The Chosen (19 page)

He charged at her, his sword held high above his head, cursing at her with a string of very creative words. However he had failed to notice that as she pivoted she had thrust one of her knives into the ground and stood facing him with just one knife. Or so it appeared.

She feinted left and he moved to block her, still cursing. He failed to notice that as she moved left her right hand had slipped behind her back and even still he hadn’t noticed the small throwing dagger concealed in her hand. His companion, still gasping for breath— and no doubt feeling the broken ribs resulting from her kick— shouted at him to finish her off.

He charged again and she threw the knife while throwing herself into a somersault to the right, leaping to her feet to face him. This attacker, however, would no longer be a factor in the fight. Her blade had hit its mark.

She turned, ready to face her original attacker, however he had already abandoned the fight and she caught sight of him fleeing through the trees.

She followed, but lost him after he mounted a horse waiting in a glade and sped off.

Slowly, she made her way back the way she came, carefully observing the trail to see if he had dropped anything. He hadn’t.

When Kathryn reached the attacker she had killed she quickly retrieved her knife. As she was cleaning it she realized something she hadn’t noticed earlier. Those voices were familiar. But why? She retrieved the dead man’s weapon and noticed that the broad sword had the same striations and color as the one David had recovered from yesterday’s fight. There were no nicks or damage of any sort on the blade.

Grea
t
, she thought bleakly
,
with two bizarre swords within two days, Rima is already proving itself to be problematic.

Making her way back to where she had left Lerina she managed to place the voices. Her two attackers were the same men whom she had overheard in the glade two nights ago!

The knowledge did nothing to improve her mood. One of them had gotten away. Kathryn counted that as a personal failure.

Even Matt noticed her mood when she made it back to where she had left him.

“I take it, it didn’t go well?”

She told him about the attack, but not about recognizing the voices.

“They must have been pretty desperate if they attacked a Guardian,” he commented as Jenna, Rachel, and the farmer appeared on the road.

Kathryn was forced to agree. They had attacked first, not many bandits would. Most would attempt to flee first before standing and fighting, yet these two had attacked.

She didn’t like the implications.

When the group returned, Kathryn briefed David on what had happened. He agreed that bandits actually attacking a Guardian was out of the ordinary and promised to keep a look out for the one who had gotten away. He mentioned notifying Lord Mora about the two swords and their ability to deflect Guardian swords but Kathryn didn’t pay attention since that was his job and not hers. He asked if she was alright and she, somewhat icily even to her ears, assured him she was.

She had failed. Kathryn didn’t like failure and she liked it even less when others tried to make her feel better.

As the shifts traded out, Kathryn went out into the garden to do some weeding. Destiny hopped alongside catching the occasional worm that Kathryn would toss her.

“That is so gross.”

Kathryn glanced up to see Natalie and Lindsey leaning against the fence, a look of disgust etched into their faces. “Is there something you two need?” she asked, striving for a neutral tone that she probably failed to achieve.

“More like something you need,” Lindsey said, holding her nose between two fingers.

“A bath,” Natalie sniffed.

Kathryn raised an eyebrow and turned back to weeding, shooing away two pribbles that had come to investigate her work. “You’d stink too if you had to rake up manure,” she told them calmly. At that moment the larger pribble relieved itself creating a pile nearly as big as a dinner tray.

“Ewwww!” Natalie shrieked.

“Gross!” Lindsey added, her face turning a little green.

Kathryn didn’t bother acknowledging them. As far as she was concerned both Natalie and Lindsey had some growing up to do. Just yesterday Natalie had wanted to appropriate three of the four bathrooms for the girls, leaving one for the boys. Kathryn had told her, in no uncertain terms, that the bathrooms would remain open for everyone. In any case, all that was in the bathrooms was a bathtub, a full length mirror, and lots of shelf space for towels and soaps. And it was not a sunken stone bathtub like the one in Kathryn’s apartment in Jasmine’s palace. It was nothing more than a raised metal tub barely big enough to sit in. Natalie was still simmering. She didn’t like having to wait to take her daily bath, and the idea of sharing a bathing tub with one of the boys repulsed her even more.

They reminded Kathryn, a bit too vividly for comfort, of two serving girls back at Blackwood Manor. Linisse and Marite had been very pretty girls, had thought of themselves much higher than their situation allowed, and had often taken great pains to keep themselves looking nice. Many times their efforts had included blaming Kathryn for “undoing all their hard work” on chores they couldn’t have been bothered to complete. Of course once they had blamed it on Kathryn, she had been forced to complete their chores on top of her own…plus any extras that had been added on as punishment for making Linisse and Marite look bad. Of course the two girls had found it humorous to watch her do the chores they hadn’t done and had taunted her constantly throughout her time at the Manor.

“What would your parents think if they saw you like this?” Natalie asked, apparently horrified at the amount of dirt Kathryn had on her clothes and skin.

Jolted back to the present, Kathryn felt herself slightly confused by the question. “What do you mean ‘if my parents saw me like this’?” She asked as she tugged on one particularly stubborn weed. Scowling at it, she dug her fingers down into the dirt to try and pull it out by the root.

“I mean if they saw you digging around in the dirt smelling like excrement.”

The root refused to budge. She’d had less trouble with some of the decade-old tarnished silver pieces she’d polished in the manor. Kathryn let out a huff. “Somehow I don’t think they would mind,” she muttered, working to keep the bitterness out of her tone, she didn’t need Natalie to start an inquiry into her past. If her parents could abandon her to a life of slavery, she didn’t think they would have any problem seeing her get a little dirty. Finally the root popped free. As she fell back onto her heels, her hand came out of the dirt with a long taproot dangling from her fingers. She could feel Natalie’s eyes on her as she tried to carelessly toss the offending plant aside.

“Are you trying to tell me that you’re
a
peasan
t
?” Natalie asked disdainfully, her gaze automatically following the arc the weed made through the air.

Kathryn watched as a rather large green worm with blue striations worked its way through the turned up soil.  As it inched along it grew longer and thinner until it was nearly twice the length of her foot.  After regarding the creature for a few moments she imagined setting overflowing bowls of them in front of her two antagonists and ordering them to eat them. 

Well, are you? Natalie insisted. 

Kathryn looked up, her eyes narrowing. “Considering we’re supposed to be protecting th
e
peasant
s
as you call them, you’re displaying a pretty narrow minded opinion of them.”

Natalie’s jaw tightened. “I come from a noble family—

“So do half of the dragons,” Kathryn interrupted. She pointed a dirt encrusted finger at the two girls. “As Guardians we give up our status, whether noble or common, to protect the people, whether they are noble or common.” Before today she’d never thought she’d parrot the lessons monotonously given by Guardian Liliha, an overly pompous recently appointed Guardian Councilmember who had droned on for hours on said topic. At least Guardian Geral had made their history seem interesting, Guardian Liliha had tempted Kathryn to cut off her own arm to escape the lectures.

Lindsey pouted. “You sound like Guardian Geral.”

Well, the comparison could have been worse. Kathryn didn’t comment but turned back to her weeding.

“You know what I think you are?” Natalie asked suddenly, her voice smooth as honey but her eyes glinted icily. Kathryn, having experienced the same inflections and rhetorical questions from Lady Blackwood, knew better than to respond. As predicted, it didn’t stop the older girl from continuing. “I think you’re a child of the Wanderers. An outcast.”

Even Lindsey gasped. The Wanderers were an occult sect that wandered through the kingdom offering human sacrifices and praying to the sun and moons. They had been outlawed thousands of years ago but it was said that some communities still lived hidden throughout the kingdom.

It took all of her training from Blackwood Manor not to react to the old fear that her old tormenters had used to enslave her. Kathryn’s head came up slowly. “What makes you say that?” she asked coldly.

“Look at you,” Natalie laughed, pointing her finger at Kathryn. “Your hair is black as night, your skin is pale even though you spend radians out in the sun, and your eyes are the color of the sea. Not to mention you have a heart of stone and a mind of ice.”

How could a person be so shallow as to name Kathryn a Wanderer due to her pale skin and dark hair? “And that makes me a Wanderer?” In that moment she could see Natalie’s mind spinning, practically convincing the older girl on the spot of her suppositions.

“Why not?” Natalie blustered, giving a stiff shrug. “You don’t fit the profile of any other culture… you certainly aren’t an Elf with their fair skin and hair and I’ve never seen a human that is as unfeeling as you. Why not the Wanderers? You like to be left alone, no doubt through much practice of hiding with your arcane foibles. You speak little and when you do it’s hard and cold—

Kathryn interrupted her before she could continue. “Before you convince yourself, Natalie, you should remember one thing. The Wanderers haven’t been seen for over two thousand years, they keep to themselves because others persecute them, so how could you know what they look like?” She maintained eye contact, making sure to modulate a slow, quite tone, that most people would have understood as a threat. “I suggest you keep your prejudices to yourself—”

Natalie opened her mouth to argue, but Kathryn cut her off. “You are a Guardian now and are required to rise above petty prejudices. If you cannot I will report it to David. Do you have any other questions?”

Natalie’s eyes blazed, but Lindsey, after studying Kathryn’s face, obviously caught on to the cold danger lurking in her eyes. “No, there’s nothing else,” she said quickly, pulling Natalie away from the fence.

“If you’re so adamant you’re not a Wanderer, then why don’t you just prove you’re not!” Natalie called over her shoulder as the two left.

Kathryn sat in the dirt for a long time. She wished she could rebuff Natalie’s charge with certainty. But she couldn’t deny she was a child of Wanderers because she didn’t know who her parents were. It was a futile pursuit she had sworn she would never undertake. Her parents had abandoned her and Kathryn wanted nothing to do with them.

Natalie was furious. “How dare she speak to me that way!” she cried angrily as she and Lindsey sat in her room. “She had no right!”

“What are you going to do about it?” Lindsey muttered as she brushed her long hair.

“She’s obviously hiding something,” Natalie
abruptly stood up and paced the room several times. Reaching back into her memories, she tried to find one of Kathryn back at school. She found a few instances where she remembered seeing the younger girl, but in all of them she had remained quietly out of the way, doing her best to hide from the notice of others. At the time, Natalie had been too busy to truly notice the younger woman, hadn’t cared that she’d done her best to become one with the shadows. In all honesty, the girl hadn’t been visible enough for Natalie to even consider looking twice at. Now, though, she would discover what it meant to be the object of one of Natalie’s investigations. “I’m going to uncover the truth about Kathryn,” she announced. “There wasn’t a secret I couldn’t discover back at school. I’m going to find out the truth about our second-in-command and when I do I’m going to share it with everyone I meet.”

The next day Natalie put her plan into action. She rose early and pounced on Kathryn when she arrived back at the clearing.

“Who were your parents?” The object of her attention ignored her and continued to unsaddle her horse.

Natalie tried again. “Where did you grow up?”

Kathryn didn’t so much as look at her.

“Do you have any siblings?”

No response.

“Any uncles or aunts?  Who was your best friend growing up?”

Kathryn finally looked at her, her own face void of any emotion. “Don’t you have chores to do Natalie?”

Natalie waved her hand dismissively. “I completed them early because I wanted to get to know you. What’s your opinion of the royal family?” Now that would be a revealing topic should Kathryn respond. While the Guardians technically served the Royal Family, Natalie knew that many of the older Guardians were very vocal as to their opinions of the King and his isolationist policies.

Kathryn merely stared at her for a moment before turning to return to the house.

“Oh, come on Kathryn,” Natalie said, slightly frustrated. “You have to have an opinion of some kind.” Everyone else she’d ever encountered had been more than willing to share their opinions and life stories if it meant that they could be the center of attention for a few moments. 

To her annoyance Kathryn ignored her. She didn’t answer a single question and refused to acknowledge her. By the time Kathryn’s second shift had arrived, Natalie hadn’t learned anything but how incredibly tightlipped Kathryn was. “She may be stubborn, but I’ll figure it out,” Natalie vowed as she watched the third shift ride off. “I always figure it out.”

The next morning she tried again, only to receive the same results. Kathryn would stare at her for a few moments before stabling her horse and then go on to complete her chores. Natalie had never worked so hard for anything in her life. Week after week, she attempted to pry information out of Kathryn. Nothing worked. They fell into an insipid routine of Natalie postulating her questions to a rock.

And she hated the
routine
of it all. When Kathryn returned from her shift she would immediately unsaddle her horse and change out of her uniform into a green tunic and leggings. After changing clothes she would do her chores and then spend about two radians shooting arrows and throwing knives into various targets.  Once she’d emptied her quiver to her heart’s content she would free climb the stone wall. Everything was the same, every day, down to the clothing the Dragon’s lieutenant wore when off duty. Natalie
hated
routine.

A week into their new life, Kathryn began to use the remaining radian before her second shift to train with others in her shifts. Usually Jenna. The healer was decent with weapons but apparently wasn’t up to Kathryn’s standards. Watching, day after day, as Kathryn drilled Jenna in various exercises, Natalie began to feel angry at Kathryn for singling Jenna out like she had. Jenna was obviously a daughter of a noble heritage and should not have been forced to spend day after day constantly picking herself up out of the dirt and grass. After a month, the remainder of the first shift and the others from the third, and eventually the fourth, shifts joined in. All except Natalie.

One day as she watched Kathryn weed in the garden she asked, “Where’d you grow up?” As she had come to expect, Kathryn didn’t answer. Natalie suppressed a sigh as she tried to come up with a question that she felt Kathryn just might answer. “What’s your opinion of slavery?” She finally asked, remembering a topic that had been debated in one of her classes. It wasn’t one Natalie had considered important at the time. After all, slavery had been outlawed in Archaea for several hundred years. What was the point in discussing a topic where the practice was already dead?

That got a reaction.

Kathryn’s hands faltered in her weeding and her gaze took on a distant look. Immediately Natalie pushed some more, only her words seemed to break the spell and Kathryn continued weeding as if nothing had happened. But it was as if the world had been illuminated for Natalie.