03] ES) Firestorm (28 page)

“Peta, get the kids, lead them through the tunnel. Can you do that?”

“I can. But then you will go after her alone, won’t you?” Her green eyes crinkled with concern around the edges. “Won’t you?”

I wouldn’t lie to her. “Yes, but I’ve stopped her before, I can do it again. Just hurry. Get those kids out.”

Peta slipped through the door ahead of me and slunk toward the dungeon as I hurried after Cassava. The door to Fiametta’s personal rooms was ajar. I peered through. Cassava was flinging things everywhere, searching . . .for what? Whatever it was Fiametta had hidden. Whatever her ex-lover Coal had been searching for. He must have been working for Cassava and Blackbird.

“Damn you, Fiametta, where did you hide it?” She grabbed the mattress and flipped it off its supports. Taking a swing with one foot, she kicked at a vase to the left of the bed, shattering it. Glass went everywhere, and I saw what she was looking for. Glass pieces settled into the faintest of depressions in the floor. A very subtle handle.

The only problem was, she saw it the same time that I did. I burst into the room as she opened the secret compartment.

“No!” I screamed startling her.

It wasn’t enough though. Her hand dove into the hole and came out with a necklace with a big fat emerald teardrop hanging from it.

“It’s mine!” She tipped her head back and howled the words.

The lines of power ran a deep dark green up her arms as she yanked the earth out from under me. Or tried to. I saw her intention and scrambled backward, all the way into the throne room. She stalked out after me, the emerald hanging around her neck.

“You aren’t strong enough to stop me now, Larkspur. Not when I hold this.” She said, touching the large emerald.

“Doesn’t mean I’m just going to roll over you dumb cow.” I swung my spear out. “Last I checked, you couldn’t fight worth shit.”

Her whole body stiffened. “How do you know who I am?”

“I’m no fool, I would know you if my eyes were closed, bitch.” I circled her, watching, waiting for her to use the depth of power she carried.

The flicker of green at her fingertips and the slight softening of the ground below was the only warning I had. I leapt at her, spear raised and swinging through the air in a perfect arc as the footing below me dropped away.

She squealed like a stuck pig and scrambled backward, flinging her hands at me, the lines of power going wild over her entire body. It was too much, even for her. The earth exploded through the golden floor, rocks and gemstones flying everywhere. One caught me on the back of my hand, numbing my fingers and making me drop my spear. I landed on top of her and rolled us both across the floor.

Physically I knew she couldn’t beat me.

A blast of wind smashed into me, tearing me off her, tearing my fingers away from where I’d gripped her cloak. I was thrown hard and pinned against the far wall. I stared at Blackbird.

His body hummed with power, all five colors swirling. Red, blue, white, green and pink.

“Mother goddess have mercy,” I whispered. He carried all five elements, he was the child Requiem had wanted to produce with his breeding program. “How are you even possible?”

The question slipped out of me, unbidden as my mind tried to make sense of the impossibility of what he was. He shrugged.

“I have no say in who made me. I was born though, I can assure you of that.” He tossed his ruby ring to Cassava. “Here, use this and kill her. I am off to the Eyrie. I expect you to clean this mess up and take control.”

Cassava nodded, shocking me. She was taking orders from him? He bent down and kissed her on the top of her head. “Do not disappoint me.”

“I won’t.”

He walked away, humming to himself as he wove all five elements around his body. Five, even without the use of the ring. As he disappeared, I dropped to the ground.

Cassava crept toward me. “You are finally going to get what you deserve, you stupid half breed. And then I will be queen here.”

“Big words coming from someone who is bowing to an abomination,” I said, keeping my voice even. This was not the time to panic.

She lifted her hands and fire raced from her fingertips to light up the wall around me. The heat was instant, sweat popping out along my bare skin.

Maybe this
was
the time to panic.

I pulled the earth upward, dousing the flames, but she ignited them as fast as I put them out. Flinging her left hand, the ceiling collapsed on top of me and instantly lit on fire. I pushed the rock off, but the fire crept closer, igniting my hair in places, singeing my clothes.

“This can only end one way, half breed,” she laughed, “and that will be with me dancing on your grave.”

I had only one option left, I had to use Spirit to stop her. I called that power forth as the fire super heated around me, gold melting into puddles on the floor. I put everything I had into directing Spirit toward her. It’s essence wove through me, melding with the beat of my heart, the thrum of my own blood pumping in my veins as I focused on breaking her hold on the two elements.

“Stop!” I yelled at her.

Her feet stumbled to a stop and she went to her knees.

“You will not harm me or anyone else ever again!” I said, and even to myself my voice reverberated. I kept pushing Spirit into her, fear driving me. Waves of Spirit crashed out of me and into her and for a moment I thought she would fall down. Her body went slack, and she dropped to her knees.

She lifted her hands and the fire went out. “No harm, no harm, no harm.”

Spirit danced along my synapses, humming softly, a steady warmth that felt so good. A sigh of relief slipped out of me. It was over without anyone being hurt. If I didn’t count the burns and bruises on my body.

I walked over to her as I released my hold on Spirit.

There was a pull within my own soul, like something took a long drink of me. It was there and gone so fast I wasn’t sure I hadn’t imagined it. I sagged for a split second then stood up straight, forcing my body to obey me no matter how badly it wanted to lay down and rest. I would not look weak in front of Cassava. I strode toward her, my legs like jelly.

“You might as well take the cloak off now. It’s not like you’re hiding from anyone.”

Cassava didn’t move; she stood like a statue. Defiant to the end.

“Take the damn cloak off,” I snapped and still she ignored me. “Fine, do whatever you like. Father will deal with you soon enough.” I didn’t dare take my eyes off her for fear she would suddenly grab at one of the powers open to her.

With that in mind, I darted forward and jerked both away from her. She didn’t protest, barely even flinched as I took both the emerald and the ruby, tucking them under my vest.

No reaction at all. What was going on? Why wasn’t she at least saying something?

The doors to the throne room creaked open and I glanced quickly to see Peta creeping in.

“It’s safe. She’s taken care of,” I said, motioning to Cassava. “Actually, she’s playing some kind of game here. Won’t talk, won’t respond to anything I say.”

Peta sniffed the air. “I still can’t smell her. Can you take that cloak off?”

I reached out and grabbed the cloak . . . or tried to. It dissolved as my hand passed through it, as if it never were. The cloak vanished and what I was seeing couldn’t have stunned me more.

Shock hit me like a lightning bolt and I stumbled backward. “No, no it can’t be.”

In front of me stood not Cassava but my younger sister, Keeda. Her mouth was slack and her brown eyes empty of any emotion, long tendrils of dark brown hair flowed around her face. She looked like a doll, empty and vacant of any sort of life. The ticks I’d seen her, so like Cassava, they were just a daughter’s habits learned at her mother’s knee.

Queen . . . she’d been fighting to be queen here.

I struggled to breathe and ended up on my knees in front of her as tears trickled down my cheeks. Peta moved to my side. “You used Spirit on her, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” I whispered. “What have I done?”

eta let out a sigh as she drew closer to me. “My first charge, he learned to use Spirit, but it is tricky. A powerful tool. When you use it without really knowing, it can burn someone else out.”

“Burn them out?” I stared at my little sister, the blank gaze in her eyes, the dribble of drool falling from her lips. I’d done that. I’d destroyed her mind. “Can it be reversed?”

“I don’t think so.” Peta butted her head against me but I pulled away. I didn’t deserve any comfort. I stood and walked to Keeda.

“We’ve got to get her out of here and back home. Maybe Niah can help, she knows more than she lets on.” Niah was a storyteller in the Rim, but she also knew a lot about things most Terralings had forgotten. Legends, myths, stories that seemed impossible yet were not.

“Perhaps,” Peta said, but I knew she only spoke the word I wanted to hear.

Peta turned and walked away, leading the way. I hooked an arm through Keeda’s and tugged on her. She took a step in the direction I urged.

We reached the wide doors, stepped through and the skin on the back of my neck prickled. I spun and looked back into the throne room.

No one was there, no one I could see. And yet I felt eyes on me. I looked up at the doors.

All who enter shall be judged, and those found lacking shall be destroyed.

Was that what had happened, some sort of judgment? I looked away from the words, feeling them burn into my soul. Destroyed, that was how I felt, like a piece of me had been pulled apart and smashed in front of my face. Peta shrunk to her housecat form and slipped into the tunnel behind the statues that would lead us back to the firewyrms. I pushed Keeda ahead of me and she went willingly.

Mother goddess, what had I done? What kind of monster was I?

We emerged into the opening where the firewyrms, Cactus, and Ash waited.

Except they weren’t the only ones. The missing children were there too. Tinder saw me, his eyes sparkling with mischief. Waving wildly, he ran to greet us.

“Terraling, the bad luck cat saved us. I couldn’t believe it when I saw her, but she saved us.”

Peta gave a low grumble, but through our bond her pleasure was a warmth that spread through to me. She leaned out and gave Tinder’s face a lick. “You’re welcome, little lizard.”

Ash strode forward, took one look at Keeda and sucked in a sharp breath. “What happened to her?”

I shook my head, unable to say the words, hiding my shame behind a wall of silence. Cactus looked from me to Keeda and back again and my face burned. He would figure it out if anyone would. But he said nothing about her.

Holding Keeda by the arm, I drew her forward. “I have to get her home.”

Cactus nodded but he wouldn’t make eye contact with me.

The firewyrms took us to a tunnel that led back to the entranceway. Peta went first then Ash. The seven children, including Tinder, piled in after him, excited and chattering like they hadn’t been abducted and kept in a dungeon for hours. Resilient little hearts was the only thought I had for them.

I guided Keeda ahead of me, and Cactus brought up the rear, a faint glow of fire over his left hand. Each Salamander child also held a tiny glow above their hands, lighting the tunnel with ease. At least they could reach their element with Keeda and her cohort gone. I hoped that meant they—and the other Salamanders—were finally safe.