by DM Fike
Even though I was in a hurry to get to the northern homestead by noon, I tried to savor the journey. I wanted to remember how it felt as a follower of Nasci: the breeze tingling in my pithways, the humidity satiating my thirst, the spark of fire in my belly. I even took off my boots the last mile so the damp earth could squeeze between my toes. Who knew how my body would feel after being bound?
I chose to approach the Oracle’s longhouse from the wilderness side instead of directly through the northern homestead. A garter snake squiggled past me as I rounded the last corner, alerting me to the augur waiting just outside the circular door. Sertalis sneered knowingly at me, but I kept my head high as I briskly rose up to meet him.
“Darby and the Oracle are already waiting for you,” he said. “Looks like you failed to produce the fox dryant.”
I bit my lip to avoid replying. No use wasting breath on this jerk.
He leaned forward to whisper as I ducked to enter the short doorway. “Nice try attempting to kill Darby to end your petition.”
I smacked the top of my head hard against the stone archway. Rubbing it, I jerked my face to within inches of his. “I didn’t hurt Darby.”
He grinned at my rage. “That’s not what it looks like.”
Sparks flew up and down my pithways. “If it wasn’t for me, she’d be dead.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Is that why you’re shooting bits of lightning from your fingertips, false shepherd?”
I’d become so angry that I’d absorbed lightning from my charm on accident. I tried to push it aside but couldn’t help a static crackle forming on my fingertips.
“Sertalis!” The Oracle’s sharp rebuke came from inside the longhouse. “Grant us privacy!”
His smile faded but not his malice. “Good luck, Imogene Nakamori.” He used my given name as an insult, refusing to acknowledge my shepherd one. Then he stalked away.
I hated that he’d rattled me as I entered the longhouse. A few electric blue sparks lit up the entrance even though I tried to force them back into my lightning charm. Darby glared at me from her position at the pit, but the Oracle seemed almost pleasantly cheery as she poured a cup of hot water, her back hunched over like the old woman she was. “Tea?” she offered.
I shook my head as I sat opposite Darby. I didn’t want throwing up to be my last act as a shepherd.
“Suit yourself.” The Oracle carefully folded some herbs in a cloth bag to seep, leaving the two of us facing each other in silence.
At first determined to ignore Darby, I finally stole a glance at her across the pit. I expected her to be mortally wounding me with her death glare, but she slouched, staring down at her pale feet. She looked like she’d lost a bar fight, with bruises and cuts still visible on her exposed arms and face. She swayed forward a bit, wincing when she pinched the area where I knew she’d been stabbed.
I was amazed she walked all the way up here in her condition. She must have wanted me gone very badly. Still, the words slipped out of my mouth, an instinctive response to her pitiful condition. “You feeling okay?”
She finally looked at me. “Spare me.”
“Fellow shepherds.” The Oracle’s voice sliced between us. She flowed to the head of the longhouse, facing both of us underneath the flaming bulb. “Let us officially begin the resolution of the petition. I will start with Ina and her task of finding the fox dryant. Have you brought her here?”
I wanted to scream out some excuse. To explain how close I’d come to finding her but had been pulled away on a rescue mission to help the very shepherd trying to have me bound. But it sounded petty, and I felt so tired. Now that I’d gotten this far, I wanted this done and over with as quickly as possible.
“No,” I said.
The Oracle tilted her head at me. “You have nothing else to add?”
“What’s to say?” I shrugged. “I looked everywhere I’d ever seen her before, but she wasn’t there. I don’t control her. She just shows up when she wants. She didn’t want to this time.”
“A convenient explanation,” Darby grumbled.
The Oracle blew a gust of wind toward Darby, startling her. “You will get your turn to speak. Now it is Ina’s. Do you understand?”
Cowed, Darby looked away and nodded.
The Oracle turned to me again. “Is there anything else you want to add?”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Other than what I said last week? That lots of other shepherds, Darby included, have seen the fox dryant and know her to be real? Nope, that’s it.”
Ignoring my sarcasm, the Oracle turned to Darby. “Then it’s on to our petitioner. Sertalis told me that Ina tried to attack you yesterday.”
That bastard. I jumped to my feet. “I didn’t—”
The Oracle crumbled the earth beneath my feet so I landed back on my butt. “I thought I made it clear that I would give the floor to one shepherd at a time.”
Unlike Darby, I refused to break the Oracle’s gaze, not with such an awful accusation lobbed against me. But I did reply, “Fine.”
The Oracle returned to face Darby. “Is this true?”
Darby let her gaze linger on me, back to her more typical defiance. She could confirm it, and no one would contradict her. Only Callum and Vincent had seen the bundun attack, and neither of them were official followers of Nasci. Guntram, Azar, and Sipho had only seen the aftermath. And a normal bundun couldn’t cause her injuries.
She could not only end my life as a shepherd but accuse me of attempted murder. And she knew it.
My body tightened as her mouth opened, her eyes still pinned to me.
“No.”
I blinked, confused.
The Oracle leaned forward to catch Darby’s attention. “Please explain.”
“Ina did not attack me.” Darby’s expression had slackened to something that looked like regret, matching her choking tone. “Not only that, she saved me from the vaettur who tried to kill me.”
My mouth fell open.
The Oracle didn’t seem fazed at all. “Then we shall move on to the stated petition. Ina has failed to produce the fox. Without being able to confirm the fox’s identity as a dryant, I am willing to concede to Ina’s deception and revoke her shepherd status. Is that acceptable to you?”
My heart sank. It didn’t matter that I’d saved Darby. I’d be bound one way or the other, and she knew it.
“No.”
Darby’s answer came out barely a whisper.
I stared at her, but she’d withdrawn back into herself, eyes focusing on nothing as her mind obviously went elsewhere.
“Please explain.”
Her entire body tightened. “Tabitha told me to let it go.”
This time, even the Oracle looked surprised. I opened my mouth to ask more, but the Oracle raised her hand, stopping me.
Darby continued without prompting, talking more to herself than to us. “Was she a ghost? A vision of Nasci herself? Something else?”
The Oracle crouched next to Darby. “When did you see her?”
“When I almost died, after the bundun attack.” Darby jerked back to face the Oracle, a frightened child with many questions about a scary world. “I thought I was dying, so I absorbed earth pith. I accidentally absorbed energy from the lesion, and Tabitha appeared in my head.”
“Just like my vision,” I whispered.
Darby scowled at me, but said, “Tabitha told me to go back. She said it wasn’t my time, that I still had work to do.”
“And here you are,” the Oracle said reassuringly. “Doing Nasci’s sacred work, protecting her creatures.”
Darby wrinkled her nose at me as if I were a smelly garbage can. “She also said to forgive Ina and move on. That Rafe had caused all the trouble, and that she had made the choice to sacrifice herself to save the rest of us.”
Her description sounded a lot like my own vision with Tabitha in the magma.
“I don’t know what to do,” Darby said.
The Oracle studied Darby’s f
ace. “Do you believe it was Tabitha?”
“Yes.” She hesitated. “But is it possible? How could I still converse with her after death?”
The Oracle smiled. “I have received much stranger visions and acted upon them. The question is, how do you want to proceed with your petition, given this new information?”
I held my breath.
Darby grimaced as if swallowing a lemon. “I wish to retract it.”
I couldn’t help myself. A high-pitched “What?” escaped my lips.
Darby snarled at me. “You want me to do otherwise?”
“You know what this means, don’t you?” the Oracle asked. “Because this is the conclusion of the petition, no one else can raise the petition again.”
Darby shrank at this. “Not even an augur?”
The Oracle took the direct approach. “Not even Sertalis. It would be cruel to subject Ina to a second questioning of her shepherd status. It was unusual enough for me to do it in the first place.”
Darby paused only a moment more. “So be it. I retract the petition.”
And just like that, my world somehow righted itself. I nearly slumped over into a heap of exhaustion. Despite the odds, I was somehow going to walk out of the longhouse a shepherd.
Darby must have noticed my relief because she leaped to her feet. “Don’t think this means we’re friends. I’m doing this because Tabitha asked me to, not because I think you should be a shepherd.”
Before I could respond, she got to her feet and stormed out of the longhouse. The ground vibrated during her dramatic exit.
I gaped after her in bewilderment. “I don’t know what just happened.”
The Oracle’s face became a radiant beam. “Your faith in Nasci has been rewarded.”
“But I didn’t have any faith. I thought I was coming here to be bound.”
The Oracle sipped her tea smugly. “Guntram told me what happened yesterday. You didn’t attack Darby. You did the opposite. You spent your last day of the petition helping a fellow shepherd rather than saving your own skin.”
“Well, yeah. I couldn’t live with myself if I knew I could have done something about it.”
“Well, there you have it. Faith.”
Faith in Nasci sure sounded like one of those widely nebulous spiritual things where people attribute all the good things to a benevolent higher power, but I didn’t say that out loud. I felt lighter than a cloud as I stood, and it had nothing to do with air pith. Or maybe in a backwards way it did.
Because I was still a shepherd.
“So that’s it?” I asked the Oracle. “I’m free to go.”
She nodded, but then her entire face lost its humor. “The southern homestead still has some major hurdles. Remember your faith, Ina. It will guide you in the months to come.”
Great. She’d gone back to cryptic. Still elated about the petition’s conclusion, I tried to look as grave as possible as I said, “Sure. Definitely. I’ll think about that.”
The Oracle didn’t bother to hide her eyeroll as she ushered me out the door. “Tell Guntram I wish him the best of luck.”
“About what?” I asked, ducking out the door.
“He’ll know. Goodbye for now.”
“Bye, Yoi.” I used the Oracle’s real name for emphasis. As she drew a sigil to roll the boulder back over the door, I thought I saw her grin.
By the time I emerged outside, Sertalis had stalked away into the wildflowers where the hill sloped. I could tell by the hunch in his shoulders he was not pleased by the outcome of our meeting. I whistled to catch his attention. He turned around, and I could just barely make out his angry moustache at this distance.
I couldn’t help myself. I blew him a kiss.
Even from here, I could see his face mottle into a nice shade of purple.
EPILOGUE
“ARE WE GONNA talk about it?” I asked.
“Talk about what?” Vincent opened the restaurant door, holding leftover boxes in his hand. The cooling summer air stung me as I skirted past him outside onto Bay Street. Music wafted down Florence’s main tourist road, but most of the other shops had already closed for the night.
I grimaced at him as we sauntered side-by-side to where he’d parked the Subaru. “You’re going to make me spell it out, aren’t you?”
Vincent released an exasperated sigh. “We just enjoyed a pleasant ‘glad-to-be-alive’ dinner, but sure, go ahead and ruin it with your cryptic drama.”
“See. Right there.” I beeped his nose. “The ‘alive’ part is what we’ve avoided talking about. Because you’re scared of your magic.”
“I don’t have magic!” Vincent shouted that statement, causing a middle-aged couple wearing Oregon T-shirts to flinch. He lowered his voice as the man craned his head to stare at us. “Or at least, I don’t think so.”
I resisted slapping my forehead with my palm. “Then what do you want to call stopping the bundun from skewering my brain? Because it sure looked like magic to me.”
“I don’t know.” Vincent shuffled the leftover box from his right hand to his left. “I just reached out and felt…something. I latched onto it. But then you banished the thing, and I thought I’d just imagined that.”
“You didn’t imagine it. You saw a vaettur. You somehow stopped it.” I grabbed the crook of his arm. “This is huge.”
“It’s not huge,” Vincent grumbled.
“It is! You have ken. We have no idea what kind of powers you have.”
“Ina…” Vincent warned.
But I was just getting warmed up. “You didn’t draw a sigil that we know of, so you might not be a shepherd. Maybe you’re a forge apprentice like Callum. Or something else entirely. You could have gifts that—”
“Ina!” Vincent interrupted. “Just let it go.”
We’d reached his car at that point, the lone vehicle in the far parking lot as the streetlamps came on. The Siuslaw River lapped behind a dock not far away, sending a boat out to sea.
“Let it go?” I asked.
Vincent threw open the back door and deposited our leftover seafood inside. He then rounded the corner to stand over me. “You saved Darby and Callum from that hideous scorpion thing.” He shuddered in memory. “You’re still a shepherd despite not finding the fox dryant. I think you’ve got enough to celebrate. Stop worrying whether or not I actually can use magic.”
I stared up at him. “But how can I do that when I have so many questions?”
He leaned forward with a smile. “Maybe I can distract you.”
Heat flashed across my face. “I refuse to let you intimidate me, Vince. We should really—”
Then his lips came over mine, dissolving all thought of magic. Vincent knew how to push my buttons for sure, in good ways and bad. And this time, we finished our long lingering kiss, no one interrupting us at all.
THANK YOU FOR READING!
If you enjoyed this Magic of Nasci installment, you’re in luck! The series continues with Book 7. You’ll get to know Wuaro, a Bitai Wilds desert shepherd, and see him clash with the Pacific Northwest shepherds in:
GATHERING SWARM (Coming Fall 2021)
If you need something to read in the meantime, check out Magic Portal, my portal fantasy series featuring Avalon Benton, who discovers the tragedy in her past leads to an unexpected magical future.
You can also get two free Magic of Nasci short stories by subscribing to my newsletter at dmfike.com.
Please also consider leaving an honest review on Amazon for this book. Showing your love for my books is the best way you can support an author like me!
LEGEND OF LLENWALD SERIES
“I drive like I color: outside the lines.” – Nobody the gremlin
Avalon Benton has nothing: no parents, no money, and no future. Her bland existence unravels when a mysterious knight statue shows up at the Hall of Mirrors at the theme park where she works. A beggar begins stalking her every move, and she has abilities she cannot explain. As Avalon gets pulled toward a secret wor
ld where others covet her legendary powers, she must decide whom to trust—an amnesiac fairy, a shapeshifting trickster, or even her former doctor—all of whom may only be exploiting her for their own gain.
BOOK 1: MAGIC PORTAL
BOOK 2: MAGIC CURSE
BOOK 3: MAGIC PROPHECY
MAGIC OF NASCI SERIES
“I do not recommend striking a whale corpse with lightning. You will regret it.” – Ina, nature wizard-in-training
Ina is a rookie nature wizard, learning the ropes of elemental magic—fire, air, earth, and water. She can also wield lightning, setting her apart from the other followers of the goddess Nasci. If you like action-packed urban fantasy with just a hint of a slow-burn romance, you’ll love reading about Ina’s adventures in the Pacific Northwest’s national forests.
BOOK 1: CHASING LIGHTNING
BOOK 2: BREATHING WATER
BOOK 3: RUNNING INTO FIRE
BOOK 4: SHATTERING EARTH
BOOK 5: SOARING IN AIR
BOOK 6: RISING SCORN
BOOK 7: GATHERING SWARM
BOOK 8: HOWLING STORM
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DM Fike worked in the video game industry for over a decade, starting out as a project manager and eventually becoming a story writer for characters, plots, and missions. Born in Idaho’s Magic Valley (you can’t make this stuff up), DM Fike lived in Japan teaching English before calling Oregon home. She loves family, fantasy, and food (mostly in that order) and is on the constant look out for new co-op board games to play.
More places to keep in touch:
Website: dmfike.com
Email: [email protected]
Facebook: facebook.com/DMFikeAuthor
Amazon: amazon.com/author/dmfike
BookBub: bookbub.com/profile/dm-fike
GoodReads: goodreads.com/dmfike
