“Shoes,” Ash said with a sharp nod. He had learned to respect Cooper’s hunches.
“And everything else,” Cooper said. “I’d say hot chocolate, if we had it.”
“When it’s all over, I’ll make you some,” Ash promised. “For now, let’s bundle up.”
And bundle up they did, wearing the layers that came to locals naturally and which Cooper had to explain to him at first. Then, with knit hats on and hoods over the hats, they stood next to the nest they had made on the floor, socks and snow boots on, uncaring for the lush carpets and furs.
“Showtime?” Cooper asked.
“Let’s do it.”
Cooper bent and picked up his sword. They stood side by side, both holding it, and as one they focused their power through the blade and toward the strong, bubble-like sphere that shimmered around them. Cooper led on, this being his blade now, and Ash followed in the process of shooting a gentle stream of power out of the sword, and connecting that stream with the power residing within the sphere.
The connection broke the air with an audible zap.
[: And now we suck it back, :] Cooper sent his way, and Ash immediately discerned his intent. Now they’d return the power back to the blade. Their ace in the hole, their spare battery.
The shimmer of the sphere thinned, colors whirling in dizzying rainbow patterns, until it snapped, and retracted into the circular circumference described by their gher.
Ash almost flinched at the onslaught of feelings and the tidal wave of energy that battered at his personal defenses. He had expected it, and braced his stance. The primal, visceral frequency of the energy held an intoxicating note, and the drumbeat which now reverberated from the lodge a lot louder than before was now echoed by the deep pounding of his heart.
Is this what it felt like? The urge to toss all caution to the wind and strip and lay down? The desire to climb Cooper like a tree? To kiss him, to rub against him? “Fuck,” he said.
“That about sums it up,” Cooper said in a clipped voice. A quiver betrayed him – he felt it too. Of course he had.
“We don’t have to,” Ash said.
“We won’t. It’s imperative that we retain control.” As soon as Cooper said it, a gust of wind ripped the canvas off the wooden, spoke-wheel structure of their roof.
Freezing air whooshed in.
The fire in the brazier flickered, then died a sudden death which Ash knew was not natural.
Despite the gale of the lake’s ice-cold wind, the five candles burned along the still-standing gher walls, lighting the surreal scene with nary a flicker.
HE HAD KNOWN it would happen a split-second before it had, and by the time their fire was out, Cooper stood with his feet spread wide, grounded and centered and with the sword in his hands. He felt Ash lean into him, and he felt his touch on the blade’s grip as well.
If they were to fight as one, they had to be one.
Cooper opened his mind and spirit to Ash. Now he could feel his lover’s whirling orb of water and air next to him, his power checked and restrained, waiting.
His thoughts were unveiled, too, and as he sensed Ash and read all his feelings and concerns, a warm wave of caring washed over him.
Yes, he got it.
No, he wasn’t hurt by it, not anymore.
Yes, they were as one.
And now Cooper read Ash’s love, and his strength, and his fear. A bubble of laugher escaped Cooper, and was mirrored almost immediately by a giggle Ash let out. No, Cooper wasn’t the only one to be scared. Yes, only an idiot would walk into this and not realize his or her own mortality. And no, they weren’t alone.
Cooper reached deep into the Earth, looking to feel that source of heat once again. The one that had helped him ground and center before, the one that was a sublime combination of Earth and Fire.
[: And water, and air, :] She added, whispering in a soft, ageless voice so unlike the one of the scolding crone he had heard before. [: You will realize soon that both of you belong to every element. You are everything. That water had come out of my interior a long time ago. That air and wind is a product of my rotation - not just of the Sun. :]
Cooper’s head spun. Of course, that was in line with all the textbooks and science articles, but... but why was he afraid of water, and why couldn’t Ash read what was underground the way he could?
[: When you are ready, you’ll be able to do everything, :] he heard Her say as he leaned back into Ash so hard, it was as though he was trying to merge their bodies as well as their minds and spirits. [: But now, let’s tend to my errant lake-child. :]
Obedient, Cooper turned his eyes toward the lodge. He called on Jared to loan them his sight – and when he heard Ash gasp, he knew that they both saw the destruction the Spirit of Lake Superior was poised to wreak.
CHAPTER 16
JARED
They all sat jammed into the Great Hall. Jared seldom spent time in the space that always made him feel somewhat insignificant. There was no mistaking the ancient woodwork of hidden compartments and the lovely silk panels that served as an opulent back-drop to where Ojii-san and Ameru-san sat like King and Queen, facing the rest of them. Rice paper oil lanterns glowed in the corners, echoing the unnatural darkness outside. The figure of a Samurai beheading a simple man with a wicked fishing spear in his hand grew like an ominous shade on the painting, and the gilded accents on his armor only made him seem real somehow, threatening, as though he moved to the beat of the drums that still drifted in from the world of the living.
He’d vanquish all who didn’t belong – and Jared was certainly an outsider.
He flicked his eyes to the side, hoping to rest his mind on the painting of cranes courting in the snow. Wide, graceful arcs of wings, feathers outstretched – yet the cranes now appeared as though fighting, their feathers now forming wicked-sharp blades.
Jared’s gaze locked with Shika’s. “Is this room alive?” he whispered as quietly as humanly possible.
Shika nodded, then shook his head to hush him.
Ojii-san spoke. “A threat looms in the outside world, and we may meet the new wielder before the night is over.”
Arashi cleared his throat. “Do we interfere?”
Their Japanese was curt and informal. They must’ve been good friends.
As soon as he thought that, Arashi turned his head and stared at Jared. “We are. Now shut up.”
“And somebody will need to teach our non-Wielder how not to shout his thoughts or else he will drive us all mad,” Ojii-san grumbled. Then he nodded to Shika. “You. Teach him manners befit an Okinawan farmer!” The threat in Ojii-san’s voice was unmistakable, and as his white, moon-like eyes stared at Jared without any focus at all, he realized that the old man could perceive everything.
Shika straightened next to him. “I shall teach him the manners befit a brother,” he said. “And he shall help me understand the threat we face on the other side.”
As soon as Jared gave a grateful nod of agreement, a forceful gale howled across the room. The wind flung in sand and snow through open shoji screens in a shower of hot and cold.
Jared ignored the sensations. He was in his spirit form. Not much could hurt him now.
Then he realized that the elders had not decided whether or not to interfere, and something inside him quavered. As much as he loved Cooper, and missed him, he didn’t want to see him just yet. No, he wanted Cooper to live, and be happy with Ash, and help protect their family and their clan from whatever threat they had managed to summon by accident.
For this had to have been an accident.
Jared had never heard of such happenings before, not even in the teaching legends.
Shika grabbed his hand, and squeezed. [: Ground and center. You know how. :]
Jared did, and as soon as he managed to gain a semblance of internal equilibrium, power streams of swirling colors painted the sky like northern lights, bringing air that was fresh with ozone and frost. With another gust of wind, the flowering meadow
s and copses of trees, summoned by Cooper’s ally less than a day ago, were replaced by a frozen plain of ice and snow.
ASH AND COOPER
The darkness of the night was lit only by the five candles that burned steadily within the confines of their gher. Since the wind failed to blow them out, Cooper judged that the elements were still with them. He only hoped that the “powers that be” would see it fit to protect the people still generating power to the sound of drumbeat in the lodge.
He expected the wind to rip the canvas off the structure of the lodge, but to his surprise, the spirit of Lake Superior remained poised over its roof, waiting.
As though it answered Cooper’s unspoken query, a gravelly reply resounded in his mind. [: I came to claim my restitution. You deprived me of your sacrifice, but you shall not deprive me of what tradition dictates is my due! :]
Cooper’s psychic ear trembled as though the shout deafened it. He flicked his eyes at Ash. “Did you hear that?” His voice was a hoarse whisper.
“Yes. Hard not to.” Ash inhaled, then closed his eyes as though he was inwardly focused, and Cooper only surmised that he was communicating with his river spirit ally.
“Forgive me, for I am new to these things,” Cooper called out over the sound of the roaring gale. “What is your traditional due?”
The presence which hung over the lodge turned his attention upon him, and at that moment, Cooper was rooted to the ground. Frozen. Unable to move.
The scrutiny terrified him, yet he needed to know. Allegheny was a mellow fellow. Porter Creek, which they had helped some time ago, had been old and tired, yet happy to receive their assistance. Surely spirits didn’t just go rogue on a regular basis. This particular one had displayed a sense of humor before, and wanted to be called Bob.
Humor indicated intelligence.
Intelligence spoke of reasons, rationales, strategies.
If the spirit was angry, there must’ve been a reason for it, a reason for Ash having been captured in the freezing water, a reason why Cooper had died and had been brought back to life. And there better be a very good reason why it loomed like a mortal threat over his whole family.
[: Good, good, :] the old woman crooned in his mind. [: Keep him talking. We might save him yet. :]
Save him, not save them.
Cold fear threatened to rear its ugly head within Cooper’s consciousness. The Earth was not pleased with her lake-child, and if she could wipe him out like so much spoiled brat spawn, She could do the same to all of them.
But of course She could – and as She meted out her punishment against a rogue spirit, She wouldn’t count the human cost which would follow if the largest of the Great Lakes died.
He shouted his thought to Ash, knowing well that She, as well as any other listeners able to hear them, would clearly know his mind. From the expectant silence that followed, he realized that they had been skimming his thoughts already. He had been evaluated, measured against an unknown standard, and, well. He was still alive, so that was that.
Cooper nudged Ash, whose hands still clutched his own on the sword hilt.
“Yeah. I agree. Although Allegheny says Lake Superior is young. He had gained his consciousness only at the end of the last Ice Age, which was about ten thousand years ago.”
“Practically yesterday,” Cooper said. The conversation had taken his focus off the swirling energies that had been building around the lodge, but now that he pushed his awareness of spirits and threats and all other things he could not control to the edges of his mind, he saw it again.
The people within had built up a huge, incredibly powerful charge of life force which, instead of swirling around like a stream, now formed a cone into the sky.
Into the opening in the dark cloud that, with a bit of imagination, looked like a hungry fish.
As the tendrils of energy were sucked up high, the fish grew and grew.
“Jared!” Cooper shouted. “I need to see more!”
Ash fed him extra power – water, warm and soothing, like the Allegheny River at midsummer – and fueled with this injection, Cooper could aim the sword at the lodge and zoom in. He needed to see. He needed to know whether what the lake spirit was taking was freely given.
“You see what I see?” Ash shouted over the wind.
“I don’t know!” Cooper had no idea what Ash’s perception might be. He had other skills, other allies. He was more experienced, and –
“He’s draining them!” Ash yelled, his voice now all alarm, giving no quarter. “He’s gonna suck them dead!”
Time slowed down to a crawl, hobbling the wind and rendering its sound deep and languorous. Snow, still suspended in the air, spun in lazy pools, as though it was dust in water. And, with slow deliberation, Cooper drew on the strength that welled up from the Earth below him, gathered it, and channeled it through the blade in his hands.
A scream of pain rent the air around them.
He and Ash stood still, motionless, frozen. Mere channels for powers greater than anything they had ever experienced, they were now merged into one. They were forged by the heat of the Earth into a single blade, their minds seeing the same things, their bodies feeling each other’s pain, their souls aware of their mutual devotion.
They were a weapon wielded by a careless hand of hard rock and hot magma, and as they shot out the searing beam of elemental power, the fish in the sky recoiled.
A howl of outrage and pain followed.
The next strike would be death – but only because She didn’t tolerate disobedience. Foolishness – yes. That was a necessary human evil. Lack of foresight? Lack of reason? It irked her, but her human daughters and sons wouldn’t live long in the great scheme of things. They would run their course like other species had run theirs, and her surface and ecosystems would recover.
Except she had made a critical error, one which Cooper became aware of through their connection.
He amused her.
Other elementalists amused her, too.
The unusual mutation which allowed them to use their gifts had, for the first time in eons, given her someone to talk to. Someone with free will. Someone who wasn’t a subservient part of her and whose reactions she could easily predict.
And, for the first time in thousands of years, they weren’t afraid to do so.
[: He’s a young punk, Mother. Give him a chance to learn, :] Old Man Allegheny said, broadcasting his thoughts. [: I’ll take care of your pet, the one who is attached to the Healer of Rivers. :]
Cooper’s disposition brightened. If She could be persuaded not to kill the lake spirit, the lake might still thrive. The fish wouldn’t all die, the people on its shores could still depend on its fresh water.
[: I know I’m out of line speaking here, but didn’t we have the same issue with Nile? Nile had gotten so angry over the years. High population density tends to do that. :] A younger woman’s voice, rich and melodic, resonated through Cooper’s being and he wondered who that was. A river, he thought – but which one?
“Zambezi,” Ash whispered into the sudden silence next to him. “I got to meet her a few years ago. There had been some fuel spills, and fish got killed.”
[: And you fixed it, Healer of Rivers, :] she said with obvious fondness. [: You should visit me again. :]
Cooper perceived regret over limited travel funds from Ash, and a deeply held desire to water-walk the swift and wild current of the Zambezi river again, to swim through its rocky gorges and float down the rapids and waterfalls that would kill an ordinary person.
Deep in his mind, secretly, he promised himself to start setting money aside. He’d make it possible for Ash to go.
Laughter of fresh-water rapids resounded in his mind, and next to him, Ash turned toward him and said, “Really?”
“I have no secrets. Yes, really.”
“I’ll hold you to it,” Ash said with a hopeful smile.
[: You will not, for I cannot allow you to remember any of this, :] She said in a decisive vo
ice. [: They can’t keep a secret. They’re only human, and nobody needs to know our true nature. :]
“Please don’t!” Cooper shouted. “I want to remember you. And Allegheny, and Superior. Even though with a name like that, he seems to have a bit of an inferiority complex.”
The lake sulked in the darkness, quiet and restrained.
[: You shall not completely forget us. You gave us our names, :] She said.
HE WAS AWARE of the cold that creeped under his quilted parka and through the layers of everything he wore. “Hey, Cooper,” Ash said. “Our candles are out and, shit. The roof is blown off!”
Thick layers of fine snow covered everything within their gher. They stood in it buried to well above their knees. Their bed, the fire brazier, the carpets and furs – all that was now buried under the snow.
“And they stopped drumming in the lodge,” Cooper said into the dark. The moon was but a thin sliver, so thin its haze of rainbow barely showed. As he looked up, he noticed the starry sky for the first time. “Ooh. Look up, Ash!”
“Wow.” Ash’s voice was as amazed as his own. “And look, Orion!”
Orion the Hunter strode across the dark expanse of heavens in all his glory. They named other constellations until Cooper decided it was time to sheathe his blade and go down to the lodge, where they could warm up.
“So did we solve the problem?” Ash asked. “I don’t really remember. Sometimes that happens, you know. It’s supposed to be an after-effect of doing a big working like this one.”
“Well, what I know is that the spirit of Lake Superior really hates the algae bloom that kills the fish,” Cooper said in a conversational voice. “Do you think he got enough energy to fix that particular problem?”
“Don’t know. The warm water isn’t helping any. And it will get worse and worse as the global temperature increases.” Ash stomped in place, then headed out the door that someone had left open by accident before this all started. “I feel like I’m missing something,” he confessed. “I feel like stuff went down and we should remember what happened, but it got weirdly jumbled.”
Like a Freeze Page 13