by A. L. Knorr
The ithe raised an arm and pointed off to my right, its finger long and flickering. A soft breeze hit me in the face as a whispered word found its way to my ears.
North.
I gave a nod of thanks and took off. My first few footsteps were loud as I broke branches.
"Sutherland?” Daracha's scream rose on the wind like a nasty promise. The sound of snaps and crackles ripped through the trees behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see a thick tree branch fall in a shower of purple sparks.
My footfalls became silent and I realized that the covering over the forest floor was moving ahead of me. Tree droppings, leaves, and other natural refuse shifted out of the way of my foot-strikes so that I landed on soft moss instead of noisy deadfall.
Somewhere behind me, Daracha screamed again and—in spite of running more silently—she sounded closer. I picked up speed, bursting from the forest and into an open glen of softly rounded hills. To my left the hilltops were speckled with large black dome-like shapes. Cairns, like the ones I'd seen photos of in Lachlan's history books. Scattered amongst the cairns were other boulders sitting apart from the highland tombs like they'd been considered during construction and rejected.
Glancing over my shoulder revealed flashes of violet light accompanied by snaps and hisses, like errant kids setting off fireworks in the woods. A feminine shadow slipped through the trees, heading my way.
Sucking in air, I set off at a sprint into the open glen, heading through the natural valley weaving its way through the landscape under the slowly rising moon. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled as I heard Daracha making noise in the woods. I began to head uphill toward the cairns. I'd have an advantage from higher ground.
"Sutherland," Daracha yelled, her voice full of wicked laughter and triumph. "You're caught, my little Wise. You couldn't withstand me before, what makes you think you have a chance now? I am more powerful than when last we met. Much more powerful."
Thoughts of Mary Gray burst in my mind like red blossoms of rage.
Sucking in air, my thighs pumping as I crested the hill and reached the first lone boulder. I turned back to see Daracha emerge from the trees. Bright pops of purple snapped from her fingers. Her skirts swished as she walked into the open, scanning the scene ahead of her.
When she found me, her eyes lit up like illuminated jewels, two pinpoints shining in the light. She lifted a hand, fingers tense, and electricity forked across the glen, low and jagged and moving slower than true lightning. It struck the ground just ahead of me. I staggered backward as a shower of sparks sprayed across the grass.
Curling my hands into a fist and closing my eyes, I reached underground to the latent magic swirling there. Sending my energy into the earth, it first descended then ascended, aiming for the boulders around me.
The stone nearest me exploded into the air as a fist of soil ruptured the grass to strike it from beneath.
Daracha stopped walking as she watched the boulder arc high overhead and begin its fall back to earth, heading straight for her. Her eyes widened. With a screech, she dove to the side as the boulder landed on the ground where she'd been. It tumbled and rolled down the hill, coming to rest in the valley. But already, I'd driven another boulder into the sky with my earthy fists, and another. I'd throw all I could reach, and in between I scanned the horizon for signs of castle turrets. I saw no turrets, but what I did see sent hope wheeling through me. The artificial glow of the town of Blackmouth. I was close.
Daracha sent two jagged streaks of smoking magic into the second boulder. With a CRACK it exploded, sending shards of stone in every direction. With another flick of her wrist, the second boulder shattered. The third followed suit and the air filled with stone dust and small, sharp rocks.
With an amazed horror, I watched as the shards took flight, wings burst open, and cries of angry birds assaulted my ears. A thick flock of crows wheeled over Daracha's head. With her fist in the air, she swirled a line of neon light like she was winding up a slingshot. The glow flashed over her features, highlighting them with an insane luminosity.
As the birds wheeled, I crouched. My thighs quivered and my mind raced to counter this new magic. My gaze careened from the birds to Daracha, to the boulders around me. How to deal with this strange new sorcery?
Screams of Daracha's crows were answered and echoed by cries from further abroad. Only the startled look on her face and her wild searching of the skies made me realize where those other calls were coming from. Real birds ... not those born of black magic.
Suddenly the sound was deafening as birds from the woods took flight. Black birds against a dark sky—cawing and screaming as they wheeled and flocked together—headed our way. Birds of all kinds. The larger shapes of owls and hawks, interspersed among smaller shapes of kites, sparrows, and all manner of winged creatures arrowed over the glen to meet Daracha's gathering flock.
My heart swelled as the birds of the forest clashed into Daracha's crows, right over my head. A cacophony of screeches, whistles, caws and shrill screams filled the sky as the flocks collided. All was confusion as the birds attacked the crows. They blocked out the moonlight, pecking and flapping and wheeling and fighting. A small shape dropped at my feet. A sparrow bounced on the grass, its wing broken.
I dove for it, already drawing earth magic from the soil and sending it into the bird. A line of curving white light shot from my fingertips before I could touch it, and the sparrow flopped over, hopped onto its little claws and chirped loudly.
I picked it up, gasping to see the wing had already healed. The sparrow took flight again just as another three wounded birds landed on the ground. Somewhere beyond the madness I heard Daracha laughing, entertained by the spectacle of birds murdering one another.
More bodies fell, and my heart swelled as magic within me surged alongside my emotions. Hands held out wide, light curled out from my fingertips. Closing my eyes against the battle overhead, I focused on the wounded, plummeting and dotting the hilltop.
I opened my eyes to see my white magic reach out and touch those wounded birds. They roused and recovered, taking off to fight again. But it wasn't enough, more birds died. So many. I needed a better way. Looking up, I lifted my hands and sent the healing light into the sky instead.
Long threads of silver brilliance reached out like the branches of a great tree. The Wise-light found birds and lit their bodies with a bright illumination. I found a falcon, lit him up, and watched as his talons reached for one of Daracha's crows. A purple blaze flashed against the sky as the crow burst apart.
Suddenly, the sky was full of bright purple flares and starbursts as my glowing birds tackled Daracha's corvids. It sounded like a New Year's celebration as hundreds of black magic birds burst apart with eruptions of violet light. Soon there were no crows left, only whirling Wisdom-lit birds. They were like winged stars, circling and revolving, searching for the enemy.
Dropping my hands, the white roots reaching into the sky withdrew. My birds lost their light and returned to their natural shades. They scattered in every direction, calling and chirping and hooting as they disappeared into the night. All returned to peaceful silence as the birds returned to their roosts and nocturnal activity. Satisfied and quietly amazed, I turned to face Daracha, not fifty yards downhill.
Her eyes burned in her skull as she stared back, teeth bared, and beautiful face marred with fury. "Learned a few tricks since the last time we met, have you?" Then her face went through an incredible transformation to an insane kind of revelatory glee. "All the more power for me to draw from your ashes."
Her fingers tensed, pointing toward the ground at her feet. Lines of purple electricity shot out from where she stood, coming for me. They wove jaggedly in and out and across one another, making a crackling, fizzing grid through the earth.
The last time I'd seen a grid like that, it had been wrapped around me like a cage, cutting off all of my elemental power and separating me from the soil. With no time to think of how I might comb
at this growing net as it raced toward me, and knowing that I absolutely must not allow it to come between me and the earth, I turned and ran north. The bird battle had slowed me down, but I still had time.
With a glance over my shoulder, I saw the grid following me, sweeping across the terrain like rolling water. Purple lines of magic forked across the ground, intersecting with one another and tightening the spaces between them.
My heart drumming hard in my ears, I crested the hill and caught a view of the horizon. The familiar shape of a turret peeked above the treetops. Blackmouth Castle. I was close but not close enough. I couldn't keep sprinting. Already I was growing tired. I had a long stride and was in relatively good shape, but I was no athlete.
A forested area thick with underbrush and trees loomed, any moment now I'd hit the woods and lose speed. Closing the distance between myself and the edge of the glen, and feeling the stinging heat of Daracha's magic as it too closed the gap, I realized I had run out of time. I had no choice but to try for the underground again, there was no way I could keep ahead of the witch’s net on foot.
Recalling the disembodied feeling that came over me when I was underground, I took a deep breath and jumped as high into the air as I could. Without sending it a conscious commandment to help, the earth came to my aid. The solidity of the ground beneath my feet rose and lifted at the right moment, adding velocity to my jump. I flew into the air as though double-bounced from a trampoline. The ground fell away in a graceful dip as I curved my form into a dive, hands outstretched and going headfirst for the ground.
Just before I struck, a flash of purple light seared my vision, and a burning rope laced itself around my ankle. I cried out in surprise and pain, and as I penetrated the layers of the pedolith, the burning sensation intensified.
Lights flashed and tracers shredded my vision as I flew along, heading straight north for Blackmouth Castle. Without the natural flow of the ley line to drown out all else, the world became a network of roots and rocks and layers of soil and sediment.
But flashes of sickly neon light lit my periphery, and it felt as though the rope was tightening around my ankle. The rope had thorns, and the thorns dug deep. My speed faltered as a tugging sensation slowed me down. I realized with mounting horror that I was dragging Daracha along behind me.
Chapter Nineteen
Fighting for control and some grip on my location, I tried to kick away the rope holding fast to my ankle. My rational mind questioned wildly how it was possible that I could even feel my ankle while I was disembodied in this way. Survival demanded I stop rationalizing and detach from the evil force I was dragging along behind me. It wasn't a physical ankle she had her hooks sunk into, it was my being, my Wisdom. Whatever magic she'd taken from Mary Gray's ashes was enabling her.
The burning sensation moved up my leg and with a spasmodic, desperate attempt to shed its grip, I writhed and twisted. Bucking and thrashing, I was thrown off course. My wild path sent me through the soft crystalline energy of a river and—afraid of overshooting the castle—I ejected from the earth, materializing as I flew through the air at a dizzying speed.
Fresh, humid night air blew across my body. The ground came down from above instead of up from underneath in a sickening reversal. Unprepared, I crashed. With a painful roll along the ground, the breath whooshed out of my chest and I tumbled end over end, coming to rest against the base of a tree.
Crackles and snaps and the smell of something acrid had me rolling to my hands and knees, fighting for oxygen. The world spun and I thought for a second I was going to throw up every meal I had ever eaten. My mouth watered and I spat off to the side as I looked around desperately for Daracha. I knew she was here, the bloody hitchhiker. A quick glance at my ankle revealed no ropes or thorns, nor was there any evidence that there had ever been a thing wrapped around it. There was only the throbbing pain left behind by the malignant magic that had gripped me there.
A feminine moan brought me swiftly to my feet, my blood turning to ice and gaze darting around like a mad hare. The world finally stopped tilting and swinging. The sound of plastic sheets fluttering in the breeze drew my attention to the sharp lines of a building across a small clearing. I realized with a sense of irony that we'd landed in the construction zone of Gavin's honeymoon cottage. The very place I'd encountered Daracha for the first time.
Another moan brought my attention snapping around to a shadow at the base of a dense shrub. The shadow stirred and Daracha began to rise.
Before I lost my chance and believing Daracha would follow me, I bolted for the path leading up to the castle.
"Oh, no you don't," Daracha sneered, and a flash of light popped behind me. For a brief moment, the details of the forest were illuminated in a bright purple light, every shadow driven back and every branch and leaf seared on my retinas. The smell of electricity singed the air, and that red hot pain wrapped around both of my ankles this time. I cried out and tripped. I tried to fall into the underground but struck a solid grid of tight lines of magic. My connection to the earth went dead. Rolling over in a desperate attempt to get to my feet, the wires of Daracha's magic tightened around my ankles and wound their way up my legs, binding as they went.
The grid closed over my head and Daracha's cage confined me completely. The horrible sensation of floating inside a box came over me as the magic sealed itself. It was like being in a sarcophagus with two-foot thick concrete slabs for walls. The earth couldn't reach me and I couldn't reach it. I couldn't prevent a sob of despair as tears sprang to my eyes. I gave a soft gasp as I heard the clock tower in town begin to chime. Squeezing my eyes shut, I focused on the bell and counted along with it. “… nine, ten, eleven.”
I had one hour. My eyes sprang open, my heart jumping. The castle was so close I could almost feel its cool, solid presence. All I needed was another fifty meters. My mind flipped and tumbled and began to race. How could I make Daracha want to perform her awful magic in full view of a building in which resided humans who would stop her if they knew what she was doing?
My mad plotting stalled as I registered the eerie quiet which had descended over the glade. Raising my head, I saw Daracha standing with her back to me. Through the buzzing bars, I watched as she took a few steps toward the nearly finished honeymoon cabin.
"I know this place," she murmured, so quietly I wouldn't have heard her if the wind hadn't been drifting in my direction.
Skirts swishing against the ground, Daracha wandered the glade. She inspected the new cabin that had replaced the old ruin, the earth around it, and even the sky above. I could almost smell the gears turning in her mind as she processed where she was. Though she'd been next to dead the last time she'd been here, somehow it was familiar to her.
The dark shadow of the ithe stepped from the trees and stood dumbly at the edge of the glen, its shoulders stooped and hands hanging toward the ground. It watched Daracha, emanating boredom and weariness.
"It was here." Daracha squatted, somehow making the movement elegant. She lay a long-fingered hand against the grass, tucking her chin down thoughtfully as if praying or meditating. Then she lifted her face again and looked back toward the cabin.
"This was my prison." She stood, her voice soft and contemplative. Her back was to me, her long hair stirring in the light breeze. "They built a home over my old resting place."
For a moment there was nothing, no movement, no words. Just the ithe and I watching the dark witch from our relative corners of the glade as Daracha stood in a pool of moonlight, contemplating her past.
Then, the witch threw both hands out at the cabin. Purple energy exploded near the base of the building. When my vision recovered, I could make out new, dark shapes along the foundation. Dark shapes that moved, grew, reached up with sharp tendrils along the cabin's outer walls. As I watched the thin shadows creep, the bell in town gave a single toll to mark the quarter after the hour.
Thorn bushes, I realized with dismay. Daracha was putting back the thorns that had first
choked the ruin where she'd been entombed. As she worked, she began to giggle gleefully. Flicking out her wrists and hands like a conductor, thorns exploded from the ground to thrust themselves through the building. I blinked in disbelief as thorns materialized from the very wood of the structure where vines had yet to reach. They grew from window frames and the steps leading up to the front door. Daracha's hands and arms danced gracefully in the air, violet magic fizzled and popped and hissed. I stared, eyes watering. The thorns were not just reaching from the earth to consume the cabin, the cabin was becoming the thorn bush ... taking on the nature of the plant itself.
Cracks appeared in the roof and between the logs. Mortar crumbled. Where the broken chinking landed on the soil, fresh shoots of thorny shrub came twisting out of the earth to crawl up the building. It was being both consumed and transformed, something which—until now—I had not realized was possible.
"Stop it!" I yelled. "Are you insane?"
The ithe's head swiveled in my direction. Daracha went on as if she hadn't heard me. Why would she concern herself with what I was doing? She had me contained, totally at her mercy, of which I knew she had none. Let her destroy Jasher's construction. I let my head fall back to a natural position, my neck was aching anyway. I should forget what she was doing and use this time to think.
But the sounds of Daracha's magic and the transformation of the cabin were difficult to ignore. I closed my eyes and focused on my breathing. Surely there was a way to break out of this cage. My mind reached beyond my body, seeking the white glow of the earth, looking for any sensation of warmth and life. The bonds around my legs burned with a low, acidic heat. If I moved, the bonds tightened and the heat intensified. I soon learned that there was less agony if I lay completely still.
I continued to probe the cage with my Wisdom but it was like running into a wall wherever I went. Even the smell of the forest was gone, only the mild scent of grass remained. The air moved, but it seemed dead to me.
