Free Children of the Elementi by Ceri Clark Page A

Eleria. Fear gripped him as winds buffeted them in the no-space between worlds. He felt himself spin out of control, his mind was fragmenting and darkness began to encase Jake’s mind. He was blown one way then another, there was no up or down, just endless night.
    “Keep your mind focused on the yellow thread!” Mirim’s voice admonished as if from a distance. Getting a hold of his mind, Mirim gathered him in her psychic embrace. Her skills were tested to her limit as his consciousness seemed to slither under her grasp. Finally stalling his spin, she sensed the Citadel near and dumped his mind through the conduits to the main crystal controls into the full mind meld. Now Mirim, Jake and the Matrix combined to make one vast but still incomplete mind.
    “I couldn’t do this on my own.” He heard wonder in her thoughts. “I needed your abilities to do this.” He knew how she felt - literally. He felt like he knew everything - could do anything.
    He found his awareness spreading out though the planet of Eleria. Everywhere he looked there was crystal. He was the crystal. He understood how each crystal formed a part of the whole mind. “Wow, this is amazing.” The Matrix couldn’t think on its own. It used their minds. It was a partnership going back thousands of years.
    He could sense it was grateful and even happy for him to be there. He felt an insane reciprocal happiness. It felt like home. The Matrix accepted him without any reservation. He now knew that Mirim, the Matrix and the others would be closer than any real family could ever be.
    “Jake, you need to find that other element!” Her call brought him back to reality.
    Leaving behind his own white cord so he could travel back if he needed to, he followed her by instinct. As his energy flowed into the Matrix, it multiplied. What he gave was given back to him threefold. Power called to like power and he felt himself moving at a great velocity back through the no-space to Earth. Still part of the whole, he found himself hovering above a girl. She could be no more than sixteen or seventeen at the most. She had long dark-brown hair. She was startlingly beautiful. She appeared to be sleeping on a train. As he watched, someone woke her up. This was the last stop on the line, the man told her. She twisted to look through the window at the sign for confirmation and nodded sleepily. After thanking the man, she left the train. Jake made a note of the name, Oakwood.
    Mirim instructed the Matrix to disconnect their minds and to send them bodily to Oakwood. If they hurried, they would hopefully be able to catch her before she went any further.

CHAPTER SEVEN: SHENELLA
     
    Shenella squinted into the far corner of the Great Hall. Marta and Ecu were leaning towards each other by the buffet table, obviously talking in whispers even though no one would be able to hear them in the general din even had they been talking normally. What could they be talking about? Really, if you are going to plot something, don't act as if you are! They are spending far too much time together, she thought. What are they doing?
    She was shocked at how quickly Ecu was rising at court. It seemed everywhere she turned he was there with that sly grin. And the way the First Adviser was dismissed - no good could come of it. She could already see Aras’ other advisers getting restless. He was talking to them less and less each day. That could only cause trouble.
    The advisers were powerful people in their own right. If he continued to ignore them, it would betray his weakness. It was only a matter of time before someone took his or her chance.
    She could understand that Aras would favor Ecu a little. After all, he had lessened his headaches when no one else could, but this was ridiculous. How could a simple healer rise so high? Of course, she answered herself, he was no simple healer! He was also a magician as well as a scholar, all that drivel about his ‘research in the Great Library’ on his first