I took a small jar of salt from my jacket and uncorked it. Tossing the salt into the air, I spoke a brief spell that caused the salt crystals to form into an unbroken circle around us. When the salt reached the ground, I cast another spell and a dome of nearly unbreakable power formed over us.
Inside the circle, I could work without being bothered if there were any other attackers in the area. I bent next to Tess and lifted her by the shoulders. When I had her on her feet, I wrapped my arms around her and hugged her to me. At the same time, I pushed to reestablish our meshing. If I could get into her mind, I might be able to pull her out of her shell.
Our meshing had become almost automatic in the brief time I’d been training CPL T.E. Sylvan, recently of the U.S. Army, and Therese (Tess to her friends) had learned much faster than I had with my own mentor. Getting her meshed with me this time, was more difficult than our very first time. Minutes passed before I could even sense a reaction to my attempt at meshing. Finally, after nearly ten minutes, I felt her mind loosening, accepting my probing, and then relaxing somewhat as I tried to sooth her troubled psyche.
Another dozen minutes passed before her arms rose to encircle me and she returned my hug.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
She nodded against my cheek and then replied, “I don’t know what happened. One minute we’re fighting those…things and the next I couldn’t control my own body. Was it some kind of spell?”
I pulled my head back far enough to see her eyes. They were clear blue and quite lovely. I kissed her lightly on the lips. “No, I think it was a reaction to the explosions. You don’t remember?”
Her head shook once. “No, I do remember my jaw muscles tightening up, but I thought that was just nerves from the impending fight.”
“I think it was more serious than nerves. We’ll see if the healing spell will help.”
“Your healing spell can fix PTSD?” she asked.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. The spell will fix just about anything wrong with you but sometimes has to be directed toward what you want to be healed. So far, I’ve been concentrating on restoring your limbs, but perhaps tonight we’ll see if it will work on mental health.”
Tess pulled back from me and looked around. “How long was I…out of it?”
“Not too long,” I said.
“Did I miss much of the fight?”
“No, it was over before you…ah, reacted,” I said.
I took out my bottle, canceled the circle spell, and then summoned the salt back to the bottle. Corking it, I stowed in back in my pocket and studied the area. My enhanced senses detected no sign of life. Body parts and intact bodies littered the riverbed, but the water was too shallow to actual carry off any of the creatures.
“What now?” Tess asked.
“Well, normally I try to clean up my messes so someone doesn’t call the National Enquirer with a scoop on big foot’s remains being found.”
“Say what?”
I laughed. “Sorry, I missed some body parts once, back in the late seventies I think, and someone found this enormous hairy foot and tried to claim they’d found proof of big foot.”
“You actually try to keep anyone from finding out about things like this?” Tess asked as she indicated the bodies below us.
“Most of the time, yes. I don’t think people really want to know what’s out there so I try to clean up after myself.”
“I can’t see you as a neat freak,” Tess said.
“Are you implying I’m a slob?”
She grinned in reply.
“Humph,” I said.
“So, how are you going to clean up this mess?” Tess asked, facing the riverbed.
I waved a hand toward the carnage below. “I’ll open a portal into whatever world they came from and use wind to blow them through it.”
“Is it that easy?” Tess asked.
“It depends on whether I can find the portal they opened. If I can’t, then Beast probably can. Speaking of whom.” I pointed toward the north. “There’s the lay-about now.”
Tess followed my gaze and nodded. “Okay, how about giving me a chance to retrieve the two quarrels I used in the fight.”
“Certainly, those things are too valuable to lose.”
“Could you give me a little light?”
I nodded and created a fairy light above her head. “Keep your wits about you while you’re retrieving them. I think I got them all, but stay alert.”
Tess held up her left wrist, the one with my shield-spelled watch. Then she picked the crossbow up, slung it over her shoulder, and pulled my Colt from a pocket. “I’ll be careful.”
I grinned. Despite the PTSD issue, my apprentice was brave and competent. Still, I’d keep my own eyes on her while she looked for those bolts. I couldn’t afford to lose her, after all, it’s not as if good apprentices grow on trees.
She climbed down the riverbank and made her way toward the line of dead apes and their mounts.
A breeze ruffled my short hair as Beast landed beside me.
“What did I miss?” the winged manticore growled–everything a manticore says sounds like they’re growling.
His sort of human face was slightly higher than mine as he stood next to me. I frowned up at him. “You didn’t hear the fight?”
He studied me for a moment and then said, “I heard explosions and figured you were practicing with Tess.”
“Really? Don’t you think we would have done any practicing before we went to sleep?” I asked.
He shrugged–manticores' shrug by lifting their wings to the horizontal and giving them a little vertical wiggle. It’s also a derisive expression in their culture, and I can never be certain how he means it. “I thought you might have risen early to get some extra practice in before we hit the road.”
I glanced toward the east and saw the sky had begun to lighten. Astronomical dawn had passed, but
