Breakwater Page 17

  A deeper voice, one vaguely familiar answered her. “Healer, what I spoke of with my old friend was inconsequential to what is happening now.”

  I stood as they rounded the corner. The old man who’d helped me find the kitchens in what seemed like a lifetime ago stared at me in surprise. “You’re Octo?”

  “Ah, Ender Larkspur. I see you have survived the cells.”

  Ash stood and Octo blinked rapidly. “It seems we have an epidemic of survivors. How wonderful.”

  “You spoke with Belladonna, how is she?” All I wanted to know was that she was alive and we weren’t too late.

  Octo shook his head slowly and my heart sank. “I was friends with the previous ambassador, Barkley.” He paused as if gathering his thoughts and a huge sigh slipped out of him. “Barkley figured out what was happening long before any of us did.” The old man stuck his hand into his vest and rooted around, finally pulling out a thick bundle of papers. “It was all I managed to save, but in it I do believe you will see what Requiem plans. Not that anyone will believe you. I certainly didn’t believe it when I saw what was laid out.”

  His hand shook as he passed me the papers. I took them, flipping through them quickly. Family trees were drawn for all four elemental families. Exactly like those on the walls of Requiem’s room. I frowned at them, handing some to Ash. “Genealogy?”

  Octo reached out and tapped the papers. “Yes, it is very important to Requiem, as you may have noticed. He believes he has the key to creating something we all thought impossible.”

  I turned the final sheet over to see a single sentence scratched into the paper. I read it out loud. “A child will come, who will control all elements, and he shall rule all the families.”

  The words sunk into me, completing the puzzle I’d been putting together since we’d arrived. “He means to have a breeding program, doesn’t he? He’s trying to get a child who carries all the elements with equal strength in all of them.”

  Ayu lifted her hands, as if to stop me. “That isn’t possible. One family has been wiped out, destroyed. Therefore, he could never make this happen.”

  Spirit—that was what she meant—Spirit had been wiped out according to the other families. Ice slid down my spine, and I worked to calm myself as I stared at the papers. It was not common knowledge that my mother carried Spirit. But if Requiem knew Spirit could boost another element power, he might have guessed that whoever had set off the tsunami did so with more power than they should have.

  And he knew a child within our family carried Spirit—worse, he thought it was Belladonna.

  “Requiem thinks Belladonna is a half-breed like him,” I whispered. “He thinks she is powerful with her connection to the earth because she carries Spirit with her as well. She doesn’t, but he believes she does.” Damn me and the anger that caused the tsunami.

  The two Undines and Ash stared at me as if I were speaking gibberish. “You don’t know that.”

  “I do. It explains so much. Why he was careful with her, why he didn’t just have her killed. He had her marked from the beginning.” I closed my hands over the papers, crumpling them.

  But how . . . how could he even begin to suspect, who would tell him that a child of the earth would come and have Spirit tied to her too?

  “Cassava,” I breathed her name and beside me, Ash stiffened.

  “What has she to do with this?”

  My words were no prophecy, they were a certainty that rode me hard. “Cassava knew Father would have to get me out of the Rim if I were to survive. How do we know she didn’t plant a suggestion before she left? It would seem natural to remove me. She had to know about Requiem as this was happening before she was ousted.

  “Which meant he might have approached her even, looking for a half-breed who fit his breeding requirements. Father sent me and Belladonna, but Requiem would only see Belladonna as a possible mate, since she is the heir to our family’s throne.” I sucked in a big breath and Ash wrapped his arms around me, pulling me to his chest.

  “You are grasping at splinters, Lark. You don’t know if any of that is true. Guesses are not the same as fact.”

  I wrenched myself out of his arms and shook the papers in his face. “It’s here! Don’t you see? Barkley knew. He knew what was going on. He would have sent the information to my father who was controlled by Cassava.”

  Ash put his hands on his hips and bowed his head. His silence stung me, as if a thousand tiny biting gnats drove tiny teeth into the small piece of trust I still had for him.

  He raised his head. “I was wrong before. I was wrong not to trust you.”

  Hope flared in my chest and I waited, breathless. “I’m not wrong about this. I know it.”

  Slowly, he nodded, but the words he said stunned me. “Lead. I will follow.”

  I swallowed a lump in my throat. “We have to get to the throne room.”

  Such a simple statement, and yet, accomplishing it would be anything but.

  Octo gave me a smile. “Ah, well, I think I can help you there.”

  We all turned to face him and I couldn’t help asking. “What happened to being afraid of Requiem like everyone else? You even said you wouldn’t give me your name for fear of him finding out you spoke with me.”

  He raised his eyebrows, the gray fluff blowing in the breeze like the under feathers of a goose. “And if he knew you were speaking to the one person who might know what he was truly doing? What do you think he would have done to us both then? It would have done none of us any good to have him know. Pick your battles, young one.”

  Octo made a good point. Several actually. As he leaned against the wall, he thumped his walking stick on the pebbled road, a shell cracking under the tip. “While I believe old men should leave the fighting to younger ones, I’m not above taking one last shot at making things right. Perhaps I can make the memory of my friend shine a little brighter if I do this.” His eyes swelled with grief and love, and the truth hit me square between the eyes.

  I took his hand. “I’m so sorry you lost him.”

  Octo squeezed my fingers. “He was a good man, a brilliant man. He tried to tell me and I . . . I didn’t believe him. We fought about it, and he left. I never saw him again.”

  I remembered him wandering the same halls as me, the hall with the supposed secret entrance to the cells. “You were looking for a way into the cells too, weren’t you?”

  A bitter laugh escaped him. “Yes, but I didn’t have the gumption to be thrown in with him as you two did. Too much fear for too long in these old bones. But no more. I will help face down Requiem and whatever comes will be my reward or punishment.”

  His earlier words reverberated in my head. Pick your battles. Requiem had shown us how very powerful he was and that he wasn’t afraid to use that power. How many more lives would be wiped out if we tried to face him without a solid plan?

  The chance was too high that he would kill us all. And seeing how we were completely outnumbered, I wasn’t willing to take that chance. My job was still first and foremost to get Belladonna to safety. The only way to do that was to keep my own skin, and Ash’s, intact.

  Folding the papers, I smoothed them out and handed them to Ash. “We just need to get Finley and Belladonna. That’s the plan. We get them out and we get out of the Deep. We’ll wait ‘til after the wedding ceremony.” Which would make it near dawn.

  Ayu gasped. “You would let him wed your sister?”

  I didn’t get a chance to answer her. Ash did it for me. “It makes sense. He won’t be expecting us after the ceremony. He’ll be waiting on us prior to it, or during.”

  I looked at him. “You think he knows we survived?”

  “When his shape shifters don’t come back, he’ll go looking. Or send more of his lackeys to make sure we’re dead.”

  Octo and Ayu looked at each other and then me. “You won’t try to kill him?”

  I shook my head. “I’m an Ender. I have no right to his life, and while I think he should die, I don’t want to risk anyone else’s life to make it happen. Certainly not my sister’s, and not Finley’s, either.”

  We spoke a little longer, to clear up the details. Ayu would go to Requiem and make sure the two girls were “healthy” enough for being wedded and bedded. She would tell them we were coming for them, to stay strong. Octo would try to get word to my father. According to the old Undine, Requiem planned to go old school, marrying his two brides, and then sending them to his bedroom to wait on his pleasure. He would take part in the revelries and Octo would do his best to get him stinking drunk and keep him away as long as possible.

  Ash and I would break into Requiem’s private quarters, wait for Belladonna and Finley, at which point we would extract them. Ayu would make sure there was a skiff waiting for us.

  Such straightforward plans.

  Yet my stomach rolled with anxiety as we waited. Standing in the darkness, the clear weather turned as if in tandem with my fears. The night sky clouded over and the wind picked up. Sharp, cold air snapped along Ash and me as we waited in the alley.

  “I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” I whispered as the first rumble of thunder boomed into the night. Ash’s fingers brushed against mine.

  “Don’t say that, I’m starting to look forward to my pedicure.”

  Laughing softly, I shook my head. “Damn, I was hoping you’d forgotten.”

  His eyes shone in the darkness, as if lit from within. “Never.”

  CHAPTER 18

  rom our hiding spot, we heard the drums that signified the start of the wedding ceremony. My palms were sweaty and my heart rate soared as I strained to hear the words that would bind Belladonna and Finley to Requiem. I kept reminding myself when he was dead, the vows would be nullified.

  Octo had managed to get us a few weapons—two daggers for me, and a mid-length sword for Ash—and made sure the boat Ayu secured for us was tied up on the western side of the Deep, closest to land. Closest to where we could use the armband again and Travel back to the Rim and safety. I touched the armband for the first time in a long while. That it was still there after all that happened shocked me.

  Ayu had slipped away, her shoulders tight and hunched. We knew as she did that there was a very good chance Requiem would wonder why she was checking on the two girls. Even though she was a healer, it wasn’t common practice to certify the health of a prospective bride—or in this case, brides.

  Requiem’s voice boomed over everyone else’s, but still, the words were muffled and I couldn’t make out a thing he was saying. The only good thing about hearing his voice was we knew he was busy. Even if he was marrying his own sister and mine. From our high perspective outside Requiem’s personal quarters, I stared across the courtyard at the twinkling lights and people wandering in the throne room that was somehow opened to the sky.

  “Do you think Blue was able to stop him?” I glanced at Ash while I hopped in place, my nerves jangling to get moving. We had a long climb ahead of us and I didn’t want to burn out early, but I was jittery. The wall in front of us was easily the height of a redwood from back home, but that wasn’t what was bothering me. No, it was the fact that if we were caught, there would be no cells waiting for us. Requiem would kill us and be done with it.

  Ash reached out and got a grip on the wall, pulled himself up, and dug his toes into crevices I couldn’t see. His muscles flexed in his thighs as he clung to the wall. “If Blue had managed to cause even a hitch in his plans, there wouldn’t have been any drums. I’d be surprised if she is still alive.”

  Even though I’d already thought the same thing, I had hoped Blue had at least been able to slow Requiem down. Tucking my fingers into a crack in the wall, I pulled myself up and felt around with my toes for a ledge to push from. The tiniest of openings beckoned to my right foot and I jabbed it against the sandstone with maybe more force than I needed. Then again, I didn’t really want to fall.

  No matter how strong we were, or how fast we healed, that didn’t mean I wanted to feel the pain of a fall like this and deal with the recovery. Who was I kidding, if I fell, there would be no recovery; Requiem would end my life. Or worse, try to marry me too.

  Our backs were to the ocean as we climbed. Was there a door and stairway into Requiem’s personal sanctum? Of course there was. And it was heavily guarded and not worth the bloodshed when we could climb. Bad enough that we had to leave that way. We didn’t want to alert Requiem and his lackeys until we absolutely had to.

  My right hand slipped off my next grip and I hung in space from my left hand for a split second before I managed to dig my toes into the wall. Breathing hard, I dared a glance down. We weren’t even halfway up yet and I was struggling. So much rode on us doing this exactly right. Lives hung in the balance, and I did not want to screw this up.

  Above me, Ash paused and glanced down. I gave him a nod, knowing how well voices carried over the water.

  Fifteen minutes of climbing and my whole body was a tense bag of muscles and tendons. Ash reached the balcony and pulled himself over the railing. He disappeared into the room, the curtains fluttering around him.

  “Thanks for the hand,” I breathed out as I reached for the next handhold. The pain that shot through my right foot made me hiss. A shell embedded into the wall stuck out far enough to slice me open, but not far enough to use as a grip. The blood on my foot made using it impossible to grip.

  Inside the room came a thump and a gargle of a strangled cry. Adrenaline pumping, I tried to scramble up the wall, which only caused me another cut on the bottom of my foot from the same damn shell.

  A second thump and the curtains blew out as if bodies were being tossed around inside. Gritting my teeth, I knew there was only one way I was getting up there fast enough to help.

  Gauging the distance between me and the bottom of the balcony there wasn’t much choice. I couldn’t wait for Ash if he was getting his ass handed to him; my muscles were giving up, and one foot down didn’t leave me the control I needed.

  I took a deep breath, coiled in on myself and leapt for the bottom of the railing. The air around me seemed to caress my face and arms as I stretched for the rail, every muscle pushed to its limit.

  My fingers hooked the edge of the flooring and I hung for a moment, shocked when I realized I’d made it. Pulling myself up, I hooked a leg over the edge, stood and hopped the banister.

  The gauzy curtain swirled outward and a figure moved behind it. I crouched, hands going to where the daggers rested at my belt. “Ash?”

  A figure moved closer, but didn’t answer. I shifted the two daggers out, one in each hand with the blades flat against my wrists. As the figure parted the curtain, I leapt forward, seeing the blond hair and honey eyes too late. Ash caught me, his hands going to my butt as he stumbled back, trying to gain his balance under our joined momentum.

  “What are you doing?” He came to a stop and dropped me to my feet. The skin under his hands burned as if he’d slapped me leaving a trail of tingles all the way down my legs.

  “I thought you were hurt,” I whispered, pointing a knife at him. “When someone calls your name, you should answer.”

  “Help me drag his body to the balcony,” he said.

  I put my daggers away and grabbed one of the intruder’s feet. “One of the guards? Won’t they notice he’s missing?” This rescue mission was going sideways already.

  “No, I think he was a thief. See the tools? He was the one who cut those grips in the wall. He came up the same way to rob Requiem while he was at his wedding.”

  I stared down at the red hair. “He’s a Salamander.”

  “That, he is.”

  I frisked the dead thief as the implications raced through my mind. Fiametta must have sent him, whoever he was. A bag of tools was one thing. But it was the paper that he’d taken that caught my eye. The genealogy Requiem was obsessed with. I took it and tucked it into my vest. Ash gave me a look but said nothing. We dragged the thief’s body to the balcony and pushed it to the side.

  Fiametta wanted Requiem’s bloodline information? Was it truly that important?

  Before I could wonder further, Ash lifted a finger to his lips and pointed to the door. The heavy clunk of multiple footsteps climbing the stairs reached us. We stepped back onto the balcony, moving to either side without even speaking to one another.

  The curtain blew out around us as the air pressure in the room shifted.

  “Princess, I’m sorry.”

  Finley spoke, her voice sharp. “Get out. None of you are worth my favor. Not one.” Requiem wasn’t with her, which was good. Except I didn’t hear Bella. Where in the seven hells was she?

  The footsteps retreated and then the door clicked shut. I motioned at Ash to stay as I slipped back into the room.

  A cloud of light blue material sat in the middle of the room, dark blue hair piled high on top of it like some sort of living cupcake. “Finley.”

  She spun around, her eyes going wide and filling with tears. Stumbling over her poofy skirts, she ran toward me. “Lark, you’re alive! Requiem laughed at the ceremony, he said you would show up there or not at all. But Ayu said you would come for me. I wanted to believe her, but I was so scared. I couldn’t get Olive close enough to Requiem. I wanted to fight, I did!”

  I smoothed her hair, plucking out the pins so as to let the monstrosity down. “I almost did come to the ceremony, but that would have been a disaster. My friend, Ash talked me out of it.” He stepped out from behind us and gave a bow to her. “Princess.”

  Her eyes widened as she looked him over. “He’s another Ender, like you?”

  “Yes. Finley, where did Requiem take Belladonna? We’re going to get her and you and escape. Someone else will have to deal with Requiem.” The words sounded cowardly, even to me, even knowing that Requiem would kill us all without a single qualm.

  Finley pointed below us. “She’s still at the party. She doesn’t look well, Lark. She’s been very sick since you’ve been gone.”