afternoon. Facing an archangel, even though I hadn’t fought him, changed my perception of things. I didn’t need to impress or be intimidated by these Guardians even though most of them were older than I was.
Combining what my team had told me, my dreams, and what I recalled, I explained what I saw and heard.
“We,” I glanced left and right to include my friends, “concluded they’re doing to the humans exactly what they did to me, except I survived the excessive surge of despair. Humans are more fragile, so their minds shut down. Did anyone survive the attacks in your sectors?”
Esras and the twins shook their heads.
“We have two survivors,” I said. “A woman and an old man.”
“Can we talk to them?” someone asked.
“Maybe they could describe their attackers,” another added.
“Or we could retrieve their memories,” another chimed in. “It is hard to prepare to fight an enemy you know nothing about.”
My gaze connected with Esras, then Solaris and Lunaris.
Sheesh, why did she always believe the worst of me?
“Lil already tried retrieval,” Bran explained. “Mrs. Watts’ memories were wiped clean.”
“And the old man is in a mental hospital,” Remy said. “We couldn’t get inside to see him.”
“Don’t you use glamour or power of persuasion to get past humans?” a bearded older psi asked in a condescending tone.
Remy shrugged. “We do, but Lil wasn’t with us.”
“Your team splits up when you are on missions?” a Cardinal at the opposite table asked.
“If we have to,” Remy answered. “But with the contracts, there was no danger of a serious attack, so we came up with a strategy that worked. Sometimes we worked together, sometimes we split.”
“The Senior Cardinals approved of this practice?” someone asked.
Remy chuckled. “I don’t know. They tend to give us a mission, then let us accomplish it without looking over our shoulders.”
“Are you saying the Senior Cardinals weren’t involved in the canceling of your contracts?” Esras asked.
“Of course not,” Remy said impatiently. “It was
Silence followed.
At our table, we looked at each other and shrugged. I didn’t need to hear their thoughts to know what they were thinking. They outnumbered us three to one in some sectors, yet we were way ahead of them on the number of human souls we’d restored.
“Lack of supervision is why they bend the rules,” a familiar voice carried to us. Solaris. I’d recognize her malicious, nasal lilt anywhere.
“Why they were kidnapped and taken to Jarvis Island,” someone else added.
“Hey! We kicked ass on Jarvis,” Sykes protested.
“You got lucky,” someone else said.
“If we had a Time Cardinal and the Kris Dagger, we would have done exactly what you did,” a guy piped in.
Sykes laughed. “Don’t think so, dude. You’d still be choking on our dust.”
“That’s right, because it is not the dagger that matters,” Remy added in a mocking tone. “The wielder does, and we have the best. Besides, Izzy is not the only Time Guardian in this room.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Sol demanded. “Are you saying I’m not as good as she is?” Then he spoiled it by exchanging a grin with Izzy.
“It means we’re willing to take risks while you guys play it safe.”
The room erupted. Salvos flew back and forth. Izzy and Kim laughed and encouraged Remy and Sykes, who treated the entire exchange as a joke. The others didn’t think it was funny. Their anger level kept shooting up.
“That’s not true,” a female Cardinal yelled. “We take risks every day.”
“Our record speaks for itself,” Sykes said.
The woman made a face. “You get the best assignments.”
“Have the best trainer,” another one added.
“You know why?” Sykes spread his arms and made the sign of horns with his fingers. “We rock!”
The shouting got worse. Anger swirled in the room and penetrated my shield. At first I thought I’d be okay, but I was dealing with Cardinals, and the more powerful the Guardians, the stronger the emotions. I pressed on my temple, trying to ease the pressure.
Bran teleported to the space the tables created in the middle of the room. The shouting went down a few decibels, then blissful silence. Bran walked in circles, looking at each Cardinal in the eye.
“This is pointless, Cardinals,” he said in a hard but calm voice. “It doesn’t matter who accomplished what or where. The greatest accomplishment of this century was the death of Coronis, the most powerful demoness since the beginning of time, and you were all a part of it. You fought valiantly, proving that the Cardinals can come together and accomplish anything. Everything else since then is just icing.”
The silence was deafening. Wide eyes followed Bran. He was only twenty, younger than half the Cardinals in the room but higher up in the Cardinal hierarchy because he hunted with the senior Cardinals.
“We are now facing a new pack of enemies, ones so powerful it made our leaders destroy the only portal in case we failed. We are on our own, Cardinals. That means we,” he indicated the occupants of the room with his finger, “must depend on each other, because failure is not an option. But if we keep fighting among ourselves, we won’t need the Tribe to destroy us. We’ll self-destruct from within. We are all the Guardians have. Start acting as a team, Cardinals. Start acting as one unit with one objective.”
The silence was eerie, but I wanted to cheer.
“Well said,” Grampa said, entering the room. Despite his calm, commanding tone, his dark eyes flashed furiously. The effect on the Cardinals was immediate. Everyone sat straighter.
Behind Grampa came the other senior Cardinals. From their ceremonial robes, they had just come back from their meeting with the CT in Xenith.
“The deplorable display we just witnessed here tonight tells us that you are not ready for anything,” Grampa said, his voice strangely calm. “You are not ready to fight, lead, or defend yourselves. So there’s no way you can be ready for the task our people and our leaders have entrusted you with—defending them.” Heads lowered around the table, the silence so deep it was spooky. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye as he walked forward and stopped before Esras.
“Dinner was a good idea, Esras, but as you can see they need a lot more than food to knock sense into their heads. It is time you all learned the truth.” He paused and studied our faces. “We want everyone to teleport to the foyer of the Academy and go to the pit. The SGs are already waiting. We are going to have a general meeting.”
No one spoke, verbally or telepathically, until we entered the pit, where there was a low buzz of conversation from the SGs. They appeared to have doubled in size since this morning and had taken up most seats, except the front row. The bleachers on the opposite side were still folded to create more floor space, some of which was taken up by a long table and seven chairs.
Once again, Cardinals from each sector gravitated toward their teams. The silence that followed as we waited was heavy with tension. It was as though everyone knew something big was about to happen.
When the Senior Cardinals entered, Grampa instructed Bran to sit with them then he propped his elbows on the table and leaned forward. For a moment, he didn’t speak, just studied us. The seat at the end of the table next to Cardinal Moira remained empty and I wondered if we were waiting for someone else.
