The Mystical Knights: The Sword of Dreams

by K. A. Robertson

  "You're very welcome."

  Nia shoved the crinkled bill into her pocket and caught sight of her sneakered feet as she looked at the floor. “It feels weird going to school in something other than my old uniform,” she said absently, smoothing out the fabric of her skirt and looked back up into Sam's watchful gaze.

  Warmth. Familiar. Concentrate.

  Sam let out a small chuckle as he grabbed Nia’s jacket off of one of the coat holders. “We’ll go this weekend and buy you some new clothes. And maybe, since you’re gonna be around, I’ll get cable for the television. And for now you’ll have to use the school computers or go to the library in town to use a computer,” Sam went on, slinging on his coat and opening the door, “at least until I get our computer up and running.”

  “That’s fine with me.” Nia slung her new bag over her shoulder and followed her father out the door.

  As they pulled up in front of Willow Creek High School, Nia’s stomach felt as though it had been invaded by carnivorous butterflies that were flapping and chewing their way through the inner lining. Kids were arriving by bus or walking up to the large, brick building that was surrounded by at least twenty white portable classrooms.

  “Why does my school look like a trailer park?” Nia wondered out loud, watching as a group of giggling girls entered one of the many trailers that were set up as classrooms.

  “It’s going to get a new building some day,” Sam explained. “It’s on the list—number twenty or something. Right now, they’re just waiting on funds and for the school board to pass it.”

  Nia fidgeted with the strap of her backpack, before opening the truck door and hopping down to the pavement. Already people were staring at her. Nia kept her eyes low to the ground as she turned to say good-bye to Sam.

  “Now when school lets out,” Sam said, making sure to look Nia square in the eye, “you’re gonna wanna take bus thirteen home.” He paused, pursing his lips thoughtfully. “You know, you might wanna ask the office about that, but I’m pretty sure it’s bus thirteen you want to take. And if you miss the bus, I don’t get off the boat until at least six—so you’ll have to either wait around or take the late bus—”

  “Dad, I’ll be fine,” Nia reassured, although her stomach proceeded to twist at the thought of missing her bus. That wouldn’t be a good thing. “I’ll see you when you get home, okay?”

  “Alright.” Sam sounded unsure of himself. Nia gave him an encouraging smile as she slammed the door shut. He gave her a one armed wave before driving off and out of sight.

  Nia kept waving until she could no longer see the old pick up any more. With a sigh, she swung her back pack up over her shoulder and proceeded to enter the school building.

  The noise level went up another notch as Nia found herself in the front lobby. Over in the corner of the lobby just outside the cafeteria were two people—a boy and a girl—making out passionately, while an older man, a teacher, hollered at them to “Get a grip!” from down the hall. The teacher swatted Nia to the side, barely even noticing her presence. She frowned at the man and pushed open the doors to the office.

  The office was buzzing this morning as well. The phones were ringing off the hook. Students were turning in their absentee notes from the previous day and getting late passes so that they wouldn’t be counted as tardy. In one of the larger rooms, Nia could see through the glass that the principal rambling on to a petite woman with inky black hair that was perfectly pulled into a tight knot at the nape of black turtle-neck. Nia took a number off of the desk, staring at the woman's abnormally long fingers that loosely held the hem of her dress, and slumped back into the last vacant seat available.

  “It’s usually not this busy.” The voice startled her momentarily, but Nia looked quickly to the speaker. She was a small spunky looking girl, with short and spiked flaming orange hair. Nia eyed the eyebrow piercings, the lip rings and the onyx-crested bull-loop that hung from her nose warily, wondering which piercing had hurt the most.

  “Why is it so busy today?” Nia asked.

  “It’s Tuesday,” the girl sighed, waving her tiny hand nonchalantly. She grinned, flashing brilliantly white teeth. “Everybody loves Tuesday.”

  "Sure looks it," Nia replied. She anxiously bounced her knees together, firmly pressing her lips together.

  “You’re new here,” the girl went on, summing Nia up with her icy blue eyes. "What brings you to the wonderful town of Willow Creek?"

  Nia toed the tiles with her shoe. My mother died. No, probably wasn't the best thing to begin with. She swallowed back a lump that was starting to grow in her throat and asked instead, "Is it that obvious that I'm new?"

  The girl grinned again, bobbing her head as though listening to music only she could hear. She pushed her square glasses high up on her nose. “You look like you’re about to throw up all over the floor. Trash can’s over there, mind you.” The girl’s grin grew wider; something sparked in her eyes like delight. Nia gulped nervously, noting the mischievous glint in her brilliant blue eyes.

  The girl held out her hand. “Name’s Casey. But you can call me CA. Put ‘er there.”

  Nia reached out and shook CA’s hand. “My name’s Niambe—but just call me Nia.”

  CA’s eyebrows shot up into the middle of her forehead. “Well that's a weird name.”

  Nia scornfully pulled her hand away as an angry flare of emotion sparked through CA’s hand and burned the inside of her palm. This girl was really beginning to rub her the wrong way. “What does CA stand for anyway?” Nia muttered sourly, feeding off of the dry bitter feeling that was slowly flooding her chest, and rubbed her stinging palm against her skirt. Curious Asshole?

  CA smirked at her and leaned back in her chair, apparently delighted by the confrontation. "It’s actually an acronym for Cassandra Anne. I was named for my Mom's mother.” She laughed, although Nia didn’t think it was hardly funny. “Did your parents want to name you Bambi and the nurses wrote down the wrong thing? ‘Cause that happened to my brother Shannon-”

  “It’s an African name—it was my great-grandmother’s name.” Nia had a hard time saying that simple phrase without shouting. She clenched her jaw tightly, urging herself not to make a fight.

  CA seemed to be assessing her with those icy blue eyes once more, her eyebrows high above her brow. “African, huh?"

  “Thirty-three!” a nasally secretary wheezed out, looking around feebly over her wire-rimmed glasses. “Number thirty-three!”

  The rash, unfathomable anger consumed her as she stood up moodily, glaring fervently at CA “That's me,” she said quickly. Finding it hard to breath evenly, Nia strode up to the desk without a second glance at CA She gave the nasally secretary her name, snatched her schedule from her hands and marched towards the door without even pausing to say goodbye to her new found ‘friend.’

  She pushed past the other students, careful to not sense every bit of what they were feeling. She was old enough now where she could filter the others' thoughts and emotions without being subjected to them. And then again, as CA somehow ended up prancing along next to her, Nia sometimes wished that she could automatically block the people who effected her the worst.

  “Aw, come on Niambe Bambi—I was just joshing you,” CA continued in a simpering tone. Nia shot CA a deadly look, which CA seemed to calculate and shrug off too easily. “What?”

  “Are you always this rude?” Nia whispered out of the corner of her mouth.

  CA paused to think over the question. “No,” she answered truthfully. “Sometimes I’m worse—but seriously, you’ve got to learn to take a joke. I’m just having some fun. I'm letting loose before I'm stuck in ISS all day.”

  “ISS?”

  CA blinked. “In School Suspension. Jeez, girl, you have got to learn your inner school lingo. Where’d you go to school before? Prepington Academy?”

  Nia was hard pressed not to knock CA into the lockers. She didn’t particularly care about inner school lingo or if there even was such a thing.
“I went to Emerald Academy for your information. It’s a prestigious school—one that you wouldn’t be able to get in to if you even dared to put your best foot forward.”

  “I’d have to be dead first to go there to begin with,” CA replied with a shrug.

  Nia was about to glare once more at CA, when she saw him; his bangs fell across his sapphire eyes, touching the slight bridge of his nose, his thin lips pressed firmly together. The boy caught Nia's searching gaze and with small smile, his eyes sweeping the floor, he pulled open the door to the cafe and disappeared into a crowd of ravenous students.

  “Who's he?” Nia asked, pressing her face to the window as she peered into the hive of chaos.

  "Him?" CA pointed to the boy as he walked towards the kitchens. “That’s Rowan Davies.” Nia saw CA roll her eyes out of the corner of her eye. "He's nothing special—just one of the Knights of Willow Creek.”

  “Knights?” Nia furrowed her brow as she turned her gaze to CA “But I thought Willow Creek's mascot was a Wombat?”

  “It is,” CA admitted, carefully tracing her finger along the window frame. “He and the friends he hangs around with earned that title somehow. I have no idea how, of course," CA shrugged. "They're some of the most stuck up asses I've met."

  Nia pulled her face away from the glass and followed CA towards the breakfast line. Rowan certainly didn't look like an ass—a heart shaped face framed with chestnut colored locks, delicate yet full brows, and chiseled cheekbones that sat high upon his face. "He doesn't look strange. He looks normal."

  CA pulled out her free lunch card and flashed it at the lunch lady. "Trust me," she said affirmatively as Nia grabbed a bagel and a packet of cream cheese, "Fiona the Heartless and her clan of cool kids are some bizarre kind of gang." CA, with her breakfast pizza, banana and chocolate milk balanced on the tray, started to prance back towards the doors. “Hey—I’ve got to eat back in the ISS room. Would join you if I wasn’t in shackles!” she called back and, with a flit of her wrist, she was gone.

  The cafeteria was made up of two levels; the upper level, which included part of a stage that led into the band and chorus rooms, and the pit—a large square that sat directly below the upper level. The walls of the cafeteria were covered in flyers and art work, and vending machines covered about half of the upper level.

  A group of students stood huddled together of in the corner at one of the circular red tables in the pit. The girl in the middle of the group had deep crimson hair that curled far past her bare shoulders. She wore a tight and rather uncomfortable looking pale gray bodice over a white long-sleeved peasant shirt and black leather boots that were almost hidden underneath the helm of her pewter colored skirt. Gleaming against her bosom, was something round and silver. The Celtic knot, woven like a four-leaf clover shimmered peculiarly like silvery fire under the lights before Nia’s eyes. The girl's stern gaze fell over Nia, stripping her from her very flesh with peculiar, silvery, unyielding eyes...

  The Silver Phoenix from her dream had those very same eyes. And that same pendant.

  Gold Lion...The Mystical Knights...Nia's hand flew up to her mouth as a piece of the puzzle clicked together.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  Rowan Davies stood before her, holding his tray tightly in his hands. A curvy, blue sapphire triangle, trimmed with forest green stone sat visibly against his chest. Without warning, her surroundings began to tunnel away from her and before she had a chance to breathe, she was falling, spiraling down, down into nothing...

  It was dark. Rowan stood, dressed in armor like an ancient warrior. His eyes were set and ready as he pulled down his helmet. Before him, another figure stood, watching him with eyes that smoldered a brilliant blue, much more brilliant than Rowan’s would ever be capable of. “Are you ready, Sapphire Warrior, defender of Earth and all its living creatures?”

  The trees billowed in reply and the night birds hooted through the dark.

  “Yes.”

  There was a loud clang as something hit the floor and arms were wrapping her up as her knees buckled. “Are you alright?" Rowan stared down at Nia, concern etched around his mouth and eyes. He was cradling her against his chest, his breakfast tray left forgotten on the floor. Nia exhaled slowly as she stared up into his bright sapphire eyes, dimly aware that the entire cafeteria was watching the two of them. “You zoned out a bit back there...”

  He's one of them too. But what are they?

  “Sorry—must be nerves, I guess.” The smell of limes and bergamot filled Nia's nose as she breathed, staring at Rowan with wide eyes, still holding bagel in her hand. There was something calm about him. Nia's skin prickled at his touch that seemed almost familiar, but the amulet in her pocket twitched anxiously against her thigh. She swallowed hard and pulled herself away from him. “You know—I’m not that hungry,” Nia placed her bagel on the table beside her, her eyes darting over to the group in the corner. The girl with the silver eyes was staring at them, her eyes piercing and observant. Nia's stomach twisted apprehensively, her hand grazing outline of the amulet in her pocket. “I have to go see—see my guidance counselor about...things, you know, being the new student and all. I’ll see you around.”

  Nia darted away before Rowan had a chance to say anything else. She had learned long ago to trust her gut reactions, but sometimes trusting them wasn’t the problem. The problem was knowing that the truth of what would come would come—no matter how far she tried to run from it.

  Chapter 3: Unprotected

  Nia knocked her fist against the metal door of bus thirteen and shot a desperate look towards the glass doors of Willow Creek High School. No one appeared to have noticed only one student standing outside before the final bell.

  “Hey there,” the bus driver said as he opened the doors. He was a middle aged man with brown hair and a friendly face. He smiled at Nia as she climbed aboard, his Red Sox hat crookedly sitting on his head. “Got outta class early, I see.”

  “Yeah,” Nia lied, and she hoped the fib wasn’t as weak as it sounded. Some trip to the bathroom this turned out to be. She knew Rowan was going to find her in the hallway during the end-of-the-day scuffle to leave. And he was going to try to talk to her about her dream. She had this intuition while climbing the rope in gym class, and the surprise of it nearly cost her some serious rope burn. She gestured to the front seat to her left. “You mind if I sit here?”

  “Not if you don’t mind one of the younger kids sitting with you,” he said with a nod. “A couple of them like to sit up here with me—whether it’s because they like driving me crazy, I don’t know...”

  “Great—thanks.” Nia sank down into the seat, fixing her bag on her lap. Students were starting to emerge from the doors. And Rowan is headed right towards this very bus. Nia gave the bus driver a strained look as she pressed herself against the front of the seat. Of course now she'd get the entire picture. Silly puzzle-like visions. “I’m not here, okay?”

  “Who said that?” he asked sarcastically, looking around. He shrugged. “Hmm, maybe I just imagined it.” The bus driver winked at Nia as he pushed over the lever to let on the arriving students.

  Nia blinked her eyes twice as Rowan’s head popped up over the seat. She pushed her forehead into the musty seat and held her breath. She hadn't been expecting his arrival on the bus so quickly, but be was completely oblivious to her presence; he anxiously peered right on past her towards the back of the bus.

  “Hey there, Rowan!” the bus driver greeted, giving Rowan a grin.

  “Hey Arthur.” Rowan’s voice was flat and dull. He shuffled on past, looking oddly defeated. Nia sighed in relief, leaning back in the seat.

  At the middle school, Nia gained a seating partner: a meek little girl with tiny blonde curls that framed her dimpled face. She smiled shyly at Nia before taking the seat beside her. And then, with manic surprise, the shyness disappeared and Nia could understand why Arthur had said that the kids ‘drove him crazy.’

  After listening to the tiny
girl—who Nia learned within seconds to be named Jenny—babble in a loud, excitable voice to her best friend named Delina, Nia wondered why she had chosen this seat. She watched with raised eyebrows as Jenny used her mittens as hand puppets. Nia’s wary look turned to one of horror as one of Jenny’s ‘puppets’ began mercilessly attacking the other one.

  Nia shot Arthur a worried glance, but Arthur just chuckled and shook his head. Apparently this sort of behavior was completely normal for these two crazy girls.

  As they came closer to Nia’s road, someone in the back caught Delina’s short spanned attention.

  “Hi, Jessica!” Delina crooned, waggling her fingers at Rowan. Jessica? Nia’s eyebrows furrowed. Who's Jessica? Nearly giving away her position, she peeked over the side of her seat to find that it was Rowan that Delina was referring to. Must be some kind of inside joke.

  “Jessica!” Jenny jumped around in her seat, nearly smashing Nia’s head with her tiny fist as she squealed in delight. She began to wave as well. “Hi Jessica!”

  Now that it was apparent that the girls were indeed calling Rowan by the name of Jessica, Nia gave Arthur a demanding look. Arthur chuckled, carefully surveying the rambunctious children.

  “Jenny and Delina found a book in one of the seats one day—and the name printed on the back of the cover was Jessica.” Arthur gave Jenny a stern look in the rearview mirror as she bounced into Delina’s seat without warning. “When I asked the bus if the book belonged to anyone, Rowan was the lucky candidate to raise his hand. You know the rest.” He winked and continued to watch the road.

  “I told them I have a cousin named Jessica.” Rowan spoke loudly over the two taunting girls. “I really do have a cousin named Jessica...” he grumbled.

  Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, it was Jenny and Delina’s turn to get off the bus. As Nia watched Delina’s head bob down the steps, she heard the rustling of clothing in the seat adjacent to her.

  “’Bout time you came to visit with me, Rowan.” Arthur shut the folding door and looked at Rowan from the mirror. "Rough day?"