by S. K Munt
‘You shouldn’t say that,’ I said sadly. ‘You’re right when I say I cannot say it back. Regardless of how you make me feel… I have signed a contract that states that I am his property. You cannot kiss me or make advances on me, I cannot encourage you to win the Pacifica crown when he is championing my dreams, and I cannot promise my future to you because for all intents and purposes, it is in his hands.’
‘But you’d consider it otherwise?’ Kohl whispered, stepping closer.
‘If I wasn’t Given?’ I repeated, and felt safe in answering: ‘Yes, of course. Kohl… you’re wonderful!’ My throat tightened. ‘But I can’t give you children-’
‘I don’t need children, as a third-born son, no offspring of mine will be entitled to anything that a commoner couldn’t earn for himself anyway, so my parents won’t fuss as much over my life choices as they will over Kohén’s own.’ Kohl smiled and I sobbed. ‘And so, I will wait, and pray that you’re not so fussy either.’
‘Kohl-’
He held up his pendant and kissed it. ‘He has vowed not to touch you for the sake of your friendship, so I won’t make advances on you for the sake of your freedom.’ He began to back towards the door, giving me the chance to admire his deep dimples as he reversed. ‘But I am yours, Larkin, and you will be my wife.’ I went to protest but he put his hand on the doorknob, silencing me. ‘I would love to convince you further, but I have to let Kelia in before she beats down the door- she has been almost inconsolable.’ He winced. ‘And barely tolerable.’
‘Really?’ I asked, surprised as I sat up.
‘Yes her voice gets very high-pitched-’
‘I meant is she really that upset about me?’ I asked, smiling all the same.
He nodded and grinned. ‘Funny how it takes almost dying to find out how loved you are, hmm?’
Kelia came in next and Kohl was right- she was a bundle of frazzled nerves and refused to leave my side as she chattered on and on about how scared she had been and how sorry she was for being jealous and what a hateful person my mother had been and that she never would have been so cold toward me if she’d understand where I’d come from. I assured her that my mother had never been like THAT, but she didn’t believe me and I was still too mad at Sapphire to argue much.
Then Kelia told me all of the news- Karol hadn’t wanted to leave until I was awake but he had commitments to uphold quickly (Lindy’s gestation, no doubt) and so he’d gone and I’d missed my chance to farewell my friends. I cried a little over that later, but some of those tears were happy ones- for all Karol knew, I could have been dead, but he’d upheld his end of the bargain and Lindy might just be safe because of it.
Then, Kelia went on to explain that the entire kingdom was scandalized and confused over what had happened, and apparently my father had already moved out of our family home and out with Finch instead of into a retirement home. The official story was that losing me had drawn a wedge between my parents, and so she’d been falling apart since, and that she’d attempted to grab me at the last minute to take me with her into heaven to save us both. Everyone believed that because it wasn’t uncommon for the departure of a third-born to destroy families, which was why the family unit was so guarded in the first place. My depressed mother had gone to extremes, but people understood and came to her funeral to farewell the woman that she had been in her early life, and not the wild woman she’d become in the hours before her death, and I was grateful for that.
Beyond that, however, I couldn’t find much of a way to mourn the loss of someone who’d lost me intentionally.
But what had happened to me was the biggest mystery and when I explained to King Elijah that I had seen the golden man and fainted from shock, he’d become even more confused. Fainting for three days did not make sense, and when he took me back to the place where flowers had been lain for my mother and asked me to show him where the man had been standing, I honestly couldn’t see a place where he could have crawled, let alone stood. In my memory, he’d been behind the trees but when I looked again, I saw that there was no ‘behind’ the trees. The gnarled branches twisted closely together and were spiked with spiny thorns that overlapped. Those woods would have ripped a small child to shreds in there- so there was no way a grown man could have fit, even if the vision of him was still clear in my mind.
After he saw my befuddled expression, King Elijah said that I must have suffered a hallucination or repressed memory in the shock of seeing my mother die, and once I saw the security surveillance which confirmed that yes, the woods had been empty, I ended up conceding so that no one would wonder if I had inherited some sort of mental disorder from my mother. But my curiosity had been stirred up too much for me to let it rest, and I knew I’d end up spending a lot of time in the gardens alone from then on, in the hope of seeing him again and getting answers. Having the wrong father I could deal with- but not knowing what he was and what that meant for me would slowly drive me insane.
Kelia had more news for me- in fact from the way her breathing changed and eyes dilated, it became clear, and rather quickly, that she’d forced her way into my room so that she could explode her private secret to someone- anyone that she could trust to keep it: She was in love. And when she confessed that Kohl had stolen her heart, I almost checked out of consciousness for another three days.
Kelia spoke quickly and passionately, filling me in on everything that she had thought, felt or done concerning Kohl Barachiel over the course of his two-week stay. She had been shadowing him since he’d saved her at the ball, and was absolutely convinced that he wanted her as desperately, because he’d spent many hours out in the hall with her, waiting for me to come to. So gone on him was she, that she had started to have faith in what she’d overheard Martya say to me- that if she escaped this place as a virgin, she would steal Kohl’s heart and marry him, becoming the princess that she’d always meant to be. A third-tier one, but a princess all the same.
Her excitement made me feel sick, as did the realisation that she was trying to follow me through my loophole, but I smiled for her and told her that anything was possible- so long as she didn’t share this with the other girls and give them ideas.
‘Of course!’ Kelia smiled and winked and said. ‘Just imagine, Larkin- we could become sisters!’
‘You think I have designs on becoming a princess?’ I asked her.
‘I don’t think Kohén’s going to give you the option,’ she said. ‘We all know that’s why you haven’t got any gold yet… you’re too precious to him for that. Why do you think I was so jealous?’
‘Because you play sport like a girl?’ I’d joked, and she’d giggled and hugged me again.
I had returned her embrace, while praying for both of our souls, and a cotton field so wide and tall that it would look like Heaven on earth to make up for how hellish everything before then was destined to be.
*
Kohl left for Pacifica with the king at his side three days later, and though he only hugged me when he left, I felt his heart pounding and saw tears welling in his eyes to mirror my own.
‘I will see you soon,’ he whispered to me.’
‘So long as you see me and our paths clearly when you do,’ I said back, and kissed his cheek.
‘Too late.’
‘Okay you two,’ Kohén said, pulling me back so that he could step in and hug his brother. ‘Don’t make me regret introducing you.’
Kohl had kissed his pendant over his brother’s shoulder, and then closed his eyes and hugged Kohén tightly- so tightly that minutes passed before they let go with wet eyes, red faces and trembling lips. Not a word was exchanged during this, and I know that everyone on the dock was as moved by the twins strong bond as I was. There and then I vowed never to break it by coming between them, but when Kohl’s first letter arrived two weeks later- one he’d posted from the dock and slipped into a book so it wouldn’t be found, I forgot how not to fall for him.
June 17th AA643
Dear Larkin,
I’ve read so many wonderful books that I think it should be easy for me to string together something beautiful for you with words, but then I remember how the sun looks on your hair, and I forget how to think.
I will miss you dearly.
Love, Kohl Barachiel.
‘Six months,’ Kohl whispered to Kohén.
‘Six months,’ Kohén agreed, and then my best friend turned to me and buried his face into my neck, so that he wouldn’t have to watch his brother walk away. I hugged him and tried to be there for him, but the truth was that Kohén was holding me together as much as I was him- because watching Kohl smile sadly at us over his shoulder almost undid me.
Then again, to put it into perspective that I had no compunction of what love- or losing love- truly was, the duchess’s legs crumpled beneath her as soon as Kohl’s back was turned, and the blade that had been wedged in my heart since my fifth birthday twisted.
‘Please…!’ Constance wailed. ‘Elijah! Kohl! D- don’t l-leave me here!’
I didn’t know if I was more depressed that my own mother hadn’t missed me like that, or because I could feel the infertility vial in my gut, reminding me that I’d never have the chance to break over somebody like that either.
The king looked back over his shoulder with a mournful expression on his face- but Resonah and Rosina were travelling with him this time, and they were holding each of his arms tightly and so, he did not attempt to move to embrace his wife, and nor did her son. So while the ‘luckiest’ and most beautiful and most admired woman in Calliel wept balefully, the gangplank lifted, and her family sailed away- Elijah and Kohl on the boat, and Kohén on foot back up the hillside, leaving her completely alone because Karol had already departed for the East.
I hurried after Kohén, breathless. ‘Aren’t you going to comfort your mother?’ I demanded. ‘She’s falling apart!’
Kohén wiped at his tears and shook his head. ‘If I were capable of putting her back together, she wouldn’t be, would she?’ he gave me a wounded look, then held up a glowing palm, showing me the sparks crackling at his fingertips. ‘I have to…’ he swallowed then faced forward. ‘Train... or something.’
And then he left me alone there too, and I was too angry with him to let a single tear fall. I turned back to the ship so I wouldn’t see him slip into the harem and saw Kohl standing there, watching me. I kissed my wooden ring and blew it to him.
Five years...
*
It took six weeks for Karol to announce that he may have found the key ingredient to complete the formula that Martya Rice had created for locust-deterrent, and by the time he’d been proven right, four months had lapsed and many other things had transpired.
Lindy wrote to me to let me know that she’d survived two weeks before having her daughter- Skylark- who was healthy and living with them in a small coastal cabin in Janiel, and I’d whooped so loudly that one of our harem servants had come in to see if there was a spider needing killing. Lindy thanked me expressly for saving her family and told me that in a few years, she would return to see me again. She’d also included a photo of baby Sky, and bragged that the ‘divine’ Prince Karol had bought them a personal camera (a luxurious item- only the royal family had one within Eden’s walls) before he’d ‘traded’ them in Janiel, on the condition that she send me lots of photos. It was a sweet gesture and an insurance policy, because now that the world was so excited to see if his cure would work, Karol was obviously terrified that I’d mess it up for him by letting the ingredients leak to the masses. I wouldn’t of course because I’d given my word, but I couldn’t help but wonder how hard Karol had prayed that I would stay in a coma and not wake up to hold him to any of his promises. I sure knew that part of me wished that I’d stayed asleep long enough to lose my appeal to him so that he wouldn’t hold me to my promise!
Lindy also wrote that her eldest daughter was ready to take the exams and had her sights set on becoming an academic- and a birthing doctor, which made me grin and pray for days, even more than I prayed for my own. But I had to laugh out loud when she told me Karol’s explanation for why he was taking her away- apparently, he was doing it as a sixteenth birthday present for ME! And she added, rather saucily- that he’d made a demand of his own though- he wanted her to make me a gown that I would be able to wear to his thirtieth birthday masquerade ball the following year- something that had to be lower and higher cut than the ‘swan’ dress, but one that had to have feathers! I’d rolled my eyes so hard that I’d given myself a migraine, and had written back demanding that she make me a duck suit- with an accentuated backside, webbed shoes and a mask with a big ‘ol bill! I was fairly certain that she’d adhere to Karol’s demands, but I amused myself later that day by sketching out possibilities.
Lette turned sixteen in July and joined us in the harem, and walked out the morning after with gold chandelier earrings and a relieved smile on her face. She’d gone to Emmerly who by then, had earned herself a golden anklet as well, and they’d whispered and giggled together in the private dining room while I sat across from them wondering why I’d thought it would be a nice gesture to eat in there with them to celebrate a third joining us. There was no ‘us’ in the harem, and because Kohén avoided me for the next few days, I began to sink into a depression that didn’t abate until I found another book and letter from Kohl waiting for me on my bed, wrapped in brown paper.
August 19th AA643
Dear Larkin,
I found the letter you stashed inside my things and I am… speechless. I can’t believe you trusted me with this formula even though you say that you cannot love me, and I really cannot believe that Karol has actually kept his word and started mass-producing this at your request! Father is gobsmacked to think that Karol worked this out himself, and cannot wait to come home and brag, so if Karol returns soon- make sure he knows to make the most out of that throne access while he can- because the king seems ready to settle in for the long-haul now that his kingdom is back on track again! And with girls like you showing such loyalty to the Barachiel men, how could we ever derail?
You were right to trust me Larkin- I am loyal to Karol and supportive of his future reign, but I am equally, if not more, devoted to you and to put your mind at ease, I will trade a secret of my own as a thank-you for yours, and it is one that could get me in as much trouble for sharing as yours will so please, guard this with MY life:
There are dark Nephilim left and my father (and his father before him) have always been aware of that fact. Their numbers have to be small, practically extinct as we have publicly claimed, but they have made their presence known over the past one hundred years, which is why father added the electric fence. They cannot fly of course, and they do not seem very powerful or they would have agitated us much more than they have, but father believes that the locust problem is to their credit, and I think that I agree. The world was changed during Armageddon yes, and we see evidence of those changes in Calliel every day; the evolution of the salt and pepper bears in the north which have been known to try and bite through our fences, and the gator fish that prey on those foolish enough to end up in the Atlantic ocean, and the fact that we have fruits and trees that did not exist in the time before… but these locusts plagues were set upon us by God, among many other things, so it is strange that they continue to plague us despite the fact that he stopped everything else.
The creatures themselves don’t make sense either- they don’t have the same biochemical traits as locusts from the time before, and their migratory habits are haphazard and sometimes seem intentional, as though they know exactly where to strike to hurt the kingdom the most. Because of this, my father theorises that they may be less than natural, which is another reason why we’ve found ridding ourselves of them to be an impossible task, and if he’s right about that then it’s feasible that the swarms are set upon us not by nature, but wicked Nephilim trying to vitiate our perfect society by crippling our food source. We have taken a vow to ward off poverty afte
r all, and so much of the way the kingdom is run can be traced back to that, so by depriving us of dietary staples, these locusts are causing more unrest than there should be and making my family look as though they’re failing to uphold God’s vision.
So this is why father is so desperate to strike them out, and probably why he was so brash and threatening with your friend for giving him false hope as a means to escape her sentence. I know him Larkin and he would never hurt another person- I swear it- so please, have a little faith in my word if you cannot in his, and know that though it may appear like he took your mother’s evidence lightly, he is trying to find a way to get into the north and see if there are not nests of Nephilim hiding there, as he suspects, because the Wildwoods are just one more part of this new world that makes no sense! How could something grow so densely, somewhere where the ground is harder than ice? They must be protecting something, and that something may be a cabal of dark souls who have nowhere else to hide!
I know that your suspicion has been aroused, but laughing off the Nephilim threat is the only way that my father can keep people feeling safe and from despairing, which could not only cripple Arcadia, but hurt God’s cause as well, so we have to keep this secret and to ease your mind no, Kohén is not aware of this- father simply confessed it last year to me when he was inebriated on palm wine.
So now you have some very powerful information in exchange for yours, and I won’t insult you by asking you not to tell anyone- especially Kohén who is already too incorrigible on the subject of tracking down dark Nephilim- but please, feel at ease when confiding in me.
Not that you needed insurance, sweet Larkin, because the fact that I write I love you to you in ink is enough to have me branded. But I do, and I would take searing pain on my shoulder over no reply from you and effectively, a searing pain on my heart!
