Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (22 page)

I watched his face, saw the slightest tic under his eyes. “I do. For some reason
,
you are drawn to her, though why, I cannot fathom.”

His shoulders hunched. “Damn it, you Enders are far too good at reading people.”

I pressed the blade, and the witch screamed as it sunk a ways into her flesh.

Raven’s eyes were panicked. “I swear it on the embrace of the mother goddess, I will not interfere. I will . . . let you carry out your fool’s quest.”

I snapped my fingers and the vines over the witch swept away. She pushed to her knees and glared at me as she spat out the moss. I had until her mouth was empty and she could get a spell spun, even I knew that much. But I had to ask one last question.

“Why did you not use Spirit on me?”

He shrugged. “A part of me likes you, Ash. I want to believe we could have been friends at one point. As it is, I will help you this one last time . . . my mother never left the Himalayas.”

“Not possible,” I said, denying his words. “There has been no disturbance of the world there. No breakdown of the elements.”

Raven laughed. “There have been more avalanches than ever before, and they’ve claimed the lives of several humans so far. I do what I can to tamp down the chaos, but even I can’t stop it completely.” His eyes flickered to half-mast almost as if he were seeing something only he could see. “And she is battling with the Yeti. Apparently they don’t like it when people chain up snow leopards.”

I blanched as Norm roared. The two of us took off through the night as the world around us exploded in fire and blasted rocks. The witch behind us was powerful, but I would not want her anywhere near my bed. I wished Raven luck with her.

What was I thinking? Maybe they would kill each other when they coupled and I’d have done in two violent birds with a single stone. The problem was I doubted that my luck would take me that far.

Norm was ahead of me and I struggled to keep up. “Norm, stop!”

“He said she’s fighting with my family and she’s got your snow leopard on a chain. I have to help them!” he cried out, spinning so I could see the sheer terror on his face. The utmost pain anyone could feel—his family was potentially being decimated as we spoke.

“We will, but we can get there faster if we use this.” I held up the chakram, the golden edge catching the light. “We need a plan. This is no prank, my friend. This is serious and both of us could die along with your family and my friend.”

He nodded, the tears freezing on his furry cheeks. “What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to go back the mountains, right to where the avalanche was,” I said, already seeing the place she would hide out. Right under my nose, hidden from me by my own blindness. I was a fool. She’d left only to be healed by Dhan, but I’d continued as if she would run from place to place like any banished elemental. I’d been led on a damn goose chase and had fallen for it like I’d been raised as an Ender yesterday. Damn it all.

I held the chakram to my forehead and then swept it downward, touching the ground at my feet. From one snow-filled vista to another; the only difference was that dawn rose above the Himalayas while in Romania, we stood in the darkness of the night. Behind us, a battle raged, the trees cracked and the ground shook. Raven had his hands full with that one. Again, I could only hope they killed each other. That would be the best outcome. If nothing else, he would be kept busy and that meant he would not interfere with my dealings.

I stepped through the Veil and did not have to ask Norm to keep up with me.

He lifted his nose into the air as the Veil slashed shut behind us. “Fires, I smell fires and burning meat.”

I smelled it too, and I didn’t like it as it stirred the old memories once again. I shook them off, but they clung to the edges of my mind.

“Cassava was in Miko’s cave. She influenced both him and Niah into sending me on this wild goose chase. I’m sure of it.” No, that wasn’t quite right . . . Niah hadn’t looked like Niah . . . her image had wavered. Was it possible that it hadn’t even been her?

Truth, child. Truth. You have been led by the nose.
The voice rumbled through me and I felt the power in it. The power of the mother goddess.

“Why?”

We cannot see the hearts of our people as we once did. You found your way back to where we slept; we have waited for you. We felt you. You are the half destined to re-ignite the fires of legend. Now, we give you our strength. You will need it. You are our warrior, Ash of the Rim. We have chosen you to guard the one we will place at the helm of our world.

The words rocked through me and with them a rush of strength and power like I felt when I’d faced the banished elementals—
where they slept
. “If I hadn’t gone, in my youth and now, to where the hurricane raged, you would not have known me, would you?”

“Who are you talking to?” Norm dropped a hand on my shoulder, as if I were the crazy one.

I shook him off and listened for an answer.

It came, slowly.
You woke us, as Larkspur has woken us. We needed the strength only the Destroyer and her destined mate can create. If you had not stepped onto the land of our forced slumber . . . we would not have found you in time.

The voices fell silent and I did not ask more questions. I tapped into the earth’s power, letting it roll through me. I could sense another Terraling in the distance, sense her using the earth to kill, and could feel its reluctance to her demands.

“Why wouldn’t Cassava just kill me?” I asked the question out loud because there was something hiding in the answer that I knew I would need.

“You don’t know why?” Norm asked.

I shook my head and put a hand on the back of my neck. “No, I don’t.”

“Then we have to think about it. I know. We have to think slow. Like me.” He clapped a hand on my shoulder and pushed me to my knees in the snow as he sank down beside me. “We have to be smarter than the average Yeti.”

The problem was my mind did not want to go forward. It was stuck on a cycle and all I could think about was killing Cassava, of finding her and lopping her traitorous head off. I closed my eyes and did the only thing I could think of.

I slowly pulled up the image of Lark in my mind. Of her eyes, one green and the other gold, of the way she smiled when she thought I wasn’t looking at her, of the feel of her skin under my hands and the soft whisper of her breath against my cheek, the color of her hair as it swirled around her, the power in her stance as she faced down those who would do our world wrong. She was why I was doing this. She was the reason for my every action and my every heartbeat.

The earth warmed under me. I could almost feel its approval.

For the first time since I’d left the Rim, the confusion that had kept me under its control began to bleed away. Like purging a belly full of poison, my thoughts began to clear.

As if every thought and memory of Lark were stronger than the control that had been placed over me, the manipulation of Spirit fell away as surely as if I held Lark’s hand. Normally it would take physical touch to keep Spirit from manipulating me.

Yet, here I was able to see what had happened right from the beginning.

It hadn’t been Raven to come to the cell to taunt me, it hadn’t been him in the throne room. The memories shifted and I saw through to the truth of it. Talan, the one I’d met on the beach, had been behind the push to send me after Cassava. But why? He said we were on the same side. In the cave, it hadn’t been Miko and Niah . . . nor had Niah been Cassava. Again, it had been Talan disguising himself, sending me off on the wild goose chase.

I still faced two enemies, then, if not the ones I’d thought at the beginning. Cassava and Talan instead of Cassava and Raven. But were they working together or not? I wasn’t entirely sure.

Norm shifted where he was. “Do you know what we have to do now?”

“Hang on a second.” I fanned through the memories over the last few days, and even the last hour where Raven had stood in front of me. It really had been him the last time, and yet he’d not tried to use Spirit on me. Why?

I frowned, not liking what he’d said about trying to mend his ways. As if a leopard could change its spots. I doubted it . . . yet . . . I knew he didn’t send me after Cassava. Again
,
though, why would Talan do this? What stake did he have in the game besides wanting to know Lark . . . and there it was, the truth. The only thing that made sense is that he saw me as a competitor for Lark, and this was a way to get rid of me. But it was convoluted, at best, and I doubted even my own rationale.

“Shit,” I muttered. “None of it matters as to the why, why not. Cassava is here, she is fighting and possibly killing your family and she holds Peta still. We have to stop her, Norm. Are there any resources around here you know about?”

I looked at him and he frowned. “I don’t know what you mean, but I have another friend who could help maybe? Is that what you mean?”

With a quick nod, I stood. “Yes, that’s what I mean. Who is your friend and are they far from here?”

“No, he isn’t far. But . . . he’s kind of cranky and not very big. But I think, maybe, he will help.”

“Let’s get him and then we’ll go after Cassava. We will stop her, Norm.” I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a squeeze. “We will stop her.”

He smiled and scooped me onto his back, then bolted across the snow. I only wished I could believe my words as easily as he had.

n under five minutes
,
we were at a small cabin at the base of the mountains. Though
cabin
wasn’t really the right term . . . yurt was better. The domed leather had a small amount of smoke curling out of it into the sky. “He’s a pretty good guy, he found me when I was injured.” Norm pushed the flap of the yurt open and went in. “Childcrow, are you here?”

“You’re standing on me, you big hairy rug!” roared a voice that sounded like gravel and stone. Gravel. Granite. No . . . it couldn’t be.

“I need help. My family is being slaughtered,” Norm said.

“I know,” came the soft reply. I stood, listening, unable to believe what I was hearing. I pulled both swords and stood in the doorway. Granite was one of my mentors and had been one of Lark’s trainers, too. But he’d sided with Cassava and had let her turn his heart against our family. I was frozen for a moment before I did as I knew Lark would have. I stepped through the flap and into the yurt, pointed a sword at Granite and stared him down. “You help us, or I’ll kill you now, traitor.”