Crystal Cache (Crow Hill Book 2)

by Tom Larcombe

“I'm off to the church again. I might be a bit longer getting back this time. Father Anderson and I will probably talk some more while I help him unpack this stuff.”

  “Alright dad, I'll see you later then.”

  * * *

  Michael went back into the house, trying to remember everything else he needed to get done today. He thought that, for the moment at least, he might have everything covered.

  Dad saved me a couple of hours by taking the produce down also. Is that long enough to do the well? It should be at least enough time to go down and see where I can put it.

  A quick look around the house told him that Rynn was still asleep, or at least still closeted in her room. Jeff was in the living room, sketching out potential gardens. He had a list of plants he wanted to grow alongside of the sketch and he kept looking back and forth between the two sheets of paper.

  “Jeff, want to take a ride with me? I'm going to go down to your house and see where I can put the well. I probably won't have enough time to make it today, but I can see what things look like and if there's more than one possibility I can mark them out for your mom to choose from.”

  “Sure, let me tell her where I'm going first, then I'll be ready.”

  Michael grabbed a couple of water bottles and some light snacks. He tossed then into a backpack, then went out to the bikes and waited. Calvin was circling high above him and Michael felt a light touch on his thoughts. He tried to connect to it, but it eluded him.

  Calvin came lower and lower until they finally managed to connect. Michael pictured the mine entrance with a man walking through it again. Calvin replied with a picture of the mouth of the mine with no person in the picture.

  So he hasn't seen anyone yet.

  The mine entrance shimmered and turned orange.

  “Fine, I'll give you an advance,” Michael said.

  He slid back into the kitchen and recovered one of the small bags of Cheetos. He spilled about a quarter of the bag into his hand, then went back outside. Jeff was trying to talk Calvin down out of the sky, but when the crow saw the Cheetos he dive bombed Michael, slowing himself while a few feet above him and dropping the last little bit onto his outstretched arm.

  Calvin worked his beak around Michael's hand, tucking as many of the snacks as he could into his beak. Then he flew over to the mine office and dropped them on the roof. A second trip allowed him to claim the rest of his snacks and when he returned to the mine office this time, he landed on the roof facing the entrance.

  “I guess he wanted some snacks while he watched for me,” Michael said.

  “He's watching something for you?”

  “Remember that sound I asked you about? There's someone working in the mine and I don't know who it is. Calvin's going to watch the exit and let me know who comes out later on.”

  “Cool, Calvin rocks.”

  “Yes. Yes he does,” Michael replied.

  The two of them mounted their bikes and headed down the hill.

  * * *

  “This looks like the best spot for it,” Michael said. “It's nice and close to the trailer and if I fill in all those tunnels under the ground over there, it should make a good garden spot. You'll have to find a way to keep the rodents out of it though.”

  “Bobby said he could do something about that,” Jeff replied. “He said that he could make people feel better, or worse, and that he could do the same with animals. He thinks that'll keep them away.”

  “That might work. But—”

  Michael stopped abruptly as the noise of a car engine grew closer. Moments later the sheriff's car pulled into the driveway.

  “We'll talk about it some more later on,” Michael said. “Let me go see what the sheriff needs. While I do that, you can mark the spots I said would be best for a well. I'll let your mom pick where she wants it out of those. I still think this spot's the best, but...”

  Michael walked over to the car while Dan got out and stretched. He waited a moment while Dan put his hands to his lower back and leaned backwards with a grunt. Before the sheriff was done Michael heard his back pop a couple of times. As Dan straightened up Michael spoke.

  “Hi Dan, What do you need?”

  “Hey Michael, Rynn told me you'd be down here. I know you've been keeping tabs on the raiders. Do you have any idea where they're going to enter the town? The boys mentioned that some nice foxholes would give us an edge if we're outnumbered. Something about a defensive position being a force multiplier. They want to get building them as soon as they can since you said the raiders are close.”

  “I can't guarantee it, but I'd give it a ninety percent chance that the first spot they'll go is the mine. The guy leading them was sent by the Council, most likely to kill me. So it makes sense that he'd do that first. He wouldn't want me piling into a fight anywhere else and maybe surprising him. If that isn't the case, then I'd guess he'd leave the rest of the troops and come after me on his own. Then the raiders would be coming in from the northeast. The only options there would be to come over to the road, or come through the area around the mine anyway. The cliffs would slow them down and break them up too much for them to stay in a group if they tried any other direction.”

  Dan nodded.

  “The boys thought it would be something along those lines, but I wanted to check with you. With your permission, I'll get them working on some defensive lines in those fields out back of the mine.”

  “I'll tell you what. Have them focus on the area around the road. You can just tell me what you want up near the mine and I'll take care of that myself.”

  “Gonna use your abilities for that?”

  Michael nodded.

  “I'll send Bill up to describe it to you,” Dan said. “You can work while he's there, build it to his specifications. I'll make sure he knows what to expect. He isn't in any sort of condition to be doing the manual labor himself and I know he's been good friends with some people with strong knacks, so I think it'll work out.”

  “Knacks?” Michael asked.

  “Yeah, knacks. It's a term from an old book someone read. We use it to describe the things you'd call Talents or the things an actual wizard does that couldn't possibly be done some other way. I think I got those terms right, yes?”

  “I think so. I know where the term came from. It's in some old fantasy books that I've read too. I just hadn't heard the term used by anyone here before.”

  “Well, you've just started getting to know the townsfolk better, right? It's not something they throw out there for a stranger to hear. Then they'd have to explain themselves and someone might think they're crazy.”

  Dan chuckled.

  “And by stranger, I mean just about anyone they haven't known since birth.”

  You've got to be kidding me, Michael thought. The Council put me in the middle of a town that knows about magic, but then kept me from finding out about it. They could've just let me interact with them and it wouldn't have made a splash even if I did talk about it. I guess this way even if I managed to slip around their safeguards they were still safe. What the hell do they have against me though? It's like they specifically wanted to ruin my life, and now they want to kill me.

  Michael shook his head.

  “Yeah well, if you'd pass the word that they don't have to hold their tongues around me or anyone up at my place, that'd be nice. You can even tell them why if you like.”

  “I don't know that they'd believe me if I told them everything I know. I might mention that you and your crew all have some particularly strong knacks though. That might loosen some tongues.”

  “I'd appreciate that. We're about done here and going to head back home, so send Bill up whenever you like. I should be home or close to it whenever he gets there.”

  “I'll do that,” Dan said.

  He slid back into his car with a groan and started the engine.

  “Hey Jeff, do you have the markers in?”

  “Just put the last one in. What are we doing now?”

  “We're
going to head back to my place. Dan wants us to prepare a surprise for the raiders coming our way.”

  “Can I help?”

  “Not with this part. But I'm sure we can find something for you to do.”

  * * *

  * * *

  Chapter 12

  Walter peered through the darkness, his vision slightly enhanced by his magic. His sergeant had informed him that the enemy might be able to detect any strong use of magic, but he'd used this trick so many times he didn't even think of it as being magical any more.

  He loved being out in the darkness, especially out of the cities. It reminded him of his childhood when he'd roamed southern Colorado almost unchecked. His mother had always worried about him, but it had been easy to get her to relax about it.

  It wasn't until years later that he realized he'd used magic to do that. Ever since then he'd tried hard not to influence people's minds that way. The Earth and Water magics he could use were much stronger than the tiny bit of Spirit magic he had anyway. So he didn't miss it much.

  His enhanced vision showed him the shape of a rabbit hopping along the bottom of the gully.

  Good. If that rabbit isn't panicked, then there shouldn't be anyone else nearby, he thought.

  He started moving again, slowly and silently. The reports had claimed that the people, whoever they were, that were harassing the unit were somewhere up this gully. He refused to believe the claims that some of the other soldiers had made. The rumors that they weren't people, that there were dragons out here, were ludicrous.

  Yeah, I'm sure there are dragons out here. Like no-one would have ever noticed them before now?

  He was pretty sure that the people out here were other wizards. That would explain the dragons. He'd seen some pretty convincing illusions from some of the guys in his unit.

  And having a few wizards remain undetected makes a hell of a lot more sense than there being dragons we can't find out here.

  His crawl took him up the gully at a slow place, but before long he saw the orange glow of a campfire up ahead.

  Now I've got them. I'll just go recon and see what we actually have for opponents. Then, if I can get back quick enough, I can give an exact location and we can take care of this problem and start movement for the mission we've been given.

  His body moved almost on instinct. He let his mind wander in situations like this, knowing that if he thought about what he was doing too hard, he'd impair his efficiency at it.

  And what's up with this mission anyhow. We've never had one before that's been this hush-hush. Even on the few we did after things fell apart they told us what we were doing right way. Well, I suppose the old 'ours is not to question why' quote is appropriate here, although I'd far prefer to avoid the dying—

  His train of thought was shattered by a gust of wind that pushed him to the ground. A loud snapping noise came from the air above him and he rolled onto his back and tried to bring his rifle up to fire.

  His eyes widened in shock at the size of the creature that was outlined against the sky. He stopped going for his rifle when he realized that a bullet from it would only piss the creature above him off.

  Creature? Admit it to yourself, they were right. It's a damned dragon!

  The dragon landed gently for something that size, its foreclaws several feet to either side of his head. Walter thought he might be hallucinating when it spoke.

  The voice was loud and deep, but at the same time he knew it was female, and decidedly reptilian.

  “Merlin, you were right. We do have a guest.”

  Merlin? What the hell? They must be using aliases to protect their identities. Although, why would they care about that? We'd need heavy weapons or spells to even scratch this thing.

  A male voice replied to the dragon. It didn't come from near the fire, but from a spot he'd already passed. Walter felt a rush of relief when he realized it was just a human voice.

  “Well, bring him up to the fire then. We'll find out what they're trying this time.”

  The relief fled as fast as it had arrived when the dragon dipped her head and gently trapped the front of Walter's uniform between massive teeth. As he was lifted off the ground, a claw slid under the friction strap for his rifle, slicing it clean through in a single movement. The rifle clattered to the ground as Walter was lifted into the air.

  Moments later he was dumped unceremoniously on the ground in front of a bonfire. A man, apparently in his thirties, quickly frisked him while the dragon made it evident that she was keeping an eye on Walter so he didn't make any stupid moves.

  “No grenades this time at least. You removed his rifle and this seems to be the only other physical weapon he has,” the man said, removing Walter's knife and tossing it to the other side of the fire.

  The dragon's form shimmered in the firelight, shrinking. When it stopped shimmering, a woman stood where the dragon had been.

  “So, would you care to tell us why you were trying to sneak up on us?” she said.

  Walter stayed silent.

  “Nimue, you know he won't talk without some assistance.”

  Great, they're going to torture me, Walter thought.

  “Then he isn't of any use to us, is he? I'm sure our son is hungry again by now.”

  Nimue gestured, first at Walter, and then at what he'd taken for a rock formation, just outside of the firelight. As he stared at it, he saw part of it move in a rhythmic pattern and realized that it was another dragon, even larger than the one he'd just seen. He gulped as Nimue turned and began to walk towards it.

  “I was just supposed to report your numbers and position,” he said quickly.

  “And why were you supposed to do that?” Merlin asked.

  “I don't know, they didn't tell me.”

  “Give me a break, I've been in the military. Maybe you weren't officially informed, but if you don't know, then I'll eat that rock over there.”

  “They want us to get started on our new assignment. We've got a mission, but as long as we're being harassed, we can't move out en masse.”

  “Well you could, but dragons are much better at strafing than any airplane ever built,” Merlin said. “Makes it rough to try to move in an organized column.”

  Walter shrugged.

  “Yeah, I'd guess that's it.”

  “So, what's this mission?” Nimue asked

  Walter jumped. He hadn't heard her approach and now she was right behind him.

  “I don't know, they're staying closemouthed about it.”

  “Son, you don't want to make her angry, trust me on this.”

  “Honestly, I don't know. They haven't said a thing about the mission except that we have one slated.”

  Merlin sighed and looked at Nimue.

  “I know you hate it,” she said. “But I think I have to.”

  He nodded.

  Walter felt a light touch on the back of his head. It was brief and there was a slight tingle, but no pain.

  “He's telling the truth. They haven't even told them what they're planning. Oh, and his name's Walter.”

  “Well Walter,” Merlin said. “Would you like to know why we've been keeping you bottled up?”

  “No, not really.”

  “Too bad. I happen to know the man that's two steps up the chain of command from your company commander. I also happen to know that he knows nothing about this mission. So what that means is that the mission is not authorized from higher up. Your company commander is going to be in some serious trouble when his superiors find out what's going on. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you?”

  Walter thought furiously. Evidently the dragon lady could read his mind. Anything he knew, she could find out.

  I might as well just tell them. I'd really rather not have anyone in my mind if I can help it. But she's good. I didn't even feel her in there, just that tiny tingle.

  “There's been a pair of civilian wizards around headquarters since a few days after things fell apart. They seem pretty t
ight with the commander.”

  “Can you describe them for me?” Nimue asked.

  “Sure. One of them's got gray hair, stands a little over six feet, and is scrawny as a beanpole. Pale complexion, although it looks like he's got some heavy scarring on his face. Probably bad acne or some sort of pox.”

  Merlin's face tightened and his mouth drew into a scowl.

  I thought the dragon was scary, but I'm pretty sure I don't want to cross him either, Walter thought.

  “The other one?” Nimue prompted.

  “Oh, yeah, the other guy. He looks like he's muscle, both magical and physical. He's pretty much always staring at the beanpole and anything else close to the beanpole. Swarthy complexion, black hair, a little under average height, barrel chest, talks with some sort of foreign accent, probably European of some flavor.”

  “The Council,” Merlin spluttered. “I bet they're trying to take control of the unit.”

  “Don't jump to conclusions dear,” Nimue said. “Although it does sound like Jacob, we don't know for sure.”

  “Like hell we don't. Not many people fit that description, and fewer still would know about this unit of wizards, and fewer still be a wizard themselves.”

  “I admit that it's likely, but we still don't know for sure.”

  “I have a good guess that their 'mission' is going to take them to Colorado. The Council seems to have forgotten that I hold the deed to the mine, not them.”

  Walter started edging away while they argued. He'd almost made it out of the circle of firelight when Nimue turned to him.

  “Please don't make me chase you. If I have to take my dragon form again I'm going to be very hungry. Shifting uses a lot of energy.”

  Walter whitened and, when Nimue gestured at him, moved back closer to the fire.

  “Well, if you're right, we've a coincidence staring us in the face,” Nimue said.

  “What's that?”

  “This young man here happens to be from Crystal Beach. He was born there and grew up there until he left for college.”

  “I wonder if that's why he wasn't informed of the mission?” Merlin said.