Last Witch Standing (Mountain Witch Saga) (11 page)

“Yes, those were her capacitors.” Rachel laughed. “Silly
things, but they work. She spent years perfecting them.”

“Not well enough, or she wouldn’t need you,” Candice broke
in.

 “No. I guess not. What makes you think this plan will
work?” Rachel looked at Jakob and Karen.

“We have no surety it will, but this has been years in the
planning. Never before have we been able to marshal so many resources. Also, for
the first time, we have a hook in Katie. Thee. Your bond with her, Rachel,”
Queen Annalisse said.

Rachel looked at each of them in turn, noting their resolve.
So this all comes down to me?

“Your channeling will summon Katie. Even if she has left
this world, were you to channel enough Power, she would sense your location,”
Karen said.

“Our dear sisters are moving into place in your province of
Hawaii. It is there we believe you can channel to best effect. It is there we
will spring our trap and bring this misguided child to heel,” Annalisse said.

The Present

Earth

Overhead, the thunder of airliners broke the stillness of the
morning. Rachel looked out across the water. The turquoise ocean complemented
the cerulean blue sky.
This is as beautiful as Pangea.

Candice stood next to her as they waited for the shuttle
that would take them to their hotel. “Have you ever been to Hawaii, Rachel?”

“No,” Rachel answered without averting her eyes from the
scene. “This is beautiful. I can only imagine what it must have been like
before man came.”

“I visited here for high school graduation. That was many
years ago, I’m afraid. I can’t believe how little has changed in twenty years.”

“Maybe, someday, you could see our Pangea. It is unspoiled
by pollution or noise.”

“What is it like?”

“Very similar to Africa. Not far from where Katie and I
stayed, there’s a huge waterfall. Much like Victoria Falls in southern Africa.
We have condors, though.”

“I would love to see it. The Kingdom of the Mountain
Witches is very similar to Appalachia,” Candice said.

“Our worlds are connected,” Karen said. “Nearly everything
you see on Earth can be found elsewhere in the Cosmos, with slight, local
modifications.”

“Bears and mountain lions in the Mountain Witch Kingdom.
Condors and gazelles on Pangea,” Rachel added.

“There are some Universes that are quite different. Ones
without terra style planets and life forms entirely different than any seen on
Earth or our worlds. I am a little surprised Katie did not take you to one,
Rachel,” Karen said.

“She was going to, eventually, when I became skilled enough
at storing energy without bleeding it off. I was to be her battery.”

“How considerate of her,” Candice said.

“She is not entirely selfish. She wanted me to see it for
my own sake, as well as hers,” Rachel said.

***

“What better way to scout out the terrain than take a bike
tour of the volcano?” Rachel held a steaming French fry in her hand. Candice,
Jakob, Karen and Annalisse sat with her at the restaurant table. Behind them
loomed Mount Kilauea.

“Why not? That’s a great idea.” Candice glanced at Karen
and Jakob.

“We could certainly cover more ground that way. I don’t
think we’ll have a difficult time finding a place for you to channel the Power,
but some spots are likely to be better than others,” Karen said.

“Reconnaissance is always a good idea. You should have been
a detective, Rachel.” Candice lifted her barbecue burger and took a big bite.

“So much power will draw the sorceress. Even if she has
returned to Pangea, she will notice the spike,” Karen said.

Jakob glanced around the table at the empty lunch plates.
“Ready to go?”

“Yes.” Candice dipped the last bite of burger into barbecue
sauce and shoved it into her mouth.

***

Rachel bumped into a
young man in the parking lot. “Oh,
excuse me,” She said. He was dressed in khaki shorts and college t-shirt;
strapped to his back was a pack with a sleeping bag secured under it. He struggled
not to drop a telescope.

“It’s okay, my fault, I wasn’t looking,” he answered,
barely looking up at Rachel as he fumbled with his gear.
He
regained control of his telescope and called out to one of his companions, “Wait,
Kim!”

“Hurry up, Grady,” a young co-ed answered from the other
side of the parking lot. She was dressed in blue shorts and the same college
t-shirt as her friend and carried a pack as well.

 “We are not going to be alone in this park,” Rachel
observed as they walked towards the bike rental shop.

“I know. The queen has anticipated this. We have no choice,
though,” Karen answered.

“What about a more isolated spot?” Rachel asked.

“We need Katie out in the open. She has too much of an
advantage in wooded terrain. Also, Queen Annalisse believes this to be the most
propitious place for our task,” Karen answered.

More students passed – many carrying packs and telescopes.
Most had bedding rolled under their pack. Camping. They would be in the park at
night, then.

The large number of hikers and other pedestrians stirred up
small clouds of dust as they crossed the parking lot. Overhead, several birds
flew. The air smelled fresh – nearly as clean as on Pangea, Rachel noted.

I must trust Annalisse. She would not lead us
into a disaster
.

The party reached the bike rental shop. Jakob was already
there and had completed the paperwork and paid the deposit for their bicycles.

“The main crater is too obvious. I
know
Katie – she
will sense it is a setup. During our time together, even before my death, she
saw that I am circumspect. Such a bold, public, move on my part would be out of
character for me.” Rachel held her bike by the handlebars as the party surveyed
the scene. Mt. Kilauea towered in the distance.

“I trust your judgment on this,” Karen said.

“What about Kilauea Iki? It is less famous. Plus, we can
approach from the forest. Queen Annalisse, can you fight from there?” Jakob
asked.

“Yes, I believe so. Her confidence will be very high. She
will not be concerned with being out in the open, even with me in cover.”

Jakob rented two-seated bikes and Karen and Candice shared
one, Queen Annalisse and Rachel, the other. Jakob rode singly to scout the
terrain ahead.

Rachel steadied the bike, prepared to use the Power to
balance it. The queen’s feet did not reach the pedals. However, Rachel found
the bike was perfectly balanced. Either Annalisse was channeling power so
efficiently that Rachel, even next to her, could not detect it, or the witch
weighed just enough to balance the cycle without adding to the pedaling load.

The Present

Mount Kilauea

Rachel placed her palms against the rock. Below, the magma
was more than fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit. The group had locked their
bikes together and entered the lava fields. Around them, the jagged terrain,
barren of greenery, recalled to mind pictures of the Martian landscape taken by
the Mars Rover. Ahead, near to the caldera, noxious sulfur dioxide gases seeped
from the ground, giving the appearance of steam rising from an underground
stream.

Queen Annalisse came beside her.

Rachel stood up. “I have never drawn energy from something
so hot as this. Even the hot springs on Pangea were barely above boiling point
– at most two to three hundred degrees Fahrenheit. This is at least five times
as much.”

“Do not worry, child-witch. Your kind can draw at a far
greater temperature than this. With training, you could even draw from the surface
of the Sun,” Annalisse reassured her.

“What do I do?”

“Start slowly. Draw not from the magma itself, but from the
heated ground around it. Pull only a bit at a time, a slender thread of energy
is best,” Karen said.

“Steady and even. This is only a practice session. Remember
the lesson of the candle,” Annalisse said.

Rachel knelt once more. Composed of volcanic rock, the
shelf was rough from irregular cooling and she had to rise to adjust her
position and avoid scraping herself on the sharp ground. Through her palm, she detected
the layers of heat. Parts below her were extremely hot, with pockets exceeding
two thousand degrees Fahrenheit. To the side of the pocket and several feet up,
lay a cooler segment. She drew from this. First, only a slender thread, less
even than from the swimming pool the night before.

Slowly, in nearly imperceptible increments, Rachel drew
power.
This is not like the pool. I am still using more power to do this
than I am drawing.
She stood up. “I need a second.”

“We are in no hurry, Rachel. Take as long as you need to
remain comfortable,” Karen said.

In the distance, they could see Jakob riding his bicycle.
If someone approached, he raised his left arm over his head as an alarm. The
shadows of the rocks lengthened as the afternoon turned to early evening.

Rachel breathed deeply. Next to them stood a large boulder
of igneous rock. Drawing from it would take a lot of power – likely more than
she would draw – but it could serve as a buffer between her and the molten rock
below. She walked to it and placed both palms against it. First, she felt for
temperature differences and any currents within or directly underneath that she
could mine.

Cool. The rock was relatively cool, retaining only the heat
from the afternoon sun. Rachel detected a warm current in the ground, far below
it, but she would have to channel the Power nearly to her limit of channeling
undetected. She went back to the ground and knelt.

This time, knowing the terrain and the currents below,
Rachel was able to directly seize upon a thread of magma that was neither the
hottest nor the coolest. She drew the heat from it, starting at the level she
had ceased at earlier. Energy flowed through her.

More. She wanted more. This was like a drug rush.

Power filled her, the ground blurred and her hearing zoned
out. Like an electrocution victim, unable to remove a hand from the live wire
shocking them, she was held to her position. Something pushed her away and off
the lava field. Rachel blinked, staring upwards at the sky. Where was she?

Figures filled her field of vision.
Katie had summoned
help for her in her tent. Good. They would take her away from Earth and to the Mountain
Witch village where she would meet Gertrude and Eustice.
Yet, how did she
know their names before meeting them and why did she see the sky overhead and
not tent canvas?

“Let her be. She will regain her bearing shortly,” one of
the figures said.

“She’s not breathing!” a second said.

“She does not need to,” came a third reassuring voice, this
one male.

Rachel turned her head in the direction of the man’s voice.
A bicycle lay next to him. Where was his Labrador, the one he used to walk
through her neighborhood in Melville? Jakob. It was Jakob.

“She’s coming back,” Karen said.

The sky and figures gathered around her came into focus.

I am here, on Earth, and Katie is gone. She was
my first friend; I cannot betray her.

Rachel breathed in deeply and sat up. The ground cut her
pants.

“I’m okay.”

Candice moved to check her vitals.

“I am fine. Remember, I am no longer human.” Rachel smiled
at the detective.

They made Rachel stay still and rest. Finally, she stood
up. “I’m okay, now.”

“Let’s go. We can try again tomorrow. Rachel, can you
ride?” Jakob asked.

“Yes, I think so. In a minute, but we can start out now. I
can walk beside the bike until my balance is back.”

The party collected their bicycles and started down the
path that would take them to the parking lot and their van. Rachel paid little
attention to the scenery around as she considered her dilemma. Loyalty was a
two way street. Katie didn’t reciprocate Rachel’s sense of loyalty – or did
she? If Rachel were truly in trouble or danger, Katie
would
come. The
sorceress did let Rachel’s human body die – perhaps even caused her death – but
Katie thought she was doing her friend a favor in this.

“Katie cannot be harmed. I am bonded to her. I don’t know
how or why, but I think I would fight to protect her – whether I wished to
intellectually or not.”

Karen and Jakob shared a look.

“We know this, child,” Queen Annalisse said. “You will not
be asked to fight against your maker.”

Her bearing restored, Rachel rode with Jakob, who pedaled
most of her weight along with his own. Candice took Queen Annalisse and Karen
took Jakob’s single bike. The sun cast long shadows from its position at the
horizon when they made it to the van.