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For a long moment, Josephine couldn't figure what had woken her. She remembered kissing Drake and how right it had felt. And she remembered falling asleep in his arms, warm and safe and loved. And she sat up.
Where was Drake now?
As if in answer, the unfamiliar but disquieting sound of metal clashing against metal rang through the woods. She leapt to her feet. He wouldn't have gone in search of Garth and left her asleep and defenseless. Somehow he'd known Garth was nearby. However it had happened, the sound of battle was not far away and would be easy to follow. She started toward the edge of the clearing, reached for a branch to push it out of her way and drew back in startled surprise when the leaves on the branch whirred into flight.
The Little People of Cherokee legend surrounded her, green leaves flapping from their shoulders, expressions fierce. She drew back, startled, holding up her hands. "Don't."
She held her breath. Why would they want to stop her? Very slowly, she lowered her hands, preparing herself for an attack. They didn't attack, however. Instead, they hovered nearby, surprisingly peaceful for tiny warriors. She smiled. "Thank you. But I must go to Drake." A sliver of moonlight shone through the trees, sparking glimmers of light along ethereal wings. She sucked in her breath. "You are really very beautiful."
No one had ever mentioned the beauty of the Little People, only the danger. Not that she should be surprised by that. Poison sumac could be quite beautiful, but its less desirable properties outweighed that beauty so few ever saw it.
A metallic crash jerked her from her reverie. Without waiting to see if they'd allow it, she ducked around them and raced through the forest, branches catching at her hair and clothing as if trying to hold her back. She burst into a circle of firelight to see the two struggling men and she gasped in horror, clapping her hand over her mouth. She ducked back behind the bushes to watch.
Drake moved with a graceful ferociousness that took her breath away, but his dark-haired opponent was equally skilled and possibly larger than Drake. Both men bore scars from previous battles, probably fought side by side. They might even regard each other as brothers?and now they sought to kill the other. Because she'd opened the portal.
I have to stop them. Her heart squeezed with guilty responsibility at the events she'd unwittingly put into motion in two worlds. How could she keep them from killing each other, though? To come between two such warriors would surely result in her own peril. If she died, would the portal remain open forever?
A soft rustling in the bush beside her caught her attention. They'd followed her, then. She glanced over at the shadowy creatures in the bush. And like a flash of lightning on a dark night, she knew the Little People hadn't started protecting her last night. They'd done it all along. But why?
Because you are the guardian of the portal. One of the Yundi Tsundi came to rest on the branch nearest her face. A tiny, shadowy warrior with glistening but almost invisible wings. His expression was sober, but a light of fondness shone in his eyes. He held a spear in one hand, and she knew it was laced with the poison of the Yundi Tsundi. The poison that could make you forget what was happening, what was important in your life?even what you were doing.
She glanced over her shoulder at the battle. No matter how it ended, she could not be happy with its outcome. If Drake killed Garth, she was responsible. It wasn't Garth's fault she'd opened the portal. But the alternative left her with a yearning, anguished feeling. How had he become so essential to her so quickly?
As the two combatants parted for a moment, she made a decision and leapt between them, her arms stretched, palms out, toward their chests. "Stop!"
Everything seemed to slow down. She saw Drake's look of horror as he deflected his already launched attack to the side, stumbling and falling in the process. And she saw Garth with no intention of stopping, sword above his head, ready to slice down and through her to get to Drake-
She flung herself to the side, knowing she was already too late, closed her eyes and waited for the killing blow, wondering if her mother waited for her just on the other side of the veiled spirit world.
As she hit the ground and rolled away, coming to rest in Drake's waiting arms, she heard a soft thud on the ground behind her. She turned in surprise and for a moment thought perhaps the blow had landed after all and she looked at the living world through a shimmering veil of darkness. But then the darkness parted and she saw clearly that Garth sat in a clump of grass, his expression vague as though he'd hit his head very hard against something. His sword lay unnoticed beside him. He scrubbed his hands over his face like a man who'd been asleep a long time and wanted to cast aside the cobwebs of dreams. Josephine stared in surprise, half rising to go to him, but Drake caught her by the waist, holding her back as he stood cautiously. He glanced at her, shaking his head and holding his sword ready but lowered.
Garth looked up. "Drake? What happened? What am I doing here?"
Drake tilted his head, suspicious. "You don't remember?"
"No clue." Garth looked around, his eyes lighting on Josephine. His lips curled in amusement but without the ugly enmity and derision that had been there before. "Did I interrupt something?" He started to stand and faltered. "Sorry. I just? Did I hit my head on something?" He looked around as if trying to establish what had happened. "I feel like I was in a fight. Am I bleeding?" He eyed Drake's sword. "Did you hit me? Gods, man, if I interrupted something, I'm sure it wasn't intentional."
Josephine approached with caution and Drake sheathed his sword. When she reached his side, he caught her arm to keep her from going closer. That was when she saw the two thorn-like black stingers (spears) protruding from the other man's neck and she knew for certain how much she owed her protectors.
Drake met her startled gaze with a nod. He pulled her aside. "Go. Be ready to lock the portal. I'll take him back through it. In the state he's in, he'll never know he was in another world." He lowered his gaze, and she felt his hand tighten on hers, then relax. "And then you can lock it back. With everyone on the right side of it."
She closed her own eyes against the sorrow his words brought to her. She wanted to say, No, I won't lock it, you can come back?but she knew what her response had to be. "Yes." Her heart rose up and prevented anything further from coming out. Standing on tiptoes, she kissed him, felt his hand on her back between her shoulder blades pulling her closer as if he could hold all the sweetness of that moment, but then he released her and she turned, racing back through the woods toward the portal's clearing.