Guardian

by Sam Cheever

  I opened my mouth, ready to throw about a hundred objections at him for his very weak plan. Then I closed it. Because try as I might I couldn’t come up with a better one. Finally I sighed and nodded.

  We returned to the opening and looked out. No one was near the tunnel and no one was looking our way so Ian nodded and we stepped out. Turning immediately away from the activity at the waterfront, we headed across pristine white sand toward the trees about a quarter of a mile away.

  We’d only gone a handful of steps before a hand landed on Ian’s shoulder.

  He spun, a long knife in his hand, to face our attacker.

  A small form in a long, rough, earth colored robe stood there. It was impossible to tell if the person under the robe was elf or human, male or female, but it looked like a member of the Grigory Brotherhood, the local monks. The figure’s hands were crossed in front of its rough robes and a deep hood hid its face.

  “Show yourself!” Ian demanded in a low but rough voice.

  The figure shook its head and reached under its robes, pulling out a bundle of rough cloth similar to what it was wearing. “Put these on and follow me quietly.”

  Ian frowned. “Faerydae?”

  “Hurry!”

  Ian unrolled the bundle and handed me a robe. I slid it on, immediately lifting the hood to cover my hair and face. Ian did the same.

  The elf queen turned away without another word and lowered her head, folding her small hands in front of her, enclosed in the robe’s wide sleeves. We followed her lead and the three of us hurried toward town, passing several of Aubrie’s men who were scurrying around, arrows nocked and nowhere to go.

  As we entered the city, Faerydae took a quick left into an alleyway. The sun hadn’t reached that particular alley yet and, for a moment, my eyes had trouble adjusting to the lack of light. I peered into the darkness ahead of us and thought I saw a large shape there. Reaching out a hand I stopped Ian.

  A soft whicker of greeting stifled my fear. It was just a horse.

  Faerydae stopped and turned, pulling back the hood just enough so that we could see her stunningly beautiful face. “Aubrie’s men are everywhere. He intends to take the girl back and feed her to the harpies as a message for the gods.”

  Eiew! I paled and glanced at Ian.

  Ian took a step toward the Elvin queen. “How do you know this?”

  She shrugged. “I have spies.” She turned toward the large, dark shape at the back of the alley and gave a soft whistle. “You must go. Take Broud and release him on the other side of the water. He’ll return to me.”

  The beautiful black unicorn trotted out of the shadows and stopped before his queen, nuzzling her outstretched hand affectionately.

  Closing her eyes on a sigh, Faerydae leaned to kiss him on his velvet nose. “Be safe my friend.” The unicorn nickered softly and nudged her gently with his nose. She stepped away, reluctantly it seemed, and pulled the hood back up to hide her face.

  Ian grabbed her arm as she turned to go. “What of your safety?”

  She covered the hand on her arm and stood up on tiptoe, kissing him gently but thoroughly on the lips. “I will be safe. I’ll tell them you stole Broud from his stable. Aubrie will be suspicious as always but he daren’t go against me. Not yet.”

  Ian nodded. “I’ll be back. Until then, keep yourself safe, Dae.”

  She nodded and, before turning away the hooded head swiveled in my direction. The sun had started to thread its way into the alley but it didn’t reach the depths of that rough hood. I stared into the blackness where her face lay hidden from view and wished I could read her eyes. After a moment she pulled something from underneath her robes and handed it to me. It was a beautifully wrought Elvin long knife, the hilt sparkled with what looked like rubies. “You’ll need some protection.” Then she turned away from me without another word and started walking.

  At the end of the alley she turned right, toward the Monastery, and disappeared from view.

  Ian patted Broud on his thick, shiny neck. “Thank you for your aid, old friend.”

  The beautiful Unicorn nodded his head and snorted softly. Then he lowered himself onto his front knees so Ian could climb up. He settled himself and held a hand down to me.

  I eyed the Unicorn. Broud eyed me. Neither of us looked happy.

  “Nuria?”

  I looked up at Ian. “You might have noticed that horses and I don’t get along.”

  Ian narrowed his pretty brown eyes at me. “This is a horse like a peasant cart is a royal coach.”

  I shrugged, keeping an assessing eye on the beautiful black creature. He hadn’t moved his huge brown eye from me even to blink. “It’s just a horse with a built in sword. And it doesn’t like me.”

  In the distance, but not too far away, the sound of shouting and pounding footsteps could be heard, moving steadily nearer.

  Ian blew out a frustrated breath. “Nuria! Give me your damn hand!”

  “Oh hell!” I reached for Ian’s outstretched hand and he yanked me up behind him.

  Broud groaned as I landed hard on his kidneys and threw his head up, lifting himself to his feet.

  “Fly like the wind, old friend.” Ian wrapped his fists with the creature’s thick mane and I wrapped myself around Ian, enjoying the feel and smell of him for just a moment.

  Broud flapped his wings and then made a startled “eek!” sound as I tightened my knees around his barrel in panic. The huge creature turned his head and the brown eye he fixed on me looked intelligent and annoyed. “Sorry.” I ducked my head and tried to loosen my knees.

  Shaking his head, Broud flapped his wings hard, once, twice, three times, and suddenly we were off. I leaned against Ian’s back and closed my eyes, praying. There was only one thing worse than riding a horse, and that would be flying on one. I cracked my eyes and looked down just in time to see the top of a stone building swing by just under Broud’s huge hooves. I squeaked and lifted my feet.

  Ian’s chuckle rumbled against my cheek.

  As we cleared the town and swung toward open ocean, a cry went up.

  The first fire arrow whizzed by my head and exploded in thin air nearby, singing my hair and causing Broud to make a truly stomach wrenching maneuver that had us flying nearly sideways for several seconds.

  A second fire arrow sent us careening the other way. I held on as best I could but, when Broud did a rolling turn and dropped several feet in the air to avoid a slew of fire arrows, I found myself hanging in midair with only a small piece of Ian’s shirt between two fingers to hold me to him.

  He reached a hand up and grabbed my arm, pulling me back down. I landed hard on the Unicorn’s back with an undignified oomph sound.

  Wrapping both arms around Ian’s middle I closed my eyes and wished I could just disappear.

  Suddenly, as a fire arrow exploded way too close in our wake, leaving behind the smell of singed Unicorn tail, Broud threw his magnificent head back and roared. He flapped his enormous wings a few times, hard, and we surged upward, toward the wispy layer of clouds above.

  The next round of fire arrows whizzed by just beneath us. A few more sizzled by, even further below us, before Aubrie’s warriors gave up; apparently realizing we were beyond their range.

  I took a deep breath and sat up, trying not to look down.

  The air was clear and still. Above our heads clouds passed silently by, hurrying to some destination known only to them. Below us, the birds undulated with the air currents, occasionally looking up in alarm as Broud’s enormous shadow passed over them.

  The water was jewel-like under the sun’s insistent rays, a huge diamond beneath Broud’s wings.

  I started to relax and, when Broud’s flight stayed even and smooth, even began to enjoy myself. Closing my eyes I laid my head on Ian’s broad back and let my weary bones warm in the sun.

  At some point in the journey I must have fallen asleep. I awoke to a solid jolt and Broud’s massive wings pushing backward against the air as he slowed
himself from a landing canter into a trot and then a walk. He stopped finally and dropped to his knees for our dismount.

  Ian reached around and grabbed one of my hands, holding it while I lifted one leg over Broud’s broad back and then slid toward the ground. When my feet connected with earth my knees wobbled. Ian tightened his grip on my hand and I looked up, seeing only concern in his brown eyes. He grinned at me. “The first time can be a little disconcerting.”

  I grimaced, sensing a double entendre in his words. “Uhn huh.”

  Ian followed me to the ground and Broud flung up his head and stood, snorting from the effort of pulling his massive body off the ground.

  Ian moved toward the magical creature’s head and reached up to run a hand over the black silk of Broud’s forehead, circling the deadly looking horn. The Unicorn’s almond shaped brown eyes narrowed with pleasure and his head nodded under the caress. “Thank you old friend. I owe you one.”

  Broud shook his magnificent head with a snort and lowered his head to nuzzle Ian. Then he turned a gimlet eye toward me.

  I jumped, startled. “What?”

  The creature lifted his snout and flared his massive nostrils. His tail twitched hard, slapping me on the backside.

  “Ouch!”

  Ian laughed. “He wants you to thank him too.”

  I glared at the disrespecting beast and he glared back. When the tail lifted slightly in preparation for another ass whacking I held up a placating hand. “Okay, okay. Thank you great and magnificent Broud.” I gave him a mocking little bow and he snorted, tossing his head.

  Then I turned my back on him, shaking my head. “He’s not too full of himself is he?”

  This time the tail slammed me on the back of my head. “Hey!”

  I wobbled in the incredible back draft caused by Broud’s wings as he took to the air and headed back toward Faerydae.

  I stared after him, rubbing my head. Impressed despite myself. Then I turned to Ian. “To Tana’s?” I asked hopefully.

  He shook his head. “Sorry. I have to check in on the monster mash first. There’s no telling what trouble they’ve gotten up to while I’ve been gone. Then we’ll visit Tana and see about her removing that unlucky charm from your wrist.”

  “elf humor. Har!”

  Ian reached into his pocket and brought out a handful of something glittery and fine. He grabbed my hand and flung the faery dust over our heads.

  And we were off.

  ~ ~*~ ~

  “Can’t we eat something first?” I didn’t like the way my voice sounded all whiny and pathetic, but the rumbly in my tumbly had risen to embarrassing levels and was embarrassing me at ten second intervals.

  Ian glanced at me, apparently sick of listening to my stomach complain. “All right, but we need to make it fast.”

  I followed my nose to the first quick meal place we saw and ordered myself two meat sandwiches. Ian got one. He lifted two dark eyebrows at me and I shrugged. “No telling when you’ll let me eat again.”

  We took our sandwiches to a little table at the back of the room and sat down facing the door. I dove into my first sandwich while Ian sat staring at the door as if he expected a demon to come through it at any moment.

  As I popped the last bite of my first sandwich into my mouth Ian finally picked his up. He’d taken two bites when the door to the shop opened and closed, apparently by itself.

  There was nobody there.

  “Shadow people.” Ian murmured, reaching for his sword.

  I dropped my second sandwich and grabbed my weapons. Ian didn’t even get his sword clear of its scabbard before the table where we were sitting jerked upwards and smacked us hard, flinging us to the floor on our backs, still seated in our chairs. The table lifted high and then descended on us hard and fast. I flung up my legs to slow its descent. My knees screamed as it hit my feet but I was ready for it. I used my back and arms to propel the table upward, catching the Shades off guard and forcing them back.

  I know this because I heard them grunt with the impact and the table next to us crashed to the ground as if about three hundred pounds had landed on it.

  People scattered, shrieking. I flipped to my feet and sprang toward the broken table, my long knife held in front of me. I landed a few inches above the floor on something hard and warm. My knife grazed along invisible flesh but missed a direct hit.

  I jerked a knee upward, hitting what felt like a rock hard stomach, and lifted the knife above my head, driving it down until it plunged into flesh. The shadow man beneath me cried out and flickered into view.

  Shades gain their invisibility from qualities in their blood. And the complex cocktail of chemicals allowing them to disappear at will is a fragile thing, affected by any loss of blood at all.

  The wound I’d made was apparently fairly lethal, because the form of the person beneath me was quickly shimmering into view. I stayed where I was, confident that Ian would subdue the second shade, and watched in fascination as invisible became a flickering gray outline, and then a pale form dressed in black appeared below me.

  It was a young woman. My knife had pierced her chest. She lay panting beneath me, apparently suffering from damage to at least one lung. Her pale, pretty face was splattered with her own blood. As I watched, her pretty green eyes rolled back in her head and she passed out.

  Cursing, I pulled my knife from her chest and threw it to the ground beside me. Then I reached over and ripped a sleeve off the woman’s shirt, uncovering a pale, shivering arm. I wadded up the fabric and stuffed it into the copiously bleeding wound.

  Ian knelt beside me. “She’s still alive. If we can get her help in time maybe she can answer some questions for us.”

  He nodded and reached over to pick her up. “The dust. In my pocket.”

  I reached in and grabbed a handful, flinging it over us. We entered a travel layer and started jogging. Using the dust we could travel great distances in a very short time, using our minds to guide us to our destination.

  But glancing at the wounded shadow woman in Ian’s arms, I feared we’d be too late to save her. “Where are we going?”

  Ian had a fine sheen of sweat across his brow. I knew shadow people were extremely heavy, due to the high lead content in their blood. “Tana. She’ll have a better chance of saving this one than a human medical team would.”

  I nodded and picked up my pace, hoping Ian, with his heavy load, could match it. I wasn’t sure why but I felt as if the young woman in Ian’s arms was important. And I also had the odd thought that if she died we were doomed.

  We entered the faery Wood and headed toward the gates to Tana’s kingdom. The gates were open, faeries on horseback and on foot coming and going without a care in the world.

  I thought of Aubrie and his plans and prayed he wouldn’t go through with them. But the prayer didn’t have much conviction. I was pretty sure he would try to attack Tana.

  I made a mental note to talk to Ian about it. I needed to make sure he warned the faery queen about what was coming or she’d suffer terrible losses before she gained the upper hand.

  We ran up the stone stairs and burst through the wide, golden front doors. Tana met us in the grand entrance hall as we stepped out of the travel layer. It was obvious she’d known we were coming and why.

  “Bring her in here.” She looked up as servants and warriors alike converged on us. “Bring my potions and the bracelet. I don’t want to be disturbed until I’m done.” She cast a gimlet eye on her warriors and they stopped, glaring at Ian but bowing in acquiescence nonetheless.

  We hurried down a wide, marble hallway and followed her into a large sleeping room. Ian placed the young girl on the bed and stepped back. The shade had gone gray again and she was flickering.

  Tana grabbed the girl’s shirt and ripped it, exposing a pale, heaving chest coated in blood. She placed a hand over the wound, muttering.

  The woman’s face gained some color again and she stopped flickering. “She’ll regress to invisibility a
s she dies. I need my potions to save her. She turned a frantic, jeweled gaze toward the door.

  Like magic the door opened inward and a young servant girl rushed in, carrying several decanters of brightly colored liquids on a tray. She hurried to Tana.

  Tana grabbed something from the tray and slipped it over the girl’s wrist, snapping it closed. Immediately the girl resumed her full color and form.

  I glanced at Ian.

  “The bracelet will keep her visible, no matter what,” he explained.

  I nodded. Meaning even if she died. I bit my lip, watching Tana play her elegant fingers over the girl. First her forehead, then her chest, and then, lifting her arm, she touched the girl’s armpit.

  Nodding to herself she reached for the decanter with a lilac colored liquid in it. Pouring two fingers worth in a crystal goblet, she glanced at Ian, “Lift her head.”

  He hurried to comply.

  Tana pried the girl’s mouth open and poured some of the liquid into her. She waited for the shadow girl to swallow it all before working a little more into her throat. She repeated this process until all of the fluid was gone.

  Then she handed the empty goblet to the serving girl and repeated the assessment with her hands. Finally, nodding in approval, she turned to Ian. “She is better. It will take many hours and many potions to get her healthy, but for now she is gaining strength and healing.”

  Ian nodded. “That’s good. We were hoping to ask her some questions.”

  Tana glanced at me. “Yes. That is a good idea.”

  Her eyes slid over me, reminding me that I was still dressed as a Grigory Monk. Having clothing on under his robes, Ian had thrown them off as soon as Broud had set us down. I left mine on, figuring even a rough brown robe was better than running around in my torn shirt and undies.

  Tana’s jeweled gaze hesitated on the metal band on my wrist for a mere second and then moved to my face. I blinked under her ongoing, silent appraisal.