Silence: Part Two of Echoes & Silence

by Am Hudson

David shoved both hands into the grass and stood up, a haunted look in his eye. “No.”

  “What do you mean ‘No’?”

  “Look what it’s done to you—” He motioned to my tears. “Don’t visit that memory. Ever. Leave it in the past.”

  “But I have to show you, or else Lilith—”

  “Then deny her help, Ara.” He backed away. “I don’t want to know what happened—I don’t want to see.”

  “Too bad,” I yelled. “No more secrets. I can’t have any more secrets.” I balled my fists and flashed right back to the moment Arthur slid his finger inside me.

  David had no choice. He saw it—felt it, felt everything as if he were me, and it ripped right through him.

  He jolted back and then folded quickly in half just as a pile of vomit hit the grass.

  “Oh God.” I moved my feet back. “David. I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

  “Just don’t, okay?” He backed away, covering his mouth with his wrist. “Don’t.”

  “David, I—”

  “Please!” He tripped sideways, holding one hand up as a warning, and without looking at me, stumbled away like a drunkard.

  I made myself small, hugging my knee, and watched until the horizon ate him up, while the guilt and shame consumed me.

  “Are you happy now?” I said, when a blue bird landed in the tree.

  “That’s all I needed to know.” Her voice entered my thoughts. “Come see me at dawn.”

  ***

  It’s where I would’ve gone, if I were him. I could feel his energy radiating from the lighthouse, but it wasn’t where he’d been all afternoon. As the sun set on a cold night and the scent of smoke thickened the air, I stood on the balcony outside my room, scanning the hillsides for any sign of him—sent my knights out to look under every rock, but no one had reported back yet. It was all okay now, though. I was pretty sure that warm tingle on the lighthouse was him.

  “Ara?”

  I turned my head and looked back at Falcon, leaning on the balcony door, arms folded casually across his chest.

  “Hey,” I said. “I found him.”

  “Have you spoken to him?” he asked.

  “Not yet.” I shook my head. “But I can feel him—he’s on the lighthouse.”

  “I know.”

  “Oh. You do?”

  “Yes.” Falcon lowered his arms and walked over to me, bracing his hands on the marble ledge before continuing. “I spoke to him about ten minutes ago.”

  “Where? What did he say? Did he—”

  “He’s been down at the Training Hall.”

  “I thought you looked there! I thought—”

  “Well, I guess we looked at the wrong time. But I found him, so stop worrying.”

  “So he’s okay?” I toyed with my Tree of Life talisman. “He just went down there and slammed it all out on a punching bag?”

  “Something like that.” Falcon’s mouth twitched, trying to retain a grin.

  “What?”

  “He uh…” he started, then stopped and shook his head at me. “What exactly did you show him today, Ara?”

  “Only what I already told you about: the Arthur…”

  “Thing.”

  “Yes.” I cleared my throat.

  He buried his face in both hands for a second, exhaling. “I still can’t believe it. How did you keep that from us all this time?”

  I shrugged.

  “And you say he didn’t actually… that you didn’t…”

  “No. We didn’t have sex.”

  “Then… I just don’t understand what David’s so mad about. So you nearly had sex with his uncle, but all he did was undress you. So what?”

  I shrunk a little. “I kind of maybe didn’t really tell you the whole story.”

  His brown eyes were usually always warm and kind, but when they went cold, it was in stark contrast to the norm. “You let me, and my knights, go after The Mad King without the full story?”

  My teeth showed in an apologetic grin. “You wanna see what I showed him?”

  “Honestly? Not really—not considering how mad it made David. But.” He clicked his tongue and shook his head in annoyance. “I probably should. At least so I know which version of David I’m up against.”

  “Up against?”

  He touched my upper arm. “Just show me.”

  “Okay. But… don’t blame me if you throw up.” I shut my eyes and thought back to that moment, feeling my own stomach twist and knot as I relived it. Falcon knew almost everything about what happened in that Training Hall with Arthur, but he sure as hell could never have imagined just how awful it was. Until now.

  He trembled slightly, opening his eyes, and as he cupped his hand to his mouth, I thought for a moment that he’d react like David had. “That explains why His Royal Insaneness ripped up the floorboards.”

  “He did what!”

  “I saw him heading into the Training Hall—figured I’d stay back when I noticed he was mumbling to himself like a madman. After that I caught up with the others to say everything was fine and set them to different tasks, and when I went back down to the Training Hall…” His eyes drifted to a very black cloud of smoke wafting out toward the lighthouse, almost invisible against the night sky.

  My mouth popped and I leaned over the railing to get a better look. “What’d he do?”

  “Smashed some mirrors. Ripped up the floor where you’d obviously been laying with Arthur and then…” He laughed into a fist.

  “Then?” The suspense was killing me.

  “He set fire to it—the entire hall.” He clicked his fingers. “Gone. Up in smoke.”

  “He didn’t get burnt, did he?” I grabbed Falcon’s forearm tightly.

  “No.” He unclenched my fingers from his skin. “He’s fine. But he muttered something about hunting Arthur down as he left.”

  “But Arthur’s not here,” I said, for some reason not feeling relieved. “He drove my dad into town a few hours ago.”

  “Why?”

  “Sam needs Petey,” I explained. “He’s not coping so well right now, and he’s started skipping school and being a turd.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Sam.” Falcon’s eyes drifted away to distant thoughts, then he shook it off. “Any idea what time Arthur’ll be back?”

  I hugged my arms and looked back out toward the lighthouse. “Let’s just hope it’s not until David’s calmed down a little.”

  “Ara.” Falcon laid his hand to my shoulder blade. “I know you probably think you should have left this buried, but you did the right thing telling him.”

  “I’m not so sure about that.” I flicked my thumbnail over my middle finger anxiously. “He hates me now.”

  “Hates you?” Falcon balked. “What makes you think he hates you?”

  “He burned the damn Training Hall down, Fal.” I pointed to the puff of smoke.

  “Ara, that’s not because he hates you.” His voice pitched as high as a schoolgirl’s. “He hates his uncle—the man who practically raised him, was like a father to him, who then turned around and molested his wife.”

  My cheeks flushed with heat. “He didn’t molest me.”

  “That’s not how David sees it.” He leaned his elbows on the railing. “You were so innocent back then, Ara—so young and such a sweet, untainted little thing. David feels like Arthur should’ve protected you from wiser men like himself.”

  “He just doesn’t understand what led us to that point.”

  “And he doesn’t care. And nothing you ever say will make him care.”

  “How do you know? He might—”

  “Because, as we stood there watching the Lamia Fire Brigade douse the flames, he told me that.”

  “What else did he say?”

  “A lot, but not much that made sense to me until I actually saw what Arthur did to you.”

  “Does he… is he really not mad with me?”

  He shook his head slowly, his eyes warm and full of sympathy
. “No. He’s heartbroken for you.”

  I pressed tightly on my chest to keep my heart inside.

  “And he blames himself—for not being there to protect you from his uncle.”

  “He did warn me, before I left my house, that Arthur might be after… something more.”

  “Yes, but, if he knew you at all back then, he’d have known that a warning wouldn’t protect you. That was his job.”

  “It’s not his fault.” I looked out at the smoke, going white now against the dark sky. “How come he didn’t freak out like this when I told him about Jason?”

  “Very different set of circumstances.”

  “How so?”

  “He and Jason spent their lives teasing and taunting each other—doing things to hurt each other. It was no surprise what Jason did with you. But his uncle…” He shook his head, his teeth tight behind his lips. “Like I said, Arthur was a father, an elder, a man David always respected. One of the only men David respected. For him, especially being so old, to convince a very young, very innocent girl to undress and let him touch her that way… it was a sick thing to do. And David’s in shock, that’s all. He just never thought his uncle was capable of such a sin.”

  “It’s not like I’m a child, Falcon. I—”

  “You were. And you always have been to Arthur. There’s no denying it, Ara—” He turned his head to the side and looked at me. “He manipulated you. And you were defenceless. Far as any of us are concerned, he is a sick old man just for getting you naked. He’s hurt David pretty bad and I know he’s also just angry and feeling very betrayed right now.”

  I rubbed my face firmly. I just wanted to go find him and hug him and tell him I was so so sorry. “You best call Arthur—tell him to stay away from here tonight,” I said.

  Falcon’s big bulky shoulders moved down as he exhaled. “I’ll go call him now. Although, after what you just showed me, I’d rather see the dirty old bastard get his head kicked in.”

  As he walked away, I leaned my back against the balcony ledge, watching him, trying again to feel the tingle of David’s energy under the thin autumn air. But I couldn’t feel it where it was before, as if he’d—

  “Ara!” Falcon darted back into my room.

  “What?”

  “There’s a car coming up the drive.” He jerked his head to the windows behind him in the corridor outside my room. “Might be Arthur. Get down there and warn him while I try’n find David.”

  With the speed of a vampire, I charged back in through my room, leaped over the bed in one jump and flew out into the corridor, running to the stairs faster than I’d run before. I slowed at the corner and bounced over two steps at a time, throwing the double front doors open when I reached them.

  “Arthur!” I passed the water fountain quickly and met his headlights with a jolt and a spray of tiny cream pebbles. The handbrake jerked into place loudly, bringing the car to rest, the lights blinding me as a man opened the door and stepped out.

  “Amara. What is it? What happened?”

  I leaned on the hood to get my balance and manoeuvred around it to his side. “David. He—”

  “Ara!” David demanded, marching toward us from the tree line, his cheeks and hands black with soot. “Get away from him!”

  My eyes enlarged as the odds of a very brutal fight tipped in positive favour. “He knows,” I whispered to Arthur.

  Arthur just nodded, gently shutting his door, and turned to face David as he came up on the driveway about ten feet away, pebbles crunching under heavy, angry footsteps.

  “David, please.” I ran between him and his target, but he grabbed both my arms and gently laid me aside.

  “Do not defend him, Ara.”

  “Amara,” Arthur said softly. “Go inside. This is between David and I.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.” I weaved my arm between them again and placed my body as Arthur’s shield.

  “Go!” they both yelled at the same time.

  The dangerous predator in David’s eyes forced me into a timid step backward then, but I refused to leave. I watched on as David’s human-paced march brought him across the gravel to his uncle quickly, and without warning, without calculation, he swung his arm back and brought his fist down hard across Arthur’s nose. A mighty crack blasted a shot of blood over the gravel, staining David’s knuckles and his neck. But his murderous eyes didn’t flinch. He steadied Arthur by the scruff of his shirt and hit him again.

  I could only watch, covering my mouth as Arthur landed in a heap on the ground. He didn’t get up. Didn’t block. Didn’t defend himself at all. Not even when David bent and grabbed his shoulders, slamming his head into the ground.

  “How could you?” David asked in a steady voice, but as he asked again and again, slamming his fist into Arthur’s head each time, his voice broke and crumbled away to sobs, his face red with heat and blood. “She was my wife! You sick.” He hit him again. “Twisted.” Again. “Fuck!”

  “David.” I ran forward and grabbed his raised arm. “Stop. Please.”

  Arthur looked up at me with one swollen eye, and shook his head, trying to say something.

  “Don’t you speak to her.” David shoved me off and crouched over Arthur, fisting his shirt tight enough that it nearly ripped clean off Arthur’s chest. “I trusted you. I asked you to watch over her and you promised me.” He planted his head firmly against Arthur’s and cried for a moment. “You promised. Always.”

  “Ara.” Falcon grabbed my arms suddenly from behind and pulled me back. “Get away from them.”

  I stumbled by force toward the fountain, and watched from the safe circle of Falcon’s arms as David continued his assault.

  “You just have to let him get it all out,” Falcon whispered into my hair. “Arthur can defend himself.”

  “Then why isn’t he?”

  “Because he knows this is justified.”

  I hid my face in his chest as the sound of breaking glass startled me. I couldn’t bear to look any more.

  “Falcon,” David demanded, sounding strained and out of breath. “Get her inside.”

  He bowed his head against the top of mine and then took my arm. “Come on, Ara.”

  “Do you even care?!” David screamed, raw emotion making his voice unrecognisable. I stopped, refusing to move. “Do you even know that you’re the reason? The entire reason she slept with Jason? She did it so she wouldn’t have to fuck you!”

  I didn’t hear what Arthur said, but he must have admitted it, because another wet crack made my stomach turn.

  “How could you keep this from me? How could you sit there and dine in my company, speak as my counsel, care for my wife as her doctor, when all along you… you’d…?”

  “I do not defend my actions,” Arthur mumbled, as if he had custard in his mouth. “You are right to be angry.”

  David’s spine very slowly straightened, as if each vertebra had to connect with the other first, and then he just stood there, horrified by his own blood-covered hands.

  “Son.” The half-dead man on the ground reached up to him.

  David snapped out of his horror slowly and his eyes went back to his uncle, his hands falling to his sides. “I will carry this on my shoulders now forever. I will never be able to take back what you’ve done to her.”

  “I’m sorry, David. I—”

  “You will leave. Now,” he said coldly. “And never come back.”

  Arthur bowed his head, closing his one good eye. And David vanished.

  I wiped the sweat from my face, feeling my heart beat again, so I stepped out of Falcon’s arms only to feel the world stop turning around me when my eyes met directly with Walter’s, then Margret’s.

  They stood there with Otis and Eldron, two Lower House members, stunned and pale-faced on the driveway behind us, soaked yellow in the light of the headlamps from Arthur’s car. Falcon followed my horrified gaze, closing his eyes as the severity of everything to come sunk through him like agony.

  “I
can explain,” I said.

  Walter put one hand up. “There’s nothing to explain.”

  “You betrayed your king.” Otis’s voice trembled. “With his brother.”

  “And his uncle, it would seem,” Margret added snottily, folding her arms and nodding at the bloody unconscious heap on the ground.

  Walt just shook his head in disapproval, then looked at Falcon. “You will take her to the cells, Falcon. Or I’ll have my guards do it.”

  “You have no right to arrest her. That order must be sanctioned by the Upper and Lower House.”

  “Very well.” Walt turned away, and the others followed. “We will see you in an hour.”

  I spun around and looked up at Falcon. “Shit.”

  He nodded.

  “What do we do?”

  “Just…” He pointed to Arthur. “Help him. I’ll call a meeting.”

  “Okay,” I said, but when I reached the car, Arthur was gone—leaving only a bloody mess behind. “Um, Falcon?”

  He glanced up from his phone.

  “He’s gone.”

  His shoulders dropped. “Well, we don’t have time for him now. Leave it. I’ll send some knights out after him.”

  ***

  “You need to run,” Falcon said again. “It’s not open for debate!”

  “I’m not running,” I demanded. “This is my home. This is my life.”

  “Fine.” He turned away.

  I followed him as he opened my bedroom door. “Where are you going?”

  “To find David—see if he can talk some sense into Walt.”

  “Might be best if David’s not here right now, Falcon. Laws are laws, and he’ll say the same thing. We all knew this day was coming.”

  “Yeah, well—” He backed away. “We might’ve known, but my vow to protect you still stands. And I’ll die before I let them hurt you.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Falcon.” I grabbed him by the wrist. “This punishment is inevitable. If you go and get yourself killed, all you’ll change is that you won’t be here to comfort me after. Please, just—”

  “I’m sorry. I have to try.” His eyes went to my belly. “If not for your sake, then hers.”

  “They won’t hurt her.”

  “They don’t believe she can be hurt. They think your skin is impenetrable, remember?”