Messenger (Guardian Trilogy Prequel 1) by Laury Falter Page A

motioning to her brothers behind her, “is Deschan. The other is Cedric. We are the Kohler triplets.”
    “If you no longer came to meet me, what is your purpose here?” I asked.
    She didn’t blink as she answered my question with one of her own, which I detected as having an interest in seeing my reaction to it. “There are more like you, aren’t there, Messenger?”
    My muscles stiffened at her knowledge. “Why do you ask?”
    A faint upturn to her lip made me think she was beginning to find me entertaining again, as she exposed an unknown fact to our listeners. “There was another of your kind in the eastern territory.”
    The room broke into a hum of curious whispers at this revelation, but I kept my face frozen in serenity.
    “We weren’t lent the chance to meet her, the other Messenger, before her untimely demise, but we felt the same way around her as we do around you.” Her eyes narrowed as she waited for my reaction.
    “I see,” I replied keeping my voice as steady as possible. Considering the tension in the room, I was surprised at my success. “And what was her demise?”
    Kaila sighed in a bored manner. “A blade to the stomach.”
    My muscles contracted as she delivered this news. A string of words ran through my mind a second later: They knew of the first messenger to die eternally… More importantly, they knew details about her death.
    “Were you present when she died?” I asked, listening as my voice faltered and quivered with emotion on the last word.
    Kaila dipped her head and smiled up through her lashes at me. “So you are connected…,” she replied as if it was a foregone conclusion.
    When I didn’t respond a curious light grew in her eyes. She was getting the information she came for now.
    “I wonder…if Horace would feel the same pain with you as he did with her and whether it might be enough to end your life too…”
    Before she was finished, the sound of blades scraping along their sheaths filled the room. When I looked up Eran’s sword was drawn above my head while the Kohlers also held blades in a readied position. The other guests rushed clumsily to distance themselves from us, given that the door was their only exit and Eran stood in front of it.
    “I wonder,” Kaila postulated, “do we really need to wait for Horace? Shouldn’t we simply end the pain now?” Slowly, as she let this speculation sink in, her expression turned into one of anticipation and she breathed excitedly, “Yes, yes, we should.”
    Then she lunged.
    Her blade didn’t get far. Eran’s sword broke its speed and angle, deflecting it from me. By then, I was standing and withdrawing my own sword, trying to assess all that was happening through the chaos.
    People were screaming, rushing to dodge others who were moving arbitrarily in search of an escape. Eran was taking on all three of the triplets in a spectacular array of swift fists, agile kicks, and precise swordsmanship. It was a sight that left me in awe for the few seconds I was able to watch.
    The swords fell from the Kohlers hands one by one until they were scrambling for the door, which was accessible now that Eran had stepped aside from it.
    The feeble piece of wood slammed inward, cracking down the middle, and exposing the cold, dark night. The Kohlers disappeared into it, fleeing as quickly as if they had taken flight.
    Eran and I stood facing the dark gap, waiting for one, for any of them to return. The noise behind us quieted, but there was movement outside in the streets.
    “They’ve woken others,” someone said through an exhale. It sounded like he was still trying to catch his breath after the commotion.
    Without another word, Eran took hold of my elbow and led me through the door and out into the night.

CHAPTER NINE: TEST
    T HERE WAS NO DOUBT IN MY mind that the Kohlers were my link to understanding the messengers’ demise, but I needed help determining exactly what connected them. I needed Hermina.
    That night in the