She hurled gallons of water down at the fire-cats' faces. The catlike beasts howled and gave off clouds of steam. Only one clawed its way up to the ledge where Ruyo stood. She wielded her little orb elementals like shields; they were liquid pain for any fire creature that touched them.

Nusina whipped across the flank of a second cat, knocking it down in a shower of sparks like a fresh log thrown onto a fire. She cried out too, hurt by the heat.

The leader slashed his staff through the air and chanted. The elementals divided, two of them avoiding Ruyo to one side and the others retreating down to gang up on the men without shields. The beasts' bodies seemed to be regenerating, unquenched by one attack.

Ruyo said to Nusina, "He's not an idiot. Switching to use his fire on the least prepared targets."

"Let's finish the cats off."

Ruyo looked to one side. One pair of them was blocking the stairs down.

"Jump and cushion your fall!" the spirit said.

Ruyo jumped down alarmingly far, willing her watery dodging power to activate. A splash appeared around her feet, slowing her impact. She landed hard but unhurt on the rubble.

The cult leader looked alarmed. "You, thief! That power is rightly ours. We searched for such things for years!"

Ruyo shouted at him, "Keep fighting and I'll give you a lesson!"

Instead of pouncing from above, the pair of cats on the entry ledge slinked out through the door. The wind-mage's eyes went wide and he said, "No, you fool! Sewer gas!"

The cult leader laughed. "Better go deal with that. It's why they brought you, right?"

The mage was already running after them. It took Ruyo a moment to understand: the miasma down here in the tunnels would burn. Or explode.

She said, "We have to stop the man controlling them." At least that seemed to be what the stick was for. But the other two fire-beasts were within seconds of roasting the Vissios and Hastro, all of whom were under her care. "Nusina, drown him or something!" She idly flung another few gallons at the spirit and stumbled across the rubble, flinging handfuls of water at the two beasts. Meanwhile the human cultists clashed with the guards, unable to do much. One woman wrenched a shield aside and took an armored fist to her face in return.

The brothers had gotten their hands on some kind of fire-protection charm that made the flames pull back, but the monsters' claws still raked across one man's arm and knocked him into Hastro, who looked scorched. Ruyo came to the rescue. Raising both hands, she brought down a great splash on the brawl. The felines sizzled and howled. Her two elementals flung themselves like missiles and died, leaving holes in the creatures. "Help the guards!" Ruyo said, switching to defense.

The two monsters wasted seconds trying to chase the Vissios and Hastro before turning back to Ruyo with hateful eyes. Ruyo grinned back at them. She'd summoned a wobbling, rippling orb of water the size of a tub. The effort left her out of breath and shuddering, but the heavy mass floated in front of her. She launched it at the cats. "Bathtime."

The elementals exploded into steam, knocking Ruyo backward. She crashed onto her back, instinctively cushioning her fall with another splash. Vapor washed over her.

A mental shout from Nusina made her sit up. The cult leader was shouting orders to his gang -- and he was holding a glowing cage with the spirit in it!

Ruyo launched herself onward. Somebody yanked her sleeve, made her stagger. She flung ice at him without looking. A rock tripped her and another struck her in the chest. The leader was running away toward another hidden door. Ruyo bounded toward him and attacked any way she could. She got caught up in a crowd as the cultists ran past her, slashing and tripping at her in passing. Ruyo screamed at them all and threw a man down behind her for momentum.

One of the guards threw his mace, downed a cultist, and charged with Ruyo. Something boomed, and the doorway collapsed in another rubble-pile that shook the room. Rock fragments rained from the ceiling. Ruyo was suddenly faced with a caved-in escape tunnel with an arm sticking out of it and someone shouting.

"Clear the path!" Ruyo shouted, grabbing stones and tossing them aside. The second one she lifted was too heavy and she fell backward, off balance.

Hastro caught her. "Careful! Let us do this." He, the Vissios, and two of the guards pried loose some of the stones, freeing an injured cultist's head and chest.

Ruyo stood up and staggered toward the pile again. But there was another boom that shook the whole room.

The lead guard cursed. "Water mage, the city's in danger. Go!"

"But Nusina!"

"We'll work on this. Move!"

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Hastro looked terrified. "He means that was an explosion out there. Come on!" He tried to usher her out of the room.

Ruyo shouted at him, didn't even remember what she said, but then he'd pulled her backward toward the exit. The other men were still digging through the rubble, trying to clear the path that the cultists had fled through. It looked hopeless, though she refused to admit it.

"-- You understand?" Hastro asked her a moment later. She'd blanked out. He shook her and said, "Fire! Come on, do your job!"

Ruyo was in the sewer tunnels, seeing smoke and distant flame. If it was that bad down here, what was happening in the streets? She had to get out of here, not least because the tunnel air was getting fouled worse than usual. She thought, "Nusina, I need --" But of course, she wasn't there.

Angry now, she took the lead. Retracing her steps back toward the entrance. As she ran, she trailed as much water as she could from both hands, trying to douse the patches of burning filth that'd scattered around the tunnels. She and Hastro came to a set of planks that had been damaged from the explosion, running over the foul river.

Ruyo held out her hands and tried to lift and freeze a patch of it, adding as much new fresh water as she could. Tainted ice bridged the gap now. She was the first one across and it was cracking with each step. Her follower barely made it across. She threw more water at it and tried to freeze it harder for the others to escape too. But there was little time for that. She hurried onward, upstairs, and out to a morning dimmed by smoke.

"Oh no." People were shouting in the streets, fleeing fires or trying to put them out. Several mages worked with a wheeled tank of water, using it to spray down a blazing mansion and pull the water back to use it again. Ruyo refilled their tank and the buckets of three amateurs... and then caught sight of the elementals again.

Or rather, just one bigger elemental. Blurred together from the two blazing cat-things, this version was more like a man-sized spider with four eyes and eight legs made of fire. Someone heroically threw a full bucket at it, but the supply barely stung it. Behind where it had come from, trees and shops burned.

Ruyo's heart pounded. She shouted, "Distract it!" while she cast a spell. She nearly fumbled it, but conjured a glob of water that split into two basic waterball elementals that hovered before her. The burning beast charged her, slipping right between them. Its jaws gnashed at her and a swipe of its claws nearly slit Ruyo's throat. Just then, the water-spraying mages hit it with their best shot, sending it staggering out of the way. Ruyo hopped in the other direction.

She flung a spray of water at it but it just wasn't enough to do real damage. "We need more at once." The townsfolk kept up their attack mainly as a distraction. While she was looking their way, the creature charged her again with blind fury. This time it was too slow. Ruyo easily avoided it, and it staggered partway up a stone staircase.

The water mages flung a jet of water in Ruyo's direction. She caught it and added it to a growing, unstable blob. From the top of the stairs, another magic-user chanted, pushing the creature's flames back in on itself like the man was trying to stamp it out with his mind.

It roared and turned around, leaping at Ruyo. She dived and flung her water supply at it, using her hovering elementals to steer it right into the beast's blazing maw. The impact made half its body explode into steam, throwing the mages around. Ruyo picked herself up off the cobblestone street. Smoke and steam rose from what was left of the beast, staggering on five legs, half its mouth missing, fangs mismatched and flowing around its dented flaming head.

The man atop the stairs rushed it, shoving at the air in front of him and seeming to compress the flames. The fire-brigade men came to Ruyo's side, trying to add their power to her own. Ruyo began summoning gallon upon gallon of water while the men beside her chanted, focusing.

A spray of dirt fell on it from above, doing nothing but drawing its attention for an instant. It didn't distract Ruyo's team. They used the extra time to gather that much more water, and launch it with more force than Ruyo had ever managed alone. A spiraling jet of icy water shot out from them and slammed dead-on through the heart of the flame creature, impaling it and giving it just a second to howl before crumbling to the street in a pile of embers and soot.

A cheer went up from people staring from windows and alleys. Ruyo looked around wildly and said, "Are there more fires? Let's go!"

She and the other casters ran to find more trouble. A bunch of other townsfolk with buckets followed them now. Ruyo filled their supply while they moved. There was one other spot with smoke rising from it, about a block away through a maze of streets. When they came to the site, other people were already at work, and there was no monster. Women beat at the smoldering walls of a cabin with blankets, and threw water at burning canopies. Fortunately, most of the buildings were stone.

One of the water experts said, "That's the worst. Let's go back to what that, that thing ignited."

"What was it?" said the man who'd been corralling the fire-beast with fire magic of his own.

Ruyo tried to catch her breath and coughed on smoke. "Elemental. A monster made of one raw substance."

They made it back to where they'd fought. Bits of the scenery and several trees burned, but there was no real challenge to their magic and the mundane fire-fighting volunteers. A pair of healers were already checking the wounded.

And the Vissios were there, all three brothers. Young Virid was quizzing the older two and the three guards and Hastro, who'd made it up from the sewers. When he saw Ruyo his eyes got even wider and he said, "Did you see? I flung dirt on it and it looked away from you!"

"That was you? Thanks." She said to the others, "Where's Nusina?"

The head guard had removed his helmet. "The 'university' folk took her, ma'am."

Ruyo wobbled and accepted a supportive shoulder from another guard. "Where? We need to go now!"

"We don't know where the tunnel led. But we took prisoners and we're going to have words with them."

"That's not good enough! The leader could get away!"

"He already did. He could be anywhere in the city or even outside it."

Hastro pleaded with her. "You're not in condition to fight more right now."

"I'll fight and I'll drown them all!" she shouted, her throat hoarse. She coughed and doubled over.

"What would Nusina herself say, ma'am?"

"She'd say Get me out of here now!"

Virid came closer and stared at her. "No, she wouldn't. I heard they stole her away somewhere. But you're gonna collapse if you try chasing them now, and we don't even know where. You have to rest and let us hunt them down. Please!"

Ruyo shouted at the guards, "This is just leverage to make me sign up with you!"

The guard leader took the abuse. "I don't know what you're talking about. Lords Vissio? Would you please take care of Miss Ruyo and get her rested and calmed down? I'm sure the Council will want to speak with her when things have quit smoking."

She finally relented and let them lead her away, back to bed and a healer's attention.