by M. Street
Safe rubbed the top of his head through his berry-red halo. “More to worry about.”
The last time I thought about Raven was when Safe was teaching me how to see with more than just my eyes. I remember spooning her spirit. She was pissed off. My runaway thoughts of protection blew my spirit to her, drawing an invisible connection between us.
“It’s similar to when you heard me on the beach. The direction of the call told you exactly where I was standing. This type of connection is naturally indigenous within a race or family. It can also be reached with longtime companions, true friends, and lovers,” Raven said, helping me wade through more novel capabilities. “There has never been a Guardian and Canite pairing.”
Raven broke into an uncharacteristically nervous smile. I was learning new words in a different language and hearing with supernatural senses. She nodded her head, rippling her light with happy colors. With so much red being thrown around, her rich pastels moved me like art.
“My lady,” Safe began in his institutional manner, raining on our fun discovery.
“I know.” I cut him off with more attitude than I should have. “Don’t do that.” Raven coughed out a laugh.
“Looks like things are going well,” Raven said, unafraid to joke away the seriousness. My frustration flowed through my skin to her fingertips. “What Olo was saying is true. You must watch the depth of thought you give someone.”
Drowning in speculation over Dev caused me to take a quick breath. I never want to be the reason for why we are apart again.
“As your ability to communicate through the metallic bandwidth grows we must be careful. One stout thought about Eli would summon him.” Raven backed up, scanning deep into my naked aura.
“There is copper in your highlights. You are part of the Canite light-line,” Raven said factually, welcoming me to her pack without word.
“Thank you,” I said in response to her heart.
“Where is the cat?” Raven shifted her demeanor. My missing man did not have many friends.
“He is on his way,” I said anxiously. “He should be here by now.” I took what I learned from Raven and called out to Dev like plucking bass strings fortississimo, but his location was still unresolved.
“I’m surprised he left you.” Raven tilted her head, raising her eyebrows.
“Not by choice.” I slouched. “We were building my endurance. I pushed myself carrying Dev on a consecutive leap.” I waited for the usual irritated response for doing the wrong thing.
“Nice,” Raven said, beaming yellow rivers of pride in her orange eyes. I didn’t hide my excitement from her positive astonishment. The air twinkled with peppy pearl.
“No, it isn’t,” Safe said. Raven quieted, yielding to Safe’s rank.
“Building your leap stamina increases our chances by magnitudes.” Raven reworded her sentiments, talking like a commander. I liked that she included herself in our wagering prospects.
“Where is Haruz?” Safe asked tersely.
Raven showed remorse but held her course. “The need of the princess outweighs any rule from Haruz, Miguel, or Jeremiah.” She said her father’s name deliberately, emphasizing the magnitude of her mutiny. The intensity in her drive fazed Safe and me. “The fate of the Canite race lies within Piper’s light.”
My little red fox pranced about, yipping at Raven. “Calm down,” I said to my bushy-tailed beau.
“The Canites will find you,” Safe huffed at Raven. “The fewer that know of the princess’s location, the better our odds. We don’t know who is working with Eli.”
I knew he was thinking about me, but his demur went too far. I stepped closer to Raven, rejecting Safe’s ridiculous insinuation. The lack of trust was wearing on me like rims on a rough road.
“No one will find me. And I disagree with you. She needs me.” Raven raised her lip, showing teeth. “The Canites have been loyal to the queen for centuries. The defector is not one of ours. My lady knows this to be true.”
“Of course! You should be here,” I said to her fast and furiously, stopping Safe with an open mouth and raised hand.
“Yes, my lady,” Raven said curiously soft, officially shimmering respect to me while grinning her eyes at Safe.
“Please stop with that.” I laughed, addressing Raven. The uncomfortable title put pressure and subsequent pain on my brain. In my heart, I was still a Great Lakes girl.
“The scepter has been passed into your hands,” she recited like it was basic, natural law.
“There are limitations,” Safe said. “She was raised by infants. She knows little of our world. And she has not yet reached coronation, thank goodness.”
Talking about me like I wasn’t there peevishly pushed me. “She isn’t going anywhere.” I riveted to Raven’s strength bleeding through the bottomless blue sapphires hanging down her chest. She was right. I needed her, especially with Lisa off-limits. Raven understood me in a way that Dev and Safe never could. She was a woman with an iron, but open, heart. Like me, she was of royal light-line. Both of us were bound upon birth. Together we were betrothed to reign and mother our races.
Safe joined Raven going ghostly lit, putting his diamond in his ear. “For now,” he answered, returning to his stately stature. “My lady shall stay within my sight at all times,” Safe said to Raven.
“Mine as well,” Raven countered.
“I’m going for a walk,” I said putting an end to the one-upping. Plus I wanted to reach out for Dev.
“Please put on your mask and stay within the bamboo,” Safe said parentally.
Tying the leather-woven gems around my neck prompted amazement from Raven. “Uncanny.” She took turns looking at me and the aqua ceiling above us. “Your spirit is one with the bamboo.”
“It’s really beautiful.” I walked out of the oval clearing, looking like a piece of fallen sky. Merlin cutely clung to me like a static charge. I asked Raven to join me with copper vibrations. She held back her smile, answering my Canite-only call. She darted to catch up, eager to escort me.
We walked vigorously, creating an artificial absence between us and Safe. He tailed far behind us with eyes glued. We got to a clearing where the force of the late afternoon sun parted the thinning, rippling aqua auras. Like a blast of AC on a scorcher, the potency of the fortified seasonal rays from the sun’s halos caused me to stop. We both looked into the ball of fire, inescapably drinking the light in the transitory pause.
“He’s never going to leave us alone,” I said, nonchalantly motioning to Safe floating in the distance. “He won’t even leave me alone with Dev.”
“I wouldn’t either,” she retorted partially.
Flashing my glittering milky light, I suspended my necklace to make a clear call for Dev.
“Piper,” Safe voiced his discontent from behind like a watchful big brother.
“Dev is fine,” Raven chortled.
“How do you know?” I asked quickly.
“He does what it takes to preserve himself,” she said. “He is a Vampacoti, not worthy of a Guardian princess.”
“What does that mean?” The more outside opposition to my inner voice, the more my love for Dev shot webs of protection.
“Vampacoti have done Eli’s bidding for centuries. Their innate mercenary nature breeds well with the Arbitri mantra. The thin truces always came at the expense of Canite life. More and more, Vampacoti and Equuians were allowed to enslave the Canites. Abuses and murders went unanswered for. Centuries of oppression and injustice are over. It is time for the copper light to shine against the darkness,” Raven declared, unaware of her blanketing blindness.
“Not all Vampacoti are bad.”
Raven let out a fractious chuckle. “How do you know?”
“Dev.”
“What do you know about him?” she asked tenaciously.
“I know about his life with Junjari and his mother, Fina,” I said, starting with the bad. “Despite the past, I know Mom trusted him. He protected us for centuries.” Ra
ven’s expression remained unchanged. “And, I love him. I could not love someone that is inherently bad.”
I stepped far into her personal space, holding her face to mine.
“So it appears,” Raven said skeptically. “The most pivotal Guardian of all time coupling with a Vampacoti previously loyal to Eli does not bode well. The more you learn, the more you will see why.” She confidently dropped the subject. Notably different from the others, Raven cared less about the cross-race taboo.
Raven positioned herself between Safe and me. She puckered her eyes. “Has Olo left at any time?” she asked in a microscopic voice that only I could hear.
“No,” I huffed strongly, catching her implications loud and preposterously clear, “and no way.” I turned so Safe could see us both. “It’s just not possible. I can feel him as well as I can feel you, or Dev.” I put my hand on my hip.
The corners of Safe’s lips curled upward, feeling my sentiments.
“What about Sabina or Ozwald?” Raven asked grudgingly. Her own question made her very uncomfortable, like she was saying something wrong.
“I’ve only felt motherly intentions from both Sabina and Luja. Ozwald puts up a tough front, but he likes me more than he admits.” I chuckled, recalling his witty quips.
“Valbeth?” Raven asked. “The Vampacoti have motive.”
“Are you kidding? She saved our asses in Tahiti!” I said. “Everything could have ended on that beach, for all of us.”
Raven took in a breath. “Something doesn’t make sense. Even Jeremiah is perplexed. He and Miguel are working tightly with Sabina and Luja combing for breaches. Ozwald meticulously traced the previous whereabouts of all who knew about you.” She looked up, distracted by the start of the evening sunset shower vacillating the aqua awnings. “Everyone had traveled to Arbitri capitals,” she said in a higher, tightened pitch.
Like an explosion, Dev’s pounding heart crashed into my chest, knocking me into a happy frenzy.
“Dev!” I whirled unexpectedly due east. He was close, but the pace and pressure of his pulse replaced my excitement with pensive chills. “He’s back, but something is wrong.”
I could tell he was masked so I lifted the emeralds and pearls for a clearer picture. Raven stopped me. “Stay covered,” she said quietly, pointing her Canite ears back. Her heavy, anxious hand against my chest inflated my concern. Safe silently flew in front of us, holding a martial art pose with eyes closed.
Before plans could be laid, I felt Dev expose his silver, formulate, and race away from us at hypersonic speed. His life-or-death ferocity saturated my wits. The earth began to rumble, rustling the leaves on the bamboo.
Safe spun around. “Stay here, keep masked, and be prepared to leap,” he ordered before vaulting upward, splashing through aqua auras, high into the encroaching evening sky. It took all of my control not to jet to Dev.
I took a couple fast steps toward Dev. Raven growled, extending her nails into claws, staying in front of me. This time whatever was incoming was a threat. My muffled senses left me blind and anxious. Abruptly, Dev cornered ninety degrees, screaming away with my heart and my hope. Safe plummeted to the ground, ripping the diamond out of his ear and bursting into a roaring platinum.
“No choice. We must engage,” he yelled. “Piper, remember what you have learned.” He clasped his hands together extending his arms above. Safe went catatonic, casting a river of light into a thick dome sealing us in to a fight with an unknown foe.
18
Adhering to the Plan
I
remember learning about the Roman Colosseum in history. Repulsive shivers went through me imagining throwing two souls in with only one leaving. The so-called entertainment felt insane, primitive, and barbaric. Although bloody boxing matches were still strangely celebrated today, I was grateful I had been born into a time during which something like that was now unconscionable. However, nearly two thousand years later, in a remote bamboo forest in Japan, I found myself a captive competitor in a savage fight to the death.
In concert, I ripped off my emeralds and pearls, rising into the air. Raven unmasked, formulating into the formidable black wolf. Roasting copper and blistering pearl blared through the air. Without my mask, my senses fired, painting an unstable, hazardous, and sinister picture. Three sequestered Equuians galloped toward us with rabid force. Their virulent intentions ricocheted under Safe’s cage of light. I inhaled a fast breath sensing Dev outside the dome of light, knowing he could not breach the force field. He pivoted, racing toward me, feeling my heartbeat rise in fear. Raven kicked up mounds of soil, digging in with ruthless and brave intentions.
The sudden fight for life had no rules or tactics. There was no game plan to execute, no measures to implement other than staying alive. I squashed my urge to break the dome of light separating Dev and me. Surrendering to my intuition, I stuck close to Safe. I twitched, watching with my mind’s eye draw the tactical positions and potential intercepts. The three horse-men moved like they were winged. Raven snarled, cocking her muscular limbs for attack. The trembling earth amplified before I could see the bronze light bulleting toward us through the chrysalis-green stalks. Garlands of light spun around my hands as the moment of impact arrived.
Like protective arms, I fortified my light, extending dynamic halos of intricate pearl encompassing Safe, Raven, and myself. The bronze metallic, massive, and muscular Equuians whacked the outer ring of bamboo and brush to the ground like a rocketed steamroller. A protective nature flipped inside me in response to their noisy power-driven aggression piercing so close to people I loved. Fearlessness rose from my fright, firing on all cylinders. My senses flew to new heights from the force flowing under my command.
The attackers launched into a premeditated plan. Arming the bronze in her light, a luxurious tan horse with a black licorice mane ducked and dove at Raven. A brindled gray and white horse unnervingly diverted around us, splitting my attention. The final midnight steed with red, flaming eyes jumped into the air, taking aim at Safe.
Time snapped forward with the quickness of a rat trap, breaking into discreet punches. My eyes dilated and my skin prickled with electricity. Saturating the air, I charged bolts using both hands. I locked onto the airborne horse and the brindled stallion galloping to our backsides. Although Raven’s glittering copper wasn’t as dense as the mare’s bronze, Raven was more nimble. The sleek black wolf roasted purple, countering the charging mare while going on the offense.
Before I could discharge, the soaring dark horse weirdly bucked midair. He sonically cracked his tail and bronze like a whip, causing an explosion of light. Fiery waves of photons blasted out, warping time. The accelerating crest disrupted gravity, twisting my perceptions. The neon waves bounced under Safe’s dome, amplifying their effects. My vision wobbled wildly like the looking glass at a funhouse. Gravity distortions sloshed through my head, making me heave and my feet tingle. Dev had cautioned me about the Equuian’s unique ability to disrupt space, but I had no idea it would be so violent. All of us, minus the maker, crunched and fell to the ground. Safe’s dome of light grotesquely bulged before rupturing, dissolving into twinkling embers. We were dangerously exposed.
Following Safe’s instructions, I closed my eyes to silence the topsy-turvy vision from the rippling space. Like a bark spider, I cast threads of light to see without sight. Dev was blazing toward us with crazed intentions. Slow moans from everyone crawling back to solid bearings crowded my ears, sounding like the morning after a party. I sensed the black horse formulate into his human form, causing my intuition to alarm through my body. It took monumental concentration to retract my lids and acutely focus through the trailing disorientation. A rail thin man, with a large Afro and animal skins for clothes, reached into a small leather bag and pulled out a communication crystal.
Ringing the bell for round two, our eyes locked. I drew first, desperately hoping I could conjure faster than his radio could call for help. I packed my power into a petite, feathered b
olt, firing with sniper precision. The chambered charge hit his hand, evaporating the crystal and spinning him around like a super wound top. Twirling higher, I blasted two channels of light that pushed the heads of the rising Equuians to the ground.
Dev smashed into the scene, hissing and roaring fiercely. He cast a mind-numbing spell at the brindled horse kicking pugnaciously under my clamp down. The high-potency charm froze the large horse, causing her to formulate human. An icy woman with blueish skin and coffee-brown hair lay incapacitated. Safe rose to his feet before Raven, blasting the slight man formulating back into the dark horse. Bronze vapor smoldered in the aftermath. Raven arched from the ground onto all fours, prickling her dense fur. Not wasting time, she snapped the neck of the pinned tan horse with a high pressure bite. The Equuian with ebony mane exploded into a gush of water. The fast putdowns sent shocks through my heart. I dropped to the ground, wrapping my arms around the black-and-white-striped sabertooth.
Dev reared, formulating human. A ring of silver blooming belladonna flowers circled swiftly around his right wrist. We embraced with a strong kiss. Relief poured from his lips, lapsing me into love despite the recoil from the brutal struggle. Our reunion sent hard-to-sequester, seductive feelings throughout my body. I needed Dev. I broke away, frightened more from his absence than from being in battle.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, confused by my fear.
“What happened?” Safe demanded Dev accusingly, flying over to us. His sharp inquiry saved me from trying to explain something I myself didn’t understand. Raven followed, formulating human. She wiped excess water and saliva from the kill running down the corners of her mouth. Agitation beamed from Safe, piloting Dev red.
“I picked up on the Equuians’ scent when I approached from Osaka,” he said defensively, looking at Safe. “I followed them hoping they would divert. When I saw them heading into the forest to patrol, I unmasked to divert them away from Piper.”
“Unwise choice,” Safe snapped, arrowing his eyebrows.