The Savage Blood (Savage Series, Book 2)

by Tamara Rose Blodgett

  Sarah interjected, “She said if there was 'breath left in your bodies, you would come'.”

  Philip looked at her for a long moment and she swallowed. His look spoke for the Band.

  “In any event, I had not but a moment's contemplation. Tucker...”

  “Who is that?” Clarence asked.

  “The one that I may have not killed,” Matthew said in way of explanation.

  Bracus clapped the back of his shoulder. “He had our Clara, mayhap you were too much in your head.”

  “I was,” Matthew glowered, a tick on his jaw pulsating in the light of the fire.

  Clara continued, disallowing questions until she was through with the part where Tucker determined drowning her the best course of action.

  When she finished there was a protracted silence that was broken when Joseph said, “Matthew, are these the same fragment we fought from the battle one year past?” palming his chin thoughtfully.

  “Nay, they are different,” he said as he cocked and eyebrow.

  “Their leader...?”

  “Tucker,” Bracus supplied and Joseph nodded.

  “He seemed to understand a great deal about our physiological design. How would he, one of the fragment, be privy Clara was Band?”

  “No. He did not recognize me as Band. He said...” Clara began.

  Charles interrupted, “What Clara? He said what?”

  “He said that I was of savage blood.”

  “He was obviously demented and delusional in his thought processes. Our queen is not a savage,” Clarence said in indignation.

  The Band turned as one and looked at Clarence. “What?” he asked.

  Philip said, “That is a most stupid supposition, dolt. Obviously she is something. Our entire clan witnessed the Rite of the Select. In which there was a physical reaction to certain members of the Band? You were there, you know what it was. Why is it so far from the realm of reason she is not in some way of like kind?”

  “She is royal, fool. It is but an anomaly that she is a select...” he sputtered.

  Philip stood, taking a menacing step toward Clarence.

  Good Guardian, Clara thought.

  Males.

  Clara stood as well and added, “Gentlemen,” all eyes turned to her again, “I do not think this Tucker was inaccurate. I am not at all certain as to why he recognized me as thus. But, I will say that he is correct.” Clara glanced at Anna. “Anna made it clear that my people are sea-clan. I am more than just clan. The same heart that beats within the Band, beats within me. This is the basis of why we endeavored to travel on this quest. There are questions which need answers.” Clara looked at the faces, making sure she had their attention. “We know not what we may encounter. The Band that Anna hails from is not the one that I know,” she looked at Anna and she shuddered, Joseph pressing her against his torso. “I hypothesize that all select are related to the Band,” she said and watched Matthew nod.

  “It is true when I was held by the fragment I was but a wee lad, as Evelyn,” he nodded to her.

  She said, “I am a girl, not a boy! As you very well know,” she crossed her arms huffing at him and the adults laughed. Her youth a neutralizer to the somber tone of the conversation.

  When the laughter had quieted Clara continued, “The question that is foremost in my mind is Tucker knew what I was before I did. He looked at me and told Prince Frederic that I was of the blood of the Band.”

  “We have naught to encounter females of the Band,” Bracus shrugged.

  “I have seen a female of the Band but one time,” Anna recounted and everyone looked at her as her voice lowered, her memories flowing from her lips...

  *

  Anna moved awkwardly with the saddle basket strapped to her hip, struggling to keep up with Stella, who having much broader hips than she, had two on either side. How she wished to be roomy of hip as Stella was, attractive to the males and a good child bearer. Anna pursed her lips as they made their way to the marsh to collect the grasses that were edible for the salad that night.

  The ground became soft beneath Anna's feet and she hiked her skirt, longing to have worn breeches but they were hot and uncomfortable, especially beside the humid marsh.

  “Keep up, girl!” Stella shouted.

  Anna looked about, hoping one of the Band kept pace. She was relieved to see that it was not He. The one that followed her with eyes that were hungry. He scared Anna.

  Finally at the marsh, she scooped and picked, placing the tender bulbs in the depth of the basket and sliding the grasses against one woven side.

  They worked diligently, their brows glistening with the activity.

  Anna thought she heard the approach of horses but did not break from her work as the Band used horses. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and stretched, little popping sounds resounding with the movement. She glanced briefly to where the sentry of the Band should have been and saw his arrow knocked and her heart stilled.

  It was trained on a rider coming at a gallop.

  Her fair hair streamed behind her and a tunic hugged her body, laced tightly at the sides. A spear-type weapon in one hand and the reins in the other, a pure white horse that she rode upon glowing in the sunlight.

  A triangle formation of huge men flanked her and flared at her back, their horses riding hard to the marsh.

  Stella stopped her gathering and came to stand beside Anna.

  Their lone guard of the Band racing to the women even as the horses rode to the spot where he had stood. He turned quickly his arrow re-sprung in its knocking.

  The woman slowed to a walk, her body dancing rhythmically atop the horse.

  Samuel of the Band did not waver, nor did he look intimidated by the number that faced them.

  A Band that included a female as its leader. Anna's attention was riveted on her as she curled her lips into a smile as Samuel laid his arrow in line with her heart.

  Anna could not see the humor in the situation.

  “Greetings, Brother,” she said in a voice that was equal parts sultry purr and feminine command.

  “What say you, Sister?” Samuel asked, his arrow tip never wavering.

  “We come peaceably, you do not need to train your weapon. Or is this how you regard females?” she asked, her expression darkening.

  Anna slid closer to Stella and they gave Samuel the room he would need should defense become an imperative.

  “You are not a female of the clan to be safeguarded, but Band. That is a different female entirely. A warrior who looks soft but fights true.”

  “You are so right, warrior. It is good that you know this,” and with that she leaped off the horse and stalked to him, pressing her chest against the arrow tip, drawing a drop of blood.

  “Slay me now or replace your arrow to its quiver,” she smiled up at him. Anna was struck by her beauty all wrapped around an attitude of confidence and strength. She was unlike any female that Anna had ever laid eyes on.

  Samuel knew that she was Band and mayhap he would have sprung the arrow at a male but she was absurdly female, throat slits or no. He could not hurt her. She had bloodied herself and that was a blight on his maleness. He let the arrow drop between them, slating it within the quiver with a practiced arm.

  “You play a dangerous game...?”

  “Rowenna,” she said, cocking a pale eyebrow.

  “Samuel,” he responded, laying his fist above his heart.

  She responded with her fist, mirroring him.

  “It is not often that I encounter Band other than our own...Samuel.”

  “What Clan do you hail from?”

  “The Greater Clan of Massachusetts,” she responded.

  Samuel's eyebrows shot up. “You are far and away... what region?”

  “The clan by the sea, Cape Cod,” she murmured, her lavender-colored eyes studying him intently. It was only then that Samuel noted the difference from their Band. Many were of stout constitution and a few had hair of bronze.

&nbs
p; She looked at her Band and they stared back at her. “We depart forthwith.”

  Rowenna returned her gaze to Samuel. “We often journey to Pennsylvania to trade with the Red Men.”

  “What say you? The heathen?” Samuel asked in disdain.

  Rowenna's brows shot down over her lovely eyes, her spine straightening to a height just a few inches shy of Samuel's, she was very tall for a female. “Mayhap you confuse them with the other...?”

  “There is only one heathen, who take our women and steal all that we do not lay down in chains.”

  She shook her head, flaxen hair shimmering to her waist in the sun. “No, do not confuse the fragment with the Shawnee. One is not the other.”

  “Do you speak of the painted face or the...other.”

  She shrugged her nearly bare shoulder and replied, “The Red Men call themselves Shawnee. They are warriors as well but different from us,” she gestured to her gills that lay slightly open and pink at her throat. “They war with the fragment as we do, their enemy is our enemy. They have aligned themselves with us.”

  “That is good information, Rowenna, I thank you,” Samuel said cautiously.

  “I must go.” Her eyes lit on the women behind Samuel and he moved infinitesimally to block her view and she smiled, her eyes softening. “You are a true warrior. We will meet again. As now we must go and trade with the Red Men, as our time away from the sea must be brief.”

  Samuel stepped forward, and Rowenna's Band tensed, his eyes flicking to their alert. “Why must you return in haste?”

  “We do not fare well away from the sea.”

  Samuel's question lay in his eyes and she answered it, “We do not know. It has always been thus. Since the time of the Travelers.” Rowenna turned and strode to her horse, alighting upon it by a jump and a swing.

  Samuel nodded to her and she him. She turned the horse and they were gone.

  Anna saw one of the rear Band turn and look her in the eyes before they crested the hill and were gone.

  *

  Anna closed her mouth softly, Joseph laying a tender kiss upon her head and she scooted closer into the cradle of his body.

  Clara thought on this in the silence of the campfire. Finally she said the thing that made her heart the heaviest, directing the question to Anna, “Is she my mother? The woman from the glass?”

  Anna gave a small shrug. “I cannot know. But, she looks very like the rendering in the Royal Manse. Her complexion was very unusual. I cannot believe there would be another that looked like her.”

  “I am curious about this Band?” Bracus mused and Clara smiled. His mind was always upon matters of protection and territory.

  Anna replied, “As I said, we had not encountered them before. They were not something I had thought of until I beheld the window.”

  Matthew stood and paced. “It is interesting that the salted water made Clara's throat slits appear initially.” He looked at Clara. “And their next appearance was...?”

  “When I was attacked...” Clara said on a whisper.

  Matthew's expression said he was sorry but he continued, “Both instances were under conditions of extreme duress.”

  Joseph nodded. “That is true. It may be but one of many different manifestations of defense.” Anna nodded in agreement beside him.

  “Her body is forcing itself to change when it is in a circumstance of danger,” Philip said, following the trail of clues to the source.

  Everyone began talking at once, their speculations a dull roar and not easily picked out.

  Bracus gave a shrill whistle, silencing the group. “Clara.” He looked at her and she saw the smile that he wore. “Did you feel anything else when the gills escaped your flesh?”

  She shook her head, thinking. Finally she said, “I thought only that I must survive.”

  “Could you breathe in the water?” Bracus questioned.

  “Yes,” she responded.

  The Band looked at one another in silence.

  “What is it? I have already said that the water saved me.”

  “Anna said she thought the people of that sea clan could dwell in land and water?” Matthew shot the question into the open.

  “Mayhap I was connecting logic that was not there. However,” she looked at each of us, “there was an obvious symbolism in the glass rendering. It clearly showed the parallel of the sea and the female which had gills. Now that Clara has told of her encounter, we know that it is possible. The Band is not just protectors of the land, but they may protect in water as well.”

  “Are there more females of the Band?” Philip asked with longing and Clara saw Sarah's expression grow angry.

  Well, she may wish to make a choice between Clarence and Philip before they reach the sea, Clara thought less than charitably.

  “I do not know. But I had the impression that females were not typical. She seemed less like a leader and more like a queen,” Anna said.

  All eyes turned to Clara.

  Matthew said, “There is no royal hierarchy in clans.”

  “You cannot suppose to know that the clan all operate as the Midwestern Clans do,” Bracus qualified.

  They looked at Anna and she laughed. “I do not know! I have never heard, as you, any clan which had leadership other than our president.”

  “Bowen has never made mention of it in our meetings,” Bracus said.

  “He may not know. As you are aware, we stay tight within a two state territory and have not journeyed further until now.” Philip shrugged. Then continued, “Mayhap they need a different structure.”

  “Be as that may, Rowenna was brazen with Samuel. Either she was the fool to lay herself defenseless before him or very smart.”

  “She does not sound the fool,” Bracus stated.

  “On the contrary, she sounds formidable,” Joseph said.

  “She sounds like she could be Clara's kin,” Matthew said with surety.

  Clara began to deny it and Matthew asked her the question, “Did you fear for your life?” he asked, and she instinctively understood he meant the latest fragment insurgence.

  Clara nodded. “Of course.”

  “Dear Clara, what was your greatest fear? Was that utmost?” he pressed.

  Clara shook her head. “I fretted about where my friends were, Evelyn.”

  “I will restate: you were held by Tucker and being assaulted by the prince yet your mind dwelt upon the whereabouts of your subjects?”

  “Yes,” Clara said softly.

  Matthew raised his hands up in the air and let them fall, as if to say, you understand my thoughts.

  Charles spoke up for the first time, “You are as the oyster our sphere yields, in reverse.” She gave him a puzzled frown. And he clarified, “The soft pink flesh with the jewel that shimmers on the inside is your exterior. The tough and uncompromising shell is your interior. They mistook you. They see only your fragile exterior. They do not realize what lays beneath.”

  “Well put, Charles,” Clarence said. “As a royal should be.”

  “It is not that she is royal. It is who she is. She happens to be royal,” Evelyn said.

  All at once Clara's vision wavered through a sheen of tears. They did not understand how terrified she was. She must confess. “You ascribe bravery that I do not feel. I do not deserve. I was beyond terror, I have no words sufficient for how I felt in those moments.” She looked at the Band. Her Band. “But for you, I would have had a horrible end. I thank you.”

  The Band stood, putting their fists to their chests, strong hearts beating underneath hands that had murdered.

  For her.

  “We will follow you to the sea and beyond, Clara. A female such as you is worthy of our servitude and loyalty,” Bracus said, his eyes trained on her face.

  She walked to them and grabbed Bracus and Matthew, touching the face of each Band member she whispered, “I hope that I may be the leader that you believe me to be.”

  “You already are,” Matthew said, grasping her hand an
d bringing it to his chest.

  His heart beat underneath her flesh, warming her to the core.

  CHAPTER 13

  As Bracus promised they exited Pennsylvania. Or so they hoped, the map they used a very rough sketch.

  But it was the shimmer of the ocean that heralded their position and their mood lightened, contagious to all that were around.

  It was Evelyn that was especially excited. She had spent much time with the girl. Clara looked at her, her face shining with happiness, the stripes of white flesh almost gone now, a golden tan taking up residence. Clara noticed for the first time that Evelyn held onto childhood by the thinnest thread, her bosom and hips growing inside a dress which was once shapeless and now fit disconcertingly well.

  Clara brought this to Bracus' attention. “Mayhap she needs another female to guide her, Bracus.” He looked over to Evelyn where she laughed and chased Anna around.

  “You fret too early, Clara, she is but a girl.”

  “She is not!” Clara said. “Look at her with eyes that are not fatherly and tell me what you behold.”

  Bracus did. He was quiet for some time. Finally he said, “Mayhap you speak true. How did this happen so quickly?” he asked with a growl, more statement than question.

  “Children grow up.”

  “And you so old!” he laughed. “You are but ten and eight years and so grown up.” His full mouth had a smile he did nothing to contain.

  “ 'Tis true and she has been through some things that have aged her prematurely.” Clara paused, “But I believe her childhood lingers about longer than mine.”

  The smile faded on his face. “You are right, she may enjoy the bosom of childhood longer within the protection of the Band.”

  Clara sighed, she had been whining and hated herself for it. “I only meant...”

  He put his finger on her lips. “I know which you meant. You do not think I have lost sleep over not protecting you from your family? From that leper of a prince?” he said, his eyes searching hers.

  She shook her head. The past could not be remade however much one may wish it.

  “I have dreamed of aiding you, but could not.”