03] ES) Firestorm (7 page)

I ran around, getting in front of the woman. “Wait, stop. You said he was fine. That the wound was healing?”

Her eyes found mine slowly. “Yes. I held his hand, he touched my belly. Said he didn’t want to be an Ender anymore, not if he had to take orders like that again. He wanted to see our baby grow, not always fear that he would be taken from us. And he was.”

Smoke moved up beside me. “Lana, what do you mean take orders like that?”

Lana’s eyes flicked to Smoke. “That he was to kill the Enders from the Rim. He said it was wrong, but he didn’t have a choice. He was fine, just fine in the healer’s rooms. But you came back, didn’t you?” Her glare found me and held me tightly. “You came back and finished the job you started, you hateful bitch.” She launched herself at me and I again caught her, despite the lines of power racing up her arms. I didn’t want her to fall, didn’t want to hurt the child in her any more than I already had by taking its father away.

Catching her around the waist as she stumbled and spun, her back pressed to my front, and my hands ended up on her belly. Spirit roared forth within me and slid through us both. I saw her baby, saw his spirit and the beat of his heart. He would follow in his father’s footsteps, be a warrior, if he survived his birth. The cord connecting him to his mother was wrapped three times around his neck.

“You’re going to have a boy,” I said, holding her lightly. She relaxed in my arms, placing her hands on my mine.

“How do you know—”

“The birth will be easy. You won’t feel much pain, but the cord is around his neck. Three times. The midwife will know what to do.”

I helped her stand on her own feet, the words flowing out my mouth. “He will be an Ender, like his father. A good man.”

The images left me, and I put a hand to my head. Lana took my wounded hand, frowning at it as if looking for an answer. “You didn’t mean to hurt him, did you?”

“No, I only wanted to get out alive,” I said.

She nodded. “As do we all.” With a flick of her wrist, she dropped my hand and walked away, her friends following. But not before each of them stopped in front of me and spit at my feet.

Peta, I’d almost forgotten she was on my shoulder, grunted. “That little gesture means they wouldn’t spit on you even if you were on fire.”

“Nice.”

Beside me, Smoke let out a long breath. “That could have been worse.”

“The Enders, were they
all
healing that first night?” I asked and Smoke looked away.

“I am forbidden to say,” she whispered.

“Forbidden? Or bound?” I asked as I scooped up the overturned laundry basket. There was ash on the clothes, but I wasn’t about to stick my hands back into the river.

“Both.”

“So I have to figure this out myself? That’s what you’re telling me?”

The tip of Peta’s tail flicked along my neck, and I reached up to touch her, finding comfort in her presence. Smoke, though, said nothing, and I assumed that was my answer.

We headed back the way we’d come, climbing the steps into the higher parts of the cavern, the air drying my skin, hair and clothes in a matter of minutes.

“Perhaps I should take you to your friend, Cactus,” Smoke said. “You can do work for him, help him clean his bachelor home.”

I nodded. “Smoke, what about our ambassador here? Could he not stand for Ash in some way?”

She shook her head slowly. “The queen had all ambassadors sent home when things started to go poorly with the lava flows. She did not want to be responsible for them.”

Damn, there would be no help from that quarter then.

Smoke walked with me across the high arched bridge to the far side of the cavern where the singles lived. I wondered why they kept them apart from the families, and Peta must have picked up on my curiosity.

“The men when not bound to a wife can be out of control with their tempers and wild ways. No one wants that near their family,” Peta said, filling me in as we walked.

“How old are they when they move here?” I asked, thinking of Brand and Smoke’s son Stryker. He couldn’t be that far from an age where he was considered an adult.

“Eighteen,” Smoke said.

“And your son, how old is he?”

Her tone trembled. “He has a year left in our home.”

There were no more words as we approached the singles section. It was remarkably quiet.

“They are all kept very busy. It helps with the male aggression to keep them tired.”

“I saw him, in the throne room when we were brought in.” I peered around, wondering which place belonged to Cactus.

Or maybe he lived with a woman. The thought was odd. Cactus had been a player from the beginning, chasing the pretty girls and stealing kisses whenever he could. I had a hard time seeing him settling down anytime soon.

Smoke stopped in front of one of the many doors. Made of a light green granite, the surface was cool even in the heat. I would have said it was beautiful, except unlike the other doors, it was . . .disgusting. Covered in patches of ash, and some sort of dark brown mud, it looked as though Cactus had never wiped it off. The rest of his home was no better, the place was like a human garbage dump, as if whoever lived there was collecting crap just for the sake of piling it in front of their house. I looked past it to the next door down the way, hoping I was wrong in my suspicion. “This is his home?”

She nodded and Peta let out a low hiss. “Disgusting man.”

I couldn’t disagree with her.

I took a step forward and stopped, imagining walking in on him and his latest conquest. Erring on the side of caution, I called out, “Cactus?”

There was a scuffle of feet and then he poked his head out of the doorway, saw me, and frowned. “Lark, what are you doing here?”

Confusion filtered through me and on its heels sharp irritation. “Well, I was brought here to be executed by your queen. So . . . yeah, I didn’t have much choice in the matter, fool.”

He shook his head, his dark red hair slicked back as if he’d come from bathing. With his green eyes, it was easy to see why the ladies flocked to him. Except for my disastrous foray into the Pit that had started this whole fiasco, I hadn’t seen him since we’d been children. I realized I really didn’t know if I could trust him. I didn’t even know if he’d helped or deliberately made it harder for us—Ash and me—to survive our last visit. I took a step back, suddenly reconsidering my decision to ask him for help.

Smoke let out a soft snort. “You could at least show us some manners, boy.”

His jaw tightened. “It’s really not a good time.”

I knew it. “Too many women in there? It’s not like I’m going to be shocked, Cactus.”

His mouth tightened farther and I wondered at how I’d possibly upset him. He’d bragged as a kid that he’d have all the ladies fawning over him one day. So now he had what he wanted, what was the issue?

Beside me Smoke snapped her fingers. “Cactus, this is ridiculous. Invite us in. You do not want to have this conversation outside.”

He swiped a hand over his face, clearing away the irritation, replacing it with a false smile that almost trembled. “Would you like to come in?”

I no longer did, but I had to find a way to get Ash out alive and that meant I needed all the help I could get. Even if Cactus wasn’t the man I thought he should be.

Stepping through the doorway, I didn’t know what to expect. Filthy, dirty clothes everywhere, food piled up and rotting. My imagination did not prepare me in the least.

I had to blink several times to really grasp what I was seeing. His house was an explosion of greenery and flowers, smells that took me back to the Rim. From the ceiling, plants and flowers curled down, covering every inch of exposed rock. The walls were blanketed in ivy and blackberry vines heavy with perfect black fruit. Under our feet the moss was so thick I could believe there was no stone beneath us. Down the wall, a trickle of water ran, feeding the plants and tiny flowers, the sound a perfect, soothing echo in the small space. Was this why he didn’t want us to come in?

I closed my eyes and breathed in. “Cactus, this is amazing.”

“You like it?”

I opened my eyes to see him watching me, his look carefully guarded. “Like it? It’s just like home.”

A slow breath escaped him. I glanced at Smoke to see her eyes wide. “How did you manage to get all this to grow?”

“Oh, I still carry a little of my connection to the earth,” Cactus said softly, his hands brushing against a fern at his side. It leaned toward him and in that moment I knew something was terribly wrong. He shouldn’t have been able to use so much of the earth’s power. That was why his mother sent him to the Pit so many years ago; he had no power in the earth. That was the major drawback to being a half-breed. They were often weak not just in one of their bloodlines, but both. That Cactus had shown any strength at all was a miracle.

Yet if that rule held true, how could this be? How could he draw on both his bloodlines? Or maybe he was like me, an anomaly with that ability.

“Cactus.” Just his name and his eyes lifted to mine. What I saw made my mouth dry. He was terrified. “Smoke, would you leave us please?” I never took my eyes from his.

“Are you sure?”

“Peta and Cactus can look out for me.” I spit out the words fast, knowing the longer Smoke was there, the more fear built in Cactus. Smoke touched my arm and I forced myself to turn from Cactus to meet her eyes. I put a hand over hers. “Thank you.”

Her eyes were tight around the edges. “Lark. You may not have an execution over your head but there are those who would still see you dead. An accident can happen all too easily as you have already seen.”

“I will heed your words.” I squeezed her hand and she stepped back, pausing in the doorway, her eyes flicking over the greenery.

“You are right to hide this, Cactus. The queen . . . she is strange about other powers in her home. But your secret will be safe with me, you are not the only one who hides.” She placed a hand over her heart and then kissed her fingertips. A slight breeze lifted her hair and swirled from her hands, out and around the ferns. Another half-breed, like us. Without another word, Smoke stepped out of Cactus’s house.

Peta leapt from my shoulders onto the mossy ground. “Dirt Girl, is your home like this?”

“Parts of it.”

“I could handle being your familiar if this is what my paws get to be on.” She lifted her feet up and down in exaggerated steps several times.

Smiling, I turned back to Cactus. He took three strides and wrapped an arm around my waist. “I’ve waited all my life for this, Lark.”

He dropped his head and pressed his lips against mine.

is hands slid up my waist to my back, tugging me closer. All my childhood feelings for him that I’d thought were gone and dead, blossomed under his touch. I could almost feel him laughing as he kissed me, his lips and tongue teasing my mouth. Making me want to laugh with him despite the fact that I was in the Pit, Ash’s life hung in the balance, and someone tried to boil me.

That was Cactus, his love of life was infectious, but sometimes it got in the way.

I put my hands on his shoulders and turned my face. “Cactus, don’t. Please.”