Crimson Guard

by Rebecca Challoner

  "Leave us. If you go quietly, you will not be harmed." Axel's voice boomed through the alleyway, echoing off the tall, shoddy buildings that enclosed us.

  The shadows stood deathly still, eyes blinking at us in the soft light before slinking back into their dens, leaving us to walk unharmed...and taking my distraction with them.

  We stayed in the same position for a little longer, to make sure they wouldn't be back before slowly relaxing. The small army that surrounded us vanished as quickly as they came and I spun around to see where they had gone.

  "Let's go," Volorn demanded, giving me a nudge to move from my frozen state.

  I stumbled forwards, my feet instinctively taking me to Tawney's as my mind tried to catch up with what just happened.

  "What was that?"

  Volorn replied, "That was the reason why Cerulean's are a part of this war."

  I was intrigued, "What do you mean?"

  Volorn impatiently cut through my questions, "All of this will be explained to you later. For now, we are supposed to be saying goodbye to your friend. You best hurry before I break my word because I have run out of patience."

  My back stiffened and I clenched my jaw before spinning on my heels and pointing them up to the path towards Tawney's. Volorn's curt tone and orders were a stark reminder that I needed to try to escape them. And soon, whilst I had the opportunity.

  The morning light started to glint onto the cloudy windows of the street, illuminating the worn wood of the doorways to the shops that dotted the neighbourhood. At the end of the street stood my haven, my home.

  To Volorn and Axel, it may have looked like a worn-down shack, with paint peeling off its walls, dust covering the windows and a sign that had seen better days hanging over the door. But to me, it called like a beacon and I quickened my pace as I spotted it in the distant, eager to be home. Even if it was for a small moment.

  I focused back on my wrist. Maybe I could use my powers to change that one part of me, making it so small that the cuffs just slid off.

  But as I hurried towards the door, the sense of foreboding struck me again and I scanned the building for any sign of life. My eyes snagged on the door, finding the wood around the handle splintered and the knob hanging uselessly from its socket.

  My heart started to thunder and my mouth dried in an instant. Tawney. I pushed myself forward in a sprint, only to be flung backward at the weight pulling against my wrist. The damn chains.

  Desperation clawed at me, "Get me out of these chains. Now!"

  The men froze, bringing their weapons back up at my urgency and looked around for any threat, "What is it?" Volorn cautiously remarked.

  "What's wrong?" Axel softly asked at the same time.

  The words failed to penetrate as panic and worry clawed at me. I yanked against the chain as I tried to run to the shop, to make sure Tawney was okay, to make sure everything was fine. That I was worried for nothing.

  Blocking out the men around me, I focused on unleashing my powers, molding my wrist to one of a child, one young enough that the chain slid off harmlessly. As soon as the weight left me I sprang into action.

  A body stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the shop and I tried to dodge, only for strong banded arms to catch me from the middle, keeping me immobile.

  Releasing a scream of frustration and panic, I struggled to get free, unknowingly howling, "Let me go! I need to know he's okay! Let me go!"

  Volorn moved in front of me, anger molding his brow as he thought I had deceived him until he saw the unmistakable panic and desperation within me.

  "What is wrong?" Volorn carefully asked.

  I dragged my attention to him, trying to clear the buzz of panic that screamed in my head, "The house, it's been broken into. I need to see he's okay. I need to know he's okay."

  Volorn turned to study the entrance to Tawneys, finally seeing the broken door softly banging against its frame. Turning back to look at me, he quietly took in my distress and anguish. "You can't just rush in there, unprepared. It will help no one if you're injured too. I'll go check on the house, you and Axel will stay here until I say. It's clear."

  Volorn strode away whilst Axel loosened grasp across my middle but placed his hands on my shoulders in a relentless grip. He watched the vandalised shop as his general walked in with his sword held high, "Has the shop ever been broken into before?"

  "No, it's a hovel. No one even buys anything from there. It's got nothing of use in it." I answered back tensely, not taking my gaze away from that entrance.

  "Then why have a shop?" Axel asked in confusion.

  I ignored him, my brain only focused on one thing, "I need to get in there."

  Axel gave a squeeze of his hands on my shoulders in a gesture of comfort, "Volorn knows what he's doing. It's what we are trained for."

  I opened my mouth to argue, only for him to cut me off. "As soon as it's clear you can approach."

  I nodded back at him, not hearing his words as the urgency built within me. I purposefully relaxed my body and waited for his grip to loosen enough for me to bolt towards the door.

  It only took a moment for him to softened his grip before my feet flew across the ground. I sped towards my home, preparing myself to fight any who may be waiting inside. I heard a curse behind me, followed by the chinking metal as Axel ran to catch up with me just as Volorn's urgent voice erupted from the house.

  "Axel, get in here."

  I just pushed myself harder in growing terror until I bashed into the door, tearing it away from its frame as it slammed into the wall with force.

  I stood braced in the doorway, waiting for an attack as I looked around the tiny shop. Thankfully, a startled Volorn didn't attack me. Instead, he had his back to me, huddling over something on the floor, an odd violent silence atmosphere surrounding the area.

  Our hoarder's trove was ransacked. The broken mirrors that usually lined the walls were sprayed all over the floor, reflecting the shops wrecking in its shattered pieces. Splinters of wood and clothing lay discarded, as though they were thrown about in the midst of a raid. Tables, books and other unimportant treasures were scattered around the room, carelessly discarded.

  I trailed my eyes further, finding chunks of wood missing from the tabletops, hacked at by sharp weapons that spoke of destruction. Of a battle.

  And in the midst of all this sabotage, I noticed as I walked toward Volorn, lay Tawney.

  His old figure lay crumpled on the floor, a pool of blood emitting from his battered body and crusting into his grey mane of hair. The wet, rattling sound of his labored breaths coloured the air and I stood frozen in shock in the doorway.

  Axel rushed into the back of me as I stared in motionless horror at my beloved adopted father dying on the floor.

  At the sound of the horrified strangled noise emitting from my throat, Tawney painstakingly lifted his eyelids and slid this gaze over to us standing in the doorway.

  "F...F...Fawn." He quietly gasped, shaking me out of my stupor. I ran over to him, raking my eyes over his wounds that Volorn tried to staunch the blood from leaking.

  Tawney's clothes were covered in red from where he has been repeatedly stabbed through the chest. The wheezing that came from his breath told me of the blood that filled his lungs, of the pain and suffering he was enduring.

  The knowledge that he didn't have long, that there was no way to fix this shattered through my mind and tears rushed into my view, blurring everything around me.

  "F...Fawn."

  A shaky hand, encrusted in red came up to cup my face and I tried to blink away the fountain of tears that streamed into my eyes.

  Although he was in great pain and his old, wrinkled face held a waxy white sheen, he gave me a beautiful smile that caused a sob to choke out of my throat.

  "Yo..You...Your t..true...f..face...You...f...f...found...it." He wheezed, choking on the air and blood in his throat.

  Confusion swarmed me, unsure what he was talking about. But I ignored that and a
sked, "Tawney, what happened?"

  But he continued to lovingly gaze at me, "Y...You lo..look..j..just..l...like your...f...fa..father."

  "My father?" My face bunched up and I slid a hand over his own which cradled my cheek, painfully wishing this was all a terrible dream.

  "My...my..son." He rattled.

  His words resonated through me, shredding something inside me. His son, the soldier? The one who was killed with his love in a tragic death?

  All of a sudden nothing made sense to me and I shouted at him, "Tawney, what happened?!"

  I needed to know, I needed to make sense of this. I needed help to understand how everything had gone so terribly wrong, how once again my life could be turned upside down in a matter of hours.

  A sliver of clarity reached his eyes and he reached into his clothing, grasping a broke chained pendant that lay limply around his neck. "Ta...take this."

  He lifted the pendant into the light. On the pendant of the necklace was a large gem, beautiful gold in colour that seemed to flicker as though it was made of liquid. As he pushed the stone into my hand, it seemed to warm and the liquid fire within swirled before becoming static again.

  "T...They...wan...wanted it. Bu...but they ..can...can't have it. I...it's yours...Your....mo...mother's."

  I stared at the necklace, a faint niggling in the back of my mind telling me I had seen it before. That I knew of this necklace. I looked up to Tawney's face, to ask him more to find the struggle for life was taking him away from me.

  "Tawney? Tawney!"

  He looked into my eyes, one last time before letting out a shuddering breath. Slowly the light went out of his eyes, his chest stopped moving and time stopped around me.

  Chapter 6

  I was enclosed in my own personal hell and there was no way out. The being that held me together was gone, his shining soul had vacated his body and left me in this plane alone.

  A choked cry of anguish caught in my throat, stealing my breath as I continued to stare at the corpse of my beloved adopted father. Or perhaps Grandfather.

  I felt a presence slowly creep behind me but I paid it no mind. What was the point now when the only light in my life is gone?

  "Fawn?" A soft, inquisitive voice whispered to me.

  I slowly turned my head as though it weighed a tonne and looked towards the man. Compassionate cornflower blue eyes stared back at me and I felt the walls holding back the dam of emotion crack.

  But tears did not flow. No. Instead, seething rage flooded my system, filling my vision with red and narrowing my focus on one single detail, one single need that caused me to jump to my feet and stride towards the door.

  The soldier, Axel, stepped in my pathway and reached out to grab my arm and hold me immobile.

  "Where are you going?" Volorn demanded, his cornflower blue eyes now shuttered and turned hard. His lips pulled together in a straight line, pulling the scar above his lip in focus. The small imperfection on his face was a stark contrast to the cold brutal beauty he presented.

  "To find who did this," I coldly replied.

  He watched me, taking in the silent, icy rage that surrounded me like a second skin. "And then what?"

  "I'll kill them." I spat out of gritted teeth, my hands tightened into fists at my side.

  "With what? How?"

  His carefully placed words failed to penetrate the rage that filled me, his logic only enraged me further as I bit out, "With my bare hands if I have to."

  I yanked against Axel's hold, struggling to free myself and hunt down Tawney's killers. To make them pay for what they made me lose.

  Volorn grabbed my arms and swung me around to face him. His eyes were hard but his face was wiped from expression. Carefully neutral.

  "You need to listen to reason. You cannot hunt them down. You don't know how to fight, you don't know how to handle a blade. You will become injured yourself or even in the same position as Tawney. He wouldn't have wanted that."

  I directed my rage at him, "What would you know of what Tawney wanted?! You didn't know him!" I slammed a fist against his chest, taking a small amount of satisfaction as he grunted against the hit and my knuckles erupted in pain.

  So I repeated the motion, battering my fists repeatedly in his chest, trying to hit out all my anguish until I broke down and a sob rang out from me.

  Then all of a sudden I couldn't stop, I couldn't stop the grief from coming as the tears fell from my eyes like a waterfall. Strong arms enclosed me and pulled me against a solid chest, whispering soothing senseless words as they held me tight and I lost the battle to hold it together.

  I felt the vibrations as he spoke but I wasn't sure if it was to me. Nothing could break through the void I found myself in. I cried until my voice had grown hoarse until my eyes had become raw and I couldn't breathe anymore. Until finally silence reigned and I rested my head against that strong chest, staring into the distance as my mind emptied.

  "Fawn?" Volorn's voice rumbled in my ears.

  I slowly leaned back and looked up at him, not saying a word.

  "I don't think you heard much but I have sent Axel to look for Tawney's murderers. You may not be trained yet but we are. We will try our best to find them."

  "Them?" I heard myself echoing.

  "There was definitely more than one assailant."

  I took his word for it, knowing he had a lot more experience in this kind of thing than I did. I tried not to think of Tawney defending himself against two murderers. Tried not to think of his broken body lying a few feet away...

  "I don't understand, why Tawney?" I gasped out, fighting another rush of tears.

  Volorn must have heard the watery quality to my voice and gently rubbed a hand up and down my back as he replied, "From what he said, they were after that pendant."

  I looked down at the pendant still clutched in my hand with startled surprise. I hadn't realised I still held it. I lifted it up into the light, inspecting it. The broken chain and metal itself was made of a simple design but the golden gem glittered inside like its core was made of molten gold. The niggling of a memory burrowed into my mind but I couldn't grasp it.

  "But this, this isn't worth his life. He should have just given it to them."

  Volorn was silent for a moment before uttering, "He must have thought it was worth it."

  I continued to study the necklace, a distasteful emotion of resentment for the thing flushing through me, "Well I don't. I would have traded it for his life any day."

  Volorn's hand closed the pendant into mine and soothingly stated, "Don't let his sacrifice be in vain Fawn. He clearly thought it was worth something. Treasure it."

  I let his words settle over me, finding truth in his statement. I didn't want Tawney's last action to be looked upon with animosity. Maybe this necklace meant something. Tawney didn't keep jewellery for the hell of it. It probably had some history to it that he deemed worthy. A small smile filled my lips. That sounded more like Tawney, so caught up in books and history that he collected another 'treasure'.

  Although he did say it was my mother's. Perhaps that was why he wasn't willing to give it up. He found it for me, for one of the parents who were stolen from my life. But instead of finding a gift to help me find out more about them, he had left another gaping hole.

  "Come on, let us wait outside," Volorn suggested, slowly leading me outside.

  We waited outside until the streets started to fill with people and the sun rose high enough that the sky had turned a light blue. I stood staring out at the people pass by, going about their morning as though it was just an ordinary day. I suppose to them it was, but for me, it was a day I will never forget.

  A small disturbance at the end of the street caught my attention and I dragged my view over to the commotion. People were stumbling out of the way of a man as he strode through the street. Axel. He made an imposing figure, a large man of over 6ft covered in blood-red armour, cleaning a razor-sharp blade as he made his way through the crowd. He was covered in
blood. The dark red mixed with the brown murkiness of his leather armour, making it look as though his leathers were dyed a crimson red. Fitting for a member of the Crimson Guard. As he made his way towards me, his eyes fixed with mine with a determination reflected upon his face.

  When he finally reached me, he bowed his head as he lifted a sharp dagger into my view. I stared at it, unsure what he was offering me but yet understanding what it was.

  "The assassin was smart. Most managed to get away, fleeing the city after their crime." He gruffly said, "But not all. This...this is now yours."