Guardian

by Sam Cheever

  We covered the ground of the Wood quickly, heading for the nearest border, so that we could get Etta away from the magic that terrified and poisoned her as quickly as possible. We stopped only once, taking water at a cool, fast flowing stream.

  Finally, as the sun dipped behind the distant line of mountains we stepped wearily out of the Wood. Ian seemed to sag in obvious exhaustion as he moved to a grassy area and lay a still sleeping Etta down on the thick, fragrant grass.

  He nearly fell down beside her, lying on his back in exhaustion.

  I stood looking around, rubbing my arms as the night air turned to chill. “We’ll need to find shelter.”

  Ian grunted but didn’t move.

  I couldn’t help razzing him a little. “You’re this tired from carrying that tiny little angel a few miles?”

  He snorted. “She may look small but after several hours she started to feel like a boulder.”

  “I heard that.” Etta sat up with a groan. She pushed matted black hair out of her eyes, looking around. “Are we out?”

  I nodded.

  Sighing, she tugged Ian’s tunic further down on her skinny legs. “I’d give up a wing for a bath.”

  Ian pushed himself to his feet, jerking his head toward the long line of rock ahead. “Those foothills have caves. I know of one with a hot, mineral pool in it.”

  Etta closed her eyes, moaning. “That sounds like heaven.” Then she seemed to realize what she’d said and her gaze jerked to me, daring me to make a snide remark.

  I threw my hands up, palms out, shaking my head. The last thing I wanted to do was piss her off any more than she already was.

  Ian pulled Etta to her feet and the three of us started the long trudge toward the wall of rock and dirt in the distance.

  I took up the rear, my head swiveling, eyes watchful. I was fully aware that we were still close enough to the Wood for magical interference. Etta carried herself stiffly, with a weary droop to her narrow shoulders. But her chin rose higher with every step. She was still angry, and she wasn’t going to get over it until she’d had her say.

  I sighed, knowing that would need to happen as soon as we were safely ensconced in a warm, dry cave.

  All I wanted to do was sleep and eat. But I doubted I’d get to do either any time soon.

  I rubbed dejectedly at the damnable metal band around my wrist, and prayed I’d be able to talk Etta into helping us. Because if she refused. I didn’t know how I was going to stop the entire magical world from exploding around us.

  And the human world along with it.

  ~ ~*~ ~

  Ian showed us where the mineral pool was and then left. I knew he was thinking he’d let us bitch slap each other until we’d gotten it out of our systems. I watched him leave with a deep sense of horror. I knew the angel and I were about to get into a girly type emotion laundering experience.

  My idea of laundry is a quick, ruthless slap, swish, and swipe. I’m not much into submerging and wallowing.

  I hate emotional laundry.

  Sighing, I watched her pull Ian’s tunic off her filthy, battered body and step into the healing waters of the pool. She folded her wings tight against her back and lowered herself to her neck with a happy sigh. Her eyes closed and she leaned her head against the rock edge of the pool, allowing the water to heat and soothe her soreness away.

  I stood watching her, reluctant to drop in my quarters and push the start button.

  Finally her lips opened and she spoke, her eyes still closed. “You left me behind in that horrible cave. After I saved your lives.”

  I winced. Okay, that wasn’t a good thing. Even I knew that.

  I searched for some way to plead my case but only came up with something really weak and a little petty. I tried it anyway. “I didn’t have any choice, Ian grabbed my hand and magicked us out of there before I knew what he was doing.”

  One eye opened and glared at me.

  I couldn’t hold her gaze. I remembered all too well how I’d chuckled at the look on her face as we left her. “I…I’m sorry, Etta.”

  The eye dropped closed again. She slid completely under the water and stayed under for so long I was just about to jump in and pull her out when her dark head slid out again. She opened her eyes and sat up straight. “You hate me.”

  I forced my eyes not to roll. This was why I hated doing emotional laundry. Girly emotions were annoying. “I don’t hate you.”

  “Yes. You do.”

  I found myself nodding. “Okay, I do find you a little annoying.”

  “Why?” Her anger had morphed into a confused pleading look that seemed strange on her.

  I didn’t know what to say so I just shrugged and started undressing. I figured she’d feel better if we were on equal footing and I had to admit the thought of immersing myself in the hot, mineral laden water was almost too much to resist.

  I slid into the pool and sat on the opposite side, meeting her gaze at last. “You’re just so damn smug all the time.”

  She opened her mouth, looking as if she would argue, but then closed it and just shrugged. “What else?”

  I was shocked she would give in so quickly. It gave me a false sense of having the upper hand. Not good. “You’re such a suck up!”

  Her little face darkened, showing me a glimpse of the monster I’d almost forgotten. “I’m an ANGEL!”

  I frowned back. That doesn’t mean you have to be an insufferable do-gooder!”

  Her dark eyebrows rose. “That’s exactly what it means, you idiot!”

  “Don’t call me an idiot! The other guardians aren’t as obnoxious about it as you are!”

  “They’re not as good at being an angel as I am!” She had risen slightly out of the water in her anger, the rounded tops of her wings showing behind her. I wondered briefly if the water would keep her from using them if she needed to. The way things were degenerating I might need a few second head start…

  I scowled at her. “I’ll tell them you said that!”

  She stood up, anger turning her little monster face nearly purple. Her wings swung free of the water and she flapped them hard a couple of times, spewing water everywhere. To my chagrin I saw that they looked completely dry, ready to use when needed.

  Damn!

  I reached up and swiped water off my face and stood too, facing her. My hand twitched for my weapons, which were a few feet away in the pile of my clothing. I tried to judge my chances of getting to them before she could get to me.

  Not good, I decided.

  I watched as Etta grew in size and illumination, until her feet dangled above the pool and she floated over me on giant, slowly pounding wings.

  The draft her wings created blew water off my face and body and made the water in the small pool churn as if from a summer storm. Her face had lost its purple aspect and was filled with a cold and controlled anger. Her short, dark hair blew in soft curls around her face. Her arms were outstretched, fingers wide. The entire cavern began to tremble. A fine dust filtered down from the quaking walls.

  Etta just hung there, furiously serene, like an avenging angel.

  I felt my throat constricting with fear and wonder. An unleashed angel was a frightening thing. Angels hold nearly unlimited power in their humble breasts. And they generally hold it very close. But when they choose to use it, it’s a terrible thing to behold.

  I had a strong suspicion I was about to behold it.

  I figured I’d better at least attempt to stop her, before she destroyed the cave and everything in it.

  “Etta! Stand down. This is an unsanctioned use of His power.”

  Just like that, her avenging angel face lost its serenity and folded into terrible anger. Her arms lifted and swung toward me, palms outward. “You dare judge my use of His gift! You dare assume the right to pronounce his wishes! You, a poisoned spirit, dare to claim knowledge of His desires!”

  The arms completed their swing toward me and I watched in horror as light energy, blindingly white and pulsi
ng with heat, shot out of her palms and enveloped me, wrapping me in a blanket of heat that felt less like warmth and more like fire.

  I screamed as the light bound me from head to toe, lifting me off the ground and spinning me as it burned my flesh. Like a never-ending reel of horror, my life before I was pulled from my Earthly bonds to serve the gods as a warrior spirit assailed me.

  I lived again the deprivation, loneliness, and rejection of a childhood without love or protection. Once again I walked the streets, filthy, hungry, and without hope. I endured beatings, rape, hopelessness, and the recurring theft of my meager possessions, my innocence, my dreams. I walked again through those mud-slung streets of the 1200s, and felt again the shuddering revulsion of those around me, as they watched a half breed child without protectors, dig and claw and scrape to survive in the harsh world of that human time.

  The horror of my time in the human realm wrapped me even more tightly than Etta’s light and scored me more fatally. I threw back my head and screamed as the reel consumed my mind, pulling happiness from me like a death spirit inhaling the last breath of the living.

  My body continued to spin. My mind continued to thrash under its blanket of horror-filled memories. My skin continued to burn away from me. Until I thought I’d gone beyond madness, into that place where nothing can find you again.

  Still Etta hung above me, ruthless and terrible in her anger.

  When my eyes started sliding closed, my body giving in to the blessed release of death, a sudden voice, filled with more than fear, burst into my consciousness.

  My eyes flew open and I saw Etta jerk under a rainbow hue of energy. She flew backward, hitting the rock wall behind her hard, and slid bonelessly toward the ground.

  I would have hit the ground too, hit it hard, but a warm pair of arms caught me handily before I hit, and pulled me tight against a hard chest. “You nearly killed her, rogue angel!”

  Etta’s dark head lifted, dark eyes glaring with hate, as Ian carried me to the pool and walked into it with me, lowering himself, breeches and all, into the healing waters. He held me there, up to my shoulders in the mineral water, and I felt the blessed relief of healing begin as my skin tingled under the water’s effects.

  I closed my eyes and leaned against him gratefully. For just a moment I would let him care for me. It was so nice not to have to fight…just for a moment. I sighed against his chest.

  Etta’s voice came to me from a distance as I drifted off to sleep.

  You killed my Mack. He died because of you. I hate you with all my heart. She whispered in my mind. And that is a stain on my angel’s soul. Hating you is my greatest sin, damned spirit. I wish only your death. So I can be released of my sin.

  Realization filled me. My eyes opened wide, and I watched Etta pull herself wearily from the dirt floor of the cavern. Her eyes never met mine. But they didn’t need to. I knew now the depth of her hatred for me. It was a hatred mere words could never ease. She blamed me for Mack’s death, and she wanted me dead.

  I felt the black blanket of unconsciousness sliding over me and I wanted to burrow under it. But before I slid away into the blessed peace of unconsciousness I had to tell her. I had to say the words. My mind formed them and sent them winging her way, willing her to hear. I never wanted Mack to die, Etta. He died saving me. I wanted him to live. If I could die in his place and bring him back I’d do that. I’d do it, Etta. You have to believe me.

  I felt her shudder in my mind and I was back, suddenly, on those muddy streets again, enduring the unblinking revulsion of those around me.

  Shut up lying spirit. Just shut the hell up!

  ~ ~*~ ~

  I groaned and rolled over, squinting against the bright light coming from the front of the cave. I pushed myself to an elbow and looked down to discover that I was lying on a bed of fragrant pine boughs. Apparently Ian had carried me there. Looking around, I discovered I was alone in the cave. I saw two other makeshift beds in the space but they were empty. Judging by the height and brightness of the sun outside I’d slept well through the morning.

  I pushed to my feet and stood there, unsure whether to look outside the cave first or return to the cavern where Etta and I had had our little “disagreement”. Finally I decided I could use some sunlight and headed for the cave’s opening.

  When I emerged, the bright sun making my eyes snap closed in self defense, I immediately heard voices. Squinting against the light, I headed into the brush around the cave, toward what I now realized was Etta’s voice.

  I kept my footsteps light as I approached, hoping to see who she was talking to and hear what she was saying before she noticed me.

  I couldn’t hear the second person’s voice clearly, but by the low, grumbling tone I knew it wasn’t Ian.

  I pushed my way into a line of trees. The sun’s light didn’t fully penetrate there and the air was cooler, with only a bright speckling of filtered sun on the debris littered dirt beneath my feet. I saw, in the near distance, the flickering of a different kind of light through the trees.

  As I made my way toward the voices and the light, my skin prickled into goose bumps. A large amount of power was being used.

  I recognized Etta’s voice but I still couldn’t tell who she was talking to.

  I drew closer, taking care to remain as quiet as possible, and stopped behind a tree several feet away from Etta. She had pristine white robes on again, and her wings glistened with light and power, lifting behind her small form and throwing off sparks of pastel light in reflection of the tunnel of white power before her.

  Etta stood with her back to me, small hands raised high, toward the sky, and before her rose a throbbing pathway of light that lifted, like a giant escalator, toward the horizon, and into the clouds above. I saw no figure standing before her. And none at the end of the pathway of light. But a voice boomed from the center of the light filled pathway, and modulated the light. When the voice rose in anger or excitement, the light throbbed and wavered. When the voice lowered as Etta responded, the light pulsed softly.

  I was so fascinated by the sight before my eyes that, at first, the words they exchanged didn’t even register in my mind. But finally, Etta’s shrill voice penetrated my overloaded brain and it was all I could do not to leap on her and throttle her.

  “She is more stupid even than most Monads. She will not listen to reason, and the human seems to have fallen under her spell…”

  The human? I smiled, realizing she still hadn’t figured Ian out. One point for me. It was always good to have an extra point or two shoved into my back pocket to use against her when needed.

  The voice from above responded. “How will you ensure you stay with them?”

  Etta’s wings fluttered happily and I felt a cold chill creeping up my spine. “I have a plan. He won’t escape me again.”

  Shit! With a sense of foreboding, I thought about the potion Etta presumably still carried in her pocket. I had to warn Ian. I turned away, intending to make my way back to the cave, when the air before me flickered enough to let me know he was there.

  I frowned, my lips opening to question him, but before I could speak a hand snaked out and grabbed my wrist and suddenly I was yanked into the layer with him. My body slammed up against his, a not altogether unpleasant experience, and he clapped a hand over my mouth and shook his head.

  Etta was suddenly there, moving past within mere inches of where we stood, unnoticed in our deep travel layer. She was heading back toward the cave. I turned to the spot where she’d been and saw only trees again. But I noticed the air still held motes of dancing light in it. Like power infused dust dancing on the air.

  Ian held me tight against his body for perhaps a moment longer than absolutely necessary, and when he finally removed his hand from my mouth he quickly replaced it with his lips.

  Everything I was about to say was purged immediately from my beady little brain. His kiss enflamed my body and wiped my mind clean. I arched toward him, moaning as his fingers played alo
ng my chin, and trailed down my throat, across my shoulders, and down the exposed valley between my breasts.

  The finger had wandered over to a tight, upright nipple and had begun to encircle it temptingly when the air in the clearing began to sputter and waver.

  I yanked my lips from his and we both turned to find a portal opening in the exact spot where the pathway of light had been earlier. “The Watcher!”

  I turned and ran toward the spot, leaving Ian’s layer with a small whoosh of surprised air, and stopped in the place where Etta had been standing only seconds earlier. The Watcher’s ugly face shimmered into view.

  I’d never seen such a beautiful sight in my long, long, life. “Watcher! Finally.”

  The visage hanging on the air before me folded into a frown. “Etta? Etta, where are you? I followed your power surge. Why haven’t you reported in, girl?”

  I just stared at him for a long moment and then tried again. “Watcher, it’s me, Nuria. I’m here. I need you to come get me. Someone needs to take this damned bracelet off me and…”

  “Damn it, Etta! Stop screwing around with me. I need your help in finding Nuria. The Council is having convulsions.”

  I felt a warm hand on my shoulder but I refused to look at Ian. Tears filled my eyes and I blinked rapidly, trying to disperse them before he could see.

  “He can’t see you with the bracelet on, Nuria.”

  “No! Dammit! It’s not possible.”

  He pulled me up against his body again, wrapping his arms around my waist from behind. Something touched my hair. It couldn’t possibly have been his lips.

  I shook my head, feeling more lost than I’d ever felt before. Then my eyes widened and I swung around. “You! He can see you, right?”

  Ian’s chocolate brown gaze was filled with pain. He shook his head. “He only saw me before because you were in the room with me.”

  I surged away from him and threw myself at the portal. I fell clean through it and landed in the dirt. I lay there, tears falling freely down my cheeks, and listened as the Watcher called for Etta.