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Chapter 29 - Hostilities

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Under the mid-morning sun in the streets of Alguarde, Skye raised an eyebrow at Luke, who put his hands into an ‘I surrender’ position as fast as he could manage.

“Look,” he said, backing away a step. “All I’m saying is that when you wield a sword the size of your leg as if it’s a well-balanced pickle, people are going to stare.”

“You’ve seen the way Andro handles his broadsword! Why am I any different?” asked Skye, throwing her arms up in mock exasperation.

Luke leapt to the side and grabbed Jesse by his cloak, yanking him to the edge of the street. A cart raced by, narrowly missing the younger Silverborn. With a meaningful look at Jesse, who now looked the picture of guilt with his hand inside the bread-bag, Luke turned back to Skye.

“Let’s face facts. You don’t particularly strike me as the type to go prancing before a mirror to admire your poise and absolute grace while wielding those swords of yours. So let me tell you this. When an elf that barely reaches my shoulder manages to dance circles around me with moves I’ve never dreamed of before, with a sword that gravity states should be physically impossible for her to hold nonetheless, the initiates are going to start talking.”

Skye suppressed a giggle, struggling to maintain a straight face as Luke adopted a dramatic pose. Jesse eyed them both nervously and tried to shrink into the sidewalk.

Luke brought a hand to the side of his mouth. “Hey, you, did you hear? The elf made our instructor look like a complete idiot for the fifth time this week! You think he’s maybe just bad or something?” he asked himself.

Switching his hand to the opposite side of his mouth, he continued in a breathy whisper. “Nah, I mean you seen the way she handles herself? I mean, Wrain himself had trouble fending her off, and--“

Skye punched Luke in the shoulder, cutting his dramatics off abruptly. She leered at him, hoping her smile wasn’t ruining the effect.

“As if. From the way you fight against them, they’d be brainless to think you were bad.” Skye flicked her hair from her shoulder and eyed Luke.

She waited until his shoulders came out of their self-deprecating slump before she added, “Besides -- it was only four times this week.”

That earned her a playful kick, which she danced away from with ease.

Luke growled. “You’ll be sorry, elfie. I have the entire day off today with Tayne and Wrain attending the council and Nissa taking over training for the day.” He took a bite out of Jesse’s offered bread roll. “Although, I do feel slightly useless. They’re in there, planning the Silverborn’s next move to free the land, save the innocent, outwitting the Advisor’s well-laid plans to chain us here and I’m out here playing babysitter. Not exactly the life changing stuff you’d expect from the Silverborn’s second in command.”

He looked down, searching the roll in his hands as if it held all the answers.

Skye nudged him. “Hey, what happens if we’re cornered by the people who are claiming I’m some kind of deity? I’d need someone reliable to pull me through the throngs of people, for deities know I can’t do it myself. There’s too many of them, they hang around in packs like they’re hunting me or something.”

Skye’s attempt at diverting the conversation was successful. Luke’s bread-staring competition switched back to the knowing, clever gaze she wanted. 

“Ah, but they do, my fair elfie. They’re the cult of the Sentinels, of course, and your arrival seems to them as if their deity has returned! And how could they find fault in their logic when you move with such grace and poise...”

The conversation drifted back into its teasing manner, for which Skye was grateful. She knew how Luke became when the Advisor was mentioned. It surprised her how easily Luke’s light hearted attitude dissolved into bitter resentment at his mention. She wondered if she’d ever learn why.

They moved down the cobblestone streets again, exchanging jibes and the occasional hit to a shoulder. The streets, while narrow, were wide enough for the trio to walk beside each other, with the occasional loaded cart demanding passage.

Skye held herself with ease, inclining her head at the occasional human that watched with wide eyes as she passed. She’d accepted how people acted around her. It made her especially grateful then to have people like Luke that were willing to look past her Sentinel exterior.

Although, she wasn’t entirely sure Luke didn’t do it partially to gain a reputation among the Silverborn. Anyone that poked her as often as he did and got away with it was a figure of awe amongst the Silverborn. The last person who’d tried to provoke her had ended up hanging upside down from a tree branch, which they didn’t seem to find so funny.

As far as she was concerned, that particular initiate would never try to place a spit-fire beetle in her boots while wondering aloud why the ‘mighty nature Sentinel’ was afraid of a tiny bug again.

Besides, she’d only left him hanging there for half an hour or so. Even if there were a dozen or so spitfires crawling over his body at the time. He’d deserved it.

See? I can take a joke. They just have to be prepared to take one back.

Jesse shook his head. “I can never tell if you two are serious or not. You have the weirdest sense of humour I’ve ever seen.”

Luke pressed his hands over his heart. “Jesse, you wound me! When am I ever not serious? Please, name one little time where I have ever lost my stalwart sense of determination.”

Even Jesse, renowned for his inability to talk to people he considered of higher importance than him couldn’t keep the incredulous look from creeping into his features. “You are kidding, right?” he asked, apparently worried for Luke’s sanity.

Luke began to speak. “Why my young Silverborn, of course--“

“Help!”

Skye’s head snapped around. The voice had been young, she was certain. She lowered her gaze, searching between the thinly spread people lining the sidewalk.

“Please! Sentinel, you have to help me! You have to-- ah!”

A young boy, no more than eight, fell to his knees. In two swift strides, Skye was kneeling beside him, helping him to his feet. Luke and Jesse remained close behind her.

The boy glanced up, tears streaking his face. Pain promptly turned to relief, smoothing the wrinkles from his face.

“Oh, oh thank the deities! You have to help! She’s dying, someone attacked her, please! Please, follow me!” he said, tugging on her cloak, pulling her back from the way he’d come. “Please, there’s no time!”

He took off at a run. Skye wasted no time. She followed him, locking her gaze onto the small figure rapidly becoming lost among the larger bodies.

Why must people gather like sheep when it’s obvious there’s an emergency? People could die because of the delay it causes.

Despite his age, the boy was agile. Her height became a blessing, threading her way through the gathering crowd with ease. She suppressed the urge to flinch at each contact, ignoring the fingers brushing against her skin when she slipped by.

“Excuse me, ma’am, please I’m going to have to ask you to move-- Skye!” Luke called, his voice becoming increasingly muffled.

Skye didn’t hesitate. They’d find her.

She rounded the corner. The street was like the one she’d just come off; wide and lined with a variety of stores dealing in different goods. She caught a glimpse of the boy as he disappeared into a small side alley, the kind where a side entrance would be located for the individual store owners.

Gathered around the mouth of the alley were at least ten well-to-do individuals, crowding and whispering to each other. Skye caught pieces of their conversation as she pushed past, cloak pulled tightly around her figure.

“Dreadful, really. I can’t imagine why anyone would do such a thing, really. I mean, she barely has two coppers to rub together... A maid, you know?”

“Oh, but didn’t you hear? She was dealing with old Brinford!”

“No!”

“Indeed. I say she got what was coming to... How rude! Oh! Is that?”

“Surely she would not soil her hands with such filth...”

Barely managing to keep the disgust off her face, Skye emerged from the crowd feeling like she’d never be clean again. Were these the type of people she was defending?

Her thoughts were cut short when her gaze caught the boy, and followed it to the woman he was kneeling beside.

The woman was curled on her side. Her legs sprawled into the alley, while her torso rested awkwardly on the low stairs leading to a door. She clutched her stomach, trying to keep the crimson liquid inside her skin that sought freedom through the jagged tear halfway across her upper body.

Skye’s eyes went wide with disbelief. She’d seen worse on a battlefield without doubt, but the injuries had been inflicted by demons -- beings she considered incapable of mercy.

But this... this was no battlefield. Not the kind that should produce this result, at least. Nor had there been any alerts from the patrols of a demon breach. The woman’s face was a mask of agony, and it had been another human capable of inflicting it. The stomach wound hadn’t even been enough. Tiny lacerations littered her arms and face.

Skye clenched her fists and went rigid with fury.  

Why am I supposed to protect these humans when they’re capable of the same things demons are?  Why, when they’ll destroy themselves from the inside anyway?

The wide, pleading eyes of the boy gave her the answer she sought.

“Please? Can you help her?”

With a deep breath, her nails digging into her palms so hard she wouldn’t be surprised if they bled, Skye sank to the ground. Her boots became soaked with the woman’s blood in seconds. The wetness crept up her legs. Skye knew she didn’t have much time. The woman’s face was ghostly white.

Skye placed tender hands over the woman’s stomach. She closed her eyes and reached into her soul, calling the magic, begging for its help. The familiar sensation rushed into her fingers and spread in an array of green sparks over the still figure before her. Skye willed them to repair the wound and strengthen the woman’s system. She willed her to live.

Beside her, the boy clutched her arm. The warmth of his fingers spread over Skye’s Sentinel mark, causing its glow to flicker around the half-shadow of the alley when they moved.

A minute or two later, the woman’s eyes fluttered open.

The boy flew into her arms, nuzzling his cheek against hers.

“You said you wouldn’t scare me! You told me you’d be fine, and all I had to do was go and hide, but I saw! I saw! He didn’t leave, and then you fell over and you wouldn’t move, and-- and--“

The eight year old dissolved into tears. His mother, Skye realised, wrapped an arm around him and tangled her fingers in his hair.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, honey,” she whispered. She locked eyes with Skye. “Thank you. I don’t know why you came, but thank you for not leaving him motherless.”

Skye could only nod in reply. Her limbs shook. She was suddenly grateful she was sitting. She wasn’t entirely sure she’d be able to manage standing just yet. Skye pulled herself onto the second step, deciding sitting in a pool of blood wouldn’t do much good for anyone involved.

Luke approached, stepping forward. He’d remained back during the healing, Skye guessed, but now needed to find out what’d caused this situation to begin with. He gave the pair an easy smile, crouching to their level.

“I’m Luke, Silverborn. Are you able to answer a few questions?”

The woman opened her mouth, but closed it with a fearful glance at the crowd, still gathered outside the mouth of the alley where Jesse and another pair of Silverborn were keeping them back. Catching her glance, Luke assumed a thoughtful look.

“You know what? I think it’d be better if we escorted you to our headquarters first. We’ll only have to ask you once then and we can record it properly. We also have some decent healers, although not as talented as this girl over here,” he said, jerking a thumb in Skye’s direction.

The woman glanced at her son. “We can go now.”

Luke helped her to her feet and wrapped his cloak around the woman’s shoulders. It was long enough to conceal her entire body, hiding the bloodstained rags within the folds of silver material. Exiting the alleyway, Luke signalled to the two Silverborn helping Jesse hold back the crowd. They moved on either side of the woman and her child, and without further words, headed in the direction of the Silverborn’s headquarters.

“Right, I’m going to have to ask you all to stay, there’s a couple of questions that I’d like--“

“How touching.”

Cut off abruptly, Luke raised an eyebrow. The other quickly rose to join it when the mystery speaker became clear.

Sitting atop a pure white mare, purple dress cascading over the side, was the Queen.

Her mare stood in the centre of the street, a little way from the mouth of the alley. The Advisor perched atop a bay beside her, garbed entirely in black as Skye had come to expect. Surrounded by six members of the royal guard, identifiable by their crests, the entire group blocked all traffic attempting to pass.

The Queen rested the reins in her lap, smoothing out her dress.

“I was merely passing by on my afternoon ride when I happened to notice a gathered crowd. Wondering what sort of excitement I’d happened across, I found myself drawn to this dramatic little scene of compassion and hope.”

Luke inclined his head stiffly. “It was, majesty, but no longer. It has been dealt with and I assure you the culprit will be brought to justice.

“Ah yes, dealt with by the elf who appears to be swaying my subject’s devotion. I gather she took care of things as usual. Happen upon a scene, takes it upon her noble shoulders to fix the problem and show people how empathetic she is,” said the Queen.

Skye grit her teeth and forced herself to remain calm. She wouldn’t give this wretch the reaction she deserved. “I hardly think the accusation fair, majesty. I do not use my power in attempt to sway loyalties nor for personal gain. I hardly thought it fair to leave a young child motherless when it could have been prevented.”

The Queen remained silent for a moment. She examined Skye down the length of her nose. She sniffed. “Fitting, that your clothes are covered in the blood of the innocent.”

Skye glanced down.

Her clothes were worse than she’d realised. The shins of her boots, the knees, fronts of her leggings and, she suspected, the backs were completely soaked in the woman’s blood. Against the leather of her boots, the near dry blood formed a dark, muddy red stain.

Skye met the Queen’s eye. “How does one find that fitting?”

Queen Alice gave her an icy smile. “You have, no doubt heard how demons breach the city walls, stealing the lives of Alguarde’s citizens before the Silverborn are able to slay them, Sentinel. How every day, the ward becomes weaker, and the risk greater.”

A large crowd had gathered now. Unable to move past the Queen’s entourage, would-be commuters were forced to a halt either side of the Queen. And they were listening, eyes narrowing as they tried to work out where the Queen’s logic was headed.

Skye made an attempt to calm her breathing, which was becoming increasingly panicked while the numbers around her steadily grew.

They’re only people. They can’t hurt you.

An image of the woman’s lacerated stomach flashed through Skye’s mind.

They can’t hurt you. They can’t hurt you.

“Well, I must say, Sentinel, that until you came, the wards were perfectly sound. No record of a demon attack in nearly two centuries, if my memory serves. I must wonder, if you were not here, taking refuge within our walls, would those people have needed to die?” asked the Queen. She leant back in the saddle, waiting for a reply. “Well, Sentinel? Did they need to die?”

Skye was frozen, locked in place by memories that threatened to break free.

‘It’s your fault they died.’

‘You led them here! She’s tainted, tainted with their blood!’

‘The demons would never have come if she’d not brought them to our door.’

She became vaguely aware of Jesse beside her, leaning down. He attempted to say something. Skye swished him away with her hand, which came to rest gripping her head.

“You see, people of Alguarde? The Sentinel is aware of the blood on her hands. She knows that by hiding behind these walls, she will bring about your doom.”

Skye dug her fingers into her skull. Was she the only reason demons now infiltrated Alguarde? Was their sole interest in it because she hid behind its walls?

More to the point, had Kiarae acted as a wall, until she too had fallen? Had Skye cost the celestial her life merely for the sake of freedom?

The thoughts raced through her head. Outside her mental sphere of doubt, the disagreement continued to escalate.

Jesse sent a frantic look at Luke, who was tight lipped and gripping the hilt of his sword. Then he did something surprising. He took a step forward, raising his chin toward the Queen.

“Majesty, I-- I must ask, why? She, uh, Sentinel Skye has no reason to seek the destruction of Alguarde. She has no reason to destroy the safety it offers, why, she herself is being hunted by the shadow! And if you--“

“Boy, I suggest you hold your tongue before you make the situation worse,” said the Advisor, finally deciding to speak. “You have no evidence to believe she is truly hunted other than what she herself has told you, correct?”

“Y-ye-- no! We saw him attack her, the things he did--“

The Advisor waved his hand dismissively, silencing the red-faced Jesse. “That means nothing. Staged, easily. However, she has been sighted performing magic directly under the ward. The one that began to fail the next day, I am inclined to add. We have launched several investigations, which I believe with yield additional evidence.”

“Evidence? You call that load of horse manure evidence?” Luke asked, loudly. “Why, I’ve seen a ten year old gather more solid proof in an hour than you’ve managed in a week! What you have, Advisor, is a single speculation. Speculation based on suspicious country folk who have zero experience with magic!”

“Ah, but Silverborn, you forget your place. It is my place to ensure you are kept in line, that your Silverborn, one of which Sentinel Skye is now considered since undergoing the Trial of Soul, do not make any unwise decisions that could affect Alguarde’s stability.”

Luke’s grip on his sword increased. He eased the edge in and out of the scabbard, as if imagining what it would be like to run the Advisor through.

“You can’t bind her to anything, you ignorant son of an ass! Stability? To have a stable system, it requires courage, the ability to stand together in the face of danger! But what would you know of that, Donovan? You run, or hide at the first sign, while others sacrifice their lives!”

Skye’s ears pricked. This was getting personal, moving into dangerous waters of treason if the Queen’s integrity were brought into question. Once more, after manipulating the situation, the Queen was content to watch as the Advisor carried her argument.

Donovan sneered. “Watch your tongue, Silverborn or you may find it bound in irons before the sunset. I see your sword. I dare you to try.”

Enough is enough.

Luke’s sword was halfway out of its scabbard before Skye’s hand on his arm stopped him.

“Advisor Donovan!” she said, her voice carrying her words to the hundred or so spectators gathered around.

“Ah. Our Sentinel decides to speak at last,” said Donovan.

“I trust I do not need to remind you of your precarious position. As second-in-command under Tayne, leader of the Silverborn, Luke outranks you, an Advisor, by far. By disrespecting him, he is owed an apology or I shall personally see that the King hears of your threats.”

If it were anyone else, Skye would have felt bad. For the Advisor, she had little sympathy. He’d made her life a nightmare in any way he could dream up ever since arriving and she had no intention of letting him off easily.

The Advisor bristled. “I do not think--“

“There are only two words I wish to hear from your mouth in the next thirty seconds, Advisor.”

A reluctant nod from the Queen, and the Advisor turned back to face Luke.

“I am deeply sorry, Silverborn, if my words have offended you.”

If words could be venom, the floor would have disintegrated under their feet at that very moment.

Skye faced the Queen and bowed.

“As much as I would like to enjoy your company, your majesty, I am in dire need of a new change of clothes as you have kindly pointed out. I bid you good day and hope that it finds you as well as our brief time together here has today.”

And with that, Skye turned on her heel and left through the bloodstained alleyway.

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A/N - HOLY BANANA CAKE BATMAN. You guys got this to #48 Adv and #126 Fantasy. That's at least a hundred rankings higher on each which I find totally mind-boggling. You guys are AMAZING.