The young woman suddenly appeared in an open window. She was crying and looking around wildly.
“Climb out the window!” one of several crew members standing in the crowd below yelled. “We’ll catch you!”
Marisala shook her head. “No…no…no…” She didn’t make a move. She stood frozen in the window opening, smoke billowing out around her, flames shooting up behind her.
“Marisala, listen to him!” Ella urged. “Come on, climb out of the window and jump. You’ll be okay.”
If Marisala was herself, she would have done it, Ella was certain. But she stood there looking more confused and scared by the minute. Little mewling noises now escaped her.
Being this close to a fire made Ella want to mewl in fright herself. She closed her eyes and saw Father burning again and wanted to run away as far and as fast as she could.
“Someone went for a truck with a crane that should reach her,” Max Borland said. Pacing, he looked all wound up. “But I’m afraid by the time it gets here, it’ll be too late to save her.”
Not wanting to see another person she knew burn to death, Ella moved away from the men and closed her eyes against the sight.
You can save her.
No, I can’t, Father.
You have it in you to call on the power. It is time.
Swallowing hard, Ella knew it was now or never. She’d purposely avoided this… certainly didn’t want to do it in front of witnesses. She hadn’t forgotten how her father had been repaid. But if she did nothing, she would never forgive herself. She ignored her accelerating heartbeat and the inability to breathe and chose to try.
Focused on becoming one with the elements—Earth, Air, Water, Fire—the way her father had once taught her, she at first felt nothing. It had been too long. She was too afraid. The power simply wasn’t there for her anymore.
Free yourself of what you know, Ella. Let your mind seek a higher plane.
Ella trembled with the effort. Her body ached as she tried to force her mind from the tangible world.
Relax. Do not try so hard. Drift. Feel the elements inside you.
Concentrating on her father’s instructions, Ella tried with everything she had. The ground trembled beneath her feet, and the sky seemed to stretch, pulling in a bank of clouds overhead.
People around her gasped, and she heard a woman yell, “It’s going to rain!”
Ella reached her mind up into the heavens. The wind picked up and the sky darkened and clouds piled up one on top of the other.
“Aaiee!” a Lakota woman near her screamed. “What is Ella Thunder doing?”
Ella gradually felt her mind shift.
Focused now, she tried to seed the clouds so that rain would fall, but all she got for her effort was heat lightning that lit up the sky all around them like an electric network.
The human agitation around her multiplied, but while she could feel the discontent and hear the sounds of voices, Ella could no longer see the faces or understand the words. Then thunder drowned out the babbling, but try as she might, she couldn’t will the clouds to open and release the rain.
She lifted her face and silently prayed for a way to save Marisala.
Don’t let another person die. Let me help her.
Wind whipped around her like a cloak and pushed her toward the burning building.
“Hey, stop! You can’t go in there!”
A man rushed her as if to stop her himself, but when he reached for her, his hand went through her. Others made to join him to stop her, but Ella already crossed the threshold.
Heat blasted her, making her heart thunder, smoke tried to choke her and dried her mouth and throat, but she couldn’t consider what she was doing, couldn’t give in to her fear. She focused on Marisala to keep herself going. If she stopped now, the young woman would no doubt die a horrible death.
Flames licked at the steps. Her heart in her throat, she raced to them, took them two at a time, reached the second floor just as a terrified scream broke through the electric haze sparking her mind.
“Marisala!” she yelled. “Where are you?”
“Here!”
The sob came from the other side of a curtain of flame. Ella could barely see the trapped woman. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes for a brief moment. And then she stepped forward. The flames themselves were under her power, for even as she thought it, she was able to step through without the fire touching her.
Marisala was on the ground now, huddled below the open window. Her back was to the wall and she hugged her knees so tight she couldn’t move.
“You have to get up,” Ella urged.
Marisala mewled pitifully and curled up tighter.
Ella reached down, grabbed the other woman by the wrist and pulled her to her feet. “C’mon, you can do this. Climb over,” she said, pushing Marisala onto the windowsill. “She’s coming out!” she yelled at the men below.
As Marisala obeyed her, they formed a semicircle and one said, “We’ll get you!”
But Marisala wouldn’t jump, so Ella squeezed herself onto the windowsill next to the woman.
“Hold on to my hand.” When Marisla grabbed on to her, Ella said, “Together. We’ll jump together. On three. Okay? One…two…three….”
She jumped, and still holding Marisala’s hand, pulled the woman along. Her head and stomach tumbled as strong hands caught Marisala….
“Ella!”
Tiernan’s voice jerked Ella out of the trance. She opened her eyes to see Marisala being set on the ground. Relief filled her. It had worked! Her journeying had saved the girl—Ella had never actually moved from outside the building.
“Tiernan.”
“Are you all right, then?” His arms snaked around her even as she heard the crowd rumble.
Whispers of her using black magic surrounded her and someone yelled, “Sorceress, free Marisala!”
“What happened?” Tiernan asked.
“Marisala jumped from the building.” She stepped back out of his arms to take Marisala’s hand. “I’m going to take her back to the rez,” she said, hearing fire trucks in the distance.
“You can’t take her anywhere,” Max said. “A deputy is on his way to arrest her.”
“Did anyone see the lass set the fire?” Tiernan asked.
“No,” the director admitted, “but she was inside the saloon when it started to burn.”
“Then perhaps in this situation she is the victim.” Tiernan sounded reasonable and very convincing when he said, “Marisala will not be going anywhere in the state she is in. Let Ella take care of her and see to the rest later.”
Max looked from Tiernan to Marisala and Ella. “All right, but you’ll all be hearing from the sheriff himself,” he warned them.
“So be it.” Tiernan started herding them toward the parking lot as two fire trucks came into view. “I’ll drive.”
Even as Ella said, “No, I need to do this,” something hard hit her in the shoulder. Her anger flared and, still hanging on to Marisala, she turned and stared through the crowd, somehow picking out the coward who’d cast the stone.
“Aaiee!” the man cried as he ran away from her.
“You need protection,” Tiernan said.
Captivated by the emotion in his expression, she felt a physical response. Part of her wanted to let him put his arms around her and take her away from this insanity. But she couldn’t do that and with things spinning out of control, she didn’t want to see anything happen to him because of her. She hadn’t counted on this.