Ash (The Elemental Series, Book 6) (7 page)

Ten minutes later, Peta was back in her snow leopard form . . . a whole cooked chicken dangling from her mouth. My mouth filled with saliva at the sight of that much meat. I wobbled to the cell door and she waited for me to take the bird before she shifted down to her gray and white housecat shape once more.

“Don’t stuff your guts or you’ll be puking it all back up,” she said.

I ripped off a leg and put it on the floor for her. “I know that, Peta. I’m not a pup. I’ve been starved before.”

Her ears perked up. “You have? When? How could you not have told me about that on our travels together?” I noted she made no mention of Lark. That was the reason we’d traveled together before, looking for her.

I tore into the chicken, making myself go slowly when all I wanted to do was swallow it down in delicious, heavenly chunks of roasted goodness. Speaking around the mouthfuls helped me to keep my pace steady.

“When I was first brought on as an Ender, my trainer thought we should understand what would happen if we were captured and tortured by another of the families.”

Peta nodded slowly, which shouldn’t have surprise
d
me. She was a hell of a lot older than she looked. “I remember those days. I didn’t realize you were around then.”

Around then was about two hundred years prior. Elementals aged rather well, and I was no exception. “I was young and determined, and I believed I could face anything and come out on top.”

“You mean you were cocky,” she snorted.

I smiled slowly. “That, too.”

I took another bite of the chicken and chewed it slowly. “I was placed into an oubliette with a flask of water and a loaf of bread and told I wouldn’t know when I was going to be brought out. My trainer, Sedge, said he would ask me one question when the oubliette was opened. ‘What is the name of your trainer?’ I wasn’t to give the answer at all costs.”

Peta watched me closely. “And what happened?”

I shrugged and pushed the chicken away from me. I was still hungry, but if I ate any more I’d lose it all. I leaned back against the cot and licked my fingers. “I think it had been three or four days from my last drop of water before they opened the oubliette. Sedge stood in front of me, and asked me what my trainer
’
s name was.”

“What did you tell him?”

I grinned. “Asshole.”

Peta flopped to her side laughing, kicking her feet out. I grinned at her. “He laughed, too, and promptly shut the oubliette on me.”

That stopped her laughter. She sat up, a frown etched into her brow. “He didn’t let you out?”

“No. Another day and he tried again. I gave the same answer. Went on for maybe four or five days. Then . . . I couldn’t answer anymore, or maybe more accurately, I don’t even recall what happened. Not really. They told me later.”

“They pulled you out then?”

I nodded slowly. “Yes, but I was raving by all accounts.”

We were quiet a moment. Peta padded over to me and sat at my side. She flicked one ear my way. “That is why when we found Lark in the oubliette after so long, you were so . . .”

I nodded again. “Yes, that’s why I was so careful with her when she came out of the oubliette. I remember the pain of being imprisoned all too well, even though it happened a long time ago. And my punishment was nothing to hers. She was in there for years; mine was only weeks.”

Secretly I wondered if Raven had somehow dug up my records, if he knew of the fear I had of being imprisoned, or if he’d just guessed.

Easy enough to guess I was claustrophobic when most elementals feared banishment or the dungeons as much or more than being killed. Being cut off from our power was akin to being confined to being human.

A fate worse than death.

Over the next few days, Peta continued to bring me large quantities of food, varying it so I received some of everything. Fruit, breads, cheese, bags of nuts, and of course, more meat. She even snagged me a bottle of wine, which we shared into the late hours.

That had ended the night quickly as she grew morose, speaking of Lark as tears trickled over her fur. As much as I missed Lark, and wished we were together, getting soppy wasn’t going to help her or me.

Peta’s efforts to fatten me up worked, faster than I could have hoped. Within a week, my belly was no longer concave, and my energy slowly began to rise. Though I slept a lot, and Peta stayed close, I knew it was just a matter of time. Something I had a lot of.

Her timing could not have been more perfect as
,
within a few days of her arrival, I was no longer being brought food or water. Without her, I would have wasted away in the most literal of senses. Peta saved me, as she’d saved Lark so many times.

Days swiftly turned into weeks, and through it all, I didn’t speak to Peta of my plan. Because I knew I would have to convince her to help me, and I knew I didn’t have the words quite right.

But I waited too long, and my chance to bend her ear to mine slipped from me.

It was the morning of the start of the third week that Peta had been with me and I was in the middle of a side plank. With my weight balanced on one hand and foot, I stretched the other hand as though I would touch the ceiling.

Peta, ever helpful that she was, had perched herself on the palm of my upraised hand.

“You’d better not drop me.”

“Never,” I breathed out as I worked to keep my body completely still, engaging every muscle to hold both Peta and me in place.

The sound of footsteps snapped both our heads around to the front of the cell. I spun and caught Peta in my arms as she dropped.

“Hide.” I let her go and she scooted under the bed. I sat on the edge of it so she could stay out of sight behind my legs. Not much of a hiding place, but it was all I had.

Dreg thumped down the stairs, not even bothering to be quiet. His eyes were on his key ring as he approached the door. “Damn waste killing you, if you ask me. Big damn waste.”

Shit.

“Who is trying to kill me?” I asked. Dreg’s head jerked up, his eyes flying open wide. He stumbled back from the cell, his one hand going to the sword at his side. That did not bode well for him. Because if he opened that door and drew his weapon on me, I was going to kill him without blinking. No longer were the Enders of the Rim on my side, and I had no qualms about finishing any of them off.

His hand wavered at his side. “How are you still alive, Ash?”

I shrugged. “Tougher than I look, I guess.”

Dreg scratched the back of his head. “Look, I respect you, always have, but I had no choice in what happened here. You know we have to go by the orders.”

“Spit it out,” I barked the words at him, and he complied.

“The king said to starve you, and if that didn’t work he’d bring you out and make an example of you. He’s going to pit you against all the remaining Enders.”

I nodded. “Good. Then let’s have at it.”

Dreg shook his head. “Even you aren’t strong enough to take us all. Not after being starved.”

I shrugged, wondering at Dreg’s intelligence, not for the first time. Was it not obvious to him that I had not been starved? That I had in fact been fed quite well for the last couple of weeks at least? Elementals weren’t like humans in that department. Starved, yes. But we bounced back like nothing else in the supernatural or elemental world. We were designed to survive.

My lips twitched, even though I didn’t say the words out loud. “Dreg, tell them I’m ready to face the Enders if that is my punishment. I will take it gladly.”

He backed away. “I’m sorry, Ash.”

“I’m not. And if you’re smart, you’ll stay the hell away from the fight.”

He shook his head as he backed up. “I won’t have a choice. None of us do.”

Dreg all but ran from the cell block and up the stairs. Peta peeked out from around my legs and looked up at me. “You think this is a good idea.”

“It’ll get me out of this goddess forsaken cell, and allow me a chance to . . .” I was about to say
kill the king
, but I wasn’t sure if I’d get that chance. I didn’t know if Raven would be there, if he would try and stop me.

“I’ll fight them, and try not to kill them all. Then we’ll make a break for it.”

“Shazer isn’t here.”

That was a surprise. I’d just assumed he’d stuck around. “Where is he?”

“I don’t know. He dropped me off on the outskirts of the Rim and said he had something to do.”

So Shazer wasn’t going to be much of a help then. “We run, Peta.”

“I’m fighting at your side,” she said.

“No, you’re not. Lark would kill me if I let anything happen to you.” I rolled my shoulders as I focused on loosening my muscles, getting them ready to move at top speed.

“And you think she would do less to me if I let you die when I could have saved you? You are a fool. I had thought better of you, but apparently, you are as dumb as the rest of the men in her life.” She took a swat at me with a paw and I dodged her claws. But just barely.

I held up both hands. “Peta, I would welcome your help, but you are not my familiar. That alone precludes you from the fight, and we both know it.”

She slumped with that. “Damn.”

“Yes, rather.” I wasn’t stupid. Having Peta at my side in a fight would give me the leg up I needed, but there was no way the king would allow it. I knew it and so did Peta.

I stood in the center of the cell, waiting. I knew the drill of what was about to go down, seeing as I had set up the protocol. I’d spent a lot of years as second-in-command for the Enders and as such had done a great deal of the grunt work. Part of that grunt work had entailed contemplating all possible scenarios when dealing with prisoners—those who would be banished, and those who would be executed.

I was the one who designed the program on how Enders and Rim guards would respond in all the different situations. Funny enough, I never thought I would actually see the scenario roll out where there was an
Ender
in the cells being brought before the king. Certainly I’d never thought it would be me in the dungeon.

“Peta, three Enders will be sent to escort me to face the king in the common field where judgment will be held.”

“Where?”

“The same open field where Cassava spelled the Terralings while the lung burrowers ripped through our family.”

She blew out a big breath. “I remember Lark pointing that out to me. It’s at the far end near the planting fields.”

I nodded. “From there, I will either be executed, banished, or otherwise punished. I highly doubt that ‘otherwise’ is even remotely possible. So expect that I’m going to be executed or banished.”

She looked up at me. “Or maybe both.”

I grimaced. “Maybe both.”

“And you have a plan, right?” Her one eyebrow flicked upward as if she knew the truth. I had no plan. I had no idea that this scenario was even a possibility. She rolled her eyes. “No plan. Really?”

I shrugged. “Let me think. All your nagging is doing is distracting me.”

She let out a hiss, but there was no real heat to it. We’d been together long enough that we both knew there was nothing behind the sound.

The problem was, my plan came to me as the sound of heavy thumping feet clattered down the stone steps.

“Peta, hide and follow us up after.”

She ducked under the bed without argument, and crouched in the shadows of the small cot. I turned away from her and faced the cell door. The Enders approached in a line, three abreast. Dreg, Elk, and Blossom. The two men had stony faces, but Blossom’s skin was red and blotchy as if she’d been crying. She wouldn’t look at me, but she still did her job for this protocol, which was to step to the side of the cell door and hold it open wide with one hand, while she kept her short sword out in the other.

She had heart, Blossom did, I would give her that.

Dreg and Elk stepped into the cell and moved to either side of me, their weapons out and pointed. Elk was on my left, sword leveled at me, and Dreg had a crossbow held at the ready, his finger on the trigger.

I didn’t move, just sat on the edge of my cot, waiting for them to say something. If I so much as twitched, I had no doubt Dreg would let loose the crossbow bolt on me. And while elementals are tough as steel, a crossbow bolt to the head would be the end of my story.

“Ash, you are to be brought before our king. Will you do so peacefully?” Dreg asked.

I looked up at him but otherwise kept still. “And if I do? What is to be my sentence?”

Blossom let a sob escape her before she pulled her emotions back under control and she spoke through her tears. “Banishment, cut off from the mother goddess, then immediate execution.”

Dreg shot her a dirty look, taking his eyes off me, breaking protocol. This was my shot. I grabbed the tip of the crossbow and jerked it forward, pointing it at Elk as Dreg belatedly scrambled to stop me. The weapon went off and the bolt slammed into Elk’s left shoulder. He dropped his sword, his fingers going slack.

“Take him down!” Elk roared as he fought to pull the bolt out of his joint.