Song of the Sword (18 page)

This was like that, but ten times worse. As soon as the water changed from fresh to salt, her power deserted her. With an explosion of spray, their bodies materialized. By instinct, she kicked, and her head burst out into the open air.

Wrapped in the cocoon of her power, she had been oblivious to the temperature of the water through which they raced. Now cold gripped her with breath-stopping suddenness. To her left she glimpsed a gray sky. Tossing waves stretched to the indistinct horizon, lost in a haze of distant rain, or snow. To her right she saw a shore as barren as the surface of Mars.

A hand still gripped hers, pulling her down...

“Let go!” she spluttered, jerking at it. The hand released her. Her head sank beneath the water at the same instant, but her feet were touching the bottom, and when she straightened up, her head and shoulders broke out into the frigid air. She heard coughing and saw Wally glaring at her.

“Not exactly first-class travel!” A wave splashed into his mouth, and he choked and sputtered. “Take us h-home!”

She reached for the power...and couldn’t find it.

Salt water.
She could feel it on her skin, but to her power it was invisible.
Lady of the Lake, not Lady of the Ocean...

“I can’t,” Ariane shouted. “I can’t do anything with salt water. We have to find the river that brought us here. It c-can’t be far away. Let’s get onto the sh-shore.” Ariane’s teeth were chattering.

They splashed onto the rock-strewn shore. Again Ariane reached for her power, intending to order the water off both their bodies...and again she failed. She felt a pang of fear. “I may h-have made a s-serious mi-mistake. We could f-f-freeze out here.”

“Not if I h-have anyth-thing to s-say about it.” Wally looked around. Ariane followed his gaze. Rocks. Water. Clouds. A high bluff that blocked the view inland. “How far n-north are we?”

“S-southern end of H-Hudson Bay, I th-think.”

“Still s-south of the tree line, then. Let’s c-climb up there,” he pointed to the top of the bluff, “and see what’s what. It’ll help k-keep us warm, if n-nothing else.”

They scrambled up the steep slope. The exercise did make Ariane feel a little – a
very
little – warmer. As their heads cleared the top of the bluff, Wally whooped. “Trees! Come on.” He scrambled over the lip of the bluff and onto the level ground beyond, then pulled her up after him.

“You’ve got m-matches?” Ariane said, her teeth starting to chatter again.

“No, but I’ve got something better.” Wally grinned at her. “A knife – and knowledge.”

Puzzled, but hoping desperately Wally knew what he was doing, Ariane followed him through the trees. At least here they were out of the wind’s reach. Wally cast around on the ground for dry wood, and built a pyramid of good-sized sticks over a small pile of twigs. In the centre he scraped dry, powdery punk from the underside of a dead log. Then he searched the ground until he found two branches, one quite thick, the other little more than a stick. He came back to Ariane and sat cross-legged, placing the branches in front of him.

“Willow,” he said, patting the thicker branch. “Softwood.” With his pocketknife, he carved a groove in it. Then he picked up the stick. “Tamarack,” he said. “Hardwood.” He shaped the end of it, then braced the thicker branch on his hip, slipped the stick into the groove, and began rubbing it back and forth, pressing down. Within moments he was breathing hard and sweating.

“I can see how it m-makes
you
warmer,” Ariane said, “b-but it’s not doing m-much for
m-me
.”

“Give it time,” Wally panted. To Ariane’s amazement, a tendril of smoke rose from where the sticks met, and the wood dust that had formed in the groove in the willow branch began to glow. Quickly, Wally scraped the glowing dust onto the dry, rotted wood he’d already put in the middle of his pyramid. A tiny flame licked up. The twigs ignited, then the larger sticks, and moments later, a fire was blazing cheerfully at Ariane’s feet.

She plopped down on the ground beside it, so close her clothes steamed in the chill air. As the warmth seeped into her bones, she realized she was exhausted. Not just physically, but mentally and in some other way she could hardly put a name to. Magically? Spiritually? Whatever reservoirs of inner strength she relied on to guide the Lady’s power were empty. She could feel her strength seeping back, but slowly...so slowly.

“Maybe if I had something to eat...” she said, thinking out loud. “I’m starving.”

Wally frowned, then suddenly brightened. He dug into the right pocket of his jeans and held out a small plastic box. “Tic Tac?”

Ordinarily Ariane hated mints, but she grabbed the box and poured the entire contents into her mouth, chewing and swallowing them in moments. “That’s better. But...” She gave Wally an apologetic look. “I can’t send us back. Not for a while. I’ve got to get my strength back.”

“Told you,” Wally said. “TANSTAAFL. ‘There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.’”

“Too bad, because I could sure use a free lunch right about now,” Ariane said. She looked at him hopefully. “Anything else to eat in those pockets of yours?”

“Not unless you like lint. But I’ll see what I can find in the forest.” Wally got to his feet. “Wait here.”

“Don’t get lost.”

“I won’t. A-plus in orienteering.” He moved off among the trees, and disappeared from sight.

Ariane couldn’t keep her head up – the heat from the fire had relaxed all her muscles. The ground was covered with spruce needles, but she curled up on it anyway. It was hard and the needles were sharp, but she was so tired...

She jerked awake an indeterminate time later to find Wally crouching on his heels beside her, holding out a branch covered with berries. “Arctic Bilberry,” he said. “Pretty much dried out, this time of year, but there ought to be some nutrition in them. Think of them as raisins. That’s about the best I can do.” He looked grave. “You’d better be able to get us back, or we’re going to get very hungry very soon.”

The berries, small and shriveled, were the most delicious-looking things Ariane had ever seen. She stripped the branch of them, stuffing them into her mouth. They took a lot of chewing, but again she felt a surge of power within her. Between the berries and the sleep...

“I think we can try it,” Ariane said. “Even if I can’t get us all the way home, I can get us most of the way...somewhere with people, anyway.”

“Then let’s go.” Wally jerked his head toward the western horizon, where the sky was several shades darker than the light gray clouds overhead. “I think there’s a storm coming. I really don’t want to be here when it hits.”

Ariane nodded. “We have to find the river,” she said. She went to the top of the bluff and looked both ways along the rock-strewn shore. It was hard to spot anything among the tumble of boulders, but something silvery-white caught her eye. She squinted, and caught a hint of movement, the flicker of water foaming across submerged stones. “There!” She pointed.

Together they clambered back down the bluff and picked their way through the stones until they reached the mouth of the river, where the water poured over wet rock into Hudson Bay. Ariane hesitated. The white-flecked, steel-gray water looked as cold and sharp as a frozen knife blade, and her flesh recoiled at the thought of stepping into it...but she remembered how the icy water of Wascana Lake had felt milk-warm around her bare feet. Maybe she didn’t have to worry about how cold water – well, fresh water, anyway – was anymore. At least, not when she was fully charged.

She snorted.
What am I, a battery?

Wally didn’t have that protection, of course, and she felt sorry for him, but it wasn’t like there was any choice. She held out her hand to Wally. He took it, his fingers as cold as the air around them, and she waded in.

Sure enough, the water felt warm and comforting to her, though she heard Wally gasp. She kept walking until the water reached her knees. “Here we go.” She closed her eyes, reached for the power...and felt herself become one with the water.

Or two, counting Wally.

It was harder to make headway this time, heading upstream...up rivers, through dams. They passed through Buffalo Pound Lake, through the water treatment plant, followed the pipes into the city…

Her strength began to fail again. She hadn’t had as much to start with, and now she was losing the sense of where she was. She couldn’t find Wally’s house, couldn’t...

...no, wait,
there
– the pool they had started from. Out through the jets, and...

Ariane’s feet hit the bottom of the pool. She stood up, sputtering and gasping as her head and shoulders emerged into the air, and she felt the familiar sting of chlorine in her eyes. Cedar walls surrounded them. Wally shoved his dripping hair out of his eyes and looked around. “Home, sweet home,” he said. “You did it!”

With a sense of triumph, Ariane waded toward the pool’s ladder. She climbed up onto the tile floor, just in front of the door leading to the rest of the house. Wally climbed out beside her. Finding she still had a little power left, Ariane ordered the water to depart. Liquid sprayed out from their bodies, soaking the walls, the floor, the towels on a rack by the door...

...and Felicia, who had opened the door at
precisely
the wrong moment and was staring at them open-mouthed and dripping. She wore a skimpy bikini (
If I had a figure like that, so would I
, Ariane thought with a pang of jealousy) and carried a large pink – and now very wet – towel.

Wally recovered first. “Hi, sis. Have a good sleep?”

Felicia’s look of shock morphed into one of fury. “What is
she
doing here?”

Ariane was in no mood for Felicia’s petty hatred. She raised her hand, and a tendril of water twisted snakelike out of the pool. Ariane flicked her hand forward, and the water tendril darted at Felicia, stopping just short of her nose. Felicia jerked back, banging her head on the doorpost.

“What’s it to you?” Ariane snarled. “Last time I saw you, you were running for your life. Maybe you should start running again.”

Wally’s grin vanished. “Ariane. Please. She lives here, remember?”

“Yeah, I know, I’ve seen her lair.” The water tendril snapped forward again, spraying Felicia’s face. “Crawl back to it, Felicia. Crawl back to it, and don’t bother me again.”

Felicia’s face was ash-white, and her voice strained. “Get her out of our house, Wally. Maybe I can’t touch her –
yet
– but you
know
what I’ll do to you.”

Ariane resisted the urge to shove the tendril of pool water right down Felicia’s throat. Besides, she could feel her energy draining away. In a moment, she wouldn’t be able to control the tendril at all. So instead she flicked it once more at Felicia’s face, then jerked her hand back. The water slipped back into the pool with a slurping sound.

Felicia glared at Ariane, fists clenched, then turned and disappeared down the hall and through a door that revealed a brief glimpse of the laundry room before it slammed shut.

Ariane took a deep breath, then saw Wally glaring at her, too, his expression so much like Felicia’s that for the first time she saw the family resemblance.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

~ • ~

Wally’s heart pounded in his chest. He dug his fingernails into the palms of his clenched hands. Anger, hot and unexpected, choked him as he tried to respond. All he managed to squeeze out of his tight throat was, “You’d better go.”

Ariane looked puzzled. “All right. But if she does anything to you –”

“I can deal with her!”

Ariane blinked. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

“Did I do something –”

“I don’t need you to fight my battles for me!” The words exploded out of him. “I can handle Flish. I’ve been doing it for years.”

“Really.” Ariane’s reply was cool. “I guess that’s why she had you cleaning up her room.”

“Which I wouldn’t have had to do if you hadn’t trashed it!
Every time you two get in a catfight I’m the one she takes it out on. Why don’t you just leave her alone?”

“After everything she’s done –”

“She’s my sister!”
And until the last couple of years, she was my best friend.

He expected Ariane to argue, but she surprised him. Her face softened. “Yes, she is,” she said, her voice strangely wistful. “I never had a brother or a sister, Wally. I guess I don’t understand how it is. I promise I’ll leave her alone...but if she interferes...”

“That’s all I ask.” Wally willed himself to calm down. He unclenched his fists and even managed a small smile. “Thank you.”

“Thank
you
. For the rescue this morning.” She grinned at him, and Wally felt the last of his anger melt away. “You really are my ‘Knight’ in shining armor.”

Wally groaned. “I wondered how long it would take before the puns on my last name started...”

“Hey, you’re lucky I put it off this long.” She laughed. “Anyway, you’re right, I should go.” She turned serious. “So…now you know what it’s like…are you really coming with me tonight? To the diamond mine? Last chance to back out.”