03] ES) Firestorm (24 page)

Her lips quirked upward at the edges and she crouched beside me, her knees tightly together as she leaned over them toward me. “Child, there are rules that define this world, rules even for one such as myself. My consort flaunts the rules as he tries to influence things,” she reached out and touched the griffin tooth hanging from my neck, “and one day he will suffer for it. Remember this, if you remember nothing else. The rules set in place are to protect you, to keep you safe and your soul intact.”

I couldn’t stop the sigh that slipped out. “So long story short, you mean you can’t stop Fiametta?”

“That is correct. Rules and free will, they are a juxtaposition that has existed from the beginning of time.” She stood in a single smooth motion that made it seem as if she’d never been crouched beside me. “Save the firewyrms, Larkspur. That is what I want of you, and in doing so, you will save many lives.”

The mother goddess put her hands on my back, a soft breath escaping her that sounded like a whisper of pain. “You should not have been punished, but I cannot turn back time. We all make mistakes, Larkspur. Even I have.” Her fingers trailed the deep pits and ruts of the wounds and I could see the terrain as though I looked at a painting. My back was all but destroyed, muscles and ligaments burned apart, my spine peeking through in places, exposed to the open air. The man in the cloak, Blackbird, though I doubted that was his true name, may have healed me, but as he’d said, he could not put back what was no longer there.

Her fingers felt like a butterfly dancing across my skin. “Save the firewyrms, and I will make this right.”

My jaw dropped and again anger curled upward like a creeping vine that no matter how you dug, you never truly got all the roots. They always found purchase somewhere else.

“Heal me first,” I said, not dropping my eyes.

The mother goddess stared at me, her eyes emotionless, but her tone held more than a little anger. “This is not a negotiation, child.”

“I believe it is. Who else have you got within the Pit with the strength to possibly stop Fiametta?” A small part of me struggled to understand why I was fighting her on this.

The mother goddess took a step back. “You are walking a fine line between obedience and outright defiance. That is not a line you can balance for long and you will have to decide if you are truly one of my children, or one of the banished.”

The threat was clear. Do as she wanted or be cast out to die alone. I bowed my head, but said nothing.

Sleep rolled over me in a wave, dragging me down into the place of dreams and nightmares. The mother goddess was gone and I found myself on my knees again, reliving the fire whip as it seared through my back. I jerked awake and a hand rubbed through the back of my hair. “Easy, Lark. It’s over.”

Ash’s voice soothed the fear and I lowered my head to the bed once more. One of his arms encircled my waist and he pulled me against him. The warmth radiating from his body into mine eased the aches and residual tension my muscles held.

I rolled in his arms and buried my face against his neck, breathing him in. A soft, furred body curled up at the back of my neck. Peta dropped her head into the crook of my neck. “Sleep, Lark. Sleep and in the morning we will leave.”

But would I leave? Or would I do as the mother goddess commanded? My thoughts jumbled together; my body twitching and jerking as I fell into a fitful sleep. Disobeying her would mean I was leaving the firewyrms to fight on their own. Scar’s eyes floated through my mind, the soft glimmer of amethyst.

The morning came soon enough, the light shimmering through the reflective tunnels above bringing me out of my stupor. Voices drifted to me, like dust motes floating in the air. Smoke’s voice was the same husky pitch but pain laced her words.

“I don’t care. Just . . .he can’t be gone. He can’t be. He was my baby.” A sob rippled out of her and I was up and moving before I could think better of it. Ash was beside me and threw a sheet around my body, but not before he gasped.

“Lark, your back.”

“I know it looks like worm tunnels and goose shit.”

“No, it’s not,” Ash said, his hand on my arm stopping me. The arm he held was the one burned. But the burn was completely gone and in its place a tattoo rested on my skin. A vine of deepest green with thorns of a dark purple curled over my muscles.

“Your back is more of the same,” he said.

The mother goddess had healed me after all. I closed my eyes and whispered my thanks to her.

Another cry from Smoke turned my attention back to the moment at hand.

I stumbled forward as my legs tried to buckle. How long was I out? I thought it was just a day, but the last time I’d felt like this, I’d been coming out of a week of trials with the mother goddess.

The main living area was lit with soft burning candles, their light flickering over the sober faces. Brand sat beside Smoke, holding her tightly as tears ran down his face. The two older boys, Stryker and his brother Cano stood against the far wall, their faces also wet with tears as their chests heaved.

Stryker stepped forward, “Mom, I didn’t know; none of us did.”

Brand stood as Smoke held a hand out to her oldest son, drawing him to her until she held him against her chest. “I know it’s not your fault. The mother goddess has turned her eyes away from our people.”

Her words shocked me and I had to bite down on the question that formed. Where was Tinder? The little boy with the sparkling eyes and the bright personality? The one with the questions that were never ending?

I gasped as the understanding hit me in the chest. The how of it didn’t really matter, but I knew . . . Tinder was gone. Brand’s eyes flicked to me, and there was no malice in them.

“You are free to go, Terralings. Fiametta has declared you are not to be stopped.” He dropped his eyes and tightened his hold on his wife. I stepped forward and went to my knees beside Smoke. She’d been kind to me, one of the few in the Pit who had.

“Smoke.”

Her eyes flicked to mine, the gray centers that so resembled her name were awash with tears. “It is not safe here for you, Lark.”

I shook my head. “It looks as though it is not safe for you either. How did it happen?”

“I said,” Brand grabbed my arm and hauled me up to my feet, “you are free to go. Isn’t that enough?”

I didn’t jerk away from him, but stepped into his guard. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”

Ash let out a soft groan. “This is going to be the Deep all over again.”

I cast a glare at Ash and he said nothing more. Brand tightened his grip on my arm, and for a moment the pressure reached the point where I thought I would have to back down as my tendons were squeezed over my forearm bones.

“We went to swim in the Pit,” Stryker said, breaking the silence. Brand let go of me, his hand falling to his side. Stryker stepped forward and circled his arms around his mother, holding her as much as she was holding him. Stryker’s young frame trembled from his jaw to his bobbing knee. “Tinder ran ahead of us and jumped into the Pit. He was fine, laughing and splashing. I swear it.”

I frowned, but said nothing. Someone must have struck at Tinder, someone had to have hurt him. Yet I struggled to see someone hurting a child, especially one as likeable as he.

An image of Bram being stolen from my arms hit me like a runaway bull and I sucked in a quiet breath. Logically I knew Cassava had no reason to attack Tinder. Even if I did have a soft spot for the little boy, what did it gain her? Nothing was the simple answer, yet I couldn’t help but want to blame her for another death. It took all I had to remain quiet and let Stryker speak when he was ready.

His eyes were distant as if he were seeing something only he could see. A shiver ran lightly through his body.

“I almost jumped in. I stopped at the edge and yelled down to him and he looked up at me, a funny expression on his face and then he just . . . the lava
burned
him like he wasn’t a Salamander, so fast, like he was nothing and then he was sucked down and gone. Like he was never there. He didn’t even have time to cry out, it was so fast. There were other kids, same thing happened. Seven or eight of them, just . . . gone.” Stryker dropped his head as a sob rippled out of him.

Smoke stroked his hair with one hand, whispering a song to him, the words inaudible but the tune soothing, even to me.

I put a hand over my eyes, seeing all too easily little Tinder sucked down under a wave of lava. Saw his eyes full of pain and confusion, of all the years he could have had, stolen from him.

Like Bram.

“Take me to Fiametta,” I said, not bothering to hide the thickness of my words, the way tears clogged my throat. I would stay, because I couldn’t leave when children were being killed. Whatever I could do, I would.

“You can’t do anything, Lark.” Brand shook his head. “No one can.”

I slowly straightened my spine to my full height, softening my words at the last moment. He’d lost his son, the least I could do was remember the pain of that loss. “Are you sure?”

We stared at each other, and maybe there would have been more said. But that chance would never come.

Footsteps pounded toward us, a staccato that didn’t sound good. An Ender, young and new to the title by the looks of the acne on his face, stuck his head in the door. His words were gasped, out of breath as he was.

“The lava is flowing.”

Brand snorted. “It always is.”

The young Ender shook his head. “No, it’s out of control.”

Brand stood and strode toward him. “Fiametta will deal with—”

The kid shook his head again, harder and it was then I saw the fear stamped on his face. “No, that’s just it. The lava is wild, and even the queen can’t stop it.”

A collective breath was drawn in and held within the room. I may not have been a Salamander, but even I knew news couldn’t get much worse.

The funny thing about assumptions is when you are proven wrong, it’s amazing just how very wrong you can be.

rand led the way, running out of the house, his hands going to his weapons. “All of you stay inside!”

I leapt after him ignoring the fact I was wearing nothing more than a silk sheet; there was no way I was going to sit inside and wait for a river of lava to roll over me. Outside their home, the steady growing noise I’d been hearing became clear. The lava flowed over the banks of the river, rushing with a speed that seemed to pick up even as I stared at it.

“Pigeon balls,” I whispered to myself. The heat had at least tripled just in stepping outside of the walls. All my thoughts of staying and helping, of bringing Fiametta to justice for the deaths of the firewyrms was swept away with the reality of our situation. “We have to get out of here.”

Ash put a hand on me. “We have to get to the Traveling room. That’s our only way out.”

I nodded and Peta butted her head against my leg. “Lark, look at the lava.”

I did as she asked as an Ender stepped toward the flowing red death, letting it wrap around his legs as if it were water.

Except that it wasn’t water; not even for him. He screamed as the lower half of his body sunk, dissolving as we watched. Someone gasped, it might have been Smoke, but it might have been me too. The Ender writhed and struggled as he slowly died, his upper body twitching as the lava slipped up over his waist, his head dropping so his chin rested on his chest and then his whole body lit on fire.