Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3)

by H. M. Sandlin

  “Who will stop us?” Tider asked.

  “The brotherhood of the flame. We are everywhere. We will be watching you,” he said, standing and moving quickly to the door. When Gavin returned, he could tell something was wrong and asked what happened. After we explained it to him, he slammed his fist on the table.

  “Damn the brotherhood,” he said. “They have been a nuisance to us for so long. We have tried getting rid of them, but they keep growing.”

  “How many of them are there?” I asked.

  “We don’t know. We think there are close to a hundred, but most of them are older, or they are weak in their elemental power. They are not a big threat.”

  “Are you sure? He seemed pretty certain they would stop us.”

  “Unless something has changed, they are not powerful enough or numerous enough to cause any problems. I will look into it to make sure, but I don’t see there being any issues. We will continue on in the morning like we were planning.”

  We went back to our temporary house a few minutes later. After our warning, none of us were in the mood to stay. I laid my hand over my pack, saying the word lakir. The book on void appeared, and I pulled it out of the pack and sat on the bed to read before going to sleep. I was still wound up from the odd man we met.

  I opened the book to the page I was reading. I was about a quarter of the way through the book. I read a few more pages but didn’t learn much. It talked about how void users were never seen. They stayed away from others in an effort to protect themselves from becoming corrupted.

  A corrupted void user was more powerful than any other elemental, and only another void user could defeat them once they were corrupted. That is why there were so few void users. They couldn’t take the chance of just anyone getting the power. It was too dangerous.

  There was so much speculation in the book, but it was better than the other books I read on void. I slipped under my covers and tried to get some sleep after putting the book away. Abby was already asleep and snoring softly. I smiled. I was glad my friends were with me.

  Something woke me, and I opened my eyes. A soft click came from the front door. I climbed slowly out of bed and padded across the room. I peeked into the main room. The front door was still closed, but I could hear noise coming from the other side.

  “Wake up,” I yelled into all my friend’s heads. I heard covers being thrown back and Tider cursing softly under his breath as he fell out of bed. We all ran to the center of the room with our packs as I heard another click. The doorknob slowly started to turn. Someone had managed to pick the lock.

  I let an invisibility shield drop on top of us as Richard put up a silence bubble. Two men snuck into the room, not making a sound. I recognized one of the men from dinner. It was the old man who told us we would be stopped from helping the fire elementals. They separated and started looking through the room. There wasn’t much to see. We hadn’t brought a lot with us, and the few important things were spelled so no one could see them.

  When the first man got to the guy’s room, he peeked in and then stepped back quickly. He poked his head in again and took a few steps into the room. He came out, striding quietly over to the other man who was looking into my room.

  “They aren’t here,” he said. “They must have gotten past us.”

  “How? Brotherhood members are stationed everywhere. Someone would have seen them.”

  “Well, they aren’t here. Maybe they left to get to the palace before we could stop them.”

  “It won’t matter. They will never get past the traps we have laid out for them. We need to hurry and catch up to them so we can kidnap them after they are disabled by the traps. I’m glad we put the traps up when we did. ”

  “They don’t have a guide with them. They will be moving slowly. We will catch up to them in no time,” the old man laughed. “This will be easier than I thought. I was worried we would have to deal with Gavin, but they left him behind.”

  “Are you sure Gavin didn’t sneak out too?”

  “Yes. I checked on him before coming over here.”

  “Let’s get going then. I want to finish this quickly before we get caught. I don’t want to be imprisoned for kidnapping the one who can wake the true elementals.”

  “Another hundred years and we will have the majority on our side. The longer we go without the true elementals, the more bitter the people become toward them. They don’t remember how much they loved them, and our words keep them doubting the true elementals ever cared for them in the first place. We will win this fight. We only need to be patient.”

  “We have been patient,” grumbled the one man. He stopped complaining when the other man looked at him sharply.

  “Stop whining, and let’s go. We have a lot to do before Gavin wakes up and realizes he has been left behind.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  We waited for a few minutes after they left before taking down our shields.

  “We need to warn Gavin about the traps and get out of here,” Adam said.

  “We don’t know where Gavin lives. How will we warn him?” Abby asked.

  “I think we should wait here until morning. It’s only a few more hours, and then Gavin will come here looking for us. We can tell him what happened and make a plan. Maybe there is a different way to get to the palace. Plus, the brotherhood will think we have already passed their traps without getting caught in them. They will be trying to catch up to us, but we will be behind them the whole time. It will make it easier to get to the palace without them following our steps.”

  “I think Sally’s right,” Richard said. “We can start making our own plan and see what Gavin says when he gets here. What is Sievroth saying?”

  “Nothing. I haven’t heard from him since we got here. He is staying invisible, so he must not feel comfortable. I will try to talk to him next time he comes back. He keeps taking off.”

  No one could fall back asleep, so Tider pulled out a pack of cards, and we played games until morning. When we heard a knock on the door, we stood together and put a shield of invisibility up. When Gavin walked in and shut the door, we let the invisibility fall.

  “What are you guys doing,” he sputtered. “You scared me. Why were you invisible? Is this your idea of a joke?”

  “Calm down, Gavin, and keep your voice down.” I looked at Richard, and he spoke the words to put the silence bubble around us. “We had visitors last night.”

  We told him everything that happened and what we thought we should do. He listened to everything we said and slowly shook his head after we stopped talking.

  “There is no other way to the palace. Trying to go off the jungle path is too dangerous. We need to follow it. Once we are through the jungle, we will travel across a stretch of open land that leads to the palace. There is nowhere to hide during that stretch. We will have to be very careful. The brotherhood is becoming more than a nuisance. I still can’t believe they are going to try and kidnap you all.”

  “That’s what they were saying,” Tider said.

  He shook his head. “They must be going insane with nothing else to do in this realm. After the true fire elementals wake up, I’m sure they will stop all this nonsense.”

  I wasn’t so sure. The brotherhood seemed pretty determined to live without the true fire elementals. I spent a lot of time thinking about it overnight. They didn’t seem like evil people, but someone was putting bad thoughts about the true elementals into their heads.

  I wanted to find out who. They might know what really happened to the dragons and true elementals. I doubted the shadow king would have done this. It didn’t make sense. He was powerful enough to wipe them out if he wanted to. Putting them to sleep didn’t punish them since they wouldn’t remember being asleep. Something else was going on.

  We decided to stay invisible and follow Gavin to the path that would take us to the palace. It wasn’t far away, only a few roads over so I would be able to keep us all invisible. The brotherhood would expect Gavin to go dow
n the path, thinking he was trying to catch up with us.

  Once we were far enough that the townspeople wouldn’t see us, I would drop the invisibility, and we would continue. We would watch out for traps, but we figured they would be disabled so the brotherhood could get by without tripping them since they thought we were farther ahead.

  Gavin already had everything he needed, so we grabbed our bags and headed into town. Gavin strolled down the street, stopping to talk to people along the way. It was hard for me to keep the shield up while we were moving, so he went slowly. Every time I shielded my friends it got easier, and I was able to keep up with Gavin without trouble.

  When we finally made it to the path, I sighed in relief.

  I heard Gavin whisper, “Only a little longer, and you can drop the shield.” I smiled. He was looking the wrong way.

  We followed him deeper into the jungle. When he stopped again, I sat down, trying to recoup some of my energy. I let the shield drop so he could see us.

  Richard handed me a chocolate bar, and I smiled gratefully.

  “I brought a few of these, knowing you would need extra energy.” The sugar rush always made me feel better faster than regular food. “Eat this too. You need some real food.” He handed me a granola bar. I took it and ate it as soon as I finished the chocolate bar.

  “You ok?” Tider asked.

  “Yep. I’m ready to go.”

  Gavin led us forward. The walk was easy, and we didn’t run into any trouble. We passed a few areas that had been disturbed, and I could see trace amounts of magic along the ground, but whatever had been there was gone. So far, the brotherhood was acting exactly as we hoped.

  When we finally reached the edge of the jungle, we were tired and hungry. We sat down and had a small lunch looking out at the desert stretched in front of us.

  “It seems bigger than it actually is,” Gavin told us. “There are sinkholes and quicksand everywhere except the path. The desert was spelled long ago to keep anyone from trying to get to the fire elemental palace by taking a different route. It only takes a few hours to cross. We will be at the palace by nightfall.”

  “If the brotherhood doesn’t stop us, or make us leave the path,” Tider said.

  “I’m sure they will try. By now, they will have reached the palace and realized you weren’t ahead of them, and they will double back. I’m sure we will meet them on the way to the palace. They will be easy enough to overpower. I doubt they brought many of the brotherhood with them since they expected to catch you in a trap.”

  “I don’t want to hurt them,” I said.

  “Neither do I. We will try not to, but if they fight us, we may not have a choice. Our healers will take care of them though. They are not bad, they are misinformed and bored. It makes it easy for their minds to be fearful of change. The true elementals have been asleep so long that waking them will be a huge change for many of the people living here.”

  We finished eating and set out across the desert. The farther we went from the jungle, the hotter the temperature got. Abby and Tider were sweating almost immediately and complained of the dry heat. I handed Abby my water bottle as she finished hers, and Adam gave Tider his.

  Neither of them had a fire element, so they were struggling in the heat. It was definitely hotter than the desert in the human realm, and I worried they would have to take the heat potion. We would run out if we started using them already.

  Gavin noticed the situation and opened his pack. “Here,” he said, handing a small vial to both of them. “This will help you. It’s made from a cactus in this desert. You will be able to feel the heat, but it won’t bother you. We make it for those of us that have a very weak fire element. It helps them handle the desert. Especially once they get close to the volcano. I brought one for each of you. I didn’t know if you all had fire or not.”

  I watched as Abby and Tider took the potion, and their faces became less red and strained. Abby handed my water bottle back. “I feel much better now,” she said.

  We continued on. I noticed figures in the distance a little while later. I pointed them out, and we kept an eye on them. After a few minutes, we realized they were heading toward us. It would take them an hour or longer to reach us. We stepped off the path, and I put an invisibility shield up. It was easier than trying to fight them if it was the brotherhood. Richard used a small burst of air to cover our tracks as far back as he could.

  He couldn’t cover all the way to the jungle, so if the brotherhood was paying attention, they would see our tracks in the sand and know we had come through. Then they would be after us again.

  “We will need to watch for traps down the path. If they realized you didn’t come through yet, they might be resetting the traps,” Gavin cautioned.

  We stilled as the figures came closer. It was the two guys who had snuck into our rooms. They were talking loudly as they walked closer.

  “Maybe they snuck out last night to look around the town and then went back to their room to wait for Gavin. We would have seen them if they had come to the palace.”

  “What will we do now?” the whiny guy asked.

  “We will meet them on the path. I’m sure they will be coming this way soon. We replaced these traps, and we will do the same to the ones in the jungle until we see them. We can let them pass us and follow behind.” The men moved out of hearing range, and we all snickered. The brotherhood really wasn’t that much of a threat. We would still need to be careful of the traps though. Those could be a problem.

  We moved through the desert faster now that we knew where the brotherhood was. The first trap we came to was pretty simple. Once it was triggered, the sand would collapse, trapping us in quicksand. It would hold us until the brotherhood arrived. Richard was able to easily disarm the trap, and we continued on our way.

  I could see the palace in the distance. It looked like a mirage. The heat coming off the sand distorted the view making it shimmer in the sky. Gavin informed us we would make it to the palace in less than an hour. Halfway there, I saw another trap, this one more complex. Instead of trapping us in quicksand, it would catch us in a swirling vortex of sand. Before Richard could disarm it, I stopped him.

  “Let’s leave this one,” I said. “It will confuse them more if this trap hasn’t been disabled. They will think we tried to go around, but there won’t be any footprints. They might even think they somehow got past us again.”

  Richard helped me use air to fly everyone over the trap. It was bigger than I expected and would have added hours onto our travel time if we tried to go around it. It wasn’t very tall though since they didn’t know we had air magic.

  Once we were safely on the other side, we continued our walk. The palace got bigger and bigger as we got closer, and the heat from the desert didn’t warp its appearance anymore. It was massive, and all along its walls, I could see areas for them to shoot fire out but still stay protected.

  “Why was the palace built with so much defense in mind?” I asked.

  “The other elementals were always trying to start wars with us. They said we were too aggressive, but the truth was they were scared of our power and constantly tried to destroy as many of the true fire elemental followers as possible.”

  I wondered if this was true. It wasn’t what the other elementals said, but since I wasn’t around when they were fighting, I couldn’t know for sure. I would give the true fire elementals a chance. Their followers had been very nice and welcoming, except the brotherhood, and I doubted they would be so nice if the true elementals were bad.

  A guard stood on either side of the gigantic gate and greeted Gavin as we walked closer.

  “My friends, we request entrance into the hall of elementals. We are here to try and save the true elementals with your permission.” The guards sucked in their breath and looked us over.

  “They have finally come?” One of them said to Gavin.

  “We think so. They have traveled far to get here and have many enemies, including the brotherhood o
f flame. The brotherhood laid traps for them and even snuck into their room, hoping to kidnap them.”

  “We have seen them. They came here earlier today, asking for news of any travelers. We sent them away.”

  “Yes, they were after us, but we had a few tricks up our sleeves and easily got past them.” The guards laughed.

  “A child could get past those two. I never understood why the brotherhood would choose them to do anything.”

  “Please enter,” the other guard said, opening the door for us. It took a bit of work with the gates being so large. “Good luck. We would love to see our true elementals awakened. If there is anything you need, ask.”

  “We will need talismans for each of them,” Gavin said. “They think the dragons are the start of this and would like to examine them.”

  “I will send word ahead to Lily. She is guarding the talismans right now.” He turned to another guard standing inside the gates and told him to find Lily and prepare the talismans. The guard took off into the palace. “Lily will have them ready for you, but you must wait until morning to go to the dragons. The path has become unstable recently. We think the brotherhood is messing with it, but we can’t find any trace of their magic,” the guard told us.

  I shook my head but didn’t say anything. The constant stopping was starting to get to me. I wanted to get to the dragons and figure this out before the Pulhu made it inside the fire realm. We thanked the guards and headed inside, the doors shutting loudly behind us.

  Gavin took us straight to Lily, who already had a talisman for each of us. After introductions, she laid them out. I reached down and picked one up. It was shaped like a diamond with a small flame inside of it. The diamond was intricately created, with twists and swirls along the front and back of it.

  At the top of the diamond was a small symbol. I looked at the other talismans. Each one had a different symbol. Lily told me it was the symbol of a specific dragon. Every dragon was given a talisman, and they added the mark, claiming it. If they were awake, only the person they trusted most would hold their talisman and be able to get into the dragon’s lair without having to go through the guard.