Two arrows flew, straight and true. One into the right shoulder of Vetch, the other into the ground at Belladonna’s feet. They spun, and Griffin stood there, grinning at them. “Right now, it’s a fair fight between those two. Let’s keep it that way, children.”
Vetch launched himself at Griffin and I lost track of them as I spun in a circle with Cassava, using her body to shield me from the grasping hands of her mindless followers.
From the very edge of my vision, as I wrestled with Cassava, a flash of a ragged green skirt caught my eye. Fern?
I didn’t look her way again. As long as Cassava didn’t know she was there, maybe Fern would be safe from the queen’s control.
“Little bitch, I will slice you open and eat your heart!” Cassava screamed and the ring stuck there, on her finger, at her knuckle. We spun and spun, and my body was giving out, my ribs making it incredibly hard to breathe.
I reached to my waist and pulled my final remaining dagger. “This is going to hurt you far more than me.”
She screamed as I put the blade against her middle finger, gritted my teeth, and shoved. Surprisingly, the blade slid through her skin and bone with ease, a light pop as it came completely off. Cassava’s scream tipped into a high-pitched wail as her finger fell to the floor.
The hands reaching for us dropped, and the mob slowly slid to the floor, an eerie silence spilling over them. At my feet, the finger twitched, the pink diamond glittered and the ground gave a slight rumble before eating both items in a single gulp. Someone behind us retched, and the splat of vomit on the hard packed dirt met my ears.
I still held Cassava’s arm under my hand, which meant the bleeding finger was easily visible as it and the others glowed a sickly green. Her hand and arm began to shrink until it was nothing but a claw, minus a digit, black and scaled. Wings beat at my head, black feathers filling my vision as I fought not a woman, but a giant raven. Twisting around, I dropped to my knees as a wicked sharp beak shot toward my right eye. I turned my head and her beak slammed into my temple. Again and again she pecked at me, and I couldn’t get her away. My skull ached, and I knew it would be one more blow and she’d break my head open.
Scramble my brains.
But my family was safe, my father alive.
I’d done my job as an Ender.
“Enough!” That single word reverberated through the air, knocking us both back.
Head feeling as if it had been slammed against a rock, repeatedly, I lay on the floor, my eyes barely focusing.
My father stood, Fern supporting him, his children behind him. As if they’d always stood behind him. He held a hand out, palm open and alive with green fire. Above me, Cassava shrieked. There was a triple beat of her wings, and then a whoosh of air passing, as she dropped to the ground, forced back into her human form.
“Basil, Lark tried to kill you,” she cried. And there it was, the gambit she would throw down. But would my father believe her?
“Lying bitch, you will be banished for this, if not executed,” he swore at her, and relief coursed through me like a waterfall on a hot day.
She put a hand to her left arm, under her long sleeve. And without seeing it, I knew she had the stolen armband. With a grin and a mock curtsy she twisted the armband.
“Not today, lover.”
Her body swirled and sucked in on itself, and then she was gone in a pop of air.
I fought to sit up, to see that it really was my father. That he was okay. But I wasn’t so sure I could even do that.
“Larkspur, I expected better of you,” my father said, and I stared up at him, shock hitting me hard. His eyes were foggy, and he seemed confused. But that didn’t ease the sharp pain his words caused.
“I tried to stop her,” I whispered and he shook his head, slowly, disappointment heavy in his eyes and the way his brows dipped low.
I closed my eyes, tears trickling, stinging the cuts on my face, stinging the spots where Cassava had slammed her beak into my skull. What more could I have done? Would I ever make him proud?
The answer, as simple as it was painful, filled me. I would never make him proud. I was a half-breed, bastard child.
“Basil, I can’t believe you would say that to her! Have you lost your mind? She just saved you and our people, and you would demean her?” Fern snapped. “Is that how you would treat our child? Because if that’s the case, I will so go back to Eureka and live there with the humans.”
My eyes shot open to see Fern standing beside me, her arms crossed over her bosom, which also accentuated the swell of her belly. My father stared hard at her. “Our child will not be a half breed who cannot even touch his power.”
A pair of hands helped me to sit up, the musky scent of wolf surrounding and soothing me. Griffin gave a grunt. “She’s got her claws too deep into him, even now the lies she spun are truth in his eyes. It’s going to take some time for him to sort it out.”
I nodded, but still, it hurt. “Fern, your place is here, with him.”
She turned and dropped to her knee. “You saved me from her, Lark. I won’t let him treat you this way.”
My heart swelled and I realized maybe, just maybe, I did have some friends here. Raven and Briar circled around and crouched beside me. “Lark, you saved us too. We were next, she told us.”
I looked over their heads at my father, his eyes shadowed with doubt and something I’d never seen in him.
Fear.
He didn’t understand. Or maybe he understood too well.
Griffin helped me to stand, and Raven slid an arm around my waist. “We need to get you to a healer.”
Beside me, Griffin snorted. “Here, got a bit of this left,” and before I could say yes or no, he jammed the flask to my lips and poured the contents into my mouth. I swallowed convulsively. The healing hurt, like before, my body writhing as the bones cinched back together. I ended up on my knees, ears buzzing with the shouting that had erupted in the room.
All of them shouting.
But none of it had anything to do with me.
I stood and went to my father. “You heard her confess, didn’t you?”
His jaw twitched and the shouting faded. I pressed him. “Did you or did you not hear her confess?”
His breath blew out in a slow stream. “I heard her.”
“And the ring is gone, so she can’t control you anymore.”
His head snapped up, his eyes crackling with green fire. “She never controlled me, I am the King.”
“You are a fool if you believe that.” I turned from him, my feet taking me out of the Spiral. I didn’t care who followed, didn’t care what happened. Cassava had been stopped. The family was, mostly, intact.
The smell of wolf preceded Griffin, and I shifted so he could lean against the redwood next to me. “Your father is wrong, you did well. Better than well. You saved them all.”
I nodded. “Then why do I feel lower than worm shit?”
“Because our parents, no matter how old we are, have that kind of power over us.”
A stumbling figure slid to the ground, just barely visible between two homes. Dark head, blood soaked clothes, and a single hand.
His green eyes met mine. “Lark, help me.”
Chapter 23
Coal!” His name burst from my lips as I ran toward him. I fell to the ground at his side, wrapping my arms around him, “You’re alive!”
“What happened?” His words were slurred, as if he’d been drinking.
“You’ve lost a lot of blood.” I pulled my belt off and wrapped it just above the stump where his right hand had been, tightening it quickly. He’d put a makeshift tourniquet on his arm, but it wasn’t doing the job. “We have to get you to a healer.”
“Who did this to me?” he whispered. “I’ll kill them. I’m less of a man. Can’t do my job. Useless now.” He mumbled all the way to the healers’ rooms where I left him in the capable hands of those who knew better than I how to help him. Not that he would want to see me again, not w
hen the truth came out.
Goddess help me, let Coal never know it was me who took his hand. There was no way to explain why or how. He would never understand.
I made my way slowly to the Ender barracks. Blossom was there, sitting in the middle of the floor, worms dead all around her. I crouched beside her. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
She glanced up at me. “Mal died. The fire came too late for him.” Then she started to cry. “I don’t want to be an Ender; this is too hard. There is too much pain.”
“This would have happened if you were training to be an Ender or not.” I frowned, trying to find the right words. “Being an Ender just means we’ll be trained to fight this sort of thing, so we have a chance to save our loved ones.”
“But I couldn’t save him.” Her sobs tore at me, making my eyes water. I knew the feeling all too well.
“But maybe next time, you can save someone else.” I carefully put a hand on her shoulder, not wanting to push things. She would have to make her decision one way or another.
And then I remembered.
The cells below, Ash was there. And blocked from the outside world. “Mother goddess, the fire wouldn’t have reached him!”
I sprinted, bolting for the lower levels where I’d left Ash. The door to his cell was closed and I grabbed the hanging keys from the wall and jammed them in the lock. “Come on, come on!” I couldn’t find the right key, couldn’t get it open. Finally, the last key, of course, unlatched the lock and I swung the door open. He was pale, the live worms on the floor beside him testament to the fact he was still infected.
“Put the necklace on him.”
“Griffin, are you sure? You said it wouldn’t work on my father.”
The old wolf came to my side. “It’s his only chance, it might be soon enough. We’ll find out.”
I slipped into the room and dropped to Ash’s side, taking the necklace from over my head and placing it on his chest. His fingers curled up and around it. “Did . . . you stop her?”
“Yes. But you missed the fireworks.”
He gripped the necklace and the worms poured out of his mouth, an explosion of wriggling white that had me backing up as fast as I could. He rolled to his side and puked hard, gagging on the worms as they died.
“He’ll make it. I’ll watch him,” Griffin said and I kept backing away, unable to stomach what I was seeing.
“Won’t you catch it?”
“Nah, wolves are immune to crap like this.” He jerked a thumb at Ash, who still heaved and wretched.
“Yeah, you watch him then.” I stumbled away. Ash and I might not be friends, but he’d helped me as much as he could while still being under Cassava’s power, and I didn’t want him to die.
Back in the barracks, the remaining Enders gathered. If three could be called a gathering.
“This is it, Lark.” Blossom pointed at herself, another of the Seeders, and a young man barely old enough to grow a beard named Tree. He ducked his head, sorrow written clearly on his face.
“What do you mean, this is it?” I looked from one to the other.
“We’re the last three Enders, everyone else was killed. Someone actually killed some of the Enders. It wasn’t just the lung burrowers.” Her eyes filled with tears, and I wondered how long she’d last in the training now. Especially if she knew I’d killed two of those Enders. Granite and Snapdragon, gone because of me.
I rocked back on my heels, and a cough turned us all around.
He was pale, and his eyes fogged with pain, but there were no worms on him, and that gave me hope we would be okay.
“Not quite the last three,” I said softly.
Ash stared at us. “That’s it? Three Seeders and me to defend the Rim?”
Blossom nodded. “Yes.” And then burst into tears once more.
“Then I guess we’d better move your training up,” he said, naturally stepping into Granite’s role. Taking his place as our mentor.
He sent us out to help those who needed a hand, clearing bodies, getting the ones too weak to stand back to their homes. The day waned and still we lifted bodies, both alive and dead.
With the fading light, I found myself in the gathering field, the mound of dirt where Cassava had stood still there, unchanged. Chunks of boulders lay here and there, and a few people pointed at them, questioning who had done it.
My feet carried me closer until I could see the depression where Granite’s body had lain.
It was gone. I grabbed at the sleeve of one of the men helping. “Did someone move him?”
He paused and looked at where I pointed. “Move who?”
Jaw ticking, I ran to the spot I’d left Granite. No body, no blood. But around the edges were large score marks, like that of a large bird’s claw scooping up its prey.
I swallowed down a sudden uprush of bile. They were both still out there. A not so small part of me was happy; I didn’t want Granite dead. He’d been my only friend in a long time, and I didn’t want to wish him ill.
Cassava on the other hand . . . .
A hand clapped on my shoulder, and I didn’t need to turn to know it was Griffin. “She won’t give up, you know that.”
“I know. I just wish someone else believed me.” The tendrils of a fresh wind blew through the trees, wiping away the scent of disease and death, bringing with it the sharp bite of a coming autumn.
A second hand clapped me on my other shoulder. “I believe you.”
I turned my head. Ash stared at me, his eyes no longer full of hate. “You were the only one who could see through her lies, Larkspur, even I was wrapped in her spells. None of us would have made it without you.”
I thought about the ring, how the earth had sucked it down. If someone else found it, we would be no better off. In my mind’s eye, I could see Belladonna slipping the ring on her finger, and taking up where her mother had left off. My gorge rose. I slipped away from the two men. “Thank you, but I have to go.”
Without another word, I strode toward the planting fields, grabbed a single tool, and then headed for the Spiral. The thought of someone else holding that ring, of wielding whatever power it had over our people made me want to vomit. Stomach rolling with anxiety, I found the spot where the earth had swallowed her finger with ease. Her blood had soaked in, but the dark spot was still easily visible.
I pushed the spade into the earth and lifted out the clump of dirt. Three shovelfuls, and there was nothing.
“What are you doing?”
I didn’t look up at Raven, just kept digging. “Go away.”
“You’re looking for her finger, aren’t you?”
I stopped my shoveling and looked up at him finally. “Yes, now go away.”
“Why?”
“Raven”—I dug another scoop and dumped it out on the floor—“I have to hide it.”
“Her finger?”
Let him believe that, it was easier. “Yes, I have to hide her finger.”
“Hmm. Why exactly?”
I still was trying to figure out who had sucked the finger down. Had it been my father? Or maybe one of my siblings? Too hard to say, I hadn’t been able to watch everyone’s hands while I wrestled Cassava.
“Never mind.”
Another scoop and I was standing over a hole almost three feet deep. And there it was, laying there, her finger still twitching, as if with a life of its own.
Raven drew close and I swung the spade out, stopping him. “No, I mean it, Raven, you don’t need to see this.” In reality, I didn’t want him to know the ring was what had given his mother her power. And he was smart enough to put two and two together if he saw it.
I leaned into the hole and with one hand slid the ring off, palming it, then stood with the finger. Raven handed me a small piece of silk and I wrapped her finger in it. “Raven, I’m sorry about your mom.”
He shrugged. “She wasn’t a good mom, she didn’t even like me. Told me so on several occasions. You know, I remember your mom, but I could never tell
you. I fell down in front of her once, when I was very little, split my lip open.” His eyes had gone distant with remembering. “She picked me up and held me close, sang softly to me until I stopped crying. It’s the only time I remember someone comforting me. She smelled like exotic flowers, scents I couldn’t name even now.”
I nodded, my throat suddenly tight. Moving forward, I brushed past him. “Raven, will you fill that in for me?”
“Sure.”
And then I was outside of the Spiral and heading for the southern edge of the forest. I walked, unable to do anything more. It didn’t matter how long it took me, there was no urgency any longer. So I breathed in the smells of the forest, and tried to put everything that had happened behind me. At least for a little while.
I passed by Griffin’s home and stepped to the edge of the ravine. I tossed the finger down, watched it tumble over the rocks and disappear into the scree.
Alone, I pulled the ring out of my pocket and rolled it in my hands. The temptation to put it on, and to finally have a power of my own called to me. But I’d seen too clearly what it had done to Cassava, how she’d hurt those she’d been charged with caring for.
“What do I do with it?”
There was no answer, no one I would trust with this weapon. I startled and realized that was what it was—a weapon.
A dangerous, addictive weapon that was far too powerful for any one person. I needed a place to hide it, to put it away from the world. The only question was, where?
It took me a long time of sitting on the cliff, dangling my legs as if I were ten years old again before a suitable hiding place came to me. A grin slipped over my lips. It was perfect, and no one would ever think to look there.
I stood, brushed off my clothes and headed to the inner Rim. I would have to wait until night fell, but that was fine. I could do that. The darkness of the night was nothing to fear, nothing at all compared to what I’d seen.
“No one will ever find it again,” I whispered, tightening my hand around the jewel.
Please, goddess, let that be true.
Chapter 24
Recurve Page 18