Fire Study (21 page)

only the strong protection Moon Man had mentioned. The magic didn’t feel like an

illusion, but my experience was limited.

When we crossed the magical barrier, I braced myself. Even Tauno gripped my

waist tighter. But the scene didn’t change. The Sandseeds stayed the same. Three

men and two women came over to us as we stopped the horses while the rest

resumed their evening’s work.

The women’s faces appeared to be strained with either worry or grief. There

must have been Sandseed casualties. The Sandseed men grabbed the horses’

bridles. An odd thing to do, considering they had trained the horses to keep still.

Kiki reared. I held her mane as she jerked away from the Sandseeds’ grasp.

Bad smell, she said.

Firelight flashed on steel. I turned in time to see a mass of well-armed Daviian

Vermin erupting from the tents.

TAUNO’S BOWSTRING TWANGED and I yelled, “Go! Go! Go!” Kiki was

free, but two Sandseeds held tight to Garnet’s bridle. A quick glance to the side

revealed ten feet separated us from the fastest Vermin.

I pulled my staff from my pack as Kiki turned. She used her rear legs to keep the

Vermin occupied while I brought my bow down on the temple of a Sandseed

holding Garnet. A pang of regret touched my heart as the man crumpled to the

ground. He had probably been forced to ambush us. But I didn’t let the feelings

stop me from attacking the second man clutching Garnet.

“Go! Go! Go!” I yelled again.

Even with Moon Man’s scimitar, Tauno’s arrows and my bow, the Vermin

outnumbered us. It was only a matter of time before they would overrun us. In a

flurry of hooves and steel and shouts, the horses headed away from the Sandseed

camp, breaking into their gust-of-wind gait.

We had ridden through most of the night to get as far away from the Vermin as

possible. The horses slowed. Heads down, they panted. Their coats gleamed with

sweat. Only a couple dark hours remained. Dismounting, we removed their saddles.

While I walked the horses to cool them down, Moon Man and Tauno searched for

wood and game.

No one said a word. The shock of the attack had yet to wear off and the vivid

memory of it played over and over in my mind. The ramifications alone were too

awful to consider right now.

We ate another rabbit stew in silence. I thought about our next move.

“The elders…” Moon Man’s voice seemed loud in the thick night air.

“Are still alive,” Tauno said. “For now.”

“Would they kill them?” A shudder gripped my body at the thought of all those

drying skulls.

“The trap was sprung. They have no need for them,” Moon Man replied then

seemed to reconsider his words. “They might keep them as slaves. The Vermin are

lazy when it comes to domestic tasks.”

“And they’re just busy beavers when it comes to ritual killings and gaining

power,” I said. “Lucky us.” The scene once again flashed in my mind. “Do you

think some of your people escaped?”

“Perhaps. They would have left the plains, though.” Moon Man considered. “The

Sandseeds no longer control the protective magic over the Avibian Plains. To stay

within its borders would be too dangerous for them. Right now, the Vermin are

using the protection to keep their presence a secret, but now that we have fled, I

believe they will use it to find us. Perhaps to attack us with magic.”

“Then we shouldn’t linger long. Is there any way to know if they find us?”

“We can create a barrier to alert us to an attack and maybe deflect an initial

foray.”

“We should saddle the horses in case we need to make a quick exit.” I stood.

“That would be prudent.” Moon Man helped me with the horses.

Kiki snorted in annoyance when I tightened her straps.

Tired, she said. Don’t need. Smell good.

For now. If the smells turn bad, we can leave faster. I fed her some peppermints

and scratched behind her large ears. She sighed and her eyes drifted shut.

After the horses were ready, the three of us sat in a circle around the fire.

“Maybe we should douse the flames.” Worried that the Fire Warper would sense

me through the blaze, I hadn’t used my magic near a fire.

Moon Man dumped water onto it. Puffs of gray smoke rose into the air.

“Yelena, I want you to pull threads of magic and I will do the rest,” Moon Man

instructed.

Concentrating, I gathered strands of power. Moon Man plucked the strands from

me and weaved them into a net around us. Tauno’s pinched and sullen expression

reflected his discomfort. As the only one without magic, he didn’t have the ability to

see the protection building around us.

When Moon Man finished, I disconnected from the power source, feeling

drained of energy. The net pulsed with magic even though we no longer fueled it. I

wondered why it still worked. In all my past efforts, the power dissipated as soon as

I stopped using magic. Except for my mental connections with Kiki and Irys, every

time I wanted to heal or project I had to consciously draw from the power source.

Yet the Sandseeds had their protection, and there were other lingering spells.

An image of the knife in Valek’s suite came to mind. When Valek had

assassinated the King of Ixia, the King cursed him, vowing his blood would stain

Valek’s hands forever. Since magic doesn’t work on Valek, the curse transferred to

the knife instead. The King’s blood still clung to the blade and remained as wet and

bright as the day the King had been killed.

I asked Moon Man how the protective net stayed active.

“Mostly we channel the magic through us. But there are times when you can loop

the power back to the source. It can be very difficult to do, and, by having you draw

the power, I could save my energy for knitting it together and redirecting it back to

the source. Large-scale protection like the one covering the Avibian Plains and the

Sandseeds…”

A hitch of emotion stopped his words. He closed his eyes and swallowed his

grief before he continued. “Huge magical loops require an immense effort by many

magicians, but can be effective for a long time. The protection we just created will

last for a few hours before dissipating. Enough time to give the horses a chance to

rest.”

“And then what?” I asked, but he looked at me. Leif’s comments about my role

as commander flittered through my mind. I answered my own question. “We leave

the plains. Head toward the Citadel and let the Council know what’s been going on

with the Vermin.”

“Hopefully they will already know. The Sandseed survivors would have gone to

the Citadel.” Moon Man scowled. “If there were any.”

Waiting for the horses to regain some of their strength proved to be difficult. Our

protective net flashed whenever the Vermin’s magic scanned the area. So far the net

hid us from the Vermin, but each encounter weakened the fibers.

The desire to flee and the need to sleep battled within me. I wanted to stay awake

in case the Vermin attacked, but I dozed off and on until the sky brightened with the

rising sun.

The few hours before dawn had been enough time for the horses. We mounted

and headed northwest, riding hard. During our rest breaks, Moon Man searched for

any sign the Vermin’s magic had found us. I projected my awareness to learn if they

physically pursued us. In our haste, we left a physical trail even my untrained eyes

could follow.

A couple hours short of the Avibian border, we stopped for a longer rest. Moon

Man proclaimed the Vermin had lost us, and I couldn’t sense anyone nearby.

Since we had been traveling together for fifteen days, we automatically attended

our chosen tasks, even with the Daviian threat hanging over our heads.

By the time I had finished rubbing down the horses and seeing to their needs, I

smelled rabbit stew cooking on the fire.

Tauno sat next to the pot. His shoulders hunched as if a great weight pressed

down on him, and his attention remained fixed on the ground. He hadn’t uttered

more than a few words since yesterday. Perhaps he felt guilty and responsible for

leading us into an ambush. I debated discussing it with him, but considered he might

be more comfortable talking to Moon Man. I wondered if Moon Man was his Story

Weaver. Every Sandseed had a Story Weaver to guide and advise them throughout

their lives.

I glanced around, realizing Moon Man hadn’t returned from collecting firewood

even though a pile of branches rested near the cook fire.

“Tauno, where’s Moon Man?” I asked.

Tauno didn’t even lift his head when he said, “He was called to the shadow

world.”

“Called? Does that mean another Story Weaver survived the Vermin attack?”

“You will have to ask him.”

“When will he be back?”

Tauno ignored the rest of my questions. Frustrated, I circled the area, searching

for Moon Man, and found his clothes in a heap on the ground. I moved to return to

the fire and bumped into him.

I jerked back in surprise. Moon Man seized my upper arms to keep me from

falling.

“Where have you been?” I asked.

He peered at me with an alarming intensity. Blue fire flecked his brown eyes. I

tried to move, but he wouldn’t let go.

“They are dead,” he said with a flat voice. “Story Weavers and Sandseeds gone.

Their souls haunt the shadow world.”

His grip on my arms tightened. “You’re hurt—”

“You can help them.”

“But I don’t—”

“Selfish girl. You would rather lose your abilities than use them. And that is what

will happen. You will become a slave to another.”

His words slapped me in the face. “But I’ve been using them all along.”

“Anyone can heal. You, though, hide from your real power and others suffer for

it.”

Stung and hurt, I tried to break loose, but his hold wouldn’t release. In order not

to injure him, I projected into Moon Man’s mind. Thick ropes of gray power

surrounded him. The shadow world still held his mind. My efforts to cut the ties

failed.

“The shadow world calls.”

Moon Man began to fade. My body became translucent. He planned to take me

with him to a place where I feared I couldn’t access my magic. Reaching into my

pocket, I pulled my switchblade and triggered the blade. I slashed him across his

stomach. Moon Man shuddered and let go. He collapsed to the ground, curling into

a ball on his side.

I looked at Moon Man’s still form. The gray power had vanished, but I wasn’t

sure of his mental state. Perhaps the shock and grief had been too much for him.

Difficult to believe. He had been a calm and steady presence all along.

I knelt next to him. The blood from his wound soaked his shirt. Drawing power, I

focused on his stomach. The cut pulsed with a red light and a line of pain formed on

my own stomach. I huddled on the ground, concentrating on the injury. My magic

repaired the damage.

When I finished, Moon Man grasped my hand. I tried to pull free, but he

squeezed. My body jerked as the image of headless bodies slammed into my mind.

They crowded close, enveloping me with the reek of dead flesh as they demanded

revenge. Another jerk and the scene of a massacre flooded my senses. The burning

stench of body fluids and death stung my nose as blood soaked into the sand.

Mutilated bodies were strewn in a haphazard, irreverent manner and left for the

vultures to find.

Moon Man sat, and I tried to break his hold. His gaze met mine.

“Is that what you saw in the shadow world?” I asked.

“Yes.” Horror filled his eyes as the gruesome images replayed in his mind.

“Give the memories to me.” I felt his reluctance. “I will not forget them.”

“Will you help them?”

“Can’t you?”

“I can only help the living.”

“Are you going to tell me how or spout some cryptic bullshit?”

“You do not want to learn. You have refused to see what is all around you.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

Pain creased his face and the light in his eyes dulled. He would be unable to

function with the dreadful knowledge of how his people suffered.

“Give them to me. I’ll try to help them, but not right now.” I mentally added

soothing-the-dead-Sandseeds to the end of my long list of things to do. After I dealt

with the Fire Warper, which should be a breeze. While I was lying to myself, I

included flying and turning stones into gold to my list. Might as well think big.