Ash

We made our way up the slope, away from the loose snow. I rubbed a hand over my bare arms and looked around. The snow was cold, but it was summer, so the depth of the chill wouldn’t kill me.

At least I had that going for me.

Peta sat and stared out at the mountains around us. “I suppose you had a reason for bringing us here? You said Granite, but you also said Cassava. Which is it?”

“Both, I think.” I couldn’t shake the sense that Granite was here too. Something I’d never shared with anyone . . . a trait I had that had bubbled up during my training had given me the title of being one of the best.

Latent Tracking abilities had shown up in me. Not to the depth of a true Tracker . . . but I could often get a generalized area for those I knew well. Granite, I knew very well. Cassava . . . I knew her better than I wanted to.

“Cassava was buried here in the rubble of the Eyrie when she faced Lark.” I stared out from our vantage point. The mountains spread in a blanket of white and gray around us, and as I situated myself with the four points of the earth, I twisted so I faced the Eyrie. Or at least where the Eyrie had been before Lark had destroyed it.

“I think they are both here; the pull to the Eyrie was too strong,” I said softly.

“I’m sorry, what?” Peta reached up and put a big paw on my thigh. “What did you say?”

I crouched beside her. “I can . . . sometimes sense where a person is when I look at the globe in the Traveling room. Not quite like a Tracker. I think it’s something else. But . . .”

“It’s why you thought Lark was dead. Because you couldn’t sense her?” Peta blinked several times. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

I shrugged. “You were so certain she was alive, and I know what it is to believe that someone is alive when they are dead. You won’t listen to anyone, you can’t. You have to see the truth for yourself.”

Her ears twitched. “I hear a story from your past there, Ash.”

A story . . . I wished it was only a story. “A long time ago, yes. It is not a tale for right now.”

She bobbed her head and let the topic drop. “What is your plan then? You can’t possibly think to walk into the Eyrie, can you?”

“I wasn’t with Lark when she was here. They won’t see me as a threat even though Samara threatened her life,” I pointed out, standing and making my way toward a chunk of the mountainside that looked like it had some half-decent handholds.

Peta moved through the snow beside me and shook her head. “And what about me? They know I am her familiar.”

“Then you will have to stay back at the edge while I go in and ask some questions.”

I was hoping there would still be enough chaos that I could slip in and out without drawing the attention of the new Eyrie queen. The last thing I needed was to add a few Sylphs to my problems.

“And your reason for coming to the Eyrie? They will want to know.”

I shrugged. “I have no reason to lie. I am searching for the traitors, Cassava and Granite. We believe she didn’t die, and that is all the reason I need to come to the Eyrie. We believe that he is still helping her. Under the laws of the Enders, I have every right to search for a traitor of my own family even within another elemental family. You know that.”

Peta was silent for a few minutes, her whiskers twitching now and again. “Ash, you know Samara may try to kill you just for being from the Rim.”

“She might.” I went to my knees to inspect a section of the mountain I thought would be good to scale down. “But I have dealt with pissy rulers before, Peta. I am not new to this.”

“Could have fooled me. You were in that cell for months and you decided where to go seconds before we had to leave.” She snorted.

I smiled. “I never said I was perfect.”

She snorted again. “Tell that to Lark. She thinks the sun shines out your ass.”

There was no stopping the laughter from escaping me. “Gods, Peta. She’s not that bad.”

She shrugged and peered down at me as I slid over the edge. “She loves you. That’s enough to keep her from seeing your flaws, of which you have more than a few. But I approve of her feelings. You are the one for her, Ash. Don’t doubt it no matter what happens.”

Her words stopped me, and I stared up into her green eyes. “How do you know that?”

“That she loves you, or that you’re the right one for her?”

“The second bit. I know she loves me.”

She smiled, which showed off all her pearly white and wickedly sharp teeth. “I am her familiar. Whether she likes it or not, I can see the people around her and how they affect her. You . . . you support her, help her to be more than she is on her own.”

Her words reflecting what Raven had said to me in the cell made me shiver. I started down the side of the mountain, not sure I wanted to hear more of what she had to say.

“I’m not done, Ash.”

Laughing to myself, I hurried up my climb.

“You can’t get away from me, you should know that by now,” she called down, which only made me go faster. A literal game of cat and mouse proceeded down the slick mountainside and I let the movements and pull of my muscles push all the thoughts out of my head.

The ache in my side from the dagger wound Chive had given me slowly eased as the skin knit together. I touched it once, checking it. Chive . . . another life lost because of Cassava. I didn’t think my hatred for her could grow, but I was wrong. She’d done so much and caused so much pain in this world of ours.