by R. E. Carr
“You understand, mighty Knight. You understand how to impress us. This must be quite a task.”
Farris replied, “Well, when you want to kill a messenger from God, it’s best to be prepared.”
“I am not going to survive,” Jenn huffed as she pulled herself up the edge of the ravine. “How do you do it, Kei?
Kei said nothing as he reached his paw down to her. Jenn sighed as she watched his tail twitch.
“What’s wrong, Kei?” Jenn asked as he dropped her unceremoniously on the ground.
“I do not feel like talking,” he snarled.
“Kei!”
“There is no grief for our kind, only anger. Let me honor my brother in peace.”
She got up and began following him silently up the trail. Unlike Gracow City, the Holy Forest contained trees of every size and breed. A dense undergrowth of vines slowed the pair’s journey up the plateau. Jenn wiped sweat from her face. The jewel on her forehead had become caked with perspiration and grime. Now, as the sun grew low in the sky, Jenn panted and groaned.
“Damn scrolls. Why did they have to lead me here?” Jenn spat. She slumped on the ground and grabbed her chest.
Kei looked back at his faint new wife and sighed. Her eyes were glassy. Kei started to walk away, but paused as he heard her choking.
“What do your people do when you lose someone you love?” Kei asked. He crouched next to her, careful not to get too close. He let her take a drink from her water skin before responding.
She picked at a rotting trunk. “We cry, mostly. We cry and we wear black, and—and I don’t know everything that is done. It depends so much on religion and money, and how close you were . . .” She stopped to choke back a few tears again. “It sounds so sad now, but I’ve never been through anything like this.”
“You cry?”
Jenn nodded.
“I almost cried when my mother died, but my father and Sorakare would not let me. They kept me strong so my tears would not offend my mother’s resting soul.”
“But—”
“My father says that if you cry when someone is gone, then you think that they are not with the Spirit. Your tears insult them and claim that the honored dead suffer.”
Tears rolled down her grimy cheeks. “I don’t think like that, Kei. Saikain is gone, and all those people—”
“I do not understand you, Ji-ann, and it is getting late . . .” He stopped. “Come on. We need to move fast.”
Jenn refused to move. “I can’t—”
Kei jerked her up. “Come on!” He dragged her off the log. He forced Jenn into a furious pace through the densest section of the undergrowth. Jenn struggled as best she could, but within the hour her feet failed her.
“You bastard!” she cried as she plowed into a pile of leaves. “I’m sunburned, sore, and I can’t . . .”
The cat-man finally stopped. “I will scout the area, Ji-ann, but I will not go far. You can cry as much as you need to while I look for a safe camp.”
“But—”
“If I am gone, only your spirits can hear you. They will understand your tears,” he said as he scanned the forest with his furry ears. “If you need me, just call my name.”
Jenn smiled weakly. “Sometimes you aren’t so bad, Kei.”
Kei nodded to her. “Stay here. I will leave the water with you.”
She held her tears back until Kei’s tail disappeared behind a copse of birch trees. The moment he was gone, however, she sobbed.
“Jenn? Jenn?”
“CALA?”
“My emergency functions came online. However, I thought that I should console you before controlling your chemical imbalance.”
“CALA, what’s up with you today?”
“You have recently experienced what my systems would classify as a Class Nine traumatic event. I have no existing protocols to assist you, save those you have expressly forbidden.”
“You’re really something. Thanks, CALA.”
“Unable to process your relief. I have not attempted any rescue functions yet.”
“Sometimes, CALA, it just helps knowing people care.”
“Unable to process. I am not a person, so why should my concern have any effect, according to that line of reason?”
“Shut up. You’re a sort of person, aren’t you?”
“Unable to process.”
“Why don’t you just process on that later, CALA? We’re still stuck out here.”
“I have currently narrowed the possible locations of the first seal down to a five-kilometer radius. If you continue at your current pace and direction, I estimate that you will enter the target area in three hours.”
“I love it when you estimate things, CALA.”
“Sora-khar life-form detected in the immediate vicinity. Would you like to disengage our dialogue?”
“One sec. Do you have any idea what we are supposed to do when we find this seal?”
“Open it, I would assume, Jenn.”
“Was that a joke?”
“I am attempting to interface with your thought processes more efficiently. Should I disengage this developing adaptation?”
“Keep it, CALA. For now, you figure out the seals and I’ll deal with the cat-boy, OK?”
“The Scroll of Nanut reads as follows: ‘Spirits of the Land shall be thwarted from the Holy Path. The seal cannot be broken with only their aid.’ That is the only relevant passage on the guardian of this first seal.”
“Well, what does that mean?”
“Processing. I will notify you when my further analysis is complete.”
“Thank you, CALA . . . for everything.”
“You are welcome, Jenn.”
Jenn wandered back into consciousness to find a fuzzy hand on her cheek. The sun had grown quite low, casting fiery shadows on the forest floor.
“Can you move? There is a cave not far from here that no one is claiming right now,” Kei asked.
Jenn rubbed her stiff shoulders. “I think I’ll make it.”
“Let me help you . . .”
“What’s up, Kei? It isn’t about last night, is it?”
Kei blushed a bit. The effect was strikingly ugly under his gray skin. “Come on. We still have some ground to cover before the night predators come.”
Jenn’s joints cracked as she eased herself up. She let Kei rub her sore hip until she felt able to walk again. She noticed the cat-man blushing again as his hand touched her thigh.
“Kei?” she asked as she stumbled after him. “I think we should keep going the way we’ve been heading. The voice in my head thinks she’s located the seal.”
“Voice? Like in the Holy Spring? Well, it does not matter. We cannot go the way it says.”
“Why not? Don’t you think it would know better than you where the seal is? It’s been put in my head specifically to—”
“If we keep going straight, we will walk straight off a cliff. I have been in these woods since I was a child, Ji-ann. I think I know the best way to go.”
“Fine! We’ll go your way, then.”
“I am supposed to guide you, am I not?” Kei snarled as he led her down a different path. “There is no way we will end up lost . . . unless we listen to you.”
“So how long have we been walking in circles, Kei?” Jenn asked as she pointed to a distinctive red tree.
Kei snarled up to the sky. “Your prattling would test the patience even of the Lost God. The seal is not just going to pop up out of the ground and tell us where it is.”
“Well, it might!” Jenn snapped. “I still think we should follow the voice in my head instead of your supposedly infallible directional sense.”
Kei stopped and drew a deep breath. Jenn grew nervous as she watched his tail swish back and forth, back and forth.
“Kei?”
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“If you think you know where you are going, Serif-fan, then why do you not lead?” he growled.
“I thought this was your Holy Forest, your training grounds . . .”
Kei rolled his eyes as the argument cycled around again. For over an hour the pair had sniped at each other, all the while walking in smaller and smaller circles.
“I am telling you—”
“Not the damn red tree again, Kei—”
“Energy surge detected, Jenn.”
Jenn lurched, clutching the pulsing stone on her forehead. Kei barely caught her as she collapsed into a seizure-laden heap.
“Ji-ann!” he cried as she began to drool. “Ji-ann!”
“Attempting to dampen field. Jenn, we must move away from this area. Jenn, can you respond?”
“Kei,” she gasped. “Kei, it’s killing me.”
Kei dragged the limp Serif-fan away from the grove of trees that had sent her reeling. The moment she passed across a subtle line of lichen, the stone on her face began to glow again.
“We have encountered an electrostatic field specifically designed to counter all biomechanical functions. I have also detected a faint secondary energy source radiating from the circle of trees ten meters away.”
“What can we do?”
“We can do nothing at the moment. Until the static is neutralized, we cannot move toward our objective.”
“Can Kei go through?”
“The Sora-khar’s life signs seem unaffected by this static field. However, prolonged exposure to the radiation may prove detrimental.”
“Kei, this has to be the seal,” Jenn said weakly. “The catch is there is a killer force field around it.”
“Are you hurt . . . ?”
“I’ll be fine, but we need to turn off the barrier. The voice in my head also says that there is something inside that ring of trees over there.”
“I will see what I can do. My fur is standing on end.”
“It’s probably static.”
Kei eased her against a stump and walked gingerly toward the ring of trees. He made it as far as the first trunk before an unseen force hurled him into the air. Yowling like a fried cat, he spun around and landed neatly on his singed paws. For a good few minutes he vibrated against the ground, every hair on his body standing on end.
“Kei!”
“Do not approach him, Jenn. He is still within the static field.”
“CALA, he’s hurt. We have to do something.”
“I can attempt to broadcast a signal to Gracow City’s core. We may be able to obtain assistance from the other members of the tribe.”
“Can we get a message to Sotaka? Sotaka will know what to do!”
“I can attempt communication with him. I will only transmit the simplest of messages.”
“But no one will be able to reach us for a day! Kei could—”
She snapped out of her trance and saw him shaking on the ground.
“Transmit the message!”
“It will drain significant energy reserves. Is this acceptable, Jenn?”
“Just do it!”
Jenn threw her head back and screamed. At the same time, brilliant red light shot from her forehead into the clouds. Energy crackled through her entire body until she collapsed.
Jenn fluttered her eyelashes and yawned. She saw a smiling Sotaka. The other two shamans helping her mumbled soft prayers of thanks.
“Thank the Great Spirit that you live, Ji-ann,” Sotaka said. “We feared the worst when we heard the call.”
“You heard me?” she asked, still waking up.
“The Temple Tree called me. I merely followed its visions until I found you.”
“Where’s Kei?”
Sotaka rolled his eyes. “He is near the sealed grove of trees with Adana and some others. He refuses to rest until he figures out a way past the barrier. He can be a most frustrating man sometimes.”
“Don’t I know it?” She asked before taking a drink off Sotaka’s water skin. “Thanks. How long—?”
“We broke the taboo and used the Jar-Elk of the forest as mounts. It has been only a day since you summoned us, my Serif-fan.”
Another shaman added, “We thought that the Great Spirit would forgive us for our lapse. Your life is everything to us, lady Serif-fan.”
“Thanks, but I’m afraid we can’t get past the seal. It shocks anyone who touches it. It’s got something to do with land spirits or something,” Jenn sighed.
Sotaka nodded. “It is as the Scrolls of Nanut say. The seals must be broken without the aid of the Spirits of the Land. Perhaps a Spirit of the Sky can help? A great owl or falcon perhaps could fly over the barrier.”
“Hold on a sec,” Jenn said.
“CALA, you online?”
“Yes, Jenn.”
“Did you hear Sotaka’s plan? We could have someone turn into a bird and dive into the trees.”
“Processing. The plan seems effective; however, I cannot determine whether or not the inner force field is contained in the trees or if it forms a hemisphere of force around the seal.”
“So we could char a bird if he flies in.”
“Precisely, Jenn.”
“Damn it, I wish we could just find whatever is powering this field and cut it off at the source. What I wouldn’t do for a circuit breaker right now!”
“Processing. Your course of action seems logical, Jenn.”
“It does?”
“However, the outer static field is disrupting my sensory capabilities. I cannot locate the source of the force field’s power.”
“CALA, I think I have an idea!”
Jenn opened her eyes and stared at the cat-man glowering with a group of guards. His shark’s-tooth necklace caught her eye. “Sotaka?” she asked.
The High Shaman stepped back from giving orders to the others. “Yes, my Serif-fan?”
“This may sound weird, but do you have anybody in the Tribe who can turn into a shark?”
Sotaka furrowed his brows. “Spirits of the Sea are rare and tricky . . .”
Jenn stomped her foot on the ground. “Damn it! Can’t I ever think of something that works? I saw something once on a nature show and now—”
Sotaka grabbed her fist. “I said rare, not nonexistant. There is still Whare of the Sea on the council of Shaman. He stays in Gracow to guide any who would seek a water totem.”
“So, can he turn into a shark?”
“Yes, but I do not see how he could be helpful. We are miles from the sea.”
“But can he do what you do? Can he turn partially into a shark?”
“It is extremely difficult, but it can be done. Tell me, though, what can a shark do that is so important?”
“Sharks can sense electricity. Anything that generates a current, like a fish, they can pick up. I figure it would be easy for a shark to sense a really strong power source. I think it’s worth a try.”
“I will ask Whare if he can sense what you speak of, but I doubt—”
“Please, Sotaka, just ask before anyone else gets himself fried.”
Sotaka nodded and walked off to a group of men tending the Jar-Elk. One of them, completely bald save two braids trailing behind his ears, looked at Sotaka strangely as they talked. Like Kei, he wore a full set of shark teeth around his neck—only his were larger.
“Whare of the Sea,” Sotaka said as he brought over the other shaman.
“My lady Serif-fan,” Whare said, not daring to look up. “We of the Sea will always serve in any way we can.”
“Thanks. What I need you to do is to try and use your shark sense here on land. You know, the way you can sense living things underwater. Can’t you feel the energy coming off stuff?”
Whare closed his deep blue eyes for a second. A faint grayish tone spread over his skin. “It will take some time, my Serif-fan. I have never attempted my change outside of water. I must meditate before I can do as you ask.”
“Please, take your time,” Jenn said. “Sotaka, is there any place nearby I can take a nap and get something to eat? I feel awful.”
Sotaka led her to a pelt laid out under a simple tent. “I never thought there would be a day when a buffalo hide under a lean-to would seem like paradise,” she muttered as she flopped onto the skin. To her surprise, when she awoke she saw a ringed tail twitching out of the corner of her eye. Kei had finally curled up for a catnap at her feet. His ears twitched feverishly as he dreamed.
“He passed out only after he was sure you were asleep,” Sotaka said.
The spider shaman stood guard by her head. Though one-handed, he rested his knife on his lap and kept his eyes scanning the camp.
A nap, some more water, and buffalo jerky transformed Jenn into a human being again. She leaned over and asked, “What’s wrong with him? Why should I care—?”
Sotaka pressed a finger to her lips. “Give him some time. He is just as scared as you are.”
“Kei? You have to be kidding. He hates me.” She looked back to see his pained gray face. She sighed, “If it wouldn’t have killed him, I never would have married him in the first place.”
Sotaka stared right through her. “Then you care nothing for him?”
Jenn blushed under layers of salve and sunburn. “Sotaka, I don’t even know him. Where I come from, there aren’t arranged marriages and great destinies and all—”
“Everything takes time, Ji-ann. No matter what anyone thinks, I know that you are not just a Serif-fan, but a girl too.”
“Well, that’s great,” Jenn said as she picked a piece of bark out of her sandals. She grit her teeth as she counted new blisters on her heel. She looked up at Sotaka again and saw his damnably placid expression. Before he could say another word, she asked, “How’s Whare doing?”
“It is almost time. He has been in a deep trance for quite a while.” The spider shaman smiled blandly. “You know, you change the subject whenever I start talking about your relationship with the Sora-khar.”
“Whatever.”