The Torn Guardian (15 page)

It’s been nearly an hour and the feisty queen has not stopped banging on the doors of the wardrobe she is locked in. I would be really impressed if the constant knocking didn’t annoy me. Grace is also beginning to show signs of irritation, so we all agree to let the queen out. When we open the door again and remove the cloth, Grace lifts her scythe to Isabella’s chin and tells her to calm herself. We did happen to just save her.

Isabella no longer shouts but states rather confidently we kidnapped her. She then questions us about what we want. She has her own theories of course. She thinks we are trying to overtake Oriare so we can rule over all the lands.

“Please your highness,” Grace says coolly, “Not one of us want to rule over your shitty nation.”

I agree with Grace, but again I wish she said things with a little more tact. She isn’t making us any friends here, and I would prefer to have Isabella as a friend rather than an enemy. Having a queen at our corner to calm the people can be useful.

Although the queen of Oriare is not in a position to make demands, she tries to nonetheless. She wants to know why we are here and what we can possibly want from her. Grace, Adira, and I all look to Kenley, and he gives us a look that silently asks us really? I don’t know what to say, and neither do the other two. Kenley has wisdom and experience on his side. Plus the queen has known him for years, possibly decades. Our tale might sound more believable if he were to tell her.

I sit back and watch the events unfold. Kenley starts off light enough by explaining what Jo had done in setting up the guardsmen to uncover the corruption of Oriare. Then he starts the unbelievable bits about what Grace, Adira, and I are, what Jo was, and what is currently happening. It is taking all of my effort not to laugh at her expressions as Kenley goes over everything, and I am not the only one struggling to maintain myself. Adira and Grace are both about to lose it. If anyone understands how unbelievable this is, it is them.

She either flat out does not believe or does not want to. Either way, we will have a hard time doing this without her support, especially since the devilins seem keen on killing her. Things will go much smoother if she accepts our protection. I’m coming up with nothing but blanks as I think about what we can do to convince her. Suddenly, I remember the very first memory I experienced in this world in which Jo was talking to her about going to Briza.

I ask Kenley to give me his necklace with the dragon stone, and he hands it to me. It lights up in the palm of my hand the same brilliant white I knew it would. I hand it to Grace, and the stone turns black instead. Finally she tosses it to Adira who returns it to the pale green glow Jo had already shown Isabella. All of sudden the queen realizes we, like Jo, have dragon marks on our hands.

Isabella asks us for a seat, and I pull one out for her. Her mind has to be processing every little detail. The queen cannot get over her own brother betraying her though. She insists that her uncle, brother, and two other royal guard captains got the marks on their arms as a tribute to Jo, nothing more. I do not blame her for not wanting to believe her family is trying to kill her. Nobody would; however, for her protection and the sake of our plan, she needs to.

Sethos's acts only affect the world because he has followers dedicated to him. If we eliminate the followers, we eliminate his ability to manipulate the world. That unfortunately means we must kill her brother, uncle, and two guardsmen who have sworn themselves to his service.

While I'm sure she knows it is necessary, Isabella is very unwilling to discuss the assassination of her family and captains. It takes a lot of coaxing, but we finally get her to accept it for the future health of her nation. Justin and her uncle have turned to darkness. They must be dealt with swiftly.

We convince Isabella to give us the locations of her brother, uncle, and captains. She complies with us and answers all our questions, but she looks depressed. This is not easy for her. Grace and I want to head out immediately, but Kenley stops us. He wants us to rest up and formulate some kind of plan. Once Justin and Sir David know we are coming after them, they might begin to stage a counter. It will be best to kill all four of Sethos’ agents within the same period of time.

Isabella excuses herself as this is not a subject she wishes to be a part of any longer. She has already told us everything she can. The rest is up to us. After she walks into the tiny room with only a bed in it and quietly shuts the door, I cannot help but feel like I should say something, mainly because I know Jo would if she were here. Grace, Adira, and Kenley are working on a plan of action, so I excuse myself to see if I can think of any words to help the queen feel better.

I sigh as I knock and the door and announce I am coming in. Isabella is sitting and crying on the bed occasionally wheezing, and I'm sure this is what she would have looked like after Jo died. She hastily tries to wipe the tears away in an attempt to hide it, but there is no point. I see clear as a cloudless day how much she is hurting.

I take a seat next to her on the bed and out of fear of looking like an idiot for not knowing what to say ask her how she is handling everything. This actually does make me look like an idiot though because she is obviously not handling everything spectacularly well. She states I really must be from another world if I have to ask, and that kind of hurts. I know she isn’t doing great. I try to tell her this, but my confidence is shrinking rapidly so I’m stumbling over my words like a drunk.

She softly grabs my hand and holds it as she apologizes. She did not mean for it to sound like an insult; it was merely an observation. After this she asks me if I am absolutely sure her brother is a follower of Sethos. She can believe her uncle, as he had always been more concerned with powerful politics. Her brother, however, had honestly looked up to Jo as a role model. Justin wanted to be more like her and help Oriare’s lower classes. Isabella cannot make any sense of it. She does not understand how her own brother turned to darkness.

I tell her I am sure of what I saw, but I also promise I will not deal a fatal blow unless necessary. It perks Isabella up a tiny bit to hear me say this, and she urges me to try talking to him since this could be a misunderstanding. As much as I wish it were so, I doubt her brother becoming a priest of darkness is something that can be seen as a simple misunderstanding.

Nevertheless, I reiterate I will make sure he is what I think he is before I kill him. Isabella abruptly changes the topic to Jo after I do. She asks me what Jo was like around me and how close we were. I spoke honestly. I had only ever been around Jo when she came to visit me in the Otherworld, but she was always kind. I enjoyed the days she stopped by. As suddenly as the queen had changed the topic to Jo, she changes it again onto me by stating I must have been lonely when Jo was not around.

I admit I had been. It got pretty boring, especially when I had days off of training. Coming to Nilohm might be the best thing to happen to me, which is kind of sad when I think about it. The best times I’ve had so far have been in a world that is rapidly decaying.

“But when this is over, you will get to truly enjoy it,” the queen says matter-of-factly.

I think about her words for a while before nodding my head in agreement. I do want to stay after this instead of going back to the Otherworld, but I don’t know where I would go. I have not spoken about it with Grace or Adira.

Isabella smiles as she offers me a place to stay at the palace if Grace and Adira do not wish for me to join them. I am Jo's sister after all. When my mind fully understands what she is offering, my lips curl upwards, and I thank her. I have a place to come back to, so I hope Kenley, Grace, and Adira have come up with a plan because I would like to finish this while there is still a city standing.

It hits me then as I sit on the little bed with soft sheets. This is how Grace and Adira have felt the entire time. They want to get this done, so they can go home.

Kenley cracks open the door and informs me they have a plan to my relief. He offers to take my place, so I can speak with Adira and Grace before leaving to fix this mess. When I get out the door, I am greeted by a happy Adira practically dancing around the table.

Kenley’s hawk, Finn, arrived while we were at the ball clearing out the devilins. Her home is fine, and the student she had been training to be a priest is performing admirably. Devilins have not appeared on the island since we left, which makes us believe Sir David and Justin have been targeting the three of us.

They proceed to fill me in on the plan, but I tweak it since I promised to handle Justin. This is fine with them, but Grace warns me not to go soft on him. She doubts Justin will hesitate to kill me if I leave him an opening.

Adira is going to drop us off at places nearby. Kenley has given her instructions and a map, and Adira is more confident in being able to push the claw to its limit. After she tested it out briefly on her own, she thinks she can get us close to where we need to be. We will handle the two captains of the guards and Justin first. Then the three of us will go after the uncle who, according to Isabella, is more than likely the greatest threat.

I am as ready as I ever will be, so we head to the rooftop through a drop down ladder. It is chilly in the early morning hours as the sun has not begun to rise. Even so, the footsteps of marching guards and scrambling citizens can be heard beneath us as they react to the events that took place at the ball.

Adira decides it is most logical to take Grace to the first captain, then me to Justin, and finally go to the final captain herself. She checks the map and makes her first portal. Grace hops through, and Adira closely follows to make sure it is where it needs to be. When she returns alone, I assume it was close enough.

Now it is my turn. She opens a portal to the palace for me, and we go through. Adira is proud of herself, but we have no time to admire her work. She quickly vanishes without a trace to go deal with the final captain, and I make my way through the palace’s living area back towards the ballroom. It is still a mess in here, but some of the staff have begun to clean it. I rush threw the room alarming practically every one of my presence, but there are not any guards here. By the time guards arrive in the large ball room, I am already upstairs and on my way to Justin’s room.

I enter his room, the third one on the right of the back hallway, and find him on the balcony. I lock the door and knock an old grandfather clock and dresser in front of it. I draw an arrow on my bow aware the makeshift blockade I made will not provide me much time.

“You’ve come to finish the job then? Where are your friends?” Justin asks me without turning around.

“It’s over,” I reply calmly even though I hear the footsteps approaching in the hall. “You’ve lost,” I state confidently.

Justin’s head sinks. He admits he has lost, but not how I thought he would. He says he has lost everything that was ever important to him. He asks me if I killed his sister just as I did Jo. I tell him I did not kill any of them. His sister is still alive, and Jo was killed by a devilin defending someone.

And before our conversation can continue, I feel it. A memory is coming, and I cannot fight it. It does not matter how much I beg; the memory comes again. Only this time I do not have Adira or Grace to help me stay upright. I fall to the ground and make an effort to stay conscious. I see her. Not Jo, but Isabella. She is lying on the ground, unable to move. A devilin is towering over her about to flatten her. At the last second, Jo pushes her out of the way and wrestles one on one with this thing. After an intense struggle between the two, Jo struck her claw into its chest, a fatal blow, but too late. It’s the same as before only this time I can see and hear Isabella screaming frantically for Jo not to die.

While I’ve been able to keep some form of consciousness, I have been kneeling on the floor completely vulnerable. Justin still has not struck, but he is standing above me with a dagger to my chin. I glance at his hand and am shocked. It is a red dragon tattoo, but not exactly like ours. The random whorls and overall appearance of the dragon are drastically different. Grace, Adira, and I have the same pattern, so I expected the one of darkness to follow this.

The door bursts open interrupting my thoughts and pieces of shattered wood fly across the room hitting both Justin and me. This causes Justin to stumble backwards. I’m expecting to be outnumbered by guards, but it is Adira and Grace who charge in. I see Adira go for the kill, so I grab her as fast as I can and order them to stand down. They both look at me with bewildered expressions, and Adira has a firm grasp on Justin’s neck. One slight flick of her wrist, and Justin is dead. So I tell them to look at his mark and tell me if it is like the captains.

Grace seizes his hand, and her eyes grow wide. She shows Adira who lets go of Justin.

“You are not a priest of darkness?” Adira questions him.

“A priest of darkness?” Justin repeats clearly not understanding why we are asking him this.

I want to explain, but we do not have time to go into details. We need to handle Justin’s uncle. Grace feels the same way. She advises we have Adira drop Justin off with his sister and Kenley so we can go handle his uncle. In the distance we hear not one but potentially hundreds of loud roars. I don’t think Justin’s uncle, Sir David, cares any longer about keeping the city of Saphira from the wrath of darkness.

“We need to move now,” I say.