Elemental Hunger

The steps landed heavy and even—a sentry's gait. I imagined the black boots and ground my teeth together to keep calm.

Problem #1: The hole I'd created in the brick wall loomed two hundred feet away.

Problem #2: A shadow waltzed in front of it. Another sentry.

Solution: A black door lay several feet to my right. I sprinted toward it, cringing with the hollow thump of my fist on the plastic.

Footsteps ran behind me. A man shouted. Behind the plastic door, darkness stretched. With only seconds to hide, I lit one finger and dove toward the first door I saw. It swung open easily, but I cursed silently at the sight of so much wood. I could torch this place simply by sneezing.

A closet stood open in the corner and I crawled inside, extinguishing the flame in my hand and pulling the door closed. It drifted open again, revealing two silhouettes in the gray rectangle of the doorway. I slid to the back of the closet, silently adjusting some low-hanging fabrics in front of me. The muscles in my legs knotted and unknotted, spasming from the quick sprint on top of the punishing all-night run.

The sentries turned, and the sound of their footsteps faded. I waited, still as stone, barely breathing. Hours might have passed. My legs grew stiff and tight, but still I didn't dare move. I felt a pressing sense of hopelessness. Two sentries are hunting me.

"She's not here," a harsh voice said, interrupting my hyperventilating thoughts.

"Yes, she is. You heard the door," a younger man replied, coming closer.

"Yes, but she could've opened that door with a blast of smoke and gone out the front while we've been piddling around back here."

Blazes, I wish I'd been able to attend Firemaker training. See, I didn't know I could control smoke.

"Let's split up," the younger sentry said. Something in his voice nagged at my memory.

"Right. So you can kill her as soon as you spot her? Don't think so."

"My orders are to bring her back to Crylon. Councilman Ferguson didn't specify dead or alive."

"The Supreme Elemental wants her alive—and in Tarpulin. If she dies, so do you."

My blood ran cold. What did the Supremist want with me? And in Tarpulin? See, people didn't return from "visiting" the Supreme Elemental.

He made sure of that. And if he wanted me, my survival rate plummeted. He always got what he wanted.

I remembered what my favorite teacher, Educator Graham, had said. "Supremist Pederson keeps all Elemental records." Her voice had sounded as old as she looked. "Every Elemental must send documentation of their Manifestation to Tarpulin. This is how the Supremist keeps track of the talent in the United Territories. He watches for the most talented Elementals to train at his personal academy. He assigns cities to Councils he deems worthy. He is an extremely powerful man. Dangerous, but essential to our survival."

At the time, I hadn't yet Manifested my Element, and already I hoped for a Council. Because Councils had servants. Friends. Each other.

They belonged.

"Take care to serve your Councilman well, Gabriella." Educator Graham had said, looking deep into my eyes. "You do not want to deal with the Supremist if you can avoid it."

I'd believed my teacher. The urgent way her eyes sparkled, the breathless trepidation in her voice, said more than her words.

That intense terror settled in the silence now surrounding me, because I wasn't obeying my Councilman very well.