Guardian_Rise of the Nature Walker

by Nancy E. Dunne

  My dark flower.

  She sat straight up at the table, the hair on her arms raised in unison with that on the back of her neck. It could not be. Her heart, now risen into her throat, pinched anew with pain and grief.

  How is this possible, Master? I sensed your death when it happened. You are gone from this world. How can I hear you still?

  Ellie, you have so little faith in me and in the magic present in the world. Let me bring you to where I am - not to stay, but to prove to you that I am real. Will you allow it?

  Master, you have never asked my permission before – proving to me that this is only my imagination. I was so foolishly optimistic…

  Invisible hands, larger than her own by far, wrapped themselves around her arms and she fell forward into the table at which she was studying - only the table was no longer there. There was nothing there, only a pitch-black darkness. Ellie fell further and faster than she ever had before during a transport, her mouth open in a silent scream as a mighty wind roared in her ears. The experience went on longer than normal magical transport, and she fisted her hands beside her legs, gripping at her robe as the only evidence that she still existed - that she was still intact, and whole. The roaring stopped abruptly and she hit the ground - or something, a floor perhaps - with a bone-crunching thud. Ellie looked up into familiar, silvery eyes as she tried to get to her feet but found that her legs did not want to cooperate.

  Taeben reached down and pulled her up to her feet, holding her by her forearms until he was certain she was steady enough to stand on her own. “Ellie, my student, my dark flower… Do you believe now that I am real?” She nodded, unable to make a sound, let alone speak. He smiled at her, a great sadness present in his eyes. “You have taken all that I have taught you – all that I inflicted upon you - and never complained once. I think, had I more time, I could have created in you an amazing wizard. None would have been your equal, and we could have ruled Orana.” His eyes flashed with anger, and then returned to deep sadness. “However, I do not…we do not have that sort of time, and I need for you to do two things for me, I need you to swear to me that you will,” he said, taking her chin in his alabaster hand and keeping her gaze locked on his.

  “Anything Master, you know that. You have only to ask,” she said, fear beginning to creep in around the edges of her consciousness. “But how is this even possible? How are you here...wherever here is? You frighten me, Master, why do I think…this sounds like a goodbye…?”

  “It may be, dark flower, it may be,” Taeben said. “I have brought you here to me in the void between the worlds because it seems that I cannot cross over. Something I have been working on for a very long time is about to come to a most unpleasant end, and I would not be who I am if I didn’t try to right that situation.” He ran a hand through his white hair and pulled it up into his usual ponytail just at the nape of his neck, then rubbed his chin absently after tying it off with a piece of leather he drew from a pocket in his sleeve. “I have to go away again, and I cannot guarantee that I will return to you this time.” Ellie’s eyes were saucer-like as she stared at him in disbelief. “The two things I need you to do are to collect my journals from my home in Alynatalos, and then burn them, forgetting all about me. Can you do that?”

  “NO!” she shouted, not caring that his face was hardened into an angry mask. “No, Master, I will not do that. You are without question the most brilliant wizard of our age, or any age, and I will not destroy all that you have committed to paper. It is sacrilege! It is destruction of priceless work!” She took a step back from him, her eyes blazing with anger. “I will do anything else for you, Master, but I cannot do that.”

  “Elspethe.” Taeben’s face darkened as he spoke. “You will do this for me. I cannot risk my work falling into the hands of those simpering idiots in the Wizard’s Guild in Alynatalos, nor can I risk my enemies undoing my life’s work that I have continued with you!” His voice was still only a whisper, but the intensity of his gaze set a wildfire alight behind his words. “When I took you on did you not take a blood oath to serve me in exchange for my teaching?”

  “Yes, Master, but…”

  “And throughout the time we have spent together, did I ever do anything untoward that was not a direct requirement of your training?”

  “No, Master, of course not…”

  “Then why, when I am at the eleventh hour of my time on this world, would you think it appropriate to deny me a request?” Taeben stared at her, his eyes demanding an answer. Ellie swallowed the lump forming in her throat and met his gaze. “I could have had you as little more than a slave, Elspethe Turlach, but I treated you as an equal. I never entered your mind in order to control you, though you knew I could, didn’t you?” She nodded, biting her lip to hold back a sob. It would not do for her to break down like a querulous child in front of him now. It was not in her as a dark elf to appear weak before any male, and she certainly was not going to start now.

  “Of course not, Master,” she said. “I would not have allowed it.”

  Taeben roared in frustration. “You would not have had a choice!” he bellowed before turning his back to her in order to regain his composure.

  “Of course not, Master,” she replied. “But please, try to see this from my perspective. Can you not understand my agony at the thought of a world without you in it? Can you not see how I will not rid the world of your brilliance?” She sniffled a bit, and Taeben turned around at the sound, his expression one of surprise. She took a deep breath before she continued speaking. “Can you not, for a moment, remember that you have been teacher, mentor, master and father to me, and that the thought of not having your guidance in my life leaves me a bit undone, to say the least?” She turned away this time, pressing her fist to her mouth to maintain her self-control.

  Taeben sighed loudly, his previous rage now all but deflated. He placed a hand on the top of her head and ran it down toward her neck, through her ebony hair. “We are the same, in many ways, my dark flower,” he murmured. “What a triumph you might have been. What an amazing wizard and…more.” Ellie resisted the urge to throw her arms around him and beg him to take her with him, wherever it was that he was going. “In another life, perhaps. Nevertheless, for now, I concede your point is valid. I have learned much in my time on this world, and it would be a waste to lose my knowledge to the void when I am gone.”

  “Master, please, if you will not let me help you, let me continue your work?” she asked, her eyes shining with tears. Taeben smiled down at her. “I am not the wizard you are, not by any means, but I swear to you that I will study your journals and do my best to continue what you have started. If you should…disappear from our world, your brilliance will live on. I swear it.”

  “You…swear it?” Taeben said, raising an eyebrow as something clearly dark and malicious entered his mind. She looked up at him quizzically. “You would swear an oath to me, without limitations?” She nodded though she felt the hair on the back of her neck stand on end. Taeben chewed on his finger for a moment, and then took her hands in his. “Elspethe T’Urlach, you must swear an oath on your blood that you will carry out my wishes and see that my research does not fade away upon my death. Will you do that for me?”

  She nodded enthusiastically. “Of course I will, Master! You have but to give me the words to say and I will so swear.”

  “Not here,” Taeben said. “Come, I will take you to a place where I am stronger.” He pulled her close to him and spoke words she did not understand. A familiar ring of fire formed around them; she knew that it was transportation magic he was using. As she knew it would, the world around her went black and she felt as though invisible hands were pulling at her from each end, trying to rip her apart. She gritted her teeth and clung to Taeben’s arm that he had wrapped protectively around her, pressing her into his lithe frame. As quickly as it had begun, the feeling faded and she opened her eyes.

  A loud whirring sound filled her ears as she glanced around. The ground unde
r her feet that had been a mossy green was parched to the point of cracking, as though they were in the desert. The sky was still dark, but she could see no stars above them. “Where are we, Master?” she asked, desperately trying to control the quiver in her voice as she spoke.

  “Somewhere that is not safe for you to return, do you understand me Elspethe?” Taeben replied. She nodded in response, still staring at their surroundings with wide, frightened eyes. “Have you lost your voice, my dark flower?”

  “No, m..Master,” she stammered, hating the weakness apparent in her tone. “No, I have not, and of course I will heed your words, as always.” Taeben smiled down at her as he released her and moved a few steps away. She did not move a muscle.

  “Well done, Elspethe,” he said. “Now, this is where I expect to end up after I take care of…some things. This is where we all go when we die if our souls are properly reunited with our bodies and not afloat in the void.” Elspethe nodded; she was taught about death and the afterlife from a young age. “This is the only place that I knew no one would find us, because few travel here of their own accord. No one has set foot in the underworld on purpose since the Forest Wars. This is the only place I knew we would be alone so that you could properly make your oath to me.”

  Elspethe wrapped her arms around her waist in an effort to control the tremor that was spreading from the tips of her hair to the tips of her toes. She should not be here - no living soul should ever be here. Taeben smiled down at her again, and then reached into one of the small packs he had concealed within his robes and removed a knife. At the sight of the blade, she clamped down on the hold she had on her own robes, but still could not make her body stop trembling.

  “It is all right that you are afraid, dark flower,” Taeben said, his words forming a cocoon of comfort around her. “I will do my best to make this quick but I can assure you it will be most uncomfortable. Do you change your mind at this knowledge?”

  “No, Master,” she said, amazed at the strength in her own voice. She had nothing to lose. “I am resolute.”

  “Good.” He held out one of his slender hands toward her. “Your left arm, please?” Ellie took a deep breath and placed her wrist across his palm, wincing as he grasped it tightly. “Open your hand, Elspethe,” Taeben hissed. She obeyed and nearly cried out as he drove the point of the knife through her skin before dragging it across her palm, tracing the lines there with a bloody trail. “Your blood is not bright red, like mine,” he whispered, smiling in wonder as the line of dark blood coursed out of her hand and dripped over his fingers. “Now, to the oath. With the blood you spill here, do you swear that you will obey your Master now and after I am gone from this world in death?”

  “Yes, Master, I so swear,” she said, breathing a sigh of relief.

  “Good.” Taeben again raised the knife and punctured her skin at the opposite side of her palm, then drew it across her skin until there was a bloody X across her hand. This time she did cry out as the two wounds met in the center of her hand. “Silence!” Taeben barked at her as he gripped her wrist at her pulse point, causing the blood to spill from both wounds. She bit her lip and stared off over Taeben’s shoulder. “Look at me, Elspethe,” he said, his voice markedly softer as her gaze met his. “With this blood, you swear that you will continue my life’s work, both now and after I am gone from this world in death?”

  “Yes, Master, I so swear.”

  “Good.” She was relieved that Taeben released her arm, but she dared not move from the position she was in. “One last thing, my dark flower,” he said as he stretched out his own palm toward her. “Keep your eyes on mine, Elspethe.” She held his gaze as he punctured his own skin with the blade, and did not look down to see her dark blood mingling with his. “Ah, these new hands hurt just as much as the old ones did,” he muttered. She did not ask what he meant, though she wondered. Perhaps it was something to do with being dead and in the afterlife. She knew better than to ask questions. “Now, give me your hand again,” he said and she offered it. Taeben took her hand in his now bloody one, palm to palm, and squeezed them together. Ellie winced but made no sound. Their blood flowed out from between their interlaced fingers onto the ground at their feet, her dark blood running along the cracks in the dry ground to mix with his bright red blood.

  “Master, I am…” Ellie felt lightheaded and looked around wildly as darkness began to swim around the edges of her vision. “I fear I may…faint…” She saw the smile twist into his features as her vision blurred.

  “I will catch you, my dark flower. You have sworn your oath to me and bound your soul to mine. You have saved me. There is nothing I would not do for you for as long as I am still in this world,” he said as he released her bleeding hand and caught her in his arms. Holding her fast, he spoke quick words of transport. “Temple to the Mother.” As the circle of fire surrounded them, she looked up at him and returned the smile that he wore. That smile was the last thing she saw before everything went dark.

  About the Author

  Nancy Allen Dunne is the alter-ego of Ginolwenye, and is an avid gamer, adventurer, reader, language nerd and all around geek girl. The Nature Walker Trilogy is a love letter of sorts to the various worlds in which she has found herself immersed over the years, and the lifelong friends and memories that have come along with them. When not writing, Nancy is an American Sign Language/English interpreter and spends her free time drawing inspiration from her dogs and her husband as well as dreaming of visiting her second home, the United Kingdom.

  Books in the Nature Walker Trilogy

  Wanderer: Origin of the Nature Walker

  Tempest: Fall of the Nature Walker

  Guardian: Rise of the Nature Walker

  Other Books in the Orana Chronicles

  The Forest Wars Trilogy - Coming in 2019

  Visit the author’s website:

  http://nancyedunne.com

  Follow the author on social media:

  https://www.facebook.com/nancyedunneauthor/

  https://twitter.com/nancyedunne

  https://www.pinterest.com/nancyedunneauthor/

  https://www.instagram.com/nancyedunne/

  * * *

  [1]See note above

  [2]This exchange also gives Ben one more chance to be a dick.

  [3]Gotcha. And we HAVE to say Ben is a dick at least once and we haven't yet so there ya go!