“What do you want?” Sath thundered from under the bedclothes.
“Rajah, if I might…”
“Oatcakes! Syrup! Quail’s egg, sunny side up, and the hottest tea you can find!” he replied, his voice gruff and still thick with sleep. Gin stood still, not sure how to answer him, as well as mortified that he would speak to his servants in that tone. “Well? Didja get all that?” he snarled.
“I was waiting for you to say please, Rajah,” Gin said without thinking, then clapped her hands over her mouth. She hadn’t meant to say that out loud.
Sath came up out of bed with a growl, landing on his feet just inches from Gin. “You will not speak to me that…Gin?” he said, the fire going out of his eyes as they settled on her ice-blue stare. “What are you…I thought…why are you here so early?”
“Clearly not to ask anything until His Majesty has his breakfast,” Gin said, turning on her heel. “Please attend your son after you have eaten, Majesty.” She giggled as she strode out of the room, leaving Sath cursing and spitting alone.
“Were you not afraid that morning?” Sath said through laughter as he wiped tears away from his eyes.
“Hard to say,” Gin replied, smiling at him. “You have to understand, Sath, back then, right after I’d left Ben, I…had no fear of anything. I was pretty sure that there was nothing you could do to me that would be worse than what he had already done. There was no pain you could inflict that would hurt worse.” Her smile faded as she noticed the sad look in his teal eyes. “No, I was not afraid of you, not that morning anyway, more amused.”
“I—guess we need to keep moving. How about I carry you for a bit? I got more sleep than you did.” Gin nodded, and as soon as they got their campsite cleaned up, he took off running, her weight barely slowing him down at all. She cast an invisibility spell on them that finally worked; Sath inhaled deeply the overpowering scent of sunflowers that washed over his face as he moved. He couldn’t see Gin, but he would be able to find her anywhere by that scent.
Gin held onto his chest plate tightly, her eyes closed, her head pressed into the space between his chest plate and shoulder guards where her face could feel soft, warm fur. She couldn’t see it, but she knew he was there and knew she was safe in his arms as he ran. Finally, he needed a rest and slowed his pace, but didn’t stop moving. “I think I can see a tower,” he whispered, and Gin felt his words as much as she heard them. Not being able to see Sath awakened her other awareness of him – his ropelike muscular arm that encircled her, the heat that radiated off him in waves, the woodsy, earthy smell of his fur, the sound of his breathing as it sawed in and out of his lungs. “You still okay?”
“Yes, as long as I do not weigh you down?” she said.
Sath smiled and swung her up over the opposite shoulder from where she’d been. “This will make it a bit easier to run, though.” Gin scowled at him, but then laughed as he took off running again. “I’m assuming that tower is the edge of the red dragon’s territory, and we are coming up on the tower now.”
“Yes,” Gin said. “Put me down, Sath, we shouldn’t need to be invisible here.” Sath stopped but didn’t release her at first.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. We are Guardians. If the red dragon is Omerith, he created the Guardians, and he is one—he should recognize us. If it isn’t him, then—I don’t suppose we are any worse off than we have been at any point so far, right?” Sath put her down, and they both shook off the invisibility. “Let’s go find out.” Gin headed up the steps that led up into the tower but saw no one inside—at least not on the ground level.
“Go around it then? Further into the territory?” Sath looked around behind them, but there was no one there. “Where is everyone? Why do we only find others when we are about to find trouble?” A chill rippled up his spine suddenly, and he saw that Gin was rubbing the back of her neck with a puzzled look on her face.
Perhaps you should reconsider why you always find trouble, Rajah?
Having no idea who that voice now in his mind belonged to, Sath looked at Gin, who was staring off to Sath’s left. He turned to look the same way but saw nothing. “Did you hear-”
“I heard her! Our Mother Sephine grants audience to all her faithful servants, and hopefully, she will be willing to accept you because you are with me.” Gin’s voice sounded different—more resonant and
