Frowning, I stood. “That makes no sense. We have helped all the families build their homes in the past. To one degree or another. Why would touching this particular stone be bad?”
Peta trotted to the large bed that dominated the room and leapt up onto it. She sunk down to her chin in the lush blankets. “Oh, this is nice.” She seemed to lose her train of thought for a moment in the physical sensation.
“The Eyrie . . . it is different from the others. The Pit is buried under a mountain close to the fire in the earth. The Deep floats in the ocean, made up of sand and shells. But the Eyrie is built into the mountain, and while it is high within the stratosphere, it is the power of the Terralings that keeps it together. With the connection you have to the earth boosted by Spirit, you are drawn like a magnet to this place. It means you have more power here than anywhere else in this world. It also means the mountain will do as you ask, even if you don’t ask.”
“Shit, I didn’t know that.” Cactus tightened his hold on me, and pulled me closer to him. He let go of my hand and wrapped his arm around my waist. “Don’t touch anything, Lark. You’ll break the mountain in half.”
I snorted. “Please, don’t be a fool.”
Oh, if only that were the truth.
CHAPTER 16
he first day passed in the Eyrie with no clues as to whether my father was there at all. Samara led us around on a tour of the second and third levels. Tiers were built into the mountain with multiple wide stairways leading up and down.
“Night is coming, and I have to go on guard duty.” Samara stopped again at the door to our suite.
“Will you come in for a moment? I have a question I’d rather not ask in the open.” I stepped through the doorway and waited, looking at her while keeping my face carefully blank. Her pale eyebrows ticked upward, but she stepped through the door.
We hadn’t spoken much through the tour, at least not about anything other than the makeup of the Eyrie and what we were seeing. All interesting, but not what I wanted to know.
I made myself ask the question. “Samara, is there any dissension in the Eyrie? Something a person from outside of your family could exploit?”
If I thought her eyebrows had climbed before, that was nothing to what they did then. “Who exactly would want to exploit my family?” Her words were smooth, but there was a hard bite to them. I saw the way her hand drifted to the pointed short staff strapped to her back.
I held my hands up, palms facing her. “There is one from our family, Cassava. She has . . . caused a great deal of strife not only in the Rim, but has tried to usurp the other families in one way or another too.”
Samara’s hand dropped away from her staff. “The queen here is well loved, even by her spoiled daughters. The Enders respect her even with her advanced age. There is no reason for anyone to think she will cross the Veil anytime soon. And as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it is hard to slip anything by her in spite of her eyes.”
Tension should have eased off me with her words, but it did not. If there was no dissension here, why was my father hidden away in the Eyrie? Either Samara was lying, or there was more going on than the Ender knew. I hoped it was the latter; I liked Samara.
“Is that the only question?” She looked up at me.
I nodded. “Yes. For now.”
She backed out and shut the door behind us with a click. There was no additional click of a lock, though. Cactus went to the bed and flopped down with his legs and arms spread wide, his fingers reaching for Peta. “Come here, bad luck cat. I know you want to cuddle.”
She hissed and swatted at him. I didn’t move, didn’t take part in their banter as they swapped insults.
“Prick, if I didn’t know better, I’d think you had a death wish.”
“Well, if I stick close to you, isn’t that what will happen?”
“Why, you miserable lizard!”
“Salamander, cat, get it right.”
I took a step, then another, moving through the room. I couldn’t help but touch the pieces of stone that peered out of the wall. I untied my boots and slipped them off.
The power of the earth curled around me like a pair of strong arms. Peta was right, there was something different here in the Eyrie. Like the earth had more consciousness in this place than anywhere else.
A flick of a tail across my nose made me sneeze. I opened my eyes, not even remembering when I’d closed them or when I’d collapsed to my knees next to the bed. Peta stood in front of me, her eyes crinkled around the edges with worry. “Lark. I think you should wear your boots here. This place calls to you too strongly.”
“It was someone like me, Peta. Someone who carried Spirit and Earth. That’s why it’s like . . . coming home.” I choked the words out.
Her lips curled upward. “Then perhaps when this is done, we come back. Maybe this is where you belong, Lark.”
“I would come with you,” Cactus said. I looked up at him, expecting him to be teasing me. But the look in his eyes was serious, through and through.