by Lorna George
She pulled the reins of her mount and allowed them to continue without her. She still didn’t make eye contact, and at the look of horror on Esta’s face he became even angrier.
‘Don’t fall too far back,’ he snapped over his shoulder. ‘The spell will just drag you along behind us.’
There was no answer, but he kept riding. She was learning to use the magic; he had felt her exploring it throughout the morning, but not enough that she could escape his restriction spell. He looked back to Esta, who was frowning down at the sewing in her hands. She looked so disappointed in him, and it did nothing for his bad mood.
‘What?’ he demanded.
His old friend shook her head. ‘Do you even hear yourself? You’re not even trying.’
‘Of course I’m not,’ Arun scoffed. ‘Why should I? She’s made it perfectly clear that she can’t stand the sight of me, so why bother?’
‘Because she’s your wife, or so you’re supposed to be trying to convince her, and because you’re better than this. Because you’re taking the whole thing out on her even though it clearly isn’t her fault.’
‘Isn’t her fault?’ he repeated incredulously. ‘Have you spoken to her about it? Because she was perfectly happy to explain to me that she had made the choice herself, that no one had forced her into any of this.’
‘Oh, Arun, of course she had a choice, but did you stop to wonder what the alternative to this might have been?’ Esta looked sadly back at him as her question jerked something sharply in his gut. ‘Just look at the state the poor girl is in and tell me you don’t think she was a prisoner of that awful woman. Who knows how long she’s been locked up away from the sun? It isn’t normal for someone to burn like that, which means it’s been years since she’s been out under the sky. Years, and she’s only just twenty-something now. How old was she when she was first locked up? She’s just said her gaoler forgot to feed her, but you only have to look to see how underfed she is. She can barely eat anything because she isn’t used to it, and the fact that she’s so uncomfortable at being touched? Well. Who knows what they did to her?’
At a loss, Arun realised he already knew all of that. The facts, at least. He just hadn’t had the sense to put it all together the way Esta had. He had been too angry and wounded.
‘What should I do?’ he asked quietly.
Esta reached across and patted his shoulder companionably. He was glad to see her smiling at him again, at least. ‘Just be yourself. I know it’s hard, and I know you’re angry, but lay the blame where it belongs and give Naomi a chance. Let her be herself as well. She seems like a very decent person to me, as I know you are. She’s clever and fair-minded. I’m certain you’ll work it out eventually.’
Arun tried to concentrate on what his friend had just said to him, but only one word held any meaning to him. The Bond lit up strangely as he whispered it to himself. ‘Naomi…’
He couldn’t keep himself from looking back to where the small woman was riding a little way behind them. It didn’t escape his notice that she hadn’t used the potion he had given her, and had instead pulled the hood of her cloak up to shade her face as much as possible. She was absently stroking her horse’s mane, and saw that she was very deliberately travelling in the shade of one of the wagons.
‘She hates me,’ he sighed.
There was a very uncomfortable silence. He had expected his friend to tell him that it was the situation that Naomi hated rather than him, but it never came. Instead, Esta just grimaced and his face fell.
‘She really does hate me?’
‘Well, what do you expect?’ she tutted, clearly exasperated with him. ‘You haven’t been particularly nice, you know. She’s been a prisoner for so long, and when she was given the opportunity to earn her freedom, it all backfires in her face. Now she’s married, against her own wishes, to a man that has no respect for her at all. Not just any man, but a King! It’s quite a lot to process, I imagine, and with you being so beastly on top of it all…’
‘Me? How on Ilios is this suddenly all my fault?’
‘I’m not saying it’s all your fault. I’m just telling you that I’ve never heard you be as cruel to anyone as you were just now.’ She looked sadly back at him. ‘And last night.’
Arun’s mouth flapped silently as he tried to think of some way to defend himself, but came up completely blank.
‘Did you really call her… a… you know. That horrible word?’
The guilt he’d felt last night after Naomi’s reaction to his words came creeping back. He didn’t want to feel badly for saying it, and he knew that once they reached Koren’s capital of Malchior, she was going to be called that regularly. It wasn’t their way to be so casual about sex, and once the truth came out about the circumstances of their marriage, she was going to be incredibly unpopular. Just one more problem to be dealt with.
‘Yes,’ he admitted at last. ‘I didn’t expect her to be so upset by it, but the hard truth is that she’s going to have to deal with it. The commoners will whisper it, but the courtiers won’t be that kind. You know full well that they’ll hound her every step with such insults, and even though it might die down in years to come, it won’t ever truly stop.’
Esta looked skywards and puffed a small sigh. ‘Yes, I know better than anyone what they’re like. The fact that I’m unable to give Rayan a child has given me first-hand experience of their cruelty, and that I’m expected to simply deal with it.’
He was immediately full of regret for his thoughtless words. ‘Esta, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean it that way.’
‘I know you didn’t,’ she sighed. ‘I accept it that my choices have impacted the safety of Koren, and that people are afraid. What you need to realise is that where I grew up in our land, Naomi has been raised differently. You cannot expect her to simply adopt your mentality on things she already has her own opinions about. That isn’t how it works, not even for you.’
Arun laughed humourlessly at that. ‘Honestly, Esta, I’m more concerned about how I’m going to turn a peasant into a Queen at all right now. If we’re lucky, the Court will be more offended by her lineage than her actions.’
‘A peasant?’ she frowned, surprised. ‘Arun, if you think that girl is of low birth, you really are being blinded by your anger.’
*
Genevieve soared through the early morning sky, her golden feathers rippling in the fists shafts of dawn sunshine. She hunted a female. Young, but strong. The very one that had caught her attention on the forest floor whilst her sisters attacked the dragon in the sky above. Now one of her sisters was dead, and the other two wounded by arrows shot by the female.
Her master and his Queen had set her and her three sisters on the trail, ordering the female left alive, but the dragon disposed of without failure. There had been a half-crazed look in the Queen's eyes; the scent of madness and horrific fear had filled Genevieve's nostrils and made her sick with it. The woman her master served was weak, but he had ordered fealty from her and her sisters, so fealty they would show. What she did now was a violation of her oaths, but who was to know? This small warrior intrigued her.
The female she hunted was far stronger than the crazed Queen. Her scent was rich, a fellow hunter even as she was now prey. There was power, strength, and a warrior's pride in her. Her blood reeked of it. She could smell the torture in her and the bitter taint of dark vengeance that lurked like a poison. Countering it was the scent of the forest, crisp and lush and calming, but still full of its own horrors. The herb, thyme, was strong in her nostrils. There was magic, too. Hot, burning magic that tasted of fire.
Her prey had others hunting her. Two groups of men closing in fast from the North and the East, as well as Genevieve's own sisters, although they were both too far away now to interfere. Normally prey would be shared between all of them, but the look in her sister's sharp, orange eyes and the impatient scrape of their talons on the ground had told her they had found the scent of this small warrior as enticing as she did
.
Genevieve had no intention of missing the experience of this hunt, her sisters' greed ruining the moment this prey finally snapped and shattered. She could smell the weakening in her, though she fought against it with all she had. To break such strength and determination would be simply delicious, and she planned to savour every moment of it. She would eat the heart and drink the hot blood of this warrior, taking into her own body the power she stank of. Her Master would love her above all others for it.
Genevieve shrieked in delight as she cut expertly through the air above the trees. Her prey was close.
Chapter Nine
The sun was at its highest point in the sky, and Naomi was glad when they finally stopped to water the horses. If she had thought her backside had been tender yesterday after being so out of practice at long rides, it was nothing compared to how it felt now, and coupled with the tight, burnt skin on her face, she was decidedly uncomfortable. Easing herself off the small mare, she tried not to make it look as though she was having problems and resisted the urge to smack some life back into her behind. She knew she was being watched.
She wasn’t entirely certain how she knew it was him, but she supposed it had something to do with the curse he had put her under. He’d said they were magically tied, so it stood to reason that she would know when his thoughts were directed towards her. She didn’t like it one bit, and while they had travelled, she had been concentrating on building up as many mental defences against him as she could manage. There was no chance of any escape if he could just pop into her head whenever he felt like it, after all.
Taking her horse by the reins, she led it down to the stream to drink. Everyone seemed to be taking care of their own horseflesh before sitting down to rest themselves, so Naomi did the same. Trying not to groan as she dropped down to the grassy bank, she watched the bubbling stream for a while, enjoying the peace and stillness of the forest. She wanted to take off her boots and woollen stockings so she could drop her feet into the cold water, but knew that if they had to leave suddenly it would be an inconvenience. She couldn’t risk losing them, especially now she knew that her escape would have to be on foot.
The Korenians were sharp and well-trained as a unit, but they obviously had no idea about travelling through the dense forests of Ffion. She, on the other hand, knew a great deal about it, and knew it wouldn’t be difficult for one lone traveller to disappear amidst the woods. In truth, with the right provisions, a bow and quiver of arrows, she could just climb a tree and wait a few days until they stopped looking. They were in a hurry themselves, after all, and hopefully wouldn’t spend too long trying to search her out. The problem now was this spell she was under.
Closing her eyes, she lay back on the cool grass and pulled her hood over her face to shade it from the sunshine. Taking one deep, cleansing breath, she reached down into the pool of magic and again began to try and untangle it. The Bond she knew was beyond her abilities, even if she’d had her own magic, but with enough time and patience, she was sure she could unravel the restriction spell. It was hard going but she felt like she was getting somewhere, until an all too familiar presence began to approach. Naomi kept her eyes shut, but listened as the light step closed in on her secluded spot, then came to a stop.
‘Don’t even think about it.’ she warned, in absolutely no mood to speak any further to him. As far as she was concerned, if he never said another word to her, it would be far too soon.
She felt him hesitate, then choose to ignore the warning as he sat down on the bank beside her. ‘I thought you might be hungry.’
‘No, thank you,’ she replied, rolling onto her side and away from him. Thankfully he seemed content not to push the matter, and for a while there was nothing but silence. It might have been perfect if he had just left, but he just sat there until he apparently couldn’t contain himself any more.
‘I’ve been thinking….’
‘Don’t hurt yourself.’
‘Now, look-!’
‘Shh! Do you hear that?’ she asked, interrupting him. When he fell silent again, trying to listen, she smiled under the cover of her hood. ‘That’s the sound of you leaving me alone.’
He let out a long, drawn-out sigh and she was sure he was going to give up and leave at last. Instead, he chose to keep making an annoyance of himself.
‘You can’t go on like this.’
‘Watch me,’ she responded flatly. Crossing her arms tightly to herself, she brought her knees up a little. She felt so defensive around him, so completely at his mercy, and she didn’t like it. He had taken away her dagger at some point, she noticed, and with little to no effort he could keep her from moving at all. If he thought she was going to give up her only rebellion, at least for now, then he had another thing coming.
‘Your defence is good. It’s a hard thing to accomplish, keeping the Bond out of your head,’ he commented. ‘I get the occasional flutter from you, a shadow of emotion from time to time, but nothing very distracting. It makes things much easier, so thank you.’
‘I’m not doing it for you,’ she scoffed. ‘I have absolutely no idea why anyone would deliberately give someone access to their mind. The things we think aren’t said for a reason, in my opinion.’
‘We believe it gives us a better insight to the person we’re spending the rest of our lives with. I suppose it must be difficult for you to understand.’
She bit down on the reprimand that fought to escape, and instead decided to counter his assumption that she was too stupid to grasp something like that by making her point calmly. ‘The things we think are nothing but snap judgements. You have to explore and consider them all before you decide which thought to act on or give voice to. How much of an insight can the random ideas that pop in and out of our heads all day give you about a person? Wouldn't it be better to just have a conversation?’
‘Yes,’ he said at length, and she was annoyed by the smile she could hear in his voice. ‘A conversation is always better, I think.’
She frowned. ‘Did you just trick me?’
‘I think you may have tricked yourself,’ he laughed quietly and she scowled at the gentle, lilting sound. ‘But you’re right. Sometimes first impressions aren’t always the right ones.’
‘No kidding. I actually felt sorry for you when we first met.’
The laughter stopped and she felt a twinge of anger that she somehow knew didn’t belong to her. Not liking her prone position, Naomi forced herself upright, tucking her legs up in readiness to defend if she needed to. She kept her eyes front, watching the few horses in her line of vision enjoy the crisp, cool water, and the dense forest behind them.
‘Is that because you were knowingly deceiving me?’ he said, hostility back in his tone. Part of her knew she deserved it, but mostly she knew she didn’t want to be on any kind of good terms with him. The cold anger was a lot easier to deal with.
‘You know, you seem to very conveniently forget that I tried to leave,’ she pointed out acidly. ‘I even told you that I wasn’t who you thought I was, if memory serves.’
‘And if memory serves, you also told me that you were being forced into it, yet yesterday you claimed to be in complete control of your decision,’ he snapped back. ‘So which is it, little Firefly?’
‘Don’t call me that,’ she frowned. ‘And it’s none of your business.’
‘I’m trying to understand.’
His voice was growing in volume and she knew that people were starting to watch again. The background chatter had died down quite a lot since they had begun talking.
‘You don’t need to understand,’ she looked around at him at last, and he seemed slightly taken aback. ‘What difference will it make? If I had known then what I know now I might have acted differently, but that doesn’t change the fact that what’s done is done. Nothing I say now matters.’
She watched him process her words, his eyes searching her face as though trying to solve a puzzle. It was uncomfortable, and Naomi found herself looking
away again, staring sightlessly into the forest. Let him work it out. The truth was, she didn’t want to talk any more about it. She would have to go into everything, including who she was, or had been, and he hadn’t earned that information. He had treated her like scum, and when all was said and done she had absolutely no wish or intention to be married to him.
‘If the Bond didn’t exist and you were free to go your way, where would you go?’ he asked her quietly. ‘It seems to me that there’s nothing for you here, and I know you were planning to get to the coast. So where?’
Naomi swiped her hair out of her face and sighed. ‘Tsumetai. I have friends there.’
‘And then what?’
‘Then rebellion,’ she laughed dryly. ‘My country is suffering, in case you haven’t noticed, and that woman doesn’t belong on the Redwood Throne. I’m going to take it back.’
He was silent for a long time then, mulling over her words. ‘I’d heard a rumour that the Princess had somehow escaped, but it seemed like mostly speculation and desperate hope. Do you know if she lives?’
Naomi gave him a sidelong glance at that. She was surprised he’d heard such things, but then, she had been locked away for so long, it would be impossible for her to know what the rumour mill said about anything. The fact that it had reached Koren was a little disturbing, somehow.
‘What does this have to do with anything?’ she replied, avoiding his question. ‘This curse you’ve put me under does exist, and you seem intent to try and break me with it. You’re going to drag me back to Koren if you have to, remember?’
Having his own words from yesterday shot back at him seemed to give him pause, but he recovered quickly. ‘It’s not a curse and there’s nothing we can do about it, whether you like it or not.’
