He sat up and took a swing at me. I blocked him easily and he slowly came around. "Your reflexes stink," Peta muttered at him.
He cleared his throat as his eyes un-fogged from sleep. "What?"
"Is Cassava working with you and Talan?" I repeated the words slower this time.
Pushing himself to the edge of the bed, he shook his head. "She was. I'm not sure now. Spirit has warped her because it is not truly her element. Why do you ask? In the middle of the night, no less." He rubbed a hand over his face, his eyes finally opening wide.
"Viv pulled me into a vision, and Cassava took the stones." I waved my hand at my hip. "The false mother goddess believes she must kill the original elementals to truly harness their power. But that is not what's going to happen." In my mind, an image sprang out of nowhere. A huge tree with multiple root systems, and Vivica at the base, chopping at the roots. Above her head, the different branches of the tree curled in on themselves and died. "I think the elemental families will be wiped out if she kills the Original Terralings."
Raven bolted to his feet and he grabbed my arms. "Are you sure?"
I opened my eyes, not realizing I'd even closed them. I swayed where I was, but I felt in my bones that the words I'd spoken were, while not truth, a distinct possibility. I answered in the way that would help my cause the most. "Yes. I'm sure."
Raven pushed past me and I followed, stumbled a little and paused.
"Peta, what happened?"
"Spirit can bring on understandings like that. Leaps of logic that you might not have otherwise put together. It happened with the false mother goddess before. Lark, you knew Viv was the creator of the rings when there were such small hints that no one else had figured it out. You knew Talan for who he is with as little." She sat beside me as I struggled to get hold of myself.
I nodded, knowing she was right. That didn't make it any easier. I forced my feet to move and before long we were in the top cavern.
Raven and Talan were having quite the argument. I was glad for once it wasn't me in the middle of things.
"We have to go now! We can follow her and find your siblings because if we don't, the elemental families, all we've been trying to save, will be wiped out!" Raven snapped, motioning with his hand to what I assumed was the outside world.
"No, Larkspur is not trained and that must come first. She is too far behind the rest of us in training, and there will be no chance later." Talan's face was tight as though the words themselves pained him. "You must be able to stand with us-" I knew he meant him and his siblings, "and you cannot do that without help. Another tried to take her on without proper training, and he died for it."
"Who?" I frowned. "Who has gone after her?"
Talan snapped his head around, surprised I was there. "No one," he said and walked toward the exit tunnel.
"Talan," I shouted, my blood racing, though not knowing why the answer to my question meant so much. He stopped in his tracks, quietly stared at the ground for a moment.
"It doesn't matter any longer," he said softly. "He thought he was strong enough because he knew, as you now know, there was a blood connection stronger in him to the mother goddess than anyone except her five original children. He failed, Lark. He failed because he didn't know what he was doing. He was untrained."
My heart pounded, but something wasn't right. "How young was he?"
"Sixteen."
Who was Talan speaking of? What teenager had a strong connection to the mother goddess? The answer knocked me upside the head: The real mother goddess's grandchild. Talan's son. Talan said he bargained with the false goddess for his son's life. That must've been how Viv got her claws on his son in the first place. I lifted my eyes to Talan.
"I've survived and learned a great deal in my time, and not being trained has never stopped me before," I pointed out as I stepped farther into the room. "Why not train me as we follow her? I mean, it's not like we're trying to keep the stones safe from her now; she has them."
Talan rounded on me. "You want to try and stop her from killing one of my siblings? What happens then? She'll know we are following her. We will only be able to save one of them. One family saved, but only for a little while. Do you think Viv won't come back to try and finish the job?"
A mean streak slid down my back and I didn't hold back. "Wouldn't they offer themselves to die to save the others? Why not save one or two and allow the others to die for their siblings?" I didn't want that. I didn't want any of the elemental families to die out, but Talan was not the one being told to give up those he loved.