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Chapter 8: Jasmine
Ijolted away from my peephole, but I couldn’t really move away from it.
Even though Father had added this wall to the house after we heard that the queen’s soldiers might be coming to our village and he had built it thick enough to hide in, there wasn’t much space in it.
I tried not to breathe or make any sounds as the soldier’s voice came from the other side of the stone.
“She is here, inside the wall,” the man said.
“She is an earth elemental?” the other asked.
“She could be more than that, remember,” the man with the crimson beard said. “You have earth magic, open it up and we will see.”
I could not stop it. I reached to touch the stone so that it would listen to me instead of the man, but it was fruitless. He easily parted the stone, and as my eyes tried to adjust to the light, I felt someone grabbing me by the arm and pulling me out.
He held me tightly and dragged me across the room. Mom stayed at the door, still unable to move. I wanted to scream at her to help, but she looked as helpless as I felt.
The man dragged me outside.
This has happened long ago, a voice said. It wasn’t the same voice as before, but it did not matter. None of them were real.
Still, she kept speaking. You cannot stay here, Jasmine. You need to fight it.
My name was Kenna, not Jasmine. I was nine years old. I could control fire and earth. My father was a toymaker.
You have to save yourself.
I had to save myself.
The soldier was still holding me tightly. I had to escape.
The earth underneath my feet helped me as I reached for the fire. I would throw a fireball at them and push myself down into the earth to reach the cave I could sense underneath. It was a smart move. I had used the same tactic while playing hide and seek before. It was damp beneath the earth, but it would give me enough cover. I just needed some smoke to hide where I was going because the man with the clean-shaven face knew how to work the earth.
I reached within. Fire was always harder to call upon than earth. Mother said it was because my earth magic had come before the fire and I still had some time to learn more about fire. But I managed to do it this time. It tingled my skin as the flame appeared at my palm. The man still held my arms, which meant I had to direct the fire without the use of my hands.
Somehow, I managed. The fireball I created jumped up from my palm and started to fall.
“Look out!” someone shouted.
The earth moved. But I wasn’t the one moving it.
“You cannot run,” the man whispered as the earth covered us both, protecting us from my fireball. We were in the dark. I could not see his eyes. “You shouldn’t have done that.”
Shouts came from the outside. I wanted to push him away and bury myself to reach the cave I'd created. I pulled my hand away from him and prepared to do just that.
I froze. My arm went limp. I stopped struggling and could not even think about reaching the earth to move it.
The small earth shield that the man had created around us fell back into place, seamlessly becoming part of the earth once again. We were out in the open and the man with the crimson beard was looking right at me.
