Daphne stealthily walked down a corridor, hugging the wall. She was certain that her quarry was somewhere in this deserted section. Breathing softly, she turned the corner.
A rabbit sat alone in the cavern, happily chewing giant cloves.
The Guardian glared at the dark brown rabbit, willing it to turn into the baboon she'd been chasing. But of course that didn't happen.
'Want some?' the rabbit asked, offering a bunch of cloves.
'No, thank you. Have you seen any baboons?'
'Not recently,' the rabbit replied before returning to its meal.
Daphne ground her teeth as she searched the cavern; finding no sign that a baboon had ever been there causing her foul mood to darken. Shadows danced and she stealthily moved closer.
Brandon stood in the garden they always met up in. He wore a bittersweet smile as she approached. The spicy scent of fire-lilies in full bloom nearly intoxicated her after the dusty corridors with hints of clover she'd left behind.
'I didn't think you'd come.'
Daphne watched him through narrowed eyes. Something was different about him, but she couldn't fight the pull to be near him. The simulated late afternoon sun made his hair shine golden. She could hear the sounds of a party somewhere outside of sight.
'Though,' he laughed bitterly, 'it wasn't like I could invite you.'
Confusion washed over her.
'I hear you got married? How's life treating you in the Verdure Court?'
She ignored his strange words. 'I don't understand. What are we doing here?'
'I had to see you again. You still wear your hair coiled at the nape of your neck,' he shook his head as he smiled fondly. 'Though I wish nothing but the best for you, I had to see you and know that you felt the same way.'
'I wish things could be as they were when we were young and innocent,' Daphne said wistfully as she watched a fire-lily bloom bravely against an onyx wall. Keeping her hair out of the way during fights also left her without a hiding place.
'For me, it isn't over,' Brandon said, grasping her hands. She felt a jolt go through her body.
'It has to be,' she answered softly, remembering clearly the day they said goodbye after the Dragon's Curse was broken. The Court, honour, and duty had to come before their own personal happiness. She pulled her hands out of his.
'I hoped that when you saw me things could be different.'
'We have so many memories and regrets. This would be a mistake,' she said trying not to show any of the nameless emotions swirling through her.
'I'm sorry. I'd hoped with the years that had passed...' he shrugged. 'I guess now that I'm turning thirty I'm losing my mind a little.'
Daphne looked up sharply. He'd only just turned twenty. This... She clenched her jaw. Walking through gaps in the veil separating time was a rare, yet well-known happenstance, in the Labyrinth.
'You should leave, Brandon. Forget that you saw me today.'
He nodded, giving her a last bittersweet smile before walking away.
Her body shivered from pain. She closed her eyes, keeping the tears inside. The smells and sounds disappeared and she opened her eyes. The entire scene was gone. It had been an illusion. If she had really walked through a gap in the veil, she would have had to return through it to her own time. She wouldn't have magically reappeared in the cavern she had been searching before seeing Brandon.
Furious, she looked around for whoever had caused this horrible drama to unfold. But no-one with magic strong enough was anywhere near. Keeping her destructive emotions and fantasies to herself, she returned to the task at hand: finding the thieves and the stolen fabrics.
She could feel the rabbit watching her, but ignored it. She knew better than to engage the faery-hybrid creatures that roamed the Labyrinth.
Yet that was exactly who she was seeking. Five baboons – obviously faery-hybrids living in the Labyrinth – had somehow broken into the Onyx Labyrinth and had stolen all the wedding dress fabrics.
The princess was beside herself. A few of the dressmakers had collapsed and hadn't been revived by the time Daphne and the other Guardians had gone hunting for the thieves.
'I would faint too if I'd failed to protect something as valuable,' Henri said as he joined Daphne and Ruhan at the intersection of corridors. She hated that she'd broadcasted this thought.
'Have you found anything, or did you faint in horror?' Ruhan asked, obviously as irritated with the young Guardian as Daphne was.
'A rabbit. It was sleeping on a large rock. Nothing else.'
'I saw a rabbit too...' the older Guardian said, staring at the corridor he'd come from.
'Warren?' Daphne asked, looking at the innocuous corridors. 'I did find lots of clover.'
'Could be.'
'Who's Warren?' Henri asked.
'Obviously language isn't your strong point. Despite evidence that you can't seem to keep your mouth shut,' Daphne said and walked away before giving into the urge to strangle him.
She hadn't forgotten that he was the one to leak sensitive information. Though the only consequence thus far was princess Calliope moving to the Onyx Labyrinth, she was still worried that someone might figure out the truth of her feelings for Duke Brandon. She swallowed. She had tried so hard the last couple of weeks not to think about him. She'd even convinced herself that her feelings weren't real. That it all was part of the Dragon's Curse. But why then, after weeks of being curse-free, did her heart ache like part of it was missing?
Movement caught her eye.
'Dark fur,' she said to the other two through the mind-link. She ran full out after what she hoped was a baboon.
Daphne found it. But it wasn't a baboon. It was a raccoon.
'I know it rhymes, but that's no baboon,' Henri said.
Ruhan slapped him over the head.
'Baboon?' the raccoon asked.
'Your size, fur colour, and recently seen in the area,' Daphne said.
'Haven't seen anything but rats,' the raccoon answered and ran off.
Daphne kicked a rock and left.
Searching for stolen wedding dress fabrics wasn't exactly Guardian work.
'Henri, follow the raccoon,' Ruhan commanded.
'Why?'
'Just do it.'
'Fine,' the young Guardian said and left.
'Hey,' Ruhan said worriedly through the mind-link. 'You okay?'
'No.'
'This has to be better than having to spend all your time with the Princess.'
'Searching for fabric that will make the dress that will bind her forever to our Court isn't exactly better.' She could feel the resentment build in her, it was especially strong after the drama not even an hour old.
Ruhan squeezed her hand before returning to stoic Guardian mode.
'Something's off about that raccoon.'
'Rabies?'
'Colouring.'
Daphne frowned. The animals she'd encountered had all had identical brown fur.
'We need –'
A stoat entered the cavern. The exact brown fur as the other animals.
The two Guardians exchanged a glance before capturing the wriggling creature.
'Talk,' Ruhan commanded.
'About what?'
'You and the other animals: what are you?'
'Faery-hybrids,' it answered promptly.
Ruhan picked up a stone and turned it into a cage – large enough for the stoat to fit and small enough to carry with ease.
'Dinner is going to be interesting,' Daphne said as Henri entered the cavern with the raccoon in a stone cage.
'No! No!'
'You can't eat us!'
'You just said that you're Faery-hybrids. We've eaten plenty of rat. You should make an interesting change.'
'We're not hybrids!'
'Enchanted should taste even better.'
'Maybe. Perhaps with clover?'
'We're Fae!'
Daphne smirked.
'Then where's the baboons?'
'We'll show you.'
'If you promise not to kill us.'
Daphne shrugged.
Ruhan and Henri walked in front with the captives.
Daphne used the mind-link to find the closest Guardians. Clive and Conan – twins – arrived silently. They wore the face covers that only revealed their eyes. Daphne only wore hers when it was cold. But some Guardians, like the twins, wore it as part of their regular attire. It made them look like assassins instead of Guardians.
Feelings that she's been trying to supress for so long tried to escape. She refused to allow them to. She even kept her mind blank like she had to before the Dragon's Curse had been broken. Nothing will interfere with this mission.
Three rabbits were waiting in the cavern. The twins used their magic to bend the earth into a cage around the dark brown furry creatures.
Cries of outrage were stifled when the rabbits saw the other two animals in cages with the five Guardians.
'Where can we find the five baboons that escaped the Onyx Labyrinth this morning?'
'Baboons?'
'What would we know of baboons?'
'Don't baboons live topside?'
Daphne watched the creatures closely. Something about them just made her skin crawl.
'We already have them,' she said, recognising the magic emanating from them as the same kind that had caused her weird mood and the illusion. Only one creature loves mischief and drama more than life itself.
'Shape-shifters?' Ruhan asked, glaring at the animals.
'Phoukas,' she said with certainty.
By naming them, the illusion broke and all five animals turned into their human form; the cages growing with them.
Two women and three men – all with dark brown skin, furry brown ears, luminescent green hair and swishing tails – stood in the various cages.
'Well, you've got us.'
'We like to pretend to be animals.'
'It's a lot of fun, you should try it sometime.'
'Where's the fabric you stole?' Conan demanded. It was the first time she'd heard this Guardian speak. His words, though innocuous enough, sounded infinitely threatening.
'Hidden,' one of the Phoukas squeaked, obviously terrified. They all tried to stay as far away from the Guardian who looks like an assassin.
'Where?' Clive asked, sounding exactly like his twin.
'With the arachnids.'
'Buried in Verdure.'
'Entombed with the Oracle.'
'Not your concern.'
'Actually,' Daphne said, strolling closer to the cages while playing with a knife, 'it is my concern. The fabric is meant for a wedding dress for the woman I'm protecting. And if you don't tell me where you've hidden it, I'll flay you and turn your miserable hides into a dress.'
She could taste the fear of the captives. She didn't mind it. She'd had enough of their embellishments and mischief-making. But she could also taste the surprise from her fellow Guardians. She ignored it. She continued to play with her knife; the Phoukas watching it with fear and fascination.
'It's a secret passage,' one squeaked as she twirled the blade.
'We'll show you!'
'Please don't skin us!'
Daphne grinned triumphantly. Though not exactly the kind of drama they'd created, scaring them at least gave her a little of her own back.
The Phoukas, each accompanied by a Guardian, meekly walked down corridor after corridor. Daphne couldn't help but wonder if they weren't being led into a trap. She could feel her skin react as it became colder.
A strange smell, something between damp decay and dust, filled the deserted corridors. The monotony of walking in endless twilight was making Daphne think about more than just the path ahead. Though this was delaying the wedding planning, a small part of her was almost glad for it.
The Phouka next to her grinned. She was sure that the creature could feel her emotions. Clenching her jaw, the conflicting feelings of either strangling or congratulating the Phoukas for their nerve fought within her.
'There,' the Phouka in the lead with Conan said as they came to a stop.
The twins and Henri guarded the captives while Daphne and Ruhan retrieved an old metal box from within the wall. They found the fabrics, still pristine, where the shivering Phoukas had hidden it.
'Find drama and mischief somewhere far away from the Onyx Labyrinth,' Daphne said to the Phoukas. 'Release them,' she ordered the other Guardians.
The Phoukas fled. She watched as they left, unanswered questions swirling through her.
'Let's go home,' she said to the others.
'You've done well,' the Commander of the Guardians said as they presented the fabric to her, princess Calliope and Duke Brandon in a reception hall in the Onyx Labyrinth.
Daphne did her best not to look at anyone but the commander. It was easier that way to keep her face stoic. However, propriety demanded she look at the princess when she talked.
'Thank you all for your hard work and the speedy recovery of the fabric,' princess Calliope, dressed in a gorgeous diaphanous blue dress, said while dazzling the other Guardians with her smile.
Though the princess smiled and did all the right things to look happy, Daphne was sure that she saw disappointment too. But what does that mean?
The dressmakers had been revived and were fussing over the fabrics while the twins stayed close to guard it.
She saw the forced delight on princess Calliope's face. She knew that being the Guardian assigned to protect the future queen of the Onyx Labyrinth had made her privy to the princess's quirks, yet she hoped that it was her experience with the Phoukas that had left her in such a suspicious frame of mind.
Henri stared too openly at the princess. Daphne saw the disapproval from the other Guardians. She knew that Ruhan would've loved nothing more than head-slap the young Guardian again, but it wasn't proper in the company they were in.
'Dismissed,' the commander said slightly exasperated through the mind-link.
As she walked to her quarters, Daphne couldn't help but wonder if the Phoukas weren't invited to cause mischief. Except, to what end?
*Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this newest tale in the series. Vote if you did. If you have anything you'd like to say, don't hesitate to comment – I always appreciate feedback.*