Guardian of the North

by Maggie K West

  I lounged back in the grass, watching the others. Nick sat between Natanian and me. Bancroft sat on the other side of the fire, running a sharpening stone across his blade. I watched as the sparks drifted up from the tips of the flames to fade in the darkness. The flickering shadows made it look almost as if the branches of the trees were grabbing at the drifting sparks.

  I wonder how my grandpa had spent the first two weeks after getting his power. We had been at peace with the Ealdra for years, so he probably wasn’t running for his life. His Master probably hadn’t died the first night.

  “What’s wrong?” Nick asked.

  I started, looking up. “Nothing.”

  “No, I know that look.” Natanian sat back.

  I laughed nervously. “What look is that?”

  “The one you get when a haunting memory surfaces,” he answered slowly. This got Bancroft’s interest.

  I shifted uneasily, “Yeah, I was remembering Master Kane. How … do you know what ‘haunting memory’ looks like, Natanian?”

  “I’m from northern Maine. But you know that.…” He touched his side absentmindedly, the spot where he’d been shot. “Never mind.” He turned back around. “Let’s talk about something else.”

  “Is there something we should know?” Bancroft asked.

  “Or something only wee night elves should know?” I teased, trying to lighten the mood.

  A grin flashed across his face. “It’s something only my Master and the recruiter know.…” He looked away. “How they found me,” he finished quietly. He leaned back against a tree, “Sorry. Don’t worry about it. I just remembered … when you made that look.” He waved at me.

  Bancroft set down his sharpening stone, wiped his blade on a clean cloth, and sheathed it. “Natanian, tell us what happened.” I leaned forward. Nick looked up, curious.

  Natanian hesitated, then complied. “It’s cold there, where I grew up. Very cold. So when my power manifested … I didn’t realize what had happened for two days.”

  The surroundings faded around me. Natanian had been so distant when we’d first met….

  “It was the middle of winter. We had a fireplace, the kind that looks as big as a room when you’re little. I got in a fight with my friend over something stupid.” He shook his head, “But it made me furious. I stormed into the living room, kicked the table, and the fire went out. Ice had covered everything. I remember thinking that was impossible. That’s when I got suspicious.”

  “Suspicious?” I cried. “You turned your house into an ice rink!”

  “Yeah, well, I was fourteen and scared. How do you think it felt out in that world? I had no idea about all this.” He waved his hand around.

  “Fair enough.” I moved my sword out of the way and leaned against a tree.

  “Well, the next day on the dock, I ran into this friend again and we had a second argument. This one was really bad. I remember hearing the wood under me crack, I remember seeing the ice spread across the water, then boom. The dock under him shattered, and he fell ten feet onto solid ice. The winter ice had been broken up that morning. But now it went all the way down to the marina bed. I felt it inside me then. I knew I had made that happen.

  “Then I did something I shouldn’t have.” He tossed a rock on the fire and the haunting look fell on his face. “I told my friends, and they told their friends and their family, and eventually the whole town knew about the boy who froze, literally, when he was angry.”

  He sighed. “A week after that episode on the marina, a … thing came. We were playing a board game. It…” He swallowed. “It knocked down the whole wall. It turned the world to darkness. The worst part was … I was the only one who could see it. No one else noticed the wall gone, no one else noticed the sudden darkness, no one else saw that … thing. I escaped, but … that was it. It took my parents. I don’t know what happened to my sisters.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. The air felt cold. Heavy.

  “The next morning, a man showed up at the shelter I was staying at, and he brought me to Fort Calmier. An Áccyn soldier.”

  “You told me your parents lived in Fort Calmier,” Nick said slowly. Natanian shook his head. I looked away from him. I had no idea.

  “The fire’s dying down, Jack,” Bancroft broke the silence. Natanian relaxed at the change of subject.

  “It’s Nick’s fault,” I said, a little too loudly.

  “Hey!” Nick complained, a little too enthusiastically.

  “You wanna spark it again?” I encouraged. He raised his hand and looked up at me. An orb of electricity appeared in his palm, a couple stray sparks racing up his arm. “I wish I could control it that easily,” I said with envy.

  “Oh, you will,” Natanian encouraged. “As long as you don’t die first.” The heaviness in the air began to fade.

  “Nice having a break from your Master?” Nick grinned.

  Bancroft stood up, “Draw your sword, Nicolas Krom.”

  Nick groaned.

  “You totally asked for that one, Nick.” I grinned, laying back in the grass. Nick threw his orb of lightning into the fire, which burst to life. He stood up. Natanian slammed his hand into the ground, and ice shot out across the forest floor beneath Nick’s feet, curving around the campfire. He flailed on the suddenly slippery ground and crashed to his back.

  “Natanian!” he shouted, shoving himself to his feet. Natanian laughed. Bancroft lunged. Nick just barely got out of the way in time.

  “You dropped your guard,” Bancroft chided.

  Suddenly an orb of water shot past, inches from Nick’s head, and exploded against a tree trunk, sending a shower of bark over us and extinguishing the campfire. We were plunged into darkness.

  I leaped to my feet and spun around to see Daniel step out of the trees, water twisting up his arms, over his sharp, red-on-black Ealdra uniform.

  I drew my sword, “Oh, hey, I know you! You tried to kill us.”

  “They’re coming, Nicolas,” Daniel said quietly, “The Ealdra. And the Hunters. Traitor.”

  Nick raised his sword, and lightning arced up his arms, flashing down the Damascus blade. His cold light splashed against the trees around us, lighting up Daniel’s evil, smiling face.

  Daniel threw his arms down to his sides, and swirling orbs of water formed in his hands. Natanian gave a shout and sent a blast of ice hurling through the air at Daniel. Daniel threw up his arms, and the ice hit his wave, crashing to his feet in puddles of slush. He spun, flinging a jet of water at Nick. Nick slammed his sword into the earth, a blast of lightning bursting up before him. It shot through the water, evaporating it, and struck the trees.

  The woods roared into flame.

  Nick drew his sword from the ground and straightened up. Daniel stood his ground, looking at Natanian and me.

  “You’re all True Born,” he realized. “Fun.” He raised his arms and threw them out. A ring of water exploded from him. I dropped to the ground. The water sailed over my head, spraying my face with tiny droplets. The water hit the burning trees around us, and they burst from their roots, crashing back into the dry forest floor. It all flared up around us.

  Daniel drew his sword.

  CHAPTER 14

  Dark shadows jumped in the burning trees. Dark forms, wielding shining blades in the blazing forest. And Daniel, twisting orbs of water in his hands, flashing in the firelight. Nick stood beside me, lightning crackling around him.

  I felt a cold wind blow through the clearing, whipping the flames into an inferno. Burning smoke flooded my throat. I coughed, raising my sleeve to shield my nose and mouth as more smoke was conjured by the rising wind.

  “Look what you’ve done, Nicolas!” Daniel shouted, striding forward through the fire, steam rising around him. “Look at yourself! Look around you!”

  I saw Nick’s hands tighten on his sword hilt. Something flickered behind his eyes, and he shut them tight. He took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, they shone with a strange light. His f
ace was hard as stone. A bolt of lightning crashed from the sky between them. I jumped back, my hair standing on end. Daniel landed back on the forest floor, grinned, and swung his arm around. Nick lunged away. The ball of water, flickering with electricity, roared past his head and exploded into the forest floor, sending up a cloud of steam.

  The shadows leaped out of the tree line. Two Ealdra soldiers were racing toward me. I gritted my teeth and raised my hand, focusing on the flaming debris falling around me. They stopped, hovering in midair. I flicked my wrist, and a shower of flaming leaves and sticks crashed into the Ealdra soldiers. They burst through the debris with hardly a second glance. One of them, a woman, her face tightened with adrenaline, eyes wide with blood lust, lunged toward me. Her sword flashed up, the Damascus steel swirling red in the firelight.

  I threw up my sword. Too slow. Searing pain slashed across my leg. I screamed. My legs buckled under me. Bancroft leaped forward and swung his sword in a wide arc. The two Ealdra soldiers fell back, the woman’s blade dripping red with my blood. Bancroft’s weapon flashed. Another blast of lightning crackled around us. I pushed myself to my feet, electricity and pain shooting through my brain, stabbing my leg. I cried out and collapsed.

  Bancroft grabbed me, pulling me back, his sword covering me. “Jackson, how bad is it?” Hot blood streamed through my fingers, brilliant red in the flickering flames.

  My head spun. I looked away, “I…”

  “Let me help you stand up.” Bancroft reached down, and I threw my arm around his shoulders and heaved myself up.

  My leg screamed in protest. I gritted my teeth, clenching my sword hilt. The world spun around me. I closed my eyes tight, and when I opened them, I saw Nick and Daniel on the other side of the clearing, Nick’s clothes singed, as electric blue and fiery light danced around them. Two Ealdra soldiers lay dead at their feet, bruised, smoke curling from their clothes.

  A loud snap rang through the air, and the trees groaned.

  “Look out!” Bancroft shouted, shoving me away. I hit the ground rolling as a huge tree swung down through the air and crashed to the earth in a raft of fire. Hot air blasted my face. New energy rushed into me. The searing pain in my leg gave way to the terror dancing through my mind.

  I pushed myself to my feet, my jaw clenched tight, and grabbed my sword off the ground. An Ealdra soldier was sprinting across the clearing, straight toward Natanian. He didn’t notice, his blade locked with another soldier’s. I took off toward him, and with a shout of rage and raw fear, I arced my sword. The Ealdra soldier leaped back. He spun on me and lunged forward. I sidestepped, knocking his blade away. He slashed again. I twisted, throwing up my sword. Our blades hit with a ringing clash.

  He drew back a foot and slammed it into my leg. I hit the ground on one knee, blood pounding in my thigh. The soldier stomped down on my blade. Cold steel slid against my neck. My breath caught in my throat.

  I was going to die here.

  It was all going to end here.

  I felt a pulse of cold in my chest and the sudden roar of North Wind. The soldier flew back, high into the trees. I collapsed to my side. Then Bancroft was there, grabbing my arm, pulling me to my feet. I swayed a second, waiting for the world to rush back into focus—the trees, groaning and crackling under the roaring flames, burning debris raining from the heavens, the ringing clash of steel, the blood on the ground.

  My head cleared, and I snatched up my sword. Suddenly an arrow whistled past my head. I jerked back in surprise and saw an Ealdra soldier on the other side of the clearing, merely a shape in the trees, pull back on a longbow for a second shot. I saw the shining arrowhead. Bancroft shoved me aside. A second arrow whizzed past us.

  A tall, scruffy man stepped out of the trees, wielding a longsword. The Hunter Leader. A dozen more Hunters emerged from the trees all around us.

  Then Perry tore free from where he was tied and bounded up to me. I caught him, holding tight to his antlers as fire burst above us.

  “Go!” Bancroft shouted.

  I swung up on Perry’s back and bent over his neck, “Stay low,” I whispered. There was no way we were getting out without getting shot.

  Natanian slammed his hand into the ground, sending a rippling wave of ice across the forest floor.

  “Androuet!” A Hunter shouted, pointing at me. The leader of the Hunters spun around and drew his sword, striding toward me. Perry reared back and leaped into the air. The Hunters slashed.

  We hit the ground on the other side of them, and Perry launched again, tearing through the trees, streaking low as flames and sparks flashed around us. I heard the hum of an arrow. We dove over a small drop-off. The arrow thudded into the tree above our heads. We landed hard, and I slipped on the Peryton’s soft furred back, nearly losing my balance. I caught my sword before it could drop, and bent low over Perry’s neck. The Hunters were here.

  We darted in and out of the trees, branches whipping past. I heard a dull whistle. I jerked Perry sideways, and he let out a high screech and banked too hard. I pitched forward over his head, crashing through brush and sticks. My feet flew out into dead air. My stomach dropped. I clawed at a rocky ledge as I passed, and somehow caught hold of it.

  For a moment I hung there on the edge of an outcrop, the trees towering above me, flames flashing in the darkness. And poor Perry, his legs tangled in a grappling net, struggled helplessly as two Ealdra archers stepped out of the trees.

  Then the ledge crumbled. I fell and fell, the rocky cliff vanishing up into the darkness. I hit the ground hard, the wind rushing out of my lungs. I crashed down a steep incline, tumbling across sharp stones and sticks that cut into me, finally coming to a stop flat on my back.

  For a moment, I stared up through the trees at the stars above, gasping for breath through the smoke that hung in my lungs. The world tipped and spun around me.

  I rolled over with a groan. The light of the fire was gone. All around me loomed dark trees and steep slopes. I pushed myself to my feet and started running up the nearest hillside. Blood pumped through my ears. My body was crying in pain, every step sending sharp stabs through me.

  I saw the looming shadow of a cliff’s edge before me. I changed course and raced up the incline, pulling myself the last few feet up the ledge. The forest fire blazed before me. I staggered forward, shielding my nose and mouth, pain shooting through my injured leg. A scream rang through the air.

  “Nick!” I shouted. My pain vanished with a fresh pulse of adrenaline. An ice-cold wind whipped through the air. I sprinted up the next slope. The wind blew faster and faster, twisting up the flames in a swirling torrent around me. The noise of battle had died out. The fighting had stopped.

  A deadly silence had fallen across the forest, broken only by the crackle of the fire.

  “Nick!” I shouted again into the blazing woods. There was no response. Still I ran, tearing past blackened trees, my cold wind whipping at my face, bursting out from my hands whenever I brushed against branches. Something flashed on the ground in front of me. I slid to a stop. Nick’s sword, half-buried in the dirt.

  A second cry rose above the crackle of flames. I snatched up Nick’s sword and took off through the trees. The ground turned slippery with water. Steam hissed around me.

  “Natanian!” I yelled, spinning in a circle, trying to locate his cries. I crashed through the branches. “Nick!” I shouted. “Bancroft!” My voice echoed, seeming to mock me.

  Suddenly my leg gave out under me. I collapsed, panting on the ground. I looked down at Nick’s sword. A trickle of blood streamed down the dark, Damascus steel. I felt light-headed. The world started to spin. No, no, I couldn’t pass out. There was no one here to help me. There was No. One. Here. My pants leg was red with blood. Somewhere far away, another tree crashed to the earth.

  There was nothing and no one here but the crackling, roaring fire, and the cold, biting wind that I could barely control.

  CHAPTER 15

  I jerked the makeshift bandage tight and tried
to ignore the stab of pain. The forest fire was moving away now. I sheathed Nick’s sword and grabbed a long stick that had somehow managed to escape the flames. I pushed myself up with a grunt, balancing on the crutch.

  “Come on, Jack,” I said to myself. I took a step. The crutch hit a stone and flew out from under me. I fell to my knees.

  The ground was cold beneath my hands. Smoke filled my nose and mouth. Blood tingled against my tongue. My hands were shaking. I struggled to take hold of the stick again. They were gone. They were all gone. The Ealdra and their Hunters had taken my friends, and disappeared.

  I coughed, the smoke-filled air burning in my eyes and lungs. My wind twisted the smoke around me. I breathed out, trying to take control of it. I couldn’t grab hold, I couldn’t bring it back to me. I had no idea where the Ealdra could have gone. I wasn’t strong enough to go after them, let alone fight them. I was alone, lost in the smoking forest, with no way to contact any help and no way to get to my friends.

  I sat back, looking up at smoldering trees towering around me, and coughed again. I looked down at my hands. Trembling. Covered in soot and dirt and blood. I was weak.

  Everyone said I was the strongest they had ever seen, though. Was I that person? I had to be. I am powerful enough to be hunted. I grabbed hold of my makeshift crutch. I am the descendant of Robin Hood. I am the descendant of Rowan Tyler. I pushed myself up on one leg and braced the crutch under my arm, gripping the hilt of Nick’s sword tight. I am a True Born Rangerian. I am the Great Guardian of the North.

  No.

  More.

  Running.

  In one heave, I pushed myself up, steadying myself on the crutch. I had run for weeks. I was stronger than this. I took a step forward, then another, and another, walking past the pain in my leg, bracing myself on the charred trunks of trees as I moved. I stopped trembling. The smoke began to fade around me. I was alone. If I was going to survive, I was going to have to stop running. I was going to have to face whatever and whoever was hunting me down.