Water {Elements of Power 2}

Chapter 4: Roxy

I had never sat around a more sombre council table. The emergency meeting immediately after the escape had been a heated affair, with blame flying left, right and centre, followed by the flames of irate Protectors and the wrath of my fuming grandfather.

Now, we were sitting around the table in a stony silence, waiting for him to begin. There were thirteen of us in total. My parents, my aunt Emberlyn, Cinaer, Avery and Reuben—Avery's mentor—were all present. As was Byron, whom I surveyed with more interest than before. He had been in the Brizan Realm with my father and had escaped. His hair was a fierce red, contrasting oddly with his bushy brown moustache. He had come to council meetings before, but I had never heard him speak at one. Two of the other, older, Protectors—Raphael and Blaise—were there too, as well as Emile and Levi, who were both members of important Helian families. Vincent was noticeably absent, his usual seat left empty; as though someone had hoped he might show up. The air simmered with tension and nerves.

"Now," my grandfather began at last, leaning forwards in his chair and surveying each of us with alert brown eyes.

I was sandwiched between my mother and Cinaer, as I had been at the first meeting.

"Let's see if we can get a better result than the last meeting. Now that you have all had time to think about what happened, why don't we have a recap—let's see if we can work out what went wrong." His voice was falsely cheery, which meant that he was at his most dangerous.

My mother began at once, clearly determined to take control. "It all happened so quickly: we heard about the escape plan through the Brizan brat we had managed to Control and tried to scramble the troops as quickly as possible."

"We would have had it covered if it wasn't for that purple freak," Cinaer cut in.

"Which one was that again?" my grandfather asked, although he already knew the answer. I wondered why he was getting them to repeat things—unless he was checking for inconsistencies... Which would suggest that he knew he wasn't being told the truth.

"The Arcan girl," Cin spat.

"Her name, Cinaer?" my grandfather queried. When no one responded, he sighed heavily. "Can no one remember her name?"

"Jasmine." The word came out as no more than a whisper. My mother tensed to my right. I felt the heat of the flames which sprung up in Cinaer's hands under the table, poised over my arm as a warning, in case I tried to say anything else. I forced myself not to roll my eyes; did they really think I had that little sense of self-preservation?

"That's it, Roxanne," my grandfather said. "Jasmine." He paused, as though considering the name for a moment. "You warned me about her, I remember. But I didn't listen; I thought your emotions were getting the better of you. Perhaps I was wrong."

"There was a lot going on, grandfather, I only noticed something because I was so particularly focused on the Arcans, your attentions were elsewhere," I said smoothly, knowing that it was what he wanted to hear in front of the other council members. He smiled at me before moving on.

I could see Cinaer's face burning in my peripheral vision, though I didn't dare turn to look at him properly—not with those flames so close. I guess he had every right to be mad: here I was, getting credit for foresight, when it was my fault they managed to escape. If there was much more of this, Cinaer was likely to explode.

"So what exactly could this inconsequential little Arcan girl do that got you all in such a flap?" my grandfather asked, his eyebrows raised.

"She could produce water, like the Brizans," Avery spoke up. "And lightning—at least, I think that was her. And..." Here she trailed off, as though reluctant to carry on.