Watching him kill monsters was unpleasant, but also kind of hot. The way he just got in there, swinging that sword around like it weighed nothing…knowing he would do anything to protect me…
“Where did you get ‘Retch’ anyway?” he asked.
“Wretch.”
“That’s what I said.”
“No, it’s Wretch, like wretched. Not like she throws up a lot of hair and featherballs…although she does.”
“I don’t know how you can tell spelling from speech.”
“It’s just the way you say it.” I smoothed her wings and scratched her right where her fur ended and her feathers began. She was starting to purr now. “She showed up at our door one night, about ten years ago. She was all wet and skinny and meowing pathetically. So of course I had to take her in. But what a sorry sight she was. Weren’t you, babykins? That was the worst part about being selected to be a Strawberry Girl. I had to leave her behind that year. I wasn’t gonna do that again.”
“Winged cats are very rare,” he said.
“I know. People say they’re more wild than normal cats, but not her. She’s my little cabbage.” Wretch was giving me her melty-pools-of-love eyes now. “And she’s very smart. She knows when trouble is coming.”
“She ought to also know not to insert herself in the middle of it,” he said.
We rode the rest of the day without further incident. The foothills started swelling into mountains, the path winding through a valley but still climbing upward. We didn’t see a single soul on the road, which was no surprise, but we could have met a soldier or an armored trade caravan. Istim was the last town before Fort Peri and Fort Plan, where soldiers guarded the Mouth and shot down as many escaping monsters as they could.
Late in the afternoon, we passed a sign that said SAFE HOUSE AHEAD.
“We’ll stop there tonight,” Sir Forrest said.
The safe house was a sturdy stone building with very narrow slats for windows, too narrow to fit my wrist through them. They would keep out any flying monsters. Many of the windows had spiderwebs in them. They provided some light inside the single room, which had a sagging bed, a stove with some firewood piled up beside it, and a washstand. For good measure, a tall wooden fence surrounded the safe house, with all the logs sharpened into spikes at the top. Sir Forrest brought his horse inside and dragged the gate shut, securing the bolt.
Within the walls was a cistern and water pump, and a fire pit with charred logs and a pot. Plants and weeds were growing rampant within the enclosure, but I was happy for any level of civilization after a long day of riding.
“The Black Army maintains them well these days,” he said. “I’ll give Commander Abel that. Hopefully none of ‘em come through.”
“Would we have to run, if they did?”
“We can’t be caught out after dark,” he said. “The monsters aren’t very active by day. By night, we’d be torn to pieces as soon as I fell asleep. If we meet any soldiers, just stick to the story. I’m a retired soldier and your mother hired me to escort you to school in the capital.”
He took beans and salt pork from his bags and started making a stew.
“I see nut roots growing around here,” I said. “Should I dig up some to add to the pot?”
He shrugged, which annoyed me a bit. Wasn’t it nice of me to try and help? I got the feeling Sir Forrest wasn’t quick with praise, but I liked praise a lot, and it was driving me nuts. It’s not like he’s the only good catch around, I thought crossly. A lot of guys would be ecstatic to have the attention of a girl like me, and we’re supposed to be bonded by fate. He should be more into me than I’m into him.
Yeah, I wasn’t into him at all. Grumpy hermit weirdo. I didn’t care how sexy he was with that big ol’ sword. This was strictly business, I mean, until he expressed the proper level of excitement that he had basically gotten to kidnap Istim’s town celebrity.
I dug up a few roots anyway—there were garden tools in the safe house. I found some goldenstars and sweet stem while I was at it, and saved them too. The former was good for helping wounds heal, and the latter for aiding sleep. I remembered watching Mrs. Balbron make poultices. I was unsure how to best store them, but I folded them up in my spare clothes and took the book, Legend of the Gate Priestess and her Four Guardians, by Elder Lucas, from our bags. I sat down on the grass nearby to read. I could feel his eyes on me.
“Don’t read that,” he said. “You’re not ready.”
“Have you read it?”
“Yes,” he said.
“You don’t know how ready I am,” I said, cracking the spine to read the introduction.
Magic in its most potent and visceral form, the Priestess of the Gate lends her entire body to the service of our world as a channel. The guardians serve as her four devoted protectors, willing to sacrifice their lives for her for all of their days and hers. Her body belongs to them as they belong to her. Through her deep connection with her guardians, she keeps the gate in balance to protect humanity from the monsters.
I was blushing, and deeply intrigued.
Her body is a living conduit of power. Through physical joining with her guardians, she heals their wounds and lends them magic beyond the reach of any sorcerer in this world. A priestess at the height of her powers may be compared to the conductor of the world’s most beautiful symphony; her guardians, the instruments through which she maintains balance.
I flipped the pages, now getting a closer look at some of the—er—rituals. A young priestess will only be claimed by one or two of her guardians at once, while she is still building her own powers, but an experienced priestess may generate a powerful magical connection between all four, known as the Grand Quintet. Once the Grand Quintet has been achieved, the priestess and her guardians will possess completely unmatched power. Armies may fall against the might of the Five.
A large hand snatched the book away. “Phoebe,” Sir Forrest said.
“Hey.” I tried to take it back, but he held it out of reach. “You think I can’t handle my duties?” I asked.
“I think you will with time, because you must, but—I told you, you’re not ready.”
“You probably think you’re all worldly wise because you’re a knight and I’m just a girl. You think Strawberry Girls just come out and dance and go sleep in a girl’s dorm with a chaperone breathing down our necks? I’ve been all over the world and done a lot of things my mother doesn’t know about. I can hold my liquor too.” I snatched his flask out of his pocket and took another swig. “That book says that if we join, you can gain power. Beyond any sorcerer in this world. Armies might fall.”
“That is only if we can find all your other guardians and live to fulfill the Grand Quintet.”
“But what about you and me? Are we supposed to do something?”
He took the flask back and finished it off. “I don’t need power. Not yet. Besides, I don’t think the unmatched power happens on day one. It takes time for your powers to build.”
“But do you know when you’ll need power? Shouldn’t I give you power in advance? Start building my powers, whatever the heck they are?”
“I’m flattered that you’re so eager to begin,” he said, avoiding my eyes.
“I’m not,” I said. “I’m taking this threat seriously. We already ran into one monster. It’s just sex. Maybe we should get it over with.”
“Wait a few more days.” He looked red.
“Are you a virgin?” I asked.
“No,” he said, more sharply.
“You loved someone before,” I said, understanding. Maybe I was being insensitive, thinking it through. “You didn’t have to leave behind a childhood sweetheart for me, did you?”
“No—no—but—gods, can’t you tell when a man doesn’t want to talk about something? We are priestess and guardian, but I didn’t ask for this. I suppose it hasn’t sunk in for you yet, but when fate chooses you, the rest of your life is gone.”
I edged back, as if stung. He was rig
ht. It hadn’t sunk in yet. I didn’t want to let it sink in, that I might be killed by the Black Army without ever seeing my mother again, or having kids or growing old or finishing the flower I was embroidering on an apron or anything. A lump was forming in my throat. I tried to shove the thoughts away. I couldn’t quite comprehend that this wasn’t the dance troupe anymore. I wasn’t going to travel around just for fun.
He moved closer to me. His mouth twisted with vague exasperation, but his brown eyes were almost gentle. He scratched his fingers along his stubbled jaw, searching for words. “We’re about to embark on something together that neither of us really understand,” he said. “I’ve had years to think about the day your powers awakened. I knew that I would have to set out on this quest, and our lives would change forever. And I knew the only other option would be to die trying. I knew I would never marry. Never have an ordinary man’s life. You and I and the three other guardians—our fate is written in the stars and there’s a pretty good chance it’s going to end in death sooner or later, like all the rest. Shit, Phoebe, we’re doomed.” He reached for my hand and clutched my fingers.
“Is this—how you’re going to comfort me?”
“Well, for all that…I know that whenever I die, I won’t die alone. This is a dangerous world. People die alone every day. The Black Army conquers a city, the monsters find a crack in a wall…” He looked at me. “Now you know, I will die for you.”
I was hardly breathing. I’d been losing a lot of breath on this trip already. For various reasons. “If you die, do I die?”
“If all your guardians die, you die. If something happens to me, find the next one. They’ll be bound to protect you the same as I am.”
“How do I find them?”
“That is the one thing I have to do tonight. I need to invoke your sigils.” He pulled a white stone out from beneath his shirt. “You wanted to test our intimacy tonight? Let’s start here. First…this is what they look like.”
He unbuttoned his jacket. Okay, this was a nice development.
Then he stripped off his shirt. Oh, heck yes.
It was true that I was probably the least innocent girl in Istim, in a lot of ways, even counting the married ones, because I’d partied in the capital and it got pretty wild in the private clubs of Capamere. But, the situation was very different then. I was with friends. Drinks were involved. And the guys? Well, the guys who got into secret parties with dance troupe girls were rich, city types wearing outrageous fashions and super entitled attitudes. Some of them were downright doughy because they had all sorts of fancy food in the capital that we never saw in Istim and they didn’t work for a living, the idle sons of old families. Few monsters could swim, so port cities had everything, whereas inland towns only ate what they could grow and just a few expensive imports, mostly during holidays.
I had never been all alone with a guy, enclosed by our own private walls, under the deepening light of dusk. Sir Forrest was all solid muscle with a few light scars tracing intriguing invitations in his skin that said: Touch me.
He waved his hands across his chest with an eyebrow lift that said: You done with this? Can we get back to business?
“Look, I think it’s fair to tell you that I’ve seen a lot of chests, and you’re right up there.”
I was also exaggerating my actual sexual experience to him, but, I wasn’t sorry about that either. If he wasn’t going to answer my questions about his background, I just didn’t want him to think he knew more than me.
“I’m glad my chest meets your approval.” He touched the stone just below his navel and just above the waist of his trousers, and it glowed. When he removed the stone, I saw a shining symbol marked into his skin like a tattoo. The lines were blue and swirly, like a letter written in some unknown language. It seemed to grow brighter for a moment, and then died.
“That’s it,” he said. “But once it was awakened by Elder Dion, I could sense your location from then on.”
“So we must have the stone or the sigils won’t work?”
“I’m not sure, but it certainly makes the process easier. When I awaken your sigils, you’ll be able to sense all the guardians, and we’ll just have to follow that sense. You have four sigils, one for each guardian.”
Now he lifted the stone to the center of my forehead. I felt my skin heat where the stone touched me just above my eyebrows. I couldn’t see the sigil, but it felt just the way his looked—a brief, bright flash of heat, and then it faded away.
Once the heat died down into a soft warmth, I started to feel something.
It was like my senses were rapidly expanding, and I sensed something calling me, far off in the distance. How do birds know to fly south for the winter? I understood the birds now. I had this inextricable pull to head south, right this moment.
My guardian… I smelled the sea and I had a sense of some unknown person. His energy was strange to me, guarded and slow to trust—but strong. Hopefully when the stone touched his sigil, he would feel what I felt, which was an affinity for someone I had never met in my life, someone whose face I couldn’t even picture. But when I found him, I would belong to him, and he would belong to me. He was a part of us.
“I feel him,” I said. “This man…he seems like a strong personality.”
“Well, I suppose we’ll find out.” Forrest sounded dismissive. I’m not sure he really wanted to know about the other guardians. Jealousy? Maybe he cared after all.
“Hey…what happens if one of my guardians went out to sea?”
“We’re screwed, I guess. No—” He corrected himself. “You only need one guardian to seal the gate, but to truly hold your position, especially against a danger like the Black Army, we’d better find all four.”
“I smell the ocean.”
“The largest cities are on the coast,” he said. “So that makes sense.”
I was warm and flushed now, my skin tingling, and I couldn’t have found the words to tease Sir Forrest if I tried. He gently slid the stone past the collar of my dress to my breastbone, and another sigil warmed my skin. My senses stretched in another direction now—closer, this time. My pulse quickened and I felt a sense of unease.
I clutched my head.
“What’s wrong?” Sir Forrest asked.
“I hope this guardian isn’t in danger. I feel scared, like I’m picking up on something. But he’s not as far either.”
“All right. We’ll find him first, and move as fast as we can, milady.”
“Milady? Where’d this fancy talk come from?” I managed a smile, the fear fading as the heat of the sigil died back.
“Well, I am a knight, and you are my lady,” he said. “I will always address you with honor.”
“Starting now, huh?” Sure, he was getting all fancy now that I was thinking about other guardians.
He held up the stone. “The other two sigils are…beneath your clothes.”
“Oh. Well, I mean, I could—” I reached for the stone.
“No. You can’t activate them. They must be activated by someone else.”
“Why?”
“Why? Because it’s magic, that’s why. I don’t make the damn rules. Back in the Era of Elders, they would have handled all of this. It opens the channel. Which is probably why you look so flushed…”
It was true. Opening the sigils was turning me on, like my body was preparing itself for something. I clenched my fists, willing it to stop. Sir Forrest clearly wasn’t going to be offering me a space in his cot pressed against his warm, shirtless body tonight.
I wet my lips unconsciously, and then wished I hadn’t. He definitely noticed.
His eyes seemed conflicted.
What was his deal? I wished I knew. He was kind one moment, and the next moment he acted like this was the last place he wanted to be and I was the last person he wanted to be with.
I guess some conflicted emotions were understandable—about the situation as a whole. But why take it out on me by being so confusing?
&nbs
p; He reached for my skirt and unfastened the waistband, tugging it down as I lifted my blouse up over my head. I had a thin shift underneath, and some expensive panties I bought in Capamere years ago. I bought a lot of underwear with my earnings. We all did, because they gave us clothes in the troupe, but not underwear, but we all wanted hot underwear in case we got into an impromptu situation with some gorgeous audience member. But, all that fancy underwear I bought was three years old at this point, so the lace edgings were a little frayed. And—well—activating the sigils was getting me wet. My nipples were stiff under the thin linen. I guess I couldn’t help it, but Forrest seemed so controlled.
He looked at me for a moment, his eyes unreadable, the brown color changing from warm to hard. Then he wrapped his arm around me and lifted the stone under the hem of my shift up to my tailbone.
He was detached when he spoke to me, but he touched me like I belonged to him. I liked that.
The first sigil had smelled like the sea. The second sigil gave me an anxious feeling. This one, however—it was far more potent than the other two. It made my toes curl in my boots. I’m not sure if the feeling was good or bad—more than anything, it just felt powerful.
“This guardian is very strong,” I said.
“Do you have any sense of his location?”
“Actually…no.” I frowned. “Not like the other two.”
“We’ll have to get further south,” he said. “None of them will be to the north.” Nothing was to the north except the gate.
I hoped he was right. I couldn’t gather much sense of my third guardian at all.
“One more,” Sir Forrest said. “This one is mine…”
I liked those words too, the soft way he said them. I was a bit of a flirt back in town, if I was being realistic about myself. But I never got entangled in commitments. After everything I’d seen, town boys seemed kind of naive. I had never realized that there was a part of me that wanted to belong to someone. My father died when I was young. I probably had some issues. But Sir Forrest…well, I was starting to suspect that despite his protests, his role as my guardian meant something deep to him. I could tell just by the careful way he touched me, the way he didn’t seem to like talking about the other guardians, and the serious air about him in this moment.
Priestess Awakened Page 3
