by S. N. Hunt
“Do not be alarmed. Yes, the walls bleed. There is much history to the Blood City. For now, though, I need you to keep quiet. Wear this cloak around you, keep your head down. Don’t make eye contact with anyone. We will ride to the Centurion Inn. There we meet friends. And no matter what, don’t talk to the ghosts.”
She wanted to ask questions, but something in his voice made her bite them back. He laid the cloak Gretchen had given them around her shoulders. She pulled the hood up and shrouded her face. He helped her to lay the folds around her body to cover her clothing. Once he seemed satisfied, he urged the horses forward. Angel shook her head and her horn disappeared right before Sarah’s eyes. Micheal nodded in approval at the mare.
As the city came closer, Sarah observed blue shapes against the sands. The closer they got, the more in focus the shapes were. She realized they were people. They were almost transparent, blue, and hazy around the edges. She kept her head down and tried not to stare at them. The ghosts milled around outside the gate as if having no purpose. They were dressed in full armor and looked like knights of old. As they arrived at the front of the city gate, the ghosts looked up and stared at her. They moaned and opened their mouths wide. A look of longing crossed their faces. They followed the horses as they rode through the gate.
Inside the city, market stalls lined the walls. All manner of people and beasts strode along the cobbled streets through the stalls. She saw minotaurs, centaurs, a woman with the body of a snake, and many more. Pixies buzzed through the surrounding air. Three of the most beautiful women Sarah had ever seen stood in open windows above them. Each had a different skin tone with bat wings on their backs. Their long hair flowed around their shoulders and horns curling from the top of their heads. One of them leaned out the window and fondled her breasts.
“Guardian, only three gold for a roll in the sack. I’ll make it a night to remember, love,” she yelled down.
The woman on her left pinched her nipples and called out, “Guardian, I will even let you bite me. Five gold.”
The women cackled and fell against each other in laughter. Sarah wanted to ask Micheal about it but kept quiet. She had so many questions about the creatures around them. She saw griffins saddled and tied to posts. What she thought were imps putting on a show on a nearby stage. Leprechauns were hawking gold goods in a stall. A group of skeletons wearing armor were playing cards at a table on a porch of a storefront.
Ahead she could see a sign that read Centurion Inn. The building looked like something out of a medieval movie. They stopped in front of the inn and Micheal dismounted. He tied both horses to a hitching post, and he helped her dismount. This time he kept her close, as if to shield her from those walking on the cobbled streets. Micheal removed the saddlebags from Lucifer. She glanced around and saw that now they had a crowd of ghosts. They surrounded them on three sides. They peered at her curiously and some even acted like they were going to reach for her.
“Stop! You put her in danger. Go guard the city against her enemies. Protect her as I do.” Micheal whispered at the ghosts.
The ghosts looked at her once more, then disappeared before her eyes. Micheal took her hand and led her into the inn. The room was dark and smoky. The smell of beer and roast meat hung heavy in the air. In the hearth, a fire blazed, casting shadows all around. Despite the fire and desert heat outside, the room was a comfortable temperature. More creatures sat at tables, drinking and conversing. The room was loud and Sarah took a step closer to Micheal. He wrapped his arm around her and pulled her close to his side. They walked through the room toward a door in the back. Micheal quickly pulled her through the door and shut it.
He turned to her then and removed the cloak from her. As he turned to hang it up on a hook by the door, Sarah looked around the darkly lit room. The room had a table and chairs for three. A fire blazed in a small fireplace. There was only one window, and it was tinted to keep the sun out. Food and drink were set on the table. She looked back at Micheal.
“Sit, drink, and eat. We were expected. I need to go get our host. I will be back.” With that, he left the room.
Sarah glanced around the room one more time before sitting at the table. The wooden table was worn and smooth from years of use. She grabbed the pitcher on the table and poured what looked to be red wine into a cup. She sipped it, remembering her last hangover. Taking a plate from the table, she looked over the food laid out. She grabbed some cheese and fruit from one platter and what looked like chicken meat from another. As she took her first bite of the meat, she moaned. The flavors sparked across her tongue.
She started digging into the food with gusto. As she shoved a piece of meat into her mouth, the door to the room opened. Expecting to see Micheal, she looked up and smiled. Her smile quickly melted away and her mouth hung open. There in front of her stood no other than Shae Robbins.
∞∞∞
Micheal scanned the main dining area of the inn. He walked into the kitchen area and spotted Shae kneading bread across the room. He leaned on the counter behind her.
“She is here.”
Shae jumped and spun around. She held a small butter knife in her hand. Seeing it was him, she lowered it and clutched at her chest.
“I am not a young woman anymore, Guardian. You shouldn’t be sneaking up on a woman when she is making the daily bread.”
Shae wiped her hands on her apron. She snapped her fingers and tiny pixies flew out of the nearby cupboard. Gesturing to the bread, they quickly got to work kneading it. Shae removed her apron and hung it up on a hook by the door. She looked at her reflection in a silver pot that hung on the wall.
“Do you think she will be angry at me? How do I look? Do I look alright? Do I have flour in my hair or on my face?”
Micheal laughed at this side of his friend. She was sweeping imaginary flour from her face. Shae had always been a confident, strong woman. He had never seen her so nervous before.
“I think she will be glad to have you back. From what I have seen, she has a soft heart. One that may need to harden before the coming battles. And no there is no flour on you.”
“She has a long journey ahead of her. It is a great burden we will lie on her shoulders tonight. By the way, what took you so long?”
“You did not tell me she could not ride. We had to travel slowly to accommodate her. Otherwise, I would have had to carry her into the city. Halfway to the city, a unicorn chose her as a rider.”
“A unicorn? How strange. They never take riders. And as for her not riding, there was no reason for her to learn to ride a horse on the other side.”
“She has named the mare, Angel. The mare has even protected her when my guard fell. Darian attacked us when a storm made us take shelter. Angel speared him through the shoulder with her horn as he tried to make off with Sarah.”
“Oh, and Darian? Is he... is he dead?”
Micheal hung his head, “Yes.”
“I am sorry Micheal. I know at one time he was your friend. But when you choose to return to us, you knew that this may come to pass someday.”
Micheal nodded but still his heart ached with the loss.
“The wood elves of Ollsrion also delayed us. Queen Lyris offered us shelter for a few days. She told Sarah about her mother. Nothing more. I told her about the promise I made to you. Queen Lyris understood and only gave enough to establish that she was Sarah’s aunt.”
“Queen Lyris? She does not intervene on anything that does not affect the forest. Why would she care?” Shae spat bitterly.
“She carries guilt over Alavara’s death. She foolishly believed that Alavara would not fall. We both know how powerful Alavara was. She gave Sarah a bow and taught her how to use it.”
Micheal left out the fountain and the visions he had seen. He also left out the attack on the village. He trusted Shae, but he understood that Queen Lyris did not want the world to know about the fountain.
“Well, it’s about time that elvish bitch did something. To think she could have preve
nted all this with just a wave of her hand. But she chose not to. All because her sister polluted her pure blood with human seed.”
He didn’t comment, knowing the bitterness Shae had toward the Elven queen. Shae had been Alavara’s hand maiden and had felt her loss more than most. He watched as Shae fussed with her hair and dress one more time before bustling out the kitchen door. He quietly followed behind her.
Chapter Thirteen
“Hello, Sarah. I have missed you.”
Sarah felt her bottom lip tremble, and the tears welled up in her eyes. She dropped her food and rushed to hug the woman in front of her. After a moment, she pulled back to stare at Shae. Shae no longer looked like the old woman with greying hair that had passed three months ago. She looked like the young woman that had raised Sarah as a child. Her hair was dark black and hung in braids around her head. Her face was a warm dark brown and full of youth, no longer ashen and wrinkled with age. The hands that cradled Sarah’s face were not gnarled but soft and smooth.
“How is this possible? You died. I sat at your bedside.” Sarah cried in the woman’s embrace.
“There is a lot to explain. Let us sit. We will talk.”
Shae led her back to the table and took a seat across from her. Micheal walked in and sat down in the seat next to Sarah. Sarah smiled at him, then turned her attention to the woman in front of her.
“Sarah, I realize that my being alive is a shock. But let us start at the beginning. Magic is real. At one time, we lived in your world. The Veil did not exist and there were no gates. Our kind lived in harmony with humans for centuries.”
“Magic is like an invisible river. It flows through all of us and everything around us. The fae folk can just use it. It is part of us, it makes up our very beings. It is an extension of us. Without magic, we cease to be. We can absorb some magic into us but when it runs out. Poof, we disappear.”
“Some humans can channel magic. They ask it to work with them, and it does. These humans are called elementalists. They controlled the elements that make up the world. Those humans who can’t channel it, bend it. They force it into submission. Command it to do what they want. In return, the magic feeds from them. Taking pieces of their life force as payment. These humans are witches and wizards.”
Shae paused for a moment and poured herself a drink. “But magic is power, and there are always going to be those who want more. A wizard realized that the fae folk were made of magic. He found a way to siphon the magic from them without paying a price. This led to a war of epic proportions. Fae and humans alike fought him. The war lasted hundreds of years and cost countless lives. The fae decided then to create the Veil. We only let in those that meant well and had no ill intentions. We created gates to keep out those that did not belong. As we split the world, we took all magic with us. The wizard raged and tried everything to get in. In the end, he went insane and disappeared. No one knows what became of him. Just that he destroyed an entire kingdom before he disappeared. I believe you identify him as Merlin and the kingdom as Camelot.”
Sarah scoffed, “Merlin, as in King Arthur and the round table. Isn’t Merlin a good guy?”
“Not everything is as it seems. But that just explains the Veil and why it even exists. Now for your history. The history of your people. You are an elementalist. You can control the very elements around you. Your people were allowed to come to the Veil. The elementalists had always been a peaceful people. You kept to your lands and left your neighbors alone. But you are human. Your third great grandfather, Marcus, decided that he should rule the Veil. He started a new war with not just fae, but all magic races. One that was fought right where we sit. This place used to be a beautiful valley. Lush and green with life. The war reduced it to the Crimson Sands desert.”
“Marcus called together all the elementalists. The power of the elements is strong. Especially when you can command all of them. Most magic folk can control one, possibly two. But an elementalist can control them all. They were a devastating force. The battle here raged for years. Marcus was sure of his victory. Till a new face appeared on the battlefront. Dracula Vlad Tepes. A vampire, the king of all vampires. Marcus and Dracula fought and scorched the earth. Creating the crater this city sits in. It is because of Dracula’s strength and speed that we sit here.”
“The elementalists lost and were held accountable for their actions. The Gold Contract was written up and signed by all the leaders of every faction in the Veil. It stated an elementalist could not use their magic to harm another being. They still were able to use it in farming and daily living, but beyond that, it bound their magic. Those elementalists that had died during the ending battle were never to find peace. The victors of the battle used their bodies to make the bricks of this city. Their blood is the very mortar that holds the walls together. Therefore, the walls bleed to this day. Those people are the ghosts you see around the city. They followed you because they recognized the descent of their king. They will protect you while you are here.”
“People had developed a prejudice against the elementalists. Most of them had lost loved ones in the final battle and blamed all the elementalists for what their king did. They attacked the elementalists’ villages. Entire towns were slaughtered in the night. They could do nothing to defend themselves. The contract bound them even as they were killed.”
“Marcus’s son, Jaylin, changed that. He approached none other than Dracula himself. The very man that had stopped the war. He offered the sun in return for protection. If a vampire is bound to an elementalist, they would protect them from the elements. Sun would no longer hurt them. In return, the vampire had to protect the elementalist. The deal was struck, and the elementalist had a protector. The vampires thought they would get the gift of the sun and walk away. Never really intended to keep their end of the bargain.”
“Jaylin knew that this would happen, so he worked a clause into the magic, so to speak. Any vampire that shrugged his duty, would lose his ability to walk in the sunlight. The further away they were from their elementalist, the more he burned. If the elementalist was attacked, hurt, or killed, the same happened to the vampire. Faced with little choice, the vampires took up the mantle of their duties. As time continued on, they found they aged. As long as they stayed by their elementalist’s side, they became more human. They were able to have children. Their hearts pumped blood through their veins again. Their cold skin became warm, and they had body heat. They still had all their powers, speed, and strengths. But they were more human than ever and did not need to drink blood. Thus was born the Guardians.”
Shae smiled at Sarah and glanced at Micheal. She drank deeply from her cup. Sarah turned to Micheal.
“So you are a Guardian?” she asked him.
“I am your Guardian, Sarah.” He replied softly to her, sending a thrill up her spine.
Before Sarah replied, Shae interrupted her. “My story is not over yet. Your father, Ronan, was a good king to the elementalists, and they knew many years of peace. Your father joined in an alliance with the wood elves of Ollsrion. He fell in love with their princess, Alavara. I hear you met your aunt Queen Lyris. Alavara gave up her immortality to marry your father. Queen Lyris was furious at her sister. She swore to not intervene with any affairs outside of the forest and ended the alliance. She believed Alavara was committing blasphemy by polluting her bloodline. I see that Queen Lyris has changed her mind.”
Sarah heard the bitterness in Shae’s voice. She couldn’t imagine Queen Lyris being so indifferent. The image was not the woman she had met in the forest.
“Your father’s Guardian, Ty, had twin sons. The oldest, Antony, would be your guardian. On the night of your birth, Ty brought the boys to see you. The bond between elementalist and Guardian is the strongest if started at birth. The fates themselves determine the choosing. But it is usually the eldest son. No one expected you to choose Micheal. Antony was furious. He believed Micheal had cheated somehow.”
“Antony waited till all were in bed that night.
He murdered your mother and father in their sleep. How he subdued Alavara, no one knows. We did not know that he had planned to overthrow the kingdom. He had a large force of rogue Guardians that had never bonded. They slaughtered everyone that they were able to find. My husband and I snuck you out of the castle.”
“You and I fled to the other side of the Veil. The idea was there was no magic there, so perhaps you would be safe. I stayed and watched over you for as long as I could. I am a shapeshifter. Using my magic, I was able to age as time went by. However, that side has no magic. As time moved on, my magic reserves dwindled. Soon I would have no magic left and would disappear. I knew it was my time to come home. So I died in that world and rejoined my husband here. I am sorry I had to leave you. If I could have stayed, I would have.”
Shae smiled sadly and laid her hand on Sarah’s. Sarah’s thoughts ran in circles in her mind. She still had so many questions.
“So if I was safe in the other world, why bring me here?”
This time Micheal spoke, “You were always meant to come back to the Veil. There are still elementalists out there. You are their queen. They need a leader and Antony knows where you are. He sent Darien to watch over you. I am not sure what he has planned for you, but it can’t be good. Antony and his band of Guardians have reverted. They are no longer Guardians, but vampires again. Their skin is cold and dead. Their hearts beat no more. They have given up all their humanity.”
Sarah shook her head, “Why me? What is so important about me? I am just a secretary at a printing company. Answering phones and taking messages, ain’t much of a magic skill. I don’t possess any magic. I have never hurt anyone in my life.”