Lone Star Magic

by Karen Whiddon

  “I’m not leaving.”

  “You’re not going inside your house. You have no barn. Where do you plan to stay?”

  Lifting her chin, she looked at him, her expression stubborn. “How did he know about my allergy to insect bites?”

  “To him your life is history. Perhaps many things are known about you in the far future. This would be a simple spell, to command the ants. He must have believed you to be inside, asleep.”

  She shuddered. “That would have been a slow, painful death.”

  “The Warlord doesn’t care. Dead is dead, to him.” Alrick decided to press his advantage. “Now are you ready to leave?”

  “Hell, no.”

  “Where do you intend to stay? To sleep?”

  She gestured wildly. “There. In my pickup. Luckily I left it out the last couple of nights.” She shuddered. “Normally I park it in my garage.”

  “It’s red. How do you know there are not ants on it?”

  “Good question. Go check.”

  With a shrug, he did as she asked. Parked away from the ant-covered house, he saw no insects on the pickup. “No ants.”

  “Great.” Rubbing her arms, she didn’t sound thrilled. “Now is there going to be another storm or what?”

  He started. “The weather.”

  “Exactly. You said—.”

  “I know. I don’t want to stick around to find out. Let’s go,” he urged. “It’ll be much easier to hide from him if we’re on the move.”

  “We can dodge the weather?” She stared. “You’re serious?”

  Pointing to her ant-covered house, he nodded. “Do you see any alternative?”

  He saw the resignation settle into her face, even as she continued to fight against what she knew to be truth. “I barely know you. Maybe I could call my mother…”

  “You would endanger her?”

  “No, but…”

  He pressed his advantage. “Do you have more grain for TM?”

  “No. And Kayo’s dog food is in the house. My food. My emergency kit. The gun. Everything. Except…” Taking a step towards the pickup, she stopped. “Would you mind checking to see if I left my purse on the front seat of the truck?”

  Slipping on his gloves, he went one better. Opened the door and retrieved the bright yellow bag. Handing it to her, he grimaced. “Is that leather?”

  “No, vinyl. I can’t afford leather.” She studied him. “Don’t tell me you don’t have leather in Rune either.”

  He shrugged. “We don’t kill animals for food. Why would we do so for clothing?”

  “Good point.” One more look at her house had her taking another step back. “Is it me, or are they moving closer?”

  A solid line of fire ants swarmed towards them.

  “Get in the truck.” She climbed into the driver’s side. “Hurry.”

  He did as she asked, careful not to touch any metal with his bare skin. He’d hate to be trapped in a metal box covered in ants. Kayo barked and jumped into the back.

  She slipped a key into a slot and turned. The pickup’s engine roared to life. “I keep the horse trailer out in the pasture. We’ll hook it up, load TM, and go. But we’ll need supplies.”

  “Is there a place you can obtain more?”

  Backing down the driveway, she rubbed her neck with one hand. “I suppose we could make a stop in town at the feed store.”

  The wind began to gust. “Storm coming.” Carly sounded fearful. She pushed her foot down on the pedal, causing the vehicle to accelerate.

  Alrick smiled. His job of protecting Carly had now become a whole lot easier. He hoped.

  * * *

  Taking off with a man she barely knew – what would her mother think? Still, after paying for the grain and dog food at the feed store, she’d stood outside while Alrick loaded it and eyed the pay phone. Part of her knew he was right – if this crazed Warlord really wanted to take her out, her mother would be in danger. The other part of her, the little girl that resided inside the core of her, wanting nothing more than to go running home to Mommy. Even though Mommy now lived in Seattle and Carly hadn’t returned a single call in the last six months. Her depression had been too great to deal with her mother’s overwhelmingly positive attitude. She regretted that now.

  Leroy Toddle, a burly man who owned the ranch immediately west of hers, sauntered past.

  “Afternoon, Leroy.”

  He didn’t even look her way. She let her shoulders sag for a second before straightening them. By now she ought to be used to the snubs and rudeness, but she wasn’t. She’d done nothing to these people. Nothing but marry into the family of the man whose parents had owned the biggest spread in town.

  When she and Liam had taken No Name Ranch over after his parent’s death, their neighboring ranchers had lined up with offers to buy. Liam had turned each and every one of them down. Now here she was, three years later, with Liam dead a year and barely hanging on by the skin of her teeth. They all knew it, and none of them had even once stepped in and offered to help. They wanted her to fail so they could buy the ranch cheap. Myrna at the feed store had even whispered that the men were taking bets as to the date she’d give up and sell.

  As if having the entire county against her wasn’t bad enough, now she had to deal with this Warlord from the future. And Alrick, from another dimension.

  She glanced over at her truck. He’d finished loading the sacks in the bed and leaned against the side, waiting patiently for her to join him.

  Tommy Jordan’s rude refusal to help load hadn’t seemed to bother Alrick in the least. Maybe he didn’t realize that loading was Tommy’s job.

  She sighed and began walking. Kayo barked once. His “happy to see you” bark. Inside the attached horse trailer, TM stomped his feet to show his impatience. Oddly enough, he’d walked right into the horse trailer at Alrick’s request. A way with animals appeared to be a slight understatement on Alrick’s part.

  Distracting thoughts. All to keep her from facing what she’d already committed to doing. Taking off down the road with a strange man, fleeing for her life from some magical weirdo from the future.

  Were she to tell this to anyone, they’d think she’d finally lost her mind and institutionalize her.

  Might as well get on with it. She marched over to the pickup and climbed behind the wheel. Alrick got in on the passenger side. He’d adjusted to riding in the motor vehicle quickly – so quickly in fact, Carly had been slightly suspicious.

  “We can see your world from Rune,” he’d said, correctly interpreting her narrowed gaze. “We’re aware of all your inventions and machines.”

  “Yeah, you already said you don’t have them. That’s seems weird to me.”

  “We have no need. We have our magic.”

  She clicked on the radio. The announcer was talking excitedly about some freak hurricane that had struck the east coast. Mere hours after the 6.0 earthquake that had taken out parts of rural California.

  “Oh my God.”

  Alrick looked equally grim. “Such is the consequence of indiscriminate magic use in your world.”

  She swallowed. “The Warlord caused that?”

  He turned down the volume. “I believe so. And things will only get worse as he continues to use spells against you.”

  “And this is why you don’t want to use your own magic to fight him?”

  “Not unless I have to.”

  “You say you can only tell the truth. I want to know who’s more powerful, you or him?”

  “Until we face each other in battle, I could not say.”

  Fair enough. She supposed she ought to be glad he hadn’t said the Warlord was more powerful. If that was the case, she supposed she was doomed.

  “Where to?” Once they reached the highway, they could go west to El Paso or east towards Louisiana.

  Alrick shrugged. “Somewhere not so…” he gestured at the rolling hills around them, “open.”

  “You mean trees?”

  “Yes. It�
��s much easier to hide in the forest.”

  “All right, country roads it is.” She concentrated on driving until they’d reached the highway. Choosing the right lane, she set the cruise control. “We’ll take this for while, then I’ll exit and we’ll go up into the hills. I assume you have a plan. Time you filled me in.”

  “A plan.” He sounded expressionless. Like a commando, trying to be dispassionate about his next move. Or so she told herself.

  “Yes. I mean we can’t continue to run from this guy. We’ve got to face him sometime, right?”

  He was silent for so long she wondered if he’d fallen asleep. But a quick glance at him showed him wide-awake, studying the terrain as they flashed past.

  “Alrick?”

  “I’m to protect you.” He sounded weary. “Until the Warlord manifests enough strength to bring himself fully here. Then he and I will do battle.”

  “But you think you can take him?”

  “I am a warrior as well as a prince. Once he is all the way here, in this time, I will best him in any fight.”

  “I wish I had my rifle.”

  He scowled. “Your attitude grows wearying. I’ve already told you your weapon would be useless against him.”

  “Whatever. I’d feel better if I were armed. I didn’t ask for this. I was minding my own business, doing the best I could to live the life I had, then boom. You show up, the fireball tries to fry me, lightning hits my barn, my house is covered in fire ants, and I’m on my way to nowhere with a guy I barely know.” To her horror, she nearly started to cry. She choked back the tears, but her strangled voice gave her away.

  “How do you know?” His quiet voice held its own kind of reluctance. “How do you know you weren’t the only one who got plucked from their everyday existence? My life in Rune is a good one. Until the Mage showed up from the future, I believed nothing would change. I didn’t seek this task. Yet here I am.”

  Swiping at her eyes, she sniffed. “So we’re both being dragged into this against our wills. Question is, what can we do about it?”

  “We? You can stay hidden. I will take care of killing the Warlord when the time comes.”

  “Hey, I’m a part of this too.”

  He regarded her curiously. “You think you can kill him?”

  She tightened her hands on the steering wheel. “Maybe. I don’t know.”

  He continued to watch her.

  Finally, she groaned. “All right, maybe not. I can barely kill a spider, for Pete’s sake. I’m not sure I can – no, I’m positive I can’t – kill anyone.”

  “Even if it comes down to your life or his?”

  Miserable, she nodded.

  “What about the life of your child? Would you kill to protect him?”

  “I have no child.”

  “You merely split hairs. But, since you do, let me rephrase my question. This is no game, Carly. You might have to defend yourself. Would you kill to protect the life of your unborn child?”

  About to give a flip answer, the intensity in his voice made her pause. “I… I don’t know. Probably. I think. But I have no unborn child. I’m not pregnant.”

  “Yet.”

  She swallowed. “Since you know the future, how far away am I from carrying this miracle child?”

  “I was not told this. Nor who will be the father.” He sounded bitter. “The Mage only told me what he deemed I needed to know, no more.”

  So Alrick was as much of a puppet as she. Carly kept this thought to herself as she forced herself to concentrate on driving. She turned up the volume on the radio, listening grimly as the announcer elaborated on the devastation caused by the two simultaneous natural disasters. Finally, she couldn’t take it anymore, and clicked the radio off.

  Alrick continued to stare out the window as the landscape flashed past. “We must be careful,” he said. “If the Warlord cannot find us, he won’t be able to use magic to try and kill you.”

  “Right.” She drummed her fingers on the wheel. “Now that we’re on the run, how would he find us?”

  The look he spared her was quick. “Magic.”

  So much for enlightenment. “Magic how? I don’t understand about magic – we don’t have such a thing in my time. Does he have some sort of tracker, like a GPS system or something?”

  “Again you refer to machines – things of which I’m unfamiliar.” He shook his head. “Our worlds are very different. As to the Warlord, he will trace your energy pattern, and mine.”

  She frowned, then forced a smile. “I talk about Global Positioning Satellites and you mention energy patterns. I guess in a way they’re kind of the same.”

  “Are they?” He turned to look at her, his dark eyes glowing. For a moment she stared, transfixed, then she snapped her attention away, back to the road.

  “Stop that!”

  “What?”

  Though he sounded innocent, Carly wasn’t fooled. She’d bet a dime to a dollar that he knew what he was doing. She’d like to call him on it too, but there was no way in hell she’d admit to him there were times she found him unbearably attractive. Like now.

  He had to be magically making himself look good, didn’t he?

  Instead, she changed the subject. “I figure we’ll drive as far as we can before we take a break. I’ll need to let TM out and walk him, as well as make sure he and Kayo get water.”

  Hearing his name, Kayo whined. Carly reached down and petted him. The border collie settled back down, resting his head on Alrick’s knee.

  Alrick looked out his window. The rolling hills of the Texas hill country were beginning to give way to the flat, prairie. “When we stop, make sure there are trees. Better shelter.”

  She liked the way Alrick absently stroked Kayo’s back. So did the dog, whose blissful expression indicated he’d found doggie heaven.

  “Trees. I’ll try.”

  “Tell me what you know.” Damn, she hadn’t meant to blurt that out like a directive. “About me, about my son. I know you said you weren’t told a whole lot, but I’d like to hear what you do know.”

  “I’ve already told you everything.”

  “No, you haven’t. For example, I’m kind of fuzzy on exactly how my son is supposed to save the world.”

  “Not the world, Rune.”

  “Yeah, but you insinuated what affected Rune would affect the regular world as well. My world – in the future. My son. Come on, don’t you think since I have to play a major role in all this that I should know?”

  Alrick smiled. “I couldn’t agree more. I feel the same way, and have said so many times to no avail. The Mage spoke mostly to my father, the King. My brother and I were sent from the council chambers.”

  Her stomach sank. “So all you know…”

  “Is all I’ve told you.”

  “Great.”

  He patted her hand. “Before we can worry about what we do and do not know, we’ve got to vanquish the Warlord.”

  “Back to killing.” She heaved a sigh.

  “Sorry.” He patted her arm.

  They exchanged smiles. For the first time since this nightmare began, Carly realized she actually liked Alrick. As a person, he didn’t seem all that different from her. Even if he was a faerie. She chuckled.

  “What?”

  “Faerie. The thought of you being one…”

  He frowned. “Why?”

  “I picture little people in tutus, dancing around among flowers or something.”

  “Those are sprites. We are more like those elves depicted in your legends.”

  “Elves?” She raised a brow. “With pointy ears and all that?”

  “No pointy ears.” Lifting his hair, he pointed to his own, well-shaped ears. “I know not how some of your myths got started.”

  “Creative license, I guess.”

  Outside of Fredericksburg, she pulled off at a rest stop. “Hey, it’s deserted. That can be good or bad, but this time I think we’ll take it as a good omen.”

  “Why here?” Alri
ck didn’t like the looks of the place. A squat concrete building was the only structure.

  “There are more trees here than anywhere else.”

  While she backed TM out, Alrick stood by to walk him. She handed the lead to him and clipped a leash on Kayo’s collar.

  “Come on boy, let’s go stretch our legs. They followed Alrick and TM to the clearing behind the rest rooms.

  When she was thirty yards away, her pickup truck exploded.

  Chapter Five

  THE FORCE of the explosion knocked Carly to the ground and sent Kayo flying. Alrick turned in time to see Carly go down. He looped TM’s lead over a tree branch and went running.

  Kayo jumped to his feet and ran with him, barking. Black smoke billowed into the air.

  Carly didn’t move.

  Heart pounding, Alrick lifted his gaze skyward. Though he hadn’t sensed the other’s magic, the Warlord had tried again. Had he so quickly succeeded?

  “Carly?” Lifting her wrist, he felt for a pulse. There. Light, but steady. She lived. He checked her for injuries, finding only one bloody scrape on her elbow where she had hit the ground. But when he lifted her head, his hand came away crimson with blood.

  Head wound. How serious? Quickly glancing around the deserted rest stop, he heard the wail of sirens in the distance and knew within minutes they would have company. Should he let the humans heal her? Could they? He couldn’t risk it.

  The pickup continued to burn. Flames leapt into the sky, the smoke another beacon.

  Alrick cursed. The Warlord had grown more powerful. This time, he hadn’t felt any prickle of warning, any awareness of the Warlord’s magic.

  Carly lay so still. Bleeding. Kayo whined, licking her face. With a toss of his head, TM broke the loose knot keeping him tied to the tree and trotted over, whickering.

  The sirens grew louder. Closer. Down on the highway a huge tractor truck pulled off onto the ramp leading to the rest stop, no doubt attracted by the fire.

  The relentless Texas sun beat down on them. Waves of heat shimmered off the blacktop.

  He would have to use magic – he saw no choice. Alrick would cast a spell and take them all to Rune.