“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 peop
les, 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 could 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 feathers on his head had trembled when he had uttered a cry. For battle or in alarm, Raymond would never know. What he did comprehend was that there were more than just Savages who roamed Outside.
It made him think again of the Guardians. It also caused his thoughts to land with a leaden weight on one word: premeditation. He felt much of what they were smacked of that.
*
“I am not comfortable, Harland,” Rowenna said softly. The very thing she had dreamed of being allowed to know, but for a moment in time was at hand. She was choking on the reality of it. She had not had sufficient time to mentally prepare for this. Rowenna was overwhelmed by nothing, yet in this, she was drowning in her own emotional soup.
Harland said nothing, making small circles on her forearm instead. Rowenna would have to decide. It would do no good to remind her that ten minutes past she had agreed with quiet decisiveness. Now that the event was here, she was choking up.
Finally, those petal-colored eyes rose and met his. So large in life and battle, she was a wee thing before him. Though she was not yet ten and six and he was ten and nine, there was a maturity within her that even if Rowenna did not recognize, Harland had.
He did.
Harland cupped her chin, stroking it softly. “You can refuse it.”
She dipped her forehead onto his chest and his hand rested on the back of her head. “Raymond is right, I love Rolland, he is a male of honor of the Band, However, my heart beats for only you.” Her eyes locked with his. “If I lay with you, and I love you,” he could hear the click of her throat as she swallowed over her nervousness, “then our child will be with Raymond, safe and unharmed. And someday I shall see he or she again.”
“What if the Travelers retaliate?” Harland asked softly.
“If we do this, they shall not be the wiser.”
Harland looked into her deep eyes, noting many things inside them. “I could never have shared you with anyone... had you been mine.”
Rowenna gazed at him for a time then finally said, “I am yours.”
They did not speak after her declaration. Instead the two of the clan walked hand in hand to the large bed that had been arranged for a union with a different male.
Harland took Rowenna in his arms and tucked her body in against his own, just holding her. He inhaled deeply of the scent that was uniquely hers, the sea and wildness captured.
Rowenna was lost the instant he touched her, the heat between them surely would have manifested during the Rite.
If he had been allowed to partake.
Rowenna shared her body with the male her heart had chosen long ago and he shared his soul with her, opening himself up, though he knew the consequence. He could never mate with Rowenna. He would be forever relegated to love her from afar.
Yet, in this stolen moment of time, they loved as if the morrow would not come, the sun would not rise, nor the moon.
Harland loved her now, consuming their time together like the precious gift it was. In the darkness of the cave his body showed her what no words he could have spoken ever could.
When their passion had quieted she lay within the cradle of his arms, their heartbeats and breath syncing in satisfying unity. “Thank you,” Rowenna said, her tears dampening his arm she had used as a pillow.
Harland turned Rowenna inside the crook of his arm. “It is I who should thank you.” His massive hands cradled her face gently, savoring her nearness, searching her eyes. “For you have shown me love, however brief.”
Rowenna pressed her fingers against his lips to silence words that would rob their time.
Then Harland held her as if she were the only solid thing in his world and Rowenna clung to him, never wanting their time to end.
Their love.
Chapter 7
Fate intercedes.
Raymond came.
Harland and Rowenna joined and... Rolland returned.
And with it, the sickness began with Rowenna and she knew, as all women do, that she was with child.
>
When her belly began to grow she and Raymond met in the glade where the yawning mouth of the tear in space and time hung suspended above them. The mighty pull was at their backs as Raymond made his solemn promise to return after the months prepared her for the birth of the child.
Rowenna mourned for she knew that each day she carried the child within her body... she loved it more.
Harland's eyes followed her, as did Rolland's, each for different reasons. Rolland's were suspicious yet he remained attentive. Harland could barely keep his feelings out of his expression, Rowenna's body swelling with their child, the proof of their forbidden love before him each day.
Then there were the rumors of another threat, making the entire Band edgy with barely contained unease. The Fragment were not the only danger.
The Clan of Cape Cod and that of the greater Massachusetts was nearly a generation away from a treaty with the Red Man. It would transpire but in these uncertain times, they were considered and enigmatic group of painted faces, stealth and an innate sense of the land that was almost bordering on latent witchcraft. They called to the earth with their traditions and she gave uncanny answers in return.
The pivotal battle that would ensue would cause an alliance. However, at this juncture the Band considered the lithe warriors with feather headdresses to bear watching. They tightened their security on the small amount of females with great concern.
Especially Rowenna, her belly swelling with a cargo all considered precious.
Though some made it known they thought less of her, even knowing of her sacrifice. Rowenna's day of birth celebration came and went, her unborn child the real celebration, checked before it began because she must give it up.
There was nothing to be done.
She was not the only female who was expecting. There was one other. At every opportunity she rubbed salt in Rowenna's wound of grief that it was she who was well and properly mated.
Her name was Beatrice. She had always hated Rowenna, disdain clear in her voice when she made jest of Rowenna's desire to fight with the Band as they grew up in the same tight circle of diminished female numbers.
The SAVAGE Series, Books 1-3: The Pearl Savage, The Savage Blood and The Savage Principle Page 61
