Sip was the last to climb into the carriage. She obviously didn’t want to get in, but she had no choice. When Daisy stuck her head out of the front carriage, where she sat with Faci, Camilla, Ferwick, and the Golden Falls students, Sip hurriedly got in with us.
Rake put a comforting arm around her shoulders. “It’s okay,” he said. “We’ll be there before you know it.”
“I know it now,” she muttered, her face white.
My stomach flipped as we were raised into the air. Sip gripped Rake’s knee and I could see her small fingers digging into his flesh. He didn’t flinch. He was a massive vampire, after all. Sip would probably have had trouble hurting him even if she tried.
Right before the carriage took off, the door burst open and in popped Pearl. She gave Lough a shy smile as she rushed in and sat across from him. I saw his ears turn pink.
Rake turned out to be more right than any of us thought. It felt like we were hardly in the air before we were descending. This created another moment of panic with Sip, who was obviously miserable. She kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut for the whole ride, and refused to respond to our attempts to speak with her.
“Where on earth are we?” Lisabelle asked. When no one answered she looked at me. “Well?”
Pearl shrugged. She was still staring at Lough.
“What are you asking me for?” I sputtered. I was sitting next to the window, but there was a curtain covering it on the outside of the carriage, and I couldn’t see anything down below.
“Earth, air, fire, water,” Lisabelle explained, as if she was talking to a five-year-old. “You should be able to sense the earth.” Lisabelle gave a cold sideways look at the Golden Falls student.
Pearl took her eyes away from Lough for the first time to look at me. In my reading of elemental history I had learned some things about earth elementals, including the fact that they were once used in battle to study unfamiliar terrain. Elemental earth mages were sent in front to call out potential hazards or advantages. I hadn’t tried to find out whether I had that power, but Lisabelle seemed to be implying that I should try.
I closed my eyes and found my powers, flinging them wide, noticing again that every time I searched for my powers, it became easier to find them. The start of that process had been a conversation with Keller.
“Magic is part of you. There’s no searching for it. You don’t have to think about your hand before you use it, or your mouth or your eyes. They’re just there.”
“But I always knew about those,” I had said, whining. “Magic is something I could never reach.”
“You just have to practice,” he said, smiling at me. He was holding my hand and it was hard to concentrate on anything other than his thumb rubbing small, warm circles over the web between my thumb and forefinger. “Here,” he said, standing up but not letting go of me, “I’ll show you.”
Well, okay! If you insist.
He moved until he was sitting behind me, so that my back pressed against his chest and I felt his breath on my shoulder.
“Close your eyes,” he said, taking my left hand in his left hand and my right hand in his right. “Breathe. Okay. . . .” His voice was soft, but I could still feel the slight vibration of his vocal chords.
“What are you thinking about?” he asked, having let several breaths go by.
“Pie,” I said without thinking.
He chuckled. “Is that supposed to help you concentrate?” He moved our right hands to press against my stomach and I giggled. “I don’t hear anything,” he said.
“I’m still hungry,” I said, suddenly shy.
He pulled me closer and my breath caught.
“Okay,” I said. “I’ll concentrate so we can go eat.”
“Yes, magic first, food later,” he said.
“Pretty sure your priorities are confused,” I muttered.
So he had helped me. We concentrated together until it became second nature for me to simply close my eyes, and there my magic would be.
“It’s a living, breathing thing,” he whispered. “My mom told me to imagine it as if it were a coating all over my skin. Your body is covered in green, and brown, and blue and gray,” he said.
“So, I have a fungus, some moles, several bruises, and some very dry skin,” I joked. He laughed and my heart lifted. I knew why he was teaching me this; it was because I needed to be fast. I might be confronted by Nocturns or darkness, and I wouldn’t have time to think before I fought. I would only survive if my reactions were quick enough.
“And you have to survive,” Keller had whispered lovingly in my year. “You just have to.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Now, as I rode high over the ground in a sightless carriage, my powers came to life. They sparked as I called to them, and they flowed easily out of me, joining the wind, greeting the water, pushing the fire.
The earth was an endless strip of power beneath me. It rolled and moved, some of it dry and some wet. I knew the parts that had growth, clumps of trees and shrubs.
I started to feel strange and pushed further. My body had never felt this way before. Neither had my powers. As we continued to move, the trees and shrubs were fewer and farther between. I was starting to feel dry and parched, like a husk that had sat for ages in the sun. I licked my lips, but that didn’t help. Images of oceans and lakes, long showers and rolling rain started to flash through my mind. I desperately wanted water, but all I felt was dryness.
“The ground is dry,” I said, still keeping my eyes closed.
“Uh huh, that’s what happens when it’s winter and not snowing,” said Trafton. “I thought you understood winter.”
“It’s not winter here,” I said. In the carriage the temperature hadn’t changed, and since we couldn’t see out there was no way to know what the weather was like unless you were with an elemental.
“If it’s not winter, where are we and how fast were we traveling?” Lisabelle demanded.
“I’m, I’m sorry,” I said, “I wasn’t paying attention until now.”
Lisabelle came to sit next to me and took my hand. The magic that crawled over my body started to crawl over hers. We had done this before, sharing powers to help Lough when he was caught in the tower, and again the day before in repelling the hellhounds from outside Golden Falls. It wasn’t supposed to be possible, but I thought it was the strength of our friendship that allowed us to do it. Besides, neither of us could use the other’s powers. Lisabelle could just see what I was seeing and feel what I was feeling, kind of like she could see into my mind. She had no powers with water, which was probably a good thing. If mages thought they could take over others’ powers by, say, killing them, the paranormal world would change indeed.
“We’re over a desert,” Lisabelle breathed. “Shocking.”
I felt another body move next to Lisabelle’s and Sip’s hand rest against my arm. “I can’t feel anything,” she muttered. “How do you two manage that?”
The truth was that I didn’t want to think very hard about the connection Lisabelle and I had, or why we had it. So I said nothing.
“Well, we’re going down,” said Sip, “so I expect that’s where we’re landing.”
“They’re going to try to kill us in a desert and let the sun cook our dead flesh,” said Lough, his voice shaking uncontrollably.
“They aren’t going to kill us,” said Lisabelle in exasperation.
“You they aren’t going to kill,” said Rake. “The rest of us are up for debate.”
“I wish they’d go faster,” said Sip, her hand gripping me tighter.
We all held our breath as we sank lower. I didn’t realize how tightly my teeth were clenched until I felt the carriage touch down on the ground. With a sigh of relief I relaxed enough to open my eyes. I had followed the ground all the way as it rose up to meet us.
We landed with a thud and bounced. None of us made a sound, but I knew it was just form sheer force of will.
“Phew,” said Sip, pretending to w
ipe her hand over her forehead. “For a second I thought we were goners.”
“I’m sure we’re fine,” said Trafton. “We’re on a school field trip, after all.”
“Saying we’re fine on a field trip with Faci is like saying Lisabelle is only kind of sarcastic,” said Lough, scrubbing his face and making his cheeks even redder.
“Well put,” said Sip, releasing my arm and standing up. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Now.”
The light was blinking and I found myself blinking several times in response. Sip pushed at the carriage door, and it opened with a heavy creak. “Let me out,” she said in a rush.
The rest of us followed. Pearl made sure to leave right in front of Lough, causing Lisabelle to give her a dark look.
The ground felt dry and brittle under my feet.
“Gather round students, gather round.” Ferwick’s voice came from a short distance in front of us. The Golden Falls students, accompanied by Faci, Daisy, and Camilla, were standing in a circle around him. I noticed that they were all wearing glasses.
“I guess Daisy forgot to tell us something,” Sip muttered.
“Shocker,” I said dryly.
As we walked over to Professor Ferwick, I examined our surroundings. Even my magic had retreated, pooling inside me, not liking the dryness of the air. It was an interesting way to neutralize an elemental. There was no water here, and since I hadn’t known we were coming to a desert, there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Anyhow, as soon as I opened my eyes I wished I hadn’t. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that Sip had gone green.
My own stomach churned at the sight of the barren wasteland they had brought us to. In certain places I could see forms, like bones, sticking up from the dry ground.
“What are we doing here?” Sip cried. “This is a battlefield. From one of the first battles between the paranormals and the demons.”
“It’s an important piece of history,” said Professor Ferwick, his eyes milky. Glancing at Camilla, I saw that she had gone over to examine one of the piles of bones.
“These are pixie bones,” she said with wonder. “Mixed in with hellhound remnants.”
“Yes,” said Professor Ferwick, rushing over to the pretty blond pixie. The Volans fought mostly with the demons in this war, many, many years ago, but it was a different time then.”
Camilla’s expression turned thoughtful.
“Oh man, she’s thinking. Now what?” Lisabelle muttered.
“What do you mean?” Camilla asked the professor, ignoring Lisabelle’s insults.
“Well, the pixies are small and known for trickery. They’ve grown in power and strength generation by generation, little by little. They’re now respected on the field of battle, but they’re still small. Back then it was the brute force of the demons against the scheming and artifice of the pixies. In those days they also had a closer bond with their kindred faeries.” Ferwick choked a little on the word faery, and I wondered what he thought about the faeries who worked in the kitchens of Golden Falls, or if he’d even noticed.
“Anyway, we must be heading back soon,” he said, waving his hands. “So we must see and learn as much as we can while we’re here.”
My friends and I walked around a little. I didn’t want to, since the only thing to look at was the paranormal bones strewn over the field, but Ferwick wouldn’t tolerate us just standing by our carriage and the demon that had pulled it there.
“Who won this battle?” Sip whispered, as she gingerly stepped over a particularly large heap of bones.
“By the looks of it, the demons did,” said Lisabelle. “There are very few demon remains. It’s mostly smoke and ash and some of that would have blown away, but there’s plenty of material that wouldn’t have been moved by mere wind.”
“There are a few hellhound bones,” said Lough, bending down and examining a rather strange tangle of remains.
“I continue to wonder what use, if any at all, dream givers are,” came a bored voice from behind us.
“And we thought we’d get through an entire semester without wanting to kill Camilla,” said Sip dreamily. “Weren’t we silly.”
“I’m not,” said Lisabelle, looking offended.
We didn’t bother turning around, but it didn’t matter, because Camilla came around to where she could face us, then stood with her feet firmly planted and her arms crossed over her chest. I hadn’t really looked at Camilla in weeks. Her gorgeous blond hair was as gorgeous as ever, but there was something dark and stormy in her eyes that I didn’t remember being there before, as ill-disposed toward us as she was at the best of times. I wondered if it was because she and Cale were no longer together, or because Cale was gone, or maybe she knew something about Kia’s death that she shouldn’t.
“Dream givers are a lot more useful than pixies,” said Lisabelle. “I mean, if you’re a pixie, the main use of your powers is through DUST, and you let your best friend get murdered. No one wants that.”
Camilla took a step forward and uncrossed her arms. Her ring was still green, but there were starting to be flecks of black in it. Worse, at the moment it was pulsing with unused power.
“You think you can goad me into doing something stupid,” said Camilla. “You can’t.”
“You’ve already done something stupid,” said Lisabelle. “You didn’t leave us well enough alone.”
“I’m just stating facts,” said Camilla, spreading her hands wide. “I’m trying to get you to understand what a waste of space your friends are. Oh, I know that for a small FEMALE werewolf Sip’s alright, but in the scheme of things that doesn’t really say much.”
“I hate to break it to you, Camilla, but you’re a female too,” said Sip coldly.
Camilla smiled indulgently, as if she was talking to a child. “Yes, but it’s different for pixies. Our useless dust powers, as you call them, are not dependent on BRUTE strength. Or on sleeping.” She made a show of rolling her eyes.
Lough, who was standing next to me, stayed quiet, but his hands were balled into fists at his sides, and his nostrils flared.
“I dare you,” said Camilla, turning to Lough. “I dare you to prove your worth. What good is a dream giver?”
“We do plenty,” said Trafton, stepping up before Lough could lose control of his anger.
At this point we’d acquired a crowd. Even Professor Ferwick had come over to see what was happening. For once Faci and Daisy were just watching, but I had a feeling that they were eager for one of us to do something stupid. Jewel, her masses of red hair pulled back, stood a little apart, next to Nolan, and neither of them spoke. Nolan looked uncomfortable with what was happening, but I knew we were all helpless to stop it.
“Like what?” Camilla asked, looking around and smiling at our audience. She was going to milk this for all it was worth.
“We can see the future and the past,” Trafton explained.
“The future, huh?” Camilla gave a high-pitched laugh. “So, you knew we were going to have this conversation?”
“We can’t always see the future,” said Trafton. “Just sometimes. We can send nightmares at our opponents and dream ourselves and our companions to safety.”
“Ah, what you did during the Tacticals?” Camilla asked. “That’s simply fascinating. I’m sure there was no other way through than to dream it.”
“Dreaming it was the best way,” Trafton explained patiently. “Not that you’d know anything about it.”
Camilla was in no way impressed by how gorgeous Trafton was, and it seemed to be throwing him.
“I know plenty about dream givers,” Camilla shot back.
“Fine,” said Trafton, turning to Lough. “Shall we?”
“What are we ‘shalling’?” Lough asked suspiciously.
“We’re going back to the battle,” said Trafton. “Camilla seems curious about what the pixies were up to at the time, so let’s remember.” He turned back to Camilla, his beautiful blue eyes cold. “Let’s dream.
”
“I think this is a brilliant idea,” said Ferwick. “I wanted my students to see the field of battle, but if you return through dreams I do believe we can all go and see the turns and shifts of the battle as it actually happened.”
For a second I thought Lough would refuse on principle, because he hated Faci and Daisy enough so that he wouldn’t want them to see a dream that he created. But he surprised me by agreeing. Sighing, he moved to stand next to Trafton.
“This is going to be cool,” I said.
“This is going to be heartbreaking,” said Lisabelle quietly. “Just heartbreaking.” She was looking sadly at the bones, and I was reminded that they were mostly of paranormals, not of demons. There was a good chance we were returning to a slaughter.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Lough and Trafton didn’t join hands. I’m sure they could have, but Lough probably didn’t want to get too close. Instead they stood facing each other, and the air between them started to ripple with color. I felt my wind, tinged with a magic that wasn’t mine, start to swirl, as dust rose up and drifted through the air. I closed my eyes against the power, but it didn’t matter.
We were all in the dream.
There was a tangy smell in the air that made me open my eyes.
Chaos erupted before me and I stood stock still, afraid that if I moved, one of the long swords the demons wielded would slice me to pieces. The desert wasn’t as dry as it had been outside the dream; in the dream the ground was more dirt than sand. The trees were darker with leaves, and at the moment several were on fire. The sky was black, with spots of fire scattered around. I wondered what was up there burning, friend or foe.
Directly in front of me was an immense black creature that looked like what I would expect a dragon to look like if a dragon could move around on its two back legs.
It wasn’t breathing fire; instead it was slamming paranormals left and right with its front two claws, which apparently passed for hands. There was a sickening thud as a werewolf made a leap for the thing and was slammed backward, landing awkwardly in a heap.
Elemental Earth (Paranormal Public) Page 16
