Guardian of the North (Descendants of Robin Hood, #1)

Chapter 3

"What are you doing up here?" Kara looked around. Her dark skin glowed in the torchlight. "Aren't you supposed to be off guard duty?"

I looked down at my uniform, cleaned and ironed for my Manifestation ceremony. My sword belt was strapped around my waist, the leather newly polished. "Needed to clear my head." I took a deep breath, the crisp, cool air rushing down my lungs, chilling my throat.

"Yeah, sure." Kara raised her hand, and the torch beside her flared up, hot and bright. "Come and warm up." She leaned against the wall.

I shifted closer to the torch and held my hands to the warm flame. I looked out at the night sky over the Missouri forest. The faint lights of St. Louis glinted far away, blurring the stars on the horizon. Flying shapes passed in the darkness—the aerial scouts Captain Ajax had spoken of. The ever-present fog around the castle drifted in the breeze.

My great-grandfather Rowan Tyler brought me up here all the time when I was little, before I had begun training... before he died. I breathed out and leaned against the stone. It was good to be up here with Kara in the few minutes before the ceremony. I'd known her for years, grown up with her here.

The moon passed behind a small cloud. One of only a few in the sky. I could count every star tonight.

"There it is!" Kara pointed up at a cluster of stars high above the trees. I smiled. Sagittarius... Grandpa Tyler said that constellation belonged to me, that the Northern power was infused deep inside me, growing by the hour, until one day it would burst free, twisting around my control. Watch the stars, he always said. Every third night after the full moon, watch it pass through the Great Archer. One night, you will stand in the stone courtyard of Fort Calmier, and the whole world will know of Jackson Marcrombie, the Great Guardian of the North.

I shifted my feet to keep the blood flowing and tugged my mottled green tunic a little tighter around me.

"Nervous?" Kara asked, turning to look at me.

I swallowed and smiled. "Yeah. My grandpa always talked to me about this day. The one day is here."

"He was Rangerian of the North Wind too, right?" I nodded. This was it. Almost five months to the day since my fourteenth birthday. Tonight was my Manifestation. Tonight the power of the North Wind would emerge.

"Hey, Jack," came a familiar voice.

I looked around. My mom stood at the top of the battlement stairs.

"It's time, dear."

Kara grabbed my hand, her skin warm to the touch, as it always was with the Fire burning inside her. "You're gonna do great." Her clear eyes shone. Her hand grew hotter and hotter until I gasped, jerking away. She pressed her palm into the cool stone. "Sorry. Still not that great at controlling it."

"We're in it together." I grinned, rubbing my mildly-burnt palm on my tunic.

I followed my mom down the stairs and under the archway that separated the ceremonial courtyard from the training courtyard. Captain Ajax was waiting at the edge. I followed him and my mom around the crowd, stopping at the far end. My dad was waiting there for me. I saw Nick and Natanian sidle into the crowd with their Masters. Kara was watching from her guard post atop the battlements.

A breeze carried the smell of pine through the air. The torches on the battlements and across the courtyard flickered in the wind. Again, I glanced up at the stars. The moon, three days past its full phase, was just beginning to enter Sagittarius, and I was starting to feel very light-headed. Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was the Manifestation beginning. But I was not going to throw up all over the courtiers, like Grandpa Tyler did.