Windburn

“Ender Boreas, you are young and full of piss and vinegar. Can you see the future? Do you know what would come for our family if we did not have this happen? Do you know that even now, my death creeps closer? We must have change, we must have a new queen. The Destroyer will be the one to name her.”

Aria stepped over the rubble as if she were sighted. “Hear me now, those who I love more than my own life. Those who I know have it in them to be all the mother goddess wished for her second-born. By my decree, when the Destroyer shall name my heir, I will step down.”

A gasp rippled through the crowd. Several Sylphs burst into tears, covering their faces. She was a beloved queen; why did she need to step down? Her age and lack of sight obviously did not slow her. She’d survived the attack of her own daughter with barely a bruise to show for it.

She held a hand out to me. “Those who are my supplicants, step forward.”

The moment was surreal. We stood on the grave of her people I had killed, and now she wanted me to choose an heir to her throne?

I swayed, and a soft warm body pressed against my leg. “Forgive me, Lark. I was wrong.”

“Peta,” I dropped a hand to her back, “there is nothing to forgive.”

Aria waved at me. In front of her stood the three remaining supplicants.

They were tall and slim, and with their hair hanging loosely around them, they looked like angels. If a bit wilted at the edges.

All three stared at me as though I were the devil incarnate. I couldn’t disagree with them.

“Hurry, we are running out of time.” Aria clutched the diamond I’d given her. “You have your mother’s beauty, Larkspur. She was to help me choose my predecessor before she was killed. So now it rests on you.”

Spirit. Goddess, every time I used it, another piece of my soul was eaten away. “Peta, I do not want to end up like Cassava.”

“You won’t. I have . . . someone I think can help you. But we must get through this first.” I shot a look to her. My time in the oubliette had given me the opportunity to mull over all that had happened since I’d taken up my Enders leathers.

“You mean Talan, don’t you?”

She bobbed her head. “Yes. I didn’t know he was alive. If he truly lives, Lark, he can help you. But I can guide you in this in a small way. Touch their hands, use Spirit to discern their hearts.”

My fears allayed, at least a little, I stepped up to the first woman. Her blue eyes were the color of a summer sky, brilliant in their purity. “I need to touch your hand.”

She held her hand out, palm down. I laid my hand on top of hers. Carefully, calling Spirit with as much softness as I could, I threaded it through her as Peta had said. Colors and images flickered through me. “Kindness, that is your strength. But that is not what is needed now for your people.”

I stepped back and Aria nodded. “I concur. Go on.”

The next supplicant held her hand out, trembling. I barely touched her and she flinched. “Too much fear, it will stop you from being bold in the decisions you must make.”

Again Aria backed my words.

The third supplicant thrust her hand out, fisted. I laid my palm on her, my stomach rolling with the sensation bouncing between us. “Violence and war is your desire. You wish to join with those who see as you do. That the humans should be subjected to our rule.”

Around us the Sylphs gasped. It was only then I truly looked at her. The shape of her face, the curve of her lips. She could only be another of the queen’s children. She snatched her hand away. “You know nothing.”

Aria let out a sigh. “Child of mine, you are not to be queen. Do not fight me on this.”

She stormed away, leaving no one else.

I stepped backward, but Spirit pulled me to the side, as if it were a creature I’d leashed and it tugged me in its wake. I followed, curious. I wove between the Sylphs, stopping in front of a group of Enders. They stared at me their eyes hard. Dangerous.

Holding one hand up, I walked in front of them, stopping at the end.

“Samara.” My skin itched as though tiny bugs crept along it. “Hold out your hand.”

Unlike the others, she held her hand out palm up, the blue stone in it. I took the stone and then placed my hand over hers. A crackle of electricity snapped between our hands, but she did not pull back and neither did I.

“Strength, honor, belief in her people . . . trust in her queen’s choices. Love for her home. A razor-sharp intellect.”

Lark, I do not wish her to be queen. She is not the one I choose. Well, that made things simpler. I could see Samara and all she held in her heart. She was the right choice.

I grinned at Samara. “The mother goddess has chosen you to be the Sylphs’ next queen.” I bowed from the waist to her and the Enders to either side of her clapped her on the back. Her eyes were locked on mine. She stepped up to me, close enough that our bodies brushed. “Those you wiped out?”

“Yes.”

“The queen is right. Most were the ones we knew sought to destroy her. But not all.” She drove a finger into my chest so hard it could have been a dull dagger tip.

I glared at her. “You’re welcome.”

From behind us, a cry broke the air. We spun in tandem.

Queen Aria lay on the ground, her hand clutching the smoky diamond. Her remaining daughter stood over her with a long, narrow staff identical to the Ender weapons. “I will be queen here, not some lowly, dwarf Ender.”

Samara stepped around me. “I may be lowly, but I can still kick your ass, Stasha.”