The Tangled Tree

by S. K Munt

  ‘Then I will see you on the other side,’ I whispered, and then flung myself over the side of the railing to the tune of her screaming.

  As though they knew that this was all I’d ever ask of them, my decaying wings did as I willed and sent me soaring off the tip of the torch and to the right-hand side of Eden’s grounds. I flitted above faces, some familiar but most strange, and heard them crying out my name. Knowing that I could not pause for fear of crashing into them all, I glanced back to blow a kiss to Cherry and Adeline (Adeline was on the walkway and not in the Wildwoods, thank God!) and then at the Golden man as he twisted to watch me pass, and saw tears streaming down his face.

  ‘Larkin no!’ he cried, bolting after me, shoving people out of my way. ‘Daughter, child of mine! Stop!’

  But I would not. My curiosity beseeched me too- tugging on my wings in an attempt to physically wrestle me down, but my curiosity had gotten me to this point and I would not allow it to drop me again. I turned my face back into the wind, swooped over a crowd of filthy-looking, excited people that had not shaved or washed themselves for years, and did not stop until I saw the river that led over the tidal fall emerge from the mist.

  That river was technically set into the Wildwoods, beyond the borders of our country and had been used as a natural break between Arcadia and the desolate Northern lands of ice and impassable forest for centuries because its waters streamed from the north and were always perilous and freezing cold, especially here on the coast, where it forked off to border half the castle as a perilous moat that whooshed down from a nearby precipice in the foothills of our region, and then swerved back to the left before it crashed over the cliff face and down to rocks and sand, one hundred and twenty feet below. Not even in the hottest Arcadian summers would one consider a dip into the Pinnacle River because you could be swept from the access to it behind the villages on the other side of town and over the tidal fall in three and a half minutes. I knew- Finch and I had once seen a dead horse go in near our house and then get spat out the other side in under four. And it hadn’t looked much like a horse once it landed! Thank goodness it had been high tide at the time or it would have been a ghastly sight indeed.

  No one ever crossed the Pinnacle River intentionally either- not even the Banished. Usually the only way to get to Arcadia without crossing it was to slip in around a bend some five kilometres east of our city (up near Rachiel) and then either break tree branches away from the fence with an axe to clear yourself a path- a task that would kill you before it paid off- or find a way to dam the river where it was narrow or possibly build a bridge over it. I didn’t know how this many Banished had gotten to the thin strip of Wildwoods that bordered this side of the river, but they’d either taken the ‘secret path’ I’d once heard mentioned as a child, or had accomplished one of the other feats together, which spoke volumes about their determination to terrorise our country’s residents this week.

  But they wouldn’t get close enough to terrorise me, not if I acted quickly. The only time the Pinnacle River opened up enough to touch Arcadian land was by the natural moat that my father had helped dam off before building the bridge over it, and where I was going- the frothy precipice of the Tidal Falls themselves. The raging current had been eating away at the rocky embankment and the forest lining it on both sides for centuries, so it had taken a chunk out of the Wildwoods in the furthest corner of the Banished lands, near to us, and now the water poured over the very edge of our kingdom at a sharp angle. In one hundred years, it would probably eat away at the walkway too, and though that might cause the Barachiels a bit of grief in the future, for now, it made for a pretty view.

  From the corner of Eden’s slightly lower grounds, you could stare ever-so-slightly up at the crest of the falls, (the rocks around them had been fenced off on our side to prevent anyone getting too close) access the public look-outs that had also been fenced off at a few points down along the cliff, and even walk up close to it on the beach at low tide, near where my parents had been married. You couldn’t cross the boundary line via the beach either though, because the Wildwoods were bordered by sharp, jutting and ever-slippery cliffs on the other side that turned a sharp corner north of the falls and then stretched on for hundreds of kilometres after without a beach to be seen. They were sheer drops that were almost always frosted with ice, and the current in the ocean that edged them was so fierce that Arcadian ships could not sail north of our harbour, which was a good half a kilometre south of the falls, just beyond the most southern point of Eden’s farming lands, where I had toiled for so long with Martya.

  There were three fences standing between Eden and the top of the falls- Eden’s, the Banished fence across the public walkway, and a small barrier fence that had been built to prevent suicidal people- like me- from getting too close to the ultimate temptation. The girl I’d been half an hour beforehand would have had to scale Eden’s fence and then rush down to the look out, climb over it and negotiate slippery boulders to get within an arm’s reach of the falls, but the Nephilim I was now swooped over all three fences and then gently lowered herself down to the highest rock, on the very edge of the raging river where the Banished fence to my right cornered-off with the safety one that was behind me. I folded in my wings as I was covered with the spray coming off the thunderous falls and landed in a crouch, almost slipping off the glassy rock’s surface beneath me, but latched my fingers around the ice-cold fence behind me until I’d regained my balance, grateful that the corner of the Wildwoods to my right was just overgrown enough to conceal me from sight of anyone on the footpath behind it.

  There! I thought, smiling grimly as I pulled Karol’s letter out of my corset again, grimacing as the fierce winds almost immediately tore it out of my hands. This is close to where I came to read my sister’s letter, which changed how I saw the Barachiel family forever- so it’s fitting that I should read this here too, one final time- to see if it can’t change it all back!

  I lowered myself staring back up the river, momentarily awed by the beauty and power of it, and then over the edge of the falls to the bottom where I’d once dreamed of being wed. The drop was hundreds of feet high, but the tide was on my side and so I saw the sharp rocks that would surely rip me to shreds glinting in the darkness below, beckoning me to them the same way Satan did. I didn’t know how many people had ever stood where I had- had felt the wind pummelling them and had been lucky enough to feel God’s glory as intensely as I did right then- but I knew it could not have been many, and so I felt privileged to stand on the wrong side of it now.

  Just as I would soon feel privileged to fall. My death would not be pretty- but it would be my choice, as Satan had said, and that was a miracle to the likes of me. Now all I needed to see it through, was the conviction that had gotten me this far- to be reminded of the fact that I was a jaded, joyless, untrusting and wicked girl that deserved to die- not the would-be hero that the people back by the footpath were crying out to. And they were still crying out! I didn’t need to turn around to know that they’d run to the corner of the fence and were now straining for a glimpse of me through the trees! Luckily, however, the wind and the water streaming past me was strong enough to mute their roars, and so with shaking fingers and absolute focus, I dropped my eyes to read the letter again.

  Dear Larkin.

  I’d rather hoped that we’d be meeting at midnight tonight to tear up your contract along with all of the others before enjoying a private celebration for two, and though circumstances have changed, my desire for you has not. It may appear that way, but you would be foolish to believe that anything would prevent me from taking you in my arms at long last. I have fallen silent and I have kept away- but only physically for the sake of keeping up appearances, Larkin. Inside my body I am screaming for you and reducing that harem and anyone who tries to stop me from getting to you to rubble. Were it not for my desire to maintain some dignity as far as my family name is concerned, I would have done so already!

  But dignity can
be restored in the Barachiel name in many ways, and we cannot be watched every second, despite what they all believe, so you will come to me before midnight, or I will come to you. That is not a threat, sweet angel- but a heartfelt promise. And Barachiel men take promises awfully seriously, so I beg you to keep the one you made to me- and your gratitude for all I have done to you- at the forefront of your mind when you ask yourself what I mean to you and what I still could, because birthday wishes can only be granted after the candle has been blown out- and the candle I hold burning for you could withstand an electrical storm and a monsoon, my love- so it can mostly certainly weather those that would oppose it!

  So fight for me the way I am fighting for you. Slip your beautiful being into this beautiful gown and then come celebrate my birthday with me, your dear friends, and the Blue-Collar family have travelled across the country to tell you how much your sacrifice meant to them, and know that I will be counting the seconds until you arrive-

  ...and that I will remain the most eligible bachelor in Calliel until I have first had the opportunity to capture you the way you have captured me.

  Sincerely,

  Prince Charming.

  Tears were running down my face by the time I finished, and my heart felt exactly like balled paper as I closed my fist around it and sobbed. When I’d first read this, I’d translated it to suit the monster that I’d presumed him to be, but now that I read it from the perspective of a man in love, everything changed and after, I knew that I was the monstrous one. He’d said that it hadn’t been a threat but a promise… but like with Satan, I hadn’t understood that there had been NO double-meaning until it was too late. Weeping bitterly, I cursed my wicked self and threw the paper over my shoulder.

  I’m so sorry, Karol! I thought, leaning over the edge and breathing in deeply through my nose. Then I opened my eyes and whispered out loud, believing it as I never had before: ‘I deserve this!’

  ‘Larkin, don’t do it!’ a soft voice cried, and I lifted my eyes to see a figure appear on the boulder across from me- on the other side of the river. I should have been shocked to see her again, but I was not- I understood that she was just a figment of my imagination. ‘You have too much to live for!’

  ‘So much less, since you left me dear friend,’ I whispered to Martya, my tears falling like rain now to see her pale clothes glowing in the milky moonlight. ‘But you know what? I swore that I would avenge your death, and tonight I did. Not as I expected to, but I don’t think this kingdom will ever allow another Given Girl to be murdered again, okay? I don’t know if it was Elijah or Karol or even bloody Kohl, but whoever did it-’

  ‘I was not murdered Larkin!’ Martya cried, and my heart skipped a beat, first at the admission, then again when I saw the smile on her pretty face. ‘And I will never leave you again.’

  33.

  ‘No!’ I cried, fingernails snapping off as they dug into the rock beneath me in outrage. ‘Don’t tell me you’ve been alive this whole time Martya don’t even DREAM of it!’ I cried, beside myself as I remembered reading her letter- and then slipping a bread knife into my toga before I spoke to Karol about it. ‘When you died, something inside me died, and I’ve never been able to get it back!’

  ‘I know. That was the whole point! I’m sorry, Lark, so sorry...’ My friend had the grace to look nervous and ashamed as whipped off her glasses and stepped forward so that I could see her more clearly. ‘But I had to get out of there to carve a path for us, so I escaped, all right? I escaped and I made it look like a murder so-’

  ‘What?!’ I gasped, falling to my knees and tearing at my hair. Was she a ghost, a figment of my imagination or a complete traitor?! ‘You’re lying!’ I pointed my finger at her. ‘You’re Satan again, aren’t you? You’re just showing me what I want to see! Trying to convince me to take another hand when really it’s hers!’ I looked around. ‘She’d be here otherwise, trying to stop me herself!’

  ‘Satan sent me to try and stop you, and I can explain why if you just calm down, okay? We’re on the same side, Lark. She and I- we almost always have been!’

  ‘No!’ I breathed, my chin wobbling. ‘No, that can’t be true! You had so much going for you! You had your freedom! Why would you throw that away to align yourself with the dark?’

  ‘Because I AM the dark, Larkin. In the definition of the word anyway, but I’m not evil!’ If this was truly Martya, then I was astounded by how she’d grown in the short time since I’d seen her last. She’d shot up at least a foot and had developed muscles under her clothes, which looked worn, threadbare and filthy. She was gaunt too, clearly underfed, and there were dark circles under her eyes and scratches and bruises all over her. ‘The roots of my family tree have been tangled with the Barachiel one since the beginning of this new time, Larkin!’ Martya cried, raising her voice to be heard over the fall. ‘It started with one of my ancestors, who loved Elijah the first, but was forbidden from being with him because of the circumstances of her birth, but it will end with me! I let you believe they had killed me, because I knew it would give you the healthy dose of distrust in them that you needed to free yourself from this place! That’s what it’s always been about, all right? Getting you out of here while garnering my own freedom!’ She held up her hands. ‘What started as such an easy task turned out to be a nightmare because no matter how much you should have hated your master, you could only love Kohén, just like my fool cousin, Adeline, could only love hers!’

  My chin dropped forward as shock rippled through me. ‘But Adeline is a part of your family too, isn’t she? How could you end up on opposing sides of such a fence?’

  ‘Because Adeline was the descendant of Rosa, Gabrielle’s daughter, whereas I am a descendant of her half-sister, Julieta!’ Martya screamed, and I cupped my face, horrified as I remembered the book that Satan had given me, and the name that had been crossed out: Julieta.

  ‘Julieta? How?’ I asked, shivering as the water misted me. ‘You told us that her mother was your mother’s little sister!’

  Martya shook her head. ‘That was what I believed but my mother told me many misleading things as a child to keep certain secrets from me- including the fact that I have more relatives than I believe- out here on this side of the fence! We would have been out here too, Larkin, but my mother had an important job and… and I was it.’ She sniffled. ‘There was dark Nephilim on my side, all right? And I know Satan has tried to tell you about it! Rosa and Julieta’s bastard father was a rapist, and after Miguel followed Gabriella’s pleas to find and salvage her daughter’s half-sister, he discovered that he was a dark Nephilim too, as was she! He was terrified of having her in the family even though she was sweet and beautiful and flawed only by her haunted eyes, for he knew that her soul may have been corrupted for having been raised by such a bastard! He brought her back to Eden to be kind, but he did not let the two girls know that they were related- raised one with his family, and set the other up in an orphanage with other children that had survived the apocalypse!’ she paused, and both of our breaths misted as we panted for air. ‘She might have grown up to be happy for she was treated well, but one day, she and Elijah met while he’d been out on a ride, and fell madly in love at the age of eighteen! Miguel could have let them be together for the sake of all that was good and light, but he was too scared of what their child might be- a powerful Nephilim infected by her father’s shadows- so he moved her away and found consorts to keep his son entertained with instead!’

  ‘Oh my god!’

  Martya grimaced and nodded. ‘But Rosa had already started to get to know Julieta, and she’d seen how alike they were, and when she’d asked Miguel what he knew about her, he’d denied any inside knowledge. But she was curious, Rosa, like you, and when she continued to pump Elijah and Miguel for information over the disappeared girl, Miguel offered her husband a considerable estate in Miner as a bribe, and so Jasper moved her thousands of kilometres away in the opposite direction! Don’t you see, Larkin? The very first companion
s weren’t just saved by the royal family, but manipulated to break up a love affair!’ My head was spinning from the influx of information but Martya had probably forgotten that she’d always been smarter than me, so she rushed on without pause. ‘Julieta didn’t believe that Elijah would forget her so easily, but he was because of his lust, and so she was forced to go live in a remote property in Rachiel while pregnant with the first TRUE Arcadian heir, all alone, on Miguel’s command! But she was too heartbroken to function, so the infant- a daughter- was born prematurely and without breath! Miguel offered her riches in compensation- more land, a larger house…he did everything he could to make it up to her, and although Julieta took all he offered and broke the soil on the farm that my family still owns today, and although she eventually went on to marry and have normal children with another, kinder but completely powerless man, she had already been thrust into the darkness by Miguel’s scheming, and had cursed his entire family from that day forth- had vowed that no Barachiel man would ever know the love of a daughter, until they had learned to love the mother more than they loved themselves AND their bloody God!’

  ‘What? I gasped, reeling to learn that Elijah had been telling the truth- he had wanted a daughter, just prohibited from doing so, and utterly clueless as to why! I’d accused him of so much, and I’d been wrong at every turn, and now he was dead and it was too late for me to make amends for it. It was, quite frankly, the worse news I’d ever received, and I could not believe that it was something that Satan had… what? Wanted rectified? Was that why she had thrust that book at me? Why? Didn’t she want them miserable and turning to her? ‘How?’

  ‘She hadn’t done it intentionally!’ Martya cried. ‘She’d simply had more power than she had been aware of, and too much grief in her heart and head to think clearly, and so a woman’s heartbroken pleas with the universe became the wish that Satan granted- a wish that Satan does not have the power to undo now, despite the fact that the consequences of that wish have been crippling to us all on both sides of this moral fence! Michael Barachiel’s infant twin sister was born dead years later after Elijah the first finally procreated in a loveless union, and when Julieta found out she felt awful, but there was nothing she could do to take it back so she ended her own life for causing the man she’d loved so, so much pain- damning herself again and bringing shame upon her new family name! Miguel confessed that they were related to Rosa after her funeral, because he felt guilty over her now motherless children, and Rosa and Jasper moved to Rachiel to help Julieta’s widower raise her niece and nephew until they were full grown, and so our families have been closer since...but Adeline’s side was not stained by the sordid happenstances as ours were: they are as loyal to the crown as distant relatives of it can be, because Rosa believed that her step father was KIND to only move Julieta away, because the last time a light and dark Nephilim had had children together, God had ordered them to be destroyed!’ Martya sighed. ‘Whereas my side of the family is still affected by it all to this day. At first my ancestors felt guilt-stricken, but now that this many centuries have passed without a Barachiel marrying the mother of their children and breaking the curse on their end- we have reverted to being angry! Which is why I hated Elijah The Second so, especially when I saw the way he tried to repeat history by trying to turn Kohén’s love for you against you!’ Martya snapped off a gnarled branch off a tree in the Wildwoods and hurled it into the water. ‘That’s why we are where we are! Hundreds of years have lapsed but due to the Barachiel’s misguided belief that they cannot risk marrying a woman in God’s name for fear that they might hurt her, balanced with their need to have a woman in their arms at all times, the curse is still an entity within Eden’s walls- one that I fell prey to when I was born third!’ She smiled grimly. ‘But my birth was not an accident, Larkin, and neither was yours! It was all pre-ordained!’