"The more powerful a spirit," Traveller explained, "The larger their chamber. The Aura are of the same essence as any spirit, though vastly different than a demon or fairy, such as you will find elsewhere, just as different species in mor-"

Wanderwillow raised a hand. That was all.

"We're running out of time," Lauro muttered.

"I..." Traveller shuddered. "I have not been in the physical world for some time now. I apologize," he finished, but his eyes were apologizing to Wanderwillow, not the boys.

The brown Aura looked even more tree-like by now. Stretching root-like fingers into the stone, he pulled open a pa.s.sage through the wall behind him. Traveller beckoned Lauro and Gribly through, then the two Aura followed.

A flight of stairs and they were emerging into one of the inn's innermost rooms... or where the rooms had been.

Both lads and Traveller uttered a collective gasp. Wanderwillow simply shook his head.

The Swaying Willow had been blasted apart. The main building, where they were standing, was a charred heap of burnt wood and crumbled, fire-blackened ruins. Bodies lay everywhere in various positions of death and burning. Fire licked the air and smoke billowed so thickly it was almost impossible to see past into the sky beyond.

He distracted us, Lauro realized with a shock. There must have been another attack while the Aura battled in the otherworld!

Traveller put his head in his hands. "This is the beginning of the end..."

"Lauro," Gribly said urgently, "clear this smoke. I have a very, very bad feeling about this."

The prince felt too dazed to answer, and the thief's words made no sense. Clear the smoke? How could I... oh. With wind.

Stepping back, Lauro bent his knees slightly, raising his arms and swaying with the wind. His hands lifted above his head, interweaving with each other as he gathered the power of the wind.

Three, he counted in his head, Two... One...

With a shout, Lauro flung his arms down, forward, and around in an arc that ended with a double punch forwards at the thickest point in the smoke. Wind rushed around him so fiercely that it pulled his hair out of its topknot and flung it in his face.

His Wind Striding- no, Sky Striding- worked perfectly. A powerful gust of wind blew into the smoke, pushing it away easier than a child blowing out a candle. Every fire in the ruins of the inn blew out, and the smoke was gone in seconds. Lauro kept the flow of air constant for a few moments, more, but let it die when he beheld the sight that lay beyond what the smoke had formerly obscured.

From the Willow's ruins to the Grymslip river, a streak of fiery destruction had been drawn, and chugging quickly upstream were the culprits: the impossible metal ships he had originally come to warn Wanderwillow about. One was far ahead of the others: probably Sheolus's, or the blasted Pit Strider's.

"What in the Blazes are those?" Gribly swore, but Lauro didn't bother explaining- he was too furious.

"I saw those!" the prince cried out. "I was coming to warn you all! I could have stopped this!" He let out a wordless scream of rage, but Traveller shot him a look that made him cringe and fall silent.

"They haven't escaped yet, princeling," the Aura said grimly, the hint of a smile tugging at his mouth. "We'll make them pay dearly for their freedom, but I'll need your help. Both of you."

To Lauro's surprise, he felt the thrill of battle building in his veins again, energizing him despite his body's pain and exhaustion. Next to him, Gribly began to laugh eerily.

"Let's finish this," the prophet grinned.

"It ends now," Lauro vowed, but he didn't grin back.

Gramling stood on the metal gargoyle at the very rear of the ship, scanning the Grymclaw as the first light of dawn began to peek over the horizon behind him. The rasping, gurgling sounds of the ship's Pit Children crewmen disturbed him not a bit, and his entire focus was free to center on the upcoming chase. Only this time it would be him fleeing, not them. He bit down the anger that realization stirred in him and kept scanning the landscape.

"They're coming," he whispered, watching the dark blotches of smoke miles off as they swept forward towards the river; a sure sign that someone was trying to hide their approach.

"No..." hissed a voice beside him. "It is only a distraction. The Aura will be on the first ships before their crews realize it." The Golden One was hooded and robed in shadow, but the disappointment in his voice belied his intimidating presence. Gramling knew himself too well to deny that he was shaken by what had happened; what was happening. His master had been defeated.

"As long as we can make it up the river and away," he said, subtly attempting to a.s.suage his master's frustration, "we can be a.s.sured that my brother the prophet will play into our hands."

The Golden One turned his no-longer-golden face towards Gramling, with just the hint of a question in his fiery glance. Lie to me, boy, and I will crush your soul like a wolf on a fowl, his eyes seemed to say. The Pit Strider took a long gulp, then continued on confidently as if he had not noticed the look.

"I spent much time hunting these Striders, my Master. Both the Sea Strider and the Stone Strider have strong feelings for the... the girl you unin... you succeeded in capturing. The prophet's feelings are the stronger, and I have absolutely no doubt he will do anything and travel anywhere to rescue her... even if it means sacrificing his own life."

"Weakling," the Golden One spat, fondling the sharp edge of his bone dagger. Indeed, Gramling wondered, but who is weak now? Not they. Quickly he suppressed such rebellious thoughts, but the Golden One didn't seem to notice. "Let us depart," his master growled, and stomped past the black-skinned crew into the bowels of the ship.

Gramling said nothing. He just stared, and stayed where he was. Carnage was coming, and he wanted to see every second of it; he wanted to brand it into his mind, fuel for the fire of his hate.

We need you, brother of mine... but when we are done with you, I will tear out your heart. This I swear.

Chapter Nineteen: When Stone Met Sky.

Gribly and Lauro ran towards the river, their speed augmented by the earth at Gribly's feet and the wind at Lauro's back. Traveller rode the skies somewhere above them, and Wanderwillow had taken to the earth as soon as he could.

"We have to catch that sixth ship!" Gribly yelled above the roaring wind and blowing dust cloud that surrounded them both. "I don't care what Traveller says- I'm not letting Elia go so easily!" The prince nodded, and they shifted their course to head farther upriver, towards the rapidly fleeing ship Gribly was sure carried Elia and Sheolus, and possibly the Pit Strider, too, if Lauro had seen right the night before. As they slowed to turn, the dust cloud fell away, and they were given a clearer view of their enemies.

The five ships that formed the rearguard for the escape would not be bypa.s.sed so easily. The two friends had already come within an eighth of a mile of the river, and- without knowing it- into the firing range of the metal vessels.

Suddenly, gaping portals opened all along the sides of each ship that faced them. Gribly watched in horror as b.a.l.l.s of fire wider than a man was tall rushed out of each aperture and flew towards him and Lauro with astonishing speed. That must have been how they destroyed the inn!

"Move, idiot!" Lauro shouted at him. A burst of wind threw Gribly up into the air, and Lauro grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, kicking his legs to propel them high out of reach of the flames.

A rush of heat pa.s.sed under them, pushing Lauro even higher on its superheated air. By the time they were forty feet high, the fireb.a.l.l.s had burned their way past, carving a new patch of blackness in the Grymclaw.

"I can't hold you much longer," Lauro gasped, straining against the effort of lifting two whole people on the wind.

"I'll be fine!" Gribly a.s.sured him. The prince nodded, then let go.

As he plummeted, Gribly curled into a ball and spun in tight series of flips. The air was still hot enough to scorch him from the pa.s.sing of the fireb.a.l.l.s, but he ignored it and uncurled himself when he judged the angle to be just right.

WHAM!.

He hit the stony ground with enough force to break every bone in his body... but his Stone Striding was powerful enough that he felt no injury. Dirt and dusty soil sprayed up all around him as he landed in a one-knee crouch, hands pressed to the ground on either side of him.

I am the master of the strongest element, he told himself, energy racing through his veins with every second he touched the earth. The feeble flames of my enemies' hate cannot break me! I am invincible!

Lauro landed on the ground next to him, stumbling with fatigue. "That was too hard. I can't do it again..."

At the river, four of the five ships began to glow from inside, readying more fire. The fifth spewed smoke and listed to one side for no apparent reason- courtesy of the Aura, most likely.

"It's up to me, then," Gribly snarled. "Guess we'll have to deal with these fools first, after all." As one, the four remaining ships emitted a wall of scarlet flame that careened towards them, too fast to dodge. "Get behind me, Lauro!" the prophet shouted. The prince stepped sideways, reluctantly placing Gribly between him and the danger.

Gribly knelt to the ground in a flash, thrusting his hands into the earth up to their wrists. The packed ground softened beneath his touch, and he felt his mind extend to encompa.s.s all the stone and earth from his hands to the bank of the river. If the Creator is my master, I can do anything in Him...

The wall of flame rolled closer. In seconds it would hit him.

In one fluid motion Gribly stood and flung his earth-grimed hands in the air. The ground in front of him erupted upwards, mimicking his motion by forming a hasty wall of earth as wide as the approaching firestorm. Once more he repeated the Stone Stride, doubling the thickness of his makeshift shield.

Then the fireb.a.l.l.s. .h.i.t. The impact jarred the landscape, but Gribly managed to throw up another wall of soil despite the rumblings beneath his feet. The effort made his head throb with excruciating pain, and his arms felt like they had physically lifted every pound of the earth, but he kept at it until he was sure the inferno on the other side had died away. Lauro leaped, spun, and vaulted to the top of his earthen wall, propelled by Wind Striding.

"The Aura are tearing a second ship apart!" he called down from his perch. "One's already sunk... two more are jammed close together, trying to fire at Wanderwillow- Blast! He's summoning huge roots out of the river to pull down the boats!"

"That leaves one for us," Gribly shot back. "Let's finish it on our own."

Lauro looked back at him and nodded, leaping off the wall to land in a swirling whirlwind next to Gribly, crouching with arms flung wide. "How'll we do this, Prophet?"

Am I really becoming the leader, like the Aura said? Gribly wondered, but he grinned. "I've got an idea... If two Sea Striders can summon a storm, what could a Stone Strider and a Sky Strider do?"

For the first time since they'd emerged into the physical world, Lauro actually smiled. His eyes glinted viciously. "Let's send these Children of the Pit back where they belong."

Gribly nodded in agreement, walked over to his wall of earth, and thrust his hands towards it. With a grunt of surprise, he realized he had fused it together so hard that it had become stone, hence being able to withstand the heat of the golden ships' fireb.a.l.l.s. I'm becoming more powerful every day... we all are!

"Very well," he huffed, "I can work with this." With another grunt he shoved his hands into the bare face of the rock, sinking his fingers into the surface, then broke it apart. All along the wall, rock shivered, shook, and diffused into sand. As the entire structure collapsed, a strong wind blew the grit and grains into a spiraling ma.s.s that scattered into an enormous dust cloud, blowing outward in a veil that would obscure the vision of anyone on the boats. "Good work," he called back to Lauro.

"Right," the prince agreed, "Now let's give them something they won't forget!" The land was clear again, but the golden ships would be blinded for a few moments more. The river was almost invisible behind a gray-brown dust cloud that flashed from moment to moment, illuminated by the t.i.tanic struggle within.

"I'll form the stones into something usable," Gribly decided, "And you can help me throw them. We'll make a storm of our own!"

Lauro nodded, and Gribly set to work.

He stomped his feet, first the left, then the right, and the earth buckled beneath him. He swept his foot across the dusty ground, pulling his clawed hands towards him forcefully, and the heaving ground burst upward in a thick vortex of churning earth.

Suddenly, whatever he did was magnified a hundredfold. With a quick spinning motion, Gribly turned a full circle with his arms outstretched, intending to cause the vortex to grow taller and spin faster. It did all that and far, far, more, shooting up for a hundred feet, flinging soil and shards of rock in all directions, spreading wide as three men laying end on end and almost engulfing Gribly, who leaped backwards in a handspring to avoid it.

The earth-vortex followed his example, slamming into the ground to form a huge U-shape over him. Standing stock still, he lifted his arms toward its peak, feeling the earth with his mind. What had happened? There was so much... wind.

Lauro laughed out loud behind him. Gribly looked at his friend and saw his wild eyes... it had been him. Lauro was Striding Wind to augment his Stone Striding.

"Together we can do anything!" the prince yelled, raising his arms. Wind whipped Gribly's vortex faster and faster.

The smokescreen cast when Lauro blew the dust cloud forward was thinning into nothing. Without warning another fireball roared out of the nearest ship towards them.

"AGH!!" Gribly cried, stepping to one side and moving both arms in a high-flying arc towards the flames.

The vortex whipped one end up from the ground, soaring through the air faster than should have been possible thanks to Lauro's efforts. Its end slammed into the fireball a hundred feet away, engulfing it in swirling stone and earth, crushing it easier than a flat stone snuffing out a candle.

"END THIS!" Lauro shouted, and he punched the air with a wordless screaming battle cry. Lightning shot from the sky and smote the whirling pillar of earth, flickering up and down its outside. Gribly saw small dark forms scurrying about on the ship's deck, running and leaping overboard. One figure in a dark cape raised his fist and shook it at them, then vanished in a plume of smoke. "NOW!" Lauro yelled.

Gribly flung his arms to the sky, and the vortex became a tornado of awesome proportions, flashing with lightning and frothing with tormented earth.

I'll never be helpless again, he realized.

Then he slammed both fists into the ground with a shout that shook the earth.

Doom fell on the golden ship. The torrent of earth and wind ripped the war vessel apart as if it were made of tin, shredding its metal bulk and hurling huge pieces of shrapnel for hundreds of feet all around. Fire blossomed in a series of mushroom-like explosions as the mysterious glowing innards of the ship were mauled by the vortex of alien elements.

Suddenly Gribly felt the power added by Lauro's Wind Striding flicker, then die. "We've got trouble!" the prince shouted.

Gribly cursed, channeling the rest of his earth vortex into the ruined sh.e.l.l that was left of the ship. They had taken down one themselves, and three seemed out of commission thanks to the Aura. That left one warship still mobile- it would have to be dealt with later. Arms loose and ready for Striding, Gribly turned to face the problem that a.s.saulted Lauro.

Smoke billowed up from the ground, spinning in a sort of weak imitation of the larger vortex they had summoned before. Lauro threw a mild, testing blast of wind at it, but the smoke appeared undisturbed. Orange sparks shot up in a fountain of fire from the inside, and the next second the flames spewed forth a creature like Gribly had never seen before... or so he thought, at first.

It wore black robes, with black plate armor scattered at vital points on the thing's body. It had the general shape of a man, but its hands and feet were clawed, and its skin was jet-black and wrinkled. Milky, bulbous eyes glared at him without pupils, and fangs bared in the creature's mouth. It raised a hand, and branded runes in its palm began to glow with fire.

"What in the Blaze are you?" Lauro spat. The thing turned its head towards him with a jerk, hissing through teeth that seemed better suited to ravaging small animal corpses than talking.

"I am a Child of the Pit."

Gribly began to slink to one side. He's one of the ones who chased Traveller, all that time ago!

"What makes you think you can touch me?" Lauro sneered at the creature, which howled, flicking its wrists and generating a ball of swirling flame in each hand.

"I have been taught by the Golden One himself the arts of Pit Striding, foolish man-child! I will burn you blacker than death!"

"Hah!!" Lauro laughed, and thrust his arms forward, hurling a small bolt of lightning he had been gathering straight into the Pit Child's chest. With a gurgling yell, the black beast-man was launched into the air towards Gribly, who had sneaked around behind him. "Now!" yelled the prince.

Gribly punched out with his left arm, and a sharp, tooth-shaped spear of rock burst from the ground, impaling the Pit Child as he tumbled back to the ground. The hideous face contorted in a snarl of defiance... then froze in a mask of death. Ebony blood trickled from the corners of its mouth and dripped from the fist-sized wound that penetrated its back and emerged from its chest.

BOOM! Thunder rumbled overhead, and both friends looked to the river simultaneously. There was nothing to see except sky-high pillars of smoke, and a few half-submerged smokestacks. The Aura had completed their task.

"You know," Gribly remarked, swaying a little from the shock of the battle's aftermath, "I think this is getting a little easier!"

Then he pa.s.sed out.

Chapter Twenty: The Prophet, the Prince, and the Pirate.

"But we have to go after her!" Gribly shouted, almost in Traveller's face. The gray Aura was the only one who would even speak- Wanderwillow seemed to have suffered some sort of depression or injury ever since the Forest of Foretelling had burned.