She obeys, and after a few seconds a pale-green sphere emerges from the earth—the bright yellow-green of algae drying on rocks after water has receded. And there are little droplets and veins of rich violet in there too. It’s as attractive as any stone I’ve seen, and I find out later that it’s a combination of green serpentine stone and stichtite that occur naturally together only in Tasmania, so it’s called tasmanite.
Once Tuya picks it up and begins the joyful process of getting to know a new elemental and all the things it loves about the plants and animals living there, the other apprentices step forward, one by one, to receive their spheres. Ozcar has a blissful half grin on his face; Mehdi is solemn and reverential; Amita projects an air of tranquility, as if this is where she’s always wanted to be and she now wants for nothing; Luiz shows off his wide, gap-toothed smile; and Thandi, who is so often worried about something, finally relaxes and lets the corners of her mouth turn up a wee bit.
I give them some time with Tasmania—and the reverse is true: I give Tasmania some time to acquaint itself with the kids. Then I ask where to find the nearest devil that needs help. The answer is only a half mile away—there are several in a den in need of attention.
//On our way// I tell Tasmania, and then its reply gives me pause.
//Druid is on way also//
Well, ye could run the business end of a lawnmower over me arse and I wouldn’t be more surprised. “Druid” is what the elementals of the world call Siodhachan. He’s been the only one protecting them for so long that he earned the basic title from them. They call his apprentice, Granuaile, “Fierce Druid,” but I’m not sure about me own current title. In the old days they called me “Avenging Druid” because of an episode with a dodgy man in a bog, but that’s hardly who I am now. I’ve had no proper vengeance since I came forward in time. Maybe I’ll ask Siodhachan what they call me now when I see him.
//Query: To see me or to help you?//
//To help// Tasmania says, and I get the feeling that I had just asked a stupid question. Except it’s a bit of a problem for him to be here. Or at least to be within the sight of Greta. Right or wrong, she blames him for the death of Hal Hauk and Gunnar Magnusson, the wolves who saved her life and brought her into the pack many years ago. All the parents of me apprentices, well, they’re part of the Flagstaff Pack now, and they rightfully see Greta, not me, as their leader. They’re going to follow her lead. Which means this peaceful mission is going to explode like a shitcan on fire if I don’t do something quick.
Truth, methinks, will serve me best.
“Greta, love?” I says to her as we jog toward the den.
“Yes?”
“The elemental just told me that Siodhachan is here to help cure the devils.”
She stops running and glares at me—and everyone else stops and watches, expecting to see the equivalent of a car wreck in progress.
“What do you mean by ‘here,’ exactly?” she asks, placing hands on hips.
“I mean here in Tasmania. Heading for the same den that we are.”
Her hands drop to her sides and clench into fists. “Well, he can—”
“Hold on, love,” I says to her, holding up a pleading hand. “He’s here on the same business as I am. Tasmania asked all the Druids for help, and he answered. He’s not violated your banishment nor caused trouble in the territory of any pack here. Is there even a pack in Tasmania?”
“No,” she admits. “But I don’t want to see him.”
“That’s fine. We can arrange that. It’s only a quarter mile now to the den. Why don’t ye and the other pack members wait here, or hereabouts, and I’ll take the kids on to deal with this first batch of devils and let Siodhachan know he should steer clear of us from here on?”
She closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, and exhales before she opens her eyes and responds. “All right. Try to make it quick.”
I hurry forward with the apprentices to the den Tasmania wished us to visit. There are only four devils there, but one of them is as yet cancer-free. I figure that will be a good visual contrast to show the kids how the devils normally look.
I tell the kids to turn on their true vision through Tasmania and ask four of them to call out the devils from the den. When they emerge, the diseased animals look sad enough to make ye cry. The tumors growing on their faces have swollen their eyes shut, and they must feel unending pressure and pain.
“All right, that was good. Luiz, Thandi, Amita, have your devils wait, and, Ozcar, I’m going to heal yours first. I want ye all to watch carefully how this is done, then I’m going to have ye all practice healing these other two.”
I show them that the trick is to make the devil’s immune system recognize the cancer cells as disease rather than an acceptable part of its body and, once that’s accomplished, to boost the immune system so it’s hopping like a man on twelve cups of coffee.
“Ye first work in close on one wee cell by zooming in your vision,” and I walk them through the steps of how to do that, then how to alter the proteins on the cell walls to create antigens. “And ye only have to do that once, because then ye create a macro and apply it to all cancer cells in the animal. That will basically do the job by itself if ye give it time, because the immune system will begin to attack the cancer. Thing is, the poor devil is already weak and might not have the time or strength to fight it out. So ye can feed it some energy and things will happen very quickly. Ye just have to monitor your patient to make sure things proceed well.”
And things do proceed well for about ten minutes. The devil shudders and makes some tiny screeching noises as a war rages inside his body, but the tumors are beginning to visibly shrink when Siodhachan shows up with his smart-ass slobber hound. I can tell by the look on Luiz’s face he wants his own hound as soon as possible.
“Hello, Owen,” me old apprentice says, nodding at me, and I nod back.
“Ye didn’t run into Greta, did ye?”
“No.” His head turns, eyes searching the woods. “Is she here?”
“About a quarter mile away, with all their parents,” I reply, gesturing at the kids.
“These are the apprentices?”
“Aye.” I introduce them to Siodhachan and I’m not sure if they’re more impressed with him or the hound. I think maybe the hound, because he talks to them once Siodhachan says it’s all right for them to reach out, and it’s mere seconds before they ask me if I have a snack to give him. While the kids are distracted by Oberon, Siodhachan squats down next to me and checks me progress; the way his eyes are focused I can tell he’s using true vision.
“That’s going nicely.”
“Aye. But this is going to take a while. Fifteen or twenty minutes per devil. If ye take off and don’t accelerate the healing, they can still infect others or be reinfected themselves.”
“Right. It’s why I wanted to talk to you. Perhaps we can coordinate. Thought we’d start at the point of origin at Port Arthur and secure that peninsula, then go from there, you heading west and me heading north, then we spiral in.”
“I can just head down there with the kids and you head north now.”
Siodhachan shakes his head. “I don’t think you want to take the kids down there.”
“Why not? We got a damn fine pack to protect them.”