The Torn Guardian (4 page)

We head southwest along the thin, dirt path. Uzo is carrying all of my things, so it does not take long for him to become winded. I smirk because I know it is my gigantic bow that’s doing it. It really must be much heavier than an ordinary bow since Uzo is not exactly a weakling.

Adira is pulling me along, and it’s hard to keep up with her since I cannot run normally with my hands bound behind me. She stops abruptly when she notices Uzo is not going to be able to keep up at this pace, and I almost go crashing to the ground.

They end up exchanging tasks. She grabs my bow and other supplies, and he guides me as we travel along the path. This jungle is a never ending crowd of trees. It does not look like we are ever going to get out of it, so I’m shocked when I’m greeted with the hot sensation of direct sunlight.

We are standing at the edge of a cliff looking at a cove with a beach that has white sands, and the water is clear blue. Crustaceans at least two feet wide roam the edge of the water, and an absolutely enormous sea turtle relaxes in the shallow water. In the distance towards the entrance of the cove is a large ship made of black wood.

Steel covers the front of the ship, and its figurehead is large metal wolf. Two large wheels are on the side, and the same metal at the front of the ship covers the top half of each one. The ships masts are made of the black wood and massive, but there are also metal towers with steam rising into the air above them. The metal towers are not nearly as big or wide as the masts though.

I would love to study the ship closer, but it will have to wait. We are following an even tighter trail down towards the beach, and the sounds of gunfire and people yelling can be heard as we begin to get closer to our destination.

There are men and woman dressed similarly to Adira and Uzo fighting soldiers wearing black uniforms with grey undershirts, buttons, and laces, but they aren’t the only ones. Large, bulky wolves wearing black vests similar to their humans are fighting muscular cats with similar markings to the tribal tattoos the people of Adira’s village sport.

As I watch the fighting, it becomes apparent a magical item would not have fazed Adira or the others. Some of the fighters are using magic to shield themselves and the other warriors from the bullets of the people invading their territory. The natives fire arrows and knives coated in poison in retaliation, but the armor the invaders are using appears to not only be light but incredibly durable. This is actually a very even fight, and neither side appears to be letting up.

Adira grabs me and orders Uzo to help the others. He charges in fearlessly and stabs an enemy soldier that had gotten to close to one of his friends in the chest with his sword, while Adira drags me towards a waterfall. We enter a large cave hidden behind the waterfall’s rushing water.

If this is the temple she spoke earlier about, it is not anything like I expected. It looks nothing like the temple I grew up in. The cave is outlined with torches and green stone. Upon closer inspection, I can tell this is the same stone Jo held in her memory the only difference being the size. Jo held her piece in the palm of her hand. These are boulder size, and the cave’s walls are lined with it from top to bottom.

As we continue to walk towards the back of the temple, the torches become sparser and more natural light is coming through. We turn the corner, and the view is breathtaking. There is a large opening at the top of the cave allowing a generous amount of sunlight through. The cave floor is no longer dirt and rubble, but rich green grass. Towards the very back is a tree sculpture made of stone that lined the cave walls. To say it is large is the understatement of the century. It is colossal. I’m surprised so much light can enter the cave because the width of the sculptures branches and leaves is almost as wide as the opening at the top.

Adira lets me go and walks to the beautiful monument. I don’t know if I’m supposed to stay put where she left me or not since she doesn’t say anything, so I choose to follow her. I want to get a closer look.

The soft prayer matts at the foot of the tree comfort my feet as I walk closer. Adira takes my bow and the bag she carried down here off her shoulders and sets it down away from me at the trees base. She touches the tree, and it begins to glow a faint green. The rest of the stone surrounding us also begins to faintly glow.

“Wow,” I whisper. So far this world is nothing like what I expected; it is stunning to see it first-hand.

“Why are you doing this?” Adira asks exasperatedly.

“I’m not doing anything,” I reply. After a moment, I feel pretty dumb because she was clearly not speaking to me. A white woman with white hair and slender black streaks in a sophisticated bun is standing across the room on a small ledge. She wears the same uniform as the other soldiers outside, only she has a royal red undershirt and pocket square. Also unlike the soldiers outside she is not armed with a gun. Instead she has a solid black scythe, which I can already sense is a very powerful magical weapon.

I don’t even have to ask. If this isn’t Grace, I will eat my boots and dance naked around this tree statue. As if the scythe isn’t enough to give it away, she looks strikingly similar to Adira and Jo despite the difference in skin tone. Either these two have not noticed how similar they are, or they do not care.

Grace ignores Adira’s question in favor of her own. She is more interested in discovering who I am and why I am being dragged around the island by Adira with my hands tied.

“Do not pretend you do not know,” Adira snarls at Grace as she hops down and takes a few steps towards us.

“There is no pretending going on here,” Grace scoffs. She decides to turn her attention to me and ask me directly, but it takes a moment because she finds it incredibly humorous that I’ve been captured by the idiotic islanders who don’t understand the basics of scientific principal. After finally calming herself, she manages to repeat her questions towards me when I stare at her long enough.

I try to answer, but Adira interrupts and answers for me, “She’s your friend.”

Grace rolls her eyes and without uttering another word unhooks something from her belt. She tosses whatever it is where Adira and I are standing, and Adira full on panics. She grabs me and rushes away. There is a thunderous boom behind us, and the earth shakes so much I lose my balance. Without my hands to break my fall, I land flat on my face. Adira helps me up and wipes away some of the dirt while I spit out the grass I nearly consumed. She appears as dumbfounded as I am.

“What was that?” I shout at her. Maybe I shouldn’t shout at Adira because she isn’t the one that nearly blew me up. Then again, I did just smash my face against the hard ground because she tied my hands together, so maybe my anger is slightly justified.

Regardless of whether my outburst is well placed or not, it does not change the fact Grace nearly killed me. Adira exclaims the item Grace had tossed at us was a grenade. A lovely explosive ball that sends sharp metallic shards everywhere within a given area. I’m truthfully not that surprised Grace tried to kill me within the first few sentences of our initial meeting. She is the dragon of Death’s child, so I expected her to be comfortable enough with the thought of killing others. However, I am despaired because it looks like my dream of not having to kill my sisters or them kill me has instantly vanished.

Grace yells at us to watch our backs, and she unlatches another one from her belt and tosses it at us again! Adira helps me up, and I am eternally grateful. I would not have been able to escape the blast without her.

We wind up running back towards tree to take cover. Adira makes one quick motion with her left hand, and the complicated knot holding my hands together unwinds. Adira is letting me free, as she has come to quickly understand Grace and I are not exactly best friends. Her words are rushed as she says she doesn’t know what I want with Grace, but it should be obvious Grace is not the listening and talking to each other type. She offers her assistance in dealing with my problem if I will help her get Grace.

I agree, but I have my own condition. We can incapacitate Grace, but we cannot kill her.

“Are you crazy?” Adira asks, and I have to acknowledge it is a fair enough question because regardless of Grace trying to kill me, I’m just not ready to give up on her yet.

“Look we don’t have a lot of time to talk right now, but I need to speak with both of you,” I tell her. “It is really important Adira; I need Grace alive.” My heart is racing. I do not want to stay in this position much longer. We have been behind here only a few seconds, but Grace is more than likely moving to where she can have a better shot at flushing us out. It won’t take her much longer to get into a position where she can flank us.

Adira is shaking her head furiously. She does not want to agree, but she reluctantly does. Any help at taking Grace down is welcome even if it comes with a high restriction. Our plan is simple. She will distract Grace, so I can grab my bow and quiver to provide cover.

“Found you,” Grace says menacingly as she tosses what I am really hoping is her last grenade at us.

Adira and I bolt in separate directions. I run around the tree to where my bow is, and she runs straight towards Grace. This is a really bold move because from what I can tell, Adira is unarmed. Grace readies her scythe and swings at Adira. If she lands her strike, Adira will be split in half!

“No!” I shout and try to get an arrow placed as quickly as I can. My concern is unnecessary. Grace’s scythe hit Adira’s wrist guard, and Adira has her hand around Grace’s neck. The two of them are stuck in a stalemate, and a more opportune moment to kill both of them will most likely never appear again.

I drop my bow and arrow. I prefer to get completely ready rather than rush through it. After all, both Grace and Adira have demonstrated they have hot tempers.

“Some assistance would be appreciated!” Adira aggressively yells back at me.

She is angry, and I do not blame her. However, the circumstances have changed. I might be able take control here and avoid a complete tragedy from occurring. If Adira knew what I am doing is saving both of their lives, she might think differently of my strategy. Alas, she does not, so she is quite cross.

I watch them both carefully as I reattach my quiver to my belt and put the claw back on. Once I’ve got everything on the way I like I take my bow and ready an arrow. I walk towards the two of them and touch the tip of the arrow to Grace’s chest. Her black eyes glare at me in return.

“What are you waiting for?” Adira questions.

“Walk towards the wall, both of you,” I command. I will not lie; it feels good to finally be the one in control.

Both Grace and Adira appear more than just annoyed, but they do as I say. Eventually Grace’s back hits the wall, and she has very little room to maneuver.

“What is the point of this?” Adira asks because she has grown impatient.

“I told you,” I answer, “We aren’t killing her. When I count to three, you are both going to ease out of this stance. Adira, I’m trusting you here not to kill her. Grace, you don’t really have much of choice unless you want this arrow to go straight through you. Understood?”

Grace continues to glare at me, and even though I’m not looking at Adira I just know she is in a foul mood as well. Nevertheless, they both agree, and when I count to three, they do as they were told.

“Who are you?” Grace inquires. She is eerily calm even though her back is literally against a wall, and it makes me nervous. I need to be careful. My arrow may be positioned right at her chest where her heart is, but I was not trained to fight short distance, hand-to-hand combat. This is clearly an area Grace and Adira both have an upper hand, and Grace has already analyzed this. She knows with one well timed quick jab she can free herself from my grasp.

“A good question,” Adira agrees as she takes a few steps toward Grace and flicks her right wrist wearing the wrist guard up revealing a hidden blade. She puts the blade against Grace’s neck and warns, “No sudden movements.”

I do not know whether to be suspicious or grateful for the extra hand, but I am leaning towards grateful. Grace was undoubtedly going to try and free herself. Now she has two reasons not to try anything.

They are both eagerly waiting my response to Grace’s question. I decide to start simple by telling her my name is Lux; however, I cannot think of any place to start after that. My mind quickly surveys all of the possible next steps to this conversation, and none of them are very good. Unable to think of a better place to start, I decide to drop the biggest surprise of their lives and get this over with. “I’m your sister.”

I’m pretty sure I just broke my sisters. Adira and I are no longer pinning Grace back. We don’t have to. I can go for a walk on the beach, eat some dinner, and come back to find them both in the exact same spots with the exact same astonished expressions. I waive my hand in front of Grace’s wide eyes and open mouth, and she doesn’t respond. Adira also appears to be frozen in time next to me.

I softly say Grace’s name as I tap and then lightly push her shoulder, and she comes to. The very first thing Grace says is, “Who do you think you are? We are not sisters.” She is disgusted at the notion and cannot believe my attempts to fool her. The problem is I’m not trying to trick her, and I’m failing to think of anything that can be said to convince her otherwise.

“I know it’s a lot,” I start to say.

Grace isn’t going to hear me out. She yells at me to back off, and the entire cave shakes. I breathe in some of the dust and small rocks that fall down on top of us and start coughing. Somehow, I manage to turn to Adira and ask what is going on, but Grace orders me to shut my mouth instead of giving me an answer.

She is nervous, preparing for a fight, and tightens her grip on her scythe. I am about to stop her, but I see Adira also appears to be getting ready. I am about to ask what is going on with both of them when I hear it- a growl, a deep, menacing growl. It fills the entire cave, and I follow suit after my sisters and ready an arrow on my bow.

My muscles tighten as the air has become heavy and tense out of nowhere. My mind keeps stupidly asking what this feeling is, but the question is redundant. I already know what it is. It is the entire reason I was sent down here in the first place. This is darkness—real, undiluted darkness. There is so much of it though. This area was practically clear when I arrived, but now it is as if I am drowning in a sea of darkness’s weighty burden. No matter how hard I try to surface, I cannot escape its pull. What I really need is an answer to how the power of darkness contaminated the area so suddenly.

“Devilin!” Grace yells as she pushes me out of the way and moves to the side. At the very least, I have an answer, though I kind of wish I didn’t. A big, ugly, dark grey creature with curled horns nearly flattened the three of us against the wall! He runs an all fours but can stand and walk on two.

When he stands up and towers over me to roar again, I see just how big a problem this is going to be, literally. He sets himself back down on all fours and snarls as I scramble away. His hate-filled eyes are seething as he tries to pick which one of us to go after. These are the same type of eyes Jo stared at while she died. If this is what Sethos is unleashing on the world, we have a dire problem.

The monster is coming right for me. I fire an arrow, and it hits him right where I wanted, his eye. He screams in pain and stops charging for a moment. I let go of another arrow, and it pierces his shoulder with such force he stumbles backwards.

Grace sees an opportunity and begins her own assault with her scythe. She swiftly detaches a part of his left, back leg from the rest of his body. The scythe is amazing, and I want to take a closer look at it when this is done. However, there is no time for admiration at the present. Grace is forced to move back after taking off a chunk of his leg, as the brute tries to lash out with is sharp claw, screeching in retaliation.

Meanwhile, I did not even notice Adira has disappeared. She moves so gracefully and silently I did not see her until she had her hidden blade inside the creature’s thick neck shortly after he turned away from me. She slices all the way around his throat, and I scrunch my face in disgust. A whopping amount of grimy, black blood comes pouring out of the cut. He struggles, but it’s clear he’s done. After a few more seconds of enduring his half assed attempts to reach us, Grace finishes Adira’s cut and completely decapitates the monster. Its body lies motionless on the floor while its head rolls several feet away.

Maybe this won’t be so bad. The three of us weren’t exactly working together, but we just took out that nightmare without any practice. Give us some a little time, training, and information, and I think we can actually do this. This world can be saved, and none of us will die in process.

“That was too easy,” Grace says breaking me out of my own thoughts, “This place…” She trails off as the green stone lining the walls has become more important than finishing her sentence.

“It was weakened by the Viroca that lines this cave,” Adira explains through harsh breaths as she kneels on the floor. While Grace appears to be calm, Adira appears to be losing it a bit. I ask her if she is all right, and she shakes her head. The creature we just fought was pure evil, which I knew already, but I let her continue. Adira had been warned of them through visions, but never in her wildest dreams did she think she face one in her world, let alone on her island. She is stunned at being able to kill it and cannot help but wonder aloud what it was doing here.

“Destroying everything,” Grace answers Adira’s question, and I’m surprised at how she is reacting to fighting that thing. This might be Adira’s first sight of one, but I doubt it is Grace’s. I want Grace to elaborate. Actually, I need Grace to elaborate. I thought Sethos had just arrived, and I am supposed to be stopping him before he became an unstoppable force of chaos.

But that thing is the same being that killed Jo, and Grace already seems familiar with it and its capabilities. When I try to question her about it, she blows me off and orders me to be quiet again. It is starting to get annoying how often and rudely I am being told to stop talking, but I promptly comply. Grace is still nervous about something. I ready my bow for another fight, but I can’t hear it. There isn’t a single sound other than the slight hint of waves crashing against the beach.

“I don’t hear anything,” I whisper back to her seeking clarification as to why we should be quiet.

“Exactly,” Grace says and she turns around to run back out the cave. Adira’s eyes grow big, and she too quickly picks herself up and runs out.

I follow after them and discover the beach is no longer an island paradise. It’s covered with lifeless bodies, and the soft white sand is ruined with red blotches. Grace and Adira are standing next to each other; both are silent and unsure about what to do. Suddenly, Adira exclaims how she needs to check on the village.

She runs back towards her home leaving me and Grace at the entrance. I want to say something to help ease the tension, but if I’ve proven anything today, it’s that I’m incapable of saying the right the thing at the right time. This makes me further doubt whether having my sister’s memories is going to help me, as both Linette and Jo were excellent speakers who always knew how to handle tough situations. Either of them would be able to comfort Grace, but not I. If I am supposed to be a perfect combination of all my dead sisters’ abilities and talents, then I should be able to do what they did, but I cannot.

Grace begins to walk along the beach ignoring my presence. I trail slightly behind her. I spot Uzo as we walk sullenly, and I have to look away. His body has been pulled apart, and several bones are visible. Unfortunately, he isn’t the only one like that. There are more of Grace’s and Adira’s men’s, women’s, and animals’ limbs scattered around the sand. It is the most horrifying event I have seen, and I have witnessed some abhorrent things through my sisters’ memories. Grace and I walk in silence, so only our boots crunching the sand as we move along the coast can be heard.

“G-Grace,” a dying soldier manages to huff out as Grace gets closer. She hears him and halts. When she finds the person calling her name, she walks over and kneels down next to him.

“James,” she says as she places a hand on his shoulder. “James,” she repeats in a hushed whisper. She bows her head, and I know she’s crying.

“Grace. Please,” he whispers, and it’s strained. He clearly is not going to make it. James has a humongous gash across his chest, and the bottom half of his leg is completely twisted and broken. “Take it,” he manages to get out. I don’t know who I feel worse for, the man dying or the woman watching him because they are both experiencing incredible pain.

Grace doesn’t say anything. I do not think she can if she wants to. She reaches across him and unclips a small pistol in a hilt attached at his waist. She checks to see if there are bullets loaded, and when she sees there are, she closes it and aims.

James utters his final words of thanks before the bullet penetrates his skull. His personal misery ending signals the beginning of Grace’s. She cannot stop crying. She drops to the ground and caresses his head as she sobs over him. He’s no longer struggling, no longer feeling any pain, but Grace is. I softly rub her shoulder. I do not know if it helping, but she isn’t yelling at me to stop or giving me a weird look. So I infer I can continue to do so.

After a while, she just stops. It is as if all she has to do is flip a switch, and she is no longer sad. I’m worried because I cannot begin to guess what she is going to do next. She stands up and turns to face me. There are marks on her face from where the tears had been allowed to freely run down, but fresh tears no longer fall. “Do you see this?” She asks as motions towards all the dead. “This was just one of those things! One!”

“Grace, I’m sorry-” but I cannot finish my apology. Grace does not want to hear it. She does not want my pity or meaningless apology; she wants a solution. Her body is shaking angrily, and she spitefully states that maybe the religious loon will get it now. I need Grace to talk to me here because I’m completely lost. I cannot help the situation if I don’t understand what is going on.

She stares at me in disbelief before shaking her head. “You’re serious aren’t you? You really do not know how fucked we all are?” She asks as she walks towards the center of the beach and performs a wide gesture as she circles back around to face me. “All of this, try multiplying by a few hundreds. My people are dying by the thousands! Her island has one? My nation is being infested with them! And, if all it takes to even the battlefield is some stupid green stone-” She either doesn’t finish her thought, or I don’t hear it. She’s running back towards the cave, and her scythe is ready cut things.

She’s about to take some of the green stone out of the cave. I cannot let her. If she takes some, Adira will most certainly not be willing to work with her. I chase her down and right when she’s about to slash into it, I cut her off from the side. My left hand manages to catch the middle of her scythe, and my right hand is touching the stone she’s trying to carve out.

She almost starts yelling at me. If it weren’t for the cave illuminating with a white light from all the stone, I am sure she would have. Instead she pulls her scythe back and looks around the cave. I take my hand off of the wall I was using as leverage, and the light slowly fades away until all of the stone is back to its normal hue.

“You use magic,” She states completely unfazed by what she just witnessed, “That explains why your arrows could pierce through the devilin so easily. Most of the time they just bounce off; don’t even leave a scratch.”

“You use magic, too,” I say confidently. “A scythe isn’t exactly a protocol weapon even here, no?”

She shakes her head and places her hand on the cave wall, “Yes, but my magic is different.”

All of the stones turn completely black. If we were actually inside the cave, it would be impossible to see our hands right in front of our faces. Admittedly, most people would have probably been afraid. However, I find some level of comfort in it. This is not bad nor evil, just different. I need to know what this rock is. Not only is it the center of Grace’s and Adira’s fighting, but it is also effective against the dark creatures Sethos is sending to attack.

Graces says she doesn’t know exactly what it is, but she confirms it greatly weakens the devilins and other dark forces in battle. The stone was discovered by her people when a single devilin attacked one of her nation’s smaller towns. Nearly everyone died, but a few survivors were found. They claimed they lived because a man wearing the necklace made of green stone had fought and killed the devilin demolishing his house. The man himself was later questioned and claimed he bought the necklace in Oriare from a vendor who said the stone came from Briza.

“So why not start looking for the vendor in Oriare?” I ask. Jo’s country being mentioned by Grace cannot be a coincidence. Jo’s country is submerged in corruption, and she had been working hard trying to end it before mindlessly running to her death.

“Oriare is on lockdown. No one from outside the country can get in. The selfish pricks are trying to ignore the world’s plight as long as they can,” Grace explains. “Rather than start another war, my general ordered me and my crew straight to Briza on that information alone. That’s how desperate we are,” Grace breaks eye contact with me and looks back outside towards the beach. “You know,” she says so faintly I can barely hear, “I don’t think I’ve ever shown anyone that, and they not freak out at least a little.”

Grace is back on turning the natural green rock black. I don’t really know how to explain it at this point. If I mention she is Death’s child, she might block me out again. “You’re my sister,” is all I can really I say, and I hope it is enough to at least get us started on talking about the subject. If her country is infested with these creatures called devilins, then we really need to start focusing our energy on the task at hand. Sethos is much closer to taking over the world than I thought.