Book of Curses (The Renning Chronicles) (18 page)

Fang let out a low, feral sounding growl at Nixon then looked away. “Why in the cold hell, do we have to teach them basics? If they need to be taught it, you can do it Dhampire.”

“Fang, just do it.” Talon let out a sigh, looking over at Fang with a pleading look.

Fang grumbled for a moment,
and then
stood up as straight as he could in front of me. Talon was in front of Tom. They both handed us a sword, tip down so that we were given the handles to grab onto.

I grabbed the one that Fang was handing me, seeing Tom swinging his own in his hands. Talon and Fang stepped next
to
us;
Talon on Tom's left side, Fang was on mine.

“You’re going to need to get used to holding and swinging the sword, so, defense first.” I nodded my head, trying to listen to Fang. He looked so furious with
everyone;
I thought he was going to take off my head. But, when he spoke, he sounded calm. “Try to mimic my motions the best you can.”

Fang began to step forward, and then did a slow motion with his arm. Lifting it up and shifting his legs, I matched him step for step. He changed his position, his other foot came forward, and the other one moved back, his arms switched to move behind his back.

We began to pick up the pace towards the
end;
we ended up moving faster than Talon and Tom. It was
sort of
funny how fast I picked up on this stuff, but I found it fun, and it was similar to dancing.

The more I actually thought about it, it really did seem like a series of dances. You had to be extremely graceful, quick, and you had to remember the exact moves, or you'd be doomed by the fall of a sudden swords blade bearing down on you.

***
*
*

It wasn't too long after we finished up, that we were taken to another room. Nickel traded off with Fang, and flanked Tom's side with Layre now. Talon and Nixon both were quiet as they stood on both of my sides, leading me down the hall beside my brother.

We ended up in the library, and I'll tell you this now. I didn't think I would've ever been so happy to see the extremely cranky Eyloff or Dolphus. Though, Dolphus was practically bouncing when he saw us enter the room. I forgot yet again that he was a Lycanthrope soldier. Sometimes he just made it so easy to forget, I didn't think he belonged there, but he was there still.

“Raine!” He yelled happily, drawing out the syllables in my name and in one quick motion striding over to me. “Isn’t this place just grand?”

“It’s sickening, is what it is…” Eyloff grumbled, sounding as angry with the world as ever.

I looked over at Eyloff frowning at his remark, before looking back at Dolphus and smiling happily. “It’s nice.”

“So, where exactly do we start teaching you?” Nickel asked aloud to Tom and me, I looked over at him.

“We could teach them the guardian stuff.” Layre simply said, shrugging her shoulders as she sat down.

Nickel nodded his head slowly, as if he was thinking. His finger grazed over a tattoo that sat under his right eye, when I got a good look at it, it looked like a dragon and when he touched it, I swore it moved a little. “Sit everyone, this could take a while.”

I sat down, still looking at him before my eyes shifted over to Layre. I was trying to figure out what they were doing when they started exchanging words and searching through some books.

Tom stood behind me, leaning on the back of the plush couch. I could feel his hands right next to where my shoulders were, making me look back at him for a moment. Nixon was sitting on my left side, and Dolphus on my right. When I looked for Eyloff and Talon I found them hovering close by us, but giving one another dirty looks.

“How much do you know about guardians?” Layre asked, her voice was almost like a bell ringing across the room. She was holding onto a well-aged book, I was trying to see what it looked like, but I could only catch glimpses of the yellow pages.

Giving up, I looked back at Tom and he shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing.” I answered her, watching to see what they'd both do now.

Nickel closed his eyes, nodding his head again as he leaned back into his chair. His dirty blonde hair was pulled back from his face. He looked up at us with cloudy grey eyes before he moved his right hand to shut a book next to him. Once it was shut he let out a bit of a sigh, and began to speak.

Chapter 8

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“
Guardians
are the people who take on the legacy of others, they’re marked at birth, and that’s how we tell them from
others
. I’m sure you realize their births are rare. Two out of however many were
born
or reborn in each region. Talon was our first, reborn if you need to know specifically, then Nixon.

The mark is an obvious one to everyone from the gods, a scar that looks more like a tattoo. It can be anywhere, Nixon's is at the base of his throat,
and Talon’s
is under his right eye." Nickel explained

“Guardians take on the duty of protecting the chosen, only if they are of age. If they are not, the region picks the next strongest person, and they protect them instead. There is only ever as many guardians as there are chosen, in our case there are two of you, so two guardians come from each region to help you.

The two wolves with you would be the two who were marked and sent to stay with you; Nixon and Talon are marked as well and will go on with you. Though it was a hell of a debate over whether or not Nixon
would
go due to his age, your guardians will be what decide whether or not you’ll live or die, you’re only as strong as your weakest member.” Layre finished for Nickel, looking at each of us. She set her own book down, and then folded her arms across her chest.

“So you mean, these people are already chosen to protect us against their own will, at birth?” I asked her, staring in horror. It wasn't something that sounded fair. What if they had families? What if they died because of us, and were damned at birth.

“Yes, though they go down in history as well respected people for it.” Nickel answered
me;
there was a hint of sadness in his voice that even I could hear.

“Why hasn’t anyone just gotten rid of the gods, and put everything in order?” Tom stood up straighter behind me, I could hear his fingers pressing into the couch as he asked that.

“A few have, but they didn’t live to finish the ritual that freed the gods again.” Nickel told him, his hand pressed against his forehead rubbing at it slowly.

“Ritual?” I felt both of my eyebrows shoot up, rituals never sound good. Someone always seems to die when they're involved, or get seriously hurt.

“The chosen are supposed to take on an immortal life of choice: Fey, Lycan, or Vampire. They have to survive the process of the turning, and it seems humans of your world reject it a lot, not just one can be turned,
and both
need to.” Layre explained to me, and then looked up at Tom.

“I, who, that’s just…” I was at a loss for words, and just stared ahead. There's never been two of the Chosen that had ever survived being turned. In order to break this curse and to kill those gods… Two had to be turned.

Layre nodded her head slowly and let out a sigh as they started to go on explaining more. I was so shocked I could hardly listen to
any more
of it, I nodded my head and acted like I did, so that no one would ask though.

Tom and I had a high chance of dying, even if we succeeded we would be immortal, as fun as that sounds I didn't want to lose my brother because of any of this. He was my only actual family that I loved, and I didn't want to lose him. I wouldn't be able to handle something like that.

“Are there any questions?” Layre asked everyone who was in the room. That had caught my
attention
, and I looked at the others and then raised my own hand as if I were in school.

“I have one.” I announced, looking at the two of them.

“Go on.” Nickel smiled towards me, he seemed eager to hear my question.

“The gods, do any of them have special gifts? I’m curious what we’re up against.” I
lied;
I didn't want them to know about my dreams. All I really wanted to know
about
was one god in particular. Arbael.

“Yes, well Sita is a prankster, he can take on anyone’s form just to toy with you, and you’d have to know the people you’re with very well to tell Sita from them. Arbael he’s a dream walker, he can visit anyone’s dreams at any time, regardless of anything going on at the time, and anything that goes on in that dream happens in reality.” Nickel took a second, thinking about each of them and going off of his own memory. I guessed he had been up against them before.

“Maldre, he’s sinister in every way. He can plant images in your head, he knows everyone’s wants, and worst fears, and uses them to his advantage. He has powers over things even I don’t know about, as far as Amamai goes, she kills with beauty, literally. She turns into the most beautiful girl from each region, and lures in men then kills them.” He finished up and looked at me. “Anything else?”

“No, thank you.” I smiled brightly at him, and let my mind start to process what I was told.

“That’s it for today then.” Layre said as she began to stretch her arms, and let out a slow yawn.

I though
t
about what he said to me about Arbael. If he was able to do something like that, then that meant that the dream I had last night was real. That's when I felt my panic starting to take over my body.

I couldn't remember what he had said to me really, there were bits and pieces from the dream floating about in my mind. Something about
,
no longer than two months, and needing to be fast. The rest of it though, it was there in my mind just buried deep in the back of it, where I couldn't remember it all. Two months and be fast were all I had to go on, I guess that's what I had to work with.

Part Two

Sword in hand, dancing in a fury.

Learning to defend we must hurry.

No time for love, no time for hate,

To the ball we must not be late.

Shining brightly, shining cold as death

My foe drops, taking one last breath.

-Sword and Dance by Kristi Worrell

Chapter 9

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