Soul Whisperer (18 page)

S
omething swooped in from the edge of Bess's peripheral vision and she ducked, thinking it was a ghost. She was already straightening when she remembered that ghosts could not be seen except by the Seer of Souls and the owl Skinwalkers.

The black billowing cloud landed on the roof of Cesar's new sedan, transforming into the female twin. She began to howl like a coyote and stamp her feet on the metal roof, her sharp claws causing such a racket that Bess clamped her hands over her ears.

Cesar still held open the passenger door, but now motioned them all to step back. After several minutes of howling and scratching the female dropped to the ground, placing the car between herself and them. She spotted her twin and began the yipping call they had used back in the city. The male at last crept from his hiding place beneath the dashboard.

The infants darted like deer beneath the guardrail and then stopped to stare at the three of them.

“What do you think they make of us?” asked Tuff.

“The female looks hungry,” whispered Bess.

“And the male still seems frightened,” added Cesar.

Bess shifted nervously. “I wish they'd go.”

“Do you think they'll be all right?” Cesar asked.

She didn't know and she worried for them, but also worried that Nagi might appear. It seemed clear he was gathering his children.

Tuff opened the dented door of his pickup. “Want me to follow you or take off?”

“Take off,” said Cesar at the same time Bess said, “Follow.”

Tuff grinned until Bess said, “I still have that bad feeling.”

The female was now tugging her twin by the arm, trying to get him to come with her, but he held on to the crossbeam of the wooden guardrail, whimpering. His eyes were on Cesar.

“What does he want?” asked Bess.

“Not sure. Help maybe.”

“Or a parent,” said Tuff.

Bess's jaw dropped as she stared from Tuff to Cesar. Was he right?

“They can hunt. They'll be fine,” she said, more to herself than to the men.

“Babies need more than food,” said Tuff.

“But unfortunately,
we're
the food,” said Bess.

Tuff gave her a grim look, but didn't contradict her, which made her more worried.

Bess had no idea how to gather the little Halflings or communicate with them even if she wanted to.

Cesar gave a sigh and then rubbed his hand over
his mouth. “We better go, I guess. We're scaring the female.”

That was obvious by the way she clacked her jaw, making her teeth gnash together as she gave a warning growl that would have made a German shepherd turn tail and run.

Help. Help. Danger now.

Bess heard the words as if they were spoken in her ear.

“What was that?” asked Bess.

The female had the male around the waist now and tugged as he clung to the rail with both hands.

“What was what?” asked Tuff.

Bess's neck prickled and she glanced around, searching for the source of the voice, still trying to decide if it came from outside or inside her head. She spotted three hikers hurrying from the trailhead. “Great. Humans,” she said.

She turned toward the three approaching men, noticing at first glance that something was not right with them. Their clothing was rumpled and bits of grass and moss clung to their disheveled hair. They looked as if they had spent the night sleeping in the woods without benefit of a tent or bedroll. They carried no gear except long walking sticks that appeared to be only redwood branches. They did not hold them as one would for walking but up before their chests as if they were clubs. They approached at a loping trot that was just short of a run.

Cesar stepped before her. “Get in the car.”

“Why? What's wrong?” But even as she said the words she knew, because they were close enough for her to see their faces now. Their eyes were a ghostly yellow and their blank expressions looked as if they had
been carved from wax. She had seen such men before, in Montana, at the fight between her friends and Nagi's ghosts.

Tuff must have noticed as well for he spoke under his breath. “Ghosts.”

The twins now both began a chortling, crackling sound that acted on Bess's ears like the collapse of sheet metal in a car wreck.

“Get to the car,” Cesar ordered.

But none of them did. If it was to be a fight, Bess would stand beside Cesar and Tuff would stand with her.

The ghosts rushed at them with raised sticks. Bess dodged a blow that would surely have split her head open.

Cesar drew his service pistol and then sheathed it again. Of course he did not want to kill humans when it was his mission to protect them, even if they were trying to kill him.

When Bess had faced a similar fight the ghosts had been stopped only by the Seer of Souls.

This time they were on their own. So should they kill the humans or only disable them? It was certain by the swinging clubs that the ghosts did not face any such moral quandary.

Tuff nimbly dropped to the ground and used one foot to sweep the legs out from beneath his attacker.

“Try not to kill them,” said Cesar.

The humans had done nothing to deserve death. They were merely the vessels the ghosts had taken.

Her attacker swung again and again she dodged, this time stepping behind him and kicking him in the ass with all she was worth. The blow sent him sprawling. Tuff sat on his attacker, who flailed uselessly beneath
him. Bess knew the guy would never be able to dislodge a buffalo. Cesar had cuffed his attacker's hands behind the man's back and the possessed man writhed uselessly on the ground. Cesar grasped the ankle of the human who swung his club at Bess, holding him as Bess relieved him of his weapon.

“Now what?” asked Tuff.

The man beneath Tuff was trying to bite Tuff's ankle, forcing him to lift one foot and then the next.

“Bess, could you get the rope from my trunk?” Cesar spoke in a calm voice that seemed at odds with his position, for he now had her attacker in a headlock. The guy writhed and reached, trying unsuccessfully to get a hold of Cesar.

She went to retrieve the rope, stepping over the third man, who rolled about on the ground in a vain attempt to remove his handcuffs.

Bess reached in the open window on the driver's side and popped the trunk and then headed around the back.

“We can't let them go,” said Cesar. “Not like this anyway.”

Bess glanced toward the woods. The twins stood on their stubby legs, leaning into each other. They seemed so bereft it made her pause.

Alone, alone, alone. Afraid, afraid. Hungry
.

Those were not her thoughts. Theirs? She cocked her head. Were they telepaths then, sending their thoughts to her or to everyone? It was the female. She knew it but did not know how she did.

“The Seer could send these ghosts to the Spirit Road. That would free the humans,” said Tuff.

Bess slammed the trunk. “No. There might be more, watching us right now. They could find her.”

“She can see them. She can send them for judgment
just as she did the others at the ranch in Montana,” said Tuff.

He had been there, fought beside her with the others and witnessed the Seer's powers.

“She has children to defend now. And Nagi is here,” said Bess. “He
can
follow me and he'll kill her.”

She brought Cesar the rope and he quickly used it on the man he held.

“First, we get out of this forest,” said Cesar. “Then we'll figure out what to do.”

“Ready?” asked Tuff, preparing to remove his weight from the final attacker.

Cesar tied the man's legs and then nodded.

Tuff drew aside, keeping hold of the hiker's right arm. His left was still pinned beneath him. Cesar trussed him like a captured boar.

Tuff dusted off the seat of his pants. “Why did they attack us?” asked Tuff.

Bess pointed toward the new Halflings. “Defending them.”

“How do you know?”

“I can hear them. Or I hear the female. She called for help.”

Both men stared at her.

“Didn't you hear her?”

They shook their heads.

“But I can understand the male when he's touching me,” said Cesar.

Bess felt the prickling anxiety grow stronger, but now began to question whether the feeling came from her warning system working or the panic of the newborns sending out telepathic messages.

“Gun!” yelled Cesar.

Bess turned to see a fourth man, a park officer,
emerge from behind a huge redwood trunk at the same instant Cesar tackled her. As she sailed through the air she saw the raised revolver and heard the pop of a single gunshot.

They hit the ground so hard it rattled her vision. Cesar reached for his weapon, lifting off her to return fire. His pistol report made her ears ring.

Three more shots came in rapid succession and Cesar crumpled to the ground.

Bess screamed as she rose to her knees beside Cesar.

The shooter was down and Tuff ran to him, retrieved the weapon and threw it. It sailed through the air and landed in his truck bed.

“I never saw him,” said Tuff, stooping to check the ranger. “Dead.”

Bess had Cesar in her arms now. She held his slack body against hers. Blood soaked his shirt and his head lolled back in a way that filled Bess with terror.

“No, no, no,” she whispered as if it were a prayer. “He was trying to protect me.”

Tuff left the shooter and returned to Bess, dropping to his knees in the dirt beside her.

Bess lifted her gaze from Cesar's unnaturally pale face to look into Tuff's eyes and found no reassurance there.

“Do something. Tuff, you have to heal him.”

Tuff's eyes reflected the horror she felt. Cesar was so still. Was he even breathing?

“Hurry! Why don't you help him?”

Tuff sat fixed in stillness, his face a mask of dread.

She shifted Cesar, to lay him down before Tuff. He was a buffalo. He could survive these injuries and regenerate. It was his gift and his burden, the gift of sac
rifice. She had never before seen Tuff withhold his powers to any living thing that needed him.

“Tuff!” she screamed at him. The terror burned her throat, making her voice shrill.

He reached out, not to Cesar, but to her, clasping her by the shoulders and turning her to face him.

“Bess, it's too late. He's already gone.”

“I
t can't be,” said Bess. If she could only convince Tuff to try. If he would only listen.

“Bess. Look at him.”

She did. Tuff flipped back the lapel of Cesar's suit to show her the bullet holes, still oozing dark red blood—two piercing his heart and another tearing through his lung on the right side. All three bullets had hit Cesar in the torso. He wasn't wearing a vest.

Bess pressed her hands over her face, trying to breathe past the weight of misery that suddenly fell down upon her. Her exhalation was ragged, choking. How could she still draw breath when he could not?

She shuddered and trembled as the world spun out of control. This wasn't right. It couldn't be happening. She had only just found him and never even told him that she loved him.

“He can't be gone.”

Her mother, father. Now Cesar. Stolen, taken, it was the same. This was why she had not told Cesar that she loved him. The fear had stopped her. The fear of exactly this. And now her worst fear had happened.

She scrubbed her hands across her dry face, yearning for the release of tears and looked Tuff in the eye.

“No. Not this time. I won't let him go.”

“But he
has
gone.” Tuff's voice was quiet and full of concern.

He didn't understand.

“You can still heal his body.”

Tuff's brows furrowed. “Why? I can't bring him back.”

“I can. If I reach him before he crosses into the Spirit World.”

“But Bess, do you have the right to stop him?”

“I love him.”

She had not realized she had shouted until she saw the hurt and confusion on Tuff's dear face.

Bess tried to rein in her terror with her tone of voice. “I will not let another person I love leave me behind. This time I'll fight. I'll bring him back or I'll follow him.”

“No!” Tuff reached for her, his eyes wide with what looked like terror and she realized she had never seen him afraid before. A moment later he dropped his hands to his knees and nodded his acceptance. “All right, Bess. Bring him back and I'll see he is made whole.”

 

Cesar was flying, up through the treetops and into the blue sky. The clouds swallowed him up and next he saw the stars glittering about him, spilling across the heavens in a sparkling highway.

Recognition arrived a moment later. He knew what
this was, knew it even without ever having seen it before.

This was the Way of Souls, the road that all mortals must one day pass after their earthly journey was finished. It summoned him, humming softly, with a beautiful music that touched his soul and carried him forward. How did anyone resist such a call? It was sweeter than a lark's song, purer than water tumbling down a hillside. He wanted to bathe in the sound, roll in the carpet of stars and dance along the road that stretched out before him.

But wasn't there something wrong? He looked back at the way he had come and could see nothing but more stars winking. Still he was unsettled by the feeling he had left something important behind. He paused, hovering, neither continuing forward nor retreating.

Why was he so torn? As if he were tied to two horses galloping in opposite directions.

He began again, sweeping forward. This was right, flying through the sky as easily as… He slowed his momentum, drifting in space. He was thinking that he flew as easily as Bess. His raven. His love.

Where was she now? More importantly where was he?

Cesar grew uneasy at the realization that he had no body. He seemed to be only a silver shimmering energy. How had he come here? He could not remember.

Something moved farther up the road of stars, something slow and ancient. He felt the age of this creature measured in eons instead of years, as if he stared at a cliff face instead of a living entity: a female, as old as the stars themselves and as much a part of this place as the sky.

She moved closer, not walking, but descending as
if she rode some escalator that he could not see. One moment she was high above him and the next she was there before him, pinning him with eyes black as the holes in space. He had a feeling of irrational dread.

And then he knew who she was. So this was Hihankara, the elder who measured souls to judge if they were worthy to continue or be cast off the road.

He gazed down below his feet, looking through the gaps between the stars. Why hadn't he seen it before? The spinning vortex yawned like a great sprawling hurricane beneath him. But that was no storm. He was looking into the Circle of Ghosts. Each tiny wisp of each immortal soul combined with the others to give the cloud its shape and eternal spin. They trod from now until forever in that dismal mass.

Had he walked the Red Road? he wondered. Had his deeds been virtuous enough to overcome his mistakes? Or would he suffer the Circle? He thought of the Skinwalker he had shot on the word of his partner and thought he deserved to fall.

Cesar recalled his life now, watching the details flow by as Hihankara stared down at him. She was enormous, the size of an elephant by comparison, and strong and able enough to easily cast any soul from her path. How long would he fall before he hit the Circle?

He now saw that what he first assumed were wrinkles were actually an elaborate series of swirling blue-black tattoos covering her forehead and cheeks. They ran in twin arrows down her nose, curling over each nostril and continued around her mouth to coil on her chin like a resting rattlesnake.

“You seek to pass?” said Hihankara.

He did not know. He wanted to go back to Bess, but then he remembered she did not want him.

The Spirit leaned down so that her long flat nose nearly touched his.

“Show me your tattoos.”

Cesar held out his arms and was shocked to see that they were as transparent as water except for the swirling silver spiral on his right arm and the symbol of a human hand upon the left.

“Hmm, a Soul Whisperer. That is odd, as there is yet no other of your kind upon the earth. Bad. The Balance will suffer.”

“May I pass?” he asked.

She stepped aside, but he did not continue on his way. Nor did he feel the exhalation or relief he had expected. He had led a good life, despite his mistakes.

“What of Bess?”

“The raven? Nuisance, that one, always flapping and cawing her questions to those who have earned their peace.”

“If I cross, can she come and speak to me?”

“Not until she crosses.”

“But she told me she speaks to departed souls, that she calls into the Spirit World and they answer.”

“True. But she cannot call the ones she loves.”

“The ones she…but she doesn't love me. She told me so herself.”

Hihankara laughed and the road beneath him shook as if rocked by an earthquake. “Did she now? Well, then it must be true. Ravens are not the sort of birds to deceive anyone, or play tricks or outwit men. No, wait, they
are
that sort.”

“She loves me?”

Hihankara exhaled so forcefully that the stars brightened and one streaked away from the road, falling in a shower of sparks.

“Now look what you made me do. The Road has another hole in it. Harder to replace than cobblestone, I can tell you. If you are going…” She motioned, making a shooing gesture with both long, angular hands. She said
if
. Did Cesar have a choice?

 

Bess flew faster than she ever had and still it was not fast enough. How long did it take a soul to cross the Ghost Road? All she knew was that Cesar was ahead of her and she had to catch up.

How would she know him from the others? They all looked the same here, white energy, pulsing with power. She began to cry out his name, over and over until her voice grew hoarse and crackled like dry oak leaves skittering across the frozen ground. And still she cried his name again and again.

“Stop that racket,” growled Hihankara, creeping down the road to wave her arms.

Bess veered and rolled, sweeping past her.

“He has the proper tattoos. Let him pass, Raven,” Hihankara cried.

Let him pass
. That meant he had not crossed the threshold yet. Bess flew faster. Ahead of her was the shimmering veil that blocked her view of the world beyond the Way of Souls. If he crossed that barrier, she would never see him again.

“Cesar!”

One of the souls stopped at the threshold.

Bess swept down to him, seeing now the familiar aura of the man she had loved, staring at his naked soul.

“Cesar, don't go. Don't leave me behind.”

He hovered there, his aura pulsing more brightly. If he moved even another few inches he would be lost to her.

“Come back, Cesar. Tuff has healed your body. It is whole and waiting for you. Please, Cesar. Don't leave me.”

She could not hear him, but she knew his thoughts, felt them as she always did when communicating with a soul. What she felt most strongly was his indecision. He wanted to end his lonely existence, trapped in a body on the earthly plane. He didn't believe himself worthy of love, but hoped to find peace in the Spirit World. He moved a little closer to the veil, drawn, it seemed, by some power she could not recognize.

How could she compete with all he would find there?

Bess flapped her wings before him, blocking his way.

Hihankara crept up behind them.

“Are you here to do what is best for him or what is best for you, little Raven?”

Bess felt her stomach drop. She didn't know. All she knew was that she needed Cesar and she would fight anything and anyone who tried to take him.

“You can't have him,” she called as she beat her tired wings.

Cesar's thoughts came to her again.
Is it my choice or yours?

Bess did not know if he spoke to her or to Hihankara, but it was the old wise Spirit who answered.

“There have been those who came this far and then turned back, some to their body and some to wait as ghosts for the one they cannot leave. But you have the proper tattoos, so you may cross.”

And see my brother
.

Cesar moved toward the veil and Bess beat him back with her wings again, desperate now to stop him.

“Your brother is not here,” said Hihankara, and
pointed below them, to the yawning vortex of misery. “But there.”

Cesar's soul vibrated and Bess felt the agony sawing through him.

But it was an accident, a fall. Surely he deserves to enter the Spirit World
.

Hihankara shook her massive head. “I pushed him off the Way of Souls myself. I don't make mistakes.”

“But why?” asked Bess.

“Because he intentionally took a life.”

Bess heard Cesar's thoughts as a shout in her mind.

What life?

Hihankara narrowed her billiard-ball-size eyes at him. “His own.”

Cesar's anguish reviberted within her.
He was only a child
.

“No,” said Bess, but she knew it could be true. Suicide was the murder of oneself, regardless of how old Carlos had been. As far as Hihankara was concerned any soul who intentionally took an innocent life must serve time in the Circle.

“He did not fall,” said the ancient. “He jumped and in that instant his duty became your burden, Soul Whisperer. Did you not wonder why you have three gifts? Or why you discovered the last two so late? You are a Truth Seeker by birth. But the Whispering and the Memory Walking came because of him.”

It's not possible,
thought Cesar.

Bess did not know how much longer she could fly. Soon she would fall from the sky and into the circle where no living thing had ever gone.

Hihankara spoke. “When his brother learned what he was, he understood the path he must walk and rejected his duty.”

“How could he keep this a secret from his parents?” asked Bess. “I thought the Niyanoka knew the gifts of their children and helped them learn to use them.”

“Unless you use your Memory Walking gift to erase the memories of your parents each time they learned of it. That one could not keep up the ruse any longer. There were too many memories to erase and the guilt was too much to bear. So he jumped.”

Cesar's denial turned to astonished silence. Bess absorbed the black grief that poured from him, sharing the burden. Her wings grew heavy as if coated with tar. She needed to land, but there was no place here to rest.

My prayers?
asked Cesar.

“Were not enough. You have lifted him to the highest level. In a few more mortal years he would have been free and moved to the Spirit World.”

But my parents pray for him
.

“Not often. They believe he crossed. But you cannot help him now for you are bound for the Spirit World.”

I want to see him
.

Her smile held no mercy. “Perhaps, someday, when he serves his time. But there is no seeing in the Circle of Ghosts. Each soul is blind, alone, while crushed against all the rest. They walk unseeing, ever searching for what they have not earned.”

“What?” he asked.

“Peace.”

Bess's tired muscles began to cramp. The vortex yawned beneath her.

Hihankara beckoned. “Cross over now. Your grandparents await.”

Bess spoke in desperation. “He is here only because one of Nagi's ghosts took possession of a human and shot him to protect his Halflings.”

Hihankara's expression blackened and a red aura of fury surrounded her. “Nagi? That one again? I spoke to him about his uncollected ghosts after the last attacks. He assured me it was an oversight.”

“Do Spirits have oversights?” asked Bess.

“No,” said the guardian. “They do not. And what is this about Halflings?”

“Nagi has children, fast growing, voracious.”

Hihankara rubbed her long chin. “This changes The Balance.”

“Do they threaten The Balance?” Bess prayed they did not for somehow she had become fond of the frightened little male and the small ferocious female. They both need…parents, she realized. And, although Inanoka protected The Balance, she would not judge them by their sire. Cesar had taught her that.