Free Chasing The Wind (Novella) by D.K. Holmberg Page B

from the wind, she forced more of her will, her focus, into the shaping. Echoes of the scream reverberated softly in her mind, seeming to augment her strength.
    Even then her control was imprecise.
    She turned her attention back to the captured Aeta. The girl was missing.
    Zephra felt an edge of panic. In that moment, her concentration drifted and subtle shifting of wind around her start to falter. Cursing herself, she steeled her focus. Little would hide her if it failed, and the fire shaper that had captured the Aeta would come after her.
    Slowly she regained control. The soft breeze shifting around her felt warmer than before. The veil weaker.
    She had another sudden fear, one that almost sent her back to the rock for cover. Could the fire shaper simply penetrate the haze?
    Shaking away the fear, the compulsion to find the girl grew more urgent.
    As she slipped farther around the rock, she looked for the girl. The heat haze rising from the ground made everything opaque. Only the bright colors of her clothing helped Zephra find the young Aeta.
    She laid helpless, arms and legs stretched apart, her once brightly colored clothing tearing. Patches of burned skin already blistered. Raised welts, clearly shaper made, seemed to mix within the patches of burned flesh. The lower edge of her tattered shirt had shifted and more of the scorch marks worked across the flesh of her stomach. Only the girl’s face was hidden from her, tipped back and away.
    The smell of charred flesh drifted to Zephra on shaped wind. Anger surged through her.
    Only then did Zephra hear the screaming.
    The girl wailed, her voice high pitched and haunting. The sound nearly penetrated the remainder of her focus. How had she not heard it before?
    The young Aeta girl thrashed as much as she could against the bindings holding her splayed across the rock, but her legs and arms held fast. Only her head tossed violently.
    A rod thin man stood facing the sun, arms spread out in supplication. Nothing covered the browned and leathery skin of his torso. Dark pants, a deep maroon that was nearly black, covered him from the waist down. His feet were bare and he flexed his toes into the hot ground. A shorn head twisted slowly from side-to-side, like a lizard sunning itself. A foul sulfurous odor radiated from him, hot and rank.
    Zephra froze. Something about the shaper sent waves of fear through her.
    She could not hold the veil much longer without roasting herself. Even now the air writhed, struggling to escape her grasp. Only then did she realize that a shimmering haze originated around the dark shaper, spreading out from his arms and swirling toward the Aeta girl.
    Violent anger rose within her, pushing back her fear. Memories of a forgotten past tried to blow into her consciousness but Zephra pushed back, holding her focus. She did not know what the fire shaper did to the Aeta girl, but she could not simply watch it happen.
    The screaming suddenly stopped.
    Zephra was moving before she knew it. She slid forward, the hot air concealing any sound she made, and reached the other two Aeta first. Shifting the veil as she reached them, she quickly shaped a gag to keep them from making noise as she sliced through the bindings. She felt the veil sag and she forced more of her will into it, angrily holding it in place.
    “The rock. Far side,” she whispered, knowing the shaped air would carry it to their ears.
    The man glared at her and shook his head, pointing toward the girl. His face was youthful and strong. Something in his brown eyes was so like Grethan that she nearly lost her control again.
    The woman grabbed her wrist, startling her with the urgent touch. Her fingers were moist and tingled. Hot wind carried a floral scent off her of lilacs and evergreen.
    “I will get her,” Zephra promised.
    The man shook his head.
    Zephra did not have time or the energy to argue with him. She considered pushing him at the rock with a gust of wind and let the Great Mother protect