by Garr, Amber
With the quickness of a bullet leaving its chamber, she suddenly whipped her arms out to the side, a haze of mist following her every movement creating multiple visions of her form. She looked like she was about to hug me, but instead her image passed right through my skin and settled deep within my chest. The world around me instantly changed. No longer were we sitting on top of my favorite spot. I was now running through the dense forest.
Fleeing for my life.
Through her eyes, I knew I was being chased. I could hear voices permeating the darkness, yet I saw no figures. Every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse, a shimmer of something far too close. But then her, or my, body would dodge in the other direction.
Someone shouted and my heart seized. The pain was like none I’d ever felt before—the agony was like shards of glass tearing through my skin, ripping out every vein, every artery, one by one. Pain seared down my arms, so shocking I couldn’t keep my balance. I fell hard to the ground in the old woman’s body. Beat by beat, my heart slowed. But the slower it got, the more the pain went away.
A voice, now close to my ear, whispered something in a language I couldn’t understand. But I knew they were trying to help, trying to fight for my soul. The man with glowing golden eyes reached into my chest and pulled me free. I stood, staring over the old woman’s body, wondering how this was happening. It seemed as though I was reliving her death, but something still didn’t feel right. There was no Warden to guide me, no light to pass through. Instead, the Warden who’d yanked my soul from the dying body held on to me as he yelled at something in the darkness.
“This one is mine!”
The words were spoken so clearly, so deliberately, that I shivered. Both in the vision and, I suspected, back on the warm rock in Arizona that I had left behind.
The Warden pushed me behind him and lunged forward toward the voice in the shadows. I screamed, fearing for his safety, and reached out to stop him. But my hand passed through nothing but the scorching desert air. And just as quickly as I’d been pulled into this vision, I returned to the present.
Sani sat motionless across from me with only a repetitive hum coming from his mouth. Eyes closed, head tilted to the sky, he didn’t seem to know what had just happened. But before I could yell for him, the old woman pulled herself from my body. Our essences had intertwined, and I could feel each cell detangling itself from her icy grasp. She smiled and I shuddered, hoping to never have that experience again.
Just as that thought crossed my mind, the young warrior stepped forward. He passed through the old woman without acknowledging her existence at all, and by the look in his eye, I knew what he planned to do.
“No,” I whispered, trying to slide away.
But it was futile. The man with long dark hair, taut chest and dead eyes, leaned forward and jumped on top of me. I lifted my arms to shield my face, but his spirit bypassed my physical form and settled deep inside me.
Round two.
This time I flew over the high plateau on the back of a horse. The powerful steed lurched forward with all its strength as I dug my heels into its side and clutched the tangled mane for support. At first it felt liberating. I was free. Roaming the lands without a care in the world.
But then I heard them. Turning my head to look behind me, I saw at least a dozen uniformed riders following our trail. With arms raised and guns pointed, they chased me over the plateau. Fear danced through me—first as the warrior and then as the possessed Warden. A sharp crack echoed in the distance, and my horse screamed out in pain. His gate faltered and his breathing intensified. Wide, frantic eyes looked back at me in distress. Stumbling across the flatland, we edged closer and closer to the rim of the plateau.
Another shot rang out and a searing pain pierced my lower back. I cried out to the men hunting me down, threatening their lives and cursing their families. But they were gaining ground…and we were quickly running out of it. Suddenly, my horse stumbled and twisted awkwardly to the side. In slow motion, we began to fall. Front hooves slipping out from under him, his head lurched forward in preparation for impact. I tried to jump off, but I couldn’t move my legs. As the ground came at us, I thought I saw a flash of something dark standing on the edge of the cliff. Watching. Waiting. But as the horse’s shoulder slammed into the earth, I flew over his neck. I slid forward toward the edge of the cliff, unable to slow down my impending fate. The soldiers cheered in the background, barely audible over the sounds of flesh scraping off my body and the heart wrenching cries of my injured horse.
A second later, I fell over the edge.
With arms flaying and feet kicking, I tried to grasp at the cliff. My fingers passed through the dirt and weeds, unable to grasp anything solid. Screams tore from my mouth each time I bounced off the rock wall. Frustration mixed with the powerful will to live rushed to the surface, urging me to keep fighting. But the further I fell, the more I realized this was the end.
Something dark shimmered by my side, floating in the air around me. Wind rushed passed my ears but somehow I heard the shouting. Two voices, fighting over my soul, descended to my death with me. The distraction helped me forget, for just a moment, what waited for me at the bottom of this abyss. I anticipated the pain of a fractured body, but the moment I hit the ground, my soul was ripped away. Standing over the remnants of my broken human form, two men continued to tug at my arms—one with glowing golden eyes and one with dark blue veins covering a pale face. I didn’t understand their language or the situation. I looked up to see the soldiers peering down over the cliff at their victim. Just tiny black dots under the beating sun, I could hear their celebration. They get such pleasure out of hunting and tormenting my people. Anger boiled inside of me and I wished I could turn into an eagle and soar back up to the plateau to finish what they’d started.
“No!” A hand wrapped around my forearm as I drifted closer to the shimmering darkness that used to be one of the men fighting over my soul. Without a face, his laughter seemed to surround me. But the golden-eyed man held tight and yanked me to his side. I only had a moment to wonder what would happen if I chose the dark before our bodies disintegrated.
Gasping for air, I materialized in front of Sani again. Only we weren’t on my warm rock in Arizona, we now sat in his dreary, stone-walled room back at the Elder headquarters. The young warrior pulled himself out of my body, and it was every bit as painful as the old woman’s exit. As I knelt on the ground, panting and willing myself to recover, he stood in front of me. With hands on his hips and ebony hair blowing in a breeze that only reached him, he looked down at me…and smiled. The experience we’d shared had made me a part of him, and he acknowledged this with a nod. Handsome and strong, I briefly thought about how nice he looked when not scowling at the world.
“You are light in the darkness,” he said with a heavy accent.
“What?” Not only was I surprised he spoke, but the declaration confused me. Instead of answering, he smiled again and disappeared. Sani’s golden eyes captured mine from his seat across the room. He continued to smoke his pipe, but seemed to be finished with his chanting.
“Do you know what he meant?” I asked.
Sani nodded. I waited. And waited. Finally he decided to grace me with his voice. “Shamans mend souls. Even those that may otherwise be lost.”
I thought about what he was trying to tell me. And then I thought about the strange reaction the two Hunters had when they’d touched my arm. “You mean we can bring dark souls back into the light?” My heart swelled thinking about what this could mean for Theron.
“Partially.”
I stared at him, once again waiting for him to continue as my hope sank back into the depths of my mind. But he remained quiet. “What kind of answer is that? Why did they show me their deaths?”
He grinned. “Which question do you want me to answer first?”
I rolled my eyes and stood. Pacing back and forth in the tiny room, a thousand more questions zipped through my head. “All of them. I
want you to answer all of them.” When I turned my attention to Sani, my toe slammed into a wood chair that had been pushed to the side of the room. Swearing under my breath, I hopped on one foot until the pain subsided. “And why are you in this room? Why didn’t we stay on the rock?”
Sani sucked in another deep breath from his pipe. As he blew it out, he answered, “We were never on that rock.”
“What?”
“I haven’t left this room in…many years.”
Brows crinkled in frustration, I stopped moving. “Why?”
He shrugged. “They have their reasons.”
“Who? The Elders?”
Nodding, Sani pushed to his feet and held out his hands to me. “There is much more we must discuss, but it is not safe to do here. Please, come.” He opened his arms wider and I stepped forward to greet them. The warmth from his hug gave me strength. “We are very valuable to Wardens and they will stop at nothing to get what they want.”
Suddenly, an icy chill replaced the warmth. I shivered. “Sani, you’re scaring me.”
He squeezed me tighter. “Good.”
“Good?” I asked, stepping out of his grasp. “How can that possibly be good?”
“You must be aware of those around you,” he said in his cryptic way. “All of them. Especially your Hunter.”
“My Hunter?” I asked, my voice raising an octave. Theron?
“His love can harm.”
No kidding, I thought sarcastically. “Sani, how much of that stuff have you smoked? You’re not making any sense.”
He smiled and sat back on the ground. “You are being summoned.”
Unable to keep up with the conversation, I sighed. “Sani—”. But Jason’s voice in my head interrupted my complaint. Nora, they’re ready to talk to us. Sani was right: I was being summoned by the Elders. My stomach clenched just before the nausea grabbed hold. “How did you know?” I asked my strange Advisor.
But he just waved his hand, dismissing me from his room. The door behind us opened and Elder Mazie stood in all her grace, waiting for me to join her. She wore her light blue tunic as if it was nothing less than an immaculate gown adorned with gemstones. Head high, shoulders back, she had the ability to make me feel boring, mundane, and far beneath her. Her eyes questioned us as they passed over the room. When they came to rest on Sani, I thought I saw him shudder.
“The Elders would like to speak to you, Nora.”
Her eyes finally met mine and I wondered why she would personally come to escort me. Between Theron’s warnings about the Hunters and Sani’s words about the Wardens, I felt trapped and unsure. But I pulled myself together and stepped toward the door.
“I’m coming,” I said.
The corner of Mazie’s mouth lifted and a hint of amusement glinted in her eyes. “Would you like a moment to change?”
“What?”
She pointed at my attire and again I cringed. I could never catch a break. The studded boots, jean skirt, and flannel top were not appropriate for the discussion I knew we’d be having in front of the Elders. But in all of the confusion during our attack, and then my trip down the ancestral memory lane, I hadn’t even thought about shifting back into the drab Warden tunic. By the time my panic and annoyance ceased, I was appropriately dressed and leaving Sani behind in his personal—and perhaps, perpetual, prison.
“That is better,” Mazie sighed as we shuffled down the hall. Her comment made me want to change back into the black leather I missed so much. “Rollin has called an emergency conference to discuss the attack.”
“Do you know why this happened?” I asked. Word traveled fast in this realm and I had no doubt that the Elders knew more than the rest of us
Mazie remained silent. As we rounded the corner to enter into the Great Room, Jason and Charles stepped away from the wall and jogged up to me. Charles was glowing, looking healthier than I’d seen him in years. And Jason…well, something about him tugged at my heart. It was like I felt more complete when he was near me. It must have been the bond we now shared.
They waited until Mazie left my side to speak. Jason grabbed my hand and weaved his fingers around mine. I didn’t stop him.
“Are you ready for this?” Charles asked.
I shrugged. “Did you get the story figured out?”
“We will tell them the truth, up until the part about me getting injured and Jason healing me.” Charles rubbed his head and paced back and forth. “I just…I just don’t think we should tell them that yet. There’s too much we still need to understand.”
“I agree,” I said, before realizing that I really did share his opinion. This is why Charles and I had been such great friends. He always had an instinct for what was best in any situation. “Okay, so we’ll just keep it short and sweet.”
Jason squeezed my hand. “What about the register? I mean, that’s the whole reason this happened in the first place.” His face twisted with regret and sadness that lingered behind his eyes.
I wrapped my arms around his waist and buried my head against his chest. “This isn’t your fault. And, yes, I think we need to bring that up.”
Jason’s large hands rubbed against my back and I felt a little piece of me click back into place. I hadn’t realized how much I missed being comforted. Charles cleared his throat, and I stepped away. But Jason wrapped my hand in his again, refusing to let go. “Did you talk to Sani?” he asked quietly.
I nodded but didn’t explain, as I thought there might be too many ears listening. “We’ll talk later.”
Smiling down at me, anticipation fluttered in my stomach. I tried to convince myself that it was the bond growing stronger between us, although tendrils of doubt snaked their way into my head. I placed those feelings to the side, knowing now wasn’t the time to address them.
Charles grabbed my elbow and the three of us walked into the Great Room that way—a united front. The room was filled with Wardens. I hadn’t ever remembered seeing it so packed. But the spectrum of pastel tunics painted the place with light colors. As we shuffled by, some of the Wardens whispered in hushed voices, while a few others gave us looks I couldn’t interpret.
Elder Rollin stood on a platform in the front of the room, just high enough to see out over the crowd. His arms were raised to the side and he seemed to be trying to control the group. “Quiet, please. All of you. We must move on.”
“But how can you possibly guarantee our safety?” Someone near the front shouted. “This isn’t supposed to happen!”
“I heard they injured one of them!” Another called out. “What if they come after all of us?”
Rollin shook his head. “Please, everyone. Let me explain—”
“I’ll be damned if I let them take me. I’d rather cross into the light on my own time…my own choice.” A younger man with large muscles, cropped hair and a deadly scowl, shook his fist at our leader. “If I’m going to go, I’m going to do it on my own terms.”
Cheers of agreement rang out through the room. Jason and I looked at each other, confused. Rollin finally noticed us and jumped off the platform to usher us closer.
“They are here,” he shouted at the crowd. “Now we will all learn the truth.”
The truth. Sparing a quick glance at Charles and Jason, I hoped they remembered exactly how much of the truth we planned to devolve. Being questioned in front of our entire kind could break even the most subdued of us.
“Jason,” Rollin began. “Please tell us what happened.”
I tightened my grip on his hand, refusing to let go even when Rollin gave me a look. I’d already changed my clothes for them; I certainly wasn’t going to leave the side of the person who’d been entrusted to my care.
Jason sucked in a deep breath and began his story. Not showing a hint of trepidation, he spoke to the crowd like a natural. When he told them about his register, they shook their heads in puzzlement. And when he confessed to being stabbed, they gasped in fear.
“What did it feel like?” Rollin asked.
“And by attacked, you mean…” Rollin encouraged him to continue.
“Attacked.” The crowd laughed and Rollin narrowed his eyes. “I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know how to explain it any better.”
Suddenly, the shrill cry of a chair scratching the stone floor echoed through the room. One of the other Elders stepped forward from the table where the remaining three sat in silence. An old lady with wispy gray hair and silver skin pushed her way around Rollin. He sighed with annoyance before she could speak. “I’m the one asking the questions, Judith. We all agreed to that.”
Judith ignored him and stepped closer to Jason. She glanced at our clasped hands with a pinched brow and then cupped her palms around his face. When she did, her expression softened and changed into a small grin. Her eyes glistened with a white light similar to what I’d seen in Jason’s.
I gasped. She was a healer, too.
Her warning glare kept me silent, but in the distance I noticed Elder Mazie watching us closely. Judith turned her back to us and spoke to the crowd. “Leave us!”
In shocked silence, no one moved. Finally, Rollin shook his head. “We are not finished with them.”
Judith snapped her head around and glowered at Rollin. “They must leave now.” She spared a glance at the three of us. “Except for them.”
Rollin stood still for several moments, contemplating her demand. His hair hung in front of his eyes, and he kept blowing it away to no avail. Pacing back and forth, Rollin clearly didn’t want to let Judith dictate the outcome of this meeting. He looked at the three of us, stared out over the gathered Wardens, and then focused on Judith.