The air around Niah shimmered. For just a moment her eyes were not her own, and I thought I saw someone behind them. A man I did not know. Dark hair was the only strong image I got. But in an instant it was gone and I saw Niah as she was again.
She leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her tea. “Lark needs to break out of the banishment she’s been handed. You will go to her and tell her that Cassava has Peta. That will push her.”
Miko nodded. “I agree. Cassava is a real trouble-making bitch. I’d like to see her handed a cream pie in the face.”
Niah smiled over her cup of tea. “Do you see, Ash? Lark won’t fight for herself. That is a problem. But we can use it to help her out of her banishment.”
The words made sense. I could see what Niah was trying to do. But it felt wrong. It felt . . . like something Cassava would do. I shook my head. Lark was safe for the moment, and I wanted to keep it that way. I wanted her banishment to be lifted, I wanted her father to see she was the one who would help us stop the madness our world kept facing.
If Niah—and subsequently I—manipulated Lark by letting Peta be taken, Lark would never forgive me. Rightfully so. Peta was my friend as much as she was Lark’s familiar.
“No, I will go after Cassava.”
Niah’s lips pursed. “Ash, don’t be a fool. You aren’t strong enough. You’ll end up getting killed and we can’t have that.” I could almost hear an unspoken addition of . . . not yet. But no, Niah wouldn’t want me dead. Would she?
I snorted. “That line might work on someone else, but not me. I am an Ender. I have trained my whole life to take down elementals who have gone mad. I can take Cassava. She is weak without the pink diamond allowing her to control Spirit.”
Niah’s eyes hardened and again the air around her shimmered. “She is not the only one who can control Spirit, Ash. You’d best remember that you have no protection against that.”
The words echoed in the air between the three of us. I slowly backed away. “Unless you can help me, I will take my leave.”
Miko tsked softly. “He’s protecting the one he loves, Niah. I’m going to help him. I love a good love story, almost as much as a prank.”
She slammed her cup on the table. “And if it means the world is lost? Love is not enough; we have to be smart, smarter than those we face!” Her words were edged like a sword, hard and not like her at all.
The Yeti shrugged. “Perhaps you are wrong. He wants to save a friend and protect the girl he loves. Nothing wrong with that, as far as I can see, and I am a mage, you know.” His bright yellow eyes swung my way. “Look for the disturbance in the weather in the earth. Cassava is not stable, and so where she sets her roots, the elements will tremble and buck against her presence.”
That information was more than I could have hoped for. I nodded. “Thank you.”
Niah’s lips were pursed tightly. “You are screwing this all up, Ash.”
I glared at her. “Then I’ll screw it all up and be glad I at least did was I knew was right.”
Miko nodded in agreement. “Good man. One other thing. Take Norm with you.”
I grimaced. “I can’t, this isn’t a game. It’s not some prank.”
Miko pointed a thick finger at me. “You can and you will. I see great things for him still, but not if he stays here. You take him. Help him find his place again in this world.”
What was I supposed to say to that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Damn it. I backed out and headed toward the door, fuming. I couldn’t take the big dumb Yeti with me. He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous and it wasn’t like he had even a clue of what was going on the world. And what in the seven hells was wrong with Niah?
She was not acting like herself, not one bit, and I didn’t like it. Could she have been influenced by Spirit somehow? And she’d never answered my questions about how she knew where I was going. We’d just kind of skipped over that.
I opened the now-unlocked door and stepped back onto the edge of the pathway. Billy was the only Yeti waiting for me. His eyes flicked over me as if looking for an injury or something. “You leaving already?”
“Yes.” I gave him a nod and started back up the steep path that would take me to where Norm waited. As I came around the last curve in the path, Billy caught up to me.
“What did Miko say to you?”
I wasn’t going to tell him everything, but I was sure at least a part of my instructions would make Billy happy. “I have to take Norm with me.”
A big hand settled on my arm and spun me around. “No.”
“You just told me he was mine to watch over?” I pointed out.
“No, that was different.”
I didn’t see the difference myself, but I wasn’t going to argue with a Yeti.
We were nose to nose, but I’d been in worse situations. I put my hands out to the side, well away from my weapons.
“It’s not my idea of a good time either, but I don’t think I have a choice.” I kept my words even, feeling the tension rolling off Billy. No matter that they’d cast Norm out; it was more than obvious that he wasn’t thrilled I was taking the injured Yeti farther away. “You want to tell Miko you disagree with him? Fine by me. I’ll wait.”
His hand flexed over my arm and while I didn’t think it possible, he leaned further into me so that our noses were pushed hard against one another. “Norm is my little brother. You better bring him back.”
I didn’t say anything, didn’t make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. Besides, I could have pointed out that if he’d been at all worried, he could have stopped Norm from being cast out.
As we approached the flat landing where Norm waited, Billy backed off. He stopped about ten feet down the slope and I continued on alone. Norm was at the top, sitting on the mountain. “Hey, friend. Did Miko give you a good prank?”
I burst out laughing, couldn’t help it when I thought about it in that context. “Shit, he did. Pulled the rug right out from under me.” I’d not seen Miko’s words coming at all.
Norm laughed with me. “Oh, I would have liked to see that! You fell down good then, I bet.”
I shook my head. “Miko said you should come with me. That I have a big . . . prank, and you can help me with it. But it means going away from the mountains here. And I don’t know when you’ll be able to come back.” I didn’t want to add if ever, because we were going after Cassava and I didn’t know if Norm would survive an encounter with her.
Norm’s eyes widened. “An adventure prank? Those are the best! Miko likes me, you know. I’m one of his grandsons.”
Suddenly Miko’s desire that I help Norm made even more sense. “Well, we have to go.” Though I had no idea how I was getting Norm through the world with me.
Because it was to the human world I was headed, the one place I knew I could find the information I needed about weather patterns.
“Come on, Norm.”
I waved at him and he ran at me, scooping me up and throwing me onto his back once more. “I can go faster than you. Let’s go, friend!”
He bolted across the thin trails we’d traversed on our way to the mage, and for a few minutes I just hung on for my life. Traveling by Yeti back was something new to me, but I had to admit he was right. With his long legs and affinity for the snow, he covered ground like it was nothing.
“Go to where the avalanche was, Norm.”
He flung both hands up and changed direction mid-stride. I had to look, I had to see if there was anything there that would tell me Cassava was still here. Even though I knew she would be a fool to stay.
Norm slid to a stop, spraying out a fine sheet of snow and ice in an arc. “Here we are.”
I jumped from his back and scanned the ground. “Where did you see the snow leopard?”
Norm trudged over to a flattened area. “You know, this isn’t fun.”
“I know. It’s important, though.” I followed him, then put a hand on his belly, stopping his forward momentum.
The snow h
ad been trampled down, but there was more than one set of feet. There were a few spots where I could pick out Peta’s paw prints, and Cassava’s smaller, more delicate feet. But there were two other sets of footprints. Both bigger than Cassava, and both distinctly their own.
One I knew well. I’d seen it for years tamped into the ground of the training room. “Granite, you piece of shit,” I growled.
The other . . . I put a hand over one imprint. The foot was as big as mine, which meant whoever was helping Cassava was over six feet. Not Raven then. I frowned.
There was no blood, which surprised me. Why wouldn’t Peta have fought? That didn’t make any sense.
Stranger yet was the fact that except for the area that was trampled down, there were no footsteps leading away. As if they’d all just disappeared into thin air. I knew Raven could manage that trick, bending the Veil with Spirit. But he wasn’t here, I was sure of it. Could it be a Sylph helping them? That was possible, but somehow I doubted it. There were few left in any of the families that would help Cassava. She’d caused too much grief, and death.
The clues were not helping me.
I rubbed a hand over my face. “Okay, Norm. On to the prank.”
He grabbed me and swung me over his back. I grabbed around his neck and he took off like a shot out of a cannon.
As he ran, I mulled over what I’d seen, but no matter how I tried to piece it together, I couldn’t make it make sense, and that worried me. Was I losing my mind? Cassava had used Spirit on me while she’d been the queen. And the more Spirit was used on a person, the more their mind broke under the strain of that manipulation. I swallowed hard. No. I wasn’t losing it. Maybe I would at some point, but not here, not now.
Lark needed me to hold it together, if nothing else.
Ahead of us, the trails came to a divergence, branching in four directions. Norm slowed and blew out a big breath that fogged the air. “Which way are we going?”
I knew we needed a bigger town, one that had enough technology that we could find potential areas where Cassava was hunkering down. Preferably a town where I had a hidden Ender stash.
“West. Head for the humans’ big city.”
He grunted. “I don’t like that city. It’s too noisy.”
He had a point. The city could be a real problem for him. “Do the humans see you as a Yeti?”
“Oh, heck no. They just see a big human with a lot of hair.”
I had to hope he was right and that we could slip through unnoticed. Because in a city like New Delhi, there were bound to be a few supernatural creatures looking for trouble.
But as it was not only the closest major city, but one I’d been in before, it was our best shot to get what we needed and get back on the hunt for Cassava, Granite, and Peta as fast as possible.
Norm settled into a ground-eating run that made the mountains seemingly flash by in a blur of white and rock. He paused for a break only once and ate a bunch of snow, happily munching on it. “It won’t fill me up, but it will keep my belly busy,” he explained, even though I didn’t ask.
I stretched my legs and wandered across the plateau he’d come to a stop on. The softest meow snapped my head around. About ten feet above me, peering over the ledge, was a tiny snow leopard kitten.
Blue eyes instead of Peta’s green ones blinked down at me. Maybe one day that kitten would be taken as a familiar, but I doubted it. Peta was one of a kind.
“Oh, a kitty,” Norm breathed out. He moved past me and held his hand out to the kitten, taking her gently into his cupped hands.
“Norm. That’s not a good idea. That kitten has a mother somewhere around here.” I had no desire to injure or kill a snow leopard of any kind.
Even as I spoke there was a low rumbling growl above our heads. “Norm. Put her back.”
“It’s all right,” he said softly, his voice full of . . . reverence. “It’s all right.”
I glanced at him. The kitten was stretching her nose up to touch his, and a soft purr rolled out of her tiny body.
“Snow leopards are sacred, you know. One of them is going to help save the world one day.”
An absolute chill cascaded over me. “What?”
Norm didn’t look at me as he spoke. “They are sacred, and they trust Yeti. We are their protectors now from the humans. They killed so many of them, you know.”
I flicked my eyes back to the ledge, shocked to see the mother leopard peering down at us. Her ears flicked forward and she licked her lips once, but otherwise didn’t move.
“Put the kitten back, Norm.” Not to say that I didn’t trust him, but again . . . I didn’t want to add to the problems I had on my list.
“Okay. Bye, little heart.” He squished the kitten to his mouth and she batted his cheek. He lifted her up over his head and placed her next to the mother. Then patted the mother on the head with one big mitt. “Good kitty.”
The two cats backed away, leaving me staring at nothing.
I did the same, backing away from the ledge. “I didn’t know about . . . that.”
Norm smiled. “I like kitties.”
That might work in my favor. “You know the friend I’m trying to help is a snow leopard. She was taken by a . . . very bad woman.”
The big Yeti gasped. “That’s very not good.” He threw his head back and let out a long, warbling cry. The sound echoed through the mountains, bouncing off the crags and peaks. “There. My family knows to look out for her now.”
His words were a small consolation that I was moving so slowly to rescue Peta. Even though I knew there was no way I could move faster, all I wanted was to pull her away from that bitch who held her against her will. How long before Cassava decided to kill Peta? To take out her revenge on Lark’s familiar? My guts churned with sudden fear, knowing Lark’s banishment would be nothing to her if she lost Peta.
No, I had to be wrong about Cassava. If she’d wanted to kill Peta, she could have done it right there on the mountainside. There had been no blood on the snow.
Cassava had a reason why she took Peta—more than the obvious to hurt Lark—and I had no doubt it had to do with drawing Lark to her. But instead she would get me, she had to know that. So what was her end game? I crouched and pressed my hand into the ground at my feet as if the answer could be found there.
What did Cassava have to gain by killing Peta and me? Really, the answer was nothing. Our deaths would only electrify Lark into action, bringing about Cassava’s downfall all the sooner. There had to be something more than our deaths, then.
Hostages.
The word slid through me and the truth of it hit me hard. If Cassava held both Peta and me, she could manipulate Lark to do her bidding. Cassava was using Peta as bait for me, as Raven had done the same thing to Lark to draw her into a fight.
Like mother, like son.
“Shit.”
Even knowing that, I was going to walk right into Cassava’s trap. There was no way I could just leave Peta with her. And no way I was going to tell Lark. I scrubbed my hands over my face, anger and frustration flowing through me like a wave of lava.
“Norm, are you rested enough to keep going?” I called over my shoulder. The Yeti stood and gave me what I thought might be a thumbs-up, but it was hard to tell when he only had three fingers.
“Ready.”
I walked to him and he grabbed my arm, slinging me onto his back. Any harder and my arm would’ve come out of its socket, but I said nothing. For now, the Yeti was a boon and I was glad of his speed.
“Hang on,” he said, and I grabbed a good handful of his long floating hair.
He leapt forward, letting out a long mournful cry as he ran. The howl was somewhere between that of a wolf and the rushing of a storm as it screamed, high-pitched and wavering through the trees. The sound echoed through the mountain air and was repeated back to us from somewhere in the distance. A call of his family to him maybe, saying goodbye.
I only hoped it wasn’t the last time he’d set foot in the
mountains.
CHAPTER 8
ew Delhi, with a Yeti at my side in the crush of summer heat. I had to shake my head several times as I dodged the elbows and carts that pushed close around us, because even I couldn’t believe the situation I was in. Norm, though, was happy as could be, just trucking along, occasionally waving to the odd person.
I, on the other hand, was doing my best not to panic about Peta. I kept moving forward, one foot in front of the other, head down. Once I’d realized Cassava had set a trap with bait I wouldn’t be able to turn away from, there was nothing to do but keep moving. The only upside of the situation was that, at least, I would not be surprised when the trap was sprung. My plan, of course, was to spring the trap before I was in it.
The last time I’d been in New Delhi, I’d worked with one of the local supernaturals and had been lucky enough to call him friend. But that had been close to fifty years before, and the chances he was still residing in the city were slim. Not because he would be dead, but because he moved around a lot.
As a healer, he went wherever he was needed. I hoped he would be in the city, but really, it wasn’t fully necessary. I had access to his home at all times because I’d helped him create it.
Carved into the side of a rock bluff, the back half of the house was a veritable fortress that I’d created out of the earth for him. That had been the price I’d had to pay to have not only his trust and help as I needed it but in order to leave a stash of weapons, clothes, human money and identification in his home.
That had been during a time where I’d been chasing after a band of young elementals. They had been on a wild spree as they traversed the world and caused a fair bit of chaos. It was one of the few times the four families worked together, sending their Enders out in squads of four to bring the idiots under control. They’d set up in India, according to their leader, because there were so many humans, they thought they could hide unnoticed.
I snorted to myself, thinking about how they’d begged for mercy, blubbering and wetting themselves. We’d sent them all home to be punished by their leaders.
Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) Page 8
