by DM Fike
Darby, Tabitha’s former eyas.
I gulped. Darby wished for my death more than anyone. I tried to keep my tone as neutral as possible.
Instead, my voice cracked like a teenager’s. “You need something?”
Darby sneered at me, her teeth gleaming in her fingerflame. “I wanted to see you for myself. The person who killed my augur.”
I doubted telling Darby that I’d met Tabitha in some lava would change the young shepherd’s opinion. Besides, I couldn’t really blame Darby. I’d feel the same rage if her stupid shenanigans had resulted in Guntram’s death.
Words wouldn’t help, but I said them anyway. “I’m sorry, Darby. I didn’t mean for anything like that to happen.”
“Don’t give me your apologies!” she screamed. “I deny them all!”
The earth trembled underneath the wooden floorboards. Darby had worked hard to train herself over the years. She could do some real damage to me, and I wouldn’t be able to stop her.
I hoped to placate her, but as usual, the words came out harsher than I intended. “You’re right. Apologies can’t bring her back.” I sounded too matter-of-fact, even to my own ears.
Darby’s face flushed. “Then I can only avenge her, as she would wish.”
The trembling increased to a dull roar underneath the metal chair. Everything around me vibrated to a fever pitch. Darby drew a flurry of squares, and by the murderous glint in her eyes, she meant to unleash something fatal on me.
And I could only sit there and watch her do it.
Just as Darby’s fingers reached the end of her sigil, a flash of orange heat burst between us. Darby gasped and took a step backward into the shed.
“What is going on here?”
A cloaked female with a smoldering red bracelet and olive-green tunic emerged from the flame between Darby and me. I couldn’t see her face since she had her back to me, but I recognized her no-nonsense voice as Azar, the fire shepherd.
“I…” Darby stuttered. The trembling lessened to a trickle. “I mean, I…”
“You should not be here,” Azar reprimanded. “Guntram summons you. Go.”
The shaking stopped completely. I heard shuffling, then a door slam.
Once Darby had gone, Azar whipped around to face me, dark hair barely visible underneath the hood. Her body shimmered from the fire flickering in her hand.
I nodded at her gratefully. “Thanks, Azar.”
“Do not thank me. I’ve come to take you to the others. Fechin has returned.”
CHAPTER 16
AZAR UNLOCKED ME from the chains and helped me stand. After sitting for so long, my joints protested, but Azar didn’t give them time to adjust. She pushed me stumbling into the fresh midsummer evening. The sky welcomed me from the darkness. I took huge grateful breaths.
Azar led me to a nearby fire pit, currently a mound of simple ash. I felt a chill unrelated to the temperature as I took attendance of all the faces gathered around—Zibel, Baot, and Euchloe. Even Darby slid into place, hands folded, standing in the ring of her peers. Everyone who had fought against Rafe on Mt. Hood.
And none looked very thrilled to see me.
We all stood silently, Azar keeping close to me. The other shepherds cast fleeting glances at me, clearing their throats but not speaking. Darby would have killed me with her death glare alone. I tried to keep my chin up but found myself shuffling from foot to foot.
A voice cut through the awkwardness. “Thank you for gathering all at once.”
Guntram came toward us, Sipho at his side. Fechin, his favorite raven, perched on his shoulder, cocking his head from side to side.
Azar’s confident voice boomed in response. “Has the Oracle awakened?”
Guntram shook his head. “She remains in a comatose state.”
My heart skipped a beat. The Oracle had been taken down on Mt. Hood. How could she still be out of commission after all these weeks?
Euchloe, a wind shepherd with a penchant for hyper spirituality, took a wispy step forward, her ethereal hair floating in the slight breeze. “Then why summon us, Guntram? Should we not stay at our posts?”
“Because we have a serious problem.” Guntram gestured to me. “As you are undoubtedly aware, I have captured Ina, Rafe’s possible accomplice.”
“I am not!” I shouted back. I might have added more, but Azar wrung my arm. An uncomfortable heat made me wince, and I quieted before suffering burns.
Baot, a generally optimistic water shepherd with a hooked nose, brushed his long bangs aside with uncharacteristic nervousness. “‘Possible accomplice?’ Does that mean we don’t know for sure?”
“She’s conspiring with Rafe,” Darby interjected. “She’s admitted to it before.” Azar tightened her grip so I wouldn’t interrupt. I clenched my teeth to take the edge off.
Guntram nodded somberly. “Normally, I would wait for the Oracle to make the final call. Binding is a serious action, not to be taken lightly. However, given the extraordinary circumstances we find ourselves in and our shorthandedness, I feel compelled to discuss breaking protocol.”
Zibel grimaced. “Does that mean no one else is coming from the north to help us?”
Guntram shook his head. “No. Since all activity is contained south of the Columbia for now, they want us to handle it. Everyone else is protecting the Oracle.”
Sipho folded her arms. “You are the highest-ranking shepherd here, Guntram. Shouldn’t this be your decision?”
“I would say yes, except I worry about the possibility of”—he glanced at me, finally—“bias. Ina was my eyas after all. I’d like to hear your opinions before making my final decision.”
Darby didn’t hesitate for a second. “We should bind her, immediately. Before she runs back to Rafe and hurts someone else.”
Possible burn injuries or not, I couldn’t sit there a minute longer and not defend myself. “I’m not working with Rafe. I’m trying to stop him.”
I hissed as Azar lit up her fingers, but Baot stepped forward. “Wait. If we are to make a decision, I’d like to hear Ina speak.” To my surprise, Sipho and Euchloe both nodded in agreement.
Azar hesitated until Guntram waved at her to comply. She let go of my arm. I sighed with relief.
Zibel glared at me. “If you’re so innocent, how did you end up at the lesion I guarded?”
“I found the crevasse the same as you,” I answered. “I followed the earthquakes. Why else would I show up after Rafe had already left?”
Azar regarded me with perfect posture. “Rafe has returned to previous lesions before. Indeed, that is why we guard them in the first place. We hope to catch him refueling his pithways.”
“That’s not what he told me,” I replied.
A collective gasp rose from the crowd. It dawned on me how damning that sounded.
I focused my gaze on Guntram, since he was the one who really mattered. I had to remind him the kind of person I was. “You found me close to a new crevasse, right? That’s because I’d tracked Rafe down there after he killed someone connected to that construction site on Mt. Hood. He’s murdering people again using Nasci’s lifeblood. I tried to stop him before he could hurt anyone else, but he got the jump on me.”
Guntram held such a blank expression on his face, I could have used it as printer paper. “So you pursued him with pithways damaged after absorbing all that golem pith?”
“Not exactly.” Here’s where I knew I’d get into trouble, but I steeled myself to telling the truth. “After I left the homestead, I stayed at my parents. While there, the fox dryant visited me.”
A groan escaped Zibel’s mouth. Legs shifted and hands fidgeted. Why would they believe me? I’m the only one who had ever even seen the fox dryant.
Darby scowled. “Not this deceit again.”
Something sharp pinched my pithways. I ignored it. “It’s the truth. The fox dryant visited me, just like she did the first time I experienced ken. She struck me with lightning, and it reactivated my pithways. I cou
ld use a bit of magic again, however small. Knowing that you all don’t think she exists, why else would I bring her up now?”
Darby stalked toward me so quickly that Azar moved slightly in between us. The blond shepherd stopped halfway, her hands up in a sigil stance regardless of my bodyguard. “Because you will say anything to worm your way back into our good graces, you little bitch!”
Wind snapped through the trees. Whether I or someone else caused it as tensions rose, I didn’t care. I brought my own hands up, still restricted in chains, to face her. “Tabitha knows the truth. She asked me to stop Rafe, whether you believe it or not.”
The ground trembled beneath our feet. I saw Zibel and Baot draw frantically to counteract Darby’s shifting earth pith. Euchloe ran to restrain me on the other side of Azar.
I could have cared less about them. I wanted to rub Darby’s face into it. “Rafe threw me into the magma. I met Tabitha there as a messenger of Nasci. She restored my pithways to their full power and told me to go after Rafe.”
“That’s impossible!” Darby cried.
“She chose me,” I continued, not heeding the other shepherds’ warnings to calm down. “Me, Darby. Not you, her precious little eyas, but the haggard she always hated.”
That’s when Darby exploded. Well, at least everything beneath her did. The ground sunk inches as dirt sprayed around us everywhere. She centered her sudden attack directly at my feet, leaving me at the epicenter of a crater meant to swallow me whole.
Except she couldn’t. Anger could not overcome the most powerful shepherd among us.
“Halt!” Guntram yelled, executing a swift series of earth sigils.
The ground stopped shaking everywhere, except where Darby stood. There the earth opened up a bit, causing her to fall up to her waist before Guntram sealed her shut. Realizing the boundaries she had crossed, she stared wide-eyed up at Guntram.
“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered to him.
“You’re only sorry he’s here to stop you,” I said.
Guntram whirled around to face me. “Enough!” he boomed, the trees swaying like reeds behind him. Ravens cawed all around us, swirling as one united black mass in the sky. All the other shepherds jumped backward to give Guntram and me space to square off.
I stifled the urge to swallow. I tried reason again, this time with a more even voice. “Nasci chose me,” I began.
But Guntram would have none of it. “I’ve made up my mind. He snapped his fingers at Azar and Baot. “Keep her subdued while I finish it.”
The two shepherds conjured a ring of knee-high flames surrounding me. My heart raced as I realized what was happening. When I tried to step over it, they sprung to life higher than my head. Hands still enclosed, I couldn’t summon fire pith to walk through it.
They’d cornered me for the binding.
I shook my head as Guntram approached the edge of the fire. “You can’t do this!” I cried.
He raised his hands, already performing a series of complex sigils. “I’m sorry, Ina, but I can’t trust any more of your lies.”
He shot the first string of pith at me. It pierced right into my brain, causing a massive headache. Earth pith drained out of me, making me weak in the legs. I fell to my knees.
“You’re making a mistake!” I screamed.
Guntram hit me without another word. This one resulted in a wave of nausea. I gagged, fire and air pith leaking out of me. I tried desperately to hold onto them, to keep them inside, but I couldn’t resist the tug of Guntram’s magic.
But I did feel something else. A familiar sizzle, filling the spaces that Guntram drained as he cleansed me for the standard binding ritual. Something behind me, beyond the flames, fed me lightning pith. Staring up at the sky, I noticed dark clouds in the distance rolling toward the homestead.
But no one else seemed to care, too focused on the unfolding drama inside the ring of fire. Guntram shot at me again. My water pith evaporated, but that just left more space for lightning to charge up every last nook and cranny of my now sizzling pithways.
Guntram’s hands flew so quickly, I could barely see them. I did, however, notice the single tear stream down into his beard. He used his air pith magnification so only I could hear him whisper at my ear.
“It must be done.”
Lightning sizzled at my numb fingertips. I couldn’t move my fingers to draw a sigil, but then again, my hands were surrounded by metal chain mail.
Metal conducts electricity.
I straightened in defiance. “No!” I shouted. “Nasci choose me!”
I released the lightning directly out my fists.
Everything burst in a flash of pure light. A deafening boom rattled the entire homestead. The release of so much force knocked me, and I presume everyone else, over.
In the aftermath, a ringing overwhelmed my hearing. Wincing, I pushed myself upward. To my surprise, the metal balls and cloth crumbled off my hands in chunks. I’d obliterated them in the blast. It had only cost me the shredded top layer of my hands’ skin.
Someone latched onto my shoulder. Guntram’s beard loomed over me. I flinched, thinking he’d kill me on the spot. But instead of glowering down at me, he had his attention affixed on something else across the field. He’d turned ashen, eyes wide. I followed his gaze.
Underneath thunderstorm clouds, the fox dryant pulsated in alternating blue and white. The light accentuated the strands of her beautiful red coat and silver markings. Sparks flicked off from her snout. Both tails swished around her as she tilted her head to acknowledge not only Guntram but the other dumbfounded shepherds thrown in various states of shock.
Then, without a sound, she opened her mouth as if to cry out, baring her considerable teeth. A tree trunk sized bolt of lightning shot down from the clouds and struck her where she stood, causing all of us to look away.
And when the lightning faded, the fox dryant had vanished, taking the storm with her and leaving only scorched earth in her wake.
CHAPTER 17
IF THINGS WERE nuts before the fox dryant appeared, pure chaos erupted afterwards. Elements flew about in a whirl, the trained instincts of a group of seasoned shepherds. The ground trembled beneath my burnt palms, fire catching onto dry weeds only to be doused by cascades of water, and you could barely see anything through the sting of wind. People shouted to be heard over one another, their voices a mixture of panic and battle-ready commands. I curled up into a defensive ball, drawing defensive sigils around me to protect me from the magical confusion.
Finally, one shout rose above the din, amplified by an air sigil. “HALT!”
Guntram’s booming cry quieted the natural elements. As a breeze blew away the remnants of smoke, I found myself in the middle of a loose circle of bedraggled shepherds, all in various states of sigil stances. From Azar to Zibel, they focused their wild gazes on me, all except for Guntram, who faced them instead. His hands worked in a blur to create a protective bubble over me. I belatedly realized that he’d shielded me from the majority of their attacks and probably saved me from death several times over.
Darby came to the same conclusion, her eyes the wildest of all. “Are you defending this traitor?” she demanded of my augur. “She tried to kill us!”
Guntram hands dropped to his side, dissolving the bubble. “The situation just became much more complicated.”
Darby’s jaw grew slack. “Did I imagine her blasting us with lightning?”
Sipho, flanked by both of her mountain lions, stood up. “You did not imagine it. Nor did you imagine the fox dryant, who supplied Ina with said lightning.”
Indrawn breaths rippled through the shepherds. After years of dismissing my stories, they now had to believe their own eyes. I tried to sympathize with their position. Dryants generally do not hide themselves from shepherds, living amongst the very creatures they support. We visit them in the forests, the oceans, and the wilderness around us. Having one they’d never met before materialize out of nowhere, and wielding lightning to boo
t, was quite the shock. Pun intended.
But my sense of injustice overrode empathy. “I told you she was real.”
Most of the accusatory glances shifted uncomfortably away from me, unsure given their blown presumptions. But not Darby. She stomped forward.
“Who cares? It doesn’t change the fact that Ina’s responsible for Tabitha’s death.”
Once again, Sipho came to my defense. “No, she is not. Ina may have been duped, but let us put blame where it is due. Rafe killed Tabitha.”
This caused even more shuffling among the crowd. I gaped at Sipho. She took a big risk in defending me. I wanted to thank her, but she refused to look my way, focusing instead on Darby.
Darby glared at her. “I tire of everyone making exceptions for this filth! She’s responsible for what happened on Mt. Hood. Nasci’s will should now be done!”
Guntram bristled at her outburst, his cape billowing behind him. “Nasci’s will is exactly why I cannot bind her.”
Darby backed down under the bite of his response, but she still asked, “What do you mean?”
Baot, ever the diplomat, broke into the conversation with his upbeat voice. “Ina has been given her Shepherd Trial.”
I gasped, only now realizing the truth. A Shepherd Trial is a personal test, sent straight from Nasci herself, to determine if you are ready to become a full-fledged disciple. Everyone present had received one as an eyas, so they knew the drill. Nasci plants a vision in your head, generally supported in some fashion by a dryant close to the shepherd. Given all the weird dreams I’d been having, Nasci clearly pegged me to stop Rafe. And with the fox dryant showing up not once but twice now (and this time with witnesses), no one could refute that I’d been set on the path to full-blown shepherd status.
The others recognized it too. Bemused and wary, sigil stances nevertheless relaxed, hands ran through hair, and murmurs rose.
Only Darby remained unconvinced. “It could be a trick. An illusion that Ina has perpetuated to blind you to her real intentions.”
