Page 8 of Winter Princess
“We’re immortal, lass.”
“Oh. So you’re not mages?”
“Nah, we’re Guardians.”
“I know you are, Bri- my mother told me she’d send her guards, but what species are you?”
“We’re Guardians, with a capital G. One of the five races: Humans, Mages, Demons, Gods and Guardians.”
“So, there’s like a lot of you? A Guardian realm? Little baby Guardians? Do they look as good – I mean, cool. Great. You’re Guardians. Ehm, how does that make you different from mages?”
“We’re immortal,” Storm sighs. I guess he doesn’t like me asking questions. Which kind of makes me want to ask even more.
“And no, there aren’t many of us,” his brother elaborates. “We’re created by the Gods to serve and protect them. Hence the name. We live in their realms, and no, there are no baby Guardians. We don’t procreate like humans do-“ he says it with a certain distaste “-we are created when we’re needed.”
“So, let me get my head around that. You’re not born, you’re never children, you start as adults?”
“Aye, makes it easier for everyone, no dirty nappies,” Arc jokes. There’s a certain strain in his voice though that makes me turn around to look at him.
“Then why do you sound Scottish?” The other three guys roar in laughter while Arc’s already rosy face turns bright red.
“My creator wanted to go back to her roots… She thought she’d enjoy hearing a bit of Scots.” His voice turns bitter. “But it made her melancholic so she sent me to Queen Beira instead.”
“And I’m glad she did, mate,” Crispin says, now serious. “We would have been lost without you yesterday.”
We stay quiet for a while. We’ve finally left the city behind and are now driving through arable farmland. Fields are lining the road, with fat sheep staring at us dispassionately.
I can still feel yesterday’s exhaustion in my body, and close my eyes sleepily. Just a little nap.
***
I’m swimming in the sea. Jellyfish are circling me, dancing with me, while a group of dolphins are watching. I am part of the sea and the sea is part of me. When I swim, the creatures of the water come to join me. When I need help, they are there. When I am lonely, they give me company. I am the sea’s creation and water is my element. I am born to control the water – it lives through me. I dance a graceful pirouette with one of the dolphins, giggling as her brother shows off with an especially complicated jump –
“Wyn, snap out of it!”
“Princess, you have to stop, you’re – damn it, there’s water in the engine, we have to…”
A slap against my cheek rips me from my dream. Crispin is staring at me, his shock mirroring my own. My feet are ankle-deep in water; the car is flooded. Oops. That wasn’t planned. But then, neither was the earthquake and the attack of the cutlery. My magic is messing with me – it either wants to kill me or it’s laughing in my face.
Storm is fighting a spluttering engine. Luckily, we are alone on this country road; I don’t think other drivers would take kindly to his swerving.
“Pull over,” Frost tells his brother. “Wyn, the water is still rising, would you mind making it stop?”
“Eh, sure.” I concentrate really hard. Then, a moment later, I admit what an idiot I am. “How do I do that?”
“Are you serious?” Storm shouts. “I’m having trouble believing you’re Queen Beira’s daughter!”
“Well, she never bothered to come and teach me!” I shout back. A wave breaks over Storm’s head. Oh oh, was that me? Sorry.
Crispin grips my hand. “You have to feel for your magic. What is it doing right now?”
I concentrate until I see the swirling magic tendrils around me, forming a thick white web on the bottom of the car. Water is seeping from it. I didn’t know my magic could do that. There’s some serious chemical stuff going on, converting air to water in a split second. I carefully pull back a few of the magic strands, destroying the net. With a tremble, it collapses in on itself and a cloud of steam bursts from within the car-lake. The water is still there, but at least it’s no longer rising. I grin proudly, expecting to see some happy faces, but no such luck. Four stern guys are looking at me.
“Hey, at least I managed to stop it myself this time,” I mumble, looking down at our wet feet. One of their phones is lying beneath the water’s surface, another victim of my magic.
We get out of the car and wait while Frost calls the AA. At least it’s nice and sunny, not your usual dreich Scottish weather. The guys are in a surly mood so I sit by myself, trying to make sense of what’s happened in the past two days. It’s crazy, there’s no better word for it. I expected something to happen on my birthday, but not this. I didn’t think I’d have so much power, and so little control.
I can see the sea in the distance, which means we’ve made it to the West coast, but I have no idea where we actually are.
