by DM Fike
By the time I plopped into the hot spring at the end of the day, I could barely move. My limbs had become as stiff as the wooden handles of the tools I’d used all day. I had more nicks and scrapes on me than I could count. A layer of sweat and grime had caked my pores, and I’d ruined my hoodie by accidentally cutting it with garden shears.
I sank down into the water, boots and all, not caring if they all soaked through. That’s what drying sigils were for, if I could lift my hands afterwards. I barely remembered to remove my phone from my hoodie pouch. It was the only thing magic couldn’t fix if I dunked it.
I must have dozed off because the next thing I remember, a sharp vibration rattled my teeth. I pulled my cheek off the rough stone edge, my cell phone skittering nearby with lights blazing on silent mode. Vincent’s name flashed across the screen, made more brilliant by the total darkness of a forest night.
I swiped to answer the call. “Farming sucks,” I said in way of greeting.
“Hello to you too, Ina. Thanks for preemptively answering my question of what you’ve been up to. You haven’t responded to my texts for a few days.”
My fuzzy brain tried to remember the last time I saw him. “I haven’t seen you since our dinner date.”
“Yep. And you’ve been AWOL since.”
I sank my sore body as low as I dared with the phone still pressed to my ear. “Well, then do I have a story for you.” I filled him in on Darby’s petition with the Oracle, my own search for the fox dryant, and Sipho’s infection that almost got her killed.
I could sense Vincent’s concern even though he let me do most of the talking. By the time I finished recounting how much I hated raspberry bushes, he said simply, “Wow. And I thought I had a rough day filling out paperwork.”
“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’d rather deal with bureaucracy.”
“Sounds like we need to find the fox dryant and fast.”
“How exactly can you help me with that?” The question came out a lot more critical than I intended.
Vincent’s voice sounded hurt. “Hey, I’m not completely useless. I can keep an eye on weather patterns. I have direct access to governmental weather databases. If what the desert shepherd said is true, I should be able to tell you when the next thunderstorm is forming.”
His plan beat my wait-and-see approach. “That would be awesome.”
“Even if I don’t have all-consuming magical powers?” I could hear the pout in his voice.
“C’mon, you know I didn’t mean it that way. I’m just tired and cranky.”
“I suppose you could make it up to me by seeing me sometime soon. After this is all over, of course. Your life is crazy right now.”
I didn’t want him to harbor any disillusions. “My life’s always going to be crazy. I’ll miss dates and be hard to reach from time to time. I wish I could offer you more.”
“You’re offering plenty. Using your wizard powers for good means sacrifice. Don’t ever apologize for doing the right thing.”
A sudden heat that had nothing to do with the hot spring rolled over my body.
He continued. “And let me know if I can help you in any way. You’re not in this alone. I’ll alert you if any thunderstorms form anywhere in the region.”
“Thanks, Vince.”
“No problem. Call if you need absolutely anything. I mean it.”
After we said our goodbyes, I held the phone to my chest for a quick reflection. I hoped my tone conveyed how much his support meant to me. I was used to having enemies. I had no idea how to respond to someone who cared.
* * *
The next few days passed by in a terrifying blur. Nur and Kam did not return, so I sucked it up and continued working the fields. Sipho did eventually join me for non-strenuous assistance, making a lot of the tasks easier as she taught me how to properly wield her magically etched tools. But my body also slowed, protesting repetitive motion hour after hour: stooping to pick vegetables, hoeing to plant seeds, swinging to rake weeds. Sipho tried to convince me to let her take over, but I refused, lying that I had nothing else better to do.
It sucked, but I couldn’t abandon Sipho. She could help an hour or two, but then needed a break, nearly stumbling in the freshly tilled dirt. If I didn’t stay, she’d be right back where I’d found her. And this time, her mountain lions wouldn’t be around to help. Followers of Nasci are sturdy, but we die of natural causes just like everyone else. We’re not immune to exhaustion.
About the only bright spot in the situation was I had access to the homestead’s library. Sipho insisted I took hour breaks now and then. Researching the fox dryant kept me off my phone’s weather app, scouring for thunderstorms in the middle of an apparent sunny spell across all of the Pacific Northwest.
Indulging in last year’s jam on hard biscuits, I read stacks of books. I scoured through several logs of dryants from the past, going back hundreds of years and across several regions including the Talol Wilds, Bitai, and across North America. I became almost cross-eyed squinting at almost indecipherable old cursive. I found records of queen bee dryants with triple stingers, bat dryants that had ears so wide they acted as secondary wings, and even a rainbow-colored manatee dryant off the coast of Florida who liked to tip over boats.
Not a single tome mentioned a fox dryant anywhere.
When I finished the last book, I plopped it down on the table with an exaggerated sigh. Guntram had told me he’d already checked both homestead libraries. I didn’t know what I thought I could find that he couldn’t.
Just the thought of my former mentor kicked my frustration up into orbit. I first believed Guntram would show up, but as the days wore on, not one ebony bird graced the entire area. I really hoped whatever errand he was running was worth me getting bound.
But as much as I wanted to, I didn’t have time to brood. I had half a field left to plow for fall crops. I left all the tomes scattered across the table like a slob, deceiving myself that I’d clean it up later, and stepped out into the afternoon summer swelter.
More than just a blast of hot air hit me outside. Bounding out of nowhere, Nur and Kam nearly plowed me over to greet me. I had to draw an air sigil to keep from falling over, and even then, I only saw fur and heard low whines as they vied for my attention.
“Hey, hey,” I said as their sandpaper tongues scraped across my bare limbs. “I’m happy to see you too.” I crouched down to their level so they would quit leaping up at me. “Did you find someone to help Sipho?”
A disgruntled sigh sounded from behind me. “I should have known you were behind all this.”
I whirled around to find Darby with her hands on the hips of her wrinkle-less tunic, not a hair out of place and skin rosy like a pampered celebrity. With my torn shorts and dirt crammed into every possible crevice of my body, I felt like a swine standing beneath a show pony.
Darby scowled at me. “I’m a real shepherd with real duties. I just banished a kenawa that threatened a herd of Tabitha’s old kidama deer near Noti Creek. It went ballistic and nearly tore apart a stag.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Kenawas aren’t big enough to take on deer.” I’d fought a kenawa before with Guntram. It’d been one of my first vaettur encounters as an eyas, and Guntram had specifically chosen it because they’re relatively tame. Toads the size of housecats, a kenawa’s main trick is to chase small prey into a whirlpool and drown it. Any shepherd with basic water skills can break its hold, and once threatened, the kenawa tries to hop away, but it’s not very fast. I almost feel sorry when I banish the pudgy little jerks.
“Tell that to the one aggravating the deer,” she said. “And things got even more complicated than the overly aggressive vaettur. A boy interfered in the middle of banishment, making everything more difficult. I had to lure the kenawa away before I could draw sigils to dispose of it.”
I couldn’t resist a jab. “Sounds like an easy job for a shepherd as talented as you.”
“Is that why you sent Nur and
Kam to find me?” Darby snapped back. “To antagonize me?”
I rolled my eyes. “Stop thinking you’re so special. I sent them to find any shepherd in the vicinity. Sipho’s at her breaking point. She needs help with the homestead.”
Darby wrinkled her nose. “If she can’t run the place by herself, maybe she needs to consider giving it up.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you serious?”
She shrugged, her ringlets bobbing delicately around her cheeks. “We’re barely holding it together in the south. The northern homestead thinks it’s about time we merged together as one unit before we cause any more trouble.”
I narrowed my eyes at her. “Is that you talking, Darby, or Sertalis?”
“He makes a lot more sense than your augur. If it hadn’t been for the sharp division of power between the northern and the southern homesteads, you would have never been allowed to become an eyas, and Tabitha would still be alive.”
So that was Sertalis’s emotional play. It was almost sad how easy he had leveraged Darby’s own grief against her.
I tried to reason with her. “Give me a break. Tabitha is one of the main reasons there is a southern homestead. She broke away from the northern homestead as much as Guntram. You think merging the two is what she would have wanted?”
“Well, she…” Darby attempted to argue, but then sputtered. Her pretty face turned angry pink. “It doesn’t matter now. It’s just a matter of time before the Oracle reunites us all anyway.”
You can’t argue with bias. Darby only had one goal in mind, and that was to take me down. She’d do anything to make that happen, including abandon Sipho despite all the times the forger had provided for her.
“Do whatever you want, Darby,” I said through tight lips. “You can either help Sipho when she needs you most, or you can be a selfish punk and go about your merry way. It’s your choice.” I turned to leave, the cats flanking either side of me.
“Wait.”
I paused, a glimmer of hope at Darby’s call. Maybe she wasn’t that far gone, I thought. Maybe she still held that bit of humanity I knew she had before Tabitha died.
But all those hopes faded as a menacing smile spread across her face. “You haven’t found the fox dryant, have you?” she asked in a voice way too sweet for the way it stabbed me. “You’re trying to help Sipho with the homestead, but you’re wasting precious time you could be using fulfilling the petition. So, you sent Sipho’s mountain lions for backup so you could keep up your own futile search.”
I hated how she made me sound pathetic, but she’d accurately summarized the situation. I couldn’t think of a snappy counterpoint, so I kept my mouth shut for once.
She knew she had me, erupting in cruel laughter. “Well, isn’t this ironic? Maybe I will stick around the homestead. It will be satisfying to watch you fritter your last few days away before we’re both due back north.”
I grabbed onto my lightning charm instinctively, the familiar sizzle calling to me as my control slipped.
Darby slid into a perfect sigil stance, the rocks around her feet bouncing as earth pith oozed out of her. “Are you threatening me, lightning shepherd? Because I would love another round with you.”
Nur and Kam whined as sparks flew from my fingertips. I ignored them. “Then let’s go.”
“Why bother? You’re already defeated, Ina. You have no idea where the fox dryant is. You can fight me now, but then you’d lose your last few days to say goodbye to Nasci.”
I hated how perfectly Darby had backed me into a corner. She wouldn’t strike unless I did first, and then she could rough me up. If I managed to beat her, she could claim self-defense and get me into more trouble. And since I had a reputation for flying off the handle, most people would take her side.
It took every last ounce of willpower to release my lightning charm.
Somehow, Darby’s awful smile widened. “I see you’re finally learning a little self-control. Too bad it’s too little, too late.”
I had to count to ten to calm myself, otherwise I would have wiped that smug look off Darby’s face with a zigzag sigil. Then I stalked away, the ground trembling slightly beneath my feet as a reminder of what lay behind me.
CHAPTER 12
TRUE TO HER word, Darby stuck around the next day as Sipho and I planted a fall batch of cabbage. She kept closer to the lodge but remained outside, ostensibly training. While I loosened the soil with earth pith and Sipho followed behind striking the ground with her enhanced tools, though, I caught glimpses of Darby’s head turned in our direction. I tried not to let it get to me, especially since Darby’s element was earth and she could have been a huge help, but I wanted to punch her in her pretty face.
Sipho noticed my foul mood while she served me a lunch of fresh apples and salad in the forge. Neither of us had felt up to cooking anything elaborate. “Is something upsetting you, Ina?”
“Nope.” I chewed on a long lettuce leaf that didn’t want to go down my throat. “Everything’s just kittens and rainbows.”
Sipho poured me a cup of water from a pitcher that had sigils etched to remain cool. The glass tingled in my sore palms, and I had to use both hands to keep it from slipping out of my grasp.
“You know I appreciate your help, but honestly, I’m fine now.” In complete contrast to her statement, she winced as she eased on the bench next to me, her stiff right leg stretched out in front of her.
“Yeah.” I snorted. “You look great.”
“At least consider taking the afternoon off. If I run into trouble, Darby is here. She will surely aid me if I require it.”
My blood ran colder than the water in the cup. “I wouldn’t be too sure of that.”
She frowned at me. “And why is that? Because the two of you are feuding again?”
“No, because she’s a spoiled brat.”
Sipho clucked her tongue. “With an attitude like that, the two of you will never make amends. It’s not healthy for two shepherds serving Nasci to harbor such ill will toward one another.”
“It’s not so simple, Sipho.”
A hard edge deepened Sipho’s voice. “It isn’t simple for Darby either. She deserves some grace and understanding.”
That did it. I reached my physical and mental limit. Jumping to my feet, I made my way to the door. “I think you’re right, Sipho. I need a break. I’ll catch you later.”
“Ina…” Sipho called after me, but I ignored her, blinking into the annoyingly bright sunshine.
Stalking toward the edge of the homestead property, I had to remind myself Sipho didn’t know about Darby’s sneaky little petition. Even recognizing Sipho’s ignorance, though, didn’t take the sting out of her accusation. I knew I’d screwed up royally with Rafe and that my actions indirectly caused Tabitha’s death. I thought I’d worked past these emotions, especially with Tabitha herself telling me she took full responsibility for her actions.
But there are some mistakes you just have to live with for the rest of your life.
Once I made it to the tree line, I pulled out my phone. I touched Vincent’s number before I even realized I was doing it.
He picked up on the first ring. “Yeah?”
I let the words just fall out of me. “I miss you. I want to see you. Now.”
“I thought you were too busy.”
“I need a break from the funny farm.” My voice cracked a little.
Vincent noticed, his tone smoothing. “Of course. I need to finish up a patrol first. I was going to head back to my apartment in about an hour. Can you meet there?”
“Perfect.” It would take me about that long to wisp my way to Florence.
“Okay, see you soon. Travel safely.”
I murmured a goodbye and cut the call off.
I felt a brief stab of guilt for leaving the homestead, but Sipho had insisted I could take a break. Besides, she felt confident Darby would help her with the farm chores. There was a small, ugly part of me that hoped Darby would laugh in her face, the way s
he always seemed to be laughing in mine.
* * *
Vincent lived in an apartment complex perfect for his needs: small, utilitarian, and right off the coastal highway with quick access to the entire town. The large uncovered parking lot lay almost empty at midday, his silver Subaru the lone vehicle in an empty blacktop sea. I trotted up the wooden stairs to the second story and raised my hand to knock.
He opened it before I could strike the door with my knuckles, his dark eyes dancing. He looked so handsome in a plain T-shirt and jeans.
“Heya!”
I couldn’t suppress a goofy grin as I walked inside. It was always kind of dark because Vincent didn’t like to open the blinds. “I thought you didn’t have special powers, yet you knew I was coming without looking out the window.”
“I can hear footsteps coming down the walkway just fine.” He gestured toward a yellow plastic bag with the logo of a seafood restaurant on the riverfront. “I bought you a tuna melt and clam chowder.”
“I knew I kept you around for some reason.” I sat down on a slightly off-balance dining chair and began removing food from the bag, separating it into piles for me and him. He sauntered off into the kitchen for utensils. I noticed the sink filled to the brim.
“What’s up with the dirty dishes? I thought you were a neat freak.”
“I’m not a neat freak, I just normally clean up after myself like an adult. Right now, I can’t because the sink’s leaking. And besides, you wouldn’t want me to live like a bachelor slob.”
“Good point.”
We crumbled crackers and ate through the delicious soup. In between spoonfuls, Vincent let me vent about Darby’s awful behavior and Sipho sticking up for her. He grunted in part-affirmation, part-satisfaction as he enjoyed his own meal.
“You never catch a break, do you?” he asked as I scooped up the last bite.
