The trip back to the temple took four days, one longer than the south trip, but then they had used the river for the last leg. On the morning of the fourth day, Ethan was well enough to walk. Though she would be considered a traitor by her Order, Emoyen had not wholly rejected her old faith and still held regard for the divine. Thus, though not as effective as Sera’s, her healing prayers were enough to bring Ethan back to strength. And he didn’t want to spend one more minute in the back of that cart.

A select group headed west at the edge of the Red Valley forest, through a narrow pass in the foothills, and then north along the Talla side of the Border mountains. The bulk of the 40 warriors stuck to the northern side and wound their way through the peaks to get to the temple, but Quarton and Jennifer led their high-value prisoners through the back door. They arrived at the temple first, not having to navigate narrow passes or fight with the snow that still covered most of the mountain tops.

Shortly before the evening meal, Quarton led the prisoners into the main audience chamber, where Taylon, the Supplanter, was there to greet them. Prince Dantell was there as well, having ridden ahead of the slow-moving assembly and had gotten to the temple the previous day. He no longer saw the need to keep his involvement in these proceedings a secret as, one way or another, it would all be over soon. He had also hired islanders, as several of them stood at the ready inside the chamber, fully armed for battle.

“Greetings, my faithful followers,” the Supplanter said, accepting the supplicant postures of Quarton and Jennifer, though the woman didn’t kneel for long and looked him in the eyes when she rose. “It is good to finally meet the woman who provided us with so much information. The other supplicants here are truly in your debt.”

“But not you?” Jennifer dared to ask.

The master only chuckled at the attempt to have him show any humility. Instead, he turned to Quarton for a report, hearing of Brittany and Yori’s loss and noting that Natasha was in chains. “Is that necessary?” he asked, motioning to the beautiful Tallashite woman he still had plans for.

“She is not to be trusted,” Quarton replied.

“She acted impulsively,” Taylon replied. “Passionately, you might say, in accordance with the will of the one with the heart Elemental. It is to be expected.” He looked Natasha in the eyes, and she dropped to her knees instinctually. “The young man will not always have the Elemental. Soon she will be back before her true master, and this youth will be of no consequence. I think she will act accordingly.”

Quarton and Jennifer started a response, but the Supplanter silenced them with a motion of his hand. “Release her.” Two of the warriors who had accompanied the troupe and served the Supplanter with no reservation obeyed and undid Natasha’s wrist shackles. She bowed in gratitude to her master but said nothing.

“We will perform the ceremony tomorrow,” Taylon informed the group. He turned to Jennifer, knowing from Quarton’s report that she had the life Elemental inside her. “You will be able to assist with the transfers, I assume?”

She nodded. “You will need four sacrifices. I know now that a life must be spent to make the transfer. The three present will suffice. The young man and woman,” she motioned from Ethan to Sera, “have two of the Elementals, and they will do nicely. Emoyen, my former sister, will be more suited than your best mind disciple. You will still need a life sacrifice, but I believe you have been cultivating those on your own.”

Taylon smiled. Quinsha was ready to pop, and she would still be able to fill the role he had planned for her. “And yourself? How has the experience been for you with the Elemental?” He had heard Quarton’s report of the powers Jennifer had displayed upon receiving the power several days ago.

The Tallashite woman frowned slightly as she lifted her arms and could barely initiate the smallest of sparks, pulling only a few drops of condensation from the air. “It has been an experience I will learn from and perhaps will be able to guide you in your quest for power.”

The prince stepped forward, trying to put the Supplanter at ease. He knew that Taylon dreamed of ultimate power and probably assumed that when he got the four Elementals, he would also have the ability to wield the natural ones. “I have studied the natural elements for many years before bringing them here,” he advised. “We definitely discovered their link to the human elements, and it was predicted that the power would spike immediately after the transfer is made. This should fade quickly once the Elemental finds harmony within the target’s body and then can only be called upon by someone who has studied with the natural elements. You have done so, correct?”

Taylon nodded, though he had never shown an ounce of ability with any of them.

“Then you shouldn’t worry. Jennifer has never spent any time meditating on the natural elements, yet she was still able to summon the associated power. You should transition more smoothly. Your other life disciples should be able to guide you.”

Taylon nodded again, trying not to let his nervousness show. “Very well. Take the prisoners to secure rooms and post a guard. I want nothing to disrupt the ceremony tomorrow.”

“What of her?” Quarton asked, motioning to Natasha.

“Show her to her room. If you feel the need to post a guard, do so, but I am not worried. Her role in tomorrow’s proceedings will be minimal.”

Quarton didn’t like it, but he didn’t disobey. Once the chamber was cleared, Taylon retreated to his private study, determined to get positive results from at least one of the natural elements before tomorrow.

***

Natasha sat in her room wondering what the Supplanter had planned for her. Quarton was right to want to keep her locked up. At the first chance she got, she would try to escape or free her friends. But what chance did she have? Several armed guards had stood watch in the audience chamber along with islanders that the prince must have recruited. Was she willing to kill all of those people to free Ethan, Sera, and Emoyen? So far, with her fire ability, she had not killed anyone, only threatened. She had tried to kill Jennifer, but it hadn’t worked. Natasha guessed it wasn’t as easy to do as the evil people around her made it look.

So perhaps there wasn’t a good reason to keep her locked up. Quarton had left a guard at her door, and deep in the mountain fortress, there wasn’t a window she could climb through. Still, she felt the Supplanter had a plan that she didn’t yet know. Initially, she now realized, it was to be a living sacrifice so he could transfer the heart Elemental into himself. That reality sent a shiver down her spine, and though she held no real love for her fellow supplicants in the temple, she felt sorry for Quinsha and her baby. They had no idea what was coming for them tomorrow.

Natasha had no idea what was coming for her either, and she decided she would just have to wait and find out the plans the master had. She didn’t have to wait long.

The door to her room opened without a knock, and the Supplanter stepped in, whispering something to the guard standing outside. Natasha hadn’t changed from her travel clothes and was happy she hadn’t already slipped into something smaller to sleep. Still, her top was revealing enough, and sitting on her bed as she was, the slits ran high on her skirt. She decided to stand to greet this man, resisting the urge to kneel before him. He wasn’t her master anymore. He wore a modest robe of deep red with black pants and a gray shirt underneath.

“Beautiful Natasha,” he started, playing his hand early. “I am so sorry for the troubles Quinton gave you on the journey over here. He is a loyal sword but doesn’t always use his head.”

Natasha thought of several things to say to this, even agreeing with the enforcer that she should be secured based on her actions in Brighton, but she said nothing, waiting for the Supplanter to reveal his intentions.

“It is good that you are here. I will need someone to guide me on my journey to become the savior. You and I know you are the most talented of all my supplicants, and your expertise in both elements, human and natural, will be invaluable. I wondered if we couldn’t start with a lesson already this evening. Now that your presence is no longer required for the ceremony, there is no reason to wait.

My presence? She thought. Do you mean my life? You were going to kill me. Her focus on this point distracted her from what else he had said, but as his robe fell to the floor and he took several bold steps toward her, she picked up on the last phrase: No reason to wait any longer.

The Supplanter had already slept with most, if not all, of the Supplicants toward the top of the power structure and definitely with the other Blessed Mothers, but he left Natasha alone. She was supposed to be cultivating her passion and desire. No sense in releasing that before the ceremony. Killing a woman full of desire with the Elemental weapon would have brought the Supplanter an enormous harvest of power. But now, there was no sense in preserving that; not that sex with him would have ever satisfied her. If anything, it would have made her desire Ethan even more.

But Natasha guessed there was more to it than that. The Supplanter religion held sex in particular regard, and through its intimacy, more than just passion could be sated. Power could also be transferred; perhaps this man thought that some of her natural elemental powers would flow to him if he bed her. Most skeptics believed that all of the talk of sexual cultivation within the Supplanter religion was only a way to justify the exploitation of women seeking spiritual fulfillment. Now that Natasha was also a skeptic, she believed it too, but the Supplanter might still be diluted.

Or he might just want to sleep with a beautiful woman.

Whatever the reason, Natasha wasn’t about to let it happen. She made no move against him at first and let the short man walk up to her, looking him straight in the eyes and clearly reading the desire in his face. He lifted his hands to put them on her bare upper arms first, unsure how he wanted to initiate this encounter but wasn’t given much time to contemplate it.

“Ahhh!” he cried in surprise as he pulled his hands off suddenly, taking a step back as smoke rose from Natasha’s arms where he had touched her. “What was that?”

“My power,” she replied. “Was it too much for you? That is only the beginning.” She took a step toward him, fire flashing in her eyes. It was hard to look at this man and stir in her the proper emotions to generate the flames, but she didn’t think she would need much to scare him off.

“We can take it slower,” he said, nervousness creeping into his voice.

“Once I get started,” she said, taking another step and causing him to retreat, “I won’t be able to turn it off. Fire comes from . . . everywhere.”

His eyes scanned her up and down, longing to see what lay beneath her clothes, but cringed at the idea of flames pouring out of her. To compound his fears, Natasha opened her mouth in a passionate sigh and exhaled a trail of dark gray smoke. “I need to share this power with someone.”

“An . . . uh . . .and you shall,” he stammered. “When I have ascended, we will set the world on fire. But maybe I am not ready for this quite yet. I underestimated you . . . uh . . . your strength. Tomorrow night I will be ready.”

The former supplicant watched him hastily grab his cloak from the floor and quickly retreat. “I’ll be ready,” she said and meant it. Once he was gone, she dropped the façade and stepped back to collapse on the bed. Something had to happen to prevent this. If he had only the life Elemental inside him, he would be granted special access to the element of water, as Jennifer had, and her fire likely would not harm him. But if he had all the Elementals . . .

Natasha slipped off her bed, fell to her knees, and did something she hadn’t done in a long time. She prayed.

***

Jennifer had already changed into a nightgown when her evening visitor arrived. “My prince,” she said in response to Dantell’s presence. “We are so close. Everything you promised is coming true.”

He smiled. “Yes, my dear. Soon we will have everything we always dreamed of.” When the prince had met the Tallashite woman while investigating the Supplanter faith to find the man he would use, she had become far more than just his informant. To illustrate this, Jennifer started to slip out of her nightgown, but Dantell lifted a hand to stop her. “Not tonight, my love. We have other things to discuss.”

She was beautiful, and the prince was tempted, but having spent time with Natasha recently, he felt his heart yearning for something else. And he wasn’t lying about having another agenda. From inside his cloak, he produced a large pearl. “Have you seen this before?”

The woman felt entranced by the opalescent sphere as big as an orange, answering his question with her actions. She approached him tentatively, with an intense desire for the precious item. “What is it?”

Dantell took a step back when she was within a few paces, and she respected his hesitance. “This is the natural elemental of water,” he said. “I believe it has a unique link to the life Elemental, and I wanted to test how it reacted to you. You said you hadn’t felt the surge of power inside you since the transfer, and I wanted to see if we could bring it back to the surface. Do you still have the spear?”

Jennifer turned from him and retrieved the weapon from beside the bed. She had turned over the other three to the Supplanter but kept the spear, informing her other master that she needed more time with it to fully cultivate her powers and understanding of the magic inside. She returned to the prince and saw his other hand out expectantly. She initially resisted but accepted the trade as he offered the pearl with his other hand.

As Jennifer’s fingers hovered over the spherical gem, sparks jumped up to her palm and mist enveloped the space between. “Lightning isn’t something we had predicted,” Dantell said, recalling his time studying the four elements before handing them over to Taylon. “I guess it makes sense when you consider the molecular nature of water and how the spark of life might work through that, but . . .”

Jennifer no longer heard him as she took the pearl completely into her hand, not noticing that the prince had relieved her of the spear. She needed no guidance on entering the gem’s power, and soon miniature storm clouds rotated about her, lightning jumping between them. “The power,” she said, her body swaying as if hypnotized. “It is just so . . . It totally consumes . . .” Her eyes were half-closed as she fell deeper and deeper into the joined power of the forces within her. Eventually, her eyes opened with a sickly smile toward her prince. “The Supplanter will never know it.”

“Oh, how quick you are to betray,” he replied, with an equally evil smile on his lips. “That is what I love about you.” She closed the short distance between them, her life force urging to be united with another. Her eyes were so focused on his that she didn’t notice his white knuckles gripping the spear tightly in his right hand.

“That is also why I could never trust you,” he continued.

Her smile faltered when she was only a foot from him and didn’t see the strike coming. The Spear came up hard between them, the steel tip piercing her just under the ribcage and into her heart. The prince wasn’t taking any chance with the woman’s power and kept thrusting up with the weapon, lifting the slight woman off the ground, the tip of the spear finally poking out of the top of her head.

Dantell caught the pearl as her right hand went limp, just as a surge of energy rushed through him. His mouth opened in a silent scream, his body entirely unready for this rush of life inside him. Jennifer had spent over a decade cultivating the life force inside her and had endured the transfer while remaining conscious. Dantell might have had a chance, but with the natural elemental in his other hand, the power ripped through him like nothing he had ever dreamed of, and he collapsed on top of the dead woman, unconscious before hitting the ground.