Guardians of the Dead

by S. L. Wilson

  ‘Yes, I remember when the witch arrived to heal the queen, she was strong-willed and feisty. She even tried to break the pact Loso had built with the human witches back in your realm. She is the most amazing healer I have ever seen.’

  Something stirred inside Amber – pride.

  ‘So my mother was taken from us and brought to Phelan to nurse a dying queen of the fae? Is the queen still sick?’

  ‘No, she is fully restored to health.’

  ‘So why didn’t the general let my mother go?’ Her eyes began to sting and her voice rose slightly as she questioned the reason her mother hadn’t seen her grow up.

  ‘Queen Alia and your mother are incredibly close. I don’t think she would leave her side even if Loso ordered it. I told you, she is strong-willed.’

  Connor rubbed his hand across his face and addressed Redka, ‘What happened to the baby that Queen Alia had?’

  Amber snapped her head up to look at Redka as he stood and swung round to face them.

  He bent over in a deep bow, folding his arm across his chest as he spoke, ‘Prince Redka of Avaveil at your service.’

  Amber’s mouth hung wide open as she watched this beautiful boy give a sheepish shrug of his muscular shoulders. Connor snorted with laughter.

  ‘Great…a prince, that figures.’

  Amber squeezed the bridge of her nose between her fingers and tried to take it all in. Queen Alia was a prisoner and had given birth to Redka here in Phelan. When she got sick, her own mother had been kidnapped to save her and was also a prisoner. Her best friend had been kidnapped and he too was a prisoner. She was looking forward to meeting this General Loso; she had a lot she wanted to say to him.

  THE JOURNEY through Phelan, up to the Black Mountains was a quiet one; all three were lost in their own thoughts and only stopped briefly to refill their water bottles at another lagoon. Amber marvelled again at the beauty of such a violent realm. The trees stood tall and proud, and the meadows and bubbling brooks looked like something Monet had painted. The colours were vivid; a sea of pink, purple, blue and yellow splashed across the landscape.

  The Black Mountains didn’t look as sinister as she had imagined, and as she followed Redka through the forests and open pastures, she longed to stay, to lie amongst the flowers and peer up at the blue sky, to rest in the shadow of the mountain with her prince.

  Her prince – she shook her head to clear her mind. Redka wasn’t her prince, yes he was a prince but he wasn’t her prince, was he? As she watched his square shoulders, from her position behind him on the track, she allowed herself a moment to dream. The muscles on his arms were evident through his dark shirt, and his long white hair was tied in a braid down his back, bound by leather cord. Caught in the warm breeze, wisps were flying about his shoulders and face as he walked. As if sensing her staring, he swung around.

  ‘Is everything okay?’

  She walked faster, catching up to stride alongside him. ‘Yes, fine, I was just thinking what a beautiful place Phelan is.’

  He laughed, a loud deep laugh which lit up his face.

  ‘That’s Queen Alia’s doing.’ He swept his arm in a wide arc and spun around in a full circle. ‘From the fortress, the queen can see all of these lands. She didn’t like what she saw when she arrived, so she used her elemental magic and altered the scenery.’

  Amber was stunned. ‘She can do that?’

  ‘Yes, most fae have elemental magic, even Connor here.’

  Connor caught up with them.

  ‘Can you?’ Amber asked him. ‘Can you change nature?’

  He shrugged and picked up a bright blue flower from the ground; he held it closely in the palm of his hand and closed his eyes. As they watched, the flower turned yellow.

  ‘Ha, I guess I can!’

  ‘That’s amazing.’ She took the flower from Connor and examined it incredulously.

  ‘So what was the scenery like before your mum used her faerie mojo on it?’ Connor asked as they set off walking again.

  ‘Ah, when we reach the mountains I will be able to show you. Alia’s fortress faces east with no windows to the north, south or west, so the rest of Phelan looks as it always looked, pretty nasty.’

  Amber still held the yellow flower in her hand as she trailed behind the boys; she recalled her conversation with Lavanya when she had been in her dream state. She had been told that her powers were strong and that she possessed all seven of the ancient oracle powers. She remembered that elemental magic was one of them.

  She concentrated on her third eye until she could feel her hands tingling and then dug down deep to find her sacral chakra. The colour orange flooded her vision, and as she directed the power into the tiny yellow flower, it burst into flames, curling and turning to ash in her open palm.

  She jumped and dropped the remains.

  ‘You okay?’ Connor called back to her from further along the path.

  ‘Yes…I’m fine, thought I saw a bug.’ She wasn’t ready to tell them about her gifts yet, and she didn’t want to tell Connor she had just destroyed something so brutally, after he had used his fae gifts on it; he had been so pleased with himself. She was going to have to be careful with her powers and learn to use them in secret before unleashing them on her unsuspecting friends.

  Shaking off the shock of her newfound skill with fire, she watched Redka and Connor walking ahead of her and marvelled at how two boys could be so perfect. They had different colourings, Connor with his dark brown hair and mocha eyes, and Redka with strong fae genes of pure white hair and piercing purple eyes. He was also a touch taller, but they were both muscular, tall and beautiful. She felt her heart lurch first one way and then the other, like a warped game of spin the bottle, but the bottle never stopped in one place. She was now tied to both of them and had the strangest feeling that the bonds ran deeper than any of them could imagine.

  Redka hadn’t been joking about the state of Phelan. As they climbed the lower half of the Black Mountains, Amber could see the lands that Queen Alia’s elemental magic hadn’t reached.

  The ground was scorched; the sky was heavy with clouds of ash from the hundreds of open craters where the lava had been forced through the earth’s crust. There were no trees, no fields of flowers, only fire, rivers of lava and demons.

  Amber had been ready to run when they spotted the mountainous creatures. Her initial interaction in the cave had been unpleasant, swiftly followed by a near decapitation in the forest. She was happy to stay as far away from the Dragovax as possible.

  ‘Do not fear, they are only hunting for the lavahogs that live in the rock crevices. Phelan is their homeland,’ Redka explained as they climbed the rock face. ‘The Guardians invaded this realm thousands of years ago when their own homeland was overtaken by dragons.’

  Amber was about to exclaim that nobody had told her dragons were real when they reached a small opening in the rock. Redka grasped her hand and pulled her up onto the rocky outcropping. Tiny bursts of heat coursed through her body as their palms connected. He didn’t seem to notice, or chose to remain silent, as he moved to help Connor.

  The opening was a small hole in the rock face, like an empty eye socket chiselled out of stone. They had to crouch to fit through the gap; Redka led the way, his faerie sight allowing him to see clearly in the gloom.

  Once they had shuffled through the opening, the tunnel roof sloped higher, making it a little easier to navigate. As she walked deeper into the mountain, Amber could feel her hands and feet begin to tingle. She concentrated her energies on her third eye and felt a cool rush of air envelop her body.

  She heard Connor exhale behind her. ‘Holy cow!’

  Redka stopped walking and looked back at them.

  ‘Amber…you’re glowing like a firefly.’ His voice was hushed as he took in the sight of Amber wrapped in the subtle yellow glow of the tiny flames that licked her aura. They didn’t burn, instead they flickered and caressed her clothing and hair, projecting a buttery light and casting soft sh
adows on the tunnel walls.

  ‘Great, we have our own human torch,’ Connor teased. ‘Lead the way.’

  ‘I get the distinct impression that Amber is not human,’ Redka added.

  ‘No shit, Sherlock,’ Connor mumbled before pressing his hand on the small of Amber’s back and gently pushing her forward.

  ‘I’m an oracle,’ Amber said very matter-of-factly as she walked along the now well-lit stone corridor.

  Redka’s eyes widened and he opened his mouth as if about to speak then closed it again. Amber felt the warm glow in her stomach at being able to shock him into a stunned silence, proud of her newly-discovered destiny for the first time. She pushed gently past him and trailed her hand along the black rock, feeling the bumps and grooves with her fingertips. As she rounded a bend, the corridor spilled out into a small circular cave, the walls rough and cold to the touch. A rickety ladder had been leant against the cavern wall and went up as far as Amber could see; even her muted oracle illumination couldn’t reach the top.

  ‘It’s a long climb,’ Redka said, as if reading her mind. ‘When we reach the surface, we will be in a small food store within the fortress. It’s where the animal feed is kept, but not many of the Guardians stay there for long as the smell is quite rancid.’ He wrinkled his nose up to emphasise how bad it was. ‘The animals shouldn’t bother us if we move slowly and stay close to the walls.’

  ‘What animals do they keep?’ Amber couldn’t imagine a race of evil warriors keeping goats or puppies.

  ‘Razor warriors,’ he replied, placing his feet on the bottom rung of the ladder. ‘They are vicious cats with tusks as sharp as knives. If you were a demon they would rip you apart, but they seem to like everyone else.’

  ‘Think we already met one, a big black cat saved us from a demon attack just as we cleared the gateway, I’m guessing that’s your razor warrior.’

  ‘Sounds like it; once they smell the blood of the demons they go a little crazy.’

  They began to climb, slowly at first, but once they got into a rhythm then the climbing became easier and quicker. Before she knew it Redka was offering her his hand and pulling her up into a large hole in the ground above, with a wooden trapdoor. There was a rancid odour, like decaying carcases intermingled with the sweet, sickly smell of rotting fruit.

  Redka lifted the trapdoor. The insipid light of the storeroom was just enough to allow him to check for soldiers. Amber doused her internal flashlight.

  Outside the door she could discern mounds of cloth dotted across the floor. Redka inched the door open just enough for them all to slip through, then closed it and slid the bolt home.

  They blended into the shadows with their backs against the stone wall of the pens. Amber noticed, with a rising feeling of nausea, that the mounds of cloth were in fact bits of demons. There was an arm here, a leg there and an eyeball or three nestled among the flagstones. She covered her mouth and looked at her feet, fearful that if she looked again she would throw up over everyone.

  Connor silently slipped his hand into hers and squeezed. She looked at him and he gave her a gentle smile; her aura must have been a puce green or something for him to notice she wasn’t coping very well.

  Redka circled the pen, keeping to the shadows; two Guardians marched past causing him to freeze on the spot. Their red eyes gleamed in the dim light as they checked on the animals. The razor warriors didn’t seem to notice or care about the intrusion and busied themselves ripping into the demon meat that littered the floor.

  Amber didn’t think she could hold on to the contents of her stomach much longer and nudged Redka in the back to urge him on. He gave a small nod and slipped open the cage door to let them all out.

  ‘How come you have to hide from the Guardians if you’ve lived here all your life?’ Connor hissed as they spewed out into the dank corridor.

  Redka chuckled. ‘As far as Loso and the soldiers are aware I have never left the fortress. I train in the arena and I live in the queen’s staterooms, and they seem pleased with that. I, on the other hand, ventured outside as soon as I could walk, finding or making secret passages.’ He looked pointedly at Amber, ‘I knew the day would come when we would flee, and I needed to be ready to guide my family out of here.’

  Amber hurried to the small window opposite the pen and gulped in a lungful of air to steady her stomach, then began choking as the soot hit the back of her throat. The window looked out across the mountain range; huge black rocks jutted out from the earth tinged red from the flames that burst through the craters. A river of red lava wound its way through the landscape until it met with a sea of burning orange at the foot of the mountain. The horizon was bright red, like the sky was bleeding.

  ‘Why on earth would anyone want to invade this realm and set up home?’

  Redka looked over Amber’s shoulder. ‘Can you understand why Queen Alia altered the view?’

  Connor took a look at Phelan and shuddered. ‘I’m just glad the gateway we came through was in the east!’

  They made their way through the fortress like thieves pulling off a dangerous heist, slinking into the shadows at the sound of footsteps and motioning silent instructions to each other as they headed deeper into the building.

  The place was vast, and Amber noticed, as Redka had already pointed out, that the windows only faced east. The view was much better this way, and the air was filled with a much more pleasant scent of blossom and grass.

  ‘Is this what Avaveil looks like?’ she asked Redka as they slipped past a bank of windows.

  A shadow descended over his face. ‘I believe so. Unfortunately I was born in Phelan, so I’ve never seen the land of the fae for myself, and only through Queen Alia’s eyes can I see the true beauty of my home realm.’

  ‘If we succeed then you may get to see your true homeland for real.’ Amber’s heart faltered at the thought that she may have to leave him in the future. Her mission was to save Tom – and now her mother – and return to Hills Heath in the human realm; he belonged in Avaveil with his mother and his people.

  Redka strode ahead to catch up with Connor, as Amber’s chest grew tight from a loss that hadn’t happened yet. She felt a tear slide slowly down her cheek. Reaching up she caught it in her hand; a single tear full of love and fear. As she watched, the tear crystallised to form a perfect tiny diamond. She closed her palm around the stone, her thoughts shifting briefly to Lavanya and her own oracle heritage.

  THE BOYS had moved far ahead of her and were nearly at the end of the long walkway; the corridor was made up of a long stone wall with a single wooden door to her right and windows to her left. As she hurried to catch up with them, the door opened in front of her, cutting off her escape. She glanced wildly around her but there was nowhere to hide. She stood her ground as a figure walked out of the annexe room and closed the door behind them. She willed the boys to turn around and see her predicament.

  The figure wore a long blue cloak with a cowl edged with gold embroidery; a basket of herbs swung from the person’s arm and they were humming a hypnotic tune. Amber relaxed slightly as she realised this wasn’t a Guardian but one of the household staff.

  As Connor and Redka spun around to look down the corridor, the figure faltered and stopped humming.

  ‘Redka?’ It was a soft female voice. ‘What are you doing here? Who are you with?’

  As if sensing a presence behind her, the cloaked woman slowly pivoted, and her hood fell back to reveal long brown curls with a silver strand of hair framing a beautiful face.

  ‘Mum?’ A sob wracked through Amber at the sight of her mother.

  ‘Amber!’ She dropped the basket and ran towards her, sweeping her into her arms as they wept in unison.

  They clung to one another as the boys herded them back into the annexe room so they wouldn’t be discovered.

  The room was simple; an old timber table sat in the centre and the walls were lined with shelves of herbs, spices and ointments. The smells were intoxicating.

  M
yanna clung to her daughter. ‘What are you doing here? How did you find this place?’ Her face was red with crying and her voice wavered as she spoke.

  ‘Tom was taken by a Guardian, and I came with Connor…’ She jerked her thumb at Connor who nodded his head by way of a polite introduction. ‘We came through the gateway to save Tom and then we met Redka and he told me you were here and I…we thought you left us.’ Another wave of tears washed over her, and she buried her face in her mother’s long hair, breathing in her long-forgotten scent.

  Myanna soothed her daughter, stroking her back and winding her long hair around her small fist. ‘It’s far too dangerous for you here. If Loso finds you I can’t imagine what he would do to you.’

  ‘I know, Mum, but I couldn’t leave Tom to the fate of the Guardians.’ She sighed deeply, feeling the full weight of the responsibility she had placed upon herself. ‘I know that I’m an oracle. Connor and Lavanya have been teaching me to connect with my powers. It may help to free him.’

  Her mother gasped. ‘You didn’t show any signs of having powers when you were smaller. We thought we had made a mistake and the prophecies were mistaken.’

  ‘Oh, they’re real. I guess my powers would have emerged eventually but I was cursed by Dad’s girlfriend.’

  ‘Excuse me!’ Myanna placed her hands squarely on her tiny hips.

  Amber suddenly felt like a six-year-old again and, realising her error, she stammered, ‘Oh no, it’s not what you think, he was cursed too, we both were.’

  ‘By a necromancer,’ Connor interjected.

  ‘We must get you to the queen.’

  Myanna hunted through an old wicker basket and dug out two navy cloaks, each one lavishly decorated with tiny stars made from silver thread. She handed them to Amber and Connor who put them on, and then she led them back out into the corridor. They hurried along the dusty flagstones keeping their heads low.