The Druid's Guise: The Complete Trilogy (The Druid's Guise Trilogy)

by Michael J Sanford

  Wyatt frowned. His mind whirled, trying desperately to forget… And trying desperately to remember. “All day? I was just outside your window,” he whispered. “I used my pendant to-”

  “Are you shittin’ me? Wy, you’ve been gone for four days. What the fuck?”

  Four days? I’ve been gone four days? His hand drew out the green stone set into a fist of dark wood. He stared at the crystal, but could not discern an explanation.

  “No, I was just outside,” he hissed. “Well, I was in Ouranos… I mean, I was just outside. This thing must have put me ahead four days.”

  “Are you kiddin’ me?” Athena’s eyes were wide and she kept repeating herself.

  Wyatt didn’t feel he could blame her. “It’s true,” he said.

  “Well… fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” She looked at Wyatt’s expression and rolled her eyes. They were muddy brown behind red framed glasses. “Well, excuse me. I’m a little overwhelmed. I can’t be expected to be all intelligent and shit. Fuck, Wy, you’re in my room.”

  “I… I know… I’m sorry,” he said and suddenly felt alienated. “I’ll go.”

  He made to get up, but Athena put a hand to his chest and forced him back down. “Are you fuckin’ crazy? All the bitches are up here. You can’t go walkin’ out. You’ve been missin’ for four fuckin’ days. They’ll think you been all up in here the whole time. I can’t have them thinkin’ we been fuckin’ or some shit. Damn, Wy. I thought you was the genius.”

  Wyatt frowned. “I…” He wanted to reaffirm his intelligence and rescue his pride, but was he a genius? Or a mighty Druid? Was he anyone? “I’m sorry,” was all he could say.

  “Shit. You’ll have to wait ‘til mornin’ to sneak out. Wait… is this part of your plan?” Her eyes brightened in the darkness. “We gettin’ out of here?”

  “I… I…”

  “Spit it out, Wizard. What’s your plan?”

  Wyatt frowned at that. Wizard. “Has it really been four days?”

  “Yeah. You never came back after that night outside my window. The guys have been talkin’ ‘bout you all week. Sayin’ some pretty messed up shit.”

  “What are they saying?” he asked, but quickly realized he didn’t care.

  Athena shook her head. “Seriously, Wy. Where you been?”

  Wyatt caught a flicker of something in her eyes, a passing emotion that she quickly masked with a frown. “What? You miss me?”

  “No,” she whispered.

  There it was again, a fleeting expression. What was it?

  “You… Were you worried about me?”

  Athena scowled and raised a fist, but her expression softened and she dropped the feigned attack. “Shit, Wy. What happened to you? You look…”

  It was Wyatt’s turn to scowl. He rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling. The words were caught in his throat and he felt tears spring fresh to his eyes. Athena didn’t say anything. She merely rested her chin on her arms and watched patiently. That wasn’t like her.

  “I… I promised her,” he said and felt a wash of tears run down the sides of his face and fall to the floor. He didn’t bother to wipe at them. “She made me promise to protect her and I… I promised. But… I… I failed. They took her… and… the others… they… they’re dead. And it’s all my fault. I promised, Athena.” He turned to look at her and saw she was crying as well, silent tears rolling down her sharp cheeks. “They’re gone. All of them, gone. And it’s my fault. I’m no Druid. I’m… I’m nothing…” His voice broke and he fought to stifle his sobs.

  Athena wiped at her face, but said nothing. They laid in silence for a time, Wyatt on the floor, watching the ceiling, and Athena on her bed, watching him.

  “I hope I’m crazy,” he whispered finally.

  “Why?”

  “Because then it’d all be fake. And they wouldn’t be dead and she wouldn’t be gone. It’ll all be gone. What is wrong with me? Am I crazy? Please tell me it’s not real. Tell me I didn’t get them killed. Tell me I didn’t fail her. I promised.”

  He turned to look at Athena, but she offered no response. They fell to shared silence again, each with their own thoughts. Wyatt wept silently. His hand found his pendant and wrapped tightly around it. I don’t want to go back, he thought.

  “My grandmother,” Athena whispered, almost unheard.

  “Huh?” Wyatt turned to face her.

  “My middle name,” she said and stared at his clutched hand, the green crystal hidden within.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “When we first met… You called me Rozen.”

  “Yeah…”

  Athena took a deep breath. “My middle name… It’s Rosemary. She… my grandmother… called me Rozen…”

  His heart skipped a beat and lodged in his throat. “I… uh…”

  “It’s real, isn’t it?” she said somberly. “You’re real, aren’t you?”

  Wyatt stared at her and shook his head. “No, it’s not. I’m sorry.”

  “Rozen,” she said, nearly shouting. “You called me Rozen. No one but my grandma knows that name.”

  As if in response, the pendant at his chest grew hot, red hot, searing Wyatt’s hand. He released the gem and sat up, pressed against the wall.

  “No,” he said. “It’s not real.”

  Athena sat as well, swinging her legs over the edge of the bed and leaned toward Wyatt. “You. Called. Me. Rozen.”

  A bright green glow radiated from the pendant and cast her face in an emerald shadow. Her eyes went wide.

  “No, it’s not real,” Wyatt said again.

  The stone pulsed and exploded in a rain of sparks. Athena gasped and fell back onto the bed as the swirling sparks filled the small room, filling it with light and warmth.

  “It’s not real,” Wyatt shouted.

  A voice shouted something from the hallway, but neither Athena nor Wyatt took notice. Sparks exploded again and settled on them like golden snow. Wyatt shook his head vigorously, his heart thundering. No, it’s not real.

  The light and heat was building. Another burst blinded him and he squeezed his eyes shut and curled against the wall. He knew the sparks were taking seed, sending ethereal tendrils over his body, thrashing him tight against the wall. It’s not real. It can’t be.

  A body pressed against his, barely perceptible over the searing heat. He shook his head, denying the glowing green vines that clawed at him and denying the body pressed tight against his. Neither relinquished.

  He could feel her lips at his ear.

  And as the world faded, Wyatt the Mighty couldn’t help but smile.

  BOOK TWO: THE FORSAKEN

  Chapter One

  “THIS ISN’T RIGHT.”

  “What are you talkin’ about? This is awesome!”

  Wyatt looked at Athena and shook his head, “No, it’s wrong. Very wrong.”

  She turned to face him for a moment before spinning away again, her bright red hair glowing in the sunlight. She was beautiful, distractingly so, but it was wrong. Wyatt squinted at the sun. It should have been red, a deep crimson, but it wasn’t. It was a dull and hazy violet. It was so very, very wrong.

  “I don’t even care that we’re in the middle of some desert,” she continued, not noticing Wyatt’s distress. “This is…awesome! Holy shit, Wy’, you really are magic. It’s just so…I mean it’s…fuck.”

  Wyatt grabbed at the cool sand with his toes and shook his head. It’s wrong, he thought for what felt like the hundredth time. There was sand as far as he could see in all directions and the wind was far stiffer than he remembered. It buffeted the odd pair of humans with a frigid ferocity. Wyatt shivered and wrapped his arms around himself.

  “What’s your problem, Wy’? This is fuckin’ great.” Athena grinned and spun like a ballerina in the sand, her face turned skyward. The wind bit at her pink satin pajama pants and twisted her worn t-shirt around her slim body, but she seemed oblivious to it all.

  “No, it’s all wrong,” Wyatt s
aid. His heart was racing and his breath frosted the air. The hairs along his arms stood on end.

  “Geez, Wy’. Don’t be goin’ and having a panic attack.”

  “You shouldn’t have done that, Athena,” he said, scowling at the grinning girl. Her dark skin contrasted beautifully with the pale sand. And he had never seen her so jubilant. It took all he had to maintain his demeanor.

  “Fuck you,” she said, still smiling and twirling. “You expect me not to do somethin’? You practically exploded in front of me. Damn, Wy’. You did promise to get me out of the Crook, but I’ll be shit sideways if this isn’t more than I ever dreamed.” She spun one too many times and fell with a joyful shriek. She fanned out her arms and legs.

  “You messed something up,” he insisted. “This isn’t Hagion. It can’t be.”

  “Well, it sure as shit isn’t The Shepherd’s Crook, so I don’t give a fuck where we are.”

  Wyatt surveyed the landscape again. She was right; it certainly was not the brick and mortar campus of The Shepherd’s Crook, a residential treatment center for behaviorally disturbed teens; a prison for them both. But it wasn’t what he had grown to know as Hagion, either. Even the air smelled different. It reminded Wyatt of how Métra had smelled after the Regency had killed so many…

  “Relax, Wy’,” Athena said as she sat up. “Seriously, this is fuckin’ awesome.” Her face took on a serious tone and her eyes locked on his. “And thank you. Seriously, Wy’. Thanks. I knew there was something funny about you from the beginning, but I never thought you could actually take me to…here. This is really some fantasy world, huh?”

  He nodded slowly, forcing the image of severed heads from his mind. “You can take off your glasses,” he said.

  Athena screwed her face at him, but took her thick-rimmed glasses off. She looked at Wyatt, frowned and replaced her glasses. She frowned again and took them off. She stared at the spectacles as if she was seeing them for the first time. “Awesome,” she said and tossed them aside. “So, what now?”

  Wyatt shrugged. “I don’t know. Like I said, this isn’t right. I think taking you with me made things go all sideways. None of this is how I remember Hagion.”

  “Oh, relax. Don’t you want to find Rozen? Isn’t that what this is all about? Making up for whatever shit you caused before?”

  Wyatt’s heart froze in his chest and hot tears sprung to his eyes. He shivered. Rozen. Where was she? When was she?

  “I promised…” he said slowly, his face contorting into a frown. Regardless of how far they had traveled, it had been less than an hour for Wyatt that Ouranos, city of Astronians, had crumbled at his err. It had been only a few moments since he last saw Rozen. And only a short time since he watched the rest of his band of fantastical friends butchered.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, you promised to save the world and royally screwed up. So, let’s go find your princess and fix it.” Athena hopped to her feet and put her hands on her hips. Her fingernails sparkled with blue and green. The drab landscape made her appear to be glowing.

  “She’s not a princess,” he said. “And I don’t know where she is.”

  “Duh, that’s why we gotta find her. Hopefully that will stop your moping. It doesn’t suit you. How can you not be thrilled? Whatever this place is…we’re free!”

  Wyatt wiped a lone tear just as it rolled down his cheek. He hoped Athena hadn’t seen. “I don’t know where we are.”

  Athena shrugged. She spun in place again, an arm outstretched in front of her. “Tell me when,” she said.

  Visions of Grenleck, the incorrigible bog imp, clad in a badger’s pelt, and spinning in place, flashed through his mind, and another tear fell unbidden. “Uh, when,” he said, failing to stop his voice from catching. Athena could never understand...

  Athena stopped and swayed for a moment. “This way,” she said, nodding in the direction her hand pointed. She didn’t wait for Wyatt to answer before skipping off, climbing up a sloping dune.

  Wyatt stared after her. How could she be so eager? Athena’s voracious joy brought thoughts of Mareck and Gareck to mind, their round, mirthful faces, always clad in wide grins. It was too much to bear. Wyatt went to his knees in the soft sand and pressed his palms against the cold grains. “Mother,” he whispered, praying to the god of the Realms and source of his magic, as he had grown to know her. “Where’s Rozen? It was my fault. I’ll do whatever it takes to fix things. To get her back.” The mysterious whisper came at once, filling his mind and washing away his doubt and fear. He could never decipher the words, but their meaning was always present and it filled him with hope. He rose, brushed off his satin pants and trudged after.

  “Holy shit,” Athena said from the peak of a dune. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Wyatt reached her side and followed the invisible line drawn by her long finger. He squinted for a moment. “Uh, I don’t know.”

  “Holy…” she said. “This place is epic.”

  Athena tore off down the slope, half sliding and half running, gleefully shrieking as she went. Wyatt followed close behind with grunts and shouts of dismay as he lost his footing partway down and completed the descent without his legs beneath him. Athena didn’t bother to help him up; she was already sprinting ahead, kicking up cold sand in her wake. Wyatt clumsily got to his feet and chased after her.

  The serpent was much larger than it had looked atop the dune. There was no doubt it had once been capable of swallowing a man whole. Now it was only a cage of sun-bleached bones, half buried in the sand. Athena walked beneath a pair of curved fangs, each as long as an arm, her fingers sliding over the smooth bone. She craned her neck in dumb wonder.

  Wyatt stared at the skull, transfixed. The eyes were long gone, but the deep, empty sockets seemed to watch him as he approached. His previous worries evaporated and he felt a smile creep across his face. Athena proved right again; this was awesome.

  “So, Wy’,” Athena said from the beast’s belly. “Rozen…you said she’s a dragon?”

  Wyatt had to laugh, having made the same mistake the first time he had met her. “No,” he said, running his hand along the smooth bone of the snake’s snout. “Rozen’s a Draygan. She looks...well, she sorta looks like you. Only taller.”

  “But she breathes fire?”

  “No, her hair does. Well, not hers, but male Draygans can turn their hair into fire.”

  “And she can fly?” Athena sidestepped back into the mouth and sat on the jaw.

  “Well, no, she can’t fly…she doesn’t have wings…not anymore.”

  “And she looks like me…”

  Wyatt looked at Athena and nodded. They were nearly spitting images of each other; lean, strong, and beautiful.

  “She’s black, ain’t she?”

  Wyatt was taken aback. “Uh, well…I guess.”

  “You guess?” Athena furrowed her brow. “You think we all look the same?”

  “No, no, of course not, I, uh, no, you’re just, uh…”

  Athena smiled. “Relax, Wy’. I’m just playing with ya. So there really are giant snakes and shit here? I’m sure glad this one’s dead.”

  Wyatt nodded. “Yeah, but this isn’t even the craziest thing you’ll see, if we’re in Hagion. I still don’t have a clue where we are.”

  “Uh, well, this snake sure says where we ain’t.”

  “I’m just worried where we ain’t is where we want to be. We need to get back to Ouranos. It’s where I lost her. I’m sure someone there knows where they took her.” And it’s where the others died, his inner voice reminded him. His stomach twisted into a knot.

  Athena shrugged, rose, and wandered along the snake’s ivory spine. Wyatt looked to the sun again and cursed its hue, shivering as he did. It’s way too cold to be Hagion, he thought, wistfully wishing his thin satin shirt had sleeves.

  “Son of a—”

  Wyatt cringed and trudged through the chilled sand toward Athena. She was on her knees at the point where the giant skeletal serpent emerg
ed from the sand. She had dug out a shallow pit, revealing half a dozen large eggs.

  “It’s a nest,” she exclaimed, rubbing each suitcase-sized egg in turn.

  A sick feeling grew in Wyatt’s stomach. “Athena, I don’t think you should be messing with those. What if the mother comes back?”

  Athena looked to Wyatt and rolled her eyes. “The mother is back,” she said, nodding at the skeleton, “and I don’t think she’ll mind.”

  Wyatt thought to protest, but a tremor in the ground stole his breath. Athena jumped up, wide-eyed, looking to Wyatt for an answer. “It takes two to make a baby,” he said with a wince.

  The sand in front of the snake skeleton erupted, scattering bone and creating a cloud of pale sand. Wyatt stood rooted, with Athena by his side, watching the sand settle like fine snow. Wyatt knew what it hid, but he was unable to act until he saw the beady black eyes and heard the loud hissing.

  “Holy…”

  The sand snake’s skin was the color of copper and streaked with stripes of ivory. It rippled beneath a mass of corded muscle as the giant serpent moved into a tight coil and opened its hinged mouth, revealing dark, curved fangs that dripped menacingly.

  “You think it’s poisonous?” Wyatt managed to gasp.

  Athena clutched his arm, tight enough to hurt. “Look at the size of that thing! You think it needs poison? Fuck!”

  Wyatt nodded slowly. She was right again, he knew. Poison or not, the sand snake was at least a couple hundred feet long, thick as a tanker, with a mouth wide enough to swallow a car. The threat of poison was low on the list of what made the giant reptile unnerving.

  The great beast hissed, flicking its thick, split tongue violently in all directions. It was sensing them, Wyatt knew. Casually, he ducked his nose beneath his arm and sniffed. When was the last time he had washed?

  “Uh, Wy’,” Athena said as she slowly backed away, dragging Wyatt along by his arm. “What’s a mighty Druid like you do in a situation like this? Tell me you can like wave your hand and make it disappear or something.”

  The sand snake hissed again, loud enough to drown out thought itself, and fixed Wyatt with its dark gaze. Enchanted, Wyatt could not find his voice. Is it hypnotizing me?