Reed (Nano Wolves #4) - Donna McDonald Page 0,68

a brow. “That’s an extraordinarily strange comment even for you, my queen. You made sure no one was trained better than me. Who is deadlier?”

Nyomi looked off, her small ears twitching again. “No one intentionally, but I think someone has found one of Athena the Ancient’s sentient blades.”

“Sentient blades?” Axel repeated in surprise. “Most believe they are a myth, especially the sentient part. You’re talking about advanced artificial intelligence. My sister’s advances in that area exceed any Earth human’s or Lyran’s. Not even Gina of Rodu has found a way to make that work. ”

Nyomi shook her regal head. “The sentient blades are not a myth, Axel. I don’t know how well your teachers covered those artifacts in your Ancient Earth History classes, but the blades are weapons from a time on Earth before the feline Lyran Guardians arrived. Lyran records show evidence of some very sophisticated weaponry being developed long before Earth’s current history began being recorded.”

Axel nodded that he heard. “As I recall, Athena’s blades were developed for warriors. Why would one of them want to join with a mere archaeologist?”

Nyomi’s mouth lifted on one corner. “It’s true that Lyran records say the blades were only sentient after they were joined with the highest and noblest of warriors. However, Earth legends of the blades are not so clear on the matter. Maybe Athena’s creation was desperate to be joined to a host after twenty thousand years of dormancy.”

Axel rubbed his chin. “Do you wish me to subdue the blade and send it back into hibernation?”

Nyomi stared at her son and fought not to be impatient with the child who was supposed to be grooming himself to replace her. “Would you willingly return to a lifeless existence of never having been born?”

Since he had no wish to offend his mother or his queen, Axel shook his head. “No, I suppose not,” he answered.

Nyomi walked a short distance and glanced out into the trees. “I’m guessing neither will the blade now that it’s awake again. It’s a very powerful artifact—I fear much more powerful than even you. This situation must be handled very carefully. Current Earth may be primitive, but there is much about its technological past that we do not yet know.”

Axel nodded once in acknowledgment though he had trouble imagining anything or anyone alive on the planet being more powerful than he was. He told himself it wasn’t arrogance to feel that way. He just hadn’t seen any evidence that pointed away from his conclusion about his worth as a warrior.

“What would you like me to do about it then?” Axel finally asked.

Because the matter was so serious, Nyomi turned to look in her son’s eyes as she answered. “The archaeologist who found the blade is still finding out what comes with living with such power. Every greedy group on the planet is hunting the blade’s new host—both human and paranormal factions. The blade must remain where it is until its champion has either bonded with it completely or died trying to.”

Axel winced internally. Death from finding an ancient artifact? That would certainly be a tough break for a nosy archaeologist. “I’m guessing you want me to be the human’s bodyguard until the human and the blade part company.”

Nyomi laughed. “So you do understand—thank the ancestors. Yes, Axel, I want you to guard the blade. More than that though, I was hoping you would attempt to train its human host to be a warrior. The initial joining is done. All we can do now is try to make the human at least a little worthy of the entity she carries.”

“She?” Axel repeated it as a question, his mouth forming an ironic smile. “In my studies, they said the sentient blades were created for males.”

“No—they said they were created for warriors.”

“Which were primarily male,” Axel insisted.

“Your studies were based on general information about a very advanced Earth culture that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago. What few records we’ve found are not enough to assume any one thing is right one hundred percent of the time, especially about gender roles.”

“Agreed,” Axel said with a reluctant shrug. “So who do you think Athena the Ancient was then? Was she a warrior?”

“From my studies, I have come to believe that Athena was not from Earth at all. Whatever her planetary origin, it’s likely that she was considered some sort of warrior by the Earth people of her time. But even if she was just an extremely advanced human, there are