Shared Mercy Book 5 of the Guardians Saga

Ch. 3.1 Insanity

Argo, who had started toward Rile and Cale at the sound of his name, instead hid around the corner of a tent. He couldn't believe it: Rile was almost as insane as Jeza. Since when was Rile ever unsure of himself around females? Since when had he ever compared himself unfavorably to anybody? Yet all He had done was guard Alex, in a healing tent no less, speak just a few words to her, and the world turned upside down.

What had The Adversary showed them to make them all act like this? What was it about Alex that everyone lost their mind around her?

A small part of Argo was curious, but his common sense and basic good nature squashed that. Then something clicked in his brain, a something that he kept locked away, a something that still hurt to this day.

Argo stepped up to Rile and Cale, keeping his eyes on the figure in the sky. "Was Alex raped and the Adversary showed you somehow?"

"Go away, Argo," Rile's tone and words were abrupt. "What do you know of it in your perfect world?"

"You don't know what happened to Ara?" Argo said, surprised, but corrected himself. "That's right, it happened after you were Called." He wisely did not say 'after your family was slaughtered'.

Rile was silent, eyes downcast, but Cale turned, face full of question.

"Vici seduced her but then turned to force. Ara came to me first, afraid to face Father, afraid of what she had become. Vici did more than hurt her physically. I went to Vici, demanded satisfaction; that he unite with her and make it right. He laughed at me. Laughed!" There was nothing of Argo's good nature left now, only the fury of that memory. "Said he wouldn't be tied to a whore. I called him out right there."

"I bet he surrendered," Rile hissed.

"I never gave him the chance. I killed him with the first blow. What I didn't know was that Ara had heard everything. She killed herself that night. She preferred death to living with the label of whore. You're right to be worried about Alex. Tell me what I can do. Let me tell her my story, Ara's story, maybe it will help."

"Nothing will help." Rile's gaze returned to the figure in the sky.

Cale shot his brother a worried look, but said, "It might. Anything, anything to help."

"She's coming in too fast," Rile said as he looked skyward.

Cale, farther-sighted, said, "Yes because someone's shooting at her. She left without her armor and she flying in fast to minimize her target size."

"She's coming in too fast to land," Rile said.

"Maybe she's not landing," Argo said.

Rile held up a hand so Alex could catch it, but it was Argo who Alex swept up. Cale closed his eyes at his brother's pain. He hoped that Alex had a really, really good reason.

"Sorry for the sudden pick-up, but I want you to see something," Alex told her passenger. Her skin was covered by beads of sweat, the taste of dust.

She slowed for a few seconds, but when the arrows launched, she sped back up. The arrows thunked into the ground, clanged together, rang off of each other. They echoed off of the cliff side.

"Those arrows are being shot from my clan's camp." Argo's tone made it clear that someone would be very sorry.

"Gabe, Cale, and Rile are very good at landing on their feet when I drop them. What about you? I'm seeing double and it'll be a rough landing. I'd rather drop you if you think you can stay upright."

"Gabe and I used to cliff jump all the time. Drove our mothers crazy," Argo said with a smile.

  "Good, tell me when."

Alex turned back and when she was close to the entrance in Little Egg Mountain, slowed, and Argo gave her the signal. He landed every bit as gracefully as the brothers, his broad wings stabilizing him, his muscles tight and lean under his golden leather hide.

I bet he would make an excellent Guardian.

"Rile, I see two of you," she called out in warning.

Only one of me can catch you, so slow down more."

Cale moved next to Rile, quick as a cat. His feet barely left the ground as he leapt. The two brothers caught her and held her upright until Rile gave her an encouraging squeeze on the shoulders.

"Thanks." Alex rubbed her eyes and looked up to see Argo running over. "Argo, now you know to stay away from me. I mean it. Stay. Away."

Rile swept Alex up into his arms at those words, all his pain erased from his expression. His wide, calloused hand cradled Alex's face. "You tired yourself out," he scolded. "Back to the infirmary for you."

"Do you have enough strength left for a general charge to banish the last of the honey sickness?" Cale the healer asked in a worried tone.

"Don't take me to the infirmary. I want to try a different charge this time and we need our own tent," Alex said. The vision of his jawline made her smile. She moved her gaze farther down, to his shoulders. They were architecturally perfect. She could feel strong muscles burying her in that ultra-soft leather, the spicy scent of that leather filling her senses, and sighed happily. 

Gabe and Cale waited patiently outside the tent, whittling arrows, while Alex and Rile indulged in her euphoric neuro-electric discharge, both curing her botulism and Rile's insecurities.

When the glow leaking from the seams of the tent faded, Cale peeked inside the tent flap. Alex and Rile were curled around each other, Alex asleep and Rile cracked open an eye at him. He smiled sleepily and nodded Cale inside. Cale gestured to Gabe and they ended up in their usual puppy pile.

All the brothers were happier in their own tent. Gabe had garnered a spot against the rocky side of Little Egg, for a stone wall made one less vulnerable entrance. Rile and Alex always went to bed together at the first watch for her therapeutic neuro-electric discharges. Gabe and Cale made sure they were inside with them by the second watch.

Over the weeks, Alex discovered that the coastal marketplace was like a resort. The clans spent the worst of the wintertime here on the beach every year. There was a holiday air that even the monster attacks hadn't fully crushed.

Relatives who had married into other clans reunited, young cousins played together, youths grouped with their friends, and there was much courting. Alex either stuck close to the tent or sunned with Rile on a ledge, but she was infected with the merriment. Rile's mood improved with Alex's health and the brothers' mood improved along as well.

***

A/N

Dedicated to

Torkuda

I'll be working on your challenge!