Chasing The Wind (Novella) Read Online Free PDF

receding into the heavy forest flanking the border between Incendin and the kingdoms. If she stood atop the peak long enough, she hoped she would finally feel a hint of cool air.
    Then she looked back. The wall of heat that had pressed on them all afternoon seemed suddenly solid. Searing heat blasted at her face, sucking the breath from her lungs.
    The shaper approached.
    Zephra hurried over the ridge.
    Calin found a winding path snaking its way across down the rock. He moved quickly, but his once straight back sagged under Lia’s continued weight. How much longer could he hold out?
    Zephra slid more than stepped along the narrow path. At the bottom, Calin stood staring at one of the twisted thorny trees, a white blossom blooming from the end of a branch. It was surprisingly beautiful. He plucked the flower carefully, pinching it off with his fingers, and tucked it under Lia’s shirt. Then he hurried to the water and filled the waterskin, pouring the water onto Lia’s chest.
    She wasn’t sure if she was more surprised that the flowers actually existed or that Calin appeared to know about the healing properties. She didn’t have a chance to see what happened next. The air shimmered with renewed heat.
    A blackened figure stood atop the ridge. The fire shaper practically glowed.
    She sensed the building energy and ran to push Calin forward. “The water!” she shouted, slamming into his back as they stumbled toward the Fosa.
    Then she splashed into water impossibly warm. She swam, early years spent along the shores of Vette Ver in Doma making her strokes sure and strong. Calin flopped nearby and she swam to him. Taking Lia from him, hooking the girl’s arm around her neck, she pulled Lia toward the opposite shore.
    A blast of heat struck the water, turning much of it to steam.
    Zephra cursed. The wide river flowed slowly, barely any current at all and certainly not enough to pull them safely away from the shaper. Another such blast and they would burn. They needed to reach the other shore.
    Before the second blast, she felt the shaper’s released energy. “Dive!” she hollered, ducking under the water and kicking. Calin seemed to understand and she saw him swimming near her, his strokes more sure and quick, his strength returning.
    Lia writhed in her arms, coughing again. White petals from the flower fluttered out from under her shirt, pulled by a current she did not feel. Zephra cupped a hand over Lia’s mouth and nose to keep her from inhaling water before kicking her legs forward, gliding through the water. She felt the explosion as the blast struck.
    Pale green shimmered in the water around her.
    At first, she thought it little more than her imagination, but the colors seemed to swirl and move, as if alive, swarming from the loose petals toward Lia. In her arms, Lia was engulfed in color. Zephra kicked on, uncertain how much longer she could hold her breath and praying to the Great Mother she could reach the shore before the shaper could unleash another attack. The water cooled the farther she swam, invigorating her.
    Lia suddenly spasmed.
    With one last kick, Zephra flung herself up and out of the water, a brown grassy shore nearly in reach. Calin stood on the edge of the shore and reached into the water, pulling Lia from her arms. Water slid off the girl.
    Zephra staggered out of the water and collapsed. Across the Fosa, the shaper stood, staring with malevolent eyes. Heat simmered from him, rising from the rock like a protective haze. Approaching the edge of the water, he hissed.
    “Return the girl to me and you may live.” The fire shaper took a step toward the water. Steam rose around him, the water prevented his easy crossing.
    Zephra felt the subtle shaping to the words, something else she had never heard of a fire shaper doing. A blast of heat rolled over the water, threatening to boil away the river.
    Again she marveled at his strength. Only then did she make the connection.
    The shaping he had worked on