Water Spell (Guardians of the Realm Book 1)

by Lizzy Ford

  “Your power could stop a war, Sela.”

  She nodded, not at all certain how to bridge her desire not to kill with her hope of avoiding a war.

  “My brother has made his will clear. He intends to wield you as a weapon.”

  “And marry me to his son,” she added. “In the Inlands, every man makes his own fate, his own laws. They answer to no one.”

  “Karav always said you were wild,” her father said quietly. “No king can ignore your power, Sela, or what possessing the water mage will do for his kingdom.”

  “I would give my life for you, Father, and for my guardian. I do not want to fight on behalf of anyone else.”

  His silence was not one of disappointment but of consideration. She waited for his response with bated breath.

  “I need time to think,” he said at last. “My loyalties lie with our king, but you are my daughter, and I value you above all else.”

  “You can rule the Inlands.”

  “If your warrior is a representative of his people, they will not be ruled,” her father said ruefully. “Injured as he was, he killed five of my personal guard and held a knife to my throat before I told him who I was.”

  She hid her smile, proud of Tieran.

  “He also swore to murder me if I lied to him.”

  She laughed. “He is wilder than I am.”

  “And not a man my brother would allow at court. I believe the priests would throw him out of the mage-warrior corps as well.”

  “He is the strongest mage-warrior in existence,” she said confidently. “Water mage blood runs in him. He can command the ocean, albeit not as much as I can.”

  “Can he? I have never heard of this.”

  She nodded once more. “He has massacred wind mages and their warriors and entire armies.”

  “You favor him.”

  “I admire him.”

  “That is why you wish to stay here.”

  Sela flushed. Her father saw what she had hoped he did not, because she was not certain herself. “I don’t know what I want.”

  “You would make me choose between my daughter and my king.”

  “I want to help you, Father. But I do not wish to hurt or serve anyone.”

  “Perhaps there is a compromise,” Henli spoke from behind them.

  Sela had forgotten about the man she would not allow to move farther than an arm’s length from her. He sat nearby, listening.

  “If you do not wish me to drown you, you will respect your place here!” she retorted.

  Her father chuckled. “Let the man speak, sea star,” he chided. “I know his house well. Peace among the kingdoms is a necessity for wealthy tradesmen.”

  “If your king had any idea of what this mage can do, he would want her far away from him,” Henli complained. “Let her stay in the Inlands. Let the Inlands become the place where peace is negotiated, with the water mage who will not let anyone leave until all have agreed to the terms of your peace.”

  “You speak as well as your father,” her father said with a faint smile.

  “He also kidnapped me and threatened to murder my guardian!” she reminded him.

  “A crime for which we will ransom him,” her father assured her. “Would you consider this, my sea star? I will be here with you.”

  “As long as all kingdoms respect the Inland traditions.”

  “I will decree it.”

  Was her father granting her the ability to decide her own fate? She was afraid to ask.

  “Come. You must rest,” he said and stood.

  The first tent was erected, the large one bearing the sigil of her father’s royal house and flying his banner. She trailed him into it, taking in what luxury he had thought to bring with him. Her eyes fell to a copper basin behind a screen, and she sighed. How long had it been since she had a warm bath?

  A pallet awaited her behind a second screen, covered in furs and pillows. She grinned, touched her father recalled her love of pillows and thought to bring them with him. She threw herself onto the bed, and relaxed.

  A breath later, she was on her feet.

  What were all the luxuries and gold in the world, if she were enslaved to a king? Or if she lost Tieran?

  “Father,” she started, feeling his eyes on her. “Whether or not your plan works, I won’t leave the Inlands.” She lifted her gaze to his face, hating the thought of disappointing him, yet unwilling to yield either.

  “My sea star, I cannot predict how my brother will react, but I promise you I will always love and protect you, to the best of my abilities,” he said with a warm smile. “No woman in your bloodline has been permitted to choose her fate or whom she fights for. But your independence may be the key to peace. If any king refuses to respect this, or pushes war, you are close enough to the ocean for it to protect you if your warrior and I can’t.”

  Tears stung her eyes. “Thank you, Father,” she said and hugged him once more.

  “I know you want to wait for him,” he added. “Do not venture too far to call upon your magic. Tomorrow, we will determine what our course of action will be.”

  Sela left his embrace. She grabbed Henli’s arm as she hurried past him.

  She could not think to rest when Tieran was alone, fighting armies. Sela went to the edge of the channel and gazed in the direction he had gone earlier. It was midday, and he had left in the morning.

  Placated by the ocean, she freed her thoughts and magic to run wild. She sat and waited, unconcerned with the afternoon sun, or the coolness of the air when dusk began to fall. Henli, as if understanding his danger, was mercifully silent.

  Night draped the land in front of her in darkness. Sela stood then and stretched her stiff body. The water conveyed her and Henli to the other side of the channel, and she began walking. She passed the site where the catacombs had stood. The ocean assured her the skeletons were safe and intact, waiting for her to find them a new resting place.

  She passed the remnants of Tieran’s village. A whisper of water magic stopped her, and she turned to face the trees beside the burnt out dwellings.

  Sela walked through the grasses and paused when she reached Tieran. The collar was gone. Uncertain why he had not chosen to return to her, she hesitated.

  “Did you find the key?” she asked, aware of the lurking tradesman at her back.

  Tieran tossed it to her without looking at her. Sela unlocked the cuff around her forearm and turned to glare at Henli. He needed no further encouragement to leave her and return to the channel.

  Relieved to be rid of him, Sela faced Tieran again. His distance was much worse than his anger. She hesitated and then sat beside him, their sides touching. His body pulled her cool magic into it, healing him. She studied his profile before looking away, towards the destroyed village.

  “Has your father come to take you home to marry your prince?” he asked in irritation.

  “No.”

  “You never mentioned you were a princess.”

  “You serve no king or god or priest.” She sighed. “Why would it matter?”

  He did not answer.

  Troubled by his silence, she shifted to stare at his face. “What have I done to disturb you?” she demanded. “Are you angry with me? Have I offended you?”

  For a long moment, she did not think he would respond.

  “I cannot do this.”

  Her pulse slowed and then quickened. “Do what?” she pressed.

  “I cannot be your mage-warrior. I’m an Inlander. We are not like you.”

  “Where is this coming from?” she snapped. “You risked your life for me, and I for you. We are bound. You took an oath to me!”

  He glanced at her, a familiar fire in his gaze.

  “Is this because of what happened … under the sea?” she asked hesitantly. “Did I repulse or anger or insult you?”

  “You are worthy of a prince.”

  “I don’t want a prince!” she retorted. “I want to be free. I want to be an Inlander, and I want you to yel
l at me again or threaten me or show me somehow what you feel. Tieran, you have never, ever withheld yourself from me like this!”

  “I cannot be your guardian, if you are not mine,” he said through gritted teeth. “If any other man lays a hand on you, I will murder him. When Inlanders take an oath to another, it is for all time, but I am torn by the knowledge I cannot be your guardian under these conditions.”

  “I don’t understand. What conditions? Because you took an oath to me, but I have taken none to you?” she asked, agitated.

  He met her gaze.

  “You are the only man I want to touch me, Tieran. I will take an oath to no man but you. I will marry no man but you! Unless you are too stubborn to see what’s in front of you!”

  The words left her mouth before she could consider whether or not they should be spoken. They felt too true, to natural, for her to regret them. Flustered, she wrung her hands together in her lap.

  Tieran’s full attention was on her.

  “I don’t know how Inlander oaths are spoken,” she said, face hot. “I don’t even know if that’s what you want. You’ve been ignoring me for –”

  His kiss silenced her. Where she had been too surprised to respond the first time, she found herself answering his lips with hunger of her own. Sela cupped his cheeks in both hands and leaned into him. Fever raced along the magic in her blood, and her power flowed into him. His tongue slid into her mouth, and she melted into him, enamored by the flavor of the salty ocean and man.

  Tieran lifted his head. Breathless, she gazed at him. His palms rested against her cheeks, and heat burned in his eyes.

  “I would take a thousand oaths to you,” she whispered, embarrassed by the husky note in her voice.

  “I only need one,” he said.

  “My father is allowing me to stay here. We can be free together,” she said. “Is this why you have been indifferent? Because you thought I would choose a prince over you?”

  “The first time you lay in my arms …” He drifted off. “A fire that cannot be extinguished. It is how many Inlanders describe finding their mates. I knew then I couldn’t be your guardian, unless I was your everything. I fought it and focused on my vengeance. With my enemy dead … you are madness, Sela, and resisting you is agony. When you kissed me, I couldn’t deny it any longer.”

  She smiled, touched by the sentiment from the man who rarely expressed his feelings.

  “Would you have left, if your father decreed it?” he asked. His skin was hot against hers, his intent gaze scattering her thoughts.

  She shook her head. “I choose my own fate,” she vowed.

  “Unless I decide otherwise,” he said, his smile faint.

  “You hear the roar of the ocean? It responds to my command!”

  “But I never will.”

  She rolled her eyes and pushed away from him.

  “Settle, mage,” he warned softly.

  His expression silenced any objection she might make.

  “I’m an Inlander now,” she said firmly.

  “There are no Inlands anymore,” he pointed out.

  “The world is about to change,” she agreed, thoughts on her father’s plan to enlist her help to enforce peace rather than win a war. “I won’t let anyone hurt you again.”

  Tieran laughed, the first such sound she had heard from him. “As long as you don’t carry a dagger.”

  Her cheeks grew hot. “That happened once,” she objected.

  “I’ll protect you, mage,” he said, settling his forehead against hers. “Even from yourself.”

  Sela’s heart sang. The cool magic passed between them, while heat bloomed within her. She wanted to remind him she had never ventured down this path, never known a man intimately, and did not fully understand what to do.

  “I know, mage,” he responded to her uncertainty. “I’ll be gentle. We have a lifetime. I’ll be patient.”

  She smiled. “Maybe I don’t hate your ability to read my mind so much anymore.”

  “You’ll find it more useful later.”

  While she didn’t understand what he meant, she smiled anyway.

  Tieran shook his head. He stood and held out his hand. Sela took it, and he pulled her up.

  Tieran’s gaze returned to where his family had died, and his expression grew somber again.

  “We can stay here,” she said. “It’s near the channel.”

  “I’m not certain yet,” he replied.

  She squeezed his hand.

  “Not all of my memories are painful. There is a place near here where I used to take my sisters,” he said. He started away, past the thatch of trees. “It was the last place I took them the morning they were murdered.”

  “I’m honored you want to show me,” she whispered.

  “I’m the last of my clan, and you are the only water mage. You may become a broodmare yet.”

  “I am not a broodmare!” she snapped. “I’m the only water mage in existence, daughter of a prince and niece of the man who hopes to become the High King! Our children will be royalty and mages, not weapons to be used by any king who wishes to!”

  He smiled. “They’ll be Inlanders. Wild and free. Assuming the Sorcerer across the ocean doesn’t kill us.”

  “I’ll drown him if he tries.”

  Tieran faced her. “You are mine.” He studied her face. “I am yours. I take my second oath to you, as my mate. I will protect you and care for you as only an Inlander can, to the last breath and the last drop of blood in my body.”

  The ferocity with which he spoke the vow left her breathless and grinning. Her insides bubbled with desire and happiness and cool ocean magic.

  Tieran kissed her on the forehead and began walking again.

  “I still plan on defying you,” she said when she had caught her breath.

  “Good,” he replied. “I look forward to teaching you the many ways I can tame that tongue of yours.”

  The fever inside her left her too hot to respond. It was with no small amount of interest she dwelled on what he meant, and how much she anticipated learning all he had to teach her.

  They walked into the darkness, away from the remnants of his village.

  Sela had no way of knowing what would happen the following day. But it would not matter, as long as Tieran was by her side.

  15

  “Have you considered apologizing?”

  Ignoring the question, the Sorcerer focused on the bowl of water over which he stood. There were four bowls situated atop pillars in his cozy war chamber. Each bowl was a window to one of the women he watched. Crystals of all colors decorated every free space in the chamber, their hum thick in the air.

  “We lost the north fleet.”

  He looked up in annoyance at the middle-aged man whose mirage presence shadowed his doorway. “She has sworn to come when we need her. This is more important than a few ships.”

  “A few ships used to prevent our enemies from taking our last port.”

  “She swore every ship in my port would perish,” the Sorcerer replied. “That includes those of our enemies.”

  The Sorcerer’s eyes settled on the charts and scrolls littering the table in the center of the chamber. The ongoing battles depicted in different colors of ink changed and morphed on the chart on top. The scrolls displaying the battles already fought no longer shifted and moved, while those yet to be fought were blank.

  “I know what I’m doing, Itin,” the Sorcerer added softly. “She is the first. This is a victory for us.”

  “What of the other three?”

  “They’re not ready yet.”

  “We don’t have much time.”

  “I know, Itin,” the Sorcerer said. “Do what you can.”

  Itin’s image vanished, leaving the Sorcerer in his chamber, alone to calculate how long he had remaining to save the last kingdom of ten left standing in his realm.

  Guardians of the Realm

  Water Spell

  Moon Spell (2018)

  Dragon S
pell (2018)

  Sword Spell (2019)

  Also By Lizzy Ford

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