Soul Healer

by J. A. Culican

  “How was your ride with Sade?” I looked over at Beru, who seemed to be enjoying the walk in the woods as well.

  “Good. I hope. I have some things to prove to her, which will take time.” He smiled at me and kept whatever pace I lead.

  “I’m glad.” He seemed like the old Beru, more reserved and easy going.

  “The bigger question is where do you and I stand now?” Beru rode his horse closer to mine and lowered his voice so only I could hear him.

  “What do you mean?” I knew exactly what he meant. At least, I thought I knew. We hadn’t spoken about our impromptu kiss and the way Beru had been acting it was like he wanted to forget it happened.

  “I think there has been an unspoken question where our relationship was heading. I’d like to think it was going in the direction we both wanted before we arrived at the Island.” Beru’s gaze was intense yet friendly.

  This was the first time in a while he appeared to be back to himself.

  “I think that’s something that may come with time.” My cheeks warmed. We had to wait till this was all over—till we had nothing to fight but falling in love. I knew I wanted him, but I had to tell him I controlled where we went in the dreamwalk. That I had tried to break him so he would remember.

  “So, I haven’t lost my chance?” He smiled but kept his head down.

  “No.” I was sure there wasn’t an inch of my skin that wasn’t red.

  We rode on for a while with neither of us talking. It was awkward yet exciting. It was our first real talk about us, and it felt good to have it said out loud and not to wonder if he liked me or not.

  “You two okay back there?” Sade looked back at us.

  “Just enjoying the ride before whatever we have to face,” I called to her.

  Sade seemed to accept my reply, and she turned back to her conversation with Iri and Astor.

  Beru eased his horse over to give me more space. If we weren’t heading into battle, it would have been the most romantic walk I had ever been on. I glanced over at him and found, him observing me carefully. I caught his eyes as they roamed over my body. My cheeks flushed even brighter as I wondered what he was thinking about.

  “You feel up for fighting?” Beru changed the subject.

  “Yes. I used a lot of what you taught me in the raids. You would have been proud.” On our long trip, Beru and I had practiced fighting on our breaks. I was once even able to flip him on his back, even though he claimed he let me.

  He had taught me to fight smarter.

  “I’m glad. You’re getting stronger. Your reflexes quicker.” Beru nodded his head as he remembered.

  “I’ll be harder to beat next time.” I teased him, then felt angry with myself for keeping a huge secret from him and acting like we were going to move on like a couple. When he found out, he'd leave me. I had to keep it a secret until the prison was closed again. Then we could sit down and talk about it. Maybe, with more time away from the dreamwalk, he could forgive me.

  “I’m not sure about that.” He laughed out loud. “But I hope you do well today. And if not, I’ll always be close.” His voice turned serious.

  “Stand back.” Sade and Iri had abruptly halted ahead of us.

  We pulled on our reins to stop, andlistened to the woods. There was movement. It wasn’t close, but we were coming up on someone or something. Sade waved us to move over closer to them.

  “How far are we away from the village?”

  “Not far at all . . .” I stopped talking as another rush in the brush alerted us. It was closer. Whoever or whatever it was, knew we were there, and it sounded like it was making its way back to the village. We wouldn’t have the element of surprise on our side anymore.

  “We’d better make a move before they get back.” Iri pulled on his reins and took off down the path. We all followed, riding as fast as we could. We’d have to be ready for whatever we saw as soon as we arrived in the village.

  Chapter 14

  Sade and I split off from the boys, creeping toward the village to gather as much information about what was going on as we could. We snuck up to a thick patch of brush and lay down to wait. . It didn’t take long to find Widow had surrounded the village with her spiders.

  She pranced around the town center as if she were queen, around a dome spun from her web. With horror, I could see people trapped inside, and as we watched open-mouthed, her. spiders brought more villagers, crying and struggling as they were thrown into the spider web

  “Wow.” Sade murmured. “That’s impressive.”

  “Not for us.” I grimaced at her odd comment.

  “Sorry. I’ve just never seen anything like it.” She marvelled at the construction of the prisoner while I shook my head.

  “I want to get closer. I need to see if any of my family has been captured. Can you watch my back?”

  “Where do you plan to go?” Sade looked surprised I would want to go out there.

  “That barn.” I pointed to the closest hiding spot that wouldn’t expose me to the spiders.

  She gave me a nod and I ducked out from behind the brush and made my way to the barn. I dashed forward and looked at Sade, who gave me another nod. No one had seen me.

  I crouched down and moved closer to the dome. I hid behind a bushel of hay. My eyes scanned what I could see of the dome for any of my brothers or my parents. I saw neighbors who lived close to my parents’ farm, so I knew she likely had them captured as well, probably somewhere more secure because she knew I would come for them.

  My head jerked back as I caught a glimpse of Vinsha in the dome. She stood alone, and I wondered where her baby was. I couldn’t risk trying to catch her attention in case she drew attention to me.

  I sat back against the barn to process what I had seen. I speculated on where they were keeping Mother Ofburg. In my dreamwalk, she’d still been in her house. I got back into position and tried to see if I could catch a glimpse of her in the dome, but no luck. Widow had spun her web so tightly there were few spaces for anyone to see in or out.

  I tried to find Vinsha again, but it was useless. They were filling up the dome quickly, and it was becoming harder to see people inside as she built up the walls further. I crawled back to the brush where Sade was hiding out.

  “What did you see?” She wanted to know as soon as I was by her side again.

  “She has Vinsha. And some farmers that live near my parents.” I looked through the brush, trying to get a better view of the whole operation.

  “What about the baby?”

  “She was alone.” I turned back to Sade. “She must have my family. She has Mother Ofburg. She wants me. I can put a stop to all of this.”

  “Don’t fall for her trap. She’s strategic. We have to think this out instead of recklessly running out there and attacking anyone who dares to stop us.” Sade put her hand on my shoulder and squeezed.

  She was right. Widow had taken time to put this together. She had a brilliant mind, and we had to think like she would. There was a reason behind everything she did, and there was no doubt the scene before us was a trap.

  “Let’s head back to the others.” I started to rise, but Sade pushed me down into the grass and covered my mouth with her hand.

  Then I heard footsteps on the other side of the brush. I closed my eyes like I had when I was a kid and we were playing hide and seek. As if the finder could not see me. The footsteps stopped, and we held our poses, and our breath. Soon, they moved on. We waited for a while then Sade lifted her head a little to see if anything was still close.

  “We’re good. Let’s get back before we can’t. I don’t want the boys charging out here to save us.”

  I went first. I made my way farther back to some thick brush and waited for Sade to join me. Once she met me, we could afford to be a little louder as we made our way back to the boys, which allowed us to move faster.

  We came across the empty barn where we’d agreed to meet. The horses had been left deeper in the woods to lessen any noi
ses.

  “Finally.” Beru grabbed me, pulling me into his arms.

  He’d caught me off-guard, but I let myself melt into his embrace for one moment, wondering if it would be our last.

  “Sorry,” he mouthed to me whens I pulled back reluctantly.

  “We scouted as much as we could. They have a dome made out of Widow’s web. They’re holding people there.” I walked over to the desk and drew a floor plan of what I had seen in the dust. “Over here.”

  “She’s been here for a while, then?” Iri’s eyes were wide.

  “A few days at most. They are still gathering people. If they knew she was here, they would have run or already all be captured.”

  “There are lots of them. We would be crazy to go in there with just us.” Sade leaned over and watched what I was doing.

  “Can we make it to your farm? Get weapons there?” Iri reiterated the former plan.

  “They have my sister-in-law. They will have already been there and ripped every inch of it apart.”

  “No sight of Gavin?” Beru’s voice sounded worried as he looked at me from his corner of the desk.

  I shook my head and returned to my dust drawing. I fought off tears at the thought of Gavin having to defend himself against Widow and her army of spiders. He wouldn’t have been able to get away fast enough to save himself.

  “We’ll find him.” Sade pulled my head next to hers. “I promise.”

  I nodded, wiping away the tears I been unable to keep from falling. I needed to find my family, and the best way I knew how was to get this map down before I forgot where her reinforcements were.

  “We should bring help in to attack them.” Iri paced around the small barn.

  “Who?” Sade lifted her head up to him,

  “The D’ahvol. They would crush these spiders.” Iri slammed his hands together to emphasize the word crush.

  “You’re forgetting they hate everyone. Especially me.” I looked up from my work at Iri, surprised he had forgotten.

  “It was a thought.” Iri shrugged and continued to prowl around the room.

  I looked at my map and closed my eyes to remember what I had just seen. Where the dome was, where the guards stood, and what buildings they had taken over. I compared my visual memory to the map and nodded when I had accounted for everything. “I think that’s it.”

  I stepped back, and Sade took my place, looking at each point.

  “There was another guard here.” She marked an X on the spot and at the back of the dome she marked another X.

  “There’s no way we could get in there without being seen,” I mumbled, more to myself than to the others.

  “What about magic?” Astor spoke for the first time.

  He had been holding back since we left the ship. He was not a fan of fighting and wasn’t any good at it. It was better for us to have him behind protections so we wouldn’t have to worry about him.

  “I don’t know.” I rubbed my chin. I couldn’t count on Astor’s ability to do magic when it could risk our lives, but I wouldn’t tell him that. It would crush him.

  “I could put something together easily.” Astor practically knocked Sade over in his excitement.

  “Maybe, but we should think of other options too.” I looked at Sade, who stood out of Astor’s view and mouthed, “No.”

  I needed it to be quiet, so I could think, but it would be risky to walk outside. I tried to retreat inside my head, to drown out Astor who was currently proclaiming he would save us all. Sade stood there arguing with him and I couldn’t listen anymore.

  Beru stood off in the corner, keeping to himself and appearing to be deep in thought. Iri was still pacing the room, blocking out Astor and Sade when he passed them. I don’t even know why Sade encouraged Astor. He knew every string to pull with her and enjoyed it.

  “She needs me, Sade.” Astor roasted Sade with a smile.

  Sade gave him the dirtiest glare I’d ever seen and stormed over to Iri, who poorly hid a smirk. I pushed their silliness aside as I remembered another post by the water. I had seen at least three spiders spinning webs from there. It would be difficult making our way in from any direction.

  “Where is the most likely place for her to be holding your family or people she thinks you would come back for?” Sade focused her attention on me, trying hard to ignore the childish faces Astor was making behind her.

  “She could have another dome somewhere else. The web is sticky, so it would be hard to get through.”

  “We could set it on fire,” Astor piped in.

  “Then everyone would die.” Sade rolled her eyes.

  I wasn’t sure how much longer I could listen to them bicker while I tried to think of something—anything we could do without sacrificing ourselves. I stood back and looked at the map from another angle. There had to be a way to get in without being seen. She couldn’t have eyes everywhere.

  I walked around the table and looked at it from every vantage point. Nothing came to me. I went through it all again. She couldn’t have everything blocked off. There had to be a way in without her knowing.

  “What if I went in and acted like I was a farmer? I could make it to the dome and talk to people and then use magic to get myself out,” Astor suggested.

  “I’m tempted to let him,” Sade whispered in my ear.

  I smiled at her. “That’s a good plan. I’ll keep that in mind.” I went back to my drawing, and suddenly, an idea came to mind. I fleshed it out as Sade and Astor squabbled like chickens in the background.

  “I’ve got it.” I tried not to scream. “I know how we can get in without getting caught in a trap.” I beamed at my idea and felt foolish I hadn’t thought of it before.

  “Well?” Sade was clearly annoyed I hadn’t just come out with the plan.

  “I’ll dreamwalk but as a projection. I won’t use my body.” I smiled and waited for them to catch up.

  “You can do that?” Beru walked forward into the room from his corner.

  “I can still be there and not be seen.” I lifted my hands up and waited for them to ask the inevitable question.

  “Can we come too?” Sade seemed interested.

  “No. I’d go alone. I’d need all the energy I could muster for this.” I leaned over my map to study it.

  “I’m with you on this, but we need more details first.” Beru placed his hand on my back, and I could feel its warmth through my clothes.

  “You all need to be in a safer place. Somewhere far away. Then I will dreamwalk from there but only as a projection of myself, so I can’t be harmed if things go wrong.”

  Beru was the first to understand and agree with what I was saying. Iri and Astor didn’t say much, and Sade’s eyes were narrowed with displeasure.

  “What will you do once you’re in?” Sade crossed her arms, clearly unhappy with the plan.

  “I’ll go to Widow and see what she wants. Try to get information on Dag'draath to see if he is out or not. She wanted me to work with them. I could pretend that I am.” I watched as Iri came around to my idea next.

  “So, she couldn’t hurt you? In any way?”

  “No. It would only be a projection of my image, and I’d use less energy, so I could stay longer if I had to convince her we wanted to work together.”

  “Could we wake you out of the dreamwalk if we had to?”

  “Yes. It would be safe.” I knew I had to convince them it was the right plan, even if it meant I had to lie. I didn’t have enough experience with projection to have a definite answer for them.

  I glanced at my map once more. “Let’s head out.”

  Chapter 15

  We relied on Sade to find a safe spot where I could dreamwalk. She knew every crevice in the woods and all the places no else had ever been. We walked away from the village but kept on guard because the spiders were likely to be patrolling the woods so they could capture anyone they found.

  “It’s not much further now,” Sade called over her shoulder, as we walked single file in
the woods behind her.

  The brush was thick, and it was difficult to be silent as we walked. I broke off a branch from a tree to help hold the other branches back as much as I could. We needed to be mindful of how much noise we made.

  “It’s over here!” Sade called.

  The brush was too thick to see Sade, so I followed the path her body had made through the bushes. I pushed through until in front of me, I spotted the dark mouth of a cave. I helped the boys out of the brush with my stick and then we all went into the cave.

  “This will do.” I smiled once inside. We could see over the valley from inside the cave and see anyone coming way before they reached us.

  “I have some things hidden in the back. Not enough for everyone, but comfortable enough for you to dreamwalk,” Sade explained. “Iri.” She glanced over her shoulder. “Can you help me?”

  “Of course,” Iri answered gruffly as he walked deeper into the cave with Sade.

  “Hard to picture Sade living alone.” Beru put his pack down on the ground.

  “Not really. It took a lot of work breaking her in.”

  “I’ll be back. I’m going to erase as many of our footprints as I can.” Beru touched my arm before he left, and for a moment, I thought he would kiss me again.

  “I can do a spell.” Astor’s voice came from behind me.

  I almost jumped a foot in the air. “I know it’s been a while since you’ve had a chance to perform any magic, but maybe we can just keep it for when we need it.”

  “I have been practicing. Those walks I have been taking. I’m here and willing to do my part.” Astor looked defeated, and I immediately regretted my words.

  “I know. You’re an important part of this team, but you know how some of your spells have turned out. Not always the way you wanted them to.” I hated being the bad guy, but I had to come clean with him. He had to know how important this was. We couldn’t chance it on a failed spell.