Realm Keepers 01 - Realm Keepers

though, they were the same.
    And now the knight was looking at me strangely.
    “My lady?” he asked.
    “Um…your name?” I asked.
    He smiled—just like Kurt had smiled at me that morning. “It’s Darren, my lady.”
    I nodded, gulping. I looked at the others, wondering if I was the only one who saw this. They were all looking at me like I was crazy, so I guessed they didn’t notice Kurt’s look-alike. Then I realized I should probably be finishing the introductions.
    “This is Miles, Blade, Est—um, I mean Raven…?” I said uncertainly. Raven nodded at me with a little smile.
    Darren inclined his head at all of them, a half-smile still on his face.
    Calvin interrupted before I could introduce him, putting a hand over his stomach and bowing low. “Sir Calvin,” he said.
    I rolled my eyes before addressing the knights again. “And we are all in your debt.”
    As one, the knights knelt down on one knee and bowed their heads. Cara spoke for them: “There is no debt, Lady Sarah. We have only done our duty.” She and her knights rose again. “But we thank you, nonetheless.”
    Greystone was looking at me with approval. “So where do we go from here?” I asked him. “What’s next?”
    He stepped forward and waved a hand across Miles’ face, muttering a word I couldn’t understand. Miles blinked almost recoiled, but he kept his feet planted. Greystone did the same to Blade, Raven, and Calvin (who grinned and looked excited) before finishing with me.
    “What was that?” I asked when he was done.
    “A spell of slumber,” he said gravely. “For your bodies have withstood much, and must rest.”
    I took a wary step back. “What? You’re knocking us out?”
    “Only to rest,” he assured me.
    Black mist started to form on the edges of my vision. I saw Blade sway on his feet.
    “Wait!” Calvin said. “I’m not tired! I don’t need to sleep! Didn’t you mention something about Dragons earlier?” He rubbed furiously at his eyes with the back of his hand, and his head dipped.
    “Why…?” I started to ask, but I forgot the sentence before I could finish it. Suddenly one of the Stonegard was behind me—it was Barius. He caught me as I started to fall and laid me gently to the grass. For the second time that day, I fell into blackness.

    There were sounds.
    What were they?
    Were the creatures breaking through the wall?
    I didn’t open my eyes, partly because I was so tired and partly because if the Shadows were coming through, I just didn’t want to see.
    Then I realized the sounds weren’t howls or the clatter of weapons and armor. The low hum wasn’t the roar of an army; it was an air conditioner. The insistent chirping wasn’t the sound of birds; it was an electronic beep, like a computer.
    What the…?
    I opened my eyes.
    It was so dark that at first I thought I hadn’t opened them at all. Then I saw green points of light in the blackness, and I knew the room was just too dark to see more. I tried to get up, but something was pulling at my face. I tried reaching up to grab it, but there was something else on my right arm. I felt a lance of pain in my elbow when I tried to move it, and left it still instead. I raised my left hand — nothing stuck to it — and felt at my face.
    There was a mask, some kind of plastic tubing coming out of it and running out over the side of the bed. Now that I concentrated, I could hear my labored breathing coming from inside it. I probed more with my fingers and found a tube running to the elbow of my right arm, with a long needle plunged into the skin.
    My eyes adjusted more. I was in a big room, and though it was too dark to be sure, I thought the walls were white. The floor was tile, and the blinking green lights I saw were heart rate monitors.
    I was in a hospital.
    I heard stirring to my left and turned to see Calvin’s face, illuminated only by the green glow of the monitors. His eyes were wide, staring all around. As I scanned the room, I saw six beds, one for each of us: Miles, Blade, Raven and Tess still struggling to wake.
    “Where are we?” I mumbled.
    BREET, BREET, BREET
    Every monitor in the room went crazy at once.

    TO BE CONTINUED IN…

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