“Harrumph,” Zephyr snorted and sank back on her haunches. “That didn’t happen when I touched the small opal.”
“Maybe it was already at full capacity,” I responded. Only then did I realize that Trey’s head had snapped back and forth as if he had been following both sides of the conversation.
The wolf wrinkled her nose. “You are an interesting pup, Rueben. I’m learning new things.”
“Okay,” I said, pulling my clenched hand back so the opal wasn’t close to Zephyr. “Keep your nose away and let it soak up more power.”
We sat quietly for a few moments and then Trey gestured around. “We found these two opals. Are we done here, or are there more magical stones we can dig up?”
“We’re done,” I said.
Trey sounded disappointed. “No more stones?”
I adjusted the level of magical power for searching, looked around, and pointed along the rock face. “There’s another one, maybe stronger than these, about a hundred paces in that direction. It’s buried deep, at least twenty feet beneath the surface.”
“Like the mine,” Trey said.
“Have you ever been over there?” I asked, startled. I almost always tried things my parents had warned against, but Father had been so adamant that I stay away from the mine that I had obeyed. Maybe he had pressured me by using his magic to keep me from going in that direction. If so, why?
Trey nodded, “I scouted around over there once this summer. They have a big pile of rock they dug out of the mine, which is mostly a big pit at the bottom of a cliff. It also looked like they had dug a tunnel into the cliff in the bottom of the pit. There are several log buildings, a lot of dirt and mud, and not even a single garden.”
“He’s right,” Zephyr added.
“We’re done here,” I said, turning towards my pack. After carefully wrapping each new opal in a small piece of leather, I stored them in a compartment next to the small one. My stomach grumbled as I thought about ordinary things. “I’m getting hungry.”
“It’s the middle of the afternoon,” Trey said, “and we didn’t eat much breakfast. I’m hungry, too.”
We loaded the furs in the packs, picked up the weapons, grabbed the tools and headed towards the shed. On the way, I killed a pheasant with my sling and Trey got a rabbit with an arrow. Even in my satisfaction over killing the pheasant with one throw, I wondered why the game was more plentiful than earlier in the year. Zephyr dispatched the rabbit with gusto while Trey and I fixed a small fire and started roasting the pheasant. A few carrots and herbs from the garden went well with the fresh meat.
The sun had already dipped behind the western mountains by the time we finished eating. I checked on the opals and looked at Zephyr. “They are still storing power. Let’s stay here tonight and head out tomorrow.”
Her nostrils flared before she responded. “The extra power is worth the risk, but that Hunter may come back. You need to check for danger every hour.”
Trey and I settled down to sleep in the shed and Zephyr joined us a short time later. I roused several times during the night and did a check for danger. Nothing strange registered in my mind, so I went back to sleep.
I woke at first light, feeling rested, but with an unusual hint of a headache. Trey was a few feet from me still wrapped in a sleeping fur and I could see Zephyr lying in front of the door, which was open just enough I could see through the crack. I stretched and checked on the new opals again to determine if they were still drawing power. I didn’t feel any power, so I checked closer and caught a hint of the magic in the smaller stone, but nothing from the bigger ones. My breath came more quickly as I rolled over and reached for my pack. The closing ties were loose and the flap gaped open.
“Zephyr,” I screamed. “The Guldur Stones are gone!”
Chapter 5 – Magical Theft
Zephyr lunged to her feet with a terrific growl in response to my scream. Trey was already sitting up and he scuttled back on his hands and butt when the wolf moved towards me with her nostrils flaring and her white teeth gleaming in the dim light. I moved back as well from the frightening sight.
“Show me,” she commanded.
My hands trembled from anger and fear as I pointed at the heavy leather pack. Foam flecks appeared on Zephyr’s lips but she stood as still as one of the tree stumps outside. I shuffled forward on my hands and knees far enough to reach the pack. The loosened flap gaped open enough I could easily insert my fingers and snatch out one of the small pieces of leather that had contained an opal. Instead of an opal, grey sand spilled out of the leather when I clumsily opened it. I held the empty piece of leather up, dumbfounded, and asked, “What happened to the stone?”
Zephyr sank onto her haunches and stared unblinkingly at the little pile of sand. Her faint magical voice held distinct overtones of fear, “A Vassago does that when they find a stone.”
She had mentioned the Vassago in the past and indicated they were evil, but her description had been woefully incomplete. I was so angry and disappointed my hands opened and clenched repeatedly. My stiff fingers looked like the claws of an eagle or osprey. Beyond them, the smear of grey sand on the dirt floor brought tears to my eyes. If the magicians behind the Hunters came after me personally, I would need strong magic simply to stay alive. “That opal was a powerful source of magic,” I whined.
“The other one?” Zephyr asked, with her tone indicating I was acting childish.
After taking three deep breaths, I calmed down enough to reach into the pack again. The second piece of leather felt light when I pulled it out. It was empty, but there wasn’t any sand. I flapped it in the air and looked at Zephyr. “Does a Vassago also steal intact stones?” I asked.
“No… I’ve never heard of that happening.”
“You don’t know much, do you?” I said sarcastically as I reached for the piece of leather containing the small opal.
Zephyr growled a warning, but I ignored her as I opened the final piece of leather. The opal tumbled out on my palm, nearly drained of magical power, but still intact. On a whim, I reached for the more external magic and funneled it into the opal. To my delight, it began storing power.
Zephyr stepped closer and sniffed the pack. She moved her nose closer to the opal, still sniffing.
“Careful,” I warned, pulling it back. “It just started storing power again.”
“Someone was here,” Trey hissed, averting his gaze from Zephyr as he pointed at the open door. He had moved back so far that he was wedged between the end of the workbench and a stack of cured wood.
I stared at him, and spoke, unable to contain my frustration. “Obviously that was the case. Did you see or hear someone during the night?”
“No,” he replied as he stretched out one arm and pulled his sleeping fur closer with trembling fingers. “I didn’t sleep well and I kept dreaming about… about my parents. I didn’t see anyone come in.”
“But we shut the door last night,” I said as I thought back over events as we went to bed. Zephyr had come through the door and then used the nails on her nimble foot to pull it closed. The door didn’t have a lock, instead, we inserted a piece of wood through the outside handle to keep the door shut when we weren’t inside. Often, the open door was the biggest source of light.
“You slept in front of the door,” I barked at Zephyr. “Did you feel anything strange during the night?”
She turned and studied the partially open door with golden eyes. “Nothing unusual,” she answered and then looked at me. “Did you set a magical guard?”
A sinking feeling gathered in my stomach. “No,” I muttered. “I set one the night before, but not last night. I did check for danger several times; every time I woke up. Nothing.”
Irritation replaced the sinking feeling as I stared at the wolf. She was the one who had told me about setting magical guards and she had been able to access the strong ma
gic yesterday using the small stone. “Didn’t you set a magic guard?” I demanded.
“What’s a magical guard?” Trey asked with wide eyes. Sweat beaded on his brow. “Why would we need one?”
I grabbed the pack, pulled it closer, and tapped my clenched fist on the empty pouch. “We need a guard because of this.” Instead of answering Trey’s other question, I looked back at Zephyr and tried to restrain my irritation with her apparent lack of action. “Why didn’t you set a guard?”
The sound coming from deep in Zephyr’s chest was more a rumble than a growl. Her forelegs stiffened and hair rippled down her back. “You saw what happened yesterday when I touched one of the stones. I didn’t want to touch it again until it was full of stored power.”
The answer made sense. Yet, she had been able to reach the external magic yesterday using the pea-sized stone without physically touching it. Why hadn’t she set a guard? My personality faced problems head on, and I knew, without understanding why, that others used solution paths more crooked than a snake trail. Zephyr wasn’t telling me everything.
Trey crawled away from the workbench, got to his feet, and pointed at the door. “We should check the ground outside for tracks.”
“Not likely to be any,” I responded and got to my feet. Sitting on the floor whining like a frightened baby wouldn’t accomplish anything.
Zephyr’s tail whipped against my legs as she turned around in the confined space and pushed the door open with her nose. “Smell anything?” I asked.
“The only fresh scents match with the three of us.”
The wolf stopped before stepping through the door and looked in every direction. I crowded close and studied the outside ground near the door. Trey pointed over Zephyr’s back and said, “There are wolf prints on top of the tracks you and I left coming in last night.”
“Zephyr came in after we did,” I replied.
Zephyr’s fur rippled in waves down her back as she stepped outside and sniffed the air. “Someone was here and they didn’t leave any tracks or scent.”
“Were they really here?” I demanded. “A week ago, I was able to pull an arrowhead across a cave without touching it. Could a trained magician have stolen the stone without entering the shed?”
“It is possible,” Zephyr said and looked around, staying close to the wall of the shed. I could see she was tense and then suddenly I knew she was also scared.
“No,” Trey grated, tapping his knuckles on the wooden door. “I watched you shut the door when you came in last night. It was open this morning. Someone opened it during the night and stole the stones.”
I was getting more confused as the discussion opened up more options. “How would someone know we had the stones? I didn’t set a magical guard, but I did think about hiding them using magic.”
“Easy,” Trey said as he stepped outside and scanned the sky. “That dragon flew over us more than once yesterday when we were digging. It knew what we were doing.”
“That makes sense, in one way,” I said. “But…”
“But what?” Trey prompted.
I turned and pointed at Zephyr. “Several days ago, you told me that wolves and dragons can’t see Guldur Stones from a distance. They have to touch them before they know they contain magic. Is that correct?”
Zephyr’s voice sounded plaintive. “That’s what I said.”
For a moment, I accepted her response and then I began to think about the words she used. “I know what you said,” I said gruffly. “However, are your words always accurate? Have there been exceptions? Could that dragon have known we dug up new magical stones? I mean really know, not just guessing that was what we had done.”
After a long pause, Zephyr walked away from the shed with her nose in the air, sniffing the air. The hair that had been standing up along her back was now lying down normally. She finally replied as she moved behind the shed towards the creek. “You are an exception. A totally unexpected, and somewhat irritating, exception.”
“What now?” Trey asked after the wolf passed out of sight. “You were really excited about finding those stones, opals you called them. Do you really need them? You didn’t use one of them when you healed me.”
“I don’t know what I need,” I admitted, feeling confused, “but they help me access a lot more magical power than I can reach without them. I’ve never done this stuff before, but I am concerned that the King’s Hunter will go after Ara, just as he went after you. I need to go back to Glendale and check on her.”
Trey gestured around the canyon where we had been digging. “Do you want to dig for the other stone before we go?”
“And have someone steal it as well?” I asked harshly as my anger surged again. “No. Besides, it would take us the rest of the summer to dig through the rock far enough to reach the next powerful stone.”
Trey ran his hands up and down his sides and the sweat on his palms left dark streaks on his pants where he’d done the same thing a thousand other times. “I’m used to thinking about small things. Are there any smaller opals close by?”
His words made sense. I would need a stone at times to help me reach the external magic. The small one in my pack was powerful enough for that simple task, but Zephyr also needed it. I could draw magic from my own body, but past episodes had resulted in weariness so profound I could hardly move. Father’s untimely death as a worn-out old man told me I didn’t want to do that. I gestured at the two nearby graves of my parents. Father had only lived two years after Mother died. “Give me a few moments alone and then I’ll look around.”
I sank to the ground and sat cross-legged between the two graves. Ara had planted grass and flowers that covered Mother’s. There were a few sprouts of green in the fresh dirt on Father’s. They had loved us and tried to keep us alive. However, they apparently hadn’t understood the vast extent of magical powers and the people and animals who could wield them.
Tears moistened my eyes but didn’t flow down my cheeks. Even though it had been two years since Mother died, I missed her gentle ways almost as much now as then. Father had been a demanding taskmaster, but he had always been there, helping when we needed it, until he grew too weak. Ara was living at her Aunt Yedda’s place, but I missed her as much or more than my parents. Even though we had grown up together, we had bonded closely in the week after Father died. What was I going to do? Where would I live? It had been bad enough to be alone, but now Trey needed my help. Not if, but when, would the Hunter come back? Anger at the way the Hunter had butchered Trey’s parents dried my tears and stiffened my back.
After a few moments, I closed my eyes and reached for the magic coursing through the hills around us. Power flowed into me as the outlines of the hills started to glow in my mind’s eye. Unlike previous times when I had unthinkingly followed strong magical sources, I ignored the one big glowing spot nearby and tried to focus on isolated pinpricks of light.
For a while, I didn’t make any progress, because the big spot up the canyon and several bright spots over by the mines caught my attention. Finally, I looked closer to where I was sitting. The mental image darkened, almost like a thick cloud had obscured the sun. After a deep breath, I tried to relax. Nothing changed. After five more tries, I managed to pull in additional magical power. My mental view of the region around the shed, and as far away as the burbling creek, brightened. However, this time, there were dozens of little bright spots in the broad layer of underlying magic.
One of the brightest of the little spots was over at the edge of the creek, not far from where I sat. I opened my eyes and jumped to my feet. The double image of ordinary sight and magical sight was slightly out of focus, but it wasn’t so bad I couldn’t walk. Soon, I was standing on the creek bank, looking down at a sandy gravel bar and a bright patch of magic.
“What do you see?” Trey asked from behind me.
I jumped, so surprised by the words that my hand
s fluttered. He’d arrived without making a sound. “Uh, another magical stone, a small one.”
The magical overlay flickered and I almost lost it. I gasped, reached for even more power, and kept my focus on the new stone so I didn’t lose the location. “Down there in the gravel,” I said and pointed with a shaky finger.
Trey took off his moccasins and tossed them aside before he jumped down the bank onto the wet gravel bar with an expectant expression. “Where do I look?”
“To your right,” I replied, also pulling off my moccasins. Moments later, I joined him and dug my toes into the loose gravel. “Right under here,” I said.
We both sank to our knees and began scooping aside sand, gravel, and small rocks with our hands. I ignored the initial stinging and then growing pain as the rough gravel wore callouses and skin from my fingertips. Water had started to pool in the bottom of the hole when I held up both grimy hands. “We’re about there. Let me finish it.”
Trey leaned back on his heels and shook sandy mud from his hands. “I don’t see anything unusual,” he grunted. “It’s just sand and gravel.”
“I don’t either,” I replied, and then strengthened the magical image as I focused on it. The magic from the small stone was bright enough I unerringly picked it out of the other rocks with my thumb and forefinger. Using normal sight, it looked like another small stone until I rinsed it in the clear water of the flowing creek. Then, I could tell it was an opal. The one still in my pack was the size of a small pea. This one was larger, about the size of the end joint of my little finger.
“Is it magical?” Trey asked. “It just looks like a pebble.”
I quit looking for more sources of magic and used the new technique to start storing magical energy in the opal. To my delight, power began accumulating immediately. “Yes,” I said with a huge grin. “Not as powerful as the ones we dug yesterday, but better than the small one we still have.”
Hunted Page 5
