“She can’t even defend herself!”

Laughter, more rocks, and in the crowd I saw a dark head. Coal, standing there, watching. Shaking his head. Doing nothing to help me, to stop them from trying to stone me to death.

“Coal,” I held my hand out to him and he . . . he turned away.

“That’s enough, you’ve had your fun,” Granite stepped close enough to me that my hecklers were forced to stop throwing rocks or risk having Granite thump them. My legs barely held me up and it wasn’t because I was hurt. Shock coursed through me, numbing my muscles and shutting down my mind. This was not how elementals treated one another. No one was stoned, or heckled, not even those considered useless or mad. They were all treated with respect. Yet why was I surprised? I was the only one in our family not treated with any sort of dignity. This moment was an extension of my whole life.

Granite took my arm, his fingers biting into my flesh, leading me, not into the Spiral, but toward the Enders barracks. “Don’t say anything, just come with me.”

I stumbled after him, my mind reeling. Coal had been with me, just an hour past, and now he turned from me.

Who could blame him, though? If he were attached to me, my sentence would become his. He would end up banished alongside me. Jaw aching with my teeth mashed together, a part of me still hated him. If he loved me as he claimed, wouldn’t he want to be with me, no matter where I was?

Granite took me to the far side of the barracks and sat me on a bench. “I don’t know what’s going on, but something’s up.”

A sigh of relief escaped me. “So, I’m not the only one being treated like this?”

His black eyes, flecked with blue, were as hard as his name. “No, you are the only one treated as such. But even so, no one has ever been stoned in our family and I’m not going to let them start now. I will bring your father to you. Don’t move, don’t talk to anyone.”

Don’t move? Where in the seven hells would I go? I leaned back, resting my head against the wall behind me. Above me hung an array of weapons, swords, daggers, blades of all sorts, most of which I couldn’t name. A few spears, and at the end hung the bows and arrows. The broad heads I knew were used for hunting, designed to cut through flesh. But Enders only hunted traitors and criminals. I swallowed hard, realizing I fell into at least one of those two categories, according to what everyone believed of me.

Footsteps brought me to my feet.

Granite walked a few feet behind my father. I couldn’t move, couldn’t walk toward him even for fear that he would think me attacking him. So I stood up where I was, slowly, carefully. “Father, she’s lying, I never touched her. Please, please don’t banish me.”

“Be silent,” he snapped, his tone harsh enough to sit me down on the bench. He softened his voice, but only by a degree, “I know you didn’t attack her, you are as soft as your mother was before . . . Cassava’s just lashing out because . . . .” He ran a hand over the back of his neck. “It isn’t your fault, she’s just being petty. But what am I going to do with you?” His eyes met mine and I saw in them a sorrow that for the first time I understood.

“You never stopped loving her, did you?”

His jaw clenched and his throat bobbed. “You . . . are so much like her it hurts me to look at you. And you remind Cassava of her more than I would like.”

That was the closest thing he’d ever come to saying he loved me and for a moment, I thought things would be okay.

“None of that matters.” Father’s voice was raspy and he coughed to clear it. “You will always be a target because you’re weaker than the rest of us.”

And there was that word again. Weak. I was too damn weak to protect myself.

Granite stepped beside my father and whispered something in his ear. Father started and looked from Granite to me and back again. He rubbed a hand over his chin, eyes thoughtful.

“You think that would help?”

“It would give her a way to protect herself, and would give her a very good use. You know we are forbidden to use our abilities with the earth when we go on a Hunt. She would fit in perfectly in that respect.”

A chill swept through me as an inkling of what they were talking about grew in my heart. Could it be? Might I have a spot in our family after all, one I could actually do?

Granite confirmed it, cajoling my father. “I could train her. She’s already strong from the physical labor of the planting fields, stronger than any of the other recruits by far. Wouldn’t take much to turn that into a weapon. And if the queen is concerned of an assassination, Enders will surround Lark. Of course, once she takes her final testing, she will be taking oaths that will bind her from ever hurting someone in the royal family.”

My father took a slow breath looking from me to Granite and back again. “And what do you think about being trained as an Ender, Larkspur?”

Me, an Ender? A weapon for the king to wield when needed. A champion of the people, someone who dealt in justice and doing what was best for the family. Heart pounding, a flush of excitement washed up through me, as if I’d dove into a hot spring on an icy winter day.

“Yes, make me a weapon.”

Chapter 6

More than one pair of Ender’s eyes followed me as I packed my small amount of allowable items into the tiny room allotted to me. All I had was my work clothes, the jewelry my mother had left me—what little of it I had—and the spear Niah had given me. That got the most looks, but it was Granite who stopped me, blocking my path. His eyes traced the weapon with a familiarity that I didn’t understand.