Elemental Fire (25 page)

“So, what do you think’s going to
happen?”

“Well, that, for starters,” said
Lisabelle, pointing in front of us. The Glories had started to cry out, and now
that we had light I could see why. Up ahead the passage narrowed, not just a
little bit, but so much that I felt sure our boat wouldn’t fit through the
opening. At the same time, the current was rushing faster, and no matter how
hard I tried I couldn’t get our boat to slow down as it shot forward.

“Can’t you slow us down?”
Lisabelle yelled.

“I’m trying,” I said desperately.
Trafton’s jaw was clenched tight, but he didn’t have any suggestions either.

Suddenly the air was broken up by
howling and slurping. Our light had illuminated the walls, and now I could see
that they were lined with black-looking werewolves and strangely colored
lizards.

“Those aren’t real,” said Rake,
staring over my shoulder.

“They’re not real in that they’re
not really werewolves,” Sip agreed. “But they’re most definitely real in that
they want to attack and kill us.”

“Are those hellhounds or werewolves?”
I asked.

“What difference does it make?”
Rake demanded. “Look at those teeth!”

The difference it made was that
Vale had promised there would be no Nocturns, which meant no hellhounds or
demons. If those were hellhounds that she’d sent down below to attack us, then
that was most certainly bad.

“Hellhounds,” Sip breathed.
“Don’t worry, I’ll deal with it.”

Just as she finished speaking,
one of the hellhound-looking creatures sprang toward us. Sip transformed into a
werewolf in the blink of an eye and jumped onto the hellhound just as it landed
in our boat. The rest of us were forced to grab the sides as we careened from
left to right.

“Hang on,” I cried to Vanni, who
was panicking again, but my eyes never left Sip.

I didn’t have to worry; Sip was
using her fury at our being attacked to fuel her fight against the demon. The
poor thing was trying in vain to protect its sides and flanks, but Sip just
kept coming. She would spring forward and zip at its sides, then spring away
before the hellhound even knew she was there. This continued as we moved
inexorably toward the narrow passageway. The hellhound was clearly growing
tired.

But so was Sip. There came a
moment when Sip zipped at the creature’s flank but didn’t pull back fast
enough. The hellhound saw its chance and darted forward, trying to bring its
jaws around Sip’s neck. Rake, who was tired of watching, simply stepped
forward, wrapped his arms around the hellhound, and heaved it over into the
water.

The werewolf Sip paused mid-snarl
and gave Rake a questioning look. The big vampire shrugged. “I gotta be good
for something here. You can’t do everything all the time, you know.” I was
pretty sure that if Sip had been in her human form she would’ve laughed.

“Something’s wrong,” Rake
muttered. The first boat, which didn’t look like it would fit at all, had just
squeezed through the opening and disappeared into the tunnel. It shouldn’t have
been able to. The sides should have slammed against rock and the boat should
have splintered into a thousand pieces. Instead it slid through and out of our
sight.

As we continued to surge forward
ourselves, the water continued to rise.

“We’re going to be smashed
against the roof,” Vanni cried, her voice filled with fear.

“Oh, look, it speaks,” Lisabelle
muttered. It sounded nasty, but she said it low enough so that Vanni didn’t
hear. I knew the darkness mage was just releasing some of her own pent up
frustrations, so I didn’t think the comment needed a response.

The passage continued to close,
and I gasped as it looked like we were going to smash right into it.

To make matters worse, a ring of
fire had sparked around the edges and we were now careening right toward it. If
one of us didn’t do something fast, it looked like we were in a race to see if
we were going to be burned alive before we could be smashed into tiny bits, or
vice versa.

Trafton stretched out his hands
and closed his eyes. It didn’t even really look like he did anything, except
that suddenly we were no longer underground in a dank passage about to be smashed
to smithereens on a bunch of black rocks. Instead, we were floating on a
beautiful lake, with water lilies dotting the spotless blue water as the sun
shone down. Trees lined one side of the lake, providing a comforting shade, and
the breeze kissed our skin.

Our boat was still filled with
holes, but we were moving serenely along. Ahead I could see a stream drifting
off into the distance, and our fire canopy had changed into a canopy of
beautiful flowers. It wouldn’t have surprised me to have Trafton reach out,
grab one of the flowers, and present it to Lisabelle, but he was too busy
steering our deathtrap of a boat.

Lisabelle turned to stare at
Trafton in amazement. He had also changed our clothes, so that we were now all
dressed in jeans and shirts. Of course, Lisabelle was all in black, while Sip
wore purple and I blue.

“You did that yourself,” he
murmured. “You are each in your own dreams. I tried to make them similar, but I
would never presume to dress any of you.”

“That’s what I’d call a solid life
choice,” said Lisabelle, and for the first time since we had begun our journey
her face broke into a smile. Trafton nodded, but continued to concentrate. We
were getting close to the stream that was flowing out of the lake.

“Rake, I’d take cover if I were
you,” Trafton warned. “Unless you put a lot of sunscreen on.” Vampires could
exist in daylight, but only if they applied a special cream, which they
uncreatively called sunscreen. But they weren’t happy about it. Rake was
already one step ahead of Trafton, burrowing under a canopy.

“You dreamed us out of the
waterway?” Sip asked, incredulous. “Trafton, do you know how powerful you have
to be?”

I looked down at my dirt-covered
hands, which belied the beautiful escape Trafton had crafted for us, and looked
quizzically at Trafton to see what he’d say.

“As a matter of fact,” said
Trafton dryly, running his fingers through his wavy blond hair, “I do. I
dreamed us through the waterway.”

“Of course he does,” Lisabelle
shot back, glaring around at all the sunshine as if it were there to personally
offend her. “He’s the one doing it!”

“We’re technically still in the
tunnels,” Trafton explained. He looked more at ease than I had seen him all
semester. Obviously using his magic agreed with him. “But nothing can harm us
as long as we stay in the dream.”

“Even Vanni?” Lisabelle asked,
eyeing the fallen angel. Vanni was curled up in the seat I had recently left,
staring around in wonder. Some of the green had gone from her skin and she no
longer looked like she was about to throw up.

“Trafton,” she breathed, “this is
beautiful.”

“Why thank you, Vanni dear,” he
said, making the girl blush. Sometimes I forgot just how good-looking Trafton
was, but apparently Vanni hadn’t, even here.

Rake turned to Sip, a faint blush
staining his own cheeks. “Good job with the hellhound.”

The werewolf raised her almost
white eyebrows. “Thanks, you too. I liked watching you throw him overboard like
the useless sack of potatoes that he is.”

The warm and fragrant breeze
brushed over us and I turned my face up to the warm sun. If I hadn’t known
better I would have said that Rake was blushing just as much as Vanni now.

“Lisabelle,” said Trafton, “Can
you paddle a bit? I don’t want Charlotte to use her magic. Just in case.”

He had a point. We didn’t know
what would happen to the dream if too many of us were using our powers, and I
was more than happy to be where we were and just relax. Trafton took up the
other paddle, which was missing half its flat end, and started to help
Lisabelle guide us down the narrow stream. As we moved I felt the air grow
colder, and my fear returned. The clouds darkened and I knew that Trafton’s
dream was coming to an end. He had only conjured it to get us through a
passageway that otherwise would have killed us, and now we were coming out the
other side.

“This was nice,” said Sip
dreamily. “I’d like to come back.”

“I’ll bring you anytime,” said
Trafton over his shoulder, and I couldn’t help but notice that Rake looked
disgruntled.

Suddenly black water splashed up
over the side of the boat and my neck and head felt hot from the fire burning
overhead. My eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the darkness as I gave an
inward sigh. We were back in the waterways under Public. It was an abrupt
change from the beauty of Trafton’s dream.

“Just how much of this existed
before and how much did she create out of nothing?” Vanni asked bitterly. It
was the first real interest she’d shown in anything since we’d gone
underground.

“Good question,” said Sip, eyeing
the black walls. We could still see the ledges, but they were no longer teeming
with hellhounds. “I’d like the answer to that myself.”

“I think we have just one more
thing to get through,” said Lisabelle harshly.

“Oh, joy,” Sip and I chorused
together, and then smiled at each other.

Lisabelle was right. We had one
more thing to get through or past, but it wasn’t like anything we had fought
yet.

“Do you see the other boat?” I
called. We had come out into what appeared to be an underground lake. The water
was perfectly still, except that every once in a while I saw a ripple, as if
there might be fish under the surface.

“Why isn’t the water moving in
that corner?” Vanni asked, pointing to the spot directly in front of us. The
water appeared to be flowing around it, as if that spot was glass rather than
real moving water.

We all stared. Vanni might be a
basket case, but she wasn’t stupid or crazy.

“I don’t know,” Lisabelle
muttered. “We don’t have time to find out right now.”

We continued to float around the
lake. “Where now?” Sip asked. “Charlotte?”

I nodded. I was best with water,
so I allowed my powers free rein over the space we now occupied. I looked
around, feeling with my powers, my ring pulsing blue and white, searching for
the opening. We had to hurry. We hadn’t seen the other boat since it had gone
through the narrow passageway, and since they hadn’t burned or smashed they
were probably almost to the end by now. I hated the thought of losing to
Camilla Van Rothson almost as much as I hated the thought of losing to Daisy.

Almost instantly I realized the
trick. The lake wasn’t flowing, but there
was
an opening. It was just covered
up with magic.

“Right ahead,” I pointed,
forgetting about the dead space of water directly in front of us.

“But. . . .”

Before Vanni finished her protest,
we found out exactly why the spot wasn’t moving. I had merely assumed it was
more magic, and it was, but not from Vale.

I heard a cry that sounded a lot
like Dobrov was getting hit, and then spears launched at us. Three zinged right
for our boat. Lisabelle caught one barehanded and incinerated the other two
without so much as blinking. The Glories’ boat suddenly appeared out of
nowhere, and I remembered that the pixies’ power was best with trickery and
that Camilla was the only pixie in this game.

“What did you wait for us for?”
Sip yelled. “Why didn’t you just go win?”

As she asked the question, the
answer became obvious. They couldn’t figure out how to get out of the lake. I
saw no outlets and the water flowed in no direction at all.

“You’re fast,” said Adver with
approval. Apparently he was the one who had thrown the spears. He was from
Airlee, but he had always kept to himself. He hadn’t looked happy when he’d
been told he was assigned to the Faston team, and I wondered now if he had
thrown the spears lightly enough so that Lisabelle would be sure to catch them.
Lisabelle responded by chucking the spear back at his head. He ducked and
retreated back to stand with Dobrov. The hybrid’s gray tunic was stained with
something dark. I just hoped it wasn’t his own blood.

“Go, GO,” Trafton cried, mostly
to me, because I was the water elemental. I wanted to tell him that he looked
good, even in pink, but now wasn’t the time.

I called to all the power I had
left, and every last once went into shooting us forward, trying to get through
the opening before the other boat did. Lisabelle was blocking furious attacks
from the Glories as they hurled spears, tricks, and balls of power at our
fleeing craft. I felt the wind in my hair, and for the first time since we’d landed
in the waterways I didn’t smell dead fish. It was incredible, speeding forward
as our boat pushed the water to the sides.

“Is Dobrov alright?” Sip yelled,
her eyes fixed on the other boat as we shot past.

“First name ‘who’ second name
‘cares,’” Lisabelle yelled over her shoulder right before she reached out and
grabbed another spear out of midair.

Not to be deterred by the
scariest paranormal at Public, Sip shot back, “First name ‘SIP’ second name
‘QUEST.’ We owe him that much!”