Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5) (4 page)

Fay let out a low laugh. “Oh, then she’ll be dead within the week. Well done, bad luck cat.” She patted my head—harder than she had to—and strolled away, still laughing. That people would think I had deliberately let my charges die . . . it was the insult of all insults.

Dirt girl reached over and ran her fingers over my head.

“Don’t listen to them.”

The growl that slipped out of me was out of my control. “We are not friends, Dirt Girl. Not by a long shot. I do this because I must.” I shifted back to my housecat form and stalked away, my emotions ranging from the need to be beside her, and the desire to be away from her. To be free of watching over anyone.

Yet I knew that at some point I would have to come to terms with what my life was. One way or another.

irt Girl and Cactus headed for the Pit, and of course I went with them.

At the Pit though, things shifted yet again.

“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,” I said, a shot of worry slipping through me.

She did as I told her, going to her belly. I clung to her back, staying with her. Where she went, I went.

Hanging onto the edge, she peered into the pit.

“Hypnotizing.”

“No swimming,” I muttered softly into her ear.

Without any warning, she wriggled about, forcing Cactus to grab her ankles. Fear laced each breath I took as I dug my claws in deep to her leather vest so I wouldn’t fall. What was she thinking? Had she lost her mind?

None of my other charges had been this reckless . . . no that wasn’t entirely true. The first had been like this.

Yes, Talan had been exactly like this, reckless and bold to a fault. It was why I’d lost him.

I stared at the Terraling’s hands as she gripped the rock. The stone molded under her fingers, making perfect handholds.

From what I knew of Terralings that was an old ability. One that had been lost long before my time even.

“We need to discuss this later. You shouldn’t be able to mold rock like that,” I said.

Using her handholds she flipped over the edge and dropped in a crouch to the floor below the ledge.

The smell of firewyrms overwhelmed me. Dirt Girl leaned forward, cooing softly to two hatchlings. Like tiny, sinuous white dragons, they stared at us, hissing. I could understand them, but the shocking part was, so could she.

How in the name of the mother goddess was that possible?

A thump behind us snapped my head around.

Mouse turds.

Coal, the Ender she thought was a traitor stood behind us. So much for keeping them apart. “Get back, idiot, you don’t know what they are capable of.”

He grabbed Dirt Girl’s arm and jerked her hard enough to send us tumbling ass over teakettle, right out into open space. I let out a screech as I dug my claws deeper into the leather.

No matter what, I wasn’t letting her go. Even if it meant I would fall to my death with her.

A flash of white scales and our momentum was stopped and we were being held above the ground.

The male firewyrm had us and scrambled us back up to the ledge.

What we saw when we peered over was the young female firewyrm lying on the ground, blood pooling around her and staining her white scales; Coal stood over her with his black club raised.

“Get away from her,” the Terraling snapped as she scrambled forward. She called the earth and it threw Coal backward into the wall, smacking his head hard enough to knock him out.

She ran to the firewyrm, laying her hands on her side.

“Spirit can heal, Dirt Girl. I don’t know how, but I know it can. If it isn’t too late,” I said softly. I was sure she wouldn’t try. To use Spirit was to lose a piece of yourself every time you did so. For her to try on a creature of no consequence, someone she didn’t even know, was beyond unlikely.

Dirt Girl closed her eyes and Spirit flickered through her, pumping into the lifeless body. She would try and save her?

Now do you see the value in Larkspur?

I did see it, and it still scared me. More than if she were like the others. Because if she was this strong of heart and soul, this sound of mind and morals . . . how much worse would it be when I lost her?

The answer is simple, my cat. Don’t lose her.

Don’t lose her.

I licked Lark’s cheek, swiping away tears she didn’t seem to know were there. “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.”

Saying goodbye to Scar, as she so aptly named him, she climbed up onto the ledge to find Cactus out cold with a goose egg on his head. Without hesitation, she healed him, though I felt the dip in her energy.

Our bigger problem was Fiametta showing up.

The queen surprised me, but more so because Jag, her familiar was behind her. His eyes met mine and he slowly shook his head. There was nothing he could do to stay her hand.

I’d already known that.

Coal pulled himself up behind us.

I knew what was coming, there was no way around it. Coal would fight us on this, would try to make it look like Lark was a troublemaker. I whispered into her ear, “He will not go down easy. Be wary.”

Coal walked right into the trap we’d set, laying claim to hurting Cactus which only pissed off Fiametta, if the tightening around her eyes was any indication. I may have never been her familiar, but I’d known her since she was a child and she’d always had a wicked temper. Even if she was better at controlling it now.

I was proud of the way Lark handled the back and forth between herself, the queen, and Coal. Setting out the way he’d fooled the queen and gotten into her bed.

Lark turned and started to walk away.

“Stop,” Fiametta said.

We turned to see Coal sprinting away.

Cactus pulled down the archway Coal was headed for effectively blocking him. The Ender spun and pointed his club at Fiametta.

The queen would deal with him, and we would be free to go.

At least, that was what I thought.

Lark pulled me from her shoulder and threw me
behind
her as she leapt in front of Fiametta.

Putting herself in danger while trying to protect me.

Heart beating wildly, I knew it was a good move politically. But I didn’t think that was why the Terraling had done it.

She’d done it because it was the right thing to do.

She
was
going to be the death of me.

While they fought, Lark used Spirit on Coal. I could feel it flow out of her and into him in a thin trickle, loosening his tongue.

“The first night you bedded the queen, you were searching for something in her room. What was it?” she asked.

Beside me the queen went stock-still and I knew Lark was in trouble. It was a split-second decision I made. Shifting into my leopard form, I leapt forward, knocking her to the ground as Fiametta unleashed a wave of lava over our heads. I felt the heat through my thick fur.

I stared at where Coal had been, now nothing but a pile of ash and a few bits of charred bone.

Lark buried a hand into the thick fur around my neck. “Thanks.”

“That’s four times now, Terraling,” I said.

Her throat bobbed as she swallowed hard. “I think you’ll get at least a few more chances to pull my ass from the fire before we’re out of here.”

“I believe you may be right.”

f course, one fight in a day wasn’t enough for my charge.

We’d barely gotten back to Brand’s home when Maggie jumped Lark. The two women rolled around, and it wasn’t until Maggie started to drag Dirt Girl toward the lava flow that I started to worry.

I shouldn’t have though. I needed to remember what I already knew about my Terraling.

She was a survivor.

With a quick jerk of her legs, she had Maggie on the ground and was repeatedly slamming the Salamander’s head into the hard stone.

Smoke and Cactus rebuked her as she stood, breathing hard from the exertion and adrenaline from the fight.