Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5) (9 page)

“Don’t touch them, you filthy wyrm lover.”

He picked the kids up, their eyes wide as they stared back at her. The Salamanders flowed around Lark as if she were an island in a stream.

I moved up to stand with her. While I’d watched the interaction between Lark and the firewyrm, the little lizard had been taken from my back. “They took her from me too.”

Ash waited for us, his arms also empty. “Me, too.”

“Guilty by association,” Lark murmured.

Those Salamanders who had allowed Lark, Ash, and me to help them rushed away from us as though we had a disease. “Fools, all of them,” I muttered low under my breath.

I snorted and shook my body, shrinking to my housecat form. Lark held out her and I leapt up to her.

“You can carry me.”

Laughing softly, she placed me on my shoulder. “Thanks, I appreciate the vote of confidence.”

Ah, the pain under those words. I wanted to claw the eyes out of those who had struck at her in the past, those who had made her doubt herself.

I sat up straight on her shoulder, looking over everyone’s head. The fact we lingered there in the cavern while the lava flows crept closer made my fur tingle. “Why aren’t they moving?”

Lark’s shoulders rolled underneath me. “Maybe Ash is right and the door is stuck.” All around us, the Salamander’s heads whipped around to stare at us. Not one seemed pleased to note we still remained there.

Balancing on my back legs, I stood and put my paws on the top of Lark’s head for a better view. The doors were indeed closed, not a single speck of daylight coming through. This was not good at all.

“I think that’s exactly what has happened. You need to get up there, you two.”

They pushed through the crowd with ease; at least that was the upside of being pariahs. Everyone got out of your way.

At the front of the crowd was Maggie, Fiametta, and Cactus who shook his head almost violently.

“I can’t reach that side of my powers, my queen. I’m sorry,” Cactus said.

Fiametta looked to Lark, her blue eyes shimmering with tears. “And you two, can you open the mountain?”

Ash stepped forward first, laying his hands on the large black door for only a moment before stepping back. “I’m sorry.”

Lark was up next. I felt her reach for her powers, felt them slide through her grasp over and over again. The block on her abilities was there as thick and wide as the base of a mountain.

The anger in her spiked and with it the block dissipated. So that truly was the key for her. I had hoped it wasn’t the case; anger could only take her so far.

The power within Lark rose to a crescendo pitch and she pushed it toward the door. With a grinding screech the door opened.

Cherry blossoms spilled through the doorway bringing with them their sweet scent and the heady taste of fresh air. But Lark was still sweating, hanging onto her power as if her life depended on it.

“Hurry, get them through!” Lark yelled. Putting my nose in her ear I spoke.

“What’s happening?”

The door groaned and creaked, inching closed. “Someone is pushing the doors closed as I’m holding them open.”

What Lark couldn’t see though was that the Salamanders hadn’t moved an inch. They didn’t trust her enough to step between the doorway.

“Let it go, Lark,” Ash said.

She let go and looked. I was ashamed of the elementals I’d once called my own. A sorrier group of fools I had never known. They wouldn’t even take her help to save themselves and their children because of their fear and pride. And I’d thought them the strongest of all the elementals? I had been a fool alongside them.

“What the hell is wrong with you? Why didn’t you go through?” she yelled at them; they looked away from her. All except one.

“How can we trust you?” Maggie said, pushing her face right against Lark’s. “You could have crumbled the archway on top us as we walked through.”

There was more than a murmuring of assent more like a roar of agreement.

“You all just signed your own death warrants,” she said softly. Grief flowed from her and into me. Their lives were already lost and she knew it. I closed my eyes thinking of the children who would die because their parents were so unwilling to see that a Terraling
could
help them.

Fiametta motioned for Lark to follow her. “Larkspur, I will beg if I must. I cannot stop the lava flows.”

“You could have made them go through the doorway. You could have been the first one through and shown them the way out and this would now
not even be a discussion
,” she snapped.

Fiametta’s face was carefully blank. “You are right.”

For the queen to admit she was wrong? Unheard of. Perhaps the times were changing, though it was too late for her people if she could not drive them to do what they had to do to survive.

Behind us came the cries of the Salamanders and the splashing of lava as it reached the back of the line. People pushed forward, screaming, crying, and begging.

We were jammed against the door along with Fiametta. They would take the doorway now . . . if Lark could open it.

Mother goddess let her be able to open it.

“Peta, help me,” she whispered. “I can’t reach the earth unless I’m angry.”

“Ash,” I called for the two men, “Cactus, get over here.”

They pushed through, climbing over people to get to her. Screams echoed up the tunnel as the lava kissed at the heels of those at the back.

Ash and Cactus crouched beside me. “What do you need us to do?”

I curled tighter around Lark’s neck. “Show her you trust her. That is the key to breaking through these final bonds she carries.”

Cactus didn’t hesitate, but wrapped his arms around her from his side, pressing his lips into her hair. “I trust you to save us, Lark. You can do this.”

From her right side, Ash placed his hands over hers. “Larkspur, you truly are the best of us, don’t doubt it.”

She shook as the anger began to build in her once more.

“No,” I said. “Let the anger go and hold to the trust and love. That is your way now, Lark. That is the only way.”

As the words fell from my lips, the truth of them cut through the wall of denial I’d built around my heart. For the first time since Talan, I let my own anger go. The hurt of being treated like an unwanted guest, of being used and abused by those who should have cared for me the most.

The pain of being seen as the reason those around me died slid from my shoulders, the weight of it, a living thing as it left me. I saw Lark’s heart for the first time and realized it truly beat in time with my own.

She
was
my heart mate.

And that knowledge opened a door within me I never even knew existed. Beyond it was an ability that was legendary amongst familiars. . .

The time will come when you need this, Nepeta. But not yet, my child. Not yet. Until you gave yourself to her, there would have been no seeing this possibility. Well done.

The mother goddess spoke softly and was gone before I could answer her, or better yet, ask her a question about the ability gifted to me.

The doors in front of us slid open, for both the block on Lark’s powers and the block on the exit. The Salamanders rushed forward around us, barely escaping the killing lava flows.

he next few moments were some that do not bear repeating. From Blackbird’s arrival—and the abomination that he was—to the floor of the cavern dropping out from under us, to the young firewyrm Scar hauling us out of trouble.

The entire time, all I could think about was how much Lark reminded me of Talan, but yet in her own way she was so much more dangerous to her own self. She threw her body in harm’s way to save those she loved.

Even to save those she didn’t.

As we climbed down the wall that led into the dragon-like firewyrms’ domain, Lark’s focus shifted. Her eyes traveled over the two men, and her heart rate picked up.

She loved them both. But the distraction of that was poor in its timing. I flicked my tail over her face, drawing her eyes to me for a split second. “Pay attention to the wall you are climbing, not the men.”

After that reminder, she was much better, her eyes and mind back on the task at hand.

Scar sat on his haunches, waiting for us at the bottom. Cactus and Ash dropped in a few seconds later. The young firewyrm gave Cactus a sidelong glance. “You can only take your familiar with you. The others have to wait here.”

She put her hands on her hips. “Take her with me where? What are you talking about?”

Scar flicked his head over his shoulder, his tongue darting out and tasting the air. “This tunnel leads to the throne room where the cloaked ones are currently discussing how to wipe us out. They have the children deep in the dungeons.”

“Then why doesn’t your father get them?” she asked, stepping up beside him. I had to agree with her. The firewyrms were formidable advisories. Why weren’t they fighting the cloaked ones?

“Because whenever we get close to them we lose our memory of what we do. That is why we’ve been attacking the Salamanders. We didn’t want to, they were making us.” Scar shook his head. “You are the only one who can go in, Spirit Walker. The males must stay here if they are to be safe; they could be forced to hurt you too.”

“No, we aren’t leaving her.” Cactus shook his head.

Ash nodded his agreement though. “Understood.”

Cactus stared at him. “You would leave her to do this on her own?”

“She has to.” Ash gave Cactus a stony stare. “What if the other Spirit Walker takes control of you, makes
you
fight her? What is she supposed to do then?” He shook his head. “I know all too well how hard it is to fight the compulsion, and the only way to break it is to be touching Lark physically. How do we fight when we can’t let go of one another?”

Cactus was still not convinced. “Then how come Peta can go?”

What a fool. “I’m her familiar. I’m protected by Lark’s abilities, Prick.”

“No more arguing. The longer this takes the more chance we have of those two escaping,” Lark said.

As she walked away, I looked back in time to see Ash tackle Cactus to the floor. If I had my pick of the two men, I knew which it would be.

“Lark, don’t do this; they’ll kill you,” Cactus called out.

I swayed on her shoulder, and slowly shook my head. “How little faith he has.”

“No, I don’t think it’s a matter of faith,” she said as we followed the shimmering white scales of Scar’s back. “I think it’s a matter of love.”

Of that, I was not so certain. But I wasn’t going to argue with her, not then.

Scar led us through a tight tunnel to the throne room. The statue of Fiametta hid the secret exit well. I in all my years had never noticed it. Then again, by the way the edges of the tunnel looked it was perhaps more recent than I had first thought. The dirt was loose and the edges sharp and unworn.

Definitely new.

We approached the throne room doors.

“Peta, get the kids, lead them through the tunnel. Can you do that?” Lark asked, her voice pitched low.

“I can. But then you will go after her alone, won’t you?” I already knew the answer but I wanted her to say it. To tell me the truth. “Won’t you?”