Crystal Cache (Crow Hill Book 2)

by Tom Larcombe

  Rice, beans, salad. I know it's healthy for me. It's even a balanced diet, but the less meat I eat in human form the sooner I'll need to Shift again. Maybe I should talk to Michael about doing some hunting. There were deer up on the other side of the cliff.

  She ate without complaint, but made a mental note to ask him if he liked venison after they were done.

  An hour later, after everyone had eaten and cleanup for the meal was over, she sat back down on the porch. This time Michael was with her.

  Rynn was about to ask him about hunting some of the deer she'd seen when she noticed that he appeared deep in thought. She held off on her question, waiting to see what had him so pensive.

  “Are we doing the right thing?” Michael asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I'm trying to help everyone, but I feel like I can't get anything done properly, like I'm spreading myself too thin. I don't know how Father Anderson handles it. He's constantly trying to help everyone and does it all the time. I feel like I'm about worn out and I haven't been doing half as much as he has.”

  And the fact that Father Anderson does all his own work out of one place and only deals with regular people doesn't even occur to him, Rynn thought.

  “Michael, how many people do you think you're feeding out of your garden here?”

  He shook his head.

  “I don't know.”

  “Start with the eleven of us that are here. Then add in what you take down to the church. On top of that you're dealing with the Fae, we're doing the nightlight crystals, and larger light crystals for some other people. You said you warned Dan about the raiders, and I know you've helped him with a few other things. Maybe you are stretching yourself too thin, but there aren't a lot of other choices.”

  “I can't believe that. There has to be a way to get everything done that needs doing.”

  “Not by yourself there isn't, not even with my help. Think about it for a moment. Father Anderson helps all these people, but he gets help in return from others like you. You need to delegate. Maybe we can train some of the older students in what they need to know to help you. You can show Andi some of your gardening tricks, Eugene could learn more about some of the devices you make. You had the right idea earlier when you drafted everyone to help you harvest. It made it much faster and easier on you.”

  “It isn't their responsibility though,” Michael said. “Why should they have to do it?”

  “It isn't your responsibility Michael. You've chosen to take on these tasks. You should at least give them the option of helping. They benefit from it as much as anyone else.”

  Rynn saw that Michael had been about to snap out a response when she started speaking, but by the time she finished, his mouth had closed and he'd taken on a pensive look again.

  “You may be right,” he said slowly. “Maybe we can do even more if we get help.”

  “For now, let's try doing what we're doing without burning out.”

  “But we can probably do even more.”

  “Maybe, but let's just distribute the load for what we're doing first, then see what we can do. On that note, I had an idea earlier. There were plenty of deer up near the woods when I was there before. Is there any reason not to hunt some of them so we have some meat?”

  “Time,” Michael said. “I haven't had the time for it.”

  “Yes, but I have the time,” Rynn said. “I can dress out a deer and I can hunt. Dad taught me a long time ago, but I remember enough of it.”

  She watched him as he worked to accept her offer. His face revealed far more of his thoughts than he realized.

  It's painful for him to delegate, or even share the work load. He never used to be like that. I wonder if that's because he was cut off from anyone but his guards for so long.

  “That's a good idea,” he said. “Will you need help getting it back here after?”

  She shook her head.

  “No, just something you don't mind bloodstained to put over my clothes while I carry it.”

  “There's some drop cloths in my garden shed,” he said. “Go ahead and take one when you go.”

  He lapsed into silence again for a few minutes.

  “Would you like a beer?” he asked. “I've got a few of my chocolate porters left and you're welcome to one.”

  “That would be nice,” she said.

  Michael went in the house to get the porters. Rynn leaned out over the railing to catch more of the breeze. A glint of light caught her eye up on the cliff and when she turned, she started laughing. She was still laughing when Michael came back out.

  “I think we know where Calvin nests,” Rynn said, between chuckles.

  She pointed up the cliff to where one pine tree was adorned with numerous small, glowing crystals.

  “That must be where he's been taking all the ones he steals,” she said.

  Michael's face broke into a grin.

  “I always thought he went to the rest of the crows on the other side of the cliff when he left at night, maybe not though.”

  He handed Rynn her beer and the two of them sat on the steps leading down to the yard. They chatted about less consequential things until Michael was tired enough that he wanted to go to sleep.

  Rynn stayed up when he left. She didn't need nearly as much sleep as he did, and she thought the middle of the night would be a good time to try to work through the clues she'd received about the cache.

  * * *

  In the morning she was no closer to a solution. She'd not gotten much further than they originally had. Whatever the keys were, they had to do with World War II and the mine. A few hours of sleep hadn't helped her discover the answer, but she had work to do.

  She took the Garand Michael had loaned her and a single spare eight round clip.

  Unless I'm a much worse shot than I think, the eight rounds in the rifle should be more than enough ammo, she thought. I don't really need to take the spare, but better too much ammo than not enough.

  She grabbed a drop cloth from the shed and headed for the low point in the cliff. Once she was on top of it, she could see down into the small forested area.

  If I were a deer, where would I be? she wondered.

  She went to Michael's fruit trees first. There were signs that the lower branches had been stripped of leaves, most likely by deer. The ground in the area was moist enough to hold tracks and the deer droppings were highly visible.

  Okay, they headed this way. Probably only an hour or two back, right around dawn.

  She trailed them slowly, picking up speed when she caught their scent.

  That's one good thing about being a predator I guess. Hunting is a lot easier when you can scent your prey instead of having to just track them.

  Rynn positioned herself in a small thicket and waited. The deer were browsing in a mix of bushes and grass. It wasn't long until one exposed itself.

  A single shot rang out. The deer jumped, took three strides, then collapsed.

  Now for the messy part, she thought. But the organs should sate my craving for meat for a few days.

  * * *

  Two hours later, Rynn showed up at the back of the house with the butchered deer wrapped in the drop cloth she'd borrowed.

  “I didn't cut it down all the way out there, but I did get it far enough that I only brought the edible parts back,” she said.

  “Save the bones when you butcher it,” Michael said. “I can dry those out and then powder them to make my own bone meal. It's a good phosphorus source for the garden.”

  Rynn nodded.

  “Is there anyplace cool I can store the venison?”

  Michael chuckled.

  “How about a huge mine? Just make sure you take it in far enough that the scent won't make it out. Hang it from one of the supports.”

  Rynn slapped her forehead.

  “I can't believe I didn't think of that myself.”

  “You might want to put it in one of the rooms the stream passes through, it tends to be cooler i
n those. That should be far enough in that the scent won't attract scavengers also.”

  Rynn turned and carried the deer towards the mine.

  “I'll bring out a few pounds for us to have with dinner tonight,” she called back over her shoulder.

  When Rynn returned, Michael was sitting on a rock next to his garden, staring at it.

  “Michael, I wanted to—“

  His hand shot up, stopping her in mid-sentence. It was several minutes before he turned to her.

  “Sorry, I was checking the nutrient levels for the garden. Especially with the Fae accelerating the plant growth, I have to make sure they're in balance so the plants have everything they need. You were saying?”

  “I wanted to ask if people hunt up there a lot? There were less deer there than I thought there would be and several spots looked like people had recently butchered something there.”

  “Not that I know of, but I never really checked. It makes sense though, we've got enough to eat here since I had a bunch of food stored away, but a lot of people didn't. Any of them that can hunt probably are. I noticed something similar when I took the kids fishing. There were a lot more people down there fishing than I've ever noticed before.”

  “I don't know about the fish,” Rynn said. “But I'm pretty sure those deer are going to be hunted out within a week or two.”

  Michael frowned.

  “You're probably right, but I don't think there's anything we can do about that. It's not like they're our deer, and people need to eat. I suppose the best thing to do is keep getting the Fae to spread out to people with gardens. I've got a gardening class to teach down at the church tonight. I'll make sure to bring some seeds to distribute to the class when I go. That will help some, but it'll be a week or more before it does, even in the spots the Fae choose to go to and more like a month for the other areas.”

  “Do you have blank paper anywhere?” Rynn asked. “Dad taught me a lot about edible plants while I was growing up. Never quite this far south in the state, but I bet I could help some. If I can get some paper I'll write up what I remember and sketch in the plants. Then we can make copies to distribute.”

  “I know dandelions are edible, just about the whole plant. Have you seen anything else around that is?”

  “I've seen quite a few. A lot of them are weeds that can be eaten like dandelions. It won't be a lot of calories, but it's something that people can just pick if they happen to see it and have at least something to eat.”

  “There's a couple reams of printer paper in near my computer. You're welcome to them,” Michael said.

  She nodded and went into the house. Rynn had seen Michael's computer setup and been amazed by it. Most wizards generated enough random energy that it shorted out the more delicate electronic devices, but Michael had managed to find a way to circumvent the problem. When he'd tried to get the Council to distribute that knowledge to other wizards he'd angered them even more. They liked the fact that wizards were unable to use advanced electronics since, in their opinion, that gave them more power over the wizards as a whole.

  The printer that was attached to the computer was in the corner of the room. She blew the light coating of dust off the packages of paper beside it before picking them up.

  Now I just need something to write with. I'll do the sketches the easy way, with magic, but text is just easier to write than visualize and transfer to the page.

  A quick search revealed a package of mechanical pencils. She took one and retired to her room upstairs to start writing.

  * * *

  Rynn smiled as she finished off dinner. The venison had been extremely welcome and between it and the organ meat she'd eaten when she made the kill, Rynn knew her cravings for meat would be satisfied for a while.

  “I need Cindy, Andi, and Eugene after dinner,” she said. “I'm going to show them some useful tricks that all of them should be able to learn.”

  “What tricks?” Cindy asked.

  “I'm going to teach you two things. First, how to create an image of what you're looking at, the image is created on a sheet of paper or possibly something else, but paper is easiest. In other words, how to be a human camera. Second, how to make an exact copy of what's on a sheet of paper in front of you, or that you can hold an image of in your mind. So that one's like being a human copy machine. It could be an important skill now, and you are all going to practice it making copies of something I just wrote.”

  “What are we copying?” Eugene asked.

  “I just wrote up a list of edible wild plants,” Rynn said. “We're going to find the actual plants and put images of them on the paper describing them. That covers the first part. Then we're going to make copies, or you three are after I show you how, to distribute around town.”

  “Oh, okay,” he replied.

  “Sorry Eugene, but I think you'll find it handy, at least the copying procedure. If Michael starts asking you to be more involved in making the devices he's created you can use it to make copies of his notes.”

  “Is he going to do that?”

  Michael cleared his throat.

  “Yes Eugene,” Michael said. “I probably will. I wasn't going to tell you yet, but...”

  He shot an amused look at Rynn.

  “Someone decided to jump the gun. You're going to have to add it in on top of your studies though.”

  Eugene smiled and nodded.

  “That won't be a problem. I like making things,” he said.

  Michael nodded and looked back at Rynn.

  “Let's clean up from dinner, then we'll go out and find those plants,” she said. “Michael, did you want to join us?”

  “No, sorry. Bill should be by with the ammunition in a while and I need to hold my class before that. If he gets here before I get back, show him the rifles and tell him I'll be back soon. I promised him a chance to fire the Garands a long time ago, so we'll probably go out to the range. If you hear guns here later on, that's what it is. But you might want to stay out of the fields back that way entirely, just in case.”

  “Good idea. We'll go look down near the lake. I'm pretty sure I saw a few of the edibles down that way the other day.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Chapter 4

  Michael watched as Rynn led the older three students down towards the lake.

  I know she was a teacher before, but I wonder how she's handling having the students around all the time. If I weren't so busy, I'd find it frustrating that I couldn't find time alone with her. I don't know if she'd feel the same way though. I suppose I could ask, but I'm almost afraid to find out.

  He forced his thoughts away from his personal life with a wrench, then grabbed the seed packets he'd made up and started up his Jeep, heading down for his class.

  He kept the class short, pointing out that he'd already covered everything about the plants he was distributing seeds for. He told the group as a whole that if there was anyone new or that had missed those classes, they should compare notes for what they were missing. Then he apologized and explained that he had to meet with someone shortly and that he'd try to add in an extra class at some point to make up for this one being cut short.

  I feel bad about that, he thought, but if Bill's going to make it up to the mine today, it will probably be soon. I hope he didn't change his mind.

  As Michael drove back to the mine, he saw Calvin flying circles around the house. After parking the car, he made his way to the back yard and looked up as Calvin flew down and landed on the porch. The crow was willing to come closer to Rynn if he had a reason, but Michael had noticed that he saw the most of him when Rynn wasn't around.

  Calvin stared Michael in the eye, then opened his beak and cawed several times.

  “What Calvin, do you think it's payday or something? Give me a minute.”

  Calvin took to the air, cawing, while Michael went into the house. He came back out a minute later with a handful of Cheetos. Calvin was over on a tree at the base of the cliff, still cawing,
when Michael put his hand out and grinned.

  “Calvin! Payday!” he called.

  The crow broke off mid-caw and took to the air. He landed on the porch rail and hopped close to Michael. He looked at Michael's face before his beak darted down and snatched the first of the treats.

  Michael smothered a chuckle as Calvin devoured his Cheetos.

  Some things never change.

  Calvin finished his Cheetos and hopped through the pet door to drink some of the water in his bowl. Michael glanced out over the garden and dropped into one of the chairs.

  There's plenty I could be doing, but nothing that I need to do right this moment, he thought.

  He was just getting comfortable when Bill came around the corner of the house.

  “I thought I might find you back here,” Bill said.

  “Hi, I was starting to wonder if you were going to show today.”

  “Yeah, I meant to be here earlier. But the ammunition's so heavy that I decided to wait until things started cooling off. Heck of a walk getting up here.”

  “It's no better on a bike, but at least I'm getting used to it,” Michael replied.

  Bill settled the canvas bag he'd had over his shoulder on the porch and collapsed into a chair in the shade.

  “I know it's hot,” Michael said, “but I thought you might want the chance to fire the Garands that I promised you.”

  “I just want to see them first. The only ones I've seen have all been pretty beat up. Beautiful weapons though, even when they aren't in good shape.”

  “I'll go grab them then. Want something to drink?”

  “If you don't mind, I'd love a drink.”

  Michael stepped into the kitchen and poured a glass of cold water for Bill. He took it out to the porch, then went upstairs for the Garands.

  When Michael leaned the Garands up against the wall of the house, Bill's face took on a reverent look. He reached for the nearest rifle and paused before he touched it. He glanced at Michael, who nodded, then picked the rifle up. He pointed it out over the rail before checking the chamber to ensure it was unloaded.