Our class continued to shrink as the lower-level class became bigger. Mr. Mitchel didn’t think many of us could do advanced magic. The next day most of my friends took their test and came back looking as shaken as I felt. Abby never came back to class, and when I reached out to check on her, she told me she was sent to the lower-level class. I could feel her anger and sadness over the way Mr. Mitchel had treated her.
“Don’t worry, Abby. He doesn’t know how good you are at healing, or he would have you in advanced classes, but that’s a good thing. We don’t want him to know that you can heal us. Now he won’t pay as much attention to you.” Abby perked up after that and promised she would become the best healer and prove that she didn’t belong in lower-level classes, even if she could only prove it to us right now.
I smiled as I let her get back to class. My friends were the best. The smile fell as I thought of Mr. Mitchel. He was going to make our lives difficult. Our class had shrunk down to less than eight people. Richard was still with me, and Tider had been forced into the classroom, which surprised everyone.
He never took classes with the rest of us because of his family name and how much power he was supposed to have. Sean and Sasha were also in the class. There were two other guys in the class, but I didn’t know them. They didn’t sit near Sean and Sasha, so I figured they weren’t on their side either.
Chapter Six
The rest of the week went by slowly as students struggled with their new class schedules. Other things in the school were changing too. There was a somber mood everywhere I went. No one was happy with Mr. Mitchel being in charge. Two kids were caught trying to practice their magic and were suspended immediately. A rumor was going around the school that the kids weren’t suspended for practicing magic but for not having Mr. Mitchel’s permission.
There was no way for me to practice my magic now that Mr. Mitchel was keeping such a close eye on everyone. I didn’t even sneak down to the south wing to practice with Mauevene since Mr. Mitchel took over. I was worried he would somehow know I was out of bed.
Mauevene didn’t come out of hiding either. She must be as worried as me. I talked to Richard every night, but we still hadn’t found a solution. I needed to practice my magic, or the Pulhu would be able to defeat us, but there wasn’t any chance. The longer we waited to go to the fire elemental realm, the higher the chance the Pulhu would find the entrance.
Finally, I decided I wasn’t going to keep playing by Mr. Mitchel’s rules. He thought he could keep track of me, but I would show him. I used my invisibility shield that night and slowly walked down the hallway. It took a long time, but I finally made it into the south wing and dropped my shield when I was sure no one else was in there.
Immediately, Mauevene appeared. “I’ve been waiting for you to come here. That man has a special spell on the school to track all magic. I can’t come out of hiding unless you come in here.”
“Are you sure it’s safe in here?”
“Yes. He is affected by the south wing spell like everyone else and barely notices it’s here.”
“What am I supposed to do?”
“You need to keep practicing, and we need to get to the fire realm. I wouldn’t wait more than a few weeks. They will find the entrance if you wait longer than that.”
“How am I supposed to get there? Mrs. Sullivan always sent for Jordan to take us.”
Mauevene disappeared from sight as Sievroth came racing toward me. I was worried about him and where he was every day. Ever since Mr. Mitchel arrived, Sievroth had been missing. He flew directly into my arms and rubbed against my chest like a cat. I laughed and pet him until he calmed down.
“What do you think, Sievroth? What are we supposed to do?”
He bumped his head against my hand, and I saw my friends standing outside the school, holding hands. I was standing with them, and so was Jordan. I blinked, and we were gone. It had been very early in the morning or really late at night. I couldn’t tell which one, but it was dark out with only a hint of light. “Soon,” I heard the voice in my head say.
“How will I know when it’s the right time?” I asked him, but he wouldn’t give me any more information and curled around my neck.
I sighed, knowing I wouldn’t get any more out of him. “Mauevene, come back out. Sievroth is resting,” I called.
Mauevene appeared and scowled at Sievroth as he lifted an eyelid lazily and flicked his tongue out. Mauevene moved farther away from me before landing on a table. I felt her magic encircle the room, and I let out a sigh. I would be able to practice here as long as Mauevene kept the spell up. She immediately had me start working on using pure magic again.
I was improving slightly, but I would need to practice every night. I was going to be using a lot of energy over the next few weeks. When I got back to my bed, I fell asleep immediately and was almost late for breakfast. As I ate, I listened to the stilted conversations going on around us. No one wanted to talk because we all thought Mr. Mitchel had a way of listening in. Thankfully, he didn’t know I could speak to all my friends telepathically.
It was a pain to have to relay everything to everyone though. I still wasn’t able to connect my friends together. We managed to work out a plan that would hopefully help us. The guys would keep looking up information on the fire elementals, and Abby and I would try to contact Jordan. We were going to leave in three weeks with whatever information we had. We couldn’t wait any longer, and if we couldn’t contact Jordan, we would find another way.
My friends weren’t able to get to the south wing to practice with me, but I went every night. My grades weren’t doing well since I was so tired from practicing at night, but I figured it didn’t really matter anyway.
At the beginning of the second week with Mr. Mitchel as the head of the school, he announced all the students who would be taking masters classes. Richard, Tider, and Sean were called, which we all expected, but when he said my name, I looked around in shock. I couldn’t take masters classes. He would find out my power level. Sasha was also called and seemed pleased with herself.
We would all be taking the class together everyday after regular classes. Mr. Mitchel decided it would be better for all of us to learn about our powers together. I was pretty sure he wanted to force us to reveal how powerful we were. Why else would he have us all together?
We were told to report to the East dome immediately after class. I let Abby know I wouldn’t be able to meet her and Adam until later that evening before trudging down the path to the dome. Richard and Tider argued the whole way over until I finally yelled at them. Sean and Sasha laughed as they walked behind us, listening to us fight.
I had a smirk on my face as Sean helped Sasha get past the barrier around the dome. It was meant to keep everyone out, and if you walked through it, you felt an urgency to turn around, or something awful would happen to you. My first time had been hard too, but I got used to it. It wouldn’t take Sasha long to get over it. She glared at me as she stalked into the dome.
Inside, Mr. Burwel was standing near a table placed in the center of the dome. There were various weapons on the table, and I looked at Richard, confused. We had never used weapons before.
Mr. Burwel saw my confused look and spoke. “You are all here to take masters classes. Therefore you should be able to defend yourselves against each other.” We turned to look at each other. Sean and Sasha were grinning. They liked the idea of us fighting.
“Why are we fighting each other?” Richard asked.
“To test your skills,” Mr. Burwel replied.
“What if one of us gets hurt?” Tider asked.
“Then you learn from your mistakes, or you don’t belong in masters classes. Mr. Mitchel assured me you are all more than capable of completing this lesson without harming yourselves or anyone else badly.”
“This sounds more like a gladiators ring than a class,” I said quietly to Richard and Tider.
“What was that, Sally?” Mr. Burwel asked.
“I
was wondering if we are using the weapons or magic?”
“You will be using both. I will teach you how to create one of these weapons out of your element, and then you will use it on your opponent. You will have the next three days to learn how to make the weapon, and then you will fight each other. Mr. Mitchel will be here to watch and decide the winner.”
“What does the winner get?” Sean asked.
“A trip to town,” Mr. Burwel said. “I’m sure each of you would like to get some time away from school.” He turned to me. “Have you ever been allowed to go to the town? They have a very nice beach there.”
“I’m sure they do,” I replied. Mr. Mitchel was trying to force me to win first place so I could go to town. Luckily I didn’t care all that much. “There will be many rewards for those of you that do well. That goes for the entire school. The students that work the hardest will be given extra privileges, so you should all do your best.”
We all nodded as Mr. Burwel turned back to the weapons. “Sean you will be working on making an ax, Sasha will be making daggers, Richard will create a great sword, Tider will make a chakram and Sally will make a short sword. Now everyone, get your weapon and spread out, but make sure you can see me.”
I walked to the table and picked up a short sword. I flinched as Sasha grabbed it from my hands, scowling. “You don’t even know what a short sword is, do you? This is a dagger, what I’m going to be making. That is a short sword,” she said, pointing to a longer weapon further down the table.
I shrugged. How was I supposed to know what each weapon was? I had never seen half of these items before. I turned the short sword over in my hands, trying to get a feel for it as I walked away from the table to give myself some space. I looked at Tider, wondering what a chakram was. It looked like a circular blade with a handle in the middle that could be thrown.
“Now I want everyone to try their weapon out. Pretend you are fighting someone and feel how the weapon moves in your hands.”
I watched as everyone else swung their weapons around. I tried swinging mine around my head and nearly dropped it on my foot. I looked down at my sword, there was no way I could beat them if we ever had to actually use the weapons. I tried again with very little luck. If I kept this up, I was going to hurt myself. I was much better at magic.
“Sally, hold your weapon firmly, stop being so scared of it. It isn’t going to bite.”
“It will if I accidentally let go of it while I’m swinging it around,” I mumbled, but I grabbed onto it firmly and tried moving it in front of me. This time I almost sliced my own arm as I moved the sword around. I ignored Mr. Burwel and moved the short sword in tiny little motions trying not to hurt myself. I was starting to get the hang of it when Mr. Burwel called for us to stop.
“It’s time to use your magic now. Put your weapons down and call your magic to you, trying to form the same basic shape as your weapon. Move it around like you did with the real weapons. I will walk around and give you pointers. If you have questions, shout them out.”
Mr. Burwel was a surprisingly good teacher. Even though I knew he was trying to force me to show all my magic, I could learn a few things from him. He came over by me first and shook his head. “What are you doing?”
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly. I was trying to force my air magic to create the shape of the short sword, but it wasn’t working.
“Look at your sword. Picture its length and its weight in your mind. Then let your magic take the picture and create the sword.”
I tried to do as he said and watched in awe as the sword started to form in my hand before it blew away. “What am I doing wrong?” I asked, frustrated. It seemed like an easy task that I should be able to do.
“You are focusing too hard on it. You need to let go and let your imagination work.”
“You too,” I groaned. “Everyone says I have no imagination.”
Mr. Burwel looked at me thoughtfully. “I know you have enough power to do this, but you will need to learn how to let go. Haven’t your teachers been working with you?”
“Yes, but they say I lack imagination because I was taught to believe in science and human rules. I have trouble creating new things because of it.”
“That makes sense. I never thought of that before. Continue practicing. I’m sure if you keep at it, you will get it. You have two more days.”
Great, I thought to myself, I’m supposed to fight someone in two days with a sword I can’t create. That’s going to go well.
I felt Richard’s mind brush against mine. “Relax, you will figure it out. Besides, it’s good that you are having trouble. You know he will report it back to Mr. Mitchel. Maybe if they realize you are struggling, they will leave you alone.”
“I doubt it, but thanks for trying to make me feel better.” I felt Richard leave me and focused on my magic again. Mr. Burwel had walked away to go help the other students. I could see him talking to Sean as Sean swung his ax around. He had made an almost perfect water replica of it without any trouble. I looked down at my empty hands, worried. I tried again to make a short sword, but I couldn’t make it work.
By the end of class, everyone was swinging their elemental weapons around except me. I still wasn’t able to create my short sword. Mr. Burwel told us we would be practicing again tomorrow and that we would learn new ways to use the weapon to help us during our fight. Richard and Tider waited for me while I walked over to Mr. Burwel to ask him a question
“What will happen if I can’t create a weapon for the fight?” I asked.
Mr. Burwel hesitated. “I will speak with Mr. Mitchel, but he said you will all participate each week to improve your abilities, or you will be dropped from the class.”
The longer I spent around Mr. Burwel, the more I realized he probably wasn’t part of the Pulhu. Even though he followed Mr. Mitchel’s teaching strategy, he didn’t seem confident that it was a good idea. If he was Pulhu, it wouldn’t bother him. It looked like Mr. Mitchel really did have the council fooled. I thanked Mr. Burwel, and we headed to the common room to meet Abby and Adam.
I let Richard and Tider explain what happened while I rested my head in my hands. I decided I would ask Mauevene if she knew a way to help me when I went to the south wing to practice with her later that night.
The name Chet interrupted my thoughts, and I tuned in to the conversation my friends were having.
“When did it happen?” Richard asked.
“Last night. My grandfather called me about an hour ago. He was busy taking stock of everything missing all day.”
“He thinks it was the Pulhu?” Tider asked.
“Yes. He said everything on elementals was taken.”
“Wait a second, I missed the beginning of this conversation. Chet was robbed?” I asked.
“Yes, his store was robbed last night,” Adam said. “He thinks they are after the locations of all the true elementals.”
“Did they get anything that would point them in the right direction?” I asked, my stomach sinking.
“They got enough that they may be able to piece together where the water and air elementals are. My grandfather didn’t have anything in the store on the other elemental locations. They did get a lot of information about the true elementals though. There was even a book on possible weaknesses each elemental type would have.”
“That’s not good. Is Chet ok?” I asked, dreading the answer. I remembered the one time my dad had run into the Pulhu. I shuddered. He was lucky to still be here. They would have hurt him more if Dr. Griffith hadn’t sent trained elementals to keep an eye on him.
“He’s fine. He wasn’t in the store when it happened. He wanted us all to know that he still has a few things for us. He was keeping them at his house until we needed them. He has moved them into hiding now. He doesn’t want to send anything to us with the school being taken over by the council and Mr. Mitchel. He’s worried they will search the package and find out information they don’t need to know.”
&n
bsp; “I’m glad he is ok,” I replied. “Tell him we will find a way to come see him as soon as we can.”
“I will,” Adam replied.
“By the way, Sally, my father will be coming to the school in a few weeks. I’m sure he is coming to check and see if I have taught you anything yet. We will have to pretend you are learning a lot of bad magic from me,” Tider said.
“Like what?” I asked.
“We will work on some of the traps that can be deadly, but I will make sure we modify them so they don’t hurt anyone. I can tell my father that it is modified so other students don’t get hurt, or we would get in trouble. Having Mr. Mitchel here will help a little actually. We can blame his new rules about not practicing magic on why you haven’t learned more.”
“Great idea,” I said. I wasn’t looking forward to facing Tider’s dad again. It was hard enough to pretend to be a stuck up snob the first time. “How are we going to practice any magic?” I asked Tider.
“I will tell you how to do the spell, and you will have to practice it at night when you go in the south wing with Mauevene. It’s the only chance you have.”
I sighed. I had too many things that needed to be done.
“Don’t worry, Sally,” Adam said. “We will get through this, and I’m sure Mrs. Sullivan will find a way to get reinstated.”
“How? Mr. Mitchel has turned almost all of the council against her.”
No one had an answer, so we let the subject drop. There wasn’t anything we could do for Mrs. Sullivan right now, and she couldn’t help us either, but I had an idea that might work. I would have to wait until I could talk to Mauevene though. I listened as my friends continued talking about the day. Adam and Abby spent the evening in the library trying to look up stuff on fire elementals, but a teacher was posted in the library at all times now.
All books had to be logged out if you wanted to read them, and you weren’t allowed to have open discussions in there anymore. Everyone had to be quiet. Mr. Mitchel was making sure he knew everything at the school. We would need to find another way to try to learn about the true elementals.
Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3) Page 6