The Sentinel (17 page)

‘If you guys were doing your job properly then it wouldn’t get to the point where she nearly drowns or gets within grabbing distance of the Putarians.’

I could see Eli wishing he’d never started this conversation now, at least not within hearing distance of the highly hormonal, pregnant Zeki.

‘You’re right Jasmine, we were so busy fighting the Putarians off that we failed to protect her. And we’re grateful to you for that, the Zekis have always helped us, we would be lost without them.’

‘You’re right about that. Well when you have time Eve, when you think healing is a priority I will gladly show you how to do it. But until these guys start protecting you properly then I think Eli is right, you need to master your powers first.’

I stood with a fork halfway to my mouth watching Eli and Jasmine. ‘Maybe we can do both. Once or twice a week I could come to you for Zeki training, all other days I’ll learn how to master my powers.’

I hoped this was a good enough compromise. I didn’t want to alienate her after all she had done for me, especially when it meant being friends with her would help me to understand more about my capabilities.

‘Very well. You should get some rest tonight. Maybe, if you’re still alive, we can start doing some basic Zeki training next week.’

I looked at Eli and he nodded his consent. My big, brave Guardian didn’t dare argue against it.

15. The fear of death

It was decided that we would go back to the church the next day. Although my life had been threatened there by Lucas’s evil twin, we hadn’t been back for two weeks and Eli thought the Putarians wouldn’t think to look for me there. Being in the church meant we weren’t quite so exposed, the four walls sheltering us somewhat from view.

I walked in, surrounded by my entourage and froze in shock.

There was a great stag, standing in the middle of the church and Izri was standing next to him, nodding thoughtfully as if she was listening to him. He was huge, towering over Izri, proudly, his fur, was a rusty brown, and he seemed to have a great mane round his neck. His antlers of brown velvet, twisted widely above his head. His eyes, suddenly flicking to me, were liquid pools of brown. He turned to face me, bowing his head gently in my direction. With him was a younger deer, a girl by the looks of it.

I stared at Izri, in shock. She smiled shyly at me.

‘Who are your friends?’ I asked.

‘This is Areli and his daughter Jai. There’s a herd of red deer nearby. They were just curious, mostly about you, the Angelus Vita, he called you.’

I frowned thinking of my knowledge of Latin.

‘The angel of life,’ Eli supplied, from his seat on the window ledge.

I shook my head. The animals were in on this madness as well. I quickly moved on. ‘You can talk to animals?’ I don’t think I would ever get used to the surprises this strange world had in store for me.

Izri nodded, shrugging. ‘Talking telepathically is the same whether I’m talking to my sisters or to animals. It works differently for different people. I have the telepathic ability so I can get in the head of anyone I want and talk to them in their heads. For example I could talk to Quinn in his head, and he could talk back to me, but he hasn’t got telepathic abilities so he couldn’t find my mind and talk to me. With the Guardians they can only communicate with other Deus and with you, they can’t communicate with Quinn or with us, unless we find their minds first. The animals are the same, they can talk to each other but they can only talk to us if we find their minds first. The animals are great allies. They see things that we don’t. Try it. Do what I showed you the other day, imagine a golden beam of light connecting your head to theirs.’

I did this with the young doe first and as soon as I had connected with her mind I felt a wave of excitement hit me.

I opened my eyes and looked at her. ‘
Hello
.’

‘
Oh my. Oh. Kyria will die when she hears this
.’ She giggled, nervously.

‘
Kyria?’

‘My sister, she will freak that I’ve spoken to you,’
then her face visibly fell. ‘
She’ll never believe me.’

‘I’m sure your Dad will confirm it.’

I looked at Areli. I visualized a beam connecting myself to him too.

‘It is an honour to meet you.’
His voice was deep and proud, exactly what you would expect from a stag. ‘
You’re really her aren’t you?’

I sighed
. ‘Some believe so, yes.’

‘But you’re still a fawn yourself. Where’s your Mum, child?’

I smiled ruefully. ‘
That’s a good question, these guys are kind of my family now, they look out for me.’

Areli looked round at my Guardians, but as his eyes rested on Quinn, his ears went back and he bared his teeth. Caleb moved closer to me, his hand out cautiously, between me and Areli. One wrong move and Caleb would break his body in two.

I swallowed, nervously, not for me but for him. ‘
Easy Areli, no one will hurt you here.’
Not exactly the truth, but I had to calm him down.

‘
Occultus Visio,’
Areli hissed, backing away. Jai’s ears flattened against her head as she backed away as well.

‘
Wait, I don’t understand.’
I turned to look at Quinn in confusion. ‘Does Occultus Visio mean anything to you?’

He shrugged clearly puzzled by this as much as I was.

‘Best translation is Hidden Faces,’ Eli supplied.

I looked back at Quinn and his face cleared. ‘Animals don’t like shape shifters, they know we aren’t really one of them, but they don’t see us as human either, we’re an unknown quantity. Our bad reputation precedes us into their world as well.’

I turned my attention back to Areli. ‘
Quinn is …’
I paused over telling them he was my brother. If they thought I was a shape shifter too they might completely lose it. ‘
Quinn is a very good friend of mine, yes he is a shape shifter, but he would die for me, I trust him with my life.’

Areli hesitated, clearly flummoxed by this new turn of events. ‘
The shape shifter, as you call it, is your friend?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are all…shape shifters your friend?’

I thought back to Lucas’s evil twin. ‘
No, just this one, he’s very special to me.’

Areli nodded. His ears went flat again as Persia and Clementine arrived in the church behind her. They froze when they saw Areli and Jai.

Areli sniffed the air between them and relaxed. ‘
We should go Jai, the Angelus Vita has a lot of work to do.’

‘Come again, I’m always happy to talk to you,’
I smiled, encouragingly. I didn’t want to alienate the animals because of my association with shape shifters.

Areli nodded, sedately and nudging Jai with his antlers they left.

‘Friends of yours?’ asked Persia. Her eyes were sad and I wasn’t sure why.

‘Yeah, sort of, though they weren’t fans of Quinn though.’

Quinn shrugged as if he was used to the prejudice against shape shifters.

‘Hey Persia, sorry about yesterday, just leaving like that, I hate to worry you unnecessarily.’

‘Don’t sweat it, I’m kind of getting used to being left in the dark.’

I winced. Was that what was bothering her. ‘Sorry.’

‘No seriously Eve, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant I’m getting used to the unusual happening around you, it’s fine. You had slightly more important things to worry about. Now listen I need to talk to you.’

Not again. Not more bad news.

There was suddenly a man in the church with us. The Guardians surrounded him like a shot. He looked startled at his sudden welcome party.

‘I’m looking for Eve,’ he said, edging back away from my imposing bodyguards.

Eli stepped forward with his hand on his knife and the man flinched.

‘
Easy Eli, we’re not about to kill an innocent member of the public.’

‘Wait, I have a message,’ the man scrabbled in his pocket and produced a sheet of paper. ‘I was out running at the bottom of the track and some man paid me a hundred pounds to come up here and deliver it. He said I’d get another hundred from you guys once I had handed it over.’

Eli snatched the letter from his hand.

‘Oh. It’s only supposed to be read by Eve, the man said that…’ he trailed off under Eli’s glare.

Eli opened it, his eyes flicking across the words. A second later he had the man by the throat up against the wall. ‘What is the meaning of this, who are you?’

The man struggled against Eli, but it was futile.

‘Please,’ the man begged, ‘I don’t know what it said, it’s nothing to do with me. I told you, I was paid to come up here.’ The man punched against Eli’s arm, trying to free himself from his grasp. I could see the panic in his eyes, he was terrified.

‘Eli, let him go.’

Eli hesitated a second then released him. As soon as he hit the floor he scrambled up and ran. If he was a Putarian, he was certainly a cowardly one.

Eli was tense and not just about the man.

‘What does it say?’ I asked.

He shook his head.

I held out my hand and the letter zoomed into it. It didn’t say a lot and what it did say didn’t really have the same effect on me as it did on Eli.

‘
On December 21
^st
, the Sun will set on the old year and the New Year will begin. The sky will burn red. The waters will be tainted with our sacrifices. Putus will smile down on the pure and reward our offerings. Yours will be the greatest gift of all.
’

I turned over the paper to see if there was more by way of an explanation. There was nothing.

‘What does it mean?’

‘December 21
^st
is end of the year for the Putarians. Traditionally it’s when they make human sacrifices to their god Putus, normally Zekis or Donum. They intend to sacrifice you instead.’

My blood ran cold.

‘They won’t get anywhere near you,’ Eli said.

‘No they won’t. I have the best Guardians watching over me, you guys are amazing. What bothers me most is that they know I’m here. How do they know that? We’ve only just got here. They had no way of knowing we would be back. They must be watching us.’

This thought had obviously already occurred to Eli. But he shook his head, either unwilling or unable to give me an answer.

I sighed. ‘What date is it today?’

‘The 18
^th
,’ Lucas said, quietly.

I had three days.

Persia took my hand and pulled me down on to the window ledge next to her. ‘Listen I had a dream, a prophecy.’ She looked round at my Guardians and continued in my head. ‘
I don’t know how to say this. Your Guardians are going to die.’

I gasped. ‘
When?’

‘Alexandria dies tomorrow. Mason drowns on the 21
^st
. Caleb in a month or two.’

I looked at them. They had become my friends. They were going to die for me, because of me. I couldn’t stand it.

Persia took my hand with tears in her eyes. ‘
Eve, I’m so sorry but Seth dies too. Also on the 21
^st
.’

I actually felt all the blood drain out of my face. Seth had said the Oraculum told him he was going to die for me. But somehow I had thought I could stop it. I could still stop it. I had to do something to stop all of them from dying. They had saved me so many times over the last few weeks, it was my turn to save them.

‘
I’m so sorry Eve.

‘
You said you saw me marrying Seth?’

‘I did, I still do… but.’

‘So I can prevent it.’
I would prevent it.

‘I guess, but I don’t know how.’

‘How does he die?’

‘He’s with you, in the woods at night, alone. The Putarians come. He tries to fight them off but there’s too many of them’

‘And what do I do whilst he’s fighting them?’

‘I think you’re unconscious because you just lie there.’

‘And then I die too?’

‘I don’t see that part, just the bit where Seth dies. I’m sorry, my prophecies are not that clear.’

I let my head fall into my hands. I couldn’t lose him.

‘Should I tell them?’
Persia asked, quietly.

I nodded as I stood up, an idea suddenly forming in my head. ‘They have a right to know.’

‘A right to know what?’ said Eli, obviously concerned by the looks of anguish and despair me and Persia had been sharing.

‘Persia has something to tell you. I’m just going to go outside, I just need to be alone for a minute.’

Eli watched me go suspiciously, though I deliberately positioned myself where he could see me.

I heard Persia explain what she had seen and there was silence for a second as they digested it.

Then Seth let out a cheer. ‘For the glory of the Sentinel.’

I actually felt sick. He wanted to die for me. To make matters worse, they all cheered in response.

And in the din that followed I ran for the car.

‘Is that what Eve’s upset about,’ said Caleb. ‘Doesn’t she know the Oraculum will just send her a new Personal Guard.’

‘I think she’s more upset about losing you,’ said Quinn.

‘That’s silly,’ laughed Mason. ‘That’s what we’re here for.’

I leapt in the car, started the engine and as I floored the accelerator I shut my mind to the Guardians. I didn’t really have a plan. I was panicking wildly. I just knew I had to get as far away from them as possible. If they weren’t with me then they couldn’t be killed. I would do it all alone. I didn’t need them.

I looked in the rear view mirror and to my annoyance Eli and Lucas were both chasing after me. I changed into a higher gear, increased my speed and hit the main road at the bottom of the dirt track, narrowly avoiding a truck that was speeding towards me. I pushed the car as fast as it would go and took off up the road.