by Ivy Sinclair
I got out of bed and quickly dressed. I was as quiet as possible as I left the room and headed down to the laundry. I threw our clothes into the dryer and fed the machine several coins. Then I made my way back to the room.
Klein exited his room just as I put my hand on the doorknob. He saw me and waved. His expression was grim. It was clear that my fairytale hours with Paige were over. He strode toward me. I decided to ignore the fact that his hair stuck up in several places. It looked as if he had just rolled out of bed.
“I was just coming down to talk to you,” he said. “I’m glad you’re awake.”
I pulled on his arm so that we were several feet away from the door. I didn’t want to wake Paige. She needed every minute of sleep that she could get. “What’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong is that there is a shitstorm going down on Calamata Island.”
I crossed my arms. “That’s old news.”
“No, I mean it’s going to get a whole lot worse. I just talked to one of my internet forum buddies.” Klein belonged to several underground internet groups that exchanged information about the dealings in the angel and demon realm on a regular basis. "He said that it’s not random demons who are heading that way. Every single demon official on the western seaboard is headed for Calamata. Benjamin has pissed off a whole lot of demons in his day, and they are all circling the water like a pack of sharks. They smell blood, and they are coming to settle their scores.”
The door to our room opened. Paige stood there blinking in the afternoon sun wrapped in a bed sheet. Klein’s mouth fell open. I snapped my fingers in front of his face. “Focus.”
“Benjamin’s in trouble?” Paige asked. I wondered if she had heard the whole exchange.
“I just think that if we want a shot at getting that relic from him, we’d better get out ahead of everyone else that is on their way there.” Klein looked a little green at the thought. “And hopefully we won’t get ourselves killed in the process.”
“We need to stop at the Hopekee reservation,” I said.
“Riley, you heard what Klein just said. We don’t have time for that,” Paige said. One hand clutched the sheet around her chest while the other gestured wildly. I caught a glimpse of her naked upper thigh as the sheet moved in response to her movements. “It’s too dangerous. We’re still twelve hours away, and that’s if we left right now. We don’t have time for another pit stop.”
“It’s only a few hours from here, and we’ll be passing right by it anyway,” I said. “This is important.”
“You and your family are more important,” Paige persisted.
“We need to know what we are dealing with,” I said. “Running in there like chickens with our heads cut off won’t help anything. Klein can continue to monitor the situation on Calamata in the meantime. We’ll have to come up with a plan for crossing the water undetected anyway. I’m guessing the ferry isn’t running anymore, and we’re not the only ones who will be looking for a way to get over there.”
I knew the expression on Paige’s face well. She didn’t agree with me; not by a long shot. “We need to go then,” she said.
“Your clothes will be ready in twenty minutes,” I said.
“Fine,” she said and then she closed the door.
I sighed and looked at Klein. Klein was still looking at the closed door with a slightly bemused look on his face. “Klein?”
I knew the moment the younger man realized that he’d just been caught daydreaming about Paige, paired with the fact that she was definitely off-limits. “Uh, yeah? Um, monitoring. Right.” He turned on his heel and headed for the van.
All of my senses were tingling. Things were starting to come to a head. I could feel it.
Less than two hours later, I pulled the van off the highway onto a small service road. There was a worn green sign with an arrow pointing into the distance that read “Hopekee Reservation 5 miles.”
The ride had been quiet since we left the motel. Paige rode in the passenger seat and stared out the window. I knew that she disapproved of what we were doing, but she hadn’t said another word to me about it. I already wanted to go back to our shared slumber. Our moments of happiness seemed to be fleeting and few and far between.
I knew the moment we crossed the boundary onto the tribe’s land. I heard Paige gasp beside me, and I looked over at her. Her eyes were wide. “I felt something,” she said.
“Me too,” I confessed. “This is the right place, Paige. I can feel it. We were meant to come here.”
She still didn’t look convinced. “Let’s just get done what you want to get done, Riley. We need to get back on the road as soon as possible. I really hope that we find what you are looking for and that it’s worth it.”
I wanted to reassure her that it would be, but I had no way to prove it. She was just going to have to see. The van crested a hill, and I saw a clustering of buildings at the bottom that formed a small village. There were mountains out to the west beyond, and the entire scene was breathtaking. I had no idea why, but I felt a sense of peace.
I slowed the van as we approached the first crop of buildings. People emerged and were watching us as the van drove past them. All of them wore somber expressions, and I began to wonder if they knew something that I didn’t know. Then I saw a cluster of older men standing near a long, rectangular building that I assumed must be their main lodge. That was where we needed to go.
I parked the van. “Klein, you stay here.”
“Affirmative,” he said. He had a set of huge headphones around his neck. As he slipped them over his ears, he looked in my direction. His expression was pained. “Hurry up.”
I nodded. Paige and I got out of the van. She let me take the lead, and I made my way toward the group. These men were the tribal elders. I’d bet my entire bank account on it. As we approached, one of the men stepped forward. His white hair and slight stooped stature made him appear to be the oldest one of the group. He met me halfway to them, moving with a spryness that belied his obvious age.
I inclined my head as he stared at me impassively. I knew from our brief research that I was expected to introduce myself and state my case. Then it was up to him to decide if he would grant my request or not. He had the authority to make that decision without consulting the others if he wanted. “My name is Riley Stone.”
“What brings you to Hopekee Reservation, Riley Stone?” the man asked. Apparently we weren’t going to have any small talk. That was better for me anyway. I sucked at small talk.
“I’m looking for the final resting place of a man who walked this world many years ago,” I said. “We think that he is buried somewhere close by here and that someone might have knowledge of where I can find it.”
“We have lived on this land for many years, that is true,” the man said. It was slightly annoying that I wasn’t even going to get a proper introduction from him. But I knew there was a good chance that these men knew what I was, and had since the moment I stepped out of the truck. Tribal people often saw far more than they ever let on. It seemed as if the curtain between the human realm and that of the angels and demons was much thinner where they gathered. It made sense that Eva would have spent time with them. “What is the name of the man that you seek?”
“I don’t know his real name,” I replied. “But he was called the Protector.”
There was a low murmur from the crowd of men behind him and the man speaking looked grim as his eyebrows knitted together on his brow. “I don’t know of such a man. If you have no further details, then we cannot be of assistance. You can go.”
He turned his back to me. Paige stepped forward, and I put my hand on her shoulder. “You are the leader here, right?”
The man paused and half-turned. “Yes, so I can assure you that we will be unable to assist you.”
“Then you can give me permission to speak to those who can. Those who no longer reside in this realm.” It was a bold move calling out my skills to these men. If he did know what I was, then we
both knew that I didn’t need his permission to do what needed to be done. But I was on their land, and I wanted their cooperation. “We are short on both time and information. There is trouble brewing that will affect all of us unless we can do something to stop it.”
He finally looked surprised by something that I said. “You straddle both worlds and are part of none. We know of your kind here. Why should we help you at all?”
I stepped forward and held out my hand. “If you don’t believe my intentions, then see for yourself.”
After a moment of hesitation, the man grasped my hand. I felt the swirling energy drive out of his body and into mine, but I didn’t fight it. I wasn’t going to get anywhere if I couldn’t get him to trust me, and we didn’t have time for a long chat. I wasn’t sure why, but I sensed that I had nothing to fear from him. I felt Paige’s presence as she hovered next to me.
“It’s okay,” I whispered, even though my eyesight had gone blank. “I know what I’m doing.” A moment later, it returned as the man dropped my hand.
He stared impassively at me. Then he pointed at a small rounded hill in the distance. “You will find someone there who will be able to tell you what you want to know.”
“Thank you,” I said, relieved that my risk had panned out. It didn’t always.
“You will find me afterward,” he said. “There is a matter that we need to discuss.”
“If I have time…,”I started.
“You will make time,” he said. “It is a short walk. You should go now.”
I took Paige’s hand and started to walk toward the hill before he could change his mind.
“What just happened?” she asked under her breath as soon as we were clear of the group.
“I let him read my mind,” I said. “Or at least the parts that were relevant to why we were here. It’s pretty hard to lie when someone’s in your head.”
“He could do that?” Her mouth fell open in surprise.
“I assumed that he was like other tribal leaders I’ve met. Trust me, there’s a lot of things that he can do,” I said. “I’ve studied with many of them over the years. It was Alice’s suggestion as a way to learn how to harness and use the mystical energies other than just for necromancy.”
“I don’t know why you don’t use your magic more often,” Paige said.
“I can’t create things from within me like you can,” I clarified. “I take hold of things that already exist and change them. It’s a different kind of magic and much weaker than yours.”
“What about necromancy? That’s different isn’t it?”
“That’s calling on and controlling a life force,” I said. “By nature of who I am, my will dominates theirs. Then I use other mystical energies available to me to bind them to me. It’s rudimentary magic at best. People like you laugh and run circles around me.”
“I thought that I knew a lot about everything, but I feel like my education is severely lacking all of the sudden,” Paige said.
We reached the flat plain on the other side of the buildings that began the gentle ascent up the side of the hill. As far as I could tell, the top offered nothing more than a vantage point to see the small community below. But I had to trust that the tribal elder wasn’t trying to pull a fast one on me.
“I had Alice,” I said. “She carted me off to all kinds of mystics and other people she had met along the way in her own journey. She took her stewardship of me very seriously. I think that she wanted me to learn enough about the necromancy to be able to stop doing it all together.”
I glanced up at the top of the hill and squeezed on Paige’s hand pulling her to a stop. “What is it?” she asked, looking confused.
“We have a visitor,” I said. I nodded at the crest of the hill. Paige looked up and gasped. “He must be waiting for us.”
A man stood there staring down at us. His clothes told me that he was from a different time, much earlier than present day. By the translucent glow of his skin in the evening twilight, it was obvious that he wasn’t of this realm. He was a ghost.
“Stay close to me,” I said under my breath. “If he can materialize without any help from me, then that means he’s powerful. And since I didn’t conjure him up, I can’t control him.”
“So you’ll have to be nice,” Paige replied.
I chuckled at her good-natured jab at me. “I’m always nice.” We covered the space remaining between us and the ghost in less than a minute. I started to feel more confident. If there was one thing I was good at, it was talking to ghosts.
I held up my hand in a traditional greeting of the Hopekee people. “You honor us. Thank you for your time.”
“We have been waiting,” he replied. His lips never moved, but yet I heard the voice clear as day in my mind. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t time.”
I glanced at Paige to see if she could hear him too. She gave me a slight nod. I turned my attention back to the ghost. “Time for what?” I asked.
“Time for the truth. We have protected him for as long as we could, but we knew the day would come when another would rise to take his place. There would be questions. Come. I will take you to him.”
I saw Paige’s questioning look, but I didn’t have time to respond as the ghost started to move toward the foothills. He disappeared and then reappeared about twenty yards ahead of us. We picked up the pace to catch up with him. Then he did the little disappear and reappear act so that he was ahead of us again.
“So much for conversation,” I said as I broke out in a trot. “Can you keep up?”
Paige snorted. “You met me when I was running at night in a cemetery, remember? What do you think?”
I grinned and picked up the pace. The air was still around us as if the earth was waiting to exhale. I heard the water before I saw it. A minute later, we emerged onto a flat plain that carried us down to a rocky river bed. The ghost waited for us beside the running water. He pointed at a large boulder that sat in the middle of the water, breaking it into two streams of water on either side of it.
“He is there beneath the rocks.” Then the man disappeared.
“Well, that was abrupt. Are we getting wet?” Paige asked.
“Not you, just me,” I said. I didn’t hesitate but plunged into the water. The current was stronger than I expected as the water swirled around my calves, but I pushed forward. When I got to the boulder, I stared at it. Usually I needed to touch some remnant of a person’s remains to bring them forward, but there was something about this stone that was special. I sensed it even as I placed my fingertips on it. Immediately, the rock began to hum. I didn’t know how, but somehow an essence had been imparted into this rock.
“Riley?”
“Almost there,” I said.
“He’s over here.” Her voice was breathless.
My head whipped over to look at the river bank. The man standing there stared at me. His jade eyes looked just like mine, and for the first time, I sensed the truth in the fact that somehow we were related. He towered over Paige, who had taken several steps backward. His long black hair fell across his shoulders and down his back. His image shimmered just like the ghost who had led us there.
His eyes were sad. “You’ve come for the truth.”
I trudged across the water and stepped back onto dry land. “There is a relic that comes from your time that is out there somewhere. A powerful demon is trying to retrieve it. We need to know what it is.”
The Protector’s gaze turned toward Paige. “You travel with Eva’s vessel.”
“Not if I can help it,” I growled as I moved between them cutting off his view. “Eva can find someone else. That’s not important, and that’s definitely not why we are here.”
“You do understand your destiny?” He cocked his head and appeared more curious than offended by my words. “The only way I could have been summoned here is if you are the one who will take my place. You will become Eva’s Protector in this new time and place.”
“I don’t beli
eve in that kind of garbage,” I said. “What I do believe in is protecting those I care about, and at this point that includes the whole world we live in. You have information we need. You understand this situation. Because I summoned you, you have to do as I say.”
The man sighed. “There is no need for threats. I will answer you willingly. But first, you must understand where I came from; where you come from. Then you can fully appreciate what you are asking and what you are doing.”
“Get on with it, then,” I said. “It’s not like we have all day.”
CHAPTER TEN – THE PROTECTOR
“I was once young and brash, just like you,” I said. I wondered how long I had been at slumber. The two before me were dressed in strange clothing. But it was clear that this man wasn’t interested in anything other than the information he sought. I felt a well of anxiety inside of me, but I forced it away. My time had passed. This was the only thing that was left for me to do, and then I could finally have peace. The woman who would be Eva’s vessel stared at me. I would have liked to speak with her alone, but I sensed the man would not leave her side. That wasn’t unexpected. It was his job.
“I had a rare talent that drew the attention of a young deity. My elders often spoke of the other realm and those that inhabited it. As I grew, I was more curious about it than ever, but they cautioned me against getting too deep.”
“You were human?”
“You were a Necromancer?”
The woman and man spoke at the same time. I nodded once in agreement to both questions. They looked at each other, and I saw an emotion pass between them. It was clear to me that feelings had developed between them, and that worried me even more than the fact that my slumber had been interrupted. I had been Eva’s companion, but she always kept a distance between us. She said that would be easier in the event she ever lost me. Emotional distance seemed like a wise course of action in our line of duties.