Elemental Fire (14 page)

From somewhere else in the hall
there was a murmur, louder than Vanni’s whispered question, and Ms. Vale
paused, her eyes growing cold and bright.

“Who just spoke while I was
speaking?” she asked quietly. The room grew so quiet I felt sure I could hear
Ricky off in Maine playing video games. I looked around. Ms. Vale’s eyes were
trained on something that was past my head, but Daisy, her mother’s daughter,
rose to her feet and pointed. Dobrov never looked up.

“That girl,” said Daisy. “No, not
you,” she said, hissing violently at a paranormal who had apparently thought
she was the one being called out. “That one, the brown-haired girl!” Daisy
smiled at her mother as she laced her fingers in front of her. Ms. Vale
inclined her head toward Daisy. “Thank you so much, darling daughter of mine.
Most helpful. I command the offending party to please stand up.”

None of us moved. I stared hard
at my food, not daring to turn around, but I heard the scrape of the chair and
then suddenly a sob.

“Look at this,” said Ms. Vale,
clucking. “This wretched girl, poor thing. Her parents never taught her
manners,” Ms. Vale said, smiling now. “Well, I would be more than happy to do
so in their place. Easy enough. First, I want everyone to watch. Let this be a
lesson to you about what happens when you are not polite to your elders and
betters.”

Reluctantly I turned around to
look. The same brown-haired girl from the first night, who had spoken up in my
defense, stood there now. Already tears streamed down her face. Her right cheek
had a deep gash that was oozing a little, and the tears streamed into it,
causing blood to drip onto her white shirt.

I gulped and looked back at Ms.
Vale. Her eyes burned.

“She’s performing a spell,”
Lisabelle muttered. “It’s not like any I’ve ever seen before.” I looked back at
the brown-haired girl. More tears were pouring from her eyes. I flinched.

“Poor Nina,” Sip said sadly.
“This is not going to end well.”

My stomach turned and rolled, but
I kept my eyes on Nina, out of respect for her. Bloody tears poured from her
eyes until she was screaming. Some of the pixies were laughing, but otherwise
the room was silent. My fingernails dug into my palms until I felt the skin
tear. Fury pounded at my temples. Nina’s yells echoed off the hall. A few
paranormals covered her ears. Eventually Nina collapsed.

A few of her tablemates just
stared at her. I wanted to yell at them to pick her up, carry her to the
infirmary and help her, instead of letting her lie in a pool of her own wet
blood, but, probably smartly, her friends waited until Ms. Vale nodded at them.
Waving her hand she said, “Clean that mess up. I want it spotless.” Then she
went back to eating her lunch and talking to the Baxter brothers. None of my
friends said a word. We didn’t even look at each other. We didn’t have to. This
was not going to last the semester, one way or another.

I spent the afternoon reading
some of the books that Sigil had given me. The wealth of information about
elementals was astounding. The first book I chose,
Royal Element
, was about the history of the
royal families of elementals. As I had noticed from my first day in Astra as a
Starter, the ballroom had a throne and a chair for a queen, and now I was going
to learn about the people who had once occupied those spots.

The royal family of
Nascaro is the only one to have ruled the elementals. This is a testament not
only to their staying power, but also to the ability of the elementals to
overcome adversity and disagreements. The elementals have always been a proud
house, and one of the main attributes of such pride is the breadth of their
powers. Earth, air, fire, and water cover almost everything in the known
universe, meaning that elementals are at the forefront of change and act as the
backbone of progress. Obviously, the ruler of the elementals, be he a king or
she a queen, is at the apex of such power.

I skimmed down. There were long
periods of good relations between elementals, punctuated by kings and queens
who had more trouble ruling. One king that stuck out was King Ashmonth, who
ruled in the eighteenth century for a brief period. Unlike the kings who had
come before him, his power lay only in fire. But all the other members of the
royal household had the rare talent of having power in all four disciplines of
elemental magic, so King Ashmonth found his rule challenged from the beginning.
Unfortunately for him, his father had died young, making Ashmonth king at the
young age of eighteen.

It was too young; he hadn’t
learned enough to know how to rule properly.
Royal Element
implied that Ashmonth had started
out with the best of intentions, but as it became increasingly clear that he
was unfit to lead, his rule was challenged. At the age of twenty-five he lost
his mind and burned half of Astra down. He was sentenced to drowning, a
horrible fate for a fire elemental.

As it happened, King Ashmonth had
sired a daughter, who, having been sent to live in the country where she knew
nothing of her birth, was brought back to rule at the age of twenty-five. Her
name was Queen Ashray. Her mother had been forced to marry King Ashmonth and
the union was an unhappy one. Queen Ashray, after hearing of her mother’s fate,
refused to follow the same path.

She proceeded to be the
longest-ruling monarch to date, living to the age of ninety-eight. She died
with her mind still sharp, beloved by all who knew her. It was she who had
presided over the great changes experienced by Astra. She had commissioned the
creation of the library and insisted that the powers of Astra be placed in the
Mirror Arcane, to be used should the unthinkable befall the elementals. She
also promoted the use of the Power of Five as a way to nurture cross-paranormal
relations. If the paranormals were strongest together, there would be less
fighting and less war.

She had even founded a university,
suggesting that its name be Paranormal Public.

The only break I took was when
Ricky e-mailed me. He started the e-mail with, “Don’t be mad,” and went on to
tell me about the first B+ - he always got As - he had received on a homework
assignment. But it was a stupid homework assignment, he insisted, about how
logic was law and there was no room for creativity.

I was so absorbed in my reading
that I almost forgot about the “big” announcement. Remembering just in time, I
threw down
Royal
Element
mid-sentence and dashed out of
Astra, thinking as I ran that Queen Ashray sounded amazing. No wonder the
elementals had always been so respected.

By the time I reached the center
of campus most of the other students had gathered. I made my way to Sip and
Lisabelle, who were standing out the corner of the hospital building, eyeing
Ms. Vale and her two cronies, the Baxter brothers, suspiciously.

The clearing was lit mostly by
Fire Whips, which cast a shadowy glow on the rest of us. But on the edges I
could see moving shadows that could only be hellhounds. Cale and Camilla stood
toward the front. I could see the back of Camilla’s long blond hair swishing as
she giggled. She looked like she didn’t have a care in the world. I shifted
uncomfortably, unable to still my fears entirely.

Wearing the same purple and blue
outfit she’d had on at lunch, Ms. Vale came to the center of the clearing. I
now saw that there was a raised dais set up there, right where the pen had been
not a week before. The pens had been moved to one side but were still within
sight, probably to make sure we never forgot where we could end up if we
disobeyed one of the Nocturns.

Ms. Vale paced back and forth,
looking like she was in fine form. Her hands waved and her eyes sparkled. If I
hadn’t known better I would have thought she was about to perform a jig.

“I’ll keep this brief,” she said,
“since above all I want you to get back to your studies.” I looked around for
Nina, but there was no sign of the Starter. She was probably still in the
infirmary. If it had been allowed I would have visited, but I knew I would get
in a world of trouble if I tried, and just make things worse for Nina as well.

“We have heard that you have
something called Tactical here,” Ms. Vale went on.

I groaned inwardly. I was not a fan
of the violent game, which had invented as a practical way to get us to
practice our magical skills. Last semester my roommates and I had nearly died
when we were sent into the woods and demons had attacked us.

“This semester,” said Ms. Vale,
“I would like to have the ultimate Tactical challenge. There will be two teams,
a fight to the death if you will.”

At the murmur that went up around
us Ms. Vale twittered with laughter. “Not a real death, at least not on my
watch. Of course, if one of you should inadvertently die. . . .” She held her
hands wide. “There won’t be anything I can do about it.”

I felt cold. This was another
layer I had not been expecting. Sip leaned into me. “Of course she’s going to
do this,” she murmured. “She needs the school free of students so she can look
for the Mirror Arcane.”

I thought of my Mirror lying safe
in Astra. Now that she was forcing me to leave Astra, I would not be there to
protect it.

“I will choose the teams,” Vale
went on. “Three times you will compete. The rest of the school will watch. Best
two out of three will win.” At this she smiled, and it wasn’t a comforting
sight. “The loser . . . I will decide the punishment for losing.”

Lisabelle looked over at me and
sighed. “What do you want to bet that I’ll be left out of this one?”

“Almost 100%,” I murmured back.

But we were wrong. Ms. Vale, for
reasons all her own, had decided to form two super teams.

“On one side, Daisy
Validification, Dobrov Validification, Camilla Van Rothson, Faci Decimatar and
Adver Allston.”

She immediately started reading
the names of the second team’s members, but there was such an uproar as Faci
Decimatar stepped through the crowd that her voice was drowned out. As students
pressed forward, mostly looking furious, I saw that many of the vampires’ faces
were masks of hate.

Cool as could be, Faci stepped
through the crowd. His strangely shaped face, complete with sunken eyes and
pale skin, was filled with amusement. He was enjoying himself.

“What is he doing here?” Sip
hissed. “Is Locke alright?”

Realizing that she should address
the uproar - and appearing to relish it - Vale said, “Mr. Decimatar was cleared
of all charges over the death of Princess Dirr, and as he had finished his high
school studies, I suggested to his father, a dear old friend, that he join us
here at Public. He has only just arrived, but I feel certain that he will catch
up admirably.” Not giving us a chance to protest, or really say anything at
all, she returned to reading the second list of names. I had thought I couldn’t
be in for any more shocks, but the list quickly turned my attention away from
Faci.

“On the other side, Charlotte
Rollins, Sip Quest, Lisabelle Verlans, Trafton Rook, Vanni Smith and Rake
Hale.”

“What does the winner get, you
wonder?” Ms. Vale asked coolly. Actually, I
had
wondered that. I knew this game had to be rigged, and by rigged I meant that
Ms. Vale was probably going to try and kill my team “accidentally” while she
searched for the artifacts.

We all stood stock still,
waiting. But she didn’t answer her own question.

“Disperse,” cried Ms. Vale.

We all stood dumbstruck for a
split second, until a Fire Whip cracked and students quickly started making
their way away.

“Shouldn’t we have had a
Demonstration?” Sip muttered. “For Faci?”

“No Demonstrations,” said
Lisabelle. “No new students. Lough proves not even some old students were
allowed back. Faci is getting special treatment. Shocking.”

“Yeah, one in a long line of
shocking things tonight,” I said, as I trudged after my friends, thinking about
how this semester was just getting worse and worse.

Lisabelle game me a meaningful
look, but I couldn’t decipher her intent, so I just shook my head and hurried
back to Astra. I needed to talk to my friends, but I had no idea how that would
work. I wished there were catacombs under all of Public, but short of that I
didn’t know how we could keep in contact.

I was so lost in thought about
the ultimate Tactical and what it might mean for the semester, and my life,
that I nearly forgot about the elemental books I’d been reading. Only halfway
through my second one, I decided to talk to Sigil right away instead of waiting
to finish the rest. If I had to be part of the Tactical Team, I wanted to make
sure there were still eyes on the Mirror Arcane, and Sigil would be perfect.

I raced up to the attic, but
before I got there I heard a muffled noise downstairs. Frowning, because I was
already on the third floor, I hurried back down the stairs.

I kept the lights dim in Astra
because I thought that would make it harder for prying eyes to see in. Now I
crept downstairs as quietly as I could. All hope that it was Mrs. Swan
returning was dashed when I heard a crash coming from the elemental fire
sitting room, followed by a long string of swearwords and an annoyed second
voice ordering the first voice to stop.