Elemental Darkness (Paranormal Public Series) (19 page)

“Professor Erikson is teaching us control for advanced spells,” I said. “It’s hard.”

Dacer nodded approvingly. “Yes,” he said. “I can see how it might be, but it will prove useful in the end.”

“What do you want to talk to me about?” I asked. Dacer glanced over his shoulder. Sabel had come out to give me coffee, then disappeared into the back.

“I spoke with Risper,” he said quietly. “He told me you’ll be spending some time in the archives and that he knew where the Globe White was.”

I nodded.

“This is good,” said Dacer, leaning back. “This is very good.”

“Can you help with the archives?” I asked.

Dacer shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I can help if it comes to masks, but otherwise I don’t think it would be wise for us to draw attention to our mentoring relationship.”

He was probably right there. The very fact that Lisabelle and I were friends had gotten us all in trouble already.

“So, what else did you want to talk to me about?” I asked.

Dacer bit down on his lip. “First, I want to apologize. I want you to know that despite public appearances, I am always on your side.”

I nodded slowly. I had felt a little lost without Dacer recently, and his affirmation that he believed in me felt good.

“Thank you,” I said quietly. “I know it must be hard, with Caid such a close friend.”

“And I have a request for you,” he said, “but it’s dangerous. Under no circumstances do you have to accept if you don’t want to.”

“Alright,” I said hesitantly. I wanted to help, but I had no idea what Dacer could be talking about.

“The Power of Five is still a force,” said Dacer. “Caid and Oliva don’t believe that you should be used to strengthen the old protections we used to have, but the dynamic of the power is all that has ever stopped the demons. As the protections lapse. . . .”

“More die,” I murmured, my heart wrenching.

“Exactly,” said Dacer. “I propose that you leave campus on weekends, preferably with Ms. Quest and Mr. Loughphton. You go to places where the power is weakening and there are still paranormals who need to be protected.”

“And I strengthen the power?” I said eagerly. It was something I had been wanting to do, but I hadn’t thought I’d be allowed. Dacer’s admission that Oliva and Caid didn’t want me to do it only confirmed my suspicions.

Dacer smiled a little at my excitement. “I had worried that it wouldn’t be something you’d be interested in. This power, Charlotte, your uniqueness, was thrust upon you, it’s not like you chose it.”

“I came to terms with that a while ago,” I said. “I want to help, especially now that Caid’s accusing Lisabelle of being complicit in the ongoing destruction.”

Dacer gave me a sharp look. “This will not help clear Ms. Verlans’s name,” he said warningly. “This is for the sake of the paranormals who are trapped in zones that aren’t as safe as Public.”

“Surely there must be other protective spells they can use,” I said. I hated to think of paranormals outside our safe walls, defenseless against demon attacks.

“There are,” Dacer reassured me. “Most of them have worked well, but nothing works as well as the Power of Five. That’s why, so long as you are alive, we have a chance.”

I appreciated Dacer’s confidence, even if I wasn’t sure it was justified. I also didn’t want this to interfere with my other mission of finding out how Grecko’s death was linked to what had happened to my parents.

“Do you think Ms. Quest will want to accompany you?” Dacer asked. “To be honest, I trust your safety to her as much as I trust it to any senior paranormal.”

“Of course,” I said. “She’d be insulted if she weren’t invited.”

Dacer chuckled. “I believe it.”

It took nearly a week for us to get into the archive. By the time we did I was nearly frantic with impatience. I had told Sip and Lough what Dacer wanted us to do, and they were both eager to help. Sip had beamed, clapped her hands together, and said, “I’ve always wanted to go on a quest. Now my last name will come in handy.”

As Dacer had pointed out before we concluded our tea, the task he had set for me would also give me a chance to see other paranormals firsthand, and vice versa. Dacer thought part of the problem with the Tabble was that everyone was reading the articles as if they were all true, when in reality most of them were distortions of the truth. He assured me that once paranormals were able to meet me in person, things would change.

I wasn’t so sure about that part of it, but I still wanted to help protect paranormals.

We spent an agonizing week during which we tried several times to go to the archive but kept being foiled. First we had to figure out how to get me in, and that’s where Alixar came in handy. Sip would go inside and switch the protective spells on the windows, then she’d leave one open for me to fly into. Lough had no way to join us, so he’d act as lookout.

We continued to read the Tabble every day, and it wasn’t uncommon for Sip to spend her evenings writing her own responses to Mound’s continued attacks on Lisabelle’s character and the character of her friends. Every time we heard of another darkness attack we held our breath, worried that Lisabelle’s name would be mentioned. But there was nothing.

“What sort of coward fights from the peace and quiet of his living room?” Sip demanded one night in frustration, after a particularly mean-spirited piece by Mound.

I went to sleep every night hoping to dream of Keller or Lisabelle, but instead I dreamed of hardly anything at all. I would wake up in the mornings feeling weak and crabby and tired.

My biggest worry was Risper. He had disappeared, just like I thought he would, and we hadn’t heard from him since. I wondered whether they’d kill him if he were caught trying to get the Globe White from wherever he knew it to be, and I wondered, in that case, if we’d ever know what had happened. But I held out hope for Lisabelle’s uncle, and at worst, for being able to use the powers of the Mirror Arcane.

Something else we weren’t expecting was to have President Caid on campus. Apparently the paranormal government, led by Saferous, had decided that Caid would be safest at Public. The Paranormal Police Academy, run by Caid’s cousin Goffer, was another option, but according to Dacer it had been decided that it would be more difficult for Caid to run the government from an Academy that cut off all contact with the outside world. Sip had snorted when she heard that Caid was still running the government.

Worried for Ricky’s safety even though Cale had assured me that he would be alright, I checked in with my brother more often than I had during any other semester. Ricky still hadn’t forgiven me for leaving without saying goodbye, but he was slowly coming around.

At first when I’d e-mail he would send something back that said he was sorry, but he didn’t know a Charlotte. After that I was upgraded to having him inform me that he used to have a sister named Charlotte, but he’d no idea what had happened to her. I just kept e-mailing.

On top of the personal stress, senior classes were exhausting. Zervos was working us to the bone, and the only one who didn’t seem to have a problem keeping up was Sip. But Zervos was still nasty, even to Sip. The one time she messed up on an answer, Zervos sneered, “If you spent half as much time doing your homework as you do writing Tabble nonsense, you’d be an excellent student indeed.”

Sip hadn’t said anything. Her anger seemed mostly reserved for those who spoke against Lisabelle. When that happened, she would release her full fury.

Finally, after a difficult week, we saw our chance to go to the archives. Sip disappeared from the dinner table with a mumbled, “I’m going to do thesis research.” Not long after she left, I followed, racing back to Astra to grab Alixar. Lough met me outside the archive building, which was somewhat behind the library and built of dull stone. Since it wasn’t really visible to the rest of campus, and only a select few students were allowed inside, no one had felt the need to make it pretty, according to Dacer.

“Let’s do this,” said Lough. He ducked under the nearest tree and waited for me to use Alixar. As soon as the mask had covered my face, I felt weightless. We had agreed that if Sip accomplished her end of the mission, she would leave one candle burning for me to see by, and that candle was winking from the room furthest away from campus and closest to the forest.

“Be careful,” Lough said in a whisper shout. I could barely see his face, but I could tell it was filled with worry.

I nodded and took off, flying toward the top of the archive. I quickly found the window Sip had left open and flew through.

The archive smelled of old books and dust. I coughed as my feet kicked up more dust when I landed. It felt like no one had been in there for years.

“Charlotte?” Sip’s voice came from the darkness.

“Can we have any light?” I asked, my eyes watering.

“Yes,” said Sip. I felt something brush past me and then heard the scrape of the old window as Sip closed it. “I just need to close this so no one sees the lights.”

“But you’re allowed to be here,” I said. “They won’t care.”

“They will if they see two forms in here instead of one,” I said.

I waited quietly until Sip had lit several candles, then I was able to see that the archive was one long room filled with stacks and stacks of shelves, every one of them piled high with manuscripts and countless leather-bound volumes. The room was so long I couldn’t see to the other end.

“Wow,” I said. “So much information!”

“Yes,” said Sip. “We’re going to have trouble sorting through all of it.”

“Can’t we use magic?” I asked, wondering if there was a spell to search for my father’s name, or my mother’s.”

“I already tried searching your mother’s name,” said Sip worriedly. “Even that was a risk, because the spell leaves a residue, and if anyone looked they would know what I had done. Bad, because that’s not what I’m supposed to be doing here.”

I nodded. “Thanks for trying. And we don’t know my dad’s name, presuming my mom kept her maiden name and didn’t take his.”

“Exactly,” said Sip, sighing. “There’s nothing to search. I wish your mom had given us something; anything at all would help. Without his name it’s going to be difficult.”

“I just wish I could get her box open,” I said. “I have a feeling there’s stuff in there that would help.”

“Until then,” said Sip, “let’s start looking.”

We spent the night searching. I started by checking all the volumes marked “e.” There was a ton of information on elementals, but it was mostly property records, birth records - again unhelpful without my father’s name - and spell records. We did find one interesting item, though, about elemental artifacts. Along the lines of the Mirror Arcane and Alixar, there were many magical artifacts that were filled with the essence of the paranormals’ power, and the elementals were no different. The ring I wore was one of those artifacts. I had taken it from the Astra ballroom, where it had been left in a glass case with the Mirror Arcane.

“This is interesting,” said Sip, holding up an old sheet of paper to her button nose and examining it.

“Is it about my parents?” I asked hopefully.

“No,” said Sip, “it’s about your ring.”

I glanced down at the blue stone; the tiny diamonds were winking in the light.

“It says that elementals, more than other paranormals, value a ring’s power to recognize its true owner. There’s a ring out there that’s perfect for you and will make you more powerful.”

“How do we know this isn’t it?” I asked.

“That ring is for a man,” said Sip, pointing. “That’s why it’s so big. You aren’t a man, are you?”

“Not last time I checked,” I said dryly.

“This is fascinating,” said Sip, examining the paper. “Your ring is relatively new. It was made of older stones, and is considered invaluable.”

“What about all the other elemental rings?” I asked. “Whatever happened to them when the elementals died?”

Sip looked at me thoughtfully. “You know, I bet they were gathered somewhere.”

“And put away for safekeeping,” I said.

“And where is safer than an archive?” Sip asked quietly.

We looked around. All we saw was stacks of books, but given the importance of magical objects in the paranormal world - the Museum of Masks kept a certain branch of them safe, after all - there had to be more here in the archive, if only we could find them.

Sip and I both jumped to our feet and frantically started looking around.

There were boxes and chests, drawers and more boxes. We tore them apart. I tried to use my magic to sense other elemental magic, but it was useless. Archiving an object dampened or switched off its magic for a long time, so it was going to take more than my calling it to awaken the rings again.

After a while, the initial energy of our inspiration wore out, and we sat down and stared at each other.

“There’s another floor,” Sip said, pointing upward.

I followed her hand and sighed. It was starting to feel hopeless. But I glanced at my friend and said, “I guess we’ve come this far.”