Dragon's Storm (Legion Of Angels #4)(28)
“Yes, it does,” I agreed. “But Kendra Fireswift doesn’t know that. You have to always know the rules better than your nemesis, right?”
Captain Somerset laughed. “You learn fast.”
“So I might just survive the Legion?”
“Yes, I think you will,” she said. “The real question is whether the Legion can survive you.”
9
Storm Castle
Major Hailey Valentine, the Earth Dragon, led the tour of Storm Castle. A mix of medieval and modern, the Magitech trimmings blended in beautifully with the cold stone walls of the fairytale fortress. Its tall ceilings were as grandiose as they were practical. The height accommodated the Legions’ training sessions—and allowed angels to fly in and out of the castle with ease.
The castle’s main hallway was wide enough to drive a truck through. Lanterns hung on the stone walls, glowing with magic, humming like an elemental tune. As we walked past them, the lights changed from orange fire, to blue ice, to gold lightning, to green flowers. The halls echoed with a sweet melody, each change of the elemental lights accompanied by a note of music.
Major Valentine brought us to the brink of darkness, stopping just outside the black room. Though the lanterns continued to pulse and shine in all their magical glory, not a single ray of light made it into the black room. Darkness ate light. But when we stepped into the room, a rush of magic rippled past us. The room’s walls changed from opaque to clear. That’s when I realized the room was made of glass—a very magical glass. The floor seemed to disappear. It was so transparent that I couldn’t even see what I was standing on.
“In addition to our large training hall, Storm Castle has four elemental training areas,” Major Valentine said as the floor slowly began to turn.
Far below the rotating glass platform, a red glow illuminated the first training area. Pits of fire crackled. Steam rose from bubbling water pools. Hot waterfalls and springs streamed together in an interconnected system of pools and streams. Glowing stone walls, painted with scenes of fire and volcanoes, surrounded the training area. It reminded me of my nightmare last night of drowning in lava. The scene of an angel battling hideous beasts was painted on the ceiling. The angel flew high, raining down fire on the beasts. His angelic wings the color of a sunset, he looked like a fire dragon.
I felt everything as though I were standing directly inside the fire area. The soft hiss of rising steam. The pop of bubbling water. The sweet, spicy aroma of cinnamon and orchids.
The platform continued to rotate across the vast fire area. We passed smoky caverns. The smoke swirled together, forming monsters. The smoky tentacle of one of these monsters grabbed a lamp post and dragged it into a cave. Apparently, the smoke could take solid form. Past the smoky caverns, geysers shot up streams of burning water. The tiny droplets sprinkled against my skin like hot mist. I reached out, and my hand bumped against the transparent wall. How had the mist gotten through the wall to touch my skin?
The red glow turned gold. The glass platform had passed into the second training area. A hollow whistle echoed through the tunnels. The raw wind cut like steel ribbons at my skin. There was a flicker of movement from within the tunnels. Someone was in there right now.
“It’s a labyrinth in there,” Soren whispered to me and Nerissa. “You have to navigate the ever-shifting barriers, battling the wind funnels that try to push you off track.”
The platform moved past the wind tunnels to the open field beyond. The air smelled of dry grass and something burning. Lightning flashed across the sky and crashed down to the ground with a thunderous roar that split a tree in two. A second lightning bolt hit a patch of grass, igniting the long blades with purple swirls of magic. The air was electrically charged. It popped against my skin and buzzed in my ears.
“Don’t tell me we have to dodge that lightning,” Nerissa commented.
“When you’re lucky, you get to dodge it,” Soren replied. “When you’re unlucky, you have to stand there and let it hit you.”
“What is the point of that?” she gasped.
“To build up our resistance to elemental magic,” I guessed.
Soren nodded. “Yes, only those with an innate talent for elemental magic can cast it before drinking the gods’ fourth gift. No matter how long most of you stare at your sword, for example, you won’t be able to set it on fire. You can’t train it. That’s why candidates for level four train their resistance instead. That’s the best way to prime your elemental magic—and to maximize your chances of surviving the next ceremony.”
We moved into the third training area, and gold gave way to blue. There was nothing but water as far as the eye could see. Either Storm Castle was much bigger than it looked, or they’d made use of some very powerful magic to fit an ocean inside of it. My breath caught when the platform plunged into the water. A few people gasped as a sea monster that resembled a large spiky shark swam past us.
“I take it we have to fight beasts like that?” I asked Soren.
“Yes, you will be training underwater battles. It’s harder than it looks. You have to learn to hold your breath for extended periods. Also, the supernatural speed you enjoy on land is seriously impaired underwater. As you build up your water resistance, however, you will regain that speed.”