by DM Fike
My fingers wrapped around my fire charm, pulling all its power to mingle in my pithways. I’d need a powerful punch to stop a creature this size. Stopping at the edge of the glen where the flowers rustled against my knees, I drew a 5-pointed star and flung every last ounce of fire pith I had at the vaettur.
I might as well have been blowing bubbles. The scorpion vaettur effortlessly swung to the side just as the fire should have blasted its exoskeleton back to Letum. It didn’t even look my way, not considering me a threat at all.
Great. I’d wasted all my fire in one blow. Even worse, I’d have to get closer if I even had a chance to strike the bundun.
I gathered air this time, both from my charm and the surrounding environment. The bundun paid me no mind as Sova led it in a dance away from Callum and Darby. Its three stingers punched the air like sewing needles, narrowly missing Sova’s wing on the last strike.
I got as close as I dared, still half a basketball court away. Then I released my air pith in a whirl of banishment.
The scorpion had to jerk a bit this time, not nearly the flawless dancer of before, but it still avoided my air attack with room to spare.
“Dammit.” I had to get even nearer to those stabby points of death. I gulped, growing dizzy as I watched Sova and the bundun battle in a flurry of motion. My eyes could barely keep up, much less my body. Navigating toward the vaettur felt like entering a game of double Dutch jump rope, only if I missed the timing, I’d walk away with a hole in my skull.
But Sova was smart enough to know what I was trying to do. She positioned herself on the opposite side of the vaettur. Her positioning forced the bundun to concentrate on either her or me. It skittered between us with indecision.
I pooled all my water this time. Earth would engage way too slowly. I wasn’t even sure water would work, but I didn’t have time to absorb a bunch more pith.
Finally, I saw my opening. Sova scraped at the bundun’s thorax. The bundun curled its body in protection, still an arachnid at heart.
I surged forward, writing the banishment star with water sloshing at my fingertips. I had a clear shot, right between its near invisible eyes. All I had to do was let it go.
The bundun’s left stinger shot out of nowhere, not for me, but for Sova, who’d left her side wide open after her attack. Time slowed to a crawl as the bundun went in for a death pierce. And in that split second of space, I had to make a decision. Banish the vaettur or save a dryant.
I changed directions, and the water smacked across the stinger instead of the bundun’s forehead. I’d gotten in a hit, but not a full banishing blow. The bundun’s entire left appendage evaporated into a cloud of smoke. It curled into a defensive ball, legs stomping in pain along the forest floor.
But that left me within the bundun’s reach. I scrambled backward, trying to get out of the way.
I didn’t have enough time. The bundun’s tail stinger shot out from its back, right for my throat. I would have died right there if not for my own defensive charm. The stinger struck with such rage-fueled force that the charm shattered around my neck on the first blow, knocking me backwards onto the ground.
I was alive, but now completely vulnerable to attack. The bundun’s stinger already swung around for another blow. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t turn to protect myself. There wasn’t a sigil I could write, not enough pith left in my body to avoid getting cut wide open.
So I closed my eyes. No one wants to see that coming.
I waited for pain. Death. Darkness.
But nothing happened. My body didn’t get torn apart. Nothing harmed me.
Dumbfounded, I opened my eyes to find a glistening red stinger hovering just inches above me. The bundun shivered, joints wound up tight, but not making any wide movements. The vaettur screeched in frustration.
Something had stopped it from attacking.
A frantic shout rang across the clearing. “I can’t hold it forever!”
Behind me at the edge of the tree line, right where I’d left him, Vincent held his hands in the air. The palms were directed toward the bundun, his face screwed up as if he were trying to lift a pick-up truck. It was a wonder the vein in his forehead didn’t rupture.
He looked like he was holding the bundun back. He’d even slid his legs apart into a sloppy sigil stance.
“That’s not possible,” I whispered, trying to figure out how Vincent could even hold pith, much less stop a vaettur in its tracks. I’d never seen a move like it, not even from the Oracle.
“INA!” he screamed. “NOW!”
I snapped out of my stupor, letting earth pith weigh me down. It took only a few precious seconds to draw the star. The bundun’s stinger jerked but couldn’t reach me.
I released all that earth pith directly into that blood red blade.
My earth banishment cut through the tail stinger like butter, flying through the bundun’s body and leaving only powdery dust in its wake. A bitter taste, like spoiled green tea, filled my airways as the vaettur vanished in a cloud of its former body. I panted, staring at the spot where a stinger had been prepared to pierce my skull just moments ago.
CHAPTER 23
WE BANISHED THE monster, and I had a bazillion questions swirling in my head, most of them geared toward Vincent. I hobbled toward him, mouth open.
But Vincent’s officer training kicked into high gear. We had a serious medical issue on our hands. He rushed past me over to a sobbing Callum.
I swayed on my toes, disoriented. Then Sova landed on my shoulder, butting her feathered face into my cheeks for an affectionate pat. Right. I pushed my jumbled curiosity somewhere into a corner of my nearly empty pithways. Things weren’t over yet.
Darby was badly wounded.
She would only live if we could get help quickly. “Thank you for protecting us, Sova.” I whispered, then rotated my shoulder. She took the hint and launched back into the air, disappearing into the trees.
Meanwhile, Vincent approached Callum and Darby to administer aid, but he bounced into the invisible defensive barrier before he could get too close. “Hey!” he shouted in dismay.
A snot-filled Callum stared up at him, eyes bloodshot. “You’re the cop.”
Vincent nodded, rubbing his elbow where he’d smacked into the barrier. “You gotta let me in there.”
Callum shrank away, fear written all over his face. Old habits die hard.
We didn’t have time for this. I motioned for Vincent to step aside so I would take up Callum’s line of sight. “What happened?”
My anger broke through his defenses. “W-we were just w-walking. I could s-sense that…that thing’s energy. Then out of n-nowhere, it jumped us. Stabbed Darby r-right here.” He gestured toward his bunched-up T-shirt on her left shoulder, which he held tightly over the wound.
“You did good to apply pressure,” Vincent said in a reassuring voice. “Now we need to see how badly she’s injured.”
Callum glared at him suspiciously. “We don’t need your help.”
I threw my hands in the air. “The hell we don’t. You saw the fight. You know I would be as dead as Darby’s about to be if Vincent hadn’t intervened, right?” When his eyes flickered down into his lap, I drove the point home. “Right?”
He nodded curtly.
“Good, then here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to lower the defensive barrier so we can both help.”
Callum glanced up at me in confusion. “The what?”
“The defensive charm.” I pointed at his hand, where he had wrapped Darby’s necklace around his palms several times. “Let go of it.”
He focused on it for a few seconds. “Darby told me to hold it, no matter what.”
“And it saved your life,” I agreed. “It created the barrier that the scorpion couldn’t pierce. But now it’s preventing us from helping you.”
“Oh.” He hesitated, still wary of Vincent.
I kneeled down to his eye level. “Her pith is leaking out of her body, isn’t it?”
“Y-you can feel that too?”
“Not as much as you can. We can’t heal her here, but we can buy her some time. Vincent can continue to apply pressure to the wound, and I’ll teach you how to circulate fresh pith back into her.”
“Me?” he squeaked. “Why can’t you do it?”
“Because I need to create a signal for help, which leaves only you to do it.”
He blinked, trying to make up his mind.
I folded my arms. “Or, you know, Darby can die. Take your pick.”
He yanked the defensive charm off his hand so quickly, his T-shirt/bandage fell to the side.
Vincent deftly caught it before it hit the ground. He examined the jagged hole in Darby’s shoulder and grimaced. “It’s not good.”
“It never is,” I said.
Vincent adjusted himself next to Darby’s face, her breaths coming out in ragged gasps. He crouched to reapply pressure with the shirt.
I stared deeply into Callum’s trembling face. “Can you feel the faint energy all around us? The wind? The humidity? The ground beneath you?”
“I-I can only feel that…that thing’s energy.”
“Don’t touch that.” Been there, nearly got myself bound. “For any reason.”
“I won’t,” he promised. “It doesn’t feel right.”
I had to view this from a forger’s point of view. Shepherds generally manipulate their own pith. Forgers are masters of pith transference. It’s a subtle but important difference.
“Sipho says you’re very sensitive to pith, so this is going to be difficult, but try to focus past the vaettur energy. The world is made of pith, the four natural elements. Fire, earth, air, and water. It’s all around you.
He glanced around as if looking for a missing object.
Oh boy. “You can’t see it with your eyes. Maybe you’ve felt it before?”
He nodded enthusiastically. “Yes. Of course. It’s what finally convinced me to run away.”
“Then find it again. Feel it again. Close your eyes if you have to.”
He complied, muscles tensed as if trying to get his skin to find the pith for him. Half a minute passed in a tense silence.
“I don’t feel anything.”
I suck at being patient, but I had no choice. “Take your time. Keep trying.” And in the meantime, I shoved my palm into the dirt to refill my depleted pithways as fast as I could. Once I had a decent chunk of that heavy weight, I laid the opposite hand on Darby’s bare legs, slowly releasing it into her.
Callum flinched as if doused with water. He scowled at me. “Stop doing that.”
“Doing what?”
He gestured to my hand. “Whatever that is. It’s distracting me.”
I tilted my head at him in astonishment. He could feel that relatively small amount of pith. “That’s me putting earth pith back into Darby. Here.” I grabbed Callum’s fingers, caked with blood. I shoved my queasiness aside and put his hand over the top of mine, which rested on Darby. “Feel what I’m doing.”
His eyes grew so wide as I forced the last bit of my earth pith into Darby, it’s a wonder they didn’t plop out onto the ground. “Whoa,” he breathed.
I then motioned for him to put his hand over the top of the one I had kneading the dirt. “Now feel how I pull it out from the ground.”
He did so, something like giddiness coming over his face as he sensed me pulling more earth out of the ground. “I can feel it!”
“Try it yourself. Start with the dirt, absorb some into you, then give it to Darby.”
It took a bit of trial and error, but Callum got the hang of it within a few minutes. I gave him the fast tutorial on how to do the same with air. Absorbing water from humidity was a bit trickier so I skipped it. I didn’t even dare attempt creating fire pith, not when it burns things (or people) when it’s mishandled.
Darby’s breathing evened out, coming in more steadily with less rasping. I pointed this out to Callum. “See? It’s working.”
“We’re healing her!” he exclaimed.
I shook my head. “We’re just buying her time. She needs a lot more than either of us can give her.” I stood up, my gaze locking with Vincent’s. “I’m going for help.” It would take several shepherds to take her anyplace she could heal.
His brow furrowed. “Hurry.”
As if I was going to take a leisurely stroll, but I buried that sarcastic retort. I dashed out of the glen. It’s possible Guntram and Azar were close by looking for the bundun. However, it was equally possible they were stationed next to the other lesion where Sipho had headed, around two dozen miles away. I needed to find a spot somewhere in the middle where I could catch their attention.
I wasted precious minutes traveling several miles by wisp channel. I needed a signal, a powerful one with a long range, that would let Guntram and Azar know something was wrong. I didn’t have much. I’d blown most of my pith on the bundun, and I didn’t have kidama to command to find them.
But I did have lightning.
I found a clearing roughly in-between the two lesions. I grabbed the last pith-filled charm around my neck and stared up at the sky. Sometime during all the traveling, bickering, and fighting, a bright blue dome had emerged, not a cloud in sight. Maybe I’d be lucky, and the desert storm would still be going.
And maybe Guntram might sprout wings and become Fechin’s minion.
“Oh, well,” I muttered bitterly. “I hate all these last-minute rescue missions anyway.”
Then I pulled on all the sizzling energy inside the lightning charm and focused it straight upward, creating a lightning bolt that whitened my vision and rumbled the marrow in my bones.
CHAPTER 24
MY LITTLE FIREWORKS show did the trick. Guntram and Azar showed up quickly, having been within a mile of my location. They’d found and sealed the bundun’s breach but hadn’t been able to find the vaettur itself. The moment Guntram saw me, he laid into me about breaking the rules and following the bundun, but I insisted it was Darby flaunting authority this time, not me. I don’t think he believed me until he saw our makeshift medical team around her, doing their best to keep her alive.
From there, the more experienced shepherds took over, pumping a still unconscious Darby as full of pith as they dared. Then Guntram and Azar rolled Darby along with this freaky sigil that lifted the dirt the way water boils, but somehow didn’t disturb the plants. I could tell by the sweat beading on their brows it took a tremendous amount of continuous earth pith, but together they maintained a decent walking rhythm that would lead us back to the homestead for the real healing. Guntram ordered Callum and I to keep pumping her full of pith as needed.
Besides the initial raised eyebrow, everyone ignored our resident vanilla human. Vincent trailed us anyway, the proverbial fifth wheel. He couldn’t follow us farther than the first wisp channel anyway. Guntram’s scowl prevented him from talking with me for long, but I promised to get in contact with him soon.
Sipho found us on the other side, drawn by my lightning signal but needing more time to reach us. She looked as exhausted as I felt but didn’t hesitate to join the life support team. She pumped Darby with so much continuous pith that a rosiness actually returned to her cheeks. Callum watched her in awe, attempting to mimic her dancing fingers. I didn’t bother, understanding my limits as a mere shepherd.
Forgers really are the backbone of our society.
Because of her added help, Darby regained consciousness as we approached the homestead. She was a loopy mess, though, unable to form a coherent sentence. We ignored her rantings about ghosts. A concerned Nur and Kam met us at the property line, escorting us as she worked herself into a frenzy. I had no idea how to calm her, but fortunately, the steaming waters of the hot spring seemed to do the trick. She drifted back into a peaceful sleep once fully submerged.
Exhausted by the day’s events, the rest of us stripped off our clothes and dipped into the topmost pool with Darby. Only Callum remained at the pool’s edge, hor
rified that we’d all gotten naked in front of him. I eventually talked Callum into using the lower pool away from the rest of us, assuring him it would be worth the blow to his propriety. When I heard his soft sigh below, I knew he’d discovered something new and wonderful.
After a nice, long soak, we took turns watching over Darby. Azar took the first shift as Sipho and Guntram laid into a bewildered Callum for leaving the homestead to pursue the bundun. He admitted that Darby had convinced him it was worth it to learn about his magic faster. I left when the lecture dragged on, having already been scolded enough for several lifetimes, but I did throw him a sympathetic shrug on my way out. Better you than me, kid.
It dawned on me I should at least give a half-hearted attempt to find the fox dryant. By the time I made it out past Derrick Cave, the desert skies had cleared like the forest ones. No fox, no Wuaro, nothing. I checked the weather app on my phone and cursed my miserable luck. There would be no more storms today.
I had a good, private cry to get some of the heaping despair out of my system. Then I called Vincent to commiserate. He assured me I’d done the right thing. I knew deep down he was right, but it felt like a punch to the gut anyway. The irony of losing my shepherd status because I’d saved Darby was not lost on me, but it fit the narrative of my ridiculous life. I then tried to talk to Vincent about the bundun, but he said he had a call on the other line and hung up on me. I should have been angry, but I let it slide. He didn’t do it to be mean, and I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to work up an attitude anyway.
My only hope at that point was Darby would be too out of it to attend the meeting, but that was dashed when Guntram roused me just after dawn the next day. He grimly informed me that Darby had awakened during his shift in the middle of the night. He’d tried to convince her not to go through with the petition, to drive home the point that I’d saved her life, but Darby had simply stalked off to the north.
He placed his hand on me, eyes full of regret. “I am sorry, Ina. I have failed you.”
A part of me agreed. Why had it been so important to find Azar instead of looking for the fox dryant? But then I realized this wasn’t Guntram’s fight but mine. I alone failed. I told him not to blame himself, that he probably wouldn’t have found the fox anyway.
