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“All I’m saying is that fire could take on water. Easily,” I said with a shrug.
“All I’m saying is that fire’s too reckless. And I wasn’t the one who made that riddle.” Mira responded, pulling the hood of her cloak up.
There was a definite chill starting to creep into the air, and we had to use the cloaks. Mira still wasn’t happy about the Aether group helping us, and I wasn’t either, but I did like cloaks. I pulled my hood up as well as a cold breeze blew through the trees.
“You might not have made it, but it was your nutso people who made it, and you were able to answer it, so –”
“Fera, look at that.” Mira stopped suddenly.
“I am not fall –”
“Will you just look?”
I rolled my eyes, but looked, and then froze. “Is that Allivin?”
“I think so,” she said. “That’s what the road sign says.”
The city was huge. Mira and I had been to big cities before, but for some reason they didn’t seem like this one. I could see shingled and clay tiled roofs practically piled on top of each other behind the city walls. Even though it looked like a cold place, the streets leading up to the city gates were packed with colourful lines of energetic people.
The lines were moving at a snail’s pace. “Uh, didn’t you say major roads met here?” I asked. “We’re going to need a pass to get into the city!”
“So?” Mira had started walking down the road again. “Honestly, it’s not like we’re going to have to sign up for a traveler’s pass. Or did you lose the one mom and dad got you?”
“I didn’t lose it,” I grumbled, embarrassed that I’d actually forgotten about that. Our parents had gotten entry passes issued for each of us, so we could go anywhere in any city in Freckania for the next year.
We’d gotten them in order to get to the Tribes easily, and so we could explore the surrounding areas with any problems. It didn’t seem like we’d be using them to go sightseeing now, but if this crystal stuff ended up taking us all over the country, they were definitely going to be useful.
There were three lines going into the western gate. One was a fast-moving line of locals flashing wooden citizenship token. The really long line was bogged down by visitors being issued traveler passes. The last line, the one we picked, wasn’t moving too badly. It was for people who already had some sort of pass, so all they had to do was answer a few questions before being waved on in.
I was starting to get a little hungry by the time we made it up to the city officer. “These are our entry passes,” Mira said, handing over the thick pieces of paper. They were heavily creased, having spent so long stuffed in our bags. At least the seals stamped on them hadn’t been damaged.
The woman inspected our passes. “I see. These seem to be in order. And what exactly is your business in Allivin?”
“Oh, uh, we’re picking up an order from one of the shops,” Mira said quickly.
“Which shop?”
“Er . . . huh! I don’t remember the name! Do you, Fera?” she looked at me, as if I was going to have a clue about a shop. I’d maybe heard about this city once before this whole riddle quest.
“Uh, no, but, uh, we’ve got the name and address written down somewhere,” I lied, pretending to start looking through my satchel.
“Do you now. What are you here to pick up?”
Mira said, “Books,” at the same time I said, “Pots.”
The officer studied us. “Uh-huh. Girls, could you please come with me for a minute?”
I swallowed nervously. Mira forced a smile. “We’re kind of in a hurry, and there shouldn’t be anything wrong with our passes –”
“This won’t take long.”
I didn’t like it, but we followed the officer into the little office built within the city wall. It smelt of the fire crackling and the plate of baked goods a man on break was eating from. My stomach grumbled.
Our officer spoke quietly to the man, while I considered grabbing one of those pastries. Mira looked at some notices on the walls.
The two officers disappeared further in the back. After a moment, the pastries were just too tempting. I glanced around, then grabbed one off the plate. It smelt like cinnamon and nutmeg. I took a bite.
The inner door swung open. “The two of you are under arrest.”
I shoved the rest in my mouth. “Icanpayyouback,” I promised.
One of the officers frowned, confused, as he loomed over me. Mira yelped. I spun around. She was trying to free her arms from two officers. A tiny amount of water bubbled out of her Relic and splashed to the floor. “Let go of me!” she shouted.
“I’ll take that,” said another officer, unhooking the Relic from her belt.
“No! Give it back!”
I filled my hands with fire and let the flames race along my arms. “Let her go –!” A cold shock hit me. I was dripping. Why was I dripping?
“That was a useful tip,” muttered an officer. One of them grabbed my arms. I pulled and twisted, but I couldn’t summon a spark, much less a flicker of flame. “Alright, you two, behave yourselves.”
“We haven’t done anything!” Mira snapped. “You can’t arrest us with no charges!”
They ignored her. The man holding my arms shoved me through a doorway. “They seem kind of old for runaways,” one officer remarked to another.
“Who cares? They match the alert description.”
“Runaways?” I asked. “We’re not runaways!”
Mira stumbled between her two guards and glanced at me. “Our parents . . .”
“They wouldn’t do this to us, would they?”
“Let’s see. We threw a big stink, disappeared, and then never showed up at the Tribes. I think this is exactly the sort of thing they’d do.”
“You two can work out your family issues once you’re back home,” said an officer. “For now, be quiet and behave.”
They dragged us through some twisting hallways. Mira couldn’t do a thing if she couldn’t move her hands and arms – one of the limitations of a water elementalist – and I was drying up, but I was still useless when wet.
We were pulled into a large room with tiny, high windows and rows of metals bars marching on either side. Despite our continued struggles, we were pushed unceremoniously into a cell. Mira tripped and banged her knee on the floor as I heard the cell door clang shut and a lock screeched home.
“You’ll just be here until we arrange transport, so bear with it,” said a guard sympathetically. Then they left.
I grabbed the cell door and rattled it. “Teine’s torches!” I swore. I wanted to melt the metal bars into a pile of sludge, but I couldn’t make it any hotter than ‘somewhat warm’.
Mira kicked the bench in the cell. “They took my Relic! I hate – if I had it I could at least get us out of here!”
“It’s a jail cell, could you?” I asked skeptically.
“That,” Mira said, pointing, “is hardly a difficult lock. I’ve picked worse. But I can’t do it without water!”
“You can pick a lock with water?” a voice from across the aisle asked. “Can all water elementalists do that?” A young man leaned against the door of his cell, quite casually for someone in a jail cell.
“I don’t know,” Mira replied. “Probably, if they wanted too. It’s not that complicated.”
“Huh. That’s something to keep an eye out for.” He gave us a smile, and it was such a nice smile that I almost didn’t notice what he said next. “So, what’s a couple of cute girls like you do to get arrested?”
“Cute?” Mira sputtered. “Our campsite was practically a mudhole this morning.”
“Dirt doesn’t cover up beauty.”
Mira coughed. “Um. Uh. This – this is really not the time for – Fera!”
I realized I probably had a very stupid expression on my face, and cleared my throat. It was just so funny watching Mira get all stiff and awkward around a guy who had some cute dimples, sparkling eyes, and a mop of brown hair that managed to look charmingly disheveled instead of messy.
“Well,” I said. “We’re here, because we’re such wonderful children, that it seems our parents are determined to have us back at home. What about you?”
“Oh, nothing to serious. A few questionable business moves, and suddenly you’re classified as a scammer. I’m a broker, thank you very much.”
“Uh-huh.” Mira folded her arms. “Let me guess, you agree to broker some sales for new merchants, then you make off with the goods and sell them for yourself.”
He blinked. “Not quite, but that is remarkably close. Picking locks – are you sure you’re not criminals?”
“No, we’re not.”
“We’re just in Allivin to find something,” I said. “You wouldn’t happen to know where any really old road markers are?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I do, but what would you want with those?”
“Classified,” Mira snapped, scowling at me.
“Fair enough,” he shrugged. He stepped back from the cell door and gave a little bow. “Name’s Darius. Since the gods seem to have put us in here, how about we help each other out? I can help you get out of here, get your Relic back, miss fancy water elementalist, and even help you find where you’re looking for. In return, all I ask is you help me with a little problem.” He tapped the metal collar around his neck.
Mira stepped back. “That’s a dampening collar.”
I edged a little bit away from the door. Dampening collars were unpleasant things: rings of metal enchanted so that when both sides touched each other, the enchantment activated and whoever was touching the collar could no longer use their powers. Normally I only heard about the being used on the worst criminals imaginable.
“Are you a murderer?” I asked.
The young man stared at me. “What? No! Gods, no. If I was that sort of person, you think I’d be in an open, unguarded cell like this? I’d be locked up tighter than a bank vault. I’m an earth elementalist.” He gestured around. “If my powers weren’t blocked, none of this would exactly be difficult to get through.”
Mira and I exchanged a look. “And how in the world would we be able to help you?” she asked.
“Ah, well, specifically I’d need your help, not the dark-haired beauty. Seeing as you’re damp and don’t have a collar, I assume you’re a fire elementalist. But you – if you can pick locks, you can get this off me. It’s a lot easier to steal a cell key than it is a dampening collar key, and most locksmiths are so twitchy about these things.”
“But . . . wouldn’t her power fail if she tried to pick it?” I asked.
“Nah. Only affects a person if they actually touch it. Long as you don’t stick your hands on it, it shouldn’t be a problem,” he said. “So do we have a deal?”
“I don’t . . .”
“Yes,” I said.
“Fera!”
“Her name’s Mira,” I added. “And I won’t be damp much longer, so if you even think about double-crossing us, I’ll char you to cinders.”
For the first time, his expression looked a little nervous. “Understood.”
He suddenly started rattling his cell door and shouting, “Hey! Officer Carn! Hey!”
The door to the cell block swung open. A very tall officer marched down the aisle and stopped in front of Darius’ cell. “What do you want?”
Darius leaned against the cell door. “I really think there’s been a mistake. I shouldn’t be in here! So if you could just let me out . . .”
The officer sighed. “You got caught, Darius, deal with it.”
“You know, the fact you guys questioned me four times before making an arrest makes me think you don’t really have much on me.”
“We all know you were forging business passes and then stealing the merchandise for yourself. You were caught with the goods on you.”
“Hey, how was I supposed to know that stuff was stolen?” He reached out to grab the officer by the sleeves. “Come on. I got people relying on me! I can’t stay stuck in here.”
“They’re going to have to make do.” The officer pushed him off and left the way he’d come.
The door shut. “So, was there a point to that?” I asked. Mira was frowning at Darius. Like he was a particularly difficult passage in a book.
He grinned and held up a key. “Who wants out?”
“You stole that off the guard,” Mira accused, as he turned the key in his cell door.
“Sure did. Pickpocketing, it’s a very useful skill. And easier than you think. Catch.”
He tossed the key to Mira, which was a poor decision as she fumbled it, nearly knocking it back through the bars. After picking it up with some grumbling, she jammed it into the lock as Darius peeked his head through the door to the cell block. Wasting no time, I kicked the cell open as soon as I heard the click. Despite the severity of our situation, I couldn’t help but think breaking out of jail would be a fun story to share at the Fire Tribe.
If I ever ended up making it there.
“Quiet,” he said. “We’re going to take the back way up.”
We followed him through a door that hid a staircase leading up. “Why are we going further into this place?” Mira asked.
“Why aren’t there guards?” I asked.
“I’m a businessman, and you two are runaways. They don’t have enough manpower as it is, they’re not going to waste it posting a full-time guard on us. And we’re going this way ‘cause they’re probably keeping your Relic in the upper office.”
“How do you know that?”
“Well, I’ve never been arrested before now, if that’s what you’re implying,” he retorted. “I’ve just been questioned. I figured it’d come in handy if I memorize the layout of this place while I was here.”
We hurried up the staircase and down a narrow hall. Darius stopped in front of a door. He silently turned the handle. “Hey, Sparky, get ready to throw some fire.”
I blinked. “Sparky?”
“Now!” He flung the door open.
I tried not to yell and threw a fireball blindly. The only thing that got burnt was a tapestry.
“. . . It’s empty,” Mira said dully. “Also was your plan seriously arson?”
“No, my plan was a blinding attack while I tackled someone.”
“That’s a terrible plan.”
“You’re not easy to impress, are you, Red?”
Mira’s face coloured and I thought I’d have to hold her back from attacking Darius. “I hate him,” she decided.
“Really? I don’t,” I said. Darius was rifling around in some drawers and gave a cry of triumph.
“Here we are, confiscated goods! Hey, my wallet. Alright, which one is yours?”
Mira went over to the drawer and pulled out her Relic, hooking it on her belt. A bit of tension leaked out of her shoulders.
Darius grinned. “All right. Now hold up your end of the deal and get this collar off of me.”
Mira scowled. “The deal was you get us out, we’re still in the offices!”
“It’ll be pretty easy to get out once I can use my powers. Hurry up!”
She didn’t look very happy, but Mira leaned forward to look at the lock at his neck. I nervously looked out the door, but I didn’t see anyone. Mira muttered to herself as she picked the lock.
The collar fell to the floor with a clang. Darius kicked it away.
“Now get us out,” I said.
Darius grinned. “No problem.” He tapped one of the office walls. I watched as the bricks twisted to form a brand-new window overlooking the city. We could climb right out, except we were two stories up.
I was about to point that out when he leaned out the window and extended his arm. An oak tree growing nearby moved, extending its branches out towards the window. “Climb on.”
Mira scrambled over the sill, tight lipped and white, ignoring the hand Darius offered. I took his hand and let him help me climb into the tree’s branches. As he followed us out with a cheeky grin, I couldn’t help but remember the trouble we used to get up to with Ben. Another tap on the wall, and the window was gone, and the tree bent and creaked to deliver us safely to the ground.