Retaliation (William of Archonia Book 2)

by Jarod Meyer

  She zipped through the underbrush with renewed vigor, but a strange sensation returned. She got the strangest feeling that she was being watched again. Perhaps it was her feline friend still following her, but if it was, she couldn’t see anything.

  She soon came upon her next destination. It was a cottage, nestled into the hillside of an enormous valley. Almost every Archonian river and tributary flowed to this valley, ending in a massive circle of waterfalls. In the center of these waterfalls, sitting on a small island, was a tall, crystal tower. Its reflections cast rainbows into the spraying water, lighting the valley with the most wondrous array of colors.

  She came to a halt in front of the tiny cottage, noticing one of the two men that called the place home. They were twins, and lived like hermits in their little secluded corner or Archonia. In truth, their hair was the only way to tell the two apart, as both preferred to wear beards. The brother with long hair sat on the front porch, smoking a pipe. Katrina caught a whiff and was overcome by a moment of euphoria. She waved the smoke away, shaking her head to get a grip of her senses. Whatever he was smoking had an overpowering odor and corresponding effect.

  “Greetings, young one,” the man mumbled. He wore a simple, white tunic and sandals. His eyes appeared soft, and his face slightly droopy. . Katrina smiled and bowed politely, crossing one hand over her chest.

  “Hello, hermit. You still have not told me your name,” Katrina replied.

  “Well, my brother and I prefer Anonymity,” he responded, sighing out a large puff of smoke.

  Katrina looked from his eyes to the pipe.

  “Would you like a hit?” he offered.

  He must have misunderstood her interest. She didn’t want the pipe. She wanted him to quit smoking it.

  “No thank you, sir, I am on duty,” she responded professionally.

  “Why do you and your brother prefer such an existence?” Katrina inquired.

  “…we do not like other people very much anymore,” he replied.

  Katrina remained silent, so he continued.

  “We had quite the following during our previous life. We lived a good mortal existence, spreading peace, love, and joy to all we came into contact with. Soon, however, our followers, in an effort to extend our message of peace, began to say that we were the son of an all-powerful god and tried to form a religious movement around us in order to gain power and influence. To our everlasting shame, we went along with it. After all, we were trying to make the world a better place.”

  Despite her best efforts, Katrina’s mind began to wander. She was not raised with religion, and grew bored when people spoke of it. She focused and continued smiling. After all, she was the one who asked the question.

  “Soon the imperial army learned of what we were doing and saw it as inciting rebellion and pagan worship. My brother and I tried to put a stop to the grand stories; after all, they were saying we were performing miracles. They wanted us to spread our message twice as fast so they kept us apart. My brother and I tried to go into hiding, but his best friend betrayed him, and handed him over to the imperials for a handful of coin. They tortured him in the most brutal of ways, before finally killing him. I was in hiding, but my scheming inner circle of friends, in their deluded attempt to prove us divine brought our followers to where I was hiding, and proclaimed my brother resurrected. Eventually I disappeared again this time I didn’t let anyone know where I was going. I lived the rest of my days in exile, until I was reunited with my Brother here in Archonia,” he finished.

  “That is quite a story, hermit. I am sorry to hear that you went through all of that. I hope your rest and relaxation in this life helps mend your heart,” Katrina offered, halfheartedly. “Now, good sir. Have you seen anything unusual lately? Any cause for alarm?”

  “No, young lady I have not, and I am sure my brother would have let me know if he had,” he said, raising his voice.

  Katrina heard a grunt from inside the cottage, and the longhaired hermit chuckled.

  “Thank you for your time, and for sharing your story,” Katrina said, bowing once again.

  The people she met on her scouting trips were anything but boring, but she was still anxious to be done and head home. She was supposed to have dinner with Juarez and his large family. This gathering was something she looked forward to every time. She had never been good at making friends, and her family never made it to Archonia. They were not good people. The sense of warmth she received from Juarez’s family could not be replaced and filled a hole deep inside her.

  After the hermit’s cottage, she swept around the large valley, the great crystal tower looming at its center. There weren’t many forbidden places in Archonia, but for some reason, Kat’s superiors had forbid her from approaching the tower. Her curiosity, nonetheless, was piqued.

  Her last four stops went without a hitch, and Helios was quiet when she floated back into the Guardian Barracks. The place was empty. Evidently, everyone had completed their training for the day and was released. Scouting did have its downside. The hours were terrible.

  “The price you pay for being fast,” she told herself.

  After a quick bath scented with lily and honey, she donned a violet dress that came right above the knee. She would never in a million years say out loud why she chose to wear a dress this evening. But her heart knew.

  She walked out of the castle, spotting a sundial nearby. She was early for dinner, so she took her time.

  Many smiles greeted her as she traversed the lower walkways of Helios. She watched children trying to catch conjurations a nearby man created for them. Hundreds of tiny fireflies floated around the evening air, slipping teasingly through the children’s fingers. She continued on to her favorite bakery, where she was greeted happily by the shop’s owner.

  “Ello, mon cher,” he said, with his familiar French accent. Louie’s baking was second only to his attempts at wooing Kat’s affections.

  “Does the beautiful Guardian want a pastry today? I have crepes made special for you. The fontain berries yearn for the touch of a woman’s lips,” he said, waving his hand over a pastry in the shape of a star.

  It was hard to imagine eating such an intricately detailed work of art. She could make out pink filling, which could only have been his signature berry, which he spent the better part of a century perfecting.

  “I’ll consider trying one, but you have to promise me that you will hold your tongue, Louie,” she snapped, trying to maintain her grim expression.

  “No deal! My goods are made with the finest of ingredients, and each has the love of two mortal lifetimes put into them. They come complete with musings of a washed up old Frenchman, or not at all,” he said, smiling a goofy grin.

  Katrina couldn’t help but laugh and gave up, grabbing a couple of the fontain berry crepes. She grabbed a basket from next to his stand and gently placed the pastries inside.

  “Anything for the most beautiful Guardian in all of Archonia!” he called after her.

  Katrina was as tough as they came, and she was rarely called beautiful. She quickened her pace, so people wouldn’t see her blush. She bounced the basket in her hand, considering the delish pastries.

  Well worth it, she thought. She couldn’t wait to have her friends taste the fine creations.

  After another hour of perusing the market she had a full basket of goodies to share with her friends, and the time for dinner was fast approaching. She made her way quickly to the Nordic district, where Juarez and his family lived. They said that the Latin Quarter was just too noisy. The Nordic district was a bit starker but just as warm.

  Juarez’s family home was quaint, and sat on the ground level. This was nearly impossible in such an enormous city, but they were lucky enough to know an old soul who decided to pass on. His last wish was for Juarez’s mother to have the home. They were lovers for a time, or so Juarez claimed.

  Juarez told Katrina that his surrogate father was deathly afraid that his mother would choose to move on with him.
Luckily, Juarez’s Mother had a great many children to take care of. Their bloodline, as Juarez often boasted, hadn’t ended with his death. After their run in with the crazy bishop, and Juarez’s ultimate sacrifice, his sister was able to life a full life. Juarez wasn’t as protective of anyone else.

  As her thoughts drifted through Juarez’s family tree, she just barely noticed a flash of grey light hit the ground a few hundred feet in front of her. Her heart fluttered and she began to blush.

  “No, no, no!” Kat thought to herself. “Of all times to show up. Come on, Katrina. He won’t look at you the same if he sees you reminiscing and blubbering.”

  “Hey, Kat!” William said, his voice husky.

  She quickly put on her tough face and traversed the gap between them in the blink of an eye, slugging him in the upper arm. It felt like she slugged a wall, her hand pulsing angrily. William was getting strong. She did her best not to show it.

  “Why do you always have to show up and ruin dinner?” she snickered at him.

  He gave her a playful grin and shoved her away. The two friends made their way inside, passing through without knocking. To Juarez, they were family now. A roar went up through the crowd as they entered.

  Juarez wouldn’t let them move forward until they both gave him a big hug. They were not soldiers here. Just friends.

  The meal had already begun and the food smelled amazing. A young girl swooped by and snatched Katrina’s basket and began dispersing the contents around the table for all to try. This dinner, like so many in Archonia, was more of a party with finger food, rather than a sit down formal affair.

  Juarez began introducing them to far more people than she could possibly count, or remember. William just called them all guy or lady, which she liked. Then Juarez began showing them the different dishes, naming off whom made each one. Without further nudging from their Spanish friend the two Guardians dove into the food without another thought.

  To say that the food was phenomenal would not do it justice. She saw a stir-fry called Paella, which had different looking seafood cooked into it. There was a pot of meatballs that people kept calling Albondigas. A dish called Pulpo a la Gallega, which Katrina didn’t even try to guess what it was made from. And these were a fraction of the foods that were on display.

  As Juarez walked William around Katrina continued drifting closer to her captain. He didn’t seem to notice. He never seemed to notice. She wondered if he realized that she was a woman. In truth, she probably brought it upon herself with her rough demeanor. Still, it bothered her. She knew that William was in love with Angelica. She gave it her best effort to put it out of her mind.

  Dish after dish kept coming, soon she was stuffed. Then the spirits came out. Being skilled on the piano, she was asked to play some music that everyone could dance to. She thought this would be a good idea so that she would not get drunk. Even though the drinks were no longer toxic to the body it still gave a sense of euphoria. As her fingers glided across the keys of the extraordinarily old piano, a beautiful sound came out. She watched the people sing and dance to her improvisational performance.

  This bunch was full of heavy drinkers, William being one of the most practiced. Before long he was droopy eyed and had a goofy half-smile on his face, a telltale sign that he had overindulged. Katrina looked at the clock across the room. It showed that they were in the 49th hour of the day, which meant that the sun was nearly down. They were required to be back in the Guardian barracks before sundown, except when on leave. She flicked her fingers into an ending chord, which elicited applause from the people still listening. By the time she was finished saying her goodbyes, William had slumped down into a plush looking chair and was humming something unintelligible to himself.

  Juarez walked up next to him and grabbed his cup away before he could spill the rest of its contents.

  “You should get him back. I need to stay and help pick up,” Juarez said, smiling.

  Katrina nodded and hugged him goodnight. He would be back to the barracks quickly after cleaning up, but it would take a while to get William home in his current state. Without asking, she hoisted him up from the chair by his arm, and wrapped it around her neck. Her body reacted oddly to his touch. She tried pushing it to the back of her mind.

  “Let’s go, you big meat head,” she said to William.

  “Hey, Kat,” he said, trying to get her attention

  “What?”

  “Hey, Kat,” he said again.

  “What?”

  “Hey, Kat.”

  “What?!” she yelled as they stumbled into the brisk, night air.

  “You’re like. Super. Pretty. Don’t let. Anyone. Tell you different,” he sputtered, his head bobbing up and down.

  Katrina was speechless, her thoughts rushing through her head at a dizzying speed.

  “Thanks,” she finally mustered.

  “Huh?” William asked, half into his meditation already.

  “Nothing,” Katrina replied.

  She managed to get airborne with William slung over her back, blubbering like an idiot without which she would have certainly been late back to the barracks. It was nearly lights out as she crossed the threshold to the Guardian barracks. Katrina tossed William onto a sofa in the corner of the common room, and then sat down next to him.

  William laughed hysterically and waved his hands frantically through the air in front of him. She watched him and could only laugh in response.

  “What the bloody hell are you doing?” she asked, shaking her head.

  “The…things,” he said, pointing briefly, before continuing to swat at the air.

  “Are you seeing fairies?” she asked like she was talking to a child. He nodded like an idiot, and she couldn’t resist.

  “You’ve got one on your nose,” Katrina said, trying to hold back laughter.

  Without a second thought, William whacked himself in the face. And she burst into a torrent of giggles. He whacked himself two more times before she grabbed his hands to stop him.

  The goofy grin on his face remained, even as a small droplet of blood trickled from his nose. She held his hand down firmly in his lap.

  “Now you’ve gone and hurt yourself, you fool,” Katrina said.

  “Well kiss it and make it better,” William replied, his grin widening.

  Her stomach knotted up. She knew he didn’t want a real kiss. This was a child asking a mother for a kiss variety. And yet, it still felt intimate to her. She looked into his cocoa-brown eyes and things got tense.

  She leaned in slowly, and he didn’t move. She closed her eyes and softly pressed her lips against his cheek, very close to his mouth. He didn’t make so much as a sound, and when she opened her eyes, his were closed. He was in a meditative trance.

  Her heart sank and she slid away from him on the couch. She looked at him, then away, than at him again. Then she sat for a long time, pondering. She could see the outlines of his muscles through his shirt and imagined what he looked like. She saw him a million times without his shirt on, but she couldn’t resist, and after looking around to be sure they were alone, flipped it up to reveal his well-defined abs.

  She felt a surge between her legs, which caused her to shudder. She squeezed her thighs together, biting down on her lip so hard she nearly broke the skin. Everything in her wanted to jump on William, but with a few deep breaths her mind won out and she left him on the couch, swatting at invisible fairies.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  SIX SIGNETS

  William rocketed backwards, his body rending the dirt and rocks, until he was almost buried amidst the pile of rubble. His ears still rung from the strike that knocked him across the open plains. He couldn’t pull in breathe and found his breastplate had collapsed inward from the blow.

  He looked up, just as Meredox shot out of the hole in the castle wall like a bullet, hundreds of yards away. He closed the gap in a heartbeat, William desperately trying to block the Greek man’s next strike. There was a crash like thunder as the s
maller man’s fist met his bracer.

  William struggled to hold the arm at bay. Meredox was stronger than William, and he hadn’t even summoned his armor.

  “What the hell are you doing?” William asked. “I’m exhausted. I just had a full day of training.”

  He used all his strength to push the fist away, and leapt into a backwards somersault, found his footing, and burst straight up into the air. Meredox was above him in an instant, and William didn’t have time to dodge a devastating kick.

  It caught him between the neck and shoulder, sending him plummeting from the sky like a meteor. He struck the ground, another crater forming in the beautiful Archonian field. He choked on the dust, and before he could move a hand closed around his throat.

  “The underworld will not wait for you to be rested,” Meredox said, snarling.

  His throat was in a vice, and his neck felt out of place. Finally, Meredox released his grip.

  “You move far too slowly and you use brute force where you should use leverage and tactics. I have seen you in hand-to-hand combat before. You know more than most, but it is not enough. Heal yourself. There will be no one to help you in the darkness of the underworld… the air you breathe? Your body does not need it. You must purge yourself of this weakness. You will meditate on these things tonight. We will meet at the training grounds after your guardian training every evening, until I deem you ready to face the horrors that await you in Dichonia. You will obey my every command, and devote yourself to my teachings. Do you accept these terms?” Meredox asked sternly.

  Still lying in the crater, William managed to raise an arm up, and give Meredox a thumb up.

  “I will take this gesture as a sign of acceptance,” he said, bowing towards William, and then disappeared into the sky.

  It took William nearly an hour of focusing all of his energy to heal his neck. He hadn’t taken into account what he would do if he was injured on his mission. He would be alone, and healing was not one of his strengths. Almost every engagement he had been in ended with him mangled in some way.