Fiametta snapped the paper and then began to read. “If any Ender should kill another Ender, they shall be sentenced to death. As Enders are trained to the highest skill level with weapons and magic they shall be held to a higher standard.” Fiametta blew out a breath. “This is nothing new, Belladonna.”

“Please, the next few lines are the most important.” She clasped her hands together, holding them at her waist.

Fiametta shrugged. “But should an Ender be killed by someone not with that title, their death shall be considered just. If those trained to the highest standard fall, it is to be their time to return to the mother goddess.”

Bella held her hand out to Fiametta, taking the paper back. “This is truth?”

“Yes, of course it is,” Fiametta snapped and then her eyes widened. The net Belladonna had carefully laid seemed to visibly settle over her. “Damn, you are your mother’s daughter. Clever girl.”

“In this case, I will thank you, and take that as a compliment.” Belladonna lifted one hand, palm upward. “Your Enders were killed before Larkspur took her final testing to become an Ender in full. Therefore she is within her rights, and they were meant to return to the mother goddess. You may not execute her, or Ash in her stead.”

Bella swept toward me, but Fiametta stopped her. “Belladonna, read the next line on that paper . . . if you will.”

My sister closed her eyes and I knew that whatever happened next on the sheet was going to be bad. Her hand trembled so I took the paper from her, unfolding it so I could read the remainder of the section.

The words were about as shitty as I could have imagined. “Those who kill an Ender shall yet be punished, for death is not to be taken lightly. And the one who shall mete out that punishment will be the ruler of the house the Enders were taken from.” I lowered the paper and looked straight at Fiametta. “I assume you have something in mind?”

Her smile was not nice, the edges of her lips hard with cruelty. “I have just the thing for a spoiled royal who thinks she can come into my home and do whatever she pleases without facing a single consequence.” She walked up to me and leaned in close, her words only for my ears. “A royal who will not willingly help another ruler.” She clapped her hands together and Brand strode forward, handing her a coil of rope.

Fiametta pointed the coil at me—leather, not rope—“Strip her.”

Belladonna gasped. “You can’t truly mean to do to this.”

“Cassava has obviously misled you, little Terraling. We are not friends, and neither are our families.” Fiametta uncoiled the rope and her hands lit up as she called on the fire. Like a living snake it wrapped around the leather, lighting it.

My sister spun to me. “Lark, fight her!”

Peta trembled beside me, her fear bleeding into my heart. “Lark, this is not a punishment you can survive, the lava whip is deadly to any who don’t carry fire in their veins.”

Fiametta shrugged. “You won’t do as I ask. Unless you have changed your mind?”

All I had to do was agree to help her hunt the traitors, the two that on my own I would have gone after.

Pride had gotten me into this mess. Perhaps humility would allow me to find a way out. “I will do . . . as you ask.”

There was a heavy pause in the air and she patted me on the head. “Well done. I will only give you half the lashes.” She smirked and my jaw dropped.

Maggie stepped forward. “How I have waited for this. Better even than the Pit, your death will be slow.” Along with two other Enders she grabbed me and they stripped the clothes from my body, leaving me as bare as the day I was born.

“On your knees,” Fiametta commanded and I dropped, a slow steady fury building in my guts. How could she do this in front of her people, and they allow it? The answer was simple. The same way the people of the Deep had bowed to Requiem. The same way my own family had bowed to Cassava.

Child, do not fight her. This is part of your training, this is part of your journey. Hold tightly to the earth, hold tightly to me and I will see you through this. The mother goddess spoke softly and I reached for the power underneath my knees. The mountain’s essence filled me, like a cup overflowing with water and I squeezed it, wrapping it around me.

The whip sailed through the air, cracking at the last second before it touched my back. At first I thought I would be spared the pain as the lash left my back, for a split second I felt nothing.

I was so very wrong.

A blaze of pain roared up my spine, tracing the lines of the whip as if a serpent made of pure fire had lain across my skin. I couldn’t stop the cry that escaped and I heard it echoed from Bella, as she sobbed. Echoed in Peta as she cried out with me.

The lash fell again and I collapsed to my hands and knees, the pain cutting through me, feeling as though it would truly divide my body wherever it touched. I lost count how many times the whip burned over my body, time receded and I floated in a place where my body and spirit seemed to have disconnected from my mind.

In that haze, an intense hatred blossomed. Fiametta, and Requiem. Leaders of two families of elementals and neither deserved the position, nor the power. Yet they were given it. Even my own father was a complete mess, his mind and spirit twisted by Cassava to the point he was unable to trust past the fear. The mother goddess had allowed it to happen, and had allowed this to happen.

I was the one being punished for deaths I hadn’t caused.

The world was not fair. I knew that and was not fool enough to think otherwise. But this was too far. The anger powered through me and I clung to it, riding it like a wild horse that would carry me into battle. The whip was coming, the sound of it in the air cut through every other noise around me. I pushed myself up so I was on my knees.