“I’m so glad you wanted to come of your own free will, Larkspur. What is this ability you have that keeps you from doing exactly what I say? Hmm? Your mother was a half-breed, unable to touch the earth’s power. So. What possible excuse could you have for being strong enough to resist me?”
“Ash resisted you.” I stopped about fifteen feet from her.
She waved a hand at me. “Bah, he’s stubborn like none other I’ve ever known. He still had to do what I wanted. But I let him believe he could fight me. It kept him in line.”
My jaw tightened. “Release the fire, Cassava, and I’ll let you go.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You. Will let me. Go?”
I nodded. “Yes. Go. As in I won’t stop you from leaving. Just release the fire, let our people be healed.”
A sly grin slipped across her lips. “Beat Wicker in a battle of hand-to-hand, and I will release the fire.”
She crooked a finger and Wicker stepped around her. He full-on grinned at me, baring his teeth. “I thought I was seeing a ghost when I first spied you in training. But knowing I get to kill the one I was kept from all those years ago, how sweet it will be to finish unfinished business.”
“You talk too much,” I said, leaping toward him, knowing he wouldn’t expect it. Or so I thought.
He sidestepped me and I crashed to my knees. He kicked me in the side, but I was already moving so it was a glancing blow, one that barely skimmed my ribs. Still, it sent me skittering across the platform. Right to where the fire pot sat, all alone and unattended. I grabbed it up and held it over my head.
“No, you little bitch!”
Around Wicker, clear blue sparkles rippled across his knuckles as I threw the pot down. A huge gust of wind ripped in behind me, sweeping the pot into the air where it hovered.
“You break the rules, Larkspur,” Cassava cooed.
“Thought I’d join your club,” I shot back. Sweat rolled down my spine, nerves getting the better of me. Damn it, I thought I’d beaten her. Thought I’d saved my family.
“Well, since we are both breaking the rules, how about this one? Wicker, kill her. Steal her air.”
Oh. Shit. I knew what was coming. He’d pull the air from my lungs, collapsing them until my frantic heart stopped beating. Just like my mother and Bramley.
I clamped my mouth shut and glared at him, knowing if there was any moment when I needed to reach my connection to the earth, this was it. This moment, or I was going to die a very, very painful death.
There could be no hesitation any longer; there was no one who would save me. I dropped to the earth, driving my hands into the soil and bowing my head.
“Oh, Wicker, look. She’s trying to reach her power. But she can’t, not as long as I hold the block on it. And Granite put a little extra ‘oomph’ into the block with his concoction.”
Wicker laughed. “I’m going to enjoy this. Do you know, I think her mother begged me to kill her quickly?”
I raged against their words and there, just outside my reach, I sensed the power of the earth, growing. Rising to my call, bending to my will.
“Oh, no you don’t,” Cassava whispered, her voice audible over the roaring wind. A thick film coated my eyes, dusted in pink and as it drove into me like a sharp spike, that building connection to the earth receded. “Oh, you will obey me, either by your will, or because I will break you.”
“NO!” I screamed and fought back, but she was so strong and the urge to just give in and let her win was heavy on me. But that was the ring. I knew it was. I bucked hard under the fury mounting in me with no place to go. Nothing to do with it but scream.
The wind roared around my ears and I was lifted into a maelstrom of debris. The air slowly began to escape me, no matter how hard I kept my mouth shut, breath by breath it slid from my lungs. Was this how it was with my mother? Did it take this long, or were they drawing it out? I didn’t close my eyes, I stared into the swirling wind. Hating Cassava.
Hating Wicker.
Hating how weak I was.
Griffin’s voice found me in that darkness my heart had fallen into. Child of the earth. You stopped the Enders with your words. Do it now.
My air was gone and I fought to draw a breath, my lungs burning, muscles and heart screaming for oxygen.
I couldn’t speak, so I mouthed the words. “Wicker, stop.”
I plunged to the ground, hit hard, and sucked in a lungful of air. Like a seedling being watered after a dry spell, I drank it down.
A sharp slap of skin on skin. “Why did you stop? Did I tell you to stop?”
“I . . . don’t know. I heard someone tell me to stop.”
Cassava snorted and I rolled to face her on my hands and knees. “I told him to stop.”
Her eyes widened, understanding flowing over her face. “No. No, your mother was a half-breed.”
I slowly stood. “She was a child of Spirit. As am I.”
A large, black wolf sauntered onto the raised ground, and Griffin shifted in a split second. “Yes, she was. And now her daughter will take her place as a proper princess.”
Cassava screamed and scooped up the fire pot. Wicker stood, trembling. “I can’t move. I can’t move. What have you done to me?”
I swallowed hard and would have undone, or tried to undo, whatever it was I’d done. As it was, I didn’t have the chance.
A sword slid through Wicker’s middle, and then a second one popped out of his chest. He gurgled as he stared down at his pierced body, hands touching the blades, his eyes wide and staring. “My mother always said I’d die as I lived. I’m sorry, Mother.”
He slid forward as the blades were yanked out of his body, twisting as they went. Granite stood behind him. “That was for Ulani, you piece of shit fly boy.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
His eyes hardened as he looked at me. “Do not thank me. Your death is next.”
“Granite, you aren’t under her sway.” I backed away from him, spinning my spear in front of me. “Why would you listen to her?”
“Some oaths can’t be broken, Lark. Remember that as you make your own.” He lunged and the green flicker around his fingers tipped me off. I sidestepped as the earth fell away behind me.
“Damn you,” he roared, slashing at me with such ferocity it was all I could do to keep the blade from my skin. I couldn’t beat him, he was too good, too experienced. And he was driven by pain, something I understood all too well.
“Any oath can be broken by the mother goddess, call on her.” I panted the words as I fought to keep each blow from landing hard. He clipped my left shoulder and I jabbed the butt of the spear into his right thigh, hard enough that he dropped to one knee. But I couldn’t bring myself to kill him. I wanted to believe he was under Cassava’s power, despite what he’d said. Despite the fact that I could clearly see his eyes were his own.
He gave me a tired, sad smile. “Just like your mother, you are too soft for this life, Lark. It will be a mercy to kill you now instead of letting you struggle against the inevitable for years.”
“Whatever will let you sleep at night, you go ahead and believe,” I snapped, straddling my legs, one forward and one back, to brace myself for his next attack.
His hand flicked, green glow flashing in a pulse that I didn’t recognize until too late. The ivy growing along the edge of the raised mound snaked across the grass and jerked me from my feet. I swung my spear, cutting through it, but not fast enough.
Granite swung his two swords in a cross-blade blow meant to remove heads. I knew. I’d seen him do it to the dummies in the training room. I threw myself backward, unable to take my eyes from the swords as they cut in front of my face, the tips of them nicking me under the chin.
I let out a yelp and tried to roll, but the vines crawled over me, tightening their grip over my arms and legs, keeping me from doing anything that might save my ass. Panic reared its ugly head, making me babble. “Granite, don’t do this. I can stop her. You’ll be free of your
oath if she’s dead.”
He barked out a bitter laugh. “No, I won’t. Oaths hold until the person who made them die, Lark, not until the person they made them to die. I made an oath to her that I cannot break.”
Panic flooded me as he stood over me, one leg on each side, one sword raised up. “Goodbye, Larkspur.”
I shot a glance to the side, to see Griffin standing there. “Help me!”
“I told you, if you can’t touch your power when you really need to, you aren’t any good to the world. Save yourself.”
Everything seemed to slow down, the drip of sweat on Granite’s face falling in a zigzag line, the sword coming straight for my face, the point glittering in the sunlight through the trees.
There was no time to think, I just reached for the power, blasted through the blocks despite the pain, and took hold of it. There was only one thing I remembered how to do, the only aggressive tactic I’d ever used.
Beneath Granite’s feet, the earth exploded, sending him flying through the air, tumbling, his weapons falling from his hands. He hit the ground, rolled, and was on his feet looking at me with wide eyes.
“Impossible.”
I flicked my hands, best as I could tied to the ground by the ivy, and the trees around us bent backward, as if pulled by a huge rubber band trembling with the strain.
My eyes met his and he straightened. “I was wrong about you, you are stronger. You are not your mother.”
A tear slipped from my eyes. “Goodbye, my friend,” and I released the trees. The wind passing over their leaves and needles made a whooshing sound, and I closed my eyes a split second before they hit him.
Griffin stepped to my side, crouched and cut the vines away. I lifted my hands, and flicked my fingers, sending the vines away from me before he could finish. He half-tipped his head toward me. “Go after the queen. You have to release the fire, and you have less than five minutes before it will be too late for your father and many of your family.”
Five minutes. I sat up, pushed the sorrow in my heart away. Griffin was right. Cassava had slipped away while I dealt with Granite. My job as an Ender was to track down and execute traitors.
And there was only one traitor left in the forest.
Chapter 22
I counted as I ran, five minutes was three hundred seconds. If there had been any doubt in my mind that Cassava was done controlling the people, I was quickly dissuaded. I barely stepped off the raised mound when a group of people swept up and tried to surround me, their eyes glazed and chests heaving from the worms. I sidestepped them easily, their movements sluggish, at best. No matter how hard Cassava might be pushing them, their bodies were failing. They were dying.
I had to get to the cleansing fire and release it. And fast.
Two hundred twenty-nine.
Running, I dodged around the first group, keeping my spear tight to my side and pumping only one arm. I had to back track three times in order to get around bigger groups of people. I didn’t want to hurt anyone else, and I knew that it wasn’t really their faults anyway. Still, they were slowing me down and I cursed them for it.
One hundred eighty-four.
The Spiral rose in front of me, calling me to it. I ran up the steps and into the main hall, not pausing to look around. I knew where Cassava would be. The throne room, without a doubt, the seat of power, the place she wanted to make her own.
One hundred ten. I bolted in that direction, body slamming three people on my way there.
Seventy-one. I felt bad, and hoped I didn’t hurt them, but I had to see everyone who could be controlled by Cassava as an enemy. Which meant everyone.
I skidded to a stop at the edge of the throne room, my heart leaping into my throat.
Forty-four. Cassava sat on the throne, the fire pot in her hands. My father laid at her feet, his body splayed out, face down. Around her were her children, standing from oldest to youngest. Vetch, Belladonna, Keeda and Briar—the twins—and Raven. Briar and Raven were the only ones who looked terrified, Briar’s cheeks stained with tears as she clung to Raven’s hand, and Raven’s skin paled with shock. The others, grinned, their eyes holding the same wicked darkness their mother’s had. They were her children through and through. They wouldn’t help me face her.
Raven gave a slight shake of his head. I heard the unspoken words, though. They couldn’t get away, not even if they wanted to. But I still could.
“I’m not leaving those I love.”
His jaw twitched and he pulled Briar closer to him, away from the others, the division clear. Cassava glared at him. “I will deal with you two later.” Then she turned her eyes to me.
“You wanted me to release the cleansing fire, Larkspur. I think I will.”
Eight.
She launched the pot high, arching it over her head.
Six. By the time it hit the ground, the clock would have run out, it would be too late.
I took three running strides and threw my spear.
Two. The clay fire pot hovered at the peak of its arc, the spear shattering it in the air. The fire exploded in a blast that sent me sailing backward. I slammed into the wall, hard enough that ribs cracked, splintering under the force. Overwhelming heat followed the blast, scorching my skin, sliding through me as it searched out the worms. On my knees, I watched as my father’s body jerked and heaved, worms pouring out of his nose and mouth, dying as they shriveled up beside him.
I crawled across the floor, sweat dripping down my bare arms and leaving little drops of moisture that lasted all of two seconds on the fire heated floor. I crept to my father’s side and scooped his upper body into my arms. His eyelids fluttered, and his breathing eased. He was alive. I’d done it in time.
But how would he know that Cassava was a scheming bitch? That she wanted his death? His eyes opened and I shook my head.
An idea formed, like a spark of lightning across my mind, and I grabbed onto it. I shook him lightly, making sure he saw my eyes. “No, no! You killed him!” He gave the slightest inclination of his head that could easily be seen as movement from me shaking him. And then he closed his eyes again.
Cassava laughed. “Of course, I killed him, that was the plan, you little idiot. How sweet that this will be the only time you get to hold the one who despised you the most.”
A gasp slipped from me, both from the pain of my body and the pain in my heart that she might be telling the truth. “He didn’t despise me.”
Her grin widened as she stalked around me, her three oldest children fanning out behind her. “You remind him of Ulani. Too much. And she was cheating on him, with Granite. You know that?” The glow around her hand pulsed, the pink fire swelling until it encompassed her body. I lowered my father to the ground and stood.
“He didn’t despise me, and my mother would never cheat on him. I know she wouldn’t.”
Cassava glared at me. “Damn you, believe me!”
Her roar hit me, a sound wave of epic proportions, and I leaned into it as it swept my hair up. Her voice wrapped around me and squeezed like a boa constrictor, tightening until I could barely form the word I needed to say: “Liar.”
The power around me came to a pulsing crescendo, hammering at me to let it in, that all would be well if I just listened to her. I pushed against it, like sticking my hands into deep mud and trying to push off. The power sucked me under and I held my breath . . . as if that would help. All I knew was I couldn’t let her in. If I did, I was giving up.
My boots dug into the hard packed floor, and from the ground, a thrum of strength resonated through me, starting at my feet, crawling through my body, pushing her magic away from me. Forcing her to leave me, inch-by-inch until . . . I was free of her. I gasped in a breath and found myself on my knees, staring up at her. She had a hand in my hair and held my head back at an awkward angle. Her eyes glittered with a hate she didn’t bother to hide.
“Your mother could defy me, too. I always wondered how strong the genetics were. Time to die, Larkspur, like the
whore’s bastard that you are.” Her hand lifted and the sparkle of green around her fingertips lit up her fingers. She was going to drop me into a hole and crush me.
“Tell me, why do you want him dead? At least give me the truth before you kill me.” I tried to look at my father, but she held my head tight.
She burst out laughing, almost doubling over at the waist. “Larkspur, you are truly naïve or maybe just the stupidest elemental alive. Not that the reason matters now. We are in no hurry.” With her free hand, the one with the thick pink diamond on it, she stroked my hair. “Your father was weak. Too weak to do what he must. All he was good for was siring children of strength. Do you know, the other elementals laugh at us? They know we don’t have their strength in magic or numbers. We need to take our place amongst the elite. We should be the rulers of the world, Larkspur. Do you know that it used to be that way? That foolish storyteller had that part right. We were meant to rule the humans, to direct them and be worshipped by them. And I am not the only one who thinks so. There are others, like your mentor.”
A thought seemed to hit her. She narrowed her eyes. “Where is my general? What have you done with him?”
I leaned forward, pressing my face hard against her hand, the roots of my hair pulling. The ring was just with in my reach. “I killed him, and now, I will kill you.”
I grabbed her hand and jerked her toward me, yanking on the ring as I tucked her arm under my own. I had to move fast, there was no other way this was going to work. My ribs burst in an eruption of fire inside my chest, the broken ends splintering further, but I didn’t let her go. Couldn’t. This was our one chance.
She let out a scream, “To me!” and the throne room flooded with people. They shambled, gasping for breath, but already they were healing. The color of their skin pinking nicely, no worms dangling from their lips. And they were moving fast.
Not as fast as her oldest children, though. They ran for us too, Vetch with his sword raised above his head, Belladonna and Keeda lifting their hands, calling on the power of the earth. If they reached me, this would be over.
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