Soul Whisperer

by Jenna Kernan

  “Where’s Bess?” he asked again.

  “Coming. Any minute now.”

  Cesar struggled to drag Tuff clear of the wet ground and up against the roots of the redwood where he sat back, exhausted, Tuff lying with his head on Cesar’s thigh. For a time they rested in silence.

  When Cesar opened his eyes, he noticed the dark red stain on the ground. His blood, he realized, and shivered. He glanced about the clearing.

  “Where are the ghosts?”

  Tuff lifted one finger. The effort seemed to take everything he had. “Tied over there.”

  “Alive?”

  Tuff nodded. “But not really alive.”

  “We can’t free them,” said Cesar.

  “Unless I can find an owl,” Tuff whispered.

  Cesar looked down at Tuff. “That’s true? An owl can chase away ghosts?”

  “Not just any owl, but a Skinwalker can.”

  Cesar was impressed. It was a great power, but nearly as terrible a burden as his.

  “I thought owls could only tell when you will die,” said Cesar.

  “Any owl can do that.” Tuff closed his eyes again and his breathing grew shallow.

  “Where are the twins?” he asked.

  Tuff thumbed over his shoulder without opening his eyes. “One flew off, and the male is hiding over there. I hear him and I smell him.”

  “You sure?”

  “Buffalo usually know when they are being hunted.”

  “You think he’ll try to hurt you.”

  “Not with you here. Wouldn’t want to meet him on the plains. He’s a formidable hunter for one so young. He seems confused that I walk as a man and smell like a bison.”

  Cesar tried to find the male but could see nothing of him.

  Another recollection struck Cesar. “I killed a human.”

  Tuff’s eyes fluttered closed. “No, you protected Bess. Nagi killed him with his ghosts. He was also possessed.”

  Cesar felt ill. Killing a human, one he was charged to protect, was a terrible offense.

  “I have to call it in.”

  “No, you don’t. I’ll call from a payphone on my way out of town.”

  Cesar felt a wave of gratitude. “You don’t have to.”

  “You saved Bess. I owe you for that.”

  Why did the way he said that upset him? Something about Tuff…he recalled his feeling of possession for Bess the first time he’d set eyes on Tuff. Had he been right to feel Tuff threatened his right to her?

  “Do you remember much of your journey?” asked Tuff.

  “What journey?”

  “My friend, you left your body and walked the Spirit Road.”

  Bess cried out before she entered the clearing. Dusk robbed the colors from her surroundings, but she could still see well enough to fly and she spotted Tuff, propped against a tree, his head cocked to watch her approach. Cesar sat beside him, long legs sprawled out before him as he shaded his eyes.

  Cesar was alive!

  All the weariness in her body and the aching of her tired wings evaporated like the morning mist. Power surged through her and she dove, performing a barrel roll. Just before hitting the forest floor, she swooped upward, transforming into her human form. She dropped to the gentle loam, landing on the thick layer of pine needles. She did not even take the instant required to change her feather cloak into some more traditional garment, but instead rushed to Cesar, hardly noticing Tuff at all.

  Bess dropped to her knees beside him and trapped his jaw between her hands, staring at him in joy. Then she kissed him, drawing back when she recognized how very weak he was. She closed her eyes and let the breath slip from her as she gave thanks.

  “You’re alive,” she whispered.

  “Thanks to Tuff,” said Cesar.

  Bess glanced at her friend, only just noticing how drawn and ill he looked.

  Had she asked too much?

  “Are you all right?”

  He nodded and closed his eyes for a moment, but then didn’t open them. He tilted sideways in slow motion.

  Bess released Cesar and caught Tuff as he fell.

  “Tuff!” She lowered him to the ground and pressed an ear to his chest, hearing the strange, irregular beating of his heart, very fast, then nothing, then a slow increasing beat that raced too fast again. “There’s something wrong with him. His heartbeat is all crazy.”

  Cesar lifted his bloody shirt from his chest, slipping a finger into one hole and out the other. “I had two bullets in my chest. Doesn’t that mean he now has two in his?”

  “But he will heal.” Her voice trembled with doubt.

  Cesar crawled over to Tuff and supported his head. “I don’t think he is supposed to bring back the dead.”

  Bess stared at him for a moment. “I never… I didn’t think. Why didn’t he tell me?”

  She pressed her forehead to Tuff’s chest. “No. This isn’t right.”

  Cesar gave Tuff’s shoulder a little shake. “Come on, buddy. Don’t die on us.”

  Bess listened to his heart and gasped. “It’s stopped. Cesar, do something!”

  He laid Tuff on the hard ground and ripped open his shirt. The bullet holes that had been on Cesar’s chest, now gurgled grotesquely, the only flaws in Tuff’s tanned cinnamon skin. The sight stopped him for an instant. As he stared, the wounds began to close.

  “Look.” Cesar pointed with one hand, as his other went to Tuff’s chest. “He couldn’t heal if he was dead.”

  “He’s still alive,” whispered Bess.

  But for how long?

  Cesar felt weak and dizzy, but he lifted up to position himself with straight arms, his hands upon Tuff’s breastbone. Bess pressed her fingers to Tuff’s carotid artery.

  “Wait. He’s not dead,” she whispered.

  Bess tugged at Cesar’s arms and he sat back on his heels as Bess moved to press an ear to Tuff’s chest again. “It’s beating!”

  “But he’s not breathing.”

  Tuff gasped for air.

  A moment later he began to tremble as if freezing cold.

  Cesar stared at Bess. “How did you know?”

  She flushed. “When we die, we change. He was still human so…”

  Tuff’s eye’s fluttered open and he stared up at Bess and smiled.

  “There you are, little bird.”

  “Tuff, why didn’t you tell me it was too much?” Her words were hard, but she was crying or she sounded like she was crying, but her eyes remained dry. Did she love Tuff? “Don’t you ever do something so foolish again.”

  He glanced at Cesar. “I fixed him, though.”

  The weakness in his voice troubled Cesar greatly. He feared the danger had not passed.

  “Supposed to kill me. That’s what I was told anyway.” He stared at Bess again, as if drinking her in. “Maybe I didn’t die because you brought back his soul.”

  What did he mean? Tuff was the one who had healed him. Cesar stilled as possibilities widened his eyes. He dropped to his seat and looked at them both. Tuff had healed his body, his already dead body, while Bess had…

  He could almost see it, the glittering path strewn with diamonds instead of stars. He’d walked the Way of Souls and he had wanted to cross, but Bess stopped him, blocking him with her body and her beating wings.

  Chapter 22

  After drinking all the water Tuff carried in the cooler in his pickup, he was strong enough to stand, though Tuff still hunched toward the side where Cesar had been shot.

  “Only take a day or two and I’ll be right as summer rain,” he said.

  Bess kissed him and Cesar offered his hand, not wanting to hug a man in so much pain.

  “You shouldn’t drive,” he said.

  Tuff gave Cesar a look. “Got to.”

  “Then let me drive you. It’s the least I can do.”

  Tuff glanced at the path leading into the forest. “Nope. You still have business here with the twins and I have to call in the ranger’s death, plus get rid of thos
e three ghosts.”

  Bess looked into the bed of his pickup where a blue rain tarp covered three wriggling captives. “You are sure you can find the owl?”

  Tuff shrugged and then winced. “Have to. Those people are prisoners until I do.”

  “It’s my job to care for them,” said Cesar, who was the Spirit Child and protector of mankind.

  Bess looked from one to the other. They both looked pale and weak and she had never felt this exhausted from a journey.

  Cesar moved in an odd, stiff way, as if his limbs would not quite respond to him yet. She worried that the effects of being dead so long might do him permanent harm, but Tuff had assured her that he had taken all Cesar’s injuries, including those caused by the organs shutting down. How could she ever repay him for what he had done?

  “I’ll find an owl Skinwalker. You two see to that little critter lurking upwind,” said Tuff, pointing to their left. “Waiting for me to clear out.”

  “What about the ranger?” Bess asked Cesar.

  His expression was grim. “Tuff will call it in and then later I’ll use my memory gift to close the case. I’ll have to notify District Council that I’ve killed a human. They’ll call an inquest.”

  Bess cast him a worried look. Cesar would tell the truth to his council and he would be banished. She was certain.

  Tuff reached for the door handle and winced.

  “Where’s the ranger’s gun?” asked Cesar.

  In answer, Tuff lifted his shirt, revealing the handle of the pistol pressed by the waistband of his jeans to his flat stomach.

  Cesar nodded and held the door for Tuff, waiting until he climbed slowly behind the wheel before slamming it shut for him.

  “Thanks,” he whispered, then gave Cesar an odd look.

  “What?”

  Tuff’s voice was barely a whisper. “Is it true you can walk in memories?”

  Cesar nodded.

  Tuff glanced at Bess, who stood back a few steps, hands clasped before her. She looked tall and elegant in a black sheath dress that flattered her curves.

  “Can you, is it possible to make me forget her?”

  Cesar shook his head. “Love is not a memory. I am sorry, my friend, after all you have done for me, I can do nothing for you.”

  Tuff gave a heavy sigh, nodded and then thumped his hand on the outside of the driver’s side door. “Okay then.”

  Cesar stepped back. Tuff clasped the steering wheel and gave Bess one more long look. She smiled and waved.

  “Thank you for my life, brother,” said Cesar. “I won’t forget it. If you ever need me, I am there for you.”

  Tuff slipped the clutch into gear. “Take care of her.”

  The pickup was barely out of sight when a familiar growling came from the bunch of ferns to their left. Cesar pushed her behind him, placing himself between her and danger.

  She thought to shift and escape but she could not leave him. There was a yapping bark and then one of the two twins tumbled out.

  Cesar waited, hand on his service revolver as the male twin emerged first from the foliage. He dragged the female behind him. She snarled and snapped but she walked behind him as he advanced purposefully.

  “What do they want?” Bess asked.

  Cesar glanced her way and then returned his focus to the twins. “Parents, I think.”

  “What?” She could think of nothing else to say, but she looked more carefully and noted the submissive approach of the male, shoulders hunched, his eyes darting to Cesar’s and then away.

  “I’m the first one they ever saw.”

  The two ashy creatures stood before them, staring up with huge owlish yellow eyes and fangs that they could not quite contain inside their mouths.

  In the silence that stretched between them came a low rumbling growl from their empty bellies.

  “They’re hungry,” said Cesar.

  “The other ones ate an entire moose,” Bess said warily. She wanted to help them, but hungry animals were dangerous animals and these two were voracious as bears emerging from their dens.

  “Yet they didn’t attack the dead ranger,” said Cesar. “We have to feed them.”

  Bess wondered where he’d get enough meat and suddenly thought Tuff’s departure was very well timed.

  If Cesar wanted to feed these infants, she would help him and she knew exactly where they could go.

  “My lodge is close. I have a freezer full. Just bought a half a cow from a farmer.”

  “Which half?”

  Bess flapped her arms. “They don’t just slice the cow in half and leave it hanging in your garage. I have packages of hamburger and several packs of long ribs and eight flank steaks and a bunch of porterhouse cuts, roasts, the works. It’s three hundred pounds in total.”

  “That will do to start. How far?”

  “Twenty minutes in a car. Five as the crow flies.”

  He gave her a smile at her joke.

  “Do you think I can get them both into the car?”

  “I don’t know.”

  He released his pistol and extended his hand. The female tried to back away, but the male held on to her. He hunched, shifting uncertain eyes. Cesar motioned with his fingers. The male made a sudden hopping advance. Bess held her breath.

  It grasped Cesar’s hand.

  “It’s hot,” he said, and placed his thumb over the male’s small fingers. Then he turned and slowly led them to his car, holding open the passenger side. The little ashy infants tumbled into the footwell on the passenger side of his car. Bess looked through the open window at them.

  “Do you want me to follow you or would you like to ride along?” he asked.

  “I’m not leaving you alone with them.” Her uncertainty roiled within her. They needed help, but they still frightened her.

  “Get in.” He held the rear door and she slipped behind the driver’s seat.

  The male hissed at her and he narrowed his eyes. But the female twisted his ear until he yowled.

  The female’s thoughts came to her clearly. Mother. Mother. Mother.

  “Cesar? She thinks I’m her mother.”

  “She could do worse.”

  Bess didn’t know what shocked her more, the infant’s thoughts or Cesar’s confidence in her. She knew nothing about these twins or how to raise them.

  “It’s all right, little ghostling,” she cooed, feeling awkward.

  The female closed its gaping mouth and stared up at her with wide eyes as if fascinated.

  Cesar started the engine. “After we get them fed, maybe we should head away from people. I have a ranch in the Cascades. I think that might be a good place for them. It’s secluded and there is lots of game.”

  He pulled out. The female began to whimper and the male held her. The two babies reminded Bess of orphaned monkeys, clinging to each other for protection.

  “What about the other newborns?”

  “We’ll start with these two and later try to gather them. Perhaps these can help us find them.”

  Bess directed him toward her place.

  The two passengers were jabbering together now, side by side on the floor mat.

  “The way they are going, they’ll be full grown in a week.”

  Cesar drew a breath and then exhaled his troubles. “But we don’t know how big they’ll grow or what they will turn into as adults.”

  Bess thought of her own change, which had come at puberty, and wondered what the future would be for these two. If they stayed like this, they could never be seen by men. One look would reveal them for what they were. What kind of life could they lead as outcasts?

  She glanced to Cesar and understood suddenly why he felt a need to care for them. They faced what he had. Only he had managed to blend with humans.

  Bess wanted to touch him so she could feel his emotions, but she didn’t want to disturb him with hers. She was confused about the twins and about her role in bringing Cesar back without his consent. And she still needed to tell him that she was all wr
ong about him.

  “Bess?”

  She met his gaze in the rearview mirror.

  “We’ll have time to talk soon. I know you’re upset. I can sense it without touching you. But hang on a little longer.”

  He was comforting her? Bess couldn’t keep the anguish from choking her. She pressed her eyes closed against her shame and held on. She didn’t touch Cesar, but she rested a hand on his seat, just beyond his shoulder.

  The female made a sound that seemed an exclamation and hopped up beside Cesar, staring at her from between the bucket seats. Could the little Halfling read the chaos of her emotions?

  The ghostling laid her hand on Bess’s and gave her a pat, looking up into Bess’s eyes with her wide, unnatural ones. Then she leaped back down to the floor mats to hold her brother.

  “Burning up,” she whispered. “Her skin is so hot. A fever or is that normal?”

  Cesar glanced at the two. “They don’t look ill.”

  An inappropriate laugh erupted from her. “He doesn’t? He’s gray, with burning skin and eyes as yellow as egg yolks.”

  “Good point.”

  “Turn here.”

  They ascended the private driveway and Bess punched in the code for the fence. In another moment she was entering in the code to open the garage. She swept inside and opened the chest freezer, transferring packets to a large cooler. Cesar waited outside as she wheeled the offering to the driveway.

  The female charged her, knocking the cooler from her hands and diving into the neatly wrapped plastic. The male hesitated, gave her a look she could swear was apologetic and then joined his sister.

  Cesar stood beside her watching the two swallowing chunks of frozen meat, bone and wrapping together.

  “We’re going to need the other half,” he said.

  “That plastic will make them sick,” she whispered.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Cesar and Bess spent the rest of the evening obtaining a butchered cow and two slaughtered pigs. The truck delivered them to the barn and somehow Cesar kept the twins in the garage until the truck pulled out.

  Bess opened the barn door and she and Cesar stood back as the twins gorged themselves, then curled into the hay and fell asleep.