The stones.
The mother G.o.ddess. I prayed I was right.
I nodded and we jogged across the small patch of sand and into the cover of the trees. The dense vegetation pulled at me. I let it for a bit before connecting with Earth to move things enough that the path was clear. Peta frowned up at me. I couldn"t explain now, we were too close.
But if I was truly in a hurry, I wouldn"t think about my connection to the earth, not right away. At least, that was the game I was playing. We sloshed through the water. "Peta-"
"I know, Lark. I know." She pressed herself against my leg. We could both die, we both knew it. At least . . . at least she was with me.
The anxiety eased when the truth of it settled on my heart. I would never be alone, Peta would never cast me away as so many people had done in my life. Not even for Talan.
A soft rumbling purr rolled through her and into me. I dropped my hand to her head and let the last of the anxiety flow out of me, and in its place my confidence grew.
I had a plan, it was a good one. Maybe we could pull this off.
My next step sunk me in brown swamp water up to my chest. I sucked in a sharp breath as something slithered between my legs. Peta swam ahead of me, her ears pinned back. "Keep an eye out for logs with eyes."
She grunted and kept swimming. The pull to the center of the swamp didn"t let up, and I followed it.
The water stunk, the rank, acrid scent of death that had resided for too long above ground filled my lungs. I hurried to get out of the water as much as to reach my destination.
"Almost there." Peta tipped her head at what was in front of us.
A curtain of moss curled down from the trees in various shades of pale green. Situated out of the water, the land looked solid, though I had no doubt there was more water than soil under it.
I approached the moss divider, each step bringing me farther out of the water until I stood on-somewhat-dry land. I glanced at Peta, she nodded, and I stepped forward, my hand lifted to the moss. It parted on its own, without any direction from me. Beyond the moss was a crystal clear pool of water. Even at that distance I could see it was pristine, unlike the rest of the swamp. The mother G.o.ddess sat beside it, her back to me.
Once more she had taken the image of my mother. I swallowed hard.
"Lark, you have the stones? Did you use the fake ones to replace the real ones?" she asked softly, though she already had the answer.
"Yes." I didn"t dare take another step. She raised her head and smiled at me, my mother"s smile, my mother"s face. "You put the fake stones in the grave then? The grave that was Ash"s."
She tipped her head to one side. "I knew you would not just believe he was gone, that you would find a way to prove to yourself he was alive if I sent you in that direction. I had your father place the stones with the body when it was buried. You are, if nothing else, predictable."
I gave a slow nod, doing my best to school my face. "Did we make it in time?"
"Yes, barely, but yes. Raven is close behind you." Her eyes crinkled with pleasure. My heart and gut lurched. "Bring them to me, let me see them."
With leaden feet I did as she asked, walking until I was only a few feet in front of her. I undid the leather pouch from my belt and handed it to her. "What happens now?"
She opened the pouch and peered in, the smile widening on her face. "Oh, little Larkspur. Your desire to fit in, to be the good girl. It will be the death of you, I think."
I took several steps back, hating that I"d been right. A minuscule piece of me had still believed I could be wrong. That my mistrust was misplaced. It died with nary a whimper.
Peta stayed at my side as I moved back, sticking to me like a burr.
The mother G.o.ddess glanced up at me. "Do you know the stones can be manipulated by those who control Spirit?"
What was she trying to say? "The one who created them, you mean."
"Not just the creator." She clutched the bag close to her. "No, they can be used by anyone who is strong in Spirit."
"Like Raven." I spat his name out.
"No, he is not strong enough with Spirit. I think you could do it if you put your mind to it, and had the training. Talan, of course, is the one I speak of. He can use the stones to control things."
Her words were yet another nail in Talan"s coffin. "He warned the rulers I was coming?"
She nodded. "And told them to fight like demons."
"Why would he do that?" I truly didn"t understand him or his intentions.
She jiggled the leather bag, the sound of the stones clinking softly in the air. I held my breath, but she didn"t seem to notice anything. "He believes the stones are dangerous and should not be held by anyone. I, on the other hand, believe they are the tools they were created to be."
I shrugged, trying to act like I didn"t feel the undertones to her words. "I"m not terribly surprised he did that. He"s an a.s.shole."
Her eyebrows raised in tandem. "You don"t like him?"
I shook my head. "No. I don"t."
"Pity, he could have helped you, if you"d let him." She smiled again, but the smile darkened until it was no longer my mother"s smile. I gritted my teeth.
"I want to tell you a story, Larkspur. It will help things make sense to you. Many years ago these stones were created by an elemental who was more than she seemed to be." Her eyes glossed over a little. "She was punished by those who sought to take away her power. As you know, being the strongest of our people is a dangerous position to be in."
I nodded, and struggled to swallow past the growing tightness in my throat.
She held the leather pouch. "She was punished for being strong, Lark. Cursed for it. The stones were taken from her, and a Spirit Walker convinced a witch to weave a spell. Only when all five stones were brought back to the elemental would the curse be broken. She tried once to bring the stones back to her, but the draw to them was too strong for those elementals she asked for help. Ca.s.sava. Raven. They both kept the stones when they were to give them to her."
I frowned, though her story lined up with what I knew. Of course, I was the tool she"d been waiting for. The elemental who would be obedient even when it took power from me. "And the curse? What was it?"
"That she could not attack another elemental. She couldn"t use her power to directly influence anything." She smiled at me, and gave a slow wink. "That will change now. I needed you and Raven both in the beginning, Lark. I played you both, using you to do my work for me. But now that I have the stones, I can take my rightful place. I do not need you anymore."
I took a step back and reached for my two elements. They slid through my fingers like water through sand. A block, she"d put a block on me. I took another step back.
The mother G.o.ddess smiled at me. "If you"d been more obedient, I"d let you live. But you are a typical child of Spirit. Always looking for trouble. Helping the supernaturals, stopping the demons with them. I"m sorry, Lark, but you are going to die now. Raven, of course, will take the blame. Or perhaps Talan, since you so dislike him."
She said it all so matter-of-factly. Like we were discussing the weather.
"Why would you give Peta to me, then? Why would you help me?" I took another step back.
She waved a hand at me and jiggled the leather bag with the other. "I needed you to survive long enough to do what I needed you to do. Peta is the only familiar that has the training to keep you alive." She paused and tipped her head. "You were my backup plan in case Raven fell through."
"You mean so I could find the stones."
Viv, I suppose she was never the mother G.o.ddess after all, nodded. "And you threw the families into disarray which was an added bonus. The chaos you provide will be a perfect catalyst for me to step in. I am known as the mother G.o.ddess. Which family will turn from me?"
"So all that c.r.a.p about me being a chosen one?"
"You had no confidence, and I needed strength from you. I needed you to believe in yourself. Only you took it a tad bit too far; you grew far stronger than I thought you would."
The crack of a branch whipped me around. I had my spear up and poised for an attack before I registered who it was.
Talan stepped into the clearing, and though he approached me his eyes were trained on Viv. "You don"t want to tell her the rest?"
She glared at him. "You have been a thorn in my side for too long, Talan. Perhaps you should die with her. Suiting, since you so cared for Ulani, that you should die at her daughter"s side."
He grinned at her. "I think you"re about to gain a new thorn." He glanced at me. "Smart move."
I kept my face carefully blank, as if I didn"t have a clue what he was talking about. Idiot, he was going to blow my ruse. If he"d noticed what I"d done, the only question was, would she?
Viv lifted a hand. "She is going to die, Talan. And you will be next if you care to stand there and vex me."
He laughed softly. "Oh, I don"t think it"s going to be as easy as you think. You broke the bond between Peta and me on purpose. Why?"
Peta gasped. "No, that can"t be."
I stood there with my mouth hanging open. "She could do that?"
"Yes, she can. If I"d been able to find Peta, I would have gone after her. Viv broke my ability to do that, though, and for many years, I thought Peta was dead. As she thought I was." He didn"t take his eyes off Viv. "You see, she believed that without my loyal cat, I would be open to danger and easier to kill. Spirit walkers are nothing if not p.r.o.ne to an early death. All the charges Peta was sent to . . . they were marked for death. So that she would believe she was a poor familiar. You changed all that for her, Lark."
Viv glared at him, and the glamor I"d always a.s.sociated with her slowly drifted away, the last of my belief system collapsing around me. Her long dark brown hair and deep brown eyes were those of a Terraling. She looked disturbingly like Ca.s.sava.
That wasn"t what bothered me, though.
The truth fell on me, crus.h.i.+ng a piece of my heart and spirit. We were alone then in this world; there was no mother G.o.ddess to turn to, no gentle love to guide us. No, that was not true. There was something out there. I just wasn"t sure exactly what the voice of the mountain was.
Talan stood to the left of me, his hands tucked behind his back. "Lark, what she doesn"t want you to know is she is not a mix of elements like Raven. She is a true hybrid, like you. She is-"
"Shut your mouth!" She flung a hand at him, I saw the lines of power over her arms. White and blue twinned across her skin. The intent was clear as day. She was going to kill him.
I may not have liked him, but I couldn"t let him die. Not if he wasn"t what I thought. I leapt at him, tackling him to the ground as the power ripped over our heads. Talan rolled and we were both on our knees in a flash.
"Come on, Viv. Let"s see what you"ve got." He taunted her, beckoning with his one hand with a wiggle of his fingers.
"Are you crazy?"
"No, I trust you."
His words shocked me. He trusted me? I didn"t trust him any further than I would trust Raven. Well, maybe a bit more than I trusted Raven.
Viv raised her hand a second time and Talan held a hand out to me. "Stay back. In case I"m wrong."
She snarled. "You are done. But I"m killing her first. To be sure that she does not interfere, yet again." The power built in the air, the small hairs on my arms stood at attention. Time slowed. Peta leapt into my arms, her body covering mine.
"Where you go, I go. I trust you." Her eyes never left mine and I stared into her face.
Even into death. I wrapped my arms around her, hoping I"d done the right thing. Praying to a deity I no longer believed existed. I lifted my eyes.
Viv flung both hands at us and the world seemed to pause further. The lines of power intensified on her, flaring, and then a boom of thunder filled the tiny s.p.a.ce. It felt as though all five elements screamed at once, the sound of death and destruction, inferno and hurricane, earthquake and rogue waves swept into a single note that made my heart waver. I clung to Peta, tucking my head against her, sure it was our death I felt.
But the sound faded and I slowly opened my eyes. Peta trembled, and her big green eyes blinked up at me. "Are we still alive?"
Talan stood off to one side, his eyes at half-mast, and his hands on his hips.
"What the h.e.l.l happened?" I slid Peta off my lap and stood.
"The curse," he said. "You didn"t give her the real stones, so when she attacked you, the curse kicked into overdrive. How . . . how did you know she was the one who"d created the stones? It took me years to figure out she wasn"t the mother G.o.ddess."
I blinked, unable to clear my vision completely. Where Viv had been was nothing but a charred piece of ground. "Is she dead?"
He walked to the burn mark and scuffed a foot over it. "I doubt it. Hurt probably, and p.i.s.sed as Peta was when I threw her into that arctic lake, but not dead. How did you know?"
Peta sniffed. "I was not p.i.s.sed. I was cold, you fool."
I stood under the cypress trees, the rot of the swamp curling around me. I drew it into my lungs. "How did she not know the stones were fake? I mean, I"m glad she didn"t, but is she really that full of herself?"
Talan shrugged. "Pride is a funny thing. And she trusted you to be obedient. So why would she even bother checking?"
That was along the lines I"d been thinking, hoping would happen. "She told me Raven was searching for the stones, but he wasn"t. He was having a good time in the Eyrie. I knew you were also causing problems, but it . . . I don"t know. I just knew. In the Eyrie, I knew. The story about the old elemental, about the stones, about Shazer." I said the Pegasus"s name and I froze. "Worm s.h.i.+t, what if something happened to Shazer when I hurt her?" I bolted through the swamp as quickly as I could. Peta leapt along beside me. "Go, Peta, you"re faster."
She didn"t wait, but sped through the swamp ahead of me.
Talan ran at my side, slipping and sliding, but he didn"t argue with me. And for the first time since I"d met him, he didn"t just disappear on me. "Why would she have hurt him?"
"Because she made him. She created him." I pushed through the last of the foliage and burst onto the sandy beach. The sun beat down, brilliant and hot. Shazer was flopped out on his side, unmoving, the feathers of his wings ruffling in a breeze off the water the only movement.
Peta was at his head. She smacked him with a paw three times in the s.p.a.ce of a second. "Wake up."
He jerked and blinked several times, his large dark eyes foggy with sleep. Cracking a big yawn, he looked around. "Tell me we aren"t off to somewhere else."
I slumped where I stood. "She didn"t hurt you?"
"Why would she hurt me?" He sat up and the lower part of his mane rolled forward. The material from Bella"s skirt rolled forward as it came undone. Four stones glittered as they fell to the sand. I scooped them up and wrapped them once more into the green cloth. I tied the knot tighter, pulling it hard before I tucked the package under my vest.
Talan leaned forward, his hands on his thighs as a laugh boomed out of him. "Well, I"ll be d.a.m.ned."
I glared at him. "To be clear, we are not friends. You manipulated the leaders to attack me, didn"t you?"
He stood and his lips tightened a moment. "You need to be humble to be teachable, Lark. You are anything but. And I need you to learn. The world will depend on your ability to learn and to grow with what you have been given."
I snorted. "I"ve heard that line before. Viv used it on me more than once. So you"d best come up with something better than that to convince me you are anything but an a.s.shole on a power trip."
Shazer yawned again. I waved at him. "Go back to sleep."
He wasted no time in flopping back to the sand, wriggling his body to get in deeper.
I walked down the beach a ways, and Peta hurried to my side. "What now?"