Page 8 of Elemasters

“Positive. Mom talks about this stuff all the time… if only you’d pay attention,”

“Okay Mr. Scholar, then can you explain why the fuck this palace is floating in front of us and not in the country or fucking CENTURY where it belongs?!”

“Not really, no,” Dustin admitted.

“Maybe we’re all stoned? I’m definitely stoned… but then again, I don’t usually hallucinate,” James said, and for the first time that night, his voice wavered. The grin was gone, instead he looked… rattled.

Before anyone could respond, a sharp, blinding pain split through Dustin’s skull, like lightning behind his eyes. He gasped and dropped to his knees…

And then came the voice.

Smooth. Detached. It didn’t echo so much as press against the inside of their heads.

“Inside the Palace of Radiant Clouds, you will meet what has always been yours to master,”

At first Dustin thought he was the only one to hear it, but a quick glance made it clear that everyone else was experiencing the same thing, based on the way they were clutching their ears and heads.

“What the fuck was THAT?!” Dustin and Chris cried out simultaneously.

“That voice… I think it wants us to go inside,” James said softly, watching intently as the boat drifted closer and closer.

“No way we’re doing that, are you dumb? We’re calling for help. At this point, even the police are a better option than going inside the creepy ghost palace that we were invited into by a disembodied voice,” Bailey rummaged through their bedazzled handbag and pulled out her flip phone. However, instead of dialing anything, she just stared at it in disbelief, “are you fucking kidding me? No bars… fucking AT&T,”

One by one, everyone else checked their phones as well, and surely enough they had no service either.

“Maybe we should go inside,” Chris suggested, though he didn’t sound very confident about it, “maybe there’s a landline or something in there,”

“Seriously dude? A landline in an Ancient Chinese palace?” Dustin shot him a look, “what, are we calling The Emperor collect?”

“A fucking weird Chinese palace that’s floating on water! A phone being in there would not be the weirdest thing about it! Besides, it’s not like anyone else has any ideas!”

As if responding to their argument, the boat shifted beneath them; pulled closer to the dock at the palace’s edge by an unseen current.

“Fuck it… why not,” James finally shrugged and leapt off the boat, landing on the polished wooden dock with a soft thud, “what? It’s better than just floating out here waiting for something worse to happen,”

Chris closed his eyes for a moment, took a deep breath, and followed James onto the dock.

“What the hell are you two doing? We are not going in there!” Bailey scolded, folding her arms and stomping her foot indignantly, “Dustin, please talk some sense into your brother,”

Dustin wanted to. He really, really did. But there was something; call it a voice, intuition, whatever… it was urging him to go inside. Like the moon pulling the ocean. He couldn’t explain it, wasn’t sure he wanted to… but he knew he needed to follow that feeling.

And so, he stepped off the boat, joining Chris and James on the dock.

“Oh hell no, these motherfuckers have lost their minds,” Chloe mumbled to herself, massaging her temples.

“I know it’s insane, and I can’t really give you a good reason to follow us,” Dustin began, “but I just have this feeling that we need to go inside. I promise we’ll bolt at the first sign of danger,”

Bailey and Chloe exchanged a long glance, looking like they were telepathically debating just how much of a dumbass Dustin was. The silence was long and heavy, but eventually Bailey broke it with a deep sigh.

“Fine, but we stick together. No splitting up, and no losing sight of anyone, got it?”

“Got it,” Dustin nodded, reaching both hands out to help the girls off the boat. Once everyone was on the dock, Chris tied the speedboat in place, and they all turned to face the palace.

The walls seemed to glow under the moonlight as it filtered through the ever-thickening fog. The wood beneath them creaked ominously as they took their first steps forward in unison, and Dustin started silently praying that he hadn’t just made the dumbest decision of his young life…

The palace interior was just as haunting as its exterior; a maze of winding halls and towering ceilings carved from smooth limestone, each step echoing across the black lacquered floors like a whisper in a cavern.

Dustin walked slightly ahead of the group, his eyes following the artwork etched into the walls as they went. It looked like some sort of mural that was meant to tell a story; five people standing against an army, a huge cloud overhead striking the ground with lightning, and a truly terrifying figure in bulky armor with huge deer-like antlers. He had no idea what it was supposed to depict, especially since he couldn’t read the archaic Chinese writing inscribed alongside it; was it a folktale? Ancient history? A prophecy?