Ambrosia

by Aaron Lee Yeager

  He scrambled away awkwardly, but she caught hold of the bandages at the stumps of his knees and reeled him in. Storgen pulled and crawled with his left hand, his bandages unraveling as he was yanked back.

  Erolina bayed and gnarled, foam forming at the corners of her lips as she squalled like a banshee.

  “Give me the key! Give me the KEYYYYYYY!”

  Fearing for his life, Storgen pulled a key out of his pocket and tossed it back. She released him, greedily snatching up the key and shoving it into the locks on her shackles.

  While she fidgeted, Storgen crawled back to his chair, dragging it along with him as he made his way towards the door. Only when he reached the far wall did he allow himself to look back.

  She was unrecognizable from the woman he knew. Her movements were jerky, her eyes twitchy. Her silver hair clung to her face in clingy thin strands. She made dry gulping sounds as she worked the key inside the lock, gasping hungrily and licking her lips.

  She turned the key hard, then even harder, but the lock did not release.

  “What is this?”

  She looked up, her eyes reflecting the moonlight like a hungry wolf. Around his neck, she saw a key dangling.

  “You gave me the wrong key!”

  She jumped and leapt against her shackles, stretching the links nearly to the breaking point.

  “Give me the real key! Give it to me NOW. Do you hear me, NOOOOOW!”

  She spat and snapped, releasing the most foul and obscene string of expletives Storgen had ever heard.

  Tears in his eyes, Storgen scooped up the broken shaft of the mop, and slowly wheeled himself back outside. When the door closed, she let out a blood-curdling howl that rocked the frame of the ship.

  Storgen listened to her scream for the next eighteen hours, until finally her body succumbed to exhaustion, and she lost consciousness.

  * * *

  On the dawn of the fifth day of the voyage, Erolina finally opened her eyes again. She felt something soft beneath her head, and realized that her head was resting in Storgen’s lap. He was watching over her, stroking her hair and softly humming to himself. It was soothing beyond words.

  Noticing her stirring, he looked down in concern. “How’s the pain?”

  She gasped for breath. “It’s bad…it’s pretty bad. But, not as bad as it was.”

  Reaching into his pack, he took out his cracked horn. “Here, we need to get some water in you.”

  He held it up to her lips, and she had trouble drinking it. Her mouth was numb with dryness, and most of it trickled down her chin and neck, creating a few clean trails through the filth that covered her.

  “Thank you,” she gagged. Her stomach had been empty for so long, she didn’t think she could take more than that without heaving.

  She lay back down onto his lap in exhaustion. Her wrists and ankles ached, the skin worn nearly away from days of struggle.

  “Let me know when you are ready for some food,” he said softly.

  Watching him look over her tenderly, she began to cry.

  “I’m sorry for what I said. All those terrible things. It just hurt so bad that I…I…”

  “It’s all right.”

  “They say that pain reveals your true self. Is that what I really am on the inside?”

  He placed his hand against her cheek. “It’s all right. That wasn’t you. That was the sickness talking.”

  She closed her eyes and pressed her cheek against his palm. In her heart, she knew she would fight a thousand wars just to feel his touch.

  “I’m sorry you had to see me like that,” she whispered, burying her face in his strong hand.

  “It’s all right. You don’t have to hide the untidy parts of yourself from me.”

  “I just feel so ashamed.”

  He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “Hey, I mean it. You don’t have to hide from me. I want the real you, warts and all.”

  “Warts? What do you mean? I don’t have warts.”

  “It’s just a saying.”

  She tried to understand past the pain throbbing in her skull. “It’s a strange saying. But I like it.”

  He leaned in to kiss her, but she turned her face away. “No, don’t kiss me, I’m disgusting.”

  He kissed her anyway. “I don’t care. I’m just so glad to have you back.”

  “I’m a broken woman, Storgen. Are you sure you want me?”

  He smiled solemnly and kissed her again. “Yes I do. I’m a broken man, Erolina. Are you sure you want me?”

  She rose her head and kissed him back. “Yes, I do.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t the most romantic of settings for a wedding. A creaking wooden ship instead of a temple, a salty sea captain instead of a priest, and a group of drunken sailors instead of wedding guests. But looking at his blushing bride across from him as he took her hand, Storgen could not have been happier.

  Erolina was beyond beautiful. Her eyes resplendent, her blushing cheeks radiant, her smile glorious. The pain and suffering of the recent past seemed to melt away under the bright sun of this moment, when two would become one.

  Storgen barely listened to the captain. He was lost in Erolina’s red eyes. It was like there existed inside of them a special place just for him. A sacred place that existed outside of time and space. A luminous sanctuary in which he found rest and strength. He knew in that moment that nowhere else in the world would he feel so at home as he did in her eyes.

  Erolina gave his hand a little squeeze, and he realized that the captain had stopped speaking. This was the part where he was supposed to say something, but he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to say.

  “Um, yes I do, absolutely!”

  Erolina burst out laughing.

  “What?”

  Erolina glanced over at the captain. “Could you repeat that last part again?”

  The captain coughed in irritation. “As I said, by the legal authority given to me by the Láchano shipping guild, I pronounce you legally bound to the contract of marriage. You may now kiss the bride.”

  Storgen laughed. “Oh, we’re at that part. Sorry.”

  Erolina placed her hand on his cheek. “Come here and kiss me, you.” She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him deeply under the setting sun.

  The sky above opened like a great dark eye. The black light it emanated rested down on the couple, revealing bands of glowing chains coiled around Erolina’s body. Invisible to the eye but felt by the soul, the chains reacted to Storgen’s feelings and vibrated wildly. From within the eye, a black serpent dripped free, slithering down through the air towards Storgen, making a bee-line for his heart.

  Erolina’s eyes shot open and she grabbed the crimson stone around Storgen’s neck. Tearing it free, she held it out before the coiling wisp. Red light filled the air, and the sailors all reacted to it, stumbling and falling to their knees.

  The black serpent squealed, its oily body boiling away into nothing.

  “What was that?” Storgen asked.

  Erolina sighed in relief. “That, was the curse of Raelyn.”

  Above in the air, the dark eye shook in anger, and the wound in the sky slowly closed away.

  Chapter Thirty Six

  What is meat to one can be poison to another. What is dreary to one can be exhilarating to another. What is mundane to one can be exceptional to another. The specifics of our lives are insignificant. What is monumentally important, however, is if they are a correct fit.

  Forget what others do. Follow the path that is nourishment to your body, that is exhilaration to your mind, that is exceptional to your soul, and that for you will be a path of joy.

  - Parable from the Holy Scrolls of Soeck, Fifth Binding, Eleventh Stanza

  Storgen could not recall ever having slept so pleasantly in his life. Cuddled up with Erolina in a cold pile of blankets in the corner of the cargo hold might as well have been the most luxurious bed on the most beautiful beach imaginable. A cloud of bliss drizzled
in pure joy and garnished with rapture. He wasn’t sure how long he slept, but he knew she got up first, because the loss of her presence invaded his sleep. The comfort and warmth of her body slowly draining away until he opened his eyes.

  After washing up, he pulled himself up the stairs, trying to ignore the looks of pity from the sailors that saw him. One thought to offer assistance, but a harsh glance from Storgen made him change his mind.

  Once he was on deck, Storgen pulled himself up into his wheeled chair and scooted over to the prow, where he found Erolina looking out into the distance. She was freshly washed, her armor polished, her weapons at her side. Her long silver hair flowing in the breeze, her deliciously curvy body leaning against the railing, her chocolaty skin soaking in the sun. When she reached up and tucked a strand of silver hair behind her ear, revealing the feminine curve of her neck, she was so ravishingly beautiful he wanted to sing out loud. He felt like the luckiest man who had ever lived. As he drew near, she didn’t look at him with pity, and that made him love her all the more.

  She blushed radiantly as she looked him over with hungry eyes. “Good morning, husband.”

  He gave her a playful slap on the butt. “Good morning, wife.”

  It made them so happy to say it, they both couldn’t resist a quick passionate kiss. That blossomed into a long passionate kiss. And that blossomed into a full-blown, ravishing kiss that made even some of the sailors look away.

  When the passionate flame finally died down to a simmer, she looked lovingly into his eyes. “You were amazing last night.”

  “Thank you.”

  “No, I mean it. I’m not trying to stroke your ego or anything. I’ve been with many men, and they all pale in comparison to you. Every. Single. One.”

  “I’m not sure I like hearing my wife say that first part. And the second part only partially makes up for it.”

  “But, it’s true. You were always so prudish, I thought you’d be tame and timid in bed. But, by the gods was I wrong.”

  “Well, I am a man, after all. It’s not like I wasn’t always super-attracted to you. I desperately wanted to sleep with you; we just had to get married first.”

  “Well, you must have a will made from solid steel if you were holding back that much passion. Raelyn’s teeth, I think you made me scream so loud I shook the sails.”

  “You know, if you keep flattering me like this, it’s going to make me very happy.”

  “I’m not flattering you, I am merely stating the objective facts. But it does please me that my words make you happy.”

  A thought occurred to her, and she placed her hands on her hips. “In fact, you may have been a little too good. Are you sure you’re really a virgin?”

  “Well, I mean, NOW I’m not, but last night I was.”

  Her lips curved into a sultry smile. “Well, then, if you’ve got that much natural talent, I can only shudder to imagine what you’ll be capable of once we get you trained up.”

  “More training?”

  “Yes, but this is the fun kind,” she said with a smoldering wink.

  Storgen could not help but smile. Erolina just oozed sex appeal, but it was her heart that made him love her the most.

  “Still, a quick marriage on the deck of a creaky ship by a salty captain surrounded by drunken sailors wasn’t exactly romantic.”

  Erolina snickered. “Listen to you, still prattling on like some frilly raving poet.”

  She placed her hand on top of his. “It’s one of the things I love about you.”

  “Land Ho!” the boson called out.

  A heavily fortified island pierced through the mist. Scarred stone cliffs as washed out as the fog, the grey of one bleeding into the other in a ghostly way, as if one were viewing a dream rather than a real place. Frigid crumbling battlements formed the skyline, slumping structures pockmarked with wounds of cannon fire. Faded banners hung limply in the cold evening air, and decomposing catapults lay like lumps of moss atop the bastions. Few amazons manned the curtain walls, a few rusted helmets poking out between the crenels of the merlons.

  Storgen squinted in the weak light. “What is this place?”

  Erolina lowered her eyes. “This is my homeland.”

  “But, I thought Themyskira was…”

  “Yes, we go to great lengths to make it sound invulnerable. Reputation has been our shield for so long, even we have begun to believe our own lies.”

  The rest of the squadron dropped sail and waited in neutral waters. Only the lead ship approached the shoreline. As they drew near, a group of amazons gathered to meet them. Most were shockingly young, barely in their teens, wearing ill-fitting armor and carrying weapons weighted for someone twice their age. A few scarred and grizzled veterans were scattered throughout, but they only made the others seem even younger. This was no army, this was the skeletal form of an army.

  Storgen couldn’t believe what he was seeing. “What happened here?”

  “The war with the centaurs left us a third rate power. We lost nearly our entire invasion force during the fighting. We’ve been scraping by ever since.”

  She looked out over the dirty, gaunt faces, the rusted spear tips, the lean limbs. “Maybe Krýo is right. Maybe the amazons do deserve to die. And I’m not just talking about betraying the forest nymphs. Our entire history is one of arrogant aggression. We always attack before we are ready, we always bite off more than we can chew, we always pick a foe that is beyond our means. It makes us unpredictable and dangerous, it earns us victories through surprise, but that’s not the same things as being wise.”

  Erolina balled her fists. “You were right, Storgen, we don’t stand on our own. We steal and enslave everything around us. We have to travel just to find men to breed with. The truth is, without all the other nations around us, we wouldn’t last a month.”

  Her eyes began to grow moist. “We’re parasites.”

  Storgen put his hand around her waist and pulled her in close. She drew comfort from his touch.

  The sailors grew nervous as the ship slipped aground. Already, amazons were preparing their bows and drawing their swords. Chief among them was a young huntress in her mid-teens. Her dark skin and strawberry blonde hair made her stand out from the rest.

  “Halt!” she said in a commanding voice. “You will be boarded, your cargo confiscated, your men enslaved.”

  Erolina’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Apollonia.”

  “How…how do you know my name?”

  “I come in peace.”

  Apollonia stepped back as Erolina jumped off the prow and landed on the shore. “Who are you?”

  An old amazon stepped forward, leaning on her spear as if it were a cane. Her eyes were covered with a worn bandage, burn scars poking out from beneath. “She is Erolina, daughter of Erotas. I’d know her voice anywhere.”

  Erolina’s eyes became bright. “Rodania!”

  She stepped forward and the two embraced. “It is good to see you.”

  “It is good to hear you, my princess.”

  Erolina looked sadly at the bandages. “What happened?”

  “It’s nothing.”

  “Did she do this to you?”

  “She kept me around as a warning to others.”

  Erolina was crushed. “I am so sorry, Rodania.”

  The ease with which Erolina said it shocked even the old huntress. “D-don’t be, my princess.”

  Erolina leaned in close. “I’m getting you out of here. Do you know where the Book of Katálixi is kept?”

  While Erolina and Rodania whispered to one another, the younger amazons all looked at one another in dismay.

  “It’s her,” one said, “the traitor princess.”

  “The one who was banished?”

  “That’s Apollonia’s mother?”

  Apollonia bristled visibly and pulled Erolina and Rodania apart. “You were banished under pain of death. Since you have returned, I can only assume it is to earn a warrior’s death.”

  Ero
lina furrowed her brow. “I didn’t come here to fight you.”

  Apollonia gripped her sword tighter. “But the fight is upon you, heretic! Prepare to die!”

  Apollonia stepped forward and thrust her sword, but Erolina had already raised her hand, and the blade slid harmlessly along her gauntlet, turning away as to miss her. Apollonia recovered and thrust again, but Erolina slapped the tip, and it passed alongside her head without connecting.

  Gritting her teeth, Apollonia released a flurry of attacks, her sword a blur that Storgen could barely follow, but each time her blade was effortlessly turned aside. It was as if Erolina had a bubble of steel protecting her. Sparks flew and metal clanged, a storm of iron whirling around Erolina as she stood there calmly.

  Apollonia pulled back, breathing hard. “Stop toying with me!”

  “You fight with too much anger. Settle your heart and your sword will be steady.”

  “Don’t you DARE try to instruct me.”

  “But, I am your…”

  Apollonia blew a loose strand of hair away from her face. “You are nothing to me! I am the granddaughter of Queen Erotas. Heir to the throne. I don’t know you.”

  Erolina stepped back, visibly hurt.

  “You are wrong to treat her this way,” Storgen said.

  All the amazons turned to glare at Storgen as he used a pulley to lower his wheeled chair down to the beach. “She has truly suffered much and born much sorrow in order to be here and warn you of the coming storm.”

  Apollonia drew her bow. “You will not speak in a woman’s presence.”

  She loosed her arrow. The bolt struck out towards Storgen’s head. At the last second, Erolina held out her armored gauntlet and deflected the shot away. “You will not harm him.”

  The amazons were confused to see her defend a man.

  Apollonia scoffed. “What? Did you bring him as tribute? A crippled breeder is not very valuable.”

  “He is not crippled. Those are war wounds, born in the fire of battle. A tribute to courage etched in his flesh. The man before you was champion to the goddess Ambera.”