Past Lives

by Kirsten Bij't Vuur

  Suddenly she realized that was the real danger to their marriage, not his sharing love, or her claiming him, it was his guilt after the sharing. It would lower his opinion of himself, and he'd find himself unworthy of her love, letting it go piece by piece, until they had drifted apart without Paul even

  noticing.

  Melissa stretched her neck to reach his face, and she kissed him gently.

  'Don't feel bad, beloved,' she whispered, 'love is meant to be celebrated.' He couldn't speak, he just held her very tightly. She asked: 'If it makes you feel this bad, why do you do it? I can't stand to see you unhappy.'

  Finally he managed to say something, be it with a choked voice: 'They get so close, and they touch me, it excites my body and they notice, and then I can't back out, it would be a dreadful insult. My body betrays me.'

  'I'm so sorry Paul, Lukas did ask me if he should save you, and I didn't know. He seems to think this is good for you, maybe you should talk to him about it. You need to let go of your guilt, love, I'm not blaming you for anything, I love you so much.'

  She added, to comfort him: 'Anyway, tomorrow we'll be at Katarina's, and she disapproves of sharing love, so you can stay safely with me.' His grip tightened again, and she stroked his hair, ran her hand through it, giving him tiny kisses.

  Slowly he relaxed in her arms, and she brushed his mind. He invited her in, and felt her unconditional love for him, her assurance that he was good enough for her. She could feel him shake in her arms, and now he felt her concern for him.

  He did feel unworthy, but his love for her was unabated. Worry and love warred in both of them for a few moments, and then love won. Still holding on tightly to one another they fell asleep.

  The next morning Lukas woke them up just after sunrise, and after a hearty breakfast they packed their belongings on the donkey and said their goodbyes. Only a few of the villagers were awake, most were still in bed after a long night of feasting.

  One of the people waiting was a middle-aged satyr with a misshapen hoof. He bowed and said: 'They said you were a healer, master Lykos, can you please look at my foot? It hurts, and I cannot stand on it properly anymore.'

  Lukas laid a hand on his shoulder in sympathy, then kneeled in front of the man, took his foot and activated his Gift. Inside, he saw a nasty infection, and the wall of the hoof had come loose from the inner part. Just seeing it caused Lukas to wince in sympathy, hoofs were just as sensitive as horns, and this looked bad.

  He drained the infection and destroyed the shapes that should not be in a

  body, hoping to take care of the infection.

  When he came back to the now he was not even feeling tired, and he asked for a hoof knife, then saw the man blanch. He stroked the bottom of the hoof, and the man winced at his feather touch, despite trying to control his reaction. 'I will have to sedate this hoof, the wall has come loose from the inside and that hurts like hell, but it needs to be trimmed and held together for a few weeks. Can you think of anything?'

  Melissa offered: 'You know what the nerves look like, maybe you can soothe them as you did for Hermes? Shall I come with you?'

  Lukas nodded, finding a way to block pain would be very useful, not only now.

  Looking a bit apologetic, Paul said: 'In a horse, we'd call that laminitis and we'd shoe it for a few weeks to rest the hoof, or trim it regularly until the bad part has grown out. I know this man is not a horse of course...'

  But Lukas said: 'How would you attach a shoe, with nails?' Paul nodded.

  'He might not like that, he is very sore. But a sturdy leather shoe might work, and regular trimming. Let's do that. First, sedation.'

  As they studied the nerves, Lukas first soothed them as he had done before, but he was a god now, and he thought he should be able to do better now, somehow he didn't have to know exactly how things worked anymore to be able to influence them, he just willed it to be and it happened. So he willed the nerves in the hoof to be quiet for a seven-day

  He felt Melissa's mental shrug at his reasoning, she would always be a scientist, but they went back to the now and tried it.

  The man didn't react at all, and now Melissa shook her head. That was not how her world worked.

  But, since the knife had arrived, Lukas asked Paul to do the trimming, and he did, very carefully, as he always trimmed Lukas' hoofs.

  The patient did not feel a thing, not even when Paul carefully trimmed the hoof in a special shape, designed to temporarily move the balance from the separated part to the whole part.

  Lukas bound the hoof tightly and drew a pattern to make a shoe for the hoof to keep it immobile for a few weeks. He said: 'Do not run, do not walk very far, do not work for a week. Then the painkiller will wear off, and you can use the foot with the boot until the part with the separation has grown out. Keep it trimmed short, in this way.'

  The patient hugged him tightly and thanked him profusely, and then the

  whole family did the same. There were no other patients, and they soon left the village behind them.

  Lukas had the day's march well-planned, the distance was slightly less than they had managed yesterday, and because they were leaving so early, they would most likely reach a little village in time to spend the hottest part of the day there.

  Having seen Katarina's influence on the youths, he really wondered how she had managed that. This village was a day's march away from where she lived, and according to the village elders she had never visited, nor had the children in question ever visited Katarina.

  And why would she do it? Lukas could not think of a single use that their behaviour would have for Katarina. It would disturb the community of the village, especially if older people would start to get affected, and of course it had already gotten Hermes into trouble with his family. That was really the only possible benefit, unrest in the whole area.

  With these thoughts running circles in his mind, Lukas did not notice that his companions were not as carefree as people on a holiday usually are.

  Neither of them said much, and they clung to each other for support, each with his own anxious thoughts as sole company.

  The landscape didn't offer a lot of relief either, it was much the same as yesterday, endless forest on crumbling limestone, already heating up considerably as the sun rose in the blue sky.

  After a few hours walking Lukas halted for half an hour to drink some water and eat a piece of fruit they had been given by the villagers, and finally he seemed to notice that something wasn't right.

  'I haven't heard a word out of either of you all morning,' he observed, 'is something amiss?' Still no-one said anything.

  His attention was directed inwards for a few heartbeats, and then he replied to his own question: 'There is, you are both anxious, I can feel it clearly.

  I knew it, I should have saved you yesterday. I'm sorry Paul. From now on, you two stick together, and I'll do the sharing.'

  Now Paul said slowly: 'Lukas, no-one forced me to share love with those women. It was my own choice, my body drove me to do it, and then I felt really guilty afterwards.'

  And Melissa added: 'I didn't mind Paul sharing love, but I'm afraid he'll

  feel unworthy of my love, pulling away from me. And Lukas, don't you want to share love anymore then?'

  'Can I spend a few hours contemplating what you've just told me? And I was planning to stop at a village to have lunch and a nap, but maybe we'd better find a nice spot like yesterday? Spend some time together?'

  The others nodded in unison: 'We'd prefer that, Lukas, we cannot go from village to village feeling insecure and anxious.'

  Trust Melissa to find the right words for how he felt, Paul thought. She was the best woman ever, and if she didn't mind him sharing a little love here and there, maybe he should just do it without feeling guilty, as long as they were on this world. For once they were back in London, he would stay true to her forever.

  Beneath the trees the heat was not too bad, though Paul suggested they might want to find him
cooler footwear if they came across a village large enough to have a shoemaker. The weight of the boots clearly didn't bother him, he was used to that, and the solid boots protected his feet from the impact of the stones lying about everywhere, but they were just too hot.

  Considering Paul's request for a moment, Lukas said: 'I was thinking of entering the next village to buy some food, we can try there, though there are not that many humans living there.

  Katarina's village is much larger with many more humans, I guess because it is closer to the coast. And we will stay there for a few days, time enough to have a pair made to size if they don't have yours ready-made, your feet are larger than most local men's.'

  Now the landscape finally started to change, there was a distinct dip in the path, and they left the forest abruptly and entered a kind of large bowl, clearly one of those sink-holes, only a really large one this time. There was a lake in the middle of the bowl, and the rest of the space was covered with sedges and grass, with low bushes here and there, and large hummocks with taller grasses on top. The path continued, straight into the bowl, but it was no longer made of clay and rocky debris, but rather of sections of wood, small tree trunks and large branches, cut to length and fitted snugly one against the other, as far as the eyes could see.

  Lukas said: 'Take care, this is a swamp, a larger stream empties into this sink-hole and the clay on the bottom and the thick layer of dead grasses prevent it from draining. The soil is waterlogged and very unstable, and there

  are peaty spots that a person would sink right into. Stick to the path and if something happens, yell immediately.'

  He led the donkey down the slope and onto the path made of logs, and it was clear neither of them was comfortable placing their narrow hoofs on the uneven surface of the logs. Melissa noticed that some of the logs were almost rotted through, whilst some seemed virtually fresh.

  'Can't they use magic to conserve the wood?' she asked, 'it must be a lot of work to replace those logs.'

  With a grin, Lukas replied: 'They probably could, but they'd only slow the process in a hot climate like this. And would you care to pray to Hermes and ask him for power to keep a few logs from rotting? Most people don't have the kind of personal power Paul here has, nor the intimate relationship you have to a god.

  If this place wasn't situated in the middle of a forest, they would probably have conserved it as you suggest, but as it is, it is easier to just chop a few trees and cut them into logs right here.'

  'I'd still treat as many as my power allowed, then a few the next time. In the end it would pay off, I'm sure,' was Melissa's rather stubborn comment.

  Lukas grinned even more cheekily and observed dryly: 'Which is why you are an engineer, and they are herders, I guess.'

  That comment got a laugh out of all of them, and Paul said admiringly:

  'Melissa would probably construct a bridge over the whole valley, or contrive to drain it to make safe grassland for sheep and cattle.' And seeing Melissa's expression she was contemplating how to do just that.

  Halfway down the swamp they heard a distressed voice crying for help, which was startling, for this was not a busy path. The sound came from just ahead, and as they continued the path, they could see a youngster in great panic, pointing at a spot right in the middle of the hummocky part of the swamp, where a long-horned cow was struggling in the mud.

  She lowed weakly, and each low was answered by a small chorus of similar lows from an unseen herd.

  'Please, help me, my cow is drowning in the swamp, can't you help me?

  You have feet, you will not sink in the mud as quickly, please master!' the youngster was addressing Paul now, he was clearly the lightest among them with feet. Paul was eyeing the swamp between himself and the cow, clearly recognizing the truth in the boy's statement.

  'You're not going to risk your life for a cow, Paul,' Lukas said with

  authority, 'Melissa is right, this is a land of magic, and magic shall be used.'

  His face blanked out for a moment and he lighted up, a lot this time, and he asked Paul: 'Do you know how to handle a cow?'

  The taller man answered: 'Just like a horse?'

  Lukas nearly laughed out loud and said: 'That'll do. All right, go get her.'

  And Paul, trusting Lukas with his life, stepped off the path, and took the shortest route towards the poor animal, sinking into the soft ground only a tiny bit. As he neared the animal, it stopped its thrashing, the boy clearly took good care of his animals that it trusted a person even in these dire straits.

  Paul managed to take hold of the lead rope, and called in a friendly voice, stepping backwards slowly, indeed as if trying to get a horse to follow him.

  The unfortunate creature tried to follow, heaving against the sucking mud, but it could not get out by itself.

  Now they could see Paul lighting up with magic-use, and with a certain amount of astonishment the three on the path saw the cow rise up out of the mud until it floated just above the surface. Paul pulled the lead rope and the shape of the cow came towards him. Then he coolly walked back to the path, the cow on its own legs now, and not sinking into the mud even the slightest bit, though still rather wild-eyed.

  As they reached the path, Paul handed the lead rope to the young man, then dismissed his own bit of magic, and the cow's whole weight rested on her own feet again.

  'Thank you so much, master,' the boy whispered in awed amazement,

  'thank you for saving my cow. Will you come with me to the village? The elders will want to thank you as well, the other cows are waiting on the path just ahead.'

  Melissa could see Lukas dismissing his spell, making the surface soft again, and she told him: 'Don't let him think humans can walk on that, he needs to know you did that or people will die.' But Paul wasn't going to let that happen either, and he said to the boy: 'Lykos here used magic to firm the ground, and I used magic to make your cow much lighter than she really is. It is not something any human can do, they'd drown as quickly as your cow would have.'

  'I realize that master, I saw my cow fly for a moment. She doesn't usually do that. Thank you all the same for telling me! I'll be more careful next time.'

  The boy still looked at Paul with worship in his eyes, apparently magic was not so common after all in this part of Lukas' world, or he just liked the look

  of Paul.

  They made another one of those entrances, with a herd of cows this time, one of which was covered in mud. The boy took the cows to their pen, and returned with an armful of hay for the donkey. Then he told the story of how the stranger saved the cow by walking over mud and letting the cow fly, and he clearly enjoyed telling tales.

  It had grown a little bit in this first telling, and it was sure to grow a lot more in the future, as he spread it amongst his friends, and their friends.

  Still, it gave the villagers something to talk about, and as all the attention went to Paul, Lukas and Melissa could have a good look around the village and its people without attracting undue notice.

  There were no humans in this village, just satyrs, and they seemed to be unaffected by Katarina's affliction, as they had come to call it amongst themselves, as if it were a sickness that people could catch.

  But suddenly Lukas remembered that is was only afternoon, anyone taking their work too seriously would still be at it, so he asked one of the villagers whether everyone was present.

  'No,' was the answer, 'most of the young people are still out in the fields, they work all day and sleep all night, they never have any fun anymore.'

  'How many are there like that, and do they dress differently?' were Lukas'

  next questions.

  'Ten youngsters, including Romano here, our herder, and five married couples with young children,' was the man's reply, and suddenly they realized the herder boy had been wearing trousers.

  'We cannot take time to cure them,' Lukas decided, 'we need to get to the root of this problem by talking to Katarina. They will have to try for them
selves if the spell can be broken.'

  Even as Lukas said this he looked at Melissa and found her returning his stare. A spell! What if Katarina had been enchanted to act as she did?

  'Come on,' Lukas said, 'we need to move on, we need to see her. If she is spellbound, breaking it will cure everyone instantly. Won't it?'

  Melissa tended to forget that Lukas had as little history with magic as she had, he seemed so comfortable using it. Of course he had had a lot of practice in a short time.

  'I don't know, Lukas, but Paul will,' she told him, and they thanked the villager for answering their questions. They called out to Paul, who still had

  the cattle boy hanging on his very words, and told him they had to leave immediately.

  The boy pressed them into staying just for lunch, and they decided they could use the rest and the better food. As they ate, Melissa felt free to check out their young host with sight, and it seemed there was indeed some magic at work. There was a loop somewhere in his brain, and she wanted Lukas to look at it too, so she brushed Lukas' mind and when he let her in, showed him what she had seen.

  He reached out for the cheese, and touched the boy instead, activating his Gift immediately. Melissa anchored him to be on the safe side, and that was for the best, for the loop tried to pull Lukas in, and would have succeeded without an anchor.

  Lukas' Gift did nothing, this was clearly not a sickness of the brain or a disease, it was a spell put on the young man on purpose. The power was astonishing, it was as if the boy had been spellbound by a god. But when did a god visit a village like this?

  Lukas tried to break the bond and barely succeeded. The loop recoiled, probably causing the caster of the spell some discomfort, but of course, he would be far removed from this remote area, and a god would hardly notice one spell broken amongst many still intact.

  This case was starting to smell, and now they might have alerted whoever was behind it to their presence. They would have to move, and it would have to be fast.