He pointed into a distant grove of apple trees when Bernadette slowed. They had gotten so far without her. Perhaps they could climb the trees, stay out of reach. Tom would have his bow. He could shoot at them. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she didn’t get there in time.
“Slow down, Birdie!” Adam shouted.
She was trying, but she wasn’t very good at that part. They were close enough that she could hear the boys shouting. They were afraid. Bernadette no longer cared about the impact she would make with a full stop. She slammed both feet on the ground. The wolves around her startled as the ground cracked beneath her.
#
In the campfire light, she could see seven wolves. They had the boys huddled in a group with sticks. Tom was holding out his bow like a stick. He must have run out of arrows. The closest wolf to her was so startled that it tried to snap at her. It was an old, grey thing with shaggy hair and great, big paws. Its enormous teeth gnawed at her in answer to her challenge, but she didn’t give it a second thought. Bernadette kicked the beast so hard that its bones broke, and its organs ruptured. It died on the spot.
That got the rest of the pack’s attention. Three of the wolves fled but the remaining three charged Bernadette. They flanked her while she still held the two littlest boys. Her only concern was for the boys. She didn’t want the wolves biting at the children. One was especially troublesome. It was missing part of an ear and the saliva foamed around its mouth.
The scared one came at her first. It jumped up on its hind legs, standing at her height. Bernadette was without arms to protect herself. Left with no option, Bernadette bashed the wolf’s head with hers. The boys screamed as her head made contact with the wolf’s maw, but her skin was resilient to the wolf’s teeth. She closed her eyes and felt its teeth on her temple and cheek, but she also heard the animal’s jaw crack.
Before the body could fall, the second wolf was at her throat. Bernadette had no choice but to set the boys down as the wolf shook his head wildly to tear at her neck. The third wolf latched onto her shoulder fiercely, but they couldn't puncture her skin. She looked over and saw the boys were in a mixture of awe and fear.
Bernadette could feel the wolf’s slobber running down her neck and shoulder. The beasts had firm grips on her. If she tried to hit them, they might succeed in scratching her skin. It was resilient, but not impenetrable, and once it was cracked or torn, it may never heal.
She decided the best course of action was to poke its eyes. Not too hard, just enough to frighten it. Bernadette did just that. The wolf yelped but did not release its jaw. With no other option, Bernadette grabbed its upper jaw with one hand and the lower with the other and pulled.
The resistance of the wolf maw on her shoulder loosened as she lifted her arm. The animal had no choice but to let go as its teeth scraped harmlessly against her skin. The wolf around her neck was not so fortunate. Bernadette couldn’t look at the boys when she heard the snapping noise. Did they think she was a monster? She felt like one at that moment.
The third wolf received a punch to the head. It was swift and less grotesque than the others. Its body fell to the ground with a soft thud. Bernadette didn’t need to see the animal to know it wasn’t breathing. She felt its skull give way to her knuckles, but all that remained was a red gash on its head and some bloodied fur.
She opened her mouth to ask if the boys were all right, but she let out a gasp instead and the boys ran to her. “Is everyone all right?” she asked.
“We’re fine,” Otto said. “We’re okay now.”
“They followed us shortly after we split from you. We thought we could lose them, but they were just as hungry as we are.”
Bernadette nodded and held each boy for a few moments before finding another one to hug and investigate. “Winter came so fast. There’s nothing here to eat anymore. Everything is hibernating or moved on.”
“What’s hibernating?” Adam asked.
“I’ll explain as we go,” she said. “But we must make for the Mármaros. Even if you don’t come with me, beyond the palace is still going to hold more remnants of the previous seasons.”
“We’re not leaving you again,” Jon promised. Otto nodded in agreement.
“I’m sorry, Birdie,” Tom said.
“Don’t be,” she told them, looking at Otto while she hugged Tom. “You were trying to protect yourselves. I don’t blame you.”
Tom looked over at the pile of wolves dead on the ground. “It’s a shame we can’t do anything with those furs.”
“We don’t have time,” Bernadette said. “If we are to make it to the Mármaros before the moon rises in the day, we must run.”
“You go ahead of us,” Otto said. “We’ll keep the little ones with us and meet you there.”
Bernadette was reluctant to leave them. She looked at the wolves and clenched her jaw.
“If you’re going to the Mármaros, I’d rather it be with Alexi than with a pack of boys,” Otto said. “We will follow behind as fast as possible. Just go.”
She nodded, but before she left, she gave each boy a hug and a kiss. When she got to Otto, she held him most tightly. “Promise you will hurry.”
“We will. Now go.”
Bernadette ran. She ran through the night as the smaller moon moved through the sky and the stars twinkled from afar. There was no sign of the greater moon. It was preparing for its daytime debut, that Bernadette knew. She hated leaving the boys, but she was much faster without them, and the time she took to find them meant that time apart was cut short.
#
The dawn chased Bernadette through the woods and rolling hills. She felt hunger and fear but couldn’t stop to deliberate or find food. The chill of the night was long gone from her skin. When she ran, Bernadette’s body contained more heat and her skin became more elastic.
Despite her speed, the sun eventually won and beat her to the other side of the world. As it set beneath the cliffs, Bernadette was forced to slow down. There was a trail that she could safely navigate down Alexi had revealed it to her in one of her dreams but seeing was different than being shown.
The twilight didn’t make things any easier. Alexi had shown her when it was snowing, and it was probably from his memory from who knows how long ago. Panic welled inside her as Bernadette searched the cliffs looking for the trail. She remembered she could see her bedroom from where she stood in the dream.
Bernadette found that there was only one angle, at the far end of the cliffs, from which she could see her tower. She pushed aside some dead overgrowth and found the way down. Taking a deep breath, Bernadette descended and reminded herself to go slow. She needed to go at a steady pace despite the urgency in her mind screaming at her to run.
It took most of the night to get down the trail. Between the darkness and the steep slopes, she struggled to maintain her balance on the uneven ground. The dawn of the third day was rising and Bernadette could see the small moon rising to the right of the alpha moon.
Bernadette gasped at how close it felt. She had never seen it so large. It rose above the horizon, inhabiting nearly a third of the sky. She could see every crater and scar. From this proximity, she could see a jagged chunk missing from the orb. That must have been from the meteor that knocked it off its axis.
She didn’t have much time left. Bernadette took off towards the Mármaros that stood on the edge of the sea. Bernadette looked everywhere for Alexi, but there was still no sign of him. As she drew closer, Bernadette noted there was a group of elders in the fields just outside the Mármaros. She could see Xavier’s black skin shining in the sun and the elder Rufus shaking his head.
Slowing down to a trot, Bernadette rounded the far side of the Mármaros to remain unseen. She didn’t need to strain to hear them. They spoke so loudly, unaware of any presence outside their own. She placed her hands on the great marble, still cooled from the night.
“The last of the crop was picked,” Xavier said. “Are we sure it was stolen?”
“Only five servants are permitted to tend to them, but several said a girl with orange hair in a strange blue robe took them.”
“Strange,” Xavier mused with his hands behind his back.
The group went towards the back of the Mármaros to investigate the storehouse, no doubt. Bernadette took this as an opportunity to walk through the high wooden doors of the Mármaros. When they were combined, the doors created one large arch. The runes were etched into the marble on each side, the only adornments that could be found here.
Bernadette pulled the heavy knobs of the doors open as if she were brushing aside a wispy tree branch. The doors swung open to display the grand entryway—only now she didn’t feel it was so magnificent. In comparison to the rest of the world, it was quite small and narrow. She wasted no time in opening the door to the council room to find Thius with a servant.
He looked surprised to see her, but the girl looked terrified. She sat up and quickly scurried away half-dressed. Bernadette paid her no mind as she ran past her to get out of the only entrance in the room. “Bernadette,” he said. His eyes trailed down to her stomach and he looked away as if she had somehow betrayed him. “I had hoped you would come home on your own. Perhaps not in this circumstance.” He stood up and extended his arms grandly “I’m sure we can come to some arrangement. Your baby will be safe here. You have my word.”
“It will never work, Thius,” Bernadette said gently. “I cannot give you a child.”
Thius’s face twisted in anger. He struggled to regain his composure to find the advantage, but there was none. “You regained your memories,” he said.
Bernadette nodded. “All of them.”
At this, Thius sat down in the marble chair. Bernadette decided to let him digest what he had learned. Alerted to her presence, the servants seemingly rounded up the councilmembers that were just outside and brought them in through the back. “Bernadette,” Xavier greeted. They were all staring at her full belly in dismay.
“It seems we need to talk,” she said. “To the council room, please.”
In truth, Bernadette was stalling for time. She hoped Alexi would arrive soon, but he hadn’t. As the council shuffled into the council room, she kept an eye on the front door. Alexi was nowhere to be seen. She was growing nervous. The councilmembers were all seated and awaiting her arrival. With one last glance at the open front door, Bernadette entered the council chamber.
Thius’s eyes darted around with aggravation as he sat in the marble chair—her chair. She would have to deal with that later. She stood at the end of the table opposite Thius. Looking around the room, she felt sad and tired. She closed her eyes for a moment and swallowed back her tears.
“I remember everything,” she said.
All the councilmembers turn their heads to face her. They looked to Thius for confirmation, but she wasn’t having it. “I know now that you’ve been poisoning my mind to strip me of my memory for your designs. I am disappointed, but I am partly to blame,” she said as evenly as she could manage.
“I never told you the full story. We never told you the full story because we were ashamed. I cannot have your children. All of you are sterile.”
“That’s not possible,” Thius scoffed.
“How many servants have you dallied with, Thius?” she asked. “I know you’re not alone in this, yet none of you have conceived with a servant. The servants can conceive children without issue. Did you never consider that?”
“You’re lying,” Thius hissed.
“I wish I were. The truth is that this race was doomed from the beginning. I am the daughter of the Mármaros. I was born of this marble. So was my brother, my mate. We did not know we were or what we were doing. We only knew we were alone in this world. We made this palace and we made all of you. Our first several children realized they could not reproduce. The second generation of children confirmed it. Our children would be barren. You would all pay the price for our sins.”
Mutters fell around the room in hushed tones. Bernadette stared at the cracks in the table to focus on anything but crying. The first few contractions jolted her stomach. She knew the baby would come. She hoped she could hold off until Alexi arrived. The boys were at a safe distance in case anything went wrong.
“I think you’re lying, mother,” Thius said at last. “I think you’re angry that we lied to you for so long and are looking to punish your disobedient children. We deserve the right to live as a race. We deserve what you’ve withheld from us but give to the others.” He was motioning to her stomach now.
“The jungle people you’ve enslaved have shorter lives but are no way inferior to you. No matter what you do to me, they shall live on to inherit this world long after you’re gone.”
“You made them,” Thius shouted. “With him! Bastards, all of them.”
Bernadette saw this for what it was, a jealous tantrum from an older child who disliked their stepfather and resented the new children born into the same family. “Like it or not, they are my children, my great-grandchildren, and so on. By this logic, this, too, is your half-sibling,” Bernadette said, indicating the baby inside her.
“We deserved better,” Thius repeated.
It was a long time ago when Bernadette first left her brother for Alexi. They shared several children. When the meteor hit, Alexi had all but vanished, and when he did come back, his visits became seldom and far between. Bernadette had had enough and went back to the Mármaros and her brother with several children in tow.
It wasn’t long after that when Alexi came back. He was waiting along the cove outside her tower, basking in the moonlight just as irresistible to her then as he was nine months ago. Bernadette ran out to meet him and they became lovers once more. When daylight came, Alexi was gone again, leaving her alone. She had no choice but to return with more children to the Mármaros.
Not long after, the children she had with her brother discovered the plant that wiped her memory. They told her she was their child as a ruse to get her to conceive more of their own instead of the fast-growing population that developed from her affair with Alexi. Each time Alexi would find her, try to explain to her what was happening, it would never work.
Instead, he would pretend that each encounter they had was new because, for her, it was. Alexi seduced her countless times. Her marble children grew more rigid and more determined, only to return to the Mármaros as marble statues.
For their safety, when Alexi found her, he kept the children away from her so her people wouldn’t steal them away to the Mármaros and force them into slavery.
Bernadette’s fists bawled so hard she couldn’t undo them. She slammed them onto the table and cried out, “I’ll never forgive any of you for what you’ve done to me. You don’t deserve anything more from me.”
She marched from the room, muffling her sobs with her hand. They knew now.
She turned to see a few servants gathered outside the council door. They fell to their knees when she looked at them. “You, too, come from the daughter of the Mármaros. You’re not lesser and you are not servants. You will obey them no more.”
They were praising her, uttering their devotion and other such nonsense. “Leave,” she told them.
The servants ran through the halls, yelling about freedom. “The Goddess has returned! The queen has returned!”
Chapter Nineteen
Bernadette stood in the center of the entryway and watched the snow fall from the sky. It frightened her to think the boys were still out there. Alexi was still nowhere in sight.
She felt a hand grasp her firmly on her arm. Bernadette turned to see Thius. “Sorry, mother, but I’m afraid I cannot let you free the servants.”
He tried to punch her then, but she was much faster. Bernadette dodged most of the blow, though the force to her shoulder made her roll back and shout in pain. She swiped at him harmlessly as he leveraged her arm to maintain his distance. She struggled against him, fighting not just for her life but for the lives of the others.
“Let me go. It’s too late. They have fled.”
“You don’t have the authority.”
“Bernadette!” Alexi screamed.
She turned to see him standing outside the Mármaros. The snow was all along the ground now. Alexi was wearing furs and a sword on his back. He had come ready to fight if needed. Alexi ran straight for her, shouting her name.
Bernadette tried to struggle free from Thius, but he had her firmly with both hands. “Come and get her, you savage!” Thius said.
Alexi got as far as the doorway before being stopped by an invisible force. He jolted and convulsed as though he were struck by lightning before falling back into the snow. Something had stopped him in the doorway. “No!” she shouted.
Thius released her, and she ran to Alexi’s lifeless body. The snow fell all around them. It was already starting to cover her lover’s body. Bernadette looked up in confusion while Thius smiled. “You may have your memories back, but you’re not all-knowing. He has a weakness. Father knew this. It’s the runes kept him out of the Mármaros all this time.”
Bernadette snarled at him. Thius laughed and turned away. “You can’t live alone, not in the winter. Come back inside when you’re done. We’ve got matters to discuss. It involves all your bastards.”
Bernadette bit her lip and looked to the sky as she tried not to cry. Everything had gone wrong. The only thing she did right was leaving Gabe and Adam with the other boys. Her stomach contracted again, and she breathed with the pain.
There were servants outside watching from around the corner. They were all holding tools. They must have been tending to the last of the gardening. Did they feel sympathy for her or because they knew what it meant for them? She suspected the former since word probably hadn’t traveled that fast. They were kind people. At least she had managed that much.
Bernadette looked down at Alexi’s corpse and didn’t like the way it stared at the sky. It reminded her of Adam’s dream.
She placed a hand over his eyes to close them, except when she did, her hand went right through the body. Bernadette yelped in surprise. It was just an illusion. Alexi wasn’t dead at all. He was waiting for her.
Daughter of the Mármaros Page 14
