Guardians Book One - Magic Rising

Chapter Thirty Six

Kath's head spun as Lady hooked her arms around James' torso and hauled him unceremoniously up to sit against the alley wall. She looked up at Kath.

"Do you have a proposition regarding moving him?"

"Can't exactly call a taxi," Kath muttered vaguely in reply. She knelt back down by her friend. Can still feel that taste in the air...oak and ash, rowan and yew, leaves and bare branches...more of those. Death around the edges...She swallowed a sob. I can't let anything happen to James. It's not his fault. This isn't anything to do with him even.And there's more. Something covering up his taste. Something cold, and pure, and – I can't tell – something only he should know... Kath frowned, trying to focus on the strange threads of magic around her friend. I kinda felt this in the park, for a moment. Something...older than any of us, something big...

"Day, would you mind scouting? Alert us of activity," Lady paced up and down, biting her lip; nervous gestures all.

"At once, Miss Water," the cloud trilled, pausing before adding, "Is this what the Dark Lord promised my partner, that tore him from my side? The life energy of everything that exists, to give them power beyond their right?"

"It would appear so," said Lady. "A pretty promise." She balled her fists, her voice dropping to a snarl, her lips curving up in a sneer. "They have taken enough life they have no right to. I shall die before I see them win. I shall be by my father's side...forever." Her eyes glittered for a moment, and Day paused, staring at her, before jerking a bow to her and drifting off to the high street end of the alleyway. Kath wondered about which father she was speaking, and what she even meant, but James was taking all her attention. His chest rose and fell, although barely. Kath clung to that little movement, to the tiny flickers of his eyelids.

"If only Pes was here," Lady whispered, seemingly to herself. "My...Pes, I need you now." Kath glanced up at her. Her eyes had closed and her lips were moving soundlessly.

"That don't sound like you," Kath even managed a tiny smile.

Lady shook her head. "I have called to him. I do not mean precisely for support. I mean, he is the cousin of the other Horsemen, of course. The cousin of Death. Death is a neutral Guardian, and..." Her expression grew distant. "One we tend to avoid, although humans personified him, too, and it is a power. The power of life and death. Death never comes to even us, until...the end...although should he wish, Pestilence can contact them, through the threads of the world. He could once." she sighed. "He speaks to War, sometimes, although War resides overseas, where there is rage and where there could be peace. He could call Famine, once, too. Before...Famine turned away. And so, we can contact each other – through our closeness, rather than through innate ability. We have learned this, through the years, to always remain in contact." Her eyes dropped again. "It was a difficult trick, but our elements overlap, betimes. Water heals and pollutes, after all. Maybe because we were once all part of the whole. Perhaps we could all, one day." Her musings trailed off.

"Death," said Kath, staring for a moment, before turning back to James, her stomach heaving. Oh god. Tell me I'm not...

"He can't die," she whispered aloud. "And I -" The scent was coalescing more heavily in her nostrils – incense. Open air. Ash. James! Don't give in... "I can taste it," she blurted. "Death."

Lady inhaled sharply. "How strongly can you feel the Guardian's influence?"

Kath's lips twisted into a sickened moue. "Yeah. A lot."

Lady knelt beside her, forcing Kath to meet her gaze. Her eyes were glowing again, and Kath remembered the first time she'd seen her, the shock, the power rolling off her she didn't understand. Now, it seemed so clear; seagulls crying, dark depths of oceans untravelled, lost ships and souls, the babbles of brooks and the crashing waves of tsunamis, all bleeding into one person, a thousand layers on top of the undemanding life force of every other human in the world. "Can you trace that power?"

Kath swallowed. "You want me to call for the Guardian of Death? Lady. You...sure?"

"Do you want to save your friend?" Lady glanced at James. "He is not dead. Perhaps the Guardian can tell you how to save him – if you wish." She looked down at her hands, her scarred arms. "I cannot tell you what to do. Yet if I had the choice, had there been the time, had I the ability, you know I would have done so, to plead for my father, to bargain for him. Sometimes, there is a way."

Kath gave a humourless bark of a laugh. "This is mad. This is completely batshit. You know that. What if Death tries to take us?"

Lady shook her head again. "You misunderstand. Death does not kill. That is the business of mortals. Death personifies a function; the function of the movement of soul from matter to energy, to magic." Now it was her turn to purse her lips. "These are the old mysteries, Kath, to which none of us have an answer, and of which Death would never speak. It is a part of their function. Death is individual. Yet the core that makes a soul, we understand, can be extended. As the Lord of Light – and his brother's – have been. Their movement into the next realm can be delayed. James, who yet lives, is liminal; he has not escaped this realm yet."

"Alright," Kath whispered. "Just...focus on it?"

"Listen," said Lady, and, out of some strange modesty, turned her back.

Kath held her hands over James' chest. It was useless and stupid, like she was trying to raise him with the power of her mind or something, but it felt better to do something. She shut her eyes, and tried to catch the taste of magic that overlaid whatever James' self was made of. It's so...yeah. I think I get it. It doesn't hurt, or help. It is so neutral. The great leveller. Haha. Didn't I read that somewhere? Unwillingly her mind called up the traditional old image of the robed skeleton, scythe in hand, cackling. But no, that didn't feel right. Too personal? Don't look with your eyes. Look with...what it feels like...old. Endless. A mystery. I need you, Guardian. This man...isn't for you yet. We need to talk.

In the blackness of her mind's eye, a door appeared. Too startled not to, her eyes sprung open, and to her mild shock, the door was still there; plain, wood, blank, embossed on the brick wall of the lane.

"Lady?" she whispered. "Lady, there's a door. What do I do?"

Lady turned back, and her expression was twisted into irony and grief. "I cannot see it," she murmured, so quietly Kath couldn't catch the words, more reading them from Lady's lips.

Kath's stomach flipped over. "What, I...I have to go in? Alone?"

"Perhaps not," Lady murmured. "Pestilence can come with you. Will you wait for him?"

Kath flipped a hand at James. "I – dunno, is there time?"

"He will be but a moment," said Lady. "Day will allow him past."

Every second felt like an eternity, not least next to that silent, waiting door, but eventually the tall, three-piece-suited figure of Pestilence hurried down the alleyway. Perhaps it was practice, but the sense of him nearly bowled Kath over, her mind open and unguarded as it was. Old bandages and pits of earth and cherry cough drops? I had those as a kid.

"Pes," she managed. He gave her a reassuring smile.

"We wouldn't make you go alone," he told her. "Death is an family member, of sorts. The kind you only see once in a while, mind. Silent, but fair." The smile turned a touch ironic. "In that I guess they have no choice, right?"

"It isn't fair to let James..." Kath couldn't finish the sentence, and laid a hand against the door. "I'm ready. I'm OK."

"Not quite," said Lady, and paused, fishing in her bag. She drew out her pistol. "Take this."

Kath took the little gun, weighing it. It didn't feel as impressively heavy as the other weapons she'd handled, but on the other hand, it didn't have to.

"Will it help?" she asked.

Lady gave a tiny shrug. "Any preparation is better than none."

And with that less than comforting valediction, Kath pushed open the door to Death, to find and rescue her friend's soul.