Eighteen: A Storm of Souls

The sandstorm raged, much like the last one. I was under a tarp with Kai who was still wide-eyed and breathless from running. Puko was somewhat calm but fidgeted in my arms.

I was burning with questions. What was Kai doing, running to the holy site he wasn't allowed at? And why was he with Puko? But I couldn't ask anything because we couldn't talk over the wind of the storm.

The wait was long, and when the wind finally started to die down I tried to speak.

"Kai," I got his attention. "Why are you here?"

"The night bird demanded I come!" he yelled back.

"The night... Puko?" I looked down at the raven in my arms. "Puko demanded you come?"

"He flew down on us, squawking and attacking everyone. He found me, and with his claws and beak he pulled at me. Pulling my hair and clothes, he nearly got my eye patch off. He's a large bird, he nearly dragged me out of camp when finally I started running after him."

"Puko, you beast," I scolded him.

"Caw!" The fat raven looked up at me innocently. I snorted and turned back to Kai.

"Anyone who followed us was chased off, they stopped trying to follow pretty quickly. But he didn't take us directly here, he flew east of here, and then to the Stone of Souls. It was brilliant, none of the Khusuru cared since I wasn't heading to the stone."

"I still don't understand how you got here so fast," I said. "It took us about twice as long to walk here as it took you to get here after Puko left us."

Kai shook his head. "He didn't find me at camp. A few of us went foraging for a kind of plant that grows this far south. They let me tag along but I could only keep whatever plants I found for myself. I'm assuming I would get the last pick of ground to search in, but I had nothing else to do until you were done with the curse so I tagged along."

"So Puko came and found you there? He last saw you at the camp, I wonder how he found you," I murmured.

Kai looked down at Puko with something like respect. "And you're sure it's just a normal bird?"

"No," I admitted. "We're not really sure about him. He's a witch's bird, and he surprises me all the time."

"An aoyi'ka then," Kai said grimly.

"Is everything magic in nature aoyi'ka to you?" I asked.

Kai just shrugged and we sat in silence again, except for the angry wind whipping over our tarp. After a while, I frowned and peered at the edge of a tarp.

"I thought it was dying down, does it usually do it so slowly?" I asked.

"No," Kai said slowly. "I was just thinking the same thing."

"I'm going to look," I said.

"Watch that the sand doesn't scour your skin off!" Kai called as I deposited Puko in the indent I left on the sand.

I crawled to the edge and stuck my hand outside the tarp, holding my breath. Nothing was striking my hand, it was all wind.

"There is no sand," I said, turning back to face Kai.

"What do you mean?" he called.

I decided I'd just show him, and proceeded to stick my head out from under the tarp. There was indeed no sand, but there was plenty of something else.

A blur in the air was whipping over the Stone of Souls in angry circles. I could almost make out the shape, a long ribbon of some kind, the front almost shaped like a cluster of human heads. Angry ones. How it didn't disturb the sand beneath us was a mystery since the wind was so fierce, but the desert floor remained untouched. I looked to the sky, the storm had long since passed us and moved west. The remaining fury in the air was all from this spirit.

"Nassir!" I called out. "Do you sense anything above us?"

I climbed out from under the tarp, still watching the thing circle overhead.

"Yes!" He was muffled from the tarp but I heard him clearly, even through the wind. I immediately saw the struggling lumps of Nassir and Schula climbing out.

"There is something wrong, a spirit. I think it's... angry." I didn't want to take my eyes off the spirit for long, but I did look down to help Nassir to his feet when he emerged.

"It reeks of despair and rage," Schula said.

"I can't sense anything from it," I reached out to hold Schula's hand, gaining strength from my triquetram.

"An elf thing?" Schula wondered out loud. "Either way, it is angry."

"Something is on top," Nassir said. He had gone straight to the rock, placing both hands flat on the surface. He turned his face toward the top of the stone, right in the center of where the spirit swirled and thrashed.

I grimaced up at the stone. "We're going to have to climb it to see what's going on."

Schula squeezed my hand and leaned into my ear. "Jump, Wren. You're an elf."

I hadn't had particular cause to see how high an elf could leap until now, but I bent my knees, let go of Schula's hand, and jumped. My eyes widened as I was able to jump high enough to somewhat land near the top of the smooth stone, reaching my arms out and grabbing onto whatever little bumps I could to stop from sliding back down. I landed with a thud, smacking my stomach against the rock surface, but I held tight and pulled myself up.

"Wonderful!" Schula called. "But be careful up there!"

I looked down. Schula and Nassir were at the base of the stone, and Nassir was climbing out of our tarp with Puko in his arms. His eyes grew wide when he spotted me at the top of the Stone of Souls.

"Kai, can you see the spirit?" I called down to him.

"See the what?" His eyes threatened to pop out of his head. "There is only wind!"

I bit my lower lip and turned from the side of the stone. Kai couldn't see it, but he was human. I couldn't feel it's emotions, but I was half elf. The fae seemed the most in tune with it, but it was not fae-like in nature. I squared my shoulders and crawled on to find the source of the problem.

On top of the stone, the spirit was relentless. It pulled and pushed at me, threatening to knock me off entirely. It made it hard to even see, rushing at my face and blurring my vision. I squinted and pressed on, examining the surface under my fingertips and looking for whatever Nassir had sensed.

"You are close!" Nassir called out from below. "Go forward another arm's length!"

I pulled forward, and with every inch the spirit gave me I had to fight to achieve it. I was nearly flattened against the stone, pushed downward by the furious wind when my fingertips caught in a carved crevice. My fingertips were abuzz with energy, and I knew I had found it. I pulled forward and press my face in front of whatever it was. Pretty soon I could make out letters.

"I found something akin to a witch's mark, but the spell is written around it in another language!" I called down to the others.

"Hold on, let us come up!" Schula called.

I was curious to see how they were going to get up here, but I gave them the time to do it, which in turn gave me the time to try to study what I was looking at. It wasn't exactly the sign for protection and it wasn't exactly the sign for a ward, but it reminded me of both in different ways. Unfortunately, Mila didn't teach me much in the ways of the witches so I didn't have a lot of experience reading the marks.

Soon enough I heard the scraping sounds of Schula, Nassir, and a reluctant Kai as Schula was pushed up first, then she helped to pull up the others. I stayed by the mark when I saw that Schula was having no trouble helping up the rest and I didn't want to lose track of where it was.

"Is that it?" Schula asked.

"Yeah," I answered, then looked at Kai. He was visibly alarmed and still held Puko in his arms, but he was up here despite his fears anyway.

Nassir pulled himself to the mark first, frowning as he examined it with his fingers. "This is some kind of gate, or barrier. And it's weakening."

"How can you tell? Can you read the witch marks?" I asked.

Kai and Schula pulled themselves over, blocking the wind from Puko as much as possible between them. Nassir ran his fingers over more of the mark and shook his head.

"No," he answered. "But I can feel the magic and what it's doing. It's both keeping something in, and keeping something out."

Well, that explains why it reminded me of both 'protection' and 'ward' when I first saw it. It was a mix of both.

"So how do we repair it?" Schula asked. "Do you know anything, Wren?"

I chewed the inside of my cheek and sighed through my nose at the puzzling mark. Circles and lines, faded with time and a spell around it that I couldn't read.

"I'm not sure what to do for it. I could try to recite the spell. If I'm half witch it should work, right? But I have no idea what this says."

"Well what about Kai?" Schula asked, turning her head to our guide. "Can you read it? Is this the language of the sands?"

Kai leaned in to look at the words that encircled the mark. "Yes, it's old fashioned but I can read them."

"What else do you need to charge the spell back up?" Schula asked.

"I don't know," I said. "I'm not actually that familiar with witchcraft other than seeing Mila do things sometimes."

"Well perhaps this spell will lend a clue," Nassir suggested. "And I can feel where time has worn away at it, would you like me to deepen the carvings?"

"Yes, that would help a lot." I watched as Nassir ran his fingers in the carved markings, brushing the stone away with his fingers as if he was drawing in the mud and not an ancient rock. Kai's eyes widened at it, and Schula moved her hand over her mouth to stop from giggling at Kai. Puko's feathers were fluffed out, he was obviously distressed but he was managing to keep quiet and not struggle.

When Nassir was done and the letters were much more visible, Kai began.

"Essentially it says this." Kai put his fingers on the words as he read around the mark. "Fill me with... that word means life but can also be read as blood. Fill me with blood of the sands and press me with... I'm going to say magic here. The other option is chair, and I don't think that's right. So we have fill me with blood of the sands and press me with magic."

"And what does this side say?" Schula asked.

"May the ones who earned their rest here forever be one with... I don't really have a one word translation for this. It's sort of everything that has been and everything that will be as it regards to what lives in the desert." Kai scratched his chin.

I studied the mark again and thought over his words. "Well, let's try it. They sound like instructions and a spell to recite. But what is blood of the sands?"

"I think I know," Nassir said, turning his head to Kai.

Kai grimaced. "I am only half, I can't guarantee it will work."

"Okay, so we can at least try it with Kai's, um, blood," I said. "So press with magic, I can only assume I have to do that as a part witch. So, how do I press something with magic? My only magic is fire."

"No, you have another presence about you too," Schula said. "I mean, yes the fire is the most present part of your essence but your energy is made of many things. Everyone's is. So in that somewhere must be the magic of witches, right?"

A burst of stronger wind had me ducking my head down a moment until it receded. "Okay, I'll try. Let me... let me center myself."

"And I'll do the... the other part," Kai said grimly.

I nodded and closed my eyes, letting out a slow breath. On top of an ancient stone with an angry spirit hanging over you as the wind whips around your body was not the most relaxing way to meditate, but I tried all the same.

I started with my breathing. One... two... three...

In and out slowly as I reached for that place where my magic sat. I was filled with it. I had used very little since leaving the Wyldes, but what I had learned was that it would replenish slower out here so I had to be careful. When I had gathered myself as much as I thought I could under the circumstances, I opened my eyes.

Kai had nicked his thumb and was spreading it in the mark, making a rather upset face. At least he was still doing it though, since we had no other options with us. Schula was murmuring soothing things to Kai and Puko, and Nassir was helping to guide Kai's hand when his nerves faltered.

"Okay," Nassir said. "The mark is filled. Wren, are you ready?"

I nodded, afraid that words right now would break my focus. I placed my palms flat over the mark and pressed down gently with my magic.

"Good," Nassir said. "Now, try the spell. Try it in the common tongue first before you have to pronounce anything in a language you don't know. If it comes to that, can you help her Kai?"

Kai nodded and I firmed up my grip over the mark.

"May the ones who earned their rest here forever be one with the sands." I had to guess at something to say for that last part. But nothing happened.

I pressed more firmly with my magic. It was wobbly over the mark, like trying to balance on a floating log. I couldn't press to much in any one direction or I'd lose my hold on it entirely.

But I had to keep trying, the wind was growing more ferocious.

"May the ones who earned their rest here forever be one with everything in the desert!"

Still nothing.

"It was worth a try, Wren," Nassir said. "Kai, can you help?"

He nodded and began reciting. "Mummnan toi buada lam tchien ba dai tai'tia."

The words were foreign and felt odd in my mouth, but I tried anyway.

"Mummnan toi..."

Snap. A light pop under my hand felt like magic in the works. It was tiny, but it was progress and it sent my heart pounding.

"Keep going!" Nassir urged.

"Mummnan toi buada lam tchien ba dai tai'tia." I said. I had another small snap, but I didn't feel the progress.

"Again," Nassir said. This time Kai joined me in chanting.

"Mummnan toi buada lam tchien ba dai tai'tia." This time as we spoke I began to pronounce the words a little better. Kai saying them with me helped immensely, and I felt more little snaps and pops under the pressure of my magic. I looked at the ward and saw where parts of the blood soaked carvings had changed. The stone itself drank in the blood and the magic and the stone itself seemed to come to life with the new power.

"Again," Nassir said.

This time I felt a surge in myself. I held my chin a little higher, spoke a little louder, and proclaimed the spell for the stone, the spirit, and the desert to hear.

"Mummnan toi buada lam tchien ba dai tai'tia!"

Kai and I roared it together, and a screech in the wind over us rang in my ears as the wind broke to pieces, scattering to the sky.

The mark under my hands though, crackled to life. A huge pressure built in the span of only a heartbeat or two, and then the pulse of life roared under us. The air itself swelled and lifted the four of us into the air, Puko seemed less affected as he flew away in a panic. As we were lifted we were simultaneously pushed away from the mark, throwing us to the sides of the stone.

I was tossed to the side, smacking down hard on the stone which knocked the wind out of me. I slid down and landed flat on my back with a choking grunt. A thud to my left told me someone else had landed on my side of the rock too. I looked over to see Kai in a dusty heap on the desert ground.

His eyes met mine and we listened in silence for a while.

"I... don't hear the wind anymore," he said.

"I don't sense the angry spirit." I grinned.

"We did it?" he asked.

"We did it!" My body hurt, but my excitement was more as I reached over and pulled Kai in a hug.

"Kai, it's fixed! The curse is gone!"

I began laughing, I couldn't stop myself. Kai joined too, and pretty quickly a fat black bird landed on my leg with a 'caw' and a peck at my arm.

"Ouch! Puko, we did it!" I gasped. "And it's all because you brought us Kai! Kai, I'm so happy you're here."

I pulled back and saw the grin on his face, but it was quickly fading to a frown.

"I don't think everyone is going to be as glad to have me here as you, aoyi'ka," Kai said.

And I turned to the open desert to see what he saw.

My heart stopped as I spotted the Khusuru riding hard and coming straight for us.