Prince of Attania, 2

Jet woke up, sweating, and kicked the covers off. He almost reached for Doll before he remembered it wasn’t her in bed next to him. The tall, slender woman beside him protested sleepily, and Jet tucked the covers back around her before he slipped out of bed and padded down the short corridor to the balcony overlooking Wister.

His breath steamed in the frosty air. Stars hung bright in the intense black sky without a cloud to mar their brilliance. A touch of winter already. Three more weeks. Then he could go home to Low City. If Merrell had his way, Jet would be visiting more important cities in the spring with an eye towards making more alliances with Attania’s most powerful Families. More marriages.

Not that it wasn’t interesting. Jet liked Madelyne. He enjoyed the bedroom games they played if not the political ones. He liked Lorra, too. It would be Lorra’s turn to have him at the year’s end. That meant he’d be in Darcy for several months. Closer to Attan, at least.

Jet still hadn’t sired a child on either of his new wives. He didn’t think he would be able to, but felt obligated to try for Merrell’s sake. Attan was the heir, and he didn’t want it any more than Jet did.

When Attan was born, Jet didn’t know what to think. The infant flickered in and out of substance as if trying to decide which reality it wanted to be. Jet had finally discorporated and guided the little soul to the physical plane, where he cried lustily and reached for his mother’s breast with an eager, seeking mouth. Doll’s feeding anchored Attan to the physical, that, and Doll’s boundless love for the little creature she held in her arms. For a while, Doll was afraid to transform, afraid the baby would follow and she would lose him.

They called him Attan, after Attania.

“Jet!” Madelyne’s sleepy voice called plaintively from the hallway. “It’s cold. Come back to bed.” She wore nothing but their shared blanket wrapped around her shoulders. Grinning, Jet closed the balcony doors behind him and went to warm her up.

The morning dawned cold but sunny. Madelyne burrowed under the covers when Jet got up to start his day. Jet had plans to meet with several area landowners to discuss possible methods of food production even during the coming winter. This was a perfect day to demonstrate what he had in mind.

Jet became wind, merging with the free wind elementals all around him. It was easier to travel this way, and Jet wasn’t expected for some time yet. Wister looked picturesque from above, with wide, sloping valleys dotted with several lakes. Good farmland, but still not enough to sustain all of Attania’s population.

In this form, it was hard to think, so Jet just let impressions roll across his consciousness. He was aware of Madelyne in their room, getting ready for work now. Once a baby came, she would stop teaching, but for now it gave her something to do during Jet’s long absences.

In some corner of his mind Jet was aware of Attan, too, who was in Low City visiting his mother presently. They would just miss each other when Jet arrived in Low City in a few weeks.

Merrell had gone to Parrion to confer with Ben and Daniel, so that meant Jet was on his own here in Wister. He should be content; he was about to show these Family how to increase their food production, which was a large part of Jet’s grand plan for Attania. And he had Madelyne who challenged him and kept him guessing in bed and out of it.

But a growing uneasiness nagged at him. The free elementals who had become a part of him in wind form picked up on his uneasiness and reflected it back. The wind picked up and soon became a roaring storm.

Stop, Jet thought, when he realized. He took physical form on the shores of one of the smaller lakes and frowned at the sky until it cleared to pale blue, and the wind elementals once more playfully tugged at his braids.

Something was not right. Jet felt it, but he wasn’t sure how. He dug a communicator out of his pocket. He meant to contact Attan. If Jet felt something this strongly, then maybe Attan had felt it, too. But before he could make the connection, his communicator buzzed, signaling an incoming call. “Attan?”

There was silence on the other end. Then, “No. This is Ben.”

“Ben? I thought maybe Attan was trying to contact me. What is it?” Ben rarely communicated unless it was an emergency. “It’s not about Attan, is it?”

“No. As far as I know, Attan’s fine. I—something’s happened. I need you to come to Parrion immediately. How fast can you get here? So far we’ve been able to keep this quiet, but I don’t know for how much longer. Jet—it’s bad.”

Jet’s heart sped up. “We? You mean you and Daniel? What happened?”

“Merrell’s dead.”

Jet dropped the communicator, suddenly unable to hold onto it. He scrabbled in the sand for it. “Dead? That can’t be right. He’s Elemental, like me and Daniel. Did his body release? Is that what happened?”

“We don’t know, Jet. You need to get over here. His body’s still here, but he’s dead. Maybe you can tell if something of his elemental nature survived, but from where we stand, it doesn’t look like it.”

“What the hell happened?”

“Just get here. As fast as you can.” Ben ended the connection.

Jet debated whether he should let anyone else know where he was going—and why. He decided against it. He let go of his body and gathered the rest of the wind elementals into his wind self, as he angled high and fast across Attania towards Parrion, letting the salving sense of just being erase the terror his human self felt at the thought of losing Merrell for good. He made it to Parrion in record time, and left a swath of destruction from boiling storms in his wake, though he did try to keep the damaging winds high above Attania’s surface.

Jet flowed through solid rock to the underground city of Parrion and only took form when he found Ben in his office. “Where is he?” he grated. “And where’s Daniel?”

“Daniel’s taking care of the problem,” Ben said enigmatically. “Merrell’s in there. Come, I’ll show you.” He led Jet to the back room he used as a bedroom. Merrell, looking whiter in death than ever in life, lay on top of the bed utterly still. A gash cut across his neck, no, through his neck, and he had bled out. “He was caught by surprise. He was dead before he ever had a chance to transform.”

“How did this happen?” Even as Jet asked, he knew it was possible. Merrell was older than the rest of them who had become Elementals. He believed in his physical body first. Transforming to Elemental was a trick, not second nature like it was to Jet and some of the younger Elementals. If Merrell had been caught unawares, he could have been killed. “Who did this?”

Ben led Jet back out to the office, and closed the door on Merrell’s body. “Sit down,” he said, as Jet began pacing agitatedly in the cramped space. “It never should have happened. You remember that kid we took in to keep an eye on, the one Attan discovered was plotting something against Family?”

“Yeah?” Jet narrowed his eyes. They had all decided Ben was best suited to keep an eye on him.

“The Enforcer wanted to meet with him. It wasn’t the first time. They met one other time, when Merrell came to take Attan back with him. Words were exchanged. We thought that’s all it was.”

Jet had heard all about it from Daniel, how this kid Tom thought Merrell might be his father because his mother had named him after the Enforcer. Merrell had put the kid in his place, and that was the end of it. So what if Merrell actually had known the kid’s mother? What Tom thought was impossible. “Did he kill Merrell?”

“I don’t think he meant to,” Ben said, as Jet’s face turned dark and stormy. Shadows gathered in the corners of the room, but Ben ignored them. He and Jet were old friends. “He didn’t think Merrell could be killed; in fact, he was boasting to his friends about how Family weren’t really real, like we are. He wasn’t even looking at Merrell when he stabbed him in the throat with a screwdriver. It took us all by surprise.”

“What was he doing with a screwdriver?” Jet managed to say evenly, though he was gritting his teeth to keep from shouting. “What was Merrell doing with him and his friends? And where the hell is Daniel?”

“I’m here.” A whirlwind settled around Daniel’s feet as he materialized in Ben’s office. His face was uncharacteristically somber. “You saw?”

Jet nodded, then didn’t wait for Daniel’s invitation before he went into him in elemental form to learn the entire story. It was as he had thought—Merrell hadn’t had time to react, and so had bled to death before his body could revert to its Elemental state. Neither Daniel nor Ben had been present when Merrell entered the factory to talk to Thomas Jadock, so Daniel couldn’t tell if Merrell’s elemental core had survived the encounter. It must have; it had to have survived, because what they were—truly—was immortal. But Family died all the time, from violence, accidents or old age—not disease, Family did not get diseases like non-family—only they were unaware that their spiritual core was absorbed back into Attania. Jet was sure that must have been what happened with Merrell, too. Family didn’t really die, except to physical life.

He came back to his body and felt the first stirrings of loss. Until now, Jet had been in shock. Merrell had been a father figure to Jet, more so than his own father whom Jet had known so briefly. The former King had voluntarily released his physical body to be absorbed back into Attania, though the end result was the same: they were both gone.

But Jet was King now, and had responsibilities that couldn’t wait while he mourned. Daniel had taken Tom Jadock into custody, but he hadn’t killed him. He’d left that for Jet to do. For now he’d isolated the non-family troublemaker in one of the nearer caves, blocking the entrance with stones so Tom couldn’t get out and nobody but Elementals could get in.

The first thing Jet noticed were the colored lights along the cavern walls. Tom huddled miserably near one wall, unaware that his body was washed in waves of fluctuating color. Jet knew from his conversations with Attan that the lights were also elementals, at some level aware of their surroundings, though why they manifested as color, and why they moved, remained a mystery.

The second thing Jet noticed was that Tom was crying. Great, wrenching sobs poured forth from his hunched form, making the lights surrounding him shiver in time to his cries. Jet felt rage bubble up inside himself. How dare this non-family creature feel sorry for himself after what he did! The rage caused Jet to take on physical form. If he’d stayed in elemental form he would have destroyed the cave utterly. He still might, but he wanted to do it on purpose rather than accidentally. This—creature—had tried to trap his son, had lied to his own family, and now had committed cold-blooded murder. He deserved to die. Jet wanted him to know it was happening. “Get up!” he snapped.

Tom looked up at the sound of Jet’s voice. To him, the cave was in total darkness. Jet called light so Tom could see his accuser. Tom’s eyes widened as he recognized the King. “I’m sorry!” he blurted. “I didn’t mean for it to happen! I thought he’d just, you know, disappear like the rest of you. I never thought I could really hurt him.”

“Why?” Jet growled. Before he died, Tom would tell him every last detail about his motives, his hatred of Family, and his connections. Jet planned to destroy Tom’s network of troublemakers. But Tom just shrugged his shoulders and started to sob again. Enraged, Jet turned to wind and went into Tom as he would one of the Family. He didn’t know what he expected. Tom was as inert as any other non-family when it came to merging. He might as well have been a rock. So much for the kid’s claims that Merrell had been his father, not that Jet had ever believed that was possible anyway. He re-formed his physical body to find Tom staring at him in horrified shock. What? Hadn’t he ever seen an Elemental discorporate before?

“He thought he was so powerful with his Family abilities,” Tom whispered. “He was so sure we weren’t a threat. He laughed at me. Laughed.” Tom looked up with anguished eyes. “Fine, so I’m not his son. I get that now. I don’t want to be anything like you people. You’re Attan’s father, aren’t you? Can’t you do the same things as Attan?” At Jet’s curt nod, he continued. “So why didn’t the Enforcer do that? Why did he let me hit him?”

“Why did you try?” Jet countered. “If you were so sure you couldn’t harm him, why would you even strike out?”

“I was angry,” Tom replied. “And stupid. I was trying to show my friends that Family weren’t to be feared, not even the Enforcer.”

His friends, Jet remembered, were plants that Ben had set up to watch him. The few colleagues he’d had when he was first brought to Parrion had been carefully separated from Tom for months now. Without Tom’s negative influence, they seemed to be adjusting to life as real Sons of Men, not whatever it was that Tom thought they were.

Enough talk. “A life for a life,” he said grimly, preparing to blast Tom where he stood. The young non-family man stared at him bleakly, and Jet remembered the sense of nothingness he’d felt when he merged through him. Tom’s life would be snuffed out with not even an elemental existence to continue on Attania. Jet hardened his heart.

His first blast of fire should have incinerated the non-family kid where he sat. But the colored lights, elementals, banded around him and absorbed the blast. What are you doing? Jet thought incredulously. He immediately transformed to fire so he could merge with the free elementals surrounding Tom. They had protected the non-family kid! Why? He formed the question with all the frustration he felt, and was stunned to get a coherent response. Ours. What did that mean?

Jet came to himself as Tom cowered on the stone floor of the cave, having seen the fire Jet had thrown at him, but as yet unaware of the free elementals who had protected him from it. Jet needed to talk to Attan again about these free elementals, and about Tom. Hadn’t Attan mentioned something about sentient free elementals in Tom’s hometown?

For now . . . . “You’ll remain here until your sentencing,” he told Tom. No light, no companionship. Only an Elemental, not Daniel, however, would be assigned to bring him food. Let the kid stew until Jet figured out what to do with him.

Jet had other plans for Daniel.

“Me? No, I don’t want it.” Daniel was adamant. “I’m one of the Sons of Men now. Get somebody else.”

“There is nobody else,” Jet said. “You’ll be my new Enforcer. Be ready to leave in half an hour. We’ll make the announcement—of Merrell’s death and your appointment—in Darcy just as soon as we can get there. Jet knew chaos would follow his announcement. Daniel may not want it, but after Jet, and Attan, who was still a child, Daniel was the strongest Family. As much as Jet hated relying on Family power to maintain order, in this instance, it was his only choice. His role as King was tenuous at best; Merrell had smoothed the way for him with Attania’s most influential Family. It could all fall apart unless Jet, with Daniel’s help, established his dominance quickly.

He had a few communications to make while Daniel gathered his things. He contacted Attan in Low City and asked him to meet them in Darcy. Then he contacted Madelyne and asked her to explain his unexpected absence from Wister that morning by telling the officials he’d been scheduled to meet to watch their televisions. Madelyne herself was to meet him in Darcy, as was Attan’s mother, Doll. He wanted all his family around him when he made his announcement.

At the back of Jet’s mind ran a continuous replay of the events in Parrion—Merrell’s untimely death, Tom Jadock’s role, and why, why the strange free elementals had chosen to protect him. He hoped Attan had some answers, because he certainly didn’t.