He pushed her away, breathing heavily.
“What’s wrong?” she asked. “Am I not pleasing?”
“You are beautiful,” he said. “But I cannot mate with you.”
She frowned. “Do you… do you share my curse? Do you desire men?” she asked. She touched her fingertips between his legs. “Your body says otherwise.”
“No,” he whispered. “I’ve no desire for men.” He thought of Aradma. “Believe me, I very much want to lie with you. I just… it’s just… I can’t.”
“Why?!”
“You have two loyal husbands at home who adore you and have desired your affection. You should go to them.”
“I could have you killed for refusing me,” she drew herself up haughtily.
“Will you?”
She sighed. “No,” she said. “Now I see why the Virgin affects the Matriarch so. Your kind has a strange effect on our people, Tiberan. Maybe we have been too long without Soorleyn that we have forgotten her ways. So now I ask you what no woman should ever ask a man. What must I do to win your heart?”
“I don’t know,” Tiberan said. “My heart belongs to another.”
Her eyes lit with understanding. “The Virgin,” she said. “You desire the Matriarch’s consort.”
Tiberan regarded her silently.
She sighed in sadness. “I know what it is to suffer forbidden desire. I will keep the secrets of your heart, and you will keep mine. You may live in safety in my house, but you must never pursue your desire. Then I cannot protect you.”
Tiberan smiled. He stepped forward again and kissed her on the forehead.
“You have a noble heart,” he told her. “Maybe some day your people will remember what it is to love. The night is yet young, and the storm is far from passed. You could call upon Ghiel or Tidot. They have waited long for you, and you know what it is to suffer desire.”
“I do love them,” she said. “You are right. My house already holds secrets. Why cannot love also be one of them?”
She quickly kissed Tiberan’s lips once more and then left him alone in the rain.
By the time he returned home, both Tidot and Ghiel were nowhere to be found.
Tiberan smiled.
20 - Escape From Vemnai
It was whispered in the streets that druids had not been seen for over a month, since before the arrival of the seelie man. Speculation ran rampant as to their fate, but no one knew anything conclusive. This caused Tiberan some concern, for he did not know how their religious minds would react, even though he himself had nothing to do with their disappearance.
Tiberan walked in the main city path leading towards the cliffs when a contingent of priestesses brought a naked male troll bound and bleeding between them. Four of them held runestones in their hands, and a golden light shone upon the man. His arms contorted painfully behind his body, and he was forced to stumble forward as they walked.
“What is happening?” Tiberan asked a passerby.
“He was caught in sin,” was the answer.
Tiberan heard a voice from the crowd exclaim, “A druid! They have caught a druid for judgment!”
An excited murmur, tinged with uncertainty and fear, arose from the mob. A crowd had gathered to follow the procession, so Tiberan joined them, curious as to what would happen.
They came to the amphitheater of judgment, and the Matriarch sat upon her central throne of driftwood. Aradma sat to her right, and Couraime stood in attendance behind them. Both Aradma and Couraime caught his eyes as he entered the throng.
“A druid!” the Matriarch exclaimed. “This is… disturbing. His crime?”
“He was found in congress with a woman in the jungle,” one of the man’s captors answered. “Another druid. She escaped, but we brought him here for your judgment.”
The Matriarch turned to Aradma. “Do you know anything about this?”
Aradma fidgeted. She shook her head. “No. I do not know this man, but again I urge leniency.”
The Matriarch’s face darkened. “I have been lenient before, but now this? This is what leniency towards sin breeds—more sin. No, there will be no mercy today.”
She turned to the druid. “Where are your kin?” she asked. “Why have they disappeared? Are they all… rutting?”
Despite the magical bonds twisting his arms and the blood on his face, the druid laughed. “We are free…!”
“NO!” the Matriarch yelled, springing to her feet. “There is no freedom without the goddesses!”
In an instant she had crossed the five steps between them and struck the druid with the back of her hand. She clasped one of the runes around her necklace and a pillar of fire descended from the ceiling and enveloped him.
Aradma leaned forward on her seat, but before she could spring to his defense an owl flew into the chamber and shifted into a great brown bear. The beast landed on the floor with a heavy thump, knocking the Matriarch and other priestesses to the floor. The pillar of fire vanished.
The bear stood protectively over the druid’s body and roared. Taken aback, the trolls stepped away from the great beast. The bear dropped to all fours for a moment, and then shifted into the form of another troll man with red hair.
The newly arrived troll cried out in anguish over his fallen brother’s body. “I am too late! You have murdered him!”
The Matriarch rose to her feet. “What is the meaning of this, Odoune? How is it that your druids have betrayed their vows?”
Odoune shook his head. “Not our vows. Vows you made us take to subjugate ourselves to your cult. No longer!”
“Where is this coming from?” the Matriarch demanded. “Your tradition has never been at odds with ours!”
“Indeed. Until her love,” his gaze slipped towards Aradma, “opened my eyes.”
Tiberan sucked in a breath. So this was the man with whom Aradma had lain. Still, he could not help but admire his courage for challenging the Matriarch in the heart of her lair and his display of loyalty to his fellow druid.
The Matriarch’s face went pale as the same implication sunk in. She turned to Aradma, eyes filled with anguish. “Is this… how can… koris-val?”
Aradma stood. “I am sorry,” she said. “I wanted to save you from this but I have failed.”
The Matriarch’s jaw tightened and her eyes narrowed. Then she slumped to the floor, clutching her breast. A gut-wrenching sob shook her shoulders, followed by more as tears fell off her cheeks. Aradma too shed a single tear, and then leaped forward as the white leopard to join Odoune. She fixed her golden feline eyes on the crowd, and a low growl rumbled in warning. The priestesses’ eyes flashed with murder, but they seemed unsure of what to do.
“I will not leave him here,” Odoune said. He shifted into the great bear and grasped the druid’s body in his jaws, as if carrying a cub. The two beasts walked from the chamber, unmolested by the shocked trolls.
Sensing that the Vemnai would soon come to their senses, Tiberan took a step back and faded into the invisibility of his stillness. Aradma had betrayed the Vemnai in the deepest way possible, and as the only other light elf, he posed too easy an outlet for their wrath.
Couraime helped the Matriarch to her feet. “What should we do, Mother?” she asked.
The Matriarch’s eyes burned in fury. “They must die. Elves and druids, they must all die.”
Couraime looked around the room. Her gaze passed right through where Tiberan stood, unseeing. “I believe Tiberan has betrayed us, too,” she confirmed. “He was here with us, but no longer. He must have left with them.”
“Kill them all,” the Matriarch said again. Then she paused. “But don’t stop there. All of Athra’s works must be swept from this land. We will tear down Kallanista and burn the ratlings in the fires of their own forges.”
One of the other priestesses gasped. “But Mother! We are no match for their weapons. We only have a few firearms, and I don’t think we have enough magic to overcome their firepower.”
Couraime
looked into the Matriarch’s eyes. “Mother, I think I can help with that. There is a secret of Rin held even from you, so we might be ready for such a day.”
Tiberan’s heart fell in silent disappointment. For whatever internal torment Couraime had revealed to him, she was still a child of her faith.
The Matriarch’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
“‘The art of the enemy may be turned against the enemy,’” she quoted. “There is a secret circle among us, charged by a Matriarch of ages past. Weapons. Of our own design and make, created of stonewood and not of the ratling forge, and made by a select few of our most trusted men, so that the few priestesses of our circle are not corrupted.”
The Matriarch’s lips stretched into a feral grin. “Rin is good and wise and provides all. Come show me.” She wiped the tears from her cheek.
Tiberan waited until the chamber was empty before moving and dropping the protection of his invisibility. He walked to the open cliff and looked down at the stony wall. He sighed but knew if he tried to leave by the main path he would be caught.
He dropped to his knees and went over the side, carefully descending. There were plenty of outcroppings and handholds. It was not hard as long as he didn’t go too fast and was mindful of the mist that made slick the smooth patches of rock.
He alighted on a lower path and made his way back to his house. He wanted his bow and arrows and daggers before he left. He hid behind a large rock and waited. He saw the Matriarch and Couraime enter. They would be going into the secret passage with Tidot and Ghiel, he surmised.
He waited more, then moved to the door. Concentrating, he reached out with his senses and felt the presence of four trolls in the back of the house. He quietly slipped in and moved straight to his room to grab his weapons. When he emerged, the others were still in the back chamber, focused on the secret door. He could see the Matriarch’s back. He moved quieter than a raptor, and they did not alert to his presence. He slipped out the house with none the wiser.
He took another moment to focus and sense the animal life around him before he stepped off the path into the jungle again. When he felt the presence of a troll right behind him, he started and whirled, daggers in hand.
“Wait!” Suleima whispered, holding her open hands up to show she was not armed with either weapon or runestone. Her creamy green face and bright orange eyes looked up at him imploringly.
Tiberan waited.
“Take me with you.”
“Why would I do that?”
“I cannot live here any longer,” she said. “Our way is wrong. We are forbidden real love—how can this be what our goddess intends? If such is her will, then I reject her ways.”
“How can I trust you? The Vemnai are permitted to lie if it serves their goddess.”
“I can only place myself at your mercy,” she said. “If I intended you harm, I would have bound you with runecraft, not approached you to speak.”
He nodded.
“I must find Ouran,” she continued. “He is my koris-val, my everything. It was Aradma, one of your kind, who intervened to save him.”
He shook his head. “I am so sorry,” he said softly. “But his house-brothers murdered him as an honor-killing. They did this in secret, before I came to be here.”
She cried aloud, “Then there is nothing for me here!”
Tiberan sensed others in the area approaching. “We have no time!” he hissed. He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the jungle after him. “Come with me and keep quiet.”
Suleima’s eyes widened in shock. He presumed she had never been addressed so by a man before. But she nodded and allowed him to lead her away.
When they were far from the roads, they stopped again. Tiberan closed his eyes and cast his senses outwards. He felt the presence of every mammal, reptile, and bird crawling around them. There were no humanoids beyond the two of them.
He felt Ghost’s presence.
It is time, my friend, he mentally told the tiger. We are leaving.
Ghost emerged from the foliage.
Suleima sucked in a breath and reached for her runestones.
Tiberan grabbed her wrists. “No, he’s a friend.” She relaxed her arm, and he let her go.
“You command the beasts of the jungle?” she asked.
“Not command,” he said. “We come to understand one another.”
Your female is not far from here, Ghost said. She is in the jungle with another man. They say words over a fallen companion.
Lead us to them.
Ghost headed north, Tiberan and Suleima following close behind.
* * *
Aradma stood with Odoune over the burial mound.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “This is my fault.”
“It is not your fault we lived in ignorance,” he replied. “The Matriarch’s power over our people will be broken.”
“I could not save her,” Aradma said. Grief pounded her heart.
“I’m sorry,” Odoune said gently. “I know you cared for her.”
“How has it gone with the other druids?” she asked.
“You have changed us,” he said. “The bear you saw? A sign of the transformation. The raptor form is closed to me now that life has returned to my soul.
“But we were not prepared,” he added. “I showed them what you showed me, and it was as if a great flood had been unleashed. Most are adapting, but there have been some incidents. We were overwhelmed by lust and lay with each other indiscriminately. We are learning to bring our passions back into balance. And now there is shame.”
“Even animals choose their mates,” she reflected. “It is natural to find pleasure in sharing our bodies. It is life. But we are also rational beings—we should not sacrifice reason to lust. We choose how we balance our desires, but to impose our choices on others, or deny they exist at all…”
“We were unprepared for… jealousy. Two have died.”
Aradma shook her head, “I’m so sorry. I should not have abandoned you.”
“You did not make us this way,” he said. “No one could expect such an awakening to be smooth. I must minister to them, help them find their center. Come with me; they could use your insight.”
“I—I have to go back,” she suddenly remembered. “Tiberan is still there.”
“The elf man.”
“I must help him escape. They will surely try to kill him.”
“They would have tried,” Tiberan agreed, stepping out from the jungle with his tiger companion and the troll woman Aradma had seen at the trial so many months ago. Suleima, she recalled.
Aradma smiled at the sight of him. “How did you escape?”
“They thought he left with you,” Suleima answered.
Aradma turned to the troll woman. “Why are you here?”
“I cannot live the Vemnai way anymore,” Suleima answered. “If I stay here, I will surely end my own life.”
“She deserves a chance at freedom,” Tiberan said. “The Vemnai killed her lover, even after you had spared him.”
Aradma stared at him for a moment. “They killed him? She lied to me!”
“Come with me,” Odoune said again to Aradma. “We will build a new life.”
THRUM!
At that moment, a deep note sounded through the sky and reverberated through the ground, as if the land itself were calling out.
“What was that?” Aradma asked. She and Tiberan looked around.
“What was what?” Suleima asked.
Aradma stared at her.
THRUM!
Aradma had the distinct feeling it emanated from the west, and she felt a great pull to go to its source.
“That! That sound!”
Odoune shook his head. “I hear nothing.”
“I feel it, too,” Tiberan said. “It calls to the Dragon within us.”
THRUM!
The desire to answer its call tugged at her with the promise of her people. The promise of home.
“Across t
he sea,” Aradma murmured. “I…” She turned to Odoune. “I’m sorry. I must go.”
“You must do as you must,” the troll druid answered. He frowned slightly.
“Come with us!” Aradma offered.
“No, my people need me,” he said. “If you will not stay, I will continue your work.”
Aradma nodded. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “It is time I find my people.”
“If both of us feel it,” Tiberan agreed, “the rest of our kind must as well.”
“I would go with you,” Suleima told the elves. “I want no part of the Vemnai.”
Aradma nodded. “If that is your wish.”
“The only way to leave Vemnai is through Kallanista,” Suleima said. “It is a long journey.”
“The ratling city?” Tiberan asked.
“Yes.”
“Then we could have a problem. The Matriarch intends to destroy Kallanista.”
“Why would she do such a thing?!” Aradma gasped.
Tiberan turned to her and stated directly, “You broke her heart.”
Odoune nodded. “The greatest betrayal was lying with me. She has become even more dangerous.”
Tiberan stared at him for a moment but said nothing.
Aradma frowned. “This must not be. I will make her see reason.”
“No,” Odoune argued. “There is no point. It is too dangerous. You must not go back to her!”
“I will go. Wait for me here.”
She leaped into the air and caught the wind as the white falcon, flying away before they could protest any further.
Getting back into the cloister was easy. As the leopard, Aradma slowly prowled, carrying her seelie invisibility as she moved. She found the Matriarch in the Obsidian Throne room where she had first met her months ago. A table had been brought in, and the Matriarch leaned over it with Couraime and several other of the higher-ranking priestesses, going over crudely drawn maps on animal skins.
They started when Aradma appeared before them, shifting into elven form.
The Matriarch snarled, “How dare you!”
“I know you’re angry,” Aradma said. “You have every right to be. I’m sorry I hurt you, but this—” She pointed to the battle maps. “—is not the answer. This is madness.”
When Dragons Die- The Complete Trilogy Box Set Page 21
