by R. A. Rock
Chad redirected the energy towards the four of us, sending four beams of light into our mental construct bodies and healing us, too. It poured through us and the experience was like a warm bath or lying on the beach in the sunshine or the aftermath of a mind-shattering orgasm — totally relaxing and wonderful. When we all felt completely better, I turned to Grace and Shiv, needing answers.
“How did you two get in here anyway?” I said, not able to make sense of it. Under normal circumstances, I was the only one who could easily come into Chad’s mind because I was a powerful Sender. And they were particularly weak right now and they didn’t have their telepathic powers, either. So how in the world were they here?
Shiv shrugged.
“We got pulled in,” Grace said. “I think that you used the soul bond to drag our consciousnesses into Chad’s mind.”
“That must be it,” I said. “Because it ought to be impossible.”
Suddenly Audrey appeared in front of us with an expression of confusion on her face.
“What the hell is going on here?” she said, taking us in. “How did I get into this mental construct? And what is that weird energy?”
“You were dying,” I said, feeling suddenly bereft as I realized that we could have lost her. The sadness made me nearly as grief-stricken as when I had been separated from Chad, Grace, and Shiv as a teenager. Dark thunder clouds gathered on the empty horizon, blowing towards us.
“Dying?” she said, sounding faint.
“Dying,” Grace confirmed. “Chad and Yumi tried to use the soul bond to heal you, since none of us have our powers back. But it got out of control.”
Audrey’s eyebrows nearly hit her hairline.
“The soul bond got out of control? The one that gives you guys nearly limitless power?”
Chad nodded.
“That sounds spectacularly bad,” she said, blinking, eyes wide.
I let out a shaky breath and Chad put his arm around me.
“It was. I thought we were going to die trying to save you,” I said, leaning on him.
“Wouldn’t have been the first time you almost died saving people,” Chad muttered to me, sounding annoyed. He gave me a gentle shake, as if he had been scared and it pissed him off.
Audrey sat down suddenly and before she could collapse on the ground, I manifested a chair behind her. We could make anything we could imagine when in the mental construct. A person’s imagination is the limit.
Grace stepped forward.
“Are you alright, Audrey?”
“I’m… I feel amazing. Thank you. All of you.”
“But are you okay?” I said, thinking she seemed weird.
“I’m just trying to wrap my head around the fact that some stupid virus on your little backwater planet nearly killed me. After how many times I’ve avoided death in my life so far.”
“You were really sick,” I told her, kneeling at her feet. “I was worried we would lose you.”
She put her warm hand on my shoulder.
“I’ll never be able to repay this debt.”
I frowned, surprised she still didn’t understand how friendship worked.
“It’s not a debt,” I said. “You would have done the same for me.”
“Would I?” she said, seeming troubled.
“Of course,” I said, with complete certainty. “I trust you, Audrey.”
“I don’t know, Yumi. I’m pretty selfish. I haven’t changed that much.”
“Maybe you are selfish, but you’re still my friend,” I said.
This made her tear up but I knew she hated looking weak, so I changed the subject, turning to face the others and blocking Audrey so she could get herself together. A thought occurred to me, giving me another jolt of fear.
“Chad, we need to unlink. Who knows how long we’ve been joined.”
God, I was sick of being afraid.
“Shit,” he said, his eyes getting big. “You’re right. Everybody out.”
The others poofed out of existence in our mental construct.
“This could be uncomfortable,” he warned me as if I didn’t know.
“Yeah, I remember the instantaneous mind meld,” I said, tensing at the thought. “It’s kind of hard to forget.”
“Ready?” he said. “Let’s go as slowly as we can.”
I nodded and we began to undo our minds like we usually do but then the process sped up, faster and faster, our minds untwisting at lightning speed. We were spinning so quickly, I thought I would puke. Briefly I wondered what mental puke would consist of, exactly.
A second later, I opened my eyes and got to my feet, stumbling for the door of the cabin. Chad was two steps ahead of me with his longer legs. Soon we were both retching into the bushes that grew near the cabin. I could smell the wild mint that grew there and I was pretty sure I would never think of it the same way again.
There wasn’t much in my belly to puke up, since we hadn’t been eating. In my peripheral vision, I saw the other three spill out of the cabin after us, watching us without saying anything.
After a minute, I sat back down on the ground. Everything was still whirling and my stomach was nauseated. I dropped my head between my knees, attempting to stop the world from revolving around me.
“Oh God,” Chad moaned, dropping to the ground and lying on his back with his arms and legs spread, as if he was about to make a snow angel. “That was awful.”
I couldn’t speak.
I lay back down, too, and felt better.
“Is everything alright?” Grace said, tentatively.
“It was like the worst ride at the fair,” I said, my voice rough. “Times a million.”
“Nausea?”
“Our minds untwisted faster than I have ever experienced,” Chad said. “It was horrible.”
“I feel so sick,” I said, putting my hands on my stomach.
Shiv and Audrey turned when they heard the slam of the main cabin door. Cynthia came flying out.
“What are you all doing up?” she said, her hands fluttering like powerless butterflies. “You need at least another week of rest…”
She trailed off as she took in our bright eyes, rosy complexions, and general air of good health. Well, other than Chad and I, who likely looked green.
“What…?”
Her head swung back and forth between the five of us, completely confused. Just then Nessa and Matt came around the building.
“What’s going on?” Matt said, sensing the strange vibe running through the group. “You guys look… great?”
Our three hosts stared at us and tried to make sense of our miraculous recovery.
“It must have been that bone broth and the garlic compress you used, Cynthia. They’re truly miracle workers,” Shiv said, making an attempt at an explanation.
Cynthia glanced around the group, her brow wrinkled.
“Sure. I… guess so?”
“We’ve been feeling better for a day or so,” Grace said, which might be true for her but certainly wasn’t for Audrey. “We didn’t want to say anything, in case we had a relapse.”
“Oh,” Cynthia said, as if that explained nothing.
Everyone stood in uncomfortable silence for a long minute. Then Matt broke the tension.
“It’s a miracle!” he announced, throwing his arms in the air like an evangelist preacher. This made Cynthia laugh and slap him playfully on the arm. Soon, everyone was moving off but Matt pulled Chad aside.
“What really happened?” he said, under his breath.
Chad met my eyes for a second and I lifted one shoulder a fraction of an inch. It didn’t matter. They already knew.
“We healed each other, like the other time.”
“Ah,” Matt looked like we had confirmed what he thought. “That’s good. Mom was pretty concerned about Audrey.”
Chad and I nodded, exchanging another glance and I wondered if we were doing that thing again where we eclipse everyone else. The scent of mint drifted across my nose again
and I wondered if I would forever associate it with how terrible I was feeling at the moment.
“Well, I’m glad you’re feeling better because against my better judgement…” Matt expelled his breath forcefully and got a determined expression on his face that filled me with dread. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
I looked up at him, taken aback. This pronouncement drove all thoughts of my sick stomach from my mind.
“Leave?” Chad said. He had been in the process of getting to his feet and his head whipped up to look at Matt. He winced immediately and I imagined that moving his head that fast had probably exacerbated the dizziness and nausea.
“As in, go,” Matt said, looking like he really didn’t want to say what he was saying. “I’m sorry, but you guys can’t stay here anymore.”
Weapons
Yumi
So, we were leaving.
Tomorrow at dawn.
It was midday and the air was cold enough today that we could see our breath like clouds coming from our mouths. There was a large contingent of people in the garden, picking the last of the garden because it was expected to freeze tonight. They would eat the greens and dry the herbs for the winter.
It was half way through our last day here and we weren’t even close to being ready to go. Audrey and I had been given the job of gathering weapons for the journey to Winnipeg.
I looked at the bow staffs, knives, guns, and various sizes of bows paired with quivers of arrows that hung neatly on the walls of the storage shed where we stood. I wondered which weapons to bring.
It turned out that Matt’s tenants — or whatever the people were called who lived on the homestead with them — had objected to having us get sick in their home. They were afraid that we would spread it to them and that without modern medicine, there would be an epidemic.
I sniffed in annoyance. I swear, I could still smell the rubbing alcohol on my hands that Cynthia had been using to sterilize everything, including us, in order to prevent the spread of the illness. I hated the scent because I associated it with sickness and injury. Honestly, I couldn’t really blame them for wanting us out. And yet, because the soul bond had been out of control and we had been sick for so long, I didn’t quite feel like myself yet. And I really wasn’t sure whether I was up for an eight hundred kilometre cross country trek.
Well, we would be paddling in canoes for more than half the distance, but still. It was a really long goddamned walk, either way.
Then there was the whole soul bond situation, which had been completely unnerving. My body and mind still felt as though they had been sent on a subspace transmission to the end of the galaxy and back.
And yet, in spite of all this, I was glad to be getting on our way even though I still felt off. I hated sitting around doing nothing. Being sick while doing it was even worse.
So today everyone was running around all crazy trying to get us packed and prep everything we might need on the journey. We weren’t bringing that much food because we simply couldn’t carry enough to be able to feed ourselves the entire way. We would have to hunt and forage.
Grace and Chad were expert foragers because they had done it from the time they were little kids following their parents through the woods. I had no doubt that they would be able to find as much food as possible from the forest.
And as for me, I was a crack shot with a bow, so I would be doing the hunting for our group — Chad would help with that. This pleased me and I liked that I had a defined job. I was also glad it was something that I was so good at.
Cynthia, Nessa, and Grace were in charge of packing clothes, cooking and medical supplies, and other necessities.
Shiv and Chad were helping Matt with a project that they wanted done before we left. The three of them had been working on some system to get water from the lake to the bunkhouses and guest cabins and they wanted to finalize the plans so Matt could build it next summer. If they were able to set up a system like that, then they wouldn’t have to depend on rainwater.
Matt had said he would give us two guns — one rifle, one handgun — with a supply of bullets but otherwise, we were stuck without modern weapons. Still, there was a lot you could do with bow staffs, knives, and a good set of bow and arrows. I only wished there was a sword for me.
I thought longingly of my favourite katana that Brett’s people had confiscated from me when we had first arrived. If only I had it, I would feel so much better about this fool’s errand.
“So you think it’s stupid, too?” Audrey said, catching the stray thought.
“You heard that?”
She nodded and I smiled.
“That must mean that your powers are coming back. That’s great.”
She didn’t smile. She had been moody and pensive since the whole soul bond incident. I wasn’t sure what was wrong.
“And I don’t think it’s stupid. Not really,” I said, back-pedalling. “We need to get what Shiv needs to fix the bracelets. I don’t really want to keep jumping around in time, nearly killing ourselves because they aren’t working right. It’s just going to be difficult and dangerous. I wish we were better prepared.”
Audrey was listening, a serious look on her face.
“But that’s what makes it a fool’s errand, Yumi. That it’s going to be difficult and dangerous. And that’s why I want to stay here while you guys go. You four can handle anything that comes up.”
“What?” I said, stunned. “You can’t stay here. You won’t have anyone to talk to. And they kicked us out. And we need you.”
“You don’t need me,” she said, staring at the ground. “You’ll have that guide that Matt and Nessa said would probably take you. He’s supposed to show up sometime today. He can take my place. He’ll be better at pretty much everything than I would be.”
Oh. That’s what this was about. She felt left out. Now her behaviour was making sense.
She had been on the outside looking in for her entire life and here we were, her only friends, doing it to her again. I felt my guts tense up at the thought. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t meant to.
“Audrey,” I said, trying to make her see reason. “He can’t take your place with the time travel bracelet. What if we need to make an emergency jump?”
“But Shiv says we have to come back here because he doesn’t want the bracelets to have to deal with time and space,” she reminded me. “He wants to go from the same position so the bracelets will only be moving us through time.”
“Still, we have to stick together. We never know what might happen.”
She shrugged, not acknowledging that I had a point, so I tried again.
“We can’t help that the four of us are a Circle. You’re as much a part of this group as any one of us.”
“No,” she said. “And it’s not just the whole Mind Circle thing. You guys go way back. To when you were kids. You have history. And I’m just some super villain you picked up along the way, like a stray kitten.”
“Audrey,” I said, gently and she looked up. “I’m sorry, but you were never a super villain.”
She got an insulted look on her face and then she laughed.
Good. I liked that better than the lost look she had had on her face the moment before.
“And unless a stray kitten can kick my ass in sparring, then I think you’re a little more than that.”
“Kick your ass?” she said, lifting one eyebrow skeptically.
I shrugged one shoulder.
“Well, that’s maybe an exaggeration to make you feel better. But you do try to kick my ass. You’re good at trying,” I said. And oozing condescension, I patted her on the shoulder in sympathy.
“Damn you, Tanaka,” she said, grabbing two bow staffs from the wall and walking out the door.
Woohoo. Looked like she wanted to spar. It was my next favourite thing to do besides fight. I almost skipped after her.
We walked into the open area of the yard and she tossed me a staff, which I caught with ease, spinnin
g it in each hand and around my back. It was dazzling and I knew she was impressed but trying not to show it.
She attacked and our bows met, wood clanking on wood. She pressed me back across the yard with blow after blow that I blocked, until I pushed her, freed my bow from hers, turned it and poked her hard in the chest.
She let out an oof and a cloud of frozen breath into the cold sunshine. I stopped. She had been on her death bed, yesterday. Maybe I shouldn’t be kicking her butt.
But she wasn’t giving up and she took advantage of my momentary lack of focus to swing her bow in a deadly arc. I lifted mine to vertical just in time to prevent her from taking my head off. We drove each other back and forth across the open area and soon we had a crowd watching.
I wiped the sweat off my forehead before it dripped into my eyes and checked Audrey out. By now, her face had kind of a grey pallor, which I didn’t think was a good thing. Time to end this.
Our staffs met again and again, but I pushed her back. She nearly caught me with a surprise foot sweep, but I jumped. And since she was down and a bit off balance, I shoved her with my bow. In a heartbeat she was on her back with the end of my bow at the point on her jaw where you can knock someone out, or even cause death.
“I give up, I give up,” she said in English, dropping her bow and holding her palms up towards me.
I grinned at her. The accent was atrocious but at least she was making an effort. I offered her my hand, she clasped it, and I pulled her to her feet. The crowd erupted in applause and shouts for more.
Audrey shook her head.
“I’m done,” she said, in English and everyone laughed.
I grinned and pushed back the sweaty hair that had fallen into my face. My heart was pounding from the exercise and I felt pretty damn pleased with myself.
That’s probably why I made a bad decision.
It’s my only excuse.
“You want more?” a male voice said from the back of the crowd. “I’ll take her on.”
A huge man stepped out of the crowd. He was probably six foot four or five and close to two hundred and fifty pounds — most of which looked to be muscle.
