Amber needed desperately to talk to her sister. Callie had been gone for almost six years now. At first Amber blamed Callie for leaving. Now Amber feared that her sister had been right and that she’d have to leave too. The thought of going terrified her. Amber had lived her whole life safe behind the warded walls of Beckingston.
The wards were ancient and so powerful that they were able to keep out the elementals. Elementals are magic creatures ruled by the four elements: earth, wind, fire, and water. The elementals are destructive creatures, killing and laying waste to anything and anyone that crossed their paths.
For that reason the town held a Naming Ceremony every year where they tested all the children in their sixteenth year. Amber was sixteen now and it appeared she was doomed to fail.
Amber thought back to the last time she’d spoken with her sister Callie. It had been a couple weeks shy of a year since they’d seen the dead bodies behind the Mayor’s house.
“Where are you going?” Amber panicked when she saw Callie carefully tucking her belongings into a large satchel.
“Amber, you mustn’t tell anyone that you saw me leave.”
“But why? You’ll miss the Naming Ceremony.” Amber was only ten and as far as she was concerned turning sixteen and going to the naming ceremony was the most important thing in the world. It was where the boys were apprenticed to learn a trade and it was where the girls learned who they were to marry.
“That’s my plan,” Callie said grimly. “Do you remember the night we found the bodies?”
Amber shuddered. The visual still haunted her dreams almost every night.
“I never told you this but I knew them. They were all people that had failed their testings. They were supposed to be exiled.”
“What are you saying?”
“People aren’t really exiled. If you fail the testing they kill you.”
“Even if that were true it still doesn’t explain why you’re leaving,” Amber whined stubbornly.
Callie held her hand up and a ball of hot orange flame flared into existence in the center of her palm. Amber jumped back in fright holding a hand over her mouth, unable to speak. Callie closed her hand and the flame extinguished, leaving behind a faint burning smell.
“I won’t pass the testing.”
Amber ran to hug her sister almost knocking her down and Callie wrapped her arms around her and gave her a quick hug before reaching for her full satchel.
“I promise I’ll write you once I find somewhere safe. You can’t tell anyone you saw me leave. Not even father.”
***
Amber realized she was crying again just like she had all those years ago when her sister Callie had run away and she scrubbed her hands furiously to wipe away the tears. Crying wouldn’t solve anything. Crying wouldn’t bring her sister back. She held out her hand and a flame formed in the center of her palm.
“Crying definitely won’t fix this,” she said as she closed her hand but the flame didn’t go out. She started to shake her hand but she was afraid of starting another fire like she had in the kitchen so she just stood still and waited for it to fizzle out. Callie had made extinguishing the flame look so easy. Amber needed to find her because she needed much more than a place to crash. She needed a teacher.
Amber took a deep breath and added a small bundle of letters to her satchel. They were all from Callie. Callie hadn’t been able to write frequently over the years so she’d saved each and every one. Letters were expensive and the messengers only visited every few months as they traveled from town to town.
Amber knew she’d waited too long already and only hoped she’d make it out in time before the testing. She felt awful as she pulled the satchel over her shoulder and crept quietly down the hall past her father’s room. The thought of him all alone broke her heart but Callie hadn’t trusted him enough to tell what they’d seen, and Amber just couldn’t risk it either.
She was just about to leave when she saw her father’s book of the ancient wards. Part of her felt wicked for taking it because it had taken him so many years to complete, but the larger portion of her mind felt comforted by the thought of having something to remember him by. Deep down she knew she would never see her father again.
The city gates were still closed against the night but Amber knew of a small gate used by the guards on the north side. She stepped softly and tried to keep to the shadows. She should have left weeks earlier like her sister had, but she hadn’t been able to work up the nerve until yesterday.
She knew full well that it may already be too late. The Testing Ceremony was today and they’d be coming for her soon. Amber let loose an inaudible sigh of relief when she neared the small door and didn’t see any guards. And then a hand reached out gripping hard into her shoulder bones and pulling her to a stop.
Incendiary the Fire Elemental Series 