Tales of the Golden Judge: 3-Book Bundle - Books 13-15

by Hart, Melissa F.

  In the foam, Aja saw the lizard-like head, saw the ivory teeth and the terribly sharp claws. It was enormous, dwarfing Ina, who was all that stood between Stefan and Aja. In a heartbeat, Stefan was in his wolf form as well, lunging at the animal with a ferocious growl.

  For one appalled moment, Aja could do nothing but stare. Her mind was empty of the words that she had to speak, and her tongue felt like a lead weight in her mouth. Then miraculously the words appeared, the words that she had spent long lonely nights committing to memory, and she could spit them out with ease. The language was not her own, but she could feel how right they were in the way the winds whipped up, thrashing at her limbs and threatening to steal the heat from her bones.

  She chanted, and as she did, she watched her friend and her lover fight the monster. The thing was enormous, but their place on the beach protected them at least a little. It helped them play the monster off on each other. Ina would dig her sharp fangs into the creature's hide, making it howl, and when it lunged for her, Stefan would score a hit on its broad back.

  Their game was working, but even Aja could see that it would not last forever. They were slowing, tiring, and the monster never would.

  She reached the end of the incantation, and she waited, holding the last few words in her mouth like chips of ice until the way was clear. She stepped forward, and both Stefan and Ina fell away, leaving her a clear path to the thing. Just as they did so, the monster turned toward her, and she saw a shallow, maddened light in its eyes. There was nothing to it but hate, and she knew she had to do this now.

  Three things happened at once. The monster lunged for her, Aja spoke the final words of the incantation, and Stefan lunged in to stand between her and the monster. Horrified, at the last moment, she reined in the power, and she could feel that the spell was incomplete. It would not take the monster away forever in a deep slumber.

  Instead, it carried away the monster and Stefan both, sleeping and gone for a thousand years, and the sorcerous wind cocooned them tight. The last thing she saw was a flash of Stefan's brilliant green eyes in the darkness, and then they were gone, beyond the reach of anything on earth.

  Aja's scream echoed off of the cave walls, and she covered her head with her hands, terrified of what she had done. Ina splashed over to her, giving her support, and turning back into her human form so she could pull Aja out of the water.

  In between racking, screaming sobs, she explained what had happened to her friend, and then all of the strength went out of her. Her body felt as if it had died but she was still living, and nothing made sense. She had defeated her foe, but she had sent her lover away, she would never see him again, touch him, tell him what he meant to her....

  There was nothing left, and Aja crumpled into Ina's arms. She was barely aware of it when Ina led her out of the cave or settled her by a fire as the night came on.

  ***

  Aja cried herself out, and finally, sleep took her. She tried to stay up, tried to fight it, but sleep overtook her, and when she awoke, it was to look at the fire that was crackling away in the night.

  For a moment, she thought that the last few hours had been a terrible dream, that the fight had ended differently, and that Stefan was still by her side, but then her memory reasserted itself, and she felt a fresh sob start up in her throat.

  Then Ina was by her side, and she fell against the woman's flank, trying to stifle the grief.

  “Shh, shh, you need to be calm now, my dear,” said Ina. “You need to be strong.”

  “Why? What have I got left to be strong for? I never even told him I loved him...”

  “You still might.”

  “When the spell was meant to make him, both of them, sleep for a thousand years or more? When he will wake up long after I am dead, confused, hurt and afraid?”

  “What if you woke up with him?”

  Startled, Aja looked up at Ina, her eyes wide. Behind Ina was the full moon, and the silver light gave her a halo of unearthly beauty.

  “My mother was a wise woman, and she knew many things,” Ina explained. “Tonight is the full moon, and your love for Stefan is strong, strong enough to bridge the gap of a thousand years.”

  “How can I go to him?” Aja demanded. “I will walk across the star roads if I need to. I will cross the seas a thousand times.”

  “You only need to sleep. You will dream of him, and you will yearn for him for a thousand years, but when he awakens, you will awaken, and you will find him. Together, you can kill the monster that has caused you such grief.”

  “I'll do it.”

  “There is a price, though,” Ina warned. “Everyone you love will be dead when you awaken. I will watch over your sleep while I can, and I will teach my heirs to do the same thing, but there are no certainties, not over the length of a thousand years.”

  Aja thought of Tonna and Ulfrik, her entire family. She would never see them again, but she knew that they would carry on the control over the elements to a new generation. Her kind would be protected while they slept.

  “If I can be with him, I will be. Show me how.”

  ***

  They traveled back to the cave where they had fought, and though Aja cast in vain for Stefan's scent, there was nothing of it. The wind had carried him away, and she knew that it would not bring him back for a thousand years.

  Ina lit a small fire on the ground, and she made a bed for Aja out of pine boughs.

  “Are you certain? There is no going back.”

  “There never is. Ina, thank you. Thank you for this. Thank you for what you are doing for me. What will you do?”

  “I will return to my tribe, and I will take them home. Stefan's family can stay with us, or they can strike out on their own, but either way, it will be with my blessing. Are you ready?”

  Aja took a deep breath and nodded.

  With a sad smile, Ina handed her a crystal bottle full of a dark liquid. Aja expected it to smell foul, but there was a sweet spiciness to it. She took a deep breath and as Ina told her to, she drained it to the very last drop.

  “Stay with me,” she said suddenly. “I'm frightened...”

  Ina eased her down on the bed, and she took her friend in her arms as Aja's eyelids drooped lower and lower.

  “It'll be all right,” Aja heard, but even that comforting voice was dropping away.

  It will be a thousand years in the future when I wake. Then, before the darkness consumed her, she smiled.

  Wait for me, Stefan, I am coming.

  ***

  2015

  Aja opened her eyes, and to her right, she heard a gasp of breath. When she turned her head, there was a young woman sitting beside her, eyes wide. For a moment, Aja was convinced that she had simply awoken from a deep sleep, that it was Ina sitting next to her, but then she realized that the woman was younger than Ina, and though her hair was a snowy white, it was much shorter and she wore strange clothing.

  “Stefan?” she croaked. Her voice was deep and rusty from disuse, and the girl rushed to her side.

  “They said that you would awaken soon, that the time was right...”

  “Where is Stefan?” Aja demanded.

  Her hand wrapped around the girl's wrist, and the girl yelped with fear.

  “We'll help you find him, we've learned more. We can send you where he is...”

  Aja let her go abruptly, ashamed for frightening the girl so. “Good,” she said, but her mind was already a thousand miles away.

  Soon, she would find him. Soon she would be with him again, and she smiled.

  Oh my love, I have missed you...

  TO BE CONTINUED IN BOOK FIFTEEN: Across a Thousand Years – Volume 15

  ***

  Across a Thousand Years

  ***

  Synopsis

  To follow her lover and the beast she had banished, Aja slept for a thousand years. Now she is awake again and hunting in the modern world, searching for any sign of what she has lost. She comes to a city protected by aliens
and superheroes, and there she finally reunites with her love, but he is far different from the man she knew. Can they defeat the beast together, and can they recapture what they have lost?

  ***

  Aja awoke with a start as the thunder clapped like a pair of enormous hands and lightning tore across the sky. The rain slapped against the airplane's window, and a soothing voice came over the intercom stating that all was well, that the storm was expected and nothing to be concerned about.

  “Are you well?”

  The young man with white hair who sat at her side looked worried, and for him, Aja summoned up a small smile.

  “Thank you, Darian, I will be.”

  He still looked worried, and she reached over the arm of the chair to squeeze his hand. Though she looked like a girl of twenty and he looked a handful of years older, there was far more to the pair than what met the eye. A watchful eye might catch the fact that both Aja and Darian were very perceptive and very alert, but it would have taken one of their own kind to recognize them as shapechangers. When he chose, Darian could transform into a wolf, and Aja herself could transform into a beautiful little red fox. However, that wasn't where the strangeness ended.

  A thousand years ago, in her pursuit of a monster created using her own blood, she had learned magical secrets that gave her control over the very wind itself. After bequeathing knowledge of elemental magic to her cousin, she set off to kill the monster. Her quest took her far to the south, where she met Stefan, the leader of the wolf tribe from which Darian was descended. She, Stefan and Stefan's former betrothed, Ina, had fought the monster. Aja had a spell that was intended to send the monster away forever, but instead, she inadvertently sent both the monster and her beloved into a supernatural sleep, cocooned by a sorcerous wind.

  She smiled at Darian. He reminded her a great deal of Ina, her friend who had ensured that she could follow Stefan into the future. She remembered how the moon had lit up Ina's white hair like a halo, and how her friend had explained what she could do.

  Ina put her to sleep for a thousand years, stating that she would wake when Stefan and the monster did. Throughout all those years, her family would guard Aja and see to her, protecting her from all harm until she woke up.

  Darian's smile was fierce and determined, and he nodded at Aja.

  “Don't worry, we'll find him.”

  “Of course we will,” Aja said, amused. “I followed him over a thousand years. I have no intention of failing now.”

  There was something a little shuttered about the way Darian looked at her, and though he was a handsome man, Aja could only think about Stefan. They had known each other so little, but she knew that when he was torn away from her, it was as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest.

  The moment she had awakened, she knew that she needed to go after him, but of course things weren't that easy.

  She had fallen asleep in the wilderness and, over a thousand years, a city had grown up around her. The wolves of Stefan's and Ina's packs had changed as much as the world had, but she was grateful to see that they were still watching over her, willing to help her.

  When she had awoken, she had been taken to a secluded cabin in the wilderness, and Darian and his twin sister Melly had given her a bare-bones crash course on what she needed to know to understand the modern world. She knew enough not to be startled by cars and by the strange clothing that people wore, and she had taken the papers and documents they had given her with curiosity. It had taken almost four months before they thought she was ready to go out into the world without doing herself harm, and she had chafed under every moment of it. All she knew was that somewhere, Stefan would be waking up, and though she understood the need for the training, she longed to be with him.

  Darian said that she was adapting very well, but she knew that her desperate urge toward learning more about the world around her was only her overwhelming need to get back to Stefan, to find him, and to make sure that he was safe. In the middle of her lessons, she found the time to wonder if he was angry with her, if he thought she had done it on purpose, but then she brushed it away. She could explain it to him, she knew she could.

  As if sensing her distress, Darian squeezed her hand again, his face sweet and open. He reminded her so much of his ancestress Ina that Aja could have cried, but she summoned up a smile instead. Ina had been the one to use her wild magic to send Aja into the future, and it seemed a poor recompense to pay her kindness with fear and sadness.

  A disembodied voice came over the speaker, and Aja's startled response was less than it was just a few weeks ago. She secured herself using the locking belt that was indicated, and she settled herself back in the seat.

  “They said that there's going to be some turbulence, but it should be fine.”

  Aja smiled at him.

  “The winds are mine to command,” she said teasingly. “Don't think I'm such a coward as all that.”

  “Maybe I'm the coward,” he joked. “I'm a creature of the woods. I don't like being so high in the air.”

  Aja didn't reply, but she closed her eyes. In her mind, she could see the way the airplane flew, gliding along under its own power, but she could also feel the winds that shook it now. She spoke to them, her hands moving silently in her lap, and slowly, the winds smoothed, and they calmed.

  Darian smiled a little, looking past her out the window, where the clouds had been cleared away. What remained was a glittering star field, and he shook his head.

  “You're amazing,” he said with admiration.

  “I hope so,” Aja whispered. She thought of the monster ahead of her. She thought of Stefan.

  ***

  The plane landed in Colossal City, and Aja stayed close to Darian as they ducked and wove their way through the crowded airport. She had to stop herself from staring around her at the sheer mass of people, and the way they seemed so comfortable with being so cramped. When she was first traveling, she had crossed through a few human settlements, but they were never as crowded as this.

  “I don't like it either,” Darian said as they waited to rent a car. “We'll be away soon enough.”

  Aja nodded, and she breathed a sigh of relief when they picked up their bags and were driving again. She had learned to love cars. They were amazing ways to travel, they didn't need food like horses did, and the sheer distances that could be crossed were immense. What could take her months would take a car a single day, and she watched in fascination as the city fell behind them and gave way to woodlands.

  “This feels more like home,” she commented, and Darian nodded.

  “There aren't so many shape-changing people here but there have been a few new transplants over the past year or so. We're going to meet one of them now.”

  Aja bit her lip. It was all she could do not to tell him to let her out, that she needed to scent for Stefan, to search for him and for the monster she had sent away with him.

  As if sensing her distress, Darian closed his hands over hers. “It'll be fine.”

  She relished the warmth of his hand on hers, settling back in the seat. He had been so kind to her. He had been so patient and understanding, and at the last moment, he had offered to come with her to America to help her on her search. It was a remarkable thing to do for a young woman he had just barely met, and she knew that if she allowed herself to, she would become quite dependent on him.

  He drove them out of the city, and soon the roads become much more bumpy and rough. They were still as fine as the Roman roads that she had seen on her travels, however, and she only laughed when Darian swore.

  The sun was just beginning to dip under the horizon when they pulled up to a small cabin at the end of a very rough road, and Darian pulled over.

  “This is the home of Benedict Halfdansson,” he said. “He's a judge, like you are, and when I contacted him, he agreed to help us search.”

  The moment Aja got out of the car, she stood stock still, feeling the play of the winds. They moved along their path, but she
could feel them being bent under another's control. There was someone behind the cabin, and they were weaving the winds in a delicate interplay that was astounding. Before Darian could stop her, she was rushing around the edge of the cabin, and she stopped short.

  There was a tall, rather slender man in the back, and he wore nothing but a pair of dark, loose trousers. As she watched, sweat beaded on his chest as he twisted the winds to his will. She watched in surprise as he made the winds dance in a complex pattern before finally dismissing them.

  “Oh well done!” she exclaimed, and he looked up, startled.

  “Stand down, Benedict,” Darian said from behind her. “This is the woman I told you about.”

  Benedict scowled reflexively at Darian, but he looked at Aja with new eyes. “You are... a judge,” he said, and she grinned at him.

  “I am the first judge,” she replied. “What you're doing, I was the first to relearn the powers after the dark ages. Everything that you've been taught begins with the books I found.”

  “Then why were you watching so wide-eyed as I went through some basic exercises?” he retorted, but before Darian could growl a challenged, Aja was stepping forward lightly.

  “Things may have changed, but I'm sure that I can show you why I was the first,” she said. “Care to try me?”

  Benedict's eyes narrowed.

  “My teacher taught me a game for those who play with the winds. The contest is won by the one who knocks the other over. What do you say to that?”

  “I think I say that Darian should give us the count, and we shall see.”

  “I think this is a rotten idea,” Darian muttered, shaking his head. Still though, he counted down from three, and on zero, the winds of the clearing lifted up like a storm.