Guardian (Book Two of the Spirits' War Trilogy)

by K. V. Wilson

  I raise the bow and draw the string. In one fluid motion, I let the arrow fly. A sharp cry escapes from the creature beyond as the arrow finds its mark. I wince as I realize that the arrow hit the fleshy part of the bear’s thigh. The serum – which David had mixed with a tranquillizer – could take some time to enter Koyah’s bloodstream.

  In the meantime, I have become a sitting duck.

  I swear under my breath as the alabaster bear locks eyes with mine. He stumbles up, glancing at his leg to see what the matter is. Then he emits a terrible, unearthly growl.

  “Koyah,” I breathe, hoping the serum will take effect before he gets to me. The bear begins to advance towards the small hill where I stand. He places one foot after the other, favouring his left rear leg. “Koyah, it’ll be alright.”

  I don’t know why I’m reassuring him; it’s me who’s in trouble here. But my heart surges as I remember the times we’d had together. The times he and Sejka had had together, that is.

  Shoot again, Skye.

  I draw energy from the earth in order to quickly nock the next arrow, and I take a few seconds to aim. Koyah’s bounding closer and closer. I release the string and the arrow flies, sinking into the soft fur of his lower neck this time. But he’s not stopping; he’s only getting angrier. I bunch up my muscles, preparing to Shift.

  “Hit him again!” I jump at the sound of Conall’s voice, but I dare not whip around to see how close he is.

  “Thirteen!” I gasp, too startled to say anything else.

  “Shoot another. You have time!”

  “I don’t! Get back!” I shriek at the top of my lungs so he can hear me above the menacing growl of the rapidly-approaching creature.

  “Use the wind,” Conall says softly so I can barely hear him. I feel a jolt from behind and I realize he’s grabbed a handful of the arrows.

  I stare at the Lycan, wide-eyed. “Get away! B-bear,” I stammer as Koyah begins to scramble up the hill towards us.

  What are you doing? I can’t protect you!

  I raise my hands and call to the elements, hoping they’ll answer.

  They don’t.

  “Skye,” Conall warns. “Now!”

  “Damn…you!” I spit as I struggle to form a current of wind that will knock Koyah back down the hill. “They aren’t working!” I call out, indicating the arrows.

  “Need more serum. Keep shooting.”

  I nock another arrow and fire it. It misses, even at such close range, and I cry out in despair. I try to create a burst of wind but to no avail.

  I call out with my mind as I had done during the Battle of the Ritual. But she’s gone. Gone forever.

  I glare at the stupid boy beside me. But I won’t leave him, no matter how easy it is for me to fly away. If he goes down, so do I.

 

  A new voice enters my mind, one with an accent to it…

  My heart skips a beat.

 

  “Adhair!” I cry. A sudden burst of wind flows forth, sending the feral animal reeling. He rolls down the hill and lands with a muffled thump. A cloud of dust wafts into the air.

  I gasp as Conall bounds down the hill, raising the handful of arrows above his head. When he reaches Koyah, he plunges the bundle into the bewildered bear’s neck, causing the creature to emit a terrible wail before all is silent once again. All but my mind.

  I ask incredulously.

  a smug voice answers in a thick Irish accent.

 

 

 

  he asks with the ghost of what must be laughter. It feels different coming from within the confines of one’s mind.

  He’s right. But I didn’t realize…

 

 

  “Skye!” Aelshen’s voice is drowned out as Conall calls to me. I realize that the Lycan is now kneeling beside the fallen bruin, examining the arrows he’d plunged into the thick skin of Sejka’s brother.

  “Um, coming!” I cry, shaking off the surprise at finding out I can speak mentally with Aelshen. This surprise is soon replaced with anger. I demand of the Father of Lycans.

  he asks innocently.

 

 

 

  I slide down the hill and sink my hands into the earth, feeling the soft soil on my fingertips. Koyah lies motionless on his side, ten arrows lodged deep in his fur. I reach out a dirt-caked hand to stroke his face.

  Conall and I were almost a bear’s lunch. And Aelshen could have prevented it by informing me that Spiritborne could talk to one another. He could have guided me through everything I’d done since becoming the Guardian of Nature.

  Aelshen begins, his voice growing smaller.

 

  the bartender discloses solemnly.

  It takes me a few seconds to remember that Aelshen has been off searching for the last of the three Spiritborne.

  the Lycan informs me.

  I feel a slight disconnection, similar to the sound you hear through a phone’s earpiece when the person on the other line hangs up first.

  “Red, are you okay?” Conall asks uncertainly, rising from his post beside Koyah.

  I glare at him. “Am I okay? You tell me! I almost had a heart attack trying to save your fricken life, Thirteen!” I snarl, forgetting that I’ve been calling him by his given name now. “What in the name of the First Guardian were you thinking?”

  “The First Guardian?” Conall repeats softly, raising an eyebrow.

  I roll my eyes, realizing the words weren’t entirely mine. They’re probably left over from Sejka. “What would you have done if I couldn’t do it?”

  “Die, I guess.” He smiles sheepishly. “But I knew you could do it. I had faith in you—”

  “Die, you guess?” I sputter, rubbing my eyes with a hand and not caring that I’m smudging dirt all over my face.

  “You seem different,” Conall observes.

  I snort. “I should. I was nearly a bear’s snack, and so were you. And I can speak to Aelshen in my head, just like—”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” He takes a step towards me, pausing when he meets my venomous gaze. “You spoke with Aelshen? Telepathically?”

  “Yeah.”

  Conall howls with amusement. “Whoa. That is the most awesome thing.”

  I allow myself the smallest of smiles. “Yeah, it is pretty awesome,” I admit.

  “And all three of the Spiritborne can do that? Wow.”

  “All three.” I process this thought slowly and carefully. “All three of us.”

  “That’s what I said.”

  “But that means all we have to do is contact Nwyfre telepathically. He isn’t lost. He can tell us where he is. He can help us.”

  “Then why hasn’t Aelshen found him yet? Do you think he’s…between stages? Like, maybe he j
ust died and is in the process of being reborn. Maybe that’s why no one knows where he is.”

  I swallow, closing my eyes in thought. “Or,” I lower my voice, “he’s closed his mind to us like I accidentally did to Aelshen until today.”

  “That,” Conall says slowly, “is a possibility.”

  16

  SHE LIVES IN YOU

  Skye

  “Come with us, Sejka.”

  At first, I pretended not to hear him, but he was relentless, and I knew I had to say something eventually or Father would wake up.

  Father was stretched out on his deerskin, his limbs sprawled every which way. Thank the First Guardian he slept like such a boulder, or we would have been in big trouble. Well, Koyah would have been. I was the well-behaved one. Why couldn’t he be more like me?

  “Koyah! Go to sleep. Chieftain told us to stay away from his son,” I hissed. How late was it?

  “Sehwen may not determine who we spend our days with.”

  I sighed as quietly as I could, though it was unlikely Father would wake. Even if we banged the pots together and sang the potlatch songs at the top of our voices.

  “And yet, he does.”

  Koyah scoffed and I felt his hot breath on my cheek. I debated whether or not to pull the skins over my head to shut him out. I had been in enough trouble in this life; I didn’t want any more of Sehwen’s wrath. Xunnu was a good friend, but his father was right: I was a freak. I should stay away from everyone else. Until I remembered how to fully control my powers, I would be a danger to the entire tribe.

  “Sejka?” A new voice spoke my name, causing me to tense and sit upright.

  “Xunnu!” I whispered. “Get out of here! What will your father say?”

  By the moonlight filtering through the top of our dugout, I could make out the young man’s silhouette. He peeled back the hair from his chestnut eyes. His mane was long and luxurious, and the wind caught it and tossed the strands this way and that. I seldom saw Xunnu this way; Sehwen required his son to tie his hair back in an orderly fashion and to keep his chin held high. It was unbecoming for the heir of the Yáahl tribe to look any less than perfect. It was important to show strength and ferocity, and to demonstrate no mercy. That was exactly why he was not allowed to commune with our family. Especially me.

  “Ru-Yeva.” Xunnu laughed, and I glanced at Father to make sure he was still sleeping soundly. “Come exploring. There’s nothing to worry about. Our parents are asleep.”

  “Don’t call me that!” I hissed, throwing the skins back. I clamoured across the room to the centre log so we could argue without interrupting Father’s slumber.

  Only three people knew of my true nature as the Guardian of our people. Those three were Father, Koyah and Xunnu. Yet if the last kept speaking my Spiritborne name, he would eventually slip up. The secret would be out and life would never be the same again. I could not have that.

  “Weren’t you listening?” Xunnu asked, teeth flashing cerulean in the moonlight. “Our parents are asleep. No one will know!”

  I felt a pang in my chest. I felt a longing to be with Xunnu, running through the night until our legs tired and our breaths came in ragged gasps. We had done so before, many times. Many nights I had left the comfort of my home, enjoying the cool of the dusk air and the heat of the moment.

  But these nights would be no more.

  “I…cannot risk it.”

  “Sister.” Koyah sighed deeply. “Always the good girl. Where is the troublemaker we used to know?”

  I reached up and rubbed my face, feeling the contours of my defined jawline. I no longer had the telltale rounded features of a carefree child. The knowledge of centuries was beginning to take its toll on me. I could no longer see things the way I once had.

  “I am sorry.” Xunnu’s face fell. “I should not force you into anything.”

  My heart surged at his words. Once I had reached nineteen winters, I had stopped thinking of Xunnu as just a friend. I had begun to think of him in a different light. Though he was three years younger than I, we were the same in every other way. We used to laugh together and run together. He understood me more than anyone else had. I was unsure whether or not Xunnu felt the same way as I did, but it did not matter. It was not meant to be; his father Sehwen would never allow such a relationship. Especially if the Yáahl leader ever found out that I was the Ru-Yeva.

  In the eyes of Sehwen, the Guardian of Nature was only legend, only a stupid child’s tale told over the fire to desperate hearts. Why work to bring balance to the world when all it needed was order and control? Why care for the plants and the animals when they did nothing for us but wither and die? Why give our lives to the earth when the rivers only dry into caked dirt and the herds dwindle and starve us? This was Sehwen’s take on life.

  I said nothing in response to my friend and my brother. Xunnu stretched his perfect features into one last grin. “See you around, Ru-Sejka,” he whispered.

  “See you around.” I returned the smile, but in the faint light of midnight, he could not tell that it was a pained one. So badly I wanted to join them. A tear slid down my cheek and I let it fall, let it sink into the soft earth below.

  “Say good morning to Father for me, Sister,” Koyah grumbled as he left the dugout. “Come on, Xu.”

  I allowed myself the slightest of sighs. “Have fun,” I whispered as I watched their silhouettes fade into the trees, but the words were for my ears only.

  I descended the steps into our home. Sinking onto my bed, I pulled the skins over my body and stifled a shiver. I closed my eyes but sleep did not claim me no matter how hard I willed it to.

  When I awaken, my pillow is wet with fresh tears and my head throbs. I feel a pressure across my stomach and I realize that Conall has his arm draped over me. We’re back in our little tent at the edge of the Yeva’si settlement, having returned successfully from rescuing Sejka’s little brother.

  Koyah now sleeps in Xunnu’s dugout, guarded alternately by Litu, Xera and Xunnu himself. The shapeshifters had insisted that Conall, Damian, Jen and I get some sleep after we’d spent days upon days searching for the lost bruin.

  Please, let David’s serum awaken Koyah from his feral trance.

  I’m still struggling to cope with the emotions I’d felt through Sejka’s eyes. I attempt in vain to keep my body still and my breathing steady. Sejka had chosen to keep her friends and family safe as she’d gotten used to her powers. I hadn’t.

  How could I have put my friends in danger like that? I should have gone alone to track down Koyah and finish the job. The others don’t know just how difficult it is to control powers that until only recently, I hadn’t had. I still don’t remember my past lives, apart from a few glimpses of Sejka’s memories.

  Conall had nearly been mauled by a feral bear, and yet I couldn’t blame him for trying to help me. Not really. He’d overestimated my abilities. He’d thought I could subdue Koyah with the elements. He’d thought I had access to the wind and the rain at will. But I don’t.

  “Adhair,” I whisper into the night, repeating the Gaelic word for ‘air’. The word Aelshen had told me to use when all seemed lost.

  If I hadn’t been able to reach the Father of Lycans with my thoughts, what would have become of Conall and me? Could I have summoned the wind myself? Could I have remembered the Old Language on my own? Or would I have been forced to transform into a bear and fight off Sejka’s brother?

 

  There’s a slight pause, and I chide myself for not thinking about the time difference. What hour is it in England? Or wherever the Father of Lycans is now? The U.K. is a few hours ahead of western Canada, isn’t it?

 

  I gasp as I sense Aelshen’s fear. My heartbeat quickens and I struggle not to sit bolt upright; I don’t want to wake up the sleeping Lycan beside me. I like the feel of Conall’s arm draped across my body, the feel of his breath against my neck as he dreams.

  After another p
ause, the burly Irishman responds.

  I inquire into the void.

 

  I smile, running my fingers across the floor of the tent, feeling the soil and stones that press up against the canvas. I wiggle my toes as I wait for his response.

  Aelshen’s response breaks me from my thoughts. He dwindles off wistfully.

  I gulp, taking a breath. The image of the bear’s bloody neck where Conall had plunged the arrows still haunts me. But now we know how much serum and tranquilizer to use on feral bears, at least.

 

  What if I’ve unintentionally sent thoughts to Aelshen before? Ones I might not want him to know about…

  the Father of Lycans chuckles.

  I blink at his words but decide to shove them to the back of my mind for the time being.

  I begin uncertainly, changing the subject, I project my thoughts, mimicking his Irish accent. This earns me a mental chuckle from the Father of Lycans.

 

  I warn, waiting for my brain to catch up. It’s hard to understand his accent at the best of times, but in the middle of the night, it’s something like a conundrum.