CHAPTER 10
Talan and I knelt on the rock across from one another deep in the mountain where he’d brought me. Where he was holding me against my will. And while I didn’t want to kill him at that exact moment, I suspected it had something to do with whatever influence he’d put on me with Spirit. Or maybe it was because I knew now that he was my uncle, my blood.
None of which did anything to soothe my tumultuous emotions. Peta pulled herself onto my shoulder, her tiny claws digging in for a tight hold. She spoke for me. “Let me get this straight. You did horrible things to Lark all her life, in an effort to… train her?”
“That’s putting it simply,” Talan said, his eyes never leaving me. “But yes. When we face our darkest hours, repeatedly, we either become stronger, finding reserves we don’t know we have, or we break. I’ve yet to see her break, and so she was given more challenges. More pain. Still her heart did not crack. She’s a better person now than she was as an angry young woman who could not find her power.
“We, all of us, need her to be stronger than she could have ever been if her life had been one of ease. If her father had accepted her. If her mother had survived and protected her. If Cassava hadn’t tried to wipe out the Rim with the lung burrower worm. If Ash hadn’t been taken from her. All of it had a purpose—pain-filled, but still purpose. What if there comes a time when she must face Viv on her own? What if something happens, if plans go sideways and I am not there with her? Would you have her go into that fight weak?”
He pushed to his feet and held a hand out to me. “I don’t ask you to like me. I ask you to trust me that what is coming needs you at your best. I ask you to trust that the cost will be worth it in the end.”
Damn him and his words, his truths that I couldn’t turn away from. I didn’t take his hand, but pushed to my feet on my own.
“You train me, teach me, and we stop Vivica. We make this world right again. And don’t expect me to call you uncle.”
He looked away. “Agreed.”
From across the room, Raven cleared his throat. “You two done?”
I turned to him, surprised by the rush of relief I felt seeing him. After all Raven had done, that I could want to trust him again should have surprised me. But that was the reality of family. You always hoped those who’d done you wrong would come back around. Maybe that was the case with Raven. Maybe we could find a friendship now.
He held a book out, the leather binding singed in places. “This is the book we retrieved from the Pit. You recognize it, Peta?”
She craned her neck. “Olivisha’s spell book?”
Raven nodded. “She was… apparently the first Salamander.”
Talan grunted. “Yes, she is. Ollie is the middle child.”
Ollie. That he referred to the original Terralings with such familiarity was strange to me, even stranger that I was now a part of that elite number in a way.
More than all that, though, was a sudden fatigue that swept over me. I stared at the two men; neither was working Spirit on me, but I knew Talan could hide that from me too.
“It’s your emotions,” Peta said into my ear, quietly enough that I would be the only one to hear her. “Strong emotions, realizations, healing from all that pain, and the shift from snow leopard back have drawn your reserves low.” She butted her head against mine and tried to shift some of her energy to me. I held off on taking her up on her offer.
I reached up and touched her gently. I could stand a little longer.
“So what is this prophecy you are talking about? Aren’t most of those done up by Readers?” The words of Frost, the Original Terraling, hovered in the back of my mind. One to save, one to destroy. I fought the shudder that wanted to ripple through me.
“Most are spoken by Readers, yes,” Talan said as he took the leather-bound book from Raven, “but we have a few seers in our pure elemental bloodlines too. Like Aria, like Ollie.”
Aria, the Sylphs’ queen before Samara. She’d spoken to me, named me the Destroyer, and her words had been truer than I’d ever wanted.
He flipped through the book, stopping about three quarters of the way to the end. “Here, after the spells she begins to write what looks like a journal. But interspersed, here and there, are small prophecies.” He turned a page, ran his finger down it and turned another. “Here.” He tapped against the page and turned it around for me. I took the book gingerly.
The spot he’d tapped was only a few lines. I read them silently as Peta peered down from my shoulder.
“The world will come to a breaking point, where there will be no going back. The Veil will no longer be the refuge it once was as its barriers will break wide open, the humans will allow fear to rule, and the very existence of our world will be at stake. It is then that the ties that bind both the Veil and the ground beneath our feet must be severed. To save any… to preserve any chance of life… chaos must reign. Destruction must gather. All pretense of protection must be ignored. The six must stand together. The Destroyer will reign freely, and she will decide the fate of the world.”
“Well, that’s rather cheery.” I handed the book back to Talan. “The words are the opposite of what I would have thought.” I frowned, not sure I was even bothered by the words because they made no real sense except the last piece. That was rather clear. “The prophecies regarding the demon hordes were all about surviving, about stopping the destruction. And yet this is like we should actually encourage destruction.”
“That’s exactly right… Destroyer. You must help me find my siblings, and then the six of us will do what we must to heal the world. That is why it has always been you, over Raven, who must do this.” Talan stared hard at me.
I stared back. “I’m not causing more destruction, thanks. Already brought down the Eyrie. Already helped to sink the Pit.”
Neither of those actions were something I was proud of. Many people had died for my efforts to kill Cassava the day the Eyrie had been brought low. And more yet had died at the Pit as the lava had turned on the Salamanders. Though, that hadn’t been my direct influence. I’d been there and seen the results—I still felt the weight of responsibility on my shoulders.
Peta snorted softly. “That’s like saying I’m never going to purr again. I might try not to, but it’s in my nature.”
I twisted to look at her, my tone dry. “Thanks for the backup, cat.”
I rubbed a hand over my eyes knowing I could not take any more in and still retain what I was hearing. “I’m done. I need to sleep for a bit and then perhaps we can get on with the training.”
Talan nodded. “Be my guest. But do not sleep long.”
I grunted at him as I left the circular room and the two men standing in it. The walk through the tunnels was silent, but my mind would not shut off—there was so much to take in, that I was overwhelmed with all I’d learned.
Back in the room that had been assigned to me, I sat on the edge of the bed. Peta jumped down beside me.
“You have a plan then?” She tipped her head to one side and narrowed her eyes.
I put a hand to the leather pouch at my side. “I have four stones, Peta. Do you think he could stop me from leaving if I used them?”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Maybe. But you want to learn from him, don’t you?”
“I hate him. I want to learn from him. I’m afraid for my family. I’m afraid for what is going to be asked of me. I want to find Ash.” My heart lurched as I spoke his name out loud for the first time in a long time.
Peta stepped up and put her paws on my thighs. “Take what you can from Talan. For everything else, he is talented with Spirit. Even if he was not one of the original children of the mother goddess, I would tell you that. With training, you can be more than you are now and that could save those you love. And if we could find the original elementals, all the better. They can take up the fight against Viv. Maybe they could help us find Ash and bring him back.”
Her eyes blurred. It was easy to forget that both times I’d been cast out of her life, Peta had been with Ash. As his unofficial familiar, they had nearly as tight a bond as she and I did. I ran a hand over her head. “We’ll find him. We’ll bring him home.” Of that, I had no doubt.
I made myself lie on the bed, and Peta curled up on my chest, her chin on her paws. I closed my eyes, tried to relax, but even though I was fatigued from everything, my mind wouldn’t let me go.
The past and seeing Vivica fight the original Terraling, Frost. The things Talan had said. The stones laying heavy at my side. Raven. Ash. Bella. River. Father. Bramley. Pamela and Rylee. Names and faces swirled through my mind, making it difficult to do more than breathe.
Peta was oblivious to my upheaval as she slept, for which I was grateful.
I kept working at the many threads that had been laid in front of me. How many of them could I make sense of? Talan had said that Viv wanted to rule and the past images had shown that. But she couldn’t be free of the curse until she held all five stones, that was the catch of the curse. With four of them in my leather pouch, surely that would slow her down.
Maybe she had her hands on the pink diamond, but I didn’t think so. But that took me back to my past and all that had been done to me in the name of making me stronger. Of keeping me safe from Viv while I grew up. It was done. I was who I was and many lives had been lost in the process. I could not change it. I put an arm over my eyes in a vain attempt to truly sleep.
Training with Talan now… a part of me had thought I was done with that time of my life. My training as an Ender had been hard, but I had loved it. For the first time in my life, I’d been useful and had been learning and working toward a goal. I wanted nothing more than to protect my family, to keep those who remained safe. That had not changed.
This training felt more like it was holding me back. That I would do better if I was out in the world seeking out those original elementals and finding a way to free them.
Thoughts swirled around and around, one chasing the other. Sleep took me slowly, and with such small increments that at first I didn’t realize I was asleep and dreaming. For a moment, it was if I stood in the Rim, in real life and not in a dream. But as I stood there, my feet in the soft dirt, the smells of the forest filling me, I knew it for what it was.
Not a dream.
A vision.
My jaw tightened. The only person who’d come to me like this was Viv in the guise of the mother goddess to instruct and guide me in the past. True to form, a white and floating mist rolled toward me from the base of the trees inch by inch before it coalesced into my mother. Her long blond hair swirled around her face that was so like mine, but her eyes were not those I knew. They were a deep dark brown and they were thick with hatred.
“So, Lark. You have the stones.” I didn’t answer her as she strode toward me, her one hand outstretched. “Give them to me.”
“No.”
Did she truly think I would just hand them over?
Her hand trembled. “I am here to save our world.”
“Bullshit. You want control. And I’m going to stop you, bitch.”
“That’s what Talan has said, yes?” She smirked at me. “He’s an adept liar, don’t you think?”
I arched an eyebrow, though a part of me knew I could be in serious trouble. Visions were strange; they could reflect the real world, and could even cause things to happen that were then reflected in the waking world. “Takes one to know one.”
Her eyes narrowed and the image of my mother wavered until I saw not the face of my beloved mama, but a woman who looked very much like a Terraling, the same woman I’d seen in the past Talan had shown me. Her dark hair and dark eyes, dusky skin and short stature labeled her as surely as the red hair on my friend Cactus marked him as a Salamander.
Her face, though, was not smooth like it had been before, but scarred and pitted from the blast that had hammered her when the curse rebounded. She’d thought she held the true five stones in her hands. She’d thought her curse was broken and she had attacked me. The curse Talan had put on her activated and she was blasted into what I’d hoped was tiny little pieces. But here she was, injured but still alive. She was obviously stronger than even he realized.
I wasn’t quite sure what she thought she could accomplish by bringing me into a vision like this. I folded my arms over my chest. “We can’t hurt each other, so you brought me here to talk? To have some girl time?”
I doubted that was the case, but it was as good a place as any to start. She smiled at me and the motion pulled at several of her scars, giving her a lopsided face.
I pointed at her with one finger. “You’re crooked, you might want to fix that.”
Her face flushed bright red and her image softened, and the scars smoothed away. I nodded. “That’s much easier to look at, thanks.”
I watched as she seemed to struggle with herself, her hands clenching and unclenching, her eyes narrowing further and further. “Can’t hurt me, can you?”
“She can’t, but I can.”
I spun around as something was yanked from my side. Not something.
The pouch with the stones.
Everything happened so fast. Cassava was there, her lips etched with a sneer, though her eyes didn’t have a drop of hatred in them. No. Her eyes were full of sorrow and pain.
And then the pouch with the stones was gone from my side and as I reached for it, the dream shattered.
I sat up, gasping, which sent Peta sprawling across the bed. She blinked up at me, her body tense. “What is it?”
My hand shot to my side, frantically feeling for the leather pouch. Nothing. I leapt out of the bed and searched the covers, my hands moving faster and faster. “The stones, Peta. The stones!”
But they were gone, the leather strap still dangling from my waist a testament to what I’d lost in a vision that should not have happened. I slowly went to my knees. “Mother goddess.” The words slipped out of me and a shudder rumbled through the earth.
Child of mine, granddaughter, not all is lost. The voice was the same as the one who’d called to me from the Eyrie. The same as the one who’d shown me the true mother goddess was not Viv, but someone far less tangible.
“The stones were taken.” I bent forward and put my head on the rock floor as if I could sink through and bury myself in the earth.
Your time to regain them will come. She must take the stones to where the power originates. It is the only way for her to take all their power. She must kill them and they are at her mercy as they languish in their oubliettes.
“They are your children. Can you not stop her?” The words were wrenched out of me.
No. Interference to that level is what has brought this on us. We must stand back and let you battle for us. You are our champion, Lark. You can stop her; you can save us all if you can find the hidden strength within, a way to blend all the elements. Find my children, they will show you the way.
The voice went silent.
Peta looked at me and I looked back.
“You heard the mother goddess?” I asked.
“Yes. Any idea on how to blend the elements?”
I shook my head. “No, but it probably has to do with working with the other Originals. Maybe combining our power against Viv?”
But while I sat there, I began to see a pattern in my mind. A course of action I needed to take if we were going to stop Viv. “Viv wants to kill the original elementals, Peta, that’s what the mother goddess said. But no one can possibly find them in time to save them from her. No one knows where they are except Vivica. The mother goddess herself has said I need to find them.”
I turned to stare at my familiar. Her green eyes stared back, wide and wondering. “And Viv now has the stones.”
My belly rolled with fear. “She has their power in hand, all she needs is the final stone and then she will be free of the curse. That’s why she hasn’t tried to kill them before.”
I was on my feet and running from the room. Maybe I should tell Talan… no. I skidded to a stop halfway to the main cavern. “Peta, which way is Raven, can you smell him?”
She leapt out in front of me and took off down a branch of tunnels leading in the opposite direction as the circular room. Left, left, and left. We curled down deeper into the rock until the ever-present sound of water faded to a distant rumble.
A doorway beckoned, and beyond it a single candle burned on a table beside a simple framed bed. Raven was asleep, fully dressed and wrapped in his black cloak. He looked younger than I’d seen him in years. I didn’t knock, just walked in and grabbed his arm, and gave him a shake. “Raven, is Cassava working with you and Talan?”
He sat up and took a swing at me. I blocked him easily and he slowly came around. “Your reflexes stink,” Peta muttered at him.
He cleared his throat as his eyes un-fogged from sleep. “What?”
“Is Cassava working with you and Talan?” I repeated the words slower this time.
Pushing himself to the edge of the bed, he shook his head. “She was. I’m not sure now. Spirit has warped her because it is not truly her element. Why do you ask? In the middle of the night, no less.” He rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes finally opening wide.
“Viv pulled me into a vision, and Cassava took the stones.” I waved my hand at my hip. “The false mother goddess believes she must kill the original elementals to truly harness their power. But that is not what’s going to happen.” In my mind, an image sprang out of nowhere. A huge tree with multiple root systems, and Vivica at the base, chopping at the roots. Above her head, the different branches of the tree curled in on themselves and died. “I think the elemental families will be wiped out if she kills the Original Terralings.”
Raven bolted to his feet and he grabbed my arms. “Are you sure?”
I opened my eyes, not realizing I’d even closed them. I swayed where I was, but I felt in my bones that the words I’d spoken were, while not truth, a distinct possibility. I answered in the way that would help my cause the most. “Yes. I’m sure.”
Raven pushed past me and I followed, stumbled a little and paused.
“Peta, what happened?”
“Spirit can bring on understandings like that. Leaps of logic that you might not have otherwise put together. It happened with the false mother goddess before. Lark, you knew Viv was the creator of the rings when there were such small hints that no one else had figured it out. You knew Talan for who he is with as little.” She sat beside me as I struggled to get hold of myself.
I nodded, knowing she was right. That didn’t make it any easier. I forced my feet to move and before long we were in the top cavern.
Raven and Talan were having quite the argument. I was glad for once it wasn’t me in the middle of things.
“We have to go now! We can follow her and find your siblings because if we don’t, the elemental families, all we’ve been trying to save, will be wiped out!” Raven snapped, motioning with his hand to what I assumed was the outside world.
“No, Larkspur is not trained and that must come first. She is too far behind the rest of us in training, and there will be no chance later.” Talan’s face was tight as though the words themselves pained him. “You must be able to stand with us—” I knew he meant him and his siblings, “and you cannot do that without help. Another tried to take her on without proper training, and he died for it.”
“Who?” I frowned. “Who has gone after her?”
Talan snapped his head around, surprised I was there. “No one,” he said and walked toward the exit tunnel.
“Talan,” I shouted, my blood racing, though not knowing why the answer to my question meant so much. He stopped in his tracks, quietly stared at the ground for a moment.
“It doesn’t matter any longer,” he said softly. “He thought he was strong enough because he knew, as you now know, there was a blood connection stronger in him to the mother goddess than anyone except her five original children. He failed, Lark. He failed because he didn’t know what he was doing. He was untrained.”
My heart pounded, but something wasn’t right. “How young was he?”
“Sixteen.”
Who was Talan speaking of? What teenager had a strong connection to the mother goddess? The answer knocked me upside the head: The real mother goddess’s grandchild. Talan’s son. Talan said he bargained with the false goddess for his son’s life. That must’ve been how Viv got her claws on his son in the first place. I lifted my eyes to Talan.
“I’ve survived and learned a great deal in my time, and not being trained has never stopped me before,” I pointed out as I stepped farther into the room. “Why not train me as we follow her? I mean, it’s not like we’re trying to keep the stones safe from her now; she has them.”
Talan rounded on me. “You want to try and stop her from killing one of my siblings? What happens then? She’ll know we are following her. We will only be able to save one of them. One family saved, but only for a little while. Do you think Viv won’t come back to try and finish the job?”
A mean streak slid down my back and I didn’t hold back. “Wouldn’t they offer themselves to die to save the others? Why not save one or two and allow the others to die for their siblings?” I didn’t want that. I didn’t want any of the elemental families to die out, but Talan was not the one being told to give up those he loved.
The words slid through the air cutting through whatever speech may have been brewing in Talan.
Peta grunted. “He can dish it out, but he can’t take it.”
My thoughts exactly.