by Helen Fields
‘Do you actually have a plan?’ James asked as we got on the road.
‘No, but the least I can do is buy the Vilya more time to find her. You sure you want to do this? I mean, it’s not your fight. I understand why you’re here but it’s my family and you don’t owe me anything, far from it.’
‘I was having dinner in a restaurant in San Francisco with some ranchers I was working with, when I saw this beautiful young woman,’ he glanced at me. ‘You couldn’t really miss her, hair like redwood and a body that moves like a cat. As she walked out it was clear that something was wrong and then I saw the face of the man she was with. I knew he was one of them, another one here to take what they want without caring what damage they leave behind. Since seeing you that night I made it my mission, foolhardy or not, to find you and do whatever I could to keep you safe.’
‘So it was you at the theatre, asking about me?’ He just smiled. ‘How did you find me?’
‘Well, your face was all over the papers that week as the newest member of the Pacific Repertory Company so that was the easy bit. I’m not sure I’ve done too good a job of looking after you since then. But I’m here now and I’m not going anywhere until I know you’re out of harm’s way.’ He put the radio on, finding a country and western station that made me feel about as far from London as a girl could get. Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers were singing Islands in the Stream and I shut my eyes to pretend I was on a different journey with this man, where we weren’t heading towards a land so wild I had no way of knowing if we’d make it out alive. Then something deep inside my head finally put together what I’d been missing for so long.
‘Found me from the newspaper photos,’ I said.
‘Hey, I wasn’t exactly stalking you,’ James replied. ‘You were all over the papers.’
‘No, not you. Perun. Before my first trip to Krakow I’d represented the same soldier the year before. There was loads of publicity, I was asked for interviews, there were pictures in the paper and on TV. That’s why Perun targeted Albert Cornish in the bar. He knew I’d be asked to defend him again. None of it was an accident, from the very start.’ James said nothing. He’d been trying to warn me for such a long time. I’d been such a bloody fool for not seeing the whole picture earlier. A horrible thought occurred to me.
‘He needed me to find out that I was adopted. My mother’s accident...you don’t think?’
James took one hand off the steering wheel and covered mine to stop it shaking. ‘You’ll probably never know and it won’t change anything now. There are some people we can still help and that’s what we’re going to do. At least now we won’t underestimate the Perelesnyk. You need all your energy to get through the next forty-eight hours so just think about that, okay? When it’s all over you can sit and put the pieces together. For now, I’d rather you just concentrate on making it back in one piece. I don’t want to lose you as well.’
Twenty-one
It took us just short of four hours to get from Carmel to Yosemite, stopping a couple of times for fuel and coffee. By the time we hit the entrance to the National Park we realised we had no idea where to stay the night. We had about thirty-six hours until the sunrise that marked the ascension ceremony in Manitu. Although we knew we were low on time it seemed safer to bed down in a cabin at Yosemite that night and cross over into Manitu at dawn. The less time we were there before the ceremony, the less likely it was the Perelesnyk would find out their plans were under threat. The last thing I could do was risk putting Zora in more danger than she already was. Yosemite Village was busy but James managed to find us a tiny lodge for the night. We grilled food outside and sat watching the stars before falling asleep on our bunks. James didn’t kiss me again and I kept my distance from him so that we weren’t distracted; we had enough to deal with planning for the days to come. I fell asleep trying to figure out how I was going to get us into Manitu the next morning. One thing was certain in my mind, given the curse the succubus had put on James it was way too risky going there the way we’d come back last time.
At four in the morning James was shaking me awake. It was still dark outside but the sky had that dark blue translucency before it lets first light through. We packed up and left everything we could in the car, keys and all. Backpacks on and torches in hand we began the trek to El Capitan, the three thousand foot high granite monolith that had dominated the valley for one hundred million years, named by the American Indians to whom this was home. By the time we’d walked through the valley to get to the foot of the mountain, daylight was showing us the path. We stowed our torches and sat down to rest. The place was deserted and I knew it was now or never. An hour from now climbers, riders and hikers would be appearing from all sides.
‘How are we going to do this?’ he asked. ‘You’ve got to take me through with you and as far as I can figure that means I have to be close to you when you go.’
‘I thought about it last night. I need you to tell me something and I’m sorry to ask.’
‘That’s okay,’ he said. ‘Whatever it takes.’
‘I want you to tell me her name, your wife.’ James looked away, this was the last question he’d been expecting. ‘When you told me what happened you only referred to her as your wife, you never said her name. I need to think about all the people the Perelesnyk have hurt and how they need to be stopped but I don’t have a name for her. Do you mind?’
‘No, that’s fine. I call her my wife because that’s all I had, those few short hours when she was just mine. Everyone else who knew her can call her by her name but for that short time she was my wife. I’m the only one who can say it. That’s why.’ I put my hand over his and wished I could do more to take his pain away. It helped me, though, feeling that raw emotion, seeing his grief. ‘Constance,’ he said. ‘Although everyone always called her Connie. I hope it works.’
I nodded and turned my back to him. He put his arms around me while I closed my eyes and tried to lose myself in the memories of all the pain, mine and others’. At first nothing would come, I was so wrapped up in what I was trying to achieve that I couldn’t focus on the faces I needed to see. I shook my head to clear my thoughts and James whispered in my ear.
‘The train wreck when you were travelling from Krakow. You remember the storm? That was them, their first contact with you. Can you see the faces of the people travelling with you?’ I nodded but this was the one memory I’d been avoiding and I didn’t want it in my head, even now.
‘Did they scream, the people in your carriage? Did they have time to scream?’ James felt me try to pull away from him but he held me still and carried on, his voice low and insistent in my ear. I felt the warm flow of tears on my cheeks and tried to turn my head away from him.
‘Did they die straight away or did it take a while after the accident? What happened Eve? Could you help any of them or were you too scared?’
‘Stop it, please, I can’t think about that.’
‘It wasn’t your fault Eve, it was Perun. It was their first strike to make you weak and vulnerable. It’s what they do and they’ll stop at nothing. There were children on that train and they threw their lives away as if they were trash. Did you watch them die or close your eyes?’
As unwanted as they were, the pictures came rushing back into my head as if I were right there, right then. I recalled walking through the train to my carriage and saw the faces of twin girls, no more than five years old, playing with their dolls as they waited for the train to leave. A young mother in the carriage next to mine had been trying to find a quiet corner to breast feed her baby away from curious eyes. A teenage boy and girl in my carriage had been making eyes at each other since we pulled out of the station. A sob burst from me and I rocked forward, the pain in my stomach shocking and unbearable. I was sick before I knew it was going to happen. I was dimly aware of James still holding onto me but I was too far gone to take any comfort from it. I felt Perun’s lips on mine and heard the sound of the storm swirling and all at once there was ripp
ing metal and screaming and blood and fire.
I forced myself to relive events with Marcus in the Dragon’s Cave and how he’d pushed me to the floor and then time shifted again and I was seeing the horror on Nate’s face when he opened the door to find me standing in the hotel corridor. Finally I found myself with Constance. I could see her as if I’d been right there, her relief when she heard her new husband’s voice calling to her and then the terror as she scratched all the nails off her fingers trying to find something to stop her falling down the cliff to her death. I felt her sadness from deep inside me as if she were giving me what I needed to get us into Manitu. The curse that these demons had put on James finally sank in and I knew the one man I wanted was the one I was destined never to have. The last thing I heard was Zora’s voice calling to me, not crying but just terribly lonely and confused. I could hear a woman screaming over and over and then realised it was me. James’s arms were wrapped vicelike round my waist as I kicked and struggled to be let go. The depth of my sorrow and anger took me down into a blackness from which I couldn’t imagine escaping. At last, when I could take no more, a void descended and relieved my agony.
I knew we’d made it to Manitu before I was even conscious, the whole feeling of the place was different and much more extreme than the first time. James took longer to come round than me and I made sure he was comfortable before walking round the small clearing to check that we hadn’t disturbed anyone or anything. The last thing we wanted was to alert anyone to our presence before absolutely necessary although I needed to let Ellette know where we were. As much as I prayed that Zora had been found safe already, in my heart I was sure that wasn’t the case. We had twenty-four hours to figure out what to do and how to do it. I sat down and rested my back against a tree. In the tranquility I let my mind reach out to Ellette. She’d had no problem finding me when she needed to and I suspected that given time I would be able to do the same. It took a while but finally I could bring Ellette’s face into vision, clear but dreamlike. I could hear her voice and feel the softness of her skin. I tried to call out to her but she didn’t seem to hear me. Frustration broke my concentration and her face swirled into a cloud of colour. James’s voice startled me.
‘Hey, wake up! Eve?’ James was kneeling in front of me. However awful it had been getting here, we had a job to do before anyone else got hurt. James pulled me to my feet. ‘I’m sorry about what I said to get you here, seeing you in that much pain was...’ He broke off unable to find the words.
‘Don’t,’ I said. ‘You did what I couldn’t. Let’s find Zora and make it all worthwhile. We should get somewhere with more cover, it won’t be long until the families start to arrive to make camp for tomorrow and I still haven’t quite figured out what we’re going to do.’ We picked up our backpacks and walked into the undergrowth, following a small track up the mountainside until we found shelter. We stopped, ate and drank, then found a small inlet in the rock to stow our packs where they’d be out of sight. It was lucky we moved when we did. Minutes later we heard voices in the distance, with occasional shouting and laughter. A large crowd was on its way to the base of the mountain. James and I peered out of our small shelter and I could see a line of tall blond haired people, thin and willowy.
‘Who are they? They aren’t Vilya or Perelesnyk.’ I wanted to put my head out for a better look but James pulled me back. Over the course of the next twenty-four hours the valley would fill up with the different families and I was excited by the prospect of seeing them all.
‘They must have been travelling for days or weeks to be here,’ James whispered. ‘Look, there’s another group coming around the base of that outcrop.’ Dusky-skinned men were carrying wood, meat and pelts, their torsos painted with what looked like pale clay in intricate patterns. I was trying to see what the women in the family were like when I was distracted by what I assumed were small animals scampering through the undergrowth along the base of the cliff where we were hiding. I heard James swear under his breath and took a closer look. They were people, smaller than us, but running on all fours like foxes. Everyone was heading towards the Rock of Ages so at least I was certain we were in the right place. I sensed that Ellette was behind me before I’d glanced over my shoulder. Alongside her were two other young women, with the same deep red hair as mine, staring at me as if I had two heads.
‘Sister,’ she said in a hushed voice. ‘I felt you come through searching for me. This is too dangerous. What are you doing here?’
‘Buying you some time. Are you any closer to finding Zora?’ She shook her head and the girls with her looked nervous. ‘We’ve come to help, Ellette. No one else knows we’re here. I won’t let Perun win, he and his family have done enough damage already. And don’t worry, I’m not here to see mother. We need a way to move around with you without being recognised. I had no idea there would be so many people.’
‘There will be thousands by nightfall, although with every family represented there will be enough races here for you not to be recognisable. Take my hood, and don’t forget that you are one of us sister, you do not stand out in Manitu. You are Vilya. It is James who will be recognised as human and he is in danger. Very few will tolerate a human watching the ascension ceremony,’ she spoke to one of the girls who disappeared from the shelter, running. ‘We will bring clothes that will help hide you. We picked up Zora’s trail a long distance from home but lost it again at the river. The Perelesnyk can fly at night. They are able to carry others with them for very short distances. I believe they took her across the river to break her trail. There are no bridges for hundreds of leagues from where we lost her trail and the current is too strong for us to swim.’
‘I can help,’ said James. ‘I’ll be able to find a way across the river; you just have to take me to the narrowest stretch you know. Eve should come with us though, she can’t stay here alone, it’s not safe.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ I replied. ‘Just help them find Zora. You’ll need as much manpower as you can get to construct a crossing for the river without it being obvious that many Vilya are missing from the ceremonial group. I just need to know some more about what’ll happen at the ascension.’ Ellette held me close.
‘I didn’t want to ask for your help, you’ve been through so much already. Thank you for coming, sister. I will keep your man safe if it costs me my life.’ The girl who had left the cave so abruptly returned, thrusting clothing towards James who threw them on and looked at me. He didn’t saying anything, didn’t need to. Ellette whispered to her companions who nodded and then she and James were heading for the trees without so much as a goodbye. For a second my strength failed me and I desperately wanted James to come back, then I recalled Ellette’s words. I was one of the Vilya. I had a family to protect and there was no time to be afraid. The two other girls were sitting down and motioned for me to join them. I had to find out every detail about what would happen at sunrise tomorrow and work out a way to stop the Perelesnyk from completing their coup.
We talked the rest of the morning away and I found out about the other families. The system was tribal in structure but democratic in its procedures. Power passed from family to family by crowning the matriarch’s oldest child. Because Zora and I were changelings the position was unique. Ellette had been right when she said there were other families who sympathised with the Perelesnyk’s view that a child of human blood should not take the throne. Humans, for the most part, were considered primitive in Manitu. Our world was accessed when necessary but other than that we were thought of as destroyers of nature; war mongers with no understanding of the value of the world. I could sympathise with some of that but it was a terribly one dimensional view. If the Vilya could not put forward their oldest child tomorrow then the Perelesnyk would be entitled to present theirs. It was no surprise to find out that meant Perun taking the crown. The Council was composed of the most senior male from each family, two hundred and eleven in total. Ellette had told the two young women to do whatever I asked and to re
veal my presence to no-one. I needed to be hidden overnight somewhere I’d have easy access to the ceremony in the morning and that wasn’t going to be easy.
By the time the girls had told me everything that could possibly be useful, dark was starting to descend on the valley providing enough cover for us to make our way out of the mountain shelter and into the forest. We’d agreed that the only safe place for me to stay tonight was in the Vilya’s camp where at least I wouldn’t look out of place to onlookers from other families. I put on their traditional clothes, covered my face and wondered how I could avoid contact with everyone.
Their camp was a series of small tents that looked like upturned boats in a line along the river side. The mood was sombre as I’d expected, which at least meant they were all distracted and quiet as we made our way through. I was to have Ellette’s tent for the night. She was a senior daughter so she wouldn’t be sharing with anyone and I could await any word of their progress finding Zora. We bypassed the main meeting areas and were within about twenty meters of my tent when a voice behind us called out.
‘Serenta, I’ve been looking for you. I was worried that you too had disappeared. Where have you been all afternoon?’ The girl next to me froze momentarily and then recovered enough to step in front of me before replying.
‘I am so sorry to have worried you, Anousk. Ellette asked me to stay part way along her trail to bring back word of Zora. I have only just returned.’ I was sure my heart must have been audible outside my body and I felt faint with the buzzing of blood through my ears. My mother was stood no more than a few arms lengths in front of me. I could hear her voice. A dozen steps forward and I could touch her. It was dark enough that I risked raising my head a fraction to try to peak out from beneath my hood. I wanted so badly to see her face with my own eyes.
