“Peta, three Enders will be sent to escort me to face the king in the common field where judgment will be held.”
“Where?”
“The same open field where Cassava spelled the Terralings while the lung burrowers ripped through our family.”
She blew out a big breath. “I remember Lark pointing that out to me. It’s at the far end near the planting fields.”
I nodded. “From there, I will either be executed, banished, or otherwise punished. I highly doubt that ‘otherwise’ is even remotely possible. So expect that I’m going to be executed or banished.”
She looked up at me. “Or maybe both.”
I grimaced. “Maybe both.”
“And you have a plan, right?” Her one eyebrow flicked upward as if she knew the truth. I had no plan. I had no idea that this scenario was even a possibility. She rolled her eyes. “No plan. Really?”
I shrugged. “Let me think. All your nagging is doing is distracting me.”
She let out a hiss, but there was no real heat to it. We’d been together long enough that we both knew there was nothing behind the sound.
The problem was, my plan came to me as the sound of heavy thumping feet clattered down the stone steps.
“Peta, hide and follow us up after.”
She ducked under the bed without argument, and crouched in the shadows of the small cot. I turned away from her and faced the cell door. The Enders approached in a line, three abreast. Dreg, Elk, and Blossom. The two men had stony faces, but Blossom’s skin was red and blotchy as if she’d been crying. She wouldn’t look at me, but she still did her job for this protocol, which was to step to the side of the cell door and hold it open wide with one hand, while she kept her short sword out in the other.
She had heart, Blossom did, I would give her that.
Dreg and Elk stepped into the cell and moved to either side of me, their weapons out and pointed. Elk was on my left, sword leveled at me, and Dreg had a crossbow held at the ready, his finger on the trigger.
I didn’t move, just sat on the edge of my cot, waiting for them to say something. If I so much as twitched, I had no doubt Dreg would let loose the crossbow bolt on me. And while elementals are tough as steel, a crossbow bolt to the head would be the end of my story.
“Ash, you are to be brought before our king. Will you do so peacefully?” Dreg asked.
I looked up at him but otherwise kept still. “And if I do? What is to be my sentence?”
Blossom let a sob escape her before she pulled her emotions back under control and she spoke through her tears. “Banishment, cut off from the mother goddess, then immediate execution.”
Dreg shot her a dirty look, taking his eyes off me, breaking protocol. This was my shot. I grabbed the tip of the crossbow and jerked it forward, pointing it at Elk as Dreg belatedly scrambled to stop me. The weapon went off and the bolt slammed into Elk’s left shoulder. He dropped his sword, his fingers going slack.
“Take him down!” Elk roared as he fought to pull the bolt out of his joint.
Peta shot out from under the bed, shifting as she came clear of the cot. She leapt at Elk and did to him what he’d asked of Dreg. She tackled him to the floor, snarling and slashing with her wicked sharp claws and teeth.
I fought with the big man, wrestling him to the ground as Peta drove Elk to the floor. I grabbed the sides of Dreg’s head and slammed it onto the stone floor three times. His eyes rolled back and I let him go. I scooped up his crossbow and looked across to where Peta lay on Elk, her mouth on his neck. A soft growling rumble coursed out of her.
Elk’s eyes were wide, terrified—being in the jaws of death, seeing her breathe in your last breath as you died would be no small thing.
“Peta, let him go, his death is not warranted. Not today.” She didn’t move and I put a hand on her back. “Peta. They are following orders. Not all are as strong as Lark and able to defy the rules.”
She dropped him, all but spitting him out, and stepped sideways away from him. “You’re lucky Ash spoke for you, I was hungry.”
Elk passed out, more likely from fear than anything else. I pushed him with a foot to make sure he wasn’t faking.
“He’s out, his heart slowed,” Peta said.
A sword swept toward me, and I spun, just dodging it. Blossom, tears running down her face, whipped her short sword toward my middle. I jumped back, stumbled on Dreg and went to one knee.
Blossom reversed her swing mid-arc, showing her skill with the weapon as she drove it upward toward my neck. I threw myself to the side, missing the blade by a breath and a prayer.
Peta shot forward, swiping at Blossom’s legs, driving the young Ender to the side. All three of us were in the cell now, and I saw what Peta was doing. With each slash of her wicked claws, she forced Blossom further into the cell and created a pocket for me to escape.
I dove toward the open door. “Peta, with me.”
Our years of working together were showing.
She spun and leapt through as I slammed the door shut.
I stared into the cell, and Blossom smiled back at me, her lips trembling. “I didn’t want to kill you. I don’t want you to die, Ash, I . . . don’t know what is going on, but I know you are one of the best elementals we have. One of the best Enders. You’re going to bring Lark back, aren’t you?”
“I am.” The words were out of me before I thought better of it. But really, what was I doing if not trying to bring Lark back?
Without hesitation, Blossom scooped up the other weapons in the cell and handed them across to me. “Do you want Dreg’s vest?”
I nodded as I laughed softly. “That was you trying not to kill me? You almost had me. You’re fast, Blossom. Very fast.”
Blossom shrugged. “I learned from the best. From you and Granite a little. And a little from Lark, too. She was in my training class and she pushed us all to be better.”
My old mentor’s name woke something in me. Now there was a place to start, a person I was sure I could find, and an elemental who’d tied his life to Cassava. “Good luck, Blossom.”
She nodded and stepped away from the cell door after handing me the two short swords and the vest. “The Traveling room is your best bet. There is a full escort waiting for you outside the barracks.”
“They should have been here as well. Why didn’t they follow the protocol I wrote?” I didn’t understand why it would have been broken.
Blossom shrugged and a tiny smile flickered over her lips. “I may have convinced them that seeing as they were your ideas as to how best to deal with prisoners, that the foolish thing would be to do what you expect. You would know what and how we would do things.”
I reached through the bars and took her hand. She held on tightly to me for a moment and then pushed me away. “Go. You won’t have long. They’ll come looking soon.”
“Thank you.” I knew what it would cost her. If she was lucky, she would still be an Ender, but there was a good chance she’d be busted down to Rim guard, seeing as it was her idea as to how to deal with me, and I was about to escape.
“Go. And . . . find a way to bring Lark back. Please.” The whisper followed me through the hallways of the dungeon level. The living and training quarters for the Enders were three floors above, and then there was the Traveling room.
The Traveling room was actually a floor up from the dungeons, and I treaded carefully as I made my way there. I couldn’t help but reach for the power that connected me to the earth, letting it roll through my veins and recharge me as nothing else could.
“Not too heavily. If Raven is around, he could pick up on you,” Peta said softly.
I glanced at her as we climbed the steps that would take us to the floor we needed. “What?”
“Lark could see when someone was using their elemental ability. How do we know Raven isn’t the same? Or worse, that he’s even more sensitive.”
Shit, she made a good point. I released my connection to the earth, a little reluctantl
y, but still, it was better to be safe.
“How the hell did you know I called on the power?”
Her ears twitched. “I seem to have some connection to the earth that mimics Lark’s. I could feel you connect right then.”
I glanced at her. I’d forgotten she’d started to take on traits of Lark’s. Then again, it wasn’t like she used them often, only when absolutely necessary.
As we neared the top of the stairs, I crouched, then flattened myself on the steps, creeping forward in full body crawl. There were no voices above us, no sounds of subtle movement like the creak of leather or the slight jangle of metal on metal.
That didn’t mean no one was there waiting, and I was not so young and foolish to run into things. I motioned for Peta to go up ahead of me and she shifted down to her housecat form. Taking the stairs two and three at a time, she raced up the last few steps and peered out around the edge. She ducked back fast and shook her head. Hurrying to my side, she put her mouth right to my ear, her whiskers tickling my face. “Two Enders outside of the Traveling room. Hopefully no one on the other side as the door is shut tight.”
I closed my eyes for a moment, thinking. The minute they saw me, they’d raise the alarm and the rest of the Enders and whatever Rim guards were with them would be on us in the matter of a minute, if they were waiting on the top level of the barracks as Blossom had said.
I crept the rest of the way up the stairs, and then slid to the side, putting the wall to my back. I stood and did a quick check around the corner, so fast they didn’t even notice me. Jace and Chive. Two of the youngest Enders. They had been in training before I’d left to find Lark, not yet raised to the position. Damn it.
I wasn’t worried because I couldn’t take them.
I was worried because neither of them would give up. They would fight until the bitter end if for nothing else but to prove themselves. Both of them were hard-headed, and nowhere near the humble men I needed in order to raise them to the position of Ender. Yet on my quick glance, I could see that someone had done just that.
They’d been raised long before they were ready. Double damn it. Believing they were truly Enders would only add to the difficulty in dealing with them. Jace and Chive would have something to prove.
I took one more quick look.
To either side of the two of them, torches were set above their heads. I put my hands against the wall at my back and connected with the earth.
Though I couldn’t have done what I was about to attempt before my imprisonment, my time working with my power between the Veil had opened me to new possibilities. Like manipulating the earth even when I wasn’t looking directly at what I needed to do.
I closed my eyes and imagined the two torches and the earth over the Enders’ heads. With a gentle urging, the soil above them was easy enough to loosen, but I did not release the now-hovering dirt. “Peta,” I barely breathed her name. “Lead me through the dark.”
She blinked her green eyes up at me and gave a tight nod before she leapt up, forcing me to catch her with one arm. She clawed her way up to my shoulder. “From here I can guide you.” Her words were again in my ear. Her claws dug into the leather of my vest and she swayed there, the same as she had done when she was with Lark.
“Ready?”
“Ready,” she confirmed. I took a breath and released my hold on the loosened dirt.
Pebbles and soil cascaded down from the ceiling all around the two young Enders.
“Stop dicking around, you,” Jace said. “You’re going to put the light out, you idiot.”
“I’m not doing it,” Chive snapped.
I pulled hard on the earth above us and the torches went out, plunging us into total and complete darkness.
Shouts came from below us in the dungeons, and above us in the training room.
Now or never.
CHAPTER 5
he darkness was all-encompassing, except for the burning embers that had dropped from the torches and scattered over the floor.
“Run,” Peta said, and I bolted forward, trusting her completely. I had to, there was no choice for hesitation; and the truth was, I did trust her. After two years working together to find Lark, we had an easy understanding of one another.
The distance between the stairs and the Traveling room doors was not that far, and yet in the dark it felt like I was stuck, trapped in tunnels I couldn’t escape. As if I were in an oubliette once more. The panic of being held down, trapped and kept from the light sent my adrenaline into overdrive.
I forced those thoughts away. I had to, or I would end up making a mistake.
“Your left,” Peta said, her voice the only guide I had. I swept my sword to the left, turning it at the last second so the flat of the blade smashed into Jace’s head, sending him flying. But the blow would not kill him. I might come to regret not ending his life later, but I refused to kill a man I’d trained when he’d been led astray by Raven. Not unless I was forced to.
There was a thud of his body hitting something solid and then I was tackled from the right. Peta screeched and Chive screamed. We still fell to the ground together, Chive on top of me. Peta was thrown back somewhere into the darkness.
“Ender Ash, stop fighting!”
I answered him with my fists, driving one into the side of his neck, landing a second blow over his kidneys. He grunted, but he didn’t let go. The sound of a weapon being drawn, the sudden jerk of his body and the piercing pain of my flesh parting for a blade stole the wind from my lungs.
The shouting was getting closer, the voices clearer and more defined.
Voices I knew, most of them I’d trained with, if not flat-out trained. These were my friends, the family I clung to when my own was killed . . .
The world swayed and for a moment I was a child again, trapped in the burning house that swallowed my family. I could taste the smoke on my tongue, feel the heat from the flames. No. I was not there.
“Chive, get off me,” I snarled, tasting blood on my lips.
“No, you tried to kill the king, You’re a traitor!” He shifted his weight on me, leaving the dagger in my side—a mistake. “You’re going to be executed. I wish you’d never trained me.” His words were as sharp against me as the well-honed weapon he’d used to cut me open.
Seconds between making a vow and breaking it, that had to be a new record.
“That makes two of us,” I said as I pulled Chive’s dagger out of my side and swept it upward, driving it under his rib cage and into the lower half of his heart. We all made mistakes as Enders, especially young ones, but rarely were they fatal.
That I was the orchestrator of his death sliced through me. But if I didn’t get out of here and find a way to bring Lark home, I feared even more lives would be lost. What was one life to hundreds?
Just because I knew I was right didn’t make it any easier to swallow that I’d taken the life of a young Ender before he truly began to live.
He gasped once, the darkness hiding the sight of his dying face from me. “I’m sorry,” I said as I got to my feet and stumbled in what I thought was the direction of the Traveling room, away from the voices and growing light.
“Hurry, Ash, they’re close.” Peta leapt back to my shoulder. I crashed into the doors and they fell open into the Traveling room. The soft glow of the globe that blinked back at me was a welcome sight. I turned and slammed the doors shut, sliding one of the short swords from my side through the two handles.
A bit of time was all I needed and there would be no following me. I limped to the side wall and grabbed one of the Traveling armbands. Made of cedar wood and polished to a high gleam, it smelled of the Rim.
I slid it up and over my bicep.
The door thundered as something, or someone, slammed against it. I walked to the center of the globe and stared at it. As if I were standing in the heart of the world and looking out, the options were endless as to where I could go. But this would be my one last easy jump anywhere in the world.
&
nbsp; Unless I went to one of the other elemental families.
No, that would not work. Cassava was not hiding within any of the other families’ homes. But . . . she’d fallen at the Eyrie, there could be a clue there. Then there was Granite. He’d been my mentor and trainer. And he’d helped Cassava in all her plans.
I cleared my mind and thought of him, but all I could see was the Eyrie.
“Damn you, Granite.”
“Granite?” Peta twisted to look me in the face. I told her of him, and his part in Cassava’s plans, but that had been a long time ago. When we’d first gone after Lark.
I stared at the globe, as sweat ran down my body. Where was he?
Still, the Eyrie persisted in my mind. Could Granite be there?
It was all I had to go on, and there was no more time to think about it as the door rattled and the wood cracked.
The decision made, I reached out and touched the globe, adjusting it until a narrow valley in the Himalayan Mountains drew close to me.
“Peta, hang on.”
She dropped her head and tucked her face under my chin. “Ready.”
I reached up and touched the valley with one finger while with the other hand I twisted the armband. Behind us, the door shattered open, the splinters flying to either side of me as I was sucked through the globe.
There was a moment or two of complete peace, silence like that spot between dreaming and wakefulness where you aren’t sure that you are even real, the place where you wonder if your body is even a tangible thing or if you are completely made of thought, of spirit and intangible matter. There were stories of people being lost to Traveling, of becoming addicted to the feeling, and I could see why.
My ears popped, light bloomed around us, and Peta and I were spit out of the air.
I gasped at the instant cold, and then we were falling. Down the side of a mountain we tumbled, the snow cushioning us. She shifted into her snow leopard form and stopped her slide but I continued to roll.
Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) Page 5
