“You know enough to know that Elam has the Map Silver, but still don’t believe they exist?”
“Like I said,” Caid replied, starting to rise, “I deal with what the law recognizes.”
“What about the heart?” Sip asked, glaring. “What about loyalty?”
“Young werewolf, I am the most loyal paranormal you will ever meet. I’ve been offered the world to sell out my friends and far worse to sell out myself. Never once have I done it. I am proud to say I never even entertained the thought. It was not tempting. Now, Dacer, I do believe it’s time we returned through the passages?”
Dacer nodded. “We are trying for an easing of restrictions, so that we can visit you on the up and up,” he said, winking at me. I was glad Dacer was amused, but I still was not.
“It was a pleasure to meet you,” said Caid, offering his large hand for me to shake.
In that moment, I made a decision. “I’ll tell you the same once you support the protection of the artifacts,” I said, and shook his hand. Dacer’s face was turning a mottled shade of purple, and as he and Caid disappeared down the tunnel he turned around and gave me a scathing look.
“Does he remind you more and more of Lisabelle?” I asked, once the two were out of view.
Lough grinned. “Yeah, but in a more . . . stylish way.”
“Who are you calling not stylish?” Lisabelle yelled from the study.
Once the four of us were together again I realized how late it was. “This whole fighting darkness thing is keeping me from sleeping,” said Sip, yawning. “We just stay up and talk and then talk some more.”
“We have to talk,” I said. “The Mirror is gone and we need to get it back.”
“What do you think of Caid?” I said to Lough. “You’ve spent more time with him than we have.”
“He’s alright for a real adult,” said Lough, shrugging.
“A lot of laws say we’re real adults,” Lisabelle pointed out.
“Well, that’s just proof that laws can be funny and not always entirely logical,” said Lough. “Besides, some of us are more mature than others. I plan on never being mature. If no one expects anything of me, they can’t get mad when I don’t deliver.”
“Excellent logic,” Sip drawled.
“Lough, are you still staying outside the walls?” I asked, putting my hands palm forward toward the warmth of the fire. “Shouldn’t you go to Locke or home or something?”
“I’ve been home a couple of times,” he said. “My parents support me supporting my friends.”
“It’s called loyalty,” said Sip. “It’s what separates us from the Nocturns.”
“I prefer not to think of everything in terns of the Nocturns,” said Lough. He settled further into the couch. Unlike Sip and me, he was sitting as far away from the roaring fireplace as possible. “They are merely a passing fancy. We are forever.”
“You think the Nocturns will pass?” I said. It was hard to imagine a life without the Nocturns.
“Of course,” said Lough. “We will win. Just you wait and see.”
“I’m going to start searching for the Mirror tomorrow,” I said briskly. “I’m not going to let the elementals down.”
“That’s hard,” said Lisabelle. “Living up to ghosts.” Then she grinned. “Well, maybe not Sigil.”
“I wish he were an elemental ghost,” I said. “It would be awesome to talk with him about his life as an elemental.”
“Did he act a little funny when you asked about your mom?”
“Yeah,” I said. “I’m going to look into that too. My mom was definitely married before she married my stepfather. It must have been to my real father. . . .”
I showed my friends out. Lough went after Dacer and Caid, while Sip and Lisabelle snuck out the front. They’d become adept at sneaking around campus, they told me, but Trafton was getting jealous because he was never invited.
I had laughed and pointed out that Lough wouldn’t like it.
“Not one little bit,” said Sip. “Just because they’re the only members of the Dream Giver’s Association - what does that group do again? - doesn’t mean they get along.”
“Next time I’ll come to Airlee,” I promised. “I can sneak around as well as the rest of you.”
“No,” said Lisabelle, “you really can’t. But it would be amusing to see you try.”
The next week was the slowest I’d ever experienced at Public. I got a talking to from Trafton, for one thing. He was still keeping tabs on my dreams, and when he found out that I had opened myself up to them he’d had a fit like only a gorgeous surfer boy type could. He had grown a little bit of facial scruff over the semester and it made him look more mature and distinguished. I still had a hard time not laughing when he finished lecturing me.
School was terrible. Decorating 101 made no sense whatsoever and was clearly there just to waste our time. The other classes were meant to turn us on each other.
“Hey, did you know that disgruntled students, for example Lisabelle Verlans, who are quiet and sullen, are more likely to be traitors? Don’t you feel better knowing that?” We had just left a Zervos class and she was mocking him. Or, “Paranormals who exhibit an unusual amount of independence and interest in the Nocturns are likely to be in cahoots with them. See? The only one of us who hasn’t gone over to the dark side is Sip, and that’s just because the dark side’s wall is too high for her to see over.” Lisabelle got up on her tiptoes and pretended to try and look over something until Sip started chasing her around campus.
The loss of the Mirror was also weighing on me, and I was very much left wondering about my mother and who her first husband had been. I had always assumed my father had been her first husband, but what if he hadn’t been? It would explain why her name didn’t appear in the history lists of elementals. If she’d married an elemental, her name, Grace Lancing, should be there. Unless that wasn’t her name. But I had seen documents, I had a lot of them in storage boxes, proving that she was indeed Grace Lancing. There had to be another explanation.
The only good point about that week was that spring was coming. I could see patches of green grass, and it was starting to be warmer through the middle of the day. Winter was fading, and with it came the hope of summer. I didn’t have any idea what I’d do over the summer, except that if I hadn’t found the Mirror Arcane by the time the semester ended, that’s how I’d be spending June, July, and August: looking for it.
There was also an uncomfortable amount of buildup to the next Ultimate Tactical. We had to win this one to force a third, that’s how it worked, and if we failed we would be at the mercy of Vale. I wanted to believe Caid’s claim that he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to us, but I wasn’t sure I trusted him. Dacer’s trust in the president went a long way, but Dacer wasn’t there.
“The next Tactical will take place in the air,” Vale announced at dinner on Thursday night. Tactical was a week away. She had already said that much, but what she said next was news.
“I like to call it sky box. Each of you will be in a glass box high above the ground. Whoever figures out how to get out of his or her box first wins for their team. Of course, you are more than welcome to attack each other inside the boxes, just do not break the glass. Even if only one team member gets out first, then the entire rest of the other team escapes, that first team member will still have won it for his or her team. Please keep in mind, you must also figure out how not to plummet out of the sky and die, if that sort of thing matters to you. If you wish to plummet and die, by all means, just sign a waiver first. You will not be allowed any flying devices. We will not help you get out of the boxes. If you cannot get out, eventually you will starve to death, I assume, unless you’ve been paying more attention in Decorating 101 than I thought.”
I gulped. I hated heights with a passion. Of all the events this Tactical could involve, why did it have to be heights?
“Why couldn’t they just have these boxes two feet off the ground?” I whispered hoarsely. “Wouldn’t
it serve the same purpose? Anyhow, getting out of glass boxes doesn’t sound too hard.”
“I think there’s more to it than that, almost definitely,” said Lisabelle. “I’m just not sure what.”
“She doesn’t want us helping each other either,” Sip whispered. “We aren’t working as a team at all.”
“She’s probably going to dump acid on us or something, but I don’t care as long as she doesn’t have us fight the lizards or the Fire Whips,” Lisabelle murmured. Then, after a thoughtful pause, she corrected herself, saying, “Well, I wouldn’t mind fighting the Fire Whips.”
“Ew,” said Sip, wrinkling her nose. “Those things are unstoppable and unnatural.”
“How can anything in the paranormal world be unnatural?” I asked. “That would imply that there is a set standard for natural.”
“Good point,” said Sip, nodding. “I hope we never have to fight the unnatural lizards. It’s strange, isn’t it? I can’t find any paranormal record of them anywhere.”
Any free time I had I spent reading. Last semester I had practiced my elemental fire skills and I was proud to say that they had improved greatly. Now I wanted to read in order to widen my knowledge in other directions. Sigil kept giving me more books, to the point that they now covered the floor of my room. I tried to keep up with them, but it was impossible.
Whenever I would visit Sigil he would quiz me on what I had read and what I remembered. It became a game for us. It was impossible to remember everything, especially about history. I ended up feeling like I had an extra class up in the Astra library. Dacer’s teaching style was very hands on; he wanted me to put on the masks. But Sigil couldn’t be hands on - he couldn’t pick stuff up, because he was a ghost (laugh intended). So with Sigil I just worked on storing away ever more knowledge.
I learned that for a long time the most respected elemental type had been earth, but air, water, and fire quickly caught up. At first, fire had been thought to be too close to darkness, while air was only useful in certain situations and water was only useful against fire. As elemental powers grew and evolved, however, and elementals found new ways to use them, all of that changed. Earth had been a little different all along in that it had practical applications. It helped for quakes and planting, storms and building. Earth elementals were highly sought after, but they were sometimes deemed not delicate enough for certain kinds of work.
Queen Ashray of the Royal family of Nascaro, who had become something of a hero to elementals, was water. Camaraderie, she believed, would play a big part in elemental survival, so she was instrumental in changing the respect structure so that elementals started working together comfortably. Another word for camaraderie, I was reminded, is loyalty.
On the eve of the second Tactical I was sitting in Magical Murders that go Undetected but Should Not. It was taught by Professor Erikson, and if ever a paranormal was not suited to teach a class, she was not suited to teach this one. The class was being held in one of the meeting rooms in the upper floor of the library.
Professor Erikson obviously abhorred the idea of murder, and as she had explained on the first day of class, she didn’t know much about it. But she promised to do her best to learn about important murders and then to teach us, her students, since her advanced flying classes were not taking place this semester. She had explained that the last third of the semester would be spent on elemental murders, since they were all unsolved.
I thought that would be interesting, since “unsolved” was something of a silly term when we knew that the demons had killed all the elementals in order to destroy the Power of Five.
The day before the second Tactical she announced, “Today we are going to look at the murder of Malle’s family.” A stunned silence that followed, then Sip raised a hand and Professor Erikson said, “Yes, Ms. Quest?”
“I thought that murder was solved,” said Sip. “A wild band of pixies did it.”
“Yes,” said Erikson, “but the subsequent murder of the pixies was not solved.”
“Oh, it’s a real mystery who killed them,” Camilla said silkily. “They deserved what was coming to them.”
Erikson didn’t react to Camilla’s little outburst. “Who did kill the pixies is the question. It is widely believed that Malle exacted her revenge. It is also widely believed that the pixies handed over some of their own to keep the peace. What the band of pixies did was atrocious and uncalled for.”
“Of course it was,” Camilla burst out. “They were crazy miscreants and I, for one, am ashamed to call them brethren.”
“That’s very noble of you,” said Rake. He was sitting between Sip and me, twirling a pencil over and over in his large hands. Lisabelle was sitting on my left, fascinated by anything to do with murders.
“Of course you are when you’re trying to side with the Nocturns,” Sip muttered, just a little too quietly for Camilla to hear.
“It’s how she killed them that we are going to examine,” said Erikson, her eyes raking the room. “She used fire to burn them in their own pixie dust.”
The Volans in the room gasped. Apparently that was a fate worse than death.
“No,” Camilla breathed, sitting forward and looking horrified, her mouth agape.
“Oh yes,” said Professor Erikson. She stood in front of the class, her hands clasped behind her. “This is not a story that is commonly told or known, because it is considered dishonorable to use paranormals’ own weapons against them. But it does happen. Malle was considered justified in her actions because of all she’d been put through. Her family deserved revenge.”
I felt sick. The pixies should have received a fair trial, but instead they had been executed mercilessly.
“How could she use the dust against them?” Lisabelle asked, her eyes alight.
“Don’t tell her,” Camilla shrieked, staring in horror at the darkness mage. “She will surely use it against us. She’s certifiable!”
Lisabelle gave Camilla a black look. “You seem to forget that if I wanted to I could have killed you already, no pixie dust required.”
The pixie’s mouth closed with a snap and her eyes widened. The other pixies sitting around her, including her best friend Kia, shifted uncomfortably.
But Professor Erikson also seemed to take exception to what Lisabelle had said. It wasn’t just me she didn’t like.
“Ms. Verlans, did you just threaten a member of my classroom?” she asked icily, her eyes sparking.
“No - ”
Lisabelle started to say more, but Professor Erikson cut her off. “Get out. Your threats have no place in my classroom. Go tell President Vale why I’ve sent you away.”
I was getting worried about Lisabelle at this point. She was angering powerful people all over the place - first Caid, now Erikson - and I wondered if she knew where to draw the line.
Lisabelle didn’t react. If I’d been in her place I might have started crying; most students who were ordered to Vale started crying. But Lisabelle held eye contact with Professor Erikson, and it became a staring match, with both refusing to look away. Slowly, Lisabelle pushed herself out of her seat and headed for the door. She stared at Erikson the entire way.
I didn’t need to look at Sip to know that the werewolf was furious, mostly with Erikson, but a little bit with Lisabelle for goading her.
Dobrov, who was the only other student in the class whom I knew well, looked up. It was the first time all semester that he’d met my eyes. He blinked twice, and I might have been imagining it, but I thought he gave me the barest of nods.
Rake leaned over to me. “Erikson would get in real trouble if any of her students actually performed the spells that Malle used, and Lisabelle’s the only darkness mage in the class.”
“So, one way or another Erikson was going to kick her out?” I whispered.
Rake shrugged. “Looks that way.”
“Rake,” Professor Erikson’s voice cut like a lash. “Do you have something to add to the discussion?”
Ra
ke relaxed back into his chair and grinned. “Nope. Haven’t in years.”
Though I wasn’t supposed to, I went to Airlee that night. I wanted to see Lisabelle and make sure she was okay after her visit to President Vale.
Trafton was already at my friends’ room when I arrived. It was late, and most students were getting ready for bed, but no one commented when they saw me out of place. Most of the Airlees joked that I was an honorary member, because I had spent my Starter semester in their dorm.
The dream giver opened the door and ushered me in, his face grim. Lisabelle was sitting on her bed, with washcloths soaked in blood covering her arms. Sip sat next to her, looking like a pot that was rapidly boiling over.
“I, just - - I,” Sip fumed, unable to finish sentences.
“I’m fine,” said Lisabelle. “This is good.”
“Did they find your wand?” I asked quietly. I knew Lisabelle wouldn’t want sympathy.
The darkness mage smiled thinly. “No, I’ve figured out how to hide it. Go me. I can make it disappear when I want to. They aren’t going to find it. I was questioned about why I didn’t have one, but I played the absent-minded darkness mage and they believed it.”
“But they lashed you over it,” said Sip, nearly in tears. I went over and put my arm around the tiny werewolf. She snuffled and leaned her head against me.
“This is ridiculous,” she sniffed. “Lisabelle’s the one that’s hurt and I’m the one that’s crying.”
“I’m just more stoic than you,” said Lisabelle, relaxing back into her black pillows.
“After taking Decorating 101 all semester, you still can’t think of anything better to do with this room?” Trafton said, trying to lighten the mood. “The place looks horrible.”
Sip loved neon. It was a fact that she had made clear from the start of her career at Public, and her half of the room reflected it. She regularly changed bedding and wall hangings, but they were always neon. At the moment her bedspread was blue and her wall hangings were an eye-smarting mix of fuchsia, orange, and more blue. Lisabelle’s side was black. There was no other color. She’d even taken a piece of cloth and draped it over her desk, so that the wooden surface could no longer be seen.
Elemental Fire (Paranormal Public Series) Page 21