The Pyre Starter

Chapter 2

The light drizzle of the last fifteen minutes became a downpour as they turned onto a large, ranch-like property in the northern part of the state. It took some fumbling to get the gate open, but soon enough, Terrell piloted the vehicle with care up a long and winding driveway.

A large white house came into view. It had an oversized wooden door with lamps on both sides. Moss grew on the roof where a tree cast shade, but red-painted metal jutted out from underneath. The residence alone would’ve been cause for wonder, but several other buildings lay scattered across the rolling hills. Some were hidden partially by huge oak and pine trees, and all of it looked pristine, ornate, and expensive. Despite poor visibility and the late fall weather, Dakota spied green grass. An old stone fence bordered the driveway. It could’ve been more than a hundred years old, but not a single rock was missing or out of place.

Terrell pulled the motorcycle off to the right and pointed it toward a barn. The door was left open. Even with the rain coming down and splashing against the visors of their helmets, both of them could easily see that a light shone brightly inside. They were expected. They were welcome.

He felt relieved to finally escape the rain. Still, cold water found its way down the back of his collar and soaked his shirt, and he tried not to shiver. The bike slowed to a stop. Terrell put out the kickstand and cut off the engine. He waited for Dakota to dismount before doing the same, and they both took off their helmets in unison.

His eyes danced as he looked around the inside of the structure. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been inside a barn. Maybe as a kid on a field trip. While he came from a rural area, his family didn’t own a farm or much of anything.

There were bales of hay stacked in one corner. But mostly, this building seemed like storage for equipment. Implements of agriculture hung neatly on almost all the free wall space. These included everything from antique scythes and saws to modern-day power tools and bundles of rope. Just to their left, he spied a giant piece of machinery he couldn’t identify. It seemed sort of like a tractor, but there were strange protrusions on the front that resembled four red torpedoes.

Terrell laughed when he saw Dakota’s mesmerized expression. “Relax. It harvests corn.”

“Are you sure it’s not a weapon?” he countered, unable to take his eyes off of the alien device.

He patted Dakota on the shoulder. “They’ve gotta be heavy duty to cut through dirt and plants and everything else.”

“Have you ever driven one?” What he really wanted to know was if Terrell had grown up on a farm like this. In their limited conversations, the only family his travel companion mentioned was the cousin they were meeting. Otherwise, it was a mystery.

He laughed again. “Me? God, no. I’d probably break it. Besides, I don’t think they’re as fun to drive as they look. That one tops out at five miles per hour.”

Dakota was thinking up his next carefully worded question when they heard footsteps sloshing through the rain outside. By the time they both turned toward the open doorway, a woman in her mid-thirties stood a pace or two inside the structure, just out of reach from water droplets.

She had one hand on her hip and a big smile on her face. Her hair was shoulder-length, curly with brown highlights. Her deep skin tone looked identical to Terrell’s, and her facial structure was a lot like his, too. Though she stood easily half a foot shorter, their proportions within the bounds of gender were similar enough. Clearly related. She could’ve been Terrell’s older sister.

The similarities ended with physique. While Terrell donned black leather riding gear, a worn T-shirt, jeans, and sneakers, the newcomer wore cowboy boots, a thin white blouse with colorful embroidery across the top under a heavy rain coat, and brown faux leather pants. At her waist was a belt with a shiny oval buckle, and around her neck rested a bolo tie with a silver and turquoise, ornamental clasp. Navajo, if he wasn’t mistaken. Probably picked it up at some craft fair. He silently wondered if she knew where it was from or if she just thought it looked nice.

Another necklace could be discerned beneath her shirt. A big pendant of some kind. He couldn’t quite get a good look at it, though, and the last thing he wanted was for her to notice him—innocently—staring at her chest. He’d have to explain, and that could get pretty awkward.

All in all, it seemed like a lot of effort to look and act like she liked attending rodeos, when in reality they were still north of the Mason-Dixon Line.

“Baby cous’!” she shouted abruptly. Extending her arms, she motioned for Terrell to hug her. “Damn, it’s been a few months, hasn’t it?” When he stepped toward her, she closed the distance and, despite her smaller stature, gave him a giant hug. “Wait ‘til you see what I been up to.”

“Did you really get them all to work?”

“Mmm-hmm. Well, almost. One or two still need figuring, but I just gotta find the time.”

He took a step back. “What about—?”

“Yours? Yep. Got it going good and strong. But damned if I know what the hell it does.”

Dakota cleared his throat. They ignored him up until this point, and the conversation only confused him further. Did this woman really buy into the magic thing, too?

Terrell put his excitement on hold, and his expression quickly turned to embarrassment. “Uh, sorry, man. Lanie, this is my friend Dakota. He’s from the college, like I mentioned. Dakota, this is my cousin Lanie.”

“Eleanor,” she corrected, offering her hand for the young man to shake. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Was it? Her face told a different story. He took her hand and shook it, nonetheless. “Uh, hi.”

“Dakota’s here to see a talisman in action,” Terrell supplied, hoping to break some of the tension and move things along. “It’s important that he sees one work.”

A what?

“I wasn’t aware we were telling people outside the family that such things existed,” she chastised in a low voice. She maintained a smile for Dakota’s benefit, but he could easily hear her, so he didn’t understand why she kept up the charade.

Terrell shifted his weight from the left leg to the right before going back. “Special circumstances. He needed to know, so I told him. Now, he needs to see it.” He reached into one of the saddlebags of his motorcycle and produced a squishy red ball. Without hesitation, he tossed it to Eleanor, who caught it without difficulty. “So, let’s just get this over with, okay? I know you have yours on you.”

She studied the object with disdain in her expression. Then, she threw it to the ground at Terrell’s feet. Reaching into her shirt, she pulled out the necklace Dakota had noticed earlier. It turned out to be jade—carved or cut into a perfectly round disk the width of a soda can. It looked thin, like a large coin. It was fixed to her neck with little more than a brown leather cord. She cradled it in one hand for a moment before letting the jewel hang loose from her chest.

Grinning viciously, she retorted, “All right. Fine.” She paused for dramatic effect. Then she abruptly continued, “A’besh eta.” The stone began to glow a bright green. Dakota’s eyes widened. This was really happening. Eleanor extended her hand toward him, and with a devious look in her eyes, pronounced a single syllable. “Ma.”

Dakota glared back at her. “‘Ma’? What the f**k does that mean?”

But just as he said it, an invisible force swept beneath his feet and began lifting him inch by inch off of the ground. He struggled, twisting and contorting his body in an attempt to keep himself firmly planted on the barn floor. But it was to no avail. As she raised her hand upward, palm facing him, his body ascended.

“Terrell?” He made no attempt to hide his fear. “Terrell! Terrell, help!”

The guy shot a look of annoyance at his cousin before taking a few steps closer to Dakota’s launching point. “It’s okay, man, you’re safe. She’s just showing off.”

“Showing off? Showing off?! You’ve got to be kidding me! Get me down. Right now. Terrell, please, get me down! What the f**k—? What is this?! Help, please. Get me down. I wanna get down. Terrell, I’m f*****g serious. This is wrong. This is—help!” He waved his arms wildly, but that didn’t slow him in the slightest. His body continued toward the barn’s ceiling, up past a second-floor loft filled with hay and bags of seeds.

“Dakota, don’t worry. I promise nothing’s gonna happen to you.” He turned to Eleanor. “Okay, that’s enough. Put him down. You’re scaring the crap out of him.”

“What did you think would happen when you invited a stranger into a world he has no business bein’ in?” She shouted at Terrell’s general vicinity. “You think this is scary, cous’? You know better than anyone that there’s people out there who can do pretty much anything! And what do you think’s gonna happen when they figure out our family has ten talismans?! Ten! You dragged this kid into our mess, and now he’s in the s**t with the rest of us!”

He let out a yelp as his shoulders connected with the barn’s crossbeams. He tried to hold onto the structure, and for a moment, he hindered the flight upward.

Terrell stared at him with indecision on his face. Without looking at her, he responded, “I didn’t have a choice, Lanie. I’ll explain later, but believe me when I tell you I had to. I don’t want anyone to get hurt, you know that. But telling him was the right thing to do. Put him down please.”

“Ko,” she commanded begrudgingly.

All of a sudden, the force stopped, and Dakota began plummeting toward the ground at full speed. His fingers slipped off the beam, and he fell head first. He managed two distinct thoughts on his way down. “My neck is going to snap,” and “Magic is real.”

But he halted abruptly, inches from the dirt, when she uttered a sharp “Eta ma!”

Suspended upside-down in midair, he could only blink at the sadistic woman, too filled with fear and anger to say anything. She paced over to him nonchalantly and bent down closer to his level. Picking up her necklace, she brought it to his face for him to inspect. “There are thousands of these babies out in the world,” she explained. “Four years ago, our grandmother left each of her grandchildren one necklace—one talisman. She gave me a name and an evocation for this stone. She was very specific about who should get each one and that I was in charge of understanding them. Can you even comprehend that kind of power?”

She gripped him by the collar and pulled him a little closer. “I don’t know why you’re here, or what you plan to accomplish, but when the time comes, I hope you can get out of the way fast enough. Because if not, you’re gonna die. Plain and simple. You’re gonna get squashed like a bug.”

He had enough of her threats. “Who says I care?!” he countered.

Her face quickly changed. Astonished, she whipped her head around to make eye contact with Terrell, who nodded. “It was a matter of life or death,” he said slowly.

The woman’s mouth moved for a few words before any sounds came out. Eventually, she regained control. “I—wow. Okay, great. So, you not only brought some stranger here, but he’s suicidal? Yeah, that’s gonna help us out wonderfully, Terry. What the f**k were you thinking?” When Terrell didn’t immediately respond, she snapped, “Ko!”

Dakota fell the rest of the way. He braced himself for impact with both arms to avoid any damage to his spinal column. In the dirt, he groaned. “Oh, f**k you, lady. What the hell? This is crazy.” Terrell appeared at his side. He rubbed Dakota’s arm, just as he had on the bridge. When Dakota finally looked up, he saw nothing but sympathy in his expression. Still, he wasn’t finished. “You were actually telling the truth, you crazy jackass?! You were f*****g telling the truth?!”

He nodded. “I know. It’s weird, but it’s all true. All of it. This world is a lot more interesting now, right? And there’s so much more to this story. It’s incredible.”

“Incredible?! Terrell, no one should have this!”

Shaking his head, he smoothed back some of Dakota’s hair. “Not if good people like you and me have the power. With the right talismans, we can stop wars. We can help others. We can feed the hungry, cure the sick, save people’s lives—you name it. The possibilities are endless.”

Oh, yeah. Just good people. Like Eleanor, who had no problem rocketing a human being into the rafters without a moment’s hesitation. “You and me? What the f**k do you mean ‘you and me’?”

Terrell sat back on his heels. His face looked almost sad for a moment, but he recovered soon enough. “Now that you know, I figured you might want in. Instead of hanging out on bridges.”

Dakota narrowed his eyes. “I don’t think so.”

“That was the deal, wasn’t it? I held up my end. So, now it’s your turn. No more trying to hurt yourself.” When Dakota said nothing, Terrell continued. “And I’ve been doing research on the stones. I’d love to show you. I’ve got like three notebooks full of everything I found.” Excitement seemed to take over his entire body. “What have you got to lose, anyway? Come on. It’s a chance to do something that really makes a difference. It’s a chance to have some fun!”

“Or get killed before we even have a shot at it,” he pointed out. Though he already disliked Terrell’s cousin, she at least seemed like a realist. Anyone would be in danger merely by possessing these objects. They weren’t warriors or superheroes. They were targets.

But Terrell wouldn’t be swayed now. “Then you still get what you want.” He sighed. “Look, I’m in this whether or not you are. I have to be. It’s in my blood. This was put on me. But I’m asking you to come along. I’m recruiting you. Worse comes to worst, you get hurt or killed. I don’t wanna see that happen at all, but assuming you still do, what exactly do you lose by trying?”

He deflected. “I’m not your responsibility.”

“No, you’re not.” He stood up and took a few steps away from him. “I dunno, man. It’s up to you. Just think it over, all right? Sleep on it. Tomorrow morning, I’ll drive you back if you want, and we can pretend like this never happened. Or—” He turned toward the exit to look out into the rain. It seemed to be letting up a bit already. “Or you could stay here, and we can see what role you have to play in this whole thing.”

He wanted to say no. It was absurd. But the allure of these new and exciting revelations seemed too much to pass up. “I’ll think about it,” he concluded after a long pause.

Terrell smiled but said nothing further.

“I bet dinner’s about ready,” Eleanor piped up. She strode closer, her boots clicking together as she walked. “Eddie’s cooking, so you know we better not be late.”

Raising an eyebrow, Terrell moved to the side to let Lanie walk out into the rain first. “I thought she was at Berkeley.”

“She was. She dropped out. I told her not to, but she wants in on the fight, and her talisman is certainly good for it, so I couldn’t convince her otherwise. And Em missed her, anyway. I think they’re both happier now.” She shrugged. Sauntering out into the rain, she didn’t wait to see if they would follow.

Terrell helped Dakota up off of the ground, and the two headed for the main house.