Chapter 7
Master Gendun, Yu and the Medmage were having another deep discussion when we found them in the garden. Apparently they were discussing what each wanted the magic to do with the plants.
"Ashlyn, please show Julie the link to the Richmond lei-line and we will join you as soon as we can."
I followed her back to the maze and through to the Tree. It was only the second time I had seen it up close since Ashlyn and I met the wolf-demon there. It was amazing how much it had changed in the time. Instead of a sapling with a few leaves sprouting, it was now ten or more feet tall with a generous green canopy and dozens of apples hanging on every branch.
"Geez, that's a good-looking tree!" I said admiringly.
"Thank you!" Ashlyn smiled. "Just sit anywhere..." She paused, then did something with her hands. A piece of the trunk stretched out and extended roots to make a simple stool. "That'll be more comfortable, I guess!" She grinned at me, clearly delighted at her handiwork. "I've never thought of doing that!" Another stool popped out for her to sit on.
"This is so freaky!" I said as I joined her, "It's like having your own full-size doll house - or is it a tree house?" We both laughed.
"Yeah, just the limited feed from the Richmond line is letting me do this, it'll be even more amazing once we can get a more reliable connection going!" She paused, "Can you tell where it is?"
"Hell yeah," I said, pointing to the ground, "The root is like shiny with power. I can follow it, but I'm afraid to touch it..." I looked at her, "I can't understand how you can take all that power without going crazy!"
"I was built for this," Ashlyn said matter-of-factly, "and I cannot directly use the magic power the way you can, so it's easier for me. Think of the Tree as a big balloon for the magic. Right now we're about half-full, and the Richmond connection, once it's complete, will bring us almost to the limit. What I have to do is to build up the Tree-balloon to hold even more!"
"Ah, it's making more sense to me now! And, somehow, you, or the Tree turns the 'raw' magic to something you can both use to make it grow!"
"Yes, something like that." Ashyn nodded, "and of course that means the Tree itself will need to be at least four, five times this size before we can hope to handle the rest of the lei-lines."
"Looks like you... WE have a bit of work ahead of us!"
"Yeah, what do you want to do now?" She asked.
"Let me get a look at what you've done first to get a feel for things, then maybe see if I can find another way..." I closed my eyes and traced the root from the Tree, careful not to touch the root itself, which seemed to be pulsing at me, inviting me to touch it, to share in its awesome might. And the further I went, the sharper and more frequent the pulses got.
Before too long I had to stop, "Does the power feel like waves to you? Like it's a bunch of bees, rushing and buzzing like crazy. I feel like it's constantly trying to roll me over or something."
"You've just described the surges before a transition," Ashlyn said, "I don't feel it yet, but it's possible the Magic is about to fade, and you know what happens then."
"Ah, I hope that's it, 'cos I don't think I'd be able to handle it if it's always like this!" I withdrew my senses and took a few deep breaths.
"You must be a heck of a lot more sensitive than me to be able to tell so far in advance!" Ashlyn said, "But it'll let me top up before the fun starts!"
"Oh shit, ahhh, I'm sorry Ashlyn. I knew you gave your energy to Rhe'en, and I forgot to offer you any!" I realized that she had been feeding on the green threads from her Tree, but all she was getting was a trickle, and she had given a whole lot more to the Spriggan. I grabbed her hand and started converting magic to what she needed.
"Do you need a 'squirt?' " she asked.
"Er, wait, let me try this first..." While visualising a hypodermic needle, I fashioned the tiniest of probes and approached the root with it. The pulses were definitely stronger than before, but by staying a respectable ways from it, I was able to draw power from it without feeling like I was drowning.
"Oh yeah!" Ashlyn said, "This is so much better than what I could do by myself!" She was smiling happily and she was even feeding some of it back to her Tree.
"I was just wondering, how far exactly is it to get to the Richmind lei-line? It seemed like I went a ways and I haven't even reached the blockage yet!"
"It's not close, about 2 and a half miles on the map but you know I had to find open passages, and then there's that pesky river... the root cannot go through open water so I had to go around it!"
"Wouldn't it make sense to find a closer one? I know the Savannah lei-line is just a half mile from here." Where Kate had taken me to get to her house.
"Yeah... Let's ask Master Gendun about that. Now that we can go through the rock, it makes sense to find something closer. Savannah would definitely be a good one!"
"Yeah, I'll ask him about it. Oh, and make sure you stop me before you get too juiced!" I warned her.
"Not to worry - I don't think I can get giddy like Rhe'en. Remember the Tree and I were designed to hold magic!"
"You're feeding the Tree with your magic, aren't you?"
"Yes, I get my energy from it, but it needs something else from me in order to grow..." She thought about it, "It's like I have to give it a reason to grow, 'cos otherwise it's quite happy being this size."
"But we know you need it to be much bigger to handle the extra magic, right?"
"Yeah, it's the same when I told it to make the chairs... It's like I can talk to it when I send it my power."
"That's a cool trick to have!" I laughed, "But the shocks are getting really strong now, I'm not sure how much longer I can do this."
"Yeah, I'm begining to feel them too. And I'm good-to-go now, thanks to you!" Ashlyn said. She glanced upwards and a bough over my head looped down and offered me a Golden Delicious. "And my Tree thanks you too!" She laughed.
"Why thank you, Tree!" I stood to take the fruit offered and turned to Ashlyn, "Thank you as well, but I'd swear the apple wasn't here when we sat down!"
"Extra magic, remember? Looks like we can do a lot of things with it!" She said, "Now, I have to get ready for work!" She gave me a smile and a wave as she, along with the stools, melted into the Tree.
I munched on the apple as I went out of the maze. I could tell Yu was still in the garden, so I headed that way. Just outside the kitchen, Master Gendrun and the Medmage were in the courtyard, in another arm-waving discussion. The medmage was talking about growing some miracle drug called Samoan Kava as I went up.
"Is there a problem, Julie?" Master Gendun asked.
"Yeah, kinda, Ashlyn says the magic is going soon, so we'll have to wait - I'm on my way to let Yu know..."
"Yes, alright." He nodded.
"Sir... We were just talking and Ashlyn and I wondered if we can't work a different lei-line. One that's a bit closer than Richmond. Ashlyns says that it's over two miles and we have to go around some water."
"Yes, that's very interesting." He said thoughtfully, "Come see me at the end of Study Period and we can go over the map."
They returned to their conversation and I headed to the Garden, where I found Yu standing among the herbs.
"Magic's going soon, you better finish whatever you're doing... What ARE you doing?" I asked.
"I'm attempting to use magic to fashion an environment that would be optimal for plant growth."
"So... a magical green house!" I laughed.
"Precisely, we have decided on providing on a constant supply of heat and light in order for them to thrive."
"Ahhh..." Which explained the little pools of light over the plants around him. "Can I watch?"
Yu nodded noncommitally and continued. He appeared to be pushing some of his god threads out on his hand and tying it down with some blue human threads. After two or three minutes, he had a walnut size lump that sucked in magic and emitted warmth and a glow.
He floated it over the plants and started on another one. I was staring at it when the magic went. To my senses, the tech wave dropped down like a shard of glass; hard and sharp. While the magic that was coming from Ashlyn's root was softer, but it seemed much tougher and had no problems absorbing the crushing power of tech and keeping it six feet off the ground.
Yu was still working away, unperturbed, so I tried to emulate what he was doing, but I had the bitch of a time getting my own threads to behave. To begin with, there just weren't all that many silvery-god threads on me. And when I could get a clump of them to stay together, the blue threads didn't want to cooperate. After fifteen minutes, I finally got a tiny lump on my hand, which sat there and did nothing. Ahh, so what else was I doing wrong?
Reaching out, ethereally speaking, I duplicated some of the stuff that Yu was working on and, as soon as it formed in my hand, presto! it turned into a floating source of heat and light!
Yu looked at it, nodding in approval, "That's exactly right! Good job!"
"That's exactly cheating!" I said, "I just copied yours! I got nothing when I tried to do it on my own..."
"That you can start your own is even better!"
"Even if it does nothing?"
"Even..." Yu looked at me, "The fact you are able to move your own magic, indicates you are virtually there!"
"Really?"
"Yes, that is two-thirds of the requirements of magic manipulation! You have Will, you have Power - all that's missing is Purpose!" I frowned as he continued, "You have to instruct your magic what you want it to do, give it the Purpose!" He nodded, "You just have to work at it!"
"Like everything else..." I sighed. "I'll watch you make a few more and I'll practice by myself."
"You are doing well, Julie Olsen. Did I not tell you? You ARE a god!" He gave me a great big smoking-hot grin.
"Get back to work..." I waved him off. No need for him to see how shaky I'd suddenly become. Forcing myself to take shallow breaths, I watched him fiddle with his magic blobs while waiting for my heart to stop pounding. Damned baby gods, nothing but a pain in the butt!
After a while, I got back to making my little puddle of magic. Purpose, huh? From watching Yu, I could tell that the blue threads did the work, while all the silver threads did was feed on magic, so...
Ha! I just thought about it and the little silver buggers started chomping on the free magic, getting bigger, and bigger, and...
I managed to unthink it from feeding before something happened, something bad, I sensed.
Okaay then, work on the blue threads FIRST! What do I need? Light... and it was there. Having spent all this time on the magic lights made it quite easy. Heat turned out to be pretty straightforward too. Now the floating bit. Again by telling some of the blue threads to float, it did.
So now I had a blob of warm light, suspended six inches off my palm. I turned to show Yu and the damn thing started drifting away! It was just following the breeze, merrily bouncing six inches off the ground, until the magic, or whatever holding it together was used up and it vanished.
Shit! I turned to Yu to ask him how he makes the blob stay in one place and stopped. Damn girl, you have a brain, use it! It was Kate's lecturing voice, followed by the sound of her snickering in my head. It hit me then, making me stop and close my eyes. Oh Kate... Please, please be OK, wherever you are.
I took a deep breath and got back to remake the blob. This one came together easily, and Yu even thought it was good, even though he had to show me how to turn down the amount of heat. I also found that I could convert free magic to act like my threads and it was simpler than to try and urge them out of my body. I had time to do two when Ashlyn came back and announced it was time for Algebra.
"Just go and tell them that I'm busy, with official-like stuff. In fact, why don't you stay with us here?"
"Nope!" She grinned, "Brook left explicit instructions!"
"Some pal YOU are!" I grumbled as she took my arm and hustled me back to class.
"What's with this Poly-whatchamacallit crap?" Ashlyn grumbled as we trouped out after the class bell went, "Took me half the period just to learn to spell it!"
"You're way ahead of me, I STILL can't spell it, let alone figure it out!" I said. "I TOLD you we shouldn't have come to class!"
"I know a way to get you guys up to speed!" Brook smiled rather unkindly at us.
"Don't say it," I warned her, "or I'll... I'll do something... as soon as my brain starts working again!" I looked over at Sheila, "You understand this shit?"
"If I do, I do... If not..." She shrugged, "I don't imagine I'd need it all that much in the Red Guard."
"Yeah, I guess..." I looked at her and she looked back, "Wait, it's gym now isn't it?" She nodded, "And tech is still up..." She nodded again. I grinned at her, "Which means we get to shoot things up?" She grinned back. "Hell yeah, I really, really need to mangle some targets!"
We walked downstairs to the gym where Brook joined the netball game while Ashlyn stayed to watch. She was exempt from sports, and pretty much everything since she may need to tend to her Tree 24/7.
Sheila and I went down the stairs to the 'Ring' and Toby was there warming up. I waved him over, "When are you heading back to the Keep? Shouldn't you be back with your Pack already?" The last few months before the Change could be quite hazardous to a were, so they were usually spent surrounded by his own kind.
"Didn't you hear? About what happened at the Keep?"
"About Kate and Curran disappearing? Yeah."
"No, after they left..." He looked at Sheila, "Can I speak with Julie for a few minutes, please?"
"I'll see you inside then." She said as she took off.
"What happened?" I turned back to Toby.
"The Alpha was challenged..." Ah, Jennifer. She had inherited the Wolves when her husband died defending the Weres, and nobody had the heart to turf her out, figuring she'd go back to her knitting when things settled down. Instead she stayed and started playing politics, including trying to bribe people to support her and generally making a mess of eveything.
"Desandra?" I made a guess. Toby nodded. Desandra was one of the weres that came over from Central Europe. Barely seventeen, she had been tossed around as a pawn in a century-long power struggle. That she survived, along with her two kids, said bundles about her smarts and toughness. She'd taken over as Beta, or second-in-command of the wolves within two months, but when Jennifer tried to turn people against her children, it became a matter of when, not if.
"Did it last more than ten seconds?"
Toby shrugged, "The Alpha had three or four of her guards with her. Desandra waded through them and took care of Jennifer..." He drew a finger across his neck, "Now she's scheduling 'meetings' with everybody..."
"Cleaning house." I filled in and he nodded. Leadership changes like this are usually accompanied by a few broken limbs, if not worse, to ensure everybody got on board with the new management.
"So Mom told me to stay away until things settle. I still have a month or two..."
"Yeah, that's shitty." I nodded, "So how come you get to know these things and I only hear about it a week later?"
"The Rats have surveillance on us. And he'll pass messages along as well."
"And nobody told me? So, next time, can you get me and show me how you do it? Right now I'm off to blast away some of my frustrations!" I waved goodbye and headed into a set of heavy metal doors.
Inside was a small waiting area and the Armorer's office. I checked out my weapons case along with a box of ammo and the monitor gave me the lane next to Sheila. I stepped through another set of thick doors.
The noise hit me like a fist, the sting of cordite making my eyes and nose itch. Half the lanes were occupied, and most shooters were rapid firing big-ass cartridges, trying to shred their targets. Painful experience had taught us that anything smaller than a 9-mil would not be able to discourage the "varmints" from having a quick snack at our expense. I could see and hear a lot of .45's and some even more esoteric loads.
I watched Sheila empty her clip as I set up my station, checked my pistol and adjusted my protective gear. She was hunkered down, double fisted, with a wicked all-black semi, an AR, ripping through the target at 10 yards, most shots hitting in a nice tight group. She was already on her second magazine, judging by the brass at her feet.
I set up a single target, and did a 5-shot group at 10 yards, reloaded, then again at 15. When I was done, Sheila was checking her result, and her target showed a nice big hole inside the 3" with few scatters.
"Good shooting!" I told her and she grinned back. I unloaded the gun and retrieved my score. She gave me a thumbs up. All the shots were inside the three.
I replaced the target with a silhouette and sent it to 10 yds. As soon as it was in place, I picked up the gun, popped in a new magazine, racked the slide and sent two shots into the center of mass. Bang, bang. A double tap. Then, before the second casing hit the ground, I fired a shot into the head.
Sheila was looking at me as I reloaded the gun. "Do it again!" She said. I nodded. I took a step back and turned with my back to the target. In one motion, I twist-stepped, grabbed the gun, chambered it, and repeated the shots. Double tap to the body, then a head shot. A few of the others had stopped to watch.
"What? That pop-shooter? What's in it, .22s?" Yelled one of the guys who'd been destroying paper with what looked, and sounded like a S&W Magnum.
"No, it's a 9-mil," Sheila held up my previous target, "right?" I nodded.
I finished reloading the magazine, laid the gun down and took a step back, saying, "My weak side is slower, but it should still work." I whipped around, loaded, cocked and went Bang, bang... bang. With my left hand.
"Why that pattern?" Sheila wanted to know.
"If a bad guy is coming at you, the body shots would only slow him down, but not take him out. With enough body shots, he may bleed out in a bit, but until then, he can still charge you, or worse, finish pointing HIS gun at you. That's why the third shot has to be decisive, if it is to be useful. Also, I have to conserve my shots, I only have seven bullets in this gun, not like the 13 in yours," I nodded to Mr. Smith & Wesson, who was really named Drew. "And if I use up all my bullets to take one guy down, what happens if he has an accomplice?"
"Nah, I can do if I wanted to! And... see?" He held up his brute of a revolver, "this beauty has 8 shots!"
"Ahh, the 'R8,' right?" I asked.
"Hey, yeah, you know your guns!" He said, "Want to try?" Without waiting, he safed it and handed it to me. His buddies crowded in, not wanting to miss seeing the skinny chick get dumped on her ass by the huge mother of a cannon.
The model was the S&W 327 "Match Performance," the factory tuned version of an already elite firearm. And, fully loaded, three times the weight of my little pistol.
"Nice!" I checked the four unfired cartridges inside the cylinder. "Wad-cutters?" He nodded. With high-power guns design to kill large game, normal bullets would not mushroom against a paper target, so blunt-tipped bullets, called wad-cutters, are used to better indicate impact spot.
BANG! I turned and fired, letting the heavy recoil ride up my forearm and shoulder to keep the barrel steady. Downrange, the groin portion of my paper target had disappeared in confetti.
"Ohhh... Wow..." Drew grimaced, "NOW I'm impressed."
"That's for the bad guy who's got body armor, natural or otherwise." I grinned, handing the gun back, "It handles real nice, better than I'd expect from a .357 mag."
"You've shot big cals before?" Drew asked.
"Well, my aunt Andrea has a .44 Magnum..." I started.
"Dirty Harry!" Drew and a few others cried out.
"No, not quite, it's the newer version of the model 29; the S&W 629, with the suppressor." I said.
"Hey, nice. Do you think you could..." Drew started.
"The 500 is way cooler!"
"The 50-AE has more stopping power!"
"Hey, the Desert Eagle is ten times better!" Drew's friend started offering their opinions and pretty soon they were yelling at each other over the best big cal handguns.
"Boys!" Sheila grinned, "always looking for compensation!" She then gestured at my gun, "Wanna swap?" I nodded and we exchanged stations.
Her gun was the compact Armalite AR-24. A good solid semi-automatic, with 12 cartridges stagger-stacked in the grip. A glance down the ejector showed she took really good care of it. We fired a few groups and compared scores.
"I like your gun," Sheila said, "easy to aim, grouping's good and it's really light!"
"Yeah, that's the reason I like the Boberg so much. It's got the same effective range as your AR but it's thinner, an inch shorter and over a pound lighter." I said, "I DO miss the extra shells but my hand's just not big enough for the AR. I got to try out a dozen or so pistols before finding this one." I grinned, "Helps to have an aunt who's a Master-certified armorer!"
Sheila held up her hand against mine, "But our hands are about the same size, so you think the gun's too big for me too?"
"Maybe, but you're stronger... Shoot one handed instead."
She tried it and there was a noticeable drift to one side. "Yeah, without the supporting hand, your trigger finger is pulling the shot. It's not bad, but you'll have keep remembering to compensate for it. Trouble is, it'll only get worse if you want to work with your weaker hand!"
"Yeah, I think you're right. I'll see if I can pick out a smaller gun."
"You're welcome to use mine any time we're down here."
"Thanks, Julie. I appreciate it."
We fired a few more groups with our own guns and soon it was time to clean up and sweep up the spent casings.
Drew came by and asked, "I wanted to ask if you think you could bring the 629 to school so we can try it?"
"I'll ask my aunt and we'll see."
"Thanks, and, ah, good shooting!" He offered with a grin.