by Oxford, Rain
In three weeks, I learned very little about Ronez, nothing about his book, and became very good friends with him. He excelled at deflecting personal questions. He seemed so open and willing to talk about anything, especially sex, but was actually brilliant at hiding secrets. Both of us got used to not asking each other personal questions. I actually don’t know how our friendship worked, but he was certainly enjoyable to be around.
Unfortunately, I was here for a reason, and it was unavoidable. Three and a half weeks after we met, on a Friday night, he invited me over to his house instead of coercing me into a bar for a purely platonic “guy’s night out,” as he did both previous Fridays. I accepted, knowing I had to get closer to his book. Instead of beer, which he insisted I drank at the bars, he brought out a bottle of Southern Comfort. It smelled nice, and having never drunk whiskey before, I quickly learned that even immortals could get wasted.
Soon, Ronez had out his guitar, the television was muted, and I was trying desperately to hold onto the floor. By the time I was thinking clearly enough to listen to Ronez play, he was playing an old Duran nursery rhyme – one about the days before the Reformation. I had only ever heard it played on ancient wind instruments, but even on the guitar, it sounded beautiful. When Ronez finish, I had never seen such a look of loneliness before.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, fully expecting him to brush off my question.
He sighed and shook his head, setting the guitar aside gently. “I miss my brother,” he said finally. I was struck with what I thought was sympathy. “We had a fight a few years ago.”
“What about?” I asked.
“It was my own damn fault. I had…” He couldn’t get the words out and had to start again with moisture in his eyes. I hadn’t known men were allowed to cry. “There was something I couldn’t tell him, and I couldn’t stand that he didn’t know. I needed his comfort and I wanted him to tell me I did the right thing. I know what he would have done, though, and I couldn’t do it.” He looked at me now, with tears on his cheeks. “Who did you lose?”
I shook my head as a tremor ran through my body. “No one.”
“What did I say about lying to me? I won’t tell anyone. Who did you lose?”
This time the pain was in my throat and I couldn’t look him in the eyes. Now I knew that what I felt when he said he missed his brother wasn’t sympathy, but empathy. “My sister. And you?” Other than his brother.
“My son. There was a fire in his room.”
I looked up in shocked horror. “That’s horrible! When? How old was he?” I was suddenly on the couch next to him, but he stared at the floor as if I hadn’t moved.
“It was the night he was born.” Now he was crying.
This was the man who was created to protect Earth. This was one of the most powerful people ever to be born, on any world. This was a man who has lived for over two thousand years. This was my friend, who lost his child and pushed away his brother in pain.
At that moment, I realized the difference between good people and evil.
Ronez suddenly yelled (certainly not a cry) in pain. I realized I had my hand on his arm as his skin flushed with a heat like he was burning. By the time I gasped in surprise, I heard a cruel laugh. Shio stood in the doorway.
“Good job distracting him for me,” he said snidely. I hardly heard him over Ronez’s gasping. He clutched my arm with one hand and his chest with the other. I tried to push him upright for easier breathing, but he jerked in pain, barely able to breathe and breaking out in sweat.
“What did you do?!” I yelled at Shio. He didn’t have the dignity to lose his smug grin. “You were not supposed to kill him!”
“I am allowed to kill him. Now we can get the book without him getting in the way. Stop holding the guy and help me find it.”
I was so furious I was shaking almost as badly as Ronez. Ronez’s hand came up and bright blue-white flames leapt across the room to swallow Shio whole.
With him dealt with, I turned back to Ronez, who was lying, dying on the floor. His irises faded from the blue-white of the fire to the dark brown they were normally. His pain eased, but his death just beginning.
“I’m sorry about this. You weren’t supposed to die.”
He tried to give me a smile, but he looked like he was having trouble staying awake. “I know this wasn’t part of your plan. You had to do what you were told to do and I had to do what I was born to do.”
“You can still live. Heal yourself, damnit!”
“My body has broken contact with my book and magic. I have cast off my book to find a new Guardian. I will die. A new Guardian will rise now, and he will be more powerful than any of us.”
With this, Ronez closed his eyes and was dead. The book was gone. The fire died with Ronez, leaving Shio in living misery. I closed my eyes and prayed to Tiamat to give Ronez my goodbye, and to make sure he had a happy afterlife.
Goodbye. You were my only friend, and the kindest man I ever knew.
* * *
I always missed my little sister, but in the short time that passed since meeting Ronez, she’d begun to annoy me terribly. When did she become so vicious? So snide and selfish?
I had too much time to think while waiting for orders. I actually enjoyed Vretial’s frustration when his beasts were killed by the new Noquodi. What young man, I wondered, would replace Ronez? Surely not someone as unusual as Ronez. And who is helping the new Noquodi?
Finally I was ordered to find them, only after Shio and my sister had failed. I checked the worlds most habitable for a human first, but didn’t find the human Noquodi. It was pointless to search for his mentor, since we didn’t know who his mentor was.
I had just finished scouring Dios when I was drawn back to Vretial. As usual, his personality was questionable, and I had no idea what he would order me to do. Sitting in his “throne” in what we all called the dark room, he was barely visible by the dim lantern across the room. How he could entertain his mind in such an empty, unchanging space was a mystery for me, but I assumed there wasn’t much left of his mind to entertain.
“Why do you think so lowly of your master after everything I gave you?” Vretial asked.
“Because you gave me so little to entertain my own mind that I must make up amusing explanations for the little mysteries that you are made of.”
“Are you saying I’m mysterious?” he asked with a smirk.
“Quite.”
“So little respect.” He was flattered.
“You do not demand respect from me, Master, only servitude. You demand respect of everyone else. In fact, you don’t let them have a will or emotions. Why do I have them?” I asked.
“Because I think of you more as an assistant than a servant. Now I have a job for you. Have you finished searching for the new Guardian?”
“No. I still need to check Duran and Vaigda.”
“Go to Earth. Since they’re hiding so well, we must draw them to us. Go to Earth and start destroying it. The elder Guardian will come to defend it, but as soon as the Guardian arrives, leave Shio and Tomie to fight him. You start the search with Duran, and then Vaigda to find the unprotected human. You should be able to find him easily.”
I stared and realized my mouth was wide open. “Master… that all made perfect sense. It’s a great plan and you explained it. Why?”
“I’m not sure. I must not have enough power. Go now, and don’t report back to me until you have good news.”
Chapter 11
I woke in the dark, but this time there was no gorgeous angel tending to my throbbing head. My eyes opened of their own accord, sticky and dry. I was in a small room with stone walls and the only source of light was flickering candles on either side of me. I would have liked to say I was in a bed, or even on the floor, but instead, I was lying in a small bath of pearly white, slightly thicker-than-water liquid. Creepy.
“How are you feeling?” Nano asked.
He sat in a low chair with his feet tucked under it. In the
eerie setting, he looked just as villain-like as he had in Mijii, but I could see the concern in his eyes, and the way he sat in the chair was deliberate to make him appear non-threatening.
“Like something went wrong.”
“As far as I can tell, nothing did, but I did not expect this.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Edward already knows something happened and is going out of his mind. Divina’s probably mad at me for causing him to get his fur up.”
Nano frowned. “You don’t like that he’s worried about you?”
I sighed. “I’m not used to someone being worried about me. It would have been wonderful if I was a child, but I’m an adult. It just feels…”
“Like they don’t think you can take care of yourself?”
“Right. And I know that’s not how I should feel, because I know how much I need their help. We’ve been running into dangerous things left and right, and it’s only going to get worse, but I don’t like how incapable it makes me to need their help.”
“But Kiro brought you into this danger, why are you not angry with him?”
I laughed. “Edward took me away from a crap job and my routine, boring life that would eventually lead to a routine, boring desk job and a routine, boring family. He brought me to a world of magic and dangerous, beautiful beasts. Life may have been safe, but it was boring. And it only makes it worse that they look away for two seconds and I get lost.”
“But you got to meet me.” Nano’s grin was so funny that it made him see like a different person. “Come. I’ll show you the city. And I promise not to look away so some other Guardian can find you.”
“Yeah, that’s all I need; to be played hot-potato with by the Guardians. And don’t let anything eat me, either. Edward would never let me hear the end of it. Speaking of me going missing, where is Shinobu?”
“Your little naowen? She couldn’t come with us. She’s waiting for you to return to Duran, and I assured her you will soon.”
“Glad to know someone else will take revenge if you let anything eat me. Please tell me this bath is not as gross as it looks.”
“It’s not.”
“It’s snot?! That’s pretty damn gross.”
He laughed. “I can see you’re going to drive your master up the wall. Here, get dressed.”
Standing, I found that the liquid had a milky texture, and I was thrilled it wasn’t slimy. As I stepped out of the tub, Nano unrolled and handed me a beige towel, then a set of clothes. I dried off quickly and dressed. The dark green tunic was smooth like satin but thick. The slacks were dark red and made of the same material. I didn’t know what to do with the brown leather belt that was included, since the pants had no belt loops, so I fastened it around my waist over the shirt.
“This is nice material.”
“We like nice things.”
I felt weird since standing, and realized with a start why. “The gravity is lighter.” I couldn’t compare it to Earth’s, because I didn’t know how light I would feel on Earth. All I knew was that I weighed quite a bit less than on Duran.
“That is one thing I dislike about visiting Duran. Your boots are next to the tub. Hurry up.”
I slipped on my boots and hurried after Nano, who was already headed down the hallway. The passage was carved stone, not made of blocks but one solid, huge rock. “Are we underground?” I asked when I caught up to him.
“Yes. The entire city is underground. All cities are, since the land isn’t habitable for most people.”
“How come?”
“We weren’t as smart as Duran,” he answered cryptically. “We didn’t stop fighting each other until it was too late. The outside world was once beautiful, but now it’s nothing but desert. We’re trying to repair it, but the land is resistant, and so are some of the people.”
“What do you mean?”
“Some people are afraid that if we turn the outside wasteland into the beautiful world it once was, we’ll start wars again, so they rebel.”
“They fight to prevent the chance of fighting?”
“Exactly.”
Around the corner came a mountain of a man. He was humanoid, but no less than seven feet tall and twice as wide as Edward, not of fat but of solid muscle. It wasn’t the ridiculously huge body that bothered me, but the experience that most guys I’ve met that excel in body strength too much, lack brain power.
The young woman he was towing in chains only enforced my assumption. She had long, dark brown hair and light blue eyes with a soft, round face and pale skin. Her lips were pressed tightly in anger, but her eyes showed fear, which was likely why she kept her head down. I could imagine the troll of a man dragging the woman back to his cave to have his way with.
I tugged on Nano’s sleeve, staring at the woman. “What’s he doing with her?” I asked.
“She’s a prisoner,” he answered.
I suddenly remembered that I wasn’t supposed to speak and wondered if he was going to try any damage control. He just grinned. “Don’t worry. Dios is used to foreigners.”
“Why is she a prisoner? What did she do?”
Nano asked the mountain man in his language that almost like a mix of Arabic and Gaelic. His voice was gentle, but deep and demanding of attention. It struck me as very wizard-like. He turned back to me, a doubtful frown. “He said she’s withholding information and may be involved in an assassination attempt on the king. Dios has nine cities, each with a king. The High King rules all cities, but less directly, like an emperor.”
I studied the woman and once again saw the fear in her eyes. There was no guilt or anger. “Nano... Are you sure she’s guilty?” I asked. As Nano turned back to the giant, the woman watched me with a strange look in her eyes. She looked hopeful.
As Nano asked the guard my question, the woman grabbed my arm. Apparently her shackles weren’t enough to keep her from grabbing things. My surprise was short lived as my mind was flooded with emotion. There wasn’t an instant that I mistook it for my own, though it was powerful and clear. I could feel her fear, despair, and her new hope. I could feel all of her emotions, but no guilt or malicious feelings. No motive for hurting anyone, not even for a supposedly good cause.
The emotions vanished as the guard yanked her away, forced her to her knees and pulled on the shackles specifically to cause pain.
“Stop, damnit, she’s innocent!” I yelled.
The guard ignored me but Nano yelled something and he immediately let go. The woman’s pained expression eased and she met my eyes again. The guard said something in anger and the woman shrunk back from me a little.
“Nano?”
“He said she can read and share emotions and memories with a person when she touches them. I take it she did something when she touched you?”
“I felt her emotions. Is it trustworthy? Can she withhold some emotions and send others?”
He asked the guard, who answered with curiosity. “No,” Nano said.
“Then I’m sure she’s telling the truth. She showed no malicious emotions at all. Unless she’s completely psycho, she would have anger, or hatred, or even determination. And I didn’t feel any psycho feelings from her either. The only strong emotions she’s feeling are fear, despair, and hope.”
“You’re sure you’d know it? She’s not human.”
“I’m starting to believe the gods all used the same templates. Give her a chance. Let her tell me her side. Please.”
Nano looked unsure for about three seconds before turning to the guard and speaking in their language. The woman immediately reached for my hand, but the guard yanked her away. He apparently wasn’t happy with my request. Nano calmly said something else, to which the mountain’s scowl became an uncertain frown.
I would have liked to be able to at least mimic what Nano was saying in order to learn some of the language, but the syllables were too foreign and too fast.
He turned to the woman and smiled as the guard let go of her chains. She reached out hesitantly, afraid he would yank he
r back again, and I took her hand. In the next second, I felt a falling sensation as my vision blurred and sharpened to a new scene.
Everything had a greenish tint to it. My brain felt foggy, like I was half asleep and didn’t know what was real or not. It was similar to the alpha state Edward taught me on the ship, except it felt induced, like I was on drugs. I was in a different place with the same stone walls, and it appeared I was moving.
Then there were voices, which I couldn’t seem to focus on. I started to enter a room when I saw two huge men, talking quietly, except those kinds of voices carried. They spoke in their native tongue, but though I didn’t know the words, I knew what they were saying.
The larger man was insulting the other, saying he could have ruined everything. I moved behind the door and focused on the voices. One of them spoke about a hidden passage to the king’s chambers. The other was worried about horrible beasts. The first one explained that it was a myth and that the assassins knew better than to worry about monsters.
Assassins? What assassins would need to worry about monsters guarding a hidden passage to the king? A fierce impression of loyalty rushed through me.
A shout of outrage startled me and I turned back to the door, only to find myself staring at the thick chest of one of the mountain men just a foot away.
And then the falling sensation ceased and my vision reverted to normal. I was on my knees with Nano holding me up and the woman watching me in concerned. As my mind returned to normal, I realized I had been seeing and feeling her memory. The guards were behind the assassination of the king, so of course she didn’t know who to trust or who to talk to.
“She’s innocent,” I said, slowing climbing to my feet. I considered the guard, not one of the two the woman had seen, and he looked confused, not afraid of getting caught. “Some of the guards are in on this. She came across them discussing assassins using a secret passage to get to the king. I don’t know which king.”