Worm shit and green sticks, how the hell was I going to know if this was another game? And why would she warn them?
The answer was simple and unpleasant. I wouldn’t know until it was too late to back out, until the game she played was done.
Peta trotted ahead of us, forcing Bella to hurry in order to keep up. We walked the halls, and for just a moment, I was taken back to our first visit to the Deep. To keeping Bella safe and fighting Requiem on behalf of Finley. The memories seemed to walk with me, rolling around like the fog that covered the Deep, keeping it safe from the humans.
Soon enough, we stood in front of a narrow, short set of doors. I lifted an eyebrow at Peta. “The Undines are not this short.” I tapped the header of the door, which was at my eye level.
Peta shrugged. “Not an issue for me.” She put her head against the door and pushed it open. A tang of salty air swept around me, air that hadn’t been moved much. I peered in, seeing a young woman bent over a desk, holding a candle above a book that was at least two feet across.
I cleared my throat and she lifted a hand. “Come on in. Let me know if I can help you find anything.”
Her voice tugged me closer to her and the memories filled in the gaps. There was a flow to her body that reminded me of my niece, River. Of course she would have the same flow; she was River’s half-sister.
“Stealing into the galley for food lately? Or is Finley turning out better than Requiem?” I asked.
Ray spun around, her hand going to her mouth. Her hair was as blue as her mother’s had been, and her eyes as big and round as when she’d been a child. “Lark?” She looked past me. “Bella?” Then down. “Peta?”
I smiled at her and she flung herself at me, shocking me. Her arms tightened around me and just as fast she let go, and slammed the door shut, throwing a bar over it. “You shouldn’t be here. Weird shit has been going on.”
She hugged Bella, and ran a hand over Peta’s head, but her eyes never left mine.
I raised both eyebrows. “Weird shit?”
She sat on a stool as she shook her head several times. “Finley is being . . . weird. I don’t have any other word for it. Did you come to kick her off the throne? Like you did Requiem.”
My turn to shake my head. “No.” I glanced at Bella and gave another slight shake of my head. “I’m looking for some old papers.”
Ray slumped in her chair. “Sure, I can help you with that. Even though it’s rather boring.”
I glanced at Peta. “Peta said you have some of the oldest records in all the elemental families, is that right?”
“Yes, though why they would keep them here is a mystery. With all the salt and moisture in the air, documents are hard to keep together.”
“Unless someone wanted them to slowly disappear.” Peta said exactly what I was thinking. I dropped a hand to her head, quieting her, but it was too late.
Ray’s eyes widened. “Is this a mystery? Oh, please let me help. I’m bored out of my skull in here.”
“No, not a mystery. Just an old story I’m looking into.” The last thing I wanted was for Ray to get wrapped up in this mess. If things went badly with Finley and me, I didn’t want anyone else to bear the brunt of the fallout.
The young Undine sighed. “Of course not. You know Sting became an Ender. They wouldn’t allow me to try out. They said—”
“Not everyone can be a fighter,” Bella said with a smile. “I had to learn that, too, that I was the diplomat, and my sister the fighter and protector of our family.”
Her words shocked me. Never once had Bella indicated she was anything but happy with her lot in life, in being the diplomat. But maybe that was why she wanted to come with me.
Ray sighed again. “I know, I just . . . I just want an adventure, you know?”
“Be careful what you ask for,” Peta said. “I used to want an adventure, and look what I got,” she tipped her head toward me, “the biggest trouble maker of them all.”
Ray and Bella laughed and I snorted.
“As lovely as it is to catch up, we have things we need to be doing,” I said.
Ray stood. “Of course, I’m sorry.” She beckoned for us to follow. We wove through barely balanced stacks of books that made up hallways. “We have a few things kept under sealed glass, but the oldest stuff is kept in the queen’s chambers.”
I glanced back at Peta who frowned, her tail twitching. “Under sealed glass there too?”
“No, it’s not. Which is . . . weird again. Finley only just took the papers with her a few days ago. Prior to that, I wasn’t even sure she knew the library existed. She sent others to gather anything she needed.”
Ray stopped in front of a stack of books and touched the spine of a broken-down book in the middle. It scooted in and a door made up of books swung open. “Secret passage.” She grinned at us.
The interior of the secret room was tight, and sparsely littered with papers in glass cases. I stepped farther into the room and Ray waved a hand. “There isn’t much, but if it can help you, you’re welcome to it.”
Peta shifted into her housecat form and leapt up onto my shoulder. “I can see better from here.”
“Which are the oldest ones?” I asked.
Ray nodded. “If you can describe the papers, I can help you find them quicker.”
Peta tipped her head to one side. “The ones I remember were a small pile of notes, as if they’d been ripped out of a book, one edge torn up, the other rough. Handmade paper by the thickness, and the writing was in a pale gray ink.”
“Most likely it started out black and faded.” Ray bent over one of the glass cases. “I know the papers you speak of. They are here, I just cleaned the case yesterday.” She flicked the edge of the case open, then frowned.
“Nothing?” I guessed.
Her frown deepened. “How did you know? They are gone. The queen must have taken them with the others. She is the only other one with knowledge of this place, even if she has never visited.” She frowned. “Or I thought she didn’t.”
I rubbed a hand over my face, feeling things begin to spiral around us. “Bella, where was Finley headed after talking to you?”
Bella touched one of the papers under the glass. “I believe she was staying in the throne room. It looked as though she was dealing with supplicants.”
The three of us left the tiny room and headed back to the main part of the library. “Ray, can you request for the papers to come back to you?”
“I can, but she can ignore me. She is the queen, after all. And it would take several days. Can you wait that long?” Her eyes were hopeful.
I shook my head. “No, I can’t.”
“Lark, does it not seem strange that those papers went missing on the day you arrived?” Peta asked.
I gave another sharp shake of my head. “No. Nothing in my life surprises me anymore. A damn elephant could show up and tell me he’s a cousin and I wouldn’t be shocked.”
Ray laughed softly. “It can’t be all that bad, can it?”
“Not bad,” I muttered, “just—”
“No, it’s bad.” The white tip of Peta’s tail flicked back and forth. “If the papers weren’t important, she’d have never taken them. Which means you need them as much as you need to do that other thing.”
Bella sighed. “I hate to agree, but I think Peta is right. Both are important. If she would hide them from you, then you need to find them.”
“What other thing?” Ray perked up, but I already had my hands raised to stop her.
“No, you can’t help.”
Bella touched my arm. “What do you want to do?”
I tipped my head back to stare at the ceiling as if the answers would be written there. “Ray, I need you to forget we were here. If anyone asks, you don’t know anything, you never saw us.”
“Why?”
I looked at her.
“Because we’re going to break into the queen’s chambers.”
CHAPTER 12
“his
is a bad idea,” I muttered as the three of us left Ray behind. The plan was to break into Finley’s chambers, take the papers she’d hidden, then wait for Finley. We would surprise her, taking her down before she could react using the power of the sapphire.
No one would get hurt that way, and it wouldn’t be a public trouncing of the Deep’s queen. A win-win as far as I was concerned.
Right.
The hallways of the Deep were wide and tall and echoed my words. I clamped my lips shut as I strode forward. Confidence would take me further than looking like I was cringing. I did not want to steal from Finley, yet saw no other way to get the papers.
“It’s your idea,” Peta reminded me.
“It’s not a bad idea,” Bella said. “Surprising her might be the only way to get the sapphire without a battle.”
I wasn’t so sure, but I had nothing else, no other idea. And since she wasn’t the Finley I remembered, then maybe it was okay. I could almost see Ash shake his head at me, his gold eyes half shuttered and a wry smile on his lips. The image lightened the fears in me. Peta glanced up and raised both eyebrows.
“What can possibly make you smile at this moment?”
I shrugged. “Ash.”
Frowning, she turned her head forward again. “You think he would agree with this decision.”
Bella laughed. “He would. Just as I would and you do, Peta. We have all learned the hard way that Lark’s ideas are often the only way. Even if her ideas are the ones that scare us the most.”
Finley’s quarters were in the center of the Deep, not far from the throne room. I followed the curving hallway, thinking of how best to handle this. In the end, I knew there was only going to be one way and someone was going to get hurt.
A sigh escaped me and again Peta looked up at me. “It will never be easy for you, Lark.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it.” The three of us rounded the gentle curve in the hallway and Finley’s quarters were in front of us. How did I know? An Ender stood to each side of the door, both holding tridents, both wearing full-face armor so I had no idea if they were even Enders I knew. Like Dolph. Or young Sting. I’d really hoped one of them would be the Ender I had to deal with. Shit sticks, I hated those weapons of theirs. With their reach, they were as hard to fight as any spear, but with the barbs at the end, they were deadly if they pierced skin.
“Think I can talk my way through?”
“Yes, but are you willing to risk your soul? It’s already sliding; I don’t recommend using Spirit,” Peta said.
I wasn’t really eager to use it either. Spirit was not something I’d ever truly understood; mostly it came to me in moments of sheer desperation. Or anger. Neither of which I had going for me at the moment.
Bella took a step. “Let me try.”
She led the way, lifting a hand in greeting. “Is Finley in? I would like to speak to her.”
They tightened their holds on their respective tridents, lowering them toward us. The one on the left shifted his stance, widening his legs. “The queen has given orders to keep everyone away from her chambers.”
We drew closer, even as Bella nodded. “Of course. Could one of you take a message for me? I wish to apologize and ask her forgiveness.”
Peta’s shoulders twitched, and I managed to keep my face neutral. Harmless.
Lefty snorted. “Do I look like a messenger boy?”
Bella smiled as sweetly as I’d ever seen her. “No. But I thought because I said please you’d do it. Please.”
He brought his trident down so the points hovered at her chest. “I suggest you leave, Terraling.”
So we were back to that. I pulled Bella away, so fast she spun, and he shifted so the trident now faced me. I touched a finger to the middle point of the three-pronged weapon. “Really? You want to play that game with me, little boy?”
He pulled back, his body tensing. I dropped to the floor as the trident shot through where my chest had been. I kicked him in the knees, breaking one by the feel of the bones crunching. I rolled out of his way as he fell, grabbed his trident and jerked it from his hands. I spun and blocked the second Ender as he swept toward me. The tridents locked and I twisted mine hard to the right, jerking his from his hands.
When it came to strength, as a Terraling, I had it hands down against any of the other elemental families. Score one for the elemental built like a brick shithouse.
He leaned over me, bringing his face nice and close, a short sword in his hand.
With the trident out of the way, and still on my back, I kicked up and nailed him in the jaw under his helmet. His head snapped back and he fell in a boneless heap, his head clanging on the stone floor. Rolling to my belly, I stared into the eyes of Lefty. I reached out and yanked his helmet off.
He was a kid, young and probably not even finished with his Ender training.
“Don’t kill me,” he whispered, terror in his eyes.
I snaked a hand out and circled my fingers around his neck. I pulled him close to me as I squeezed down on the arteries. He scrabbled at my hand, and then slowly went limp.
I stood, dropped the trident, grabbed a leg on each Ender and hurried to the door. “Not much time. Bella, get the door.”
“How are we going to get Finley here?” She held the door open for me and I dragged the two Enders into Finley’s room.
The room was done in soft pastel colors that mimicked the ocean and the white sandy beaches. I wanted to stop and look, to take it in because there was a peace in the room I hadn’t felt in a long time. Not since before I’d been banished. I realized it was the same sensation I’d picked up in the Eyrie. A sense of belonging.
Child of spirit, you will find your home in all places.
I froze, swallowed hard, and looked around. That was the same voice I’d heard in the mountains right before I destroyed the Eyrie. I hoped it was not a precursor to what was coming.
I shook it off, rolled the two Enders off to one side and followed Peta as she sniffed the air. “This way, I can smell the salty musty papers.”
“Lark, how are we going to get Finley here?” Bella asked again.
I glanced at her. “If she knows I’m here for the sapphire, she’ll find me, I think. Whoever is controlling her doesn’t like me much and seems to think I can be taken out. I’m banking on that arrogance.”
Peta trotted through the room to a door set into the wall that would have been easy to miss. The wall was covered in sand that shifted under my hand when I touched it, the warm granules all but vibrating under my touch.
Bella moved up beside me. “You are putting a lot of weight on mere possibilities.”
“I don’t want to fight Finley if I don’t have to. She’s a good queen, and once upon a time, she was a good friend to us both.”
The edge of the door shimmered and showed itself as I passed my hand over it. Pressing against it, I was surprised when the door slid inward, opening up into a glass dome, one of the sparkling tower tops seen from the water.
“You say that like . . .” Bella trailed off, took a breath. “Like you would kill her if you faced her.”
“If I have to, I will. Because if I don’t and Blackbird gets a hold of that stone, we are going to have to face him. And I know he is stronger than me even without the stones. Better that she die, than you and me.” I stepped into the small room and leaned over a table where three pieces of paper lay and chose to ignore the horrified silence from my sister.
The papers were ancient. So heavily salt-encrusted, the words were barely legible. They lay in a shaft of sunlight coming in through the dome. A faint breeze from the ocean floated through. As though they were placed deliberately to disintegrate under the weather.
Bella and I leaned over them, and Peta stood up on her back legs to peer at the papers.
“Can you read them?”
Bella nodded. “It’s very old script. You two keep watch, I’ll read.”
I put a hand on her shoulder and turned.
At least I was right about one thing. Finley had found me, though I’d hoped we’d have more time.
Her blue eyes flashed with anger and the blue stone on her finger caught the light. Damn it, I was in trouble. With the blue sapphire, Finley had access to even more power within water, and more speed.
I had to end this fast.
“Peta, stay with Bella.”
“Lark—”
“Please.”
She let out a pitiful mew and hurried back into the room. I pulled my spear from my side, linking the two pieces together.
“Finley, I am leaving, and I’m taking the ring with me. I don’t want to hurt you, so please give it to me.”
“You think you can face me when I wear this?” She lifted her hand, a haughty look in her eye. That was not the girl I’d known. Damn the sapphire, and damn me for giving it to her.
The bed to the right of me shimmered and water spilled up and out of it. Shit sticks, this was going to get ugly fast if I didn’t do something.
“Bella, stay where you are!”
Gritting my teeth, I pulled the spear back and threw it at Finley. I didn’t want to hit her, only wanted to distract her. The spear shot forward, to the left of her head. She jerked away, her eyes wide.
She might be a ruler, but a true fighter she was not.
I leapt at her while she was distracted, tackling her to the ground. If I could knock her out we’d be gone before she woke up. Sure, she’d be pissed as hell, but when had that stopped me before?
Finley rolled with me across the floor as she flicked her one hand at me. Lines of power raced along her skin and I clamped my mouth shut. The water from the bed roared out and filled the room in a matter of seconds. Finley floated in front of me, a smug smile on her lips. Again, not something I’d ever attributed to her.
I swam for her and she easily dodged me. There was no choice, I had to tap into the earth or Peta, Bella, and I were dead. I held my hand out to the wall where the sand gathered and beckoned it forward. Spirit and Earth roared through my mind and I fought it, focusing on what I had to do. Balance. Talan had said it was about balance.
Rootbound (The Elemental Series, Book 5) Page 11
