by DM Fike
And as our breaths began to mingle, a shrill ringing sliced between us like a knife.
We jerked away from each other so quickly, I accidentally slammed my back against the wooden futon arm, right in the kidney. Groaning, I rubbed the sore spot as Vincent whipped out his cell phone.
He threw me an apologetic shrug as he answered. “Hello, Officer Garcia speaking.”
Apology turned to alarm over whatever the caller told him. He rose to his feet, heading straight for his bedroom without so much as a backward glance in my direction. He closed the door behind him.
I sat there in mild pain and major irritation as I processed everything that had just happened. I’d almost kissed Vincent. A cop outside of shepherd circles. The guy my augur had told me explicitly to stay away from. And then he received a phone call and fled as if chased by vaetturs. What could have caused him to run off so quickly? Did he not want me to hear his end of the conversation? My mouth went dry as I thought it might be another woman, but I tried to push that awful jealousy out of my mind.
“It’s a good thing I’ve already had my period this month,” I snarled at the door. “Otherwise, I’d be really upset.”
The bedroom door was flung open again, and Vincent stepped out, dressed in a fresh uniform, still talking on the phone. “Got it. Got it. Be right there.” Then he hung up.
Ah, now I understood. “Duty calls?”
“Yeah.” He scurried over to the kitchen counter containing his wallet and ranger hat. “Wildfire.”
That got my attention. I straightened. “Where?” I demanded.
Wildfires were tricky situations for shepherds. While fires are a necessary component to a healthy forest, human mismanagement has made forest fires more dangerous than they should be. According to Guntram, back in the old days, shepherds would let a natural fire burn through a forest with little oversight, since a moderate amount of fire causes certain plant and animal species to thrive in the aftermath. But now, with the forest service suppressing fires in drought-ridden areas for decades, the dry forests are more like sticks of dynamite, waiting to explode. Some animals haven’t adapted to these new megafires, and shepherds now must evacuate as many endangered animals as possible from their path or risk losing a precious component of our fragile ecosystem.
“On the edge of Heceta Beach. But don’t worry, Miss Shepherd.” He threw me a reassuring smile. “A ranger caught it early and stamped it out. No need to call in the nature wizards.”
“Oh.” I sunk back into the futon, relieved. “Then what’s the rush?”
“They ordered me to investigate it since I’m on call. It might be manmade, possibly related to a recent vagrant issue.” He wore an expression that I couldn’t quite interpret. Regret, maybe? “Sorry I have to run off. It’s one of the crappy parts of this job.”
“No, I get it.” I got my disappointed butt off the futon and checked my clothes in the dryer. They were done. I ducked into the bathroom to get dressed (and use a real toilet one last time) and emerged ready to go.
Vincent herded me out of his apartment and locked it. I jogged down the staircase back to Vincent’s car, noting the sun creeping low in the horizon. Wincing, I knew I’d stayed a lot longer than I should have. I didn’t relish explaining to Guntram why it took me an entire afternoon to buy some batteries.
Vincent’s voice broke through my unease. “I don’t mind you dropping by.” He leaned over to give me a quick peck on the cheek. “In fact, you should do it again sometime.”
I could tell from his smug expression as he drove off that he loved the speechless look on my face. Yet, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy that fiery glow spreading all over my body. Whistling off-tune, I forged a path to the nearest wisp channel.
CHAPTER 4
GUNTRAM DIDN’T EVEN wait for me to return to the homestead before tearing into me. He made an educated guess which wisp channel I’d emerge from and waited for me, boiling over like an unwatched kettle. I materialized out of the blue lights only for his shadow to nearly scare me out of my skin as it latched onto my arm.
“Ah!” I instinctively tapped into my air pith and flung a wind gust in his direction.
Guntram barely twitched his fingers as he countered the air sigil with one of his own. “Where in Nasci’s great realm have you been?”
“Yeesh, Guntram,” I took a few step backs from his sullen face. “Do you want to give me a heart attack?”
“Only if you wish the same of me.” A raven flew down to perch on Guntram’s shoulder. “Fechin says you purposely lost him in the woods.”
“I told him you gave me permission to take a detour for batteries.” I reached into my hoodie pouch to show them to Guntram. “It’s not my fault he can’t keep up.”
The raven shrieked loudly at this, nipping at Guntram’s hair. Guntram grunted in response, then said, “Fechin takes offense at having his competency called into question.”
“I’m just calling it like it is.”
Fechin cawed angrily.
Guntram’s face mirrored his bird’s. “And if this was only about batteries, why were you gone so long?”
I raised my hands in surrender. “Okay, you caught me. I took a detour for food.” I pulled out a smushed bag of chips with a few crumbs left at the bottom. “See?”
Guntram wrinkled his flaring nose. “Disgusting. How you stand consuming that garbage is beyond me.”
“What can I say? I’m a shepherd of specific tastes.” I hoped I’d covered my tracks well enough that this would end the interrogation. I made a motion to walk away.
But Guntram grabbed me by my shoulder. “You didn’t visit him, did you?”
I fought against my quickening pulse. I feigned innocence. “Who?”
“You know who.” Guntram’s eyes narrowed. “Vincent Garcia.”
I decided to answer with a half-truth. “You know I can’t get in contact with him. How would I find him?”
“You’re stubborn enough to find a way,” Guntram answered accurately. “Did you?”
Hell. I had to lie. “No. And even if I did, what’s it to you, Jichan? The dude’s saved your bacon multiple times now. You know as well as me that without him, you’d either be cockatrice chow or mishipeshu meat.” I listed both vaetturs that Vincent had helped me locate, which in turn had enabled me to save my augur.
“He’s not one of us. And before you say anything about your parents”—he cut me off with my mouth open—“that’s an extreme exception I make given your unusual background. Knowing how much you grumble about them, I’m confident you don’t tell them much about Nasci. This Vincent Garcia, however,” he lowered his voice, “knows more than he should.”
“And has done absolutely zero about it,” I pointed out. “Vincent even knows where the homestead is. And yet, have you or anyone else ever seen him around here since?”
Guntram did not answer my question because he knew it would bolster my case. If Vincent really wanted to harm shepherds, he would have done so by now. My augur released my shoulder.
I nodded. “Exactly. So please, don’t accuse me of keeping secrets. Not when you openly flaunt yours.”
“What are you babbling about?”
“I’m talking about that weirdo breach.” Now it was my turn to make Guntram uncomfortable. “What’s going on with that, Guntram? What happened with the vaettur that made that thing?”
“I sealed the breach, so everything goes well there,” Guntram hedged. “I doubt we’ll find the vaettur associated with it, but I have sent word to the Oracle simply as a precaution. It is probably nothing.”
The mention of the Oracle made me inhale a sharp breath. She’s the lead shepherd of the entire Talol Wilds, the person who calls the shots on all major decisions. Guntram never bothered her unless the situation called for big guns.
“Then it is important!” I cried.
Guntram threw his hands in the air. “Why do you bother asking questions if you never listen? I said, it is likely nothing.” Th
en he stalked away from me.
My augur no longer seemed interested in grilling me on Vincent. Quite the opposite, he wanted to get away from me as soon as possible. It was a victory of sorts, but I couldn’t help but jog after him.
“But if it is something, what could that be?”
“You will only hear more if you need to know more,” Guntram said with a tone of finality. That’s augur-speak for ‘shut up, Ina,’ so I simply followed his stubborn hide all the way back to the homestead.
* * *
Guntram’s avoidance of me lasted all of one evening. He woke me the next day in the pre-dawn hours for a round of sigil practice. We fell into an all-too-familiar pattern—early breakfast at the lodge, then warm-up water practice in one of the homestead’s ponds. He kept drilling me on the underwater breathing sigil even though I’d proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’d mastered it. Then we rotated through a sigil routine of the other elemental types—a mini-wind funnel, rock fling, and large fireball. The only thing we never practiced on-site was lightning, deemed too likely to cause unintentional property damage.
After lunch, Guntram allowed me a short break so he could spend some quiet time alone in the library. I reveled in this mild reprieve. The homestead—while crude with its lack of electricity and indoor plumbing—had lots of hidden gems. I could soak in the hot spring to relax. Go back to my room and take a proper nap.
But I ultimately decided to pay Sipho a visit.
Sipho took care of all aspects of the homestead, everything from tending the gardens to mending fences to jarring jam. But she really excelled at forging, the art of enchanting objects with pith. She’d crafted the little metal charms that jangled from my neck, allowing me to have extra pith stores outside of my body, invaluable in a vaettur battle. She constantly tinkered around in her workshop, and in fact, she’d promised me something special when I last left the homestead.
I found Sipho at her forge, a hybrid barn and cabin building near the center of the homestead. Smoke billowing from the brick chimney told me she’d be inside. I’d barely made it across the threshold when Nur, one of Sipho’s mountain lions, pushed his light-colored fur up against my legs. Basically a large version of a housecat, I had to pay a heavy scratching toll before Nur would let me pass. Then he plopped back down for a nap on a cushion next to the door.
Sipho didn’t notice me at first, her back to the front doors as she crouched over a workbench. She wore a pair of headphones, faint beats of 90s dance music escaping as they crushed her bun braids. Sipho had confiscated my headphones as contraband, but when I demoed their capability, they ended up being her favorite taboo pastime instead. Now I supplied her batteries so she could sway to the rhythm of cheesy tunes when the other shepherds weren’t looking.
Rather than calling out to Sipho, which I knew from past experience wouldn’t work, I plopped down on a bench across the table. She sensed the vibrations and flinched in surprise, staring guiltily upward.
Until she realized it was just me.
“Ah, Ina.” She removed her earpieces. “I saw Guntram slip into the library. I thought you might come by. Behold!” She removed a thumb-sized metallic cylinder from underneath a stationary magnifying glass, one of her crucial etching tools. She had carved tiny sigils I didn’t recognize into the cylinder’s silvery curves.
Sipho had the proud bluster of a newborn mother, but I didn’t understand the baby. “What is it?”
“This,” she paused for dramatic effect, “is a prototype for a lightning charm.”
My eyes widened. “What? Shut up! How can you make something like that? I thought I was the only one who could bring on the lightning.”
“You forget, a shepherd absorbs pith into their very essence, but a forger like myself merely transfers it.”
“Even lightning pith?”
“What is lightning pith to me?” She scoffed. “I can hold it as well as fire, earth, air, or water, which is to say, I can’t at all. All I do is enchant objects. I’ve been experimenting with your batteries.” She snagged a wicker basket from the ground, overflowing with AA batteries. “It’s taken some trial, error, and not a small amount of research, but I’ve finally discovered a way to create a charm to hold this unique pith.”
I whistled for two reasons. One because I’d had no idea Sipho had so much talent that she could manipulate an energy that even the Oracle couldn’t touch, and two because I’m pretty sure all those dead basket batteries represented a month’s worth of music juice.
Sipho must have been thinking about the latter because she patted her Walkman. “The only disadvantage is that I’m draining my last set of batteries.”
I reached into my hoodie pouch and gave her the ones I bought in Florence. “This is totally worth the exchange if this thing works like a charm.” I grinned at my own joke. “Pun intended.”
Sipho ignored my cleverness as she placed the charm into my open palm. “I’ve managed to fill it with four batteries’ worth of pith.”
I stroked my thumb across the charm much like I would a battery, zigzagging to charge up its lightning pith. A strong electric current hummed inside. It did indeed feel like quadruple the strength of a single AA.
“That’s so cool.” I unclasped my charm necklace with the intent of adding this new addition. “I can’t wait to try it out.”
Sipho frowned and grabbed the necklace right out of my hands. She stood up and strode across the room to a doll-sized set of drawers that held reserve charms.
“Is something wrong?” I asked as she opened up a cabinet.
“Your defensive charm seems a little worn.” She removed a thumbnail of metal and added a newer, large one onto my necklace. “It would be better for you to have a completely pristine one. Just in case.”
I didn’t like the sound of that. “In case of what, Sipho?”
“The lightning charm misfires. The new charm is experimental, so I am sure there will be kinks. We are playing around with Nasci’s rarest, arguably most powerful, element. Better safe than sorry.”
My enthusiasm for using this so-called lightning charm waned. “Sure, Sipho.”
Across the room, Nur jolted awake, his head craned toward the half-open door. He rasped low in his throat before pouncing onto his paws, streaking out the door.
My heart skipped a beat. The cougars guarded the homestead, and they didn’t tend to expend unnecessary energy. If something had put Nur on alert, it must be serious. Sipho and I dashed after the cat.
Nur raced toward the plain wooden building that housed the library, Sipho and I not far behind. As if summoned by the frantic feline’s approach, Guntram bolted out of the library’s doors. He squinted up at the sky, hand held to his temple. A cawing raven appeared above us, diving down toward the ground. The bird spread her wings at the last second to slow her descent and landed smoothly on Guntram’s outstretched forearm.
The cougar reached Guntram and curled down to his haunches, waiting as Guntram and the imprinted raven communicated inside their minds with one another. Horror crossed my augur’s face. He flung his arm out so the bird could take flight.
“Show me the way!” he commanded. The bird screeched, taking back into the air.
Sipho took a step forward. “What has happened, Guntram?”
Guntram’s jaw tightened. “A forest fire. Ina and I must go. Now.”
CHAPTER 5
GUNTRAM LED THE way deep into the Siuslaw National Forest that flanked the Oregon Coast’s eastern edge. We rushed over pine needles, underneath conifers, and between wisp channels. Another fire. I couldn’t help but make a connection to Vincent’s sudden emergency call.
“Did a person start the fire?” I asked
“Worse,” Guntram called over his shoulder. “A vaettur.”
I nearly tripped over a tree root. Sure, there were fire-based vaetturs, but they generally used their fire to capture prey like dryants. I never heard of them burning down a forest. That would kill off a bunch of living things they co
uld snack on. It ran completely contrary to their goals.
“That makes no sense!” I cried.
“Nevertheless, it’s true,” Guntram said before jumping through a final wisp channel. I leaped after him.
On the other side of the twinkling lights, smoke assaulted my throat and stung my eyes. I drew a fire sigil to lessen the burning sensation, then an air sigil to build a fresh air bubble around my head before I could get a good look at our destination. Despite soot darkening the sky, drizzling bits of ash, I recognized the area as the meadow where Guntram and I had been practicing lightning pith the day before.
“Guntram,” I said slowly. “This vaettur-based forest fire wouldn’t have anything to do with that weirdo breach, would it?”
“Don’t worry about any of that. Other shepherds are dealing with the vaettur.”
So basically, Guntram told me yes, this has everything to do with that nasty breach. Before I could ask any follow-up questions, though, the wisp channel light grew bright behind us. We barely had time to skirt out of the way before Darby and Tabitha, the Sassy Squad, materialized.
My least favorite shepherds burst onto the scene like gorgeous lifeguards to the rescue, all choreographed poise and arms up, ready to cast sigils. Tabitha, the taller of the two, removed the hood of her fur-lined cloak, not a honey-colored hair out of place. Her sharp blue eyes assessed every detail of the smoldering forest until they came to rest upon me, the true enemy. She scowled in response.
Darby, for her part, mimicked her augur’s scouting routine, complete with scorn in my general direction. Ringlets of platinum hair fell down on each side of her symmetrical face, the spitting image of a high school mean girl.
“What are you doing here?” Darby demanded.
I slapped on an expression of mock confusion. “Gee, I don’t know, Darbs. Maybe because there’s a fire?”
“Silence,” Tabitha hissed at me, before turning to Guntram. “I’m surprised to see you here, given the circumstances.”