Page 25 of The Eye of the Fifth
Flickering light spilled over a female on her knees. Spiralling dark, wet hair hung over her shoulders, and her clothes and rich brown skin were spattered with blood he was fairly sure was not her own. Pointed ears poked through her matted soaking hair, two small golden hoops through the cartilage decorating the left.
She stirred, lifting her head.
Bright, mossy green eyes stared at him for a moment, then her gaze dipped down his body, across his bare skin, all the way to his manhood. Her bloodied mouth twitched, then she said in a throaty voice, ‘One last hurrah before inevitable death… is this some sort of guilt-ridden apology for a wrongful condemnation?’
From the way the common tongue rolled out of her smirking mouth, Gedeon gleaned she was a female from Vrethian’s capital, and quite clearly not a threat. Certainly not in the state she was in, with her hands bound with iron behind her back and thick exhaustion on her voice. Gedeon crouched before her, his voice a low hum as he asked curiously, ‘Who are you?’
‘You don’t know who I am?’ she whispered in a sort of outrage.
He had the feeling she was mocking him. ‘Clearly, or I would not have asked,’ Gedeon replied. ‘Tell me who you are.’
She smiled again, though this time it had a hint of bitterness to it. ‘Come closer and I’ll tell you.’
Gedeon marked the water dripping from her hair. The water that was falling without splashing on his floor.
She was not really here. It was a projection. Thoughhowshe was doing it was unexplainable. Unless she’d been in his rooms before, the probability of which was extremely low, it was impossible.
But he consented to her demand and leaned forward, just as she in turn shuffled closer and whispered dramatically, ‘I’m the Earth Warden.’
Gedeon pulled back slightly. ‘You lie.’
‘Am not.’
‘There is no Earth Warden,’ Gedeon said coldly. ‘Roheia never chose another after the last died. That line was ended.’
‘I have no reason to lie,’ the female slurred with a shrug as she sat back on her heels. ‘Believe me or not, I don’t give a fuck. It won’t matter when I’m dead anyway.’
If the female really was fated to die, it would be easy for the bold deception to rise on her lips. Any lie to save herself from death. And yet…
He knew it to be true. Against his better judgement, he knew it as well as he knew himself as he searched her grassy eyes for a hint of dishonesty. The truth was unmistakably staring back at him. A sudden rush of heat coursed through his blood. It was a nod, a confirmation from the Fire Mother that the girl spoke true. She was the Earth Warden.
It changed everything.
‘Where are you?’ Gedeon said in a level voice, though his mind raced. The Empress would need to know as soon as possible. He would have to tell her, and possibly even be the one to carry out the task of ensuring the female met her end, for his mother would surely want her dead-
The earthling scoffed. ‘What sort of a question is that?’
So, she was completely unaware she was projecting. Was it the fact they were both Wardens that made it possible to project without first knowing the place? Surely he would have known, would have been able to project to Naal Westerra, or the lost Water Warden whose name always slipped his mind, to find their whereabouts, if that bond existed?
A question for another time, perhaps, but one not to be ignored.
‘You’re fae,’ the female abruptly remarked, as though she’d only just noticed. She frowned, eyes narrowing. ‘Whoareyou?Are you a prisoner of the Union too? And where are your clothes? Not that I’m complaining.’
Gedeon almost laughed, despite his concern. She certainly had a playful mouth, though there was a sadness beneath it. Subtle, and well masked with sarcasm, but clearly there. ‘What is your name, Earth Warden?’
Her head started to sag a little then as whatever sedative her captor had given her began to take hold. ‘Your name,’ he repeated a little louder, but she was fading fast, and appeared not to have heard him before slumping to the side, her physical body collapsing to unconsciousness.
Then she disappeared entirely, the projection of her spirit-self ending as swiftly as it had begun, leaving no trace she had been there at all.
???
The revelation of the Earth Warden kept Gedeon awake through the night. He rose with the sun feeling more fatigued than he had done in quite some time, unable to rid her beaten face from his mind. Those green, hopeless eyes were burned into his memory.
It would be a kindness to take her from life. The prestige of the Warden title was not what it had once been, and Vrethian had followed Zarynth’s footsteps at the Empress’ intervention in the Great Earthling War, in no longer following the faith of the Four. The Earth Warden would find no friend in the faces of those who governed Vrethian’s capital, and he almost pitied her misfortune.
Yes, death would be the kindest thing.
Gedeon approached his mother’s chambers at first light. It was likely she would still be sleeping, but his eagerness to share the burdening news with her was too great to ignore any longer. ‘Please inform my mother that I wish to speak with her,’ he ordered the sentry guarding the large, gold encrusted doors to the Empress’ rooms. ‘And do apologise for the early rise… it cannot wait.’
