by John Levitt
We went over the basics—like how to utilize talent in the most efficient manner so you don’t exhaust yourself in the first minute. How to narrow focus, like a lens, and not spray energy all over the place. The less talent you use to produce an effect, the more energy you have in reserve for the inevitable unforeseen circumstances.
Then a run-through on which materials work best for implementing which spells. You can use anything for anything, but some things are easier to work with than others, and again there’s no point in wasting valuable energy. Metals are hard to use; living things easy, since they have their own energy. But even with metals, there are degrees. Silver and moonlight go together like bread and butter. Copper is very useful for specific types of work, and iron, of course, is almost impervious to magical talent. But that makes it ideal for defense.
And finally, concentration exercises. I used some talent to keep a tennis ball suspended precisely twelve inches off the floor while Eli asked me a series of increasingly difficult questions. The ability to concentrate on more than one thing at once is crucial to magical operations.
Lou had turned these sessions into a favorite game. As I tried to answer Eli’s questions and keep the ball steady, he would harass me. Sometimes it was mock attacks; sometimes he even nipped me unexpectedly. Or he’d do back-flips, each time almost landing on his head, distracting me with worry. I did pretty well this time until Maggie threw herself on the back of my neck. The tennis ball dropped as I lost concentration. Eli frowned, but I thought I’d done pretty well by simply not jumping up with a scream. Maggie bounced off and retreated across the room, tail waving. Cat humor.
When Campbell showed up a few hours later she shook her head at me.
“You’re determined to get yourself in trouble, aren’t you?”
“Not my idea. But worth a try, I think.”
She brought out her familiar copper pot and a can of Sterno and set them up on the floor. While the pot heated, she placed the plants she’d brought next to Victor’s various props while carrying on an animated discussion about how to blend her plant properties with his inorganic power objects. One of the plants she pulled out was unlike anything I’d seen.
“This is a sundew,” she said, noticing me looking at it with curiosity. “It’s hard to come by, but useful. It’s incredibly sticky for one thing. Great for attraction.”
“Isn’t that a carnivorous plant?” I asked. “Insects and stuff?” The idea creeped me out.
“It is. Usually it’s only used for potions that aren’t entirely beneficial, but I think it will do fine.” She set out what looked like beeswax, and a pale yellow bar that smelled faintly of chocolate. “Cocoa butter,” she explained, and next to it she placed a couple of more familiar plants, herbs familiar to anyone who cooks at all. “Thyme and rosemary. Traditionally used for attracting the fey.” She smiled. “Not that there’s any such thing, of course.”
“No,” I muttered. “Of course not.” I bent down for a closer look. “Do you really think you can summon a Wendigo with savory herbs and chocolate?”
“No, but from your description I’m not so sure it’s a Wendigo. In lore, they’re evil, evil creatures. It should have made your blood run cold.”
“It did.”
“But it didn’t do anything to you.”
“It didn’t get the chance.”
“That’s true, but it just doesn’t fit. What you described sounds more amoral than evil, if you get my drift—more like an elemental woodland spirit. That fear you felt might have been simply your own fear, projected out and returned in a feedback loop.”
“That could be,” said Eli. “And if that entity came out of the energy pool, it might have taken on several archetypal attributes. It wouldn’t necessarily be exactly one thing or another. But the parallels to the Wendigo—the calling by name, for example—are too strong to discount.”
Campbell put a small amount of water in the pot and crumbled in the thyme and rosemary. Victor handed her the dirty gun patches, which went in soon after. While the concoction simmered, she kneaded the beeswax and cocoa butter together. Victor, meanwhile, took out some braided copper wire and, as Campbell cooked up her concoction, arranged his tools. He laid the ring of copper wire around the pot and, at carefully measured intervals, some highly polished stones. I recognized an agate, rose quartz, and a black stone that might have been obsidian, but there were several others I hadn’t a clue about.
“Magnets?” I asked, thinking of the other circle. Victor shook his head briefly.
“Wrong type of attraction,” Eli said. “We want to attract it to you, not bind it.”
“What about using one of the rune stones? If the connection between the lead and the Wendigo is weak, it could give it quite a push, couldn’t it?”
“It could, but we don’t know much about those stones. I don’t know what the effect might be, and if it turned out badly, I’d rather not have anything made with its help going onto your skin.”
After that, I was quiet and just watched. Campbell fussed over the pot but was unhappy with what she saw.
“It’s not coming together properly,” she complained. “I’m not sure why.”
Victor peered into the pot.
“It’s the cleaning patches. They have gun solvent on them; that’s why it won’t bind properly.”
“Ah,” she said. “Of course.”
She added a little of this and a bit of that, and finally was satisfied. Leaning across the pot, she blew sharply across the top, and I could feel the energy come off her from across the room. That was how strong she’d become. She snuffed out the Sterno and sat back.
By the time the gunk had cooled down it was late afternoon. I had expected we were done for the day, but both Eli and Victor were gung ho to get started.
“We may as well try it out,” said Victor. “It’s at its strongest when it’s fresh.”
“Now what?” I asked. “I slap the stuff on and we wander around blindly, hoping what’s-his-name will show up?”
“No, we do have a starting point,” Eli said. “Your psychic friend was right once. I’m thinking over by Fort Point, right by the bridge, would be a good place to start.”
Victor picked up the pot containing the salve.
“Strip down, Mason.”
“In your dreams, Victor.”
Campbell took the pot from him.
“I’ll apply it,” she said, looking at me expectantly.
I took off my shirt and she rubbed the goo all over my back, arms, and chest, working it into the muscles like a sports trainer would. It was actually rather pleasant. The balm smelled faintly of chocolate and rosemary, with just a whiff of astringency. It was a bit weird, though, like getting a professional massage from a former girlfriend. Talk about your mixed messages.
When she was done, Eli asked if she wanted to come along, but she demurred.
“Chasing monsters is your thing, not mine. I’m happy just to stay in the kitchen and whip things up.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll bet.”
“But be careful, Mason. I’d miss you, you know.”
“So would I.” I looked around. “Okay. Let’s do it.”
SEVEN
FORT POINT SITS JUST UNDER THE SOUTH END of the Golden Gate, hunkered down in the shadow of the bridge. It was built during the Civil War to fend off invading fleets—from whom, I’m not sure, and I don’t think they were, either. It’s become a big tourist attraction, crowded on weekends not only with tourists but with locals as well.
A footpath, several miles long, runs east toward Crissy Field. Most of the path is clear of brush with great views of the bridge and the ocean, but there are parts of it that wend closely through overhanging trees. Overgrown lanes occasionally branch off the main path, where concrete bunkers have reverted back to the wild, almost unrecognizable as man-made constructions.
Eli carried the messenger bag containing the stones. Victor had the iron shavings and the salt, as well as the flas
hlight with the duct-taped stone. He was also carrying a shotgun. He didn’t even bother to disguise it; if we ran into anyone, he’d use enough of an aversion spell so that they wouldn’t care to look at him.
The shotgun might not be much use against the Wendigo, but Victor hadn’t forgotten about the creature that had savaged his leg. This was smack-dab in the middle of where it had been hanging out, and any display of unusual magical power would bring it running. I wasn’t carrying anything. My job was simple. I was bait.
Dusk is a dicey time of day to be hunting anything. Your eyes play tricks on you, and you can never be quite sure what you’re looking at until it’s right up on top of you. But that was when Morgan had seen me here, so that was when I was here.
I still wasn’t happy with the setup. Too many assumptions were being made, way too many for my comfort. What if the Wendigo wasn’t here? What if it wasn’t a Wendigo at all? What if it was, but could manage to call us all at once—who was going to set up the circle and trap it? Eli assured me that it could focus on only one individual at a time. He seemed quite sure of that, but what if he was wrong? He’d misjudged things in the past. Not often, but he’s not infallible.
And once we had it, what were we going to do with it? Could it really call Sherwood back from whatever place she was? Then what? Did we let it go to continue on its merry way? What if it were bent on wreaking havoc? I don’t mind playing things by ear; in fact, mostly I prefer it. But this was going out on a very long limb without a paddle, so to speak.
It was a warm evening by San Francisco standards. The sound of ocean waves blended pleasantly with the muted sounds of traffic from the opposite direction. The sun had just set, and the last of the evening rays lit up the tops of the bridge towers. I felt strangely at peace, relaxed and happy, even though we were on a dangerous mission with unknown consequences. Lou was trailing along right behind me, looking remarkably at ease himself.
Too much at ease. This was not normal. I looked behind me, and sure enough, Victor and Eli were ambling along lackadaisically, as if they hadn’t a care in the world. I roused myself enough to point out this disturbing state of affairs, but something else caught my attention. This time it wasn’t someone calling me. It was a whisper in the depths of my brain, right at the edge of conscious thought. Come, it urged. Come, Mason.
I knew where it wanted me to go. I stopped by the side of the trail, letting Victor and Eli drift by, lost in their own thoughts, then walked back up the path the way we’d come. Again, it was an odd sensation, a feeling of compulsion that wasn’t compulsion at all. I didn’t have to come to it when it called; it just seemed there was nothing else I could do, really. I went because I was supposed to go. Makes no sense, I know, but it’s the best I can explain it.
A ways farther up the trail I heard Lou’s high-pitched yelp, warning Eli and Victor something was amiss. About time, I thought, but I wondered if they’d get the holding circle up in time. It didn’t worry me either way.
Twenty feet ahead of me, about ten feet up in a small tree, barely visible against the darkening sky, he waited. Eli and Victor would be too late. I felt a vague sorrow about that, and an even stronger regret that I’d never see Lou again, but it wasn’t enough to throw me off stride. What would be, would be.
I’d almost reached the Wendigo’s tree perch when his face lit up with a green glow. Immediately my mind cleared, and I backed off rapidly, almost stumbling over my feet. Apparently Eli had been right about him; he couldn’t keep his mind focused on more than one thing at a time. He sat without moving for a long moment before toppling off the branch and falling to the ground with a heavy thud. He wasn’t hurt, though, and immediately got to his feet with a jerky, uncoordinated motion.
He’d shown a fluid grace while sitting in the tree, but now he was staggering along like a recalcitrant marionette, stumbling and lurching toward the circle. So they’d pulled it off after all. Victor kept the flashlight trained on him until he was completely in the circle. When he switched it off, we all held our breath, waiting to see if the circle would hold.
The Wendigo did a complete three-sixty, examining every aspect of the trap. He put his hands up near the interface of the power grid produced by the stones and the space outside the circle, shook his head, and then calmly sat down.
He looked about the same as the first time I’d seen him—same curly hair, same woodland clothes, although the colors shifted as he sat there, so maybe they weren’t really clothes at all. He was smaller than I remembered, though, only five-eight or so. People who scare you are often smaller than they seem at the time. But this time he seemed more human, less scary. Maybe it was something he could control. Anyone passing by on the street wouldn’t look twice at him.
And now that we had him what were we going to do with him? I wasn’t even sure we could communicate with him, much less get across complex ideas. I needn’t have worried. He looked at each of us in turn and said, “Now what?”
His voice was light and pleasant, with a hint of a Southern twang. I had no idea what to say, but thank God it wasn’t up to me. I was more than happy to let Eli and Victor do the talking. Eli got up close, right to the barrier of stones, before he spoke, and when he did, his tone was mild.
“What do we call you? Have you a name?”
“Many,” he said. “Most of which are hard to pronounce. But you don’t need a name. You seem to know who I am.”
“I know what you are, which is not precisely the same,” Eli said.
“A nice distinction. What is it you want?”
“What makes you think we want something?” said Victor. He was never one for standing on the sidelines.
“You’ve trapped me here. There must be a reason for that.” He waved expansively at the circle. “I don’t know how you did it, I’ll admit. Most things don’t affect me much. But trapping me took a lot more thought and planning than simply trying to kill me, for example. So you want something from me, no?”
He sounded reasonable enough, but I’d been under his thrall twice now. Maybe his reasonableness was another, more subtle form of the same thing. The sky had grown dark, and the only illumination came from the ring of rune stones that glowing faintly as they pulsed with power. The Wendigo’s face was half hidden in a greenish shadow, giving him a diabolical cast. The devil’s a smooth talker, they say. Eli slowly nodded.
“True enough. We want you to find someone and bring them back.”
“Oh? From where?”
“If we knew that, we wouldn’t be talking to you. She’s . . . somewhere, not quite in this world but not quite out of it, either. Something you might be familiar with.”
“What’s her name?”
Eli hesitated. It seemed dangerous information to be giving out, but if we weren’t willing to do so, what was the point of catching this thing, anyway?
“Sherwood,” he said.
“Sherwood,” he repeated softly, caressing the name softly. It set off echoes in my mind.
He closed his eyes and for a moment his entire form blurred. When he opened his eyes, he shook his head. “Too many possibilities. I’m going to need more information.”
“She reached out to me,” I said. “At first she was in a featureless void, but then it resolved into a specific place, like a movie set from Wuthering Heights.” The Wendigo looked at me blankly. “Her favorite movie,” I explained. “Moors, fog, stunted bushes, bleak vistas—that sort of thing.”
“Ah, I see. A construct. That makes it easier.” He closed his eyes again, and this time when he opened them, he nodded. “I see her. I can call her.”
“What does she look like?” I asked, not trusting him.
“Dark hair. Pretty. She’s sitting on a rock, high on a hillside, overlooking the moor you described. Not really, of course, but that’s the way she perceives it.” So he might not be trustworthy, but he wasn’t faking it, either. “The question now is,” he continued, “what are you going to do for me in return?”
“Well
, there’s a problem about that,” Eli said. “You tried to take Mason from us once already. I don’t think it would have been a good thing for him if you’d succeeded. What’s to say you wouldn’t try the same sort of thing once you were free? A lot of innocents walk through the woods. It was hard enough to catch you once, and I don’t think it would be easy to catch you a second time.” The Wendigo chuckled, deep in his throat.
“No, probably not.”
“So you see the dilemma.”
“I do. Well, first of all you seem to have the wrong idea about me. I have no use for ordinary humans. Although I find them interesting. Especially their music.” He looked over at me. “You’re a musician, yes?”
“What does that have to do with anything?” I said.
“Everything, but you should know that. Practitioners, now, that’s a different matter. I absorb energy from them. But as far as people go, what do you think I’d do with them? Eat them?” He made it sound like a joke, but that was exactly what I thought he’d do. “The energy is what keeps me strong. But it doesn’t hurt them any—in fact, afterward they usually forget they ever met me.”
“Richard Cory,” I said.
“Ah, you know him? Delightful fellow. I got enough from him to keep me going for a month.”
“And where is he now?”
“Back with his friends, I imagine. Have you checked with them?”
I hadn’t, and of course there was no way to do that now. But it wasn’t impossible. Rolf wouldn’t have bothered to tell me if Richard had returned. He just didn’t think that way.
“What about those hikers,” Victor said, “the ones who were torn to shreds. We’ve been assuming it was something else, but now I’m beginning to wonder.”
The Wendigo gave him what was supposed to be a bright and cheery smile, but under the glow of the rune stones it looked more like a satanic leer.
“Oh, come, now. All of you seem strangely eager to jump to conclusions, based on nothing at all. Now, that beast, yes, it’s possible. It’s a vicious animal, though not truly intelligent.” He gestured over at Lou. “And although it hates everyone and everything, it especially despises Ifrits.”
