The Wildest Woods

by S. K Munt

  ‘I believe it, and I’m so jealous of the way they live here that I can barely stand it. You should ask them if we can stay, Kohén- seriously. Did you see the May pole that they were decorating out front? The costumes they’re wearing for this ball? How blue that bloody lake is?’ she was running a bar of soap along one of her arms idly, her expression wistful. ‘How pretty the houses were? How adoringly people regarded their king, and how they seemed more curious about us than horrified? No one ever grants us the benefit of the doubt back home, ever- and yet they invited us and your reputation right into their palace! It’s just so…. gracious.’

  I leaned over to make sure that Ambrose was still alive (he’d been silent and staring at the ceiling but on closer inspection I saw that his body was still moving with his breathing) and then motioned to Saul-Yin to hand me the soap, but she declined in favour of moving over to ‘wash’ Ambrose instead while he moaned gently. ‘Most of them do seem to be very gracious, but I’d like to learn a lot more about them before I decide how I feel about this place in general. I’ve learned that when something looks too perfect to be true, it usually is, and a lot of things strike me as being odd here. Why do they uphold our Companion laws even though Lady Lucida told me that they have no castes to speak of? How could they possibly have accepted so many branded people into their kingdom without serious issues arising? Where did they get that mind reader from if we’ve never found one? Does the king have a harem, or a wife? How could Cairo Kingslater be treated like a God despite the fact that he’s clearly manipulating a woman that he kidnapped into servicing him and him alone, and why do some of their Companions bear brands from other nations, while others have no brand at all?’

  ‘Okay, so four of those questions were regarding Companions, and you didn’t even brush on why the supposedly ancient king looks thirty-five, how on earth this region and the ones surrounding it are experiencing spring despite the fact that the rest of the continent is still buried under ice, and how the hell did a pirate get here when your own nation’s ships have declared the entire sea around it perilous?’ She splashed me with water again. ‘Those are pretty big questions for a Guardian of the RIDF to overlook so tell me… got something on your mind, Barachiel? Something powdered, pink and pouty, perhaps?’

  I splashed water into my face and rubbed it in to conceal my flush- not that it would have looked out of place in there. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about… those were just the first of many questions that came to mind.’

  ‘Oh, who are you kidding? You took one look at that Companion and actually laid your weapon at her feet- and you’ve been thinking about her, talking about her or looking around for her since.’ Saul-Yin giggled while I wished for the hot spring to swallow me whole. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I’m relieved that you surrendered at the sight of her because like hell was I running anywhere after we finally got the chance to sit down and die… but though I might have appeared out of it, I didn’t miss the way you pumped that African beauty for information about her the moment she bolted. So what’s the deal? Was it love at first sight, or are you remembering meeting her when you were younger or something?’

  ‘I don’t remember going anywhere, meeting anyone or doing anything at all from that period of my life,’ I motioned for the soap again and she sighed and got up, moving towards me with it and causing Ambrose to moan again. ‘But I feel like I know her or something. Is that weird?’

  ‘Nah. Memories are more than visual recognitions, you know. They have smells and sounds and sensations, and that means they’ll leave a residue in places other than your mind.’ Saul-Yin tossed me the soap and I caught in clumsily. ‘And I don’t blame you for being somewhat stunned by her. Even in that dress and wig… she’s a real beauty, isn’t she? Five times as striking as the other three.’

  I felt a little relieved, but I glowered at her slightly. ‘You’re not going to make a play for her, are you?’

  Saul-Yin snorted. ‘No. I couldn’t afford her even if I wanted to, and I don’t like my chances of winning a duel with Captain Kingslater either- at least not until I’ve had the chance to get my strength back.’ She cocked her head to the side, slitting her eyes at me. ‘But would it be a problem if I did, Kohén? We all know that you’re not interested in casual sex, so it’s not like you’d get jealous if I offered a pretty girl a few coins in exchange for a kiss or two... right?’

  I imagined Saul-Yin kissing Erika, and stiffened under the water. Damn, that was an erotic image! And yet- the idea of anyone else touching Erika in front of me and leaving me out of it made me feel cold inside. ‘Don’t even kid about it…’ I grumbled, rubbing the bar of soap between my hands viciously. ‘Kingslater would annihilate you.’

  ‘Maybe…’ Saul-Yin giggled. ‘Or maybe he’d invite me to join them, hmm? I could suggest a moonlight swim in that lovely lake...’

  ‘Saul-Yin!’

  ‘Oh calm down, if I was going to share her with anybody, it would be you and you know it. You know between the two of us, we could probably take him out. Then we could pool our resources and take her back to her harem so that we could-’

  ‘Okay, that’s enough!’ I got up, twisting around so that she wouldn’t see how engorged I’d become, and hoped that the fact that I was practically panting wasn’t as obvious as I feared it was. ‘This water’s too warm- I’m going to go see if they have an actual shower that I can use-’

  ‘You’re hanging on by a thread, Kohén!’ Saul-Yin called after me as I reached for my towel and wrapped it protectively around myself. ‘And it’s only a matter of time before you snap. You know that I think you’ve suffered long enough, and I think it’s about time that you recognised that too. Abstinence does not make the heart grow fonder, Guardian, it exasperates the body and when a Nephilim body is exasperated, it becomes a danger to everyone close to them. Don’t you think I know what I’m talking about here? My needs are less demanding than yours and yet they drive me to distraction every second of every day! I can’t even imagine how out of alignment you are on the inside by now.’

  I turned around to stare at her as I knotted my towel, feeling beyond exasperated. ‘So what would you have me do? Admit that they’re all right about me by giving in to my base desires? Pay a Companion to take my pain away, even though everyone knows that I still owe my last prostitute a debt that I’ll never be able to compensate her for? No. I’m a Nephilim, not an animal.’

  ‘But these girls have chosen to do this, Kohén- they want to be desired, and they want to make a living fulfilling other people’s desires. It’s not the same situation as the one you bungled up; it’s an opportunity for you to see how important consent is and what a difference it makes. I’d never touch one of Eden’s Companions again if I were you, given the fact that have no choice but to bow naked before you, but it’s different here.’

  ‘You don’t know that,’ I pointed out, ‘we don’t know how brainwashed they are, or if there’s something else they’d rather be doing with their lives-’

  ‘Lady Lucida swore that they’re here by choice-’

  ‘Yes well, Companions lie- that’s something that I do know. They’re taught how to make us believe that they want us but deep down… the real them could be so buried under their training that there’s a chance that they don’t even know that they’re being raped against their will.’ I shook my head. ‘I can’t take a woman to bed unless I know for a fact that she wants me as badly as I want her, and even if I could… the only one I want already has a master, and I won’t start a war out of lust when having my needs met is as simple as practicing delayed gratification, and waiting to find a wife!’

  ‘That’s a sensible plan, Kohén, and there’s only one problem with it…’

  ‘And what’s that?’ I asked, stepping into the furthest recess of the room so that I could towel dry my hair in privacy.

  ‘If you allow yourself to go on believing that sex is a shameful act and that no woman can ever truly consent to unless she’s married…
you’re only further propagating the belief that men have the right to decide what’s best for women, and that they are incapable of knowing their own minds, or making judgements about what God wants for them themselves.’

  I rolled my eyes as I wrapped my towel around myself. ‘That’s not what I’m about.’

  ‘Actually yes, it’s what all of you Barachiels are about; bridling others because it makes it easier for you to control yourselves.’

  I shot her a dirty look. ‘How could you possibly be so sure of that?’

  Saul-Yin vaulted herself up over the edge of the dark pool, making me suck in a breath as she exposed her entire, naked torso to my glowing gaze. ‘Because if you believed that a woman has the right to make her own decisions- you would have taken me up on my many attempts to seduce you a long time ago without fretting that you would be taking advantage of me.’

  I grit my teeth together and turned away from her. ‘That’s not why I don’t take you, Saul-Yin… it’s because it’s illegal and because you’re my friend, and you know it.’ And a bad influence, to boot!

  But Saul-Yin only chuckled. ‘That’s your other problem: you don’t believe that a man and a woman can be both friends and lovers… so how the fuck can you ever expect to make a marriage work? You don’t have what it takes to join with a mortal woman, let alone pledge your eternal devotion to one!’

  ‘And what’s that?’

  ‘A human spirit. It’s overrated, but necessary when it comes to finding true love with another human.’

  I glowered back at her. ‘And you do?’

  A bright, pink light evaporated off my friend through the water and she arched back, slapping the water hard with her tail before she dove under the surface and then re-appeared at the edge, smiling in amusement after she flicked back her long, jet-black hair.

  ‘No. But then again, I only pretend to be something I’m not to stay alive… not because I’m blinded by my own divinity. Now, if you’re not going to have a real talk with me, buzz off, why don’t you? I want to take advantage of Ambrose’s attraction to me while we have a little privacy.’ I groaned, and her laugh followed me as I opened the door, leaving her alone with the overwhelmed guard and trying not to imagine how it would feel to be in his position, which was currently under her dazzling tail. ‘Don’t worry- I have six inches of his consent in my palm, right now, but if you don’t believe me, you’re welcome to watch, as always…’

  I slammed the door behind me hard enough to make it shake, and flipped the ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign over on the door, though I was about as disturbed - and as aroused- by my mermaid friend’s antics as anyone could ever hope to be.

  39.

  Château Aztaroth, Raphael

  Kohén Barachiel

  I was concerned about returning to the ward in the condition that I was in, but I had only just walked in before someone dressed like a Magus came up to me and informed me that there were only six bunks in the room so my things, along with Ambrose and Saul-Yin’s, had been relocated to three guest rooms on the fifth floor. I wasn’t eager to leave my soldiers in the hospital ward without me, but the medical stuff were working on all of them and there wasn’t anything I could do to help but worry, so I got dressed into a robe and allowed the Magus to walk me up a cramped, internal staircase to the fifth floor. I was in a lot better shape than the rest of my division because of the fact that I was a Nephilim and therefore, hardier, but that hike up the stairs made my thighs burn and by the time I was let into a room in a long corridor, I only just managed to collapsed face first and naked on my bed before I passed out from exhaustion.

  I slept for what felt like years, undisturbed the raging glow of the afternoon sun thanks to the fact that thick velvet drapes had been drawn across the windows, but my dreams were full of mermaids and powdered princesses that were begging me for my assistance… begging me to give into temptation while they ran their hands and mouth all over my burning body. When I woke up I was covered in sweat and the crack of light that had been peeking between the windows was gone, and although I was angry at myself for having let my guard down so completely, I was glad that I’d been given private accommodations because I had a raging hard-on that would not go down.

  What time is it? I thought, rifling through my bag for the golden pocket watch that Amelia-Rose had given me on my eighteenth birthday- one that matched Kohl’s. Have I overslept and missed the ball? Why is it so quiet here?

  But my pocket watch said it was only six in Calliel, so I knew it couldn’t have been that much later there in Raphael, so I sighed and stood up, moving to open the drapes a bit more and to let the bright moonlight in before I searched for light switches, hoping that I had time to check on my friends before I had to front up downstairs. It was a lovely room- simply dressed in pale blue linens and fitted out with dark timber furniture, but I was still too out of it to take in the finer details so I made a beeline for the private bathroom and showered for so long that by the time I emerged, my room was bright with torchlight, not only from sconces on my wall, but flickering outside on the lawn that led over to what had to be the city’s common.

  Beautiful… I thought, opening the drapes wider once I’d knotted a towel around my waist and gazing down to see the groups, couples and individuals that were trickling over the lawn and towards the main entrance to the Château beneath me. It looked like I’d stepped into a painting that had been created with brushes that had been dipped into metallic paint: all fuchsia, gold, silver and a forest green in the periwinkle twilight. Absolutely beautiful… how blessed these people must be, if appearances here are not as deceiving as I fear they are...

  Once I had my bearings, I pulled on my dirty pants and went to check on Saul-Yin and Ambrose, but they were both lying in bed and enjoying a bottle of champagne, and seemed as comfortable as Saul-Yin assured me the others were. Jent was in the next room down and napping off his exhaustion, Theodore was still in a deep sleep because they’d sedated him, but he’d been stitched up and declared infection-free, the snake that had bitten Miguel had been identified as relatively harmless and his bear wounds had been sutured as well, and Macklin had been patched up and had already slept off his mild concussion. In fact he was in the bathhouse right then apparently, scrubbing himself up in anticipation of joining the party. Raithe wanted to go too because he was up and at ‘em, but he was covered in calamine lotion from head to toe and waiting for a child’s costume to be fetched for him before he could leave his new room.

  Saul-Yin then told me that Templar’s ankle was in a bad way so he wouldn’t be able to walk on it for weeks, but it wasn’t gangrenous and he hadn’t had any major arteries severed so that was a relief too… but the news took a turn for the worse when it came to Paisley. Sadly, they’d had to re-break and set her arm, and because the pain had been too great for their medicine to stave off, she’d passed out during the process and had come back to it, screaming. Once it was done, they’d given her a lot of pain-killers, and had started a course of natural antibiotics via a drip for her cold, but evidently her cold had become pneumonia so making her comfortable was turning out to be a challenge. She’d be fine in a few days, they’d said, and she’d been moved to tears by the lengths they were going to treat her, but she wouldn’t be going to the ball that night and didn’t care to move anyway.

  Then, once she’d added that Ambrose and herself were fine, Saul-Yin had shooed me off, explaining that Ambrose had just woken up from the nap they’d taken together with a hard on and so, she had to take care of it again before they could be expected to go anywhere, least of all in clothes. Naturally, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough, and once Ambrose assured me that he was in good hands, I locked the door tightly behind me. Poor kid! He was never going to find a woman to please him long-term, after having his first sexual encounters with someone that insatiable! Talk about a succubi! I’d try to wrestle him out of her grip but I valued my own life far too much to become between Saul-Yin and her needs.

  I hope
she leaves him some strength… I thought as I re-entered my room, turning on my light and moaning in desire when I saw that a tray of food had been left out for me while I’d been in the shower. I was still only wearing my dirty pants, but I sat down at the small table for two and devoured my roast beef and gravy and sculled down my pint of spiced ale, not bothering to check it for poisoning because I was going to die if I didn’t eat anything while I was there anyway. Besides, no king in his right mind- secretly sinister or not- would kill such a powerful hostage without first pumping him for information about his own kingdom, so if he was going to poison me, I knew he wouldn’t bother until after he’d had the chance to converse with me at the ball and after he’d given his Nephilim guard the best opportunity to pry every secret that I had out of my head.

  That was unfortunate because I knew that given long enough, Sam would be able to discover that I had a mermaid and a healer with me and they were valuable hostages indeed, but he’d be able to find that out if he read their minds anyway and I was certain that he would so in the end, the responsibility of keeping everyone’s secrets secret was not my sole burden to bear anyway.

  I was still ravenous after I’d finished what had been left out for me, but there was a bucket of ice chilling a bottle of champagne and a pot of coffee too, so after I’d had a glass of each I felt a lot better and finally, moved to get dressed. A costume of sorts had been laid out for me- a tuxedo with a mask- but I had my formal uniform still rolled up in the bottle of my rucksack so I fished that out instead and dressed quickly, pleased with how strong that orange blossom soap smelled on my skin a good hour after I’d rinsed it off. I usually felt ridiculous in that formal uniform because it made me stick out, but compared to how the others were dressed in Raphael that day, I supposed that the tuxedo would have looked more out of place so opting to wear it in order to represent my country with a little bit of dignity seemed like the better option.