Trapped

Chapter 10

Unwilling to pull myself entirely out of the trance, I paused, dropped the thorn, and spoke to him. How do you know?

<Well, there’s a freshly butchered T-bone here. Expertly carved, some delicious marbling in the meat, looks like corn-fed Angus. And you just don’t see those dropped casually on the ground in the Olympian wilderness. Especially on my patrol route. And it can’t have been here for long, or some other animal would have already snarfed it. So that means—>

Somebody’s out there. You’re right. Damn it five thousand ways. Judging by where I am in the tattoos, it’s only been about three weeks. And you know you shouldn’t eat that meat, right?

<Hey, I’ve seen my share of heist movies. They always poison the dog. And you took great pleasure in pointing that out, I might add.>

It was all training for this particular moment, see? You’re alive instead of dead like those dogs in the movies.

<Thanks, Atticus. What should I do?>

Can you see any tracks? Smell anything besides the meat?

<No, and that has me worried. What if my nose is turning human?>

It’s not turning human. You can still smell the meat.

<Yeah, and it smells delicious.>

Don’t touch it, Oberon. Don’t even lick it. It’s poisoned for sure. Look, I’m going to come out there and see if I can spot any clues. Stay there, keep a sharp ear and nose out, and let me know if you sense anything.

<Okay.>

And stop staring at the meat. Look around for who put it there.

<Aw! Wait! How did you know?>

Canine Psychology 101. Seriously, don’t look at it. Look for the dastardly villain.

<Gah! It’s so hard to tear my gaze free! It must have a tractor beam!>

Oberon. It’s dead meat. You are stronger than other dogs. Look away.

<I can’t! It’s got me! Atticus, it’s got me!>

Oberon! Watch out for the cows raining down from the sky!

<Where? Oh. You tricked me!>

Don’t look back at the meat! Look around for who might have dropped it.

<Whew. Okay. That was scary. Hurry up, I’m creeped out now.>

I’ll be there as soon as I can.

I made apologies to Gaia and Granuaile. Anybody with the heart to poison a dog would have the heart to do us harm as well, and we couldn’t ignore it. //Pause necessary / Will continue binding later//

“Atticus? What’s going on?”

“Someone’s out there. They dropped a T-bone in Oberon’s path, and it’s a good bet that it’s poisoned. We need to take care of this before we continue. Find your knives and strap them on.”

“We can continue? We will continue? I’m just checking,” she said as she found her knife holsters and attached them to her belt.

“Yes to both. You’re going to cast your first magic before I go.” I tossed aside my backpack, looking for Moralltach. It was still where I’d stashed it, and I slung the scabbard on the strap over my back.

“I can do that without the binding being complete?”

“Yeah. Everything I’ve done so far is complete in itself. The inhibitor loop on the bottom of your foot worked immediately. Same for these other bits.” I fetched her staff and returned to where she was sitting. Granuaile seemed disoriented by the sudden change in plans—and perhaps a bit dizzy, because her leg was still swollen and oozing blood. I offered her a hand up and she took it. Pulling her to her feet, I said, “Cast the binding for magical sight.”

“Okay, but how?”

“What do you mean, how? Did you forget the words? I made you do all those drills for nothing?”

“No, but …”

“Say the words, see the knots, and be the hand that ties them. The power is there now.”

Granuaile didn’t have any charms to cast bindings via mental commands. She’d have to speak everything until she could craft her own charms. And so she began, in a halting voice, disbelief in her eyes that she could make this happen. I triggered my charm so I could watch it: When she finished the final phrase that energized the binding and drew power from the earth, I saw the white glow of magic flow up from the cave floor and illuminate her tattoos underneath the skin, and I heard her gasp as her eyes saw much more than they were used to seeing. She put out her hands, suddenly unbalanced. Magical vertigo—sensory overload.

“Sensei? This isn’t … oh, shit.”

I stepped closer to make sure she didn’t fall. “Search for the outlines of things.”

“This isn’t like looking through your eyes. It’s too much.”

“I know. You need to ignore the gossamer threads of all the bindings around you. If it’s below your feet, block it out; you don’t need to see all the bindings there. You have to train yourself to ignore the sensory input of these peripheral bindings, the way freeway drivers ignore billboards and speed limits and so on. You understand?”

“Uh … yeah? I think? Whoa.”

“When you’re driving, you don’t focus on everything at once, but you have peripheral awareness of it, right? You focus on what you need to at any given moment, whether it’s the car in front of you, the jackass in the lifted truck passing you, or the sirens behind you, whatever. Everything exists, everything is there, but you don’t have to see it all at once. Does that help? You don’t have to see all the bindings you’re seeing right now. Just focus on the outlines of the physical stuff you saw before.”

“Yeah, well, the bushes don’t give me much of an outline, sensei, because they’re fucking bushy.”

“Here,” I said, thrusting her staff into her hands. “That should be a simple enough shape to focus on.”

“No, because I see the oil from my fingers and the wood cells and—what is that thing? Is it some sort of bug larvae living in my staff?”

“Bring it up close to your eyes. Focus on the shape. There’s a big censor bar across your vision. That’s all you see, only the outline.”

“Oh. Wait, that helped.”

“Good. Now keep your vision in that mode, if you will, when you lower the staff. See outlines instead of everything.”

She slowly lowered the staff and sighed in relief when the mass of bindings didn’t blind her with light.

“Okay,” she said, putting one end of the staff on the ground and smiling at me. “This is just a little bit awesome. I’ve cast my first Druidic binding.”

“Congratulations. I need you to cast two more before I can leave.”

The smile disappeared. “Leave?”

“To check on Oberon, remember? We’re not alone.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Cast the bindings to increase your strength and speed. I don’t care which one you do first.”

<Atticus, it’s super-spooky here. All the animals are quiet.>

Coming soon, buddy. Almost ready.

I cast the same two bindings on myself. She cast speed first, and once she was done she grinned. “I so want to spar with you now.”

I was so proud of her and I wanted to hug her rather than spar, but then I’d have to start thinking about baseball, and this wasn’t a good time for that.

“Keep that in mind. If I move quickly now, does that mess up your vision?”