Windburn

I snorted. “Please, don’t be a fool.”

Oh, if only that were the truth.

CHAPTER 16

The first day passed in the Eyrie with no clues as to whether my father was there at all. Samara led us around on a tour of the second and third levels. Tiers were built into the mountain with multiple wide stairways leading up and down.

“Night is coming, and I have to go on guard duty.” Samara stopped again at the door to our suite.

“Will you come in for a moment? I have a question I’d rather not ask in the open.” I stepped through the doorway and waited, looking at her while keeping my face carefully blank. Her pale eyebrows ticked upward, but she stepped through the door.

We hadn’t spoken much through the tour, at least not about anything other than the makeup of the Eyrie and what we were seeing. All interesting, but not what I wanted to know.

I made myself ask the question. “Samara, is there any dissension in the Eyrie? Something a person from outside of your family could exploit?”

If I thought her eyebrows had climbed before, that was nothing to what they did then. “Who exactly would want to exploit my family?” Her words were smooth, but there was a hard bite to them. I saw the way her hand drifted to the pointed short staff strapped to her back.

I held my hands up, palms facing her. “There is one from our family, Cassava. She has . . . caused a great deal of strife not only in the Rim, but has tried to usurp the other families in one way or another too.”

Samara’s hand dropped away from her staff. “The queen here is well loved, even by her spoiled daughters. The Enders respect her even with her advanced age. There is no reason for anyone to think she will cross the Veil anytime soon. And as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it is hard to slip anything by her in spite of her eyes.”

Tension should have eased off me with her words, but it did not. If there was no dissension here, why was my father hidden away in the Eyrie? Either Samara was lying, or there was more going on than the Ender knew. I hoped it was the latter; I liked Samara.

“Is that the only question?” She looked up at me.

I nodded. “Yes. For now.”

She backed out and shut the door behind us with a click. There was no additional click of a lock, though. Cactus went to the bed and flopped down with his legs and arms spread wide, his fingers reaching for Peta. “Come here, bad luck cat. I know you want to cuddle.”

She hissed and swatted at him. I didn’t move, didn’t take part in their banter as they swapped insults.

“Prick, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a death wish.”

“Well, if I stick close to you, isn’t that what will happen?”

“Why, you miserable lizard!”

“Salamander, cat, get it right.”

I took a step, then another, moving through the room. I couldn’t help but touch the pieces of stone that peered out of the wall. I untied my boots and slipped them off.

The power of the earth curled around me like a pair of strong arms. Peta was right, there was something different here in the Eyrie. Like the earth had more consciousness in this place than anywhere else.

A flick of a tail across my nose made me sneeze. I opened my eyes, not even remembering when I’d closed them or when I’d collapsed to my knees next to the bed. Peta stood in front of me, her eyes crinkled around the edges with worry. “Lark. I think you should wear your boots here. This place calls to you too strongly.”

“It was someone like me, Peta. Someone who carried Spirit and Earth. That’s why it’s like . . . coming home.” I choked the words out.

Her lips curled upward. “Then perhaps when this is done, we come back. Maybe this is where you belong, Lark.”

“I would come with you,” Cactus said. I looked up at him, expecting him to be teasing me. But the look in his eyes was serious, through and through.

“You would give up the Rim for me? You couldn’t; you would have to return there so as to not go mad.”

“I would give up anything for you, Lark. I love you and only you. You have held my heart since we were children. How can you not see it?”

The moment was loaded with longing, with the desire to hold him against my skin and feel his lips on mine. To know if he truly was the one I loved. Or if it was Ash who held the key to my heart.

How could I decide between two men so different, each of them calling to parts of me the other didn’t?

He held his hand out to me, an invitation I didn’t want to turn down. We were here, alone. Together.

Peta put herself between us. “No, I won’t let you hurt her.” Her words cut the tension like claws shredding silk.

“I’m not the one hurting her, Peta. I would never hurt her.” He spoke to her, but his eyes never left mine.

Breathing hard, I made myself stand and put my tall boots on. “We should eat and get some sleep. We have to find my father.”

Cactus’s jaw tightened to the point I thought he would crack his teeth. He went to the table laden with food and spooned a bowl full of stew for himself. I followed his lead and filled a bowl for Peta, and then one for myself. Heavy with curry, the stew had thick chunks of meat and vegetables that had absorbed the flavor. I dipped flatbread into the liquid. “Peta, do you think you could do some snooping? See if Samara is right about dissension? I can’t believe there is nothing out of order here.”

She swiped a paw over her face, cleaning off the stew. “You make a good point. I can stay close to the mountain where there is no need for me to have the Sylph guide.”