by Owen Elgie
Hairy and Mark crashed into Andrea and dragged her away from the conflict. Em watched her be swept away which allowed me to wrap my arms around her and carry her away from the others in the group. I could hear the anger in the air from Andrea as I moved but Em made no attempt to break free from my grip. After thirty or forty feet, I stopped and lowered her down before me.
Her breath was hot against my cheek and it was clear that she had been fighting very hard against Andrea as she breathed deeply. I stepped back from her slightly and watched her warily, knowing that in a split second she could unleash all kinds of terror on me and be heading right back to the fight.
“Are you OK Em?” I asked with as much certainty as I could muster. I knew I was stood before a hurricane. Em’s eyes remained fixed on mine and her eyelids lowered slowly, hooding her gaze.
“What do you think? Did you think that I felt OK?” Her words were practically dripping with suggestion, honeyed and offering the chance so many would have killed for. To add to the effect, she slowly moved her hands down her sides to her hips as if reaching out to guide my opinion.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” I nervously giggled. “I want to make sure you aren’t injured or being affected by the magic that Leatherpants has at his fingertips.”
She sighed and slowly ran her finger down my stomach, lingering slightly on my naval. “You want to care for people, don’t you? You want to care for me.”
Oddly for me, thankfully, but oddly, my brain took over.
With my Dragon power being twisted, I probably would have agreed with her about caring for her and taken my first step down a very slippery slope. Happily, now devoid of Drake Stone control, I was able to recognize that that would have been great fun to start with but wouldn’t end well. I reached down and gently took her hand from my stomach and lifted it before me.
“We need to remove the fragments of The Drake Stone from all of us. We need to be sure that our powers aren’t being manipulated by any outside forces to be used against us. Can you help me with that please?”
She smiled and dropped her gaze to the floor. She kept a firm hold on my hands as she did before she eventually lifted her eyes to meet mine, now with an expression of resolution on her features.
“I am The Circle. As Guardian, should you require my help I will gladly give it. I can feel the effects of the magics being manipulated in all of those affected and that is what had caused me to act in such an, unusual fashion.” She paused as if to gather herself and that resolute expression became gently coloured by a new emotion. Regret?
“I must apologise for my behavior my Lord. I will do what is expected of me and will submit myself to the judgement of The Mage when this mission is concluded.”
She was doing her best to resist whatever effects the swirling magical power was having on her but that meant that she was holding on tightly to the rigidity of the rules as her anchor. Which meant that she was going to report herself as someone who is an enemy of The Circle because of her actions. Her anchor in this was looking like it was going to drag her under the waves and drown her.
“I’m not asking for that, I just need your help to get through everything. You won’t be submitting yourself to anything while I have a say in it.”
She smiled sadly and squeezed my hands tightly before releasing her grip and backing away steadily, looking over my shoulder as she did.
As I turned I came face to face with Mark, Hairy and Andrea. They all moved with a steady confidence which suggested that their minds were at ease, free of the effects of Leatherpants. Looking at Andrea’s face, I could see the small incision on her nose where the crystal shard had been removed. A very small trickle of blood was making its way down her face but she seemed to be utterly unfazed by it.
“How are you feeling,” I enquired gingerly as Andrea approached. She may have been under the control of an outside force but still, she had been the one doing all the damage.
She blushed, her cheeks colouring barely, but on her porcelain skin, it was akin to a vibrant scarlet on the rest of us.
“I have had the piece of the stone removed and am now again in control of who I am.” Her voice was back to her usual calm certainty, all business and no emotion.
“Lady Messenger. I must beg your forgiveness for my behavior. I have attacked you on more than one occasion and for that I am deeply sorry. I was driven to distraction by the poor behavior of Mr. Johns.”
Em just bowed ever so slightly. “I was not blameless in this my Lady. I was beyond myself because of the power around us all.” Direct and to the point, as much control as possible back in place.
Andrea nodded her agreement and the issue appeared to have been resolved between the two of them. The comment about my behavior was a little odd though.
“Besides,” added Andrea, “I still carry some of that effect with me.” She raised her hand to lift some of her white hair and it was only now that we could all see the pinkish red flush at the ends. A small reminder of the Fire based rage she’d been facing as it had been poured into her.
Mark and Hairy flanked Andrea, stood back a respectful distance so it was clear that the effect of The Drake Stone had been removed.
“How are The Elder and Mike?” Now the problem with mentally warped Guardians had been removed, the next concern was for our wounded. Andrea had thrown Mike away during the fighting so we needed to be sure of the extent of any injuries he had sustained and The Elder was far from being her usual self.
“I found Mr. Christian and he was perfectly fine,” explained Mark, his deep voice again filled with a reassuring authority. “He is continuing the removal operation on the others having done what was needed on us.” He lifted his trouser leg to show a small incision point on his shin.
“Excellent. How did you know where to look? Hurting you as well?”
Mark lowered his trouser leg before explaining.
“Mr. Christian was able to use the pieces of the stone from yourself and from Miss Thomich to locate any further pieces on anyone else, as The Messenger explained. They will all be here shortly, when he has completed the removal.” Mark was back to his old self, all formality and deference to those he saw as his superiors. Looking at him now, hugely menacing yet totally muzzled by perceived rules, his recent behavior also showed all of the hallmarks of one who was being twisted by the furious rage of the Fire Dragon. He may not have been screaming and shouting about what was going on but his comments and actions, answering back and slapping down petulant Guardians, really stood out as being far from the norm. Seeing as how everyone else was reacting because of their own changes, his must have just made him want the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
We all stood in silence as we awaited the others from our group. Hairy was barely a wordsmith at the best of times but he seemed to be taking the quiet man act to almost new levels. Everyone just looked like they were recalling the drunken antics of the previous night and were just too ashamed to admit to anyone that it had taken place.
My mind was, fragment by fragment, steadily being reassembled and I knew that everyone else was going through exactly the same process. Confusing and bizarre images would be filling everyone’s minds as individual pieces of their whole memories returned to their rightful places. The only positive to add to the situation was that at least Hairy had given me use of his flourishing cape as the barest attempt to cover my nudity.
Eventually, The Elder approached us, followed closely but at a respectful distance, by the remaining members of our armed forces. She cradled her broken arm before her but gone was the pained and frightened expression and demeanor. Instead, in their place, was her more familiar posture of utter authority and aloof certainty. Her face was etched with that all too familiar visage of displeasure with everything around her. As she closed in on us, I could make out a very small incision across her chin. Looked like Mike had been extra careful when conducting the surgery there. Probably a wise move.
She stopped and just stared at
all of us in turn, finally landing on me. Her face didn’t change but I’d swear that there was so much emotion buried there.
“How are you feeling Lady Elder? Do you know who we all are?” I tried to be as gentle as I could but I was already preparing for her eruption at me.
“I am back to the whole I have needed to be for the duration of this mission.” She stopped speaking and just held my gaze. There was just the bare bones to her response. Nothing else. It looked as if she needed to say something else but there was no sign she was actually going to do it.
“Great. It looks like we’re all back to who we need to be.” All I could do was move ahead with what I had in mind.
“I think I know how everything was done and I’d expect that everyone else is beginning to put it all together now we all have our memories back.” Small nods from everyone showed agreement.
“But we are still no closer to understanding where the child has been taken or what they intend to do with her.” The Elder spoke fact and nothing more. Previously she would have used every word as an opportunity to highlight the flaws in anything which I was putting forward but now there was just the bare reality. Progress?
“The Elder is correct,” now it was Andrea who spoke. “We do now have a clear way of ensuring the removal of the control of Mr. Ward but we are still utterly without knowledge as to the next step we should take to bring this whole situation to a conclusion.” Again there was no emotion added to what was being said. She just had to rely on the clarity of the facts as they were presenting themselves.
Everyone else around us had the same expression on their faces, one of simple rudderless not knowing. I just knew that now the twisting play of Leatherpants had been removed from all of their minds, they’d returned to their original selves, which meant that they’d all reclaimed that rigid hold on the rules they were all supposed to be following.
“Don’t worry team, we’re not beaten yet.” I had to do something to get the morale back up.
“We’ve never needed to know why Maria was taken. She’s only been missing a short time and, yes, we don’t know the reasons behind the capture but all we have to keep in mind is we just need to get her back.” The same expressions remained.
“From what we can all recall now, and what we were told by the Queen in there,” I pointed back towards the palace we had only recently left, “Leatherpants had taken The Drake Stone following one raid on the estate but he attacked again. Why would he attack again if he’d already taken The Drake Stone? Why would he go through all of that again if he’d taken what he was after?” Still blank looks.
“Because he was after the child all along.”
Still blank looks.
“Surely there can be no greater prize than The Drake Stone in all of this?” The Elder was questioning my logic, but at least still without her disdain for me. “Why would anyone take such a vast reservoir of power and that not be the purpose of his mission? We’ve all seen the damage that he’s been able to do with The Drake Stone in his possession. Why would Mr. Ward want to claim anything further than that?”
I blew out a breath and replied.
“I don’t know but whatever he’s up to must be worth it. It has to worth the enormous risk of going through all of this, of going through all of the work to get access to The Drake Stone and then to keep going. Don’t forget that he would have needed to do the same thing to The Mage as to all of us to make this work, that can’t have been an easy task.”
The blank looks remained but they at least seemed to be a little less blank. All of the people around me were all doing their best to come to terms with a set of facts which didn’t fit into anything they’d ever seen before and the only person who had any kind of map to these unknown lands was me. No wonder they looked ill at ease.
“If he had been able to infect The Mage in the same way as he has all of us, wouldn’t he just have removed the power directly from him? He is more powerful than all of the Guardians, why not aim for him?” Em’s question was spoken flatly but was still valid.
I considered her words and prodded the ideas about. Why wouldn’t he? If you had access to that amount of power surely the Guardians mantle would seem like a waste of time? Unless he couldn’t take the power from The Mage?
“Em, you said The Drake Stone was used for the storing of Guardian power, Dragon energy. The Mage isn’t the same as the rest of us so maybe it wouldn’t do the same thing to him?”
“But why would Mr. Ward want to lead all of us down into the land of The Tayne just to take the child.” Andrea was asking this time and I swear it felt as if she was doing her best to tear my ideas down rather than trying to find the truth of the situation.
“He probably wanted to be able to make his move for Maria away from our strongholds and then have us either tear ourselves apart down here or have his Uber-Tayne do it for him. The longer for the theft to go undetected.” My words carried their own anger in response.
“But that also means that the longer we can keep the charade going that no-one has heard from us the longer we are likely to have to rescue Maria. If there’s no hurry it’s likely that Leatherpants will be more relaxed about his plan so won’t be rushing. That means we have to be very quiet when we get back to the mansion and not ‘free’ anybody else, including The Mage.” I’d followed the logic chain and had come to a very risking location. Could we risk just leaving it to ourselves and not spread the word of removing the shards of crystal?
As each person considered what had been said, it was Andrea who reached another, starker conclusion, faster than the others.
“But this doesn’t bring us any closer to being able to locate where Mr. Ward or the child are now? We may have been able to decipher some, if not all, of what has been taking place around us but we’re still without the knowledge of the next step.” The Elder may have been less angry about what I was saying but it would appear that Andrea was taking her place. One problem at a time.
“We don’t know where they are now but we have the tools to be able to find them. We get back to my estate, you get changed into less medieval attire and I put some clothes on, and we can pick them out quickly and get the rescue mission underway.” The wolfish smile on my face must have given everyone some indication that I was feeling positive and that seemed to lift a little of the somber mood from all of us. As I opened the Cascade Bridge back to Wales, everyone who ran through had a much more determined look on their face.
At least that was something.
30
There was daylight when we all stepped through to Wales, showing we’d been gone for much longer than we’d first thought. I’d opened as small a bridge as I could into the comfort of my bedroom. I knew that the door would be closed and no-one would risk entering the room without my knowing so it seemed to be the only place available for all of us to gather and plan our journey to rescue Maria. I didn’t dive in the shower despite really needing it, instead dressing as much black clothing as I could find which would be appropriate. Combat trousers, boots and a turtle neck jumper and I was ready to go. The others all began to take off their armour as quietly as possible and I fished out as much clothing as I could find for them. Em was the only one who didn’t accept what I was presenting.
After the attack which had taken place in this very room, I’d requested there be a comprehensive first aid kit left stored here along with a small clutch of weapons. Happily, my stash of snacks was enough to provide us with some much needed fuel, even if the others were more than a little wary of chocolate gummy sweets. Clothing, weapons and medical care were all in the one space so we could keep our arrival away from prying eyes.
In less than thirty minutes, myself, Andrea, The Elder, Em, Hairy and Mike were settled in chairs which had been pulled up around our makeshift table, my bed. I’d invited Mark to join us as a vital part of the war council but he was resolute that his place was outside, standing guard. When I’d tried to protest he just fixed me with that resolute stare of his and t
old me, “This is my ‘no’ face” before closing the door gently. I think he was trying to be funny. The other surviving soldiers just stood to attention back at the walls of the room and got back to doing what they were familiar with.
Taking my place at the table, I picked at a few pieces of the enormous pile of food which had been assembled for us all. We’d all been in need of something to eat and time was of the essence but I was still shocked by the volume of provisions which had been discovered. I really needed to stop snacking this much. Despite my body needing fuel, I was also far too wound up to be able to eat. Surveying the scraps of food which the others were aimlessly considering, it would appear that they were feeling the same.
Back in my own estate, surrounded by the familiar and now being fully clothed, I was ready to begin what needed to be done. Dressed now in more tactical attire than armour, I was ready.
“I know that this is going to be a difficult task for everyone but I need you all to trust that I know what I’m doing.” Everyone just sat still and listened.
“I said once that we’d been worked out in how we’d been doing things. That was true. The Circle has been doing things the same way for so long, everyone, friend or foe, knew exactly what we’d be doing at each step of the way. That in itself was the greatest weakness we could have inflicted upon ourselves. We’re predictable.”
The expressions around the table showed that there was clear comprehension at what I was saying. Andrea just watched me with no emotion showing but her head was nodding gently, as was Em’s. The Elder was the only one who wasn’t meeting my eyes but she was clearly struggling with the realities of what had been taking place, but she too was showing her agreement. Her arm had been wrapped in, well something more than bandage but not armour, and it was glowing steadily. Llewellyn, my head medic, had said it was akin to living splint which could allow a broken limb to still be used as it healed. Looking at The Elder, it was already clear that the bone was mending.