and round. The Fire-witch hissed in disgust at the sight of the Element she feared. But she was mad with triumphant fury, heedless of danger.

“You have damaged me, Storm of Yanlin. But still you will lose! The Salamander has enough power now to defeat you, to defeat all three of the Elementals and their puny attempts to subdue him. Fools! To choose you. A mere child.” Rekka raised both hands and pointed them at Storm. Her eyes were whirling discs of fire.

But even while the Fire-witch raged, Storm had been preparing her ice storm. Now it sprang from her heart and down ice-crusted arms and out through stiff near-frozen fingertips. Seawater leapt from the waves at her back, washed over her, froze into a beam of icy slush, made even colder by the sea’s salt, and gushed from Storm’s outstretched hands right at the Fire-witch.

Rekka had time only for a yowl of fear before the sea ice swallowed her. The witch staggered backwards, toppling off the coiling magma. She twisted and scrambled back towards the retreating flow lava, which had dwindled to ground level and was oozing back towards the crack in the middle of the island. Rekka waded into the fiery stream and washed the ice from her body with handfuls of molten rock, sending up hissing clouds of steam. She was shivering, drenched, and the coil of magma was retreating ever more quickly back to its source.

The blast of icy seawater had drained Storm’s energy. She was shivering as violently as Rekka. She felt frozen through. But she couldn’t afford to stop. If Rekka reached the infant volcano, she would find new reserves of strength. Storm prayed to the Ancestors: Please, let Nim’s channel be ready! It was the only thing that would end this fight once and for all – that, or Rekka’s death.

Storm fought exhaustion like an enemy as she staggered after Rekka. There was no one else. She was the one the Elementals had Chosen. All four, it seemed. Storm shuddered, and this time it wasn’t the cold that make her shiver. She broke into a run. She didn’t have time to see how Nim was faring. It was now or never!

Storm focused as she ran. She closed on her enemy. Rekka was crawling rapidly towards the volcano’s mouth, whimpering and cursing. The Fire-witch was only an arrow’s flight from safety, but Storm was close enough! She dropped to her knees and used the last of her strength to channel her magic. She launched a final ferocious blast of ice. A spear of solid ice flew from her fingers. Spinning as it flew, glinting silver in the shafts of sunlight filtering through the fogs of dust and steam, the spear drove straight for the Fire-witch.

Storm did not see what happened next. She fell forward on to her face.

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