Page 44 of Elemental Hall: Nautica
“What would it take to redirect this?” I ask.
“I’m not sure,” Cara says. “Potentially? It could be all of us. But we can’t hold the barriers and do it.”
“I can,” I say.
Orion frowns. “Sera—”
“I can hold them, if anyone can,” I say. “You channel the water away safely. I’ll hold the barriers.”
“Even you will need help,” Darius insists.
“Then help me. Maybe a few of you will be enough to dissipate this tsunami, but whatever we’re doing, we have to do itnow.”
I don’t give them any more time to argue. I reach out for the barriers that the others have set up. I lend my strength to theirs, feeling the fury of the tsunami beyond, feeling the power of it and helping to hold it back. For the first second or two, it’s easy.I am one with the power of the water and it does what I ask of it, flowing around us, over us, past us without ever touching us. I hold against the full power of the water flooding in, bracing my feet in the dirt as if I’m lifting the weight of all that water physically.
Then the first students start to pull their strength to work on redirecting the water, and I feel more of the pressure hit me, then more again.
Cara is the first to pull her strength away from the barrier. That makes sense. She’s the one who can work out how to redirect the tsunami safely. She’s the one who worked out our original plan, and I can feel her trying to channel the water now.
Others join her, one by one, and each time, the pressure on me increases. I close my eyes, focusing on the power I’m putting out, trying to hold up the water above. It feels as if the full pressure of an ocean is crushing down on me. It feels as if my entire body is being squashed flat. I grit my teeth, keeping the shields in place.
More of my classmates pull away to help with the efforts, then more again. Finally, only Darius, Orion, and I are holding the shield, and the effort of it is agonizing.
“We need more!” Cara says. “We’re almost there, but we need more.”
I look over to Darius, then to Orion. “Do it.”
“Sera, you can’t hold this,” Darius insists.
“Do it,” I shout.
I feel the moment when they both let go of the barriers to focus on cutting new channels to redirect the water. I feel the full weight of the tsunami bearing down on me, too great even for my strength. I can’t hold it. It’s too much for me. Even trying to keep it at bay is agony. The power required to keep it back is tearing me apart. Every fiber of my being screams at me tolet the barriers fall, to save myself while I can… but that would mean letting the others die.
I can’t do that. I hold. I hold because I have to. I hold, screaming with the pain of it. Finally, I feel that the channels are in place, that the others are starting to pull the water away. I let the tsunami flow along those channels now, and I feel the pressure starting to fade. It dwindles, growing less and less, until finally there is only a trickle of water around us.
I let the barriers fall, then collapse to my knees. We did it. We’re safe.
Chapter TWENTY FOUR
In the aftermath of the tsunami, water drips from the rocks of the island, flowing slowly now, making its way back down into the ocean. All of us who have taken part in the challenge make our way back along the causeway leading to the main island, leaning on one another for support.
I have my arm around Darius. If I thought that the walk here was hard work, it is nothing compared to the walk back. I can barely keep my eyes open. We move slowly, no one with the strength anymore to do more than shuffle.
Elemental Mistress Halan is waiting for us on the beach. It is getting dark now, the first stars starting to show in the night sky. She looks along the line of us as if counting our numbers. Her expression shows no sign of her feelings.
“You did well,” she says. “The tsunami this year was particularly violent.”
I know that I could just accept the praise, but I’m tired. So tired of being ambushed by the Elemental Hall’s idea of testing. I know that it is meant to be dangerous, but I don’t like being tricked like that.
“You sent us out there to face up to that? You and the other elementalists think that’s a test? We could have all been killed!”
Elemental Mistress Halan doesn’t rise to my anger. I suspect that she’s suffered too many similar outbursts from previous intakes of students to be affected by it.
“I have told all of you before that the Elemental Hall is preparing you for dangerous situations. Becoming an elementalist is not easy, nor is it safe. We wanted to know how you would react in the face of unexpected disaster.”
“And were you prepared for your safety measures to be sabotaged?” Darius asks.
Elemental Mistress Halan looks his way. “What are you saying?”
