“What is he doing now?” she asked, wondering why he stopped.
“He is playing dumb. Waiting for new people to show up, and for the other side to think he is their enemy.”
Tatyanna watched the rogue with interest, and thought back to Marek’s words about there being a traitor in their mist. “How do you know he isn’t the traitor?” she asked, genuinely wanting to know, but not wanting to cast doubt on his friend.
Marek didn’t answer her right away. His eyes were constantly on the move, watching his people fight out the battle, as if it were a real, minus the blood and gore. “I trust him.” He faced her, his eyes a sharp blue as he continued to look over her head at the action below. “I can’t give you a definite answer as to why I trust him so, I just do. I would stake my life on it. I can’t say that about everyone, and there have been people I have trusted before, who only deceived me in the end.” His face darkened at a particular memory.
Tatyanna knew better than to push him, and she, too, turned around to take in the action below. Her eyes immediately zoomed in on Emmett, who had turned himself into a huge black bear, but it was the white chest that was a dead giveaway. He was standing on his hind legs, and fighting at least five men at once, constantly reaching back with one of his claws to swipe someone off his backside and roaring loudly, but it wasn’t enough to deter his attackers. She gasped suddenly as Emmett was stabbed in the side. He immediately changed into his human shape, curling into a ball while cradling his bloody side.
Marek looked to see what happened, and tried to reassure Tatyanna. “He is okay. It wasn’t a fatal wound. Just watch, he will be taken away.” As he said the words, Tatyanna saw a tall, dark skinned man, with his hair in a mohawk and several markings on his face, appear out of thin air and kneel beside her injured friend. The enemy tried to attack the new man, but he put out his hand, and immediately, both he and Emmett were contained in a private bubble, where no one was able to breach.
Tatyanna watched in fascination as the man tended to Emmett, gently prodding his side, and then quickly pulling things out of a small tan pouch hidden under his dark clothing. She couldn’t tell what he was doing, but after quick work, he was placing something on Emmett’s injury, and it immediately stop bleeding. As quick as the stranger appeared, he disappeared, taking Emmett with him.
“That was a healer,” Marek said, clarifying what she just witnessed. “Cy is part of the Healer Clan. Both of his parents are healers. It’s a tight knit group that almost never marries outside of their clan. When they do so, they are asked to leave so they don’t taint the bloodlines. He is a natural born healer. He has been trained to treat all kinds of ailments and injuries since he was old enough to run. He knows every usage for every plant, in both your world and our own.”
“What was the barrier he put out to protect himself?”
“Healers don’t have the gift to heal with their hands. They have the gift to be able to remember what ingredients and potions they need to do the healing. Also, because they are not fighters, they are blessed with the ability to protect themselves and the injured. Think of it as a defense mechanism. Sometimes, they are able to wound another, but only if they are attacked first. They cannot attack first, without being provoked.”
“Huh,” she said, fascinated and wanting to know more. “I went to school to become a nurse, before I knew I could heal. I would like to talk to this Cy more, to learn other ways of healing.”
Marek was pleased by her words. He had met many royals before her family who treated their gift as if they were gods, never learning the old ways to complete the same task.
“I’m sure he would be honored to work with you,” he said, narrowing his eyes on an elderly woman with long graying hair and matching rags. She leaned toward a tree, and started to blow air out of her mouth, causing the tree to freeze before their eyes. As the woman blew out cold air, her gray hair started to turn white, as if the act was changing her. Once she was finished, she turned to the next tree, doing the same thing. When she had frozen several trees, she made a gesture with her hands. A tall, lean, muscular man came walking toward her, appearing out of thin air, bending at the waist and smashing the tree as if it were glass, shattering the base and picking up the tree to throw it toward the opposing side.
Tatyanna felt before she saw Marek stiffen, watching as both the woman and man worked together. Marek whispered softly, and a glowing red gold rope appeared in his hands. He whipped it out toward the two strangers. She watched as the rope extended from their perch down to the battlefield, and instantly snatched up first the old woman and then the man.
“Tell Terran there are hags in the battle, and to be on alert. They will be working with surprisingly strong men, and destroying the trees. He will be able to zoom in to see if there are others.”
Tatyanna wasn’t sure of the order, but she knew it was important. She closed her eyes and focused on Terran. She could see him swinging from one branch to another, like Tarzan, to keep from being injured, or taken as a prisoner, as the tree branches swiped back and forth at any enemy closing in. ‘What is it, Tatyanna?’ he asked, realizing she was in his mind.
‘Marek said to be on the lookout for a hag and some guy working with her. He says they are targeting the trees, and you should be able to single them out.’
Terran immediately stopped swinging, climbing up the tree he was on to hide from onlookers. He closed his eyes to find the traitors, struggling to stay focused while Tatyanna was in his head.
“What’s happening?” she asked.
“Hags are dangerous women, very old and powerful. They freeze things with their breath. When you see something is frozen, you know that one was near, or could still be in the area.”
“Ah, so that’s why my land was frozen,” she said, feeling like a lightbulb went on, and she could check one thing off her never ending list of questions.
Terran interrupted her thoughts. ‘I need to focus, Tatyanna. If you want to be in my head, you need to stop with the incessant thinking. This may be a game, but it is very much a battle. Marek is trying to weed out the traitors, and you do not want to have a hag, or worse, a demon masquerading as a friend in your mist. Now, hush, while I look for them.’
Tatyanna could feel a gentle push in her mind. She was still connected to Terran, but it was as if there was a glass door. She could see him, but she couldn’t hear him, which meant he couldn’t hear her either. She saw as he reached out to all of the trees in his mind. It was like a giant puzzle; every tree was connected to Terran, almost like a motherboard was connected to a computer. Instantly, several trees were highlighted in his mind as red flags. The glass door was thrown open, and Terran said, “Tell Marek I have several trees who are not responding to me, and they may have already been taken down. I will reach out to the others for assistance.”
Tatyanna relayed the message to Marek, and he didn’t take the news well. He balled his hands into fists, and punched the mountain wall behind them in anger, shouting out his frustration. She could hear it echoing all around them, but was drowned out by the sounds of sword fighting and people yelling.
“What is going on?”
“Hags are very dangerous, and very old. Some believe they are directly connected to the evil we fear. They are more powerful than Lord Larik right now, but they humor him into thinking he is in charge.”
“How can they be more powerful than him?”
“They are the true definition of evil. Evil has existed from the very beginning, just like good has. The evil in this land was kept dormant, until one man found a way to unleash it. Since then, it has been festering and building, gaining more power each day it is left unchecked. We will never be rid of it for good, but we can force it back into the dark cave it crawled out of.”
“And the men with them?”
“Those are demons. They can shapeshift into anyone they want to, but typically, they prefer to become someone who is dead, since they know it is less likely to run into the person th
ey are pretending to be. Demons are known for their incredible strength. They could have knocked down that tree on their own, but the fact a hag froze it first, meant they wanted the tree to suffer, and, in the end, it would cause Terran to suffer. He may not suffer right away, but he would feel the loss.”
Tatyanna turned back around to face the battle, looking everywhere for another hag and demon, not knowing if she could stop them if given the chance. Her eyes focused on Althea and Dimitri assisting Terran in fighting off another hag, with matching white hair and rags for clothing, as well as a demon. The other side was winning, and she screamed when she saw the demon kicking Althea out of his way. He kicked her so hard the wolf was thrown back several feet, hitting a tree and dropping to the ground, unmoving.
Tatyanna raised her hands without thinking, and blasted water at the demon, causing him to shoot back several feet. The demon hit a tree and looked up, meeting Tatyanna’s eyes. Tatyanna shot him with another blast, noting he started to smoke slightly, like a fire being doused with water. But that act didn’t deter him, and he raised his hands, creating a fireball and hurling it at her.
Marek pushed Tatyanna to the ground, and stood in the path of the fireball, raising his hands like an X across his body. She saw the Phoenix come out of his body to absorb the hit. Marek screamed as if the fireball at hit him, but the Phoenix changed, growing bigger and darker, no longer brilliant shades of reds and yellows like a fire, but changing black, shooting out toward the demon. The demon tried to run from the Phoenix, but was stopped, stabbed in the chest by the curved talons. The phoenix turned to the hag next, to mark her as his next kill, but she was too fast for the bird. She grabbed a knife out of the demon’s pant leg, and stabbed herself. She would rather sacrifice herself than to be taken prisoner by the enemy.
After the kill, the Phoenix settled down unto the ground, standing at full height making it over seven feet tall. “Clean this up, and find the others. We need to keep this from everyone else, before we cause a scare,” the bird said in Marek’s voice, stepping back from the others to burst into flames and disappear.
“Wow,” Tatyanna said, clearly amazed. “That was awesome.”
Marek smiled. “Not everyone knows what all I can do, and I prefer to keep it that way.”
“Power scares people. If people know how much you can actually do, and how much you can do with the Phoenix, they would fear you, instead of respecting and following you.”
“You have much wisdom for one so inexperienced.”
“I don’t know where that insight came from. I never would have thought I had wisdom before coming here. I spent my years growing up watching people. I guess that’s how I know so much.”
Marek brought Tatyanna into his bubble. “I can’t image you ever as an outsider. Everything about you says the opposite.”
“Our worlds are very different. Here, I am royalty, and treated as such. And there, I was treated as if I were a leper. Weird, huh?”
“Very, but if you were normal, you may never have wanted to come here, and we would never have met again.”
Tatyanna smiled. “No, I think I would have come anyways. Even if I was normal and treated like everyone else, I knew I didn’t belong. I would have gone anywhere to feel like I was a part of something.”
“I can understand that.”
“How so? Haven’t you always been here?” she asked, waving to the lands beneath them.
“No, I inherited this camp from my father. He was one of the best warriors ever, and was seeking out new fighting methods when he met my mother.”
“How could he be any greater when he had the Phoenix?”
“Ah, that is another misnomer. The Phoenix didn’t come from my father. It came from my mother.”
“What?”
He smiled. “Yeah,” he said, laughing softly. “My mother is one of the few warrior women left. They stay on their own island, and rarely do they marry, but have been known to take on many lovers. She met my father, and he was immediately taken with her. But it wasn’t her beauty or fighting skills which attracted him to her, but the Phoenix. He had heard of the Phoenix’s powers before, and the power it could give someone was what he yearned for.
“He seduced her, she got pregnant with me, and then they got married. It didn’t take my mom long to realize he had never loved her, but loved the idea of power. I grew up in an unhappy home, but my parents stayed together for my sake.”
“But, I remember watching your father die. The Phoenix left his body. If he wasn’t the true phoenix, how did that happen?”
“My mother chose to share the Phoenix with him, before she knew the truth. When they shared vows, she shared the power of the Phoenix with him. He didn’t have all of the powers, but he had enough to keep him happy in a loveless marriage. When he died, I realized my parents weren’t fated to be together. She was sad, but she didn’t mourn. She didn’t die inside, like your mother did. When two people are fated, when one dies, so does the other, because their lives become intertwined. After our vows we left and came here. My mother ran this training camp, until she felt like I was old enough, and left to go back to her island. I’ve been here ever since.”
Tatyanna’s heart went out to Marek. He never knew love, and it made sense why he kept making small mistakes with her. Love was just a word for him. She reached out to brush his hair out of his eyes, and gently kissed his cheek. “I’m sorry for the life you lived, but I can only hope you will give us a serious chance, and for me to prove you wrong about love. It can be more than a word, and I want to show you that.” She lifted herself onto her toes and kissed him again on the lips. He was shocked by the act at first, but caught her face in his hands before she could step away, to give her the kiss she deserved on her lips.
It was perfect and soft, but still as explosive as ever. She felt herself drowning in the kiss, and never wanted it to end. As Marek deepened the kiss and slanted his lips against hers, they heard a cough behind them. They pulled away from each other, only for Tatyanna to lean her head against Marek’s chest as they both gathered their breath.
“If that is Emmett, I am going to push you off this ledge.”
“Empty words, my friend,” Emmett replied, laughing.
“Emmett!” Tatyanna cried out, pushing herself out of Marek’s arms and throwing herself into Emmett’s. “Are you okay? I saw you get stabbed.” She raised his shirt, trying to see his injury and ignoring how he kept trying to push her away.
“Yes, yes, I am okay. I’ve already been poked and prodded by that dreaded Cyrus. Of all the healers out there, he had to be the one to heal me. Someone needs to tell him to work on his bedside manner. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Galena had to baby me to death. She kept trying to shove food down my throat, and felt my forehead several times, informing me I felt warm. Next time, I’m playing on the opposing team if it means avoiding the smothering Galena.”
Marek slapped Emmett on the back good naturedly. “Whatever, man. You never complained when you were sick and she took care of her. You know this is the role she thrives in.”
“Yeah, yeah, but I missed out on all the action with the hags and demons, only to come back to find they had all been captured, and you two were locking lips again. Is that all you do?”
“Ha, screw you.”
“Fine, then I won’t tell you that both leaders and co-leaders have been captured.”
That immediately got Marek’s attention. “What? Seriously?”
“Yeah, I saw it happen before flying out here to tell you, in case you didn’t know. I thought you were preoccupied with something else, not playing tongue hockey.”
“Really? Man. Can you not see a lady is present?”
Emmett had the decency to blush, and apologized to Tatyanna. Tatyanna didn’t mind, because she enjoyed seeing this playful side of Emmett. It made him more human than he initially appeared.
Emmett looked back and forth between the two, and knew something pivotal had changed between them. He wasn�
�t sure what it was, until he saw the phoenix on Tatyanna’s wrist. It had changed. It was no longer the tribal tattoo that first appeared, but now you could see it, in all its glory on her hand, colors shining bright. He smiled at the significance of the moment. They had promised themselves to each other.
“Hey, snap out of it?” Marek said, punching him on the arm. “You’re standing there with a goofy look on your face. Aren’t you going to tell us what happened?”
Emmett’s smile grew wider as he watched Marek put his arm casually around Tatyanna’s waist. “Are you going to tell me what the two of you have been up to?”
Tatyanna stiffened in Marek’s arms, but Marek just tightened his grip. “No,” he said simply.
“No need. I can see it, and feel it from here.”
“What do you mean feel it?” Tatyanna asked, finally joining in on the conversation.
“I am your Guardian. That means, if I wanted to, I have access to your thoughts and memories. I felt something different in you, and I know that has to do with Marek.” He saw Tatyanna’s face redden like a tomato, and he rushed to correct her thoughts. “I have never once read your thoughts, or violated your privacy like that. I would have the right to do so, but I never have. Okay?” he asked, dipping his head in confirmation.
“Yeah,” she said slowly, “just don’t remind me you can do that. It’s too weird.”
He grinned. “Agreed.” He scanned their surroundings, feeling like there were too many unwanted eyes on them.
“Marek, if you can, take her back to your quarters, and I will meet you there. I will explain what has happened, and you can decide what next steps you want to do in the game, and declare a winner.”
Tatyanna Page 32