Buried Embers (Elemental Seekers Book 3) Read online

  Buried Embers

  H.M. Sandlin

  ISBN:9781661801984

  One who is wise though their years are few

  Will awaken the elements to when they were true

  And the worlds in between will awaken soon

  After the power is bestowed on you

  If they choose dark, the world will be destroyed

  But if light is chosen the world won’t fall into void

  Many will fall to dark’s endless ways

  But a few will stay strong for the coming days

  Under the land on an isle green

  The water sprites help if they are seen

  Above the clouds where cold winds blow

  The sylphs are waiting to help those below

  Where fire touches a sky so blue

  The drakos are waiting to save a few

  But underground bad dryads wait

  Except for one who seals alls fate

  Friends will help though may be lost

  Look around, or you’ll pay the cost

  All powers together will fight the dark

  And seal him away in void’s pure mark

  Chapter One

  The baby dragon looked at me sleepily. It was curled up on my bed. Its golden scales glistened as the light reflected off of them, each movement causing the dragon scales to sparkle and glitter in new ways. Mauevene, a water sprite, flew around the dragon, flinching when its tongue snaked out, trying to grab her.

  “Bad baby dragon,” I said, giving it a hard look. Its black eyes locked on mine before it looked down. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. I didn’t know dragons even existed before this one showed up. I sat on the other side of my bed, and it scooted closer to me, trying to snuggle against my leg. I sighed and lifted it up, placing it in my lap while Mauevene flew around us. I could feel a rumble coming from the baby dragon, almost like a cat’s purr. It lifted one eyelid to look at me as I shifted my weight.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I said, running my hand over the scales. I thought a dragon would feel similar to a snake, but its scales were rock hard. Only its belly was a soft silky texture. Even the ridges around its eyes were hard.

  It settled back down as I studied it. I was going to have to come up with a name. I couldn’t keep calling it the baby dragon. I remembered reading a book about a dragon where it told the person its name. I reached my hand out and placed it on the dragon’s head. When no name came to me, I let out a little huff. Too bad, that would’ve made this so much easier, I thought.

  I looked to Mauevene for help, but she disappeared as soon as she saw me glance her way. She probably saw the pleading look in my eyes. She didn’t want anything to do with this kind of responsibility. Maybe my friends could help me. I didn’t even know what to feed it. I heard a grumbling noise from the dragon. It sounded like laughter.

  “Are you laughing at me? You made the same sound when I caught you in my room. You better not be laughing at me, or I won’t help you.”

  The grumbling grew louder. It was definitely laughter. I tried to stand up and put the baby dragon on the bed, but it clung to me, its body wrapping around my arm. It clawed its way up my sleeve until it settled around my neck.

  I looked in the mirror and watched as the dragon disappeared. I could feel him against me, but I couldn’t see him. I walked to my door, telling him to stay invisible while I tried to find my friends.

  Abby was across the hall in her room. She opened her door and told me to come in when I knocked. After stepping into her room, I looked around in shock. We had only been back a short time, yet she had managed to take all the clothes in her suitcase and spread them everywhere in her room.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I’m looking for a coin I took with me when we went on our trip,” she said, talking about the school field trip we just got back from. It was a dangerous trip for us. While the other students were doing school stuff, my group snuck away to go help the air elementals in their realm at the top of the mountain. We managed to save them from the creatures guarding them. In return, they promised to help me when the time came to face the darkness that was moving closer and closer to earth, trying to take over.

  The darkness was already influencing members of the council. Now it was causing trouble at the school too. Mrs. Sullivan, our headmistress, told us the Pulhu on the council were trying to get her fired and replace her with one of their own. Most elementals didn’t realize how bad things were getting. The Pulhu made sure to cover their tracks. No one could tie them to anything. A lot more elementals were starting to believe the lies they were spreading. They thought they should rule the world, and nonmagical people should be beneath them.

  I still couldn’t believe people actually felt that way. To me, everyone was equal. That’s why I was best friends with Tider, the son of the scariest family in the Pulhu. It was said they ran most of the Pulhu except for a small side group. I didn’t care though. Tider was a sweet, caring person who didn’t want to hurt anyone unless he had to. He had been tricking his family for years, pretending to believe the lies they spread while never doing anything terrible himself. It was the only way he could get by. If they knew how he really felt, they would have cursed him or killed him long ago.

  I convinced Abby to look for the coin later. I wanted to talk to everyone about my baby dragon problem. I mentally reached out to Richard, asking him to find the other guys and meet us in the cafeteria. I felt him respond through our link. They would be there soon. Abby and I beat them to the cafeteria and put our stuff on a table. I grabbed a granola bar and some juice before heading back to our spot.

  The guys came in soon after, and we all ate quietly for a few minutes before I told them about my baby dragon.

  “You have a what?” exclaimed Adam, the newest member of our group. We had helped him escape from the water elemental realm when they caught him sneaking around their palace. Ever since then, he had stuck with us.

  “It was on my bed when we got back. There was a note telling me it would help guide us and to hurry. I think the first thing we need to do is name it,” I told them when no one said anything.

  Abby immediately started throwing names out like Cuddles and Mr. Spitfire. My baby dragon hissed in my ear at each one.

  “I don’t think it likes those,” I told her.

  “Wait, it’s with you?”

  I nodded and explained how it had become invisible and wrapped itself around my neck. My friends wanted to see the dragon, so we decided to meet that night in the south wing. It was the only place we could all talk privately. The south wing was spelled to keep everyone out. It hadn’t been used for a long time.

  Most of the students and teachers thought a fire had destroyed the south wing, and it was never rebuilt. I found out a spell was placed on it to keep anyone from entering. I broke the spell for my friends so we could use it as a hiding place.

  Someone else knew about it too. We didn’t know who though. They wore a black cloak, but I could tell it was a female and either a teacher or someone who worked or went to the school. We saw her in the south wing meeting with someone last term. We made sure to keep our eyes out for her when we were there, but we hadn’t seen her since.

  I snuck a few handfuls of extra food to feed to the baby dragon when I got back to my room. When I tried to feed it to him, he turned up his nose, disgusted. I shrugged and turned away from him. I hadn’t figured anything else out about dragons. From the books I looked at, dragons were rare to see, even when the elementals were allowed to roam the human realm freely.

  My friends were going to see if they could learn anything to help me before I met with them in the south w
ing. Maybe one of them could tell me what to feed it.

  That night I snuck down to the south wing with Abby to meet the guys. As we neared the door, I heard voices around the corner. I grabbed Abby’s hand, dragging her into the corridor with me. We watched as the new teacher, Mr. Burwel, walked past with Sean. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I went to take a step closer, but Abby stopped me.

  “You can’t walk out there. They will see you.” We were only five feet from them, but the spell on the south wing kept them from being able to see us. Even if they looked directly toward us, all they would see was a closed door. I watched as they said goodbye, and Sean headed toward the boy’s wing. Mr. Burwel turned and walked back toward the classrooms. I wanted to follow him. There was no reason to go that way in the middle of the night, but I had to worry about the baby dragon first.

  I turned away and walked farther into the south wing, finding the classroom where we all met up. The guys were already waiting. I told them what I saw, and they agreed we would have to keep an eye on the new teacher. Especially since Mrs. Sullivan thought he was part of the Pulhu.

  No one had learned anything about dragons. We were going to have to guess how to raise it. Mauevene hadn’t known either.

  “Is he here?” Abby asked excitedly.

  “Yes,” I told her. “Baby dragon, you can show yourself to my friends. They won’t hurt you.” The dragon slowly became visible wrapped around the back of my neck, his tail coming around the front and trailing over my shoulder.

  “Oh, my goodness. He is adorable. Can I pet him?” Abby asked.

  My baby dragon puffed up his chest and let out a small growl.

  “I think that’s a no,” I said.

  Abby looked sad but perked back up when Richard asked about names.

  “I still don’t know. I’m not even sure if it’s a boy or girl.”

  “He seems to know what we are saying. Let’s give him or her a bunch of names to choose from,” Richard said.

  Everyone started saying different names as the dragon snorted at each one. He didn’t seem happy with any of the choices. I felt him bump his snout to my face, and a name came to me.

  “His name is Sievroth,” I told my friends. At their questioning looks, I explained how I knew his name now. I asked Sievroth why he didn’t tell me his name sooner, but he didn’t respond. We stayed for another thirty minutes, talking about the new teacher and what Mrs. Sullivan said. If she wasn’t here to protect us, the Pulhu would be able to get to us in no time. We decided to start figuring out a backup plan in case the council sent her away.

  Back in my room, I watched as Sievroth unfurled from my neck and gently flew around the room, stretching his wings. Mauevene appeared, and he immediately tried to snatch her up. I grabbed him and leaned into his face, scolding him. Hot smoke blew from his nostrils, and I leaned back, startled.

  “You better not breathe fire in this room, Sievroth,” I told him. “I don’t want to try and explain why my room has scorch marks all over it. If you need to breathe fire, you go outside and do it where no one will see you. Or better yet, control it, so you don’t have to do it at all.”

  Sievroth turned his head to the side and started shaking it.

  “I mean it, Sievroth,” I began to say. The baby dragon let out a small sneeze, and a ball of fire hit my wall, burning the poster I had up. I used air to put the fire out as quickly as I could, but it still left a few marks that would be hard to explain. Dragon fire must be incredibly hot to be able to burn the wall so fast. I looked at the ashes of my poster. I would need to ask my mom and dad to send another one. Sievroth glided over to the bed and landed softly, looking up at me with his large orange eyes. They were tilted downward, and he hung his head.

  “It’s ok, Sievroth. I know you didn’t do it on purpose. You are still a baby and learning how to control yourself.” I sighed and picked him up for a cuddle, laying on my bed while I watched Mauevene flit back and forth across the room.

  I had the weekend off and spent my time in the common room with my friends. Most of the other students looked at me oddly when they saw me, and a few even came up to say they were glad I wasn’t killed in the avalanche. I said thanks to them, but I felt terrible for making so many people worry. They thought we had been trapped on the mountain by a series of avalanches. We couldn’t tell them we were in the air elemental realm.

  I went to class with Richard and Tider on Monday so we could all work on our air powers together. Richard brought the book from the air elemental queen that she gave him, and Mr. Connor looked through it for the first half of class. He could only look at it when one of us was with him, or it would disappear. It had been enchanted by the air elemental queen to keep it safe. Mr. Connor had us start practicing the forms, and he even joined in to practice with us.

  After we knew a few forms, Mr. Connor had us use air magic during each form the way the book taught. We all felt a boost in magic. The air wanted to work with us. It felt like we had been forcing it without the forms. Mr. Connor was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to start teaching the other students. He looked upset when we told him he couldn’t teach the other students until after the Pulhu and the darkness were defeated. The last thing we needed was for the Pulhu to be more powerful.

  As Mr. Connor was fixing Tider’s form, I heard a noise near the door of the dome. I stood up and looked over as the door opened. Mr. Burwel was standing there. I quickly cleared my throat, causing the others to stand up and look where I pointed.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Burwel,” Mr. Connor said. “This is a private masters class. What can I do for you?”

  “I am here to watch the students in your classes. The council wants me to observe what is taught in each class. That includes masters classes.”

  “Masters classes are private for a reason, as you know,” Mr. Connor said, irritated at Mr. Burwel. “No one is to watch until the final tests. You missed those by a few weeks and will have to wait until next year’s test. Or you can view the videos of it. I’m sure Mrs. Sullivan has copies, or you can ask the council. They should already have copies since each school is required to send in masters test videos.”

  “I have seen them, and your students do a good job, but the council wants me watching all the classes.” Mr. Burwel’s mouth tightened. “You may check with the council if you need to, but I will be watching whenever I want.”

  Mr. Connor turned away from Mr. Burwel and addressed us. “Class is dismissed for the day. I will let you know when your next class is. Until then, remember, don’t practice anything you learn here outside of the dome.” He stared straight at me, making sure I understood what he was trying to say. The Pulhu were watching. Even the domes were no longer safe. Mr. Connor would try to take care of the problem, but I had a feeling Mr. Burwel would be watching everything I did.

  “Ok, Mr. Connor,” I said. “We’ll see you next time. Nice to see you again,” I said to Mr. Burwel. Tider grabbed the book and threw it in his book bag on the way out so Mr. Burwel wouldn’t see it. Good thing I had worked so hard on my magic the last two semesters. I wasn’t going to get much of a chance this semester. I could use my water and air magic, but not the other elements since the Pulhu didn’t know I had them all. If they did, they would kill me. At least right now, most of them wanted to turn me to their side. It gave me a fighting chance.

  I heard Mr. Burwel saying something to Mr. Connor as we left and stopped before I walked out the door to listen. “You can’t cancel classes forever. Eventually, I will find out what you are hiding, and then I will let the council deal with all of you.”

  I quickly closed the dome door and turned to Tider and Richard. “We have a big problem,” I said, telling them what I heard. “He is going to cause problems here. We can’t let that happen.”

  “We won’t,” Richard said. I wanted to believe him but knew it was going to be hard to stop him.

  Nothing else happened until the next day when I went to my masters class with Mr. Merrem. When I walked in
to the dome, Mr. Burwel was already there arguing with Mr. Merrem.

  “You will not be allowed to stay in this class until I have a signed letter from the head of the council telling me it is ok. It is a violation of all our rules to have someone else watching masters classes without the student’s permission. I doubt you got their permission.”

  “I don’t need it,” Mr. Burwel said.

  “I’m afraid you do, or you need that paper,” Mr. Merrem said. He grabbed Mr. Burwel’s arm and started leading him out of the dome. Mr. Burwel resisted, and Mr. Merrem smirked, “We can do this the hard way then.” Mr. Burwel let out a distressed noise.

  “Fine, I’m leaving, but I will be back,” he said as Mr. Merrem led him to the door. I could smell burnt hair and skin as they passed. When Mr. Merrem let go of Mr. Burwel’s arm, I could see a handprint burned into his skin. When Mr. Burwel was gone, I laughed.

  “You handled him better than Mr. Connor did. Now I can practice.”

  “You can practice today, but he will have that paper tomorrow. We can’t keep him out of here if the council wants him monitoring classes. I’ve already talked to Mr. Connor. We will try slipping you or one of your friends a note with a time and location to practice where it is safe. We will have to be very careful not to be followed.”

  I frowned. I thought about telling him we could practice in the south wing, but that was my fall back plan if the teachers couldn’t figure anything out. For now, I would let them find a safe place, and if we needed to, I would tell them my plan.

  “I want to show you a few more defensive spells that we don’t usually use. I have a feeling you are going to need them.” He went over a few defensive techniques that I could use if the Pulhu got to close to me again.

  He also taught me to use my invisibility to hide other things instead of myself. I could lay a trap and make it invisible until someone triggered it. Since the trap wasn’t moving, this was easy for me. I had to make sure it was a small trap because it would continue pulling small amounts of energy from me. I also couldn’t be too far away from it. With practice, I would be able to go farther and make the trap bigger.