The Edge of Harmony: The Guardian Maidens Book 2

by Marilyn Foxworthy

  And I found it almost immediately. It startled me because it came so quickly, and I lost my view of it as I was yanked back to the more material world in surprise. I smiled to myself and tried again. I went a bit more slowly this time. But, once again, as soon as I looked in the right place, I could see it. In the fog of my senses, I could see all three of the girls. Harmony most of all. And myself. With practice, I was able to tune out any of us that I wasn’t looking for, including my own presence. Now, as I looked at Harmony, who was on my back, and not within the view of my eyes, but clearly visible to this new way of seeing, the other girls faded to ghosts. I could see them, but it was as if they were more transparent, but not entirely.

  Seeing this way was different. Yes, I could see the shape of each of us, but not with much definition. Our … I didn’t know what to call them, not our bodies, but perhaps our forms. I decided to think of it as our ‘elveness’. The elveness of us shifted and moved, not sitting tight against our skins. The girls had legs and arms and even breasts, but it was fuzzy and fluid. Practicing looking at one and then another, and then two or more at a time, my sight improved as the minutes passed. I could see that Harmony and I were both more elven than the others, and I thought that I had impressions of how much we varied and how we compared with each other.

  I heard a voice call out, “Ronin! Are you OK?”

  I brought myself back to more recognition of the physical realm and realized that Dawn and Val were both stopped and looking at me. They still held my arms, but we had come to a halt.

  Val said, “Ronin, is everything alright?”

  I said, “Yes. Wonderful. I was just thinking about something. Is something happening?”

  Dawn said, “We’re going swimming.”

  Sure enough, we were at a spring with a large pool. The girls immediately started undressing, and I did the same, but with a bit less hurry than they did. As always, they were stunningly beautiful as they rushed down into the water to play. The pool was set in a wooded area, surrounded by trees, at the edge of the orchard near the base of the hills. We were probably two miles from the opening of the kobold cave. There was a natural spring that fed the pool, and I didn’t see any outlet, so I assumed that it flowed to some underground river beneath the hills.

  I was still deep in thought, interested in exploring this new skill of seeing the elveness in others, so instead of joining the others in the water, I sat on the side, on the grass, and watched. I don’t know how long I sat there. When focusing on the things I was seeing, time seemed distorted as much as my vision. When I finally noticed something happening, it was Harmony coming up out of the water. And as she approached, I saw not only her, but some kind of cords stretching between her and I. They were very faint as first, but as I focused more on seeing them, they became more clear. They were like streams of silk, coming from Harmony’s being and stretching toward me, as if blown on a gentle breeze. Harmony waked very slowly, or at least I perceived it that way. It might have been a distortion of time, but I didn’t know. She did seem to take a very long time to reach the place where I was sitting. I continued to stretch out my senses to explore the chords that reached for me and found that if I tried, I could actually feel them pulling on me. And then I started to see other chords, extending from each of us, reaching out to all of the others. Harmony for me and Dawn and Val. Me for Harmony and Val and Dawn. Dawn for me and Val and Harmony. And Val in the same way.

  When Harmony reached me, she sat down beside me and took my hand in hers and looked out at the pool.

  She said, “Ronin, show me what you see.”

  I was startled by her request and said, “How?”

  Harmony said very quietly, “Hold my hand and take me with you. Just try.”

  I felt Harmony’s hand, warm in my own, and I reached out with my mind. I had no idea how to show Harmony what I saw, but somehow I accepted that I could.

  Harmony sighed heavily and said, “Oh,” and she took a deep breath and then again, said, “Oh. I see.”

  I said, “You do? You see what I see?”

  She said, “Yeah. Oh yeah. It’s like when look at you. Like when I looked in your eyes before. But, so much clearer. I watched you learning it, but I wasn’t prepared for this. Let me try.”

  In some mysterious way, Harmony joined me in this ‘other’ place. And as we combined our sight, we saw even more. And we found that we could move about to some extent in an odd way. We could sit where we were, but hand in hand, move closer to Dawn and Val where they swam in the pool.

  Harmony whispered, “Ronin, the ribbons, can you move them?”

  I didn’t know. I wondered if I could. What would that be like? I focused on the chord reaching from me to Val, and felt my way around until it seemed that I could influence it. I tried to give it a little nudge toward her, to see if I could strengthen the connection. But instead of a gentle nudge, the chord surged suddenly and seemed to strike Val. It was as if a watermelon had been forced down a hose and splashed against her emotions.

  Val screamed, “Ronin! What was that!” and she turned to face Harmony and I. She started toward us and quickly said, “Stop that.”

  When she was close enough, I said sincerely, “Val, I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. Did it hurt? I’m so sorry. It got away from me. I didn’t mean to..”

  Val sat down in front of Harmony and I and said, “Shush. It didn’t hurt. In fact, it felt really good. It was just sudden. What was it?”

  Harmony said, “What did it feel like?”

  Val looked awed and said, “Well, I guess, if I had to try to describe it, I’d say it was like having Ronin’s wonderfully hard shaft suddenly shoved into my tight emotional spiritual vagina before it was ready and had a chance to get lubricated.”

  I said, “Oh Val, forgive me.”

  She said, “Don’t be silly. There’s nothing to forgive. Like I said, it felt good. Really good. But wow. Give a girl a kiss first!” and she laughed.

  Harmony said excitedly, “Do it to me! Right now!”

  I said, “Um, I don’t think I can. And I’d rather not.”

  Harmony said, “Oh, come on. Just a little one. We have to. For science.”

  I said, “Harmony, did you see it happen?”

  She said, “Yeah. Um, yeah. I guess you’re right. It was huge. Like a watermelon.”

  Val said, “It felt kind of like that. And whatever place it was aiming for wasn’t big enough.”

  I said, “Val, I didn’t do it on purpose. Harmony, I think I better practice more before we try that again.”

  Harmony laughed and said, “Val, what do you think would happen if he did it to me?”

  Val grinned and whispered, “I don’t know about you. You’re very strong and might survive it. But if he did that to Dawn, and didn’t stop as quickly, I think that she would be turned into a blathering sex idiot, demanding his attention day and night, drooling and unable to wear clothes or even walk, except to chase him down the streets, begging for more.”

  Harmony laughed and said, “Really?”

  Val said “Harmony, it was intense. What was it? Seriously. What did you do?”

  I said, “Here, hold hands with us. In a circle. Close your eyes and relax and try to find us and come with us. I know that isn’t very clear instructions, but give yourself to it and see where it takes us. Breathe calmly and reach for Harmony and I.”

  I opened the door to the other world and found Val and brought her with us.

  Val said, “Oh. Wow. It’s us. And it’s our connections. Harmony, I see our blood lines. I mean, I see our elven parts. Oh, but Ronin. You’re so big.”

  Harmony said, “Lucy was wrong about him.”

  Val said, “But Harmony, this means that your children will be very, very strong.”

  Harmony said, “So will yours. Val, even yours will be stronger than either Ronin or I.”

  Suddenly, I said, “Wait. Look at Dawn. Look. Do you see that? That, um, it looks blue. In her middle? Do you see it?”r />
  Harmony said, “I see it now. What are you thinking?”

  I said, “I don’t know what to say about it, but I know about it somehow. Help me. No, um, just be with me. And watch over me. Wait, I just need to do this.”

  I concentrated very hard on what looked like a very small blue gem, buried within Dawn’s being. I was very careful, very deliberate. And very slowly, I reached out a very small chord toward it. I connected very softly, and found that my chord stuck to the place easily. I concentrated to keep under control and very, very slowly I let a little bit of whatever energy flowed down these chords move toward Dawn. I strained under the effort to hold back so that I wouldn’t overwhelm her. This wasn’t the same as what happened to Val. This was very different. This was a crazy thing that I was doing, but somehow I understood it and knew what to do.

  When the energy, this time the size of a small cherry, not a melon, flowed down the path and connected with Dawn’s blue spot, she suddenly threw her hands in the air and then turned to stare at the three of us on the bank. She stood still and didn’t move. But as much as she stared at us, we stared back at her, using our special sight.

  Harmony whispered, “Did I just see that?”

  Val said, “She just grew. I mean, her whatever it is we see just grew.”

  I said, “Let’s stop. That was hard.”

  I called out to Dawn who still stood frozen in the water of the pool.

  I said, “Dawn, come here and join us.”

  Dawn started to move. It seemed to me that she moved with even more grace than she had before. She came and Val and Harmony made room in our circle and Dawn sat down.

  Dawn immediately said, “I’m fine. That’s what you wanted to ask, isn’t it. I had an epiphany. Or something. I had a surge of something. Maybe a realization.”

  Harmony said, “Of what?”

  Dawn said, “I don’t know. Um, that I’m part elf. Or more elf. Or more something. More me. But more you. And more my ancestors. And more us. Something touched me and opened a door, or a faucet, or a door. In my blood. I mean, in my something.”

  I said, “Dawn, um, it was me. Um, well, not exactly. I kind of found out that I can see the elf parts of us, and can see what they look like and how big they are, and I could see a place in you that was like…asleep, so I tried to be very careful and unlock it for you. And when I did, something happened.”

  Dawn said gravely, “An elf part in me woke up.”

  I said, “It was like some dormant ancestral memory or something. Lucy told us that the blood of our parents combines and either gets weaker of stronger. Harmony says it’s a bit more complicated than that. As I learned to look at it, I started to wonder how it worked. And I saw this sleeping switch in you that could be turned on. And, it needed to be turned on. I just knew it somehow. It had to be. So, I did it. How do you feel?”

  Dawn said, “I feel good. I don’t feel very different though.”

  Harmony said, “She won’t. She won’t feel different, but she will be different.”

  Val said, “Let’s look again.”

  I said, “I can’t. Not right now. That was hard. It took a lot out of me. I can’t do it right now.”

  Harmony said, “All of it takes effort and concentration. But here’s what happened. Dawn, Ronin is as much elf as I am. Val is a bit less. And before, you were a bit less that Val. But, even a little bit is a lot. Think about how well you shoot and how easily you see your targets. But now, your elven parts have been awakened even more. And now, we saw that you have as much active in you as Val does. So, your children will be stronger than either Ronin or I. And we are all just starting to learn what we are. My skills have been more developed because Lucy taught me. But what Ronin showed us today is something that Lucy doesn’t know about. And now that I have seen how he does it, I can probably learn it too. I had some of it already. Lucy told you what she guessed about your heritage. The way that I look at you lets me see more accurately. And the way that Ronin showed us was even more accurate. You and Val are stronger than Lucy realized.”

  Dawn asked, “But what does it mean? How will we be able to use it?”

  Harmony said, “I don’t know. Mostly it means that the things you can do are enhanced. You knew how to shoot a bow. And then you were an exceptional shot. Now, I expect that you might find that with only a little practice, that you will be even faster, and even more accurate. Val is a healer. I think that if she tries to tune in, the way that Ronin showed us, that she will know even better how to heal wounds and illnesses. That she will be even better at comforting those who need it. And she will continue to get faster and more deadly with her knives and blowpipe.”

  Val suddenly said very urgently, “Oh, we have to go! Hurry! Get dressed! We have to go home!”

  I said, “Val, why? What’s wrong?’

  She said, “I don’t know. We have to go home. Right now. Hurry! Please!”

  The four of us leapt to our feet and pulled on our clothes as quickly as we could. As soon as we had our sandals on, Val started running.

  We ran at a medium pace, straight for the village. No one questioned Val about what we were doing. I had come to trust her intuition without question and if she said that we had to run home, then that’s what we had to do. It took us just about twenty minutes to reach the edge of the village.

  As we turned onto the street where our house was, we saw three men, and two women, in the street in front of us. The men were treating the women roughly and dragging them along in our direction. At the sight of them, all four of us started to run faster.

  Dawn called out, “Ronin, it’s the third man. The one who kidnapped me.”

  We closed the distance between us, but as I drew near, the man leading the group held a knife to the throat of one of the women and I stopped where I was, ten feet from him. The other two men held the second woman a few feet behind the first.

  The woman with the knife at her throat was Brenda. And the other was Alice.

  The first man said, “Well, ain’t this a picture. Here she is and two more besides. And we’re the only ones with weapons. Maybe we can make this work this time.”

  I said quietly, “Brenda, don’t worry. It’ll be OK. I’m going to help you. Did they hurt you.”

  Brenda said, “A few bruises. I’m OK.”

  I said, “Did they molest you?”

  She shook her head carefully.

  The man said, “Not yet. But don’t you worry. There’ll be plenty of molesting soon enough. I’m not making that mistake again.”

  I said, “Alice, are you OK?”

  She said, “Same as Brenda. Some bruises. And a sore jaw.”

  The man said, “Oh, shut up. You ain’t in charge here, or ain’t you noticed? Yeah, funny. So a while back, I was in this place and they comes in saying a body was found in the river. And it turns out to be my old buddy who last time I saw was taking that bitch there to drown her. But his head’s caved in and he’s not wearing his clothes. So I figures somebody might have got in the way of our plans again and maybe the bitch is still alive even. So then I starts out up this way, and what do you know, but that my other buddy turns up here, bled to death in an alley? And these boys ain’t so happy ‘cause it’s their brother what’s dead. Well, a few questions here and there and we find out there’s this new local hero. So, asking real polite and all and saying he’s a friend of ours, we find his house and two pretty pieces of meat just waiting for us to have ‘em. Nice house. We might stay for a while. These five girls got some molestations coming, and real soon.”

  I cut him off and said, “Girls, don’t be afraid. It’s going to be OK.”

  The man said, “The only way it’s going to be OK for them is if they don’t put up a fight and …”

  But before the man finished his sentence, as he moved his knife momentarily away from Brenda’s neck to point it at me, I lunged forward. I grabbed the hand that held the knife with my left and twisted it away from Brenda in a way that left his right wris
t broken. I pulled Brenda away from him, putting her behind me, and while he was still trying to figure out why his wrist was broken, I braced myself on the ground and struck him with my right fist, the knuckle of my index finger extended slightly. I hit him with every bit of power that I could generate. From the ground, up my legs, through the muscles of my hips, through my shoulder, elbow, and wrist. My fist struck directly over his heart, and the force of the blow knocked him off his feet, and eight feet backward. When he hit the ground, he didn’t move.

  I faced the other two men fiercely and said, “You, I don’t have a reason to kill yet. I am going to bruise you for what you have done to my women, but I can let you live.”

  One of them grabbed Alice tighter and the other yelled, “You killed our brother!”

  Dawn yelled back, “No, I killed your brother!”

  The man holding Alice pushed her roughly away from him and the two came at me. Both of them had knives. As the closest stabbed at me, I deflected his arm, and hit him hard with the back of my fist, breaking his nose. That sent him stumbling backward, and the other took a fighting stance facing me, holding his knife low and pointing at my body. I calmly stepped to the knife that the first man had dropped and casually kicked it toward Harmony and the others. I was just intending to move it out of my way, but in the next instant, is was flying past me and embedding itself in the man’s chest. He crumpled to his knees and then fell headlong in the dirt.

  The man with the broken nose was on his feet again. He came at me and took a swing with his fist. And I ducked under it, came up behind him, and broke his neck with my bare hands. My clan was not trained for prolonged non-lethal combat. If a sword was drawn, someone was going to die. No sword had been drawn here , but the principle was the same. The time for not killing an opponent was in training, or with a child or someone who didn’t know better. I would have let these men, these two, not the other one, live with some bad bruises if they had chosen to. But they chose otherwise. And now they were all dead.