Page 10 of Elemental Hall: Nautica (Elemental Hall #1)

“I can’t believe they let him stay,” Orion says, with a pointed look over to where Darius is hefting a sleeping roll and a length of canvas onto his back. He’s still dressed in black and gray, but the emblem of Umbrae is gone, torn off.

“So you don’t like him either?” I ask.

I’m with Orion and the others outside of the refectory. Aria is pacing nervously. Cara seems to be checking and rechecking her notes. Nissa is packing healing salves, just in case.

“I don’t know him,” Orion admits. “But Umbrae has been our enemy for generations. And it isn’t as if he’s gone out of his way to be friendly. Look at him, standing alone.”

I don’t point out that none of us has invited him into one of our groups of friends.

“I tried to talk to him,” Aria says. “He told me to go away and leave him alone.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone being harsh to Aria, given how friendly she is. It seems that Darius doesn’t have any interest in making friends while he’s here.

“He must have said something convincing if they let him stay,” I say. “The elementalists obviously believe he’s serious about leaving Umbrae behind.”

“It doesn’t make him less aloof,” Aria says.

“Why are we talking about him?” Cara asks. “We need to focus on the storm trial. Are you all sure that you’ve made enough preparations?”

Cara is very much a planner. She has intricate notes of all the ways she might try to harness the elements during the challenge, everything from a simple ward to keep rain off to something she swears will make berries grow on any bush or tree nearby.

I have my own collection of notes back in my room, but I won’t be taking them with me.

They’re far too precious. Water manipulation I can do easily enough, but with the other elements, I still only have the most basic options.

Perhaps I’ll learn more when my class moves on from Nautica, but first, we have to get through the training here.

Elemental Mistress Halan strides out into the space before the refectory. The eyes of every student there fall on her, even though we know what she’s going to announce next.

“Students, you know the trial that awaits you,” the elemental mistress says.

“The storm trial is designed to test how well you can operate in the most challenging conditions with little but your own control of the elements to aid you. When I give the word, you will disperse around the archipelago. You will spend one night out in the wilderness alone. No groups, no pairs. Just you and the elements. Each of you has a map with your assigned spot.”

Under normal conditions, that would be a simple enough challenge. It might even be a chance to reflect and learn in peace, rather than having to deal with the noise and bustle of the dormitory. I know it isn’t going to be that simple, though.

“You will be given a couple of hours to get into position,” Elemental Mistress Halan says.

“After that, the storm will begin. I warn you now that it will be fierce. This trial can be dangerous for those not prepared. We will look on as best we can, but in the storm, even we might not be able to help. If we do have to save you, you will have failed the challenge.”

With a challenge like this, there will be no chance to go through it again. Failing here will mean failing the Elemental Hall completely. I am determined not to let that happen. I only hope that my control over water will be enough to keep me safe.

“Go!” Elemental Mistress Halan commands. “Get to your assigned places.”

“Good luck,” I say to the others. I hug Orion because it feels like the kind of thing a girlfriend would do at a moment like this.

“Stay safe,” he murmurs to me.

“I’ll try.”

“You don’t have to worry about Sera,” Aria says. “She’ll probably just order every raindrop to miss her or something.”

I wish it were that easy. Taking my sleeping roll, I head out, scattering along with the others. I take out my map, following the route it sets, making my way down the trails of Nautica, out over a rope bridge to another of its islands, where there are gorges filled with dense vegetation.

My camping spot appears to be halfway up one of those, with a view down to a small rock pool. Already, I can see the sky darkening as the storm clouds roll in. I know it won’t be long before the fury of the storm summoned by the elementalists who command Nautica unleashes itself.

I start to put together a quick shelter, weaving together fronds from the palm trees nearby, trying to work out how best to shut out the wind and the rain.

My elemental control will help with some of it, but I want to make it as easy as possible.

I don’t want to have to sit all night, desperately concentrating on blocking out a storm.

I pull together my little sheltered spot, hoping that it will be enough.

It will have to be because that is the moment when the storm hits.

It starts with a few fat droplets of rain. Those grow into a torrential downpour in just minutes, the wind getting stronger by the moment and lightning flashing across the sky. I hear the rain hammering on my shelter, and quickly, it finds ways through the palm fronds.

I reach out for the water, pushing it away as best I can, trying to create a shield to keep the worst of it off. The rain runs down that shield, making it look as though the world around me is filled with water.

The storm batters me. Winds make the nearest trees sway alarmingly.

One cracks, toppling with an earth-shaking thud.

Lightning lances down, almost striking me.

Beyond my shield, I can see the gorge starting to fill with water.

It feels as if the power of the storm is concentrated on me, targeting me personally.

The rising water is a problem. If I stay where I am, soon, my campsite will be underwater.

I know I’ve been assigned to this spot, but if I stay here, I’ll have to start breathing underwater soon.

Grabbing my things, holding my shield around me, I set off further up the hill, trying to get to high enough ground that I won’t be in danger.

The winds tear at me with the force of a hurricane. Lightning strikes the ground around me. I can’t believe that our teachers are doing this. It feels like far more than just a test. Are they trying to kill us?

Looking up to the sky, I can see that the storm is swirling around the small island I’m on, its fury building and building. The rest of Nautica is being affected by the storm to some degree, but it feels as if the spot I’m in is the focus, the heart of it.

I see why a moment later, and fury builds in me.

Two figures stand on a hillside on a nearby island, protected from the storm in part by a shield of air.

Even at this distance, I recognize Ash and Sybil.

They are gesturing, controlling the elements, building the power of the storm and directing it at this part of the island. At me.

I set off in their direction. If I can get close enough to them, I can stop this. I can make them stop, turn the storm into something more manageable. I’m still stalking forward when I see another figure approaching along a side trail.

It’s Darius, and I can see him concentrating hard, forcing the wind and the rain back from himself, at least for now.

“Darius!” I call out.

“Sera, this storm is worse than I thought it would be. It is wild. It is out of control.”

“That’s because two of my classmates are directing it at me,” I explain.

“At you, or at me?” Darius asks.

I realize that he has a point. Ash has already said that he thinks Darius should be killed, so isn’t it possible that he’s taken it upon himself to kill him? Or maybe he and Sybil have decided to target both of us. Why get rid of one person they dislike when they can get rid of two?

“If we can get near them, we may be able to stop them,” I say.

Darius shakes his head. “It’s too late for that. Can’t you feel it?”

For a second, I don’t know what he’s talking about, but then I reach out to the storm with my gift. I feel its power, its wildness. I can feel a kind of fraying center trying to hold it together and direct it, but I also feel the moment when that thread of power snaps.

Ash and Sybil have poured power into the storm and now it is out of control.

I can feel it, building and building in a cycle of power that threatens to become something unstoppable. I can see it starting to roll away, back in the direction of the main island.

“At least it is drifting away from us,” Darius says.

“Back towards everyone else.”

Darius shrugs. “They have prepared for a storm.”

“Not for this,” I insist. “They’re expecting the storm the elemental masters and mistresses summoned up, not something Ash and Sybil have been feeding. If that thing reaches the main island, people will die!”

Darius looks as if he might shrug again, but then the facade cracks and he looks concerned.

“There is nothing we can do about it, though,” he says.

“I think there might be. Just how good is your control over wind and lightning?”

“Not enough to dissipate all of that,” Darius says.

“I don’t want to dissipate it. It will burn out on its own. I want to hold it here, where there are fewer people it can hurt.”

“You want… you want to call the storm to us?” Darius looks shocked by that. “That’s insane, Sera.”

“Not if we work together.” I’m sure about this, or as sure as I can be. “My friends are out there, Darius. Our fellow students. If they die because we didn’t act, I couldn’t live with myself.”

He looks at me through the rain. For long seconds, I think he will refuse, but then he nods once, sharply.

“All right,” he says. “We will call a storm down onto ourselves. I just hope that we survive it.”