03] ES) Firestorm (5 page)

Brand looked from his wife to me. “Three days isn’t enough time in the world to come up with a defense for an Ender who has admitted to a crime, and you must do that while looking as though you are helping Smoke. That is your only cover while you are here.”

Drawing in a deep breath, I reluctantly nodded. “I know, but I think I have someone who can help, someone who knows the ins and outs of the Pit.”

The only question was, would Cactus be willing to help me again? Or would he, once more, find his allegiance with this side of his bloodline?

Brand looked to his wife. “I know about your friend. Cactus barely escaped punishment for the help he gave you the last time you were here. But even if he won’t help you, I will. Ash spoke highly of you, of your sense of justice. We need your help, Terraling. Our queen does not see the danger around her and we are all bound to her, unable to make her see.”

“You think I would help her? When she threatens to kill my friend? Without even a trial?” The question popped out of me before I could stop it.

A snort escaped the Ender as he leaned back in his chair. “For justice, I think you will. If Ash is right about you that is. He told me about you and Queen Finley, how you saved her from the usurper in the Deep. Would you truly leave someone you could help behind?”

If Ash was right about me
. The words echoed in my brain. I wasn’t sure I was willing to help, not after the Deep. And Finley was a little girl, no matter how much power she had within her, she’d
needed
someone to help her. Fiametta was a full-grown bitch.

But Brand wouldn’t help me rescue Ash if I said no to his request.

“All right, I will help,” I said, the lie hard on my tongue. Peta tightened her claws into me and I couldn’t look at her, afraid she would see the dishonesty.

She laid her head down on my shoulder. “Dirt Girl, you are going to get us both killed.”

rand drummed his fingers on the table. “I promised Ash I would remove you from the Pit the second I could. So when you see him, you will have to explain we weren’t able to get out right away.”

“You want me to lie to him,” I said, leaning back in my seat and crossing my arms. Peta snorted and I fought not to cringe. Only moments before I’d lied to Brand and now I was calling him out for the same thing.

Smoke pushed a platter of food in front of me. “Eat, then we can discuss this once you have a full belly.”

With a grunt, Brand dug into the food and I followed his lead, trusting that Peta would say something if I broke some sort of taboo.

The food was nothing short of amazing. Sticky rice covered in a thick, spicy sauce alongside chunks of mango and pork was spooned onto my plate. Within two bites, sweat broke out on my brow, but it was good, the warmth filling me. I ate three plates’ worth before pushing it away and reaching for a pewter cup of what I thought was water. I had two gulps before my tongue registered milk, with ice cubes clinking in it to add to the chill.

“It will soothe the fire in your mouth.” Smoke smiled, her lips curling up at the edges only a little.

“Thank you.” I took another gulp and held the cup up to Peta, tipping it so she could reach the milk. She paused and stared at me a moment before she stuck her head in and lapped it up. Brand stopped eating, his mouth hanging open and his fork halfway to his mouth.

I looked from him to Smoke. “What?”

She dropped her eyes, that small smile ghosting across her lips.

“Nothing.” He shook his head several times and went back to eating. What the hell had I done now?

Smoke let out a soft breath. “Sharing food with your familiar means you have accepted her as your own. It is surprising, that is all. How long has it been, Peta, since your charge actually accepted you?”

Peta pulled her head out, milk clinging to her whiskers in tiny white droplets. “That is enough for me, Dirt Girl.” She didn’t answer Smoke’s question. Though I was curious about Peta’s past charges, it wasn’t high on my priority list.

I tipped the cup and drank the last of the milk, my argument ready. “Brand, if you are truly Ash’s friend, you know he didn’t kill those Enders. You know he doesn’t deserve to die for a perceived mistake that happened years ago. It wasn’t his fault my mother and brother were killed on his watch. That was all Cassava’s doing. He’s a good man and this is wrong on all levels.”

A low grumbling breath escaped the Ender across from me. “Those things are true, but I am tied to this family which is why I need you to help me, I cannot go against Fiametta’s wishes any more than you can go against your king’s.”

“That’s ridiculous, you aren’t a slave,” I snapped. “You’re just using that for an excuse not to do what’s right.”

Brand leaned forward, one eyebrow raised high enough that it nearly touched his hairline. “Have you not gone through your trial with the mother goddess? You must have if you are an Ender.”

I frowned. “Of course I have. What has that to do with this?”

He placed his broad hands on the table. “Then you swore to uphold your family in all things, swore your life to them, and to obey your king no matter what he would ask of you.”

Well, worm shit and green sticks, what did I say to that? I had sworn nothing of the kind. The mother goddess had helped me past the block Cassava placed on my abilities, and sent me back.

I must have been silent too long.

Peta’s claws dug into me. “Dirt Girl.”

I cleared my throat and slowly shook my head. “No. The mother goddess didn’t have me swear to anyone.”

Brand looked at his wife who stared at me. “Then you,” she said softly, “are in a very unique position. You are not tied by those bonds all other Enders are. Brand cannot help you, which is exactly why he needs you. But I can. I am no Ender and have no unbreakable bonds.”

Brand grunted as if she’d kicked him in the balls. “Smoke, we’ve discussed this already. I don’t want you getting tangled in this. Fiametta is ready to blow, and I don’t want her seeing you as an enemy.”

Smoke cleared the plates. “Our queen is always on edge. It is her nature. She is like a mountain perpetually threatening to burst its seams.”

I stood, pushing my chair back, questions swirling, one in particular. “Why would you two help me? I’ve killed four of your Enders.” There, I said it out loud.

“Have you? Where are the bodies, Terraling?” Smoke’s eyes bore into mine and I saw the keen mind behind the quiet movements and frail bones. “If there are no bodies, how is it proof you killed them?”

In a strange way, she was right. There was no evidence if there were no bodies. But I thought there was more to what she was saying. “What happened to the bodies? Or are you saying they didn’t die?” No death would mean no punishment. I would just have to find them.

“I was there, one of Smit’s helpers. Those four Enders
are
dead, Lark.”

There went that idea.

She continued. “But their bodies were put immediately into the Pit. Without burial.”

“Like something was being hidden,” Peta said. A shiver slipped up and down my spine and I wriggled my shoulders trying to dissipate the feeling. Those were my thoughts exactly. The only reason to throw bodies into the Pit immediately would be to hide something. Like how they died.

Which made no sense if I was the one who’d caused the deaths, wouldn’t they want the evidence preserved?

Smoke wiped her hands on her pants. “Come, let us walk together, we can discuss what must be done first.”

Brand stood slowly. “You two be careful. And take the laundry with you or what little cover you have for taking her out will be blown.”

That was right, I was supposed to be a
helper
while I was in the Pit. Smoke pointed to a woven basket heaped with clothes. “Lark, take the basket. I will take the rocks.”

I scooped up the basket and Peta leapt into it, perched on top like a tiny feline queen. Smoke gathered four smooth, flat rocks shaped perfectly to fit into the hand, used for beating the clothes clean.

She went to her husband and kissed him lightly on his lips. He reached out to her and touched her face, his hands so gentle for their size. I felt as though I was seeing something intimate, and not meant for my eyes as they whispered their goodbyes. “Be careful, my sweet firebrand,” he said softly.

We left the home and started across the cavern in silence. Around us, the hum of activity continued as people’s lives carried on in the daily grind. But they were happy. I had to give them that. Very different from the atmosphere I’d experienced in the Deep where the Undines had been terrified to even speak, never mind laugh and sing.

The woven basket pressed into my hip, shaping itself to my curve. Peta bobbed along with my steps, her eyes flicking around the cavern. She lifted her head, stretching her neck, her eyes wide.

I looked in the direction she stared. A small figure darted along the wall, paralleling us. Dressed in black from head to toe, it probably stood as high as my shoulder, at most. “Smoke . . .”

She stopped, glanced quickly at the figure and then away, a light shiver running through her. “They have been seen, two cloaked figures darting about the caves and where they go, disaster follows any who interact with them. Avert your eyes, Terraling. You do not want her to notice you.”

Smoke put a hand on my arm and tugged me in the opposite direction, but I couldn’t help but stare over my shoulder. The dark figure paused at an entranceway and turned back. A low laugh rumbled as the silhouette lifted a hand to me with a jaunty wave.

If it weren’t for the heat of the cavern, the cold chill that hit me would have been overwhelming. Something about the way the figure waved, the tilt of the head . . . there was a dark familiarity about them. “Let me guess, that is part of the problem Brand spoke of.”

“No, the ghosts have come and gone for years.” Smoke directed me toward a set of stairs that took us down to a lower plateau in the cavern. “They are problematic and they bring trouble wherever they go. But they cannot be caught, because they aren’t tangible, so there is nothing we can do about them.”

Which told me the Salamanders had in fact tried to catch the ghosts and failed. Pride was a funny thing with fire elementals, and I wasn’t about to argue that the “ghosts” were probably not ghosts at all. The figure had been too solid, too
real
to be anything as intangible as a specter.

The farther away we got from the main lava flow, the easier the air was to breathe, the less my sweat dried and the cooler I became. Steam rose ahead of us, and the sound of a burbling river pooled in my ears. A sound that almost felt like home.

“Terraling, traitors are in our midst,” Smoke said softly, her words barely loud enough to be heard over the water and I realized why she brought me here. Even side-by-side, our words were drowned in the sloshing of water over rocks and the bubble of steam.

Smoke led me to the edge of the river and dropped to her knees. I did the same, so our legs pressed hard against each other. The sand below me cushioned my knees and it was then I noted it wasn’t sand but a pale gray ash. Handing Smoke some of the clothes, I took one of the shirts and dunked it in the water, using the rocks and ash to get it clean. A task I’d done a thousand times in my life already, and I fell into it with ease.