“Livvy?” said her mom, approaching. “Is there something wrong with the conjuring?”
The outlines of the globular gray cell suddenly stood out more, as did the line that divided it. Livvy looked at her mom and held up a hand.
“Mom, stop.” She stopped.
“Now back up.” She backed up.
As Livvy watched the clouds, the blob wavered and its outlines disappeared. Soon, the usual churning and whirling had replaced it and lightning bursts lit the entire mass from within.
“Okay, Mom,” Livvy called. “Just wait there.”
Her mom stopped backing up and looked to the sky.
Livvy reached up her hand again. “Lightning,” she said.
The snaking band of white energy struck Livvy’s hand with a loud crack as the voltage traveled down her body and into the ground beneath her feet. Her hair rose in the static field and sparks showered down from her hand.
Relieved, she looked over at her mom, who took that as her cue to come back.
“No wait,” Livvy yelled over the buzzing and crackling.
Somehow the nearness of her mother had something to do with the lightning. A dozen images flashed through her mind. Had she ever called down lightning when someone besides a client was standing close? She tried to remember all the times she’d been networked.
“Is there a problem?” yelled her mom.
“No,” yelled Livvy. “Just wait there.”
There was no time to wonder about the lightning. It was here now and it was time to use it. She looked down at the pyramid and pointed her other hand toward it. A smaller bolt leapt to its tip and it started to glow. Livvy waited as the charge built up and the pyramid glowed brighter but the beam of light didn’t emerge.
“What are you waiting for?” her mother yelled.
“Nothing,” yelled Livvy. “I don’t know why the beam doesn’t appear.”
“More lightning,” her mother yelled.
Livvy closed her eyes, bowed her head and concentrated. She pulled from somewhere deep inside and called down even more energy. She felt it surge through her and slowly opened her eyes. She saw the sparks beginning to swirl around her as though caught in their own slow whirlwind. She stared down at the pyramid. Though it glowed brightly, it still hadn’t produced a beam. It was starting to drain her.
“Don’t stop now!” her mother yelled.
She didn’t want to stop but soon she’d have no choice. Heat was building up in her chest and the ground around her feet was starting to blacken.
Suddenly, she realized the problem.
“The ring!” said Livvy as she dropped her arm and the lightning disappeared.
Breathing heavily, she looked at her mom and waved her over. “The ring, Mom. I forgot we need the ring. You’re wearing it.”
Livvy bent down, trying to catch her breath, and thought about sitting.
Gods that had been hard.
She wiped sweat from her forehead but instead of sitting, she raised her head and glanced around the plaza. It was still empty but something seemed amiss.
The sky was full of clouds, as usual, and the windows of the tall buildings reflected them like mirrors. Without the lightning being channeled, you could have heard a pin drop.
Wait, she thought. The plaza is empty. When she’d arrived, she’d been relieved not to see Dominique, the other shamans, or a crowd of ancestor spirits but now she realized there was no spirit or ancestor traffic at all. None. It was deserted.
Still breathing hard, Livvy looked back at her mom, who was grinning at her. With an effort, Livvy stood up straight and looked down at the pyramid but the ring was still missing.
“Mom, what are you doing? We need the ring and we don’t have much time.”
Her mother held up the hand where she wore it, showing it to her.
“Mom, you’ve got to take the ring off so I can use it.”
“Well, that’s the problem,” said her mom, still grinning. “It’s not that easy to take off.”
“What? What are you saying? You haven’t even tried. Please, Mom, Dominique could be here any second.”
“Oh, I know. I’m counting on it.”
“What?”
The woman in front of Livvy broke into a chuckle. As though she were made of rubber, her face and body began to stretch and deform and then, starting from the top of her head, she began to open.
“Mom!” Livvy screamed but she took a shaky half-step back.
The split opened like a zipper, down the front of her mom’s face, then her body. Something was emerging from inside. It was…her mom. Without the support of the outer body, she fell back and hit the ground with a thud.
“Mom?” Livvy said, starting toward her.
The amorphous outer body hadn’t stopped moving, though. As Livvy watched, it stepped away and zipped itself up. The body was shorter and thinner and the young face that finally appeared had a sharp weaselly look to it. She peered at Livvy and smirked.
A movement at the lip of the fountain caught Livvy’s eye. A small green lizard that looked like an iguana was creeping among the paraphernalia. Its head was huge compared to its body and its eyes swiveled independently at both her and the other shaman. As it hovered over the amethyst heart, its color changed to a light purple.
A chameleon.
It was this shaman’s spirit helper. This shaman had impersonated her mother. But why?
She crouched next to her mom, who was starting to get up. “I was trapped inside,” she said, her voice trembling. “I tried to–”
“What a touching reunion,” said a voice from the other side of the fountain. Livvy didn’t need to turn to know who it was.
As she rose, Livvy helped her mother up with an effort and whispered in her ear. “I need you to run.”
“And you’ve also met my secret weapon,” Dominique continued.
Livvy turned to face her. Dominique nodded toward the chameleon shaman.
“Part decoy, part flypaper,” Dominique said. She motioned to her right and left. “The ambush you’ve seen before.”
Dozens of shamans, in twos and threes, were starting to enter from the surrounding buildings. The air was filling with the sounds of their animal helpers, who began to filter in from between the buildings.
“It’s win-win for me,” Dominique said. “She takes up your time and energy while you attempt a conjuring and fail. Or, if you succeed, she comes back with you and possesses your body. She’s very good at that, you know.”
The weaselly-faced woman chuckled.
Livvy half-turned to her mother. “Run now. Get inside a building,” she said under her breath.
The chameleon shaman joined the others with Dominique. They kept filing in. So many.
Her mom put a hand on her arm. “Livvy, I can–”
In a blur of motion, Livvy grabbed her mom around the waist, spun around, and launched her toward the nearest building. “Run!” she screamed and whirled to face Dominique.
“Let her go,” Dominique said to the chameleon shaman, who had started to give chase. “We’re done with her.”
Livvy glared at Dominique across the fountain. We’re done with her?
A sudden fury built inside and a crashing peal of thunder exploded above them. The shamans and spirit helpers in the plaza all stopped. For many of them, it was their first time in the presence of the lightning shaman. The water in the fountain rippled in concentric circles.
Livvy thrust her hand toward the sky. “Lightning,” she said, bringing the bolt down on her hand in a shower of sparks.
She raised a hand toward Dominique and yelled, “Leave now.”
Dominique looked at the fountain and the sky but didn’t flinch. “Torrent,” she yelled.
She extended one hand down toward the fountain and the other up toward the sky. Then she quickly brought them together in front of her as though she were closing the jaws of a crocodile.
A column of water jumped up from the fountain and joined one tha
t was descending from the clouds. The two forces slammed into one another as Livvy unleashed a lightning bolt. It hit the column of water creating a screeching and hissing explosion of steam. The bolt of electricity punched through it but was fractured into three tendrils. Two landed on nearby buildings, carving craters in their facades and raining down debris. The third landed in the plaza, scattering the shamans who had been nearby.
Livvy dropped her hand, breathing hard. Dominique turned her head toward the great raven and said something to it. With two great scoops of its wings, it was skyborne. An eerie wailing caw seemed to hover in the air. A group of shamans off to the left, behind Dominique, were now moving forward.
Livvy ran straight at her, leapt over the lip of the fountain, blasted through the column of water, and crashed into Dominique’s chest. She had a moment to register Dominique’s shocked expression as she grabbed her by the lapels of the duster, carried her with the momentum, and then landed on top of her, pinning her to the ground.
“Is this what you want?” she screamed.
In the next instant, Livvy felt a crushing weight hit her back that slammed her against Dominique and then the heat of a fireball. She ducked and rolled sideways.
“Rain,” she yelled, reaching to the sky.
The rain put out the fireball and, as she rolled to her feet, she saw another fizzle about four feet away.
“Icicles,” yelled Dominique.
In midstream, the rain turned to small white pellets of ice that rapidly grew larger. Elongated chunks were starting to land as Dominique ran for the nearest building. Livvy looked up just in time to see a large icicle descending directly above her. Only a desperate twisting motion kept her from being impaled as it grazed the front of her shoulder and clipped the outside of her thigh.
In the distance, she heard shrieks of agony and realized Dominique didn’t care if her own shamans got hurt. Enormous cones of ice were landing now, shattering like bombs all around. Plumes of water splashed up from the fountain and sloshed down into the plaza.
As she dodged and kept an eye on the sky, Livvy raised her hand to the clouds. “Whirlwind.”
An enormous funnel, almost black in its density, swirled above the plaza. Large and small icicles alike stopped in midair and then rushed up into the whirlwind with a great whoosh. When Livvy looked back to the building, Dominique was gone. She spun back toward the plaza.
In front of the fountain, three shamans were coming together. They faced her, interlocked their arms behind their backs, and opened their mouths simultaneously.
Livvy barely had time to cover her ears. The sonic blast rattled her vision. Everything vibrated–the ground, the air, her eyes–but Livvy didn’t wait for it to stop. Hands still over ears, she charged them. They had only just realized what she was doing when Livvy launched herself into a horizontal position and barreled into all three of them. She heard their grunts and exclamations of surprise as they flew backward and into the fountain. Livvy flung out a hand and gripped the rim to keep from flying in after them. As the swirling water covered the other three and drew them down, Livvy clawed with both hands to get a purchase on the stone lip.
Not yet! Mom is still here somewhere.
The water pulled on her legs, downward and to the side but, with a final heave, she hauled herself over the wide ledge. Back on the pavement again, she pushed herself up to a standing position. Without warning, a pressure wave burst on her left side, sending her sailing to the right, almost skating along the ground until her foot caught on something and she tumbled. Pain from the blow radiated from her left hip down to the knee. Ignoring the throbbing Livvy rolled into a kneeling position and raised her arm. This time the pressure wave came from the opposite direction, hitting her on the right side.
Two pressure shamans, she thought, panting. One on either side.
As she hit the ground and skidded, she heard the raven caw above.
The wind began to pick up and quickly grew to a howl. Livvy raised her head. Her hair whipped in the gale as she searched for the shamans responsible for these new attacks but a looming form in her peripheral vision got her attention–a wolf loping toward her. Buoyed by the wind, it made an incredibly long leap. Its fur rippled in waves as it sailed through the air. Not able to dodge, Livvy did the only thing she could. She raised her arm up between them. The gaping maw of glistening white teeth opened wide just before it clamped down in a sickening chomp. Livvy screamed.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
IN THE REAL world, Livvy sucked in a sharp breath.
“Liv?” said SK.
She let the breath out.
The beads of sweat he had watched forming on her temple coalesced into a trickle. Her jugular was pounding. When he looked toward her diaphragm, which seemed to be in overdrive, something on her arm caught his eye.
Blood?
He reached out his hand and, careful to avoid the small wounds that were appearing, gently grasped her arm.
“Lightning Shaman, Water Baby is here.”
• • • • •
The animal snarled in response to Livvy’s scream. Only inches from her face, the gray wolf pressed forward with her forearm in its jaws, black lips curling, the snout wrinkling and quivering with its low growl. The white teeth glistened with a faint red that Livvy knew was her blood.
Suddenly, the pain in her arm dropped a notch and she felt new energy flow into her.
Still kneeling, she did the unthinkable. She pushed, forcing her arm further into the back of its mouth. For a moment, their eyes locked. Its yellow irises blazed with the excitement of the kill.
Livvy slapped her free hand over the burning eyes. The wolf’s immediate response was to begin shaking its head, but Livvy’s intent hadn’t been to hide herself from view. Instead, she squeezed.
The beast’s growl gave way to a high-pitched whine. She pressed her fingers into the eye sockets, and felt the soft orbs deforming, then a sickening wet pop as her thumb penetrated the left eye. Her middle finger continued to push inward on the other eye. Its jaws gaped open as the wolf yelped and tried to back away.
Behind her, Livvy heard a new sound bearing down, growing rapidly louder–something with hooves, something galloping.
With her forearm now free, she rose up and tightened her grip on the wolf. The other eye gave in to the pressure but her thumb punched past the eye and into the brain. As though the wolf’s high-pitched whine had simply been shut off, the noise ceased and its body went slack.
The galloping behind her grew louder.
Still gripping the wolf’s head by the eye sockets, her newly freed hand grabbed it by the scruff of the neck. The pounding hooves were nearly on her now and, without looking, she spun and swung the flaccid body of the wolf in an arc.
As she came around, Livvy saw a bighorn ram thundering toward her. The wolf collided solidly with it even as her partnered spin with the wolf moved her out of the ram’s line of attack. The massive head, with its gigantic, almost circular horns, jerked sideways upon impact and there was a distinct snapping sound. Carried by its momentum, the ram sped by her but hit the pavement and skidded on its chin, its haunches doubling up behind it. Livvy let go of the wolf and it landed behind the ram, neither of them moving.
She tried to catch her breath as she clutched her wounded forearm.
Where is Dominique?
Where is my mother?
She caught sight of the fountain just in time for her vision to go instantly gray.
In every direction, a thick mist had materialized in the plaza. It has to be Dominique, Livvy thought. Even the fountain, though it had only been several yards away, had completely disappeared. Livvy felt outward with her hands and saw the moisture-laden air swirl around them. Up above, only the dimmest outlines of the tallest skyscrapers were still visible.
Well, if she couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see her, but it was going to make finding her mother all but impossible. Time to summon wind.
The raven cawed above he
r. She looked up to see it circling. Suddenly, she felt a hand on her left arm, then her right. A sharp blow behind the knees sent her straight down as more hands grabbed her neck, her shoulders and her hands. The fog slowly sank to only inches from the ground.
She was surrounded.
Livvy struggled but there were too many. Hands reached out to her from every direction. The shamans crowded in on her and even jostled one another to stake a claim. They jerked her in different directions with their frantic jockeying. Someone was tugging on her hair.
“Leave her for me,” she heard Dominique order.
The pushing and pulling stopped immediately, leaving Livvy frozen in place, gasping. Dominique shoved people aside as she made her way through the crowd, her boots swirling the heavy mist at ground level. She elbowed past the inner circle and came to a stop directly in front of Livvy. Livvy could only move her eyes to watch her.
Dominique favored her with a joyless smile. “Really, I should make this slow,” she said as she reached down and grabbed Livvy’s neck with both hands. “But I’ve seen too many movies.”
Despite Livvy’s labored breathing, the airflow stopped. In seconds, her lungs were burning. She tried to turn, twist, or move in any direction, but the only thing she managed to achieve was an even greater need for air. Dominique’s face loomed close and her hands squeezed tighter.
Livvy sensed her own lips parting but no sound escaped them. Blood hammered in her ears, pounding crazily. Each beat throbbed in her temples and pulsed in her swelling eyes. Again, she jerked but barely managed any movement at all. Dominique squeezed harder. The roaring in her head that had been unbearable gradually started to dim. She couldn’t feel the other shamans holding her, only Dominique’s hands on her neck. Her tortured lungs wanted to scream, but Livvy didn’t control them. They seemed to belong to someone else. She tried to look away from Dominique, but her eyes no longer responded.
Olivia Lawson Techno-Shaman Books 1 -3 Page 55