Fern drew close to me, a pretty green dress cut with a high empire waist that helped to disguise her bump. “What is wrong?”
“Ash is working for the queen.” I kept my voice low, but apparently not low enough.
The door burst open and Ash stood there, his daggers in his hands and I grabbed Fern. “Hang onto me.” She wrapped her arms around me and I twisted the band counterclockwise. The last thing I saw was Ash, darting forward, and daggers slashing toward us, and then we were traveling. I expected to see Fern’s memories, as I’d seen Ash’s.
I did not expect her to see mine.
She saw my mother die. Saw Bramley die. Saw my memories stolen and the queen’s deception.
And then we were lying in the traveling room in the Pit. I sat up before the dizziness faded.
From outside the room was a shuffle of feet. “You hear that?” a man’s voice asked.
I stood and held my hands up to the globe while Fern lay at my feet, gagging. I pulled the globe around, drawing it close to me until I was looking at our home. But where?
The eastern front was full of lung burrowers, and there were no Enders who could help. Who could I trust?
Griffin.
I slid my hand across to the southern edge, reached down and grabbed Fern’s hand. “Don’t let go.”
The door burst open as I reached up to touch the southern edge of the forest. And an arrow shot through my palm. I screamed and two more arrows shot toward me. I closed my eyes and pushed my hand into the globe.
Pain seared my right thigh and hand. This time, if there were memories exchanged I didn’t see them. Or maybe, we were just too out of it to be aware.
I came to first, the pain in my thigh bringing me out of the haze of traveling. I struggled to sit up, whimpering with the pain. The blood seeped through my pants, warm and wet as it dripped down my leg. With a quick twist, I snapped the haft off with my good hand, the jerk reverberating through my bone. Groaning, I carefully went to my knees, curling my right hand against my chest. The arrowhead had gone right through my palm, but I’d need help to get it all the way out, the shaft sticking out on either side at least six inches.
“Fern,” I whispered her name and poked at the slumped body beside me. Had she been hit with an arrow? I’d seen three, but only two had hit me. With only the one good hand, it was hard to roll her over gently. She flopped, boneless, and I put a hand to her throat. The pulse was steady, a good sign, and no arrow protruded from her anywhere.
I shook her. “Fern, time to wake up. I need your help.”
“She’s going to be out cold for a long while.”
From the bushes beside me, Griffin appeared, ghosting through the fog like the wolf he was.
“There’s no time, help me with these arrowheads.” I held my hand up to him.
“You in trouble already?” He took my hand, snapped off the feathered end of the arrow and slid the shaft slowly through the wound. The pain wasn’t too bad, or at least, not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Or maybe I was just becoming numb. Or maybe I’d just been injured so much lately nothing felt as bad as the last wound.
He pulled off a strip of material from the bottom of Fern’s skirt and wrapped my hand with it. “You going to tell me what happened?”
I shook my head. “No. I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with this if they don’t have to.”
“Deal with what?”
I tipped my head back, thinking about how to answer him. How to explain that I’d killed other Enders, that Ash was under some sort of spell, and that the lung burrowers were going to kill my father no matter what I did?
Griffin put a hand against my thigh. “That’s fine, don’t answer, I don’t need the details.” He pulled his belt loose and stuffed the leather into my mouth. “Bite down.” I didn’t argue even though the leather tasted of sweat and wolf. He jerked the arrow out, the broad head slicing through my flesh as bad on the way out as the way in. I bit down hard, and managed not to scream, but only barely. A second strip of Fern’s dress made a nice band of color on my leg.
“Cassava did all this.” I waved my good hand above my head.
Griffin lifted an eyebrow. “That doesn’t tell me much unless you’re trying to say she made the forest which we both know isn’t true.”
I bent at the waist, and then straightened up fast. “She brought in the lung burrowers, she knows if she waits and unleashes the cleansing fire after a certain point, my father will die. And that would leave her as sole ruler.”
Griffin nodded. “Suspected something like that. You’re going to do something about it, yeah?”
“What can I do? You may be right about me being blocked, but it doesn’t help me. I can’t face her, I can’t stop her.”
He stuck out his bottom lip in an exaggerated movement. “What did you think, that it was going to be easy? That she would just lay down and let you put your foot on her chest and claim a victory?”
“No, of course not.” The image though was rather satisfying. “I want you to keep Fern here, keep her safe.”
“And what are you going to do?”
I swallowed, a lump in my throat growing. “I’m going to save my father.”
“Then you might need this.”
Frowning, I watched him closely as he bent to pick up a small bag at his feet. He opened it, fished around and then threw me a bundle about the size of an apple. I caught it mid-air, but didn’t look at it.
“Go ahead, open it.” He waved at me with both hands and then sat on his log.
I rolled the package over in my hands. The bundle was covered in oiled leather and bound with the sinew of some animal, deer by the feel of it. I untied the lacing and flipped open the leather. Inside lay a necklace of carved stone beads, and in the center hung the canine of a large predator. Brilliantly white, and perfectly curved, it was four inches long from root to tip. I ran a finger over the smooth surface, feeling it warm under my skin. “What is this from?”
He grinned, all teeth. “My namesake. There is great protective power in the tooth of a griffin.”
I looked up. “Why would you give me this?”
“Wear the necklace, Princess. It will keep you safe from the worms.”
“I should give it to someone who matters. Like my father.”
Griffin’s eyes softened. “Too late, the worms will be deep in him already, you know that. Now it’s a matter of setting off the fire as fast as you can. The necklace would have helped him at the beginning, if we could have gotten it to him and kept him clear of the queen.” My heart stuttered as my hands clenched around the necklace.
“Why, then, didn’t you give this to my father? He is the one threatened, not me.”
“He will always be threatened. He will always have to be wary of his affections, of who he loves.” He pointed at the sleeping Fern. Yes, I understood all too well. To love my father, you stood to pay the highest price. You put your life on the line. Like my mom did. And now Fern would take that same path.
Griffin stood and walked to me, took the necklace and slid it over my head. “There is precious little time if you mean to save those who despise you, and the one person who cares for you.”
He put his hands on my shoulders. “When you are done, bring back my necklace. This is a loan.”
I stepped away, toward my home, pausing to look over my shoulder.
Griffin gave a giant shudder, his skin and muscle rippling as he shifted into his wolf form. His coat all silver and black, danced in the light breeze as he shook. Tipping his head back, he let out a long howl that echoed through my heart. Words without words.
Run, child of the earth, run to save those you love.
There was no real question, at least, not for me. I needed to get to where Wicker was and use the cleansing fire.
Finding him, though, that would be a problem.
The Spiral was the best chance I would have to get information. My pulse steadied as I jogged, my leg hummed with a deep ache, and
I did my best to ignore it. As I ran, the fear slowly slipped away, and with its disappearance, my connection to the earth sharpened. Power, clean and pure, slid through my body, healing the wounds, and sparking my heart with hope.
I ran for all I was worth, the power driving me, giving me the strength and speed I needed. The chance I needed.
The trees blurred into a dusky red of the bark and green of the needles as my legs sped me faster than the first time I’d connected like this. Faster and faster. Need and hope driving me, my purpose not for myself, but for my family.
My father and Fern. Everyone who Cassava would cut down in order to take her place on the throne. I had to believe I could stop her, that I could bring this madness to an end.
Minutes later I stumbled to a stop in front of the Spiral, my lungs and legs straining for air. I went to my knees and sucked in huge, gulping breaths. My body had completely healed during the run; the earth’s power wiping away the last vestiges of aches and wounds.
The Ender on duty, Snap, a favorite of Cassava’s lifted his dark brown eyebrows high, eyes glittering with undisguised disgust. “Get out of here, Useless.”
“My father,” I gasped out, leaning over at the waist. “I need to speak with him.” I was hoping I could get to him first, slip the necklace on him. Maybe Griffin was wrong, maybe the necklace would protect my father if I hurried.
“He’s not here.”
“Where is he?” I bit the words out, wanting to punch Snap in the balls for being such a piece of worm shit.
“Eastern front still. Not that it should matter to you. Why aren’t you with the others at the field?”
His eyes darted away from mine, just a flicker but I knew it for what it was. Snap was lying to me, my father was here somewhere. Just a matter of where. I let out a groan, ignoring Snap as he called after me, and ran from the Spiral to the Ender’s barracks.
My footsteps echoed in the large empty room. A sense of abandonment flickered over me, chilling me to the core. There was no one there, not a soul. To be sure, I ran through the hallways, checking bedrooms. No one. I swallowed hard. Snap said something about why wasn’t I somewhere, where did he say? Was it the gathering field?
I ran to the healers’ rooms. Empty too. My throat tightened. Had they all died? Was I too late already?
I bolted back the way I’d come, seeing something that made me stumble to a stop. In front of me, the bark under a young redwood rippled. The new growth bulged as a large worm inched its way through the material, driving deeper until the ripple was gone. The tree quivered and for a moment, I thought I heard a cry of pain.
The worms had truly invaded. And if they were here in such thick numbers, there may be no saving anyone. I touched my necklace and hoped Griffin was right, that I would be spared long enough to do something about this.
Making my way to the gathering field, I wove between the homes, looking in the windows for any sign of life.
Nothing.
A hand snaked out from between two houses and snagged me. I let out a yelp and then Coal was there, crushing me against his chest. “Be quiet and listen to me. Your father is gone and Cassava has taken over. She has a Sylph with her, the tall one. I remember you telling me about a Sylph in your dream with a scar. I’m so sorry I didn’t believe . . . .” his eyes glazed over and he stood there as if someone had turned off a switch in his head. I grabbed his face. That damn glow of pink whispered across the whites of his eyes.
“Coal, what are you doing?” I shook him and still, he just stood there. I shoved him so he slumped against the wall and slid down. Unable to snap him out of it, I forced him to sit. I may not have wanted to be with him anymore, but that didn’t mean I didn’t care about him.
In the distance, I heard the murmur of a large crowd. A steady thrumming rumbled through the ground reaching out to touch me, like a heartbeat with a stutter. I followed it, turned the corner around the last large tree and couldn’t believe what was in front of me.
Every person in our community stood in the clearing we used for large gatherings. They coughed and groaned, and their breath gurgled in their lungs, the worms eating their way out of the bodies like maggots at a buffet.
At the center of the clearing Cassava stood, her hands raised above her head, a pink dusting of light sparkling around her entire body. So there it was, the finally surety that she was controlling those in our family.
But it was the others who kept my eyes drawn to them. Like Coal, they seemed to have nothing left of life in their eyes. They were for all intents and purposes, gone. Yet I knew they lived, could see their chests rise and fall, could hear the rattling in their lungs that their breathing caused.
I dug my fingers into the tree beside me, feeling a worm shimmy under my hand. What the hell could I do? Anything?
Granite was there, standing next to Cassava. Ash, Blossom, Mal, and all the other Enders stood a few feet away. Why not Snap, why had he been left at the Spiral? He was left behind to guard something.
My father. The truth of it slammed home. My father was in the Spiral, and Snap was guarding him. Yet I couldn’t move, the sight in front of me as hypnotizing as a cobra’s deadly dance.
What was Cassava doing? That pink glow hummed like a hive of bees, pulsing around all of them. Like a heartbeat outside their bodies, driving them to move even when they were so sick most shouldn’t have been standing.
“Where are you, Larkspur?” Cassava called, and an urge to obey her slid over me. I shook it off and kept my body glued to the tree, my fingernails digging into the bark.
“Larkspuuuuuuuur,” her voice echoed over the people, my family, and they . . . repeated it back to her, a creepy groaning of my name that made me want to vomit. “Find her, bring her to me.”
Oh. Shit.
Heart in my throat, I didn’t waste time. I had to get to the Spiral. As I passed Coal, his hand snaked out and grabbed at my ankle, tripping me. He was on me in a split second, and though I knew I shouldn’t hesitate, I did. I didn’t want to hurt him.
He had no such inclinations as he jerked me by my ankle and dragged me toward Cassava and her mob. I pulled my dagger and slashed it across his arm. Blood poured from the wound, dripping onto me, the layers of muscle and flesh flapping with every step he took.
He didn’t let go and a sob ripped out of me. Terror ate at me, for me, for Coal, for my family. My spear was the only chance I would have to free myself. “Let go, Coal, I’ll cut your hand off!” I yelled at him, hoping to break through whatever spell he was under.
He didn’t answer me, and there was no hesitation in his steps.
Tears pooled in my eyes as I pulled my spear free. It would be an awkward angle, but I knew I could do it. I just didn’t want to. The sound of others drawing near was what gave me the strength to do what I must to save myself. I swung my spear hard toward Coal’s wrist. The blade cut through like the bone was a spring fiddlehead, switched in half like it was nothing. He didn’t scream, the gush of blood from his amputated hand something I knew he wouldn’t survive unless a healer got to him. His hand still clutched my ankle, as I stood and ran, a sob on my lips. I didn’t wait to see what happened, to see if he would fall down, or just keep walking. I kicked off his still warm, twitching hand and bolted.
I had to get to the Spiral before someone else grabbed me.
And with the odds a thousand to one, my chances were not good.
Not good at all.
Chapter 20
I ran for the Spiral, but my feet slowed as I drew close, slowed, as my mind told me what I already knew.
I couldn’t run from this. Griffin was right, and I knew it. My father would have been one of the first infected, and I couldn’t depend on him to take care of this for us.
Even if I managed to survive, Cassava would still be after me, she’d still be trying to kill my father. Breathing hard from the emotions more than the run, I spun in a quick circle, mind racing. Then I bent my head back and looked straight up. The trees stoo
d tall and firm, their branches touching one another in many places. The other children had played in the branches, safe in the knowledge that if they fell, they could soften the ground to ease their landing. I’d never played like that, not after Cassava killed my family.
“Come on, Lark, you can do this.” I prepped myself. The kids used their connection to the earth to be able to cling to the trees like monkeys. There was no time like the present to see if I could.
I ran straight at the closest tree trunk, digging my hands and boots into the bark. At least, that was what I tried to do.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Ash spoke with an authority I knew wasn’t his. “Don’t you want to see what we have in store for you?”
I didn’t look down, didn’t say a word, just fought for purchase on the bark, a cry slipping past my lips as he grabbed my ankles. “Please!” I screamed, hoping for the mother goddess to hear me, to answer me.
Nothing.
He gave a sharp yank and I fell hard, hitting the dirt, an explosion of air erupting from my lungs, leaving me breathless.
I rolled to my back to look up at him. His eyes had that strange pink glow, the same as the mob. “Ash, she’s controlling you, you know she is! You can fight her.”
His jaw twitched and he gave his head a shake. “You don’t know; you’re immune to her.” He fell to his knees beside me, and I grabbed his shoulders, my hands on his bare skin, feeling how cold he was. Clammy, as if he were sick.
“What are you talking about? What am I immune to?”
“Something in you keeps you safe from her spells, it’s in her ring, Lark. The ring she wears gives her power over people’s minds. She can’t compel you like she can the rest of us. That’s why she has kept you alive, she’s trying to figure out—” He gave a cough and a worm slid out of his mouth, pasty and wriggling. The worm was two inches long and swollen from feasting on Ash’s flesh and blood, the red glow to its thick squirming body making me sick to my stomach.
“Ash,” I whispered his name, hands tightening on him. “You’re sick, we have to get you to a healer.” Even though I knew a healer could do nothing, it was at least something.
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