Firestorm

The morning came soon enough, the light shimmering through the reflective tunnels above bringing me out of my stupor. Voices drifted to me, like dust motes floating in the air. Smoke’s voice was the same husky pitch but pain laced her words.

“I don’t care. Just . . .he can’t be gone. He can’t be. He was my baby.” A sob rippled out of her and I was up and moving before I could think better of it. Ash was beside me and threw a sheet around my body, but not before he gasped.

“Lark, your back.”

“I know it looks like worm tunnels and goose shit.”

“No, it’s not,” Ash said, his hand on my arm stopping me. The arm he held was the one burned. But the burn was completely gone and in its place a tattoo rested on my skin. A vine of deepest green with thorns of a dark purple curled over my muscles.

“Your back is more of the same,” he said.

The mother goddess had healed me after all. I closed my eyes and whispered my thanks to her.

Another cry from Smoke turned my attention back to the moment at hand.

I stumbled forward as my legs tried to buckle. How long was I out? I thought it was just a day, but the last time I’d felt like this, I’d been coming out of a week of trials with the mother goddess.

The main living area was lit with soft burning candles, their light flickering over the sober faces. Brand sat beside Smoke, holding her tightly as tears ran down his face. The two older boys, Stryker and his brother Cano stood against the far wall, their faces also wet with tears as their chests heaved.

Stryker stepped forward, “Mom, I didn’t know; none of us did.”

Brand stood as Smoke held a hand out to her oldest son, drawing him to her until she held him against her chest. “I know it’s not your fault. The mother goddess has turned her eyes away from our people.”

Her words shocked me and I had to bite down on the question that formed. Where was Tinder? The little boy with the sparkling eyes and the bright personality? The one with the questions that were never ending?

I gasped as the understanding hit me in the chest. The how of it didn’t really matter, but I knew . . . Tinder was gone. Brand’s eyes flicked to me, and there was no malice in them.

“You are free to go, Terralings. Fiametta has declared you are not to be stopped.” He dropped his eyes and tightened his hold on his wife. I stepped forward and went to my knees beside Smoke. She’d been kind to me, one of the few in the Pit who had.

“Smoke.”

Her eyes flicked to mine, the gray centers that so resembled her name were awash with tears. “It is not safe here for you, Lark.”

I shook my head. “It looks as though it is not safe for you either. How did it happen?”

“I said,” Brand grabbed my arm and hauled me up to my feet, “you are free to go. Isn’t that enough?”

I didn’t jerk away from him, but stepped into his guard. “Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help.”

Ash let out a soft groan. “This is going to be the Deep all over again.”

I cast a glare at Ash and he said nothing more. Brand tightened his grip on my arm, and for a moment the pressure reached the point where I thought I would have to back down as my tendons were squeezed over my forearm bones.

“We went to swim in the Pit,” Stryker said, breaking the silence. Brand let go of me, his hand falling to his side. Stryker stepped forward and circled his arms around his mother, holding her as much as she was holding him. Stryker’s young frame trembled from his jaw to his bobbing knee. “Tinder ran ahead of us and jumped into the Pit. He was fine, laughing and splashing. I swear it.”

I frowned, but said nothing. Someone must have struck at Tinder, someone had to have hurt him. Yet I struggled to see someone hurting a child, especially one as likeable as he.

An image of Bram being stolen from my arms hit me like a runaway bull and I sucked in a quiet breath. Logically I knew Cassava had no reason to attack Tinder. Even if I did have a soft spot for the little boy, what did it gain her? Nothing was the simple answer, yet I couldn’t help but want to blame her for another death. It took all I had to remain quiet and let Stryker speak when he was ready.

His eyes were distant as if he were seeing something only he could see. A shiver ran lightly through his body.

“I almost jumped in. I stopped at the edge and yelled down to him and he looked up at me, a funny expression on his face and then he just . . . the lava burned him like he wasn’t a Salamander, so fast, like he was nothing and then he was sucked down and gone. Like he was never there. He didn’t even have time to cry out, it was so fast. There were other kids, same thing happened. Seven or eight of them, just . . . gone.” Stryker dropped his head as a sob rippled out of him.

Smoke stroked his hair with one hand, whispering a song to him, the words inaudible but the tune soothing, even to me.

I put a hand over my eyes, seeing all too easily little Tinder sucked down under a wave of lava. Saw his eyes full of pain and confusion, of all the years he could have had, stolen from him.

Like Bram.

“Take me to Fiametta,” I said, not bothering to hide the thickness of my words, the way tears clogged my throat. I would stay, because I couldn’t leave when children were being killed. Whatever I could do, I would.

“You can’t do anything, Lark.” Brand shook his head. “No one can.”

I slowly straightened my spine to my full height, softening my words at the last moment. He’d lost his son, the least I could do was remember the pain of that loss. “Are you sure?”