Rootbound

Finley snapped her fingers again. “Ender Sting, take the slave to the healer. Make sure she is not injured badly and can still attend to her duties.”

“As you command, my Queen.” He bowed at the waist, then bent and scooped up the slave.

He past close enough by me to whisper, “Ray is in the library. She will want to see you.”

Again, I nodded ever so slightly. No need to piss off Finley more by fraternizing with her Enders.

Bella laid a hand on my arm, ever so lightly, pressuring me to step back as she moved forward.

“Your Majesty, if I may speak to you? There are matters concerning the four families that warrant our attention. There are wars being waged in the human world we must take notice of as I believe they will soon be at our doorsteps. It is not something we can bury our heads against.”

Finley’s eyes grew thoughtful. “Of course, but the Destroyer is not welcome to our conversation.”

Bella nodded. “You are dismissed, Ender Larkspur.”

I knew this game all too well; we’d played it before. I gave another stiff bow. “As you wish.” With a quick spin, I strode from the women.

Once outside the throne room, and halfway to our quarters, I finally spoke. “Peta, tell me you remember Finley was not like that before, that it is not just me seeing this change in her.”

“She was not like this. Something has happened, of that much I agree. It would seem the mother goddess was correct about the stones. Finley is even more distrusting than Bella.” Peta shook her head. “Of course, she has had the ring in her possession almost as long as Bella, and if Finley’s behavior is any indicator, she uses it more.”

“So now we wait for a chance,” I breathed. Waiting was something I could do, but I didn’t like it. Not when I knew the longer we waited, the more chance that Blackbird would beat us to the other rulers. Damn it.

Sting said his sister was in the library, but I needed more than a quiet place to wait. I needed to move, to feel my blood pumping. In movement I found my peace, and maybe I’d even find a solution to how to get the stone from Finley.

Every family had a place that was my home away from home. Even here in the Deep.

The Enders Barracks.

I stopped at a doorway leading outside the palace and into the main courtyards of the Deep. Fountains splashed, the sound of water beckoning me out, but it wasn’t the water I headed to. Across a small rope bridge was the Enders Barracks, and while it wasn’t my barracks, it would do for a substitute.

I hurried across the swaying bridge while Peta clung to me. No point in looking down. I knew what was below the unstable rope bridge. Lots and lots of water, just waiting to swallow me. I shivered and kept my eyes locked on the far side, doing my best not to recall memories I’d much rather forget.

I stepped off the rope bridge and onto the solid footing of the barracks with a quiet sigh.

A twang wrapped through my chest, thinking of the girl who ruled the Deep. I’d saved Finley, helped her gain her throne, and thought she’d been someone I could turn to . . . she’d even fought for me at the battle against the demons. It was as if the second I was set on this quest, the rulers knew I was coming for them. That wasn’t possible, was it?

Yet . . . maybe it was. The mother goddess said the stones could be used to control those who wore them. And Shazer had said his creator was still alive . . . worm shit and goblin piss, who was it?

Peta leapt from my shoulder and shifted as she landed. “Perhaps Bella can get the stone from Finley.”

“Perhaps.” I doubted it, though. Finley’s eyes had said it all; she did not trust me. And because of me, she would not trust Bella either. “I only hope Bella doesn’t try and take it from her.”

“Goddess, that could go badly.”

“You think?” I snorted.

“Bella is smarter than that. She knows when to attack and when to retreat and feign defeat.”

I walked beside Peta, a hand on her back as we entered the training room for the Deep’s Enders.

I went to the center of the room and swung my spear lazily from its holder, thinking about all the possibilities in front of me. All the questions I had no answer to.

I whipped the spear up and over my head, spinning it as hard as I could.

Circling, I let the movement of the weapon take me where it would as Peta sat and watched.

I swept through the forms as if there were an opponent in front of me, my spear slicing through the air soundlessly and deadly, sweat slowly popping out on my arms and face as I quickened the movements.

Whirling the spear through the air, I shadow-fought with opponents only I could see until the sweat rolled over my entire body, slicking me from head to foot. I lost track of time as I fell into the rhythm I’d perfected in all my years in the desert.

“Mind if I join you, Larkspur?” A deep voice startled me out of my thoughts. I spun around, spear at the ready. A man leaned against the edge of the doorway and I took him in with a single sweep of my eyes. I’d seen him only days before; there was no way I’d mistake him, though there were changes in his appearance.

The man from the graveyard.

Closer up, I could see details I’d not noted before.

He was taller than me, and his build was well muscled and looked as though he was used to fighting, if the scars on his forearms and the puckered scar that ran across his collarbone were any indication. Dark blue eyes surrounded by a rim of gold stared at me as if weighing my worth. He ran a hand over his head, scrubbing at his short dark brown hair. The color of chocolate was my first thought. He’d cut the long ponytail off, but it didn’t fool me.