“Damn you, Terraling.” He spun toward us and pulled himself up the ladder after Peta who scrambled ahead of him.

I climbed after him, Ash on my heels and I realized we were missing someone. “Cactus, where is he?”

“The queen asked for him while you were out,” Ash answered and then there was no air for questions, barely air for breathing.

At the top of the ladder, the thick smoke hung dark enough to dim the glittering light that lit the tunnels. Brand didn’t reach back for me, which was fine. I crawled over the lip of the ladder, coughing as I struggled to breathe. Ash wasn’t doing any better and we scooted forward until the air cleared a little.

Brand led us toward the Traveling room, stopping at the stairwell that led down to it. I peered past him to stare at the bubbling lava that curled up the steps toward us. That made the decision easy. No going home that way.

He didn’t pause though. “The queen has a backup pair of armbands in her chambers. She’ll let you use those. I don’t know where they will take you though.”

“Unless she’s using them to get her people out of here,” Peta said softly, padding ahead of us at a steady trot. She seemed totally unperturbed by the events slowly piling up. Events that had no real meaning I could see other than to wipe out the Salamanders.

The facts seemed to be that someone was trying to kill them. And I was pretty sure I knew who. It was just a matter of whether or not I could stop him.

That was the real problem; how did I find the man who called himself Blackbird and kick his ass if he carried three elements within himself? Three elements he was strong enough in that he could easily take me out. Not to mention he also carried the ring that gave him power over fire.

Brand stopped suddenly and I almost walked into him, so deep within my own thoughts as I was.

The healer’s room doors were flung wide and while there was a bustling trade going on, there was almost no noise. Fiametta strode from table to table, talking to those patients laid out. Her hands brushed against cheeks, touched skin that wasn’t broken with heat blisters, gave comfort where she could.

Clearing his throat, Brand got her attention. “My queen, the Traveling room is cut off.”

“I see.” She walked toward us, her blue eyes cool. “I suppose you want the bands from my room.”

Brand nodded. “I can get them myself.”

“Do that.” Her words were soft, like the precursor of rain as clouds were driven in on high, silent winds. I braced myself, facing her head on.

“You think we did this somehow.”

Her eyes narrowed and I expected to see lines of power running up her arms, except there was nothing. “If I thought that, I would kill you myself right now. No, this is the work of the traitors. Which you have agreed to help me find. I suggest now that you are healed, you get on it.”

Ash shifted beside me and I recognized the pose. He was prepping a move that would allow him to leap up and drive both fists directly into Fiametta’s throat. Her eyes narrowed. Of course she would recognize it, being a former Ender. As much as I hated her for whipping me as she had, a part of me understood that it was the law. Even I couldn’t deny it.

I put a hand on his arm. Our eyes met and he relaxed—a little, anyway.

“I know who did this,” I said, just as Cactus stepped into the room. He had a long burn up his left arm and there was soot all over his face, which made his eyes stand out even more, but he was at least intact.

He gave me a wink and blew Ash a kiss. “Good to see you two made it out all right.”

“Don’t speak too soon, pet,” Fiametta said and then turned to me once more. “What do you think has been done, Terraling?” Her voice dropped into almost a coo, that I recognized for what it was.

Dangerous.

This was the tricky part, yet there was no nice way to speak the truth. I fought not to cross my arms over my chest; I had done nothing, and yet I felt like I was already defending myself. “Your power has been blocked. And that’s why your element has turned on you.”

Someone from the table to the right of us moaned. “The mother goddess has turned her eyes from us. We have offended her and now she will cleanse her children of their sins.”

Fiametta didn’t move. “How could you know this if you were not the one—”

“Because Cassava has done it to me in the past. It is possible, and it’s the only thing that makes sense. It is the power of Spirit being used on you.” I waved my hand at the room, and the people in it. “How else would you explain this? Your people burning in their own element? Your inability to reach your power? The firewyrms attacking for no reason? Your inability to see reason . . . all of it can be attributed to someone manipulating Spirit. I just never would have thought it could be used on this scale.”

The queen lifted her hand and there was a flicker of red tracing the inner edge of her arm. She was trying to pull on her power, but the lines flickered and died like a flame being snuffed. Her shoulder’s slumped. “Damn you for being right. This is why those who carry Spirit are killed on sight.”

Her back straightened as fast as it had slumped. “Ender,” she pointed at young Jack, “I want everyone out of the mountain. Immediately.”

He clapped his hands together, and barked out orders. “You heard her, everyone head to the entrance, take nothing but the clothes on your back.”

Smit, the healer who tended me several times, made eye contact with me. I jogged to his side and slid an arm around his patient, a young girl probably of an age with Stryker. “I can carry her.”