I tightened my grip with both hands and legs as I peered around her neck and squinted against the wind. A lot of wind. It suddenly started to screech past my ears—the shrill blast of a storm. Vicious air buffeted us and Adhara jerked against the pressure. Her wings cracked as they beat to keep us steady and her tail feathers lashed like whips behind us. Dry lightning crackled somewhere off to our left.
A city perched on a cliff below us, overlooking a deep chasm. Its inhabitants were too frantic to notice their goddess soaring above. They hunched their shoulders and ducked their heads as they scrambled to secure their belongings and get to safety. But I didn't spend long looking at the sprawling, shining city and its residents. It was the Western Castle that caught and held my attention.
At the edge of the cliff on which the city stood, the land rose into a wide arch that bridged a gorge. A river flowed through the valley below, rushing with an intensity that mirrored the storm. Far above the river, dangling from the stone arch on the most enormous chains I'd ever seen, was a castle. One end of the chains attached to several metal loops embedded in the thick stone arch—loops large enough to run a steamboat through—and the other ends attached to the tips of metal towers. These anchoring towers stood the tallest among a gathering of spear-like spires that rose from a circular keep and its surrounding wings. They stood like sentinels in a row that bisected the castle and lined up with the arch above.
The castle itself looked normal enough as far as castles go if you ignored all that chain and metal towers business, but only on top. Below a metal lip that extended out around the circular curtain wall, the castle dropped into a cone, ringed by platforms and spotted by windows and balconies. The bottom tip was capped by a decorative silver ornament whose design was mirrored over the entire facade. A multitude of statues, training equipment, and carriages were scattered across the ringed ledges and frantic soldiers were busy securing them in place. Because you see, the whole, enormous structure was swinging.
“Little goddess, you must calm the storm,” Adhara shouted at me.
“Calm the storm?” I nearly shrieked.
“You calmed the mountain.”
“Because the mountain is a physical thing and it has an asha!”
“The storm is physical too. Look and I'm sure you will find its asha as well.”
“Air cannot have...” I trailed off as my second sight showed me what I'd always seen when I looked at Danu, but now I realized what it was that I was looking at—why the very air sparkled. Because it was anasha!And the air's asha was angry and full of neon-pineapple yellow. “Holy Hellfire,” I whispered, using one of Malik's favorite curses.
“Have you forgotten that in Danu, magic and asha are intertwined?” Adhara asked. “Where you find one, you will find the other. The very air we breathe is full of magic.”
“Of course, I haven't forgotten,” I huffed. “We were just discussing it recently.”
“Yes, yes, talk later. Right now you need to calm the storm, Amaranthine!”
The castle's chains creaked and rocks started to tumble from the arch to bash the castle below. The King of the West and his daughter stepped out to face the fury of their element, a unit of knights surrounding them. King Dranalt shouted and gesticulated wildly while Princess Farinne stared warily at the groaning chains above her head. As their monarchs bravely faced the storm, Western Danutians appeared in every window and came streaming out onto the circular courtyards. As their king and princess lifted their hands so did they, moving as if they were one person. Power glimmered through the air and magic hit magic. The wind started to swirl around the castle and its supporting arch violently, creating a barrier that protected them from the storm. The castle settled on its chains but the storm continued to grow in strength and fury just beyond the swirling shield.
“They won't be able to hold it off for long!” I shouted. “And I don't know if I'll be able to calm the storm in time.”
“I can protect my people when they falter. You just focus on the storm.”
Adhara drew in her wings and dove. She pulled up near the edge of the cliff and alighted on the hard-packed earth. I slid off her back immediately and set my attention on the violent weather. The wild yellow seemed to be everywhere but its greatest saturation formed a nebulous mass that expanded and contracted as it sent tendrils of itself out in whipping swirls. The mass moved steadily closer to the castle.
“The eye of the storm,” I whispered and focused on it.
I felt my magic connect with the enormous asha of the air, which had likely been tainted by the Heart of Air's asha. I could only conclude that the Heart of Air had shielded itself as Earth had, which meant that I could calm the storm here but I shouldn't go any further. Unless I tried to change this aura into the steady colors that I had shielded the Heart of Earth with. But no, adding determination to a storm was probably a bad idea. I needed to calm the storm as I had the mountain and then perhaps I could visit the Heart of Air and transform the shield it had formed around itself.
This time, instead of using amethyst, I went with a shade a little darker—that color between amethyst and plum. I focused on the eye; all of the other bits were too wild to catch. But the eye was strong and I could only change a pinpoint of color at first. I pushed more power into it and the point grew. Master Salien had been right—I was diminished. Changing the storm's asha was much harder than changing the mountain's.
“Hurry!” Adhara cawed.
“I'm trying,” I muttered through my teeth.
The color shifted slowly but it did shift, purple seeping into yellow like a drop of ink on paper. The eye continued to move toward the castle and fought me as it went. And I don't just mean that it tried to withstand the color change. The wind lashed at me—I could literally see it undulating like whips to smack at my chest—and lightning struck the ground near my feet. The air knew who was calming it but instead of helping me, it had chosen to attack.
Adhara gave a resounding cry and magic pulsed around us. Lightning struck an invisible barrier above my head while the air around me went still. I nodded in gratitude but didn't so much as glance at her. I couldn't take my focus off the eye of the storm; I knew that if I wavered for even one moment, it would break free.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a tornado hit the city of Prinne. Debris flew up into the funnel cloud but then it suddenly turned inside out, its spout shoved up into its center with a fiery blast. I knew my husband was there, lending his magic—and probably that of his soldiers—to the magic of the citizens of Prinne. Everan was helping them turn back the tornado so I could concentrate on calming the storm.
At least there wasn't any rain.
My body started to tremble, my strength failing, but my men were suddenly with me. I could sense Cyprian, Kyrian, and Malik's energies flooding my body. They filled me and renewed my strength so Everan could retain his. I took a steady breath, straightened my shoulders, and pushed on.
Screams and shouts came from the castle. The shield was failing. As if it sensed weakness, the dying eye sped up. I pushed more purple into the mass—there was just a thin shell of yellow around it now, making it look like a poisoned yolk. Just a little more. The shield fell and the castle started to swing like a pendulum.
“Go!” I shouted at Adhara. “Help them! I'll be fine.”
With an echoing screech, Adhara leapt into the air but her barrier remained behind. It appeared that I had misjudged her power as a goddess; she could protect us both. Adhara landed on the apex of the castle's supportive arch and spread her vibrant wings. A veil fell over the Castle of the West and the Danutians, even those in nearby Prinne, went silent in awe as their goddess guarded them against their own element. Adhara beat her wings forward and the storm drew back. But it only rolled in upon itself and gathered its strength for another go.
