Eramane (7 page)

I put my hands in the clear water; it is cold, and it sends me back to when my father took Samiah and me to the river. I ran from my brother, knowing he wanted to toss me in the water. He eventually caught me and threw me into the river, jumping in himself right after. The water was cold and took our breath away. The day had been unseasonably hot, so after a few seconds we adjusted to the water and enjoyed our swim.

The water is clear, and I can see all the way to the bottom. In some parts the sun reaches the bottom and makes the riverbed pebbles sparkle. While I am taking in the beauty of the forest, I am suddenly jolted as I recall the words from the beautiful stranger: “I will come for you tonight.” I drop my view of the canopy down to the river water. As I peer into the water, watching a leaf slowly float by, I see
his
reflection again. It is blurry at first and then forms clearly. I stare at him and he stares back at me.
Tonight, Eramane
. I am hearing him in my thoughts! I continue to stare into the water, hypnotized by the image, just as I was earlier. His words penetrate my skin, and I feel as if I have been stung by thousands of little bees.

I cannot move my eyes away from his, and I feel as if I am being pulled closer to the water’s surface, as if something below the water is pulling me in. At first I struggle with the sensation; then an eagerness to give in comes over me, and I let it take me closer to the water’s surface.

“Dinner is served.” Lebis’s words break the spell, and I quickly recover from the trance. I splash at the water, and the reflection blurs and is gone just as quickly as it appeared. I stand, eager to feel in control of myself, when I feel Lebis put his arms around me. I feel his breath on the back of my neck. “Are you thinking of going for a swim?” Lebis asks as I turn to face him.

“No, the water is freezing.
You
can go for a swim. I will hold your clothes.” I hold my arms out.

“And run off with them, leaving me in the water to freeze,”

“No. You can get out and fetch them from me,” I tease. His eyes are bright and when he turns his head just the right way, the sun rays light them up, making them twinkle like the butterfly wings. I am no longer nervous in his company. A soothing calm washes through me, and for the first time I see, in Lebis’s twinkling eyes, that he would rather be nowhere else than with me.

Our hands touch; he pulls me close to him. “You are so beautiful,” he says, and he kisses my forehead. He holds his hand out, and I take it. We both walk, hands locked, to the red picnic blanket.

A loaf of honey bread, a cut of cheese, and a bowl of berries are laid out in the middle of the blanket.

“So, I brought all of this. What did you bring?” he asks, looking to me for an immediate reply.

“Seriously?” I ask. “I brought nothing. I would have; I just assumed that …”

“It is fine, Eramane. I was only joking.” He has a deep gut chuckle. I sigh and shake my head. We pick at the food Lebis brought. The bread is warm, the cheese is soft, and the berries are a sweet I have not had in quite some time. They are mouth-watering, almost too good. As I tear another piece of bread from the loaf, I feel it proper to compliment Lebis. He has put together a fine picnic.

“This is lovely, Lebis, really. And these?” I motion to the berries. “Did your father grow them? First the cherrywolf flower, now the berries. You are full of surprises.”

“Yes, my father grew them, and thank you,” he says. “
You
are lovely.”

CHAPTER FOUR

Adikiah at the River

WE HAVE HAD OUR FILL
of bread and cheese; I watch as Lebis tosses the last of the food to curious forest creatures, the ones brave enough to approach us. None of the animals got to taste the berries; we ate all of those. We spend the rest of the afternoon trading stories of our childhoods. Lebis tells me of how he has worked farmlands and metals since he was a boy. His parents are happily married, and Lebis’s father works their lands, which produce much of Eludwid’s fruits. My father wanted to grow fruit crops, but the soil on our farmland is more suitable for wheat. My family and others like mine, with the wheat soil, buy our fruits from the market in the middle of town.

Lebis’s father is an entrepreneur. He travels to collect seeds from other lands and brings them home to grow and sell to the townspeople. He has a gift that produces wonderfully delicious fruits, like the berries we had for lunch. Lebis, on the other hand, does not have such a talent; instead he has the knack for bending steel. Lebis studied this trade from Whiney but far exceeded the old man’s skills. “I taught myself the rest,” he says proudly.

My laughter fills the woods as Lebis finishes telling me a story of a wild skunk that intruded on his eleventh birth celebration. The skunk sprayed inside of his home, and everyone had to leave because of the putrid smell. For days Lebis smelled like skunk, and so did his friends. Lebis added that he found that same skunk a few days later and decided that he should not kill the little creature. Instead he brought it home and asked his parents if he could keep it. His parents were in shock that the skunk had not yet sprayed, and they quickly ordered Lebis to return the skunk to its home in the forest. Lebis did as he was told. “But I visited that skunk every day for the rest of the summer, until one day I went and it was not there,” Lebis finishes. The woodland creatures do not respond to the laughter; it is getting late and they have already nestled themselves in for the night. Kelwyn snorts as if she thinks Lebis has forgotten about her.

“She should be a concern of yours; she is the only woman in my life.” He is grinning, but I am momentarily bewildered.

“Kelwyn?” I ask. Lebis looks past me. I turn to follow his stare. “Well she
is
lovely, and I am sure that she will not complain about you tracking your filthy boots through the stables,” I say, smirking.

I am sitting close to him, and we are sharing a wool wrap to keep us warm from the chilly late-evening air. Lebis and I stare at each other. My skin begins to tickle; I know what is supposed to happen next: a kiss. The forest is so quiet that I believe Lebis can hear my heart pounding. He leans in close, our noses almost touching, and speaks to me softly.

“I have waited so long to be in this moment,” he says, his eyes gleaming with pride and appreciation. I say nothing, just smile anxiously. “You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, Eramane.” He tilts his head a little. “You take my breath away.” His words are flattering, and I do not have the desire to turn away. Just before our lips meet, Lebis’s appearance is replaced with the image of the beautiful stranger. I pull away.

“I am sorry, Eramane. I should not have assumed …” Lebis is afraid that he has insulted me.

“No, it is not you. I just thought that I saw something,” I explain.

“What was it? What did you see?”

“I am not sure,” I say. “It was nothing of importance.” I dismiss the hallucination and once again give Lebis my full attention. Both of us are unnerved now, and what would have been the perfect moment for a kiss passes. But Lebis derives an opportunity for a kiss when he gently strokes my neck with his fingertips. I breathe him in, adoring his scent with every breath, and if we never meet again, I will always remember his smell. I cannot push aside thoughts of regret, sorry that it is only now that we have truly discovered each other. I so long to become acquainted with this remarkable man and I can almost hear my mother in my head saying,
See? I told you!

He slips my dress strap down and kisses my shoulder. “I want to be with you and you with me, Eramane—always. Does your heart feel the same?” he asks.

“Yes, you are what I want,” I admit.

“Good, then … I have secured a second chance to be with you.” Without hesitation, he replaces my dress strap and jumps up, standing above me with his arms stretched down toward me. “Come on, I need to get you back home before your brother comes looking for us,” he says, pulling me up to stand. “I could use some assistance,” he says, looking around at the picnic items. I am still a little unraveled from his soft kiss, but I gather my senses and dust pieces of lint from the wool wrap off my dress.

“It is darker now than I would like for it to be, and the forest can be a dangerous place at night. We should get going,” he says and tosses his belongings over his shoulder, turning to look for Kelwyn. “She has wandered off,” he says. Lebis sends out a sharp whistle in an attempt to summon his mare. He walks a few yards away from me, scanning the barely lit forest. I keep my eyes on him and even begin to follow, but my injured foot finds a rock that sends an agonizingly sharp pain up my leg. I immediately stop following Lebis, but he has not noticed yet, and in an instant I am alone. Lebis is not far from me, but the forest has us separated by its shadows, making it seems as if we are miles apart.

I try to keep my focus in the direction I last saw Lebis. The moon is full and pokes through in places, but with night set in, I begin to feel panic rise. There is a story told to young girls, for the purpose of keeping them safe, of a maiden being lost in a dark forest; it does not end well, and it is all I can think about, being out here alone. “Lebis!” I hear no reply. “Lebis, where are you?” Again, nothing, and I have moved from panic to true fear. The forest seems to spin around me; I am dizzy and cannot get a sense of direction. I lean on a tree and close my eyes. Open, close, open, close, open—the forest slows down, and when the fuzzy image of spinning trees comes into focus, so does he.

Looking straight forward into the darkness, the stranger appears, slowly walking toward me. I am not afraid, because his appearance is curious to me, not harmful. But as he gets closer, his beautiful amber eyes change to a fiery orange color; they are fixed on me, peering beyond me, it feels. “Eramane, I have come to take you with me.” Now I am frightened.

“Eramane!” Lebis finds his way back to me. “I was worried about you. I thought you were following, and when I turned back, you were gone.”

“It is my foot. I stepped on a rock. But, Lebis, we have to go now.” Lebis sees that I am upset beyond just being left alone.

“What happened? Are you all right?”

“Lebis, something is out here.” I explain to him that I saw a man in the forest. He scans the forest in all directions and takes my hand. “Can you walk?”

“Yes.”

“All right, this way.” He leads me through the darkness; the trees usher us along, causing us to turn this way and that. A noise ahead stops us in our tracks. We listen more closely. “It is Kelwyn,” Lebis says, and darts the direction of the sound.

Lebis and I are shaken when a powerful gust of wind passes between us and up into the trees. We follow it with our eyes. I look to Lebis. “What was that?” I ask.

“I do not know,” he says and takes hold of my hand again. “We must hurry. I have a sword on Kelwyn.” We run a few more paces. “Kelwyn!” Lebis gasps. He reaches his mare before I do. He turns and grabs me, covering my eyes. I can smell raw meat; the stench of exposed animal bowels fills my nostrils. I rip his hand away from my eyes and see the carnage that is Kelwyn’s fate. I scream and Lebis grabs my face to get my attention.

“Whoever did this is probably still here. I know this is an awful thing, but we have to get out of these woods and into the open. We must hurry.” He searches the ground for his sword. He locates the sheath only a few inches away from Kelwyn’s head. Lebis snatches it up; he takes my hand and we run.

We dart through the trees, and soon the forest spews us into the meadow. I am frightened and devastated by the image of Kelwyn that forever will be burned in my memory.
Who would do that to her?

I feel the powerful gust of wind again. Nothing in the wild is moving, but we have our own windstorm circling us. “Lebis, what is happening?” I cry as the cyclone forces us together.

He holds on to me tightly. “I will not let anything happen to you, Eramane, I promise!” he shouts. The wind is deafening, and as easily as it brought us together, it moves between us and forces us to separate. Lebis is aggressively thrown away from me. He stumbles to catch his balance. The whirlwind travels up into the trees of the forest once more. We stare at each other in astonishment. “We have to put distance between us and the forest,” Lebis orders. Again we run, but my wound has reopened, and I am bleeding and in pain. I try to run despite it, but where are we running to? There is nothing around for at least a mile.

The sound of the rushing wind comes again, only this time it has a form. An enormous creature flies down from the heavens and lands inches away from me. Its glowing, fire-colored eyes fixate on me and burn through to my core. The night is so dark that all I can see are its eyes, and I know, at that moment, that the beast means to kill Lebis. I realize instantly that Lebis is no match for this frightful
thing
, and my companion will die trying to defend me. I look across to Lebis and see that he knows this too.