Ash

“No. The rakshasa. That stupid Miko called the demon forth, thinking it would bend to him. And it didn’t. That is the help I give you. Fair warning.” He slumped to one side. “I cannot help you more than that. Use Sandlings against the demon, Ash. That will be your only hope to fend it off long enough to get away.”

“You can’t kill it?” I asked, wondering what had made Miko call on such a demon. There was only one answer I could think of. Cassava.

Norm and Granite both shook their heads.

I did a quick flick through my recollection of the rakshasa. A demon native to the area, it was clawed and had an insatiable appetite that happily included cannibalism. Wonderful, just what I needed on top of dealing with the bitch.

I wanted to run Granite through and finish him off. I wanted him to pay for his crimes, and as an Ender, it was my right and duty to do so. Yet I could not make the final blow. I backed toward the tent door and pointed a finger at my old friend, feeling something strange come over me as I spoke. “There will come a time when it is your life or hers. For the sake of your soul and the world we care for, you will need to make the right choice, or we will all pay for it with our lives.” I backed out of the yurt and Norm slowly followed me.

“We aren’t going to get any more help from him, are we?”

“No, we aren’t.” I tucked my swords into their sheaths. “Norm, I’m going in to find Cassava. She has long dark hair and dark eyes. While I do that, you find your family and do your best to get them to safety, do you understand?”

He nodded once. “Okay, I got it. What about after?”

I shook my head. “One step at a time.”

We headed back the way we’d come, banking to the right as we approached the side of the mountain that led up to the place the Yeti called home. The air around us flickered and danced, sepia-toned, because the fires burned high as if the world was viewed through a yellow-tinted lens. I slid off Norm’s back and pointed to the left, sending him around the side. I went straight up, climbing through the snow and heading into the place I knew I would find her. I could feel the vibrations of her power through the thickness of the snow.

It was as if the ground below my feet guided me, as if my Ender’s senses had finally come back online now that I’d erased whatever fault lines Talan had placed in my mind and heart.

I crested the ridge and stared down at the scene below, horror cutting through me. There were Yeti piled beside a huge bonfire, their bodies flung about and broken like oversized dolls. I couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but stare. There was no sign of the rakshasa. I drew a breath, almost choking on the smoke-filled air.

Memories roared up through me, long forgotten, the past came to life in the flames.

I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t see through the smoke in the forest. All around me people cried out. The lightning strike had hit several trees, and with that, many homes were on fire, tucked against the redwoods as they were.

Ten years old, I knew I couldn’t do much to help. But my mother was strong with her connection to the earth. She could call the dirt up and put the flames out in an instant. She was at home with my siblings. I ran through the forest, the sound of beating wings in my ears and the heat of my fear burning my lungs.

I lifted my hand and pushed through a thick huckleberry bush to where my home was on the furthest south edge of the forest.

Orange, red, and yellow flames rose into the sky. Words choked in my tightening throat.

The smell of burnt flesh ghosted across to me from the clearing. I bolted forward. The door of our home had been blasted off and was rimmed in fire. I lifted a hand to shade my face. On the floor ahead of me lay my mother, her arms around my two siblings. Their chests did not rise and fall, and there was a black scorch mark running across their backs.

I had to get them out. Take them to the healers.

“No, Ash, you can’t!” A pair of hands grabbed at me as I moved to leap forward. The girl from the planting fields. The one who slipped me fresh berries when no one was looking.

“You can’t, Ash. They’re dead. I’m so sorry.” She hugged me to her, dragging me away from the flames.

“No, I want to help them!”

She cried softly. “You can’t. No one can now.” With one hand, she called up the earth around the tree and threw it at the raging fire. A thump resounded through the air, as the flames were put out completely. No one came running from the home, thanking her. I watched, hoping we were wrong. That one of them had survived.

We sat there and she rocked me softly as I cried. “Why did they have to die?” I whispered.

“I don’t know,” she whispered back. “I don’t know. I lost my family when I was young, too.”

I blinked up at her; she wasn’t that much older than me. A few years at the most. Her face was streaked with tears for my family, and her lips trembled. I leaned my head back against her, and together we stared at the remnants of my home. She’d saved my life. I would never forget that.

Cassava had saved my life.

She walked with me away from the only home I’d ever known.

“Where will I go?”

A moment passed before she answered. “I think you will have an important role one day,” she said softly. “Maybe you could even be an Ender, Ash. You could protect our family. You’re strong like your mom, you know.” Her words were meant to distract me, but as the Enders barracks came into view, I knew she was right. I knew where I belonged.