Echoes

by Honor Raconteur

  “You came just in time,” I promised him, then relaxed and leaned back, perfectly confident he wouldn’t drop me. “We need to leave in about ten minutes to go up. Did someone brief you?”

  “Just that the cenebre had been stirred up and attacked the town, that’s about as much as we know,” Piper answered, coming around her brother to see me properly. She was ‘short’ for a full giant, meaning she was only eight feet tall, and slender. Piper had also won the earth-moving competition in Gargan for five years straight, which made her the ideal person for this situation. “How did this happen?”

  “I’ll tell you the story on the way up,” I promised faithfully as Quincy put me back down.

  Vaughn strode forward and called to them all. “Good, you all made it. Oscar, Rosa, you come with me. I’ll introduce you to the MISD agent in charge here. You’ll stay and help protect the town in case we fail tonight. Piper, you come with me. Quincy, Blaine, stay or go?”

  The two men shared looks, then did a round of rock-paper-scissors without any discussion. Quincy won, and he announced to his Elder with an admirably straight face, “I’ll go with Rena.”

  Awww, I was the prize? That was flattering. Either that or being able to take on legendary monsters was the real treat. Come to think of it, second option was more likely.

  “RENA!” Maksohm called to me from somewhere behind. I turned to look, spotted him sitting on the cart’s bench. Everyone else he’d already gathered, as it held Bannen, Chi, and Vee, with Maksohm at the reins. Emily was nowhere in sight, nor should she be, as she was still tending to the wounded from last night. For this, we’d all voted she was better off in town than up the mountain.

  “I take it we need to leave now,” I translated without any effort.

  We all moved toward the cart, and I could tell from the look on Quincy’s face that he didn’t think the giants would fit. I knew for a fact they wouldn’t. At least, the draft horses pulling the cart couldn’t manage that kind of weight while going steadily uphill. Not on that kind of incline. “You going to run up?”

  “I think we better,” Vaughn opined with the same dubious look on his face. “In fact, why don’t you four nap while we drive up? Maksohm will fill us in.”

  “That I will,” he agreed, turning on the bench and waving a hello. “Piper, Quincy, thanks for coming. I’m not sure how we’d manage this without you.”

  Bannen extended a hand, which I took, letting him pull me into the cart. I settled in at his side, glad they’d already arranged themselves so we could all more or less curl up along the floor of the wagon and nap. Vee and Chi faced one direction, Bannen and I another, and it was definitely a tight squeeze, but we made it work. We’d slept in tighter quarters than this. “Dag?”

  “Wade’s got him. He wants his eyes here on scene in case we don’t get back before nightfall. That and the kid needs to sleep. He lasted longer than most of the adults.”

  It was the safer option, to leave him here, and I was glad of it. Glad, too, that Bannen helped me keep track of him, as I apparently needed help in that region.

  I ignored the conversation between our giant friends and Maksohm as we headed out, the cart giving a single lurch as the horses got it in motion. The wheels on the paved road made a soothing, constant sound, and I could feel my eyes getting heavier by the second. I wasn’t at the point of true exhaustion yet, where my very bones ached, but that peeked around the corner. Better rest now, while I could. I might not get a chance to later.

  “I’m so tired I could eat a horse,” Bannen sighed, snuggling me into his side, adjusting us both so he could rest more comfortably.

  Chi was pillowed against Vee’s shoulder, and looked completely asleep, but muttered a response. “I identify as a horse and this offends me.”

  “I identify as offends and this horses me,” Vee added in, completely nonsensically, with a straight face. Her eyes never opened either.

  Bannen, not to be outdone, deadpanned, “I offend horses, identify me.”

  “I think the main question here is why you would eat a horse if you were tired?” I glanced between the three, expecting another round of nonsense, and was met by snores. Right. Clearly, that was their last hurrah before naptime.

  Closing my eyes, I settled down. I didn’t really fall into a true sleep, more like a deep doze, as sometimes when the cart hit a rut in the path, I felt it jar through me. But I never truly surfaced, either. It felt like fifteen minutes passed when someone tapped my shoulder, and I blinked, yawning and stretching like a waking cat. “We here?”

  “We are,” Quincy informed me, putting both hands under my armpits and lifting me free of the cart like a child. “So this is the site of madness, eh? You left everything behind when you ran.”

  “We did,” Bannen answered thoughtfully, face pulling into a frown. “Which likely isn’t helping our case any. Maybe we should pack it all up and send it down?”

  “Chi and I will pack it up and I’ll portal some of it down,” Vee offered. “Rena, maybe you can just destroy the rest? Like the tents and the camping gear up here, we don’t really need any of that. Just personal belongings need to be taken out.”

  She brought up a good point. It sounded perfectly logical, too. Her gamine grin matched mine because that wasn’t the reason why we thought it a good idea. Any further costs that we could incur to the negligently stupid company who’d caused this situation sounded good to us. “Let’s pack it up. Vaughn, just so we don’t get in the way, where do you plan to set up?”

  “On top, I think.” Vaughn’s eyes drifted over the area, and the incline of the mountain that covered my tunnel, measuring it. “Yes, I think that best. We can do Eagle Swooping Down that way.”

  Piper, Quincy, and Hugo all shared looks that spoke of excitement. I had no idea what exactly Eagle Swooping Down meant but I understood roughly what it referred to. Part of giant’s magic was not only being able to move earth, but to move it through coordinated efforts with other giants. Through the many centuries that they’d been practicing their craft, the giants had developed a series of movements, almost a dance step in order to achieve these coordinated results. I’ve seen them in play a few times before, the first being when we spent the holidays with Chi and Vee. It was highly impressive, actually. When the giants synchronized like that, every gesture, every step, every shift of their body weight was perfectly in tune with the rest of the group. It was stunning to watch visually. More so to watch on a magical level, as the sheer amount of force and energy they manipulated was breathtaking.

  Maybe if I was fast enough destroying things down here, I could properly watch while they worked up there.

  With that goal in mind, I quickly dove into the nearest tent. I shoved everything out that looked remotely like a personal belonging, then went to the next tent. Bannen followed after me, ducking through, and demanded, “What are you in such a hurry for?”

  “I want to watch them,” I explained, not even looking up. That suitcase, the blanket looked like a handmade quilt…yes, that was it out of here. “Shove this out.”

  “Really,” he drawled, snorting in amusement, “you’re moving this fast so you can watch them. Well, alright, I grant you it’s fun to watch. I’m not sure if you have enough time for that, though, they’re already partway up the incline.”

  Giants could move quick as a rabbit when they were of a mind to. I shot my husband a pointed look. “Maybe I will if you’ll stop yakking and help.”

  Holding up his hands in surrender, he bent to the task.

  Our own things, Bannen packed up instead of just shoving them outside of the tent. Chi and Vee did the same with theirs, of course, and I didn’t expect anything different. Even with me racing around, I missed it when our giant friends actually made it to the right area. Fortunately for me, they paused and yelled down a few questions to Maksohm, making sure they were dead center over the tunnel. It bought me the necessary time to destroy all of the tents, the cookware, building supplies, and any other odds
and ends still lingering. Aside from the suitcases of belongings, nothing up here indicated that humans had been camping out except for the remains of the cook fire pit.

  Turning, I craned my neck up to watch them. I couldn’t see everything from this angle—a few trees blocked my view—and I couldn’t see their feet at all. Still, I watched raptly as they all lifted their right foot, arms coming up and stretching out to touch their neighbors’. They were synchronizing with each other. Vaughn let out a low hum, so subterranean in depth it vibrated through the air.

  Then they moved.

  Their feet lifted to almost their chests and came down with an impact that shifted the mountain so forcefully I felt the aftershocks even where I stood. It didn’t move the tunnel, more like it woke up the mountain, saying: You’re moving soon, get ready. It was a call to action.

  As one, the giants lifted up into the air, graceful as dancers, their legs and torsos spinning, landing on one foot, arms spread up, one lifting above their heads. I saw the tunnel shake visibly, the air around it thrumming, the stone about the area shuddering as it shook itself loose of its moorings. If I didn’t know better, I’d say that the we’d be in for an avalanche shortly.

  They spun the other way, landing on the other foot, then lifted up, both knees rising into their chests, landing in a crouch before springing up again, arms lifting far above their heads before slashing down. All of the stone visibly moved when it did that, shifting up in a fluid motion, and not in a way I expected, as I thought they’d bring the roof down. Instead, they took earth from both sides, only some from the top, filling in the tunnel a foot in every direction.

  All four of them spun in place, lifting up and repeating that same sequence again, and the earth moved another foot and a half, more energetic this time. Then again. Again. I could see Wade and Quincy losing a little patience, and the next time they came down, it was with more force than before.

  I literally went flying.

  Bannen tried to catch me, but he’d lost his footing too, and we both went down in a tangle of limbs. Vee managed to keep her feet, barely, and she caught both Maksohm and Chi before they could go down.

  “Hey!” Vaughn scolded them. “We’re trying to collapse a tunnel, not flatten a mountain!”

  Bannen snickered in my ear even as he wallowed back upright. “I love that they can accidentally flatten a mountain.”

  “Let’s just hope they don’t, that will open a totally different can of worms.” Digging my elbow into the ground, I pulled myself into a sitting position but stayed on the ground. That suddenly seemed the safer place to be.

  Two more of the spinning, jumping movements and the tunnel narrowed down to something that I could barely pass through. Maksohm cupped his hands around his mouth and called encouragement. “You’ve almost got it! Another three feet or so!”

  It was actually more like four and a half…well. I don’t expect everyone to eyeball measurements like I do. Either way, I feel like they only needed to execute it twice more—whoops, make that once more, and they’d have it.

  With a call in unison, they touched hands, legs lifting up in a slight hop, this time more tempered than the previous jumps. They only went up about two feet before landing, and the ground jumped and skittered, the stone of the mountain shifting like mud until it closed up the tunnel entirely. Aside from the missing green detailing where the tunnel entrance had been, it was like I’d never worked any magic here at all.

  The giants paused, one leg up, perfectly balanced, their hands lifted up equal to their shoulders. Vaughn called down to us, “That do it?”

  “That did it!” Bannen assured him loudly.

  They didn’t just stop dancing, though. Each giant replaced his foot, gently, spinning in place and drawing their arms through the air in a swift glide. It was a thank you to the earth for responding to their call, an assurance that they were done, the earth was where it needed to be. Then they paused, stood still with heads bowed for several seconds, lingering in that pose.

  We all held our collective breaths. This had seemed like the opportune way to fix the problem, but would filling in the tunnel and removing any traces of humans here be enough? It hadn’t been a calm way to fill it in, they’d shaken most of the mountain doing it. Would the cenebre take further offense at that? Or realize it was a peace offering?

  The answer wouldn’t come to us for hours yet. I glanced at the sky, realized we had maybe four hours left to us before complete darkness hit, and rolled up to my feet. Offering a hand up to Bannen, I muttered, “Hopefully that worked and didn’t just make things worse. That was more intense than I figured it would be.”

  “It probably left the cenebre with ringing ears,” he agreed with a shrug. It was his eyes that gave away his own concern. “But it either worked or didn’t. Let’s get down while we can.”

  We passed the night in complete and utter stillness. I mean, literally, holed up in the church and Town Hall again, the entire populace holding their collective breaths. We were on shifts again with me taking first watch, Chi taking second, Rena taking third. Sometime about midnight, I more or less figured that the cenebre weren’t interested in coming after us. We’d apparently undone the damage, fixed our mess, insert other idioms here. The cenebre were appeased.

  When dawn broke out over the horizon, it felt anticlimactic in the extreme, but we were all so tired and grateful we weren’t about to look that gift horse in the mouth. I personally was so glad I could have cried. Instead, I raided my wife’s secret candy stash in the bottom of her suitcase, in the shoes that she didn’t think I checked, and popped several lovely pieces of caramel in my mouth.

  Dag, because he was a little boy, and thereby had the same nose as a bloodhound, immediately latched onto my side and gave me the closest approximation of puppy eyes I’d ever seen on a human’s face. Since we sat at the bottom of the church’s bell tower, squirreled out of sight of everyone else, I stared at him suspiciously. “How did you know?”

  “Heard the wrapper,” he answered promptly, then opened his mouth like a baby bird. Chirping noises included.

  “Will candy buy your silence?”

  His mouth went that much wider.

  Dubious about this, I popped a piece into his mouth anyway, watched as he smugly chewed. I hadn’t intended to share my stolen goods, but needs must. It wasn’t like much was left in the bag, anyway, only about a dozen pieces. We plowed through it pretty quickly.

  Rena, because she had terrible (or excellent, depended on how you looked at it) timing, popped her head around the doorway at that moment and ordered, “Scoot, I want into the suitcase.”

  I shifted my legs to the side and up the wall, back flat and my heels balanced on the stone so that my legs were way above my head. The stretch felt nice, actually, after a full night of being crammed into tight quarters. I paid no attention to Rena’s digging until she asked suspiciously, “Did you eat my caramels?”

  Silently chewing the rest of it, I finally swallowed. “First of all, I don’t appreciate your accusations.”

  She eyed the bag I’d shoved under my back, because of course nothing escaped her notice, and her expression went flat. “Bannen.”

  “Rena,” I returned benignly.

  “You owe me a bag of caramels, and if you’re wise, you’ll replace it before we leave.” The vein twitching near her eye indicated she would take her missing sugar rush out of my hide.

  I lived in a more or less constant state of danger so that didn’t alarm me. Much. Unduly. I chose to focus her attention on the other part of her statement. “We’re leaving?”

  “Dah’lil’s speaking with Director Salvatore now,” she unbent enough to explain, closing the latch of the suitcase with more force than necessary, “but the gist of it, from what I heard, was that they didn’t think we needed to stay up here. They’ll leave the MISD posted for a few weeks yet, just in case, but if the cenebre didn’t attack last night, they don’t think they will again.”

  “That’s
more or less what I think too.” Shrugging, I pulled myself around and twisted into a half-kneeling position, getting ready to rise. “Are we heading back down, then?”

  “Yes. Dag comes with us. The director wants to do the paperwork for him before we ship him off to Mary’s. That much I know for a fact.”

  I’d hoped to check on the house since we were so close to home, but alas, that didn’t seem to be in the agenda. Ah well. “Do we know for a fact that Mary will take him, then?”

  “Not yet, I still need to call and ask her, but fairly sure. Either way, Dag, you need to come down with us.”

  Dag shrugged, unconcerned either way. He had survived monster battles and had caramels for breakfast, all was right in his world at the moment. “Okay.”

  Leaving the suitcases for me to handle, Rena backed out of the narrow room, heading for the outside. She called out an all clear to people as she went, which I heard Vaughn echoing at a much louder volume next door. Wanting to get out before it became a grape press through the door, I snagged suitcases and boy, Dag skipping ahead of me and out the door.

  I barely cleared the stairs when I heard Maksohm call out in a no-nonsense tone, “Bannen!”

  “Oh deities, what did I do?” I asked, which was probably not the right response, but sometimes my mouth got ahead of me. Quite often, if I was being honest with myself.

  He gave me an odd look. “Yes, what did you do?”

  “You really think I’m going to confess if you don’t know?” Not that I knew why I said that to begin with. Maybe it was the caramels. “What, Maksohm?”

  Still with that suspicious look, which grew even more suspicious after I tried to deflect him, he made a sign that said he was watching me. “Did Rena tell you we’re leaving this morning?”

  “She just said that we’re probably leaving today.”

  “Director Salvatore has made it clear, he wants us down in Foxboro as quickly as possible. We’re hopping the first train over and catching a sleeper train.” An evil smile graced Maksohm’s face. “I gave him a full report of everything that happened up here and the Powers That Be are not pleased. They are taking the Greenway Railroad Company to court and charging them with negligence, failure to disclose vital information, fraud, and sixteen cases of murder through negligence. They also plan to sue for general damages. We—and that includes Vaughn—are the witnesses for the trial. We’re to head back and report in so they have material witnesses and facts to prepare the lawsuit for.”