A Quarrel Called: Stewards Of The Plane Book 1

by Shannon Wendtland

  He gave a firm shake of his head and wheeled closer in his chair. “No. They will come pouring out like a torrent. They will be going so fast and so furiously that you can hardly distinguish one from the next. No, what you have to worry about is trying to keep the vortex stable and open long enough for us to pull Matthew out.”

  “But Gram said…”

  “I know what your Gram said. She doesn’t want you to get your hopes up. But I am telling you, I believe it is possible, even probable that he is not only alive, but able to escape.”

  “Then why doesn’t she?”

  “Your Gram is a very talented Lantern. But she hasn’t seen Matthew in any of her dreams, and that makes her not trust Sam’s. But I trust Sam’s dreams over Gram’s in this case.” He gestured firmly with his hand, making a point.

  “Why?”

  “Because Gram is too close to this one to see clearly. Sam is not. If he says that Matthew came to him, then I believe him. But your Gram wants to be convinced, and just saying Sam saw him in a dream isn’t enough for her. So I’m telling you this now, because when the time comes to close the vortex, you are going to have to hold on a little bit longer. You will have to do it on your own and trust your gut. Don’t let go until you’re sure, one way or another.”

  I wanted to believe Gramps was right – so badly. But Gram was always the steady one in our little family; Gramps was the one prone to flights of silliness and fancy – even before his legs stopped working properly. I looked at him in his chair, at his withered form and compared what I saw to how he looked only a few years ago when the photo in Fredericksburg was taken. I wondered suddenly how it happened.

  “You said you guys have done this before.”

  “Yes,” he said. “More than once. But not in a long time now.”

  “Because of your… condition.”

  He looked down at his legs and then away. “Yes.”

  “Gramps, tell me the truth. Tell me why your legs stopped working… why it came on so suddenly.”

  He stared off into the distance, his eyes searching the storm clouds. The air gusted, blowing his fringe of gray around his head like so many wisps of dandelion seeds. “The last time we did this – the last vortex we closed, it was a dark one, like this one. And I burned up. I tried to channel the energy, to bring the streams back together, to mend the rift, and it was too much for me. I was too old.”

  “Too old?”—I paused—“or did Esme do something.”

  “I think it might have happened anyways. But Esme burning out the node, that was icing on the cake. I didn’t let go soon enough, and it burned me out, too. I was okay for a little while, but my synapses were shot, and whatever years I had left in them, in me, were used up before their time. So I can still walk a little bit, but my legs, they don’t really obey me anymore. It’s tricky, you see. The human body is a very complex circuit. And what we do, you and me, and others like us, is incorporate our complex circuit into a grand design infinitely more complex. And that day in Fredericksburg, I wasn’t up to the task.”

  My eyes burned a little bit, realizing now how hard it must be to be out here in the desert with me and the others, knowing that he couldn’t participate, or help, or even stop me from making the same mistake he made. It scared me to know that I could burn up my nervous system, but it saddened me even more.

  “I love you, Gramps,” I said, reaching out to hold his hand.

  “I love you, too, Melly-bean.”

  I smiled at the nickname. It had been a long time since he’d called me that. After a moment I took a deep breath.

  “Okay,” I said. “Tell me what not to do.”

  77. TARA

  “Why are you so quiet?” G. asked.

  I shifted on my butt, turning away from the approaching storm to look at him. The sun glared down behind him, forming a sort of streaky halo around his head. “I’m not sure what I am doing out here.”

  “You’re here because we need you,” he said with finality, as if it was obvious.

  But it wasn’t. I got why G. was here – he was the Guardian with his glow-in-the-dark light saber of thought. He was the protector. Sam was here because he saw visions of the future. Melody was here because she had some energy ability that wasn’t quite clear to me yet. And Lily? She was here because she’d shown up in my boyfriend’s dream. Oh yeah, and Sam’s dream, too. But me? I answered questions posed to a cosmic database in the sky. Why was I here? I could just as easily answer questions over the phone. Except there wasn’t any cell reception out here. But still.

  “Sure,” I said. “If that’s true, then why wasn’t Esme in the photo of their quarrel in Fredericksburg? She was the one taking the photo. If it was important, if she was important to the task, then they would have found a way for her to be in the photo too, right?”

  “Maybe there was no one else around,” he said.

  It was a reasonable assumption. “Maybe.”

  “Why the long face?” Gram asked, walking over.

  I didn’t say anything, but I didn’t have to, because G. opened up his big trap and let it all out.

  Gram took a spot on the ground near me and leaned in close. “You’re here because they need you.”

  I sighed. It wasn’t a polite sigh either.

  “Really, Tara. The quarrel is made up of four independent people. Four purposes. The Sage, The Guardian, The Lantern, The Light. You are the Sage.” She paused to draw a large circle on the ground with a stick. “This is you. The knowledge of the group. The brains of the operation, so to speak.”

  G. nudged me on the shoulder, and I smiled for a small second.

  Then Gram took the stick and drew a triangle within the circle. “This is the Guardian. The Guardian is strong, very strong, and sharp, like the point of the quarrel from which we get our name – an arrowhead shaped like a pyramid that is affixed to a crossbow bolt. The Guardian flies straight to the heart of the matter and deals with it directly. He protects the other members of his quarrel. The Guardian is strength.” She paused to draw a square within the triangle. “This is the Lantern,” she said. “The Lantern can see what is in front, behind, and all around. Your Lantern is Sam. He has his dreams and his messages. It is his job to see these things and evaluate them and tell you what they mean. And the Lantern encloses the Light… Melody. She has the ability to sense and manipulate energy, but without the vision of the Lantern, without the protection of the Guardian, without the Guidance of the Sage, she knows not when her ability is needed, nor where.

  “So what, I’m a glorified cheerleader?”

  “You got part of that right,” Gram said with a sly sidelong look.

  “Which part? Cheerleader? Or glorified?”

  “Leader.”

  I felt a shiver come over me at the gravity in her voice. I could see a twinkle in her eye, but her expression was serious.

  “Baloney,” I said.

  “Just think about your role in the group so far,” she said. “Would any of them be here if it weren’t for you?”

  She got up, dusted off her shorts and walked back over to the car where Sam and Melody were counting out several stacks of pogs. I watched her retreating form and thought about what she said, prepared to dismiss it.

  “She’s right you know,” G. said. “Since the beginning, it’s always been you.”

  I turned to look at him then, his face close to mine, his eyes dark like brown velvet, and I felt my heart skip a beat. He leaned in to kiss me then, his lips firm and supple on mine, his hand snaking up around my neck to cup the back of my head, fingers curling in my hair.

  “It’s always been you,” he breathed.

  How he made me believe it.

  78. G.

  We buried the last of the pogs in an octagon around the perimeter of the vortex and then dug a hole in the center, near an electrical pole, for Melody’s black tourmaline chunks. She spread a thin layer of dirt over the top so that it wouldn’t be too hard for her to stand on that spot in her bare feet.


  I kept an eye on Esme, if for no other reason than I didn’t trust her, but she stayed pretty much out of our way. She was glancing up at the sky a lot, and I wondered whether it was because the eclipse was about to begin or because the thunderheads were nearly upon us.

  I turned to watch the storm rolling in, and what had seemed like nasty rain clouds from afar had turned out to be much more electric. There were flashes of lightning buried in their midst, and the occasional streak tore across the length as if it were going to rip the clouds apart. But there was no thunder, and I found that very strange.

  Tara came up to slip her sweaty, dirty hand in mine, and I gripped it tight. The thought that something might happen to her tore me up, but I knew my job out here right now was to protect the whole group, not just one person, however important that one person might be to me.

  “Good old-fashioned Texas heat lightning. Sometimes it’s too blasted hot for there to be any rain.”

  The wind was steadily gusting now, hot and dry across the desert, I was surprised that it brought no relief from the heat. “It’s weird,” I said finally, after taking a long swig from my water bottle. “Back home we have killer thunderstorms… and tornadoes. And they are always loud and majestic, and sometimes even frightening. This silence is unnerving.”

  “Considering why we’re out here, I can see why you’d say that.”

  We watched as Gramps showed Melody how to connect the pogs together in a sort of grid-like pattern forming a eight-pointed star with the buried tourmaline in the middle, and for a moment, I thought the storm had changed its mind and decided to rain down on us after all. But then I could pick the sound apart from the wind and knew that what I was hearing was the rev of a high-performance engine, not incoming rain.

  Sam and Lily across the way leaned forward to look at the oncoming vehicle, and something in Lily’s posture made me turn around to look for myself. And then I felt the bottom drop out of my stomach. “What the hell?” I muttered under my breath.

  Sam had come over to stand next to me. He clearly shared my disbelief. “What the hell is he doing out here?” he said, as we both watched the car slam to a rapid stop in front of the arrow building and pull roughly into the gravel parking area out front.

  “Maybe he wants revenge?” I asked, mystified, and starting to feel the adrenaline begin to pump as I assessed the threat.

  Lily walked over to join us, her hand sliding into Sam’s just like Tara’s was in mine. “Who’s that?” she said, her voice flat. “I thought this party was full.”

  “That’s what I thought,” I said.

  “Will one of you guys fill me in on what’s going on?” Tara asked, now clearly confused and irritated at being left out of the loop.

  I barely glanced at her as I replied, “Remember that thing at the garage that one time and some guy’s car window got broken?”

  She hissed in surprise. “Yes. So that’s him?”

  “That’s him.”

  “I’ve got this,” Lily said, beginning to pull away from Sam, but he didn’t let go easily.

  “Wait,” he said. “Just wait.”

  “For what?” I asked.

  Sam shook his head and stayed silent.

  Thompson came striding around the building, his dark sunglasses resting on the top of his head, his expression was furious. He stopped directly in front of me and stared me straight in the eye. “What are you doing here?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Is this some sort of joke?” He paid no mind to his companion who took a watchful stance behind him.

  I gazed at him coolly, but beneath my calm exterior I was burning up inside. Every instinct I had told me that this was all wrong, and that this man and his friend, the same one from that fateful night at the garage, were up to no good, and that they were a serious threat to what we were doing, and to my friends.

  “It’s no joke,” I said, staring him straight in the eye. I let go of Tara’s hand and she stepped back a pace. “You aren’t welcome here,” I said. “You should leave.”

  Thompson threw his head back and laughed, and for just a second, in the dimming light, in a brief flash of lightning, I thought I saw something wrong with him. Something strange about his eyes, something off about his skin. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but my evil meter jumped up about three notches.

  “Look mister,” said Lily, her face level and her voice calm. “He already told you to leave.” She nodded toward me. “Don’t make us show you the way home.”

  The man’s companion stepped forward like he was about to get into Lily’s face, and that was just about the time that Melody and her grandparents realized we had company.

  “What’s going on here?” Gramps asked, wheeling up in his chair. “We have a right to be here,” he said, his voice rising in indignation.

  “You don’t, actually,” said the second man, sliding his sunglasses up from his nose and onto his head as well. He didn’t hide his strange eyes. “This is private property.”

  “We aren’t doing anything wrong,” said Gram, coming up to stand to my left. I could see her out in my peripheral vision, and she had put an arm around Tara’s shoulders. I knew she would pull Tara out of the way if things got physical.

  “You need to leave,” the second man said. “Before things escalate.” He turned his strange eyes on me, and I felt my blood go cold. His eyes were gold, liquid gold, an inhuman color.

  “What the fuck?” Sam took a step back, startled, as he got a good look at the man’s eyes, too.

  And then, like a wraith in the dimming daylight, the sound of the wind howling, covering up her footsteps, Esme appeared from behind Thompson’s companion and swung a shovel at his head with all of her might.

  He sensed her swing before she could complete it, but it was all I needed to let my reflexes act even before my brain could comprehend what was happening. I jumped on Thompson, the sword of light springing to life in my hand, and we met, one warrior against another, and his strength was astounding. Even as strong as I was, hyped full of adrenaline, I could tell that I was no match for him, so naturally, I turned to Muy Thai and threw him on his ass.

  My instructor said that every fight was just an excuse to get dirty on the ground, and now I understood what he meant. I needed to take this guy down as quickly as possible.

  A scuffle sounded behind me, and I heard Lily grunt as if she had taken a blow, but I had no time to spare for her.

  And then there was the sound of thunder, an unearthly crack that seemed to split the air in two, right above our heads, and I knew we had only seconds to spare. I wound my legs through Thompson’s, my bicep pressed against his neck, and pulled in opposite directions, up on his neck and away with my legs, struggling to choke him out.

  “It’s starting,” Gram yelled. “Melody! Now! You need to be in the circle now!”

  79. MELODY

  I tore my gaze from the spectacle of G. fighting with Thompson, who I now recognized as the mechanic I had spoken to that one day at the garage, glancing at the other strange man who’s eyes didn’t look right. They didn’t look human. They looked…

  Gramps snagged the back pocket of my jeans and spun me around. “Now, girl! You need to go now. This is the part that only you can do.”

  I stared at him, my mouth agape, and then looked up at the sky above me. The eclipse was buried behind tumultuous storm clouds. Gray, darker gray, green, they roiled above me like curdled whey. There were flashes of lightning and the occasional sharp, penetrating claps of thunder that made me jump and frayed my nerves to breaking.

  The hair on my arms stood up on end, and at first I thought I just had goosebumps, but then I realized that the hair on my head was beginning to float up, too. Like a golden-brown halo of static discharge. I looked toward the center of the circle where we had buried the tourmaline at the base of an old electric pole. I felt my feet move, suddenly running toward it. Matthew was all that mattered to me now. I tossed a last look over my shoulder at Gramps. He gave me a so
lemn nod.

  Inside the circle, in the middle of the grid I had drawn with Gramps’s help, the storm was slightly calmer. The noise was ferocious and the thunderclaps just as deafening, but the wind had calmed, as if I were surrounded by a wall. And I realized I was, a wall of energy. I tilted my head back to look at the sky and marveled at the tortuous clouds. Gramps had said that my job was to bring order out of chaos, but I just wasn’t sure how I was going to do that.

  I tossed off my flip flops and felt beneath the turned up earth for the black tourmaline. Then I reached my arms and hands out wide, to my sides, and closed my eyes.

  At first I felt nothing.

  And then it was there; it was deep, far below the surface, but rising. The thrum, the pulse, the rhythm of the earth, and I knew that this was going to get a lot more wild than just getting high from completing the circuit.

  80. TARA

  Chaos was everywhere. G. looked like he had a handle on Thompson finally—the guy had at least stopped struggling—and between the two of them, Sam and Lily had wrestled the second guy with the strange eyes to the ground where they sat on him as if holding down a crocodile. I wished we had thought to bring rope with us, but why on earth would we have needed it? Why would we have thought there would be homicidal maniacs chasing us into the deep West Texas desert?

  I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know why I was here. Gram said I was the leader, but I just felt like a lamb.

  I turned to face the center of the circle where Melody stood, her arms outreached and her hair a crazy nimbus around her head. She was glowing a little bit, and at first I thought it was haze from the dust in the air. When I rubbed my eyes, I realized I could still see her through my lids. She was glowing like a torch – her energy, her aura, amped like a lightbulb. The ground crunched near my feet, and I looked down to see Gramps in his chair, watching Melody intently. He seemed both tense and excited.

  “What is she going to do?”

  He leaned over to me, yelling over the howl of the wind. “She has to anchor the vortex and channel the energy into the ground. If she lets it loose, the veil rips, and the entities break out. It takes a lot of concentration and a lot of energy.”