Ash

I frowned. “And how exactly did I manage this? I have no connection to Spirit.”

Honestly, I’d thought the meditating was more a way to pass the time than anything else.

“Ah, well, I may have had something to do with that, yeah?” He winked. “I just needed you to relax long enough that I could draw you here. Now that you’ve been once, you can come and go as you please.”

Interesting as that all was, I wasn’t sure how it helped me, and I said as much.

Griffin laughed. “It don’t. Not one bit. But it might keep you from losing your mind, which if I recall can be an issue for you elementals when you are cut off from your power. Which even though you weren’t banished, you’re cut off, yeah? Long enough and you would lose your mind.”

He was right, and he’d touched on the fear that had begun to grow in me. Griffin went on. “Here, you can work your connection to the earth, here you can practice with your weapons. Your body will be weak when you get out of the dungeon, but your mind and muscles will know all you’ve trained them to do. You elementals always bounce back. You were made to.”

He turned and began to walk away.

“Wait, how can I train? I have no weapons, I have no opponents,” I said. Doing strengthening exercises was all good, but even I could only do those for so long. As it was, I suspected I was going to be in the dungeon a long, long time. Years, as Raven had said.

Griffin didn’t turn around. “Make them, Ender. Make your weapons, make your opponents, yeah?”

I took a few steps after him. “Why are you helping me?”

I didn’t want him to go. I didn’t want to be left alone in this place or in my dungeon cell. Elementals did not do well when captured. It broke something in our spirits, and already I could feel it eating at me. A few days and I could see what was coming if I didn’t find a way to keep myself together. Griffin had tossed me a lifeline I hadn’t expected.

“Larkspur.”

Just her name, nothing else. And then he was gone and I was alone in the cell again, snapped out of the meditation by the clanging of a tin plate and cup on the floor. Dreg’s shadow was already disappearing into the gloom of the rest of the dungeon.

I reached for the food, a slice of bread, cheese, and some sort of meat, a few pieces of fruit. Better than I’d been getting. I grasped the tin plate and pulled it toward me. My fingers brushed the edge of a piece of paper that was attached to the bottom of the plate. I pulled the paper off and flipped it open.

You are not alone.

I recognized Bella’s handwriting, having seen it more than once on orders. I folded the paper and tucked it under my vest. I ate the food, savoring it, knowing that there may not be much for me in the way of good quality soon enough. I had no doubt that Raven would find ways to make people forget about me. To make them believe I was gone for good. And then the food would suffer and with it so would my spirit as well as my body.

As I ate, I mulled over my options. They were slim, but I still had a choice. Captive as I was, I could still try and change things. Purpose, I had a purpose, and I needed to keep reminding myself that as long as I was alive, all was not lost.

I had to find a way to bring Lark back, to have her banishment reversed. Or to have Bella take the throne from her father. I took a bite of the cheese and frowned as I tried to see the problems from different angles. How could I have Lark’s banishment reversed?

I wasn’t sure there was a way without Bella taking the throne, and that spun me around in circles. “Damn it.”

Those two words echoed in the small chamber. What else could I do? Raven would see me coming a mile off if I chose to go after him. He was strong, and I had nothing on his powers, not to mention I had no doubt he would not offer to meet me one on one in battle.

I popped the last piece of bread in my mouth and chewed. Who was against Lark, who was always the one to hurt her, the one to stop her from doing what she had to?

I slumped where I was, suddenly and with no warning, as a heavy sleep rolled over me and only one thought rebounded in my head. Who was the one who still had some control over Raven?

That strange tension curled up my spine. With my eyes closed, I saw Raven in front of me. His blue eyes were serious. “My mother is the cause of all this strife. Of all Lark’s pain. Kill her, and we will all be free, Ash. Find her and kill her, that is what you must do.”

Cassava.

The puzzle pieces fell into place and I let out a breath and woke as suddenly as I’d fallen asleep. There it was. I knew what I had to do, what could help Lark and our world. A part of me saw that I was being led by the nose, but the majority of me thought it was a good idea, maybe even a great one.

I had to kill Cassava.

CHAPTER 4

spent my days between the layers of the Veil. Slowly I learned to make weapons, and with them I practiced my Enders skills. Every weapon I’d ever used, and several I hadn’t. I worked with the weapons from the other elemental families like the tridents from the Deep and the clubs from the Pit.

I started with the trees, just using them as static opponents, but quickly fell to creating Sandlings. Drawn from the earth, I could build them up and give them directives. We used Sandlings when we trained Enders because they were impossible to hurt, and made good opponents. They were shaped with arms, legs, and a head, and could even be given weapons, if need be, along with simple commands. The first I gave them was the most basic. To attack me one on one, then one on two, three, and four. Quickly I learned to create weapons out of the earth for them, again simple weapons, but they were good enough.