That brought me back to reality quickly, “What do you mean I can save your grandson? Where is he?”
“He is in the water elemental palace. At least I think he is.”
“Why do you think that? They aren’t allowed to have contact with any humans. Why would they have your grandson?”
“I sent him out there to investigate that area about six months ago. I had heard some rumors about the ancient site, and he was helping me with my work. He went out there many times, always bringing back a small trinket that made me believe there was more. One day he didn’t come back. I went up to look for him, but every trace of him was gone. Even his clothes and pack had disappeared. I searched for him and even told the council, hoping they could help. They put some of their best people on it but found nothing. Finally, they said he may have run away.”
“Could he have run away?”
“No. He wouldn’t have left me without a word. He was planning on taking over the business.” Chet had tears in his eyes, “I know something happened to him. They must have found him and done something. He’s a fire elemental after all, and fire and water don’t mix well. They were always fighting back then, so they may not like one sneaking into their palace.”
“Wouldn’t he have told you before going in?”
“No. Whenever he brought up doing something dangerous, I would tell him to leave it. It’s not worth it if it risked his life, but he is a teenager. He didn’t always listen to me. He may have done it thinking he could ask for forgiveness later. Please, if you’re going in, can you look for him. Find out what happened?”
“Of course we will look for him. If he is in there, we will find him.”
“Thank you so much,” said Chet. “Here’s a picture of what he looks like. I can’t imagine they have many people locked up down there, but just in case.” I looked at the photo and put it in my pocket.
“I will do my best.”
Chet got tears in his eyes again, but blinked them away and shook his head. “Back to business. There is so much you don’t know about the elementals. Even though they live in this world, they are beings of pure magic. Their palaces and castles move on a different time than ours. When you go into one, the time stream changes. I’m not sure how though. I don’t know if it goes faster there or slower. I guess you will have to figure that part out.”
The door crashed open, and Gary ran inside, “We need to leave. The Pulhu have found you. One of my people, Macie, is trying to stop them, but without being able to use much magic, she isn’t going to be able to hold them off for long.”
“Come quickly,” Chet said. “There is a tunnel that runs all the way to the edge of town. You can use it. I have magical shields that will keep them from getting into this tunnel for a long time. You should be able to make it through the tunnel safely, but then you are on your own. I don’t have anything else that will help you.”
Macie barged in, “Hurry, they are almost here. I used a freeze spell on them in the alleyway. Hopefully, no one will notice, but they are already starting to move. We only have a few minutes.”
Chet pulled a bookcase away from the wall, and we all stared inside. It was almost pitch black, and he handed me a flashlight. “Try not to use your magic, so they can’t find you if they have a tracker.” We all walked into the tunnel, but Chet grabbed my hand and pushed it onto a flat rock before the bookcase swung shut. As soon as he let go of my hand, I grabbed the bookcase to stop it from closing.
“Aren’t you coming?” I asked him.
“No, I’m too old to run from them. I’ll wait for them and tell them you hightailed it out of here when that girl came in yelling about you being attacked.”
“But.”
“No buts. I’ll be fine. I won’t tell them anything about what you were doing here. Now, get on your way.”
“Thanks again, Chet,” I said quietly as he shut the bookcase the rest of the way. Everyone was waiting for me, so I turned the flashlight on and started walking. “I guess we should follow the tunnel. What happened, Macie,” I asked as we walked. It was too dark to run, so a quick walk was the best we could manage.
“The Pulhu showed up,” she huffed. “They really want you.”
“How did they know where I was?” I asked. “We didn’t tell anyone where we were going.”
“What about you, Macie? Did you tell anyone?” Tider aimed the flashlight towards her.
“No, I didn’t call the Pulhu on you,” she sneered, but something in her voice made me pause.
“That’s not what he asked. Did you tell anyone where we would be today?”
When she didn’t answer right away, Gary grabbed her. “Macie? What did you do?”
“I didn’t do anything. I’m sure they followed you.”
“They may have, but tell me what you’re hiding,” Gary growled. I didn’t ever want to get on his bad side.
“I told my boyfriend we would be in town.”
“What boyfriend?” he asked. “I’ve known you forever and thought you would have told me if you had a boyfriend.”
“We haven’t been together long, and we are keeping it a secret,” she glared at him.
My stomach sank even more, “Which one of you wanted to keep it a secret?”
“We both did,” she said, but it sounded unsure.
“Really, Macie? You wanted a secret relationship that you couldn’t share with your friends?” Gary asked.
“It wasn’t like that. He needed to get his parents to understand. They are very old-fashioned and want him to date a girl that will help bind another family to his.”
“And that sounded ok to you?”
“He’s a good guy,” she defended her boyfriend.
“Really?” Gary turned from her. He started walking in the tunnel again. “Let’s go, everyone. We have to hurry. What did you tell him, Macie?”
“Only that we were going to be at Ancient Beginnings sometime today. He likes to know where I am. He said it makes him feel better since I work a dangerous job.”
“When did you meet him?”
“I don’t know, probably about a month ago. We met while I was in town getting some coffee. He was in line behind me. We started to talk, and things felt right. We even like the same things.”
“Oh, Macie, you idiot, he played you. He knew exactly where you would be and when because you always do the same thing. And he could have watched you for weeks beforehand trying to figure you out so he could make sure you would like him back.”
“But Sally wasn’t here, so why would he do that?”
“That’s around the time when she planned her trip over here. It all makes sense, Macie. You were being played.”
Macie still looked skeptical.
“One thing, Gary?” I asked him, “How would he know that Macie would be assigned to me?” I asked.
“If he knows anything about this haven, he would know Macie is always assigned to the most important cases with me. She has been my partner for a few years now. And I always get the most important case.”
“Why did you take me then? Isn’t it like babysitting?”
“Any time the Pulhu are involved, it becomes important. I’m trying to get enough evidence so the council can do something with them, but they never leave any trace behind.”
“That’s a good idea,” I said.
“Yeah, but like I said, I can never find a trace of evidence.”
We continued down the tunnel silently, each lost in their own thoughts when we finally hit a dead end.
“Where do we go from here? Did we miss a turn?”
“I think we go up. See,” I said, pointing the light upwards, “there is a ladder. Can one of you give me a boost up?”
“Let me go first,” Gary said. “I can make sure the coast is clear.”
Gary jumped up and grabbed the ladder, making his way to the top. “There’s a small landing up here. Start climbing up while I try to open the door. Richard, come up last since you are the tallest. The others
are going to need a boost to reach the ladder.”
Richard tried to help me up, but I pushed Abby in front of me. I wanted her as far away from the Pulhu as possible. I followed Abby up the ladder and heard Gary swearing.
“I can’t get the door open. It’s jammed.”
“Let me see,” I said, taking the light from him and shining it around. I tried pushing on the door, but nothing happened. It really was stuck.
“What do we do now?” Abby asked.
“I don’t know,” said Gary, “but we can’t go back the way we came.”
“Hold on. Maybe we can use our magic to move the door.”
“Let’s make a hole next to the door, so we can see what is blocking it.”
“Ok,” Gary said. He raised his hands and pointed them to the right of the door. We watched as the earth started to fall away from a spot in the tunnel. After a few minutes, we could see through it.
Richard looked through the hole, “I think we can get out this way. There’s a boulder in front of the door, but now that we can see it, we should be able to move it.”
Gary looked through the hole, “How are we going to move that? It’s huge, and I used up a lot of my energy making the hole. I don’t think I can do it.”
“Don’t worry. I can lift it with air.”
“You would have to be crazy strong to lift that. Give me a few minutes, and I will try to break it up. I need a quick rest first,” I looked closely at him and realized he did look a bit tired.
“You really used up all your energy?” I questioned him. “I didn’t realize making the hole would be so hard.”
“It wasn’t that. I’ve been using a lot since I met you and haven’t had a chance to recover. Plus, I had to use a lot when we were at the shop. While you were inside, I caused a water line to burst at the corner of the street. I figured if the cops came to deal with traffic, it would slow the Pulhu down since Macie said they were getting close.”
“Wow, I didn’t realize you were using your powers so much. So you have water too?”
“No, I used earth to break the pipe. It will look like the ground shifted over time, causing the break.”
“Gary,” Richard interrupted, “I’m going to move the boulder. We don’t have time to wait. We don’t know if they are coming down the tunnel. We need to get out of here as fast as possible.”
“Go ahead and try,” Gary sighed, “but don’t use too much energy. It will be hard to carry you out of here if you pass out.”
I looked at Richard. Gary had no idea who he was dealing with. Richard was the strongest magic-user in our school, and from what I had overheard, he was one of the strongest out there. At least in air magic.
“I’ll help,” I told him.
I grabbed Richard’s hand and poured my magic into him. I felt him push the boulder away from the door with a stiff breeze. He reached out and carefully opened the door. Thankfully there was a rock ledge above us, so the light didn’t penetrate into the tunnel, but I could see some light up ahead.
“Let’s go, follow the light, it should lead us out of here. We are going to close the door back up.” Quickly, everyone passed us, and once I was sure everyone was out, I closed the door. Richard still had my hand, and together we moved the boulder back in place. Right before we turned around to leave, I put my hand over the hole and used earth to close it. It took a lot of energy, and I felt myself sag against Richard,
“You ok?” he asked.
I straightened up as best as I could, “Yeah. Let’s get out of here.”
We followed our friends out of the tunnel, and I blinked uncontrollably when I stepped into the light. It had been so dark that now my eyes couldn’t focus. When I could see, I looked around, trying to figure out where we were. It looked like the tunnel had led us right to the edge of a cliff. Somehow when we entered the tunnel, it must have gone downhill and taken us deeper into the earth. We were standing at least fifty feet below the top of the cliff, and the only thing in front of us was a drop-off and water.
“There must be a way to get either up or down,” I said. “I doubt Chet would have left us stranded. There must be stairs or handholds.”
We started to look around, trying to find anything that looked like it would help. Finally, Abby called me over.
“I think it’s here,” she said.
“What is?”
“The way up, or down. I’m not really sure, but it looks like there is a palm print right here.”
I remembered Chet putting my hand against a rock and quickly placed my hand on the palm print. Immediately stairs appeared where before there had been a rock face. “How is this possible?”
“This is expensive magic. Chet must have some really good friends. Only the super powerful can do spells like these, and they charge a lot of money,” Gary said.
“I’m glad he does,” I said. “Otherwise, we would be stuck.”
We headed up the stairs and peeked our heads over the top. As soon as I saw the coast was clear, I walked up the last few stairs. Once we were all up, the stairs disappeared. It looked like they had never been there. “I wonder if there is a way down?” I asked, looking for another palm print.
“I don’t think we have time to worry about that,” Gary said.
Chapter Seventeen
Gary was right. I could wonder about the stairs at a different time. Preferably when the Pulhu weren’t chasing us.
“We need to figure out how to get back to the haven,” Richard said.
“Let’s walk,” I said, “or you can send Macie to town to get a car for us.”
“Do you really trust her,” Tider sneered.
“She may have made bad choices, but I don’t think she tried to give me up to the Pulhu. She should be able to get a car with no problem, and this time if anyone asks, she can lie and say we are going to one of the beaches we haven’t been to. Right, Macie?”
She shrugged, “I can do that.”
“Call us once you have the car,” Gary told her. “We’ll let you know where we are.”
“Ok,” she said and took off for the town.
It would take her at least an hour to get the car and get back to us, so we started walking.
“Do you know how far the haven is from here?” I asked.
“Yes. It’s going to be a long walk if Macie can’t get the car. Or if she comes back with the Pulhu, and we have to run for it.”
“Don’t worry. We can leave you behind when she calls, and when she gets to the pickup point, you can check everything out before coming to pick us up at the real spot.”
“How will you know if something’s wrong?”
“Right before she gets there, you can call us, and we will stay on the phone with you. If things sound bad, we will run and find cover, but if everything is good, you can tell us. Or we could all go together and go on the other side of these hills when Macie is coming. You could go check it out and wave to us if everything is good.”
“That could work. I would rather stay close to you in case something happens. Let’s keep walking this way, and we’ll see how it goes,” he said. We walked down the street, but as soon as Macie couldn’t see us. I darted up the hill on one side of the road and walked along the top of it.
“What are you doing?” Abby raced up to me.
“We can still follow the road from up here, but if someone else comes along, we can get down on the other side of the hill so they don’t see us. There aren’t a lot of hiding places out here,” I said, gesturing to all the open space around us.
Abby waved her hands for everyone else to come up. We walked along the ridge in silence before Tider told us all to get down, someone was driving towards the town. We peeked over the hill and watched as the car drove slowly down the road.
I closed my eyes to check their magic and make sure they weren’t getting ready to use it. It looked like two people, and there was no magic around them at all.
“I think we’re good,” I told everyone. “They aren’t using
magic.”
“How can you tell that?” asked Gary.
“It’s an extra gift I have.”
“I think there’s an awful lot you aren’t telling me.”
“Maybe, but it’s for your protection as much as mine,” I told him truthfully. I really hated lying, especially to people who helped me.
“One day, you are going to need to tell me the whole story,” he held up a hand before I could protest. “Not now, but once all of this is over, and you don’t have to worry about it.”
“I can do that,” I smiled, thinking about how nice it would be not to have to hide my power.
“The Pulhu are acting differently with you. Maybe it will throw them off enough that they will screw up and leave evidence behind. Evidence that I can take to the council.” I looked at him worriedly.
“If you ever take anything to the council, they will know who did it, and your life will be over. They are more powerful then you are aware of,” Tider stepped up to him.
“How would you know?” Gary asked.
“My family is a big part of the Pulhu. I know way more about it than you do.”
“I completely forgot. When I researched you, your family name came up. I can’t believe I forgot. You are nothing like them, so it’s hard to remember you are related.”
“I’m a lot more like them than you realize,” Tider said.
Gary looked at him silently for a minute and nodded. “Why aren’t you worried about being around him?” he asked me.
“Like you said, he isn’t anything like them. Tider is like a brother to me, regardless of what family he is from.”
Richard walked up on my other side, “I think we have company.”
We all quickly got down on the other side of the hill and peeked over. We saw a car speeding down the road, this time away from town. With how fast it was going, it was either Macie or the Pulhu looking for us. We hadn’t made it quite as far as we should have since we were all getting tired. As the car sped past us, I looked for a magical signature. This time I got it and wasn’t surprised to see three more signatures in the car.
“That’s not Macie. At least not only Macie.”
Lost Tides: Elemental Seekers Series Page 19
