Ford pored over his book of spells, announcing the names of peculiar ingredients as he flipped through the pages. Across the barn, Ebeneezer rummaged through the safe, hunting for each item Ford required.

  The barn doors burst open with a thunderous crash, sending a flurry of dirt and debris swirling into the breezeway. Jangles stumbled inside and shook dust and sand from his wings. The dogs bayed and ran to the opposite end of the barn to hide. The wind moaned, making the barn's wooden structure creak and groan under the pressure. The overhead lamps swung from the rafters, their flames dancing, nearly going out. Ford quickly put his hand and his wooden arm across the open book as the wind gusted pages.

  Lori struggled to close one of the barn doors, but the wind had forced it wide open. Ebeneezer rushed to help as Lori braced herself against the other door, her muscles straining with the effort. The storm roared in defiance, making their task seem impossible.

  Ebeneezer raised his cane, and a flicker of green energy crackled and danced along the length of the cane, illuminating the barn with an eerie glow. With a forceful gesture, Ebeneezer directed the energy toward the door Lori was battling. The green light snaked out, wrapping around the doors like a living thing. With a powerful tug, they pulled shut, the energy holding it firmly against the storm’s fury until Lori slammed the latch into place.

  The barn fell into a sudden, eerie silence, the sounds of the storm muffled and distant. Lori and Jangles stood panting, their hearts racing from the exertion. Ebeneezer lowered his cane, the last sparks of green energy dissipating into the air. The wind moaned and pulled at the door, wanting to get in.

  Lori panted, leaning on her knees. She caught Ebeneezer’s eye and gave him a nod of thanks, reluctant as it was.

  Ford returned to his book, casually turning a page. “Breezy?”

  Lori laughed. “A little.” She headed toward him, her voice becoming grave. “Dad, there are dunes piling up out there. It’s mid-afternoon and it feels like the sun has already gone down.”

  Jangles chimed in. “And can you smell it?” He tilted his head back and took a deep sniff. “Salt. There’s a hint of salt in the air.”

  Ford stopped and looked at the dragon and took a moment to smell the air. “You’re right. Hadn’t noticed it.” He glanced at Jangles who stood in the breezeway shaking dust from his wings and asked Lori quietly, “How soon can he take off?”

  Lori shook her head. She knew he wanted to leave as soon as possible. “Under normal conditions, I wouldn’t mind risking it. But with this?” She gestured beyond the walls to the storm outside. “I wouldn’t dare leave until first light. If we left now, we would only be able to fly for about an hour. Then we would be stuck on the ground in this mess.”

  Ford considered that for a moment, then nodded and returned to his book. “You’re the expert.”

  Lori looked over the table at the vials of powders and jars of weird ingredients. She picked up a jar of what might have been small, dried frogs. She set it back down next to the bronze bowl filled with crushed sage. “What are you working on?”

  “A spell to protect us from the wind, so the next time Jangles has to go outside to make water…”

  Jangles scoffed. “I am not relieving myself inside like some common barn animal.”

  Ford pretended not to hear, but a hint of a smile showed.

  Lori folded her arms in thought. “We’ll need more than that to defeat this thing.”

  Ebeneezer brought an armload of glass vials and set them down on the table.

  “I think Redhand will have some insight,” Ford said.

  Lori looked at the lamps swaying overhead. “We’re going to need strong medicine to stop this. It took a legendary magician like Garmac to stop this once, and even he couldn’t do it. He had to trap it.” She stood on a chair and unhooked one of the lanterns and set it near the book so her father could see better.

  “We’ll deal with it. We always do.”

  Lori glanced at her father, who remained engrossed in his book, exuding calm and confidence. She admired his composure. How did he make everything seem so effortless? Doubts gnawed at her mind. How had Garmac managed to imprison this Ma’at-jer in a vessel? What kind of vessel was it? Could they hope to do it again? Lori was acutely aware of the gaps in her knowledge. She didn't even understand what Ma’at-jer truly was. Her eyes roamed over the shelves filled with books her father always insisted were the key to being prepared. She moved towards them, feeling the weight of her ignorance and the pressure of the task ahead.

  Hours slipped away as she delved into the labyrinth of ancient tomes, poring over reference books, extensive commentaries, and dusty compendiums. She pursued elusive ideas and intricate concepts with the determination of a hound chasing a fleeting rabbit through the underbrush. An intense fervor consumed her, the familiar mania that gripped her when she felt on the brink of a revelation but couldn’t quite solidify it in her mind. There was something tantalizingly close, a keystone hidden within these pages, visible in her peripheral vision but disappearing the moment she tried to focus on it directly.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Jangles had moved to lay beside her as she sat on the floor amidst a baker's dozen of open books and a lantern to read by. His eyes followed her every move, brow furrowing deeper with each page she turned. His concern for her etched into his features as he watched her relentless pursuit of elusive answers. The crease in his forehead and the soft whine escaping his throat reflected the anxiety he felt watching Lori's feverish determination to unravel the mysteries before her.

  Lori looked up from her studies, her neck aching from hours spent hunched over the books. She tilted her head back, feeling the satisfying pops as she stretched. Noticing Jangles’ worried gaze fixed on her, she managed a weary smile. The dragon returned her smile, his eyes softening with a mixture of concern and quiet encouragement. His presence was a comforting balm to her strained nerves.

  “I don’t know, Jangles.” She watched her father and Ebeneezer across the barn as they discussed the spell they were working on.

  “What do you mean?”

  Lori gave a disgusted sigh. “This whole thing,” she gestured toward what lay beyond the walls, “what the hell are we supposed to do against this?”

  Jangles looked to Ebeneezer and Ford. “Dad doesn’t seem upset.”

  “Nothing upsets him. He’s a rock.” Lori’s shoulders slumped. “I’m not a rock, I’m an undercooked biscuit. I wouldn’t be taking this trip tomorrow if Dad wasn’t involved.” She spared a glare toward Ebeneezer.

  “If we don’t go, who will?”

  “Ugh, Dad’s not the only Hunter around. Let someone else deal with this.”

  Jangles tsked. “Lori, we have to do something.”

  “No, we don’t. And besides, we don’t even know what we’re up against.” She picked up a reference book and shook it. “I’m not even sure what the Ma’at-jer is, or if that’s what it is. We should send for someone else. Someone like Bing who is powerful enough to deal with this level of supernatural whatever.”

  Jangles snorted. “Even if you don’t know what to do, the least we can do is take Dad and Ebeneezer there. They’ll figure it out.”

  “Yeah, that’s the other thing that’s got me frosted. Ebeneezer just assumes they can hop on your back, and you’ll waltz through this storm like a stagecoach in the rain. I’m not sure if we can even make it in this wind.”

  “I think I can do it. Once I get above the storm, we’ll be okay.”

  Lori gave him a flat look. “I’m worried you won’t be able to breathe in this wind. It’s blowing so much dirt into the air.”

  Jangles paused. He hadn’t thought of that, but he steeled his resolve. “I have to try.”

  Lori sat quietly, picking at her boots. “I guess I have to try too, don’t I?”

  The wailing of the wind outside subsided, leaving behind an eerie stillness that seemed as unnatural as the wind itself. Jangles lifted his head and scanned the room with alert eyes. Lori's frown deepened in confusion, replaced by a dawning realization as she saw her father and Ebeneezer closing their books and gathering the remaining ingredients. They had completed the spell, and she hadn't even noticed.

  Ebeneezer trapsed past her with an armload of vials to deposit in the safe. Lori gave him a cold look. Her father limped to the bookshelves with one book under his wooden arm and another in his hand.

  “I think that will do for tonight. Hopefully, the spell will hold until we’re able to take flight tomorrow.”

  Lori unfolded herself from her seated position and took the books from her father and placed them on the shelves. “What did you do?”

  “A basic spell for protection against bad weather. Seems to be working. I was worried it wouldn’t do the trick against the supernatural, but…” His eyes fell on the books scattered around the floor. He looked a question at Lori.

  “Just been studying. Haven’t found anything useful.”

  “Tell me.”

  Lori sat down on the floor in the center of the array of open books. “Ma’at was the goddess of truth, justice and harmony in nature. She had a counterpart, an opposite by the name of Asfet. I thought that might be who we were dealing with, but I don’t think so. Asfet was a concept, had no physical form. And it was a balance to order, all part of their belief system about chaos and order. And besides, Garmac would have called it Asfet and not Ma'at-jer."

  Ford nodded and remained silent, expecting Lori to continue. Jangles stirred from his resting place and went back toward the front of the barn, picked up a comfortable looking chair in his jaws, and set it down behind Ford before resuming his spot on the floor. Ford thanked the dragon as he sat down. Ebeneezer finished putting the ingredients away in the safe and joined the little circle.

  “I can’t find anything about this entity in any of the reference books. Nothing accept what I already told you about, the journeys of Alaric. I don’t know.” She rubbed her temples. “It’s the ‘jer’. That’s what’s throwing me off. It means something, but I can’t make heads or tails of it.”

  “Tell me what you can.”

  Lori sighed. “Either it means the concept of Ma’at, which makes no sense because Ma’at is justice and warm fuzzy feelings, or it means the manifestation of Ma’at. Or it means something even worse.”

  “Like what?”

  Lori looked up at her father, her eyes tense. “It may mean that this thing was described as the Anti-Ma’at. Not Ma’at’s natural balancing opposite, like Asfet, but some alien dark reflection, something from outside. Something that does not belong, but similar in a bizarre way.” She shrugged and rubbed her eyes.

  Ford nodded again, quiet and calm. “Is the saddle ready for flight?”

  “Yeah, all we have to do is load it onto Jangles in the morning.”

  “Check your supplies. Make sure there is seven days of food for four people. And a dragon. Recheck all your gear. Once we leave we better be ready for sure.”

  Lori started to protest, but bit her tongue and rose from her seated position on the floor. She went to the breezeway and lowered the saddle and set about checking the gear. She tugged on ropes, checked saddlebags, and added gear she thought they might need.

  All the while she watched the three at the other end of the barn. Jangles seemed to have gone to sleep, but her father and Ebeneezer were both engrossed in conversation. Ebeneezer seemed upset about something, and was wildly waving his cane. Lori’s hand fell on her gunbelt that hung near the pommel of the saddle. Her hand touched the handle as she watched Ebeneezer. He was mad about something, and her father kept his cool. She gripped the pistol tight, though she did not take it out of its holster. Ebeneezer might look like a cute groundhog in a cute green hat, but she had seen him in action before. He had great magic at his disposal, and he was not to be underestimated. Lori never thought for a moment that Ebeneezer would turn violent against her father. He revered Ford, to the point of hero worship. But, like her father says, be prepared.

  Lori had nothing to worry about. Eventually Ebeneezer seemed to see reason and looked at the ground, nodding as her father spoke. Her grip relaxed, and she let her hand fall from the pistol. She looked the saddle over, satisfied that she had not forgotten anything essential, and decided she should give the leather a good oiling.