Windburn (The Elemental Series #4) (32 page)

“
hh, Ulani. My love, my heart. Help me,” he whispered. “I can no longer see clearly and my mind . . . it is not my own. I fear what will happen to Lark if I do not write this now.” Basileus put both hands on the rough wooden writing desk and lowered his head to the blank piece of paper.

The scent of eucalyptus curled through the room as Fern stepped through the door. Her belly bulged with their child and she cradled it gently. “Basil, what are you still doing up?”

“I am working, Fern.” He softened his voice. “Go to bed, I will be there soon.”

She smiled and ran a hand over his shoulders, her touch soothing some of the fear in him. Ulani’s spirit had been right, Fern had been a good choice. “Come to bed soon, the sickness has only left you. I don’t want it to come back.”

He nodded and kissed her hand where it lay on his shoulder. “Of course. You are right.”

Still smiling, she turned and left the way she’d come in. He waited until he heard the telltale creak of their bed as she lay down.

Picking up the feather to his right, he dipped it into the inkwell and put the tip to the paper.

Dear Larkspur,

The sickness you saw me carry was not a sickness of the body, but of the mind. It was as if Cassava had planted a booby trap in me, and when she could no longer manipulate my actions, she set it off.

I do not know how long I will have where my mind is fully functioning. I pray this will pass, but I fear it never will. I fear the damage done is irrevocable.

He paused and dipped the pen again, the sound of the tip scratching on the thick paper the only noise in the room.

I loved your mother, more than any other woman in my life. You need to know that. I knew she was a child of Spirit. I knew she would give me half-breed children. I didn’t care; I wanted both you and your brother. I loved you and your brother for everything you were. Beautiful, sweet babies who were mine in a way Cassava would not allow me with my other children. I tell you this because I remember the things I have done. The words I have said, and I see how they have torn at you. How they have broken you, and it pains me beyond all I can describe.

They were not my words, daughter. Never have I seen you as less than the rest of our family. You have always been the one I pinned my hopes on. Cassava believed Bramley was to be my heir, the one my throne would fall to.

But she does not know the truth.

You were the one, Larkspur. You were always the one with the fire in your heart, and the power in your soul. From the time you took your first breath, you were the warrior Fate decreed would change our world.

I name you as my heir, Larkspur. Should I fall, or should my mind break, you will be the one to see our family through. There is none other who can do this; the mother goddess has made it clear you are the choice for the Rim.

I love you, daughter. No matter what happens, know my love for you is true. You have always been the one I loved the best. The one I pinned all my hopes on.

Again he paused and dipped the feather, but this time he stopped with the tip hanging over the paper. The black liquid dripped off the tip, leaving a blob on the bottom of the page that spread in a shape he knew all too well.

The raven’s wings spread wide across the page, and he shook his head. “No. I must finish this. Blackbird, be gone from my mind!”

I wobbled, even though I was on one knee in the Traveling room within the Rim. The memory would have brought me to my knees if I hadn’t already been there. Claws dug into my leg. I turned my attention to my familiar. “Peta, did you see—”

“No. I felt things that were not you.”

“What are you two talking about?” my father demanded.

The doors burst open and several guards poured in.

Everything jumbled together. The journey, the destruction of the Eyrie, the death of Aria, my father’s memory, the oubliette. I slumped forward to my knees.

“Father, Vetch tried to kill Bella and me. The guards
will
corroborate,” I said.
The guards nodded one by one.

“Why would your brother try to kill you?” His eyes were filled with confusion.

“Because he thought he was the named heir. Because Cassava set him on us.” Slowly I pushed myself to my feet, though I was anything but steady. “I need to rest. You need to name an heir.”

I walked out of the Traveling room, Peta right with me at my side.

One of the guards, Arbutus, caught up to me. “I will see you to your room, Princess.”

I snorted. “Where is Raven?”

“Gone, missing for the last week.”

“And Blackbird?”

Arbutus shrugged. “I don’t know who that is, but none with the name has been here.”

I stopped. “I need a message sent to Bella and Ash. Tell them the queen is dead. And give Bella this.” I took the small leather pouch from my side and turned my back to Arbutus. I pulled the emerald stone from my vest and dropped it into the bag. It was the best I could do with what I had at hand.

I gave it over to Arbutus.

He bobbed his head and turned back the way we’d come. “I’ll take the message myself.”

I should have been happy, but the truth was, I knew Blackbird was far from done. Likely he was licking his wounds and preparing some new trap for me. Then there was my father’s memory I’d seen. It tore me up from the inside out. Knowing he
knew
he was losing his mind to the damage Cassava had done.

We reached my room and I slipped inside, closing the door behind me.

I’d lost my father, just as I’d found him within his memories. A rough tongue flicked over my cheek, swiping away a tear. I dropped to the bed, then rolled my head so I could tuck my face against Peta.

“Lark, what did you see?”

Carefully I pieced the words together. “The letter, I’m sure it was the one he sent to me in the Pit. The one Blackbird took. He’ll have destroyed it by now.”

“Of course.” Peta stretched out further, yawning. “He’s not a fool.”

I closed my eyes, feeling like I was missing something. Something out of reach that if I could put my finger on everything else would make sense.

Peta was right, Blackbird was not a fool. I thought about the final thing my father had said. Even now, with Cassava and Blackbird gone, he couldn’t understand how destroyed our family was.

Dysfunction on a royal level.

“You need to sleep, Lark. Close your eyes.”

There was no use in arguing. Already the warmth of the bed, the comfort of Peta beside me, and the knowledge that my father was back where he was supposed to be, lulled me into dreamland.

Once there, my dreams were anything but restful. I saw Ash banished, Cactus whipped with the lava whip while Cassava shrieked with laughter, Peta skinned and her hide put on Samara’s back. None of the dreams made any sense.

The last was a dream I’d not seen for months. My mother and Bramley killed by Cassava. I held my mother in my arms, sobbing. Her dead eyes stared up at me, empty of soul, empty of anything that made her my mother except the brilliant blue color.

“You have failed me, Lark.”

I shot straight up in bed, panting for air, tears streaming down my face. I wanted to believe it was yet another game of the mother goddess . . . but I couldn’t be sure. And that doubt hurt me as much as the thought of failing her. I pressed a hand to my eyes and struggled to control my emotions, but the heart pain would not leave me.

Peta slept soundly as I dressed and slipped out of the room into the hall. The night beckoned to me as I walked out of the barracks. The pull of the dark was a visceral sensation that tugged my feet forward until I stood in the center of the blasted field, where everything lay dead around me. Slowly, finally, the dream faded.

My ears caught the shuffle of cloth on cloth, and the faintest snap of a twig underfoot. I held my ground, even as my body tensed. I called the power of the earth to me and held it tightly.

“Blackbird, I’m surprised you would show your face.” I kept my back to him.

“Lark, please. Call me Raven.”

“You are not my brother.” I turned then to stare at him. He wore his cloak, though it did not cover his face for the first time.

His face was drawn in lines of fury. “You think you killed her. You think you’re stronger than her?”

“Cassava?” I snorted. “She is nothing without the emerald stone.”

“Do not push me, Lark. I could kill you where you stand,” he snarled. Lies, they filtered through the air to me. He couldn’t reach the earth’s power here where the land was dead. I could. And I held the sapphire stone still. I had three elements to his four.

“Then why don’t you?” I took a step toward him and he moved back. “That’s what I thought. Even with all that power, you are a coward at heart. Every time we’ve faced each other, you’ve run. Any time you’ve been hurt, you flee with your tail tucked between your legs like the incestuous cur you are.” I stalked him with every word.

“I will rule the Rim, Lark. I will be named as the heir. Even now Father is writing a new will. Not this piece of dog shit.” He shook a piece of paper at me.

The note I’d seen my father writing in his memory. Blackbird truly was a fool to still be carrying it around. Or maybe . . . maybe he couldn’t believe what it said. That I was the one Father had loved the best.

“I have no desire to rule, Blackbird, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you take the throne.”

He held out his hand and red lines of power raced up his arm. With a snap of his fingers, fire burst up in a full circle around us.

“Then let us see who is truly stronger once and for all. Does your promise still stand? That you would never hurt me? Or are you a liar now too?”

My jaw ticked as I struggled for words. “A promise predicated on a lie is no promise. We end this now.”

A flickering figure to the right of us walked through the flames. The mother goddess glowed with power, her dark hair floating on an unseen and unfelt breeze.

“You are both my chosen ones. I forbid you to fight.”

I raised my eyebrows but did not take my eyes off Blackbird. “You are the reason he ran from the other fights, aren’t you?”

Blackbird sneered. “I am no coward. I am obedient. To both my mothers.” He gave her a bow from the waist.

I took a step back and drew in a breath. “I suppose that makes one of us, then.”

His eyes snapped to mine, glittering with a perverse pleasure. “You would fight me still?”

I twitched the fingers on my right hand and the trees pulled back around us. The fool didn’t notice. “I would do more than fight you. I will kill you.”

he trees at the edge of the blasted land shot forward, whistling through the air with the velocity of a hurricane. Blackbird dodged the first two, but got caught on one I’d pulled from behind him. I didn’t wait to see if he would get up. Bolting forward, I yanked my spear from my side and whipped it around.