Rootbound

Cactus had been the protector of the Pit because he’d been able to weave stones into the flames he’d created, making a deadly mix even to those who carried fire as an element.

I lifted my other hand, and with it, called up three large stones. I pulled them to me and imbued them with the lightning bolt.

“Not possible, that is not possible,” the Ender whispered, the wind bringing me the words as clearly as if he stood by my side.

“Anything is possible,” I whispered back. With a flick of my fingers, I sent it flying at the Ender. He dodged the first two crackling stones but the third caught him in the side of the head.

It exploded in a shower of shrapnel and light, like the humans’ fireworks. He dropped from the sky, hit the ground and was still.

I let go of the elements in me, but the feeling of the lightning hovered there still, making me shiver. Peta ran to the three downed Enders, sniffing them.

“All three are alive.”

I walked toward them, not even breathing hard. As I passed the first one, he groaned and his eyelids fluttered. I snapped my fingers over him. “Stay.” Vines burst from the ground, holding him down.

Another groan, but he didn’t otherwise try to fight me. The other two Enders I sunk deep into the mountain. Being buried alive sucked, but it wouldn’t kill them. They’d get out eventually.

Maybe.

I shook my head and made myself slow down. The adrenaline was pumping fast enough that I knew I was spoiling for another fight. I crouched beside Lefty. “Do you have a name?”

“Ryk.”

“Well, Ryk, you are going to help me get an audience with the queen.”

“She’ll kill you.” He squinted up at me. “She hates you.”

I shrugged. “Be that as it may, you are going to take me to her. As your captive.”

He frowned, his white eyebrows dipping low over washed-out blue eyes. “Why?”

“You think she cares if you live or die? You think she gives a shit about one lowly Ender?”

He rolled his head from side to side. “She was an Ender. She trains with us still.” Brave words, but the fear was heavy in them. He wasn’t sure, and I needed to use that to my advantage.

Maybe every Terraling Spirit walker was an asshole. That would explain a lot.

I smiled, knowing it was far from nice. “Please. She’s a queen. There’s plenty more Enders where you came from. Now. You will help me.”

I flicked my fingers at the vines, loosening them. He sat up and rubbed at the back of his neck. He was so new to being an Ender, I could almost see the moisture behind his ears.

“I could steal your air right now.” His hand dropped to hover over a dagger at his waist.

I didn’t waste time. I pounced on him, pinning him back to the ground even as I snagged the dagger from his waist and pressed it against his throat. “No, you couldn’t.”

“Your reflexes are improving, Lark,” Peta said. “What changed?”

“I stopped doubting. I stopped hesitating.” I blinked several times and realized the words were truer than even I knew until I said them.

Peta nodded, though, as if it made perfect sense. “About time.”

I pulled the Ender to his feet, with the dagger still at his neck. “I think you understand me now.”

“I won’t take you to her. I won’t.” He straightened himself up. “You’ll have to kill me.”

Freedom is life to a Sylph.

The words gonged inside my head and I wasn’t sure where I’d heard them. But they were true and I knew I could use them.

I sighed and held a hand out, softening the ground under him excruciatingly slowly, so that each inch he slipped further was felt on every part of his body. “No, I won’t kill you. I’ll just stuff you so deeply in the ground no one will ever find you.”

His eyes popped open wide as he sank into the earth. He scrabbled at the edges, but I kept softening the ground, drawing him in inch by inch.

“One of your friends will help me.” I walked away and motioned with two fingers over the living grave of the second Ender. His body slowly emerged. His leathers were no longer a gleaming white and dirt smeared his pale face.

Ryk sucked in a sharp breath and began to hyperventilate even as he scrabbled at the ground. So green at his job, he didn’t realize that if he stole my air now, he’d stop sinking. But maybe then too, the panic was enough to keep his rational thoughts at bay.

I shook my head. What was Samara thinking, sending useless tits after me?

The question rolled around in my head, stopping me. She was smarter than that. Unless . . . unless she wanted me to make it all the way to her? That didn’t make sense.

“Stop, I’ll help you,” Ryk panted, and I firmed the ground around him. He was up to his ribcage. “I’ll help you.”

I smiled and motioned upward with my right hand. He was pushed out of the ground like a dog spitting out a bone.

“Good boy.”

I pushed his fellow Ender back into the earth. Shazer trotted up next to me and spoke quietly. “How did you know he would be afraid of being buried?”

“Claustrophobia, it’s a problem amongst them,” I said.

“How do you know that? They don’t talk about that ever.” His eyes narrowed, and I narrowed mine back at him.

“What do you know about Sylphs exactly?”

“More than you.” He snorted and trotted to where Ryk dusted himself off. The young Ender paused and stared up at the Pegasus.