A Lady so Fair by Kalliver AJ

Author:Kalliver, AJ [Kalliver, AJ]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2013-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

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Chapter Three

The dusty heat of an Iowa cornfield drew perspiration from her brow, and Claudia McTiernan squinted as she stared up at the maddeningly cloud-free sky. Two hundred meters away, the small group of farmers who had hired her waited by their cars, as they had for most of the morning. Even from here she could tell they were getting restless, but she couldn't let that distract her.

They were paying her good money, on nothing more than the recommendation of some ranchers in Montana, who had had some nice things to say about her after she had driven off the dark, hungry spirit that had been lurking in a nearby river, and getting its kicks by drowning any cattle that had ventured there to drink. These, though, were proving harder to impress… especially since she had been out here nearly five hours and their drought-stricken fields weren't getting any wetter.

It's the hair, I know it. She thought wearily, tugging irritably at the thigh-length tail into which she'd bound it. Your average corn-farmer just doesn't appreciate the subtle style of blue hair… even if mine's getting to be more silver than blue, now.

Two years and more, now, since she'd quit her job at the firm, and she was well overdue for her maintenance appointment at Infinite Spiral. Not that she was going to go; there was no way in hell she was going to help them fill their corporate coffers. Let them get by without her patronage; she would just have to learn how to deal with looking old again. Yes, there were a few lines showing on her face now. She was looking more and more like her forty-four years these days, and it would only get worse, but at least she wasn't getting fat again; that was the one benefit of being out from behind that desk and out tromping through cornfields and along riverbanks all day.

The pay wasn't bad, either; not the equal of her old job yet, true, but things were looking up. She was gaining a reputation as one of those few, those very, very few who's outlandish claims of being able to speak to the land, and have the land listen were more than just empty words. She got results… usually.

More often so now than when she'd first started; as with anything else, experience counted in the Summoning game. Speaking of which… time to try again.

Planting her sneaker-clad feet in the dry, crumbling soil of the field, she closed her eyes.

Clouds, thick and billowing, heavy with moisture; come.

Zephyrs, cavorting through the sky, trailing strands of brilliant white, gathering slowly into towering castles of vapor; come.

Storm spirits, born from water raised from the streams and lakes and seas, warmed by the sun upon the land, borne upon the arms of the sky; come.

The power rolled out from her in a wave, spreading outwards like ripples from a stone dropped into deep water, slow and powerful, inexorable, moving into the distance, over the horizon in every direction… to vanish without a trace.

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