Chapter 12
Ryan:
Erin looked proud, and Jason was positively beaming as we piled the furs just outside the dining hall door. It had been a long time, Cor had said, since so many pelts had been scavenged at once. People were practically lining up, it seemed, to offer us congratulations.
“Those are the Great Weapons on their backs. I knew it!” a voice called out. I turned to get a fix on the voice, and one of the younger students, who was usually much shyer, rushed up to Jason. “Are you going to save us?” she asked.
“I... uh...” Jason stammered.
Kris dropped to a crouch, leveling her eyes with the little girl. “Hi there,” she said with a smile.
The little girl looked away bashfully, but Kris pressed on, “What do you mean about saving you?”
“As I have said before, it is neither wise for us, nor fair for these four students that we expect too much of them,” Sensei’s commanding voice appeared to come out of nowhere. The group of onlookers, naturally, parted for him, as he stepped closer to us four. “Based upon the circumstances of their appearance,” he continued, “these four were watched closely, challenged, and have shown great promise in their training. I will say nothing more for now.”
He approached the stack of wolf pelts, and gave them a cursory glance. “How many wolves were there?” he asked Cor. The old man’s voice had lowered.
“Twelve,” the water talent expert replied. “Two for each of us, though Ganic and I left the killing entirely to these four.”
“Quite impressive for a first outing,” Ganic said with a toothy smile. “Especially considering how close Jason ventured toward the canyon wall.”
Sensei gave the small crowd a stern look, and, when they began to disperse, he stepped closer to Ganic. The old man whispered, “How close?”
“I think the boy might have tried to touch the wall if I hadn’t stopped him,” Ganic whispered back, with a proud look toward Jason.
A pensive frown crossed Sensei’s wrinkled face. He said nothing, though I took a hint at his thinking from his strong objection to the people that had gathered, the expectation that had shown in their eyes. I looked from the shy girl who had spoken up, from her backward glance as she headed toward the main stairwell, to the slightly distressed Sensei, and my stomach started to churn. Something important was about to happen, I knew.
“The last classes of the day are finished, and most of you have cooking duty,” Sensei said to the few members of the crowd who had remained nearby, trying to look inconspicuous. “I suggest that you make yourselves busy. If anyone remains here staring, I will assume he has free time… with which to properly clean and prepare these hides.”
That got everyone’s attention. The remnants quickly made themselves scarce, occupied at cooking stations and with setting plates and utensils. I was about to leave for my own cooking duty, when Sensei said, “Not you four. I think the time has come for some answers.”
Erin, Kris, Jason and I exchanged glances. The girls seemed excited, keenly interested. Jason’s face, though, reflected my sense of worry. Why was Sensei so tense, as if everyone was wrong to be excited?
“Finally. I knew you were holding something back,” Erin said.
Sensei pointed a finger of strictness at the fire talent. “If any one teacher ever attempted to tell any one student everything he thought he knew, both would die of boredom and exhaustion, under the weight of so much useless information. I held back in no small part because I had no way of knowing whether my hope was pointless or not. And you would do well to remember that you are not the only ones looking for answers.”
With that, Sensei turned to Cor. “Find Fain,” he said, “and have her put the guard on high alert, just in case. Once she is done with that, she should meet us in the basement. When you have delivered that message, I want you to gather the rest of my council in the dining hall. They are to ensure that everyone but the guard is at dinner tonight. Finally, I want you to personally watch the basement door. Understood?”
“As we planned,” Cor said. “Of course.” The tentacled humanoid vanished, swift as a the course of a stream, up into the main stairwell.
Sensei exchanged nods with Ganic. I swallowed hard.
“What’s happening?” Jason asked, his eyes grim and resolute.
Sensei put a finger to his lips. “Keep your voice low. For this challenge, you do not want an audience.”
“Downstairs, children,” Ganic got behind us and, with his big, sweeping arms, ushered us past the main stairwell toward the basement door, a portal double-locked, where we had been told that the guns and other dangerous arms were kept. I had asked Sensei what else might be kept in the elaborately sealed dungeon, and he had demurred from the question with silence and a shake of his head. He and Ganic each pulled a key from a chain about their necks. Perhaps only these two actually knew what would await us on the other side of the basement door.
Ganic brushed away a cobweb from about the locks. Regular cleaning intentionally missed the doorway. There had been concern that some prankster with a penchant for lock-picking might take advantage of the access to the portal.
The two senior teachers each took a deep breath, slowly inserting and turning the small brass keys. There came a loud CLICK KA-CHUNK and Sensei pulled on the handle. The door opened outward, slowly, with the groan of ancient, unused hinges.
The shadows deepened; there were no torches in the basement stairwell.
“Erin, give us a light,” Sensei said.
The room was dark and cavernous. As the keys had turned, my wild imagination had filled the space with a dungeon, complete with dripping, mossy walls, and perhaps a bit of lava flow... but, as Erin’s fireball burst to life—suspended between her thumb and index finger—the stairway before us appeared to be only dark and musty, steps winding slowly around and down into the depths of the earth. Ganic pulled the door shut behind him with a bang. Erin’s light was all we had.
Then I noticed the shelves of weapons, some of them crossbows, but most of them firearms out of the old world: pistols, rifles... I even thought I saw some semi-automatics. The guns, though, we had been told about. What else was down here? What had Sensei brought us to see? My attention turned to the middle of the room, an empty clearing, a circle of flattened soil with only a tiny, green pyramid in the center.
“That green stone there… it has something to do with the gravity field, doesn’t it?” Jason said.
Sensei and Ganic let the question hang as they stepped onto the circle of soil. The four of us followed Jason, as he moved out in front of us. He knelt down for a closer inspection of the glittering emerald pyramid. I expected Sensei to stop him, but the old man held back, keeping his distance from the mysterious stone. Instead, it was Ganic who crouched down next to Jason.
“Sensei told me that you asked him once about the expectations placed upon the Stone Elemental,” the giant brown ogre said slowly.
Jason met Ganic’s eyes in silence. It had been a long time since the word “Elemental” had even been used around us.
“It’s not so much expectation... as it is hope,” Ganic continued. “We believe that a strong enough stone talent might be able to remove this… instrument of stone from the earth. If you do that, then perhaps, as your talent sense suggests, the gravity field will be affected.... maybe even... removed entirely.”
Jason’s brow narrowed. He stuck out his hand toward the pyramid, but hesitated. “Do I just pick it up?”
“There’s more than what you see on the surface, a root, we think.” Ganic said. “Muster all your strength, then grab it and pull!”
Without hesitation, Jason got to his feet, centered himself over the gemstone, dug his heels in, and forced his fingers into the dirt around the gem. Ganic stepped away. A rumble shivered through the earth. Dust fell from the dark ceiling. Kris looked up at the staircase, toward the exit, ready to run, but still held her ground. And I realized I was thinking the same thing: dash for the door
if things get out of hand. Erin’s expression remained firmly upon Jason, and I drew confidence from her.
“Don’t let anything distract you,” Ganic called to his stone talent protege. “Do it!”
Jason’s arms twisted, and a cloud of dirt spit up from the circle of soil, enveloping him. There was a collective gasp. The room seemed to be filled with the powdery earth. I spread my hands, and took control of the air in the room, forcing the choking dirt away and down. The dark cloud had dissipated...
And there was Jason, the Stone Elemental, standing triumphantly with an oblong gray object in his hand, raised high above his head. The stone carving was strangely notched, almost like a huge key. On second glance, as Jason turned the object over in his hand, it reminded me of a knife. As Erin brought the light of her fire closer, I saw that it had two unique sides. One side of the long stone piece seemed to converge, indeed, into a knife edge. The other side had the irregular notches of a key. Jason adjusted his grip. If the stone object was a knife, then the pyramid—not green but now gray—was the pommel, with a handle between it and the knife-key part.
“Wow,” Jason said.
“Ganic, check the gravity field and report back. Run. Sprint!” Sensei commanded.
The gruff ogre bounded up the stairs into the darkness above. With a creak and a bang of the door, we were left standing there. Sensei turned his back, mumbling, apparently talking to himself. Erin brought her fireball closer to Jason’s stone knife-key. Kris and I drew closer as well. Jason held it out to me and I took it. It was a rather simple carving, clean and blunt, but heavier than it looked.
“The gravity field is gone. I can feel it,” Jason said to Sensei’s back.
Sensei’s mumbling continued uninterrupted, unintelligible.
“I mean, I don’t feel it… anymore. I felt it before, and now, there’s nothing. What is this thing?” He turned back to me to take the key.
“That stone key?” Sensei shook his head, finally addressing us. “I have only known it as the green stone pyramid until now.”
The old man took a deep, steadying breath and put a hand to his forehead. “Long ago, I found that vessel of stone talent in this ground, and guessed that it had been used to create the Forbidden Forest’s gravity field, from whence this canyon itself no doubt took its shape. I believe that Devidis was the one who originally placed the green pyramid here, and that it might in fact be the Stone Emerald, one of the four Elemental gems.”
The master of the Sun Tower seemed to anticipate our question and continued, “As far as I know, the four Elemental gems would all be pyramids of a size similar to the green point of that stone key, similar to the black gem which Devidis forced you to touch, I believe.”
“Devidis did mention gems, just before the whole poem-spell,” Erin said, taking a step closer to Jason to examine the key. “But why did it... change color?” she gave Jason a questioning look as he extended the key toward Sensei.
The old man held up a hand. “That fire is quite warm, Erin. A little space, please.”
“Sorry,” the fire talent said, taking a step back. She transferred the illuminating flame to her left hand and touched the stone key with her right.
“I would assume the Elemental gems are the ones Devidis referred to. I know of no others that would excite any desire in the emperor of the known world.” Sensei’s arms were crossed. “The fact that this does not now appear to be the Stone Emerald is undoubtedly another one of Devidis’ tricks. It may be the Stone Emerald disguised, or it may be a trap. Either way, I fear it is too dangerous for you to keep.” He stretched out his hand. After only the slightest pause, Jason handed Sensei the Stone Key.
“So the green pyramid transformed into this Stone Key,” Jason said. “Well, the gem that Devidis took... it had been a clear cube before he made me touch it. The two transformations could be related...”
The old man secreted the Stone Key away in the folds of his robe. “Hmmm.... Well, we can worry about this talisman later,” he said. “Once Ganic returns, we may have another mission for you, a mission both urgent and unknown.”
“What can we do for you?” I asked dutifully
Sensei gave me an approving look. “There are some trustworthy allies who live beyond the constraints of the Forbidden Forest. In the empire of Devidis, they are known simply as the rebellion. They are the ones who have passed news of the outside world to us, and have sometimes been unfortunate enough to join our community here as our fellow prisoners, as you may have heard. In one recent message, the rebellion operative mentioned someone who may know the location of the Wind Diamond.”
“But the gravity field would stop… or,” I said, looking at Jason, “the canyon walls… but no, if the field is gone, I could... we could fly to…”
“You can fly, Jason can climb the rock face… and if nothing else quicker, you two can carry the girls,” Sensei said, “IF the gravity field is indeed gone... You would need to move quickly, in the darkness after midnight tonight. We only need to make an initial assessment of the situation and gauge the reaction of the Devidisian guard. The other people and things trapped here with us will undoubtedly have interesting reactions of their own.”
“Before dawn tomorrow?” Erin echoed.
“Just the four of us?” Kris said.
Sensei nodded.
“How will we…? We don’t know anything about the outside.” Kris spread her hands in confusion.
Sensei was watching the basement door now. “You’ve no doubt heard a few things from the men who were thrown in here as punishment. They traveled.”
“None of them traveled that much, and their supplies, their maps were all taken away before being thrown in here, right?” Jason said. “You mentioned Shix, a city a few days walk from here—east, maybe?—but there’s nothing else around but tiny farms as far as I’ve heard.”
Sensei nodded. “Then you go east until you reach the city, and get directions there.”
“When will everyone else leave?” I asked. “Surely we wouldn’t be the only ones headed toward the city…”
“I don’t think you appreciate how long the gravity field has been here,” Sensei said with a shake of his head. “Once any Devidisian finds out about this, word will immediately go up the chain of command, telling of a new power that appeared—or rather disappeared—in the Forbidden Forest. I fear that when Devidis learns of it, he will suspect the Stone Elemental, just as I suspected you.”
“But only if the gravity field is really gone,” Erin added.
Jason gulped. “I, uh, suddenly hope it’s still there.”
As if on cue, the door above boomed open. Ganic almost fell down the steps. “The field is down!” His eyes were beaming with excitement, as if he were barely able to keep himself from shouting it to the entire compound. “I threw a rock, and if I had been any closer, it would have gone over the canyon rim.”
Sensei’s stern face broke into a broad smile. He grabbed Jason’s arm and seemed to almost collapse with shock. “Jason, think of it: we are free. We face danger here every day… and there was no end to be seriously trusted in. Now we can begin to think of an end… a day of peace, free of danger. And the fact that you were able to take down the gravity field, free the Stone Key… is a sign that you four really are the Elementals!”
But then a distressing thought seemed to cross the old man’s mind. He withdrew his hand from Jason and slowly stood up, reclaiming his balance. Sensei suddenly seemed much, much older. “If you get over the canyon wall in a timely manner—you four, a small group indeed—can practically disappear. You’ll head toward the city and enter... You will be little different than runaways from the nearby farming families. We can guess that much.”
Sensei stroked his short white beard. “I will tell you what you need to know to find the rebellion informant who we suspect has the location of the Wind Diamond… and if the trail goes cold, I would lay no duty upon you other than to find a way to move yourselves beyond the reach of Devidis
. What better revenge against the one who put you here than breaking free?”
“What would I, we, do with the Wind Diamond?” I asked. It was so much, so fast...
Sensei shook his head again, slowly. “Keep it from Devidis, at the very least. If possible, though, I would have you return it to me. I believe the Wind Diamond as well as the Fire Ruby, the Water Sapphire, and the Stone Emerald,” he tapped the bulge in his robe, “can be used against him. Devidis once bent the Elementals to his evil uses, but they fought back. I believe they—I mean, you—might be able to fight back again.”
“Fight back? Fight Devidis?” Jason answered reflexively, his adrenaline still clearly running high. “For my uncle… For sending us all here... maybe the odds are a bit more even now...” He formed a fist, flexing, then looked to Kris with a confident smile.
She gave him her characteristic warm smile before turning to share it with Sensei. “We owe it to you, all our friends, all the good people of the Sun Tower, to seek a way to peace and justice,” the water talent said in her soft voice.
“I don’t like the idea of joining a rebel uprising in some unknown country,” Erin said, putting a protective hand on Kris’s shoulder. “But since no one from around her has ever heard of an international governing body…” She cracked a slight smile. “Since no one even remembers a time when Devidis wasn’t the ruler… I’ll fight for my freedom, our freedom.”
I nodded. “This whole situation is wrong,” I said. “We deserve answers. There’s got to be a better way than this, and that’s worth fighting for.”
Our pledges came quickly, with little hesitation, almost practiced, and I realized that the others, like me, must have been hoping and praying—harder than we realized—that our training really would culminate in a moment like this.
“Sensei, everyone is in the dining hall. Students are finishing their food early and wondering why we won’t let them leave.” Cor’s voice could be heard from above.
As Sensei started back up the stairs, he called to us. “Elementals, you have not disappointed me yet, and I have faith that you never will. I will announce your accomplishment to the assembled Sun Tower, and we will begin our arrangements. Cor will call you when we are ready for you.”
Sensei sped past Ganic up toward the basement door. The dark space no longer seemed so foreboding.
“Wait! Announcement?” Erin shouted up toward the door, but he was gone.
Ganic started up the stairs, at a much more leisurely pace.
“We’re supposed to wait here, in the dark?” Jason asked him.
“Ceremony,” Ganic said. “We all want to show you the proper respect. You’ve seen squad commissioning ceremonies before. We’re doing it like that. Just be sure to have your, uh, squad leader go first, and announce your names… Ryan.”
Ganic, along with the light at the top of the stairs, disappeared with the slam of the door.
“Wha??” I said, staring up into the darkness. Then I looked at my three friends. For a moment, their expressions had all turned to little smiles, each pointed at me. Where was their confusion, their surprise?
“Hang on. I know we’ve all been hoping for a moment like this, but I-I’m not the leader…” I insisted. “Jason, you were in front today. You took out the key...”
Jason held up his hands and stepped back. “Whoa, no. I was just doing what you told me, what Sensei and Ganic asked of me.”
“I do think we should have a leader,” Kris said, after a short pause. “Someone needs to have the final word, and, Ryan, you always make sure to hear from everyone.”
I started to object, but Erin stopped me. “You did a pretty good job of throwing around orders today, fearless leader.” In the light of her fireball, the teasing smile she offered made me melt a little.
“OK, fine.” I made myself look away, into the darkness, pretending it was the full dining hall. Surreal. It was all surreal. But accept the unexpected. This was the way things were. How should I respond? What would I say?
Spreading my hands, I began in the formula I seemed to remember from the other ceremonies I’d seen at the tower, “Citizens of the Sun Tower, we are pleased to accept Sensei’s commission as, uh, reconnaissance team…”
“We don’t have a squad number. How about ‘commission as Elementals’?” Kris suggested.
“Sounds fine to me,” I answered, throwing up my hands.
“Ugh,” Jason said. He was sitting in the dirt, near the hole from where he had torn the Stone Key. “Truth be told, I don’t like the idea of a big announcement. Enough of this special treatment, especially since we’re on our way out.”
“You’re just nervous, caveman.” Erin punched his shoulder. She was clearly energized, perhaps more than she wanted to let on.
“Well, maybe,” Jason said, “but it seems to me that making a big deal about our names before sneaking away is a bad idea.”
“Like maybe we could give them some fake names, to confuse them?” Erin said with a chuckle.
“That’s not a bad idea,” Jason said. “We’re going to have to think like that in a country where we’re... illegal.”
“Well, who do you want to be?” Kris asked.
“Seismic,” Jason said, rising to his feet. “And you can be Whirlwind, Torrent, and Blaze.” He pointed to me, Kris, and Erin in that order. He held up the finger and waggled it. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought about your superhero names.”
“How subtle,” I said, almost to myself.
“What was that, a whisper?” Jason stood up and put me in a headlock.
“I don’t know if we want to be so blunt, advertising our powers with our names,” Kris said.
“Blunt is good. I like being blunt,” Jason said, releasing the headlock. “...Not when we talk to people on the street, but if we’re fighting or something, and we want to keep our real names hidden… to just keep the Elementals separate from Ryan, Erin, Kris, and Jason.”
“OK, Blunt,” Erin said, “But I’m Flare, not Blaze. And, yes, I have spent a proper amount of time deciding my superhero name.”
No one said anything for a moment.
Kris spoke next. “It’s a little goofy, but Torrent sounds nice.”
“Blunt?” Jason looked at Erin. “I guess I walked right into that one, but…”
“How do you spell ‘seismic’?” Erin challenged him.
“S-I-E, no, S-E-I… i before e...” Jason thought for a moment. “Yeah, too complicated. Blunt it is. Like my hammer. I am Blunt, aren’t I?”
“Huh, I don’t remember how to spell ‘seismic’ either,” I said. “Yeah, simple is best. I’d rather go into Devidis’ world as a whisper, and leave no trail, than a whirlwind,” I said.
I turned and looked toward the door, the assembled citizens of the Sun Tower waiting above us. “Call me Whisper,” I said.
We sat in silence, then—Ryan, Erin, Kris, and Jason—until the door opened and Cor called us up: Whisper, Flare, Torrent, and Blunt.