03] ES) Firestorm (10 page)

he platform was warm under my feet as I stepped onto it, my toes curling against the stone. Heat waves rolled up in rippling shadows that filled the air. I couldn’t see the lava, but I heard it burping and plopping as it boiled far below. Swallowing hard, I forced myself to step farther onto the platform. The smooth rock ran a good twenty feet deep all the way around the edge of the Pit and it reminded me all too strongly of the Deep and their mini coliseum. Was this a platform to watch people fight to the death within the lava? Mother goddess I hoped not.

At various and seemingly random points along the edge of the platform, stairs curled downward to the main floor where a few Salamanders walked. One was swimming in the lava. My brain still struggled to comprehend how that was possible.

I took another step and a tiny set of claws dug into my right shoulder.

“Lark, do not walk to the edge. Go to your belly. If you get a waft of fumes, you could pass out and fall in,” Peta said.

Worm shit, I hadn’t thought about that. I nodded and dropped to my knees, slid down to my belly, and then scooted forward. Cactus did the same, inching up beside me. I peered over the edge of the rock, and Peta scooted across my spine to sit on the back of my shoulders. But that was a distant sensory to what I saw.

Lava indeed. The Pit was one monstrous magma pool that stretched several hundred feet across with tendrils reaching out; rivers that spread through the mountain. Orange and reds, yellows and golds so intense that my eyes hurt looking at the pool. Waves of heat wafted off the surface, curling into the air, bringing the smell of burnt things and sulfur.

“Hypnotizing.” I scooted a little farther forward to get a better look and Peta’s claws tipped into me again.

“No swimming,” she said.

I shook my head, but Cactus still grabbed my hand, his fingers lacing tightly with mine.

“Just in case.” He winked at me, a grin tugging at his lips.

Leaning over the edge, I gripped his hand. Something was pulling me, urging me to get closer. The soft whisper of words barely spoken, teased my ears. Someone was close below us and something about the voices made me think it would be worth listening in on.

I looked at Cactus and pointed at my feet. I barely breathed the words, “Hold my ankles.”

“Lark don’t—”

But I didn’t give him a choice. I wriggled over the edge, forcing him to grab me.

He shimmied back and grabbed my ankles even as he grumbled, helping me slide over the edge. Peta said nothing, but clung to my back, digging her claws into my leather vest like a burr tangled in my hair.

Even those few inches closer to the lava, the increased heat made sweat pop out over my body in a vain attempt to cool my temperature. The heat dried the sweat as fast as it slid down my sides.

Gripping the granite cliff, I dug my fingers into the rock, imagining it softening enough to get a better hold. The rock gave under my hands and I stared at the granite, swallowing my surprise. I quickly shaped the rock into perfect handholds. Peta grunted, her voice in my ear, a bare whisper. “We need to discuss this later. You shouldn’t be able to mold rock like that.”

As interesting as that little tidbit was, I had more pressing things on my mind.

Using my handholds and trusting Cactus, I slid a few more inches until I could see underneath the platform toward the whispering I was sure I heard.

The shadowed overhang made it hard to make out what was going on.

A tiny flash of movement, the soft muttering of words I felt I should understand; a language I’d heard maybe when I was a child. Narrowing my eyes, I shifted another inch and then went still. My hair swept out around my head, dangling a good foot lower. Whoever was down there was bound to see it. I should have tied it up but it was too late now.

Pale white scales flickered up at me, and two pairs of eyes the color of amethyst blinked several times. The firewyrms were small, maybe the length of my legs at most and curled around each other. They looked like wingless, sinewy dragons. Their mouths had row upon row of needle sharp teeth I had no doubt would rip through armor, rock, and maybe even hardened steel.

The one in front had a scar down its left side, the scales missing in a long, jagged line. Scar stepped closer to me and let out a long, low hiss that ended in a gurgle.

“Cactus,” I said, keeping my voice as even and smooth as possible. “Tell me about firewyrms.”

“Oh shit, those bastards are causing problems. Nesting where they shouldn’t and then attacking when people—wait, why would you ask me that now?” His hands tightened on my ankles and he started to pull me up but I grabbed onto the rock. Scar’s eyes, they held a world of hurt and fear. A child lost.

I couldn’t help myself.

Jerking my feet out of Cactus’s hands, I swung my legs over and into the shallow notched space. Peta let out a squawk and her tiny body tightened as we landed in a crouch. The firewyrms scuttled backward, mouths open as they threatened, but no fire erupted, no flames came our way.

Peta bit my ear, her sharp teeth piercing the cartilage. “You idiot, I said I didn’t want you to die, and you drop into a wyrm nest? What’s wrong with you?”

Heart pounding, I didn’t move, didn’t even stand. “Hey, you two, I heard you talking.” On my shoulder, Peta went still. “You shouldn’t be able to understand them, Dirt Girl.”

I held a hand out to them. “Who hurt you?”

Scar looked over his shoulder, quickly to his sibling then stretched his neck forward. He squinted one eye as a long forked tongue flicked toward me. His scales were more than white, they were opalescent with rainbow colors dancing on them, as they caught a bit of light. With each step he took toward me, his clawed feet clacked on the stone.

His headgear was six long antelope-like antlers that arched back over his neck away from his long muzzle. The same pale white horns spiked from his elbows and the bend in his hind legs. With a whip-like tail that was barbed at the end, I had no doubt he could lash out for a distance. Topping it off were his claws. Five on each foot, and at least twelve inches long, they seemed oversized for his body.

Yet fear still didn’t touch me.

My heart pounded and the blood roared in my ears, like an oncoming storm that would be amazing. Or terrifying. Or both.

That long tongue flicked over my fingers and then he scuttled backward, his lips curling upward. Peta clung to me, breathing so hard she panted in my ear. “Dirt Girl, we need to go. He will fry us both.”

I put a hand on her in an attempt to ease her trembling. “Scar, what happened to you?”

He rolled his head so he looked at me upside down. “Vy do you care?”

His voice was pitched low enough that I knew now why I’d struggled to understand. He had an accent.

“I don’t like any of the mother goddess’s creatures to suffer,” I said, holding my hand out to him again. A show of trust, and faith that he wouldn’t fry us, as Peta said.

Peta meowed and buried her head against my neck, her whole body shaking. Scar slid forward and pressed his nose against the palm of my hand.

A quiet sigh slipped out of him. “You smell nice.”

“Thank you.”

His eyes flicked to his sibling and then back to me. “Vy are you being nice to us?”

I stayed crouched so I was at eye level with him. “I’m hoping you can tell me about your people.”

His head wove back and forth several times. “My people are dying out. The fire queen hunts and kills us. Ve don’t mean to attack, but ve can’t help it. The pink light fills our minds and ve must obey.”

His words couldn’t have shocked me more. “Pink light?” As in the light I saw when elementals were controlled by Spirit. Was that what was happening?

Behind me was a thump of feet hitting the ground and Scar scuttled backward, hissing and snarling. “Hunter!”

I glanced over my shoulder, thinking I would see Cactus. But it was someone I didn’t recognize. An Ender in black leathers and gloves was all I registered before he grabbed me and jerked me behind him. “Get back, idiot, you don’t know what they are capable of.”

I hit the ground, stumbling under the force of his throw, sliding to the edge unable to stop my momentum. I scrabbled at the rock, crying out as my body slipped into open space. Peta screeched, as the world turned upside down as I rolled in the air.

A flash of white scales and the world righted itself, or at least, stopped moving. I hung upside down and Peta clung to the front of my vest, her tail bristled out like a cotton puff.

“Peta, who grabbed us?”

“Your new friend,” she whispered.

I managed to lean up and look past her. Scar clung to the cliff face, holding onto my leg with his long tail, the barb hooking over his own flesh to lock around my limb. His claws were buried into the stone and he slowly began to climb sideways.

Above us in the tiny cave came shouting and the sound of flesh being hit. “Hurry, Scar. Get me back up there.”

He shook his head. “We can’t save her. The Hunter will take her.”

The mother goddess’s words suddenly made sense. Lives to save . . . she didn’t send me to save Ash.

She sent me to save the firewyrms.

“Scar, get me up there. Now!” Anger coursed through my veins; an anger born of understanding. To be treated as though you were worthless and should be wiped out . . . that I knew too well. I reached to the earth as Scar climbed swiftly up the rock, the power humming under my skin, filling me with its strength. A flick of his tail and I launched into the air and over the edge.

The other firewyrm lay unmoving, the Ender standing over her. He had one foot on her tail and his club dripped with blood.

“Get away from her.” I whipped my hand out, calling the earth upward and throwing the Ender backward. He slammed into the far wall, his head snapping hard against the rock. Eyes rolled back, he slid to the ground in a slump.

I ran forward and dropped to my knees in front of the firewyrm. “Scar, does she have a name?”

“No, ve don’t have names. Ve just are. You are the first to name one of us in a long time.” His head pushed under my arm as I laid my hands on the white, still scales. No breath and her heartbeat was gone.

Peta let out a sigh. “Spirit can heal, Dirt Girl. I don’t know how, but I know it can. If it isn’t too late.”

I didn’t hesitate; if I were to lose a piece of my soul for saving another, then so be it.

Grappling with the other side of my bloodline, I brought Spirit forward. Like an unruly horse, it bucked and pulled from me, making me sweat as I tried to direct it. Why now? Before when I’d called on it, there had been no fight. But I’d not tried to heal anyone before, so maybe that was it.

I tried to be gentle as I pushed Spirit into the firewyrm, directing it to flow through her muscles, into her heart, across her bones. Sweat dripping from my face, I gritted my teeth as I tried to bring her back.

Peta licked my cheek. “You can’t save her, Dirt Girl. She’s gone too long. That is why Spirit fights you, I believe. I think she was already beyond your reach.”

I let go of Spirit and hung my head, tears dripping along with the sweat. “Then what is the point of being able to have Spirit if I can do nothing with it?”

Scar stuck his head onto my lap. “You tried. That is more than any others have done.”

Wrapping my arm around his neck, I hugged him tightly to me before letting him go. “You’d better get out of here, the Ender will wake soon. Take your sister with you.” I stood and Scar scuttled forward, scooping his sister onto his back.

“Be careful,” he said, then disappeared over the side of the ledge once more. I followed, watching him slither down the vertical wall as if it were nothing to him. Glancing up, I realized that Cactus had been suspiciously absent.

“Cactus?”

Nothing.

I reached up and grabbed the handholds I’d made on my way down and pulled myself up. Peta leapt from my shoulders onto the top of the ledge.

“He’s here, but . . . you aren’t going to like this,” she said. The tone in her voice made me scramble faster. I swung my legs up and over, scooting forward on my belly for a few feet before pushing to my knees.