Ash

I scrubbed a hand through my hair and started walking again. “Well, do you get the gist of what I wanted to say?” I was hoping she could make the connections.

Of course, she could; she was a cat.

She nodded. “Obviously Raven showed up at some point in your incarceration and you two had a chat. Whatever he said, you now believe Cassava could still be alive. Or it could be what Raven wants you to believe so you disappear on another long search for an elemental who is supposed to be dead. That would certainly put you out of the running for some time.”

I grunted. “Something like that.” A chat . . . Raven’s words echoed inside my head. There had never been a point where he’d told me not to repeat his words, yet obviously, he had somewhere in the conversation. He didn’t want anyone to know we’d spoken? Or did he not want anyone to know that he’d been in the Rim? Maybe some of each.

Or maybe something else altogether that I could not see. I touched my head as if I could dig out the answers from it.

Again, I could understand why those who carried Spirit were so feared. How did you fight something you had no defense against? That you not only couldn’t see, but never even knew when it was used against you?

A rumble of the earth below my feet and the ground dropped, snapping me out of my thoughts and sending both Peta and me into a crouch. Peta flattened herself into the snow and I did the same until I was almost buried under the icy cold white crystals. The mountain seemed to shift and roll, sending a wave of rocks and snow thundering past us. I could have sworn that I heard a laugh echo through the mountains, and then I was sure of it. The words were booming, loud and thunderous as if they were all around us. As if she was the storm and we were being buffeted by her. The voice could only belong to one person.

Cassava.

“Fool, you think you can come at me and survive? I will kill you both, and steal Lark’s heart and soul in one fell swoop,” she screamed.

I stared at Peta and nodded. We were more than on the right track, we’d hit the bullseye. But far sooner than we’d expected, which meant I was not prepared, and there was no plan.

How had Cassava seen us coming? There was no one that knew where we were going, what we were doing; I had no thought of coming here when I spoke to Raven, so there was no way he could have known and been able to warn his mother.

The ground rumbled again, a deep shudder that went on for a solid twenty seconds as we lay in the snow.

“Ash, that isn’t good,” Peta said, the breath from her words melting the snow around her mouth and nose. Her green eyes flicked to mine, fear trembling in them. As a cat of the mountains, she knew the landscape better than I.

“Avalanche?”

She nodded. “A bad one.”

The shaking subsided, but a new noise grew around us, tripping and falling over itself as it swelled through the air. Cassava’s laughter faded, but I didn’t feel any better about the position we were in. She might not be able to see us now, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t try and strike us down.

I rolled onto my back and looked back the way we had come. The top of the mountain crumbled as I stared, as if in slow motion even though I knew it was anything but, and the speed would only continue to pick up. Snow and rocks crashed toward us like a raging river. The rocks I could handle, deflect and even soften; the snow was another problem. Made of frozen water, I couldn’t manipulate it.

I pushed to my feet and lurched forward. “Peta, run!”

She looked back, only once, then bounded down the mountain angling to the right. I followed her, using my connection to the earth to power each stride and help me stay ahead of the tumbling snow, rocks, and chunks of ice.

Barely, though. Cassava’s laughter echoed in the air. “Fool. Such a fool. I will have you yet, Ash.”

I didn’t look for her, that would have been a fool move. My focus was solely on keeping my feet under me.

Already, though, the river of snow flowed to either side of me, as if I were truly caught in a flash flood of fast-moving icy water. I fought to stay ahead of it, but even connected as I was to the earth, I was losing the race against the mountain and all its strength.

“Peta, go!” I had to trust that she would escape and be able to come back and help dig me out. Because I knew I was about to go under. I could feel the tug on my feet and legs, like a beast swallowing me bit by bit.

She didn’t look back but bolted forward, leaving me behind in only a few huge leaps. The tip of her tail and the spots on her coat were the last things I saw as I was dragged under the snow and plunged into a darkness where there was no air, where I couldn’t so much as move.

Caged in a tomb of frozen water.

CHAPTER 6

n the embrace of the avalanche in the Eyrie, I wasn’t sure which way was up or down. I could have been inches from the surface yet die because I chose the wrong path to dig. That is, if I could have moved at all.

My entire body was pinned, crushed beneath the weight of however much snow was above me. Chest compressed, I could manage tiny gulping breaths, but even that was slowing as the air around me dissipated.

Panic reared its head, battering at my mind. You’re going to die here. And it will be slow and painful and of no use to anyone. The words were my own, and I could not seem to stop them.

The darkness and cold were complete, cutting me off from nearly all my senses, making the fear that much worse, stealing my ability to think things through . . .

No. I refused that line of thought.

I was an Ender, and I had trained for this possibility when I was young and only just starting my training. I closed my eyes, though it didn’t change what I saw, and focused on the earth around me. I only needed a few large rocks. I found two. As the oxygen fled, and my mind began to wander into the abyss of death, I pulled the two large stones through the snow to me. One bumped into my right hand and I shot it “upward” with a mere thought.