Peta

by Shannon Mayer

  Without a word, I turned and bounded away. Finding Cactus was easier said than done.

  I all but slammed into Brand as I rounded the first corner.

  “Bad luck cat, what are you doing here? Where is Lark?”

  “I need to find Cactus,” I spit out, ignoring the jab at me. Now was not the time.

  “I saw him headed this way.” He turned and pointed and I was off and running. Why Lark needed Cactus, I didn’t know but I had to get him fast. The queen would have something up her sleeve, that much I knew. Fiametta hadn’t risen to power because of bloodlines or good looks. No, she’d taken the throne with sheer strength and intelligence.

  Three corners and I picked up the scent of Cactus—a little bit fire and a little bit dirt. “Cactus!” I yelled his name and he sprinted toward me, he green eyes meeting mine.

  “Is she okay?”

  “Yes, but she needs your help right now. You must hurry!” I snapped, swinging a paw at him with my claws outstretched to get the point across.

  Brand was right behind me when I turned. “Out of my way, Ender.”

  “If Lark is in trouble, I can help,” he said.

  “Fine, but don’t dilly dally.”

  Of course, it was the wrong choice to bring the Ender, but I never thought he would turn on Lark.

  I was so very wrong.

  As the crossbow slammed into her shoulder she stumbled backward, reaching for her spear but I knew what was coming, could see it on Fiametta’s face. I leapt in front of Lark as a ring of fire burst up around us, like a cage that increasingly shrank.

  Fiametta stood over us. “These two men are loyal to me, you didn’t really think any negotiation we made in front of them would hold, did you?”

  Pinned to the ground, I laid my body over Lark’s, protecting her from the heat. It was all I could do. We were sunk, Fiametta would kill us both. Yet I knew that if I had to die, I was glad it was with Lark.

  She stared up at Fiametta. “You know, I’m beginning to think the rulers of all the families are assholes.”

  Another time I would have laughed because she was right. All the rulers were assholes.

  We were dragged off to the dungeon and I was chained to the wall by my neck. I couldn’t help but pace the small length I was given. This was not the first time I’d been chained up, but I didn’t take it lightly that the last time had been while I was Talan’s familiar. Something about the Spirit users obviously got them into trouble.

  Lark’s friend, or supposed friend, lashed out at her.

  “We aren’t going to survive this. I thought I could at least get you out of here and now you’ve gone and screwed that up.”

  “What?” she whispered. “Are you serious?”

  “One thing, I asked one thing of you—to go with Brand and save your own life—and you couldn’t even do that.”

  Her pain cut through me, not of the physical variety but through her heart. This man who hurt her, she loved him. I could feel those ties as surely as I could feel my own ties to her. And he was cruel to her. A cry slipped out of me as I strained against the chains in an attempt to reach her. To comfort her.

  Ash softened his voice. “I was only trying to make you angry, so you could reach your power.”

  What an idiot. Men and their brilliant ideas. I wanted to snap at him that it would have been better if he’d hit her if he’d wanted to piss her off.

  Belladonna though saved him from my tongue lashing as she swept in and had Lark and me unchained and brought before Fiametta once more.

  This time, Belladonna took the stage and brought everyone to a standstill with her reasoning: Lark could not be held accountable for the deaths of the Enders because she herself was not yet an Ender.

  A sigh of relief slipped out of me, but it did not last. I should have known.

  Fiametta had Lark read the second part of the papers, about the punishment at the choice of the ruler offended.

  Fiametta pointed the coiled leather at Lark. “Strip her.”

  Belladonna gasped. “You can’t truly mean to do to this.”

  “Cassava has obviously misled you, little Terraling. We are not friends, and neither are our families.” Fiametta uncoiled the leather and her hands lit up as she called on the fire. Like a living snake it wrapped around the leather.

  Lark’s sister yelled at her, “Lark, fight her!”

  No, this was not happening. It couldn’t be. To have found Lark only to lose her so swiftly was too unfair to both of us. Fear spread through me like poison. “Lark, this is not a punishment you can survive, the lava whip is deadly to any who don’t carry fire in their veins.”

  “On your knees,” Fiametta commanded.

  Lark went to her knees, shaking off those who would hold her down.

  The lash rose and fell, the sparkling flames along the edge of it so hot they were white. Over and over again it fell. Someone hung onto me, several someones’. Hands were wrapped around my neck, tail, and back legs and it was only then that I realized my teeth were bared as I stared at Fiametta and fought to get to her.

  I would rip out the bitch’s throat and claw her face to shreds. Larkspur’s pain danced at the edge of our bond but she refused to let me help her. Which only left me one choice.

  Kill the one who hurt her.

  “Enough, you’ll kill her!” A voice cut through the madness and the prick—Cactus—stepped between the queen and Lark. Perhaps he did love her after all.

  “The punishment is done,” Fiametta said while staring hard at Lark. The hands that held me back released me and I ran to my charge.

  I pushed my face close to hers, breathing in time with her. “Lark, draw from me.”

  “No.”

  Ahh, to have such heart! I knew what she did, she did to spare me. And it made me love her even more. “I will carry her,” I said.

  Others lifted her onto my back and I slunk into a stalking crouch that allowed me to move forward with very little jarring motion. All the way to Brand’s home, I slunk as Lark’s wounds seeped into my fur, the blood and fluids leaking her life from her. That she’d survived this far was unbelievable. The only thing I could think was the mother goddess had somehow intervened.

  Settling Lark into her room, I shifted back to my housecat form and curled up beside her face, laying my tail over her neck. Purring softly, I sang her the songs of my childhood, those rumbling tunes my mother had caressed my senses with as the wind howled down the mountainside.

  The sound of footsteps rolled through to me. Footsteps with a lilt to them. Exactly like I’d heard in the tunnels when Lark had been taken from me.

  “Lark, he’s coming,” I managed to spit out before a darkness overtook me. Not of sleep, but an empty space where I heard and saw nothing and had no idea where I was. Or when I would escape it.

  To say I did not like it was an understatement.

  I don’t know how long I was out, only that when I woke things were much different than before.

  Lark was standing and it wasn’t that she was up that surprised me. But her back was healed. Or at least, the wounds were closed. Most of the flesh was still missing, leaving gaping holes. I let out a yowl and leapt to the floor. “Lark, your back, it’s healed. How can that be? What happened?”

  Wobbling as she turned, she shook her head. “The one in the cloak, he did it.”

  “The one who tried to drop the bridge out from under you? That makes no sense.”

  She put a hand to her head, confusion rolling over her face. “No, it doesn’t.”

  She lay down, a sigh slipping out of her. “Peta, get Cactus and Ash. Tell them we leave as soon as I wake.”

  I bolted from the room, but didn’t have to go far. The two men were in the kitchen, heads together.

  “You two,” I snapped and they spun at the same time.

  “Is she awake?” they asked in together.

  “No, but when she wakes up, we’re going,” I said before spinning on my haunches and running back to the
room. Being apart from her, even that little bit, pulled on my soul. I still did not believe she was truly my heart mate, but she was my charge.

  No matter how hard it was, I would look out for her. Even if she was a dirt girl.

  CHAPTER 8

  f course, when Lark did wake, we did not leave. Her back had been healed by the mother goddess, and now the Terraling sported an imprint of the goddess’s touch. A vine of deep green with dark purple thorns wove over her body where the burns had been. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what she’d had to trade for that level of healing.

  Though I had a feeling the reason we were not leaving had something to do with it.

  It didn’t take long for me to see the firestorm I’d been sensing was upon us. The lava flow began to spill out of its confines eating up all those in its path—even the Salamanders.

  We had to get out of the Pit; there was no other choice.

  Brand gestured to the ladder that would lead us out of the living quarters. “You three get up there. Peta, you can lead them to the Traveling room.”

  I leapt up several rungs of the ladder before looking back at Lark and Ash. “Hurry.”

  Unable to hear what Lark said to Brand over the roaring of the lava lighting up everything in its path, I was not surprised to see that he followed up the ladder. Smart man.

  Brand led us toward the Traveling room, stopping at the stairwell that led down to it. We peered past him to stare at the bubbling lava that curled up the steps toward us. That made the decision easy. No going home that way.

  He didn’t pause though. “The queen has a backup pair of armbands in her chambers. She’ll let you use those. I don’t know where they will take you though.”

  “Unless she’s using them to get her people out of here,” I said, padding ahead of them at a steady trot. There was no point getting fussed at this juncture. We only had to get to the exit and we would be out of the mountain and away from the lava. Easy as far as I was concerned.

  Not so easy with Lark.

  We found Fiametta in the healer’s rooms and we offered to help move the Salamanders out to the main entrance to do exactly what I thought should have been done in the first place.

  From the corner of my eye, I saw the queen’s familiar, Jag, hanging back. “You told her to do this, didn’t you?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yes, but she wouldn’t listen. Hours ago, I told her it was time to evacuate, but she refused. Said she could handle it.” He snorted softly. “There is no place for familiars in the elemental world anymore, my friend.”

  I looked from him to Lark, and my heart warmed. “No, we have a place. They only have to remember that we are a part of them.”

  Lark offered to carry some of the children who’d been burned. I moved beside her. “I can take someone.”

  Smit snorted. “Bad luck cat, I don’t think so.”

  Lark put a hand on him, tightening her fingers over his forearm. “Her name is Peta, and if you call her a bad luck cat again, I will forget you are a healer.”

  His eyes flicked between us. He swallowed hard. And I wanted to shout it from the rooftops. “I thought the rumor was wrong about her being your familiar. Pardon me.”

  I let out a soft snort and Lark shifted the young girl to my back.

  The child leaned forward. “You have a beautiful coat.”

  Looking back at her, the golden eyes of a fire elemental stared back. So innocent though. “You have beautiful eyes.”

  She blushed and lay forward, her arms clinging to me.

  We left the healer’s rooms and headed for the main entrance. The doors led onto a massive field of cherry trees perpetually in blossom, the petals flowing down like a soft, warm snowstorm. At least, if they were open that would be the case. As it was, they were locked down tight and it seemed as though no one was getting out.

  Which made things rather touchy when the adult firewyrm showed up.

  He burst through a sidewall and advanced on Fiametta. She held up her hand as if that would stop him. He ignored her.

  “You think you rule here, but your fear is what rules this place. You are no queen.” The lizard snarled and leapt forward with his mouth gaping.

  As the firewyrm leapt forward, time slowed. I heard the echo of the mother goddess speak to Lark to save Fiametta.

  The Terraling jumped in front of Fiametta and held up both her hands, as she dropped to my knees.

  “In the name of the mother goddess, stop!”

  Mewling under my breath, I waited knowing that any move I made could be considered aggressive as far as the firewyrm was concerned.

  “Who do you think you are that you can stop me with words? Are you like the other one?” the firewyrm growled out.

  He lowered his face so he was eye to eye with Lark. My mouth dried up. One bite would cut her in half and there would be nothing I could do to stop him.

  She didn’t lower her hands. “Fiametta is a bitch, a liar, and a manipulator. She’s tried to wipe your people out, punished me with the intention to end my life, and in general being a grade A bitch.”

  I swung my eyes to look at Fiametta. Her face was closed off, giving away nothing. Surely she would strike Lark down for saying that? Even if it was the truth.

  He chuckled. “Yes, all of those things and more. Why do you stop me then from snapping her in half and using her bones to pick my teeth?”

  Lark slowly lowered her hands. “Because the mother goddess wants her alive for some unknown reason. And as her chosen one, I will do all I can to make ensure her wishes are fulfilled. If it were my choice, I would let the queen die and another take her position.”

  He pushed his face forward until they were nose to nose. “You are the one who saved my son and tried to revive my daughter. Spirit walker, your heart is too big for your body.”

  The firewyrm shook his head at the queen. “Fiametta, only because this one,” he tipped his jaw toward Lark, “intervenes and speaks on behalf of the mother goddess will I spare you and your people. But I want my children back.”

  Lark stood, without a single tremble in her body. “The Salamanders have missing children too. Someone is killing them.”

  He shook his massive head, the horns that swept over his neck shimmering from side to side. “Sucked into the lava?”

  She nodded. “Yes.”

  “Then they are not dead. It is how our children were taken too. I feel their hearts beating yet. Come to my nest, and perhaps we can find them, Spirit Walker.” He backed up, his body disappearing into the hole he’d created.

  Of course, just because she’d stopped the firewyrm didn’t mean she was a hero. Not to the Salamanders. Around us, the dissent started immediately. Fools and lava suckers.

  “How did she stop him?”

  “What did they say?”

  “Why didn’t the queen kill the wyrm?”

  Fiametta lifted a hand. “Larkspur. You are the half-breed bastard child that Basileus has kept hidden from the rest of us. Correct? You are Ulani’s child.”

  “Yes,” Lark said, without an ounce of regret. Good girl. Stand firm, this was the time to do no less.

  “Then we will discuss this once we are outside the mountain. For now I will trust you, not only with my home, but with my families’ lives,” the queen said.

  Fiametta turned and looked at her people. “We will exit through the main entrance, and once outside I will send some of my Enders to deal with the wyrms and the lava.”

  No one argued with her, not even the Enders. Lark slipped back to where she’d deposited the two kids and bent to scoop them up. They smiled, reaching for her, but she was pushed away.

  “Don’t touch them, you filthy wyrm lover.”

  He picked the kids up, their eyes wide as they stared back at her. The Salamanders flowed around Lark as if she were an island in a stream.

  I moved up to stand with her. While I’d watched the interaction between Lark and the firewyrm, the little lizard had been taken from my back. “They
took her from me too.”

  Ash waited for us, his arms also empty. “Me, too.”

  “Guilty by association,” Lark murmured.

  Those Salamanders who had allowed Lark, Ash, and me to help them rushed away from us as though we had a disease. “Fools, all of them,” I muttered low under my breath.

  I snorted and shook my body, shrinking to my housecat form. Lark held out her and I leapt up to her.

  “You can carry me.”

  Laughing softly, she placed me on my shoulder. “Thanks, I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

  Ah, the pain under those words. I wanted to claw the eyes out of those who had struck at her in the past, those who had made her doubt herself.

  I sat up straight on her shoulder, looking over everyone’s head. The fact we lingered there in the cavern while the lava flows crept closer made my fur tingle. “Why aren’t they moving?”

  Lark’s shoulders rolled underneath me. “Maybe Ash is right and the door is stuck.” All around us, the Salamander’s heads whipped around to stare at us. Not one seemed pleased to note we still remained there.

  Balancing on my back legs, I stood and put my paws on the top of Lark’s head for a better view. The doors were indeed closed, not a single speck of daylight coming through. This was not good at all.

  “I think that’s exactly what has happened. You need to get up there, you two.”

  They pushed through the crowd with ease; at least that was the upside of being pariahs. Everyone got out of your way.

  At the front of the crowd was Maggie, Fiametta, and Cactus who shook his head almost violently.

  “I can’t reach that side of my powers, my queen. I’m sorry,” Cactus said.

  Fiametta looked to Lark, her blue eyes shimmering with tears. “And you two, can you open the mountain?”

  Ash stepped forward first, laying his hands on the large black door for only a moment before stepping back. “I’m sorry.”

  Lark was up next. I felt her reach for her powers, felt them slide through her grasp over and over again. The block on her abilities was there as thick and wide as the base of a mountain.