Heat built in front of him, and he stopped. “Found it,” he said quietly. “There’s a rune scratched onto the rock wall and possibly painted over. I can’t tell if the white is a magic light or—”
“Magic,” Austin said, joining him.
A few seconds later, Darius was there, too.
Donna stayed with Gabe. “Is it safe?”
“No,” Rest said instantly. He didn’t want to be there. He sure as hell didn’t want her beside him. Strange though it sounded, he’d have preferred the temple guardian’s outright attack to what he faced. At least that was clean combat.
Instead, between him and the rune that was scratched into the wall and glowing white there lay a flat slab of rock, mid-thigh high and grooved so that any liquid spilled on it would run down to the left to be collected in a bowl. Not that there was a bowl there, but it was obvious that there would have been once. Just as the purpose of the slab of rock was obvious. It was a sacrificial altar.
“Is that an altar?” Apparently, being informed that a situation wasn’t safe attracted Donna.
Rest cast an annoyed glance at Gabe, before realizing that his mundane friend couldn’t see it. Gabe had followed Donna blindly. Rest switched on his flashlight, revealing the slab of rock to Gabe briefly.
“Huh.” Gabe was unimpressed.
Rest snapped off the light.
Donna put her hand on Rest’s back, a gentle touch that anchored her—and him. His tension wound back to manageable levels although his instincts still screamed to get everyone out.
“I haven’t heard of temple guardians being associated with death magic anywhere else.” Her hand smoothed up his back to flatten between his shoulder blades.
“I don’t think they’re connected,” Darius said. “The purple glow is clean magic. There’s no taint of death magic. We would have felt it before now.”
“I don’t like it,” Rest said.
“But you’re not throwing up.” Austin leaned over the slab of rock to study the rune. “You threw up when we encountered that death magic wizard in Chile.”
“I had food poisoning.”
Darius ignored their bickering. “The rune took the place of the blood sacrifice, that’s why it’s etched above the altar. It became their source of magic.” He looked around the cave. “And it’s continued accumulating power. We’re going to have to channel that magic through the rune, rather than drain it first before attempting to control the guardian.” He stared at Rest. “How sure are you that you want it?”
“Are my doubts that obvious?” Rest tried for humor, but heard the flat, reluctant tone of his voice. If he wore this rune, no one’s magic could attack him. It would be sucked into him and he’d be the reservoir Darius and Austin would tap for magic to enhance their spells.
“If you were keen, you’d be stepping forward,” Darius said. “Like Austin.”
“Hey!” Austin flung his hands up and moved back from the rune. “Not me. This thing is above my wizarding stripes.”
Rest nodded. “That’s how I feel. I’m not saying it’s death magic, but…it feels wrong for me.”
Behind them came a sudden rush of loose rock and falling sand. “Something moved the rope,” Gabe said.
Austin sprang past Gabe to the sand pile and stared up. “I can’t see anything.” He jumped for the rope, caught it and ran up the slippery sand till he could see through the hole. “It’s a goat. Go away.” He climbed up the rope. “Go a—oh hell. Incoming!” He slid down the rope.
An instant later, the gap they’d entered by filled with the blazing crimson fire of the temple guardian.
“But none of us used magic to trigger it,” Donna wailed.
“The goat found a witch bundle and ate it,” Austin said. “Ta da! Mastication magic.”
“That is a terrible joke.” Donna eyed the red glow that was infiltrating the purple cloud of magic.
Darius stripped off his shirt. “If Rest doesn’t want it, I’ll host the rune. Do not use magic. The thing isn’t attacking.”
“Yet.” Rest checked where everyone was. He could grab Donna’s wrist in a split second and the others were near enough to link to them. But to summon a portal and enter it took three or four seconds, even at his fastest, which was long enough for the temple guardian to siphon his magic.
The red glow of its power came first, but then the creature of fire was in the cave with them. It descended slowly. Its fiery body resembled that of a giant sea anemone, except that in the center were gold fangs. Its black eyes reflected the purple light of the magic within the cave.
Darius slashed a shallow slice across his arm and dripped blood onto the sacrificial altar. “Add water.”
Donna responded first, ducking around Rest to tip her water bottle so that Darius’s blood mingled with the water. Darius dipped his fingers in it and began tracing the blood and water over the lines of the rune etched on the wall. The water helped the blood go further.
The temple guardian roared. The cave shook.
Darius climbed onto the rock slab, scooped up a final handful of the slurry of his blood, water and cave dirt, and smeared it over the top arc of the rune. The white light that had been glowing from the rune flashed a deep violet color. His body flew back from the rock, slamming past Rest before he could catch him, and piercing the center of the temple guardian. The purple light became blindingly bright. Then there was a thud.
Rest opened his eyes.
The magical light had vanished. So had the temple guardian. Darius lay on his back on the floor of the cave, spotlighted by Gabe’s flashlight beam. “Alive? Dead? Safe to approach?”
Darius groaned and coughed. “Alive. Help me up.”
“Or we could test that you’re not going to bite our magic,” Austin said.
“And you think here would be the best place for that?” Darius snarled.
“Eek!” Donna’s mouse-like squeak bounced off the walls of the cave. She pointed at Darius’s chest. “That thing just moved. It snarled when you did.”
They stared at Darius’s chest. Even he tilted his chin down to look. Branded over his heart was a stylized image of a lion.
“I’m assuming you didn’t brand yourself some time over the last two years,” Rest said slowly enough that Darius was shaking his head before Rest finished. Rest took a deep breath. “So that’s the rune.”
“Medium specific,” Donna said, awed. “That’s why there are so few temple guardians! When someone binds it to themselves, the rune transforms.”
“Which means it can’t be replicated.” Rest grabbed Darius as the man wobbled to his feet. “You okay?”
“It’s like a hangover. After trading shots with the devil.”
Everyone winced.
“I never even thought of taking a photo of the rune. I should have.” Austin grabbed the rope, then swarmed up it.
“I am not climbing that,” Donna said flatly. “And I don’t think Darius should either.”
“I’d vomit,” he admitted.
Rest eyed him warily. “Keep your magic tucked in,” he said. “And Donna, take Gabe’s hand.” Rest used a portal to transfer them to the surface. He breathed easier when it worked. The temple guardian rune didn’t interfere.
Within a couple of minutes, they were all inside the pickup. The vehicle was scorchingly hot from the sun, but they only had a few seconds to travel. They exited the portal out front of the old ranch house.
Darius hurriedly opened the pickup’s passenger door and vomited into the dirt. He tried to wave aside assistance, but Rest and Gabe half-carried him inside. Since Rest’s bed was the only one in the house, Donna’s claim to it was superseded by Darius’s illness. He visited the bathroom before collapsing onto the bed.
“I’m not sick,” he muttered. “Body’s adjusting.” He was asleep—or unconscious—on the last word.
“He is sick,” Donna said from the doorway. “He took in a massive amount of magic.”
“And he’s adjusting, as he said.�
�� Austin yawned. “I could crash, too. In fact…” He grabbed a pillow off the bed and lay down on the floor. “I’ll be here if something goes wrong.”
He was right. They needed sleep; not as much as Darius, but enough to prioritize it.
Gabe muttered a general “good night” and went out to sleep on the porch.
Donna curled up on the sofa in the living room.
Rest lay on the floor. If he turned his head, he could see the outline of the sofa in the darkness, but not her. He could hear her breathing, though, and listened to it slow into the rhythm of sleep.
He woke to her strangled scream.
Chapter 7
Donna saw the White House drowning, then Gabe diving into a puddle and pulling out a teddy bear with a pink ribbon around its neck. She woke screaming his name.
Rest grabbed her as she leapt from the sofa.
She fought him, screaming for Gabe.
But Gabe was already there, running into the living room from the porch.
Austin and Darius stumbled from Rest’s room, Austin supporting Darius who was without his prosthetic leg.
They’d slept in. The sun was up. On the east coast it would be mid-morning, time enough for a child to stumble into trouble.
“A girl is drowning.” Donna stared at Gabe. It felt as if she was drowning, too. She needed him to understand the urgency. The vision was for him. The words she needed rasped against the pain in her throat. Her screams had torn it raw.
“Where?” Rest and Gabe said together.
Darius dropped into the recliner, reaching for and waking his laptop.
“I don’t know. I don’t know!” Donna clutched her head. She’d seen the White House, the President’s home, but a child couldn’t be drowning there, not with all the staff and surveillance. The White House meant something in the future. She needed to recall more of the vision. There had to be a clue. There was always an answer, even if she only recognized it in hindsight. But hindsight wouldn’t save the child. “Teddy Bear Lake! The girl’s wearing a pink t-shirt and shorts. Pink ribbon. Pink.”
Darius was tapping quickly on his laptop. “Two Teddy Bear Lakes. Wisconsin and Tennessee.”
“Tennessee.” She didn’t have to think about it. The answer came from her seer talent.
“Coordinates?” Rest peered over Darius’s shoulder, gripping Gabe’s wrist as he did so. The more information he had, the less time he spent locating the exit from the Path to where they needed the portal to open.
“I’m coming, too.” Donna grabbed onto Rest.
No one objected that she was still in her blue cotton pajamas. At least the guys had worn shorts to sleep in, probably as a concession to her presence in the house and the unconventional sleeping arrangements.
Within a second, Rest had the portal open and they ran into it.
Chaos engulfed Donna. She counted, a trick she’d learned while accompanying her dad through the Path as a child. It helped her to emerge from the Path less bewildered by the sensory bombardment of it. It also meant that she could roughly estimate the time spent in the Path; since time, like other perceptions, became confused for non-couriers navigating the Path.
One, two, oh dear, God. Hurry, Rest. Six, seven,…
“The thread was pink,” Rest said as they stepped out of a portal into a humid morning by a tiny lake.
An orange tent stood out against the green of the trees and the blue of the sky and water.
Pink, pink, pink…there!
Gabe was already running. Then he dived into the lake and powered through the water with the muscular, natural strength of a dolphin.
The young girl cried out and splashed the water, suddenly panicking.
“Panicking is good,” Donna said, her fingers digging into Rest’s hand. “People who are drowning are silent.”
The girl’s cries stopped.
A woman onshore screamed. “My baby! Maggie!”
A man tore out of the tent. They were both too far away. The girl must have wandered around the shore of the lake before something tempted her to venture into it.
Gabe reached the girl and lifted her out of the water.
A child’s panicked shriek had never been so welcome.
“Maggie!” The woman and man ran around the curve of the lake, splashing into it to meet Gabe.
He transferred the child to the man, then swam back across the lake, preventing questions. He joined Donna and Rest in the woods, and Rest walked them back through the portal and along the Path.
They emerged in the living room of Rest’s house.
“Safe,” he said to Darius and Austin. Darius was strapping on his prosthetic leg. “Thanks to Gabe.”
“To all of us.” Gabe dripped a path out to the porch and grabbed his gear. He looked at Rest. “Whatever hang-ups you have about reforming the team, get over them. I’m in.” He glanced at Donna. “So are you.”
The bathroom door closed quietly in the silence.
“Talk it out over breakfast,” Austin said. Of them all, he was the only one fully dressed. “Speaking of…Rest, we need groceries, so pick a city, any city, and I’ll get us some breakfast.”
“I need clothes.” Rest walked into his bedroom, and slammed shut the door.
Donna stared from where he’d left the living room to Austin and Darius. “You don’t really want me on your team, do you?”
“We’re not a combat courier team anymore.” Darius picked up the t-shirt lying on the arm of the recliner and pulled it over his head. “What we are, we have to decide.” He looked in the direction of Rest’s departure. “Or accept.” He turned back to Donna. “A seer with a courier would have a greater chance of acting on her visions in time.”
It was inarguable.
Rest returned wearing jeans and a khaki cotton work shirt, ready to shop.
Donna slipped past him in the doorway, heading for the second bedroom, the one he used as an office and where she’d dropped her bag last night after ceding the only functioning bedroom to Darius.
Half-way through dressing, the adrenaline rush of the vision and of racing to the girl’s rescue, faded. Donna dropped onto the office chair. It creaked. She folded her arms on the desk and laid her head on them. She concentrated on breathing. If she hadn’t been within reach of Rest, if Gabe hadn’t been such a strong swimmer, the girl would have died. The awkward way the parents had splashed toward her had indicated they wouldn’t have reached her in time, and likely, that they didn’t know first aid. They weren’t prepared for a water emergency.
Whether Donna’s vision was accurate and the girl would grow up to influence the future of the United States—the inclusion of the White House in her vision suggested she would—was irrelevant. Losing the girl would have destroyed lives: her parents’, but also Donna’s for yet another soul her seer talent hadn’t helped her save in time.
She straightened in the office chair and stared through the window at the ranch. She could see the barn from here. The donkeys and camel would need fresh water, possibly hay. The desert in summer was harshly inhospitable.
Since her seer visions had started at thirteen, if they’d included an imperative for action, she’d called on the Old School network for assistance. A handful of times they’d been too late to help; twice because the visions had presented with frustratingly cryptic clues that she’d only deciphered after the events occurred.
If she had Rest and his former team to help…
The fact that she’d woken from this morning’s vision screaming for Gabe could be interpreted as a sign that she was meant to work with the team. However, she’d vowed years ago that she would not let her talent decide her life. The danger of a seer talent was the temptation to rely on it to make vital choices. Donna intended to be the person in charge of her life. She refused to be controlled or defined by her talent.
She went to open the door, then hesitated. Her palm flattened against the old paintwork.
Is that what she—what everyone—had done to Rest? H
ad they defined him by his rare courier talent, pushing and shoving him to fill that role, to define his life by his talent?
“No,” she whispered. She saw Rest, the man. His talent was only an element of the whole. She saw his smile and his quiet resolve, the house he was building, the land he’d claimed, and the two donkeys and a camel that he’d given a home.
She thought his friends saw the man, too.
Beneath the ruined temple Darius had asked Rest if he wanted the temple guardian rune. Darius hadn’t forced Rest to accept it as the price of his courier talent, a way to defend himself against those who’d seek to control him. Darius, Rest’s former captain, wanted the best for Rest, not simply the option that would maximize the usefulness of his courier talent.
Perhaps it was Rest, himself, who struggled the most to see himself as more than his talent. He’d let the rarity of his courier ability cost him his old life and his friends.
And whatever he told himself about being okay with living in hiding, he wasn’t. His adobe house, sprawling and built to host a large family and friends, told the truth of his dreams. And dreams revealed a person’s heart.
Donna opened the door, prepared to fight Rest for her place on his team.
Divide and conquer—or at least, save time. While Austin bought breakfast at the restaurant chain next door, Rest grabbed bread and sandwich fillings for an easy lunch, as well as ready meals for dinner. A few minutes later, they were back in his kitchen at the ranch, and Austin was handing out egg and bacon rolls.
Donna poured coffee into two mugs and handed one to Rest.
“You okay?” he asked quietly.
She nodded.
It wasn’t as much of an answer as he wanted, but he had to let it go. As a group they had decisions to make, and everyone was heading for the front porch. It was already warm out, but there was a feeling of space, unlike in the small kitchen and living room.
Desert Devil (Old School Book 5) Page 11