A Witch's Rite

by N. E. Conneely

  "We should split into groups," Gudger said. "Wells and Westmoreland first, then Michelle and Elron. I'll bring up the rear."

  Wells frowned. "Normally I'd say pairs, but thanks to Brown getting sick we've got an odd number. Are you sure you're okay being in the back?"

  "I'm sure."

  "All right." Wells shrugged. "Does that work for the rest of you?"

  Patrick nodded.

  "Works for us," I answered for Elron and myself.

  With everyone in agreement, I motioned for Wells and Patrick to lead the way. They were more than welcome to be the first ones to try that beastly slope. It would give me a chance to see just how bad the footing was.

  Wells walked a few feet back down the trail before picking a spot to enter the woods. He grabbed a tree and stepped off the path. Wells kept a hand on a nearby tree, carefully moving one foot and then the other as he moved up the hill. Patrick followed Wells's example. Wells swore as he slipped and grabbed a tree. A couple of steps later, Patrick did the same thing. That didn't bode well for me. I wasn't known for being overly graceful in the woods.

  I glanced at Elron. "Do you want to lead?"

  "Ladies first," Elron said.

  I let the officers get a ways up the hill before I walked to the side of the trail. There was a small tree growing close to the path, and I grabbed it as I stepped over the two-foot-high bank at the edge of the trail. When both my feet were firmly planted, I looked for the next tree. Leaning to my left, I got a hand on it and took a careful step.

  "Do you need assistance?" Elron asked.

  Turning around, I saw him standing next to the first tree. "Nope. I'm good, just needed to adjust to the footing."

  The damp leaves slid under my boot, and the soft soil moved around, carrying the leaves along with it. When I was safely next to the second tree, I changed my strategy and plotted a course for the next eight trees. I let go and started to move. Step, release, step, step, grab, release. Repeat.

  As I moved, I lost track of the rest of the group. All I was worried about was my next step. When I reached my target, I grabbed it with both hands and sucked in a few deep breaths. The bark bit into my skin, but I didn't relax my grip.

  "You did well," Elron said from behind me. I didn't have to look for him because his hand settled on the tree above mine.

  "Thanks. Did the footing give you any trouble?"

  "I am an elf."

  "Right, elves are immune to insignificant things like wet, slippery ground."

  "Cheeky witches end up dancing with the dirt."

  "I haven't earned that nickname today."

  "I suspect it is only a matter of time."

  "Do me a favor and don't jinx me," I grumbled as I stepped away from the tree, my next set of movements already planned out.

  When I paused again, I was at the apex of a root ball. There was white stuff on the ground where the roots had pulled up. From this distance I couldn't tell what it was, and I wasn't going to get any closer in case the edges of the hole were unstable and prone to collapsing. I did a quick check for magic and shrugged it off. There were plenty of natural things that could be the cause.

  With Elron at my back, I rested for a moment. From here on, it would be all downhill. Ahead of me, Patrick and Wells were making good progress and were halfway back to the path. For such a big man, Gudger wasn't having any problems getting up this slope, and he was only a few trees behind us.

  I started moving toward my next target, a small dogwood tree. I was between trees when I heard a shout. Planting my feet, I looked around. Below me, Patrick had fallen and was sliding down the hill.

  Wells grabbed for him but couldn't quite reach him. I summoned my wand and tried to think of a spell. Patrick grabbed for a small tree and missed. He kept sliding, and for a moment it looked like he was going to hit a big pine, but he tumbled past it.

  I racked my brain for a spell that would help him. Then I knew. A shield that was soft and cushy. I pictured that below him and willed power into it. Hopefully I got the spell right.

  Patrick fell into the spell feet first, and I winced, waiting to see if I'd managed to soften the hard shield spell enough to catch him without doing any damage. He slowed rapidly, as if he was sinking into thick mud. Arms flailing, Patrick latched on to a tree.

  For a moment he clung to it, breathing deeply. I gave a sigh of relief. My hastily created spell had done the trick. It would have been better if I'd had time to cast properly, with runes that would give the spell structure while focusing the power. However, it worked and that was what mattered. Patrick was lucky; most witches couldn't form and cast a spell without runes.

  Dismissing my wand, I carefully shuffled over to a tree. I took a couple of deep breaths as I watched Wells make his way to Patrick. A couple of seconds later, Wells flashed us a thumbs-up sign. Patrick wasn't injured.

  While Wells was getting Patrick off the ground and back to the path, I was carefully picking my way down the hill. There were a few places where the ground dipped, was extra wet, and prone to sliding out from under my feet. I moved around those. The regular footing was bad enough.

  As soon as my feet hit the trail, I focused on Patrick. "Are you okay?"

  He nodded, and the motion was repeated a few too many times for me to believe he'd recovered his nerves. "Bumps, bruises, and scrapes. Nothing bad."

  I looked him over. "Are you sure you should be finishing the hike, or do you think you should turn back now?"

  "I'm bruised. That's it. I won't have any problem with the rest of it."

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wells nod. That was all the reassurance I needed. "Sorry, Patrick. I had to ask."

  He sighed and nodded.

  Gudger got down to the group and checked on Patrick.

  The excitement had left me thirsty, so I got some water. Ahead of us there was a short section of trail before it curved and was lost behind trees and earth. Beside me, Elron was looking at the fallen tree.

  "What do you see?" I asked.

  "Nothing I can explain." Elron shook his head. "Wells?"

  "Yes?"

  "Did the hikers tell you there was a tree down?"

  "They didn't mention it, and I didn't think to ask. What's the problem?"

  "It's the only tree that's down, and it pulled up all its roots? Usually it requires a prolonged heavy rainfall or high wind for that to happen. It looks recently uprooted, and we have not had such weather recently. Besides, those roots look to be more than sufficient to keep the tree upright, and I could not find any damage to the root structure on the downhill side."

  I gave the tree another look. Elron was right, but it was hardly conclusive evidence of— Well, I wasn't sure what he was trying to prove.

  "What's your point?" I asked.

  He shrugged. "It is odd."

  "I checked for magic and didn't find any." I offered. "There are plenty of normal explanations. Even healthy trees sometimes fall."

  "True, but having examined the roots, this one looked to have been well anchored."

  "Huh." Wells grunted.

  Gudger sniffed the air. "I don't smell anything."

  "All of us are looking at a tree like it's the enemy. We're in the woods. Trees fall," Patrick said.

  "My apologies. I was not trying to distract us from our mission. I am simply puzzled." Elron motioned around him. "The earth has many mysteries."

  The way I translated that, Elron was saying he was still confused and a little suspicious of the tree, but he didn't want to worry the rest of us. I waited until everyone had a chance to absorb that and suggested, "Shall we get back to it? We still have a lot of walking to do."

  "Are you ready?" Wells asked Patrick.

  "Waiting on all of you."

  After finishing a quick check for magic and coming up empty, I nodded. As we continued up the trail in our familiar formation, I scanned the nearby trees. If there was something else out here, I really hoped it was friendly.

  Chapter Seven />
  Wells grunted and pulled the map out of his pack. Rounding the turn, I saw the path split in three directions. That didn't seem right. When we'd talked about the trip, the men had made it sound like a straight shot up this trail without any intersections to navigate.

  "Those trails are not on the map." Elron came up next to me.

  Wells shook his head. "I talked to the park service this morning. This trail doesn't join any others."

  We were all thinking the same thing, but I said it. "Where did the other two paths come from?"

  All of the trails looked to be equally well maintained. There was little to recommend one over the others. Since my eyes weren't telling me anything helpful, I examined the area for magic. There were traces of spells in the soil and plants of the center and leftmost paths. The magical remains didn't give me any useful information. They were more like a smudged fingerprint. Someone had done something, but that was all I could figure out.

  "There's some magic, but I can't figure out what it does," Patrick said.

  I clarified his comment. "Residue, nothing identifiable, on the center and left paths."

  "Does that help us?" Wells said.

  Shrugging, I answered, "I don't know. Those traces of magic were strange. They weren't really the remains of a spell, more like spare energy had dripped all over the place."

  "Can you give me something useful?" Wells asked.

  Gudger sniffed the start of each trail. "The one on the far right has the most people scents, but the other two have been used more recently."

  Elron knelt down and pressed a hand against the earth. I forgot about the conversation, wanting to know what he had noticed.

  "What is it?"

  The soil rippled, individual particles shifting positions, much like the leading edge of a wave. It was a gentle motion, not enough for me to feel, but I could see it traveling away from Elron.

  He stood up and pointed at the trail on the right. "Gudger is correct. This is the true path."

  "What happens to the other two?" Patrick asked.

  "They form a loop." Elron held up his hand. "I cannot tell you more. That was all the information I was able to collect."

  "All right. We keep going, but this is the second strange thing that's happened. We need to be alert," Wells said.

  "Wand or gun?" Patrick asked.

  "If the need arises, you'll have to judge, but Gudger is armed and we have Michelle."

  I raised my wand. "Magical support at the ready."

  Patrick nodded. "That's what I needed to know."

  There was an awkward pause where all of us were looking at the intersection, trying to figure out how it had come to be there. I didn't have any good theories. Magic could have created them, but it was unlikely. After all, it would take a lot of magic and leave more traces than what I had found to create two paths out of heavily wooded forest.

  However, it was very possible that the paths had been created through good old backbreaking labor and magically aged to make them look like they had existed for years. That theory fit the evidence, but I had no proof, and I wasn't willing to tell the guys useless supposition.

  I sighed. This kept looking less and less like a run-of-the-mill report investigation. "We should keep moving."

  One by one, the men agreed. A much more alert group started up the correct trail. This time Elron and I weren't the only ones sending hyperaware looks over our shoulders. I kept checking for magic, but I wasn't finding anything.

  A short while later, as we were going up a steep climb, I hit pay dirt. It wasn't much, but it was close. The path curved around a thicket of rhododendron ahead of us. My best guess was that the magic was on the other side of the greenery.

  "Stop, I found something," I called out. Wells was a solid ten feet ahead of me and needed the warning.

  Elron halted next to me and started examining the area. Patrick gave me a questioning look when he caught up while Gudger simply looked around. Wells took a couple of more steps, pivoted on one foot, and started walking back in our direction.

  I felt a spell snap into existence and twisted my wrist to summon my wand. "Wells, are you okay?"

  He didn't answer. Instead, he kept walking, eyes vacant. He moved around us like we weren't even there, and I had a feeling he would walk down most of the mountain like that. With a flick of my wand, I trapped him in a shield bubble. That would contain him until I could undo the spell.

  "Compulsion?" Patrick asked.

  "I think so, but it happened fast. I didn't really feel what hit him."

  "Me either."

  "Gudger, Elron, can you tell if anyone is nearby?" I asked.

  "I believe we are alone, though the presence of a compulsion spell may indicate that my senses are being deceived." His hand kept twitching as if he wanted to summon his sword. He had a bracelet much like mine, and with a twist of his wrist, he would be holding a deadly weapon.

  Gudger's nose twitched. "If anyone is out there, I can't smell or hear them."

  "I trust your senses." I walked over to Wells. "It was fast. I think it was reactionary. You know, Wells triggered something that activated it."

  "Do you want me to look for the trigger?" Patrick asked.

  "No. When I've gotten him back to normal, I'll look for the trigger."

  "Yes, ma'am."

  I moved around until I was standing directly in front of Wells. His eyes still had that vacant look, like he wasn't seeing me. Relaxing into my power, I examined him. There was definitely a compulsion spell on him. It wasn't a strong one, but it had a single task, meaning it didn't need much power to accomplish its goal. I found the core of the spell and detached it, dispersing the excess energy and sending it into the earth.

  His posture relaxed, and he blinked rapidly. Taking a step back, he turned, examining the shield bubble, Patrick, Gudger, Elron, and myself.

  "It got me, didn't it?"

  "Yes, sir," Patrick said.

  "How do you feel?" I asked. I wanted additional verification that he was back to being himself before I released him.

  "Confused, frustrated. That was the strangest sensation. I knew what I should be doing, what I wanted to do, but I couldn't make my body obey."

  "And now?"

  "I'm fine. Irritated but in control."

  Nodding, I released him from the shield bubble. Wells nodded his thanks and unclipped a canteen from his pack. A few months back I'd fought off a couple of compulsion spells, but Wells wasn't a witch. He didn't have magic to throw at it, and some people were just easy to spell. It wasn't a character flaw, just a fact.

  With Wells back to normal, I had another task. Planting my feet, I took a deep breath and sent out a network of power to find and identify what had caused the compulsion spell. I didn't want another one of us getting caught. Besides, we were close to the disturbance the hikers had reported, and I wanted to know what merited a reactive compulsion spell as a guard.

  I slowly moved forward, first three feet and then five, as I verified that the ground was clear of any spells. Around foot seven from my starting position, I started to wonder if I'd missed something. Then I found it, buried in an uneven patch of dirt that might have been recently disturbed.

  Smiling, I moved in for a closer look. Oh, that was clever. Whoever had done this was smarter than the average criminal. Not to mention the charm itself. This bit of spell-work was impressive and illegal, though that part was hardly a surprise.

  Pointing my wand at the charm, I said, "Sowil." The charm, and a fair amount of dirt, were firmly encased in a shield that would contain any spells that were triggered. Now I could get them out of the path.

  "Ansu." I made a jabbing motion with my wand, and the containment spells slowly rose to the surface. Good.

  "Nazid." The spell holding the dirt and charm rose off the ground. Making a swishing motion with my wand, I directed the spells to go to the side of the path.

  I tinkered with the containment spell, and the earth fell out, at which point I low
ered the containment spell to the ground and leaned in for a good look at the compulsion charm with a pressure-plate thing mounted on the top.

  The spell-work was good, but the execution was ugly. It looked like someone had taken a pressure plate and attached it to a steel pipe. The actual charm and components were located in there. Really there was more than one charm. The first one covered mechanical energy, like the movement of the pressure plate, into electrical energy. That electrical energy was what activated the compulsion spell.

  One day I'd like to meet the witch who designed this. It was an impressive collaboration of components and an excellent understanding of how energy functioned. Because there was typically more energy transferred into the pressure plate, and therefore turned into electrical energy, the spells were somewhat self-perpetuating. They could use the power left over after casting the compulsion to replenish their own supply. This charm could spell people until one of the physical components failed.

  "Patrick, did you bring any magical evidence bags?"

  "Yes. What size do you need?"

  "Medium." I reached out behind me with one hand. He pressed the cold plastic into my palm. Holding it open, I levitated the containment spell and charm into the bag. When they were safely tucked inside, I dismissed the containment spell and sealed the bag.

  These evidence bags were a nifty invention. Some witch had figured out a spell that would essentially freeze other spells. The official name was a Stasis Spell for Spells because it prevented the target, in this case the spells on the pressure plate, from changing. They would remain inactive as long as they were in the evidence bag, which allowed us to safely transport items like this and study them later. The departments didn't use this type of evidence bag often because they were expensive. Patrick would have to make a special report to justify the use today, but in a case like this, it was the only safe way to transport the item.

  Standing up, I dismissed my wand and handed him the bag. "Here you go."

  Patrick shrugged out of his pack and stowed the evidence bag.

  "Is that what got me?" Wells asked.

  "Yup," I answered. "Essentially it was a magical trap designed to force people to leave this area. Patrick, what do you think?"