by Susan Conley
Energy, a bolt of pure, electrical, hair-raising energy went through her. Both she and Cart jerked from the shock, although he managed to retain hold of her hand.
Mona shook her head and looked around.
The Earth glowed, trees a slumberous emerald green, the ground with streaks of umber. And Cart, Cart was a blue so close to purple she wondered why she thought of it as blue.
“I’ve never seen magical essence this clearly, I can always see a little, but this. . .” Cart trailed off in wonder.
The understory saplings quivered. Mona turned toward them and a deer skittered out, veering off with a leap when it saw them. Mona could almost see the beat of its heart in the pumpkin colored life force.
“Let’s go, I’d rather be uphill from whatever it is than downhill.” Cart headed up the trail, keeping his hold of her hand.
Mona was glad for his help, the change in perception was making her a bit dizzy. She had no idea why her sight had shifted. Would she still be able to see spells?
“Are you going to shift?” she asked as they neared the crest of the hill.
“No, I’d lose the advantage of the sight. I need to stay in contact.”
“The sight, don’t you always see like this?”
“Not this strongly, and if I’m right, I’ll be able to see a bit of what you see.”
Pulling on their joined hands, she stopped them.
“Why is this happening?” she whispered. She didn’t see the beast but somehow her brain was reading the shifting patterns of energy, she knew it sat, unmoving, just over the ridge.
“It’s the blood.” He held up their joined hands. “Somehow we’ve each absorbed a little of the other’s, so we’ve gained a bit of each other’s abilities.”
“It wasn’t that much!” Mona said. Well, at least on her side, just a bit more than a pin prick.
“Right, so I’m not sure how long it’ll last. I want to wait until it’s done before I shift.”
They both tensed as the energies around them stirred. As one, they headed off the path and up toward higher ground, crashing through underbrush when it was in their way. There, at the top of the ridge they looked down on the lizard whose scaled snout was turning toward them. Not a Wyrm, but something similar. He stood a good twenty feet down, his head was almost parallel to their feet. Mona looked over the runes wrapped around his body, distracted by the additional lines of his life force—Cart jerked her down. They slipped a few feet back along the ridge. With a whistling sound, a blast of air and ice frosted the trees around them.
Only one side of the trees. Not the other. It was as if someone had painted frost across the bark and not completed the task.
“Okay, so is this a different kind of Wyrm?” Mona asked. Something seemed off about its movements and actions, its life force. Even with the little she’d seen there was a feeling a misplayed note in the middle of a song.
“Not a Wyrm, pretty sure it’s not sentient, just an animal. The closest thing I can think of is a basilisk, but it’s far too large and basilisks turn things into stone, not freeze them.”
“The spell on it probably did that,” Mona said. She was reasonably certain she’d seen the markings that would have changed the size of the creature.
There was a scraping sound on the other side of the hill.
Not looking to see what it was, Mona and Cart ran further into the woods.
“If I can get a good look at it, I could probably change the spell back,” Mona managed to get out as they rounded a boulder and stopped.
She leaned her back against the cool stone and tried to catch her breath. Cart paced, arms crossed and hands tucked against his side, his muscular shoulders hunched against the cold. Mona unwrapped her scarf and took off her hat and handed them over. Somewhere, she wasn’t sure when, they’d lost Cart’s knapsack.
“I want to see the spell,” Cart said. “If we got a good view, would you be able to explain it to me?”
Far behind them they heard a crash. Cart looked down the trail. “It moves very slowly,” he said, frowning at the noises. “I don’t think it’s meant to be out in this cold.”
“But if it breathes freezing air, wouldn’t it be used to it?” Mona asked.
“I’m guessing it’s a cooling mechanism for the dessert. Something in the spell must be ramping up the chill factor and causing the ice laden breath. What we need is a diversion, something to distract it so we can get a look.”
Another crash and they peered around the edge of the boulder. The half frozen trees they’d stood by earlier swayed as the reptile forced its way through.
“I think we need an imp,” Cart said. “It can provide a distraction so we can get a look.”
“No!” Mona was as surprised as Cart at her vehement reaction. “If this person’s been working with the Lycoan they might also be striping imps of power. We can’t risk it.”
“We could outrun it,” Cart said thoughtfully. “Ignore it and keep going.”
Mona nodded, liking the idea. “Whoever sent it to delay us expects us won’t expect that.”
Without a word, Cart started off. Mona followed, hoping they’d get back to the trail soon. Although seeing the forest through the filter of Cart’s view was informative—she could spot where small critters hid from them—blazing a new route across the frozen ground was taking valuable time. At least now the sounds of the forest had returned. The birds calling, the chittering of squirrels, and the intermittent hum of cars nearby all resumed, as if they’d been turned on with a switch.
After a half hour’s walk they reached a road, on the other side of which was a large grassy hill. Mona looked at the open space with trepidation. After seeing the life force in the trees and bushes, the sloping field looked barren.
“There’s a better place to cross a little further down.”
Wait, were his teeth chattering?
“You should shift,” Mona said. “You’re using up too much energy just trying to stay warm.”
“I’d planned to risk shifting once we crossed the road.”
Risk? “Why risk?”
The purring of an oncoming car had them both moving off the berm and standing in the woods waiting for the vehicle to pass.
“Given how this person manipulates magic, I could see them doing something to lock me in my beast for a while.” Cart shrugged as if it wasn’t a big thing. Mona, though, heard the worry in his voice.
“Imp, if you can do so without exposing yourself to danger, please bring a winter coat for Josiah Cart Dupree,” Mona said. “I apologize for not waiting for you to appear before stating the request, but you understand the necessity. Thank you.”
“Are you crazy!” Cart whispered as the purr of the car’s engine morphed into the rumbling of a truck’s as it passed them.
There was a dull thud. They looked at each other before heading back to the road. A charity donation pickup truck disappeared around the bend, its back door flapping open. And on the salt dusted road a plastic bag lay, split open, with winter clothes spilling onto the black top.
Hauling the load to the side, they picked through, finding an enormous thermal shirt, which hung large on Cart, and a down vest with a tear along one seam. And a dark green rain poncho with a partial roll of duct tape in the kangaroo pouch. They tied the bag back up over the remaining items, and set it on the side of the road.
“You always this lucky?” Cart asked.
Fine for him to blame it on luck—Mona was more worried about how much of their circumstances seemed to be being manipulated. And, unless the goddess was using her hand directly, she had an idea who was dealing the card.
“It’s either luck or something that rhymes with it,” she said, reluctant to use his name, here.
Cart’s step hitched, then he kept on, acknowledging her comment with only a grunt. She didn’t blame him. If the Puck was as heavily involved as he seemed, then the goddess’ hand may well be being played too.
Chapter Twenty
A
fter they crossed the road it took another half hour to get to the edge of the property Cart had been aiming for. She knew they were getting near once they started skirting the path again. Finally they reached a basin. Here huge pines marched up both sides of the trail, uniform and evenly spaced; their age made her wonder just how old the property was. The deep presence of the life force from the collective group had her in awe. And a presence it was, a power almost as strong as an ancient sentient being.
Cart stood looking at the pines too. “Every time I come here, I am reminded of the goddess’s power. This place has always seemed to be close to her heart.”
Yes. That was it exactly, the feeling that a small part of her was here, in this place.
Cart took her hand and gave it a squeeze before detouring around the trees and heading up the hill. Even to the side their power almost pulsed at her. Only when they were past did Cart speak.
“There’s a barn here, a tractor shed really. We might be able to use that to climb up and over the fence.”
Now that she looked for it, Mona saw the thin metal wires of the fence running between the trees at the end of the pine lined promenade. A strand every foot and a half and the top one, in the lower branches, faintly outlined with a spell.
For once it was a spell that didn’t bear the deep crimson markings of the person they sought.
“Oh, there’s a spell on the top wire isn’t there?” Cart squinted at the nearly invisible line. “I—” He stopped.
Silence again descended on them. Goose bumps raced up Mona’s arm and she shivered at the eerie sensation. Yanking on her hand, Cart took off at a run. They raced along the fence, the noise of their struggling through the brush the only sound in the still air. Around a corner and then ahead, faded white washed wood perched on a stone foundation came into view. Cart didn’t go to the door, instead he pulled Mona into the narrow space between the building and the fence.
They ran through and came out the other side and kept going, moving away from the wire fencing. Cart led them over cleared ground, making the hair on the back of Mona’s neck rise as they left the concealment of the building. He held them to walking quickly and their passage was almost silent. She didn’t like feeling so exposed but clearly the plan had changed.
Once again in the forest Cart stopped just inside the tree line behind another towering pine. He pulled a small army knife out of his pocket and opened it. He ran the edge over his palm, creating a thin line of blood. Mona, steeling herself against the pain, held her hand out so he could do the same. They each would need the boost to face this enemy. Plus, she sincerely hoped some of her immunity would rub off on Cart. The idea of his being badly hurt made her nauseous. Cart slid the blade across her palm and she bit down on her hiss of pain. Noise was the enemy here.
He clasped her hand in his. In the silence she could hear his heartbeat. His golden eyes looked down at her.
Hers. This man was hers. She could only hope and pray to the goddess that he was not going to embrace evil, because doing so would be an anathema to who he was. If he turned she would not be able to live with herself. No, she could not believe this man, whose soul was now part of hers, would ever turn.
Cart tensed and looked back down the path. Between the low branches Mona saw a woman—blond, beautiful. She stood in the path, her head cocked, looking at the building they’d slid by. Dressed eye-catchingly, if inappropriately, in low riding white cargo pants and a cropped fur trimmed jacket, she looked like she’d stepped off the pages of a fashion magazine. If one discounted the tension in her shoulders and the tattoo up the side of her face.
Radiating around her was a cone of silence. Mona looked the runes and sigils over—crimson markings modified the working, making it suppress all animal sounds. Oddly, the spell wasn’t anchored on her, but was linked to something she wore, perhaps a necklace given where the power lines emanated from.
Mona didn’t see any evil in the woman; instead it was as if it was painted on her, layer after layer, until some stuck and clung and embedded itself in her flesh. Strange because Mona didn’t sense much ability to handle magic in her at all, but then with all the out layers distorting her view, she couldn’t be sure.
“What am I seeing?” Cart whispered, his voice so soft she barely heard it.
Mona assumed he meant the silence spell. After reading through everything again she leaned over to him, keeping her eye on the woman. No way was she going to not keep an eye on her.
“The larger forms are runes,” she whispered in his ear. “They are the what the spell is built on. This one has four—wall, sounds, silence, and one that can be manipulated to specify a distance. The squiggly links between the runes are sigils. They’re what the caster uses to create an order and hierarchy that give the spell its shape and purpose. The intent of the actions and the way the sigils are written aren’t something I can easily change. However, I can rotate the runes, modifying their strength or sometimes switch runes within the working to change the scope of the spell.”
He looked back. Given how his head swiveled slightly, following the parameters of the spell, she guessed he was sorting through what he saw.
The woman pulled out a small spiral notebook from her hip pocket. Mona hissed as the cacophony of magic embedded on the book flared. Cart squeezed their joined hands, either in sympathy or warning, she wasn’t sure. Snow bunny seemed unaffected and flipped through until she found what she was looking for. Tearing off the page, she closed the book and slid it back into her pocket.
Mona blinked, unable to process what she was seeing.
“She’s got a spell on that page,” Cart murmured. “How can she do that?”
However she did it didn’t matter, as the woman pulled the paper through her fingers, removing the spell. As the working lost its inertia she tweaked the runes and flung her creation at the house. A fireball formed and exploded as it hit the building, projecting shards of white washed wood into the sky.
Cart used the noise to cover their moving to a better position to watch the woman’s movements. Mona knew he was waiting for an opportunity to confront her. Hiding until she left was not going to be an option.
Watching the woman, they ignored the rain of splinters. Her mouth was open and there was a gleeful, anticipatory expression on her face. As the remainder of the building collapsed in on itself, the fingers of one hand stroked the inside wrist of the other. Magic pooled there, too. The woman seemed to have a number of magical pieces. They’d need to get close enough to disarm her.
A furious look crossed the woman’s face.
“Where are you?” She looked around, then focused on the trees they stood in.
“Stay here,” Mona whispered. “I can manipulate the spells while you work out how to take her down.”
Without waiting for his response she walked out of the trees. Good thing Mona kept her eyes on the woman, because she’d whipped out a spell from somewhere and flung it right at Mona. While she knew the spell should slide over her, there was a chance with Cart’s blood now mixing with hers she’d be vulnerable.
So she kept walking and flipped the speed rune over and the whole thing tumbled to the ground, now moving at a snail’s pace. Closer, she needed to get closer. She stepped around the working now sitting on the ground.
The woman laughed. “Oh, you’re going to be fun to kill.”
Another spell came at Mona, her opponent pulling this one off an index card she took out of her hip pocket. The working was not directly aimed at Mona. Instead, exactly like the spell she’d encountered at Smythe’s complex that had almost killed her early that morning many days ago, it was pulling slabs of stones out of the ground, which were racing up to crush her between them. Mona turned the rune, giving the working direction and the rumbling under her feet subsided as the stones headed down.
Ten feet away now. Cart was circling around behind the woman. Huh, she didn’t realize she’d feel him that well. Not only could she feel him, she knew anger and worry for her see
thed under his calm calculations.
“We’re close enough that anything you send might turn back on you,” Mona said, moving closer.
“True.” The woman pulled a gun out of her parka. “Stop right—”
Mona kicked out, knowing she couldn’t let her bring the gun up and brace it for a shot. While she’d not gotten nearly as far as her brother, the couple of years of lessons weren’t forgotten. Her foot connected with her adversary and she felt a backlash of energy as she came in contact with the spell on the woman’s wrist.
The gun went off, startlingly loud this close. Shit, she hadn’t kicked it free. Then Cart was there, pinning the woman’s shoulders and arms to her side. Mona reached out and grabbed her wrist before she could react and raise the weapon.
Pain. The spell there sent shards of pain through Mona’s hand and spearing up to her elbow.
“You okay?” Cart asked as her knees buckled and she yelped in response. Mona nodded, although, really, she wasn’t. “Get rid of the gun if you can.”
Mona held on, squeezing and twisting to get the woman to drop the firearm. The woman stood there laughing, not trying to fight. Finally the gun dropped to the ground. Mona kicked it away.
Mona slid her hand up and away from the wrist, confused because she didn’t feel any jewelry under her now tingling palm. Cart’s hiss echoed hers as the tattoo and its magic were exposed.
“Pretty, isn’t it? Edward suggested I get it.” The woman flexed her wrist, making the dark markings writhe.
No, it was revolting. Mona looked over the woman’s shoulder at Cart, who looked as disgusted as she felt.
The tattoo was an ugly, nasty spell, one that pulled energy out of Folk and stored it for later use. Mona let go, repulsed by the images of people and creatures she was getting simply by looking at the design.
“I’d never consider killing others pretty,” Mona said.
“And you have so much experience, do you?” the blond sneered. “No, you’re too goody-goody, using your gift to Ward folk. They’ve got you brainwashed. ‘Your powers mean you serve to protect us.’” Her voice deepened, mimicking someone. “They’ve got it wrong. Our powers mean we can’t be touched. If you’re invincible you’re on top. And I intend to stay there. With or without Edward.”