Water & Storm Country

They’re wearing very little clothing, justsmall swatches of material that appears to be some kind of animalskin around their chests and torsos. They’re beautiful and darkand, strangely, remind me of Cole—who I haven’t thought of in along time—not because of their skin, which is several shadeslighter than his shadowy complexion, but because of theundercurrent of energy that seems to surround them, both dangerousand exciting and the kind you want on your side. Especially themiddle one, the frowner, who is musclier than I am, her toned,ta

And then not.

In a split second she’s managed to whip out along blade, glinting in the sun.

“Now Skye,” the tall one beside her says, hervoice smooth and almost soothing. She reaches out a hand andtouches it gently to the middle girl’s arm. Skye, I assume.

“They’re burnin’ Glassy baggards,Wilde,” Skye says, her eyes darting between Tristan and me.

“We don’t know that,” Wilde says, a firmnessin her tone.

Shaking off Wilde’s hand on her arm, Skyetakes a step forward, spi

“No,” Tristan says.

“Yes,” she says. “Only the Glassies arevomited from the earth.” Welcome to Earth, I thinkwryly.

“No.” Tristan again, but there’s lessconviction in his voice now. This girl’s out of her mind, about twopebbles short of a cave-in. She won’t listen no matter what we say.She’s convinced we’re these “Glassies”. Whoever they are, they mustbe her enemies.

For the first time, I’m thankful Tristan andI thought to bring our swords to the surface, for protection.Though I prefer to fight with my fists, or a staff, like my fathertaught me, when facing the sharp-edge of a blade wielded by a crazywoman, I’ll take my sword.

Before she can take another step, I reachover my shoulder and slide the sharp steel weapon from the sheathru

The girl called Wilde—who, despite her name,seems the calmest and most in control—steps forward, one handoutstretched toward me and the other once more on crazy-girl’s arm.“There’s no need for that,” she says to me.

“Tell that to Short-Fuse over there,” I say,pointing the tip of my sword in Skye’s direction.

In the time it takes me to blink, I’ve got anarrow aimed at my heart, nocked on the bow of the third girl, theski

“Whoa, whoa,” Tristan says, extracting hisown sword from his belt. “We all need to just calm down.”

“Then tell your Glassy friend to stoppointing her searin’ sword at my sister,” the ski

I glance at Tristan and he nods. I lower mysword halfway, but not enough that I can’t defend myself if Skyetakes a swipe at me.

“Good, that’s a start,” Wilde says. “Now you,Skye.”

Skye flashes an a

“And you, Siena,” Wilde says. Siena. Thesister. Wilde, Skye and Siena. Earth dwellers.

Siena continues to peer at me down the lengthof her arrow and I can’t help but hold my breath. All she has to dois release it and I’m dead. Whose stupid idea was it to come to theearth’s surface anyway? Oh right, it was mine.

“Siena!” Wilde says sharply, and the ski

“We don’t want to fight,” Tristan says,lowering his own weapon. Speak for yourself, I think. Theway Skye continues to glare at me makes me want to crack a forearmshiver across her jaw. Why does she hate us so much? She doesn’teven know us.

Skye shifts her death stare to Tristan. “Youshoulda thought of that ’fore you murdered our people, ’fore youdeclared war on the Tri-Tribes.”

Murder? War? The Glassies. “TheGlassies murdered your people,” I say.

“Don’t play wooloo,” Skye says. “You wereprobably there with the rest of ’em.”

“We don’t even know who the Glassies are,”Tristan says. “I swear it.”

“Swear on the sun goddess,” Siena says. Shepulls another arrow out of the pouch strapped to her back. Doesn’tnock it, just holds it. Like a warning. Lie and die.

“I don’t know who the sun goddess is,” I say,“but I’ll swear on her and my life and the life of my mother andsister, too, if that’s what it takes for you people to listen.”

Skye suddenly stabs her sword into theground. Chews on her lip. Sighs, as if exhausted. “If yer notGlassies, who the scorch are you? Yer as white as the snow-cappedmountains of ice country, but yer not Icers—not dressed like that.And yer not Soakers, ’cause yer not freckly and don’t smell likethe big waters. With yer pale skin, you can only be Glassies. Andwhat in the big-balled Tug are you wearin’ over yer eyes and on yerheads? Looks like somethin’ them Glassies would wear, ain’t nomistaking.”

“Dammit!” I say, shoving my own sword intothe ground. I’m angry and the sun isn’t helping—it’s hotter than Iever could’ve imagined, drawing sweat out of my skin like I’ve beenru

“Adele, stay cool,” Tristan says, sliding hissword into his belt. Turning to our adversaries, he says, “Forgiveus, we’re not used to the heat, the sun. We just came up here tohave a look around. We don’t know who the Glassies ar—” He stopssuddenly, like he’s been slapped. “The Glassies…” he murmurs,almost under his breath, trailing off.

“Tristan,” I say. “What is it?”

“Adele and Tristan,” Skye mutters, “whatkinds of names are those?”

I ignore her, my attention fixed on Tristan,whose eyebrow is raised to the red sky. “Oh no,” he breathes.

“What?” I ask again.

“I think the Glassies are the earthdwellers,” he says.

Chapter Two

Siena

I don’t know what itis, but I like something about this girl, Adele. She doesn’t looklike us, certainly doesn’t talk like us, but the way she didn’tback down from Skye, never so much as looked away, reminds me somuch of my older sister I can’t help but like her. If there’s onething I learned from all my ’xperiences, it’s that you can’t judgepeople until you get to know them. The Icers, who I thought werethe baggards of the earth, turned out to be mostly okay, ’cept formad King Goff who was leading them. And the Stormers, who at firstI had hated hated hated, were really the ones trying to do theright thing. Even the Soakers—despite their roughness and somewhatcreepy lust for war ’n blood—weren’t so bad once thedevil-reincarnate Admiral Jones was dead. Scorch, my sister, Jade,even has a thing for one of them, and she was a slave for sixyears, so she would know the good from the bad.

Now Adele is staring at the guy, Tristan shecalled him, with such intensity I almost wa