Prince of Attania, 2

Abruptly, stone chips and dust thumped down as Attan let go of his anger. Several pieces on the workbench had already been knocked over, and one clattered to the floor and broke in half. All that work. And he couldn’t even blame Tom, not really. It had been his own anger that stirred up the elemental wind.

“I need you to come with me,” Tom said. “Bring the spirits, too. It shouldn’t take long, no more than a few days. Then you can go back to being a Prince, or whatever.” He glanced dismissively at the carvings scattered across the workbench.

Attan was not at all sure Midver’s free elementals would follow him away from this place where they seemed to congregate. “Where?” he asked warily.

Emma, who had been silent until now, drew a small cloth from her pocket and began wiping off the carvings one by one, tsking over small cracks in some of them. Those she put to one side. “Follow me, follow you,” she muttered as she went about her task. “To the great big shining sea and back again to me.” It had the cadence of a song.

Tom smiled. “That’s right. To the sea.”

That didn’t tell Attan much. Which sea? The warm southern sea near Palmer where Ben Reaves grew up? The violent western sea, or the one in the far north, past all inhabited lands? Or did Tom mean the sea past Parrion, which was just as deserted as the great northern sea?

“Attan isn’t going anywhere, and neither are you. Thomas Jadock, you are under arrest.” Ben’s lank form had to stoop as he clomped down the narrow stairs. He held a gun loosely pointed at Tom, who stiffened, a scowl darkening his face.

“For what?” Tom asked. “Attan and I are old friends.” He started to stand up but Ben pointed the gun at him and he sat back down.

“Kidnapping. Treason. Theft. Lying.”

Tom’s eyebrows rose. “Lying?”

Attan hurried to Ben’s side. “He said his men were holding some of the town children hostage.”

“Hostage? That’s not what I said.”

“The kids are fine,” Ben told Attan. “We took the guns and communicators—which are illegal—away from Tom’s men, and left some of my men with them. The kids all got treats and went home.”

Emma dropped her cloth on the workbench. “What’s going on? My Tom didn’t do anything wrong!”

Tom’s arm snaked around his mother, pulling her down beside him. “That’s what I told the man, Mother. I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Attan frowned. Tom had just gotten himself another hostage—his own mother! Though she didn’t see it that way. “You can’t arrest him!” Emma cried out. “You’re not the Enforcer!” Elementals gathered excitedly around Emma in reaction to her distress.

“That’s right, I’m not,” Ben answered Emma. “I’m non-family, just like you and your son. The Enforcer sent a non-family enforcer to Midver because this is a non-family situation.”

That seemed to calm Emma down. She settled against Tom, picked up her cleaning cloth, and started wiping the carvings nearest to her all over again.

Tom gazed up at Ben, taking in his uniform jacket. “Sons of Men,” he murmured. “You’re better than I thought. Now, suppose you tell me exactly what I’m under arrest for.”

Attan took the opportunity to dissolve his physical body and zip through the ceiling to the chapel above, which was still buzzing with excited elementals. He wanted to see for himself that the kids at the store were unharmed.

But the chapel door opened and a group of people came in, causing the elementals to react in a frenzy. Lights became visible even in the human spectrum and Attan again felt echoes of my, mine, as the elementals swirled joyfully around the new arrivals. They weren’t from Midver. In fact, they were—

“Elea!” Attan took back his physical body in a flash, forgetting that not everybody was used to that sort of thing. He manifested right in front of the little girl he’d met on a cliff almost a year ago. It was her!

Some of the other women with Elea gasped in fear or in shock at Attan’s sudden appearance. Here was a Family boy in the middle of their chapel of spirits! But Elea stepped forward and held out one hand to gently touch his face. “I remember you,” she said. “Attanestee.”

A few more gasps. Perhaps these people recognized the name as belonging to the Family Prince of Attania. He almost hoped not. Taking Elea’s hand, he smiled. “Yes, Attan.” She was taller than he remembered. Skinnier, too, all arms and legs and wispy yellow hair, and eyes too big for her face. She smiled back.

The ceiling lit up in bands of colors, as the elementals which swarmed the tiny chapel sent my, mine over and over through the ambient. Elea glanced up, still smiling.

Is that what they’d meant? It wasn’t about Tom and his band of thieves at all—it was about Elea’s group! Attan grinned. He felt like lighting up the room, too. It was an effort to keep his physical shape.

“You can see them?” Elea’s question brought Attan back to reality.

“I—uh,” he stumbled over what to say. “Yeah.”

Elea smiled. “I thought so.”

Her mother, or the frizzy-haired woman Attan thought of as Elea’s mother, pulled her away. “He’s Family. He shouldn’t even be here!” She glared at Attan in a mix of outrage and fear. The other women surrounded her and Elea, and they began to beseech the spirits in loud whispers to protect them.

With a shrug, Attan disappeared, becoming absorbed into the stream of elementals these women so clearly worshipped without suspecting there was a connection between their spirits and the Family they despised. Tom had guessed the truth, and Emma must know, since she called Attan “Young Spirit.”

He emerged to find Elea watching him—or rather, his elemental self—as he reappeared. So she could do it, just like Emma could. Okay, now he got why these particular free elementals felt drawn to these particular non-family people. He felt it, too.

Ben’s voice, raised in anger, floated up from the stairwell below. A moment later, he appeared, towing a defiant Tom Jadock behind him. “Enough, I said!”

But Tom refused to be silenced. “Tell me one thing I’ve done that you can arrest me for! The corn?” He scoffed. “Midver gave it to me. Ask Roger. Ask any of them!” He glared at Attan as Ben hauled him across the chapel and out the main door. “Ask him!”

Emma scurried up the stairs in their wake, twisting her cleaning cloth in her hands. The free elementals surrounded her, attuned to her emotions, and the lights flickered and went out. Elea’s mother put her arms around Emma and murmured in her ear. The other women and Elea moved to close the circle around her, leaving Attan unsure whether to stay or to follow Ben out the door.

The women cast suspicious glances towards Attan, and eventually Emma’s blind face turned as though she could see him also. She murmured something back to them, and the women all turned to stare at him. Attan should have gone after the men. He edged towards the door and all their eyes followed him. Panicking, he let go of his physical body and bolted out of the chapel on a current of air, taking several of the free elementals with him.

“Attan, wait for me!” Elea ran across the town center in the same direction he was going, though there was no way she could actually see him. He was the wind! There should have been nothing for her to see. Reluctantly, Attan took back his body, releasing the other elementals he had incorporated in his headlong flight.

“Shouldn’t you be with your mother?” he asked, a little irritated that she had followed him. So what if she was a different kind of non-family who could apparently sense elementals? She belonged to those others who were not very happy about his existence.

“I want to come with you.”

Attan didn’t have time to argue—Ben and Tom were heading for the general store. He saw Ben’s big box truck and one other parked outside it. He grabbed Elea’s hand. “All right. Come on.”

If there were children in Roger’s store earlier, they weren’t there now. Attan pulled the door open, setting off the bells that announced an arriving customer. Ben had just sat Tom Jadock down next to his men, who were arranged in rows in front of Roger’s counter. They didn’t seem to be restrained in any way, but Ben’s Sons of Men stood over them with guns in their hands. In the corner were several guns and communicators which Attan assumed must have belonged to Tom’s men.

“You think my father will speak against me?” Tom hadn’t stopped arguing. “Since when is it a crime to store crops?”

“You had guns and communicators in that back room,” Ben replied. “Both of those are illegal.”

Tom eyed him up and down. “You have guns and communicators too.”

Technically, Tom was right. Ben might be acting under Jet’s direction, but the Sons of Men did not officially exist anymore, therefore their weapons and communicators would be considered illegal also, never mind the fact that the Sons of Men had invented communicators in the first place. Never mind that Thomas Merrell, Attania’s Enforcer, was well aware of their existence and tacitly approved of Jet sending Ben to handle the Midver situation. Ben remained silent.

One of the Sons of Men noticed Attan’s companion. “What’s she doing here? We sent all the children home and told them to stay inside.”

“She’s with me,” Attan said. “She’s not from Midver. She’s a—guest.”

“She’s a kid. Send her away.”

Elea moved a little behind Attan, her hazel eyes huge in her small face. Attan didn’t want to leave—he wanted to find out what Ben was going to do about Tom and his men. But they were right, this was no place for a little kid. “We’d better go back,” he told Elea.

“Where are the rest of your men?” Ben started his questioning again. His eyes caught Attan’s; he knew Attan was listening. Attan pulled Elea a little further behind him and wrapped them both in shadows so that no one in the room could see them. With a little luck, they would think that he and Elea had left.

“What men? These are my farmhands. I asked them to wait at the supply store until I finished my business.”

“And what business would that be?”

“Nothing you need to worry about. It was between the little Prince and me. I told you we’re friends.”

Attan couldn’t believe Tom’s nerve! He nearly dispelled his shadows so that he could dispute Tom’s assertions, but a stern glare from Ben, who seemed to have pinpointed Attan’s general whereabouts even though he couldn’t see him, made Attan keep the shadows around him and Elea. He would let Ben handle it.

“I don’t believe you,” Ben replied. “Where is your headquarters? Where are the heavy vehicles you are using to transport the illegal crops? Why do you call yourselves Sons of Men?”

Tom smiled. “We are Sons of Men.”

“No. You’re not.”

“This is getting us nowhere.” Ben whirled around and pointed at Roger, who sat behind his counter as if he would settle the matter. “Midver won’t press charges?”

Roger mutely shook his head. He seemed more terrified of Tom than of Ben’s Sons of Men. He probably had more reason to be.

“And we know Renn Jadock won’t, either. That leaves us with a dilemma. Do we take these so-called Sons of Men with us and ferret out the truth later, or do we call in the Enforcer after all?” Ben pulled his own communicator out of his jacket pocket. It was a much newer model than the ones Tom and his men were using.

At the word ‘Enforcer,’ several of Tom’s men stirred uneasily. They glanced at their leader, who scowled and stared up at the ceiling. “Do what you’re going to do, it makes no difference to me,” he said. “I don’t think Midver wants the attention of Family, though. If you bring the Enforcer down on them, you’ll be doing a lot worse than I ever did to these people.”

That was true, also. The reason Jet had sent Ben to handle Tom was to keep it out of official hands. The Enforcer might secretly agree with Jet’s reasoning, but officially, he would keep the peace in Attania by whatever means he deemed necessary. Those means might not be favorable to Midver.

“Take him.” Attan let the shadows drop, revealing himself and Elea.

“Attan.” Exasperated, Ben shook his head.

“Ah, the little Prince. Coming to my rescue, are you? With your spirit army, perhaps? Now would be a good time to carry us all away.”

What? Confused, Attan stared at Tom, who grinned back maliciously.

“What’s he talking about? What spirit army?”

Attan realized Tom’s game. He was bargaining his silence regarding Midver’s odd spirit worship. Tom’s eyes fastened on Elea, who shrank behind Attan. “I don’t know. He’s crazy.”

“I’ll take him back to Parrion,” Ben decided. “I have someone there who might get some answers out of him.”

Tom’s eyes gleamed. “Parrion? You’re taking me to Parrion? Then I accept. My apologies, little Prince, but I won’t be taking you up on your offer today. Perhaps soon, though.”

Worried, Attan watched Ben march Tom and all his men to the two box trucks he had brought. “What did you mean, you have someone in Parrion who might get some answers?”

Ben grinned. “A Son of Men who’s also Family. Your uncle Daniel.”

Attan had almost forgotten Elea who clung to his hand as he followed Ben outside. She tugged on it now. “Your uncle is Family?” she asked, puzzled.

Attan looked down at her. “Yes, of course he is.”

Elea scrunched her eyebrows together. “Is he like you?”

Attan knew what she meant. “Sort of,” he replied. “Not exactly.”

“Oh.” Relaxing, Elea let go of Attan’s hand just as Emma and the other women from the chapel rushed over. Elea calmly walked over to the frizzy-haired woman and took her hand, listening as the woman whispered agitatedly into her ear.

“Tom! Where are you taking my Tom?” Emma, guided by two of the outside women, banged her hands against the side of the first box truck.

“It’s all right, Mother.” Tom’s voice came from inside the back of the truck. “I want to go. They’re helping me to do my job.”

“You’ll come back?”

“When it’s time, Mother, I’ll come back. I always do, don’t I?”

Emma nodded, smiling at her son’s voice. “Good-bye, my son.”

Ben took that as a signal to leave. Both trucks started up. He waved to Attan, then pointed to his communicator, mouthing ‘I’ll keep in touch.’ Attan nodded to show that he understood.

“Young Spirit.” Emma stood in front of him. She reached into the deep side pocket of her work apron, pulling out the white cloth she’d been using to clean off the damaged carvings. “I saved these for you.”

Attan unwrapped the cloth carefully, afraid of what he would see. Emma had brought the two carvings he had made for his parents and miraculously neither one was broken.

“Ooh, let me see!” Elea poked her head up and peered at the carvings in Attan’s hands. They glowed, one the soft red of fire and the other a swirl of colors which shifted with each tiny movement. “Pretty.”

Attan held them up to the sky. “Yeah, they are, aren’t they?”