Shipwrecked & Horny: A What Could Possibly Go Wrong Bad Boy Romance (Bad Boys After Dark Book 10) by Gabi Moore (33)

“Don’t think the fish would last very long in it,” another one said.

One of the sales clerks stopped his presentation to a prospective customer as two of the elementals walked up the portable ladder and dove into the pool. The man who was interested in it stopped his conversation to watch them surface and swim to the side of the pool.

“Do they come with the pool?” he asked.

The woman who had been in a deep conversation on the phone hung it up and walked away.

Relieved, Dion went to the pay phone and fished through his pockets. Finding some change, he fed a few dimes into the phone’s slot, just in case. When he heard a dial tone, Dion tried to remember the numbers he needed. It came to him and his finger spun them. He waited. The phone on the other side began to ring. He was about to hang up the phone when someone picked it up on the seventh ring.

Chapter 8

“Hello?” a voice said. “Mustalow residence.”

“Mike?” Dion spoke into the phone. “This is Dion. Were you and them still planning on going to the mall today?”

“Of course, we’ve planned this for weeks. Why?”

“I’m over in the blue section. When did you plan to leave?”

“About five minutes. I have to pick half of the club up, there’s another car driven by James and he’s supposed to meet us out in the lot.”

“Do you think the entire group could meet me by the phones in the blue section when you get here? I can’t imagine it taking you any longer than a half hour.”

“Sure. What’s up? Something you want to do?”

“No, something all of you need to see. Trust me on this one.”

“Okay, you’ve never let me down yet. See you later.”

The phone connection ceased and Dion returned the phone to the cradle and moved out of the way so the next person could use it. He walked over to the bench next to the phones and sat down. It shouldn’t be long. He wasn’t sure this was the best course of action, but he didn’t have another plan. Besides, the club really needed what he had in mind.

“And all you do all day long is sun yourself on the rocks?” Emily asked Dirce. “That’s it?”

“Why would I want to do anything else?” she asked her. “We did it for thousands of years. Until the big ships made an appearance, there was nothing to bother us. Every now and then, a human appears to ask for a favor or advice and it breaks up a dull year. We have a whole different sense of time, I try to tell you.”

“Why would you need a cave or culvert?” Dennis asked the small green-eyed nymph who was sitting in his lap with her arm around his neck. The attention was wonderful, but they still got disapproving looks from some of the shoppers.

“It’s where I’ll need to live. At night, we sleep too. I hope my sisters will come with me. Fresh water is different from seawater. The fish are different too. I’m looking forward to a change.”

Dion waited patiently by the phone banks. He knew it would take a little time for his friends to arrive, but there was nothing else he could do. He felt the best course of action was to wait for them to make appearance, and then head back to the pool store. It wouldn’t take too long.

He looked at his wristwatch. It wouldn’t be long before Salacia Delphi arrived and decided whether or not to grant him full elemental powers. He needed it badly to advance to the next one, the element of fire. After that, it would be the fifth element, the one his uncle held. And then he might be able to free his parents.

He leaned back on the bench and waited.

“How many have you sold today?” the first clerk asked as both of them watched what they thought were young girls frolic in the display pools. Why did they all have the same kind of swimsuit on right now? Didn’t they come into the display area in different suits?

“I’ve written up three contracts already. You?” the second sales clerk thought the same thing and looked over into the corner where the swim team’s tracksuits were stored. He didn’t see any extra suits over there. “I think the kids from the front room wrote two more between them. That’s a record for today.”

“Has to be the boss’ doing. Only she would come up with something as outrageous as having a girls' swim team come into the store to boost sales.”

“Seems to be working. Oh, someone wants to buy a pool. I’m off.”

Sean made himself helpful, but there wasn’t much these young women needed. They continued to play in the water and occasionally sit on the decks built next to the display pools. He turned to the door back into the pool store and wondered where Emily was and what she was up to at the moment. He missed her and they had only been separated an hour or so. Last night was horrible. He woke up in the morning and needed to see her right away. Was this the effect of being in close proximity to the elementals? He wondered if it would go away with time.

A crowd of high school seniors walking down the mall alerted Dion his friends had arrived. He stood up, walked up to Mike, and shook his hand. He looked down the row and saw the second wave, commanded by James, coming up in the rear. The first group had five young men and the second six, which made for a total of eleven, a perfect number for the job. All he had to do was take them back to the pool store and hope for the best. Beyond today, there was nothing guaranteed and he had no way of knowing whether or not his plan would work, but at least it was a plan.

“Why are your fingernails colored?” Dirce asked Emily as she sat there with her. “I’ve never seen them done that way.”

“It’s called fingernail polish,” Emily explained, holding her hand up so the nymph could see her nails. “A lot of girls and older women paint their nails to make them look nice.”

“But not everyone does it?” Dirce asked again. She examined Emily’s nails up close and tried to figure out what made them different.

“Not everyone. It takes a long time to have it done. You probably don’t need to do it.”

They turned to see Dion walk down the corridor to them with a group of guys in the rear. Emily and Lilly recognized some of them and couldn’t figure out what they had in common other than glasses and a lack of style. Half of them had clothes that didn’t match and the others needed to get new shoes. It wasn’t a lack of money. They knew some of the boys. These guys with Dion didn’t care much how they looked and it wasn’t a statement, just a lack of interest.

“Everything okay back in the display area?” Dion asked the group in front of him.

“We haven’t heard anything bad,” Dennis told him. “As a matter of fact, we haven’t heard much of anything at all. I don’t think Sean has been back here once to get us.”

Dion looked forward to the glass door to the pool store. He looked up to the display sign over the entrance. The sun sent warm light in through the windows of the mall and he could feel the warmth of the day. Soon the mall would have to use its air conditioning system to cool the place down, but he hadn’t heard it kick on just yet. They were still in the early months of spring, but the weather was unusually warm.

“Ok, let’s go,” he told the group. “They’re all in the back.” He turned to Emily. “I’ll send Sean back to you when we go out there. I have no idea how long this will take, but Salacia Delphi is supposed to be here soon enough. Just wait for me to come out when I’m done.” The group continued on through the door and soon they had left the sight of those still on the bench.

“What do you think he has in mind?” Emily asked. “I can’t figure it out.”

“I think I know,” Lilly replied as she looked at the serene form of Dennis and Dirce. “I don’t want to say anything just yet because it might mess everything up. And, who knows, maybe he has something in mind I would never understand. Dion doesn’t discuss his plans with me.”

The water nymphs were relaxed in the pools. They stood in the water and hummed a group song, which made all the prospective buyers stop their questions and turn to the source of the music. It was a clear and beautiful sound, harmonious, but in a tune older than human civilization. The harmony drifted over the parking lot and into the countryside causing the birds to go silent. It was the sound of the lost oceans and forbidden seas set to a tune without words.

The elemental nymphs looked at each other from the display pools and broke out in laughter.

The door to the pool store opened. Dion strolled in with a group of young men behind him. They entered the display area and stopped. Before the men sat a group of display models swimming pools with attractive young women it them. They wore matched red bikinis. The two groups starred at each other and tried to figure out what each was doing there outside the pool store.

“Gentlemen,” Dion said to his group. “I would like you to meet the swim team. Ladies, I present to you our high school chess club.” He turned to Sean who stood at the edge of the display. “You can go back inside, I’ll handle it from here on out. Emily is getting lonely in there.”

Sean walked past Dion, a little confused as to what he had planned, but anxious to return to Emily. He walked over to the two sales clerks who were in the process of going over a warranty with a customer. The crowd had died down and they’d been able to send their extra clerks back into the main store. The owner was supposed to arrive shortly and they were thrilled so many pools were ordered. It was a record they had never expected to see.

“I hate to interrupt your work,” he said, “but could you do me a favor and take this inside the store for the next few minutes? I need to take care of something and I would appreciate your help. Don’t worry, you’ll be able to see everything going on here from the window. One other thing, I’m supposed to meet Ms. Delphi when she arrives.”

The two clerks looked at each other and then the customer. “Okay, we’re finishing something up, so I don’t see a problem. Just don’t be too long out here.” The trio walked back into the pool store. The door closer made a swoosh when it shut.

Sean turned back to the display pools to see the swim team elementals stepping out of them. They climbed out of by way of the portable ladders installed to make entrance and exit easy. There were multiple sounds of feet plopping on the ground and water dripping off nymph bodies as they looked over the young men presented for their approval. It was quiet outside in the exhibit area with the only sound that of the pool filtration systems humming away. On most days soft music played from the speakers aimed at the pools, but not today.

“I should ask you why we were brought back here,” Mike said, “but I really don’t care. And thanks for introducing us to them.”

“Didn’t you say that no one had a date for the prom?” Dion asked his friend. “I seem to recall you told me at lunch last week that the guys in your chess club were all sad because no girls joined this year. I recall the week before that when you mentioned that not one of them had a girlfriend.”

“Yes, I think I did.” He continued to watch the swim team put on their tracksuits.

“I count eleven eligible women,” Dion said to him. “I also count eleven members of the chess club here, including you. I think the problem will resolve itself.”

Appias walked up to the group and looked each one over carefully. Finally, she came up to Mike and looked him deeply in the eyes. “Hello, my name is Appias. I like you.”

Mike, who had enough trouble finding a girl who would even admit he existed, turned and looked at Dion. “I think you’re supposed to tell her you like her too,” Dion told him.

Mike gulped and looked at Appias. Her eyes were the color of water on a lost bay no one had ever seen that was so clear the sand was visible at the bottom. “I’m Mike,” he said to her. “I like you too.”

“Would you like to go for a walk?” she asked him. “I haven’t seen much of this mall.” She reached down and took his hand.

“Sure, let’s go for a walk.” He turned and walked through the door to the pool store with her as she placed one arm around him.

Dion turned and looked at the rest of the group. Right now, chess was not on their mind for the first time in many years. It was a knight’s gambit of the most desperate sort, but all his pawns where meeting their opposite number from the other side of the board and the game was in progress. All he had to do was make sure nothing went out of control. It didn’t seem to be a problem right now. But it could always change.

The second of the nymphs went up to James and looked him over. James was not a very large guy, only about five-two in height. The girl who approached him was about two inches shorter and had long brown hair which flowed down her back. Dion still couldn’t understand how they dried their hair so quickly, but it seemed to be one of those things which elementals had no trouble and could do when they needed to do so.

“Hello,” he said to her. “I’m James, what’s your name?”

“Cynae,” she said, “I like you.”

“You seem pretty cool. Do you want to go hang out?”

Cynae gave him a smile as big as the Sargasso Sea. “I’d love to do that. Can you show me the mall too?”

“Let’s go,” he said, took her hand and led the nymph through the store and into the mall.

“Gentlemen,” Dion said to the rest of the crowd that entered the exhibit area with him. “These ladies are moving into the area this week.” He turned to the nymphs. “You are planning to live around here long term, aren’t you?”

They collectively nodded.

“Good. I just wanted you to know, because they are new to the area and will need dates for the prom. Also, I’m sure they would like one of you fine young men to tell them about our blessed little town since none of them are from around here.”

Dion stood there and watched the nymphs approach each of the guys who came into the store with him. The chess club couldn’t believe its eyes as the girls walked around and looked each of them over until they found the one whom they favored. Once again, they would approach their choice, inform him they liked him and then wonder off into the lobby of the mall. The guys didn’t have to do a thing but stand there and wait. It was the complete opposite of how it usually took place.

Dion decided that the process would handle itself and he didn’t need to be around any longer. What would happen tomorrow was a different matter entirely. Each of these guys would be madly in love with their designated nymph in a few minutes. How they decided to deal with it was going to be their choice. Before the day was over, he needed to meet with the nymphs and decide where to put them. There were a few creeks around here that were so remote even the fishermen didn’t like to use them. It would be the best place for the elementals. If nothing else, there were some private lakes and fishing ponds he knew about.

Dion walked back into the store and told the two clerks he was done outside. He knew the owner would be here soon enough. The threat the nymphs would have presented to him was over for the time being, but there was the issue of what to do about his friends who would be swooning over their collective girlfriends in a few days. He needed to figure out some way the nymphs could visit the guys they had chosen without much trouble.

Lilly and the rest of his friends were still sitting on the bench when he emerged from the store. He went over and sat beside her, the rest of the group starring at him in confusion.

“I just saw two guys from that group you brought in here leave,” Lilly said to him. “Each with one of the nymph elementals. What did you do in there to cause this to happen?”

“Naiads,” Dirce said, still cuddled up to Dennis. “It’s the term we use for ourselves.”

“Okay then, I just saw two of your sister Naiads walk out of the pool store hand-in-hand with two of the guys Dion took back there.” She looked back at Dion. “What did you do?”

“I introduced them. I figured if it worked so well for Dennis, it might work out just as well for a group of guys I knew that had no luck with the girls in the school. Plenty of guys who just sit around mopping over their lack of love. Time to cure the problem.”

“What’s going to happen when they find out they’re not human?” Emily asked.

Dion turned to Dennis. “You figured it out right away, didn’t you?”

“Yes. When you have a vision of swimming with her at the bottom of the sea, you realize that you’re in a very different place.”

“And it’s not a problem, is it? I mean, you do understand that, for all practical purposes, she’ll never age, don’t you?”

Dirce leaned onto Dennis chest and looked up at him with her sea green eyes. “No, I can’t say that it is a problem right now.”

Dion turned back to Emily. “There is your answer.”

“You’re still going to have a problem with finding a place for them all,” Lilly said. “Where are you going to find a body of water around here large enough for them all? Plus, how are they going to be able to see these guys every day? Don’t they get addicted to each other or something?”

“They are bonded to each other,” Dion said. “The elemental…” He noticed a glare from Dirce. “Ahem, I mean Naiad, has made the choice and the guy accepted her. So yes, they’ll need each other every day. But I’m sure we can find some way to get the entire clan into school in these last few months.”

The moment he quit speaking another group of Naiads and chess club guys walked out of the store and headed into the mall. This time one of the guys stopped to thank him.

He walked over to Dion and pumped his hand. “Dion,” he said. “I don’t know how to thank you. I’ve never been so happy in all my life. She wants to see the hobby shop on the other side of the mall, can you believe it? Oh, by the way, this is Arethusa.” He was standing with a black-haired girl who was on the tall side with curly hair. Her eyes were a deep purple.

“We’ve met,” Dion laughed.

“And you want to know what the best part of it is?”

“What?”

“She wants to play chess. She claims she played a few games years ago, and would like to take it back up again. Can you believe it?”

“I had a shipwrecked sailor show me how,” Arethusa explained. “A few of us have played it over the years when we get bored. We used shells and stones for the pieces.”

Chapter 9

The bus let Gabriel off in front of the mall. He paid the driver, stepped outside it to look at the magnificent glass aviary over the front, and took a deep breath. This place was impressive. Whoever built it had sunk a lot of cash into the project just to keep it going.

He was told years ago that it would never be finished when the local politicians tried to hold the project up. There were all kinds of ways they could do it when the right pressure was applied.

He dusted off his sea jacket and looked around at the entrance. Definitely an improvement over the malls and shopping centers on the coast. Whoever designed this one had a specific image in their head and wanted to see it realized before them. Gabriel stood there and watched families enter and exit through the doors. Although the location of the mall wasn’t the best, it was built near an interstate, which should take care of the need for traffic to get to and from it.

He wondered if anyone suspected the real reason for the mall. How many of these shoppers knew it was built over the abyss. There were enough sensitive people around here; surely, some of them would pick up the emanations from what lay beneath. He didn’t notice anyone show signs of the second sight as they left the mall, but it was still early in the day for the effects to be obvious. Give the right person a few hours in this mall and they would start to have all kinds of personal issues. In fact, the mall was built over the larges ethereal power source in this world. But none of the shoppers appeared to know it. It was probably best they didn’t.

He pushed the second set of glass doors open and walked inside. Good, the environment was carefully controlled. He turned and saw a ghoul cleaner in a hurry to push the trash out the door. The cleaner seemed to be anxious to get out of the mall, but he was on the wrong side, so it only made sense. Gabriel looked up and saw some of the air sylphs skating around near the supports of the structure. They weren’t supposed to be on this side either, but at least the ghouls had a legitimate reason to be here. As he watched the doors open, one of the air elementals shot out both glass doors and was soon outside.

He continued to walk through the main concourse of the mall. Everything was tinted a nice blue in this section. He stopped and looked at one of the reflecting pools toward the entrance and wondered where the water elementals were inside it. As he waited, the water stirred and a small column of water rose up and then back down again. There it was, one of the smaller ones. Since this place was dedicated to them, they had to be here. It wouldn’t make sense for the mall to have this section and not to have any elementals present. Again, he wondered how many people could see them. It wasn’t a gift many people inherited, but the average person could learn to recognize them with some basic training. It wasn’t that hard.

He thought about removing his cap, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. People no longer took their hats off when they walked indoors these days. As a matter of fact, few people wore hats anymore. He could remember when a person of respect wouldn't step outside without a hat. Now, you hardly saw anyone who wore them.

He stopped by a place which sold fish in aquariums supplies and looked into the windows. They had a nice selection of colorful tropical fish, but what else did they have in there? Gabriel knew that not every part of this mall was open to the public. There were stores for all kinds of supernaturals in the mall. Stores which appeared to be closed from the front, but which had another entrance in the back. Some of these stores had no doors. He wondered how the mall builder had gotten that one through the building code.

It had been a long trip from Atlantic City. Gabriel couldn’t remember the last time he was this far inland. It had to be years ago. He didn’t like to be too far from the sea or any bodies of water. At least there were some creeks and streams near-by. They couldn’t have built the mall inside a desert, as the lack of water would have made the construction impossible. But he would have preferred a shorter trip. It might’ve helped if he had a driver’s license. And no way was he going to risk a flight to the location. He wasn’t sure if the people behind the mall knew about him, but he also had no clue about the extent of their powers. It would be too easy for them to bring down an air flight.

Just last week he’d been on his boat in the Atlantic. The water was rough that day, but he didn’t mind. He took a group of fishermen out to an isolated spot and let them cast their lines. They hadn’t cost much and he speculated the real reason they were out there was to talk about sports and drink. He took a lot of them out that way. Guys with impressive fishing tackle who had no clue how to use it. He spent half of the trip showing the best way to catch. It wasn’t what he was paid to do, but there was no reason to just leave them to their own devices.

So here he was, just about, as far as you could get from an ocean. It was a strange place for an old sea dog to find himself.

He was about to ask someone where he could find the pool store when he noticed the girl in the tracksuit walking with the slightly overweight young man in his direction. He stopped and looked at the swim team logo on her top as they went past. He couldn’t tell what their conversation was about, but it had something to do with the game of chess. This struck him as odd, so he watched them continue on their way down the concourse. Why would two young people of such dissimilar appearances be walking together unless there was some other reason? He waited for them to pass and thought about following them to see where they went. If she had a swim team logo on her, it was likely the young lady would know something about the pool store he needed to find.

Gabriel watched where they headed and was ready to turn directions when he saw a similar couple who walked in his direction. He put his hands in the pockets of his black jacket and pretended to look at a display of newspapers on a stand. This time the girl who wore the tracksuit was a few inches shorter than the guy, but she was still as beautiful as the last one. The guy with her, on the other hand, had last year’s outfit on and thick glasses. She seemed as enamored of him as he was of her. He couldn’t tell what they were talking about just now.

He was ready to put it off as coincidence, when a third couple walked in his direction. This girl possessed hair so blond he thought it might be white. He watched them pass him by. This time he was able to listen in and hear what they were talking about. It sounded like the upcoming prom. They were asking each other questions about their backgrounds, so they couldn’t have been in any kind of relation very long. He looked back the way they’d come. Each couple had walked from the same direction. Perhaps he should head in that location.

“You sing on that rock every night?” he heard the young man ask the blond as the moved away from him.

And then it hit him: the girls were all water elementals. If these boys, hardly a one of them who looked like the type who would normally be with such a girl, were with them, it meant the water nymphs and had placed a glamor on them. What the heck was going on in this mall? He needed to find the pool store as fast as he could.

Gabriel turned and headed in the general direction the couples had originated. When he was halfway down the concourse, he noticed two more mismatched pairs. These had walked out into the main mall from a side hall and he decided to see what was there. Gabriel pulled his cap down over his grey hair and made a slight turn, his steps silent, as they were lost in the sounds of the other shoppers.

At the far end of the hall was the pool store, his destination. But coming in his direction were three more couples, which consisted of very happy young men, paired with very beautiful water elementals. They were of different racial features, but he knew the nymphs took on the form of the sailors they encountered over the years. Did any of these boys have any idea what they were in love with? He needed to find out. It had to have something with the pool storeowner, Salacia. He hadn’t seen her in years and this was the entire reason for his trip. Where was she?

Gabriel felt a familiar tingle when he walked past the bench where several young people sat. He stopped and felt something strange come over him. It was powerful, this pulse of energy. No one he’d ever met before had such a strong sense of elemental ability. He stopped walking and let it sink into him. The power originated from one of the kids on that bench. Impossible. It took years for most people to achieve a fraction of this level of background energy. It could only mean one thing: there was a natural elemental manipulator next to him and he was on his way to obtaining all the necessary powers to achieve mastery over the fifth element.

Which one could it be? He faced them and tried to decide. They were talking about something among themselves. It couldn’t be the girl it the tracksuit, she was another elemental. There it was, he could feel it. It had to be the tall boy, the one with the long jet-black hair. Gabriel looked at him again and felt the power this kid commanded. It was stronger than anything he’d ever sensed from a mortal human before. He needed to talk to him. His presence here had something to do with those nymph girl and human boy combinations he saw walking through the mall.

“Hello,” he said as he walked up to the group. “None of you know me. I’m Captain Gabriel Briah. I need to speak with the one who’s an element worker. I think that would be you, son?” He faced Dion. “Am I correct?’

Dion stared at him for a moment before he made his answer. “That’s right. I am an elemental worker and my name is Dion.” He introduced his friends and then returned to the captain. “I don’t get a sensation of an elemental worker from you, although this place makes it hard to tell much of anything. Are you with the mall?”

“No, I’m trying to find the owner of the pool store, Salacia Delphi. Is she in there?”

“I’m waiting for her to get back too. I’m told she will be here in the next hour or two. The people working there tell me she is a little abstract on her sense of time.”

“So why do you need to see her?” Dion asked the captain.

“We used to be married.” The captain let it sink into the group for a few minutes.

“So, you’re also an elemental worker?” Dion asked.

“No, I’m from Mt. Olympus.”

Dion was stunned. He’d never met an immortal before. This was the first time he even knew about one coming down to the level of humanity. But the man didn’t appear to be one of them. He looked old and beaten, not the sort of person you would expect to spend the afternoon talking with Zeus over the nature of storms and should reality be extended to the seventh dimension. He was at least sixty and sported a white beard and hair on his head to match. Dion assumed these beings were too busy at their lever to be concerned with the affairs of mortal men. He knew they did marry humans every now and then, but it was considered very rare. The captain was clothed in an old sea coat with matching black cap on his head. Hardly the person you would expect to cast lighting down from the sky. However, Dion did know that these beings liked to assume human form on occasion and visit this world.

“You don’t look like someone from Mt. Olympus,” Dion told him. “I would have expected a toga and a crown of light.”

“That is the expensive method,” the captain responded. “You watch too many Hollywood movies. If I could round up that much power on short notice, I wouldn’t need anyone to track my ex-wife. I’ve had to come here personally to find her. Do you know her?”

“No,” I’m here to get my third elemental power. My parents are imprisoned in the tower in the center of the mall. I need all four elemental powers so I can qualify for the fifth and get them out.”

“With the fifth, you couldn’t be stopped. It explains why all the elemental grandmasters are here inside the mall. Someone did everything they could to bring them here where they could be watched.”

“Do you know anything about the mall?” Dion questioned him again. It seemed this man might have some information he needed.

“Not much. I know it was built over the entrance to the abyss. I still can’t figure out why someone would do that. Best to leave these gates closed. Is there something I should know about this mall that I don’t?”

“My uncle built it. Or at least his company built it. He is the major stockholder in the company, which owns it. He’s also a fifth elemental worker, but one who learned the fifth without the other four.”

“Ah,” the captain said. “Him I’ve heard about. This would explain all the elementals I see around here. Those lovely young women walking with the guys their age, is that your doing?”

“Yes it is. Dennis here was glamoured by Appias and I thought if she likes him, the rest of her sisters should be introduced to some friends of mine. It solved a lot of problems.”

“Or create them. You do realize they’re all bonded now, don’t you?”

“Yes, I knew it would happen when I introduced the entire group.”

“So are you going to cut them loose when you get the full water power?”

“I don’t think so. We should be able to work something out for them. There are a number of lakes around here.”

“Not really a good idea,” the captain explained. “It never works when a mortal loves someone who isn’t. The next time I get back to Olympus, I’ll see if Zeus is in the mood to grant some mortality. He doesn’t do that very often.”

The captain thought about it some more. Another plan might be to grant the boys immortality, but that had even worse side effects. It was bad enough aging while your wife stayed young forever, worse to see everyone you know grow old and die while you remained.

“So, what is your story?” Dion asked him. “You appear to have aged. Was that the result of marriage?”

“No, it was the result of Zeus making me human. I wanted to age with my wife but I didn’t know she was resistant to it. It seems some of you elemental workers age very slowly. Not as slow as we do on Olympus, but slow enough to make a difference if you age at the normal rate of any other human. I started to notice it happen after we’d been together twenty years. After a long time, people began to ask us if she was my daughter. It became so bad I had to leave and go elsewhere. I ended up as a sailor and then the captain of my own charter boat. I’ve come back here to find out if she needs any help. Word came to me that her store in the mall was dangerously close to the abyss.”

“So what happened when you became mortal?” Lilly asked. “Did someone get your job?”

“In fact, that is exactly what happened. It was a long resignation procedure and he didn’t want me to go. But I was young and foolish. This is why your friends may eventually regret their decisions. When the time came for me to come to this world, Zeus promoted a younger immortal into my slot. He’s running that part of the operation now and I wish him luck. He found out it was a lot less glamorous than it appeared. Even the benefits aren’t that good anymore. You used to get your own island and palace to go with it. Now, you’re lucky to get a boat and a crew.

“You used to have another name?” Emily asked him.

“Poseidon,” he told them. “I used to go by Poseidon. But I had to turn my trident in when I left. I hope Hercules likes the job because he’s stuck with it until someone else is foolish enough to get it.”

“I can’t say I’ve ever been in the presence of someone who was in control of the oceans,” Dion said to the captain. “It must have been a step down to become a sailor.”

“You might think that, but I was rather sick of the job. It’s not all causing tidal waves and using your trident on arrogant whales. I had to inventory the oysters every year for Zeus. Can you imagine how much time that took? It was insane. Even with the help of the seals. No thank you, someone else can do the job. Plus I had to contend with those despicable oil freighters. You have no idea how much trouble they can be and the damage they do when they leak. I’m glad to be mortal.”

“But something had to cause you to want to be mortal,” Emily brought up. “I can’t imagine one day you suddenly decided to do it.”

“No, it was the ex-wife and only her,” he explained. “I’d tell you the entire story, but I’m sure you would find it too boring.”

“Sit down, captain,” Dion waved his hand at the bench. “We’ve nothing to do until Ms. Delphi appears. I’m sure we’re all eager to hear about it.”

“I will try not to bore you,” the captain said as she seated himself on the bench.

Chapter 10

“I was sitting on a rock,” the captain began, “watching some of the elementals sing one evening. I was in the Sargasso Sea. I like this part of the ocean because you never can tell what the tide action will bring to the center. I’ve found all kinds of things in many different broken up ships. Even found a treasure chest from lost Lemuria there one time. I have no idea how long it floated in that mess. Usually I send them to the bottom of the ocean or give the nicer sparkalies to the elementals since they like them so much.” He saw Dirce blush, which he didn’t know they could do, but he’d seldom seen them out of water.

I was in the process of looking over a boat to see if there was anything that needed my attention. Sometimes I find valuable items in them and, well, there are plenty of needy families who live by the shore and can use the help. I find a way to get the dolphins to take whatever will help to them. They usually don’t know who dropped off coins or jewels, but I liked knowing that my job allowed me to do some good.

Anyway, I found this sail boat which was on one side. I was ready to send it to the bottom for refuse, when I saw something move inside it. I turned the boat over in the water, righted it after snapping off the mast, and found a young girl in it no older than any of you. It’s not often I find anyone alive in these boats, so I was excited.”

“Were you, like, four hundred feet high at that point?” Emily asked him. “I’m assuming you had the ability to vary your size.”

The captain smiled. “No, much smaller. Just normal human size. It takes too much energy to do the Jolly Giant number, so I would conserve my mass. Besides, I was able to do a lot at normal size. It was one of the benefits of having the position: super human strength. When you have to check on the health of a Great White Shark, it’s a good idea to have that ability.

As I was saying, it was a young woman. I was stunned by her beauty. Standard operating procedure was to place all survivors on the nearest outside the Sargasso Sea and hope for the best. But, she was a little different. I took her to the palace, which came with the job. This was before the cutbacks and downsizing sent the base of operations to a boat. I had the elementals at the island palace take care of her until she was rested.

Her name wasn’t Salacia at the time, I gave it to her. I don’t know where she came from originally, but the name was just too hard to pronounce. So I came up with the new one. Her speech patterns were unlike anything else I ever heard either, but the Olympian board of directors approved a new language acquisition plan that year and soon I could understand what she said.

Turned out she was the last survivor of a sunken city called Atlantis. I’d heard about it a few times, just never had the opportunity to run out and check on it because it was on a landmass on the lower part of the Pacific. From what I could make out the way she described it, the entire island went under the sea during a renovation of the crust. I’d tried to tell the Olympian maintenance department for years that they needed to watch out for these isolated places before they adjusted the undersea lava flow. As usual, no one ever listened to me. So we lost an entire civilization because no one checked to see if anyone was there. A disgrace, but I managed to save her.

She brightened up the palace a lot and after a while I kept finding an excuse not to spend too much time out on the sea. I tried to put in for an extension on the palace staff, but Zeus wouldn’t listen to me. He claimed the elementals did the job just fine and no reason to involve a human in the oceanic department.

So he left me with no choice: I had to become a mortal if I intended to be with her. By the time I explained what I had in mind, she was ready to become my wife anyway. But I was sick of the job and wanted to move on. You try doing the same thing for ten thousand years and see what it does to you.

Now this all was very long and involved. I had to submit paperwork to the board of directors who needed to approve me turning into a mortal. It’s always been a very controversial among the Olympians. One of the problems is that it takes a lot of time to make an immortal and they don’t like the idea of getting rid of us once we’re in a position that can be of benefit to them. I was once told that finding another position with the Olympians was almost impossible because once they had you in the slot where you were needed; they tended to keep you there. From their standpoint, it made no sense to train someone for several millennia, just to have them quit when they put them into the slot.

But I no longer cared. It was too long and I’d spent too much time doing the same job, as I said. After a while, you get sick and tired of the palace and all the elementals that wait on you. You just want to move into a different direction and find some place to retire. They don’t like to talk about retirement because there is no lifespan for us. They talk about better opportunities once the market expands, but really, there is only one Earth and our skill sets just don’t transfer well to other planets. I had a young girl I loved and she loved me so it was time to move on.

After ten years of pleading, I was able to get the paperwork approved. I took a special trip all the way back to Mt. Olympus and Zeus was waiting for me in his office. He tried to get me to change my mind, but Salacia was already waiting for me down at the bottom of the mountain where the cable car elevator begins. I took a cable car up because I felt it was time to get used to them. Couldn’t see any reason to make the air elementals fly me up to the central headquarters.

He reluctantly signed off the paperwork and I rode the cable car back down. I know he was angry after personally recommending me for the position, but I had enough. Too many long nights trying to find a place to put the manatees when their feeding grounds were interrupted. Too many years spent finding a place in Scotland for that big lake monster to hide. That one wasn’t even supposed to be under my jurisdiction, but the board decided since it was originally an ocean dweller, I had to take responsibility.

Anyway, by the time I was down at the bottom of the hill, we had everything resolved and I was fully mortal. I pricked my finger when I left the cable car just to prove it. I bled for the first time in over ten thousand years and was thrilled. I even showed my wound to Salacia. We went that night and found a little chapel where we said our vows. I had the license already, just needed to fill in the names part.

I thought everything would be fine. I had enough money saved where I didn’t have to work if I didn’t want to and we could enjoy our years in some nice dry land where the weather was good all year around. No more typhoons or hurricanes, I was sick of tending those.

But I noticed after the first twenty years that I was getting older and she wasn’t. I had given up my immortality because I didn’t want to see her age and now she was the one who didn’t get old. It didn’t make any sense. After another thirty passed, I was convinced it wasn’t because of her good genes, she really wasn’t aging. I confronted her about it one day and showed her the pictures through the years.

That was when Salacia confessed that she was an elemental worker. I was shocked because I can normally pick them out in a crowd from the funny sensations they give off. It was how I knew you had to be one when I walked past the bench. I can only surmise it had to do with her Atlantian origins. She was tuned differently and I never figured it out. Worse, she was a water elemental worker and we lived inland, far from the ocean. I never had the opportunity to see her do any elemental manipulation. We went to the nearest body of water and I saw some of the most amazing things from her. Water elementals walking on land but still made from liquid. Figures out of water, which rose from the lake. I’m sure she never had to worry about the ‘grandmaster’ status once the other elemental workers met her. She easily qualified.

But I had to go. I couldn’t take the knowledge that she would age so slow it would barely register. I know not all of you do this and I think it had to be because of her Atlantis origins. Still, it was too much for me and I made up a reason why I needed to go to sea. So I bought the charter boat and have been running tours ever since. It’s not hard to do if you’re mortal when you’ve been managing the seas for countless millennia. I’m back here because I know she needs checking up on and I have to make sure she’ll be fine even though this mall is over the entrance to the abyss. I learned about the reason for it being here from the guy who got the management job after me.

I was out on the boat one afternoon and a sea lion appeared out of nowhere. Sea lions don’t come up to the Jersey shore; they are native to the Antarctic regions. So once I saw the sea lion in the water, I knew there was something I had to deal with right away. I returned to the pier with the people who chartered the boat and told them there was engine trouble. They seemed to believe me, or at least they did after I refunded their money and apologized.

Once they were gone, I took the boat out and made excuses that I had to fix something again, had to test a motor, anything to get back to where I noticed the sea lion. I waited long enough and the sea lion surfaced right near the boat. As I expected, he’d been sent to see to me by Herk, the kid who took the job after me. It seemed Herk was at a regional meeting and heard a rumor about someone placing a building over the abyss. They didn’t know too much about the person who built it, other than he was an elemental worker with a very bad reputation. The word was out he had found a way to lure the local elemental grandmasters into his building somehow because he wanted control of them. The sea lion told me Herk knew I needed to be informed because one of them was my ex-wife. He knew I would want to look in on her and see if she needed anything.

And so here I am. It looks like we both have reasons for being here which are very similar.

“All we need is Ms. Delphi and it can be resolved, "Dion told him. He looked at his wristwatch. “She was supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. I hope nothing has happened to her.”

“Probably not,” the captain replied. “She never was one for keeping her appointments. It amazes me she put together this little business empire with her bad sense of time.”

Dion turned to face the corridor and saw James returning with the elemental who’d left with him. He needed to think for a few seconds and remembered her name was Cynae. She was another blond who caused hearts to stop as she walked through the mall hand in hand with James. But James had a small bag in the other hand and was headed for the bench where Dion sat.

“How did she like the mall?” Dion asked James.

“Why don’t you ask her directly?” James said. Dion turned to Cynae and repeated the question.

“It’s nice,” she told him. “I don’t see why you make such a big deal out of shopping and looking for things. I see so many items sold here that are just different variations of the same thing. But if it makes James happy, I’ll come here with him every day.”

“But let me get to the point,” James said. He held up the bag and made sure Dion could see it. “I went over to your friend Hobbs’ store and told him we expected some trouble in the blue section of the mall, so he gave me this.”

“What is it this time?” Dion asked.

Hobbs was a small man who ran a special shop in the mall for people who looked for interesting art objects and needed things they couldn’t get anywhere else. He’d supplied Dion with the Seer stone, which made his map of the mall readable.

“See for yourself,” James said as he handed Dion the bag.

Dion opened the bag and pulled out a silver chalice. It was only three inches tall and didn’t appear to be very valuable. The silver on the surface was in a bad need to be polished and the tarnish on it was thick. He turned it over and tried to figure out where it was made. By the appearance, he assumed it to be from the nineteenth century in England. There was no silversmith or other manufacturer’s stamp on it.

“It doesn’t look like much,” Dion told his friend. “What’s it supposed to do?”

“It controls nymph elementals.”

“Naiads!” both Dirce and Cynae corrected him at the same time.

“Naiads, then. According to Hobbs, it can neutralize any malignant water elemental for a short time. You sit the cup down in front of them and they pour into it in liquid form. It won’t bind them for more than one hour, but it allows you to buy some time. You have a bad water elemental attack you and the cup can contain them inside it.”

James handed Dion a piece of paper. “Memorize the words on this. It activates the cup. You can’t use it without the words of power.”

Dion looked at the words for a few minutes, then folded the paper up and put it into his pocket. “Sumerian,” was all he could say. “Guess that explains the origin of the chalice.”

Dion swiftly introduced them to the captain. “I guess we’re all waiting for this Salacia lady,” James said. “Is there anything we can do in the meantime?”

“Not really,” Dion told him. “You might as well show Cynae the rest of the mall while we wait. Try to bring her up to speed on the world we live in. She’ll need to know. If you see any of the other chess club members and the, uhm, Naiads with them, advise everyone we’re still waiting on the pool owner and can’t go anywhere until she makes an appearance.”

James and Cynae walked back into the main mall, as they attracted attention from the other shoppers. Dion could only speculate about the kind of attention the other guys and their girlfriends were attracting. He was certain they would change the entire social scene at the high school once they returned from spring vacation.

“So far no sign of Karanzen or any of his thugs,” Dion said to the group. “I’m hoping this will be the one day we don’t have to put up with him.”

“Someone I should know about?” Captain Gabriel asked him. The captain remained standing. He knew Salacia would be here soon enough and wanted to be the first one to see her. Inside his heart, he missed her deeply and wished there was some way he could reconcile with her. But he would be an old man soon and she didn’t look much older than thirty, although she was well over two hundred years old. He wished at times that he’d never decided to renounce his immortality. Why hadn’t she told him she was an elemental worker when they first met?

“Officer Karanzen,” Dion told him. “He’s in charge of mall security. He has tried every day to keep me from reaching an elemental grandmaster. He’s not quite human anymore and thinks he can scare us with his little tricks. But he has security guards who work for him and you never know when they will get in the way. He tried to keep us from entering the mall this morning, but we entered with the water elementals when they mobbed the door. I haven’t seen him around since then, but it’s only a matter of time.”

“I’ll keep a watch for him,” the captain replied. “He won’t be able to do anything to me, even if I’m mortal. One of the advantages of being from the mountain is that we’re immune from any elemental action.”

James was busy talking his favorite subject over with Cynae: chess. She was listening intently to every world he said. Her light blond hair was over one shoulder as she leaned forward in her tracksuit to listen to him. James took a good half hour to describe his winning move at the last tournament where he played to her and she sat there transfixed on every word he said. This was a new experience to him.

Most of the time, the girls in school would look at their watch and find an excuse to leave if he tried to tell one of them about a game. It wasn’t as exciting as football or any other of the team sports the school pushed so hard. In fact, next year the chess club would be known as the chess ‘team’ and anyone who was a member would be able to get a letter for their jacket. They were even thinking of a name for the new team. The favored name was the ‘Kings’. It seemed to fit.

They sat in a small ice cream parlor, which was one of several in the mall. This one was part of a nation franchise. James remembered when it was a small place near his parents’ house where they would go on hot evenings in the summer. The line would grow long as the small town had few other places to go in the warmer months. Before the mall opened, if you wanted some adventure, you went downtown to Scipio.

“So you had him in a gambit and he didn’t even know?” Cynae asked him. “I would have taken out his rook a lot quicker than what you did, but you won the game, so it doesn’t matter.”

“How could you have taken out his rook?” he asked her. “He had it defended by the queen.”

“Oh, it’s not too hard if you plan ahead.” Cynae took the salt, peppershakers from the next table, and began to assemble a layout where she showed him how, with spoons and forks added, how easy it would have been to do it earlier. Every time he voiced an objection, she showed him a way it could be done even if his opponent had made some uncommon moves. By the end of an hour, he sat there stunned at her strategy and planning.

“You’ve played this game a lot,” he said to her.

“We all have,” she said. “Next to ‘go’, it’s popular with us.”

“You play go?” James asked. His ice cream had melted while he listened to Cynae and her descriptions of chess moves. Go was a game he knew a little bit about, just never had much of a chance to play.”

“Yes, we play it all the time on the rocks. You only need different colored stones to have a game and those are easy enough to find. I wish we had a board and I could play now.”

“I’m sure there would be a way we could sketch one out,” he told her.

Just that instant, James noticed three women enter the ice cream parlor. There was something strange about them, but he tried not to pay much attention to the trio. Each wore some kind of uniform and appeared to be searching for something. Ten seconds later their eyes and Cynae’s locked together as they made contact. Nothing was said, but James saw the anger build in Cynae’s face as she watched the trio walk over to them.

Chapter 11

“What do we have here?” the first said to the one next to her. “I think their profile matches the shoplifters we’ve been after the past two months.”

“Yes it does,” the second answered. “Guess you two kids will need to come with us.”

James noticed the name of the security company on their uniforms, which the mall employed to guard the place. It was the same one Karanzen and his men officially worked for in the mall. Dion lacked the opportunity to tell James about the security chief and why he wanted him out of the mall. They all appeared to be in their thirties and wore silver badges over their uniforms. Each had their black hair tied back. They wore dresses with their uniforms and high heels. The heels were a giveaway something was wrong with them, but James had no way to know about it.

“You have a lot of guts coming in here and acting this way,” Cynae said to the women in front of her. “If we were back on my rock the twelve of us would take care of you quick.”

“But you’re not on the rock or in your cave,” the second of the uniformed women said to her. “You’re some place where your powers have less effect. Furthermore, you sisters are wondering around with humans they’ve glamoured. Just like you put one on this young man. Since it works both ways, you have attraction to him as well. So why don’t you just shut up and come with us?”

“Do you know these women?” James said to Cynae. He had no idea what she talked about, but ever since meeting her this afternoon, his world was disrupted.

“I know who they are,” she said. Cynae turned back to the women. “All I have to do is release him and I can concentrate fully on you three.”

“You might be able to do that,” the first woman said. “But then what happens to your young man? He can’t stand up to us and we still outnumber you three to one.”

“You wouldn’t dream of hurting him in this place.”

“Would we? We work for the man who built it. I think he’s willing to do a lot so that we can carry our mission. So if you really want to free this young man, go ahead and see what happens. But you might want to consider the possibility what we will do.

While James stood there confused, Cynae resigned herself to leaving with them. There wasn’t much else she could do at this point. They had her exactly where she was the most vulnerable.

“Let’s go,” she said to James. They left the ice cream parlor with the three new water elementals disguised as security guards.

Floating around the top of the ice cream parlor was a small air elemental sylph. She had accidently blown into the blue water part of the mall earlier that day when a door opened on the outside and a rush of people sent her in with them. She wanted to get out and back into the fresh air where she could spend the day playing in the air currents. She’d been unnoticed by the water elementals down on the ground. Just as she thought it was time to leave and not attract attention, since she wasn’t supposed to be in this part of the mall, the sylph spotted the confrontation between James, Cynae, and the three uniformed elementals. She recognized him as part of the elemental worker’s group who was over in the hall.

It occurred to her she might be able to trade some favors for this bit of information. As soon as the door opened again to the parlor, she shot out into the main concourse of the mall in search of Dion. No one noticed her leave, other than another chess club guy and his elemental girlfriends. The elemental looked up and wondered why an air sylph was in the water part of the mall and why was it in such a hurry to get out. But she said nothing as her boyfriend was babbling about comic books and she was eager to learn more from him.

“Have you seen any of the chess club guys?” Dion spoke a few minutes later. “I know they’re wandering around the mall with their new girlfriends, but I thought some of them would have returned by now.”

“Not a one,” Dennis spoke. He was still in heaven with his elemental girl as they cuddled on the bench. Dion began to feel like a chaperone at a dance when he noticed Sean and Emily in their own state of nirvana. He felt something from behind and turned to see Lilly starring at him with her big brown eyes. What was it that these elemental possessed which caused such bliss to break out among people? Even the shoppers walking down the corridor started to make contact as they passed them. Husbands and wives who’s entered the mall angry at each other where touching for the first time in years.

“She should be around here soon,” the captain said as he consulted his watch. He wore a big mariner’s watch on his wrist. It was built sturdily to be used on ocean vessels. The watch was sealed in a special case so it could survive a sudden plunge underwater.

The captain paced back and forth. He seemed out of place in this mall. People in Ohio only thought about the sea when on vacation. It was too far away for even a weekend trip. With the Pacific Ocean far away across the Rocky Mountains on one end and the Atlantic separated by another mountain range, there wasn’t much of a casual opportunity to visit them. Even the gulf region was so far away it didn’t make a difference. When people spoke about the beach, it usually meant the one at a lake.

Sean had allowed himself to be a bystander most of the time today. He didn’t mind as it gave him some time with Emily. He wished they could talk alone, but the whole reason they came to the mall today was to support Dion. To leave would be dangerous, as he wouldn’t have the coverage he needed to protect himself against his uncle. Emily had enjoyed her day too, especially after seeing the couples emerge hand-in-hand from the pool store. Perhaps something good could happen at this mall. No idiotic security guards to bother them, which was a blessing after the initial confrontation they’d encountered this morning. Somehow, she didn’t think it would last all day and she enjoyed the brief reprieve.

Dion felt an air current and saw an air elemental sylph shoot into the corridor above him. It was one of the smaller ones, but he still could communicate with it. No one else, even the sea captain, could recognize the elemental. Even Dirce looked up and saw it only with great difficulty. She decided it wasn’t anything to be concerned about and returned her attention to Dennis.

The small air sylph didn’t talk as much as send impressions to Dion. All it could tell him was that three suspicious women had taken James and Cynae out with them. Dion asked it where they’d gone and it couldn’t remember. Then it had a second thought and sent him an impression of the group entering the aquarium store toward the entrance of the mall. Dion could visualize the name of the store, Amphitrite Tropical Fish, from it as he’d walked past the place earlier in the day. The sylph wanted to know if it could get something in return for the information and Dion told it of a cloud bank which was due to roll in this evening. As an Air Elemental Master, he had some advance knowledge of the weather patterns from the sylphs who rode the storms. Dion noticed a side exit door, walked over to it, and let the small elemental fly outside.

“We’ve got another problem,” Dion told his crew when he returned. “There is someone else in the mall working against us. I just had a small air elemental tell me three women pulled James and Cynae out of an ice cream parlor and took them over to the aquarium.”

“Any clue who it might be?” the captain asked.

“If they’re in this part of the mall, I would guess some kind of water elemental. It sounds like my uncle had a back-up plan and just initiated it.”

Dion closed his eyes and tried to get a visual on the three women the sylph had shown him by way of an impression before it left. What he could see wasn’t quite as clear as a photograph and it was filtered through the sylph’s sensations. They had uniforms on and left without much resistance from the couple. He felt something very strange about them and then the faces were clear.

“They’re the same three women who took care of me when I was little,” he said. “The same ones who tried to do me harm until the truck driver intervened. Now they’re back.”

When he saw the confused look on the captain’s face, he explained what happened with the elemental nannies that’d raised him until he was just about ready for school.

“Did you parents ever give you a reason for why they acted that way?” the captain asked him.

“Never,” Dion said. “They didn’t want to talk about it.”

“I walked past that aquarium store when I came into the mall,” the captain continued. “It seemed a little funny, but I didn’t stop long to check it out.”

“We can assume it’s where the rest of the chess club and other Naiads are right now,” Dion said. “I don’t want to storm the place, but we need to find out why they were taken there. Fortunately, I have the map.” He unrolled it on the bench and looked at the papyrus while the captain strained his head to get a look. “It’s a special map, it shows places you won’t find on the regular ones.”

Dion looked the map over and tried to make it out. The words became fuzzy, but he was able to find most of the landmarks near the mall entrance. However, no aquarium was listed on it. There were the usual mall stores and places not open to the general public, but he could not find a trace of the aquarium supply store he’s seen earlier in the day. It had to be there as the captain had noted it too.

As he looked at the map, the letters began to fade and slowly lose their coherence. The light faded from his background and he realized that he was being taken from the mall and sent somewhere else. He could’ve resisted the transfer, but at this time he needed all the information he could find and the person who was sending him elsewhere just might have a valuable piece he needed. He waited for the transfer to complete and closed his eyes until he felt the warm sun of a desert on his face.

Dion opened his eyes and found himself in the familiar Egyptian landscape. This time it was Mr. Jehuti alone who greeted him. Dion didn’t wear the robes of the old kingdom as he’d done before, but stood in the same jeans and jacket he’d worn before the transfer. This had to be very important for it to happen so fast without any time to adjust his appearance. He was alone this time, which meant he was transferred in the fastest way possible.

“Good afternoon, Dion,” Mr. Jehuti said. He was alone and wore the same suit and tie as the one he kept on at his newsstand. “I needed to speak to you right away and didn’t have time to make many adjustments. I hope you don’t mind. When you return, it will be at the same time you left, give or take a second. So you don’t have to worry about tarrying very long.”

“Why is the map unreadable?” he asked the newsstand owner. “And why can’t I see the aquarium store where my friends have been taken?”

“Your uncle has found a way to interfere again. He has many resources at his fingers because he built the mall over the abyss.”

“Who took my friends?”

“You uncle had another group of water elementals on stand-by in case he had some problems with his first plan. The second groups of elementals have used the same strategy with your friends who are wandering around the mall with the water elemental Naiads.”

“Why doesn’t the aquarium supply store appear on my map?” Dion demanded.

“Because it didn’t exist until yesterday. Your uncle was able to recruit these three water elementals at the last minute. He placed the store there just in case he needed them, but it didn’t go into operation until yesterday. There is a human owner of it, but she knows nothing of his plans. He’s managed to recruit all kinds of bad elementals from the water domain to stock it, so it’s not your ordinary fish supply store. I’m telling you this because you have to get in there and rescue your friends before it’s too late. He’s found a way to bind the Naiad sisters into the place so you can’t get them out as easily as you did the last time. Your uncle has become desperate and is turning to desperate measures to stop you from obtaining all your powers.”

Dion turned and looked up at the sky. The bug was still moving the sun across the heavens and the ship was still sailing behind it. Funny how nothing changed in this location. It was outside the circles of time and he didn’t have a clue where it was located. In the distance, he could see another pyramid under construction. The farmers were singing some work song as they hauled another block of stone on a sled across the sands. Hard to imagine they needed the sled and oxen to do it when it was possible to transfer him from his own time circle. What would they sing when the pyramid was finished? Would the farmers and engineers start on a bigger and more impressive pyramid than the last one?

“If you can send me here right in the middle of all the trouble we have in my time circle,” he asked, “why can’t you deal with my uncle for me and free my parents?”

“Because you have to do it. It’s in the rules. You have to find the four elemental grandmasters on your own and you need to overcome whatever adversity is in your path. I’m allowed to help, but not directly intervene. If we did that all the time, what good would this quest be?”

“What else is he planning to do when I rescue the chess club guys who are in the aquarium? I don’t think he uses the same stagey each time. My uncle didn’t get control of his father’s company by using the same plans for each market.”

“He’ll try to ambush you with Karanzen and the security guards when you leave. You can rest assured of that. Karanzen is desperate too, but I don’t think he is so stupid as to use firearms inside the mall. The first time a gun is discharged in the mall, no one will ever come back. One of the attractions of an indoor mall is that it provides a safe place for people to ship in a controlled environment. Lose that advantage and the mall no longer becomes a good shopping option.”

“I don’t know where else they would go. What are they going to do? Order everything out of a catalogue?”

“You would be surprised at the lengths people will go to make shopping easy for themselves.”

Dion looked down and kicked at the ground. “This is getting absurd,” he said to Mr. Jehuti. “Every time I go after my elemental power, one of my friends is kidnapped and I have to rescue them. Now he’s grabbed an entire club with the girls I found for them. What does he plan to do next? Abduct the entire football team?”

“I would put very little past your uncle. He thinks he’s in control, but the abyss has affected his mind.”

Dion was reaching the limits of his endurance. All his life he’d been told by his parents about the important quest he needed to undertake someday. When they were abducted and he went to live with his aunt and uncle, they told him he still needed to finish the quest. Dion knew it was the only way to free his parents. He needed that fifth elemental power to get them out and he had to obtain it the right way, not by the false path his uncle chose.

“Those are the three elementals that raised me,” he said to Mr. Jehuti. “Aren’t they? They’re the ones, who tried to harm me before the delivery truck showed up, aren’t they?”

“You are correct on that statement. Your uncle found the elementals that were corrupted and turned them against you. He knew if once they could turn them against you, it could be done again.”

“Who was the older woman I saw them talking to before they turned on me? No one has ever said who she was or why a delivery truck just happened to be around when they came after me. There was hardly anyone on the beach that day.”

“All in due time. You will learn the answers when you need to find them out. Right now, you need to return to your own time circle and resume the rescue of your friends. I’m going to send you back right now. You will appear at the same time you left. At least so close no one will notice you’ve gone.”

Mr. Jehuti raised his hand and the scene before Dion faded. Everything went black during the transfer as it always did.

Dion blinked and opened his eyes. He was back at the corridor outside the pool store. His friends were still there watching him, ready to move out and head in the direction of the aquarium.

“Dion?” the captain said to him. “You were just talking about the fish supply store where your friends were taken. What else do you know about it?”

“It’s not on the map,” Dion said as he held up the papyrus roll and showed it to them. “The aquarium supply store was put in place yesterday as part of my uncle’s fall back plan in case the Naiads didn’t keep me from the pool store.”

Dion studied the map and watched the location of the store slowly fill in on it. Whatever his uncle had done to keep it off the map, a trip to the Valley of the Kings took care of it. Mr. Jehuti had reset the map and he could continue on with the mission. The map showed the outline of the store, but it didn’t reveal exactly what was inside it. Dion made out several large rooms in the back large enough to hold a group of people. He shoved the map in his jacket and picked the cup off the bench. Time to move out.

“Do you have a plan as to what we’re supposed to do when we reach the aquarium store?” Captain Gabriel asked Dion as they group walked down the concourse. The foot traffic had increased over the hours they’d been in the store.

“I will when we get there.”

It irritated Dion that so many of the parents with small children were not paying attention to them. Several times that day he’s seen kids walking into stores and pull items off the shelf while the adults ignored them and continued talking to the people they knew. At one point, he was forced to inform a woman her toddler had wandered out of the store while she was busy in conversation with a friend. The woman had looked in anger at him while she ran out and retrieved the child. If these were the parents, he dreaded what the future would bring.

Still no sign of the security guards. Perhaps Karanzen resigned himself to his inability to keep Dion and company out of the mall, but he doubted it. Outside a jewelry store, an armed security guard stood on watch, but he worked for the store, not the mall. Dion was certain there were plenty of undercover store detectives who were employed to keep loss to a minimum, but he didn’t have to worry about them. Every so often, he would catch a glance of a uniform in the distance, but the guards didn’t approach them.

“We could be walking into a trap,” the captain said to him. “It wouldn’t be the first time someone was kidnapped so that someone else was lured into a rescue.”

“It’s been tried twice this week. My uncle has something else up his sleeve and he’ll try it by a different method.”

The captain sighed and continued to walk with them. He was concerned Salacia hadn’t appeared when she was supposed to be there. Granted, she was never so punctual, but now he was worried. It was a good thing he’d traveled out here to check up on her. The letters were few over the past few years. She seemed excited about the new store, which was opening at the mall, but the general tone of her letter made him check in with some of the immortals he still talked with. When he learned of the mall’s location over the abyss, the captain decided it was time to go out and check on her himself.

They stood outside the aquarium supply store and looked at it. The front façade was decorated with fish and creatures of the deep. Dion thought it a little odd the pictures they’d chosen were of sea predators: sharks, eels and stingrays. If he needed a sign that the store represented the abyss, the picture on the window of the Marianas Trench was it. The lighting was not the bright spotlights used for most stores, but a series of ultraviolet lights, which reacted to the fluorescent colors on the doors to give a spectral appearance. It was impossible to see inside it, which Dion knew had to be intentional. He watched the lights turn on and off slowly, bringing the ghosts of the deep into play with each cycle.

“You wanted to know my plan,” Dion said to his friends. “Well, here it is. I’m going in there. Alone. Give me an hour, if I don’t come out call the police. I don’t think they’ll be able to do much good, but it’s the only idea I have at the moment.”

“I don’t want you to go in there alone,” Lilly said as she grabbed hold of his hand.

“I know, but I have no idea what is on the other side of those doors. My uncle has done everything he could do to stop me from obtaining my elemental powers and he his prime plan failed spectacular today. I don’t know what he’s planned for the backup, but he had his elemental harpies haul the chess club inside there somehow. I have to get them back and only I can do it.”

“What happens if Karanzen makes an appearance with his bully boys?” Sean asked him.

“Just try to hold him off until I get out of there or an hour has passed. I’m sure you can think of something. Threaten to call your parents’ lawyer or something. The important thing is to get of them out of there and then locate Salacia Delphi. Captain Gabriel, if you see her out here, can you hold your ex-wife long enough for me to get back?”

“I don’t think it should be too much trouble.”

“Good.” Dion turned to the rest of the group. “I’m depending on every one of you. Stay put until I get back.”

He checked his wristwatch and pushed the doors open.

Chapter 12

The inside of the aquarium store was dim. The vestibule was lit by glowing fish drawings in fluorescent colors illuminated by the ultraviolet lights on the ceiling. He heard the doors close behind him and looked inside, but didn’t see anyone. The counter seemed vacant.

Behind the counter stood endless rows of tropical fish tanks. In front of them were the supplies, which could be found in any store of a similar size. Dion stepped in and listened. All he could hear was the continuous sound of air pumps running. Every now and then, something bubbled in one of the tanks. He walked over to the nearest tank and looked inside.

It was a scorpion fish, one of the deadliest and most beautiful fish on the planet. The fish was a symphony of color and textures, but it also carried a poison most people with the wrong allergy would find fatal. In the tank next to it, he noticed a lionfish, followed by a big tank with a puffer fish in it. The entire row of tanks contained venomous fish.

Dion saw a shadow move in the distance and checked his coat to make certain he’d brought along the cup from Hobbs. It wasn’t very large and Hobbs had never lied to him yet. If he said the cup would bind a water elemental, he was right. It was simply a matter of getting to the elementals his uncle had used to capture his friends.

He walked a little further back and saw a huge round tank in the middle of the store. The tank was gigantic, almost the size of a swimming pool. A diver could easily fit into it. Coral and other salt-water creatures swam inside it, but there had to be another reason it was in the store. Dion looked inside the tank, which was lit from the bottom, and saw a full-grown shark swimming around. It was impressive, but not what you expected to see inside an aquarium supply store.

Another shadow was just out of his vision and Dion realized this one was further up front, closer to the door. They were entrapping him by allowing him to walk further back into the store. Whoever they were, they were working in cahoots to lure him to the back of the store. Dion closed his eyes and tried to see if he could feel any elementals in the store. He couldn’t, which meant there was some kind of background activity to limit his abilities. His uncle had rented this store to be a trap and he was inside it.

He saw a face on the other side of a large tank and it was gone. Dion recognized it; the face was one of the three elementals who’d raised him until they tried to attack him. He couldn’t remember much about the three women who turned out to be water elemental nymphs, but he did know they were very powerful for an elemental of their class. He walked around to the other side of the tank, but no one was there.

There was another shadow further down the aisle between the tanks and he followed it. Behind him, Dion heard a very feminine laugh. They wanted him to know the aquarium store with its black light was their domain. He still hadn’t seen a single person inside it. Where did they hide the captured chess club and girlfriends?

The first one met him at the end of the aisle where the wall stood. According to the map, there should be another room beyond it. Plenty of space for a twenty or more people to be held and not create too much of a problem. The nymph stood there in her uniform with a sinister smile on her face. Dion couldn’t imagine what kind of twisted ability was employed to take carefree water elemental and turn it into this creature.

“Where are my friends?” Dion asked her. “You’re holding them in this store, aren’t you?”

She laughed and darted to the next row of tanks, daring him to follow her. Dion walked over to it and found the row empty. It didn’t surprise him. The elementals were in their own environment. And one of these tanks could house them and allow for their escape. They could be used to imprison them too, but first you had to find out which tank they were inside.

He saw a figure on the other side of the aisle waiting for him. The nymphs didn’t even try to hide right now. They wanted to be found. Dion crossed over again and followed the lone figure down the aisle in the direction of the shark tank. I only made sense they would lead him there.

All three of the nymphs were waiting for him at the junction of the aisles were the shark tank was situated. The stood close together and smiled. They’d manage to shed their uniforms and were covered in their long black hair. All three were dripping with water and covered in seaweed as well.

“So what did he offer you? Dion said to them. “What did he pay you to capture those innocent people and hold them here? You took the Naiads who were with them too, didn’t you? There are only three of you. Three against one human and one Naiad you can manage. But what happens when all of them are freed? How will you contain their rage when that happens?”

“You think you are so powerful and high,” the first told him. She stood in the center and glared in Dion’s direction. “All those years your parents forced us to work for them. Don’t you think we hated every minute of it? Do you think your parents might’ve considered us and how we felt turned into slaves? At least your uncle is paying us. What did we ever get from your parents?”

“Why did you turn on me?” he demanded. “Who was the woman you were talking to before you came at me? I remember her; she was older than you were. A lot older than any of you, almost an elderly woman.”

“She doesn’t always appear that way,” another one of the nymphs said to him. “Sometimes she appears as young as we are. Sometimes much older than what you thought.”

“She’s an immortal,” another one said.

Dion realized they were moving out to each side to make it difficult for him to focus on any particular one of them. The air sylphs have tried the same technique the day before. This time they surrounded him in a matter of second and began to walk in a circular pattern around him.

“The truck driver was an immortal too,” another one of the nymphs giggled. “Didn’t your parents ever tell you that? You think the only reason you have such ability is the reason your parents told you?”

The nymphs began to move rapidly around him. Dion realized what they were trying to do: confuse him. If they could trap him in the aquarium store, he couldn’t get to the next stage of his quest. They needed to control him and keep him here for his uncle. They couldn’t do it for long, but if his uncle needed him out of the picture, they didn’t need to imprison him here very long. Quite possibly this was the same way the water elementals had imprisoned is friends.

Dion felt dizzy. Just as if the last time he had to wait and make the elementals think he was trapped and had no way to respond. They didn’t know about the cup he had inside his jacket. If they started whatever practice they’d used to imprison his friends on him, it would cause them to momentarily expose a weakness. A weakness he could exploit.

He felt the moisture in the air. Whatever the nymphs planned, it was about to happen. In his mind, Dion began a countdown again. He needed to make them think they were in full control at this point. And why not? They’d used this technique against the members of the chess club and their girlfriends. If he was just another mortal, shouldn’t it work too?

Dion felt a power surge as they stopped their movement. This was supposed to disorient him enough so they could entrap him, but they hadn’t counted on what he had inside his jacket. He pulled the cup out of his jacket and raised it up into the air the moment the energy was at its peak.

Dion spoke the words he’d memorized.

There was a flash and the nymphs were gone. The cup was hot, so hot it threatened to burn his fingers. The energy the nymphs summoned to entrap him was dissipated into the cup. He needed to get into some place cool before it turned red hot. Dion looked at the shark tank in front of him and hurled the cup into the middle of it.

The metal cup hit the water as steam rose up from it. He didn’t think it would hurt the shark, but he had no options at the moment. He watched the cup sink to the bottom, water boiling around it as it went down. The shark momentarily ceased to swim around the tank and made a detour to the sinking cup. It felt the heat, which radiated from it, and made a U-turn back to the walls of the round tank where it resumed its circular swimming pattern. The cup sat on the bottom of the tank as the heat rose to the surface. Dion walked up to the thermometer on the side of the tank and looked at it. It might rise a few degrees, but the shark would be fine.

The elementals, on the other hand, were in a worse state. The cup was designed to trap elementals inside it, but the nymphs had magnified its ability by their generation of a power cone. The focus of the cone ended up being the cup, instead of Dion. When the apex of the cone touched the cup, it pulled them into it. Now there were permanently trapped inside the cup, which was a hunk of fused metal after the heat flash.

Dion heard a rumble behind him and turned to the wall at his rear. It was dematerializing as he stood there. Whatever force the nymphs used to keep it in place was gone since they were trapped inside the remains of the cup. The wall became translucent, then transparent and finally it was gone. What remained in its place was the room on the other side, which was filled with supplies for the store.

And the members of the chess club with their Naiad girlfriends.

The young men were hazy and acted as if they’d just waken from a deep sleep. The rubbed their eyes and looked around, unsure where they were. The Naiads, on the other hand, knew exactly what had taken place. They were angry. Dion found himself facing a group of confused guys and a furious collection of young women in swim team tracksuits. He could see the fire in their eyes.

“Where are they?” the Naiad called Cynae demanded. “We want them.”

“There was only three,” one of her sisters roared. “We’ll have to divide them up. I’ve got a beach infested with lamprey’s I want to introduce them to.”

“They’re sealed in the cup I used,” Dion said. “The cup overheated when they tried to trap me too. It’s at the bottom of the shark tank.” He pointed to the mass of metal at the bottom, some heat still waffling up to the surface.

The Naiads formed a group around the tank and looked in.

“They can’t get out from it,” Cynae pointed out. “Unless some idiot allows them to leave. I don’t think too many people will attempt to enter the this tank.”

“It has to be cleaned sometime,” another one of the Naiads said. “What if someone finds the cup and doesn’t know what it holds?”

“I don’t think we can risk letting them out,” Cynae agreed. “At least not this century. Who wants to go in there and get it?”

Four of the elementals leaped into the shark tank and dissolved into their water from the moment they hit the surface. The water churned as they went to the bottom of the tank and returned to the surface. The only thing Dion could see was the melted mass of the cup rise to the surface. Once it was on the top of the water, the Naiads returned to their human form and climbed out of the tank, water dripping everywhere. The shark had moved away from them when they hit the water, as it instinctively knew to avoid the water elementals.

“So how do we decide who gets to take care of them?” Cynae asked the four Naiads who’d sank to the bottom of the tank to get the melted cup.

“I’ll hold it for now,” the one who grabbed it from the tank said. “Someone else can get the honor to dispose of it when this is all over. I’d like to dump it in the Sahara Desert, but we’ll put it to a vote.” She unzipped a pocket on her tracksuit, slid the mashed cup inside it, and zipped the pocket back up.

The chess club had stood in amazement while the elementals transformed as they hit the water. It was hard to say anything to a girl you’d fallen in love with who was forced to see you hauled off by what they assumed were security guards. They stood there, mouths open and quiet. The elementals were still gathered around the tank, their anger only a few degrees lower.

“So can anyone tell me what happened before I arrived?” Dion asked them.

“I was in an ice cream parlor with James when the three of them came and ordered us to come along,” Cynae said. There were three of them and I didn’t know what they might do to James, so I came along. The next thing I know we were here. I don’t remember a thing until you broke the barrier they used to keep us here.”

“Is that pretty much what happened to the rest of you?” Dion asked the other Naiads.

They nodded.

“They were the fall back plan in case you changed your mind,” Dion explained. “I would expect we won’t have it easy once we leave this place. My uncle is determined to keep me from meeting up with Salacia Delphi.”

“Did I hear someone call my name?” a voice from behind the cluster of chess club guys called out. The bodies parted and women who appeared to be Greek and in her thirties stepped through the crowd.

Chapter 13

“You are Salacia Delphi?” Dion asked the woman.

“I don’t know any other ones,” she responded. She wasn’t very tall and her hair was short and curly. She wore a dress with a suit jacket over it.

“How did you end up here?” he asked her. “I’ve been waiting all day for you outside your store on the other end of this part of the mall.”

“Sorry, I was late. Traffic on the interstate and I had to pick up some parts from the shipper. I got here an hour ago and was on my way back to the store when three women in security guard uniforms pulled me aside and wanted to talk. Next thing I know I’m here. Is that what happened to everyone?”

“Yes. You were captured by some rogue elementals working for the guy who built the mall. I’m an elemental worker like you, but I can work all four elements. I already have full powers on the first two; I need your initiation to work the third.”

“All four? Haven’t run into anyone who could do that in a long time. You should try for the fifth if you can get all four. There haven’t been many people who could work the fifth in history.”

“My uncle is one of them, but he did it the wrong way by not getting his authorization to work the first four.”

“Not good,” she said to them. “I’ve heard bad things about people who went in that way to get the fifth. It never ends well.”

“I’ve heard that too,” Dion agreed. “I guess my uncle is proof enough of it.”

“Well, now that we’re one big happy family here,” she said, “perhaps you can introduce me to all these fine young people.”

Dion quickly introduced her to the chess club and the elementals in the form of young women with them. He could see her eyes widen as he told her the story of what happened before she arrived. He neglected to tell her about her former husband, Captain Gabriel, who stood outside and wanted to see her too.

“I can’t believe what you did,” she said to him. “But you made the best decision anyone could’ve done in this situation. I’ll have no trouble granting you full water elemental powers, but we need to get back to my store so I can do it in the office.”

“Door is in that direction,” Dion told her. The combined group filed out through it.

As Dion, the last to leave, exited the store, a lady walked up to him and stared in confusion at the crowd who left it. “What is going on here?” she demanded. “I couldn’t get the door open and the maintenance crew is supposed to be on their way to fix it for me.”

The woman appeared to be light in complexion and small in size. “Do you work here?” Dion asked her.

“I own this place,” she snapped at him. “We just opened yesterday.”

“Don’t worry, we didn’t take any fish. Nice selection. Who came up with the design?”

“I did!” she snapped at him.

“The shark in the tank was a good idea,” Dion said to her as he walked away.

“What shark?” she demanded to know. Dion simply continued to walk with his group. His uncle, or the elementals, had made some changes.

The next group they encountered was his friends who’d stood outside and waited. Lilly ran up to Dion and tossed her arms around him, relieved that he’d managed to get everyone out of the aquarium store safely. The rest of them appeared to be calmed that his plans worked out.

“Everything alright out here?” he asked Sean and the rest of the group.

“No real problems,” the captain told him. “We had some kind of security guard come by and look us over, but he left after a few minutes. I guess we weren’t the criminals he needed to find.”

“Probably went back to the usual suspects,” Dion said. He was about to tell the captain his ex-wife was inside the aquarium store with the others when she stepped out from the crowd again.

Captain Gabriel had an instant look of relief on his face and walked up to Salacia. She stopped and looked at him with equal surprise. It was a special moment for both of them and they hugged.

“What are you doing here?” they said at the same time.

“I heard about your new store in this mall,” Captain Gabriel said to Salacia. “I had a bad feeling about it so I put out the word to some people I know to look into it. They did and told me it was built over the entrance to the abyss. I knew I had to get back here and make sure you were safe when I didn’t get a quick answer to the last letter I wrote.”

“As you can see, I’m safe and sound. No reason to worry about me. Those nymphs who captured me and the rest are locked away some place where they won’t get out very soon if at all.” She turned in Dion’s direction. “Why didn’t you tell me he was here?”

“I didn’t want to ruin the surprise for you.”

“It was nice of you. Especially after being trapped in that place. Come on, we need to get back to my office so I can give Dion his full water elemental powers.”

The group continued on their way toward the pool store. This time there were no further interruptions. Most people didn’t think it was odd an entire squadron of chess players and a swim team walked together to as they wound their way through the mall.

Outside the pool store, the crowd halted and Salacia turned to face the group with Dion at her side. “You have to stay out here,” she informed them. “What I need to do with Dion has to be carried out alone between him and myself. I’m going into the office and when we return, Dion will be a Water Element Master.

Dion and Salacia Delphi went through the door to the pool store and the rest waited outside.

A few minutes later the door to the pool store opened and one of the regular sales clerks stuck out his head. “Are you all here to see Ms. Delphi?” he asked them. “I think she’s going to be busy for a while. She just went into the office with someone. I couldn’t tell who it was, but she closed the door which usually means it’s intense and will take a while.”

“We’re waiting for her,” Lilly let him know, “but she told us to stay here. There is something she needs to do with a friend of ours.”

“Okay,” he looked and saw the Naiad sisters standing around in their tracksuits. “Say, if any of you want to come back and use the demo pools, it’s fine. I’ve had men come by all day and ask about you.”

“Thank you,” Cynae spoke for them, “but we’ll stay here for the time being.”

“So what happens inside there when he gets his full powers?” Emily asked Lilly. “You’ve been with Dion every day this week. Does he have to pass a test, get fingerprinted, swear an oath, what?”

“I have no idea. He’s never allowed me to go in there with him. I guess it’s too special for anyone else to see.” It was clear from the way she spoke that Lilly found it to be an irritation she wasn’t allowed inside.

“I still can’t imagine what we’re going to do with them all,” Emily mentioned to Lilly a little later as they watched the Naiads interact with the chess club. “Didn’t they say they need a large isolated body of water to thrive? Where are we going to find something around here that meets that requirement?”

“Dion seems to think there’s a way to make it work,” Lilly replied. “I’m not going to worry about it just yet. The boys in the chess club seem happy enough, glamor or not. And the elementals seem to like to be around them. They even know how to play chess. I heard one of them explain the rules of a game called ‘go’ to her guy. It should work out.”

“I hope so.”

An hour later, as the shadows in the parking lot grew long, Salacia Delphi and Dion emerged from the pool store. Dion had a big smile on his face, as did she.

“Congratulate the new Water Element Master!” she announced to the crowd. There was a loud applause from the group, which caused the shoppers to turn in their direction.

“So, you can now make the water elementals do what you want?” Dennis asked Dion as he walked back to his friends.

“I can do a lot, but nothing that breaks my own personal code,” he explained. “I have no intention of making the Naiad sisters leave any of you.”

There was a collective sigh of relief from the crowd as the chess club heard the news. There was some concern about what might happen when Dion became full master of the third element.

“Only leaves one element mastery you need to obtain,” Captain Gabriel said. “You should be able to get it quick.”

“I plan on being here tomorrow for that one. It’s important that I obtain it because it will be the last elemental power I need before I acquire the fifth elemental ability.”

“Did you see what is happening in the parking lot?” Sean said. Emily stood next to him and turned to see what he pointed at through the window.

Karanzen was back.

Chapter 14

Karanzen’s officers were outside and looking in the far end of the parking lot at Dion’s van. There was a tow truck already out there hooking up to it. Five of his officers were around the van attaching the jack to it while they worked to get something off it. It was a bright and sunny day outside and the group inside the mall had a clear view of what was happening.

“Looks like someone has taken an interest in your van, Dion,” Dennis said. “Why would they just appear out of nowhere to mess with it? Did you not pay a ticket or something?”

“It’s my old friend, Officer Karanzen. He must realize I have the third elemental power and wants to keep me from here tomorrow. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

Outside, Officer Karanzen had one eye on the entrance to the mall and the other on his men who were taking care of the van. The tow truck belonged to the mall. It came in handy when a car wouldn’t start or one needed to be moved.

Every now and then, someone would leave his or her car in the lot and it would sit there for a week. The mall was supposed to trace down the ownership, but it was far more trouble than the security department wanted to waste. It was much easier for the vehicle to simply disappear from the lot. There were plenty of places in Scipio where you could part out a car or truck for a decent amount of money and they knew where to find every one. Most of the time the owners of the cars didn’t show up. Sometimes they were stolen and no one knew whom they belonged to if the license plates were switched. It was easier to get them off the lot and to a scrap yard.

So the mall owner’s big plan had failed again? Karanzen laughed to himself. He thought he knew how to keep that kid from the Elemental Grandmasters, but every plan he’d came up with didn’t work. Dion saw through every one of them somehow. The swim team plan might’ve worked if Dion was an average American male, but he wasn’t. The security chief had to give him some credit: bringing those idiots from his high school into the mall was a stroke of pure genius. In one sweep, he’d eliminated the only rival he had in the water elementals and increased his own group in size and capacity. Too bad he hadn’t had that kid in Korea, he might’ve returned with the men under his command, but it was best not to think about that place.

Karanzen had watched the second plan bungle when the mall owner sent out another wave of water elementals after the first plan failed. At least there was a fallback plan, too bad it didn’t work. He’s sat and watched on the security cameras as the group of three nymphs rounded up the couples who were wandering around the mall. They took them to that aquarium supply place which only opened up yesterday. He was surprised to see them apprehend the pool storeowner. He almost bet against Dion succeeding when he entered the aquarium store. However, he’d emerged victorious as ever when everyone strolled out of it less than an hour later. The place had been locked against intruders; the real owner couldn’t get inside it and was on her way down to see him when the doors opened.

Minutes later his phone had rang and he received the go ahead to do it his way. About time. Just that he couldn’t keep them out the last two days was no reason to let them in today. It was the mall owner’s idea to stage the fake barricade at the mall entrance this morning and make them think they’d entered the mall by their own subterfuge. He was supposed to hang back and let Mr. Big’s fiendish plan flawlessly execute. Although the flashback to Korea hadn’t been part of the plan, but it gave him the cover he needed. His men still thought an ‘episode’ was why he’d allowed the kids into the mall today.

“You ready to tow this thing off, Boss?” It was Izzy behind the wheel of the tow truck. He was anxious to wrap things up for the day and head home.

“Just hang tight,” Karanzen told him. “I need an excuse to call the cops. Little punk comes out here and gives me some lip; I’ll have all I need to have him arrested.”

“I still say you should just call them anyway and worry about a reason later,” one of the other security officers said to him. “I’m sure we could find something to plant in this van. Don’t you have all kinds of fun things in that safe in the office?’

“Shut up!” Karanzen snapped at him. The safe was common knowledge among the guards, but he didn’t like them talking about it. “We’re going to do this my way and avoid any problems down the road. The cops will make the arrest and he’ll be banned from the mall forever.”

“This is another one I need to handle on my own,” Dion told his crew. “Everyone stay put and I’ll go out there and find out what they are up to. I don’t need any of you getting into trouble on my account. Just watch from the window in case I need some kind of a witness later.”

“You should let us go with you,” Cynae said.

“Just stay here,” he told them. “I can handle this one myself. I have three of the four full elemental powers. I don’t expect there is anything they can do to me now I can’t stop.”

“I think he’s too sure of himself,” Captain Gabriel said to Salacia as he watched Dion walk down the corridor to the parking lot. “Too many things out there that can go wrong. I think he’s really walking into a trap this time.”

“Probably,” she agreed. “But we’ll have to let him find a way out of it himself. If he’s truly going to be the one to gain the fifth elemental mastery, he’ll need to be able to do it by himself.”

The Naiad sisters were pushing up to the window to get a good look at the action in the parking lot. Their chess club boyfriends were doing the same, but neither of them had any clue as to what the security guards planned outside in the parking lot. All they could see was the uniformed men around Dion’s van in the distance.

Lilly was worried and at the window with the rest of them. There was still a quick exit to the parking lot on their side of the building, but it wasn’t supposed to be used unless for emergencies. How Dion had opened it to allow the air elemental sylph out without setting off the alarm still puzzled her. Usually the alarm would howl the moment anyone pushed down on the handle.

Sean and Emily were behind the rest of them. They wanted to see how this all ended too. Sean had watched Dion perform some biblical miracles and had no doubt he could handle it all himself. Still, no one knew what might happen out there.

“You’ve done very well for yourself,” the captain said to his ex-wife as they watched Dion leave to meet the uniformed committee at his van. “People tell me you own all kinds of businesses in this town. Does your skill come from being an Elemental Grandmaster?”

“No, it comes from knowing how to get the best deal. And how to take care of the customer.”

“So, did you have the elementals scheduled to sell pools for your today or was that a coincidence?” She stood very close to him.

“A little of both. I’d planned to have some models come out and told the sales staff about my idea. When the sisters appeared they assumed it was who I was talking about.”

“Worked out pretty good for you.”

“All you have to do is set up the right conditions, the rest follows.”

“Let’s hope Dion is walking into the right condition.”

Karanzen watched the doors to the mall. He had to be out here soon. He knew the kid was inside with his little gang observing everything. How could he miss it? The van was in plain view of the mall. He kept a watch on the doors right until the moment they opened and Dion appeared.

It wasn’t very dramatic. One moment shoppers were going in and out of the mall, the next Dion was slowly walking down the concrete toward him. He didn’t have anger in his face, or so it seemed from the distance, just puzzlement. Karanzen was certain it would change when they told him the van contained ‘controlled substances’. If he were like any other Midwestern kid, even a transplant such as Dion would lose control, which would give them all the authority they needed to impound him as well. His aunt and uncle would be forced to pick him up after they paid the bail bondsmen, since he was now a legal adult. And he would never have to worry about that punk being in his mall again. The mall owner would be forced to admit Karanzen was right all along and would no longer bother him about security.

Dion stopped two car lengths away from the security chief and his men. He’d left the map inside with Lilly just to be safe. There was one more section of the mall he needed to visit tomorrow and then the clock tower in the center. This was simply an attempt to keep him out tomorrow and ban him from the mall. Of course, Karanzen didn’t need a reason to keep him out, but it looked bad if he didn’t attempt to justify what he did.

“Why do you have a tow truck around my van?” Dion asked him. “I don’t recall I did anything wrong inside the mall today.” He stood his ground and made sure Karanzen was a safe distance away.

“Shoplifting is a crime, Dion,” Karanzen called out to him. “We had a report someone was using a van to haul merchandise they hadn’t paid for and we decided to investigate. We found all kinds of goods in the back of it you hadn’t paid for. Now we’re going to haul the van off and impound it. I’m afraid you won’t be allowed to come back here again.”

“Is that the best you can do, Officer Karanzen?” Dion called back to him. “Plant fake evidence in my van? I would expect you’d be much more creative. Perhaps my uncle has misjudged your abilities.”

“Your uncle seems to have some trouble reeling you in. It’s up to me to show him how to do it right. Now go away before we have to call the police.”

“I wouldn’t touch that van,” Dion called across the lot to him. “I advise you to just leave it alone and go back inside the mall.”

“What are you going to do? Send some of your girlfriends on the swim team out here to interfere. Just get out of here and get a ride home, Dion. You are banned from the mall.”

Dion looked at the sky. It would take too long to get the elementals to bring the clouds over the parking lot. Even if he could find ones who wouldn’t have to be bound to help him. He needed another way to bring this to an end without causing too much damage. As far as he could see, it left one thing he could do.

The creek, which ran near the mall, had never been very large. It fed into the local river, which wound its way down to the larger Ohio River, to the Mississippi River and from there into the sea. It was underground in a metal culvert most of the time and flowed under the highway. However, it still ran open next to the parking lot at the mall. The local water control board insisted it be maintained to control run-off and not flood the streets when the mall was constructed. It was hidden by a strategically planted grove of trees, which boarded the parking lot. It still provided plenty of water when it rained. After the recent spring showers, the creek water reached up to the banks.

It provided a nice home for the water elementals, which was all Dion needed.

Dion closed his eyes and felt them swimming in the water, invisible to most people, but now so easy for him to see and control with his new powers. Still, he needed to persuade them to come and help. They didn’t care much for the men who’d dumped sand and gravel in their creek. Dion only needed to make a few promises to get their help.

The sound came from the edge of the parking lot and caused Karanzen and his men to turn their heads in its direction. They couldn’t see what caused it because it came from the other side of the tree line. It was a bubbling noise, similar to a sink overflowing. The sound increased in pitch and the tow truck driver shut the engine down to hear it better. Now they could see what the cause was.

Water overflowed from the creek banks. They could see it rising as it flowed across from the tree line and in their direction across the field. The water bubbled up and poured at them as it pushed loose dirt and soil toward in front of it. The security guards stopped what they were doing with the van and walked to Karanzen with a look of fear in their eyes.

Now the water flowed into the parking lot and across the asphalt. It came as a stream, which had changed directions. Although the parking lot had drains to take care of sudden downpours, it was impossible for them to manage this intense lake which had materialized in the outer edge of the lot. The security guards looked down and saw the water cover their boots. This was no longer something they could sit back and survey. The shoppers who entered and left the mall stood and watched the pool form in the midst where their cars were parked.

And it was even worse because there was not a cloud in the sky. Dion had sent the few away to make it clear to Karanzen and his men why the water flowed into the parking lot.

“You can stop the lot and mall from flooding,” Dion told him. “All you have to do is unhook your tow truck from my van and get away from it.”

Before Karanzen could issue a command, the security guards scampered over the van to detach the truck from it. The driver of the tow truck jumped into it and dropped the wench slowly so there would be no damage to the van. Once the front wheels of the van rested on the ground, he waded through the water and helped two more guards unlatch the hook from the front bumper of the van. Still up to their ankles in water, they reattached the spare tire compartment in back, which, in their zeal, they’d taken off as a trophy.

Finally, the tow truck driver gunned the engine and drove it as far away from the van as he could get. Water sprayed into the air as the wheels of the truck sent it into the sky.

Dion closed his eyes again and had a brief conversation with the elementals that lived in the creek. They were disappointed over what he wanted them to do right now, but they’d had their fun for the day.

The water began to flow back to the creek. It reversed its direction and swept back across the lot. In a few minutes, the lake, which was in formation in the parking lot, was gone. The look of relief on the faces at the windows of the mall was evident.

Karanzen glared at Dion. “You still need one more power,” he snarled at him. “Just try and get in here tomorrow.” He stomped off through the parking lot, his wet boots making noise as they slapped on the damp parking lot.

Dion looked at the entrance of the mall and watched his friends emerge. Lilly was right out in front, followed by Sean and Emily. Behind them came Dennis and the chess club, with the Naiad sisters. Captain Gabriel and Salacia were still inside looking out from the windows.

I suppose you will try to keep me out tomorrow, Dion thought. I need to master the fire element before I can tackle the fifth one. We’ll see what happens then.

Chapter 1

The security guards spent the entire morning and worked their way through the parking lot, checking over every car and truck that arrived early. They took up positions at all the entrances to make sure no one that pulled into the lot. There was only one person they needed to keep out. After the previous day’s confrontation with Dion and his elemental abilities, they had no desire to repeat the mistakes made the days before. They were under strict orders to keep him out, or else.

Officer Karanzen stood watch in the parking lot and checked every car coming in for the early shift. Although the mall didn’t officially open until ten in the morning, there were plenty of people who needed to get there by eight to start work. He knew it would be impossible to check every car once the shoppers arrived in force. Right now, he had the opportunity to catch Dion and whomever he brought along, if the kid came early. He’d been there early every other day, so Karanzen expected him to be there long before the mall doors opened for the day.

Today, Dion needed to find the last elemental grandmaster and obtain full authority for this final ability: fire. Karanzen knew that a failure to stop him this time would mean the end of his term of service at the mall. The owner and builder of the mall, Seth Bach, had employed him for the express purpose of keeping Dion out. He’d give him powers normal people knew nothing about. These powers could be taken away with ease and Karanzen would find himself back in the same wretched state he’d been in previously. He wasn’t about to end up where he’d been prior to the mall.

Something began to bother Karanzen about his security guards. He’d handpicked every one of them based on their references and applications. They all appeared to be good men who knew how to do the job and take direction. However, something seemed a little odd about all of them. They claimed to have a life outside their jobs, but seldom spoke about what they did. The mall housed them in one large group home in the nearby town of Scipio and they drove into work at the same time. He needed to go back and look at those applications on file. He’d do that the first opportunity he had.

So far, they’d found no sign of Dion or any of his friends. Last night Dion had driven off in the van the security guards tried to impound. Then the creek suddenly overflowed. It was impossible to deny Dion had caused the creek to run over its banks. Dion had received his third elemental full power authority from Salacia Delphi, the woman who owned the pool supply store.

Karanzen had his men impound the young man’s van and was ready to kick him out of the mall permanently when the water began to pour across the parking lot from the nearby creek. The drainage system was supposed to handle overflows of such a large nature, but it didn’t. It wasn’t until they unhooked his van from the tow truck the water began to recede.

Dion had waited for his friends to emerge from the mall and join him before he left. Karanzen had watched him leave the parking lot in the van. The security chief stood in place and seethed in his rage. There wasn’t anything he could do but vow the kid would never set foot in this mall again.

He went back to his office.

The phone rang, but Karanzen knew who it was before he even picked up the receiver.

“He has the full power on the third element,” the voice on the phone said to him. “How are you going to keep him from obtaining the fourth?” It was Seth Bach, Dion’s uncle. The man didn’t have to introduce himself. By now, Karanzen was familiar with the sound of his employer’s voice.

“First of all” Karanzen said. “I am going to keep him out of the mall parking lot. He won’t even be able to enter it. The first time any of my men see that van of his, they will be instructed to block it from the entrance. I’ll tell the local cops that there is a shoplifting suspect whom we expect to try to gain entrance to the mall. They can handle him from there on out.”

“Not a good idea,” the voice responded. “I don’t need the trouble with the local police it would cause. They only put up with this mall because of the tax revenue it brings into the community.”

“Fine. You told me to keep him out and I might’ve been able to do that yesterday. However, your plan to get him in here with those water babies didn’t work out so well. Now let me do it my way and we’ll keep him out of the mall. Permanently.”

“Your method to stop him yesterday didn’t work out so well either.”

“By then, he was already in the mall. He had the third elemental power. You want me to keep him from the fourth, let me handle it. Let me do what you pay me to do.”

“Just keep him out. He obtains full power for the fourth, we might as well forget about this place.” The phone call came to an end.

The easy way to do this, Karanzen knew, was to issue an APB to the police and have them pick the kid up. Eventually, he’d give up and quit trying to get inside the mall. Why Dion had to meet the elemental grandmasters here inside the mall was something Karanzen didn’t understand. Wouldn’t it have been just as easy to follow them home? Heck, Dion could have simply called them up and agreed to meet them somewhere else. If there was a rule about obtaining full powers only at the mall, Karanzen hadn’t been informed.

Karanzen planned to have a significant number of his men in the parking lot checking out tags until noon. By that time he figured Dion and company would be apprehended, unless he had not planned to show. No problem, he’d do the same thing every day until he had him or the kid stopped his attempts to enter the mall.

This time he wasn’t getting into the mall. Karanzen had let most part of his defense that allowed him to appear normal around mortals. This enabled him to sense any element workers in the parking lot or outside the mall. So far, nothing. So long as no one looked at him too close, he didn’t have to worry. Right now, the place was clear, so perhaps the kid wasn’t coming at all.

The Naiad sisters sat on the edge of the creek bank and watched as the security guards checked out all the cars in the lot for signs of Dion. It was still very early and they would have to cease their activity once the regular shoppers began to arrive at the Fromatius Mall. Right now, they could spend the time walking through the lot and examining the contents of each car to see if Dion or any of his friends was concealed inside them.

Karanzen knew the van hadn’t arrived and he didn’t expect Dion to try that line of attack again. However, he was still determined to keep his young foe away from the mall by any means he could. If he’d been allowed, Karanzen would’ve paid Dion a personal visit at his aunt and uncle’s home. However, he was limited by what Dion’s Uncle Seth, who owned the mall, would allow him.

Chapter 2

Appias, still splashing around in the muddy creek water, turned to her sister. “You think they’ll eventually figure out Dion is already inside the mall?”

“I doubt it,” she responded while braiding her hair, “Even if they do, it won’t be until the mall is open.”

The creek was partially blocked from the mall by a grove of trees, which allowed them to watch the activity in the parking lot. The Naiad sisters shed their clothes last night when they entered the water of the stream since there was no longer any reason to pretend to be mortal women. Cynae, the eldest, had a long talk with her younger sisters about what was appropriate in the presence of humans, regardless if they were bonded to them or not. Each had chosen one of the Dion’s chess club buddies for themselves. They were bound to the young men.

For his part, Dion had a long talk with his friends after the Naiads had stripped off their clothes and swam into the creek. Their long hair served as the only bit of clothing they had while in their natural form, save whatever shells and other objects they decided to use for decoration.

“Your girlfriends are not human,” Dion told them as they watched the girls play in the water. “You will always be able to see them, but most of the time; they will be invisible to normal people. Keep in mind that they have different standards of adornment and will not be easy to take around your parents. As for how you met your girlfriends, just tell your families you found her at the mall and I introduced you to them. You can come here every day to see your girl; just don’t spend too much time around here.”

“And don’t keep me waiting too long!” Dirce called to Dennis from the water as she blew him a kiss. Her long hair flowed about her and formed a halo in the moonlight.

Dion could see the pain in his friend’s face. This was going to cause many problems. It was his idea to introduce the water elementals to the chess club members. Dion needed to sabotage his uncle’s plans to keep him away from the Water Element Grandmaster. Now that he had full water element abilities, he could order the Naiads to lift the glamor they’d put on the chess club. However, to do that would create a problem worse than the love sickness, which plagued the young men.

After he allowed them to say their goodbyes, Dion made certain the guys were loaded into cars and sent home. He even stood in the parking lot to ensure the chess club didn’t try to come back.

“I need you all up early,” he told his three companions. As usual, Sean and Emily were curled up in the back seat of Dion’s van.

“You’ve created a whole new set of problems with the chess club,” Lilly said to him as she reached over and touched Dion. “Still, the Naiads are the perfect match for those boys. Neither group wants much to do with the outside world. I’m dying to see the look on everyone’s face when they show up at the prom with those girls.”

“I’ll see about disguising the girls as another chess club,” Dion said. “At least this will provoke fewer questions from people. It’s just believable they might be a foreign chess club, but not a local swim team. That one stretches what I can get everyone to believe.”

The next morning, Dion picked up everyone the same way he’d done the day before. This time he pulled up where the willow tree stood near Emily’s house, as he knew she’d be under it with Sean. The two became quite an item after their mutual encounter with the air elementals. They were involved with each other and barely heard him pull up in the van.

It was still cold when they slammed the door on his van and pulled out of the driveway. Sean’s mother still hadn’t figured out he was seeing Emily and that was just fine with Sean. Emily’s father knew about Sean but had yet to meet him. Right now, the quest was all Dion could think about. Once he’d obtained the fourth elemental power, he could do whatever he needed to accomplish. He could free his parents from the clock tower in the middle of the mall where his uncle held them prisoner. However, to do that he would need another ability: the fifth elemental power.

It was hundreds of years since an elemental worker had obtained this power. Hundreds of years since any one of them could manifest the power of the aether, the fifth element from which the source of the others was located. His uncle had obtained the power of the fifth element and used it to control those around him. He had the power, but not that of the four before it. If Dion gained this dominion, combined with the power of the first four elements, he would be stronger than his uncle.

Like the others, the fourth grandmaster ran a shop inside the mall. All had set up operations inside the mall, even though they knew who had built the place and that it was located over the abyss. Today, he planned to be a fully qualified Fire Master. All he needed to do was reach the Fire Element Grandmaster.

Early in the morning, before dawn had broken over the horizon, Dion parked his van on the other side the grove of trees. This was where the creek ran between concrete conduits to carry its water to the river. It was hard to see and Dion realized the county would eventually force this small stream into an underground pipe as well. Too many risks involved with people falling into it and drowning. He’d heard stories in school of parties involving campfires down below the hill, just at the banks of the stream. It was only a matter of time before someone fell in. The county would be blamed for allowing this situation to take place.

He pulled the van into the woods next to the stream where it would not be seen in the daytime. This was another spot known the high school students where you could go if you wanted some privacy. Dion opened the door and kicked away four brown bottles on the ground. This was recent. He’d have to be back before sunset today because it meant whoever left the bottles planned on returning this evening.

“You think it’s safe to leave it here?” Lilly asked him as they stepped out of the van. Seconds later, Sean and Emily joined them. They too looked on in disgust at the trash on the ground.

“It will be safe until this evening,” Dion told her. “I obtain my final fire elemental power; we won’t have to worry about coming back here again. And we won’t have to worry about much of anything after I have the fifth elemental full ability.”

Lilly squeezed his hand.

“Hello, Dion,” the Naiad sisters greeted him as the stepped down to the bank on the stream.

Dion consulted his map as soon as he left the van and discovered the best way to enter the mall without being seen was to travel down the stream and enter a concrete pipe.

“Hello, Ladies,” he responded to them as the water elementals surfaced on the bank in front of him. They appeared in their natural form as beautiful young women covered by their long hair. Not hard to believe the sailors of old risked disaster on encountering them. Even his friends tried not to stare at what was in front of them.

“Are you comfortable down here?” he asked. “I know it’s not as isolated as your rock in the ocean, but I didn’t think you would be disturbed too often.”

“We miss our boyfriends already,” Dirce told him. “And we scared people last night.” She was the first one to fall for a local boy yesterday and her sisters followed as a matter of course.

“Scared them off too,” Cynae, added. “They came down here to be alone and didn’t expect to find us sitting on the bank.”

“I didn’t think they could see you,” Emily said, holding Sean’s hand.

“Only if we don’t want them to see us,” another one of the Naiads told her. “By the time they were down here we didn’t notice them. Guess we gave them quite a scare because they took off quick.”

“Which reminds us,” Cynae asked. “When are our boys coming back? We are so very lonely in this place.”

“Give them another day,” Dion told the elementals. “And don’t go find them, although I know you could do it.

“Why not?” Cynae asked him.

First of all, you’ll scare people. Second, they need time to work up cover stories for all of you. Keep in mind you were the ones who put the glamor on them.”

“But they were so cute,” Ismene, the youngest one of them, said. “We couldn’t help ourselves.”

Dion had spent some time the evening before talking with his aunt and uncle about what might happen today. They were understanding and concerned about him. His uncle wanted to help, but Dion let them both know that he had to do it with his own abilities. His friends would be there for him, but they were only to assist and not find the elemental grandmaster for him.

“Fire,” his uncle Rich repeated to himself several times. “You’re going after the most dangerous of the four today. Be careful. My brother will have salamanders ready.”

“Salamanders?” his aunt asked, as she tossed her hair back. “How dangerous can salamanders be? I step on them all the time by the wood pile.”

“Different kind of salamander,” his uncle explained. “Fire elemental salamanders. They can burn down anything in their path. They’re almost little dragons. Be careful, Dion.”

“I intend to be careful,” Dion told him. “Besides, I have Cynae and her water elemental sisters to back me up if it gets out of control.”

“A lot of good she’ll do you if the salamanders unleash flames before they can arrive. I’ve seen those things do some serious damage to buildings. I still see them dance in the flames of burning wood. They’re everywhere.”

Dion assured his aunt and uncle he would proceed with caution, then showed them some of his new abilities by causing miniature tornadoes in the back yard and summoned a waterspout in the swimming pool.

“I know,” he told him. “Parlor tricks any stage performer can accomplish, but wait till I have the fifth elemental ability. Then I’ll have my parents back for sure.”

“One more ability to go,” Dion reminded Lilly that evening as she took her home. “Then the fifth elemental power and my uncle will not be able to stop me from freeing my parents.”

He pulled into the driveway to Lilly’s house and killed the engine. They could hear the sounds of the neighborhood in the darkness: radios, TV’s, parents calling to children. A thousand different lives lived in a thousand different realities. It was still early spring, but the air was warm enough for most people to open their windows and let the fresh breezes into the homes. Most of the houses were built on a single plane with a basement if they could afford one. A few houses had fireplaces and some had them in the basement too. Most of the houses were built twenty years ago in the big rush that accompanied the end of World War 2. Plans were in the works for another express ramp to connect the next suburban cluster to the city of Scipio.

Lilly touched Dion’s hand. “Will you want any of us to help you when you get your parents out?”

“That is one I have to do totally by myself. I can’t risk taking any of you with me when I go into that clock tower. It’s too dangerous. I don’t know if the map works inside it. Only my uncle knows what is inside the tower. He should since he built it.”

Dion turned to Lilly and wanted to tell her how much he appreciated her being around him. She’d been quiet through most of their adventures together and he didn’t feel it was right to keep her involved in his quest to obtain all his elemental powers.

However, the moment he opened his mouth a B-52 bomber flew over the neighborhood. He could hear it coming and closed his mouth. All through the neighborhood, people would place their phones down or groan because now they’d be unable to hear their favorite show for the next sixty seconds. This one was low and the ground rumbled as it passed overhead. It was a reminder to him that no matter how deadly the forces controlled by his uncle might be, there were deadlier forces at work in the world. Dion was told a nuclear explosion was one of the few places you could see the elementals of the fifth element dance.

Emily and Sean were still under the willow tree an hour after Dion had dropped them off that evening. There was a bench beneath it where they sat entwined around each other. Emily had watched the light come on in the living room after Dion dropped them off. She’d observed her father come to the window and stare at her with disapproval. She knew he really didn’t have anything to worry about, but he was still her father. She wondered how he’d take the news.

“I’d think your mother would be happy to learn you were going to get married,” she whispered in his ear. “I think my dad will be happy to hear it.”

“She’ll give me a lot of grief,” he told her. “She always does.”

“It’s not like we’re the only couple planning to get married upon graduation,” she returned. “I know of four others who have made plans. My grandmother was married when she was sixteen.”

“Your grandmother was brought over from Romania,” he reminded her. “Didn’t you say your grandfather sent a letter and some money to his brothers in Bucharest and told him to go find him a suitable girl?”

“Yeah? So what is wrong with that? They’re still married after sixty years.”

“Because she never did learn English and stays in the house. Ouch!”

Emily pushed him to one side. What was wrong with him? He’d pledged his eternal love to her yesterday and she to him. Was it fading already? It seemed like they were in some kind of a movie, which continued to repeat itself over and over again with these trips back to the mall. One more trip tomorrow and then?

Dion had the previous evening on his mind when he led his friends down the bank to the secret entrance into the mall’s subbasement. It was still dark, so they were forced to be careful about where to step. Even with the Naiads in the water splashing around, they still had to avoid any slippery parts of the embankment.

“I’ll bet you wish I was a water nymph,” he overheard Emily say to Sean. “That way you could keep me in your mother’s fishpond.”

“Naiad!” he heard a voice call from the water. “Don’t forget we want to be called Naiads.”

“Naiad,” she corrected herself. “He’d like to have me quiet and some place where I wouldn’t be a bother.”

“Emily,” Sean repeated to her. “Sweetheart, we have the rest of our lives to be together. Let’s not get started off the wrong way.”

“Lives?” Lilly said to them. “Does that mean what I think it does?”

“Yes it does,” Emily said. “We’re pre-engaged.”

“You have to get a ring for that?” Dion stopped his transit and looked at them. What on earth had he provoked by keeping those too around him? Lilly turned and sighed at him with her big browns too. A few minutes away from the entrance and his companions were discussing marriage. What was this world coming to?

“Yes,” Sean said to him. “Didn’t you hear?”

“They just started selling them at the big jewelry store downtown,” Emily let them both know. “I’m sure we can find a place in the mall to sell one. Right, Sean?”

Sean leaned over and kissed her. “Let’s get Dion through his quest first, and then I’ll find you the pretty ring.”

“Pretty ring? Pretty rings?” he heard the Naiads echo from the stream. Any discussion of shiny objects attracted their attention. “We get pretty rings from our boys too?”

“Now see what you started?” Dion laughed. “We get through this and the chess club will be furious at me.”

Chapter 3

The entrance to the mall loomed ahead, just next to the culvert where the stream continued on its passage to the river. A small wall was built from concrete and stone next to the pipe to keep out accidental swimmers. A gate ran across the front of the pipe, but it was unlocked and swung open when the figure that stood watch over it saw Dion approach. It was difficult to see who stood next to the gate. Lilly put her hand over her mouth when she saw the form of a ghoul still in his cleaner uniform. Two more stood next to him.

“Don’t worry,” Dion told her. “They work for me now. They have ever since I acquired full earth elemental powers.”

Still with bad memories from her experiences with the ghouls the first time around, Emily shivered and hid behind Sean as they passed by them. The ghouls waited until Dion and his friends were inside the ledge of the concrete pipe and then fastened the gate behind them. One scampered over to the ledge and opened a hidden door on the side of the concrete pipe. He produced a flashlight and shined it into the passage inside it.

Dion led the way and continued into it with his friends behind him.

The ghoul cleaner with the flashlight stayed in front as his two companions locked the door again. It would be a long trip down the passage into the subbasement of the mall, but they were inside the perimeter. The security team could do all it wanted to keep him out of the parking lot, but Dion was inside the mall, no matter how far from the main shopping area. It would be another task to find the Fire Elemental Grandmaster.

The tunnel was quiet and no one said a word during the long walk to the subbasement. Lilly held tightly onto Dion’s hand. Sean and Emily stayed close together and as near as they could to Dion. There were no lights in this part of the tunnel and, should the one flashlight be extinguished, they would have no way to find their way out. The only sound anyone could hear was the slow drip of condensation from the top of the tunnel. It was very damp inside the tunnel and it had to have been built as a secret access point during the recent mall construction. The concrete walls were too fresh and appeared to be poured in sections. This meant that Dion’s Uncle Seth knew about the secret entrance to the mall.

The moment Sean decided to say something was the moment the tunnel came to an end. Before he could say a word, the door to the mall appeared before them. The ghoul in front produced a key and unlocked it. He swung the door open and placed a pair of mirror shades over his eyes. Sean glanced back and saw the other two ghouls also put on their shades. It occurred to him this was the first time he’d seen the ghouls without their mirrorshades. He knew the bright light hurt their eyes, but they had good vision in the dark.

“They see into the infrared spectrum,” Dion explained as he noticed Sean watch the ghouls place their shades on. “However, too much light of any kinds throws off their balance and hurts their equilibrium.”

They were in a small room next to a ladder. The room was made of poured concrete and led upwards through an opening in the ceiling. The room where they had emerged had very little light inside it. The ghouls opened the door next to them, which led to the ghoul’s part of the subbasement, and went inside. The last ghoul stopped and waited until Dion handed him some coins. Then he joined the others and left the humans inside the antechamber to the rest of the subbasement.

It was a brief climb up the ladder to the next level. Here they found a larger utility room with rows of chart data recorders that monitored the electrical power of the mall. It was still underground, but was directly under the red, or fire element, part of the mall. Dion pulled out his map and laid it on a desk. He pushed aside several rolls of blueprints left over from the contractors who built the mall. There was plenty of light in this section and his companions elected to sit down on several chairs next to the table.

“Are we close to the main floor?” Lilly asked him as she watched Dion pour over the map given to him by Mr. Jehuti. The map was special and changed its display of what stores were rented and which were available for merchants. It had a complete listing of the power lines, which ran through the mall and displayed all the internal access tunnels. It even displayed special passageways through the mall that could change their entrance and exit points if you knew how to work them. The map was priceless and given to Dion with the strict understanding it was never to fall out of his possession. Of course, the forces that wanted to keep him from locating the elemental grandmasters had taken possession of it several times, but Dion managed to get it back each time.

“We’re right under it,” he told her. “At least according to the map. All we have to do is find the passage in the next room to our right and take it up to the next level. We’ll emerge right behind an escalator and no one should notice us this time of day. All we need to do is find the Grandmaster and then we can all go home.”

“Sounds easy enough,” Emily said to him. “All we have to do is follow your plan and it will all go smooth. Why don’t I believe it will happen the way you just outlined?”

“Because it never does,” Sean said. “One of those things you can guarantee about this quest. But I have assurance in Dion getting us through it all.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” Dion said as he studied the map. He rolled it up and placed it in the jean jacket he’d worn every day. “At least we know where we are in this place. I’d hate to be forced to find my way around here without this map.”

“One thing I did want to ask you,” Emily brought up. Today she’d dressed casually in a jean skirt with sandals and a tube top under a sweater. Sean had worn his thick boots just in case they were needed.

“What’s that?” Sean said. He took Lilly’s hand and felt how nervous she was today for some reason. Why was she so quiet?

“Where do you find your way around on the map? You don’t have a compass with you, do you?”

“The map knows true north. There is a directional sigil in one corner which always tells me where to point the map so it orients correctly. Maybe someday all maps will come with one, just not from an elemental source.”

He finished his speech when the air in front of them began to swirl. Lilly jumped back and Sean grabbed Emily for protection. Dion faced the swirl and closed his eyes. He didn’t have any control over this elemental, which meant it was one of his uncle’s. It didn’t feel to be an aether elemental, which meant this was a fire spirit. In the enclosed space, this was not good as there was no source of water he could unleash on it if the thing was sent to do them harm. He found enough air slypes in the big room to blow it out if he needed to, but it was best to see what this thing wanted before he did anything else.

The swirl turned into a flame, which fused into the image of a small figure. Because it was burning, the fire creature didn’t have a steady form. This one couldn’t be a salamander; it had to be another, less powerful elemental. Dion stood his ground and decided to see what it would do before sending the sylphs against it.

“Dion Bach?” the creature spoke. “I am addressing Dion Bach?”

“You are,” he confirmed and waited. All it would take would be one command to blow it out, but too much oxygen at once on the fire had the possibility of sending it out of control. “What do you want?”

“Your uncle wanted me to tell you that he’s willing to release your parents if you transfer all your powers to him.”

So this was the reason for the small fire elemental. Dion’s uncle realized he was inside the mall and couldn’t be stopped. He was desperate to make the trade. But Dion knew that if he gave his uncle those powers, no force on Earth could stop him. He would be giving the launch codes of a nuclear missile to a mad man, someone who craved unlimited power.

“No deal,” Dion told the fire spirit. “Tell my uncle he is to release my parents at once before I will consider any further deals with him.” Dion stayed on his guard. He felt the air sylphs gather around him, ready to pounce if given the command.

“I will relay your message,” the fire being told him. The burning image slowly disappeared and was replaced by a pile of ash on the floor.

“So what was that about?” Emily asked Dion. “I was worried for a few minutes that we had a real problem on our hands.”

“It was one of the smaller elementals. They make good messengers if you can keep them from burning things down. My uncle employed that one to make me an offer. He won’t like the answer I sent, but it’s his problem, not mine.”

“He knows we’re here,” Lilly said.

“That is evident,” agreed Dion. “We simply need to figure out a way to get into the rest of the mall without drawing too much attention to ourselves. We’ll be forced to take a direct route.”

“Now that you’ve seen a fire elemental, what do you plan to use against them?” a voice called from across the room.

They turned to face the sound as a figure stepped out from behind a stack of wooden crates. They hadn’t noticed him when they entered the room, as he remained hidden when the four friends crawled up the ladder. The light was faint in that part of the room, but they could see his outline and there was no question whom it was. He was recognizable even in a set of overalls with a baseball cap stuck firmly on his head. The only thing he lacked was a toolbox in one hand.

“Hello, Edward,” Dion greeted him. “I expected to see you sometime today, just not so soon. I like the new outfit.”

“I don’t,” the little man replied. “They told me I needed to fit in better this time. I wanted my cricket uniform, but they wouldn’t let me use that one. So here I am.”

Edward was a mysterious little Englishman who appeared at various times on the quest to give and offer help. He couldn’t give them too much information and he wouldn’t do the work for them, but he was useful. He wouldn’t say where he was from, but it had to be outside their particular time circle. He wouldn’t even say who he worked for or which side he represented.

“Does this mean you’ll be around longer than you usually are?” Sean asked him.

“Regrettably so,” he told them. “They told me this was the last time I was allowed to make an appearance. I have no idea where they plan to send me next, but I hope the place has ice cream. It was the one thing I liked about this assignment. Now, do you have any idea what can neutralize a salamander?”

“One of the fire ones?” Emily asked him.

“Of course.”

“You are going to need a censer to counter them, “Edward explained. “I’m sure you will be able to find one around here someplace.”

“Censor what?” Sean asked.

“Wrong kind,” Edward explained. “I mean the kind you see the priest swing in a church.”

“I’m Baptist,” Sean said.

Edward shook his head and grumbled about Protestants and their lack of tradition. “It’s a small object which hangs from a chain that you put hot coals inside. Incense goes inside it to improve the smell of the church.”

“Oh, like an incense burner,” Sean concluded.

“You do have some idea about what I’m describing. The one you need is from the sixteenth century Island of Malta and has the ability to bind fire elemental salamanders. You need to invoke them into the censer and bind them in place or they’ll all over your house. Fire salamanders can be very dangerous as things catch on fire around them.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

“The other things you’re likely to need are fire opals. The fire salamanders are attracted to them and will go out of their way to acquire one. You can’t lure them out as you did the earth elementals on the electric bull. They are a lot more difficult and will incinerate anyone who gets too close to them.”

“So how do we handle them?” Lilly questioned Edward. “If they are so dangerous, how are we supposed to get close enough to bind them?”

“You don’t handle them at all. You keep a good distance and don’t allow them to approach you. If they consume too much fuel, they’ll burn themselves out. You can starve them for oxygen and they’ll go dormant, but hard to set up that kind of condition.”

“Will they have human form?” Emily asked. “Every other elemental we’ve encountered has come to us in human form.”

“I don’t think there is any other way for them to function in the mall,” Edward said. “I’ve seen them released as balls of fire, but they tend to go out of control when that happens. They can hang onto their human form so long as the person who binds them issues the command. You can always tell they are around because the atmosphere around them rises in temperature.”

They talked for another hour as Edward described the kinds of jewels needed to control fire elementals besides the ones he’d told them about. He told them about the risk involved in combining fire opals inside a censer and how to trap a fire elemental inside it. Only so many fire elementals could be contained inside a censer. If too many were place inside one, they could turn the wielder into a flaming torch when they were released.

Edward pulled out his pocket watch on a chain and looked at it. “Oh dear,” he observed. “Time is up, I need to go. Take care my pretties.” And then he vanished.

“Guess we learned a few things,” Sean said. “Wish he could’ve stayed around longer.”

“I hope to see him again,” Dion said. “I don’t think he has much more time he can allot to me.” Dion returned to his map. It took him a few more minutes to find an entrance into the mall.

Chapter 4

Karanzen had left the parking lot to his team and returned to his office near the clock tower in the mall. He’d been outside all morning checking the perimeter for any sign of Dion or his friends. Each of his men was issued a picture of the van and told to summon him if they even suspected it was on the lot. Officer Karanzen was finished with halfway measures. This time he intended to stop the van the moment it was near the lot and pull Dion out of it. He still had the ability to summon elementals, but Karanzen had a few tricks to keep him under control. He didn’t want to use them this late in the day when shoppers were in the lot and headed to the entrance of the mall.

But the morning was uneventful. No sign anywhere of Dion and company. If he planned to get his final ability, it had to be today, this much Karanzen knew for sure. He’d been on the phone with Seth Back, Dion’s uncle, who was very disappointed his chief of security had failed for the third time in as many days. He couldn’t afford to lose another opportunity. The big man suggested that one more slip up would be his last. Karanzen had no desire to return to living in a van or running cheap roadhouses for sleazy operators. He liked his current position and planned to keep hold of it.

“Just so you know,” Seth Bach informed him that evening. “Dion only needs to be kept away from the mall tomorrow. I have set some plans into motion which will keep him away permanently if you can keep him out tomorrow. Can you do that much?”

“Of course,” Karanzen replied. “I can do more than that. If you would allow me to involve the local cops….”

“Under no circumstances. I want him out of the way, but I don’t need anyone asking questions and snooping around my mall. Is that clear?”

“Very clear, sir. I’ll have the men all over the parking lot tomorrow morning.”

“I said no problems,” his boss cut him off. “Don’t scare the customers away from the shopping. Their money is what keeps this place open.”

“As you say. I’ll have some reason for them to be out there. We’ll tell people they’re checking for stolen property. There’s always ways to make it work.”

He heard the phone line on the other end disconnect and placed the receiver down on the cradle. Karanzen ran his hand through what was left of his hair and tried to think hard. How had that kid managed to bring the water over the parking lot yesterday with such ease? It had to come from the creek. Now this meant he had some connection with whatever lived in the creek. It would be more difficult than he cared to think about to keep him under control. Of course, if he achieved his final power tomorrow, it really wouldn’t matter to anyone.

When he went back into his office, he placed his hat down on his desk and took off his belt radio. No news yet of Dion or any of his friends around the mall. They all knew what he looked like because of the picture, but did all of his men know what to look for if any of the other kids showed up in advance? He doubted it would happen. This wasn’t some Saturday morning cartoon show where he was forced to worry about meddling kids; the stakes were real at the mall. But no sign of them yet. He hoped it would stay that way.

The phone rang and he picked it up.

“Officer Karanzen,” he spoke into the receiver. “Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?”

“This is Matt,” an all-too-familiar voice said on the other end. “Guess what? Dion and his intrepid crew are already inside the mall. Were you aware of this?”

“How could they have gotten into the mall?” he exclaimed on his end. “I’ve had men all morning checking the lot. They all have his picture. I don’t believe it!”

“It’s not a matter of what you believe. Dion is in the mall and headed to the final place he needs to go. I’ve already relieved your crack troops, but don’t worry; we have a team of replacements on their way. They should be arriving in a few minutes, but until then you better pray there’s no trouble it he mall because you’re now all the security we have. Don’t worry about your job, it’s still secure, for now. The new men will report to you as soon as they arrive. We can’t take any more chances. Sorry, but your crack team didn’t work out so well.”

“Who are these guys?” Karanzen demanded. “Are they trained to deal with mall security? Because if they aren’t you will be in worse trouble than you were with my guys. At least my guys knew the mall lay-out.”

“Don’t you worry about them. You’ll quickly see why they’re important. Just allow them to do what they’re supposed to do. They’ll take care of this damn kid and his friends.”

“You better be right. I don’t need any questions about my own status.”

“Oh, shut-up and do your job for a change.” The call ended.

Karanzen placed the receiver back on the phone and tried to concentrate. But all he could see was the Chosin Reservoir again and an endless wall of Chinese soldiers. He ran as hard as he could and heard his men yell in the distance. There was a sound of random rifle fire and all was quiet. He concentrated hard and the scene vanished and he was still back in his office.

The vestibule, which would take them into the mall, loomed before Dion and his friends. It was the final chamber they needed to enter before the door to the mall. It didn’t appear to be much on the inside. In fact, it was little more than a broom closet for the maintenance crew. But they had no clue as to what waited for them on the outside. Dion stood there in his jean jacket, in an attempt to figure out what to do next. The map had failed to show him the exact location of the Fire Grandmaster’s store. There were close to a hundred shops in this part of the mall. For all he understood, there could be a hundred security guards outside the door, each ready to beat them all to a pulp to keep him from finishing his quest. Or there might be nothing at all.

“So are we ready to go out there?” Sean asked Dion. He too had no clue as to what lay behind the door. All he was told was that the final part of the mall was outside.

Sean still had difficulty realizing this mall was like no other in the world. Yes, it was a big shopping mall with multiple anchor stores, but the mall was built over the abyss, which linked this reality with the beyond. Seth Bach, he was told, had built it to channel the tremendous energy he could harvest from the abyss. Energy that could make him more powerful than any man on the planet. Or any man in history for that matter. He’d kidnapped Dion’s parents and held them inside the tower to keep his nephew away, but his plans merely drew Dion closer. And with his multiple elemental abilities, Dion was a foe unlike any other than his uncle had encountered. Or ever would encounter.

“Almost,” Dion told him. “I have to check one final thing. Just give me a minute.”

He walked over to the wall and searched for something attached to the ceiling. Dion reached up and pulled down a small box, which was attached to the upper wall and opened it. He pulled a wire loose and set it on the ground.

“Fire sensor,” he told his friends. “It will trigger an alarm if it detects any unusual amount of heat in the room. I need to light a match to get some information and I don’t need this thing going off. Somebody remind me to reset the alarm before we leave.”

“I will,” Lilly said.

“Thanks,” Dion said as he fished around in his pockets. “I hope I remembered to bring these things because if I didn’t, we may have to go back. Ah, there they are!”

Dion held up a pack of matches. They were a standard pack which could be found anywhere at any store or bar in town. “I need these to get some information.”

Dion took out one match and struck it on the strike board. The matchhead instantly ignited with the blue and yellow flame casting shadows across the dim light of the room. The flame climbed up the thin matchstick and began to crawl to Dion’s fingers.

“That’s enough!” Dion snapped at it and the fire elemental jumped off the matchstick and landed on the floor.

“I need information,” Dion said to the flame on the floor. It stood there and burned without any sign of fuel. The flame soon grew to a foot in height.

Next, the flame shaped itself into the form of a human. Since it still burned, the shape changed while they looked at it. However, it merged into the overall outline of a humanoid shape, complete with eyes and mouth. The fire on the top of it formed into hair.

“What do you need, boss?” the fire said to him. “I’m your man, just tell me what you need and I’ll run it past you.”

“How many guards outside the door?” he inquired of the flame.

“Just let me check,” the flame told him and shot to the door. It shrank in size and slipped under the door before returning to them.

“It’s groovy,” the flame announced. “Dig it man, no cops, no guards, just a hall full of squares flipping their lids.”

“Thank you,” Dion spoke to it. “And by the way, where did you learn to talk like that?”

“I was at a boutique downtown near the college. Plenty of cool cats down there.”

“One final thing I need of you,” Dion told the flame.

“Fire away, heh, heh.”

“Who is the Fire Element Grandmaster? I need to see that person.”

“Michael Hades. He should be in the map listing.”

“Thanks,” Dion said and waved his hand over the flame creature. The flame shrank in size until it disappeared. “Time to send you back.”

“I didn’t think you had fire ability,” Sean said to him.

“I don’t have all my abilities,” Dion explained. “It’s why I have to see the elemental grandmaster to get the final power. I can still work with lesser fire elementals provided they want to help me. As you saw, that little fire spirit wanted to be useful. Too bad I couldn’t keep him around longer. You can’t stick an elemental in your pocket.”

“You asked me to remind you about the fire sensor,” Lilly told Dion.

“Oh yes.” Dion replaced a wire on the one he’d taken from the ceiling. “It works fine now.” Then he brought out the map once again. He found another table in the vestibule where it could be spread out and examined.

“Isn’t there any kind of directory for these things?” Sean asked Dion as the four of them poured over the map.

“A few basic bits of information,” Dion said. “Not enough to find the right location. I should’ve been specific when I asked the fire elemental what I needed to know.”

“Can’t you bring it back?” Emily asked him. “I mean, is there any rule which says a fire elemental can only be used once?”

Dion stopped perusing the map and turned to her. A strange look came over his face. “As a matter of fact, there isn’t. It’s not a good idea if you can’t bind them because fire elementals tend to burn things up. The smaller ones are the most playful and don’t understand how dangerous they can be to humans. But no, I suppose I could bring back the one I just released.”

Dion reached back in his pocket and took out another match and struck it after concentrating for a few minutes. The flame, once again, grew bright on the stick and fell to the floor where it grew in size.

“You need something else, daddy-o?” the fire elemental asked him. “Just let me know, but make it quick because I want to make the scene with a water pipe.”

“You didn’t tell me which store I could find the elemental master at. I need to know.”

“You didn’t ask, pops. I’ll show you right now.” The flame leaped on the map and bounced over to a schematic of a restaurant. As the flame cast light on the map, Dion leaned over and read where it sat.

“Texas Style Chili,” Dion read off the map. “It would figure. You may leave now.”

“I’m booking on out of here,” the flame announced and vanished.

“A chili parlor,” Sean said. “It makes sense. He’s been putting fire in people’s guts for a long time.”

“My dad used to go to his place downtown before he moved it into the mall,” Emily said to her friends. “He told me the food was good, but you needed to hit an ice cream parlor when you left.”

“At least we know where it is,” Dion said. “I’ll have to roll this map up and… hey, does anyone smell smoke?” Dion looked down and saw a big black hole in the middle of the map where the fire spirit had rested before it left. The hole expanded as he looked at it and sent up clouds of smoke as it consumed most of the papyrus.

Fearing it would set off the fire sensor, Dion yanked off his jacket and beat out the smoldering map before it could spread any further. The smoke alarm stayed quiet, much to his relief. Soon the smoke was drifting down into the subbasement, but the map was ruined.

Dion held up the map. Just about an entire section, which covered the fire part of the mall, was destroyed. A few stores and passages were readable on the sides, but most of it was gone. What the elementals hadn’t managed to steal, the fire had burnt.

“Ruined,” Dion said as he looked at it. “The map is useless for this last section. Now I remember why it’s not a good idea to use the same fire elemental a second time. They like to have fun at your expense.”

Dion sighed and rolled up what was left of the map. He put his jacket back on and returned the remains of the map to the inside of his jacket.

““It wasn’t a total loss,” Lilly said. “At least we know where you can find the elemental grandmaster. Is there still the clock tower part on the map?”

“The map never covered the clock tower,” he explained to her. “When I go into it, I will have to do it alone. We might know where to go today, but the map was useful if we ran into trouble. It’s not going to be of much use in this section of the mall since it was burnt away.”

“But it doesn’t change a thing,” Dion continued. “We still need to get inside the rest of the mall.” He pushed on the door into the mall and it opened with ease.

Chapter 5

The four of them stepped into the mall just under an escalator. Once they were inside, Dion closed the door and tested it. Locked. The door was set to lock on closing to keep people from venturing inside. Whoever set the lock didn’t anticipate anyone invading from the other side.

Other than the red color, it resembled every other part of the mall. The window looked into the parking lot. Since they were on the opposite side, they couldn’t see the grove of trees where the Naiads waited for their boyfriends. They could see the highway, which made the mall attractive to merchants.

Lilly wondered what would happen to this mall the day another highway or mall was put in place. It too would lose stores and die. It seemed to happen everywhere. A new shopping district would open and an older one would die off. Was it the product of evolution or something else? She couldn’t tell and didn’t much care.

“So, where do we go to find this chili place?” Emily asked Dion. “Do we make a right here at the main concourse?”

“It’s what the map said.”

Michael Hades was supposed to be the master of Southwestern chili. His restaurant in downtown Scipio was a landmark for years. The local choice of eating establishments in Scipio tended to the exotic only in the way of Italian foods, as the Italians had brought with them their love for spices when they first showed up at the turn of the century. For the longest time the other big non-English speaking group in town was German, but the town’s German themed restaurants had never taken off at the time. Most of them were integrated into the local beer halls located just outside the auto plants.

Sean didn’t like spicy food, so he knew little of what made the Hades restaurant so popular. People would order the hottest chili on the menu and expect to become sensory deprived in minutes if the pot was fresh.

Michael Hades had a theory about the preparation of chili and he didn’t think a good pot of chili should be so hot it rendered your taste buds useless. He once told a news reporter a good pot of chili had an excellent flavor hidden under the spices. It should sneak up as the customer was finished with his meal. He should leave the table with flushed skin, but still have a sensation of satiety and fullness. A good bowl of chili was subtle as the snap of a whip, not blunt as the blow from a hammer. It should let you know it was there in a subtle manner, not smash you up the side of the head and stomp on your face. He wouldn’t say where his chili recipe had originated just that it was “south of the border”.

On cold winter nights, he would spin a tale to his patrons, which had him stranded off the coast of the Mayan Peninsula when his merchant freighter hit a sandbar. He would tell people how a beautiful senorita took him home to meet her father, Don Gordo, who showed Senior Hades the secret of cooking the perfect bowl of chili. He was forced to promise marriage to get the recipe, but he snuck out of the hacienda one night. An army of guapos chased him north until he reached the border crossing at the Rio Grande. He was forced to memorize the recipe before he swam the river and only with the vision of a steaming hot bowl of chili in front of him was he able to survive to reach the other side. Captured by the border patrol he was only spared the indignity of a jail cell when he could recite the final scores of every baseball world series from the years 1960 to 1970. They almost arrested him anyway when he expressed his love for the Cincinnati Reds and the border guards were all Dodgers fans. He was released only when he cooked them a pot of the secret chili recipe. To this day, the pot of his chili is kept at boiling temperatures and every night a new batch of vegetables and meat is added with the ten-pound batch of seasoning that Don Gordo gave to him.

At least this was the general outline of the story he told on cold winter nights. No one knew if there was any truth to it at all. Some people pointed out that Hades changed the story a little bit each time. But no one cared as the man was a natural born storyteller and people loved his chili. Who cared if half of the ingredients came in steel cans certified by the USDA.

In truth, Hades learned the power of fire elementals at an early age when his particular clan of elemental workers discovered his unique ability to start bathroom fires and spontaneous combustion on piles of wood. By fifteen, all his peers bowed to his innate ability to control the unpredictable fire spirits and the salamanders, which could be reasoned with, but still enjoyed burning down the occasional house.

He needed a career and a cook was the best choice. Hades used the best and most up to date cook stoves in his kitchen, but he didn’t need them. The man could cook a slab of beef in minutes by directing a fire elemental to do the job. However, the stoves were needed for the kitchen staff and the restaurant inspectors. In the summer, he gave a cookout that employed salamanders and no one ever complained about the barbecue.

Placing a satellite restaurant in the mall was a dream of his and he spent every other day at the new restaurant ensuring the quality was the same that he was known for in Scipio. The business hadn’t quite picked up yet. However, it would soon do it, he felt. It was only a matter of time until the word spread in the little community around the mall about his new place.

Michael Hades was what the locals liked to call a “ruddy man”. His hair was red and his complexion followed. He was tall and wide; sometimes he had difficulty getting out of his car. But he was a generous man and rewarded the people who worked for him in every way possible. Christmas bonuses were always big and he bragged not one cook was ever let go for lack of work. It was considered an honor in the food business to work for the man and one year in his kitchen was worth the twelve you might get anywhere else in town.

Dion only knew a little bit about the restaurant they needed to find. He’d remembered the location from the now burned map. His aunt and uncle stayed home most of the time and didn’t eat out much. It was always a treat when they did. In fact, this would be the first time he’d ever visited this particular restaurant.

They walked down the concourse a bit and decided to wait before approaching the restaurant. So far, there was no sign of Karanzen’s men, but this could all change in a minute. Dion was surprised none of them lurked anywhere in the vicinity. Usually, he could spot one or two in the distance who kept an eye on him and his friends once inside the mall. Even the security cameras couldn’t watch every part of the mall and security needed human eyes to keep a watch on everyone. But today he didn’t see any of them in the mall.

“Do you remember exactly where the chili place was located on the map?” Sean asked Dion. Sean was dressed a little better than normal today with his shirt tucked in his pants. Emily had spoken to him about his appearance.

“Not exactly,” Dion said, “but most of the food places are in the same location. All we have to do is find them and the Hades restaurant will be there.”

“Emily wants to check out this record store,” he announced. “Why don’t we go inside it and meet up with you later? That way if any of us tangle with your uncle there will be at least one party left for the rescue.”

“If he strikes,” Dion told him, “we’ll be hit at the same time. But you might as well go ahead and check it out. I’m going into this game store. Plan on both of us returning here in a half-hour.” Dion checked his watch.

Sean looked at his. “No problem. See you then.” Then he walked away with Emily.

Dion watched him leave and turned to Lilly. “I don’t see how it will be problem to let them have a little time to themselves. Let’s go to the game store.”

“As long as you reach the restaurant on time. I just hope the owner is around today. He has another one downtown. What if he’s there?”

“He’s here today.”

“How do you know?”

“I just do.”

Chapter 6

The Elewheron Puzzle and Game Company was a small shop in the large mall. When Dion and Lilly walked into it, the shop had several jigsaw puzzles laid out on a table where people were in the process of putting them together. In the back of the room, several other high schoolers were looking over the selection of war games. Some of the war games came with complete sets and figures, but many of them had a collection of pewter figures that needed to be purchased separately from the main game.

To Dion it seemed to be a good deal for the game makers. Sell the players a basic set, and then continue to upgrade it and force them to purchase more figures to play. Some of the figures came hand-painted, others were bought without decoration and the player could paint them on their own. Naturally, the game store sold paint and various modeling compounds to upgrade the figures. Once again, it was a good plan for all parties involved since the gamers could add some individual flair into what they did and the game company could sell them more products. It was quite a step up from the toy soldiers he remembered as a kid.

The manager looked to be in her twenties and was behind the cash register when they entered the store. She wore the “Ben Franklin” glasses, popular with grandmas and hippies from ten years ago and had a trace of grey in her hair. She smiled at them, but didn’t push herself on the new couple in the store. She continued working on an account book as they made their way around in the store and looked at the games.

“Were you ever good at jigsaw puzzles?” Dion asked Lilly as they shuffled through some of the boxes. “I never was. Every time I think of a jigsaw puzzle, I think about a movie I saw on TV where some rich lady spent all her time putting them together. I have better things to do with my time.”

“I liked putting them together as a kid,” she told him. “Haven’t had much time to do them lately. Emily still likes to put them together.”

They walked over to a table where several puzzles were partially assembled and looked at the result. Across from them, a man in his twenties attempted to get a puzzle together, but he wasn’t very successful according to the look on his face. He picked up one piece, then another, and looked at them as he tried to find a place to put each one on the partially completed puzzle.

“Have you looked at this one?” The manager’s voice grabbed their attention.

Dion and Lilly turned around to see the lady walk up to them with a small-boxed jigsaw puzzle. “It’s our latest and I think you might like it.” She sat it down in front of them and walked away.

Dion picked it up and looked at it. The puzzle showed a large fireplace in a castle with a blazing fire in it on the box. The puzzle was complicated and had close to five hundred pieces. He opened it and saw the freshly printed puzzle pieces inside. This one had never been assembled before.

“Fire,” Dion said and looked at Lilly. “The puzzle depicts a fireplace. How long do you think it would take you to put this one together?”

“Not too long with your help,” she told Dion. “Do you want to go ahead and try?” She gestured to the empty table in front of them.

“I think it’s important we do it,” Dion said as she dumped the pieces out. Lilly began looking at them and piling the various puzzle pieces into different piles.

Dion worked with her as Lilly went into problem solving mode and began to assemble the puzzle. She would pick up a piece and either put it in the puzzle or into one of several piles she had on the table.

Lilly worked quick and soon had an outline of the final picture in front of her. As they were able to compare it to the one on the box, she had an idea of what to do.