Guardian of the Moon Pendant (20 page)

“Saving your royal arse!”
I said out of the side of my mouth, “again!”

♦♦♦

Anabel

We walked silently through the
soft
grass, the moon rolling low against the horizon, skipping along the inky night’s sky.

My body was trembling with fear, not because I was about to face the next task, not because Izzy was furious with me remaining as the Guardian, not because I could never marry Blane because I was still the Guardian. It was because Edgar found me in Blane’s arms. How could I do this to him? I was a horrible person, letting my passion get the best of me. But I knew deep down inside of me, deep in the pit of my gut, I knew it was over and it had to end. I just couldn’t do it right then. I was the Guardian of the Moon Pendant, and I had a task to complete and that’s all that mattered to me.

We stood before a grassy grove, determined to seek out the Ghillie Dhu, a small dirt path snaked through its center, curving deep into the thicket, while a dense swirling mist blanketed the earth. A soft breeze rustled through the canopy of rich emerald trees, shaking off the dew-drenched leaves into a thick layer of vines, coiling along the edges of the path.

Blane stopped dead in his tracks, his ear angled up, listening to the moaning wind, whistling through the branches. The trees were softly speaking to each other. “The Dryads doona want us here,” he warned us.

“Don’t be silly, Blane,” Izzy said, her boot stepping out onto the worn path.

Swiftly, a barricade of thick branches, braided vines, and prickly thistles sprang out from the tree line, shooting out in all directions, creating an impenetrable wall to pass. Dark shadows shifted within the leaves, stirring just beyond our eyes, mystical faces faded in and out, their shadows morphing within the gloom. 

Izzy gazed over her shoulder at Blane. “You don’t say?” she said, arching her brow. She plucked out her iPhone, snapping pictures of the mysterious trees with Edgar’s
faeland
ios App. “Edgar’s App says…” She winked at Edgar. “It’s a…tree.”

We all let out a loud sigh, knowing it was completely wrong.

“Another buggy App,” exclaimed Izzy, “way to go, Team Edgar!”

“We doona need…” Blane paused finding his words, “an App, as you say. I know this grove. I know these trees.”

“Edgar,” I said, pivoting to him, his eyes heavy from jet-lag.  “I have to go and do this now. Sit and wait for me over there.” I pointed to a moss covered rock, nestled between a few rowan trees. “You’ll be safe there.”

Edgar grabbed my hand, clenching it tightly. “You’re just going to leave me here?” he said wide eye, childlike, sliding his hand over my ring finger.

“It’s safer for you, Edgar,” I asserted, pulling my hand away. I knew he noticed my engagement ring was missing, but I didn’t have time to explain. “Whatever lies inside there,” I gestured to the entangled wall of bark and leaves, “may not be pretty.”

Edgar frowned, his shoulders sloped over, and then he slowly waddled over to the rock like a dog with his tail between his legs.

I returned to Blane and Izzy studying the tightly packed organic wall, unsure how we could pass without something going awry.

Blane flared out his chest, legs spread wide, standing firmly before the wall. “I am the Sentinel of Light!” his voice boomed, resonating against the delicate leaves, causing them to ripple. “Open!”

The trees remained silent.

Izzy pushed forward with a quirky smile, tilting her head to the side, fists firmly planted on her hips. “Speak, friend, and it will open…” She had
said
clearly. “…Friend.”

Blane and I looked at Izzy curiously.

“What?” she shrugged. “It worked in
Lord of the Rings
.”

It was my turn as I positioned myself before the barricade. I raised my head up high and took a deep breath. “I am the Guardian of the Moon Pendant,” I divulged, feeling the sparks of the Moon Pendant igniting through my body. “I seek the Ghillie Dhu to recharge the Moon Pendant.”

The massive barrier slowly slithered away, unraveling its rope-like vines, its offshoot branches crackling as they unfolded, shifting back to their origins.

Izzy glared her blue eyes at me, speaking through the side of her mouth, muttering, “show off.”

We wandered down the soiled footpath, seeking out the Ghillie Dhu to begin the second task, passing by a trickling stream, listening to the whispers of the trees, speaking words in a language only they could understand. Dark figures moved slowly within the tree line, our eyes blinking trying to catch a glimpse of what was shifting in the shadows, their shapes towering over us, travelling with us as we wandered along the path. Scattered across the grove were a handful of dead trees, leafless, their barks brittle and cracking, with spear-like branches jutting out from their trunks.

“We are being watched,” announced Blane, his eyes darting from side to side.

I gulped, “Màrmann?”

“Nay, ‘
twould
be…” Blane’s voice stopped abruptly.

“Dryads,” Izzy answered, swallowing hard, staring at her iPhone screen. “Wood nymphs that harbor the strengths of the forests, travel in pacts, and tend to be shy. Strengths: Their size, ability to morph into the landscape, healing powers. Weakness: Fire, their shyness keeps them separated from other Fae.”

An icy wind blew against my neck, sending the tiny hairs on my back to shoot straight up
along with
a waterfall of goose bumps cascading all over my body. 

♦♦♦

Vyx

My eyes scanned the darkness as I knelt down on one knee above the steel gate, peering into the damp cell, lowering my torch to see two blood-red eyes reflecting back at me. The Bloody Baron was licking an ebony glove, splattered with blood, a speckle of drool dripping from the corner of his black lips, his bloody cap slowly drying up again.

“Sweet nectar,” he moaned, his tongue rolling over the soiled garment, its laces dangling from his hands. “Sweetest of the sweet…”

I knew that glove. It was the wenches’.

“Still thirsty?”
I grunted.

The Bloody Baron’s body shot across the dungeon lightning fast, his face pressing up against the latticed door, pushing his crooked nose through its slots, sniffing the air.

I laughed as I fumbled with the lock.

My finger was wedged under the latch. “You can soak your cap in all of her blood if you desire,” I said, staring into the Bloody Baron’s beastly gaze. “Just remember I get to kill her!”

He nodded yes with a maddening excitement.

My lip twisted up, flipping the latch open.

Chapter 15

♦♦♦

Izzy

I shoved the iPhone back into my pocket and peered up, blinking repeatedly, beholding the sight before me as we all stood in awe. A colossal tree lay fallen on its side, a bumpy moss covered face carved into its rough bark, waves of thick roots shot out from its trunk, swooping up and down beneath the cracking soil like a serpent, a deep purple vine curled around its branches, crippling it, cutting deep into its crusty red bark, slowly choking it to death.

“‘Tis the Ghillie Dhu,” declared Blane, gently touching its dried up bark.

Its mouth cracked open. “You are… too late,” he whispered in a low rumbling voice. “These poisonous vines are strangling my roots.”

“Lainahwyn?” asked Blane, his fingers lingering on the deep slashes carved into the Ghillie Dhu’s trunk.

“And a man,” he moaned as yellow leaves fluttered from his branches down to the parched soil.

“Vyx!”
I blurted out, not that I was surprised at all.

“Izzy, help me cut back these vines,” ordered Blane, pulling his short blade out from his scabbard. “Anabel go fetch some water from that stream we passed.”

“Yeah, sure,” I said, sliding out the bone knife out from my boot.

I knelt beside a gnarled root, sprouting out from the Ghillie Dhu’s trunk, there was at least another hundred like it, grey, distorted tubers anchoring deep into the earth as thick as an elephant’s trunk. I wedged my knife between the root and the charcoal-purple vine strangling the Ghillie Dhu and sliced it off. One down, a thousand or more to go, I sighed.

My ears perked when I heard something moving in the trees. Scanning the darkness, all I could see were shifting shadows. I shook my head and sliced another death vine off.

“Drat!” I screamed, shoving the bloody tip of my finger into my mouth. 

Ugh... I hate it when I cut myself. I laughed inside, shaking out my hand, three years ago I actually enjoyed it, but that all ended when I met, Vyx. What a dope I was when I met him. I was at my lowest point and of course, that’s when he came into the picture.

My whole life, I tried to get my mother to see me, to hear me – hey, even looking at me would’ve been nice. Nothing worked. Believe it or not, I was an honors student for a bit, but it just didn’t seem to matter. It didn’t matter how many awards I won, how well I was doing at school, what sports I played, who I hung out with. Harry just never saw me. The only one she saw was Anabel.

So what’s a girl to do? If I don’t matter in a good way, why not matter in a bad one? That’s when I just stopped doing anything, no school, no sports, no friends,
no
life. I just cut everyone off, oh yeah and I had a bit of a close call with death. Those were the days before I met Vyx. 

Vyx was freedom when I met him. He woke me up. He pissed Harry off, and it felt real good to have her somehow acknowledge that I existed, even if it was because I had a Hell’s Angel boyfriend. I do thank him for that, but I’m not stupid anymore. I don’t take
S
hyte from nobody or no man, especially a ghastly breath loser like Vyx.

I rubbed the blood off my finger onto my pants and then licked my finger again. Man, that Bloody Baron was right, my blood really is sweet, I thought. Don’t tell Harriet that!

Blane and I were just about done cutting all the vines when I heard the disturbance of a roaring wave. I gazed up and saw a moving ridge of crystal clear water, barreling down on us, swelling above the path and then crashing down into the Ghillie Dhu’s dried up soil.

“Guardian,” Blane scorned, “you mustn’t use yer powers. You weaken each time!”

“I feel fine,” said Anabel, heaving a sigh of relief. “I didn’t have a bucket.”

Blane scowled.

The Ghillie Dhu sprang to life, his roots ripping wildly out of the earth, giant tentacles reaching out to grab Anabel, coiling around her body like a cocoon, hoisting her up high into the air and then plunging her new capsule down into the core of the earth.

“
Hmmph
...” I said with a quick laugh, staring down into a dark, fathomless abyss of a hole. “Now, that’ll shut her up!” I smirked at Blane, his body tensed, his eyes wide with fear.

The Bloody Baron was standing behind Blane, a sinister look in his blood-red eyes, his sharp teeth seething, the iron-pike cradled in his crinkled hand, his bloody cap almost dried up, cracking slowly, needing a victim to revive him before it was too late.

“She must’ve freed him!” cried Blane, “Run,
Izzy
!”

Blane drew out his claymore, clashing his steel against the Bloody Baron’s iron-pike, their weapons smashing violently.

I bolted out into the tree line, running blindly, pushing through the underbrush, leaping over rocks, until I stopped before a fibrous tree. My heart th
ump
ed in my chest. Quickly I scrambled up the trunk, inching out onto a sturdy branch, wondering if I was going to become the Bloody Baron’s next meal. How the heck did he get out? I checked the lock. Lainahwyn could never get near the Bloody Baron’s iron pike. It had to be my lovely ex-boyfriend, Vyx, the meat head.

My butt teetered on the tree’s limb, wobbly, it felt like it was moving? The tree whispers grew louder, buzzing through the whole grove. Something was mad and it wasn’t the Bloody Baron or the Ghillie Dhu.

I squinted back toward the Ghillie Dhu. Blane was still fighting the Bloody Baron, thrashing their weapons while Anabel funneled through the earth below them.

The Bloody Baron lunged toward Blane, thrusting his black pike into his face. He swiftly arched his back, dodging his advance, and then shifted his torso to the side, swinging his double-edge sword full force at the Bloody Baron’s neck. The Bloody Baron zipped away from Blane’s steel ducking behind him, a cankerous laugh bellowed from his inky lips, wailing. But, it was too late for Blane to turn around. The Bloody Baron had caught him off guard with his cyber-
speed,
he thrust his pike into Blane’s muscular calf, piercing it through, buckling him over in agony, dropping to his knees, blood gushing out from his leg, splattering onto the ground. 

“He’s going to get me,” I whimpered, listening to the rustling leaves, still whispering in the wind.

The Bloody Baron yanked out his pike from Blane’s leg, holding its soiled tip up to his nostrils, inhaling Blane’s rich blood, his lanky finger sliding through it, and then rolling it on his tongue. “Too bitter,” he hissed, spitting it out, studying Blane as he struggled to get back onto his feet.