Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) (14 page)

He scurried toward us and I took several steps back. A banished elemental . . . already mad with the loss of his home. I grabbed Cactus’s hand. “I don’t want to hurt him. If Requiem banished him, he was probably one of the good guys.”

“We may not have a choice.” Cactus turned me to the side where a second elemental crept our way. Another Undine, by the fins that sprouted along the edge of his arms and legs.

“Peta, tell me we can talk them down.”

She whimpered. “No. The banished are to be killed on sight. Not because they should die, but because they are dangerous—”

The Undine on our left roared and leapt toward us, his arms and legs spread wide as he shifted into a giant octopus, tentacles reaching for us. I dropped to one knee and yanked my spear clear of my belt. The octopus shifter landed on top of Cactus and me. Before I could get my spear free, the tentacles wrapped around us with a speed I’d previously reserved in my mind for striking snakes. We were jammed together as the Undine tightened his hold on us. My head pressed up against his bulbous eye and his thoughts rushed through me.

Kill them show loyalty, don’t question, kill them take me home please take me home don’t leave me out here I’m dying my spirit fades kill them take me home find me a place kill them.

His pain and sorrow flooded my mind, and if I’d been standing, the emotions would have brought me to my knees. Cactus groaned and then a burst of flame lit him up, covering his body long enough to make the tentacles release him. Except that they re-wrapped around me.

We slipped backward toward the water. Panic reared its ugly head.

“Worm shit, Cactus, help me!”

“I’m trying.” The sound of flesh sizzling under a ball of flame met my ears a split second before the Undine holding me dropped over the wooden dock edge and into the icy channel.

With my arms trapped to my sides, all I could do with my spear was swipe it uselessly through the water and hope I hit something. We rolled and I was looking up at the surface of the water. The tentacles tightened and then loosened a fraction of an inch. Enough to turn and get my spear up.

Time seemed to pause as our eyes met. He blinked once, shook his head and reared back. The parrot-like beak of his mouth aimed for my face. He let me go another few inches, and adjusted my position with his tentacles.

Lips clamped shut tightly, I thrust my spear tip up into the center of his head as I tried not to think about why he was banished. Because he’d opposed Requiem? Because he’d tried to stop a raging tyrant from taking over his home?

Forgive me.

I don’t know if it was his thought or mine. I drove the spear further in, pushing the blade hard and twisting it. Blood flowed into the water and his tentacles slowly released me. The creature convulsed and its questing tentacles drooped. His body slid down into the inky black water, his body shifting one last time as he breathed out his last gulp of water.

Keeping my hands tightly on the haft of my spear, I swam to the surface. I broke through to the sounds of fighting, and Peta snarling. Grabbing the edge of the dock, I pulled myself up but kept my body low to the wooden surface. In front of me, Cactus and Peta barely dodged the first Undine, keeping free of him but only just.

I stood and arched my hand back, took two running strides and loosed my spear. There was a slight wobble in it—it wasn’t meant for throwing like that—but it still slammed into the left center of his back. He threw his arms wide with a roar and fell to the ground. Scrabbling at his back, he tried to reach the spear, but failed and dropped forward onto his face.

“I am done,” he said, but his back still rose and fell. I approached him cautiously before crouching by his head. His eyes lifted to mine but not much else. Dark, so dark they were, like the night sky.

“You fought Requiem?”

“I did. He was a bastard.”

Snarling, he took a swing at me. I pressed his head to the ground and knelt on his hand closest to me. “Peta, can we call on Finley?”

He shivered under my hand. “The child cannot help me. No one can. End it now. You are an Ender. I demand you END ME!” he screeched and lurched toward me, but he had no strength in his body.

With my free hand I pulled the knife tucked into the top of my boot.

“Are you sure, Lark?” Cactus asked. I knew what the real question was. Could I live with killing the Undine in essentially cold blood? But what Cactus didn’t understand was that it wasn’t going to be in cold blood. Mercy was an act of love, an act of understanding. I could do for this Undine what he needed.

“Last words, if the madness is not so far eaten into you?” I asked.

Below me, the Undine shuddered. “Requiem is dead?”

“Yes.”

“Then I am at peace and need no last words. I go to the mother goddess’s embrace.”

I didn’t wait for him to say anything else. As hard as I could, I drove the blade into the back of his neck, angling it upward for a clean kill. His body jerked once, all his muscles contracting at the same time before he relaxed into his death.

Pulling both blades, I wiped them one at a time on his back. The salt water would rust the blades if I was not careful.

I put the blade back into my boot and the spear I reattached to my belt, my movements automatic. Without a word, I took the dark Undine’s arms and dragged him to the water’s edge. I laid him on his back and folded his arms over his chest. Peta moved to my side and pressed herself against me. “There was no other choice.”

“I know. But banishment from the Deep for fighting Requiem . . . I thought Finley would have made these things right.” I pressed my hands over the unnamed Undine. The queen of the Undines should have been bringing home those Requiem had banished. Why wasn’t she? A question I did not have time for.

I rolled the Undine into the water. “Go to her embrace then, and find your peace.”

The water splashed up, engulfing him with a single wave that settled within seconds as if he had never been. Being banished, perhaps
that
was the truth. Those banished were considered anathema, as if they had never existed.

Peta must have picked up on my thoughts. “Their names are wiped from any record. Finley likely doesn’t even realize they are missing.”

A hand brushed along the side of my face and I leaned into Cactus. He was softer than Ash in many ways . . . but right in that moment he knew what I needed. A touch, and the knowledge that he was there with me, with no pressure beyond what we could see in front of us.

I stood and let out a long breath. “Let’s take the boat.”

Cactus gave me a sideways grin. “Theft?”

“I think it’s the least of my sins tonight.” I meant it as a joke, but it fell flat and killed whatever levity he’d been attempting. “Sorry, my timing sucks.”

“You’re telling me,” he grumbled, but again the mood lightened. In a matter of minutes we had a boat untied, a small one with a sail attached to it. Peta paced the dock. “It’s small, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“No, but you want to get to Greece. How else would you like to do it?”

“I would rather drag my belly the whole way than get into that boat. I don’t like water, Lark.” She blinked her large green eyes up at me. Yet she’d dived into the water to save me before she’d ever been my familiar. Peta had the heart of a dragon beating inside her chest.

“Not overly fond of it myself, but we all do things we don’t like. Come on, you can sleep the whole way.” I pointed at a small orange padded material with a hole in the middle. A perfect cat bed if I ever saw one.

Sighing, she shifted into her housecat form, then jumped into the boat and settled down. “This is not very comfortable.”

“Stop complaining, bad luck cat,” Cactus said.

She hissed at him but said nothing more. I stepped into the boat last and pushed off the dock with my boot.

“How in the seven hells are we going to get to Greece exactly?” Cactus asked. “Not that I’m doubting you, princess. Just curious.”

I ran my hand over the leather pouch at my side. Ash I would have trusted in an instant, and that was what made me pull the smoky diamond out of the pouch. With a quick flick, I put it on a leather strap, slipped it over my head and tucked it under my shirt. “Don’t tell on me, Cactus.”

His eyebrows shot up. “I never told anyone you put pig shit in Cassava’s dinner that one night. And I had my ass tanned for not saying who did it. They all knew, Lark. But I held my tongue.”

Peta let out a laugh, rolling onto her back. “She did not.”

He laughed with her. “Yeah, she did. Of course, she let me take the beating.”

I smiled, and rolled my eyes. “We were ten. I knew what the lash felt like all too well. If I remember right, I’d taken a licking for you the day before.”

“You think I didn’t know what the leather strap felt like?” He fell back into his seat. “I’m quite sure I have the scars to prove I was well acquainted. I could show you, if you don’t believe me.” His green eyes locked onto mine and he gave me a slow wink. No, I was not going there.

“I’ll pass.”

“The offer stands, princess.”

I widened my stance and slowed my breathing. Using the power of another element was not something I took lightly. But our time was slipping away and we had to get to Greece. “Tell me why I don’t take us straight to the Namib Sand Sea?”

“Because it’s huge, Lark,” Peta said. “We could search for weeks and not find her, and then she could be gone. We need a faster way to sweep the area. Besides, I have a feeling about The Bastard.”

I looked down at her. “What do you mean?”

She rolled into a ball, her tail wrapped around her nose. “Trust me. We need him.”

There was no way she was going to say anything if she wasn’t ready to. Pressing the smoky grey diamond hard, I focused on calling up a wind to fill our sails and push us toward Greece.

The power of air was strange on my skin, the feel of it so light, as if it could sweep me into the sky. I held my arms out in front of me and watched the foreign lines of power as they crept up my arms. White, misty tendrils wrapped me tight and beckoned me to use them.

Acting on instinct, I pursed my lips and blew out a breath as softly as I could.

The water ruffled and a blast of air slammed into us, scooting us forward. Cactus and Peta let out twin yelps.

I wobbled but balanced myself quickly. The sails of the boat were full and I pointed at the rudder. “Steer us, Cactus.”

“Aye, aye, captain!”

I didn’t look back at him but kept my eyes forward as I breathed through the power. Each exhale sent the boat scooting forward. So as long as I could breathe, we could make good time.

I only wished I didn’t feel so threatened by the simple thought of trying to make sure nothing stopped me from breathing.

oating wasn’t as bad as Peta made it out to be. I even caught her once or twice with her eyes closed as she breathed in the clear salty air. We stopped where we had to for food and water. Rested only when necessary. No trolls showed up, no more banished elementals lost their minds and lives. If it weren’t for the fact that we were searching for my father, it would have been enjoyable.