Dragon Guardian (Drakins of Wyrmarach) (13 page)

She took it and held it aloft like Conan the Barbarian,
hamming it up for the video and feeling very other worldly.

Wren almost giggled and glanced over her shoulder at the
Goddess
actress
. The woman looked
different somehow. Wren stared trying to grasp what exactly had changed and
couldn’t quite call it to focus. There was an unspecific familiarity about her.

That’s when Wednesday once again diverged into that alternate
place of twisted reality just like the previous one. Two things happened
simultaneously.

The blade flamed with an arc of bright green light while it
warmed and tingled down her arms. A swirled symbol δ erupted in the metal
of the blade beneath the quillon block.

Wren clearly heard the Goddess’ sharp intake of breath “How
peculiar.”

C-G could make that happen on film but this was real life and
the mark was emerging literally in front of her eyes. The green light glided
down the fuller and out the point in an arch of power descending over Izzy.

The Goddess continued as if the events weren’t startling her
as well. “This blade is yours to use to focus the will of your authority. It
will aid you in discovering the varied powers you are heir to. The foremost is
the power over transition.”

The light drenched around Izzy’s head and shoulders. Her look
erupted as startled then dissolved into horror. When the blinding light
cleared, a silver dragon the size of a great dane stood where Izzy had been
leaning.

With her generous wing span Wren just hoped she didn’t take a
notion to try to fly around the room. Well, there was her proof. Somehow, Wren
though dragons should be much larger than that. Evidently there was a lot she
didn’t understand. A small enchanting voice erupted from the dragon.

“Please, Wren, please don’t tell anyone.”

Wren couldn’t believe what
she saw. Izzy
dropped to the floor once more surrounded by the green glowing ball of light
arching back into the tip of the sword. As the brightness faded Wren was
comforted to see her friend looking completely normal, two hands, two legs, no
wings and a somewhat chagrin expression.

The Goddess spoke gently, “Remember my vessel go forward and
claim your path.” Then with a motion of her hand the air in front of her split
like a curtain. She moved through the parted space and disappeared.

As the remnant of light sucked back into the blade, Wren
stumbled catching herself against the counter.

“What the fuck just happened?” Wren didn’t often throw out
the F-bomb, an indicator of just how rattled she was. She had a sword. A wild
reverenced awe surrounded her. A freaking Goddess person gave her a sword. She
felt a little giddy. Technically it has been her sword all along, she just
hadn’t noticed it.

The edge of the blade was dull much like any replica
ceremonial blade. Still it was a beautiful sword. She lifted the blade again
and swung it as she twirled around. And she didn’t miss her guess that the mark
emerging on the metal had surprised the Goddess.

Wren wasn’t quite sure what to believe, but definitely she
was embroiled in strangeness bigger than the world she’d accepted as real. She
was determined to go with it and find out more. She tested the blade with a
downward swoop.

It was incredibly light in her hands. She had no strain or
problem swinging it, odd. When she examined the thing it had a heavy substance
of quality. Yet in action it was light as a plastic toy. She tested it again.
Yep easy peasy.
She swept her arm lifting the steel into the
air one handed like her favorite bad ass TV heroine from Netflix.
Zena
!

Warrior Queen
,
Whispered across her mind. She laughed.

“Wren?
Are you listening to me? You
can’t tell anyone what I turned into.”

Her thrall over the gift had completely distracted her from
Izzy.

“Humm?
What’s
that.
”
She lowered the blade to focus on the here and now to find Izzy in a complete
emotional melt down, tears streaming down her face.

“Please please, promise me you won’t tell anyone that I
shifted into a tiny freak of a dragon.”

“That was tiny?” How big were other dragon shifters?

“Wren please, I’ve risked everything, sacrificed so much, to
keep from being revealed. I’m defective and being a woman can’t even think of
what would happen if people from my world found out.”

“Sure, sure Iz.
I won’t tell.” That
seemed to calm her friend a little.

“Swear?” Izzy wiped the tears from her eyes. “You won’t tell
anyone, ever.”

“I promise Izzy, I won’t tell anyone. You’re secret is safe
with me.”

Wren didn’t make promises lightly. She’d never tell even if
she didn’t understand Izzy’s reasons for the secret.

The door to the shop rattled as if stuck and blocking someone
from gaining access. The distraction caused her to lower the blade, suddenly
heavy, holding its weight like a croquet mallet. The walnut door flew open
allowing Caleb and Ethan to tumble in and rush toward her clearly in a state of
testosterone overload and ready to do battle on her behalf.

She was relieved to see their stubborn, bossy, way too alpha
selves and fought the urge to reveal her inner sissy-girl by breaking down in
tears. Wren wanted to run into their arms and feel the comfort and safety of
their embrace. All those emotions assailed her giving way to a healthy dose of
pissed off. Where had they been for a freaking week while she’d grieved their
absence? They hadn’t cared enough to come back and try to convince her in some
tangible way that what they’d told her was true?

The sword, she lifted it mesmerized by the flash of steel.
What might it do in contact with Ethan and Caleb? Dare she even tempt the
magic?

The men skidded to a stop looking from Wren to Izzy and back
to Wren clearly concerned about what they’d walked into. Wren they ogled as if
she had three heads while she tested the blade with another swing. Sure enough
it lightened as she cut through the air with it. And it almost seemed to make a
musical singing sound. She twirled and split the air again. Yes, what a
wonderful, beautiful blade.

Izzy kept an eye on her, respect with a healthy dose of fear
measured in. Wren didn’t understand most of what her visitor had said, so
convinced it was a gag, she hadn’t paid close attention. Izzy had notes. They’d
figure it out.

The sword warmed in her hands as she moved. “
oh
yeah.” If the blade had forced Izzy to transform, what
might it do if turned on those two? She’d end all the mystery here and now and
prove once and for all if the two were real dragon shifters and they’d pay for
their disregard.

She advanced on them in her best impression of a pirate Queen
ready to extract her due from the mutinous blackguards. “Prepare to reveal
yourselves you fiendish denizens of another dimension!”

By now Izzy was standing on the counter shouting. “Wren’s not
quite herself but I’d take the threat seriously.”

Caleb and Ethan immediately separated heading opposite ways
around the oak table display of soaps and essential oils as if to flank her.

The blade didn’t seem to be having the same effect on them as
it did Izzy. Damn, she wished the Goddess person had given a clue as to how to
use the darn thing. It didn’t necessarily mean they weren’t dragon shifters,
she wasn’t confident she was able to control how to activate the thing.

“Prepare to be trounced you ravishers of unsuspecting humans!”
She spun again as they closed in on her. She’d teach them to leave her. Well
technically she’d kicked them out, but just the same. Caleb feigned in with a
lunge toward her.

She danced around in a spinning downward stroke at them. A
move they obviously didn’t expect. Caleb jumped back twisting out of her reach,
almost. She thumped him with the tip of the blade over his ribs on an arch as
he turned, down over his loin. Her swing continued catching Ethan across his
pelvis. He’d thrown his hands up pulling back from her in a leap.

Good thing the blade was just a dull prop. She spun “I’ll
teach you to meddle in the affairs of a warrioress’ heart.” She turned to face
the two, ready to advance on them again. The blade started to glow.

Here we go, now maybe
the mojo is working.
Ethan was
crouched
by Caleb
on the hard wooden floor, supporting his brother. Caleb’s shirt was split
hanging around his side and a wet redness that looked suspiciously like blood
soaked into its fabric. She raised the sword to look at it closer.

A red glistening fluid ran down the steel, over the quillon
shaft onto her hand. The edge was honed sharp as a razor. That was very odd. It
had been dull, just a prop replica. The blade burned brighter.

She looked down at the glow and then up at Ethan and Caleb.
Oh dear Goddess, what had she done? She blinked her eyes not sure what she was
seeing. Somehow they were one person, with a split into two almost identical
yet subtly different heads.

“She gave me a sword.” Stating the obvious seemed the
stupidest and most monumental piece of information to reveal to her lovers
after her attack on them. She looked back at the blood all over her hands
watching in fascination as two additional symbols, a γ and a ζ fished
around joining and rejoining her looped one δ in different combinations on
the widest part of the blade.

Of course that instant her legs decided to betray her and
turn to gelatin. She sank toward the inviting hardness of the floor.

Ethan and Caleb’s voices spoke to her from the end of a very
long, dark tunnel. Caleb reassured her. “Hang on baby. Whatever you’ve been
doing overloaded circuits in the cosmic power grid. We felt it all the way in
Wyrmarach
, pulled us right onto your door step. You’re
bound to be drained.”
 
Ethan pushed her
down, making her sit. She had news gravity would do the job just fine without
their assistance.

“Get her head down between her knees.”
 
Caleb sounded worried.

Izzy sounded hysterical. “You’re getting your blood all over
her.” Wren wanted to assure her that everything was fine and as it should be,
though she had a moment to consider that things were quite far from fine and
possibly nothing was as it should be.

Ethan’s deep bass voice murmured. “I don’t think it matters
much at this point.”

“My sword?
I cut you.”

“Everything’s fine, everything’s going to be fine.” As an
indication of the real state of things, that couldn’t be further from the
truth, from her perspective.

 
Her last conscious
thought was
I never pass out.
The world
closed in sending her crashing into blackness.

≽
∞
≼

She woke up
on
her couch feeling much like a southern debutante after a fainting spell,
fragile and stupid. She listened for what might be happening to give her a clue
as to how long she’d been out.

“I need to check on Wren.” Ethan’s voice intruded.

Izzy in full healer, take charge mode, blocked him. “Leave
her alone and let her rest. She’s fully capable of coming out here when she
wakes. You on the other hand are bleeding everywhere. So sit. Keep that towel
on the wound until I’m finished with Caleb. If you really want to be helpful
get me some more superglue. There’s a deep section here that could use another
squirt.”

“Why on earth was the woman using super-glue on their cuts?
She heard the stool scrape on the floor, reminding her she had six tubes of
super glue under the counter that she was going to use to glue felt pads on the
stool legs to cushion it against scratching her floor.

“Here’s a bunch of the stuff.” Ethan grumbled. Well at least
he found the glue.

“Ow! That shit stings.” Caleb shouted.

“Hush. You’re lucky she didn’t cut you deeper or you’d need
real stitches. I learned this from a plastic surgeon friend. As active as you
two are, this will keep the laceration tight while it heals. Otherwise you’d be
a scabby oozy mess for weeks.”

Ethan’s stool scraped again. Wren had a moment of unease
eavesdropping on the three of them. She was just too horrified and embarrassed
to go out there yet.

Ethan punched out the question. “So what the fuck happened
here?” Yeah, she wondered that herself. Good time to stay put and listen.

“The Goddess walked through the door like any Wednesday
shopper. I tried to write down everything she said. Look there at the paper and
don’t get any blood on it.”

A scrabble of paper being pulled across the
counter, before his rich voice continued.

“Goddess, sister, your hand writing is abysmal.”

“Get over it. I was in a hurry and more than a little shocked
to see the Goddess of our race standing in Wren’s store.”

He read slowly. “My chosen daughter, your distress has called
me to this existence. You have…” He paused “What the hell is this word?
Something with a D.”

“Destiny, you moron.”
She answered
before ordering, “Caleb stop wiggling.”

“Your hand is tickling my side.”

Ethan read on. “You have a destiny that will unfold in the
course of events. It is enough that you have been set aside as a sentinel to
our people to open a new era and dispensation of time. Choose your inner circle
well.”

“Yeah that’s when she looked at me and I lost track of what
she was saying.”

Wren felt guilty listening. It was time to face what she’d
done and rejoin the group. Because regardless of all the weirdness, she knew
she’d finally found her family, if they’d have her after what she’d done, well
almost done.

As it was she startled them. “She was talking about Izzy and
that she could see I’d already started to choose well.”

Izzy commanded Caleb “Stay still,” then pointed a bloody
gloved finger to Ethan. “Don’t you move
either.
”

“Keep reading. I want to hear it. I missed most of what she
said in the distraction of thinking I was being punked.”

Ethan looked back at the paper “I am Gelfin. You’ve made the
acquaintance of mine own lineage sons, Caleb and Ethan.”

Caleb interrupted. “Gelfin is one of the names our Goddess
uses. But what does she mean by lineage sons. How can we be in the family lines
of the
Goddess.
That’s not possible. You must have
written what she said wrong.”

“I wrote what she said. It’s right.” Izzy’s hand shook while
she glued.

“Keep reading.” Wren wanted to hear the rest.

“Your journey will be long and fraught with hardship.
Sacrifice will be required from all. Your powers will manifest in the course of
your discovery.”

Wren moved in closer to the group. “That’s when she gave me
the sword.”

She looked around, “Where is it?”

Caleb pointed to the end of the counter away from her. “It’s
right there. I think maybe we’d better get a scabbard for you to put it in and
maybe you don’t take it out until we know a little more about it.”

She walked around to look at it closer. The blade had only
the original mark, δ which looked similar to a partial infinity symbol
that had emerged when the Goddess handed it to her.

The other two she’d seen swirling around to join with hers
were gone. She wasn’t sure what the significance of that was. Actually she was
a bit lost as to the significance of anything happening in her recent life.

“I renew this vestige of authority and office as it once
belonged to your ancestor and former guardian of the people.”