Bishta the Black

by Jada Fisher

  With a yelp, Tuni brought up her bow, even if she doubted it would help, only to find that it had snapped in half in her fall. She cursed.

  The shadows clawed toward her. They weren’t very fast, but they made steady progress and she had to move or face their wrath. It was hard to tell if they had teeth or claws, or if their very skin would be enough to wound her, but she didn’t want to find out.

  Abandoning her bow, she charged up the path to the hut. She shouldered the door open and then promptly slammed it shut behind her with a bang. She slid the bolt home and locked it, though she had a feeling that wouldn’t hold the creatures back for long, if at all. Perhaps, though, it would buy her some time.

  On the other side of the room was Gayla’s potion cabinet. Tuni practically tore the doors off their hinges and started clawing through the various vials.

  She’d spent many hours cataloguing and learning about all the potions the Girl O’ Green had in her stores. Tuni knew how to make a concoction to ward off dark and evil spirits. A brew of mashed sleseeds, demon weed, Horner’s wert, and nightshade. Unfortunately, even if she had all those ingredients on hand, she wouldn’t have time to brew the potion. That took a good few hours for the boiling mess to simmer and thicken.

  So she searched and hoped that Gayla had a spare bottle on hand.

  As her fingers flitted over each glass vial and the sounds of magical warfare rang in her ears in the distance—meaning Asoka was alive and at least putting up a fight—there came a bang against the door. With a jolt, she stared at the door and saw the glow of the creatures’ eyes peering through the cracks.

  Tuni couldn’t help her yelp. She turned back to the task at hand. No time for fear.

  Her hands shook as she tried to find the right potion, assuming there was one. The door banged again. She shook. Kept on searching. Another crash, and this time, she heard the sound of wood splintering. One more hit would have them through the door.

  Before that came, she erupted in a cheer as her fingers wrapped around the right vial and held it over her head triumphantly.

  Lady’s Light, a ward against evil.

  Despite the very foul and dark ingredients, the vial looked like creamy, liquid wax with hints of gray swirling within.

  Another bang came, but the door held. The next hit would be it though and she knew it. So, Tuni rushed toward the door and held the vial up in front of her. As she got close to the door, she undid the stopper and flung the contents onto the door.

  The effect was immediate and glorious.

  The waxy substance began to glow, bright like the sun, so much so that Tuni had to shield her eyes from it. The shadow creatures on the other side screeched, a terrible sound that made her bones ache and rattle, like a tea kettle boiling but so much worse and unnatural. She dropped to her knees and covered her ears, shielding her face against her knees.

  Finally, the glow faded behind her shut eyelids and the crying ended. It was over. She’d banished the spirits.

  With a gasp, she fell back onto her rear and palms and looked at the door. It looked like nothing had happened at all. Despite the danger and insanity of the situation, she laughed. “Damn.” She held the now-empty vial up to her face and smiled. Gayla would be proud.

  Groaning from her still-aching body, she pushed to her feet and made for the door. As soon as she stood, she realized something was very wrong. She felt the threat in the air, on her skin, in her veins. The light streaming through the cracks of the door were suddenly blocked by something massive. Her breath caught in her throat and she didn’t have the chance to scream.

  The door exploded. No, the whole wall exploded, throwing splintered wood daggers and chunks of stone her way.

  A cry was lodged in her throat, but she couldn’t even make a sound. All Tuni could do was drop and shield her body, but that didn’t do much. The debris shredded her arms and torso and the stone banged hard against her. One smacked her arm, sending a jolt of pain through her, and another against her hip.

  Tuni groaned and shifted to try to recover, though her body ached and cried for her to lay still. Everything hurt, though this wasn’t the worst pain she’d ever experienced. She’d broken bones when she’d fallen in her escape from that pack of cobrunnies all those months ago.

  What a lifetime ago.

  This was nothing. She could endure this pain, however unpleasant. With a wincing grin, she struggled, shook, and managed to rise to her feet, even if her legs wobbled and wanted to give out on her altogether.

  The dust cleared along with her vision, and her heart just about stopped when she saw what stood in the doorway—or, rather, the hole that was once the door.

  It was an old tree spirit, bigger than any she’d ever seen. This one was as big as the hut. No, bigger. Tree spirits usually took on the size of the trees they were tied to, but some could be huge and freely change their shapes. This one was the latter. It loomed over her, a wall of mossy gray-green fur and red orbs for eyes amid pools of black. There was a low hum emanating from it that sounded almost like a purr, which she guessed was their breathing.

  It blinked. Took a deep breath. Tuni held her own. She felt like if she made a single movement, she’d be dead.

  To her surprise, this spirit spoke. “Coll ava eshwa tu Wili.”

  Tuni frowned. She knew a good amount of the ancient language of spirits, but this seemed even older. She caught a few words in there, some she’d learned from Gayla. They were words of magic.

  What she gathered was “little,” “of,” “apologies,” and “end.”

  Oh.

  My end.

  It spoke some more, but Tuni’s entire focus was on getting out of this situation alive. There was no way she’d be able to run past the beast since it blocked the entire hole in the hut. Her bow was broken and would be useless against such mass anyway, and any move to the potion cabinet would be too obvious and again would lead to her doom.

  As it spoke and her eyes flitted around the room, they stopped on a small vial on the end table beside her. She recognized it immediately as one of the vials of winds that Dorrick’s knights carried. That’ll have to do.

  The spirit had stopped talking and looked down at her. Its stare was unnerving. “Nima osha di.”

  Tuni’s skin crawled. She knew that term. It meant “good-bye.”

  With a great whoosh, the spirit raised its colossal fist, ready to reduce her to a broken pile of mush. No time to think, Tuni grabbed the vial and yanked the cork stopper free in one motion. She pointed it at the spirit with a graceful flourish that would have earned her praise from Shandi.

  The wind came out like the blast of a cannon from those huge city ships.

  It slammed into the spirit’s mossy chest with a boom and tossed it back like it weighed nothing. It flew and crashed into the large mushroom stalk at the end of the hill. Her way was clear. It was time.

  Tuni didn’t even spare a second of thought. Her body moved on its own and she ran.

  2

  Tuni

  Tuni sprinted, because that was all she could do in this situation. The spirit blocked her path to Bishta and Asoka, and it wasn’t a dark spirit so her wards wouldn’t do anything to harm it. No doubt Gayla probably had something for a situation like this, but Tuni would have to swing back to the hut. She didn’t have time right now to find something. She had to escape and lose it first.

  So she ran, arms pumping and legs churning as fast as they could carry her. She hated that she had to run, but with her bow broken and useless, and sans potions, there wasn’t much she could do.

  Meanwhile, she could hear the cacophony in her wake as a tremendous force barreled through the wilds after her. She risked a glance back and immediately wished she hadn’t. The huge spirit was picking up speed and gaining on her fast. Its arms didn’t even move. It was just a wall of earth and moss that charged her, toppling trees, crushing boulders, and gouging chunks out of the stalks.

  Tuni screamed as fear gripped her heart and didn�
��t let go. She was fast, but this thing was far faster. It was only a matter of time before it caught. She put her head forward and tried to summon all the speed her body could muster, but how could she escape it? It was like an elephant beetle.

  Elephant beetles… That’s it!

  Tuni turned on a swivel and headed south without breaking stride. Her heart still raced, and she could hear the blood rushing through her. Her plan was mad, and she was more likely to get killed than have it work, but it was the only way to lose the spirit and give her time to get back to the hut.

  She ran and ran and prayed that they would still be where she knew they’d be. Her change of direction must have confused the spirit, because the roar of their rampage suddenly ceased. Tuni glanced back and grinned when she did to see it following her. Huh, maybe I can do this without my plan.

  And then she turned back around to see the mossy spirit appear out of thin air like an apparition.

  She screamed. It swiped a massive mitt at her, and it was all she could do to slide beneath the attack. Her momentum carried her, and she slid right between its trunk-like legs. Her skin scraped against the rough earth and sticks, but it didn’t stop her from popping up in an instant once she was on the other side. How on earth had it gotten ahead of her like that? If it could move so freely, then how was she not already dead?

  It was a good question, but she didn’t have the time to figure an answer. She just had to hope the answer wasn’t what got her killed.

  Without hesitation, the sound of its charge was clear again, right on her heels. Gods, this thing is relentless, she thought with a growing sense of dread.

  Just a little longer. Almost there.

  Closer and closer she raced. With a gasp, she hopped over a fallen tree only for it to be obliterated a moment later. It was too close. Too close. But she kept on sprinting, her breath ragged and her heart ready to explode.

  She suddenly came to a narrow gorge that dropped steeply to a shallow stream below. It wasn’t enough to drown a man or for the drop to kill you, but it was enough to make you hurt if you fell in unaware. But Tuni knew these woods, and she knew where she was going, so this little obstacle was part of her plan.

  Thankfully, she was already at a full sprint, so when she launched herself over the space, she flew for a moment. Her breath caught in her chest before her feet hit solid ground a second later on the other side. She’d delighted in jumping this space since she’d explored these woods with Gayla. Doing dangerous things like that was a passion.

  She turned in time to see the spirit topple into the gorge with a deep roar that made the hairs on her arms stand straight. Thank goodness, she thought, though she didn’t stop to rest. She’d bought herself a few precious seconds, but that likely wouldn’t slow her pursuer much.

  With renewed hope and vigor, she ran. Her lips couldn’t contain her smile when she heard the spirit continue its assault after her, but it was far fainter than earlier. She’d put some blessed space between it and her, and that was all she needed.

  Her relief came a moment later when she burst from the thick brush and came to a large clearing between a quad of large mushroom stalks. The grass was yellow and swayed in the wind, and a few shallow rises ringed the space.

  But it was what occupied the space that was important: a herd of majestic and colossal elephant beetles.

  The beetles were gargantuan. They stood taller than the sage’s hut and even taller than the biggest buildings of her village. Their thickly-armored magenta exoskeletons and long segmented legs gave them an otherworldly look. They glowed like polished garnet in the sunlight. They were beautiful, terrifying, alien, and exactly what she needed.

  Elephant beetles were peaceful, despite their terrifying look. Their giant pincers and horns were more for defense and fighting one another than for hunting since they only ate rotted mushroom stalks and bark from fallen trees. They loved rotten things. So as a whole, they weren’t very dangerous, and some were even domesticated as transportation.

  But if they were startled and stampeded, there was nothing that would stop that wave of destruction.

  Tuni’s stumbling into their herd was enough to garner a few glances her way. She was so small that she wasn’t a threat or even a nuisance. She was no different than the rainbow of sprites that fluttered around the beetles’ heads and played on their horns and pincers, which the beetles paid little mind to.

  Tuni didn’t need them to be startled by her, though. It was the predator at her back that would get their attention. And get their attention it did.

  The tree spirit’s approach got louder and louder the closer it got until it stormed into the clearing, felling a whole tree and generally just making a tremendous ruckus.

  With a wolfish grin, Tuni knew her plan was about to succeed. “Party time.”

  The reaction was immediate. The elephant beetles reacted in a very alarmed manor, roaring in that high pitched and frankly disturbing way they had. They flailed and stamped their large legs, and it was all Tuni could do not to get herself crushed to death. The sprites fluttered from their heads and evaporated, getting out of harm’s way. The tree spirit didn’t seem bothered by any of this, for it still made its way toward Tuni.

  It didn’t make it to her. An elephant beetle bull rammed into the spirit, horn first, and barreled against a mushroom stalk. The whole thing quivered from the impact, though it didn’t fall. This one had only been marginally chewed by the beetles since it wasn’t rotted yet. The tree spirit said words in its language that she didn’t quite understand, but its tone was quite annoyed and distressed. That was all she needed to know.

  Tuni gave it a wave and then took off back to home just as the whole herd began their stampeded north. They wouldn’t kill the spirit, but they would slow it down enough to cover her return.

  Just a few minutes, it’s all I need.

  With the roar of destruction—the spirit’s angry words, and the elephant beetles’ cries—behind her, she raced back, not losing a step. She was exhausted from her chase, but she couldn’t afford to take things slow. Asoka didn’t have any time to spare.

  If she’s even still alive… No. Tuni shook her head. She couldn’t afford to think like that. Asoka was young, but she could hold her own. She was alive still and Tuni had to believe that.

  She got back within a few minutes, exhausted and sore, but she was filled with energy. The sound of battle was still in the air, the crackle and sizzle of magic, the air charged with the stuff that was enough to make her skin crawl and her stomach swoon. The atmosphere was so thick with it that Tuni almost stumbled over her own legs, but she managed to keep her balance. She’d never known magic to be like this, so heavy that it practically made her drunk.

  Good thing. though. It meant Asoka was still alive, and indeed, as soon as she thought that, she heard Asoka’s voice shouting a spell, though she was distant and clearly pained. Gotta hurry!

  She charged up the hill to the hut and crawled through the hole in the wall. Thankfully, the spirit had only destroyed the door and a small shelf with stacked dinnerware that was near the door. All the potions were in the back and in one piece.

  In the distance, the sound of the spirit returning as it rushed through the wilds after her came nearer. It was back. She wished she’d had more time, but as it was, she had to hope that this would be enough.

  She rushed to an old, worn wardrobe near Gayla’s cot and threw the doors open. Inside were a few cotton and wool shirts and pants for the rare occasions that the wilds got cold, though Gayla usually used her magic to keep warm. This was mostly used for storage. Chests full of books and scrolls, some filled with old medical supplies and various tools. Shandi used this more than the sage, and Tuni had begun going through it before they had all this end-of-the-world nonsense to deal with.

  There was one thing in there that could help her, something for emergencies. Tuni pulled out a small chest about the length of her arm, the red paint chipped and faded with age. A rusty iron pa
dlock held the thing shut.

  A roar broke the air and made her spine tingle. Not much time. She pulled out her knife.

  Hands shaking furiously, she jabbed the blade against the old lock, over and over, her curses coming faster and louder as each attempt failed to open the box. Gayla had the key and Shandi had a spare, but neither were there and Tuni had yet to be entrusted with one. The contents of the chest were not to be used lightly.

  She had no choice.

  With the spirit’s booming steps hearkening its approach, she got more panicked. Come on, come on! Finally, in frustration, she used all her measly strength and slammed the hilt of the knife against the lock, and the old iron broke. Tuni just about gasped with relief.

  No time to lose. She threw back the lid and reached in to pull out the slender, old piece of wood laying within.

  From a glance, it didn’t look very impressive. In fact, it looked just like a small staff. But this was an ancient baton staff, carved from the same tree that Gayla took her sage’s staff from. It was engraved with dozens of small runes in the Old Tongue, and it could be used to tame any spirit, dark or otherwise. Gayla’s staff could do the same, but she didn’t use the ability often because it drained her considerably and she hated to force her will onto spirits. Spirits had free will, and neither Gayla nor Tuni wanted to infringe on that.

  But this time was a very extreme exception.

  Just as Tuni pulled the staff free, the tree spirit’s booming rampage became deafening as if it had crashed into the clearing at the base of the hill. She was out of time. Staff gripped tightly, she raced out of the hole and into the humid air.

  There it was. It was bigger than ever, a hulking monstrosity of natural energy and mossy skin. From this vantage, she wouldn’t have been surprised if it was strong enough to lift the whole hut off the ground and toss it like a ball. It was huge, and it made Tuni’s legs quiver and her bladder constrict.

  With an earth-shaking roar that made Tuni’s spine want to shrivel up, the spirit bounded toward her. It would close the distance in no time.