Spellbound statues, p.6
Spellbound Statues, page 6
“It was built to be fire resistant,” Davyn commented. “Lots of stone and metal work. Very little in the way of wood or textiles. The structure of the house itself will survive.”
Reg nodded. It made sense for a firecaster to consider these things when building a home. Davyn would know that there were things that could set a firecaster off so that he ignited a fire without intending to. Like having a firedrake in the vicinity. Reg had unintentionally started a couple of fires in her sleep after Ember had hatched in her garden before Davyn learned what was setting her off. Stress, nightmares, or other fires in the area could all set an untrained firecaster off. Maybe even an experienced one like Davyn.
“Where is Julian?” Reg asked, realizing that Davyn’s partner had not greeted her at the house, even though she had heard him on the phone when she had called.
“I sent him away.”
Of course, Davyn wanted Julian out of the way in case they were unable to stop the forest fire or if their backburn got out of control. It was one thing for firecasters like Davyn and Reg to be exposed to the fire. They had natural defenses. But a human without an affinity for fire was another story. He was very vulnerable. And they were much closer to the fire now than when Reg had first sensed it.
“We’ll start here.” Davyn gestured to the invisible line they would follow. “It will need to be fifty to a hundred yards wide, and we will extend in either direction until we reach a body of water, either the river or the lake.” He looked around him, clearly anxious. “The biggest problem will be keeping it from getting out of control. If it does, you need to keep it from spreading east toward the house and Black Sands. West is toward the existing fire, and it will hopefully burn up all the fuel on the way there, so there is nowhere else for it to go. North and south are water.”
Reg nodded. “Keep it from going east.”
“It is easy to get disoriented in a fire. Do you have a compass?”
“There’s an app on my phone.”
“Not good enough.” Davyn dug a couple of compasses out of his pack and hung one around Reg’s neck. “Show me you know how to use it.”
Reg held the compass horizontally and lined up the red pointer with the big N. “North. So that way is east,” she gestured back toward the house. “And that is west.”
Davyn nodded. “We will start together and move apart.” He handed her a yellow walkie-talkie and attached one to his own belt. He looked over Reg’s shorts and t-shirt. “I appreciate that you’re not wearing one of your long skirts that could easily catch fire, but I’m not sure this is the best outfit to wear to a forest fire.”
Reg looked down at herself, heat rising to her cheeks. “I didn’t think. I just… got out of bed.”
“I suppose we should be grateful you don’t sleep in the nude. You’ll need to get some fire-resistant clothing if this is going to become a thing.”
Reg laughed. “I don’t think it will be a regular occurrence.”
“I hope not. Not sure my heart could take it.”
They each drank a bottle of water in silence, then Reg followed Davyn’s instructions as they started the burn. She had been through many training sessions with him, following his directions to create various kinds of fire in a variety of different settings. She was grateful for the detailed training they had done on different kinds of fuel, how to control a fire in the underbrush versus one in the tops of the trees, and the various types of terrain they had practiced in. She had often been bored and impatient with what seemed like tedious, unnecessary instruction, discussion, and practice. Now, she was thankful Davyn had taken the time and not given in to her complaints.
They worked mostly in silence, occasionally shouting something out. They started working side by side but moved apart and, after a while, they were too far apart to yell to each other. They switched to the walkies as they needed them.
The flames glowed bright orange and red, crackling through the underbrush like some hungry beast. Waves of heat poured off of the fire. If she had not been a firecaster, she would not have been able to withstand it. Smoke filled her eyes, but she was able to blink it away and still see where she was going. Another firecaster skill.
Reg thought she was doing pretty well. They were getting a nice, controlled thirty-yard strip burned clean of vegetation. Much neater than anything the Florida Forest Service could have accomplished. Reg was keeping her focus, though she was monitoring the progress of the forest fire moving toward them as well as the backburn they were creating.
She was still worried about the residents of the area. They were taking care not to trap anyone between the two fire lines, but fires and people could both move in unexpected directions. She could sense the movements of humans as they became aware of the fire and tried to move out of its path. At least emergency services seemed to be making contact with them. They didn’t seem to be doing much to stop the spread of the fire. She supposed it took time to get the specialized equipment and people in place to fight the fire. It wasn’t like sending a fire engine to a single house. It might take days for them to get everybody in place with an effective plan.
Reg sensed Ember flying overhead, though she couldn’t see him yet through the billowing clouds of smoke. She hadn’t expected him to take long to became aware of the fire or her presence.
Her mind filled with pictures as Ember communicated his excitement about the fire and her activities. She tried to work steadily while feeding pictures back to him about what they were doing and how it would stop the fire from reaching the house, his lair.
Ember landed next to Reg with a whoosh. He was eager to help with the project. Despite what Davyn had said, Reg was sure he understood what she was doing and would be able to help. They worked in tandem, with Ember moving ahead of her and starting fire in strategic positions, and Reg guiding and directing the fire along the swath they wanted to burn.
A sudden wind picked up burning embers and fanned the flames west. Reg kept her focus, not panicking. They had expected this. Fires didn’t just burn in neat lines. Changes in terrain and the wind would affect it. She directed the fire farther north, trying to funnel it along the path she and Davyn had determined. Ember took wing and flew over the section of burning brush to the other side. Reg had to move to the east to navigate along that border. She could walk through the fire if necessary, but that would deplete her powers and onboard water faster. She was in it for the long haul, so she needed to exercise caution, as Davyn had warned her.
She used the walkie-talkie to update Davyn on the behavior of the fire and what she was doing. He had experienced a similar reaction to the wind and confirmed her actions. Reg said nothing about having been joined in her work by a juvenile dragon.
When she reached the other side of the fire, she found Ember on the other side watching it and waiting for her.
Ember sent Reg a mental picture of herself in dragon form, the one time she had transformed. He wanted her to transform now, to work with him as a dragon. She would still have the ability to control the fire as she was doing, but would also be able to create fire through her breath rather than psychically, and would be able to fly as Ember was rather than having to walk around or through the fire, trudging at slow human speeds.
I don’t know, she told him. We’ll see.
He sent her the picture more urgently. Did he know something about the fire that she didn’t? He had just flown over it, so she suspected he probably did.
Show me, she told him.
Ember sent an aerial view of the fire, and she saw that one part of the backburn she had thought was completely burned out had still been alive and had reignited the trees behind her. The fire was curling around as if it intended to trap her. There was still enough room for Reg to walk out, so she immediately started walking toward the opening, reaching out to the stray leg of the fire to send it back upon itself and burn out.
She felt immediate resistance.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Reg jolted.
It wasn’t the reluctance she was used to feeling from a fire, the tug to go on and find more fuel and keep burning. The hunger that led the first from one place to another, consuming everything combustible in its path.
Instead, it was like running into a brick wall. As if the fire had said “No!” and pushed back against her. She had never felt that sense of will from a fire before.
It seemed as if it did have intent. It wasn’t just a coincidence that it was curling around behind her. It wanted to trap her. It wanted to stop this firecaster from interfering with its course and to be allowed to burn wildly in whatever direction it wanted.
How could that be?
Reg clicked her walkie-talkie. “Davyn?”
He didn’t respond immediately. That was understandable. What they were doing was not a walk in the park. It was hard work and took effort, will, and focus. Reg kept working her end of the fire, keeping an eye open for the other end of that curl of fire to come into view as she worked. Ember let out a cry that sounded like the shrill call of a falcon or hawk overhead, and she looked up at him. He continued to circle, watching her with concern.
“Reg?” Davyn’s voice came over the walkie-talkie. “What is it? What’s going on?”
“There’s something weird about this fire,” Reg said. “Have you noticed anything?”
“It is difficult,” Davyn admitted. “I told you it might be too much for us to take on.”
But it wasn’t that. It wasn’t that it was too hard or that the fire was too big or too hot for them. There was something else at work here.
“The fire is… resisting,” she told Davyn. “I don’t know how else to explain it. It… doesn’t want to be stopped or manipulated. It wants to trap us. To trap me.”
“What do you mean?”
His voice was difficult to hear over the crackling of the fire and the static of the walkie-talkie. Reg was used to talking on a phone, where the signal was nice and clear, not on a two-way radio.
“It’s… sentient,” Reg tried.
There was no reply from Davyn. Reg continued to battle the fire, but she could see the other end now, starting to surround her and close in. Ember gave another warning call.
Reg needed an answer from Davyn. Some clue as to what he thought she should do.
“Reg,” his voice came over a loud crackle. Was the heat from the fire affecting the walkie-talkie? Reg could feel how hot it was on her face. It didn’t burn her, because she was a firecaster and she was prepared for it. She was well-hydrated, awake, and charged up with Corvin’s power. To be burned, she would have had to be taken off guard. “Reg?”
“Go ahead.”
“Reg…” his voice was distant and faint, “Get out of there.”
Reg looked around for the best way to extract herself from the situation. The curl of fire reached around to join with the backburn she had created, but the backburn had not yet burned up all the fuel. It burned hotter when joined by the rogue leg of the fire. She felt its strength and the fire’s exultation at trapping Reg inside the snare.
Despite the heat she could feel pouring off the fire, she could walk through it. It would not be hard to just walk through the flames to safety.
Except that she wasn’t sure of the nature of what seemed to be sentient fire. She could walk through normal fire. She could absorb its heat and be energized by it. But this new fire? Was she willing to take the chance that it had the same nature and composition as a regular fire?
Ember sent her his memory of Reg as a dragon soaring above the earth. Reg focused on it, trying to feel how it felt to be in that form again. She felt the wings that would lift her, the strong legs and muscles, the lung capacity, and the ability to breathe in pure air and breathe out fire—bright, beautiful fire.
She kicked off the ground without even a thought, soaring up to meet Ember, who shrieked a greeting. They flew around each other, playing on the updrafts from the fire, enjoying the total freedom of flight. Below her, she could feel the fury of the fire, rising up to chase her, but unable to reach her.
How about that, fire?
She flew loops with Ember for a few minutes before recalling her task and turning her attention back to the fire. It was her job to ensure it did not get back to the house, however much it wanted to destroy her. She could not allow it to spread east.
But it did not appear to be trying to make its way in that direction. Instead, it was pressing westward, to meet the main fire. While they had intended to only burn the portion of the forest that they needed to stop the advance and to wait for it to reach the backburn, if the backburn burned west and the original fire burned east so they eventually met in the middle, the effect was the same. The fire would burn out when there was no more fuel.
Reg circled, watching the backburn and its progress. She could see the other end of the line of fire they had created, where Davyn was. He did not seem to be contending with the same stubborn flames as she had. Or maybe he was just better at it and she had imagined the active resistance of the fire, had personified it when it had been challenging to control.
She reached her senses down into the forest and spread them out, looking for any conscious thought—the fire itself or residents who had not made it out of the path of the fire in time.
And they were there. She could sense someone down there, more than one mind, terrified and trapped by the inferno.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Reg spiraled down from the sky, searching the forest below for the minds she could feel there. She saw no sign of movement and heard no cries for help.
But they were still there, and they were afraid. They were trapped. There was no way for them to move, no way they could escape the fire that was closing in around them.
Reg wheeled around, trying to pinpoint them, but she could only see flames closing in, shadows under the trees, rocks, and dark underbrush. She tried to get Ember to help her look for them, communicating their fear, and Ember joined her in circling, trying to find the refugees from the fire.
The fire burned hotter. The distance between the two fires grew narrower and narrower. Reg was frantic, but she could not find them. Were they hiding in a stream? Under an outcropping of rock? She could see no shelters that hadn’t been consumed by the fire. Wherever they had come from, their homes were now part of the inferno. And they would be, too, if Reg couldn’t find them.
She worked north and south along the line of fire, looking for anyone who had made it to the edge of the backburn and then found themselves trapped. No one.
No one.
She saw Davyn standing by the river, watching to see if their plan worked. If the fire got too close to him, he would retreat into the water if necessary. As a firecaster, he should not need to take that precaution unless he had become dehydrated.
She circled overhead. Davyn looked up and waved at her, his face turned toward her so she could see he was happy to see her, relieved that she was okay. She had stopped responding to him on the walkie-talkie, and he wouldn’t know that she had escaped the malevolent fire until he saw her overhead in her dragon form.
Reg watched the forest fire raging below her. It was enthralling for her as a firecaster; it made her heart speed—at least when she was in human form—and her muscles tense in anticipation. She wanted to be a part of it, playing with the fire, diving into it. But even as a dragon, that probably wasn’t recommended. Especially when she didn’t know what she was dealing with as far as the rogue fire went.
The big forest fire and the backburn they had set eventually ran into each other and while, for a few minutes, there was a flare-up as the two joined into one massive fire, suddenly, there was nowhere for the fire to go, no more fuel to burn. It got smaller and smaller, burning down to the ground to glowing embers.
Reg and Ember wheeled around the sky, getting lower over the charred trunks of trees, looking at the destruction.
Reg reached out her senses tentatively, not expecting to find anything more of the fire that had spoken to her or the people it had trapped. She had a fleeting sense of the fire’s voice, as if it were far away—muted because it had burned down to almost nothing, she assumed. A voice on the wind.
But she also sensed something else. Humans. Still trapped. Still frightened and trying to escape.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Reg wheeled in the sky over the trees, searching for the source of the fear. She couldn’t believe anything could have survived the devastation of the forest she saw below. But perhaps they had sheltered deep in a cave or a stream or pond, somewhere that had escaped the wrath of the fire but had still left them trapped and frightened.
At first, Ember was curious about what Reg was doing, then snorted when she fed him a mental picture of the people hiding in a pond to escape the fire. He wasn’t too impressed with anyone who would run away from a fire. He and his people went toward fire. Played with fire. Used it as a tool. A weapon. But he stayed with her as she searched for the survivors.
Davyn followed on the ground but, of course, could not move very fast. There were many obstacles, even where the forest floor had been burned clear of brush and undergrowth. And he didn’t want to trip and fall and wreck his clothes.
Reg homed in on the fear she could feel. Eventually, she saw forms in the trees. They appeared at first glance to be stones, but she knew from the emotion that they were not.
She landed on the ground and approached them on foot.
A man and a woman stood in front of her. Or, rather than standing, they appeared to be mid-stride, running or walking. But like Gideon, they were petrified. The once-living humans had been turned to rock.
Ember landed with Reg and approached the statues, nudging them with his nose. Reg would have told him not to do that, but supposed it didn’t make any difference to the statues whether he touched them or not. They couldn’t feel anything that was happening to them. Only the emotions they had been feeling when they were petrified, or what they felt upon discovering that they had been petrified.
