CHAPTER 36
Clara let tears of joy run down her face, the lacy handkerchief clutched in her hand already damp beyond use. She watched as Joseph gave a final kiss to Anna, their hand written vows uttered and put away. The Band stood split and at attention, perfectly equal on either side of the couple.
It was an historic event. The first Wedded Joining of clan-dwellers inside the sphere. It was also the first joining of one of the Band.
Not all the Band stood beside Joseph during the Wedded Joining.
Edwin, Matthew and Daniel flanked Clara. Her unlikely courtship continued with Edwin and Matthew, Daniel maneuvering for inclusion as well. It drove Clara mad. Rowenna stood as the only female beside Evelyn. Clara's mother looked resplendent in yards of lilac fabric, designed just for this occasion. Their eyes met and Clara watched as Rowenna's gaze shifted to Edwin and the pressure Clara was already feeling pressed harder upon her. Her tears of joy began to run as sadness. She had so many who placed their expectations upon her shoulders. Clara knew as she sat breathing, that someone would be devastated by the choices she must make.
And make them she must.
She could feel Matthew's eyes on her and sighed. He had said his patience was not limitless. That meant that one of the three may kill each other to force her choice. She could not marry one who was dead. Surely they had already contemplated that alternative.
Then there was the infiltration of the Travelers. Why had they incapacitated all, to take a piece of her flesh? The Timekeeper hypothesized they needed a sampling of her. But for what purpose? It had changed the way her protection was handled. Privacy was a thing of the past, she no longer walked the tunnel with Sarah. If the Travelers could appear at will, then she was no longer safe there. Key or no, she no longer owned her daily life. The threat of their appearance still lingering a month past their untimely visit.
The happy couple turned and faced the kingdom's people, which had bulged to a third more than before the massacre by the fragment. The people stood, their applause deafening against the soundproofing embrace of the sphere.
Rose petals were thrown from the aisle as they parted the sea of people in the middle, a rain of fragrant blossoms covering them both. Clara had never seen a woman as happy as Anna. She had come so far.
No longer abused, escaping her past and the violence therein, to an ending wrought with protection, joy and love.
*
A knock sounded and Clara said without looking up, “Enter.”
It was Bracus and she smiled in greeting. “Queen Clara...”
“We are alone, Bracus.”
“Clara,” he said, smiling.
She nodded and he continued, “We have assembled the Band.”
Clara sighed, she could not dissuade him from this pursuit but she would try one more time. “You are leaving everyone here without protection, even Rowenna.”
Bracus winced and scrubbed a hand over his face. Clara knew the card she dealt was quite underhanded but she thought this was a ridiculous thing to undertake.
“We need to kill them, Clara; force them to submit. Until Tucker is recovered he will be as Prince Frederic, an indefinite threat.”
It was Clara's turn to wince. It was true, the Prince had been very close to killing her. All due to the fact that he was not dispatched initially, then again. Daniel was on the side of Bracus. He foretold Tucker would not drop his plan to take over the sphere simply because it was difficult. He would gather more in number by absorbing smaller fragment to aid him. Clara did not think it wise. He could not penetrate the sphere, so what was the real danger? She told this to Bracus, yet again.
Bracus paced, finally halting in front of her window. “Do you remember when I first beheld you here?”
Clara nodded then realized he could not see her from behind. She came around to the side of him and he flinched when she touched him. She dropped her hand and the questions stood in her eyes.
“Do you not see? This is the only thing stopping the fragment from their violence,” he pushed his hand into the sphere, the wall giving with the pressure. He took his hand away and the print filled in as if it had never been. “What if it were no more?”
Clara shrugged a shoulder. “But it is. It has always been.”
He grasped her shoulders and stared intently in her eyes. “We are not enough to protect both the sphere and the clan. Do you understand if we subdue the fragment now, they can never be a threat?”
Clara moved out of his hold and he allowed it. There was something that was nagging at her. “Why such urgency, Bracus?” her eyes boring into his. She saw a flicker of something then it was gone. But she had seen it.
“Speak of which you keep from me.”
He sighed, walking away from the window. He turned to her, his immense size looming. “I have been speaking with Daniel.”
Clara rolled her eyes. Daniel was a man of truth but she felt he was a trifle paranoid.
“He does not speak falsely. Do you not remember when he was set to be executed?”
Clara nodded. She would never forget that day. That was the day she had righted an injustice.
“Do you think it is coincidence that the Evil Ones appear as they do now?”
Clara had wondered why these events had seemed to transpire with such precision. Her discovery after Ada's death about her true mother, the journey, her real heritage. That she was somehow the Key. The singular savior of the future. A future where humanity had been tampered with beyond repair. A future where humans were viable only because of her existence. It would be a heady thing for some. For Clara, it was another burden to reconcile.
“Yes, I have thought that. But I refuse to go into the mire of speculation. It is too profound to contemplate. It could be any number of reasons.”
“What if I were to tell you that the spheres themselves may be gone?”
Clara's brows furrowed. “What say you?”
“Tucker has knowledge of the Evil Ones.”
Clara nodded.
“Is it without possibility he has found a way, using their advancements to nullify the protection that your people have enjoyed for one hundred forty years past?”
“What has Daniel told you?”
Bracus paused then said, “He has said that Tucker's plan was always to overtake the sphere, that too soon it would disappear altogether and the impact of his leadership would not be as impressive.”
“Why... how... would our sphere be no more?”
Bracus came to Clara and cupped his huge hands around her shoulders. “It is the design of the Evil Ones to integrate the peoples.”
“Whom? The sphere-dweller and clan-dweller alike?”
He shook his hand and watched as she put the puzzle together. “The fragment?”
He nodded, his face weary and agonized.
She blanched. “We cannot! They are the most violent of people, placed here by the Guardians as they did not wish to police their own dregs!” She pulled away from Bracus and paced.
Whirling on him she said, “We will be without protection! It will be as the massacre, but much worse.”
“You see why I defend us by our preemptive strike.”
Clara's mind ran feverishly over everything that he said. “But for now, we are safe.”
“For now. But for how long? Daniel said that Tucker will work with the advancements that he is privy to until he finds one which is large enough to degrade the thing standing between himself and what he wants.”
“Which is?”
“The spheres. All.” His gaze never left hers.
“We shall not borrow the worry before it comes for us. Fine. Go and scout, try to subdue what fragment is near. But know this, if something were to come about in your absence, we are woefully unprepared.”
They stared at each other. “It is not by choice that I leave. I would not willfully leave Rowenna or you. However, if we do not act, they will.”
“What can they endeavor to do? They do not have the salt
of the sea to lather the sphere with.”
He shook his head. “No, they do not. We are very far inland and the Pathway is unusable for those without savage blood. They would not risk it.”
“Then they can do nothing,” she said with finality.
There was a knock on the door and Charles rushed in. There was an awkwardness as Charles took in what Clara knew looked like an intimate conversation. They had just begun speaking again but the rift remained wide.
“Queen Clara Bracus,” he said, barely able to contain his derision for Bracus.
“What is it?” Clara said, keeping a firm grip on her patience.
“There is a matter which you need to see.” Sweat beaded his upper lip and his garments were askew. Clara frowned. It was very unlike Charles to be flustered.
Bracus and she quickly followed him out.
The Band waited outside the Royal Manse along with Rowenna. Her eyes met Matthew's and his were grim. What in Guardian's name was happening?
They hurried to the sphere tunnel. The sentry on duty began to speak rapidly but Clara raised her hand to silence him. “I do not understand. You are saying that, there are stones in the wall?”
Clara looked above her head and saw stone-like dots, like the measles of her childhood, peppering the sphere. As she watched, more fell like rain, embedding themselves in the pillow like walls.
Charles looked at her. “We are under attack, Clara.”
Bewildered, she gazed Outside. Through the opaque wall she could see many people in the distance.
Graves in between.
Without turning away she said, “Guard. Fetch me the apparatus which magnifies.”
“Yes, my lady.”
The guard brought it to her and she placed it atop her head, holding it in place. Not bothering with the straps, she clicked the lenses in place and the people became large. They bore sling shots, pulling them back tautly.
The pebbles came at the sphere like flying plums. She handed the magnifier to Bracus. He passed it to each of the Band.
Daniel spoke, “It has begun.”
Clara turned on him. “If you know what is happening, please do not let us wallow in suspense,” she said without attempt to hide her anger.
“Tucker had said that he'd be leader of all. The spheres, eventually the clan,” he put his palm out, indicating the entire area. The Band grunted at the thought of one of the fragment commanding their territory. “If he were to fail, he had another plan to implement.”
Clara stepped closer. “You did not tell us because...?”
“I did not think Tucker would be successful. Many of the fragment's ranks have been killed. I didn't think he'd be able to replenish so quickly.”
The Band listened, suffering through some of his accent to make sense of his words.
“Let us attack them now, while they peck away at the sphere!” Maddoc said, pounding a fist into his open palm.
Bracus looked through the magnifier again. “Too many, even for our number here.”
Maddoc surged forward. “We can take them all. I know it!”
Clara put her hand upon his arm. “Do not, Brother.”
Daniel continued, “He didn't want to ruin what could be scavenged by destroying what allowed it to flourish. But now he will so he can take the spheres by force.”
Clara narrowed her eyes. “Spheres?”
He nodded. “He'll do this to all of them.”
“What does he do?” Matthew asked.
“Destroy. He's destroying them.”
Bracus walked over to where a stone sunk into the wall of the sphere.
Clara watched in horror as the stone burrowed deeper into the wall, its form becoming clearer as they watched.
The group looked above their heads and watched as the stones which the fragment had catapulted toward her home infiltrated the protection of the sphere.
They had looked black against the opaque milkiness of the sphere but as they fell around them, Clara bent to pick one up. Its crystalline form glowed duly in the ambient light.
Edwin crushed one under his heel and Maddoc crouched down, ducking a finger into the middle of the shard, the dust covering his hand. He put it to his mouth and drew his finger away.
He looked at Clara sharply. “Salt.”
Clara's stomach fell, she and Charles exchanged a pregnant glance of fear. She watched as small holes opened where the salt bullets had entered, disintegrating the wall of the sphere and landing all around their feet like poison rain.
“How long?” Clara asked Daniel.
“I don't know. Weeks... months. Maybe sooner.”
Clara and the Band watched as the destruction of the sphere began.
The End
The Savage Principle
Book Three of the Savage Series
by Tamara Rose Blodgett
The Savage Principle
Book Three of the Savage Series
by Tamara Rose Blodgett
Copyright © 2013 Tamara Rose Blodgett
http://tamararoseblodgett.blogspot.com
ISBN-13: 978-1482631630
ISBN-10: 1482631636
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
All rights are reserved. This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to a legitimate retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
For:
My principal girls: Beth, Dianne, Lori and my secret Beta
I love you guys~
Chapter 1
“Rowenna!” Adair called after her wayward daughter. She watched as the lithe form with plaited golden hair and dressed in a tightly bound warrior's tunic escaped more discussion of duties. Adair huffed an exasperated sigh and slowly let down the tarp that covered their summer dwelling. She would have Ronan speak with her again when he returned from his patrols with the Band.
Rowenna sprinted into the deepness of the woods, anything to escape the future obligation that she must bear on her young shoulders. When she reached the spot that none knew, she planted her back against the worn side of a great tree trunk, sank down on her haunches and bit her lip to keep from crying.
They could not ask this of her! All knew that the sphere-dwellers could not make a life in the Outside, that is why they dwelt in the hot dome of gases and odd clothes. Rowenna sighed, a hot tear swiped away before anyone should come upon her and take note of her sadness.
A twig snapped and Rowenna leapt to her feet, her dirk free and ready as a huge figure advanced.
She knew that walk, the movement of one of the Band, a grace which moved with contained power, the roiling energy came off him in waves.
Rolland. Rowenna smiled through her frustrated sadness and sheathed her dirk, moving forward to greet him.
“Rowenna,” Rolland said in greeting, his eyes scanning the surrounding woods, deep pockets of shadows lay like eyes who spied on them.
He did not like to see a young female select by herself in the woods, ready for the fragment or a rogue faction of Red Men to take a fancy to a lone female. They were too rare by far. Most males were above reproach. The fragment Rolland did not count as such. They would take any female who was not protected for trade with other scum such as they.
Rolland felt the frown form before he could stop it.
Rowenna pressed a finger to his lips, though she was a tall female she had to reach up to lay purchase.
“Do not say it, Rolland,” Rowenna implored softly.
He captured the f
inger that lay against his mouth and said the thing she liked to be reminded of the least, “You cannot run off beyond the confines of sanctuary the Band affords, Rowenna.”
Rowenna sighed, facing away from him; she was most tired of rules.
Finally, she turned.
Rolland saw the defeated set of her shoulders and instead of the lecture he had intended he asked instead, “What say you?” His eyes searched her face.
“I am shamed beyond what I can speak of,” Rowenna said, her eyes cast to the ground.
Where was the fierce lioness that he was accustomed to sparring with?
He strode forward, gently tilting her chin up until their gazes locked. Her eyes were the color of faded violets as they succumbed to the heat of summer.
In those eyes he saw despair and his fingers forced her chin in the position, not allowing her face to move. Rolland would get to the bottom of this. “What has happened?” His face darkened. Rolland would go to the ground for her.
“It is the Travelers.”
Rolland jerked his head back and his hand involuntarily dropped from her face. “I have not heard their name mentioned in some time...”
Rowenna gave a snort of disgust. “I have been chosen.”
Rolland looked at Rowenna in horror. No, not his betrothed, the one true mate for himself.
“It is as prophesied. That there be one of the select that shall be called upon to save us.”
“I do not believe it.”
“'Tis true, Rolland,” Rowenna said with the barest catch in her voice.
“I will not allow it!” he said, his hands curling into fists.
She came to him, touching the hardness of his chest and his features softened. His tightly bound inky hair lay against a neck thickened by the hard life of the Band and revealed a face that was almost hawkish in its features.
“They think to make you a whore... and for what?” he ground out, her hands captured in his. “So we might believe their promise of safety from the fragment?” he scoffed. “They are called the Travelers only in the east,” he stated, then added, “Our other clans have a more apt name for those who meddle in our lives. The Evil Ones.” Rolland wrapped her in his embrace. “They shall not have you.”
The SAVAGE Series, Books 1-3: The Pearl Savage, The Savage Blood and The Savage Principle Page 55
