“Dammit, I need an earth mage to track him.” I didn’t know any, except… wait. “I’ll go back to the castle and get backup. See if I can convince the Earth Element to help.”
“Good, because we’re outnumbered.” Miles ducked as a fireball shot overhead. The mages had brought backup of their own, it seemed. If all else failed, surely the Death King had a good reason to pay attention this time. “I’m gonna run to the vampires’ council house and see if any of them will lend a hand with these mages.”
“Be careful.” I left Miles and the others and used the node to travel back to the swamp. Near the gates, Ryan stood in conversation with Trix and one of the Death King’s liches.
“Problems?” Ryan said.
“You might say that,” I said. “Someone attacked the Withered Oak. I’m going to find the Death King.”
“The Death King isn’t in,” Ryan called after me, but I was already breaking into a sprint through the gates. From there, I ran up to the castle doors and inside the main hall, skidding to a halt on the polished floor.
“Death King!” I shouted.
No response. Dammit. Ryan was telling the truth. I ran down the main corridor and to the break room, and Felicity and Cal both jumped to their feet when I dashed in.
“Bria,” said Felicity. “What’s going on?”
“Trouble,” I said. “Some of the surviving fire mages who infiltrated the trials were using the Withered Oak to trade illegal cantrips, and an earth mage took their stash underground. I need an earth mage’s help to track them.”
Cal scowled. “Really?”
“Yes.” I braced my hands on my knees, breathless. “I’m going back no matter what, but if one of you could tell the Death King what’s going on, it’d be appreciated.”
“I can stay here and wait for him to come back,” offered Felicity. “Go on, Cal. It’s not like she’s got anything to gain from lying to you.”
Cal gave me a sideways look. “If you’re trying to trick me, I’ll bury you alive.”
On that promising note, the Earth Element and I left the castle and headed for the gates. Ryan and Trix had both disappeared, along with the lich they’d been talking to. I hoped they were on their way to the Withered Oak, because we needed all the allies we could get.
Cal and I reached the node without speaking a word to one another. He acted more of an ice mage than an earth mage most of the time, but as far as I knew, the guy wasn’t friendly to anyone, so I didn’t take it personally.
By the time we got to the Withered Oak again, the place was ablaze, and the smell of burning drifted outwards, along with creaking noises which suggested the entire building was on the verge of collapse. I halted at a safe distance from it and addressed the Earth Element. “Can you track an earth mage from here?”
He crouched and pressed his palm to the ground. “Not when the building’s shaking like that. I’d need to go somewhere more stable.”
“The tunnels?” I suggested. “There’s got to be an entrance somewhere nearby. Those tunnels run all over the city.”
I looked around and spotted Miles duelling one of the escaped mages. He dodged a fireball and slammed his palm into the mage’s chest, striking him with spirit energy that sent him crashing into the wall. The mage slid to a halt in the doorway of the Withered Oak, and I caught up to Miles. “Backup’s here.”
“Hey, there,” said Miles. “Who’s that guy?”
“The Death King’s Earth Element,” I said. “We need to get to the tunnels to track that earth mage.”
A hollow boom rang out. An instant later, a conflagration rose to consume the remains of the Withered Oak from the inside. Shit. Hope nobody was left inside there.
“That,” I said, “looked like an inferno cantrip. We’d better move.”
We backed further down the street, where Miles pointed out a hidden stairway leading deep into the earth. “Doesn’t seem a good time to go underground.”
“Nobody asked you.” Cal descended the stairs without looking back, disappearing into the tunnel.
“Touchy, isn’t he?” Miles said in an undertone.
“That’s his natural state, from what I’ve seen,” I muttered back. “C’mon. Let’s hope his tracking skills are up to scratch.”
We climbed down the narrow staircase into one of Arcadia’s many underground tunnels. Cal stood in front of one of the earthen walls, his hands pressed to the solid surface.
“How close do the mages need to be before you can track them?” I asked.
“Close, but if I can find them, then they can find me, too,” he answered.
Ah. “Can you sense anyone now?”
Cal removed his hands from the wall. “Yes.”
“Where?” I asked.
“Right about… there.” He pointed at our feet. Oh, no.
An earth mage exploded out of the ground, covering all of us in dirt. Cal collided with him in a literally earth-shaking thud which made me concerned that the tunnel itself would collapse on all our heads. As the mage flung Cal aside, Miles blasted him in the face with spirit magic. The mage hit the wall, which swallowed him up. Uh… that’s new.
An instant later, he burst out of the wall again. I spun around and flung a paralysing cantrip into his face, while Cal grabbed his shoulders and dragged him into view. I could see something glinting at the back of the tunnel he’d made.
“I think that’s our cantrips,” I said. “I’ll get them.”
As I dove into the tunnel’s opening, the mage unfroze and grabbed my ankle. Cal punched him, causing him to let go, but another alarming tremor shook the ground. Another earth mage was coming this way… and I was right in their path.
Once again, a solid wall of soil slammed into
