The Heartwood Box: A Fairy Tale (30 page)

“Keep still!” came Derek’s angry order
.

Genevieve’s rage was sharp and lucid, invigorating under the circumstances
.
It co
mpletely did away with fear
and luckily distracted her from her less acceptable sensations.

After that, time passed in a haze
—
she knew only that it was late afternoon when the horse finally slowed
.
Derek was off in a moment, slinging her over
the horse’s
side
.

He remov
ed several bags from the saddle
and then whispered in
Nightshade’s
ear
,
“Run fast, lose them, then find Declan.” 

The horse practically vanished down the narrow road
.

Derek knelt and put his hand to the ground
.
With a quick curse, he pulled her off the road, moving sideways through a very narrow path that had been cut through the brush
.
He went about thirty feet, before he shoved her fac
e down beneath a dense mulberry
and to her astonishment, threw himself on top of her
.

Holding his hand across her mouth, he whispered so low she could barely hear, “You must be absolutely silent
.
Reavers are behind us.” 

Genevieve chilled
.
In a thousand years she wouldn’t have suspected such a thing
.
I
n the village, the Reavers were the stuff of frightening fireside tales
.
The half-human offspring of women who’d been raped by demons
, they were
fiends
who
murdered their own mothers
and anyone else they could find: c
hildren, the aged, male, female
—
none were spared their rampages
.

Derek kept his hand on her mouth and rested his head against the back of hers, pinning her so that she couldn’t move at all
.
Two minutes later, she heard it: the sound of horses and brutal shouts in some unknown language.

The sounds died off, but Derek’s only movement was to retrieve a small vial from his pocket and pour some liquid over both of them
.
Then he lay perfectly still
.
Minutes passed, the light dimmed, the air grew even more chilled, and still he kept her there
.

Perhaps ten minutes after they heard the horses, Derek tensed, nuzzling her in warning
.
Soon she caught the sounds, these ones on foot
.
She realized that it was a second wave of pursuers who followed to try to catch them as they broke cover
.
These did not stay
on
the road but fanned out into the bordering wood
.
Her stomach clenched as the sounds came closer
.

The footsteps were only a few yards away when Genevieve heard a flurry of growling that caused a rivulet of cold sweat to snake down her face
.
N
othing human could make that sound
.
Genevieve’s heart nearly stopped when a pair of bright red talons, larger than a man’s foot, appeared at the edge of the bush
.
She was three feet from an actual demon
.

Thank Titania, Derek remained utterly motionless, which somehow helped her find calm enough not to react
.
The feet prowled about for what seemed like an eternity, during which she was certain an enormous bloody claw was going to slice right through the bush, Derek
,
and then her as easily as softened butter
.
But then, miraculously, the talons moved away again
.

She was convinced it was a trap, but after ten minutes Derek shifted off of
her
.
He undid her bound hands
and then untied the cloth in her mouth, patting her
lips
in reminder that she should remain silent
.
He helped her roll to her side
and held up a canister to her lips
.
She drank greedily
.

Pulling her head in to his, he said very quietly, “
There
is a hideout not far
.
Keep
quiet.”

Derek slipped out through the branches without making a sound though he was twice her size, but Genevieve was as loud as a bear blundering through a briar patch as she tried to extricate herself
.
Luckily for her sanity, Derek showed no alarm
.
H
e must be certain that for now the two of them were alone
.
There was something about Derek that defied mistrust
.
He seemed incapable of even harmless deceptions
.
Genevieve couldn’t help but feel reassured, though she was still furious
.

He pulled out a grey-green cloak and put it over her shoulders, pulling the hood up so that her hair was completely covered and her face was shado
wed
.
He put another on himself
and then
nodded for her to follow him.

In the failing light, Genevieve couldn’t discern anything distinctive enough to be a landmark
.
T
he trees and rocks were so many vague outlines
,
but Derek moved withou
t hesitation,
as silent and graceful as a large cat on the hunt
.

An old path went up the mountain, bordered on either side by dense brush
.
They climbed for a quarter mile, when Derek stopped and pulled back the branches of a tall thorny shrub
.
B
ehind it, a subtle path had been cut, giving them just enough room to move quietly, but next to impossible to see if you didn’t know it was there
.

It led them away from the main path until they’d gone high enough to reach the pine strands where no paths were needed
.
He pulled her at a jog then, running in and out of the trees, stopping every so often to listen
.

Finally, when they’d travelled another mile, up and
east
, he stopped and pulled her over to a tree
.
He took out some tool and knelt down
.
He was digging a hole, she realized
.

He stood up again and whispered, “Go.” 

“What?” 

He pushed on her shoulders so that she would bend down
.
“Go
—
make water.”

Genevieve almost fainted with embarrassment
.
“No,” she hissed, trying to stomp away
.
She was not doing
that
in front of her husband, let alone her husband’s brother
.

Derek’s eyes blazed
.
He gripped both her arms and pushed her against the tree
.
“
N
ow
!
” 

“Get your hands off of me, you oaf!”  She was sick to death of being manhandled by the men of this family.

“Think carefully, Genevieve,” he whispered sneeringly
.
“Do you really wish to do this with your hands bound?”

Genevieve swallowed at the threat
.
Unfortunately the same qualities that made
Derek
seem incapable of deception also made him seem unlikely to bluff
.
It helped her complianc
e that she did in fact have to
“
go,
”
badly.

“At least turn your back,” she
growled furiously
.

He smirked
and deigned to make a quarter turn away from her
.
She crouched down, gripping the tree with one hand, trying to pull her skirt out
of
the way with the other.

She hated going outdoors! 

It took a good half-minute to even start with her infernal brother standing right there, but finally she released her stream
.
She experienced yet more agonies of mortification when it seemed to take an i
mpossibly long time to finish.

When she stood ag
ain, Derek handed her a wad of
paper
.
By now she was ready to kill him
.
She grabbed it furiously while he again made a show of turning away so she could pull up her skirts and clean herself
.
He nodded that she should place it on the spot she’d just gone in
.
He seemed about to cover the hole, but she grabbed the trowel from his hand and st
ooped down to bury it herself.

She returned the trowel and he walked ten steps away and dug his own hole
—
so it seemed only she was not allowed any privacy!  When he was done, he took out another vial of liquid and poured a little on each spot
.
She guessed
it was to disguise any scent.

They then continued east across the mountain another
half-
mile
when they reached a large hill
that was dotted with rocks and massive boulders
.
Winding in between two man-sized stones, they reached another pile of brush
, which
turned out to be attached to a wooden door
.
Derek pulled it back, revealing
a small triangular opening in the rocks, barely three feet across
.

H
e motioned that she should wait
and then climbed in feet first
on his st
omach
.
He reached for the bags,
dropped them down
,
and then nodded that she should follow him
.
He guided her until she’d climbed down enough to be fully inside the opening
.
Then he climbed up so that he was standing over her with her back against his chest
.
He reached out and pulled the little door closed, leaving them in utter darkness
.

Keeping his arm tightly around her waist, he helped her feel her way down the ladder, which descended about twelve feet into the ground
.

“Don’t move,” he said, his voice closer to normal, and then moved away
.

A minute later there was a scratch and a flicker of light and then the steady light from an oil lantern
.

Genevieve was astonished to find herself in a sizable underground room that looked like it had been stocked with necessities and even a few comforts so that two people might live reasonably well for years
.
The packed earth floor was covered with thick woven mats; wooden shelves along three walls held lanterns, blankets, clothing, weapons, rope, jars with all manner of preserves, metal food tins, even bottles of brandy
.
Below the shelves were five large barrels she assumed were filled with water
.
Against the fourth wall was
a
narrow cot
.

Now that they seemed safe for the moment, she stared at Derek, waiting for him to offer some explanation
.
He was scowling fiercely
.
“Why were you tied to the bed?” came
his
blunt question.

Genevieve couldn’t help laughing
—
of all the things he c
ould say
!
  Was there ever in the history of the universe
a more infuriating man
?

“Hello Genevieve,” she said sarcastically
.
“I am so sorry for snatching you from your bed and throwing you over the back of a horse, bound and gagged
.
I suppose you want an explanation: you’d never have guessed but Reavers were after you!  Not to mention
a bloody demon
!” 

Derek gave her one of his glares that was supposed to leave her cowering, but she merely folded her arms and glared back
.
She was past all patience with the men of this family
.
His gaze shifted then to something more assessing
.
“Did you refuse to stay put when you were told?”

“It is none of your business,” she bit out
.