Guardian's Redemption

by Marie Harte

  Overhead, a sudden flash lit the sky. The gateway was closing.

  The portal blinked away. The grey sky returned to a healthy indigo-blue speckled with stars and moonlight. “How about that meal you promised us?” Darius asked, waiting with his brothers. He was tired, hungry, and pissed as hell that the damned Netharat seemed as strong as they’d been prior to their last major battle.

  Aerolus stared at the sky. “We still need to find out why they attacked now, and why here. I can’t put my finger on it, but I sense there’s a reason behind this particular skirmish.”

  “Well, I’ll leave you four to tinker with ideas. I’m hanging with the girls tonight at Mom’s.” Alandra kissed Aerolus, waved good-bye and disappeared.

  “She’s really into that whole ‘Mom’ thing. Hell, they all are,” Darius grumbled, secretly pleased Samantha also loved his mother so deeply.

  “And a good thing it is. Their love strengthens Mother,” Cadmus said in a burst of rare insight. “I hate to admit it, but before Samantha and Tessa started staying with her, Mother seemed a little…tired to me.”

  Jonas took the opportunity to interrupt. “Remir and I will take the Sarqua back to the castle. I’ll try to keep them out of the cinarum stores, but I’m only one man.” He flashed back into his human form. “Later, fellas.” He waved to his brethren and the lot of them disappeared from sight.

  “You don’t find that disturbing?” Darius asked.

  Cadmus sighed. “Not this again. Look, I wasn’t sure of the Djinn at first myself. But Jonas is trustworthy. I’d stake my life on that.”

  “And the rest of the Sarqua?” Marcus asked what Darius wanted to know.

  “Most of the others are okay…” Cadmus looked into the distance. “’Sin Garu has his hands everywhere. Our territories are no exception.”

  “Nor is the Church,” Aerolus said quietly. “I wish Arim were here. I’d like his take on this.”

  “On what?” Darius asked. “Spill it, egghead. We’re not going anywhere anytime soon.”

  Aerolus allowed a small frown, a major concession of emotion from a man who, until he’d married Alandra, had barely shown surprise at any of Cadmus’s well-played pranks. “’Egghead?’ I think you spent way too much time in the mundane plane.”

  “On Earth. Yeah, but it was mostly in a bar with ale and good-looking women. Can’t complain.” Especially since Darius had met Samantha there. “So what’s with you needing Arim?”

  Marcus cut in. “Yeah, and what’s up with Arim anyway? He’s hot on Lexa’s trail. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’s got a thing for her.”

  “Of course he has a thing for her.” Cadmus shook his head, disgruntled. “First of all, she’s hot. Almost as beautiful as Ellie, and that’s saying something. When she turns those ice blue eyes on you, it’s downright scary. Even for a Dark Lord, the woman can make a man lose his mind.”

  “As if you had one to begin with,” Marcus muttered.

  Cadmus talked over him. “If you knew anything, you’d know Arim and Lexa were a pair a long time ago. Lovebirds, in fact, until Lexa’s foster parents died and she was blamed for killing them.”

  “What?” Darius blinked in surprise. “I’ve never heard that.”

  “No, because Light Bringer history is revisionist in nature,” Aerolus said dryly. “Especially when documented by the Church.”

  “So how do you know this shit?” Darius asked Cadmus.

  “Had a weird vision. I saw the past, as opposed to the future. In it, Lexa was seriously whacked out, covered in blood and crying. She looked younger than she is now, which isn’t saying much, I guess. She was really torn up by her family’s death. For the record, she didn’t do it.”

  Darius frowned. “You’re sure?”

  Aerolus answered. “Someone else killed them, and it wasn’t ‘Sin Garu.” When everyone stared at him, he shrugged. “Alandra and Sava were talking about it yesterday when I overheard.”

  “Overheard?”

  “Okay, I eavesdropped. But the bottom line is that Arim and Lexa have a history, and we need Arim to defeat ‘Sin Garu.”

  Marcus sighed. “So what? Get to the point, Aerolus. You’re giving me a headache.”

  Aerolus ignored him. “We need Arim, so we need Lexa. Once we find her, he’ll follow. Arim will never admit it, but he needs to find closure. It’s all about balance. Ask Cadmus. Tanselm has been telling him the same thing for months. The time, my brothers, has finally come.”

  Darius waited for Cadmus’s response, not disappointed when his brother rolled his eyes, as annoyed with Aerolus’s dramatics as the rest of them.

  “’The time can wait. I was going to mention needing Arim and Lexa after we’d eaten. Tanselm has waited this long, I thinks she can wait until we’ve had some food.”

  “Cadmus…”

  “Oh hell, Aerolus. Fine.” He turned back to his brothers. “Lexa’s going to help Arim. In my last vision, I saw them together, and they were definitely not fighting.”

  “For as much as he rode you and Alandra about having Dark affai, our uncle is involved with a Dark Lord? That takes balls.” Darius shook his head.

  Cadmus snickered. “Yeah. I can’t wait to throw that in his face.”

  “I won’t argue with you on that. First we need to find Lexa and bring her back here. I think we should start—” Aerolus broke off and stared at the ground near Marcus. “Marcus, is there something wrong with your shadow?”

  The four brothers glanced down. Marcus’s shadow was more than a lack where moonlight should be, but a Dark spot upon the ground. As Darius readied flames in his hand, he heard muttered cursing. Within a grey haze, a familiar presence separated from the shadow and coalesced into human form.

  “Dammit, Jonas. This is a private discussion.” Marcus punished him with a wave of water over the male.

  Jonas shook the water off him and slicked his hair back. “Thanks a lot.”

  “I hate it when you do that.” Marcus scowled.

  “Me too,” Cadmus agreed.

  “Sorry, but someone has to keep you four out of trouble.” Jonas looked to Aerolus, the most tolerant in the group, for support and found another annoyed stare. “Look, Sava and I have this under control. You four need to focus and keep the damned Church of Illumination in check. They’re awfully close to working up a spell to kill Darklings.” Aerolus frowned at that. “The Netharat are going to keep on coming until ‘Sin Garu gets what he’s after. Sava’s not sure, but we think the Dark Lord’s looking for something. Something or someone.”

  “Is that all?” Darius asked icily, more than annoyed a damned Djinn was telling four Storm Lords how to run their land.

  “Not yet.” Jonas flipped Darius the finger, and Marcus had to restrain him from launching himself at the Darkling. “Arim will be out of pocket for the foreseeable future. If you need him anytime soon, get with me or Sava.”

  Angry, Darius broke through Marcus’s hold to throttle Jonas, aware this time no one stood in his way. The damned Djinn teleported off the hillside before he could reach him. “Do you believe this shit?”

  “Actually, I do.” Aerolus sighed. “I’m going to have a good, long talk with my affai about her bothersome uncle. She knew something was coming up. She warned me in that subtle way she has that always precedes trouble.”

  “You need to beat her,” Darius seethed, only half-joking.

  “I already do.”

  Darius, Marcus and Cadmus could only stare at Aerolus, the most quiet of them all. To their further astonishment, the Wind Mage gave them a large grin.

  “If you could see your faces. Now let’s grab something to eat before we wither away to nothing.” Aerolus prodded Cadmus to get him moving, then added as if an afterthought, “Alandra only likes it rough every now and again. But I find I have an aptitude for it.”

  Which had Darius dumbfounded for the first time in forever.

  As they tiredly walked back to the castle, Darius had to hand it to Aerolus.
You always had to watch the quiet ones.

  * * * *

  Remir, Jonas’ best friend and a trusted Sarqua leader, waited until Jonas and the others left the hillside. He trailed the Storm Lords a short distance, then watched for his contact to appear. While Tanselm absorbed the dead bodies of Dark into her earth, a figure strode out of the woodline. In a hooded robe made of black fabric, the small figure might well have been a fictional Reaper from the Next.

  If only, Remir thought tiredly. He was so ready to move on. Any more nights with ‘Sin Garu and he’d start losing his mind. The blood ‘Sin Garu took from him was no longer enough. As well as raping his body, the Dark Lord was now the conduit for the demons ravaging Remir’s soul.

  The hooded figure paused when he reached Remir, his innocence a surprising change from the zealots Remir had seen in the northern territory. The young man, having captured Remir’s attention, turned and walked back into the woods. The trees seemed to welcome the figure, a notable difference from the way nature greeted most of the Church brethren—with an open hostility Remir’s Darkness sensed.

  “My master wants a word.” The churchman sounded shaky. He didn’t seem as comfortable around Darkness as his holy brethren. Strangely pleased that his partner in crime feared him, Remir played on his Dark energy. Willing himself to burn in truth, he chuckled at the young man’s fear. With a gasp, his contact pointed in an opposite direction before abandoning him to run back into the forest.

  Snorting with contempt, Remir put out a psychic feeler and located the person he’d been sent to find. Walking through the forest, feeling more alive in his natural state, Remir wondered if an influx in his energy might burn off the demon touch lingering over his skin.

  His loins tingled as he recalled the baser acts ‘Sin Garu had perpetrated, and Remir hastened to deal with his contact and get back to his master before the Dark Lord decided on more of the same.

  “Here,” a deep voice called, one filled with arrogant assurance.

  Remir stopped and flowed back into a man’s flesh, not wanting his true self exposed to the evil seething in the Light Bringer traitor. His skin crawled in the presence of the churchman. Unlike the many people he’d met in the northern territory, this man stank of corruption. Here, in Tanselm’s heart, this misrepresentation of everything the Church of Illumination was supposed to be, stood a creature filled with malevolence.

  Strength was there in the dark brown eyes that glittered with scorn. “Tell your master everything is going according to plan.”

  Remir nodded, not trusting himself not to reach out and tear the man’s throat out. He’d been forced to turn against his people and Tanselm, but this holy leader, Ordinary Nohjen, had offered his services to the Dark Lord.

  “My spies are in place. The time is ripe for insurrection. The Light Bringers doubt their leaders. And with the Storm Lords away from the west this night, there’s no better time to bring down the throne. A small obstacle, really, but with the overqueen gone, the heart of the people’s resistance will fade as surely as Tanselm’s Light has been fading since the Dark stepped onto our lands.”

  Remir could only stare in shock. He had known nothing about this plot to kill Queen Ravyn. With her dead, he feared the Storm Lords would never rid their world of ‘Sin Garu. There would be too much pain and mired chaos to wade through, obviously what ‘Sin Garu was counting on. Remir’s heart sank at the thought of allowing the twisted Dark Lord to win.

  For months he’d been forced to do ‘Sin Garu’s bidding. Yet he’d always harboured a secret hope the Storm Lords would prevail, or at the very least, expose him for his part in ‘Sin Garu’s work. Would that the Sarqua Djinn or Light Bringers kill him before he could do any permanent damage to the Storm Lords. If only the spell around him didn’t keep him so distant and quiet when around Jonas…

  Remir stared hard at Nohjen, wondering how firm the zealot was in his convictions. ‘Sin Garu’s spell prevented Remir from turning to his trusted comrades. Perhaps he could plant the seeds of doubt in this man’s mind. He had to at least try, to know he attempted to prevent the downfall of the Light in this world.

  “If you’re so revolted by Dark presence, why have anything to do with a Dark Lord?” Remir didn’t understand the church leader’s willingness to work for ‘Sin Garu. “They don’t come much Darker than that.”

  Nohjen shrugged. “Sacrifice is a constant in the world we live in. For Tanselm, we’ll do anything to preserve her constructs. The fact is that the land needs more energy, Dark energy. But what we don’t need is so much filth staining the populace.”

  “So you’re saying you’re taking the lesser of two evils? One Dark Lord instead of the many Djinn and Aellei ‘corrupting’ your world?” Was the man completely crazy?

  The churchman sneered. “Exactly. The lot of your kind pollutes the very air we Light Bringers breathe. If we must deal with the Dark, at least we choose to deal with one being, and one of power, at that.” He gave Remir a disgusted look.

  “I hadn’t realised you Djinn possessed anything resembling intelligence under that black flame. But I’m not surprised it now burns blue. You creatures are always fucking anything that moves. Dark Lords too, hmm?”

  Remir peered closer at his contact, surprised the man could see through his flesh to the Djinn that burned in truth beneath, or that a Light Bringer knew how to read signs of Dark Lord taint.

  He experienced another unfortunate surprise. Latent power blazed under a deliberately misleading guise. The man before him was no ordinary Light Bringer turned traitor, but a sorcerer who’d done a remarkable job of hiding his power. The knowledge was just another piece of bad news for this world needing more help than Remir could manage.

  If Nohjen knew of such Dark magic, who knew what else the Church of Illumination understood? How vast was their knowledge? Remir had a feeling the Church’s deception went beyond one or two individuals, and actually extended throughout their entire organisation. The Church of Illumination was the threat Jonas thought it to be.

  Thoughts of Jonas made Remir hurt worse. His friend needed this information, but Remir was helpless to share it. With each visit to the Dark Lord, Remir’s will to resist grew weaker. As easy as it should have been for Remir to leave this fhel and teleport to Jonas, the truth was that every fibre in Remir’s body vibrated with the need to feel Dark Lord flesh under his palms. The need to hurt, to feel the pain only ‘Sin Garu could bestow, shook him with an addict’s compulsion…and self-loathing.

  Nohjen flicked at several blades of grass clinging to the robe covering his sturdy body. “Tell ‘Sin Garu we move tonight. By the morrow, the Storm Lords will be without an overqueen. Then we’ll begin eradicating the rest of your kind from our lands.”

  The magic binding Remir to ‘Sin Garu’s will fought Remir’s urge to convince the churchman to forfeit his evil plans. Excruciating pain throbbed behind his temples as he forced out the words. “You’re not at all concerned ‘Sin Garu will kill you and your kind? He has no fondness for Light.”

  “But he respects power. The Church has its ways of protecting ourselves.” The churchman shook his head. “I’ve no liking for ‘Sin Garu, but he and others like him certainly exist. So we sacrifice some of Tanselm’s power to soothe a hungry Dark Lord and in turn help our world overcome its shortcomings. In the end, Tanselm’s lands will remain ours.”

  “You actually trust him to keep his word?” The words felt like shards of glass ripping through his throat, but Remir did his best to instil doubt.

  Unfortunately, Nohjen stood firm. “No. But he knows what we’ll do to him if he tries to break our agreement.”

  What could the Church do? Curiosity blazed, driving Remir to pursue his questioning. Nohjen waited, studying Remir with reluctant interest.

  “And what of the other worlds ‘Sin Garu will conquer with Tanselm’s power in his hands?” Remir was sweating, a burning pervading his limbs as he tried in vain to warn this man away from the course the Church had set.
/>
  “What of them?” Chilly brown eyes stared back at him with dismissal. “As long as Tanselm remains safe, the Church and I have done our duty. But I will make sure to share your concern with my brethren.” Nohjen chuckled, his voice like daggers slicing Remir’s last hopes to shreds. “Now give me what you’re supposed to…fhel-sa Efan melea.” Unworthy Dark Lord whore.

  Remir wanted nothing more than to take the head from this man’s body. Instead, he watched himself hand the bastard a small black bag that appeared from out of nowhere. Dread overwhelmed him. “Four strikes to the chest. No more, and no less,” he said in a toneless voice, his body a mere puppet controlled by Dark Lord strings.

  For your disobedience, Darkling, we’ll spend quality time together this eve. ‘Sin Guru’s laughter resounded in Remir’s mind, the promise of retribution swift and deadly.

  Nohjen took the proffered bag and disappeared into the forest without another word. Despite ‘Sin Garu’s threats, or perhaps because of them, Remir struggled to go after the churchman, to take back what would amount to a crushing blow at the Storm Lords. Lexa, he mentally shouted. Dark Mistress, please. I need you.

  Like the dozen other pleas he’d sent, this one, too, went unanswered.

  Desperate to find the Storm Lords, to do anything he could to warn them, Remir focused on Cadmus, the Storm Lord he knew best, trying to get a lock on the man even as he fought the encroaching Darkness of ‘Sin Garu’s command to return home.

  A sudden blast of Dark energy gave him much needed respite from the sorcerer’s mental tampering.

  “Not you, Remir. Please, tell me I’m wrong.” Jonas tugged him into a small clearing strapping down his arms and his magic.

  Unable to free himself, Remir could only wait.

  Jonas circled to stand in front of him. His gaze had darkened to a deep black. The fury snapping from his aura was enough to make Remir wince with shame. But at least he could function through the pain hampering his magic. Jonas’ Dark energy sapped some of the strength of ‘Sin Garu’s binding spell.