My father"s eyes fogged and he looked around him. "The darkness climbs the vine, closing in on the blooms and the flower petals drop in decay to the ground once more."
A cool breeze accompanied my father"s words, blowing through my hair in a whisper that almost echoed what he"d said. I shook off the sensation. There was no room for fancy in this world of ours.
"Come on, old man. Let"s find a place to sleep the day away." Red flew into the air and a long trailing rope hung from his claws. Father reached up and took hold of the rope and Red led him away from the graveyard.
I watched them go, knowing I was stalling.
"Lark, you will not rest until you see his body in the flesh. I know you well enough to know that is the truth." Peta touched the headstone with Ash"s name engraved with her nose.
I went to my knees to one side of the grave. The last thing I wanted was an explosion of power when bringing a partially decayed body out of the ground. I swallowed hard and gently called the power of the earth to me. Within the power, I wove all the love I had for Ash, the hope that he was alive, and the belief I knew he"d always had in me.
Spirit flowed with it, quiet, reverent in its feel against me.
The ground s.h.i.+mmied and s.h.i.+fted under my hands, shaking like a giant flour sifter until the shape of a body began to emerge. My hands trembled as the dirt slid from his face. I gasped and let go of the power under me. Brus.h.i.+ng the dirt off the face, the features emerged; high cheekbones, delicate bone structure, tiny ears; it wasn"t Ash.
It was a woman.
A cry escaped me and I raised my hands over my head as relief flowed through me, hope growing in leaps and bounds once more.
Ash was not dead . . .but then why would Bella say he was? Did she not know either that the body was not his?
Peta seemed to read my mind. "Someone using Spirit could have made this body look like Ash"s. I doubt your sister, or even Griffin knew that it wasn"t him."
I sat there staring at a new reality I"d have never have thought possible. As long as his heart beat, I could find him. We could make a life together. There was a chance that all we"d faced would be over soon.
Sobbing, I slung an arm around Peta. "He"s alive, he"s alive."
"You can find him. I know you can," she whispered through her own tears. "If anyone can make this right, you can."
We clung to each other for a few minutes before I got control of myself. I let Peta go, and took a deep breath. "I"ll put her back, then we"ll go see if-"
Peta leaned forward. "Oh, that can"t be good."
I followed her gaze and looked down at the body in the shallow grave.
Clutched in the woman"s hands was a tiny box with . . . my name on it.
I brushed a hand over the box and the woman"s fingers clenched it. I scrambled back, my heart rate flying to the tops of the redwoods around us.
"Worm s.h.i.+t."
Peta crouched beside me, her body quivering. "Is it a b.o.o.by trap?"
d.a.m.n it, I should be smarter than this. But the idea that Ash was alive had made me reckless and stupid. Blackbird knew me too well, he"d done this.
On my belly, I crept toward the partially covered body. The fingers clenched the box until the wood creaked. Her body arched so she was raised on her heels and the back of her head. Her mouth opened, dirt falling into her gaping maw.
"Laaaaarkspuuuuuuur."
A snarl rolled out of Peta and I waved a hand at her. "Stay back."
The body twitched and rolled, until the empty eye sockets faced me. The only thing I could think was that at least it wasn"t someone I recognized, a nameless face. Small comfort when looking into the eyes of the dead come to life.
Her jaw opened and closed. The gritty sound of dirt grinding on her teeth made me flinch.
"Taaaaake iiiiiit." She held the wooden box out to me.
Peta shook her head, reached and grabbed at my arm with her big paw. "Don"t, you don"t know-"
She was right, I didn"t know what was waiting for me. "What if it"s something from Ash? A hint about where he is?"
Peta"s paw slid off me. "I don"t like this."
Swallowing hard, I held my hand out and the corpse dropped the box onto my hand. I pulled away, sliding across the dirt and graves until I was the length of a sapling away from her.
The corpse stayed where she was, staring toward me with her empty eyes, her voice clearing as she spoke, changing into one I knew. "Use the stones within to replace those you take. When it is done, I will help you find your golden eagle."
Golden eagle. Golden-haired child. I knew what the message was; the mother G.o.ddess would help me find Ash. d.a.m.n her, d.a.m.n her through all seven levels of h.e.l.l and back. She"d known I wouldn"t be able to resist coming to his grave, to see if he was actually in it.
Apparently she knew me better than I thought.
I flipped the wooden box open without another thought, and sucked in a sharp breath that tasted of dirt and molding death.
Five stones rested within the bare bones box. Emerald, sapphire, smoky diamond, ruby, and pink diamond. One for each of the five elements. I brushed a hand over them, feeling no connection to any of the elements. Just stones, then.
The corpse lay back, her mouth stopped moving and her body shuddered as she was drawn back into the earth. That was not something I did.
Peta stuck her nose into the box. "Are these what I think they are?"
"Yes, they"re fakes to replace the real ones." I slid them into the palm of my hand. They glittered in the sunlight filtering through the trees. I"d held the real ones, and these were perfect replicas, down to the settings. Some were rings, others necklaces. I put them into the leather pouch at my hip and pulled it shut tightly.
"You ready to tell me what the mother G.o.ddess had to say, now?" Peta asked.
Her sarcasm was not lost on me.
"I"m to steal the stones from the rulers and take them to the mother G.o.ddess. Blackbird is hunting for the stones too, and . . . he"s lost his mind. If he gets them all, he"s going to tear the world apart."
"Why would he do that? What good would it do for him to destroy this planet?" Peta asked. It was a good question.
"Perhaps that is part of losing his mind. Maybe he thinks he is a G.o.d now and can remake this world in his own image?" I shook my head. "Does it matter why? I only know that he plans to." Then again, I was going by what the mother G.o.ddess told me. Call it a hunch, but I suspected I wasn"t yet getting all the truth from her either.
Peta sat on her haunches. Her jaw opened and closed several times, reminding me more than a little of the animated corpse. A s.h.i.+ver of premonition slid over me and I shook it off. There was no way Peta was going to die.
She squinted one eye. "I thought that was just a story."
I stilled. "What do you mean, just a story?"
She hunched her shoulders. "A single line I read when I was with Talan, years ago. Yet it stayed with me because . . . well-"
I stared at her, fear creeping up my spine. "Just say it."
Her eyes closed and she spoke. "When the world is broken and must be healed, the only recourse is to break it."
I blinked several times. "That doesn"t even make sense."
"But if Blackbird read that, could he believe he is saving the world somehow?"
I shrugged. "It doesn"t matter what he thinks. The only thing that matters is that we get to the stones before him."
I sat where I was and dusted off my clothes while my mind raced ahead. Planning how I would make each theft happen. To take one stone from a ruler would be hard. To take all four? A near impossible task, because as soon as one was retrieved, I had no doubt the other rulers would be tipped off and be waiting for me. And the fifth stone? That one was hidden away, and I planned to keep it that way until the last possible second. I"d grab it before we left the Rim. At least that was my plan.
Peta looked up at me. "That means you need to take Bella"s stone. But she will give it to you if you ask. That, at least, will be easy."
I grunted. "Did I forget to tell you that the longer the rulers hold the stones, the real ones, the crazier they get?"
Peta"s eyes fluttered. "Of course they do. Why wouldn"t they?"
From the entrance to the graveyard, Shazer snorted, drawing our eyes to him. "Someone comes."
The Pegasus shuddered, his head and wings drooped and his body s.h.i.+vered as he lay down where he was and closed his eyes.
I leapt to my feet. "Shazer?"
I turned, and Peta wobbled where she sat, her eyes softening as she fell asleep, slumping where she was into a lopsided ball.
The crack of a twig to my left snapped me into action. I grabbed my spear and spun, holding the weapon out in front of me. A man stood against the wall of thorns, his arms folded over his chest, his dark blue eyes thoughtful. He had dark hair that at first I thought was short, until he took a step and I saw the long swing of a braid down his back.
A s.h.i.+ver slid over my skin, the feel of something I knew rather well.
Spirit, he used Spirit on me.
"Why did you down my familiars? Who are you?"
He said nothing to my questions, just watched me as the feeling of Spirit on my skin intensified and I stood, shaking and quivering under it. Wanting more of it, the feeling of Spirit tamed and soothing, the sensation of it lighting up my skin with the faint p.r.i.c.kle of electricity.
The flush of desire spread across my skin and I took a step toward him, wanting more of what he offered without a single word. Wanting the peace that exuded from him.
One step and I froze, my own connection to Spirit rising in me, wiping out the control he rolled over me.
What the h.e.l.l was I thinking? Only moments before all I could think about was Ash, and now this stranger showed up and . . . manipulated me with Spirit. Goose s.h.i.+t, there wasn"t even a line of power on his arms. How was he hiding what he did from me?
"You b.a.s.t.a.r.d."
He gave me a soft smile, winked, and turned away, seemingly stepping into the thick vines, disappearing without so much as a single d.a.m.n word.
At my feet, Peta stirred, giving a jaw-cracking yawn. "What happened?"
"Someone . . . knocked you out with Spirit. You and Shazer."
The Pegasus snorted and rubbed his muzzle on the short gra.s.s. "Two more minutes, Mom, I"m tired."
I rolled my eyes and started out of the graveyard, only to be stopped by the sight of Red flying through the trees, trailing my father behind him.
"Lark, you must do something," My father called to me, hurrying as fast as he could.
I raised my eyebrows at Red and he slowed as he dropped to my shoulder. "As soon as we left, he started mumbling about the truth, about it being lost, the world twisted by Ca.s.sava. Not that those are anything new."
My father drew close to me, his eyes intense. "I remembered what I needed to tell you."
I held a hand out to him. "Tell me then."
He batted my hand away. "Listen to me. Listen to me. Your man was not in the grave."
"No, he wasn"t."
He leaned in close, dark green eyes wide. "He is not the only one you love who does not rest in a grave."
CHAPTER 6.
hat was I to say to that? "Father, I do not doubt you mean well, but-"
"Of course you don"t believe me, but that is fine. You"ll see. Come, come to the graves again. I feel them in the earth, all those I"ve lost. It is a talent I have. But one is missing and I wasn"t supposed to remember, and now when you put your hands on me things have come back, a little more, a little more." He rambled as he hurried into the graveyard, pus.h.i.+ng me aside in his need to show the truth as he saw it.
I followed him to my mother"s grave. My whole body stiffened at the implication. He took my hand and pressed it downward. "What do you feel, deep in the earth?"
Shaking, I did as he asked and delved with Spirit and Earth, feeling the body deep within. A hint of who she"d been flowed up to me and I wondered if it was because she"d carried Spirit too.
"You feel her, don"t you? Hear her sing to you," he whispered. "I hear her call to me. My time to be with her again is soon."
He grabbed my hand and tugged me to the side. "Now, your brother."
I closed my eyes, not in concentration, but because I did not want to feel my little brother. How many years had I dreamt of his death, how many years had I blamed myself for not saving him?
"I don"t-"
"Do it, Lark." His command was that of the king I"d known, and I was delving into the earth without another thought, acting before I realized it. Deeper and deeper I went, past the depth of most burials, and then more. My eyes flew open as my power spiked, and Spirit went wild within the earth. The graves around me lit up, a perfect layout of every Terraling ever buried. I felt them against my skin, Spirit opening to me in a way I"d never experienced. But my father was right.
"He"s not here," I breathed.
"I know. I know he isn"t, but I wasn"t supposed to know. I wasn"t supposed to remember. Why, why isn"t he here, Lark?"