by DM Fike
CHAPTER 19
WITH THE SHEPHERDS scattered across the Talol Wilds, I’d have to figure out a way to track Rafe on my own, a daunting task. Before I could even begin my search, though, I had to contact Vincent. I’d been missing for a day. He must have had an aneurysm by now. Although I didn’t have his telephone number memorized, I could look it up online.
I set a course for Carol and Dennis’s rural convenience store. The owners knew me well enough from previous trips that they would probably let me use their phone. Located only a wisp channel away from the homestead, it would take less than fifteen minutes to get there.
Zipping through the thick underbrush, I flung myself through the twinkling lights to the other side. I emerged uphill from a rural highway. A good sprint would take me to the store. I strode forward.
Suddenly, I stopped. I could’ve sworn someone was watching me.
I hunched down into a squat, scanning the ponderosa pines. This part of the forest, though thinner than around the homestead, still boasted a decent density of trees. I strained my ears to listen for cars on the distant road, but not an engine stirred. The light breeze carried sounds of birds and squirrels going about their business, clearly not disturbed by any threat. That alone should have soothed my fears.
But it didn’t. I pressed my fingers into the compost-like layer of debris that made up the forest floor. I sent my earth pith outward, scouring for vibrations in the woods around me. I sensed small animals, certainly nothing special. I had almost decided to bury my paranoia when a strong flutter reverberated toward me.
Something big shifted nearby.
Pooling fire pith in my free hand, I swung my head toward the vibrations. “I know you’re there! Come out!”
A bush many yards away stirred. My fingers twitched. Rafe wouldn’t catch me off guard again. I’d burn that mofo to the ground if he dared show his face this close to Sipho’s.
It wasn’t a human that emerged from the leaves, though, but a pair of thick branch-like horns. They rose higher, revealing a thin face with a wet, black nose. Wide ears and deep pupils completed the ensemble.
A black-tailed deer.
I let the fire pith flow back into the depths of my pithways. Sheepish at having been spooked by a creature of the forest, I let out a nervous laugh.
“Sorry about that. It’s been a rough week.”
The deer continued to stare at me with his unblinking eyes. Animals generally don’t judge like petty people do, but I squirmed under his gaze anyway. Tabitha’s kidama had been black-tailed deer. She’d even imbued one of them as a dryant a few months back, but through a series of events (some of which I’d instigated), a vaettur had killed the poor guy. Add on Tabitha’s recent death, and I wouldn’t blame this deer for hating me as much as Darby did.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I simply walked past the deer. He scrutinized my every step. I reminded myself that this is just what deer do, but I couldn’t help but shiver as I ran out of the tree line toward the highway shoulder.
My unease melted as I approached the aging structure that Carol and Dennis maintained. The signage came straight out of the 80s, and no one had bothered to pave the almost always empty parking lot. The familiar site erased all thoughts of the odd deer. I pushed the dirty glass door open to slide inside.
Carol glanced up from behind the front counter, holding a handkerchief over her nose. Her medium-length gray hair poked out underneath curlers. She wore her usual lumpy shirt with faded nametag.
“Hey, Ina.” She sniffed. “Long time no see.”
“Hi, Carol.” I waited as she hacked for a spell. “You sick?”
“Yeah,” she grumbled. “Summer cold. They’re worse’n the winter ones. I hate taking these awful pills.” She patted an open box of over-the-counter capsules next to the newspaper crossword. “They work, but they also make me feel fuzzy.”
“Sorry to hear that,” I said, my mind more focused on how to ask if I could borrow her phone. “Listen, can I ask you a favor?”
Carol leaned forward, raising a wizened eyebrow. “It’s about that forest service fellow, isn’t it?”
I flinched. “What?”
Carol fiddled under the counter. “He left you another phone.”
My mind whirled as she plopped a small prepaid phone down in front of her. How had Vincent had enough time to leave me a phone over here, more than a hundred miles away from Florence?
“When did he drop it off?”
“Maybe two weeks ago. He was looking for you again. I told him I’d give it to you when I saw you. Got to worrying a bit about you too, myself. You usually drop by more often.”
That’s when it hit me. Vincent had probably searched for me right after the Mt. Hood disaster. He must have left this phone while I lounged about my parents’ house. He’d been covering all his bases.
I let out a goofy giggle. “Yes! Thank you, Vincent.”
Carol flashed me a conspiratorial smile as I powered up the phone. “He programed it with his number. Said to call him pronto.”
“Perfect.” I found his contact info right away and pressed the number. “Thanks so much, Carol.”
“It’s nothing to me, although Dennis thinks you two are a bunch of idiots. He wanted me to throw the phone away, says he’s not running some dating service. I told him it’s romantic.”
My face reddened as the phone rang on the other end. I opened my mouth to clarify my innocent relationship with Vincent when the line clicked on to voicemail.
I sighed. Nothing was ever easy. I waited until the beep and said quickly, “It’s me, Ina. I’m okay. Call me back.”
“He’ll call back, dearie,” Carol reassured. Then she burst out into another horrid round of coughs. She excused herself for a drink of water and shuffled into the storage room.
I planted my elbows on the counter, head in my hands. What to do next? I had to find Rafe, but all I had was his cryptic little comment about Wonderland. Given that he’d destroyed the Mt. Hood resort site and created two executive corpses, I wasn’t sure what other destruction he could possibly have in mind.
As I slumped farther down, one of my elbows slipped. I jerked upward, a discarded section of the newspaper slipping on the counter. The name “Foster” nearly jumped out of one headline. The full title read, “Wonderland Responds to CEO Foster’s Death.” Curious, I snatched the paper and unfolded the buried news item.
The article outlined Wonderland’s recent string of internal disasters. Despite the death of company leadership, however, the acting CEO vowed the company would thrive. “Wonderland will survive, no matter the setback,” Richard Caruso was quoted as saying. “Foster had a vision to create an outdoor-based adventure park on Mt. Hood, and his dream will live on.” The article went on to list the millions of dollars in damages that Rafe’s destruction had already cost. Stockholders were putting intense pressure on the company to resume construction soon.
Now I understood why Rafe had it in for Wonderland. He’d kept his eye on the news and probably anticipated the company would still build its resort on Mt. Hood. Rafe wouldn’t stop until he’d tanked the company.
But where would he strike next?
I got my answer in the very last paragraph of the article. It said that Wonderland would proceed with a ribbon-cutting ceremony as planned for its new downtown office in Eugene. They offered limited tours of their supposed “eco-friendly” building to the public in the hopes of establishing community trust. The newspaper concluded that police would also be present, expecting protesters to show up as well.
I forgot to breathe. Rafe wouldn’t attack a large crowd of people, would he?
But deep down, I knew he would. Rafe had declared at the crevasse that he would show people what “real shepherds” were capable of. I shuddered, thinking he would do that by making an example of a corporate office surrounded by a crowd of people.
I had to get to that ribbon cutting ceremony. I glanced at the loud ticking clock on the wood-paneled
wall. It would start in under an hour.
A buzzing at my fingertips made me flinch. Vincent’s number flashed on the phone’s display. I fumbled in my haste to answer it.
“Vincent!” I cried. “I know where Rafe is going!”
But Vincent completely ignored my panic, too focused on his own. “Dammit, Ina,” his voice choked. “Where have you been?”
My pulse quickened at the quiver in his voice. “I’m sorry. Everything’s happening so fast.”
Vincent continued without hearing me at all. “I drove all over Lane County looking for you. Hell, I must have searched Whittaker Creek over eight hours yesterday.”
“Yes, I was there,” I tried to get a word in edgewise.
“I haven’t slept. I haven’t eaten.” His voice cracked.
“I’m sorry about that.” I really was, even if my tone didn’t reflect that. We had to get to Wonderland’s headquarters pronto. “I called as soon as I could. Rafe’s going to—”
His next shout shook me to the core. “I thought you were dead!”
I couldn’t help but snap back. “That’s because I was dead!”
Silence.
Trembling, I almost dropped the phone. Saying the truth out loud suddenly made everything that had happened in the last 24 hours more real. I got a grip on myself. I didn’t have time for a pity party, no matter how much I wanted one.
My voice shook when I finally broke the silence. “I didn’t mean to freak you out, but things prevented me from calling. Rafe sneak-attacked me at the earthquake site.”
Vincent cut into my explanation. “You should have waited for me.”
But I wouldn’t let him bulldoze me like that. “Like the way you waited for me to check out Foster’s accident? No, Vincent. You’re a police officer. When things are dire, you have to act immediately. It’s part of the job.”
He grunted something indecipherable.
I pressed on. “But even though I should be dead, I’m alive. I swear I’ll fill you in on everything, but right now, all you need to know is that Rafe is probably going to attack Wonderland’s office in Eugene this morning. The company’s doing some sort of PR stunt at their downtown office. I’m almost certain Rafe will be there.”
“Are you sure about this? That’s not his usual MO.”
“He told me he’s tired of working in the shadows. He’s itching to make his presence as visible as possible.”
Vincent went into full cop mode. “Then we’ve got to get down there. I can get there in a half hour if I hurry.”
My heavy heart relaxed. “Thanks, Vincent. I’ll meet you there.”
But he had to get in one last dig. “You better be grateful, Ina. Because you are one stupid person to care about.”
He hung up before I could reply.
I inhaled a shaky breath. “I care about you too, Vincent,” I told the empty line.
Then I squirreled the phone away along with sentimentality. I mapped out the series of wisp channels that would get me to Eugene. My fingers grazed the lightning charm around my neck. It was my best chance of stopping Rafe. I wondered if I could alert Guntram and the others but couldn’t think of how. All these concerns crammed into every corner of my brain, leaving no room for much else.
Which is exactly why I didn’t notice Darby as I stepped out into the parking lot.
CHAPTER 20
TO BE FAIR, Darby didn’t greet me with a smile either. She went straight to weakening the gravel under my feet, causing cracks in the dirt. The ground broke under my weight, threatening to trap me in place.
Years of training caused me to react instinctively. My legs flexed away from the softening ground, fingers drawing a string of Ss that blasted me upward. I leaped in a wide arc back to stable footing, away from the crater that formed where I once stood.
Darby stood near the trees. We locked eyes across the distance. Rocks fell from her hand as she reigned in her earth pith.
“Darby,” I gasped. “What are you doing?”
“What Guntram can’t.” She slid her bare feet apart in a sigil stance. “What he refuses to do.”
She flung two fireballs at my head. I skipped backward to dodge them, wondering why she meant to burn me when I could walk through fire. I got my answer when she followed the flame with two arcs of water, creating steam that acted like a thick mist between us. I could no longer see her, but the shaking ground indicated she hadn’t gone far. I waited for it to crack beneath my feet, but it never did.
“We’re not enemies!” I shouted. “I know where Rafe is going!”
“Of course, you do.” Her voice drifted over me, slightly to my right. “You’re in league with him.”
The steam thinned out, and a vaguely human-shaped blob appeared where I’d heard her. “You think Nasci would send me the fox dryant if I was working with Rafe?”
Then the mist completely dissipated. It wasn’t her standing there but a pile of loose rocks made to look like her.
“Nasci does not favor traitors!” she cried, suddenly right behind me.
I didn’t have a chance to defend myself as a chunk of earth the size of a bowling ball struck the nape of my neck.
The defensive charm around my neck buzzed but did not shatter. It minimized most of the impact, which would have crushed my skull otherwise. Still, it left a big enough impression that my vision flashed as I whiplashed forward.
Darby didn’t waste my vulnerability, flinging more massive stones at me. Even in my daze, I darted to the side, only a few grazing me. I couldn’t let my guard down because I doubted the defensive charm could take another direct hit. I even managed to fling up rock walls between us to take the impact instead of me.
I scrambled to talk Darby out of her rampage. “Don’t do this!”
“I won’t let Tabitha’s killer go free!” Her hands flew in a swirl of square patterns.
Sluggish, I attempted to sidestep the ground attack, but Darby anticipated my move. Before I could dodge to the side, she seamlessly transitioned into a hurricane gale slashing down from straight above, pinning me to the spot. Then she finished her earth sigil, plummeting me waist down into the parking lot’s gravel.
I spread my arms out wide to anchor the rest of me from going under. I’d unburied myself before, but never with someone actively working against me, and definitely not someone with earth skills like Darby. If my hands became trapped in the dirt, she could easily wait out the rest of my air pith and suffocate me to death.
She stalked toward me, hands flying through another earth sigil.
“Darby, listen to me. Tabitha saved me in the lava. She doesn’t want this.”
“Don’t say her name!” Darby screamed. The ground shifted again, encasing me up to the armpits now. I barely managed some counter sigils to stop her from fully entombing me in dirt.
I thought about giving one final plea but decided against it. I was sick of her drama. “Fine,” I snapped. “You’re angry. It won’t solve anything. Trust me.”
She flung her arms up, raising a boulder the size of a wheelbarrow out of the ground. “Spare me your pitiful life advice!” she shrieked as it wobbled in the air. “You won’t talk your way out this time, Ina!”
I knew I wouldn’t. She would bludgeon me to death with that rock, and I couldn’t stop her. Darby was simply a more powerful shepherd than me. She’d earned it, training all those years under Tabitha’s grueling pace. In her fury, I couldn’t beat her with the standard four elements she’d already mastered.
I had to resort to the only one she hadn’t.
Grabbing the lightning charm, I let its pith sizzle up and down my pithways. It jabbed at my insides with its coarse edges. My hair rose with static electricity.
“Then I’ll zap my way out!”
Horror lit Darby’s eyes, probably saving me from a boulder to the face as she paused in her sigil strokes. I focused my aim on that boulder, hoping to contain the lightning by pulverizing it but not directly hitting Darby. Thank God Sipho had given me
this charm, otherwise I wouldn’t have pulled it off. Even so, I prayed the charm wouldn’t explode. I didn’t want to kill Darby.
But I also refused to die.
The parking lot vanished in a roar of brilliant thunder.
Then silence.
I blinked away the afterimages of lightning streaks, my vision slowly returning to normal. As darker colors crept from the outside of my vision inward, I saw crumbled dust falling like snowflakes all around me. As I coughed and breathed in tiny rock granules, Darby’s slumped over form appeared, face down with her hair splayed out over her fur-lined tunic.
“Hey!” I cried, buried up to the armpits and unable to check on her. Scribbling squares within squares, I half-wriggled out, half let the earth push me upward. I crawled on all fours to get to her side. “Darby!”
My fingers pressed down into her hair, finding her throat. A steady pulse. I let out a long breath, then gently, holding her spine straight, flipped her onto her back. She looked like a mummy with a layer of boulder dust spattered all over her front, but I didn’t notice any scorch marks. She had a nasty bruise on her forehead already turning purple. It must have knocked her out in the blast.
Hyperventilating in panic, I wasn’t sure what to do next. I focused on a soft crunching sound coming toward me. Glancing back toward the forest, I saw a deer striding through the settling haze. I recognized the branch-like antlers of the black-tailed deer I’d run into near the wisp channel. His depthless black pupils locked with mine in a gaze that appeared to judge me. His hooves drummed out a steady beat, stopping only a few yards away from me.
But the unmistakable sound of hoof steps continued. More shadows formed behind the first deer. As my heart raced, I counted no less than two dozen deer emerging to form a semi-circle, all their gazes on me. I helplessly held Darby’s head in my lap as these ghosts seemed to stand jury over what I had just done to a fellow shepherd.
Words refused to leave my heaving throat. “I-I…” I stammered.
The lead deer trotted forward, head bowed downward. I thought for sure he would stab me with his horns. I didn’t even bother to avoid him. I merely waited for the inevitable.