Lark’s father was not the only one who’d been manipulated and forced into doing things they’d rather not.
I shook where I stood, but I did not remove my blade from the witch’s neck. It did not matter who had tried to manipulate me, they were right. Cassava needed to die. “Tell me where your mother is. Tell me where she is keeping Peta and I will let the witch live. Swear to me on the embrace of the mother goddess you will not interfere with my quest and I will let her live.”
“You think that the witch means that much to me?”
I watched his face, saw the slightest tic under his eyes. “I do. For some reason, you are drawn to her, though why, I cannot fathom.”
His shoulders hunched. “Damn it, you Enders are far too good at reading people.”
I pressed the blade, and the witch screamed as it sunk a ways into her flesh.
Raven’s eyes were panicked. “I swear it on the embrace of the mother goddess, I will not interfere. I will . . . let you carry out your fool’s quest.”
I snapped my fingers and the vines over the witch swept away. She pushed to her knees and glared at me as she spat out the moss. I had until her mouth was empty and she could get a spell spun, even I knew that much. But I had to ask one last question.
“Why did you not use Spirit on me?”
He shrugged. “A part of me likes you, Ash. I want to believe we could have been friends at one point. As it is, I will help you this one last time . . . my mother never left the Himalayas.”
“Not possible,” I said, denying his words. “There has been no disturbance of the world there. No breakdown of the elements.”
Raven laughed. “There have been more avalanches than ever before, and they’ve claimed the lives of several humans so far. I do what I can to tamp down the chaos, but even I can’t stop it completely.” His eyes flickered to half-mast almost as if he were seeing something only he could see. “And she is battling with the Yeti. Apparently they don’t like it when people chain up snow leopards.”
I blanched as Norm roared. The two of us took off through the night as the world around us exploded in fire and blasted rocks. The witch behind us was powerful, but I would not want her anywhere near my bed. I wished Raven luck with her.
What was I thinking? Maybe they would kill each other when they coupled and I’d have done in two violent birds with a single stone. The problem was I doubted that my luck would take me that far.
Norm was ahead of me and I struggled to keep up. “Norm, stop!”
“He said she’s fighting with my family and she’s got your snow leopard on a chain. I have to help them!” he cried out, spinning so I could see the sheer terror on his face. The utmost pain anyone could feel—his family was potentially being decimated as we spoke.
“We will, but we can get there faster if we use this.” I held up the chakram, the golden edge catching the light. “We need a plan. This is no prank, my friend. This is serious and both of us could die along with your family and my friend.”
He nodded, the tears freezing on his furry cheeks. “What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to go back the mountains, right to where the avalanche was,” I said, already seeing the place she would hide out. Right under my nose, hidden from me by my own blindness. I was a fool. She’d left only to be healed by Dhan, but I’d continued as if she would run from place to place like any banished elemental. I’d been led on a damn goose chase and had fallen for it like I’d been raised as an Ender yesterday. Damn it all.
I held the chakram to my forehead and then swept it downward, touching the ground at my feet. From one snow-filled vista to another; the only difference was that dawn rose above the Himalayas while in Romania, we stood in the darkness of the night. Behind us, a battle raged, the trees cracked and the ground shook. Raven had his hands full with that one. Again, I could only hope they killed each other. That would be the best outcome. If nothing else, he would be kept busy and that meant he would not interfere with my dealings.
I stepped through the Veil and did not have to ask Norm to keep up with me.
He lifted his nose into the air as the Veil slashed shut behind us. “Fires, I smell fires and burning meat.”
I smelled it too, and I didn’t like it as it stirred the old memories once again. I shook them off, but they clung to the edges of my mind.
“Cassava was in Miko’s cave. She influenced both him and Niah into sending me on this wild goose chase. I’m sure of it.” No, that wasn’t quite right . . . Niah hadn’t looked like Niah . . . her image had wavered. Was it possible that it hadn’t even been her?
Truth, child. Truth. You have been led by the nose. The voice rumbled through me and I felt the power in it. The power of the mother goddess.
“Why?”
We cannot see the hearts of our people as we once did. You found your way back to where we slept; we have waited for you. We felt you. You are the half destined to re-ignite the fires of legend. Now, we give you our strength. You will need it. You are our warrior, Ash of the Rim. We have chosen you to guard the one we will place at the helm of our world.
The words rocked through me and with them a rush of strength and power like I felt when I’d faced the banished elementals—where they slept. “If I hadn’t gone, in my youth and now, to where the hurricane raged, you would not have known me, would you?”
“Who are you talking to?” Norm dropped a hand on my shoulder, as if I were the crazy one.
I shook him off and listened for an answer.
It came, slowly. You woke us, as Larkspur has woken us. We needed the strength only the Destroyer and her destined mate can create. If you had not stepped onto the land of our forced slumber . . . we would not have found you in time.
The voices fell silent and I did not ask more questions. I tapped into the earth’s power, letting it roll through me. I could sense another Terraling in the distance, sense her using the earth to kill, and could feel its reluctance to her demands.
“Why wouldn’t Cassava just kill me?” I asked the question out loud because there was something hiding in the answer that I knew I would need.
“You don’t know why?” Norm asked.
I shook my head and put a hand on the back of my neck. “No, I don’t.”
“Then we have to think about it. I know. We have to think slow. Like me.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and pushed me to my knees in the snow as he sank down beside me. “We have to be smarter than the average Yeti.”
The problem was my mind did not want to go forward. It was stuck on a cycle and all I could think about was killing Cassava, of finding her and lopping her traitorous head off. I closed my eyes and did the only thing I could think of.
I slowly pulled up the image of Lark in my mind. Of her eyes, one green and the other gold, of the way she smiled when she thought I wasn’t looking at her, of the feel of her skin under my hands and the soft whisper of her breath against my cheek, the color of her hair as it swirled around her, the power in her stance as she faced down those who would do our world wrong. She was why I was doing this. She was the reason for my every action and my every heartbeat.
The earth warmed under me. I could almost feel its approval.
For the first time since I’d left the Rim, the confusion that had kept me under its control began to bleed away. Like purging a belly full of poison, my thoughts began to clear.
As if every thought and memory of Lark were stronger than the control that had been placed over me, the manipulation of Spirit fell away as surely as if I held Lark’s hand. Normally it would take physical touch to keep Spirit from manipulating me.
Yet, here I was able to see what had happened right from the beginning.
It hadn’t been Raven to come to the cell to taunt me, it hadn’t been him in the throne room. The memories shifted and I saw through to the truth of it. Talan, the one I’d met on the beach, had been behind the push to send me after Cassava. But why? He said we were on the same side. In the cave, it had
n’t been Miko and Niah . . . nor had Niah been Cassava. Again, it had been Talan disguising himself, sending me off on the wild goose chase.
I still faced two enemies, then, if not the ones I’d thought at the beginning. Cassava and Talan instead of Cassava and Raven. But were they working together or not? I wasn’t entirely sure.
Norm shifted where he was. “Do you know what we have to do now?”
“Hang on a second.” I fanned through the memories over the last few days, and even the last hour where Raven had stood in front of me. It really had been him the last time, and yet he’d not tried to use Spirit on me. Why?
I frowned, not liking what he’d said about trying to mend his ways. As if a leopard could change its spots. I doubted it . . . yet . . . I knew he didn’t send me after Cassava. Again, though, why would Talan do this? What stake did he have in the game besides wanting to know Lark . . . and there it was, the truth. The only thing that made sense is that he saw me as a competitor for Lark, and this was a way to get rid of me. But it was convoluted, at best, and I doubted even my own rationale.
“Shit,” I muttered. “None of it matters as to the why, why not. Cassava is here, she is fighting and possibly killing your family and she holds Peta still. We have to stop her, Norm. Are there any resources around here you know about?”
I looked at him and he frowned. “I don’t know what you mean, but I have another friend who could help maybe? Is that what you mean?”
With a quick nod, I stood. “Yes, that’s what I mean. Who is your friend and are they far from here?”
“No, he isn’t far. But . . . he’s kind of cranky and not very big. But I think, maybe, he will help.”
“Let’s get him and then we’ll go after Cassava. We will stop her, Norm.” I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “We will stop her.”
He smiled and scooped me onto his back, then bolted across the snow. I only wished I could believe my words as easily as he had.
CHAPTER 15
n under five minutes, we were at a small cabin at the base of the mountains. Though cabin wasn’t really the right term . . . yurt was better. The domed leather had a small amount of smoke curling out of it into the sky. “He’s a pretty good guy, he found me when I was injured.” Norm pushed the flap of the yurt open and went in. “Childcrow, are you here?”
“You’re standing on me, you big hairy rug!” roared a voice that sounded like gravel and stone. Gravel. Granite. No . . . it couldn’t be.
“I need help. My family is being slaughtered,” Norm said.
“I know,” came the soft reply. I stood, listening, unable to believe what I was hearing. I pulled both swords and stood in the doorway. Granite was one of my mentors and had been one of Lark’s trainers, too. But he’d sided with Cassava and had let her turn his heart against our family. I was frozen for a moment before I did as I knew Lark would have. I stepped through the flap and into the yurt, pointed a sword at Granite and stared him down. “You help us, or I’ll kill you now, traitor.”
Granite’s eyes barely even flickered. “Perhaps that would be better. She’s too good at controlling me, boy. That was the problem all along. She knew my heart and knew I loved Ulani, too.”
Ulani . . . Lark’s mother, and the reason Cassava hated her so and had ultimately killed her. Ulani had been the king’s true love, the one he held above all others, but she was a mistress while Cassava had been the queen. To say it was a bad situation was an understatement.
Norm was shaking his head, his eyes closed tightly. “No more blood, please. No more blood.”
Granite sighed. “I came here to get away from her, and she seems to have followed me. Ash, you cannot possibly stand against her. She is strong, but more than that, she is wildly unstable.” He didn’t move from the sword. “I cannot help you.”
Norm grabbed Granite’s arm. “You said you would help me.”
He closed his eyes and slowly nodded. “Let me go, Norm.”
The Yeti dropped him. It was only then that I saw the wounds on Granite. Huge slashing claw marks.
I kept my sword pointed at him. “Peta got hold of you?”
“No. The rakshasa. That stupid Miko called the demon forth, thinking it would bend to him. And it didn’t. That is the help I give you. Fair warning.” He slumped to one side. “I cannot help you more than that. Use Sandlings against the demon, Ash. That will be your only hope to fend it off long enough to get away.”
“You can’t kill it?” I asked, wondering what had made Miko call on such a demon. There was only one answer I could think of. Cassava.
Norm and Granite both shook their heads.
I did a quick flick through my recollection of the rakshasa. A demon native to the area, it was clawed and had an insatiable appetite that happily included cannibalism. Wonderful, just what I needed on top of dealing with the bitch.
I wanted to run Granite through and finish him off. I wanted him to pay for his crimes, and as an Ender, it was my right and duty to do so. Yet I could not make the final blow. I backed toward the tent door and pointed a finger at my old friend, feeling something strange come over me as I spoke. “There will come a time when it is your life or hers. For the sake of your soul and the world we care for, you will need to make the right choice, or we will all pay for it with our lives.” I backed out of the yurt and Norm slowly followed me.
“We aren’t going to get any more help from him, are we?”
“No, we aren’t.” I tucked my swords into their sheaths. “Norm, I’m going in to find Cassava. She has long dark hair and dark eyes. While I do that, you find your family and do your best to get them to safety, do you understand?”
He nodded once. “Okay, I got it. What about after?”
I shook my head. “One step at a time.”
We headed back the way we’d come, banking to the right as we approached the side of the mountain that led up to the place the Yeti called home. The air around us flickered and danced, sepia-toned, because the fires burned high as if the world was viewed through a yellow-tinted lens. I slid off Norm’s back and pointed to the left, sending him around the side. I went straight up, climbing through the snow and heading into the place I knew I would find her. I could feel the vibrations of her power through the thickness of the snow.
It was as if the ground below my feet guided me, as if my Ender’s senses had finally come back online now that I’d erased whatever fault lines Talan had placed in my mind and heart.
I crested the ridge and stared down at the scene below, horror cutting through me. There were Yeti piled beside a huge bonfire, their bodies flung about and broken like oversized dolls. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare. There was no sign of the rakshasa. I drew a breath, almost choking on the smoke-filled air.
Memories roared up through me, long forgotten, the past came to life in the flames.
I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see through the smoke in the forest. All around me people cried out. The lightning strike had hit several trees, and with that, many homes were on fire, tucked against the redwoods as they were.
Ten years old, I knew I couldn’t do much to help. But my mother was strong with her connection to the earth. She could call the dirt up and put the flames out in an instant. She was at home with my siblings. I ran through the forest, the sound of beating wings in my ears and the heat of my fear burning my lungs.
I lifted my hand and pushed through a thick huckleberry bush to where my home was on the furthest south edge of the forest.
Orange, red, and yellow flames rose into the sky. Words choked in my tightening throat.
The smell of burnt flesh ghosted across to me from the clearing. I bolted forward. The door of our home had been blasted off and was rimmed in fire. I lifted a hand to shade my face. On the floor ahead of me lay my mother, her arms around my two siblings. Their chests did not rise and fall, and there was a black scorch mark running across their backs.
I had to get them out. Take them to the he
alers.
“No, Ash, you can’t!” A pair of hands grabbed at me as I moved to leap forward. The girl from the planting fields. The one who slipped me fresh berries when no one was looking.
“You can’t, Ash. They’re dead. I’m so sorry.” She hugged me to her, dragging me away from the flames.
“No, I want to help them!”
She cried softly. “You can’t. No one can now.” With one hand, she called up the earth around the tree and threw it at the raging fire. A thump resounded through the air, as the flames were put out completely. No one came running from the home, thanking her. I watched, hoping we were wrong. That one of them had survived.
We sat there and she rocked me softly as I cried. “Why did they have to die?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I don’t know. I lost my family when I was young, too.”
I blinked up at her; she wasn’t that much older than me. A few years at the most. Her face was streaked with tears for my family, and her lips trembled. I leaned my head back against her, and together we stared at the remnants of my home. She’d saved my life. I would never forget that.
Cassava had saved my life.
She walked with me away from the only home I’d ever known.
“Where will I go?”
A moment passed before she answered. “I think you will have an important role one day,” she said softly. “Maybe you could even be an Ender, Ash. You could protect our family. You’re strong like your mom, you know.” Her words were meant to distract me, but as the Enders barracks came into view, I knew she was right. I knew where I belonged.
The memory let me go and I gasped. How could I have forgotten that? Or had I just not thought of it for so long? I shook my head, doing my best to clear things.
None of that mattered now. She wasn’t that girl who’d saved my life so many years ago.
Was she?
“Cassava, I am here for you!”
A cry from a voice I knew as well as my own shattered the morning, and Lark stumbled out from around the fire, her eyes filled with tears, her face streaked with soot. She limped, but I could see no injury. It didn’t matter. She was here. Lark was here.
Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) Page 14
