Five: Out of the Dark (38 page)

I smiled. The scary situation we were in was just another adventure to him. A
freaky cool
adventure.

“What is this place? Who left all these supplies in here?” Halli asked.

“It’s a refuge. They can be found in various places around the world—they’re all marked with a natural replication of something else. There’s one in Arches National Park in Utah that looks like an elephant … a ginormous elephant. That one has a huge cache of supplies.” Joe’s eyes closed with exhaustion.

“So, like Halli asked,” Jonathan interjected. “Who put the supplies here?”

“I don’t know—I just know they were always there when we needed them. My trainer said there are forces out there that are on our side, humans that are somehow aware of our mission. Some of those wizards and minor mages we talked about last night. She even thought that maybe the archangels had a hand in assisting us.”

“What about the Demons and the Fae … and Brone? Don’t they know these exist?” I gestured around the cave.

Joe sighed. “They’ve accidentally stumbled across one here or there. They can’t see or enter them, but when they suspect a refuge somewhere, they just destroy the whole area. Like Mt. St. Helens … that was a great refuge. Mia was in there when Brone blew it up …” He drifted off, the exhaustion finally overtaking him.

We let him rest, moving away from him to explore our new digs. “
Brone
was responsible for Mt. St. Helens?” Seth said. “Was Joe serious? I’ve seen pictures of that disaster—he must’ve had some major bad Demon mojo helping him.”

“Yeah, no joke,” said Halli. “I wonder who Mia was.”

“Had to be one of the Five with Joe,” I said. Silence ensued as we all thought about losing anyone from our group. It made my stomach do massive flips.

Johnathan broke the silence of our morose thoughts. “I hear water flowing. It’s coming from the tunnel to the left.” He stood and started toward the tunnel of which he spoke—there were only two, I supposed we’d explore the other one later.

Ten or so yards into it, the rest of us could hear the water. The floor of the tunnel slanted downward at a gentle angle. After about a hundred yards, it opened into an underground cave, with a small stream running through its center. The openings on either end of the stream were too small for even Halli to fit through, but big enough for the stream. The cave itself wasn’t big; the five of us could barely fit. And that was with Alec standing in the middle of the stream. Johnathan had to duck his head to fit inside. The water was frigid. I had no idea how Alec could bear to stand in it. We filled the water bottles in our packs then trudged back to the main cavern where Joe slept.

It had to be daylight outside by now, but none of us were up for exploring just yet. We found five warm blankets in the supplies. Halli draped hers over the sleeping Joe then climbed under mine—two bodies created more heat than one anyway. Inside, the cave was warmer than it had been outside on the trail, but it was far from cozy.

“Paige … you awake?” Halli whispered.

“I am now,” I said.

“Sorry. I couldn’t sleep anymore and I really need to go outside and get some fresh air. You’d think after living in the Underground for months, I’d be okay with a cave, but it’s kinda making me claustrophobic. And I need to pee.”

“Okay, let’s go explore our new surroundings a little.” I threw the blanket off us.

We attempted, unsuccessfully, to sneak past Joe. “Where are you two headed?”

“I just need some fresh air, Joe. We’ll stay close, I promise,” Halli said with such a sweet smile that Attila the Hun couldn’t have refused her.

“Okay, but be on full alert and don’t be gone long. We have some training to do today,” he closed his eyes again.

I smiled to myself. Joe’s training the night before had been grueling but exhilarating—I’d learned so much in just one short session that my desire for more lent to an excitement I hadn’t felt in years.

The sun was shining and we had to shade our eyes as they adjusted to the unaccustomed brightness. Seattle was rarely this bright. Some of my excitement ebbed when I was finally able to see my surroundings. Cowiche Canyon was desolate, especially when compared to the greenery of Seattle and its surrounding communities.

Halli and I walked down the trail that lay outside our hidden refuge. The scenery consisted of rocks and bare hills—okay, maybe not completely bare, there was a lot of sagebrush and a scattering of white and yellow wildflowers that were quickly fading as autumn approached. I saw some pine trees here and there, but they were sparse. The trail was lined with rocky dirt and dried grass. The trail followed a winding creek with some bigger trees growing near it along with tall, green grass along its edges.

We climbed a nearby hill and saw nothing but the same terrain for miles—it was odd to be able to see for miles, to not have trees block your line of vision in every direction. We didn’t explore for long, as we found each new bend in the trail or each new hilltop presented us with the same bleak terrain.

The others had started to stir when we returned to the refuge, our eyes adjusting to the dim lighting provided by several rocks Alec had infused with illumination spells.

Joe was awake, sitting with his back against the wall of the cave and drinking water from his eco-friendly aluminum bottle. “Glad you’re back. What do you think of Cowiche Canyon, girls?”

“It’s very … wide open,” Halli said.

“Yeah, it’s hard to believe we’re still in the same state. Lots of rocks and sagebrush, very few trees,” I added.

“Lesson number one for the day—Warlocks, including Brone, have a
very
hard time transporting, or portalling, into places with sparse vegetation. It also makes it most difficult for him to trace our use of magic. Because we have a more pure magic, we don’t have to rely on things of the earth or Dark Magic to perform a spell. When Brone, or one like him, makes a portal, he uses the roots of the trees to channel the magic—like a telegraph from one to the next. If there’s a large gap between the roots, the magic is cut off and the portal ends where the telegraphing stops.

“Remember how I mentioned last night that Warlocks are no respecters of Mother Nature? The use of living vegetation to magnify the Dark Magic drains the life out of the source plants—if the same group of roots or plants is used more than once or twice, the entire chain will die. Brone often draws power from the living plants of the earth to add strength to his spells, thus killing the plants.”

“I understand why you brought us here, then,” I said. “He won’t be able to portal here or track us easily. If he does show up, his magic won’t be as strong because there isn’t a lot of plant life for him to draw from.”

“That’s right, Paige. I worry a little about the growth along the creek edges, so we all need to stay clear of there—especially when we’re practicing magic. It’s likely that even though he doesn’t know for sure where we are, he may come looking here, as it is one of the closest areas with this terrain.”

“Does he know about the refuge here?” Seth asked. The worry in his voice made me think about the violent demise of the Mt. St. Helen’s refuge.

“No, I’m almost positive he doesn’t. We only used this one once and it was when Brone was wreaking havoc over in Hawaii.”

“How long can we safely stay here?” Johnathan asked.

“Not long, I’m afraid. Even though I doubt Brone will come after us again this soon, it’s better to be safe. His previous actions, and his grievous injuries, would indicate that he’ll spend some time recovering and regaining his strength. He’ll probably start recruiting a bit more heavily now that he knows the
Quinae Praesidia
are back in action, too. My guess is we’ll be free from his harassment for at least a few months, but, like I said, it’s better to be safe. We’ll spend a few days here training and preparing—regaining our strength. We won’t be portalling out this time. It took too much out of me and I grow weaker magically by the day. We’ll have to hoof it to our next destination.”

“Why can’t you just teach us how to portal?” Seth asked.

“Oh, I plan to do just that. However, portalling is tricky, and if not done correctly, can have disastrous results. Like being trapped in the darkness between realms … forever.” He shuddered. “It must be practiced and perfected before attempting it, and we don’t have the time for that.”

“Okay … but, can’t we take a train or something?” Alec asked.

“Ahh, if only we could. That used to be an option, but today’s trains are packed with electronics and run by computers. Six of us on a train would blow the system apart before it got up to full speed. I’m afraid we’re stuck walking until one or all of you become proficient in portalling.”

“Well, let’s get on with the training, then. I really don’t like the idea of trekking to … where is it we’re going next?” Alec asked.

“I have a few ideas, we can discuss them and decide as a group before we set out,” Joe said.

“How do we know where we
should
go? I mean, you said we’re here to protect people. How do we know who needs us the most?”

Joe smiled. “Good question, Halli. I asked my trainer the same thing. Her answer? There are forces involved that are much greater than we are. Wherever circumstances took us, wherever we ended up on what seemed like a whim, wherever our decisions took us—that’s where we ended up being needed. It’s like the Five are drawn to places where dark forces are strong at work. Wherever the five of you decide to go is where you’ll need to be.”

“That’s a lot of responsibility. What if we’re wrong?” Halli asked.

“You won’t be. It’s part of being who you are.
Quinae Praesidia.”

“So, what you seem to be saying is that we’ll travel a lot. No settling down anywhere,” Johnathan said.

“That’s right, Johnathan.” He let that settle in our minds for several seconds before changing the subject. “Is everyone ready to get to work?”

We spent the rest of the day outside the confines of the cave, practicing and training. Joe was right; we had no idea how much we didn’t know. Cowiche Canyon was not a deserted place; apparently, it was a semi-popular trail to hike. Joe avoided the hikers by leading us in an endurance run that took us away from the popular trail and off into the unused back country. We rested briefly and drained half the water from our bottles before setting wards and beginning practice.

Joe explained that although we could all do all the spells he was going to teach, each of the Five has a different strength. He set out this day to begin discovering ours. He already knew Halli’s was hand-to-hand combat; he said he’d put her in the octagon with any UFC fighter out there and apologize to the guy later for ending his career. He was certain my strength was in channeling attack spells—the fact that I could hit a small target with killer accuracy without the use of my channeling rod was an unusual and valuable strength. We tested my accuracy against the others for a good two hours. I never missed a target no matter the size. And I didn’t use my channeling rod once.

During this session we were able to discover Johnathan’s strength. Basically, his strength was …
strength.
The strength of his spells, that is, although his physical strength is nothing to ignore, either. He can throw a spell with more oomph than any of us. More than Joe or the other four in his group could back in the day, too. Joe said he was ninety-eight-percent sure that Johnathan’s spells were stronger than Brone’s Demon-fueled spells. This revelation made Joe almost giddy.

After lunch, the wind kicked up, blowing dirt and rocks all over us. Miniature tornados—Alec called them
dust-devils
—sprung up around us, throwing aforementioned dirt and rocks into us like missiles. The experience wasn’t very pleasant. I suggested we move off the top of the hill we were training on, but Joe had other ideas.

“Now would be a great time to test your defensive spells,” he yelled above the howling winds. “Let’s see who can block the wind from reaching us. Use a shielding spell.”

We’d practiced a little bit with this, shielding spells came in handy when someone was throwing stuff or shooting at you. They could be used to block magic spells like those Brone had used on me in his lair, but they took too long to produce—I would have been fried like a piece of bacon before I could even begin to produce one. We hadn’t been able to discover a quick way to conjure a defense spell on our own; I hoped Joe was going to show us one.

I was still trying to picture in my head what results I wanted from the spell before I even attempted to construct it with my will. The dirt clods and shards of rock hitting me in the head were distracting.

Before I could even begin to form the spell, the wind stopped—I no longer felt the pelting of objects.

I closed my eyes, trying to concentrate, but as soon as I realized the wind had stopped, I opened them. My jaw dropped when I realized the wind hadn’t actually
stopped
—it just wasn’t hitting us. Dirt and twigs still whipped around us as if we were covered in a dome of impenetrable glass. I looked around to try to figure out who was responsible for our sudden peace and comfort, convinced it had to be Joe. I was wrong, but it was easy to see who’d done it.