The Guardian Crusade

                                          Volume II

                                                       Chapter 9

Aj sat hunched over the thick wooden table, books and papers scattered in front of him.  His eyes blinked every couple of seconds, tired, dry and sore from reading for such a long time under the dull light of the oil lamp that sat beside him.  He was the only one left in the Mage’s Library, the only left in the Mage’s Hall, and the only one left awake in Winnol, or so he thought. 

When he heard the sound of a door opening in the distance he looked up and listened, when he heard footsteps coming towards the library he looked around and realized the place was empty.  One of the two solid oak doors slowly swung open and Aj saw Avit walk through the door.

“Av?” He stopped when he saw Avit turn and take Rayne by the arm and walked her into the room.  “Is everything ok?” He asked as he stood up from his chair.

“Thank you Avit.” Rayne said with a light smile.  Avit nodded at her and then left the library, closing the door the behind him.

“What time is it?” Aj asked her as she walked over too him.

“Half pass three in the morning.” Rayne said to him.

“Oh” Aj said a little stunned.

“What are you doing?” She asked as she walked over to the table and the books.  Rayne picked up a large purple leather book and looked at the title written in gold thread stitched into the cover.  “A Mages Guide to the Mind” She looked at Aj and then looked down at another book picking it up.  “Mind Magic, Alex what are these?”

“The first one is a book on, um, how to use magic to see the minds energy and that one.” He said pointing to the book in her hand. “Is on the different magic’s that are used against the mind, Mage, Warlock..Druid.” He said as he began to clean up the table.

“Alex.” Rayne sighed as she put the book down.  “This is where you have been all day?”

“Yeah, I teleported in here, told them I didn’t want to be disturbed.” He said as he walked over and put a couple of books away.

“After you went to see Drania I assume?” She asked and he stopped at the shelf, slid the book back into its place and turned around.

“Yes.” Aj said as he looked at her.

“Alex you know better than to attack someone, especially the High Druid and now the people are talking…” She said but he interrupted her.

“I don’t care what the people think Rayne, someone is making you sick and I am going to find out who.”

“But you can not just toss out spells and attack innocent people trying to do so Alex.” Rayne said her anger becoming apparent to Aj.

“Drania is not innocent in this.” Aj said to her.

“How do you know Alex, just because it’s her in these visions?” She asked.

“Well why not?” Aj snapped back at her and then turned his attention back to the books and cleaning them up.  Rayne sighed as she sat down at one of the chairs.  She sat quietly as he skimmed over the books, putting them back into their spots.  “Why are you here anyways you should be sleeping.” He said without turning around.

“Avit came and got me, he’s worried about you, and there’s news from Kalica.” She said as he put the last book away.

“About Nick?” He asked as he turned around.

“Yes” She nodded.  “It appears he has run away again.’

“What?” Aj half yelled, his voice sounding much louder as it echo’d around the room.  “I’m going to killing him.” Aj growled as he headed towards the library doors.

“Alex.” Rayne said as she stood up and he stopped and looked at her.

“What is it?” Aj asked when he saw the look on her face.

“Nalia’s gone too.” She replied.  “It looks like they left together.”

“Together?” Aj asked confused.

“Avit said Bussa told him he heard Nalia and her mother fighting earlier about Nick, the Warlocks wanted to send him to Pomic..”

“What’s in Pomic?” Aj asked interrupting.

“It is where the Warlocks take the one’s who are falling or have fallen to the darkness, the ones that haven’t secluded themselves.”

“Great.” Aj sighed knowing now why the two took off.  “Well let’s get you back to the Castle and then Avit and I will go look for them.”

“They will not be doing any searching tonight, it’s too dark.” She told him as he walked up too her.

“I’m an Elf I can see fine.” Aj replied as he walked towards the doors and opened the door leaving it as such for her.

“Alex..” Rayne pleaded.

“I’m going Rayne.” Aj shouted back as he walked through the doors. When he walked past Avit he stopped but didn’t turn around.

“Don’t let her out of your sight until I get back.” He told his General and then began walking down the hallway but he stopped dead when he saw the grey wolf standing at the other end.

“Rayne.” Aj shouted.  “Call her off.”  The wolf stood up and started walking towards him.  His eyebrows frown as the wild dog got closer and he started to see it wasn’t Paq.  As the wolf began to dash at Aj and Avit the confusion made Aj lose his train of thought and no spells came to mind as the wolf ran right past him.  He looked at Avit confused and then as he heard a holler and the sounds of furniture crashing to the floor he realized the wolf was going for Rayne.

“Rayne!” Aj shouted as both him and Avit dashed through the library doors.  They stopped as a beam of light shot down from the ceiling, the room lit up in white light, a loud boom sound echoed through out the room and then silence and dark.  It caused Aj and Avit to shield their eyes and then fall to the floor for cover.  When it was quiet again the two men looked around the room as they slowly stood up.

They saw the wolf lying on the floor and quickly looked to Rayne as she stood a few feet away from it.  She starred at it for a moment and then quickly slumped to the floor.  Aj didn’t say anything as he ran to her sliding over the two tables that were in his way.

“Rayne?” Aj quickly shouted as he found her on her knees sitting on the floor.

“I am alright the spell just took a lot out of me.” She said tiredly.

“Your Moonbeam spell shouldn’t tire you out like that.” Aj said to her.

“How did a wolf get in here?” Avit asked as Aj looked up at him.

“Druid” Aj said as he looked at Rayne.  She looked away from him to the wolf, she didn’t want to believe it, she actually thought she had made a friend here, someone who didn’t judge her but it was becoming more apparent that Drania was behind this.

“Is that Drania’s wolf your highness?” Avit asked her.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s hers, she could have grabbed one from the forest.”  Aj said as he helped Rayne stand up.  “Get the guards to go get her; she has questions to answer.” Aj said angrily to Avit.

“As you wish Sir.” Avit nodded.  “But please let me do the asking this time.” He sighed as Aj picked Rayne up.

“We should stop here.” Nalia said to Nick as she looked around.  “That cave is large enough to house a fire.”

“Won’t they see us?” He asked.

“No it’s very early into the morning, if they do know we’re gone they won’t be able to search properly until later.” She told him as they walked towards the cave.

“What about the Elvaans?” Nick asked.

“Alex can’t have all the Elvaan’s out looking for us.” Nalia said with a light smile.  “We’ve put enough time between them and us, we should be alright.”

“Ok” Nick said with a nod as he ducked down and entered the cave. 

“I’m going to go find some wood and brush; there should be some stones around here for flint.” She said as she quickly looked around.

“I can come.” Nick said as he started to head back out of the cave.

“No” She said stopping him.  “Just stay here and rest, we’ve been walking a long time, maybe you should meditate.” She told him as she put her hand on his chest.  “I won’t be long.”  Nalia lightly smiled as she turned around and headed into the woods.

“Meditate.” Nick huffed as he sat down on the ground leaning against the cave wall.  He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his head gently lying against the wall.  He cleared his mind and let his body relax, like the Warlocks told him to do.

Nick was never one for clearing his head and he soon started to think about the last time he was in a cave.  When he had fallen asleep and heard Pixca, at least he thinks it was her.  He wondered what would happen if he called out for her in his head, would she hear him?  Slowly he opened an eye and looked around the cave, Nalia wasn’t back yet. So with a deep breath he closed his eyes again and then started to think about Pixca.

“Where are you, how am I suppose to find you?” He asked quietly in his head.

“Nickolas?” He heard the woman’s voice say.  It was soft and gently and not as loud as before.  Only this time when she spoke a sensation went through his body.  It made those feelings come back, the ones he worked hard on pushing away.  The want, the need started to come back, and he could feel the power coming from her.

A noise from outside the cave jolted him from his concentration and he looked up startled as Nalia walked in with an arm full of wood and some dried dead grass in her hand.  He looked at her shocked at first, startled by the noise and then began to calm down as she dropped the wood on the ground.

“Do you want my goblin to start it?” He asked.

“No, you are not supposed to use your magic needlessly.” Nalia told him.

“We need fire.” Nick said to her.

“And we can do it this way.” She said holding up two pieces of stone.  Nick lightly smiled and sat up, helping Nalia set up a fire pit.

“How are you feeling?” She asked as she tucked the dried grass under the blocks of wood. 

“I’m fine.” Nick said with a shrug.  “Little tired I guess.”  He watched as she smacked the two stones together, a small spark would flash from the ends but it wasn’t enough to light the grass.

“Let me try?” Nick asked as he reached for the stones.  She looked at him confused but handed him the two rocks.  Nick took them and then placed them closer to the grass under the logs.  Holding a couple of pieces of brush under the one rock he then smacked the second rock against it.  Doing that a couple of more times he got the grass to light and then gently blew on it to get it glowing hotter.

“I thought you said you didn’t do much camping?” Nalia asked.

“Not really, maybe when I was younger and my Mom and Dad moved around a lot.” Nick said with a shrug.  “Learned how to do that from Kevin, told me who knows the bus might break down and we’ll need a fire.”  He told her as she lightly laughed.  “Good thing I listened to him that time.” Nick smiled, Nalia started laughing harder and soon he joined in.

“What?” He asked when he saw Nalia staring at him.

“It is good to see you laugh again.” She said as she took his hand.

“I’m sorry I scared you.” Nick said to her.

“You have said that a thousand times Nick.” She said with a light smile.  “And every time I tell you, it is ok.”

“I know but what happened at the cottage, what I did to you I didn’t mean it, I don’t know why I did it.” He said to her as she got up and sat down beside him.

“I know and you need not worry I can take care of myself.” She replied.

“Yeah, don’t I know it.” Nick said remembering her knocking him out at the cottage. 

“We should get some rest.” Nalia said as she reached for her bag.  “It will be morning soon and we need to leave before the sun is up.”

He watched as she pulled out a blanket, then she unclipped the mat from under her bag and laid it on the ground.  She then slid on top of it and looked at Nick; patting the mat she waited for him to join her.  Slowly he crawled over and laid down beside her as she covered them with the blanket.

“Should we put the fire out?” Nick asked.

“No, it will be fine.” She said as she lightly shook her head.  Nick laid down beside her and closed his eyes as he tucked his arm under his bag.  After a moment he opened them and looked across from him.  She lied there with her eyes closed, her hand gently resting on his arm.  A small smile broke from the corner his lip.

“Hey Nali?” He whispered wonder if she was still awake.

“Mmhmm? She softly mumbled as she opened her eyes.

“Thanks.”

“For?” She wondered.

“For being here when I need you.” He told her.

“Of course, where else would I be?” She said as rubbed his arm.