Page 38 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“I thinkyou’llbe the one helpingmeto prepare,” Cara says. “I understand the theory of using water barriers and current flows to redirect water to where it’s needed, but we all still need the right forms to make it work,andwe need to plan out options for how we’re going to do something useful with it.”
That’s our next major challenge, using the flow of water to transform one of the small islands around Nautica. It’s meant to be a test of how we can control everything we’ve learned so far, but also how well we work together. I have no doubt thatthe elemental masters will be watching to see what roles we naturally fall into, trying to decide on the kind of positions we should fill in the outside world once our training is complete.
Cara and I walk over to the library. As usual, there are students working on their skills outside it in groups, some practicing combat skills, others summoning elemental effects, showing off the latest things that they’ve been working on. We go inside and sheer habit makes me check the notice board for news.
There’s a letter pinned there with my name on it.
I’d started to assume by this point that Elemental Mistress Halan wasn’t going to throw a personal challenge my way the way she has with so many of the others. Now, there one is, pinned in place, waiting only for me to read and accept it. Not that I have the option to turn it down. Either I do what’s required, or I fail.
I tear open the letter, reading the neat, careful script within.
“What do they want you to do?” Cara asks.
I read it through, then pass it to her. “They want me to go somewhere called the Green Tower Pool. They want me to retrieve a lost ring from inside it.”
“The Green Tower Pool,” Cara says, with a frown. “That’s meant to be dangerous, Sera.”
“Everything here is dangerous,” I point out. “It seems like they spend half their time making us do things that might hurt us, in the hope that we get stronger to live up to it. It’s just the way things are here.”
“I guess,” Cara says, although she still sounds doubtful. “But the Green Tower Pool?”
“Do you know where it is?” I ask.
She nods and fetches a map of Nautica from among the shelves, pointing to a spot on it.
“Here.”
“Okay. This shouldn’t take long. I’ll see you back in the refectory in time for dinner.”
Okay, so maybe I’m trying to sound confident so as not to worry her, but really, how hard can this be? Dive to the bottom of a pool and retrieve an object. It’s something I did on my first day of training. It shouldn’t be that big a challenge.
It takes a while to get to the right island, wending my way along the paths that cross Nautica. I have to clamber over a rope bridge, then inch my way along a ledge. Maybe this is the point of the challenge, forcing me to go via routes where my water magic is of little use to me.
Even so, the journey there isn’tthatmuch of a challenge. I’m a little tired by the time I reach the spot overlooking a pool below, staring down from the crest of a crater that suggests some ancient impact, but that’s about it. I head down into the crater, to the lip of the pool. It’s almost perfectly circular the water clear beneath the sunlight.
Looking down, I can see why they call it the Green Tower Pool. A vast tower of green glass is submerged there, partly ruined, the top broken off so that it looks like a chimney reaching up from somewhere far below. I take off my sandals and set my wrap aside, preparing the magic that will let me breathe below the surface.
I dive in, plunging deep. I kick, forcing myself lower and lower. I swim into the ruins of the tower, looking through the debris of every level, trying to find the ring I’ve been sent for. I try to feel it in the shape of the water, but something that small is going to be impossible to pick up.
It means, though, that I feel the shape of something huge cutting through the water, heading straight for me.
I throw up a shield of water an instant before the kraken slams into it, barbed tentacles reaching for me, beaked mouth open to devour me. Its strength is terrifying, and I can feel thecruel intelligence there too, an intelligence that is letting it work the water the way an initiate might, slowly stripping away the layers of my shield.
I strike at it with the water, trying to get it to back away. It ignores the blow, one tentacle sweeping around the edge of my shield. I make the water into something firmer beneath my feet, pushing off it to try to dodge the blow. I avoid getting grabbed, but even so, barbs rake along my side, spilling the red of my blood into the water.
My concentration on the shield fades and now the kraken is coming for me in earnest. Another blow opens a second wound on my back, and I know that the Kraken is toying with me, enjoying the agony that sings through me. It is clearly going to take its time killing me.
Terror fills me at that thought, but also anger. Anger at being sent to this place to die. Anger at a creature like this taking away my future, my chance at the kind of life I can only dream of.
That anger fuels me as I reach for all the water around me, every drop in the pool at once. It is mine in that instant, and I slam it into the kraken like a fist. The blow sends it flying back down into the depths below, letting out a roar of pain and anger. Even with that attack, I haven’t killed it, and I know that it will only be seconds before it comes at me again.
I swim desperately for the surface, the ring forgotten. I have no time to find it, no hope to survive if I try. I throw a barrier of water behind me, hoping that it will slow the kraken enough, then kick upward with every ounce of strength I possess. I ignore the pain, ignore the blood in the water. I just keep heading upward.
There is a figure waiting somewhere on the edge of the pool. An enemy? A friend? An elemental master waiting to tell me that I have failed? I don’t know, and I don’t care. Right now, all thatmatters is getting away from the creature that wants to devour me.
I lunge toward the lip of the pool, and strong hands grasp my arms, pulling me from it. I see Orion there, a look of concern on his face as he lifts me, carrying me clear of the pool.
“What were you thinking?” he demands, as he moves me clear.
