The Chosen

by K. J. Nessly

  Jenna’s head shot up. “I don’t know if we can move her yet without killing her.”

  “As soon as you can, you move her,” he ordered. “Amy, Daniel, and Elizabeth, I want you to go through the castle and make sure that there are no surprises waiting for us. Also see if you can get a message to the Guardian council. They need to know what happened here, ask if they know anything about this supposed Brotherhood.”

  Just before they disappeared around a corner a sudden thought occurred to him. “Wait!” Elizabeth halted and stepped backed into his view. David continued, “while you’re at it question the servants maybe they know something.

  “Matt, Luke, find some shovels and go out to the cliffs. Daniel, as soon as you’ve cleared the castle I want you to join them. You get to dig graves for the dead.” Quickly he added, “and grab as many able bodied servants as you can find to help you”

  David turned to face the two remaining Guardians. “Natalie, Lindsey I need you to stay here and help Jenna and Tyler in any way you can.”

  Natalie nodded, her face pale as she watched the two healers work on Kathryn.

  “What are you going to do?” Luke asked as the rest of the Dragons hurried to fulfill their assignments.

  “I’m going to invade the library and the study. I want to know what this Brotherhood is that Tanner spoke of and I’m going to see if he was careless enough to leave some information around.” He turned back to Jenna. “Let me know when you can move her and I’ll help.”

  She nodded but didn’t look up. “Natalie I’ll need a needle and some thread.”

  Reluctantly David left the healers and their assistants to their job and prepared to do his. He retrieved Tanner’s sword from the floor and attached it to the extra loop on his belt. He was determined it would remain there until he reported to the Guardian council. There were four studies and one large library in the castle and he intended to tear them all apart.

  The first study he came to was bare of any personal effects or writings. David doubted that this was the study that Lord Tanner had used but he didn’t care. He needed something to focus all his energy on and tearing apart a study seemed like a good use of it.

  He started on the desk, going through every drawer, examining for false bottoms or compartments. Methodically, he looked closely for any hidden designs or writing etched into the wood. Once he had torn apart the desk to his satisfaction he turned his attention to the chairs. The wooden ones were easy to examine, but the padded ones created a mess.

  Tyler and Daniel appeared at some point and told him that they’d completed the task he had originally given them. He sent them each to another study to tear it apart. After the furniture he turned to the tapestries that lined the walls. There was nothing special about them other than the price Lord Tanner would have had to pay to obtain them. Too bad they would be nothing but thread by the time he finished with them.

  “Sir?”

  David turned from the tapestry he had been studying and found Lea standing in the doorway.

  “The healers say they can move Lady Kathryn now.”

  He nodded a thank you and hurried out of the room. As he passed through the corridors he noticed that the wall lamps had been extinguished and briefly wondered what time it was. When he reached the tower room he saw faint rays of sunlight through the window on the west side. Sunrise.

  A stretcher had been brought up and David and Tyler carefully lifted Kathryn onto it and carried her downstairs. Lea stood before a room and motioned them forward. “Here,” she said waving them inside.

  Gently the two boys eased Kathryn onto the bed and then stepped back to let Jenna take over.

  While Jenna worked to get Kathryn comfortable, David, desperately needing a diversion since the healer had gently refused his help, pulled Tanner’s sword from his belt.

  There were no marks along the blade, nothing to ever indicate that this sword had been in battle. But it had and David had a wound on his arm to prove it. With a start, David realized he had seen this sword elsewhere. The thief from his first day on patrol with Kathryn had wielded this very same sword.

  But how had Tanner gotten a hold of it? David had turned it over to the council during the Queen’s birthday celebration. Was it merely a copy?

  No.

  He was sure this was no copy. It was the same sword he had faced all those months ago. But how had it gotten here? That was the question. That and who had forged it.

  Looking closely, David noticed that the sword was very similar to the one he carried as a Guardian. Unlike a Guardian sword however, this one was completely straight and only had one edge. The material appeared to be the same but the blue-white crystalline structure famous on a Guardian’s sword was blood red with bright yellow veins running through it. Also unlike a Guardian’s sword there was wording on the blade:

  Ai eis Paer, byli tal mal shaerysi ti

  I am death, none can stand before me.

  Interesting. There was also a symbol David had never seen before. A sword had been etched into the metal, two curls of flame running down the right side of its edge. To David’s eye the sword and flame almost formed the capital letter B, but the hilt of the sword stretched out farther on the right than the left, distorting the image.

  Even without his Guardian training, David would have known that the mark meant something important. But something deep in his bones told him that it was also extremely dangerous.

  Chapter 39

  David strode through the halls of the castle, pausing only when he passed a study or the library. So far the search had turned up nothing on the Brotherhood Lord Tanner had spoken of before he died, but David wasn’t prepared to give up yet.

  A message, containing a detailed account of all that had taken place, had been sent by way of a servant to the capital where it would be delivered to the Guardian council.

  All the remaining guards that had been loyal to Lord Tanner were presently locked in the castle’s dungeon with a Guardian driven fire barring every exit. The servants, rejoicing at being freed from Tanner, had thrown themselves into making their temporary masters comfortable … not that the Guardians had time to be comfortable.

  A quick midday meal had been served to the Guardians in the various rooms they presently occupied as they searched the castle. David had just left the study on the first floor where Amy and Luke were busy looking through books.

  He opened the door to Kathryn’s room and entered quickly. “How is she?” he asked as he drew closer.

  Jenna shook her head sadly. “At this point it could easily go either way—but she lost so much blood during the time I took to sew up the internal wounds. It was nearly a radian before I could work on the entrance wound.” She sighed. “You know, legends say that healers used to be able to heal with a touch. One touch and a wound like this would have been completely healed. No scars. Nothing. Now we’re reduced to poultices, herbal concoctions, sewing skills, and luck,” she commented derisively. “What’s the point of being a healer, if I’m barely better than the local medicine woman?”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, Jen,” he said quietly. “You can do more than you think. And you certainly know more than the local medicine woman.”

  The healer sighed and moved to stand next to the bed. “I just want her to wake up. I don’t care if she goes back to being cold and unapproachable all the time, I just need her to wake up.”

  He took a deep, bracing breath before asking, “Do you think she’ll make it?”

  Jenna hesitated. “I honestly don’t know. Kathryn’s always been stubborn but with the events at Blackwood Manor being so recent and everything else that’s happened,” she sighed. “I really can’t say. She’s very weak, David.”

  “It’s okay, Jenna. I know you’ve given your best.”

  “I just wish she’d wake up…or something,” she whispered turning to look at the still form on the bed. “Give me some sign that she still has the will to live.” They were silent for a long time before J
enna spoke again, “I wish…” she faltered.

  When she didn’t continue he prompted her. “What do you wish, Jen?” he asked gently.

  “I wish that I’d had more experience with healing serious wounds,” she whispered. “I’m good at sickness and simple cuts, but this?” She looked at David her face serious and worried, “I don’t even know if I’m doing it right. I’ve never worked on a wound like this.”

  “You’ve done what you can,” David replied. “That’s all you could ever hope to do.”

  “But what if it isn’t enough?” Jenna asked, her voice rising. “What if what I did isn’t enough? What if she dies? She’ll die because of me. Because my gift isn’t enough to save her,” she cried, tears running down her cheeks.

  He turned to look at her. “Jenna, look at me.” He waited until she faced him, tears in her blue eyes. “You’ve done your part. You stopped the bleeding and sewn up the wound.” He turned to look at the bed, “It’s Kathryn’s turn now. You can’t do any more. Like you said earlier, she has to have the will to live.”

  “And what if she doesn’t?” Jenna asked quietly. Despairingly.

  “She does,” David replied firmly. “Somewhere, deep inside, Kathryn is a survivor,” he looked back to Jenna. “She has the will to live,” he promised. She just has to find it, he thought to himself.

  Jenna looked at him, and then nodded. “Thanks, David.” She didn’t sound overly encouraged so he couldn’t tell if she was taking any comfort from his words or not.

  David squeezed her shoulder comfortingly. “I’ll send Tyler up in a few radians to relieve you so that you can get some sleep.”

  “Thanks.”

  As he walked down the hallways away from Jenna and Kathryn, despite his strong words to Jenna, David felt a sense of defeat. They had defeated a tyrant, but at what cost? A life of one of their own? For a simple tyrant, he felt the cost too steep. He really wished that they could be back home in their glade, where the Dragons wouldn’t have to hide the intensity of their prayers for Lady Kathryn’s survival, nor where they would have to remain masked and in the bloodstained clothing they had worn throughout the battle. The only place they could remove their masks was in Kathryn’s room, where Jenna only allowed the Dragons to enter.

  He stepped out onto a balcony that overlooked the plains. “If we ever needed a miracle,” he said to the air, “now is the time.”

  Thinking back on the siege he was relieved at the small number of injuries his family had accumulated. Tyler had a few bruises across his ribs where a mace had grazed him and Matt had a black eye that would cause everyone who saw him to wince for the next few weeks. His and Luke’s injuries had been relatively minor. The scrape on Luke’s forehead had been superficial and the cut to David’s own arm had missed the vital muscles and tendons. Originally, Tyler had believed that Daniel had broken a leg when a guard had tackled him down the stairs, but it was only a pulled muscle and severe bruising. A few other knuckles had been scraped and a couple cheeks were missing a few layers of skin, but aside from that no one was seriously injured. It was as if Kathryn had taken the brunt of the consequences of storming the castle for them. No one else so much as sported a sprained finger, yet she was dying.

  It wasn’t fair.

  He heard someone behind him and turned to see Lea standing in the archway, looking unsure of what she should do. He admired the young woman who had never been far from Kathryn’s side, who in fact had risked her life to save the strange Lady. “Is there something I can help you with, Lea?”

  The young woman hesitated and then asked, “Will Lady Kathryn live?”

  David sighed. “That seems to be the question of the day—a question no one knows the answer to.”

  “She was so brave,” Lea whispered, she lifted her head to look at David. “Did you know that she refused to back down to Lord Tanner? I’d never seen anyone do that before, at least not do it and live.”

  “What did she refuse Lord Tanner?” His mind immediately went to the more sordid possibilities and was immensely relieved at the young woman’s reply.

  “The truth,” Lea said simply. “That she was a Guardian.”

  David studied the young woman, “What makes you think Lady Kathryn is a Guardian?”

  Lea twisted her hands in her skirt, “I…uh…I have a gift. It’s not strong enough to qualify me into the Guardians,” she added hurriedly. “But strong enough to tell me when another gifted person is nearby.”

  “That is a gift,” David commented, and a rare one. The ability to determine whether another person was gifted or not was a trait that the Guardian council guarded jealously.

  “Of course, if Lady Kathryn was anything other than a Guardian you would have sent for a village healer once your healer had stopped the bleeding…and you wouldn’t be pacing the floors with worry.”

  “Lady Kathryn is Dowager Princess Jasmine’s ward and she would have our heads if we didn’t do everything in our power to save her,” he told her, knowing it was the truth. His aunt would kill him if he ever let something happen to Kathryn.

  “Really?” Lea said in surprise. “I thought she’d made that up.”

  David shook his head. “No, she really is the ward of the princess.” After a moment he asked, “Did Lord Tanner know of your ability?”

  “I don’t believe so, like I said, it isn’t very strong.”

  “You were very strong and brave to risk your life to help Kathryn,” David told her.

  Lea blushed. “Do you think so?”

  “Yes. Most servants would have cowered before their master, refusing to defy him in anything.”

  “I couldn’t let Lord Tanner turn Lady Kathryn over to the Brotherhood. She was too special.”

  “She is special,” David agreed.

  “How did you know to come here?” Lea asked curiously.

  He smiled. Lea’s attempt at an interrogation was almost funny and while he understood it he couldn’t disclose the truth. “Lady Kathryn sent a message to the Guardian Council. It was a cryptic message but they figured it out.”

  Lea frowned at him. “But how?”

  David shook his head. “That, I’m afraid, I can’t reveal.”

  That night David stayed in Kathryn’s room with Jenna and Tyler. He stood near a window, the stars occasionally marking the cloudy sky and the moons casting their weak light into the room. Jenna was sleeping on the couch and Tyler had gone to the kitchens to fetch something, David wasn’t entirely sure what. He honestly wasn’t sure he cared.

  The sound of Kathryn’s labored breathing filled the room ominously, overshadowing Jenna’s calm and regular breaths. Destiny had entered the room earlier, circled it twice and then perched herself above on a ceiling rafter. There she sat, still and solemn with eyes fixed on her companion, occasionally drowsing as fatigue from the long battle overtook her.

  Suddenly he was aware that he wasn’t the only one awake in the room. His eyes flew to Jenna who still slept calmly, when his eyes rested on Kathryn he knew immediately that there had been no change with her. Quickly he scanned the rest of the room, his eyes coming to rest on a shadow near the door.

  “Who’s there?” he called softly, drawing his sword.

  “Put away the weapon, David. You need not fear me,” the voice that spoke was calm, but firm.

  “Who are you and how do you know my name?”

  “I know everyone’s name,” the figure told him.

  David frowned in the darkness. “That’s impossible.”

  The shadow laughed softly. “Not for me.”

  “Step into the light,” David ordered, still refusing to lower his sword.

  The stranger complied and David took an involuntary step back. The man was tall, broad shouldered, and dressed like he was about to step onto a battlefield. His armor was a style unfamiliar to David. His tunic was fitted but the cut was unlike anything David had ever seen or studied. Around the man’s back and to his knees the tunic had been cut to knee-length but from the
knees it had been given a diagonal cut until reaching a point at his navel. It vaguely reminded David of the petals of a flower. The stranger’s feet were clad in boots and ranging all the way to his mid-calf David could see white chainmail hanging down his legs. His elbow-length tunic was covered with a brigandine that was completely unadorned, lacking the usual straps or buckles, and along his forearms David spotted more of the white chainmail. A sword hung at his waist. Whoever this stranger was, he was a warrior.

  “Who are you?” David demanded, glancing briefly at Jenna’s still sleeping form.

  “I come in peace, David,” the warrior replied. “Do you not recognize me?”

  David thought a moment, focusing on the stranger’s face. Recognition finally dawned. “I briefly saw you talking to Kathryn weeks ago near the waterfall.”

  The warrior nodded. “I am Elyon.”

  David lowered his sword, but remained cautious. “How did you get in here?”

  Humor laced his reply. “Locked doors present no challenge to me.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I am a Dūta.”

  “A Dūta,” David echoed doubtfully. “What in the kingdom’s name is a Dūta?”

  “It is many things, but mostly a leader and protector of people.”

  David understood that vague reference all too well. “A king,” he said flatly.

  “Maybe in the sense of your people, but not of mine.”

  “And just who are your people.”

  Elyon smiled. “My people are the Dikaios.”

  David searched his memory for any recollection of a people known by that name. He came up empty. “I have never heard of your people.”

  “Very few have.”

  “Is your kingdom large?” Are they all warriors like you?

  Elyon canted his head to the side. “And just what is the definition of large?” he inquired. “We have families, towns, villages, and cities. Warriors, craftsmen, and farmers alike. It is a growing kingdom.”

  He was beginning to understand why Kathryn had had a hard time pinning down an explanation of the man. He certainly didn’t answer questions without confusing you along the way. “Where?”