by Debra Kristi
Both stop and peer over my shoulder at the unusually large black stone.
It’s Ry who responds. “Looks like an old Toranik, a marker for the Toran. It’s a sign we’re on the right track.”
I rub my hand across the top of the stone. It’s rough, and little pieces have fallen away. “Are they like bread crumbs? Will we see more as we continue?”
“I’d imagine so.” Ry turns away. “Depending on their condition and the surrounding flora.”
I step away from the decaying rock to again follow Ry and Jaden along the path, slapping at an itch on my hand. It’s immediately followed by more itching and a sharp prick. Suddenly my wrist is on fire. I rubhard to satisfy the irritation. My entire body is crawling. Stopping in my tracks, I begin to scratch. Scratch everywhere.
I look down. My heart flips, my chest tightens, and my emotions are a whirlwind of chaos. My legs are a solid mass of motion. The ground moves, my boots move, and my cargo pants are swarming with ants.
Jaden turns to me, his brow wrinkled, a frown on his face. Maybe he senses my feelings. I want to scratch my skin off. The desire is uncontrollable, and my wrist is scorching. Shadows shift and bounce, trickling along the outskirts of one larger mass. Not fluid, but blotchy, bubbly. And not black. Tons of big, ugly, red fire ants.
Screaming, I leap and smash as many ants as I can with each fall of my foot. They cling effortlessly. I want to whack them away, only I’m afraid to touch them with my bare hands. The ground beneath me shakes. Dirt, stones, and pebbles vibrate. I jump, smashing more tiny vermin, wincing at the stabbing pain pushing through my skull. Stones begin to levitate along the path. My shoulders tense.
Jaden’s smooth voice cuts through my hysterics. “Calm yourself. Take my hand, find your center.”
He makes his way through the swarm. Ry stands at the edge of the ants, watching. Jaden’s palm rubs softly along the back of my hand, his fingers twining with mine, pulling my palm to his. We’re standing in a base of fiery red insects, but Jaden has pulled my attention from the ants to him.
“You can do this.”
I clench my fingers, tightening our grasp. “Do what?”
“This is the first defense. You can get us past this. But you must calm down.” He motions to the levitating rocks.
I stare at him and swallow.
“You honestly don’t know you are doing that, do you?” he asks.
“What?” I follow his gaze to the levitating rocks. “That?”
A smile widens across his face.
My mouth drops open. I want to believe, except how can I possibly lift rocks with my mind? “What do I do?”
“Start by calming yourself. Find your center, and the rest will come naturally.”
He pulls our linked hands closer and gently kisses the top of mine, causing my heart to race.
The blast is deafening. It cracks the silent night like a firestorm of lightning. Earth and pulverized rock shower down upon us. All the floating stones have exploded, and the levitating obstacles are now gone.
Flinching backward, Jaden relaxes and starts to laugh. “I had no idea.” A devilish look twinkles in his eye. “You think you might be able to take care of some little ants after destroying rocks with the power of your mind?”
“How? There are far too many to stomp them all.”
“Stomp them? Oh, heavens no.” He chuckles. “Remember how you talked to Caesar? This is similar. Clear your mind, concentrate, and ask them to leave.”
“How do you know these things?”
“Calm, Ana. I can feel the chaos building again.”
Taking a deep breath, I close my eyes. “I can do this.”
Ry clears his throat. “You might want to hurry it up.”
My eyes pop open. “Why?”
“Because of that.”
Ry points to the path behind us, and we all look. Moving through the brush, heading directly for us, is a thick cloud of inky black slither. Dark echoes. Shadows. Panic rushes through me like wildfire, and I take a step to flee through the ants.
“Calm, Ana,” Jaden says. “Start believing in yourself.”
My gaze meets his, and I find overwhelming confidence. He tightens our hand lock, and ribbons of heat and electricity weave through me from our connection, traveling up my arm and into the rest of my body. I close my eyes and envision green and lavender threads working in me. He’s lent me his strength. I can feel him in the extension running through me.
“Focus, Ana.”
He startles me. I’m yanked forward, and my eyes flutter open to see his face right in front of mine. He presses his hand against the side of my face. I’m sucked from my thoughts, thrown into a state of full awareness and complete focus. I now know what I must do.
I stand in the same place, in the dry riverbed, amongst a swarm of fire ants. This time my perception is different. The color is off, odd and unreal. Ry and Jaden—everything, actually—seem frozen, unmoving. I am the only thing changing. Clearing my mind, I concentrate on the ants first. Think like an ant, talk like an ant, listen like an ant.
All of my senses activate as I listen to the night. A steady drumbeat marks my heart. I think I can even hear Jaden’s heart if I listen close enough. Wait! There’s another sound, and it has its own unique rhythm.
“Our land. You must leave. Our land. You must leave.”
That’s it! I made the connection. I hear the ants.
Centering my body and mind, I decide to keep my message simple. “Your land. You go. We go. You go now.”
“Our land. You go!”
“Yes. You go, so we may go. Understand?”
The blotchy red begins to retreat, and the slippery ebony at our backs moves silently forward. I slip beside Ry and slide one of the wands from his belt. It’s easy to extract in this slowed state. The guys’ motions are hardly noticeable. After whipping the wand as I saw Ry do, nothing happens. I try again. Nothing. The shadows are advancing, and I need to fight.
The colors of the night slowly return to normal, and the light in Jaden’s eyes sparks with life. I’ve left the odd time warp. Jaden’s hand falls from where my face was.
“Look out!” he yells.
The black snaps at my foot, knocking me to the ground.
I scream. “Shit! You forgot to mention how much the shadows sting.”
Both guys are at my side in a flash, Ry with his remaining wand active. Jaden lifts me from behind.
Ry takes the wand from my grasp. “What the hell were you trying to do?”
“I was only trying to help, but I couldn’t get the damn thing to turn on.”
In one snap, he has the wand glowing and the black shadows receding.
“Get her out of here, Jaden. I’ll take care of this,” Ry calls over his shoulder as he shoves the shadows farther away. “I’ll catch up. Don’t worry.”
He pushes away from us, and Jaden yanks me in the other direction. I’m afraid of never seeing Ry again. Afraid of losing more family.
Jaden and I run and stumble through the brush of the canyon until we’re sure it’s safe, or at least until I decide to stop. There’s been no sound of anyone or anything following us, and my thoughts wander to Ry. The morning light spills over the mountain ridge, painting our surroundings in a new and vivid array of colors, and I have to believe they will push the shadows away and bring Ry back to us soon.
“Good job back there,” Jaden says smugly. “Didn’t I tell you?”
I smile. “Yes, you did. And I believed you.” I look around at where we’ve stopped.
Up ahead is another Toranik, sitting at the edge of our path. It’s crumbling like the other one was, just not as severely. I want to touch this one too. When I stoop, Jaden bumps directly into me. The air around us fills with buzzing. The sound increases, and I crank my head, trying to see Jaden, thinking he’s the source. He smiles and backs up, giving me space.
Small leaves drift down from above. One flutters into my hair. Plucking it free, I open my palm to se
e a small, fuzzy, yellow oval of a thing. I jump back into Jaden again, and he catches me and my outstretched hand. He holds my hand open, steady and still despite my desire to shake and run away. The yellow jacket hasn’t flown away, but has simply flopped around in my hand. It now sits perfectly still. Scared as I am of being stung, I’m in awe.
Pressing close to me, his lips at my ear, Jaden whispers, “You see? Let yourself feel it as he does. You’re connected.”
Goosebumps explode all over my skin, and I fight the desire to close my eyes and lean into Jaden. Then magic happens. I see all the falling leaves for what they really are—buzzing yellow jackets. From where, though? I narrow in on a rusted-out pipe along the riverbed and a large crack in its side. From there, a cluster of yellow jackets is swarming.
A purr, a hum, suddenly vibrates at our feet, and I look down. Specks on the ground remind me of the holes on a flute, and a dark, dimpled ground spreads out beyond. Bees hover at our ankles. Never have I seen bees that live in the ground. Buzzing strums from our other side, and we turn to see another hive at the other end of the path. They’re set up to ambush.
“This is the next defense. You can handle this one just like the last. Like this little guy in your hand.” Jaden tightens his hand on mine slightly.
“But there are so many. Bees and yellow jackets everywhere!”
“You can’t think of it that way. It’s only another challenge to be met.”
The morning sky darkens, and I look up expecting a storm cloud, maybe even a cloud of bees. What I see is a swarm of black, inky shadows swimming through the sky, directly for me.
I point. “They can do that?”
Coming out of nowhere, Ry throws me to the ground. “Watch out!”
We hit the harsh dirt with a heavy thud, into a mass of agitated, buzzing bees. I push him away to see the shadows skim over the top of us, blocking out the sun. Rubbing the back of my head, I feel the prickly stings all over my body and hold back the desire to yell. Yellow chaos flies all around us, a pandemonium of yellow jackets and bees.
Jaden’s suddenly at my side, talking over the top of me to Ry. “Doesn’t look like you had much success getting them to recede.”
“I doubt you could have done any better with your soft hands.” Ry’s gaze falls on me. “They smell her now, and they’re relentless.” Ry swats at a bee, then hands Jaden the flashlight.
“What am I to do with this?”
“I added some kick to it. Use it against that.” Ry points to the shadow swirling around us.
The shadows aggressively lash at me like a long reptilian tongue. Jaden shines the flashlight on the shape, and it instantly pulls away. Ry swings the wands, but there’s too many. We’re shrouded in a dome of darkness.
“I’ll have you know,” Jaden yells to Ry as he swings the flashlight in a wide arch around us, “just because I’m not of the Usoda warrior clan doesn’t mean I have soft hands. I’ve been preparing my whole life to fight beside her.”
“Yeah? Well, you’re getting thrown into the fire pretty quickly, Tracer.”
Another yellow jacket stings me, and I’ve had enough. Enough of the stinging. Enough of the guys acting like pinheads.
My body goes rigid, and I close my eyes, my hands balled into fists. And I scream. “Enough!”
Colors flash before my inner eyelids, and I wish all the irritating bugs back to their homes.
The guys are laughing, and I don’t understand why. I open my eyes, and all the bugs are gone, but we’re still huddled on the ground, surrounded by shadows. I fail to see the humor in the situation.
“Remind me not to upset you too often,” Ry says.
“Why?” My brow wrinkles.
“Tell me you weren’t responsible for the convenient disappearance of the bees and yellow jackets.” He laughs. “I wouldn’t want the almighty Balance Bringer to wish me away to my hole.”
“Very funny.”
Jaden winks at me, then addresses Ry. “Wouldn’t you say it’s time for the aubadetruss?”
Ry glances down at his wrists with uncertainty. “I suppose you’re right. Extreme times and all that.” He looks to me. “Ana, do me a favor. Place your hand right here.” He guides my hand to a spot on his arm just below the elbow. “Now say these words: Lles dei luz.”
I stare at him. “What’s going to happen? What do they mean?”
He grins a crooked smile. “Do this for me, and you’ll know soon enough.”
I slide the wand back to him and say the words. The bands on his wrists explode in brilliant, pure light. I shield my eyes, protecting myself from its intensity. Screams of pain, like those of tortured animals, screech from above, and something wet drops on my cheek. A warm, tingly sensation burns through me, and an arm pulls me into an embrace, holding my head to his chest.
Shrieks and howls pierce our obsidian dome, and cracks form in the solid dark above, sunlight breaking through. More splatters fall as the enemy takes on damage, and the shadows pull away, crushed and torn.
I jump up, quick to shake the black slime off, and the shadows dash back like a hungry python ready to take a bite. Ry slashes with the blue glow of the lightning wands, aided by the brilliant light of his crisscrossed wristbands. The shadows vanish into the day.
Ry grabs me by the arm. “Are you all right?”
I shift my weight, rub my forehead, and wince. “Yeah. I could use an aspirin, though, and I really wish this was over. Can we just get there already?”
He checks every little shadow as we move. “Sounds good to me.”
“Goddammit, Ry!” I shove him in the side with both hands. “If you had that weapon the whole time, why didn’t you use it back in the mineshafts?” I rub at the discomfort from the yellow jacket stings.
“Easy there, killer,” Ry says. “The aubadetruss must be used sparingly. We didn’t need it then.”
Jaden places his palm at the small of my back, his warmth bringing mild relief to my discomfort. I’ve still had enough of this. I’m ready for the door to present itself. Our hike is taking us deep into the hills, and every muscle and bone screams for me to stop. Blotting my face, combing my fingers through my hair, and blinking often, all keep me alert and awake. I almost get tangled in the dense flora when I travel too far ahead. Then I realize it’s a spider web—a solid wall of never-ending spider webs.
Ry tears the webs to shreds with a broken branch. That won’t handle all the big, black, dangling arthropods, though. I itch. Desire burns deep down in my belly, running hot through my core. I wish them gone, and for the trees to part. Little black bulbs scurry in every direction, away from us. The trees bend and twist, arcing away and clearing a path.
I can’t believe it. Apparently no one else can either, because the guys stare at me. Surveying the destruction I’ve done, I spin in a circle and spot the Toranik in a mess of web-coated trees off to the side. I spin away, so anxious to find the door and get away from the possibility of another shadow attack, I practically run through the pass. Both Ry and Jaden call after me to slow down.
I break through the tree line, lean on my knees, and sigh.
“Are you ready?” Dohlan whispers at my ear. His intoxicating spices encircle me. “She comes for you.” He slips away and disappears.
“Wait! What should I do?” I step forward.
Jaden grabs me around the middle and yanks me back.
I clutch his arms. All I see are the dark shadows cast by the trees lining our path. I don’t understand the reason for Jaden’s quick action. Unless…Did he sense Dohlan too? “What wrong?” I ask, holding on to him tight and looking to the gloom.
A Toranik on each side of the path is visible. Two Toraniks! Between the stones, what I took for shadows, is actually a thick, dark, tarry substance. It bubbles at the edges of each stone.
“What is that? I can’t believe I almost walked into it.”
Stooping down, Ry pokes a stick into the stuff, sinking it deep. When he pulls back, he smells and studies the sub
stance. “I believe this is a byproduct of the passage we seek.”
“A byproduct? You mean waste? Ick! Is it deep?”
Jaden pulls me behind him. “Ryland, get ready!”
Dreya’s deliciously wicked laughter rises up from all around us like a vaporous gas, and the thick, tarry substance begins to bubble.
“How can she be here?” I search for Dreya, Dohlan’s words fresh in my mind. She will try to stop you. My heart pounds.
“It’s exactly as I feared.” Ry pulls his blades, preparing to fight. “She must have used that incubus scum to cross over.”
Dreya’s voice flashes, and the tree leaves stir. “Destroy them!”
From the depths of the dark, blistering slime climb five enormous figures, unrecognizable for the sludge clinging to their forms. They’re geared for battle, with weapons suitable for Native American warriors. Shields at the front, they brandish tomahawks, clubs, and long, razor-sharp spears.
Jaden’s hand is at my hip, and he nudges me farther back. Ry tosses him a blade.
“We need more weapons.” Ry studies the warriors coming at us and takes off running at them.
Before the tar-covered warrior can see what hit him, Ry bounds off the Toranik at one side of the tarry mess and onto the thing’s shoulders, sinking his blade deep into the back of its neck. As it swings wildly at Ry, he wrestles the tomahawk free and tosses it to us before he and his conquest fall to the surface of the sludge. Using the fallen foe as a springboard, Ry leaps back across the black, boiling substance to safe ground at the side, then runs around the edge to take up the defense beside us. The four remaining warriors come at a run. Ry engages the closest two.
Jaden hands me the sword, taking the dark, mud-drenched tomahawks for himself, just as a spear flies directly at us. We push apart, letting the spear pass between us, its harpoon claw cutting into the landscape behind us. Tightening his grip on the tomahawk, Jaden steps forward and swings at the first aggressor.
Running around Jaden, I swing at my black-covered warrior. He deflects my blade with an upward push of his shield. I’m thrown off-balance, stumble, and get clubbed in the backside. I swing around, catching him in the side. He twists quickly and comes down with his tomahawk in the other hand, catching my sword in the crook of his weapon. He uses the leverage to yank the sword from my grasp. It flies in Jaden’s direction, falling near his feet. Without hesitation in his own fight, Jaden throws me his weapon and delivers a kick to his opponent.