I, Corinthius (The Vasterium Saga)

by Shae Christi

  “I only hear the wind, my love.”

  Corinthius shook his head.

  “You must be able to hear that? Its breathtaking and beautiful.”

  Corinthius looked up in to Adalheid's eyes and breathed slowly taking in her features as he tousled her raven hair with his finger tips.

  “It doesn't hurt anymore,” he finally said in the faintest of whispers.

  Then the light faded from his warm hazel eyes.

  Chapter 10

  Adalheid cradled Corinthius so tightly and sobbed like a person who had been given the most divine and precious gift and lost it forever.

  Orlando stepped in and gently coaxed her out of her torrid grief and back in to the present.

  Adalheid slowly gathered her senses and asked the soldiers to place Corinthius' body on to the hay wagon.

  Many quietly fought between them to do the honourable act before Orlando picked eight of them to do the job. They stepped forward and gently loaded him in to the hay.

  Adalheid washed away the blood with the water from some of the soldier's flasks and placed her cloak over his body.

  Once the army was ready, Adalheid took Orlando's horse and Orlando sat on the wagon with Sanford and they made a slow funeral column for the market square outside of Amberlaine Castle. Adalheid trotted in behind the wagon and sat in complete silence and stared at the body of her beloved who gave the appearance of being in a serene sleep.

  As they arrived in the town the people applauded the arrival of their beloved Queen and the sight of the Royal Army. But, they soon realised it was not a time for celebrations. Men and women gasped at the sight of the man with the antlers. Children gawped in amazement.

  Adalheid climbed down from her horse and slowly ascended the wooden platform in the market square to address the many people who had already gathered for the Harvest Moon Festival. Adalheid looked out, dazed, at the gathering crowd. They looked up to their young Queen who was strewn in blood looking completely desolated.

  "I have come to tell you all that Belovaya will no longer be a threat. Every man, woman, and child from here on in will be able to roam the lands, the woods, and the dells freely without her dark energy permeating the edges of our security. We no longer have to live in fear."

  Murmurs began to undulate in the crowd and astonishment rippled throughout the market square.

  "Is she dead, my Queen?," asked a man from the back of the square.

  "No, she is not dead. She has been sealed up in her Underworld, hopefully for eternity, and that is good enough for all of us to live a joyous and unthreatened life."

  A ripple of cheers and claps deluged towards Adalheid but she put up her hand for them to quieten down.

  "The man responsible for Belovaya's eternal incarceration is the man on that cart there, that you see."

  All heads in the crowd looked over at the lifeless body laying in the hay.

  "His name is Corinthius. He was once a man, a woodcutter, but Belovaya changed him in to a woodland stag for not returning her affections."

  The crowd gasped at the horror of what had happened to the antlered man. Men winced at the transformation and pitied his existence to be one of the most hunted animals in the land. Some whispered to their wives saying he would have fared better had Belovaya turned him into a rat or a worm like many men she had done to before.

  "She later turned him in to both man and stag and that is what you see before you. I wounded her with a golden arrow and she scurried off in to the Underworld like the snake that she is."

  A fervent nod of heads and a sea of approving looks revealed themselves in the gathered congregation.

  "But, Corinthius cut down the tree. The ancient magical yew tree that guarded her entrance to the lower world. The hillside collapsed in on her. But...."

  Her voice began to break under its own sorrow and her eyes began to tear. She looked down at her dress and her tears fell. Quickly wiping them away and gathering her strength she continued to speak.

  "Belovaya's magic somehow existed in the roots of the yew tree and her magic existed in Corinthius' veins. The act of cutting down the tree resulted in his own death."

  The crowd turned to look at Corinthius again and this time there were even more approving looks of his heroic act that freed them all.

  "From today I am declaring a new law in this land that you all must abide otherwise severe consequences will be paid."

  The crowd listened intently to her words and an air of expectancy buzzed throughout the square.

  A thin rain began to pepper down from the sky and the ravens cawed out from the battlements above.

  "No more will any person hunt down the stag. From this day forth they are hallowed and held with absolute reverence throughout all of Vasterium. They will now have the right to roam freely on the royal grounds and beyond. Corinthius would have wanted this."

  A roar of applause rolled out from the crowd and there were chants of 'All hail Corinthius.' When the roar of the applause died down Adalheid continued.

  "When you see a stag it will always be a reminder of what Corinthius has done for our land. He has freed us all from the wickedness that permeated the world beyond the end of the market town road which has prevented us from moving forward in to the forest. I will be making plans to have a bronze statue erected here in the market square in honour of him."

  The people of the Vasterium market town applauded Corinthius' noble deed fiercely and mourned his passing with the greatest respect. Everybody turned out to pay homage to him when Adalheid organised a funeral held in his honour. The Vasterian people scattered the road with oak leaves and red and white roses as his casket passed by on a hay cart pulled by two large shire horses ready for burial in the royal grounds of Amberlaine Castle.

  When the public furore that enveloped the town for a few days eventually died down, people wandered out far in to the woods without fear. A blessed contentment resonated throughout Vasterium for many years after.

  On the first anniversary of Corinthius' death a crowd was milling outside the castle walls and throughout the market square when something strange happened. They stood perplexed at the sight at the foot of Corinthius' bronze statue.

  There a stag stood gazing mournfully at the figure that glinted under the crisp morning sun. The wild animal stayed for a long while and appeared unperturbed by the crowd swelling up with curiosity hoping to get a peek at the oddness of it all.

  Then the stag took a few steps back away from the statue. What it did next made the people gasp in awe. The stag lowered the front of its body and bowed its head solemnly, its enormous wide antlers on display like an oak crown, in great respect toward Corinthius' statue.

  Then he slowly turned and left, apparently unaware or just not bothered, by the human presence buzzing with excitement around him.

  The people followed the stag to see where he would go and he sauntered on to Amberlaine's royal grounds where he was to be found regularly with seven does and over a dozen progeny before his own death a few years later.

  Over the centuries the Vasterian people moved closer in to the forests and they continued to hold a deep respect for what Corinthius had done for them. His heroism and sacrifice quickly turned into legend and soon he became the 'Woodland god, Corinthius' whose spirit they believed permeated every acre of Vasterium and kept them safe.

  Queen Adalheid went on to marry a good man and had two daughters but she would often disappear in to the Vasterium forest on her own and walk the paths, the dells, the hills and glades, where she and Corinthius had once walked.

  She wished, ached even, that Corinthius would come back. She would often roam the leafy lanes and river banks until night almost fell and the sight of any stags seen in the woodland at dusk would make her heart miss a beat and the rich memories of her time together with Corinthius would flood back in to her mind.

  Sometimes she was sure she had seen him or glimpsed his shadow there among a dense cluster of firs, ambling through an apple orchard
, or dozing in the branches of a large oak tree. And she was certain she could smell his warm scent in the evening breeze while sitting in silence in a forest glade.

  And it all reassured her as she returned home happy under the watchful light of a full moon floating in an indigo firmament scorching with stars, that Corinthius' spirit really did live on forever in the places he loved deeply.

  About The Author

  Shae Christi lives in a grey, windy coastal town in the North of England and has been adopted by 3 cats and a Portuguese Podengo dog named Rosie.

  One Last Thing...

  If you enjoyed this book or found it useful I’d be very grateful if you’d post a short review on Smashwords. Your support really does make a difference and I read all the reviews personally so I can get your feedback and make my future books even better.