I barge into James as he comes out the door he disappeared into just a few minutes ago. I felt Emerald's anger like a white, hot burning in my mind and got Veronica from History of Magic class and told her something was up. Then we hurried to the garden/orchards door just as James came out.
He puts his arms out to steady himself and I stumble backwards. "Where's Emerald?" I pant.
"Probably drifting off to sleep thinking of a billion new ways to kill a male named James," James says. Veronica snorts behind me in laughter. "Awesome. What's up?"
James looks up at the ceiling. "The roof, and then the sky, then the universe, I suspect." he muses. I glare at him, a feat for a usually pleasant and kind Water.
"James."
"Okay, okay, Murky. Don't hurt me! And Monica and George and the gang." He hangs his head in ACTUAL SHAME. A FIRE! SHAMED! I'm laughing.
"Greeeeat. There's about thirty of them!" Veronica says. James shakes his head. "Nineteen. Suma took care of them for us."
I perk up, interesting in how a small turtle can defeat nineteen sixteen- and seventeen- year olds. I mean, I know she can get bigger... But she's usually so calm and self-constrained. Like me. But not always, like Emerald. "Really? How?"
He rolls his eyes upward again. "She was the size of Mount Rushmore. Ok, not really. But giant."
"Hmm. Where are they now?"
"In the infirmary out cold, courtesy of Suma. Her old friend belongs to a Purple Apprentice and took them to the infirmary."
"Interesting."
"Not really."
I wave bye to James and Veronica and head off back to class. I am NOT missing my next class for the world: Pet Training. Waters have unicorns and they're ADORABLE. Plus really sweet and obedient.
***
I wake up in the middle of a night to bangs down in the Common Room. I throw clothes on over my pajamas because it's freezing (it's almost Winter where I live, so duh!) then hurry downstairs. I get to the bottom of the staircase just in time to see Murky walk out the door. Or try to, at least. I can spot a tripping spell when I see one, thank you very much. Looks like he doesn't know how to block spells, though.
I run after him, trying not to make any noise but not trying too hard. He looks over his shoulder and shoots a spell at me. It looks like blue lightening. I quickly set up a protection spell. "Segrio!"
"Frick you!" he yells over his shoulder. I grin at him and give him a cheeky little wave. I notice his tripping spell's worn off. I quickly mutter "Tripos!" and watch him fall over. Then I slap a cage over him before he can get out with a short "Cageous trapous morgous!" and a dull thud as it falls down around him out of nowhere. He curses.
"Murky, Murky, Murky," I say, wagging a finger at him patronizingly. Us Waters are unnervingly good at being patronizing. "You didn't really think I wouldn't catch you, right? Because that would be INCREDIBLY stupid, even for YOU. But then again... You 'snuck' out. Tip for next time: Don't try to sneak anywhere with a tripping spell on you. Especially with a future Holder nearby."
"Look, girlie, I'll make a deal with you," he snarls, clutching the bars of the cage. I say nothing my incline my head to show him that I'm listening. At least a little bit. Mostly I'm listening for the people he's supposedly meeting. I suppose it's the others that were in the infirmary with him. I'm surprised they got out so quickly, but they were only unconscious anyway, I guess.
"You let me out and I won't hurt you."
I laugh. "You seriously think I'm going to agree to that? Just how stupid do you think I am, Murky?"
"Pretty stupid," he mutters, almost too quiet for me to hear. "Ooook, lookie here. You let me out and I won't hurt you or anyone you care about."
"You're running out of time, buttface," I say, using Emerald's favorite old but productive insult. I pick at my nails to show him that I'm losing interest and am going to turn him in any time now.
In desperation, Murky almost shouts, "OK, FINE!! If you let me out I won't hurt anyone on this planet!"
"Tick tock!" I singsong. He opens his mouth but I look at my silver watch and say, "Whoops, out of time! Looks like I'll just have to call Queen Valeria."
"She won't come," he says quietly. I stare at him. "Excuse me?"
"She won't come," he repeats.
I choose to ignore him. Queen Valeria has to come when someone calls her name three times. That's the thing. It's an incredibly old spell that binds the ruler of the Nature Elementals to come when called three times. "Queen Valeria, Queen Valeria, Queen Valeria!" I call. I'm surprised that Murky doesn't interrupt, but I'm more surprised when instead of the Queen, a young girl of about thirteen appears instead. She's in normal clothes but looks like I've just woken her up, too. She spots Murky and sighs.
"Who're you?" I ask, trying to be polite but panicking.
"I'm Princess Anastasia, Queen Valeria's daughter. I'm sorry I'm here instead, she's disappeared and I think the spell decided the heir is better than her husband. I've been called all over the universe in the past two weeks for just about everything. I'm only thirteen, but people trust me anyways. Some people have even given up calling my mom and started calling my name. Either works right now." she says.
I look her over. She's tallish and slim, with long silver-blonde hair and brown eyes. She's tan and very pretty. A golden circlet sits on her hair and two gold bands circle her wrists. An authoritative look sort of surrounds her and you can tell she's every inch a princess.
"We have an infestation of Winter Elementals." I tell her. She looks at Murky. "I can tell. But only one?"
"No, there's more." I say. "He's just one. Four I know for sure are Fires, he's a Water, and one I know for sure is an Earth. I can give you names of the six, too. There's thirteen more besides those six."
"Great, you know some stuff about it," she says. Murky is cowering in his cage. He tries to break it with magic, but it's adamant and doesn't budge a millimeter. "Names and corresponding Elements, please. And anything else you can tell me."
"Monica, George, Shaun, Groil," I say. "First two I only know first names, and last two I only know last names. Fire. This is Murky (I don't know his first name). Water. Then there's Slate whose last name I don't know. Earth. They're trying to take over the Nature Elementals and crash the fair."
She writes it all down in the air and it stays there for a moment, before disappearing. I'm going to have to learn that. How does she know that already when she doesn't even go to this school yet?! I'm so freaking jealous.
"Oh, I forgot to tell you," Anastasia suddenly says. "I can't do magic."
I stare at her in shock while Murky grins. "Can't do magic?! Then how-"
"That doesn't require a spell. I just chose a paper air spot. If you angle your hand write in a paper air spot, the air will react like paper. Simple."
"Oh," I say, incredibly disappointed. "Can you still help?"
"Of course!" she exclaims, offended. I send a mental alert to Veronica, James, and Emerald. 'Caught Murky. Queen Valeria has disappeared and her daughter has stepped into her spot, but she can't do magic. Come quickly and help.' I should have done that ages ago.
The doors to the Earth Common Room, the Wind Common Room, and the Fire Common Room burst open in unison, with Emerald, Veronica, and James emerging at the same time. They run over. Veronica laughs at Murky crouching in the dark grey cage. Her hair is all messy from sleep and there's eye crust in the corner of her eyes.
Emerald puts her hand out for Anastasia to shake. Anastasia shakes it. "Hello, I'm Queen Valeria's daughter Anastasia," she says, not at all surprised to see my three friends come out into the hall for apparently no reason.
"Nice to meet you," Emerald says. I'm shocked to see that she can be POLITE! "I'm Emerald Green."
"I know," Anastasia says. "My mom said. I can't-"
"Do magic," James finishes for her. "We know." Anastasia isn't surprised by that, either. I guess she can't be surprised by much, being the Queen's daughter. "I'm James, and this is-"
"Veronica. Yes, I know. And I know that even though she forgot to tell me her name that her name is Droplet. I AM the Queen's daughter, even if I can't do magic. Okay, let's get ride of this rugrat."
"Hey, rats are cute!" Emerald says.
"Not him!"
"Well, duh! He's a bastard!" Veronica says.
"Veronica..." I say.
"What?"
"Language, Roni." I reply, turning my attention back to Anastasia. "So... What's the plan?"
"Plan?" she asks.
"Yes!" James says. "You ARE going to help, right?!"
"Yes. I just wasn't aware I needed a plan. Usually I just tell the paper air to open up a pocket and pop them through."
"Okay then," Emerald says, relieved. "We've got a plan. Let's do it! But what about the other 18?"
"I don't think that'll be a problem..." I say, pointing behind her. Everyone whirls around to face the group of 18 assorted, traitorous Elementals. "We've got company, everybody!"
Emerald brings Suma from her pocket. "Eat your heart out, Slate!"
We watch the little green and opal turtle grow. And grow. And grow some more. Soon she'd towering high above all our heads, head nearly touching the ceiling that's fashioned to look like the sky outside. Right now it's a deep, dark black, with few stars. The hour before the dawn.
Suma's body now almost reaches from one side of the hall to the other. Her legs are twice the size of the tallest person in the hall, and ten times as wide. She slowly raises one leg and positions it above the group come to save Murky. They shoot spells at her but they bounce off. Well, duh. Her hide is about as thick as Murky's skull, no, make that thicker. And that's saying something. She stomps them. Ha on them.
Then Suma shrinks back to her regular minute size and Emerald scoops her up and slips her in her pocket again. "Good girl. You're fabulous, Suma."
I teleport the unconscious group into Murky's cage. It's a tight squeeze and he ends up squished in the middle. Double ha.
Anastasia starts writing in the air again. But it's in no language I understand, yet I understand every strange and foreign letter of it. When she's done the letters don't stay for a moment like before. They swirl into a whirlpool in the air and then it solidifies into a hole. It's black and I can't see anything in it. Emerald floats the cage with all the people in it and get it into the hole. It almost doesn't fit. Then the hole closes up with Murky's screams echoing in my ears.