Elemental Fire (18 page)

“I still want to know more about
where the lizards came from,” I murmured. “Have you noticed how they seem to
get bigger when they’re around fire?”

Sip nodded. “I wondered if that’s
what they feed on.”

“Does that mean they wouldn’t
feed on paranormal flesh?” Trafton joked.

“Go find out for us,” said
Lisabelle, jerking her chin. “Bye.”

One thing I was not expecting to
do this semester was attend a party, so when I heard that Cruor of all places
was throwing a rager, I was shocked, to say the least.

I had been reluctant to go,
because I still felt animosity directed my way on a regular basis from some of
my fellow students. They had heard about Malle telling the paranormals to kill
me last semester, and there seemed to be a large group of them who thought it
was rude of me not to be dead yet. Lisabelle, of course, had told me not to
worry about it, but she didn’t mind getting stared at. Sip had taken a
different approach. Every time a student walked past me and muttered something
rude, Sip would bare her teeth and growl. They quickly got the message.

After meals in the dining hall
every day, where there was always tight control, this party would be the first
time I had been with lots of other students outside the classroom.

The crackdown on students at
Public had been sudden and devastating. Many students had tried to cope, mostly
out of fear, but it was increasingly clear that no fun would be tolerated. The
Cruor vampires were also dealing with the stress of a new Rapier queen and the
strained relations that had been out in the open since Faci’s father had tried
to kill Lanca and wound up killing Dirr instead.

Now that Lanca was gone from
Public, I knew only a few of the vampires on campus. One of them was Rake, but
despite his size he kept his head down. He said that Faci had been made
unwelcome in Cruor, and under the pretext of wanting a little fresh air, Faci
now slept in one of the outpost buildings behind the Cruor castle. He had a
friend with him, a thug if ever I’d seen one, but at least he wasn’t bothering
the other Cruors.

The party that was now being
planned was to be hosted by Evan Drapper. He was my year, just a sophomore,
very blond and powerful. Back when Lanca and Dirr had been students at Public
he’d been Lanca’s personal bodyguard. He had wanted to stay with Lanca at
Locke, but she had ordered him to return to Public to finish his schooling. As
the story went, Evan had had a fit, and Vital, Lanca’s new personal bodyguard
and one of the best fighters in the world, had been forced to bodily remove him
from the mountain.

Ever since then Evan had been a
ticking time bomb, and the way he had decided to release some of his stress was
to throw a very much against the rules party. I knew there had sometimes been
parties at Public, but I’d never really been invited to any. Keller got invited
to every single one, but since they were frowned upon he usually just hung out
with me. Small parties that consisted of just members of your own dorm were
fine, but since there weren’t any other elementals, I couldn’t even have had
that kind of gathering.

But Evan was having a school-wide
party, and it was for just one purpose - to see if he could get away with it.

Before the party my friends met
me in Astra, mostly so that Lough could sneak in and see us off.

“It’s amazing that you haven’t
been caught yet,” said Sip when Lough appeared.

“They aren’t even guarding the
place,” he said in wonder. “They don’t care. You all could leave. I’m sure
there’d be consequences for the students left behind, and maybe relations with
the paranormal council, but you’d be fine.”

“I don’t think we can risk it,” I
said. “I don’t trust them whether I can see them doing anything or not. In
fact, it’s probably worse if there’s nothing to see.”

“Right,” said Lisabelle. “And
then there’s tonight. Having a party is such a guy thing to do. Couldn’t he
wait until the prom later in the semester?”

“You really think there’s going
to be a prom?” Sip asked. “I can’t imagine Vale wouldn’t view prom as some sort
of horrible debauchery and cancel the whole thing.”

“Good point,” said Lisabelle,
shrugging. “On the other hand, maybe she’ll take advantage of it as something
to get us out of our dorms, so she can search for the Map Silver and the Mirror
Arcane.”

“Please don’t say that,” I
begged. I didn’t like to think about Vale getting her hands on any of the
artifacts from the Wheel, let alone the elementals’ Mirror Arcane.

“I’m just saying,” said
Lisabelle. “Things here will get a lot more brutal if she finds them.”

Lough pulled his head out of a
book, his expression stony. By chance he’d decided to visit on the very night
of the party, and he was upset that we were going someplace without him where
it was very likely we’d get into massive amounts of trouble.

“Caid arrives Sunday,” he said,
munching on some of the food he had smuggled in to us. Lough was a lifesaver. I
would have gone crazy by then if not for the nuts, dried fruit, and cheese he
brought through the secret passage under the water into Astra.

“That’s good,” said Sip. “Maybe
he can talk some sense into Vale.”

“He’s very angry, according to
Dacer,” said Lough, scratching his ear. “I would hate to see the president of
the paranormals angry.”

“How are we even getting to this
party without the lizards and the Baxter twins catching us? For that matter,
how is anyone?” Sip demanded. She’d dressed in black, thinking that was proper
since she’d be sneaking across campus and then hanging out in Cruor.

“Remind me again why you’re
going?” Lough asked grumpily, his cheeks a deeper shade of red than usual.

“Solidarity,” said Lisabelle
without hesitation. She wore black jeans and a tight black long-sleeved
t-shirt. She had started to wear jeans instead of her long dress, complaining
that the dress restricted her movement. Sip had pointed out that we were at an
academic institution and that we should not need to fight there, in response to
which we had all erupted in a fit of laughter.

Lough narrowed his eyes at the
darkness mage.

“We can’t be the only ones not to
show up at a school-wide party,” said Lisabelle, as Lough’s scowl deepened.
“They’ll think we’re in on it.”

“And what about Camilla and
Daisy? Did he invite the pixies?”

“Nope,” said Lisabelle, grinning
wickedly. “Daisy spends a lot of time either with Faci out back or with Camilla
at Volans. I’m sure there’s some sort of plan in place to distract them.
They’ll probably announce the marriage soon.”

“They’d better,” Lough muttered.
“If Vale gets wind of this you’re all dead.”

“Faci and Daisy married? Gross,”
said Sip, scrunching her nose.

When it came time to go, we
walked Lough back down to the basement so that he could sneak out.

“How’s your shoulder?” he asked,
his eyes filled with sweet concern. We had told him of my dream and of
Trafton’s suggestion that I had some remnants of my mother’s dream giver
abilities. Lough had loved the idea. “So, she wasn’t a mage,” he had said
excitedly. “That’s awesome.”

“It’s healing,” I said as we
headed for the basement. I had a feeling that my right shoulder would be a
little stiff for years to come, but at least I wasn’t dead, and Trafton was
helping me block the dreams. Unfortunately, I couldn’t pick and choose which
dreams to block.

Lough saw a shadow of sadness
cross my face. “Keller says hi,” he murmured. “He wishes he could come, but his
family doesn’t want him to risk it.”

Keller’s family was doing a very
good job of keeping us apart. At one point over Christmas I’d been supposed to
meet his sister, and he had been really excited about it, but then everything
with Lanca had happened and I never had the chance. Now I wondered if I ever
would.

“And your family?” Sip asked
pointedly as Lough blushed. “I thought you had permission to be here.”

Lough smiled crookedly. “I didn’t
ask my family. Only a couple of paranormals at camp know I sneak in here. It’s
a pretty skeletal crew right now. A lot of them aren’t worried as long as Malle
doesn’t show up.”

“I have a feeling she’s closer by
than we think,” I murmured. I was tempted to return to my dreams, mostly to see
Keller, but also because I felt that they gave me an insight into what Malle
wanted. The conversations with her were painful, as the scars on my shoulder
made clear, but they were also necessary.

“You could leave with me,” Lough
said suddenly. “Just sneak out like you snuck in. They wouldn’t realize until
it was too late.”

I shook my head. “We can’t leave.
Who knows what Vale would do if some of us went missing. Besides, there are
things here I have to protect.” I said the last bit pointedly, thinking of the
Mirror Arcane. My dream giver friend nodded his understanding.

“Alright,” he said. “But I’m
coming back before this Ultimate Tactical tomorrow and you better all still be
alive.”

I sighed and took a deep breath.
A lot was happening this weekend. A lot might be decided. We couldn’t let Vale
get the Mirror Arcane.

Lough sighed and pulled his black
cap over his forehead.

“Ladies,” he said, grinning
widely, “adieu.”

Chapter Sixteen

Since my two friends had dressed
themselves in black, I did as well. Lough had said Keller said hi, but I was
chafing to actually talk to him. We hadn’t had a real conversation since we had
broken up at Locke, just in our dreams, and now I had blocked those off. I told
myself it was necessary, but it still hurt my heart.

“You were less of a crab when you
dreamed of Keller,” Sip commented as we let ourselves out of Astra. The only
lights were burning torches of fire lit along the path. We avoided the path,
but the fires still cast an eerie glow. The lizards liked the light, which
meant we stayed away from it now.

“Thanks,” I muttered. “I know.”

“You’re welcome,” said Sip. “I
mean, I miss Keller too. This semester. . . .” She shook her head. “I’m in a
decorating class. It’s terrible.”

“You think it’s terrible that
you’re in a decorating class?” Lisabelle demanded. “What about me? My mother’s
having a field day.”

Lisabelle was nothing like her
mother. I hadn’t really had a chance to meet Mrs. Verlans, but I imagined her
to be something like Dacer, who loved color and everything beautiful. Lisabelle
was as likely to smash something beautiful as to admire it.

“Maybe it will come in handy
someday,” Sip offered. When we both looked at her skeptically she shrugged.
“I’m trying to be positive.”

“For something new and
different,” said Lisabelle. And then she added, “Yes, it will come in handy the
day we need to kill a demon by overwhelming it with our flower power.”

“I mean, that sounds silly,” said
Sip, frowning. “But if you’d think it would work. . . .”

“Never mind,” said Lisabelle.
“Just read the letter from Lanca.”

Lough had also brought a letter
for us from Queen Lanca. We hadn’t been allowed to communicate with her,
something about needing to cease the promotion of cross-paranormal relations
whenever possible, so we were all relieved to hear from her. I read the letter
as we walked.

Dear ladies,

I wish you had stayed at Locke! I
know that what you must be going through now is terrible, and I’m sorry for it.
I so wish I could help! Do tell Lough to let me know if there is anything I can
do. When he sent along a Contact Stone message asking me to write you something
- somehow he’s under the impression that you need cheering up - I was happy to
oblige. I would have done it sooner, except that it’s been made quite clear
that the Queen of the Rapiers is not allowed to reach her subjects.

I wanted you to know that the
object we’ve discussed is safely in my possession still. I’ve got no useful
news about anything else, but thought that I could at least ease your mind
about that much.

I am kept busy here. We’re in meetings
constantly. I’m not sure how my father handled it all, and at times I feel the
need to retreat away to his study. In my mind he’s still here giving me advice
and support as he always did.

The only other important topic is
the demons, and I’m sad to say I have nothing new to report there either. They
patrol at night, but not in large numbers. We sense them in the vicinity of
Locke, but I need all the Rapiers here and do not send any out to challenge
them. I’ve seen no mages since you left, and there’s been no news of Malle.
It’s like she disappeared off the face of the earth. Lisabelle might also take
particular interest in the fact that I hear the world-renowned thief Elam has
been stealing paintings out of small galleries in Romania.

Vital sends his regards. I hope
this is all over soon, until then, all yours, Lanca.

“I like that she didn’t sign her
name with all her titles,” Sip commented as I moved away from the flickering
firelight I’d used to read the letter. The air smelled slightly of smoke and
cold and reminded me of home. I sighed, taking another deep breath. “Does she
know who Elam is?” I whispered to Lisabelle, afraid that if I spoke too loudly,
prying ears would overhear.