by Jen Pretty
The man paled, "a second time? This is not good. The rebels are gaining in numbers and must have persuaded some of the guards to their cause. They should not have access to the castle. I will leave you with two of my trusted guards, but I must return to the king." With that, he pointed at two guards and then abruptly turned and left with the rest of the guards, a few of them dragging the attackers away. The two left behind bowed at us and then followed us as we continued to the hot springs.
Roman and I needed to bathe more desperately now. My arm was bleeding lightly still and stung a bit. My clothes were ruined as were Romans. Blood had run down from his neck to his knees in gory rivers. I couldn't believe he was still walking. I wondered how close he came to real death. If he had been decapitated, that would have been the end of him, and the thought upset me more than it would have a few days ago.
As we entered the cavern that the hot springs ran through, Roman took my hand and stopped me. He turned around to the guard and spun his finger in the air in the universal gesture to turn around. Once the men had turned around, Roman took me farther into the room and whispered to me. "I will rinse off quickly and guard you from the doorway. I can't trust these guards to keep you safe when they have traitors in the building."
"Ok, why don't you go first then? I'll wait here beside the water." I indicated a spot far enough from the guards that he could bathe without worrying about an attack.
"Alright, he whipped his bloody shirt off, and I spun around to face the guards and keep an eye out for any potential rebels. Why would these people be after Roman and me? Did they not want their magic? It made no sense. I needed to get to the bottom of this before the rest of the leaders arrived. I heard Roman splash into the water behind me. He was only in for a moment before he was back out and standing in front of me with a towel wrapped around his waist.
"Vampire speed," he said bashfully.
I smiled at him and shook my head. "I don't have vampire speed; you'll have to wait a bit longer for me."
He grinned and turned around to face the guards who were still standing at the door with their backs to us. I undressed quickly and slid into the water. It was just as hot as last time and stung on the cut on my arm. I dunked my hair under the water; it seemed like such an absurd problem; my long, tangled hair. What did that even matter? I washed it and added conditioner and tried to rinse it as best I could. I pushed my way out of the water and wrapped a large fluffy towel around myself too. I was not putting my bloody dirty clothes back on so I cleared my throat, "I'm done, let's go."
Roman spun around and took my hand placing it in the crook of his arm. The guards informed us that the cleaners would be down in a few minutes and suggested leaving our bloody clothes behind. I wasn’t keen on traipsing through the castle in just a towel, but my clothes were super gross, so towel it was.
The walk back to the rooms was fast, and we saw no one in the halls. It seemed everyone was staying low after the attack. At the door to our rooms, Roman paused to tell the guards to remain outside. Then he pulled me in and locked the door behind us.
Once we were alone, Roman walked into the bathroom and returned with some cotton strips. This world had healers, but I guess they still used first aid for injuries.
He took my hand and sat me down on the couch and then wrapped the cut on my arm with the strips of cotton. This time his eyes didn't glow, and he worked efficiently to cover the wound then tie off the end and secure the bandage.
"Thank you," I said.
"I'm glad you weren't hurt worse. You are so much more fragile than vampires," he replied still looking down at my arm.
"I'm not that fragile," I reminded him, I had been hurt much worse than this small scratch in the past. Less than a month ago I was broken, I thought, beyond repair.
"That's what they say," he said while he finished fussing over the bandage.
"Who is they?" I asked. This wasn't the first time he had mentioned hearing about me.
"Hmm?" he questioned still looking at the bandage.
"Who talks about me?" I asked pulling my arm away from him to get his attention.
He looked up, and his pale red eyes met mine. "Henry. He talks about you all the time. I think he sees you as the daughter he never had or maybe never knew he wanted. He says you are stronger than the hunters even. He thinks you may have been born both a hunter and a timekeeper."
I scoffed, "That's ridiculous. I'm not nearly as tough as those hunters. I once saw one walk away from being stabbed, clean through, with a sword. I saw another have his whole chest ripped open by a vampire and live."
"Most timekeepers are more fragile than humans," he whispered.
"What?" I was in shock. When I first met Armond, he had called me a delicate thing, but I thought he just meant compared to the hunters. I didn't know that most timekeepers were delicate.
"You should have died while you were with Joshua. He had taken several timekeepers before you, to get the upper hand on the hunters, but they just died like butterflies in jars."
I shook my head. Trying to figure out why I would be different. If I was stronger, why would my parents keep me hidden away from my heritage and in the dark about my powers? Ugh. I needed to stop thinking about this before I ended up crying.
"Alright, well, this day is done for me. I vote we stay here but get something to drink." I smiled at Roman, but he just shook his head and smiled at the floor.
"I suppose that's safer than going out to a bar."
My grin got wider, "see. I'm just thinking of our safety."
"Ok, why don't you go get changed, and I'll see if I can get the guards to find you some refreshment. Try to stay under your limit though; you do have a ton of work to do tomorrow to help these people figure out how to use their magic."
"Ya. Ya. Bossy pants." I said as I sauntered back to the bedroom to try and find some comfy clothes.
chapter EIGHT
I heard a knocking sound but couldn't decide if I was awake or asleep. Then I heard the soft rhythmic sound of Daisy snoring and figured I must be awake. The bed shifted, and I heard the door squeak open and soft whispering then the door closed again. I kept my eyes shut. My head was pounding, and I could tell it was bright in the room. I decided I could probably just sleep till next week or something.
The bed dipped again, and I realized it was someone in bed with me. That couldn't be right. I peeked one eye open and came face to face with red eyes and pointy teeth. I slammed my eye shut again, but it was too late.
"I know you are awake, Lex."
"Why are you in my room, Roman?" I asked pulling the blankets up over my head to block out the daylight streaming through the open windows.
Roman laughed. "Because you told me last night I was beautiful and if I didn't get in your bed you were going to jump off the balcony."
I vaguely remembered that. It was coming back to me in bits and pieces. "Oh God"
"Don't worry, I was a perfect gentleman even though you made some pretty questionable suggestions."
"Oh. My. God," I said pushing farther under the blankets. "No more. Go away."
"Nope. You have to get up. The leaders have assembled. They need your help. Hangover or not."
"Damn it," I muttered into my pillow.
Daisy finally got fed up with me shifting around and popped out from under the blankets and left. Probably off to find his breakfast toast.
With no other options, I flung back the blankets and staggered to the bathroom giving Roman the finger as I passed. It probably wasn't his fault, my pain was self-induced after all, but his smug look was totally unnecessary.
"I warned you," he snickered as I slammed the bathroom door.
After I washed my face and brushed my teeth, I felt slightly more human. Every time I woke up with a hangover I swore I'd never drink again but this lesson was one I just couldn't learn apparently.
I walked out of the bathroom and Roman was no longer in the bedroom, so I got dressed in clean clothes and declared myself go
od enough.
I continued on out into the sitting room and found Roman had ordered us food and coffee. "Maybe I won't kill you after all," I said pouring a mug of the good enough coffee and adding honey stuff to it. I took my first sip and felt the heat warm my throat and calm the pounding behind my eyes. A few more cups and maybe I would be able to work some magic today. I sat down at the small table and uncovered a plate of bread and cheese and meat. I wasn't hungry, but I knew it would be a long day and the bread would at least absorb some of the alcohol from last night. I ate what I could and finished the second cup of coffee before there was a knock on the door. Roman got up from his place on the couch where he had been watching me pick at my food and answered the door. It was one of our two guards, letting us know the leaders were ready for us.
I dragged myself up, and Roman tucked my hand through his arm as the guards escorted us to the courtyard. I felt a bit like a princess. You know a really grubby, hung-over princess. Not the kind of princess girls dream of becoming. Whatever.
I heard some muffled quacking as we rounded the corner and found Daisy waddling towards us with half a loaf of bread in his beak and a servant from the kitchen, probably a cook, chasing him away.
Roman began laughing at the sight of the older woman wagging her finger and scolding him. As Daisy passed me, I reached down and snatched up his stolen merchandise and handed it back to the cook. Not that I thought anyone would want to eat it after a duck absconded with it, but it was the principle of the thing. Daisy did not need that many carbs and stealing is wrong. I told him as much in the hall, and Roman started laughing harder. He was doubled over by this point, and his face was red and wet with tears of laughter.
"Roman, it's hard for Daisy to take me seriously with you laughing like that. He needs to learn right from wrong, and that won't happen if he doesn't know we are serious and both on the same page. This is not how you raise a duck," I said with my hands on my hips.
Roman finally caught his breath and looked at me trying unsuccessfully to contain his laughter as he snorted and cracked up again. Daisy had wandered off by this point, probably to steal some more baked goods.
Exasperated I said "whatever, can we just go please?" Roman pulled himself back together again, and we carried on down the hallway. He did the weird snort laugh thing twice more before we made it to the court yard but managed to get a bit serious when we exited the building and found a group of 5 men and women plus the King standing around chatting in the center of the yard. A couple of them looked familiar.
"Ah, here she is," the King indicated towards me with an outstretched hand, "Alexandra, I'd like you to meet the leaders of our world. This is Sofia, she leads a city to the north." The woman walked over and shook my hand. She was tall for a woman and had a stern face and shortcut dark hair that made her features severe. Like a school principal or someone equally authoritative.
"Nice to meet you," I said.
"Nice to meet you too, Alexandra. I'm glad you have come to help us," she said in an authoritative voice. I just smiled, and luckily the King saved me from my awkwardness and introduced the next person.
"This is Philip, he rules to the south" Philip just waved at me, so I waved back. He was short and bookish looking, but appeared to have muscle under his well-fitting clothes, I was sure it was from farming or the like, his hands were definitely calloused.
"To my right here is Anderson who rules to the east." The King indicated a lean man of equal height to his own. The resemblance was actually uncanny and as I looked between the King and Anderson the King’s smile grew "he is my brother that is why there is a resemblance."
"That makes sense. I said. "Nice to meet you, Anderson."
"Call me Andy. Everyone does except my brother who only calls.me by my full name to annoy me." He said with a laugh.
I smiled at him, "alright, call me Lex, please."
“Mac, leader to the west whom you have met, and, of course, my son Aldridge."
"Yes, good to see you again Mac," I said.
He nodded and replied "and you,"
I just waved at Aldridge because I had only seen him yesterday around the castle and it seemed weird to welcome him again.
The King clapped his large hands once, "alright, now that introductions are over, let's get on with this training." Everyone was all smiles then. We're they in for a shocker. The only way I knew how to teach someone to pull .magic from the ground was the way I learned.
"Alright, Well, I'm not an experienced teacher, but I will hopefully help you all find magic. So, let's sit on the ground and see what we can do," I said trying to sound more confident than I felt. The Kings men who were milling about at the side of the space came running out with a blanket for the King to sit on. He looked up at the sky like he was begging for strength to handle the men who seemed to fuss over him like old ladies fussing over a child but sat on the blanket and crosses his legs. The rest of us peasants just lay on the ground, and I snickered a bit before closing my eyes.
"Alright, now you will feel something at some point. That's your magic. But for now, you just need to blank your mind and think of nothing."
And there we sat. About an hour into our training exercise, if you can call it that, the King began to snore. I tried to hold in my laughter because I remembered how boring it was for me too and I almost fell asleep twice during my first day of training to feel magic.
I noticed Roman slipping back onto the courtyard and wondered where he had gone off to but didn't want to break the silence.
Eventually, the King snored quite loudly and woke himself up. After a moment he said, "Did you feel that? It felt like a tremor.”
I smiled. I knew the King would find his magic first as he had already transformed into a wolf. "I didn't feel anything, but perhaps you felt your magic. Next time try imaging the tremor is a rope and pull on it."
He grunted, and we were all silent again for several minutes. "Oh!" the King declared, and when I whipped my eyes open, I saw a giant wolf where the King was sitting.
"Very well done, your highness," Franklin, his chief guard, said with awe in his voice and on his face.
"Yes, thank you, Franklin. Now how do you let go of your magic, Lex, this was my problem earlier."
I smiled at the giant wolf with the man voice. "I just let go of the rope that I pulled on to bring the magic to me," I said shrugging my shoulders.
The giant wolf King lay down on his blanket and rested his chin on his paws. If he hadn't been so huge, I would have thought he was adorable, like a puppy. I laughed a bit at that, and the King grumbled like he knew what I was thinking. Maybe he did.
Another hour later and no one else had changed and the King was still giant and hairy, I decided maybe we should break for lunch. When I suggested that to the king, he merely looked at Franklin and nodded his head. Franklin ran to the doors and started calling out orders as other members of the King’s guard and staff hustled about with tables and chairs and place setting. Once the yard had been transformed into a massive dining hall, and we were all seated, a line of people came out the door carrying covered trays. Each person stopped and set a dish in front of one of us. Roman sat to my left at the end of the table and was presented with food and a glass of suspiciously thick, red liquid.
Roman caught me looking at it, and I wrinkled my nose. He just smiled and picked up the glass and chugged it down, set down the glass and sighed before turning back to look at me. Smiling with his red teeth and his red eyes, he looked like a dork instead of a monster. I shook my head at him.
"It's quite refreshing." He said, still smiling.
"Alright, if you say so." I turned back to my plate and was pleased to see so much delicious food. I didn't recognize any of it, but it smelled good. I took a deep breath savoring the scents.
I looked down at the table as I picked up my fork and witnessed the giant wolf King eating what seemed to be a whole duck.
"DAISY!" I screeched. "NO."
I jumped up from the
table and took off towards the kitchen first. Surely they didn't cook up my duck for the king. I entered the castle and flew down the corridors. As I ran around the corner, I smashed into a young man but didn't stop to make sure he was ok. Tears were falling from my eyes now, but I just ran. I blasted through the doors of the kitchen.
"Where is Daisy?" I hollered at the frightened old ladies who were washing dishes in basins of water. "Where is my duck?" I screamed at the woman closest to me.
"Calm down." Came a voice behind me.
I spun around a stared down the tall, muscular man who was leaning against the door frame. I had never seen him before, but he was now my target. I took out my knife and pointed it at his neck stepping into his space until the point was pressing into his windpipe.
He gave me a shocked grin and moved slightly towards me drawing a drop of blood from his neck.
"Where is my duck?" I asked in a low, menacing voice.
His smile grew, and he chuckled softly. "You mean the one that's addicted to baked goods? He's behind you."
I spun around and saw Daisy nested down in a pan on the counter happily chowing down on some toast.
I tucked my knife away and scooped up the lousy duck.
"You jerk. Never ever do that to me again, you hear me?" My tears still ran as I tried to calm myself, but sobs still wracked my body.
"See. He's fine," the man said picking up a napkin and blotting the blood on his neck where I had cut him. Smug son of a bitch.
"Ya thanks," I muttered before setting Daisy back in his pan nest where he immediately went back to work on his food.
I spun around to apologize to the kitchen staff but they were gone now, and it was just myself and the mystery man left in the room.
He watched me with interest. I took another deep breath, and that's when I felt it. He was magic. Not 'he had magic,' he WAS magic. It pulled at me like gravity. I had felt it before, but I couldn't place it. It was overwhelming now that I had noticed it. The magic wanted to jump from him to me, I could feel it. I started to panic and slammed time to a stop, pushing his magic away. The man froze, and I just stood there breathing ragged breaths and trying to calm my magic.
