by A. B. Bloom
Yeah. Not today.
“They are this way,” I whispered, turning to Heather, but the space where I expected her to be standing was empty. What was with that woman? “On my own then,” I muttered and turned for the passageways. We didn’t have time to waste.
I marched for the large room, sweeping in and finding the girls all reclining, their practice over. They sat up, startled when I came in alone.
Zafina jumped up, swiftly picking her way towards me. “I didn’t think we’d see you again.”
She surprised me by pulling me into a tight hug and I took a moment to wrap my arms around her and give her a squeeze.
“No?”
“I thought you’d be under lock and key once he knew who you were.”
“And do you know who I am?” I pushed back and looked at her shrewdly.
“No. But I have a connection with you. The moment you walked in I could feel it. Like I’d been waiting.”
“I think we all have a connection, but we don’t have time to think about it now. We have to get out of here. The Emperor is going to be furious when I don’t turn up for dinner and, believe me, I think he’s got a tyrannical ego that no one can appreciate quite yet.”
He was the god of war for hell’s sake. How much destruction could he bring down in his need for me and what I could do?
“There is no way out, we’ve been trying.” Zafina cast a worried glance over a group of the younger girls. They were singing softly and clapping their hands together in a game I remembered playing in the playground of my kindergarten in Queens.
“You didn’t have me before,” I told her, in some epic superhero movie statement.
“You are the one, aren’t you?”
My gold rushed in my veins. Burning hot and desperate to please; to heal. “I am. We all are.”
My half-baked plan was simple. Get the girls out, share my power and then they could heal the earth no matter what happened to me.
It was risky. If I ever got back to those standing stones, who knew what I would find on the other side? Fire Stone itself might not exist.
Would Tristan be there? — I didn’t know.
But, if I could heal the earth, make up for my time of absence, then I would. Even if I just made the sea a little bluer and the grass a little greener.
“Come, we don’t have time to waste.” I marched for the centre of the room and sat down on the hard earth. With my energy free it rumbled beneath me, reassuring and dominant.
The god of war would hear. I knew he would.
Placing my hands on the earth, I nodded, telling them all to sit around me. The air rustled with the movement of their dresses and it was only when I felt it cease to move against my face that I knew they were all sat mirroring my pose, waiting for me to do something.
“There is a garden in the palace grounds,” I said. “It smelled heavenly, fresh with soil and blooms. The trees were olive, their branches laden with hard fruits not yet ripe for the picking. Try and feel for the garden. Even if you think you can’t, try.”
I stopped talking for a moment, giving them all the chance to visualise the garden. “There’s a fountain in the centre. It’s round, its tiles smooth and warm. The water is clear, and it chatters as it falls and lands from a tall statue in its centre. It will come to us if we ask it to.”
I hope.
Again, I allowed silence to stretch around me. They’d all be trying, I knew they would. They wanted to get out of here, and it was just another extension of the practice they’d all been sharing anyway.
“I can feel it!” Someone cried.
“I can feel a-a tree,” another girl called. “Its boughs hurt with the weight of the olives.”
“Yes.” I pushed my own hands further into the ground, my fingers sliding so deep that I dug little troughs with my effort. I pushed my golden energy out of me. I knew it wouldn’t go too far, it wouldn’t just rush off and leave me. It was mine after all. I was the goddess of the earth. But it could nurture others, I understood that now. Even down to me healing Mary of her ulcerated leg, that was what I was meant to do. An ancient power. It wasn’t my choice; it was who I was.
I found the tree, also sensing its strain, and then with a jolt of almost electrical recognition I found the girl—my descendent—her own tangible power connected to the roots of the tree. I pushed at her with my energy, hearing her gasp in response. With my eyes still shut, I grinned. Leaving her with the tree, I sought out the fountain and the water it contained. It pushed back at me, just as the water in the bowl had done. I pulled it in, asking it to come to me. Not telling it, I knew instinctively that wasn’t how it worked. I asked and it responded. It met my energy, bubbling almost against me. A little tingle told me someone else was there, so I reached out and spread the golden warmth from within me in that direction.
Soon we’d all be connected. I knew it. I could imagine the power growing, absorbing everything, breaking us out of here.
A loud bang broke my concentration and I fell back, my energy snapping back towards me like a rubber band and knocking me off my feet.
Zafina met my gaze, briefly, her grin wide. “And to think that earlier today you were playing with a bowl of water.”
The heavy march of footsteps prevented me replying. “Get behind me,” I commanded, jumping from the floor and pacing my way towards the entry.
I was expecting guards but held in a shocked breath when the Emperor himself, my godly husband, stormed into the room. Yeah, well, husband or no husband, I’d tied myself to another, and our mutual history stood behind me holding their breaths.
His slap as it landed stung my cheek and I reeled back a little. “I will not be disrespected!” His skin paled beneath the olive tone. “You shall be in the palace with me, as I command.”
“You need me, but it doesn’t mean I have to do what you wish.”
“It means you shall give me what I need, or I shall take it by force.”
“Or what exactly? I don’t think it works like that.”
His eyes hardened to the shine of steel. “Or I shall make you do what I need.”
He thrust his hand out and pointed at one of the younger girls stood behind me. She whimpered, but stepped forwards.
“No.” I reached my hand out to stop her, but she kept walking, her eyes almost mesmerised.
“They can’t resist me, Maia. I’m the most powerful being on the planet.” The girl was within reaching distance and he easily put his hand around her throat squeezing tight. “In war there are sacrifices to be made. If you wish to resist your role, what sacrifice are you willing to make?” The girl didn’t scream or shout, she hung from his grip, her skin flushing with red and then paling as he crushed her windpipe.
The gold I contained within me pulsed in my chest.
“I’ve made my sacrifice and you will never understand what it took.” The earth rumbled beneath my feet, the floor cracking. The trees outside waited for my command.
I could bring his palace down if I wanted.
Maybe I could bring down the whole of Rome.
Is that what I wanted though?
I wasn’t here to rewrite history books. I was here to save Mae and Tristram… but now everything had changed. I’d changed.
I stilled the gold and repressed it under a tight control.
“Let her go.” My shoulders slumped. “I’ll come with you, do whatever you need, just let her go.”
A wide smirk flitted across his face, but I spotted a shift in his eyes. He hadn’t known what I would do. I smirked myself. Two of us could play at that game.
I watched as his fingers released the young girls throat and I stepped closer to catch her into my arms.
Carefully I released just a little of my tightly wound golden energy. I placed my hand across her forehead and down her cheek before gently sweeping my fingertips across the mottled skin of her throat. A nasty red mark startled against her pale skin. He hadn’t been joking when he’d nearly squeezed the life out of he
r. My stomach churned. He was a dangerous man and I’d just agreed to go with him and do as he willed.
A small tingle vibrated at the end of my fingertips and I sensed the damage in the girl’s tissue seeping into my skin, I soaked it up, willing to take it for her. When the tingle stopped, I knew she was on the path to mending. I gently passed her to Zafina, but not before her eyes fluttered open. “I knew you’d come to save us,” the small girl said.
I offered her a tight smile and nodded, but I didn’t answer. Without saying a word to anyone, I turned for the Emperor. I wanted him out of there before he could harm any of the others. Zafina met my eyes; her only sign of worry the edge of her lower lip caught between her teeth. I tapped my chest, the space above my heart, and hoped she’d know what I meant. They all had to search for the well of energy within them. I’d find a way from inside the palace to share what I had with them. The Emperor couldn’t cut off my access to all nature. I’d seen inside, there were plants everywhere.
Three days later I dangled over a deep dark edge of frustration.
Heather perched on the edge of my sumptuous bed and watched as I launched a cushion at the sheer material hanging as a canopy. “He can’t keep me locked in here forever.”
“He’s the Emperor. I think he can do what he likes.”
“And I’m a goddess, so how does that work? Why is he stronger than me and holding the upper hand?”
“Because he is in charge of this right now. The god of war is always somehow seated at the very centre of power. I don’t know how he does it, but lore tells me it is quite normal.”
“And he knows I can’t do anything without any contact with the outside world,” I added.
She shrugged. “In his own way, I think he is fond of you. His feelings, hidden as they are and tied in with his mortal being, are raw. You’ve denied him a long time.”
I rolled over and screamed into the mattress. “Being on house arrest is actually killing me.” Within me ached a deep unsettled sensation. It rocked like turbulence, or a boat keening in a gale. I couldn’t feel anything. Couldn’t connect with anything.
For the first time in my life. For the first time in all my conscious lives, both as Mae Adams the American and Druid Mae, I was cut off from nature; and now I understood the powerful effect it had on me. I guess I never noticed before because I’d never been separated from it.
I longed for the rain on my face, the rustle of leaves above my head. The power of the ground beneath my feet.
“The fact you long for it is good,” Heather said, nudging her elbow into my ribs. “It means it’s longing for you.”
I lifted my face from the mattress and looked at her balefully. “I don’t think my longings should be trusted.”
Her hand clasped mine, dry and smooth. “You are a giver. You bring life; your heart is full of love. Don’t let others’ clever words make you doubt your own heart.”
“I’m glad you are here. I’d be so alone without you.”
She smiled, squeezing my fingers tighter. “Get some rest, Mae, you are going to need it if you are going to find your way back.”
My head whooshed with exhaustion. “Find my way back where?” I mumbled.
“To where you are supposed to be.”
I let myself slip into another restless sleep. My dreams were more and more muddled. My dreams of Mae and Tristram were blurring, but I couldn’t yet see what other images were there. I was blocked by this damn place and the four walls that stood between me and the nature I craved outside.
“Wake up!” A sharp poke jabbed at my shoulder and I blinked into the silver gaze of the Mage. “You are wanted by His Eminence.”
“He can kiss my arse.” I raised my arm above my face so she couldn’t see me. “Where is Heather?”
“Who is Heather? You’ve been alone during your punishment.”
I shifted my arm so I could look at her. I hadn’t been alone at all. Without wanting to make my movements obvious, I glanced about my chamber. There was no sign of the kneel woman, but that didn’t mean very much. She came and went in a puff of smoke. Well, a theoretical puff of smoke.
“Come. We cannot delay.”
I sat, slowly, enjoying the looked of sheer frustration on her face. My enjoyment didn’t last. “You can either do this in a timely manner or I can get the guards to drag you back to your lord.”
I bristled at the title she’d given Claudius. He was not my lord, and never would he be. There was only one man who had that title and he was dead.
“I’d like to get dressed into a better garment.” I stalled for time.
“That’s not a bad choice.” She nodded at my sleep rumpled linen dress. “Make it quick.”
I slipped off the bed and went to the wide alcove in the wall where dresses hung, all looking like my size. My eyes were drawn to a dark one, a shimmering silk of jet. I slipped it off the branch that had been bent and smoothed into a hanger, my fingers curving around the long dead wood. It was dead, no energy remained, but I could still sense its valour and pride. I took care to make sure I brushed my fingers over its surface, so it knew even in its death that it was valued.
Leaning into the polished glass, I checked over my appearance. My red hair was wound into a braid around my head. My skin was pale though, lacking in lustre. My eyes were flat, like a shallow puddle. My lack of energy from my surrounding nature screamed back at me in the looking glass.
I reached for my necklace, my pulse spiking when I realised the purple gem wasn’t under my shift. Spinning, I searched for it, finding it hanging from a notch on the bed. A shaft of sunlight slid through the slender window, the only source of light in the room, reflecting off its roughly faceted surface. I paced across the room and snatched it into my hand. It was warm, and a gentle tingle pushed against my palm. I know. I miss him, too.
I was grateful to the sun for warming the gem. It reminded me of warm smiles, raced pulses, and a connection that could never be replicated.
For a moment, I stared at the window, willing the sun to come and find me, but of course it couldn’t, not really. The gap was too narrow, maybe the sun was too low. I had no idea what the time was.
“Ready?”
I nodded, unwilling to verbalise my consent. I was at the mercy of the Emperor of Rome, and who in the hell knew what he wanted me to do.
Heal the scars his wars had made? Or give him the power he wanted.
Either way. I’d submitted to his will to save the girls. It was my bed and now I would have to lie in it.
Chapter Fifteen
The Mage didn’t seem at all concerned as we walked through hallways that opened into wide arches overlooking the gardens and grounds.
Maybe she thought I’d been suitably punished.
Maybe she thought I’d given in.
The wind swept through my hair, and I breathed in the delicious scent of blooms and petals on the air. I tasted them with the tip of my tongue. With every breath I felt the calm power of the things I loved fill me up.
Air, water, trees, flowers. I could sense them reaching for me as though they’d missed me, too.
Her guard was down, she swept along, her long black cloak brushing the marbled hallways.
The pendant at my throat still warmed against my skin. Lifting my fingers, I clutched it tight, sensing a gentle pulse, and then another.
I raised to my lips as though passing a prayer within a kiss. So distracted by the ache in my heart at the warmth of the gem, I nearly lost my balance when a hand shot out from behind a curved pillar.
My feet lifted from the floor, breath rushed against my cheek. I gasped in a shocked breath.
The pendant scorched, telling me whose hands held my arms, whose chest I was crushed against before my eyes could even blink and make sense of what I was seeing.
Jet orbs shone down at me. The skin surrounding them was tanned, more so than I remembered. The faint freckles I’d always known had deepened; the skin around his eyes crinkled, slightly weather wor
n.
The pendant vibrated hard and fast.
“Now is the time to do that thing you do, Mae.” Oh, God. With the rush of his whispered words, his lips snatching across my cheek, my guilt and despair almost overwhelmed me. I shivered unable to control myself.
“Tristram.” I stuttered over his name. I never thought I would get to say it to him again. He was dead, his cry of my name etched into my heart. Yet here he was in Rome, holding me in his arms.
“Trees, leaves, that kind of thing.” He smiled but his eyes were hard. He was listening for the Mage, waiting for her to realise I wasn’t behind her.
Tress, leaves… my kind of thing.
‘I’ve been locked up for days. I need to establish my connection.”
He nodded, like he understood what connection I was talking about.
“Aye, I know. I’ve been waiting.”
“You’ve been here?”
“Yes. Hiding in the shadows. These Romans are slow-witted fools. Although the big man is in a foul mood. I’m guessing that has something to do with you?”
“Shh. Let me concentrate.”
God, I didn’t want to. I wanted to kiss him like I’d never wanted to kiss anyone before in my entire life. But we couldn’t die in Rome. Not if he’d come all this way to save me.
He was here.
Unbelievable but true.
“I can’t believe you are here.” I dropped to the ground; we were hidden by the pillar but exposed to the garden side.
“I told you, Mae. I will always protect you.”
His heartfelt claim woke me up. I reached into the ground unravelling the tight container of gold from its hiding place under my heart. It surged forth, as though it knew itself it was safe now Tristram was here. My arms and limbs weighted down towards the ground as the energy pooled through me, lighting me up like a firecracker on Independence Day.
The roots of the trees were waiting for me. I pressed out of myself, surging everything I had in their direction. Their roots were dry, spindly, their movement through the earth rustled inside my head. This land was parched. Dust and air surrounded Rome. Even the luscious blooms in the Emperor’s palace couldn’t hide the truth.
