Read Keeper of Dawn and Blood :: Fishy Business

Being a Rook wasn't something you prepared for, or at least that was what Tanjiro used to tell me. You were either a good one or a bad one. I never had the time of day to be worried because as far as I knew, I would always be a bad one.

Galahad was already in the SUV parked in front of my house, but he left the door to the driver's seat open. It was empty and conspicuously void of a driver at this time of night. I didn't have to wonder how the car even got here in the first place. Runebanes got whatever they wanted without question.

Pausing outside the driver's door, I slapped my hand against the rain-slickened window and peered inside the vehicle. Galahad was reclined against the middle back seat, his broad shoulders plastered against leather upholstery while he typed away on his phone.

"Am I to understand that you want me to drive? That's far too reckless of you, Galahad. Put me behind a wheel and not just your life but mine will be endangered, trust me."

He snorted, not once looking up from his smartphone. "You can't avoid driving forever. As of today, you're the current Rook for the next generation of Runebane heirs; all three of them. Your wards are going to be travelling to and from Crestbridge University, so you may as well get used to the idea."

My jaw dropped at the mention of my charges. My uncle Tanjiro had been tasked with the protection of the head of the Runebane family, a job that could receive no higher praise in our world... but me? I was to be the bootlicker of the three devils spawned by Bhaltair Runebane himself.

I swallowed my acidic displeasure and slid into the driver's seat, lines of tension drawn across my face in vivid opacity despite the favor of night's fog hugging me like a second skin. Without a word, I started the car and adjusted my mirrors. As I left the curb, my mother's face glowed dimly in the rear-view mirror, her tiny stature shrinking on the horizon, left behind on the street that would forever haunt me as my childhood home and place of nightmares.

Galahad talked to me nonstop about Andraste Runebane, the twenty-three year old Elfling princess who valued status and money, as if to coax the adoration for my wards in so easy a manner, but since she was one of the triplet terrors that would soon have me regretting the name on my birth certificate, I turned the volume up on the radio and sighed.

"They're not so bad, you know." Galahad informed me, tossing his phone onto the seat beside him.

"Where exactly am I going, by the way?" I had been going straight for ten minutes.

"I've arranged for a Worm-portal to open up ahead. We'll drive into it eventually." He snapped his fingers and the radio turned off; he then added whimsically, "I'm not sure if you know this, but Tanjiro and I were quite close. He assured me of your potential."

I grunted, both hands squeezing the steering wheel with needless pressure as I battered away his compliment, a heavy sigh following my dead-eyed verdict: "Tanjiro and I... We weren't the same."

"Fire and water, my dear. He knew when to become one or the other. As you come into your role, you'll switch between principles and find that maybe what used to separate you from your uncle wasn't a glaring lifetime of duty, but rather..."

"Let me guess - a heavy dabbling of fire? I already know what you're going to say, Galahad, but you don't have to worry about me. Tanjiro played with fire and got burnt. Like I said, we were different entities, he and I." I drawled.

Galahad's hair was a lighter shade of blonde than all of his relatives. A glorious tumbling of sun-bleached gold waves were combed into submission on his head and he fingered them in a careless manner, eyeing my creaseless composure through the reflection of the rear-view mirror.

Dimples lit his face as he groused, "Underhills. And you all say you make bad Rooks, eh?"

I said nothing as I waited for the Worm-portal to manifest around the car like a plume of smoke. I'd never seen one in person before, but from what I knew and heard, they were magical doorways that opened up all over the world under the command of the Dawn Covenant. Runebanes or their Underhill escorts weren't permitted entry otherwise and had to wait for their permission, much like all the other magically-inclined families of our society.

The stoic street was quivering with sheets of rain, flickers of green fairy-light beginning to cluster together in front of the SUV. I applied pressure on the accelerator and steadily watched as the Worm-portal rapidly materialized itself from nothing, blobs of jade solidifying before my eyes to create an oversized doorframe with an iron wrought gate. I hadn't expected the Worm-portal to be large enough to accommodate several airplanes.

As we got closer, the gates snapped open and a blinking abyss of murky grey swallowed the car when I steered into it. The magic of the Worm-portal gripped the outside of the vehicle and it felt as if we were driving through mud.

Darkness closed in. Wolf howls and timid echoes of children floated in the shroud, wherever we were. I kept on driving, lost as I was, anxiously aware that the gates had slammed shut behind us, sealing us in. Galahad wasn't worried, which meant I had no real reason to be either. Everything would be okay.

"When you see a pond, drive into it. That's our exit."

I looked back at Galahad, checking his expression for a sign of amusement. Nope, he wasn't kidding.

Biting my lip, I glared ahead and settled into my seat for the long haul. "Gotcha."

Too soon did I regret my words. The tires rattled in protest as we descended into a swamp-looking pond of indeterminate substance. The liquid was a Prussian blue and intensely gooey, and I was frantic to ascertain that because the SUV struggled to glide through its depths, then the Runebanes must have been trying to handicap their own Rook.

Maybe they were done contracting their lives to second-rate Rooks and wanted brand new bodyguards - and now they were trying to kill the last of the Underhills.

"Pull yourself together, Rook." Galahad snorted from the backseat.

We were sinking faster now. The windows were all rolled up. Galahad's magic had kept the water from coming in, but the human half of my brain was still short-circuiting in distress due to the sight of water lapping at the windows. Was it even water?

Peering through the blurry curtain of blue, everything outside of the car looked as though time was being sped up, changing position somehow.

The biggest giveaway was the movement of lights and shapes floating around the pond. Either way, the environment above it was swiftly revolving around us in a slide-show of color. Night and day was flashing by, of that I was certain.

"Any moment now," murmured the old man in the back seat, sounding like he wanted to nap, "Should be fished out sometime soon..."

"Fished?"

Worm-portals weren't an exact science. When gaining passage to the realm of Dasbridow, all entrances looked and resembled the same likeness, but the exits? Always a different detour to get to the other side. That's what Tanjiro once explained me. And as soon as Galahad mentioned 'fishing' to me, I'd whipped my head right around, a dozen unsavory exclamations longing for release.

But then it happened. Damn it all, something hooked onto the front of the car. I jerked in my front seat as a massive chain pulled the SUV upward and we went soaring toward the surface of the pond.

The closer we got to the top of the water, the clear it became and I soon realized we weren't in the same murky depths as the Worm-portal muck. This was ocean water. Crashing, blue waves pummeled the black SUV and we were being dragged behind a fishing boat.

A fisherman with a riviera cap on stood at the stern of the boat, waving at us. "Greetings, Rook and Runebane! We'd best get you to the mainland! Hold on tight."

"No, thank you." I protested, "Can't we just get on his boat and move at a regular pace?"

The Runebane male sitting at the back merely yawned and said, "He uses magic. You better do as he says, dear."

I grappled onto my seatbelt for dear life as the the fishing boat in front of us suddenly lurched forward and split across the ocean, carving a path towards the blessed country of Merlintia. My stomach wanted to throw itself out the window. I was a suburban girl from Earth, except I hadn't gone anywhere worthwhile and I hadn't done anything fun throughout my entire life. Amusement parks? Not for me.

I sincerely hoped that these "modes of transport" didn't become a frequent standard in the foreseeable future, otherwise I would be doomed as a Rook.

At last, a harbor poked into view and the fisherman docked immediately, his boat tethered within moments. He hauled the SUV over with a flick of his crystal wand. An Elf. I should have guessed it. His periwinkle eyes skimmed the car as it levitated out of the water, as if picked up by the wind, settling onto the walkway of the harbor.

It was either the fisherman's magic or Galahad's that ripped my door off after that, exposing me to the chilly air of Dasbridow. This realm was an arctic snow globe despite the sunny overlook. Every relative of mine had written in journals that this place exuded a wintery charm about it, even if spring flowers grew everywhere, or were out of season, overgrown and impossibly large for their species. This was a glossy world of magic, after all.

Dasbridow. The realm of Elves, Vampires and Nephilim. As of today, no matter my reservations on the absurdity of it all, I was to be the champion of the Runebane heirs who would one day take their places in the Dawn Covenant, their management effecting the livelihood of Dasbridow and as a result, what back rippled onto Earth.

Tanjiro and all the Rooks before me had been cut out for this. I was not.

Flustered, I unplugged my belt and jumped out of the SUV without preamble. Before anyone could permit me to act as a footman, I walked over to Galahad's door and opened it in a far nicer manner than I had been subjected to. His smiling face greeted me instantly, smoothing over my disgruntlement.

"Two for one, Rook. No need to be upset, Nilsenna." He laughed.

I swallowed and didn't engage in useless banter. Runebanes were such eccentric people... Well, it was no use voicing discontent. It would get me nowhere and it wasn't my place anyway.

The Elf standing over to the side came over and bowed in front of Galahad, according much respect to the old man. I probably should have made an effort to act more dignified when he'd arrived at my house earlier, but I'd been in such a state of harrowing grief. Honestly, I still was. Rook mode wasn't something I could just turn off, however, and that was why I remained as blank as an unused page, staring at the Elf as he turned a dismissive eye at me.

"Temporary lodgings, Mr Runebane? Or will you be heading over to the Balinor estate? Or Runebane Palace?"

Galahad made a modest, head-shaking motion and waved the gentlemanly Elf away. His services weren't needed, for a Rook was more than enough, this old Runebane had proclaimed. I stiffened up, unable to tear my eyes away from the male Elf with the crystal wand, who'd begun to back away in resignation, a slight frown to his face.

"Do you enjoy pissing me off, sir?" I asked him, genuinely curious.

"As I keep telling you, dear, you're a Rook. That means you're the natural enemy of everything in Dasbridow. I'm simply helping you establish your place in the hierarchy."

"I don't need any help."

Galahad, with his hands behind his back in a relaxed grip, began to stroll down the walkway, patient as ever for my shadow to proceed at his heels. He spoke as he looked over the harbor, "Many people are going to try and cement themselves within the inner circle of my grandchildren. As their Rook, I want you to be brutal. You must be as hungry as I am to take them out. Give them no quarter and show those mongrels that there is no spot worth desiring. The way to do that is by baring your teeth, Nilsenna."

"Baring my teeth?" I scoffed.

"Yes," His sterling eyes met mine and he chuckled, "Institute that you are the judge and jury in their court, the executioner of their justice system and most of all, their faithful bodyguard. Be their secret-keeper or spy, its up to them. As you saw today, I made you drive. That makes you their chauffeur when they feel like it and the blade of their will at hand. A Rook is many things, little one. Fire and water, remember?"

Our dawdle ended at the emergence of sand along the bay, our shoes grappling against tiny grains as we ascended up a hill. I wondered why the old man was in a sage-like mood all of a sudden. Tanjiro hadn't received the 'starter pack' of how to be a Rook, so why was I offered it?

"I thought it was up to me to be fire or water?" I mused aloud, perusing the awkward dance of redwood trees nearby.

A forest hugged the edge of the harbor and on the other side of it, a gravel road that would lead to the heart of Merlintia. We were nearly to the tree line when Galahad gave one of his heavy, long-suffering sighs of frustration.

"You've got a long way to go, Underhill. Runebanes will always be in charge of your directives. First and foremost, never mistake your duty as anything other than a walking, bullet-proof vest. And secondly, how you choose to manifest your task is within your capacity as Rook. Be a forest fire and be ruthless, or act as a the swelling tides of the ocean, flooding your opponents with diplomatic verbiage."

In silence we trudged towards Merlintia, where we would be met by another Runebane lackey and taken to Galahad's family residence. My life was hereon about to be torn apart by lots of inconvenient snippets of wisdom.

I still hadn't met the upside to being a Rook yet. Was there even one?