The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  This one chance to believe in me the way I’d once believed in Kohén.

  Fortunately, everyone seemed more comfortable to rush Bastien to welcome him home and were considerate enough for the state I was in to give me breathing room, so while he accepted hugs and brought those that had waited here for us up to date on everything that had gone on since he’d seen them last, I took the opportunity to look around the old railway station and get my bearings. It really was a huge space, with room enough not only for that dining area and what looked like a resting area, but with a food preparation one. A large concrete bench had been utilised like a kitchen, and air vents had been carved out of the arched and snow-coated roof, giving the smoke from heating and cooking somewhere to go and allowing a bit of natural light in.

  That light was non-existent by the time I got there because darkness had fallen during our final leg of that day’s expedition, but the warmth of the fires was all I needed for the time being, so I stepped up to one eagerly and rubbed my hands together over it, looking around a little less obviously as I took stock of Hope Station’s population.

  There were a lot of children, I saw that quickly, and a lot of old people too- more than I’d expected to see living outside of the comforts of Arcadia. The children had parents that were around Constance’s age and younger- plenty of mother and father-looking types, but I noticed that there was a distinct lack of young adults like me and that struck me as being odd. There was a group of men about Karol’s age that were sharpening blades in one cluster, a group of old women that were all cloaked and sinister-looking for it and the way they’d constellated in a circle and were chanting softly around a fire, a group of babies that were being tended to by a girl of about thirteen and a bunch of middle-aged men that were eating and laughing heartily while sitting at a table together… but no youths at all.

  Surely they must have been grouped together somewhere else, possibly even in the train carriages? I stepped slightly away from the fire and peered anxiously into the darkness below the platform, searching for one of the familiar faces that I’d expected to see by then: Martya’s, Adeline’s or maybe even Cherry’s, who’d been on the wrong side of the fence the night before too… but to my dismay, the people that were coming out of the carriages to get a look at me were closer to the younger girl’s age and completely unfamiliar to me and I didn’t know whether to be happy about that, or worried sick. I wasn’t ready to face Martya yet, I knew that, but now I feared that something terrible had happened to her in the chaos that had followed the crowned prince’s tumble out of the tower window, and that I’d never again get the chance to tell her how much I loved and hated her.

  ‘Your loved ones will be joining us in the next day or so, God willing,’ Bastien said in a low voice then, appearing at my side while handing me an ancient cup full of what looked like tea. ‘They had to wait for us to leave, so that they could follow after with a report of how your disappearance was received, and that group is mostly made up of kids your age, because they tend to be the fastest thinkers and movers, and the most endurable. I know you’re disappointed not to be reunited with them immediately, but they will be along, Larkin, and we will wait here until they have joined us because Martya is almost as instrumental to this movement as I am.’

  ‘So I was told,’ I said dryly to cover my relief (I didn’t want Martya knowing how much I missed her just yet!) before taking a sip from the tea, which turned out to be broth. It was bland but it was warm and comforting and so I gulped down another mouthful immediately after I’d swallowed the first, and then met Bastien’s eyes. ‘I confess that although I am relieved to know that she will be along, I must admit… I don’t know what I am going to say to her when we meet again, Bastien. I am glad that she is alive… but I could kill her for allowing me to believe otherwise for so long.’

  ‘You have a lot of forgiving to do,’ Bastien agreed sadly, ‘it must be unsettling… to be forced to co-exist with people that were obligated to protect you, but have not yet earned a skerrick of your trust.’

  Knowing that he was talking about himself, I met the shepherd’s eyes and responded just as quietly: ‘You have earned some of my trust today, Shepherd Birch. You said you’d get me across The Wildwoods and away from Arcadia, and you did it.’

  ‘Bastien,’ he corrected me, but he smiled, ‘and thank you.’

  ‘Bastien,’ I repeated, and returned his smile with one of my own. But just as soon as I believed that I’d managed to get a hold of myself, the stabbing pains that had been invading my head all day returned with a vengeance and I cringed and lifted my free hand to rub at my temples. I would have dropped my cup, but Bastien caught it before I could completely forget that I was to keep it upright.

  ‘Larkin!’ he whispered, quietly but with a voice full of concern. ‘What’s the matter?’

  Exhaustion smashed into me like a wave, and I tilted dangerously close to the fire pit as I looked for something to latch on to. I found his arm instead and steadied myself on it. ‘I’m sorry…’ the pain made it feel like my brain matter was in knots. ‘I’ve been fighting off a headache all day…’

  ‘You need rest,’ he said, sounding helpless. ‘I’ve pushed you much too far, and didn’t give you adequate sustenance beforehand- I know that. Come, I’ll arrange for you to have a bath and then we’ll find you something more solid to eat, and a place for you to sleep for the night, all right? Somewhere that you’re less likely to be bothered by the others who are too fascinated by you for your own good.’

  ‘Bath?’ I asked numbly as my head throbbed and spun. ‘You have baths here?’

  ‘Hot ones, and somewhere for your clothes to be laundered too,’ the shepherd said before leading me over to an older woman that was holding a stack of threadbare but perfectly folded towels. ‘Georgia? Miss Whittaker needs a bath and a solid meal. Can you arrange that for me while I go and find her somewhere private to sleep?’

  ‘Sure thing, Shep!’ the woman exclaimed. ‘Anything else I can do for you once that’s done? Maybe fetch you a cup of warm milk?’

  Even through the pain in my head, I was aware of the way the woman’s voice practically trilled the shepherd’s name. His looks may have been lost on him, but one squinted glance around the room had already confirmed that there was as many women staring at Bastien as they were at me- but where they regarded me with awe, curiosity and even a hint of suspicion, they sparkled after their shepherd like gemstones. I didn’t know how to feel about that, but I felt another set of eyes on me then, burning into me, and I twisted to look behind me, and lifted my eyebrows when I saw a boy staring back at me from across the room. Staring at me with so much intensity that the hairs on my arms lifted in response.

  The boy was sitting alone in the shadows, and as I studied him, I was struck by two things: One, he had a very familiar-looking black velvet cloak puddled on the table in front of him and two, he was one of the most startlingly-attractive looking men I’d ever seen in my life, with a shock of red hair that contrasted brightly against eyes that were the colour of blue steel that was light in the inside but darker on the outside. I couldn’t imagine being attracted to another male ever again, but there was something about that boy that appealed to something in me, despite the bad vibrations that were radiating off him in waves.

  Why, thank you, Larkin of Eden… the boy thought, and his words were accompanied by another succession of stabbing pains inside my mind that were so sharp that they made me gasp. You’re pretty easy on the eye yourself though I do agree with your father- you need a bath desperately. As do I... after pretending to haunch over all day!

  Oh my God- who are you? My hands lifted to clutch at my head as I gaped at the boy. I was getting used to having someone inside my head after spending that week getting acquainted with Satan, but it didn’t hurt when Satan talked into my mind, and it didn’t seem as intrusive when she did it for some reason. Were you just pretending to be an old man all day? Have you been inside my mind this whole time?


  The boy did not answer my question directly, but his smug smile was all the answer that I needed, and my blood bubbled in response, racing through my veins like lava. Hadn’t I been intruded upon enough that week? Why did everyone think it was all right to force themselves inside me, physically and mentally?

  No! My blood turned to ice as horror overcame me. No, don’t think about that! He can’t see the way they touched me… oh it’s so humiliating! I… I … I have to get out of here!

  Wait: let me explain! The boy thought, and his smug smile faded as I began to back away from him in horror. I won’t do it all the time, but I had to raid your mind today! You’re not the only one that is in debt to Satan, you know. You have your terms- and I have mine! There are ways that you can block me out but I couldn’t let you know about them before I’d gotten a better idea about your experiences! The witches will be able to help you-

  Witches?!

  They’re not the bad kind of witches, not really. Well, they are technically devil worshippers and one or two are dark Nephilim like me but-

  Dark Nephilim? My nerves were officially shot. ‘Stay away from me!’ I screamed, not inside my mind but out loud, and though the room had been alive with the chatter of almost one hundred voices before then, it fell silent after, just as everyone turned to gawk at me. But this time I didn’t care because I had given up trying to come across as strong and composed and had started running across that platform and back into the tunnel that I had stumbled out of, knowing that I’d sprint all the way back to Arcadia before I allowed another person inside me in any way again without my consent.

  Mirroring that sentiment, my wings unfurled in response to my flight or fight reflexes, which were screaming at me to get away from that terrible, beautiful boy and his sharp mind as soon as possible.

  4.

  Eden Palace, City Of Arcadia

  Karol Barachiel

  Yael turned crimson from collar to hairline, but Atticus only looked confused. ‘Larkin never attempted to-’

  ‘Oh come on, Prime Minister Hartley!’ I crowed, deciding that father’s advice: to never expect to be friends with the people that worked for you- had been sound. ‘Everyone in this room knows that you all but begged Miss Whittaker to work for you in Pacifica, and that she left this castle with Pacifica’s greatest asset around her pretty neck. Does that seem like a normal occurrence to you, sir? That the leader of one country would hand his greatest treasure over to a prostitute in the hopes that she might be released one day?’

  Now everyone turned to gape at Atticus, and I saw the Prime Minister redden. ‘That wasn’t her request,’ he half-mumbled. ‘It was Kohén that asked for the necklace-’

  ‘Another unlikely happenstance,’ I pointed out. ‘That a crowned prince of sound mind would beg for such an expensive gift to win over a girl that already legally belonged to him!’ I turned on Yael next. ‘And what say you, Elbert? Did you not pledge all of the land that Larkin could dream of, in exchange for her promise to come to Yael one day?’

  ‘I did that because I believed it would be profitable for me to employ her,’ Yael said quickly, but he wasn’t looking at anyone anymore, and I judged him for sweating so profusely despite the fact that he hadn’t moved in a while. ‘She seemed to be an expert on cotton production and-’

  ‘An expert?’ I demanded, mystified. ‘A seventeen year-old girl with a vegetable garden cannot be an expert in cotton production, and an intelligent leader would know that!’

  ‘That’s what you say now!’ Yael snapped, looking irate. ‘But let’s not forget that you were singing a different tune last year at Kohén’s birthday ball! You damn near pushed her into my arms while assuring me that it would be in my best interests to get her to Yael-’

  ‘I have not denied being under her thrall- it is you that believes yourself unaffected by her and I’m trying to point out that that is not the case! My recommending her to you was yet another ridiculous happenstance that only proves how expertly she was manipulating us!’ I held out my hands. ‘If I believed that Larkin was an expert on such a thing, why would I push her at another kingdom’s leader anyway?’

  ‘Because you were trying to impress a girl, obviously! Or get her out of your brother’s reach and your kingdom’s laws about Companion-sharing. You wanted her to think you wanted great things for her, but you were thinking with your-’

  ‘As were you, when you asked Larkin if she would service you in Yael, despite the fact that you are a married man!’ I shot back, and there were several audible gasps from the other men at the table. I jumped to my feet as Yael gaped at me, thunderstruck and Shepherd Choir gaped at him. ‘Larkin told me that you propositioned her when she was fifteen and she feigned offence when she recollected your offer, but I don’t know what’s more likely now- that she was lying to me, or that you were considering having an extra-marital affair with a prostitute all along! But either way, it proves that though the lord may work in mysterious ways, a whore works in every way that she can, and that as far as the leaders of Calliel are concerned, she worked us all over good! Look at us, all right? Just look at us!’ I stormed out from behind the table and gestured to them all. ‘This evil slut has killed our king and here we sit, trying to make excuses for her! Trying to protest her innocence when there isn’t one thing about her that can be called good or pure! Satan put that girl into this palace-’

  ‘Karol-’ Shepherd Choir started to rise.

  ‘No! I will curse her name because she is a godless shrew!’ I snapped, seeing all too clearly that I’d been more influenced by Larkin’s darkness than I had previously thought I’d been, to have ended up so lost. What other explanation was there, for how much I had been mocking goody-goodies like Amelia-Rose and Kohl, and becoming enamoured with a woman whose strongest skill was sarcasm? ‘And I only use Satan’s name because I know that I cannot summon the demon that is already here! Or was, until Larkin flew out that window last night!’ I walked to the window, staring out of it at the smoke-covered sunset, heart pounding so hard that I knew it was going to leave bruises on my chest. If I wanted proof that Larkin had been trying to strip God from our lives, it was in that dull, grey and joyless sunset that she had left for us behind her.

  ‘I loved her,’ I said, shaking my head, ‘or I believed that I did, and I apologize to you all for that. I was under her spell and I may have never emerged from it... but the way she told me my father was dead… the lack of remorse in those beautiful, ever-changing eyes when she delivered that blow…’ I turned back to them and said flatly: ‘It has cured me of her and now I intend on curing this world of her too, and that’s why I have called you here today- to beg for a second chance at my birthday wish.’

  ‘Excuse me?’ Lee Selafiel looked out of place and nervous as hell as she spoke for the first time. ‘Haven’t you already had your birthday wish- to get this girl’s peers freed- granted?’

  ‘No. The people that I was going to free in honour of Martya Rice’s birthday were freed by default when Larkin incinerated their contracts last night. Naturally I no longer believe that releasing a lot of people like Larkin is the right thing to do, but those contracts were under the crown’s duty of care and they no longer exist and so they are free to go, whether I like it or not.’

  ‘So you’re saying that someone else blew out your candles so now you want a second cake?’ Yael drawled, and though the sound of people snickering made me wither on the inside, I stood taller, adjusting my collared shirt.

  ‘No- I’m saying that my birthday wish is to turn every person that has been enlisted in the Corps into a small army- one that I will use to protect this country’s borders until Larkin Whittaker has been apprehended, trialled…’ I smiled grimly as I got to the dearest wish my heart had: ‘and if found guilty, publicly executed as a demon- by fire.’

  The room exploded in response. ‘God did not believe in armies!’ Atticus protested. ‘Isn’t the Corps we have already pushing it a little?’

  ‘God hated
war!’ Shepherd Choir looked grey.

  ‘Execution is a bit of an extreme punishment to dole out to someone that has not yet had the chance to defend herself, isn’t it?’ asked my uncle, looking to Bronx and Gabriel for affirmation… but they looked down at the table top in front of them, and I had to hide a smile when I saw even Selafiel turn towards me with more obvious interest. Perhaps they weren’t in need of protection from a fallen angel just yet, but they’d all hinted to desiring the protection that an army might offer for years for their own reasons.

  ‘Yes! How can a kingdom that regards itself as being advanced even consider burning a girl at the stake?!’ President Camden demanded, and I knew I was losing him. ‘It’s positively medieval!’

  ‘Your father would roll over in his grave if he-’

  ‘My father does not yet have a grave!’ I bellowed at Hamlet McPhee, and they all sat down real fast. ‘But he is going to need one because Larkin Whittaker murdered him! She murdered him and she got away with it and now she’s out there-’ I pointed out the window, ‘flying around and probably thinking of how best to attack us next! Doesn’t it seem fitting that after burning us, she should come to an end in a similar fashion? Doesn’t it worry any of you to know that she could burst through any window at any moment and incinerate us all? Doesn’t it upset her that she has eleven million dollar’s worth of stolen property roped around her neck? Doesn’t it chill you to realise that as soon as she vanished from sight- every person that was on the other side of that fence this week screaming for vengeance against the crown all week suddenly vanished too? Where are they now? Who are they turning to?’ I stalked around the table, putting each question to a different individual. ‘To her, that’s who! It is like when the ocean suddenly retreats, isn’t it? You know that it will come back with strength and resolve enough, and no choice but to obliterate the shore! Well we cannot allow her to send a black wave of hateful souls racing at our kingdoms! We need to be on guard- all of us, but mostly here in Arcadia where she believes she has the most scores to settle!’ I pulled the window shade shut to block out the sight of that grim sunset. ‘We must burn everyone that proves to have a shadowed soul now that we know for certain that dark Nephilim can still be hiding amongst us!’ I whirled back to face Camden. ‘Yes, she will be given a fair hearing if apprehended, President Camden and you’re invited to sit in on it, but if she cannot prove her innocence- and I doubt that she will even try- she will pay for her sins.’