The Perilous Sea (The Elemental Trilogy #2)

When they finally stop and crouch down behind a boulder, I see the place they are approaching. A palatial fort, or a fortress-like palace, set atop a rocky hill that dominates the center of a wide valley surrounded by toothlike peaks.

Almost all the peaks have guard towers on them, their narrow windows glowing like the slitted eyes of nocturnal beasts. The floor of the valley is brightly lit, revealing rings of defenses.

I had written the above in the morning, harried because I was about to be late for a meeting with the high council that Father wished me to attend. All throughout the day I would remember the vision and wonder what in the world I was looking at.

Just now I visited Father in his classroom. He is so difficult in the present, but the old him, the “record and likeness” he had left behind in the teaching cantos of the Crucible—I adore that young man. And it breaks my heart to realize that I consider someone who no longer exists not just a dear friend, but the only person who understands the life I live now and all the responsibilities I will face.

How I fear that I will turn out to be like Father someday, hard and grim, full of anger and recrimination. Being reminded of how charming and exuberant he had once been only deepens that fear.

But I digress. Young Gaius told me that without a doubt I had seen the Commander’s Palace, the Bane’s retreat in the hinterlands of Atlantis.

The young men I saw in the vision are either the bravest or the stupidest mages alive.



After the revelation at tea, what Titus wanted to see was something about Kashkari. But the diary chose once again to confirm that Titus would go to Atlantis with only one other person, someone who needed help walking.

He closed the diary. Across the table, Fairfax was just sitting up, coming out of the Crucible.

“Do you know anyone named Penelope Rainstone?” she asked, with a strange flatness to her voice.

“She is the regent’s chief security adviser.”

“What kind of person is she?”

“Extremely capable. Seems devoted to the crown. No evidence of any extracurricular dealings with Atlantis. Why are you interested in her?”

She did not answer, but only looked unsettled.

Could it be? “Did you come across her name while you were searching for clues to the memory keeper’s identity?”

For that was how he would find his way to Horatio Haywood, by first unmasking the identity of the memory keeper.

She got off the stool and shrugged into the uniform jacket she had set aside on the worktable. “The Argonin line is her favorite quote. And she and Master Haywood had met many years ago, during a reception at the Citadel, before they even started their university studies. But nothing conclusive.”

He did not know what he had expected, but this was a shock. Commander Rainstone?

“I’m headed back,” said Fairfax.

The house was locked down before supper. After that, to go back in, one either had to climb through a window or vault. And any time one vaulted, there was a chance of being seen. For him it did not matter. For her, everything mattered. Even climbing in through a window, if there were witnesses, could arouse Mrs. Hancock’s suspicion.

She had always been scrupulous before. She ought to remember that even though he could not take her on his mission, she was still the most hunted mage on Earth.

But he did not have the heart to lecture her, so he only said, “Let me go first and make sure the coast is clear.”



After Titus had seen Fairfax safely back, he looked into Wintervale’s room for Kashkari. But he only came across Cooper and Sutherland, already on their way out. Wintervale yawned hugely, his eyes closing.

Kashkari was in his own room. “Have a seat, prince,” he said as Titus entered. “The sound circle has already been set, by the way.”

Titus got to the point. “Who are you?”

“I am no one important, but you might have heard of my late uncle. His name was Akhilesh Parimu.”

Titus stared at Kashkari—the name meant nothing to him. Then it suddenly did. “Akhilesh Parimu, the elemental mage born on the night of the great meteor storm in 1833, the one who reawakened a dead volcano?”

Kashkari nodded. “Then you would also know what happened to him.”

“His family killed him rather than let Atlantis have him.”

“He begged them to kill him, rather than be taken—or that has always been the version told to me,” said Kashkari. “In any case, in retaliation, Atlantis killed everyone else in his entire family, except my mother, who was very young at the time and had been sent away to stay with a friend as soon as Akhilesh’s powers manifested themselves.