Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (18 page)

More the fool was I for thinking that no one else had a stake in the game that had been laid out at my feet.

I rounded an outcropping in the cliff at top speed, my cloak fluttering out around me and a few splatters of rain hitting my face. Norm ran behind me, doing his best to keep up.

The scene in front of me made me slide to a stop.

Crouched in the water was a man I didn’t know, except that I could see he was an elemental. He had dark hair that was cropped short, and he wore the clothes of a human, but I didn’t think he was human, not for a second. He held the chakram up, while his back was still to me. At first
,
I thought it was Raven, but he was too big. And Raven didn’t have the build of a fighter.

This elemental did. Even if he was hiding as a human.

“Missing something?” he asked.

I had a sword and dagger free of their sheaths before my cloak had time to even settle around me.

“Drop it,” I said.

“Well, that’s rather rude, considering I took it from an Undine who’d been banished.” He stood and slowly turned to face me.

I supposed some women would find him handsome. His eyes were a blue that bordered on violet, and his mouth seemed prone to smiling. But under that
,
I saw the truth.

He was a survivor, someone who’d learned to fight in order to live. In every movement of his body, the twitch of muscles and the way his eyes seemed to watch everything and nothing, I knew he was no pansy ass.

Which only meant one thing at the moment, and that was that I would be keeping my weapons up. “The blade is mine. I thank you for removing it from the Undine, but I want it back.”

He smiled and shook his head. “You don’t even want to introduce yourself?”

I frowned. “No.”

His eyebrows went up. “Well, I do. I think we are going to have to deal with one another at some point, you know.”

The words didn’t make any sense. Not really. Surprising me, he flipped the chakram toward me, and it buried into the ground about three feet in front of me. I didn’t move toward it.

“Why would I have to deal with you exactly?”

“I’m glad you asked . . . Ash.” He smiled. I did not.

The only explanation for him knowing who I was . . . for how he’d sent the second Undine away without a fight . . . was that he was a Spirit user. Like Lark. Like Raven. Like Cassava had been when she’d held the pink diamond. I flicked my eyes quickly to his hands but saw no diamond.

“Ah, good. You understand what I am then. You’re a quick study.” He nodded. “My name is Talan.”

Norm walked out before I could stop him and clapped a hand on Talan’s shoulder. “I’m Norm, and we,” he pointed a thick finger at me, “are going to pull a great prank.”

Talan laughed, but I still didn’t relax my stance. I didn’t trust him. That he was here at this moment told me he’d been following me. In my world, in my experience, I did not believe in coincidences of this magnitude. He was looking for me.

But why?

“What do you want?” I took a step, and then another, until I was standing almost on top of the circular blade. If I had to move fast, I wanted it close.

“I want to discuss someone. I want to ask you about Larkspur.”

Hearing her name on his lips sent a chill through me as surely as if I’d been tossed back into the raging ocean. “Why?”

“Because she is like me. She can use Spirit and . . . that intrigues me.”

I did not like the sparkle in his eye when he spoke about her. Every instinct in me told me to run him through now before he tried to steal her away from me. That thought alone made me pause and I shook my head. Jealousy was not my game, it never had been. Not even while Cactus chased Lark, using his childhood connection to her to press his advantage.

“Stop messing with my head, Talan, or I’ll tell my friend Norm there to strangle you.” Norm grinned at me.

Dutifully and with a speed that belied his size, Norm’s big hand went around Talan’s neck before the elemental could even blink. The Yeti was fast when he wanted to be. Good to know.

“You want me to pop his head off?” Norm flexed his hand.

Talan struggled and clung to Norm’s solid arm as his face turned red. The Yeti held him tightly enough to keep him from speaking.

“No. Don’t pop his head off. He’s not a flower.”

I put both swords away and picked up the circular blade, reattaching it to my belt. Norm held Talan easily and I realized something. Talan was letting him manhandle him. From where I stood, I could see the handle of a blade on Talan, well within his reach, just peeking out from behind him. But he didn’t go for it.

Again, why? Why would he put himself in harm’s way?

“Norm, let him down.”

The Yeti did as I asked, and Talan gasped for breath. “Quite the grip on him.”

I was done with this. “What game are you playing, Spirit Walker? I have no time for it, so either tell me or leave me to the task I have at hand.” I motioned for Norm to come back close to me. If I had to, I would make a leap through the Veil, away from this Talan and his ability to twist my mind. I’d had enough of that particular brand of worm shit while Cassava had been the queen. More than enough.

“I . . .” He cleared his throat at the same time as he rubbed at it. “Not a game I set in motion, Ender. I am trying to see the pieces the same as you are. Cassava, Raven, Larkspur, you, and I. We are the puzzle pieces. The rest, I am not sure. If there even are any others.”

His words rang true, and I knew in my gut it had nothing to do with Spirit being used on me. Or at least, I was hoping. Was Talan on our side? Or Cassava and Raven’s?

If he’d wanted to kill me, I suspected he could have by simply setting Norm on me with a command and then come in for the final blow himself while I was busy fending off the Yeti. At least, that was what I would have done. And I could already see that Talan’s mind was that of a fighter. A warrior who did not sit on the sidelines.

Even if he hid it behind a soft human exterior.

“And what do you want to know of Larkspur?” I kept my voice even.

“You love her.” It was a statement, not a question. I nodded.

Talan cleared his throat and rubbed it one last time. “Then you and I are on the same side, Ash. I want to help her, but . . . she has to be ready to be taught. Willing to learn.”

“Learn what?”

“How to control Spirit, how to use it so she can do what she was born to do.”

I didn’t like the way he was speaking. Like Lark was just a tool to him. “Why don’t you just go talk to her? She’s in the desert, alone. Perfect time to sit and chat.”

Talan laughed and shook his head. “The world doesn’t work like that, Ender. There are traps set up around the desert for any foolish enough to try and see her. Traps set up by several of the elemental families, and not just her father. She can leave if she chooses to, but none can enter.”

That surprised me, but then again, Lark had done damage in some way or another in all of the families. All to help them, but sometimes lancing a wound was more painful than the original injury.

“She will want to learn,” I said. “When she trained as an Ender, she was single-minded in wanting to gain new skill sets. I don’t think you will have a problem with her.”

His eyes widened. “You were her trainer?”

I glanced away, thinking of Granite and his betrayal of our family. “One of them.”

“And you fell in love with her?”

I didn’t like his implication. “She’s not like that. I have known her for years.” I took a few steps back. “I have to go. Cassava . . . has taken a friend of mine.”

Talan perked up. “Who?”

For some reason
,
I held my tongue. “It does not matter, but if I do not go after her, I have no doubt Cassava will kill her.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Another woman?”

I wanted to punch him, but I was old enough to know better. Even if the thought of his nose broken and bleeding under my fist made me smile. Talan smiled back, and it was as deadly as any Ender’s. “I wish you luck then in finding Cassava. She is a notorious snake once she goes to ground, coiling up and then waiting to strike at the last second.”

I didn’t turn my back on him. “Norm. Hang onto me.”

The Yeti grabbed my cloak, and I pulled the circular blade free. I touched the edge to my forehead while I thought of Romania and a small town I’d visited in the past. On the edges of a great forest, the village was barely big enough to be called that. With a quick slice, I dropped to my knee and touched the ground with the blade. The Veil spun and widened, opening for us. Talan watched closely, his eyes taking it all in. I didn’t trust him.

Yet, I could find no real reason other than an innate distrust and no solid evidence. Lucky for me, I’d learned to follow my instincts long ago.

“Are you not going to tell me to stay away from Lark?” Talan called after me as I stepped through the Veil.

I looked back, past Norm, and shook my head. “I’ve no need. She’ll tell you herself.”

Talan laughed as the Veil closed. “Oh, I doubt that, my friend. I doubt that very much.”

“Mother goddess, I want to punch him in the face,” I muttered.

“You should have. That would have been a great surprise prank,” Norm said. And for once I had to agree with him. It would have been great. Behind us, the Veil closed and with it, Talan’s laughter was cut off.

I looked around at the outskirts of the small village I’d taken us to. I’d been here once before, looking for a runaway brat from the Rim. Occasionally we’d get a Terraling teenager who decided they wanted to see the world of the humans and all the wonders it held. The problem was they had no idea what they were getting themselves into and regularly had to be rescued either from the other elemental families or from some pissed-off supernatural.

I didn’t realize I was speaking out loud until Norm responded.

“Did you find the brat?”

I nodded. “Yes, he was being held by the local witches in a dungeon. He was glad to go home.”

“I’ll bet. I don’t think I’d like to be caught by a witch. They’d probably make me into a spell.”

I snorted, not sure that there was any possibility there at all. “Or a rug.”

He gasped and I couldn’t help laughing softly. “I’m joking, Norm. They won’t turn you into a rug.”

An audible sigh escaped him. “Oh, good. Wow, that was a prank! I believed you were right!”

I strode forward, eyeing the sky above and the ground below back and forth. If Cassava was here, I would have to be careful about how I connected with the earth. While she was a bitch in truest fashions, she was also a powerhouse when it came to the earth. I went to one knee and let the sensation of the earth roll through me. Nothing stuck out, nothing that made me think I’d found her.

I hoped I was wrong.

“Where are we going now?” Norm asked. I stood and pointed at the village.

“There. And then we will start searching for the one we will pull a prank on.”

He grinned, showing off his strange teeth. “Oh, good. I’m excited.”

“I can see that,” I said. “Stop grinning, you’re freaking me out.”

His lips fell into a ridiculous frown that another time would have drawn a laugh from me. As it was, the tension in the air was too strong. Too much for me to think of anything but the reason we were here.

Cassava.

In the center of the village was an old brothel I’d stayed at before. While not to my taste in other matters, it allowed for a great deal of privacy, something needed at the time. And something I needed now. With Norm hovering over my shoulder, I knocked on the faded-by-time red door.

A woman peered out. She spoke Romanian, but so did I.

“We are closed for the night. Ladies are all done.”

“No, just a room.” I fanned out fifty dollars in American bills. Her eyes shot to them, then back to Norm.

“Inn down the road.”

I put my hand on the door, which not only held it open, but gave her a view of the chakram blade and a dagger on my right hip. “No. I want privacy.”

“Two hundred.” She held out her hand, snapping her fingers. I gave her another bill. The money was nothing to me.

Smiling, she held the door wide. “Welcome to House of Pleasure. Ignore the sounds. Pleasuring happens all night.”

I was sure it did. Her skirts dusted the floor as she led us to the back of the two-level house. She looked to be the daughter of the woman I’d rented from before. The looks were similar enough with her dark hair and eyes, and curvaceous body. She glanced back more than once at me, and her eyes just flickered over Norm. She gave him a wink and grunted, but wisely he kept his mouth shut.

The room she opened was small, barely ten feet by ten feet, and there was a single rickety bed pushed up under the window that was maybe big enough to get my head out if I wanted to suddenly leave. Of course, that was probably part of the reason it was so small. Having people skip out without paying the bill was probably an issue. I shook my head as Norm flopped so hard onto the bed it groaned like a dying beast. “Must be well made,” I muttered.