03] ES) Firestorm (2 page)

Maggie stared at me and the curl of red lines, indicators of her power climbing her hand, was the only warning I had that she was about to blast us with her element. Fire danced from her hands and onto the ground around us creating a perfect circle. I flicked my hand and the earth covered the fire, putting it out as easily as breathing.

At least easy enough when I was angry and I could reach my power. Without anger backing me, I couldn’t tap into the earth and the power within it. A flaw I didn’t know how to change.

“Maybe in the Pit you rule,
Maggie
. But not here.” She glared at me, and I backed away, bumping into Ash. Except it wasn’t Ash.

It was another Ender from the Pit, one I didn’t know. He dug his hand into my busted up shoulder, his fingers scooping into the open joint. I screamed, unable to stop the sound from escaping me anymore than I could stop myself from dropping to my knees. The world swayed as the Ender put more pressure on the joint. The sounds of people yelling, and the rush of bodies around us was about all I could make out.

There was a flash of green and gold and suddenly Fern, my father’s current wife, stood in front of me trying to stop Maggie and the other Enders from the Pit. Her belly swelled with what would be a younger sibling for me, but even so, she fought for us.

“I am the queen here and I forbid you taking my Enders!” she snapped, pointing at Maggie.

Goddess love her, she was trying. Another voice rose in defiance and I could hardly understand what I was seeing.

Coal stood next to Fern, his back to me but I would know him anywhere. My on-again-and-currently-off-again lover whose hand I’d been forced to cut off in order for him to survive the catastrophe that was the lung burrowers. The last I’d spoken with him, he’d gone more than a little crazy. Something that happened often to those elementals who lost a body part.

Yet there he was, fighting for me. He put his remaining hand on Match’s chest and shoved. “She’s mine. No one is taking her from me.” Well, there went the warm and fuzzies.

I looked around again, now no stars dancing in front of my eyes. Ash was flat on the ground, his face pressed into the dirt. He wasn’t fighting back though and I knew I couldn’t get us both out of this mess on my own. The pain had overridden the anger and I couldn’t reach my connection to the earth any longer.

The Ender holding me down squeezed again and I rolled my head back to stare up at him. His red hair was lighter than the others’ from the Pit, almost a blond if not for the distinct red undertones. “Think you can ease up?”

He grinned at me and I was reminded of Eel, an Undine I’d faced in the Deep who had a penchant for hurting people. “Nah, I like you on your knees in front of me, little Terraling. You look good down there.”

I tried to pull away but he bore down and the world darkened for a moment as the pain consumed my consciousness.

There was screaming and yelling and I struggled to lift my head because even that movement tweaked the tendons and ligaments I’d torn. Coal picked up Fern and carried her out of the way. His eyes met mine in a brief flash of green. “I’m sorry, Lark. I can’t save you.”

I let out a breath. “You never could. This isn’t anything new.”

His face hardened, and behind me, the Ender laughed. “Oh, a spunky one. I hope your trial goes for weeks. You know, I’m one of the guards from the dungeons. I’ll be taking care of you. Personally.”

How was I not surprised?

Things seemed to slow for a moment, and the sound of my heart hammered in my ears as the leather clad Enders parted. My father walked toward us, but I had no hope in him saving us. I’d lost faith in him a long time ago.

“I wish to have a word with my Enders before they go to their punishment,” he said, his normally rich voice holding a distinct tremor to it. Maggie grunted.

“If you try to free them, we will not stand for it.”

He waved her off as if she were a buzzing gnat, and stopped in front of me. Slowly he dropped to a crouch so we were eye to eye.

“Your Majesty.” I bowed my head.

“Ender Larkspur. I have tried to save you from yourself, but you seem inclined to find trouble wherever you go.” Around us, the Enders shifted their feet, and one even laughed.

My father drew a breath and the sound of the air in his lungs was a wet rattle. “The mother goddess has commanded you face your destiny in the Pit without interference from me. She has a task for you there, a life to save.”

I raised my head and really looked at him as the finality of his words settled on me. His skin was pale under the perpetual tan and his eyes seemed fogged over; even his clothes hung on his frame. My heart lurched. Had one of the lung burrowers somehow been missed?

As softly as I could, I spoke. “Are you ill?”

He bowed his head so our foreheads touched and his words were for my ears alone. “I believe I am dying, Larkspur. There is no cure in this world for what ails me. I do not know why Fiametta sent her Enders for you, as she swore she held no grudge against you or Ash.”

He lifted a trembling hand and cupped the back of my head, holding us tightly together. “Child, be strong, and know that I sorrow for the wrongs done to you, for the first time I see them clearly. I am grateful this illness has come upon me; the fever has wiped away the lies Cassava built in my mind. I will see you when we both walk the far side of the Veil, though I will pray you will not make that journey for a thousand years.”

Throat tightening, I couldn’t speak past the growing lump. Tears tracked my cheeks as he stood and made his way to Ash.

“You have one duty left to you, Ender.” He touched Ash on the shoulder. “You know what it is.”

Ash’s jaw ticked and he gave a slow nod. “It will be done.”

The king’s hand fell from Ash’s shoulder and Fern ran to him. “You have to stop them.”

He didn’t stop walking, but his words reached me still. “I have done all I can. They must face this alone.”

The Enders closed ranks as my father disappeared, Fern clutching at him and Coal following. If nothing else, I would at least be able to say they tried to save us.

Ash lurched forward, and the Enders all focused on him as he grappled with Match. The Ender behind me did nothing but drive his fingers deeper into my shoulder socket.

“You aren’t going anywhere, Terraling. At least, not anywhere you want to be.”

The scuffle in front of us died down and the Ender’s hand on me tightened right before a flash of black caught the corner of my eye and a club smashed into my skull sending me into oblivion.

The queen’s chamber was dark, but that didn’t matter. The person whose memories I saw was able to move around with an easy stealth, avoiding the furniture and knickknacks that would give his—and I was sure it was a man’s memories I saw—movements away.

“Damn, woman,” he growled, “where the hell did you hide it?”

He scoured the room that I could only see in glimpses. It was built in the shape of an octagon, the sides a smooth black stone reminiscent of the clubs the Enders from the Pit used. A bed lay in the middle of the room, spires of black rock curling upward as the four posts and a sheer material that sparkled even in the darkness, draped between them, woven like a spider’s web. If I could have shivered, I would have but trapped in someone else’s memories left me no ability to move.

“Here we go,” he bent near the bed and moved as if to shimmy under it when the sound of sheets sliding about snapped his head up. Peering over the edge of the bed, he stared at his queen. Her red hair was the color of fresh blood, which only accentuated the pale creamy tones of her skin and the deep blue of her eyes. An unusual color in the fire elemental bloodlines. She sat up, the sheet slipping down and pooling around her waist, baring her breasts to the warm air.

“What are you doing in my chambers, Ender?”

He swallowed. “My queen, I wish only to serve you.” She could fry his ass in an instant and they both knew it. Her ability with lava was unheard of in all the records of their people. For her, the lava was alive, like a beast she’d tamed and would do her bidding even so far as to defy the laws of nature.

There was only one way he might be able to get out of this alive. As renowned as her ability with the lava was her insatiable libido. “I would serve you in whatever manner you desire of me.” His voice turned husky and he made a bold move, sliding his hand across the sheets to brush his fingers against her bare skin. The top of his hand was scarred, an old wound that hadn’t healed cleanly. Four jagged lines that drew down from between his fingers to the base of his wrist.

She arched an eyebrow. “Whatever manner I desire?”

He bowed his head, breathing in the smell of her sheets, wondering if it would be the last thing he ever saw. “My queen, I am yours to command.”

Her fingers dug into his hair and pulled him toward her. “Then pleasure me, Ender. For it has been years since a man was bold enough to brave my chamber without an invitation.”

He dipped his head taking her mouth in his own as he pressed her to the bed. So he hadn’t found what he was looking for, and his mentor would not be happy, but this was better. With easy access to the queen’s chamber, he wouldn’t be forced to sneak around. He could get all the information his mentor needed, and together they would take Fiametta down. If he got to ride the queen before she was toppled, all the better. She’d never suspect him.

Slipping out of his black leathers he slid under the covers with the queen, his mouth and hands everywhere bringing her to her peak in a matter of minutes—

I let out a groan as I slipped out of the memory, the lingering lust the memories stirred clinging to me. As a half-breed, the child of Spirit side allowed me to see into other people’s memories when we Traveled together. So even though the memory wasn’t a surprise, I still was left disoriented.

A quick glance around showed that except for Ash, Match, and one other Ender who was a woman, we were alone. Whoever’s memories I’d seen had already left the Traveling room so I had no clue who he was.

Undertones of perfumed cherry blossoms tugged at me and I slowly sat up. Back in the Traveling room in the Pit was not a place I had ever wanted to be again. The walls were rounded, as if we sat inside of the world and looked out from the center. If only I could get my hands on a single armband, I’d be able to get both Ash and me out. I glanced around the room, but there wasn’t a band to be had. Damn it.

“They’ve been moved since the last time you were here, Terraling.” The nearly blond Ender swung through the doors and into the room. “So don’t think you’ll be getting one and skipping out. You have an appointment to keep.”

An appointment. Nice way of saying I had an execution hanging over my head and Ash’s. And that didn’t even take into account my shoulder that was pulled apart, or the memories of what I suspected where a traitor to Fiametta swimming around my head.

atch pushed Ash ahead of me through the maze that was the Pit. My new friend who seemed to like causing me pain dragged me along behind.