03] ES) Firestorm

by Shannon Mayer

  The mother goddess stared at me, her eyes emotionless, but her tone held more than a little anger. “This is not a negotiation, child.”

  “I believe it is. Who else have you got within the Pit with the strength to possibly stop Fiametta?” A small part of me struggled to understand why I was fighting her on this.

  The mother goddess took a step back. “You are walking a fine line between obedience and outright defiance. That is not a line you can balance for long and you will have to decide if you are truly one of my children, or one of the banished.”

  The threat was clear. Do as she wanted or be cast out to die alone. I bowed my head, but said nothing.

  Sleep rolled over me in a wave, dragging me down into the place of dreams and nightmares. The mother goddess was gone and I found myself on my knees again, reliving the fire whip as it seared through my back. I jerked awake and a hand rubbed through the back of my hair. “Easy, Lark. It’s over.”

  Ash’s voice soothed the fear and I lowered my head to the bed once more. One of his arms encircled my waist and he pulled me against him. The warmth radiating from his body into mine eased the aches and residual tension my muscles held.

  I rolled in his arms and buried my face against his neck, breathing him in. A soft, furred body curled up at the back of my neck. Peta dropped her head into the crook of my neck. “Sleep, Lark. Sleep and in the morning we will leave.”

  But would I leave? Or would I do as the mother goddess commanded? My thoughts jumbled together; my body twitching and jerking as I fell into a fitful sleep. Disobeying her would mean I was leaving the firewyrms to fight on their own. Scar’s eyes floated through my mind, the soft glimmer of amethyst.

  The morning came soon enough, the light shimmering through the reflective tunnels above bringing me out of my stupor. Voices drifted to me, like dust motes floating in the air. Smoke’s voice was the same husky pitch but pain laced her words.

  “I don’t care. Just . . .he can’t be gone. He can’t be. He was my baby.” A sob rippled out of her and I was up and moving before I could think better of it. Ash was beside me and threw a sheet around my body, but not before he gasped.

  “Lark, your back.”

  “I know it looks like worm tunnels and goose shit.”

  “No, it’s not,” Ash said, his hand on my arm stopping me. The arm he held was the one burned. But the burn was completely gone and in its place a tattoo rested on my skin. A vine of deepest green with thorns of a dark purple curled over my muscles.

  “Your back is more of the same,” he said.

  The mother goddess had healed me after all. I closed my eyes and whispered my thanks to her.

  Another cry from Smoke turned my attention back to the moment at hand.

  I stumbled forward as my legs tried to buckle. How long was I out? I thought it was just a day, but the last time I’d felt like this, I’d been coming out of a week of trials with the mother goddess.

  The main living area was lit with soft burning candles, their light flickering over the sober faces. Brand sat beside Smoke, holding her tightly as tears ran down his face. The two older boys, Stryker and his brother Cano stood against the far wall, their faces also wet with tears as their chests heaved.

  Stryker stepped forward, “Mom, I didn’t know; none of us did.”

  Brand stood as Smoke held a hand out to her oldest son, drawing him to her until she held him against her chest. “I know it’s not your fault. The mother goddess has turned her eyes away from our people.”

  Her words shocked me and I had to bite down on the question that formed. Where was Tinder? The little boy with the sparkling eyes and the bright personality? The one with the questions that were never ending?

  I gasped as the understanding hit me in the chest. The how of it didn’t really matter, but I knew . . . Tinder was gone. Brand’s eyes flicked to me, and there was no malice in them.

  “You are free to go, Terralings. Fiametta has declared you are not to be stopped.” He dropped his eyes and tightened his hold on his wife. I stepped forward and went to my knees beside Smoke. She’d been kind to me, one of the few in the Pit who had.

  “Smoke.”

  Her eyes flicked to mine, the gray centers that so resembled her name were awash with tears. “It is not safe here for you, Lark.”

  I shook my head. “It looks as though it is not safe for you either. How did it happen?”

  “I said,” Brand grabbed my arm and hauled me up to my feet, “you are free to go. Isn’t that enough?”

  I didn’t jerk away from him, but stepped into his guard. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”

  Ash let out a soft groan. “This is going to be the Deep all over again.”

  I cast a glare at Ash and he said nothing more. Brand tightened his grip on my arm, and for a moment the pressure reached the point where I thought I would have to back down as my tendons were squeezed over my forearm bones.

  “We went to swim in the Pit,” Stryker said, breaking the silence. Brand let go of me, his hand falling to his side. Stryker stepped forward and circled his arms around his mother, holding her as much as she was holding him. Stryker’s young frame trembled from his jaw to his bobbing knee. “Tinder ran ahead of us and jumped into the Pit. He was fine, laughing and splashing. I swear it.”

  I frowned, but said nothing. Someone must have struck at Tinder, someone had to have hurt him. Yet I struggled to see someone hurting a child, especially one as likeable as he.

  An image of Bram being stolen from my arms hit me like a runaway bull and I sucked in a quiet breath. Logically I knew Cassava had no reason to attack Tinder. Even if I did have a soft spot for the little boy, what did it gain her? Nothing was the simple answer, yet I couldn’t help but want to blame her for another death. It took all I had to remain quiet and let Stryker speak when he was ready.

  His eyes were distant as if he were seeing something only he could see. A shiver ran lightly through his body.

  “I almost jumped in. I stopped at the edge and yelled down to him and he looked up at me, a funny expression on his face and then he just . . . the lava burned him like he wasn’t a Salamander, so fast, like he was nothing and then he was sucked down and gone. Like he was never there. He didn’t even have time to cry out, it was so fast. There were other kids, same thing happened. Seven or eight of them, just . . . gone.” Stryker dropped his head as a sob rippled out of him.

  Smoke stroked his hair with one hand, whispering a song to him, the words inaudible but the tune soothing, even to me.

  I put a hand over my eyes, seeing all too easily little Tinder sucked down under a wave of lava. Saw his eyes full of pain and confusion, of all the years he could have had, stolen from him.

  Like Bram.

  “Take me to Fiametta,” I said, not bothering to hide the thickness of my words, the way tears clogged my throat. I would stay, because I couldn’t leave when children were being killed. Whatever I could do, I would.

  “You can’t do anything, Lark.” Brand shook his head. “No one can.”

  I slowly straightened my spine to my full height, softening my words at the last moment. He’d lost his son, the least I could do was remember the pain of that loss. “Are you sure?”

  We stared at each other, and maybe there would have been more said. But that chance would never come.

  Footsteps pounded toward us, a staccato that didn’t sound good. An Ender, young and new to the title by the looks of the acne on his face, stuck his head in the door. His words were gasped, out of breath as he was.

  “The lava is flowing.”

  Brand snorted. “It always is.”

  The young Ender shook his head. “No, it’s out of control.”

  Brand stood and strode toward him. “Fiametta will deal with—”

  The kid shook his head again, harder and it was then I saw the fear stamped on his face. “No, that’s just it. The lava is wild, and even the queen can’t stop it.”

  A collective breath was d
rawn in and held within the room. I may not have been a Salamander, but even I knew news couldn’t get much worse.

  The funny thing about assumptions is when you are proven wrong, it’s amazing just how very wrong you can be.

  CHAPTER 21

  rand led the way, running out of the house, his hands going to his weapons. “All of you stay inside!”

  I leapt after him ignoring the fact I was wearing nothing more than a silk sheet; there was no way I was going to sit inside and wait for a river of lava to roll over me. Outside their home, the steady growing noise I’d been hearing became clear. The lava flowed over the banks of the river, rushing with a speed that seemed to pick up even as I stared at it.

  “Pigeon balls,” I whispered to myself. The heat had at least tripled just in stepping outside of the walls. All my thoughts of staying and helping, of bringing Fiametta to justice for the deaths of the firewyrms was swept away with the reality of our situation. “We have to get out of here.”

  Ash put a hand on me. “We have to get to the Traveling room. That’s our only way out.”

  I nodded and Peta butted her head against my leg. “Lark, look at the lava.”

  I did as she asked as an Ender stepped toward the flowing red death, letting it wrap around his legs as if it were water.

  Except that it wasn’t water; not even for him. He screamed as the lower half of his body sunk, dissolving as we watched. Someone gasped, it might have been Smoke, but it might have been me too. The Ender writhed and struggled as he slowly died, his upper body twitching as the lava slipped up over his waist, his head dropping so his chin rested on his chest and then his whole body lit on fire.

  On fire.

  His element no longer protecting him.

  What in the mother goddess’s name was going on?

  You can save them all, Larkspur, if you are brave enough. Her voice whispered to me. I wanted to shake my head but a small part of me wanted to believe her.

  I grabbed Brand by the arm. “We have to assume that could happen to any of you. We need to get to Fiametta.”

  The younger Ender, Jack by his hasty introduction, nodded. “That’s the plan. The queen is going to deal with this but she wants all her people with her.”

  Brand herded his family after Jack. “Go with him. I want to see how deep this goes.”

  Smoke’s eyes glistened. “Be careful, my love, I can’t lose you, too.”

  He reached for her and they kissed, a mere brush of lip against lip and yet there was emotion enough that once more I felt I was witnessing something special, and intimate. I glanced away.

  Ash touched my arm. “You need to get dressed.”

  Without a word, I strode toward the house and tried not to think about the way the Ender had fallen to the lava. As if he were nothing--as frail and mortal as any human. How could that be? Our elements didn’t just leave us, they didn’t stop working for no reason.

  I had my pants on and was tightening the straps on my vest as the thoughts racing through my head slowed, and with them my hands.

  Peta leapt on the bed and put her paws on my chest. “I sense it in you. What have you thought of?”

  I stared at the wall as my mind settled on the realization like a bird landing softly on the spindly branch of a too small tree. The weight of it slid over my shoulders. “Someone is blocking their ability. Just like my ability was blocked by Cassava when I was young,” I whispered the words. “It has to be the cloaked one. Blackbird.”

  “That’s impossible,” Peta said. “You saw it yourself. He is an Undine who also carries Spirit and he also can reach the earth. And he is carrying a ring tied to fire. That would mean . . . three elements isn’t possible.” Yet her voice wavered at the end.

  Ash stuck his head in, breaking up our conversation. “We have to move if we’re going to get to the Traveling room.”

  Following Ash, who in turn followed Brand, we made our way to the far side of the living quarters to a ladder cut into the mountain. Brand gestured. “You three get up there. Peta, you can lead them to the Traveling room from there.”

  She nodded, and leapt up several rungs to hang for a moment as she answered. “Hurry.”

  Ash held his hand out to Brand and the fire elemental slowly took it. “The lava is rising fast, and the Traveling room lies below it.”

  “Understood,” Ash said, letting go. “Be safe my friend.”

  Brand turned away and I knew if he went, we wouldn’t see him again. Smoke would lose yet another piece of her heart.

  I called after him. “Brand.”

  He didn’t stop.

  “Brand, you will break her if you do this. She deserves better.”

  His whole body stiffened. The air in the cavern thickened with black smoke and I thought he wouldn’t turn.

  “Damn you, Terraling.” He spun toward us and pulled himself up the ladder after Peta who scrambled ahead of him.

  I climbed after him, Ash on my heels and I realized we were missing someone. “Cactus, where is he?”

  “The queen asked for him while you were out,” Ash answered and then there was no air for questions, barely air for breathing.

  At the top of the ladder, the thick smoke hung dark enough to dim the glittering light that lit the tunnels. Brand didn’t reach back for me, which was fine. I crawled over the lip of the ladder, coughing as I struggled to breathe. Ash wasn’t doing any better and we scooted forward until the air cleared a little.

  Brand led us toward the Traveling room, stopping at the stairwell that led down to it. I peered past him to stare at the bubbling lava that curled up the steps toward us. That made the decision easy. No going home that way.

  He didn’t pause though. “The queen has a backup pair of armbands in her chambers. She’ll let you use those. I don’t know where they will take you though.”

  “Unless she’s using them to get her people out of here,” Peta said softly, padding ahead of us at a steady trot. She seemed totally unperturbed by the events slowly piling up. Events that had no real meaning I could see other than to wipe out the Salamanders.

  The facts seemed to be that someone was trying to kill them. And I was pretty sure I knew who. It was just a matter of whether or not I could stop him.

  That was the real problem; how did I find the man who called himself Blackbird and kick his ass if he carried three elements within himself? Three elements he was strong enough in that he could easily take me out. Not to mention he also carried the ring that gave him power over fire.

  Brand stopped suddenly and I almost walked into him, so deep within my own thoughts as I was.

  The healer’s room doors were flung wide and while there was a bustling trade going on, there was almost no noise. Fiametta strode from table to table, talking to those patients laid out. Her hands brushed against cheeks, touched skin that wasn’t broken with heat blisters, gave comfort where she could.

  Clearing his throat, Brand got her attention. “My queen, the Traveling room is cut off.”

  “I see.” She walked toward us, her blue eyes cool. “I suppose you want the bands from my room.”

  Brand nodded. “I can get them myself.”

  “Do that.” Her words were soft, like the precursor of rain as clouds were driven in on high, silent winds. I braced myself, facing her head on.

  “You think we did this somehow.”

  Her eyes narrowed and I expected to see lines of power running up her arms, except there was nothing. “If I thought that, I would kill you myself right now. No, this is the work of the traitors. Which you have agreed to help me find. I suggest now that you are healed, you get on it.”

  Ash shifted beside me and I recognized the pose. He was prepping a move that would allow him to leap up and drive both fists directly into Fiametta’s throat. Her eyes narrowed. Of course she would recognize it, being a former Ender. As much as I hated her for whipping me as she had, a part of me understood that it was the law. Even I couldn’t deny it.

  I put a hand o
n his arm. Our eyes met and he relaxed—a little, anyway.

  “I know who did this,” I said, just as Cactus stepped into the room. He had a long burn up his left arm and there was soot all over his face, which made his eyes stand out even more, but he was at least intact.

  He gave me a wink and blew Ash a kiss. “Good to see you two made it out all right.”

  “Don’t speak too soon, pet,” Fiametta said and then turned to me once more. “What do you think has been done, Terraling?” Her voice dropped into almost a coo, that I recognized for what it was.

  Dangerous.

  This was the tricky part, yet there was no nice way to speak the truth. I fought not to cross my arms over my chest; I had done nothing, and yet I felt like I was already defending myself. “Your power has been blocked. And that’s why your element has turned on you.”

  Someone from the table to the right of us moaned. “The mother goddess has turned her eyes from us. We have offended her and now she will cleanse her children of their sins.”

  Fiametta didn’t move. “How could you know this if you were not the one—”

  “Because Cassava has done it to me in the past. It is possible, and it’s the only thing that makes sense. It is the power of Spirit being used on you.” I waved my hand at the room, and the people in it. “How else would you explain this? Your people burning in their own element? Your inability to reach your power? The firewyrms attacking for no reason? Your inability to see reason . . . all of it can be attributed to someone manipulating Spirit. I just never would have thought it could be used on this scale.”

  The queen lifted her hand and there was a flicker of red tracing the inner edge of her arm. She was trying to pull on her power, but the lines flickered and died like a flame being snuffed. Her shoulder’s slumped. “Damn you for being right. This is why those who carry Spirit are killed on sight.”

  Her back straightened as fast as it had slumped. “Ender,” she pointed at young Jack, “I want everyone out of the mountain. Immediately.”

  He clapped his hands together, and barked out orders. “You heard her, everyone head to the entrance, take nothing but the clothes on your back.”