Highlander Enchanted (34 page)

Crouching like it was a race, I breathed in deeply then bolted. I was completely alone, competing only with myself. I laughed as I sprinted, tickled beyond anything to be completely free, if only for mere minutes.

Sprinting to the lake, I vowed to keep to my internal promise of not spending more than a few minutes off the property and threw myself to the ground. Wrenching off my shoes and socks, I scooted to the edge of the lake and dangled my legs over the rock on which I sat.

The moment my feet dipped beneath the cool surface, my world seemed to slow to a stop. I leaned over, marveling at the sensations. It shouldn’t have been, but this was somehow different than a pool. This felt … alive.

“Holy Poseidon,” I murmured.

The sensation of being united with something living moved through my system, a wave that ran from my toes to the tip of my head, in rhythm with the water, then outward, rippling the grass around the lake. I shivered. Fascinated, I peered into the dark depths of the lake. My feet caused small waves that were pushed back by the natural tides of the lake. Deep within the depths, I caught a glimmer of something odd.

I squinted in the fading light. They weren’t fish or rocks or anything. The lake was too deep to see its bottom, but I swore I saw ribbons of soft colors twisting like smoke through the waters. Their movements were too precise to be dictated by the tides. I blinked – and they were gone.

Realizing my five minutes were up, I lifted my feet and dried them on my pants legs then replaced my shoes and socks. I didn’t feel nearly as urgent about returning to the forest where I’d spent most of my life and ambled back. It was strange, but I could almost feel the tide of the lake still moving through me, rocking from toes to head and back again before rustling the grass around me. It was gentle, soothing and peaceful. I was an extension of the water, and it felt natural, nice.

I had nothing to compare the experience to and couldn’t help wondering if I’d spent my entire life cut off from such small pleasures. It made me despise the nymphs even more, since they probably spent every weekend
feeling
whatever this was out in the real world.

Stepping over the red rope, the internal rocking stopped, and I realized it hadn’t only been the lake I felt. The breeze that stirred the surface of the lake stopped at the barrier, too, and its gentle touch on my skin fell away.

I missed them almost as soon as I left them. Facing the lake once more, I smiled. If nothing else, I now knew one of the secrets of the world outside my boundaries, and it was beautiful.

Beyond happy with my secret adventure, I moved five meters from the cord to an area big enough for a fire and built a little campsite. My assigned kit contained a canteen of water and the ingredients for s’mores. Herakles’ thoughtfulness only added to my happiness. I went through my tasks of finding shelter, starting a fire and stretching out on the ground to watch the stars with a smile plastered on my face. After my treats, I let the fire die out and retreated to a small shelter I’d created from a poncho and tree branches. I had brought a sleeping bag and crawled into it.

My mind was on the lake, on my future and how incredible it was going to be to leave the compound once and for all and join the rest of the world. I slid into deep, contented sleep.

Something awoke me shortly before dawn. I opened my eyes, senses trained on the world outside my makeshift tent. Animals used their instincts and intuition better than humans, and Herakles had emphasized being more like the locals when camping out. So I listened in silence and stillness.

An animal was rustling quietly, but it wasn’t close, and it wasn’t in the forest, which meant it was large if I could hear it this far off. The sounds came from the direction of the lake. I crept out of my sleeping bag and covered the distance quickly between me and the boundary. Reaching the stump where I often perched to gaze at the lake, I squatted on top of it and stared.

It was an animal, but nothing like I’d seen before. Monster was probably a better description. The creature had a wingspan of ten meters and was the size of a linebacker with the long, lean musculature and grace of a feline. It stood on two legs and had two arms that looked pretty human. The sound I heard was of its long tail tapping the brush lining the bank of the lake. Its skin was an unnatural shade of stone grey. One of its ears stuck out at an odd angle and its eyes glowed like blue jewels in the night. It had fangs, talons, and a barbed tail, and its eyes were positioned facing forward, all of which were characteristics of a predator of some sort and not something I cared to confront.

It stood where I had sat earlier, peering at the lake, at the surrounding area, at the sky. It crouched beside the lake, tail tapping against the dirt.

It was horrifying – and magnificent. I couldn’t have imagined a more incredible combination of man and beast. The raw power it exuded in each tiny, controlled movement exceeded anything a human or traditional predator possessed.

This is a dream.
It had to be. No such creature existed, unless it was some sort of undiscovered animal or leftover dinosaur. And if that were the case, I didn’t think this would be the first time I’d seen it. I spent too many days and nights in the forest for it to belong here. Where it had originated, and why it chose to stop here, I couldn’t begin to guess.

Intelligence was in its thoughtful movement and visual exploration of the environment. The man-beast hybrid wasn’t something I was able to explain away. I pinched my arm to ensure I was awake. The light sting wasn’t much of a reassurance when faced with a monster from a nightmare.

It stood and unfurled its wings. They were charcoal in color, lined with black fur, beautiful and wide, shaped neither like a bat’s nor a bird’s but something in between. With ease that left me astonished, one flap of the mighty wings propelled the creature into the sky effortlessly. Within seconds, it had disappeared into the clouds above.

For once, I was grateful for the red cords marking the boundaries of the property. The priests claimed they would protect us from unwanted attention. The creature hadn’t glanced once in my direction, which made me think the ropes were working. Or maybe I was blessed by Tyche for once.

I stood on the tree stump, trying to get another glimpse of the beast in the clouds without success.

My gaze returned to the lake. What other surprises awaited me in the outside world? Was this creature the reason why the priests insisted I never cross the boundaries and if so, had I risked being eaten or killed when I left the forest earlier for the lake?

I shuddered, this time out of dread. If the priests knew, the creature would be on the list of animals to avoid that they kept posted in the main schoolhouse as a warning of what wildlife not to engage.

No one, except maybe Herakles, was going to believe me if I told them about the creature. Easing back from the edge of the property, I returned to my shelter but wasn’t able to sleep again, not with the knowledge something like
that
was hovering in the clouds above the forest. I silently thanked Herakles for his survival training and insistence I carry a knife with me wherever I went. I clutched it in my hand and remained still until dawn swept across the sky. Only then did I start to relax again and packed up my tent.

Bad things didn’t happen during daylight, I told myself. I clung to the childish notion and decided to disobey Herakles for a second time.

I was going back to the school today without completing my assigned treasure hunt. I wasn’t spending another night in the forest when some creature big enough to eat me was on the loose. Bears were one thing, but this … this was something even I knew better than to mess with.

It was a four hour trek back to the center of the property. I hiked through the forest, always sensitive to the creatures living here. While I’d catch and eat them if I had to, I also wasn’t going to disturb their daily lives by leaving messes or destroying their homes. Herakles was strict about appreciating and respecting the domain of Artemis and Dionysis and all their children.

My mind kept returning to the creature. I wasn’t able to flush the image of the terrifying creature standing beside the lake from my thoughts. It didn’t seem to be a part of nature, yet it had to be. Everything was, except for the gods and goddesses, who were still part of nature, just a different nature from ours.

Lost in thought, I didn’t notice the drone of an airplane until it roared overhead. I looked up, unaccustomed to hearing them quite so low, but not alarmed to see the plane. A municipal airport was nearby. It was how the priests brought in guest speakers and other visitors from outside the area.

Unconcerned, I continued on my hike, unable to prevent the occasional look over my shoulder. I’d hear the creature if it was following me, but similar to my hope that bad things didn’t happen during the day, I wasn’t fully convinced.

The tip of the roof of the manor house was soon visible through the trees. Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet quaked. I caught myself against a tree and was about to curse under my breath when an explosion ripped through the air. Fire belched into the sky from the direction of the compound. I stared at it and the black smoke chasing it before bolting towards home.

The pounding of my heart filled my ears, and I mentally went through one of the checklists Herakles forced me to recite during exercises. I was assessing what the sound was and how many priests were present during the weekend when I reached the edge of the greens and stopped.

The mansion was in flames. The small plane had smashed straight into it before exploding. Smoke billowed off the building into the sky. Two priests in brown robes stood, stunned, in the greens. I hesitated only a moment before racing to them.

“Father Cristopolos!” I cried.

Both faced me. “Thank the gods,” Father Cristopolos breathed. The eldest of the priests, he was around fifty, bald and beefy.

“Are you hurt? Herakles and I have a stash of medical –”

“Come with me.” Rather than race towards the fire and those who might need help, Father Cristopolos snatched my arm and hurried towards the forest, back from the direction I just came.

“But – ” I twisted, worried about those who might be trapped in the wreckage or fire.

“You are not to leave the forest!”

“Father, I can –”

“You are not to leave the forest!” This time he squeezed my arm tightly enough that my attention went from what was happening behind us to his face. His features were blanched, his eyes bulging and jaw clenched so hard, the muscles of his cheeks ticked.

We reached the forest, and he pushed me behind the tree line. Whipping off the red cord belt he wore, he tossed it at the edge of the greens.

“Do not cross the boundary,” he ordered.

“What? But –”

“Alessandra!” He snatched both my arms and shook me until I met his gaze. “Do not step past the boundary or all we have done here for the past twelve years is destroyed.”

I had no idea what he was talking about, but his face and unusual intensity scared me. The normally calm priest was freaking out. “Okay,” I said, concerned. “Do you want to know where our medical stash is?”

“We have our own.” Without another word, he whirled and hurried back to join the other priest, who had moved to help a third stumble out of the collapsing building.

I watched helplessly, hating to be excluded like usual. The red belt near my feet was expanding and stretching the way the boundaries did whenever the priests adjusted them. The cords retained some sort of unidentified magic, and the red rope snaked quickly away to outline the perimeter of the greens. I didn’t understand the importance of a barrier that didn’t actually prevent people from coming and going and paced, aching to help.

It wasn’t the apocalypse, but I was trained for emergency response and dressing wounds caused by pretty much anything.

Instead, I was sidelined again by the priests, left out when I should have been helping.

All of the nymphs and most of the staff were in town for the day. The five priests who stayed back were soon all accounted for with only one injured. I watched them huddle and speak, guessing they needed to figure out how to house thirty nymphs now that a plane had gone done in the middle of the compound. The building imploded completely into piles of rubble and everything that was flammable continued to burn.

I stressed about wanting to help until the fire department came and put out the blaze. One priest was taken away in an ambulance. The others were checked out by paramedics and released.

I stayed in the forest, saddened to see my home of twelve years destroyed while also hoping this was the impetus to enter the real world and go to a hotel for the rest of the weekend.

I nibbled on food I’d taken for my camping trip. The firemen left the smoldering ruins of our home around one o’clock, and I stared glumly at the scene before me. I began to think the priests had forgotten about me when Father Cristopolos pointed in my direction.

Perking up, I stood as my favorite priest, Father Ellis, headed towards me.

“Is Father Thiebauld okay?” I asked immediately.

“His arm was broken and he had some burns,” Father Ellis replied. “But he will be fine. The EMTs said he’d be released tonight.”

“And the rest of you?”

“We are well, Lyssa,” he assured me.

“Why wouldn’t Father Cristopolos let me help?” I demanded. “I know how to handle this situation.” Well, I thought I did at least. Herakles always said I was too eager to want to try my hand at disaster, that there were things I would never understand until I went through them.

Father Ellis smiled. “I know,” he said kindly.

Mollified, I drew a deep breath. “No survivors from the plane?”

“There was no one aboard to survive. The plane crash was meant to break the boundaries. Hence the new one.” He pointed to the red cord near my feet.

I arched an eyebrow at him. “Someone did this on purpose?”

“Lyssa, I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth,” he said quietly.