The Iron Rose: Volume 1

Gudomlay gasped when she heard the plate crash and Kunagi grunt. She pulled away, looking up into his eyes to see anger there. He wasn’t looking at her and was gritting his teeth so fiercely she thought he might grind them to dust. And then she looked up and saw someone standing behind him.

Bard jerked out a knife from Kunagi’s back and hissed, his eyes wild with hate. “You would betray one whom you claim to love?” He growled, his voice hoarse with pain and anger. “I will not allow that. Not from a stripe!” He shouted, spittle flinging from between his teeth.

“You idiot!”Gudomlayscreamed. She looked past Kunagi at Bard in a panic and then back at Kunagi. A spark of lightning zapped across his shoulders and she realized. “You woke him up!”

“M’lay,” Kunagi’s voice. It was soft and low and so dangerous. Not like the usual tone that was close to the sound of insanity. He seemed taller, his hair now all black, and his glasses clear so they could be seen through. There was a manliness about his face that was void of any smirking and yet was so soft as he looked at her. He tilted his head and lifted a hand. With a brush of his fingers over her lips, a gentle pulse of light rushed across her skin. That light signified that she was now protected from any of his attacks gone astray or otherwise.

Then, he spun around so quickly that he was barely seen, and his fist came down so fast Bard just had time for escape. Instead of hitting him, he pummeled into the counter near the stove. Bard gawked with a hanging jaw when he saw the stone hadn’t just cracked or broke. No, Kunagi’s throw had reduced any rubble into dust so there was now a hole there. They could have even seen into the cabinet below if his arm wasn’t still through it. Gudomlay ducked under his arm, grabbed Bard’s, and ran out the kitchen with him. As they left, Kunagi’s glasses tilted and slid off his face.

Gudomlaybolted for the practice tube and input an emergency code at the sliding doors. They hissed, and once they opened, she pushed Bard through and closed them on him. When he realized she wasn’t coming in with him, he whirled around and banged his fist against the walls. But he couldn’t get through.

“Why did you do that?” She shouted at him, turning lights off all around him so he couldn’t be seen. “Why would you stab Kunagi in the back?” She cried, frantic and looking over her shoulder.

“He was going to kill you! Is that not what I overheard? That he loved you, but he would have to betray you? That’s unacceptable! The stripe’s law of such an act is death. He taught us that!”

“You can’t kill him!” She shouted back, now glaring at him. “Nor would I ever wish harm on him. Even if he were wrong to take my life.” She shut her eyes and bowed her head, her hands now in trembling fists. “It’s not mine... Itnever hasbeen!” She screamed, looking up at him again. Bard gazed down at her, his face falling for the sorrow in hers. She took a deep breath then and put on a light just before the tube but not near enough that it could shine any light on it. “Now stay quiet. I have to put him back to sleep.” She stepped away and went to stand under the light.

She glanced up at it and then, raising her arm, input a code into the band she always wore. Her clothes and hair changed so she wore a whimsical robe. It opened wide around her shoulders and fanned out from the waist down. Around her torso was a belt, and her sleeves were long and open. Her hair was done up so most of it was in a bun, but a long thick strand at the nape of her neck fell over her shoulder. Her face was painted so it was pale. Her cheeks were pink, her lips purple, her eyes colorful, and her lashes lined with black.

When it was finished, the door to the kitchen came open. Kunagi walked calmly down, his footsteps seeming to echo with menace. The light was too faint to give away the change in his appearance, but there was one. She’d seen it before.

Bard could sense an incredible strength coming from him. And there was a seriousness he’d never felt around the professor before. Even his dress seemed to have been exchanged for something different. But he couldn’t make out what it was. Only that it was now green and blue and made of something like silk.

“M’lay,” his voice held such command that Bard found himself taking a step back. “Where is it?” He asked, his black eyes darting about the room. “Where is it hiding?”

“He meant no harm, my lord,” she called to him, her voice too seeming to be softer and bolder.

He glanced at her, and coming to stand before her, put a hand on her head. “I am Kunagi to you,” he said gently but with a sternness that could not be covered by his tenderness for her. “Now where is that thing that stabbed me.” He glanced around, his eyes cold and narrowed.

“Kunagi, please. He thought you meant me harm. He was only trying to protect me.”

Kunagi chuckled low so it echoed darkly through the dungeon. “And what have I spent these last several years doing?” He asked, his head turning to peer through the darkness.

“He heard you. About my fate. It confused him,” she said. Her eyes were on the ground, trying to hide the ache in her heart. She’d accepted her future. She’d known of it since she was a child. And she knew that her death meant saving Kunagi. That’s why she didn’t mind it. She loved him and would do anything for him. But… it didn’t mean she wanted to die. She shut her eyes, waiting and listening to him breathe. He was playing with the soft strand of hair over her shoulder between his long callused fingers. It made her smile wryly. He’d done that when she was a child trying to get her to go to sleep. But now she wondered if it was more to comfort himself now than her.

“Does he love you?” He asked, looking back at her with a terrifying expression and his fingers now gripping her hair tightly. If she could feel it, she was certain it would have hurt.

She smiled wryly and shook her head. “No. He hates me,” she replied. “Please, Kunagi. I need to put you to sleep again.” She called to him, lifting a hand to caress his face. It was like his hands. Weather worn.

“Not until I’ve dealt with the rat,” he drawled, glancing around again so her hand fell to her side.

Bard held his breath, for in that moment he could see that Kunagi’s hair had also grown long to his feet. It was tied back in a ponytail and swirled around him like a rope. The professor had always been sinister. Frightening like a maniacal scientist. But for some reason, this noble figure had him quaking worse than the lunatic teacher ever had.

“Kunagi,” she said, growing desperate. “I must sing and dance for you. Do you not remember what you said the last time you went to sleep? When you taught me how?” She gazed up at him a little desperately, imploring him with her gaze to listen.

He paused, his shoulders now tight. “I told you that should I ever wake before the day of your graduation... That you were to put me back to sleep immediately,” he replied. “I did not forget...” He turned to face her. “But that I was woken at all--”

“It was an accident. He didn’t know. That’s why you must sleep so that no one knows. Please, for Odessa’s sake,” she begged.

“It was for Odessa’s sake I took you in and came to live in this terrible, filthy, lowly place. He has disguised it well to look like some paradise, but this is hell.” He clicked his tongue, his nose scrunched in a snarl. But then his expression melted as he gazed at her again. “I was not supposed to come to love you...” He looked morosely at her, true despair changing his face. “The very purpose I took care of you is the very thing that will destroy you. I hate this and yet there is nothing I want more.”

“And that is why I will give my life gladly, but until the date we promised, you must hide.”

Then, seeming to decide her right, he came and sat back on the cool hard floor before her. Gudomlay, smiling wistfully, bowed to him and took a breath to sing as she also moved to dance.

“Oh, fisherman of the sea lay your lamp high for me and sing a song to the waves. Come, come, over the hills of water back to me. And sleep another year in the green.”

Bardstaredfrom behind, his face soft and his eyes mesmerized as he watched her. Her voice, sad and melodic, made something strange happen inside his chest. He tightened his hand over that place. A sense of peace and longing came over him even as his eyes burned with the breath of tears. What was he seeing now?

“Oh, fisherman of the sea, swing your line through the spray. And catch me up to dance with thee. Oh, oh, come my guardian of the sea. Spirit who gave his life to me. Over the dire, oh, come and rescue me. Va-le-dr, Va-le-dr sing thee to rest my fisherman in his nest.”

When Bard next blinked, Kunagi looked likeKunagiandGudomlaywasin her school uniform. She went to the professor then and took him into her lap to hold him. Tears were slipping down her cheeks as she kissed him on the temple. She pet his hair, and trembling, let out a quiet cry.

“Oh, oh,” she sang on.“Comemy guardian, I need thee. Spirit who gave his life to me. Tamer of my wild side, I give my life to thee. So sleep, sleep. I’ll whisper ye awake. When Va-le-dr, Va-le-dr comes to drink of me.” She sniffed, pressing her cheek against his. “I’m not scared,” she whispered. “I’m not.”

Bard, frowning, stared at her. “It’s all right to be afraid of an unknown fate,” he said.

Gudomlayglanced up at where she knew he stood but could not see and shook her head. “You don’t understand. I’ve always known this was coming. Kunagi didn’t hide much from me. I’m not afraid of it. If that was all it was, I wouldn’t be so ashamed to admit it. What is holding me back is worth nothing like this.” She sniffed and gave Kunagi a loving squeeze before standing and wiping her face. She hated to see him hurt or troubled or in pain. She went to the doors of the tube then and put her hand over the pad but paused. “You ever hurt him again,” she said, her voice hoarse and malicious, “I won’t stop him.”

Bard bowed his head and she let him out. Together, they brought Kunagi to the bed he had her sleep in when she came back unconscious.

“I’ll walk you back to the dorms,” Bard said once Kunagi was settled.

Gudomlayshook her head. “I’m staying here tonight. Go wherever it is you sleep.” She said with a wave of her hand at him.

He glanced at her, but with a nod, did as she told him. When he’d gone, she went to the kitchen and cleaned up the mess in there. She threw the glass of the broken plate and piece of ruined cake in the trash and sniffed. Then she remembered Kunagi’s glasses. Finding them near her foot, she picked them up and set them on her head.

After that, she took the whole of the cake and went to Kanugi’s computers. And then she turned on the surveillance cameras to pick a time to go back to her room and get her things. Eating the cake with a fork she’d brought from the kitchen, she wondered at all that had happened.

She wondered why Bard didn’t ask why Kunagi wasn’t more injured or even dead. And she wondered why he’d reacted so violently to what he’d overheard. She grumbled, her eyes narrowing tiredly. Why was he listening in the first place?

Annoyed, she set her cake down on the table and got up. She couldn’t sleep in her uniform. And she hadn’t brought her overnight bag back from cleaning and reorganizing her supplies. Sighing, she left. And going up the stairs after seeing the patrol go by, she went out so she wouldn’t be caught out past curfew.