Like Bella. There had been a time I’d believed her to be an enemy, and now we were closer than I was with any of my other siblings.
Minutes ticked by and Vetch finally let out a groan. “What the hell have I been drinking?”
“Vetch, do you remember the last hour?” I gripped the bars of the dungeon. “Do you remember coming to kill me and Bella?”
He slowly sat up, blinking as though the light hurt his eyes. “Kill Bella?”
“Yes. And me.”
Vetch took a breath and rubbed his chest where I’d slammed him. “I was dreaming. How could it be you know what I dream?”
I backed away. “Ash will explain it to you. I have to go, I have to get Father and bring him home. Whatever you do, stay in the cell, Vetch.” Mother goddess, what a mess of redwood proportions this was.
Two steps and I was out of the room, but a hand on my arm stopped me.
“Be careful, Lark. I can’t come with you if you go this time. Someone has to stay here and keep things running with Bella gone.” Ash tipped his head forward and pressed it against mine. “Come back to me.”
With a gentle tug from him, I was in his arms, kissing him as he held onto me as though it would be the last time. I didn’t care that Vetch could see. I kissed Ash back with everything I had before pulling back for a breath. “I will always come back to you.”
“You just want that pedicure I promised.”
Laughing, I stepped away. “Yes, that too. We’ve put it off too long.”
His golden eyes followed me as I backed the first few steps up the stairs, unable to look away from him. A heavy sense of longing followed me. As if perhaps our moment had passed and I would never be able to regain it.
But that couldn’t be.
I wouldn’t let it.
CHAPTER 5
eta and I ran up the stairs and out of the Enders Barracks.
“Where to?”
I stumbled to a stop. Peta’s question was more than loaded. I had no idea where to start looking for a Tracker. I needed a damn Tracker to find a Tracker. “Worm shit, I don’t know.”
“Is there no one you can ask? Is the mother goddess’s consort not here?”
I blinked several times. “Excuse me?”
“Griffin. He’s the . . . I thought you knew?” Peta looked up at me and then away, her eyes darting to the side. “Perhaps I was not supposed to tell you.”
In some ways, that explained a lot about Griffin. Except for the picture of the woman and the little boy. Who were they? Call it a hunch, but I had a feeling the mother goddess wasn’t much into sharing her consort with other women. “I won’t spill the can of beans. But he is not our only option. Niah can help. I think.”
Niah had a home in the southern edge of the Rim and I hurried that way. As our storyteller, she spun all the old tales. But she seemed to have a Reader’s knack for knowing what was coming and what was needed.
Crossing the main road of the Rim, the sun caught the tips of a head of bright red hair bent over a redwood seedling. My heart clenched at the sight of Cactus. “Peta, loving them both is going to kill me.”
“Don’t be melodramatic. It doesn’t suit you. Take Cactus with you on this journey. He’s powerful in his two elements, and he needs to be away from Vetch. Perhaps some time with him will show you he’s not the one for you.”
Her words stopped me. “What do you mean, not the one for me? How can you know?”
“I’ve said enough. You need to figure the rest out on your own.” She trotted ahead of me, stopping beside Cactus. “Prick, are you coming with us or staying here to play with the seedlings?”
I opened my mouth, words on the tip of my tongue. But she was right. I snapped my mouth shut. Cactus stood, saw me, and grinned. His love for life was contagious. I smiled back, but the smile faltered, as I understood what Ash had meant about not being able to share.
I could never tell Cactus I slept with Ash. Until I could tell him I’d picked Ash over him without a question in my mind. And I wasn’t sure I would ever do that.
Damn my heart for its ability to love more than one person at a time. Apparently my father’s blood ran truer than I’d previously believed. The royal lines of the Terralings were littered with mistresses and children born out of the monarch’s official marriage. That wasn’t unusual to us; it was normal as far as we were concerned. But I’d thought I was above that, only ever bedding Coal.
I grimaced at the thought of being anything like my father.
Cactus stepped beside me and slung an arm over my shoulders as we walked. “Wanderers like us, we never really settle down, Lark. So where do you think your pop is?”
“I don’t know.” I brushed his arm off, feeling the traitorous desire to leave it there. “We’re going to Niah’s to speak with her.”
“The old storyteller? Is she still alive?”
“She’s not that old.” I laughed, but the laughter died as I thought about Ash having to deal with Vetch. “Come on, I don’t want to waste time.”
We jogged to Niah’s, silence between us. Peta bounded through the forest, her pleasure flowing through the bond between her and me. Stopping suddenly, she pounced on something that squeaked, then let it go. She turned a sheepish face up to me. “Sorry.”
“Don’t apologize. I’m glad you like it here.”
We came to a stop at the edge of the Rim. Niah’s house was built into a redwood not unlike my previous home. Only instead of being fifty feet in the air as mine had been, the entrance to her home was on the ground. If I remembered correctly, she had a bear as a familiar that didn’t look a whole lot different than Karhu. Tangling with one bear was enough for me. I didn’t go to the door, but instead called out.
“Niah, are you here?”
There was silence for a moment, then the door swung open on well-greased hinges. Niah peered out, her long gray hair hanging in braids to either side of her face. “Larkspur?”
“Yes. I was hoping for some guidance.”
She peered at Cactus. “Why have you got a lizard with you?”
“This is my friend, Cactus. He’s a half-breed like me. He used to live here in the Rim as a child.”
She snorted. “Ain’t nobody like you, Lark. Come on in, bring your cat with you.”
“Your familiar won’t mind?”
That stopped her. “Why would my familiar mind yours?”
I closed the distance between us and held the edge of the door. “Vetch has been named the heir and has two of Father’s familiars. They attacked us.”
Niah gasped and put a hand to her throat. “Fool boy, what does he think he’s doing?”
“I think Cassava still has some hold on him.” I didn’t want to explain about Blackbird. We didn’t have time for a long story, and that was what Niah loved more than anything. Eating and storytelling.
The three of us stepped into her home. I had to blink several times to adjust to the dimmer light. The room cooked with heat from a fire roaring on one side of the room and a kettle squalling on the stove. Being late summer, it wasn’t exactly cold outside. Sweat popped out on my brow immediately.
More surprising than the fire was Griffin sitting in a chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him. His dark eyes swept over me as he gave me a toothy grin reminiscent of his wolf form. “Larkspur, keeping out of trouble yet?”
“Not yet,” I muttered, as I took a seat. Niah brought me a mug of tea without asking and I let out sigh. This would not be a quick visit. I wasn’t sure if that pleased me. A part of me wanted to hurry, to find my father and bring him home to straighten out Vetch. The other part didn’t want to find him at all. With my father gone, though, we would have to battle Vetch, and I didn’t want to start a civil war. . . but that would settle things. I was not so sure my father would be able to rule if his mind was broken as badly as we thought.
Peta jumped onto my lap and curled up so her tail wrapped over her nose. “Griffin.” Her voice was muffled through her fur.
Her green eyes blinked up at me, then back at Griffin. “Long story. Your consort said I was needed, so I am here.”
His eyebrows shot up. “With Larkspur? Shit, she must be in for a wild ride then, yeah?”
I lifted my tea and took a sip, choosing not to respond. Niah waved her hands, fluttering them like bird wings. “Not a word until the boy sits down. His red hair makes me nervous.” She winked to soften the words, though I felt a thin string of truth running through them.
The distrust between our families ran deep and long.
Cactus laughed and sat beside me. “Nah, I’m not really a redhead. This is a new shade of brown.”
She grinned at him, and the tension broke.
“Niah, I need to find a Tracker.” I spit the words out before we could get sidetracked again. Or maybe before I decided to sit there and let my father rot wherever he was. “Can you help me? Or you, Griffin, if she can’t?”
The two of them looked at each other.
“I don’t know if we should help her,” Niah said as if I wasn’t even there. “She’d be breaking the rules again and that’s going to catch up to her at some point. She hasn’t even drank half her tea and she’s demanding answers.”
“I know, yeah? Kids these days, always wanting an answer quick.” Griffin folded his hands on the table. “But what happens if we don’t help her? Viv is playing games again, and I don’t like it. The least we can do is throw our weight behind the player we want to succeed, yeah?”
I glanced at Cactus, who shrugged and mouthed “old people.”
Peta snickered, her tiny body shaking on my lap.
Forcing myself to sit and wait was, to say the least, difficult. Patience was something I was learning. Rushing into this journey would not help me find my father.
I leaned back in my chair and closed my eyes.
“Where’s the best place to send them?” Niah asked.
Griffin gave a low grunt. “A Reader would be best, easier to find than a prickly Tracker, yeah? They move around like the wind.”
A teacup clinked as it was set down, the shifting of chairs and the succeeding creak of wood. Smoke from the fire tickled my nose and I breathed in, holding it in my lungs.
An irrational fear began in the soles of my feet that once I left the Rim this time, nothing would ever be the same in my life. That the things I saw through Spirit would be a sure thing. Yet another reason to take my time with this journey. To make sure I didn’t rush into anything I shouldn’t.
I opened my eyes to see Niah staring at me. I ran a finger along the rim of my teacup. “Have you decided, then?”
She nodded. “We will tell you where a young Reader lives. She was trained by a banished elemental and is quite good at what she does despite her age.”
Griffin tapped his fingers on the table, drawing my attention to him. “Her name is Giselle.”
They stared at me like her name should mean something, so I nodded. “Okay. Giselle. And the elemental who trained her?”
Peta sat up in my lap. As she did so, Niah trained her pale violet eyes on the cat. “Someone Peta knows rather well. But I don’t think you’re quite ready to meet him yet. Is she, cat?”
Peta stiffened slowly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Griffin barked out a laugh and slapped his hands on the table. “Fun. This is going to be fun, I think, yeah?”
“Do you know where Giselle is? Knowing her name is one thing, but I am no Tracker. I need more than a name to find someone.” There was no point in following the tangent they had gone off on. Things happened or they didn’t; either way, I would deal with them at the time.
Standing, Niah beckoned for me to follow her. I did so, and we headed deeper into the hollowed-out tree. She spoke softly over her shoulder as we walked. “She’s in the human city of Bismarck. North Dakota. The land there is empty of magic in many ways, but it is because of what is coming for the place in the future.”
A chill swept through me. “You aren’t going to tell me, are you?”
“No. Right now you need to find Giselle and find her quickly, because you are not the only one looking for the Tracker. Nor are you the only one looking for a true Reader. Giselle is one of few who can truly give a glimpse into what is coming, and already her talents are being noticed.” She took my hand and pressed it between both of hers. When she took her fingers away from mine I turned my hand up. Two items were in my palm. One was a fishhook earring, identical to the one she’d given me before I’d headed to the Deep. I’d lost the first one in a fight for my life against Requiem.
“Why do I need this?”
“It is magic that belongs in the Deep, Lark,” she said. I frowned. We knew my father wasn’t in the Deep. Finley had scoured her home for him, and I trusted her to tell the truth. The other item was far closer to my heart. The seed of a moringa plant. I rolled it in my hand. It would grow in poor soil with almost no water, and was edible, but it was not native to the redwoods, or North America for that matter.
“No point in asking what I need this for, is there?”
Smiling, she shook her head. Her eyes twinkled. “You’ll know when the time comes. I’m no Reader, Lark, but I listen when the promptings of the soul of the earth come to me. I suggest you do the same.”
She tipped her head. “The white stone you took from the Pit. Do you still have it?”
My eyebrows shot up. “Yes.”
“You’ll need it, Lark. When you least expect, that stone will save your life, I think.”
How a stone could save my life, I had no idea. But I trusted her.
Bending, I pulled her into a hug. “Thank you.”
With great care she pushed me away from her. “Don’t thank me, Lark. I am encouraging you to break rules. Rules that have been in place since the mother goddess first birthed our forbearers.”
I shifted my shoulders, then tucked the two items into my side pouch. “Yes, I know.”
“And you realize taboo, when broken, will bring you a punishment you will not be able to stave off?”
There was only one thing for me to say. “Yes. I know.”
“Good.” She tapped me on the arm. “It’s about time someone shook up our world. I’m glad it’s you.”
Her words caught me by surprise and I laughed. “Thank you?”
She pushed me toward where the men waited. “Pshaw. Be off with you now. You have a long journey ahead with several stops along the way. Do not rush, let the journey lead you where it will.”
Her words echoed my own desire and so I clung to them. I would not rush after my father, but go carefully.
At least, that was the plan.
Taking our leave of Niah and Griffin, we headed toward the Enders Barracks.
“I overheard what she said about this being a long journey,” Cactus said.
“And?”
“I mean, how hard can it be? We go to this Bismarck place, talk to a Reader, Travel to where she directs us . . .” He looked at me, but I said nothing. Peta swung a paw at him from my shoulder.
“Prick, you are a fool. The Reader is not going to simply give us directions. More likely some silly game we have to play and maybe require some form of payment. Readers don’t hand out their knowledge for nothing.”
Cactus’s face fell, and with the dimming of his smile, it was as if the light around us dimmed too. I lifted a hand to touch Peta’s side. “Go easy. Cactus could be right, we could end up finding the journey to be as straight as an arrow, and as quick.”
Peta’s mouth dropped open and incredulity flowed from her to me. I pressed a little harder against her, wanting her to understand. Part of what made Cactus Cactus was the joy he gave so freely to others. He grinned at me.
“That’s the spirit.”
Indeed.
Under my hand, Peta softened as if she heard the words in my mind, though she would pick up on only emotions. “Fine.”
The Rim hummed with energy when we returned. People flowed through the main thoroughfare, stopping and talking more so than usual. I grabbed the first person I recognized.
“Blossom, did something happen?”
The girl who’d been an Ender in training with me stopped and spun, a surprised look on her face. “Lark, you’d better get out of here. He’s looking for you. Go!”
I didn’t have to ask who or why. Vetch had to have broken free of the dungeon. I grabbed Cactus’s arm and bolted toward the barracks. Behind us, shouting erupted as someone spotted us. Not like we were hard to spot. At six feet, I was a good four inches taller than most of the men of the Rim with the exception of Ash, and Cactus with his red hair . . . we were easy to pinpoint.
Peta leapt from my shoulder. “I’ll slow them down.”
“I’m not going without you!” I said.
“Of course not.”
She let out a snarl as she shifted, covering our backs. Cactus and I raced into the barracks, though it was a struggle not to stop and face those who came for us. Could I have fought off the guards? Yes. But it wasn’t their fault Vetch was an idiot slug of a man. They didn’t deserve to be hurt because of the choices he made.
Too many had already died because of Cassava and her machinations. I didn’t want to add to the list.
Bursting through the barracks’ main doors, I stumbled to a halt when I saw what waited for us. Ash stood in the middle of the room, arms loaded with human clothes.
“You two don’t have a lot of time.” He threw jeans and a white T-shirt at Cactus. “Those should fit you. They’re from the last time I went into the human world.”
Cactus caught the clothes and quickly changed. Ash held out a tall pair of boots to me. “I think if you wear these, you should be okay. With your looks, the humans will forgive strange clothing.” He gave me a quick wink.
Windburn (The Elemental Series Book 4) Page 4
