Gale Force Page 0,7

at first, then more intensely. It was like diving in the ocean and swimming deeper and deeper, but this didn't feel like liquid; it felt more like a metal vise, cranking inexorably tighter.

I faltered and nearly bugged out, but I caught a glimpse of the other Warden. He was below me, only a bit farther, and I decided that if he could do it, I had to. Down I went, and if I'd had an actual, physical mouth and lungs, I'd have been screaming and crying by the time I got there.

His aetheric form - which, I noticed, sported shadowy, shoulder-length hair and the ghost of a guitar slung across his back - was kneeling down, studying something. I joined him. He silently indicated what it was he was examining.

I'd never seen anything like it in the aetheric, but I didn't need a college course to tell it was very, very bad. It looked like some kind of black icy knife, sharp on all edges, wickedly pointed at the end. It was plunged deep into the ground, or what represented the ground up here.

The Earth Warden reached out and touched it, and from the way he jerked back, it was a very painful experience.

Well, I hadn't come all this way not to try.

The jolt that went through me when I tried to take hold of the thing felt like being on the receiving end of a live power cable, only not as much fun. I let go - couldn't do anything else - and looked wordlessly at my colleague.

He shook his head and pointed up, indicating we should rise. I nodded. Up we went, slowly, letting the pressure bleed off. I didn't suppose we'd get the bends in the aetheric, but it didn't seem prudent to push it, and besides, I was still trembling from the jolt that piece of black ice had sent through me.

Far above, in the softer regions of air, he made a gesture that was clear even in the aetheric - thumb toward his ear, little finger toward his mouth. And then he pointed from himself to me.

He was going to call me. I nodded and waved, and dropped out of the aetheric, back into my body.

The earthquake had stopped . . . temporarily, at least. The dress shop was a mess - plaster cracked, mirrors broken, racks toppled. Disaster with a designer label. Somebody was shaking me. Cherise. She had her hands fisted in my shirt and was trying to haul me up, but I was bigger and she was shaking too much to really be effective on leverage.

I helped her out by lurching to my feet and checking on the store's other occupants, including the clerk. Apart from being terrified, they were all miraculously unharmed, though hair, makeup, and wardrobe had been sacrificed to sweat, tears, and sifting plaster dust.

I made Cherise sit down on a bench and stood for a moment, letting my awareness spread through the structure, looking for major damage. A few cracked support beams, but nothing that couldn't be braced, and nothing that would come down unexpectedly, unless there was another hard jolt like the first one, which I couldn't guarantee wouldn't happen.

I pulled my cell phone out as it began to ring, and walked to the front, where plate glass windows had once been. They were now a glitter of broken fragments inside and outside the store. People were gathering out in the street, which was a hazard in itself, as drivers tried to navigate their way through to check on their families, their homes, their businesses. Nobody looked badly hurt, but everybody looked shell-shocked. Earthquakes in California came with the territory, but in Florida?

I answered the call. "Joanne Baldwin."

"Warden, it's Luis Rocha. Earth Warden. We met up top." Meaning, up in the aetheric. I didn't know his voice, but I liked it - warm, brisk, efficient. No wasted words. "Everybody okay there?"

"Looks like." No wasted words here, either, apparently. "Good work up there."

"You too, but I'm worried. I don't know what the hell that thing is we saw, but whatever it is, it needs looking into."

"You think it's the cause of what just happened?"

"Any place can have earthquakes, but not without some warning signs, and there weren't any. External cause, has to be. That thing - it seems to be the epicenter, and no way is that supposed to be there."

I frowned. "You think it could do more damage?"

"Don't know, but I wouldn't leave it there. We