Flame Caller (29 page)

Sean looked but quickly nodded. “I
don’t see anything else. What does it mean?”

“
I think it’s her,” Xander
replied excitedly. “I think it’s the Wind Elemental trying to tell
us how to find her.”

An explosion from outside rocked the
front of the house. Jessica screamed and stumbled away from the
window.

“
I think we’re out of
time,” Sean said. “When do we leave?”

Xander arched an eyebrow. “We’re not
leaving. You’re staying here.”

Jessica stepped beside Sean and
pointed toward the front window. “I don’t think staying here is an
option anymore.”

“
My abrasive and annoying
companion is right,” Sean added. “We can’t stay here. If you’re
going to Iceland, I’m coming with you.”

“
We’re
coming with
you,” Jessica corrected.

“
Neither of you are coming
with me,” Xander replied. “You’ll find somewhere else to hide until
all this blows over. It’s way too dangerous for you to come with
us.”

“
It’s way too dangerous to
stay here,” Sean said, “even if we found somewhere else to hide.
Anyway, you need me.”

“
Do I?”

Sean reached over and turned off the
computer monitor. The world map immediately vanished, replaced by a
black screen.

“
I know how to find
Iceland without relying on the internet,” Sean explained. “Can you,
Xander?”

Xander frowned. Another burst of flame
licked the front window and he heard the glass crack under the
heat.

“
You can’t leave us here,”
Jessica said, surprisingly humbled and concerned.

“
All right,” he conceded.
“If you’re going, let’s go.”

The trio rushed to the door. Xander
put his hand on the door handle and felt the heat through the
metal. It wasn’t unbearable but it was clear fire had struck the
door more than once.

“
As soon as I open the
door, stay very close to me,” Xander ordered. “As soon as we’re
clear of the building, we’ll be airborne. You two
understand?”

They both nodded, though Sean’s nod
seemed far more enthusiastic than Jessica’s fearful
response.

Xander threw open the door and ran
into the front yard. Most of the grass was blackened and the
remaining trees burned freely. He was surprised how many dark-clad
Fire Warriors were strewn across the yard and the street, most face
down and unmoving. The aunts and uncles looked singed to varying
degrees, with Alicia holding her arm protectively to her side. In
the distance, he could see more Fire Warriors emerging from the
side streets, rushing toward the dilapidated and smoking Tri Delta
house.

“
We’re leaving,” Xander
yelled over the din of combat. “Let’s go.”

Xander kicked off from the ground, his
pocket of air surrounding both Sean and Jessica and pulling them
along. They rocketed skyward, eager to get out of the reach of the
Fire Caste’s pursuing flames.

With a quick glance around, he saw all
four of the others flying close by. Despite the danger, they had
all emerged from White Halls relatively unscathed.

“
Where to?” Giovanni
asked.

Xander smiled, glad to finally have
good news to share with everyone.

“
Iceland. We’re going to
Iceland.”

The land around the California desert
was severely changed from what Sammy remembered. The sky was
stained black from raging fires all around them. The few scrub
brushes that spotted the desert were charred and dead.

The desert itself was what had changed
the most. Massive upheavals from the earthquakes and volcanic
eruptions had driven limestone and obsidian rock from the ground.
They rose toward the dark sky like massive spearheads, tearing
through the sandy ground.

General Abraxas turned the car
sharply, avoiding the crumbling edge of the road. One of the many
caverns underneath the desert had obviously collapsed and a
sinkhole was quickly swallowing part of the asphalt road as it
spread. Sammy’s stomach turned as she saw the dark maw of the
sinkhole staring at her as they drove past.

Everything about the desert looked
alien and deadly. The edges of the rock formations seemed
abnormally sharp and threatening. She could count more than just
the one sinkhole forming across the desert surface as more of the
fragile cavern passages crumbled from the tectonic
shifts.

Unexpectedly, Abraxas slammed on the
brakes and the car skid to a halt with an overwhelming smell of
burnt rubber and brake pads. Sammy looked around at where they had
stopped but didn’t recognize the area. Regardless, the other Fire
Warriors climbed wordlessly from the car and opened the passenger
door for Sammy to emerge.

She climbed out without resistance and
turned toward the General. A short, jutting plateau just beyond the
edge of the road distracted Abraxas. He barely offered an
acknowledgement as Sammy walked up beside him.

“
Where are we?” she
asked.

General Abraxas turned toward her with
a smile. His sharpened teeth were far more unnerving on his
desiccated face.

“
We’re home,” he hissed.
“Don’t you recognize it?”

Sammy turned back toward the plateau
but nothing looked familiar. General Abraxas stepped off the edge
of the road and walked briskly toward the rocky outcropping. Sammy
hurried to keep up until she was able to match his long
stride.

From behind a seemingly smooth rock
face on the plateau, a Fire Warrior emerged. Abraxas led the group
toward the man before storming past the single guard. The three
Fire Warriors, with Sammy in tow, were quickly engulfed by the cool
darkness within the concealed cavern entrance.

Sammy looked around quickly as they
paused inside the dark interior and ignited their personal flames.
The walls were smooth and looked carved by intense heat. She
assumed they could have once been lava flow tubes but it seemed far
more likely that the Fire Warriors themselves had carved these
tunnels. She thought suddenly of the sinkholes and the collapsed
tunnels underneath. There was no telling how much damage had been
done to her clan’s kingdom during the ground-shattering
earthquakes. It was likely that new tunnels had to be carved after
their original tunnels were destroyed.

One of the Fire Warriors shoved her
from behind as they started down the gently sloping path. The
carved tunnel quickly converted to a natural cavern passage. She
chose her steps more carefully as the ground became uneven. Much
like the desert above her head, slivers of stone jutted from the
path. What had begun as a simple walk underground quickly became an
adventure that involved climbing over, around, and through
crystalline spurs of stone.

Sammy was forced to focus on the
moment, instead of letting her mind drift to what was to come once
they arrived at her father’s castle. Except it wasn’t her father’s
castle, she quickly corrected. The Fire Elemental was pulling the
strings, including controlling Lord Balor.

“
Watch your head,” the
Fire Warrior behind her ordered.

Sammy ducked beneath a rocky shelf
that would have struck her across the bridge of the nose had she
not been warned. She quickly realized again that she needed to pay
attention instead of letting her mind wander.

Once beyond the maze of stone spears,
the tunnel smoothed out once again and began to look familiar to
her. The passageway through which they walked slowly widened as the
heat in the tunnel increased. Sammy hadn’t been away from her
birthplace for that long but the heat seemed suddenly stifling. It
felt like she was standing in front of an open oven as waves of
heat rolled over her.

As they made a sharp turn in the
tunnel, the stone path gave way to a giant, stonework bridge. The
walls of the tunnel fell away to either side, forming the distant
walls of the cavernous chamber. The vaulted cavern was illuminated
by a combination of burning fires and a harsh glow coming from far
below the bridge.

Beyond the bridge, her father’s
obsidian castle loomed overhead. The sight of the keep made Sammy’s
knees go weak. She feared seeing her father again but she knew even
meeting with the intimidating lord was just a precursor to being
dragged in front of the Fire Elemental once again. Even though her
encounter with the draconic eye had been so brief, it had haunted
her ever since. If given the choice, she knew she’d never want to
come face to face with that creature again. Unfortunately, she knew
she didn’t really have a choice. If she resisted, they’d drag her
in chains down the narrow tunnel that led to the monster concealed
at its end.

General Abraxas stepped gingerly onto
the wide bridge. With a sigh, she prepared to step onto the bridge
after him but a firm hand fell on her shoulder.

“
Wait your turn,” the Fire
Warrior demanded.

Sammy was surprised to see the General
moving with such caution onto the large-stone bridge. A quick
scrutiny of the full length of it revealed why. Near the far end, a
section was missing. She couldn’t imagine what could have possible
destroyed so thick a bridge until her eyes drifted upward. The
ceiling of the cavern was covered with massive stalactites. She had
never paid much attention to the stalactites when she lived here
because they were as much a part of the environment as the walls
themselves. Looking up, though, she was sure at least a few of the
enormous stone teeth were missing. It seemed like even her clan’s
home hadn’t remained unscathed from the damage to the rest of the
world.

The General skirted far from the
gaping maw of a hole in the bridge and arrived at the main entrance
into the obsidian keep. She didn’t need prodding by the Fire
Warrior behind her this time. She stepped onto the bridge and began
making her way toward the large, stone doors.

Sammy had walked on the bridge
hundreds of times before in her youth but couldn’t remember her
steps ever being so unsteady. She wasn’t sure how much of her
hesitation was the shifting of the large stones beneath her feet,
and how much was the unsteadiness of her own legs, but every step
left her teetering on the edge of collapse.

As the hole approached, a brief
thought of jumping through its gap ran through her mind. While she
knew she couldn’t follow through with such a brash plan, the
thought of being dragged before the Fire Elemental was almost
strong enough to drive her to suicide.

She stepped to the edge of the chasm
and looked down, admiring the swirling reds and blacks of the lava
river far below. The heat from the magma felt like a blast furnace
roaring through the wide hole. She could practically feel the heat
melting the mortar holding the already weakened bridge
together.

“
What are you doing?”
General Abraxas yelled from the far edge of the hole. “Quit wasting
time.”

With a sigh, Sammy stepped away from
the hole and walked around its edge. When she was close enough,
Abraxas grabbed her arm and pulled her to the relative safety of
the stone platform on the far side of the bridge.

They waited for the other two Fire
Warriors to cross the unsteady overpass. When the second was
halfway across the bridge, Sammy heard a rumble echoing through the
stone passages that surrounded the main cavern.

The aftershock struck the chamber and
drove Sammy to her knees with its force. She clenched her teeth
together to keep them from rattling in her head.

She raised her head as she heard a man
scream. The nearest of the two Fire Warriors fell backward as the
large stone beneath his feet gave way and tumbled into the hole on
the bridge. For a brief moment, she locked eyes with the panicked
man before he disappeared from view. The echoing rumble of the
quake swallowed even his scream.

A loud crack drew here attention to
the far wall. A sheet of stone calved from the wall, falling into
the lava below. She wasn’t sure how many aftershocks had struck the
castle but she was sure their entire home was on borrowed
time.

As quickly as it had begun, the quake
came to a stop and the cavern fell into silence. Abraxas roughly
grabbed her upper arm and pulled her to her feet. He led her
through the open stone doors and into the keep proper.