Guardian (Sequel to Fearless)

Chapter Eighty Three

A/N -- Mild proofread. Just wanted to get it out here for you guys!

Cane stepped into a tent, running his hands through his hair. A guardian captain, Brawler, and Iris followed. Everything was happening all at once. They had lost. In a shadow of a second, they had lost everything. Even with their very clear advantage, the victory had turned to dust. Rhalla Gwenneth had been taken into the lair of the monster.

There were few people at the sanctuary that had known Rhalla as long as Cane. He'd been there nearly since the beginning. He could recalled how fearful she used to be of men. He remembered the days when she was more fragile than she was now. Smaller. Younger. There was a time when she was more girlish, and far more terrified. He couldn't stop seeing it in his mind's eye.

They'd become friends when she'd had a nightmare one night.

Until that point, she had been intimidating -almost mean. She'd been distant with just about everyone but Master Dyran and her mentor. But then, that night had happened. He'd walked down to the common room to find her, hands shaking like mad. Her shoulder-length curls had been bed-tousled, and there had been a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. For the first time, she'd looked over at him with soft eyes and apologized, as if her terror had somehow woken him. Even though he'd been terrified by her before, he'd comforted her that night as best he could, from a distance of course. After her nightmare, she was far too skittish to let him come close. With a few exceptions, that was a mostly quiet night. Still, something about the look on her face moved something in him.

After that night, he'd checked the common room every night for her, in case she needed someone to talk to. Someone to be there. Sometimes, she did. At the beginning, it had been frequent --two, three times a week. On those nights, he'd talk with her for hours. That was how she'd gotten to know him. That was where he thought he'd truly gotten to know her. Or so he thought. Lately, her story... was madness. Until recently, he thought he knew Rhalla Gwenneth well. But he hadn't. No one had. From the crimes committed against her, to her betrothal, to her son, she had proved herself a mystery.

On another note, the nightmares had eventually near ceased --or she'd stopped leaving her room when they'd happened. It went from multiple times a week to once a week. And then once a month. The last time came, two months apart from her last episode. And after that, Cane had checked every night for a whole year for her to come back down before he finally stopped coming.

Even though that was years ago, that very first broken night was an image he'd never remove from his mind. And to think of her there... again. The place that had broken her to have so many terrors. It made Cane sick.

"What are we goin' ta do?" Brawler was the first to speak, breaking his train of thought. "Ye have to make the decision, friend. An' fast. We can't be leavin' Rhalla there."

Cane turned to face them. Suddenly, his expression was full of emotion. "I would never ever, in this life --in any life, leave her there."

Brawler threw his hands up at the sudden intensity. It wasn't often Cane, or Frederick, was anything less than poised. "I wasn't sayin' otherwise, lad. Jus' statin' a fact. There's no tellin' wha' he'll do to her."

"There is telling," Cane said, quickly trying to pull together a plan of action. "She's a woman. But she's more than that --she's a woman that brought destruction and death to his fortress. I imagine he'll bring her in to... serve again. I'm sure, to him, that it would feel like justice. Sick, sick justice."