The Circle of Duty

by Owen Elgie

  Looking around quickly I couldn’t see any sign of there being anyone with us but the sensation of gathered awareness was stronger than before. Now we were inside the room, I could feel the prickling sensation even more powerfully. My head wasn’t spinning in warning of some impending attack but that didn’t mean that I wasn’t in danger. I hadn’t had a spinning mind when Leatherpants had come close to me either but after our meeting I knew he was trouble.

  “Show yourself now,” I boomed into the room with all of the authority I could muster. Don’t show fear, never show fear.

  Silence followed.

  And followed.

  “Come on. I’m not going to stand here all night waiting.” I could feel the wince from Mike as I said it but my instincts took over, Fire Dragon after all.

  There was no signal of activity but there were suddenly three more people in the room. They were just there. No bridge jumping in through a construct of any kind or closing of another door as they had come in. They were just there.

  Two of them were mirror images of the guards who had greeted us outside, towering over everything in the room and making both Mike and I look both tiny and insignificant. The third stood between them, just staring ahead at me. The third person was much smaller than me but the way she carried herself she could never be described as being tiny. Certainly nothing insignificant there.

  And she didn’t look happy.

  12

  “Messenger. Welcome to the house. I hope you have not been waiting for too long.” Mike had stepped before me in such a liquid movement I wouldn’t have been able to make a comment before he greeted our guest. There also appeared to be a new tone of utter deference in his voice.

  The Messenger regarded him casually with an expression fixed into a frown, more of boredom than anger. She was dressed head to toe in what looked like a shimmering velvet cat suit of the deepest purple. The attire made subtle emphasis of her shape and it was easy to see that she was very physically imposing. She was possessed of a frame which showed that she had spent a great deal of time taking part in very strenuous physical activity. Looking at the giants who had accompanied her I could only assume that that activity wasn’t just confined to a gym and involved a great deal of fighting. She was certainly Xena rather than supermodel.

  Her gaze remained on Mike and I could feel the quiet ferocity coming from her. She was obviously the cause of the unease I had been feeling on our way through the house. Whoever she was she had a great deal of power at her disposal.

  Then she turned her gaze on me.

  It was only now that I was under her gaze that I truly saw her features. Her short red hair sat in a functional rather than showy style and her slightly too large green eyes somehow made her attention seem both welcoming and terrifying. Looking at her I couldn’t decide which emotion was winning.

  “Guardian. Thou art needed in Egypt. Bring thine retinue and attend in three moons hence.” She had a deeper voice that I had expected but it sounded like warm honey as she spoke, no, commanded. Seemed like welcoming was taking the lead.

  “Very well Messenger. We will be there as ordered,” squeaked Mike from next to me.

  Both The Messenger and I turned to face him. I wanted to know more about what was going on and didn’t really feel like being ordered about by random people in the middle of the night. I hoped Mike would be able to recognize what I meant in the single look. In the end it was irrelevant. The Messenger had a much stronger effect on him.

  Her frown deepened and shadows crawled over her every feature. There was a noticeable increase in the uneasy pressure which had been in the room since we entered and it leaned very hard against my senses. Mike could obviously feel it as well.

  He was down to his knees in a flash with his arms outstretched before him, burbling into the carpet.

  “Please accept my apologies Messenger, Master. It was not my place to speak as the Guardian. I offer my most humble apologies.” His voice was shaking as he spoke and it was easy to see he was fighting against something which was making it difficult for him to speak.

  Now that did it.

  Mike may have done something he shouldn’t have done but he hadn’t killed someone in a public place. He hadn’t defrauded millions from the banking system. He hadn’t spoken ill of the Welsh rugby team. So therefore he didn’t deserve to be face down on the floor begging for forgiveness from someone I was still undecided as to whether or not deserved this veritable display of worship.

  My back straightened and without turning my eyes from the prostrate Mike, I stepped between the Messenger and my Head of House.

  Mike gasped from his position on the floor. It was a gasp of pain as whatever was taking place started to squeeze him tighter.

  Turning steadily to face the Messenger I could see a mixture of surprise and fury fluttering across her face. The whirling shadows which moved over her like a living thing, all rushed in and around her eyes, creating an almost tangible mask of inky blankness.

  “Whatever you’re doing, my dear, please release my associate. He didn’t mean to do anything wrong but he was acting to help me.” I looked through my eyebrows at her in an attempt to create my own feeling of menace but it didn’t look like it was having much effect.

  She made no movement, but I could feel the pressure building against my head of whatever she was exerting. And there was a better than average chance that if I was feeling the force of it, Mike was really suffering.

  “Thine cattle must be shown his station. Would thou allow dishonour to thine guests?” The Messenger didn’t turn her head from me as she spoke but I could feel the continuing burning force coming from her.

  “Beast, you must know your place,” she spat out and the feeling of pressure grew painfully behind my eyes.

  Mike screamed at the pain.

  Now that, I wasn’t going to stand for.

  “Release him,” I bellowed at the Messenger and took what I was hoping was a mildly reproachful step towards her. I don’t think I was that successful.

  Her two guards barreled forwards creating a living wall between the two of us. The pressure didn’t ease though.

  “I said, Release him. NOW!” This was not going to be someone else coming into my house and pushing me and mine around with the minimum amount of fuss. This is my house.

  I took another step forwards this time making no attempt to hide the threat within the gesture. The guards reacted in kind. The brute standing on my left hand side reached out one giant arm and gripped tightly around my throat. His gloved hand smelled strangely of wild flowers and it seemed very much at odds with the crushing sensation he was placing on my neck. Time for the Guardian to assert himself.

  Without any move to counter the actions of the guard, I pulled my focus together and made my own move.

  The Cascade Bridge snapped into existence immediately behind the Messenger and her protection. Even as the guard who held me squeezed, I could see the flickering bolts of power leak from the magical construct I had called into being. I needed the power to be at my disposal and hadn’t even thought about the issues of being able to do the deed. I’d just pushed for the power. Looks like I’d re-charged after Argentina.

  For an instant, no-one moved. There was no sign of recognition on the face of the Messenger and the two guards who had accompanied her hadn’t even flinched at the appearance of the crackling ring of power which was pulling against them.

  Their cloaks snapped out horizontally behind them, pulled by the force of the bridge, and both guards started to lean forwards against the force centre of the magic, working hard to maintain the exterior of control.

  “I will not have the people of this house treated like slaves just because someone has the power to do so. Everyone in this house is a member of the human race so is therefore under my protection.”

  Looking at them all I couldn’t see any sign of fear or any other emotion creeping into their postures so I pushed harder.

  Calling up the power of my tr
ansformation, I felt the waves of energy that was the foundation of the Dragon I was, pooling through me. I could make out the sound of my clothes starting to rip and tear as my body changed.

  I was soon staring eye to eye with the guards as the mighty monster crawled from me. Despite the full face coverage of the helmets they wore I could make out the fear as I became that monster.

  Spreading my arms wide I gave no further signal of what I was doing and surged forwards, forcing the Messenger and her hired help through the bridge.

  By the time the bridge construct collapsed in on itself, I was fully in my Dragon guise and I had landed in an almost stereotypical stance of the three point landing, my right arm curled up underneath me as a way to prepare magic if needed.

  The guards who had looked so utterly terrifying in the mansion had now lost the aura of menacing brutality. They may have been at least twice my size as humans but now I was the Guardian, I’d managed to trump their strengths. The two of them had been flung backwards by my original thrust and they had smashed into the ground at least fifty feet from our entry point to the grounds of the estate.

  They both struggled to stand up amidst the cloying mud of the furrows they had just created, their armour and ceremonial dress now caked in the extra heavy weight of mud. Seeing them both struggle against the horror of physics as the ground seemed to be working against them, took the edge off any fear they may have been able to inspire.

  Looking around the scene of chaos before me, I could feel a level of satisfaction growing as I regarded the ones who had been happy to try and throw their weight around in my house. The two guards were still flopping around on the floor like stranded fish marooned so far from the water.

  The Messenger, though, was a different story.

  She was stood a little further back from her two bodyguards but seemed to be utterly untroubled by the effects of my magical retort.

  Straightening myself up to reach my full forty feet in height, I took a single step towards her by way of reinforcing my point. This was my house.

  “I hope I’ve made my point clear. My people will not be treated as slaves by you or anyone. Do you understand?” The boom of my voice was carried across the whole expanse of the grounds of the estate and probably beyond.

  The Messenger still didn’t move. She just stared back at me with an expression etched onto her face which seemed to convey both anger and disappointment. Well, that’s what it looked like to me anyway.

  “You attack the Messenger of The Circle, Brute? Know you not, what I am? What I represent?” she narrowed her eyes, “The power I wield?”

  “I was always bottom of my class at school, especially at History.” Good thinking, diplomacy of the highest order. “No-one will be able to do what they want with the people of this estate just because they can. This is my house.”

  The Messengers stance didn’t change but she gently smoothed down the fabric of her clothing and starred relentlessly at me.

  “Thou art Fire. Fire will always fight. If thou dost need demonstration, I shall fight.”

  The next thing I was aware of was the hammer blow that smashed into my jaw and sent waves of pain flooding through my whole head as it snapped wildly to the right, forcing me backwards and to the floor so quickly that, for a split second, I thought that I’d been hit by a meteor. Stars swam before my eyes and my jaw quickly took on the lolling appearance of any number of fallen prize fighters. There hadn’t been any kind of sign from my dizzying early warning system. I was just hit.

  I tried to ease myself back to my feet but all I managed to achieve was to send my majestically powerful Dragon form staggering drunkenly across the open ground until it lurched over and crashed into a nearby pool of water. Through the stars and darkness which were both fighting for the control of my vision, I could make out the gentle, almost caring, sound of a female voice drifting through the sky.

  “Thou art a Fire. I understand the Fire. Accept my apologies for offending you. The values which you hold will be kept.” I was still more than a little woozy but I could recognize the tone of the Messenger. I tried again to get up but met with the same sprawling failure. Out there at the edges of my consciousness, that same female voice continued, but this time the change of tone was clear enough that even I could make it out.

  “I will uphold that which you hold dear, but should thy attack my forces or myself, you will be dealt with in a more forward fashion. Thou must view my actions here as a demonstration.”

  I felt bad already but those words made me feel worse. She’d just ‘demonstrated’ that she could smash lumps out of me at the drop of a hat. In fact, she could do it ten or twenty times before that hat had even hit the floor. She continued speaking through the haze my attention had become.

  “Remain still, my Lord. My guard will attend to your injury. Dost thou require further assistance from thine own estate?”

  She rested a hand on the side of my head by way of reassurance and I could just make out the approach of armoured figures through the mud. Her guard I assumed.

  There was a succession of odd noises from around me but I made no attempt to identify them or try and see what was happening. All the time this was taking place, the Messenger kept her hand on my head and ensured that I was calm. I’m not sure how she did it but it worked. She just didn’t let any worry or concern form in my head, as if she was keeping the would-be normal reactions away from my mind. Eventually, I could make out words from the side of my head. A low whispering chant or words I couldn’t recognize but knew were part of a healers casting.

  It made me think of another healer I’d known. I missed Lloyd.

  The pain and disorientation drained out of me and my mind cleared enough for me to open my eyes and try to look around.

  “Remain still, my Lord,” spoke the Messenger again, this time with all of the authority and serious edge to her voice removed, this time replaced with a melodious thrum of persuasion. It reminded me of the way Andrea spoke to me when she was at her most alluring. Any burning anger at the indignity of being leveled by the Messenger was quickly burning away as I listened to her speak now.

  “You seem to be a good teacher of history,” I said as I opened my eyes, thinking hard about the thoughts running through my head concerning the people I’d known.

  Looking at the Messenger, I could see that she had no understanding of what I’d just said.

  “Don’t worry. This whole situation just triggered a few memories that’s all.” She looked at the ground in a sweeping gesture of old fashioned deference but I’d swear that she had turned a little red.

  I sat up gingerly and looked down at the people next to me.

  The Messenger was stood rigidly tall and seemed to be totally unruffled by the events which had just unfolded. It appeared that she was utterly untouched by the mud and water surrounding us, her clothing as pristine as it had been when we first met. The two mud covered guards were not in the same condition though. They were both sprawled on the ground next to me, face down. Neither of them moved.

  “Did these guys do the healing?”

  She nodded in affirmation.

  “Are they OK?” I enquired, reaching out to gently nudge the nearest of the two to make certain.

  He didn’t move.

  “Dost thou feel healed?” she asked without acknowledging the guards.

  “I feel fine but what about these two?” I nudged him again and still elicited no response. Until his helmet fell from his head and rolled away from him.

  “They have given what force of themselves that they must to be able to repair your pain. If they survive, they will be able to do so again.”

  Looking at the fallen guard without his helmet, I could see that his face was sunken and grey. The long flowing hair which had been hidden under the helmet was spread wildly about, obscuring much of the features of his face. He carried the pallor of a corpse and was just as active. The formally intimidating giants had been rendered nothing more than inert lumps of me
at.

  Is that what had happened to Lloyd?

  I heaved myself to my feet and scooped the two guards up, concentrating my attention on as much magic as I could pull together. With a final push of concentration, I dragged a Cascade Bridge together and thrust my arms through, depositing the two motionless guards in the infirmary of the estate. Withdrawing my grip, I dropped my own shape back to my human self and started to run through.

  Turning to the Messenger as I entered the bridge, I gave her my opinion of the situation.

  “No-one will give everything to anyone because they feel they have to. I will not be viewed as having the right to everything. Like I said before, this is my house.”

  The following few hours became a very uncomfortable time to be the Messenger of The Circle. I had my medical staff working on the two guards who had been affected so badly by the healing they had given to me. I also made sure that Mike was treated for any ill effects of the Messengers treatment. This, I’d made certain, had taken place so the Messenger could see everything. Her own guards who were still mobile stood rigidly by her sides all the time as their comrades were treated but I swear I could make out barely perceptible tilts of the head or gentle sways of the body to ensure they always had a view of their fallen fellows. Maybe under all the ceremony and armour there was a being that cared more for friends than for perceived rules of etiquette?

  Eventually, my medical director, a mountain of a man called Llewellyn who I’d made it my business to get to know better following the events surrounding my Awakening, declared that everyone he and his people had been working on were going to recover. He said that Mike was likely to be fine after a good night’s sleep, the effect of the psychic attack from the Messenger being quite minor but the two guards were much more seriously injured.

  “They’ll never serve again. They have had a massive amount of their life force removed and they’ll probably only live for a further five to ten years. They gave a huge amount of their energies to you.”