Guardian (13 page)

But I gave it my best shot. I landed a few good kicks and punches, causing my captor to grunt in pain as he dragged me down the hallway.

We stopped beside a large tapestry and the elf holding me jerked his head down the hallway. “Get him. He should be on the floor by now. I’ll take her to the boats and wait for you there. Don’t join me until he’s dead.”

Aubrie!

His men jogged back down the way we’d just come and disappeared into the room where Ian and I had spent the night.

Aubrie lowered his head and whispered in my ear. “Say goodbye to your boyfriend, pretty Monad. I think you’ll be happier with me anyway, I don’t have any nasty faery blood flowing through my veins.”

As he spoke he stepped backwards and we were suddenly in a dark passageway. The walls along the passage held light sconces at regular intervals, showing me a downward sloping floor. I allowed myself to go limp and heavy for a moment, hoping I could slow him down with my weight.

Aubrie laughed. “You’ll have to do better than that, pretty Monad.” Before I knew what he was doing I was butt up, over his shoulder. He took off at a fast jog.

Damn!
My mind raced. Though I was really strong, I knew the elf would be much stronger. So I couldn’t best him with my strength. I had no weapons, other than my feet and hands and I hadn’t found a way to use those effectively yet. And in the back of my mind, the thought of what my increasing distance from Ian was doing to him was a painful throb on my emotions.

I had to think of something. And fast.

A salty tang seasoned the air of the passageway.

Aubrie’s feet started slapping through puddles and I knew we were getting closer to the water. A dim light filled the passageway now, confirming this. Desperate, I did the only thing I had left to try. As Aubrie jogged past a flickering sconce, I grabbed it with both hands and gritted my teeth against the jolt as his weight hit the end of my arms.

Fortunately for me he hadn’t been expecting it and his upper body jerked to a stop while his feet kept going. He started to topple backwards and I kicked off his stomach with my feet, launching myself into the air with the help of the sconce and flipping to land on my feet behind him.

I turned and jumped, landing with both feet on his chest.

To my extreme satisfaction I felt something give in his chest, accompanied by a resounding crack. Aubrie’s handsome face paled and he gasped, clutching a rib.

I kicked out before he could stand and connected with his jaw. His head snapped back and hit the floor hard. Unfortunately for me the floor was moist and therefore wasn’t hard enough to knock him out.

He reached up and grabbed my foot, yanking me down on top of him.

Though he grunted in pain as my full weight hit his broken rib, he wrapped me in both arms and rolled, pinning me beneath him. “Bitch! I think you broke my ribs.”

I grinned meanly. “That’s too bad. I was trying to kill you.”

He lifted a fist and I watched it descend toward my face, mentally preparing myself for the pain. But the fist stopped inches from my face.

Aubrie just had time to look surprised before his fist redirected itself into his own chin. I watched his eyes roll up into his head and then his full weight landed on my chest.

“Uggh!” I groaned, trying to push him off.

Suddenly the elf’s weight flew off my chest with such force that he hit the rock wall and slid down to land in a limp puddle on the dirt floor.

I scrambled to my feet and took a defensive crouch, not sure what I was dealing with.

But when the air shimmered and a tall form stepped out of a travel layer in front of me, I was looking at Ian. He smiled. “I thought you had him for a minute there.”

I frowned, tugging the shirt together at my chest. Looking down I saw that I was down to about two buttons. “You’ve been here this whole time?”

He just grinned at me.

“Why didn’t you help me?”

He gave me his most innocent look. “I just did.”

I stood there, clutching my measly bit of tattered clothing and glared at him.

Finally he laughed. “Come on, we need to get out of here. You can be mad at me later.”

He grabbed my arm and we started running. I fumed quietly.

“Don’t think I won’t be!” I assured him as we ran.

His response was a chuckle.

Chapter Eight

Saved by a Brother, Sort of

W
e stopped at the end of the passageway and peered out. The docks were full of archers. Two large white ships were being loaded with crates of supplies, their sails prepped and ready for departure.

My gaze slid to the horizon. Crystalline blue water stretched as far as the eye could see, sparkling in an early morning light. The sweet smell of salt air and vegetation wafted across my nose. I knew the sound of waves pounding against the surf would have been soothing under different circumstances. Out over the water, several large blue birds swayed on erratic currents, dipping occasionally to pull a tasty bite out of the ocean, the iridescent scales of their breakfast throwing off sparks of color in the sun.

My stomach grumbled and I suddenly envied the birds their breakfast.

Ian grabbed my hand. Let’s go.”

I yanked it back. “Where? The place is swarming with Archers.”

He stared hard at me. “I’m not sure. We’re just gonna have to wing it.”

“Wing it! That’s your plan? Wing it?”

“Shhh! Keep it down.” He pulled me back from the opening and pushed me up against the moist rock wall. “Look, Nuria, I didn’t plan for Aubrie to find out about the damn potion you gave me. For that matter I didn’t plan for the damnable potion. I thought we’d have a day or so before he made his move. This is all out of our control and we’re just going to have to make the best of it. The least you can do is cooperate a little bit.”

Fury swept me. “I guess this is all
my
fault then?” My hands planted themselves on my hips and I wished, more than ever, that I had my weapons on me so I could skewer the son of a fish.

Ian blew out a frustrated breath. “Look. I’ll take the blame for Aubrie’s, shall we say, less than fond feelings for me. But you’ve given him the means to destroy me…” As I opened my mouth to defend myself he held up a hand. “…unwittingly or not. Now we need to get the hell out of here. Then we can yell at each other all we want.”

He stared at me for a moment, black eyebrows lifted in question.

Finally I nodded. “You’re right. But I’m not going to just walk out there. I’ll take us into a travel layer.”

Ian shook his head and grabbed my arm, lifting it so that the metal bracelet was in front of my face. “You can’t. This blocks your powers.”

My eyes widened, “All of them?”

He nodded.

“We need to get rid of it!”

“Yes we do. But I can’t do it. We need someone with the right kind of power to remove it.”

I frowned. “What’s the right type of power?”

He stared at me for a moment. I got the impression he knew I wasn’t gonna like his answer. “Fey power.”

“Shit!” Out of the frying pan and right back into the fire. “Tana?”

He nodded. “The sooner we get out of here the sooner we can get that thing off your wrist.

I didn’t need to think about that for long. “Okay, but I’m not going out there without some kind of plan.”

He nodded. “Okay, here’s the plan. We go out that entrance there and keep our heads down. We’ll head into the tree line and stay there until dark. Then we’ll come back here and try to steal a boat. Once we’re on the water I think I can get us back to Tana’s lands.”

I opened my mouth, ready to throw about a hundred objections at him for his very weak plan. Then I closed it. Because try as I might I couldn’t come up with a better one. Finally I sighed and nodded.

We returned to the opening and looked out. No one was near the tunnel and no one was looking our way so Ian nodded and we stepped out. Turning immediately away from the activity at the waterfront, we headed across pristine white sand toward the trees about a quarter of a mile away.

We’d only gone a handful of steps before a hand landed on Ian’s shoulder.

He spun, a long knife in his hand, to face our attacker.

A small form in a long, rough, earth colored robe stood there. It was impossible to tell if the person under the robe was elf or human, male or female, but it looked like a member of the Grigory Brotherhood, the local monks. The figure’s hands were crossed in front of its rough robes and a deep hood hid its face.

“Show yourself!” Ian demanded in a low but rough voice.

The figure shook its head and reached under its robes, pulling out a bundle of rough cloth similar to what it was wearing. “Put these on and follow me quietly.”

Ian frowned. “Faerydae?”

“Hurry!”

Ian unrolled the bundle and handed me a robe. I slid it on, immediately lifting the hood to cover my hair and face. Ian did the same.

The elf queen turned away without another word and lowered her head, folding her small hands in front of her, enclosed in the robe’s wide sleeves. We followed her lead and the three of us hurried toward town, passing several of Aubrie’s men who were scurrying around, arrows nocked and nowhere to go.

As we entered the city, Faerydae took a quick left into an alleyway. The sun hadn’t reached that particular alley yet and, for a moment, my eyes had trouble adjusting to the lack of light. I peered into the darkness ahead of us and thought I saw a large shape there. Reaching out a hand I stopped Ian.

A soft whicker of greeting stifled my fear. It was just a horse.

Faerydae stopped and turned, pulling back the hood just enough so that we could see her stunningly beautiful face. “Aubrie’s men are everywhere. He intends to take the girl back and feed her to the harpies as a message for the gods.”

Eiew!
I paled and glanced at Ian.

Ian took a step toward the Elvin queen. “How do you know this?”

She shrugged. “I have spies.” She turned toward the large, dark shape at the back of the alley and gave a soft whistle. “You must go. Take Broud and release him on the other side of the water. He’ll return to me.”

The beautiful black unicorn trotted out of the shadows and stopped before his queen, nuzzling her outstretched hand affectionately.

Closing her eyes on a sigh, Faerydae leaned to kiss him on his velvet nose. “Be safe my friend.” The unicorn nickered softly and nudged her gently with his nose. She stepped away, reluctantly it seemed, and pulled the hood back up to hide her face.

Ian grabbed her arm as she turned to go. “What of your safety?”

She covered the hand on her arm and stood up on tiptoe, kissing him gently but thoroughly on the lips. “I will be safe. I’ll tell them you stole Broud from his stable. Aubrie will be suspicious as always but he daren’t go against me. Not yet.”

Ian nodded. “I’ll be back. Until then, keep yourself safe, Dae.”

She nodded and, before turning away the hooded head swiveled in my direction. The sun had started to thread its way into the alley but it didn’t reach the depths of that rough hood. I stared into the blackness where her face lay hidden from view and wished I could read her eyes. After a moment she pulled something from underneath her robes and handed it to me. It was a beautifully wrought Elvin long knife, the hilt sparkled with what looked like rubies. “You’ll need some protection.” Then she turned away from me without another word and started walking.

At the end of the alley she turned right, toward the Monastery, and disappeared from view.

Ian patted Broud on his thick, shiny neck. “Thank you for your aid, old friend.”

The beautiful Unicorn nodded his head and snorted softly. Then he lowered himself onto his front knees so Ian could climb up. He settled himself and held a hand down to me.

I eyed the Unicorn. Broud eyed me. Neither of us looked happy.

“Nuria?”

I looked up at Ian. “You might have noticed that horses and I don’t get along.”

Ian narrowed his pretty brown eyes at me. “This is a horse like a peasant cart is a royal coach.”

I shrugged, keeping an assessing eye on the beautiful black creature. He hadn’t moved his huge brown eye from me even to blink. “It’s just a horse with a built in sword. And it doesn’t like me.”

In the distance, but not too far away, the sound of shouting and pounding footsteps could be heard, moving steadily nearer.

Ian blew out a frustrated breath. “Nuria! Give me your damn hand!”

“Oh hell!” I reached for Ian’s outstretched hand and he yanked me up behind him.

Broud groaned as I landed hard on his kidneys and threw his head up, lifting himself to his feet.

“Fly like the wind, old friend.” Ian wrapped his fists with the creature’s thick mane and I wrapped myself around Ian, enjoying the feel and smell of him for just a moment.