Monday, September 15, 2008

Chapter 1.1

Chapter 1
The Guardians
Erista


Heat and pressure were powerful things. They could turn one type of stone into another over time. The more pressure and heat compounded on a substance the more dramatic the effect, but Erista was simply a woman. An inorganic substance had little to nothing to lose under such conditions, but Erista felt that she may lose her life if something did not change. The expensive silk was woven in such a way that it could not and would not breathe. Sweat gathered and dribbled with uncomfortable sloth down the crease in back.

It would be rude to move in an attempt to assuage her discomfort, so, as the royal woman she was, she stayed perfectly still and watched the match before her as stoically as she could manage. At first she did not know what to expect. The late Empress had left behind her guardians in her death. Now they protected Erista, but a few retired at their proper time and now they had to be replaced.

Empress Erista was not warned on what to expect. It was a shock to find out that her prospective guardians would kill one another, but her husband simply gripped her wrist and squeezed it tightly to keep her silent. None of her guardians came to her defense, and she felt her heart simmer in resentment.

Now she had to watch as pair after pair of young women tried to kill one another. Soon, she told herself, it would be over, and she could undress and lounge on her private balcony. An airy linen chemise would feel luxurious after her time spent in the summer heat. It would also ease her mind to be away from the man she was forced to marry. Her eyes cut sideways to watch him warily for a moment before turning back to the display of violence.

One of the young women caught the other in the belly and slashed right across. Bile rose up in Erista's throat as her innards pushed out of the gaping flesh. It was a heinous mess of blood and guts, but the young woman simply tried to push them back in with one hand and fight with the other. It was a clumsy endeavor compared to her previous performance. Her fluid motions were chopping and desperate. Her opponent simply side stepped out of her thrust and slammed down on her arm. The blade she had been using fell out of her weakened grip.

She died in her own desperate need to succeed. Erista could not understand what drove her to such lengths. Had she surrendered the waiting healers could have patched her up. They could have saved her. She bit down on the inside of her cheek.

Another pair were put before her. They bowed to her and then to the king and then to one another. Both of them were tall and sturdy. They squared off and then saluted one another. Erista noticed that one of them was blond. It then struck her that none of the guardians were ever blond, and none of them had any eye color other than brown. She furrowed her brow and then hastily smoothed it out. Frowning, even in thought, was unbecoming of an Empress watching people die for the right to die for her.

She suppressed a sigh and clasped her delicate, pale fingers together and rested them on her lap. They were almost startling on the deep red of her gown, but she always fancied that she looked good in the color.

The blond girl fascinated her. She moved with the grace of a predator as she and her opponent, Gretta (she thought it was), circled one another, but she seemed uncomfortable with the sword. The looked more like a dead weight in her hand than a weapon. Gretta was fluid and confident. Her blade was at the same perfect angle as the others. Her face was set with the grim determination to kill.

Gretta was the first to attack. The blond girl parried and stepped to the side. The sword slipped down a little too far, but it mattered little. She was not there to catch the blow. The blond's blade slid up with the hiss of metal rubbing against metal. It was so close that Erista could have sworn she cut Gretta, but there was no blood. The air whistled around the sharp edge as it arched up and the pummel was directed at Gretta's virtabrae.

But Gretta flowed from her hips out to the tips of her hair out of the way in one elegant motion and then attempted to kick the other woman out. She was too close and the momentum just was not there. The blond was only pushed back a couple of steps and a little unbalanced, but Gretta disrupted her own concept of center as well and hopped a couple of times until she too regained her control.

The two woman battled one another silently, but there was a special kind of goading between them. Gretta fought with perfection. Each position and each move was executed with grace, discipline and absolute perfection. Though the blond managed to hold off every attempt at her life she did so with the sloppy luck of instinct. It was only a matter of time before the blade was forced out of her grip and kicked out of the circle.

The result was as unexpected as the senseless death of the others. She smiled at Gretta. Her smile was terrifying and it sent chills down all the way down to Erista's finger tips and were followed with a constricting sensation in her muscles. Gretta faltered her in attack and the blond was on top her. She grappled Gretta in the blink of an eye and Gretta drew up her sword in an attempt to beat herself free with the pommel, but her chin was thrust up and to the side and she fell limp.

The healers knew that Gretta could still be alive and rushed into the circle as the blond contender slowly allowed her to slide down onto the floor. “She is dead,” Erista saw her mouth say. The healers confirmed this and the blond bowed to Erista with a face so unlike the others that it puzzled Erista. She wanted to stop her and to get a closer look. Is she sad? The Empress asked.

“A barbaric ritual,” the new bane of Empress Erista said on the other side of the Emperor's throne. “It should be abolished.”

“My dear Lily,” the Emperor said with a patience he never had with Erista, “It must be done for the happiness of the people. They expect their beloved Empress to be protected only by their best young women.” He was so affectionate with the mage that Erista felt her flesh heat up with unwelcome jealousy. If he showed as much concern for her as he did for his stupid High Mage, Erista might find a little happiness.

“But to have them die?”

“What else would you have them do?” he asked. “They failed their entire life. They have nothing left to live for.”

Erista's cheeks burned like fire.

“Shall we begin the next rounds, Your Majesty?” Guardian Matiline asked in her usual dead pan voice.

“Yes,” Erista said tightly, far more so than she had intended, “Certainly.”

“So be it,” Matiline said and signaled to the guardian on the ground.

“What do you think of them so far, Matiline?” Erista asked.

Matiline was silent for a moment, but Erista could hear her plodding along into the answer. “Most of them are find choices to protect your majesty,” she said, “But the last winner... I am... uncertain about her.”

“I think I like her,” Erista said. “I cannot place it.”

“She worries me,” Matiline said honestly, “I would strongly suggest dismissing her from your service if she succeeds.”

“I do not think I could,” Erista said. “It is her entire life, after all.”

“I do not know,” Matiline said slowly. The uncertainty was edging into her voice. “She is good to some extent, but she has not completed her training. I just know she has not.”

“How do you know?”

“It is not that I know, Your Majesty. It is simply that she does not act like the others. She stands out as the others do not.”

“You mean she has personality,” the High Mage, Lily, interrupted. “May the gods forbid it that someone should have personality. You are right, Matiline. Send her away. She'll surely kill her majesty in her sleep.”

“Do not be rude,” Erista's husband admonished his advisor mildly. “But I do agree, she should be sent away. I do not like your guards having personality. It is unseemly. My mother's never did, and neither did my late gentle wife. Personality is not good for body guards.”

Erista frowned faintly, but inclined her head in apparent agreement, but she continued to think about what it would be like to have the blond girl protect her. She was lonely, and she never felt more alone before—not even on her wedding night.

The blond girl was back. She reached to the guardian for a sword, but the guardian shook her head. They exchanged a few words cordially and the applicant nodded before entering the ring. Two swords were handed to the girl who followed. “The applicants for Her most lovely and glorious Majesty, the Empress Erista, guardian service stand before you as Marcia and Amazon.”
They bowed before the royal thrones and then to one another before the deadly circling began. Marcia attached first. Her swords moved threw the air to trap Amazon with no place to go, but the girl moved with the same fluidness that her dead opponent from before her used. Her short hair rose and fell as if she was under clear water and she moved like a dancer around and out of the way of the blades. She ducked, leaned, and rolled as if every movement was choreographed. She was always one step ahead of Marcia.

“Does she even try to fight?” Erista asked.

“It will not last much longer,” Matiline promised, unaware of Erista's rising anxiety. She did not want the blond woman to be cut to ribbons.

“Why is it, Guardian, that Marcia was given two swords and Amazon none?”“Because Amazon should not succeed,” Matiline said. “She needs to die and leave this calling to someone more worthy.”

“And who are to decide who is worthy?” Lily asked. “If you could look and see this process would not be needed.” Lily's voice tense and angry, but was nothing unusual as far as Erista knew her.

“Now, Lily,” Varan said reproachfully.

“My apologies, Your Majesty.”

“Please try to be more patient with our customs. I know they are new to you, so I will forgive you, but you just check your passion.”

“I do apologize, Your Majesty, I just wish that they would send her away rather than rip her to ribbons. It seems unfair to be so cruel to make her work so hard just to throw her away.”

“She is no more than a beast raised to be what she is,” he said. “Do not fret, my friend. Everything is well with the world.”

Erista held her tongue. The last thing she wanted to do was agree with Lily. She turned away to watch the women fight again, but the fight was over within a second her attention was focused back onto it. Both of Marcia's arms were broken and one of her legs was mangled beyond recognition. Erista grasped at the brutality of it all.

“And she is untouched,” Lily said. “Two swords and bare hands.” She snorted in disgust.
“She will fight the rest of them.”

“That hardly seems fair,” Lily said dryly. “Perhaps you should go fight her yourself to see if she is worthy of this task or not, or perhaps you hope to tire her out so that you can do so later?”
“Enough of this,” Erista said. “She has proven herself to me. Call her up.”

“Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but--”

“No,” she said firmly. “Call her up to me or by the gods I will go down to her.”
Matline took a deep, restraining breath and then nodded. “As you wish, Your Majesty.”

“As I wish,” she agreed under her breath.

“Amazon of the Nameless, I call you before Her Majesty's feet,” Matiline bellowed.
Amazon walked up the steps without question. She stopped half way to bow before the royal house and then knelt before the Empress. She bowed her head and kept her eyes schooled on Erista's feet.

“Amazon, do you know why I call you?”

“No, Your Majesty,” she said without even a glance upward.

“You have proven yourself excellent at combat with your hands, but before I continue, I must ask you why you lack so with weapons.”

“Weapons are unnatural things,” she said. “They slow movement and make her depend far too much on them. Hands and feet are natural weapons if one learns how to use them appropriately.”

“Do you believe you could defend me with no weapons, Amazon?” she asked.

“If I had to jump in front of a blade and be cleaved in two, I would protect you. My life was dedicated to the task since I was old enough to begin my training.”

“I hope that you never have to go to such measures, Amazon, but it would please me to have you be there should I be in need of it.”

“It would do me much honor, Your Majesty.”

“And it would please me to have you there.”

“Your Majesty, may I present you with a gift?”

“Certainly.”

Amazon stood and whistled. Erista glanced around, but when she looked back a gasp escaped her lips. There, beside her newest guardian was the most handsome royal hound that she had ever seen. “This is Ernest,” she said. “I cannot fully give him to you, because he is attached to me, but for as long as he lives or I am in your service he will serve you faithfully. He will love you and be your friend when you feel all have forsaken you.”

“Where did you get him?” Erista asked.

Amazon shrugged. “He came to me and would not leave. He is well trained through.”

She demonstrated several tricks and when they were done Erista held out her hand and he went to her. He sniffed her hand daintily before nuzzling it. She reached her hand over and patted him on the head. “Thank you, Amazon. A friend is just what I needed.”

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