The Lightning Conjurer

by Rachel Rener

  “Right!” I replied cheerfully as I turned back in their direction. “And you and Elizabeth are two of the greatest Electromantic manipulators in the world.”

  He stared at me with an expression like I just told him I was taking his mother out on a date.

  “Okay…” Elizabeth started. “Let’s say we do manage to waltz in waving ATM cards instead of high-clearance badges,” she replied, biting her lower lip just like Aspen always did. “Don’t their security cards have chips? Something to go through a card reader?”

  “Uh-huh. An electric card reader,” I grinned. “Which can be manipulated… by Electricity!”

  “Good God,” Frank groaned.

  “What about after we get inside? What are we supposed to do then?”

  “That part…” I hesitated. “Well, that part we’re just going to figure out as we go. Black Ops style!”

  Everyone in the car was staring at me with wide eyes and open mouths. Even the driver was glancing at me in the back-view mirror with raised eyebrows.

  “Look, it could be worse, okay?” I said, holding my hands up in defense. “We could be, you know, disarming a nuke. Or a volcano.”

  At that, everyone in the car got very silent. Especially Elizabeth.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled. “I’m really worried about them too.”

  “Have we located the nuclear weapon?” she asked.

  “No.” I shook my head. “We’re not even sure if it exists or if they’re just puffing.”

  “Bluffing,” Kevin muttered. I rolled my eyes. No wonder Aspen liked him – he was the older, Iranian version of her husband.

  “We’re heading onto the parkway now, sir,” Jeffries said. “First test of Electromantic manipulation coming up in twenty seconds. Shall I handle this one, sir?”

  I glanced at the yellow Level-three Electromancer tattoo sticking out from beneath his rolled sleeve. “You’re a mentalist as well?”

  “Indeed, I am,” he replied. “Archenbaud Gauthier requested my presence here today specifically for that reason. Well, that and my prior years serving in the British Intelligence, I suppose.” He winked at me in the mirror.

  “Way badass!” I grinned. “Sure, man. Go wild.”

  “Very good, sir.”

  A few seconds later, we were slowing down as we approached a flashing barrier-thing that blocked the entrance to the George Washington Parkway. Jeffries sent his window down and one of the police officers nearest to our vehicle leaned in to inspect our group. I glanced at Kevin anxiously. He knew what I was thinking: having two brown, Middle Eastern guys in the back seat wasn’t exactly going to help our cause.

  Sure enough, the officer’s gaze lingered on the two of us longer than anyone else. “Sorry, folks. This exit is closed for a special event, please reverse your car and take one of the designated detours.”

  “Sir,” the driver cleared his throat. “We’re part of the Canadian envoy, as you can see,” he gestured back at us, his awkwardly-waving passengers. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing straight as ionized particles filled the car.

  The officer frowned, removed his massive mirror glasses, and peered further into the car. “Oh, yes, of course,” he replied flatly.

  “So freaking cool,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Uh, right. Do you have proper documentation?” the officer asked, rubbing his forehead. “Most delegates were advised not to take the parkway, so…”

  “Of course, sir,” Jeffries replied, reaching into the glove box. He pulled out what looked like a printed receipt for an oil change. “As you can see sir, we have all the documentation needed right here.”

  The sharp smell of Lightning hit my nose hard as the officer peered at the piece of paper, which had a Jiffy Lube sticker at the top. “Yes, very good,” he replied as he handed it back to Jeffries. “Please proceed to your destination. Apologies for holding you up since you’re already late.”

  “No trouble! …And, sir?” Jeffries added.

  “Yeah?”

  “You may want to bring your wife some flowers tonight. I’m sure she’d appreciate them.”

  “Yeah,” the officer repeated. “I’m going to bring my wife some flowers. She’d like that.”

  “Very good, sir.” Jeffries rolled up the window and sped through the security point like the freaking badass he was.

  “Jeff, old buddy!” I leaned forward to clap him on the shoulder. “You’re coming inside with us!”

  “But sir, I was told—”

  “Nope,” I shook my head. “Change of plans. I need you with me, pal. Zhang, you hang back and help with ground coordination.”

  “Filling in tact team now,” Zhang muttered from the back.

  “Alright, see?” I told the car. “Nothing to it. All we got to do is smile, look smart, and bullshit our way inside… just like every other politician in there!”

  “Does Ro—sorry, the minister – know the details of this plan?” Elizabeth asked, worry filling her voice. “She’s not exactly a fan of Mnemonic Manipulation…”

  “The minister agrees that a little bit of Electromantic unethical…ness,” I guessed, “is a small price to pay for rescuing a shipload of world leaders.”

  “Shit,” Kevin muttered.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. For some reason, he just shook his head and laughed.

  Elizabeth made a cough sound. “And then, after we get inside…? We just… wait?”

  “Unfortunately. Our source wasn’t clear on the details – just that Obsidian was sending in Electromancers to shake things up on Capitol Hill while some of their rock nerds attempt to blow up a volcano. Which I haven’t even heard anything about so far. Could be another bluff,” I emphasissed emphasized, to make sure Kevin heard my flawless English.

  She nodded again. After another minute, she lowered her voice. “How’s she doing?”

  “Aspen?” I asked, feeling my throat get tight. “She was doing okay until…” I glanced around the car. “Um…”

  Until? Elizabeth’s voice sounded in my head. I stuck a pinky in my ear to scratch at the sound. So unnerving.

  Until she heard that they have a Pentamancer running the show over there.

  Elizabeth’s face turned white. Another Pentamancer? Are you absolutely sure?

  We think so, yeah. Kaylie’s been, uh… I couldn’t think of the word, so I just imagined some guy kicking her out of her evil throne. She’s gone. He’s in. And we don’t exactly know what that means yet. But Aspen forbade – forbidded? – the Order from sending in troops. She wants to talk to the guy one-to-one to avoid conflict.

  At that, Elizabeth’s face got really serious. She probably had the same thought me and everyone else did: we needed to get to Aspen as soon as possible.

  “Another security checkpoint, sir,” Jeffries called. “Do you mind…?”

  “Not at all, good chap!” I forced a smile.

  After three more checkpoints, we were led to a secure parking area outside the back entrance of the National Building Museum. I sighed. Before briefing with the team of tactical commanders earlier that day, I was imagining myself flashing a peace sign from the president’s desk inside the White House. Best dating profile pic ever. Instead, the stupid president had to have all the other stupid presidents meet him at some stupid museum.

  Nerds.

  Just as we were about to get out of the car, Jeffries turned up the radio. “Everyone,” he held up his hand. “Listen.”

  “—getting reports of a massive eruption at Yellowstone National Park, home to one of the largest supervolcanoes on earth, previously dormant for six hundred thousand years. While records show that no one was at the park at the time of the eruption due to a massive freak storm that rolled in a few hours prior, eyewitnesses from outside the park could see a plume of lava shooting hundreds of stories high…”

  “Ted,” Elizabeth whispered, pressing her mouth into a small line. “All of them. They’re all right there.”

  I squeezed
her hand, then shut my eyes and took a deep breath. Don’t think of them, I told myself. Don’t think of Aspen. Not right now. My mind drifted to her beautiful face anyway so I squeezed my eyes tighter. Be here. Right now. For her. For everyone.

  “We don’t have time to waste,” I told my squad. “We need to get inside… now.”

  Chapter 27

  furious, rock-crushing, ground-splitting bellow emanated from the earth itself as the terrain in the valley below us ripped open, sending a colossal geyser of lava erupting thousands of feet into the sky. Molten earth seeped from the crimson chasm like a bleeding wound while the jet of lava surged ever higher. Heat blasted my face and body as the ground roiled and shook, sending the edge of the mile-high precipice we were standing on crumbling down the mountain. I grabbed Tosh around the middle and flung him away as the earth below us disintegrated like a stale cookie. His mother screamed as she fell, arm outstretched for me to grab – but she was gone before my hand could reach her.

  “No!” I shrieked.

  “Eileen!” Sophia cried, sending a gale of Wind to knock me backward.

  My heels skidded to a halt three feet from the brink of the shattered cliff, my arm held straight out to keep a hysterical Tosh from leaping off the edge and down to his mother. He and I both let out a relieved sob as she reappeared in the air, hovering on an invisible lifeline of Wind. Sophia dropped Tosh’s mother to the ground as gently as she could before refocusing her attention on the gargantuan lava plume that now rose far above our heads, spraying 2,000-degree molten rock in every direction. A smoldering chunk landed on the sleeve of my synthetic down jacket, which immediately burst into flames. I tore it off and flung it to the ground just as a massive wave of melted earth came crashing down from the sky. It ricocheted against Sophia’s unfaltering barrier of Wind before reaching us, but the heat – oh my God, the heat! As I shielded my face from the onslaught, I could feel the topmost layers of skin on my forearm burning away like singed tissue paper. This was like Dante’s Inferno on steroids!

  “Eileen, look out!” Aiden shouted as a fiery boulder hurtled toward us. Skillfully drawing Fire from Earth, he left the sufficiently cooled chunks of igneous rock to me. Flustered as I was, I successfully wrestled most of them away from our group, but a smattering of smoking fragments still managed to rain down on us, their sharp edges cutting into clothing and skin like shards of glass.

  As the earth roared, I planted my feet into the ground, drawing upon every ounce of strength I had to calm the fury raging in the layers of rock below us. The gash in the center of the basin had widened, spurting lava sky-high and raining down every which way. Molten rock seeped from the edges of the wound as though the hide of the earth itself had been sliced open. I mentally locked onto individual globs of airborne lava, doing my best to force the lethal chunks away from us and back toward their source, but the Fire that burned inside made them so much harder to control. I wiped an ash-coated arm across my stinging eyes as a fit of coughs overtook me. Every breath tore at my throat and lungs, but the ferocious heat was only intensifying, rippling the air around us in brutal, smothering waves.

  All along the cliff’s edge, Pyromancers and Terramancers worked furiously to suppress Fire and contain Earth while our tiny team of Hydromancers struggled to draw more Water from the geysers – Water that immediately evaporated in the staggeringly preposterous heat. From above, the Auromancers were attempting to suppress the ash and heavy black plumes of sulfuric smoke that were billowing from the cracks splintering across the plateau. But there was so much of it, trying to contain it was like trying to stop a broken vial of ink from spreading in a bathtub. I glanced up to find Sophia hovering above us, her entire body moving with the grace and agility of a dancer, flows of Wind and Water swirling around her limbs like silk ribbons. She fought with the beauty and strength of a goddess. But even she was covered in a glistening sheen of sweat and ash.

  As another explosion rocked the earth, a flurry of fiery tephra rained down on the evergreen trees behind us, instantly igniting their boughs like dry kindling. Flames jumped from tree to tree, creating a conflagration ten yards behind us that forced several of the Pyromancers to break away from our group to suppress it.

  “We’ll never stop it,” I whispered to myself, taking in the bloodbath below. Lava was surging across the burning terrain, voracious rivers that snaked away like fiery tentacles to consume everything in their path. As the earth shuddered and roared, more chunks of lava, some the size of cars and houses, were hurled from the gaping chasm at the bottom of the crater, only to rain back down on the surrounding plateau like a storm straight out of hell.

  It was then that I heard the screams, shrill and urgent, emanating from one of the lower bluffs to our south. My heart seized in my chest. Before I could even shout for someone to help, a barrage of smoldering tephra went hurtling in that very direction. When the molten boulders smashed into the cliff face, the screams abruptly stopped, and the entire section of rock crumbled like dirt into the bubbling lake of lava below. A horrified cry lodged itself against my blistered throat. Were they Asterians? Trapped campers? Or were they members of Obsidian, foiled by their own uncontrollable monster?

  “Eileen!” Sophia yelled. “Eyes front!” A gust of Wind blew a torrent of scorching ash away from my wimpy, highly-flammable body just in time.

  I dropped to the ground, scraping my knees and palms against sharp rock to narrowly prevent yet another section of rocky terrain from crumbling underneath us. While Sophia hovered just above, Ted and Aiden had abandoned their flammable jackets and shirts and were working furiously alongside Archenbaud and Daichi, sucking Fire from every place they could – but it all seemed about as useful as using a flowering can against a wildfire. I racked my brains, trying to remember every text I’d ever read on volcanoes – but all I could think about were warm champagne bottles: popping them open was one thing, but trying to recork an exploding bottle before its entire contents fizzled out? Impossible.

  From just above, Sophia cried out as a chunk of lava buried itself deep into her arm.

  “Sophia!” I shouted, waving a hand to wrest it free.

  “I’m okay,” she gasped, clutching the cauterized wound.

  “Focus on the throat of the volcano!” Archenbaud was shouting, his voice amplified by Wind. “Terramancers – leave the fire and ash to the others! Focus all of your energy on sealing that vent!”

  I gritted my teeth so hard they hurt. He was right, but if we had any hope of closing such a massive fissure, we needed to get closer to the opening. As in, way closer.

  The entire valley convulsed, sending another wave of lava hurtling toward us, more fire than earth. With a grunt of exertion, Aiden flung his hands over his head and seized the blazing deluge straight out of the sky, every muscle in his bare torso rippling with exertion as he funneled it back into the abyss. Sweat was streaming down his blackened face not in drops, but in rivulets; he wouldn’t last much longer. None of us would. Still clutching the ground to stabilize our precipitous precipice, my blistered shoulders sagged with despair as I regarded the dozens of us who had already collapsed from exhaustion, including my brave little man, Tosh. The poor kid was sitting on the ground with his head in his knees, rocking back and forth as burning ash rained from the sky. His mother was frantically working to tie a piece of cloth around an angry-looking burn on his leg.

  My breath hitched in my throat. This needed to end. Right now.

  Fortunately – and unfortunately – an idea was taking shape in my mind that just might be stupid enough to work. “Sophia!” I yelled as I sprinted toward the edge of the overlook. “Cover me!”

  “Damnit, Eileen!” she shouted. “What have I told you about communicating better?!”

  As I leapt off the edge of a rather large mountain, a pocket of Wind caught me, blowing my hair wildly around my face. When I finally had the guts to open my eyes, I found myself in a perfect belly flop position, staring at the gaping, smoke-filled mouth of the
volcano from five-thousand feet up. It was like suicide, or skydiving, but without actually falling. Or dying, I hoped.

  “Holy CRAP!” I screamed, mostly in terror, though there was definitely a note of hysterical glee. “Sophia, get me lower! LOWER!”

  I could have sworn I heard her curse as I began sinking in slow motion, blobs of lava bouncing off of my invisible bubble of Wind armor. I sucked in a gasp as I dropped closer and closer to the center of the plateau, now a mile-wide oozing pool of lava. I bit back a panicked sob as my heart thundered against my ribs. Part of me wanted to scream at Sophia and say ‘Just kidding!’ so she’d yank me back to land. But the closer I got to that spewing fracture in the earth, the better I could feel it. The underground structure and tectonic components. The chambers of magma that fed it. If I could just get a little closer…

  I did a massive double take as Archenbaud and Daichi appeared out of nowhere, floating on either side of me, the latter flashing me an exhilarated thumbs up despite the percolating carnage looming just below. To my immense disbelief (and relief), more and more Terramancers were appearing by the dozens, a coordinated aerial formation of Earth-movers riding on plumes of Wind. I let out a whoop as I looked over my shoulder and saw the line of Auromancers standing on the edge of the cliffs above, their feet firmly planted to the ground as they supported their team of flying Terramancers. A hysterical giggle slipped through my blistered lips. As much as Sophia hated being below ground, I hated heights. But here I was – windsurfing with my fellow rock nerds while our aerial brethren were rooted to the earth.

  “Mind the gap!” I shrieked in hysterical exuberance as the mouth of the volcano loomed ever closer. My insulating Wind bubble was a godsend – well, a darling wife-send – but holy crap was it hot down there. I’m talking oppressive, oversized-pizza-oven heat.

  Ignoring our sizzling brows and smoking clothing, one by one we focused our powers on the magma-spewing opening below, where neon-red melted rock boiled and churned like a bowl of radioactive spaghetti sauce left in the microwave for too long. It took many long, excruciatingly hot minutes, but eventually the edges of the massive cleft began to darken and solidify as the lava around it started to cool – with a little help from our Pyromantic buddies above, to be sure. As the rock hardened, we Terramancers worked together to coax it shut, stitching together the broken earth like front line surgeons. The more the fissure narrowed, the higher the plume of lava shot, spurred by internal pressure and a shrinking aperture through which to escape. From above, the remaining Auromancers in helicopters pressed down on the fiery fountain, syncing their efforts to cast it back into the narrowing fissure, the same way one might force molten hot toothpaste back into its tube. Pyromancers cooled, Auromancers pressed, and Terramancers stitched while Hydromancers worked furiously to turn the intact geysers into makeshift fire hydrants.