Breakwater Read Free

my feet touched the ground.
    “You don’t know that,” Douglas shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls in the cavern.
    Finally, I got a good look at his companion. Bright red hair visible, even across the water and through the mist. And I knew without seeing her orange eyes.
    Magma had come looking for me.
    Green shit sticks, this really was not a good turn of events. I leaned out so I could get a better look. Magma strode across the sand, her black leather Ender body suit clinging to her. She stopped with her feet at the edge of the water. “I will wait for her here. I don’t want her slipping past us again.”
    Douglas looked like he was going to have a fit. “Get out, Ender Magma. I will bring her to you when her testing is done.”
    “No.”
    They continued to argue and I knew there was no way to get past them. At least, not across the shoreline. A shiver ran through my body as a cool breeze from deeper in the caverns blew across the water. Freezing wasn’t going to help me any. Slowly, I slid back into the hot spring, careful not to make a sound, the heat flushing my skin and body.
    My hair spun out around me, floating on the surface like golden seaweed. Using the rocky edge of the pool, I pulled myself back into the shadows of the overhanging rock. How the hell was I going to get out of this?
    “What is going on here?” My father’s voice boomed across the water to me. I spun around, the water swirling into eddies about my body.
    “Ender Magma thinks to pull Larkspur from her testing to be tried at the Pit.” Douglas’s voice held more than a hint of condescension.
    “She needs to be properly tried, Basileus. You convincing the ambassador she did nothing wrong is not enough for Queen Fiametta. She wants Larkspur properly tried, and punished. As is the queen’s right.”
    Someone, I assumed Douglas, sucked in a breath so hard I heard it all the way across the water. I knew why.
    Magma had called my father by name, and not used “your highness” or even “king.” It was a slap in the face. Below us, the earth growled, and even from where I hid, I saw the subtle glow of green on my father’s hands. The rocks under me rumbled, and the water rippled with the vibrations. Magma treaded very dangerous ground.
    I let go of the rocks so I could float free in the water.
    “Magma. You forget yourself. I will bring Larkspur to Fiametta myself.” His words were laced with granite and power. I shivered and was pleased to see that not only did Magma leave, but Douglas, too. I waited until their figures disappeared up the stairs cut into the earth before I swam across the water, keeping my movements as stealthy as possible. But he still heard me.
    “Larkspur. Get dressed.”
    “Are you going to hand me over to them?” I reached the shore and stood, the water lapping around my thighs. My feet sunk into the sand, putting me eye level with my father.
    Everything about him reminded me that he was the king. The flecks of gray through his dark brown hair were a mark of age most of our people didn’t see, the deep green of his eyes were filled with knowledge of the past, present, and future, and the power I could see dancing along his fingertips like green flames made the earth hum under my feet.
    He flicked his fingers at me, a move that would have the sand push me forward. This was a gift I had—the ability to see when another elemental would use their power. It had saved me more than once already.
    I sidestepped the push and stepped fully onto the shoreline. “I’ll take that as a yes.”
    He shook his head. “Lark, I would not hand over any of my children to Fiametta. She is a friend of Cassava. They are very close, in fact.” His eyes softened and he got a faraway look that scared me more than if he’d been angry and yelling.
    I swallowed hard as I watched the emotions play across his face. “You still love her?”
    His eyes narrowed. “She is the mother of most of my children. I cannot hate