I nodded, but I wasn’t sure it would work. Especially not when we turned to see we were not alone.

Fiametta stood behind us, her eyebrows arched high over her brilliant blue eyes, and her black leathers glistening in the flickering light around us. She seemed backlit by a pale pink light. My heart clenched. Was someone manipulating her even now?

But who?

“What does the Terraling not understand, Peta?”

CHAPTER 9

I dropped to one knee and pressed my hands into the rock, feeling the essence of the earth under my skin as Spirit still rode high through my veins. I could feel the beating heart of everyone within fifty feet, including the queen and the Ender below us.

Brand stared at me from a few steps behind the queen. “Terraling, you are supposed to be helping my wife.”

Letting out a slow breath I nodded and stood, the instinct to connect to the earth something I’d not expected. “She sent me with Cactus, since I fell into the river helping her with the laundry.”

Cactus tugged at my arm; I knew what he wanted. We hadn’t addressed Fiametta yet. Faux pas number one.

“Your Majesty,” I said.

“Terraling, I see you are getting the grand tour while your friend awaits his punishment. How lovely for you.” Fiametta’s voice cracked like a whip through the air and the men flinched. Peta clung to my shoulders, shaking once more. Behind the queen stood her black panther, Jag. His eyes were full of sorrow as he looked at me and then away. But he said nothing. No doubt the queen would just ignore him anyway. I watched as he turned and walked away, leaving his charge on her own.

So it was as Peta had said. The queen didn’t use her familiar at all.

A scramble of rocks behind us stopped all conversation as the Ender who’d attacked me and Cactus pulled himself over the ledge.

The queen went to him. From where I stood, her movements softened as she held a hand to him. He kissed her offered hand, his lips lingering on her skin and I saw a quick flash of his tongue as it darted out.

Worm shit and green sticks, of course it would be her lover.

The epiphany hit me like a dozen redwoods crashing to the forest floor. If he was her lover, he was also the traitor. Son of a bitch, he couldn’t have made it easier on us. If in fact, he was one and the same.

Eyes that were dark as night locked with mine as the Ender looked past his queen. “I don’t believe we’ve been introduced, you wyrm lover.” There it was, that same voice I’d heard in the memories.

Peta whispered in my ear. “He will not go down easy. Be wary.”

Fiametta turned so she faced me. “Wyrm lover? Coal, what is going on?”

Coal. Of course, his name would be the same as my ex-lover. Seemed fitting since I was about to ruin his life too. He stepped around her, a sly smile on his lips as he pointed a finger at me.

“She attacked me when I was trying to kill a pair of hatchlings.”

I laughed, feeling the weight of the moment laying on me. If I didn’t play this right, we would all be dead. I was not a consummate actress, but I had to try. “Please, why would I attack you? And what is this about a hatchling?”

He frowned and pointed to the back of his head. “I have a wound. And so does the prick. He tried to stop me and I clubbed him. Proof of my words.”

The furrowed brows on Fiametta’s face would have made me stop talking, but Coal kept on. She strode to Cactus who held very still, murmuring only a simple, “My queen.”

Her hands roved his face and head, looking for an injury. “I see nothing here, Coal.”

“Impossible. I heard his skull crack,” he said and then seemed to swallow his words as Fiametta turned toward him.

Fiametta’s eyes held flames. “You would attack my best defender, Ender? He is the first who stands between me and the firewyrms. That you would even admit this tells me how little you care for our safety. “

“Spitfire—”

I flinched as he used an obvious pet name for her. Her face paled and two bright red spots appeared high on her cheekbones. Coal swallowed whatever else he was going to say. Which was maybe his best decision of the day.

She raised her left hand and held it palm out toward him. “You are hereby stripped of your ranks, and all privileges. I see no wounds on Cactus, but he is a favored Salamander in our eyes and that you would even attack him leaves me questioning your loyalty.”

Confidence soaring, I had to fight the smile that wanted to creep over my lips. This really was too easy. “He has a scar on his hand, does he not? Hidden under his glove.”

Coal’s whole body jerked as if I’d jammed my knee into his family jewels. Fiametta looked from him to me. “Ender, do you know this Terraling?”

“No, my queen.” Interesting that his story was suddenly changing. Anything to keep on the queen’s good side.

“Oh, sure you do,” I said, feeling the weight of the situation as if a boulder lay across my shoulders and not a ten-pound house cat.

“I’ve never met her, my queen.” He was sweating, and I didn’t think it was heat. I glanced from him to Fiametta only to find her blue eyes staring at me.

I forced a smile to my lips as my mind raced. Think like Belladonna, that was all I could think. “Do you trust your Ender? Trust that he wouldn’t lie to you? Oh, what am I saying, he did lie to you just now. Right to your face.”

Her blue eyes narrowed to mere slits. “Terraling, you walk a fine line. Do remember that while you are here, you must abide by my rules until you leave. Or you will find yourself next to your friend making a last, short walk into the Pit together.”