The Sentinel (8 page)

‘Exactly, you’re incredibly loveable,’ Quinn said, grinning at me.

I blushed. Maybe I did have some redeeming features after all.

‘Anyway we are here to guide you in developing your powers, and we are here because Persia is very important to us, and as you were loyal to Persia, so we are now loyal to you too,’ Izri said.

‘And as I was saying, you will not find a better or more powerful teacher than Persia. You’re in good hands.’ Clementine said, like a proud mother.

‘You have great power too,’ grinned Persia, trying to deflect some of the attention her sisters were adorning her with back on to me. ‘We just have to develop it. I’m sure we can get you to do something with them today. Let’s start with something we know you can do. Eli said you shot at him last night with a sphere of lightning, that’s very advanced. Do you think you can do it again?’

I remembered the lightning, when it shot from my hand it was such a shock. ‘I don’t even know how I did it in the first place, it just sort of happened.’

‘Ok, what were you thinking of when it happened?’

I thought back to the night before, running from Eli, desperate for that moment of freedom and how angry I had been that I was never going to get away from them.

‘I was angry.’

‘Ok, any chance you can try to get angry again.’ Persia smiled encouragingly.

‘It’s not that easy, I can’t just get angry, I have to be provoked. Ok, let me think about how I felt, let me see if I can recreate the moment.’ I closed my eyes and thought back to the moment I was standing on the river bank. I tried to picture it clearly in my head. The men were after me, there was nothing I could do to escape them, my house had been set on fire, there was so much deceit. I clenched my fists, waiting for the anger to consume me. But as I waited for the anger, I couldn’t help thinking about how stupid I had been that night, of what could have happened to me if the Putarians or the Reapers got to me. I thought how the Guardians had always only wanted the best for me, to protect me no matter what, how my personal guard had pledged their allegiance to me. I couldn’t get angry over someone who was that loyal to me, they had committed themselves to me for life. I sighed, opening my eyes ‘I can’t Persia, like I said I need to be provoked.’

‘Ok a heat source. That is probably easier to produce than the defensive energy you produced last night. Your power can produce incredible amounts of heat. Think about that heat in your hand, think about creating a small ball of fire.’

‘Won’t I get burned?’

‘Not by your own power.’

And to prove it a small ball of fire appeared in her hand for a few seconds before she let it wink out. It was a small but wonderful thing to see. Finally confirmation that I wasn’t going mad. Persia had powers too.

I nodded and closed my eyes, imagining a hot burning ball of fire in my hand. I felt myself getting hotter and I tried to focus that heat into my hand. I opened my eyes in time to see a wall of fire explode from me. The Guardians, with their super speedy reflexes hit the floor in a blur. Persia and her sisters simultaneously shielded themselves and Quinn, who was luckily the furthest away from me, had time to leap behind a stone pillar before the fire consumed the church.

Flames licked the walls, hungrily, spreading quickly, burning and destroying the bricks that had stood for hundreds of years. The Guardians scrabbled quickly to their feet

I stood in shock. What had I done?

I could feel the heat, it was intense. The smoke was making it difficult to breathe. A great rumble like thunder tore me from my reverie and I turned in time to see part of the wall cracking and falling towards me. I opened my mouth to scream, but then something hit me with the force of charging bull, knocking all the breath out of my lungs. I was thrown to the floor, trapped under the protective cage of one of my Guardians as the bricks fell on top of us, entombing us in a prison of dust and complete and utter darkness.

*

‘Are you ok?’ That was Mason. Although I couldn’t see him, I could feel his heart pounding against mine.

‘Yes. Are you?’ I asked.

‘I’m fine.’

Twelve tonne of bricks had just fallen on top of him moments after I had nearly burned him to a crisp. I guessed ‘fine’ was quite far away for Mason right now. I coughed as the dust settled.

There were shouts beyond our grave.

‘Are the others…?’

‘They’re fine too.’

Suddenly light flooded into our tomb as one of the oversized bricks was torn off as easily as if it was a pebble. Seth’s concerned face filled the gap and then he grinned when he saw me blinking back up at him.

‘Thank God. Hold tight Eve, we’ll have you out of there in just a few seconds.’ He disappeared from view.

‘I did tell him you were ok, he clearly wanted to see it for himself,’ muttered Mason.

I realised in the gloom that Mason was holding all the weight of the bricks off me with his body, leaning over me like he was about to start doing press ups.

‘Does that not hurt?’

‘It’s not the best feeling in the world.’

More bricks were removed from above us.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘It’s fine.’

There was that word again. Had my Personal Guard realised what they were taking on when they pledged their allegiance to me?

More bricks were lifted off Mason’s back; I could see all the Guardians helping. Eventually Mason was able to sit up, shaking the rest of the large bricks from him like they were merely dust. I sat up too and looked around as Persia and her sisters were putting out the last of the fires, shooting water from their hands like hose pipes. The church was nothing more than a blackened shell now.

I stood sheepishly as Persia hurried over. ‘I’m really sorry.’

‘Don’t be, it’s not your fault.’ She brushed some dust off my coat affectionately. ‘You’ve never used your powers before, they’re bound to be hard to control when you first start using them. To be honest I never expected something so huge from someone so new to their power. I would have never asked you to do that if I’d known what you could achieve.’

Avoiding Eli’s glare, I turned back to Mason. ‘Are you sure you’re ok?’

He nodded, seemingly confused by my concern.

‘Is everyone else ok, no one got burned did they?’

They all shook their heads. But then I noticed Quinn, shaking his arm, his jumper clearly singed. I ran to his side.

‘It’s nothing, it barely hurts at all,’ Quinn laughed, though I could see he was in real pain. His left arm was covered in big blisters, his skin raw where the fire had torn through his flesh.

‘I tried to shield him but I was obviously a bit too late,’ said Izri as she looked in horror at Quinn’s wounds.

Alexandria whistled as she looked too. ‘Good God, Quinn, I think I’d be crying like a baby if I’d been that badly injured.’ I smirked at the thought of my Guardians crying. ‘I’ll give Constance a call to come and look at that. It’s your vulnerable human side; you’re not as thick skinned as the rest of us.’

‘Nah I’m fine.’ He blushed.

‘Quinn don’t be a martyr, she only lives two minutes away.’

He nodded reluctantly.

‘Constance?’ I asked.

‘She’s a Zeki, a healer.’ Alexandria explained, as she flicked her phone on and walked out the church.

I grinned guiltily at the prospect that my heavy handiness was going to introduce me to another member of this strange world, the Zeki.

I looked at the Guardians. ‘How come you guys didn’t get burned?’

‘Alexandria was right, our skin literally is a lot thicker and harder,’ said Lucas. He rolled up the sleeve on his shirt and nodded to Persia. She rolled her eyes and created a small fireball in her hand. Lucas put his arm directly above the flame and I let out an involuntary gasp as the flames licked his arm. He didn’t even flinch. I moved closer and though I could feel the heat from the flames, they didn’t seem to be making any difference to Lucas at all.

‘Does it not hurt?’

‘It tingles, but no it doesn’t hurt.’

‘Have you finished showing off now?’ asked Persia and I saw a sudden flash of warmth in Lucas’s eyes as he looked at her and nodded.

She let her flame wink out.

‘Ok, let’s try something else,’ said Persia, magnanimously moving on from the fact that I had nearly just killed everyone and that my Guardians really were immortal.

‘Something safer,’ muttered Eli, his eyes filled with anger as he glared first at me then at Persia.

Persia ignored him. ‘We could try something really easy, telekinesis, that’s one of the first things I learnt.’

I felt my eyes widen in excitement.

She pulled me out the church and my Guardians followed. She looked around and obviously spotted a likely target.

‘Here, this branch, it’s small and light enough for your first go.’ She waved the branch at me and placed it on top of the bonnet of the car. ‘So you can see it clearly. Now quite obviously the lighter things are easier to move than heavier things, so we’ll start off easy. You just have to visualize it moving in your mind. You might want to imagine that you are touching it with your hands, see yourself picking it up.’

I stared at the branch, unblinking, willing it to move. I stared at it until my eyes started to water under the strain, but it didn’t even flicker. I sighed. ‘Are you sure I have all this great power?’

‘You just don’t believe you can do it, you have to believe in it for it to happen, concentrate on it happening, don’t hope it will happen, know that it will happen,’ Persia told me, sternly.

‘Ok, I can lift the branch, I can,’ I said, more for her benefit than mine. I stared at it, imagining it lifting it off the bonnet of the car. Suddenly it flickered, rattled a little bit and then was still. ‘I did it, I can’t believe it.’ I clapped my hands excitedly.

‘Easy there kid, the wind could have done that,’ Seth said with a grin.

I would show him, now I knew I had it in me, I would show him. I focussed on the branch harder, knowing I could make it move. I visualized lifting the branch and pulling it to me. I held my hand towards it, hoping to catch it if it flew in my direction. I pulled as hard as I could. Something in the reflection of the car’s windscreen caught my attention and to my horror the car suddenly flicked up as if it was caught in a hurricane and came soaring through the air towards me. Seth moved in a blur to stand in front of me but Persia was seemingly quicker, with a flick of her hand the car changed direction at the last second and crashed upside down against a nearby tree.

I stood aghast at the crumpled wreckage; this great silver Land Rover now nothing more than a pile of twisted metal. The silence from my Guardians was almost tangible. I chanced a look at Eli to see whether he was likely to kill me but he was staring at the car with his mouth hanging open.

Izri let out a stifled giggle and I looked at her. ‘Wow,’ she said.

‘You can say that again,’ said Quinn, momentarily distracted from his horrific burns.

Seth turned to look at me, his face filled with elated excitement, though his expression quickly changed as a wave of tiredness swept through me.

‘Whoa Eve are you ok, you’ve just gone white.’

‘I’m fine.’ And I was. As quickly as the tiredness had arrived it had vanished.

Eli suddenly recovered himself from the shock of seeing his car wrecked as he tensed at a noise from the drive. The other Guardians tensed too

8. Zeki

He relaxed. ‘Constance is here.’

My heart leapt. A healer. I had so much to ask her. I could hear the muttering long before I saw her. As she walked towards us, she glared at me and let out a tirade in a language I didn’t know. Her coppery skin was so wrinkly and creased, like the bark on an ancient tree. Her eyes were exactly the same colour as her thinning silvery hair. She continued her tirade as she went straight to Quinn, she held her hand over his arm for a few seconds, still glaring at me and cursing me in her tongue. To my shock, the burns quickly faded then disappeared. Then, as soon as she arrived, she left still muttering to me or anyone that would listen. I could still hear her angry mumblings as she reached the drive way, but then it faded into the wind and was gone.

I giggled nervously as I looked at Eli. ‘What was wrong with her?’

He smiled, dryly. ‘Well the polite version of what she was saying is basically that you’re too young, too immature and foolish, and this was bound to happen and then she had a go at Seth saying it was all his fault.’

Alexandria grinned at me. ‘You’ll be like that one day.’

‘What?’ I looked at her incredulously. ‘Short and very grumpy?’

‘No, a healer, you have the healing powers of the Zeki within you too, when you’re strong enough you will be able to heal.’

‘Really?’

Persia nodded, with a grin. ‘I’m quite jealous of that, that’s one thing the Donum can’t do that I wish we could, healing would be very useful.’

I grinned. I moved back to inspect Quinn’s arm, the blisters, the raw flesh had gone, his arm looked completely unscathed.

I looked at Seth. ‘Is that what happened to your ankle when you got back from skiing, a Zeki healed it?’

He nodded. ‘It was broken in four places, I couldn’t walk on it. Two minutes with a Zeki and I was healed, completely.’

I liked that. I’d always thought about being a doctor, and now I would help people in my own unique way. For the time being I wanted to continue practising my other powers.

‘Can we try something else?’ I ignored Eli’s pointed stare and went back into the church so I wouldn’t have to look at my last mistake.

‘Seth said you pulled him to you last night, we could try that again.’

Lucas nodded keenly. ‘It would be useful for you to learn that, to pull your Guardians to you if you needed them.’

Seth backed up to the other side of the church. ‘She pulled me a good mile or two last night, so a few feet shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘I don’t know how I did it,’ I protested, not keen to make a fool out of myself again.

‘You know Seth so well, this should be easy. Just close your eyes and think about his smell, the sound of his voice, the way his hand feels in yours.’