Guardians of Rhea (3 page)

Sara could never really keep her eyes in
front of her to see where she was going. “You know, I think I’ve
only seen half of this building. I need to take myself on a tour
one of these days.”

“You won’t find anything more interesting in
here than outside,” Arthur said. “After one week on assignment, I
bet you’ll want to get as far away from this place as
possible.”

After a few minutes of walking, Sara started
to ask. “So, about my first assignment…”

“I’ve already spoken with the Marshal,”
Arthur said. “You’ll get what you want, and I’ve pulled a few
strings to have you assigned here in New Haven.”

Sara’s face lit up. “Really? I can’t believe
you did that. I was worried I would be assigned to patrol one of
the routes between the cities.”

“Don’t make me regret this!”

“Don’t worry. I promise I won’t screw
up.”

Arthur opened another door and allowed Sara
through first. “You shouldn’t make promises like that,” he
said.

Sara passed by, but then stopped and turned
to Arthur. “Then how about ‘I’ll do my best?’”

“I can appreciate that,” Arthur said with a
wink. “C’mon, the Marshal is right through that door.”

It didn’t show, but Sara became anxious
looking at the large door at the end of the hall, and with every
step she took toward it, her anxiousness turned to excitement.

“Remember, just take the nearest seat next to
him and please be nice.”

“No problem,” Sara said.

Being the noble Guardian he was, Arthur
opened the door and politely allowed Sara to pass first.

The Great Hall was a very large circular room
with a huge table in the middle surrounded by chairs.

Henry, a man who looked about as old as
Arthur, was sitting patiently in a chair. A small candle and some
papers sat on the table in front of him. Henry was a Marshal, a
Guardian assigned to lead the other Guardians in a particular area,
like a city. Sara sat down next to him.

“Hello, Ranger,” Henry said.

“Hello,” She responded.

“So what did you think of the training?
Tough, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it was, sir.”

Henry began ruffling through the papers in
front of him. “I hear you graduated alone and early, too!”

“Um…yeah,” Sara said uneasily.

Henry leaned towards Sara with a smile on his
face. “Congratulations!” he said before returning to his
papers.

Sara’s eyes wandered around at the numerous
painted windowpanes around the room.

“Now,” Henry continued, seemingly more
excited than Sara. “I have five positions in the three cities.
There are openings here in New Haven. One in Alaria, and one in
Genoa. Did you have one in mind?”

“Yes,” Sara answered without hesitation. “I’d
like to be assigned here in New Haven.”

“It shall be done,” Henry said. He picked up
his pen and filled out the necessary paperwork

“Sign here and here, please.”

Sara quickly signed the forms.

Henry took the forms back and folded them.
“That’s it. Welcome to the Guardians. You are to patrol the Chapel
District on the second shift. Don’t forget to pick your weapons up
in the armory.”

“Thank you,” Sara said, shaking Henry’s
hand.

“Please be on your way. Your shift starts
soon.”

Sara got up and headed straight for the door
Arthur was too pleased to open.

“Are you happy now?” Arthur asked.

Sara walked at a brisk pace with Arthur doing
his best to keep up.

“This is it! My first assignment!” Sara
said.

“What are you doing?” Arthur asked. “You act
like you’re going off to save the world or something. You do know
what patrolling boils down to, right? All you do is walk down a few
streets, making sure nothing bad happens.”

Sara responded without hesitation. “If
something bad does happen, I’m going to be there to stop it.”

“What’s the worst you think will happen?
There's never even been a confirmed sighting of a Rhean within the
city.”

“That doesn’t mean it won’t happen
tonight.”

Arthur couldn’t help but laugh. “I almost
forgot – you’re a newbie, so I guess it’s okay to have high
hopes.”

Sara ignored the insult. She didn’t care what
anyone said. She was a Ranger and she had a job to do.

Arthur decided it was best to ease up and
leave her alone. The thick wooden doors of the armory came within
sight as they rounded the corner.

A single Guardian stood by the door and
opened it as Sara passed.

The armory was loaded with a few different
types of weapons. Aside from the standard sword and shield, which
few Guardians used because of the weight, there were also
collapsible composite bows.

Sara grabbed a talon and equipped it. Talons
were leather gauntlets with retractable blades worn at the wrist.
Since it was small, light and easy to master, it was a popular
secondary weapon.

Her final weapon, one she wished she had
practiced more, was the halo. It was simple in design, yet so hard
to wield safely that many Guardians thought twice before using it.
Sara carefully grabbed a halo from its holster and spun it around
her hand.

“You don’t need a weapon like that for an
assignment like this, do you?” Arthur asked. “I've heard stories of
people losing fingers just trying to pull the damn thing from the
holster.”

Sara flicked, flipped and spun the halo like
she had been born with it, but sighed and placed the halo on the
rack. “You’re right,” she said. She moved over to a table with
dozens of equinoxes lain out. It was the workhorse in the
Guardian's arsenal.

Compared to Arthur's equinox, these were just
a plain leather-wrapped hilt with blades but just as deadly.

After a little eyeballing, Sara picked one up
and extended the blades. There was just enough room in the armory
for her to practice a few basic moves. Satisfied, she retracted the
blades and holstered it.

A Guardian stepped in and tossed his equinox
on the table. Letting out a long sigh, he turned his head
side-to-side, cracking his neck. Looking at Sara, he asked. “Let me
guess, Chapel District, right?”

“Yeah,” Sara answered.

“I’d hurry if I were you. My shift is
up.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Sara and Arthur ran at nearly full speed. The
streets were now much less busy, so it didn’t take long to reach
the Chapel District.

“Here we are,” Arthur said, lightly huffing
as he held his sides. “You know the routine. Walk this way and that
way, and that’s it. Someone will come to relieve you of duty at
midnight.”

Sara took a quick survey of her surroundings.
The chapel rested in an alley-riddled area where the buildings and
streets radiated outward from it. “Well, I guess this is it.”

“Finally!” Arthur said tiredly. “I thought
I’d never get rid of you!”

Sara laughed out loud.

“See you around,” Arthur said. With that, he
turned and left Sara to be on her own for the first time.

Sara watched as Arthur faded into the
darkness. As she patrolled her beat, she could hear the creaking of
signposts, the chirping of crickets, and a gentle breeze of cool
air every now and then.

At one point, her route branched in two
directions. One path winded several blocks to the chapel. The other
was a dark, narrow alley. There were a dozen reasons to not take
the alley, most of them nothing to worry about.

Sara stared down the less-traveled alley,
telling herself there was nothing to be afraid of, nothing she
couldn’t handle. A blast of cold air rushed out from the alley that
made Sara’s hair stand on end.

“Maybe next time,” Sara whispered to herself.
As she began to walk down the street she heard a clang-like sound
that seemed to come from the alley. Sara stopped and looked again.
“What the...”

Sara moved through the alley trying to make
as little noise as possible. There was nothing out of the ordinary,
except that she occasionally heard an odd noise that sounded like
cloth moving through the wind. Each time, it came from a different
direction.

“Is anyone there?” Sara asked. After a moment
she continued through the alley and eventually came upon a wooden
crate. She leaned back against a wall for a rest from the games she
thought her mind was playing on her. “Get a grip,” she said, taking
a seat on the crate.

After some eye rubbing, and a yawn, Sara was
back on her feet. She stretched her arms and took a deep breath.
She took several steps forward and then stopped when she had an
undeniable feeling of being watched. There were several places in
the shadows for someone, or something, to hide.

Sara examined the alley in front of her.
Another gentle breeze blew across her back. As calmly as she could,
she turned around. At first she couldn’t really make out anything
in the dark, but after about three seconds she realized that there
was someone standing just a few feet in front of her.

Sara’s heart jumped. With the speed and grace
of a cat, she grabbed her equinox and extended its blades. Just as
quickly, the figure leaped straight up into the air and onto the
rooftop, and almost immediately after that something else right
behind her did the same thing.

Sara spun around and barely caught a glimpse
of it as it disappeared over the rooftop. Whatever it was, it was
really fast and the dark didn’t help to see any. Sara ran through
the alley, hoping that when she reached the street there would be
more Guardians around. As she turned another corner, she looked up
and spotted a dark figure moving from one roof to another.

Before she knew it, Sara burst onto the
street. Everything was quiet. Her eyes were glued to the buildings
around her. She paid especially close attention to the area around
the alley.

A faint hissing noise came from a building
next to the alley. Sara had heard a cat hiss before. This didn’t
sound anything like it. It sounded like it came from something
bigger and it sent a shiver down her spine. She managed to zero in
on it just in time to see the dark figures suddenly take off across
the roof tops.

“Guardians!” Sara yelled, hoping to attract
help. She moved on hoping to not lose track of what she was
chasing. Every few steps she would spot odd-looking shadows moving
around. These were her only clue as to where to go. As she ran full
speed around a corner, she realized the street ended at the
chapel.

The chapel was one of the bigger buildings in
the city, with larger than life windowpanes that were quite
colorful. The stairs leading up to the front doors were vast slabs
of concrete.

One of the dark figures made a daring leap
from a roof and went crashing into one of the chapel's windows. The
other dark figure was quick to follow.

Sara could only hope that the noise of the
windowpane breaking was loud enough for other Guardians to hear.
She ran as fast as she could up the stairs and pushed hard on the
door to open it.

Inside the chapel, drapes hung from the
ceiling. The pillars holding the roof up were more like statues,
and the pews were arranged in an arc pattern going around the altar
at the far end of the chapel.

A large open space lay between the pews and
the altar. It was there that she finally caught up the phantoms
she’d been chasing—Vesuvians.

One of them looked similar to the
descriptions Sara had seen. Most of his clothes were black. He had
slightly pale skin and blue eyes. His hair was black and
shaggy.

“Now look what you did, Bekal,” said the
other Vesuvian. In one hand he carried a black staff that was about
three feet in length. “You’ve got the humans involved. This is your
last chance to come back quietly, or things are going to get
messy.”

When Sara came within a few yards, Bekal
flashed his fangs at her. “Leon, look what we
have
here,” he
grinned.

Sara couldn’t make out much detail about Leon
He was almost completely covered from head-to-toe in black
clothing. His hood, casting a shadow over much of his face,
connected to his long, tattered tunic. He was shorter than Bekal
but slightly taller than her.

“How can you not be interested?” Bekal asked,
pulling two serrated knives from his coat. “I know you can smell
her blood…her youth…her strength.”

Sara took a defensive stance. She was
slightly winded from her pursuit. Her nerves were on edge. She
looked back and forth between the Vesuvians, expecting to be
attacked at any moment.

Leon spun his staff and focused his attention
on Bekal.

“You’re a coward and a traitor!” Bekal
exclaimed. “I’ve had many dreams of taking your head, Leon”

Sara stepped forward. “Put your weapons down
and surrender!” she demanded, trying to keep both foes in
sight.

Bekal took one look at her and began
laughing. “Little girl, you have no idea who you’re talking to.”
With a loud snarl he ran toward Sara at full speed and raised his
knife in to take a fatal swipe.

Leon launched himself forward and used his
staff to block the knife.

Without missing a beat, Sara swung her
equinox, slicing Bekal’s other hand off and then landed a hard
elbow to his face to send him down.

Leon quickly retreated several steps.

Sara circled towards him. “You have to
surrender, Vesuvian. I won’t ask you again.”

“I’d be more worried about Bekal here.” Leon
said.

Growling in anger, Bekal stood and swung his
knife wildly at Leon – who easily dodged the attack and struck him
on the side of the head with his staff. The blow sent him sprawling
against the pews just a few feet away.

Sara went after Leon, whom she was still
unable to get a good look at. Every swipe she took was either
blocked or dodged. For a moment it seemed pointless, until she
decided to put more of what she’d learned to use. She spun the
equinox in a disorienting fashion, hoping to throw Leon off guard,
and she belted him with a hard kick to the midsection.