Guardian of the Earth House (21 page)

Gion’s arctic gaze went from her face to Parson’s and then back, again.  “Wait, what are we discussing here?”

“Go away.”  Tessie hissed at him, not looking up from Parson.

Gion wasn’t an idiot.  Job watched as he fit pieces together.  “Parson thinks that
you’re
the Quintessence?”

Tessie opened her mouth and Job could see her getting ready to lie at a very loud volume.

Parson cut her off.  “
Is
the Quintessence.”  His dark brown eyes were dulled with agony, but they met Gion’s dead on.  “Why I’m here.  Guarding.  Now you.  Don’t let Khaos find… her.  Tessie… like my daughter.”

“Oh shit.”  Gion muttered, again.  “Kay’s after you?”  He scowled at Tessie as if this was all her fault.  “You pissed off the primordial Khaos?”

“Yes.  I did.  Go away.”  Tessie cried harder as Parson’s breathing got more shuddering.  “Parse?  Please, don’t leave me alone.  Please, Parson.  I’m scared to be alone.”

“I’m here, sweetheart.”  Job tried to touch Tessie’s hair.  “You aren’t alone.”

“If Kay’s after you, then you
should
be scared.”  Gion reported in case Tessie wasn’t smart enough to understand that on her own.  He frowned as Parson gave a weak gasp.  Something flashed across Gion’s expression, something that almost seemed like sadness.  “Parson, let me jump you back to the Elemental realm.  I can find Freya…”

“Ann.”  Parson was fading fast.  “Stay with Match.”

Gion’s brows drew together.  “Where…?”

Tessie’s panicked eyes flashed to him.  She emphatically shook her head.  “Dead.”  She mouthed.  “Fire.”

Gion looked back towards the mobile home.  “Oh.”

“Tessie…you look after Ann and my family.”  Parson’s eyes slid shut, the rise and fall of his chest slowing.  “And Gion,” it was more of a sigh than a word, “ remember… you promised me.”

Gion hesitated for a beat and then he bent down next to Parson.  “I’ve always admired you very much, Parson.  You were the greatest warrior; a true leader.  You
believed
.”  Gion stared off at nothing for a long second.  “I always wanted to believe in something.”  He cleared his throat.  “So, yes.  Alright?  I’ll watch this girl for you when you’re gone.  Until I find someone else stupid enough to do it, anyway.”

That was -by far- the nicest thing that Gion had ever said to anyone. 
Ever
.  Job felt like

Hell should be freezing over.

Tessie blinked at Gion distractedly and ran a hand under her nose.  “I don’t need you watching out for me.”  She muttered.

“I’m not thrilled with the idea, either.  But, it looks like we’re stuck with each other, so don’t whine.”

“Ann.”  Parson said in a stronger voice.  “There you are.”  He smiled slightly as if he saw his Match and then grew still.

Gion’s jaw tightened as Parson’s breathing finally stopped.  “He’s gone.”

“No!”  Tessie bent over Parson’s body as sobs shook her.  It sounded like her soul was being ripped out.  “No, he’s not.  He can’t be gone!”

Job felt the back of his own eyes burning.  “Sweetheart.  God, don’t cry.”  He glared over at Gion.  “Would you say something to her, please?”  Job wasn’t exactly cut out for grief counseling.  He never knew how to deal with emotional situations.  But, even he managed to muddle through them with more sensitivity than Gion.

Gion didn’t even blink at Tessie’s heartrending sorrow.  “We have to go.”  He grabbed Tessie’s arm and pulled her away from Parson.  “Now.  You can’t do anything more for him.”

Tessie gave him a shove, trying to break free of his hold.  “I don’t care.  Leave me alone!”  Her gaze stayed locked on Parson’s corpse.  “It’s not too late.  We can get Freya and…”

“It’s too late.”  Gion interrupted mercilessly. “He’s dead.  We have to go.”

Tessie doubled over as if the words struck her like a physical blow.  Her sobs gave way to a terrible broken expression and she tried to sink back down onto the sand.  “He’s dead.”  She whispered.  “He’s dead.  It’s my fault.”

Gion forced her to stand. Tessie didn’t appear to notice.  She was going into shock.

Job and Gion both looked back towards the fire.  The Air Phases were coming across the sand, now.  Job could feel their approach.  He didn’t even care that Gion had his hands on Tessie.  All Job wanted was his Match away from that beach.  “Gion, get her out of here.”

“Do you have someplace to go?”  Gion gave Tessie a small shake, trying to get her attention.  “Focus!  Where can you go that’s safe?”

“I don’t have any place safe.”  Tessie swallowed.  “I have nowhere to go and everyone who gets close to me ends up dead.”

“That’s encouraging news.”  Gion muttered.

“Just leave me alone.”  Tessie’s tone held the hollow, fathomless horror that Job recognized from the voices of Phases who’d survived the Fall.  “Just go away and save yourself.”

“I’m beyond saving.”  Gion assured her.

“Everyone I love dies.  I can’t let anyone else get close to me.  They all die.  I care about them and they die.”

Job frowned.  That wasn’t just misery talking.  Tessie
believed
it.  His Match believed that she couldn’t get too close to anyone.  And after seeing her memories, Job understood why.  Still, that didn’t bode well.  Getting close to Tessie had become Job’s main focus in life, so she was going to have to adapt.  Job wouldn’t part with her.  Not for anything in the universe and certainly not because he was scared of Kay.

“Human,” Gion bent his head so he could meet Tessie’s stricken eyes, “if you never trust another word I say, trust me on this: You will
never
come to care about me.  Whatever your problems are, I’m going to be immune, because I am an extremely unlikable Phase.  We aren’t going to be close, so I’m not going to die.”

Tessie focused on Gion and actually seemed to see him.  “You are pretty horrible.”  She agreed vaguely.

“You’re welcome.”  Gion intoned.  “I’m going to jump us out of here, now.  Don’t make me knock you unconscious.”

“She’s right.  You really are an asshole.”  Job told him.

All creatures suffer from conflict with the elements; from enemies without and within

Charlotte Perkins Gilman- “Our Androcentric Culture”

Gion hated living in the Air Palace.

He hated the gray stone walls and the constant howl of wind outside.  He hated his room, which he kept empty except for a bed, a lamp, and some books, because he knew that the others would search through his belongings while he was away.  He hated listening to Parald’s endless yammering over endless dinners and looking at Kay’s life-sized version of Barbie’s Dream House out his window.

Mostly, though, he hated the other people pressing in on him.  Gion felt suffocated by all of them.  Why couldn’t the Fall have taken more Air Phases?  It was one of the Houses least effected by the illness, although they had certainly buried their share of dead.  In fact, the other Houses had seen to it that more Air Phases died in retaliatory attacks than perished of the disease.  The Air House, like all Houses, teetered on extinction, now, no matter how loudly Parald crowed that he had won the undeclared war.

It wasn’t just the
number
of breathing Phases that bothered Gion.  It was the
quality
of the survivors.  Sadly, all the worst Phases had pulled through.  The ones too mean or strong or crafty to die had slipped through the cracks.  Just like Gion had.  As in all wars, it was the innocent who suffered.

Job’s amnesty idea was so naïve.

No one in the Air House deserved to be saved.

The depressingly high number and low standards of the living Air Phases meant that Gion could never rest.  He couldn’t relax his guard for even half a second and he hated that.

Gion always had to be prepared for an attack.

So, when he walked into his spartan bedroom and found Isaacs sitting on his bed, Gion didn’t even blink.  “Isaacs, I’m flattered, but I just don’t think of you that way.”  Gion shut the door behind him and walked over to stand at the foot of the mattress.  “Let’s not ruin our friendship with your homoerotic fantasies.  Get out.”

Isaacs laughed and closed the book he’d been reading.  Isaacs always laughed, even when he was cutting out someone’s heart just to see how long the organ would keep beating in his hand.  Next to himself, Gion considered Isaacs the most dangerous Air Phase, which was saying a lot given the caliber of the competition.

One day, Gion would kill Isaacs.  He’d suspected that for quite a while now.  And, unfortunately, Isaacs was certainly smart enough to be thinking the same exact thing about him.  Gion should have just gone to sleep in the library, instead of coming back to his room.  He really didn’t need any more verbal fencing with people who wanted him dead today.

“Ah, Gion.  You’re funny.”  Isaacs smiled a wide, Steeplechase smile.  “I like that about you.”

“Yes, I’m renowned for my sense of humor.  Ask anyone.”  Gion’s eyes flicked to the cover of the textbook Isaacs held.  He’d stolen it from Gion’s pile of reading materials.
Modern Mental Health Practices, Sixth Edition
.

Shit.

He needed to be more careful about keeping those human psychiatry books out of sight.

“Nah, can’t ask most of them anything.  Everybody around here’s so blind and complacent.”  Isaacs sighed.  “
I
get that you’re making wisecracks at the rest of us all the time, but most of the others completely miss it.  They don’t understand you like I do.”

“I’m an enigma.”  Gion agreed flatly.

Most Air Phases had blue eyes and Isaacs was no exception.  Instead of the arctic blue that marked most of the Air House, though, Isaacs’ eyes were so pale they were almost colorless.  They looked white in the dim light of the bedroom as he tilted his head to one side.  “You’re joking again, but you really are an enigma to me, Gion.  I pay attention to you and still some of the things that you do make no sense to me.”

“Really?  And I find
you
so amazingly transparent.  Maybe because I’m just smarter than you are.”

“No.”  Isaacs gave a slow smile.  “I doubt that.  If you were
that
smart Parald wouldn’t have babysitters assigned to you, now would he?  Other Air Phases following you around…  That must burn, huh?”

“I like to think of them as an honor guard.”

Isaacs gave his head a regretful shake.  “Everyone’s always thought you were so clever.  Most of all you.  But, you’re starting to slip, aren’t you?”

Gion didn’t respond to that, because…yes.  Yes, he was slipping, actually.

Gion’s icy dispassion and clearheaded plan for self-preservation had been slipping since before the Fall.  Eleven years before, to be exact.  He remembered the exact date it began.  Remembered the concert he’d been attending and the first time he saw that flash of red hair.  He did things now that he never would have believed himself capable of in his callous youth.  Strange things that didn’t benefit him, but that he still found himself compelled to do.  He
felt
things.  Instead of exploiting weaknesses, he sometimes... hesitated.

In the Air Kingdom, that sort of stupidity spelled out a death sentence.

“Parald ordered you to capture Ty years ago and you still haven’t done it.  She’s barely more than child and you’re one of the most powerful Phases alive.  But, in all that time, you couldn’t find one, single opening to grab her?”  Isaacs arched a brow.  “Is she really
that
well-guarded?  Why don’t you ever just jump into the Water Kingdom after her?”

“Because, the Water Kingdom has barriers, remember?”

“You can get through Chason’s barriers and jump to the Magnet Fortress, but not through Nia and Thar’s, is that it?”

“It would seem so.”  Gion crossed his arms over his chest.  “But, if you think you could do any better breeching the Water Kingdom, you’re welcome to try.  The twins are powerful and, sadly, I’m not omnipotent… Yet.”

“They’re saying you’re buddies with someone who
is
omnipotent, though.”  Isaacs blinked innocently.  “I don’t mind telling you that Parald was
disappointed
to hear that you knew the Quintessence and never arranged an introduction.”

Gion wasn’t moved by the threat.  No one could prove how long he’d known Tessie.  He might be slipping up personally, but he was never lax about his duties.  “I never met the girl before.  If she knew me, it was only from my sterling reputation.”

“There were Phases in that courtroom who say differently.  They say you reacted like you and she were old pals.”

“Yes, because I have so many Divine beings as best friends.  I’m a social butterfly.”  Gion sneered out.  “Is this theatrical interrogation going to last much longer?  I can put up with intruders, but you’re beginning to bore me and that’s just unacceptable.”

Isaacs got to his feet.  “My whole life, I’ve had to compete with you, Gion.  Stand in your shadow.  Do you know what it’s like to constantly be second best?”

“No.”  Gion looked right at him and smirked.  “Actually, I don’t.”

Isaacs didn’t appreciate that answer.  “Really?  I’d think you could just think of Job and understand the feeling.  He’s always had more power than you.”  Isaacs shrugged.  “And, according to rumors, you sure did cave quickly when he ordered you out of that courtroom today.  Parald is… disappointed that you failed to bring him Ty. 
Again
.”

Gion really was losing patience, now.  “Has it occurred to you that you might climb the corporate ladder faster if you actually did something
other
than gossip about me?  Gaia knows, I’m fascinating, but…”

“Oh no, no, no.”  Isaacs interrupted with a laugh.  “You misunderstand, Gion.  You
are
my job, now.  Parald really wasn’t thrilled with the performance of your other watchdogs, since they left you all alone in the human realm and came running home on Job’s say so.  He thinks you needed a more seasoned ‘honor guard.’”  Isaacs held his arms open in a “ta-da” gesture.  “So, here I am.  We’re going to be joined at the hip from now on.”

Oh… that was just perfect.

Gion’s face remained expressionless even as he seethed.

Isaacs nodded.  “I knew you’d be thrilled.  I was happy to get the gig, too.  Really, it’s not a total
dead end
assignment.  It’s like there are only two
possible
outcomes for me.”  From the frustrated sarcasm in Isaacs’ tone, Gion deduced that he’d been brooding about this for a while.  “One:  You are some kind of traitor, in which case Parald will probably kill the messenger -
me
- for telling him the happy news.  Plus, you’ll be trying to kill me yourself, to keep your secrets.”  He paused.  “Notice I said, ‘trying,’ because I’m harder to get rid of than you’d think.”

“I believe you.”  Gion agreed.  “With your charm, I’m sure you’ve had a great deal of experience defending yourself from attackers.”

Isaacs ignored that.  “Outcome number two:  You
aren’t
a traitor, you’re a screw-up and you’re just good a hiding it behind the Dr. Doom-style threads.”  Isaacs gestured towards the cape.  “In which case, I get to tell Parald that he put a lack-wit in charge of snatching up his precious Match and guess what happens then… He’s probably gonna kill the messenger or, even worse,
I’ll
be stuck with your shit assignments.”

“I feel terrible for you.” Gion said gravely.

“You’ve been slipping.”  Isaacs moved closer to him.  “But, I don’t think you’re a screw-up, Gion.  And I don’t think you’re a lack-wit.  That limits the outcomes for you
and
for me.  You see that, right?  We’re
both
fucked if we don’t cooperate.  He’s setting up Saxon to take us both out.”

“What do you want to do, Isaacs?  Run away together?”

“We need to get Ty and bring her to Parald.  That’s what he wants and it’s the only thing that will satisfy him.  She can save both our asses.”

Gion shrugged.  “Fine.  And how would you suggest we do that?”

“I suggest that you
actually
start trying to catch the girl.”  Isaacs pushed passed him and yanked open the door.  “Because, you haven’t exactly been giving it a good-faith effort, Gion.  I told you, I pay attention and I
know
that you’ve been tanking the job.”

Yep.

Gion had absolutely been tanking it.  And he planned to keep on sabotaging every effort Isaacs or anyone else made to capture Ty, no matter what.  If Isaacs wound up dead because of it… so much the better.

“You want her for yourself.”  Isaacs said.  “I know that you do.  And I’ve got nothin’ against Ty, but it’s her or us at this point. 
Her
or
us
.”  He repeated when Gion just silently watched him.

Gion backed Isaacs up so he was on the other side of the threshold, standing slightly in the hall.  “Her or us.  Valid point.  I’ll take your words to heart.  I promise.”

“I’m not going to die for this.”  Isaacs warned as if he’d been reading Gion’s mind.  “Parald and Saxon aren’t gonna kill me.  I don’t care how big a badass you think you are.  I swear to you, if someone has to suffer, it’s not gonna be me.”

“An inspiring attitude for my bodyguard to have.”  Gion drawled.  “I look forward to working with you, Isaacs.”  He slammed the door shut and savagely turned all three of the locks.

Idiot.

*****

Isaacs stared at the door and firmed his jaw.

Gion wouldn’t bring Ty to Parald.

He knew that.

That stubborn dickhead would die first.

And, as fun as that would be to watch, Isaacs wasn’t going down with him.  He didn’t care how beautiful Ty’s hair was; Isaacs had worked too hard to let Gion blow this for both of them.  If they were to have any hope for survival, Isaacs would clearly need to become more proactive about things.

Isaacs turned and started down the hall, already plotting ways to steal the Queen of the Water House out from under her fanatical Wood Phase bodyguard and Gion’s constant, watchful eye.