I put my hands on the desk. Immediately Hilail moved to stop me, but I put my hand up. “The king gave me this task so you can stop. Unless I’m hurting someone, you need to let me do what I’m supposed to,” I glared at him. He wasn’t happy, but he backed down.
“Now,” I said to the lady, “I’m sure your princess would like to meet the humans that are visiting her palace. Especially since we are here to help her father.”
I could tell she still didn’t think it was a good idea.
“If you don’t let us in to see her, or at least ask her if she wants to see us, and her dad, the king, falls to the curse because of it, how do you think she will feel? She definitely won’t appreciate what you’re trying to do.”
Finally, the lady sighed, got up, and went to the door, “Stay here,” she told me. I waited while she went through the door and came back out a few minutes later with an older elemental following her. The older elemental glared at me before hurrying away. The door opened again, and a tall, beautiful female elemental stood there.
“Well, are you coming?” she asked me.
“Yes, your highness,” I hurried to add since she was a princess.
She huffed and then walked into the room with us following, “Hilail, not you.”
Hilail stopped, “But you don’t know what they will do, princess. You could be hurt.”
“Do you think me so weak that I can’t take a couple of humans down?” she asked him in a fake sweet voice.
“No, princess, of course, you could defeat them. You shouldn’t have to. That is the guard’s job, and your father said to stay with them.”
“That’s the real reason. You don’t want to disappoint my dear old dad. You couldn’t care less about me getting hurt. I will talk to my father if he has a problem with me meeting them. Now go wait outside until I send them out.”
Hilail glared at us, and I smirked right back at him. Someone needed to put him in his place, and the princess did a good job even though I really didn’t like her. On first impressions, she seemed very selfish and spoiled. And from her comment, she didn’t like her dad that much. Maybe Adam was right. I would have to be careful not to offend her.
After we were seated, the princess looked from me to Abby with interest. “What are humans doing here? I heard the guards saying they had caught another human a few days ago. Are you here to save that human?” I didn’t like the way she talked about us as if we were beneath her. Almost like we were bugs she was playing with.
“No, we aren’t here with Adam. It was luck that led us to him.”
“I wouldn’t call it luck. Dad’s going to keep you here for the rest of your lives. You will never see your family again. It’s a good punishment for sneaking into our palace, though I wish he would punish you all a little more. You shouldn’t be allowed to roam freely,” she sounded a little too excited to punish us. I closed my eyes and scanned the area.
The room looked fine, no magic was keeping us from using our magic, but her magic was a very dark blue. It wasn’t a pretty color, and I thought about how the colors were so different on the elementals even though they were all blue. It couldn’t be strength like I first thought with Hilail. He was worried for the princess’s safety with us, and he wouldn’t be if the darker blue had to do with strength. She would be stronger than him. I would have to figure it out, but I needed to focus on the princess.
When I opened my eyes, she was studying me, “What are you doing?”
“I’m trying to figure out how to talk to you. You are the princess of the elementals. You are way above us,” I tried to appeal to her egotistical side. “You are so much more amazing in person than I thought you would be.”
She smiled and relaxed in her chair, “This is how we should be treated. Worshipped by all, not trapped in our cities hiding. We are the most powerful,” her voice started to sound strained.
“Yes, you are,” I tried to calm her again. “Why are you stuck here?”
“The shadow king told us we can’t interact with humans anymore, but that was hundreds of years ago, maybe more. I’m sure he forgot about us by now, but dad won’t hear a word of what I have to say. He makes us stay here and says we are bound by some old law of the shadow kings.”
“You don’t believe him?”
“Why should I? The shadow king hasn’t been seen or heard since we were banished. I think he is gone, and we are stuck here because my dad is too scared to do something different.”
“Why would he be scared? He seems so powerful,” I tried to sound genuinely caring.
“He isn’t as powerful as me. But he says we need to remember what happened last time the shadow king got mad at us for playing with humans. He supposedly destroyed everything of ours.”
“Supposedly?”
“I don’t buy it. I think it was a fight with the other elementals. I think the fire elementals did it and blamed it on the shadow king. They are probably out there with humanity doing whatever they want,” she looked at us. “Have you seen them? Did they send you?” she had a maniacal gleam in her eyes.
“Of course not, princess. We have never seen them. At least I don’t think so. Are they as beautiful as you? If they are, then I definitely haven’t seen any fire elementals. I wouldn’t forget that.” She calmed down again. As long as I kept commenting on her looks, she seemed to be ok.
“Of course they aren’t as pretty as me, but they would still be much prettier than you humans,” she smirked. “Why haven’t you seen them? Maybe they are hiding out until their numbers are strong enough to take over. I’m sure many of them were destroyed in the fight.”
“When was this fight?”
“It was a long time ago,” she said.
“Why would your dad lie about the fight?”
“To control us,” she stood up and started to pace, “I don’t know, I just know he is. So are his guards, but I’ve got my own guards now. They are loyal only to me.”
“Like Hilail?” I guessed.
“What? No, he believes everything my dad says. He can’t be trusted.”
I snorted, “I know, he’s the one watching us. Not the nicest is he?”
“He’s never nice. He thinks he is so smart, but he’s not. I’m much smarter,” she looked at us waiting,
“Oh yes, you do seem to be much smarter than him,” I told her what she wanted to hear.
“I like you humans. Maybe I will keep you here as my pets after all. I’m sure dad wouldn’t mind.”
“I wish we could stay, but Hilail said we have to listen to him or our lives are forfeit, so we have to go,” I said, trying not to panic. We couldn’t get stuck with this princess. She clearly wasn’t right in the head. “Besides, you have all those people waiting to talk to you. Maybe Hilail will bring us back tomorrow.”
“Yes, I will tell him to do that. Or maybe I will have him bring you to my rooms later today. It would kill him to have to do what I say when he doesn’t want to. That sounds much better. And bring your other humans with you.”
“Yes, princess,” I bowed, and so did Abby. We headed to the door and walked out, right into Hilail.
He wore his customary glare, “Are you all finished?”
“Yes. She wants to see us tonight. All of us.”
“No.”
“I figured you’d say that.”
“You aren’t going to argue with me?” he sounded confused.
“Nope. At least not about that,” I really didn’t want to go see the princess again. She gave me a bad feeling. She definitely could have taken her dad’s staff.
Hilail looked at me in surprise for a second before leading us back the way we had come. Before we got to our room, I stopped in front of an open door, “What’s this room?”
“It’s a sitting room for the library next door. Elementals come to sit in here once they’ve found what they are looking for.”
I peered inside. It was empty, so I walked in. Abby followed me. I looked around and saw a small couch in the corner that
looked private. When I sat down, Hilail looked at me in exasperation. “What are you doing?”
“I actually want to talk to you privately. I’m not sure if my room is bugged.”
“Bugged?”
“Set up so other people or elementals can spy on us.”
“Oh,” he didn’t deny it, so I figured it was true.
“What do you want?”
“I want to know what is going on. The princess hates you, and she barely likes the king. Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“There has to be a reason. It might help find the staff.”
“You think she did it.”
“I wasn’t sure until I met her, but yes, now I do.”
“Why? What did she say to you? We have always kept a close eye on her, but lately she’s been very secretive, and I don’t know what she is up to. Even her guards don’t know what she is doing.”
“I’m sure they do. With this kind of security, there’s no way she could keep things from them all. But she said she has her own guards who are loyal only to her.”
“What? All guards are sworn to obey the king first.”
“Well, it seems that a few of them have broken that vow.”
“What else did she say?”
“Nope, I’m not telling you anything else until you tell us what you know. I’m not planning on staying trapped here forever, so I need all the help I can get.”
“I’ll think about it. I still don’t trust you,” Hilail stood up, and we followed him back to our room.
Chapter Nineteen
I closed my eyes and looked for any magic that would let the elementals see or hear us. The cameras were easy to spot, but they were not like our cameras. They were magical balls that floated in the corners in an orange bubble. When I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see them at all. I closed my eyes again and continued looking, trying to make it seem like I was resting my eyes.
I finally spotted a microphone hidden in a nook in the coffee table. Maybe if I was very careful, I could make a barrier around the microphone so it couldn’t hear what we said. I focused my magic and encircled the microphone. I was pretty sure there would be others in each bedroom, but as long as we only talked out here, I didn’t need to worry about those. We would have to talk about regular things in the bedrooms.
“I’m not sure if it will work, but it’s the best I can do,” I told everyone once the guys got back.
“Hopefully, it works. Otherwise, this is going to get a lot harder,” Tider said.
“Yeah, I know.”
“So, what did everyone learn today?” Richard asked.
“We learned that the king’s daughter could have done it. She doesn’t hold her father in very high regard,” I said. “She talked about humans as if we were pets too. It was disgusting. We better find that staff because if she becomes the queen, she won’t stay here. She will be heading to our cities to cause problems for us.”
“We will find it. We got a couple of good leads today,” Richard said. “There is a town behind the castle where someone could have taken the staff to be hidden.”
“A whole town?” I asked.
“Supposedly, there are many towns. You will have to ask Hilail to take us to the one closest to the castle tomorrow.”
“We need to find out if anyone has been out to the town recently that doesn’t normally go. From what the servants said, there are very few who go to the town from the palace. They have almost all their goods brought in to their houses by their servants,” Tider explained.
“Where are their houses?”
“Right next to the palace is a walled-off area filled with houses for prominent families. Getting in there is very difficult. They have guards posted at all times. That’s all we found out.”
“Let’s get cleaned up for dinner. Remember, don’t say anything in your rooms. I’m going to tell Hilail where we are going tomorrow.”
I walked towards the door and opened it to see a different guard. “Excuse me, but I need to see Hilail.” The guard ignored me, and I stepped out of the room. He turned and glared at me, but I kept walking.
He reached out a hand and grabbed me. “You will go back to your room and get ready. The princess wants you at dinner tonight.”
“Sorry we can’t. Hilail said no.”
“You will do what you’re told, human. Hilail is busy, so you are now my charge,” he pushed me back into the room.
“Where is Hilail?” I asked. I might not like Hilail, but he wasn’t going to make us go see the princess. Plus, I was starting to believe he really wanted to find the king’s staff. I didn’t think he had anything to do with the theft. The guard wouldn’t answer me, so I walked back into the room and slammed the door in his face. I paced back and forth for a few minutes before I had an idea. I looked back at the microphone and took the bubble down so whoever was listening could hear me.
“Please send Hilail to me. I have important information for him,” I waited for a response, but nothing happened. It was worth a shot, but since it didn’t work, I had to get ready to go see the princess. We would have to be very careful. I didn’t want her thinking we were investigating her. I put the bubble back up around the microphone and headed to my room.
I cleaned myself up as best as I could, but I could only do so much for my clothes, considering everything we had been through. I could hear my friends talking in the other room and wondered how they were feeling. I felt bad that I had dragged them into this. They were following me, and now we might not get out of the water elemental realm.
“Hey, Sally,” Abby walked into my room and shut the door, holding some clothing. “These are for dinner with the princess tonight. I thought Hilail said we can’t go?”
“He did, but he seems to be missing right now, and the guard at our door is loyal to the princess. At least I think he is.”
“That’s not good,” Abby said. “At least they gave us something clean to wear. My clothes are a mess.” Abby held up both outfits. One was a deep green dress with sparkles all over it, and the other was a pale blue with pearls around the neckline. They both looked like they would be uncomfortable to wear. I had never been a dress person. Abby was even holding shoes that matched each dress.
“Which one do you want?” she asked, holding them both up.
“I don’t care. You pick which one you want.” She immediately pushed the green dress into my arms.
The guys were already waiting for us. They had changed into very lightweight pants and shirts. They looked incredibly soft and comfortable, but still fancy enough for dinner with a princess.
“Wow, you guys clean up nice,” Abby said.
“Yeah, you do too,” Tider chimed in.
I caught Richard looking at me, and I blushed and turned away. I wasn’t used to dresses, and I didn’t think I was going to enjoy walking in the shoes. If anything bad happened, they would be the first thing to go. I wouldn’t be able to run at all.
“Sally,” Richard walked up to me, “you look amazing.” I blushed again and then looked at him. He looked pretty amazing too, but I didn’t know how to tell him that without sounding weird.
“Thanks, you too,” I tried to say stammering. “I really like…” a knock at the door interrupted us before I could say anything else.
Hilail didn’t even wait for one of us to come to the door, he barged right in. “What do you think you are doing?”
“What do you mean, what are we doing?”
“The guard told me that you are planning to go to the princess’s dinner. I thought we had already discussed this.” He was furious. I looked at my friends in confusion. The door to the hall was still open, and I saw the guard from earlier looking in. He must have lied so Hilail wouldn’t know he was the princess’s guard. I pushed the door shut in the guard’s face with a gust of wind.
“Hilail, stop,” he was still pacing around the room, waiting for my answer. I walked up to him and grabbed his arm. “Look at me, Hilail. We don’t want to g
o to this dinner,” I decided to be straight with him. I would have to trust him if we were going to get out of this. “You need to believe me. We were told that we were going, and we didn’t have a choice. When I asked the guard where you were, he said you were busy, and we were his charges now.”
Hilail paled but said nothing.
“Listen, we are trying to do the right thing, and I think you might be too. We don’t have to like each other, but we do need to work together. I don’t want your king to be cursed either.”
“Why would you care?”
“Because I’m not an awful person. No one should be cursed to become evil, and if his daughter gets to be in charge next, the whole world could suffer. She isn’t planning on staying here when she is queen. She wants to live among us and be worshipped. She seems cruel enough to destroy many people’s lives if she doesn’t get her way. I don’t want her anywhere near the human realm.”
Hilail looked at me, trying to decide what to believe. I knew he believed us when he finally relaxed. His gaze moved over my friends, and then he laughed. “I have an idea. I will take you to dine with the king tonight. That way, the princess does not retaliate, and her guard can’t say you disobeyed him. It should keep you out of trouble with her for a day.”
“So, you think she took the staff too?”
“I don’t know, but we are looking into everything and everyone. So far, she has given us no reason to think she did it.”
“But you still think she did? “I asked.
“Like I said, I don’t know, but something is not quite right with her. She has always been spoiled, but lately, she treats everyone like they are beneath her. We may have a king, but he listens to us here at the court and respects our thoughts.”
“When we talked to her, she definitely made comments saying she didn’t like her dad. She told us what she would do when she was queen. I know it’s not enough to accuse her, but I think it’s her. That’s why we didn’t want to go to dinner with her tonight.”
“Is that why you said for the guards to send me to you?”
Lost Tides: Elemental Seekers Series Page 22