The Torn Guardian (6 page)

As I tell Adira why I am here, her expressions mimic the ones Grace gave me, but that’s not as bad as it appears. I can tell she thinks this is all crazy, but deep down, she believes me. That is what is most important. After I’m done explaining, I watch her as she deliberates and analyzes every word I said. I’m not worried because I know she, just like Grace, can sense I’m not lying.

After Adira thinks about it, she actually relaxes a little. However her relaxed state of mind does not last long when I inform her we need to leave soon. Sethos will destroy everything if we don’t.

“I cannot leave,” Adira declares. She refuses to leave the island claiming her people need her to protect them. She argues as their priestess she cannot simply go as she pleases.

“If we don’t figure this out, they are as good as dead anyway,” Grace fires back, and I sigh. I wanted to avoid a large argument, but it does not look like I’m going to get my wish. Grace, however, does have a fair point when she remarks the island will be swarmed with those creatures sooner or later, and there is no way one priestess is going to be able to defeat them all by herself. “Whether you like it or not, you need our help,” Grace finishes.

“I’m not abandoning my people to chase after something that may help. If you want me to take one step off this island, I need definitive proof that there is a fantastic reason I’m leaving,” Adira says with her teeth clenched as she stands up.

Grace grabs my arm and stands up dragging me up with her. She lets go before I can find my footing, so I stumble a little but manage to not fall. I try to calm them and break up the fight, but neither Grace nor Adira are listening. Grace is right in front of Adira’s face, and this fight can turn physical very quickly if I do not interfere further. Both of their voices are rising, and their bodies become tenser. I reach to pull Grace back a little, but she pushes me off. I stammer back and nearly knock over the stone. I catch it and the stand before they come crashing down. Since the stone is in my hands, it begins to burn a bright white just like in the cave.

I turn to see Grace and Adira looking at me. Grace has already seen this, but Adira looks like she has suffered a stroke. I put the stone back quickly because I fear I have done something wrong. The last thing I need is for Adira to think I am trying to offend her. I start to apologize and claim it was an accident when Adira falls to her hands and knees and bows her head.

“I think we’ve lost her,” Grace says. “You broke her, Lux.”

“I am not broken!” Adira exclaims. “She is the child of light!”

“We just covered that,” Grace states clearly agitated and, to be honest, I am as well. Grace is correct. We literally covered this a few minutes ago.

“The Viroca burns white in your presence. You are the vanquisher of evil as the prophecy foretells,” Adira explains. She goes to a stand behind her which has a drawer attached to it and pulls out a piece of paper before handing it to me. “The wise men and women found this with me when they found me as a baby.” She appears to think I should completely understand what she is talking about, but I don’t. I was never told by the dragons there was a prophecy. This little paper means nothing to me. I cannot tell this to Adira because Grace elbows me in the gut before I can utter a single word.

“Yes, the great child of light. Are you ready to assist her?” Grace questions, and I want to roll my eyes so badly. She cannot seriously believe that is going to work.

Adira starts speaking so quickly her words are blending together. Most of it isn’t comprehendible, but I do manage to hear her bring up how the prophecy has always been important to their beliefs and customs. Adira excuses herself stating she must speak to the wise men and women but will be back shortly. She runs swiftly exiting her hut, and I’m dumbfounded. It seriously worked. Grace smiles as soon as Adira is out of sight and says that for once she thinks the jungle people’s crazy religion is going to help her.

“Grace, I have no idea what she is talking about with that prophecy,” I say with the same stumped expression on my face.

“I know. I could tell by that stupid expression you were making, but she doesn’t need to know that,” Grace explains.

“We need her to trust us,” I argue.

“Exactly,” Grace retaliates, “Right now, she thinks your some high and mighty power sent to save everyone foretold by a bunch of old loons. She finds that more believable than your story.”

“But my story is the truth,” I continue to fight. It might not have been the complete truth as some key details are missing, but it was more accurate than whatever prophecy Adira was talking about.

“And deep down, just like me, she knows that. But that story isn’t going to be enough to get her to leave her people. This, you being the grand child of light, is, so let’s just go with it for now. Sooner or later she’ll figure it out. If she’s really our sister, she cannot be that stupid,” Grace says.

I feel awful. I’m already lying to both of them by not telling them about how I’m the anchor. There are so many ways this can backfire, but Adira isn’t going to leave just because we are sisters and I’m asking nicely. The only way she is coming is if they deem me being the person in the prophecy more important than whatever is currently happening on the island.

After several minutes, Adira enters the hut again and declares she will in fact be joining us. I still feel bad about lying, but my muscles relax because I’m relieved Adira has agreed to join us.

The three of us exit the hut to leave the village together. Several of the villagers are outside, and they wish me and Adira well as we pass. They seem intent on ignoring Grace, but at least they aren’t being overly malicious. Because we are being wished well by nearly everyone in the village, Adira and I fall behind Grace. She is leaning against the entrance wall as she waits for us. I’m about to rush out of this crowd to join her when I see a small boy walk up to her. He extends his small hand out to her. Grace looks at him and gives a slight smile. She takes the boy’s offering, and he runs off as soon as she does.

Adira has also noticed what just occurred and explains the boy lost his father last night. He heard about Grace’s crew tending to the bodies and wanted to thank her despite the majority of the village being against it. They might have appreciated Grace being kind to their dead, but Grace’s troops were probably the reason some of them died in the first place. I can’t blame them for not wanting to become best friends with her.

“We ready?” Grace questions when Adira and I finally pull out of the crowd, “Are you done shaking everyone’s hand like we’ve already won?”

“Are you going to be this irritating the entire time?” Adira immediately retorts. She places her hand against the wall again, and the path to the shore appears when the vines are done disconnecting.

“Of course,” Grace simply responds. I roll my eyes at both of them, though neither notice. These two really are not going to make this a smooth process. We walk out with Grace in front, me in the center, and Adira behind.

“It’s going to get worse no matter what, isn’t it?” Adira whispers in my ear because she does not want Grace to know she is worried.

“Everything is going to be all right, Adira. I promise,” I comfort in a hushed tone. My words seem to have worked as Adira slightly smiles and relaxes at bit more as we continue walking. I’m glad they came out much stronger than I thought they would, so at least one of us feels better. I have in reality made myself more nervous than before. I made my first ever promise; I only hope I can keep it.

Before we leave the beach, Grace turns to me and asks what the plan is. Adira also voices her curiosity about what exactly I have in mind, and boy are they both about to be disappointed. I don’t have a plan.

Getting the two of them to work together is my plan, and since they both agreed to, I’m stuck on how we shall proceed. Neither of the two are pleased to hear this, and for the first time since I’ve met them, they both agree on something. Neither Grace nor Adira are leaving the island till we have something in place that we all agree on.

Their agreeableness with each other does not last long. Both are yelling and screaming about how the other one’s plan won’t work. Their constant bickering is getting us nowhere, so I ask Adira why we can’t use some of the stone from the cave. After she shows hesitation to tell us, Grace asks nicely claiming she just wants to understand what the big deal is. Adira relents and finally tells us the reason.

The stone, or Viroca as it called by her people, is not a lifeless rock. It is a living creature directly connected to the island through its water, soil, and sand. Every living being on the island whether it plant or animal is connected to it. To mine the stone and take it away is killing a piece of the island.

It’s interesting and farfetched. I’m not the only one who is not convinced; the explanation is not enough for Grace either. She continues to question Adira with her voice full of skepticism, so Adira elaborates. The Viroca is connected to the island through its water and soil. Both the animals and human drink the water and eat the plants grown in this ground. Over time the Viroca becomes a part of them, and connects the living beings around one common core. This connection is how the islanders tamed the large jungle cats I saw on the beach.

I get it, but Grace is still sporting a confused look. She asks how a merchant got a piece of it to sell as jewelry if it is so sacred and important, which causes Adira’s facial expression to match Grace’s. Adira claims until Grace showed up, no one touched the Viroca making it either very old or not from the island. She is leaning towards not from the island, since the Viroca cannot live for a long period of time without being connected to its large host where the nutrients are stored.

Grace does not buy it and pressures further insisting the man stated the stone came from here, but Adira does not budge. She stands strong as she hisses back that either the man or merchant is lying then. I break up their fight yet again with a plan of our next move in my mind. We are going to find the merchant in Oriare.

Grace feigns deafness and asks me to speak up because she cannot believe I want them to sneak into a locked down country to find a jeweler. Her attitude is going to get annoying very quickly, but I keep myself composed. I calmly ask if she has any better ideas, knowing full well she does not.

While I personally side with Grace and doubt the rock is as important as Adira claims, we need to respect her customs if she is going to willingly work with us. This jeweler is therefore our only lead, and arguing about it gets us nowhere. He might have more information we can use, and Jo was correct about something dark happening in Oriare. As far as I can tell, it was as good a place to start as any.

Grace narrows her eyes at me as she admits she does not have any better plan besides angering Adira and using the Viroca, and since Adira has no better place to start either, I speak. “Adira says that piece of Viroca didn’t come from the island, and if it did, it is really old. The way I see it, either the merchant is getting it from somewhere else or manipulating it to last significantly longer than it should.”

“Or, Adira is wrong,” Grace disagrees.

“We have to trust each other Grace,” I say. “Adira, your sister, is saying it didn’t come from the island.”

Grace really does not want to stop arguing. I know this is tough for her, but she really does need to start listening to and trusting us. If not for her world, then at least for her own life. “Fine,” she relents after pacing around on the beach for a few minutes. “I’m obviously not going to win this one, so let’s go to Oriare then.”

“This is ridiculous,” Adira complains for what has to be the tenth time since we got up this morning.

“Our sister’s great plan was to find the merchant in Oriare, so you are just going to have to cope with it,” Grace whispers harshly back. “We need to blend in!”

“You are carrying a scythe!” Adira points out, and as much as her complaining is bugging me, she has a point. We certainly do not fit in with the crowd of refugees we are trying to hide within.

Last night we arrived at a thin shore with the help of some of Grace’s soldiers who took the boat back to the ship after we made it. Grace appointed an acting captain before we left despite her crew’s protests to not leave. He will see to the safe return of the men and women under his command and give word to Grace’s commanders as to what she is doing.

We spent the night camping within the lush, green forests near the small town of Silvercoast. There was nothing odd about this because there were already hundreds of people doing the exact same thing. When I woke up, I found a set of clothes laid out waiting for me. Grace had packed them for us, and although they are a little plain, I don’t really mind them. I’m wearing simple khaki pants, a crisp white collared-shirt, and a royal blue jacket over it. Grace and Adira are wearing almost the same thing, only their shirts are black and blue respectively. The only major difference is Adira is having to walk all this way in a brand new pair of boots since she normally went around barefoot, hence the complaining.

In Adira’s defense Grace’s scythe isn’t the only thing making us stand out. I’m carrying my bow, and our clothes are not plain enough given the circumstances. The refugees around us are wearing glorified rags with holes and stains all over them. Letting Adira walk around barefoot might actually help us blend in more.

“We aren’t trying to blend in with these people,” Grace explains. “We want to blend in there.” She points ahead of us, and over the sea of Oriare’s fleeing citizens, I see mountainous gates carved out of stone.

Adira gawks and asks where exactly we are heading. Grace responds, but I already know the answer. Those are the main gates to Saphira, Jo’s last city of residence and the capital city of Oriare. An intense heat encompasses my mind as images with no context rush through.

I see Jo, that same woman from before, and several other men and women I don’t recognize flash by one right after the other. They are all incredibly blurry. I have no idea how I know who is who, but at the same time I recognize them all. I try to move my hands to cover my ears as they are bombarded with music, terror filled screaming, laughing, arguing, and normal conversation all at once, but I no longer have control of my body. It would not matter anyway; all of this is happening in my mind and my mind alone. At this point, I don’t even know where my body is. We can already be in Saphira.

“Lux. Lux!” Grace yells as she shakes me. Her eyes are full of concern, but her screams are filled with anger. “What just happened?” she shrieks at me, and some of her spit lands on my face.

“Are you well?” Adira asks as she pulls Grace out of my face.

I respond that I’m fine. I’m sitting on the ground, and a few of the refugees have stopped to see if I am all right. Grace politely dismisses them, and Adira performs a quick exam to see if I really am as good as I say I am.

“What happened?” I ask her as she looks over my head.

“You fainted,” Adira says.

“You were murmuring a lot of gibberish, too,” Grace adds. “What was going on? Was that a vision? What did you see?”

“I don’t know,” I give one honest answer to all of those questions with that statement because it was a lot of different things. They did not make any sense being lumped together, and I doubt they would make more sense if I had seen them separately.

Grace wants to keep moving before traveling guards or soldiers pass by, but I feel lightheaded. My face is drenched in sweat, and my legs are mushy. This doesn’t deter her. She hoists me up and starts to drag me along.

She is correct of course. We cannot afford to have the guards catch us, but come on. Pulling someone along with their feet dragging on the ground is just as suspicious as me laying there. Adira comes to my rescue and takes the other side of me. For a few minutes I let them carry me like this until I know I can continue onward. Thankfully, I do not feel nauseous like before with Jo’s memory, and I am soon back on my own feet.

When we get a few hundred feet away from the gate, a guardsman appears at the top of it. To the dismay of the citizens who find themselves homeless, he informs them no one will be entering the city’s gates. Disgruntled yelling and screaming erupts throughout the crowd and they start to push against the wall. Of course, it doesn’t do anything. Human strength is not going to do anything to this unmovable wall. The guards yell down a warning, but no one is listening.

The next thing I know, Grace is pulling me out of the crowd. I manage to grab Adira’s hand, and the three of us make it safely off to the side. Grace’s timing could not have been better, as the guards unleash a forceful amount of water on the crowd, sweeping several of them far enough down the road to become little specs.

Adira gasps. She is completely shocked at how leaders of this country treat their people as if they are pests. I’m not only as taken aback as she is but also confused as well because Jo’s memories were never like this. Something is happening in Oriare, and I need to figure out what it is.

Grace bitterly tells us they have tightened their security even greater than anticipated, which causes Adira to ask if Grace can actually get us in. The irritation is evident in Adira’s tone, and it is returned to her by Grace when she responds she does not think she can. None of these guards look familiar. According to Grace, Saphira must really be on its edge if they’ve put this much security up. The entire country depends on trade to function, but it does not look like they are letting anything but the bare essentials in and out. Adira vents her frustration at how this whole trip is pointless, and while Grace agrees the trip is pointless, she turns the blame to Adira.

Their arguing is beginning to give me a headache, so I ask them both to be quiet for a while. I’m sifting through what I can remember about Oriare, but none of it involves this. According to my memories, Jo never came this way, which is complete and utter ox manure. She had to have. This is the only gate that connects to the farmlands where she is from. Every time I think of Jo traveling it goes back to the claw and moving from portal to portal.

And I am an idiot.

I literally have a key to the entire world on my wrist, and we are standing here wondering how we are going to get in. I motion for the two to follow me after I tell them I know how to enter into the guarded city. The three of us travel along the wall taking care to stay near the forest trees and brush while I look for a part of the wall that isn’t covered in guards. We have to travel quite a distance, but eventually manage to come to a part that does not appear to be being watched. I clench my fist bringing the four sharp blades out.

“What exactly are you doing?” Adira asks.

“Getting us in,” I respond automatically, and Grace rolls her eyes. At first I’m peeved because I thought she did it towards me. As it turns out, Grace’s majestic eye roll was meant for Adira’s question.

“Are you ever not going to question us?” Grace asks. “I feel like I cannot lift my pinky finger without you wondering why.”

“I would just like to be more informed about what we are doing. For example, when we get in there, what exactly is our plan? You said it yourself this place is heavily guarded,” Adira answers. “What are we going to do if we get caught? How are we going to find the shop? How is a hidden claw going to get us inside? I feel these are all valid questions.”

“I’ve been in Saphira dozens of times, and I’ve past this shop. I know where it is,” Grace retorts.

“Are you sure about that?” Adira continues her barrage of questions, and I hope this stops soon. It’s like these two love to fight each other so much, they will go at each other’s throats over anything.

“What happened to having to trust one another? Lux, are you going to tell her off?” Grace huffs, and I sigh. Honestly, are these two really going to bring me into settle every argument they have?

“Adira, we are here because we trusted you and respected your customs. You can at least return the favor,” I say.

Adira's arms flounder in the air defeated, but she nods ending what is now our argument instead of hers and Grace’s. Grace’s smug smile shows she is satisfied with the outcome, and I am really beginning to become concerned about our ability to work together as a cohesive team. Nevertheless, I continue and draw a line straight down against the wall. The portal that opens is easily tall enough, but only one of us will be able to go through at a time.

To nobody’s surprise Grace elects to be the first to enter and all but charges in. Adira and I share one more look between us before she goes in, and I bring up the rear. Once I exit, I nearly pee myself. We are in a dimly lit small room surrounded by guards who appear to be filling out various papers. I try to step back, but the portal has disappeared. Even if I did open it again, I do not think Adira and Grace will be able to get out in time. One of the guards dressed in navy calls out asking if we really just broke into the guard’s barracks. Adira looks concerned, but I’m sure Grace is amused. She appears to be trying her hardest not to laugh as she covers her face with her hands.

I quickly examine the room to try and find our escape. Shelves line the left and back walls and are full of books and documents. There is a single desk with papers stacked high sitting on top, and soldier with an astounded look on his face sitting behind it. This room is tiny and more importantly there is only one exit. The exit undoubtedly leads to more guards, but there isn’t much more of an option. Either we fight our way through, or Grace and Adira hold off the guards while I make another portal.

Another guard enters through the doorway and is equally shocked as the others to see us. The guards greet and address their captain as they draw their weapons. The captain orders them to arrest us, so I reach for my weapon. Oddly enough it is Adira’s and my first instinct to fight, but Grace ends up stopping us.

“If you two start fighting them, this will turn into an international incident with unfathomable consequences,” Grace hisses.

“You would rather us be arrested?” I question.

Apparently yes. A diplomatic incident is the last thing her nation needs especially since it makes most of its money through trading its goods with Oriare. On top of that, the tiny room doesn’t provide much leeway to successfully weave and dodge our way through. We will have to hurt and potentially kill them to make it out.

Adira sides with Grace and lowers her weapon claiming she liked to avoid killing innocent people. I do not let go of the tight grip I have around my bow, and I keep my arrow tensely pulled back at the ready. I understand the consequences of starting a fight here. I am willing to accept them. Adira is not. And although Grace is the one that cannot stand Oriare and its people, she also is not. Even though the two of them are right about causing these guards deaths, a few guards lives are nothing compared to the entire planet’s population.

They are being naïve. If we are locked away in a cold jail cell, we cannot save anybody at all! That is truly unacceptable, and I am torn. I don’t want to ruin my sister’s lives in the process of saving the world, but there might not be a way around it. I refuse to be locked away. I lift my bow up and center it directly between the eyes of the scared guard in front of me. My duty to protect the world is greater than my desire to be friends with my sisters.