A Dawn of Guardians

  As he pushed through the crowd of goblins and made his way with me toward it, my nerves were still jittery and frayed.

  It was clear as day now that this little quest was going to be just as much a test of human tenacity as sentry.

  Hazel

  A watcher soared overhead as Tejus carried us onward, before sweeping out of view. My mind was on Jenus. Where are he and Ruby now?

  Soon we heard the shouting of boys behind us. Julian and my brother, meeting with the same trap at about the same time.

  The thought that my brother’s life was at the mercy of some complete stranger’s reflexes tore me apart, and in that moment, I could no longer think straight.

  “The roof will—” I began to bellow out, but before I could finish, Tejus used his supernatural speed to silence me. He twisted me from his back and gripped me hard, holding one hand over my mouth to stifle my shout.

  Once I stopped struggling against him, he slowly removed his palm.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he hissed, allowing anger to contort his features. “You almost got you and me disqualified!”

  I supposed it was just taken for granted that one of the rules was we couldn’t communicate with or warn each other about anything.

  “If you want to save your human friends, you need to pull yourself together,” he said, his intense eyes boring into me. “Lest you want me to begin controlling you.”

  I gulped hard as he stepped back. Then he turned again and beckoned for me to remount him.

  I knew that yelling would have likely made things worse. Based on their shouts, they had already fallen into the pits. The damage had been done. The vines were going to fall. And yelling out would just erase all chances of any of us getting out of here. I hoped that at least they had managed to hear the few words I had managed to call out before Tejus stifled me, and that my unfinished call wouldn’t get Tejus and me disqualified.

  After what felt like another fifteen minutes had passed, Tejus stopped abruptly again. A chill wind swept up from nowhere and surrounded us, causing the hairs on my body to prickle. And then everything went still.

  “What’s going on?” I asked him, gazing around.

  “I sensed a presence,” he said.

  “What kind of presence?” I whispered.

  “The treacherous kind,” was all he replied.

  I gulped. What does that mean? Tejus passed along several more pathways before he halted once again. His head tilted downward and as I followed his gaze, I almost screamed.

  Spread out before us on the ground was the body of a sentry—a tall female whose dark hair streaked with gray was splayed out all around her. Her body, garbed in a long black dress, ran the width of the passage, her hands—raised above her head—touching the hedge to our right, while her feet touched the hedge to our left.

  “What is this?” I breathed.

  Tejus had all but stopped breathing too as he gazed down at the corpse. He stepped over it, allowing us both to take in the woman’s face. Her eyes were closed, her skin and forehead wrinkly and dry.

  “Who is this?” I demanded.

  Tejus still didn’t respond. He appeared to be in a state of shock, his eyes wide, his lips parted, his breathing becoming hoarse and erratic. This was the greatest amount of emotion I’d seen him let loose since we met.

  “My mother,” he whispered as he leaned down to touch her shoulder… and as he did, his hand passed right through it. Then the body vanished.

  What?

  What is this?

  My mind felt close to bursting.

  Tejus’s jaw tightened. He rose to his feet again swiftly, his demeanor changing from shock, and perhaps also sadness, to alertness.

  “This is a dervin’s work,” he said.

  “What is a dervin?”

  “A devious spirit creature—they are one of the few supernaturals whose minds are very difficult for us to control due to their subtle nature. They are mischief-makers… path-blockers.” He surged forward. “We must make haste and attempt to place as much distance between ourselves and it—or them—as possible. Their mental powers are strong—you witnessed the same illusion that I did. Even sentries are not immune to their apparitions.”

  My arms tightened around Tejus in nervousness. “How do you win over a dervin?”

  As we came across another body strewn across the ground—a hallucination of Danto’s dead body—it became chillingly clear that we would soon find out. Tejus set me on my feet before looking me seriously in the eye. “I’m going to infuse some of your energy.”

  I barely had time to brace myself before an extremely uncomfortable sensation rolled through me. It felt almost as though I was being irradiated by him; my brain felt light, my head bloated, my insides wobbly like jelly.

  This went on for what felt like an entire minute before he finally stopped.

  “Feeling stronger now?” I muttered bitterly. It was a good thing I’d spent the night with those weird energy stones. I had no idea how much energy he was going to have to drain from me throughout this crazy journey. I wondered if it was possible for a human to be drained completely, and what would happen to them.

  “Hm,” he murmured.

  So much for thanks. His sense of entitlement got on my nerves even in this dire situation when I knew he needed to be as strong as possible.

  “I don’t understand how any of this is a test of you and your brothers’ capabilities,” I told him beneath my breath, “when you’re so dependent on us humans… We should be just as much entitled to your rewards.”

  “We feed, just like any supernatural or human feeds,” Tejus replied curtly. I could tell that I had irked him.

  I wasn’t sure how to counter that though—where to even begin. So I decided not to. We needed to keep an eye out for dervins.

  “What do dervins look like?” I asked Tejus.

  “They do not usually make themselves seen—only the visions they wish to impart.”

  I wondered how they were able to “impart” such personal visions. Either the creature had managed to crack Tejus’ mind, which I highly doubted, or it had been briefed by the king. It must have been the latter. How the king got a hold of all these other supernatural races was still a mystery to me…

  As we reached the end of the current path that we were traveling along and moved to sweep through an opening in the hedge, an eerie calling drifted down from above us. It sounded like the cackling of a man, or a very deep-throated woman.

  “Next will be your bodies lying on the ground, intruders,” the voice hissed. “Watch out for them.”

  I gazed wide-eyed and terrified up at the sky. What the hell? Was this creature just trying to mess with our minds, or was it actually intending to kill us?

  Tejus withdrew two swords from his belt and held them out in front of him—which confused me. He’d just said that these were subtle creatures.

  It was only when I looked toward the opening we were about to pass through that I realized why he’d reached for his weapons. Where there was previously an opening was now thick, thorny hedge. Tejus reached out his blades and brought them down against the hedge that had previously been open space. Although they passed through it, the illusion of hedge remained.

  In the next pathway, Tejus dashed for the turning… only to hit against solid hedge. This thing was messing with us.

  “Are you even trying to control it?” I asked him. He’d just drained my mind, so he might as well put my energy to good use.

  “Yes,” Tejus spat, once again not bothering to control his irritation.

  I could see us being at each other’s throats by the end of this mission, assuming we both survived it. But as long as he fulfilled his promise, I didn’t care. Right now, all I could think about was my friends and brother getting out of here.

  It became more and more apparent that the dervin was deliberately attempting to make us lose our sense of direction and go astray. Still, even with my dose of energy running through Tejus
, he seemed to be having little luck in controlling it. We kept hitting up against false entryways—and I suspected missing entryways that we should have taken.

  I wondered how the others were coping. I still had a creeping fear that Jenus was ahead of us with Ruby… unless she’d somehow figured out how to slow him down. I hadn’t heard her scream in a while.

  I had to hope that was a positive thing.

  “Keep moving along.” The mysterious voice cackled above our heads again, almost giving me a heart attack.

  It sounded so close above me, like maybe two feet over my head. I wished in this moment that Tejus wasn’t so damn tall.

  I felt a chill surround us again.

  “You’re nearing.” The voice came.

  Nearing what? I wanted to yell out, but I’d learned my lesson of blurting things out already.

  Tejus replaced his swords in his belt and drew out a bow and arrow, apparently thinking it would come in greater use.

  “That’s right, keep going,” spoke the voice. “Keep going, and you shall find it… “

  Ruby

  I sensed that Jenus—or Judas, as I called him in my head—had managed to get ahead of Hazel and Tejus when I heard Hazel’s scream. After managing to escape the terrifying pit, I knew that I had to do something to slow him down drastically. There was a resolve in his eyes that made me suspect that the pit hadn’t been a surprise to him. When we’d fallen, he’d seemed to know exactly what to do. He’d thrust two spears into the base of the pit and held them there firmly as the roof fell… The spears had prevented the roof from reaching us and he’d used them to maneuver the wood into a corner where the red vines could not reach us.

  I became convinced that, somehow, he had found out about that first obstacle. Which made me fear what else he might have found out about, what other unfair advantage he might have over his brothers. He might have failed to grab one of us humans from Murkbeech, but he sure didn’t have the mindset for failure. He was terrifyingly focused as we passed through the labyrinth.

  The problem was, the sentry was insisting on carrying me on his back, so it wasn’t like I could feign a twisted ankle. As we darted away from the goblins and moved deeper into the maze, I became so desperate that I let go of his neck and flopped backward. His grip around my legs loosened at the unexpected motion and I went falling painfully to the ground. I managed to stop my head from getting bashed, but given Jenus’ height, I did get some significant scrapes and bruises from the rough ground.

  “What the hell are you doing?” he asked harshly as he whipped around and glared down at me. “Useless girl! Get up!”

  I pursed my lips and closed my eyes, curling up into a fetal position.

  He lowered to scoop me up as I fought against him. “I can’t hold on any longer,” I breathed, feigning exhaustion. “I’m malnourished and underslept.”

  He gripped my hair roughly as he jerked my head upright. I winced in pain as he tugged hard against my scalp, forcing me to look him in the eye.

  The next thing I knew, his other hand came crashing against the side of my face in a powerful slap that knocked the breath out of me. My cheek stung, my eyes watering as I gazed up at him in anger.

  “Did that wake you up?” he spat. He tugged on my hair again, pulling me upright. “Get on my back.”

  Although I wanted nothing more than to pull one of the daggers from his belt and stab him in the throat, I had no choice but to obey. I had to play this game cautiously. All of our lives were at stake.

  I pulled myself back onto him, banging my knees against his hips with more force than was required as I resumed my grip on him, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  Then he began hurtling forward again. I’d managed to get him to stop for a few seconds. That was hardly going to make a huge impact for Hazel and Tejus.

  My pulse quickened as I racked my brain for what else I could possibly do next… then another idea came to me. I waited about ten minutes as we continued rushing through the elaborate maze before saying in a strained voice, “I need to relieve myself… You need to stop again.”

  “Go on my back if you have to,” he growled. “I’m not stopping again.”

  This man is repulsive.

  I bit down hard on my lip. What else? I had run out of ideas. The only thing I could think to do was to incur his wrath again by loosening my hold. But I feared I might not be able to do that again without him totally losing it with me.

  “How much longer do you think until—?”

  I was about to ask how much longer until we came across the next obstacle, when a strange voice spoke above us, accompanied by an uncharacteristically chilly breeze.

  “Welcome, welcome…”

  “Dervins,” Jenus muttered to himself.

  “What?” I hissed.

  “Keep your mouth shut,” he snapped. “I’ll tell you if I want you to speak.”

  I felt like strangling him. Oh, what my father would do to you if he ever got the chance… or my mother, for that matter.

  I felt a familiar uncomfortable feeling roll through my body as he sapped another dose of my mental energy. I couldn’t imagine a more horrible position to find myself trapped in. Not only did I have to put up with the company of this vile man, but he was constantly feeding off me, sucking my energy like a vampire.

  As Jenus continued moving forward, bizarrely he started bumping into what appeared to be an open entrance in the hedge. Whatever the heck dervins were, some kind of mysticism was at work here. After taking dozens of missteps, we were eventually led to… a forested area. I hadn’t expected to find anything quite like this within the maze. It wasn’t small, either, though the trees were as high as the hedges, so I couldn’t make out the end of it from where we stood, even atop Jenus’ back.

  He slipped me to the ground unexpectedly, my feet hitting soil. Then, gripping my shoulder, he thrust me toward the forest.

  “You enter first,” he commanded.

  Wow. Way to respect a lady.

  I looked uncertainly at the tightly knit cluster of trees. It was dark inside, and from where I stood, I could barely see past ten feet.

  “Uh, what might I find in there?”

  “Just do as I say, and enter.”

  I should have predicted that response.

  Drawing in a shuddering breath, I ventured to the entrance of the trees and cautiously began moving inside. I had no idea how far he wanted me to go, so I just kept moving. As I gazed upward, there was barely a single crack in the thick canopy of leaves. The sentries on their vultures keeping watch from the sky wouldn’t be able to see what was going on while we were in here. And that unnerved me.

  “Keep going,” the sentry called behind me.

  Yeah, yeah. Easy to say when your ass is safely back there.

  I ventured deeper, my heart quivering at the slightest sound—the crack of a branch beneath my feet, the distant cawing of a bird, the rustling of the leaves… and then, as I looked to my left, I saw something. Something I’d never seen before in my life. The vision was confusing, unnerving and undeniably beautiful all at once. And as the vision began moving toward me, there was nothing I could do to back away. I stood transfixed. Enchanted.

  Hazel

  To my surprise, we arrived in a wide-open forested area. I never would have guessed that there was a forest in this place—certainly not one as large as this one. The creepy voices of “dervins” had disappeared by now… apparently they’d completed their job of directing us exactly where they wanted us to go. Tejus paused for a few seconds, his dark eyes spanning the trees, before his hands tightened around my legs and he darted us inside. His strategy in this seemed to be to get through it as fast as possible. But there was only so fast that you could travel in a forest as dense as this. The ground was also terribly uneven, with large bushes sprouting up here and there, causing us to make detours that took up extra valuable seconds.

  We hadn’t been able to estimate how far the forest stretched—it couldn’t have bee
n that far though, for goodness’ sake—but before we could even get a quarter of a mile into it, we caught sight of something to our right. Four people. But they were not ordinary people. The man and three women emanated a golden halo and were garbed in clothes of leaves. Their hair was long and their features were perfect, pristine, unearthly. Impossibly beautiful.

  “What are they?” I rasped.

  “Nymphs,” he answered after barely a second’s pause.

  Nymphs. I had heard only a little about nymphs, but I knew they were supposed to be nature spirits, ethereal beings whom some mistook for marsh dwellers because of their ability to assume a subtle state as well as physical. In addition, they were known for their, ahem, promiscuity. Nymphs could hold evil intentions too, I’d heard, but they were not usually evil—they were a peaceful folk… but hardly less dangerous than marsh dwellers in our particular situation.

  We couldn’t afford to let them enchant us.

  “Either do some mind juju fast,” I muttered, “or get us—”

  Tejus had already launched into a sprint.

  The nymphs had already noticed us, however, and they could travel much more swiftly than us. The ground slipped effortlessly away beneath their feet, and soon I felt a tugging on my back. Strong hands grabbed my shoulders and yanked me away from Tejus. It was the man who had grabbed me, the impossibly handsome man. He pulled me back against him, and I found myself pressed against his chiseled chest, while the three women swarmed around Tejus like thirsty bumblebees. He withdrew his sword and lashed out at them, but the blade merely passed through them as they quickly assumed a subtle state.

  Nymphs were known for their ability to manipulate minds; it was how they seduced. I wasn’t sure if Tejus alone could hack all of their minds before it was too late… It seemed that the king really had thought through his choice of supernaturals here.

  My lips parted as the male nymph twisted me around, firmly yet somehow gently at the same time, and I found myself gazing up into his sky-blue eyes. His lips were full and dangerously kissable, his glossy brown hair perfectly mussed, as though he had just woken from a rest.