"MARIANNE, MARIANNE, MY love," I sang, looking above me to the wooden balcony we'd made specifically for this scene. "Come down to me, my love, come down and sing with me…"
My friend and fellow minstrel Cristine was standing up there, her long brown ringlets pulled away from her face. She looked down at me and sang, "My love, Robert, my love, how I long to sing with you; but alas, you ask the one thing I cannot do…"
We continued trading the snippets of song back and forth, me pleading, her refusing, as the audience watched. "Marianne and Robert" was one of Cristine's favourite songs, and usually popular with the people, too. We were hoping for a good payoff – we needed money for our stay at the Quester's Rest, and we needed to buy more food as well.
The song went on for a good ten minutes longer. At the end, Cristine leapt off the balcony and into my arms like we'd practiced a thousand times, and we performed a sweeping stage kiss. As I bent her over, turning our faces away from the audience, she giggled. "No matter how many times we do this," she whispered, "it still feels so silly!"
"Shh, they'll hear you," I replied, and swung her back up. We turned to face the audience and bowed, showing that we were done. There was a big round of applause, and I smiled. Who cared if anyone tossed a coin or two our way? I loved this more than anything in the world.
Back at the Quester's Rest, Cristine and I sat down and counted up the money we'd earnt.
"Fifty gold over here," Cristine said in her tightly clipped Coffinwell accent.
"I've got thirty-five," I replied. "Not a bad day. Enough for a couple nights and plenty of food, I'd say!" I stretched and felt the cloth binding my breasts down so I could pass for a boy trying to slide off. "Oh, dear," I said, laughing. "Give me a second, Cristine. I've got to get this stupid cloth off."
"And put on a longer dress, would you?" she said as I stood up. "Half the inn probably saw your panties when you stretched."
"What were you doing with your head under the table?" I asked. "You make up half the inn, sweetheart. I'm not changing. The wayfarers' clothes are incredibly practical, and comfortable besides. Not my fault you're a prude."
I grinned as I walked off. Cristine was always on me about modesty, but I didn't see the point. As long as I could move easily and I wasn't showing myself off to the world, I figured I was quite modest enough.
Patty, the lady who ran the inn, passed me as I headed into the bathroom. "Hey, honey," she said in her thick drawl. "You two have a good show?"
"Earnt eighty-five gold," I replied. "Maybe you ought to try hosting a show or two in here. Might drum up a bit of business, I think."
"Y'all may be onto something there," Patty replied, smiling. "I'll see about that. You and Cristine may be getting a few gigs before you leave town."
"We'd accept," I said, holding the door open just a second longer so we could finish the conversation. "Just so you'd know."
Patty laughed. "Good," she said. "I'll think about it. Now go let the girls loose."
"Patty!"
She laughed again as I let the door swing shut. My cheeks went warm. I might not have been as concerned about modesty as Cristine, but there were some things I just couldn't talk about without blushing red as a tomato.
A few minutes later, free at last, I grabbed some of our newly earnt money and set off to buy us some food. I'd noticed an items shop near the city's church. With any luck, it would have some food for a pair of hungry minstrels. As I headed over, I whacked shoulders with a tall, muscular blonde guy dressed in weird clothes.
"Oi, watch it," I snapped, and then stopped.
The guy had wings and a silver halo.
He'd stopped when I'd spoken to him, and was looking at me in shock. But he didn't say anything. He was holding completely still, like he hoped I would look away and keep walking if he didn't move. The longer I looked at him, though, the more uncomfortable he seemed.
"You're a Guardian," I said quietly.
The guy stared at me. "Impossible," he said. "You can see me? But you are a mortal."
"Which one?" I asked. "You, I mean. Cygnus or Tucana?"
His stare just went more incredulous. "I do not…" he said. "How are you able to see me?"
"If I knew, I'd tell you," I said wryly. And quietly. I'd learnt by that point that when you wandered through town talking to invisible people, you were generally kicked out. "So? I'm guessing you're Cygnus. Tucana sounds more like a girl to me."
When he didn't answer, I snorted impatiently. "Seems to me that if a mortal saw a Guardian, she ought to be the one freaking out, not the guy with a pair of wings."
The Guardian pursed his lips, not seeming pleased. "I am Cygnus," he said. "And I would advise you, mortal girl, not to be so flippant to one so many years your elder. Particularly when that one is a Celestrian, a being far superior to your own race."
I raised my eyebrows. "Sorry, mate," I said, not making any effort to hide the irritation and sarcasm in my tone. "Didn't mean to push your buttons."
Cygnus glared at me coldly, but I decided to ignore him and stalk off to the items shop. The encounter would rattle him more than it would me, anyway.
Because this hadn't been the first time I'd run into beings that no mortal should ever be able to see.
That night, Cristine and I had dinner at the Quester's Rest. The place was practically dead – aside from the staff, we were the only people there. Patty had drifted over to chat with us.
"Anyway, honey," she was saying, "this place really used to bustle. If you'd seen it fifteen years ago, before Edwinn left – jeez! You wouldn't even recognise it. But after Edwinn took off, well… He was the best of the best. No one could do it like him. I guess the rest of us just couldn't live up to it. Things really went downhill." She shook her head and sighed. "That's why I'm taking off tomorrow. Edwinn went to Angel Falls with his little girl Erinn. I need to find him and ask him to come back. This place was his life's work – he can't just let it die on us like this. He's the one guy who can save this place for sure."
She popped a cherry into her mouth and flipped her ponytail over her shoulder. Patty was twenty-five and one of the prettiest women I'd ever met. The fact that she was still single – unless you counted the Quester's Rest, which may as well have been her spouse – blew my mind. She was devoted to the inn. If you believed her – which I did, since what she'd said was backed up by the others who worked there – she'd been running it in Edwinn's place since he'd left, from the time she was ten years old.
"Good luck," Cristine said. With her high, quiet, pretty voice, you couldn't doubt her sincerity. "This place is great. I'd hate to see it go."
"Me, too," I said. "Hey, speaking of which, do you want me to go put that sign on the town board? I'm done eating anyway."
"That'd be great, honey," Patty said. "Thanks."
"Sure," I said. "Be back in a moment, you two."
I grabbed the notice off the inn's check-in counter and headed out into the Stornway twilight. As I headed up the stairs to get to the notice board, I noticed a glow across the way. The ghost of an old man was standing by the graves.
I sighed. I had no idea why I saw stuff like this. No one else I knew could see ghosts or Guardians – or Celestrians, as Cygnus had called them – or anything like that. Sometimes I talked to the ghosts and helped them to move on, but there were times when I couldn't. And even when I managed it, I felt all the emotions that had been tying them to the earth. Sometimes I would be useless for days. Once, the girl I'd helped to move on had been so sad that I had spent a week crying at the slightest provocation.
Cristine had been travelling with me for four years now, since the two of us were eleven years old. She knew I could see ghosts, and she understood when I went into depressions or whatever else after I helped one out. I'd never told her about the Guardians, though. She believed in them, but I thought that even for her, it would be a stretch.
I shook my head and continued. This wasn't the time. I needed to help out Patty and the Quester's Rest, not think about freakish me. The notice needed to go onto the board.
As I pinned up the paper, I felt something strange beneath my feet. I paused. The feeling was strangely familiar, but I didn't know why.
It came again, a little stronger. As it continued, I realised what it was: an earthquake!
The shaking grew stronger and stronger, and I almost started to panic. I hadn't felt an earthquake in almost five years, but I could tell that this was different. Why, I didn't know; it just wasn't the same. There was something unnatural about it.
There were screams from all around me. I was scrambling, trying to keep my footing on the unstable ground, when I spotted a faint dark light far to the east. It was shooting up to the clouds in fitful spurts. The clouds around it showed violet and black where the light passed.
Then there was another source of light. This one, though, was coming down from the clouds, and it was entirely different. About a dozen bright, golden comets streaked down from the sky, shooting off in all different directions. Two came towards Stornway and rushed overhead, not making a sound until they had already passed by. Then there was a rattling whoosh which nearly blew me off my feet.
Slowly, the wild shaking of the earth began to steady and then stopped all together. Carefully, I let go of the notice board and took several unsteady steps. Then I hurried back to the Quester's Rest to make sure Cristine, Patty, Ginny, the cook Ralph, and the valet Daniel were all okay.
But my mind was only half on that. The earthquake had changed something. And the golden comets meant something big.
And I had a funny feeling that I would be involved.
Hi, kids! Writerchic97 here for round two!
It's good to be back! I know this chapter's pretty short - three pages according to Microsoft Word - but trust me, they'll get longer. "Song of the Souls" isn't going to update quite as quickly as "The Mortal Sentinel", I'm afraid. I've got school, plus there's an original story which I'm trying to work in as well. But I'm going to put my best effort into this. I hope you like it!
And, just in case you're not tired of this...may all the bodies of the heavens watch over you!