It was Simeon, Lord of the Deep.
“Well met, old friend,” Gideon said, as Simeon spun around in the water and faced him.
“I do not know that we are,” Simeon returned. “I am offended, dark one. Why have you not come to me with your trouble, um? Have I not burdened you with mine more times than I can count in the past?”
“I was just thinking of calling upon you,” Gideon said.
“I know,” said Simeon. “You haven’t been alone in this. Pio, my summoner, has been monitoring your progress whenever you were near water. He read your thoughts, and here I am.”
“That beloved swordfish of yours is relentless,” Gideon said. “The gods bless him. I would have come to you myself, but there is nothing you can do.”
“Probably not, but you might have given me a chance to try.”
“You are a good friend, Simeon, and I know you would give us sanctuary, but Rhiannon would never stand living beneath the waves. She isn’t a strong swimmer.”
“There are many air-filled pockets and caves beneath the waves, Gideon. She would not need to swim once she reached such a plateau.”
“She would never make it there, and truthfully neither would I. I am a creature of the air, Simeon. I need to soar. Imagine yourself in the air instead of the sea. We are what we are.”
Gideon reached out his hand to help Simeon out of the water, but Simeon declined. “Like you say…we are what we are, my friend. Is there anything I can do? You have only to speak it.”
“Perhaps you can answer a question.”
“Ask it.”
“If you had wanted to give up your immortality in order to keep Megaleen, you could have done it, but you didn’t; Megaleen gained hers instead. I would give up my immortality for Rhiannon in a blink in time’s eye, but I cannot. My curse is irreversible and eternal. Is there a way for Rhiannon to gain immortality, like Megaleen did?”
Simeon gave it thought. “Megaleen’s immortality was a gift from one who had it to give. It was a selfless gifting—the greatest sacrifice one being could give for another. I do not think either one of you has someone willing to give such a gift.”
“No, we do not. Is there any other way that you know of for a human to gain life immortal?”
“Outer Darkness was a way, but it is not worth the price. Damnation comes too dear, my friend, and immortality gotten thus would be a living hell. I do know one thing, though…”
“Tell it!”
“You will not find the answer anywhere in the twelve hemispheres of Arcus.”
“How can you be so certain?” Gideon asked.
“Because I exhausted every one in my search,” Simeon said. “I’m sorry, old friend, but else it be by magic, as it was in my case, or a gift of the gods, there is no way that I know of for a mortal in our world to achieve the longevity that we immortals know.”
R
hiannon ran past the faun, past Marius, whom she hadn’t seen entering the main room from the side, and rushed sobbing into the darkness. Overhead, the moon had risen, cold and white and round, and stars blinked down innocently. How such beauty could exist in a land so fraught with mystery and danger was beyond her comprehension.
Now and then a shadow streaked across the moon. Watchers! She pulled the hood close around her face and melted into the shadows at the edge of the lodge. She glanced toward the forest across the clearing. It looked unreal with the moon glow silvering the Ancient Ones’ leaves and branches. It softened the deceitful pine needles that looked so silky and lush from a distance only to become prickly in the harsh reality of close proximity.
How still it all was. No breath of a breeze disturbed a branch or fluttered a leaf. An eerie pall had fallen over the isle. It was unnatural. She glanced up at the indigo vault. Dark, scudding clouds racing across the moon had suddenly obscured the watchers. There wasn’t much comfort in that. Rhiannon knew they were there whether she could see them or not, and the cloud cover would force them to hover lower for a clearer view.
Rhiannon shuddered. The homespun mantle Marius had given her was rough and scratchy against her tender, naked skin. Gooseflesh and the coarsely spun fabric scraping against her nipples had brought them erect. She soothed them absently, a close eye upon the heavens, half expecting lightning bolts to come hurtling at her.
Sculptured hedges lined the path between the lodge and the paddock behind, and she backed into the thick foliage in an attempt to make herself invisible. She should go back inside, but she wasn’t ready to face Gideon yet, not until she could mask some of the fear he’d planted in her mind—fear that he was going to remain young and virile and live on eternally, while she would grow old and die according to her species. That hadn’t really sunken in before he’d made a point of spelling it out. There had to be a way for them to be together—there
had
to be. She was wracking her brain over that when a rustling noise behind stopped her in her tracks, her heart pounding against her ribs, but the sound ceased also.
She glanced about but saw nothing, and after a moment, she started to walk again, her feet crunching on the gravel underfoot. She was in the open along that path. She would have been safer in the woods, but nothing could persuade her to take that direction, not after what had occurred there before. Instead, she continued on her present course, knowing she should go back, and wondering why Gideon hadn’t come after her.
All at once, dry lightning speared down in the near distance, and she cried out in spite of herself at sight of the blinding, snakelike shaft of ethereal light. The night sky all around had taken on a shrouded hue of a sudden, ominous and pale. The rustling had begun again. Adrenaline surged in her, crippling her where she stood. Terror froze her stiff, stifling the scream building at the back of her throat as a hand clamped tight over her mouth jerked her to a standstill. A soft whisper in her ear fluttered the tendrils that clung to her cheeks.
“Do not scream,” Marius murmured. “It is I. Turn slowly, and stay close to the hedge. We are not alone, lady. I need to get you back to the lodge.”
“Where is Gideon?” Rhiannon begged.
“He is safe, and he will have my head if any more harm comes to you in my keeping. Quickly now, and stick to the shadows. It’s only a few steps. Your bath awaits, and I’ve found a fine kirtle for you.”
“He’s gone, isn’t he?” Rhiannon knew. “He’s gone and left me here! That lightning I just saw. The watchers! It was, wasn’t it! They’ve struck him again! The nymphs will come and ‘minister’ to him as they did before….”
It was beyond bearing. Jealousy roiled in her at the thought of the beautiful forest mavens having their way with him—making him come—relieving him as only they possessed the skills to do, as they’d done to
her
. How well she knew the power of their seductions.
The nymphs were immortal, and she was not. They would still be young and beautiful, and ready to serve his lusts long after she had withered and died and gone to her grave. In spite of Marius’s warning, she groaned aloud at the prospect, and he clamped his hand over her mouth again.
“Keep still!” he warned. “I do not mean to frighten you, but look at the forest!”
Rhiannon gazed in the direction of the ancient trees. They seemed unchanged from before, silent sentinels seemingly frozen in place. It was almost as if all the animated spirits that lived inside the giant trees had vacated them.
“What is it?” she said. “Why are they so still?”
“It is an evil presence that calls the spirits inward. If they awaken here now there will be a reckoning. There are some things not even my longbow can save. Quicken your step. Do you not feel it?”
“Feel what?” Rhiannon murmured.
Without replying, Marius rushed her into the lodge and bolted the door behind them. “I do not know,” he said. “A tremor, a current in the air, a vibration beneath our feet. Whatever it is, it has distracted the watchers, and allowed Gideon to escape safely.”
“Escape?”
she cried. The connotations of the word had paralyzed her mind with fear.
“Escape the watchers, yes,” Marius clarified. “Gideon has not left you, lady—never that. He has gone to seek the answer to your future. Whatever this is, it began the minute he left. It evidently fears him.”
“Ravelle!” Rhiannon breathed.
“The keeper of Outer Darkness is able to project his magic far and wide,” Marius said. “It is how he procures his victims. Many years ago, those woods out there were filled with sprites and nymphs and sylphs, creatures of the astral who took refuge here among the Ancient Ones…and me from time to time; all gone now. The last were banished after what they did to you.”
Rhiannon could feel the hot blood rise to her temples. She always knew when she was blushing. The heat in her cheeks always narrowed her vision. It was happening now. That he knew what the nymphs had done to her was too embarrassing to bear. It brought it all back—the clever creatures’ cunning assault upon her body, while the trees held her at their mercy. She moaned in mortification, recalling their probing fingers entering her, spreading her juices, exploring her every crevice, every orifice until they’d brought her to a riveting climax. That she’d had no control over their magic, no defense against their sexual skills, mattered not a whit. It had happened, and Marius, Lord of the Forest, knew of it. She wanted the polished wood floor of the lodge to open up and swallow her.
“I can only imagine the humiliations you must have suffered, knowing that lot,” Marius quickly said. The gods bless the man! He’d evidently read her thoughts and meant to put her at her ease. She longed to throw her arms around his neck in a gesture of appreciation but had the good sense to resist the temptation. There was an aura of lonely sadness about the Lord of the Forest that was best left untampered with, for fear of rousing something it would have been cruel to awaken, even with the most innocent of gestures. “I have been haunted with guilt over what happened to you here upon your last visit, lady,” he concluded.
“I do not like to remember what occurred then,” she said demurely. “But please, there was no fault in you, or Sy, either, come to that. The fault was all mine. I disobeyed your directive and duped poor Sy into disobeying his, because I was jealous over what I feared the nymphs were doing with Gideon.”
“Well, they are here no more. Because of what they did to you, they are banished, and from what I understand, the astral has banned them also. You must not question Gideon’s devotion, lady. He worships you. I have never seen him so taken before. You must understand the needs, if you will, his curse imposes upon him. The nymphs’ ministrations were purely therapeutical…at least on his part. He wasn’t even conscious during what took place. So, you see, there was nothing to be jealous of.”
That was easy for him to say. She could not erase the visions of those nymphs caressing Gideon, laying their skilled hands—far more skilled than hers—upon his shaft until they’d brought it fully erect—taking their turn upon it until they’d made him come, and come again! She had taken him inside her—given him her virtue—pleasured him on land and in the
air
, of all unheard of things, in her clumsy, inexperienced way. How could it ever be enough? How could
she
ever be enough? She had never felt so dismally inadequate, especially since, for all of that, her “ministrations” would be temporary. They would only last the length of days of a human life—a blink in the eye of time—and then other immortals like himself would pleasure him once again. She wished he hadn’t made it plain. She wished he’d let her muddle through in blessed ignorance of the cold reality that would all too soon separate them, but he had not and her heart was breaking.
“You will be safe as long as you remain inside the lodge,” Marius said. “I cannot. I am custodian of the Ancient Ones, and I must be certain they are safe from any danger. Can I trust you to remain inside these walls while I do that?”
“Lord Marius, where has Gideon gone?” she asked, avoiding the question. She had to know.
The forest lord leaked a throaty chuckle. “The gods alone know what’s come knocking at our door, and that is all that worries you, um? You two are well-matched, lady.”
Rhiannon felt the fingers of a blush crawl up her cheeks again and lowered her eyes.
Marius smiled. “He is to be envied,” he observed. “He has gone to seek out the rune caster to see what her magic can do to help you.”
“This is all my fault,” Rhiannon despaired. “He asked me to stay inside the cave—only that. But the day was sunny and warm, and I saw no harm in a stroll about the isle in broad daylight, when I could clearly see the pitfalls and dangers he was so concerned about. He didn’t tell me about the watchers. If I’d only known…”
“He does not blame you. He is driven to put things to rights—obsessed with it. Granted, he erred eons ago, when all this began. He fell from the gods’ graces. Now, he has been stripped of everything—his fine castle, his humble cave, his island, even his right to enjoy the pleasures of his own body. All he has left is you, and now he fears he will lose you, also—”
“Never!” Rhiannon interrupted.
Marius smiled sadly. “No, not your love, lady…He fears the watchers will kill you as a final retaliation for him—a final breaking of his willful spirit. It is a fear he can taste. It is why he went after you into Outer Darkness, why he was ready to condemn himself to an eternity in the hell of mortals if that was the only way to have you. Unfortunately, I believe he has brought some of that hell back with him. I believe it is here, on my isle, in my forest, as we speak, threatening the Ancient Ones and helpless creatures I am duty bound to protect.”
“Forgive me,” she murmured. “A personal question…You are so kind to your creatures. You treat them with such reverence. What crime did you commit that cursed you to walk in the body of the centaur when the moon waxes full?”
“I killed one,” Marius said flatly.
“A-purpose?”
He nodded. “Quite so, but that was very long ago…so long now it seems as though it happened to someone else. The whole of it is lost in the mists of time, I fear, but no matter. I’ve grown quite accustomed to my four-legged incarnation.”
“I did not mean to bring back sad memories,” Rhiannon said, pained by his stricken expression. Whatever it was, it wasn’t lost in the mists of time as he would have her believe, and she was wise enough to probe him no further.
“Think nothing of it,” Marius said. “Ravelle casts his glamour before him to intimidate. I think that is what is occurring here now. Just help me to help Gideon by staying safe in my care while he is abroad. Do not begrudge him his mission, for if it fails, we all fail with it, and there will be a reckoning unlike any ever recorded in this world or any other where immortals live out their eternity.”
Rhiannon was silent apace. She gave his words deep thought. All at once her eyes widened. Tears stung them, blurring his handsome image.
In this world or any other
…the Forest Lord’s words struck her like cannon fire. Of course! Why hadn’t she seen it before? Why hadn’t she realized it when Gideon made it all so clear? She was too close to the situation—and Gideon—to see it. It had taken this sage guardian of the wood, who shared his body with a creature he had once killed to open her eyes, and he didn’t even realize he’d given her the key.
She stifled an exhilarated cry in her excitement. Why hadn’t it occurred to her before? She was tempted to blurt it out, but this was not for Marius’s ears. She hardly knew him well enough. This was something for Gideon’s ears.
He didn’t need this mission
, her mind was screaming.
Gods above, I have the answer! I know! I know what must be done to save us all
…