Darkness: A Guardians of Orana Novel

by Nancy E. Dunne

  “What the…”

  “I don’t know, but I guess I should be thankful that I didn’t fall to my death there, right?” Gin said, chuckling. Sath leaped to his feet and swept her up into his arms, crushing her to his chest. “Hey! Can’t…breathe…Sath?” He loosened his grip, and she coughed hard until she caught her breath again. “Really?”

  “I thought you were…Don’t do that again, do you understand me? Don’t you ever…” His tone was reminiscent of the one used for putting errant Qatu in their places in the throne room, and it made Gin grin wickedly.

  “Yeah, yeah, Rajah, as you wish and all that. Put me down, and I’ll put my forehead on your boot or whatever I’m supposed to do,” Gin teased. Her smile faded as she saw the fear in the Qatu’s teal eyes. “Sath, I’m fine.”

  “Don’t jump off anything again, am I clear?” he hissed at her. Gin’s eyes widened at his use of her language. She nodded, and he put her down carefully. “That’s better. You just can’t do that, Gin. Okay? Just…don’t.”

  “Okay, I won’t. But Sath, I-”

  “Suddenly, I was right there again, watching you fall off the side of that tower…you cannot keep doing that, please? I…just don’t, okay?” Sath put his face in his hands for a moment, and Gin gave him space.

  “So…back to the escape plans…we know now that we can’t jump off, cast a spell, and land back in the Forest—meaning we are not in the Forest any more, so that’s out,” she said as she watched him warily.

  “That’s what you were doing?” Sath stared at her as she nodded.

  “I think all that’s left is to try another portal. Maybe we will end up back where we were, you never know,” Gin said. Sath nodded grimly. “What? What’s with the face? This is an adventure, Sath. That’s what you wanted, right? A chance for us to work together again…a chance to get to know each other again?” Sath cracked a grin, and Gin matched it. “There, that’s better. Now, let’s get moving. Which one do you think?” She walked carefully through a portal close to them only to come out still in the Void on the other side. “Come through here, Sath!” she called out behind her, and he followed.

  “There’s a banner near that one,” Sath said, crossing to examine the tattered piece of fabric. “Hmmm, looks like a vine wound around. . .something, is that the symbol for a guild or something?”

  “It’s part of the symbol for my guild,” Gin said, grinning. “There is a vine wound around a staff like mine, see? Those words are ancient, a dialect of my people—the last time I saw that was in Draoch’s journal. This looks like a sign!” She started for the portal, but Sath grabbed her arm and held her fast. “Now what?” she asked as she looked back at him, clearly exasperated.

  “Just…let’s go through it together, okay? No more jumping off alone, in case these portals change and we end up in different places, okay?” Gin smiled back at him, and he slid his hand carefully down her arm until he was enveloping her hand. They each took a deep breath and then stepped into the portal.

  ~

  Back in the Great Forest, the Ikedrian that had charged at Sath and Gin, weapon aloft, removed her hood and looked around, grinning from ear to ear. “Did it work?” Ellie wondered aloud as she searched the area where they had been only moments before. Her spellwork to create that transport potion had been awkward, to say the least, and had involved more than the usual amount of research and reagents to cast. She had no way of knowing if they had actually arrived in the space between the realm of mortals and Void. She had been to the Void once before with her A'chrya Taeben, and it was only because of his magic that she was able to return home.

  Ellie levitated behind a tree, peeking out and taking in the scene, and then moved closer, sniffing the air for signs of magic. She dismissed the column of air under her feet, and then took a step back and heard a crunch—it was what was left of the vial she had given the Rajah earlier. It MUST have worked. She gingerly picked up the shards of glass and closed her hand, feeling the glass turn to dust. Opening her hand, she blew the powder into the night air and grinned. “Find your way out now, murdering Qatu,” she whispered. “I’m off to contact the Mother Dragon to finish my A'chrya Taeben’s work—and send his Ginny to her, just as he asked.” Ellie paused a moment as she felt another dizzy spell coming on, and managed to cast invisibility and sit down before the darkness closing in around her vision completely obscured it. She should have gone directly back to the embassy, but now it was too late. . .

  ~

  The ground under their feet changed from the dry dirt of the Void to a grassy plain, but just over their shoulders, the portal archway still shimmered—the dark skies and desert ground still mostly visible. It was like gazing through a waterfall—only mildly distorted. Gin was still looking around but had moved closer to Sath. It was still dark out, but they could see what looked like light breaking over the horizon beyond the trees that surrounded them. “Where are we, do you think?” Gin whispered.

  “This looks like the Grasslands.” Sath looked around, inhaling deeply. “But it is different somehow. I still smell the ocean air, don’t you?” Gin nodded, rubbing her elbows as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Perhaps we should not be so. . .obvious?”

  “You mean camouflage magic? Coming right up,” Gin replied. She began chanting, and soon the two of them disappeared from the sight of all but each other. “I added the ability to see the invisible to it for you, Sath,” she said. He smiled down at her.

  “Thanks,” he whispered. It was becoming quickly lighter and, therefore, easier to see their surroundings. Sath scanned the area nearby and smiled when he saw what looked like a tunnel or cave amid a line of trees—there must be a mountain over there, or at least a hill. That would provide good cover until they could figure out where they were. There was an archway of cut stone that extended to the floor on each side of a cave entrance nearby. “In here,” he said, “till the sun comes up all the way.” Gin followed him into the tunnel, and they both sat down on the hard stone floor, their backs up against opposite walls. “Now, we wait.”

  “Are you hungry?” Gin asked as she opened her haversack and began digging through it. “I am, and I think that I brought enough food for both of us.”

  “I am ravenous,” Sath said, beaming a smile at her. The smile faded as she quickly looked away from him and busied herself with hunting through her belongings for food. “I’m sorry, did I…?”

  “No, I’m fine,” she said, careful not to meet his gaze. He might have been able to spot a lie in her eyes, but she didn’t reckon that he could tell she was lying if she didn’t look at him. She had effectively blocked him out of her emotions in the bond before they left her hut in Aynamaede. “Here, marmalade sandwiches.”

  “Gin, look at me,” Sath said, his voice tight.

  “Just a minute, I think I have some skins of water in the bottom here,” she said. Sath roared angrily and snatched the bag out of her hands. “What now?”

  “Gin, where is the scar on your cheek?” he asked, his voice barely intelligible over the growl that was coalescing behind his words. “Where is the scar?”

  “What?” Gin’s hand flew to her face, and her eyes widened as her fingers groped for a thin scar that was no longer present on her oaken-tinged skin. “Where…how did…” She was round-eyed as she looked up at the growling Qatu.

  Sath glowered at her. “You are not my…how…?” Gin got to her feet, stopping him cold mid-sentence, and stepped toward him, her hands outstretched toward him to stop him from talking. “Oh, no, no you don’t,” he hissed as he stood up quickly, his staff flipping up into his hand as he did. “Who are you?”

  “Don’t be stupid, Sath. You know who I am. But who healed my cheek?” Her fingers still skimmed over the skin on the side of her face. “Where is my scar?”

  “My Gin has a scar on the side of her face, a scar I gave her once a long time ago…who are you?”

  “It’s me, you daft Qatu,” Gin hissed. “I don’t know what happened to my
scar, but it is definitely not there anymore.”

  “Prove to me you are my Gin,” he said. Gin recognized the tone the Rajah took with impertinent citizens and frowned. She thought for a moment of the right words in Qatunari before she began to speak.

  “Sathlir, I am Ginolwenye Clawsharp, the same troublesome druid that stayed behind in Bellesea Keep to kill Dorlagar—I left you behind another time after that, so that I could go look for your son and you have yet to forgive me that one.” Sath’s expression remained angry, and she rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You doubt that I am me just because my scar is gone?”

  “Of course I do,” he hissed. “Anyone could know those facts. You must do more to convince me.”

  “Oh, this is ridiculous!” Gin threw her hands up in the air. “Sath, you know who I am.”

  “Not enough,” he said. His eyes flashed with anger even as they were widened with fear. “It is a trick, and I curse that I did not notice until now. Your healing magic has been enough to heal the most heinous wounds, and yet you have purposefully left that scar, you said, as a reminder of what?”

  “Dear spirits, is that all? It was a reminder of who we used to be…” Gin paused a moment but decided that this was as good a time as any to start being honest. “It was a reminder to me of who YOU used to be, Sath. You scared the life out of me that day in the tunnel. I left the scar so that I would never forget the animal that resides at your very core.”

  “All right. Stop talking,” Sath said, his expression pained.

  “No, you asked, so you will listen,” she said, moving closer and planting herself in front of him. “Once I got to know you, it was a reminder of how far we had come, Sath. That scar came from the Bane of the Forest—the same animal that locked me in the cells below Qatu’anari while hiding behind the name Rajah. I have never, ever intentionally hurt you, Sath, but you have hurt me more than once. That scar was a reminder to me not to become too complacent in case one of your less desirable personas decided to surface.”

  “I said stop talking,” Sath said, the familiar growl becoming present behind his words.

  “Even now, since you rescued me from Ben – and yes, I will say his name as much as I like because every time I do, I take back a little of the power the wizard took from me. You rescued me, gave me a place to live in Qatu’anari, and let me spend time with Khujann, whom I adore even though his mere presence reminds me EVERY DAY of the treachery of his mother and how she led you to kill my only sister…even now, Sath, I feel the distrust coming off you in waves when it comes to me, and I don’t know how to fix that, so HOW CAN I POSSIBLY PROVE TO YOU THAT I AM WHO I SAY I AM??” Sath leaped to his feet, knocking her backward and to the ground, and crouched on top of her. He held her face still, one giant hand wrapped around her mouth.

  “I said, stop talking, Gin!” he whispered. “We don’t want to call attention to ourselves until we are certain of where we are!” Sath hovered above her, supporting his weight with one arm and keeping her silent with the other. Her ice-blue eyes stared up at him, burning with anger…and fear. “Ikara’s TEETH, if I had any doubts about who you are, you have just put them all to bed. NO ONE but my Gin could possibly talk THAT MUCH.” Their gazes locked, he growled low in his throat. “If I take my hand away, do you PROMISE to be quiet?”

  Gin nodded, and Sath released her mouth. “So we agree then? I am who I say I am?” she snarled at him as she wiggled out from under his substantial furry body. Sath only snorted in response. “Did you ever think that perhaps when I healed us BOTH when we arrived in the Void that maybe something was different with my magic? Maybe I wasn’t paying attention for once and forgot to keep the magic away from the scar?” She was whispering, but the emotion behind her words was loud and clear.

  “And yet, she is still talking,” Sath sighed as he returned to his seat against the opposite wall. He turned to look out the entrance to the tunnel and smiled, relieved to see the sun rising over the horizon. “Now then, if I ask for food, will it be thrown at my head?”

  Gin picked up her pack and rummaged about, finally finding the sandwiches at the bottom. She tossed one to him and then opened one for herself. Taking a bite, she chewed for a moment and swallowed, then spoke. “So, your Gin?”

  “What?” Sath asked, his mouth full of food. Gin grimaced.

  “You said that only your Gin could talk as much as I do. I suppose that means that I am part of your household, right?” she asked before taking another bite of the sandwich. Her fingers hovering so close to her lips were driving Sath to distraction.

  “What?” Sath realized he sounded foolish, so he swallowed what he was chewing on and beamed a toothy grin at her. “You are my Gin, aren’t you?” he said, deciding that trying to hide what he had said would do no good with her. Gin was nothing if not tenacious when she thought someone was keeping something from her.

  Gin blushed to the roots of her hair. “I suppose I am, being called Clawsharp and all,” she said as she popped the last bite of her sandwich into her mouth and then took a long swig off of her skin of water. “Part of the royal family, right?”

  Sath’s face fell. “Yeah, part of the royal family,” he said. “So, there’s a cave over there, see, in the treeline? I think that we should make our way there today. If it isn’t a cave, it might be a tunnel—which might lead back to somewhere we recognize.” He took the last bite of his sandwich and chewed for a moment before he spoke. “All we know is that we are somewhere near the coast because I can still smell the salt in the air, can’t you?” Gin nodded. Sath stood and surveyed the landscape. “This reminds me of a lot of the Grasslands, down by Calder’s Port. The western side, where the actual port is and around to the north toward Qatu’anari. I can almost imagine the stories that the nanny told us coming to life here—the myths told by the other races about their gods and goddesses.” Gin narrowed her eyes at him.

  “Myths? You think that my All-Mother is just a character in a story?”

  “Well, to be fair, Gin, I’ve never seen her. But no, settle down.” He held up his hands to her before she started talking. “These were not about your Sephine and Kildir. The one that comes to my mind now concerns Ikara and his daughter, Eh’soi, the so-called Princess of Ikedria and their sworn enemy, Guardian Eleinnagh of House Calder,” Sath said.

  “Eleinnagh Calder, right? The very first hybrid born on Orana, well, after the dragonkind that is. Oh, Cursik would be shocked that I remembered that, I was so lazy at my history lessons.” She smiled at the memory of her brother for the first time in a long time.

  Sath nodded. “The Ikedrians and the Guardians were fighting over the rights to the northern trade routes under the Great Forest and into the Outlands—this was just after the Forest War, and it was originally thought that Eh’soi had been killed in the final fight that took Ikara’s magic. But she returned, weakened, and with very little magic and set off after Eleinnagh. The Princess did not perish because her father used sorcerers, who opened a portal to the battle to save her. This place just reminds me of how the nanny described the scene of the battle, a barren coast.”

  Gin was watching Sath with the wide-eyed innocence of a child. “That’s right, I remember some of that story, anyway,” she said. “Go on, Sath. I used to love it when you would tell Khuj the history of Qatu’anari as bedtime stories.”

  “How did you know that I did that? I guess he told you, didn’t he?”

  “No. I used to sit out in the hall and listen,” Gin admitted. “I needed to know more about my new home, didn’t I? I didn’t ask to stay because I was afraid you would stop telling him the stories. You are an amazing story-teller, Sath…and an amazing father.”

  “I tried my best,” Sath said with a shrug. “Once I got him back, I never wanted to let him out of my sight again. I still curse that bard for stealing those precious first months with him from me.” A low growl formed in his chest until he noticed a slightly wary look cross Gin’s face. “I’m sorry, but it just makes me so angry. But tho
se times had nothing to do with you, not directly, and I need to let them go.”

  “I have an idea, Sath,” Gin said quietly. “Part of this journey is getting to know each other again, right? Well, how about we table all of this talk for the moment…shut it! I can be quiet when I want to be!” She pointed her finger at Sath’s grinning face. “We go out and see how far we can get—and how much we can learn—during the day time, but at night we tell stories.”

  “Stories? Like the history of Qatu’anari, the one I told Khuj, you mean?” he asked, puzzled.

  “No. The history of Sath and Gin. I want to know whatever you are willing to tell me about yourself, and I will promise to answer any question you put to me about my past,” Gin answered. Her bravado was slipping, but she held the neutral expression on her face as best she could. “What do you think?”

  “Gin, there are things you don’t want to know about me,” Sath muttered, the growl again present in his voice. He hoped that she couldn’t feel his shame through their bond, but had a feeling she could.

  “There are things I don’t want you to know about me as well, Sath, but if you are to know me and trust me, you have to know the bad and the good.”

  “What do you mean, trust you? I trust…”

  “Don’t lie to me, Sath,” Gin said, again raising her finger to stop him from talking. “I know that you don’t trust me completely, and I don’t blame you for that, but I think that if you know me better, you will be able to trust that I would never hurt you on purpose. I’ve got your back, Cat, but I don’t think you always believe that.”

  Sath sighed loudly. “I never won your trust in the first place, did I, not completely anyway.” Gin looked down at the ground for a moment and shook her head. “Okay. Fair enough. I will answer any question you ask me.”