Spirit Formed, page 20
The bear was still moving, but now its ears were swiveling as if it could tell something was changing.
With the control spell isolated, Shasta changed her focus. Now she needed to unmake the spell while it was still attached to the bear so it would drain the energy from the last command rather than leaving it with enough magic for it to get stuck on repeat. It would eventually fizzle out, but she needed to end this fight now. Unfortunately, picking apart spells was a time-consuming process. The first parts she identified were the areas that allowed Godric and Delilah to communicate with the bear. Those pulled apart rather easily, and the magic associated with them dispersed into the environment.
Now that the bear couldn’t get any new orders, she started prodding the portion of the spell containing the orders and sending them. That needed to be unmade in one go. It would take too long to delicately unknot the magic, so she formed her own power into two hooks and threaded them through opposite sides of the spell. She took a deep breath and yanked. Little sparks only she could see danced around the bear as the spell dissolved.
The bear halted and turned to look at its side.
Shasta reeled her magic back inside her shields and tried to communicate with the bear. She extended a mental connection to it like she had before, sending the same soothing message that she was a friend. “No one wants to hurt you. We can help.” This time she was sure the bear would answer.
It twisted around to look at her. “Hurt.”
Shasta moved a step closer. “I can fix it. Would you like that?”
The bear clacked its teeth. “Yes.”
“I have to come close. I have to touch you. Okay?” Shasta dropped her bow and arrow and started forward with slow, steady steps.
“Yes.” It watched her, but more with curiosity and interest than alarm.
Shasta paused when she was only a few feet away. From the corner of her eye, she could see the men doing their best to look non-threatening but still ready to react. “Helping you might hurt a little. Do you understand?”
The bear grunted. “I will hold still.”
Shasta reached out slowly, her fingers burrowing into the rough, bristly hair. She separated as much of it as she could to get a better look at the arrow. The bear flinched but didn’t offer any resistance. She kept up a steady stream of conversation. “You’re doing so good. I know this isn’t fun, but it will be over before too long.”
As she suspected, the arrow was only a few inches into the bear’s side. It would hurt when she pulled it out, but with a little help, it would heal quickly. “I’m going to remove the thing hurting you, which will hurt more.” She braced one hand against the bear’s side and yanked the arrow out in one swift move.
The bear groaned and flopped over on its side, leaving the wound easily accessible. “Hurts.”
“I know. I’ll make it feel better.” Shasta placed her hands on each side of the wound and let her power flow into the bear. With all of the spells, it was a little tricky to activate the creature’s own ability to heal, but she managed it without disturbing the spells. With only a little extra input from her, the wound was closed in a few seconds. It would still need some time to heal, but the bear wouldn’t be walking around with a gash anymore. She patted the fur back into place. “You’re almost all better. How do you feel?”
“Don’t hurt.” It rolled onto its feet and shook itself, its ears flapping. “Thank you.”
Shasta smiled, glad that for once she hadn’t had to kill an animal because of Godric and Delilah. “You’re welcome. But there is still magic on you. Can you go back to the elven town? We’ll help you feel like yourself again.”
The bear tipped his head to the side. “You fix the … buzz?”
“Yes.” Shasta nodded. “But not today. If you stay near the barn for a few days, someone will make sure the buzz goes away.” Shasta sent a picture of the town’s barn along with a general direction of how to get there.
“Berry patch near there.” The bear licked its muzzle. “I stay there until someone takes away the buzz.”
“You should go now. It’s not safe here.” Shasta pointed it toward Quercuston.
“Town and berries.” The bear ambled off into the woods.
Wyrran came over and clapped her on the shoulder. “Well done.”
The adrenaline drained away, and Shasta wished this was the end of the fighting, not the beginning. “Not well enough. Do you know how badly Nerrin’s injured?”
He shook his head. “Lots of blood, but I couldn’t tell anything else before Mack moved him.”
“They’re this way.” Ashling gestured at the forest behind him. “You have my thanks too. I’m tired of killing our wildlife for no reason.”
“All of us feel that way,” Meron added.
“Godric and Delilah have much to answer for,” Shasta said. She walked past Ashling, scanning the woods for any sign of Mack and Nerrin. The two of them were a solid fifty feet away from the action. Mack knelt beside Nerrin, shirtless. His weapons were in a pile next to the two men. What was left of his shirt had been wrapped tightly around Nerrin’s leg. The makeshift bandages were doing their best to hold Nerrin’s thigh together, but blood continued to ooze out.
Shasta dropped her bow, slid the pack off her shoulders, and started digging through the healing charms. She tugged a major healing charm out of the selection and hurried over to Nerrin. She gently set her hands on his hip and calf, avoiding the injury itself. Closing her eyes, she started feeling her way through the damage. His thigh was completely shredded. The bear’s claws had gone all the way down to the bone in five places, and the bandages were the only thing holding it together. If she was willing to sacrifice her ability to help anyone else today, she could probably hold everything perfectly in place while the healing charm did its job, but today couldn’t be about one person. Wishing there was enough of her to help everyone to the fullest extent of her abilities, Shasta rubbed the charm in his blood and tucked it under one of the wraps of the bandages.
The charm sparked to life, stabilizing his leg and beginning the healing process. Even for a powerful charm, this was a lot of damage, and there was a chance everything wouldn’t heal properly or completely. She broke the connection with Nerrin and sat back on her heels. Meron silently handed her the damp cloth so she could wipe the blood from her hands.
“Will the charm be enough?” Mack asked.
Shasta shook her head. “It will help make him stable enough that he can be transferred back to town and prevent further blood loss. He’ll live, but I doubt it will be healed for days.”
“You healed Mack,” Ashling said sharply. “Can’t you do more for Nerrin?”
She shook her head again. No matter how she phrased it, it was going to sound cold. “No.”
Eyes hot with anger, Ashling kept looking from Nerrin to Mack and back again. “You cared about Mack more?”
“No.” She wished she didn’t have to put it into words. “I can’t do more for him. Not if I’m going to save the tree sisters and Cord. Not if I’m going to have a chance at dealing with Godric and Delilah. If he was the only person who needed me, I would do everything to heal him, but I can’t.”
“Enough, Ashling.” Mack handed his bow to the troubled elf. “It’s a two-person job to get him back to Quercuston. Would you do us the honor of protecting us on this journey?”
Ashling glared at Shasta before bowing his head to Mack. “I will.”
Shasta gathered her things and moved off to the side. Wyrran and Meron helped transfer Nerrin from the ground to across Mack’s shoulders. She wanted to warn them to be sure the healing charm stayed tucked against Nerrin’s body, but Ashling carefully checked its position, ensuring it was secure under the bandage.
It would’ve been easier if she didn’t understand his anger, but she did. It hurt to hear someone wouldn’t do everything they could, no matter what the reason. And even if he didn’t know it, it hurt her to have to make that choice. Unfortunately, experience had taught her that sometimes the hard choice was the right one, and with the unknown ahead, this was the right choice, even if Ashling saw it as cruel.
Wyrran and Meron informed Mack that the bear would be traveling a similar path and sent the three of them on their way. As they started back into town, Nerrin was still passed out, but Shasta figured that was a blessing. No one needed to feel the pain he would be in if he was awake.
“You did the right thing.” Meron held her gaze. “Ashling is from a soft family, one who does not fight and has never had to make these kinds of decisions.”
Shasta nodded. “I wish …”
“I know.” He patted her shoulder. “But today is about more than Nerrin.”
“If you're going to make a wish, wish Godric and Delilah had not gone mad,” Wyrran added. “They are the cause of all of this misery.”
“That’s true enough, but it doesn’t make it easier.” Shasta dug the tracking charm out of her pocket, intending to tuck it in the pack.
“You can get better at making hard choices, but they’re never easy.” Wyrran narrowed his eyes at the charm in her hand. “It’s not blank anymore.”
Puzzled, Shasta looked down. A bright green dot glowed from one edge of the charm. Rather than the tiny thing it had been before, it was now sizable, meaning Cord was likely only a short distance away. She pivoted until she was facing the direction the charm was pointing. “It’s working again. Cord is this way.”
Wyrran rubbed his chin. “It’s been many years since I hunted here, but once there was an old cabin with a shed about a quarter-mile from here.”
“Would the hostages fit in the shed?” Shasta asked, still staring at the green dot. At least for now, whatever had disrupted the tracking charm wasn’t causing any problems.
“Perhaps.” He shrugged. “It’s been more than a decade. I don’t remember the exact size.”
“We’ll fan out,” she said. “I’ll take the center line, and the two of you can take each side. We’ll sneak closer and get a good view of the buildings. Then we’ll come back about a hundred and fifty feet from our position and make a plan. Try not to get caught. Any questions?”
“No,” Meron said.
Wyrran shook his head.
“Let’s move.” Shasta glanced down at the charm. The green light had vanished again.
Chapter Fourteen
“Where did it go?” Meron asked.
“I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. The plan is the same.” Shasta put the tracking charm into an outer pocket of the backpack.
For a long moment, no one spoke. Finally, Wyrran shrugged and started walking. “I'll take the right.”
“Then the left is mine.” Meron headed out.
Shasta had to keep herself from running as she walked the centerline between them. Something was going on for the tracking spell to keep malfunctioning like that, and all she wanted to do was charge in, sword drawn, and rescue everyone. However, good rescues needed plans, and without knowing what she was getting into, she couldn’t make much of a plan.
When Shasta traveled enough that she thought the house couldn’t be far away, she put extra effort into her movements. She avoided branches that could snap underfoot and overly dry leaves that would crunch sharply. Though she wasn’t entirely sure how much it mattered. The fight with the bear hadn’t been quiet, and it wouldn’t surprise her if Godric and Delilah had sent the bear out simply to ensure they would have a warning.
Keeping her shields open enough to feel the magic around her and have her bow ready was her best defense against them. She hoped the owls were too fatigued from carrying everyone away to be a problem now. It was hard to fight battles on the ground when she had to keep one eye on the sky.
The corner of a roof protruded from a gap in the trees. Shasta paused and estimated the distance. It was probably fifty feet to the edge of the tree line, and a bit more to the structure. She could also feel magic in that direction; though just how much, she couldn’t say.
Her ears alert for the slightest abnormal sound, she continued her progress. The house emerged bit by bit, a small single-story log cabin with a steeply pitched roof and a moderately sized shed to the side. Shasta hunkered down behind a large holly bush and looked the place over. Interspersed among the bits of aged wood and weather darkened shingles were pale sections of fresh lumber and new roofing. On this side of the cabin, two of the windows were cloudy, a testament to their age, and one was shiny new glass. The dark green of the glass prevented her from seeing anything inside.
There was a small clearing around the house and shed, just enough to keep the trees from dropping any limbs directly on the two structures. Not far from her, a freshly cut tree stump sat without the rest of the tree in sight. Godric and Delilah had done some work on this place; the type people only did if they were planning on spending a good deal of time somewhere.
The shed was large enough to hold the hostages, but they wouldn’t be overly comfortable. Behind it was an even larger building, this one constructed entirely of new wood. That structure was where the majority of the magic was coming from, though she wasn’t entirely sure of the source. Like the meadow holding the deer, there were enough spells on the building to disguise almost anything inside.
What Shasta didn’t see were the hostages, Delilah, or Godric. Unfortunately, those were the primary things she needed to find. She settled in to wait. Until she had a visual confirmation that at least one of the six people were here, she wasn’t sure if this was anything more than a decoy.
The seconds stretched into minutes, and Shasta still didn’t see any sign of movement, but she could hear something. It was hard to make out over the chirping of crickets and cicadas, but from time to time there were faint sounds that didn’t belong in the forest. Closing her eyes, she focused only on what she could hear. The volume spiked, and she could make out whispers and even hear the wooden door. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough for her to tell which of the three buildings they were in.
She heard the rapid crunching of leaves and a twig snap. She glanced about. There wasn’t anything in the clearing, which meant the sound had to be coming from the woods. She checked over her shoulder and then twisted around more, scanning the forest. The sound was coming from somewhere to her left, which meant Meron could be in trouble. Over the crunch of leaves came pressurized thumps of air compressing over and over again.
Shasta tipped her head back and scanned the sky. It was empty of everything but clouds, but she still surged to her feet, bow ready. Last time she heard that sound, owls started carrying people off.
Another sharp crack of wood snapping and a hearty curse cut through the usual forest sounds. Meron darted out of the trees with an owl, claws outstretched, only a few feet behind. It was a difficult shot with a bow at the best of times. With the magic emanating from the owl, Shasta doubted the magic lightly infused into the arrow would work any better on this creature than it had on the bear. She lowered her bow and transferred it and the arrow to her left hand. She summoned a bit of magic and reached out. “Harden and protect him from harm!”
The owl narrowed the gap and angled its body, ready to snatch Meron off the ground. Her magic and the air mixed into a hard shield cupped across Meron’s back and shoulders. The owl’s talons slid across it and careened off to the side. Its job done, the shield dissipated.
Meron glanced over his shoulder. Without the owl bearing down on him, he slowed to a trot and headed for the tree line.
Figuring the original plan was pretty well blown at this point, Shasta joined him in the clearing. She positioned herself so she could see both him and the windows on this side of the cabin. “Are you okay?”
“Uninjured.” He looked up at the sky, tracing the path of the owl as it regained altitude. “I don’t think it’s going to give up.”
“We’ll deal with it.” She thought she saw the curtains move, but when she looked at them closer, they were still. If anyone was moving around in the cabin, the combination of the curtains and old windows was keeping them well hidden. “I could hear whispers, could you?”
“No,” Meron said.
Wyrran broke cover. “I could hear them too.”
“Shed first.” Shasta scanned the sky but didn’t see the owl. Convinced it was coming back, she kept checking the sky as they joined Wyrran at the shed.
“I’ll keep watch.” Meron put his back to theirs, watching both the clearing and above.
A padlock held the plywood shed door closed, but like everything else, it had been charmed. Not only was the shank of the padlock threaded through the loop on the wall, but there was also a tiny metal disk with runes etched into its surface. She reached out a tendril of magic and probed it. The charm made the lock resistant to tampering, both magical and physical.
Shasta sighed. For all of Godric’s questions about her being elf enough, he was awfully focused on the magic. She changed the probe. Instead of passively tasting the spell, it was now a lance of active magic that could overload the charm. She jabbed the knot of spells around the lock. Bright light flared as the charm fought back, but she forced more power into it. A sharp crack marked the spells’ fail.
Blinking away the spots in her eyes, she examined her handiwork. The energy expelled when the charm failed had melted the metal disk against the padlock, but it had also cracked the shank. Shasta reached for it but could feel the heat radiating from the metal before she even touched it. She pulled her hand away and blew on the lock.
“Owl incoming,” Meron announced. “Stand against the building, I don’t think it’ll be able to grab us that way.”
Shasta put her back to the door, with Wyrran and Meron taking the walls on either side of her. The owl came out of its dive, skimming over the top of the shed, and headed back up. “Any ideas on how to make it more difficult for the owls to carry us away?” Shasta asked as she turned back to the lock.
