Invisible Touch Read online

  We say farewell to Tiko then we return to my house to prepare dinner. I have a small garden next to my adobe, but it isn’t a year-round garden and I bedded it down for winter over a month ago. I have some vegetables stored in my cellar, but they are mostly root vegetables and potatoes. Our community garden is several large gardens, three of which are under glasshouses so have vegetables year-round. We picked just enough to make a large salad to go with our baked potatoes tonight and to garnish sandwiches tomorrow. Kai and Tommie still get a kick out of picking their vegetables.

  It’s early evening when we finish eating our dinner. We then each go to our rooms to prepare for the night’s work. I take a shower, then French braid my chestnut hair into a crown braid wrapped around my head. It’s too cold to spend hours outside, so our endeavors will take place in my living room and I won’t need to wear my purple fringed woolen hood inside. My sleeveless white tunic is knee length and worn over close-fitted purple trousers. The tunic has several horizontal purple stripes along the bottom hem and circled below the collar. A twisted golden torque adorns my neck. The sleeveless tunic displays the woad-colored markings and designs that Tommie painted on my upper arms before we left for the community garden. I wear bracers on my lower arms, a functional leather one on my left and an ornamental golden bracer that matches the torque design on my right forearm. A quiver full of arrows is strapped to my golden twined leather belt and I carry my bow into the living room to meet Kai and Tommie.

  Kai is in a plain white knee-length tunic with two vertical stripes down each side, one golden and one purple-red. He wears the white toga praetexta, slightly longer than his tunic, wrapped around his body and draped over one shoulder. It too has two vertical stripes, one of each color. A golden provincial corona wreath sits atop the crown of his head. Kai holds his iron tipped wooden spear, a pilum, with the tip pointed up and the butt braced against the living room floor.

  Tommie wears a floor length ceremonial sleeveless chiton fastened atop her shoulders with fibulae. A golden girdle wraps around her waist with a fold of the white cloth draped over the belt. Tommie chose not to wrap the himation as a cloak over the whole ensemble, instead wearing it more like a veil over her hair and shoulders. She wears her short sword, the xiphos, in a leather sheath with a golden strap crossed diagonally across her chest.

  I know it seems ridiculous that we dress in such a manner. We’ve practiced linking our abilities and merging our powers for years and while we can do it in regular clothes, donning ceremonial garb makes it much easier. Mom worked with us to find the style of clothing that suited us best. For me, that means Celtic Iron Age clothes. Kai responds to a mashup of ancient Roman garments, while Tommie dresses like a woman of ancient Greece. Mom checked with Dad, who was a museum curator with several anthropology degrees, to make sure the clothing she made was authentic in style. Kai used his ability to find the ancient artifacts and weapons for Dad to collect for us.

  I take a picture of the three of us then add the case file numbers as reference. The picture and reference are only for us, we do not share our process with anyone. We then form a triangle, each of us facing the inside. Tommie draws a candle from her small drawstring bag, lights it with a long stem match, then places it in a golden holder on the tiled floor in the center of our triangle. That is my cue. I turn to face outward forming the tip of a triangle facing east, an arrow gripped in my right hand and the bow in my left. I feel Tommie clutch my bare left shoulder and Kai my bare right, then the two of them clasping their other hands. All three of us close our eyes and I sink into the void.

  I open my eyes in the void, knowing that our sightless eyes are now open in the real world and glowing with golden light. Back in the void, I hone in on a shining speck in the dark. Taking an open stance, I nock my arrow, aim, draw my arrow to the anchor point, then release the drawstring. The arrow flies and the tip pierces the shining speck, one of my touchmarkers. A small wisp links me to the arrow and I use the penetrating force to pull me, along with Kai and Tommie, into the memories of the touchmarked.

  With Kai and Tommie lending me their strength, I am easily able to simultaneously review all the memories housed by the marked, then show the pertinent ones to my siblings. Seeing the kidnapping, captivity, sexual assault, and finally the death of several little boys, they are ready to render a verdict. “Guilty,” they both intone.

  With our consciousness still focused in the void, in the real world, I turn to my right and clutch Kai’s left shoulder with my left hand, then hold Tommie’s hand while she grips Kai’s right shoulder. Back in the void, Kai thrusts his spear into the touchmarker just as my arrow disappears. Having speared the touchmarker on his tip, Kai brings forth a map of the world. Holding the butt of the spear in his left hand, he begins to move the tip of the spear over the map with his right hand. The tip seems to focus on the central western US, near Kentucky and Indiana. As the map begins to enlarge, the tip narrows its focus until finally Kai adjusts his grip on the spear then throws it at the map, hitting a town called Bardston. Using his speck-tipped spear as a conduit, Kai draws us to the world of the touchmarked. We observe the man’s current life, noting his appearance and dwelling. His name we learned from the memory review and now know his location from Kai.

  After quickly learning what we needed, Kai and I step forward to seize the touchmarked, Kai wrapping ties around his body and I entangling his mind. I keep his mind at bay as Kai takes over the body, moving it to begin typing at a computer. Tommie is running through possible scenarios while I distantly hear Kai speak, “William Henderson, you’ve been accused of kidnapping young boys, holding them captive and sexually molesting them, then killing them and burying their bodies in unmarked graves. After reviewing the evidence of your memories, you have been found guilty. Your day of reckoning has finally arrived.”

  Kai, in William’s body, finished typing a detailed confession. It included the names of all the boys, the length of time they were held captive, how they were killed, where their bodies were buried, and the name of his three female accomplices. How he recruited these women was despicable and accomplice was not quite the correct word. They tended to be runaways living on the street that Henderson took in, then abused, controlled, and broke down until they no longer had a will of their own. He knew that a woman talking to a little boy was less suspicious than an adult man, thus used them to lure boys away. Jamie Michard and Grady Thomason were among the boys listed as his victims. At the request of Tommie, Kai then had Henderson unlock the door of the boy currently held captive, then walk Henderson’s body back into the main room and freeze his movements again. In the real world, Kai and I then turn to grip Tommie’s shoulders as she takes over speaking.

  “William Henderson, you have been accused, tried, and found guilty. Your confession is set to be emailed to national police. In the meantime, we have released your current captive and he was encouraged to run next door for help. The police were called and are currently on their way and they will find a printed version of your confession.” Tommie then nods for me to leave William’s mind. As soon as I’m free, she clutches her xiphos and hacks away at the mental tangles I leave, in the process slashing his mind to ribbons. All the while she whispers, “You cannot run from the fates.” She finally indicates that Kai make William grip the gun that we saw during our initial observation. Kai stretches the physical ties taut and Tommie cleanly severs the bonds holding Henderson still. Henderson runs out of the front door at top speed, repeating, “run, run, run.” We hear several raised voices from the front lawn, then two bullets fire in rapid succession.

  “William Henderson, your death is just and fair, as we follow Themis. Though your punishment is less than you deserve, we rarely mete out retribution. May your soul be quiet in the afterlife and not darken our world again.” I speak our ritual words, thus ending the cycle of abuse and death that Henderson wrought.

  We open our eyes back in the real world and step out of the triangle to take a short break. After stret
ching and rehydrating, we step back into the triangle and Tommie lights a new candle. Only four more touchmarkers to call due. Then we will be able to sleep away our exhaustion and renew our resources with a trip in nature. Soon enough, balance will be restored.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  My house is a hive of activity late Sunday morning as Kai, Tommie, and I arrive back in Albuquerque after days of playing tourist in the Mesa Verde region. I hear grumbles of discontent from each of their rooms, as I wake them up from their naps a couple of hours after our return. I’m then blessed with the sight of them zombie-walking to the coffee machine to drink the apparently life-giving brew. Coffee, yuck.

  We arrive at the Food Corral a few minutes before three and are shown into one of the side rooms. The room was set up with two large round tables next to each other, each with eight seats. Not quite what I expected when I reserved seating for a party of nine after speaking with Tiko at the community garden, but Wendy has already settled in the room.

  “Hey, Gray. Sorry, I took your reservation and ran with it, so there may be more people arriving than you expected.”

  “No worries. You know I don’t care about that, Wendy. I originally only requested reservations for two hours as I wasn’t sure about evening football.”

  “I know, I also bumped it up to three hours just in case. We’re having a relaxed meal and hanging out with friends. Plus, there is a TV on the wall in case we need to catch a game.”

  Just then, Sully and Dani walk into the room holding plates filled with food from the buffet.

  “Gray, Tommie, Kai. How was your trip? Wait, where’s Dad? How did I lose him from the buffet to the room?”

  “Dani, you didn’t lose me, I’m a grown man.” Lowell says as he enters the room behind his daughter. “Also, look who I ran into.”

  “Thanks for showing us the room, Liaison Lowell. I managed to drag all my sisters with me to the restaurant.”

  Dani selects a seat at one table and begins to eat her food. Lowell and Sully sit at the other table and start talking Psycept police shop in between bites. Seeing everyone eye the plates, I send Wendy, Kai, Tiko, and Libby to the buffet. Tommie, Vic, and Jay sit in seats beside Dani and begin catching up from the last time they all visited. When the buffet people return, the Chatty Cathies go to fill their plates. Of course, Kai and Tiko sit beside Sully and Lowell while Wendy and Libby take up seats near Dani. I have no idea why large groups tend to socialize along gender lines, but who am I to fight it.

  I’m about to leave the room to get my own plate of food when Sheriff Helki arrives.

  “Sorry I’m late.”

  “No problem. I’ve been told this is a very casual dining experience and a relaxed bunch. I’m going to get my plate of food and you can join me. Nobody’ll take notice of when you arrived.”

  Sheriff Helki heads to the omelet area while I make a beeline to the salad and fruit bar. We arrive back in the room near the same time and select seats. I sit at the men’s table, but at a seat nearest Wendy and Libby. Tommie, Kai, and I were each in a separate group so can provide details of our trip if asked.

  “Wendy, how was Pennsylvania? Are the kids recovered?” I ask across the small space separating our chairs.

  “Pennsylvania was cold and snowy. The children are doing well now, but it took two intensive cleansing rituals before the healing charms could kick out whatever nasty they contracted.”

  “What about the nasty, have you determined anything?”

  “I brought back a few vials of blood for Libby to analyze. But, it wasn’t just a bacteria or other infectious agent. It had a malevolence to it. It was trying to do as much harm to those children as possible.”

  “I started my tests. Wendy’s right, there’s this tar or other oily feeling to the blood. I don’t mean physically, just this sick feeling that overtakes you when in its presence. Even Tiko feels off around it, and he specializes in bones.”

  “While I was performing the cleansing and healing treatments, Sully asked around. He said the locals know that strange things happen occasionally, but it seems these past two years have seen an increase in incidents. Tiko mentioned that black dogs keep to themselves, remember. Well, apparently, there have been dozens of sightings in the last year. And hunters have reported hearing angry tones of conversations in another language but no one being there. Covered wells that usually are fine because of being insulated below ground have frozen solid, chickens aren’t laying eggs, birds are abandoning the woods, you know other bad omens.”

  “Wow, Wendy, it sounds like a Bone Sage may need to go into the woods to settle some spirits down. Libby, do you know any in Subarctic East that would be willing to go out there? Maybe take some PsySapients with them to speak with the trees, plants, land, and animals?”

  “Sounds like they may need an Asomatous as a backup too, Gray. Tiko will go if none of the nearby Bone Sages are willing to. Heck, I may want to go too, investigate this blood disease more closely.”

  “Forgive my ignorance, but how would an astral projectionist serve as backup? Do they just slide to another plane to provide another perspective or something?” I ask. I never claimed to be an expert in all things Psycept.

  “Like most Psycepts, Asomatous don’t fully advertise their abilities. Bone Sages can bind bones to the earth, which forces spirits to settle down. But they can’t really interact much with the spirits themselves. Asomatous can communicate with ghosts and find out what is causing the disturbance. Tiko prefers to work with an Asomatous if his case involves binding bones. He feels guilty if he just forces a ghost to settle down without trying to fix the underlying cause,” Libby replies.

  “Go, Tiko. Well, if you two go there, I want to go back too. A PsyWitch’s specialty is influencing a human body for good or ill. We can feel when a person is in balance and when they’re not. Though we work best on humans, we can also sense imbalance in other parts of nature. I know there is something wrong in those woods and it’s affecting everything in the area. I want to help set things to right.”

  “Do you have anything with you from the area, Wendy? I want to try something.”

  “One of the kids drew me a picture of what attacked them. It is just some creepy eyes hidden behind a tree, so not very helpful as an identifier. Will that do, Gray?”

  “We can see,” I reply. Turning to the other side of the table, “Hey, Kai. Do you have a sec? I want you to try to see what you can get off a drawing that Wendy has.”

  “Is Kai a TouchVoyant too? I thought he was one of the Variegated, an object seeker.”

  “I’m a rhabdomancer, Liaison Lowell. Just a fancy way to say I seek knowledge through use of a stick, rod, wand, etc. My specialty is finding objects by using a pencil to draw what I see, or I can use something as small as a toothpick to pinpoint a location on a map.”

  “So why is Gray wanting to see what you get from an existing drawing?”

  “I don’t know, Sully. Gray, you better explain it to the masses.”

  I turned from speaking with Dani, a drawing pad and colored pencils in hand. Her girlfriend, Araceli, is an interior designer who often has moments of artistic inspiration. Dani is used to carrying extra drawing supplies in case Araceli runs out. I set the art supplies down in a blank seat at the table, then walk to a space against the wall between the tables so I can be seen by all parties.

  “Might as well explain this to everyone. Wendy was speaking about her trip to Pennsylvania and the pervasive wrongness she felt from the land, plants, animals, even the spirits there. The children that were attacked contracted some disease that was warped and malevolent. Libby felt it too, from the blood samples of the children that Wendy provided.

  “We were talking of mounting a Psycept expedition to the area to try to suss out what’s going on. So far, we need PsySapients, PsyWitches, Bone and Blood Sages, an Asomatous, and whoever else we can throw at it. But getting a better idea of where to start is my idea contribution. That means you’re up, Kai.”

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p; “Great, your idea but my hard work. Okay, let me provide a brief explanation of what I think Gray has in mind. I’m an object seeker. Usually, I know the object that I want, and I try to find a way to it. So, I can use a map to pinpoint the location or I can draw pictures of what I see during my seeking.

  “With the drawing that Gray wants me to vibe off, she is giving me an area or location and she wants me to find something wrong about that area. So, I know where I am looking, but not what. It’s an alternate way of seeking, and those are not always successful.”

  That’s a good explanation. It doesn’t fully divulge what Kai can do, but nothing he said was false, just incomplete. He also didn’t mention any type of financial compensation, which is what he is used to from the police cases he’s been asked to look at in the DFW area. I’m proud of my brother. Kai sits at the empty seat with the drawing supplies in front of him.

  “Now, I’m not Gray so I’m not opposed to having someone watch me. Just don’t interrupt or ask any questions until after I come out of the seeking. Okay, I just said that, but don’t all stare at me, it’s starting to freak me out a little. Maybe Gray has the right idea.”

  I catch Tommie’s eyes and nod her over to stand beside me. We don’t watch Kai as we whisper, we’ve seen him do this before.

  “You don’t want them to know he has FS?” Tommie mouths to me. She doesn’t want to spell out that Kai has FarSight, which is what makes him such an effective rhabdomancer. He knows how to present his information so that observers think he first connects to the object, then widens his view outwards like zooming out on a map. Kai is more like a microscope that is always on a low setting which can see a wide viewing field, then latches on to the object and narrows the focus by increasing the setting. He prefers to compare himself to a bird of prey with their ability to see way beyond what a human can. Tommie and I just roll our eyes when he goes down that path.

  I shake my head no. Kai has the best Sight of the three of us. Tommie can See the future, but it is usually a logical outcome. I can See the past, mostly through reading memories of others. Our Sight is transient, occurring rarely in brief flashes. If people knew about Kai’s FarSight, then they might start to wonder about Tommie and me.