Earthshaker

Chapter 14

Chapter 14"I got her killed," said Laurel, a.k.a. the Lady of the Alleghenies. "Aggie's dead because of me."

My ears perked up at that, to say the least. "Why do you say that?" I tried my best to act cool and detached in spite of my interest. Tried also to look relaxed though I was seriously on guard; it was possible Laurel meant to do me harm out there in the middle of nowhere.

"I was feeding her information." Laurel turned and walked slowly toward the cross in the middle of the clearing.

"What kind of information?" I kept my arms loose at my sides, ready for any kind of action. Duke stood alongside me, hands in his pockets—fishing for a weapon that was buried in the earth somewhere, no doubt.

"About a murder in progress." Laurel circled the cross, letting her fingers drift over the rough wood. "She was working on an investigative piece."

"Whose murder?" As I watched her every move, I cast about the hilltop with my mind, getting a feel for the available weaponry I could use against her. Dirt and rocks, in other words.

Laurel looked at me and smiled sadly. "My murder."

"Her investigation must have been helpful," said Duke. "You're still with us."

"Still dying." Laurel shrugged. "They're killing me slowly."

This wasn't making any sense. "Who're 'they?'" I was starting to wonder if Laurel was in her right mind.

"Someone I know," said Laurel. "I think."

"I don't understand," I said. "Assuming someone is trying to kill you..."

"Not trying," said Laurel. "They are."

"Assuming that's true, how does it rate a TV news investigative piece?" I shrugged and shook my head.

Suddenly, Laurel stormed toward me. I tensed, reaching out to grab rocks with my power, preparing to defend myself.

"I'll show you how." Laurel reached for me, and Duke pushed between us, blocking her. She tried to reach around him on the other side, and he blocked her there, too.

"Easy does it, now." Duke said it sternly, with one eyebrow raised.

Laurel backed off a step. "I can show you with a touch," she said. "If you'll let me. I promise I won't hurt you."

I met her gaze for a moment, trying to take her measure. I knew better than to make myself vulnerable to a stranger, especially out on an isolated hilltop in the deep woods...but I realized I trusted her. Something about her put me at ease.

I just hoped it wasn't hypnotic suggestion. Or trickery of the magical variety. "Let her through." I tapped Duke on the shoulder.

Duke sighed and wagged a finger at Laurel. "No funny business." Then, he stepped aside.

Laurel raised one hand and reached toward me. "Here, Gaia." She pressed her fingertips to my forehead. "Here's why my murder rates investigating."

For a moment, I felt nothing but the warm morning breeze on my face. Heard the birds calling back and forth in the trees, smelled the wildflowers in Laurel's hair and on her gown.

Then, without warning, my awareness began to expand. Drifted out beyond my body, taking in the whole hilltop—every bird and leaf and flower. Expanding downward, too, under the ground—much farther down than even I could sense unaided, deeper and deeper into the solid rock heart of the hill. Into the rippled crust of the Earth and still further outward in all directions...down and up and forward and back and right and left. A sphere of sensations, of all the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and textures that existed at that instant in that place for miles around. And then I saw more.

The sphere of my awareness suddenly ballooned. Exploded across hundreds of miles of buckled earth and tree-lined slopes, of peaks and valleys. Every inch of every mile shivering in crystal clarity in my mind—every feather on every bird, every needle on every pine just as rarefied and vibrant as the vast, hulking domes and humps and ridges crawling from horizon to horizon under the sun.

For that moment, I felt like a mountain range. Did not just receive an impression of sensory input from a mountain range, but knew exactly how it felt to be a mountain range. In particular, the one on which I was standing.

Now I understood what Laurel had said about her other name. Now I knew why she was also called "The Lady of the Alleghenies."

Because somehow, Laurel was the Allegheny Mountains.

I slumped when she pulled her fingers from my forehead. Felt Duke grab my arm and hold me up.

"Are you all right, Earth Angel?" he said.

"Yes." As soon as my eyes came back into focus, I locked them on Laurel. I admit, I was shell-shocked. Like I said, I've run into all kinds of extraordinary people in my life. It takes a lot to surprise me, but Laurel pulled it off. I'd never met someone so vast before; I'd never communed with someone who was literally a mountain range.

"Now do you get it?" Laurel looked a little winded. "Now do you see?"

"But how?" I let Duke hold on to me a little longer; I still felt woozy. "How could someone kill a mountain range?"

"I don't know for sure. That's why I've come to you." Laurel took my hands and folded them into her warm grasp...so unbelievably tender and human after all the harsh grandeur I'd seen in her outlying form. "I want you to find out who it is. I want you to investigate."

I frowned and started to shake my head.

"The same murderer must have killed Aggie," said Laurel. "If you find out who's killing me, you'll find out who killed her."