Elemental chapter fifteen

Instructions

Madeline groaned. “Them too?” Camille winced and leaned against the wall; her legs were not happy with her right now. “Start looking. And take your sister.” She nodded toward Penny, who looked like she might want to go back through the tunnel. As Madeline pulled the Earth Elemental toward the door and poked her head out, Camille saw a note on the desk. She picked it up and read it aloud. “Mr. Hill spotted, trying to stall. If you see this, please hurry. Or cover up the tunnel or something.” She grabbed a pen and wrote on the paper, “Sorry, emergency. Will get you out soon.” Then she tossed the note into the tunnel and pushed the button on the wall to close it. The tunnel disappeared without a trace. As soon as Madeline heard the note, she and Penny ran out of the room. By now, she knew which way the exit was, and she figured it would be best for Mr. Hill to find them as far away from his office as possible. She turned a corner and ran straight into Brian. “What’s going on?” he asked as she stumbled back. Alicia was with him, and she was staring at Penny. “What happened to her?” “Something went wrong.” Madeline raised an eyebrow at her. “Like I said it would.” “Well, we convinced Mr. Hill to go to Camille’s office for a meeting,” Brian reported. “I guess now we have to actually have a meeting, but it was the only thing I could think of to keep him away.” “Did you tell him we’re onto him?” Camille asked, catching up with them. Alicia shook her head. “We didn’t want to make him suspicious.” Camille nodded. “Alright, I’ll go get the others.” She walked off. “What’s happening?” Penny asked suddenly. “Where am I? Wasn’t I supposed to be running to get… something…” “You’re awake!” Madeline exclaimed, relieved. Penny frowned. “Was I asleep?” “We don’t know exactly what happened, but you were acting kinda…” Madeline slowly looked around them with wide eyes. “He did tell us something interesting, though,” Alicia jumped in. “Mr. Hill,” she added for Penny’s benefit. “He said to keep helping Camille. But he didn’t say anything about the rest of the Gems.” “Well, she is in charge,” Madeline pointed out. “So maybe he was implying to help them, too.” “Mr. Hill is still a traitor, though, right?” Penny clarified. When the others nodded, she continued. “So why does he want us to help Camille? We watched him tell someone to rehide the ruby once she found out where it was. Now he wants her to find it? It doesn’t make sense.” “So now what?” Alicia asked. “Do we stop helping the Gems so that we’re not doing what he wants?” “Actually, what if that’s what he really wants?” Brian suggested. “Maybe he knows you guys are suspicious of him, so he’s telling you the opposite of what he wants, knowing you’ll do the opposite?” That was a good point. Though, in Madeline’s opinion, Brian always had good points. “Well, we can watch him and see what he does,” Alicia said. “While in the cavern, we learned something troubling,” Sarah Johnson said. They’d decided to pretend that only the Elementals had been told of the mission, so everyone else who had gone was acting like the whole story was new information. “All of us with powers felt a small earthquake, even in the air.” “So you’re worried that the place will collapse soon?” a shorter woman asked. “I don’t see why that’s bad. Where did you say it is?” Camille glanced at Mr. Hill. “I told you the papers that were hidden from me had a note that said the ruby is in a stone container under the lake. So I went down to see if I could find a way in, and I found the tunnel to the cave instead.” It was the story they had agreed on. “And we’re not worried about the cave collapsing,” Ms. Johnson continued. “The shaking was caused by the ruby itself. It’s been lost for too long, and it’s taking the elemental powers back.” “What?” Camille said. “Why am I just hearing this now?” “I had hoped we would reclaim it before now, so I didn’t mention it. The notes from previous Elementals say that if the ruby is missing long enough, it will start taking back its power in five pieces. The first, which we have just experienced, removed any aspect of the power currently being used. So the Water Elemental can no longer move water around, and the Fire Elemental cannot set fires out of nothing. ” “What about Camille?” Mr. Hill pressed. “I can’t use the air at all,” she said simply. “What about the other four pieces?” Penny asked quietly. “Supposedly they are similar to the first, but they also retake parts of the power that are not in use, so you may not notice what you can’t do until you try it.” Ms. Johnson explained. “So how close together are these pieces?” Hannah asked. “When can we expect the next one?” “Could be anytime.” Ms. Johnson said. “Might be an hour, might be a week. We don’t know.” Penny stared at a spot in the table. “So you’re saying we don’t know how long it is, but we’re on a countdown now.”