Guardian_Rise of the Nature Walker

by Nancy E. Dunne

  Yes, Tairn, let her talk to him, encourage that. He will hurt her and she will finally see what a monster he is. Say that she should speak to him alone, say you trust her, and say what I tell you. Why are you not talking? TELL HER.

  Something snapped in her mind at that moment, and Tairn stared straight ahead, steeling her resolve before she spoke. Enough was enough.

  Not this time, Taeben.

  “Don’t go to Sath, Gin. My master…Taeben is listening now, and he wants you to do that - and I fear that you will be walking into a…” Her words cut short as her eyes bulged and she lurched forward onto all fours, fingers clutching wildly at her throat. The wizard was livid, and Tairn felt as though he was burning her from the inside out. She struggled to breathe as she writhed about on the stone tiles.

  Gin grabbed her friend’s torso and tried to pull her back up to a seated position, but her diminutive size and position kept her from succeeding. Tairn let out a guttural howl and lurched forward again, falling over onto her face. “He is coming! He is…OOF…you must go, Gin, he is almost…”she wailed amid choking screams of pain.

  As Gin tried again to help her friend by moving to Tairn’s side, the great hall door swung open. Soft slippers that levitated just above the stone floor camouflaged the sound of the wizard’s feet as he crossed the room to where Gin cradled a now convulsing Tairn in her arms. “You know how to stop this, my love,” said Taeben as he gazed down at the two women, his eyes twinkling. Gin glared up at him and then focused her attention and her healing magic back on Tairn, who resumed screaming at Gin’s touch. “The more you try to heal her the more you are killing her, Ginny. Come with me and I will leave our girl Tairn here alive.”

  Sath’s description of Kazhmere’s death still vivid in her mind, Gin made sure that Tairn was safely on the ground. She got to her feet, focusing her will on the high elf and sending her strongest healing energy through her hands into Tairn’s body. She pushed as hard as she could, but felt an equally strong magical force pushing back at her as Tairn wailed in misery.

  “I warned you, Ginny. You’re only making this worse.”

  “Stop it, Ben, leave her be,” she hissed at the wizard. “Let me help her.”

  “Come with me and she’ll be good as new.”

  “He’ll take…you back to…” Tairn collapsed again in a new fit of convulsions. Gin stopped her spell casting, flexed her hands and moved to place them on Tairn’s face. Taeben intercepted Gin and grabbed one of her wrists, tossing her backward and away from Tairn.

  “Wrong, Pet, wrong, wrong, WRONG!” Taeben roared as he pointed his staff at Tairn. “Now you decide to talk? You will not ruin this for me!” He began speaking words that Gin recognized as those to command lightning and channel it through his staff. She felt the static charge around them grow and begin to coalesce around Taeben’s head, then flow into his staff. Fighting off memories of staring down that staff herself, she ran at him, jumping into the air and planting the soles of her boots in the small of his back. Taeben tumbled forward and dropped his staff, cursing. Gin quickly got back to her feet and grabbed Tairn by her robe sleeve. She dragged the taller female toward the healing pool, with a view to putting her into the restorative magical water, muttering spells to herself as she went.

  Taeben sat up, immediately reaching out for his weapon. The smooth wooden staff all but jumped into his hand, the crystals in the end of it rotating in space and throwing off a faint glow. “You will NOT get away with this,” he yelled as he sprinted after them. He took a step through the doorway and was violently thrown backward; Gin had cast a defensive spell that kept him at bay for a moment by upending the very ground beneath his feet. “Ginny!” he roared as he slowly got to his feet. “Come out and face me! If you do not, I will destroy your little friend there; you know that I can do it!” There was a long pause, and Taeben was close to ending the simpering high elf just because he was annoyed. He aimed his staff just as Gin stood up and faced him from inside the room.

  “Promise me no one else will be hurt?” Gin shouted.

  Taeben paused for a moment, and then smiled. Ah, Ginny, predictable as ever, she was going to offer herself in exchange for the high elf. That would do nicely.

  “I’m not in the mood for deals,” he said, chuckling.

  “Promise that you will leave Tairn alone and I will come with you,” Gin said. “And no harm shall come to Sath, or his son.” There was silence. “Ben! Please, I will come out; I will not fight you, if only you will promise?”

  “Oh, you won’t fight me this time? How disappointing. That’s the FUN part!” the wizard said, his voice mocking. “But if that’s the only way, I suppose I’ll have to accept.” She could hear the smile in his voice and it turned her stomach, but Gin carefully moved Tairn to the side of the healing pool. Once she was sure that her friend wasn’t going to drown, she stood up. A hand closed around her boot, drawing her attention. She looked down to see Tairn staring up at her.

  “Don’t.” Tairn’s voice was barely audible, but sounded stronger than it had before. “He serves Lord Taanyth, Gin. He will take you to Bellesea. You will die if you…”

  “I know,” Gin said, swallowing the panic that threatened to overtake her. It would do Tairn no good for her to lose control now, but the idea that the dragon was still waiting to test that spell on her again and the thought of being with Ben again, without escape, was alarming at best. Gin forced a smile across her face as she bent down to whisper to Tairn. “Now, you need to be quiet and let the healing water’s magic work, okay?” She placed a hand on Tairn’s forehead and spoke magical words in Elvish of calm and harmony. The other female’s eyes closed and her body relaxed.

  “I don’t have all day, Ginny,” called Taeben from the other room.

  “I’m coming,” Gin said indignantly, and then took a deep breath before walking back into the Fabled Ones’ great hall. She put her staff down on the floor when she saw that Taeben was standing in the center of the room, his staff pointed at her defensively. “There’s no need for that, Ben,” she said quietly as she walked over to him, her hands held high in the air. Once she was standing very close to him, she looked up into his face. “How did we get to this point?” she asked, reaching up to touch his cheek. “I thought I loved you so much.”

  “Let me into your mind, Ginny. Just like before.”

  “You don’t need that, I said I would come with you, just like before, when you trusted…” He flinched away from her touch. “But that was just you in my mind then, wasn’t it? You made me feel that way. None of that was real. I had such high hopes that you had changed.”

  “I did change,” he said, smirking down at her. “What you see is the new and improved Taeben, my dear. Once I get you back to my Master and take the spell work he has done, nothing will stop me from dispatching him and taking control of Bellesea Keep.” Gin stared up at him in horror, taking a step back from him. She felt the tingle up the back of her neck that meant he was trying to gain access and she let him - just barely - slide back into his place in the back of her mind.. “After that, I will control the whole of the Volcanic Mountains, but clearly that is not a suitable place for my new bride. No, I hardly think so,” Taeben said, grabbing her arm and pulling her back in close to him. “I think that Qatu’anari is a much better place. Much more posh.”

  “Sath will kill you on sight, Taeben,” she spat at him. He laughed heartily.

  “Poor little Ginny,” he said. “Poor silly little deluded Ginny. Your Rajah won’t have a choice.” Grinning widely, Taeben grabbed Gin and pulled her close, her back against the front of his cobalt robes. He chose to ignore how wooden her body felt against his, and with one arm, he held her in place as he began casting a spell of transportation. “He’ll make a nice pet though; don’t you think? Or perhaps just a rug in our bedchamber…” The loud whirring of the wind and the roaring circle of fire that surrounded them blocked the sound of Gin’s scream as the two of them faded from view.

  Th
ree

  Salynth sat in her library, pouring over the notes left behind by her pet wizard, Taeben. Even though she had read his notebook from cover to cover more times than she could remember, she still found something new every time. He had copied the spells that she taught him word for word and then made notes in the margins. Her azure fingertips danced across the pages, tracing the words as she read them aloud. Somewhere in all of his notes there had to be something that would help her to rid herself of Kalinth.

  As if on cue, she felt the stirring in the back of her mind that meant he was trying to contact her. Salynth rolled her eyes and pushed back from the desk where she had been sitting before replacing the bookmark in Taeben’s notebook. The buzzing at the base of her skull grew louder, and she finally gave in and paid attention.

  What do you want, Kalinth?

  Good morning, my sweet. Did you sleep well last night?

  Like the dead. And you?

  Salynth, please don’t joke about that. I slept well, thank you for asking. What are your plans for today?

  Same as always. I am trying to find a way out of this tower.

  She purposely tried to shut him out of her mind, forcing his voice to become more and more distorted until it was back to a mild buzz. His emotions were harder to shake - her choice to ignore him had made him angry, and that anger burned up and down her spine as though she too was losing her temper.

  In truth, she was. It had been too long since her pet had been taken. How many months - years, even, had passed since the Fabled Ones had invaded the tower and taken him away? She wondered for a moment if they knew how much she had learned about them in the time since. How many bonds had she made with unwary travelers, how many useless and vapid minds had she searched until she found one that knew of the new Rajah of Qatu’anari, Sathlir Clawsharp? A few more months, a few more groups of would-be thieves, and she got the name of the wood elf that held her pet Taeben’s fascination. Ginolwenye. Ginny, he had called her. Salynth had tried everything that she could think of to draw that diminutive elf back to the tower, but nothing worked. No one had heard tell of her in an absolute age, it seemed, until she caught the briefest glimpse of Taeben.

  Kalinth was determined to free his father from Bellesea, and while Salynth could not have cared less whether the old lizard lived or died, she tried to help him as much as she could. Taanyth’s freedom would lead to hers, if she was involved. Kalinth would never leave her behind if she could be of assistance. The last time that Taanyth permitted a bond between himself and his son, Salynth was listening in and heard that Ginolwenye, that irritating elf, was coming to Bellesea with Taeben. Her Taeben! She also learned that the druid was not just any wood elf, but the next Nature Walker and as such, the only living Guardian other than perhaps the Rajah of the Qatu. She doubted that he knew anything about the Guardians, however, considering what she had heard about how he assumed the throne. If only he had been more easily turned; she would have already been out of the tower with Sathlir Clawsharp on her side!

  Salynth tried to find Taanyth in the bond, but couldn’t. He was much older and more powerful than she, even in his mad state, and could block out anyone he liked. It would have to be via Kalinth that she spoke with the Father Dragon. That thought did not make her happy as she flipped open Taeben’s notebook to the bookmark and resumed reading aloud.

  Father Taanyth? Please answer me. I know you are there and I know you can hear me.

  What do you want, Kalinth?

  Has the wizard brought you the wood elf?

  He is on the way, yes. Why?

  I want to help you, Father. I want to go with you when you go to the dark side of the world in search of Mother and Omerith and the rest of our kind.

  Whatever makes you think that is my plan, Kalinth?

  But Father, why else wouldn’t you want to be released from Bellesea? We should all be together again, our kind should be together until we can again rule over Orana.

  You are a fool, my son. They say that I am the mad one, but you are truly insane. I have no wish to fly to the dark side of the world. I have no wish to ever lay eyes on Kaerinth again, and she will need all of the help of Orana herself if she EVER crosses my path again.

  You don’t mean that, Father.

  Do not presume to know what I mean, Kalinth, nor to assume that when I am free from here that I will come free you. As far as I am concerned, that is the one thing that your mother did that I completely support. You are where you need to be, my son. You earned your place in the Western Tower.

  Kalinth broke the connection with his father and then stormed through his floor of the tower and up the stairs to Salynth’s floor. “SALYNTH!” he bellowed. He had tried to reconnect to her but she was blocking him. Who had taught her to do that? Certainly not him. When Ikara had first sent her to the Tower, she had been so eager to communicate with him through the bond. Now she would go for weeks - months - blocking him out, before she would allow him in for the briefest of moments. “SALYNTH! YOU WILL ANSWER ME!”

  “Stop the bellowing, Kalinth! I can hear you.” Salynth came around the corner, levitating a few inches off the ground. “What do you want?”

  “My father has become a problem.” Kalinth inclined his head down to her, moving his snake-like neck until he was eye level with her. Salynth met his gaze and matched his ferocity.

  “What do you expect me to do about it?”

  “We need to do something about it. He cannot be allowed to escape. If we can get out of this Tower, we can make sure that he never gets free of Bellesea.”

  Salynth fought to control herself. It would do no good to laugh in his face. “I suppose you have a plan, then, if you are coming to me for help?” Kalinth nodded.

  “We need to summon your little wizard pet back to the Tower, Salynth. He has something that my father wants very badly - a druid from the Great Forest - and we can either use her for leverage against him or force your wizard to help us break the curse. Either way, getting him back here is very important. Do you still have the bond with him?”

  Salynth stared at him. “Are you serious? Kalinth, you will let me have Taeben back?” Her lips formed a tight line as she stared at him and he knew she couldn’t believe what he was suggesting.

  “Yes. I will permit it. Will you help me free us and stop my father?”

  “You have only to ask, my sweet,” she said. He didn’t even care that her smile did not make it all the way to her eyes.

  Four

  “Papa?” Khujann grunted softly as he pushed the door to the throne room open just wide enough to squeeze his body through. “Papa?” The Prince had to sneak down to the throne room under cover of darkness, as he had not been allowed to leave his chambers since he was brought there the night before. The guards had finally left to get some rest, after making sure that the threat had passed, and Khujann had wasted no time in sneaking out.

  His tiny teal eyes adjusted almost immediately to the darkness of the throne room. A single candle burned in a sconce on the wall just behind the throne. On the floor by his father’s desk, he could see something covered in a sheet, and Khujann could just make out a male Qatu sitting next to it, head in hands. “Papa?”

  Sath looked up at his son, and held out his arms. “Come over here, my son,” he said. “I have something I must tell you, and it will make you very sad, but you must be a brave boy, okay?” Khujann nodded and padded over to his father, climbing up onto the Rajah’s lap and snuggling into his father’s embrace.

  “What is it, Papa?” he asked.

  “It’s your Aunt Kahzi,” Sath said, his voice cold and void of emotion. “Something has happened to her, Khuj, and she was killed...like your Mama was. She is gone, I am so sorry, but she is gone.”

  “Is she with Mama now?” Khujann asked quietly.

  Sath nodded, and then felt his son’s body shake with sobs. “Go on, son, get it out,” he said, patting Khujann gently on the back. “She is beyond the veil between the worlds with your Mama wh
o was her best friend when they were your age.” Sath found that as he said the words, he believed them, and hoped that all would be resolved for the two of them there - that Kazhmere would be able to forgive Annilanshi in a way he would not.

  “Is…is that…” the Prince stammered as he pointed at the shape under the white sheet.

  “Yes,” Sath said. “Would you like to see her so that you can say goodbye?” Khujann sniffled and then nodded, sliding off of his father’s lap. Together they stood next to Kazhmere’s body, and Sath carefully and reverently pulled the sheet back from her face. To his surprise, his son did not cry out, but merely stood gazing at his aunt’s body.

  “Goodbye, Kahzi,” the Prince said, touching the tip of her ear gently, then pulling his hand back as though he’d been burned. “She looks like she is just sleeping, but she’s cold, Papa, is that why you have her covered up?” He looked up at his father, tears standing in his eyes. Sath marveled at the lack of even a prick of tears behind his own eyes. None left, he guessed.

  “Yes, Khuj. We’re going to cover her up now, and the shaman will come soon and take her to make her ready for burial.” He took the Prince by the hand and together they pulled the cloth back over Kazhmere’s face, then he led his son away toward the door out of the throne room. “You don’t have to be there for that if you don’t want,” Sath said. “She loved you like you were her own, you know that?”

  “Yes, Papa. Sometimes I dreamed she was my mama, because I don’t remember my real mama,” the young Qatu said. “I asked Ginny to be my mama but she said she was my tutor and couldn’t be my mama.” Sath bit his lip, but noted with some sadness that there was no familiar tug at his heart at the mention of Gin’s name. “I love Ginny. Can she come be my tutor again, Papa?” Khujann asked.