by DM Fike
You could guess which category I fell into.
The sun baked me from above. It was already midday. I should have been hungry, but I couldn’t push aside that lump in my stomach that had nothing to do with food. I cursed the now cloudless sky. Without a thunderstorm, I had no idea how I’d ever find the fox dryant. And I had little hope of identifying my deer killer at the rate I was going.
Kam lifted her head as I entered the forge, huffing as she turned to fall back asleep. I tried to quell my growing anxiety as I rifled through the various doll-sized drawers that compromised Sipho’s etching tools at her workstation.
“Can’t I at least find a single tweezer?” I grumbled to myself. I knew Sipho had a dozen of them. She’d used one of them to remove that scorpion stinger from me the other day.
A memory flashed through my mind, how fast the scorpion had stung me. I recalled Sipho removing the stinger from the wound and letting me hold it in my palm. Its slightly bumpy texture flashed through my brain.
It felt just like that piece of vaettur Sipho had removed from the deer.
The pieces all fell into place. A vaettur that left gaping holes in major organs from some sort of physical strike. A scorpion stinger had a chance of leaving exoskeleton behind.
Splinter forgotten, I scrambled so fast back to the library that Kam mewed after me in confusion. Guntram had told me about a vaettur that fit this description once before, but I couldn’t quite remember the details. Knowing that it had scorpion roots, though, led me to a book called Arthropoda Vaetteus. I skimmed it until I found the arachnid section.
It didn’t take me long to find a section on the bundun.
My skin crawled as I glanced at the charcoal sketch. A scorpion monster, mostly black but noted to have translucent chitin in patches. Instead of just a single stinger poised at the edge of its tail, the tips of its pincers also grew sharp stingers for a grand total of three. It was that horrifying feature that jogged my memory. I clearly remember Guntram telling me the bundun preferred to kill its victims first through stab wounds with those sharp tips. Many other vaetturs sucked pith from living victims first, killing them by draining their life energy.
I discovered more as I read. Bundun were generally considered a mild nuisance, despite their propensity for violence. They generally didn’t get larger than a jackrabbit and stalked small rodents and other creatures that hid in the brush, where they felt more comfortable. Their stingers also didn’t contain any sort of poison like other vaetturs, making them easy to banish.
That didn’t jive with our vaettur. Callum had pegged it at around three feet tall and wicked fast. There was no way a normal bundun could have taken down a herd of Tabitha’s kidama deer.
But we weren’t dealing with a normal bundun. This one had stuck its stinger deep into a lesion, devouring some of Nasci’s lifeblood in the process. Depending on how much it had absorbed, it could have grown stronger, increased in size, or even developed a fun new power we’d have to deal with when we found it. The text said any element could banish it.
So I had a lead, but what could I do now?
A sharp caw suddenly broke through the stillness outside. My heart leaped with hope.
Guntram had returned to the homestead.
I dashed across the fields outside the library, aiming for the swirling birds hovering over the trees to the west. At one point, a larger bird dropped from the crowd to swoop toward me. Fechin. He swirled to eye level, lazily flapping his wings.
“Where is he?” I demanded.
The henchbird screeched and darted into the trees. I thought he had ignored my question, but then a figure emerged, navigating between the trunks. Guntram stepped out into the sunshine, the wind whipping around him to make him look like the powerful wizard he actually was.
I took a few eager steps toward him but paused as another shadow swung behind. An olive-green cloak swayed down to similarly colored flowing pants, a neutral color that made the smoldering red bracelet on her wrist stand out even more. Her intelligent eyes shot out to assess me quickly, taking in every detail.
Azar, the most poised shepherd I knew, with wicked fire mastery to boot.
Guntram raised his hand in greeting, then glanced over my shoulder. I turned to find not only Sipho and Callum but also Darby approaching, all three red-faced, obviously having been working the fields. I did a double take, having assumed Darby had left after her little snit.
Darby got the first words in. “It’s about time you showed up! I’ve been waiting here for you, as you asked. Predictably, everything has exploded into chaos with your haggard around.”
I ignored her jab at me and asked Guntram, “You ordered Darby to come to the homestead? I thought Nur and Kam brought her here.”
Guntram, in turn, ignored me to frown at Callum. The teenager took a step behind Sipho, looking like a giraffe trying to hide behind a palm tree. “Who is this young man?”
Sipho frowned. “We have much more serious concerns. The lesions are leaking Nasci’s lifeblood.”
The four of us—Guntram, Darby, Sipho, and myself—devolved into a mess of unanswered questions. Where had Guntram been this whole time? Who gave Sipho the authority to let a kid onto the homestead? Why was Azar here? Did Guntram honestly think he could deter Darby by ordering her to do manual labor? How could we all just stand here when Nasci’s very essence was being threatened out in the woods? Only two people abstained from the conversation. Callum was way too overwhelmed to step in.
Azar had no such qualms. She conjured a fire whip in one hand and snapped it over our heads, causing a firecracker explosion of sound. The cats hissed and bared their teeth. Well, we all kinda did, actually.
But it shut us up as she intended.
Azar dissolved the fire whip and pointed toward the lodge. “Why don’t we all discuss this, one topic at a time, over tea?”
* * *
While everyone received a cup of tea, not all present were allowed to listen to the conversation. Sipho ordered her mountain lions to escort Callum back to the forge while we talked. She warned him if he touched anything, she would personally lock him in the storage room for the rest of the night. Having spent time in there, I told him not to risk it, and he slunk away with a wary look on his face, afraid to touch even the doorframe on his way out.
The rest of us gathered around the lodge pool, feet soaking in the cool water pith. Darby attempted to take over the conversation first. Azar took her down a peg by asking her if what she wished to discuss was a matter of life and death. Bemused, Darby shook her head, giving Sipho the opening to delve into our vaettur problem. I enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude with my hot tea as Darby fumed silently in the corner.
But as Sipho divulged all the details of the leaking lesion, even Darby grew serious. Sipho outlined every detail: Callum’s appearance by the lesions, our investigation of it, and the escalating vaetturs we’d encountered. She only gave the floor to speak when she needed me to fill in some of the details she hadn’t personally witnessed.
By the end of her explanation, we all wore grim expressions. Darby’s irritation had morphed into a palpable rage. If her hands had clenched into any tighter fists, her fingers might have snapped off.
“Do we have any idea what kind of vaettur it is?” Azar asked.
Sipho began to shake her head, but I interrupted. “I think it’s a bundun.” I passed around the piece of exoskeleton we’d extracted from the deer corpse and explained how the attack matched up with my theory.
Guntram held onto the triangular piece last, lighting a fingerflame to examine it better in the soft light. “This is consistent with a bundun stinger.”
“But not with its habits.” Darby glared at me. “I’ve fought one before. It barely came up to my knee. It couldn’t take down one blacktail, let alone a dozen.”
“Nasci’s lifeblood makes any vaettur stronger,” Sipho said. “Remember the mishipeshu?”
Guntram shifted his weight. “There’s no telling how powerful
this vaettur has become. We must find it immediately and banish it before it causes further damage.”
“Callum can sense it,” I offered. “Maybe you could have him track it for you.”
Guntram folded his arms. “I am still not convinced of the intelligence of offering him a forger apprenticeship without more thought.”
“Then let me go,” Sipho offered. “I should be able to pick up the trail as easily as the boy.”
“No,” Guntram replied. “The vaettur’s scent at this point could be too old to detect now, even for you. Better to track the vaettur using more traditional scouting means. This is something that calls for two shepherds to handle, minimizing our collective risk of harm while also giving us adequate support in the field.” He turned to Azar. “Are you up for the task?”
She nodded.
Darby glowered. “No disrespect to either of you, but these things are killing Tabitha’s former kidama. I should go.”
“We need the most experienced shepherds available.”
Darby stiffened. “So what? I’m just supposed to continue pulling weeds while my augur’s sacred animals are in danger?”
Guntram frowned at her. “There should be no task beneath a follower of Nasci. Sipho needs help during a busy time on the homestead. It is where you are best needed.”
“I know what you’re doing.” Darby withdrew her feet from the pool, drying them with a sigil. “Sertalis told me you’d do everything in your power to aid the south against all reason.” She waved at me. “Like help this poor excuse for a shepherd.” She motioned toward the wall of the lodge. “Or defend this shadow of a homestead when we have an ample enough one to the north. But I never thought you would keep me from honoring Tabitha’s memory.”
Sipho looked like she wanted to hurtle some choice words Darby’s way, but Azar spoke first. “The only thing Sertalis has planted within you is conflict. You know how much Tabitha loved this homestead. It is why she was a founding member of its formation.”
“I’ve heard it all before. Maybe she’d change her mind if she was alive.” Darby gave up arguing and stalked toward the door.
“Great strategy there, Darbs,” I called after her. “Whenever you can’t argue, just leave. You win the debate!”
The door slammed loudly behind her.
Three sets of eyes swiveled to glare at me. I raised my palms upward. “After everything she’s put me through, you think she doesn’t deserve it?”
Guntram rubbed his temples. “I had really hoped sending her to help Sipho would jolt some sense into her.”
I balked. “Is that why you asked her to stay here? You thought Darby just needed a playdate with Sipho and all would be forgotten?”
“No, but I did wish it would invoke the good memories she made with Tabitha.”
I nearly choked. “Tabitha’s idea of a good time was to give Darby extra laps for getting up five minutes too late. I understand Tabitha better now than I ever did before, but she wasn’t coddling Darby. She was raising a warrior who would not die in the face of a fenrir.”
“True,” Sipho interjected softly. “But Tabitha could not stamp out all of Darby’s innocence. Despite her obvious reservations, Darby’s done a tremendous amount of work at the homestead, all without complaint. I even saw her smile a few times.” She faced Guntram. “I think she does remember, but these things take time.”
“And time is something we can ill afford.” Guntram stared at me. “Have you found the fox dryant?”
I tried to keep the despair out of my voice. “Nope. I checked everywhere I can think of. My best guess is that she might show up in a lightning storm, but Oregon’s apparently not having one anytime soon.”
“Keep looking,” Guntram said as he stood. Azar did the same. “We’re going to need every advantage we have to keep the southern homestead open.” Guntram gave Azar a long look at this statement. She tensed but nodded. I had no idea what that was all about.
And I didn’t care. I had less than 48 hours left on my deadline. I had desperately hoped that when Guntram showed up, he’d devote all his time and energy into my problem, but that wasn’t going to happen.
“I’m so screwed,” I said, more to myself than anyone else.
Guntram paused on the way out to put a hand on my shoulder. “Do not give up, Ina.”
Then he and Azar left to pursue the bundun. Sipho also excused herself to go check on Callum, throwing me a sympathetic glance.
I stared down at my reflection for a long time, letting the water distort my face over and over again.
CHAPTER 20
WITH THE LESION problem taken out of my hands and a pouty Darby helping Sipho and Callum out in the fields, I decided to do one last run to every place I’d ever seen the fox dryant. I didn’t expect much, and the universe obliged. I spent the better part of a day walking and finding absolutely nada for my efforts. I even wasted all the lightning pith in my charm, flinging it out into the Bitai Wilds in frustration. I hoped to attract the fox dryant, or at least bother Wuaro, but nothing stirred for miles in the sagebrush.
By the time the sun set past the homestead mountains, I could barely put one foot in front of the other. I soaked in the hot spring, the stars poking through as darkness fell over me. Even as my pith recharged, I could not lift the heavy burden weighing me down. Vaettur hunts could take days. I couldn’t count on Guntram coming back in time to help me with my task.
Drained and defeated, all I wanted after my soak was to sleep for twelve hours. I trudged up to the lodge, surprised to find the door partway open. Snippets of a conversation from inside reached my ears.
“…lead me to it in exchange for my knowledge,” Darby was saying.
“I don’t know.” Callum’s voice broke on a high note. He still had miles of puberty to go.
I stomped into the kitchen, finding them sitting on stools at opposite ends of the counter. They both had crumpled clothes and patches of dirt on their exposed skin, the aftermath of a day of labor. They glanced nervously at me as I made my way to one of the cupboards, lips sealed shut.
“Please don’t stop your conversation on my account,” I said as I retrieved a handful of nuts and chewed them. They tasted as stale as I felt.
Darby ignored me, scooting off her stool and toward the door. She paused only to tap the stone countertop in front of Callum. “Just think about it.” Then she exited with a little swagger in her step.
“Well, that was melodramatic,” I said around the nuts.
Callum swished his wooden cup, causing a bit of the water to spill over. “Darby seems okay.”
Yeah, right. “She wants you to help find the vaettur, doesn’t she?”
He refused to look at me, so I knew I was right.
“Whatever she’s offering you, don’t do it.”
“Why?” he asked his cup.
“Because her deal will benefit her more than it does you.”
Finished with my snack, I’d made it halfway across the common area when Callum’s forlorn voice caught me short. “I’m so confused.”
I crossed back over to his hunched shoulders, standing at the counter in front of him as he continued, “Sipho says I have a long way to go to discover if I’m even ‘worthy’ of Nasci. But I don’t know what that means. I don’t even know if I believe that there’s some god that makes the world go ’round.”
“Goddess,” I corrected. “And if Sipho tells you that you need time, then you do. She’s one of the most level-headed and fair people I’ve ever met.”
His face scrunched up with anger. “Not showing me what I’m capable of doesn’t seem fair.”
Ah, existential angst. I wish I could teach him how to quell it, but I barely knew how to keep a handle on my own. “I know it’s tough not having all the answers. Been there, bought a whole wardrobe of shirts. But I found out the hard way that forcing things too fast causes a lot more problems than it solves.”
Yeesh, I sounded like Guntram.
He jutted his chin out at
me. “So, you’d just sit back and let someone else decide your fate for you?”
“Nope,” I replied honestly. “But that’s not what you’re doing. You didn’t even know magic existed a week ago. Let’s put it this way.” I leaned toward him, not towering exactly since he stood above me even sitting down, but trying to appear confident nonetheless. “Do you think we’d be responsible people if we just showed every kid who showed up here how to launch fireballs whenever they pleased?”
Callum relaxed a little. “Well, no.”
“Then it should make sense Sipho wants to evaluate you as a person first. She doesn’t know you any more than you know her. Relationships, especially in our world, take time.”
A light bulb went off over his head. “Then what about Darby?”
“What about her?”
“If everyone here has been carefully evaluated before training, how come you two don’t get along?”
I hesitated to tell him anything about our history. He already had an idea from witnessing one of our arguments. I couldn’t boil down the rest to a memorable one-liner. “It’s complicated.”
“That’s adultspeak for ‘I’m not going to tell you.’”
Instead of retorting, I tried to see it from his perspective. He’d probably been shut out of a lot of his own decision-making in the foster care system. “As much bad blood as there is between Darby and me, I don’t want you to get the wrong opinion about her. She’s not a bad shepherd.” And as the words left my mouth, I realized how much I believed them.
Despite the petition, I couldn’t bring myself to hate her.
“Then why are you two fighting?”
I tried to put my finger on it as much for me as for him. “She’s lost. Sad. Lashing out. I’m an easy target because I caused some of those feelings.”
“Then are you a bad shepherd?” Callum demanded.
I took a calming breath so I wouldn’t snap back. It was an honest question. “No. I’ve made some mistakes in the past, but I try to forgive myself and learn from them. That’s all I can do.”
