Elemental Power

Prologue

Prologue

ELEVEN AND A HALF YEARS AGO

Lumina City glittered with the bright morning light of spring, but the interior of Kayne’s Antiques was as creaky, dark and mysterious as always. Filled with towering piles of fascinating objects and the smell of very old things, it always felt to Ridley like stepping into another world.

Ridley’s grandfather was at the counter near the back of the store, finishing up with a customer, while Ridley and her best friend Lilah peered at a rusty typewriter sitting on the store’s front table. They both knew the rule: no touching. But for curious six-year-olds, this was an immense challenge. Lilah’s hand reached toward the typewriter, and Ridley stifled a gasp as her finger aimed for one of the faded typewriter keys.

“Delilah Davenport,” her mother scolded. Lilah jumped, snatched her hand back, and looked over her shoulder at her mother. “Hands behind your back please,” Mrs. Davenport said.

“Sorry, Mom.” Lilah tucked the offending hand out of sight, her eyes wide as she grinned at Ridley.

“You too, Riddles,” Ridley’s father added, and she realized her hands had somehow moved to her sides. She couldn’t remember how that had happened, but she quickly clasped them together at the small of her back as she giggled at Lilah.

“All I’m saying,” Mrs. Davenport continued, speaking to Ridley’s father in a low voice, “is that maybe you could convince him to move in with you and Claudia and Ridley. You have plenty of space, don’t you? And this place …” Ridley followed Mrs. Davenport’s gaze as it rose toward the ceiling and the cobwebs gathered in the corners. “I can’t believe anyone would live up there. It must be so cramped, and the stairs are only going to become more difficult for him as he gets older. You mentioned he hasn’t been well recently. I’m sure you’d all be happier if he was living with you in Aura Tower.”

Dad laughed as he finally finished unlocking the cabinet he and Mrs. Davenport were standing in front of. “My father wouldn’t be happy in Aura Tower, I can assure you that. He likes it here. It’s been his home for … well, at least half my life.”

“Don’t you worry about Ridley’s safety though?” Mrs. Davenport pressed. “When you bring her here to visit, I mean. It isn’t exactly the safest neighborhood.”

It isn’t? Ridley thought. She’d noticed, of course, that this area wasn’t pretty like the part of the city she lived in, but she didn’t know it was dangerous here.

“It isn’t the worst either,” Dad said, and Ridley relaxed. She was certain her father knew more about these sorts of things than Mrs. Davenport. “Anyway,” Dad continued, “since you didn’t see anything in my workshop that appealed to you, here’s the piece I thought you might like.” He removed a cushion from the cabinet and lifted a tiara. Ridley stared in wonder as he held it up for Mrs. Davenport to see. “The central stone is an emerald, and these other smaller stones—” he pointed along the sides “—are where I can add the magic effects you asked about.”

“I see. So they’ll appear to twinkle?”

“They won’t just appear so; they will twinkle,” Dad told her. “And the other option …” He returned the tiara to the cabinet and reached for something else as Ridley realized that Lilah had wandered toward the back of the store where Grandpa was tidying his oversized desk.

“Mr. Kayne, can I write with the feather pen again?” she asked. Ridley, not wanting to miss out, hurried after her.

“Yes, come on over here,” Grandpa answered with a smile. “It’s called a quill, remember?”

“Lilah, please don’t get ink on your dress,” Mrs. Davenport called across the store.

“I won’t, Mom,” Lilah said as Grandpa helped her up onto his desk chair. He nudged magic toward a bottle of ink that stood on the corner of the desk beside several mugs of pens. After curling his fingers in the air, the bottle slid forward.

“Can I go next?” Ridley asked, wrapping one arm around Grandpa’s waist.

“You most certainly can.” Grandpa paused to give Ridley a quick sideways hug and a kiss on top of her head, then placed a blank piece of paper in front of Lilah. Next, he handed her the quill and opened the ink bottle. As she dipped the quill nib into the ink, Ridley’s eyes traveled over the contents of the desk, coming to rest on a closed cardboard folder. Several pages stuck out the bottom, just far enough for Ridley to see a few lines of foreign, handwritten words.

“What’s this?” she asked, carefully touching one corner.

“Oh, just copies of something very, very old.” Grandpa picked up the folder and slipped it into a drawer. “Myths and legends from different parts of the world that I’m attempting to translate.”

“Like fairy tales?”

“Yes, a little bit like that.” His eyes—a light, bright gray behind his glasses—smiled at her. “Stories so old that most people don’t even know they ever existed.”

“Wow.” Ridley ran her finger along the edge of the desk. “That sounds really old.”

“Why isn’t this working?” Lilah complained. “It’s not writing nicely.”

“Here, just change the angle a bit,” Grandpa said, gently adjusting Lilah’s grip on the quill.

Ridley bobbed up and down, eager for her turn with the special pen. Her attention landed on a yellow notepad that had been hiding beneath the folder Grandpa removed. She reached out and pulled it closer, trying to read his handwriting and understanding only a few of the words. “El … em …” She stood on tiptoe and leaned over the notepad as she tried to spell out one of the longer words. “What’s that last part?” she asked, pointing to the second half of the word ‘elementals.’

“Oh, nothing exciting,” Grandpa said, swiftly lifting the notepad from the desk and dropping it into another drawer, which he closed firmly before leaning against it and tousling Ridley’s hair.

“Grand-pa,” she moaned. “Let me try again.”

“Okay, let’s try a different word,” Grandpa said, reaching for a blank notepad and quickly pulling a wisp of magic from the air. He flicked it toward one of the mugs, where it wrapped around a pen.

“Actually, Dad, we need to get going,” Ridley’s father said as the pen reached Grandpa’s hand.

“Yeah, I can’t get this quill thing to work anyway,” Lilah said, placing the quill flat on the page and climbing out of Grandpa’s chair. “We don’t have to fetch Archer now, do we?” she asked her mother.

“We do. He should be ready now.”

“Ugh, it’s so much better when he’s not around,” Lilah moaned.

“I know,” Ridley agreed. Then she hugged her grandfather quickly and said, “Bye, Grandpa. See you soon.”

“Lilah, please don’t say things like that about your brother,” Mrs. Davenport told Lilah as she and Ridley reached the front of the store. “One day you’ll miss him when the two of you are apart.”

“Whatever,” Lilah muttered with a dramatic roll of her dark eyes.

“Thank you so much for your time, Mr. Kayne,” Mrs. Davenport said to Grandpa. “Maverick will let you know which of the pieces I’ve decided on.” She gave Grandpa a brief wave before ushering Lilah out of the door.

“Thanks again, Dad,” Ridley’s father said. “See you on the weekend for dinner?”

“See you then,” Grandpa said with a smile.

Outside, Ridley ran up to Lilah and linked arms with her. She couldn’t wait to get back to Aura Tower for Erin Lopez’s birthday party that afternoon. There would be games and cake and presents, and she would finally get to wear the new shoes Dad had conjured for her. Every time she tapped her heels together, the rainbow painted over the front of each shoe would detach itself, spin around her ankle, and then reattach itself to the shoe. Even Lilah didn’t have shoes like that, and Lilah had pretty much everything.

“Who’s that?” Lilah asked as the driver of the Davenports’ car opened the rear door for them. Ridley looked to where Lilah was pointing. Across the street, a boy with straight black hair and a wide smile, similar in age to Ridley and Lilah, waved madly.

“Hi, Shen,” Ridley called, waving back.

Lilah crossed her arms and pouted. “Is he your friend?”

“Um, not really. I just know him. Sometimes he’s in the store when we go to visit Grandpa. He lives across the road.”

“Oh.” Lilah’s expression relaxed into a smile. “Good.”

They all climbed into the spacious vehicle, and Mrs. Davenport told the driver to take them back to the Opal Quarter. As they sped away, the details of that morning’s visit—including the mysterious word written on Grandpa’s notepad—vanished from Ridley’s memory.