by DM Fike
Once submerged, it pulsated with that soft blue glow again, an imitation will o’ the wisp. I inhaled sharply as I realized the sweat on my hands must have activated it back in my bedroom.
I waded barefoot in after it. I kneeled down, making sure not to get my butt drenched as I crouched over the stone. If this thing behaved like the others before, then executing an underwater breathing sigil should take me to the other kembar stone that connected with this one.
I hesitated. I’d never felt threatened by Rafe. He could have hurt me any number of ways as I snoozed unconscious at the hospital. But he had been content to keep me company until I awoke. Still, it was a whole other leap of faith to teleport myself to wherever he wanted me to go. In the middle of the night no less.
But then, what else could I do? I couldn’t just ignore this stone, and given how little Guntram trusted me, I couldn’t tell him about it without risking further wrath.
So, I did what I do best. I forged ahead. I plunged forward in the water so that my entire front side submerged into the pool. I let my mind go blank and executed a perfect underwater breathing sigil, complete with continuous pith flow. The kembar stone reacted by spinning me around in its strange undertow, much deeper than the lodge pool itself, and within seconds, it transported me far away from Sipho’s homestead to the stone’s sister site.
CHAPTER 18
I’D TRAVELED THROUGH a kembar stone once, and it had led me from the depths of one lake into another. I expected to find myself disoriented in a large body of water needing to find my way to the surface.
Instead, I wound up cramped inside a half-filled bathtub.
Caught completely off-guard, I attempted to stand, but my bare feet slid on the slick white porcelain. I managed to grab a handful of plastic curtain, only to have that come crashing down on my head as I yanked too hard and dislodged the shower rod. I fell in a heap, entangled in several sheets as I splashed in six inches of water. Kicking and yelling, I didn’t even realize someone was trying to help me until the entire bundle flew away from me, exposing my night-accustomed sight to an intense white light.
A disembodied voice broke through the glow. “Ina, calm down. It’s me.”
I squinted, shapes slowly coming into view. A dark shadow formed into pretty boy Rafe wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and jogging pants. He offered a hand to help me stand. I noticed a nondescript toilet and sink behind him as he heaved me out of the tub. He supported me as he led me, dripping onto the hard carpet of a small bedroom. A queen bed adorned with an ugly blue and pink floral comforter dominated most of the room. Beside it, a microwave lounged atop a dorm style fridge. Opposite the bed, a square stand held a TV. A worn table rounded out the bland ensemble.
“Where are we?” I asked as he escorted me to the table’s upholstered chair. He didn’t seem to mind that I dripped a trail of bath water behind me.
“My motel room in Florence. I’m glad you decided to come.”
I leaped back to my feet and threw open the outside door of the room. A parking lot, half-filled with vehicles, stretched on toward a road, flanked on all sides by long brown buildings with evenly spaced doors. The far end of one building had a sign saying it housed an office and an indoor pool. On the road, a sedan’s headlights whizzed past, and I could make out two lanes going in either direction, with a turning lane in between. It must have been Highway 101.
“Believe me now?” Rafe asked.
I twirled around and said louder than I intended. “You connected the kembar stone to here?”
A loud thudding on the wall interrupted our conversation. “Shuddup, you two!” a man’s voice growled. “I’m tryin’ to sleep!”
I cringed in embarrassment, but Rafe scowled. “What a jerk. Come, Ina.” He grabbed a flat map from the table, shooed me outside, and locked the motel door. “Let’s go for a walk.”
I assumed Rafe would take us out to the sidewalk that lined the highway, but he surprised me by walking behind the most remote building of the motel complex. A decent-sized wooded area lay behind it, not quite as invigorating as an old growth forest but wild just the same. I would have enjoyed it a lot more with my hiking boots, though. Every so often I’d step on a pointy twig with my bare sole and wince.
Once we’d receded far enough into the trees, Rafe took a deep breath. “Doesn’t that feel better?”
It did. The air pith felt purer back here, the trees a natural filter. But despite the full moon, little light made its way down to the ground.
“Dark though,” I said.
Rafe raised his free hand, and before I could guess his intent, he drew a cross with a vertical line. A little flame shot from his fingertip, glowing for a few seconds before petering out completely.
“I wish I had a better light,” he said.
I gasped. “You can draw fire sigils!” I lit my own fingertips for a sustained flame.
A hint of sadness lingered on Rafe’s lips. “I can only perform a few basic sigils, and even then, only for a very short time and with the aid of this.” He pulled back his sleeve to show a chain metal bracelet strapped above his elbow. Four thin slats of metal hung at intervals, each with a carved symbol that stood for a different element.
“Are those charms?” I asked incredulously.
Rafe nodded. “I can’t hold pith in my body like you can. When I harvest it from vaetturs, I have to store it in these.”
My mind reeled with a thousand questions. “Where did you learn so much about shepherds? And how did you make the charms and kembar stones? Those aren’t ‘basic’ by any stretch. They require complex mastery above even me.”
Rafe folded his arms and studied me carefully. “You can find knowledge if you look for it. There are others like me who’ve figured out how to craft items such as these.” He pointed to both his charms and the stones. “I’ve used the kembar stones in recent months to make travel in the area more convenient for me. They’re laid out all over the state, although some have recently gone missing.”
I held back a gasp. The missing stones had likely been due to Guntram, who had destroyed the mishipeshu’s kembar routes that we knew about. I had known deep down that someone else besides the mishipeshu or long-ago shepherds had created those things. It made so much more sense.
Still, the thought that others out there could manipulate the elements like shepherds put me on edge. “If you can do all that, what do you want with me? Why bring me here?”
“Because we have a common enemy.” Rafe unfolded the map he’d grabbed from the room. Inside contained the topography of Oregon. He spread it out under my fingerflame so I could see where he’d written on it in permanent marker. I recognized all the places he’d marked on the map.
“You’ve been following the fire demon too,” I said, pointing to the logging operation where we’d taken it down.
“Fire demon?” Rafe asked confused.
“You know, the big ugly fire shadowy thing? No hands and feet? Creepy eyes?”
“Ah,” Rafe said, understanding lighting his face. “You call it a demon. I call it a golem. And yes, I’ve been monitoring the golem too. It’s connected to the bull vaettur after all.”
“How so?”
Rafe raised an eyebrow. “Shouldn’t you know this already? Haven’t the other shepherds told you anything about it?”
I sighed. “No. They said an eyas like me doesn’t need to know.”
Rafe threw me a sympathetic smile. “I thought as much. Shepherds do love pulling rank. Let me fill you in then. This,” he indicated the trail where I’d met him, “is where our trouble started. I assume since you were in the proximity, you found the odd breach?”
“Yes.” I shivered, remembering the awful buzzing sensation. “It didn’t feel like an ordinary rip between dimensions. Something about it was different.”
“That’s because humans caused it.”
My breathing froze for a moment. “What? How is that even possible?”
Rafe narrowed his eyes. “It’s po
ssible because humankind does not care for Nasci at all. Surely you’ve noticed how someone had already violated that patch of earth?”
I remembered the trashed, illegal campsite. “Yeah, it was pretty bad.”
“Destroying Nasci’s natural world isn’t just a direct attack on her. It’s also a weakening between her world and Letum’s. Imagine removing the barbed wire from atop a fence. With one layer of defense gone, you can scale the fence, and voila! You’re inside.”
“But vaetturs generally appear in the woods, as far away from people as possible. I’ve never even heard of a vaettur attacking anywhere near a town until the demon, I mean golem, in Mapleton.”
“Normal vaetturs don’t,” Rafe agreed. “They hunt animals and dryants for pith. But the stuff coming out of these breaches—” he flicked his fingers on the various attack points on the map, “—they don’t act like normal vaetturs. They’re more vulnerable to Nasci’s power. They don’t have the skills to create breaches themselves. They can only cross where vile humans have interfered. And in a twist of irony, they must also prey on the weakest of Nasci’s creatures.” He paused to pierce me with his gaze. “They stalk humans.”
I ignored his talk of human vileness. I was used to hearing that kind of talk from other shepherds. I focused instead on his more shocking statement.
“You think they’ll actually hurt people?”
“Consider what happened, Ina. The golem appeared right outside Mapleton before you scared it off.”
I pointed at another spot on Rafe’s map circled in black, connecting the dots with him. “And then it tried to take down a clearcut logging operation full of workers.”
Rafe nodded. “It was targeting people.”
“There’s still something I don’t understand. We banished the bull, but we couldn’t do that to the golem. We had to…” I searched for the right words. “…siphon off its fiery magic. Make it dissipate.”
Rafe had an answer for everything. “That’s because a golem is a special kind of creature. A being of pure pith. Golems must be ripped apart by their very essence.”
I bit my lip, filtering all this new information in my head. This went against a lot of what Guntram had always taught me about Letum and the vaetturs that invaded our world. And yet, it also connected the pieces of the broken puzzle I’d been unable to understand.
“Well, the weirdo breach is sealed, the bull’s banished, and the golem taken care of. We’re in the clear, right?”
Rafe gave me the chills by shaking his head. “There’s another golem on the loose.”
“What?” I cried. “How can you know that?”
Rafe’s calm demeanor cracked, anger marring his face. “Because I’m not a nobody!” he shouted. He then took a step back, composing himself. “Sorry. I get carried away. Shepherds believe they understand everything, but in truth, they comprehend very little. And their actions may very well doom all of us.”
Unsure how to react to his shifting moods, I asked, “What do you mean?”
“Shepherds focus mostly on what’s happening in the natural world. They want to believe in a strict order, but life is too complex for such simplistic categories. There are people out there, like me—” he flashed fire at his fingertip once more, “—who don’t fit so neatly into one of their boxes. But we have value too. We deserve a chance to protect Nasci in our own ways.”
I sympathized with Rafe. I may be a shepherd, but I came into it via untraditional methods, much older than other eyases. As Tabitha loved to point out, I was a “haggard” who began training as an adult. If Guntram hadn’t believed in me despite this supposed flaw, I’d probably be living some meaningless life, still seeing dryants occasionally on a hike, wondering if I was going crazy.
I grabbed the back of his hand holding the map. “I get how you feel.”
Rafe gazed deeply at me. He put a second hand on top of mine, so that my fingers became sandwiched in between his. “Thank you.”
Blushing, I withdrew my hand. “What do you know about the other golem?”
Rafe reopened the map. “I encountered it at the logging operation. It got away before the other shepherds noticed, but it roams the area yet. Given the trajectory of its recent activity, I think it’s heading west.”
“West?” My eyes drew a line from the bull attack to Mapleton to the logging site. “There isn’t much left west to go, but…” I trailed off in horror.
“Yes.” Rafe nodded. “Florence.”
Like most coastal towns, Florence butted up against a major forest. My blood ran cold at the image of that fiery monster torching up a place where nine thousand people called home.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“It’s been my experience that these things are drawn to the largest concentration of people. They found Mapleton first, the nearest town to the breach, then moved onto the clearcutters. There’s really nowhere else to go.” He smoothed out the map once again. “Except Florence.”
“You think we should stake out Florence?” I asked, frowning.
“No, I think you should.”
“You mean shepherds?” The thought of asking the others to help me monitor people produced a dry laugh. “The other shepherds don’t care what happens to normal towns.”
“Then you’ll have to do it alone.”
I scooted away from Rafe. “Look, I love the confidence, but you’ve got the wrong shepherd. I saw how much sigil work it took three shepherds of higher rank than me to take down the first golem. I don’t have those kinds of fire skills, and my lightning does nothing to these things.”
“You don’t need any of that,” Rafe said. “You should simply absorb the golem’s pith.”
“Yeah, about that. I tried that with the last golem.” I shivered, remembering how awful it had made me feel afterward. “Not a good idea. That stuff messes with you.”
“Vaettur pith is a kind of poison, but you’re strong enough to withstand it with the right tools.” Rafe removed the bracelet from his elbow. “Here, take this.”
I backed up a step. “Why?”
“It will allow you to store Letum’s energy in a purer form, taking the edge off a little.”
I refused to touch the bracelet. “No, I can’t.”
“I can’t do the things you do, Ina. My magical capabilities are very weak. I can only absorb so much vaettur pith.” He pointed straight at my heart. “But you’re near legendary. A shepherd that can master lightning. You could absorb the entire fire golem and lock its power within this charm, no problem.”
“But that’s yours.”
“Then borrow it. You can always give it back to me when you’re done.”
I couldn’t see any harm in taking the charm. I didn’t have to use it unless I wanted to. Still, I hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“You are the only one who can do this task,” Rafe insisted. “By your own admission, the other shepherds won’t come. I’ve tried and failed. Normal people can’t even see these things. Either you do it, or the fire golem has free reign over Florence.”
He had a point. I couldn’t offer any other option either.
“Okay.” I took the bracelet from him. It weighed heavier than the charms around my neck, more clunky. I adjusted it around my own arm.
Rafe walked me back to the motel. He told me he would be here when I’d finished attacking the golem.
“Won’t you come with me?” I asked.
But Rafe shook his head. “I’m vulnerable without my charms. I would be as useful to you as a can of gasoline fighting against fire.”
“Then I’d better go back and get prepared.” No way would I go vaettur hunting without boots. I headed for the bathroom, stepping back into the tub. The kembar stone glowed between my toes. “Wish me luck.”
He touched my arm. “One last thing. Promise you won’t tell the others about me.” A melancholy expression crossed his face. “I doubt the other shepherds would want someone like me interfering in what they consider their own sacred
duty.”
I had no intention of telling anyone about Rafe. “Okay. I won’t. I promise.”
Rafe gave me a soft smile, then leaned over to whisper. “Good luck, Ina. I have faith in you.”
I didn’t reply, laying down as best as I could in the cramped tub. I drew the underwater breathing sigil and ducked my face into the water. My head spun as I clenched the kembar stone in my fist. I should have been concentrating on the possible fight ahead and how I would possibly be able to take down a fire golem by myself, but instead all I could hear was Rafe’s whisper in my ear.
Someone who believed in me for a change.
CHAPTER 19
THE STONE PLOPPED me as a wet mess in the middle of the lodge pool, but anticipation flowed in my veins despite the indignity. I hid the kembar stone in the driest place I could think of, a high cupboard in the kitchen. I had to stand on the stone countertop to shove it back as far as possible, but once there, I felt confident no one would find it. You couldn’t even see it at ground level. Satisfied, I grabbed some dried fruit, laced on my hiking boots, and skipped outside, hoping to escape the property as quietly as possible.
The homestead remained fast asleep in the pitch darkness, save for a flickering light in the library. A shadow passed by the open doorway. I could make out Guntram rummaging around inside. He’d apparently gotten up and went right back to work on his project.
A teeny part of me wanted to run and tell him everything—how I knew all about what the golems were and I had a plan to stop another one. But Guntram had made it crystal clear that I’d been in the wrong to save the geezer in Mapleton. He’d never understand, and I wouldn’t let him discourage me from saving other people too.
“I’m doing the right thing, Guntram,” I whispered to his silhouette. “Even if you don’t think so.”
Veering toward the south, a flurry of movement caught my attention. A score of ravens roosted on the library roof, mostly around the eaves with their beaks tucked into their heads. One young bird, however, had clearly been tasked with keeping watch toward the lodge, probably for me. Head listing as he nodded off, he nevertheless saw me and gave a brief squawk, flapping his wings in my direction.