03] ES) Firestorm

by Shannon Mayer

  She crept through the healer’s room to the counter where the healing balms were and grabbed a jar of ointment. Spinning around she searched the room and I held my breath.

  “Who is here? I can sense you.” The voice was wavy and distorted and I couldn’t tell if they were even male or female. If it hadn’t been for Smoke’s belief it was a girl, I wasn’t sure I would have thought that.

  She took a few steps toward me and I lay there, thinking that she was about the right size to be Finley. But what the hell would the Queen of the Deep be doing sneaking around the Pit? No, Finley would never stoop to this kind of behavior.

  A few more steps and she was at the edge of the bed. Even her feet were cloaked in shadows. I had to give it to her, it was a disguise worth learning.

  Peta gave out a high-pitched meow and trotted along the edge of the counter, drawing the attention away from me. The cloaked one spun and stared.

  “Damn cats. I hate felines. The first thing I’ll do when I rule the Pit as queen is kill all you snotty creatures.”

  Well, now I knew for sure she was a she. Though not a nice girl, that was obvious. Peta let out a long low hiss, her fur standing on end. But she didn’t say anything and the mystery girl slipped out of the healer’s room as quietly as she’d entered. I stayed where I was for another minute before I crawled out.

  “Peta, did you—”

  “No, I could not even get a scent on her, whatever spell covers her, it is complete. It makes no sense, there are no young rivals for the throne here.” She shook her head.

  “Did you see what ointment she took?” Already my mind leapt forward. We could be on the lookout for someone who had whatever injury the girl was trying to heal.

  “Burn salve,” Peta said.

  I nodded, and debated going after the girl. “That is no ghost.” I stopped and shook my head. “Keep looking, maybe we can still find something solid.”

  “Unless you have an idea of what it is you are looking for, I will not keep sniffing jars.” Peta yawned, her tiny jaws cracking wide as she flashed her teeth and rough tongue at me.

  I crouched beside her. “I attacked four Enders when I was here, all the injuries were bad, but the two worst happened right here. As soon as I hurt them, the healers were helping them. How could they have died when they had healers—the best in our world—right here?”

  Peta’s eyes widened as she caught what I was getting at. “If someone wanted to see you go down in flames, they would only have to make sure the Enders didn’t survive.”

  “Exactly. But I have to prove it.” And therein lay the rub. We scoured the room, top to bottom three times over but found nothing out of the ordinary. Until I opened the second to last cupboard. Inside were stacks of paper, labeled with names.

  “Peta.”

  She ran to my side, putting her paws on my knee as I crouched. “They would be the most recent, no one has died since then.”

  I grabbed the top four pieces of paper.

  Name: Ender Blaze

  Injury: Spear wound to lateral oblique, three ribs broken.

  Treatment: Stitches, binding for the ribs, heavy dose of herbals for pain.

  Prognosis: Stable, good condition.

  Name: Ender Flare

  Injury: Spear wound to neck, artery cut.

  Treatment: Stitches, infusion of blood, heavy dose of herbals for pain.

  Prognosis: Stable, good condition.

  Name: Ender Smudge

  Injury: Spear wound to stomach.

  Treatment: Stitches, loose wrap, heavy dose of herbals for pain.

  Prognosis: Stable, good condition.

  Name: Ender Stokes

  Injury: Spear wound to stomach.

  Treatment: Stitches, loose wrap, heavy dose of herbals for pain.

  Prognosis: Stable, good condition.

  I flipped each of the papers over, seeing the times the healers checked on each of them. “Everything here shows they were all healing, in good spirits,” I whispered.

  Peta tapped the paper with a paw. “Until the end.”

  The final line on each paper was simple. DOMC.

  “Dead on morning check.” She translated for me.

  “Peta, will this help? Will Fiametta even look at this?” And in the back of my head I wondered why the healers hadn’t shown these papers to their queen.

  She wrinkled up her nose. “It’s hard to say. Maybe. It’s your best shot, I think.”

  I folded the papers, sliding them under my vest. My fingers brushed against the letter from my father. I still had to read that too, but I was reluctant. A part of me was afraid to see what exactly he had to say.

  The torchlight flickered and I glanced over my shoulder. The bamboo was burnt more than halfway down and Cactus’s shirt was long gone.

  “Peta, we’re running out of time.” I grabbed a spool of cloth from the counter top, bandages folded up and ready for an emergency. I wrapped them around the torch hoping to stave off the inevitable.

  “Hurry up, Dirt Girl. If you don’t want to be found here, then we have to leave.” She ran ahead of me and nudged the door open with her face. I tightened my grip on the torch and took one last look back into the room. I only had to prove the Enders didn’t die as a result of my spear. Injured? Yes, that much I would admit to, but no longer did I feel the weight of their deaths. The papers proved I was not their killer.

  Peta ran ahead of me, the tip of her tail a flashing white spot in the darkness. The torch burnt lower, the heat scorching my hand as I took another turn. “Peta, how much farther?”

  “A few minutes.”

  “We aren’t going to make it.” The torch took that moment to burn my hand, sizzling the skin and forcing me to drop it. The glowing embers littered the floor and Peta ran back to me.

  “Looks like we’re sleeping here,” I said.

  “No, we can’t. If they find you out of Smoke and Brand’s home, it is the excuse they will use to throw you into jail next to Ash.” Peta spoke quickly and I let out a groan.

  I crouched beside her, her green eyes glowing in the last of the light. “Could you find your way out now that we are this close?”

  “Yes, but I must be on the ground to smell.”

  I nodded and the last of the embers burned out dropping us into a total and complete darkness that was not comfortable in the least. “Call out to me, Peta. I’ll follow your voice.”

  “Got it. This way.” Her voice echoed to me and I took a few steps forward, my hand on the wall for guidance. I came to an opening, and I grasped the edge of it.

  “Peta?”

  “This way, Larkspur.” Her voice came from the right and I turned, following her instructions. Turn after turn and ten minutes turned into fifteen. I paused at the next intersection. “Peta, how much farther?”

  There was no response and I swallowed hard. “Peta?”

  A low rumbling laugh echoed through the darkness. “So easy to deceive, little Larkspur. So easy to lead astray. Your familiar is already out of the tunnels and here you are, lost deep within the Pit.”

  I flattened my back against the wall and slid away from the intersection. “Who are you?”

  “You don’t recognize me? You should.”

  My eyes strained in the darkness, seeing things that weren’t there, flashes of light that were just my mind trying to fill in the utter black. Immediately I thought of the tiny cloaked figure. Twice now I’d seen her and the voice was similar enough, that it could have been her. Or maybe someone cloaking themselves just like her. Smoke said there were two specters. Was I meeting the second?

  “No, I don’t recognize you. But then, I rarely waste my time with tricksters,” I said as I slid away from the intersection, back the way I’d come.

  “Oh, I am not a trickster, but I do know who killed those Enders. You want to know that secret, don’t you?” Damn it, the voice was everywhere, in front to the left and the right. But that was impossible.

  Unless maybe it was someone from t
he supernatural world; a warlock maybe, or worse yet, a demon. I’d not dealt with the supernatural world, but I’d learned about it as part of my schooling. The power of the elemental world ran in the supernatural bloodlines, giving them abilities they should not have.

  I clung to the stone, a low spiral of fear keeping me far away from the anger I needed to tap into my powers. “Are you an elemental?”

  “Yes, of course, dear Larkspur. Why would you ask that? Ahh, you think me supernatural in nature. Good guess, but that isn’t what you face.”

  That left only one possibility: he had to be a Spirit user. There was no other answer to the way I felt, the way I’d heard Peta calling me the wrong way, farther into the tunnels. It was a trick Cassava used when she wore the pink diamond, a stone that gave her the powers of a Spirit user.

  There was no way this trickster knew I had that same element running through my veins. I reached out for the part of me that held Spirit and clung to it, wrapping it around me. The warmth sunk through my soul and the fear and confusion slipped away. Holding my breath, I dropped to my knees. If I couldn’t see him, then I doubted he could see me. At least that was what I was hoping for.

  Spirit didn’t require me to be angry to tap into it, not like my powers that were connected to the earth. But that didn’t mean Spirit was much help either since I didn’t know what I was doing with it most times.

  Crawling on my hands and knees, I tried to sense where he was, the way I’d felt Fiametta earlier in the day. Like a wolf scenting its prey, I crept forward. An image smashed into my skull of Griffin in full wolf form as he loped through the forest, his nose raised to the wind. My skin crawled as if the cool breeze actually coursed along my body.

  “Whatever are you doing, dear Larkspur? I smell the Rim as if I stood under the redwoods.” His voice was no longer confident, but had an edge of irritation to it.

  But better yet, his voice no longer rebounded and his words echoed from the left. Pushing myself to the tips of my toes and creeping across the floor on my hands and toe tips, I approached him. A sudden pulse of his heart through the ground below froze me in place.

  “Larkspur. Come out now,” he snapped and a flicker of power danced over my skin. I realized he was trying to compel me with Spirit. A grin spread over my lips and I was sure that if he could see it, he would run for his life.

  Whoever this was, I was going to catch him and shake him ‘til he spilled his secrets. I scurried forward, my back hunched and my steps silent. The sound of his breathing, the sound of his heart beating was loud in my ears. I leapt toward him, a howl on my lips as Griffin’s wolf spirit seemed to channel through me.

  He cried out and stumbled backward, screaming. “No!”

  We tumbled to the floor and his hands seemed to be everywhere, punching and hitting . . . and sliding under my vest.

  With a quick snatch he had the papers along with the note from my father. “I don’t think you’ll be needing these.”

  Rotten worm shit, how had he known? He had to have been spying on me in the healer’s room.

  We rolled and he got loose. I didn’t stop fighting to gain a hold on him, but still I missed him by an inch, the soft material of his clothing brushing my arm and sliding through my fingers as if water. He took off running in the utter darkness. I didn’t hesitate to bolt after him. Holding tight to the pulse of his life in the back of my head, the reverberation of his feet on the stone as he ran I tracked him as easily as if I could see him in front of me.

  Pumping my arms and legs hard, I closed the distance between us with each stride until his long cloak was tickling at my hands. He took a hard left and I followed but when I turned the corner, he was gone. As if he’d never been and I’d been chasing shadows.

  “Son of a fey bitch in heat.” I slapped my hands against the wall and the mountain gave a low rumble in response. Breathing hard, I leaned forward, knowing whoever he was, he wouldn’t be gone long.

  And whatever he was up to, no way it was good.

  Other than losing him, I only had one pressing problem. Lifting my hands in front of me I fumbled forward, completely lost.

  As a child, my mother always told me to sit down if I got lost, and someone would find me. Except I wasn’t supposed to be out of the house, and I’d be damned if I was ending up in prison beside Ash. Again.

  I didn’t need to close my eyes to block out the darkness, but I needed to concentrate. There were only two people I could reach.

  Cactus.

  And Peta.

  Swallowing hard I tried Peta first. When I concentrated, I could feel her emotions in the back of my head, her near panic as she searched for me poured through, and I struggled to breathe evenly. “Easy, Peta. I’m okay.”

  She didn’t calm, but even worse, I couldn’t truly reach her. I didn’t understand the bond between us and how to use it fully.

  “Damn.” I rubbed my hands over my face and slid my back down the wall. Dropping my hands to the floor I sent out a tiny pulse of energy, a call through the earth to Cactus. A call that would allow him to find me; if it could break through the sleep spell.

  Licking my lips, a thought rolled through my brain. Maybe I could boost the call with Spirit, making Cactus hear me. A trick we’d used as children to reach one another, to sneak out at night and play under the stars.

  I sent the call again, this time weaving Spirit around it. “Come on, Cactus.”

  That was all I could do. That and hope if Cactus didn’t find me, Peta would. Or maybe Brand . . . anyone who wouldn’t turn me over to the queen.

  I closed my eyes again and slowed my breathing. There was nothing I could do now except wait.

  In that silence, I reviewed the last few months of my life. Of the things I’d done and seen, and the truths I’d faced. The friends I’d gained and lost. “Mother goddess,” I spoke into the darkness, “you said I was your chosen one. And you had me swear my life to you. For what? To bring me here and throw me into danger again?”

  The weight of the darkness grew until the feeling of an arm rested across my shoulders and she whispered in my ear.

  “Child, do you really want to know the future? Or would you rather live it and know each choice you make will take you to places you must be? Trust is a strange thing, so tied to fear. Let the fear go, Larkspur. Let it go, and trust not only yourself, but this world and the power of its elements.”

  The feeling of her arm receded and I stood, surprised to find my cheeks wet with tears. “Thank you.”

  There was a soft scuffle of claws on stone and a burst of flame broke through the darkness. Scar blinked up at me, his purple eyes dilated in the bright light. “You’re lost, aren’t you?”

  I couldn’t help the bitter laugh. “I am. Think you can help me back to the main cave?”

  Scar nodded, and his fire went out. “Yes, just put a hand on me.”

  I touched the tip of one of his horns that arched over his neck. “Scar, how did you find me?”

  “The mother goddess sent me. She said you will save us from Fiametta because you are the only one who can hear us speak.” He moved forward, his gait a smooth side to side motion.

  “Why is that, do you think?”

  “I don’t know, but the other Spirit Walker can’t hear us. It is like he is deaf to our words.”

  I swallowed the sudden burst of excitement. “The other Spirit Walker? You mean the one in the cloak?”

  “Yes, that is him. He made us do things ve did not want to. My father learned how to stop him, but now he steals us away.” Scar let out a low sigh. “There aren’t many of us left and . . .” He stopped speaking. “I must leave you here, Spirit Walker. Be careful there is much danger.”

  He flicked his head and I let go of his horn. “Thank you,” I said into the darkness.

  “Lark?”

  I spun on as a torch flickered down the hallway. “Cactus?”

  He jogged toward me but Peta blasting down the hallway caught my attention. Five feet away she
leapt into my arms, her body shaking. “Lark, we have to go, right now.”

  “Yes, I know.”

  “No, you don’t,” Cactus said, his eyes strained at the edges. “Fiametta is on her way to Brand’s, we saw her in the tunnels. We were just lucky she didn’t see us.”

  Oh, that was not good in any way, shape, or form. “Then I guess we’d better get our asses in gear.”

  “You don’t understand, Lark. We are all supposed to be asleep. And if you are not in your bed, asleep when she gets there. . .” He shook his head.

  He didn’t have to finish his sentence, I understood all too clearly.

  If Fiametta had even an inkling I was doing what I shouldn’t be, I would be toast; perhaps in the most literal sense of the word.

  CHAPTER 13

  eta clung to me as Cactus ran ahead, the torchlight flickering. “Dirt Girl, who was that calling to you?”

  I glanced at her then back to Cactus. “You heard him too?”

  “Yes.” Her claws dug into my clothes, the tops of them brushing against my skin. “I tried to stop you but you couldn’t hear me and then . . . I couldn’t find you.” She shivered, her whole body twitching.

  “I don’t know who he is, but he can manipulate Spirit; he made it sound like you were calling to me.”

  Peta let out a low rumbling hiss. “But you stopped him?”

  “For now. He took the papers.”

  She meowed softly in my ear. “He will be back, you think? We will get the papers from him then.”

  We took a hard left turn and I nodded. “I’ve no doubt about it.” I had to believe hope was not lost.

  Cactus slid to a stop and I almost slammed into him. “Why are we stopping?”

  He pointed to a hole in the wall, the edges jagged and crumbling, the opening not very large. “Crawl through here. It will take you into a deserted home three doors down from Brand’s place. Hurry.”

  I didn’t question him, and neither did Peta. “Dirt Girl, go ahead of me this time, I don’t want to lose you again.”