by DM Fike
Welcome.
Then silence.
I blinked tears before I could see clearly again. To my amazement, standing proudly in front of a heaving Tabitha was no longer the young deer, but a 12-point stag, a generous mane ruffling from his neck. His eyes now held a faint green glow. Along his side where dull brown fur once rested, dark streaks of obsidian black and glowing silver intertwined in a gorgeous swirling pattern, almost like cursive writing. His simple black tail had grown three times its former size and spread like a Japanese fan behind him. The glass of the now shattered orb swirled in a fractal pattern.
Tabitha allowed herself a rare smile as she got back to her feet. “Shepherds of Nasci, meet the new black-tailed deer dryant, Jortur.”
CHAPTER 16
I COULDN’T UNDERSTAND why Tabitha had decided to imbue such a small kidama. Sipho whispered the details in my ear as the others stepped up to admire the new dryant. Guntram and Tabitha had returned empty-handed in my absence. Sipho and Baot had requested to use the vitae since its power would slowly weaken stored in the orbs, but the augurs deemed it too dangerous to create a new dryant with the mishipeshu running loose. They only decided to imbue Jortur because he could stay on the homestead, protected by several magical defenses in addition to shepherds.
I thanked Sipho for the recap and discreetly showed her the extra batteries in my pouch. She tilted her head only slightly to make sure no one was looking, then tucked them away in her own pockets. A smooth transaction, since everyone had their eyes on Jortur.
The normally dour-faced Tabitha positively glowed with maternity as she allowed everyone to pet the new dryant. “Don’t be shy, little one,” she cooed in Jortur’s ear the way a crazy cat lady might whisper to one of her brood. “Everyone wants to meet you in your new beautiful form.”
I hung back from the rest of the crowd, watching in fascination as the deer wobbled on his hooves, adjusting to his new size. I could feel that distinct vitae buzz in the air combined with a strong sensation of earth pith. No wonder new dryants needed protection from vaetturs like the mishipeshu. It would be like leaving roasted meat around a lion’s den.
Guntram cut in between me and my view of Jortur. He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me away from everyone else. He had that “I’m going to lecture you so hard right now” glint in his eyes.
Once out of listening distance of the others, he hissed, “How dare you disobey a direct order.”
I shoved my chin back at him. “I didn’t disobey anything. You told me to stay away from the dunes. I did.”
He was not impressed by my technical honesty. “Where have you been?”
I needed to tell him what I found, so there was no use in lying. “Foster Lake.”
Guntram’s scowl deepened. “Did Vincent Garcia tell you to go there?”
My mouth went dry. That traitor Sipho had ratted me out. I opened and closed my mouth to speak but couldn’t think of a reply fast enough.
My expression confirmed it for Guntram. “Vincent Garcia,” he repeated. “The park ranger.”
I gulped. “H-how do you know about him?”
Guntram flung his arms out wide. “He’s the man you knocked unconscious during the fight with the whale. I was there, remember? Fechin told me how you visited him in the hospital afterwards.”
“Why didn’t you ever say anything?”
“Because I thought you broke off contact. By all accounts, you hadn’t seen him in weeks. I assumed you had assuaged your guilt and gotten over the cockatrice incident.” His jaw tightened as he added, “Apparently, I was wrong.”
“I did break off contact until recently,” I said. “But Vincent’s investigating the dead martens too. He reached out to talk about them. He showed me another feeding ground at Foster Lake. I had to check it out.”
Guntram grabbed both of my shoulders, his grip tight. “You told him about shepherds, didn’t you?”
I wanted desperately to avoid the murderous glance in Guntram’s eyes, but I was in too deep at this point. “A little but I kept things vague.”
“Ina,” Guntram said, his quiet voice more painful than his fingers digging into my flesh. “Do you comprehend how serious this is? You vowed never to reveal anything to outsiders when you became an eyas.”
I unleashed the anger inside of me to assuage some of the guilt. “I also vowed to protect my fellow shepherds. What was I supposed to do? Let you die?”
Guntram’s grasp eased a little. “Explain yourself.”
I broke out of his hold and took a few steps back. “How did you think I found you at Thor’s Well with the cockatrice, Guntram? I looked everywhere for you. If it wasn’t for Vincent telling me about the strange seal activity in the area, I never would have found you or Ronan in time. You’d both be dead right now.”
Guntram’s eyebrows furrowed. He hadn’t expected me to refer back to our previous misadventure. “But the shepherd code—”
“Screw the code. I’d do it all over again and be bound, if it meant you lived.”
The word ‘bound’ acted like a slap to Guntram’s face. He stiffened, still angry, but not as intense as before. “We all make hasty decisions in the heat of the moment,” he reasoned, “but to consort with an outsider is unacceptable.”
I narrowed my eyes at Guntram. “Even if that means finding out how the mishipeshu travels so fast?”
It was Guntram’s turn to look surprised. I took the opportunity to rub it in. “That’s right. I found a weird glowing stone at Foster Lake near the other dead martens. I somehow activated it and it teleported me like a wisp channel to Fern Ridge.”
Guntram’s jaw dropped. “That’s not possible.”
“It is. I can show you, but without Vincent helping me again, I would never have found it.”
A strained silence fell between us, during which a small cheer went up from the shepherds gathered around Jortur. He had taken his first wobbly steps as a dryant. Jortur let out a happy snort-wheeze as he flung his head back in triumph.
Guntram’s hand rested on my shoulder, light and resigned. “Show me.”
We snuck away from the homestead, letting the other shepherds revel in the awe of a new dryant’s birth.
* * *
Guntram and I did not speak during the relatively short trip to Fern Ridge Lake. I had no idea what might be going through his head, but I knew my own agitated thoughts. I didn’t want to be bound, but I had broken a pretty big rule. No good deed goes unpunished and all that. But still, if I were 100% honest with myself, I’d say my relationship with Vincent wasn’t all about heroics. A part of me that I’d buried a long time ago longed for more.
In the end, I guess I was really only human after all.
It took me longer than normal to travel since I wasn’t used to walking around without boots, but I led Guntram back to the same general area I’d transported to. I found the pulsating blue rock with no problem, its glow visible for yards around. Guntram snatched it before I could touch it, running his rough hands over its cracks and fissures. After a thorough inspection, the stone’s light casting shadows on my augur’s face, he waved me away. I obliged by backing off.
I had no idea what Guntram meant to do until he executed an advanced water sigil. Then, his body jerked toward the stone, and with a barely audible plop of water, he blinked out of sight. The stone stayed behind, drifting back down into the muck.
Panicking, I snatched the stone with my own hands. What had Guntram done? I had never seen that particular water sigil before, so I couldn’t replicate it. I tried a few simple water sigils, but nothing worked. As the seconds ticked away, I dropped the stone and swam up for air, mentally mapping the wisp channels that would take me to Foster Lake.
I had almost broken the lake’s surface when a second plop sounded beneath my feet. Guntram reappeared in a quick flash of blue. His eyeballs spun a little uncertainly in their sockets, but otherwise, he appeared fine. I flung my head above water for a large breath. I meant to sink back down when Gun
tram popped up beside me, his hair dripping down into his beard.
Guntram faced me. “You were correct. The kembar stone took me to Foster Lake.”
“Kembar stone?” I repeated.
Guntram took off toward the nearest tree-lined shore. “Come. I’ll explain on land.”
Back on shore, Guntram gave me a quick lesson on teleportation. It takes a shepherd of great skill to create a gateway between two objects. Wisp channels are permanent gateways. Generally created by an Oracle, they don’t require any sigil to operate since a shepherd’s own pith stores activate them automatically.
Kembar stones are a more primitive form of teleportation, easier to create. You magically join two objects from the same source together using a specific pith. Once linked, you can use almost any high-level sigil of the same pith to open the pathways again. I had accidentally activated this set of kembar stones earlier by drawing the underwater sigil near it. Kembar stones are much less complex to create than wisp channels, so augurs and even some mid-level shepherds can make them.
But that left one obvious question. I turned to Guntram. “Can a vaettur make kembar stones?”
“I’ve never heard of such a thing,” Guntram admitted, staring out at the lake, “but it does answer the question of how the mishipeshu has always been able to travel so fast, both here in the Talol Wilds and back in Onyara.”
I shifted weight between my legs in a little dance, warming up to the idea. “Then we have a lead! If we search all the lakes we’ve seen the mishipeshu vanish into, we might be able to track it down.”
“Ina,” Guntram cut me off sharply. “There is no ‘we’ in this.”
I stilled. “You’re not going alone, are you?”
“Of course not,” Guntram snapped, “but there’s not a snowflake’s chance in September that you’ll come with me. Your judgment of shepherd code has been severely compromised.”
I knew Guntram wouldn’t let the Vincent issue go. I just didn’t think it was fair. “I get that shepherds don’t trust regular people. They have every right not to. They’re about as far removed from Nasci as a living creature on Earth can get.”
“They destroy ecosystems,” Guntram grumbled. “They manipulate all of Nasci’s gifts for personal gain and pleasure.”
I nodded, eager to agree. “You’re right, most of them do. But not all of them. Vincent protects animals and the land from abuse. It’s his job.”
“Under the lax rules of human society,” Guntram scoffed. “Which changes its views of right or wrong on a greedy whim.”
I should have just dropped defending Vincent, but I couldn’t help myself. “I was part of that society not that long ago. My family still lives there. Are they evil too?”
Guntram ground his teeth. “You know it’s more complicated than that.”
“Then let me come with you.” I leaned toward him. “I’ll help you locate the other kembar stones. It’ll be just like a normal vaettur mission.”
Guntram had finally lost his control. He balled up his fists and a sudden gust of wind, generated without any visible sigil drawing, rushed between us. A flock of ravens rose from the nearby trees, crying out in dismay.
“No!” he yelled. “You will stay out of the mishipeshu’s way before it gets you too.”
It was that last syllable that made me realize Guntram’s real emotions here. He was upset about the whole Vincent thing, but the mishipeshu terrified him. It was clearly written in his eyes, accentuated by a murder of ravens cawing above us in a haphazard wind.
Guntram confirmed it with his next words. “I watched a mishipeshu kill two talented shepherds right in front of me. One was an augur on the fast track to becoming the next Onyara Oracle, but he could do little as the vaettur struck him down with one swift ambush.”
My heart leapt into my throat. I tried to imagine a vaettur defeating someone with Guntram’s skills. I couldn’t even fathom it.
Guntram continued, “And that was a mishipeshu that hadn’t ingested vitae. When the mishipeshu inevitably smells it on you, it will hunt you down without rest.” I opened my mouth to argue, but he added quickly, “Lightning pith or no. You will perish.”
I felt Guntram was being a bit melodramatic. I knew a straight shot of lightning had a good chance of squashing this beast, but I didn’t dare argue with Guntram’s near tangible fear.
It took some effort, but I nodded in defeat. “Fine, I won’t come with you, but if it’s as powerful as you say, you can’t go alone.”
“Go back to the homestead,” Guntram said. “Tell Tabitha to meet me here.”
I groaned. “You want me to fetch Tabitha?”
“I don’t trust anyone else to accompany me,” Guntram said firmly. “And the Oracle has her own worries with her current predicament. Tabitha is the best shepherd for the job.”
Dragging Tabitha away from her precious new dryant sounded almost as fun as playing chicken with an oncoming train. “Are you sure you don’t want to tell her yourself?”
If looks could kill, I would have died right there. “Go, Ina.”
I grumbled but turned on my heel, off to obey my augur.
Guntram had to add one last instruction. “And whatever you do, don’t leave the homestead!”
“Yeah, yeah,” I yelled with a dismissive shrug.
“I mean it, Ina! Stay on the homestead, or so help me, I’ll do something we’ll both regret!”
CHAPTER 17
TELLING TABITHA TO join Guntram went about as well as you would expect. It didn’t help that when I arrived, everyone continued to fawn over Jortur (pun intended). In my absence, Jortur had gotten used to his dryant legs, prancing through one of the fields near the edge of the homestead. He danced past Darby, Baot, Sipho, and even a lounging Zibel, each with eyes full of wonder. Tabitha looked on, proud, but with a hint of wariness in her stance too.
When Tabitha saw me approach, though, she shifted to full defensive mode. “The great lightning shepherd graces us with her presence.”
As the crowd directed its attention on me, I decided not to skirt around the issue. “Guntram needs you at Foster Lake. We found a set of kembar stones belonging to the mishipeshu.”
Only Darby appeared confused at this news. By the look of shock on everyone else’s faces, they obviously caught the reference. Zibel, still pale from his injuries, repeated, “A kembar stone?”
I nodded. “It’s how the mishipeshu has been able to travel so fast without us catching it.”
Baot chewed on the inside of his cheek. “Whoa. That actually makes a ton of sense.”
Tabitha, though, focused straight to the point I knew she would. “And how did you discover these stones?”
There was no chance on this great green Earth I would mention Vincent in front of the Sassy Squad. “I located dead martens at Foster Lake and decided to investigate. I found the stones, and Guntram identified them.”
Tabitha rounded on me. “You disobeyed orders by leaving the homestead.”
I was tired of explaining that I had done no such thing, and besides, Tabitha wouldn’t believe me anyway. I just shrugged. “I did what needed to be done.”
Zibel gave a gasp of surprise at my flippant response. A smirk lingered on the corner of Darby’s face as Tabitha towered over me. “You think you’re better than the rest of us, don’t you?”
My eyes bored straight into hers. “One or two of you, maybe.”
Tabitha raised her hand to strike me, the edges of her fingers sparking with fire. I clutched the batteries in my pocket, eager to return the favor. Maybe if she got a little zap, she’d finally respect what I could do.
Baot, however, had other ideas. He conjured a quick flash of water, which separated us, then in one fluid motion wedged between us. “Ladies, ladies,” he held his hands up as a gesture of peace. “Chill, yeah?”
“Baot’s right,” Sipho called, right on his heels. “If what Ina says is true, we might have a way to track down the mishipeshu.”
Tabith
a heaved in a few breaths as she considered their argument. I kept my body tense too, although Sipho forced me to release the batteries by laying a gentle hand on my arm.
Finally, Tabitha also relaxed. “If Guntram requests backup, I’ll go,” she said. Before I could so much as twitch, though, she poked me in the chest. “This isn’t over, haggard. One day, your disregard for shepherd code will be your downfall.”
I opened my mouth to retort, but Sipho pinched it off with a death grip at my elbow. I let any words fall silent, but I shook Sipho off me.
Tabitha turned to Darby. “It’s not safe beyond the homestead. You’re in charge of Jortur. Make sure he stays here, not one hoof outside the border. Understood?”
Darby gave a quick nod. “Yes, augur.”
Tabitha stalked off without another word.
Once she hit the tree line, I flipped on my heels in the opposite direction. “Where are you going?” Sipho asked me.
I should have just told her the lodge, but I remained angry at her betrayal of telling Guntram about Vincent. “If I told you, would you just tattle on me?”
Sipho flashed me an apologetic look, but I refused to acknowledge it, stalking away from the field. Darby muttered something about me under her breath, but it was Baot’s words that really stabbed me right in the heart.
“Just let her go, Sipho. She should be alone.”
* * *
Alone.
I endured hours of restless sleep, that word refusing to leave my subconscious. A deep tiredness had draped a blanket over my head and my body ached all over, but I couldn’t shut off the loneliness. No matter how I told myself it didn’t matter what other people thought, no matter how many sarcastic barbs I conjured, I couldn’t erase that empty feeling.
Why did I always end up by myself? Even enmeshed with a group of powerful people with the greatest duty on the planet, I somehow managed to isolate myself.
I tossed on the bed for the eight hundredth time, throwing a pillow over my head. Stop the pity party, I ordered myself. You’re not alone. You’ve got parents. A mentor. A place to belong. Lots of people don’t even have that.
