CHAPTER 14
I couldn’t believe the memory I was seeing, the true memory of what had happened when I’d been a young girl. The scene in front of me was unreal in so many ways and yet my muscles, the feel of the earth under my feet, the air in my lungs confirmed that what was in front of me was not only happening, but that I was finally seeing the truth of my past.
“Go,” I whispered.
Cassava handed Bramley off to a figure. Someone I knew.
Aria, the Queen of the Sylphs, held her hands out. “I will keep him safe from her as long as I am able, Cassava.”
Cassava kissed Bramley on the forehead. “These two are our only hope now.”
Aria touched Cassava on the arm. “I know, child. Be strong, the worst is ahead of you yet.”
Cassava shuddered and the memory picked up again with me telling her that I hated her.
I drew a breath and pulled myself from the past. On my knees in a field of oats, I stared at the light brown earth. Sweat dripped from my face and created tiny puddles in a rough circle, but I did nothing. I didn’t move. I couldn’t move.
“How bad was it?” Raven asked softly.
There was more than a little sympathy in his voice. I swallowed hard. “Did you know my mother and yours were friends?”
A scuffle of dirt and then he was right in front of me, on his knees. “What?”
“They… came up with the plan to protect Bramley and me from Viv.” What I’d seen was so fresh in my mind, I couldn’t truly form the words. “But… that means Bramley is alive somewhere.” I jerked my head up and stared at Raven. “He was taken to the Sylphs by Aria. Did you see him there?”
Raven shook his head. “No, I know nothing about him. Are you sure?”
I closed my eyes and looked the memory over again quickly, not allowing myself to dive back in fully but to just look at it from a distance. “Yes, I’m sure. They knew it would be me or Bramley who would face Viv.”
Raven was silent a moment. “So they worked together from the very beginning?”
I nodded. “Yes. My mother sacrificed her life to make Cassava look like she was doing what Viv wanted.”
“And of course, Viv wanted Ulani dead because she was the last Spirit Walker with the right bloodline to produce a child to stop her.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “It makes sense.”
I wanted to vomit. The pain I’d seen in both my mother and Cassava stung me deeply. I had hated Cassava for so long that the idea of her being anything but a monster was impossible for me to accept. Maybe in the past, she’d been trying to do the right thing, but now it was obvious she wasn’t. That she was mad with the power of the pink diamond. “Your mother isn’t like that anymore, though.”
Raven stood and held a hand out to me. I took it and let him help me up. “Maybe not. Then again, she’s not really my mother, so what do I know?”
It took a moment for his words to sink in. “She’s not what?”
He shrugged. “She was trying to create a child that had all five elements. She did it, but was afraid to give birth to that child.”
“Why?”
He shrugged again. “I don’t know. But I knew from a very young age she wasn’t my biological mother.”
“That’s why you slept with her?”
The question popped out of me before I could catch it. Raven didn’t look irritated at all. “No, I understood the need to have more elementals with multiple powers. Elementals who weren’t only from one bloodline. And Cassava, for all that you hate her, is the only Terraling with nearly as much strength as you. If she’d been able to have a child of mine, we’d have another elemental with strength at our backs now.”
We walked toward where Shazer stood waiting. “You mean it was purely a breeding program.”
He nodded, and again there was no shame in him. “Yes, but she never conceived. After the twins, it seemed her body was done with making babies.” The twins, he meant Briar and Keeda, our youngest siblings. Or, I supposed, now that I knew the truth about Raven, my youngest siblings.
“So you went on to Samara.” A part of me wasn’t surprised he’d made the rounds as he had. Elementals were not always monogamous; my father was proof enough of that. But they didn’t like crossing bloodlines as it was considered taboo. While Raven may have been willing, I was surprised so many women of the other families had been. “Consent,” I said, “it’s a thing, you know.”
“I never took them to my bed without consent,” he said. “They were always willing.”
I leapt onto Shazer’s back, Raven right behind me. “I mean without the use of Spirit helping you out.”
“So do I.” He reached around my waist and held on tightly. “I’m quite charming when I want to be.”
I snorted, not sure if I believed him or not. Charming he was, but to get Samara to bend to him? She was strong-willed, and not exactly the trusting type. At some point, she had to have suspected him as not being genuine in his affection for her. Before or after he’d knocked her up, though, that was the question.
Peta had been quiet through the exchange and she jumped onto Shazer’s back last. “Where to, nag?”
Shazer blew out a blast of air through his nostrils and flipped his head once, his long mane flicking back through the air. “Give me a minute. I haven’t searched for her for so long, I don’t know if I can.” Shazer ran through the field of oats, picking up steam until he spread his wings and launched into the air.
He worked hard to gain altitude, and once we were high enough, he coasted along the currents, circling slowly.
“Anything?” I pressed a hand to his neck.
“Not yet,” he muttered, shaking his head.
“So much for him helping,” Peta said.
The Pegasus flexed his back as if he’d like to throw Peta off. I pressed my hand harder against his withers. “Can I help?”
“You mean with a power boost?” He shook his head. “No, this isn’t about strength but the fact I am tied to her. She created me out of spite, you know, and it’s been so long, I can barely recall why.”
It was Peta’s turn to snort. “Call me cynical, but I doubt you don’t remember why.”
Another grunt from him, but then he was quiet as we continued to coast on a current of cool air. The bond between Shazer and me was not that of familiar and elemental. More like a companion who chose to stay with me, rather than go back to the one who’d made him. His friendship was in its own way as integral to my life as Peta’s. He did what he did out of choice, not a forced bond.
Peta fidgeted, twisted partway around and narrowed one eye at me, almost as if she’d picked up on my thoughts. But no, her emotion came through loud and clear and had nothing to do with competition for me. She didn’t think Shazer could help us. Finally, she turned all the way around and put her paws on my chest, tipping her head to beckon me. I leaned forward so she could whisper in my ear.
“I can find you because I am your familiar, Lark. He isn’t her familiar. More like he is a child trying to find his mother.” Peta shook her head.
I blew out a breath. “It’s all we’ve got. Otherwise, how do we find Viv?”
Peta slid down. “Don’t be surprised when—”
“I got something,” Shazer cut her off, “though I think we are headed to a place that hasn’t gone well for you the last few times you’ve visited, Lark.”
I wanted to groan but I bit it back. “Do I want to guess?”
Raven grunted. “I’ll bite. Are we headed to the Eyrie?”
Shazer shrugged and stretched his wings out wide. “Close enough to call it that. We’re headed to the mountains near enough to the Eyrie that there is no way the Sylphs won’t know we are there.”
“Except there are no Sylphs there,” I said.
“What?” Raven grabbed my arms and I turned my head.
“Talan didn’t show you?”
The worry in his eyes softened me. Samara was still there. “There are no Sylphs left, none but Samara and her child.”
Behind me, Raven stiffened.
“Talan showed me what was happening in the elemental families.” I drew a slow breath before I went on, thinking about the Rim and the chaos there, and the Deep with Finley facing down the human warships. “The Sylphs have deserted the Eyrie, leaving Samara and her child alone.”
Raven’s hold on me loosened and I turned to him. “You going to leave?”
His blue eyes met mine. “You may not believe it, but I do care for her, and all my children.”
My eyebrows shot up. “First, Samara is strong enough to take on anything that comes her way. She was an Ender before she was a queen. Secondly,” I shook my head, “how many kids do you have?”
A breath slid from him. “You’re right. She will be okay.”
He went silent and I elbowed him hard in the belly. “How many kids, Raven?”
His eyes narrowed. “More than two.”
More than two, that told me nothing. He could have ten. Ten little powerhouses running around the world causing havoc.
Awesome.