Death Flag

  Madison shifted uncomfortably as he tried to figure out how to answer that question without simply saying ‘I’m from another world and wasn’t taught stories of murders while in the crib.’ “I guess my education in history is lacking. Why don’t you—”

  Madison stopped speaking mid-sentence when he suddenly became aware of someone else standing in the doorway.

  He had been so focused on the conversation and keeping an eye on Shayna that he hadn’t even considered the possibility of someone else entering the apartment. Silently cursing himself for overlooking such an obvious possibility, he bolted upright and leapt to the center of the room. There was no way for him to completely cut off both Shayna and Alyanna, so he took a spot that was somewhere in between both, hoping that he could respond in either direction if necessary.

  “Who are you?” Madison demanded of the stranger before he had stopped moving. “What are you doing here?” There was a figure standing in the doorway, but Madison couldn’t make out anything about him other than the fact that he was about the same height as Madison due to the fact that he was wrapped in a traveling cloak with the hood pulled up.

  “I would think I’d be asking you the same questions,” a bemused voice answered. “Last time I checked, this was a private suite. It’s not commonplace for students to be granted their own quarters now, is it?”

  The last bit came out as more of a statement than a question, though Madison had no intention of answering it anyway. “Who are you?” he repeated again, slightly more forcefully. “If you know this is a private area that’s off-limits, you should know better than to walk in uninvited.” He didn’t really mean to sound threatening, but it was hard not to under the circumstances. He was still blaming himself for not even so much as locking the door or considering the fact that someone else might show up, and this guy had just appeared without so much as a knock on the door or a whistle to warn them that he was coming in. Given how Shayna had been assaulted, it was only natural that he would be on the defensive.

  The stranger paused for a split-second as if deciding how he should react and then tilted his head back and removed the hood from his face, revealing a disheveled-looking man that was likely somewhere in his mid-to-late thirties. He had short, dark hair that was sticking up in every direction that made him look like he had just rolled out of bed, and he was sporting a rather impressive five o’clock shadow. He had strong facial features with a square jaw and intense brown eyes.

  Alyanna gasped as she saw him, and Madison’s eyes swiveled around to look at her while keeping the man in his line of sight as well. The stranger turned to look at her as if realizing that they weren’t alone in the room for the first time, but there was no sign of any surprise on his face if he felt it.

  “Hello, Alyanna,” he said warmly. “It’s been a long time.”

  “You know this man?” Madison asked.

  “We’ve met before, but I doubt that she remembers me,” the stranger answered, a small smile playing across his face as if he were recalling a fond memory.

  “No,” Alyanna said, rising to her feet and coming to stand in front of Madison. “We’ve never met, but I know who you are. I was wondering if I would be able to meet you while I was here. My family is in your debt for what you did for us.” She curtsied deeply, bowing low respectfully.

  The man’s small grin turned into a full laugh, and he chuckled as if this were the most amusing sight he had seen in a long time. “Amazing! But don’t do that. Save that for someone who cares. Up! Up!” He waved his hands as if trying to shoo her up from a bow and then walked forward and reached out and grasped her shoulders when she stood up straight.

  Madison tensed up at the movement, and the stranger beamed a smile at him from over Alyanna’s head.

  “You seem to have a rather nervous watchdog,” the man said playfully, the smile never leaving his face. “Are you sure this one is housebroken? He doesn’t seem to be well-trained at all.”

  “Excuse me?” Madison asked. Despite the fact that it looked like two old friends were being reunited for the first time in ages, he still didn’t have a clue who this guy was. Alyanna seemed to know him, but given his recent confrontation with most of her household, that didn’t do much to set his mind at ease.

  Alyanna shot him a glance over her shoulder that warned him to mind himself. “He’s not mine to train,” she answered, turning back to the man. “But I’ll admit that he’s more useful than you would imagine at first glance.”

  “Well, does he have a name at least?” he asked, looking between them.

  “Ma—”

  “Isn’t it usually polite to introduce yourself first when asking someone else’s name?” Madison asked, cutting her off before she could answer.

  “Hmm . . . You didn’t seem to have a problem demanding my name from me only moments ago,” the man observed.

  “Behave,” Alyanna warned again.

  “Madison?” he repeated, and it sounded as if he had just come to some sudden realization by putting two and two together. “I see. So, you must be the new guy that’s giving everyone fits around here. I must admit, however, that the last I heard, you were trying to kill Miss Fox and her family. So, forgive me if I’m a bit curious as to how I’m able to find you alone and in her company.”

  “I didn’t realize that I had already reached levels of such renown,” Madison answered slowly and carefully. “But then, from what I’ve seen, everyone loves a good story around here, so I guess it shouldn’t be that surprising. And you are . . .?”

  “Burke,” the man answered simply. “I’ve been gone for a while, so we haven’t had the opportunity of being introduced yet—not that I have much to do with people even when I am around, so it’s really not that unusual at all, really.”

  “Burke, as in . . .?” Madison instantly regarded the man in a new light. He wasn’t what Madison would have expected. This man seemed lazy and unkempt. He was about the polar opposite of Ryder and Davion, and he hadn’t come in swinging or barking orders. In short, he was about the last thing Madison would have expected from one of the Guardians.

  “I see you’ve heard of me as well,” Burke answered with a smile. “I know what you’re thinking: There’s no way this scruffy-looking guy covered in dirt can be a Guardian. He doesn’t look anything like Davion, and he doesn’t walk with a stick up his ass like Ryder! Am I right?” He grinned broadly at his own joke, clearly relishing the enjoyment he got from watching Alyanna’s face change in disbelief.

  “Yeah, pretty much,” Madison answered in agreement. Burke seemed to have a fairly good handle on what his impressions were, so he didn’t see the point in trying to hide his feelings.

  “Guardians aren’t cast from a mold. We’re all individual people too. It would serve you well to remember that.” His grin faded, but the smile didn’t leave his face. His voice took on a softer and more serious tone, but it was something akin to an amused teacher lecturing his students. “The same goes true for everyone else, actually. Just because you find someone filling a particular role, it doesn’t mean that they want to do it. It doesn’t mean that’s who they are when they hang up their jacket and go home at night. More often than not, I think you’d be surprised if you paid attention.”

  Madison nodded, unfazed by the sudden shift to a topic that was philosophical in nature. He knew all too well what it was like to be someone stuck in a role he never wanted to fill out of necessity. He had spent years working in that warehouse and wanting nothing more than to escape—but that was the price of making a living. He had traded dreams and ambitions for comfort and security. “I get it,” he said at last.

  “Alyanna,” Burke said, grasping her by the shoulders once again. “There are a lot of things that you and I need to talk about. I’m not sure what your relationship is”—he glanced up at Madison as he said that—“but I think it’s good that you’re both here. I need to have a word with Madison first, so can you do me a favor?” Alyanna nodded like a lovestruck schoolgirl
as she looked up at Burke, and Madison had to repress a groan. “I need you to go to the infirmary first and find a young girl there named Erin. I’m told that she’s a friend of Madison’s, so I think you can trust her. I’m assuming that you’re both here instead of in the medical wing because you want some privacy and don’t trust anyone, so you might as well stick with someone you do.”

  Madison nodded. He had never really thought about Erin as being his friend, but if he was going to have to trust someone, the quiet young girl was about as good as anyone else. He’d had more to do with Rae, but she couldn’t keep her mouth shut. “She’ll do,” he answered.

  “Good. Second, I want you to find Madison’s other friend Warren. You’re going to need a tracker, and again, I think you can trust him.”

  Madison nodded a second time. “You sure do seem to be well-informed on who I hang out with for someone who’s been gone for so long.”

  Burke shrugged. “It’s a Guardian’s job to know everything that’s going on in K’yer Utane, and that still applies even when he isn’t here all the time. Truth be told, I came here with more than one purpose in mind. I was going to seek you out anyway, so it’s just convenient that you’re here to begin with. I didn’t realize you were the one who had carried Shayna off, but I suspected as much.”

  “So, that whole little bit just now was a ruse?” Madison asked. “You knew who I was the entire time, yet you pretended like you didn’t.”

  “Would it have mattered either way?” Burke asked. “You were already on the defensive when I came through that door, so telling you I knew exactly who you were would have only put your hackles up even more.”

  Madison sighed. He couldn’t argue that fact, and he knew that it wouldn’t have done him much good to try. It was scary how accurately informed Burke was and how he was able to read the situation so quickly. “You say that every Guardian is different individually, but you’re all scheming, observant bastards, aren’t you?”

  “Well, yeah,” he answered nonchalantly. “That part should go without saying.” Then, turning back to look at Alyanna, he asked, “Can you find those two and bring them back here?”

  “Of course,” she answered.

  “If they question you, just tell them both that you’re acting on my authority. They shouldn’t put up too much of a fight. I’ve worked with Warren before, and Erin is too honest to call you out on lying about using a Guardian’s name.”

  Alyanna nodded again, and then without a backward glance, she was gone from the room.

  The two men watched her go. Madison heard the door to the apartment swing shut, and Burke slowly crossed the room until he was standing beside the bed. He looked down at Shayna for a long moment then tenderly reached out and stroked her hair. “I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you. You’ve done a lot to protect her. You may not realize it yet, but you’ve risked a lot as well. I know that you haven’t gone without repercussions for what you did, so I want you to know I appreciate it.”

  “Why?” he asked suspiciously. “I mean, you’re welcome? I’m happy to do it, and I don’t regret anything I’ve done, but what difference does it make to you? Isn’t this entire place supposed to be about survival of the fittest and all that? Training you how to respond to being attacked at any time?”

  Burke smiled slightly, and he suddenly looked ten years older and on the verge of exhaustion. “I’m not surprised she hasn’t said anything. I probably shouldn’t either. I don’t think she’d ever admit it to anyone, actually . . .”

  He never took his eyes off of Shayna as he spoke, and Madison realized that he had seen that look before. He’d seen it multiple times over the years. It was the particular look that was only ever used when you were watching someone in the hospital. It was an expressionless gaze that was filled with concern and worry and masked by false confidence and subtly-faked courage. It was a look shared by the families of patients across the world as they watched their loved ones suffer.

  “I see,” Madison said. He was afraid to say too much for fear of assuming too much and guessing incorrectly.

  “Well, I guess I should probably honor her wishes and keep my mouth shut, right?” Burke stroked her hair one more time and then sat down on the edge of the bed, gently taking her hand in his. “How much did you give her?”

  “Give her? Oh. About a quarter of the bottle,” he answered, moving back to this stool and sitting down so that he wasn’t intruding. “I was afraid of putting her out for too long, and it didn’t exactly come with instructions written on it.”

  Burke knowingly cast a glance back over his shoulder at Madison and said, “Yeah. Most things don’t come with a manual when you steal them. There’s a reason we keep that all under lock and key, you know.”

  Madison took a breath. “Wait a minute. You know I stole the healing drought, and you aren’t ticked off? Are you guys really watching everywhere all the time? Even in the storage rooms? No. That’s not right. There’s no way. You just know I stole it because I had it and was able to use it on her.”

  “You’re smarter than you look. I’ll give you that at much. Speaking of which, you should have known better than to mix those two potions together. Do you have any idea what would have happened if you had taken more than you did?”

  Madison shrugged. “Warren told me that they were fairly rare and expensive, but they seem common enough around here. As for the other, someone else warned me about that . . . Said that it would have some nasty side effects or some such and that only Guardians ever used it. It wasn’t any worse than a shot of espresso, though, so I’m not really sure what all the fuss was for.” He hadn’t really given much thought to side effects or consequences at the time. All he had cared about then was healing up and staying awake so that he could track down Alyanna and get revenge. Things hadn’t exactly turned out the way he had expected, but he hadn’t fallen into a coma or anything else either.

  Burke flinched over the word ‘espresso’ but didn’t question it. There was something similar to coffee in this world, so maybe espresso existed as well in some form or another. At the moment, that was a strangely comforting thought to Madison.

  “They’re costly enough, but they’re a basic necessity to have on hand around here. If the infirmary ran out, we’d have to rely just on magic. It taxes the body in different ways than the healing drought, so we try to alternate between both whenever we can. The problem is that fewer and fewer people are showing the aptitude for healing lately. Well, they have more than enough talent to learn it if they wanted, but everyone seems to gravitate toward the flashier and more aggressive skills. Healers used to be commonplace when I was younger, but no one really seems interested in learning that path these days.”

  Madison almost asked him exactly when his ‘younger days’ were, but that would have been tantamount to asking how old he was. Given how skewed time was between this valley and the outside world, there was no telling exactly how long someone like Burke had been alive. Warren had mentioned that it took a lifetime just to reach Sworn. For someone to reach Guardian, they would have had to have spanned several lifetimes. There was also no telling how sensitive he might be on that issue. Madison had never thought of a Guardian as someone who might be sensitive, but Burke had already pointed out that everyone was different.

  There was a polite knock on the door despite the fact that it was standing open, and Madison turned to see Erin standing there. She was slightly wide-eyed, and her gaze was fixed on Burke and Shayna. Madison hadn’t seen her since the day he and Shayna got into a fight outside the hot spring. Looking back, that felt like it had been forever ago even though it had only been a few short days.

  “You called for me, Guardian,” she said quietly. Addressing a Guardian was one of the few times Erin ever spoke, and Madison had forgotten how small her voice seemed.

  “Oh, don’t look surprised,” Burke said disapprovingly when he saw her expression. “You knew I was coming back, and you knew she was hurt. Word still travels as qu
ickly as wildfire around here, right? Don’t tell me you’re mad that I didn’t visit you first.”

  Madison blinked.

  Erin shook her head slightly, and the habit-like-garment she wore swayed slightly. “Of course not. How can I be of assistance, Guardian?”

  Burke fixed his gaze on Erin, and all playfulness disappeared from his face. His temperament turned serious and slightly dark, and Madison instantly understood at that moment that this man really was a Guardian. In a calm and steady voice, he asked, “Do you trust him?”

  “Yes,” she answered without hesitation, her gaze fixed on Burke.

  Burke nodded sharply and then sighed. And, with that one word, the dark illusion was dispelled. Whatever malevolent force he had summoned for that one simple question was scattered back to wherever it had originally come from. Burke took a breath and said, “Then come check on your sister. I need to know whether or not it’s safe to wake her up.”

  Wait. WHAT?! Madison looked back and forth between the two young girls with Burke between them. Did I just hear that right?

  Burke caught the unveiled surprise that must have been written on Madison’s face and snorted. “You and I need to play cards together sometime,” he commented.

  “Uhhh . . . Sorry . . . I just . . .” Madison gave up trying to save himself, so he just shut up entirely. He had been caught gawking, and he didn’t know what to say anyway.

  “She’s resting reasonably well,” Erin said quietly as she checked over Shayna. “She’s already past the worst of it, but she could stand another dose of healing to get her all the way there.”

  “And waking her?” Burke asked.

  “Is it that important?” Erin asked, glancing at Burke. “She doesn’t get into nearly as much trouble when she’s asleep. It’s so much easier to keep an eye on her when she’s like this.”