“Just me. Thought you might need a hand.”
Ash grabbed my upper arm, his eyes widening when he got a good look at me. “Goblin piss, we have to get out of here.”
“I can help,” Cactus said. “I want to help, to make up for what I did.”
I gave his hand a squeeze. “Thank you.”
Without another word, he stepped into the lead, striding ahead of us. Of course, no one would think anything of Cactus walking about.
“Can we trust him?” Ash asked me for the second time.
“We have to,” I whispered, swiping at the moisture on my face. Ash wasn’t sweating. I on the other hand, was slick with sweat, as if I’d just stepped out from under a waterfall.
He clamped a hand over my mouth. “Quiet.”
Blinking, I fought to push the fatigue away and straighten. The running had put me into a sort of trance, and I shook it off. Mouthing “sorry” against Ash’s hand. He took it off my face and nodded.
Cactus stopped in front of a doorway and pointed at it with one finger. I recognized it with a startle. The door and the hinges were the exact same as what stood at the front of our barracks in the forest. Down to the doorknob and the black paint on the door, the door could have been a perfect replica.
“Somebody likes things all matchy matchy,” I muttered. Ash grunted softly and we jogged across the hallway and slipped through the door Cactus held open for us. He didn’t follow us in.
“Be careful, Lark.” He touched my cheek as I went by and for a moment, I thought I heard him say something. I shook my head, but he didn’t repeat whatever it was he said.
“Thank you, Cactus. Now get out of here, before they see you helping us.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Be careful, my friend.” And then he was gone.
Nothing I could do about it now. We were here and we were going home one way or another. The entrance to the barracks was gloomy, as if we’d walked into a cloudbank. A hot, dry, sulfur-smelling cloudbank. I reached forward and grabbed at Ash as his body started to fade into the darkness, snagging the back of his belt. Now was not the time to be separated.
We slunk through the darkness, moving slowly in a low crouch. All the fatigue was gone from me as a second wave of adrenaline kicked in. I wanted to ask Ash if we could at least try to find a torch, a candle, anything that would give us a glimpse of where we were going. With each step, the tension around us tightened, like a noose slowly twisting around our necks. Unfortunately, the image was all too clear in my head, and my heart rate shot through the roof.
“Calm,” Ash breathed to me and I nodded, which was stupid since he couldn’t see me. I wanted to take a deep breath, but the air was getting thicker with fumes. I froze, jerking Ash to a stop. I pulled him back so that he was at my side. I spoke as softly as I could.
“They know we’d have to come here, to get to their traveling room. And this is where they train, right?”
“Yes, they train here.”
I grabbed his arm, digging my fingers into the muscle. “They train with what exactly?” I knew the answer, knew it in my gut. Fire and lava, that’s what they would train with, and they’d be damn good at using it against intruders.
Ash stiffened, his arm tightening under my hand. “Run.”
As if we were bound together, we leapt forward, running through the fumes and smoke, the room around us suddenly lighting up as flames shot around the circumference of the training area. Faces were illuminated, and not one of them was happy. The image was a split second of realization that we were sunk, truly and completely done in. It didn’t matter that the two Enders I’d potentially killed would have cut my throat and claimed it an accident of some sort, didn’t matter that our people would die, my father would die; no one would take that into account. These Enders wouldn’t care. They wouldn’t ask why we were here, or why we’d done what we’d done. Their job was to keep their family safe from threats. And for the first time in my life, that’s what I was.
Fear raced along my synapses and I wanted to sob with the understanding of what would happen, how much would be lost because of Cassava’s greed for power. Because of my stupid ability to see what was coming in a person’s actions.
Lava spilled up at our feet, forcing us to skid to a stop. I teetered on one foot, the heat from the liquid death slamming into me like a runaway elephant. Ash grabbed me and pulled me back.
“We only want to go back to our forest, without any help from your healers,” his voice was strong and controlled. Calm.
The tallest of the Enders stepped forward, face hidden behind another of those black masks, it wasn’t until he spoke I was sure that it was a man. “You killed two, TWO of our Enders. You know the penalty for killing another elemental.”
Ash inclined his head. “Not when it’s in self-defense.”
I knew in my heart there was no way Ash would be able to talk us out of this. He was stalling for time, for the slim chance we could make it past them somehow, that one of them would lower their guard. I closed my eyes and prayed, the words on my lips nothing more than movement. “Mother goddess, help us get home.”
There was no response to my prayer, nothing to tell me that she’d heard me or cared. I opened my eyes, seeing the room as if for the first time. Ash was pleading now, trying his damndest to get the Enders to understand, to see. But they weren’t going to let us go, they had the upper hand and they knew it.
The circle of black leather tightened on us. That noose cinching around our necks inch-by-inch. Behind the masks, I could see the flicker of fire in their eyes as they reached for their ability with fire as a unit.
They drop intruders into the Pit.
Not today they wouldn’t. I could beat them to this, but I didn’t have time to explain to Ash. I pulled my spear out and thrust it past him, directly into the Ender he spoke with, dropping him to the floor.
Around us, there was a stutter, a hesitation as everyone tried to comprehend what I’d done, and I took those seconds to my advantage. Swirling the spear over my head, I sunk it into the neck of the Ender on our right. Two down, and just enough room to run past those who would kill us. Ash didn’t wait for me to say ‘go’. We ran through the tiny opening as the rank of leather exploded behind us in a burst of screaming and fire.
Hands grabbed at me, snagging my clothes; I stabbed at them, forcing them back as we stumbled down a hallway, the space behind us lighting up as fireballs careened off the walls. One singed my arm as it rumbled past me, but I didn’t stop, didn’t let myself think about what would happen if I stopped. If we let them catch us.
We came to a dead end and my heart seemed to stop before I realized it wasn’t a dead end, but a doorway. With one kick, Ash booted the heavy door open and pulled me through. He took his sword and jammed it through the handle and into the wall, buying us time.
The globular room was exactly like ours. “Find the Redwoods, I’ll get the arm band.”
I did as he asked, pulling the globe with my fingers as the door shook behind us. The Redwoods would bring the Salamanders to our doorstep. The last thing we needed was an all-out war on our turf. Biting my lip, I shifted the globe to the north, just a little.
Maybe we could lose them somewhere they wouldn’t expect us to go. Then Ash was at my side, and he slid the band over my arm. “Just in case.”
I didn’t understand what that meant and there was no time to ask. He snaked his hand around my waist as the door burst open. We turned to look as the Enders spilled into the room. Ash kept his eyes on them, didn’t even look at the globe as I reached up and touched the spot just north of the forest. A roar of rage hit us from the other Enders, but they disappeared from view as the armband sucked us through to the other side of the world.
I didn’t have to wonder if I would again see Ash’s memories, they hit me hard, harder than I expected.
Cassava stood in front of him, swirling her skirt in the fine dust at her feet with one hand, the other, pointed at his chest.
“I want you to be my personal Ender. You will make sure that Larkspur doesn’t find her abilities, that she remains weak. Do you understand?”
His breath came in a short gasp, the pain radiating in his chest matched only by his hatred for the queen. Hate her, he might, but she ruled him and he had no way to prove what she was doing. “I understand.” The words were squeezed out with difficulty because he fought them. He didn’t want to help her, but it was as if he had no choice.
She clucked her tongue at him. “Now, the harder you fight me, the more it will hurt you.”
A shiver ran through his body and he lowered his head to hide his eyes from her. “Yes, my Queen. I will do as I must to keep Larkspur weak.”
She patted his head, and a soft laugh trembled on the air. “That’s a good boy.”
The memory split apart and we rolled across something black and seemingly smooth. But it was not smooth, it was as hard as quartz that had been ground up and packed together, and it tore at my bare skin. Grit and sand cut into my arms and cheek, the friction dragging me to a painful stop. My eyes were inches from a yellow strip that I knew indicated the middle of the road. I rolled to my side. In front of us were tall buildings, the windows dark, the people in them unaware that we’d just popped into existence right on their doorsteps.
“Lark, where did you bring us?” Ash’s voice came from a few feet away. I rolled my eyes to him, his memory still vivid in my mind.
“Eureka.”
“Why in the goddess’s name would you bring us to the human city?” he growled, pushing himself to his feet.
“Because they—the Salamanders—are going to follow us, aren’t they?” I sat up and picked a couple of pieces of grit from my skin, wincing.
Ash bent over me. “Maybe, maybe not. Most likely they’ll send an emissary to the king to ask for our heads.”
I frowned and slowly stood, my body aching. “Then I just slowed us down.”
He rubbed a hand over his face. “Yes. But I understand why you did it. In another situation, this would have been the smart choice. We have an easier time going unnoticed amongst the humans, the Salamanders tend to stand out.”
Around us, the world was quiet, night having fallen while we were gone. But I could still smell something cooking, something wonderful. I drew in a deep breath. “Let’s get something to eat, before we go.”
That stopped Ash dead in his tracks. “You’re hungry, after all the bloodshed?”
“Starving, I haven’t eaten in three days.” I didn’t want to try and explain to him what had happened with Coal, how I’d been trapped in some sort of spell. Nor did I want to think about the fact that when we left our home, my soul had been clear of any wrongdoing. And now I’d killed four people. Four.
“You think we have time to stop and eat?” he snapped at me, and I spun around to face him, emotions high.
“Listen here, you might know more than me as an Ender, you might outrank me in power, but I am hungry and I will be damned if I take another step without getting food!” My voice reverberated across the empty street and a light flickered on high in the building and someone stuck her head out.
“Look what you’ve done. You’ve woken up a human,” he snapped.
Except that it wasn’t a human hanging out of the window, her long brown hair floating on the night breeze. She waved at us. “You came for me, I knew you would!”
Ash shot a glance to me. “Is that Fern?”
I hunched my shoulders. “Yes.”
“And why would she think you came for her?”
I brushed past him, walking toward the building. “Because I helped her escape the queen’s wrath.”
Chapter 19
Fern met us at the doorway, dressed in a long t-shirt that did nothing to hide the tiny bump in her belly. Ash’s eyes goggled and I had a moment of feeling superior. It didn’t last.
“You helped hide a woman who is pregnant with the king’s child in a human city?” Ash grabbed my arm, spinning me around to face him.
“And now I’ll have to hide her again, before you can run back to your master and tattle.”
His jaw dropped and then snapped shut with a click so hard I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d cracked a tooth. “She is not my master.”
“That’s not what your memory showed. I can’t trust you. Even if you don’t want to help her, you are, for some reason. She owns you.” Granite was right, but I didn’t dare bring him into this. He was really the only one I could trust at that point. We stood in the stifling hot entranceway to the building, Fern behind us making shushing noises.
“Be quiet, please, the landlord is very grumpy and he’ll kick me out to the street if I make too much noise.”
But all I could see was Ash, that he could hurt Fern, whether he wanted to or not. All he had to do was tell Cassava that Fern was pregnant and hiding in the human city. He didn’t even have to lift his hand to do the damage, just open his mouth.
His throat convulsed. “I am not her pet.”
“I hope you’re right. Because her life”—I pointed at Fern—“and the life of her child depend on you being able to keep this secret.”
I left him standing there as I followed Fern up to her apartment. The place was sparsely furnished, but she had food stuffs in a white box she called a fridge. She pulled out a plate of food I didn’t hesitate over, even though it looked like worms in red dirt. I ate everything she put in front of me, not even really tasting it. The flavors melded on my tongue into nothing but fuel for my body. She handed me a drink at some point that, I gulped down and she refilled. My stomach finally gurgled contentedly at me and I leaned back. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I didn’t think you’d eat that much.” Her lips twitched and looked down at the three empty plates and I shrugged. “It’s been a rough couple of days.”
She lowered herself into the seat in front of me, her hands resting on the table.
“So I can come back now? I can come home?”
I shook my head. “No, this is just a quick stop for us.”
“The lung burrowers are deep in the forest, Fern,” Ash said, stepping through the doorway, closing it behind him and then turning the lock. “It is no safer for you there now, perhaps even more dangerous.”
She put a hand over her ample bosom. “Basil, is he safe?”
It took me a moment to realize she was speaking of my father, shortening his name, as only someone you were close to would do. “No, he’s not.” I wouldn’t keep the truth from her. If it were me, I’d want to know if someone I loved was in danger of dying.
“Then I must go to him, I can help take care of him.” She stood, pushing her chair back with a screech that evoked some yelling from the room below us.
I put a hand on her arm, stopping her. “No, there is nothing you can do to help.”
Her eyes filled with tears that slid down her face in perfectly straight streaks. “Then you have to save him, for both of us.”
I nodded. “I’m trying. We’re trying.”
“That’s why you just had to eat? Because you’re trying to save your father?” Ash sneered at me and I wanted nothing so much as to backhand him. Yet the sudden shift in him gave me a pause. Of all the people I knew, he should understand the need to be at our best to face Cassava.
“And if I fall flat on my face from fatigue, unable to face whatever is coming because I haven’t eaten in three days, what then?”
The sneer fell from his face and he nodded, his tone back to normal. “If you’re done eating, Princess, I think we have a long run ahead of us.” I stared at him, the quick twist in his attitude was weird at best, and more concerning than anything.
“Is she . . . in your head now?”
His eyes lifted to mine, the honey-colored orbs tinged around the edge with a soft pink glow, the only sign I had that Cassava was riding him, controlling his words and actions.
I swallowed down the large lump growing in my throat. Whatever hold she had on hi
m, it was there now. He was no longer the Ash I could depend on and I had to treat him like the enemy. He raised an eyebrow at me.
“No, of course not. But we need to go. We need to get to your father.”
I bit the inside of my lip, thinking fast. “Wait for me outside, I want to talk to Fern before we go.”
He nodded, gave us both a bow and slid out of the room, his steps silent. The door clicked behind him and Fern opened her mouth to speak. I put a finger to my lips and lowered myself to the floor. Head against the cool, strange feeling material, I stared at the base of the door. The minimal light shining underneath it showed me that Ash had not moved away, his shadow casting two spots where his feet stood.
I rose and cleared my throat, speaking loudly, “Fern, I think perhaps you should come with us. Let me help you get dressed.”
“Oh, okay, Lark.” Her eyes were on mine and I shook my head. Fern, perceptive that I was not saying everything I had to, dressed quickly. The rustle of her clothes was the only sound in the apartment. I went to the door and leaned against it, wishing I didn’t have to dupe Ash. I thought, for a moment or two that we might be able to work together. Maybe even become friends. But not if I couldn’t trust him. Not if Cassava controlled him. There must be a proximity to what she could manage, because when we were at the Pit, he was reasonable. Like he could think for himself.
I closed my eyes and focused on what exactly Ash had said about the armband. A counterclockwise twist would take us back to the origins of the band. In this case, back to the Pit. I fingered the smooth black band, really looking at it for the first time. Flames were etched deep into the cool stone as the main theme, another reminder of where we were headed. In the flames lay the symbols of the other families too, though. I touched the tree, as if that alone would take us home.
From the traveling room in the Pit, we could travel to the forest. Dangerous? Yes, but also far faster. I had no idea how to use one of the human’s vehicles. Ash probably did, but there was no way I could allow him to take us.
I feared that we were already too late, and going to the Pit was our only option for speed.
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