The Elemental Diaries - Complete Series

by Andrea Lamoureux

  I thought about trying to fight him with my power, but there were too many against us. We had lost. We were doomed to spend the rest of our days in darkness.

  Chapter 29

  Shame filled me as I snatched up one of the pieces of stale bread, which a guard had tossed down into the pit. I didn’t want to live and allow Vesirus to see me suffer, but instinct won over, and I couldn’t help myself. I stuffed the hard bits of bread into my mouth and washed them down with water.

  Phyra nibbled on a piece beside me, making a face at the taste. “Are we to live on scraps until there’s nothing left to feed us?”

  “He means to break us. He believes we’ll do whatever he commands, like the other mortals who follow him, once we’ve tired of suffering. We must never give him the satisfaction. I will never drink his demon blood.” My fingernails dug into the ground on which I sat.

  “Nor shall I.” Her calmness unnerved me. She seemed to accept her new fate. When I didn’t add anything else, she asked, “What do you think happened to Chel and Sepheus?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe demons made a meal out of them, or they could be out there hiding somewhere. Either way, we’re all dead.”

  “I think Percifal must be—gone too.” Her voice came out tight. “He’d be here to help us if he still breathed.”

  I stretched my legs out in front of me and leaned my head back. “I wish I could say the same for Ramiel.”

  Phyra put her hand on my shoulder. “I’m sorry he’s abandoned you. I know he’s a guardian and you said he’s not supposed to interfere, but he truly seemed to care about you.”

  “He cared about me as much as he could. Celestia is the one I feel most betrayed by. She’s supposed to love us, her children. And yet she turns a blind eye when we’re in real trouble. How is that love?”

  She pulled her hand away and tilted her head, the shimmering flames from her fiery orb reflecting off the emerald facets of her eyes. “Perhaps our goddess is testing us. By not giving in to Vesirus, we shall be able to return to her in death.”

  I bit my tongue to keep from laughing. “Your faith in the goddess amazes me,” I managed.

  “What else do we have left but our faith?”

  Nothing. We had nothing left.

  I sank down and laid my head on the dirt. The stale bread sat in my stomach like a rock, but for once, the emptiness eating me from the inside abated and sleep pulled me under.

  Phyra shook me awake in what felt like only moments later.

  I straightened up and followed the finger she pointed. A rope dangled down from the top of the pit. So soon? The feeding ritual couldn’t have been more than two days ago. What did Vesirus want with us now?

  My prison mate hurried to the rope and wrapped it around her wrists before it went tight and she was pulled up and over the edge.

  I guzzled back some water and tossed the skin down to wait for my turn.

  The rope lowered once Phyra disappeared over the top of the pit. I grabbed on and braced myself.

  I expected to see another guard or Mintosa when I climbed over the lip of soil. Instead, only the hunchbacked man with the hood helped me stand. He already had Phyra bound and motioned for me to hold out my wrists. I stared into his deep cowl and refused. “If you wish to leash me, you’ll have to force me. But remember, there’s only one of you. There are two of us.” I winked at Phyra.

  He kept his silence but grabbed onto my arm and pushed me forward as he pulled the fire elemental along with us.

  His lack of words infuriated me. “Who are you? Where are you taking us?” I snarled. “Say something!”

  He didn’t reply. I ducked and twisted to free myself from his grasp, causing some of the prisoners to stir in their cages and witness the excitement.

  The hunchback regained control quicker than I’d bargained for. He grabbed me around the waist and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of grain.

  I opened my mouth to scream, but a short blade pressed against my ribs.

  Phyra glanced down at the rope around her wrists.

  He saw the thoughts written on her face and rasped in a broken voice, “Try anything and she dies.”

  Her eyes flicked back to him, and she lowered her chin. She walked forth in submission.

  “So, he does speak,” I goaded him. “Are you another one of Vesirus’s lackeys then?”

  His answer was the steel pressing harder against the material of my worn-out tunic, hard enough to indent my flesh beneath.

  I decided it best to keep my mouth shut the rest of the way.

  “Where are you taking us?” Phyra demanded.

  No answer.

  The ground bounced with each step he took. The hard lump of his back dug into my chest. It felt strange… almost like a spine curved the wrong way. He had to be some sort of demon.

  I didn’t pay attention to where we were going until we passed through a door and Phyra gasped, “Look.”

  I lifted my head as fresh air brushed against my cheek, the stench of the dungeon left behind. Barren trees, turned black with slime, lined the muddy path. The sky remained moonless. And no stars winked down from high in the heavens above. Most shocking of all, the irradiant snow had almost completely melted. Only a few patches of white lay like tattered blankets around mounds of dirt.

  A layer of ice still coated the palace. Pavanas’s magic hadn’t yet been extinguished.

  A few of Vesirus’s guards lingered around, watching us with their never-ending glowing stares. None of them cared enough to question our captor. Not until we reached the end of the inner courtyard.

  Two guards stepped closer as we neared the stone archway. “What are you doing with the Dark Lord’s prisoners?” a woman with braided rusty brown hair asked.

  “Following orders,” the hunchback rasped.

  The guard’s comrade, an older man with thick black hair, freed his blade from its sheath. “You will not go any farther with these prisoners until we confirm this with the Dark Lord.”

  Our captor threw me down and unleashed his own weapon. The male guard’s head fell to the ground with a thump before he could move to strike.

  His comrade hissed and crouched low, sword already in hand.

  I gasped for air, but the wind had been knocked from my chest. When I was finally able to draw breath, I got to my knees in time to see the hunchback’s blade slice the woman’s iron in half.

  I only knew of one blade that could accomplish such a feat.

  The female guard threw herself at him, barring her teeth like a predator.

  He shoved his sword right through her skull, as though it was a soft dessert, and then he slid it free. She toppled backward, the glow in her eyes fading away to become nothing but the dim eyes of a mortal after receiving the kiss of death.

  Phyra looked to me, waiting for some sort of a signal. Strike now, while he’s off his guard.

  But I turned away from her and planted my feet before our captor; the one who’d slain the two guards with such ease I should be fighting for my life. Even if I didn’t recognize his sword, I knew his fighting motions as well as I knew the back of my hand.

  “Did you really need to use a blade on me to get us out here?” I accused.

  “Aura, run!” Phyra tensed, ready to take off.

  I held up my hand. “Wait.”

  The hunchback, still wearing his hood, clasped his hand around my wrist. “Not here.”

  I glowered but let him pull us both along to the outer courtyard made up of gnarly, dead trees. I remembered how beautiful they once were, covered in glimmering frost. Now, they reminded me of bony hands reaching up to rip the stars from the sky. And then I remembered there were no more stars.

  We made a turn, and I knew exactly where he planned to take us. But where the Temple should have stood, we found nothing but a pile of charred wood and ashes.

  I gaped at the ruins. Of course, Vesirus and his creatures would have destroyed anything built to honour the goddess.

  “I don�
��t understand,” Phyra put in.

  Her voice brought me back to the present. “Would you mind giving us some light?” I asked her, still annoyed at the way our captor had handled me.

  A small orb appeared above her palm, illuminating her puzzled expression.

  I tugged the hunchback’s hood back. “Seriously, Ramiel, you couldn’t have found a better way to get us here?” He didn’t have a hunched back at all. The wings he hid beneath his cloak only made it appear so. Clever.

  The fire elemental’s breath whooshed out, and she had to re-ignite her orb.

  “Not without raising suspicion,” my guardian answered. He smiled slyly. “Didn’t like my blade in your side?”

  The blood heated within my veins. “If you ever threaten me again, I’ll—I’ll—”

  “You’ll what?”

  I couldn’t finish whatever I wanted to say. Too much emotion bubbled up out of my throat. Tears coated my burning eyes. I wrapped my arms around him and buried my face in his chest. “I thought you’d forsaken me,” I sobbed.

  He shifted to peer down at me. “I’ve been with you the whole time. I had to gain trust from our enemies. I couldn’t take you away without getting both of you killed.”

  I took another moment to regain my composure. “You couldn’t have come to me in a dream?”

  He released me. “The darkness in your realm is limiting my abilities.”

  “You could’ve given me a sign,” I argued.

  “Too much risk. I needed you to believe me an enemy for this plan to work. You saw all the pairs of eyes watching us. Those guards challenged me even though they believe me one of them.”

  I scoffed. “You have such little faith in my acting skills.”

  “What about the others?” Phyra interrupted.

  His starry eyes lit up, giving me a hope I’d thought lost forever. “They wait in the cave beneath this pile of wood.”

  “At the Chamber of Eternal Rest,” I finished.

  “Yes,” he grinned, a sight I’d missed more than I thought. “I found them in the lands outside of Ventosa and brought them here. I recovered the opening after they went in.” I’d never seen a smile so beautiful. He had come. We wouldn’t be forced to suffer a life under Vesirus’s rule. I’d never let the Dark Lord get his hands on me again.

  “Percifal?” Phyra pressed. “Is he there too?”

  His smile wavered. “No. I don’t know where your mortal lover is.”

  “Is he dead?” she tried again.

  “I’m sorry. I’ve been here. I don’t know whether he still lives.”

  She swallowed hard, lowering her head. “I understand.”

  I felt for her. Truly, I did. But we didn’t have time to wallow in our grief. “Come. Let’s go before someone notices we’re missing.”

  Ramiel showed us the spot he’d covered up with burned boards. I would’ve complained he’d done too well in hiding the entrance, except I was glad he did. We dug through the burned beams and planks that once made up the Temple. All those scrolls and tomes… lost.

  Sorrow swept across Phyra’s face as she moved part of a broken piece of statue. She trailed her fingers along a marble chunk of Celestia’s face. “They will pay for their sacrilege.”

  I continued digging, my hands covered in soot, until an opening gaped back at me. I smiled at the stairs leading down to the final resting place of Ventosa’s royals. “I found it.”

  The tomb was hidden beneath the Temple’s floor. Only Celestia’s priestesses and the royal family knew of its location, due to the risk of desecration and theft. All royals were laid to rest with their favourite jewels, and not all of them were loved by their people. After their death ceremony, they were brought to the icy cave to be preserved in blocks of ice. I prayed the ice stayed solid with the heating climate.

  I let Phyra go first to light the way. I started down the steps and glanced over my shoulder at Ramiel.

  He unstrapped the sword hidden in the folds of his black cloak. “Take this. I know you lost yours.”

  I didn’t move to accept the weapon. “But—what about you? You’re coming with us.”

  “No, I need to cover up the entrance again so that no one finds you.”

  I blinked. “But…” I’d only just found him again.

  “Take my sword, Auralina.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and placed my hands on the weapon forged by my goddess. “We will meet again.”

  He let go of the sheathed blade. “You can do this.”

  Before I could fall on my knees and beg him to come with us, I turned my back and followed Phyra down the stairs.

  Too fast. I moved too quickly and lost my footing on one of the slippery steps, taking the fire elemental down with me. We slid and rolled all the way to the bottom, the orb of light flickering out as she lost her focus.

  We hit the icy floor at the end of the stairs hard, our bodies covered in fresh bruises.

  Phyra slowly got to her feet and produced a new orb. “Watch your step next time!” she shot.

  I opened my mouth to retort when someone applauded from nearby.

  “What a grand entrance, ladies,” Seph teased, stepping into the light.

  Chel winced at our sorely state.

  “How wonderful to see you too,” I deadpanned. I brushed myself off and bent to pick up my sword so I could strap it to my back.

  The water elemental threw her arms around Phyra. “I’m so relieved you’re alive.”

  “As am I, with you,” she replied, returning the embrace.

  I glanced around the cave. Ice still coated the space this far beneath the ground. Frozen coffins lined the walls. I walked up to each of them and studied the faces of the royals who’d passed away. Each lay encased in glass and ice, wearing a different crown, their faces at peace… their skin pale shades of blue. The others watched as I wound my way through the narrow cave, searching and searching.

  When I came upon the one I was looking for, my breath hitched. I splayed my fingers over the solid ice covering my mother’s body. As beautiful as I remembered her. I hadn’t been permitted to attend her death ceremony. Seeing her brought back that unfinished grief. My tears spilled onto the spot above her face. She wore a gorgeous gown of violet and ivory. The amethysts around her neck gleamed against the light from the orb. She looked cold, so cold. I wanted to hold her and tell her I was there, and that I was sorry. But it didn’t matter. She already knew. It was time to make her proud.

  I faced the others… my family, not by blood but by spirit. For that’s what they were. I cared about them. I would die for them. We were connected by magic and by purpose. “Do you have the scepter?” I asked Sepheus.

  He opened his cloak and tapped the metallic staff beside his blade.

  “Thank goddess.” I gave him and Chel a pointed look each in turn. “You’re not going to like what I’m about to tell you.”

  Chapter 30

  “No. I won’t accept this. What gives you the right to make this decision? You’re insane,” Chel raged.

  I let her fume and asked Seph, “Do you want to do it?”

  “No!” Chel answered for him.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “See. You two are in love. I wouldn’t ask either of you to lose one another. Phyra has Percifal to think of.”

  “We don’t know that,” she interjected, looking down at her hands.

  “It doesn’t matter.” I pushed my shoulders back. “You all have people who care about you. My kingdom locked me in a tower and tried to forget about me. And even if I wanted to rule, they love Star. So, let me take on this burden. Help me save our realm. I’ve accepted this sacrifice. You must too.”

  Phyra’s lips quivered. “We love you, Aura. You are not alone anymore.”

  “Then, let me do this.”

  She searched my face as if looking for some sign of fear. She nodded and released a breath when she found none. “I’ve already told you I agree to this.”

  “If this is what you want�
�” Seph spread out his hands.

  “I do.” I watched Chel, waiting for her answer.

  She pursed her lips. “Fine, but I’m not happy about this.”

  “No one is,” I replied.

  “Who will watch over our bodies in case anything goes wrong?” Phyra asked.

  As though someone listened in on our conversation, a beam of light flashed at the end of the ice cave, washing it with hues of white and blue.

  I readied my sword. We’d come too close to fail now.

  But the sound of hooves clopping echoed off the frosted walls.

  “Antarus,” Phyra gasped.

  I couldn’t believe it. The unicorn from my dream all those seasons ago tossed its head and flicked its silky white tail. Celestia was watching.

  “Do you think he’ll be able to stop our enemies?” Seph questioned with a hint of doubt.

  Chel shoved him in the arm. “Haven’t you heard the legend? We’ll be safer with Antarus than any mortal.”

  A bolt of ice-blue lightning shot from the unicorn’s golden horn, hitting the space beside Seph’s feet.

  He leaped out of the way. “Point taken!”

  “Enough.” I moved to the empty rectangular cubes of glass where no bodies had yet been laid to rest. Normally, water would be poured over the body of the deceased each day, allowing it to freeze, until the cube was full. We would only be using the empty coffins temporarily. “No more wasting time.”

  Sepheus placed the rod of silver topped with a jewelled ball in my hand.

  “Who wants to go first?” I asked them.

  “It may as well be me,” Seph offered.

  I tapped the glass of one of the empty coffins.

  The earth elemental climbed in and rolled onto his back. His length took up the entire space of the cube.

  I held the scepter up to his chest. “When you wake, I will be gone.”

  “What if this is all a lie? What if you keep our power all to yourself, and we go on in an eternal slumber?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “You would question my loyalty now? I cannot contain so much power. Even if I could, I would end my life if it meant sparing the lives of three others.”