Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
A scream tears from my throat as spin around, reaching for my dagger and yanking it from the sheath. A large cloaked figure stands before me. The brown fabric hood hangs low over the person’s face, casting shadows so I can’t see any defining features.
“W-who are you?” I stammer, pointing my dagger toward the figure. I may feel terrified on the inside, but I refuse to show it. I can defend myself, and I won’t be intimidated by this surprise attack.
“You called for me,” a deep voice answers.
A man, then.
“I didn’t call for you. Were you watching me? Are there others around?” I refuse to take my eyes off of him to check, which I know isn’t smart. There could be a threat approaching from anywhere, especially since he snuck up on me so easily. Brynne will be pissed if something happens to me.
“You did.” He gestures toward the fountain behind me. “Can you please lower your weapon? ”
“No.”
“Did you not seek the Guardian of Dawnlin?”
Holy shit.
“It is you,” I say, my words barely a whisper.
The hood dips low in a nod, still concealing the person underneath.
A thrill courses through my body. I had done it. I found him.
Dawnlin is real .
After all of my doubt and failure, this is actually happening. Edmond and Dane were right.
And now my mother has a chance.
Oh gods. What about Dane?
I hadn’t meant to actually call the Guardian tonight. I only wanted to find out how or get more information and find Dane tomorrow, so he could help his sister, too. Would he hate me if I did this without him? I don’t know how much time she has, he never said.
If I turn the Guardian away tonight, he might not answer the call tomorrow. Am I willing to risk my chance to find Dawnlin?
I think of my mother’s words to me, and the message from the healer.
This is my chance to save her. I won’t sacrifice it.
I hope that Dane’s sister will be alright for a little while longer, and I can find him and tell him once I return. Maybe he will have figured it out by then. He was here. He saw the same fountain days ago. If only he knew he was so close.
I slowly lower my dagger, sheathing it back in the waist of my trousers. My eyes flick around the alley, making sure there is no one else with us. When I see we are alone, I don’t hesitate and decide to trust him.
“Thank you,” I say quietly, “for answering my call.”
“It is my duty as the Guardian to answer the call of those who seek to find Dawnlin and the magic that is held there. Is that your wish?”
I nod. “Yes, it is.”
“Are you prepared to depart now?” His deep voice rolls over the words, the rumble sends a small shiver up my spine. It feels familiar, yet not. I wonder if that is part of the magic, that the Guardian helps ease any doubts or fears, so you follow him. Brynne would expect me to keep a healthy dose of skepticism, but my excitement overpowers it.
I nod again. “Yes. That’s it? I just trust you and you’ll take me to Dawnlin?”
“Hope and trust are two of the tenets of Dawnlin, so yes, Addy, you will need to trust me.”
“Where do we go fr?—”
I stop short, my gaze snapping up to the shadowed face. I narrow my eyes, trying to see past the darkness still hiding him. “How did you know that name?” I breathe.
“Remember what I said.” He pauses. “Hope and trust. You need to trust me. Can you do that?”
I say nothing. I know I need to, but warnings are going off in my mind, and Brynne is yelling at me to retreat.
My body tenses as he reaches up, drawing back his hood and letting it fall behind him. My jaw falls open.
“ Dane? ”
“Hi Addy.” His voice isn’t the deep growl it was a moment ago, and instead is back to the familiar voice I have come to know over the past few weeks.
I slam my mouth shut, the reality of the situation washing over me. Dane is standing in front of me, claiming to be the Guardian of Dawnlin, and I feel like an idiot.
“Is this some kind of joke to you?” I spit at him, anger overtaking my initial shock. “How did you do it, huh? How did you make the water glow like that? Were you doing some potions research too during all that time in the library? Did you follow me here?”
“No, Addy, I swear I didn’t?—”
I cut him off. I don’t want to hear excuses right now. “Did you have it planned all along to fuck with my head? To plant these stories and get my hopes up and then pull this? Who else knows? Who is watching and laughing?” I spin around, scanning the alley to see the people I missed hiding in the shadows, spying and laughing at Dane’s little joke, but there is still no one.
“It’s not a joke, Addy.” He reaches forward to grab my shoulders, a pleading look on his face, but I push his arms away.
“Was there even a sister? Was anything you told me true, or was it all a lie?” My voice cracks on the last word, and I clear my throat, trying to rid myself of all the emotion.
I’d trusted him. I was so desperate to make a friend outside of the castle that I fell for his game. He showed me a little attention, laughed with me, touched my hand, and I believed everything he said.
I’m so stupid.
The bitter tears sting my already swollen eyes and I harshly wipe them away with the back of my hand, without breaking my glare at him.
“No, there isn’t a sister, but?—”
“Gah, I can’t believe you!” I throw my hands in the air and spin away from him, setting my sights on the end of the alley. I need to get out of here. Brynne was right. I shouldn’t have left.
Hell, my father was right. I had been alone for so long. I wasn’t ready to be out in the real world. I need to get back to the castle and end this nightmare of a birthday.
He grabs my elbow, whipping me around to face him.
“Will you please listen to me?” he yells.
That shuts me up quickly. I snap my mouth shut and clench my teeth. No one has ever yelled at me before besides my father and Brynne, and I don’t know how to respond.
He should be laughing at my gullibility, not yelling at me. If this was something he planned and plotted to make a lonely castle girl look stupid and hopeful, why was he begging me to listen to him?
I roll my lips together, preventing myself from saying anything more, but my eyes are still full of angry tears.
“Thank you,” he says, releasing me and crossing his arms over his chest. His thick forearms flex as he clenches his fists, and I am slightly taken aback.
He’s serious.
“Will you let me finish explaining before you cut me off again?”
“No guarantees,” I say icily, not ready to jump in and trust him, only to humiliate me some more.
His jaw clenches as he continues to look at me, but not speak.
I wait silently. I want to hear what he has to say, what sort of excuse or explanation he is going to give me now that I am clearly upset at the ruse.
“You did call me tonight. I am truly the Guardian of Dawnlin, and my name is really Dane. No, there is no sister, but I lied for good reason.”
I open my mouth to speak, but he holds a hand up, halting me. I close my mouth again and cross my arms, mimicking his stance and showing my impatience.
He laces his arm back in and continues. “I sometimes visit the areas near the fountains. It helps me notice if I’m going to be called soon. If I find someone who is looking, I try to speak to them, so they aren’t frightened when I appear behind them.”
He gestures to his body, causing me to trail my eyes over him. He is a very large man, and I admit if I hadn’t met him before, I would have been scared to go with him, no matter how attractive he turned out to be. Hell, I pulled my dagger on him. Clearly, I was even surprised at first.
“I use the story that I have an ill sister so that there is reason for me to be around the information, around the healers. Near the fountain, getting to know the people who may need it. That is all. It wasn’t a lie to trick you.”
“Why did you bring it up to me? How did you know I was looking for it? I told you I was studying to be a healer.”
He shoots me a pointed look.
“I warned you I probably was going to interrupt.”
“I brought it up because I’d hoped that you would figure it out. You seemed very determined, and like someone who needed Dawnlin. ”
“But why would a healer need Dawnlin?”
“She wouldn’t, but you aren’t as convincing of a liar as you think you are.”
Heat fills my cheeks. Hopefully, it was only Dane that saw through my lies and not everyone I lied to.
“Do you bring it up to everyone you meet?”
“No. I don’t.”
“Why me then?”
“I wasn’t supposed to, but let’s just say that I couldn’t resist. I wanted you to need me.” He breaks my gaze and looks down at his feet.
My fingertips start to tingle and my chest swells at his words. He wanted me to need him. No one has ever wanted me to do or be anything to them before. Maybe our time together had been real after all. At least, maybe it wasn’t just to help me find Dawnlin.
“What else did you lie about.” It is a statement more than a question. I need to know.
His eyes rise to meet mine. “Nothing, I swear. I just couldn’t tell you who I was or the reason I was there. Everything else was real, Addy, I swear.”
It was my turn to look down at my feet.
“What?” he chuckles nervously.
“Well…” I start. “In the spirit of honesty, I should probably tell you that Addy isn’t my real name.” I glance up to read his face. Maybe I wasn’t as bad of a liar as he thought if he didn’t figure out that wasn’t my name.
The sides of his lips quirk slightly. “Oh really? And you were so quick to lecture me on being dishonest. Maybe I should be the one not trusting you.”
I roll my eyes. I have every right to be mad. My name was a much smaller scale lie than being the gatekeeper to a mysterious magical land that no one knows how to find.
“My name isn’t important, but you might as well know the truth. I’m Lennox. ”
His face breaks into a smile that reaches his eyes. “Nice to meet you, Lennox.” He nods his head toward me but doesn’t bow.
He still doesn’t know I’m the princess.
That is a secret I am not willing to tell at this point.
“Nice to meet you too, Guardian .”
His smile widens, and he becomes the carefree Dane that I had gotten to know over the past few weeks.
“This is real. This isn’t a joke or a lie. You’re taking me to Dawnlin.”
“It is very real.” He takes a step forward, closing the gap between us. “And yes, I’m taking you to Dawnlin, if you still wish to go.”
“Yes.” I can’t utter the word fast enough as the hope of saving my mother swells back into my veins. “Yes, I still want to go. When do we leave? How do we get there?”
I look around, trying to spot any horses he may have tied up, but find nothing. I glance back at the fountain, but the golden ripples have disappeared, and it is once again stagnant and old.
“Right now, and with this.” Dane reaches beneath his cloak and pulls out a large fabric pouch tied off with a golden rope.
He uses both hands to loosen the rope and open the pouch, and as he does, a golden glow similar to the ripples erupts from the contents and lights up his face.
I raise up on my toes, trying to peer inside, just as Dane lowers it so I can see. A flowery fragrance fills my nostrils, catching me off guard. The scent instantly calms my nerves and fills my body with happiness. Never in my life has something affected me this way.
Magic.
It is because I’d never seen magic before.
I peer farther into the bag toward the source of the glow and see a heap of fine sand-like granules that glow golden as the dawn.
“What is it?” I asked, inhaling the scent deeply into my chest again.
“That’s another story for another time. Let’s just get you to Dawnlin first. ”
I lower back down on flat feet as Dane turns to walk down the alley. He checks every shadowed area, finally peering down the main road in both directions, checking behind any crates that could serve as a hiding place before coming back and standing directly in front of me.
“Just making sure no one is watching.”
“Has that happened before? Has someone seen something they weren’t supposed to?”
“Yes,” he says solemnly, “and I need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
He takes another step toward me, so our feet are almost touching. I look up at him, towering over me. He smirks as he reaches deep into the pouch, grabbing a small handful of glowing granules. He pulls the strings taut again before securing it back under his cloak.
“Are you ready?” His voice is low and gentle, like he was when I first met him.
“I still don’t know if I should trust you.”
“Well then, I guess we are going to have to work on that, aren’t we?”
I nod. I know I’ve jumped into trusting him too quickly, but there is something about him I can’t help but trust. If what Dane said was true and trust was a tenet of Dawnlin, if I didn’t trust him right now, would I even get there?
“Now?”
“Yes.”
His fingers lace through mine, and he gives my hand a quick squeeze.
“Hang on.”
I squeeze his hand back and shut my eyes as he sprinkles the granules over our heads. My skin tingles anywhere the dust touches, and it quickly spreads all over my body. Suddenly I’m weightless, like I am floating. I squeeze Dane’s hand harder, reminding me he is still there, and before I can say anything to him, my feet hit solid ground again.
The tingling disappears almost instantly and is replaced by something new. Sticky, wet heat hits me like a wall. I keep my eyes clenched, afraid to open them and see what trusting this man has done. Instead, I take stock of anything I notice. The air feels different, the smells so opposite from the dusty dampness of Blackwood. It is fragrant and fresh, and tickles my nose as I breathe it in.
Next, I notice the sounds, so vastly different from home. Birds chatter and insects buzz. I feel a slight breeze and then hear it rustle through leaves, so different from the sound the wind makes through the needles of the trees in Blackwood. A crashing boom sounds in the distance, and I can’t place what it is, never having heard anything like it before.
Bright oranges and yellows dance through my closed eyelids. It must not be night here. The light and warmth beg me to open my eyes.
Sunlight.
I’ve never truly seen it before, only the muted version that lightened the clouds and fog that covered our kingdom.
I want to see it.
I open my eyes slowly, blinking rapidly as they adjust to this unfamiliar sensation. What I finally see takes my breath away, and my jaw slackens as I take in this new world around me.
I am still holding Dane’s hand as I stand there and gape at the beauty.
“Lennox,” Dane says. “Welcome to Dawnlin.”