Like a Freeze

by Olivette Devaux

  A long moment of thoughtful silence followed. Nikko broke it first. “And you don’t think his knowing is related to your earth sense?”

  “Not really. I mean, my earth sense is largely visual. I see things, right? And when Jared loans me his talent, I see these visual, I don’t know. Effects. Lights. Lines of power that glow in mid-air, or underground. So maybe his talent and mine are related, but I think it’s more because he was my closest cousin.” He swallowed, blinked hard, and forged on. “For many years, he was my only friend.”

  Grandma Olga stood up, tiptoed around the hot pot-bellied stove, and knelt onto a cushion next to Cooper. She stretched her much-shorter arms around him, pulling him into a hug that was no less powerful than it had been when Cooper hadbeen just a little lad. “Let’s reach your oldest friend, then. You haven’t lost him yet.”

  CHAPTER 7

  JARED

  “What’s going on?” Jared had a hard time keeping alarm out of his voice. He had just begun to get used to his tidy new home, a quaint little house plucked out of another time and space. A Japanese guest house with its wrap-around porch that faced the creek and the other building, the one with its bath house and tea house and kitchen all rolled into one.

  His new home had been inhabited by the spirit sword for centuries, an entity composed of many different personalities. From the little he knew of Japanese sword legends, these were either the souls of the former wielders, or represented their psychic impressions. He was happy to be separate from them, but he also felt fortunate to have the spirit’s company in his lonely exile. An old woman named Millie whose husband used to call her Ameru-san, or an old grumpy man who spoke no English.

  Jared knew there were others, but he had not met them. Perhaps they had been overshadowed by Millie’s strong personality.

  Now his new adopted home was being invaded, and this was an unwelcome change. He had had enough time in here to settle down, to adapt. To survive and not go insane, to make some sense of what had happened.

  Just when Jared had begun to come to terms with his new reality, knowing that everyone and everything he had ever loved was out of reach except for a tenuous, immaterial connection to Cooper, his little intradimensional pocket seemed threatened by a new, strong spiritual force.

  He could see it. The vision of its power centers, and the force field boundaries it generated, blasted into his consciousness with such force, such clarity, that he realized he should have recognized the younger man straddling the huge, improbable fish that hovered in the air just fifteen feet away.

  Except, for the life of him, Jared could not remember his name.

  ASH AND COOPER

  Ash knew he was being cradled in the hands of the spirit of Lake Superior, whose name made no sense to him. As his consciousness expanded, he understood that his body was still somewhere underwater with Greg Nightwind. Only the appearance of reality had shifted due to the supernatural manifestation. The event was unique and surprising. The entity was clearly sentient.

  He was sentient. The lake had a definite male vibe to him.

  He had a name, too – and Ash struggled to make sense of its consonants and vowels. He didn’t know which old Indian language the lake used.

  [: Many, :] the sturgeon under him said, making Ash’s mind vibrate with laughter. [: Every one of my people had given me a name of their own. I remember them all, but they would hold no meaning for you. :] A pause. [: Just call me Bob. :]

  Bob. The god entity who ruled this vast body of water, no, who was these waters, wanted Ash to call him Bob. He had never met a spirit with a sense of humor. He had, in fact, never met a spirit in person before. He had felt that certain presence of Old Man Allegheny, and of the ancient girl-child that was the misgendered Charles River in Boston. He had even felt the motherly curves and aged embrace of the River Vltava when he had visited his distant kin in Prague last fall.

  Of them all, only Bob had shown a sense of humor. And he had enough confidence to be called just Bob. He didn’t need all those names of ancient tribes and First Nations, and of cultures whose languages had long vanished into the mist of time. He was holding onto them, perhaps the way one held onto souvenirs or a photo album of long-gone friends.

  A sharp pang of loss had him grip the pectoral fins of the fish he was riding tighter. He hugged him, trying to soothe all those losses.

  He could only imagine, but he would never know.

  He felt Bob smile. [: You’re a sweet child. Humans feel loss so keenly because their lives are so short. Like you feel the loss of that boy sitting down there with all those other human souls. What IS that thing? What manner of a house is that? I have never seen its like on my shores. :]

  Ahead of them, Ash saw two houses like from a Japanese watercolor drawing. One was large and stately, with a small second story tower the size of a small room. The red tiled roof curved in graceful swoops that defied angles of Western architecture, and beneath it, dark wood walls contrasted with gleaming-white shoji screens. The other building was smaller and more varied, and sat right across a creek which ran way too dry.

  [: Look at that poor, struggling cherry tree, :] Ash said, pointing. Of course he’d be the one to notice a fruit tree in distress.

  [: You like those? :] At Ash’s silent nod that carried all of his intent, Bob hummed happily.

  The creek filled with water.

  The tree began to grow, faster than was natural, with long and graceful branches drooping down to the rocks under it until they almost touched the bubbling brook’s surface.

  [: Should I make it flower? :] Bob asked.

  [: Every so often, so it’s a pleasant surprise, :] Ash said as a frisson of pleasure flowed through him. Bob spoke of “other souls” being captured down there. Ash could see only Jared and an old woman sitting on the porch, dangling their feet to what was now briskly moving water. From her surprised gesticulations, and from Jared’s stunned expression, he knew that they saw the effects of Bob’s redecorating as clearly as he did.

  [: Bob, :] he said, feeling all self-conscious as he addressed a minor deity by his nickname for the first time, [: the guy on the porch is Jared, Cooper’s cousin. He dematerialized as he overused his talent saving a lot of people, and now... now this is where he is. Do you think there’s a way to get him back? Or at least, do you think we could establish some kind of a connection, so we can talk? :]

  The long silence that followed got Ash worried. Bob seemed benign now, except Ash was quite aware of the fierce Lake Superior storms, and of sunken boats and ships. The water whispered tales of not only peaceful coves full of fish, but of quicksilver temper and freezing winds with killing intent. Bob was in a good mood – that’s all it was, and entrusting himself to his care had been a dangerous display of faith in his relationship to his element.

  The echo of a question pinged against his mind, and Ash recognized Greg’s concern. Before he could decide on his answer, however, a stronger presence slipped in, and this time, Bob was no longer the goofy older cousin who only chose to appear as two giant fish.

  [: I want to know all there is to know about Jared, :] he commanded. [: Show me. :]

  THE SHARK SKIN of the katana’s hilt roughened between the intricate silk cord wrap all of a sudden, as though it was fresh and sharp and not worn down by countless hands ever since the sword’s grip had last been restored.

  Cooper shuddered at the liquid sensation of a thin layer of water between his hand and his sword. It’s energy shimmered both through his skin and in his mind.

  It was almost alive.

  Never before had Cooper experienced this when he’d tried to contact Jared. His father’s hands on his shoulders tightened as Nikko worked to feed him a bit more energy – and that tightening told Cooper that his father had felt it too.

  “Oh, my. Such power.” Grandma Olga’s hand was on Cooper’s left forearm. Another confirmation.

  “Shit, man. That can’t possibly be just another guy!” Feather, who had taken part on C
ooper’s left, tensed against him.

  No, this wasn’t just another guy. This wasn’t Jared at all.

  “It’s not.” Cooper tried in vain to swallow as his throat got dry with fear. “It’s that thing that chased me off the ice. That... that water.” He paused, silent for a while as impressions flooded his mind.

  Ash in the dark, icy lake water, all naked and floating few feet under the surface with his black hair undulating around his head like a cloud.

  Greg, in a similar state, right next to him.

  “They’re in some kind of a trance,” Cooper whispered. “And they don’t even know it.”

  A sentient presence pushed its way up his arm and into his being, old and cold and curious. His father gasped, then said something in a language Cooper didn’t understand. Feather next to him slackened as though he fell asleep, and grandma Olga just whispered in her lightly accented voice, “Hold steady, boys. Just hold steady.”

  For a reason not quite known to him, Cooper thought of Jared just then. He had thought of all the times when he wasn’t allowed to participate in the clan’s meditations and exercises because his family had believed he had no talent whatsoever, and his cousin had been the only one who came to keep him company.

  Jared couldn’t do anything the other kids did. He couldn’t find water flow make it flow, or start a fire by looking at a candle. The gestures he had been taught produced no wind whatsoever, and he had only thought that he could occasionally see something.

  Something like a point of light where there was supposed to be none, or a halo, or a color nobody else could confirm.

  Jared’s unique talent of seeing the patterns of power was hard to describe and difficult to quantify. The currently living generations had had no language for it back then, and their link to the past had been fractured by immigration and wars. Traditions had been lost, knowledge forgotten.

  [: Just so, :] the voice in his head agreed. [: and now my water-child who loves you wants you to be able to talk to your cousin again. :]

  The brooding silence that followed had Cooper on edge, and so did the awareness that this entity – whatever his father had called it – had Ash it his grasp.

  Cooper would do anything if he would only get Ash back.

  [: Would you, now? :] the voice said. [: Interesting. :]

  “Anything that wouldn’t hurt another person unless they richly deserved it,” Cooper whispered. Then he backtracked. “Oh hell. Never mind! I’d kill for him if I had to.”

  [: Killing is easy, little stone-child. I shall return your lover to you unharmed, but you need to offer a sacrifice of your very own. :]

  “Name it.” Cooper’s resolve was that of a rising mountain range, tall and deep and rich with elemental forces he had only yet begun to understand.

  [: Face your darkest fear. Come to me as he did. :]

  “I cannot swim,” Cooper whispered as he felt his father withdraw his energy support. Grandma Olga let go of him. Just like back in college, when he had been forced to deal with the sudden manifestation of his powers, he was on his own.

  [: Break the ice by the shore where the water is shallow, stone-child. I don’t want you to ruin my ice where my children swim and fish. But you have to come to me of your own free will, and alone. :]

  “I will. Right now, in fact.” No moment would be wasted. He’d even bring the sword, since that connected them now.

  [: No sword. Just you, and your courage. :]

  CHAPTER 8

  JARED

  “I think your tree will bloom again,” Jared whispered to Ameru-san.

  “This is most unusual,” she said back, her voice equally hushed. “I’ve never seen anyone come here who had not been a Wielder, and died while owning the blade.” She mused for a second. “My husband’s here somewhere, and obviously, so am I.”

  Jared kept watching the two fish and the two men on their backs. They stayed their distance, watchful and curiously still. Something seemed wrong with them. Something was going on beyond his ken, and he wished he could penetrate the shimmering force-field with is Sight and read their power signatures.

  Except, for the first time in his life – including this part of his existence – he couldn’t.

  “Something’s shielding them,” he said under his breath so only Ameru-san could hear. “I can’t read their power signatures at all.”

  “Can you read mine?” she asked. “I still don’t know what you mean by that.”

  “Sure,” he said, and turned his attention to her. Her wrinkled face spoke of years in the sun and her cropped gray hair was a trademark that seemed familiar, as though he’d seen her before. Not alive, but in a paper. In a magazine, perhaps. “Were you famous once?”

  “Yes,” she said without hesitation. “I don’t remember much. Memory fades after you’re here for too long, but I remember some things. But first, tell me what you see.” She spoke with authority, reminding him of his grandmother. Olga Sorensen, his grandmother, who had the gift of Foresight, would’ve approved of Ameru-san.

  Jared was relieved he could still remember his grandma. This woman was much like her, except...

  He narrowed his eyes, then closed them and took a deep breath. Tuning out the intruder and the other artifacts of the sword’s spirit world, he reached out blind and set his hand on her own.

  And then he saw her, and gasped.

  “Tell me,” she commanded.

  “You can control time. Just a little bit, a few second’s worth. So you’ll know what happens next. You’d make a great car driver.”

  She laughed, and he opened his eyes to see her eyes shining with memories. “Yes, yes I can. I always knew when to pull up the rudder or lower the flaps, or...” A thoughtful expression consumed her. “Or when an updraft would lift my plane a bit higher. It had always felt as though I somehow knew it would come, and corrected for it at just the right moment.

  “What year was it?”

  She shrugged. “It was all very modern, I insisted on wearing trousers, and aviation was the wave of the future. Even president Hoover invited me to shake his hand. And much later, Eleanor wrote in one of her letters that she had always known I was right about the increasing need for radio communications between air and ground control.” She gasped, then gave Jared a stunned look. “I could fly. I could fly! I had been to many places, but mostly I remember the sound of air whooshing by, and the engine noise. And the clouds – they were always so beautiful.”

  “You look familiar, like I’d seen your picture before,” Jared said.

  “Probably the papers,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, as though appearing in the papers was nothing special. “But look over there. My memories are coming back a bit, and the fish is coming closer!”

  If her memories had faded but were coming back, Jared had hope again. He examined the two men who were riding the fish in mid-air, and realized he should’ve recognized both of them.

  The old guy was Uncle Greg. The one from Canada, the one who had taught him about spirits when he’d been a boy. And wasn’t it just the existence of the supernatural that had caused one of his and Cooper’s rare argument? Cooper had been all against it, all hard science and hard proof. And no wonder, after his terrible experience when his powers had come in, and he had not known what they were.

  He shuddered.

  No wonder Cooper wouldn’t believe in anything he could not see, or prove. And he had apologized to Jared for dismissing his ways so casually, and all was good between them.

  And then the node had happened, and here he was, stuck in a spirit world that hadn’t surprised him at all, even though he knew Cooper would’ve called it “another dimension,” or somesuch.

  The fish looked at him.

  He looked back. The glassy eyes produced nothing like the blank, emotionless gaze of the kind of a fish he had caught and eaten. They looked almost human in his regard of him.

  He bowed from where he was seated. Just then, the memory of the other man came back
to him.

  He was Ash, a water-walker. Cooper’s lover.

  [: I will see what I can do, although you are not of water, and therefore not within my expertise, :] the fish said to Jared. [: And don’t call me a fish. My name is Bob. :]

  “Why are you bowing to that fish?” Ameru-san asked.

  “Because it’s a local god, and my people are in his power,” Jared said in an awed hush.

  “I didn’t see that coming,” Ameru-san said. “And here I thought I’d have predicted it.”

  [: That’s because I stand outside of Time, Amelia Earhard, :] Bob said.

  Judging from the gasp next to him, they had both heard him now, and Jared now knew where he had seen Ameru-san’s newspaper pictures.

  In history textbooks, that’s where.

  Except now he had bigger things to worry about. Now Cooper and Ash had caught the eye of a deity, and that could be both very good – or very bad.

  ASH AND COOPER

  They all heard what the lake spirit had said. Grandma Olga nodded to him in encouragement. “I feel your power grow within you. Ground and center like you were taught, and you’ll do well.”

  “I’ll sink like a rock whether I ground and center or not,” Cooper said in a tight voice, not bothering to cover up his nervous quaver. “And not going isn’t an option.”