by HR Moore
‘Let them speculate and enjoy the attention. That’s what I’d do.’
‘Yes well you’ve always been better than I have at that.’
‘You should go with him. Enjoy it. Put two fingers up to bitch-face Gwyn. I saw her shove you at the start of the Chase. You know you want to.’
‘I’m still thinking about it. Don’t worry, you’ll be the first to know what I decide. But in the meantime don’t you dare tell anyone.’
Cleo looked hurt. ‘Me? Gossip? Never.’
‘Come on, let’s go back inside. I think I need another drink.’
CHAPTER 6
The following day was Christiana’s funeral and Anita walked to the Temple of the Body with Cordelia, Alastair and Bas. When they got to the Temple, Cordelia and Anita found seats in the open section at the back and Alastair and Bas walked the seemingly endless distance to the front, where they had seats reserved for them with the rest of the Councillors and their families. As was customary, those belonging to the Temple of the Body were given first priority over the newly laid out seats and those belonging to the other Temples took any seats left over, or stood at the back. The Body Temple didn’t have the same colossal, open expanse as the Spirit Temple. As opposed to sky high pillars holding up the roof, the Body Temple had a series of high arches splitting the space into distinctly separate, but still relatively open sections. Every Temple had a clear run from at least one entrance to its altar, in the Spirit Temple pretty much every entrance had this, but in the Body Temple many had to sit in side chambers with views obstructed by the intricate brickwork. The Mind Temple was a total nightmare for large, public events as the spaces were so closed off that only a very fortunate few ever got to see anything, but that’s how the Mind Descendants generally liked things, small and elitist.
Twenty minutes later, all the seats were taken and a massive crowd stretched out behind the ropes that had been erected to keep a pathway clear for the coffin. Christiana had been extremely popular, mostly for her fairness and generosity, and many people had travelled from Kingdom to be there.
Music wafted back through the Temple from a harp at the front, bouncing around the arches and up to the spire above, vibrant yet haunting music that made the hair on the back of Anita’s neck stand up as the procession of the coffin and the Descendants began. Everyone turned round in their seats to watch the coffin, carried by six Body Councillors, enter the Temple, with Peter and Gwyn following immediately behind. They were both wearing black cloaks and Gwyn had a black birdcage veil across her face, with small white flowers in her hair. Very theatrical, thought Anita. Behind them was Alexander, also with a floor-length black cloak, his dishevelled hair looking a little more tame than usual. He had his usual regal yet rugged look about him, like some ancient knight about to wield a sword in the pursuit of the righteous. Anita noted that his energy seemed to be far less prominent than it normally was and she wondered how he was able to mask it as he did. Finally, Austin and Marcus entered the Temple, both also in black cloaks, but theirs had a red trim running round the edge. They can’t even show her respect at her funeral, thought Alexander. As he entered the Temple, Alexander unintentionally inclined his head in Anita’s direction, feeling her brazen energy. She really needs to learn to hide that he thought, noticing he was a little riled as he moved on.
Austin was in front of Marcus and looked every inch the evil dictator as he sauntered into the Temple, Marcus however looked regal, his chiselled features glorious as ever as he strode after his father. He spotted where Anita was sitting and looked directly at her, locking his eyes with hers as he ascended the steps. Anita held his gaze and hoped people hadn’t noticed. He neared where she was sitting and broke eye contact to keep from having to turn his head to look at her, continuing up the aisle to join the rest of the Descendants. Cordelia looked sideways at Anita but didn’t say anything. She knew that Austin and Marcus had given Anita a lift home after the Chase, but after that look she wasn’t sure if that was all that was going on.
The funeral was short but emotional. Austin gave the opening speech, which most people thought a little strange, but he explained it away by starting, in his normal cloying voice, ‘as the only current reigning Descendant…’ Anita rolled her eyes as he said it. There were several moving tributes to Christiana and the spectacular Body feats she had achieved during her life, along with accounts of her generosity to those of all Temples. Peter gave a gripping insight into life as the child of someone so exceptional, however the most moving account was the last from Alexander.
‘…and at the age of five, when I had recently lost both my father, in a tragic fire in this very Temple, and my mother, of a broken heart just a few months later, it was Christiana who guided me. Over the years she was a source of unparalleled council. She was a leader but not a dictator, she was competitive, proud, stubborn, but above all compassionate. She observed the world around her, striving not to control, but to understand. She was a source of hope, believing in honesty and doing what was right, even when this path was the most difficult and dangerous of all. But Christiana’s mortality was part of what made her great and her time had come, as it will for us all. Our deep and painful loss is truly the Goddess Tatiana’s gain.’
At the end of the funeral, the Descendants and Councillors processed out with the coffin. Christiana’s body would be transported back to Kingdom where it would be buried alongside her ancestors. The crowd started to disperse as soon as the procession had left the Temple and Cordelia turned to Anita and fixed her with a curious look. ‘I didn’t realise you and Marcus were such good friends,’ she said pointedly.
‘We’re not,’ replied Anita. ‘Why do you say that?’ she asked offhandedly, hoping that would throw Cordelia off the scent as she got up and filed out of the Temple with everyone else.
‘You know just fine why I say that. We can talk about it later,’ she said, as she had just spotted Alistair and Bas and started making her way over to them. Anita was following in her wake, totally preoccupied by thoughts of Marcus’ alluring gaze when she felt someone’s presence in front of her. She looked up to see Marcus standing in her path and felt her energy immediately respond. Get. A. Grip. Anita. She counseled inwardly.
‘Hi,’ he said.
‘Hi,’ Anita replied eyeing him with a ‘can I help you?’ kind of look.
‘I was just wondering if you’d given any more thought to my invitation?’
‘Oh, was that what it was?’ she asked, feigning surprise, ‘you see I was under the impression that it was more of a command then an invitation.’
Marcus looked back at her, a disorientated look morphing into a playful one. ‘I see. Well for that I must apologise Anita, I should clearly make an effort to clarify. Anita, Champion of the Chase, would you do me the exceptional honour of attending the ball with me?’ he asked in a flamboyant, dramatic way.
‘I’m not sure that invitation was afforded the level of gravity I would expect for something so important. How am I to know your invitation is earnest?’ she flirted back.
‘You’re concern is the sincerity of my proposal?’ Marcus responded, although Anita wasn’t quite sure if he was jesting or not.
‘There is a certain delicious frivolity to it,’ she replied, not really expecting to take the flirting to quite this level in such a public place, ‘but I suspect your invitation is genuine.’
‘Well in which case…’ he said looking expectantly at Anita.
Anita paused, considering how to respond. Should she say yes? Cleo would certainly be happy. She tilted her head up towards his, looked searchingly into his eyes. It strongly reminded her of their encounter by the river and she could see in his eyes that it had brought it back for him as well. Luckily, at that moment Austin’s voice came booming across their thoughts.
‘Marcus. There you are,’ he said, seeing Anita as he reached where they stood. ‘Ah the champion. How are you Anita?’
‘Very well thank you Austin, and you?’
‘Yes, yes, very well,’ he replied affectedly, before casting her aside. ‘Come on Marcus, we have a lunch to get to.’ And without another word Austin dragged Marcus after him, Marcus briefly looking back at Anita who mouthed the word ‘maybe’ at him as he departed.
Anita felt elated as she spotted Alistair, Bas and Cordelia and made her way over to them. She had managed to put off giving Marcus an answer for a bit longer and come out on top of that little interaction. ‘Where have you been?’ Cordelia questioned suspiciously as Anita joined them.
‘I just spotted a friend and said hello,’ she answered defensively, which wasn’t entirely untrue.
‘We’re heading up to Alistair’s for lunch,’ said Cordelia, ‘I take it you don’t have any other plans?’
Bas looked at Anita, he clearly wanted her to join them. ‘No, I’m free as a bird,’ sighed Anita. ‘Lead the way.’
*****
After lunch, Anita took her wine out on to the balcony. She loved the view from the top of the hill, out over the wild countryside and the river below. She would love to live up here. The house was spectacular, set at the top of a hill just outside of Empire. It was prominent and modern yet not overpowering, with clean, angular lines. If only she was in love with Bas in the way he was in love with her; life would be divine. Bas slid the door closed behind him as he joined her on the balcony and came to stand next to her, leaning on the wooden railing, their arms touching.
‘You’re one lucky guy Bas,’ she said.
‘How so?’ he asked bemused.
‘You can wake up and look at this wild, beautiful view every morning then go to the Observatory and stare out over Empire to your heart’s content.’
He laughed. ‘Yep, I’ve got to admit it, I’m exceptionally lucky when it comes to good views. I can’t argue with you there.’ They stared out in silence taking in the view for a few minutes before Bas said awkwardly, ‘the ball.’
Anita looked at Bas, anxiety screwed up inside her. Don’t do it Bas, she silently pleaded. ‘Yep,’ she replied as calmly as she could.
‘I know you said you weren’t going before, because it wasn’t your thing, but now that you have to go…well, I’ve asked this girl called Missy, but only because her father is a friend of Dad’s and I said I’d do it as a favour…’ he paused, taking what looked like a difficult breath ‘…but if you would want to go with me, I’ll tell her there was a misunderstanding or something,’ he rushed the words out, presumably in case he bottled out at the last minute. ‘I’d hate for you to have to do the first dance on your own,’ he joked and shoved her arm playfully.
Anita took a long inward breath. ‘Bas,’ Anita turned to look at him, barely bringing herself to hold his gaze when she saw the hopeful look in his eyes. ‘Any girl in this town would jump at the chance of going to the ball with you. You know that. And I’m sure Missy is really looking forward to going with you…’
‘…yes, but…’ Bas tried to interrupt and Anita put a hand on his arm to silence him.
‘You know I love you Bas, but I love you like a brother. I wish I loved you like you love me, it would make it so simple…but I’m sorry, I just don’t see you that way.’ She paused, racked with guilt at Bas’ crestfallen face. ‘You should go to the ball with Missy. I’m sure she’s great.’
Bas turned back to look down at the river below. He sighed and eventually nodded, looking deeply hurt but resigned to accept what Anita had said. ‘So, who are you going to the ball with then?’
‘That’s not yet confirmed,’ she said, moving towards the door, ‘we’ll both just have to wait and see.’ Bas thought about pursuing it, and ordinarily probably would have, but given the circumstances he decided it might be best to just let it go. Silently he turned and followed Anita back inside, feeling a lot like a shining light inside of him had just been extinguished.
*****
The following day Anita woke up feeling like a weight had been lifted. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Bas but was glad that he finally knew how she felt. She had also just about survived her grandmother’s questioning about Marcus on the way home, turning the conversation to Bas and how she had told him that she didn’t want to go to the ball with him instead. Cordelia had been pretty indignant about the whole thing. She thought Anita and Bas were perfect for each other and couldn’t imagine why Anita couldn’t recognise when she was on to a good thing, but she at least felt one step closer to understanding what was going on in Anita’s life, which placated her for the moment.
Anita decided today was a good day for a ride, and given her good spirits, for jumping in the woods. She galloped across the open field in the direction of the woods, feeling like she was flying as they easily cleared the ditch in the middle and hurtled towards the trees at breakneck speed. As she was approaching the woods, she felt extraordinary energy coming towards her through the trees. She slowed to a canter just as a colossal black stallion sailed over one of the enormous jumps out of the woods, circled wide into the field and headed back over the next jump, returning to the woods. Given the power of the energy that had come off the rider, along with their dishevelled hair, Anita knew it was Alexander. This was confirmed moments later when a bay stallion, also bearing a rider with powerful energy, but this one with neat, short hair, soared over the fence into view, and completed the same wide circle before hurrying back into the woods after Alexander. Without thinking, Anita spurred her grey mare back into a gallop, heading for the corner of the woods, where she hoped she would be able to catch them up and join in with what was obviously a race.
Anita easily cleared the fence into the woods. As she landed she heard hooves thundering just in front of her and to her right. She manoeuvred her mare, Iona, through the trees and came out just behind Alexander’s black stallion, who was preparing to launch them over the next jump. Anita hurriedly collected her mount and followed Alexander over, urging Iona up beside the stallion when they landed easily the other side. Alexander looked over at her as she came level with him, ‘what are you doing here?’ he shouted angrily.
‘I was out for a ride and saw the fun, so thought I’d join in,’ she replied impishly, flashing him a disarming smile and ducking to avoid a branch.
‘Has spectating ever occurred to you?’
‘Ha,’ she laughed, ‘don’t be ridiculous.’
Alexander pulled in front to clear the next jump, this one taking them back out of the woods into the field. The other side he hurtled towards the hedge between this field and the next and easily cleared it, Anita once again following him over without hesitation. Marcus had followed them out of the woods and was gaining ground, his stallion fast across the flat open field. He recognised Anita on the grey mare and urged his stallion faster still, catching Anita, who had dropped slightly behind Alexander before they reached the woods again.
‘Fancy seeing you here,’ Marcus shouted over to her.
‘Is that the only line you know?’ she quipped back.
‘If you ever agree to spend some time with me, maybe you’ll find out,’ he replied, as Alexander cleared another mammoth fence back into the woods. Anita followed him over but Marcus clipped the fence as he jumped. His stallion lurched forward as they landed, Marcus thrown clear into the undergrowth, his horse bolting. Alexander and Anita, hearing Marcus’ expletives as he landed in a heap on the ground, reigned in their mounts and turned back to see if he was alright, his stallion galloping past.
Anita leapt off Iona and ran to where Marcus had landed. He was trying to sit up as she got there and smiled when he saw it was her. ‘We meet again, Anita,’ he flirted. He can’t be too badly injured then, Anita thought as she considered how to reply. However, before she could come up with something good, another voice piped up.
‘How careless of you to lose your steed, Marcus,’ Alexander goaded as he walked towards them. ‘I do believe that means you owe me your next shipment of chocolate,’ he jeered triumphantly.
Anita felt Marcus’ energy turn. He was exceptionally angry. Alexan
der’s energy on the other hand brightened as soon as he felt Marcus’ rage. He was enjoying this, but Anita wasn’t entirely sure why. Marcus had lost, Alexander had not won. ‘And to lose in front of your girlfriend, well I suppose more have to withdraw technically, how embarrassing for you.’ Anita had never felt energy as hostile as Marcus’ was now.
‘She’s not my girlfriend,’ he spat through gritted teeth.
‘I see,’ Alexander lifted an eyebrow, ‘you can’t even get someone like her to go out with you. Interesting.’
Anita reacted badly to this. It was one thing to goad Marcus for loosing, even if he was taking it a bit too far, but it was quite another to insult her to her face like that. Anita’s energy turned hostile towards Alexander with a force that surprised him. ‘I may not be his girlfriend,’ she said easily, ‘but we are going to the ball together.’ She almost laughed when she saw the look on Marcus’ face. ‘It’s funny, I would have thought somebody as high and mighty as you wouldn’t have the time to gloat for so long about winning some poxy jumping game. Shouldn’t you be going?’
Alexander sniggered as he turned and galloped away. He forced his energy to remain light hearted until he was out of range for Anita to be able to read him, then allowed his true feelings to surface. He had been surprised by the venom that Anita had shown towards him, but what was even more surprising was that he felt hurt by it. His plan had sort of worked; he had wanted Anita to be under Marcus’ protection. It was highly unlikely that Austin would harm Anita whilst Marcus had feelings for her, although he hadn’t quite planned for it to happen like this. He hadn’t wanted to make her hate him in the process, he wanted to help her. He easily cleared the fence out of the woods and galloped towards home, trying to convince himself that he could rectify the situation, he just wasn’t sure how.