Page 67 of Joy Guardian

“But I’m not the Master Guardian. I have no control over who comes to the temple.”

“You’re a Joy Guardian, aren't you? You can open the doors, can’t you?”

I could. I had access to the temple and could possibly sneak them in somehow. Though being a wanted man made things more complicated. The guards might come by the temple again, looking for me. And this time, the Master Guardian wouldn’t be there to send them away. Neither could I count on Oria to defend me from them.

But Ciana was out there, captured and alone.

“Alright,” I agreed. “I’ll find a way to get you in.”

“No.” Gefred smirked. “I need your promise, one that you can’t break.”

I drew in a long breath, buying some time to think. Giving a promise had serious consequences. If I failed to deliver what they wanted from me, I’d lose my mind and then my life in a most gruesome way.

On the other hand, if I didn’t find Ciana soon, she might end up being taken from me forever. She was still so fragile, both inbody and spirit. My magic was supporting the life in her. What if she didn’t survive without the support of my tendrils?

Horror gripped my throat at this thought. I coughed, rubbing my chest.

“If I give you such a promise, I’ll need more than just their location,” I said quickly. “I need your help in getting her back.”

“My help?” Gefred flinched.

“Both of you.” I tipped my chin at Malis too. “You said it yourself that I’ll need an army to go after them.”

“Yeah, but we’re no army,” he protested.

“With me, you can be.”

Malis glared at me. “I’m not risking my fucking life for some woman I never met.”

“That’d give you a chance to meet Ciana, if you so wish. Besides, I won’t make you risk your life by running into a battle or something like that. I’ll do most of the work required. But I’m just one man and can’t be in several places at the same time. That’s what I’ll need your help with. Promise me that you’ll help me get her, and I’ll find a way for you to experience joy.”

“Alright, listen, there is a whole camp of them.” Gefred scratched the back of his head. “They’ve been hunting for Joy Vessels for days now. They come and go, but there are still enough of them to kill us all. I don’t care how skilled you are with your gadgets or how many spells you know. We’ll need more people to deal with them.”

“Where do you suggest we’ll get more?” I asked.

“Fuck…” His eyes shifted along the dark horizon. He scratched his head again. “Fine. Come with us. We’ll find you more people back at our place, exchange the formal promises, and seal this deal.”

“And if you back out of the deal, Joy Guardian, I’ll personally rip your throat open before the promise-breaker curse even finds you.” Malis yanked one of the sharpened knitting needles out of her hair bun. “You’ll see why my man calls me ‘stinger.’”

Teekse was just a cluster of awkwardly constructed dwellings that I’d first mistaken for temporary storm shelters. Nothing about this place was even remotely attractive. The deep well of water seemed to be the only anchor that kept Teekse dwellers from abandoning the hamlet and moving away with the next storm.

As the night had just begun, Teekse dwellers were slowly emerging from their homes that the day storm had almost buried under the sand.

“Is that how you live? Do you not have any habitable caves here at all?” I couldn’t hold back the questions while surveying this pitiful collection of crumbling huts.

Piles of rocks, rickety panels of twigs, and grass mats were haphazardly assembled in some resemblance of houses and kept together seemingly by nothing but the sand blown over them during the day.

Malis smirked and spat on the ground. “What? Not fancy enough for you, Joy Guardian?”

“It’s not about being fancy. It’s just…” I searched for words carefully, trying not to sound judgmental, but I couldn’t hide being stunned.

The further I walked away from the temple, the more my perspective of the world shifted. I’d known poverty myself. We never had much when I was a child. But I’d never seen or heard of destitution like here in Teekse, and judging by the attitude of its dwellers, it wasn’t out of ordinary in the kingdom.

Now, I was trying to get a firmer grip on reality that, as I discovered, I’d been sheltered from most of my life.

“Nah, no caves,” Gefred explained. “If we had any, we would’ve long been kicked out of them anyway. There are too many thugs scouring the desert for anything of value and searching for a fight. At least we still have our well.” He pointed ata short pyramidal structure in the middle of the settlement that must be a cover over their well of water. “Are you thirsty?”

My throat was parched. Blood had just stopped trickling from the cut on my neck from Malis’s knife, but the wounds from my severed tendrils still throbbed painfully. I could use both food and water to help me recover. Taking another look around, however, I doubted these people had enough of either to spare.

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