03] ES) Firestorm (27 page)

he lava crept toward us and I faced it head on. “Blackbird, I know you hear me. I don’t care what your game is, but I want those children. All of them, both wyrm and Salamander.”

A low rumbling laugh filled the air and a dark figure approached us, walking along the top of the lava. The ring he wore obviously protected him from the heat as if he were a Salamander in truth. “Little Larkspur, you lied to me. You said you would leave and I would have Fia to myself. But here you are, standing between her and me. Shame on you.”

My jaw twitched. “You can have her for all I care, but you can’t be killing children. That I won’t stand for.”

“Well, good thing they’re tucked away then. I’d hate for you to be angry with me.” He stopped about twenty feet from us, right at the edge of the lava and leaned forward putting a hand to the side of his face. “The little ones, they will make perfect bargaining chips, you see?”

He lifted his other hand. “But you are in my way, I didn’t want to do this, but I
will
kill you and your friends.” The lava surged forward and I flung my hands up, the earth exploding in front of us. Below my feet the mountain trembled and I gave a soft apology as I drove a hole downward, tunneling as far as I could. The lava flowed into the hole, splashing at the edges.

Blackbird, if that was even really his name, tipped his head to one side. “Worked past your blocks, did you? Clever girl.”

He held his hands out and lines of green flowed up from his hands to his shoulders. So he really was connected to the earth as well. Spirit, earth, water and holding a ring that gave him a connection to fire. But I saw what he was going to do and I held my hands out above us, just stopping him.

The ceiling above us groaned and the weight of the mountain pushed down on me from above.

Cactus let out a low whisper. “Shit, he’s going to squash us like bugs.”

Peta trembled. “He is an abomination.”

Sweat dripped down my arms as I held the mountain back. Gravity was on the bastard’s side, though, and that tipped things in his favor. A sharp wind snapped through the cavern, throwing all four of us back against the rubble of the door. My concentration broke for a split second and the rocks began to fall in earnest.

I couldn’t think of anything to do other than to get farther away from the ceiling. “Hang on!” I yelled as I opened the earth below us, dropping us into a slide as I smoothed the ground around us turning it into a slope that allowed us to fall without freefalling. Above, the rocks tumbled, and a few slid down the slope with us. Pushing my power out ahead like a burrowing mole, I was able to keep us out of the worst of it.

Tumbling to a stop, I looked around, or tried to. We were in complete and utter darkness.

“Cactus?”

“I’m here,” he answered.

I tried to stand but ended up whacking my head. “Ash, talk to me.”

A low groan from my left turned me around. I scuttled forward, my hands finding Ash quickly. “Are you injured?”

“No, just banged up,” he said.

The walls around us rumbled and I froze, my hands tangling with Ash’s. Peta let out a meow, as she clung to my shoulder. “Lark, you truly are going to be the death of me aren’t you?”

I reached for my power, reveling in the fact I could hold it tightly even though our situation was rather dire.

Rock and dirt sprayed around us, and I could suddenly see. A white-scaled head curled toward me. Amethyst eyes glowed as he blew a low stream of fire from his nostrils to light our space. Cactus was covered in dirt, as was Ash. Peta looked actually, not too bad.

“Scar, how did you find us?”

“Heartbeats, I can find yours easily as it beats louder than any other. Come on, I can get you out of here,” he said and turned around, tunneling away from us. I scrambled after him. Cactus and Ash hollered at me to stop, to think about what I was doing.

Peta dropped off my shoulder and scooted ahead of me. “Do you really think you can trust him?”

“If he’d wanted to hurt me, he could have let me fall when I was thrown off that damn ledge.” I crawled as fast as I could on hands and knees, and still Scar was leaving me in the dust. The tunnel wasn’t completely dark as Scar blew fire ahead.

The light grew brighter as the tunnel widened, large enough I could stand. I waited for Cactus and Ash to catch up before moving forward.

What opened in front of me was nothing short of breathtaking. The cavern was shaped like a giant bowl with tunnels branching off in a myriad of places, but that wasn’t all that different from what the Salamanders had set up. It was the deep, pool of water in the middle of the bowl surrounded by plant life and small chirping birds I heard even from my position way above.

“This is amazing,” I whispered. Scar poked his head up over the ledge.

“Are you coming? My father wants me to lead you to the tunnel that will take you back into the lizard caves.”

I slipped over the edge, Peta leapt to my shoulder with a grunt, and I shimmied down the wall before Cactus or Ash had time to protest. I looked up to see them both staring down at me. They shared a glance between them. Ash shook his head and Cactus shrugged.

Peta’s tail flicked me in the face. “Pay attention to the wall you are climbing, not the men.”

I focused on where my hands and feet were going, placing them carefully until I felt the wall open up again. Using just my arms I carefully lowered myself the rest of the way and swung into the open hole.

Scar sat on his haunches, waiting for me. Cactus and Ash dropped in a few seconds later. The young firewyrm gave Cactus a sidelong glance. “You can only take your familiar with you. The others have to wait here.”

I put my hands on my hips. “Take her with me where? What are you talking about?”

Scar flicked his head over his shoulder, his tongue darting out and tasting the air. “This tunnel leads to the throne room where the cloaked ones are currently discussing how to wipe out all of us. They have the children deep in the dungeons.”

“Then why doesn’t your father go get them?” I asked, stepping up beside him.

“Because whenever we get close to the cloaked ones we lose our memory of what we do. That is why we’ve been attacking the Salamanders. We didn’t want to, they were making us.” Scar shook his head. “You are the only one who can go in, Spirit Walker. The males must stay here if they are to be safe; they could be forced to hurt you too.”

I translated quickly for the two men, relaying what Scar had said.

“No, we aren’t leaving her.” Cactus shook his head.

Ash nodded to me and said, “Understood.”

Cactus stared at him. “You would leave her to do this on her own?”

“She has to. What if the other Spirit Walker takes control of you, makes you fight her? What is she supposed to do then?” Ash shook his head. “I know all too well how hard it is to fight the compulsion, and the only way to break it is to be touching Lark physically. How do we fight when we can’t let go of one another?”

Ash’s words made total sense. Cactus was still not convinced. “Then how come Peta can go?”

Peta sniffed. “I’m her familiar. I’m protected by Lark’s abilities, Prick.”

“No more arguing, the longer this takes the more chance we have of them escaping,” I said. I didn’t look back, just walked away. There was a grunt and the sound of bodies hitting the ground.

“Lark, don’t do this, they’ll kill you,” Cactus called out. I straightened my back and kept walking.

Peta swayed on my shoulder. “How little faith he has.”

“No, I don’t think it’s a matter of faith.” I followed the shimmering white scales of Scar’s back. “I think it’s a matter of love.”

he tunnel Scar took me through opened outside the main doors of the throne room where the firewyrm etched into them seemed to wink at us. I was flat on my belly, barely able to squeeze through. The two large statues were directly in front of us and we were concealed behind the queen’s flared skirts. Ironic that she’d been hiding the tunnel all along.

“Good luck, Spirit walker,” Scar said as he backed away from me, disappearing back the way we’d come. In the semi darkness, the entrance was invisible, perfectly disguised.

Peta shifted to her snow leopard form and padded ahead of me. Her rounded ears swiveled back and forth as she tipped her head to one side in front of the doors. “There is only one left in the room,” she whispered.

Swallowing whatever trepidation I had, I eased the door open a crack and peered in. The smaller of the two cloaked figures sat on the throne, drumming her fingers on the arm rest.

“I will be queen here and this time no one will stop me,” she snapped into the air and the words echoed around. Sliding from the throne she strode forward, her cloak swirling out behind her as she slapped her hands on her thighs. Everything she did looked familiar, like someone I’d . . .

“Cassava,” I whispered. That was whom she reminded me off. Her inflections of words, the way she walked, and that thigh slapping. All were idiosyncrasies of my stepmother.

She walked away from me, heading to the far side of the room in the opposite direction of the dungeons. I had a choice. I could follow her and see what she was doing, or I could go after the children.