Phoenix Chosen #3 (The Phoenix Guardians #3)

8. Tyler

8

TYLER

W e stay off the road and trundle across a landscape that’s beautiful but incredibly difficult to traverse. There’s no trail, which means having to push through annoyingly dense brush or navigate a sudden cliff or other random obstacle seemingly every hundred feet.

I’m just thankful that I feel as good as I do. It seems like I’m still blessed by the fast healing I experienced after getting bonked by that car. My body—or more like my poor, poor butt—has taken care of itself. No more baby bump, no more pain from the birth. Just the lingering question of what the hell happened last night?

Was I responsible for creating that blinding light that’d pushed back Praxis?

Or did it come from my little phoenix? The egg is wrapped tightly against my chest, and as I walk, I can feel them moving slightly within the shell. It’s like a dumbbell floating in a Jell-O-filled piece of hard-shell luggage. Heavy, liquidy, yet strangely solid.

Airos moves steadily up a rocky hill sparsely covered in gnarled conifers. I follow his lead with Kalistratos right behind me. I feel the pressure of those pursuing us and of those ahead who need us. But it’s a struggle. I felt the same thing when I first arrived in Circeana, when we came in the opposite direction from Aelonos to Athenos. My gym routine might’ve made me look good, but goddamn, it did not prepare me for trekking across wilderness terrain. Also, I’m in sandals. Damn nice sandals provided by the Great Phoenix, but still, sandals.

“Let me carry them for a while,” Kalistratos offers after I nearly lose my footing on loose rock.

“I’m good,” I puff.

“You’re not good, you’re exhausted,” he says, reaching for the egg sling.

“Kalistratos, I’m good ,” I say emphatically, jerking away from his hand. “I can do this.”

He looks surprised, then nods and gestures for me to keep going. I sigh quietly, both annoyed at myself for losing my patience and at him for not giving me a chance to do it on my own. Yeah, I’m tired… but I don’t want to seem incapable or to be the one to slow us down.

Up ahead, Airos reaches the top of the hill and leans on his staff. “We’ve reached a tributary of the Delos!” he calls, waving back to us.

I huff and puff my way up to him. At the top, I’m greeted by a stunning view of a turquoise river winding through a hilly forested valley with incredible tower-like rock formations rising in the distance. There’s a feeling of solitude here, like we’re the first to have crossed through this landscape. But as we start down into the valley, I realize that’s not true at all. There are huge gray stones clustered around the hillside, the weathered remains of ancient buildings. The carved top of some kind of monument juts at an angle from the soil, covered in a twist of vines. Curious, I reach to push them aside to get a look at what’s hidden, but Airos stops me.

“We should keep our presence here as small as we can,” he says.

Closer to the river, we find a makeshift hut. Its structure is made of tree limbs lashed together with rope and covered with a disintegrating red cloth. Kalistratos puts his arm in front of me. Quietly and carefully, Airos moves to the little shack and investigates.

“Stay back,” Kalistratos tells me, then joins Airos. He pokes around the ground and examines a black scar that looks like the remains of a fire.

Once again, I feel irritatingly unhelpful. It’s strange. During my first stint here, I had no other choice but to depend on Kalistratos and the others to take care of me. All of my independence—the me I was used to being—had been stripped away, and there was an unexpected comfort in that. But it’s not like I had any other choice.

Things feel different now, after returning to Earth. I’m not the same person I was a month ago, or even a few days ago. Yeah, I’m very much still a stranger here, but I don’t feel lost like I did before. I have a part to play in all of this craziness. I just wish I could be more than a guy carrying around an egg, but maybe that’s all I can do.

“This looks old,” Kalistratos says. “Perhaps a few months.”

“It’s a shepherd’s rest,” Airos replies. “Long abandoned. They must’ve moved on to better pastures. This area is too rocky.”

Kalistratos shakes his head. “Not a shepherd’s rest, it’s a hunter’s blind. Look, under here. Deer bones.”

Airos shrugs. “And there’s signs of grazing. It was a shepherd’s rest.”

The two of them begin to argue back and forth. I sigh and start towards one of the nearby rock formations.

“Tyler, hey!” Kalistratos calls.

“Once you guys decide, just let me know. I’ll be right over here.”

I hear Airos saying something to Kalistratos about dried sheep shit before I move behind some trees. Those two… Will they always butt heads like this? I swear to God, it seems like Kalistratos got along better with Jeff of all people than he does with Airos.

The rock formation looks similar to the one that’d been the stock photo wallpaper of the front desk computer I used to use at work—two pillars connected by a natural bridge at the top. I squint at it, shielding my eyes from the sun with my palm.

“So, when are you going to give up your secrets, huh?” I say to the egg.

I hold my hand out in front of me and search for something inside of me, some kind of hidden connection. Nothing happens. It’s like when I was a kid and I tried to grab a cup of water using the Force after watching Star Wars for the first time. As bad as I want it to happen, I don’t feel a damn thing.

“But you’ve done it before!” a voice in my head demands. “Why can’t you do it now?”

I close my eyes and try to concentrate again. Find my phoenix.

Come on, little one. Can you hear me?

The egg sits warm against my chest, unresponsive to my thoughts.

Then a faint smell in the air catches my attention. At first, I think it’s just my imagination. Is that… cotton candy?

I turn my nose to the air and follow it, clambering up the rocks to the base of the rock tower. It’s definitely something really sweet, like nectar or pollen in the air, and it smells amazing. Behind me, the sound of Airos and Kalistratos grows more distant. I’m drawn by this scent—I really want to know what it’s coming from. Maybe some kind of fruit tree?

My foot hits a fallen branch, sending it clattering across the ground. I look down.

That’s not a branch. Bleached white, it looks exactly like bone from an animal’s leg.

Or a person’s.

I freeze and look around. Laying on the rock a short distance off to my right is a long piece of wood with a slender curve. It’s a bow, and it looks like it’s been discarded here. I walk to it and then see a small piece of metal next to it. It’s one of those brooch pins people here use to attach their robes at the shoulder. And then, I see it—a jaw bone, definitely human. One of the teeth is capped with silver. The side of the bone is fractured as if it were dropped from very high.

“Uhh… that’s unsettling,” I mutter to myself.

I quickly turn and begin a brisk power walk back down the rock. The sugary smell is even stronger, and so is a distinct feeling in my gut that I should not be here.

Kalistratos and Airos are down below, jogging towards me. I wave my hands in the air.

“Kalistratos, there’s something up?—”

“TYLER!” he shouts. “GET DOWN!”

I feel a gust of wind at my back just as a huge shadow falls over me—and it’s got wings.

I don’t turn to look. I immediately break into a sprint with my arms wrapped tightly around the egg, and a second later, huge talons grip under my arms, slashing through my tunic. The ground pulls away from my feet as the smell of sweet nectar burns my nostrils like some awful chemical air freshener.

I’m fucked.