Then a blur of muscled male slid past almost faster than Rolland could track and the Fragment lay at Rowenna's feet in a twisted heap.
Rowenna saw Harland even as her hair was taken in a vise grip that caused her scalp to shout with agonizing pins and needles of fire.
Then he was upon the Fragment, twisting his head nearly off his neck and Rowenna dropped in an ungraceful heap on the sharp grass.
Two more Fragment came behind Harland and her eyes widened even as the hair on the nape of his neck rose at their approach and he turned, his fist connecting with the jaw of the first and his dagger piercing the Adam's apple of the second.
“Stay here for the love of all that is true,” Harland said, his sea-colored eyes dancing with dangerous sparks. His anger at her, his alarm for her, buried in the depths as he gave a second's more of that burning stare then joined Rolland in cutting up the Fragment like the dogs they were.
That was not entirely accurate, for dog was too loyal a name for the likes of them.
Two pairs of very angry eyes met hers, one ebony and the other the color of the sea when angered. Rowenna stood on shaky feet and Rolland gave a brief nod to Harland. “What say you?”
Harland wiped a grimy hand over his brow. “I be the new sentry for the clan.”
Rowenna gave him a sharp look at the news but he ignored her.
Rolland grinned despite his anger at Rowenna. “Most excellent, it is time the clan elders took note of the blood of the Band that you hold within you.”
Rolland glared at a stubborn Rowenna. “It was most fortunate that we were so near the clan.” His words were spoken to Harland, however, they were all for Rowenna.
“I helped!” she cried, looking between the two.
Rolland shook his head. “You crippled me with your presence. Do ye not know? That the Band are in place to protect females first?” He put his mighty hands on his hips, the dagger, slick with blood, stuck out like an angry spear at his side.
Rowenna looked down at her feet.
Harland gave a short laugh that brought her head back up. “Did you see how she massacred the first?” Rolland gave a brief but tight smile at that. “She is fierce for a female.”
Rowenna smiled at Harland but it turned to a frown when he sided with Rolland. “You be Band, more importantly, you are female Rowenna,” he said in soft reprimand.
She narrowed her gaze on Harland. Yes, he certainly was aware she was female.
Rowenna stalked away to the clan, weaving in between the bodies of the Fragment, thinking about how insufferable all males were.
The males discussed her. However, they discussed the alarming proximity of the Fragment at greater length as they made their slow and cautious way back to the clan, following in the angry footsteps of Rowenna.
For where there were some Fragment there would surely be more.
Chapter 6
one week hence
Rolland partook in a raid and it was Harland who accompanied Rowenna for her scheduled second tryst with the prince of the sphere. Rowenna was not anxious as she was at the last meeting, yet looking at Harland in profile, his dark hair and light eyes a startling contrast in the gloom of the wooded border, she could hear his hurt from the very silence that enclosed the pair.
It hurt Harland that she would mate with Rolland. It hurt for him to know that she was being whored for the viability of their future with a sphere-dweller. For it mattered not that he would be a King a few weeks hence. He would ultimately come to her as stranger and the babe they made would then be given up as sacrifice. Rowenna struggled inside herself to not give in to the grief and resentment that ate at the edges of her brain without mercy. Instead, she focused on the quiet male presence who walked by her side, ignoring his own pain to protect her.
They came to the tear in the center of the field, the leaves appeared to burn a circle around the open meadow with the first breath of autumn. Even the insects were silent in the glade, so unnatural was the Pathway's presence.
Harland closed his hand over her shoulder, laying a kiss at the sensitive break of her neck to shoulder and she leaned against him. Rowenna tried to not think of Rolland, her obligation to her clan... the forbidden love she felt for the half-blood Band who warmed her flesh as she stood there waiting to be with another.
Then Prince Raymond was there like the first star in the night's sky, blinking into existence with a pale gleaming of opalescent light. He looked almost as he had looked upon his first visit.
They walked out to meet him and Rowenna saw his curiosity though he be many horse lengths from their location.
Prince Raymond watched as Rowenna, her hair in a thick single plait , approached with a huge male. Instantly, Raymond sensed he was Savage, of course. It was the underlying things that would go unnoticed by some that gave him pause. For Raymond had been schooled on the subtleties of humanity from a young age. He used that knowledge now, for it was almost an automatic thing, to see what was before him.
It was a disquieting insight. There be an intimacy about the two as they walked together that had been absent from her intended. Raymond's eyes flicked to the heavily muscled warrior's throat.
The flesh therein lay absent of gills. Curious, Raymond thought.
They stood before him and aside from the sheer size of the brute, he had the most unusual shade of eyes. They appeared very like the shallow waters of the oyster fields of the great lakes. At summer's height when the sun beat through the opaque walls of the sphere, the sand lay like sugar beneath the azure waters. His eyes were striking.
They were also angry.
Not this again, Raymond thought, dismayed anew. His belly rolled inside him in a slick heated wave. Yet, he seemed to be better accustomed to the wretched travel that was the Pathway.
The male's gaze traveled Raymond with slow assessment and Raymond met that uncompromising stare head-on. He knew what he was about, if the male presumed to speculate and do so inaccurately, that was not the fault of Raymond. His motives were beyond reproach.
“He does not look as I thought,” Harland finally said, swiping a loose hair that had come undone from the leather tie that bound it at his nape.
“And pray tell, what was it you were expecting?” Raymond asked, holding in his insult with a supreme effort.
Harland grinned. “It is well-known that sphere-dwellers are soft... especially the males,” he emphasized with a smirk.
Rowenna rolled her eyes.
Raymond scowled. “Whom would presume to know of such things of the sphere?” It was not as if there had been an exchange of peoples and culture. His were the presumptions of his people, as were Raymond's.
Harland was quiet. Then after a moment's pause said, “Is it any different from the assumptions the sphere-dwellers make of us?” he asked, splaying his large hand against his chest.
The very words Raymond had just ruminated upon.
Rowenna moved as if to come between the two men and Raymond said, “We are as well-met as we can be, Rowenna, do not fret.”
Rowenna sighed, shifting her weight as the moment rolled on in stilted awkwardness.
Raymond put his hands on his hips, his stomach still in an uproar from the travel.
“Come, let us become better acquainted...”
He held out his hand and Rowenna took it, Harland eyeing the two with an uncharitable gaze of disgust. Raymond's eyes narrowed. He suddenly thought of something. “Where is the big brute, Rolland?”
“He scouts,” Harland replied shortly, any good humor he possessed-- gone.
Raymond palmed his chin. “And who might you be?”
Silence met his question and Harland, every bit the size of the other Savage, finally answered with quiet intensity, “I am the male who loves her.”
Rowenna gasped, their secret laid before Raymond, naked for his scrutiny.
Raymond looked between the two and realized that things had become even more complicated then he could have imagined. A woman that he thought he
cared for was betrothed to another, with a profession of love from yet another male. While Raymond was likewise spoken for by a young woman that loved lust and wine more than living.
“Well then,” Raymond began quietly, “we have much more in common than I could have known.”
Rowenna shook her head, mortified at Harland's admission. Though true, it convoluted everything that they must accomplish into hopeless knots.
“Let us move to the meeting place and discuss matters.” A plan was forming in Raymond's mind. They might be appalled. However, as he gave covert glances at the young couple, he thought not. He also thought that his role had just slipped further down the slick slope of immorality. Yet, he could not ignore the covert meeting he had just had with the Time Keeper. Who had told him many things. Many of which stood in a contradiction he could not ignore. With additional knowledge came choice.
Harland gave Raymond a cynical look and Raymond sighed, the overt distrust of the Savage was tiresome. He looked at Rowenna. If she had been his, would he have guarded her as fiercely?
They settled inside the cave, backs against the natural rock that jutted out like crooked teeth inside the interior. Filtered light swam through the low doorway that led to the spartan interior which had been fashioned into a crude bed chamber.
“This is most unseemly,” Raymond noted upon seeing it for the second time (and through the eyes of the Savage who loved Rowenna). He gazed around at the unlikely interior, a backdrop to the dreaded conversation to come.
Harland crossed his arms over a chest that had seen the better part of five years of hard manual labor, breaking horses and sparring with warriors.
“Raymond,” Rowenna encouraged in a soft voice inside the confines of the cave and Raymond began. He told them of his arranged betrothal to Princess Ada and the circumstances of his meeting with the Time Keeper.
Rowenna gasped when Raymond alluded to the incident in the royal corridor. He could not bring himself to illustrate it in a more detailed way. He was mortified and it strained the bounds of propriety even in implication.
For himself as future King.
For Ada, though she was obviously more than fine with what she had accomplished. She had drawn a line in the sand of their hierarchy and he had found his side unprepared to cede to her demands.
“At least I do not have to wed someone of little value,” Rowenna said, restating what he already knew to be his lot. “I am so sorry, Raymond.”
“You do not love Rolland...” Raymond quizzed, his eyes sweeping significantly to Harland, who stiffened at the comment.
“I do love him.” Her eyes betrayed her.
Raymond nodded in understanding. “You are not in love.”
She gave a small nod in affirmation.
Ah! Raymond thought, star-crossed lovers.
Harland, a male of very little words, used them now. “I am not full-Band.”
“Savage,” Rowenna clarified for Raymond's benefit. The wheels of his mind turned smoothly as he hit upon what they had said.
Harland gave her a glance so full of heat that Raymond slid his gaze away; a look so full was not meant to be seen by others.
“We are not allowed to mate. I must take a Band of full blood,” Rowenna stated by rote.
“And how much 'blood' do you possess?” Raymond asked Harland, curious.
“I do not know for certain, but at least half.”
Rowenna swung her head to him. “Your mother was not a select but she participated in the Rite.”
“What is the Rite?” Raymond asked them.
“It is when a female who is select might manifest her blood in the circle of stones, the blood chooses.”
“Chooses whom?”
“Band.”
“If the males are not allowed to be included in the Rite unless they be full-Band then how do the male Savages... procure a mate?” Raymond asked, genuinely perplexed.
“Ye do not know?” Harland asked, incredulous.
Raymond arched his brows.
“Women are scarce Outside. There be mayhap one female for fifteen males.”
Raymond's jaw dropped. “Why might that be?”
Harland rolled his shoulders into shrug. “We do not know. However, most of the females that do survive have some blood of the Band running in their veins.”
Savage blood, Raymond concluded.
“It might afford some protection,” Rowenna stated speculatively.
“Indeed,” Raymond said then added, “It becomes curiouser and curiouser.”
They sat in a more comfortable silence for a few moments then Harland asked, “And what says this Time Keeper?”
Ah yes, that. “It appears that the Guardians might have lied by omission of the truth.”
“Aye, so shocking, that,” Harland quipped.
Raymond gave him a sharp look, his disquiet over the role of the Guardians deepening.
“They call them the Evil Ones in the mid-west,” Rowenna said.
Perhaps an apt identifier, Raymond mused.
“He has found sealed records from my ancestors who claim that they are men of science from a future which would have been ours had the rocks not fell.”
They all slid into silent contemplation at the thought of the natural disaster which had come before their births.
“That this entire event has brought us together is merely a ruse for them to garner some kind of...”
“Advancement?” Harland asked.
“Exactly, my Savage friend.”
“They think we are too daft to come to any conclusions on our own,” Rowenna said, her tone angry.
“Too true,” Raymond said, then looked significantly at the pair.
Harland's gaze sharpened at Raymond, then narrowed. “What do you propose sphere- Raymond,” he corrected and Raymond gave a small nod of acknowledgment.
Raymond took a deep breath, hoping he would not come to blows with Harland. “I propose you take my place; they will be none the wiser. If it is genetic diversity that they postulate will save our peoples, your mixed-blood should do nicely. If they have another motive in mind, then we shall foil it before they return to implement a plan we are not privy to.”
Harland and Rowenna gave an uneasy glance at each other.
Raymond raised his hands away from his body. “I mean no disrespect but you were a sobbing wreck the first time of our acquaintance because I was a strange man you would be forced to lay with because of the Guardians' directive. Now,” he drilled his eyes into the two of them, “I will travel here, under the guise of our union.” He watched Rowenna blush deeply and continued speaking, “I will not meet with you but instead satisfy my curiosity of the Outside.” His gaze swiveled to Harland, “And then you shall meet with Harland in secret.”
“What of Rolland?” Harland finally asked. “And what of the child? He or she would be mine,” Harland said in fierce possession.
“Ours,” Rowenna breathed out softly.
He nodded at her and Raymond sighed. “I must entertain that what the Time Keeper told me was of a supreme coincidence. That their appearance here was to truly save us from a miserable future. After all, they had done so before.” He looked at Rowenna with such seriousness that she flinched. “You cannot have the babe with Rolland, he is full Band, it defeats all of this.” His eyes came to rest once more on Harland. “It needs to be him.” He pointed a finger at Harland. “It be a contingency of sorts. If they be truthful, then the babe would fulfill its unique destiny, if it were falsehood, then we have avoided an event without free choice, yes?”
Rowenna remained uncharacteristically silent at the logic of his words.
“I might not stab Rolland in the back with an actual dagger but this proposal is very much the same,” Harland said.
Raymond nodded, he knew this: that some would be hurt for the benefit of the many. That was the way of it from his perspective. He was accustomed to sacrifice, all leaders who cared about the people they ruled over were. Perhaps they coul
d hurt a few less and gain the fulfillment of the prophecy if it be the truth. Raymond could not dismiss the logic of the spheres becoming a group of societies so cloistered they became incestuous not only genetically but in ways they could not imagine until it threatened their very lives.
He gave the ultimate push of his agenda. “Well then, Rowenna and I can fulfill the prophecy,” Raymond said with all the casualness of voice he could muster as his hand moved toward Rowenna.
Suddenly, Raymond found a dagger lay against the skin of his throat.
“Do not touch her,” Harland growled.
Raymond fought smiling, it could mean his imminent demise. “You accept then?” Raymond quizzed in a low squeak, ignoring with steadfast abandon his heart camped in his throat.
“Aye,” Harland said. He looked at Rowenna who stood frozen to the spot. “If she will have me.” Raymond heard a cautious hope in his voice. Harland had loved from afar. It was the voice of someone who had never dared to hope.
“I will,” Rowenna said, coming to them both.
It was Harland's arms that released Raymond and turning, he enfolded Rowenna. Raymond touched the tender but superficial wound at his throat and gave a wan smile.
For all the things he set to rights, so many wrongs might occur. Raymond could not foresee them all. But in this he was relieved. Perhaps not all was lost. And someone should know love.
Even if it were not he.
*
Raymond saw himself to the Pathway, their promises and the time of their next meeting singing in his ears. As he drew closer to the portal, the magnetic pull of the thing latched onto him and he no longer moved. Just as he winked out of existence, he thought he saw someone who was not Savage, but with skin so deep a brown, it was like a ripe nut in the late summer, with a hint of red underneath. The legends of old stole through his mind in an instant. He knew what human watched the wink of his disappearance in a pop and shimmer of iridescent light.
The Red Man... or what the people of old used to call Indians.
The Savage Principle Page 6
