Guardian

by Sam Cheever

  “Ladies.” He closed the door and went to the window, peering out as I’d done mere seconds earlier.

  Etta and I exchanged a look.

  “How the hell did you escape? And what did you do with the guard?”

  He dropped the gauzy panel and grinned. “I’m getting very good at it actually. The caves and I are old friends.”

  “What exactly is your relationship with Queen Tana? Why is she so royally pissed at you. Excuse the pun.”

  He laughed. I found myself admiring the way his short, black hair outlined a perfectly shaped head and highlighted his strong jaw and square chin. “Tana and I go back a long way. Let’s just say we share a history and she doesn’t like the way it was written.” His eyes sparkled, “Especially the ending.”

  The sound of footsteps and an alarmed call outside brought his head sharply around, his dynamic brown gaze narrowing. “Sounds like it’s time for me to go, ladies. I’ll be seeing you.”

  His hand came up and opened over his head. Sparks of light scattered around him as the faery dust filtered down and he started to waver and fade.

  “Not this time, dammit!” I yelled, and flung myself toward him. I hit him hard in the chest, eliciting a surprised, “Umph!” from him. And then, amazingly, one strong arm came around my waist and pulled me close so that I was encompassed by the same dust.

  We entered a layer between worlds that was much deeper than the layer I usually traveled. An observant person could see the ripple in the air when I traveled. But I knew from having seen faery dust used that it was beyond even the most perceptive eye. Or the use of magic to discern it.

  Still holding me tightly around the waist, Ian took two giant steps backward, until we stood behind the door. We were still in the room with Etta, watching her throw a truly entertaining tantrum, but we might as well have been a thousand miles away.

  The door burst open and I flinched as it headed right for my face. But it passed right through us as if we weren’t even there. I looked at Ian and grinned. He grinned back and dropped his arm from my waist, grabbing my hand. “Let’s go.”

  I looked at the queen’s guards, who now filled the room. They had Etta in restraints and were demanding to know where we’d gone. They didn’t seem to have heard Ian speak.

  “They can’t hear us? Crystal cool.”

  Ian dragged me through the guards at the door, very odd feeling that, and down the steps of the tree house to the ground far below. I started to turn toward the gate but he pulled me back. “This way.”

  I glared at him. “Have you lost your mind? Why would we go to the palace? Tana wants you deader than I do.”

  He stopped, turning toward me and yanking me up against his warm, hard body. “You want me dead?”

  I scowled at him, “Only occasionally.”

  He leaned down before I knew what he was doing and covered my lips with his. A whirlwind of sensation flowed through me from the touch of his skin against mine and I gasped under its onslaught, trying to pull away. But his arms were iron bands around my body and I wasn’t going anywhere.

  I decided I might as well enjoy it.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck and deepened the kiss, pulling the intoxicating musk of his breath into my body and rolling it around on my tongue like the finest ambrosia. His hands swept up my back and tangled in my hair. His body ground into me with urgent need. His lips left mine and he growled. “We’ll finish this later. I need to get to Tana.”

  He turned and strode toward the Palace. I stood there, slightly dazed by the intensity of the kiss, and then started after him. I wasn’t sure why he was so bent on getting to the woman who wanted to kill him but I figured he might need me to save him from the noose. And I still had a lot of damn questions to ask. So I took off after him.

  I glanced around as a door slammed shut behind me, followed by a strident voice lifted in anger. Etta was being led out of the tree dwelling where we’d been ensconced and toward the caves. She wasn’t happy about it. She was nearly shrieking with rage, but her captors were turning a deaf ear to her. Probably literally at that point. I was sure their auditory senses had shut down in self defense. But I figured they were more afraid of their queen than they were of one, tiny, pissed off guardian angel. I couldn’t say I blamed them. I’d have to remember to warn the Watcher so he could get her released.

  I grinned. After Ian and I were safely away.

  We walked right past a full complement of guards on the steps of the palace and down a long, marble hallway, toward a tall set of gold doors at the end. The two guards at the door, armed with crossbows and swords, were discussing the women they’d had the night before as we walked through…I mean literally through, the golden doors and into Queen Tana’s rooms.

  She was standing before a roaring fire, staring into its depths. Suddenly she stiffened and turned, starting directly at us. “Ian? Show yourself.”

  Ian suddenly disappeared from the layer and reappeared in the room with the faery queen. Stuck in the deep travel layer by myself, I panicked. Then I realized I could probably extricate myself in the same way I usually did, when I’d been traveling in an alternate layer. A second later I was in the room with them, much to the queen’s surprise.

  “Why is she with you?”

  Ian shrugged. “She seems very fond of me. She’s always throwing herself at me.” He grinned in my direction and I scowled.

  “Your highness.” I bowed. “I have been sent by the Council of the Gods to fetch this human and get some answers from him. I won’t leave his side until I get those answers.”

  Ian’s grin widened. “Interesting.”

  I ignored him. Queen Tana stared hard at me for a moment and then nodded. “I have spoken to the Watcher. He assured me of the same. But I too have business with Ian Lavelle. Your business must await mine.”

  I opened my mouth to argue but Ian’s voice stopped me. “We haven’t much time, Tana. I have been away for too long. They’ve been suspicious of me since I refused to bring them here.”

  She nodded, turning back to the fire. I opened my mouth again…

  “I feared as much. Have you learned who in my kingdom betrays me?”

  Ian put a hand up to still me. “Not yet. But I’m getting close. Very close.”

  I watched his nose to see if it grew visibly from this whopper.

  Tana handed him a small cloth bag, tied at the top with faery twine. “I’ve filled this with the altered dust. That is the last of my special mix.”

  Ian nodded. “Shall we communicate in the normal fashion then?”

  Tana threw me a speculative glance and turned to Ian, her startlingly beautiful eyes filled with communication I couldn’t decipher. He returned her gaze and I felt a subtle change in the air that told me I was outnumbered and soon to be outmaneuvered.

  Tana’s next words confirmed this. “The Monad must not be allowed to interfere.”

  Ian threw me a speculative glance and frowned. He opened his mouth but didn’t get a chance to say whatever had been on his mind. I leapt on him, the weight of my body and the element of surprise bringing him to the ground beneath me.

  His mouth came open in a grunt as he hit the floor hard with me on top and I quickly emptied the contents of the vial the Watcher had given me down his throat.

  He choked and sputtered and spewed some of the contents back into my face. But I saw his throat working convulsively and I knew some of it had gone down.

  Suddenly a blinding light encompassed us and invisible bands of steel wrapped themselves around me and yanked me away from Ian, dragging me upright to dangle in the air above him, twisting painfully.

  I jerked against the bonds that held me. To no avail. Queen Tana’s power was legendary and she’d had thousands of years to hone it to perfection.

  Ian pulled himself off the floor, wiping a hand across his lips. He strode toward me, anger riding his dark features. I forced myself not to flinch as he brought his face within an inch of mine. I could feel the anger
rolling off him in waves.

  “What did you give me, Monad?”

  I smiled, at last I had the upper hand. Though to look at me, arms locked against my body with invisible power bands and hanging helpless in the air, it might be hard to see it. I figured it was all a matter of perspective.

  “Binding potion. If you leave my side you’ll suffer excruciating pain.”

  Ian stared hard into my eyes for several beats and then turned to Tana. She shook her beautiful head in disgust. “You have no idea what you’ve done, Monad. Stupid, stupid spirit.”

  “Then tell me.”

  Ian walked away from me to pace the room. “I have to return today or all will be lost.”

  “Mayhaps we should just kill her.”

  Oh boy. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. The potion has bound him inextricably to me. He needs me now. He’ll descend slowly into madness if I’m killed.” I didn’t know at all if this was true. But I thought it sounded good. And I really didn’t want him to test the theory.

  Ian swore and the intensity of his pacing increased. Finally he looked up at the faery queen. “I’ll have to take her back with me.”

  I smiled smugly.

  Tana’s jeweled gaze widened. “How? You can’t just add her to the group. You know how suspicious they are. They’ll kill you and disband.”

  Ian swore again and resumed pacing. “I don’t see any way around it. If what she says is true I’ll be next to useless. Maybe I can keep her in the deep travel layer so they don’t know she’s there.”

  I frowned, not liking that option at all, but I wisely chose to keep my mouth shut. I’d fight that battle later, when I wasn’t outnumbered.

  The air before the queen shimmered and her gaze flew to Ian. “The Watcher comes. Go now!”

  Suddenly the invisible bands around my body dropped away and I hit the floor, hard, falling to my knees. Ian grabbed my hand and threw faery dust over our heads, and we were off.

  ~ ~*~ ~

  He dragged me through Tana’s kingdom and out through the golden gates. The wood was quiet and dark, with the sun fading away overhead so that its essence couldn’t filter through the dense umbrella of tree growth overhead. Using the deep layer, our footsteps moved us through the wood at an impossibly fast rate. Although I knew it would still take us until morning to reach the outer edges.

  The sprites appeared to have gone home to dinner, if sprites did such a thing. And in the deep stillness of the prehistoric place, it felt as if Ian and I were the only ones alive. I watched him walking ahead of me and was struck by the grace and confidence with which he moved.

  The silence started to weigh on me so my mouth, in its usual fashion, began to move. “So how do you and Tana know each other?”

  He glanced at me and shrugged. “Her father and my father were fathers together.”

  Alrighty then. I thought about this for a while then tried again. “So you were friends as children?”

  “You could call it that.”

  Okay, he was starting to annoy me. I forced my face to remain blank. “I’d heard she spent some time among humans as a child. I hadn’t really believed it though.”

  He threw me a strange look but said nothing.

  We approached a cave and Ian ducked into it. I frowned, following. “We aren’t stopping for the night already are we? I’d rather keep moving so we can get out of here.” I rubbed my arms. “The wood at night gives me the creeps.”

  Ian just stared at me for a moment and then stepped out of the layer. “This is a portal.” He started toward the back of the cave. “If you’re coming with me you’d better hurry up.”

  I frowned, wondering at which point I’d lost control of the situation, and stepped out. The cool, dank air hit me first. The smell second. Something had apparently died in the cave. Not all that long ago if the depth of stench was an indicator. Rubbing my arms I started after him.

  I heard him cry out and took off running, my weapon in my hand before I took the first step. I found him writhing on the floor a little further into the cave. I took a battle stance, looking around for whatever had attacked him. There was nothing or no one there, other than Ian, thrashing around in apparent pain. Then I realized what it was.

  The potion was working.

  I knelt down beside him and reached to touch his arm. As soon as our flesh connected he stopped moving and looked up at me with eyes that were still haunted by pain memory. He took a deep breath and closed them. “Remind me not to walk away from you again.”

  I grinned. Just like that control returned. I was back. I helped him to his feet and he stood before me for a moment, testing his limbs and shaking slightly. “That really sucked.”

  I felt kind of bad about that. But I still believed it had been necessary. If I hadn’t potioned him he’d be long gone and I’d be reduced to tracking him again. He was damn slippery for a human and I was tired of tracking him.

  An inhuman shriek came to us from the direction of the cave mouth. Ian’s head came up and he grabbed my hand. “It’s back. Let’s get the hell out of here.”

  “What is it?”

  Ian pulled me more deeply into the cave. “Harpy. A particularly foul one.”

  I frowned. “I thought they were extinct.”

  “That’s what the fairies wanted you to think. Unfortunately it isn’t true. It’s one of the reasons the Wood gives you the creeps. On some level you must have known they were here.”

  “They?”

  Behind us, the sound of wings filled the air and another shriek reverberated through the heavy, putrid smelling air. We started to run, stumbling over an assortment of stark white bones and rotting carcasses that were apparently being saved for later.

  Another shriek told us the harpy wasn’t all that far away.

  “We’re almost there." Ian assured me.

  Ahead of us, an answering shriek brought us to a dead stop. “Shit.” Ian muttered.

  “That doesn’t quite cover it.” I responded.

  We stood in a fairly tight passageway. Ahead of us I could see a dim light that told us the cave opened up into some type of cavern. Behind us the light was cut off suddenly, as a large, dark shape eclipsed it.

  Another shriek set our feet into motion. Unfortunately we were running away from certain death, and right into the arms of definite demise. But instinct had us by the throat. And it had us running from the devil we could see.

  Then the light at the end of the passageway in front of us closed off and we stopped, gasping for air. “Zeus’s eyeballs!” Ian screamed in frustration.

  A wild, incoherent warbling entered the passageway from both ends, growing increasingly more intense as the harpies moved in for the kill.

  We turned to stand back to back. I heard the thwuck of a sword leaving its scabbard as Ian readied his weapon of choice. I held my electric fork in front of me, wishing I’d thought to bring a sword. Or at least a long knife.

  In order for me to use my fork I’d have to get up real close and personal with the harpies. And that probably meant I’d be sliced to ribbons by their twelve inch long talons.

  That just sucked.

  “Use the dust!” I screamed at Ian.

  “It won’t work in here.”

  “I don’t have a sword, Ian.”

  Without taking his eyes from his own nightmare at the end of the passageway, Ian twisted a hand around my body. “Take this.”

  I looked down. His hand held a long knife that looked plenty deadly. Not quite as good as a sword, but used in conjunction with my weapon, it would work. “Thanks.”

  The harpies gave off dual shrieks and launched their attack, flying toward us at an impossible speed. I held the long knife in one hand and my weapon in the other and pressed against Ian, more from a need for some sense of security than anything else.

  With wings that spread sixteen to twenty feet in full flight, I wondered how the harpies could even fly in the small space. As they got close, I realized they weren’t exactly fl
ying, but were using their wings to enhance their speed as they hopped toward us on huge clawed feet with long, knifelike talons.

  Ian and I stood back to back and waited. I was having trouble breathing and it wasn’t from running. My heart was pounding at a chest splitting level as I watched the horrible thing of legend descending on me.

  She was ten feet tall and a deep, dark, purple…nearly black. She had normal shoulders and upper arms, but where her elbows should have been her arms turned into wings. Her body was smooth, shaped like a human female, and she wore tiny scraps of cloth over the pertinent areas. Her slim legs widened out at the bottom, into heavy, black claws rather than feet. Her head was crowned by a tuft of long, silky purple-black feathers and the face beneath it would have been pretty, except that the wide mouth was open and several rows of jagged, deadly looking teeth gleamed in the low light of the passageway. Her knee-buckling stench preceded her. It was the smell of death and decay, with an earthy bouquet of rotting garbage thrown in for good measure.

  “Gods save us.” I murmured as, with a final shriek, the thing attacked.

  Chapter Four

  Temporary Reprieve

  It came at me claws first, using its formidable wings to hold it off the ground so it could slash at me with its razor sharp claws. The harpy’s evil face was horribly distorted by the incredible size of its tooth filled maw.

  The thing’s claws ripped through my flesh, tearing narrow, bloody slits in my stomach and chest before I managed to swing the long knife, grazing its flat, hairless belly.

  The harpy lifted off me with a shriek and flapped its massive wings twice before dropping toward me again.

  This time the claws ripped my shoulders in deep furrows. I flicked the long knife across the nearest leg and felt the tough flesh rip under its razor sharp edge. Thick, black blood sprayed my face.

  As the harpy screamed in pain I jabbed her in the chest with my electric fork, and gave her an annihilation level of juice. She shimmered before me for a second and then disappeared.

  I gave a sigh and closed my eyes in relief.