We paused again, waiting to make sure the hallway was clear when I was grabbed from behind. I struggled until I heard Cactus’s voice.
“Just me. Thought you might need a hand.”
Ash grabbed my upper arm, his eyes widening when he got a good look at me. “Goblin piss, we have to get out of here.”
“I can help,” Cactus said. “I want to help, to make up for what I did.”
I gave his hand a squeeze. “Thank you.”
Without another word, he stepped into the lead, striding ahead of us. Of course, no one would think anything of Cactus walking about.
“Can we trust him?” Ash asked me for the second time.
“We have to,” I whispered, swiping at the moisture on my face. Ash wasn’t sweating. I on the other hand, was slick with sweat, as if I’d just stepped out from under a waterfall.
He clamped a hand over my mouth. “Quiet.”
Blinking, I fought to push the fatigue away and straighten. The running had put me into a sort of trance, and I shook it off. Mouthing “sorry” against Ash’s hand. He took it off my face and nodded.
Cactus stopped in front of a doorway and pointed at it with one finger. I recognized it with a startle. The door and the hinges were the exact same as what stood at the front of our barracks in the forest. Down to the doorknob and the black paint on the door, the door could have been a perfect replica.
“Somebody likes things all matchy matchy,” I muttered. Ash grunted softly and we jogged across the hallway and slipped through the door Cactus held open for us. He didn’t follow us in.
“Be careful, Lark.” He touched my cheek as I went by and for a moment, I thought I heard him say something. I shook my head, but he didn’t repeat whatever it was he said.
“Thank you, Cactus. Now get out of here, before they see you helping us.”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek. “Be careful, my friend.” And then he was gone.
Nothing I could do about it now. We were here and we were going home one way or another. The entrance to the barracks was gloomy, as if we’d walked into a cloudbank. A hot, dry, sulfur-smelling cloudbank. I reached forward and grabbed at Ash as his body started to fade into the darkness, snagging the back of his belt. Now was not the time to be separated.
We slunk through the darkness, moving slowly in a low crouch. All the fatigue was gone from me as a second wave of adrenaline kicked in. I wanted to ask Ash if we could at least try to find a torch, a candle, anything that would give us a glimpse of where we were going. With each step, the tension around us tightened, like a noose slowly twisting around our necks. Unfortunately, the image was all too clear in my head, and my heart rate shot through the roof.
“Calm,” Ash breathed to me and I nodded, which was stupid since he couldn’t see me. I wanted to take a deep breath, but the air was getting thicker with fumes. I froze, jerking Ash to a stop. I pulled him back so that he was at my side. I spoke as softly as I could.
“They know we’d have to come here, to get to their traveling room. And this is where they train, right?”
“Yes, they train here.”
I grabbed his arm, digging my fingers into the muscle. “They train with what exactly?” I knew the answer, knew it in my gut. Fire and lava, that’s what they would train with, and they’d be damn good at using it against intruders.
Ash stiffened, his arm tightening under my hand. “Run.”
As if we were bound together, we leapt forward, running through the fumes and smoke, the room around us suddenly lighting up as flames shot around the circumference of the training area. Faces were illuminated, and not one of them was happy. The image was a split second of realization that we were sunk, truly and completely done in. It didn’t matter that the two Enders I’d potentially killed would have cut my throat and claimed it an accident of some sort, didn’t matter that our people would die, my father would die; no one would take that into account. These Enders wouldn’t care. They wouldn’t ask why we were here, or why we’d done what we’d done. Their job was to keep their family safe from threats. And for the first time in my life, that’s what I was.
Fear raced along my synapses and I wanted to sob with the understanding of what would happen, how much would be lost because of Cassava’s greed for power. Because of my stupid ability to see what was coming in a person’s actions.
Lava spilled up at our feet, forcing us to skid to a stop. I teetered on one foot, the heat from the liquid death slamming into me like a runaway elephant. Ash grabbed me and pulled me back.
“We only want to go back to our forest, without any help from your healers,” his voice was strong and controlled. Calm.
The tallest of the Enders stepped forward, face hidden behind another of those black masks, it wasn’t until he spoke I was sure that it was a man. “You killed two, TWO of our Enders. You know the penalty for killing another elemental.”
Ash inclined his head. “Not when it’s in self-defense.”
I knew in my heart there was no way Ash would be able to talk us out of this. He was stalling for time, for the slim chance we could make it past them somehow, that one of them would lower their guard. I closed my eyes and prayed, the words on my lips nothing more than movement. “Mother goddess, help us get home.”
There was no response to my prayer, nothing to tell me that she’d heard me or cared. I opened my eyes, seeing the room as if for the first time. Ash was pleading now, trying his damndest to get the Enders to understand, to see. But they weren’t going to let us go, they had the upper hand and they knew it.