by Kyra Halland
The trail boss studied the storm another moment. It was compact, no more than a league or so across, but it made up in violence what it lacked in size. “Don’t like all that lightning,” he said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised to see it drop a twister. You two fellas ride up ahead and get that part of the herd moving forward fast as you can, out of the path of the storm. Make sure word of what’s going on gets all the way up front. You two, go to the rear and tell them to hold up where they are. The rest of you,” he gestured, including Silas and Lainie in this group, “hold back this part of the herd. In fact, it’s probably best to try to push them back a short way, to give the storm as much clearance as we can.”
The hands he had assigned to go to the front and back of the herd rode away to carry out their orders. Silas and Lainie and the remaining hands began the job of stopping the cattle short of the storm and driving them back a short distance. Lainie went about the task with her stomach tied in nervous knots. Her guess about the mages’ intentions appeared to be right. The magical storm would cut off the front part of the herd from the rest, then the mages could overpower the dozen or so hands who were with that part of the herd and take control of it. In the meantime, the storm would deal a considerable amount of damage to the rest of the herd and crew and prevent the rearward drive crew from going forward to help the men at the front.
That might be their plan, but it wouldn’t work, Lainie resolved. Not if she had anything to do with it. She looked for a weakness in the storm – a thin spot in the clouds, signs of variable winds, anything that she could work with to try to break it up – and found nothing. It was unassailable, the flawless work of five skilled mages acting in perfect unity with the added power of the Old Ones. She and Silas wouldn’t be able to stop the storm itself. But they could stop the mages who were causing it.
As they worked to get the cattle safely clear of the path of the storm, she found a moment to ride over next to Silas. “Soon as we’re done here?” She couldn’t think of a good excuse for them to give for abandoning the task they’d been assigned before it was finished.
He nodded.
She gripped his hand. “You be careful, baby.” The whipping wind nearly snatched the words from her mouth.
He hesitated; she thought he was going to tell her to go back to the wagons and stay out of it. Then he squeezed her hand in return. “You too, darlin’.”
Chapter 10
THE STORM BARRELED down into the valley, thunder crashing, winds shrieking. Abruptly, in a wholly unnatural movement that drew startled exclamations from the hands, it veered towards the retreating the herd. At the sudden shift, Lainie started calling up her power, frantically trying to decide whether to throw a shield that might stop the storm or just attack it outright. Before she could act, the storm struck the herd. Cattle and horses staggered against the force of the wind, and Lainie had to grab the pommel of her saddle to keep from being blown to the ground. Sharp, hard raindrops, driven nearly horizontally by the wind, pelted painfully against her face. Her skin and hair prickled, then, with a crack of thunder that went beyond noise, a lightning bolt struck the middle of the herd. In a heartbeat, hundreds of cattle, groaning and bawling in terror, started running in all directions.
Lainie struggled to control her panicked horse in the midst of the stampeding cattle. Power, Granadaian and Wildings and the cold, malevolent presence of the Old Ones, assaulted her senses and blanketed her mind. She didn’t even have to use her mage senses to feel the hatred and malice emanating from the storm. Uninvited, the Old Ones couldn’t enter into living bodies, but they could fill any minds they touched with terror and despair.
The storm roared around her as bawling, stampeding cattle thundered past through the driving rain. Men’s cries of alarm and outright fear, the cattlehounds’ baying, and the terrified whinnying and snorting of horses added to the jumble of noise. Then a louder rumble filled the air. Helplessly, Lainie watched as a gigantic purple-black funnel reached down from the storm clouds less than a quarter-league away and tore towards the herd. She had been through a few tornadoes in her lifetime, and had dearly hoped to never see another.
The commotion turned to panicked chaos. Only a few of the hands seemed to be in possession of themselves enough to try to control the frightened cattle and horses; the rest were frozen in fear or scrambling in a mad panic to get away from the twister. But the tornado was too wide and moving too fast; no one in its path would be able to get out of the way in time. Caught between the urge to flee and paralyzing horror, Lainie stared at the tornado as it bore down on the herd. Shadowy distortions of the human form writhed within the funnel, and streams of darkness, exuding a soul-crushing hatred and lust for destruction, unfurled from it.
Deep inside, a voice told her she could stop it or slow it down; she had that much power, at least. But she couldn’t move. Fear and the Old Ones’ malice blanked her mind so that she couldn’t even remember how to call up her power. Then she saw Silas on Abenar galloping through the stampeding herd and the wind and rain towards the giant funnel, his left hand glowing blue as he summoned up his power. Her heart nearly stopped. “Silas!” she cried, her voice lost in the storm.
The massive funnel was only measures from the edge of the herd. Silas reined in before it. Shouting in the Island language, his voice barely carrying over the deafening roar of the storm, he raised up in the stirrups and heaved an enormous, blindingly-bright mass of blue power at the tornado. The attack collided with the unnatural storm in an earthshaking explosion of blue and black light.
When the light cleared, Lainie saw dozens of smaller whirlwinds, the fragments of the shattered tornado, spinning away and fading as the power they were made of dissipated. Silas pulled Abenar around from where he had attacked the tornado. “Come on!” he shouted to Lainie as he raced towards the low range of scrub-covered hills to the west.
Lainie snapped out of her immobility and followed him at a gallop through the churning crowd of frightened cattle and the driving wind and rain. No longer trying to conceal her power, she reached out through the cacophony of magic that raged amidst the storm. Though the storm had come down from the Spine, the mages who were controlling it were indeed still in the western hills. She pointed to the ridge where she thought they were hiding. “There!” she called out.
They rode to the foot of the hill and reined in the horses. The wind changed direction to blow raindrops sharp as slivers of ice directly in their faces. The enemy mages knew they were there; their position atop the rocky ridge would give them the advantage of a wide range of vision while keeping them concealed.
Silas and Lainie dismounted, and Silas slapped the horses’ rumps, sending the frightened animals running back to the relative safety of the herd, away from the coming battle. He threw a shield of shimmering blue in front of himself and Lainie, sheltering them for the moment from magical attacks and the driving wind and rain. “Your mage ring!” he said.
Lainie hadn’t had the chance to use her mage ring the whole time they’d been on the drive; she had almost forgotten that her wedding ring served a second purpose. She slipped the ring from the ring finger of her left hand to the forefinger of her right hand. The ring fitted itself perfectly to the new finger. All at once, she could feel her power much more clearly and strongly; it seemed almost eager to obey her will as it flowed into her hand and gathered there.
Even with her ring and her and Silas’s increased power, they were still facing steep odds. Silas had just used an enormous amount of power to stop the unnatural tornado in its tracks. The mages up on the hilltop had likewise been using a lot of power to make and control the storm, but there were five of them and they were also using the Old Ones’ power. As well, their position up behind the ridge at the top of the hill allowed them to hunker down out of sight and defend themselves, while Silas and Lainie were fully exposed and attacking blind.
As Lainie thought through the situation, her mind started shaping a plan. In a way, it was no different from fi
nding the best combinations in a bad hand of cards; you took what you had and figured out how to use it to best advantage, hopefully in ways the other players wouldn’t expect. She had these supposedly impossible abilities to use other mages’ power against them; if she put her abilities to work, she could improve the odds and keep herself and Silas from having to use up all their own power too soon.
A wave of dark red power crashed against Silas’s shield with an impact that Lainie felt down to her feet, but the shield held. “I have a plan,” she said to Silas. “Can you hold the shield a little longer?”
“As long as you need,” he answered.
Quickly, Lainie spun out a long, thin rope of her own power. “Now,” she said. “Cover me.”
The shield disappeared, and wind and rain buffeted them. Silas threw a large ball of blue light uphill through the storm. Behind the cover of his attack, Lainie unfurled her magical rope, pushing it up towards the hidden mages. Silas’s attack struck the ridge a shattering blow, sending rocks sliding down the hillside. Quickly, before the enemy mages could recover from the impact, Lainie grabbed hold of the first power her rope touched, that rich, dark red, nearly flaming with potency, that had hit them a moment ago.
The mage whose power she had seized struggled against her grip. She doubled down and pulled harder. She sensed an attack barreling towards her, but she didn’t dare take her attention away from her fight with the unseen mage; she could only trust that Silas would protect her. From beside her, he bellowed a word in the Island language, and a flash of blue light rushed past her towards the orange wave that was tumbling down the hill. The two attacks collided in an explosion of light and power and noise, nearly knocking Lainie off her feet. Somehow, though, Silas was behind her, bracing her. The impact also buffeted the mage whose power she had seized; before he could regain his balance, she gave his power a mighty pull. His shock, fear, and rage shot through her mind, then disappeared as she ripped out the last threads of his power by the roots and reeled it in.
Lainie resisted the temptation to strengthen herself with the stolen power; she had learned how dangerous that was from Oferdon. Instead, quick as thought, she shaped it into a concentrated mass, using the rope of her own power to bind and control it. With all her strength, she flung the ball of power back up the hill at the mage who had just attacked, who was still unshielded and vulnerable. The power struck its target with a force that shook the hillside and sent Lainie stumbling backwards into Silas again. Still he held firm, supporting her. Up on the hilltop, the orange power and its accompanying life force went extinct.
A wave of vibrant blue-green swept down the hillside towards them. Lainie’s next move took shape in her mind. “Slow it down but don’t break it up!” she shouted over the noise of the storm and the fight.
A net of glowing blue flew from Silas’s hands to block the wave’s advance. He grunted and staggered with the effort of stopping the attack. With all her strength, Lainie pushed with her own power against the trapped mass of blue-green magic, propelling it back up the hillside. As though from a distance, she felt Silas deflect another attack away from them. Worry pricked at her; how much longer could he keep fighting? She pushed the thought aside and put all her effort and focus into driving the blue-green power back towards the mage it belonged to and into him. Putting the full weight of her own power behind it, she forced it deeper still, until the blue-green glow was smothered out of existence, along with the mage’s life force.
“Shield,” she gasped, and Silas threw a wall of blue power before them. She took a brief moment to catch her breath. That was two mages dead and one Stripped or at least disabled, leaving only two more – but one of them was the Wildings-born mage who was using the Old Ones to shape the storm. She couldn’t take on the Old Ones alone, but she didn’t know if Silas’s power would work against them, and anyhow she still needed him to protect her from attacks. She had to seek help from another source.
She dropped to her knees and laid her palms flat against the ground. Silas’s shield shuddered as the storm beat against it and bolts of pale yellow power like lightning struck it, but still it stayed up. His breathing was harsh and heavy.
“Can you hold it?” Lainie asked.
“Yes,” he said, though his voice revealed the strain of the effort he was making.
Lainie reached down into the earth with her mage senses, past the layers of warm amber shading to brown, down to the cold, lightless realm of the Sh’kimech. It was dangerous to call on the Sh’kimech and invite them in, but she had successfully commanded them before, and she was much stronger now. And there really wasn’t any choice.
Wake up! she called to them. I need your help.
Eagerly, they stirred. Sister. Have you come to help us destroy the infestation? Will you come live with us now?
No. It’s the Old Ones again. I need you to help me send them back where they belong and destroy the mage who’s using them.
Another fool, they hissed. Better to destroy all the mortals, so they won’t keep on awakening the Old Ones.
No. Most of us know better. But you can have this one, and his companion, too.
Unable to resist the prospect of destroying at least one mortal, they gave in. Very well, Sister.
She opened herself to them. Come on, then.
Thus invited, they flowed up from the earth through her hands and arms into her body. As always, the iciness of their touch shocked her. Their mindsoul wound through her body, seizing her lungs with paralyzing cold, chilling her heart, veiling her mind with their malice, as strong towards their ancient enemy the Old Ones as it was towards the creatures who infested the surface of their world. And she would be their hands to destroy their enemies, and she would dwell forever as one of them –
No, she told them firmly. Her refusal to accept what they offered, neverending life as part of their mindsoul while still remaining in possession of her own body, with their power at her command, was what gave her power over them. But it was always a battle of strength and determination between them. So far she had won those battles, but if ever she faltered in her resolve, they would overcome her, and her defeat would bring disaster upon all the people of the Wildings.
Which just meant she had to be stronger than them. She had done it before; she could do it now. She lifted her hands from the ground, cutting off the flow of the Sh’kimech into her, and stood up, trembling with the cold, malign weight of their power. As she centered herself, gathering her strength and resolve, she became aware of a warmth beneath her boots that balanced the cold – the earth-power of the Wildings. She had become more sensitive to its presence as her power increased during her training last winter, but never had she been so aware of it as she was now, in the freezing grip of the Sh’kimech. Even if she couldn’t use that power, it seemed to connect her to the world beyond the Sh’kimech’s dark, single-minded awareness.
Feeling more confident now of her ability to control her allies from under the earth, she returned her attention to the world around her. The storm had lost some of its strength, and a bright purple power thickly threaded through with black had joined the pale yellow magic that was battering against Silas’s shield. She could feel Silas trembling at her back with the strain of maintaining the shield against the barrage. He couldn’t hold out much longer; she was amazed he had lasted this long. It was time to end this, and quickly. “On my word, let the shield down,” she said.
He gave a single, sharp nod.
She shaped the Sh’kimech into a dense, heavy ball and added a goodly portion of her own power to bind and control the attack. Another bolt of yellow magic struck the shield; behind her, she felt Silas stagger under the impact. But still the shield held. The yellow bolt was immediately followed by a wall of black mixed with bright purple tumbling down the hillside. Lainie braced herself; the attack hit the shield in a collision that seemed to shatter the very air around them. “Now!” Lainie shouted.
The shimmering wall of blue, worn thin by now, disappe
ared. Lainie threw the heavy mass of Sh’kimech power uphill, using her own power to push it forward. She stumbled with the force of her throw; Silas caught her as another bolt of blinding yellow power shot towards them, and deflected the attack with an explosion of blue.
Connected to the ball of dark power by the line of her own power that she had bound within it, Lainie drove it up the hill and into the mage who was using the Old Ones. The ancient beings had nearly crowded him out of his body, and he was hanging on by the merest thread. The impact of Lainie’s attack jarred loose his grip on his body, and his spirit went spinning away.
Lainie closed her mind to the receding echoes of his bewildered terror as the Sh’kimech and the Old Ones immediately began a battle for ownership of the body. It was unthinkable that either of them should win. Lainie sent more of her power into the mage’s body and bore down with the Sh’kimech against the Old Ones. The ancient beings fought back ferociously, slashing into Lainie’s mind and heart with talons of hate and fury. This body is ours! they raged. We won’t give it up!
For a brief moment, her spirit quailed with despair beneath the onslaught. Then the warmth beneath her feet made her aware of her own living, breathing body. She had heard it all before, she reminded herself. The Old Ones might be old and evil and ornery, but she had beaten them once and she could beat them again. They had no power over her. Even the despair they made her feel wasn’t real.
She drew on more of her own power, leaving just enough in reserve to send the Sh’kimech home when this was over. Alongside the Sh’kimech, she pushed with all her will and determination against the Old Ones. Slowly, the Old Ones’ hold on the body they had claimed slipped loose. As they fought and shrieked and cursed, Lainie and the Sh’kimech drove them back into the earth, all the way down into the lightless depths of their home.