The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  ‘So you want to what… kill her?’ I asked, confused. ‘Won’t that make us as bad as her?’

  But Kohl shook his head as he scooped her up by the arms and nodded to me to take her feet. ‘No I couldn’t do that, and I’d like to hope that none of us could. However, until you and I have had the chance to speak with her and dare I say: threaten her, we cannot risk her getting the opportunity to run her mouth to others. She needs to be taken down to the basement while no one is watching, tied up and watched closely for signs that she is coming to and-’

  That was when our eldest brother had stormed back in and had demanded to know what the hell was going on. Kohl had explained to him what he had just explained to me, and although Karol had looked sickened by the plan, he had gruffly agreed that Kohl’s idea of hiding her was the safest one, and had barricaded the door so that we could carry our mother’s limp but heavy body down through a secret staircase, two flights down and into the basement.

  The entire thing had felt like an out of body experience for me, and I could tell that Karol was trying not to sob, but if Kohl had been feeling anything at all, it hadn’t shown on his face or rather, our face, and I suppose that was what was bothering me the most about Kohl- I was numb to everything that was going on because they were all strangers to me, but why did he look so unaffected? How was he managing to force one smile on such a dark day, let alone several different kinds?

  I pondered that as we tied the unconscious duchess to a steel bed and then Karol said that he wanted to be alone with her for a while so that he could try and heal her again, in the hopes that that would bring her back. But Kohl had pointed out that he had a lot of scared people upstairs waiting for Karol to show his face and address the crisis and that Kohl could stay in his place and wipe down her face and neck with a cool cloth and try talking to her until Karol could return. But although Karol had agreed to go upstairs, he had refused to leave either Kohl or I alone with her, and that had confused me further. I was glad to be excused from baby-sitting the almost-corpse, but Kohl had looked and acted offended after and had stomped upstairs in a funk, after reminding Karol that he was a part of this family too and the one that mother would have wanted at his side the most.

  Unmoved by our brother’s ire, Karol had locked the dungeon door behind us unapologetically before commanding me to go back into our father’s office and stay there because he couldn’t stand to look at either of us. He then quickly explained how the tracking device worked and then went on to say that because I was the one that had caused Larkin to turn against us so violently, then I should be the one to be on Larkin-watch from thereon out. He didn’t care to be bothered every time she rested briefly, but he wanted me to not only keep track of everywhere that she stopped, but to notify him when she settled down for a considerable length of time.

  ‘How long is this tracker of hers going to last?’ I’d asked, feeling a little green at the idea of being imprisoned in my father’s office for days.

  Karol had smiled. ‘For as long as the satellite monitoring it lasts. The poison that keeps her infertile will only take fifteen years to dissolve, along with the vial it is in, but the microchip attached to it is indestructible. So much so that if I switch the signal to Kelia’s, you will see that it is still working now, despite the fact that she was electrocuted and has been dead for five days.’

  I’d shuddered on the inside. ‘So how long will I be watching this little light for?’

  Karol’s smile had flattened. ‘Until it stops moving forever, as Kelia’s has, and even then, I will lock her ashes up to make sure that she cannot return like the demon that she is and sneak up on me in my nightmares.’

  Then he had slammed the door between us too.

  So that was how I had spent the rest of my day: staring at a confusing-looking, backlit map on a flat screen and waiting for a little light to flicker on. By the twelfth hour it had done that exactly twice, one hundred kilometres offshore in nothingness for only two minutes, and then twenty kilometres further on from that for five. When that five minutes turned to ten and then to fifteen, I decided that she was stationary enough to warrant reporting and so I had hurried downstairs- and that was when I had caught Karol and one of his companions in a very heated moment on the opposite side of the castle.

  I was already on edge thanks to the looks I’d gotten by the people in the throne room when I’d hurried past them, but when I saw the red-haired woman slap my brother, I’d jumped as though she had struck me. What on earth was going on in this castle? Was the water poisoned as women’s wombs apparently were?

  I’d called out to Karol after the woman had rushed past me without even seeing me and into the arms of another, older woman dressed just like her, but he’d stomped off into another doorway without responding to me, so I stood there and tried to decide if the fact that Larkin’s signal had stabilised would improve Karol’s mood or darken it further. Deciding that I didn’t want to get punched for intruding upon him a second time, (he’d made it clear that he couldn’t stand to be around me anyway) I’d moved to go out the way I had come, but had hesitated when I’d heard my brother’s Companion babbling incoherently to the other- babbling private things that I probably wasn’t supposed to overhear.

  ‘What happened, sweetheart?’ the older woman asked, looking as red-eyed and raw as my uncle had been looking all day. ‘Wasn’t he glad to see you?’

  ‘Too glad!’ the redhead wailed. ‘He kissed me, Resonah!’

  ‘Why is that-’

  ‘Because he never kisses me, not like that. Not with an open mouth, and certainly not with his tongue…’ she sniffled. ‘He always said it was too intimate, and that he should save at least one part of the act of love for the wife he would have to take one day! The wife that would have to live with the fact that he’d already experienced passion with others…’ her voice cracked. ‘For the past fourteen years I have wished that he would kiss me the way a husband kisses a wife, but have not pushed for it because I wanted him to have a wife too, and babies, even if it meant that I’d never see him again…I wanted him to be happy! I touched my lips to his only fleetingly, and that was enough for me so long as his arms were around me, and his breath on my neck...’ She began to cry again, while I scrunched up my face, dying of mortification. ‘But now I see that he has turned his back on happiness, because of her! I should rejoice to know that he would kiss me so intimately now, and that he obviously wants me to return to my position… but I fear that I just kissed the Karol that we all adore goodbye forever.’

  ‘Ssh… ssh…’ the older woman said over Adeline’s sobbing. ‘Perhaps you are making too much of this, darling. His highness has had a wretched day and is probably in need of more comfort than even he understands.’

  ‘I wish I could believe you,’ Adeline’s voice was still wobbling. ‘But I know him too well, Resonah. This day has altered him, and if Ora can’t get through to him, what chance do the rest of us have?’

  ‘Ora does not know him the way that you girls do, Adeline. She is a new acquaintance of his, not a soul mate. Give him time and I’m sure he’ll return to your arms, and all will be as it once was.’

  Adeline sighed. ‘That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.’

  ‘Growing up to be an old prostitute that is hated by her master’s spouse, like me?’ she sniffled. ‘One that has nothing to live for, once her love has left this world?’

  ‘No. Growing up to be an old prostitute who wins her master’s attention forever... at the expense of his soul.’

  I’d heard enough. Knowing that I would melt into a puddle of embarrassment if caught eavesdropping on my brother’s Companions, I made the snap decision to follow Karol into the room he’d disappeared into, moving as quietly as my polished boots would allow. I was a bit stunned to suddenly find myself in a room that was the size of the royal suite and the throne room combined, but the solitary figure standing by the window across from me and staring out over the front lawn drew my focus immediately. He’d
looked lost and lonely all day, but never so much as then when surrounded by so much negative space. My mouth was dry, but I forced myself to speak:

  ‘I’ve come to tell you that Larkin’s signal has been stationary for fifteen minutes now. I do not know how long she will stay in the one place, but I can tell you that she is halfway between here and the island nation of Pacifica, according to the map, though the two times she has stopped seem to suggest that she is not heading towards it, but somewhat north of it.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Karol said quietly. ‘Now please, go back upstairs and check to see if she has moved since you left the room.’

  ‘Yes, your highness,’ I said quietly, but before I left, I cleared my throat and awkwardly wrung my hands together. ‘Look… I won’t ask you if you’re all right again, because that’s obviously an inane question,’ I said, keeping my voice low enough so that it wouldn’t echo through the room and out the door, ‘and I can’t apologize for the part that I’ve played in ruining our family’s happiness because that will not be a sincere sentiment until my memories have been restored to me…’ I swallowed hard, crossing my arms across my chest as I closed the gap between us a little more. ‘But I can apologize for not knowing how to handle any of this now because that is the truth: I don’t have the faintest clue on what to do or how to act, Karol and like you and Kohl have both said, it’s probably best for me if I go on that way.’ I looked down at my feet, stopping a few metres behind him. ‘But it’s not what’s best for you, is it? You hate me for being spared of the memories of the people I have lost and the things I did to lose them… and you’re well within your right to. I can’t do anything to change that, but I can say that whatever it is you want me to do to make the aftershocks of these tragedies easier on you, I will do it. If you want me to take full responsibility publicly and be flogged, I will do it. If you want me to be disinherited, I will not protest. If you-’

  ‘I want you to get as far away from me as possible,’ Karol said roughly and I cringed but nodded and immediately began to retreat.

  ‘Yes your highness, of course- I will go straight back to the-’

  ‘I don’t mean just now,’ Karol turned around then and levelled me with a glare that was more tainted by sadness than anger. ‘I mean that I want you out of my sight and out of my life until I have had he chance to work through my issues with you, or you have had your memories restored- whichever comes first.’ He leaned back against the window and crossed his arms. ‘I have just asked a permission to train up a small army of soldiers whose sole purpose will be to find Larkin Whittaker and anyone that would harbour her, and as soon as that permission is granted by the other world leaders, I will be enlisting you in the very first regiment. You will go to St Miguel to the largest Corps barracks that we have, and you will stay there until you are a soldier,’ he paused, allowing me to process that before continuing: ‘also, you will not return here to live in Eden or enjoy any of the finer parts of life as a prince until you turn twenty-one and complete your apprenticeship in the Corps, or until I can stand to look at you again: whatever comes first.’

  Whoa! I thought, rocked by the announcement. That’s… that’s not what I was expecting him to say!

  ‘I’m sorry,’ my brother smiled slightly, but it was a bitter smile. ‘Perhaps I will get over this within a few months or maybe it will take a few years, but I am a soldier of God and a lot softer than I currently appear to be, especially when it comes to family, so I know that, in time, I will come to forgive you and will probably even regret sentencing you so harshly now.’ He turned away again. ‘But I know that if mother and father were here, this is what they would do: whatever it took to redeem you in the eyes of God and your people and sometimes, the fastest path to redemption is via hard work. You will be an ordinary soldier, with no special entitlements and no special treatment, and hopefully the public sees that as heavy-handed enough on my part to pardon us both from their current anger.’

  I stared at his back in silence for ten seconds, sort of thunderstruck by my good fortune. This was his punishment? Kicking me out of the palace that I already hated? I would have jumped for joy, if I hadn’t feared that doing so would give him cause to change his mind.

  ‘What of my brother? The um, other one?’ I asked, mood plateauing at the prospect of being glued to my strange mirror image for a considerable period of time. ‘He is not going to be punished too, is he?’

  Karol chuckled and muttered something under his breath while shaking his head, but rested his palms on the windowsill either side of him and sighed before saying: ‘I can’t punish him for falling in love with a girl and right now, that seems to be the only crime that he has committed so no, I have no grounds to punish him on that I can see…’ he muttered something else, but then stood up straighter and crossed his arms again. ‘But looking at him would be the same as looking at you, and since Larkin incinerated his contract last night too, he is free. I am obligated to keep him here if he has nowhere else to go because he is third in line in an official capacity now that father is dead… but Atticus Hartley asked for him to be stationed on Pacifica as a Lieutenant under his command once he was freed a week ago, and though I know that Mr Hartley is second-guessing that decision now, I am afraid that I must insist that Kohl takes that position anyway- and sets sail for the isle of Isthmus first thing on Tuesday.’ He cleared his throat. ‘Though I cannot confirm that we will be granted permission to raise an army, however small, Kohl’s fate has been sealed- and Prime Minister Hartley is off somewhere, telling him right now.’ He glanced back at me. ‘I do not expect Kohl or Atticus to be pleased about any of this, so consider yourself warned, okay? We may have a shit storm on our hands in the next few minutes- one that will cause rain to fall from the very ceiling. If you are honest in saying that you have no recollections of your time in Eden, then you may find a display of Nephilim anger to be somewhat perplexing- and wet as far as your twin is concerned.’

  ‘I do not remember anything before I was five or six years old,’ I said quickly. ‘I am not lying to you about that, Karol. The last memory I have is of falling through a ceiling, and everything before then is watery.’

  ‘Then you are lucky,’ Karol said, turning away again. ‘Because I’m fairly certain that if you hadn’t lost your mind by accident- I would have bashed your head in until you had anyway.’

  My stomach sucked in. ‘Why only fairly certain?’

  He chuckled dryly and stared back out the window as he responded softly: ‘Because I think the fact that the king is dead is as much his fault as it was yours and Larkin’s. A lot of things could have gone differently last night, but branding her was a stupid, heartless decision that he has paid for with his life, and that this kingdom will pay for in fear, because every time she looks down at it, she will remember that so long as this kingdom stands, she will belong to it, and that she will not abide.’

  I made a face. ‘You’re not honestly suggesting that one girl could actually bring down a kingdom as strong as this one is said to be?’

  ‘No. But I do not doubt that she will try, and that someone will get hurt when she does.’ He lifted a hand. ‘Now, in the interests of making sure that she doesn’t, please return to father’s-’ he paused, ‘my office... and resume your duty until I summon you again.’

  Knowing that I was lucky to have spent a few minutes with him without getting screamed at or beaten to a pulp, but aware that both could still happen if I lingered a moment longer, I turned on my heel and marched back out into the throne room, past the companions that were still whispering to one another and up the flight of stairs that led to our family’s private suite, trying not to look at the broken and blackened harem door. Being subjected to people’s scowls had been painful the first time I’d crossed the throne room and foyer, but this time I moved so fast that they would have wrenched their necks if they attempted to follow me with their hateful eyes and so, the second crossing was quicker and much more bearable than the first.

 
; When I opened the door to our private foyer, the rooms seemed deserted, but I was about to pass Kohl’s room when I overheard something else that I probably ought not have- a bit of crying, and some smoochy noises. Too curious for my own good, I peeked around the corner into my twin’s room, and winced when I saw Amelia-Rose sitting on Kohl’s lap, cupping his face in her hands and kissing his tear tracks away.

  ‘It’s only for a few years…’ she whispered. ‘I’m staying here with father now, Kohl- I’ll watch over Karol and your mother, I swear it.’

  ‘How can you make such a promise? You don’t understand what she’s like! She threatened to say wicked things last night- whatever it took to poison the world against us! So what if she turns you against me too while I’m not here to defend myself?’

  ‘Do you doubt me, Kohl Barachiel?’ Amelia-Rose asked archly, pulling back and wiping his tears away. ‘Do you believe for one second that I will allow this kingdom of God’s to be overthrown by a few lying, dark Nephilim?’

  Kohl looked up at her, awed. ‘How can you have so much faith in a family that has almost none in itself?’

  ‘Because you are Barachiel’s. God favoured you Kohl and now, so do I,’ she whispered softly as I drew back. ‘When you return from Pacifica in four year’s time… I hope that will be a fact that you will know for certain.’

  Then they were kissing again, and I was so sickened to realise that two of my brothers had turned to a woman’s body for comfort in the face of bereavement that I pushed off the doorframe, feeling like something slimy and wrong was crawling around inside me. I didn’t get how I could feel so judgmental towards others after all that I had done, or how could I dislike people for doing whatever it took to deal with and clean up the mess that I had made, but I did. Not only because it seemed shallow and soulless, but also because it supported the accusations that people had made against me, didn’t it? If two brothers cut from the same cloth could crave a woman the same day that their father had died and their mother had gone ballistic, then how could I doubt the allegations that I’d tried to force myself onto the girl that I had loved?