“We better keep moving,” Gary said, “but keep an eye out. When they don’t find us, they will head back this way.”
“Yeah, they know I’m not in town anymore. We better get going quickly.” We walked as fast as we could, making sure not to trip on any rocks. We didn’t need to be tumbling down the hill right now. Within a few minutes, another car made its way down the road away from town. This time it was going slowly, and when I closed my eyes to check, there was only one signature.
“It might be Macie. There’s only one magical signature in the car, though I suppose I wouldn’t be able to tell how many people are in there if they aren’t using magic.”
“What are you doing?” I hissed at Gary as stood up. The car was far enough away that the driver probably wouldn’t see him, but in another minute, he would be visible if they looked this way.
“We need to see if it’s Macie so we can get out of here before the Pulhu come back. I’m going to check it out.”
“Fine, but you better be careful,” I told him. He jogged down the hill towards the car. It stopped as he came into the driver’s view.
I watched carefully as he approached. When the driver got out, I started to stand up, but Richard grabbed me, “Stay down, something’s wrong,” he whispered.
I watched as the driver pointed at the hill and then back at Gary. Gary pointed back towards the town and across the road. Gary watched as the driver got back in the car and turned it around, heading back the way he pointed.
He waited until the car was out of sight before sprinting back to us.
“What was that about?” I asked him impatiently.
“It was Macie.”
“What do you mean it was Macie? Why didn’t we go down there then? She could have brought us back to the haven,” Richard said.
“Something was wrong. She pretended not to know me and then asked about some very dangerous travelers who she was looking for. I told her I had seen a few people head across the land the opposite way from us and the haven.”
“Good thinking,” I said. “I hope Macie is ok.”
“She looked fine. I think someone is keeping a very close eye on her right now though. I bet she called her boyfriend and asked him about some of this, and he didn’t like it.”
“Once we get back, I will call Macie and tell her you guys are back at the haven. Hopefully, they will send her back, and we can figure out if she’s all right.”
“But what do we do now? We can’t walk the whole way. Can we?”
“We could, but it would take a long time, and it would be dangerous. I’m going to call someone to help us,” said Gary.
“You can’t. What if they are on the side of the Pulhu? We can’t trust anyone,” I said.
“Even me,” Gary said. “You guys don’t trust me enough to tell me what’s really going on.”
“We know you aren’t with the Pulhu. We really are protecting you and everyone you care about. I promise I will tell you once this all settles down, but not now.”
“I wish I had a clue what we are up against.”
“We are up against the Pulhu. They want Sally more than usual,” Richard said, “They will go to great lengths to get her. Now, who are you planning on calling?”
“I’m calling an old buddy of mine. He’s a regular human, so he’s no threat to you. He has no idea about the Pulhu, though he does know about the haven, and can take us there.”
“How can we trust him?”
“He was a marine for a long time. He came over here to get away from everything and relax. His training saved my life when I got into some trouble a few years back. I’ve trusted him completely since then, and he’s never let me down. Plus, he won’t ask any questions. He always says everyone has secrets, and unless you can tell someone yours don’t expect them to tell you theirs.”
“Sounds like a smart guy,” I said. “Call him, we don’t have a lot of options here.”
Gary dialed the number and waited for him to answer. When he did, Gary told him a little bit of our situation, without telling him about the Pulhu and hung up. “He’ll be here in twenty minutes.”
“Do we need to wait here or keep walking?”
“Keep walking. I told him we would keep moving until we saw him. It’s better than staying in one spot.”
When we spotted the next car, it had only been about fifteen minutes. Gary decided he would go down to meet the car alone in case it wasn’t his friend. When the car got close to him, he started waving his hands at us to head down. We got up and ran down the slope, trying to be as careful as we could, while going as fast as possible. Gary opened the door, and we hopped in. Gary got into the front seat, and his friend sped down the street.
“So you have a bunch of people after you, and you needed a quick getaway,” the man said.
“Seems that way,” Gary responded. The man laughed.
“You’re the one who’s supposed to be helping people get away from whoever is chasing them, not me.”
“Yeah, this one didn’t go as planned, and I didn’t have any other options.”
“You know I’ll always help you if I can. How far in over your head are you? Do you need a hand?”
“Not that far yet,” Gary said. “I think after this they will be staying in the haven until it’s time to leave.”
I made a small noise in the back of my throat. The stranger heard it. “You disagree with what Gary’s saying? You want to go into town again so whoever is looking for you can find you?”
I didn’t say anything until Gary turned around. “You aren’t seriously thinking about leaving the haven again, are you? I am recommending to the council that you not be allowed to leave until your flight.”
“You can’t do that,” I said.
“Yes, I can. They obviously want you bad enough to send a lot of their good people here. I don’t want to be responsible for them kidnapping you when we can’t protect you. If not for Chet, you may have been caught today.”
“But they didn’t get me, and they won’t next time either. We don’t even need to go into town.”
“Where is it you want to go?” Gary asked.
I looked at the stranger. I didn’t want to say anything in front of him.
“Fine, you can tell me when we get back, but the answer is probably still going to be no.”
“Why?”
“Because someone is going to get hurt. I don’t know why you want to keep running off when they are after you. It’s a bad idea.”
“There’s something I have to do. Then I’ll stay in the haven for the rest of the time. Please, Gary. It’s important, or I wouldn’t ask. You know I don’t want anything happening to my friends. Do you think I would risk them for something stupid?”
Gary sighed, “I will think about it. Let’s get back to the haven first.”
“Everyone down,” the stranger said, “a car is coming.”
I looked out the front window and saw a car driving in the other lane. It was the same one that had passed us earlier with three magical signatures. I ducked down and used my magic to create a shield around everyone but the stranger.
“No one move. They can’t see us if you stay still,” I said.
Once the car passed, the stranger looked at me, “Handy skill to have. Even I couldn’t see you all.”
“I suppose it did come in handy,” I smiled a little. At least we were past them. Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any more problems.
We came to the haven gates and got out. “Thanks for helping us,” I said to the stranger. “I still don’t know your name.”
“It’s better if you don’t,” he said. “I’m glad you are all back safe. Now stay inside and listen to Gary.” He got in his car and took off.
“Interesting friend,” Richard said.
“Yeah. He can be a bit abrupt, but he’s a good guy, and he got us home.”
“Now, before I go to the council to report today’s problems, how about you tell me what you want to do tomorrow.”
“We need to go back to the beach.”
“For what? I knew you weren’t there to swim. You were looking for something.”
“We are,” I told him, “and Chet gave us the location of it, so we need to go back one more time.”
“And this is really that important?”
“Yes.”
“And you can’t tell me?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they may have some mind readers, and I don’t want them hurting you if they find out you know.”
He laughed, “Is that why you won’t tell me? Because of some mind readers possibly breaking into my mind?”
“Yes,” I told him, confused that he was laughing.
“I wish I had known that sooner. I know all the mind readers. At least the strong ones. And yes, they do have a few, but they can’t read my mind.”
“Why not?”
“No one can read my mind.”
I looked at him, still confused.
“Let me explain it this way. I’m like a black hole. If anyone tries to read my mind, all they get is empty space, and if they keep trying, they start to lose their secrets to me. It’s like my mind tries to destroy theirs. That’s why I’m the head of security at such a young age. Nobody can get any information from me about the council without my permission.”
“That’s so cool. There are so many different powers that people have. It’s awesome.”
“I guess I never looked at it like that, but yeah, there are your basic powers, but most of us have something different about us that very few people have. It’s actually pretty cool now that you mentioned it.”
“Yeah, it is.”
“So about this beach trip. Are you planning on it being dangerous?”
“Not really, but it could be.”
“Are you going to tell me what’s really going on now?”
I explained to him a little bit about having to find the water elementals but didn’t tell him why.
“You’re sure that’s where they are?”
“Nope, but I think it is. If I’m wrong, I’ll have to keep looking.”
“And if you’re right?”
“Then I can find out what they want from me,” I said.
“That’s all?”
“Yes,” I said, “and Chet wants me to see if his grandson is there. He’s been missing for a couple of months.”
“And he thinks they took him?” he lifted an eyebrow. “This sounds more dangerous than you’re letting on.”
“They asked me to come, so I don’t think it will be dangerous. It will be more dangerous getting there without the Pulhu finding out, but that’s what you’re here for, right? You can find a way to get us there without them knowing.”
“Macie isn’t going to be with us, so they shouldn’t be able to find out,” he started.
“Don’t trust anyone else either. Who knows how many others have been influenced by them?”
“I won’t,” he said. “I’m assuming you want to go tomorrow.”
“Yes, the sooner, the better.”
“Ok, I’ll figure it out, and we’ll go tomorrow, but that’s it. I don’t want to keep putting your lives or mine, and the other security guys lives in danger if I don’t have too.”
“Deal,” I said, heading towards my room. “Hey,” I stopped and turned around, “let me know how Macie is when you hear from her.”
“I will,” he replied.
It was surprisingly early in the afternoon, but it felt like I had been out for much longer. I said bye to my friends and went to my room to rest for a bit. I wasn’t surprised when Abby knocked on my door.
“How are you doing?” I asked her as she came in.
“I’m better,” she said.
“What if we don’t find it?” Abby asked.
“We will. I’m sure of it. Otherwise, we will have to sneak out.”
We made quick work of the hike the next morning, each of us lost in our own thoughts. When we finally got to the bay, I took off my clothes, so I was in my bathing suit. I shoved them in a plastic bag and zipped it up. I didn’t want my clothes to be soaking wet the whole time we were in the palace, so we had come prepared.
At first, I couldn’t find anything in the lake, but eventually, Tider swam up to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me with him. He pointed to an area in the rock that looked a lot like an arch. I started running my hands over it, looking for any sign of a keyhole or handle we could use. The rock was covered in algae, making it even harder to see. I swam back a few feet and looked at the arch again. I could make out an area that looked like it had less algae on it than the rest of the door.
I swam over and saw a small indentation in the rock. It was shaped like the Celtic knot on the bracelet. I knew this was the spot. I wasn’t sure how the magic would work, so I got everyone’s attention. I didn’t want anyone to be left behind. I reached out and grabbed Richard’s hand. He grabbed Abby’s, and she grabbed Tider’s. Tider swam up and put his arm on my shoulder. I pushed the Celtic knot onto the indentation.
Immediately I felt magic pushing out from the arch. It swirled around us, and the inside of the arch turned transparent. I could see a hallway leading away from it, and I pushed my hand against the transparent stone. It went right through. I swam through the arch, and my friends came with me. As soon as we were through, we fell to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
“What happened?” Abby asked.
I looked back at the arch. I could still see the water on the other side, but there wasn’t any in the hallway. “We fell out of the water. Next time let’s swim towards the bottom of the arch. That way, we don’t fall as far.” I smiled at everyone, “We made it.”
“Yeah, but now what do we do?” Tider asked looking around. There was only one hallway but it was massive.
“I think we should stay quiet. I would like to find out where Chet’s grandson is. He would have come back if he could. He must be stuck here somehow.”
“No splitting up,” Richard whispered. “I think I hear people walking farther down the hall.”
There were paintings of great battles between elementals on both sides of the hall. All of them showing water elementals winning. There were also several paintings showing regular humans worshipping the elementals and serving them. I didn’t like those paintings. We came to another hallway that split off from the main one. There didn’t seem to be anyone in either hall, and I wasn’t sure which way to go.
“I think we should stay in the main hall. We can look down the other ones later, but until we know more, we could get lost or be going in circles if we start splitting away from the main hall. Besides, this should lead us somewhere good. It’s almost twice as big as the other hallway,” Abby said.
We continued down the hallway, looking for any signs of water elementals, sprites, or Chet’s grandson. The hall seemed to go on forever. It split up a few more times before finally opening into a large room.
At the other end of the room, I saw two intricately carved thrones. Thankfully they were empty. I wasn’t sure I was ready to meet whoever sat in those thrones. I wanted to find the water sprites since that’s what the note said to do.
“Let’s head back and check out the other halls,” I said.
“Yeah, I don’t really want to get caught in this room,” said Abby.
We turned around to head back but were met with a wall of water coming down the hall. There was nowhere to go but forward, and we ran into the throne room, trying to get to the other side. I raised my hand and saw Tider and Richard do the same. As I was about to use my magic to stop the water, a hand gripped me from behind. I was lifted up and thrown over someone’s shoulder. I began thrashing around, trying to break the grip of my captor.
“Enough, or I’ll make sure you can’t do anything,” a male voice threatened me.
I looked over to see my friends had also been picked up. Richard hung limply in his captor’s arms, but Tider was still fighting
. The giant of a man holding him reached his hand up and hit him over the head. Tider went as limp as Richard.
“No,” I yelled, “don’t hurt them.” I could see Abby on my other side. She wasn’t struggling, so they hadn’t knocked her out. “Please don’t hurt them. We aren’t here to cause any trouble.”
“Yeah, right,” the man holding me said.
“We really aren’t. I was told to come here.”
“Whatever,” was his only reply. “Humans aren’t allowed here, and yet lately, we seem to have an infestation of them.” He had to be talking about Chet’s grandson. I didn’t say anything.
“Let’s go,” he said to the others.
“I can walk,” I told him. “I won’t try anything.”
He laughed, “Even if you did try something, we would stop you.” He put me down and grabbed my shoulder.
He pushed me towards a door on the other side of the room. Once I started walking, he loosened his grip. Not much but enough that I could look around. I hadn’t noticed at the time because of my struggling, but these guys were glowing. All around them was a pale blue light. I turned further to look at the one gripping me. His glow was stronger than the others. It was a darker blue too.
“What are you?” I gasped.
“What?” He spluttered. “You don’t know what we are, and you’re in our palace.”
“Wait, you’re elementals? Really?” I asked excitedly. “Then you can tell me why I’m here.”
He looked even more confused, “We don’t know why you are here. You shouldn’t be.”
“I was told to come, so you have to know why I’m here,” I could hear the pleading in my voice. What if everything we had done was for nothing. There had to be a reason I was here.
“You are trying to confuse me, witch,” he said and pushed me forward again.
“I’m not,” I said. “I want answers.”
“We never told you to come. We don’t allow humans here.”
“But.”
“No buts. I’m not sure what you are doing, but I’ve had enough.”
He marched straight through the door and down a long set of stairs. There were a lot of different hallways, but he kept going down the stairs. It took a long time before we came to a door at the end. The dungeon. It had to be.
Lost Tides: Elemental Seekers Series Page 20