Chapter 21
Jessie
On the third day of the conclave, I faced the Ivy House woods with lead in my gut.
Gargoyles and anyone in my team that could fly hovered overhead to watch.
Austin, Kingsley, Aljoe, Aurora, and Drex all stood near me in shifter form, my allotted shifter guardian crew, handpicked by the Elder.
She didn’t say why. They’d shadow me and act as refs, like in a normal challenge.
Everyone but Austin was wary about that—they didn’t want to mess with that Elder—but they’d all agreed without hesitation.
Other shifters, most from last night, some I didn’t even know, had taken off into the woods as spectators. They hoped to catch the action from a safe distance.
“I shouldn’t be doing this,” I muttered.
“Nonsense.” Patty patted my arm on one side and Aunt Florence did the same on the other.
“I’m dangerous,” I told them.
“She’s dangerous,” Patty insisted. “She might be more dangerous, even. But it’s okay, dear. She said she wouldn’t kill you. I think we can believe her.”
“Assuming you can’t die from being drop-kicked, of course.” Aunt Florence patted my arm again. “I don’t think you can. No one died last night, and a great many people went sailing.”
Sailing: when you crossed the line and the basajaunak kicked you over the trees. Unless they were too drunk to properly stand, of course. Then the offender ended up tumbling along the ground and into tree trunks.
A couple people who’d gone sailing had to be retrieved by gargoyles who, by then, weren’t such steady fliers.
Drunken brawls had kicked off last night, with the basajaun brew fueling terrible decisions, and giving the basajaunak the competition they craved. The Elder had won, but Dave’s mom had put in a good effort. The basajaunak agreed that she was slightly off in her technique. Too much brew.
“Why am I doing this?” My whole body shook, adrenaline coursing through me.
I worried I’d accidentally kill her, yes, but also that she’d pound me into the ground.
I’d stood up to her when it was necessary.
Now…it wasn’t necessary. I didn’t have as much courage when the only stakes involved were my getting pulverized.
“We do not know, darling.” Aunt Florence lifted her eyebrows at me. “Seems like a bad idea. But you’re full of bad ideas! What’s one more? And look, we have these very powerful shifters ready to help you if something goes wrong, and we have that fabulously handsome gargoyle in the sky—”
“Tristan reads you so well, Jessie,” Patty cut in. “He’ll swoop down and pluck you out of the air if you go sailing, don’t you worry.”
“Is anyone rooting for me?” I asked lamely.
“Of course we are.” Patty nodded adamantly. “Everyone loves a good underdog story.”
“Underdog, great.” I let go a breath. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
Warmth and love radiated from the bonds with Austin, and then aggression and fire. I needed to let my gargoyle out.
Connections lit up in my awareness as an impending battle beat on my nerves. Magic started to pump through me.
“There you go. Good. Yes.” Aunt Florence put up a fist. “That’s it. Get ready. We’re with you.”
I thought about changing into my gargoyle form, but then I couldn’t move as fast on the ground. Flying wouldn’t make sense with all the trees. I’d need to start in my human form until I found her, and then…figure it out.
“This is a very strange challenge,” I murmured, setting out.
The goal was to find her within the wood as she stalked me, thwart her attack, and take her down without killing her. Not killing her was literally part of the challenge. If I failed? Well, she died. She apparently had faith that I wouldn’t fail.
But no matter—if I did fail, she held no ill will, and the basajaunak would not avenge her death even though it was a grave insult to harm an elder.
She was much too nonchalant about the whole thing. It made me uncomfortable.
I needed to go through with this, though.
I felt it. This was a test of some kind.
It wasn’t about power, and it wasn’t about skill.
It wasn’t even about my ability to kill or not kill her.
There was something else she was looking for, and if I produced whatever it was within this strange trial, she’d be more than distant kin, brought in by Dave.
She would choose me—us—as family. We’d have the approval and blessing of an elder. In their culture, that was a huge deal.
So here I was, agreeing to all her terms. Ivy House was keeping everyone’s whereabouts from me, but the Elder could still feel me through the trees.
“It is starting to worry me that you haven’t figured out how to circumvent that trick of mine,” Ivy House said as I walked toward the wood.
“I’ve been freaking busy,” I groused, ticking off the list. “I don’t have all the right spells, Nessa wants me to learn about ley lines and nexuses and whatever else, Sebastian wants help going through the books in your library—
“Focus on the task at hand,” she cut in, “or you’ll get thwapped by treetops. Getting drop-kicked will be embarrassing.”
I stopped in irritation. She was the reason I was thinking about my laundry list in the first place!
Edgar appeared from around a trunk. He pointed off to the left, nodded slowly, and then disappeared again. From the other side of the tree, a thumb jutted out. Nessa’s. They would be dogging my feet even though it wasn’t likely they could help when that she-beast rushed me.
“Don’t worry about it,” I murmured, shaking out my limbs. “I have excellent reflexes. I’m fast. I will react in time.”
“Just don’t react with a really terrible spell,” Ivy House said.
I ignored her. Kinda. That was, after all, the big worry.
My magic blanketed the area in front of me and then off to the sides. I went the direction Edgar said to go.
Sebastian had been invited to magically help me “see,” but he’d said no. Hard no. He didn’t want to watch, even flying above. He knew he’d somehow become the butt of their jokes.
Sadly, he was probably right. He’d faint or something, and they’d all die laughing.
My magical spell hit a shifter. Then another. Then a lump squatting behind a bush. A basajaunak hiding.
It was hunched down, but even still, I could tell it wasn’t big enough to be the Elder.
Austin passed right by it, and from the bonds I could tell he sensed its presence but felt no concern. He knew it wasn’t powerful enough or dangerous enough to be the Elder.
Only the Elder would attack me. She’d made that point clear. Regardless of who else hung around the woods, she was the only one I should engage. Everyone else should be ignored.
We walked on. Shifters flitted this way and that. Gargoyles hovered in the sky. They wouldn’t be able to see any basajaunak, not when they were blending into the scenery. They all watched my progress.
My magic kept going in waves, seeking out that which was invisible.
Another basajaun shape, this one standing by a tree.
Kingsley veered away to give it some space.
I felt his connection. It wasn’t as strong as Austin’s bonds, but plenty strong to know that he wasn’t concerned. That wasn’t the Elder, either.
Another stood around, then two more, the last one walking in my direction. It never changed course. Neither did Drex, passing within three feet of it. Once again, he wasn’t troubled.
Aurora radiated alarm behind me. I glanced back, sending magic to see what she was responding to. A basajaunak quickly veered, having been jogging toward me but stopping once Aurora reacted. Or maybe it stopped when I had turned around. Also not the Elder.
It occurred to me that my shifter guardians were acting like radar.
I used magic to suss out the creatures I couldn’t see, outlining them but not able to distinguish the details.
The shifters used their natural primal senses to feel presences and gauge the danger.
I could “see” farther out, but they could feel in more detail.
Together we were basically cheating in this challenge, even without Ivy House.
Did the Elder not know that?
Up the way, Edgar stood next to a tree. He pointed right—at Nessa twenty feet away.
She pointed at a diagonal, deeper into the wood.
They were reading the energy currents or whatever they did, somehow using that to know where danger lurked.
I didn’t much understand it. It was another thing on the list.
I was definitely cheating. These two weren’t even supposed to be hanging around. But…well…I’d still have a powerful adversary at the end of all this, so the result would be the same. It would just take less time.
I started to jog. Might as well get on with it.
The shifter guardians picked up the pace, perfectly synced with my movement, spaced around in a circle. In the deeper trees, where the visibility would be low for the fliers, I sent directions marking our path. If I set sail, I did actually want Tristan to catch me.
Edgar appeared randomly, pointing left again.
More basajaunak appeared now, their postures aggressive. One rushed right at me.
I flinched, wondering if it was go time. Austin lunged, though, putting himself in the way. He wasn’t aggressive about it. He was just a roadblock. Don’t attack. This is not the Elder.
That basajaun stopped just shy of Austin and then relaxed.
Another crashed through the bushes to my right. It became visible ten feet out. Hair puffed out all over its body. Its mouth opened to show its large canines.
“Dude, stop,” I grumbled, jogging by. They were trying to get me to react.
I remembered when they did this to the shifters in Dave’s homelands, testing the shifters’ control. Now they were clearly testing mine.
I heard the thrum of Tristan’s wings and slowed. A corresponding warning came through the connection. Target spotted.
Nessa jogged in from the right, out of breath. She put up her hand to stop me.
“That elder is somehow pulling energy from the natural elements around us. It’ll become power. She might be more powerful than you, Jessie. You can always turn back now.”