Mistweavers 01 - Enchanted No More (21 page)

BOOK: Mistweavers 01 - Enchanted No More
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CHAPTER 21

ONE LATCHED ON TO JENNI’S CHEEK BEFORE
she saw it. Sharp teeth bit and she flung up her arms. Too late. It wrapped its stingraylike wings around her head as if to smother her. The scent of old bubblegum enveloped her and she choked. Her magic began to drain.
No!
She ignited flame inside her, shot it to her head, her cheek, incinerated the thing. It died with a whimper, and fierce gladness followed the warmth of her fire throughout her body.

She used some of the fire energy to force out the pain, meld the muscle and skin together, she hoped.

She turned to see Aric slashing with a sword in his right hand, cleaving the evil magical creatures into bits…that vanished. The infestation wasn’t large, about a half dozen. Then there were three. Aric flung out his hand with the silver-green tracery of the spiderweb on his finger. A shadleech tried to back-wing, but Aric’s finger pierced it and it screamed and vanished.

Jenni clapped her hands together, focused hard. She could do this, could send controlled fire spearing into one. She’d had enough practice with her magic lately. There! It burnt the shadleech to ashes. Now there was one left and it threw itself at Jenni, but Aric and his sword were before her and the thing was dead.

Panting breaths shook Jenni’s chest. Aric appeared imperturbable…so impassive it looked like he might have rooted in the forest. When he raised his feet slowly from the ground, shaking them, Jenni figured she’d been right.

The shadleeches had surprised him, too.

“All we’ve heard was that they don’t like daylight.”

“But they’ve attacked me during the day before, Kon— The great Dark one’s shadleeches, those that were created on his estate. I know these were sent by him, they
smell
like him.”

Aric stared at her. She looked around for some piece that was left, nothing. Setting her hands on her hips, she scowled. “Not only do they have a geas on them to continue attacking me, but another spell to make sure they disintegrate when defeated.”

“I think you’re right.” Aric inhaled deeply, tilted his head as if cataloging all the scents that came to his nostrils. Well, he’d know this forest. Another deep breath that expanded his very nice chest.

“The Dark one didn’t die,” Jenni said—she’d been hoping—at the same time that Aric said, “The creature isn’t as hurt as I’d believed.” Aric’s lips tightened. “Though there are ways for a great Darkfolk to get magic and energy and life force.”

By killing others—humans, some of the minor Lightfolk if he could get his hands on them…or his tentacles or whatever he had. Jenni shuddered. She didn’t mind imagining such stuff for the game, but real life…no, just no. Too damn sad.

Like her parents and family. The fact that that thought came
second
to the worry of present unknowns actually comforted her. She was placing the event in the past. Never to be forgotten, always to be sore, but not guiding her present. She sent a small mental thanks to God.

Aric was studying his hand. The spiderweb on his finger was now a shiny silverlike scar tissue with a faint outline of dark evergreen.

Jenni smiled. “Interesting look.”

His gaze lifted to her. He frowned, strode the two paces forward it took to reach her, touched her cheek. “Faint bite mark here.”

She winced. “Really?”

“Yes, but I don’t think it will scar.” His fingers trailed down her neck, sending tickles of awareness of him as a man deep within her and she reluctantly stepped back.

His eyebrows lifted and dropped. “And I looked…but perhaps I didn’t examine you closely enough.” He came close to her, bent his head and touched her lips—gently, tenderly. With affection and maybe something more.

Emotions welled within her, yearning for this man’s touch, not just sexual, but loving. How long had it been since she’d had loving touches in her life before he’d returned and shaken her from her rut? How foolish of her to have closed herself down, away from loving. She didn’t want to think that it was only Aric who could affect her this way. Surely not.

But he was the one lover she’d had who had known her before and after her family’s death. That was major.

She put her arms around him and leaned into him for an enveloping hug. He felt good. He felt…almost…like home.

They stood in the quiet of the forest, with birds returning and calling, small creatures rustling around them. The breeze, which had vanished with the shadleech attack, now sang in the treetops far above them.

Aric gave her a last squeeze, then took her hand. “I want to speak with my mother and the other dryads, but it would best if we did that from my place. Will you come home with me?”

“Yes.”

He turned to the closest tree, one that appeared to have lost a dryad, bowed and asked permission to use it for travel. Jenni heard no response, but Aric smiled and bowed again and they stepped into it. This time there was no sinking into the greenspace between molecules. The tree was naturally thick enough to hold them both.

“Jenni, the tree is a little cold, can you send warmth through it?” Aric asked softly.

Jenni trembled. A real challenge, to warm the tree with her fire magic without harming it. But it was a beautiful tree. “Absolutely,” she said. She disengaged her fingers from Aric’s clasp. Maybe he thought she could heat the interior just standing there and expanding her magic and warmth around her—something her mother or sisters had done—but not Jenni, after so many years.

Delicately she placed her hands on the inside of the bark, felt the coolness of the pulp.

The tree grieved, too, for its lost dryad. The magical woman had been with it for a couple of centuries. Jenni matched her emotion to the tree’s, sensed the excruciatingly slow pulse of its life. Decreasing her own metabolism to the minimum, she knew she must be very careful. Fire magic moved fast. She dripped a particle or two into the tree, they cycled quickly and the tree seemed to shudder, but to Jenni the coldness of the rainy spring, the deep chill of grief at the loss of its dryad decreased as comforting warmth—even to a tree—spread through it. To Jenni’s surprise the small amount she’d given the tree moved quickly through it, then was absorbed by it.

“Just enough,” Aric was murmuring when Jenni rose from her trance. He was stroking the inner wall of the tree. “Just warm enough, comfort enough, soothing enough.”

Jenni
felt
gratitude from the tree, like a slow drop of honey onto her head, sliding cell by cell into her. This time she bowed. “Thanks to you, too.”

Aric encircled her with his arms. “I think it’s time to let the dryads know that this tree is prime for another companion.” They walked forward, this time into the greenspace that flashed around Jenni in tones of green and redwood, then were in a tree so huge that there was little greenhome space.

He smiled, set an arm around her waist. “My sequoia. It’s one of the greatest in circumference in the forest, though I’ve made sure that it has been magically protected from being discovered by humans since I first moved in.”

The floor was redwood-colored “planks,” with oriental rugs in a deep blue. The circular walls were a pale sage-green. A bit of white caught Jenni’s eye and she looked up to see the blue dome of the sky, complete with clouds.

He left her for a moment as she studied the sky, returned and put a Treefolk-mossy-herbal poultice on her cheek. “It’s looking okay, but this should finish off the healing.”

“Thanks. Pretty sky.”

Aric waved a hand. “Illusion.” But his expression was proud.

“Wonderful,” Jenni said.

“I have several stories.” Another gesture and Jenni saw the pattern of wood knots that would extend into a staircase on the far wall. Aric continued, “But this is my main living space.”

The furniture was curved, but looked familiar. The style of frame and cushions was close to what she’d grown up with. The walls were painted with landscape murals of panoramic vistas—a beach, the view of the front range mountains from the high-rise in Denver and a view of the eastern plains from the same building. There was a magical window that looked out on the forest. “Nice,” she said.

“Thank you.” He led her to a love seat and sat next to her. With a flick of his fingers, a bit of wavy air appeared in front of them,
not
a crystal ball. Jenni looked around and saw a large one tucked in a dim corner nook.

“You do use your air magic for communication.”

He hunched a shoulder. “Yes, some.”

She patted his hand that lay on her thigh. “Thanks for including me, I know that you can speak to your mother mentally.”

“To her, not necessarily to all the other dryads, and I want them linked together for this. I am
not
putting you at risk. Having the spiderweb might help you, but not if it pains you.” He flexed his fingers.

“How does it feel now?” Jenni asked.

“Good, a little humming below the surface of my skin, but I sense that will be temporary.” He glanced at the large patch of shimmering air. “Mother!” he commanded. He called her three more times, the last using her full name and the name of her tree before she answered.

“Yes, Aric?” She smiled, as if he hadn’t been irritated with her.

He held up his marked hand.

“Ooooh!” She cocked her head to study it. “Interesting color, but I don’t think it would suit me—”

“Mother! The color wasn’t my choice.”

“Wasn’t it?” She let a pause hang and Jenni thought it was because Leafswirl was reminding Aric of his nature, of what he suppressed or ignored, or…

“I like the pattern, though. You were lucky to find one during the day.”

“It hurt, Mother.”

“Oh! I’m sorry.” Now her expression was that of any mother comforting her child.

“I don’t want to put Jenni through the same pain.”

“But Jenni accepts both her natures,” Leafswirl said.

Aric’s teeth snapped together. Jenni leaned forward to catch Leafswirl’s eye.

“Leafswirl, do you know
any
halfling who has received the tatt besides the guy who was having sex? Can you check with
everyone?

Leafswirl squirmed a bit. “Well, the phenomenon of the spiderwebs seems to be only here on the California coast.”

“You have friends everywhere, check and get back to me, please,” Aric said.

“I will.” Now looking uncomfortable, Leafswirl whisked herself out of sight.

Aric let the molecules of the air communication patch disperse, sighed and leaned back with Jenni. “Let me hold you a bit before I have to get up and report to the Eight about Kondrian’s shadleech attack on you.”

Jenni kissed his jaw. “All right.” She picked up his hand to study the spiderweb marking more closely. “It did protect you. None of them got to you.”

“They didn’t get past my sword.”

“But they like to swarm a person in three dimensions. They didn’t get you.”

“They were aiming more for you.”

Jenni kissed his finger. “Face it, Aric, the spiderweb worked.” She touched his cheek so he’d look at her. “
You
caused this benediction for your Treefolk.
You
saved them from the shadleeches.”

“So far.”

“So far. That’s something to be proud of, and something to report to the Eight, too.”

He slanted her a considering look. “I asked for help for the Treefolk, Rothly asked for help and he was healed. His arm was straightened and his magic returned.”

“Not Mistweaver magic.”

“But some unwarped kind. That’s how it seemed to me, what about you?”

“Yes.”

“Both the guardians might have put a little more power behind all of our wishes—the elf wished for
good,
and it’s good that the dryads now have some protection against the shadleeches. It’s good that Rothly is healed. The dwarf formed the intention that the creativity of the second bubble be used for the Lightfolk.” Aric shrugged. “Who knows how that is manifesting, but the dryads and Treefolk support Earth’s natural magic and the Lightfolk, so helping the dryads also helps the Lightfolk, and Rothly is half-Lightfolk.” Aric curved a hand around her face. “As you are. What did you wish for, Jenni?”

“Didn’t you hear me?”

“No. Everything happened too fast.” His jaw flexed. “That’s where my natures of air and Treefolk clash. I don’t always comprehend events and act quickly. What did you ask for, Jenni?”

Jenni’s face heated from embarrassment, not her fire nature.

His turn for his fingers to ask that she would meet his eyes. “Can’t you tell me?”

She felt her lips clamp together before she opened them, stared beyond his shoulder. “It was that little childhood charm.”

His eyelids lowered. “I don’t know human or halfling childhood charms.”

Sighing, she did look into his beautiful green eyes. Now she and he were in his native forest, in his very tree, his eyes seemed to have picked up a shade of hazel, a touch of brown, and made his gaze more intense. She glanced down and saw his web-marked hand. On a huff of breath, she said, “Events and emotions were moving fast for me, too. All I could think of was a little charm we learned as girls. ‘Water, earth, air, fire, bring to me my heart’s desire.’” Without looking, she could
feel
Aric’s slow smile.

“Your heart’s desire. What is your heart’s desire, Jenni? Jindesfarne Mistweaver Emberdrake?”

The name struck at her, reminding her of all the changes that had occurred in the last week.

Aric’s head had lowered close enough that she could feel his breath on her lips. “What do you want most, Jenni?”

“Family…” The word fell from her lips and he shuddered, jerked back.

She blinked sudden tears away. “Oh, I know my old family is dead, but I want family. I want Rothly back as my brother.” She wasn’t quite ready to say that she wanted Aric as her lover and husband and man—was pretty damn sure that he wasn’t ready to hear those words, had no idea how much he might care for her or commit to her and her “heart’s desire.” She drew in a steadier breath. “I want a loving family, good friends.”

BOOK: Mistweavers 01 - Enchanted No More
2.17Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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