The Four Guardians, page 23
part #2 of Pride Wars Series
Soldiers spread out along the wall on either side of the hole, pointing their exploding weapons into enemy territory. They must expect the whole Pride to crash down upon them as soon as they bend one blade of Panthera grass underfoot. Knowing Tamir, he is counting on the dramatic booming entrance to draw the enemy to him.
That will be his first surprise about the Panthera.
The soldiers along the wall hold their positions and wait for ten heartbeats.
“Clear!” yells a commander stationed by the hole.
“Clear!” replies another commander from atop the wall.
A whip cracks, and a procession of karkadanns files through the hole, flanked by legions of soldiers. The karkadanns tow carts of supplies, food, weaponry, and barrels of demon dust. In a few minutes, thousands of soldiers are assembled, arranged in battalions, ready to fight.
A horn blares, and the senior soldiers cross into enemy territory. I can make out Dagan and the other generals, minus Kaydan.
Tamir is not among them. But his daughter is.
“Do you see the young general leading the others?” I whisper to Mira. “That’s Amara, Tamir’s eldest.”
“Of course,” Mira says. “The appetite for power runs strong in his side of the family.”
“No surprise that Kaydan isn’t there,” Anjali observes. “He would die before giving allegiance to Tamir.”
“The fact that Tamir sent Amara could be to our advantage,” I suggest. “Singa soldiers are more likely to respect their Kahn than the regent’s offspring, even if she is a general.”
Mira nods. “It is a reasonable hypothesis.”
“We not only have Anjali and Lamasura, but we also have you, Wajid,” I say, gazing up at the massive Paladin. “Most of those soldiers met you at the Academy. They were frightened back then. Now that there are no bars to protect them, they will be terrified.”
Wajid grunts his agreement. “Demonics are easily frightened because they lack faith.”
“All the same, Wajid,” I continue, “you and Mira should stay close to me. They will not fire their weapons and risk killing the Kahn. That is punishable by death.”
I wish I felt as confident as I sound. I have no idea if this will work. Amara could be so eager to use her new weapons, she might mow us down long before I can reveal who I am.
Mira squeezes my arm. “Father raised you to be the Singa-Kahn. He raised you well.”
“Time to find out if that still matters to our Pride,” I say.
Amara’s forces push into enemy territory. The karkadanns lead the way. Their bulky armored bodies create a moving barricade protecting the swaths of soldiers in tow.
We emerge from the trees and walk single file, directly toward Amara and the army. I’m in the lead. Wajid is behind Mira, who provides little cover for the high and hefty Paladin. The two Guardians bring up the rear.
“Amara!” I roar.
“Halt!” General Dagan yells. “Prepare to engage the enemy!”
The Royal Army of Singara comes to a full stop. The front line of soldiers, eager to see and attack the dreaded foe, take positions around the karkadanns, pointing their exploding weapons at us.
“I am Leo, the rightful Kahn of Singara!” I declare, marching onward. “Drop your weapons!”
Many soldiers immediately lower their weapons. Others are just plain confused.
Amara bursts through the front line. “I give the orders here! That Singa is a Spinner and a traitor! He has abandoned his Pride and sided with the enemy!”
We’re still advancing. Only twenty meters separate us from Amara and the Royal Army.
“You are wasting your time, Amara,” I say. “The Maguar have left these lands. You came here for nothing.”
“Nonsense!” she scoffs. “There is a Maguar with you now!”
“So you remember Wajid from the Academy?”
As anticipated, the soldiers recoil and hiss at the mention of the captive Maguar’s name.
“We kept him in a cage for twenty-five years,” I continue, still on the move. “But we did not damage his faith or his spirit. Our elders lied to us about them, Amara. They are not the enemies we thought they were.”
“Stay where you are!” Amara roars. Her eyes sweep the trees behind us. She fears this is an ambush. She’s not wrong. I have two of the Four Guardians who are mightier than all the Panthera in Elyon.
I stop walking but keep talking. “The real evil lies beneath the castle of Singara. Has Tamir shown you the demon trapped in the Great Mountain?”
Amara startles. Her whiskers twitch.
“The demon feeds on violence,” I warn. “The demon is the cause of the separation and hostility between our Prides. Your new weapons are powered by demon dust. You are playing right into the monster’s hands. War will only help it escape and destroy everything. That doesn’t have to happen. It won’t happen if there is peace between the Prides.”
“Fables and fantasy!” Amara exclaims. “Are you going to stop the Royal Army by infecting us all with fiction? You should have stayed away, Leo.”
“I can’t. Singara is my home. Tell Tamir the Singa-Kahn has returned.”
Amara chuckles grimly. “No Spinner can be the Kahn. Seize their weapons!” she orders her soldiers. “They are my prisoners now.”
Two quadrons shoulder their exploding weapons and bare their blades. Their movements are skittish and uncertain. It isn’t every day they are asked to arrest the Kahn.
Anjali and Lamasura slide out from behind Wajid. Lamasura sluggishly sheds the cloak to reveal her tortoise-patterned midnight pelt.
Amara’s eyes land on Lamasura, expanding to their limit. “What abomination is this?!”
“Don’t be afraid, Amara,” I caution, looking at Lamasura. “Lamasura is a friend. She means you no harm.”
“She is a mistake of nature. Like all the Maguar. Like you, Leo! They must be exterminated!”
Anjali growls. She’s spoiling for a fight, ready to pounce as the White Tiger.
“Company C will have first blood in Operation Singa Storm,” Amara proclaims. “Prepare to fire!”
Company C, fifteen soldiers in all, assembles behind Amara.
I recognize them.
They are Amara’s company from the Royal Academy of War Science. Despite their two years of training at the Academy, they seem young and inexperienced, unsteady as they aim their demon-dust weapons.
Meanwhile, unhurried as the movement of the moon, Lamasura raises a hand.
“I am your Kahn!” I yell. “This is high treason!”
“Fire!” Amara commands.
The soldiers of Company C flick a switch on the handle of their weapons. Sparks fly. Fire jumps from fifteen metal tubes, accompanied by smoke and an ear-shattering boom.
Is this how it ends? All of us laid out on the ground, riddled with bloody holes?
The crack of the weapons firing is swallowed up by an even louder blast. The air ripples and everything around us stops, frozen in time, including Amara and all her soldiers. No, not quite frozen, just moving at less than a snail’s crawl.
That means the blast wasn’t from the exploding weapons.
It was Lamasura bending time, just as she did in Abba’s camp. I check my companions. Mira is dumbfounded. Wajid dips his head in deference to Lamasura’s power. Like me, they were not affected by Lamasura’s spell. Amara’s nearly frozen face is twisted with rage as she announces our execution.
Moving at a relaxed pace, Lamasura plucks from the air fifteen small metal balls slothfully carving a trail for us, one by one.
I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
“She’s handy in a pinch, isn’t she?” Anjali says with a wink.
“Verily,” I say, quoting Wajid.
Lamasura tips her hand, and the collection of metal balls patters to the ground around our feet.
“So what happens now?” I ask.
“What do you want to happen?” Anjali asks.
“I want to stop this war. If I can’t, I’ll need the Axis to stop Hasatamara. But I don’t know how to do either one.”
“You don’t need to know how . . .” Wajid intones.
“I only have to be willing,” I finish for him. “That’s faith.”
“Verily,” Wajid concurs. “That is faith.”
“Then let’s go home, Son,” Mira says.
“All of us?” I ask, observing Wajid’s reaction.
How can I expect him to return to the realm where he was held prisoner and mistreated for so long? But how can I endure more heartbreak by leaving him here?
Wajid lifts his chin. “Wajid would follow you to the ends of the earth and beyond, Shakyah Eliyah.”
“You too?” I say to Anjali.
“Me too,” she replies.
“What about Lamasura?”
“She will hold the army like this until we are gone,” Anjali explains, “then she will go back to the Haven. Unless,” she adds with a sharp-toothed grin, “you would like the White Tiger to show up and wipe all these soldiers out first.”
“These Singas are my soldiers, my responsibility, including Amara,” I say. “Instead of wiping them out, what if the White Tiger takes all their demon dust, dumps it in the sea, and then joins me in Singara? But I don’t think the White Tiger should show up on the other side of the wall.”
Not only would the sight of the White Tiger blow our cover and send the Singa into a fur-raising panic, I’m happy to have the old Anjali back for a while.
Anjali nods. “Then we return just as we were when we left.”
“Just as we were . . . and not the same at all,” I say.
Anjali smiles. “You are a bit taller, but have we really changed so much?”
“Maybe not,” I say, “but the world as we know it will never be the same. One way or the other, everything is about to change.”
Folktale Sources
The stories told by Leo and others are based on folktales from many cultures and traditions.
THE STORY OF LAMASURA is adapted from a Buddhist tale, “The Talkative Tortoise.”
THE BRIEF STORY ABOUT THE YOUNGLING who breaks the goat’s horn is a retelling of one of Aesop’s fables, “The Goatherd and the Goat.”
URSUS THE GRIZBEAR is inspired by “The Bear Legend” from the Cherokee tradition.
NO NAME’S STORY is based on the Turkish tale “No Name and the Squirrel.” I was guided by Meltem Basel’s version found at worldstories.org.uk/stories/bald-boy-and-the-squirrel.
THE STORY OF MAGMAR is adapted from a Ghanaian tale often called “How the Spider Obtained the Sky God’s Stories.”
THE STORY ABOUT HELEL/HASATAMARA told by Magmar is an original tale created by the author.
THE STORY OF THE MICE AND THE ELEPHAMUSES is based on an Indian folktale, “The Little Mice and the Big Elephants.”
Author’s Note
All “Sayings of the Ancients” in this book are original with the exception of the saying that begins chapter 19, which is adapted from Romans 8:28 of the Christian Bible.
The words from the Old Language recited by the Twelver and the Panthera in chapter 20 are based on Proverbs 3:5–6 from the Hebrew Bible.
The Old Language is, for the most part, a phonetic rendering of Hebrew. I hope this reflects my great love for the beauty and power of the Hebrew language and inspires others to learn more about it.
Special thanks to the following young readers, who previewed a draft of this book. I am forever grateful for their feedback and enthusiasm:
NATHAN F. CRAWFORD
IRIS DOUGHERTY
VIVIAN DOUGHERTY
ETHAN FITZGERALD
OLIVIA CONWAY HATCHER
IAN SINCLAIR WELLMAN
JASON ZGONC
And deep thanks to my family for their patience and tolerance as I was pulled away into the world of this book, not always at the best time.
Praise be to God from whom all blessings flow.
About the Author
MATT LANEY is an ordained minister with a lifelong interest in world religions, folklore, wisdom traditions, martial arts, and big cats. He lives with his wife and two children who love to read.
Learn more about Matt and the Pride Wars series at pridewars.com
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Matt Laney, The Four Guardians
