Oh, well. She shrugged and abandoned her post by the garrison’s main entrance. Stopping at the inn where she’d been staying, Heli packed her knapsack and paid her bill. She considered swinging by her parents’ house, but that would add two days to her travel time. And there was no way they’d let her leave after only three or four hours. They’d pepper her with a million questions and insist she stay overnight, bringing the total to three extra days. Fisk was probably being overly cautious, but she had to give the guy credit. He had planned and executed a killer rescue.
Remembering that night, Heli straightened with pride. Zethan had called the storm and Heli controlled it, keeping a safe path open for Yelena and Valek and a bunch of their friends to escape the Krystal garrison. It’d been the hardest thing she’d ever done with her Stormdancing magic, and it’d been both terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. And it had been empowering. When Zethan’s twin sister, Zohav, started flattening the guards with giant balls of water, she’d believed the three of them could beat the Cartel on their own. Of course, reality arrived the very next day when they hadn’t been able to help anyone because it was dry, calm and sunny.
Heli swung by the stables and saddled her horse, Thunder. The gray-and-white stallion twitched with energy. However, like his namesake, he started out strong but soon faded with distance. She’d been working on his endurance, and riding him was still better than walking, but she wished she had a Sandseed horse like Kade. Moonlight could reach The Cliffs in three days, but Thunder would be lucky to make it in four.
*
The morning of the fifth day on the road, Heli mounted Thunder. Her bedroll did nothing to soften the hard shale of The Flats and made her cot in the main cavern seem like a featherbed in comparison.
They reached the edge of The Cliffs later that afternoon. A fresh, damp breeze greeted them. Heli breathed in the tangy scent of the sea far below. The strident call of the gulls interrupted the rhythmic shushing of the distant waves. Sunlight painted the water with diamonds.
Home.
Heli soaked in the beauty of the landscape for a moment. The wind had carved a rippling pattern into The Cliffs, leaving behind wings of stone and arches of rocks. Water had drilled holes into them, and the Stormdancers used the caves for living areas, sleeping quarters, storage and housing the glass kiln. The sweet aroma of white coal and molten glass laced the salty air. Helen, the glassmaker, was probably busy making the orbs for the upcoming storm season.
Thunder refused to move when Heli urged him down the narrow trail. No matter how many times he’d been here, he wouldn’t descend unless Heli walked beside him.
“You’re a big baby,” she said, dismounting. “Come on. If we hurry we might be in time for some of Raiden’s seafood chowder.” Her stomach rumbled just thinking about it.
Halfway down, she spotted dark gray clouds gathering well out to sea. A storm would be here in a few days. Early, but one of the many things she’d learned about storms was that they didn’t follow the calendar. Heli glanced down. Kade stood at the end of a rocky outcropping. Waves rushed past but parted before crashing into his favorite perch.
By the time Heli and Thunder reached the sand, Kade had traversed the rocks and was heading in their direction. She waited. He was her boss, after all. Wearing a cautious expression, he strode over the sand with ease. His shoulder-length brown hair blew in the breeze. Heli tucked her own long brown strands behind an ear. The sun and sea had streaked both their hair with blond highlights.
“You’re here early,” he said once he’d drawn closer.
“Well, hello to you, too.”
“What happened?” he asked.
She suppressed a sigh. Kade was always too serious. And she was only five days early—her Stormdancing shift started on the first day of the heating season.
“I received a message from Fisk,” she said, then told him about Fisk’s concerns.
He huffed. “They’re safer here than anywhere else in Sitia.”
“I know. Where are they?”
Kade gestured down the beach. “Zethan is surfing...or rather, trying to, while his sister is swimming.”
Heli shivered. “The water’s freezing.”
“Not to them. They say it’s warm in comparison to the waters off Ixia’s coast.”
“And Teegan?”
“Helping Raiden.”
“What should we do about Fisk’s message?” she asked.
“Let’s wait until everyone is together and discuss it over supper.”
Heli led Thunder to the small stables on the beach. When the weather turned nasty, as it frequently did during the heating and cooling seasons, they moved the horses up to the storm cave to shelter them from the elements.
Moonlight whickered a greeting. The black horse had a white moon on his forehead. Smoke, another gray horse, poked his head out. Heli didn’t recognize the third horse—a cream-colored mare with a blond mane. The new horse matched the sand on the beach. After grooming Thunder and ensuring he had fresh grain and water, Heli trudged up to the main cavern.