“Yes, those were her capacitors.” Rachel laughed. “Silly things, but they work. She spent years perfecting them.”
“Not well enough, or she wouldn’t need you,” Candice broke in.
“No. I guess not. What makes you think this plan will work?” Rachel looked at Jakob and Karen.
“We have no surety it will, but this has been years in the planning. Never before have we been able to marshal so many resources. Also, for the first time, we have a hook in Katie. Thee. Your bond with her, Rachel,” Queen Annalisse said.
Rachel looked at each of them in turn, noting their resolve. So this all comes down to me?
“Your channeling will summon Katie. Even if she has left this world, were you to channel enough Power, she would sense your location,” Karen said.
“Our dear sisters are moving into place in your province of Hawaii. It is there we believe you can channel to best effect. It is there we will spring our trap and bring this misguided child to heel,” Annalisse said.
Chapter 22
The Present
Earth
Overhead, the thunder of airliners broke the stillness of the morning. Rachel looked out across the water. The turquoise ocean complemented the cerulean blue sky. This is as beautiful as Pangea.
Candice stood next to her as they waited for the shuttle that would take them to their hotel. “Have you ever been to Hawaii, Rachel?”
“No,” Rachel answered without averting her eyes from the scene. “This is beautiful. I can only imagine what it must have been like before man came.”
“I visited here for high school graduation. That was many years ago, I’m afraid. I can’t believe how little has changed in twenty years.”
“Maybe, someday, you could see our Pangea. It is unspoiled by pollution or noise.”
“What is it like?”
“Very similar to Africa. Not far from where Katie and I stayed, there’s a huge waterfall. Much like Victoria Falls in southern Africa. We have condors, though.”
“I would love to see it. The Kingdom of the Mountain Witches is very similar to Appalachia,” Candice said.
“Our worlds are connected,” Karen said. “Nearly everything you see on Earth can be found elsewhere in the Cosmos, with slight, local modifications.”
“Bears and mountain lions in the Mountain Witch Kingdom. Condors and gazelles on Pangea,” Rachel added.
“There are some Universes that are quite different. Ones without terra style planets and life forms entirely different than any seen on Earth or our worlds. I am a little surprised Katie did not take you to one, Rachel,” Karen said.
“She was going to, eventually, when I became skilled enough at storing energy without bleeding it off. I was to be her battery.”
“How considerate of her,” Candice said.
“She is not entirely selfish. She wanted me to see it for my own sake, as well as hers,” Rachel said.
***
“What better way to scout out the terrain than take a bike tour of the volcano?” Rachel held a steaming French fry in her hand. Candice, Jakob, Karen and Annalisse sat with her at the restaurant table. Behind them loomed Mount Kilauea.
“Why not? That’s a great idea.” Candice glanced at Karen and Jakob.
“We could certainly cover more ground that way. I don’t think we’ll have a difficult time finding a place for you to channel the Power, but some spots are likely to be better than others,” Karen said.
“Reconnaissance is always a good idea. You should have been a detective, Rachel.” Candice lifted her barbecue burger and took a big bite.
“So much power will draw the sorceress. Even if she has returned to Pangea, she will notice the spike,” Karen said.
Jakob glanced around the table at the empty lunch plates. “Ready to go?”
“Yes.” Candice dipped the last bite of burger into barbecue sauce and shoved it into her mouth.
***
Rachel bumped into a young man in the parking lot. “Oh, excuse me,” She said. He was dressed in khaki shorts and college t-shirt; strapped to his back was a pack with a sleeping bag secured under it. He struggled not to drop a telescope.
“It’s okay, my fault, I wasn’t looking,” he answered, barely looking up at Rachel as he fumbled with his gear. He regained control of his telescope and called out to one of his companions, “Wait, Kim!”
“Hurry up, Grady,” a young co-ed answered from the other side of the parking lot. She was dressed in blue shorts and the same college t-shirt as her friend and carried a pack as well.
“We are not going to be alone in this park,” Rachel observed as they walked towards the bike rental shop.
“I know. The queen has anticipated this. We have no choice, though,” Karen answered.
“What about a more isolated spot?” Rachel asked.
“We need Katie out in the open. She has too much of an advantage in wooded terrain. Also, Queen Annalisse believes this to be the most propitious place for our task,” Karen answered.
More students passed – many carrying packs and telescopes. Most had bedding rolled under their pack. Camping. They would be in the park at night, then.
The large number of hikers and other pedestrians stirred up small clouds of dust as they crossed the parking lot. Overhead, several birds flew. The air smelled fresh – nearly as clean as on Pangea, Rachel noted.
I must trust Annalisse. She would not lead us into a disaster.
The party reached the bike rental shop. Jakob was already there and had completed the paperwork and paid the deposit for their bicycles.
“The main crater is too obvious. I know Katie – she will sense it is a setup. During our time together, even before my death, she saw that I am circumspect. Such a bold, public, move on my part would be out of character for me.” Rachel held her bike by the handlebars as the party surveyed the scene. Mt. Kilauea towered in the distance.
“I trust your judgment on this,” Karen said.
“What about Kilauea Iki? It is less famous. Plus, we can approach from the forest. Queen Annalisse, can you fight from there?” Jakob asked.
“Yes, I believe so. Her confidence will be very high. She will not be concerned with being out in the open, even with me in cover.”
Jakob rented two-seated bikes and Karen and Candice shared one, Queen Annalisse and Rachel, the other. Jakob rode singly to scout the terrain ahead.
Rachel steadied the bike, prepared to use the Power to balance it. The queen’s feet did not reach the pedals. However, Rachel found the bike was perfectly balanced. Either Annalisse was channeling power so efficiently that Rachel, even next to her, could not detect it, or the witch weighed just enough to balance the cycle without adding to the pedaling load.
Chapter 23
The Present
Mount Kilauea
Rachel placed her palms against the rock. Below, the magma was more than fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The group had locked their bikes together and entered the lava fields. Around them, the jagged terrain, barren of greenery, recalled to mind pictures of the Martian landscape taken by the Mars Rover. Ahead, near to the caldera, noxious sulfur dioxide gases seeped from the ground, giving the appearance of steam rising from an underground stream.
Queen Annalisse came beside her.
Rachel stood up. “I have never drawn energy from something so hot as this. Even the hot springs on Pangea were barely above boiling point – at most two to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. This is at least five times as much.”
“Do not worry, child-witch. Your kind can draw at a far greater temperature than this. With training, you could even draw from the surface of the Sun,” Annalisse reassured her.
“What do I do?”
“Start slowly. Draw not from the magma itself, but from the heated ground around it. Pull only a bit at a time, a slender thread of energy is best,” Karen said.
“Steady and even. This is only a practice session. Remember the lesson of the candle,” Annal
isse said.
Rachel knelt once more. Composed of volcanic rock, the shelf was rough from irregular cooling and she had to rise to adjust her position and avoid scraping herself on the sharp ground. Through her palm, she detected the layers of heat. Parts below her were extremely hot, with pockets exceeding two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. To the side of the pocket and several feet up, lay a cooler segment. She drew from this. First, only a slender thread, less even than from the swimming pool the night before.
Slowly, in nearly imperceptible increments, Rachel drew power. This is not like the pool. I am still using more power to do this than I am drawing. She stood up. “I need a second.”
“We are in no hurry, Rachel. Take as long as you need to remain comfortable,” Karen said.
In the distance, they could see Jakob riding his bicycle. If someone approached, he raised his left arm over his head as an alarm. The shadows of the rocks lengthened as the afternoon turned to early evening.
Rachel breathed deeply. Next to them stood a large boulder of igneous rock. Drawing from it would take a lot of power – likely more than she would draw – but it could serve as a buffer between her and the molten rock below. She walked to it and placed both palms against it. First, she felt for temperature differences and any currents within or directly underneath that she could mine.
Cool. The rock was relatively cool, retaining only the heat from the afternoon sun. Rachel detected a warm current in the ground, far below it, but she would have to channel the Power nearly to her limit of channeling undetected. She went back to the ground and knelt.
This time, knowing the terrain and the currents below, Rachel was able to directly seize upon a thread of magma that was neither the hottest nor the coolest. She drew the heat from it, starting at the level she had ceased at earlier. Energy flowed through her.
More. She wanted more. This was like a drug rush.
Power filled her, the ground blurred and her hearing zoned out. Like an electrocution victim, unable to remove a hand from the live wire shocking them, she was held to her position. Something pushed her away and off the lava field. Rachel blinked, staring upwards at the sky. Where was she?
Figures filled her field of vision. Katie had summoned help for her in her tent. Good. They would take her away from Earth and to the Mountain Witch village where she would meet Gertrude and Eustice. Yet, how did she know their names before meeting them and why did she see the sky overhead and not tent canvas?
“Let her be. She will regain her bearing shortly,” one of the figures said.
“She’s not breathing!” a second said.
“She does not need to,” came a third reassuring voice, this one male.
Rachel turned her head in the direction of the man’s voice. A bicycle lay next to him. Where was his Labrador, the one he used to walk through her neighborhood in Melville? Jakob. It was Jakob.
“She’s coming back,” Karen said.
The sky and figures gathered around her came into focus.
I am here, on Earth, and Katie is gone. She was my first friend; I cannot betray her.
Rachel breathed in deeply and sat up. The ground cut her pants.
“I’m okay.”
Candice moved to check her vitals.
“I am fine. Remember, I am no longer human.” Rachel smiled at the detective.
They made Rachel stay still and rest. Finally, she stood up. “I’m okay, now.”
“Let’s go. We can try again tomorrow. Rachel, can you ride?” Jakob asked.
“Yes, I think so. In a minute, but we can start out now. I can walk beside the bike until my balance is back.”
The party collected their bicycles and started down the path that would take them to the parking lot and their van. Rachel paid little attention to the scenery around as she considered her dilemma. Loyalty was a two way street. Katie didn’t reciprocate Rachel’s sense of loyalty – or did she? If Rachel were truly in trouble or danger, Katie would come. The sorceress did let Rachel’s human body die – perhaps even caused her death – but Katie thought she was doing her friend a favor in this.
“Katie cannot be harmed. I am bonded to her. I don’t know how or why, but I think I would fight to protect her – whether I wished to intellectually or not.”
Karen and Jakob shared a look.
“We know this, child,” Queen Annalisse said. “You will not be asked to fight against your maker.”
Her bearing restored, Rachel rode with Jakob, who pedaled most of her weight along with his own. Candice took Queen Annalisse and Karen took Jakob’s single bike. The sun cast long shadows from its position at the horizon when they made it to the van.
Jakob unlocked the sliding door and opened it. On the bench opposite the opening sat several Upper Mountain Witches. Rachel looked for Trudy, but that witch was not among the three. Jakob nodded to them. Two got up and met Queen Annalisse outside. The third moved to a back seat.
“My sisters tell me the sorceress has left Earth. Most likely for Pangea,” Queen Annalisse said when they were underway.
“She will return for the girl,” Karen said. “The bond goes both ways, I think.”
“It does give us a breather to set the ground before her return,” Candice said.
“It is a stroke of luck,” Jakob said.
“I think she went to Pangea to collect her tools. She has created hundreds of scientific devices. It wouldn’t surprise me if she could track me with one even if I did not channel,” Rachel said.
“In any case, we should be ready by the end of the week. Dan Edwards will arrive on Saturday, with his family,” Karen said.
“Why is his family coming?” Rachel asked.
“I believe it will balance him, add to his power over the sorceress. Also, it would be kind of hard for him to just take off for Hawaii on a personal vacation.”
Rachel sat back into her seat and closed her eyes. Most would assume she was tired from her ordeal, and she was, but what she needed to do now was think this through. Katie cornered, Eric coming to Hawaii with his father, Rachel dead to Earth. Where was the endgame in all of this? Would Katie be taken peacefully? What kind of friendship could Rachel have with Eric when she wasn’t even alive?
Chapter 24
The Present Day
Earth
Candice ordered in when she and Rachel returned to their hotel room. “I cannot get enough of this Hawaiian food!” The scent of barbecue pineapple filled the air.
“Like it? I wish I could enjoy food. On the Mountain Witch world I did. In fact, I had a strong appetite. Here, food is nearly tasteless and I can only take it in small portions,” Rachel said.
“That is because the mountain witch world is your natural world. That and the Citadel planet are in the same universe. You no longer belong to this one.”
“I know. I heard you talking with Karen and Jakob. Also, Queen Annalisse has explained some of this. Still, I think they are not quite telling me everything,” Rachel said.
“You must trust them.”
“I do. With my life. And, they are my only route back to my Lower Mountain witch sisters.” “You will see them again. Soon.”
“I know, thanks. Do you mind if I go to bed early tonight?”
“Not at all. I have a stack of magazines to look at. Plus, I have this new tablet Jakob brought me.” Candice gestured to the ten-inch Acer Iconia computer tablet on the dresser.
Rachel examined the tablet. Katie would love one of those. She could load it with science programs and magazines. Eventually, she would want to make one of her own. Then she would lose herself in her cave for several weeks or more as she designed a low power, super-sized one of her own. Rachel would have to see if she could get her own tablet, maybe an iPad. Surely, she had money. A single one of the many moissanite pieces collected in her room in Eustice’s cottage would be more than enough to purchase one – or a dozen.
Sleep came quickly. Karen and Jakob, along with Queen Annalisse, had already departed to set up anothe
r stage in the trap. The light of early dawn broke through the draperies. She must have slept nine hours or more!
Rachel dressed and stood on the balcony, letting the morning breeze ruffle her sundress. Somewhere, she knew, perhaps on the balcony, perhaps in the yard below or on the roof, a lone Upper Mountain Witch kept watch over the hotel room. Upper Mountain Witches were so stealthy that Katie probably sensed them only on Pangea after Annalisse ordered them to break cover to herd Katie and Rachel back to Earth.
How did the queen know Katie would take Rachel back to Earth? Annalisse was always thinking several steps ahead. Rachel would hate to have to play chess with that one.
What would happen here? She could not bear to be allied against Katie. The sorceress had spent many painstaking hours instructing Rachel in math and science and the Power. True, as a sorceress, her explanations of the Power were not as helpful as they would be coming from another witch – but Katie had made the attempt. And if she were only a child when she died, how could she be expected to have a mature outlook and the wisdom of age?
Rachel heard a voice in the distance.
I have come to save the child’s life, not to harm her. It is for that reason I entered into this affair – to restore her humanity and bring her into my kingdom. She should have become an Upper Mountain Witch and not a sorceress. Something happened to push her off the correct path. Perhaps Katie’s great intelligence prevented her from moving by feel and accepting the natural course after her earthly death. My task is to restore her to the correct one and bring her into our world as an Upper Mountain Witch. That is where she belongs; what she truly is.
Rachel turned around, looking for Annalisse. How could she be on the balcony, the queen had left for the city early that morning, with Jakob and Karen? Rachel was alone. Into my mind. The witch queen spoke directly into my mind – and from such a distance!
The weekdays passed quietly. Rachel forced herself to go out sightseeing with Candice, who would not leave Rachel alone at the hotel. Saturday morning arrived and Candice drove them to the airport to pick up Dan Edwards and his son.
Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) Page 8
