Touch of Power

by Maria V. Snyder

  “Still worth stopping,” Kerrick said.

  I stared at him knowing full well he only agreed because he hoped it would sway me to decide in Ryne’s favor.

  As expected, the town of Galee had been destroyed. Burned-out buildings lined the streets. Nothing left except the stone foundations. However, Kerrick was determined to find Tara’s house.

  I led them to her place by memory. As her newest apprentice, it had been my job to go to the market every morning. I had gotten all the jobs no one else wanted, but I had treated each task as if it had been essential to do well—a trick I had learned from my father. Tara had called me her hardest-working apprentice, and had eventually started coming to me to help her with the more interesting cases.

  Her house resembled the others—a pile of burned rubble. Kerrick and the others poked around, clearing sections. I stayed on the street, trying and failing not to recall how the six months I had lived and studied here had been the happiest of my “adult” life.

  “Found something,” Kerrick said, joining me. He held a small dented metal box coated with ash.

  My heart jolted in recognition. It had survived!

  “It’s locked.” He shook the box and it rattled. “Hold it so I can pick the lock.”

  “No need.” I dug into my knapsack and withdrew a small silver key. “The box is mine. I’d left it here when I returned home, hoping I would be back. I’d forgotten about it.”

  “Yet you carry the key.”

  I shrugged. “Just couldn’t bring myself to throw it away. Strange, I know.”

  The key fit, but opening the lock proved difficult. Kerrick helped and soon the contents that I had thought vital at the time were revealed. Coins, a necklace and a notebook.

  Kerrick held up the necklace. The pendant hanging from it was a pair of hands. He gave me a questioning glance.

  “My brother Criss sent that to me a month before I left home to start my apprenticeship. He’s the one who taught me how to juggle.” I smiled at the memory. “His letter said he knew I would be the best healer in all the Fifteen Realms because I had always been good with my hands and that he was so proud of me.” Tears filled my eyes, blurring my vision. “That was the last time we heard from him or my father.” I turned so Kerrick couldn’t see me wipe my cheeks.

  “What’s in the notebook?” Kerrick asked.

  I flipped the pages. My crooked handwriting filled each one. Reading through a few, I realized that what I had thought was a silly diary of events actually was an account of what I had learned each day. I had already forgotten many of these lessons.

  “Anything useful in there?” he asked.

  “Tara’s would be better, but there’s more here than I had thought.”

  “Worth going out of our way for?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Now turn around.”

  “Why?”

  “Can’t you just—”

  “Okay, okay.” I spun, wondering what he wanted me to see.

  Instead of pointing something out, Kerrick hooked the necklace around my throat. He pulled my hair out, letting the clasp rest on the back of my neck. The touch of cold metal on skin sent a shiver along my spine.

  “There. Now you won’t lose it again.”

  We overnighted in Galee, camping on the lee side of a large stone wall that hadn’t been knocked over. After so many days on the road together, we gathered wood, cleared snow, set a fire, cooked, ate and took turns on watch without having to say a word. However, once we settled under the blankets of our sleeping rolls, conversation would start, usually after Kerrick left for his shift. Tonight was no exception.

  “Has anyone else noticed that we’ve encountered no one in the past two days?” Quain asked.

  “The people living around here are not the type we’d want to encounter,” Belen said.

  “The trees are probably telling Kerrick where they are, and we’ve been avoiding them,” Loren said. “No sense letting Tohon or the bands of marauders know our location.”

  “What about the mercs?” I asked.

  “Them, too,” Loren said.

  I mulled it over. “Except for today, we’ve been traveling pretty much straight north for days. You’d think we’d have to skirt areas to avoid them. And we haven’t seen any tracks in the snow. Quain may be onto something. It’s too quiet.”

  “What’s wrong with quiet?” Belen asked. “Not everything has to be a struggle.”

  “What are you thinking, Avry?” Loren asked, ignoring poor Belen. “Ambush near the main pass in case we try to cross it before spring?”

  “It’s a bit obvious, but logical.”

  “Wouldn’t Kerrick be able to use his tree mojo to detect them?” Quain asked.

  I grinned at his word choice. Kerrick had tried to explain to the monkeys how his magic worked, but unless they felt it like I had, they wouldn’t be able to fully understand how the forest communicated with him. Magicians in general kept the details about their powers quiet. Either they were afraid a person would figure out how to counter them, or they liked being viewed as mysterious. Although once everyone knew, Kerrick had been open and frank with the guys.

  “For his tree mojo to work, it would depend on where the ambush is. If they’re hiding above the tree line, then we’d be out of luck.”

  “What about the ex-girlfriend?” Quain asked. “Do you think Jael’s going to come after us again?”

  “No. Jael lost the element of surprise and she knows her power can’t counter ours.”

  Quain sat up and stared at me. “Ours?”

  I cursed under my breath for my slip.

  Belen chuckled at Quain’s confusion. “Think about it.”

  So Belen knew. Did Loren? I glanced at him. He had a faraway expression.

  “Is that why you yelled for Kerrick with Flea?” Quain asked. “You wanted to combine your magic?”

  “We didn’t combine it, we shared magical energy,” I said, then explained how Kerrick and I had fought off Jael’s attack. “Healers often linked together if a patient was on the edge of dying, giving one healer the strength to save the patient’s life. Since Kerrick and I have different types of magic, I was surprised we could do it at all.”

  “Could Kerrick heal Ryne using your energy?” Belen asked.

  “No. It just gives his own magic more power.”

  “But it has a price, right?” Loren asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “Using magic is draining and can be physically exhausting.” Their thoughtful and intense expressions worried me. I didn’t want to discuss Kerrick anymore. I tried to change the subject. “I’m usually starved afterward and craving my mother’s cinnamon apple crisp. Does anyone know if the survivors are taking care of the apple orchards in Zainsk?”

  No one fell for it.

  Watching their faces, I knew Belen was the first to make the connection, although Loren wasn’t far behind.

  “Kerrick helped you heal me. Didn’t he?” Belen asked.

  I should just say yes and be done with it. However, I couldn’t lie to Belen. “Not quite.”

  “Avry.” Belen’s voice held a warning tone.

  “I healed you. But Kerrick gave me the energy to heal myself. Otherwise, I would have died. I admit it. Okay? Can we talk of other things?”

  They did, but my thoughts lingered on my personal plague—Kerrick. In the list of attempted remedies for the plague, the Guild had tried sharing the energy of half a dozen healers to cure a sickened colleague. It hadn’t worked. So there was no chance a lone magician could pull me back once I had the plague.

  From Galee, we traveled northwest and reached the southern border of the foothills three days later. The craggy snow-topped mountains filled the sky, looming over us, ye
t at the same time the peaks looked impossibly far away.

  In the foothills, we saw no one. Only small animal tracks marked the snow. As for the infamous reputation of the area, the rolling terrain and thick clusters of pine trees caused us the most trouble, slowing us down. Not bands of lawless marauders, ufa packs or mercs. All remained quiet.

  I tried to believe the quiet meant good things. After two uneventful days, I was almost convinced, but everything changed the next morning when Kerrick tripped.

  We had been following him as he searched for a place for us to hide in until the spring melt, which hopefully would be in three to four weeks. Without warning, he sprawled forward, doing a face-plant in the snow.

  At first, we laughed and teased. The normally sure-footed Kerrick brushed snow off his cape, grumbling good-naturedly. The culprit appeared to be a tree limb. A curved gray branch arched from the disturbed snow. We would have stepped over it and continued on our merry way except Belen paused and peered at the branch closer.

  He cursed and dug around it, sweeping the snow away. The rest of us exchanged confused glances until our brains deciphered the object Belen had exposed. A dead body. Which, considering the plague’s speed and the marauders, wasn’t a surprise.

  “That’s why I tripped,” Kerrick said. “The forest doesn’t consider a dead body to be an intruder.”

  “Yeah, it’s plant food now,” Quain muttered.

  Belen discovered more lumps in the snow. Again, no big shock. Every survivor had seen or found a plague victim. As the others brushed the snow away, revealing more bodies, I examined the man who had tripped Kerrick.

  Thick beard, long hair and scars on his face, he appeared to be around twenty years old. He was curled up on his side with his arms crossed over his stomach. A futile gesture since most of his intestines lay next to him. I looked closer at the jagged flesh and bite marks on his body. Scavengers or killers?

  “Something munched on this one,” Belen called.

  “Half this guy’s face has been eaten off,” Loren said.

  “Uh, guys.” Quain’s voice shook. “I think I found one of the culprits.”

  We joined him. He had uncovered a huge ufa. Kerrick took a step back as soon as he saw it. An automatic reaction, but I couldn’t fault him. The beast was six feet long with gray and black brindled fur covering about two hundred pounds of pure muscle. Two nasty-looking teeth curved down from its upper jaw. Black blood stained its front claws.

  We uncovered fourteen bodies, but only one ufa. Although there were signs of many more animals. But it was hard to determine if the animals killed them or just stopped by for an easy meal.

  “Marauders out on a raid, or returning from one,” Kerrick said.

  “How can you tell?” I asked.

  “Unkempt appearance. Well armed. Battle scars. Mostly men. They leave the weaker members back at their base camp.”

  “What should we do with the bodies?” Belen asked.

  “Nothing. As Quain said, they’re plant food.”

  “Come spring, they’ll reek. Aren’t there any hungry Death Lilys around?” Quain asked, half joking.

  “They don’t deserve the honor,” I said with surprising vehemence.

  The guys peered at me as if I had lost my mind. Perhaps I had.

  As we hiked west through the foothills, we encountered two more bands of snow-covered dead marauders that day. And another three the next. But no slain ufas. Kerrick’s scowl deepened with each discovery. The snow meant they all died before the big storm seventeen days ago, far enough in the past to give us some comfort, but any consolation we scraped together slipped away by the sheer number of dead.

  “Now we know why it’s so quiet,” Quain said.

  When we set out on the third morning, we braced for more carnage, but nothing could prepare us for the next discovery.

  This group of marauders had been killed like the others. However, their bodies were not covered by snow. Blood, guts, mud and bodily fluids stained the white snow. Ufa tracks marked the edges.

  Kerrick ordered us to remain behind while he followed the tracks.

  While he was gone, I examined the dead. Same story as the other groups we had found. The only difference was the timing. I estimated they had been killed about ten to twelve days ago.

  “Avry, you do know how creepy that is. Don’t you?” Quain asked.

  “What’s creepy?”

  “Your fascination with the dead. It doesn’t take a healer to know these guys were killed by packs of wild ufas.”

  “It’s not a fascination. More like curiosity. Besides, I’m beginning to suspect they weren’t killed by the animals. Don’t you think it’s unusual for all of the victims to be lying on their stomachs?”

  “Or what’s left of their stomachs.” Loren pointed to mangled pile of intestines next to one body. “Actually, I think it’s odd that the ufas keep attacking when they should be well fed by now.”

  “Unless there’s more than one pack,” Quain said.

  “Oh, there’s a happy thought.” Loren scowled at him. “If it wasn’t ufas, then who or what attacked them?” he asked me.

  “I’m not sure.” I crossed to the man Loren had indicated, and tried to roll him over. He was too heavy and stiff.

  “That’s gross,” Quain said.

  “Come help me,” I said.

  “No way.”

  “Sissy,” Belen said. He grabbed the dead man’s shoulder and hip, pulling him over. “What are you thinking?”

  I studied the gaping hole that had been the man’s stomach. Unlike some of the others, the cuts appeared to be from a blade and not teeth. “From the extent and location of the damage, he would have fallen onto his back if attacked by an ufa.” I examined the snow around the victim. “The ufa wouldn’t have turned him over.”

  “Why not?” Quain asked.

  “All the tasty parts are in front.”

  “Disgusting. Remind me not to ask any more questions.”

  Loren huffed with amusement. “As if that would work.”

  “Shut up.”

  “Make me.”

  “Gentlemen,” Belen warned. “If the ufa didn’t flip the body, then who did?”

  I walked around the other bodies. “There are drag marks in the snow.” Backing up so I could see the whole scene, I noted how the bodies had also been lined up so their heads pointed one way. Northwest. “Why go to all the trouble of arranging them?”

  “Because it’s a message,” Kerrick said as he returned.

  “Something other than ‘run as fast as you can in the opposite direction right now or you’ll be ufa food’?” Quain asked.

  “The main pass through the mountains is northwest, isn’t it?” I asked Kerrick.

  “Yes.”

  “A message warning us away from the pass?”

  “No. I found another set of remains quite close to here. The bodies have also been arranged.”

  “How’s that a message?” Quain asked.

  Belen answered, sounding stunned. “Tohon’s clearing the way for us so we will reach the pass without running into trouble.”

  “That doesn’t make sense,” Loren said. “Wouldn’t he want to prevent us from reaching the pass?”

  “Are you sure it isn’t a warning away from the pass?” I asked. “After all, Ryne’s safe on the other side.”

  “He’s not on the other side,” Kerrick said. “He’s hidden within the Nine Mountains. The easiest way to reach him is via the main pass, but the others work, as well. They just take longer and can only be accessed in warmer weather.”

  I put a few clues together. “Does that mean—?”

  “Can someone tell me what’s going on?” Quain asked.

&
nbsp; “Tohon knows where Ryne is,” Kerrick said.

  Chapter 18

  “That’s a big leap in logic. Just because the bodies had been arranged a certain way doesn’t mean Tohon has found Ryne,” Belen said. “Tohon could just be playing with your mind, capitalizing on your fears. Let’s consider other possibilities.”

  “All right, Belen. What do you think it means?” Kerrick asked.

  “Maybe he’s guessing that we’re headed to the pass and is being cocky about it, letting us know he knows. It’s typical of him.”

  “It could be a trick,” Loren said. “He wants us to think he has Ryne so we rush to him, leading Tohon right to him.”

  “Either way, it’s a heck of a message,” Quain said. “There’s lots of bodies. He’s not fooling around.”

  “And how did he know you’d see it?” I asked. “Yes, he could guess we’d enter from Pomyt, but the foothills span for miles.”

  “We’ve been following the animal paths, just like the marauders had,” Kerrick said. “It’s easier than trying to push through the dense pine trees. He knew we’d stumble upon them eventually.” Kerrick paused. “I’m changing our plans. We’re not going to hunker down, but take the main pass.”

  Just what Tohon wants, but I wasn’t going to say it aloud.

  “What about the steep icy path and thousand-foot drops?” Quain asked with a slight quaver of nervousness.

  “Be careful where you step and don’t look down,” Kerrick said.

  “That’s not funny.”

  “It wasn’t supposed to be.”

  The change in plans felt wrong. Belen and Loren had both made excellent points. And there was always the possibility that Tohon was goading Kerrick so he’d rush right into an ambush. They had been friends for years; Tohon must know how to provoke Kerrick. Heck, I knew how to upset him and I’d only been around a little over three months.

  Regardless of our opinions, Kerrick led us straight to the pass. We encountered a couple more bands of dead marauders, but he wouldn’t let us stop.