Here we go, folks! Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

-Plum

28 – Know Your Neighbors

Against all odds, despite everything Lucy had seen—everything she’d feared—none of her companions had been killed in the battle. Several of the Militia members had injuries—broken bones, gashes, and in Julio’s case, several severed fingers. Even Vince had come through, though for a long while everyone thought he was dead. It turned out that he’d been knocked unconscious on the trail, trampled and then buried under the bodies of several Gavax when Torfal and the other Dondalli had come to their rescue.

Bea’s healing water took care of the worst of the injuries, but their supply soon ran out, and it was left to Madi and the Dondalli healers to treat most of the remaining wounded. Lucy, standing near Madi’s sapling grove, looked over the makeshift clinic. Nearly fifty of the winged settlers were stretched out on blankets, waiting for Madi or one of the Dondalli healers to get to them. Those were the lucky ones; nearly a hundred Dondalli adults had died in the conflict, driving home to Lucy just how fragile they were, in general, compared to the people from Mesquite Mesa.

Julio was there, too, along with Vince, who was still not feeling right after having his skull nearly cracked. Lucy was going to walk over and check on him, but then Torfal approached. He was one of the few Dondalli fighters who’d come through mostly unscathed. “A glorious victory, hmm?”

At first, Lucy thought he was being sarcastic, but he was serious. She supposed, considering the number of Gavax they’d faced down, it was an amazing win. She shifted her bow, still strung and hanging from her shoulder, and looked up into his ruby eyes, nodding. “Yes, though I feel awful for all the families who lost loved ones.”

Torfal shook his head. “Mourn them not; they died protecting our clan and saving the history of our people. Our soil is fertile here, thanks to Seed Mother Madi, so we will quickly replenish our numbers and recover the strength of our clan.”

Lucy looked past him, around the village at the many Dondalli walking about. It was true; they didn’t seem defeated. The children were more subdued, and they clung to their parents or—in some cases—guardians, but they weren’t by any means dejected. It seemed the Dondalli viewed death differently than most humans. “I’m glad to see your spirit wasn’t broken.”

“No. We will persevere. I only wish we had recovered Ganessa; I will seek out her body this afternoon; she deserves to nourish the soil of our new home.” He nodded past Lucy, toward the distant plume of black smoke rising from the next ridge over. They’d gathered the Gavax dead and were burning them—apparently the Dondalli didn’t want their bodies tainting the local soil. “What of them?”

Lucy arched an eyebrow. “The dead?”

“No, their people. Surely there are more of them. What if another army gathers even as we speak? What if an army marches at this very moment toward your home?”

Lucy frowned, shaking her head. “Is it possible? How many people would the System allow them to bring through? The army we defeated outnumbered your people two to one!”

Torfal shook his head. “I know not.”

“Well,” Lucy said, “we sent word to our settlement about the Gavax army, so they’ll be on the lookout. I think…” She hesitated, the ideas forming in her mind even as she spoke them. “I think…” Once more, she paused, looking over to where Vince sat cradling his head and to where Madi leaned over poor Julio, spreading something on the stumps of his fingers. Nodding, more to herself than to Torfal, she looked him in the eyes and said, “I’ll talk to my people—send most of them back home—but then I’m going to have a look at this Gavax Collective for myself.”

###

It was late in the night when Andy and Omar returned to the mesa, and it took them by surprise to find Violet and Eduardo standing near the gate trying to speak with Lyta. When he and Omar appeared in the field near Lucy’s Tower, seemingly out of nowhere, Violet cried out, waving them over.

“Andy! Is everything okay?”

He glanced at Omar, and the two of them jogged toward her. “Yeah, things are okay—for now.” He nodded toward the harpy matron. “What’s going on?”

“Well, we got a note from Lucy and we were hoping to get Lyta and some of her flock to go and check on things. The tricky part being—”

“We don’t speak the same language,” Andy finished for her. Even from ten feet away, Lyta’s squawks and screeches were painful to his ear.

“Sometimes she mixes an English word in here or there,” Eduardo said, looking over at him. “Like man.”

Lyta walked closer to Andy, her wings spreading slightly as she ducked her head. When she spoke to him, her voice grew almost soft, and he swore he heard coos mixed in with the harsher, garbled dialect. He held out his hand, and she took it, gently squeezing it between her taloned fingers.

Turning back to Violet, he asked, “What was Lucy’s letter about?”

“You saw the System message?” When Andy nodded, she continued, “Well, hours before that, Cheechee brought a note from Lucy talking about an army coming to attack those, um, Dondalli. Some of the others wanted to saddle horses and go out there, but we just didn’t get enough information to make that seem like a wise decision. Besides, even on horseback, it would take more than a day to ride out to the Santa Ritas.”

Andy thought about the System message and the notes he’d taken from it, trying to recall the name of the faction they were at war with. “The Gavax Collective?” He frowned, looking at Lyta. After a moment of consideration, he said, “You can go, Lyta.” He gestured with his hand toward the edge of the mesa. “It’s okay. We’ll talk later.”

“We really need to find a way to make charms like the one Lucy has,” Eduardo said, watching as Lyta tilted her head at Andy and cooed.

“It’s okay, Lyta.” Andy repeated, making a gentle shooing gesture.

She clicked her teeth at him but shrugged, sending a rustling shiver through her wings. Then, she turned and leaped into the air, stirring up a small cloud of dust as she flapped her wings and flew southward, descending toward the Whisperwood Grove.

“I was going to try drawing pictures—might have gotten through to her,” Eduardo said, sighing heavily as he pushed his glasses up onto his nose.

“Did Lucy ask for help?” Omar asked.

Violet shook her head. “Not in so many words.”

“Then leave it to Andy; he can scout faster and more reliably than the harpies.”

“Oh?” Eduardo looked at Violet, arching an eyebrow, as though to ask if he was the only one who didn’t know what Omar was talking about.

The Paladin nodded. “Yeah, man. He can turn into a bird now.”

“Not,” Andy said, holding up his palms, “for very long.”

“That’s great! Also, I should mention that James is close to a breakthrough with a kind of magical telephone,” Eduardo said.

“Seriously?” Andy asked, eyes widening.

“Well, not exactly, but it’ll be a big help; he’s got a prototype. It’s a pair of matching dice—you whisper into one and, after a few seconds, the message comes out of the other one. Right now, it only works for a short distance, but James thinks he can fix that.”

“Andy, we’re losing track of things,” Omar said, putting a gloved hand on his shoulder.

Andy nodded, sighing. “Yeah…” He looked at Violet and said, “We don’t exactly have good news, either, but…” His words trailed off as he looked toward the southeast, picturing an army of aliens surrounding Lucy and the others. He had no idea if that was how things were; maybe the Dondalli had a strong fortification; maybe they had plenty of soldiers. Still, now that he’d heard she was facing a hostile army, he couldn’t stop thinking that he ought to go and see what was going on.

“I can talk to the council if you want—tell them about the Night Kingdom,” Omar said, squeezing his shoulder.

“I just feel like, now that I can fly for a while at least, I ought to get a look around.” Andy looked from Violet to Eduardo. “Those undead really took us by surprise—the damn amount of them. I think I should get eyes on our other new neighbors.” He gripped the back of his neck, sucking on his teeth in frustration. “I also need to get up to Mount Lemmon and try to formalize an alliance with Delilah and her people.”

“Save that one,” Omar said. “They’re friendly to us, and you can open a passage pretty close, right?”

Andy nodded. “Yeah…yeah, I guess we can do that after we know what’s up with Lucy’s group and what we’re facing from the other invaders out here.”

“Don’t you need to rest, Andy?” Violet asked, looking up at him, concern in her eyes.

He shrugged. “I’m kind of wired, to be honest, Violet. Omar and I just got out of Tucson by the skin of our teeth.” He chuckled. “Man, that sounded like something my mom would say.”

“Give me ten minutes!” Eduardo said, gesturing toward the lane leading under the mesquite canopy. “I’ll go check in with James. Maybe he’s got something that’ll help you communicate with us. He showed me those whispering dice yesterday, and he’s always tinkering…” His words faded to a mumble as he walk-jogged toward the trees.

“Come on, Andy,” Violet said. She nodded to Omar. “You too. We’ve got some leftover casserole at our place. You should at least recharge a little before you go.”

“I’m, uh…” Omar said, shaking his head. “I’m going to go see if Lydia’s still awake. Thanks, though, Violet. Can you get the council together so I can talk to them in the morning? About the undead, I mean?”

Violet smiled at him, nodding. “Of course. Say hello to Lydia.” With that, she took Andy’s wrist and tugged him toward the lane. “Come on, mister. If you’re going to be flying around in the dark, you better not be hungry.”

“Yeah, sure.” Andy shrugged. “I could eat—need to regenerate my mana, anyway.”

Ten minutes later, Andy was diligently working on his second bowl of tuna noodle casserole in Violet and Eduardo’s cozy little house. She’d been right about him being hungry; he’d lost track of it during the wild flight from Tucson’s downtown area, but once he smelled the food, still warm atop Violet’s cast-iron stove, his stomach had reminded him.

While he ate, Violet talked about people around the community. He was just finishing up when she got around to an update on Bernice and how she was helping some of the folks from Tanque Verde plan apprenticeships for the teens who hadn’t been able to find a niche for themselves. “It was Lydia’s idea—the whole apprentice thing. It won’t work for everyone, but Bernice told me she already has ten kids set up with mentors. Bea’s taken three on over at the Waterhouse.”

“That’s good,” Andy said, swallowing his last bite. “She’s been too busy over there.”

“Exactly! It’s not just good for the kids.”

“Andy? Vi?” Eduardo called from outside; Violet had left the door open as a clue that they were in there, so she stood and walked to the doorway.

“We’re here! Any luck from James?”

“Double luck!”

Violet laughed. “Double luck? Care to explain?”

“I got the dice—improved—and I also got another device that ought to help Andy out.” As he spoke, Eduardo pushed his way into the tiny house and flopped down at the little dinette across from Andy. “Did you get enough to eat, buddy?”

Andy patted his stomach. “Yeah—so good!”

“My mom’s recipe,” Eduardo said, grinning.

Andy chuckled, but only because he’d been assuming it was Violet who’d cooked the dish. “So? What’d James give you?”

“Right!” He unslung a small canvas bag from his shoulder and put it in his lap, and then he reached in and took out a small velvety dice bag. “These are the communication dice I was telling you about, but James really juiced them up—added some gold to hold the mana better. He thinks they’ll work for a long distance—like maybe even a hundred miles.” Eduardo opened the pouch and poured out two little six-sided dice. They were black, and the dots that made up the numbers had been drilled out and filled with gold. Between and around the dots, James had painstakingly carved a bunch of intricate little runes.

Andy picked one up; it was heavy. “I just talk into it?”

Eduardo shook his head. “That’s part of the magic; you have to whisper.”

Andy smiled crookedly at the odd rule, but he held the die to his lips and turned away from Eduardo, whispering, “Hey, you there?”

He turned back, looking at the little die still on the table. They all stared at it. Five seconds later, Andy’s whisper came through. “Hey, you there?”

“Weird!” Violet cried, clapping.

Andy laughed, nodding. “Should I keep this one?”

Eduardo nodded. “Yep. I’ll make sure either Violet or I have this other one close by while you’re gone.”

“Will the delay be longer if I’m further away?”

“Yeah, James said it would.” Eduardo shrugged. “Still, pretty nifty, right? I bet if he keeps working on this kind of thing, he’ll be able to make something like a magical phone—Oh! One more thing: they won’t last forever, so, like, save them for really important messages.”

Andy nodded, already regretting having wasted some of the dice’s power on the little test message. He sent his die into his storage ring. “You mentioned something else?”

“You’re going to like this one.” Eduardo reached into his bag and took out a small tin—the kind you might get mints in—with a brass compass welded or soldered to the top lid. “James says that if you put something that belongs to Lucy in this tin, the compass needle will always point toward her.”

“Seriously?” Andy took the device from Eduardo, and he felt the warm mana emanating from it. He pried open the lid and whistled when he saw the dozens of neatly etched runes in the metal surface. “Will it run out of mana?”

“I asked him that,” Eduardo said, nodding. “He said the compass used a tiny amount of mana and it would last weeks, at least.”

“This is awesome!” Andy had been confident that, given enough time, he’d eventually find Lucy and the others while he was in his Cinder Hawk form, but knowing exactly what direction to fly in would make it infinitely easier. He pushed his chair back and stood. “I’ll swing by her tower and find something.”

“A hair tie, maybe?” Violet suggested.

“Oh yeah! That would work. If I can’t find one, I know where she keeps her old arrows; I’ll remove an arrowhead or something.”

“Ah! Brilliant,” Eduardo said, also standing. “You’re leaving now, then?”

“Yep.” Andy held out his hand, but Eduardo brushed it aside and grabbed him into a hug. “Oof!” As Eduardo slapped his back, Andy looked at Violet and said, “Please listen to Omar and get everyone on board with building up our defenses. We have a lot to do before we’re ready for those undead.”

“Of course, Andy!”

Eduardo let him go and moved to the door, stepping out ahead of him. “I already told Tucker we need to build a sturdy gate for the new mine entrance.”

Andy stared at him, his mouth falling open; he’d totally forgotten about the “ground level” entrance from the Deep Veins boon. “Yeah, we need to do that, like, now.”

“We’re on it, Andy,” Violet said. “You go do your thing; trust us.”

Andy smiled, and before following Eduardo out the door, he paused to hug her, too. “I do trust you, Violet. Thank you.”

She squeezed him for a moment, then gave him a gentle push. “Go on now. You go do what you’re so good at, and let us do what we’re good at, here.”