The Faerie Guardian

Chapter Twenty-One

Chapter Twenty-One

Three seconds after Ryn’s doorway closes behind him, an alarm goes off. It’s a horrible screeching wail loud enough to cause a physical pain in my ears. It rises and falls like a siren, and every time it subsides, I can hear shouts and the sounds of a struggle. I close my eyes. Fantastic. Now I have to rescue Ryn.

I scribble on the tree trunk beside me and step into the opening space, trying to picture the other side of the wall. The blackness dissolves, and I step out amidst the trees, searching immediately for the source of the wailing siren. Not too far away, I see Ryn and three uniformed men. Two are holding onto him, while the third raises his hands and releases a pulse of magic. Ryn doubles over with a cry of pain as the force hits him. I raise my arms and send a mental call to my bow and arrow. I aim and let loose. One, two, three. The men are down before any of them have time to realize what’s happening.

I cast the bow aside and run toward Ryn, who’s now kneeling beside the three fallen guards. I grab his arm just as one of the guards pushes himself up and lunges for me. I kick him in the chest, then point at another guard who’s reaching for my ankle. I release a stream of fire. With a yelp of pain, the guard rolls away from me.

I crouch down, write a doorway into the ground, and pull Ryn in after me. Moments later, we land in my sitting room. My ears ring in the silence that greets us. “Well, that was remarkably easy.”  I slide my stylus back into my boot. “Whoever owns that place needs to find better guards.”

Ryn lies on the floor for a while, breathing deeply as he recovers from the pulse of magic. “Why’d you . . . bring me back?” he asks. “I could have . . . handled them.”

“Right.” I’m not even going to bother responding to that. “So you’ve found where they’re keeping your sister, you’ve discovered one way you can’t get onto the property, and I’m really tired and would like to go to bed.”

“You’re tired?” Ryn gets to his feet. “You’ve been asleep for the past two days.”

“Yes. And now it’s some ridiculously early hour of the morning, and I feel I’d like to sleep a bit more.”

Ryn shakes his head. “And you call yourself a guardian.”

“Actually, I don’t. I’m still a trainee.”

“Well, thanks to you, little trainee, I now have to find another way over that wall. I hope you sleep well tonight.” And with that he turns and lets himself out across from where we’re standing. I stare at the bare piece of wall for a while after it seals up.

Alone again.

No one to distract me.

I take a few steps back and sit down on the low table. I put my head in my hands. The tears come easily, as though the barrier holding them back was a flimsy one.

Nate. Nate, Nate, Nate.

What is he doing right now? Where is he? Is he thinking of me? Or is he sleeping peacefully, not feeling a shred of guilt over having betrayed me? Slowly, barely able to see through my tears, I clomp upstairs to my bedroom. My boots untie themselves and I pull them off. I climb into bed without bothering to change my clothes and fall asleep thinking of Nate.

*

In my dream I’m climbing a tree. I know that I’m really high up, and I know I’m not alone. I search the branches above me and, through the twilight, I spot a boy. Ten or eleven years old, black and blue hair, and eyes that glitter like the ocean on a summer’s day. I try to keep up with him, but there’s a bag on my back that weighs me down. “Wait, Reed, I can’t climb that fast.”