Curses and Warfare

by Jeri Baird

  “It’s the only way we have a chance,” Zander replied. They faced the upward slope of the north side of the gulch. Thick brush and old trees impeded their sight. Sound would be their first alert to intruders. Shadow stood, ears twitching, ready to follow orders.

  Zander strained to hear anything out of the ordinary. When he could stand the silence no longer, Zander called, “Puck?” A breeze surrounded him.

  “Yes?” the ghost moaned.

  “You know the plan?”

  “Yes.” The air cleared.

  A crow cawed, and Zander searched the sky. He’d sent Kaiya away from the upcoming fight, but not away from danger. If she ran into trouble, she was to send Korble. Relieved to see the crow flying away from him, Zander shifted in the saddle. Helios shied sideways until Zander pulled him back to a stand. He stilled his emotions, and the horse calmed.

  As if reading his mind, Greydon asked, “Where’d you send Kaiya? I thought she was going to fight with us.”

  “Not Kaiya alone. I sent Odo with her.”

  “What the hell? Where’d you send them? Odo didn’t tell me.”

  “They might be safer than here. Our enemies camp above the east bluffs. Once the fighters leave, it’ll be women, children, and elderly left. I sent Kaiya with an offer of peace. If we can beat back the invasion, I want them to know we’ll welcome them into the village if they’re willing. If we can convince the women, I hope they can convince the men who survive.”

  Greydon stared out across the gulch. “Did you think to ask anyone else before you made that offer?”

  “Father Chanse agreed with me. Whom should I ask? The Council?”

  “Maybe the Elders whose land you’re giving away?”

  “We have to do something with them. There will be dead and injured on both sides. We can’t turn them away.”

  “Stars, Zander! Your soft heart will plague us for years after this.”

  Greydon’s words stung. Father had often said the same of Zander. He never meant it as a compliment. “Not if we make the changes Puck wants. If we parcel out the Elders’ land, we have plenty for our people and them. The Raskans say the Odwans are known for their metalwork and a fermented drink they call ale.” He glanced sideways at Greydon. “Maybe the day will come when we can enjoy a drink without using it to hide from our troubles.”

  “Maybe so.” Greydon allowed Lady to graze. “I can’t believe you sent Odo without telling me.” He scowled. “I hate this waiting.”

  Helios’s ears twitched and Zander leaned forward. Far off, but approaching rapidly, Zander heard what sounded like a herd of boars crashing through the forest. Shouts drifted down from the village edge, but Zander couldn’t distinguish the words. Arrows flew over his head toward the opposite side.

  He urged Helios across the stream. Finding an open spot where he could see up the side, Zander gasped. “What the hell is that?”

  Coming down the opposite side, a phalanx ten men wide fought to stay together in the heavy brush. Shields protected them in front and above. A picket of ten-foot spears with heads that looked like sword blades rose above the front line.

  This was it. All the training, all the work was for this moment. Adrenaline rushed through him, and Zander reached for an arrow. He sent a shot rushing toward the phalanx. His aim was true, but useless. The arrow stuck in the shields but did no harm. He had to find a way to break the formation.

  An arrow thudded into the tree next to him. Zander fought to keep Helios under control as he pushed down his rising panic. A foot closer and he would have been hit.

  Lady reared as an arrow grazed her flank. Greydon nearly fell, but recovered in time to pull her behind a tree and avoid the rain of arrows. Greydon slumped on Lady’s back. “We’ve lost. There’s no way to defend against them.”

  “It’s time for Puck and the questers.” Zander yelled to his warriors. “Hold up. Save your arrows!”

  Shouts rang up and down the gulch repeating the orders as the warriors scrambled to find cover.

  “Puck? Now!”

  A sudden wind swept across the tops of the trees.

  The phalanx continued its slow descent. Arrows flew from behind the wall. The Odwans must be shooting blind and hoping they hit something by sheer luck.

  He felt a coward, but Zander hid behind trees as he encouraged the others to move out of the line of fire. He hated waiting, hated feeling powerless.

  Wind whipped up the north side of the gulch. Puck moaned, “You disturb the spirits. Leave the gulch!”

  The phalanx halted.

  “The spirits are angry. Leave, leave, leave . . . ” his voice trailed off.

  From the trees, the questers’ birds dived at the Odwans and dropped bits of metal. Wave after wave of bolts and stones fell from the sky.

  The phalanx resumed marching down the gulch. Patrons swooped over their heads and released the canvas strips. The narrow ribbons unfurled to the ground, rustling as they swayed in the breeze. Alexa’s spell held. It was as if the phalanx hit an invisible wall. Swears came from behind the formation. Puck loosed a blood-curdling scream, and the men scrambled to retreat.

  The questers tossed down omens. Razorback boars raced squealing after the Odwans. Peacocks pecked at their feet, while hornets buzzed around the men’s heads, stinging anywhere they found exposed flesh. Scorpions landed on their shoulders, but it was the snake omens that caused the most panic. Screams echoed down the gulch as adders hissed and struck.

  “Archers! Now!” Zander yelled. Arrows flew true toward the Odwans. Frantic to retreat, three men ran into the traps that Greydon had set. They flew feet first into the air and swung from ropes tied high in the trees.

  Zander aimed and hit a man in the back. His stomach lurched as the man fell face forward and didn’t move. It felt cowardly to shoot as they retreated, but the words he’d repeated to the warriors drifted through his head.

  We fight any way we can to save our village.

  Chapter FIFTY-NINE

  Alexa

  As she approached the gulch, Alexa slowed. Doubt rose without warning. Could she truly prevent Melina Odella from cursing the village? Was she too late? Under her scarf, the carved wooden heart and foxglove pendant pulsed against her skin, reminders of Zander’s and Merindah’s love.

  The calcite stone vibrated, guiding her toward the west side. She reached the edge as Kaiya and Odo disappeared over the embankment.

  “Hoy!” She ran to catch them and slid in loose leaves at the edge. When she regained her footing, the cousins stood six feet below her, faces lit with excitement. Bows slung over their shoulders, the embroidered band of protection tied across their wrists.

  “Zander sent us on a special mission.” Kaiya rocked from toe to heel. “We’re headed west to where the cliffs meet the gulch. The Odwans won’t come down there. It’s too tight for more than a single-file path.”

  “I’m searching for Melina Odella.” She held out the pulsing stone. “It’s leading me this way, too.”

  “Follow us. We’ll protect you.” Kaiya sprinted along an overgrown path.

  Alexa struggled to pay attention to the stone and keep up. Shouts echoed from the gulch. The Odwans were invading.

  Odo nocked an arrow.

  Alexa pushed them forward. “Go. Do what Zander asked.”

  Kaiya hesitated only a second before she spun and ran. “Find the fortune-teller,” she yelled over her shoulder. “Don’t let her curse the village.”

  Where the cousins went straight, Alexa turned left into the rocky cliffs. She picked her way over boulders. In the steep canyon, Alexa lost her sense of direction, forced to rely on the stone’s guidance. Far from the gulch, the only sounds were the rocks she slipped against and a lone crow cawing as it circled above her. She slid down a boulder and blood beaded on her scraped palm. She pressed it against her side until the sting faded.<
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  As she stepped out around a boulder, a wave of energy knocked her back. Alexa quickly gathered her own energy and wrapped it around her. She built a solid wall before she stepped back out in the open. She drew out a labradorite stone and used its vibration to deflect the energy Melina Odella threw at her.

  “Melina Odella,” she called. A ball of energy blasted toward her. It dissipated harmlessly into the air. Like Zander, she hoped for peace without bloodshed. She hid behind a boulder and removed an embroidery from her pocket. An image of Melina Odella and her patron wolf, Sheba, stood in the center. Coils of rope encircled them. Alexa tied the last stitch on her name and felt the energy come alive.

  Stitching in one hand, labradorite in the other, Alexa stepped out to face her mentor.

  Standing between two large boulders, Melina Odella, anger warring with fear across her face, struggled against the invisible ropes. The silver-haired wolf stood at her side, snarling, hackles raised.

  “Use your power to save the village.” Alexa stepped closer. “You love Father Chanse. Why would you hurt him?”

  “Chanse made his choice,” Melina Odella snarled, “and it wasn’t me.” She began to mutter.

  Melina Odella broke the bindings, and a bolt of energy blasted bits of stone around Alexa. A shard ricocheted and cut her cheek. Blood trickled down her chin. She gathered her power and sent it streaking toward the fortune-teller.

  Melina Odella held up her hand and deflected it upward where it sheared off a limb of a twisted pine. It crashed down behind the fortune-teller. “You can’t defeat me, Alexa. I’ve been gathering power for twenty years.”

  Leaning against the rock, Alexa tried to steady her breath. She was no match for her teacher’s experience, but if she kept Melina Odella distracted, it might give Zander time. Alexa searched for power in the stones surrounding her. An energy of a different sort flowed into her. Merindah’s prayers! She pulled it into her body. Alexa stepped out. “I’m not alone, Melina Odella.”

  She gathered the strands of hair from her pouch and tossed them into the air, while chanting, “Day, night, anchor, unite!” The hair swirled and grew into a tornado that twisted and curved toward Melina Odella, flattening the sage and brush in its path.

  A second before it hit, Melina Odella threw out both hands and sent the twister back toward Alexa. A cruel smile lit her face.

  For the first time, Alexa felt her teacher would delight in killing her. She ducked between two boulders. The twister passed, throwing up shards and sticks. She closed her eyes against the dust and waited for it to settle. A grimy film covered her. She spat out a mouthful of grit.

  It would take more than that to defeat her. She reached for the black and white stone that saved Zander in the quest.

  Chapter SIXTY

  Zephyr

  Zeph watched Zander and Alexa from above. He didn’t understand how, but he was aware of both scenes even as they occurred together. Wherever he put his attention, Zeph was there.

  He focused back and forth. First on Zander’s fear of the Odwans’ phalanx and then on Alexa as she fought Melina Odella. He saw all of it and felt helpless. Moira had said he had a task, but he hadn’t seen her since the day he died.

  Soon after their deaths, Lash had left Zeph, dissipating into the ether. Or maybe Zeph had left Lash. He wasn’t sure, but for the first time in his life, Zeph felt at peace. And yet he was anxious for his friends. It was confusing.

  For now, all he could do was watch and wait for Moira’s instructions. She’d said she’d let him know. He had to trust her—and hope he didn’t become a ghost like Puck, wandering the gulch for hundreds of years.

  He tossed his sparkling white stone from hand to hand. Moira had given it to him for a reason, but how could he help from where he was now? She and Melina Odella had called him light-bearer. The waiting tortured him. His friends were in danger.

  A flash caught the corner of Zeph’s awareness. He turned his attention away from Zander, away from Alexa, to a small gray donkey.

  Dorothy was picking her way through the cliffs and heading straight toward the fight between Alexa and Melina Odella.

  Chapter SIXTY-ONE

  Zander

  As the Odwans retreated, Zander rubbed the back of his neck. From the jubilant faces of the warriors, they thought they’d won. They were uninjured, unlike the half-dozen Odwan bodies lying on the other side of the gulch.

  Only Greydon understood the retreat was merely a momentary reprieve. He stood next to Zander, solemn and shaken. He and Zander had seen the phalanx better than the rest. If the Odwans made it past Puck, the warriors would find it near impossible to defeat them.

  Fulk and Geno returned from checking the bodies. Fulk spat, “All dead.”

  A cheer rose from the warriors, but Zander held up his hand. “We don’t celebrate death.” He filled his lungs and exhaled slowly. “The Odwans won’t quit this easily.”

  The warriors’ jabber ended as fear replaced jubilance. How could they have believed it was over?

  Grim, Fulk cocked his head at the three swinging upside down from the trees still holding bows. “What do we do with them?”

  The first prisoners. “If they’ll drop their bows, cut them down and take them to Elder Warrin’s estate. Lock them in the tack room. And search them for hidden weapons and poison.”

  Before Fulk could comply, Puck’s ghost drifted in to coalesce over Zander. “Fire, fire,” he moaned.

  A tendril of smoke swirled above Zander. Moments later, the cackle of flames swept down from across the upper eastern gully. The Odwans were burning the gulch.

  Frantic, the priest yelled, “Get the questers out of the trees!”

  Zander wrote a quick note. Fire. Get water. He tied it to Shadow’s collar. “Go! Take this to a Protector.” He turned to Greydon. “Take Dharien and Bindi west. Paal? You and Rosa come with me. Fulk, take Jarl and Yarra, and get the middle questers.”

  Zander pulled a cloth from his pocket and tied it over his nose and mouth. He guided Helios toward the flames. The horse skittered and turned away. Zander slid from his back and placed a hand on each side of Helios’s head. Zander opened his mind to the war horse and sent an image of the questers caught in the fire. When Zander felt Helios’s understanding, he remounted.

  Helios raced toward the danger with Paal and Rosa behind.

  Field workers, used to hard labor, were digging a trench down the side of the gulch. If the trees didn’t catch fire, the turned earth might halt the blaze. At the top, men and youngsters carried buckets of water to send tumbling down the trench.

  “Dam the stream and flood the bottom,” Zander yelled as he rode past.

  Sweat dripped down Zander’s chest from the heat. Even with the cloth over his nose, the air burned his throat. When he entered a patch of dense smoke, he hollered for the questers, “Cam? Bo?”

  Faint cries responded from his left. He urged Helios across the stream. A sparrow swooped down and guided Zander to a large cottonwood tree. Two boys crouched on the bottom limb as smoke drifted into the upper branches.

  “Jump!”

  After they hit the ground, Zander boosted the boys to sit behind Paal and Rosa. He slapped the horses’ rumps. “Go!”

  “What about you?” Paal shouted over the roar of the flames.

  “Give me a minute. I’ll be right behind you.”

  As Paal’s horse disappeared through the smoke, headed to safety, Zander fought the urge to follow. Instead, he turned Helios and rode into the fire.

  The heat almost drove him back, but he wound around until he found a spot he could get through. As he’d turned to find the boys, he’d felt an energy he recognized from his past.

  A few more paces, and he spotted a flash of gold hunkered in the hollow of a dead tree. A tree that would burst into flames in minutes.

  During Zander’s time of m
agic, he’d earned a mountain lion token for throwing two hares to a mama lion instead of shooting her. That token had saved Alexa’s life in the quest.

  That same lion stood now with a cub in her mouth. Another lay at her feet. The mother couldn’t save both cubs and was frozen in indecision.

  Zander crept up to the lion. She dropped the cub behind her and snarled, protecting her young.

  He didn’t have much time before the tree caught fire. Zander dropped his shield and linked mind-to-mind with the cat as he’d done before the quest. Her fear roiled through him. He absorbed it and returned images of taking her cubs to safety.

  He inched forward on hands and knees, vulnerable if she decided to lunge.

  She growled, but allowed Zander to reach in and cradle a cub. He tucked one and then the other between his jacket and shirt as they mewled. He sent an image of riding out of the fire and whispered, “Come, mother. Follow me.”

  As he mounted Helios, the tree exploded into flames. Helios needed no urging to race toward safety. Mama lion loped next to them.

  Helios waded across the muddy trench. The mountain lion leaped gracefully over it.

  Zander reached the warriors and shouted to Greydon, “Are the questers safe?” When Greydon nodded, Zander continued riding west, aware of the amazed faces of the warriors at the sight of a mountain lion traveling beside him. He continued to the mouth of the canyon before he halted.

  The lion led Zander to a small cave. Zander laid one and then the other cub next to their mother. The twins, a male and a female, snuggled into their mother’s side.

  Zander’s breath hitched. They’d be safe. It was a small compensation for the man he’d killed.

  Chapter SIXTY-TWO

  Alexa

  Pressed against a granite boulder, Alexa held tight to the black and white stone. How could she use it? Surrounded by boulders, she’d trapped herself. The high walls of the canyon cast shadows across the bottom. This fight needed to end before dark or she’d be stuck in the canyon overnight.