Feral Magic (10 page)

The day was gorgeous and the heat abated as they moved into the foothills, then up the brown rock canyons.  Dry yellow grass highlighted the deep green of conifers.  As they neared the town of Idaho Springs, the sensor jewel became nearly blinding, dimmed a bit as she went through town.

"You have passed the portal."

"Great," she huffed.  "I only have a front-wheel drive, city car.  We might need a four-wheeler.  Should have kept the jeep," she muttered.  She concentrated on backtracking, found a county road leading in the right direction.  One she'd never been on.  They turned, and turned again, and tension built between her shoulder blades as they meandered down a hill and onto a dusty dirt road.  At least it wasn't rutted.  She'd been on five-mile-an-hour roads before.  One hour.  Five miles.  Awful.

Dak could probably run faster than that.

The road descended into a narrow valley with a trickling stream and lots of brush and evergreens.

Whenever they reached a branching, Dak angled the ruby back and forth, and they took their best guess.

Finally, Dak said, "There it is."  His voice held suppressed emotion.  Longing?

He glanced back at Favel, and Brandy strained to see the infant – sleeping – in the rearview mirror.

As they drew closer, Dak said, "That's odd."

The whole damn thing was odd, but she asked anyway. "What?"

"The gate is not drifting.  Not even a little bit, like it has been before."

"Huh."

"Get as close to it as you can.  Hurry!"  He began to swear.  "It is anchored with a spell!"

"So?"  She glanced at him, concentrated on finding the best place to park.

"I know enough about unstable portals to understand this is very dangerous.  Forbidden.  Evil."

"Evil."  Brandy pulled up close to the hill next to her side of the car, with the portal across the road in a small meadow of high grass spotted with a few wildflowers.  It
did
bob a little, and if she squinted, she could see a short, thick blackness attaching it to the ground.  Black didn't always mean evil, though.  "Evil?"

Dak flung open the car door and stepped out.  His backpack appeared on the passenger seat as he dug through it.  He shot her a glare.  "Forbidden and evil because anchoring an unstable portal can cause rifts in dimensions, space, time."  He shrugged heavy shoulders.

That didn't sound good.

He dragged out a fancy-hilted silver dagger that dazzled Brandy' eyes.  She blinked, and glanced away, but the afterimage of a gleaming blade stayed behind her eyelids.

Another curse from Dak.  "This spell knife should cut it."  He shook his head.  "I'll have to proceed carefully.  More carefully than I wanted."  He tucked the knife in his belt.  "But I
must
send Favel through, first.  I don't like this, too risky.  I should hurry."

"Go," Brandy said.

Favel chirruped.  She checked him and smiled.  He seemed calm.  Maybe he was getting used to the carseat.

Dak drew out the torque made by Favel's mother. Imbued with magical energy to align dimensions, it could take his nephew directly to Ferix.  A blessing, that.  He put it on Favel and the babe's eyes lit and he gurgled, as if he could sense the energy of it, perhaps even his mother.  He waved his arms at Dak.

We go home?

"Yes."  At least Favel would.  How the portal would act when Dak slowly snipped through the awful anchor was another matter.  He could die.  He stared at Brandy;
she
might die.  "You should leave."

She grinned.  "Not going to happen, Dak.  Get on with it."

He leaned into the car and kissed her, let his lips press against hers, his tongue taste her mouth, inside.  His body clenched.  He should have loved her more than once the night before.  Fool, he!

"Please stay in the car.  The tech and metal of it could afford some protection."

She nodded.  "Will do."

Reluctantly drawing back, he folded his seat forward and undid Favel's restraints.  "Good boy," he said in Ferish, plucking the little guy out of the seat.

I AM good!
  Favel replied mentally.

Brandy pushed Dak's seat back.  "One last kiss, Favel?"

Her voice was husky, her eyes liquid.  Dak couldn't deny her, and held Favel close to her.  The baby grabbed the golden-white strands of her hair and smooched and drooled.  She laughed and the sound slid into Dak's memory like a rose with thorns.

"Fare well, Brandy Svensson," he said, his own voice rough.

"Take care, Dak of the Dark Panther Klatch," she replied.

He dipped his head.  "Always."

Turning on his heel, he set his shoulders, not daring to glance back.  Those incipient tears of hers might fall.  Favel twisted in his arms and watched her over Dak's shoulder.

MY Brandy.  Mine, mine, mine!

That made Dak smile, until he reached the opposite side of the road.  He should have seen it before,
smelled
it before.  Crushed grasses.  Bretine's odor, some hours old.

She'd come through the portal.  No doubt she was the one who'd put the illegal anchor in place.  He trod warily, holding Favel close.

No white tiger was visible in the evergreens.  Although slim trees showed white trunks with black markings, they still weren't enough to camouflage the cat, or the woman.  He saw nothing.  Straining his ears, he heard only the rustling of leaves in the breeze, the sound of the distant stream.

He couldn’t get a good fix on Bretine’s scent and had no time to track her.

But he knew instinctively that Bretine remained here, on Earth.

He looked back at Brandy, a shadow in the dimness of the car while he strode in bright, hot sunlight, struggling with the dilemma.  He could get Favel through to Ferix, he knew that.  Could follow, report the anchor, not deal with it himself.

But he would leave a dangerous situation with the portal, with Bretine on Earth who might hunt Brandy.

His mind spun with options as he took each step.  He'd told Brandy that the klatch was in her debt, and, indeed, they were.  Bretine was not a good tracker, like him, but it was possible she could find Brandy.  He'd also told Brandy that to repay honorable actions with dishonor would drive a pantherman mad.

But, dammit, he wanted his home.  His klatch and kin.  His regency.

Duty demanded he stay here in this world where he'd have to either remain human or skulk around in panther form.  A place where even here in the wilderness he still could smell tech wastes.

Honor was more important than duty, and honor demanded he remain.  Exiled from his home, his family he loved.

He walked up to the portal.

The neckband around Favel's throat flared, sent energy to the portal, tuning it to the Ferix Dimension.  A very strong artifact, a treasure.

Only seconds passed before his brother's careworn face and stooped shoulders appeared.  Cret's expression changed to joy immediately.

"You have him?  He is safe!"  Dreadful hope twisted Cret's features.

"Yes."

A sigh erupted from his brother.  "Good.  Send him to me, now."  His face turned to stone concentration.  "I will use all the power I have from the klatch, up to draining us all to stabilize this portal."

"No need.  Someone – Bretine, I think – put an anchor on it."  Dak was terse.

"
What?
  A temporary spell such as that cannot hold!  It goes against nature and could rip a hole between dimensions."

"Very, very bad," Dak's cousin, the portal keeper added, though Dak couldn't see him.  "I will notify the authorities immediately."

"I don't know enough to undo the spell with finesse.  Cutting the anchor with a spell dagger might work.  But Favel must come through
now!
" Dak said.

"We have the help of the Golden Panther klatch." Cret showed teeth in an unamused smile.  "All of our scholars have been studying portal magic and our portal."  He waved a hand.  Claws peeked out from his fingers.  "Not important now.  But with the combined will and magic of the entire klatch and Favel's torque, I can bring Favel and you through."

Dak hesitated, dredged words from his gut.  "Bretine has come through to Earth.  I cannot leave her free.  She would kill innocents."  She could hunt and kill Brandy.

Cret's lips peeled back from his teeth, his eyes blazed with anger.  "You will stop her."

"Yes."

"Favel must come through now; rumor has fired the klatches into great unrest.  Enemies call us baby murderers, using it as an excuse to band together.  Led by the white tigers.  They want what they always want: our land and our strong klatch home and our wealth."

Dak cursed.  "I will take care of Bretine here, I vow."

"And I will triumph over the other klatches.  They will be shamed that they doubted us, that they set their hands against us."  Anger dissipated into keen calculation on Cret's face.  "They will pay."

"And the dimensional portal authorities will speak with the white tiger clan about the tigerwoman Bretine who anchored an erratic portal," the keeper said.

"Cret, Cret, Cret!" squealed Favel.

Cret bridled.  "What's that he's wearing?"

"Never mind," Dak said.  He touched the band on the baby's neck and it went from pale yellow gold to bright gold with the reddish hue of copper, glowing with magic and royal power.  The baby wriggled with pleasure in his arms, glowed himself as instinctively he gathered his own power.  Dak could almost feel Favel align himself with the portal magic.

He drew Favel close, hugging him tight enough to get a yelp from the child, then kissed his soft baby mouth as he gazed into the child's eyes.  "Always remember I love you.  Always remember you are the Chief of the Dark Panther Klatch."  Dak's jaw flexed as he kept his voice steady, staring into those eyes shaped so like his own.  "And always remember that I will come if you need me."

He stepped close to the portal, focusing all his attention on the wavering gate.  The transfer shouldn't take more than a couple of seconds.  Fast, because Favel was a natural.  Over soon.

"Ready?" he asked Cret, who stepped very close, close enough to touch if Dak wanted to chance disrupting unstable magic.

"Ready," Cret said in a hoarse whisper, sweating, the veins at his temple showing the strain of focusing the klatch magic.

"Go!" Dak used command tone on Favel.  "Go to Cret!"

The babe obeyed, zipped through the portal.

"Praise the Mother Moon," Cret said.  He hesitated.  "You are sure you must stay there?"

Gritting his teeth, yearning for home, almost
smelling
the fragrance of his own rooms, Dak said, "Yes."

A tiger’s battle shriek split the air.  Bretine shot from a heavy copse of pines, snarling, running straight toward him.  Mistake, she shouldn't have given him notice.  Magic and adrenaline flooded him.  He'd changed often enough that he could do it here – fast, easily – and it would only cost him some body mass.

Another loud sound echoed, the car revving.  It sped from the road, heading fast toward the tiger, passing Dak.  He glimpsed Brandy's face, set in determination.

Screeching, Bretine dodged the vehicle and the engine died.  Dak sprang and missed as the tiger leapt aside from him.

Her yellow eyes focused past him to the portal, to Favel, who was fussing in Cret’s arms.  Favel, far more important to his klatch than Dak.

"
CLOSE!"
shouted Cret, even as Bretine jumped for the portal.

Dak swiped at her, his claws raking long slices in her side.  He jerked at the spelldagger, slashed the anchor.  Prayed.

The inside of the portal rippled and Favel and Cret disappeared.  The portal spun, flickering scenes of other places, reacting to being free of the anchor.  Unstable.  Erratic.  The last view Dak saw within showed a pointy metal tower.  Bretine seemed to hang mid-air, caught by portal energy.

Zap!
  Lines of
something
hit Bretine, shallowly hooked into her from Brandy's direction.  The tiger screeched, shook, turned into a woman.  She thrashed and droplets of acrid piss scattered as the portal vanished, taking her and the lines to that other place – somewhere else on Earth.

There was a small thud behind him.  Brandy had dropped the weapon and withdrawn her arm from the open car window.  She pushed the door out and wobbled from the car.  The door thunked behind her.

”First time I've ever done that."  She shuddered.  "I didn't think I could...but a tiger is easier than a person."  Her smile trembled, too.

Dak glanced at the place where the portal had been.  Nothing, not even a shimmer in the air, a fuzzy outline.  Gone.  Gone.  Gone.

He was stuck here.  He fought back snarling disappointment, reminded himself of his duty, then easily found gratitude – and more – for Brandy.  As she staggered the few paces to him, he changed back to man, opened his arms.  She came to him and held him close and tight.

He held her and at
her
scent – her special fragrance, that of woman and tech and honey – he steadied.

"You could have gone through," Brandy said, her voice muffled against his chest.  He liked feeling the vibration of her words.  "I know that.  Why didn't you?"

"Bretine is here.  I couldn't leave you in danger."

She leaned back and he found his hand in her hair – hair only a shade darker than Bretine's tresses.

"You think she'll come after us?"

"Yes.  After me because she hates me and my klatch.  After you because you bested her twice and forced her body to revolt."

"Oops."  But Brandy's smile was sickly.  She scanned his face, rubbed his chest.  "You're hurting.  Homesick?"

"Yes," he admitted between his teeth.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, then lifted her chin and said strongly, "We'll get you back home."

"Eventually," he said.  "I've vowed to stop Bretine."

Brandy stared at the place where the portal had been.  "She's a beautiful woman.  Naked and hurt.  She’ll find help."

"But she’s mean," Dak added.

Squinting, Brandy said, "I saw the Eiffel Tower when the portal was open.  I think Bretine will do very well in Paris."