Immortal

by T Nisbet

Durmack instructed me to give Ivy to Toby and get onto my horse. I followed his instructions as though I was in a dream. She loved me? How could she love me and betray me? One was a lie, the other then, had to be the truth. Her admission was so pure, so simple, it couldn’t be the lie. Could love exist beside betrayal? If someone betrayed the one they loved to save them from themselves or for some greater good, was it still love? Maybe, but that hadn’t been the case. Had she really ever betrayed me? It was too confusing, so I put the questions in my mind aside and let myself bask in her profession.

  Once I was in the saddle, Durmack had Toby hand her up to me, then he mounted his horse. Durmack and another warrior helped to arrange Ivy so that her and I were chest to chest, her legs over the top of mine, her arms around my neck. Then they took some braided leather and strapped her arms behind my back, and then tied a cinch from one of the horses around her waist and mine, pulling it tight. When they were finished they checked to make sure it was secure.

  Durmack grinned and patted me on the back again.

  “Normally, both partners are awake, and naked,” he winked. “This is how we marry on the plain.”

  “Hey Carla?” said Toby. “Wanna try…”

  “Another time big boy,” she interrupted him. “Besides, I don’t think I would need to be tied.”

  Durmack regarded her.

  “Sometimes the woman isn’t willing. But they all come around after a long ride.”

  I could see Carla bristling with anger.

  “Save it Carls,” Toby said, laughing at his girlfriend’s anger. “You’ll never win this argument. We’ll come back after this is all over and you can help start a feminist movement, I promise.”