The Guardian (The Gifted Book 1)

by C. L. McCourt

  "If I recall correctly, you and Gaibel could be sisters in looks." Daen looked at Rhea. "Yes. That explains it."

  Lanne said, "It wasn't until Rhea asked me what I looked like that I realized the resemblance between us, and it never occurred to me she could be Gaibel's daughter ... but I guess it should have."

  Randell leaned towards Rhea and whispered, "What's she saying?"

  "At first, she wasn't convinced you’re Raisal's great-grandson but I think Daen convinced her you are. Second, if what you say is true about the silver thread, then the only child born to a Gaulette, which was thought to have died, is actually standing in front of you." Rhea paused as her own words sank in. "I think I need to sit down." She lowered herself slowly to the bed before asking the next question. "Lanne, who's Gaibel?"

  "She's my cousin." Lanne gasped. "Daen, you don't think ... poor Gaibel. If Rhea's her daughter ... Did she pretend to grieve her death or does she really think she's dead?" Her questions weren't meant to be answered. She was thinking out loud.

  Rhea was in shock. She'd spent the last couple months dealing with the fact that there was no information about her biological parents, and now she'd discovered two cousins and potentially her mother. Oblivious to Lanne's concerns, Rhea asked, "And my father?"

  "She would never tell us who the father was, or is. She changed duties while she was pregnant, so I was able to visit her. I asked her repeatedly who the father was, but she wouldn't tell me. When I heard you didn't survive, I dropped the subject."

  "Well, I'm glad that's settled; now on to more pressing matters," Daen commented as he leaned back against the bed frame. He could see Rhea's glare out of the corner of his eye. It wasn't settled for Rhea, but she would have to wait. "Lanne, there are two trackers hunting Rhea. They almost got their hands on her today. We need to know why she's here."

  Lanne gasped, "Oh no! She's been found. I must get a message to the king." She jumped to her feet.

  "Lanne, wait." Daen wasn't sure he had caught what she’d said. "What did you say?"

  "King Argeon ordered me to hide her because she was in danger. If her location has been discovered, I have to let him know right away." She turned to leave.

  "Lanne! In danger from whom?"

  Lanne started to pace, looking from side to side. She whispered, "I don't know. I was never told more than that. I wasn't even told who she was." The more she spoke, the more agitated she got. "I have to leave. It's not safe for me. If someone knows she's there, they might be watching me as well. If I'm caught, I'll never be able to get a message to the king."

  Daen didn't like the sound of that. "When will you be able to return? We have to get her someplace safe but I don't want to lose touch with you."

  "I can be back in about five hours. Can you wait?"

  Daen nodded. "We can wait ... be careful."

  "I will." And she was gone.

  Randell had started to pace. Hearing only one side of the conversation was putting his imagination into overdrive.

  Rhea explained, "We're to wait here for the night. She'll be back around ..." She looked at her watch. "3:30 a.m., hopefully with instructions from the king. It was under his orders that I was hidden here."

  "Oh. Okay." Randell ran his fingers through his hair and stood in front of the window. His thoughts were racing with all the scenarios that could follow, one of which could be him leaving this world; leaving his parents, his work. He'd wanted this, but now that it was actually happening, he was starting to understand what it meant.

  34

  Gifts

  Daen sat quietly, watching Rhea while thinking about the king's orders. "Why would the king want you hidden? Why would he take so much interest in you?" Daen glanced at Randell and then focused again on Rhea.

  Randell looked at Rhea, his expression revealing that he was putting the pieces together and coming to the same conclusion as Daen.

  It took Rhea a little longer to catch on, but she got there. "You can't be serious."

  Randell and Daen shrugged and each raised a brow.

  "Come on, that doesn't make any sense. If the king's my father, why wouldn't he protect me himself? Don't kings have guards or something? Besides, maybe he was just doing my mother a favor. Are the Gaulettes special to the realm? Would the king help them—us?"

  Daen said, "You're right, Rhea. We don't know if the king's your father. But you must be someone special for him to participate in faking your death and hiding you here."

  If the king was her father, Daen could think of two reasons an heir to the throne would be hidden: If someone was trying to take over the realm and he had only one heir, or if the king had fathered an illegitimate heir and didn't want anyone to know. But he could only think of one reason why he'd hide a child that wasn't his own.

  "Rhea, what is your gift?"

  "I don't know. Until today, I didn't think I had a gift."

  Daen looked confused. "What do you mean you don't know? I've seen it. I've felt it."

  Now it was Rhea's turn to look confused. "You've felt it?"

  Randell laughed. "Yeah. You've been beating him up on a regular basis for six months."

  Rhea glanced between Randell and Daen. "What's he talking about?"

  Daen explained, "When you sleep, you release your gift. I saw a small sample of it the day you fell asleep in the sun outside the dorm."

  Rhea remembered that day well. So now it was confirmed; she wasn't sleepwalking and trashing her room. She felt relief but it didn't last long. An image of the violence the objects in her rooms were subjected to and the dead flowers popped into her head. The dead flowers; she could feel the blood drain from her face. Did she kill those flowers? Could she have ...? No. She wouldn't consider it.

  Randell gently took her by the shoulders and helped her to sit on her bed. "You don't look so good."

  Daen could see he'd really shaken her. "Rhea. You mean you've never used your gift? Lanne didn't test you?"

  Rhea silently shook her head, her mind repeatedly playing back the damage she had caused without knowing how it had happened.

  Randell kept his eyes on Rhea, not convinced she was okay. "Daen, how did you know to ask about her gift? Why would a gift be motivation for the king to hide a baby?"

  "Fear of the unknown. Some gifts can be hard to handle. If she were born to parents with gifts that, if combined, could be powerful, then hiding her here might have been his only way of preventing someone from taking advantage of her. I can't imagine a parent giving up their child on the chance something like that might happen, but I suppose it's possible." He thought about what he was saying and it just didn't make sense. "No. There's more to this. We'll just have to wait and see."

  Randell looked at Rhea, sitting on the edge of her bed. She looked normal, nonthreatening. It was hard to imagine she could be used to do harm. But then he thought about what Daen had been through and what he had witnessed with the trackers and now he wasn't so sure.

  Rhea took a deep breath to help shake the shock from her mind. She needed to know more, understand better. She couldn't let her gifts be out of control any longer. "If you've seen it and felt it, what do you think my gift is? And why am I not aware of it?"

  Daen ran his hand across his face as he thought about the power she might have. Several options came to mind. "We'd have to test you to know. Gaibel's gift is like mine. We can make energy balls that can be used for light or battle. The electric shock you gave the hunters could be a manifestation of that gift. But what I saw and felt while you slept, that's something different."

  Randell asked, "Daen, I thought you said not everyone was gifted, but those that were had only one gift."

  "That's generally the rule but it's not impossible to have more than one. And, like I said, although hard to imagine as it is, it could explain why she's here." Daen turned to Rhea. "Someone might have feared you'd end up with two active gifts and ... I think they were right."

  "What does putting me here do?"

  "As you can
see, you are well past the age when your gift should have been revealed. This world seems to suppress our powers. I know it's suppressed mine, and I'm guessing the trackers are having a bit of trouble as well or else we would have been found a long time ago."

  "Okay, so why now? And why when I'm asleep?"

  Daen didn't have the answer. "Why now? I have no idea. Why when you sleep? I can only speculate. It could be the result of years of unnatural suppression and your gift wants to be released. If you'd been home, it would have shown itself by now. You would have had a chance to get to know it, exercise it. But instead, it lay dormant. Your conscious mind seems to have the knack of keeping it in check, but your subconscious mind has grown a will of its own."

  Rhea commented, "For a speculation, that's fairly thought out."

  Randell chortled lightly. "We've had some time to speculate. For instance, I can see your aura only when your emotions flare. And when the trackers tried to grab you, they must have triggered a strong emotion, causing your subconscious to do what your conscious mind should be doing—protect you. If you're calm, you look like any other person in this world."

  Daen added, "And I've felt your other gift only at night, except for those times I'm guessing you were napping, like that day in the sun."

  Rhea started to see more clearly. "And the trackers, they can sense a person's gift. Ah, that's why you wanted me to be calm in the coffee shop. That's why they haven't been able to find me. They could sense me only when I ... I see."

  Randell was starting to get curious. "Daen, you said something about testing her."

  "Not now. We don't want to send out a homing beacon for the trackers."

  Randell nodded. "Ah. Good point."

  Rhea interjected, "I'm not so sure. Daen, if my conscious mind knew my gifts, wouldn't my subconscious mind stop trying to release them? I mean, I'm afraid to go to sleep for fear of it being set off. I've already knocked my roommate from the top bunk and killed some flowers my mother put in my room. I guess I've been lucky that no one's been hurt seriously. If my dreams continue, my luck is eventually going to run out."

  Daen leaned forward with interest. "You killed some flowers while you were dreaming?"

  Rhea nodded. "The dreams started in late November or early December, I don't know, sometime around then. Anyway, I didn't start remembering them until I went home over the holidays." Rhea reached for the journal in her backpack. "I've been writing them down so I can remember. They feel so real, like nothing I've ever dreamed before." She opened her journal to the first dream page and handed it to Daen. "I think I want to be tested. Can we do it here?"

  Daen started to scan the pages. He didn't like what he was hearing but didn't want to worry her. Realistic dreams, killing plant life, throwing objects around the room, and shocking people—each experience could be associated with a unique gift. If she was this strong in this world, what would she be like in Luxatra?

  Daen lifted his eyes from the journal and forced a smile. "I'd like to read about your dreams when time permits. As for testing you here ... I can administer one test here but I don't know if I should."

  "If you're concerned about being discovered, I think the jig is up. I just zapped the heck out of those guys so, they already know. And they were hanging around the dining hall a few months back. I think they know where I live. So what harm is there in helping me get control of my gift?"

  Daen looked at Randell for backup. "Don't look at me. You both have a point. We might be damned if we do and damned if we don't. But if it can give us an edge in a fight, why not?"

  The corners of Rhea's mouth started to creep up into a smile as she tried to suppress her excitement. She was about to learn magic.

  Daen rolled his eyes in defeat. "Okay, but no talking. And if anything happens, don't react. I'll manage it." He motioned for Rhea to sit in front of him on the floor. "Rhea, we're going to see if the shock you gave the trackers is just part of another gift, one similar to your mother's and mine."

  Rhea nodded.

  Daen didn't really think the shock was related to the ability to create energy balls. What he wanted to know was whether she had her mother's gift in addition to the others he suspected. "Okay. This is going to sound a little corny, but have you ever seen Star Wars?"

  "Yeah, who hasn't?" Rhea loved watching movies.

  "Well, what I'm about to explain is similar to what Luke experiences when he learns to feel and use the force."

  Rhea couldn't hold back a giggle. "Seriously?"

  Daen held a straight face, except for the slight smile that was pressing against his lips. "Yes, now watch me." Daen cupped his hand as if to hold a ball. Rhea and Randell watched as the air above his hand appeared to waver. Slowly the air above his hand started to thicken and become cloudy. The cloud started to form a mass, not solid but similar to what Rhea had seen in the cavern. It turned red, and she could feel heat emanating from it. He held it there for a moment and then closed his hand around it, extinguishing it.

  "And you think I can do that?"

  "It makes sense. If Gaibel is your mother, then it seems reasonable that you could have her gift. Let's find out. Close your eyes and feel the room." Daen slowly started asking questions, with brief pauses between. "Is it cold, warm, or hot? Do you feel any air moving around you? Think about what you can hear, feel, and smell."

  Rhea started with the easy one, what she could feel. She could feel the hard floor through the thin rug and how it was cool. She felt warm air from the room heater. The dorm was quiet at this late hour but she could hear the hard drive of her computer spinning as it went through some background process. She could even hear Randell and Daen breathing. She became aware of the smells in the room, the soap at the sink, the dryer sheets in the box she had packed last. She could smell the leftover pizza. The more she concentrated, the more she could sense her environment.

  After a few minutes, Rhea started to feel a tingling sensation, both soothing and a little bit painful. She could feel the hair on her arms start to stand up.

  Randell watched as her aura started to glow brighter. The silver threads started to sparkle. It was a beautiful sight.

  Daen could see her body reacting to what she was sensing. For an instant, his skin started to sting. He caught the gasp that tried to escape, not wanting to startle her. Was she pulling at him as well?

  He could see that she was ready, so he spoke softly. "Hold your hand up as I did and imagine the energy you're feeling moving towards your hand."

  She did as he asked. She imagined the air moving towards her hand, carrying the sounds, heat, and smells she could sense. Her hand started to grow warm.

  "I'm going to ask you to open your eyes in a moment. When you do, I want you to continue to concentrate as you are now."

  Rhea nodded and continued imagining the air moving and circling over her hand.

  "Open your eyes when you're ready."

  She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to relax but stay focused. When she opened her eyes she gasped.

  Daen quickly interjected, "Steady. You're doing fine."

  In her hand was a small swirling pink ball that was starting to turn red. Her hand was getting warmer but it didn't hurt.

  "You have just created your first energy ball. Now close your hand as I did and extinguish it."

  She did as he asked. "I did it! That was so cool. What can I do with it?"

  Suddenly she didn't feel so good. She felt dizzy, and she wasn't sure her legs would hold her if she tried to stand. She grabbed her head and said, "Wow." Her hands were starting to shake. Instinctively, she reached for her cola and drank. After a moment, she started to feel better.

  "What just happened to me?"

  Daen didn't answer at first. He was preoccupied with trying to understand what had just happened. When he realized her question he said, "You burned up the fuel in your system ... it's like having a sugar crash."

  Rhea could see that Daen looked more serious than she felt he should. He should be
smiling, happy for her.

  Randell asked, "Daen? What's wrong?" He could see that Daen had other things on his mind than Rhea's low-sugar issue.

  "It's nothing."

  Rhea wasn't going to be put off. She was tired of secrets. "Daen? New rule. No more secrets. I've been kept in the dark about too many things for too long."

  Daen pasted on a smile. "You did very well."

  "And that's a problem?"

  Daen shrugged. "I don't know." He hesitated at first but decided to just say what was on his mind. "You created an energy ball on your first try. It usually takes months, if not years, of practice and discipline to do what you just did in minutes." Daen flicked a concerned look at Randell and forced a smile for Rhea.

  Randell had sensed Daen's concern even before he'd sent him the look. He'd watched Rhea's aura go from light blue to a deep bright blue for an instant and then fade just as fast. "Do you think it could be because she's older than most when they learn?"

  "That's an interesting thought but I'm not sure. Rhea, how much effort did it take to make the energy ball?"

  Rhea considered the question and couldn't imagine how to go about measuring such a thing. "Well ... I suppose it was easier than learning to speak Aduraun. I don't know how to answer your question. I just imagined what I assumed should be happening and it happened."

  Randell asked, "Daen?"

  "I don't know. When I first arrived here, I tried to create an energy ball to shed some light on the porch. To make the ball, I had to concentrate as if I were just learning again. My gift had become second nature and suddenly it was foreign to me. It eventually came back with practice, but it still takes a conscious effort."

  Rhea wasn't sure what to do with this information. "You're concerned, aren't you? What? Is it like I'm going to explode or burn up?"

  Daen stifled a laugh. "No. It's not like that. It's just very unusual. I've never seen anything like it."

  Rhea glanced at the clock. There were just fifteen minutes before visiting hours were up. "I don't mean to change the subject, but given the time, you two should make a trip down the hall. You won't be able to go after hours."