by Jann Rowland
“Skye,” she said, her voice soft.
He lifted his head slowly, his eyes rising up to rest on her with a coldness that she had never before seen focused on her. The Skye of a few hours ago would have made some ridiculous quip like “We have to stop meeting like this.” But this Skye was nursing some deep wound. This Skye was not pleased to see her.
“Skye, what is it?” she prodded, coming up to the bars and wrapping her hands around them. “What is wrong? You have shut me out.”
He did not move from where he sat, and she eyed the collar at his throat sorrowfully. She hated that another of those vile devices had been placed around his neck.
“What were you saying to that man?” Skye asked. “Quicksilver, wasn’t it? You said he promised to let me go free once he had the Fenik. Have you been plotting to capture me with him? Have these Groundbreathers twisted you against me?”
“I would never plot to capture you, Skye. If you will recall, I tied my life with yours when you were scheduled to be executed. Even if you had been a Groundbreather, becoming bound to someone when not married is simply not done. But I did it anyway—to save you.”
“You knew these Groundbreathers had set up a trap. You knew they meant to capture me. Yet you said nothing!” Skye jumped to his feet, stalking forward in fury.
Tierra nearly took a step backward, but she forced herself to remain where she was. She met Skye’s enraged gaze with her chin held high. She knew he would not hurt her. “I will admit that I knew they wanted to capture you so they could take the Fenik away from you. But you had to have known it was a trap! If I had said anything, you would not have changed your course of action.”
“If you’d told me they specifically wanted the Fenik, I could have done something about that! Or if you’d told me it would be impossible to use Strix in these blasted tunnels, I could have done something about that! I could have left Strix with Vesper on the surface!”
“By the time I found out, you were already deep in the tunnels, Skye.”
Skye shook his head. “I could have sent someone back to the surface with him. There was still time to do so.”
“You would have had to send my mother or her Groundbreather scout,” Tierra told him. “Do you think either of them would have agreed to that? No Skychild could ever get back to the surface on his own without the assistance of a Groundbreather. Taking the Fenik back to the surface would have been just as dangerous as continuing on with it. By backtracking, you would have risked running into a Groundbreather patrol.”
Skye threw his hands up in the air. “It doesn’t matter now, does it? You got it into your head to make all the important decisions by yourself, and my position in this mess was decided without me. Have you been after the Fenik this whole time?”
Tierra’s jaw dropped. “I cannot believe you would say that to me!”
“Did I offend your delicate sensibilities?” Skye sneered.
“I am not the enemy here, Skye.”
“You aren’t? Because I’m starting to find it hard to see a difference between you and those you claim hold you here.”
Skye’s pitiless gaze bored into Tierra, making her start with surprise. Not even when he had been a newly captured slave had he looked on her with such blazing suspicion.
“Tierra, we are joined together,” he said to her. “We claim to love each other. Have I ever given you reason to distrust my motives? Have you ever thought I would use the Fenik against your people?”
“Of course not!” Tierra declared heatedly.
“Then why have you been acting as though you do think so?”
“It is not you I distrust! What would happen if anyone else gained control of the Fenik? They might not be as noble as you.”
“Who else could gain control of it?” Skye demanded. “Other than a few cousins, I am the only member of the royal family left. As long as I am king of the Skychildren, Strix has no choice but to obey me. And my children will be my heirs. As long as one of them is left firmly in control, the Fenik can be neutralized.”
“What of Cirrus?”
Skye stopped short and peered at Tierra with confusion. Tierra had not meant to bring the man up, aware that he was still a sore spot between them, but Skye’s accusations had unbalanced her, and she was desperate to defend herself.
“What of Cirrus? He is not a member of the royal family, and he has no connections to me by blood. There is no way Cirrus could ever control the Fenik.”
“Skye, I know you still see Cirrus as a friend, but are you so certain of his friendship?”
“I am.”
“You should not be,” Tierra told him. “Cirrus’s actions are not those of a friend. Why did Cirrus wait so long to come out of hiding to act against Hawkins? And in light of all his protests against me and his search for the Fenik, what makes you think that Cirrus might not want to use the Fenik against my people himself?”
“Despite his efforts to find the Fenik, Cirrus has shown no interest in actually using it. Celesta’s stars, the man was almost prophetic when he protested me bringing the Fenik along when I left to rescue you,” Skye growled.
“I do not think he did so because he suspected this would happen,” Tierra said, her anger over Skye’s refusal to listen to her beginning to take hold. “I hardly believe his motivations were so altruistic. He opposed you—he opposed me—from the beginning. As a friend, he should have trusted you, much like Gusty trusts you.
“Gusty is a true friend. He worships the ground you walk on and would fight against the gods themselves for you if you asked him. Given your history, that is how Cirrus should behave. But despite it not being his place to do so, he questions you at every turn. He is no noble, no advisor, no Seneschal, yet he acts as though he has the right to act as your mentor and complain about whatever you do. Can you not see that he does not have your interests at heart—except when those interest further his own, whatever they are?”
Skye appeared taken aback by Tierra’s fierce statements, and for a moment, she thought he was considering them. But soon, his eyes narrowed, and he focused on her. When he spoke, it was in a voice devoid of emotion.
“I see what you’re trying to do. You’re deflecting my attention from your betrayal, hoping that I will forget about it and focus on my friend. I am not fooled. I admit I have no explanations for Cirrus’s behavior, and I will demand an accounting when I see him again.
“But regardless of whatever he has done, it is equally clear that your actions are indefensible. Yes, I knew this was likely a trap of sorts. I would gladly have sprung any such trap for your sake. Yet had I known these Groundbreathers wanted to capture Strix, I would have acted differently. But you, in your infinite wisdom, thought that I should be denied that opportunity. You do not trust me, even when I assure you I have no desire to use the Fenik against your people.
“Tierra, it hurts that you would choose the side of a slinking, burrowing thief of a king who has stolen you away and murdered your father. You chose to trust him over a man whose mind you have seen into. I don’t know what to make of you.”
Tears flowing down her cheeks, Tierra fled the room, unable to stand Skye’s accusations and the fury in his eyes any longer. Hardly seeing where she was going, she stumbled down the stairs, fleeing Skye’s implacable glare.
When she emerged, her shoulders were grasped in an iron grip, and she looked up, confused, into Canyon’s worried gaze.
“Tierra! Are you well? What has that Skychild done to you?”
All at once, sorrow was replaced by a rage that burst forth from its fetters in a pyroclastic display. Wrenching herself from Canyon’s grasp, Tierra screamed, “Do not touch me!”
The king raised his hands and stepped back. “Tierra—”
“Leave me alone! You and your master have done much more to hurt me than Skye has ever done. Unless you mean to inform me that you are releasing my fiancé, do not speak to me!”
With a final glare at the astonished Canyon, Tierra stalked away i
n the direction of her quarters, her mind furiously considering possibilities and plans. Something had to be done. Canyon had lied to her, and Quicksilver could not be trusted. Tierra would have to think on matters further. She would have to figure something out.
When she reached her rooms, Tierra found her mother waiting for her. Sequoia arose when Tierra entered the room, studying her for a moment before she spoke.
“You have been crying.”
Tierra looked at her mother with incredulous disbelief. “Skye is imprisoned yet again, the king of these detestable underground people has lied to me, and my own mother has betrayed me. Are you surprised that such shocks have caused tears?”
“Perhaps you should examine the situation more carefully and understand that this is not a betrayal, but a way to protect you.”
Disbelief warred with anger, and in the end, Tierra could do nothing more than burst into tears yet again.
“If you are only going to say such things, then please leave and do not talk to me,” Tierra said in between her sobs as she sank onto a nearby sofa.
A moment later, she felt the shifting of the sofa beside her as Sequoia sat and gathered her into her arms. Tierra tried to draw away, but her mother’s grip was like a vice, holding her in place. It was useless to resist, so Tierra allowed her mother to hold her, taking what comfort she could from her.
“I dare say it will all work out, Tierra. You need to have faith.”
Tierra wondered how everything could “work out,” but she said nothing.
It felt strange to have her strong and confident mother comfort her. Even as a girl, Tierra had never seen her mother as a nurturing type. But regardless of how angry she still was with the woman, it felt oddly comforting to experience that side of her.
When Cascade the water goddess presented her children, the Waterweavers, to Terrain, he was not convinced of the wisdom of what she had done.
“For what reason do you elevate this people above their brethren?” asked he.
“They are better able to tend to the waters of the world,” replied Cascade. “They remain mortal, but the Groundwalkers have begun to despoil the land, and the Waterweavers may assist in halting such depredations.”
And Terrain knew her words to be the truth. The Groundwalkers had learned to pull materials from the ground and fashion them into tools, and while Terrain had no objection to their ingenuity, he had found himself disquieted by the manner in which they had spread and burrowed into the ground like moles.
“Great Terrain,” said Cascade the water goddess, “my children exist only to honor you and glory in the world you have made. I ask that you bless them and look on them as your own children.”
And Terrain agreed to look on them with the tender care of a father. But he told them they had to follow the laws that he had given to the Groundwalkers.
They promised to uphold his laws, and though the promise of mortal men is nothing like unto the promise of a god, Terrain accepted them at their word.
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Promises
Never in his life had Skye felt pain like this.
Skye had met the brutal bite of a whip on his back, tearing his flesh apart and creating the sensation of fire wherever it touched, but that was nothing compared to this. He had become so focused on Tierra—almost to the exclusion of everything else—that her betrayal made it feel as though his heart had been ripped from his chest.
Tierra had never made a secret of the fact that she had not liked the idea of the Fenik remaining with the Skychildren, but the current situation was so unexpected that it seemed almost ludicrous. This group of Groundbreathers had killed Tierra’s father and kidnapped her, yet she was attempting to bargain with them. Or had they even truly kidnapped her? Had she been aware of their plan all along, concocting this elaborate scheme for the purpose of capturing the Fenik?
No, he did not think so. Even if Tierra’s father had not been killed—assuming, of course, that King Tillman had died as everyone said—Skye could not believe that all of Tierra’s feelings had been a lie. Her distrust, however, had cut him deeply, and he did not know whether he could recover from the wound.
When Tierra had left him in tears, he had felt a twinge of guilt, yet he could not bring himself to regret what he had said.
Upon hearing the sound of someone approaching, Skye lifted his head up out of his hands and waited. A man came to stand in front of the bars to Skye’s cell, his face fixed into a mask. Skye thought he recognized the man as one of the two leaders whom he had seen Tierra speaking to. This was not Quicksilver, but the other one.
After studying Skye for a few moments, the man said, “So, you are the Skychild whom Princess Tierra is enamored with.”
“At least I am secure in her love,” Skye snapped, his proverbial hackles raised.
The man raised an eyebrow. “Are you?”
The fact that Skye could not give an unequivocal answer to that question only made him all the angrier. “Who are you anyway?”
“My name is Canyon. I am the king of the Chosen.”
“The Chosen,” Skye echoed. He had heard the name from Tierra, but it seemed laughable coming out of the mouth of one of these underground Groundbreathers. “Pretty arrogant lot, aren’t you?”
“I heard that you had a sharp tongue,” King Canyon said. “I am not surprised to see it in evidence at this time.”
“You mean now that I am behind bars while my fiancée is trapped in this gloomy underground hovel?”
“You are at a low point, certainly,” Canyon said mildly.
“Why are you here?” Skye asked, narrowing his eyes. “Are you here to gloat over your capture of the Fenik?”
“I have no desire to discuss the Fenik with you. Rather, I wanted to see more of the one who caught Tierra’s eye.”
“You speak of her in an awfully familiar way,” Skye said darkly.
“Of course I do,” Canyon said with a smile. “We grew close together during our journey to Hearth.”
Skye leaped to his feet and sprung over to grab the bars of his cell. In spite of the fact that he was safely out of reach, Canyon took a step back.
“Just how close did you get to her?” Skye growled. “If you touched her, I’ll pull your intestines out through your throat.”
“I had no idea Skychildren were so violent,” King Canyon said in an attempt at levity. But to Skye’s eyes, he appeared shaken. “You need not worry. I am an honorable man, and I have no intentions of doing anything untoward.”
Skye’s fingers clenched the bars tighter. “You don’t know the first thing about honor. You killed Tierra’s father. Do you think she can ever forgive that?”
The man grimaced. “I did not personally kill her father. And I had no wish for the man to die.”
“What has this all been about, then? Putting that dirt-eating Wisteria on the throne? I’ll freely admit that I have never been particularly concerned with the leadership of the Groundbreathers, but even I would never wish a muckswallower like that one upon them. If you had even an ounce of sympathy in your breast for the Groundbreathers on the surface, you wouldn’t have contributed to the rise of someone so heinous she’d gladly feed her own sister to the garms given the slightest hint of benefit.”
Skye had the satisfaction of watching the man turn away his head.
“Princess Wisteria has not turned out as expected,” Canyon said quietly.
“I’m sure she didn’t,” Skye said, his tone laced with scorn. “Given how you seem to be smitten with my betrothed, I’m sure you’d be interested to note that she almost didn’t make it here alive.”
“What do you mean?”
“The madwoman you put on the Groundbreather throne attempted to have me killed when I went and learned your people had taken Tierra, though Wisteria was more than aware that it would result in Tierra’s death.”
Canyon’s face paled. “Surely she did not!”
“I assure you she did. Were her o
rders to have me killed?”
Though the man seemed almost lost, he gathered himself together enough to make a response. “No, she was only supposed to capture you if you were foolish enough to go to the castle. I had no idea she was so reprehensible as to attempt something that would result in her sister’s death.”
“All your people would have had to do was ask a Groundbreather around the castle with half a brain to learn how unfit for the throne Wisteria is. It seems like the only thing your people has any skill doing is storming in and messing everything up.”
Canyon’s eyes flashed as his head turned sharply. “There is a greater plan at work that you know nothing of!”
“And I strongly suspect you have no intentions of telling me anything about what it is,” Skye said, “so let’s cut all the bat-guano and get to the heart of the matter. I don’t like your people because they are lying and murdering thieves, and I don’t like you because you have some sort of twisted interest in Tierra. You don’t like me because I’m a Skychild and because I got to Tierra first. Now, unless you’re going to free me from this miserable pit you call a home, you might as well leave. I have nothing more to say to you.”
“You have fire,” Canyon murmured. “I will give you that.”
The king began to leave, only to pause and turn back around for one parting shot. “You may have her heart for now, but it is awfully difficult to maintain the interest of a lover from the inside of a prison cell.” And then he continued on his way without looking back.
The jealous part of Skye wanted to bite and snarl at the bars of his cell, raging in an animalistic way. Yet there was also another part of Skye, a part that had been stretched and bent and tested and torn and finally broken. And that part of Skye wanted to call out and tell the king of the Chosen that Skye was done with Tierra. That Canyon was free to have her. That Skye was finished trusting in any Groundbreathers.
