by Holly Martin
Zach caught up to the youngster, grabbed his arm and as he pulled him sharply back, Zach punched him hard in the face. He swung his fist back to punch him again, but that’s when Deacon caught up to him and pulled Zach away.
‘Zach, no!’ muttered Deacon angrily. ‘Let him go.’
Zach struggled against him, but then gave up, as Deacon held him tightly.
‘Go on, get out of here, you traitor,’ Zach said and the youngster left, holding his clearly broken nose.
Zach and Deacon walked back towards the Guardlings, Zach flashing furious glances at the rest of them, daring any more to leave, but none did. And the stream of Guardians leaving had also stopped.
I looked round the room to see the final count. Aside from the Guardlings and my personal guard there was just five others left, Thomas, Philip, Jacob, Noah and Ethan.
I looked back at my personal guard. ‘Are you sure none of you want to leave?’
But they all shook their head vehemently.
‘Thank you,’ I said, my eyes lingering especially on Isaac, who I was convinced would leave me like the rest. I repeated my thanks to the remaining Guardians and turned my attention to the Guardlings. But something was happening amongst the little group of Guardlings. Maybe someone else was trying to leave, there looked to be another tussle, with Zach in the middle.
‘Ok, ok,’ I heard Zach say, as he emerged from the Guardlings and approached the platform.
‘Eve,’ he looked awkward. ‘We erm, we want to stay, we want to be loyal to you, but erm, but we do have one condition.’
I felt my eyebrows shoot up and next to me, holding my hand, Seth growled.
‘It’s just that, we feel that… some of us feel that there’s no point being loyal to you if you don’t actually want us.’
‘I do want you,’ I insisted.
Zach shook his head. ‘Well not really Eve, when the Oraculum’s Guardians fought against you, we were forbidden to fight for you. When Persia put the bond on you that protected you from them, we weren’t part of that. I know we are young, but we are strong and fiercely loyal and we want you to use us, if you need to. We will only stay with you if, when Persia reinstates the bond to include those that are left that we are part of that too.’
I looked over at the Guardlings. They were children, some no older than twelve or thirteen. Zach was the oldest and he was no more than sixteen himself. I wouldn’t risk them, it was bad enough to have my Guardians willing to die for me, but to have a twelve year old boy willing to die to save me was out of the question.
‘Zach, there’s not enough of us to protect Eve in the fort anymore, we will be leaving here tonight, and I would like you to remain, to stay in the fort, to guard it should we need it again. And continue your training,’ Eli said and then turning to me. ‘And Eve if we need them, we can call them,’ he said, meaningfully.
I knew what he meant. That I should agree to their terms and that they would be safe here, whilst they weren’t with me. I also knew, that no matter what happened, there would never come a time when I would call them, at least not for another few years. But Eli was right. I couldn’t turn away forty five young Guardians that were so loyal to me, not when they had stayed when everyone else had left.
I nodded and Zach grinned.
‘So I’ll put the bond on everyone in this room then?’ Persia asked.
I nodded.
A few seconds later, it was done, any of the Guardians that had left would no longer be able to slide to me, and kill me if they suddenly found the desire to do so.
I left the throne room surrounded by my personal guard. I felt numb. First my brother had left me then all my Guardians. How had the day come to this?
As I made my way back to my bedroom the cold reality of it had hit me. The Guardians leaving had been bad enough but to lose my brother was heartbreaking.
I somehow made it back to my bedroom, but I had no recollection of the route I had taken.
I sat down heavily on the bed with my head in my hands.
Even though I couldn’t see them, I could feel the stares of my Guardians burning through my hands.
When the anxious, confused silence seeped into my pores, when it wrapped around my heart, I couldn’t bear it anymore.
‘I’m going to have a bath,’ I mumbled and walked into the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.
As soon as I was in the bathroom, I heard the raised voices of my personal guard next door.
‘What the hell is going on?’ roared Isaac. ‘Everyone is turning against her, first the Oraculum, her Guardians, now her brother.’
I quickly turned the bath taps on, and stuck the plug in. The water filling the bath drowned out their voices.
I sat down on the edge of the bath, staring at the floor as I waited for it to fill. I felt numb. I tried not to replay the last moments I had seen Quinn. His tone, his angry face when I told him I loved him, the way he snatched his hand out of mine. Like a light switch had gone off in his head, so had the love he had felt for me.
It didn’t make sense. There had to be another reason for Quinn leaving. I just couldn’t see it.
I don’t know how long I sat there staring at the floor for. I didn’t even see Seth come in, I was only aware of his presence when he knelt down in front of me and took my hand.
I blinked, suddenly aware that the floor was at least an inch deep in water. I stood up in alarm, sloshing the water around my ankles. My bum and legs were soaked where the bath had run over and poured onto the floor.
‘Oh, sorry,’ I said, quickly leaning over to turn the taps off, but Seth had already done this, and pulled out the plug. I hadn’t even noticed.
‘It’s alright Eve, it’s just water,’ Seth said, standing up.
I held out my hand, pulling the water back into the bath, sucking it up like a straw and directing it down the plug hole. Once most of it was gone, I created a heat in my hand to dry up the remaining water. As soon as I was finished, I let my powers wink out, sighing heavily.
Seth reached out for my hand again, and putting it to his mouth he gently kissed my palm. He watched me as he moved his mouth to my wrist.
I closed my eyes and Seth wrapped an arm round my waist and pulled me against him.
‘You know he’s done this to protect you, right?’ Seth said eventually, when I had stayed silent for too long.
I looked up at him, hopefully. ‘What?’
‘It’s the only possible reason, Eve, you know he loves you, you know he is loyal to you. There’s no way he has betrayed you. So that only leaves trying to protect you.’
I smiled slightly at Seth’s conviction. ‘You don’t doubt him do you, not at all?’
‘No, absolutely not, and you shouldn’t either. And don’t listen to your Guardians, listen to what you know is right in your heart. Quinn loves you Eve, don’t ever forget that.’
I frowned. ‘My personal guard doesn’t believe in him?’
‘Lucas and Eli does, they feel like me, they’re adamant that Quinn is loyal to you. Noah, Isaac, Alexandria are… well they are just angry over the betrayal.’
My heart leapt. ‘If he comes back, they won’t hurt him will they, they can’t.’
Seth shook his head. ‘I made them promise they wouldn’t, I told them you would never forgive them if they did anything to him. Eli has agreed that they won’t hurt him but I think it will take a while for them to trust him again.’
I nodded then smiled. ‘Thank you.’
‘For what?’
‘For having faith in him, when I had none. You’re right, he wouldn’t leave me, not unless he had to.’
Seth shook his head. ‘No, he wouldn’t.’
‘What if Adam hurts him?’
‘He won’t. Adam will be curious about Quinn, he’ll want to find out about him and you. And don’t forget Quinn’s shape shifting abilities, he can shift into the tiniest bug or the greatest bear if he needs to. This is useful for us as well, Quinn can be our eyes, if there�
�s something we need to know, Quinn will get a message to us. Besides, he’ll be home before you know it.’
I sighed as I leant against him.
Seth continued to hold me in his arms for a while. ‘Now, you really need to get out of these wet clothes and have a shower. At least with a shower, you can’t let it over run.’
I nodded.
Seth kissed me on the forehead and left.
The shower did me good, it woke me up, alerting me to how silly I had been to doubt Quinn in the first place. And now there were other matters to attend to.
Chapter 6
I wrapped myself in my robe and padded out into the bedroom. They were all still waiting for me.
I sat down on the bed. ‘What do you guys know about these Putarian attacks?’
Eli sighed. ‘We only heard about it yesterday, just rumours, nothing substantial.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me, people are getting slaughtered, I could have done something,’ I said angrily.
‘Eve, we only found out last night when we came back from Scotland, the night you smacked your head and lost your memory. We could hardly tell you then, when you didn’t even know your own name. With you sliding to New York, I’m sorry to say it pretty much went out my head after that,’ Eli said.
‘And then we find out that the Oraculum no longer want you and that your treacherous Guardians want to leave you unprotected. We’ve not exactly been idle Eve,’ said Isaac, with some annoyance.
‘Well, what do we know?’ I asked, returning to the matter in hand.
‘The news we heard was weeks old. One of the Guardlings, Cole, heard from one of the farmers that lives on the slopes of the mountain that down in the villages there were a group of religious fanatics that were killing all the doctors. We presumed that it was the Putarians killing the Zekis, but we don’t know which village or how true it is,’ Lucas said.
I stood up. ‘We need to find out, if this is true we have to stop it.’
‘I thought you weren’t interfering anymore,’ Isaac said, coldly.
‘This is different, this isn’t interfering with the natural order of things, this is stopping innocent people being slaughtered. Besides, we need the Donum and Zeki, how many times have I been saved by Zekis now, they won’t keep healing us if we don’t help them when they need it.’
‘Eve, if the Putarians are rampaging through the villages then it really isn’t a good idea for you to turn up, their number one on their most wanted list,’ Alexandria said.
‘I have to do something.’
‘We need to find out if it’s true first, there’s no point risking your life for nothing,’ Seth said.
‘I’ve been trying to communicate with the Donum and Zeki in the area,’ Persia said. ‘They are either unwilling to talk to me, or there aren’t any in the area anymore.’
I swallowed. There wasn’t any in the area because they were all dead.
‘Look, we can slide down to the villages and take a look, we could be in and out in a couple of minutes, just a quick recon.’
‘How about you try to project, Eve. You’ve done it before. Then you can have a good look around and no one will see you,’ Lucas suggested, practically.
I smiled. He had such faith in me. ‘I have done it before, but never at will. It was only when something horrible had happened.’
‘Give it a go,’ Persia insisted. ‘That would be a really useful power to get control of. Besides you’re so much stronger now, everything seems to come much easier to you lately. In the same way that you imagine stepping through from one place to another when you slide around the world, or that you imagine being a bear or a lion when you are a shifting, this works in the same way. Just imagine leaving your body.’
I lay down on my bed and closed my eyes, letting my body relax. I imagined my consciousness to be a ball of light, floating up and out of my body and suddenly I felt weightless and I was staring down at my lifeless body. I glanced over at Lucas, who was staring at me floating in the air. No one else could feel me like he could and all my Guardians were still staring at my body. I drifted back into my body again and sat up.
‘It worked,’ Lucas laughed and I nodded.
‘Right I need to go down to the villages. But I don’t know where they are.’
Lucas grabbed a piece of paper and a pen, drawing a quick map, and pointing out the villages. ‘There are four main villages. This is Galooma, continue down the route we normally go when we run and you can’t miss it, it’s the biggest and most of the fort workers live there. Follow the road out of Galooma and you’ll come across Ty. Now on the opposite side of the mountain, in the deep ravine, beyond the slopes where you train with Zach, is Aquil,’ Lucas marked the village on his map. ‘That’s where most of the Zekis and Donum live, it’s remote, and very hard to get to. Those three are the closest, but over here by the lakes is Sai.’
I nodded, trying to take it all in, plotting a route I would take between them.
‘Ok, I’ll be as quick as I can.’
They all nodded, though I could see Eli was less than pleased with this.
‘Eli, you guys will be here to look after my body and nothing can harm my mind.’
Eli nodded begrudgingly.
I lay down on the bed and closed my eyes, I focussed my breathing and projected. I looked back at my still body and then round at my Guardians all looking at my body intently, apart from Lucas who was looking at where I was floating.
I floated out through the window and headed quickly over the trees, down the route I normally ran with Quinn and Lucas. I increased in speed and soon reached the bottom of the mountain. There was a definite dirt track and as I followed it, it strengthened into what was obviously a road. And there was Galooma. It was one long road with houses and buildings on either side. I floated closer to get a better look. What I saw, was not good. Many of the houses had been gutted by fire, and many others had been boarded up. As I drifted through, it was obvious that this once thriving village was now almost deserted. There were a few houses that had smoke drifting from the chimneys, but no more than half a dozen. The windows and doors of these houses were closed and the street was empty.
I floated back up into the air and followed the road out of Galooma, heading for Ty. This was a different story here. This was what village life should be like, people moved calmly from house to house, chatting with their neighbours, hanging out their washing, children and dogs played in the streets. There was no sign here that any violence had taken place. People were happy here and contented.
I quickly made my way out of the village and headed over the tree tops heading for the village of Sai near the lakes. I saw the houses, peeping through the trees and I quickly moved over in that direction. This was much the same as Ty, the same village life, the same happy people.
I doubled back on myself, in seconds I was back over the fort and heading towards the steep ravine and the village of Aquil. The slopes where the Guardlings trained gave way to a thin line of trees and beyond that the ground fell away to a steep gorge, with a small river running through the valley at the bottom. I could see the houses either side as I swooped down towards the village.
But this was not the happy contented villages of Ty and Sai, it wasn’t even the deserted village of Galooma. Something horrific had happened here. Every single house had been burnt to the ground. People had clearly left the village in a hurry, carts had been piled with belongings but no one had taken them, doors had been broken down, windows had been smashed, and people’s belongings had been destroyed out on the street.
At the end of the street was the remains of some kind of bonfire. I floated closer and then pulled back with revulsion. There were bodies amongst the charred remains, at least four of them. I drifted reluctantly closer and was horrified to see the burnt face of one of the bodies, contorted horribly in a last scream of pain. These people had been burned alive. I drifted round the village, but there wasn’t a single sign of life anywhere. There was nothing mor
e I could do. The Putarians had long gone, so had all of the Donum and Zeki.
Feeling sick, with an overwhelming sense of hopelessness, I started to drift out the village and that’s when I saw the castle, nestled into the foot of the mountain. Adam’s castle. It was so far away from the village of Aquil that it was hard to believe that it had made any difference to the torture inflicted by the Putarians. And Aquil was on the opposite side of the mountain to the other three villages, so the castle would have made no difference to them at all. I couldn’t help wondering on the choice of the location, as far from the Oraculum’s castle as possible. I drifted closer. This castle had shot up very quickly, considering the decision to make Adam the Sentinel had only been made the day before. In reality that decision had probably been taken weeks or months ago.
The castle was even more arrogant looking than the Oraculum’s castle. It was huge as well and seemed to have many surfaces made from solid marble. It was very well protected too. Great walls surrounded it. It was not finished yet, but it wouldn’t be long till it was.
I drifted back up the steep cliffs, back into the fort and into my bedroom. My Guardians were talking quietly with each other, whilst flashing my empty body looks of concern. Lucas was talking to Persia, and nodded at me as I drifted back through the door. I smiled to myself as I watched Seth cover my body with a blanket, kissing my forehead fondly.
I woke up in my body, and held Seth’s face in my hand for a second.
Sitting up, I sighed heavily at what I had seen in Aquil.
‘So are the rumours true?’ Lucas asked, sitting next to me on the bed.
‘Yes,’ I sighed, rubbing above my eyes, where a headache had started to form. I told them what I had seen in Galooma and Aquil, how the villages had been destroyed and people had been burned alive. I told them how Sai and Ty had been unaffected and about Adam’s castle.
‘So there isn’t anything you can do now?’ Eli asked, uneasily.
I shook my head, sadly. ‘No, not anymore, I’m too late, but I think we need to keep an eye on Ty and Sai, to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen there. I can project every few days, just to check on them.’