23. Rourk
Chapter twenty-three
Rourk
T he villagers spread out and prepare to go to war for the first time in their history.
It takes us some time to decide who will go and who will stay. All the hunters are tasked to make the journey to the Kingdom, except for the three who will remain to keep guard of the village, and two who will become messengers. Several able-bodied men and women step up and request to go with us. They have no training or combat experience, but they can wield a weapon and are fit enough to not become a burden. I’m aware that everyone may well be going to their deaths, including me, but we are all willing to take that chance.
The Shanti People may be secretive and keep to themselves in this world, but they have a code to help others. They cannot let the Kingdom get attacked without aid.
They’ve kept out of the affairs of the Oathlands and Kingdom for centuries, but this time it’s different. The fate of the entire world is at stake .
At my insistence, a message is sent out across the village. Everyone with a magical ability should step forward and join the party heading to the Kingdom. No one is forced to do anything they don’t want to do, but I know we need any advantage we can get. The villagers are asked to attune to their abilities in the time they have, to be certain they know how to wield them without being a danger to themselves or others. We don’t have long before we leave, so every minute counts.
Two hunters are tasked to go as swiftly as they can to the Oathlands to deliver a plea for help. Freddick was initially tasked as one messenger, given his lack of experience fighting, but he firmly insists on going to the Kingdom. He wants to help fight the invading force. I see that killer look in his eyes. That world-weary, battle-hardened look that’s mixed with spiking fear and adrenaline. There’s no way of stopping him from going to the Kingdom.
It's unlikely the Oathlands will reach the Kingdom in time to help in the battle, but we have to take that chance and let them know what is happening.
Travel packs are prepared, along with food and water for the journey. Others are quick to fashion more arrows out of wood and sharpened rocks for blades. The entire village becomes a hive of preparation.
I meet Aldus’s eyes and we step aside to speak to each other.
“We have forty-five people to go to the Kingdom,” he says. “That’s all we can spare. And more than I thought we’d get. I’m not too happy about some of the younger ones, or older ones, with us, but they’re insisting they want to help.”
“If they don’t slow us down or get in our way, they will all be helpful,” I say, looking around. “It will have to do. All we can do is all we can do.”
Flashes of magic cut through the dwindling afternoon light. A blast of fire strikes a far-off tree. A sphere of lightning launches into the air. I’ve discovered more people showing abilities they’ve never revealed to me before. The one who can fly, a young girl named Delis, is spiraling and looping in the air. The hunters have been teaching her how to throw knives down with accuracy.
“Before we go,” I say to Aldus, “I’d like to know something.”
He regards me with a hard look.
“The elders,” I say. “They are not really the elders of the village, are they?”
His face is impassive. “What do you mean? What is this?”
“I’ve seen how the elders work here. And how you work. You, Magdalena, Colm, Yovin, and Abby. Abby was a hard one to figure out, as she really didn’t seem like someone who holds any influence or power. But I noticed it was just a mask. A mask that you all wear. You five are the genuine leaders of this tribe. The elders are just the faces of the village.”
Aldus eyes me for a long moment, visibly troubled and thoughtful.
“I do not understand why you are doing this, now,” Aldus responds with enough subtle heat that tells me to back off .
“I just want to know the truth,” I say. “We need to trust each other. Yes, it doesn’t change our fates. I guess… I just wanted you to know that I know.”
“You speak of Shanti people's business like it is your own.”
He’s right. And I have nothing to say about that.
He sighs and shakes his head, taking a moment before turning to me. “Elders have always led our people. But for almost a century now, others have become the true leaders of our tribe while the elders remain as the figureheads. It is the secret way of our people, and none need to know about it. This is our way.”
“I do not mean to interfere with your ways,” I say. “I simply want us to trust each other. You have to trust the man at your side in battle.”
“You have my trust,” Aldus says. “There should be no doubt of that. I suggest you spend our last moments here helping prepare for the battle, rather than search for secrets.”
He searches my face with a questioning what will you do next? look. It makes me wonder what he is capable of.
I nod. “You are right. Forgive me for my prying. I’m glad we are both in agreement. Trust is what matters.”
Aldus eyes me for a moment longer before walking away.
I look around at the busy village, alive with people preparing to go into battle for the first time. These are not soldiers or warriors. They are peaceful people trying to do what’s right. To not have innocent bloodshed.
Outside of the Kingdom, we may be the only people in the entire world who know of this imminent threat .
Galene catches my eye. She is heading toward the rows of huts across the field. She’s watching me as she goes, her eyes alive with communication. A small smirk is on her face. I know that look. She wants me to follow her. She wants to talk about something. That smirk of hers, and the shine of her eyes, stir something deep within me.
I go to follow her when she disappears behind the tents, but hushed, heated words make me turn to the side. I straighten at the sight of Wini Semassi approaching me with her brother Wills hissing at her.
“Leave me,” Wini is saying to him. “I will do what I like.”
“You will listen to me,” Wills snaps under his breath. “Mother said you must.”
“Go take it up with Mother,” she hisses back.
Her countenance shifts when she reaches me, the tension of her sibling squabbling, shifting to a soft smile and relaxed shoulders.
“Hello again,” she says, almost diplomatically.
I nod, not knowing what to say or what is happening. Wills is trying to murder me with his eyes.
Wini is effortlessly well put together in a low-cut blouse and hip-hugging skirt, both weathered and worn and possibly fashionable a long time ago. She brushes a golden lock behind her ear as she smiles, though not in a seductive way.
“I wanted to tell you something,” she says. “I… want to go with you. With you all. To the Kingdom.”
Wills steps up. “I told her she can’t just-”
Wini snaps at him and stomps her foot. He retreats, shaking his head. She looks around five or six years younger than him, probably not even in her twenties yet, but she has the air of the boss in the family.
I take a second to register her statement. I hadn’t been expecting that. “It is going to be very dangerous.”
“I know. I can handle it.” She bites her lip before continuing. “And… I can… Well, I have a magical ability.”
Wills runs his hands through his hair as he paces.
“I was not told you had a magic gift,” I say.
“That’s because no one knows,” Wini says. “I have told no one but my mother and brother. I… didn’t want anyone to know.”
“Why is that?”
“It’s… well I didn’t…” She settles with, “I am, now.”
I wait for her to say more.
She catches the question on my face and says, “I can connect with animals.”
That makes me raise my brows. “Can you elaborate on that?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Wills cuts in. “It isn’t helpful to anyone. Tell her she needs to stay here.”
Wini shoots him a violent look. I hold a hand up to calm them both.
“I can… see through their eyes, sometimes,” Wini says. “It’s like I’m in their bodies. I can hear what they hear and feel what they feel. Sometimes I… Sometimes it’s like I can control them. For a short while. I’ve been practicing, and I’ve been getting better.”
I regard her with skepticism, but things are starting to connect. That wolf who had been watching me sleeping in my tent the other morning. The crow in the tree who I’d caught staring at me. And a few other occasions where I’ve felt like I was being watched. They were her. Wini. Watching me through the eyes of animals. It’s a little disconcerting how easy it is for me to accept such a thing. The world really is a new place.
“Okay,” I say. “But we are still heading into a lot of danger. It’s no place for a young girl like you.”
“You don’t know me,” she says with her chin high, glaring. “I’m not a little girl. And I… I want to help. Please. I know I can help.”
Wills looks like he’s going to interject, but he catches himself and sighs, going back to pacing with agitation.
I look into Wini’s deep blue-green eyes, searching for the truth of the strength that lies within. Her determination is certainly admirable. “Very well,” I say. “If your mother allows it.”
“She does,” Wini replies quickly with a big smile and a bounce. “Thank you. I promise, I will be helpful. I think. I won’t let anyone down.”
Wini steps forward and looks like she’s going to hug me, but stops herself. She smiles awkwardly with a nod and rushes away with excitement. “Thank you,” she calls back.
Her brother glares at me for a moment with pure contempt and disappointment. As he turns to walk away, I say, “Wills.”
He stops and goes back to glaring.
“I will do everything I can to protect her. To protect all of you. I hope you know that.”
His face softens for a moment before he sneers and walks away. For a second, I thought I’d gotten through to him. But he has a rigid stubbornness that I’ve come to know as a common Shanti quality.
So, Wini can connect with animals. An interesting ability. I wonder who else in the village has been keeping their magic a secret, either from me or the rest of the tribe.
I turn and walk in the direction Galene had been going.
It takes me a while to realize she has gone past the rows of tents and ventured down the hill to the secluded glade below. A flash of her golden light tells me she’s down there.
I make my way down to find her hidden behind a dense collection of trees. The area is quieter, with the low din of the village behind us, beyond the top of the hill.
Galene is holding onto a square of light with one hand, her feet dangling a good six feet off the ground. The sight of her in the air gives me a strange sense of unease.
“There you are,” she says. “I… I think I’m stuck.”
I cock my head curiously and can’t help but grin. “Stuck? In the air?”
She sighs but doesn’t hide her smirk. “I managed to step up this high, using hard light steps, and I thought I would try holding onto the light with my hands, and… then I lost the light steps and now I’m here. It’s a long way down.”
I position myself below her. Her long layered dress wavers softly in the breeze. “I’m here.” I hold my arms out. “I’ll catch you.”
Galene focuses for a second, and the light in her hand vanishes. She falls into my arms.
I wince and hiss when her weight hits me. “Shit. My ankle. ”
Her face widens with horror. “Oh, no, are you okay? I…”
“How much do you weigh?” I ask, grimacing in pain and hobbling. Then I drop the act and grin at her while lowering her down to the ground.
Realization slowly dawns on her and the horror goes from confusion to shock, and settles on gleeful surprise.
“Hey!” She slaps me on the shoulder.
I laugh. “I couldn’t help myself.”
Her pouting mock-frown comes across as adorably cute. “Anyway, I still have a lot to prove, it seems,” she says. “I guess that’s why father is insisting that I go with you all to the Kingdom.”
“What makes you think he is looking for you to prove yourself?”
Galene lets out a weary breath. “I thought my Task with you would be my big final one. But now it seems that saving the Kingdom and fighting an ancient army that’s only meant to exist in storybooks is my final task. But I wonder if my father will just find something else after. If we both make it back.”
“Hey,” I say. “Of course you’ll make it back.”
“He just wants to keep pushing me. As a punishment for being unwed and childless at my age. Do you know what Leila’s big Task was?”
I shake my head.
“Leila’s great Task was to collect golden apples from a region where ferocious bears and wolves roam, high up on the Westfall Mountain. She hadn’t technically been Tasked, as it was too dangerous to go alone, but she chose it herself as she wanted to prove her worth. She spent two weeks out in the wilderness on her own and collected twenty-four spirit apples. Those are the big golden ones, three times as big as an average apple. She almost got frostbite in her fingers and toes, but came back victorious. We planted the seeds of the apples we ate and grew our own golden apples from there on, and had a large festival to eat the apple pies made from them. She was a hero to everyone, and from that day, she was Proven. I think my father keeps waiting for me to do something crazy like that.”
“Everyone is different,” I say. “You don’t need to prove anything to anyone.”
Galene sighs and shakes her head.
My hands slip around her waist to comfort her. I do it so easily without thinking, like it’s the simplest action in the world. If she’s surprised by my hold, she doesn’t show it. She melts into my arms, stroking my upper arm and shoulder.
“Careful,” she says demurely. “Don’t get too close. I hate you, remember?”
“I do have problems remembering things,” I grin. We lock eyes and hold our gaze. The feeling of a deep, overwhelming connection hits me firmly in the chest.
I nod to where she’d just been hanging from. “That was an impressive feat. You’ve been practicing.”
She shrugs. “It seems to get easier the more I try.”
She has a conflicted, distant look that makes me ask, “What is it?”
“I just want to know what I’m capable of. To help others. To know that I can protect others. And myself.”
I tighten my hold, pulling her closer. I can smell her light sweat mixing with her usual floral and earthy scent. Our hips press together and I stir and grow against her. A gleam in her eye tells me she’s noticed.
“You are the most courageous woman I know,” I tell her, my voice low and soft. I want to tell her not to come with us to the Kingdom, but her father has already insisted she go. Leila will stay behind with the boys, but Galene, who has become most in tune with her magical powers, will be among those going to the Kingdom. “I just hope I can protect you. While you’re protecting others.”
Her glistening lips part. “And who will protect you?”
She slowly inches closer and I lean in. The world melts away around us as our lips meet. I lose all sense of myself as I take her in my arms and kiss her hard. Our heavy breaths bounce off each other as our pulses quicken.
My tongue teases at the seam of her mouth and she presses her body tighter against mine before slowly opening her mouth and letting my tongue slide against hers. She moans when I run a hand down her back and arch her hips against mine, pressing her against my hardness.
I pull my mouth away from hers to kiss her cheek and neck, moving down her neck to her collarbone. I lick and nip at her skin before sucking, her hands gripping my hair as she gasps. She tastes sweet and smells intoxicating.
Galene slides one hand from my hair and down my body, sneaking it between us. She gropes at my pants and rubs my cock through them, which grows even harder beneath her hand.
I’m pushing her back and she presses against a tree as we kiss. My hands don’t know where to settle. I run them from her waist down to her ass, squeezing and kneading before sliding up and under her dress, running them over her breasts, pleasure rolling through me when I meet bare nipples. She has nothing on beneath the dress. My fingers tease at her peaks before pinching, just enough to get a squeak out of her and for her to press against me even harder. Her hand is pressed between her hips and mine, and I have to wonder if she’s teasing herself at the same time as she is me.
I can’t believe this is happening, but I’m too lost in the ecstatic moment to think clearly. To wonder if maybe it shouldn’t be happening at all.
Fuck, I wouldn’t give this up for anything.
Especially as she helps me pull down my pants, her delicate fingers popping the button and pushing them down. Her eyes rest on my cock and her breaths become heavier. Shakily, she rests a hand on my bare cock and pumps it once, her gaze turning upward to stare at me from beneath lowered lashes. Those blue eyes tell me everything I need to know. She really wants to do this. That burning neediness is clear in both of us. That strong magnetism that spurs us on. There is no amount of closeness that will satiate us, but we will have to make do with this.
She pulls up her dress and barely allows me a single glance at her hardened nipples before she turns around to press her front against the tree, revealing the full curves of her smooth, bare ass. “I want it like this,” she says to me. She spreads her legs slightly.
I groan at the sight of her, black hair falling down her back, smooth skin and that ass that I’ve thought about countless times before. I suck in a breath and run my hands down her body. I wrap one around her front and brush my fingers across her navel before sliding lower and finding her wet folds. I slide my fingers through them, hearing her gasp and feeling her squirm, her ass backing up against my cock when I find her clit and flick it with my fingers.
I settle my mouth against her neck and groan. “Fuck,” I whisper. “I cannot wait to be inside of you.”
“Then get inside me,” she gets out, breath hitching.
“Fuck,” I say again, but I hold myself back. I brush her hair to the side and suction my mouth to her neck as I swirl my fingers at her clit, slowly building pressure with both my mouth and my fingers until she’s writhing, unable to keep still. Her legs grow shaky, and I slowly adjust my hold on her until I can sink a finger into her entrance. She lets out a low moan and clenches around that finger.
“Gods,” I groan, unable to stop myself from sliding my throbbing cock against her ass, just to give myself something to hold me over. “You’re so tight, Galene. I need to stretch you out a little if I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Yeah,” she gets out. “I saw you.”
I chuckle darkly and pump that finger inside her as I scrape the heel of my hand against her clit. When Galene starts to move her hips against my hand, I let her take over. I’ll let her have that now so that she’s all mine when I’m inside of her.
Her hips move quickly as she grinds my hand against her, her wetness soaking my skin. I give her clit another flick and listen to her cry out before I sink another finger into her. She rides them with wild abandon before I nudge against that spot inside her, and then she’s coming undone .
I don’t wait for her orgasm to die down before I enter her from behind and she moans. I press a hand to her mouth as I pump, softly at first, before the writhing of our bodies increases and I thrust into her, harder and harder. She gasps against my palm. I breathe in the scent of her hair and kiss all along her neck, listening to the small sounds she makes and relishing in the feel of my cock pressed deep inside of her.
I rejoice in the warmth of her and the feel of her skin against mine. I don’t think I’ve ever been this hard before, or this excited. The thrill surges through me as I thrust into her, pressing her more and more against the tree.
I want to see her face. To taste her. To be more with her. I pull out and quickly spin her around, listening to her gasp of surprise, and lift up her legs around my waist as I position myself to enter her once more, sinking into the hilt in one smooth motion. She moans low and her eyes flutter closed I grip her thigh and pump into her, my other hand reaching out to feel the soft swelling of her breasts, those nipples she’d barely given me a glance of earlier. Galene wraps her arms around me and kisses me firmly, our sweaty faces pressing into each other.
“Harder,” she mutters beneath her heavy breaths. “I want you.”
“I want you too,” I groan, holding her cheek and kissing her over and over. My hand lowers to her throat and I see a thrilled flash in her eye as my thumb presses against her skin. That sends her to another level of ecstasy, causing her to cry out with a shaky groan. Her eyes roll back as she gasps into the sky .
Our moans mingle together in a symphony of pleasure and desire as we reach the heights of ecstasy together. My legs weaken as I shudder and convulse, my thrill reaching its climax.
After a pause, I lower her down and we rest against each other as we calm, catching our breath. Our shoulders and chests heave against each other. I soften inside her before inching away and pulling my trousers up.
Galene steps away and shifts her dress down and adjusts her blouse. I play my fingers through her thick hair as I watch her, overwhelmed with satisfaction and contentment. We share playful grins and chuckles. The chuckles become hearty laughter as we hold each other and kiss a few more times. Neither of us wants to stop touching the other.
I want to stay in this moment forever.
“That was… something,” she says, her voice hoarse.
I clear my throat. “It was not nothing.”
There’s so much I want to say to her, but nothing feels like the right time.
We kiss until we realize we have to stop, and the impending journey and danger we’re about to face finally forces us back to the village.
We can’t hide forever. No matter how badly I might want to.