Sapphire Nights (Crystal Magic Book 1)(74)

“Why do we need spirit protection?” Sam asked, pushing through the thick prickly hedges to find Daisy sitting on a part of a stone foundation not covered in branches. She had rolls of rusty wire and piles of stone and several sets of wire cutters scattered across the rocky clearing. She thought she caught a glimmer of metal buried in the manzanita that might be the golf cart.

Sam examined what must have once been the farmhouse where her grandparents had lived. It wasn’t large. Several old square timbers still remained, perhaps from the original cabin. If there had been plaster walls, they’d deteriorated into the general debris. There might have been a concrete floor but there was so much dirt, it was hard to tell. A mud slide may have covered it. The bluff didn’t look particularly stable.

The remains of an old stone chimney were the only real proof that a house had existed.

“Evil drives the bulldozers,” Daisy said. “Here, add this to the line.” From beneath her feather coat, her hand stuck out, holding a new statue. “Not having to get up will save me time.”

“You need to sleep and eat,” Sam remonstrated. “We have lots of time before bulldozers come up here.”

“No, no.” She shook her long hair. “They’ll come in the dark and raze the trees while we’re sleeping. We can’t let them find the art!”

Gazing at the treeless basin, Sam winced. Mariah called Daisy’s irrationality time-walking. It sounded more like hallucinations to her.

She carried the stone figurine out to the line apparently meant to circle the foundation. She set it about the same distance as Daisy had the others. Taking the flashlight, she studied the small army. Even hastily constructed, the stone and stick figures were all tiny works of art, expressing excitement, anger, tension—all the emotions generated by the outdoor meeting. Sam marveled at Daisy’s talent and wondered if the figures could be sold in places like state park gift stores. She needed to call Jade’s gallery owner. She had contacts.

Tullah and Walker appeared at the top of the ridgeline. They’d apparently met up with Harvey, who started down the hill, carrying an armload of sticks. Sam waved. It was still new and exciting to have found a few people who might possibly accept her, even when she talked about shivering sticks. Back at the university, they would have been horrified that she wasn’t sending out her resume. Her friends from high school would have giggled over these diverse people. But Sam sensed only concern and interest as the others strode toward her.

Walker hugged her as he followed her through the manzanita hedge. Tullah and Harvey stopped to check the lamassu army as she had just been doing.

Daisy held out another figurine. In the beam of the flashlight, the crystals in the rock glittered. “Tullah can gather the stones. Tell Harvey I need more pine and sage and there’s still a laurel up there on the ridge. He’ll know.”

How did she know who was out there? Sam tried to peer through the hedge from Daisy’s perspective but it was too thick to see anything.

Walker took the figure but studied Daisy. “You okay? Can you get up and walk around so we don’t worry?”

She shoved her hair out of her eyes. “You could have brought food.” She picked up her staff and used it to pull herself to her feet, then shouted her commands at the two on the other side of the hedge.

At Walker’s expression, Sam hid a giggle. He’d removed his sunglasses in these shadows. She was amazed he wasn’t rolling his eyes.

“I think you better come down for a rest,” she told the older woman with concern. “We’ll bring an army of people up in the morning to help you.”

Daisy frowned but wavered uncertainly. “Where’s Valdis? She promised to help.”

“We don’t know. We’re looking for her too.” Sam’s unease turned to her aunt. Younger than Daisy, Valdis had the limber strength of a mountain goat. Sam hadn’t been worried about her, until now.

Daisy looked reluctantly at her treasure of junk. “I really shouldn’t. But Valdis heard the spirits call. We’d better see what she’s found.” She nodded appreciatively, if absent-mindedly, as Harvey pushed through the hedge to deposit his load of twigs in her workplace. Sam thought maybe he’d been here before.

Leaving her tools, Daisy hobbled over the low stone foundation with Walker’s help. Harvey was already cutting branches from nearby trees, and Tullah had a skirt full of stones of different sizes. Sam shook her head in astonishment that seemingly intelligent, educated people would follow Daisy’s crazy orders.

But this was what community did—accepted each other as they were, Sam was beginning to understand.

“We’ll leave these for you to start with in the morning,” Tullah called. “We’ll come right down after you.”

“Cougars,” Walker said. “Move it quickly.”

Sam took Daisy’s left side and Walker her right and together, they climbed out of the hideaway.

“Is the cart operating?” Walker asked.

“Should be, but I banged the bumper. Valdis won’t be happy.” Daisy gestured at the back end of the camouflage-painted golf cart.

“I’ll back it out, see if it still runs.” Walker shoved aside broken branches to expose the now well-scratched sides of the cart.

“Thank you for my lamassu,” Sam said while they waited.