Firestorm

Thanking Smoke, I waited for her to leave before I sat on the edge of the bed. Peta sat at my feet, reached up with her front paws and dug them into the bed then stretched her back. She cracked a yawn. “The bell is coming.”

“I need to stay awake,” I said, looking straight into the light tube that lit my room. By the color of the light, I figured time was closing on the night. “I have to find a way to get Ash out of here and I only have two days left.”

Peta pulled herself onto the bed beside me. “And you think you can withstand the bell when it rings? No one stays awake. The mother goddess herself would have to help you withstand the sleep bell.”

“So be it then. I will ask her.”

With everyone else asleep, the night was the perfect time to search. Besides, if Peta was right, how did the Ender Coal stay awake to search the Queen’s chambers? How had the queen woken when she’d heard him? If they could stay awake, then there was no reason I couldn’t either.

I knelt on the floor and placed my hands on the solid stone underneath me. Breathing out slowly, I tried to form the right words, the ones that would bring the mother goddess to me.

A deep booming gong sounded, like thunder rolling over clear blue skies. The echo hit my body like a physical blow and I gasped. “Mother goddess, I must stay awake.”

The power of Spirit will protect you, child. You do not need me.

Her voice was a soothing balm over my fears and I sat quietly as three more booms echoed through the Pit. Beside me Peta snorted. “Damn, you truly are a child of Spirit, aren’t you?”

“How do you know this? How do you know anything about Spirit?”

She hesitated and I saw the struggle in her as she tried to fight the urge to help me more than she had to. I felt her emotions, there, at the edge of my mind. Worry, regret, and uncertainty.

I put a hand on her back as gently as I could. “I won’t share your secrets, Peta.”

Her eyes flicked to mine then away. “My first charge, years ago, was a child of Spirit. I am the last familiar that ever watched over one such as you. I believe that is why the mother goddess assigned me as your familiar.”

A breath I didn’t realize I’d been holding whooshed out of me. “You really can help me then.”

“I think so.” The uncertainty was there again. “But you must understand, he was fully trained when I was given to him as a kitten. I know what he was capable of, but I don’t know how he did what he did.”

Without thinking, I scooped her up and pressed my face against her. I hadn’t realized how much fear I’d carried about that part of me until Peta said she could guide me. I held her with my eyes closed and she purred.

“I’m so glad you are here,” I whispered. “No matter what happens.”

Her rough tongue flicked once over my cheek. “So am I, Dirt Girl. But if you tell anyone, I will claw your face to ribbons while you sleep.”

Smiling, I shifted her to my shoulder, her claws digging into the leather vest for balance.

I knew where I wanted look first. Smoke’s earlier words were my only clue to go on. “Peta, we need to go to the healer’s rooms.”

“Are you ill?” The concern in her voice and the feeling of worry coursing through her into me was touching.

“No, I just . . . I need to see where the Enders were treated. Where they died. There could be a clue as to what happened to them.”

She tipped her chin forward. “Then let us go.”

Opening my door, I listened for a moment. The home was quiet and I crept out, stopping in the main room to grab my spear. With my luck, I would need it, even though everyone was asleep.

Creeping into the main cavern, the weight of the silence was like a living breathing boogey man that waited in the shadows. The light tubes dulled to a dim glow with only the moon’s light reflecting through the mountain to us, giving the place a strange iridescence.

Peta sniffed the air. “I’ve never been awake at night inside the mountain, it feels different.”

“Like something is waiting for us,” I said and her claws dug in tightly.

“Dirt Girl. Those are not words you want to utter out loud.”

I thought of Scar and wondered how many of the firewyrms were left.

I broke into a jog, heading for the bridge, the lava bubbling happily under it. “Why not?”

“There are creatures in the Pit that even the queen would not face. Beasts from long ago that sleep under the lava.”

“Like the firewyrms.”

“Yes, like them. And others. Others I have never had the displeasure of meeting. Creatures that would make the Deep seem a playground and the Rim like Heaven.”

“Lovely.”

We reached the bridge and hurried across, the heat chasing me. My skin was dry to the point of tiny cracks appearing across it. Soon they would break open and bleed as they begged for moisture. Thoughts of the Deep emerged and suddenly going back didn’t seem like that much of a hardship.

“Take this opening.” Peta flicked one paw as if shaking off droplets of water. I jogged into the cavern hallways and came to a sudden halt. The hallways that had been lit during the day were dark, not one embedded flame in the wall, not one flicker of fire to show us the way.

“Peta, how well can you see in the dark?”

“I need at least a glimmer. Even I cannot see in total darkness.”

I backed into the main cavern. We weren’t far from the singles quarters. “Cactus might have something we can use, a torch perhaps.”