wants us to. So if we have different directions at the end of this session, we can consider that an answer,” Madgie said in a calm tone, though Amanda could tell her patience was wearing thin.
Once her eyes were shut, Amanda started to close out the environment around her one sense at a time. First, she started with the sounds, the animal noises and the wind moving through the trees. She muted everything one by one. She shut off all of her senses, saving scent for last. It was always the strongest, at least she thought so. One aroma had the power to take you back in time.
The smell of roses took her back to helping the nuns prune the garden at her orphanage. Every time she smelled the clean perfume of rain she was back to cold nights on the street, when she had run from the Hovel, forever searching for shelter.
Whenever the heavy fragrance of earth reached her, she was brought back to the first time she’d entered a scar. She remembered coming out of it quickly and trying to dig herself back in.
She slowly shut out all of the smells floating toward her, saving Cole’s for last. It was a strange sensation, being alone in one’s mind with no outside stimuli. Amanda took a deep breath and began to roll through her memories of the person who had shared her cell back at the Hovel.
She brought herself back to the moment she’d held the large iron cuffs. The remembered sting of the cold metal was as real as the first time. Her muscles flexed at the memory of their weight in her small hands, not just their physical heaviness, but their emotional bulk as well. She let the emotions flow through her, pity, frustration, sorrow, and anger. Slowly she brought up the image of Shiphra, letting it gain clarity before studying it.
The woman’s face was just as sunken and haunting as the other Ancients she’d seen, yet somehow joy and life poured from her. Seeing her wild hair waving in the wind made her seem so much more tangible than the others. Shiphra looked solid and real. She looked like she belonged in this world. The rest of the Ancients almost seemed like mirages to her, glimmering people that upon approach turned into cactuses. She remembered her first impression of them, thinking that they looked like crude two-dimensional drawings.
“You’re not thinking of Shiphra,” Amanda chastised herself and returned to the task. She thought of the strange Ancient’s name and face and location, over and over again. It was hard to keep her mind from wondering. It felt like it took all of her energy to keep on task.
Amanda was relieved to finally be pulled out of her meditation by Cole shaking her vigorously. He was shaking her pretty hard. It must be a pain to get someone out of the meditative state. She brought all of her senses back as quickly as she could, starting with scent. Cole was close to her, and she’d wanted to catch a whiff of his amazing citrusy breath, but when the sense had fully returned, she didn’t smell Cole’s breath. She smelled the sickly sent of iron.
She was immediately aware of everything around her, the ear-splitting noise, the heat, and still the blood. Her eyes flashed open, meeting Cole’s. Sweat was dripping from his brow, and his face was tight with strain.
“Which way, Amanda?” he yelled.
She jumped at the sight of a streak of silver whizzing by but realized it was just her wolf running a perimeter around them. Beyond that, she could see nothing but fallen trees and smoke.
“What’s happening, Cole? Where’s Madgie?” she asked desperately, still smelling the blood in the air.
“I have her! Now, which way? We need to get out of here,” he said.
She looked up and saw that he had Madgie’s thin body draped over his shoulder. For a moment, all she saw was red. A scarlet river flowed down the back of her friend, staining her delicate blouse and running down Cole’s arm. She couldn’t move or speak. Amanda knew she had to say something. They needed to move, but she couldn’t bring herself to. You’re in shock, snap out of it! she screamed at herself. Which way, which way? Where are you? she asked choking back tears.
“Here,” someone whispered from behind her. Amanda twirled toward the voice, ready to fight, but no one was there. “Here,” it sounded again.
She looked at Cole, but it was obvious he hadn’t heard it.
“This way,” she said, pointing to where the voice had come from.
She was certain she knew who’s voice it was. “Come on, Cole!” she shouted when he didn’t move.
Reading his emotions, she understood his hesitance. The attack must have come from that direction. She thought. She looked at her wolf and knew they could make it through. They didn’t have any other choice.
“Okay, Cole, do whatever you need to do, but get us through there. Don’t be afraid to take my energy. Believe me, I have more than enough,” she said, looking at her furry power source. “I’ll shield us the best I can, but I need to see what I can do for Madgie. She’s losing too much blood.”
Cole stepped in front of her and ran into the smoke, Madgie’s limp body flailing with every step.
“Oh, my, she looks like a rag doll.” Taking off after Cole, she threw up a shield with one hand and put her other over Madgie’s wound. Her flesh had been torn all the way to her shoulder blade. Life giving blood was still pouring out of the gaping hole.
Someone hit her in the back while she was meditating?
Who could do that?
Drawing energy from the wolf that was still running circles around them, she focused on healing Madgie. She had absolutely no idea what to do, no clue what spells a medical Healer would murmur. Amanda guessed it wouldn’t matter what they would do or say, because she knew they wouldn’t be able to help Madgie. Not with a wound that size. Heal. Heal. Close. Fix. She ran every word she could think of through her mind while trying to keep her shield up.
Her energy was draining rapidly, so she pulled her hand away from Madgie, not wanting to lose too much and collapse, leaving Cole alone to carry two unconscious women. When she removed her hand, she looked at Madgie’s shoulder, and her heart skipped a beat. The wound was closed though it wasn’t perfectly smooth, and it still held a reddish-pink tinge. Madgie’s eyes blinked open, and although they seemed to be in a dreamlike state, she could still see the fire behind them.
“Everything will be fine,” she said, just managing to keep back a flood of tears. “Madgie has stopped bleeding!” Amanda announced to Cole while switching her attention to putting up stronger shields. She tried not to count the attacks as they happened. She didn’t want to know how outnumbered they were. The constant pressure on her shield told her the outlook wasn’t good. As she built up their protection, an image flashed before her.
A rock, a slit in a rock. A cavern? She flexed as her shield was hit with a stronger attack. “Where?”
“Here.” The voice came from her left.
“Cole!” she shouted. “Dart left and start throwing that projection spell you used on Carter. I’ll keep the shield up. Just get us that way unnoticed, and don’t be afraid to use my energy. We won’t live through this if you don’t!”
Cole shot left, and her brain was scrambled for a second as dozens of replicas sprung up everywhere. She searched for their desired location and found it not too far away.
Amanda took a breath and was about to shout but the noise level had dropped. They weren’t being attacked anymore, she realized gratefully.
“There’s a cavern about two hundred yards ahead of us.
Keep an eye out for it,” she whispered just loud enough for him to hear. The farther they got away from the fight, the more she allowed herself to dwell on it. Grey cloaked figures had swept in and out of the smoke, launching attack after attack. Every face she had seen pop out of the haze had been a different one, though they had all held the same expression of rage and excitement.
“Amanda?” Cole asked.
She looked up and saw the wall of rock that had been shown to her. It was a giant grey dome at the footsteps of a cliff. Moss and foliage covered it, just like it had in her vision but there was no opening in it.
“That’s it. Maybe we just need to circle it, you know, find the opening,” she said, unsure.
Amanda thought she’d seen the opening in the face of the rock they were looking at, but she was wrong. Maybe she’d been wrong to follow the voice. She didn’t even know who was behind it.
They were twenty paces away when Cole paused. “Wait,” he said.
She stopped and looked at him, sure he would question even taking the time to find the opening.
“Look,” he said pointing up.
She turned her face away from him and saw the crack she’d seen in her vision.
