“Of course, Princess.”
Ash snorted. “So she can have another shot at the queen? No. You will see your father when he calls for you. You’re lucky you aren’t clapped in chains, little cuckoo.”
This time it was my eyes that widened. “What are you talking about?”
“You attacked the queen, we all heard you screaming at her. You’re lucky you didn’t do anything more than scratch her.”
Shaking my head, I noticed we were drawing a crowd. “I didn’t touch her! She invited me to speak with her, you took me there, Ash.”
He frowned at me, his eyes clouding. “Don’t try to pull me into your lies. I did not take you to the queen. You should be banished for this, sent as far away as your father can.”
My jaw dropped and someone threw a rock that bounced off my shoulder.
“Go away! Useless!”
I don’t know who shouted it first, but the cry was taken up within seconds, a war chant that cut at me.
“Useless, useless, useless!”
Another rock was thrown, this one clipping my ear. I crouched and held one arm over my head.
“She can’t even defend herself!”
Laughter, more rocks, and in the crowd I saw a dark head. Coal, standing there, watching. Shaking his head. Doing nothing to help me, to stop them from trying to stone me to death.
“Coal,” I held my hand out to him and he . . . he turned away.
“That’s enough, you’ve had your fun,” Granite stepped close enough to me that my hecklers were forced to stop throwing rocks or risk having Granite thump them. My legs barely held me up and it wasn’t because I was hurt. Shock coursed through me, numbing my muscles and shutting down my mind. This was not how elementals treated one another. No one was stoned, or heckled, not even those considered useless or mad. They were all treated with respect. Yet why was I surprised? I was the only one in our family not treated with any sort of dignity. This moment was an extension of my whole life.
Granite took my arm, his fingers biting into my flesh, leading me, not into the Spiral, but toward the Enders barracks. “Don’t say anything, just come with me.”
I stumbled after him, my mind reeling. Coal had been with me, just an hour past, and now he turned from me.
Who could blame him, though? If he were attached to me, my sentence would become his. He would end up banished alongside me. Jaw aching with my teeth mashed together, a part of me still hated him. If he loved me as he claimed, wouldn’t he want to be with me, no matter where I was?
Granite took me to the far side of the barracks and sat me on a bench. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s up.”
A sigh of relief escaped me. “So, I’m not the only one being treated like this?”
His black eyes, flecked with blue, were as hard as his name. “No, you are the only one treated as such. But even so, no one has ever been stoned in our family and I’m not going to let them start now. I will bring your father to you. Don’t move, don’t talk to anyone.”
Don’t move? Where in the seven hells would I go? I leaned back, resting my head against the wall behind me. Above me hung an array of weapons, swords, daggers, blades of all sorts, most of which I couldn’t name. A few spears, and at the end hung the bows and arrows. The broad heads I knew were used for hunting, designed to cut through flesh. But Enders only hunted traitors and criminals. I swallowed hard, realizing I fell into at least one of those two categories, according to what everyone believed of me.
Footsteps brought me to my feet.
Granite walked a few feet behind my father. I couldn’t move, couldn’t walk toward him even for fear that he would think me attacking him. So I stood up where I was, slowly, carefully. “Father, she’s lying, I never touched her. Please, please don’t banish me.”
“Be silent,” he snapped, his tone harsh enough to sit me down on the bench. He softened his voice, but only by a degree, “I know you didn’t attack her, you are as soft as your mother was before . . . Cassava’s just lashing out because . . . .” He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “It isn’t your fault, she’s just being petty. But what am I going to do with you?” His eyes met mine and I saw in them a sorrow that for the first time I understood.
“You never stopped loving her, did you?”
His jaw clenched and his throat bobbed. “You . . . are so much like her it hurts me to look at you. And you remind Cassava of her more than I would like.”
That was the closest thing he’d ever come to saying he loved me and for a moment, I thought things would be okay.
“None of that matters.” Father’s voice was raspy and he coughed to clear it. “You will always be a target because you’re weaker than the rest of us.”
And there was that word again. Weak. I was too damn weak to protect myself.
Granite stepped beside my father and whispered something in his ear. Father started and looked from Granite to me and back again. He rubbed a hand over his chin, eyes thoughtful.
“You think that would help?”
“It would give her a way to protect herself, and would give her a very good use. You know we are forbidden to use our abilities with the earth when we go on a Hunt. She would fit in perfectly in that respect.”
A chill swept through me as an inkling of what they were talking about grew in my heart. Could it be? Might I have a spot in our family after all, one I could actually do?
Granite confirmed it, cajoling my father. “I could train her. She’s already strong from the physical labor of the planting fields, stronger than any of the other recruits by far. Wouldn’t take much to turn that into a weapon. And if the queen is concerned of an assassination, Enders will surround Lark. Of course, once she takes her final testing, she will be taking oaths that will bind her from ever hurting someone in the royal family.”
My father took a slow breath looking from me to Granite and back again. “And what do you think about being trained as an Ender, Larkspur?”
Me, an Ender? A weapon for the king to wield when needed. A champion of the people, someone who dealt in justice and doing what was best for the family. Heart pounding, a flush of excitement washed up through me, as if I’d dove into a hot spring on an icy winter day.
“Yes, make me a weapon.”
Chapter 6
More than one pair of Ender’s eyes followed me as I packed my small amount of allowable items into the tiny room allotted to me. All I had was my work clothes, the jewelry my mother had left me—what little of it I had—and the spear Niah had given me. That got the most looks, but it was Granite who stopped me, blocking my path. His eyes traced the weapon with a familiarity that I didn’t understand.
“Where did you get that?” He held his hand out and I handed him the spear.
For some reason, I didn’t want to tell him it was my mother’s or that Niah had given it to me. “A friend gave it to me, for luck in this new . . . venture.”
“Spears are hard to use, but if you can master it you’ll be far ahead of those who favor the sword. Keep it in your room, use the practice spears to begin with.” He hefted it in the middle, balancing it perfectly on one finger. With a twirl of the handle, the blade cut through the air with a sharp ‘whoosh’. I didn’t move, but let him whirl the blade around my head.
“That’s right, Useless, let him cut you in half!” The shout came from behind me, but I kept still. Granite had given me this chance and I trusted him. He wouldn’t hurt me, but I could easily end up hurt if I moved.
Granite did know what he was doing, the blade whirled around me several times, brushing close but never touching me, cutting off a small lock of my hair. I watched it float to the ground, the golden blonde threads standing out against the hard-packed dirt. He planted the butt of the spear, and tipped it toward me. I put my hand on the shaft to take it, but he didn’t let go. “You’re going to have to work twice as hard as anyone else here, Lark. Put your things away and get your ass back here. Training starts now.”
I gave him a nod, took my spear, and continued on to my room. Twelve–by—twelve was all we got. A bed shoved into the sidewall, an alcove for our things, and a small table beside the bed. I piled my stuff into the alcove and sat down on the bed for just a moment, the spear laid across my thigh.
A welling of emotion crept through me. I could do this, I could be an Ender and then I . . . what, would I prove that Cassava was a lying bitch?
“Well, why the hell not? Not like I’ve got anything to lose.” I wasn’t kidding myself; I knew this was my last shot to keep from being banished. There was no place for fear, for weakness or uncertainty. If it killed me, I would make my father proud of me. With that thought held at the front of my mind, I stood, and strode back the way I’d come.
Surprisingly, the main hall was almost empty. I thought the older Enders would want to watch the new recruits. But only a few Seeders—the new recruits—stood in the room. They were younger than me by a few years, maybe only just out of their teens. But I didn’t care.
Granite stepped out of the shadows. “Physical training first, if you can keep up, then we move to the weapons. I need to see what your stamina is like, so go until I say stop, or you can’t move.”
The recruit to the left of me, snorted. “I’m going to outlast all of them.”
I lifted an eyebrow at him and his lean muscles. He might last, but I doubted it. There was a fine line between trim and not having enough mass to keep moving. The planting fields taught me that.
Granite lifted his hand and the earth below our feet rumbled, warping and rippling like the ocean waves. I bent my knees and let the motion roll through me. “Stop fighting it, you idiots!” Granite snapped and I stole a glance at the others. They were trying to out maneuver Granite by using their abilities against his, instead of riding the wave like I was. They instead stood still and attempted to stop the wave using their connection to the earth. The only effect it seemed to have: pissing off Granite.
He flicked his hand and the ground jerked hard under us creating huge mounds of earth, hills that were about fifteen feet high, nowhere near the height of the ceiling, which was at least double that. “Get climbing, Seeders, first one to the top gets a private lesson with the Ender of their choice.”
I didn’t hesitate, just scrambled up the endless, rolling hill. At first I thought I would make the steep climb in under a minute, but then I saw what Granite was doing. The ground below me fell away as I fought my way up, the ground above me continued to grow. A fracking Jacob’s ladder of dirt.
Beside me, on the other hills, the panting and swearing began. I saved my breath. There would be a trick to this; it couldn’t just be all about the physical, could it? I kept a steady pace and just kept going. The others fell, one at a time, tumbling down the shifting hills. Sweat streamed down my spine, the loose soil sticking to it as I kept my head up and my feet moving.
“Sprint, Lark,” Granite barked at me and I forced my feet to move faster, digging in with my toes, my thighs burning and my lungs unable to keep up with the demand for air. The breath hissed past my teeth as I gave it everything I had. Arms and legs, muscles and blood, everything narrowed to my body, demanding more of myself than I ever had before.
And then I stumbled on a dip in the footing and fell flat on my stomach, the breath whooshing out of me. I lay there, sweating and breathing hard as the ground slowly dropped, flattening out until I was parallel to the floor. I pushed myself up and dusted off my clothes and legs. I stood there, body quivering, but I refused to bend over as the others were, refused to show my fatigue.
“Next.” Granite didn’t give us a chance to catch our wind. This time it was upper body strength. We were each given a rope that we were to climb, but before we even started I began to see a theme. The ropes had each been slid through a pulley at the highest point of the ceiling, which meant as we climbed . . . the ropes would slowly slide down. The others groaned, but I didn’t even blink, just ran for the ropes and leapt as high as I could. I was about half way to the top, my height and reach giving me an edge on the others. Hand over hand I jerked myself up, not even bothering to use my legs. My arms and back were strong from moving rocks and dirt by hand, something everyone else did without thinking through their connection to the mother goddess. The pulley at the top was two feet away when the rope unraveled under me, dropping me unceremoniously to the ground. I landed hard on my right hip, the impact jarring all the way up my spine. Groaning, I rolled to see the other trainees watching me with big eyes.
A glance at Granite showed only his usual stoic face. I struggled to my feet and limped after them. The next task was all core strength, keeping our bodies in a full plank position, balancing only on toes and fingers as Granite piled rocks on our backs.
I don’t know how many I held up before I fell to the ground, but with each failure, my confidence slipped further away. How could I make my father proud if I couldn’t even handle the physical side of things? The part that Granite thought would give me an edge over the others was proving to be anything but.
Yet I couldn’t give up, and I wouldn’t stop trying.
The hours stretched until the six of us were laid out on the floor, unable to move, the light fading around us. There had been vomit, crying, and even some shit as one of the guys lost control of his bowels. That had been in the swimming portion and he’d been first. And yes, Granite made the rest of us swim through it. We literally had to swim through shit, which had produced more vomit only adding to the mess in the water. That was not pretty and just the thought of it made my stomach clench. If I’d had any food in me, I might have lost it too.
“All right, how many of you are ready to keep going? Stand up if you’re ready for your next test. Stay down if you’re done.”
I wanted to stay down, goddess my body ached like I’d been run over by a herd of buffalo, then been beaten by switches until my skin burned. Rolling to my belly, I made it to my hands and knees, took a breath and got to my feet. I faced Granite, knowing I was signing on for a night of pain and exhaustion.
“That all you got, old man?”
I thought I maybe saw his lips twitch. If they did, it was there and gone so fast I couldn’t have said for sure.
“Start from the beginning then.” He flicked his wrist and the dirt hill appeared in front of me. The other recruits snickered. Facing the hill of sliding dirt, I evened out my breathing and then started. In minutes I was on my hands and knees, crawling up the slope as it slid out from under me.
“Get to your feet!” Granite roared.
I forced myself up, falling to my knees, pushing myself back up. Sweat seared my eyes, dirt sticking in the creases of my eyelids, scratching at the tender skin, but still I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.
Granite would report back to my father and I had to do everything I could to make sure the report was that I was going to make it. That I could be an Ender.
The hill fell away and I went without being told to the ropes. My arms quivered as I pulled myself up. If my feet were more than an inch off the ground, I would have been surprised, but I didn’t look down, just up. There was nothing for it but to keep going. To keep fighting for my place here.
In the quiet hours of the morning, I struggled out of the pool, shit and vomit sticking to my body.
“Enough,” Granite said, and I fell to my knees. “Get some sleep, you start again in a few hours. And tomorrow is going to be harder than today.”
There was only one thought as I stumbled to my room, peeled out of my stinking clothes and sponged down with the clean water someone had left out for me in a basin by my bed. How in the holy seven hells could the next day be worse?
It couldn’t be; Granite was just trying to scare me.
I was wrong.
Chapter 7
From working in the fields, I knew I would need fuel to keep going, and at breakfast I ate as much as I could. Oatmeal, fruit, cheese, milk, and several slices of toast slathered in butter.
“So,
not only are you useless, you’re going to eat us out of the pantry?” That was one of the other new recruits, the lean one from the day before. I stopped chewing, swallowed my food and leaned back in my chair. “Mal?”
He nodded, smiling at me, but I saw the fatigue in his eyes.
“You ever work as hard as you did yesterday in your whole life?”
Mal didn’t answer, just tightened his lips.
I snorted. “That’s what I thought. If you’re going to make it through, you need to eat. No fuel, no go. And Granite is going to make us go until we drop.”
The other recruits looked at one another and dug into their breakfasts. Mal did not. I didn’t care. I wasn’t there to help him. The Enders ate at the far end of the kitchens, their eyes on their plates. Except for Ash, who stood with his arms folded over his chest, arm bands pressing hard into his biceps. I held a piece of toast up and saluted him. His eyes narrowed, and I smiled. Maybe I was digging a hole with him, but he hated me anyway so what did it matter? “Ash, did you get the dirt out of your leathers?”
The other Enders lifted their heads and looked from me to Ash. “Dirt’s easy to get out,” he said, his voice that deadly soft tone that I instinctively knew was a bad sign. “Blood, not so much.”
I swallowed hard, the piece of toast in my mouth suddenly too much to get down without a drink. I spit it out on the table. “Good to know, if I get blood on mine I’ll be sure to ask you how to do laundry.” Standing, I left the room, feeling stupid. Why did I poke at him? He was obviously one of the queen’s lackeys, which meant . . . what exactly? Did that mean he was an enemy? A cold shiver ran down my spine. Yes, Ash was an enemy and I needed to be careful. Until I could prove otherwise. Or maybe ‘if’ was a better word for that.
Three people I didn’t recognize waited for us in the training room. A man who towered over me, which meant he was at least seven feet tall, with a willowy lean build and long white hair in a braid to the back of his knees. He was in the forefront of the small group with his back to me. Encased in white leathers studded with brass buckles and rivets, and I knew without asking that he was an Ender for the Sylphs, the air elementals.
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