Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  The queen ran through the castle, and I had a hard time keeping up. When she ran into the main room where all the cots were set up, she stopped. “This is where we all were?”

  “Yes. They put you all together so they could take care of you easier.”

  She moved through the room slowly until she came to the largest bed. “My king was laid here with me. Even in sleep, we were still together.” She stared at the bed for another minute before moving through the room and farther into the castle.

  We came to a room I hadn’t been in before. It looked like the ingredients room back at the school, but bigger. There were jars of ingredients everywhere. Some of the jars stood as tall as my knee. I moved closer to one of the jars as Fiara ran down the aisles. Bollywort was written on the label. I had never heard of it. I reached out to pick it off the shelf and see what it looked like, but Fiara came around the corner.

  “Don’t touch that. It would kill you in seconds if you opened it up.”

  I quickly stepped back and walked over to the door. I didn’t want to accidentally knock something over and kill us both. Fiara rushed up and down the aisles, searching for different ingredients. When she passed me, she added vials to my hands, telling me to hold them.

  “Let’s go,” she told me, running back into the hallway. Garuld was waiting for us, and we climbed onto his back. He jumped into the air using his wings to lift us off of the ground with one stroke. He turned, aiming for the portal and flew forward. He glided through the sky, his wings beating quickly to get us there as fast as possible. I could see the other dragons far in the distance. We were gaining on them, but they would make it to the portal before us.

  I felt a shift in the air as we got closer. I couldn’t see the other dragons anymore. They already landed. The shift in the air came again.

  “What is that?” I yelled to Fiara.

  “That is the portal opening.” Garuld put on a burst of speed. I could see the true elementals standing in front of the portal and the dragons behind them. A swarm of the weird purple birds flew out of the jungle behind us. They were headed right for the portal too.

  Garuld managed to move even faster, and we landed as the portal shimmered and opened, revealing the Pulhu. I could see through the portal to the clearing beyond it. Row after row of Pulhu were lined up, ready to storm into the fire realm.

  The ones in the front had something in their hands, and I heard someone yell, “Now.” They each threw the object in their hand through the portal.

  “Shields,” I yelled, throwing one up in front of as many of the fire elementals as possible. I saw the objects bounce off the shields and start spewing gray smoke.

  “They are smoke bombs. Richard, help clear the air before they get in. We raised our arms and blew the smoke up and away from the portal. The Pulhu were starting to stream through. The dragons let out roars, and the Pulhu stopped, staring at the dragons before being pushed forward by those waiting in the back.

  “Sally, come here,” Fiara said, dragging me to the side of the portal and away from the battle.

  “What are we doing? We need to stop them.”

  “We need to close the portal first, or they will keep coming in. Didn’t you see how many there were? If they all get in and they have a weapon that can hurt us like you said, we won’t be able to win.”

  “Ok, let’s close this. How?”

  Fiara grabbed all the ingredients we had thrown into the sack she carried and laid them out. I kept an eye on the battle, making sure my friends were ok. They were all in the front except Abby. I couldn’t see her anywhere. I connected to her mind, and she told me she was near the back, healing people as they were hurt.

  I turned my attention back to Richard. He was using air to keep the Pulhu from rushing through the portal, but he was weakening, and enough were getting through to cause havoc among the fire elementals. The Pulhu seemed to be immune to the fire elementals attacks, and I realized they must have created a potion that could stop the flames before they burned them.

  Tider was using icicles to stop the Pulhu that got past Richard, and Adam was using fire with no success. He switched to hitting the Pulhu with his fists when they got too close. The other elementals were all engaging the Pulhu too.

  The dragons reared up and started flying around the clearing as the purple birds tried to attack them. The birds flew around the dragons, ripping at their wings with their sharp little beaks. It wasn’t likely that they would mortally wound the dragons, but they were keeping them occupied so they couldn’t help with the ground attack.

  I watched as Garuld breathed fire, and one of the birds fell to the ground. Others immediately took its place, and Garuld flew higher into the air, trying to get away from the little birds. They were fast and so small they could maneuver around Garuld easily. He managed to hit another one with his tail. The rest of the dragons were doing the same thing. I watched birds falling to the ground, but more were coming. They were still flying in from the jungle.

  A shout from the portal caused me to look back at it. Tider created a weapon of ice to attack the Pulhu, but there were too many coming through. Without the true fire elementals being able to do any damage to the Pulhu, they were quickly being overrun.

  “Sally, I’m ready,” Fiara said. “I need you to use your fire magic to help me close the portal. I will say the spell and release the power, but you must channel your magic into me.”

  I looked at her, surprised. I hadn’t told her I could share my magic.

  “It’s something only a few elementals can do. I know you can do it. I can sense it. Now hurry.”

  I grabbed her hand, and she started speaking in ancient. I felt her power moving toward the portal and channeled my magic into her. Her magic swirled around the portal and through it. I concentrated and watched as the orange magic took on a darker hue. She continued funneling magic into the portal, almost yelling the ancient words.

  “Stop them,” I heard someone yell. I saw the Pulhu turn toward us, and I started to put up a shield, but Fiara stopped me.

  “We can’t. We need all of your power and mine. Protect us,” Fiara yelled, and the elementals moved to stop the Pulhu. They knew they wouldn’t be effective against them, but they stood in the way for their queen anyway. They would try to buy us as much time as they could. Richard, Tider, and Adam shifted toward us too. Everyone was trying to protect us from the Pulhu. The Pulhu knew we were trying to seal the portal and fought even harder.

  “Get Mr. Mitchel in here before it seals,” one of the Pulhu yelled. My skin went cold. We couldn’t let him get in. If he did, he would destroy us all. He could suck our magic out of us, and we wouldn’t be able to seal the portal.

  “Hurry,” I yelled to Fiara, “We need to seal it now.” She felt my terror and shoved more power at the portal. I gathered all the magic I had left and sent it into her making her knees buckle.

  “Too much,” she said.

  Instead of pulling my power back, I traced the path her magic was taking and pushed mine along the same path, entwining our magic together as it reached the portal. As I forced the last of my magic into the portal, a large crack echoed across the area, and the portal slammed shut. We could still see out of it, but the Pulhu on the outside couldn’t get in or see through it. We watched as they beat their fists against it.

  With the portal closed, the birds stopped their attack on the dragons and flew back toward the jungle. Somehow they were being controlled when the portal was open. With the dragons no longer distracted, it didn’t take long to stop the rest of the Pulhu.

  While the last of the Pulhu were being tied up, I walked over to the portal. It was slowly fading.

  “We will no longer be able to see out into the world from here once the portal is completely closed,” Fiara said.

  We watched as the Pulhu moved away from the portal. Mr. Mitchel walked up to it and placed his hand on the rock. Dark magic swirled around his hand, and I flinched when it touched the portal. Mr. Mitchel’s f
ace was a mask of rage as he slammed his fist into the portal over and over again.

  When he looked up, I would have sworn he was able to see me. His eyes turned black for a minute before he regained control. He turned and strode away from the portal. We watched for a few more minutes as the Pulhu in the clearing started to gather their things and leave. As the portal disappeared completely, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now they wouldn’t be able to get to the fire elementals.

  Chapter Twenty

  I was helping the wounded when Fiara called me away. “Something is wrong at the town,” she said. A woman was standing next to her, panting. “This is Alicia. She ran here, taking the shortcuts, to get to us in time. It was a perilous journey, and she could have died. Someone else is trying to poison us, except this time it is making the human fire elementals sick too. Everyone in the town is sick. We need to get there immediately and find out what happened.”

  I rode on Garuld again with Fiara. We grabbed Abby too. Adam, Tider, and Richard would stay and help with the wounded. They would meet us at the town later. We left the little queen and Sievroth behind, asking Gavin to keep an eye on the little queen. The dragon queens were keeping an eye on her too, but she still couldn’t fly and needed to be carried around. She really was too small to have hatched. I was worried she would get hurt if someone wasn’t with her.

  I was going to need my friends if we had to do any more magic. I was tapped out after helping close the portal. I would love to sleep for an entire day, but we had to help the townspeople. They had been kind to us, and I didn’t want to see any of them hurt.

  I tried to think of what could be wrong while we flew to the town. Maybe some of the Pulhu had gotten through, but that didn’t make sense. They wouldn’t have made it to the town yet unless they had powerful air magic. They could have flown to the town then, but I hadn’t seen anyone flying away from the battle. I would have to wait until we got there to find out what happened.

  As we landed, Tristan came running out. “My queen, we need you. Something has struck the townspeople. It is a poison, I think. So many are sick already. We can’t stop it.”

  “Tell me about the symptoms,” Fiara said.

  “The symptoms are slightly different for everyone. They all have a fever, but some have stomach pains, while others have headaches. Some even have full body aches. None can stand after the fever shows up. They are too weak to take care of themselves. We have set up a sick area so we can care for them easily.”

  “Could it be the same poison Zacharius used on you, but without the dragon blood? They are all too tired to get up, similar to how you all fell into a stupor,” I asked Fiara.

  “The poison could have been altered to make human elementals sick too, I suppose. I’m not sure that’s it though. We never got ill, we only grew more tired each day, not even realizing something was happening. These people are very sick and could die if we can’t heal them. I think it must be something else. Zacharius is in jail, so he can’t be the one behind it.

  “Maybe we missed something. He could have a helper,” Abby said.

  “That would make sense. He probably needed help all these years to keep the well poisoned. We should have thought of that,” Richard said.

  “How will we find this person?” I asked.

  “I think we need to worry about healing all these people first,” Abby said

  “Abby’s right. Let’s go see the sick townspeople first.” I created a bubble of air around everyone’s head to be safe. I didn’t know if whatever sickness this was could be passed on to us by breathing it in.

  Abby nodded her thanks, and so did the others as we walked to the center of the town. Tristan led us to the sick area, and I stopped short when we came across it. So many of the townspeople were lying on blankets on the ground. Others ran between them carrying buckets of water to try to cool the fevers.

  I walked through the aisles while Fiara talked to the healers. A young girl was lying on the cot crying as I walked up to it. I sat next to her and brushed the hair out of her face.

  “Hi,” I said. “Are you sick?”

  “No, but my mommy is. Are you here to fix her?”

  “I don’t know what’s wrong yet,” I told her. “I am going to try to find out what caused everyone to get sick. Maybe you can help me. When did your mommy get sick?”

  “After breakfast. She said her tummy didn’t feel well, and she thought she would lay down for a while. She fell over before she made it to the bed, and I had to run out to the field to get my dad. He brought her to the healers.”

  “Did he get sick too?”

  “No. He is helping check the town for anyone else who is sick that may need the healers. He told me to stay here.”

  “What did your mom do this morning? Anything different than usual?”

  “No. She got me up and started doing chores. I had to do chores too. She made me help dry the dishes,” the girl pouted. “I didn’t have to do them all though because someone dropped off fresh milk at the door, and I got to go get it while my mom finished washing the dishes. Mom was surprised because milk usually comes tomorrow. Mr. Sunn must have gotten his days mixed up, Mommy said.”

  “Wait, did your mom drink the milk?”

  “Yes, she likes to put some in her coffee.”

  “What about you? Did you drink any?”

  “Yes, I finished the milk from the other bottle. Mommy got the new milk. Do you think the milk made her sick? Mr. Sunn wouldn’t give out bad milk. He loves to make milk for everyone.”

  “I don’t know yet. I’m going to go talk to Fiara about this and see what other people remember.”

  I walked back over to Fiara and told her what the little girl said. The healers quickly talked to everyone capable of answering questions. Each one had received milk that morning and drank some. Fiara sent someone to go find Mr. Sunn.

  While we waited, I walked back to the little girl and told her the milk may have made her mommy sick. Fiara came with me and sat next to her. She picked the girl up and held her on her lap while the girl sniffled.

  “You are the queen, right?” the little girl asked.

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Then you will help save my mommy, right?”

  “Yes. We are going to try to save her. Can you tell me anything else about this morning when you went to get the milk off the front porch?” asked Fiara gently.

  “No. I grabbed the bottle and went back inside.”

  “You didn’t see anyone on the road?”

  “Only the man delivering the milk.”

  “Mr. Sunn didn’t deliver it?”

  “No. Sometimes Mr. Sunn has someone help him when he is really busy.”

  “Do you remember what the man looked like?” I asked.

  “Yeah. It was the guy that works in the woodshop for Mr. Guther. He’s mean. He never waves at me when I walk by the shop. Mr. Guther always waves at me, and sometimes he even gives me a lollipop.”

  “What’s the mean man’s name?”

  “I don’t know. I call him the mean man.”

  “Thank you, little one,” Fiara said, giving her another hug before placing her back on the cot. “We are going to talk to Mr. Sunn and find this man. We will see if he can tell us anything about the milk. Ok?”

  The little girl nodded, and we walked back to the front of the room. Mr. Sunn was waiting for us and bowed when he saw Fiara. She told him what happened and asked why he sent milk out early. He told us he didn’t know what she was talking about and that he didn’t make any deliveries. Someone stole almost all of the bottles of milk stored in his barn during the night.

  I asked if he hired the mean man that the little girl had told us about.

  “I would never hire him. He is as mean as they come. He never talks to anyone and glares at everyone that comes near him. Mr. Guther is the only one he’ll talk to, and he barely does that, but Mr. Guther says he is a good worker.”

  “We need to find him,” I said. He had to be the one
who poisoned the milk. One of the healers overheard us talking and told us where the man lived. It was on the outskirts of the town. He kept fences up around it to keep everyone out, so it would be easy to find. We thanked them and left, hurrying through the town.

  As we neared the house, I crinkled my nose in disgust. An awful smell was coming from the side of the house, and a weird cloud of magic clung to the property. Fiara went to open the fence, but I stopped her.

  “Something is wrong here. Can’t you feel the dark magic?”

  I walked around the side of the house, looking for any signs of a trap. I heard a noise near the back of the house and stopped, crouching down behind the bushes. Fiara crouched down too. We snuck further along the fence line until we could see the back of the house. The back door stood open, and so did the fence. A man was running toward the jungle with a bag slung over his shoulder. The magic from the house trailed after him.

  “Fiara, that’s him. We need to stop him.”

  We took off after the man. We wouldn’t be able to catch him on foot. I used a burst of air to propel us forward, lifting us off the ground and setting us down twenty feet away. The man was almost to the jungle. I knew if he made it, we would never find him. Before I had a chance to use my magic again, Garuld fell out of the sky, diving for the man.

  The man screamed and ran faster, trying to reach the safety of the jungle. He wasn’t fast enough, and Garuld landed between him and the trees, cutting off his escape. Garuld’s tail lashed out, hitting the man in the chest. He flew backward, landing on his back. He raised his hands to shoot magic at Garuld, but we ran up to him. I used ropes of air to tie his hands to his side and stop him from hurting Garuld. He struggled against the magic but couldn’t escape. When Fiara stepped into view, the man cowered.

  “What did you do to the townspeople?” she demanded.

  “What needed to be done. They are standing in our way.”

  “Whose way and how?”

  “They wanted to wake you all up. You can’t be awake. The shadow king is going to kill us all.”