Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  “The shadow king isn’t the one poisoning us, you are. And Zacharius. Did he tell you this?”

  “The shadow king told him to make you sleep. He had to do what he was told. The shadow king is mad at you for protecting humans.”

  “The shadow king knew we were protecting you, fool. Do you think he is stupid? He knows everything we do. As long as you were all under our protection in the fire realm and didn’t interact with regular humans, he wouldn’t hurt any of us. Zacharius lied to you, and you fell for it.”

  “No, Zacharius wouldn’t lie to me. He has taken care of me since the beginning. He is the one who told me to come into this realm, so I wouldn’t be killed. He only wants to protect us all.”

  There was no way we would get through to this man. He really thought Zacharius was trying to help them. Fiara realized the same thing and changed her questioning.

  “How did you poison the townspeople?”

  “I can’t tell you,” he said.

  “You will tell me,” Fiara said, raising her hands. The man stared at her but refused to talk.

  “If you don’t tell her, I will send Garuld after Zacharius. You know we captured him, right?” I asked.

  His eyes got big, and I could see his fear for the man he thought was his friend. I didn’t like using his feelings against him, but we needed to save the people. I could feel bad later.

  “Garuld,” the queen raised her voice. The large dragon padded over to her, dropping his head so he could look at the man. “Go get Zacharius. Don’t hurt him too bad carrying him here.”

  Garuld lifted one of his feet, clicking his claws together. They were only inches from the man’s face. I saw him gulp.

  “Fine, I’ll tell you,” he said as Garuld turned away, getting ready to take off. Garuld’s head turned back to look at the queen.

  “Wait. Let’s see what he has to say.” Garuld stepped back and lowered his wings.

  “We made the poison as a failsafe in case the townspeople found out what was happening and tried to stop us. Zacharius used the bokal berry to create the poison. There is nothing you can do for them.” He seemed pleased as he said this.

  Garuld roared, and Fiara shook her head. “No, he couldn’t.” Garuld bumped Fiara’s head as she stared at nothing. I saw a tear fall down her face.

  “What’s wrong? We know what the poison is made from. Let’s go make the antidote.”

  “There isn’t one,” Fiara said sadly. “That is the most poisonous berry in the fire realm. Touching it causes sickness and occasionally death, but to ingest any part of it is fatal. There is no way to save them.”

  She turned to the man on the ground. “How could you be so hateful. You killed mothers, fathers, and even children. Whole families are dying because of you. They never hurt you. Why would you do this to them.”

  The man cowered again. “We did it to save everyone.”

  “No, you did it because you are a fool, and you believed a man who caused us to be sent to our own realms in the first place.”

  The man looked shocked when Fiara said this. I told him exactly who Zacharius was, but he refused to believe me, shaking his head and muttering no over and over. I felt bad for him until I remember the little girl asking me to save her mom.

  “Garuld, please take him to the dungeons. We must go back to the town and tell them what has happened and that there is no hope of making a cure. The families will want to spend as much time together as possible before the end.”

  Garuld roared and grabbed the man with his front claws, jumping skyward and taking off toward the palace. I walked back to the town center with Fiara. She didn’t talk, and I saw tears streaming down her face as we walked through the town. People stopped to watch her, and she called for them to follow her. In the center of the town, she turned to face everyone.

  “I have bad news,” her voice cracked, and she took a deep breath. “The milk everyone drank this morning was poisoned with the bokal berry.” A gasp swept through the crowd. Many of the townspeople started to weep.

  “Is there nothing you can do?” someone asked.

  “No, you all know there is no antidote, and our magic can’t heal them from this. The person responsible has been taken to the dungeons, and we will deal with him.”

  No one said anything else. I listened to the cries of the townspeople and felt my own heart break. Abby walked up to me and put her arm around my shoulders, trying to comfort me. She had tears in her eyes too.

  “We can’t let all these people die,” I told her.

  “There’s nothing we can do to stop it. You heard Fiara. There is no antidote.”

  “There may not be an antidote, but we may be able to do something to save these people. I am supposed to have power over life and death. Isn’t that what we read in one of the books on void?”

  “Sally, no. It could destroy you. You still don’t know enough about void magic. What if you are consumed by the darkness?”

  “If the darkness takes me over, you will have to destroy me. I have no choice. I refuse to let these people die when there is a chance I can help them.”

  Fiara was listening to us, so were a few people in the front row of the crowd. I looked into their hopeful faces. People began to whisper and stop crying, waiting for me to say more.

  “Bring all the sick people to the town center. I am going to try and save them. It might not work, but at least we can give them one more chance. Hurry. Check every building to make sure. You have one hour.”

  By the time all the houses were checked, Richard, Tider, and Adam were back in the town with us. So were all the other fighters. I told them what I had planned. The guys argued with me, but I wouldn’t back down. I had to try. Once I was ready, I stood in front of all the sick people and raised my hands. I closed my eyes to concentrate and called on void.

  The golden colors of void surrounded me, making me feel light and carefree. I let the magic spread out around me, keeping any dark threads of void from weaving their way into my magic. It didn’t stop the dark magic from trying. It hovered close to the golden magic, wanting to get out and take over.

  I felt the darkness trying to force its way into my mind. I could almost hear its whisper, begging me to use it, promising me it could help heal the people. The cost of the dark magic was too high though, and I ignored it, focusing on only the golden magic.

  I was very careful to make sure the magic didn’t get out of control. When I felt like the magic would burst out of me, I threw my hands up and asked it to heal all the people in the town. The golden magic swept through the town square, covering every living thing in a shower of love.

  All the townspeople smiled as void magic touched their skin. I watched as it worked its way through the sick and injured. The magic flowed down into them before shooting back out, eradicating every piece of poison. When the magic finally came back to me, I was shaking. I hadn’t noticed Richard put his arm around me, or my other friends come over and link hands, adding their power to mine.

  I smiled as the magic left me with a calm, happy feeling. My knees buckled, and Richard and Adam lifted me. They helped slowly lower me to the ground, not breaking contact with me. Abby told Fiara what was going to happen when we let go of each other, and she called all the healers to come help us. Adam counted down, and on three, they let go of me. Immediately, I felt the loss of their energy, and my eyes slammed closed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Everyone was still in the town center when I opened my eyes. “You were only out for a minute,” the healer told me. “We gave you a small dose of energy to help you wake up.” She held up a small vial. It was the same potion I used when I first came to the fire realm. I tried to tell her that I wasn’t supposed to take any more of it.

  “You will be fine, don’t worry. I am the master healer here, and I made sure you would be able to handle it before giving it to you. As you can tell, you are still exhausted. You barely had a sip. Now come on, let’s get you up. The people want to see their sa
vior.”

  She helped me stand up. Fiara came to stand by my side. “Thank you for saving them, Sally. They would have died without you.”

  She turned to the people. “Sally is awake. She will be fine.” Everyone cheered and celebrated. I was glad they were all so happy. Fiara helped me walk forward until a tug on my shirt stopped me. The little girl who had given us information stood next to me.

  “Thank you,” she said. “You saved my mommy.” I looked at the woman standing near the little girl. She smiled at me and nodded her thanks. I smiled too. I really had saved these people. They were already up and moving around as if they had never been sick in the first place. The little girl gave me a hug and then ran back to her mom.

  Tristan stepped in front of me, stopping me from following Fiara.

  “Thank you for what you did,” he said. “I know how hard it was to use that magic. You must try not to use it again. If the dark magic seeps into you, it will eventually consume you. It can take years for it to happen.”

  “How do you know this? How do you know about the dark and light magic?”

  “I knew someone once who had void. She was a beautiful woman until the darkness got ahold of her. She told me all about void magic.”

  “Can you tell me?” I asked. “I barely have any clue what to do with void magic. There are only a handful of books that I have been able to read about it.”

  “Void users were very secretive and didn’t write much down. They feared others would find the books and find a way to access void, plunging the world into darkness. Very few were able to control void. Those that could stayed away from most of the elementals. They thought it was safer that way.”

  “Was it?” I asked.

  “No one really knows, but the woman I told you about didn’t think so. She thought void users should tell the other elementals more about their power. Maybe if they understood exactly how dangerous void could be, they wouldn’t want as much magic.”

  “So dark magic came from void users?”

  “Dark magic can be used by any elemental, but yes, the first dark magic was taught to elementals by a void user. Thankfully they were stopped long before they became too powerful, but others followed in their path. Eventually, enough books on dark magic were written that any elemental trying to amass a lot of power could learn how to do dark magic, like Zacharius.”

  “Does every void user eventually get consumed by the darkness?”

  “No, but most of them do. Usually, they realize what is happening, and many take their own lives. Some give in to the darkness and become dark magic users. Not all are equal in power though. Many void users are weak in void magic. It’s a good thing, or no one would be able to stop them. You, on the other hand, are incredibly strong. You may be able to harness your void magic and never give in to the darkness.”

  “Do you really think I will be able to?”

  “Maybe. If you continue to make the right choices. You will have to embrace your void magic at some point if you want to defeat what is coming for us. It might be too much for you. Only time will tell. Don’t use it unless you have to. That’s your best chance of not being corrupted.”

  “Do you know what is coming for us?”

  “I know its name is Helerium but what that means I still haven’t figured out. That is all I can tell you about void. I wish you safe travels, Sally,” Tristan gave me a small bow and walked away. I wanted to chase after him and ask him more questions, but I knew that was all he could answer for me. I was happy to have gotten some more information on void.

  Gavin stopped me next. It was getting hard to stand up, but I tried to pretend I wasn’t exhausted. He thanked me for helping his people and gave me a quick hug. I told him how much we appreciated his help and that I hoped to see him again someday. He moved away to say goodbye to my other friends as I started walking.

  I continued forward until we reached Garuld. Fiara helped me get on his back, and she climbed up behind me. My friends were already on other dragons. When I asked Fiara where we were going, she told me she was taking me to the castle to rest. That sounded fine with me. I waved and smiled to the people in the town as Garuld flew into the sky. As he wheeled around toward the castle, I felt a small disturbance coming from that area.

  It was gone so fast I thought it must be my magic adjusting to using such a large amount of void. When we dismounted and headed into the castle, I thought I felt something off again, but when I tried to figure out what, the feeling disappeared. I let Fiara lead me to a room and fell into the bed. She laughed and slipped my shoes off. Pulling the covers over me, she told me she would send someone to wake me for dinner in a few hours.

  It didn’t feel like any time had passed when someone was shaking me awake. I opened my eyes to see Abby above me. She looked frantic.

  “I can’t find Adam.”

  “Did you ask Richard?” I asked groggily.

  “Of course, I did. He can’t find him either, and Tider hasn’t seen him since they went to their rooms.”

  The panic in Abby’s voice made me wake up. I reached out with my mind, looking for Adam. His mind was easy to find. I had been in it enough times to know exactly what it felt like, but it was far away. I could barely hear him when I connected our minds.

  “Where are you?”

  “Help, Sally. Zacharius escaped. He took me with him. I felt like something was wrong in the castle, and I went to investigate it. It was a trap, and Zacharius was able to overpower me. He is taking me to some secret house of his past the mountain. I think he is going to try to control me so I turn on you guys.”

  “Calm down, Adam. We are coming for you. I won’t let him hurt you. Buy us some time. I’m going to get every one right now. Stay connected to me so you know what I’m doing, and I can track you. You feel far away. How did he get so far away this quickly?”

  “Sally, I’ve been with him all night. He hasn’t stopped to rest at all.”

  “All night?” I turned to Abby. “How long have I been asleep. I thought Fiara was going to wake me for dinner.”

  “We tried, but you didn’t want to wake up. Finally, we decided to let you sleep until morning. Adam was with us at dinner, but I couldn’t find him this morning. He was supposed to meet me before breakfast.”

  “We need to go,” I said. We would need a dragon to make it to Adam’s location before Zacharius did something to him.

  I had been slipping my shoes on as I talked to Adam and Abby. I ran into the hallway, Abby following. I called out to Sievroth with my mind, screaming his name. I heard echoing roars all along the outside of the castle. I ran through the gates and directly into the dragons. Sievroth flew up to me and head-butted me, trying to calm me down.

  Garuld reached me next, extending his head to look at me. “What is wrong?” he asked.

  “He took Adam. We must get him back. We need to go.”

  Fiara came running out of the castle, along with Richard and Tider. “Zacharius has escaped, and he took Adam. We need to save him,” I said.

  The dragons bent down so we could climb on their backs. I rode with Fiara on Garuld again. As soon as we were in the air, I closed my eyes, focusing on Adam. I led them toward him, and Garuld flew as fast as he could. I was terrified we wouldn’t get there in time, but I tried to remain calm so Adam wouldn’t get more worked up. He was already scared enough. We were passing the mountain when I felt Adam yell in my mind.

  “We are at his house, Sally. He is getting ingredients out. Hurry.”

  I relayed the information to Garuld, and we moved even faster. We reached the trees, and I followed the connection. “There,” I said to Garuld, sending a picture of the house below us into Garuld’s mind. He flew above the trees where the house was hiding, but he couldn’t land. I grabbed Fiara’s hand and jumped off of Garuld, pulling her with me. I silenced her scream with my hand and used air to slow us down before we hit the ground. It was still a hard landing, but neither of us was too hurt.

  “Sorry,” I whis
pered. She nodded but stayed quiet. The others would have to find their own way down. I couldn’t wait for them.

  The house was only a few hundred feet in front of us, and I moved quickly through the trees, watching for any sign of a trap. We made it to the house, and Adam told me Zacharius was almost finished mixing the ingredients. I moved to the front door and used a blast of air to push it in.

  It startled Zacharius, and I used the moment of confusion to create a funnel of air around him, holding him in place. He lifted his arm. Dark flames flew from his hands, swirling around the funnel and causing it to break apart. The dark flames shot toward me. I swept my arm out, causing the ground beneath the cabin to shoot through the floor. The flames hit the lifted ground and went out.

  I tried again to contain Zacharius, but his dark flames were able to combat everything I threw at him. Fiara was trying to hurt him with her own fire, but it wasn’t doing any damage either. While he was distracted with Fiara’s attack, I created a tunnel next to Adam that went outside the house and then used air to push him into it and shoot him outside.

  Zacharius bellowed when he realized I freed his captive. He threw the dark flames at me one after another forcing me to back up again and again until we were outside. One of the flames hit me and wrapped around my arm. The skin sizzled and burned, making me scream in agony.

  I heard Sievroth growl from behind me, and he shot a stream of fire at Zacharius. The dragon fire destroyed the black flames Zacharius was throwing at me, but he threw up a shield, and Sievroth’s flame stopped moving forward. We couldn’t hit Zacharius. The dark fire was still crawling up my arm, causing more and more of it to burn.

  I tried to ignore it, knowing Abby would heal it once we defeated Zacharius. As soon as Sievroth’s flame stopped, Zacharius started throwing more black flames at me. I was able to stop them from hitting me, but I wouldn’t be able to last much longer. Fiara tried to defend me, but she was almost powerless against Zacharius.