The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  ‘Because you lost your Iana,’ I whispered, nodding.

  ‘I didn’t lose her, she was taken from me, and I …’ he bit his lip and stepped back, his grey eyes darkening. ‘I do not want to ruin the first few moments of our reunion by discussing evil, but I know that I must make my confessions to you soon, because it is plain that you have come to regard me as your white knight when the truth is that I have been as tarnished by the world as you claim that you were. I bring you food, and cloth, and spices and you call me your benefactor, but I am a pirate, Larkin, and I have done unspeakable things as one. I said once, that I would not tell you about Iana until we were wed, but I see now that I couldn’t marry you in good conscience without having first explained-’

  ‘You cannot marry me at all, Captain Kingslater,’ I said smoothly, crossing my arms over my chest. He wasn’t going to like this, but it had to be said. ‘The law that I wanted to make passed in January, you see, so all unions that were made in the eyes of God before we settled here have been dissolved now, except for a few special cases-’

  ‘Married, joined, promised, bound, ravaged…’ his voice deepened on the last word, and my abdomen tightened, ‘you will be mine in some official way, my queen, but not until you know me.’ He stepped into me again and took my hands pulling me closer. ‘May I meet you here later tonight, after we have had the chance to unpack and relax? Will you hear my confession before that besotted buddy of yours pries it out of my brain and flings it at you hard enough for it to sting?’

  I made a face. ‘Sam is not besotted-’

  ‘Larkin, please, that is another discussion all together!’ Cairo shook me gently. ‘May I call on you tonight and bear my soul?’

  I looked at his succulent mouth, and then back up into his eyes, filling with a sense of foreboding. I feared what he had to tell me, but mostly because it would change the dynamic between us. He wasn’t the only one that had secrets, but keeping our truths from one another allowed us to keep our odd relationship on the mysterious, exciting and fleeting shelf. He did not pity me for what I had gone through in Eden because he did not know the goriest details, and I did not judge him for being a pirate, because to me he truly was more like Robin Hood, than Blackbeard. If he found out that I was infertile, and that I had loved my keeper passionately, or if he confessed to me that he had once trapped a woman the way that Kohén had trapped me, well, everything would change- it might even become too real and too ugly to be considered special again.

  ‘I will hear you,’ I said softly, squeezing his hands with mine. ‘But you will not be calling upon me, because I do not plan on leaving your side until we can be alone again.’

  Cairo’s brows knitted together. ‘But I have to go back down there and unload the carts.’

  ‘I know. And like I said, I will be at your side.’

  Cairo clucked his tongue. ‘Do you mean to tell me that despite my best efforts to spoil you, you still toil away like a Blue Collar day in and day out?’

  I smiled. ‘I had a shower and changed my dress after I spotted you, because what I was wearing before then was stained with soot and my hair was in disarray after working down at the new dam.’

  Cairo raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down again. ‘I’m disappointed to learn that you still have to work as hard as ever, but encouraged to know that you wanted to look nice for me. However, there is something that you ought to know, before you try to make yourself look appealing to me again…’

  ‘What’s that?’ I asked, locking up a little again before he leaned in to kiss my cheek. Was he meaning to imply that I didn’t look appealing to him?

  But Cairo only whispered into my ear: ‘When I dream of reuniting with you, your hair is always in disarray because it’s wrapped around my hands, and you’re not wearing a stitch of anything at all...’

  I almost began to hyperventilate. ‘Cairo… You mustn’t say such things…’

  ‘I said you’d hear my truths, and that’s one of them.’ He looked me in the eye. ‘I’m a pirate, Larkin… a barbarian by upbringing, if not by nature. I can restrain myself from touching you so long as you maintain the fact that you don’t want to be touched, but the second you change your mind…’ he placed another kiss closer to my ear, and I shivered as he said: ‘I’m going to make damn sure that I conquer you so thoroughly, that you never let another man touch you again.’

  I pulled back and looked up into his eyes, realizing that this could be it: the moment where I finally gave in and admitted that some of my fears regarding men had abated just enough to allow a truly glorious one to slip through my defences. I looked at Cairo’s perfect mouth, then back up into his eyes, and the air around us was so thick with hope and lust and possibility that I could scarcely draw a breath.

  Kiss me, I thought weakly, collapsing into him a little. Kiss me please, make me want more and smash down the walls that I built up after the last! Because I can’t tear it down by myself!

  But Cairo shook his head, gently and touched my fingers to his lips. ‘Only when you want it so badly that you’re the one that kisses me,’ he whispered. Then he caught my hand and dragged me downstairs with him, and I was glad for it, because I was too dizzy with lust to have been expected to find my own way.

  27.

  Libertie City, Raphael

  Larkin Aztaroth

  The crew of The Iana had brought us so many supplies that some of my people were weeping with relief, but I knew that I could not get too excited about it all because Cairo had said that he had up to seventy people that were in need of refuge out in the lawless world, which was half of our existing population. What he’d brought would help, and what we had already was impressive, but if we were going to have to support over two hundred people there in Libertie, then we would have to make a lot of sacrifices before and after they arrived. Not in every way- food was not an issue now that our crops were flourishing under Martya’s guidance, but our daily workloads were going to have increase if we were going to be able to accommodate so many as far shelter, clothing and resources were concerned!

  ‘I brought back most of the seedlings and plants that were on your list…’ Cairo said, passing me a small banana tree sapling from the back of one particular cart. ‘But I’m afraid to say that I could not get a lot of the fabrics that you requested. Not only is silk harder to smuggle out of Asiana now due to the Arcadian presence in the waters, but because I had to buy the plants first and they cost more than I thought.’

  ‘No one would trade with you for the preserves I sent?’ I asked, passing the tree along the line to Martya, who was repeating the plant’s Latin names to Trajan as she passed them along. As excited as I was to see Cairo, and as light-headed as he had made me feel in the privacy of my room, I was relieved to be performing such mundane tasks with him now while surrounded by people because it made me feel more at ease in his presence.

  ‘No. I was able to trade them for some of the books that you said you wanted to get your hands on, but most people want money for their wares right now- so they can buy their families passage out of wherever they are and to the south, where God’s so-called presence is less overbearing.’ I gritted my teeth when he handed me a larger banana tree, but I smiled gratefully anyway because this particular crop looked much healthier than the last had, so I embraced its weight. ‘Plenty of people swore to give me all of the fabric that they have produced if only I could get them to wherever it is that I keep disappearing to… but I didn’t have the room for them and their wares on the ships I had handy, so they’re holding them hostage until I return.’

  ‘And why has God’s so-called presence in open waters fluctuated so suddenly?’ I asked, passing the banana tree to Martya who, to my irritation, barely seemed to register its weight as she bypassed Trajan and took it over to the side of the promenade herself, to where some of the younger kids were sorting the supplies that had already been unloaded into categories. She had to be the fittest academic in the world! Not that there were bound to be many
botanist/teachers/warriors out there in the world for her to compare herself against...

  Cairo glanced at me, then went back to his work. ‘They’re looking for you.’

  My insides knotted up, but I struggled to look unperturbed. I shouldn’t have been so shocked to learn that because I’d been waiting to hear that there was a warrant out for me since the second I’d slipped out of Karol’s grasp… but it was chilling to know that other people were being terrorised because of me now. ‘Well… took them long enough to organise an actual hunt for me, didn’t it?’

  ‘It’s not funny, Larkin,’ Sam said, inching between Cairo and I and taking the next plant off the pirate captain, bypassing me like I was a little kid like Trajan. ‘It’s your life we’re talking about here.’

  ‘He’s absolutely right,’ Cairo agreed, surrendering the plant to Sam before looking back to me. ‘There’s a million dollar ransom on your head- ordered by the King of Calliel and word of it is spreading fast- despite my best efforts to pass it off as a rumour to discourage interest.’

  ‘There have been worse rumours spread about me, believe me…’ I said as I swallowed back bile. Sam slipped between Cairo and I again to take the next plant and I let him do it. I was annoyed to see them trying to spare me hard work again while there were teenagers around carrying heavier stuff, but too distracted by Cairo’s news to put up much of a fight.

  ‘Not ones that are this dangerous, though,’ Cairo said ominously, dragging another plant across the edge of the cart. ‘From what I can tell by picking through these guy’s brains, the warrant for your arrest has been out there for some time- but the hunt for you has become downright feverish since last October.’

  ‘Why? What happened last October?’ Sam demanded, and I wondered if I was actually needed around to partake in this conversation or the unloading. Was I the Queen, or just in everyone’s way?

  ‘The two year anniversary of Elijah Barachiel’s death came and went, and the state of mourning was lifted from Arcadia.’ Cairo looked from Sam then back to me. ‘That should have allowed the people there to breathe easier for once, except some of the Banished apparently returned to the spot where you were last seen, constructed a likeness of the king out of straw and broken Wildwoods branches and then burned it in effigy… while chanting your name.’ My mouth popped open and he grimaced, nodding. ‘Needless to say, that stirred up a lot of hate and in response to that little celebration, the crown ordered all of them to be slaughtered for their disrespect.’

  ‘Fan-fucking-tastic,’ Sam grumbled, loping off with the biggest tree of all- so big that even Martya held up her hands in surrender as she stepped back and out of the way, allowing Sam to carry it all the way over to the greenhouses himself.

  I felt sick to my very stomach. ‘Why would they do that?’

  ‘To get the rebels under hand, of course-’

  ‘I don’t mean why would Karol order their deaths, because that doesn’t surprise me in the slightest, but I mean why would people celebrate such a gruesome occasion in such a gruesome fashion? What could burning a likeness of Elijah in effigy possibly accomplish but piss off his heir?’

  ‘I don’t know, Lark,’ Cairo’s tone was clipped now as he returned to his work, avoiding my eyes. ‘But I’m rather sorry that I missed the bonfire… given how it celebrated the death of the man that killed my father.’

  I winced, for this was not the first time that I’d inadvertently inferred that people were wrong to hate Elijah so. I stepped forward and lowered my voice, glad to keep everyone else out of this particular twist in the conversation. ‘Cairo-’

  ‘I know, you don’t classify Elijah as a murderer because he sent an assassin to do his dirty work, but that didn’t change anything for me when I was thirteen, and it hasn’t changed anything for me now, even if you have spent the last few years trying to convince me that his kind streak was as dominant as his tyrannical one.’ Cairo jumped up onto the Cart, picked up a sack of something unlabelled and dropped it to the ground at my feet before he began moving over a bunch of smaller plants. ‘He was a killer, he deserved to die, and if his son tries to take you from me as he took my father then I won’t bother constructing an effigy of him to burn- I’ll tether him to one of the figureheads of his ships, set the man himself on fire and then send the whole thing crashing into their fucking docks.’ He saw me wince and frowned deeply down at me. ‘What? You don’t approve?’

  ‘Of murder? Seldomly if ever. Though you do get points for pyrotechnic creativity as far as staging one is concerned…’

  ‘Would you stop trying to act as though this isn’t awful news?’ Cairo jumped off the cart, landing gracefully and right in front of me and pulled me closer to him with one dirty hand around my wrist. ‘If my men weren’t so trustworthy, anyone of them could have sold information about your whereabouts by now! Hell, I still fear that any one of them could- one million dollars for a whisper in the ear is more than you or I can promise them for their discretion right now, isn’t it?’

  ‘Yet it’s a surprisingly small ransom given the accusations made about me, don’t you think?’ I asked, trying to keep the mood light. ‘And taking into account the value of the necklace that I liberated from them, it’s borderline stingy! So they can’t be that scared of me, can they?’ I chuckled. ‘Or maybe I just cleared out their treasury when I took it, huh?’

  ‘A million is the price offered in exchange for your head, Larkin,’ Cairo muttered, picking up the sack of the ground and beginning to walk off with it, forcing me to follow as he carried it over to Will- the oldest and largest of all of the teenage boys. ‘Five is what is offered for you alive and well… fifteen million Cadians if you’re returned with the necklace.’

  Every muscle in my body locked up as I came to a halt in the middle of everything, gaping after him. ‘Five million for my…?’ My hand went to my throat, and I felt cooler, softer but equally dirty hands come up and rub my arms as Cairo passed the burden over to Windsor.

  For my body! I realised. I wonder what they think the four million difference is going to buy them, hey?

  Cairo’s mask of anger fractured as he returned to find me looking so stunned, allowing me to glimpse how scared he felt beneath it.

  ‘How can they justify that?’ Martya demanded, and I blushed when I saw some of the younger ones looking my way with concern, pausing in their work to ponder what on earth was wrong with the queen.

  ‘Because that’s what it has already cost them to fund the army that they have created to hunt you down with,’ Cairo grumbled, wiping his hands off on his leather slacks as he squinted down at me.

  ‘So if she remains at large for another few years-’

  ‘Even the people that don’t fault me for how I handled myself in Eden will want me dead for the strain my continued presence is putting on Calliel’s budget…’ I said sadly, cutting Martya off. Cairo nodded, looking grave, and when I saw Sam heading back over with a concerned frown on his face, I realised that I couldn’t stand to be looked at with pity for even one second longer.

  This is not something that should be discussed in front of teenagers! Move away from them before they see you cry!

  ‘Well…’ I swallowed, pushing both Martya and Cairo away as I turned around and grabbed a smaller plant that I did not recognize from the back of the cart, feigning aloofness while I put some distance between me and the adolescents helping. ‘If nothing else, I’d go down in the records for being the highest paid courtesan after my capture, wouldn’t I?’ Under my breath I muttered: ‘At that going rate, every man in Calliel would be able to have a stab at me-’

  ‘Do not talk like that! You’re not going to go down in any way,’ Cairo snapped, taking the plant out of my hand and cupping my face so that I had to look up into his, but I could barely see him through the tears that were pooling in my eyes. I knew that Karol would remain angry with me after I’d left Eden… but not to this degree. Hadn’t Ora told him how shaken up I’d been? How oblivious I’d be to the
fact that he’d been about to propose? ‘You hear me? The Godless that have never met you think that most of what they’ve heard of you has been fabricated, and the ones that have aren’t allowed out of my sight for long enough to reveal your presence!’

  ‘Then why are you so worried by this news?’ I croaked. ‘If it’s no big deal, shouldn’t you be joking as you scold me for doing?’

  ‘Because it ups the ante of how well we have to treat people in order to keep them on your side, that’s all.’ Cairo took my grubby hand, and kissed the cleaner back of it. ‘Your people are too happy to turn against you, Lark, and as far as everyone outside of this particular crew is concerned, Raphael does not even exist, remember? All we have to do is keep you concealed from the rest of the world for a few more years, and then Karol Barachiel will have to throw in the towel, pretend that you were found dead to save face- or go bust. Once he does that, it won’t be long before the story about what the black-winged Nephilim apparently did on the night Elijah Barachiel was slain will become a legend, trust me- stories of my many adventures have been distorted by time and word of ill-advised mouth as well.’

  I raked my teeth over my bottom lip, desperately wanting to believe him for the sake of all of the people under my care, but knowing that I’d never be able to keep this place a secret forever. ‘But what about your current adventure? If there are Arcadian armies getting around out there by ship, then it’s only inevitable that a net is going to close around your harbour soon too, right? I mean, that is why you want to stay here this winter, isn’t it… to disappear for a while?’

  Cairo raised his eyebrows. ‘I sound like less of a predator and an opportunist when you spin it that way so sure, let’s say that’s the reason.’