“I would suggest you shut up now,” he warned. “I was there for that fight and the crap you have been told is from a cynical, pissed-off woman. She’s done this world a lot of good, but here recently she has been extremely bitter.” I could hear him sigh. “You need to figure out what you are going to do, Rose. You can make peace and find out the truths, or you can keep conniving with Helen and lose not only the battle, but me in the process.” I heard him stomp off. Rose growled and I heard her run after him.
Well that was interesting. Shawn’s voice rang in my head.
Are you always listening to me? I asked, laughing out loud.
Of course! I wouldn’t worry about Rose. She is having to deal with the awakening of her dark side. She just needs time to relax and get used to the fact that she has both bloodlines. Shawn’s voice was confident as he knew it would calm me.
You could be right, as usual, I sighed and dunked my head underwater.
***
I crawled under my covers an hour later, my hair still damp. I prayed that I would not be plagued by the dreams I had been having. I wanted to be rested for tomorrow’s session, not a walking zombie. I knew I was tired but I just could not convince myself to go to sleep. I lay there for what felt like hours, but could very well have been only minutes, before I closed my eyes and decided it was time to attempt to sleep.
I was encased in darkness, and in that darkness I stayed. No dreams, no visions, just darkness. It was a restful sleep. When my alarm went off the next morning I woke up with a skip in my step. I grabbed my laptop and put it in my bag. Placing my broadsword in the back holster, I put the backpack on over it, and walked out of my bedroom door, ready to go. I had told the fire gang to meet me in the field at eight.
I walked through the kitchen and grabbed an apple on my way out the back door. Stopping for a second to stretch, I noticed the large crowd filing into the right field. I smiled to myself. It looked like everyone had actually listened and done as instructed. I already knew who my officers were and I was going to announce that today.
I took off in a sprint, making it to the field in mere seconds. I couldn’t hear the other girls. They must be having a later start, I thought. I took a step toward the crowd of fire wielders and smiled. They all looked bright-eyed and eager. This is what I wanted to see.
“Good morning again,” I said loudly. “It is nice to see everyone’s happy faces this morning.”
“Last night was probably the best night’s sleep I have ever had,” Kelly called out. There was a rumble through the crowd as everyone agreed.
“How many of you are sore in places you never knew could get sore?” I asked jokingly, and watched as nearly everyone’s hands went up. “Yeah, me too.”
“So what’s on the agenda today?” one of my light fire carriers asked.
“Today I want you to come to me one at a time and tell me your name and what your weapon of choice is,” I answered. “If you don’t know, that is fine—we can always work more on proficiency, however yesterday you had the opportunity to get a feel for the ones that are available. Those that we need to get will be forged; it will just take us a little longer to get them to you.”
“Have you decided on your two officers yet?” Kelly chimed in. “Because we have a betting pool that we already know who they are.” There was a roar of laughter. It was nice to know that all my troops had a good sense of humor.
“Well who did you bet to win?” I asked Kelly with a big smile on my face.
“Well everyone knows that your brother is one of the oldest dark shards. He has also been in quite a few battles over the centuries.” Kelly glanced off toward Shawn who was standing there, amused.
“By show of hands who bet on Shawn?” I watched as nearly every one of their hands shot in the air. I shook my head. Was I really that predictable? “Well looks like y’all are coming into some money.” They cheered as Shawn blushed and stepped up beside me.
“I would like to thank the Academy,” he said loudly, and everyone roared with laughter.
“Now the question is, who did you think is going to be my other choice?” I was really asking anyone but it was Kelly that spoke again.
“We had a hard time trying to figure this out, till Max told us about Minerva and how she helped you,” she said brightly.
“Minerva would be the most logical. How many put money on her?” About half of the crowd raised their hands. “Well it looks like quite a few of you lost money. Minerva is the other choice that I made.”
She looked shocked. Her face turned a bright shade of red. She wasn’t expecting this. My guess was she thought that it would be Kelly, since the girl had shown so much promise the day before. She walked up to me and threw her arms around me in a tight hug.
“You have no idea what this means to me,” she whispered. “In my two hundred years I never would have thought this would happen.”
“I thought you were like twenty,” I whispered back, surprised to find out her actual age.
“All right, so Shawn and Minerva, please start bringing your troops up so they can share their decisions.” The both nodded and took their stance with their group.
They brought up each person to a one-on-one while the others worked on their weapons classes. By the end of the morning I had a list of over four hundred names, each with a choice that shocked me. They all knew what they wanted to work with; nobody said they didn’t know.
I had a good two hundred swordsmen, seventy-five archers, twenty wanting clubs, another seventy-five spears, twenty staffs, and twelve flails. Looked like I had my work cut out for me. I was going to have to give the list to my mother and pray that they had enough weapons available for those who didn’t already have their own.
“This is amazing,” I told Shawn and Minerva when the last person had walked away.
“They really do love you,” Shawn told me again. “These people will die for you.’
“How many are housed in the barn?” I asked, looking between them.
“Probably half. Your father has the contractors beginning work on the second building this week. The others live in tents or their RVs, depending on how prominent they were in their jobs. The few that showed up with nothing have been moved to cots that are set up in the entertainment rooms of the barn at night,” Shawn said, looking at Minerva, who nodded.
“How many rooms do we have available in the house?” I asked, saving the file to my desktop.
“Probably six. You know, moving several of them in will infuriate Helen and Rose. Krista won’t care—she wants everyone to be treated equally,” Minerva piped in. She had been staying in one of the barn apartments with a small family. So many had opened their doors to others, filling the barn to capacity.
“You are probably right,” I nodded. “Don’t want to be in any more hot water with them than I already am.”
“All right let’s get to work. There is still so much to do and so little time to do it in.” I groaned as I stood up from my seat on the ground. My muscles ached still.
“Yeah, we figured we needed to develop a chain of command. We have already ranked the carriers, we just have the others to deal with,” Minerva said to Shawn.
“We also need to keep in mind that not all of them are immortal. We have quite a few human carriers in the mix,” Shawn pointed out, and Minerva frowned.
“How many humans do we have?” I asked, looking over the group. They had broken off into several groups, teaching the newbies their work with the weapons.
“A good one hundred at least,” Shawn answered and I bit my lip.
“We need to pair them off with an immortal. In fact we need to pair a dark with a light. They need to be able to watch the other’s back.” I bit my bottom lip and looked at the grass. “It’s what she won’t expect. She thinks that our ranks will be split evenly between the two because under normal circumstances they wouldn’t be able to stand the other.”
“I agree,” Minerva ch
imed in and Shawn nodded.
“I can see how that would work. It’s kind of like always swimming with a buddy. In this case, it is ‘friends don’t let friends fight alone.’” Shawn joked, and I felt the urge to smack him.
“I’m going to go and talk to my mom about the weapons. See if I can get this taken care of today so we don’t have empty hands tomorrow.” I put my laptop in my bag. “Can you guys get them paired off before I return? I shouldn’t be long.” They both nodded. “Tell them I will return soon.” I threw the bag over my shoulder and handed my sword to my brother. “Just in case.” He rolled his eyes, and I took off at a sprint toward the house.
Helen and Rose were outside talking as I trotted up. I smiled at them but was only greeted by frowns of disapproval. Seriously, this was already getting old. We were all adults here and yet I felt like they were plotting my death.
“Seriously?” Rose asked as I opened the back door. I didn’t think she was talking to me till I heard her clear her throat.
“What’s up?” I asked, turning and looking at them.
“Are you just hell-bent on showing all of us up?” Helen asked. Her face was sour.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, confused. I thought this is what we were supposed to be doing. I wasn’t trying to show anyone up.
“You,” Rose butted in, putting her coffee mug down on the patio table.
“What did I do wrong?” I asked, still confused.
“You were the last one in last night and the first one out this morning. Are you trying to prove that you are the best Warden?” Helen griped.
“No, I just thought that we needed to take all available time to get ready. I figured you guys were already out.” I started to fidget.
“Whatever you say, Miss Perfect,” Rose huffed, and turned her attention back to Helen.
“What the Hell did I do to you? Let me rephrase. What did I do to both of you?” I demanded, anger surging through me.
“If it wasn’t for your stupid Harbinger boyfriend we wouldn’t be here. Instead, because you got yourself in some trouble, the rest of us have to bail you out,” Helen spat.
“I didn’t get myself into trouble. This would have happened either way. One way or another Miranda and her mother were going to pull this,” I bit back. “It was a coincidence that Wesley was involved.”
“We aren’t like these weak-minded half-bloods, we know better,” Helen said angrily.
“What do you know that they don’t already know? That you are bitter?” I accused. “You know what—just believe what you want to. I’m done trying to figure out what I did to either of you.” I turned and marched inside, ignoring the profane comments that came out of their mouths.
I found my mother in the study and I entered, shutting the door securely behind me. She had several maps laying on the table with circles around the locations that the Queen’s Army had attacked. She looked up, puzzled, for a second and then smiled.
“You have something for me?” she asked, straightening her shirt. I could tell by the way her eyes were rimmed with red that the battle plans were wearing her down. She was tired.
“Yeah. I have weapons lists for you,” I said, pulling my laptop out of my bag and putting it on the table.
“That was fast,” she laughed, walking around to look at the screen. “What do you have here?” She never liked computers. She was perfectly happy using her smartphone in place of a tablet or a computer.
“I have a list of all my people and what they want to work with. Those that have a star next to their names don’t have their own weapons. I don’t know what you have stockpiled but what you can spare would be nice,” I said softly.
“I have never seen you so driven, honey,” she prided on me. “Yeah, leave your computer with me and I will see what I can do. What we don’t have we can get forged. An old friend of Shawn’s is able to get his hands on anything that we need.”
“I can do that.” I put the bag down. “I guess I need to get back.” I shrugged and gave her a wink.
“All right love. I will see you for dinner? Or will you be late like you were last night?” she asked.
“I don’t know yet. I will leave it up to my people. They worked late last night and all of us are pretty sore.” I laughed and rubbed my shoulder again. I must have pulled something when I was sparring with Shawn the day before.
“I will send someone with packed lunches for you guys in a bit.” She went back to looking at her maps. I took that as a hint and left the study, securing the door behind me.
“Having fun, sweetheart?” My father’s voice rang across the entry.
“As much fun as I can,” I shrugged.
“I know there is some tension between the four of you. It will work out one way or another. Just keep on trudging through these hard times.” He walked toward me.
“You can feel it too, huh?” I asked, looking toward the back door. Did I really want to go out the back or take a chance and go out the front? Once I started running they wouldn’t be able to catch me.
“I had to block the two of them out. I thought dealing with Mona during her ‘woman time’ was a curse, but these two seem to be stuck in PMS. Venomous little Wardens they are.” He shivered. I wasn’t going to ask the things he had heard. I was fine with knowing that they disliked me. I didn’t need to know all the dirty details.
“Wish I could block them,” I groaned, fixing my ponytail.
“They will get over it. Just let them get balanced. Amazingly, Krista has done swimmingly with adjusting her blood. I think she is your prominent ally in all of this.” He winked. “Just do your best. I hear that you are doing well with your troops. So proud of you.” He hugged me and I relished the changes he had made in himself over the last four years.
My father would have never told me he was proud of me four years ago, instead he would have nodded and pretended that it wasn’t important when it was. I hugged him back tightly then pulled away.
“I better get back.” I pointed toward the front door. I had decided on which way I was going to go.
“Ah, they are on the patio, aren’t they?” he growled. “I suppose I don’t need to go out there right now anyway.” He was avoiding them too.
Chapter Nineteen: Intervention
I made it back to the field without being detected. I glanced over my shoulder and looked up toward the sky just to make sure. I ran to the front of the group and stopped. Shawn and Minerva were pairing a light with a dark using wooden staffs as weapons. I heard Shawn explain that they were brothers-in-war, and that their duty would be to protect the other. They were to fight back-to-back when the time came but for now they would train together. I smiled to myself as I watched them work, I couldn’t have chosen better officers.
My sword was sitting on the ground in its holster when I walked up. Grabbing it, I threw it on my back. Since I had just turned in the list of weapons, I had to think of something to do that would build morale, however for my idea to work correctly I was going to need Krista. Maybe I could do that the next day. She wanted to work together, and I might as well use it while it was available.
I let Shawn and Minerva run the training while I walked around the group, observing them and taking mental notes. I had quite a melting pot of beings. There were weres and vamps, fae and half-demons, half-angels and warlocks, witches and carriers. I felt that I had a diverse enough group that nothing was going to stop them on the battlefield. For the rest of the night I felt proud of my blood, an unusual sensation for me. If it wasn’t for my mother and father I wouldn’t have met these amazingly gifted beings. I knew that I would put my life on the line for them and they would do the same for me.
As Mom promised, lunch arrived and everyone sat around in blended groups talking and sharing stories of where they came from. It was a nice change from what I had been dealing with. For an hour I was able to forget about the brewing feud between Rose and I and concentrate on the beauty of those
around me. It looked like all my people got along, and that was how it was supposed to be.
“So how is everyone feeling?” I asked as I balled up my finished lunch and threw it in the trash bag provided by my mother.
The crowd burst out into laughter. I knew they were hurting. We had done more in two days than they had probably done in their lifetime. I caught the eye of a pale-faced vampire and the wheels in my head started to turn. How could they be in the sun, let alone survive the fire itself?
“You know, I have a question for those of you with vampire blood. How the hell are you out here?” I laughed. There was a ripple of giggles and one of the questioned stood up, a huge smile on his face. He reached in his shirt and pulled out an amulet that looked similar to mine. I hadn’t taken the necklace off, except to bathe, since it was given to me.
“While you were gone, the Reapers appeared with these amulets for the night born. They said that as long as we wore them the sun cannot harm us.” He came closer, so that I could get a better look at the amulet. It was exquisite. Blood red with a white gold chain. I looked closer and saw tiny intricate words etched into the gold. This sparked something and I pulled mine out from under my shirt. It had the same style of writing. Though I could not translate it (yet), they were two different spells.
“Did they say where they came from?” I asked him and he smiled.
“They said that an ancient witch created the amulets in order to protect those in need of protection. I assume yours is to protect you from being summoned to another field.” He touched my amulet, his cold fingers brushing my skin.
“What’s your name?” I asked, not remembering. It was going to take a few days to get their names down, and even then, I was going to wind up giving half of them nicknames.
“Patrick,” he answered, smiling at me.
“Thank you, Patrick.” I smiled as I tucked my amulet back under my shirt and he did the same.
“So that means you guys better remember yours every day. I cannot afford any of you going up in flames,” I said, laughing.
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