I jumped out onto stage and the pathetic excuse for a band we had around here kicked off with a rousing number, Carriage Ride.
Coach and four white horses
Golden hair and polished boots
He’s the boy I’m dreaming of
Take me on a carriage ride
Behind the doors we’ll share our dreams
Carriage ride, ooh, let me inside
Tucked away while the world flies by
Carriage ride, ooh, my heart can’t hide
I mean, I guess I understood why the old people complained about it, considering that bards used to sing poems that were a hundred memorized lines and told an entire story about past heroes, but you couldn’t dance to that. These days, even the bards wrote snappier songs. When you were listening to a song like “April Hearts” or “Taffy Girl” you couldn’t think about monsters or worry over a failed crop. You were just happy. I could see the whole town swaying to the music, mouthing with the words, and just having a good time.
“Carriage ride—” I was still killing it with the chorus when I heard a commotion in the distance.
A monster, flying erratically, swept over the crowd.
I’d heard that some monsters could fly. We’d never seen one, though. No monster had ever breached the walls. Scuffling turned to screaming and the crowd started parting in panicked waves, clearing the way for the monster to land near the stage.
Oh, thanks a lot, neighbors, I thought as they opened a path for it to land on ragged wings. It moved with terrifying speed, its clawed little hands scrabbling on the edge of the wooden stage.
I glanced around for anything I could use to defend myself. The stage was empty. A heavy curtain was behind me, and I scrambled to find the spot where it parted before trying to lift it and duck under it instead. I heard my mother screaming my name.
“Haaah!” I turned as I heard a man yell and saw the flash of steel. A blade cleaved the monster into two, and it let out a squawk just before it was obliterated. The two halves of its body, covered in shining silver-black scales, now just looked like a disgusting lump that was bleeding everywhere. The monster’s face was turned toward the sky, its mouth hanging open. It looked sort of like a large lizard, a long pointed snout, sharp teeth, and bat-like wings. Its eyes, on the other hand, were a disconcertingly sharp amber color.
The townspeople were totally losing it, screaming and running around.
My savior was none other than Mr. Argrave. I guess that made sense, since he used to be a soldier. But I didn’t know him at all. No one really did, but he claimed to have been sent here to monitor activity near the Cavern’s Gate. Istim was one of the last towns before you got to the dead zone around the gate. All the mountain towns had been abandoned, given up to the onslaught of monsters. The passes were heavily guarded by two forts, but monsters still slipped through all the time. Usually, our high walls were enough protection.
Mr. Argrave hopped up on to the stage and grabbed my hand. “C’mon.”
“C’mon where?”
“We need to talk.”
“But I don’t even know you!”
“Yes,” he said, giving me a withering look. “That’s why we need to talk. Your mother is aware that this day would come. Now it’s time I told you the situation.”
“The—what? What situation?” I followed him as he dragged me behind the curtain. Mom was already rushing toward us.
“Mom, what do you know that I don’t?” I cried.
“I’m sorry, Phoebe. I just wanted you to have a normal life as long as you could.”
I was really panicking now. I didn’t really want a normal life, but if my abnormal life was going to begin with a monster ambushing me on stage, then…feeding chickens and growing cabbages in Istim sounded better after all.
“You are the next Priestess of the Gate,” Mr. Argrave said. “And your powers are starting to stir. You’re ready.”
Mom looked anxious but she didn’t say anything, which was alarming on its own. I got my talkative nature from her.
“But—there hasn’t been a priestess for a hundred something years,” I said.
“One hundred and eight,” he corrected. I was supposed to know that. Memorizing numbers and dates was never my forte during my sporadic attendance in the village school. “Oh, there have been priestesses in the past hundred and eight years,” he continued. “Plenty of them. They’ve all been killed by the Black Army.”
“Craaap,” I said, which was really an insufficient response. “Craaaaaaaap. I know where this is going. You’re going to tell me that the Black Army will be looking for me now.”
“Exactly.”
“I was…hoping you were going to reassure me,” I said faintly. “I need to sit down.”
“This is no time to sit down,” he said. “We need to get moving.”
“To where? We can’t leave town! The monsters—and—and the Black Army is everywhere! Does this mean they can sense me now? Did they send that monster after me?”
“No,” he said. “Two different things entirely. The Black Army can’t sense you. They are always looking for the next priestess, but as far as I know, they don’t have any special magic for tracking us.”
“Us?” Double crap. “You’re one of my guardians, aren’t you?”
“Fate has decided,” he said. “I am your first guardian. You can call me Sir Forrest, now that we’re about to be intimately acquainted, like it or not.”
I swallowed. I didn’t really know what this meant. “You’re a knight?”
“I didn’t want to draw much attention here,” he said. “But yes.”
I had never noticed him before, besides as a stranger and a weirdo. He was a little over six feet tall, with his sword at his waist. The sword had a really intricate hilt with a pommel that looked like the head one of the monsters. Its tiny eyes were jeweled.
But enough about the sword. Now that I was getting a good look at ‘Sir Forrest’, it didn’t escape my notice that despite a somewhat rough appearance—the dark hair in some slightly brutish and unkempt warrior’s style, the stubble, the scuffed up boots and moth-eaten gray cloak—he had gorgeous brown eyes and a fine build. I mean, his personality could have used some polishing, but supposing this whole thing didn’t kill me, this might not be so bad.
“It’s not the Black Army you have to worry about—yet. Monster activity outside the gates has increased in the past few months, as I’m sure you know. It was only a matter of time. I’ve been waiting for you to be ready. This world needs a priestess. We have to try and locate your other three guardians and confirm you at the Temple of Stones, then complete the sealing ritual at the gate, and if we can do that…no more monsters. This was a clear sign that it’s time for you to come under my protection and take your place in history.”
“Take my place in history? You know what history is full of? People who died.”
Ignoring me, he rummaged in the pocket of his jacket and took out a small, dogeared book. “This explains your duties.”
“Oh, no, don’t give her that yet—” Mom began, sounding almost panicked as I opened the book…to a stylized line drawing of a girl, naked but adorned in jewelry, being claimed by a man. He was supporting her around her back with his arms, while another man was holding her hands out over her head and suckling her breast. The men were both very tall and beautifully rendered, and my cheeks flashed hot. The caption said:
The Priestess and Two Guardians Performing a Trine (See—Appendix B)
I sputtered something incoherent. Mom took the book out of my hands. “Let’s talk this over at the house.”
“We don’t have time,” Sir Forrest said. “We should get on the road now while we have hours of daylight left.”
“We have to go back to the house,” I said. “I need clothes, obviously. And Wretch.”
“Wretch?”
“My flying cat?” I glared at him. He had to be playing dumb. It was hard to miss Wretch. Flying cats were very rare to beg
in with. She usually flew around my head everywhere I went. But she would be a distraction during my performance, so I had locked her in the house.
“We can’t take a cat with us,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t I take her? She can hunt her own food.”
“It’s too conspicuous.”
“I’m not going anywhere without her.” I crossed my arms. I might be in some level of denial about what was going on, that he was saying I had to leave my home and head into danger, but this was not a point I was willing to negotiate.
“Wretch is really a well behaved cat,” Mom said, looking uncomfortable. “She might even bring you some dinner to share.” My stomach twisted. It was weird to see Mom attempting to implore a complete stranger to let me keep my cat. It drove home that I was going into an unknown situation.
“I can do my own damn hunting,” Sir Forrest said. “I’m not eating something the cat literally dragged in. But, fine. I don’t have time to argue. Take the beast.”
We started walking back to my house. I still had so many questions but I had the feeling Sir Forrest wouldn’t answer them until we were moving. He hung back a little as Mom and I walked ahead of him, and I dared to glance at her. “You knew about this?” I whispered. “And you…you think it’s okay for me to leave?”
“I’ve known since you were away with the troupe,” she said.
“How?”
“I was contacted with a message from one of the Elders from the Palace of Stones. They sensed your presence when you were in the capital and warned me about what to expect. The message said you were safe until your powers awakened and that they were sending Sir Forrest to watch over you until the time came…” Her lips pinched, revealing a long-held fear. How had I not known? Then again, when I came back from the troupe, everything seemed different.
“I can’t believe you kept a secret like that from me! I could’ve prepared for it.”
“How could you prepare?” She looked down, not even glancing at the gardens we passed as we hiked up the cobblestone path. Mom usually noticed every blooming flower in everyone’s yard. “There was nothing to be done until you were ready. I worried it would only make your years here harder. You would be frightened on one hand, and anxious to go on the other. I know you. You miss seeing the world. Now, if all of this works out, many more people will be able to see the world again. We wouldn’t have to live in fear behind walls…”
“And you trust this guy?” I jabbed a thumb back toward Sir Forrest.
“He is your guardian,” she said. “He showed me his sigil. He is bound by fate to protect you, no matter what. And you have the ability to heal him and lend him strength.”
“I do?”
“Read the book,” she said, with a heavy sigh, and gave the book back to me.
It didn’t take a genius to guess that the “Trine” had something to do with lending strength to my guardians. I quickly glanced back at my first guardian. He shielded his beautiful eyes with one broad hand as he looked up to note the position of the sun. You can call me Sir Forrest, now that we’re about to be intimately acquainted, like it or not.
Intimately acquainted. Like it or not.
I had two voices in my head. One was freaking out, and the other one was like, Girl, let’s do this…
Available now!
More Romantic Fantasy from Lidiya!
Guardians of Sky and Shadow (Reverse Harem)
Book One: Priestess Awakened
Book Two: Priestess Bound
Book Three: Priestess Unleashed
Fairy Tale Heat
Every book is standalone and can be read in any order, although some characters might pop up in later books!
Book One: Beauty and the Goblin King
Book Two: These Wicked Revels (A retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses)
Book Three: Rapunzel and the Dark Prince
Book Four: The Beggar Princess (A retelling of King Thrushbeard)
Book Five: The Goblin Cinderella
Book Six: The Mermaid Bride
Book Seven: Tasting Gretel
Book Eight: Taming Red Riding Hood
Coming in summer 2018: Prisoner of Silk (A trilogy retelling of Sleeping Beauty)
Paranormal Romance
Brides of the Sinistral Realms (Reverse Harem):
Tempted by Demons
About the Author
Lidiya Foxglove spends most of her time writing, drinking hot cocoa, messing around on the internet, and drinking tea, before reading about 15 pages of any manga with lots of pretty boys in it, and then falling asleep. Sometimes she also does yoga and gardens, but not as often as she claims.
[email protected]
Tempted by Demons: A Reverse Harem Paranormal (Brides of the Sinistral Realms) Page 18