by Helen Fields
‘If you present her to Anousk without first warning the Vilya, you risk starting a conflict and losing the sympathy of the Council.’ The man who spoke was older than Perun. His voice was edgy and tense. When Mandalina cut in her tone was soft but left no doubt who was in charge.
‘That’s enough. I have heard all you have to say and I value your wisdom, but there is no way we can warn Anousk without risking her refusal to see the girl. Once she does that, all is lost. I will not see a human take the throne. She has no right to dictate how the Perelesnyk will live.’
‘And this woman, Eve, what makes you think that she will rule any better. Perun said himself she is all but human, now. We may displace one only to find the other is worse.’
‘I can control her.’ Perun’s frustration with the older man was tangible. ‘Her desperation to see Anousk will ensure that she does not leave Manitu again. Everything she valued in her world is lost; I’ve made sure of that. Once she is on the throne I will finish what I’ve started. She is mine for the taking. Human women are so ready to be seduced, it will hardly be a challenge. The Perelesnyk will rule for two consecutive sessions, once as husband to the ruler and afterwards in our own right. As long as we get rid of Zora we cannot lose.’ I bit down on my hand to silence my rage.
‘And Anousk?’ The older man spoke again. ‘You know it will destroy her to lose Zora. What makes you think she will not seek vengeance?’
‘Anousk will have her first born daughter back. I have no doubt that her grief will be terrible. She will be in no fit state to do anything but lick her wounds for a very long time. And if Eve becomes too much like her mother and Perun cannot control her as he thinks then I’m sure she can be persuaded to revisit the human world. She still has ties there. Once she does that we will be next in line to take the throne. Now leave me, I need some quiet before the morning.’ I stood to move away from the tent before Perun exited, afraid he would sense me so close by. As I did so a branch poked hard into my back and I gasped as it cut my skin. In a heartbeat there was silence inside the tent. I stood completely still, running not an option when I would break hundreds of twigs beneath my feet in just a few metres.
Without warning hands grabbed me from the branches above and I was lifted into the darkness. Even as I struggled I heard Ellette’s voice telling me to stop and I recognised James’s profile against the moonlit tree trunk.
Perun appeared below us. He stood for a few moments and then called to Mandalina that all was well. I relaxed as he left and the hands that held me let me loose to find my balance. I began to speak but Ellette shot her hand back across my mouth before I could make a sound. Her voice was a low growl in my ear.
‘No, not here. Keep as silent as you can until I tell you it’s safe.’ I nodded to show that I’d understood and then we climbed out of the boughs and through the trees, away from the Perelesnyk’s encampment. It was a good half hour before Ellette stopped moving. In the dark I had no way of guessing how far we’d come but I didn’t begrudge her caution. We halted at a river to drink. The night was quiet around us and there was a large open stretch of grassland so that we could see anyone approaching. A vast tree marked the river bend and Ellette pointed up into the foliage.
‘You will sleep there tonight. It is safe and well hidden. The lookout has been deserted for years and it is comfortable enough.’
‘I didn’t tell them I’d seen you. I’m so sorry Ellette. You were right about Perun. I know I shouldn't have run off. Please believe me, I didn’t go looking for them. I stumbled into their camp looking for the Vilya.’
Ellette walked towards me with a curious look on her face. ‘It makes me proud that you have such a strong love of your mother in spite of all you have been through. I am not angry sister, only glad you are unharmed. It’s late. James will keep you safe.’ She stepped closer to me so that only I could hear her words. ‘He was beside himself with fear for you. Accept his guardianship, Anousk will like him.’ I smiled at that. ‘I must leave you now, the family will be anxious for news.’ I caught her arm as she went to leave.
‘So, you’ll tell Anousk that I’m here? What made you change your mind?’ She looked thoughtful for a moment.
‘Necessity. The Perelesnyk have become too much of a threat to keep this from mother. She will be pleased to have news of you after so many years.’ With that she pulled me into a hard hug, kissed my cheek and quickly wiped tears from her eyes.
‘One last thing,’ I said. ‘What was it that Anousk owed Adela that made her change me for Zora?’
Ellette shook her head. ‘I cannot answer that. Their reasons are known only to them. She has never spoken of it. I’m sorry.’ She walked away, taking James gently by the arm and leading him to the tree where we would sleep that night. I was lost in thoughts of Anousk while they chatted in hushed voices, vaguely aware of James glancing over at me. When Ellette’s voice became more insistent I broke out of my daydreaming and walked towards them. Their conversation stopped and Ellette shook James’s hand in farewell. Before I could speak she had run off into the forest, turning back just once to wave to me. I thought I saw the faint shining of tears on her face again. By the time my attention was back on James he was already in the lower boughs of the tree, holding out his hand out to pull me up.
Seventeen
The lookout was high in the branches and when we finally reached it I could feel the muscles in my arms straining. A door in the base of the shelter pushed inwards and we hauled ourselves up. James had refilled his bottle from the river and Ellette had given him some food to keep us going until morning. There were windows in the lookout with views across the grassland, river and forest. The stars were shining so bright it looked as if you could touch them and animal pelts had been left to keep out the cold night air. There were no seats or beds but the floor was covered in a woven mat which was soft and warm. There were worse places we could have been spending the night. James secured the trap door with a heavy piece of wood and for the first time in hours I was able to relax. It occurred to me that if getting up into the lookout was that dangerous then getting back down would be nothing short of lethal. When I expressed my concerns James just shrugged.
‘That’s not something you need to worry about tonight, is it?’ he said.
‘No, but my shoulders are agony already and I feel like I’ve run a marathon. Until today I thought I was reasonably fit.’ James hauled some of the pelts down into a pile on the floor and indicated for me to sit. When I’d made myself comfortable he handed me food and water. There were vine leaves filled with spiced beans then figs and berries afterwards. We ate in silence, taking in the wild beauty of the night-time landscape. I finished, wiped my hands and stretched myself out in the warm animal hides. When I turned to speak to James I caught him staring at me. He had a curious look on his face and I wondered what he and Ellette had been discussing before I’d interrupted them.
‘You okay?’ I asked him.
‘I’m fine,' he replied, quickly. 'How are those muscles feeling now?’
I reached up and rubbed at my shoulders. ‘Well, if I were at home I’d be in a hot bath with a glass of wine to self-medicate. But under the circumstances it could be worse, I guess.’ I smiled at him and to my surprise he smiled back, slowly and tenderly. He met my eyes for long enough to make me feel a fluttering of self-consciousness in my stomach and I had to look away before the heat rising in my cheeks became visible. When I raised my head to look at him again I found him settling behind me and felt a shiver of electricity as his hands slid over my back. His hands were so big that they covered my shoulders completely and when he began to rubbing my aching muscles the warmth I felt was nothing to do with the animal furs covering me.
‘Is that better?’ His voice was so low that I could barely hear him. I managed to nod rather than speak, unsure how husky my voice might sound. His fingers held me still whilst his thumbs pressed small circles either side of my spine. I found myself chewing my bottom lip with the effort of cont
rolling my breathing. His hands travelled further down my back and found the place just below my shoulder blades where all the touch receptors in my back joined. His finger nails scratched my skin lightly as he pressed insistently until I cried out and my body jerked forward without warning.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to hurt you.’ Pain was the last thing on my mind. Every nerve in my body felt as if it were scorching.
‘It’s fine’ I replied. ‘Just a bit sensitive.’ I reached for the bottle of water and took a long swallow. I held it out to him without looking at his face. As he took it his fingers brushed mine and I felt my stomach drop with a desire so strong that it rocked me where I sat. His arm reached round my waist and I closed my eyes, leaning my head against his chest so that he couldn’t see how he was making me feel.
He laid me back onto the bed of pelts and stretched his body out next to mine. I rolled onto my side so that I could take a few deep breaths and slow my pulse. He slid his right arm under my head to provide a pillow and shifted his body behind mine, his left arm around my waist. The lust stirring in me was so overwhelming it was like being tortured. I willed myself to sleep but after a couple of minutes I knew I couldn’t stay still like that, feeling his body hot and hard against my back. I opted for conversation as a distraction.
‘I know so little about you. What are you doing here, with me?’ I turned very slightly round towards him so that I could see his face out the corner of my eyes. He gave a quick smile and tilted his head up at the ceiling.
‘Well, that’s probably too long a story for a night that’s already slipping by but if I’m honest I suppose I’m settling a score.’ His left hand was stroking my arm slowly up and down as he spoke. He didn’t even seem to be aware of it.
‘A score with whom?’ I let my body relax back against his. I wanted to see his eyes but the darkness showed only the greyest of silhouettes.
‘The Perelesnyk. They took someone very precious from me a long time ago. I swore I’d do all I could to stop anyone else suffering the way I did.’ He was as matter of fact as ever which only made his grief more apparent. I turned over where I lay so that we were face to face, ending up closer than intended but neither of us moved.
‘Tell me,’ I said. He smoothed my hair, tracing the line of my cheekbone and jaw with his knuckles. The gesture made me shiver and this time I didn’t bother to hide it from him. He ran one fingertip around my lips and my nipples hardened as he touched his mouth to mine.
‘I lost the woman I loved and the chance to ever love again. I forfeited everything you’re looking for and I don’t want the same to happen to you.’ He swept my hair away from my neck and lowered his lips to skim from my ear down into the curve of my collar bone.
‘I don’t understand,’ I said and slipped my right hand up his chest to grip his shirt. ‘James, I can’t think straight when you’re doing that.’ He pulled his arm from behind my head back so that his fingers slid into my hair, tilting my head backwards and grazing his teeth against the soft flesh of my neck. His other hand pushed against my hip bone to roll me onto my back. Before I could slow things down he was on top of me, one leg resting between mine. I could feel the steady pressure of his thigh pushing into me and it was all I could do not to thrust against him. His free hand slid to the front of my shirt and one by one I felt him undo my shirt buttons. He pushed himself up on an elbow to look at me as he opened my shirt and bra.
‘Why do you need to think about anything right now?’ I opened my mouth to speak but all that came out was something between a cry and a moan of pleasure. He let his hand continue its course down my stomach until he reached my jeans. He tilted my head back so that I was looking him straight in the eyes as his fingers opened the buttons and slid inside my clothes. He moved straight on down inside my panties, found my clitoris and circled it with his fingertips. I tried to open my legs further for him but was constrained by my clothes. I frantically pushed at them and in an instant he was up on his knees pulling my jeans and underwear off in one move and throwing them away. I sat up enough to lose my shirt and bra. In his face I saw the same carnal wildness that I was feeling. I lay back down on the fur skins watching as he stripped and knelt back down before me.
He straddled my body, one knee either side of my thighs, and brought his head directly over mine. I ran my hands over his arms and chest, feeling the coiled spring of each muscle quivering with pent up energy. I knew he was waiting for some sort of consent. His face was so beautiful in the half-light, just the tiniest glint from his eyes and the heat of his skin against mine. I ran one hand around the back of his neck and pulled his lips to mine. It was like being filled with sunlight. His tongue teased and licked the inside of my mouth and I shifted onto my side so that he could explore my body better.
This time when his hand moved between my legs it didn’t stop. His fingers slipped into the wetness of my crotch and thrust inside of me. I took hold of his hand and pushed him even further, unable to get my fill of him. With his thumb he brushed over my clitoris until I could feel nothing else. I didn’t breathe or move, I felt him tense above me, just watching and then a wave of pleasure exploded through me. My body shuddered in waves until my throat was hoarse with crying out. James lifted his mouth from mine and moved between my legs. When he entered me we rose and fell with one another in a rhythm that made me feel as if the world were spinning around us. He gripped my hand with his own, whispering my name over and over, his face buried into my neck. I had the strangest feeling that we were falling, that the earth had left us. When he finally came it was with a roar like a battle cry. He wrapped his arms around me so hard that I lost my breath and the stars I’d watched earlier seemed to be bursting inside my head. I called his name and felt my face wet with tears as one by one the stars faded and I fell into a sleep from which I wanted never to wake.
Eighteen
As I awoke I felt a stabbing pain in my back and when I came to my senses enough to investigate I found it was a tree root. A weight on top of me had me pinned to the floor and that panic shocked me from my stupor until I realised it was James’s body wrapped around me, making breathing difficult. I dragged myself out from beneath him, blinking to adjust my eyes to the daylight and then took in the fact that we were no longer in the treetop shelter. I spun round to check James was unharmed and saw that he was starting to wake up. I was still naked and began hunting for my clothes. My jeans were caught a couple of branches up and as I climbed to retrieve them I could just make out the lookout far in the canopy above. At the river bank I took a handful of water to revive myself, then grabbed another and dashed back to James, wiping his face to bring him round.
‘James, wake up. Something’s happened. We’ve been moved during the night. James!’ He opened his eyes and I paused for a moment reliving the detail of the night before. Unfazed by his own nudity, he reached out and took my hand.
‘Eve, you’re not in any danger now. We’re home.’
‘Home?’ I repeated. ‘You’re wrong. We fell asleep up in the lookout. There was no storm; I didn’t get angry; no-one brought us back through to our world.’ James sat motionless. As I stared into the distance I saw my shirt in the grass and ran over to pull it on, looking around as I went. The river was still there, the large tree cradled in its bend and the forest spreading out around us. Still, I knew he was right. The colours were duller, the foliage more sparse. It all felt less vital, less alive.
‘But we were so high up; we can’t have fallen and survived. It doesn’t make any sense.’ James was get himself dressed.
‘There were enormous branches supporting the lookout floor and I was ready for it. I was able to get you down safely most of the way. Near the bottom I lost my footing and we fell. I’m sorry.’ The reality of the situation hit me. I felt sick to my stomach and leant over, clutching at my middle, trying to get enough oxygen to stop myself passing out. Before I knew it I was on my knees in the dirt.
‘No, this can’t be. I was going to see her this morn
ing. After all I’ve been through, I was going to meet my mother. This cannot be how it ends.’ My eyes were blurred with tears of rage. James reached for me but I hit him roughly away. ‘No, don’t touch me. I have to get back. Ellette will be there waiting for me.’
‘You can’t go back. You know what a terrible price everyone will pay if you do. Let me help you.’ A terrible anger swelled inside my chest. I raised my face to his and could see the depth of regret in his eyes. Not enough, though. Not nearly enough to placate me. My voice was a growl I barely recognised.
‘You knew.’ I took a step further away from him. ‘You knew what you were doing. That’s what you were discussing with Ellette at the base of the tree.’
‘Eve, don’t make this harder than it already is.’
‘How dare you. This was not your decision to make. And last night? What a bloody idiot I was, believing that you and I...’
I couldn’t find the words for that. It had all been a sham; I’d been betrayed and humiliated. I turned away, unable to bear the sight of him. My anger was a block of ice inside me.
‘Tell me how it works.’ I hissed.
‘Why don’t you let me get you home and then we can talk as much as you want?’
‘What I want is for you to answer me, right now.’ He must have seen the blank determination on my face because he sat on a tree trunk a few metres away and in that soft voice confessed his conspiracy with my sister.
‘You move between here and Manitu when you are beyond your normal consciousness; rage, pleasure, grief, terror. Ellette thought that it would be the easiest way to get you back safely. You must believe she didn’t mean to hurt you. She’s protecting her world and the people she loves. I didn’t want to see you used by the Perelesnyk to do something you’d regret so I agreed to what she suggested.’