“Wait, how can I train? I have no weapons, I have no opponents,” I said. Doing strengthening exercises was all good, but even I could only do those for so long. As it was, I suspected I was going to be in the dungeon a long, long time. Years, as Raven had said.
Griffin didn’t turn around. “Make them, Ender. Make your weapons, make your opponents, yeah?”
I took a few steps after him. “Why are you helping me?”
I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to be left alone in this place or in my dungeon cell. Elementals did not do well when captured. It broke something in our spirits, and already I could feel it eating at me. A few days and I could see what was coming if I didn’t find a way to keep myself together. Griffin had tossed me a lifeline I hadn’t expected.
“Larkspur.”
Just her name, nothing else. And then he was gone and I was alone in the cell again, snapped out of the meditation by the clanging of a tin plate and cup on the floor. Dreg’s shadow was already disappearing into the gloom of the rest of the dungeon.
I reached for the food, a slice of bread, cheese, and some sort of meat, a few pieces of fruit. Better than I’d been getting. I grasped the tin plate and pulled it toward me. My fingers brushed the edge of a piece of paper that was attached to the bottom of the plate. I pulled the paper off and flipped it open.
You are not alone.
I recognized Bella’s handwriting, having seen it more than once on orders. I folded the paper and tucked it under my vest. I ate the food, savoring it, knowing that there may not be much for me in the way of good quality soon enough. I had no doubt that Raven would find ways to make people forget about me. To make them believe I was gone for good. And then the food would suffer and with it so would my spirit as well as my body.
As I ate, I mulled over my options. They were slim, but I still had a choice. Captive as I was, I could still try and change things. Purpose, I had a purpose, and I needed to keep reminding myself that as long as I was alive, all was not lost.
I had to find a way to bring Lark back, to have her banishment reversed. Or to have Bella take the throne from her father. I took a bite of the cheese and frowned as I tried to see the problems from different angles. How could I have Lark’s banishment reversed?
I wasn’t sure there was a way without Bella taking the throne, and that spun me around in circles. “Damn it.”
Those two words echoed in the small chamber. What else could I do? Raven would see me coming a mile off if I chose to go after him. He was strong, and I had nothing on his powers, not to mention I had no doubt he would not offer to meet me one on one in battle.
I popped the last piece of bread in my mouth and chewed. Who was against Lark, who was always the one to hurt her, the one to stop her from doing what she had to?
I slumped where I was, suddenly and with no warning, as a heavy sleep rolled over me and only one thought rebounded in my head. Who was the one who still had some control over Raven?
That strange tension curled up my spine. With my eyes closed, I saw Raven in front of me. His blue eyes were serious. “My mother is the cause of all this strife. Of all Lark’s pain. Kill her, and we will all be free, Ash. Find her and kill her, that is what you must do.”
Cassava.
The puzzle pieces fell into place and I let out a breath and woke as suddenly as I’d fallen asleep. There it was. I knew what I had to do, what could help Lark and our world. A part of me saw that I was being led by the nose, but the majority of me thought it was a good idea, maybe even a great one.
I had to kill Cassava.
CHAPTER 4
spent my days between the layers of the Veil. Slowly I learned to make weapons, and with them I practiced my Enders skills. Every weapon I’d ever used, and several I hadn’t. I worked with the weapons from the other elemental families like the tridents from the Deep and the clubs from the Pit.
I started with the trees, just using them as static opponents, but quickly fell to creating Sandlings. Drawn from the earth, I could build them up and give them directives. We used Sandlings when we trained Enders because they were impossible to hurt, and made good opponents. They were shaped with arms, legs, and a head, and could even be given weapons, if need be, along with simple commands. The first I gave them was the most basic. To attack me one on one, then one on two, three, and four. Quickly I learned to create weapons out of the earth for them, again simple weapons, but they were good enough.
By the end of the third month in my dungeon, I was spending all my waking time within that meditative state, doing as Griffin had suggested.
I began to play with the earth, finding ways to use the strength innate to me, manipulating it in ways I’d never considered before. Lark had been the one to open my eyes, to show me that the limits placed on us by those who were our trainers were just that—limits. I learned how to beckon the earth to me faster, connecting without moving my hands or eyes. I no longer let my beliefs of possible and impossible hold me back . . . but there was only so much I could do when it was just myself.
Griffin never came back to check on me, but I didn’t care. I could feel my body growing stronger in that place, could feel the natural ease with all weapons sliding over me even more than before. The earth all but sang around me, and that gave me some solace.
Month four ticked by, and the food coming to me slowed to every other day, though the water still came daily. I was going to be starved to death if I did not find a way out of here soon.
At night I lay on my back and stared at the ceiling of the cell while I waited for sleep to take me. Between my dreams and the waking meditation, I could feel my hold on reality slipping. I would not go mad perhaps, but I wasn’t entirely sure where my body truly lived any longer.
My dreams showed Lark as she suffered in the desert, kept company by two of her father’s familiars. They were watching her, keeping her in line. Making sure she didn’t step out of her boundaries. Making sure she didn’t leave the desert where her heart hardened against the world.
I saw her look to the Rim and knew what she thought. That I’d abandoned her. That I’d not been willing to break the rules to be at her side.
I tried to turn away from that, but she was everywhere I looked, and her eyes condemned me.
Somewhere in the sixth month by the scratches I’d marked on the wall, I jerked awake in the middle of the night. I turned my head; the sound that woke me was so soft, I was sure I never would have heard it if I wasn’t so used to the complete silence.
A soft breath that was not my own, and the sound of padded feet on the stone. I rolled in my bed and looked down beside it.
Peta stared up at me, her green eyes unblinking. “I thought I told you to stay out of trouble. You’re as bad as Lark, you know.”
I reached out, not sure if I was seeing things or not. “Peta, are you real?”
Her eyes softened and she leapt up onto me, landing in the curve of my belly.
My stomach was concave, my muscles dwindling from not only lack of use, but lack of food. She sat in the hollow and stared at me. “Ash. This one time, I’ll let you hold me.”
I laughed and curled my arms around her, pulling her tightly against my chest. I buried my face in her soft fur and knew now why Lark loved her so. When you needed her most, Peta found you and gave you hope.
I lay back, still holding her. I fell asleep and she stayed with me, her warmth a steady presence that I didn’t know how desperately I’d craved.
The morning light came soon after that and I woke to find myself alone.
“Shit.” I ran a hand over my face. I had been dreaming, then; Peta hadn’t found me after all.
There was the sound of claws scratching on stone and I turned my head. Peta stretched and yawned, in her housecat form—gray and white—her tail twitching at the tip. “I’m going to find us some food. Wait here.”
She was gone in a flash, slipping between the bars of the cell. “You think I’m actually going somewhere?” I calle
d after her, and I was sure I heard her laugh echo back to me. Saucy cat.
I couldn’t help the grin, though. I wasn’t alone, and now with Peta, we would find a way out of here, we would go after Cassava, and make the world right again for Lark.
Ten minutes later, Peta was back in her snow leopard form . . . a whole cooked chicken dangling from her mouth. My mouth filled with saliva at the sight of that much meat. I wobbled to the cell door and she waited for me to take the bird before she shifted down to her gray and white housecat shape once more.
“Don’t stuff your guts or you’ll be puking it all back up,” she said.
I ripped off a leg and put it on the floor for her. “I know that, Peta. I’m not a pup. I’ve been starved before.”
Her ears perked up. “You have? When? How could you not have told me about that on our travels together?” I noted she made no mention of Lark. That was the reason we’d traveled together before, looking for her.
I tore into the chicken, making myself go slowly when all I wanted to do was swallow it down in delicious, heavenly chunks of roasted goodness. Speaking around the mouthfuls helped me to keep my pace steady.
“When I was first brought on as an Ender, my trainer thought we should understand what would happen if we were captured and tortured by another of the families.”
Peta nodded slowly, which shouldn’t have surprised me. She was a hell of a lot older than she looked. “I remember those days. I didn’t realize you were around then.”
Around then was about two hundred years prior. Elementals aged rather well, and I was no exception. “I was young and determined, and I believed I could face anything and come out on top.”
“You mean you were cocky,” she snorted.
I smiled slowly. “That, too.”
I took another bite of the chicken and chewed it slowly. “I was placed into an oubliette with a flask of water and a loaf of bread and told I wouldn’t know when I was going to be brought out. My trainer, Sedge, said he would ask me one question when the oubliette was opened. ‘What is the name of your trainer?’ I wasn’t to give the answer at all costs.”
Peta watched me closely. “And what happened?”
I shrugged and pushed the chicken away from me. I was still hungry, but if I ate any more I’d lose it all. I leaned back against the cot and licked my fingers. “I think it had been three or four days from my last drop of water before they opened the oubliette. Sedge stood in front of me, and asked me what my trainer’s name was.”
“What did you tell him?”
I grinned. “Asshole.”
Peta flopped to her side laughing, kicking her feet out. I grinned at her. “He laughed, too, and promptly shut the oubliette on me.”
That stopped her laughter. She sat up, a frown etched into her brow. “He didn’t let you out?”
“No. Another day and he tried again. I gave the same answer. Went on for maybe four or five days. Then . . . I couldn’t answer anymore, or maybe more accurately, I don’t even recall what happened. Not really. They told me later.”
“They pulled you out then?”
I nodded slowly. “Yes, but I was raving by all accounts.”
We were quiet a moment. Peta padded over to me and sat at my side. She flicked one ear my way. “That is why when we found Lark in the oubliette after so long, you were so . . .”
I nodded again. “Yes, that’s why I was so careful with her when she came out of the oubliette. I remember the pain of being imprisoned all too well, even though it happened a long time ago. And my punishment was nothing to hers. She was in there for years; mine was only weeks.”
Secretly I wondered if Raven had somehow dug up my records, if he knew of the fear I had of being imprisoned, or if he’d just guessed.
Easy enough to guess I was claustrophobic when most elementals feared banishment or the dungeons as much or more than being killed. Being cut off from our power was akin to being confined to being human.
A fate worse than death.
Over the next few days, Peta continued to bring me large quantities of food, varying it so I received some of everything. Fruit, breads, cheese, bags of nuts, and of course, more meat. She even snagged me a bottle of wine, which we shared into the late hours.
That had ended the night quickly as she grew morose, speaking of Lark as tears trickled over her fur. As much as I missed Lark, and wished we were together, getting soppy wasn’t going to help her or me.
Peta’s efforts to fatten me up worked, faster than I could have hoped. Within a week, my belly was no longer concave, and my energy slowly began to rise. Though I slept a lot, and Peta stayed close, I knew it was just a matter of time. Something I had a lot of.
Her timing could not have been more perfect as, within a few days of her arrival, I was no longer being brought food or water. Without her, I would have wasted away in the most literal of senses. Peta saved me, as she’d saved Lark so many times.
Days swiftly turned into weeks, and through it all, I didn’t speak to Peta of my plan. Because I knew I would have to convince her to help me, and I knew I didn’t have the words quite right.
But I waited too long, and my chance to bend her ear to mine slipped from me.
It was the morning of the start of the third week that Peta had been with me and I was in the middle of a side plank. With my weight balanced on one hand and foot, I stretched the other hand as though I would touch the ceiling.
Peta, ever helpful that she was, had perched herself on the palm of my upraised hand.
“You’d better not drop me.”
“Never,” I breathed out as I worked to keep my body completely still, engaging every muscle to hold both Peta and me in place.
The sound of footsteps snapped both our heads around to the front of the cell. I spun and caught Peta in my arms as she dropped.
“Hide.” I let her go and she scooted under the bed. I sat on the edge of it so she could stay out of sight behind my legs. Not much of a hiding place, but it was all I had.
Dreg thumped down the stairs, not even bothering to be quiet. His eyes were on his key ring as he approached the door. “Damn waste killing you, if you ask me. Big damn waste.”
Shit.
“Who is trying to kill me?” I asked. Dreg’s head jerked up, his eyes flying open wide. He stumbled back from the cell, his one hand going to the sword at his side. That did not bode well for him. Because if he opened that door and drew his weapon on me, I was going to kill him without blinking. No longer were the Enders of the Rim on my side, and I had no qualms about finishing any of them off.
His hand wavered at his side. “How are you still alive, Ash?”
I shrugged. “Tougher than I look, I guess.”
Dreg scratched the back of his head. “Look, I respect you, always have, but I had no choice in what happened here. You know we have to go by the orders.”
“Spit it out,” I barked the words at him, and he complied.
“The king said to starve you, and if that didn’t work he’d bring you out and make an example of you. He’s going to pit you against all the remaining Enders.”
I nodded. “Good. Then let’s have at it.”
Dreg shook his head. “Even you aren’t strong enough to take us all. Not after being starved.”
I shrugged, wondering at Dreg’s intelligence, not for the first time. Was it not obvious to him that I had not been starved? That I had in fact been fed quite well for the last couple of weeks at least? Elementals weren’t like humans in that department. Starved, yes. But we bounced back like nothing else in the supernatural or elemental world. We were designed to survive.
My lips twitched, even though I didn’t say the words out loud. “Dreg, tell them I’m ready to face the Enders if that is my punishment. I will take it gladly.”
He backed away. “I’m sorry, Ash.”
“I’m not. And if you’re smart, you’ll stay the hell away from the fight.”
He shook his head as he backed up. “I won
’t have a choice. None of us do.”
Dreg all but ran from the cell block and up the stairs. Peta peeked out from around my legs and looked up at me. “You think this is a good idea.”
“It’ll get me out of this goddess forsaken cell, and allow me a chance to . . .” I was about to say kill the king, but I wasn’t sure if I’d get that chance. I didn’t know if Raven would be there, if he would try and stop me.
“I’ll fight them, and try not to kill them all. Then we’ll make a break for it.”
“Shazer isn’t here.”
That was a surprise. I’d just assumed he’d stuck around. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know. He dropped me off on the outskirts of the Rim and said he had something to do.”
So Shazer wasn’t going to be much of a help then. “We run, Peta.”
“I’m fighting at your side,” she said.
“No, you’re not. Lark would kill me if I let anything happen to you.” I rolled my shoulders as I focused on loosening my muscles, getting them ready to move at top speed.
“And you think she would do less to me if I let you die when I could have saved you? You are a fool. I had thought better of you, but apparently, you are as dumb as the rest of the men in her life.” She took a swat at me with a paw and I dodged her claws. But just barely.
I held up both hands. “Peta, I would welcome your help, but you are not my familiar. That alone precludes you from the fight, and we both know it.”
She slumped with that. “Damn.”
“Yes, rather.” I wasn’t stupid. Having Peta at my side in a fight would give me the leg up I needed, but there was no way the king would allow it. I knew it and so did Peta.
I stood in the center of the cell, waiting. I knew the drill of what was about to go down, seeing as I had set up the protocol. I’d spent a lot of years as second-in-command for the Enders and as such had done a great deal of the grunt work. Part of that grunt work had entailed contemplating all possible scenarios when dealing with prisoners—those who would be banished, and those who would be executed.
I was the one who designed the program on how Enders and Rim guards would respond in all the different situations. Funny enough, I never thought I would actually see the scenario roll out where there was an Ender in the cells being brought before the king. Certainly I’d never thought it would be me in the dungeon.
Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) Page 4
