Elemental Legacy Ebook Bundle (Ben & Tenzin)

From Shadows and Gold:

It was inevitable that everything went to hell the second he thought they were clear.

Ben and Tenzin had made their way to one of the oldest crumbling neighborhoods of Kashgar around midnight, the moon full enough to give them some light, which was good because street lamps weren’t something the city had invested in for this part of town.

Most of the light came from open doors and a few windows. Many of the houses were already deserted. Mud brick walls lined the narrow streets as they turned and twisted further into the dark maze of square houses. Eventually, they came to a crumbling wooden gate.

Tenzin paused, putting her finger to her lips. She listened for a few minutes. Then, without turning to Ben, she leapt into the air and over the wall.

He heard a few steps. A pause. More steps. He was reaching for the door handles when the gate suddenly swung open on squeaky hinges.

Ben immediately pulled out the small can of spray lubricant he’d picked up that day to quiet the gate.

“Sorry,” Tenzin said. “Needed to make sure we were alone. The family is gone.”

“Gone?”

His eyes swept the bare courtyard. Though the gate had been in bad shape, the courtyard was neat and relatively intact. Three houses opened onto it, all two story with carved wooden beams supporting the bricks. Numerous windows showed that, at one time, the houses had been showpieces. A covered cistern was in the center of the courtyard and brick planters lined the walls. But all the plants in them were dead. Old vines had fallen over and not even a bird or a rat lingered.

“I don’t like this,” Ben said.

“I don’t know if they’d been paid since Nima died. It’s possible they just moved on.”

“You have got to get someone hired to take care of your paperwork, Tiny.”

She shrugged.

Ben shook his head. “You think your cache is still here?”

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Without another word, she walked over to the cistern and pulled open the grate.

“You stored it in a cistern? I thought you said—”

“There is a false wall. I borrowed an earth vampire to dig it so that the water would run to one side while keeping my things dry on the other. He did an excellent job. This area doesn’t get enough rain to be a danger.” She slipped inside, her narrow body disappearing beneath the earth.

Ben tried not to shiver. “You used an earth vampire to dig it?”

“Yes.” Her voice echoed up from below. “How did you know he wouldn’t come back and steal from you?”

There was no sound for a few minutes, and then Ben heard a smashing. Then a crumbling, as if rocks were tumbling down. He wondered if Tenzin would answer his question or just let him wonder.

Finally, her dusty face peeked through the hole, hovering just under the surface. “He wasn’t a very nice earth vampire.”