by Stella Inox
“So we aren’t really talking now?”
“No. The power that this form represents, sits within you. It has a type of retention which you access using this form as an avatar. At the very beginning, you also understood instinctively that power transference had to be accepted unreservedly and created a scenario where you gave yourself permission to receive an elemental power. You won’t need this avatar should you wholly appropriate that which dwells within you.”
“And if I hadn’t accepted you, uh… it?”
“The elemental power would have remained inert until one came that triggered the same response as you did. One that was judged worthy of containing the fertility and life of the forest and had the capacity to encompass the power that this form represents.”
“So how does this make us belong to Cernunnos?
“You will become the female to his male. I don’t understand what he intends, but this step is a start towards bringing back the balance that this world needs to thrive. I need you to become something more with me to return what should be. Cernunnos won’t own you as such, but you would be two parts of a whole. You will never be free of him unless he falls and another takes his place.”
“Ah.” Ryannon thought for a moment.
“And if I don’t accept you wholly now?”
“It’s likely that you’ll go mad. After all, you’re talking to yourself now in order to make sense of the world around you. It will simply get worse as time goes on but just like in the beginning, the choice must be yours. When you die, all that I am will return to where Cernunnos found me, in the broken bones of your predecessor. She was afraid of responsibility and the difficult task of trying to find balance with a fragmented faulty Horned God. Her only option was to slay him and use his blood to cleanse the land. Because she feared him, she refused to accept and eventually lost all sense of reality.”
“Why is this happening now? What was the trigger?”
“When Cernunnos shaped this tangible form, he fashioned it as a betrothal gift. You were warned that you would be accepting him also. You could only be joined if you took his seed and blood and freely returned elements of your own. That was successfully completed a few moments ago. If it’s of any consolation, I don’t think he intended anything to happen this way.”
“So I really don’t have a choice? I have to accept you or go mad?”
“Don’t try to make excuses. You’re talking to yourself right now and if anyone is likely to tell you to pull your head out of your ass, it’s going to be you right? You’ve already accepted what I represent and you knew deep in your heart that making love to Cernunnos would be a final step to something. You’re just afraid to make the final leap since you fear change and betrayal at the hands of the new Forest Lord.”
Ryannon cringed. Apparently she wasn’t going to cut herself any slack. Her doppelganger grinned at her, colors flashing in her eyes. She held a hand out in invitation.
The sprite frowned at the levity and shook her head with a sigh. She could argue with herself or with a facsimile of herself, it made no difference. Common sense meant accepting the extra power was the best proposition.
As she seized and held the other out thrust hand, the pseudo Ryannon drew her close into a tight embrace. Ryannon held the other being gently but firmly and rested her head on its shoulder. Whatever the copy had told her, she was going to miss the lyrical voice that had offered support and solutions, even if it was strangely, an unusually vocal element of herself.
~
She awoke wrapped in a strong pair of masculine arms. She was in a bed and the sun was already high in the sky. One of the Guardians should have appeared to claim her body where the portal used to manifest or learn the outcome of the Hunt and she hadn’t been there to tell if they’d been able to cross over. She was warm and comfortable and safe and she couldn’t bring herself to care.
Cernunnos was bed hog. He crowded her, pressed up against every part of her he could reach. He was spooning her, and her face was pressed into his bicep where it lay under her head before his arm crossed under her, settled securely between her breasts. His other hand lay possessively over her hip and belly, the fingers pressing into her navel. He’d even thrust his thigh between hers where her leg had slipped inward to prop her up half on her front and side. She was wrapped in male and most of her didn’t mind.
She shifted and he shot up, startling her with a half exclamation blinking sleep from his eyes. He flipped her on to her back so that he could examine her face and what he saw seemed to relax him enough that he settled back into her with a yawn. He was high enough on the pillows that he could see her face. His moss green eyes scrutinized her, as if cataloguing changes. Considering that she was now the living embodiment of the life and fertility of the Otherworld Forest, she didn’t feel all that different.
“Sorry for surprising you” he said quietly. “I’m not used to having anyone beside me in this place” he explained courteously. He trailed gentle fingers from her brow down the side of her face. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I need to punch you in the face, you meddler.”
Amusement flashed on his face and was gone again before she could call him on it. She rolled over in bed facing him and lost her breath again at just how beautiful he was. He was looking at her with the same wonder as he traced her features with gentle explorations. As she opened her mouth to speak, he pressed a solemn finger against her rosebud lips.
“Not yet” he whispered softly. “The day shall intrude on us soon enough. We have little time left and I for one would spend what few moments I can snatch now with you.”
There was genuine desire alight within his eyes. He ran his fingers through her hair, combing it away from her face and then playing with the silver threads. His eyes were serious as he looked at her and his eyes danced as he wistfully absorbed her features.
Ryannon could feel how interested he was where he was pressed against her thigh but he made no move to escalate the tension even though her nipples had hardened to points and her hips were moving restlessly.
It was she who reached out to him to trace the defined edges of the musculature that graced his body. She followed the curves of his pectorals with curious fingers, letting her nails drag over the flat disc of his nipple. He twitched in response, nipple furling to a hard nub. He let her play, staying still while she traced the rough perfection of his face, delighting in the rasp of stubble and he shivered when she grasped the base of his antler and gave it a gentle tug. She felt his shaft stiffen perceptibly and did it again, just to provoke him.
“Minx” he growled as he rolled towards her to press her back into pillows.
His mouth descended and he licked playfully at her lips. She buried her hands in his gold and rust streaked hair to bring him closer reveling in the warm rich taste of him. He fenced her, propping himself up with his forearms on either side of her head, and nibbled at her mouth, then running a hand down her side and over her ribs until it settled firmly on her hip.
He lifted himself and with a knee, he nudged her legs apart so the he could settle his weight more firmly against her. As the sun streamed in through the breaks in the ivy walls, he made love to her again, body surging, rising and falling. It was a gentler joining and all the more spectacular and poignant for it.
Fingers tangled together and lips meeting and parting, they drove one another to shattering climaxes as the birds caroled in the trees.
~
“We have to talk” he murmured against the tangles of her hair.
“I know” she muttered rebelliously. “I guess you’d better start since I have many questions and no answers to offer. What are you going to do with me now?”
He tightened his embrace.
“I need to help you understand what happened so long ago, before I give you a choice. If after you’ve heard the entire tale, you still want to walk away, I won’t stop you. Will you listen?”
She nodded, burying her nose against his bicep and br
eathing deeply. Ryannon had the feeling that she was going to need every ounce of patience she had.
“The story truly began back when humanity first stumbled into this realm. Children were extremely rare then, since we were all so long lived but they were wanted, longed for. When humans crossed over, some were taken to mate. They can be an attractive species and the very mortality that makes them burn so brightly draws some of us to them. The first few, some of us kept. Children were the result. They were weaker than the full bloods, since Human blood has a dilution effect on Otherworld kind. Some valued their half breed children, while others saw them as an abomination, an adulteration of everything we were, and killed them out of hand. They sought to destroy any they came across.”
He checked to make sure that she was still following and she squeezed his hand where it cradled hers to get him to continue. She was riveted by the recitation.
“I was one of those who valued the life of my sole child. I ruled the forest then too, and watched as some of the most powerful Fae on Otherworld turned on one another. Friendships that had existed for millennium were torn apart. The half breeds reproduced faster than those with pure blood, and those most resistant to change feared the adulteration of the entire race. Rivers ran red with the blood of Sidhe and humans combined.”
He hesitated, licking his lips, gaze introspective and sad. Ryannon turned on her side and propped her head on her hand, letting her hand trail down his chest trying to offer some scraps of comfort. He half smiled and clasped her hand bringing it to his lips for a softly pressed kiss.
“I was…- am powerful in my own right but even I would have struggled to face down the massed might of those who opposed the continued wellbeing of the humans and Halflings. But something had to be done, to keep those that we loved safe and to remove them from the reach of those who would have destroyed them.”
He took a shaky breath before he continued.
“It is rumored that I lost my power creating a stable rift through which they might reach the safety of the human realm. That is not so. I gave my power away to those who left our shores to sustain them in their flight and in their new home. The Otherworld maintains and upholds those with natural blood. To leave here without enough power, is to suffocate in a world that can’t support you. We couldn’t send them away to safety, only to feel them die from displacement. I and others like me gave up our life’s energy, our inherent power, that which made it possible for us to become the embodiments of elemental powers, so that they might take a piece of Otherworld with them as they departed. That was why I, and others like me gave up what we held, although we deemed it worthwhile to protect those we considered precious.”
“But you’re OK now right?” blurted Ryannon. “I mean, you have the Forest Lord Horned God thing going on again. You aren’t the kind of bastard Herne was.”
Cernunnos nodded solemnly.
“The power we had gifted returned to us changed, mutated into something else, different but no less powerful. As they die, that which we freely gave returns to us. Again, it is not exactly the same as what we gifted them with, but there has been a multiplication effect with the interbreeding. New generations are truly integrated into earth and are now self-sustaining. The combination of bloodlines has led to some unexpected outcomes, but that is beside the point. When I fell, Herne was offered and grasped power with both hands. In order to let broken remnants return to earth, he wagered an horrific bargain. I was weak enough for him to slay back then so I hid and watched and mourned his changes but when he created that monstrous pact with humanity to offer a sacrifice every Samhain, I finally despaired.
What Herne instigated was a perversion of what should have been. Once folk volunteered with pride and bled willingly to refresh the land. The more powerful a sacrifice was, the greater the honor and the healing. If a volunteer died bravely enough than the intrinsic magic that ropes through this land might choose to bring them back whole and they were celebrated and valued.
It was the same with the wild hunt. Once, the Gods and the Hunt solely pursued those who were oath broken or volunteered. Over the last thousand years, every time the gathering slaughtered an unwilling innocent, forced to run because of a covenant, they poisoned the land beneath them. You’ve seen the dark pockets and mutated groves and trees. Those who were once the noblest protectors, the Green Men are stunted or twisted. There hasn’t been a birth here in centuries, of any sort and still that atrocity of a contract stands.”
Ryannon’s breathing quickened and she felt a churn of fear. He was getting to the point now. This is where she fit in, she could feel it. Else why would he have tried so hard to make her the embodiment of the lands fertility?
He pressed her hand before kissing her knuckles as if is to soothe her before he continued.
“I must live by the bargains struck unless someone is brave enough to trade anew. I need a willing sacrifice whose blood, freely offered, will refresh the ground. You, Ryannon are innocent of all that has happened here. You chose to battle Herne not because you were forced to it but because you didn’t wish to see another fall to an unfair, unjust system. What I seek is to undo the damage. I wish to renegotiate the bargain stuck so long ago. To maintain the rules, this must be finished by a hunt on Samhain. By rights, I could slay you as per the original contract, but that would only deepen the toxins that seep through its lifeblood already. I am trying to build another future. But you must freely choose.
Will you run one final hunt? To refresh the land?”
Chapter Eleven
It was like a knife to the chest. The man she had spent the night entwined with was asking her to die. She was already half way in love with him, so this almost broke her. She pulled her hand free and sat up in bed, twisting so that her feet touched the ground.
“You would ask that of me?”
“I would. The spirit in this land knows what’s in your heart.”
“Why me?”
“I know your heart too.”
“How could you know me? We only met three weeks ago when you saved me.”
“You are my only son’s most beloved protégé” he said simply. “I have watched over you as I watched over him. How could I not know you?”
A flush colored Ryannon’s face. What had he seen? She blushed harder when she remembered that she’d touched herself in the dark night to thoughts of his face and his body after first meeting him. She hunted around frantically for clothing. There was a small pile of clothing, stuff clearly too small to fit Cernunnos. It was the right size for her so she dressed quickly.
“There is also symmetry in the actions’ he continued. “Such things have balance and add power. You were sent here to die.”
“I’m still alive” she pointed out.
“And if there is a debt to pay because of that then I shall be the one to pay it; I’m the Horned God, often referred to as the trickster.” He grinned roguishly. “I always have something up my sleeve.” He too got out of bed and began dressing, pulling on the usual white long sleeved shirt and breeches.
He waited until she finished attiring herself in a similar if far more feminine outfit before he crossed the room to cup her jaw, turning her eyes to him. All levity was gone, but his moss green eyes blazed as if he wanted to tell her something.
“I can tell you why it’s necessary, but not till after you accept or decline. You have power now, use it. Listen to it. The land won’t lie to you.”
Ryannon automatically raised a hand to touch the circlet in her tresses. But the jeweled diadem wasn’t where it should be. Her hands groped fruitlessly but encountered something that terrified her more.
She whirled and fled to the bathroom. There was a small silvered glass there and she snatched it up with a shaking hand to peer anxiously into its depths. She gasped. Her fingertips hadn’t lied. The circlet was gone but in its place was a tiny pair of matched nubbin antlers. They were small and delicate, a dark velvety hue, and flared back from her brow to branch into a couple of sma
ll dainty tines.
She was still touching them in wonder when warm moss green eyes appeared in the silvered surface behind her.
“They suit you too.”
She turned troubled eyes on him.
“This is how the power manifested?” He just smiled in response.
The half breed sprite took a deep breath and turned her mind’s eye inwards. It was different now. There was no lilting voice to give her instructions. What was there was a blazing heart that spread cables through her and out through the land beneath her feet. Without hesitation, she plunged into its molten core. It whispered, information streamed in, waves of light and noise. She stood still absorbing it all in silence.
He hadn’t been lying; in fact the situation was worse than he’d told her. Parts of Otherworld were failing and dying. The elemental force drove her new instinct and she knew that what he was attempting was likely the sole way forward.
The power coiled within her begged. It pleaded with her showing her image after image of species on the verge of extinction. Ryannon’s shoulders sagged. It would seem that she was going to betray everything she’d promised the Guardians.
“How do I know that you won’t use this to break through to the mortal world next Samhain if I capitulate?” He reached out to her, caressing her face with a gentle motion.
“Listen to what your instinct says. You can trust it. But if it helps… I, Cernunnos, Horned God of the Hunt and Lord of the Otherworld Forest vow to Ryannon, daughter of Erikias and Hermain that I will not attack the mortal realm unless it is to defend against incursion.”
She sighed with relief.
“Why didn’t you tell me how dire the situation here actually is?
“To tell you before you chose would be to coerce you. The situation is far worse than you know. If this world falls, then those that we still support on the other side will die with us.”
“You just told me though.”