Windburn (The Elemental Series #4)(43)

Bram nodded. “Yeah, that too.”

They mounted up on Ophelia and I paused. The Bastard had brought us here, but that had been the only deal. I walked to his side and put my hand on his shoulder. Before I could ask for another ride, he spoke.

“I will take you. I have not had an adventure for some time.”

I pulled myself onto his back. “Thanks. But calling you The Bastard is getting old. If I can’t know your real name, I’m giving you one.”

He grunted as Cactus climbed up behind me. “Do as you wish, Elemental. Your kind always have.”

I wanted to swat him for sassing me, but I settled for winding my fingers through his mane. “There is a legend in our family about a horse that carried our first king into battle. How the horse had become the first familiar after saving the king’s life by taking a blow for him. His name was Shazer.”

He bucked as we lifted off into the air. “Bah.”

A cold nose pressed against my cheek. “It’s a good name.”

My mind, though, was already moving forward. Northeast . . . the direction was not lost on me. The Wretched Peaks lay in that direction, what the humans called the Himalayans.

The home of the Sylphs was nestled in those mountains.

“Cactus, we sent emissaries to the Eyrie.”

“Yes.”

“And they swore oaths that my father was not in their home.” I tightened my grip on Shazer’s mane until the coarse strands cut into my fingers.

“Just because we are headed in that direction now does not mean he is there. A whole wide world is northeast of us.” He rubbed my shoulders, but instead of soothing me, it only served to cause more friction.

“Don’t, Cactus. Please don’t.” I didn’t care that he was right.

We flew for hours, neither the dragon nor Shazer losing speed. Which gave me time to think.

Something was shifting in our world, and my mind wouldn’t leave alone the pieces I could see. I’d been in the Deep and seen and helped a coup for the throne happen. I’d ousted Cassava from the Rim. In the Pit we’d set Fiametta straight. My heart rate began to climb as the pattern emerged in front of me.

I was being used to set people on the thrones of power. People the mother goddess wanted. Chills swept through me that had nothing to do with the cold air around us.

Peta spun in my lap and put her front feet on my chest so we were nose to nose. “What is this fear I feel? What have you thought of?”

I reached back and pulled Cactus closer to me. “The mother goddess is using me, Peta. I have been instrumental in the Deep, Pit, and Rim in changing the structure of who rules, or how they rule. I have no doubt we are being funneled to the Eyrie for the same reason.”

Cactus sucked in a sharp breath. “Holy—”

“Do not use her name,” I snapped, anger filling me. Anger and disappointment. “She has been using me from the beginning.”

Peta’s green eyes softened. “You are her chosen one, Lark. There must be a reason.”

“Why would she let me go in blind? How much easier would it have been if I’d known what she would ask of me?”

Shazer flipped his head. “Perhaps because she knew you would fight her if she laid the harness on too tightly.”

His words struck a chord. “Damn, you’re right.”

“Of course I am.” He blew out a breath that sent a spattering of spit back at us.

I wiped my face and Peta fluffed up her back. “Stupid horse.”

He rolled to the left, making her scramble to cling to me. “Shazer, enough!”

A horsey laugh rippled out of him. “For now.”

If I’d known what the mother goddess was going to ask of me, I would have fought her. I’d have thought I couldn’t do it, especially facing down Cassava. Or going into the Deep. Or the Pit, for that matter. Damn, I didn’t want to be okay with this.

Especially now that I knew what was coming in the Eyrie. Another coup? Some sort of trial by fire like the Pit?

I tucked my chin to my chest, wrapped my arms around Peta and closed my eyes. There was nothing I could do until we got there, and maybe, maybe I was wrong.

Our direction never shifted as we flew. Sometime in the early hours of the night we began our descent and I opened my eyes.

The Wretched Peaks surrounded us. My heart climbed into my throat as we dropped. Damn, being right had never felt so horrible.

Ophelia landed first. Shazer dropped to her left with a bounce that turned into a buck. Cactus went flying over our heads and hit the ground hard, landing flat on his back. The dragon tipped her head back and let out a long laugh.

Shazer pranced where he was. “Names have power. What does mine mean?”

I blushed. “Twisting, or intertwining.”

“Perhaps you should have gone with something more docile.” Cactus snorted.

I swatted Shazer’s neck before I slid from his back. “You don’t have to wait with us here. Go home to your forest.” I took a few steps before the energy between Peta and me spiked, verging on panic. I reached up and laid a hand on her back as I twisted to look her in the eye. “What’s wrong?”

“That is not my energy you are feeling, Lark,” Peta said. Her left ear flicked once and I followed the direction she indicated.

Shazer stood with his hooves planted in the ground as if he were frozen in the thin dusting of snow, while his whole body twitched and quivered.