The Emerald Staff (26 page)

“Keep coming; you are nearly there,” Faen
encouraged.

Another jolt and the chain dropped a couple
of feet. Faedra screamed and held on with every fiber of her
being.

“Oh, God, I’m not going to make it.”

“Yes, you are, you just need to move a bit
faster,” Faen replied, his calm voice masking his panic.

A rush of adrenaline flowed through Faedra’s
blood stream, coursing its way into her muscles, making her
stronger for the precious few moments she needed to get herself to
safety. She hauled herself up the chain, egging herself on as she
did, telling herself she could do this, she
would
do this
and make it out alive.

She looked up, just a few more feet. Faen was
hanging over the edge, his hands outstretched.

Another foot, and another.

“Grab my hand,” he instructed when Faedra got
close enough.

She wasn’t sure she could hang onto the chain
with just one hand and hesitated.

Another groan from the chain.

“Grab it NOW!” Faen yelled again, his voice
full of panic, shocking her into submission.

She did. Faen clamped his hand around hers
just as she heard a snap and the chain in her other hand went
slack. She let go of it and could hear the bucket rebound off the
walls for several long seconds before a splash at the bottom
confirmed its arrival.

It took a couple of seconds for her brain to
comprehend the fact that she was dangling over a chasm more than a
hundred feet deep and being held only by a hand, her Guardian’s
hand. She glanced up and saw the strained look in his face and the
fear in his eyes, which probably mirrored her own.

“Don’t drop me,” she whimpered, a silly
comment to make under the circumstances.

“Give me your other hand,” Faen grunted.

She did as he asked and felt immediately more
secure.

“I am going to pull you up, hang on.”

“Don’t worry, I’m not intending to let go.”
She shot him a pathetic smile, an attempt to ease her nerves. It
didn’t work.

The rough stone scraped at her clothing as
Faen slowly pulled her up the side of the well. She felt the edge
of the opening and saw Faen had now braced his feet against the
outside of the wall. Another tug and she was pulled to safety. The
force of her extrication made Faen fall flat on his back on the
floor and she tumbled face down on top of him.

Faen took her face in his hands and bore into
her soul with his eyes. After seeing she was okay, he kissed her
all over her face and then wrapped his arms around her and held her
tight. That was quite all right with Faedra, she probably couldn’t
stand at that moment anyway, sure her legs had turned to jelly.

“Quite apart from the fact that you two
should get a room, I was wondering, are you going to stay like that
all night?”

Faedra looked up to see Molly peering over
them and gave the ghost her best ‘what are you talking about?’
expression.

“The ghost again?” Faen asked.

“Yes.”

“It’s just that Joe makes ‘is rounds about
now and I don’t think he’d be very ‘appy to see you two sprawled on
the floor. Even less ‘appy to see you stole castle property, and
busted the coin bucket. That’s gonna take some fixin’, that
is.”

Faedra pushed herself into a kneeling
position and looked down at her Guardian. “Molly says the guard is
doing his rounds, we need to get out of here.”

Faen pushed himself up on his elbows and
looked around, curious. “Why can I not see them?”

“I don’t know, but we don’t have time to find
out.” Faedra got up from the floor and grabbed the egg that Faen
had placed to the side of the iron grille.

“Thanks for all your help, Molly, Oswulf,”
Faedra said with a smile.

“Been a pleasure, young ‘un.”

Oswulf bowed his head. “I hope your quest is
a success, M’lady.”

They walked up the stairs that led back to
the keep and started to cross the creaking floorboards.

“Who’s there?” A gruff voice called just
before a beam of light hit Faedra square in the face. She lifted
her hand to shield her eyes. She looked around, Molly and Oswulf
had disappeared.

“Bloody kids, how’d you get in here? Oi, what
you got in your hand? You’ve been stealing.” Faen had forgotten to
glamour them. The security guard could see them both.

Faedra wasn’t quite sure what or who guided
her, but she took hold of Faen’s hand and made a dash for the
staircase that led up from the keep.

The security guard ran after them. “Won’t do
you any good running up there, that leads to the battlements.
There’s no escape from the battlements.”

Faen and Faedra exchanged knowing glances and
raced towards the door. The brisk night air slapped Faedra in the
face as they pushed through the door. The lights of the city
sparkled all around them.

They could hear the security guard stomping
up the steps close behind them.

“Got you now! You’ve nowhere to run up
there,” he said, a smug tone cutting through the darkness.

Faen scooped Faedra up and continued running
along the battlements.

The security guard burst through the door
just as Faen launched himself off the end of the battlements,
cloaking them with glamour, leaving the security guard staring up
into the darkness scratching his head.

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

As Faen circled the castle, Faedra looked
down at the security guard who stomped his foot before turning and
heading back down the stairs to the keep. She giggled and felt
Faen’s chest rumble with his own laughter, and clutched the egg to
her chest feeling very satisfied with herself. She had a feeling
Draconis was going to be happy to see her this time.

She looked up at Faen who was concentrating
on where he was going. When he felt her shift, he brought his eyes
down to meet hers and smiled. Faedra’s heart did a little
flip-flop; his smiles always had that effect on her.

“We need to go and get my backpack before we
go back to Azran. I was stupid to leave it at home. I seriously
need some sugar, too, I can’t remember the last time I had some and
I’ve used a lot of energy. I can feel myself getting weaker.”

Faen gave her a look of close inspection and
could see the dark circles starting to form under her eyes. He
picked up the pace a little. He couldn’t go too fast; he also
needed to preserve his energy. He had a lot of flying in front of
him before this quest was over.

***

Faedra gulped down a bottle of sugar water as
soon as they got home, which made her feel a lot better. She still
couldn’t quite get used to the sensation of being ‘plugged in’ as
the energy flowed and hummed through her body.

She grabbed some snacks for herself and Faen,
and unceremoniously stuffed a chocolate bar in her mouth. Working
with her mouth full, Faedra grabbed the softest towel she could
find in the airing cupboard and wrapped the egg in it, then
carefully placed it in her backpack.

“Okay, I’m ready,” she announced after making
sure the egg was safe and secure. She slipped the backpack over one
shoulder on her way out the door.

“I think the vicar’s going to start to wonder
why my car is always parked in the car park but I’m never anywhere
to be found,” she mused out loud on the drive over to the
church.

Faen didn’t respond, he was looking out of
the window deep in thought.

“Penny for them,” Faedra asked.

No response.

“Faen?”

He turned to look at her. “Yes?”

“You were miles away.”

“No, I was not. I am sitting right next to
you,” he said, his expression was one of confusion.

“It’s a figure of speech. So, where were you?
Figuratively speaking.”

He looked at her profile for the longest
time. Faedra turned for a second to see him gazing at her, his eyes
heavy with unspoken thoughts. She turned back to look at the road.
When she turned again a few seconds later, he was still looking at
her, which prompted an uneasy sensation to wash over her.

“Faen, what is it?”

He was silent for a moment more. When he
spoke, his voice was full of indecision.

“I have a decision to make, but I have no
control over the outcome. I am not sure if I could survive the
consequences if the outcome is not what I hope for,” he admitted as
they pulled into the church car park.

Faedra turned the engine off and turned to
look at her Guardian.

“What kind of decision?” she asked.

He looked away.

“Faen, what kind of decision?”

After a pregnant pause he replied, “I cannot
tell you right now, I need more time to think about it.”

Faedra felt her stomach knot, she didn’t like
the way he was talking. Maybe he had enough of chasing around both
worlds after her, trying to keep her safe, while she herself was
reckless.

“You’re not going to leave me, are you?”

He brought his hand up and cupped her face.
His awkward smile made the ball in her gut lurch even more.

“I hope not.” His words were barely a
whisper.

He held her gaze captive for a second more
before looking away. When he pulled his hand away, Faedra felt as
if it stole a tiny part of her along with it. He got out of the car
and shut the door with a soft push.

Faedra undid her seat belt, groped around for
her door handle and hurried to get out of the car. She wasn’t about
to let this subject drop. She stood up and looked over the roof of
her car at Faen.

“What’s that supposed to mean, you hope not?”
she questioned, trying to hide the quiver in her voice. She’d only
known the ‘real’ Faen for a few months, but now that he was in her
life, she couldn’t imagine being without him.

“When the time is right I will tell you.”

“Tell me what, Faen? You can’t just drop a
bombshell like that and not expect me to want an explanation.”

Faen looked as though he were about to speak,
but he thought better of it and started to walk across the car park
toward the back of the church.

Faedra felt panic surge through her body.
“Look, I know I said some pretty nasty things to you,” she called
out after him.
Stay out of my life
echoed through her head
and she cringed. “I’ll understand if you don’t want to be my
Guardian anymore. I guess I deserve it after the way I treated
you.”

Faen stopped and hung his head.

Faedra could see his back heave as he let out
a sigh. She swallowed back the lump in her throat and stood frozen
in time, waiting anxiously to see if the man she loved would turn
to face her.

The man I love!
The thought slammed
into her and took her breath away. If she was being honest with
herself, she’d loved him from the moment he took her hand and
whisked her around the dance floor at her birthday party. Now she
felt like he was slipping away from her.

After a moment more of silence and no
response from her Guardian, she tried to shake the thought from her
mind and get back to the task at hand. Her dad still needed her and
there wasn’t time for this. She leaned into the car, grabbed the
backpack from the back seat and slung it over her shoulders. After
taking a deep, steadying breath she strode toward Faen who was
still standing with his back to her.

She lifted her chin as she approached him.
When she was level with his shoulder, she whispered as she walked
past, “If you don’t care about me anymore, the king will have to
find me another Guardian.” Her heart cracked as she said the
words.

She only got another step forward when a hand
grabbed her wrist jerking her around to meet a fierce gaze.

Faedra swallowed.

“Is that what you think?” he asked.

“That’s what it looks like,” she replied
rather more sheepish than she would have liked.

“So help me, Faedra. I love you, and
that
is the problem.”

Faedra stared at him, a feeling of stupidity
welling within her. Hadn’t she heard as much when she was listening
outside the door at his parent’s house? How could she have
forgotten that so soon?

Faen continued. “I do not want to be
just
your Guardian anymore, but it is forbidden. If the king
finds out, he could take me away from you. To make the situation
even worse, he is, also, your father. He would probably extradite
me to some far flung realm and I would never see you again.”

Faedra hadn’t heard any of the latter of what
Faen just said.

“You love me?”

“Faedra, did you not hear a word of what I
just said?” Faen asked giving her shoulders a gentle shake to
regain her attention.

She nodded, trance-like. “You love me.” She
brought her hand to his face and stared into his liquid blue
eyes.

Faen softened at her touch and smiled. “I
do,” he whispered, before tipping his head and planting a gentle
kiss on her lips.

After a moment, Faedra pulled back from their
kiss, determination sweeping over her. “You leave my
father
to me. He’s already lost one daughter; I doubt he will be in any
hurry to lose another, especially after just finding me. But right
now, we need to go and rescue my dad.” Faedra took hold of Faen’s
hand and they continued on to the portal, her heart skipping a
merry beat all the way.

Once they were on the other side of the
portal, Todmus came scuttling through the bushes to greet them, as
he always did. The torch he was carrying illuminated the little
man’s face with a soft warm glow. He gave them a large welcoming
smile as he got closer.

Faedra was relieved it was nighttime in
Azran. They wouldn’t have to waste precious time waiting until dark
before they could carry on with their mission.

“Todmus?” Faedra asked, “I need to ask you a
really big favor.”

“Anything, Miss, you know that.”

She leaned in and whispered, “May I please
borrow Aesti again?”