Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  He moved his head around slowly, still not opening his eyes. “Who is here?” He spoke to all of us in our heads. My friends gasped, they weren’t used to dragons speaking directly into their minds. I had gotten used to it with Sievroth, so it didn’t surprise me. Gavin introduced us and told Garuld all that had been happening. He moved his neck to come close to the little queen, snuggled up in my arms.

  “You did well, little queen. You will be a good ruler when you grow up,” we heard him tell her. She yipped at him and nudged his head with her own. “You will need to save the other dragons now.”

  “We don’t know how,” I told him.

  “It will be a lot of work, but I’m sure you can do it. You must first bring the water from the well to me, we will purify it here to make sure there is no more poison in it. Then you must take it back to the dragons and pour it over them and make them drink some. It will wash away the poison, and they will awaken. “You,” he pointed with his head to Abby, “stay here. You can help me make the purifying rocks.”

  Abby shrugged, and the rest of us left to go get the water. We made it to the well without any trouble and filled the buckets we had taken from the room Garuld was in. I used air to carry them back so they wouldn’t spill everywhere. By the time we got back, Abby and Garuld had crafted a large tub made of rock and filled it with pieces of stone and sand. Garuld had us pour the water over it, and it ran down through the stones.

  Once we filled the tub, he breathed fire under it, heating the rock to a bright orange color. Before the rock melted, he stopped. The water was bubbling, and he had Abby throw some ingredients from a table along the back wall in.

  “There. Now take that to the dragons,” he told Richard and Gavin. “You two go get more water,” he said to Tider and me.

  We did as Garuld told us, and soon Richard and Gavin reported that some of the dragons were starting to wake up. We kept bringing more water, and they kept taking it to the dragons. It took a long time, but finally, Garuld told us to stop.

  We grabbed the remaining water and all headed to the cavern to watch the last dragons wake up. When I entered the cavern, a loud rumble swept through, and the two queens stood up, moving toward me.

  The little queen started yipping and jumped from my arms, gliding toward the queens. They bumped heads, and all made soothing noises to each other. It was sweet watching the older queens greet the little queen. It didn’t take long before all of the dragons were awake. Garuld came out of the chamber behind me and landed in front of the queens, bowing his head.

  I couldn’t hear their exchange, but they seemed shocked to see him. I was sure he was explaining everything that happened recently. As one, the dragons turned toward us and bowed. I bowed back, unsure what was going on.

  “Come humans. We must reach the palace quickly. The portal is almost open, and the fire elementals still sleep. We must wake them before the portal falls, or we are all in grave danger,” Garuld said into our minds.

  I started walking toward the entrance, but Gavin stopped me. “No. They want us to ride. It will take too long if we walk.” I looked at the dragons. Six had moved to the center of the room and kneeled down for us to climb on their backs.

  “Do not worry humans, we will not drop you,” the queen said into our heads.

  We all chose a dragon to ride and climbed on. Richard used magic to lift Zacharius onto the dragon he was riding and held him in place. There was nowhere to grab on their smooth scales, so I lay forward and tried to wrap my arms around the dragon’s neck. The queens took off in front of us and flew through the tunnel.

  My dragon slowly unfurled his wings and started to beat them, getting a little higher each time. When he was ready, he took off down the tunnel. I let out a yell and closed my eyes, hanging on as hard as I could. I felt the dragon rumble below me and knew he was laughing.

  I opened my eyes and looked to my right. Sievroth was flying as close to me as he could, keeping an eye on our progress. As we flew toward the palace, I tried to look around, but we were moving so fast my eyes were tearing up. I used air magic to make a shield for my eyes and carefully wiped them off.

  We were flying over the path we had walked to get up to the mountain. Another hole had opened up in the path, and as I was watching, it grew bigger, swallowing an entire tree. I was glad we didn’t need to take the path back. Far in the distance, I could make out the jungle we had come through.

  Past the jungle, everything started to look hazy. It was too far for me to see. The palace walls came closer and closer until my dragon landed in front of the palace gates. The guards dropped to their knees as the queens moved toward them.

  When I slid down my dragon’s side, the guards looked up, staring in astonishment. My friends landed next and came to stand with me. Gavin walked up to the guards. “We need to get in to see the elementals,” he said.

  “Of course, sorry. We just…”

  “We haven’t seen the dragons in so long,” the other guard finished. “You woke them. Can you wake the true elementals?”

  “We are going to try,” I said.

  “Take this guy and put him in the dungeons,” Gavin said, handing over Zacharius. “Be careful. He is very powerful. He is the one who put the elementals and the dragons in a stupor.”

  The guard grabbed him and wove his own threads of fire ropes around Zacharius before taking him into the palace.

  We walked to the room with all the true fire elementals, and Garuld came forward, sniffing and nudging them. He turned toward us. “They need to bathe in the hot springs. It will replenish their energy.”

  “What about the poison?”

  “We need to purify the springs and stop any water from coming in until the poison is out of the well. Once we awaken them, they will be able to purify the springs themselves until we are sure the water is safe.”

  “Where are the hot springs, and how will they get there?”

  “They will have to ride us. You can tie them to the rest of the dragons and get them all there in a few trips. You all work on that. I will take Abby with me to get the supplies we need to purify the hot springs,” Garuld said into our heads. “We will meet you there.”

  Abby took off with Garuld, and the rest of us got to work. Gavin called Lily and the other guards that could be spared to help us. They started lifting the true elementals onto the dragon’s backs, tying them in place with bands of fire magic. Most of the dragons could take at least three elementals at a time. I climbed onto the dragon I had ridden before, and Richard and Tider joined me. Their dragons were carrying true elementals.

  We took off, flying low through the castle and out the gates of the palace. We didn’t have to go far. The hot springs were less than an hour walk behind the castle walls. We slid off the dragon, and he took off into the air.

  He would go back to the castle to get another group of true elementals. Richard and Tider started bringing the elementals closer to the hot springs. I walked over where Abby and Garuld were waiting. They were adding different ingredients into the hot springs.

  “Sally, you will need to create a barrier between the hot springs and the water flowing into them,” Garuld said.

  “How? As soon as I run out of energy, it will fail. It will take weeks to clean all the water.”

  “You can attach the barrier to something nearby. It will pull all the energy from that object instead of you. Once the object has no energy left, the spell will end.”

  “What can I use around here?”

  “Those trees over there would work nicely. They will have enough energy for what we need. It only needs to be a thin barrier that holds back all the poisoned water that will be coming from the well.”

  I nodded and went to work, concentrating on making the barrier. When I had it in place, I looked at Garuld.

  “Excellent. Now pretend the magic powering that barrier is connected to you through a rope. Take the rope and move it to those three trees. Wrap it around them and let go.”

  As soo
n as the figurative rope was tied around the trees, I felt my energy stop decreasing. The trees looked the same as before. “Will it hurt them?” I asked.

  “No, we will be finished with the barrier before the trees die, and one of the true elementals will be able to take it down. Since it is no longer connected to you, anyone with magic can now work with it.”

  “That is awesome.” I thought about how much energy I could save.

  “Be careful with this knowledge, Sally. If you decide to do this and your enemies get ahold of one of your spells, they could corrupt it with dark magic. They wouldn’t need to be very powerful since you already did the hard work of making the magic. That is why not many humans were ever given this knowledge.”

  “Thank you for trusting me, Garuld. I will be cautious.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Working together, we were able to start carrying the true fire elementals into the hot springs. Abby stayed in the water, trying to hold the true elementals up so they wouldn’t drown. We started with the king and queen. It didn’t take long for them to begin waking up. After a few more minutes in the hot springs, they began to move around.

  Garuld brought his face close to them as they opened their eyes. They were startled to see him, and when they looked at Abby holding them up in the hot springs, their expressions turned blank. They both turned back to Garuld. Every few seconds, they nodded, and their bodies seemed to relax. He was telling them what occurred.

  Adam and Tider brought more elementals into the hot springs, and I helped place them in positions they would be able to sit in and not fall over. It was a slow process. Even though the hot springs were huge and could hold a lot of elementals, we could only carry so many at once and hold them in the water. We were all exhausted, and there were still a lot to go. After the king and queen were able to get up and leave the hot springs, they started gathering the true elementals to the side as they woke.

  Once they told the elementals everything that happened, they sent them over to us to help. It became easier and easier with everyone’s help. Eventually, we stopped and sat down off to the side, watching the true elementals help each other. It was sad to see that they had no idea anything had even happened. Many of them kept peeking at us but didn’t say anything. There was a small amount of talking as they woke up, but otherwise, it was quiet.

  The little queen and Sievroth took a break with us. Sievroth was curled up behind me, and the little queen was on my lap again. I leaned against Sievroth as I pet the little queen. He spoke into my mind a few times, telling me the fire elementals were being quiet while they processed what happened. Many would have trouble believing it until they saw all the changes in their realm. It was a lot to take in.

  I tried not to worry. The true fire elementals didn’t seem mean or even rude. They all looked stunned. When they were all awake, the king and queen walked up to our group. I went to stand up, but the queen told me to stay seated.

  “We know you are tired,” she said. “We want to thank you for saving us and for trying to save our entire realm. We are still waking up from this awful nightmare, and we aren’t sure how to react. I apologize if we have ignored you. We have been getting an account of everything that has transpired since we fell asleep from Sievroth and Gavin. A lot is going on right now from what I understand.”

  “Yes, your majesty,” I said, unsure what title she wanted me to use.

  “You can call me Fiara. We don’t use titles between friends. It’s so hard to remember what happened. I remember being worried about the dragons, and then I was so tired. It was hard to worry about anything. I got into bed one day and never got back out. Thank you again for saving us. Gavin said his men tried everything, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so they took care of us the best that they could.”

  “I’m sorry. I know this is a lot to take in, but we have bigger problems coming. I doubt we have long until the Pulhu are here. They have a weapon they can use against you to force you to do what they want. You will be caught in another war and blamed for it again if the Pulhu control you.”

  “Yes, Garuld and Gavin told me about them. I can feel them working at the portal. They will break in soon.” She turned to everyone and raised her voice. “We all need to go protect our land from them,” she said. The true fire elementals looked worried, and some still looked confused.

  “Can you stop them from opening the portal?” I asked.

  “We have to close the portal for good. It is the only way to ensure they can’t get in.”

  “What about us?” Abby cried. “We need to get back home.”

  “Don’t worry, the dragons will take you to another portal that you can use to get home. There are many different portals into our realm, but most are heavily guarded by the creatures that live here.”

  “Where will we show up in the human realm?”

  “The dragon’s portal is in the air above their home. It will take you out in the air above the Nebrodi mountains. The dragons will fly you as far down the mountain as they can. You will be far from the Pulhu. Sievroth says you can call someone to come and get you once you are in the human realm.”

  “Yes, we can. Thank you. How do we seal the portal?” I asked. I wanted to make sure it was sealed before we left the fire realm.

  “Let’s head to the castle. I have supplies there that will help. It is difficult to seal a portal and even harder to create one, but if my crystal is still charged with energy, we will be able to do it.”

  We started heading back to the castle with the true fire elementals. The little queen hopped out of my arms and glided over to the dragon queens. She would stay with them until they were ready to head to the portal. After an hour, we made it to the castle only to stop short. Around a hundred men were standing in front of the gates, magic swirling around their hands. I recognized the two men from the brotherhood.

  The king and queen went to move forward, but I stopped them. “They have been without you for a long time. A man named Zacharius filled their heads with doubt and fear that the shadow king was punishing you, and if you awoke, they would all be killed. Let me talk to them.”

  I strode forward with my hands up, showing them I wasn’t there to fight.

  “You,” sputtered the old man. “You did this to us. We will all die because of you.”

  “No one is going to die,” I told him. “You have all been tricked and lied to. You think the shadow king caused all the true elementals to fall into a stupor along with the dragons, but that is not true. Instead, one of your own has been doing it, poisoning the true elementals and the dragons, and using you to keep anyone from helping them.”

  “You lie,” someone shouted.

  “Really? Guards, get the prisoner and blindfold him so he doesn’t know who he is talking to,” I shouted. The guards rushed inside the castle, and we waited for them to return. Whispers ran through the brotherhood. They weren’t sure who to believe yet. Most of them were good people that had been fooled into thinking their friends were the enemy.

  The guards brought Zacharius through the gates. “Unbind me you fools, I have things to do,” he screeched.

  “Zacharius, it’s me, Sally.”

  “I already told you everything I’m going to say,” he giggled. “You can’t stop it. By the time the poison wears off, the Pulhu will be through the portal, and the true elementals will be theirs to control. I will finally be free to leave this cursed place. I’m sure the Pulhu would love to have me on their side.”

  “Why did you poison them all?” I asked. “Did the shadow king tell you to?”

  He started laughing again. “The shadow king doesn’t care what we do. He probably forgot about us long ago. I did this for revenge.” His laughter became even higher-pitched, and I winced.

  “Take him back to the dungeons,” Fiara told the guards.

  “Wait, who said that?” Zacharius asked. “That sounded like, no, you couldn’t have. Was that the true elemental queen?” Fiara nodded to the guard, w
ho took the blindfold off. He stared in horror at everyone watching him. “No, it can’t be. You saved them. Why?” He screamed as the guard dragged him away. “They should all die,” he yelled as he was dragged through the castle.

  “Now, do you believe me?” I asked the brotherhood. “You were all tricked. That man’s name is Zacharius, and I think you all knew him as the one who started the wars long ago between elementals.” They gasped and looked to the two older men, their leaders.

  “We didn’t know. We thought we were protecting the realm,” the older man said to Fiara.

  “It’s ok. You were doing what you thought was right to save your families. Next time come to us. We would never let anything happen to all of you. We have always protected you, and we always will. It must have been hard to have faith in us when we were in a stupor for so long. You are forgiven, but now we have a new enemy to defeat. These Pulhu are as bad as Zacharius. We must keep them out of the fire realm.”

  A roar filled the sky as the dragons flew above us. Their heads tipped back, and they let another ferocious cry out. They landed as close as they could to the elementals, shaking their heads and flapping their wings. Something had them all worked up.

  “There is no more time,” Fiara said. “We must seal the portal now. They are almost through. They will break through by the end of the day. Everyone, let’s go. Three people per dragon. We need to hurry.” I looked at the dragons. There weren’t enough dragons to carry everyone. At least fifty people would be left behind.

  “Those of you who don’t have a dragon, start fortifying the castle. We may have wounded when we return, and if they break through, the townspeople will head to the castle and its protections,” Fiara said. “Sally, come with me. We will need to talk about how to close the portal. I will need your help. Many of us are still too weak to attempt using the required magic necessary for closing a portal.”

  I followed Fiara into the castle. Garuld was standing at the gate, waiting for us. Abby, Tider, Richard, and Adam headed out to the portal and would wait for me there.