Alara Unbroken - Doug Beyer [54]
The thicket elemental lunged at Ajani, and a great thorny arm swiped down at his face. Ajani managed to block most of the blow with his axe, but the wooden barbs dragged thin cuts down his arm. Ajani swung into the elemental and chopped a few pieces of wood from its frame, but it seemed undeterred. Ajani backed away, up the path, wondering if he could just get it to fall down the hill.
As the elemental crashed forward again, Ajani ducked and spun past its legs, then shouldered into the beast from behind. It barely budged—the creature had sent out multiple woody vines into the rock face, and held fast. The monster was going nowhere.
The elemental swung around, landing a crushing blow in Ajani’s stomach. Ajani fell back, and had to scramble to hold onto the rock, so as to not go tumbling down the crag himself.
Ajani roared, and his eyes flared in rage. In his mind he saw past the elemental, and saw the elements within it. It surged with streams of flowing life energy. But all around it was an even deeper, more primordial force—the huge monument of granite in which Ajani’s pride had made their den. The rock pulsed with an energy of its own—boiling, angry, and immensely strong. Ajani’s nerves tingled, feeling in touch with the peak itself. The essence of the mountain ran up and down Ajani’s body, tangling with his own fury, building up inside of him. It felt strange—invigorating, but wild, untamed. If he wasn’t careful, he thought, the power might overcome his ability to control—
The elemental erupted in flame.
ESPER
Have you ever been a telemin before?” asked the male vedalken, one of the Seekers of Carmot visiting the lighthouse.
“No,” said the lighthouse keeper.
“But you know what one is.”
“Yes. A ‘mage doll.’ A living puppet.”
“A willing instrument of mind control performance,” corrected the vedalken.
“What are you going to have me do?”
“Are you willing to participate?”
“ ‘Willing’? Your capsule says I have to.”
“It is impossible to create this kind of performance with an unwilling telemin. If you refuse, we will be unable to use you. You have completely free will in the matter. That is, traditionally, entirely the telemin’s prerogative.”
“But this says you’ll take away my lighthouse, and send me to court if I don’t.”
“That is only a detail of the fine print of the injunction. You needn’t worry about that clause. It rarely applies.”
“Does it apply here?”
“That is all beside the point if you are a willing participant. Are you willing?”
“If I agree to do it, you’ll have complete control over me? I won’t be able to back out?”
“The mentalist and the telemin instrument cannot achieve proper unity without complete surrender of the will.”
“What are you going to have me do?”
“It’s a perfectly routine measurement of sea currents off the coast here.”
“If it’s so routine, then why do you need me?”
“If you do not wish to participate, it’s entirely your prerogative.”
The lighthouse keeper felt an ugly tangle of emotions rise inside of him. His heart felt like it was being pummeled by hammers of fear and anger. But emotions like those did not befit an Esperite. With a few long breaths, he let the feeling subside.
“I’m willing,” he said.
“Thank you,” said the vedalken Seeker.
“When shall we begin?”
“Immediately.”
NAYA
Ajani felt power seething inside him. As he watched, teeth of fire spread along the elemental’s body, and its thin, woody vines blackened instantly. Its tendrils attached to the rock face burned and broke, and its limbs flailed as it fell. Ajani hugged the cliff face close, and let the burning mass of bramble careen past him and down the hill. It slammed into the ground somewhere far below, leaving a smoky trail behind it.
It was a moment of glory. Ajani was a fierce warrior, but never before had he been able to throw his ferocity directly at his enemy in the form of a spell. His gifts had always come in the form of the