Blood of the Guardian (31 page)

“Kat?” Nolan asked.

She shook him. “Found him trying to get away.”

“We let him go.”

Her scowl fell, and her eyes snapped up to his. “You … what?”

“I tried to tell her,” growled Tibel.

“Kat,” Nolan said. “He saved my life.”

As if his clothes were made of hot metal, she released him. Tibel staggered, almost falling on his injured leg. His swollen eye looked worse, if at all possible. Nolan tucked away a mental reminder to never let Kat get upset with him.

Nolan grabbed the man’s hand to steady him and summoned Healing at the same time. Tibel flinched and relaxed. The purple bruises around his eye faded.

Tibel stared at him, stunned.

“Well, it’s too late for you to leave now,” Nolan said. “You’re better off waiting until morning.”

“You mean when we release the other gypsies?” Kael added, his voice filled with disgust.

“You’re letting them go, too?” Kat asked.

“Yes,” Kael said, his hand going to the pommel of his sword. “I’d rather kill them.”

Tibel stared at Kael, eyes wide.

Kael stroked the handle of his sword as his eyes blazed yellow with his Shay. Nolan snorted. Kael could be such a twit sometimes.

“He won’t hurt you,” Nolan said.

Tibel didn’t seem convinced.

“He’s my brother,” Nolan added. “I’ll kick him across the camp if he touches you.”

Kael grinned. “Oh, will you now? You haven’t won a fight with me yet.”

Tibel’s fear still lingered, but his eyes darted from Nolan to Kael and back to Nolan again. He was confused, understandably. Since Nolan’s transformation, he and Kael looked nothing alike.

For a moment, Nolan considered explaining to him how he’d come to look like a Guardian. About gaining his powers, and his death and transformation. He most likely would think Nolan made it up. If he hadn’t lived—and died—through it, Nolan wouldn’t believe it either.

Nolan’s mind shifted, and the blood drained from his face.
Darkness no!
He snapped from his thoughts and found everyone staring at him.

“Nolan?” Kat asked. “Are you okay?”

“Where did you put the bodies?” Nolan asked.

“What?”

“The bodies. From the people you killed last night.”

“There were only two of them,” Kael said. “The spearman and the wench with the daggers.”

“Where?” Nolan hoped he was wrong.

Kael stepped away from the others toward the tree line. A large blanket covered a mound in the grass. “We hadn’t gotten around to burying them yet.”

Nolan grabbed the end of the blanket and yanked. The spearman stared, glassy-eyed—the campfire light flickered off his profile. Next to him lay a pile of rags that used to be clothes. Jezebelle’s body was gone.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“I DON’T UNDERSTAND,” Kat said. “Where is she?”

Nolan stared, hardly able to breathe.

Greer released a long sigh layered with a growl. “It would appear the gypsy has transformed.”

“T-transformed?” Kat stammered. “Like Nolan?”

Nolan licked his lips. Certainly Brim wouldn’t have chosen a selfish and cruel person like Jezebelle. He clenched his fists to curb their trembling. So he hadn’t been chosen by Brim. He’d been a freak. A fluke. A random draw of nature that repeated itself. Part of him was glad not to be the only one. But why
her
?

“We have another Nolan on our hands?” Kael asked.

“So it would seem, Master Kael,” Greer said.

Kael ran a hand through his hair. “She won’t be happy with us killing her.”

“She’s insane,” Tibel said, his voice trembling. “She’ll want revenge.”

The whole group stared at the strips of cloth that used to be her clothes.

“When Nolan attacked us,” Kael said, “he nearly took on the whole Rol’dan army, and that was before he transformed. At least Nolan was kind, he
tried
not to kill people.”

Nolan cringed. A few had died from loss of blood.

Kael jabbed a finger toward Kat. “Killing her made her transform.”

She huffed. “I didn’t know she’d come back to life. I was trying to
save
you.”

“Save me?” Kael’s eyes glared golden. “I had the fight under control.”

“Of course you did.”

Kael slid out his sword. “Would you like a demonstration, Lieutenant?”

“Enough!” Nolan said. “You two act like children.”

They stared at him, and the light faded from their eyes.

“What’s done is done. Quit pointing fingers, and let’s figure out what to do.”

“Well, we can’t do anything until morning,” Kael said. “We don’t even know how long she’s been gone.”

“Or maybe she didn’t rise at all,” Kat said. “Maybe one of her gypsies took her body.”

“And shredded her clothes?” Kael added.

Kat opened her mouth, but her hopefulness faded.

Kael squared his shoulders and straightened his leather jerkin. “Well, then … let’s get some sleep and head out in the morning. Even if she tries to attack us, I don’t imagine she’ll do it right away. Soon we’ll have the walls of Faylinn around us to help.”

“And we have Lord Emissary,” one of the Rol’dan said.

Kael motioned toward Nolan, and a smirk touched his mouth. “Yes. We have that too.”

Kael barked orders to his men, assigning watch. At least with a platoon of Speed Rol’dan, Jezebelle wouldn’t be able to sneak up on them without warning.

Tibel stood, wringing his hands, confusion pulsing from him. When Nolan walked by him, the small man grabbed his arm. “Lord Emissary?”

“Please. Call me Nolan.”

He nodded slowly. “Nolan. What should I do?”

“Well, you have two options. You could go your own way in the morning, although I can’t make any promises for your friends over there.” He motioned toward the cage full of gypsies. “And I don’t know about Jezebelle.”

“And the other option?”

“You could come with us to Faylinn.”

The man’s face paled.

“I didn’t say they were good options. At least in Faylinn you’d have a few on your side. The king is not hateful to Talasians, including those who are citizens of Adamah. However, so you are aware, we may be at war with them soon.”

“I will think about it.”

Nolan patted the man’s arm. “Tell us your answer in the morning.”

He walked off, leaving Tibel standing alone. He probably needed a place to sleep; hopefully, some Rol’dan soldier hadn’t claimed his tent already. But Nolan had more important things on his mind than playing host to a gypsy.

He flipped open his tent and found Greer waiting for him. The Guardian sat at the dressing table, making the chair look as if it belonged to a child. The lantern on the table remained unlit, but Greer’s light filled the room.

“Greer? What are you doing here?”

“We need to talk.”

Nolan’s brows knitted together. Hadn’t they talked already? He sighed and sat on the thin mattress, waiting for Greer to speak. The sooner they finished talking, the sooner he could be alone. His head hurt, and the meager understanding he’d had of himself had disappeared in a cloud. He wasn’t in the mood to have someone reading his mind.

“Well?” Nolan asked. “You wanted to talk?”

Greer released a long sigh. “It is time to share with you about Rikar.”

“Why now? An hour ago, you couldn’t tell me a thing.”

“Events have changed.”

Nolan shivered. He hadn’t been warm since the gypsies had captured him. The first thing he planned to do when he got back to Faylinn was put on some real clothes. He pulled the blanket from the bed and wrapped it around his shoulders, waiting for Greer to share this “secret.” At the moment, he didn’t care what Rikar had done. After several minutes of waiting, Nolan wondered if Greer had changed his mind.

“Has Rikar said anything to you on the subject of his past?” Greer finally asked.

Nolan pulled the blanket tighter around him. “He said he was dangerous, that many died because of him.”

The muscles tightened around Greer’s mouth. “What he has told you is a truth, of sorts.”

“It makes no sense,” Nolan said. “If he caused deaths, wouldn’t Brim take his powers away like he did with Alcandor?”

“He did not kill directly.”

That is exactly what Rikar said.
“How does one kill someone, but not directly kill someone?”

Greer stared ahead, as if trying to organize his thoughts. “Rikar has an illness … an obsession with women.”

“An obsession? What do you mean by an obsess—” Nolan swallowed as heat rose to his face. “Oh.”

“Rikar and I have argued much in regard to this topic. At first, he did not see the crime.”

Nolan considered what Alcandor had done, about all the lives he’d destroyed. About Megan. And Emery. And even Kael. “How can he not see the harm in defiling someone by forcing them to do his will?”

“He never resorted to control,” Greer said, “which is why we argued. He relied on manipulation and disguise; he would take the form of a human.”

“I didn’t think you were allowed to be with humans, in … um … that way.”

Greer scowled. “It is not a law, specifically. But it is
not
respectful. He claims he only helped
them. In his mind, he served mankind, just as Brim created us to do. He would find the lonely women, the rejected. He would see those whose husbands neglected them, and he would take the form of their mate.”

Nolan gawked. He almost hated to ask, but he couldn’t stop. “So how did it make him dangerous? How did it make him kill?”

Greer leveled his white-filled eyes at him, sorrow emanating from his emotions. “Back in Faylinn, I told you what happened to those who bore the child of a Guardian. As careful as Rikar claimed he had been, he was not perfect. Those he planted seed into died, along with the unborn children.”

Children, not child. How many has he killed?

How many women? How many innocent lives? All because he couldn’t control himself? Rikar’s comments about staying locked behind bars made more sense now. Rikar knew what he’d done. He knew his weakness, and probably still desired it. So instead of wandering around the countryside causing more damage, he’d confined himself in a cage. And now he was free again.

“We need to find him,” Nolan said.

“Yes. We do.”

They sat in silence, listening to the muted conversations of the Rol’dan on watch. Why had Greer made this a secret? Why hadn’t he told him until now? What changed? It was only after finding the evidence of Jezebelle’s resurrection that Greer shared. Had Rikar been abusing Jezebelle, too?

“I did not share Rikar’s past with you at first, because I detest him, and I did not want to speak of his atrocities. However, with Jezebelle’s transformation, it brought forth a theory I have been pondering for quite some time. One that concerns you.

“At first, I had thought your transformation might truly be an act of Brim. But now I am inclined to believe that not all of Rikar’s children died,” Greer said slowly, as if choosing his words. “Rikar could very well be Jezebelle’s father … and your father as well.”

Nolan’s vision tunneled as the words sunk in. How could Rikar be his father?

“You said your mother died when you were born?”

“Yes … but … ”

“And your father treated you like you weren’t his own?”

Nolan’s head spun. He’d figured his father hated him because of his mother’s death. Had Rikar disguised himself as his father and, in the process, created him? Waves of nausea turned his stomach. Was it possible?

Then Nolan remembered a discussion with Rikar. He’d asked him specifically about his family. About his hometown. His mother. The blanket slipped from Nolan’s trembling fingers and slid to the floor.

“I suspected Rikar after your transformation, but dismissed it,” Greer said. “It was not until Jezebelle’s death and transformation that I believed the possibility. Why, of all places, did Rikar stay in the gypsy camp where another developed and transformed, as you did? Perhaps he identified Jezebelle as his child. I believe he caged himself so he could be near her. I cannot be certain, not without Rikar’s confirmation.” Greer stood. “I will track him. We will get our answers. I will leave now and meet you in Faylinn.”

Nolan opened his mouth, but no words would come.

Greer put a hand on Nolan’s shoulder. “Do not despair yet, Master Nolan. I could be wrong.”

“And you could be right,” Nolan said, his voice low.

Greer squeezed his shoulder. “We will know more once I have found Rikar.”

The tent flap opened, and Kat entered, her face strained and pale. Shock and dread pulsed from her in thick waves. “I … I have bad news.”

Nolan stared. What could be worse than finding out you’re a Guardian’s bastard and that you might have an evil sister you never knew existed?