The Guard

The Scout

Night guard duty sucks. It always sucks. It’s the worst duty. Oh, sure, the stars are beautiful overhead. And in the summer at least, it isn’t as hot. But it sucks. Jer and I paced through the brush, patroling our little corner of the kingdom. Jer loved this stuff. During the off-duty hours, he’d babble constantly about how he was going to do a better job, he was going to get noticed, he was going to be Somebody in this army.

I had long since learned to tune him out. I didn’t care. I wasn’t planning to be here past my mandatory term. Oh, sure, there’s nothing glamorous about following in my Dad’s footsteps as a scribe. But I knew how to read, to write. Infantry work — especially guard duty — was a waste of my skills. I’d thought they would promote me up to something respectable for being literate. But they didn’t care. It just meant I got to do the rolls at the barracks. Yay, extra duty on top of my guard shifts. One more year, I kept telling myself. Then I could try to find a real job in the city somewhere. Hopefully, by then the current turf war between us and King Diaspor would settle. Just long enough for me get out.

In the meantime, I kept my whiny unhappiness to myself. We walked at night, slept in day, and reported back to barracks every ten days. Sometimes, we got a day off. Most days, we didn’t. The soldier’s life is a life of boredom and busy work.

I don’t tell you that to set myself up as a whiny little brat. I just mean to say that I’m not like some folks who seek glory or like to wear a sword and horde it over the “peons.” I’m not in this for anything like that. I just needed a job after Dad died. I may hate guard duty. But it beats becoming a street urchin any day.

We were on the second to last day of our scout rotation. I was eagerly awaiting a bath, a hot meal, and the relative peace of barracks paperwork. We walked, so we wouldn’t fall asleep. Jer stopped talking mid-sentence. He froze, standing perfectly still.

“What’s — ” I started to ask. Jer shushed me with a quick gesture. I rolled my eyes, then stopped as I heard something rustling in the brush. We were walking through a fallow field. The grass had grown up to about my waist. Grass and briers. Gods, I hate briers, too. I saw the brush moving in the starlight over to our left. Jer saw it too. He pointed and glanced at me. I nodded, not taking my eyes off the movement.

I waved my hand to get his attention, then pointed down. He saw me and then we both ducked down. I was sure it was just a deer or wild bird or something. But better safe than sorry. The movement continued. Then it, whatever it was, whistled. I recognized the whistle as a bird. I started to relax. Then I remembered that this particular bird wasn’t flightless, and so wouldn’t be wandering around, in the dark, in the brush.

Jer looked at me. We both had fear plastered over our faces, I think. Very slowly, I drew my sword. I didn’t want to make noise, but I also didn’t want to be unarmed. Jer mirrored me. He was sweating. I could feel sweat trickle down my back, too.

The sound moved again. I saw a flash of something silver in the starlight. Jer, closer to the source, twitched. That caused something in his gear to clatter. The movement halted suddenly. Shit. Then it lunged at Jer. I think it was more luck than skill, but the lunge resulted in Jer’s sword piercing our opponent’s stomach. It was all so fast that Jer didn’t even move or react for a few seconds. Then he dropped his sword and pulled back.

The guy slowly crumpled to the ground, clutching at Jer’s sword.

“Oh, gods. I killed him!” Jer whispered loudly. Then he threw up, right there in the grass. I almost did, too. Somehow, I held it to a single heave. As Jer spat to clear the taste from his mouth and I struggled not to think about all the smells assaulting my nose, I looked at the body lying before us.

He was dressed in dark leather armor. He was beardless or clean-shaven, but was nowhere near clean. Mud covered him up to his knees. He carried no sword, but had a long, curvy, wicked-looking dagger in one hand. The blade gleamed in the starlight. It looked more expensive than anything I’d ever owned. He also had a short bow, unstrung, strapped to his back. A few arrows stuck out of a satchel that was trapped under him.

Then I noticed his ears. They had no earlobes. No one had ears that round and smooth. His nose, too, was shaped funny. It was too long, and, like his chin, was too pointy. His hair was colorless white. Not the red, brown, or blonde of folks around here. And the leather armor was worked with an embossed tree, in finer detail than anything I’d ever seen.

“Oh, fuck. Jer. He’s a fey scout!”

Jer looked at the body, then at me, then back to the body.

“Oh. Oh Gods. We gotta sound the alarm!” in a panic, Jer pulled off his backpack and started working at the knotted strings. I quickly followed. We both carried small crossbows for just this reason. But neither of us had ever taken them off the pack while out in the field. Neither of us ever really thought we would.

Jer got his out first. As I struggled with the knots, he cocked the bow and loaded in a quarrel. “C’mon! We gotta sound the alarm!” he urged me as he aimed the bolt up at the sky. I finally got my bow off the pack and cocked it.

Jer fired up into the sky. With a grunt of effort, he made the quarrel burst into a brief flash of light. A second later, we both heard the “whomp!” as his magic turned the quarrel into a short-lived signal light.

I fired my first shot as he readied his second. I tried, but failed to get the quarrel to light. I’d never been good at magic. “Oh, for the Gods, man! Get this right!” Jer was not a patient lad.

His second bolt exploded in the air as my second fell somewhere to the east, unharmed by magic. Jer popped the back of my head. “Don’t fuck this up!” he whispered between clenched teeth as he loaded another bolt.

I closed my eyes. The memory of the scout impaling himself on Jer’s sword flashed through my mind, but I quickly banished the thought. Like in training, I forced my breathing to be calm and steady. I pretended my heart wasn’t racing. Scouts! In our fields!

Without thinking about it, or even opening my eyes, I raised my crossbow and fired my third bolt. This time, something felt different. I sensed the bolt’s flight. I knew when it slowed. Without opening my eyes, I could see as the bolt stopped rising. For a second, it just hung in the air. As it tipped to fall back to earth, I willed it to explode. As I did so, for just a moment, I saw my father’s face, smiling at me. It was gone so fast I didn’t even have time to realize who it was until later.

But as soon as I willed the bolt to explode, the world lit up. Jer gasped and I heard his crossbow clatter to the ground. I opened my eyes. Above us, there was a bright ball of light. Swirling throughout the ball were every color I could possibly imagine. I’d never seen anything like it before.

The ball was growing outward. It was so bright that it was hard to look at it, so I glanced down. Jer was awe-struck. He, too, had to shield his eyes. He stared at me, open-mouthed, then back up.

The ball was stretching. It was getting long and longer. The colors weren’t swirling as fast now. The ball grew arms, and the arms grew out in an arch. The arch spread towards the ground. It took only a few seconds, really. As the arms grew, the ball shrank. In just a few heartbeats, the sky was painted with a brightly glowing rainbow. The hairs on the back of neck stood up with the power of it all.

“How did you…?” Jer asked. His whisper was rough with awe.

“I do not know!” I whispered back. But that was a lie. I knew. I didn’t know five minutes ago. But I knew I could make that rainbow appear again, if I ever wanted. My skin tingled with power. It was something I’d never felt before.

“But you’re no wizard?” Jer said, his tone half asking and half joking.

“No! Definitely not!” I said. I was still in shock. A wizard? Me? Hah! Like I’d be on guard duty if I was a wizard!

“Well, that certainly got someone’s attention. C’mon, let’s get out of here.” Jer said.

“Get your sword. Go home without that…” I answered. Sergeant would tear him a new one if he came back without his gear.

Jer stopped in surprise, and then collected his sword and crossbow. I picked up the strange dagger. It felt weird in my hand, like it was moving or something. I quickly wrapped it in my bedroll and wiped my hand on my pants.

Somewhere off to the west, I heard a bugle. It sent chills down my spine. Our forces don’t use bugles.

We rushed back to the barracks. That was a two hour trip in daylight. It took us three in the dark. But the rainbow was clearly visible behind us the whole way.

The night watch was scrambling when we got back. Infantry were forming up in armor. “What’s the meaning of this?” our sergeant demanded when we got to the gate. Hastily, Jer told him what we’d encountered. Sergeant Ashford asked about the rainbow, and Jer just pointed at me. I looked him in the eye and shrugged.

“You some kind of wizard, maggot?” He growled. A real winner, that man.

“No, Sergeant! Just a maggot on guard duty, Sergeant!” I replied. Then I handed him the dagger.

He took it from me, then dropped it quickly. “Fey,” he cursed under his breath.

“Jer, get the commander. He’s probably still asleep. Get him anyway. Then get your combat gear and report back.” He said without looking up. Jer took off at a run. Then he looked at me with an appraising eye. “Get your gear. Then back here.” His voice wasn’t as harsh that time.

I didn’t stop to question that change in tone. As I ran, I considered that maybe it was respect? Surely not. Back in the barracks, I quickly shed my muddy, dirty, clothes and donned my leather armor. It wasn’t comfortable, which is why we never wore it unless we had to. Then I ran back out front.

I beat the commander, but just barely. He walked out, looking angry. He had his sword in hand, but no armor. “Why was I awakened, Sergeant Ashford?” he said. There was a definite threat to his tone.

Sergeant repeated what Jer told him. Commander Siosal turned to me. Then looked up at the rainbow, still glowing off in the distance, then back at me. “The dagger, sir.” Sergeant prompted.

Commander Siosal bent down and picked it up. He almost dropped it, proving the weird feeling was in the dagger and not me or the sergeant. “You killed the scout?” he asked, absently, as he looked at the dagger.

“Yes sir. Well, Jer did, sir.” I said, unsure what he wanted to hear. Jer looked worried, too.

“Ever see a fey dagger, son?” he asked. I shook my head. “Watch,” he said, then, “Sergeant, your knife.” The sergeant pulled a knife from his boot and handed it, hilt first, to him. The commander took the knife and touched the blade to the dagger’s blade. Smoke rose from where they touched. We heard a sizzle like meat in a hot pan. Commander Siosal dropped the knife after a second. The blade was just beginning to glow red from heat. The dagger was unchanged.

“You don’t want a fey dagger in you, boy. Ever.”

“Yes sir,” I responded.

“What now,” Jer said. Sergeant glared at him. “What now, sir?” Jer corrected.

“That bugle means a force, not just a lone scout. So we wait. Sergeant, best send out some scouts of our own. But not these two. They’ve scouted enough for one night. Get some food in you. And some sleep, if you can. Likely to be your last hot food and bed rest for a while.” Commander Siosal handed me a gold dragon-headed coin and walked off as the sergeant began barking orders.

I looked a Jer. He shrugged. “I don’t think I can eat anything,” Jer said.

“Me either,” I answered. The memory of the scout was still fresh on my mind. A yawn escaped my mouth. “Sleep first, then breakfast?” I suggested.

“Sounds good to me.” With that, we headed to the barracks. It was a struggle to get my armor off. But once that was done, it was wonderful to collapse into bed. I felt sure it would take me a long time to go to sleep, after all the excitement. But I was asleep almost before my head hit the pillow.

Clara

The bright light of dawn woke me far too early. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and tried to get my bearings. I sat up quickly as last night’s events came back to me. I looked around. Jer was just waking up, too. Otherwise, we were alone in the barracks. I got up, stretched, and dressed. Jer was donning his armor, so I did, too.

We stepped out onto the street. I looked to the west. The rainbow still hung there in the cloudless sky. It looked like maybe the magic was beginning to fade just a bit, but I couldn’t be sure. Still, it was impressive. Jer looked too. “Wizards.” he mumbled under his breath. I punched his arm and he pretended like I’d hit him with enough power to make him jump sideways. With matching grins, we headed into town in search of food.

I hadn’t seen a gold dragon since before Dad died. So I was looking forward to my breakfast. We picked a place way out of our usual price range and settled in. Jer ordered the kind of feast we often discussed while eating our hardtack out in the field. I did too.

The waiter looked doubtful. So I set the dragon on the table. The speed with which the waiter vanished into the kitchen brought a smile to my face. While we drank mulled wine and waited for the food, I listened to Jer babble. He thought this was his ticket to being an officer, I think. He didn’t seem to understand that unless he was high born, he’d never get there. I didn’t ruin it for him, though. No reason he couldn’t make sergeant, maybe.

After breakfast, we headed, reluctantly, back to the barracks. The small silver phoenix in my pocket, all that was left after our feast, was small consolation. Still, the food was good. And we’d had orders. I just hoped I wouldn’t regret the extravagance later.

Halfway back to the barracks, we spotted a small group of people, maybe 10 to 20 or so. Someone at the center of the mass was yelling obscenities at someone else. I looked at Jer. He shrugged. Then I heard the someone else respond with a loud “Leave me the fuck alone!” She sounded pissed and scared at the same time.

I knew that voice. “Clara?” I said, quietly enough that only Jer heard.

“Shit,” he said, then started towards the mob to support whatever insanity I was about to cause. I was right beside him, one hand on my sword.

“What’s all this about?” I called out in my best imitation of the sergeant. It didn’t fool anyone, but two people in armor with swords was enough to clear a path through the small crowd. At the center of the mob, I saw Clara. I hadn’t seen her since we were teenagers, I don’t think. Then, she’d been the beautiful neighbor’s daughter who’s family hired my older sister as a tutor. I’d had a crush on her, but had rarely even worked up the courage to say hello. I hadn’t seen her in three or four years, probably.

Now, she was beautiful. Beautiful and just beginning to show. I hadn’t even known she was married, much less pregnant. Still, some women really do become more beautiful… I shook my head. Focus, you idiot, I told myself. She turned to me, exposing a bruise that was forming on her cheek. Just like that, I went from happy from breakfast to pure angry. “What’s going on,” I demanded.

“Mind yer fuckin’ business, asshole,” growled a man standing next to Clara. Jer stepped out to my right, clearing his sword arm. Clara started to say something, but before she could do more than open her mouth, the man raised a hand to back slap her.

The world slowed to a crawl. Jer began drawing his sword. The man’s hand began to come down in what would make Clara’s bruise even worse. I caught the glint of a ring on the man’s hand. In a flash of insight, I saw that the slap would probably cut her as well as bruise her. I was still a couple of paces away. It was too far to prevent her from getting hit again. My foot lifted in the first step to rush the man. My back foot pushed against the ground. But I knew I would be too late. My mind was going a hundred times faster than the world around me. But it wasn’t enough.

The hand swept down. Jer’s sword was almost clear of the scabbard. My weight was shifting forward. Clara was beginning to flinch, but she couldn’t possibly move fast enough to dodge the blow. Still, that flinch told me that she’d been through this before, that she’d expected the hit. My internal rage flared up. The rest of the mob faded away, leaving only Clara and her abuser.

“No!” I called out in a tone louder and harsher than I’d intended. The man’s head turned towards me, but the slap still descended as I called out. My whole mind raged with the force of my anger. I seethed at seeing someone I knew suffering. I knew all about suffering. I knew pain. Clara had known pain. Too much pain.

And now he would know some pain too.

Somehow, instinctively, I bottled the burning anger. I compressed it into a tiny little lightning bug of a speck. And then my mind shoved that speck into the man’s hand. As I heard the bones in his hand crack like sticks breaking, the rage was gone. The world sped back up again, and I finished stepped forward, almost falling with the sudden shifts in speed that my mind was going through.

The slap never landed. Halfway through, the man jerked and screamed out in pain. His hand was suddenly mangled. I’d seen someone get trampled by a horse once. His hand looked like that. Clara had braced for a slap that never came. His scream caused her to stumble and fall.

But then something strange happened. The man’s scream changed from the high-pitch scream of a man in pain to something higher. The voice rose and rose in pitch, until it was painful to hear. As he screamed, he changed. The features on his face melted. Suddenly, he didn’t look like the burly laborer of a minute ago. Now, he looked much like the scout from last night. His hair shifted from reddish-brown to black. His ears grew rounder and his earlobe faded. His nose and chin became more pointy. The hairs on the back of my neck stood out as we watched him change.

The crowd pushed back from this sudden display of fey magic. The man turned to me. “I told you to mind yer fuckin’ business. I warned you,” he said. His voice was now higher pitched and had strange accent to it. It was not a pleasant voice at all. With his good hand, he reached down and drew a dagger.

It was a curvy-bladed dagger, like the scout had. But my burst of magical energy had bought enough time. Jer swung his sword down before the man could begin an attack.

The dagger fell to the ground. It was still clutched by a hand. The fey screamed again, louder this time. As the fey screamed, the crowd ran. I had my sword in my hand, too. I suddenly remembered that. With a grunt, I swung it, hard, at the fey’s head. The flat of my blade slapped against his skull with enough force to shut him up and knock him out.

“Get the sergeant!” I yelled at Jer. He stared at me, then at the fey, then took off running towards the wall and our barracks.

I helped Clara up. “Are you okay?” I asked, concern darkening my voice.

“How did… you…” she looked at the fey, then back to me. Then she shook her head. “I’m.. I’m okay.” She cradled her belly with her hands.

“The baby?” I asked, still holding her up by her elbows.

Her green eyes met mine. Gods, I’d forgotten how beautiful she was. “They’re both kicking like crazy, so I think they’re okay.”

“Twins? You’re having twins?” I said with just a hint of awe. Twins are just so rare.

A ghost of smile played across her lips. “Twins. How have you been?”

“Oh, you know. Raising the alarm for a fey invasion. Saving an old friend from another fey. Just another day in the life.” My post-adrenaline voice didn’t give that quite the humorously calm tone I’d hoped to use.

Her eyes got big. I noticed the gold flecks of color in them. They were quite lovely eyes. “You? the rainbow?”

The sergeant and three guards came around the corner at a run. “What’s going on?” he demanded.

I filled him in on the mob scene and what happened.

“And just who the hell are you?” he demanded of Clara.

“Clara has lived here her whole life,” I said, stepping half a step back to put an arm around her waist. Not my sword arm. This also highlighted her belly. The sergeant took all this in, unhappily. Clara’s arms were to her side, but I felt her squeeze my hand tighter into her side with her arm.

“Then who the fuck is that?” he said, pointing at the fey. The guards were bandaging his wrist and tying him up as we spoke.

“He’s… he was my husband.” Clara said. “He said he was a merchant from down south. That’s his shop,” her voice sounded tired as she pointed at the door behind her. I looked back. It was a rug shop. It looked expensive, far too expensive for me to have ever been there.

“Did you know — ” the sergeant began.

“Oh, gods no, I didn’t know he was fey.” Anger now colored her voice, anger and maybe a hint of fear? Fey husband. She was ruined in this town. Even without the invasion we now expected, the fey had been a force of evil in this region for decades. No one would trust her. Not once word of this got out.

The sergeant looked back at me. “And you vouch for her?” he said in disbelief. So the lock-out was already beginning. I could feel Clara tense up as I held her.

“Yes, sergeant. I do vouch for her.” Clara was shaking.

“Then she’s your problem. Report to the Commander, then get to the wall. You’re late for duty.” he then ordered the guards to haul the injured fey off. I saluted to his back as he left. Once he’d vanished around the corner, I felt Clara go limp.

It was a near thing, but held onto her and kept her from falling. She didn’t faint, but that was a near thing, too. I looked around. Jer stood there, with a look on his face that I couldn’t make out. Clara was pale, making the bruise stand out on her cheek. She was beginning to get her strength back, though. But the four or five people still standing around made me nervous. They were staring at Clara. And they were getting angry.

I made eye contact with each of the men standing there, one at a time. “She is under my protection. If she comes to harm, I will remember your faces.”

Jer stepped beside me. “We’ve taken down two fey in the last 24 hours. Please don’t think you’ll be harder to defeat.” I was grateful for his support. He sheathed his sword, but kept his hand on the hilt. Our “audience” wandered off, grumbling.

“Will you be okay?” I asked Clara. It pleased me more than I would admit that she hadn’t stepped away from me or asked me to let her go.

“Yeah. I think so.” She said, but without much confidence. She looked down the street, where the guards — and her husband — had gone. She mumbled something under her breath, I think maybe “you were always such an asshole,” but I can’t be sure.

Then she stood up straighter, held her chin up, and said, “We’ll be fine, soldier.” then she kissed me on the cheek. “Thank you. Really, thank you.” I turned to look at her. I saw a tear well up in one eye, then slide slowly down her cheek. I reached up and brushed it away with my thumb.

“If you get scared or people start messing with you, find me. I’ll be up there on the wall.” I said. Only, the word “wall” was lost in a kiss.

It’s embarrassing to say, but that was the best thing that had happened to me in the last two years, since before Dad died. I held her head in my hand as we kissed. This was better than the morning’s feast had been.

But then Jer cleared his throat. I reluctantly broke the kiss. I couldn’t read the look on her face as we made eye contact. But there was a hint of a smile. It made me happy to see she could smile, despite the shit she was going through today.

“I’m glad we got here. It’s been way too long since we last talked.” I said, sheathing my sword awkwardly.

“Me too, and yes, it has,” she said.

I sighed. Then looked at Jer. “You’re right. Let’s go before we get in trouble.”

We double-timed it back towards the wall. As we rounded the corner, I looked back. Clara stood there, watching us go, one hand still clutching her belly.

The Wall

Jer and I made it back to the wall. The commander was waiting for us at the base of the wall, just outside the barracks building. We could . “Where you been, soldier? Enjoy a nice, leisurely, breakfast and a pleasant stroll in the sunshine?” Jer and I stopped and saluted. I explained the morning’s excitement. I left out the kissing.

“Hopefully, we can get some intel out of him, at least, Sir,” I said and stood waiting for whatever punishment came next.

The commander stood, appraising me.

“You broke his hand,” he said, “and then Jer cut off his other hand.”

“Yes, Sir.” Jer and I answered.

“Good work catching that, er, spy. Better work taking him alive. Now, get to your post.” he said, gruffly, then walked off towards one of our lieutenants.

Jer and I climbed the steps up to the wall’s top. There, Sergeant Ashford eyed us. “The Commander tells me yer both promoted to Corporal now. Congratulations.” That last was said with a definite, disapproving, sneer. Then he stomped off to yell at some other soldiers about the state of their equipment.

Jer and I shared a grin. A very brief one, as about that time, we all heard a bugle sound. We turned and stared out, away from the town. Sure enough, we could see the dust cloud of a marching force. Ahead of it, our scouts were running towards the wall.

“Blast ’em, wizard!” Jax said. He was on the other side of Jer, perhaps 10 or 15 feet away from me, and had glanced at me to offer up that helpful advice.

“I’m not a wizard!” I responded, then went back to watching the fey army close on us.

Wizards. No one had seen a wizard in a hundred years or more. The fey had assassinated the wizards at the height of the War. All of them. No one was quite sure how they pulled it off. But there hadn’t been a wizard since. Somehow, despite the loss of the wizards’ power, we had managed to hold off the fey. The War had settled into a stalemate after their loss. They attacked us, we attacked them, but neither side ever really gained an advantage.

I mean, sure, everyone had some ability with magic. Most anyone could be taught to perform the simple spells that lit small fires or mended torn clothing. But to do great magic? That was beyond the skills of any human, now.

As we watched the fey army sweep in, I heard a commotion behind us. I turned just in time to see the fey we’d fought run from the barracks door and down the street. I’d never seen a fey run before. He ran as fast as any deer I’d ever seen running through the fields. Three guards burst from the barracks and gave pursuit, but it was clear they couldn’t catch him.

There was nothing I could do. He had one hand, and it was broken. So maybe he wouldn’t be able to do any harm. Meanwhile, we were about to be attacked. I couldn’t abandon my post.

Our scouts passed through the gate. As it began to close, the army kept coming. “You think he was a spy?” Jer asked quietly.

“Probably. Makes sense. A merchant for exotic things can travel a great deal without arousing suspicion. And what better way to blend in than to marry a local and open a shop.” I glanced back into town, but couldn’t see any sign of the fey spy or the pursuing guards.

The foreign army came to a halt just out of bow range. From the dust and noise, I could tell they were circling the town. A siege then. Gods, this was going to suck.

The commander climbed up onto the wall and stood behind me. I glanced back, but he was staring out at the enemy. Two lieutenants stood with him. I kept my mouth shut as sweat trickled down my back. After a few minutes, the commander and his lieutenants moved off to my left, down the wall. It looked like they were trying to estimate the enemy force’s size, maybe.

The Spy

“Help!” came a voice from behind me, from in the town. I turned, even before my brain reminded me that it was Clara’s voice. I saw her, running towards the wall. It was clear that she was tiring fast. Behind her, I saw the fey spy chasing. He was gaining on her.

I couldn’t leave the wall. To do so would mean execution. “Up here!” I called down to her. She veered towards me. The sergeant was perhaps fifty or so feet away, down the wall on my right. The commander was further away than that, but on my left. Both turned at my voice. Fuck. I was so fucked.

Clara started up the steps. She was clutching her belly and breathing hard. Sweat had plastered her hair to her face and neck. Her skin was red with effort. She came up and stepped up onto the wall just as the fey hit the bottom step. He growled something incomprehensible at us and stopped.

I stared down at him. Jer drew his sword. The sergeant was pushing his way past the other soldiers to get to us, but the wall’s platform was narrow enough that he couldn’t move fast. The commander was just watching. Clara stood there, trying to catch her breath, one hand on the battlements for support.

The three guards burst out from the street, saw the fey and moved to recapture him. They looked exhausted from their brief run.

“You! You did this to me!” the fey screamed, waving the stump of his wrist in the air. I wasn’t sure if he was screaming at me, Jer, or Clara. I don’t guess it really mattered, in the end. He looked back over his shoulder and saw the running guards. His face contorted in rage, he barreled up the stairs towards us.

I drew my sword and stepped out, so I was between the stairs and Clara. No way in hell I’d let him harm her. Jer had his sword out. Over his shoulder, I saw Sergeant Ashford draw his sword as well, but it didn’t look like he’d get here before the fey mounted the stairs.

Two steps down from the top, Clara stepped around me, directly in front of the stairs. The fey growled and picked up speed. I yelled “No! Clara!” as the fey cleared the top step and hurled himself at Clara. His feet never touched the wall walk. Clara was no dummy. I should’ve trusted her. She waited until his launch, and then stepped back away from him.

He didn’t have time to change direction. And couldn’t, mid-leap. He tried, desperately, to grab the wall as he sailed over. Somehow as he hit the wall, with only his broken hand and stump, he managed to catch himself, barely. He hung there, teetering with his head hanging over the edge of the wall and his legs in the air on our side.

For a second, it looked like he would fall over and to the ground below. Then, somehow, despite his injuries, he shifted enough of his weight to prevent the fall. I don’t know when I started holding my breath, but I let it out in a gasp and started breathing again.

Then Clara stepped forward, again. In one smooth, graceful, motion, she reached down with both hands, grabbed the ankles of his trousers, and sent him up and over the wall. The look of pure hatred on his face as he went up and over is a thing I’ll never forget. He screamed until he landed with a dull whump on the hard ground below. Clara dusted her hands and nodded in satisfaction. “You will never harm me again, by the gods,” I heard her say under her breath to herself.

The sergeant stepped up and looked over the wall. “Well, I guess we won’t get any secrets from him, after all,” he said in a growl. “And just what the hells are you doing up here, woman?” he yelled at Clara.

She flinched back from his anger, but held her ground. “Killing the enemy, Sir!” she said with conviction and a hint of mockery.

The Sergeant’s nostrils flared in anger, but the rest of the soldiers on the wall bust out cheering.

The cheering died fast when we heard a bellowing scream from beyond the wall.

“WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? WHAT. HAVE. YOU. DONE?” The voice was high pitched. The sound of it hurt our ears and make our skin crawl. No human could’ve made sounds like that, not that loud nor that painful. “What have you done to my brother?!”

Oh. Shit.

I turn back to the fey army. Standing a dozen yards or so in front of the main force, I saw five fey in full, silvered, plate armor. The one in the center is pointing at us. I see his mouth open, and out come more words, “I was going to offer you and your city terms. I was going to accept your surrender. But you have slain my kin! We will burn your town to the ground! We will sew the ground with salt!”

I glance up, at the rainbow still painting the cloudless sky. Jer sees me, and looks up too. “You gotta plan, Wizard?” he says. There’s no mockery in his tone this time.

Clara steps up beside me. She glances down for just a second, swallows at the sight of the dead fey, and then yells back, “Your brother was a coward! He beat unarmed women, but ran from armed men! Your brother was a useless. Fucking. Coward. And he was horrible in bed!” I looked at her in shock as the soldiers on the wall cheered even louder.

The taunt worked. The central figure turned to one of the guys beside him and yelled out, “Kill her!”

“She bears your brother’s children!” I screamed back. I don’t know why. Fey aren’t known for their mercy. It was a stupid gesture, really.

The fey to the right of the general (king?) screamed back, “And I shall feed on her and her unborn children! A wondrous feast, surely!” His arms came up. I saw some sort of shadowy energy flowing in and around his hands.

“Clara! Get down!” I called out. This was magic; I don’t know what I thought the wall would do for her. The masses of shadow around his hands released. In a blur of speed, they flew towards me. No. They flew towards Clara.

The rage I had felt earlier, when Clara was about to be slapped, came back. Somehow, I channeled that down. I’m not sure how I knew what to do, but when the bolts of shadow came up, even with my head, I shouted out a sharp, loud, “NO!” and pushed. The shadows rebounded off the air, and flew back towards the fey. The officer who’d released the spell backpedaled, but couldn’t escape his own spell.

The shadow struck him in the stomach. He screamed. Oh, how he screamed. The other four standing near him backed away as the shadow ate his flesh from the stomach outward. Finally, it consumed him beyond the point where he could make sounds.

The silence was complete. For perhaps two heartbeats, everyone was perfectly still.

The fey king (general?) bellowed in wordless rage. The soldiers on the wall with me all stared in awe. Clara’s eyes filled with something else. Something like the cat after it catches a bird on the wing. Something dangerous and cunning.

I closed my eyes for half a beat. As I opened them, I called out to the fey general, “This woman is under my protection. You. Will not. Have. Her.”

That shut the general up for a moment.

“And just who the fuck are you?” he called out. “Nothing. That’s what you are! Nothing but a weak human! Food for my troops! Fodder for my animals! You are dead, that’s what you are!” With that last, he sent a blast of energy at me. It looked like lightning. So much power! And he hadn’t even taken time to build it up first.

My mind marveled at his raw power even as an involuntary, “No!” escaped my lips. I again instinctively threw up the same protective spell as before. Again, I wasn’t sure exactly how I knew to do so.

The general’s magic was too strong, though, to be hit by his own spell. But his lieutenants were not so well protected. The general’s face turned dark with rage as his lieutenants burned from his own lightning blast. He began barking orders in some fey language I didn’t know.

“Sir! What do we do!” Sergeant Ashford asked someone. Then it hit me. He was asking me. Somehow, I’d become an officer. Part of my mind hoped Jer wouldn’t be too jealous. Being an officer was his dream, not mine.

The fey were shifting, but not advancing. They were about to do something. I had no doubts that it would overwhelm our meager defenses.

Without any thought to the words, I yelled out, “No! Any who drop their weapons and swear oath to me will be spared! Surrender, and I shall release you from your oath to this general!” Several men on the wall gasped. Rightfully so, as I’d just done something unheard of. Several things, really. I’d just raised myself up to nobility by asking for their oaths. Humans don’t have nobility; we had wizards once, but no more. And I’d asked them to surrender when they clearly had the advantage. It was a bold, no stupid, move.

My words made the general even angrier. I didn’t think that was possible, but it did. Regardless, the army started to advance towards the walls.

“Surrender now! Swear your oath and you are under my protection!” The army rippled at my words. One, two, a dozen fey dropped their blades and turned back.

The general stopped. He threw down his helmet and began drawing power. Even from this far away, I could feel how much force he was calling upon. It will destroy so many! It will leave the town open to this army. As the energy builds up, I know this will be the end of the town and everyone in it.

“No,” I whisper, so low that none can hear. The now-familiar rage began inside me. “No,” I said again, loud enough that only Clara could hear it. She touched my arm. Her warm hand was a soothing force, an anchor in the coming storm, a welcome sensation. Her touch literally brought tears to my eyes. I cannot let her be harmed. I swore I’d protect her. I will not fail her.

Her touch shifted my anger, somehow. She gave me purpose. She gave me… focus. In the darkness of my growing rage, there was now a candle flame. That flame is her. She lit a flame so the darkness would not consume me. Her touch anchors me. “No,” I say, loud enough so that perhaps ten or fifteen closest on the wall to me can hear. They stare in awe. The general was still building his energy, too. Time was running out.

As I drew power to me, I could sense that Clara was afraid. So was I. I took her fear. I fed it to the flame she held out for me. Then I fed my fear to the flames as well. And so we were no longer afraid.

“No!” I shouted out. Some of the enemy fey heard me. Their advance staggered and they lost all hint of unit cohesion as fear rippled through their ranks. Clara’s touch was all that mattered. Her touch, all that existed to me in this world. I would hold her babes in my arms, I would see them grow up. I would be there, for them as my father was for me. I would be. For her.

Her flame showed me the way. Had she not been there, I would have failed; I wouldn’t have known what to do. But she was there. So I didn’t fear. I fed the general’s own power to her flame. He had no idea this was even possible. Even at this distance, I could sense his shock as I stripped his power from him. I would hold Clara, safe from the harm this fey intended. I would be there for her. And she would survive. Above all else, she will live.

“NO!” I raged, loud enough to knock down the front rank of fey soldiers. Loud enough to send the fey general to his knees. The advance halted. The fey’s attempt at invasion died then and there.

And then I turned Clara’s flame — my focus — inside out.

Darkness took me. For less than a heartbeat, the world vanished and I saw nothing but the flame and Clara’s face lit by that flame. Her beautiful, smiling, face. The mysterious, knowing, look in her eyes will linger in my mind forever.

Then the world returned and the general was gone. His sword and his armor remained, smoking in the grass. But nothing else was left of him.

I was tired. I was so tired. I staggered. Clara, still touching me, felt my strength give way and somehow managed to keep me from falling. She helped me grab the battlements. I didn’t fall, but it was only by her strength.

I looked out at the fey. They didn’t seem to know what to do. The entire invasion force was milling in confusion and disarray.

“Sire! Your orders?” I turned. The Commander stood before me. He dropped to one knee in an awkward bow. I glanced up. The other soldiers on the wall were dropping, one by one, to their knees as well. Clara began to do the same.

“No! Clara, no, not you. You will never bow. Not to me, not to anyone. Please, no. I need you too much for that.” My voice was ragged and harsh from the yelling. I didn’t even know I was going to say that last sentence. It surprised me. Her face was unreadable, but she didn’t bow. She didn’t pull away from me. “You are my flame. Someday, maybe, hopefully, I will be yours,” I whispered. I saw a hint of a smile on her lips and in her eyes. I thought, ‘maybe she’s more of a wizard than she lets on’. I thought maybe I’d fallen in love with her.

I turned back to the fey. With Clara’s help, I stood to my full height. Without her hands holding me up, I surely would’ve fallen over from fatigue. The fey in front of this section of the wall, upon seeing me, fell to their faces, bowing to me in surrender. Like the ripples in a pond after throwing a rock, the ring of bowing fey expanded outward from those initial few.

Turning back to the Commander, I said, “Send out a party. See that the fey are disarmed. Gently! They are under my protection now, and are not to be harmed.” He looked shocked at this, so I continued, “They came to do harm, but have hurt no one. They are not an invasion. Today, they are our guests.” I took a step forward and almost fell. “Any who harms a fey without cause will be punished. Make sure the troops know this.”

“Yes, Sire!” he said with a salute. He turned and repeated the order to the Sergeant, who began issuing orders to troops.

I looked at Clara. She was staring at me. I couldn’t read the expression in her eyes, but she looked tired, too.

I reached out and took her hand. She grabbed onto my hand in both of hers. “Truly, you are okay?” I asked.

“I am,” she said, but concern wrinkled her brow. “But are you?”

“Exhausted. But if you are well, then all is well,” I said quietly. She smiled at me. It lit up her face. ‘Gods,’ I thought, ‘she’s amazing.’

And so I passed out into her arms.