Chapter 6

She had survived the reception and it's endless well-wishers. The way the old women had gushed over her growing up and the old men had leered rubbed her wrong but she could have handled it. What had been excessively, unnervingly annoying had been the young women talking to her but not even attempting to hide their appraisal of her guardian. The jealousy had been almost unbearable and a complete surprise. Every time someone had looked at him with the same hungry look that reflected her own feelings she had felt a powerful possessiveness. She was allowed to think of him as hers, but only as property never as a potential lover. There were rumors of women who took their guardians for lovers. Rhia had no idea if the stories were true but she was considering her dream.

The goddess had called him a “gift”. Does one actually receive such gifts from a goddess and did you dare refuse it or question it? Her body certainly wanted to accept him as more than a meat shield and her soul tingled with nearly uncontrollable excitement at the possibility of playing.

Rhia wasn't an innocent, completely. She had been touched, had touched. She was no stranger to the pleasure that came with touching a lover. Part of her was ashamed of her brushes with pleasure but she knew she could never give it up no matter how disapproving her superiors would be.

She decided to set it all aside for now in favor of the shining sun and her garden. Perhaps it would be a good setting for an attempt at friendship with the unnerving man who had seemed to so eager to give his life over to her control. Resolving to earn his loyalty and give his sacrifice meaning she swept out of the room and down the stairs, knowing he would instantly fall into step behind her from his position in the shadows.

She went directly to the maze, knowing they would be alone, an important part of her plan. After taking a few “wrong” turns they came to a bench in a clearing. This was one of her favorite spots. There were overflowing beds of daffodils that bloomed constantly, always greeting her with their sunny dispositions.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

“Will you sit with me?”

Niall was not entirely surprised by her request and even prepared several arguments against her. Now, faced with her beauty haloed by the sunlight filtering through the foliage that provided the sweet smelling floral walls, it became a test of his training. He was willing to follow the Goddess down this path but not without caution.

“With all due respect my lady, that is not permitted.” Ha!

“Permitted by whom?” She looked around dramatically, “There are only two people here. I am certainly permitting it by making the request. That leaves you. Are you going to permit me to get to know you a little before we spend forever together?”

She looked so young and mischievous with her full lips pulled into a knowing smirk and her sparkling violet eyes twinkled under her raised eyebrows with something he couldn't place. Something deep inside him seemed to take notice, as if waking from a long nap to a new exciting smell. It needed to know what knowledge was locked away behind those starlight abysses. It stretched toward her and urged him closer. Not feeling capable of an intelligent response he just grunted and crossed his arms.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

As the days passed Rhia and Niall grew comfortable with each other and started a friendship. They took walks in the garden and she spent hours reading aloud to him from her favorite books. They both found it harder to leave each other at night and more exciting to come together in the morning.

As the days stretched to weeks Rhia noticed a straining in her body. It pushed her to get closer when he was near and ached when he wasn’t. When she watched him move she became damp and her most precious of paces tingled. She knew she wanted him, she could only hope that she would eventually feel the same about her husband, when one was finally appointed. If only she could wed Niall and fulfill the apparent wishes of her goddess. Maybe she could be one of those women who did their duty to husband and got their pleasure from their guard.

Immediately dismissing the thought she struggled with what she knew was her only real choice. She would have to go to him as the goddess intended. They would have to leave or she would have to face the death of the man she loved and bear her own public punishment beside him. She would have to make some plans before allowing herself to go through with it. She needed to know how they would escape and where they would go. She also needed to tell Inara goodbye.

She put careful thought and work into her escape from this life and her quiet seduction of Niall. She worse her dresses with a few laces loose enough to show ample cleavage and brushed against him at every opportunity. She looked at him in every sultry way she could imagine. At least she hoped it was sultry rather than a sick cow, he always seemed so puzzled or irritated when she did it. He scowled and grunted and shrugged away.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Rhia was going to drive him mad with her looks and the little touches with soft parts of her body. He tried to move away and discourage her with looks of own, filling them with as much indifference as he could with just a touch of irritation, but then there were the times she truly caught him off guard and he was sure she saw those moments of surprise.

It was hard to hide every reaction he had all the time. When the soft curve of her breast brushed against his arm or she allowed him a glimpse of the creamy flesh straining at the colorful laces on the front of her dresses. He frequently worried that his appreciation would be obvious beneath his leather kilt.

Niall knew he needed to protect her but he battled with himself over what he needed to protect her from and how. Defying the goddess could bring swift and severe punishment however he had witnessed the penalization of those who broke this particular law. The would kill him, any number of horrific methods could be used and he didn't want to consider those possibilities. Not nearly as much as he wanted to avoid the thoughts of what her punishment would involve after she witnessed his gruesome death.

Still, he couldn't stop himself from imagining what it would be like to hold her, touch her, kiss those full lips, bite her long graceful neck. He imagined the way she would taste, all sweetness and spice. Every time she came close he allowed himself to fill his nostrils full of her scent of honey and flowers. She was a growing addiction and that meant there would eventually be only one choice left to him. It filled him with guilt, amongst other things.  

Chapter 5

As her handmaids fussed about making her perfect, Rhiannon allowed her thoughts to be occupied by her dream. She had spent a lot of time thinking about it in the last 3 days. At first she had too many questions to answer. So she had started with the most basic of questions: Was it real? Yes. She was sure of that, through her knowledge of the goddess and past experience with such dreams.

Now, who was the man? He had been magnificent. She vividly remembered his golden skin that seemed to carry the sun's warmth and light into the night. It had seemed to warm her skin, though she hadn't noticed the cold before his arrival. His hair and eyes had been so deep in color she was fairly certain Ilunara had enhanced them so she would note the colors. He wore remarkably little, allowing a thorough appraisal of many of his physical assets. A broad, muscular chest had tapered to a narrower but much defined waist and a strip of well placed linen, hiding assets that may have killed her with embarrassment to see. Sandals had been all that had protected his feet. And he had been marked by Ilunara as a guardian.

"He is yours. I am giving you more than you can imagine, child." The Goddess had said exactly those words, but Rhiannon was sure she meant much more. She was considering her conclusion when she walked onto the stage overlooking the assembled guardians and spectators. A small tugging on her senses had her locking gazes with a familiar green gaze, startling them both. "Hers" meant her guardian, which she knew long before he was presented and sworn to her under a brilliant night sky.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Niall couldn't see her clearly through the veil but the instant their eyes met he knew with a certainty that this was the girl Ilunara had presented as his future. As futures went she didn't seem half bad. She too, seemed to recognize him with the same instant connection he had.

"Guardian Niall, step forward and accept your honor as Lady Rhiannon Draegon's shield. In life, death and honor, do you pledge all that you are to protecting all that she is and will be?" High Lord Commander Diabhalta opened the ceremony to bind him to the future the Goddess had already promised.

Niall had to concentrate to keep from leaping to the stage and shouting "YES!" so loudly that everyone in the city would be sure to hear. Her amethyst eyes seemed to sparkle with barely contained recognition. Once he had reached her, using the even steps he had been taught, he knelt on one knee and lowered his head in supplication before raising his gaze to hers again.

"I, Niall, chosen of Ilunara, offer myself, all that I am, and all that the Goddess blesses me to become to your service. I willingly sacrifice my will to you, let your will become my own. For you are my life, even beyond this one. In Ilunara's name, so mote it be."

He lowered his gaze again and felt her place a gentle hand softly on top of his head. In a sweet voice that was hardly more than a whisper she simply responded, "So mote it be." Her acceptance seemed hesitant. As the bells celebrated the pairing, Niall vowed to prove to her that he was a worthy guardian. Perhaps someday she might be proud to have him in service.

Chapter 4

▓ In the Shadows ▓

He was preparing himself for his part in the inductions, one of the few times a year that he had to appear. It took a great deal of work for him to be presentable. Nobody could be allowed to see his true face unless they were a slave. To the few allowed to see him privately he was a man in a black hooded robe. Most thought it was for effect. It wasn't.

Beneath the robes he was a deathly pale man with deep purple bruises, a few of which had turned into lesions. Most of the hair on his body had fallen off, including his eyelashes. One look at the man and you knew he must be dying. None of the healers in his stable had been able to find the cause of his body's apparent failure. None of them knew how strong his soul was.

He looked into the mirrored altar and had a momentary sadness over his lost physical beauty. He was able to quickly shake the feeling and move on with the task at hand. Dark magic such as this took great focus and attention to detail, or the results could be horrifying and permanent. The price had to be high in order for the magic to be strong. He chuckled about the myth that a blood sacrifice was necessary. Sacrifice was necessary but it didn't have to be blood, unless it was a very powerful spell. He was proud to admit he had performed such complicated and powerful spells, successfully. This wasn't such a spell. This sacrifice was merely his time energy and the youthful beauty and innocence possessed by the slave staring blankly at the altar.

It didn't really matter which slave he used as long as they were young, healthy, good looking and relatively innocent. His voluntary slaves weren't innocent, really, but he could use those whose purchase had been without harm to others. Innocence is relative, after all.

 He needed to get started. The ritual would take a day to complete and would last only half as long. Another price to be paid. His slave would lose their youth and beauty in order to restore his body to the dashing young thing he would have been. Leaving the slave in a state similar to his current one, only woefully worse. The pain would make the slave want to cry out in agony however, with his voice little more than a whisper now, they wouldn't be able to make a sound. They would writhe in pain and flirt with insanity. Prices must be paid after all.

Their innocence served another purpose, altogether. Innocence is an attribute of the soul rather than the physical body. Its loss would leave the slave an evil shell of their soul. That was why the otherwise subdued slave was enchanted. He was in control but once he stole that part of a soul they became a deadly, uncontrollable beast. They were usually too weak physically to do much harm but magic wasn't physical and their souls certainly weren't weakened by evil. He didn't want to chance going without it though. That innocence cloaked his shadowed soul from any possible seers in the crowd of inductees and spectators.

Chapter 3

He awoke to the dream with a start. He was standing among the stars in the night sky with only a woman to look at, only she was no ordinary woman. She wore an air of gentle authority almost as plainly as she wore her gown of dripping moonlight. Her raven hair seemed to undulate and flow with silver streams and he could swear her eyes held their own galaxies. Something in him recognized her for what she was almost immediately.

Niall dropped to his knees and bowed his head. His thoughts swimming with the possible reasons for such a visit. Was he to be punished for hiding his magic instead of accepting his death? Would she execute him in his sleep like a coward? The gods didn't visit just anybody and it was never a social call. The goddess stepped to him and rested a cool, gentle hand on his head. "My son, there is no need for supplication. I have come to you with a gift." He slowly raised his gaze to meet hers and the motherly love shining there put him at ease. He rose to his full height, at least a foot above hers, and awaited her mysterious gift.

A wall of dense, sparkling fog rolled around their feet and rose up until it formed an arched doorway through which little but shadowy shapes and more fog could be seen. Ilunara smiled up at him and gestured regally toward the door her will had created. "Through that doorway lies a glimpse of your future. A future filled with more pain, death and trials than you could ever imagine, however it is a future that also holds more good than you have been allowed to dream."

For Niall there wasn't even a moment spent questioning her implied question. If his goddess wanted him to step through the door and accept the promised future, it would be done.  With a steeling breath he set his shoulders and strode through the portal to glimpse his future.

Although the goddess didn't follow him he could feel her pulling and pushing him forward. One shape began to stand out among the others. It became clearer as he moved forward and soon became distinguishable as a girl standing tall and proud in a clearing, the goddess beside her. Her auburn hair cascaded in curls around her face and shoulders and her pale skin nearly glowed in the soft light of the moon. Niall came to a stop in front of her and looking in to her amethyst eyes he lost his grip on his ability to think.

He woke with the dawn as usual with a vivid memory of the most beautiful creature he had ever seen and a visit from the goddess. There were also vague memories of gifts, dire warnings and promised hope.

Chapter 2

Niall rubbed at the raised mark on his wrist, two crescent moons flanking the full moon. He'd been born with it, they all had. He was one of many warriors who, marked in the womb, were raised in the training center until they were assigned to a Lady's Guard. He surveyed the training field, filled with his brothers as they went about their morning drills. All of these golden men had been the only family he'd known and he loved them, as much as a warrior could.

He covered his black hair with his helmet and fixed his emerald eyes on his next opponent. As they neared their assignment the warriors began training with real weapons more often. No killing blows were allowed, but blood was encouraged. He hated it.

Niall knew all of the lessons and rhetoric by heart, but he still didn't believe in it. He didn't like fighting, or hurting, others. He didn't mind the physical activity and appreciated the art of fighting. Mostly he hated hiding his magic. Guardians weren't supposed to have magic. There were myths and legends that the warriors were told as children. Cautionary tales about magic-wielding guardians causing some disaster or another, they were meant to prove why they did not have magic.

"The gods," one of the masters would explain, "knew that the souls chosen to wield great physical strength could not also master the elements. Our wills just are not as strong as those of the Diaga." They all thought it was terribly logical and fully accepted it.

Except Niall, but he was a good actor, had to be. Doctrine stated that any guardian caught using magic would be executed. Niall was too attached to life to embrace death so easily.

♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪ ♫ ♪

Silver striped obsidian created a feeling of flying through the night sky so quickly that the stars themselves couldn't keep up. The flames of the candles made the silver dance, deepening the illusion. Rhia wished, for a moment, that she really were flying away with those stars but then her thoughts were forced back to the prayers being murmured all around her in preparation for the ceremonies. The same types of prayers were being said in the temples of the other major gods and goddesses. Inductions were both important and lengthy, lasting a full three months. A lunar cycle for each stage of life and the three phases of the moon to honor the Mother.

Rhia studied her intricately embroidered black silk ceremonial robes. The silver threads had been expertly stitched in to elaborate runic phrases and prayers. She should have been focused on her own litany but her mind continued to wander. Not only was she starting her life as a priestess of Ilunara but she was also preparing to receive her first guard. She had dreamt of him the night before. In her dream a giant of a man with golden skin and hair as black as night strode powerfully out of the mists of the forest to stand before her. His eyes had been the deepest shade of green she had ever seen, they had nearly glowed with the power he exuded.

"He is yours," a voice like the tinkling of bells had whispered in her ear. "I am giving you more than you can imagine, child." Rhiannon had turned them to face the soft spoken guest. Ilunara had been radiant with her shining black hair that swirled with silver and seemed to shift on it's own. She was wearing a simple sheath that appeared to be the moonlight itself draped over her perfect hourglass figure.  The stars themselves seemed to twinkle in her midnight eyes. The Mother was exquisite and in her perfection had been the inherent knowledge that this was a real celestial visit and not the product of imagination.

Having had many visits from the goddess Rhia hadn't questioned...much. "He's a guardian, Mother, how can he be a gift?" She had noted the raised birth mark on his wrist. It matched her own mark, concealed by her clothes. That meant little, all guardians were marked by the deity that had chosen them for service.

The goddess merely chuckled at the girl's insolence as she faded away, taking the dream with her. As her gentle laughter faded Rhia was left wandering through the dream-wood contemplating what Ilunara had meant.

She was still pondering the message now, but with little illumination.

Chapter 1

Rhiannon Draegon walked with a slow, effortless grace down the hall of the arts building at Aines University. There was no need to hurry as the sun slid below the horizon, painting the world in shades of purple, blue and green. Class had been over for hours and the campus was nearly deserted. Rhia had stayed to labor over her art final. She really was terrible at painting but it was a required course for someone like her. She was Diaga, magical, therefore she was high society and must only be trained in the art of being a lady.

In the year before a Diaga girl headed to university she was tested on different occasions to determine her life's path. The result of those tests either gave the young lady choices, or it took them away. Some girls, the variety that are fairly hollow but usually nice to look at, had their choices reduced to an immediate marriage to an "appropriate" man. Appropriate related to her looks in relation to his social status in the lower rungs of Diaga society.

The girls who tested high in sciences or arts were offered more choices than most. They could take an immediate marriage to a higher ranking member of society. Their other choice was to attend Aines University, majoring in the area they excelled in or liberal arts. These girls kept the greater choice in spouse and allowed a chance at a career.

Rhia ranked among the average girls. She had the choice of immediate marriage or university. While she, and others like her, could only major in liberal arts to make them better wives they gained some choice in who they married. That had been Rhiannon's motivation behind her choice, The Choice.

So many choices had already been taken from her or were never really hers in the first place. She was told how to dress, how to behave, what to like, where to go and when, even what to study. It didn't really matter if she was terrible at every subject that wasn't magical because she was already sworn to be a priestess, limiting the husband pool to priests.

Considered odd by the other girls, Rhia didn't have a lot of friends at the university. It wasn't that she was a rebel who disliked her lot in life. It was that she wanted more from life. Adventure. Exploration... Love. Love was unheard of, except for the obscenely lucky. Those were the ones who learned to love the man they were given to. Most grew to loathe him.

Her parents had been the luckiest of all. They had fallen in love as children and their fathers had been good friends, so the case for the match had been easily made to the council of elders. Rhia dreamed of the same kind of love in her life.

Thinking about the differences between what she wanted and what she could have made her want to sob. But she couldn't have that either. That was why she was an outsider even though she enjoyed the same parties and styles as the other girls. She only had one friend and she wouldn't trade Inara for the world.

Inara was also a bit of an outsider. Inara was one of the rare children who didn't exhibit a talent in magic until they were older. Inara had been 7 Renewals when the Seekers had found her, making the separation from her real family much harder. She had been placed with the family next door to the Draegon home. The angry little red headed Fire-keeper had wreaked havoc on the household until she chanced on Rhiannon in the Lily garden on the Draegon estate. The girls had become instant friends. The Fire-keeper and the Soul-dancer.

Fire-keepers were fairly common, had been since time began. They were important to survival in the beginning but now they served purposes such as lighting fires and lamps. If they were male they could serve in the army. These soldiers were never on the front line though, that dangerous position was reserved for the Gnach.

Soul-dancers were much rarer because they were able to call all the elements: earth, air, water, fires and spirit. They could call forth the dead and ease souls into both the beginning and end. Those Soul-dancers with shadowed souls could enslave the souls, both living and dead. Soul-slaves were forbidden, but all laws are broken sometimes. Most soul-slaves were the result of Death Deals for some favor or another from the Shadow-caster. It was possible to enslave the unwilling, just far more difficult. A soul-slave could live their lives on their own but when their master called, they had no choice but to obey.

Rhia was not shadowed but she could see them. That was a secret she had only entrusted to Inara. Nobody knew of any other Shadow-seers but they had heard of them. It would be dangerous to be a known seer. Those particular wizards would not want to be seen and would have no qualms with having her killed to prevent it.

Exiting the arts building  in the temple courtyard, Rhiannon took a deep breath filled with the sweet scents of night blooming flowers planted in abundance as tribute to the moon goddess, Ilunara. The Mother, as she was commonly referred to, was the goddess Rhia felt closest to when performing her meditations. Sometimes she thought she felt the goddess wrap her arms around her in comfort.

"Rhia!" A breathless voice called. She turned to see her friend's bouncy red curls and glowing green eyes as she loped across the courtyard from the medical classrooms. Inara had tested off the charts in science and chose to study healing.

Together they started toward the parking area. They always rode home together with Rhia's family guard. Young women could not legally travel unguarded. Soon Rhia would be assigned her first "Lady's Guard", a Gnach male with enhanced physical abilities whose life would be tied to hers forever. The members of a Lady's Guard were forbidden to take wives or have children. They lived, and died, with and for their lady. Rhia didn't want that for anyone. She only wanted protection from a man who loved her and chose his position, not one trained from childhood to serve her out of duty.

Preface

Arialana Smith sat in the garden of her family's modest home. The bees and hummingbirds created a steady background rhythm as they flitted between the brightly blooming flowers for the songbird’s chorus. The soft sound of the small fountain made the performance almost magical. If she closed her eyes she could imagine the fairies decorating the fountain taking flight and dancing among the blossoms, coming to lighten her burden. The area beneath her brilliant violet eyes had darkened and her normally rosy cheeks had been robbed of all color.

She was considered a beautiful girl in her family's social circle with her long legs, slim waist and soft curves. Her auburn hair fell down her back in thick waves, shining copper in the light, while her eyes sparkled like the night sky. Arialana was expected to easily marry as well as any Gnach, the non-magical citizens of Draegany, could.

That was a dead possibility for her now. An unwed mother would be difficult to marry off, no matter how pretty or well-bred. It would no longer matter how large a dowry she came with or the fortune she would inherit. She was tainted. The Gnach had to struggle to keep their position in society. Arialana's family had been at the top for centuries, as close to the top as a non-magical family could get.

Gnach could only rank as high as upper-middle class. They could own property, be wealthy, rise in the ranks, but there was a lot they could not do. Things such as hold a title, certain jobs or raise magical children. Magic was genetic but sometimes the gene was recessive in a family and only appeared occasionally. The Smith family happened to be one of those family trees with the occasional magical branch.

That was Arialana's best hope for her future. If her child turned out to be magical, as so many others had in her family, then the child would be taken from her and raised by someone else. Then she could continue her life as if nothing had changed and marry her father's choice.