I crossed my arms. “How come?”
“My father had a vision of you and your friends. He was told of what you all were doing and sent me to speak with you. We want to help.”
“You can’t.”
“We want to.”
My jaw set. As useful as shamans would be in getting a leg up on Zarda, the penalty of them breaking the pact… I refused to budge on this. “No. Do you realize what would happen if you were caught? Do you realize the suffering it will cause your tribe? I won’t allow it.” I turned to Raikidan. “We’re leaving.”
“My people used to be proud.” I stopped to listen to her. “We used to be strong—and looked to by the other tribes for help, even though many of us were also druidic. The dominant shaman’s job was a Guard. We never hid our faces outside our villages. We proudly showed them. Now we are nothing. My tribe lives in fear that one day the pact will break, and the soldiers will come. They fear all outsiders and send them away. We now hide like the other tribes.
“My father, the chief of our tribe, sent me here to find you. We are tired of living in fear. We want to help end this. Say yes and I will convince the other tribes to help. If they are willing to help smuggle out refugees, then why wouldn’t they be willing to help in other ways?”
I placed my hand on the frame of the stairway and sighed. “I understand why you want this. I really do, but I can’t say yes.”
“Eira is an ancient name. One that translates to ‘peace.’ That is what you’re trying to attain.”
“I don’t deserve my name. I can’t live up to its meaning. My goal isn’t as straightforward as you want to believe. This makes me an unfit candidate. You’re better off hiding than dying unnecessarily and dooming your entire people.”
“Laz…”
I turned to face her. Tla’lli looked at me with pleading eyes, but when I refused to budge, she sighed. She removed the bow and quiver from her back and walked over to me. “My father wanted me to give this to you. He said it would help you at some point and would be a nice gift from us to you. Please just think about our offer. I will talk to the other tribes. The North Tribe has already shown interest, thanks to Fe’teline. If they all agree, maybe you will change your mind.”
I took the bow and quiver and looked at them. The bow was made of black ivory and engraved with shamanic and druidic symbols. The quiver was made of fox hide. Taking out one of the arrows, I noted the obsidian arrow heads. Sliding the arrow back into the quiver, I went to sling both over my shoulder, but Raikidan took them from me.
He briefly looked at them before he slung them over his back. Leaning close, he spoke low in my ear. “You should at least think about it.”
“You should stay out of this,” I murmured.
“As your Guard, I’m supposed to give you advice. Isn’t that correct?”
“You are a Guard in training. Stay out of this.”
Raikidan pulled away from me and repositioned the bow and quiver with one hand.
“Please just think it over, Laz’shika, Shaman of the Rising Sun from the West Tribe,” Tla’lli begged.
“I will think it over when I have time on my hands.” Tla’lli smiled, but then frowned when I continued. “But don’t think it means yes.”
“So, you’re leaving.” I looked over to the other side of the room, where the other shaman, Fe’teline, stood. She smiled and walked over to us. Grabbing my hand, she dropped three leather pouches into it.
Curious, I opened one of them and found a blue-and-black glowing orb. “Portals?”
“They may come in handy,” she answered. “Be careful when using them, though. They’re outlawed in this city, so use them only in an emergency.”
“How would they know?” Raikidan asked.
“Psychics,” Fe’teline and I replied in unison.
Fe’teline smiled at me. “Psychics can detect the dimensional distortion these portals make.”
“We won’t have a problem,” I assured her.
“I hope so. Now you should be on your way. The girl, Jenifer, is all settled in and safe. I will attempt to find the mother she has been willing to speak about. It may help her.” She smiled at me. “If you ever require our aid, you know where to find us, and please, think over the offer Tla’lli presented. We really want to help.”
I pulled my hood over my face. “Farewell.”
I motioned to Raikidan to follow, and the two of us left. Once the door shut, Raikidan spoke to me. “That hurt, you know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You saying I had no place to speak. You were stripped of your shaman title and yet are addressed and speak as if you are one, but you claim I can’t speak because I’m not a Guard.”
“Just because Maka’shi claimed to have stripped me of my name and title doesn’t make it true. Once you are a shaman, you are always a shaman. You were never trained how to be a true Guard.”
“I was evaluated and approved of by that friend of yours.”
“Just because we set up ‘proper’ evaluation to pass Maka’shi’s inspection of your use of the outfit, that doesn’t make you a real Guard. You have to take a rigorous training to qualify. Until then, you’re a Guard in training at best, and have no place to speak. Ken’ichi would have even told you that.”
When he didn’t reply, I walked off. We needed to get back to the house, and at this point we wouldn’t have time to go through the park—not that I wanted to go with him now. Raikidan caught up to me but stayed silent.
Glancing up at him, I studied his features. At first his face looked expressionless, but as I examined him, I noticed the small downturn of the corners of his lips. I looked at the ground. I really had hurt his feelings. I had only spoken the truth, but maybe in this instance, the truth wasn’t the best thing to go by.
I sighed quietly. I wanted to say something, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I never said things right, and I knew if I tried to make things better, I’d just make it worse. So instead, I just kept quiet and let us walk home in silence.
Chapter Twenty-Three
My head rested comfortably on the cushion of the couch as I laid there with the Library access book Shva’sika had given me. I wasn’t looking for anything in particular, so the book would start to read off something, and if I found it interesting, it would keep going, and if not, it would find something else.
Rylan sat on the other side of the couch, reading a magazine with the latest high-tech cars he would never be able to afford in a million years. Neither of us had been able to sleep. I had been restless for—the gods only knew why—and even though he had a rough night at the club, he hadn’t been able to sleep long himself.
There was a comfortable silence between us. In the past, this was how I had spent my time with him, and even with the time that had passed, nothing had changed. We both weren’t much for talking, and because of that, we knew how to enjoy each other’s company without the use of words.
That was where most people stopped understanding our relationship. People were so used to relying on their voice that they couldn’t comprehend this ability. I smiled slightly. It was nice being able to just jump back into the day-to-day routine with everyone without any issues.
“What are you smiling about?” Rylan asked me.
I shrugged. “Just thinking.”
“You, think?” Rylan joked. “That’s a surprise!”
I stuck my tongue out at him and he laughed. Rylan was always good to me. Although he would get angry with me over some things, he would never do anything bad to me. He taught me so much and I would never deny I was close to him. This closeness is what made everyone think I had some romantic interest in him when it wasn’t true.
Sure, the two of us would pick on each other at times, and to others it might look like flirting or something along those lines, but it was all just good fun. I had no feelings for romance, and to me Rylan was more of an older brother than anything. Had Rylan not developed feelings for me for a time, I know thin
gs would have been much different between us.
He had been so direct about how he felt, which made his actions toward Ryoko strange. He was so apprehensive around her. It was as though he was afraid she’d say no like I did, but he was so blind to the way she acted that he couldn’t see it wouldn’t be that way.
A kettle screeched, and Rylan headed into the kitchen. “You sure you don’t want anything?”
“Yep.”
He came back into the room with a steaming mug and sat back down on the couch. The room was quiet again, and it stayed that way until Ryoko woke up and made herself a cup of coffee. Now she sat near Rylan, looking over some papers.
“So, do you have anything planned for today, Laz?” Ryoko asked, breaking the silence.
I shrugged. “No. You working today?”
She sighed. “Yeah, Zane won’t let me have another day off.”
I chuckled. “You make it sound like it’s the end of Lumaraeon.”
“I like having time off.” She leaned back on the couch. “And I could use the breaks from all the bad attention I get from customers.”
“Wearing more clothes would help,” Rylan said. “You’d have fewer issues, and it’d just be overall safer for you.”
She crossed her arms. “Maybe men shouldn’t act like mindless pigs.”
“We’re not all like that,” Rylan said.
“He’s right,” I agreed. “Everyone but him, Argus, and Zane.”
He laughed, knowing I wasn’t being serious. “Her issue is just the soldiers.”
I grunted. “Well that’s your problem. They’re sexually deprived and lack proper social understanding around women.” I noticed Rylan struggling not to stare at Ryoko as she continued to keep her arms crossed. “Oh, and Ryoko, don’t do that with your arms. They make your boobs look bigger, and I know how much you hate that.”
Her arms immediately dropped, much to Rylan’s clear disappointment. “Hey, you never mentioned Raikidan when you singled Rylan and them.”
I snickered. “It’s because I was making a joke. He’d fall under the same umbrella.”
“Yeah?”
“I’d have to say she’s telling the truth,” Rylan said. “I mean, she does share a room with him.”
Ryoko pursed her lips, showing she wasn’t entirely convinced. This perplexed me. I didn’t think Raikidan presented himself in a way that would make her question that. Maybe it’s because she’s unsure of him as a whole. He is a bit of a mystery.
“Let me put it to you this way,” I said. “When I gave him a rundown about everyone here and got to the kind of person Blaze is, he wasn’t too keen on getting to know him, and that was only after I told him how Blaze is with women.” The door of my room opened and then closed. “But, if you don’t believe me you’re more than welcome to ask him yourself.”
“Good idea!” She looked at Raikidan, who looked as if he understood he was somehow part of this conversation but was confused on how. “Hey, Raikidan, you’re not a pig, are you?”
Rylan chuckled while I choked on a laugh. “Ryoko, you might want to reword that.”
Ryoko looked at me, her innocence clear. “What do you mean?”
I snickered. She was so clueless sometimes. “Your face is priceless.”
Rylan chuckled some more. “You’ll love Raikidan’s expression more.”
Letting the book fall flat on my lap, I sat up. I tried to hold back my laughter, to no avail. Falling back onto the cushion of the couch, I held my head and erupted with laughter. Raikidan’s face was definitely better than Ryoko’s. It looked as if he wasn’t sure if he should be insulted by her question or just confused.
“I still don’t get what you mean,” Ryoko said.
Her innocence just made me laugh even harder, until I was struggling to breathe.
Rylan also rolled with laughter. “Ryoko, think about your question, out of the context of our conversation. That’s what it sounds like to Raikidan.”
Ryoko furrowed her brow and thought extremely hard. When the reality of what she had said hit her, she gasped. “Oh no, Raikidan, I didn’t mean to ask you if you were a small squealing animal!”
Rylan and I laughed even harder, if that were even possible. Ryoko could be smart sometimes, and it was nice to not have to worry about her, but other times it was worth seeing her mess up.
“Is someone going to tell me what she’s blubbering about?” Raikidan asked.
Getting my laughter under control so it was only an occasional giggle and gasp, I pulled myself back up and looked at him. I couldn’t get rid of the grin that spread across my face as I looked at him. “She wants to know if you objectify women.”
Raikidan responded with a disgusted snort and then he walked into the kitchen.
I looked at her. “See.”
She nodded. “I think I can believe it now.”
Rylan grinned. “I forgot you could laugh like that, Laz.”
My body hurt all over from the excessive laughter. “I did too. I have to admit, it felt good.”
“How could you forget?” Raikidan called over to me. “You laughed like that less than a week after meeting me.”
I snorted. “It was nothing like just now.”
“Close enough.”
Ryoko turned and looked at him. “You got her to laugh? You really are something.”
“It wasn’t that hard,” he replied.
I rolled my eyes and went back to reading. Looking up briefly, I noticed Rylan’s gaze darting between Raikidan and me. What’s with him? Figuring it didn’t matter, I went back to reading. A dark shadow loomed over me suddenly, so I looked up. I yelped and shot up as Raikidan jumped over the back of the couch and sat down where my head had been. “What the hell, Raikidan?”
“I wanted a place to sit.” He bit into the apple he held in his hand.
“This couch is huge. Find another place to sit. I was laying there.”
He leaned back, placing his arms across the back of the couch and his legs up on the coffee table, making himself comfortable. “Too late, I’m already comfortable.”
I snorted. If he wanted to be this way, then fine. Pretending he wasn’t there, I turned away from him and fell back. My head landed in his lap and he tensed. Ignoring the small amount of pain I received from my hair clip as it dug into my skin, I looked up at him. He was now pinching the bridge of his nose and his eyes were squeezed shut. I smirked triumphantly. Moving myself to get a little more comfortable, I pulled my book up to continue reading. As I did, I noticed Ryoko’s and Rylan’s expressions. Ryoko was doing her best not to laugh, and Rylan looked as if he was the one who had been hurt.
“What’s with you, Ry?” Ryoko asked him through her tight smile. “It’s not like she landed in your lap.”
“No… but it looked painful nonetheless,” he managed to respond.
“Raikidan, I’m surprised you haven’t sworn her out yet,” Ryoko commented.
Raikidan ground his teeth. “Trust me, it’s taking every ounce of restraint I have not to.” Once his pain subsided enough, he finally opened his eyes and looked down at me. “Was that really necessary?”
I looked up at him, my brow twisted. “Was stealing my spot really necessary?”
“Just move farther down the couch if you want to lie down.”
“Why should I? You’re the one who forced me to sit up in the first place.”
“Move your head off my lap.”
“Move your ass out of my spot.”
“Move to another spot on the couch.” He glared at me. “There are plenty.”
I glared back at him. “Take your own advice.”
The room went quiet as Raikidan and I stared each other down. Ryoko shifted uncomfortably while Rylan rolled his eyes and went back to reading. With a quiet sigh, Raikidan leaned back and looked away. I grinned in triumph and went back to my book. He wasn’t going to move; that much I didn’t win. But I didn’t have to move either, so I didn’t completely lose.
His lap was much more comfortable than I thought it would be. I’d admit it only to myself, but aside from my hair clip digging into my head, I was quite comfortable, so I didn’t mind him being my new pillow. As the book read to me, I noticed Raikidan’s hand slowly move from the back of the couch and over to the pages of my book. He had barely managed to set his hand down when I smacked it away.
“I’m bored, let me read.”
“Get your own book.”
“Do you have another book?” When I didn’t respond, he snickered and moved his hand toward the book. “That’s what I thought. Now let me read.”
I smacked his hand away again. “I said no.”
He placed his other hand over my eyes. “Then you can’t read either.”
I sighed. “You really have nothing better to do than to bother me, do you? Or did you really forget I don’t read this book with my eyes?”
Raikidan just chuckled and left his hand where it was. That was when I realized what he was doing. In one simultaneous motion, I moved one hand over the book and swatted at his hand that was firmly planted on the pages and moved my other hand to grab his other that was over my face. “I said get your own book.”
He grumbled. “What am I supposed to do, then?”
“Figure that out on your own.”
Grumbling more, he laid his head back on the couch and stared up at the ceiling. I went back to reading, content I’d won that battle. It was quiet for a time after that.
“How do you work that magic box?” Raikidan finally asked.
I looked up at him, my eyebrow raised. “Magic box?” He pointed to the TV and I laughed. “That’s a TV, not a magic box.”
“It has tiny moving images of people running around on it. How is it not magic?”
Ryoko laughed. “He’s definitely a keeper.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the remote control. “You turn it on with this remote.” I pressed the red button and the TV turned on. “Then you use these arrows to flip through the channels until you find a program you like. The other arrows here are the volume control. Nothing magic about it.”
Destiny (Experimental Heart Book 1) Page 36
