There had been a copper age in the Americas between 4000 and 2000 BCE, mined from somewhere up north. But even at its height, copper had been extremely valuable and rare, especially here in the Appalachians. The copper miners up north had been tribal people who had mined the ore, smelted it into purity using a method long lost to the ages, and made implements out of it. They’d been up near the Great Lakes. Maybe Upper Michigan? This copper had likely been traded for a lifetime of valuables. And it was buried here, with a skeleton that had sat here for millennia.
Out of the top of the skull was another piece of copper, this one like a narrow ax blade. She edged closer, avoiding the mudpuddle. Yeah. It was an ax blade. It vaguely reminded her of the ancient ax carried by the mummified man from the Alps. Ötzi.
Liz breathed out a laugh and breathed in power. So much power passing into her through the air and the soles of her feet, until she felt a little lightheaded. Drunk. Power, this much power, was a drug to witches. Liz knew that, had been taught that, but saying no to the power felt… wrong. And stupid. And…
This was what she wassupposedto feel like. This wonderful. This powerful.
The copper sticking out of the skull had no handle, but she spotted the rotting stick resting on the mummy’s shoulder. That suggested that the ax had pierced the skull and been driven deep. And left there. The fact that some ancient tribal people had left the ax behind, a treasure to the ancients, meant it was supposed to stay there. In place. Like a sacrifice or something.
Her fingers itched to touch the ax. She rubbed fingers and thumbs together. They tingled. Herseeingworking strengthened all on its own. She stepped carefully closer.
She had a feeling she wasn’t supposed to touch it but the copper glowed. It called to her. She passed around the mudpuddle, into arm’s reach of the skeleton. Gently, she reached out to touch the ax. Just a fingertip. The metal was frigid, cold enough to burn. She yanked back her hand and stepped away.
Her heel touched the very edge of the mudpuddle.
The ax fell through the skull and landed inside the skull, behind the jaw and teeth.
Red light blasted up from the mud, so bright it blinded her. Liz shut off theseeingworking and stepped away, fast, bruising her instep. Bumping, grazing her knee on a rock. Pain shocked through her, clearing her head.
The mud burped. A single expulsion of air.No. Of gas. It smelled like sulfur. Like brimstone.
A second bubble erupted. Sulfur and old ashes and the fetid stink of death. “Oh. Hell.” She looked back at the skeleton. The chain glowed. The ax glowed. She looked down at her body. Her skin glowed where the blood-curse rested just below the surface.
She had just messed up. Bad. She raced to the cave opening and faced back inside. The floor of the cave was littered with broken rocks. The front wall had once kept all intruders out, hiding the cave. It had once been a solid chamber. Like a prison.
A rumbling vibrated through her feet. Her skin glowed with the blood-curse magic.
Something was coming. Something big. Something bad.
She had to fix this.
Liz pulled on the leyline, drawing the power into herself. Placing her palms on the rocks near the cave opening, she pushed the energy back out of her body, fast, hard, through the rocks and into the chain that bound the skeleton, everywhere the copper touched the rocks. Shoving the power into the metal hurt. Her energies weren’t usually compatible with refined copper, but there was so much power.Somuch. It felt far easier than it should have been. She pushed and pushed. Knotting the leyline power into strands that she tied over the copper and into the rocks.
The mud was bubbling around the edges.
The vibrations got harder. Earthquake… except not. It was something much worse. The leyline power popped free of the binding she was attempting. Liz stepped back toward the water.
The rocks holding the copper-wrapped skeleton shook and slid to the side. And into the mud. As they tumbled away, she saw the hands and feet of the skeleton, dozens of tiny bones. They fell apart as she watched. The skeleton rocked. It fell forward. And toppled into the mud.
Eli
The earth rumbled.Eli sat up fast. He had been in earthquakes, the kind caused by plates of the earth sliding around, the kind caused by a volcano erupting, the kind caused by mudslides. This felt like that, the low deep, muted rumble of rocks and mud sweeping everything in their path.
Liz was at the pool. If a mudslide came down the hillside, it would take the path of least resistance: down the runnel.
Without even looking, he grabbed the gear he might need and sprinted back to the pool.
Liz
She cursed.Panting in the sulfur gasses, growing desperate for oxygen. Unable to look away. Unable to leave. Knowing what she had done. Knowing what was happening and unable to fix her stupid, foolish mistake.
The bones lay there for a moment, on top of the mudpuddle. The mud bubbled harder, even in the center, little plops of sound that shoved gas up, creating holes and suction that began to draw the skeleton down. Heat was mixed in with the reek. Liz covered her mouth and nose. The stench was dangerous. She was breathing too fast and not feeling any better. The stench had displaced the air in the cave, and she wasn’t getting oxygen.
The skeleton sank into the mud. A moment later, something rose from the mud, something like a tree trunk, if trees were made of mud. Mud and bone. Long bones stuck out the top, bumpy joints pointing to the cave roof. Embedded in the mud were smaller bones, the toe and finger bones. No copper was visible.
Liz took another step back. The step caught its attention. It leaned in toward her. She froze, except for her desperate breathing and the sudden, urgent need to cough. The mud bent away and then it flung part of itself at her.
A ball of mud and debris hit her in the face. Like muddy slime, it covered her face and hair and down her naked body. It covered her nose and eyes and mouth. And it tried to get inside. Shoving up into her nostrils, trying to slip past her lips. She couldn’t see. If she tried to take a breath, the thing would be inside her. And she had no breath left at all.
