Soaring in Air: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Magic of Nasci Book 5)

by DM Fike

  Sipho shook her head. “It is no trick. Though I cannot harness lightning, I can transfer its pith as well as any other element. That fox dryant exuded more lightning pith than even the wildest storm.”

  All of Darby’s muscles clenched. She obviously wanted to say something, anything, but the words would not come. An awkward silence followed.

  Azar broke it by clearing her throat. “What do we do now Guntram?”

  Guntram’s anger died down, leaving him pale, as if he had just recovered from the flu. “I am not sure.”

  Then he faced me, the first gleam of hope in his eyes since we fought near the dome. “Ina.” He reached out to offer me a hand up. “There is much to discuss.”

  I didn’t hesitate for a second. I latched on, letting him lift me up. He noted me wincing as torn flesh stung my palms. He ushered me toward the homestead’s hot spring, leaving the confused group of my peers behind.

  * * *

  Nothing, I mean nothing, beats a soak in a natural hot spring. Warmed by geothermal sources, it creates the freshest batch of pith that can flow in and out of your body. Even after ten minutes of soaking, my palm’s flesh had mostly sewn itself back together, the scar tissue fading with each cycle of elements whirling through my system.

  I would have liked to bathe alone for an hour or more, but Guntram returned soon thereafter with a spare generic tunic. He perched on the pool’s ledge next to me, hairy feet dangling in the water. He didn’t care about my exposed cleavage, and honestly, I shouldn’t have either. But I felt enough self-consciousness about my vulnerability—both clothes and situation-wise—that I slid up to my neck so the bubbling waters would conceal me further.

  Guntram didn’t mince words. “Tell me everything, Ina. From the moment you fled the homestead.”

  In a way, I did end up spending more time in the hot spring, just not in the relaxing fashion I wanted. I tried not to sound desperate as I reiterated all that had occurred: the strange dreams with Tabitha, the fox dryant’s sudden reappearance, my team-up with Vincent to investigate the strange earthquakes. Guntram remained mostly silent, only asking the occasional clarifying question, so I couldn’t tell how he interpreted my story. He didn’t seem particularly pleased when I described running into Zibel, nor my failed encounter with Rafe, but he didn’t judge either way.

  In fact, the only thing that truly got him worked up was my encounter with Tabitha in the magma. He shook his head as I described our conversation.

  “That’s not possible,” he muttered.

  “Look, I get it. The magma should have merged me back into Nasci like with Tabitha. But it didn’t. And it didn’t affect Rafe either. Actually, he’s having no trouble tapping into lava like it’s his own performance enhancement drug.”

  Guntram stroked his beard. “Perhaps it is tied with how you both absorbed vaettur pith. Your pithways may be permanently altered at this point. Maybe Nasci can no longer reclaim you when you are done.”

  I stiffened at this explanation. “Are you saying I’ve screwed myself over somehow?”

  Guntram threw up his hands. “Who is to say? Nothing with you, Ina, ever makes any sort of sense.”

  I couldn’t help but throw in a jab. “You mean, like the fox dryant? The one you’ve been telling me could not possibly exist?”

  Guntram had the maturity to ignore my self-righteousness. Instead, his expression softened to one of melancholy. “I wish I could consult with the Oracle on this matter.”

  I thought of the Oracle, the most powerful shepherd with her unbelievable command of the elements, lying comatose. “How bad is she?”

  “We believe she’ll recover, but we don’t know when. In the meantime, her absence has torn the Talol Wilds in two. The northern shepherds believe us southerners caused her condition, and therefore, should resolve the situation ourselves. They refuse to lend us aid until we either settle the situation or the Oracle awakens under their care.”

  “But that’s ridiculous. The Talol shepherds are all on the same team. What’s different now?”

  “This time, it’s not a threat from Letum but from humans. Even worse, a bound shepherd. And the worst yet of all”— he clenched his fists in his lap—“an eyas that I personally trained.”

  I hated how utterly defeated Guntram looked. Casting off propriety, I lifted myself partially up out of the water so I could throw my wet hands over his. “You can’t blame yourself for Rafe’s actions. He makes his own decisions.”

  Guntram withdrew his hands from mine. “Nevertheless, those are the facts.”

  “The fact is that he went off the rails despite your training, not because of it.” I pulled myself completely out of the pool, drawing water sigils to dry my skin. I shook the folds out of the tunic Guntram had fetched for me and pulled it over my head. “Those northern shepherds really need to get their panties out of a twist.’”

  A bemused smile crossed Guntram’s face. “Do not lecture about emotions, Ina. Not with your track record.”

  “Okay, okay, point taken.” I twisted my legs to sit cross-legged next to him at the edge of the pool. “But it doesn’t matter what they think. It matters that we move forward.”

  “Agreed. Which is why I plan on sending everyone back to their posts at the lesions.”

  I raised my eyebrow at him. “I bet my dad’s sushi recipe that Rafe won’t appear at any place you’re guarding. Not if he can create new magma sources whenever he wants.”

  “I realize now that we may not catch him as I hoped, but ultimately we are shepherds. The lesions are a direct attack on Nasci. We must tend to them as wounds, repairing Nasci where Rafe has rent her apart. It is our sworn duty to protect her above all else.”

  Ah, repairing the crevasses made a lot of sense, but it left one huge question. “Shouldn’t stopping Rafe be our number one priority?”

  Guntram leaned forward with his elbows on his knees, the water’s surface lighting up his tired face. “It is. But nothing you said gives me any leads as to where he will go next.”

  I scrambled for an answer. “He said he would finish taking out Wonderland.”

  “By your own admission, he has already done so. The top two leaders of the company are dead by his hand, yes?”

  “True,” I answered slowly. “But he indicated he had more left to do.”

  “I find I do not have the mental capacity to predict a crazed lunatic such as Rafe. I will wait until one of my kidama catches him opening a lesion. If I can ambush him while he’s vulnerable recharging his energy, I have a chance of destroying his pithways for good.”

  I sucked in a breath. “You’re not going to use that awful binding technique on him, are you? It could kill you.”

  Guntram stood. “Better me than anyone else.”

  I didn’t like this plan, not one bit. Not only did it rely far too much on luck, but Guntram’s pained expression told me he planned on dying if that’s what it took.

  “Don’t go all kamikaze on me,” I pleaded. “At least let me dig around to figure out where he might go next.”

  Guntram sighed. “By all means, do what you think is right, but I cannot rely on you.”

  I leaped to my feet. “What do you mean by that? I’ve been given a Shepherd Trial.”

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Indeed you have. I will not get in your way, but I will tell you now, Ina, that I do not have high hopes for you.”

  His matter-of-fact tone made my face flush. “You think I’m going to fail, despite everything I’ve been through?”

  “Ina, let me be frank.” The lines on his face tightened. “You create trouble wherever you go. I no longer know how to handle you. Even with your pithways restored, you haven’t mastered all the elements. You’re in the worst shape for a trial as I’ve ever seen an eyas. And the truth is, not all eyases pass their Shepherd Trial. Some even die trying. It is an absolute test of your worthiness, and at this point, I have no idea if you will succeed.”

  His opinion hit me harder than anything else he
’d ever said to me. Guntram was not prone to exaggeration. He had already decided that I would fail.

  “So, that’s it? You’re giving up on me?”

  “Once the trial starts, there is no more mentorship,” Guntram said. “No more tips, no more second chances.”

  I tried to keep my chin up, but my next words sounded breathless, even to my ears. “I can make it.”

  “I pray to Nasci that is true because from here on out, you are on your own.”

  CHAPTER 18

  RECHARGING IN THE hot spring gave me a boost, but the combination of being held prisoner, almost getting bound, and Guntram’s lack of faith took a toll on my mental state. I trudged to the lodge defeated, collapsing into one of the scratchy straw beds. I didn’t mean to fall asleep, but I did, thankfully without the intrusion of goddess-fueled dreams.

  I woke to a blue sky with twinges of darkness at the edges. I figured it must have been late evening. Given how refreshed my body felt, the nap did me a world of good. My pithways had the best flow I’d experienced in months. My stuffy head had cleared.

  I was ready to face my Shepherd Trial.

  I needed to contact Vincent soon. He hadn’t spoken to me for the better part of a day, and with my phone dissolved in magma juice, I couldn’t ring him up at the homestead. I’d have to find another phone.

  But before that, I had to alert the other shepherds to Guntram’s plan. Did they know he intended to destroy Rafe’s pithways permanently by risking his own life? I couldn’t imagine the others would approve of such a risky endeavor. Maybe if I explained it to the more sensible shepherds, like Baot or Azar, they could force Guntram to come up with a better strategy. Best case scenario, we might even formulate one as a team.

  The lodge seemed empty, though, with no one in any of the rooms or the shared common area. Not unusual. Shepherds preferred the outdoors, some of the more hardcore ones sleeping directly underneath the stars even on the homestead. It wasn’t late enough for people to retire anyways. Before leaving the lodge to search for them, I rummaged around the back of a hallway closet and found a stash of hoodie, shorts, and boots I’d tucked away a while ago. They didn’t fit great on me, but I vastly preferred them to the scratchy natural fabric Sipho used in her homespun tunics.

  Outside was more of the same, empty fields between sparse buildings with no sign of any shepherds. I frowned. I should have run into someone by now. I even stuck my face in all the homestead ponds, thinking fishy Baot might be lounging underwater. Nada. Not even ravens stirred in the branches or roofs of buildings.

  With foreboding clenching my stomach, I made a break for the library. Even though I didn’t want Guntram there studying binding sigils, I had to locate someone. But after unlocking the building with a combination of sigils, the interior remained completely dark. I lit a fingerflame and noticed a book left on a table near the door. It displayed the page with Guntram’s awful permanent binding sigil, the deceptively simple hourglass strokes gleaming up at me through the flickering light.

  Shivering, I walked back outside and finally realized something else was off. The sky had grown brighter since I began my search, not blending into sunset. And the sun shone in the mountains to the east, not the west.

  It wasn’t evening at all. It was dawn.

  I couldn’t believe it. I had slept away more than half a day. Glancing frantically around the homestead, I noticed the forge with its glowing windows and soft curl of smoke. I dashed across the field, knowing deep down I was probably too late.

  I busted through the barn doors of the log cabin without any sort of warning. “Sipho!”

  The forger didn’t hear me at first, hunched over a work bench with her headphones on. She’d confiscated the Walkman from me years before, deciding she needed it more than me. I called her, waving my hands to get her attention, but she continued to fiddle with a small metal button underneath her magnifying glass. Below the table dark-furred Kam yawned and grumbled like a teenager, not happy with the hubbub.

  Sipho finally noticed me as I rounded the table corner. She jerked her head upward in surprise, drawing in a quick breath. She recovered quickly, leaving the button on the table.

  “Good morning, Ina. I am glad to see you well rested.”

  Well, that confirmed the time of day. “Where is everyone?”

  Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “Gone back to guard their posts, of course. Guntram ordered everyone back last night.”

  My shoulders slumped. So much for my rallying plan. It would take days to track everyone down at their respective locations, if I could even find them at all.

  Sipho frowned. “I assume you wished to speak to them?”

  “Guntram’s on a suicide mission. He plans to bind Rafe alone using a dangerous technique that could get him killed.”

  I expected Sipho to show some sign of shock, but instead she merely sighed. “That is unfortunate.”

  “‘Unfortunate?’ We have to stop him!”

  “I’m afraid if Guntram wishes to journey solo there is not much we can do. He bears a heavy responsibility as the augur who trained Rafe. No one has been able to convince him that he is not at fault. Further complicating matters is his current authority as the highest-ranked member at the homestead.”

  I gaped at her. “You’re not seriously going to let Guntram die because of the almighty shepherd pecking order, are you?”

  She glared at me. “It is more complicated than that and well you know it. You can only prevent Guntram from executing his ideals if you have a better plan. Do you?”

  “No.” I slumped down on a stool beside her, my arms draping over the surface in defeat. “I don’t even know where to look for Rafe.”

  “Neither does Guntram. And we should be thankful for that, since he has just as much chance of facing Rafe alone as you currently do.”

  I let my head fall into the crook of my arms. “Wonderful,” I mumbled through my skin. “Glad to know you have as much faith in me as everyone else.”

  Sipho tapped me on the shoulder. “What if I could aid you?”

  I peered up at her. A mischievous smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth. I’d seen that expression before when she’d crafted a masterpiece.

  The weight on my heart lifted a little. “You got something for me?”

  She nodded, sliding the metal button across to me. “I do.”

  The bluish silver wafer had an iridescence that made the surface appear to shift under the lantern light. Its squat cylindrical shape with inward curve at the edges reminded me of something, although I couldn’t immediately place it. Sipho had etched a series of bizarre sigils, lots of harsh jagged lines but clearly not the Vs of water. When I reached for the button, a familiar tingle lit up my arm.

  I recognized the object. “You made a lightning charm out of a lithium battery!”

  Sipho smiled, pleased with my reaction. “And a rechargeable one at that. I had to infuse the original with metal I found in the mountains. The etchings are based on the sigil motions you use when you practice with lightning pith.” She motioned toward it. “Please pick it up.”

  I hesitated, remembering how her previous prototype had blown up in my face. But I couldn’t disappoint Sipho, not after she had stuck up for me when no one else would. I took a deep breath and clasped the charm in my hand.

  The tingle in my arm immediately spread throughout my entire body. Instead of overwhelming my senses, as lightning pith normally does, it actually joined the other four elements in a pleasant buzz. I let go of it, and the reverberations slowly receded back into the charm, leaving my pithways without any negative consequences, not even a slight sting.

  I whistled. “That’s really nice, Sipho. For once, I feel like I can control lightning.”

  “That was the idea.” She beamed. “A useful lightning charm.”

  I noticed the faint serial numbers etched in the metal. “Wait, how did you even get a lithium battery?”

  “I used the currency you had hidden around
the homestead, of course.”

  That’s when I remembered that she had stolen my last emergency credit card not long ago. “You bought this with my money?”

  Sipho scoffed. “I believe the trade-off well worth the price.”

  I held up my hands in apology. “No, no, you’re right. This is fantastic.” I rubbed the little button in between my two palms. An actual charm that not only held as much as my normal clunky batteries but also promised some control. “This is going to pack a powerful punch.”

  “I certainly hope so.” Sipho flipped around to open a set of mini drawers behind her. “If you are truly on a Shepherd Trial to defeat a person who can tap into Nasci’s very essence itself, you must utilize every advantage afforded to you.” She handed me a silver chain with five dangling metal slats: one for each element and an extra for defense.

  “A new charm necklace,” I squealed with delight. I clasped it around my throat and sighed at its comforting weight. It was the magical equivalent of handing a ninja a satchel full of throwing stars.

  Sipho threaded an extra chain off to one side and attached the lightning charm button through an almost imperceptible hole she’d drilled near the top. She patted my head as she surveyed her handiwork. “There. You are ready to take on any challenge.”

  Her confidence choked me up a little. I cleared my throat. “I wish Guntram felt the same.”

  Sipho squeezed my shoulder. “Poor Guntram has the weight of Nasci herself bearing down upon him. I believe you were meant to unburden him.”

  Her attitude forced me to re-evaluate my self-pity. It was self-centered of me to think that after everything I’d done, Guntram would rally behind me. Sipho was right.

  I had to prove myself.

  I ran toward the door, eager to move forward. At the last minute I paused. “Thanks!” I called back to her.

  “Do not thank me with words.” She shooed me forward. “Get me a new cassette tape. I’m getting bored with my current music selection.”

  A goofy grin plastered on my face. “You got it,” I promised. Then I raced out of the forge and into the Oregon wilderness.