They were only memories after all.
*
Thomas traveled ahead of Clara, the moon their guide. Supper that consisted of roasted rabbit and collected greens had been their meal and now the bathing chore laid upon them. Bracus brought up the rear.
The women were in the center: Sarah, Anna, Clara and Evelyn. Bracus had fought for Evelyn remaining with the clan but she had become attached to Clara. No one knew why but somehow Evelyn had seen Clara as rescuer.
Thomas stopped and hailed Philip. Philip gracefully moved past the group of females and the two conferred with one another for a moment or two.
Finally Thomas turned on his heel and moved into the brush and out of sight.
Clara's eyebrow rose in question and she realized that Philip may not see her unspoken question in the gloom. But the Band's eyesight was sharp and he answered, “He will keep watch at the forward section of the spring.”
Clara looked about her uneasily. Philip, noticing her unease, continued, “He will face away. He will remain where he is until you call out.”
Clara nodded, casting a wary glance about her. The woods were so deep. She felt that creeping unease threatening again as Sarah laid her hand upon Clara's arm and she forced her shoulders to relax.
Clara straightened her spine and made her way down the path through brush that had been cut by sharpened tools.
Anna walked beside her and she had Evelyn's hand clasped firmly in hers.
CHAPTER 3
Clara and Evelyn swam and frolicked, using far too much soap on every part that they could. Clara's hair, now ridiculously long, floated behind her like a burnished cloak in the steaming pool. It was eerie how much the spring reminded her of the one in which they had bathed near the clan one year past.
The one that Matthew had snatched her from. It seemed so ridiculous now, given how she felt about him.
She was very certain that she loved him. But there was also Bracus.
She was very certain that she might love him as well.
It robbed the smile from her face, those two men that meant so much to her. She could not have both. As it were, the two could barely abide one another. It was her fault. Yet, it was not.
She was something else. Why was she a select? She moved her hand absently to her throat, unadorned with what the clan-dwellers called throat slits.
Sphere-dwellers called them gills.
Gills like her mother had.
Anna smiled at Clara and she grew calmer. There was a woman that understood exactly what boiled beneath Clara's calm exterior. She smiled back.
Clara looked around, trying not to be distracted by Evelyn's splashing of water in her face.
Where was Sarah?
She held her hand up to the others and tiptoed out of the pool. Grabbing a towel, she made the universal gesture to the girls, stay right here for but a moment. They nodded, broad smiles on their faces.
Her feet flowed over the deliciously cool moss of the forest floor. No mud in sight; the early summer months were upon them and had dried the dirt to a packed mass.
Clara stilled, listening. There! To her left she heard voices. She followed them and after a few paces she recognized Sarah's.
“Unhand me,” Sarah hissed, her body pressed and arched against Philip's, his size overwhelming hers.
Clara's heart flooded into her throat. What was this? Was one of the trusted Band assaulting Sarah? She opened her mouth to yell for Thomas when she heard Philip say, “I understand you better than you know. Stop fighting me.”
Clara watched Sarah gaze up at him, then burst into tears. Philip enveloped her into his arms and she clutched his huge shoulders, trembling as he stroked her hair. Clara stared, marveling. She could not believe her eyes. Philip held her tenderly as she sobbed. What in Guardian's name was going on?
Sarah finally pulled away and stared up in his face as he used the pads of his thumbs to wipe away the tears.
“I cannot be with you! It matters not how I feel. It is foolishness. Clarence is the prudent choice for me,” she said, stubbornly crossing her arms.
Sarah had feelings for Philip! But what was this talk about them not being together? Clara stifled a stab of guilt for her eavesdropping, her hair dripping over her wet skin, chilling instantly against her. She shivered.
Philip's mammoth hands ran up and down Sarah's arms. “Can he make you feel thus?” And he pressed his mouth on hers, his hand reaching behind her neck and cranking it back.
Sarah lay stubborn and immobile in his embrace. Then slowly, almost against her will, her fingers crept around his neck. They twined in his hair and with a fierce groan that sounded more like a growl, he picked her up in his arms.
Clara watched as they entwined like serpents, one arm holding her against his torso and she with her hands speared in his hair, feeding off his mouth like one starved.
When Clara heard Sarah give a soft moan as he pressed her closer she turned on her heel and quietly made her way back to the pool.
There was much to deliberate on.
Like the fact that her best friend was toying with two men. Giving an excuse to one while promising fidelity to another? It was so unlike Sarah she could not fathom it.
Clara was distracted anew in the pool, Evelyn and Anna both giving her curious looks. She was not about to expound on her sneaking about until she had a moment with Sarah.
Just as the thought solidified inside her, Sarah appeared beside the pool. Her appearance was disheveled, her mouth swollen, her clothes askew. Clara looked at her and decided something. “Come, let us bathe.”
Sarah gave a tentative smile and stripped her clothing off, revealing a body that glowed like the pearls Clara harvested, her blonde hair silvered in the moonlight.
They cleaned themselves and swam. The silence was broken only by the intimate conversation of women enjoying a stolen moment alone together in the vast Outside.
*
Sarah saw Clara staring at her. “What?” she asked defiantly, chin jutting out defensively.
“I came upon you and Philip.”
Evelyn and Anna stilled in the water, the ripples flooding around everyone as their motions ceased.
Sarah stared at Clara, the weight of the discovery in her eyes. “What of it?” she shrugged.
“You cannot be serious? The Band are not an amusement! Not to be trifled with,” Clara added, not as Queen but as a friend.
Evelyn said, “Does Miss Sarah have romantic intentions toward Philip?”
“Of course not!” Sarah fumed. “They are too different for that entanglement. It is a sphere-dweller that I must choose,” she paused, skimming the surface of the water, her eyes focused on the movement.
“That is untrue. They are to mate with your Queen, Clara,” Anna looked at Clara, nodding in her direction and Clara nodded in return.
Had she no sense? Clara wondered.
It seemed not, for she said, “He is lovely to look upon but we are not well-matched. Beside Anna, you yourself have said there are females which match the males of the Band exactly. They will have more choice, once we mingle with the eastern clans.”
Anna and Evelyn gaped at her. For someone with such a strong intellect, Clara thought her daft.
“Ah, do not look at me so!” she said to Clara. “It is Clarence that is the choice I must make.” She shrugged. “I told Philip as much but a moment ago.”
Somehow, with Sarah's response to him, Clara did not think that he understood that preference.
“You told Philip that you would be joining with Clarence?” Clara asked by way of clarity.
Sarah's eyes dropped. “Not in so many words. But I said that we could not be together.”
“And how did he respond?” Evelyn asked, her arms crossed over her nakedness.
“He did not speak, but made his intent known,” she said, her eyes dropping to the water once more. Clara did not need sight in the dimness of the moonlight to know she blushed.
“You cannot behav
e with these males as you do with a sphere-dweller,” Anna said fiercely. “When they bond with a female, there are no others but she. They are a focused group.” She spun her hand above her head and water droplets flung themselves in all directions, landing like rain around them.
Evelyn smirked at her comment. “It was not the way you felt some months past.”
“Tis true. When I first came to the Clan of Ohio one year and one half year past, I could belong to no one. I could barely belong to myself,” she whispered.
“But no more,” Evelyn said.
Anna looked up at the women with eyes that blazed out of her face. “Yes. I have found joy and safety once more. One of the Band loves me and I grieve no more. I fear no more. He has released me from the terror that choked me when I lived with my clan.”
That was nearly the biggest speech that Clara had ever heard from Anna. She loved to hear her words. They were spoken fervently and from the heart.
Clara sighed. “Does Clarence understand how you feel?”
Sarah shook her head. “There is time aplenty for me to assure him of our betrothal.”
Clara was confused. “I understand you have made your intentions and feelings an ensnared mess for the men to guess about. Sarah, I implore you, you must choose. And choose now. These men are our protectors on this journey. They sacrifice much.”
Sarah glared at Clara and she returned the gaze. An uncomfortable silence descended on the group. Then Clara made a final comment, washing her hands of it, “I might add, that if the Band are good enough to be part of a ruling pair for our kingdom than they should be acceptable for you to consider courting.”
With that, Clara rose out of the steaming pool, the cool, early summer air nipping at her exposed flesh. The women exited the pool quietly, wrapping themselves in the itchy burlap cloth that traveled well but roughened the skin. Clara knew this and patted her skin dry, finally piling what felt like ten pounds of hair atop her head.
“Why do you think we have not seen the fragment about?” Evelyn asked and Clara stiffened.
“They are about. But they will not approach when four of the Band ride with us,” Anna said with certainty.
“You do not recall the battle? How many of the Band to that of the fragment?” Clara asked her.
Evelyn nodded. “I do remember. But we are far and away from the safety of our clan. It is very open here.”
Clara knew exactly what she meant. Though the forest was to the north of them, they had traveled alongside the last sphere, the Kingdom of Pennsylvania, ten days past. There had been an abiding sadness as she saw the glow of the sphere fall away behind their procession.
“There was much prejudice there...” Sarah said meaningfully.
Clara was angered by some of the other spheres' inhospitable treatment of the clan-dwellers and especially the Band. They feared change. Feared the Band. Clara felt it was their future. The mingling of their respective peoples.
She felt it in her bones, in her blood.
She nodded. “Yes, refreshing our supplies was the most they would do.”
Anna articulated exactly how Clara felt, “They showed you insufficient deference, Clara.”
“I am aware. Mayhap time is needed for them to see there really is very little difference amongst the two peoples.”
“Nay, the Band is different.” Evelyn said.
They looked at her, their clothes sticking upon their damp bodies.
“Go on,” Clara asked.
“I listened to them when they spoke of the Band,” she said.
Clara was rapt with her attention. Evelyn was only ten and three years and had not been pressed about her brief capture by the fragment. Mayhap she was ready to rid herself of some of the memory by speaking with those she felt safest with.
Evelyn looked at Clara for encouragement and she nodded her encouragement.
Evelyn continued, “They spoke of the Band as tools of the Travelers. They are to protect more than just the clans.”
“Who are the Travelers, Evelyn?” Sarah asked, unwinding her hair from the cloth.
“Miss Sarah, they are the Guardians. She looked at each of their shocked faces.
Anna recovered first. “The Evil Ones.”
Evelyn smiled. “Nay, they are not evil, but they have punished the fragment in a most unique way. Is it true the fragment and clan-dwellers could not penetrate the sphere but by the salted water?”
Clara nodded, thinking briefly of their own singular seawater oyster field under constant guard.
“The Band is the safeguard for your Guardians. They are the assurance of order in the chaos that is the fragment,” she finished.
Anna shook her head. “No, they are but small pieces of disbanded clans strewn about...”
“No, it is more than that,” Clara said, studying Evelyn's reaction. “Tell us why you think the Band's purpose is broader than we know.”
Evelyn took a deep breath. “Clara, what do you remember about the fragment when we were engaged in battle?”
Clara's mind turned quickly, remembering the one who intended to rape her, the one that had cornered Evelyn and herself.
“They were criminal, filthy.”
Evelyn nodded but Clara sensed her frustration. She circled the answer but had not yet lighted upon it. “Their speech. It is their speech. They do not speak as we do,” Evelyn prompted.
She was right. They had a strange way of talking. Clara had not touched on that memory. It was very small in comparison with all the others which crowded her mind and stole her sleep.
Sarah and Anna looked at Clara. “What she mentions is true. They spoke strangely.”
Sarah cocked an eyebrow. “In what way?” Her discomfort over the past conversation was overridden by her curiosity. After all, she was a teacher.
She and Evelyn looked at each other but it was Evelyn that spoke, “There are some that speak as we do but it is mixed. The majority slur the words together. With missing letters.”
Clara nodded, remembering. “That is true.”
Anna said, “Let us ask Matthew. He was held by them for years. He would have surely noticed differences.”
“Why do they label the Guardians, Travelers?” Clara asked. She was most curious as to why the Guardians had three different monikers amongst the different groups.
“Wait!” Sarah said suddenly. “Was their speech modern sounding?”
Anna looked at her. “Really, Sarah? If it were modern how would one identify that?”
But Evelyn nodded. “It seemed as if it could be speech that was shortened to facilitate communication.”
Sarah began pacing, excited by the discovery, the differences.
Of course, she had not met them in the flesh at battle. It would put a pall on lengthy conversation.
Evelyn faced Clara. “They are called Travelers because they move through time.”
There was absolute silence. It was as if the forest held its breath.
“What did you say?” Sarah asked in disbelief.
Evelyn looked at her feet and mumbled again. “They are not of this time, they are of another.”
Clara moved and took her hand. “Dear Heart, I think you are confused.”
“I am not,” she regarded Clara steadily. “They saved the clan-dwellers, the sphere-dwellers but the fragment is another thing entirely. I do not know what their role is but the fragment spoke about the Travelers saving their 'precious people'. They harnessed time, Clara. They use it as their vehicle between now and some other time.”
“Why did you not tell us this most important piece of news?” Clara asked gently, trying her best not to let the disbelief leak all over her face. It was too impossible to believe.
“I thought I would not be believed,” she shrugged her narrow shoulders. “I am but ten and three years, unimportant, save for my sex...”
“When?” Anna breathed.
“What time?” Sarah asked and Evelyn looked confused.
“What time are the
y from?” Clara asked.
“The future. They are from the future.”
CHAPTER 4
Clara could not sleep. Her bedroll seemed pleasant and snug, the Band arrayed in a diamond configuration around the group, she at its center. She was restless, the news of the Guardians swirling around her mind like an insistent fog.
It did not matter that the night was cool and perfect, the stars casting a whitish blue haze above her head. She sighed again and turned over. Fifty paces from where she lay she met Matthew's gaze. He did not sleep either. Even in the gloom she could feel the heat from his eyes.
Quietly she rolled the top cover off and stood up. She looked about her, women in the center, the guard outside of them and finally, the Band at the four directional corners.
She moved between the sleeping bodies, making her way to Matthew. When she was almost upon him he met her and wrapped her body against his. Her thin nightdress pressed against the bare skin of his chest. Smooth and brown, the muscles flexed and moved underneath her cheek.
“We must move away from here so as to not wake the others,” he said.
“Is that wise? We are never to be alone...?” Clara asked, her heart speeding with his proximity.
His teeth flashed in the gloom. “Are you afraid to be with me alone, Clara?” he asked with the thinnest thread of humor in his voice.
“Never,” she breathed out. “But I do wish to be fair to Bracus.”
Matthew raised a bare shoulder in a half-shrug. “We must talk, you do not sleep. We will not go far.”
Clara pulled away slightly and he took her hand and he led her to a small stand of trees whose leaves rustled and sung in the breeze above them.
They stood facing each other with their hands clasped. “What bothers you, Clara?”
Clara craned her neck up to look at Matthew. They had come so far and worked through so much of his unease with others. She sighed. “Evelyn has revealed many things about the fragment that are disquieting, unbelievable. Truly unbelievable.” Clara measured his reaction but his face showed very little.
The SAVAGE Series, Books 1-3: The Pearl Savage, The Savage Blood and The Savage Principle Page 31