Smit, the healer who tended me several times, made eye contact with me. I jogged to his side and slid an arm around his patient, a young girl probably of an age with Stryker. “I can carry her.”
He nodded. “She can help you find the entrance.”
Peta shifted beside me. “I can take someone.”
Smit snorted. “Bad luck cat, I don’t think so.”
I put a hand on him, tightening my fingers over his forearm. “Her name is Peta, and if you call her a bad luck cat again, I will forget you are a healer.”
His eyes flicked between us. He swallowed hard. “I thought the rumor was wrong about her being your familiar. Pardon me.”
Peta snorted and I shifted the young girl to her back. Smit handed me two small kids with burns on the soles of their feet. Their tiny whimpers shot through me, piercing me to the core. What was the point of this, hurting children, making them suffer for something as materialistic as a crown? What did Blackbird truly hope to gain? Was it just the crown, or was I missing something?
En masse, we left the healer’s rooms, a long line of people that curled through the tunnels. In the distance was the sound of the ocean, only I knew it wasn’t water washing against the inside of the mountain, but lava roaring out of control. Ash was just ahead of me also packing a young man, his feet burned, piggy backed style.
“Ash, can you block the lava behind us?”
He shook his head. “No, I can’t reach my power either. Whatever is blocking the Salamanders isn’t choosy; it’s blocking every elemental.”
And there was too much fear in me to reach my anger and thereby reach the power of the earth. The idea traced along my mind that maybe I could use Spirit on Ash and unblock his ability but I knew so little. What if I hurt him?
I had to trust we would get out of this without my powers.
The silence of the walk was unnerving, and the farther we climbed, the more the tension rose. The heat off the lava flows slowly choked us.
The mountain rumbled and the hallway wall ahead exploded inward, and a long sparkling white body followed it through. The firewyrm was far bigger than Scar, easily the size of a small elephant, only longer. It swung its head toward the cowering elementals.
“Fiametta, you go too far this time.” He, and it was most definitely a ‘he’ by his deep voice not to mention his well-endowed male bits that hung low between his back legs.
Fiametta faced him, her hands on her hips.
“Kill it.”
Of course, she couldn’t understand him.
“Stealing our children, you filthy Salamander,” he roared, his voice loud enough that the walls and ceiling shook, rocks tumbling around us. I cringed and jiggled the two kids as they began to cry.
He roared again. This was going to get ugly if no one did anything, which by the way, Fiametta’s Enders started forward with their weapons would be the wrong kind of “anything.”
“Stop,” I yelled, placing the two children on the ground before running forward. I held my hands up. “Stop it, both of you.”
As if that was going to work. The firewyrm lunged forward, snapping at the Enders, his teeth as needle sharp as Scar’s had been, only ten times as long. Two Enders disappeared into his mouth with two crunches each. The remaining Enders backed until they were right in front of their queen.
“We cannot take him like this,” Maggie said. I hadn’t even realized she was with the group until she spoke, her hair pinned under a tight skullcap of black leather.
“Cactus,” Fiametta called, “blast him.”
That was the moment it became very clear why Cactus was so important to her. He could damage the firewyrms where the Salamanders with their fire only could not. His connection to the earth would allow him to actually puncture their hides.
Cactus was at her side and he shook his head. “This is not a fight I can help you with.”
The big firewyrm advanced on Fiametta and she held up her hand. He ignored her.
“You think you rule here, but your fear is what rules this place. You are no queen.” The lizard snarled and leapt forward with his mouth gaping.
CHAPTER 22
s the firewyrm leapt forward, time slowed. The mother goddess whispered in my ear.
Save her, Lark.
Damn it to the seven hells and back, this was not my fight. And yet, I didn’t hesitate at the mother goddess’s command. I jumped in front of Fiametta and held up both my hands, as I dropped to my knees.
“In the name of the mother goddess, stop!”
I waited with my head bowed and my whole body tingling with apprehension. Hot breath that smelled faintly of jasmine and chili peppers swirled around me.
“Who do you think you are that you can stop me with words? Are you like the other one?”
Like Fiametta? The firewyrm lowered his face so we were eye to eye.
I didn’t lower my hands. “Fiametta is a bitch, a liar, and a manipulator. She’s tried to wipe your people out, punished me with the intention to end my life, and in general being a grade A bitch.”
He chuckled. “Yes, all of those things and more. Why do you stop me then from snapping her in half and using her bones to pick my teeth?”
I slowly lowered my hands. “Because the mother goddess wants her alive for some unknown reason. And as her chosen one, I will do all I can to make sure her wishes are fulfilled. If it were my choice, I would let the queen die and another take her position.”
He pushed his face forward until we were nose to nose. “You are the one who saved my son and tried to revive my daughter. Spirit walker, your heart is too big for your body.”
The firewyrm shook his head at the queen. “Fiametta, only because this one,” he tipped his jaw toward me, “intervenes and speaks on behalf of the mother goddess will I spare you and your people. But I want my children back.”
I dared to stand. “The Salamanders have missing children too. Someone is killing them.”
He shook his massive head, the horns that swept over his neck shimmering from side to side. “Sucked into the lava?”
I nodded. “Yes.”
“Then they are not dead. It is how our children were taken too. I feel their hearts beating yet. Come to my nest, and perhaps we can find them, Spirit Walker.” He backed up, his body disappearing into the hole he’d created.
Around me it felt as though a collective breath was released and silence reigned for a few seconds longer before several voices at once broke out.
“How did she stop him?”
“What did they say?”
“Why didn’t the queen kill the wyrm?”
I turned slowly, meeting Fiametta’s gaze. Her emotions were not written on her face like others.
Fiametta lifted a hand. “Larkspur. You are the half breed bastard child that Basileus has kept hidden from the rest of us. Correct? You are Ulani’s child.” The unspoken question was, are you a Spirit Walker?
No point in denying the truth now. “Yes.” I didn’t take my eyes from Maggie.
“Then we will discuss this once we are outside the mountain. For now I will trust you, not only with my home, but with my families’ lives,” the queen said, as she gave Maggie a look that stopped her in her tracks.
Fiametta turned and looked at her people. “We will exit through the main entrance, and once outside I will send some of my Enders to deal with the wyrms and the lava.”
No one argued with her, not even the Enders. I slipped back to where I’d deposited the two kids and went to scoop them up. They smiled, reaching for me, but I was pushed away, shoved hard enough from the side that I went to my knees. A big man, his red hair shorn close to his head and enough muscles on his arms to fill out three men’s sleeves glared down at me.
“Don’t touch them, you filthy wyrm lover.”
He picked the kids up, their eyes wide as they stared back at me, and strode away. The Salamanders flowed around me as if I were an island in a stream. They stared at me, the coldness of their eyes l
ike ice against my skin.
Peta found me, her charge gone from her back. “They took her from me too,” she said before I could ask.
Ash waited for us, his arms also empty. “Me, too.”
“Guilty by association,” I murmured, as I pushed myself to my feet. Peta snorted and shook her body, shrinking to her housecat form. I held my arms out and she leapt up to me.
“You can carry me.”
Laughing softly, I placed her on my shoulder. “Thanks, I appreciate the vote of confidence.”
Falling into step beside me, Ash shook his head. “This seems too easy. Whoever is doing this, blocking them from their element wouldn’t just let them out.”
“You think it’s a trap?”
He nodded. “I’m sure of it.”
Walking at the back of the long line of Salamanders, I did a head count. Fewer than five hundred souls, and that was counting the injured being carried. A trap for five hundred people . . . if they couldn’t get out of the mountain, and they were blocked from their abilities, what would happen when the lava reached them?
They’d all die.
The line stopped moving and I held back, standing ten feet behind the last Salamander.
Peta sat up straight on my shoulder, looking over everyone’s head. “Why aren’t they moving?”
I shrugged. “Maybe Ash is right and the door is stuck.” The words popped out of me, and the Salamanders closest to us turned back to stare at me. Worm shit, I had to learn to keep my mouth shut. Peta stood up, her front paws on top of my head.
“I think that’s exactly what has happened. You need to get up there, you two.”
Reluctantly I pushed my way forward through the crowd. Easily enough, they parted around Ash and me as though we were diseased.
The front of the crowd was Maggie, Fiametta, and Cactus who was shaking his head almost violently.
“I can’t reach that side of my powers, my queen. I’m sorry,” Cactus said. Fiametta’s frame shook and at first I thought perhaps she was angry. It was only when I saw her face that I realized she was crying.
The queen of fire, hard as all the granite in the world was crying.
Fiametta saw me, her blue eyes shimmering with tears. “And you two, can you open the mountain?”
Ash stepped forward first, laying his hands on the large black door. I knew what lay outside, an orchard of cherry trees forever in blossom with the heat of the mountain. Ash’s arms showed nothing, no lines of power, no traces of green. He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”
Now, my turn. I stepped forward reaching for the power of the earth even as it slid away from me. Teeth gritted, I put my hands on the door and bowed my head.
Voices behind me rippled over my ears. What’s she doing? Does she really think we would trust her? Their words were the fuel I needed, the anger at their distrust flowed through me and I reached for my connection to the earth. The power flared and I pushed it into the door, spreading it wide with a grinding screech.
I let go of the door and it immediately began to swing closed. Grabbing hold of my power once more I drove it into the door a second time. Sweat broke out on my head as I held it. In front of me were the cherry trees, the scent of their blossoms blowing into the tunnel along with a few loose petals that scattered around my feet.
“Hurry, get them through!” I yelled. Peta clung to me, her nose in my ear.
“What’s happening?”
Through gritted teeth, I spoke as the door groaned. “Someone is pushing the doors closed as I’m holding them open.” There was only one person it could be: that female in the black cloak, Blackbird’s lackey.
Closing my eyes, I held the doors, my entire body shaking with the effort. A hand touched my arm.
“Let it go, Lark,” Ash said.
They were through, that was my only thought as I relaxed my hold on the door. It slammed shut with a thunderous boom that shook the walls.
Breathing hard I put my hands on my knees for a moment before straightening and turning around. I stared at the scene in front of me. Not one Salamander less was in the group.
“What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you go through?”
“How can we trust you?” Maggie said, putting her face right into mine. “You could have crumbled the archway on top us as we walked through.”
There was more than a murmuring of assent more like a roar of agreement.
The mother goddess’s words about my father came back to me. Fear would stop people from trusting even those who only wanted to help them.
“You all just signed your own death warrants,” I said softly, fatigue hitting me hard. Or maybe it wasn’t fatigue, but sorrow, an ache that even when I tried I wasn’t able to help them. Because deep down, no matter how much they hurt me or treated me like worm shit, I couldn’t stand by and watch them die.
Fiametta motioned for me to follow her a few steps away. For the first time, her eyes showed the strain she was under. “Larkspur, I will beg if I must. I cannot stop the lava flows.”
I frowned at her, anger building once more. “You could have made them go through the doorway. You could have been the first one through and shown them the way out and this would now not even be a discussion.”
Her face was carefully blank. “You are right.”
My eyebrows shot up. “Little late for that, don’t you think?”
Her lips pursed and then softened, but there was no time for her to answer me. Behind us came the cries of her people and the splashing of lava as it reached the back of the line. People pushed forward, screaming, crying, and begging.
I was jammed against the door along with Fiametta. They would take the doorway now . . . if I could open it.
Fear raced along my synapses as I put my hands on the slick back material once more. There was no room for anger inside the fear that snapped through me, biting at every thought and breath I had.
“Peta, help me,” I whispered. “I can’t reach the earth unless I’m angry.”
“Ash,” she called out, “Cactus, get over here.”
The two men pushed through, climbing over people to get to me. Screams echoed up the tunnel as the lava kissed at the heels of those at the back.
Ash and Cactus crouched beside me. “What do you need us to do?”
Peta curled tighter around my neck. “Show her you trust her. That is the key to breaking through these final bonds she carries.”
Cactus didn’t hesitate, but wrapped his arms around me from his side, pressing his lips into my hair. “I trust you to save us, Lark. You can do this.”
From my right side, Ash placed his hands over mine. “Larkspur, you truly are the best of us, don’t doubt it.”
Shaking, I closed my eyes, tried to block the sounds of people being burned alive as I dug into the part of me that held my powers. Spirit and Earth bound together, a bundle of strength I’d never truly tapped into.
Tears streaked my face as I fought to reach them, struggled to get past the blocks put in place by Cassava and an old anger burned through me.
“No,” Peta said. “Let the anger go and hold to the trust and love. That is your way now, Lark. That is the only way.”
The warmth of Cactus, the belief of Ash and support of Peta swirled through me and I suddenly understood. The strength I had would change things no matter how I used it, but I had a choice. Just like Blackbird.
For good or for ill, how would my power be seen?
The earth’s strength roared through me like never before and I flooded the door with it, blasting it apart and sending the one who would hold it against me flying away. On my knees, with my eyes closed, the rushing of the Salamanders as they flew by me no longer caring who I was, the world seemed to speak to me. Two words, but they meant everything to me.
Well done.
Not the mother goddess though, but a male voice, one I didn’t recognize. I slowly opened my eyes in time to see Fiametta stride through the opening. She stopped on the other side. “Hu
rry, the lava is right behind you.”
Her words snapped me out of the headspace I’d been in. I glanced behind to see the lava creeping along the tunnel, glowing its fierce red like the eyes of a demon. I put a hand on Peta.
“The children,” I said. “We can’t leave them to Blackbird. They were his back-up plan, I’m sure of it. And now he has a reason to use them.”
Cactus pulled back from me. “The children are alive? Can we get to them?”
I nodded and stood, a feeling of surety falling over me.
“We have to.”
With a flick of my wrist, I pulled the doorway down, plunging us back into the semi gloom of the lava-filling tunnel.
CHAPTER 23
he lava crept toward us and I faced it head on. “Blackbird, I know you hear me. I don’t care what your game is, but I want those children. All of them, both wyrm and Salamander.”
A low rumbling laugh filled the air and a dark figure approached us, walking along the top of the lava. The ring he wore obviously protected him from the heat as if he were a Salamander in truth. “Little Larkspur, you lied to me. You said you would leave and I would have Fia to myself. But here you are, standing between her and me. Shame on you.”
My jaw twitched. “You can have her for all I care, but you can’t be killing children. That I won’t stand for.”
“Well, good thing they’re tucked away then. I’d hate for you to be angry with me.” He stopped about twenty feet from us, right at the edge of the lava and leaned forward putting a hand to the side of his face. “The little ones, they will make perfect bargaining chips, you see?”
He lifted his other hand. “But you are in my way, I didn’t want to do this, but I will kill you and your friends.” The lava surged forward and I flung my hands up, the earth exploding in front of us. Below my feet the mountain trembled and I gave a soft apology as I drove a hole downward, tunneling as far as I could. The lava flowed into the hole, splashing at the edges.
Blackbird, if that was even really his name, tipped his head to one side. “Worked past your blocks, did you? Clever girl.”
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