Page 2 of Bear Protector
Coco let out a squawk. “The Chancellor can kiss my…bad language.”
Before Kiera could say another word to her closest companion and animal guide, the regal bird flew off into the brisk air. Smiling, Kiera breathed in a whiff of the unique scent of her village at the center of old Chicago. There was coffee and destiny in the air. She looked at the ancient grandfather clock at the far wall of her bedroom and sprang out of bed, shaking her head at the irony.
Nine minutes past nine in the morning.
Of course.
Her fate seemed to be bound to the number nine. It had been nine years to the day since Kiera had lost her mother, and soon after that, had learned that she was one of the Chosen, and would be matched to Coco, her witch familiar. Nine months ago, the region’s leader, Chancellor Minassus, had formally announced that during this coming winter, Kiera would fulfill her role as the ninth Chosen witch, by casting a powerful spell to transform the newest troop of Kodiak bear shifters. The Chancellor had also switched Kiera’s room in the fortress to the one set aside for the Chosen nine weeks ago, allowing her to demonstrate and refine her spells after years of training. The region’s latest Chosen, Talise, was born nine days ago. A little over nine hours ago, Kiera received word that Commander Xander Oslo would visit the village’s Great Hall for their first one-on-one, in-person meeting. With her luck, something would happen nine minutes before their scheduled time to meet.
And nine days from today, Kiera would carry out the shifter transformation spell.
Thank goodness Chancellor Minassus had agreed to Coco’s attendance at Kiera’s meeting with Commander Oslo. Usually, the Chancellor would not tolerate the presence of other witches’ familiars outside of the fortress, but he had never been able to keep Coco from taking on her Osprey form and leaving whenever she pleased. But today was different. Today, Kiera’s request carried weight. Until the last selected man was transformed to a Kodiak bear shifter this season as a direct result of her witchcraft, she was the most important person in the region.
Commander Xander Oslo was next in importance.
She was already nervous about meeting him in person for the first time. Everyone around knew Xander Oslo. His bravery was legendary, but his overbearing presence and almost brutal temper made him almost as feared as Chancellor Minassus. With this awareness top of mind, she jumped out of bed. It was time to get ready, meet with Chancellor Minassus, and force some breakfast in her already queasy stomach before the big meeting with Commander Oslo.
Heading to the window, she opened the shutters the rest of the way so that natural light could fill the room. The windows were frosted over. There used to be a time when Kiera looked forward to winter. Back then, there were long, snowy yet cozy nights and days filled with playing in the high puffy snowbanks with her friends in the village. Mama would make the most delicious soups and stews, pies and cakes, and fluffy biscuits that Kiera would split open while they were still steaming hot and slather in butter and honey. A mixture of the two would inevitably drip down her chin, earning her a disapproving glance from her mother. But she could never quite help herself. They were so good.
Now, when the days grew shorter, and a chill touched the air, dread filled her heart—as it did the souls of everyone in the region, witches, shifters and humans alike. The destroyers came during the winter. They would swim to the island from every direction, making their way to the mouth of old Chicago’s shipping canals. Their only goal was to destroy, kill and lay waste to the little that was left of the world. After the destroyers first arrived hundreds of years ago, the after-effects were felt around the globe. Regions around the world erected high walls infused with magic and reinforced with powerful spells, to keep the monsters out. Unrelenting, the destroyers would try to breach these mystic outer wall, once sturdy, robust and impenetrable, but made weaker with the cold and ice and the passage of time.
The region’s covens of witches had been able to keep them out for hundreds of years, using several powerful containment spells. But something in these monsters’ persistent nature helped them to discover an emerging weakness in these mystic boundaries nine years ago. Perhaps this was common in other parts of the world. Or maybe the ruthless creatures had adapted over the three hundred years since they had first appeared and decimated more than eighty percent of the globe’s land masses. It didn’t help that vast sections of the infrastructure erected almost three hundred years ago were aging. These outer walls were in serious need of replacement, yet difficult to undertake due to the scarce amount of sturdy building resources on the island.
Some or all of these pre-conditions made the destroyers come to these walls to try again each winter. On the coldest, windiest of days, the region’s citizens would hunker down and cower in terror, hoping and praying that the savage creatures would not make it inside. The Chancellor called the destroyers’ winter arrival the ‘reverse hibernation’. They would emerge and attack the region’s outer walls during the winter months. According to the patrols assigned from the Regional Protection Unit, destroyers would sleep during the summer. This military unit discovered that during the warm months, the creatures around would gather on a tiny, remote island northwest of the city. The area used to be called Charles Mound, the highest elevation in Northern Illinois. Most of the land around it was gone now, submerged under water and completely wiped out when the destroyers first arrived several hundred years ago.
During these warm months, most of the creatures slept in holes they dug for themselves once the ground thawed enough for them to dig. They seemed to soak in the heat of the sun’s rays during those summer months of sleep, and the females that mated during the winter would bear their young early in the season. Their new numbers, the babies, grew to maturity during those sleeping times as well. After this pattern was first discovered, the Regional Protection Unit had directed the entire summer patrols to the slaughter of all the sleeping monsters. Hundreds of destroyers were killed. Too bad these creatures learned quickly. By the end of that season, the creatures had established a rotation for the males. Some would remain awake while others slept, on guard to avert annihilation.
The destroyers’ temporary absence during the heat of summer did not offer the citizens a moment’s rest. That time of year was devoted to fortification and stockpiling. Teams of craftsmen would repair fences and barricades within the villages. The Azzera, a coven of witches specializing in casting barrier spells, would work with the Regional Protection Unit soldiers as well as carpenters and masons, to replace and reinforce aging sections of the outer walls that made up the region’s first line of defense. Farmers and teams of women and older children would grow fruits and vegetables, raise cattle and poultry, and preserve meats for the long, cold months spent behind the high stone and wooden barriers.
Every action was undertaken in preparation for the return of the demonic creatures which existed only to wreak havoc on all of Azmark. It was a necessary set of steps to ensure their winter survival inside the fortified walls. Unlike most of the townspeople, Kiera did not partake in the flurry of work that was done before the first storm of every winter. Her job was to perfect and strengthen her magic so that she could successfully complete this year’s shifter transformation ceremony. Newly transformed Kodiak bear shifters would join the Regional Protection Unit, the army of highly trained soldiers led by their alpha, Xander Oslo. They were the last line of defense when destroyers breached the walls and attacked during the winter months. Which was the reason today’s meeting was of critical importance.
Kiera went to the small bathroom connected to her room. Her personal handmaid, Aleena, slept in the bedroom on the other side, and had already filled the tub with warm water for her. While she bathed, she wondered what Xander Oslo would be like in person. If the rumors were true, he would be loud, short-tempered, impatient, autocratic, borderline abusive, unwilling to listen, and would fight to get his way at all costs. Whether it was true or not remained to be seen. Stepping out of the tub, she wrapped herself in her bathrobe and brushed her teeth using the basin beside the bathroom sink. Life was easier when the water ran freely from faucets, but it had been close to nine years since the region used anything but well water.
She returned to her room and dressed quickly in what had become her public uniform of sorts. It comprised of a simple, cream, knee-length tunic top, covered by a dark gray, floor-length hooded robe, thick black stockings, and black leather ankle boots. Coco flew inside from the open window as Kiera was twisting her long hair into a knot at the back of her head.
“Excellent timing,” Coco squawked from her perch on the bed post.
“You had better hurry,” Kiera replied. “We need to be downstairs by ten o’clock.”
“I need very little time, dear.”
“Thank the stars for that.”
Coco leaped to the floor, and as usual, took her human form within seconds, stepping over to the chair for the clothes she had laid out. “See?” she announced, pulling her black, long-sleeved, floor-length gown over her head. She did a half turn in each direction after the fabric fell down her naked body to the floor, covering everything up to the top of her neck. “I’m ready. Even my hair is done.”
“It is,” Kiera agreed, admiring the long, dark, curly tresses that fell around Coco’s shoulders as she zipped up her white knee-high patent leather boots. “You cast the best personal grooming spells all around town.”
“I’ve had centuries of practice, darling.” Coco came to Kiera’s side and locked arms with her. “Shall we go?”
Nodding, they left her room near the top of the tower and descended the four flights of long, narrow staircases leading to the main floor of the fortress. The stone walls were cool to the touch as she skimmed her hands over it. Winter would be here soon.
On their way to the kitchen, they passed room after room on both sides of the long, torch-lit hall. Classrooms, meeting rooms, a large assembly hall, the Chancellor’s private study, four conjuring rooms, and two laboratories which housed beakers, chemicals, jars of preserved various salts and animal parts, along with several long tables where the scientists worked. At one end of the long, stone building was the main library, a large room extending five stories high. It held every dusty book, parchment, grimoire and scroll recovered from before the first destroyers arrived, along with every book and text written in the years since. Witches such as herself relied on the more recent documents most of all since they provided insight into the development and usage of spells —although there was always something to be learned in the books from the past, too.
One of Kiera’s favorite pastimes was spending late evening hours reading about life before the destroyers. She would sneak into the main floor library and read by candlelight long after curfew passed, after everyone else in the fortress had retired to their sleeping quarters. Coco would keep watch, so whenever the Chancellor’s personal guards did their rounds, Kiera would snuff out the candle’s flame and hide until it was safe to continue. So far, they had never been caught, although there had been a few near misses. Since then, they kept their visits to a minimum. The punishment—three days of seclusion, and only bread and water—was not worth the risk, nor was being out of favor with the Chancellor.
At the other end of the long hall was the kitchen, with the dining room extending from it. Most of the fortress witches had already eaten an early breakfast. Kiera did not mind the empty eating room. She was usually in no mood for making small talk with the majority of the fortress residents, and today was no different. She and Coco settled in at a small prep table with bowls of porridge, two apples, and glasses of warm milk.
Years ago, the kitchen used to be her favorite place, even more so than the library had become. The warmth and bustling activity would help her relax. Her mother was an excellent cook, and took great pleasure in showing Kiera everything there was to know, from chopping vegetables to crushing herbs for soups and stews. Living in the fortress did not diminish her love for cooking. The kitchen staff also seemed to enjoy her company, which meant better cuts of meat and bigger dessert portions as a reward for volunteering to help. Somehow, they weren’t as welcoming to Coco, but it was more her sharp tongue and harsh, centuries-old expressions that made them cross.
