Breath of Earth Read Online Free PDF Page A

I’ve been selfish in keeping you here with me. I should have sent you away.”
    â€œAway? Where? I don’t understand.”
    â€œHow is your skin feeling?”
    â€œMr. Sakaguchi! You can’t change the subject like that! Why would you send me away?”
    â€œAnswer me, Ingrid. How much energy do you hold?”
    Mr. Sakaguchi couldn’t see the auras of geomancers who held magic. Very few had that knack—no others in the CordilleranAuxiliary, thank God. When any such wardens came to town, she had been housebound as a precaution.
    She swallowed down her frustration. “I’m still holding some power, but it’s dwindling.”
    She felt his body move as he nodded slightly. “If we wait much longer, you’ll succumb to hypothermia.”
    The opposite extreme of what the students had endured earlier. Most geomancers only expelled the earth’s energy into kermanite. A rare few—usually those who saw auras—poured out their very life force if they stayed in contact with large kermanite for too long. The consequences of that were the same as standard hypothermia, as if someone succumbed to snow or cold water: confusion, a drop in heart rate and body temperature, and death.
    â€œOur options are suffocation, hypothermia, or to be crushed? Can we get a fourth, better choice?” she asked.
    â€œIf an earthquake strikes us down here, we won’t have any means to disrupt contact, so we could both die of hyperthermia.”
    Ingrid half choked on a laugh. Her lungs felt tight in the swampy air. “And then be crushed.”
    â€œI think our need for oxygen is the most dire. Act now, Ingrid. You can do this.”
    Whether she could or not, by God, she had to try. Taking a shallow but long breath, Ingrid stood with her hand still straight up. Heat flowed up her arm and burned through her fingertips. An airy sensation filled her skull as a sudden chill quaked through her. She ground her teeth together to prevent them from chattering.
    Above, debris rattled and roared as it shifted. The shape of the bubble had changed with the contour of her body, creating a tall cone. Mr. Sakaguchi scrambled to his feet. They were of almost equal height. Tears burned in her eyes as he hugged her. She wrapped her free arm around him and squeezed.
    â€œWe’re not dead yet,” she whispered.
    â€œMaybe today is our lucky day.” He craned up his head. “Light.”
    A pencil-thin beam of honest-to-goodness sunlight pierced the mound of debris over them. Seeing a sunbeam on a foggy spring day often felt as precious as encountering a unicorn, but at this moment it was like God ripped a hole through the clouds, just to shine down on them.
    But they were still heavily buried by boards and pipes and what looked to be slats of the roof. The hand was gone, fallen to one side. Blood stained the glasslike sheen.
    â€œAnyone there?” A male voice boomed from somewhere close.
    She opened her mouth to yell back. Mr. Sakaguchi squeezed her forearm.
    â€œYou have to open the bubble now, before they find us.”
    â€œWhat would really happen if they knew what I could do?”
    â€œYou don’t want to know.” He said this with a strange tremble in his voice, as if he knew the answer all too well.
    â€œIf I drop this bubble, we could still be crushed or killed.”
    â€œYes, but we can stand now, and we’re that much closer to the top. Ingrid . . .” He hesitated. “I don’t want you to be hurt.”
    â€œMr. Sakaguchi, you and Mama have always fussed over me too much. I know you say I can’t handle pain, but I can deal with—”
    She screeched in shock as Mr. Sakaguchi grabbed her around the waist and heaved her toward the light. Her upheld arm shoved through more debris until her focus slipped. Everything slid inward with a horrible rumble. Her gasp cut short as dust and fibers clogged her throat. Pressure crushed her. Not