“Except that the Enders didn’t die because of the wounds inflicted. They died afterward, something, or someone else killed them, Ash. I had paperwork that proved it—”
“Let me guess, the paperwork is missing?”
My whole body seemed to freeze despite the heat and humidity. “Yes, but how could you know that?”
“That is the way cases like this go. The minute you have hope it is snatched away and dashed. Let it go, Lark. I am here, willingly. The more you try to get me out, the more trouble you will find. We both know that.”
He shook his head and I noticed his hair was dull with grime already, dimming the bright blond strands. He dropped his eyes and I felt his words like grease along my soul.
“No, that isn’t going to fly, Ash. Stop lying to me. You don’t really believe that.”
His head snapped up and his mouth dropped which only confirmed the feeling. “How can you even know that?”
“Because she carries Spirit, you dumb dirt boy,” Peta snapped and she carefully adjusted herself on my shoulders. “She’s as loyal as they come and I would think you should be grateful someone is trying to free you.”
His lips tightened and he shook his head. “Lark, this is goodbye. You can’t save me and I . . . I want you to stop trying. This is my penance for losing your mother and Bram. They died on my watch.”
I put my hands on my hips and glared at him. “Really? This bullshit again? Yes, they died. Yes, you should have stopped Cassava and her Sylphs from doing what they did.” Peta sucked in a sharp breath that made her cough, but I kept going. “But the reality is you were as controlled as I was. As my father was—that is nothing we can change now or then. And now when I need you most, you would sacrifice your life for me which is all well and good, but what happens the next time?”
He frowned, “What do you mean the next time?”
Blowing out an exasperated sigh I threw my hands into the air. “You think this is the last time I’m going to be in trouble? It seems to be my middle name. The mother goddess has chosen me for something and I know I can’t do it alone. Whatever it is. I have Peta now,” I reached up and touched her head, “but I need you, too.”
His golden eyes searched my face. “Lark.”
“Ash, ask for a trial. It will slow things and give me time.” I tipped my head to the side.
“You can’t do that,” Peta said, “he didn’t ask for one in the beginning. He can’t go back now.”
Damn the Salamanders and their rules.
I started to back up. “I’m not giving up, Ash. “
The smile that flickered on his lips was all I needed. I stepped forward, cupped his face and kissed him. The heat between our mouths shot straight through me, warming me like nothing in the Pit had, not even the heat of the lava compared. I felt a need in him as our lips pressed against each other, as strong as there was a need in me to be assured we were together in this chaotic world. That even when everything else went to hell, we had each other.
I found myself clinging to him. No matter what happened, I couldn’t lose him. I pulled back a little and rested my forehead against his as I caught my breath and my heart raced.
“For luck,” I said.
“I doubt you will need luck,” he whispered against my mouth.
Peta cleared her throat. “We must leave now.”
I stepped back from Ash, spun and jogged out of the dungeon, trying not to think about that toe-curling kiss and the depth of emotion in it. I slipped through the doors as Fiametta’s two Enders shut them.
But the queen was nowhere to be seen. I glanced around the room. “Looks like our conversation is done.”
The Enders said nothing but I noticed they glared as they walked away. I couldn’t resist. I lifted my hand and waved. “Say hello to Maggie for me.”
The one on the left, the one who’d answered Fiametta’s question stopped moving and his buddy smacked him on the arm. “Let it go. The queen will fry her ass before the week is out. You know that.”
He grunted, put all four fingers to his neck and slid them across. “You’re dead, Terraling. You will not see the start of the new moon.”
I shrugged as if his words didn’t bother me. “Fiametta is not the first ruler to threaten me. The funny thing is, I’m still here, and those who threatened me . . . not so much.”
The Enders spun away and I stood, breathing hard. “You think they were telling the truth? Do you think Fiametta is playing me?”
“What do your instincts tell you?”
I drew in a slow breath as if tasting the air around us. “That nothing is as it seems here, any more than the Deep showed us its true colors until the very end. And that makes me nervous.”
There was no way I could prove the Enders didn’t die as a result of my weapons without the paperwork the cloaked one stole from me. No way I could show someone else ended their lives.
But how was I going to get Ash out? I paced the throne room, fatigue from the long night slowly creeping over me but I refused to give in. I had very little time to prove Ash was innocent.
Everything here in the Pit was about rules. . . that might be the answer I was looking for.
I stopped in the middle of the room. “The rules here are strict, Peta. And everyone follows them to the letter. Is there a place, like a library where I can look for maybe a loophole? Some way we can get Ash out?”
She shook her head hard enough that I thought she would fall off my shoulder. “No libraries here.”
The lie was heavy between us and her eyes met mine. She blinked slowly several times. “I think we should go see your friend Cactus. He has some plants I’d like to taste.”
It took me a good twenty seconds to realize she was afraid to talk here, so close to the queen’s quarters.
So close to the place we’d be tossed and forgotten about if we stepped out of line.
“Fine, let’s get you some greenery, you nutty cat.”
CHAPTER 15
eta pointed out where I was to turn at each intersection and not once did we run into anyone. It took my sleep-deprived brain the whole walk to figure out something was not quite right. “How long before Fiametta wakes everyone else?”
“They should be awake by now,” Peta said, “all the sconces are lit. I don’t know why no one else is up. This has been happening more and more. Sleep is hanging onto people instead of leaving when it should.”
Odd, but not necessarily bad. It meant I didn’t have to explain to anyone what I was doing without a guide deep within the tunnels. Even with Peta on my shoulder I had no doubt I’d be stopped and dragged to the queen.
Again.
I stumbled over my own feet, my limbs dragging with fatigue. Peta gave a soft chirping noise. “We’re almost there.”
A few more steps, one last corner and we were in the main living area cavern. Daylight streamed through the light tubes and I guessed we were on our way to mid-morning. But still no one walked about, no children laughing and playing, no women doing laundry or cleaning.
A shiver ran down the length of my spine and I stopped and stared across the cavern. The only noise was of the bubbling lava river as it flowed in its winding curve.
I forced myself into a jog, my long legs eating up the distance between the bridge and us. While I didn’t want to jostle Peta, I also didn’t want to dawdle. Around us I felt the air tensing, like the very breath in the caves was being held; waiting for something inevitable to happen.
I really didn’t want to find out what that event was going to be. Unfortunately for me, I was not to be so lucky.
When standing in the middle of the bridge, the structure groaned and Peta gasped. I didn’t wait to see what the hell was going on but leapt for all I was worth for the far side.
Underneath me the bridge exploded, stones smashing into me as I flew through the air. Arms outstretched, the heat of the lava licked along the front of my body as I sailed toward land. We hit the edge of the river with a hard thump and I scr
ambled up the slight incline while the rocks dropped into the lava behind me, splashing and sending out droplets of red death.
Whatever fatigue I had was gone as I sprinted from the lava flow, my ears ringing with what had almost been the end of me. And no one would have known. Cactus and Ash would think I’d just abandoned them.
I finally stopped when Peta bit my ear and growled. “Dirt Girl, you’re running the wrong way.”
Breathing hard, I realized just how terrified I was—the very thought of falling into the lava drove logic from my mind. “I would face the Deep and its monsters a hundred times again before this,” I spit out. The urge to keep running, to bolt until I found a way out of this nightmare labyrinth was overwhelming and I struggled to tamp it down.
“Dirt Girl, you will not go into the lava. I will not allow that to happen.” Peta’s words slowed my racing heart and I nodded.
Only then was I able to take in the scene. Exploding rocks and no warning—only one conclusion could be drawn. “That was no accident.”
“I did not think so either. But who other than yourself can manipulate stone?”
“The smaller cloaked one.” I stared around the cavern, looking for a black figure darting away, but saw nothing. That didn’t mean I was wrong though.
“Cactus is capable. You must also think of him,” Peta said and I hated that she was right.
He was a powerhouse in his own right. He’d broken the archway with such ease to stop the traitor from escaping.
“He could be helping her, and using our old ties to draw close to me.”
I didn’t have to say Fiametta’s name. We both knew whom I meant. Peta bobbed her head. “True, but even though I suggested him, he doesn’t seem the type. Do you truly believe you can’t trust him?”
Getting my legs going again, I tossed the thoughts around in my head. “I don’t know, Peta. That’s the problem. Those who have been closest to me have shown they are rarely what they appear.”
Peta cleared her tiny throat and whispered into my ear. “My first charge, the one who carried Spirit was able to see inside other people’s minds when he touched them. Perhaps you could do that with Cactus so you could be sure of his loyalty?”
I sucked in a slow breath. I’d done something similar when I’d been in the Deep. Though it had been an accident, I’d touched a shape shifter’s head and heard his thoughts and what he planned on doing to me.
We were outside Cactus’s home and I stopped in the doorway. I was totally stalling because I didn’t know what to do, where to take this. I didn’t want to believe Cactus could hurt me, and even as I thought it, the doubts faded. Yet I couldn’t rule him out.
Carefully I took Peta from my shoulder and set her down. She limped through the door.
“You have a choice, depending on how much you trust the half breed.”
She was right. I followed her into Cactus’s home. The plants bent toward me and I brushed my face over the open hibiscus flowers, the soft petals a caress on my skin.
“How did it go with the queen?” Cactus broke the moment, startling me. I jumped, feeling as though my disloyal thoughts were written all over my face. I glanced at him.
“About as well as one could hope. Have you been here waiting the whole time?” I watched his eyes for a flicker, a sign of deception. He nodded and a half grin tipped his lips.
“Yeah, which sucks because Maggie is in the back snoring and farting up a storm. You know, Salamanders spend so much time in the lava that they begin to produce a kind of noxious sulfur of their own?” As he spoke he closed the distance between us, putting his arms around my waist and his chin on my shoulder. He drew in a slow, deep breath.
“And what do I smell like?”
His laugh rumbled across his chest to me. “Spring in the Rim, a little slice of heaven in my arms.” He turned his head and I stepped back so his lips missed my neck.
“I need to speak to Peta, do you have another room away from Maggie?” I asked, folding my arms over my chest.
His eyebrows climbed. “Don’t tell me you think Maggie and me—”
“You do whatever you want, prick,” Peta snapped. “I need to speak with my charge alone.”
Cactus laughed softly. “Maybe you will make her a good familiar, bad luck cat. At least you’re loyal.”
Peta gave a long low hiss and the fur along her spine stood at attention. I bent and scooped her up even though she’d just asked to be put down. “A room, Cactus.”
He gestured to the left and a doorway I hadn’t noticed before opened. “Lark, you know me. Maggie isn’t my type in the least.”
I nodded, feeling a weight around my heart lift. “I know, Cactus. Still, it looked bad.” Stopping in the doorway, I looked at him and placed a hand on his chest when he would follow me. “Peta, this is your call.”
Her body trembled, but I didn’t look down at her. The seconds ticked by, almost audibly as we waited for her answer. A sigh slipped out of her. “If you trust him, then I will too. He may hear what I have to say.”
And even though I’d doubted for a moment, I did trust Cactus. He was my friend.
Cactus grinned and I turned my back on him, entering the smaller room. I struggled not to gasp at what I saw.
Four tiny redwoods were planted in the hard ground; they couldn’t have been more than a few years old as they barely reached the ceiling. Without a second though, I reached out and touched one, my hand aching for the feel of home after so much time in the Deep, and now, trapped in the Pit.
This is what Banishment would be like. To always be aching for a place that speaks to your soul, yet never able to hold it in your hands or heart again. The thought came unbidden to my mind and I closed my eyes against the sudden blur of tears.
Banishment was what every elemental feared, that they would be cast out of their home, doomed to wander the world until they faded to nothing, their souls and very beings starved of the connections that made them who they were. “Cactus, how is it you’ve survived this long outside the Rim?” I whispered as I pressed my head against the tree. Its soul was young, and very old at the same time. The history of its species called to me from the long distant past, the wisdom they held in their collective memory if I could just understand the words whispered around me.
“The fire is a part of me too, Lark. As long as I have some of the earth near me like this, I can do it. But . . . I can’t stay here any longer. There is more of me that is of the earth than fire.”
I opened my eyes to see him mimicking me, his hands and forehead pressed against the tree to my right.
Peta let out a small sigh. “Then we must all escape. And soon. I feel a firestorm coming, and none of us will want to be here for that.”
Her words brought me back to the moment, breaking the spell the trees cast over me, calling me home.
“Where do we go first, Peta? You know the Pit, where do I go for answers?”
She shifted her weight and dropped her head to my ear. “There is a secret place that Loam would go. A place only a few knew about and they are all dead and gone now. A place of old rules that even the queen can’t deny.”
A shiver ran through my spine. I looked to Cactus. “Do you know what she’s talking about?”
He frowned. “Whispers of rumors. Stories of a place that tells our history and everything that has ever happened in the elemental world. That would be a huge library though and even here, hard to hide.”
Peta shook her head a single time. “No, this place is very small. It is where all the original edicts of the Pit were created. Loam knew about it. He had to as an ambassador. And of course, the queen knows, but she doesn’t know where it is.”
“But Loam did?” I needed to be very certain because if Peta was wrong, I knew there was only one thing I could do to save Ash. Something he would fight me on every step of the way, so I held it as a last resort. A final gamble if I found no other way.
Forcing my feet to move, I stepped away from the trees and out
of the room. “Peta, take us there.”
“Now?” Her strangled squawk was all I needed to hear to know just how dangerous this was going to be.
“Yes. Now.”
CHAPTER 16
s we walked, I held Peta in my arms. I felt the struggle of her body with each breath she took, her broken ribs at a bad angle pressed against her lungs.
“That’s why I can’t shift right now,” she said softly. “A shift when I’m so injured would surely puncture my air bags and I would be of no use.”
I stroked a hand along her back as I followed Cactus through the currently well-lit tunnels. Empty tunnels.
“Cactus, stop a minute.” I laid my hand on Peta’s back, and spoke quietly to her. “We’re connected, aren’t we?”
Her green eyes narrowed. “We are.”
“And I can draw energy from you, if I need to be healed?”
She slowly nodded. “Yes.”
I closed my eyes. “Then let’s reverse the flow.” I found the bundle of emotions, the connection to Peta inside my head, right next to the place that my power with Spirit resided. Distantly I heard her saying it didn’t work that way, that I couldn’t heal her but I couldn’t see why not. It made sense that it—the connection between us—would work both ways.
Taking hold of my Spirit power and the bond to Peta I threaded them together inside my head. The strands around Peta’s energy glowed a bright pink, like a sun flare, and then faded into nothing. Peta let out a gasp and I swayed where I stood.
A dip in my energy was all I felt, but when I opened my eyes Peta glared up at me. “Stupid Dirt Girl! You aren’t supposed to sacrifice your life for me, it’s supposed to be the other way around!”
I shrugged and she leapt from my arms, immediately shifting to her snow leopard form.
Her emotions were all over the map, swinging from an intense dislike that came from years of being told Terralings were stupid and useless, to an intense loyalty that bordered on love.
Confusion I understood. So I gave her an out. A way to not feel like she was being a burden. “I can’t have you slowing us down,” I said, brushing off my shirt.
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