Under His Guard by Rie Warren

boy, Leon, he is under your skin, like a disease?”
    â€œNot a disease.” I rubbed my chest. “He’s the sun, warming my cold soul.”
    â€œAh, I understand.” Shehu passed me a bowl and we sat together. “You are like me. You sense the emotions of others.”
    â€œI try not to. It was a treasure my mother honed and used well.” I took a bite, savoring the taste. “When she died, I learned to close off that part of myself. I’m more suited to war.”
    He chewed thoughtfully. “If your prowess in battle is as strong as your powerful emotions, I would believe it. Do you feel something from all of them?” He motioned toward my companions.
    â€œWhen there’s a convergence of the same feeling, yes. Most often it’s with only one or two people. I lost the ability completely before Leon came along.”
    â€œHis bond is the strongest.”
    â€œIf we have one at all.” I watched as the others joined the gravy train, filling up on the hearty smoked meat and the warm flat bread accompanying it. Mint tea was passed around, the hot drink somehow refreshing in this sun-drenched climate.
    Gesturing to our contact, red-haired Raine, Shehu said, “He is one of our shamans. He’s searching for the cure.”
    I wouldn’t have pictured Raine as a medicine man, more of a hustler. “Is he close to finding it?”
    â€œWe think so.”
    â€œAre there any people infected here?” I asked.
    Placing his empty bowl on the ground, Shehu wiped his mouth. His vision became distant, his posture regal. “We had one. A female. She was found yesterday, her throat slit.”
    My body went rigid. “She was murdered because of the Plague?”
    â€œI believe so, yes.”
    â€œNow you understand why Leon’s status needs to remain under wraps.” I cast a worried look at Leon, who talked animatedly between taking huge mouthfuls of food across the tent.
    â€œWe will keep it so.”
    A woman worked her way over to us. Her skin was the color of cocoa, and she wore a large, glittering jewel around her neck. Her unlikely silver eyes shined like the ruby set against her throat.
    Rising to his feet, Shehu took her hand. “And this is my woman, Pyra.”
    She slapped the formidable man’s arm. “His wife. Although considering he all but dragged me to this godforsaken Outpost from the Amphitheater, where we met fifteen years ago, I might just as well be his concubine.” Pyra was almost as tall as her husband and just as imperial, even while she handed out a lighthearted tongue-lashing.
    I bowed over her proffered hand. “Darke of Chitamauga militia, ma’am.”
    She tapped my head. “No ma’am here—just me and the chief.”
    Pyra was obviously from a different life, yet she seemed well suited to the role of chieftess.
    â€œAnd here is our offspring.” She grabbed a girl by the arm and wrangled her back. “Lilith.”
    â€œIt’s a pleasure, Lilith.”
    â€œYou as well, sir.” The young girl was a mirror image of her mother in stature and posture, although her sigh was thoroughly that of a teenager. “May I go now?”
    â€œThey are in a world of their own.” Shehu watched his daughter roam away.
    â€œBlissfully so, I’d say.” Pyra bade us both sit back down.
    Cannon, Linc, Liz, and the others joined our powwow as the night darkened.
    â€œAny sightings of Cutler?” Liz asked.
    â€œNone so far. We’ve got our eyes on the sky,” Shehu said. Darwin smiled at the mention. “And our ears to the ground.” The chief patted the soil by his hip.
    I turned to Raine. “What’s the next step to finding this supposed cure?”
    â€œMan must heed Mother Nature’s warnings. Life and death are her business, as evidenced by the Purge. This Plague though, this is a mutation of humankind’s making.” Raine leaned on his