Guardian of the North

by Maggie K West

Captain Ajax leaned forward. I sighed and moved a bit further from Nick.

  “Nicolas, could you look around today?” the Captain urged. “See if you can tell who—”

  “I was Ealdra,” Nick interrupted, his lighting flashing behind his eyes. “That doesn’t mean I knew every single Ealdra soldier or Rangerian!”

  “I am sorry to bring this up, Nicolas,” King Rehynall said. “But you are the closest person we have to the inner workings of the Ealdra. You are our best chance to shut down whatever this is before it develops.”

  A bad feeling of foreboding crawled through my stomach. Nick sat motionless beside me, his head bowed over his hands, the air buzzing with electricity around him.

  “We know they’ve found something,” the king continued. “Something so strong they have decided to turn on us.” The king looked back at Nick. “Please, are you sure you don’t know of anything? Not even a rumor or a fairytale of this weapon?”

  Nick didn’t look up. “No. I’ve got nothing.”

  I swallowed, the crawling in my stomach inching its way up to my throat. “So … this means they’re coming for me, right? Because I’m the last Wind.”

  “We do not know that for sure.” King Rehynall leaned back. “We only know they are hunting Wind Rangerians, and your North Wind is about to manifest tonight. But we will not back down, we will not give in to fear. The ceremony will go on as planned.”

  Captain Ajax stood up. “We’re throwing up extra defenses. Aerial lookouts will be watching the courtyard and outer wall. We’re sending out scouts to mark a perimeter. It will be fine.”

  “Yeah.” I swallowed again. “It’ll be just great.”

  CHAPTER 3

  What are you doing up here?” Kara looked around. Her dark skin glowed in the torchlight. “Aren’t you supposed to be off guard duty?”

  I looked down at my uniform, cleaned and ironed for my Manifestation ceremony. My sword belt was strapped around my waist, the leather newly polished. “Needed to clear my head.” I took a deep breath, the crisp, cool air rushing down my lungs, chilling my throat.

  “Yeah, sure.” Kara raised her hand, and the torch beside her flared up, hot and bright. “Come and warm up.” She leaned against the wall.

  I shifted closer to the torch and held my hands to the warm flame. I looked out at the night sky over the Missouri forest. Faint lights of the city glinted far away, blurring the stars on the horizon. Flying shapes passed in the darkness—the aerial scouts Captain Ajax had spoken of. The ever-present fog around the castle drifted in the breeze.

  My great-grandfather Rowan Tyler brought me up here all the time when I was little, before I had begun training … before he died. I breathed out and leaned against the stone. It was good to be up here with Kara in the few minutes before the ceremony. I’d known her for years, grown up with her here.

  The sky drew my attention again. I could count every star in it tonight.

  “Isn’t that one yours?” Kara pointed up at a cluster of stars high above the trees. I smiled. Sagittarius … Grandpa Tyler said that constellation belonged to me, that the Northern power was infused deep inside me, growing by the hour, until one day it would burst free, twisting around my control. Watch the stars, he always said. Every third night after the full moon, watch it pass through the Great Archer. One night, you will stand in the stone courtyard of Fort Calmier, and the whole world will know of Jackson Laudius Marcrombie, the Great Guardian of the North.

  I shifted my feet to keep the blood flowing and tugged my mottled green tunic a little tighter around me.

  “Nervous?” Kara asked, turning to look at me.

  I swallowed and smiled. “Yeah. My grandpa always talked to me about this day. The one day is here.”

  “He was Rangerian of the North Wind too, right?” I nodded. This was it. Almost five months to the day since my fourteenth birthday. Tonight was my Manifestation. Tonight the power of the North Wind would emerge.

  “Hey, Jack,” came a familiar voice.

  I looked around. My mom stood at the top of the battlement stairs.

  “It’s time, dear.”

  Kara grabbed my hand, her skin warm to the touch, as it always was with the fire burning inside her. “You’re gonna do great.” Her clear eyes shone. Her hand grew hotter and hotter until she jerked away, pressing her palm into the cool stone. “Sorry. Still not that great at controlling it.”

  “We’re in it together.” I grinned.

  I followed my mom down the stairs and under the archway that separated the ceremonial courtyard from the training courtyard. Captain Ajax was waiting at the edge. I followed him and my mom around the crowd, stopping at the far end. My dad was waiting there for me. I saw Nick and Natanian sidle into the crowd with their Masters. Kara was watching from her guard post atop the battlements.

  A breeze carried the smell of pine through the air. The torches on the battlements and across the courtyard flickered in the wind. Again, I glanced up at the stars. The moon, three days past its full phase, was just beginning to enter Sagittarius, and I was starting to feel very light-headed. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the Manifestation beginning. But I was not going to throw up all over the courtiers, like Grandpa Tyler did.

  I wished he were here. He had gone through this. He would know just what to say right about now. Or at least offer some smart aleck joke.

  King Rehynall mounted the platform at the front of the crowd. I tugged nervously on my tunic, excitement beginning to grow. It was time. My parents nodded encouragement, and I stepped forward.

  The crowd, chatting and laughing as they waited, died down to silence. I glanced over my shoulder. Nick stood beside his Master. My head spun, and I took a deep breath. Kara stood still on the battlements, her braid tossed over her shoulder, her head tilted, watching. Natanian gave me a thumbs-up from a few rows away. I flashed him a grin that felt more like a grimace, as my insides twisted in nausea.

  King Rehynall held out his hand and I mounted the steps, leaving my parents and Captain Ajax at the foot of the platform. Beside the king stood a young man dressed in leather armor, his blond hair smoothed back. He was youngish, in his early thirties. Most of the Masters were older. They had to have been around the block enough times. They had to have trained many Rangerians before, in order to be assigned a True Born, like me. So what was special about this man?

  I met my new Master’s eyes. He nodded reassuringly. I heard my grandpa’s voice in my head: One day, Jack. One day you will be the next Great Guardian of the North. Well, that day was here. And I was feeling less like the Great Guardian and more like a week-old hamburger.

  Three soldiers soared overhead on their Perytons. The tips of the deers' antlers shone in the moonlight, the feathers rippling across their wings. Archers in their mottled green uniforms lined the battlements, armed with spears or longbows.

  I suddenly felt like I had been punched in the stomach. I doubled over with a gasp. King Rehynall was saying something, but I couldn’t understand him through the sound of a million ringing bells going off in my head. Don’t pass out, Jack, don’t pass out. I gulped in deep breaths of cold air.

  Plastering a smile on my face, I forced myself to straighten up and tried to hear what the king was saying. His voice seemed to come in and out of range. Luckily, I lived here and had seen tons of these Manifestation ceremonies in my entire fourteen years, so I knew what he was supposed to be saying. I tried to focus on the words, tried to take my mind off the piercing pain that now stabbed my brain.

  “Eight hundred years ago, the Sorcerer of Prince John’s court planted a trap in a last attempt to capture Robin Hood…” Yeah, yeah; I knew this story. Get on with it. My brain felt like it had been left on to broil. “… but the curse laid on the Golden Arrow backfired, releasing a burst of pure magic energy into the outlaw.” Only a couple more minutes. Don’t pass out, Jack.

  I glanced up at the sky. The moon was almost centered in Sagittarius. The king droned on, “…and as the generations
passed, this power weakened more and more, splitting among Robin Hood’s descendants to manifest in the form of elemental powers. The eleven strongest among these Rangerians are known as True Borns, born with the pure elements split from the Earth, the Sky, and the Sea.”

  I could feel ice-cold wind against my skin beginning to swirl faster and faster, and felt a thrill of excitement, despite the fact that my innards were basically being dry-frozen. I had waited my whole life for this one night! I had played it out in my head over and over, hoping I wouldn’t pass out or throw up when it finally came. I watched every phase of the moon pass through Sagittarius, imagining how it would look tonight. That one day was here.

  Just then, any sensation of sickness and pain vanished. I breathed a sigh of relief and straightened up. Icy wind was whipping around me in a vortex, tugging at my uniform, ruffling through my hair. I held out my hands, staring down at the gray mist swirling down my arms. My heartbeat spiked, and I felt the wind swirl even faster.

  “Jackson Laudius Marcrombie, True Born Rangerian of the North Wind!” King Rehynall presented, stepping aside. “Jackson, your Master, Kane.”

  The young, blond man stepped forward and winked. “How do you feel?”

  “Not sick!” I grinned, the butterflies hurtling through my gut at Mach 10 in a new rush of excitement.

  My mom stepped up to the platform and held out Grandpa’s long chain, with gray mist swirling in the silver vial at the end of it. It twisted up into a miniature tornado as it neared me. Kane took the chain, and I bowed my head. He slid it around my neck. Immediately, the wind died to a gentle breeze. He held out his hand, and I grasped his forearm tightly, looking up into his eyes.

  “I swear to stand by you,” his voice rang out over the crowd. He was younger than I’d thought … in his twenties, I would guess, now that I saw him up close. “To defend you, to train you by sword and power until you are Master.” He didn’t even blink, his bright blue eyes a bit unnerving.

  I swallowed and recited the words I had memorized years ago. “I swear to stand by you, to obey and respect you, to give my strength to Fort Calmier and to the defenseless, to fight through my weakness.”

  I took a deep breath and turned around, bowing low to the court before me as everyone rose to their feet, thunderous applause and cheers ringing in my ears. Ice-cold wind washed around me. I closed my hand around my great-grandfather’s vial. The bell sounded in the next courtyard for the changing of the guards.

  I saw Nick’s Master off to the side, looking around in confusion. I scanned the crowd. Nick was gone.

  Kane stepped forward, resting a hand on my shoulder. “Deep breath,” he whispered. I sucked in a huge gulp of cold air, and the wind died back to a gentle breeze.

  The bell rang again.

  I frowned. No one seemed to notice. The bell could barely be heard over the thundering crowd. Maybe that’s why the guard rang it a second time.

  The bell rang yet again.

  The cheers turned to low murmurs, rippling out through the crowd. Then my stomach dropped.

  The bell rang once again ... and a wave of dark water exploded over the battlements, extinguishing the torches, plunging us into darkness.

  Someone screamed.

  “They’re coming over the southern wall!” A voice cried.

  The crowd was shouting, bolting toward the armory and out into the next courtyard, toward the southern battlements. Then a soldier appeared on the rampart, his uniform the sharp red-on-black of the Ealdra.

  CHAPTER 4

  I stood frozen to the platform deck, my heart pounding in my ears. The dark wave of water died, running off the battlements. Ealdra. The courtiers warned me… But we had thrown up extra defenses. King Rehynall moved past me, raising his arms, shouting battle orders. Master Kane’s sword was drawn. A guard rushed up the steps, his face streaked in dirt and blood, his sheath empty, his sword gone. King Rehynall whirled around.

  “Ealdra,” the guard gasped. “We didn’t see them coming.”

  “Get to safety, My Lord,” Master Kane told the king firmly. King Rehynall’s hand closed over my shoulder, gripping me tight.

  He bent down and whispered to me, “Hide!” He spun around, and the lords followed him back into the castle, leaving Kane and me alone in the ceremonial courtyard. Everyone else had left for their defense posts. The air was heavy, every sound echoing off the stone. Wind whispered across the walls.

  “Hey, Jackson!” came a call. A tall, scruffy man seemed to melt out of the southern wall, drawing his sword. He wore leather armor and was dressed in raggedy grays and browns, not the crisp red and black of the Ealdra.

  “Run,” Kane ordered. “Get to the armory! Find your bow.”

  I leapt, my shaking hand fumbling for my sword hilt. The Ealdra knew my name. Six more soldiers appeared out of the walls between me and freedom, the telltale fog of sorcery curling across the stone beneath them.

  The tall man shook his head, raising his sword. “I don’t think running is your best option,” he said with a menacing grin. “Are you scared? Good thing you got your Master to protect you!” He roared in laughter.

  My fingers closed around my sword hilt, and I drew the dark, Damascus blade, ice-cold wind whipping around me. I had to run. I had to run.

  A boy stepped out from behind the man, his mismatched eyes that marked him as a Rangerian shining in victory. He was only a few years older than me.

  “Orin, leave him!” the man growled. “He’s mine.”

  “Nope. Don’t think so.”

  The boy threw up his arms, and hot wind slammed into me, sending me spinning off the platform. I slammed into a row of spectator benches, hit the ground, and dropped my sword. With a groan, I pushed myself up and brushed the gravel off my hands. Kane leaped off the platform, sword raised. The other man threw up his blade, and the metal clashed wildly.

  “Jack!” Kane yelled, ducking as the sharp steel slashed the air above him. “Remember that I told you to relax? Well…” The Hunter spun and slammed his blade with all his force against Kane’s, throwing my Master back against the platform. “Don’t!”

  The man twisted. Kane’s sword flew from his hand, skittering across the stone. I snatched my own weapon off the ground, my throat tightening in terror. I could feel the North Wind whipping my insides into pudding. My hands were shaking.

  Then I focused on my sword. I am Jackson Marcrombie. I am the Guardian of the North. My insides unknotted and I looked up, my wind now swirling out of control around me in a wicked tornado. The boy, Orin, sprang forward, rising into the air on a swirling column of hot wind and courtyard dust. I dove away, swinging my blade up in defense. He landed in front of me and slashed. I jerked away, landing on my back. Dust filled my nose and throat, gritty on my tongue.

  Kane cried out in pain. I rolled to my feet, spinning to see him fall back against the platform. A cry rose in my throat. My mind was whirling. I saw his blade hit the ground. Then a scream tore straight through me as the man turned around, his sword shining brilliant red, and my Master collapsed at his feet.

  Before I could even think, wind exploded from me. Orin blasted backward and hit the southern wall, coming to rest, motionless, at its base. The wind picked me up, tearing straight through me in a hurricane. I dropped to my knees, frost bristling over the benches, turning the Ealdra Rangerian’s water that coated the courtyard to ice, my breath rushing through my lungs. My hands trembled as I picked up my sword, my shoes crunching on the icy stone. I could taste blood in my mouth. I staggered toward Kane’s still body.

  The lead Hunter stepped in front of me, a grin spreading across his gruff face that towered above me. Red, dripping off the end of his sword.

  “Come on, Jackson,” He took a step forward. I glanced around. I had to get out. I had to run. “I know someone who is very excited to meet you.” His eyes drifted to the vial hanging around my neck. My gaze lifted. The walkway arching between courtyards.

  “Good try,” I yelled, the words te
aring at my hoarse throat. I took one last glance at my Master’s body and made a break for the staircase across the courtyard. Four soldiers stepped into my path as the Hunter tore after me. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and spun, swinging my sword wildly.

  Nick jumped out of the path.

  “Sorry!” I squeaked.

  “Down!” he shouted. I dove for the ground. Lightning exploded over my head, arcing across the frost-covered stone.

  “Nick!” I shouted in surprise.

  “Run!” he yelled. The Hunter pushed himself up, shaking the last bit of electricity out of his system, and roared in fury.

  “This way!” I raced toward the staircase.

  Nick followed. We tore up the stairs, the Hunters hot on our tails. Nick turned and shot a blast of lightning at the roof. Stone crashed down, blocking us off from pursuit.

  I slowed to a stop at the top of the stairs and doubled over, gasping, trembling with adrenaline and shock. The Ealdra found me. They killed my Master…. I had only gotten my power five minutes before, I had only sworn to Master Kane five minutes ago. I could see through the rows of wide windows to the courtyards below. Ealdra soldiers in their sleek red and black uniforms poured through the courtyard. My mind was whirling, careening out of control.

  “Come on!” Nick yelled. His shout snapped my mind into focus. “We need to get to the stables!” I shook my head, pushed up the sleeves of my green tunic, and clenched my sword. I could deal with the shock after. I had to get out.

  I took off after Nick, sprinting down the corridor. Another wave of water crashed over the walls and rushed through the windows ahead of us, shattering the stone, pounding down the corridor.

  An Ealdra Rangerian appeared, the water twisting around his feet.

  Nick skidded to a stop, catching me in the chest. He groaned. “Really?”

  The Rangerian spotted us and broke into a run, the water carrying him forward. I glanced over my shoulder. We had two ways out—through this water demon, or out the windows, twenty feet to the courtyard below.