Read Online From the Ashes by Gareth K Pengelly - Free Book Online

would do. This would last him till the madness was over. He made his way, carefully in the gloom, threading his way past the stores of food and drink till he reached the end of the cellar. A large wooden crate, easily big enough to conceal a man behind it. He turned, keeping his eyes on the entrance to the cellar, to the tunnel beyond, straining for any hint of pursuit as he slowly backed his way behind the crate.
    He had made it. He would be safe here. He let out a long and juddering sigh of relief.
    “What’s the matter, friend?” A voice from over his shoulder, sudden, rasping, heavily accented and frightfully loud in the silence of the cellar. “You look like the seventy-seven djinns are after you…”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Three :
     
     
    He was on a rocky outcrop, he noted, and surrounded by darkness, as the sharp and familiar taste of translocation faded from  his tongue. A ledge, a bridge almost, several yards wide and stretching out before him for quite a way. As the dizziness subsided, Stone walked forwards till he reached the very edge of the precipice, looking down into the yawning depths below. An orange glow bathed his face with its warmth and, with a shiver of recognition, he recognised the lake of magma, the black island of onyx stone.
                  He was in the lair of the Avatar of Fire.
                  Stone frowned; he remembered the first time he’d set foot in this place, recalling being trapped on that island below, gazing about at the cavernous walls across the lake of fire. There had been no ledge, no precipice. Only smooth, unhelpful rock. A cold, prickling feeling and he turned, craning his neck up, up, up. Gazing into the face of eternity.
                  We’ve been expecting you.
                  The soul shattering volume of Earth’s words blasted Stone clean from the outstretched finger, hurling him out into the void where he plummeted helpless towards the burning magma below. The wind whistled past his ears as the searing hot bed of death raced up to meet him, but Stone wasn’t scared, for if they truly were expecting him, then…
                  Sure enough, a tinkling of Sylphin laughter and a cooling, supportive breeze that carried him, altering his trajectory away from the lethal sea of fire and towards the black island where he landed, in a half crouch, bones jarring with the impact but otherwise unharmed. He rose, shaking his vision free from the vibrations of the landing, turning to look behind him at the audience he knew would await him.
                  A raging, howling tornado of fire and embers.
                  A looming mountain, ankle deep in the sea of magma.
                  A swarm of swirling, looping fireflies that cavorted and laughed in the air.
                  And, but ten feet away, the power of endless oceans bound and condensed into the form of a woman, petite and slim.
                  Stone sniffed.
                  “Been a while. How you guys keeping?”
                  A pause amidst the maelstrom of competing elemental furies, a moment of silence. Then Stone was brought to his knees by the cacophonous noise of the end of the universe.
                  The sound of the laughter of the elements.
                  Finally, after long seconds, the din passed and Stone clambered, trembling, back to his feet. Thin trickles of blood leaked from both ears.
                  “Remind me,” he gasped in evident pain, “to never invite you to a comedy club…”
                  The shapely form of Water made her way towards him, briny foam splashing from each footfall, a warm smile on her cold face.
                  Welcome home, Stone. There were times we didn’t think you’d return to us.
                  He