The Everborn - Nicholas Grabowsky [139]
Bari had foreseen Salvatia’s plan with her Dreg tonight, the plan to overtake her and to kill Andrew, her Everborn. Andrew was hers, yes, and being so she was in the focal point of the knowledge that he had a Dreg twin. So, she’d orchestrated a solution herself, her own plan, involving another Watchmaid to back her up...a Watchmaid Salvatia would never be able to detect was so near.
“I am Camelia,” announced the second Watchmaid. “To kill an Everborn, any Everborn, you must first go through me. Be gone, Magdalene!”
Andrew could almost faintly grasp what was taking place between the three beasts, much like comprehending a dream he’d dreamt fading with each waking moment into obscurity.
Andrew twisted his gaze against his better instincts towards Ralston. Ralston was in the exact same position as in Andrew’s previous glance, sprawled out and petrified upon the grass.
Could it be that this shameless stoner coward who took pleasure in beating on Andrew in the most vulnerable circumstance of his life...had a Watchmaid, too?
Camelia was Ralston’s Watchmaid. Ralston must therefore be...just like Andrew!
Upon realizing this, Andrew was certain that soon after this was over, Bari would convince him that this was all just a dream. She’d done that sort of now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t thing before, he was sure of it, and this experience was a guaranteed contender for a maturing Everborn to be forced to forget. He realized it now and he’d remember it later...at some point, when Bari would see fit to allow him to.
“So, Camelia,” Salvatia hissed, “you think you can get in the way of me and destiny? How many Magdalene have you encountered, by the way? You haven’t the foggiest notion what odds we have against each other, do you? Maybe, just maybe, I can let this world taste of the human flesh that was once your own, now transformed into what you are now, yet to vanish back into this world, lying as dead carnage for all to see! The Magdalene are only but a myth to you. How can you possibly know how to deal with me? How can you know that to deal with me means death, a disintegration back to the human you once were, in bloody remains?”
It was true, for Bari and Camelia had never encountered a Magdalene. They only knew of their legend. They never even considered the consequences nor the outcome of a confrontation with a Magdalene. They only knew enough to protect their Everborn.
Bari and Camelia had known each other for as long as Andrew and Ralston had lived their lives within shared regions. Though Bari was relatively new to this Watchmaid business, Camelia held the appointment of Watchmaid to Ralston for five times as many lives as Bari had been for Andrew. Camelia had witnessed the accidental death of another Watchmaid long ago, the Watchmaid to whom Bari was successor soon afterwards. That previous Watchmaid had been very old and Camelia’s only friend.
She was now Bari’s only friend and equal as well and she would not let anything happen to her.
Or Bari’s Everborn.
So when the two Magdalene each separately sensed Salvatia’s presence and intentions earlier that day, it was agreed that they’d have no choice but to combine forces and face her together. A detailed strategy was crucial. To take the Magdalene by surprise was essential. As for her Dreg, he proved to be no great threat; his fascination with his roots would sedate him, hold him in deep reflection, keep him soul-searching long enough to think twice about killing anyone.
“But what of Ralston?” Bari had said to Camelia in constructing the plan. “You’d be putting