The Kingfisher

XIII : Arden

Ela was the first to react.

As the hooded silhouettes inched closer with a vigorous stream of water trailing close behind them, the girl shoved Arden aside. She took a deep breath. Then another. Her hands adopted a peachy shimmer, but it turned into a faint shade of yellow way too quickly. The weather, Arden realized, reaching into his pocket and caressing the revolver's slide. How can a flame compete against icy water in this altitude?

She looked back at the crew. Ailyn's hand had shot up to shield her hanging mouth, while it was clear Nora was striving to suppress her panic. "Stand back," said Ela. "I haven't tried this before."

A knot coiled in Arden's abdomen.

The figures were close enough. With a broad swing of their arms, the water lurched towards the girl, starved beasts ready to feast on their prey. She swung her stretched palms up, eyes sealed tight and lips thinned to a straight line. She's scared. She doesn't think it will work. But it did.

The liquid instantly stilled, crystalizing into a limpid iceberg. The men halted abruptly, glancing at each other puzzled, before stepping past the boulder and pouncing at the team once more.

Ela was prepared that time. She swiped the wind in an effortless gesture of her arms, an icy slide generating from thin air and nudging the figures towards the edge of the path, towards the cliff. Arden didn't hesitate to whip out his gun, aiming it at one of the men's knee and pulling the trigger hastily. A blood-curdling scream escaped his mouth and he slumped back, clawing frantically at the soil as he slid down the rough hill.

The other form stiffened. His hood was down, revealing soft chocolate hair and round features. Arden lowered his gun. He wasn't a soldier. Not even a recruit. He looked like a student. The boy's bluish lips quivered as he eyed the people before him aghast. There was water all around him. Another flood wouldn't be tough to achieve. Yet he stood static, arms fixed to his sides and eyes locked at the revolver.

"What are you waiting for?" Nora seethed, snatching the weapon from Arden's hand and pointing it at the boy's forehead. A shaky whimper bailed out of his mouth, but he didn't move.

Salo cracked his silence, stepping forward to conceal the boy behind his broad shoulders. "This is where I draw the line," he scowled, yet even he seemed nervous to be at gunpoint. "We're not killing a kid. Let him walk away."

Nora's lips curved as she shifted the barrel to zero in on the center of Salo's face. "He's not walking away, and neither are you if you don't step out of my way."

"You wouldn't." The question in his tone hung in the thick air.

She jerked back the hammer, her eyes narrowing to two dark slits. "At least then we would be able to leave the dead weight behind."

"Enough," interjected Arden, plucking the revolver from the spy's fingers. A gesture of his wrist was all it took for the trembling boy to beat a hasty retreat, leaving the team in tormenting silence. The man tucked the revolver deep in his pocket, throwing a sharp glower at the spy before turning to Ela and pointing at the boulder. "Can you move that with your ominous ice magic?"

It didn't take long before they were standing at the entrance of the cave. The inside didn't look like most caves Arden had seen in picture books; there weren't any mysterious stalactites hanging graciously from the ceiling and definitely no enormous mammal hibernating in the corner. As far as he could see, the cave was a passage, a tunnel, likely leading to something he wasn't sure he could face.