Side Stories - The Linsey Ashguard Books: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Fantasy (War of the Tarot Extended Universe Book 1) Read online

  “Have you given it a name yet?”

  I jumped straight out of my skin and nearly sent the whole box, sword and all, toppling off the balcony. Thankfully Ella was as quick as she was silent and saved my frightening badge of honor from plummeting to the slums below. Somehow she still had time and concentration enough to wrap me into her loving embrace while she did, “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “It’s not good for a Queen’s Guard to be so distracted,” she spoke softly and ran her hand over the curve of my hip, and then placed a gentle kiss on my neck.

  I fell back into her and let out a sigh of relief, “Some would say it’s not good for a Queen’s Guard to distract a Queen’s Guard.”

  She slipped her hand through the part in my robe and let her fingers trail over my tummy, “You’re not half as witty as you think you are.” She breathed into my ear and I could easily picture the devilish grin on her face.

  Her touch electrified me. Every tiny hair on my body stood on end and I found it increasingly harder to swallow. A small voice in the back of my mind screamed about how unfair it was but my eyes refused to fall away from the red sparkles and ethereal glow of the sword before me. Butterflies fluttered toward the lazy circles she made on my stomach with her fingers, but that didn’t stop them from being there. “I’m not ready.”

  Her hand slid down my stomach and she used it to part my thighs just a little to feel my warmth, “Oh I beg to differ.”

  “Dammit Ella, you know what I’m talking about,” I barely managed to get it out before she made my eyes roll back in my head. I wiggled free and turned to face her. As though looking into those hypnotic eyes would make it any easier to stay focused.

  She pulled her hands away and held them up in surrender. Her eyes were turned down from hypnotic to considerate, and her pale pink lips flushed with warmth as they curled into an understanding smile, “I just thought it’d be easier to distract you.”

  “Your distractions are never easy.”

  “Point,” she said with a wink and then moved beside me to look out over the grand desolation of our world. “So tell me love, what is it that troubles you?”

  I couldn’t turn around. I didn’t want to see the bleak landscape beyond our cozy little Queendom, so I leaned back against the balcony and let my hair fall over it, “What if I’m not good enough?”

  “Oh you’re good enough, you nearly had me today.”

  “Nearly isn’t the same as did.”

  “No one can win every battle,” Ella said as she leaned against me and let her head rest on my shoulder. Her hand fell down beside her and found mine and her fingers entwined with mine.

  “You’re one to talk, when have you ever lost a battle?”

  She squeezed my hand, “I haven’t, but I will someday.”

  “How do you know that?”

  “It’s inevitable, someday I’ll face an opponent who believes in what they’re doing more than I believe in what I’m doing,” Ella kicked my foot playfully and laughed. “Lighten up Lins, the point I’m trying to make is that there is always someone better, and all we can do is hope that the day never comes that we meet them.”

  “I pray you never do.”

  “And I pray to the Goddess every day and night that you never do either,” Ella nuzzled against my neck and traced a circle on my hand with her thumb. “So, you didn’t answer my question. Have you named it yet?”

  I shook my head.

  “You should name it soon,” she said with a serious tone I associated more with the Captain than with Ella. “A sword can’t fully help you until you name it. A name is a powerful thing. It gives it a personality all its own, a life of its own.”

  “What did you name your sword?”

  She lifted her head from my shoulder and stared up at our dual moons. She gazed long and hard into their radiant light as though she couldn’t name it, but then she dropped her head and said, “Dílseacht.”

  “Huh?”

  “It means loyalty,” she said as she stepped away from the balcony and pulled me toward the bedroom. “Come back to bed now. No more talk of such things.”

  I barely managed to grab my sword box before she drug me through the double glass doors and spun me into the bed. Somehow I took the fall without knocking my brains out with the heavy silver box, but before I could do anything with it she slid onto the bed and pressed her thigh between my legs. The gentle touch against my sex and the steady pressure she applied pushed all the right buttons and I just let the box fall down behind my head and held onto it for dear life. Her hands spread the robe away from my body and her lips planted hungry kisses along a trail down my stomach from between my breasts. Things got hazy.

  BEEP! “Captain Celeste, your presence is required in the council chamber.” Spoke the sing song voice of Nithalie Grant, a spare young woman with mousy brown hair and long limbs. Yes, my description might be a little unforgiving because she interrupted what promised to be an amazing fireworks show.

  Ella sighed and looked up at me with a frown. Honestly, I could barely see her. My eyes were half closed and my heavy breathing kept pushing my breasts into my line of sight. She smiled at that and then smacked my ass hard enough to make me jump. “Get dressed, you’re coming with me.”

  It took a moment for what she said to register because I was too busy reeling from the burning but pleasant sting of her open palm against my ass. And then I panicked. I can’t go with her, the Queen will be there. Not just the queen, but everyone of any importance in the Queendom will be there. “I’m sure someone like me wouldn’t be welcome in such a meeting.”

  “Nonsense,” Ella was already pulling on her pants. “You’re a member of the Queen’s Guard, and as orientation I’m requiring your presence.”

  “I really hate it when you pull rank,” I grumbled. No matter how I felt about such a meeting, orders were orders, so I pulled myself out of the glorious warm love nest we’d made and started to pull my pants on.

  BEEP! “Captain Celeste, there is no need for formal attire. The Queen requires your presence immediately.”

  Ella passed me a glance and I could see her swallow and force a quick smile my way, “Grab your sword. You never know when you’ll need it.”

  “It sounds pretty serious,” I spoke hesitantly, half in my pants. “And at this time of the night…”

  Ella threw on a wrinkled t-shirt and slung Dílseacht over her shoulder, “Grab your sword.”

  “Maybe I should stay here; it sounds too important for me.”

  Ella closed the gap between us, went to her knees before me, grabbed me by the shoulders firmly and gazed into my eyes, “Something is wrong, seriously wrong, and Council be damned, I want you by my side. Now grab your sword Linsellya, and let’s go.”

  And so I did without knowing I’d soon wish I hadn’t.

  CHAPTER THREE

  As we entered the council chamber I felt vastly under dressed in my black pajama bottoms and red knit sweater, until I got a look at everyone else. The only stitch of formal wear in the entire room belonged to Mercella Trent, Mistress of Science. She was a tall stout woman with chocolate brown hair pulled up into a strict bun and emotionless gray eyes rimmed by thin wire frame glasses. She wore the snug sky blue uniform that dictated her rank and position, along with all the small adornments her job required. The only piece of her clothing that struck me as odd was the long white coat that fell below her knees, because it was splattered with a mild amount of fresh blood. She certainly stood out from the rest of the crowd who resembled a slumber party more than a gathering of the Queendom’s most powerful nobility.

  Even the Queen sat upon her throne wearing nothing more than a lavender and silver nightgown belted loosely around her. However, even in her pajamas, Serine Locke Anthreidas, fourth of her name, Matriarch of all the lands below and skies above, petrified me. She sat with her long legs crossed, and her gown hung open enough to reveal her soft milky white skin. Her fiery
crimson hair spread over her strong shoulders, and fell down her body in waves, curls, and ringlets. She hardly looked as though she’d been asleep at all except for the heavy dark circles under her piercing meadow green eyes. Her full heart shaped lips were pressed firmly together and lines of tension spider webbed out from the corners of her mouth.

  When Ella and I cleared the doorway, Serine nodded and Sylvia Myst pulled the large polished black doors closed behind us. I didn’t really know any of my fellow Queen’s Guard personally outside of Ella and Sylvia. The only reason I knew Sylvia was because she’d graduated the academy only last year, and I’d had several classes with her. She was of a height with me and slightly frailer, but she’d been a beast in the training room with a short spear. My mind was dead set on distracting me from the oppressive air in the small dimly lit room, and it did so by making me wonder when Sylvia had chopped off all of her snow white hair and decided to sport an odd looking but functional pixie cut.

  “Over five hundred years ago… the last man died.” Serine’s voice bounded off the white brick walls as she rose and descended from her dais. “No one knows why, but I believe our Goddess placed her blessing upon us and removed the warmongers. You have all heard the stories,” she practically floated over the black marble floor until she stood at the center of the room. “War, anarchy, death, destruction, and finally they unleashed their terrible weapons and the world ended. For two hundred years we’ve rebuilt, and thanks to the hard work of our scientists,” She nodded at Mercella, “and by the grace of our merciful Goddess, we found ways to be fruitful. Our people lived on, and a new world rose from those ashes. Now, our very way of life and the fragile fabric of our civilization are threatened anew.” She pressed her hand to her breast, closed her eyes, and then whispered a soft prayer before she spoke again. “At three seventeen A.M., just fourteen minutes ago, a male child was born.”

  An audible gasp rolled through the room.

  I gasped as well. All the saliva in my mouth dried up and it burned when I swallowed. The oppression my mind had desired to ignore fell on top of my shoulders in heavy wet hot waves and my knees wobbled, not enough to make me fall, but more than enough to make me question my balance. Some would call it a drastic over reaction but I could feel something in the pit of my stomach, something wrong and inevitable. The impossible had occurred and the world around me was already changing.

  “How is that possible?” Ella stepped forward with her arms tucked behind her back and bowed her head as she spoke.

  “It isn’t,” Mercella replied.

  “Apparently not,” Serine shot Mercella a glance that would have melted me into a puddle. “I have summoned you here to decide what is to be done with the child.”

  How is there even a question? I wondered.

  I moved to speak but Ella put her hand on my wrist and squeezed.

  The pit in my stomach expanded and I felt my heavy heart falling into the thick rancid middle of it. I knew the direction of events before they unfolded, but all I could do was stand there and watch.

  “Mercella, what went wrong?” Clarissa Shawl inquired. Clarissa was at the same time Serine’s consort and the voice of the people. I often wondered how she could juggle both sides of a coin without ever letting that coin fall flat, but she did. She wore her light brown hair in a long braid down her back and her lips were forever frozen in a smile. I knew there was no way anyone could ever be as happy as she acted, but for the life of me her dimpled smile never failed to charm.

  “Fate,” Mercella said with a shrug of her shoulders. “We isolated the male patterns long ago and eliminated them from our process. There is no other answer.”

  Fate… I’d never really used the word before, but as I stood there surrounded by people debating the fate of a newborn baby I gave a name to the pit growing at my center. I named it fate and I hated it.

  “I do not believe in fate,” Serine sighed. “You’re a woman of science, and that is the answer you supply?”

  “When all other answers are wrong, we are left with the only solution available.”

  “Regardless of how it happened we must decide what to do about it,” Serine cast her gaze around the room. “Any suggestions?”

  No one made a sound. I wanted to. I wanted to scream at her, at them, at all of them that there was only one possible suggestion. The pit in my stomach turned into a rusty vise and crushed my insides.

  Ella increased the pressure of her grip on my wrist.

  “My dear, that maternal instinct that burns at the heart of every good woman has bound your hands, so now you look to one of us, your trusted to reaffirm the decision you’re afraid to make alone,” Clarissa said as she rose from her seat by the throne and descended the dais to her lover.

  I watched as Serine melted into Clarissa’s arms, an act that must have been hard to allow in the presence of so many people, especially for a Queen, and that was the last straw fate let fall onto the back of a strained world. I wrenched my hand free of Ella’s grasp and stepped around her.

  Ella grabbed me by the shoulders, spun me around, and then pulled me into a tight embrace, “Don’t,” she whispered into my ear. I could feel the violent hammer of her own heart pounding against my chest and a warm tear fell from her eye and landed on my cheek.

  My determination faltered and though the horrible feeling in my guts roared for me to take action and be heard I relaxed into her arms. The woman I loved needed me and fate be damned, I needed her. “We can’t let this happen.”

  “Shhh,” Ella tightened her grip on me. “If the Queen wills it, it will be done.”

  “Before we actually say it, perhaps it would help to say why we are saying it,” Clarissa spoke with a politician’s voice as she pulled back from Serine and swept a red lock out of her eyes.

  “After two hundred years, there is no place for a male in this world,” Mercella said.

  Safe in Ella’s embrace I tensed and Ella sighed. My hands curled into tight balls and I felt my nails bite into my palms. It’s a helpless little baby!

  “The people will panic, religious zealots will scream of signs and portents, the rebels will rally more to their cause, and great change will sweep our lands. Peace will devolve into chaos,” Clarissa ticked her reasons off on her fingers as though she were writing a shopping list.

  How do you know!? I wanted to scream it, but every time I tensed Ella tightened her grip. I squirmed to no avail. Fate twisted its way through my insides and wrapped around every vein and nerve in my body. No, no no, don’t say it. Please don’t say it. How can you say it? What is wrong with you people? Don’t make it so, please Goddess above… bless them with wisdom.

  “The child… must die,” Serine’s voice trailed off as she finished the statement.

  Reaction is a funny thing. That little voice in the back of my mind that tells me the difference between right and wrong wanted to yell, but my body gave out instead. My knees buckled completely and if not for Ella, I’d have fallen straight to my knees. She held me up, she always held me together. Why won’t you say anything? I asked myself. What is stopping you? Someone has to do something. Why not you?

  “Alessandra Celeste,” Serine spoke with a cracking voice. I could hear the tears in her voice. They’d never leave her eyes, I knew, but I could hear them as clear as day.

  “Your Grace,” Ella responded with all the steadiness and composure that earned her, her position.

  “See that it is done.”

  “Yes your Grace.”

  That’s why… Fate twisted a cold hard dagger through every nerve in my body. I’d known since the moment the impossible was revealed that no matter how badly I wanted to speak out, I couldn’t. I could speak against the Queen, when it comes right down to it I don’t care about the Queen. Fuck the Queen. But Ella…? Not the woman I love.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  I sat on the edge of our bed and held my breath, because I feared the tears would escape if I let myself mov
e. My back was straight as a board and I’d drawn my shoulders back. The uniform that clung to my weary frame inspired a sense of pride and duty that forced perfect posture. Of course the paralyzing terror within helped. Goddess, help me to be strong.

  Ella exited the washroom decked out in a uniform that mirrored mine except for the medals and tassels that indicated her level of service and accomplishment. As members of the Queen’s Guard, we wore loose black leather tunics over liquid tactical armor that covered our bodies from neck to toes. The tunics were climate adaptive and as such provided insulation or breath-ability respective dependent on the external temperature. The thin armor was filled with a liquid substance that hardens on impact and spreads the force of the blow over a wide area, which in turn lessened the impact. It could stop the full force of a normal bullet and was virtually immune to most bladed weapons, (star stone excluded, nothing is immune to star stone). The only drawback was that it was useless against sonic weaponry, but since only members of the Queen’s Guard had access to such weapons, it was a moot point. Tall leather combat boots reached our thighs in the front but only came to the knee in the back. A belt held our tunics closed and varied in color depending on our rank. Mine was the color of copper and Ella’s was the color of shimmering gold. The uniform was gorgeous but as I sat there I realized mine felt wrong. “You’re dressed?” Ella froze as soon as she saw me.

  “I’m coming with you,” I stood and felt the full weight of the uniform upon my shoulders. My sword hung by a strap slung across my back and my sonic pistol rested in a black leather holster that hung low on my hip. Both of them felt heavy enough to pull me to my knees.

  “No,” Ella shook her head and turned away from me. “You’ve already made your feelings on this matter perfectly clear.”

  My chin dropped, my shoulders slouched, and my eyes lowered. She was right. As we left the council chamber I’d pleaded with her to refuse her orders, but she wouldn’t budge. I’d heard all the stories about men. They were monsters, big and strong and full of violence, which lusted for power and destroyed everything in their way to gain it. There was a reason our scientists had worked so hard to engineer an all-female society in the years following the Great War, after all. But my heart ached every time I imagined the pudgy cheeks and googling eyes of a newborn baby, no matter what it was. When we got back to the room Ella had pulled me into her arms and collapsed to the floor. She held me and wept, because she felt it too, but in the end she’d wiped her tears away, stilled her emotions, and silently started to prepare to fulfill her duty. I resolved to not allow her to face her fate alone. “My feelings don’t matter; I won’t let you bear the weight of this alone.”