Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (12 page)

he door in the mountain chasm the Yeti led me to opened slowly to reveal a glowing tunnel behind it and the sound of a fire crackling and two voices conversing. I glanced at Billy, but he backed away.

“If you’re going to go, I suggest you go quickly.”

Feeling like I was making a mistake, while at the same time realizing I didn’t know where else to start, I stepped through the archway. The door slammed shut behind me, locking if the metal click was any indication. I reached back and tried to open the door.

Locked indeed. Damn it.

There was a laugh from down the tunnel and then a male voice, husky with age, spoke. “Well, now that he’s here we can discuss this properly, Niah.”

Niah? That couldn’t be right. There was no way she could be here—she was in the Rim. Wasn’t she?

I hurried forward, not sure if I was hearing things right or not. Niah was our family’s bard and sometime magic woman from the Rim. A Terraling like me. What in the name of the mother goddess was she doing here deep in the Himalayan Mountains?

The end of the hall opened into a large circular room with a high ceiling and smooth polished walls.

But that wasn’t what kept my attention. In the center of the room, laden with food and drink, was a large, Yeti-sized table. On either side of the table were two people. One was a Yeti I assumed was Miko, and on the other sat Niah. She looked like a child at the adult’s table. Even her bear shifter, who sat quietly at her feet, looked small. She glanced at me and smiled. “Ash, good, I see Norm found you. That was rather tight timing, you know.”

Confusion rocked through me. “Wait, you sent him? How did you know I would be here? How did you know there would be an avalanche?”

“Well,” she put a spoon into a steaming cup and stirred, making the spoon clink on the edge of the cup, “to be fair, Miko sent him. But I asked him too since I knew you were going to need help out of that avalanche.”

I found my legs finally giving out and I dropped slowly to the floor. Too much, this was too much in a short period of time even for me. “But how did you know?”

Miko grinned at me. Built like the other Yeti, the only difference was his fur was tinged gray, shot through with flecks of silver, and his eyes were brilliantly yellow and glowed like fireflies in the dim light. They were not gold like mine, but a true yellow like the center of a daisy. “Yeah, yeah, sit down, kid. We’ve got lots to discuss.”

Kid, I hadn’t been called that in almost a hundred and fifty years. But I sat on the floor, letting the heat of the warm room wash through me and take away the last of the cold and fear for the moment.

“Niah, Cassava is alive, and she’s got Peta.”

“Yes, I know. I told her you would be here looking for her.”

My jaw dropped and all I could do was stare at her. “Why, why would you do that? And how the hell did you know I would be here? I told no one!”

I couldn’t remain seated. I shot to my feet and glared at the old woman. Lark had thought of her as a friend. What had happened?

The air around Niah shimmered. For just a moment her eyes were not her own, and I thought I saw someone behind them. A man I did not know. Dark hair was the only strong image I got. But in an instant it was gone and I saw Niah as she was again.

She leaned back in her chair and took a sip of her tea. “Lark needs to break out of the banishment she’s been handed. You will go to her and tell her that Cassava has Peta. That will push her.”

Miko nodded. “I agree. Cassava is a real trouble-making bitch. I’d like to see her handed a cream pie in the face.”

Niah smiled over her cup of tea. “Do you see, Ash? Lark won’t fight for herself. That is a problem. But we can use it to help her out of her banishment.”

The words made sense. I could see what Niah was trying to do. But it felt wrong. It felt . . . like something Cassava would do. I shook my head. Lark was safe for the moment, and I wanted to keep it that way. I wanted her banishment to be lifted, I wanted her father to see she was the one who would help us stop the madness our world kept facing.

If Niah—and subsequently I—manipulated Lark by letting Peta be taken, Lark would never forgive me. Rightfully so. Peta was my friend as much as she was Lark’s familiar.

“No, I will go after Cassava.”

Niah’s lips pursed. “Ash, don’t be a fool. You aren’t strong enough. You’ll end up getting killed and we can’t have that.” I could almost hear an unspoken addition of . . . not yet. But no, Niah wouldn’t want me dead. Would she?

I snorted. “That line might work on someone else, but not me. I am an Ender. I have trained my whole life to take down elementals who have gone mad. I can take Cassava. She is weak without the pink diamond allowing her to control Spirit.”

Niah’s eyes hardened and again the air around her shimmered. “She is not the only one who can control Spirit, Ash. You’d best remember that you have no protection against that.”

The words echoed in the air between the three of us. I slowly backed away. “Unless you can help me, I will take my leave.”

Miko tsked softly. “He’s protecting the one he loves, Niah. I’m going to help him. I love a good love story, almost as much as a prank.”

She slammed her cup on the table. “And if it means the world is lost? Love is not enough; we have to be smart, smarter than those we face!” Her words were edged like a sword, hard and not like her at all.

The Yeti shrugged. “Perhaps you are wrong. He wants to save a friend and protect the girl he loves. Nothing wrong with that, as far as I can see, and I am a mage, you know.” His bright yellow eyes swung my way. “Look for the disturbance in the weather in the earth. Cassava is not stable, and so where she sets her roots, the elements will tremble and buck against her presence.”

That information was more than I could have hoped for. I nodded. “Thank you.”

Niah’s lips were pursed tightly. “You are screwing this all up, Ash.”

I glared at her. “Then I’ll screw it all up and be glad I at least did was I knew was right.”

Miko nodded in agreement. “Good man. One other thing. Take Norm with you.”

I grimaced. “I can’t, this isn’t a game. It’s not some prank.”

Miko pointed a thick finger at me. “You can and you will. I see great things for him still, but not if he stays here. You take him. Help him find his place again in this world.”

What was I supposed to say to that? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Damn it. I backed out and headed toward the door, fuming. I couldn’t take the big dumb Yeti with me. He wasn’t exactly inconspicuous and it wasn’t like he had even a clue of what was going on the world. And what in the seven hells was wrong with Niah?

She was not acting like herself, not one bit, and I didn’t like it. Could she have been influenced by Spirit somehow? And she’d never answered my questions about how she knew where I was going. We’d just kind of skipped over that.

I opened the now-unlocked door and stepped back onto the edge of the pathway. Billy was the only Yeti waiting for me. His eyes flicked over me as if looking for an injury or something. “You leaving already?”

“Yes.” I gave him a nod and started back up the steep path that would take me to where Norm waited. As I came around the last curve in the path, Billy caught up to me.

“What did Miko say to you?”

I wasn’t going to tell him everything, but I was sure at least a part of my instructions would make Billy happy. “I have to take Norm with me.”

A big hand settled on my arm and spun me around. “No.”

“You just told me he was mine to watch over?” I pointed out.

“No, that was different.”

I didn’t see the difference myself, but I wasn’t going to argue with a Yeti.

We were nose to nose, but I’d been in worse situations. I put my hands out to the side, well away from my weapons.

“It’s not my idea of a good time either, but I don’t think I have a choice.” I kept my words even, feeling the tension rolling off Billy. No matter that they’d cast Norm out; it was more than obvious that he wasn’t thrilled I was taking the injured Yeti farther away. “You want to tell Miko you disagree with him? Fine by me. I’ll wait.”

His hand flexed over my arm and while I didn’t think it possible, he leaned further into me so that our noses were pushed hard against one another. “Norm is my little brother. You better bring him back.”

I didn’t say anything, didn’t make a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. Besides, I could have pointed out that if he’d been at all worried, he could have stopped Norm from being cast out.

As we approached the flat landing where Norm waited, Billy backed off. He stopped about ten feet down the slope and I continued on alone. Norm was at the top, sitting on the mountain. “Hey, friend. Did Miko give you a good prank?”

I burst out laughing, couldn’t help it when I thought about it in that context. “Shit, he did. Pulled the rug right out from under me.” I’d not seen Miko’s words coming at all.

Norm laughed with me. “Oh, I would have liked to see that! You fell down good then, I bet.”

I shook my head. “Miko said you should come with me. That I have a big . . . prank, and you can help me with it. But it means going away from the mountains here. And I don’t know when you’ll be able to come back.” I didn’t want to add
if ever,
because we were going after Cassava and I didn’t know if Norm would survive an encounter with her.

Norm’s eyes widened. “An adventure prank? Those are the
best
! Miko likes me, you know. I’m one of his grandsons.”

Suddenly Miko’s desire that I help Norm made even more sense. “Well, we have to go.” Though I had no idea how I was getting Norm through the world with me.

Because it was to the human world I was headed, the one place I knew I could find the information I needed about weather patterns.

“Come on, Norm.”

I waved at him and he ran at me, scooping me up and throwing me onto his back once more. “I can go faster than you. Let’s go, friend!”

He bolted across the thin trails we’d traversed on our way to the mage, and for a few minutes I just hung on for my life. Traveling by Yeti back was something new to me, but I had to admit he was right. With his long legs and affinity for the snow, he covered ground like it was nothing.

“Go to where the avalanche was, Norm.”

He flung both hands up and changed direction mid-stride. I had to look, I had to see if there was anything there that would tell me Cassava was still here. Even though I knew she would be a fool to stay.

Norm slid to a stop, spraying out a fine sheet of snow and ice in an arc. “Here we are.”

I jumped from his back and scanned the ground. “Where did you see the snow leopard?”

Norm trudged over to a flattened area. “You know, this isn’t fun.”

“I know. It’s important, though.” I followed him, then put a hand on his belly, stopping his forward momentum.

The snow had been trampled down, but there was more than one set of feet. There were a few spots where I could pick out Peta’s paw prints, and Cassava’s smaller, more delicate feet. But there were two other sets of footprints. Both bigger than Cassava, and both distinctly their own.

One I knew well. I’d seen it for years tamped into the ground of the training room. “Granite, you piece of shit,” I growled.