Elemental Fire (30 page)

The loss of the Mirror was also
weighing on me, and I was very much left wondering about my mother and who her
first husband had been. I had always assumed my father had been her first
husband, but what if he hadn’t been? It would explain why her name didn’t
appear in the history lists of elementals. If she’d married an elemental, her
name, Grace Lancing, should be there. Unless that wasn’t her name. But I had
seen documents, I had a lot of them in storage boxes, proving that she was
indeed Grace Lancing. There had to be another explanation.

The only good point about that
week was that spring was coming. I could see patches of green grass, and it was
starting to be warmer through the middle of the day. Winter was fading, and
with it came the hope of summer. I didn’t have any idea what I’d do over the summer,
except that if I hadn’t found the Mirror Arcane by the time the semester ended,
that’s how I’d be spending June, July, and August: looking for it.

There was also an uncomfortable
amount of buildup to the next Ultimate Tactical. We had to win this one to
force a third, that’s how it worked, and if we failed we would be at the mercy
of Vale. I wanted to believe Caid’s claim that he wouldn’t let anything bad
happen to us, but I wasn’t sure I trusted him. Dacer’s trust in the president
went a long way, but Dacer wasn’t there.

“The next Tactical will take
place in the air,” Vale announced at dinner on Thursday night. Tactical was a
week away. She had already said that much, but what she said next was news.

“I like to call it sky box. Each
of you will be in a glass box high above the ground. Whoever figures out how to
get out of his or her box first wins for their team. Of course, you are more
than welcome to attack each other inside the boxes, just do not break the
glass. Even if only one team member gets out first, then the entire rest of the
other team escapes, that first team member will still have won it for his or
her team. Please keep in mind, you must also figure out how not to plummet out
of the sky and die, if that sort of thing matters to you. If you wish to
plummet and die, by all means, just sign a waiver first. You will not be
allowed any flying devices. We will not help you get out of the boxes. If you
cannot get out, eventually you will starve to death, I assume, unless you’ve
been paying more attention in Decorating 101 than I thought.”

I gulped. I hated heights with a
passion. Of all the events this Tactical could involve, why did it have to be
heights?

“Why couldn’t they just have
these boxes two feet off the ground?” I whispered hoarsely. “Wouldn’t it serve
the same purpose? Anyhow, getting out of glass boxes doesn’t sound too hard.”

“I think there’s more to it than
that, almost definitely,” said Lisabelle. “I’m just not sure what.”

“She doesn’t want us helping each
other either,” Sip whispered. “We aren’t working as a team at all.”

“She’s probably going to dump
acid on us or something, but I don’t care as long as she doesn’t have us fight
the lizards or the Fire Whips,” Lisabelle murmured. Then, after a thoughtful
pause, she corrected herself, saying, “Well, I wouldn’t mind fighting the Fire
Whips.”

“Ew,” said Sip, wrinkling her
nose. “Those things are unstoppable and unnatural.”

“How can anything in the
paranormal world be unnatural?” I asked. “That would imply that there is a set
standard for natural.”

“Good point,” said Sip, nodding.
“I hope we never have to fight the unnatural lizards. It’s strange, isn’t it? I
can’t find any paranormal record of them anywhere.”

Any free time I had I spent
reading. Last semester I had practiced my elemental fire skills and I was proud
to say that they had improved greatly. Now I wanted to read in order to widen
my knowledge in other directions. Sigil kept giving me more books, to the point
that they now covered the floor of my room. I tried to keep up with them, but
it was impossible.

Whenever I would visit Sigil he
would quiz me on what I had read and what I remembered. It became a game for
us. It was impossible to remember everything, especially about history. I ended
up feeling like I had an extra class up in the Astra library. Dacer’s teaching
style was very hands on; he wanted me to put on the masks. But Sigil couldn’t
be hands on - he couldn’t pick stuff up, because he was a ghost (laugh
intended). So with Sigil I just worked on storing away ever more knowledge.

I learned that for a long time
the most respected elemental type had been earth, but air, water, and fire
quickly caught up. At first, fire had been thought to be too close to darkness,
while air was only useful in certain situations and water was only useful
against fire. As elemental powers grew and evolved, however, and elementals
found new ways to use them, all of that changed. Earth had been a little
different all along in that it had practical applications. It helped for quakes
and planting, storms and building. Earth elementals were highly sought after,
but they were sometimes deemed not delicate enough for certain kinds of work.

Queen Ashray of the Royal family
of Nascaro, who had become something of a hero to elementals, was water. Camaraderie,
she believed, would play a big part in elemental survival, so she was
instrumental in changing the respect structure so that elementals started
working together comfortably. Another word for camaraderie, I was reminded, is
loyalty.

On the eve of the second Tactical
I was sitting in Magical Murders that go Undetected but Should Not. It was
taught by Professor Erikson, and if ever a paranormal was not suited to teach a
class, she was not suited to teach this one. The class was being held in one of
the meeting rooms in the upper floor of the library.

Professor Erikson obviously
abhorred the idea of murder, and as she had explained on the first day of
class, she didn’t know much about it. But she promised to do her best to learn
about important murders and then to teach us, her students, since her advanced
flying classes were not taking place this semester. She had explained that the
last third of the semester would be spent on elemental murders, since they were
all unsolved.

I thought that would be interesting,
since “unsolved” was something of a silly term when we knew that the demons had
killed all the elementals in order to destroy the Power of Five.

The day before the second
Tactical she announced, “Today we are going to look at the murder of Malle’s
family.” A stunned silence that followed, then Sip raised a hand and Professor
Erikson said, “Yes, Ms. Quest?”

“I thought that murder was
solved,” said Sip. “A wild band of pixies did it.”

“Yes,” said Erikson, “but the
subsequent murder of the pixies was
not
solved.”

“Oh, it’s a real mystery who
killed them,” Camilla said silkily. “They deserved what was coming to them.”

Erikson didn’t react to Camilla’s
little outburst. “Who
did
kill the pixies is the question.
It is widely believed that Malle exacted her revenge. It is also widely
believed that the pixies handed over some of their own to keep the peace. What
the band of pixies did was atrocious and uncalled for.”

“Of course it was,” Camilla burst
out. “They were crazy miscreants and I, for one, am ashamed to call them
brethren.”

“That’s very noble of you,” said
Rake. He was sitting between Sip and me, twirling a pencil over and over in his
large hands. Lisabelle was sitting on my left, fascinated by anything to do
with murders.

“Of course you are when you’re
trying to side with the Nocturns,” Sip muttered, just a little too quietly for
Camilla to hear.

“It’s how she killed them that we
are going to examine,” said Erikson, her eyes raking the room. “She used fire
to burn them in their own pixie dust.”

The Volans in the room gasped.
Apparently that was a fate worse than death.

“No,” Camilla breathed, sitting
forward and looking horrified, her mouth agape.

“Oh yes,” said Professor Erikson.
She stood in front of the class, her hands clasped behind her. “This is not a
story that is commonly told or known, because it is considered dishonorable to
use paranormals’ own weapons against them. But it does happen. Malle was
considered justified in her actions because of all she’d been put through. Her
family deserved revenge.”

I felt sick. The pixies should
have received a fair trial, but instead they had been executed mercilessly.

“How could she use the dust
against them?” Lisabelle asked, her eyes alight.

“Don’t tell her,” Camilla
shrieked, staring in horror at the darkness mage. “She will surely use it
against us. She’s certifiable!”

Lisabelle gave Camilla a black
look. “You seem to forget that if I wanted to I could have killed you already,
no pixie dust required.”

The pixie’s mouth closed with a
snap and her eyes widened.  The other pixies sitting around her, including her
best friend Kia, shifted uncomfortably.

But Professor Erikson also seemed
to take exception to what Lisabelle had said. It wasn’t just me she didn’t
like.

“Ms. Verlans, did you just
threaten a member of my classroom?” she asked icily, her eyes sparking.

“No - ”

Lisabelle started to say more,
but Professor Erikson cut her off. “Get out. Your threats have no place in my
classroom. Go tell President Vale why I’ve sent you away.”

I was getting worried about
Lisabelle at this point. She was angering powerful people all over the place -
first Caid, now Erikson - and I wondered if she knew where to draw the line.

Lisabelle didn’t react. If I’d
been in her place I might have started crying; most students who were ordered
to Vale started crying. But Lisabelle held eye contact with Professor Erikson,
and it became a staring match, with both refusing to look away. Slowly,
Lisabelle pushed herself out of her seat and headed for the door. She stared at
Erikson the entire way.

I didn’t need to look at Sip to
know that the werewolf was furious, mostly with Erikson, but a little bit with
Lisabelle for goading her.

Dobrov, who was the only other
student in the class whom I knew well, looked up. It was the first time all
semester that he’d met my eyes. He blinked twice, and I might have been
imagining it, but I thought he gave me the barest of nods.

Rake leaned over to me. “Erikson
would get in real trouble if any of her students actually performed the spells
that Malle used, and Lisabelle’s the only darkness mage in the class.”

“So, one way or another Erikson
was going to kick her out?” I whispered.

Rake shrugged. “Looks that way.”

“Rake,” Professor Erikson’s voice
cut like a lash. “Do you have something to add to the discussion?”

Rake relaxed back into his chair
and grinned. “Nope. Haven’t in years.”

Though I wasn’t supposed to, I
went to Airlee that night. I wanted to see Lisabelle and make sure she was okay
after her visit to President Vale.

Trafton was already at my
friends’ room when I arrived. It was late, and most students were getting ready
for bed, but no one commented when they saw me out of place. Most of the
Airlees joked that I was an honorary member, because I had spent my Starter
semester in their dorm.

The dream giver opened the door
and ushered me in, his face grim. Lisabelle was sitting on her bed, with
washcloths soaked in blood covering her arms. Sip sat next to her, looking like
a pot that was rapidly boiling over.

“I, just - - I,” Sip fumed, unable
to finish sentences.

“I’m fine,” said Lisabelle. “This
is good.”

“Did they find your wand?” I
asked quietly. I knew Lisabelle wouldn’t want sympathy.

The darkness mage smiled thinly.
“No, I’ve figured out how to hide it. Go me. I can make it disappear when I
want to. They aren’t going to find it. I was questioned about why I didn’t have
one, but I played the absent-minded darkness mage and they believed it.”

“But they lashed you over it,”
said Sip, nearly in tears. I went over and put my arm around the tiny werewolf.
She snuffled and leaned her head against me.

“This is ridiculous,” she
sniffed. “Lisabelle’s the one that’s hurt and I’m the one that’s crying.”

“I’m just more stoic than you,”
said Lisabelle, relaxing back into her black pillows.

“After taking Decorating 101 all
semester, you still can’t think of anything better to do with this room?”
Trafton said, trying to lighten the mood. “The place looks horrible.”

Sip loved neon. It was a fact
that she had made clear from the start of her career at Public, and her half of
the room reflected it. She regularly changed bedding and wall hangings, but
they were always neon. At the moment her bedspread was blue and her wall
hangings were an eye-smarting mix of fuchsia, orange, and more blue.
Lisabelle’s side was black. There was no other color. She’d even taken a piece
of cloth and draped it over her desk, so that the wooden surface could no
longer be seen.