by D M Fike
I trotted southward, holding my boots in my hand and scanning both the forest and the vast ocean for seals and sea lions. I should have bumped into several right away, but even after an hour’s trek, I couldn’t locate a single one of the rascals. Where had they all gone?
Water’s not my best elemental skill, so the constant pull and release of water pith wore me out at that point. I’d just decided to give up for the day when I spotted a pair of antlers poking above a large rock on the beach. The boulder lay nestled on a smallish beach not far from the tree line, a perfect private habitat for a dryant harbor seal. I stumbled past the waves and up onto the beach, a row of sharp pebbles stinging my bare feet as I navigated inland.
“There you are!” I called as I jumped around the corner.
But it wasn’t Ronan. Instead, I found a young black-tailed buck with antler stubs huddled against the rock, legs curled up underneath him. He threw me off because deer just don’t sunbathe on the beach. He stared up at me with his anime-like eyes.
Then I recognized him as one of Tabitha’s kidama. Jortur was his name, I think.
I skirted disaster now. “You’re following Tabitha around, aren’t you?”
The buck shivered uncontrollably. I sighed and put my socks and boots back on. Another dead end. I needed to get out of here before the Sassy Squad accused me of ruining their mission.
A clicking in the distance suddenly cut through the silence. Jortur cringed, thrusting his knees out in preparation to run. I slowly turned my chin toward the sound, a group of ferns deep in the forest shifting as a creature rustled underneath the fronds. A scaled tail emerged first, then a lizard thigh. Finally, a wiry rooster head shot above the foliage, its crown a muted purple.
My earth pith weighed heavily down upon me, slowing me down, but I had time to prepare for its stone gaze. I sent a gust of wind in the cockatrice’s direction. This startled the housecat-sized vaettur as it fled.
“How many of you are running around?” I yelled as I set off in pursuit. Jortur, I noticed, high-tailed it in the opposite direction.
The chase was not graceful. The cockatrice stumbled about in the brush, sometimes smacking into trees as it tried to flounder away from me. I fared little better, cutting myself on low hanging branches and cursing through the dense underbrush. The trees in this grove grew thick together, and the lack of light made it hard to see the little bugger scurrying about. If it hadn’t been clicking like a rattling set of wind-up teeth, I would have lost it for sure.
Its noisy racket ended up being my downfall anyway. I didn’t hear the steady hum of incantations which signaled Tabitha and Darby nearby, sealing up the breach. It takes a heavy stream of uninterrupted pith to close a vaettur breach. You are essentially healing a wound cut through Nasci herself. You must concentrate fully on the breach, drawing a series of complex sigils using all four elements. Interrupting the process can be deadly because you are using your own body as a kind of needle for the pith to sew the wound shut. One false move could snap you into the breach itself. More than one shepherd has lost limbs or even their lives closing a breach. The incantations help you concentrate so the surgery goes smoothly and everyone returns home in one solid piece.
I heard none of that as the cockatrice broke into a clearing, spreading its hooked wings into the air and coming into full view. I didn’t waste the opportunity, surging forward with one hand drawing the banishment sigil, letting a wave of fire pith from my charm course through me. This sucker was gonna roast.
And roast it did. The cockatrice convulsed as fire lit up its lizard scales. Like the small one I’d encountered before, it vanished in a plume of smoke with little effort.
I smiled, running forward with the momentum of my victory. “Take that, sucker!” I screamed, right as I landed on Darby.
The breach itself was massive. I mean, it had to be big to accommodate the monster that possessed the sperm whale. Rising twenty feet, the breach shimmered like a water mirage in the distance on a desert road, only this one stretched between two broad red-barked cedars deep in the Siuslaw Forest. It only existed in two dimensions, a thin slice of mirror allowing vaetturs to slink over from Letum into our world. Tabitha sat cross-legged at one end, while I tripped right over Darby at the other. The breach had already started to fade, its edges smoky to show where the Sassy Squad had already healed it, but my error interrupted their complicated pith flow. With Darby distracted, it ripped open on her side. She screamed in anguish as the breach’s energy lashed back into her pithways.
I don’t like Tabitha. She’s made my life miserable for years, and I really resent her for it, but there’s no denying her prowess as an augur. A lesser shepherd might have faltered over her incantations, causing vaettur energy to rip her to shreds as well. Or she might have lashed out at me in anger, knowing the danger I had just caused the two of them, and possibly killed me by proxy.
But Tabitha held on like a champ. She didn’t miss a beat as she kept her eyes closed, her right hand still drawing sigils in the air. Her left hand also shot up, scribbling a second set of sigils, different from the ones executed by her right hand. The energy wracking through Darby’s body slowly drifted over into Tabitha’s left hand. It was like watching someone write two sentences at once as she furiously scrawled. I watched in pure astonishment as she continued sealing her end of the breach with smoke, but also simultaneously managed Darby’s job, bringing balance back into the process.
As the last of the dark energy left Darby, she slumped over. I kneeled next to her, grabbing all four elemental charms on my necklace and drawing a transfer sigil to release my stored-up energy into her pithways. You can’t really heal a shepherd with direct pith—that’s what hot springs do—but absorbing more pith is like shepherd CPR. It gives our bodies a little band-aid until real help can be administered.
An eternity passed as Tabitha worked to seal the breach alone, a difficult feat she could have accomplished by herself, but made insanely hard because they had started the process as a pair. I thought about jumping in to help, but if I didn’t time it absolutely perfect with her wild left hand, I could make the situation even worse. So instead I watched the breach dissolve away at an agonizingly slow rate while at the same time trying to keep a steady stream of pith flowing through Darby.
Even unconscious, Darby was obnoxiously gorgeous, a regular Sleeping Beauty. She moaned like a dainty princess as Tabitha reduced the breach to a basketball-sized shimmer. By the time it finally hissed out of existence, Darby’s jasper green eyes fluttered open.
“Wh-What happened?” her voice came out in a breathless whisper.
Something pushed me aside before I could answer. Tabitha loomed over me like an enraged angel, sunshine outlining her rigid stance through the breaks in the trees.
“You could have killed us!” she yelled.
“I-I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
Rough hands grabbed me by the hoodie and hauled me to my feet. The fury in Tabitha’s scowl made my blood run cold as she thrust her face into mine.
“You wanted us dead.” Her quiet voice terrified me more than her loud one.
I shook my head furiously. “No! I didn’t even know you were here. There was a vaettur—”
A pair of stubby antlers poked out from the trees behind Tabitha. I thrust my hands between us and pushed her off of me.
“If you don’t believe me, ask him!” I pointed at Jortur. Augurs can telepathically communicate with their kidama by imprinting with them. Tabitha could clear things up easily with the deer.
Tabitha didn’t look like she appreciated taking an order from me, but the buck trotted over to her, still shaking from before. Tabitha’s protective instinct for her kidama took over, and she embraced him around his neck, cooing into his ear. He snorted back, and I could tell an imprint had taken place. Her head nodded as they spoke inside their minds. The anger lines around her face didn’t go away, exactly, but they softened.
Darby managed to sit up. “What’s he sayin
g, Augur?”
I knew the buck had told her about the vaettur when Tabitha scowled at me. She was still furious, but she had lost the urge to kill me on the spot. “Come!” she snapped at both of us. “We’ll settle this at Sipho’s.”
Maybe I wasn’t dead yet, but given Tabitha’s demeanor, there was still time.
CHAPTER 10
“WHAT DO YOU mean, you won’t report her?”
Tabitha’s shouts came out loud and clear despite echoing through the lodge’s closed front door. I sat on the front stone stoop, awaiting my fate. Guntram had kicked me out, saying he would talk to Tabitha “in private.” He should have told Tabitha he wanted a confidential conversation. I’m sure Darby could hear her augur down at the hot spring pools.
Maybe I should be more sympathetic, given that I’m the one who almost got Darby killed, but the little blond cheerleader had no problem trotting back to the homestead at a decent pace. She only acted like a concussed football player when they sought out Guntram. If that didn’t smack of community theater, I don’t know what did.
Guntram replied to Tabitha’s outrage, his voice more muted. “Every eyas makes mistakes. It’s my job as Ina’s augur to guide her through the process to full shepherd. The Oracle need not be involved for every minor infraction.”
I should hope not. The Oracle is the highest ranked shepherd in all the Talol Wilds, above even augur. She ultimately calls all the magical shots in the Pacific Northwest. I’ve only met her a few times in passing at major events. A Native American woman, she had the wrinkles of a centenarian with the physical movement of someone my age. She generally wore a slightly amused expression on her face, and her eyes consumed every detail around her. I couldn’t decide if she was someone I wanted to have a drink with or stay clear of at all costs.
Tabitha did not agree with Guntram’s assessment. “Risking the lives of fellow shepherds is not a minor infraction! She should be bound for this.”
My jaw tightened in anger. So that’s why she tried to involve the Oracle. Shepherds who wander too far from Nasci’s teaching can have their magical power turned off in a process called binding. It permanently shuts down a shepherd’s pithways for good, rendering them normal people again. It is generally reserved for the worst infractions: those who abuse sigils, exploit pith for personal gain, or betray nature in some horrific fashion.
“She was banishing a vaettur,” Guntram pointed out. “Her sacred duty. You would punish her for that?”
“If she were my eyas, I’d wring her neck for disobeying orders.” Hadn’t Tabitha half done that already? “You told her to stay away from the breach, and she obviously did not.”
“I do apologize for that,” Guntram said softly, his voice humble. “I will speak to her on this matter.”
Tabitha snorted. “You can’t reason with her. She’s out of control. Everyone realizes it. If we had trained her sooner—”
“Stop.” Guntram never raised his voice, but I could hear that hard edge, the one that meant you shouldn’t cross him. “Do not rehash this, Tabitha.”
I sat up straighter, waiting for Tabitha’s response. I imagined Tabitha leaning forward in a threatening stance toward Guntram. She was as agile as the deer she often imprinted with, but Guntram could fly on hurricane winds, no easy feat. It made me wonder who would win in a fight between them. I’d put my money on Guntram, but then again, I harbored some bias there.
Tabitha relented after a long pause. “Well, the breach is sealed. Unlike your eyas, I kept my word and performed my sacred duty. Be thankful to Nasci that no good shepherd died this day.”
“We still have the issue of multiple cockatrice sightings,” Guntram pointed out. “We should—”
“Don’t ask me for any more favors. The small vaetturs are gone, and the problem appears contained. I, for one, will not risk our lives heedlessly again to clean up your mess. You are on your own, Guntram.”
I barely had time to scoot off the stoop as Tabitha slammed the door open. She scowled down at me, teeth bared.
“Someday,” she hissed. “Someday, everyone will know you for who you are.”
I watched her stalk off in the direction of the hot spring. I’d give anything to make that wager and let the two augurs duke it out. It would be so satisfying to watch Guntram take her down and then buy snack cakes afterward with the money.
“You look pleased with yourself,” an irritated voice grumbled behind me.
I turned around. Guntram now had his arm in a sling, and the circles under his eyes had grown more pronounced.
“You still out of it?” I asked. “Man, what did that cockatrice do to you?”
“This isn’t about me, Ina.” Guntram shuffled past me, and two ravens appeared out of nowhere, circling in the sky above his head.
I scuttled after him. “No, but it is about cockatrices. We’ve seen three of them now, all from one breach in a really short amount of time. That’s not rare anymore. It’s downright insane.”
“Perhaps it was another offspring,” Guntram shrugged.
“You can’t be serious!” I cried. “How many little vaettur babies are we talking here? Triplets? Quadruplets? A whole litter?”
“Ina,” Guntram sighed. He kept his back to me as he continued to stalk across the fields. He followed in Tabitha’s wake, heading for the pools again.
“We can’t just ignore this,” I objected. “You may be beaten up, but we’ve got to do something about it.”
“We’re doing what we can.”
“It’s not enough!” I grabbed him by the shoulder, meaning to stop him so we could face each other.
I immediately regretted it as I accidentally grazed his bum arm.
Guntram winced as he flipped around, halting in his tracks. “I am done with your hysterics, Imogene Nakamori.”
I drew in a quick breath. Guntram never used my full name, saying it was part of my past. He always pushed me to embrace my shepherd name. “It’s not hysterics. We have a crisis on our hands.”
“Indeed we do,” Guntram threw his shoulders back, giving him a towering presence, a sensei admonishing a foolish student. “Your blatant disregard for tradition and rules has put me in a compromising position.”
“I’m not trying to create chaos,” I pointed out. “I’m supposed to get rid of vaetturs so they don’t suck the life out of Nasci and all her creatures. Isn’t that the whole point of being a shepherd?”
Guntram let out a laugh with absolutely no joy behind it. “It’s always got to be sass with you, doesn’t it? Sarcasm and pouting like a spoiled brat.”
I had reached my limit with all the insults. “I’m just trying to do what’s right. It’s my job. A job, I might add, that you chose for me.”
A dark gleam flashed across Guntram’s face. “Are you implying you had no choice in the matter?”
I should have said no. Every shepherd chooses, of course, and I’d chosen this life in a heartbeat despite the rustic living and nasty bullies. The trade-off of doing something meaningful with my life, really contributing to protecting life on this hunk of space rock, means a ton to me. My only other alternatives are to get some retail job like my mom and/or have a bunch of kids and worry about mortgages. It’s a fine life for some people, but not for me.
But I wasn’t in the mood to be truthful. I wanted to lash out after receiving a few licks. “I had no idea what I was getting into when you recruited me. No one does. You can’t understand the scope of what it means to be a shepherd until you get here. And sometimes, it sucks, especially when you’re considered a freak like me.”
Guntram slouched, a sign of defeat. “If that is your attitude, then it is not you who made a mistake, but me.”
Every single muscle in my body tensed up in fight or flight mode. Why did I always have to say the first thing out of my big, fat, stupid mouth? “Guntram, I—”
He cut me off with one raised hand. “I never should have been your augur.” He said it more to himself than me, rubbing the length of hi
s sling. Then, with a blank expression on his face, he wandered off.
I stood there like an idiot, watching one of the few people who truly believed in me walk away. I had never seen Guntram so despondent. If he had been in an anime, I’m sure a little cloud would have opened up right above his head and rained on his shoulders. As it was, his ravens cawed as if to chastise me, then flew off in disdain, chasing their leader.
CHAPTER 11
TABITHA AND DARBY must have left the homestead early the next morning because I didn’t see hide nor hair of any deer kidama around, not even Jortur. No major loss there. Guntram, unfortunately, also continued to act withdrawn. I found him holed up in his room, draped in a robe that indicated he would hit the hot spring again soon. He rested like a Roman aristocrat, lying on his side with one arm propping up his head, reading a few tomes from the library.
“What’s on the agenda today?” I asked him.
He acted like he didn’t hear me.
I folded my arms and leaned against the door jamb. “That’s how it’s gonna be, huh?”
He grunted and rolled over to his other side, taking the book with him. When that hurt his injured arm, he had to readjust his sling and lie flat on his back, book covering his face.
And he called me a brat? “Fine!” I threw up my hands and marched out of the lodge. I guess that meant I set my own schedule today.
Although I had no idea what I should do. I wished I could discuss a plan of action for the cockatrices with Guntram, but I wasn’t even sure if he thought it was a problem. He had his own wounds to lick. No other shepherds had been at the homestead for days, so I couldn’t wait for one to pop in. That left me with Sipho.
