Mr. Merrem walked me back to the school, not wanting to leave me alone with Mr. Burwel on campus. After telling me to stay close to my friends, he left me at the common room and headed toward Mrs. Sullivan’s office. I was sure they were going to be trying to figure out a way to get Mr. Burwel sent back to the council.
Chapter Two
I didn’t know what to do with myself each afternoon without the extra classes. I made Abby or Tider come with me to the library to study more about the fire elementals since I needed to find them next. Sievroth stayed wrapped around my shoulders whenever I wasn’t in class. I had no idea where he went during class. I overheard one girl say she saw a fireball out in the woods the other day and figured he was out there doing his own practicing.
He still hadn’t eaten anything, but he didn’t seem concerned. I had seen him drink some water from the creek out in the garden the other day, so I knew he was taking care of himself. Mauevene didn’t come out when he was around anymore. He was getting too fast and almost grabbed her with his tongue the other day. I didn’t want to see Sievroth eat my friend, so I didn’t ask for her help with some of my questions. No matter how many times I told him not to eat her, he didn’t listen to me. She was safer being away from me for now.
We were all sitting in the common room when a few men in suits walked past with Mr. Burwel. I slouched in my seat so he wouldn’t see me. I recognized one of the men from the last time the council had been at the school. He had been a jerk to Mrs. Sullivan. He was definitely a Pulhu supporter. I wasn’t sure which side of the Pulhu though. Hopefully, the side that didn’t want to kill me.
Abby grabbed my hand as soon as they passed, and we headed for her room. I couldn’t go to mine. Last time they were here, one of the council had snuck into my room and tried to hit me with a spell. I was in Abby’s room after a warning from Richard had gotten me out of bed, and I watched the whole thing from her peephole.
As long as they were here, I wasn’t safe. I broke out in a sweat and quickened my pace, glancing back over and over until we arrived at Abby’s room. We slipped inside, and I used air to seal the door shut. I had been practicing that and was able to use minimal energy to make sure the door didn’t open. No one was getting in without burning the door down.
I reached out to connect with Richard telepathically. “Is everything ok?” I asked him.
“So far. I’m watching from the end of the hallway. They went into Mrs. Sullivan’s office, so I can’t hear anything they are saying. We will have to wait until they come out and see if we overhear anything. Tider and Adam are also nearby in different parts of the hall to see if they hear anything. I’ll let you know as soon as they leave.”
“Thanks, Richard,” I said, pulling out of his mind.
I repeated what he said to Abby, and she pulled out a book. “We might as well keep working on this since we can’t leave for a while,” she said. It was an old book about gods associated with fire.
“Where did you get this?”
“At the library. It was stuffed between some other books on volcanoes. It wasn’t with the fire elemental books, but I figured it might be worth a try.
“Myths about fire gods,” I read out loud. I tried not to sound skeptical.
“Yeah, I know, but maybe the fire gods are the true fire elementals. You never know. They were worshipped as gods a long time ago.” She had a point. “You read that one. I’m going to read this one,” she said, holding up a book on fire elemental magic. “I don’t know a lot about the fire elementals. It might be smart to know a little more since we will be trying to find them.”
I agreed and grabbed the book she handed to me. I sat on her floor, leaning against the bed as I opened it. The first few pages talked about humans making up gods to help themselves understand the world they lived in better. Whoever wrote the book didn’t believe any of the fire gods were real.
I had to admit I wasn’t sure either. Especially after reading about the first few gods. They sounded more like hellish creatures that were made up to scare children. There was one who supposedly ate people. Another one could only be seen and heard if you sacrificed the correct items on the correct day. Almost all of the sacrifices required killing animals. I thought about putting the book down, but I hadn’t been able to find anything else on fire elementals, so I didn’t stop.
I continued reading, looking up occasionally to check on Abby and make sure the door was still sealed. Surprisingly, I learned a lot about older cultures. They needed to have a god for everything they did to understand the world.
Toward the back of the book, I found something promising. There was one fire god named Gibi, who could shoot fire from his hands. He was also able to withstand any fire. He had even taught this magic to many of his followers. He ruled for many years until he got in a fight with another god who smothered his flames with water.
A different fire god took his place, but very few followed him willingly. He was a cruel and vicious leader who brought destruction everywhere he went. Eventually, another powerful god defeated him. After that, no one heard from the fire gods or their followers.
That could have been when the shadow king destroyed all the elemental cities and sent them to live in their own realms. The shadow king had destroyed almost all of their followers after the elementals taught them to use magic. A lot of true elementals were also killed. They used their magic to fight other elementals and caused massive devastation to the human population and the earth. Eventually, the elementals were forgotten, and so was magic as generations of humans lived without any sign of elemental powers. The few that were born with magic kept it hidden for fear of prosecution.
At the back of the book was a map showing where each fire god lived. I looked for Gibi, the fire god that seemed the most promising. The map showed him in Italy. I pulled out my phone and looked up different volcanoes in that area. I couldn’t believe my luck, Mount Etna was in Italy, and it was one of the oldest volcanoes. It would have been around when the fire elementals were still living in the human realm. I got Abby’s attention and told her what I learned.
“It seems a little too easy, doesn’t it?” Abby asked.
I hesitated. “Yes, but we don’t have very long to find them. We are going to have to hope that this is really the spot.”
“We need to tell Mrs. Sullivan. She will help us get there. Remember, she said she would help as much as possible before the council finds a reason to fire her,” Abby said.
As soon as the guys said it was safe, we headed to Mrs. Sullivan’s office. They hadn’t been able to hear anything going on, so they decided to wait for us by her office and ask what the council wanted. Once we were all there and seated around Mrs. Sullivan’s desk, I told her what I learned and said that I wanted to go and see if the fire elementals were there.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Sally,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “How sure are you? Did you find any other information?”
“No, we haven’t been able to find any other information. We need to go check this out. You know we don’t have much time.”
Mrs. Sullivan was still concerned, but after a few more minutes of us trying to convince her, she agreed. She would call Jordan to transport us there over the weekend to look around. We were not to go into the fire elemental realm. We were only going to see if it was the correct place. We would need a plan before we went to their realm. We couldn’t disappear for almost a week again, or the Pulhu would figure out what we were doing.
“What will we tell the rest of the students while we are checking the area out?” I asked.
“We will tell them that you went on break with Abby to see her father if anyone asks,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “You will only be gone for a weekend. We don’t want to risk anyone realizing you aren’t with Abby’s dad.”
“What about us?” Tider asked.
“You will stay here. We can’t have all of you missing with the Pulhu watching the school. I’m sure Abby and Sally can handle this on their own.�
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“They can’t go by themselves. What if something happens?” Richard didn’t look happy that Mrs. Sullivan was going to let me go without him and the other guys.
“We will have to take that chance. I know you have more of the invisibility potion left. You can use that so no one sees you. If you see anything suspicious, hide until Jordan comes to get you. You will be meeting him in the same place that he drops you off. He will make sure you know exactly where that is so you can get back to him.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Richard said.
“It’s a good thing it isn’t your choice then,” Mrs. Sullivan said. “This is a good opportunity to see if you can talk to each other telepathically when you are far away.”
Richard grumbled something under his breath but didn’t argue with Mrs. Sullivan anymore.
“Jordan will transport you back Sunday night. That gives you two days to look around. Come right to my office when you get back so we can discuss what you find out,” she said.
We talked for a few more minutes about the plan, and then Mrs. Sullivan dismissed us. As I was getting up from my seat, she stopped me. “Sally, I don’t think I need to tell you this, but I will anyway. Your extra classes are canceled until further notice. Mr. Burwel has already received the paperwork from the council so he can watch you. That’s what they were doing here today. Richard and Tider, continue taking your masters classes but don’t show him how much power you actually have.”
“Yes, Mrs. Sullivan,” they said.
We went to the library instead of the common room. We couldn’t go out to the garden for privacy since it was raining again. It made it harder to talk when we couldn’t go out. The library was the next best place. Barely anyone came in unless it was close to finals. Then the library was full of students studying.
I was more careful when we met in the library ever since Sean attacked us, so it was harder to concentrate. I almost expected Sean and his friends to jump out from around one of the aisles and throw potions at us. So far, he hadn’t bothered us too much this semester, but I wasn’t going to be able to fully enjoy the library in the school again. I pushed thoughts of Sean and his gang from my mind and tuned in to my friend’s conversation.
Richard said he wanted to start meeting in the south wing so I could continue to practice. He would have Mr. Connor and Mr. Merrem tell him what I should practice, and he would teach it to me after everyone went to bed. I agreed. I needed to know everything I could if I was going to win against the Pulhu and the darkness.
“I think I can help you out with the location of the true fire elementals. I talked to my grandfather, and he reminded me about something I read once,” Adam said. He was a fire elemental, and his grandfather was an archaeologist. He had been studying the fire elementals for a long time.
“I would look for any area that could open up into a cave. There is probably a rock nearby that you can put your hand on while it’s bathed in fire to open the pathway to their realm. That was how they used to open their doors. If you weren’t a fire elemental, you wouldn’t be able to get in.”
Adam also told us that fire elementals were said to have short tempers but could be very forgiving. They didn’t like to be bothered by the other elementals. From the texts he read on them, they lived around a volcano. One of the books he read said they may even live underground. They had many caverns that opened to the surface. The heat didn’t bother them. That’s why they lived under the ground near the volcano. They were protected from the other elementals. He didn’t know how much was true, but the book he read it in was very old.
“Thanks, Adam,” I said. “We will try to find the area, and then we will come back to get you guys.”
The days leading up to the weekend took forever. I couldn’t wait. I wanted to find the fire elementals quickly. I still had to find the earth elementals, and no one knew what I had to do for void magic. And this all had to happen before the end of summer.
When Abby knocked on my door Saturday morning, I was ready. Sievroth was wrapped around my neck like usual, and I had a backpack slung over my shoulder. It held mostly food and a couple of potions. I didn’t think we would need much for this trip. We were only gathering information.
I felt Richard in the back of my mind and reached out telepathically, giving him what would feel like a slap on the back of his head.
“Ow,” he said in my head.
“I told you not to sneak up on me.” I could feel his amusement, and I smiled. “What’s up?”
“Make sure you are careful and try to contact me as soon as you get there. I want to know that we can get in touch with each other.”
“I will,” I told him seriously. I felt his worry bleed through our connection. He could tell I was worried too. I didn’t like our group separating. We worked better together, but the fewer people, the better our chances of not getting caught. I still couldn’t believe Mrs. Sullivan was letting me go. She must be anxious about the Pulhu coming to the school.
Jordan was waiting at Mrs. Sullivan’s office. After she gave me a few warnings, she let us leave. We walked out the front door and to the gates. We needed to be off school property to transport. Otherwise, the protections stopped us.
I grabbed Abby with one hand and Jordan with the other. I watched as Abby grabbed Jordan too.
“Let’s hope this time we don’t have anyone trying to rip you out of the transport,” Jordan said, referring to the last time he took us somewhere. The Pulhu were able to interrupt the transport and force us to appear in a trap. We barely made it back to the school. We still didn’t know how they did it. Transports usually couldn’t be interrupted. Jordan said he was working on figuring out how they did it with a few of his friends, but no one was getting any closer to an answer.
“I hope they don’t try that again,” I told him.
“They don’t know we are going anywhere, so we should be safe.”
Jordan closed his eyes. So did I. The world dropped out from under me. The wind began spinning around me, catching at my hair and clothes before my feet landed on solid ground again. I opened my eyes to see Abby was standing too. Transporting was hard the first few times. We were starting to get used to it and didn’t fall when we stopped anymore, though my stomach still hurt for a few minutes after we landed.
I could hear voices in the distance but didn’t see anyone. We were hidden in a clump of trees near the base of the volcano. Behind us, I could see a bustling village. It would be nice to stay and visit. I turned back to the volcano. There wasn’t time to play tourist for the day.
“How long does it take to reach the top?” asked Abby.
“It says about four hours with a guided hike,” I replied, looking at my phone. “But you take a cable car part of the way.”
“We are already above that, and that’s on the other side. We are on the north side. There are fewer tourists on this side. Only guided hikes are allowed this high up, and there usually aren’t too many over here. Everyone wants to go to the south side,” Jordan said. “It shouldn’t take more than three hours if you are going directly to the top, but I doubt that’s the case. Whenever I have to transport you somewhere, you get in trouble with the Pulhu, so I’m guessing you are here looking for something that they want. Right?”
I looked around nervously. I didn’t want anyone else to know that I might be the one from the prophecy. The Pulhu had spies everywhere. So far, they thought I was a powerful elemental. An enigma since my powers hadn’t emerged until this year. Almost an adult. This barely ever occurred, and they wanted answers. They also wanted me under their thumb, which wasn’t going to happen.
“It’s ok, Sally,” Jordan said, seeing my look. “You don’t have to tell me it all. Besides, I think I have it almost figured out. I will keep your secrets. You know I’m not a friend of the Pulhu.”
“Thanks, Jordan,” I replied.
“I’ll be back here in two days. Mark this exact spot on your phones so you don’t get lost. It w
ould be difficult to find you up here. It’s a huge area, and there are many places to fall and get hurt where no one will find you.”
Jordan said his goodbyes after his warning and disappeared. I reached out with my mind until I was able to contact Richard. I could tell he was very far away. I had trouble hearing him when he responded, but I could feel his emotions. I sent calm feelings to him so he would know I was ok. He sent a wave of calmness back to me. I dropped the connection now that he knew I was fine.
Abby and I walked out of the trees and over to a small path. We headed up toward the top of the mountain, deciding not to take our invisibility potions until we had to. As we rounded a bend, we saw people ahead of us. A man at the front was talking and pointing toward the peak of Mount Etna. We slowed our pace as we looked around for a different route. I didn’t want to be stuck behind them, and we couldn’t pass them. I quietly led Abby off the path.
“There are not many places to hide up here,” she said. “People are going to see us.”
“I know. I want to make sure they don’t see us doing anything they shouldn’t see. Adam told us to look for any areas that could open into caves. Do you see anything like that?”
“Not yet.” I looked around the mountain, noticing that the higher we got, the steeper the climb would become.
“What about up there? Maybe there is a cave opening in one of the craters.”
“I don’t know,” Abby said. “They wouldn’t want anyone being able to accidentally see them coming in or out of their realm. It could cause the shadow king to destroy them all.”
“Where do you think we should look first?” I asked.
“What about one of the areas off the path. Maybe there is a crater most people don’t see. Something small and overlooked.”
“We could try hiking straight up instead of following the path. The other hikers won’t notice us if we are quick. They have a long hike if they follow the trail,” I said. “We can easily get ahead of them while they hike around the mountain.”
Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3) Page 2