Guardian of Honor (25 page)

Soon enough she found herself at the next fallen post and stared down
at the dimming beacon. It looked a little like a telephone pole. With shock she
realized that the deep carvings in the post were depictions of monsters.
Various slayers, renders, soul-suckers and other monsters she didn't recognize,
including some flying ones, were shown in various death throes.

She stared. Walked down to the base of the pole that was thicker
than the top end, then back to the rounded top. Every inch of the thing was
carved, even the ends. Each image was about three inches tall or wide and
incised about an inch into the pole. She couldn't tell what the beacon was made
of—in some spots it looked like wood, in others like stone. Its color varied
from black to deep red to pink, in no design she could deduce. Occasionally a
monster image even looked as if it were fashioned from a jewel—ruby, sapphire,
topaz.

Her baton tugged at her hand and she followed it. Acting like a
dowsing rod, it angled to the post. About a foot and a half up the thing, pale
jade gleamed. Jade, like her wand. Alexa swallowed. Two friezes of dying jade
monsters circled the pole.

She slid her own piece of jade into its sheath and touched her
finger to the jade. It flared bright green.

Sinafin perched on Alexa's shoulder.

"Watch out!" Screams bit the air.

Alexa pivoted. Monsters headed straight to her in a jangle of
dissonant notes. Time slowed and her mind numbed as she saw the horrors up
close and alive, with their sole aim to kill her.

They carried no weapons, they needed none.

The slayer was huge. Taller, wider than the render, with long,
bilious yellow fur. Two horns curved among the nasty spines covering its head,
larger spines marched down its back. Its arms had
spines
too. Both legs had a spine-spur on the hock. Tiny red eyes full of kill-lust
stared at her.

Two soul-suckers glided on each side of the slayer, tall and thin,
reptilian skin glistening with natural ichor. The long tentacles near their
arms writhed as if waiting to hold her and suck the life from her. The huge
black eyes of one of them caught hers, and she felt trapped, unable to move.
Chill infused her.

One of the renders slid in front of the soul-sucker and broke the
spell. Tall, nasty, steel-bristle hair, fangs dripping. Its eyes too, were red.
Its claws were already extended from the paw-hands to kill. It should have
lumbered, but when it ran, the motion was smooth and deadly.

A warhawk's scream broke the moment. Alexa stumbled back, then
watched Sinafin, in bird form, dive-bomb the soul-sucker. A tentacle whipped up
but missed the hawk. A render jumped at the bird and claws clanged together on
empty air. The slayer swiped, and several spines shot from the back of its arm,
peppering the air where Sinafin had been an instant before.

The monsters were a stride away. The Marshalls and Chevaliers were
too far away and too scattered to save her.

Alexa acted as trained, raising her wand, using it as a weapon—a
sword with a green blade. Words tumbled from her mouth, and they were the right
words, a fighting chant. Blood thundered in her ears. She ducked, slid under
the razor-claws of a render, swiping at its middle as she jackrabbited by. Guts
and gray ichor spilled.

Panting, she turned, slipped on gore, fell and rolled. A good
thing, because the soul-sucker's tentacle-arm whipped to where she'd been. She
kept rolling, cut the feet off another render, scrambled away from more pouring
blood.

She was smaller than what they usually fought, reacted
differently, took chances she shouldn't have, jumped through holes that should
have been too small.

She lit on her back, head thunking against the ground. As another
render bounded to her, something blocked the sun behind him. He swung.

"Helleva!
Fry, you hulking
beast!" Alexa called.

A burst of jade energy hit his chest. He staggered back, then pawed
at himself. Jade fire burned him.

Shouts. Ground vibrations. Volarans ran like horses into the fray.
Marshalls and Chevaliers joined the battle. Thealia, face grim, leaned down,
grabbed Alexa and jammed her on the rump of the volaran.

Alexa's bones jarred. Her jaw snapped shut. A golden bubble
coalesced around all three of them as the volaran took flight.

Alexa wrapped her arms around Thealia and goggled at the
iridescence curving around them.

Partis is my Shield. Now you know what that means. I fight. He
protects. We work as a team.

They rose higher and the bubble thinned. As they circled back and
landed, Alexa saw Partis leaning on a staff, watching them, baton ready.

But the small influx of monsters was dead. A slayer, two
soul-suckers and four renders. Their bodies littered the ground. This time
Alexa hummed an antinausea spell under her breath. Better to look white and
shaking with fear than to stand and puke her guts out.

Wrong image. Guts already strewed the ground. She breathed through
her nose. The spell blocked some of the stench.

Partis approached them, round face serious but otherwise pristine.
Reynardus had hung back—but his brother and Shield hadn't come along, and it
was against the code for a Sword to fight without a Shield.

Alexa had had no choice. And no one had thought she'd be fighting
anyhow. Like most women, she'd probably be a Shield.

Thealia was an exception in that. Looking at Partis, still fresh,
and thinking of her own clothes covered with mud, spattered with nasty stuff,
Alexa figured defense work would suit her fine.

That's what she'd been trained for at home. The only clients she'd
had at the start of her career had been those in need of defense.

Partis lifted her off the volaran. Though he was the smallest
Lladranan man she'd seen, he had plenty of strength to toss her around—as he'd
proven in their fighting exercises.

Everyone stared at her, apparently checking her out for wounds.

"I analyzed her energies. She is fine," Thealia
announced.

Partis lifted her purple tabard and held it up. Huge blotches of
mud and ichor caked the tattered garment. Alexa swallowed. She hadn't even been
aware that the thing had ripped, had been shredded in the back by render claws.
A strange singe darkened the left side near her shoulder. Alexa patted her left
shoulder and under her arm. Everything seemed fine. Excellent armor, maybe a
little warm to the touch.

"Well done, Marshall Alyeka," Partis said.

The Chevaliers nodded.

Reaction hit. The adrenaline supporting her faded. She needed to
sit down...now! Forget about saving face or pride or anything else. She'd
almost been killed. By monsters more horrible than any nightmares. She didn't
know how she'd survived. Her blood drained from her head at the same time her
sweat turned cold.

"What—" Thealia sounded startled. Suddenly her volaran
was steady against Alexa's back, and the horse's big blue eyes studied her.

Alexa managed a weak smile. Ducking death and fighting
overwhelming horrors might be all in a day's work for the Chevaliers and
Marshalls, but it was damn new to her, and she didn't care for it.

Concentrating on keeping her feet, evening her breathing and heart
rate, she almost missed the concerned glances and mutterings of the group. She
heard her name mangled, and her attention sharpened.

"Yes?" she said loudly as if a question had been
addressed to her.

Shieldmarshall Faith's mouth thinned. "We promised not to lie
to you ever again. Or manipulate you."

Uh-oh. Alexa was sure she wasn't going to like what was coming
next.

"It is extraordinary that monsters attacked in the same place
they'd been defeated hours before." Faith's brow wrinkled. "I can't
recall the last time this happened."

"They came for the Exotique Marshall," Reynardus said
coolly.

He probably wished they'd gotten her too.

"Yes." Thealia's jaws worked. "We were distracted
and not protecting Alyeka as we should have. This whole matter is very
odd." She looked straight at Sinafin, who had settled atop the volaran's
head.

"Si—the feycoocu?" Alexa's voice cracked. Horror rose
through her. Surely Sinafin wouldn't betray her.

The butterfly curled antennae in Alexa's direction.
You needed
to be blooded.

13

S
ick with betrayal, Alexa stared at Sinafin.

You needed to be blooded,
Sinafin repeated.

Blooded. Spilling blood of monsters? Alexa shuddered. Her lips
went cold. "We'll speak of this later." When she'd sorted mixed
emotions, predominantly hurt, and could think rationally instead of feel...

Someone cleared his throat. It was a Chevalier Alexa vaguely
recognized, a tall, loose-limbed man with a tough face. He wore Lady Hallard's
colors. His name was...Marrec.

"There was a dreeth," Marrec said.

All sound ended, even the slight
swish
of Sinafin's wings.

"It was more shadow than substance, not fully materialized,
but it loomed over the last render to attack Alyeka."

"Impossible," Reynardus said. "Did anyone else see
this?"

"Improbable, perhaps," Faith corrected. "But not
impossible.

The war with the Dark is escalating, the reason we Summoned
Marshall
Alyeka. That means additional monsters will invade. A dreeth sounds like
the next logical step up."

Worse and worse. The volaran's warm, curved side behind her
comforted Alexa. "What's a dreeth?" she asked.

People stared at her. "A large bat-winged creature with sharp
curved beak, poisonous teeth and bloated belly," Luthan said.

A dragon? She'd always had a soft spot for dragons. Didn't seem
like that would survive reality.

Luthan frowned as if in concentration and an image formed before
Alexa. Not a dragon. A flying reptile like one of those during the dinosaur
age, only bigger, fatter. A pterodactyl, pteradon. Ick.

She thought through Marrec's words. It had not completely
materialized. Apparently it could come out of thin air, just as the other
monsters could rise out of the ground at their last, farthest penetration of
Lladrana if there was no magical boundary behind them. The rules of magic in
this place were as convoluted as the rules of law at home.

Alexa recalled the shadow blocking the sun right before she'd
killed the last render. She didn't want to think of killing the render, of
fighting for her life, of being betrayed by Sinafin. She didn't want to think
at all.

It was all too much. How did she pretend to be normal?

She paid little attention to the discussion around her as she
fought another battle. Terror.

A small bark came at her feet. Sinafin again. This time as a cute
black cocker-spaniel puppy with big brown eyes. That didn't help her fear.

As a scrawny kid, Alexa had seen such a puppy and yearned for it
with all her heart. But it played happily in a pet store window with
littermates and the price wasn't even within the realm of Alexa's dreams. No
one would buy a puppy for a foster child who'd been in their home for a couple
of weeks and would probably move on in another couple.

Sinafin lolled her tongue and tilted her head with long ears.
This
was the shape you loved the most in all your dreams. I can keep this shape
forever, if you want.

Alexa sniffed, picked up the puppy, and walked with the
shapeshifter away from the group and to the fallen post, then back out to the
cliff. Alexa whispered into silky ears. "Why did you do it?"

You needed to know what it is to fight and fear and kill and
survive and know that this could happen tomorrow too. Your training is not a
game.

Maybe Alexa had wanted it to be.

More, you needed to know that you are a natural fighter. Your body
and mind and spirit and magic will
meld together and protect you when
you fight, and you will win!

"I don't think so."

The puppy wriggled in her arms as if impatient, and licked her
under her chin.
I would never ask anything of you that you could not do.

"Huh." But Alexa rubbed her face against the puppy-soft
fur, wiping the tears that had leaked unwillingly from her eyes.

Do you want me to keep this shape?
Sinafin
twisted until her tongue lapped up any trace of Alexa's tears.

"No. It isn't natural for a dog to remain a puppy
forever." Alexa's own words rang to her soul. She had wanted to remain a
novice Marshall forever, playing at fighting instead of the real thing. Well,
who wouldn't? So she was human. So sue her.

Sinafin yipped.
I thank you, then, for your courtesy.
She
sounded sincere.
I will continue to experiment with shapes until I find the
proper one for us.

Us. That sounded good too. A unit. Alexa looked across the field.
The Marshalls were walking or riding volarans in pairs, as usual. "Do
Shieldmarshalls fight too?"