“Rowenna,” Clara began and she turned her head to Clara and she was struck by her beauty. She could understand why Father had been with her. She was fully engaged in life, vital. Every fiber present in the moment.
“You will call me Mother one day, yes?”
Clara blushed. “Yes, one day.”
“Very well,” she smiled.
“I see that you have more females than the Ohio Clan.” Clara said, noticing the females as bees to honey, her brother the sweetness that called to them.
Her expression grew serious. “Captain Bracus and I have compared numbers and ours are slightly higher.” She held up a finger. “But they dwindle.” She shrugged. “It is as the Travelers predicted. However, now that you are here, all will be well.”
Clara was silent, the steady thud of her heartbeat in her chest the only thing she felt. “Why is that?” The mention of the Travelers made her uneasy. They were not the Guardians that she knew.
“You have come, as they predicted you would, to mate and repopulate this great land.”
Clara opened her mouth then closed it again. Her eyes sought Matthew's and Bracus', their expressions dark. What was this nonsense? But Clara had been raised a political animal and kept her expression cool. It would not do to behave ignorantly.
“I do not understand. I discovered just one year past that Queen Ada was not by natural mother. I have since discovered that I am clan...”
Rowenna shook her head, the golden hair sliding over her bare shoulders. “Savage Clara. You are Band.”
Clara nodded her head at the clarification. Having thought that the word was derogatory. Mayhap not?
“It was I that decided, because of a clue left in glass, that mayhap I had kin which lay at the feet of the eastern sea. My father, King Raymond, spoke of Cape Cod and his great-great grand-sire and their visits to this place. It seemed most logical that my answers would be here,” Clara finished, using her palm to sweep the sea that pounded in the background.
Rowenna looked at Clara thoughtfully for a time and she waited. “How long has it been since your father...?”
“It was six years, one month past,” Clara replied.
Rowenna nodded her head. “Let us discuss the Travelers.”
Clara nodded. She wished to know more but first she told Rowenna what she knew from the fragment.
Rowenna gazed at her. “They speak true. It is a vile group, that.”
There were murmurings of agreement around the table and she held up her hand to quiet them.
“Did they hurt you, Daughter?”
Clara shook her head and Rowenna scowled a question at her. “They are not known for softness with females.”
Clara nodded. “ 'Tis true. They had a most terrible scheme planned for my sphere. But before it could be implemented they wished to...” Clara could not speak of it.
Rowenna looked at her sympathetically. “Did your Band dispatch them.”
“No,” Matthew broke in sharply and Rowenna raised a brow at him.“I saw that they were upon Clara and acted quickly. When I saw her throat slits appear my blade faltered and the vermin underneath it escaped finality.”
“I see. Who was this man that assaulted you?” she directed at Clara.
“Yes, who is he? I shall break his legs and put him in yonder ocean so he may try his luck in the surf,” Maddoc said and the females fawned and crooned over him.
Evelyn huffed in the background.
Clara smiled. “Prince Frederic, my betrothed,” Clara answered.
“You were to be mated?” Rowenna asked in alarm.
“Wedded. Yes, my moth...” she paused and corrected herself, “Queen Ada insisted on the joining as it was the most advantageous plan for our spheres.”
“Whose?” Rowenna asked, eyes steady on Clara's face and she felt heat rise on hers. She was ashamed anew.
“Hers. Their sphere was a grape-bearing one. It produced much wine. She wished to wield it solely.”
Rowenna leaned back in the great chair which dwarfed her frame. Clara waited, watching the ivory damask tent that had been erected over their dining area flap in the breeze from the sea, the smell something she would never tire of. Crisp and salty...wondrous.
“She was attached to the cups?”
Clara nodded, shame from her experiences choking her.
“That must have been most difficult. To be promised to one such as he. And this one of the Band,” she looked at Matthew, “was there to save you at a most opportune moment?”
The blush flared back to life. “He was.”
Rowenna became silent, the sound of silverware clanking and goblets sipped the only sound save the surf.
“Let me tell you of your father.”
Clara sighed with pleasure. Finally she would tell her why it was Father had mated with this woman of the sea.
All eyes were upon Rowenna and she began...
*
Rowenna arrived at the meeting place. Her heart a bird caged in her chest.
It had always been thus. The Travelers would come. Her clan would receive instructions and they would follow those for a time. Until the next rendezvous. Rowenna had been asked for specifically. Of course, she had been meant to meet here at this preordained time when she was but five years. The Traveler who was messenger had told her parents that when she reached ten and five years she would meet at this exact spot, where the air was thin and given the instructions.
Rowenna was scared. She was told to come alone but Father had sent one Band, who hid in the forest amongst the trees. She breathed deeply and began to calm herself when she saw the air ripple but three horse lengths from where she stood. A bend appeared and two figures folded out of the ripple, as fabric being turned inside out.
They seemed in pain and one brought a small vial from his pocket and punched a sharp end into his companion and a hissing sound could be heard.
Rowenna watched as he built himself up before her, his cheeks losing their ashen color, his breathing quieting. He turned and punctured his companion in a similar fashion, his companion wincing as it pierced his flesh. When they were in command of themselves they turned to look at her.
She wished to run. These strange men did not seem as her clan, they wore odd garments that appeared constraining and strange, their hair and manner different.
She tensed for flight as the one who was taller said, “Rowenna.”
“It is I,” she replied, straightening her spine. She was afraid of no man. She was a female of the Band. She would not run like a coward.
He approached and she stayed the course, her heart slamming into her ribcage.
She could feel her Bandmate's eyes a comforting weight upon her.
“Don't be afraid, Rowenna. You knew this day would come, that you'd be important to us. Your future descendents survival depends on your cooperation with our plan. My name's Joe.”
“Joe?” she asked. Did he mean Joseph?
“And the companion by your side?”
“Gary.”
What ridiculous names were these?
“Why do the pair of you travel here? I was instructed it would be one male, nary two.”
Joe looked at Gary. “I think it'll be easier if you speak with her. Remember, circa 1890.”
“What say you?” Their diction grated on Rowenna's ears as crushed glass; strange, harsh...slurred together.
Gary came forward. “I am the translator for my people. I will propose these negotiations in a way that you may understand.”
Rowenna nodded, that was much easier. Why did the other male not understand how to enunciate? No matter.
She listened.
He outlined their endeavor and it was a lead weight upon her heart.
“I will have to give up this child of my body to be raised by another woman? A sphere-dweller?”
“Is that what they call the people in the bio-spheres?” Joe asked.
Gary nodded. “That's what our Intel says. Of course, we're trying for a lig
ht footprint here Joe. As it is, we're in this mess because of how things were handled one hundred forty years ago. Now we're cleaning up our ancestors' mishandling.” He sighed, raking a hand through his hair as Rowenna stared at him in puzzlement.
“What are those strange things you say?”
“It is called slang.”
“What does this 'slang' mean?”
“It is a phrase that is not literal in its meaning, but abstract.”
“Why not speak plainly, so that all may understand?”
Gary translated, “I do not know. It is the way we have spoken for many years past.”
Joe looked at him. “This is like a History lesson.”
Gary smiled then turned to Rowenna. “You understand what it is we need from you? That your unique genetics are key to the diversity of the future?”
She nodded but restated. “You desire savage blood into perpetuity. That, I do understand. Why must I mate with a sphere-dweller? Why not with a clan that is not my own?”
Gary and Joe looked at each other and Gary said, “There has been a great disservice done to the future people. The Travelers from before made two separate peoples. They inadvertently caused an unnatural imbalance in the procreation that now must be corrected.”
“The females which dwindle?” she asked.
Gary nodded. “That is part of it. The 'Band' as you call them were a police of sorts.”
“A which?” Rowenna asked.
“A group of protectors.”
“Against whom?”
“The people which reside between the clan and the sphere-dwellers,” Gary answered.
“Who are the fragment? Why are they allowed to flourish?” Her eyes shifted between the two. Could they not, with all their advancements, purge this vile faction forever?
Finally, the one that could not speak clearly said, “They're the prisoners of our time.”
Rowenna thought she had misheard.
Gary repeated it for her in a tongue that did not falter, “They are the people that will never be civilized, whom transgress criminally against all they interact with.”
Rowenna's head spun with the ramifications. They were not people from here, from her time. They were criminals from the future. Human dredge to be set upon this land for the Band to deal with.
Rowenna's expression darkened.
Joe said to Gary, “They might have an 1890s understanding but this girl isn't having any trouble connecting the dots here.”
Gary shook his head. “Believe me, if there was another way to fix this debacle, I'd be on it. But this is the only way. We need to fix this catastrophe of genetics before the spheres digress further.”
Rowenna said, “So the Travelers divest themselves of the horrors of their time by depositing their inhumane for us to govern? And now, you come to me to breed with a sphere-dweller to help you? I think not.” Rowenna crossed her arms underneath her bosom.
They were clearly mad.
Gary pulled out his Ace of Spades. “Rowenna. If you do not assist in this matter. All the kin you may have will be doomed to a future of madness and physical depravity.”
She rolled her lip into her teeth, biting on it as she deliberated over his words.
Gary interrupted her musing, “We have already seen such in one of the spheres. There has been too many that mate too closely. It causes the mind to soften in the offspring, the physical traits which are weak become magnified. This pathway will widen, taking all that come upon it, the spiral of which will take humanity to its knees.”
“You sound like a poet,” Joe said.
“Shut up, it's how they communicate.”
Rowenna thought of the beautiful children she would have once mated. She thought of the world they may face in the future. True, she would not be here to see the outcome but to know of it now...
“Who is this sphere-dweller?” Rowenna asked. Hating that she would be a whore for the Travelers. She determined she would extract her pound of flesh before this vile transaction commenced.
“He is a king of the sphere. He is to marry a neighboring princess from another sphere.”
“Marry?”
“Mate. They call it a Wedded Joining.”
“It is 'marrying' in your time?” she asked.
He nodded.
A young man came out of the woods after his words were swallowed in the glade, the thin air stealing them.
He was awkward and thin, his hair dark, his large eyes on her face. He blushed and she realized he was but a year or two older than she.
“Is this he?” she asked, approaching him. Rowenna circled around him, noting his uncomfortable-looking garments. Completely wrong for the climate.
Raymond looked upon the girl and thought he had never lain eyes on anything lovelier. Her eyes were the violets of the books that described such things and her hair a woven tapestry of gold, the colors rioting in the bright sunlight. He had never been Outside before and was overwhelmed by all of it. He could not help but notice the delicate gills which rode her neck. Her slender, beautiful neck.
She stopped dead, her eyes spying something behind his back. “What have you that you are hiding?”
Raymond smiled. He brought out that which he had thought to bring at this auspicious meeting.
Rowenna gazed upon it and thought it lovely. The blooms of the strange flower, wrapped each other in a tight bud which spiraled in a wonderful way in its center, forming a bud. It was a bright tangerine with a hot pink center. He handed it to her and she took it.
“Smell its core,” Raymond instructed her.
She did, bending her head over the fragrant bloom, its smell reminding her of the citrus fruit which grew in their houses of glass. She looked up and met his eyes.
They were kind and bright. Eyes a female could love.
Raymond turned to Gary with a frown. “I must marry Princess Ada?”
He nodded.
“I have told you how I feel about this. This female will bear my child, I will not know what becomes of her. I cannot protect her.”
“I do not need your protection, sphere-dweller,” Rowenna said.
He looked at her for a few moments and she grew ashamed by rejecting his kind offering. “Mayhap, but I would give it to you nonetheless. It is what is true, Rowenna. I would mate with you but if it were allowed. Nay, it is not.”
They looked at Gary and he shifted uncomfortably.
“All that I may afford you is the guarantee that your daughter will come to your clan when she reaches maturity. She will be the genetic key to the succession of both the clan and sphere-dwellers. There is not another way. It is her blood, solely hers, that will allow the survival of the human race,” Gary promised.
Raymond nodded slowly. “Know this, Travelers. That if I had any way save the weight of the coercion you have laid upon us this day, I would take this woman in a Wedded Joining.”
Gary nodded. “We are aware of your integrity, Prince Raymond. It was one of many reasons you were chosen. You, above almost anyone else have seen what is becoming of the spheres?”
“Aye, I do.”
Joe shrugged. “Let's get on with it.” Gary frowned at him. “Give them a second to get acquainted, will you? They're just kids, for God's sake!”
“Mayhap we are children in your time, but we are not in our own,” Raymond said and looked a question at Rowenna.
She nodded. “He speaks true.”
Raymond came before her, cradling her face, noticing that she was the barest bit shorter than he, with a slender form, fiercely muscled. “I am sorry to make your acquaintance in this manner, Rowenna.”
“I am glad it is you, Raymond,” she whispered, only for his ears to hear...
*
The surf crashed and no one uttered a word. The tears trembled unabated at Clara's jaw and Charles dabbed a napkin along her jawline, soaking up her sadness. There was so much she could barely breathe.
Rowenna looked at her with empathy. “It is a fine day tha
t I meet the babe that I gave for Raymond to raise. Tell me he turned into the man that I saw promised within the boy.”
Clara nodded, choking back a sob and Evelyn and Sarah were there, each holding a shoulder. Finally, when Clara could gain a degree of control over her emotions she said, “He was that and so much more.”
“What of the woman who raised you? Ada...?”
The pounding of the waves filled the well of silence and Clara responded, “She was killed in a battle with the fragment.”
“I am so sorry!” Rowenna cried, touching her hand to her gills.
“Do not be. She was...not fit for the royal calling,” Clara said.
Rowenna frowned. “She was not fit for her leadership or not fit as a mother?”
Charles spoke for her, “She was not fit to breathe.”
Rowenna looked at him and a look of understanding came upon her. “She was not a good match for Raymond?”
“Nay, a match but not one of his choosing.”
Something occurred to Clara and she asked quickly before losing it like a wisp of smoke, “What was the pound of flesh you gained from the Travelers?”
Rowenna's lips curled in triumph and Clara knew that she had won a small battle of importance.
“They can no longer dump their human garbage about.”
“The fragment?” Clara asked.
She nodded. “It has been a generation since new fragment has been added to the old. It was the only concession I could think of that may aid my people now. In our time.”
Clara thought of Daniel and wondered if he had died that day during the skirmish with the Band. She would ask sometime later. She had understood him to be one that had what her father had in abundance:
Integrity.
CHAPTER 17
Rowenna walked with Clara along the shore, the Band keeping a discreet distance. Their arms were entwined together, walking in companionable silence. Clara had so many questions she did not know where to begin.
She began with the most pressing, “How often were you and Father...together?”
The Savage Blood (Savage Series, Book 2) Page 12
