A Witch's Rite Page 7

  "Out of my league. I can't cast anything like that, though if I had all the pieces, I could assemble it." He paused. "Do you have any idea who made it?"

  "No, and I don't want to study it too much right now. I'll feel better examining it back at your office where its compulsion shouldn't have any effect."

  The men nodded. Both of the officers were looking at Patrick's backpack, which now held the charm. Elron was continuing to look around as if something would jump out at us any moment.

  "Is the rest of the path safe?" Patrick asked.

  "It is likely that there will be additional traps," Elron said.

  Gudger grunted. "We need to stay sharp."

  I kept my mouth shut because nothing I said would make Patrick feel better. While that could be the only spell, my guess was that there would be more interesting finds ahead of us. That bit of trickery had to cost someone a pretty penny, and anyone willing to pay that much was hiding something.

  My hands tightened on the straps to my pack. Maybe it was a good thing Elron had overpacked for us. If we ran into trouble, we would need the extra supplies.

  "Is there more magic ahead?" Wells asked.

  "I thought I felt something, but Michelle should check," Patrick said.

  Sighing, I scanned the area around us. There was something that caught my attention, but it didn't really feel like a spell. It was more like a charm component, a plant or oil, that was able to add a mix with other things and increase the power of the spell.

  "There's something up there, but I can't identify it from here. It could be the stuff the hikers reported, or it could be nothing. Maybe it's a plant." I looked up at Elron.

  "I cannot find any magical plants from here, but some know how to hide from elves." He frowned, clearly not happy. "We should proceed with care. It is unusual to come across something that two magic users, an elf, and two shifters cannot identify."

  Wells wiggled his six-fingered hand in the air. "I turn into an octopus. Let's not give me too much credit. I didn't get a werewolf's heightened sense of smell or hearing acuity."

  "The witch will go first." My voice was firm, ending any brewing debate between the men.

  Elron glared at me. I shrugged. This wasn't the time for him to be overprotective. This was work.

  Chapter Eight

  I planted each foot carefully. Patrick and I might have come up empty on our search for additional traps, but there could still be a few hiding and I didn't want to fall victim to them. The woods edging the path gave way to dense rhododendrons. They were the thickest I'd seen and completely blocked the view of anything past the switchback.

  Rounding the corner, I stopped dead. The dirt was packed oddly. A quick probe confirmed my suspicions—there was another one of the compulsion charms. I leaned over and grabbed a couple of twigs from the side of the path. After making a twig perimeter around it, I looked over my shoulder and started to warn the men. The words died before they escaped my mouth.

  Elron darted his eyes in my direction before returning them to something behind me. Wells had come up beside him and didn't even spare me a look. Gudger was sniffing the air, his ears furry and pivoting. Patrick was as focused as the other men.

  My heartbeat picked up as I slowly turned back. I'd missed something while dealing with the trap, and anything that had all the guys' attention was going to be bad.

  The first thing I saw was a pile of muddy brown stuff. For a moment I thought it was a natural formation, but then my brain made sense of the shapes. It was a pile of carcasses. A giant pile, as tall as me and twice as wide. At this distance I couldn't be sure what creatures they had been—though I could tell they were from something small and not humanoid—but I was thankful for the cold. There were smaller piles in the distance, and I had a feeling the odor would get to me before long.

  "That's horrible," Patrick said.

  I shook my head. "Some people don't value life, especially if they think of them as lesser life-forms."

  Gudger's face was tight with anger.

  Elron's voice was low and filled with rage. "If we find this person, can you arrest them?"

  "I can think of a few charges," Wells said grimly.

  "Good."

  While they were talking, I looked over the trail that led to the decomposing— Well, I wasn't entirely sure if it was worms or giant slugs, but either way it was a lot of dead creatures. It appeared to be safe, so I started forward, my wand at the ready. After seeing the pile of remains, I figured I would shoot a spell first and ask questions later. I didn't want to end up in a similar condition.

  It wasn't long before the smell of decay reached me. Frankly, I was glad there wasn't much in my stomach. Since there was nothing I could do about the odor, I tried to ignore it. The clearing had a small stream running next to the piles, and the ground was littered with shards of white and brown stuff. The closer we got, the more the sight overwhelmed me. As far into the woods as I could see, both sides of the stream were lined with piles.

  I tore my attention away from the horror and looked for a person. With this much death in one area, I doubted the perpetrator would go far. Whoever had done this would want to feed off the energy of the deaths, and to do that they had to stay close. When I didn't see anything, I tried a magical sweep. As soon as I probed the area, I was overwhelmed with the feeling of bits of magic all around me.

  Pulling back inside my shields, I looked around. As far as I could tell, there was nothing overtly magical in the area. I tried another probe, this one smaller and much more controlled. Releasing a single tendril of magic, I examined the area around me. I could still feel the bits of magic but more faintly. I dragged the tendril of magic across the ground in front of me. The traces of power weren't consistent but would flare momentarily before dissipating.

  I picked up one of the shards and turned it over in my hand. One side had a smooth, brown finish, and the other side was white. I found it hard to believe that the traces of magic were coming from that. Potential magic would be a more accurate term. When my power touched it, it flared in response, but the next time I examined the same bit of shell, the response was weaker. It felt like I was triggering a release of magic that was gradually exhausting the shell's supply.

  "Michelle, do you think it's safe for us to look around and collect evidence? I didn't find any traps," Patrick said.

  "Oh, um. I was looking at something else, let me check." With all the little bits of potential magic vying for my attention, it wasn't easy to focus. I did my best to look for something different, magic that wasn't focused on a piece of shell. "I think it's clear but be careful. I'm finding strange magical signatures all over this area."

  "What do you mean, strange?" Wells asked.

  I shook my head. "Something I haven't seen before. I don't know what to tell you."

  Wells gave me a curt nod and started sweeping the area for anything that would give us a clue as to why all this had happened. Patrick followed him, counting piles as he went. I trailed after Patrick until I reached the first pile of death. Up close, the smell was horrible. I did my best to breathe lightly, but it wasn't helping as much as I would have liked.

  Elron stopped next to me while Gudger continued on, nose wrinkled. Aside from the smell, I noticed that my previous assumptions about the piles had been incorrect. They weren't intestines but snails that had been brutally ripped from their shells. Some of them had come out more cleanly than others, but all of them had parts that were missing. The shell was an integrated part of the snail. Removing it not only killed the snail but was difficult to accomplish cleanly.

  I turned to Elron. "Why? Why would someone do this to snails?"

  "I do not know." His face was grave as he surveyed the area. "Many of earth's creatures have died here. It is beginning to mark this place."

  He was right. The earth would remember for years to come. When people walked through this place, they could get a chill and find themselves eager to hurry up the trail.

  Elron
shook his head. "We cannot undo the damage, but we must find the person responsible."

  "Agreed."

  Returning my attention to the pile of dead snails, I examined it, looking for traps or magic. Their corpses gave me the same feeling as the fragments of shells on the ground, only far less intense. I scooped a few shell pieces in a plastic bag to take home and study. I needed to figure out what was going on here.

  It was possible that someone was feeding the snails some magical growth serum. After all, the bodies were almost a foot long. These weren't little garden snails, no, these were jumbo-sized. From the remains it was hard to judge, but it wouldn't surprise me if the live ones were several inches tall.

  Elron called out, "Michelle, come here."

  I hurried over. "What is it?"

  He was kneeling, one hand in the water. "There are live ones in the stream."

  "Where?"

  "Right here." He pointed right in front of him.

  Leaning over, I caught sight of two snails. They were in the shadows, so I couldn't see them clearly. However, they were just as large as I'd thought. The snails were easily six inches tall and three inches wide. The parts of them emerging from their shells brought them to a length of roughly a foot. They had to weigh a couple of pounds.

  "Those things are not native to this area. We don't grow snails that large here in Georgia." The water rippled, and I saw something coming off its shell. "Can you pick that one up? I think I see something on it."

  "Give me a moment. I want to see if it will communicate with me." Elron reached farther into the water. A long moment later he sighed. "I never did have as much luck with animals as plants, but it does not seem to be unfriendly."

  "That's good enough for me."

  Elron gently lifted it off a rock and out of the water. Well, I'd been right. There was something on its shell, but it wasn't rope or fishing line like I'd thought. The snail's shell was a fairly typical upright spiral, except that there were large spikes coming off the edge of each whorl. Those spikes started small but got up to four inches long.

  "Have you ever seen anything like it?" I asked.

  "I am a plant man." He said that while gently stroking the top of the snail's head. Plants might be his favorite, but he was still an elf.

  The officer would want documentation of this, especially since it wasn't a native species. I was sure it was a transplant. I would know if snails that size were common here.

  "Guys, you should come see this," I shouted. Turning back to the snails, I quickly probed the snail for magic. It didn't feel like a magical creature, one that could actually do magic. Though it did have an abnormal amount of energy, most of which was concentrated in the shell. While I hadn't seen this in an animal, it seemed similar to the way witches carried large amount of energy in their bodies.

  Gudger crouched down next to Elron. "So that's what's being killed. Poor little guys."

  Wells looked at Patrick. "Get some pictures, Westmoreland."

  Patrick didn't need the order. He already had the camera out and was busy photographing the snail in Elron's hands and the ones in the water.

  "Do you think we could take it back as evidence?" Patrick asked.

  "We could end up killing it." Wells frowned. "A lot of aquatic creatures can't survive for long outside water."

  Elron looked up. "If we were careful, it could make the journey. However, I recommend that we accomplish our other tasks first. I would not want to stress it more than necessary."

  "Agreed," I said. "Wells, what do you want me to do? I usually get called in to solve a crisis, not investigate. How can I be the most useful?"

  "Do you know why someone is killing these things?" Wells asked.

  "I'm really not sure. They wouldn't be the first choice if you were going to do sacrifices, and I don't get the feeling that they are being used to generate any type of power. I can feel magic, or potential magic, but I can't say if it's coming from them or being used to kill them."

  "Elron, what can you tell us?"

  He shrugged. "I cannot feel magic as Michelle does, but these seem to have more than the expected amount of energy in them. At this point I am unable to give you more information."

  Wells turned to Gudger. "Can you sense anything?"

  Gudger shook his head. "The smell of death is covering everything else."

  Wells looked at me. "All right. Look around, see if you can find the source of the magic."

  I nodded, and when Patrick was done photographing the snail, I went to have another look.

  "One moment." Elron traded it out for a different snail. "I do not wish to stress it."

  "Whatever you think is best. I don't want to hurt them. They're kinda cute in a slimy way." I gently rubbed its shell.

  "Some people keep snails as pets." Elron smiled at me. "I hear they can be quite charming."

  "Are you saying we should have a pet snail?"

  He shrugged.

  "We can talk about it later. Put the poor thing back in the water." I patted his shoulder and stood up. The medallion thumped into my chest, and I felt a light shock. What was that about?

  "Yes, put him back." The voice was silky and congenial.

  I spun around, wand in the air. A man was standing at the far side of the clearing, hands in his coat pockets. He had an average build and chiseled features. His dark hair was carefully combed, but the slacks and tweed coat really stole the show, especially since he had practical hiking boots on his feet. It was an odd outfit for someone this far up the mountain but not as strange as his being able to sneak up on us. Elron and Gudger had especially good senses and should've noticed his approach. I wanted to capture him, but I knew Wells, and he'd rather keep my abilities in reserve.

  "What's your name?" Wells asked as he walked over.

  The man smiled, showing off gleaming teeth. "Ned, and I would very much appreciate it if you stopped right there."

  Wells slowed but didn't stop. "It's nice to meet you, Ned. I'm Detective Wells with the Gilmer County Sheriff's Office. Could I see some identification?"

  "I said stop." Ned's eyes darted around. "And you two. Get away from my snails."

  Elron and I slowly backed away from the stream. Gudger took the opportunity to move a couple of steps closer to Wells.

  Wells stayed focused. "Ned, are these your snails?"

  He gave a slight nod. "Now go away."

  "Why don't you come with us? We have some questions for you."

  I started probing Ned for magic. As far as I could tell, he was human, and it was rare for them to be magic users. Rare didn't mean impossible. Patrick was a hedge-practitioner, so Ned could have some type of power. He could be the source of the traps, snails, and dead snails.

  The probe reassured me that he didn't have magic or not much of it anyway. However, I did get the same sense of potential energy that I had felt when examining this area and the shards of shells.

  Ned's smile faded. "No. You need to leave."

  Patrick started working his way closer to me, and I hoped Ned didn't notice the movement.

  "We just want to ask a few questions," Wells said softly. "We found compulsion spells in the path. Were those yours?"

  "That is not your concern." He sneered.

  "Well, Ned, it is." Wells kept his voice congenial. "See, I had two very confused hikers come down and make a report, so I have to investigate."

  Ned shook his head.

  Wells glanced at Patrick, who gave a tiny nod. Gudger also exchanged a look with Patrick, and I knew the three of them weren't going to let this continue for much longer.

  "Work with me, Ned," Wells said, taking a step forward. "I need some answers. Where did the snails come from?"

  "Don't come any closer."

  Wells slid his hand along his belt until it was resting on the handcuffs. "I just want to talk."

  "I told you to stay," Ned yelled.

  All of a sudden, everyone was moving and things were happening so quickly I couldn't keep up. />
  Wells yanked out the handcuffs and rushed forward.

  Ned pulled both hands out of his jacket pockets.

  I raised my wand and started to cast a containment spell. "Sow—"

  Ned opened his right hand, and I could see a charm.

  Gudger charged toward Ned.

  Patrick drew his gun. "On your knees, hands in the air."

  My spell fizzled and died. What? Something had sucked the energy away.

  With his other hand, Ned threw some powder at Wells and started shouting. The gun flew out of Patrick's hand, and the handcuffs escaped Wells's grip. My wand tried to make a break for it, but it had some powers of its own, and when my fingers were about to give way, it sank back into my hand.

  Wells and Gudger tackled Ned as he started screaming words. Ned kept fighting them, and when it looked like he might get away, Elron threw himself into the fray. I couldn't tell if Ned was saying runes or some type of gibberish, but suddenly my vision clouded and I was dizzy. I dismissed my wand. I could cast spells without it, and I didn't want to step on it if I lost my grip.

  I tipped to the side and went down on one knee. Through the haze, I could see Wells, Gudger, and Elron scuffling with Ned. Holding out my hand, I tried to cast a spell to wrap Ned in magical ropes. "Al… algiz." I stumbled through the word.

  My vision cleared, but it wasn't an improvement. Everything around me was spinning, and I couldn't see how the fight was going. The trees and bushes were going around, faster and faster. Since nature didn't move like that, the spinning had to be in my head. I closed my eyes, but I still felt like I was moving.

  My usually steady stomach lurched, and I clamped my lips together. I would not lose my lunch, not because of magic performed by a human. Besides, if I was going to hurl, I wanted to do it on him, so I had to hold on until I could see well enough to target Ned.

  It seemed like forever, but it couldn't have been more than a few moments, before the feeling of spinning faded and my stomach started to settle. I could feel the ground under me, so at some point I had ended up flat on my back. Even though my head was fuzzy and throbbing, I forced one eye open.