The Chosen

by K. J. Nessly

  Nothing.

  Absolutely nothing.

  Natalie’s words echoed through her mind.“No one here likes you. No one wants to be around you. We hate you! Everyone else is too afraid of you to say it but I’m not! Why were you even placed in this family? Why were you even made a Guardian? You’re a freak, a wanderer, an outcast!”

  Why had she been placed into this family? She had thought that having Amy in her family would make things easier. It hadn’t. If anything it was making it harder. Natalie had noticed that Amy had been placed on a shift with Kathryn, while Lindsey wasn’t on her shift, and had complained to Kathryn about it. Kathryn had told her to take it up with David, which had done nothing to endear her to the older girl.

  The others in the Dragons were nice enough, but even though they were all aware of the tension between the three girls, no one had made any attempt to intervene. Kathryn couldn’t truly blame them. Natalie rivaled Lady Blackwood when she was angry. Still, she harbored some resentment for it. She was looking out for the interests of the whole family and when she got burned for it, and Natalie’s temper sometimes caused her gift to create small flames at the tips of her fingers, no one was willing to say anything on her behalf. No, it wasn’t resentment she felt, although it may have started out as it, it was disgust. She lived in a house of Guardians, protectors of the realm, who were supposed to stand up for the weak and oppressed and not one of them were willing to take a stand in their own house.

  It reinforced the one truth Kathryn had learned from an early age. Depend on no one for anything. Fight your own battles and trust no one.

  Kathryn shifted so that she was sitting on the ground, hugging her knees to her chest. She could never reveal to Natalie just how much her words had seared her heart. Her accusations were eerily familiar to Lady Blackwood’s accusations and had brought back extremely unpleasant memories.

  She sighed. Natalie had asked why she was a Guardian. But Kathryn didn’t know what she would do if shewasn’t a Guardian. She hated the society nobles and their superior notions of themselves.

  That’s not entirely true,she had to admit to herself.I enjoy spending time with Lord Jasse and Princess Jasmine…although they aren’t exactly the typical noble.

  But the others she met reminded her too much of the Blackwoods. The way they carried themselves, how they walked and sat properly and stiffly as they bantered and postured showing who was the cleverest or most knowledgeable about any and every subject. She particularly disliked their treatment of the commons, but neither could she identify with the peasants and farmers. Perhaps the best choice would be to disappear and live a life alone high in the mountains with Destiny and Lerina where no one could find her.

  She had the skills to pull it off, she realized. Shecould disappear where no one could find her, not even the Guardians. But she was trained to be a Guardian, and deep down into the very depths of her being she lived and breathed to be a Guardian. If she left, she didn’t know what she would do.

  No. She was a Guardian. She couldn’t abandon her duty. She would stay.

  She was a survivor too. She had survived living with her uncle, she had survived living with the Blackwoods, and she had survived the school. She would survive with the Dragons. Once she retired she could live apart from any living person. She just had to survive once more.

  Time to revert back to old habits,surviving here won’t be that much different than Blackwood Manor and my uncle’s house. The same techniques would work here as well.

  I will survive.

  So began a contest of wills.

  Once a week, Natalie would continue to enter Kathryn’s room and redecorate, always in red and pink, or red and black.

  For her part, Kathryn continued to burn the decorating supplies and retreat to the waterfall when the weather allowed, enjoying the one time during the day when she could be alone. This continued to irritate and infuriate Natalie to no end, but she wasn’t skilled enough to track the Dragon’s second-in-command despite the snow, although there were many times she had tried.

  Amy and the other Dragons noticed Kathryn’s stiffness and increasing silence and wondered how they could possibly intervene? Natalie and Lindsey were driving their lieutenant from them and while Kathryn wasn’t the friendliest person they’d ever met, she’d seemed to have their interests at heart. A few had considered bringing up the topic to David, but his occasional frustrated looks at Kathryn hadn’t suggested the conversation would be well received. Not to mention they had no physical proof that Natalie and Lindsey were harassing the younger girl. The duo were the picture of perfect innocence whenever David was around, acting hurt when Kathryn was brusque with them. If he hadn’t been so distracted with his new position and reporting daily to the Council, he might have noticed the problems brewing.

  One day Amy finished stabling her horse early and was returning to her room when she noticed three red hearts under and around Kathryn’s door. Opening her friend’s door to return them she received the shock of her life. The room was a mind swirling riot of pink and red.

  Knowing Kathryn as she did, Amy knew her friend hadn’t done this and it didn’t take much thinking to point Natalie’s incessant questions and famous closet of fabric as the guilty party.

  She left Kathryn’s room, hoping that her friend would confront Natalie when she came home. She was bitterly disappointed. Kathryn never said a word. Amy tried to find Kathryn to talk to her about it, but, even though she knew her friend hadn’t gone into the forest, she was nowhere to be found—unbeknownst to Amy and the rest of the Dragons, late at night Kathryn had taken to seeking solace in the small add-on that Jenna used to store her herbal supplies. There was one bright spot about the whole affair; Amy now had physical proof of Natalie’s harassment. And she was determined to put a stop to it all.

  The next morning she sought out David. Finding him alone was the best thing she could have hoped for.

  “Good morning Amy!” he called from the barn loft, a pitchfork of hay in his hands. “What brings you out here?”

  Instead of immediately replying, Amy climbed the ladder up to the loft. When she was standing before him she replied, “I need to talk to you about something.”

  Hearing the seriousness of her tone, David put down the pitchfork and settled onto a hay bale. Amy remained standing.

  “What’s wrong?”

  Amy looked him straight in the eye. “Have you noticed anything going on between Natalie, Lindsey, and Kathryn?”

  David looked confused. “No, I can’t say that I have,” he admitted. “Up until a few weeks ago Natalie used to vent her frustration with Kathryn at me, but she stopped after I suggested she try and work out their differences.” He didn’t add that for a while he had actuallyjoined Natalie in those venting episodes until one day he had realized how wrong it was for him as the Dragon’s leader to participate in such activities. To voice his own doubt and frustration in Kathryn, however tactfully he worded it, was as good as condemning her before the whole family. He’d stopped immediately. When Natalie had stopped coming to him, he’d assumed that she’d taken his advice. Amy’s presence was starting to suggest otherwise.

  She nodded. “I didn’t think so.”

  He frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’re not here all the time to observe the goings on around here, but let me tell you, this family is not functioning like it should be.”

  David looked startled. “We seem to get along fine to me.”

  “Most of us do,” Amy replied. “But for some reason Natalie and Lindsey have gotten it into their heads to make life miserable for Kathryn. I happen to know that Natalie recently entered Kathryn’s room and decorated the place for her.”

  “What?” David stood up in disbelief and anger. “Why?”

  Amy shrugged helplessly. “I’m not exactly sure. Perhaps Natalie feels that Kathryn curbs her freedom too much.”

  “Does she?”

  Amy paused. “Not that I’ve seen
, but it could be possible, although I doubt it.”

  “Why do you doubt it?”

  Amy fixed her stare on him. “You know Kathryn’s past?”

  He nodded briefly. “I know in general what happened.”

  “Then you should know that revenge and retaliation have been hammered out of her. She wouldn’t curb someone else’s freedom, it’s too important to her.”

  “Even after all our training?”

  “Our training teaches us to fight for others. Kathryn’s never learned to fight for herself.”

  David was silent as he thought this over. Finally he said, “The only way Kathryn will ever learn to defend herself is if she takes up the initiative and does it herself.”

  Amy sat down. “How can she take up the initiative if her way of protecting herself is to hide?”

  “Hide?”

  “She hides herself away to avoid getting hurt.”

  He sighed heavily. “I knew this was going to be difficult, I just didn’t realize how difficult.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “For right now? Nothing.”

  Amy started to protest, but he cut her off. “As much as I would love to just take your word on this, I can’t approach Natalie or Lindsey without seeing it myself first.”

  “You think I’m lying to you?”

  David quickly shook his head. “No. I’ve just got to actually witness this before I make a decision on how to act.”

  “And just how are you going to notice if you’re on shift when this happens?” Amy asked pointedly.

  Letting out another sigh David replied, “I don’t know.”

  “Will you at least tell Natalie to stop invading Kathryn’s privacy?”

  David nodded.” That is a serious offense. You’re sure it’s Natalie?”

  “Who else has a million bolts of fabric that she can just cut up and use as decoration?”

  That evening David confronted Natalie, who grudgingly admitted the crime. Other than a stern lecture and a warning, David could do very little in the form of punishment or restitution. The girls would have to make their own peace. He just wished he would be around to observe what actually took place between Kathryn and Natalie.

  Chapter 13

  A week later the opportunity landed in his lap. The streak of storms seemed to have finally passed and by now the Dragons were used to trudging through snow and occasionally slipping on hidden ice patches during their shifts. The nicer weather was still a hazard though. The sun glared off the snow, blinding everyone who wandered about their business. Oftentimes, David felt like light gifted Guardians were practicing their gift in his face. If it weren’t for their special masks, the Guardians would have been in danger of going blind. The locals, however, were used to dealing with the severe winters of their region and as soon as the storms passed, they had doggedly cleared the streets and set up a rotating watch of residents at the animal troughs to break the ice that continually formed. They even had their own version of the masks the Guardians wore, wrapping thick scarves around their heads and pulling a thin ladies stocking across their eyes. David had been impressed at their ability to continue on with life when all he wanted to do was sit in front of a roaring fire all day.

  As the first shift returned, David led Cass, Elizabeth, and Lindsey south to where Kathryn had been attacked during her second day on duty. He wanted another look at the place where the bandits had been, as well as to make sure that the troublemakers who seemed to enjoy poisoning water and crops hadn’t returned. Matt had told him how Kathryn, once they had all had about a dozen shift’s experience, had split her shifts up even further to cover more territory and David had quickly implemented the practice into his own shifts. It was a practice that he found worked very well. He had also been impressed, and mildly amused, to learn about the training sessions she held during his last shift. For the first time he began to wonder if the councilhad known what it was doing when they assigned Kathryn to be his lieutenant.

  He sent Lindsey and Cass to check out the villages while he and Elizabeth headed towards the forest. Three radians later David honestly admitted to himself that he would never win awards for tracking. That was Kathryn’s specialty.

  Elizabeth, spotting some churned up snow of interest, headed off to the right. After David dismounted he moved more to the left and nearly impaled himself on a sword that was suddenly thrust at his chest. Reflex already had him taking several steps off the line of attack and past the sword and he couldn’t help but wonder if this was the same bandit who had attacked Kathryn and gotten away.

  He shifted slightly to position himself for another attack, and finally got a glimpse of his attacker. And just as quickly came to the conclusion that this wasnotthe bandit Kathryn had faced. Or if she had, she had not gotten as good a look at him as she had thought. Kathryn had described a large man with a limp in his left leg with one arm longer than the other.

  The man facing him was huge with a smooth walk and even arms. He also had muscles that looked as if he had stuck a couple of Cass’s airy loaves beneath his sleeves. David knew that his best defense against such a brute would be to stay out of reach until he came up with a plan to outsmart him. At the moment, David was positioning himself to strike his left thigh and calve figuring that he could win by letting the monster in front of him bleed out by surprising him with a series of rapid leg slashes.

  Easier said than done. When the brute’s first swing caught David on his shoulder he felt pain and shock. The second strike came while his arm was still numb. Attempting to retreat out of the man’s reach, David was only partially successful. The sword grazed his back and David could feel an uncoiling across his other shoulder as the blade sliced muscle. The shock of the impact was compounded by the simple fact that hewas injured.

  The sword had cut right through the Cirin cloth, an act that should have been impossible. He could already feel the biting cold of the air against his exposed skin. He glanced at his opponent’s weapon. It was almost identical to the sword he had encountered on his first day on duty.

  This is not good. These swords weren’t hacked to pieces after a few parries. David had a real fight on his hands and with only one partially usable shoulder to get him through it.

  His opponent lunged at him and David rolled. His back connected with various stones and broken twigs that had been hidden beneath the snow. Grimacing against the pain of grit and other forest debris imbedding in the wound he knew that the biggest danger he faced was frostbite. He could almost feel the muscles tearing more in his right shoulder. The Guardian threw one of his daggers at the man, who ducked, but didn’t manage to completely avoid the blade.

  David decided that just having one ear did nothing to add to the man’s rugged looks as his opponent howled in pain and fixed him with a bloodlust glare—a glare that turned glassy eyed before the big man literally fell forward and lay still, Elizabeth’s dagger embedded in his back.

  Moving slowly, David edged to where the sword now lay. Elizabeth came up behind him and eyed his wounds. “Jenna’s going to need to look at that.” Her voice sounded as shocked as he felt.

  “I know. Let me grab this blasted sword and we can get—what in blazes?”

  Even as he spoke the mystery sword appeared to be melting before his eyes, turning into a river of red fluid that looked suspiciously like blood, before seeping into the snow. They stared at the spot for a moment longer.

  Finally David, the pain in his back starting to become more pronounced, said somewhat haltingly, “I guess we can go now.”

  They quickly joined up with Lindsey and Cass, both of whom were stunned at his injury. But if they were shocked then Jenna was horrified. Upon seeing his injury she immediately put him to bed and ordered him to stay put.

  Kathryn took over his last shift, making David feel a little guilty, but assured that he would be up and around the next day…or so he thought.

  Jenna refused to let him out of bed the next day, claiming that it took mo
re than ten radians to heal and David wasn’t feeling strong enough to protest. Kathryn took on all of his responsibilities that day, making David feel like a pathetic noble who couldn’t handle getting scratched, but Jenna was adamant.

  “You are not allowed to move until I tell you,” she ordered as she changed his bandages. “Kathryn is strong, she can handle it.”

  David planned to be back on duty by the next morning. Unfortunately, his wounds got infected and he came down with a high fever.

  Jenna was mystified, the Cirin should have prevented infection but their leader was getting worse and worse. To Jenna it looked like the Cirinitself had contracted the illness and was passing it on to its wearer…and she was powerless to stop it. Finally she decided to remove the Cirin. While she cared for David, Tyler worked with the infected Cirin. Both healers appropriated an extra back room off the side of the house as an area where Jenna could mix poultices and herbal rubs and Tyler could try to figure out what was wrong with David’s armor. At night, after Kathryn finished with the rounds, she would often join them. Before long Jenna had her mixing the poultices and herbal rubs while she and Tyler focused on the Cirin.

  Even with the Cirin removed, David was delirious with fever for two days, at one point he scared Jenna out of her wits when she entered and found him not breathing, but she quickly remedied the situation and he began to mend.

  Fortunately, the fever broke on the evening on the third day. After a short meal consisting of broth, bread, and pureed fruit he was able to sit up by himself and recounted the events of the ambush with Kathryn, who listened expressionlessly before promising to be on the lookout for bandits with a similar agenda. Everyone was relieved at his recovery and took turns visiting him. After a radian, Jenna had enough of that and had to shoo out several family members while ordering more bed rest for David.