Iris's Guardian

by Lisa Daniels

  Heath’s voice cut into her curiosity, “Is there something else Velius?”

  Kerensa was still looking around the room, her mind not quite registering that Heath had spoken to her.

  “Velius?” His voice was a little louder, shaking her from her thoughts.

  Without thinking, she responded, “Kerensa.” Then she looked over at the man and remembered where she was and why she was still there. A slight blush rose to her face as she said, “If you send a small party over the mountains, you can effectively cut off their ability to come and go with a well-timed avalanche. The men will be able to leave into your waiting army on the other side, and the others will stay safely on their own side. If you time it well, you may be able to do it while there was no one in the way. They will never know that it was you, and you can stop the fight with minimal casualties.”

  Again, the men shared a look. Cyprian stood back and began to look over the area again as Heath’s face broke into the most beautiful smile she had ever seen. With a quick bow of her head, Kerensa said, “I apologize for interfering, but I could not stand the idea of…” Her brow knit together. Feeling self-conscious, she quickly opened the door and left before they could respond.

  Chapter 6

  The Ugly Side of Privilege

  Kerensa moved as fast as she dared from the room, her mind going in several directions at once. She was accustomed to thinking about several things at once, but something about the encounter made her feel uncomfortable, although she was not sure exactly what it was that she felt. She was only vaguely aware of her surroundings, so she was a little surprised when she realized that she was already to her door. Pushing open the door, she was stopped by a voice.

  “Velius?”

  Kerensa turned to find the speaker, and was surprised to see the man who had held her up walking towards her.

  “That is a strange name. Perhaps you are a foreigner too? It is most impressive if you are since you seem to have gotten very close with your accent.” Kerensa could only partly make out the man’s face as he walked towards her. Before she could respond, the man was a few steps from her. “Do you mind if was discuss a few things? I can enlighten you about the grace, civility, and famous hospitality of the Volsci, and you…” his eyes looked down her body.

  Repulsed, Kerensa tried to excuse herself. “I do apologize for the disruption earlier. Perhaps we could talk some other time, but tonight, I really must finish some of my research on-”

  “Now, now, what kind of exchange is this? We are on a boat,” he spread his arms out wide as if Kerensa did not already know that, “we have nothing but time. I am certain your research can wait just a little while longer.”

  Kerensa looked the man in the eye, knowing that she was going to have to be as firm with him as she was with all of the suitors like him that she had turned down. A part of her noted how strange it was that she was comparing the man to a suitor, but mostly she was annoyed by his insistence that they talk. “I would love to have the chance to talk with you, but right now is inconvenient.” She tried to smile as she played a card that should have quieted the man, “Besides, should you not be with your fiancé? I thought you were celebrating.”

  He waved a hand, “She has already retired. I’m sure even you have noticed how tiresome our women can be. You can’t get them to bed with you without a ring, and then they are only good for children after that. It is a sad state, but we men must make do with other companionship.”

  He closed the distance between them. Kerensa took a step away from him into her room. “Sir, I must ask that you return to your-”

  His hand shot out and pushed her shoulder, causing the young woman to stumble back into her room. The man stepped into her cabin and closed the door. Taking a deep breath he looked at her, “Ah, that must be the smell of real manly love. I can’t say that I have ever considered it before now. Well, not too much.” He walked toward her, blocking her way out of the room. Kerensa retreated into her room, but was too afraid to turn her back on the advancing man. She had doubted that he had meant anything he had said as the man knew nothing about her, not even her name until Heath had spoken it in front of the man. She did not even know his name.

  Trying to keep herself calm, Kerensa was able to put a table between her and the man as he looked around, “I do not even know your name sir.”

  He gave a huge sweeping bow. “Stinton Entrengo Brattle. I cannot tell you,” he lifted his head up and looked at her, “how pleased I am to hear you are taking an interest in me. I am not quite sure how to begin this. Do we just get right to it, or is there some other way with intellectuals? Never having been too interested in the scholarly type myself, I fear I have no idea how to even chat with you. If it is all the same to you, I would prefer just to get down to business.”

  Kerensa placed her hands on the table, “If you are speaking of a cultural exchange-”

  The man shook his head and knocked the table out of the way. The motion took Kerensa by surprise. The leg of the table caught her shin as she stepped away from the wooden table. Off balance, she felt a pair of rough hands take her arms.

  “I want the kind of cultural exchange that does not require clothing.” The man’s face was inches from her own.

  Kerensa kicked the man in the shin. As he leaned forward in pain, she tried to run for the door. A thick hand caught her wrist. “Is that how we do it? Rough?”

  Without warning, Kerensa felt herself being dragged toward her bed. “Let me go you entitled buffoon!” Her voice was firm and cold, the kind of tone she used when men tried to correct her after she had provided them with a detailed explanation that they did not understand. “I am not here for your entertainment. I am here-” the young woman was trying to pull her arm free, but her ribs were beginning to burn as she struggled.

  “Now, now, that is harsh language. I may think you do not like me.” Stinton pushed her roughly onto the bed, tearing her shirt as he did. Kerensa kicked out at him, nailing him in the stomach. He doubled over, but put a hand on her ankle. She kicked at his arm, trying to get him off of her, but he quickly grabbed her leg with his other hand.

  “I don’t think you fully understand the position you are in,” the man growled at her. “I am never denied anything I want, and I am not about to be denied by some twisted little stick of a boy who thinks that he can turn me down. It just makes things that much more certain.”

  His hand released her ankle and grabbed at the top of her pants. She tried to kick him, but the man pressed his body against her leg so that she could not do him any more harm.

  “Get off me!” she demanded, her voice still calm and controlled. “If I tell the captain about this, you won’t even be a footnote in history.”

  The man laughed, “Then that gives me every incentive to end the evening with a terrible accident.”

  Kerensa scratched the man’s face as he leaned toward her. Instead of letting go of her as she expected, the man spat on her, “How dare you!”

  A low rumble reverberated around the room, causing both Kerensa and her attacker to look around the room.

  “How dare you is right, but it is directed at the wrong person.” Heath’s voice was like the sound of a silence proceeding a tidal wave.

  Suddenly, the man flew backward across the room. Kerensa’s eyes went to where the man had been and saw Heath’s face looking down on her.

  “Are you alright?” He reached out a hand and gently wiped the spit off her face.

  Kerensa gave a little nod. His eyes scanned her body to verify her claim, then they fell on the torn pant leg where the table had struck her. Placing his cool hand on it, he looked up at her with concern in his eyes before turning his back on her. Heath strode towards the man, who was now trying to stand up on the other side of the room.

  “You will pay for this foreigner! Do you have any idea who I am!” Stinton’s face was red with anger, but pain soon covered his face as he tumbled over, his leg apparently injured from being thrown across the room.<
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  “You are an insignificant human who is puffed up like a boil that is ready to burst. It is always best to fix these things before they reach this point, but I will take great pleasure in fixing this now.”

  Stinton pressed his back against the wall, indignation covering his face, “Of course I'm a human! I’m from one of the longest lines of nobility in all of Volsci! I will have you-” suddenly the man stopped and the color drained from his face. “Wait! You aren’t human?” The tone of his voice was entirely different as the meaning began to sink in. “Are you a wizard then? One of those horrid-”

  Kerensa could not see the look on Heath’s face, but from the way he spoke, she could imagine that he was smiling. His movements were fluid and calm, but she could see his muscles tensed up. It reminded her of the descriptions she had read of some of the larger beasts as they stalked their prey. “No, no, I am not the type to rely on magic to do what needs to be done. You see, I am from the place that you call Vetitum. One word from me, and your entire pathetic nation will be nothing more than a lesson on the dangers of improper breeding and education. But don’t worry, I am not vengeful, just protective.” His posture suggested Heath was relaxed, but from her angle, Kerensa could see his muscles bunching up as if he were preparing to strike.

  Stinton was either dumber than she realized or there was nothing obvious in Heath’s stance to let the man know that he was in trouble. Instead of feeling afraid, Stinton’s shoulders sagged a little in relief, “Thank the gods. I am sorry for messing with one of your things. If I would have realized who you were, I-”

  Heath stepped closer to the man and lifted him easily by the front of his shirt, “You did not mess with anything that is mine. Velius is his own man, and the fact that you cannot understand that proves my point.” As if he were holding a pillow, Heath pulled the man back and slammed him against the wall. Even from across the room, Kerensa could hear the wind leave Stinton’s lungs. The words about how he taught came back to her.

  If a student does not learn to my satisfaction, I tend to lose faith in instructing using the more traditional methods. You could say that I can be downright scary when I get bored or bothered.

  Watching the shifter, she began to understand what he meant. Though he was doing it for her, Kerensa felt a hint of fear as Heath continued his lesson.

  The shifter’s voice was low and threatening when he spoke again, his hand never leaving the man’s shirt, “Right now he is simply under my care as I have every desire to see his research end in success. You see, where I am from, intelligence is something to be revered, not blood and brute strength. Since you are clearly an obstacle to what my friend here is trying to do, I think that we need to remove you from being a potential problem in the future.”

  The man closed his eyes tight, believing that the foreigner was about to kill him. Suddenly, the entire ship shook, and even Heath staggered. Still, he did not loosen his grip on the man.

  “Aeolians!” Kerensa watched as the shifter turned and looked out the window. Without another word, Heath dropped the man and rushed over to Kerensa. As Heath began to try to dress her wound, Stinton took the opportunity to run out of the door.

  Heath tried to steady himself as the ship lurched again.

  Kerensa’s mind shifted just as rapidly as Heath’s, “You said that before. What are Aeolians?”

  Heath looked over at her, “I said something about Aeolian?’

  Kerensa nodded.

  “That was what I forgot. Oh gods, Velius, I am so sorry. We have to get you out of here as quickly as possible. This ship is not prepared for an attack, and I will be very surprised if it’s still afloat in 10 minutes.”

  “What are Aeolians?” Her mind was racing as she looked at Heath’s worried face. “Are they some kind of pirate?”

  “Good gods, this is bad,” he muttered moving quickly over to Kerensa. His hands were remarkably fast as he took care of her newest wound. He finished just as the ship lurched again. Unlike the first attack on us as they left Berenice, these movements were more violent and frequent. What had felt like very unsteady waves before now felt like someone was hitting the ship with a battering ram.

  Heath took a coat from a hook and wrapped Kerensa in it before picking her up. “I want to ask if you’re alright, but one look at you and that is the answer. What I have done will have to be enough for the time being.” His eyes were full of concern as he looked down at her in his arms.

  Suddenly Chadwick appeared in the door, “My lady! We have to get to the rafts! There is a hole in the ship!”

  Chapter 7

  A Dangerous Decoy

  There was a look of relieve on Heath’s face once Chadwick appeared. “Just the man I want to see. Come Chadwick.”

  A strange look crossed Chadwick’s face as Heath strode past him with Kerensa in his arms. More than a decade of listening to such a commanding voice caused the servant’s feet to react before he knew what he was doing. Heath’s face turned to the side as he strode forward, “Do you know where the captain is?”

  “Yes, he is just this way.” Hurrying past Heath, Chadwick took the lead and guided them to where the captain was issuing commands to the men. Kerensa watched a scene that could easily have been from one of her nightmares. Though the men were working hard, the water was pooling on the ground.

  Heath shouted over the noise, “Captain! A minute if you will.”

  The captain frowned, but he did not miss the fact that the man was carrying the young scholar. The pair had been nearly inseparable since they arrived, though the captain had not heard that they had known each other before the boy’s arrival. The frown grew as he worried that the man was going to make some impossible demand about his lover in the midst of everything.

  Once he saw that the captain was heading toward him, Heath walked into an adjoining room where it was somewhat quieter.

  The captain strode into the room, “We do not have time for-”

  Heath did not wait for the man to finish. “Captain, what do you know about the Aeolians?”

  The captain closed his mouth and furrowed his brow, “They are a legendary army of some sort of bizarre water creatures.”

  Heath was nodding, “Close enough.”

  Kerensa looked between the two trying to figure out if they were serious. The captain seemed to answer that question as he laughed. “Is that what you brought me in here to discuss? At a time like this?” Shaking his head, the man turned to leave.

  “They are attacking your ship, captain. I hardly think that there is much you are going to be able to do from here.”

  The man scowled back at the well-dressed man, “Why don’t you stick to what you know best and let me take care of the things that matter.” His voice was almost as cold as his eyes.

  Kerensa felt Heath tense, but there was no reflection of that in his tone or his face as he answered, “What matters is getting everyone off of this ship. Oh, except that weed with the fiance. Simpleton or something like that.”

  The captain raised an eyebrow, “Stinton?”

  “That’s the one. He tried to rape Velius here. I would not say a word if you left him behind. But I am being quite serious when I say that you need to get everyone else off of this vessel.”

  “I am not about to go abandoning my post.”

  “If you want to go down with the ship, by all means waste your life. The world has too few good captains, but no one should stop you from making your own mistakes. However, you have a responsibility to the people on this ship to get them to safety before you choose suicide by ocean.”

  “Listen here young man-”

  “I am neither young nor a man. My origins are in the country you know as Frozen Paradise. A man of your learning knows what that means, and you have an inclination of what I am.”

  The captain swallowed, his eyes now wide as he looked at the man. Kerensa noticed Chadwick stiffen at Heath’s declaration of not being a human, and he began to fidget, as if he wanted to get her away as quickl
y as possible.

  The captain finally spoke, “I’ve heard that your kind can live for centuries. How is that possible?” It was almost as if he had completely forgotten the emergency when confronted with something so rare.

  “We aren’t human.”

  Kerensa looked up at the man holding her, “Do shifters live that much longer?”

  Heath’s eyes looked down at her with a hint of amusement, “It depends on the species of shifter. My people are an exceedingly rare type of shifter. We are nothing like the type who roam your continent.”

  Chadwick spoke from the side, “My lady, you knew?” There was a look of shock on the servant’s face as he watched her mouth curve into a frown.

  Kerensa reprimanded him, “And that is why I have not wanted you to stay with me most of this trip. Stop treating and addressing me like a woman.”

  From his place a few paces away, the captain shook his head as he muttered, “Well, that certainly makes sense. She was one of the prettiest boys I’ve ever seen.” He looked at the pair, “Whatever you two have going on is not my concern, so as much as I would enjoy standing around finding out just how far down this vortex goes, I'm afraid that duty calls.”

  Heath looked over at the man, “I have simply been instructing him in how to behave like a boy so that no one would find out otherwise.” His eyes flicked to Chadwick before continuing, “I suppose it doesn’t much matter now though. You need to get everyone off this ship and away as quickly as possible. The Aeolians will watch it sink before they start going after life rafts. I can help keep them away from the life boats longer by attracting their attention, but it won’t do any good if you are not well away by the time they give up.”

  The captain nodded, “Any instructions in particular? Or should we focus on speed?”

  “You will have your hands full getting everyone off the ship and away. It is up to you how you choose to do that. I do recommend heading south. There is an island not too far away where you are likely to encounter some merchants who could help you return to Berenice.”