Messenger (Guardian Trilogy Prequel 1) (26 page)

“You got to him first…,” he whimpered drolly. When no one laughed, he recognized the tension. “What’s wrong?”

“I was just about to tell you,” I said.

Just now noticing the scratches to my face, he muttered, “Or maybe he got to
you
first…”

“I’m not the one you need to be worried about.”

“And,” he said slowly, “who is?”

It suddenly became a struggle to search for the words. I had delivered countless messages for others, ones that would have made most people cringe, but I couldn’t seem to formulate the most important one I had ever been given the responsibility to deliver.

Unlike Eran, I hadn’t taken the time to plan my announcement, because there didn’t seem to be any left. What I had to say was too critical to allow for it. So I began my message in the best way I knew how…by speaking from the heart.

“I have a confession to make,” I said and drew in an unsteady breath. Eran was watching me again, waiting along with the rest, although I was more acutely aware of his reaction than any of the others. “I…didn’t agree with the judgment to pair guardians with messengers. Having already made my conclusion that we didn’t need your help, I didn’t see the need. But I was wrong.” At that, Eran stepped forward to get a better view of me. I kept my focus on the crowd or I risked losing my nerve. But it was Hermina, who knew my feelings about them, who appeared to be the most impressed. “It is imperative that you stay with your guardians…at all times…because…” I heaved a sigh, desperately not wanting to be the one who delivers such ominous news. “Because…Fallen Ones are the cause behind the Messengers dying eternally.”

I let that information sink in for a few moments, observing them for their reactions. Within seconds, their expressions all seemed to be the same: filled with apprehension.

“You are all in danger here…because this is where the Fallen Ones are headed, where some have already arrived. So I’m urging you, once again, to leave…now…right now.”

The look of sheer panic crossed their faces as they gained a full understanding of the seriousness of the situation they were in.

Eran stepped farther into my view, clearly opposing that idea. I ignored him.

“Anna was the first messenger to die eternally. She was taken by Horace, who ultimately came for me. I ended his life, which I take full responsibility for, and which has sparked a war that I never foresaw coming. But it is coming, right now, right for me. For me. When the bounty was put on my head, Seti answered it, along with many others. And tonight, just before he attacked, he admitted to killing another messenger. Therein lays the proof. Two messengers killed by two separate Fallen Ones. You have a chance to escape now, before it is too late. And I’m pleading with you to take it.” My voice cracked at the end, filled with raw emotion. Soon after I realized I was shaking.

None of them moved.

“But how could we not know this until now?” asked Ariela. Being one of the more perceptive messengers, I wasn’t surprised.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t the response I was hoping for. I needed them to move, shift their legs into walking or their appendages into expanding. I needed them gone.

“Yes, wouldn’t we have come across one of them and discovered it?” Hermina asked.

I sent a look at her that communicated that she wasn’t helping. She shrugged, insisting on an answer.

“Not exactly,” Eran stated, his voice taking instant command over the rising frenzy. “In the beginning, there were fewer of them. As their numbers grew, so did the probability of crossing paths with them. There was bound to be a time when this happened. That time has now come.”

Apparently, he had already studied the problem and come to a conclusion, which I appreciated.

“You’ve been studying this problem for how long?” Hoffstedler asked, his aged face taking on a gloomy expression as he crossed his frail arms over his chest.

The fact that he and the rest weren’t fleeing irritated me.

“I had a feeling when I met the Kohlers,” I said, not bothering to explain who the Kohlers were. If they had come because of the bounty then they already knew.

“A premonition?” Cilla asked.

“No, more like a sensation.” Bewildered faces gawked back at me, ones that should have been fleeing. So I clarified in an impatient rush, “The hair stands up on the back of my neck.”

I didn’t want to disclose any more out of urgency. I needed them to regress to the vital part of the conversation…that their lives were at risk, eternally. What happened to me when the Fallen Ones were nearby felt trivial in comparison, at least until Bailey interjected.

“I’ve felt it too,” she uttered. “I’ve felt a vibration in my head.”

Suddenly, everyone turned to her.

“In Paris, a man followed Claudius and I, down side streets, through the market, and along the river. The entire time, my head was – was buzzing. Claudius turned back to confront the man, but he slipped into a shop and out the back door where we lost him. He was a Fallen One. I’m sure of it.”

“Could that have been a solitary event?” Eran asked.

“No. When Seti passed overhead tonight, just before he was consumed by the fire, the buzzing started again.”

There was a resounding intake of air from the group as they almost uniformly gasped.

For final confirmation, Bailey added, “And it ended when he perished.”

“I’ve sensed a pain in my back before,” Hoffstedler acknowledged. “When a woman was glaring at me from across the street. And it ignited again, tonight, when Seti was dragged back to the camp.”

“She also perspires, shakes, and has difficulty breathing,” Eran stated, encouraging them to speak up.

I sighed in exasperation at him.

He lifted his eyebrows at me in revolt. While still soaking in my glare, he continued, unashamed at deserting me in my endeavor. “I call it her alarm.”

“Yes,” Hoffstedler contemplated. “Yes, it is an alarm because it is alarming.”

“My ears have rung several times when I’ve crossed unsavory characters on the street,” Ariela remarked, joining in.

Before I knew it, all the messengers around the fire were identifying their alarms, excited over having finally discovered what was triggering them.

When it quieted a silent chill ran through the night air. Finally, they understood. They comprehended that their world had changed. It had become smaller, constricted, because they no longer had the freedom that innocence granted. Their enemy wasn’t one but many and they were scattered across wide swaths of territory.

Yet the messengers didn’t move and made no attempt to seek a safe passage out of camp.

Hermina explained what the rest of them were apparently thinking. “If what you say is true, Magdalene, about our souls being at risk, then there is no better place than right here with each other.”

Heads began to nod, guardians and messengers alike.

Having already assessed the risk-to-reward for this particular gamble, Alban complimented Hermina’s notion. “The more of us, the less of them…”

“I’ll take that bet,” Caius wagered boldly, his lips drawn tight in defiance.

“As will I,” Heath said vehemently.

Their unity was inciting and before long the entire camp was determined to stay.

Defeated, my head sank to my chest as the sounds of their camaraderie heightened around me. I had lost the debate.

“It was a valiant effort,” Eran whispered into my ear.

I lifted my head to find him being sincere.

“About agreeing to the guardians’ roles,” I began but Eran interrupted.

“About
that
,” he said, “I’m stunned.”

“That surrender to the guardians’ roles did not apply to me,” I said swiftly.

“Ah, of course…of course,” he uttered, dejectedly. “And why doesn’t it?”

My answer was simple, and still truthful, even if it was a truth he didn’t seem to grasp. “Because I don’t have a guardian to begin with,” I said simply.

He chuckled deeply, through his offense.

“We heard a commotion,” Enderl said coming up behind us. “From our side of the camp.”

Eran rotated to face him as I did a sweeping assessment of the group around the fire. All appendages were stowed, which gave me immediate relief.

“We had a small problem, but it has been solved,” Eran was saying as I came fully around.

Enderl was about to reply when he saw my face and was rendered speechless.

Realizing for the second time that night the wounds to my face must be appalling, I quickly claimed, “I was attacked by a wild animal.”

Enderl closed his open mouth and swallowed. Then he surveyed the camp from where he stood, his gaze stopping at the indistinguishable charred mound on the ground that had once been Seti. He didn’t look convinced but there was proof to use in arguing otherwise.

“Do you need anything?” Enderl asked, clearly inhibited by everything he was seeing.

“No,” Eran said politely, “but we thank you for asking.”

His stare landed on my face again and he swallowed once more. Unable to speak, he nodded and slipped back into the night.

As we watched him leave, I knew that Enderl had arrived just as we finished our discussion, timely for someone who was so curious about us and who could have learned vital information if he had delayed his entrance in favor of listening. I ignored the notion a second later, knowing I was likely being unreasonably suspicious. Of course, at the present time I had a right to be.

“A wild animal, hmmm?” Eran teased, although he looked impressed.

“It wasn’t far from the truth,” Cilla said under her breath from a few feet away.

As the messengers and their guardians began to debate who would dispose of the body, Eran bent down, seized Alban’s flask of alcohol, and took my hand. I wasn’t prepared for his touch, sending a jerking response through my arm which resulted in a curling of my fingers around his palm. He noticed and glanced at me, evidently pleased by it.

Bailey noticed too, watching us from across the fire.

Eran gave a final look over his shoulder for Enderl, and seeing no one, he released his appendages before guiding me into the night sky. Remaining alert, he called back to me, “They won’t attack again tonight.”

I trusted his opinion, considering he had several centuries of experience dealing with Fallen Ones. But I already wasn’t afraid of anything that might happen, other than being alone with Eran.

“I’m fine,” I said, feeling guilty for his insistent attention.

“You will be when we get those cleaned up,” Eran countered.

I reasoned that he considered himself my guardian, my keeper, and that likely meant in his mind that I needed protection even from possible infection.

He led me to the river and sat me on my rock. Out of discretion, we tucked our appendages back and inside, which gave me a clear view of the muscles down Eran’s back. I looked away.

“When…,” I asked but stopped to clear my throat, and the discomfort at the feelings his bare back incited. “When did you know Seti was in the tent?”

“When you didn’t argue back.” There was laughter in his voice.

I smiled and the sting of my scrapes flared. For the first time, I looked at my arms and drew in a quick breath. If they were anything in relation to my face, then I had rows of torn, bleeding flesh crisscrossing my cheeks. Unconsciously, my fingers lifted to assess the damage.

“No, don’t touch them,” Eran said carrying back a piece of clothing saturated with water.

He squatted beside me and took my chin, just as he had the morning he assessed the injury Kaila had given me when we last fought.

“I’ll try to be gentle.”

“I know,” I said, but he didn’t respond other than to begin dabbing away the blood along my cheekbone.

“They won’t leave will they?” I said, trying to keep my face steady, and trying not to wince.

“Would you?” he asked. When I didn’t answer he challenged, “Then how can you ask it of them?”

He had a point, which kept me silent.

A moment later he laughed quietly out of his nose. “You know, the first time I saw you in the clearing I knew you were going to be trouble.”

Remembering back to his behavior, I mused, “I thought so.”

His eyebrows shot up. “So you admit it?”

“I admit that I noticed you thought so.”

“Fair enough,” he conceded, yet a chuckle still rumbled through him.

“You watched us, closely.”

“I did,” he said.

“You were evaluating us.”

“I was.”

“And you found us lacking.”

“I found you to be capable. The others not so much.”

As much as I didn’t want to, I agreed with him. Silently.

“So you were the one who called for a judgment.”

“It was needed, Magdalene.” His eyes flickered to mine briefly to catch my reaction, but I simply stared back.

“Why didn’t you come to us and ask before you did it?”