Guardian

by Sam Cheever

  By the time Ian emerged, wearing only a towel wrapped around his narrow waist, I was ready to face the day. His response to my fully clothed state was to lift a single eyebrow.

  “I’m going to go check on the shade.” I informed him.

  “I’ll come too.” Ian dropped the towel and sauntered toward the chair where he’d left his clothes. I forced myself to look away, but not before my eyes were drawn reluctantly to the large and happy package at the front of his body. I gritted my teeth to stop from licking my lips and fled toward the sitting room.

  The smell of cold food from the night before made my stomach grumble and I cast my eyes toward the table hopefully. Ian joined me, wearing the fresh set of leggings and tunic Tana had provided for him. His legs were encased in soft, form fitting black leather from the knees down. Tana’s leather smiths made the world’s softest boots.

  I made myself a mental note to get a pair before we left the kingdom again.

  “Ready?” His handsome face was carefully empty of emotion.

  I fell into step beside him and we left our rooms.

  Despite the very early hour, the palace was a hive of activity. Servants scurried from place to place carrying large trays of spicy scented food that made my mouth water. Ian caught me staring longingly after one of the servants and called out to her.

  She stopped and turned, curtsying prettily with the tray carefully balanced above her head. “Sir?”

  “Bring a tray for four to the shadow woman’s room. Quickly now.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. He seemed very comfortable giving orders.

  The young servant girl seemed to think so too. “Yes, sir!” She stood up out of her curtsy and started running, tray and all.

  I glanced at Ian. “Thanks.”

  He shrugged, grinning. “I couldn’t hear myself think with all the rumbling coming from your direction.”

  I flushed and placed a guilty hand over my stomach.

  The shade’s room was lit only by a small light beside the bed. The girl on the bed lay completely still, looking as if she hadn’t moved since we’d last seen her the night before.

  The woman sitting beside the bed jerked when we entered as if she’d been asleep and stood quickly. She bobbed her head at us and curtsied. “Sir, Ma’am.”

  Ian acknowledged the greeting with a nod. “Has she woken?”

  The woman’s pretty, mid-aged face turned toward the form on the bed. “Nay sir. She sleeps deep, like the dead.”

  I shivered. Walking over to the bed I slid past the servant and lay my hand over the girl’s chest. If I concentrated hard I could just feel the rise and fall of her breathing, but they were extremely shallow breaths. My gaze slid to her pale face. It was so very still and white, like flawless porcelain. “She looks poorly.”

  “She will live.”

  I jerked at the unexpected sound of Tana’s voice. We turned and saw the faery queen, followed by two servants, a man and a woman. The man carried a light above his head to light Tana’s way. The woman carried one of those fragrant trays.

  My stomach growled into the silent room and I covered it with my hand, trying to ignore Ian’s low-pitched chuckle.

  I moved aside so Tana could check her patient and Ian grabbed my hand, pulling me to the side of the room where the servant woman was laying out food on a small, round table. He shoved me gently into a chair. “Eat, before your insides consume themselves.”

  I glared at him. A real gentleman would pretend he hadn’t heard the voracious rumblings of my stomach. “What about you? You barely ate last night. Aren’t you hungry.”

  His dark gaze slid over me, a predatory spark lighting them as they hesitated for the briefest moment at the deep V of my tunic, and then continued downward to my legs. “Starving.” He nearly growled. “But that will have to wait I’m afraid.”

  He gave me a long, slow promise of a smile and turned away, joining Tana at the bed.

  I squeezed my thighs together and took a trembling breath. All the man had to do was look at me and I went all gooey. It was very disconcerting. And not good for my mission. I would have to renew my efforts to resist him. It would take more of my energy than I had at the moment.

  Sighing, I dug into the small mountain of food before me, closing my eyes in pleasure as the spicy meat melted against my tongue. I listen to the incomprehensible murmurings across the room as I filled my stomach, catching only about every tenth word, and thought about my predicament.

  I needed to get the damnable bracelet off my wrist so I could return to Olympus. I knew it would be risky, but I couldn’t do anything about the current problem unless I could get closer to the seat of the problem. And unfortunately that meant getting closer to the gods. I was suddenly anxious to put my plan from the previous night into motion. I needed to find a guardian. And, unless I was mistaken, there were no guardians in Tana’s kingdom. Guardians were for humans. The mystical realm had Monad spirits to protect them. A fine distinction that had, somehow, worked just fine over the millennia.

  Except for the occasional instance of mistaken identity. As in Ian Lavelle’s case.

  My eyes lifted to the aforementioned Elfaery and I smiled. I didn’t know how Ian had fooled the Officer of the Guardians all these years, but he had apparently presented himself as a very creditable human. Though it seemed he’d gone through quite a few guardian angels over his lifetime.

  That certainly should have clued somebody in.

  The door opened and two of Tana’s guards hurried in, looking very serious.

  Tana turned away from her patient and folded her hands in front of her as they stopped and fell to a knee in front of her. “My queen,” the tallest one said, “we have important news. The prisoner…”

  “Not here!” Tana’s gaze slid quickly to me. “In my chambers.”

  The guards stood and split apart to allow Tana passage between them. Then they followed her out of the room. As the door closed behind them I looked at Ian, who was staring after them with a slight frown on his handsome face.

  “What was that all about?”

  Ian’s dark gaze didn’t leave the door. “I’m not sure. But secrets are Tana’s trademark. I wouldn’t put too much import in it.” His lips formed the words, but his face belied them.

  I wasn’t reassured. “Maybe we should follow.”

  Ian stared after her for a second more and then reached into his pocket, “Stay here.” Before I knew what he was doing he’d thrown a handful of faery dust over his head and disappeared.

  Swearing colorfully, I started after him.

  “Where am I?”

  I jerked in surprise, turning toward the bed.

  The shadow woman was awake, her weary, grey eyes focused on me with just the slightest tinge of fear. Her fingers twitched on top of the covers.

  I was torn. I glanced toward the door and then back to the bed, locked in a comic moment of indecision. I finally sighed, deciding I could do more good in that room.

  I walked over to the bed. “You’re in Queen Tana’s castle.”

  The young girl frowned. “Why?”

  “You were dying. We knew she could save you.”

  Her frown deepened. “But…you were the one who injured me.” Her confusion was a tangible thing, roiling between us. How could I explain it to her? Finally I just shrugged and grinned. “What can I say, I’m a complex creature.”

  Amazingly, she laughed.

  My sense that she was important only increased. “Why did you come into that shop to kill us?”

  The laugh slid from her pale lips. “Kill? No. Only subdue and collect. Not kill.”

  “Under whose orders?”

  She looked unsure for a moment, doubt darkening her clear, grey gaze. “I cannot say.”

  I frowned. “Were you working for Aubrie? Or Dawnia?”

  Surprise lit her features. She obviously hadn’t thought I’d know who was pulling her strings. But she simply shook her head, remaining mute.

  The ai
r shimmered beside me and suddenly Ian was there.

  “What did you find out?”

  He shook his head at me and pressed a finger to his lips just as the door to the room opened. Tana glided regally into the room. She looked surprised to see our patient awake.

  Smiling, she approached the bed and touched the girl’s hand. “You are looking much better young shadow.”

  The girl in the bed gave her a soft smile. “Thank you for your ministrations, your Highness.”

  Tana tipped her head in acceptance of the girl’s thanks. “What is your name child?

  “Zillah.”

  Tana smiled. “Zillah, you will be yourself again in a day or two. In the interim, please consider yourself my guest. As soon as you are able you may leave this bed and take some exercise. It will speed your healing.”

  The girl’s intent gaze locked on Tana’s. She seemed as if she wanted to say something but was reluctant. Finally she took a little breath and lifted her arm from the bed. “Will you remove this, my queen?”

  Tana shook her head. “Not just yet, girl. If you should relapse and disappear we would be unable to minister to you. We’ll leave it on for now.”

  Fear reappeared in the girl’s eyes briefly, before she forced a smile and sent it to the back of her consciousness. I knew exactly how she felt. Glancing down at my own metal bracelet I frowned. When I looked up I caught Ian watching me.

  His eyes burned into mine for a long moment and then he turned away. I got the sense that he knew more about the bracelet than he was letting on.

  I stared at him, frowning slightly.

  He ignored me.

  Tana’s voice brought my attention back to the bed. “Bring me the green.” She instructed the servant woman who’d been watching over the young shadow. The woman quickly complied and Tana dispensed several fingers of the thick potion into a small glass. Handing it to the girl on the bed she smiled at the girl’s grimace when she sniffed it. “Drink every drop, young woman. It will go far toward returning color to those pale cheeks.”

  “What is it?” The girl asked.

  Tana patted the pale hand still resting among the covers. “I don’t give my secrets away, child.” She glanced meaningfully toward Ian. He responded with a soft smile.

  With a couple of final instructions to the servant woman, Tana turned away and strode purposefully from the room. “I’ll meet you at the horses in one sweep of the clock, Ian.”

  When she’d left the room Ian grabbed my hand. “Let’s go.”

  I let him drag me to the door and waited while he opened it a crack and peered out. After a moment he opened the door wider and pulled me through. “They have Etta in the caves. We need to get to her.”

  “And quickly. She’s managed to escape them a couple of times already. She might already be gone.”

  He shook his head. “She must have come here looking for us. If that’s true she won’t leave until she’s seen us.” He reached into his pocket and, just as several guards marched out of Tana’s rooms, threw a handful of sparkling dust over our heads.

  We watched the guards stop and jerk their heads toward the spot where we’d been and then hurry toward where we stood. “We need to hurry.” Ian told me. “They’ll surely investigate.”

  Traveling in Ian’s layer, we made it through the castle grounds and to the caves on the outskirts in mere moments. A sudden bustling aspect to the grounds told us more than anything that the search was on for intruders.

  Two tall, leanly muscled faery guards leaned against the mouth of the cave, laughing and talking as we approached. We slid quickly past them.

  Once inside the cave I shivered. Not from the cold or damp I could smell on the air, I was immune to that inside the travel layer, but from my memories of another cave in another part of the Faery Wood. Filled with nightmares on wings with gore coated teeth.

  We traveled deeply into the caves, to the innermost cell, where I knew the magical and physical restraints were thickest. Outside Etta’s cell, nodding in a small, hard chair, an enormous black-skinned faery guard kept a negligent vigil.

  We stepped out of the layer and Ian lashed out, knocking the guard backward into the rock wall behind the chair. His head cracked hard against the rock and he slid bonelessly to the ground, landing in a whale sized puddle beside the door.

  I searched for keys but found none.

  Ian shook his head. “They use magic signatures. No keys.”

  “Then how are we gonna open the door?”

  Ian leaned over the puddle of faery flesh on the floor and placed a hand on the unconscious guard’s forehead. A warm light throbbed beneath Ian’s splayed fingers. After a moment the guard’s eyes flickered open and he struggled to his feet.

  I watched in amazement as he moved, zombielike, to the cell door and placed an enormous, black hand over the lock.

  Cool blue sparks flew from the guard’s hand and the door clicked open. The guard turned away and moved to stand beside the door, his thick arms bowed at his sides and his long, brown eyes staring straight ahead, sightless.

  Ian quickly moved past him and into the cell. I turned sideways and slid around the guard, keeping my eyes trained carefully on his face. He didn’t move or acknowledge me in any way. I reached out and poked him, one hand on my long knife.

  He just stood there.

  I flicked his nose with one finger.

  He didn’t flinch.

  I grinned. My hand was reaching toward the firm round buttock closest to me when Ian’s voice hailed me from the darkness of the cell.

  Damn! I was never allowed to have any fun. Slightly miffed, I turned and headed into the cell’s gloomy interior, understanding full well the hell that awaited me there.

  I was going to try to reason with a pissed off and terminally uncooperative guardian angel, fully aware that my request was not going to be received well.

  Sighing, I put a hand back on my long knife and took a step into the cell. I would take my medicine, face my demons, take my hits. But all I could think of as I turned my eyes to the interior of that cell were the words of an ancient human saying…Hell hath no fury like an Angel spurned.

  Or something like that…

  Chapter Ten

  Promises and Recriminations

  At first all I saw was Ian. He stood in the center of the dark cell, a circle of light surrounding him. The rest of the cell was pitched in inky darkness, and smelled really bad.

  Ian was staring toward a spot deep in the shadows. He didn’t turn as I joined him. Standing outside the circle of light, I placed a hand on my long knife.

  A soft chuckle followed my action. “You think to kill me with a knife, spirit?”

  Etta’s voice was rusty with disuse. It held a note of such deep anger I suddenly worried for my life. I knew she was compelled to use God’s magic only for protection and for good. But I was pretty sure she could figure out a way to bend the rules if she was mad enough.

  I forced my shoulders to unclench enough so I could give what I hoped was a casual shrug. “You never know what monsters hide in the shadows, angel.”

  My eyes narrowed as the shadows moved and a small, pale form emerged from them. She was naked, filthy, and looked as if she hadn’t eaten in days. A deep gouge, crusted with dried blood and dirt, ran from one naked shoulder across the slight rise of one breast and disappeared around the side of her narrow waist. It looked like a claw mark. She stood as straight as she could but she appeared to have a damaged wing, it hung heavily off to one side, dragging on the ground behind her.

  “Holy shit, Etta! What happened to you?”

  Her small mouth tightened, lips thinning as she gave her dark head a quick shake. She forced her bowed shoulders upright and crossed thin arms over her chest. “That’s none of your concern, Monad. Get out of my cell. Now!”

  I frowned, glancing at Ian. His brown eyes swung toward me, fixed on me for a moment as if trying to send a silent message, and then swung back toward Etta.

 
; I took a couple of steps backward, reluctant to turn my back on her, and then finally turned and left the cell. Outside, I leaned against the cool rock wall and took deep breaths. Lifting my hands I saw that they were shaking. Etta’s condition had startled me. As much as I disliked the little guardian, I had never seen her so abused, so feeble, so scared.

  Though she’d tried to keep the fear from her gaze it had been shining clearly there for me to see. I looked up as Ian and Etta appeared in the doorway, he had removed his tunic and slipped it over a shivering Etta. “Let’s get her out of here.”

  I nodded, just as the sound of running feet sounded in the winding, dirt pathways of the cave. Heading toward us.

  Ian reached into his pocket. I moved close and he flung the dust into the air above our heads. We moved quickly past Tana’s soldiers and hurried out of the caves.

  “Where will we take her?”

  Ian glanced at me, his arm still supporting the wobbly guardian. “Back to the castle. Tana won’t harm her if I tell her she’s under our protection.”

  Etta’s eyes slid upward in horror. “No! I won’t go back there!”

  I frowned at her. “Back there? You’ve been in the castle?”

  Etta just glared at me, looking up at Ian with pleading eyes. “Please, I can’t go back to Tana. She’ll kill me this time.”

  Ian frowned and opened his mouth to argue. It was obvious to both of us that he didn’t believe Tana was capable of going against his wishes. Etta didn’t want to take that chance and I had my own set of reservations about the faery queen. She was about as ruthless as they came, and she apparently had reason to distrust Etta.

  “Let’s get her out of the Wood, Ian. What harm can it do?”

  He sighed and finally nodded. “Reaching down he put an arm under Etta’s legs and pulled her into his arms. She started to protest but he shook his head. “It’s faster this way. You can barely walk.”

  I thought I saw a spark of relief in the little guardian’s eyes before she lowered her lashes. After only a few strides her filthy, matted head dropped to Ian’s chest and it looked like she slept.