In the end, it was the wind that betrayed him. It had seen him make his way across the mountains, seen him hike for seven days and seven nights through the dark and the cold and the hail and the rain, and when he faced them down one by one and prevailed, the wind had swooped in to put a stop to what he was doing before it was too late.
The Elementals were cruel, wicked masters, and they lorded their dominion of the world over humanity with a singularly vicious resolve. Stretching across land and sea, these incorporeal entities of Fire, Earth, Water and Air punished any who defied them. Their message was clear: The world belonged to them.
Only now, Simon stood up to challenge their authority.
The entrance to the Eiolin Cave stood not a hundred feet away, yet the wind rose up all around him in a deadly column of air to cut off access. Now that it had him in its grip, it would never let him go.
But Simon maintained hope.
“Did you actually think you could win?”
The wind’s thunderous voice boomed through him, swirling, howling, whistling as it let him feel the full force of its apocalyptic power.
“Stupid human. You’ve forgotten your place, and now I’ll have to teach you what happens when you cross an Elemental.”
The wind transformed, taking on the form of a massive tornado.
Simon had never before felt his limitations so keenly. It was like being swallowed by the Earth itself. But he held himself from the brink of despair by that single, silent thread of hope that continued to burn in his mind like a solar flare. He understood that he himself would never witness mankind’s deliverance, but what did that matter? He was old and tired, and as long as he accomplished what he’d set out to do, it would be enough.
His answer to the wind’s statement came slowly.
“I don’t know about winning,” said Simon. “All I intended was to do my best.”
He thought the gale around him changed in some imperceptible way. Now, it seemed tinged with a malicious, bloodlusty mirth.
“Your best?” the wind replied. “Your best couldn’t possibly be good enough.”
He stole a look at the cave’s entrance. Inside, deep underground, was the source of the Elementals’ power. Even now, surrounded by the wind, he prayed he wasn’t too late.
Don’t let my sacrifice be in vain.
“Maybe not,” Simon said and shrugged his shoulders. “But we humans are a stubborn lot. We value freedom over life itself. Better to die free than to live in servitude.”
A piercing flute of air slapped his back, and he bit back a strangled cry. No, he would not give this wretched being the pleasure of watching him sob like a child. He would go out a man, tall, proud, and one hundred percent in control of himself.
The wind drew more injuries. It wouldn’t let him die quickly, oh no, but that was all right—all for the better, in fact. With each blow, with each letting of fresh, cherry-hued blood, Simon snuck more furtive glances at the cave’s entrance.
Just a moment or two longer, he hoped. And as if the prayer were a cue, the wind stopped beating him.
“What are you looking at?” It was curious now, and there was something else in the tone of its voice, too, something Simon had never heard from its kind before. “I feel strange, weak, like—” And then it fell silent, and Simon, understanding now that his mission had been a success, angled his head toward the clouds and uttered his thanks to the Good Steward above.
Jerome had made it! Simon was never meant to go inside, of course. But Jerome, silent and invisible Jerome (made so by a glamour Simon devised himself) had shadowed him the entire journey.
Alone, the Elementals might have seen through the glamour, invisibility or no invisibility. But because Simon had gone along with the boy in plain sight, the Elementals would have only seen him, a foolish old man on a suicidal journey to the fabled Eiolin Cave.
If the wind had had eyes, Simon was sure they would have gone wide with realization.
“You weren’t alone,” it bellowed. “You weren’t alone!”
The shriek that followed made Simon’s ears ring until the terrible ghost sense was so loud, so Earth-shatteringly complete, that he knew he’d gone deaf.
That was all right. Once more, he remembered that he’d never intended to complete the journey. The world belonged to Jerome’s generation now, as well as their descendants. Would they build a better place for themselves when the Elementals were gone? He didn’t know—the wind had been right about one thing: humans were stupid—but he could hope.
“Freedom,” Simon muttered, not hearing the sound of his voice, only feeling the shapes of the word on his lips.
As the wind used the rest of its waning power to usher him into the next life, Simon turned his head upward once more and asked the Good Steward to guide him home.
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“What about the master?” asked Jahi when he and Azibo had sequestered themselves in the boy’s room.
The small space was spartan, windowless, and would have been pitch black if Azibo hadn’t used one of the torches outside to light some candles. A low bed stood against one of the far walls—a simple wood furnishing with feline paws for legs, a woolen mattress, and linen sheets—while the straight-backed chair Azibo once sat in to meditate stood against the other.
Azibo didn’t answer, only motioned for Jahi to sit in the chair. Azibo himself sat on the mattress and proceeded to stare at the diplomat until the man began to fidget.
He’s just as frightened as I am, thought Azibo. But still, he was afraid to speak. He’d seen fear do strange things to people, and though he’d peered into Jahi’s mind more than once and knew the man was just as concerned about the master as he was, one wrong move might send Jahi scrambling to report him. He had to tread carefully.
Azibo opened his mind for a moment, hoping to use whatever Jahi was thinking as a launching point for their conversation.
How long? Jahi thought. How long before the master comes for me, too? He’s crazy. I served him faithfully for years, and still, he suspects me as much as anyone else.
The master was suspicious of Jahi? That was a revelation. A guilty hope sparked within Azibo. If that was true, it meant the master’s suspicions were more general in nature and not aimed toward himself. Then Azibo made another realization and felt a second stab of guilt.
He was manipulating Jahi the way the master manipulated everyone else. Did that make him no better than the monster who’d murdered all those innocent people in a selfish bid to extend his own life? Azibo wrestled with himself for a moment before tossing the thought aside.
It’s for a good cause.
And yet, he wondered if there’d been a point in the master’s life when he’d told himself the same thing.
“The master hasn’t been himself,” Azibo said at last, considering his words carefully. Like a politician, he thought. “Aren’t you worried he might come after you just like he’s come after so many of his other servants?”
A fire kindled in Jahi’s eyes. Azibo had struck a cord, all right, but was it the right one?
Azibo tried to read him again, but all he picked up was that the man had been stunned by his last statement, which had so closely mirrored Jahi’s own thoughts.
Careful, thought Azibo. Don’t rush. Don’t scare the man away.
“It’s just that I’m afraid. Who’s to say he won’t take me prisoner next? I don’t know what to do.”
Jahi took a deep breath and was silent for a while. Once more, Azibo listened to his thoughts.
Is not even this boy safe from that mad man? All these years with the master, and I feel like I don’t know him at all.
At last Jahi spoke.
“What do you want me to do about it?”
Azibo’s pulse quickened. If he asked Jahi to help him overthrow the master now, would he say yes? He struggled to maintain his composure. He couldn’t just come out and ask. He had to lead the man on a little longer.
“What do you think we should do?”
Jahi’s mind began to turn.
What can anyone do? My whole career in service to the master, and even that isn’t enough to place me above suspicion. I gave him everything, and now I can’t say for sure if I’ll live through the week. So many servants missing already. Will I be next? And what about the boy?
Jahi’s eyes narrowed as he scrutinized Azibo more closely.
When the master and I first met, he told me even Azibo would plot against him if he could. Is that what this is? Is the boy asking me to help him overthrow the master? And what would I say if he asked?
Jahi shuddered.
Dangerous thoughts. Mutinous thoughts. If the master knew…
And then Jahi turned white with fear.
The master. He can read my thoughts. What if he’s listening right now?
So, Jahi already knew the master could read minds. That was interesting. He considered telling the man his own secret, but decided against it. Right now, it was his only advantage, and if the secret got out, the advantage would be lost. And who was to say Jahi wouldn’t turn against him and report him to the master after all? He didn’t think Jahi was that kind of man, but he wasn’t willing to take the chance.
At any rate, Azibo thought now would be a good time to interject.
“What if I told you the master was away? What if I told you that, for the time being, at least, we have the estate to ourselves?”
“What?” Jahi sounded surprised. “No, he would have told me if he’d left.”
Then Azibo heard Jahi think better of himself. Paranoid and trusting no one, the master had ignored them both for a while. Jahi knew as well as Azibo that he wouldn’t have revealed his plans to anyone, not even to one of his most favored servants.
“I saw him last night,” Azibo lied. “I couldn’t sleep. I was wandering the halls, restless, and I spotted the master outside, loading a donkey and riding off into the night.”
Jahi sagged with relief. If the master was away, Azibo felt him reason, that meant he didn’t know about the conversation they were having now.
Azibo watched everything unfold inside Jahi’s mind, and he fought to suppress a smile. What a marvelous power. With it, he could do almost anything. With the master out of the way, there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish. Maybe, with time, he could even…
No!
With frightening clarity, Azibo was certain the master had, once upon a time, trod the same dangerous path, that his willingness to use this special power had transformed him into the monster he was today. Azibo had no desire to be like him.
I just have to use that power this one time to get Jahi on my side. Then, he told himself, he would never use it again.
“So,” said Jahi after a prolonged period of silence, “the master is away. What does that have to do with me?”
The man’s voice was level, calm. But inside, Azibo sensed a mounting tension. The man was scared of what the master might do to him if he did nothing; he was also scared of what the master might do to him if he did. He was caught between two equally dangerous choices, an impossible position unless Azibo could tilt the scales in favor of the choice he wanted Jahi to make.
“I’m afraid,” said Azibo, “that when the master returns, he’ll decide I’m more trouble than I’m worth. He’s already stopped teaching me about magic. I don’t think it’ll be much longer before he decides to get rid of me. And you…” Azibo shrugged. “Well, maybe you’re safe. After all, you’ve been faithful to him for years. Surely he still has use for you.”
That last sentence was more of a question than a statement, and Azibo didn’t need to hear Jahi’s thoughts to know the man understood his precarious fate. Now, Azibo just had to make it clear there was a viable alternative. Then, he hoped, Jahi would side with him.
“Of course, if we were to prepare, if we were to take the master by surprise when he returns…”
Jahi shot to his feet, face red.
“Then we could overthrow him. That’s what you’re going to say, isn’t it? Take the master out before he can take us out?”
The outburst startled Azibo, and he sank back into the wall without realizing it. Had he pushed too hard? Had he gotten to the point too quickly? A lump formed in the back of his throat, and he found it difficult to swallow. Jahi could call the guards and have him arrested. He could tell the master what had transpired between them as soon as he returned, and then it would all be over.
The nerve, thought Jahi. The master’s own apprentice! He was right to be paranoid. Except, haven’t I been considering the same thing? Wouldn’t anyone, when every day in the master’s service might be their last? Dammit, what am I supposed to do now?
“Jahi—”
“Leave me alone. I have to think.”
“Jahi, please—”
“I said leave me alone!”
Stunned, and with his heart lodged firmly in the back of his throat, Azibo watched the man push past him and out the door.
* * *
Azibo stopped his story there, and the other birds all stared at him as if they’d just met him for the first time. So much plotting and calculation from one so young. What other secrets did the youth possess? The sun had set a while ago, but the sky, lit by hundreds of streetlights below, glowed a dull, burnished copper.
Jahi was the first to break the silence between them.
I feel like I should be angry, except I think I already knew you were manipulating me and let it happen anyway. You were right. The master needed to be overthrown, and a part of me knew that even then.
Little Azibo, mused Zane, who could think of nothing else to say.
Azibo, for his part, looked abashed.
Jahi, Rashidi continued, why did you decide to help him? You might have saved yourself by reporting him.
I couldn’t do that, Jahi replied. By then, I already suspected Azibo might be the one the master was searching for—the one who’d entered his dream by accident. But that didn’t justify his response. So many servants disappeared for no more reason than the master was paranoid, and how long would it have been before he decided to come after me, too? And the rest of us?
He was already suspicious of me. Never mind that I was faithful, that only recently he’d entrusted me with his secret because he wanted me to help him find the other person who could read minds like himself. Only a couple days prior to my conversation with Azibo, he’d called me into his study and, perhaps because he knew I had my doubts, he asked me if I, too, would betray him if given the opportunity. Before I could argue that I was loyal, he turned me away and didn’t send for me again.
The others listened in silence, attentive as Jahi picked up his part of the story.
