Firestorm

Slowly I straightened. “Take me to her.”

Brand shook his head. “No. She is crazed with her loss.”

Anger kissed at my heels and I used it to tap into my element. Pulling on the earth was easy here, deep in the mountain. The rock around me rumbled, and the women approaching backed away. I lifted a hand and touched one of Peta’s front paws. “Peta. Do you know where she is?”

“Brand is right. Now is not the time. Later perhaps.”

I let out a slow breath, thinking about the little I knew of familiars. My training was sparse, but I did recall my father pointing out that his two familiars were to act as guides when he needed them. A voice of reason. Which explained why he’d sent them away when Cassava was in charge.

A second breath escaped me. “All right, Peta.”

She startled on her perch. “You’re listening to me?”

I shrugged, immediately regretting the movement. With a pained grimace, I stood next to Brand. “That is part of your job, isn’t it? To advise me?”

“Yes, but . . . rarely does anyone abide by their familiars. It’s why so few of us are connected to elementals now. Even the queen discounts Jag.” Her teeth clicked shut on the last word like she’d said more than she’d planned. Jag, that must have been the panther at the queen’s side.

We were quiet as Brand led the rest of the way to his home. On the exterior, it looked like all the other homes, bare, sparsely carved, set deep into the wall, and a scraggly garden with only a few shoots of green. But when we stepped through the doorway, the room was alight with a fire burning in the large hearth directly across from us (which I hoped was for cooking and not additional warmth) and light coming from the ceiling. I stared up at the light, trying to understand how it was possible.

“Light tubes, they bounce the sunlight down to us, and it’s how we grow our fruits and vegetables, as meager as they are,” a soft, whispery voice said. I lowered my eyes from the tube to see a woman who matched the tones of her words. Her body was narrow and looked more like that of a Sylph’s with her almost frail bone structure. Most Salamanders were solid of build, not unlike my family. But she was almost petite. Of course, her bright red hair a shade that resembled a tulip marked her for her bloodline. That and her pale yellow eyes. Not gold like Ash’s, but a true yellow, like a cat’s.

She held out her hand, palm up. “My name is Smoke.”

“Put your hand over hers, palm down,” Peta whispered in my ear.

I did as told, my palm brushing against Smoke’s. “I’m Lark.”

Brand grunted. “She knows who you are.”

Smoke pulled her hand back. “Are you hungry? I imagine after your journey you might be.” Her eyes flicked to Peta, but she said nothing.

“Thank you, yes.” The whole conversation felt false, like we said things only to cover the empty space, to keep the silence from creeping in. But why?

A pounding of feet on rock spun me around and my hands went to my waist for a spear not there. Three boys ran into the eating area from deeper within the home. Each of them had Smoke’s bright red hair, but they were built like their father and they all had his eyes. They stopped as a unit, staring at me.

“Wow, she’s really pretty,” the smallest of the three boys said, and I liked him immediately. Peta snorted softly.

“Typical male.”

Brand dropped a hand on the largest of the three boys who almost matched him in size despite the fact he was obviously not fully grown, his arms and legs gangly. “These are our boys. Stryker, Cano, and Tinder. They were supposed to be out of the house for the day, but it looks as though they heard their mother say something about food.”

The smallest boy who’d said I was pretty, Tinder, looked up at his father. “We just wanted to see her. We’ve never met a Terraling. And why has she got one of our cats with her?”

Peta yawned wide enough that her tiny jaws cracked. “Because no one else could look after her.”

The boys nodded as if what Peta said made perfect sense, and then they scooted outside, their mother shouting after them. “Stryker don’t let Tinder near the flows or the Pit! No swimming today!”

Brand glanced at his wife. “Why can’t they go to the Pit?”

Her brow furrowed. “I just do not want them going. I have a bad feeling about the Pit right now.”

Brand nodded, obviously trusting his wife’s intuition. I looked at Peta but she wouldn’t meet my gaze.

“Listen to your mother. No swimming!” Brand said.

There was a chorus of groans from the three boys, and then silence. Brand let out a slow breath. “Sit down, Lark.”

I sat, though I perched on the edge of the chair. “I’m not leaving without him, Brand. You can either help me find a way to free him, or I will find it on my own.”

Brand looked from his wife to me. “Three days isn’t enough time in the world to come up with a defense for an Ender who has admitted to a crime, and you must do that while looking as though you are helping Smoke. That is your only cover while you are here.”

Drawing in a deep breath, I reluctantly nodded. “I know, but I think I have someone who can help, someone who knows the ins and outs of the Pit.”

The only question was, would Cactus be willing to help me again? Or would he, once more, find his allegiance with this side of his bloodline?

Brand looked to his wife. “I know about your friend. Cactus barely escaped punishment for the help he gave you the last time you were here. But even if he won’t help you, I will. Ash spoke highly of you, of your sense of justice. We need your help, Terraling. Our queen does not see the danger around her and we are all bound to her, unable to make her see.”