"I'm good, you alright?"
"Peachy."
"You don't look peachy."
He didn't. His usually tanned and ruddy face had greyed significantly, and his usual relaxed stance looked forced.
"Well, it's been a while."
"Since you've been in the Void?" He nodded. "How long?"
"Oh, who keeps track. But long enough that everyone forgot I existed." He was trying to be affable, to stop the fear from creeping into his voice, but I could hear it.
"Are you up for this?" Before he could answer, I continued, "Because it's okay if you're not. Talking to the Guard isn't easy, and as much as I'd like you by my side, it's totally cool if you can't be. I just ask that you wait here for me."
"Phoenix," he took a deep breath, his wings rose and fell with the action, "I'm going with you." I opened my mouth to speak, but he cut me off, "Don't ask me again. I'm okay, and I'm coming with you."
"Okay. Good." I turned on my heel and started walking.
The thing with the Void is you never know where anything is. I'd love to have walked straight into the Circle of the Guard, but I had no idea where it was. It had always just appeared to me. So, counting on it making another appearance, I just picked a direction and started walking. Royal fell into step behind me, and we moved along in world's smallest and saddest conga line.
We had walked for a while when a particularly large rise loomed before us, it had grown out of nowhere and would take a good amount of effort to climb.
"I reckon what we're looking for is on the other side," Royal said, standing beside me as we both took in the giant hill.
"Yep. That's the Void for you. Always a step ahead." As if it heard me, which it most certainly did, the ground under our feet began to slope away forcing Royal and me to start climbing if we wanted to keep our balance.
"She definitely heard you."
"She? How do you know it's a she?"
"Because things with immense power usually are."
"Makes sense," I grunted as we climbed. "We could fly over," I offered.
"Not with your wings as they are," Royal answered, "and as a general rule I avoid flying in the Void unless absolutely necessary."
"Why?"
"Because we're the only ones that can do it and that makes people very jealous. And jealous Travellers are dangerous Travellers."
"We're the only ones? Seriously?"
"Have you ever seen anyone else fly?"
"Well, no, but I haven't seen much here."
"Take my word for it."
"So nobody can, like, jump really high or something?" I pressed.
"There's no Superman in the Void."
"Holy crap! Is Superman real?"
"No, Phoenix, it was just an expression."
"Oh, okay," I was a bit disappointed, "but there are vampires, right?"
"Vampires?" Royal thought for a moment. "I've never met one, but I hear they're real."
"Cool."
Royal shook his head.
We had finally made it to the top of the hill. I looked down into the valley below and right there in the centre was the Circle of the Guard.
The Circle was a grouping of tightly spaced trees that formed an impenetrable wall around the Guard. The trees here were much taller than others in the Void and rose so high that the centre of the Circle was not visible even at our high vantage point.
"Damn, I was hoping we could get a look at things," Royal said.
I tried to answer, but my heart was suddenly hammering its way up into my throat. All the horrible things that had happened to me in that circle came flooding back. Royal put a strong hand on my shoulder and spun me around to face him. He took both my shoulders in his hands and shook me, hard.
"Phoenix!" More shaking. "Phoenix!" He barked. "You gotta slow your breathing, girl." A gentler shake. "Look in my eyes, honey. Look in my eyes."
It took all the effort I could muster to focus on Royal's face. I could see the bristles of his beard, the wrinkles of his skin. My eyes slowly made their way up his face to his sparkling blue orbs. When our eyes met something clicked deep in my chest, and I felt my heart slow down and return to its natural place in the centre of my chest. My breathing slowed and the tightness in my ribs reduced. Royal's eyes flashed and the centre of my power, deep in my core, flared to life, blue-green flame rolled through my belly and out into my limbs. I felt my spine straighten and my wings stretch against their velvet wrappings. I took a clean, deep breath and let it out slowly, my words floating on the current.
"Thank you."
Royal let go of me.
"You're welcome. I thought you were going to go over the edge on me."
"Just a touch of PTSD, the last few times I was here sucked."
"Yeah, I get that."
We stood in silence for a few minutes, both of us breathing deeply and evenly, almost in protest of what lay ahead of us.
"Well," I broke the silence, "we'd better get going."
"After you, honey."
We headed down into the valley.
32
"Put your hood up," Royal whispered.
"Good idea."
I scooped up the velvet cowl and pulled it down over my face to create a shadow deep enough to hide my healing skin and stubble covered head.
We were standing in front of the Circle's trees. They were grouped together thickly; their shiny grey leaves and silver trunks creating a veil between the Guard and us.
"How do I look?"
Royal adjusted my hood and nodded.
"Good."
"Let’s do this." I turned to the trees. "Are you going to let us in or what?"
"Classy," Royal grumbled.
But his disapproving sound was soon drowned out by a great aching moan as the trees in front of us began to bend. The sound was underpinned with the noise of the leaves rattling against each other as their silver trunks strained against themselves. Soon an opening just wide enough for us to squeeze through appeared.
"That's on purposes," Royal whispered.
"We'll have to fold up to get through."
"And they know it." I glanced at Royal, his jaw was set in a grim smile.
"Here we go."
"I'm right behind you."
I stepped through the trees.
The magic of the Void is infinite. Although we stepped through a seemingly thin band of trees, it felt like stepping into another world. Whereas the Void itself was cold and overcast, here on the other side of the trees, the sky was still grey but glowed, bathing the Inner Circle with a strange bright light. My sensitive eyes blinked hard against it, my thin eyelids doing very little to protect me. Royal gently touched my elbow, I nodded that I was okay and then stepped forward, forcing myself to raise my head and face the group before me.
The Guard.
They were sitting just as I remembered them and the initial shock of it rocked me, and I swayed. Royal grunted, and I shook my head, I was alright. I needed to be alright. I had to be alright.
Cosima sat on the far left dais, her chair a broad leather number with low arms, an upgrade from the one I destroyed the last time I had been in this Circle. On that occasion, it had just been her, her lackey Baba Yaga, who was currently lurking behind Cosima's dais, and Garanaj. They had attacked, I'd fought back. Then I'd had a power flare that had sent them running and destroyed all the towers and chairs in the circle.
Cosima looked at me, and an evil cat-who-ate-the-canary style grin spread across her nasty face. Whereas Noiryn was love and light, this siren was a real stone-cold bitch. She had an ample and curvaceous body, covered in red scales and her third eye was as black as midnight as it bored into me. Cosima sat back in her chair; apparently, she was saving the spikes that ran down her spine for later. Great.
Next to Cosima sat Mastyx, his mouth stretched into a smile, and his tongue flicked out twice. On the ground, entwined around the base of the dais were two of his snake boys. I had no idea if it was the same two I'd met during my fi
rst forays into the Void, but it didn't really matter. I got the impression that Mastyx had a rotating group of snake-men that showed up to do his bidding.
Silverwood sat next to Mastyx, his tall tree trunk-like body bent awkwardly into his chair. Why didn't they just get him one that worked for him? Or maybe he was way more comfortable than he looked, who knows. Long branches reached from his head and stretched into the grey sky above, their leaves shimmering in the slight breeze. The last time I had seen Silverwood he had helped me Travel from the jungle. The goal of that trip had been to find Archer, but I'd ended up in the Warriors' stronghold and in the arms of Mhyr. Good times. Silverwood sat forward in his chair as I approached; the creaking in his trunk was audible from where I was on the other side of the Circle.
Wendiga, on the other hand, did not move. He was the member of the Guard I knew the least about, other than he was Yeren's leader. And Yeren had proved to be a disaster of a friend. Oh crap, I still had to go back to my human apartment and clean up that goo she'd thrown around. The bitch had melted my tv trying to capture me. I hope no humans tried to get in my apartment before I could do something about it. I tore myself away from my ever-growing to-do list and back to Wendiga.
He sat like a king, still, strong and impassive. The armour on his chest and shoulders shone in the indirect light of the Void. He looked proud and, dare I hope, fair.
The next chair was empty. It had been Big G's. Part of me wanted to strut straight towards it and sit down like I owned the place. Part of me knew that would be suicide. Cosima would most definitely lose her mind and attack me, Silverwood and Wendiga would see it as an insult, and Mastyx would probably laugh and call me 'interesting' again.
The only person who would defend me, couldn't. He sat at the end of the row. The Archer. My Archer. He looked as devastatingly handsome as ever. Sat in his low-slung concrete chair, the grey light of the Void played beautifully over the silver sheen of his skin, making every contour, every muscle pop. Even with everything at stake here in the Circle, I wanted to lick his broad chest and turn that chair into a playground. Sorry, it's been a while. But I really needed a bit more skin before I could do what I wanted. Which is kind of gross if you think about it.
Don't think about it.
They all sat on their respective thrones and watched me make the long walk from the circle of trees to the centre of the Guard. I could see their every move from deep within my hood. Royal kept close and to the right behind me. I knew that his head would be held high and his gait would be relaxed and rolling. Royal knew himself, that was clear, and he didn't give a crap what these Travellers thought of him.
I walked to the middle of the semi-circle of chairs and stood my ground. I made a point of turning to look at each member in turn. When I looked at Archer he made no movement of recognition, his facial expression did not change. A twinge went through my heart which was quickly quieted by my rational mind. We had a secret to keep, we had roles to play. He was playing his perfectly, and I would do the same. I turned away and stared straight ahead, at Silverwood, the unspoken leader of the Guard, and waited.
The silence stretched on for several minutes. Still, I did not speak. I could just make out in my peripheral vision that Cosima had begun to fidget. Good. Still, I did not speak. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Silverwood broke the silence.
"Welcome, Phoenix."
It was like a spell had broken; Cosima began to chatter about my presence there, Baba Yaga slipped out of sight, the snake boys at Mastyx's feet started slithering around his dais, Mastyx shouted at Cosima to calm down. Even Wendiga started talking, albeit more quietly, questioning Silverwood's greeting to me. The only members of the Guard who remained still and silent were Silverwood and Archer.
Using the cacophony of sound as cover, Royal whispered to me:
"Take off your hood."
I reached up with my velvet-clad hand and, stretching my wings wide as I did so, gently pulled back my hood.
The effect was instantaneous. Even though I was more healed than ever, I was still a shocking site, an extreme visual. I didn't think it was possible for Cosima to shut up as completely as she did, but she was immediately silent and staring. Mastyx had already seen my face, but he too was silenced by the unveiling.
Silverwood slumped back sharply into his chair, a loud crack sounding as he did so. Wendiga silently turned his head from side to side, trying to figure out what had happened to me. Archer shifted in his chair. I glanced over at him and saw a single pewter tear slip from his eye. He wiped it away. I hadn't really taken in how what I was going through was affecting him. His reaction was touching and sad and made me want to hold him.
"What happened to you?" Wendiga's dark bass tones swept through the circle.
"I Burned." I stood there and let the words sink in.
"But why?" Wendiga pressed. Royal made a small coughing sound behind me as if to say 'don't say too much.'
"It is one of the many defence mechanisms my people possess."
"Yes, and here's another question," this was from Mastyx now, "who the hell is he? I was under the impression that there was only one of you."
Mastyx is a good actor. He had seen Royal back in the forest near my home, but from his words now you would never have guessed.
"The name's Royal," Royal said as he stepped forward. "And as far as there being only one of us, well, did you ever bothered to check?"
"I thought you were dead." Silverwood's voice was a dry whisper.
"Nope," Royal answered, but for a moment I thought Silverwood had directed his comment at me.
"I have come to take my place on the Guard." My words echoed through the Circle.
"I'm not done talking about your face!" Cosima cackled. "Does the rest of you look like a plucked chicken too?" She continued in a mocking tone, her third eye staring directly at my crotch. "Do you look like that everywhere?"
"Grow up, Cosima," I quipped. "I have bested the one called Ganaraj and have come to lay claim to his seat. I have come here to take my place on the Guard."
"You cannot be serious," Wendiga said. "Yes, a new member arrives when an old one dies or takes the throne by killing the current member, but you are not in such a position. You are not a minion. You cannot simply kill Ganaraj and take his seat. It doesn't work like that."
"And why can't it?" Silverwood asked, a faraway look on his face. "If the minions follow her, is she not their leader?"
"They do follow me," I said, I needed to get this sewed up before Sid turned up. "They do. In fact, I have convinced them to leave the City of Caves and start a new settlement near my home."
"They left the Caves?" Cosima asked, looking confused by this new information.
"Yes, and they were happy to do it. I am now their leader."
"Prove it," Cosima hissed.
"Shut it, Cosima." Mastyx snapped. "If the minions follow her, why shouldn't she be their representative?"
Cosima leapt forward to the edge of his dais and hissed at Mastyx who immediately hissed back. Two sets of fangs glinted in the grey light of the Void.
"Enough!" Silverwood shouted and the two relaxed back into their respective seats. "Phoenix should be allowed to join the Guard."
"But it cannot be so simple!" Wendiga bellowed. "Never in the history of the Void have we allowed cross-species representation. We cannot start now, not without the approval of all creatures."
"Then why don't we get it?" It was the first time Archer had spoken. He was a man of few words and when he spoke the Guard listened.
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Wendiga asked.
"I leave that to my esteemed colleagues," Archer said with a wave of his hand.
"Let me think a moment." Silverwood sat forward in his chair and bowed his head, deep in thought. I snuck a glance at Royal, who smiled when I caught his eye.
"Oh!" Cosima squealed. "I've got it! A Challenge! She should have to go to every species' council and fight their best warrior. If she wins every
match, then she can join the Guard."
"That's ridiculoussssssss," Mastyx hissed.
"No, it's not! Ganaraj must be avenged!"
"Oh please, Cosima, you were never his friend. You just liked his violent streak. And what you propose is far too dangerous an endeavour."
"Wait," before Cosima could speak, Silverwood interjected, "perhaps not."
"You cannot be serious?" Wendiga said, outrage plain in his voice. "We cannot send her to battle every council in the Void."
"No, you are right," Silverwood agreed. "Not a battle then, perhaps simply a trial. Death not guaranteed. Let each council decide how they wish to test the mettle of this Traveller. Let them determine how they wish to determine her worthiness to join the Guard."
"That sounds fair." Cosima grinned broadly. "Archer's people will tear her apart."
"Death is not guaranteed," Silverwood affirmed.
"Fine, they'll still mess her up." Cosima smiled.
"What say you, Archer?" Wendiga asked.
My stomach dropped as all eyes turned to Archer.
This was getting out of hand. They were about to tell me to go fight everyone in the Void, okay, not everyone, but an individual from each species. I really didn't think I'd survive that. Despite Silverwood's assurances that death was not guaranteed. I tried not to show any fear as I looked at Archer. How the hell would he get me out of this? I wracked my brain and couldn't think of single reason Archer would have for disagreeing with the others. His approval of this trial challenge thing was almost a done deal. I felt something brush my hand and started, but it was only Royal standing close by my side. A silent show of support.
"I'm here," he whispered. Okay, not so silent.
Archer did not move, not a muscle, he looked relaxed and at ease as he sat in that low slung chair with my fate in his hands. When he spoke his voice caught in his throat for the briefest of moments, the only betrayal of his real emotions.
"I think it is a sound plan."
"Then it's settled!" Cosima clapped her hands. "She will go and face the species' Councils!"
"Calm yourself," Wendiga bellowed, "we must take an official vote."
"All those in favour?" Silverwood asked.
Mend the Flesh (The Phoenix Series Book 3) Page 15
