by DM Fike
“Sounds like an excuse,” Callum muttered.
“Maybe it is. But the only other alternative is to pretend I’m perfect. To have all the answers. Would you rather I do that?”
Sufficiently cowed, Callum slumped against the counter. “No. It’s just all so confusing.”
I reached out a hand to comfort him, but he pulled back. It felt too corny to try to soothe his fears, so instead I relied on sarcasm instead. “Could be worse. You could be fighting a beaver with crocodile scales and a poisonous bite.”
He raised an eyebrow. “That’s not a thing.”
I couldn’t help myself. I laughed out loud. “There are a lot more ‘things’ out there than you realize.”
He paled. “Like monsters?”
“Huge monsters. Terrible monsters. You don’t want to meet any of the dangerous uglies until you’ve had a chance to learn a little, especially not the one Darby’s chasing.” I inched the hem of my hoodie up to expose my bellybutton. “Wanna see my scars?”
“No, no,” he waved his hands frantically, closing his eyes. “I believe you.”
“Good,” I said, more because I really didn’t have any scars. I just banked a teenage boy like Callum would faint before viewing some stranger’s boobs.
“Well.” Callum got to his feet once his virgin eyes were safe. “I guess I should go to sleep. Tomorrow’s going to be another long day.”
“Probably,” I answered cheerfully. “But I’ll show you where Sipho keeps her stash of homemade jerky.”
He perked up at this. “Really?”
I grinned. “Just don’t tell her I told you.”
Convinced I’d used enough carrot and stick to keep him away from Darby, I let him pick out an empty room. I apologized for the scratchy mattress, and then went to bed down the hall to another open door. The minute my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep.
* * *
Quacking ducks woke me from a deep slumber.
My phone’s ringer. I threw the rough sheets off me, hands searching the bedside table for my phone. Only a gray haze filtered through the high windows of the room, so I assumed it was around dawn. I’d never get proper sleep. I wanted to kill something.
Vincent’s number came up on the phone screen. I answered. “This better be good, waking me up so early.”
Vincent grunted. “It’s nine o’clock.”
“What?” I pulled the phone away to check the time. Sure enough, it was. I’d actually slept in for a change. Wow.
But then why was it still so dark in the room?
Vincent continued through my confusion. “…clouds are forming. They’re predicting a storm.”
My bare feet scrambled down the hallway and outside, phone glued to my ear. The inside of the lodge, while exposed to the air, had a lot of sigils etched within the walls to keep it temperature controlled. A blast of cool, humid air hit me as I stepped out under a dark gray sky.
A storm was brewing.
Elated, I lifted my hand up as if to reach it. Not a single sizzle of lightning pith flared from above. “I don’t feel any lightning.”
“Aren’t you listening?” he asked. “Not above the homestead. East of Fort Rock.”
In the desert. Of course. “When?”
“Within the hour.” He gave me some coordinates, which I saved on my phone.
A happy squeal escaped my lips. “Thank you!”
Vincent chuckled. “Happy to help. I gotta get back to work. Good luck, Ina.”
We disconnected. I dashed out toward the edge of the homestead property, eager to get going as quickly as possible. Talk about coming in under the wire. I knew the fox dryant would be there. Chasing the thunderstorm, I could convince her to come with me to the Oracle with just 24 hours left to spare. Guntram had been right.
I just needed faith.
Reality intruded on the soles of my feet. I’d never put on my boots. I raced back to the lodge to retrieve them.
I nearly collided with Sipho at the front door. She was trying to leave as I entered. “My apologies, Ina,” she said, her brow furrowing. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”
Something in her voice sounded off. “What’s wrong? Have you overextended yourself again?” She looked fresh, dressed up in a clean tunic and intricate braids, but maybe she still needed a soak in the hot spring.
“I’m fine,” she reassured. “It’s Callum. I cannot find him.”
My throat tightened. “You mean, he’s not out in the fields with you?”
She shook her head. “I’ve worked the boy so hard, I decided to let him sleep in today to recharge his energy. But I just checked his bedroom, and he’s not there. Have you seen him?”
“Oh no. He didn’t.” I pushed past her so I could see for myself. Sure enough, his room was empty, the bed slept in, but who knew how long ago he’d left.
Sipho followed me. “Is something wrong?”
I rounded on her. “Where’s Darby?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t seen her since very early this morning, going out for a run.”
“And you’re sure you didn’t see Callum and her together?”
“No, but then, I was doing other chores and not paying attention. What are you implying?”
I drifted dumbly back toward the kitchen counter, trying to recall what they’d been talking about last night. “I think Darby took Callum to the lesion.”
Sipho frowned at me. “That’s quite the accusation. Guntram ordered her to stay away from there.”
“I heard them talking last night. Callum’s upset that you won’t teach him faster. Darby offered to tell him more in exchange for helping her.”
Sipho scowled. “That’s not possible. Darby always follows the rules, perhaps painfully so. She would not circumvent my judgment so easily.”
“Wouldn’t she though? Darby’s wallowing in grief. You heard how upset she was that Guntram wouldn’t take her to the lesions to avenge Tabitha’s kidama.”
Sipho’s resolve faltered. “But I thought she didn’t like Callum.”
“She doesn’t, but he can sense the energy around the lesion like you. He has a chance, however slight, to lead her to the vaettur before Guntram and Azar can locate it.”
“That is foolish. She could get both of them killed. She would have to be desperate to perform such an act.”
I folded my arms. “Exactly. Desperate. Like talking with Sertalis to shut down this homestead, even though Tabitha helped build the place.”
Sipho’s eyes widened with fear. “Blessed Nasci. We must find her.”
The sinking sensation in my gut turned into a lead ball. “Both of us?”
Sipho nodded. “I can check the lesion near Noti while you cover the one at Whittaker Creek.”
I patted the phone in my kangaroo pouch, urging me toward the desert. “I had other plans this morning, Sipho.”
“Your boyfriend can wait!” Sipho scoffed. “We need to go now, before anyone gets hurt.”
“It’s not about Vincent,” I cried, but it was too late. Sipho had already fled toward the forge, whistling for her cougars.
She wasn’t wrong. As a shepherd of Nasci, my number one duty was to protect Nasci’s creatures from vaetturs. There was literally nothing more important.
I stole one last glance glumly to the east. “It wouldn’t be too much to ask you to keep storming until I got back?” I asked the gray clouds.
They drifted away from me, rolling in on each other.
I turned and dashed after Sipho. I hoped the bundun hadn’t found Darby yet because I wanted to strangle her myself.
CHAPTER 21
SIPHO AND I raced through the wisp channels together. Fear had me running at a good clip. Sipho maintained my pace, using her walking stick to slap the ground occasionally as we went.
After the fifth portal, Sipho declared we had to go our separate ways to reach our respective destinations.
“Will you be okay?” I asked. I could draw sigils on the fly, but Sipho could
n’t.
“My staff provides me extra protection when needed.” To prove her point, she thrust it into the ground, fingers rubbing against faint etchings I hadn’t noticed before. A ring of fire rose up around her feet, only a few feet high, but a brilliant blue to denote its heat.
“Whoa!” I exclaimed, jumping back.
“I have defenses for each element, plus an extra barrier as long as I hold this. This is not my first battle.”
I nodded. I hated to split the party, but it made sense to do so. The sooner we found the idiots, the sooner we could return to the homestead. “Be careful, Sipho.”
“You as well.”
My thoughts flew in rhythm with my feet as I surged toward the lesion where Vincent and I had examined the dead deer. Where Rafe had nearly killed me. The nerve of Darby, talking an innocent kid like Callum into hunting a buffed-up vaettur. And then there was Callum, running off into the unknown despite my warning. Now we had to save them from themselves.
Where did these two get off?
A memory of Guntram’s stern face flashed before my eyes. Lecturing me, chastising me, punishing me. How many times had he warned me from doing something stupid, and I did it anyway?
“Karma blows,” I huffed, entering the last wisp channel that would take me to the lesion.
I landed soundlessly on my boots on the other side before moving forward. A break in the tree line loomed ahead, indicating the clearcut dirt. I would have plowed forward except a scraping noise broke the forest silence, followed by a thud. I paused, trying to identify the noise.
The scraping noise continued, accompanied by mild squeaks.
I grabbed onto my lightning charm. This could be it. The vaettur. Navigating as quickly as I dared through the underbrush, I steeled myself for a fight. When the very last bushes that separated us came into view, I increased my speed and burst through them.
“Aaaaah!” The human scream reached my ears just a fraction of a second before I unleashed energy into the clearing.
I had to blink several times for my brain to fully process the sight before me. Vincent had his arms raised to cover his upper body from attack. He wore a paper mask over his beige ranger uniform. Behind him, I could see the metal bars of some tool he was using, but from my viewing angle, I couldn’t make out exactly what it was.
The lightning wanted out of my body. I painfully forced the electricity back into the lightning charm. It felt like my veins gurgled alcohol.
He lowered his arms. “Ina? What are you doing here?”
I gulped at how close I’d come to killing him. “I could ask you the same thing.”
“I’m working.” He stepped aside to show me what he’d been protecting. It was a metal dolly, although instead of moving around a stack of boxes, a deer body lay slumped inside.
“Is that a corpse cart?”
His lips bunched into a thin line. “It’s standard hunting equipment. We use them to transport animal carcasses.”
“I thought you said you’d avoid coming here alone!”
“My boss doesn’t know about any monsters. He just insisted I clean up the mess today, and he wasn’t going to assign me a buddy.” He pointed a finger at me. “And you promised the same thing. Where’s your backup?”
“Sipho’s with me.”
“Where?”
I grimaced. “At the other lesion outside Noti.”
Vincent clenched his fists. “That’s not how backup works. And I thought you were chasing the fox spirit.”
“Some things are more important!” A sizzle buzzed around my neck, zipping through my pithways. As the tips of my hair rose, I realized I still had bits of lightning in my system. I let it spark harmlessly from my fingertips as static electricity.
Vincent backed away as my fingers popped.
“Look,” I said in as calm a voice as I could manage. I’d had my fill of people making stupid choices today. “It’s not safe out here. Remember the mishipeshu? Vaetturs drunk on Nasci’s lifeblood are unpredictable. C’mon, man, you know this!”
He held up his hands. “I was going to wait in the car and call you in an hour. I wanted to give you enough time to catch your fox first without worrying about me. But then I saw your teenager with budding powers and thought if he’s out here, I’m safe enough.”
My pulse quickened. “Where’d you see Callum?”
“On my way in. He darted into the trees a few miles before I parked. I stopped the car and looked around but couldn’t find him.”
“You’ve got to show me. He shouldn’t be out here anymore than you.” I gave him a quick rundown of Darby’s stupid plan and then tried to walk past him.
Vincent grabbed my arm before I could go far. “You really want to do this now? Because those storms in the desert won’t last forever. This could be your last chance at staying a shepherd.”
I gave him my hardest stare. “Would you abandon your fellow officers to save your job?”
He let go, conceding me victory on that point. “I’ll show you the spot, but I’m coming with you.”
“Fine.” I didn’t have time to argue. Besides, if all went well, we wouldn’t run into any trouble. “Lead the way.”
CHAPTER 22
VINCENT TRIED TO argue it would be faster to drive, but I insisted on staying outside, where I could feel the elements and gauge the danger. We walked briskly, the summer sun warming up the thin trail between the trees, forcing us to walk under the shade to keep cool. I drew water pith to cool off, drinking in the dew. Vincent took random swigs of water from a bottle he’d grabbed from his vehicle.
The walk also gave us time to discuss strategy. “If the vaettur shows up, you run,” I told Vincent.
“Not happening.”
“C’mon, Vince, you can’t fight these things. You’d be a glass target if it decided to go after you.”
“I’m not letting you face a monster alone.” By the stubborn set of his jaw, I knew he meant it.
“Why? Your machoism won’t allow it?”
He threw me a pained expression. “Because I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you.”
I didn’t know how to reply.
Before long, Vincent pointed out the spot where he’d seen Callum. “It’s easy to find because it was near this big leaf maple already turning yellow at the top.” Despite the hot season, the tree did look poised to launch into fall colors.
An avian shriek cut through the area. It didn’t sound like a raven, but maybe a raptor of some sort.
Vincent stiffened. “That’s odd.”
“I think I know who it is.” I waited a beat until I heard it again, then took off into the woods toward Sova.
Vincent followed, although he had more difficulty navigating the brush than me, so a gap widened between us. The screeching came from underneath a bunch of red cedars. I bulldozed through the rest of the underbrush, no longer caring if thorns cut any of my exposed limbs. Vincent cursed as he accelerated behind me.
A bowling ball of feathers nearly smacked me in the face as I leaped into the clearing. I ducked, missing talons by inches.
“Yeep,” I squeaked, brushing away a stray feather that stuck to my face. Its metallic mauve sheen identified who’d nearly given me a new nostril.
“Yow! Yow! Yow!” Sova’s agitated barks told me things were dire before I could comprehend what we’d stumbled upon. Then she sped off.
A horse-sized scorpion skittered so fast in the glen that you could barely count its eight awful legs. Dark gray with patches of translucent shell, the stingers on its tail and claws glistened a more menacing deep red. It could not have looked more out of place among the wildflowers it crushed beneath its legs. Its eyes camouflaged into its natural markings, making it all the more terrifying as it struck at the owl with all three stingers with ridiculous speed.
Sova swooped down in unpredictable patterns to confuse the vaettur. She’d gone into full guardian mode, like she had before against the mulruka, but I couldn’t figure ou
t what she was protecting.
“Ina!” a terrified voice called out from somewhere behind the bundun.
I skipped to the side for a better look and screamed in spite of myself. Callum sat clutching Darby in his lap at the base of a cedar, his bare torso and her clothed one both covered in blood. It appeared to come from a gaping wound in Darby’s shoulder, matting the fur of her hood. She did not move, her complexion ashen.
“Is she alive?” I yelled.
“Barely!”
Our exchange caught the bundun’s attention. It swatted away Sova long enough for its stinger to strike for Callum’s forehead. It happened so fast, I could do nothing, preparing myself to watch him get skewered.
Miraculously, though, the stinger bounced off something just a few feet before Callum’s tear-streaked eyes. Callum clenched Darby’s charm necklace in his fist. It had activated her defensive charm, creating a barrier that protected them both from physical attack. The bundun recoiled away from the force, and Sova used that as an opening to rake her talons near the vaettur’s face. It backed off before she could do any damage.
The defensive charm held for now but wouldn’t last forever. After taking an indeterminate number of sustained hits, it would shatter, leaving both of them exposed. Then no amount of Sova distracting the bundun would save them.
I had to banish this bastard now, before things got worse. I took one step before Vincent’s horrified whisper reached my ears.
“What is that thing?”
I’d never seen his eyes so wide, his jaw slack. He couldn’t take his eyes off the bundun, tracking its every move as if watching the Grim Reaper himself.
“You can see it?” I shook my head. I didn’t have time for this. “You’re defenseless. Go!”
“The monsters…” He stood frozen. “The monsters you can’t see…”
I clapped my hand hard on his shoulder. “RUN!” I shouted, hoping it would snap him out of it. I didn’t have time to see if it worked as I sprinted forward.
I needed to strike the bundun hard and fast if I wanted to banish it in one strike. I avoided my lightning charm, knowing it could accidentally strike a bystander. I switched to another powerful and quick element.
