Peta (An Elemental Series Novella, 3.5) Read Free Page B

this?”
    “Parts of it.”
    “I could handle being your familiar if this is what my paws get to be on.” I kneaded the ground, my eyelids fluttering. I tipped my face up in time to see the prick plant his lips on Dirt Girl’s.
    Mouse turds, this could be trouble. The prick was known to be a flirt, and the reputation that floated with him was that he was happy to bed anything that moved. Though I had no actual bearing that the rumors were true, I had no reason to doubt them.
    “Peta,” Dirt Girl scooped me up so we were eye to eye. “Are you really with me? Can I trust you with my life?”
    I frowned. Why would she ask me that? Did she think so little of me that I would turn on her? “The mother goddess assigned me to you herself. It is my job to help you stay alive.”
    “That’s not what I’m asking.” She paused and I could almost see the thoughts rolling through her. “Peta, are you with me?”
    Her emotions swelled, and I pushed at them, keeping myself from truly feeling what she was.
    “You’re going to be the death of all nine of my lives, aren’t you?”
    “I hope not.”
    I snorted and twitched my ears. “I am with you, Dirt Girl. What are you going to ask of me?”
    “Can you get into the Ender Barracks? There is an Ender with a scar on the top of his right hand. I need to know his name.”
    I leapt from her hands, bracing myself. Now I had to decide. Would I help her truly or stay loyal to the only home I’d truly known? “What does the scar look like?”
    She crouched beside me and turned her hand palm down. The scars on her hand from me grabbing her with my mouth had faded to silvery lines. “Like my scars only thicker, like a bigger cat maybe clawed him.”
    I suspected which Ender she spoke of. Coal had been the idiot to challenge Damascus, the Bengal tiger assigned to the queen’s son, Flint. Yet I didn’t tell her his name, and a prickle of guilt nipped at my toes. No, I was being loyal to my people. Coal may or may not have been the problem anyway. There was no point in ratting him out. “He should be easy to find. Why do you want him?”
    “He’s a traitor to the queen. If we give him to her, I think we should be able to bargain for Ash’s life,” she said. Cactus gave a low grunt.
    “You do not know her very well then.”
    Again, she looked to me. “And what do you think, cat? You think the queen will not bargain?”
    “Cactus is right. She won’t bargain.” I shook my head, ears twitching. “But it might buy us time if you offer her a traitor on a platter. She likes nothing more than to wield the Lava Whip herself on those she deems deserving of punishment.”
    A shiver ran though Dirt Girl. She was right to be afraid. The Lava Whip would kill anyone who wasn’t a Salamander, and the death would be brutally painful. I’d seen it only once, and that was enough to give me nightmares.
    “Time is better than nothing,” she said softly. “See if you can find the Ender I described to you. But be careful.”
    Her worry over me came through the bonds loud and clear. I bobbed my head and ran down the hallway, my footsteps eaten by the moss, ignoring the warm glow her worry lit in me.
    Through the tunnels I trotted, and all around me were those who’d known me for years.
    “Bad luck cat, get outta here.”
    “Kill anyone lately?”
    “Goddess, why’s she still around?”
    They were just words, but they hurt as if they were sharp sticks jabbed against my heart.
    Hadn’t I done enough? I had asked the mother goddess that very thing. Was it not enough that I’d suffered through losing twelve charges? Most familiars stayed with one, maybe two of those they were set to watch over. Twelve.
    Twelve lives.
    Twelve deaths.
    Twelve times I’d failed my task to make sure they outlived me.
    And that was why I had tried to save Dirt Girl in the Deep. I saw in her a strength I had a hard time admitting even to myself.
    She was a survivor, a fighter for those who needed her.
    But