Shattering Earth: An Urban Fantasy Adventure (Magic of Nasci Book 4)

by DM Fike

  And I had other places to go.

  Baot and Azar’s fight clamoring below me, I drew another series of earth sigils so I could scale the short ten-foot wall to the ledge. Pulling myself upward, I braced myself for more golems.

  I didn’t account for hurricane-level wind gusts. If I hadn’t been sticking to the rocks, I would have joined Zibel down below. As it was, the wind kicked up dirt and snow, making it impossible for me to view anything up ahead.

  A sharp cry muffled by the gale registered in my brain. “Duck!”

  I pushed myself back over the edge in time to spot a gigantic boulder sailing overhead, easily the size of a school bus. It missed my fingertips by inches, bounding well over Zibel’s prone form and smacking the ground with a thud. The slope caused it to keep rolling, right through the fire golem, who barely flinched as it passed harmlessly through its crackling frame. Azar, not nearly as ethereal, had to use a gust of air to fling herself out of the way so the boulder didn’t crush her.

  Shaken by my near-death experience, it took me a second to realize someone was tugging my hands to pull me fully over the ledge. “C’mon, Zibel!” the voice commanded. We locked arms and the shepherd yanked me upward. We landed in a heap over each other.

  Darby’s jasper green eyes widened in shock as I untangled myself from her. “Ina?”

  Before I could reply, a series of vibrations rattled the pebbles around us. Farther uphill, a conglomeration of dirt and jagged rocks formed another gigantic humanoid monster. It stomped around a cloaked figure sketching sigils around the stubs of its legs. The dodging shepherd paused to yell over her shoulder.

  “Darby! Get back here, stat!”

  Tabitha. As we rushed back to provide backup, Darby drew a series of squares that bound one of the golem’s legs directly to the ground. The golem struggled to free itself, allowing Tabitha to jump backwards and out of immediate harm.

  Tabitha took one look at me and cursed. “Where’s Zibel?” she demanded of Darby.

  “Out cold,” I answered for her. “I came to warn you about the golems, but at least I can still help”

  To my surprise, Tabitha pushed me to the ground. “Just stay out of the way!” she spat as I landed hard on my side. Darby gasped.

  At that moment, the earth golem shook itself free of Darby’s sigils, sending out a series of shock waves in triumph.

  Tabitha focused her gaze on it. “Darby!” She snapped her fingers. Her eyas broke out of her stupor to follow her mentor.

  Stunned by the blow, I watched in a daze as the pair rushed toward the earth golem. They weaved like two choreographed dancers in and out of the golem’s path. Darby would bind the golem’s stumpy limbs to the ground whenever she could, then act as a target for any subsequent strikes. This allowed Tabitha the opportunity to siphon earth pith off the adversary, bits of dirt soaking into one hand and then floating out the other, dispersing back into the air. I could tell it pained Tabitha by the way she grimaced, but it worked. The golem, however slowly, was shrinking. I knew from experience it would take time, but they would disperse this particular enemy.

  Another gale struck me, knocking me over despite sitting down. As it died, I dared a glance between my fingers toward the mountain’s summit. I spotted Guntram first, tattered cloak and hair whipping around in windblown fury as he absorbed and released his own store of air pith. Euchloe stood not far away, her own body unaffected by the gusts as she scribbled a series of air sigils toward the hazy outline of the air golem to distract him. They too, seemed to have their situation under control.

  Until they faltered. Guntram and Euchloe didn’t have the synergy that Tabitha and Darby possessed. Although much better practiced at air sigils than me, Euchloe wavered, forcing Guntram to stop draining the golem to help her resume a pace of sigils. As the pair floundered, the air golem managed to break free of Euchloe’s hold and swipe an arm, sending a hurricane gust that nearly swept them both off their feet. When Guntram stepped in front of Euchloe to counteract the wind, the air golem lifted its arm and brought it back down with a whistling slam.

  But no gust appeared.

  Confused, I didn’t understand what the air golem had achieved until Guntram clawed at his throat in panic. His face mottled red, then purple, his mouth opening and closing like a fish.

  The golem had my augur in a choke hold.

  Guntram slashed sigils into the air, his form clumsy. Euchloe attempted to break the golem’s grip, but the air golem swept her away with a blast of its powerful breath. She flew several feet and hit her head on a boulder, flopping unnaturally to the ground. Meanwhile, Guntram fell to his knees, hands now useless at his sides.

  No. Not Guntram.

  I jumped to my feet. “Hey, windbag!” I screamed so loudly that it hurt even my ears. As I hoped, the air golem turned in my direction.

  “Suck on this!”

  I thrust my hands outward, feeling for the golem’s air pith. I didn’t care what Guntram thought. Absorbing the golem was my only weapon, and I would have done it even if the Oracle herself bound me right on the spot.

  Every inch of my pithways protested as if dunked in acid. I honestly didn’t know how long I could bear it. Without Rafe’s bracelet, I had nowhere to force the energy, and I didn’t have the skills to release it back out like Guntram. And yet, on the verge of unconsciousness, I clenched my jaw and bore it. I vowed to keep it up no matter what.

  And then something shifted. The horrible air pith suddenly sprung a leak, evaporating along the boundaries of my pithways. I didn’t comprehend it at first as the pain lessened to a more manageable level, but I also didn’t question it. I kept pulling and pulling on the air golem, its rapidly shrinking size spurning me on.

  It wasn’t until the air golem had shrunk almost my height, obviously the loser of this fight, that I spared a glance over at Guntram. I had hoped he’d be okay, but I’d set the bar too low. Not only had he regained his breath, he drew air sigils as if his life depended on it. Then I realized it was my life that needed his sigils, because he directed them not at the golem but directly at me.

  Guntram was sucking the golem’s air pith straight out of me.

  Our eyes locked. I could see the rage there, a result of battle and possibly of me showing up out of nowhere. But there was something else too. Desperation, mimicked in his hands as he kept my pithways flowing. And relief as the air golem finally faded in one last rush of wind.

  Inhaling huge gulps of air, I managed to stay upright by grabbing onto my knees and locking my elbows, redistributing my body weight. A heavy arm draped around my shoulders.

  “Ina?” Guntram asked. “Are you okay?”

  I managed a nod. Then I shook my head. “Too late.”

  Guntram allowed me to lean against him as he drew a wind to swirl fresh air on my exposed arms and legs. The new air pith acted like a soothing balm inside my tired bones. It didn’t heal me, exactly, but it refreshed me, recharging my pithways so I could stand on my own.

  “What do you mean, ‘too late?’”

  I didn’t have the mental capacity to ease into a confession, so I jumped right in. “Rafe beat me here.”

  It’s a good thing I could stand at that point because Guntram dropped me so fast, I would have fallen to the ground otherwise.

  “What did you say?”

  I couldn’t justify it in any pretty way. Not wanting to appear like a coward, I craned my head to meet his gaze. “I know about Rafe. He tricked me into believing I could help protect Nasci by absorbing golem pith for him.”

  I expected screams. A red-mottled face. Anything but Guntram pulling away from me, his voice barely audible.

  “No. You didn’t, did you?”

  It was the softest accusation ever. It tore my insides worse than vaettur pith. Unsure if I could answer without my voice breaking, I nodded.

  Guntram swallowed once, twice. He took a few steps back from me, his lips lost completely within his beard. “Then that’s why he can manipulate so many gol
ems at once.”

  “Guntram.” I reached out for his tunic, but he sidestepped me. “Guntram,” I repeated, my hands digging in my own flesh. “I didn’t understand who he was. What he could do. I thought—”

  “You thought what?” Guntram’s neck tightened so much, I worried a blood vessel might burst. “That you were better than the rest of us shepherds, those that follow the rules? That you could just show how superior you really are, the lone lightning shepherd.”

  “No!” I cried. “It wasn’t like that at all. I thought I was helping.”

  I’m not sure how Guntram did it, but he literally rose two feet off the ground, sudden air pith swirling around him that he could no longer contain in his pithways. He didn’t even draw a sigil. It simply blew out of him.

  “See how you have helped, Ina!” Guntram pointed toward a woozy Euchloe, clutching her head in her hands as she tried to orient herself. He gestured where Tabitha and Darby took on the slowly shrinking earth golem and beyond to the barely contained fire and water golems. “You have caused all this, the potential downfall of the Talol Wilds, through your arrogance and pride.”

  Even now, in the face of my utter failure, I couldn’t hold back one last shred of righteous anger. It came out as the tiniest complaint. “If only you’d have told me—”

  Guntram leaned down so swiftly in my face that I had no idea how he bridged the distance. “Told you what, Ina? That I failed once as an augur, and now I’ve failed again? Or that we’re protecting Nasci’s lifeblood from the very evil you brought upon us now? Or…”

  He trailed off, jerking away from me. “It doesn’t matter now. What’s done is done. We must first undo the damage wrought by your puerile actions. And then…” He paused to glance away from me, what looked like tears forming at the corners of his eyes “…it’s time I finally listened to Tabitha and undo you.”

  And this time, as he raced uphill hovering on a cushion of wind, I knew he would do it.

  My days as a shepherd were done.

  I sat there numb, not even blinking for fear I would collapse. I had never fit in as a shepherd. I really was a haggard, a freak who should never have been gifted with ken. I shouldn’t have been trained. Guntram shouldn’t have taken me under his wing. Shouldn’t have…

  “Ina?” a wispy voice asked. “Is that you?”

  Euchloe had managed to wobble over to me like a broken bird, all bones and feathery hair and a dazed look on her face. She held a palm to her forehead, a trickle of blood oozing downward.

  “Euchloe.” I snapped out of my stupor. “You okay?”

  “I’m injured.” Then her face hardened with lines on her thin face. “But I’m ready to fight if need be.”

  I shook my head. “We dispersed the air golem, Euchloe. You can rest now.”

  “What about the dome?”

  I lifted an eyebrow in confusion. “What about it?”

  She pointed up toward to where Guntram had fled. “The bound shepherd is still trying to access it, no? Rafe against the Oracle?”

  Before I could respond, a sudden explosion rocked Mt. Hood. A rush of hot air bathed us, straight from the direction Guntram had gone. A half mile away, spurts of red-hot lava erupted from a small peak, a pimple on the mountainside. As little red streamers squirted out, the trembling increased, indicating the mountain itself could blow at any minute.

  The lava dome and Rafe. He was here, intent on his prize. Guntram wouldn’t leave this mountain without taking him down. I chilled, realizing if the Oracle hadn’t already defeated Rafe, there was no way Guntram could do anything.

  The weight of a Maglite’s worth of D batteries suddenly felt like lead weights in my kangaroo pouch. I may not be a shepherd for much longer, but I could finish this last battle.

  I jumped to my feet, ignoring the pain, and slapped a hand on Euchloe’s delicate shoulder. She shuttered just at that touch, confirming what I suspected.

  “You’re too weak to fight. Go down past that ridge.” I pointed south. “Zibel’s knocked out cold down there. Grab him and get him out of here.”

  “But what about the other golems?” Euchloe cried. “And the dome?”

  “The other shepherds have it covered.” I hope, I added silently to myself. “Guntram and I will provide back-up support for the Oracle.”

  “Are you sure you should head up there?” Euchloe asked, but I’d already leaped forward, forging a path upward.

  I had a pocket full of lightning with Rafe’s name on it, and it was time to deliver.

  CHAPTER 21

  NOT HAVING WIND hover-power under my feet made my trek up the slippery snow and rock incline treacherous. The grade steepened considerably to yet another ridge beyond my sight. Legs aching from the strain of running uphill, I was actually grateful to use earth pith to scale the wall. It at least distributed muscle usage across my sore body.

  Even half-dead, though, I would have pushed myself to kick the snot out of Rafe. I may be naïve, headstrong, and a bunch of others things, but I’d never once aided a murderer in the name of Nasci. If his messed-up ideology was going to strip me of my shepherdom, then I at least wanted to mess up his face.

  I could hear a heated conversation issuing above me, but couldn’t make out the words because a rhythmic pounding, complete with seismic vibrations, drowned it out. It wasn’t until I’d boosted myself over the ledge that I located the source of the noise.

  Twenty yards away, across a relatively flat field, the Oracle and Rafe faced off. The Oracle held one hand out, scribbling out a series of crazy sigils that created a weird semi-transparent haze over a house-sized bubble of lava, protecting it from Rafe. Despite the effort it took to create this barrier itself, her second hand flew in another set of sigils, staving off four mini elemental golems Rafe had created. While the six-foot tall earth golem pounded away at the magical barrier, hence the noise, the other three attacked her directly. She, in turn, would stave off their fireballs, ice shards, and wind gusts mere seconds before they blasted her. I’d seen dual sigil-writing before but never at this rapid pace. Even watching it, I couldn’t comprehend that the human brain could function that fast, let alone from someone so wizened in appearance.

  The argument I’d heard wasn’t happening between the Oracle and Rafe, though. Guntram hovered slightly off the ground between the two, debris flying in circles underneath him.

  “This is your last chance!” Guntram yelled at Rafe. “If you do not cease your onslaught, I will be forced to bind you!”

  Rafe threw back his head in derisive laughter. “Didn’t you already bind me once, you old fool? I found a way around it. I’m not playing by your rules anymore. How could you possibly stop me?”

  Guntram floated toward Rafe. “Because I’ve found a way to destroy your pithways completely this time!”

  Suddenly, I understood Guntram’s countless hours of library research. He wasn’t trying to bind me. He knew his bound eyas was on the loose wreaking havoc, and he wanted to stop him for good.

  Even if it meant committing suicide.

  Constrained with her Herculean efforts, the Oracle still managed to shift her gaze slightly to my augur. “No, Guntram,” she said weakly.

  I agreed with her. I glanced around wildly, fingers rubbing the D batteries but not trusting that I could toss a lightning bolt that wouldn’t hit the other shepherds. I hesitated with torturous indecision.

  Guntram clenched his jaw but didn’t acknowledge his elder, keeping his attention on Rafe. “I can’t allow you to slaughter more innocent people! You’ve gone mad.”

  “I haven’t gone mad! All you shepherds have gone soft. You think humans are another creature of Nasci, even though they assault all her creations over and over again. It won’t stop. Not unless we stop them!”

  Rafe grabbed onto his earth pith charm and drew a rock hardening sigil, casting it on his mini-golem. “Strike!” he commanded.

  The golem slammed the barrier so hard, the Oracle winced. For an instant, the haze around it
flickered, exposing a triangular mass of earth, glowing with veins of magma snaking along the cracks.

  Then the Oracle regained her balance and magically barricaded the lava dome again but at the cost of a fireball and ice shard slamming her in the chest. She stumbled backward.

  “Oracle!” Guntram’s fingers illuminated with a sick green light. I recognized the sigil strokes as those of the hourglass binding. He pulled back an arm to throw his pith at Rafe but hesitated long enough to say, “I wish it hadn’t come to this.”

  Then he cast the binding at Rafe.

  Rafe let out a childlike scream as an eerie green glow consumed him. The winding curves of his pithways shone so brightly, it looked like a trippy skeletal x-ray of his magical ability. The combination of his cries of agony and the waves of Nasci’s life stream ebbing toward me made me sick to my stomach. Guntram grimaced as his own pithways became intertwined with Rafe’s.

  “Stop!” I yelled, my voice all but lost to the wind.

  Even tormented with a binding, though, Rafe refused to give up. He grabbed onto the fire charm around his necklace.

  “Burn in hell, old man!”

  The fire golem moved so fast, it seemed to teleport. One second, it lobbed fireballs at the Oracle, the next, it encased Guntram.

  I watched in horror as my augur became consumed by flames. He had the presence of mind to stop his hourglass sigil to draw a fire shield around him, but it all happened so quickly, some of the damage had already been done. His beard, his tunic, even the openings of pithways at his fingertips caught fire. He bellowed in pain as he attempted to ward it off.

  Rafe, now free from the binding, fell down to one knee. He laughed at Guntram.

  “How does it feel?” He turned up the heat of his golem. Guntram’s howls tore through my soul. “HOW DOES IT FEEL?”

  In that moment, I had a singular objective. I didn’t care if I killed Rafe. I didn’t care what happened to the lava dome. I didn’t even care if Guntram bound me himself after everything died down.

  But I would not let Guntram die.