Deliverer - An Enchantress Novel Book 3

Chapter 5

They sat, concealed from the road by shrubs and bushes. Sidney began trying to teach him the basic shield. She still needed to get in to his thoughts so a complete block, like the one Callie had, was out of the question. Instead, she tried more of a muffler.

"Okay, I need you to think of your mind like a large store room. Give it walls... and a door... fill it with boxes for your memories..." Half an hour later, she breathed a sigh of relief when the foundations of his shield were finally in place. The intense headache his constant babbling thoughts had given her subsided. "How much further is it?"

"Perhaps twenty minutes or so," he replied, looking down at his filthy T-shirt and jeans. "I really should tidy up a little before we get there. My appearance will draw more attention than necessary and home is on the outskirts. We pass within a half mile of it. Would you mind if we stopped off?"

"I thought you didn't want to go home?"

"If I'm to pass as normal then a shower and change of clothing will be essential. That's if it still stands after they chased me off."

She shrugged. "Fine, we'll make the detour. I'll stand watch outside while you change, warn you if anyone approaches. How does that sound?"

He nodded. "Sounds good."

They walked on, chatting about the surrounding area, the siofra and draoi. "The mountains to the south are very similar to those at home, we call them Mourne, What do you call them?"

"The same."

"And the country?"

"Ireland, and yours?"

"Same. In my world we call siofra, shifters or were, pretty much every mammal you can think of will have someone who can transform from human into that animal. Assuming of course we have the same animals, there are so many other similarities that I assume we would."

"Hmm," he said distractedly. "We don't have snakes anymore; the draoi Patrick banished them after his wife was bitten by one." He kept glancing behind them and picked up his pace a little.

"You seem preoccupied, is there a problem?"

"I have a feeling we're being followed. Can you sense anyone?"

She searched for stray thoughts close by, but found nothing. Not even a faint echo. "Nothing, you're being paranoid because we're getting close to your home."

"Call it what you will but it's never been wrong before," he assured her.

"There's a crossroads coming up, we'll split up and I'll have a look. Keep your mind open to me, like I showed you, so we can talk."

He nervously agreed and kept walking toward his home as she took a different route - waving goodbye. Do you still have the feeling? she sent him as soon as she was out of sight around a bend in the road.

Yes and it's getting worse.

I'm moving back to you now... There are fresh small paw prints in the dirt at the side of the road... I can make out something small and patchy it looks like... a dog?

She felt his relief. "Penny? ...Penny," he called, and the dog bounded toward him with its tail wagging fiercely. It jumped at his leg and when he picked it up, it immediately started licking his face.

"You knew she was following you, and you say you've never been wrong. Do you mean you can feel when siofra are close by in animal form?"

"I guess so, yeah."

"What about in human form?"

"Nope just animals, it's how I managed to evade them for so long, they hunt with at least two or three as animals."