Wind-Scarred (The Will of the Elements, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

mission. If you need your gear I can help you get it
together so you can-”
    Ezra didn't let the man finish. He leaped
through the wormhole and ran face first into something hard and
solid just on the other side. Walls blocked him to the left and
right as well. Thinking quickly, he pulled out his controller and
checked for available generators. Yes! The one he had used to get
here was of standard make. Pulling power from it, he placed another
wormhole directly between himself and the portal he had come out
of, throwing the exit to the nearest accessible port. That should
buy him some time.
    Something was poking him in the back
uncomfortably. He reached around and found a small handle. He
frantically tried to twist it, pull it, push it, anything! It moved
when he slid it to the left. He threw the door open and stumbled
out. Looking around, Ezra spotted a display case containing a blue
suit with a red cape and a giant letter S on the front in red and
yellow. Other cases held brightly colored magazines of some sort...
comic books! He was in the Conservatorium of Culture, the largest
museum in the University Plaza! Breathing hard, he turned to the
box that had imprisoned him and saw an antique phone booth framing
the port station at the university lawn.
    Gulping down lungfuls of air, Ezra sprinted
for the exit, throwing open doors and knocking down displays to
hamper anyone coming after him. Building security alarms started
blaring in his wake. He burst from the main set of doors and into
the empty lawn in front of the museum, eyes searching for signs of
pursuit. There were none. Laughing in unadulterated relief at his
successful escape, Ezra glanced at his time display. His heart
sank. The laughter died on his lips.
    It was six minutes after seven. Kirsten
O'Donnell was going to kill him.

Chapter
5
Ambushed
    Ezra quickly tallied his
options. Kirsten was not one to bluff, which meant that DOLT
officers would be looking for him shortly. Worse, she would
probably direct them to the university district, where she thought
he would be for his experiment. The incessant alarms coming from
the building behind him meant that they would probably check here
first. What was he going to do? Another wormhole? No, he thought, I'm back inside Sanctuary, wormholes can be
tracked. He needed to find a way home, and
quickly. Luckily, there should be whole crowds out in the streets
all around Sanctuary. He could blend in and make his way back
toward the Legacy district. Sneaking into his lab was his only real
option. Had he remembered to lock the doors before he left? Maybe
he could claim that he had been there the whole time, too caught up
in what he was doing to notice the time. That might
work.
    A sudden light at the university port
station drew his attention. Someone must have come through a
wormhole there. DOLT, or his mysterious friends with their secret
base? He wasn't sure which would be worse at this point. With a
groan of exhaustion he started off in a run, heading directly
across the plaza, away from port station and toward the loudest
crowd he could hear.
    Staying to the shadows and skulking between
buildings, Ezra watched as DOLT emergency response vehicles sped
toward the museum. Overhead, the bright colors of Founder's Day
waterworks launched into a particularly dazzling display of neon
orange and green dashed through with hot pink, drawing a round of
“oohs” and “ahs” from the crowd below. The vibrant explosions
drizzled their colors down on the appreciative spectators and the
city around them, painting everything with sprinkles and splashes
of lightly glowing liquid.
    Nearby, a group of kids ran through the
crowd with glowing guns, shooting more of the light liquid back and
forth at each other, coloring anyone and anything in their line of
fire with more stripes of brilliance. A harried looking woman came
running along behind, undoubtedly trying to shoo them back to
wherever they had come from. Ezra smiled fondly. It had not