Guardians Book One - Magic Rising

Chapter Forty Eight

"Prepare!" Vicky had snapped the order to the Guardians gathered around her and it was perhaps the moment of Kath's foretelling that had allowed to them stand ready and draw their wards around them as the field suddenly became filled with beings, leaping and snarling in frustration as they were repelled by the sudden wards in their way.

The massed ranks seemed endless but Kath could feel – could See – it was but a few bodies, in truth, that the creatures surrounding them were formed by the errant Guardians who ranked behind the Lord of Darkness. The pillars of flames, the jaguar creatures snarling at the feet of the Guardian of Night – they were parts of the Guardian himself. There were faces there she didn't recognise, just as she hadn't recognised Steel and War, but they were equal in their surprisingly small numbers. As if it matters. It comes down to the two of them...

And at their head was the Lord of Darkness himself, and just as Kath had seen in her vision, his body was dying, clothed in rags, the fight between the two entities trying to possess it obvious on his face. He slammed a hand against his chest and the thin lips of the borrowed face pulled into a crazed grin. "I have found you, at last, Brother mine...you and your friends, your lost friends." If he himself was frustrated at having lost the element of surprise, it didn't show.

"Brother. There is no need for this to be the case..." even now, the Lord of Light reached out his free hand to his brother, who shrieked in laughter.

"No need! You began this! You threw me aside – you threw aside what these beings would offer you, to whore them out to every selfish bastard human on this planet? Oh, no. This is the only way." His borrowed face flickered for a moment and Kath saw the man she'd seen in the Lord's memories – young, wild-eyed, not unhandsome but afraid, angry, lashing out. For a moment she was reminded of Ben...she, too, had a brother. Would she attempt to save him if he threatened the world? Yes, yes, of course I would. I understand.

"Then let it be so," Victoria's face had taken on the strange depth and serenity Kath had before seen in her husband's; her grey eyes glittered with something more than human and the soft smile she turned on them was older than half the world.

"You don't need to fight," she said to Lady, her voice ringing. Lady shook her head.

"Mother. Do you think I'd leave you? I will fight by your side." Her lips tightened. "I am a Guardian before I am a human."

"How touching!" shrieked the Dark Lord. "You can die together, the first to die, and I will cleanse this world!" From somewhere about his broken body he pulled a sword identical to Vicky's. "Kill them all!"

The Guardian of War laughed, deep in her ear, and Kath felt them move forward. Lady pushed her back, behind her, and Day closed in to surround her with brightness as she met the eyes of the Guardian of Night, her voice hollow with pain.

"I loved you, and mayhap one day will again. But for now, you will not harm us."

"You lost my love when you left me to sell out to the vermin masses of this planet," snarled the Night in return, although Kath felt the waves of his pain as the jaguar creatures leapt; Lady sprang forward, whirling and turning to engage them both, pushing them back from Day and Kath. Pes sprang forward to help her, his staff spinning in his hands, waves of what felt like a bleak poison bearing back against the bolts of darkness. Magic and physical. I can't keep up...she heard Pes scream as one of the claws of the night found its target, and the sound drove into her heart. Lady roared her fury and anguish out as she sprang like a tiger, forcing both the creatures back and away from Pes, who even then was sending out his warm powers of healing to the other Guardians before his own injuries. Guardians she didn't even know, shapes she couldn't even name, were tearing at one another with magic, with limbs and teeth, and even trying to direct the few who could hear her was a near impossible job, even through thoughts above words. Anonymous automata soldiers – the creatures of War – engaged with the twining plant beings and walking flames that rushed them from the other side; the scent of a thousand bodies – of sweat, blood, ash - was overwhelming.

"Keep listening!" Lady screamed over the howls to Kath, whose eyes had closed against the sudden crashes of bodies and weapons. It was easier to See without sight, to feel who was pushing where. Nonetheless her hands gripped around her dirk. Pes, left! Fire is there. She could feel Wisdom and Innocence moving back to back – not fighting but warding, pushing their weight out around the park to keep out any stray humans as much as anything. The vibrations of movement were so vast and immediate tracking them was almost beyond her powers. But something still felt wrong, even as she blinked briefly to watch the Lords of Light and Darkness duel in their borrowed bodies, ancient swords crossed, not even trying for tactics as much as desperation.

"But he's dying," she cried to Day; she could feel the possessed body tearing apart under the strain of the original soul and the Dark Brother – the Lord of Light was easily pushing him back, and yet he was laughing, even now. She opened her eyes, and watched as Vicky pushed the crumpling body to the ground, pity in her face – and suspicion – as he threw down his sword, held his hands up, a thin stream of blood issuing from his lips. The Guardians stilled, the endless waves of magic pulsing to a halt as they all turned to the fallen brother as one. A soft wave of snickering hissed out from the jaguars, and Kath saw Lady and Pes draw closer together. Lady was sporting a range of scratches on her arms and face, and Pes' staff had a crack down the length of it, his right cheek a monstrous purple, his nose twisted at an angle.

"This...body! So weak!" the laughter segued into chokes as the life started to dim in the rheumy borrowed eyes.

"Stay back," Kath whispered aloud, hoping they'd hear her, hoping they'd know. "He's got a trick, I'm sure of..."

And her words were cut off as something knocked the air from her lungs – no, knocked her mind from itself, hurled her aside in her own head and stumbled forward – hands that were hers and yet were not were picking up the dark sword and her lips parted in the same screams of laughter as she – he – the Lord of Darkness through her lips – said, "My little neice, of sorts, this child. This body has known another soul, oh yes – this body is too pathetic to guard itself, to close the channels behind it – this body will do. Just. FINE!"