Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to Kuwa- ...thingy!

This site is purely here for our own enjoyment, which means it's not open to the public. Well, I guess you can read our ramblings if you want... Beware, though. They are known to cause severe mental damage when we've been nightsick.

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Vale of the White Horse
Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,290 Views)
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Rufus did not move even a fraction of an inch. 'Udd Wyll, I assume?' he said, his voice every bit as cold as that of the moonlight-creature.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She moved her head. His tone did note bode well. Oh, she should have told him to remain behind! ‘My lord,’ she said with a warning in her voice, ‘please move away.’
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Give me a good reason, and I will comply.' He felt ill at ease - as he should. Rufus would have declared any man who didn't feel a superstitious shiver run down his spine insane. But he'd rather die before being commanded like a dog.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘I shall not speak to his kind,’ Udd Wyll whispered. ‘Not while the disease they spread poisons my blood.’
‘You can speak to me,’ Essylt tried. ‘I’ll listen. I promise I’ll remember your words carefully.’
He turned his eyes on her. They were sad. ‘No, annwyl un. I come to you alone.’
She nodded. ‘Rufus. Please stand down.’
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
The wind and lashing rain snatched most words away, but Rufus caught the words 'his kind' and 'disease'. When Essylt spoke, he pressed his lips to a thin line, then turned around with a swirl of his sodden cloak. He moved to stand behind the blowing stone, staring moodily at the settlement.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She watched his eyes follow Rufus’ movement. ‘You should not have brought him here.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she said, heart quivering. ‘I did not fight him because he scares me. But I think he is right in one thing…How can I let that one thing happed? If you’re here to help me, you can’t leave me with so few answers!’
Udd Wyll took her face in both his hands. She felt how cool his skin was. It did not feel human at all, yet it was a steady touch. ‘You are referring to their deaths on this hill.’
‘Yes, and…myself.’
‘Does he know that it was you who killed him?’
Her eyelids fluttered down. ‘No. Is it irrevocably so?’
He brought his face to her own; his lips breathed the words against hers. ‘Nothing is irrevocable, Essylt. Except who you are.’
‘I realize that.’ She hesitated. His brief kiss had unsettled her. ‘Then what do I do to stop it?’
‘You must not tell him it is you. He will destroy you once he knows.’
‘He’s not my friend.’
‘You ask how you stop this. I do not know what you will do, Essylt. Look at the streams at your feet; they run down a certain path. How they course is not up to them; it depends on the shape of the hill; the earth, the grass, rocks and pebbles. But it’s not up to the hill how the water runs either. The water changes that which it runs through. So do you.’
She whispered: ‘I don’t know if I really understand.’
‘Try it, my dearest. If you are water, what is the force that pulls you?’
‘I don’t know…the current?’
‘And where does a river flow to, when it runs on and on over the hills?’
‘The sea,’ Essylt said.
Udd Wyll smiled. ‘Yes, eventually. But before that, it runs through many sites, feeding the lands and crashing down in falls, hitting upon the deadliest rocks.’
She was silent for a while. ‘Please speak plainly,’ she said then. ‘Will I crash?’
‘Does water shatter?’ he asked in return. ‘All it does it feed or destroy. Yes, a river can be dreaded, Essylt. You know that; you dread it within yourself. If it swells beyond containment, it is a dark thing. You can kill, annwyl un. Those who are innocent and those who are bad will drown in the same surge.’
‘I….’ she struggled to get away from his hands. He did not force his grip and she stumbled backwards. ‘I don’t want that. I don’t want to hear it!’ Because it couldn’t be her, it was too cruel. Essylt knew her face was getting wet from something else but the rain.
He bowed his had gracefully. ‘Then go now and dry yourself. It is not the course that you have to take.’
Essylt looked at him for a little, but his face seemed to betray nothing of anger. ‘If that time comes and I become that…thing. Will you rescue me or encourage it?’
She thought she heard him sigh. ‘I will be there to catch you when you fall.’
She thought of Branwen, her dear twin sister. Without another words she stepped back, wiping the rain from her face though it was an idle gesture. Udd Wyll disappeared.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
So much for the choice words he'd carefully picked out, Rufus thought as he gnawed on a knuckle in frustration. He allowed himself such a gesture only because Essylt could not see him. No one could, with this curtain of rain around him, unless they were within three feet of him. When it was out of his system, he leaned against the Blowing Stone. There was a curious feeling located somewhere near his stomach. Nerves for his imminent - or so it seemed - death? Or maybe it was anger directed at the Fair Folk, combined with knowing that he could run away from this, but not live with it if he did. He didn't know how long it was before Essylt appeared again. When she did, he pushed himself away from the stone and cast a questioning look at her.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She barely looked at him. Suddenly the rain felt overpoweringly harsh. She just wanted to crouch by the fire and sit with Morcant.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Well?' he asked impatiently. 'What did mr I'm too good to talk to a Roman have to say?' He couldn't help the bitterness in his voice.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She inhaled. ‘He said it is not irrevocable. And he said that it depended on me.’ It was hard to say this, though she had known it all along.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'All right then. Since we got what we came for, there's no need to linger.' He stepped away from the Blowing Stone. So everything depended on Essylt. Rufus wasn't sure whether that was reassuring, or frightening in its own way.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She was still shaking. It was like she had fallen into the river, like Morcant had. Essylt clenched her cloak, though it had not warded all the rain from her clothes or hair. And her eyes still felt swollen, tearful. 'What are you going to do now?'
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'What ever self-respecting politician would do,' he muttered as they descended the hill in the pouring rain. 'Plot, scheme and plan until this situation takes the course I want it to take.' Rufus realized that if he could figure out when this was supposed to happen, he could make sure to be somewhere else. In Cavern Hill, for instance. It'd still be close to running away from the problem, but it was a little better than turning his tail and heading back for Rome.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘That means with me, doesn’t it?’ she asked trembling. She was so cold – was it because of the rain, the fierce wind that blew all over her body as if she was wearing nothing at all? Or because Udd Wyll’s words had stroke a terror in her that felt akin to the ice in her hands?
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I cannot believe you're the only deciding factor in this whole mess,' he answered. 'I meant that I'm going to try and turn the rest of the situation as favourable as I can.' Starting with that group of men lurking in the woodlands. He had to eradicate every last one of them. He'd said he didn't want any more deaths in this chieftaincy, but he had most specifically meant his own.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘No. Maybe I’m not. I don’t know.’ She slipped, nearly losing her balance in the mud. ‘But if he tells me it depends largely on me, then perhaps I will leave this place.’
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Perhaps.' Rufus kept his voice neutral, though he thought that he wouldn't mind if she did leave.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
‘I’ll be going home now,’ she said as they reached the end of the hill and the gate of the settlement. She felt awkward with this new version of Rufus. 'Unless there's more you still want of me.'
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Rufus shifted his damp cloak. 'No, I know enough now. Good day, Essylt.'
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Essylt shook off the cloak as soon as she was insinde the roundhouse. She wanted to crawl into the flames, so they could heat her. Instead she changed into another tunic and skirt, turned the bread around and sat quietly as the spindle turned round and round in her hands. Had she made a mistake to allow Rufus so deep? She had wanted to scare him, and in that she seemed to have succeeded. But instead of going away, he was trying to slip around it. Perhaps he was right; this was their common goal.
After a while she took some dried fruits, though she and Morcant did not have much. A part she ate herself, finding a little solace in the sweetness. The other, she tossed in the fire with a slow gesture and watched as is shrunk and shriveled, consumed by the flames. She wanted to offer a prayer with it, but to whom? If it was the Fair Folk that listened, she might as well talk to herself. What if, despite her best efforts, she could not protect Morcant? Wasn’t there a thing she could do? If she was half of Udd Wyll’s kin, was all that it gave her the power to freeze and to foresee the things she did want to know? There must be more than that, surely!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
While a servant oiled him, Rufus had occassion to think. Not that he enjoyed contemplating the events of this afternoon, since they didn't all go the way he would have liked them to go. Giving up control wasn't something he did willingly, or easily. Well, there wasn't much to be done about it. He would just have to grin and bear it, and find another way he could wrest control back from Udd Wyll's Fair fingers. There was no doubt in his mind that the man was the orchestrator if this whole mess. But how in the name of Jupiter could he compete with such a creature?
The servant left and Rufus took up the strigil, scraping the oil and all the dirt from his limbs with it. He wished there was a way he could scrape all the worries off of him this way too. It wasn't like him to wish for anything, but he'd done any number of things that weren't like him today. He'd have to work on that tomorrow, he decided. Rufus dropped the strigil in the still steaming water at his feet and stepped out of the low tub. After towelling himself off, he walked to his rooms to change. Tomorrow he'd start scheming. Right now, all he wanted was some food and staring into the crackling hearth.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
The fort seemed lonely, Rhywallon thought. He stared up at the contours with the feeling of a boulder inside his chest. The worst part was facing the man in charge. He did not want his face attached to the cruelty of Sulpicius and yet there was no other way. Dreading every step, he rode up to the courtyard. It was not unlike Caer March, only darker. He’d thought that the hillfort in the Vale of the White Horse had been overcast by some unnamed absence of poise. He couldn’t remember any odd tales from Morcant, except that the chieftain would wed his daughter to a Roman. Now the daughter had disappeared or left. Perhaps that was the reason of the ambiance. It was not his problem anyway. He dismounted as a stable boy came up. ‘Just hold the horse for a bit,’ he said. ‘It won’t be long.’
The lord of Two Lakes was in a council, they told him. It was impossible see him now. Rhywallon clenched his jaws and pushed on. There were guards facing on each side of the door. ‘I’m afraid I bear a message from the eastern borders. It cannot wait at all. Tell your lord that I am here and that my master is Spurius Sulpicius.’ Master. It sounded as tough he had become a dog. And maybe he had. But it would soon bite the man until he bled.
One of the guards went in. He heard nothing; the heavy door shut out sounds. Then the man came back, and he looked a little less tough. ‘Come in,’ he said.
So he did. The room was not large and not well lit. There were only a handful of men, gathered around a table. One of them had to be the father of Morcant’s crush.
‘I regret to disturb you, my lords,’ he said. And he was. The bad lighting was only a convenience to hide his face better. ‘Perhaps the chieftain of Two Lakes wants to hear my message it private.’
One of the men rose. He had broad shoulders and was clad in good clothes but his face looked like a death mask. ‘I am lord of Two Lakes,’ he spoke. ‘You can deliver your message here. Is it –’ his voice faltered.
‘What, my lord?’ Rhywallon asked, wondering if he was already expecting the tide of disaster upon him.
‘A message so urgent, I had hoped, perhaps…news from my daughter. Essylt.’
Rhywallon had never seen quite such an expression before. It was not exactly hope; the man looked like he had hoped many times and lost just as often. Still, there was a sense of desperate longing, telling him that this chieftain would not be healthy for much longer, if he continued in this tragedy. He could just tell what he knew about this girl, though it was not much. He could present it as his message and leave. But there was Gwenllian. If he had to choose, it was her over the other girl, though Morcant seemed to be fond of her. ‘No, my lord.’ Ah, his voice had that raw edge to it. ‘It is from Spurius Sulpicius, camping on the border of the Silures territory. He’s not well pleased.’
The face of the chieftain fell, turning pale as fresh milk.
‘I have come not so much with a message as a warning. He assures it is not a punishment. Yet.’ Rhywallon forced the words out quickly, so he did not have to bear this much longer. ‘This was all, my lord. I am sorry.’
‘Wait!’ the man stood still, unmoving like a standing stone. ‘Will it be just an oral forewarning? Is this all?’
Rhywallon pursed his lips together and turned stiffly. No one stopped him. He walked on until he was outside, taking the horse back and riding away from the courtyard. What to do? He couldn’t disobey the Roman. Perhaps he could get Gwenllian out before the cruel man would hear of the events that had taken place – or the lack thereof – but perhaps he could not. It was not a risk he was going to take, so he gathered a stick and draped a piece of cloth around it, pouring out a little of the oil. The Roman had anticipated his move, that was clear. With a sort of morbid disgust, he wondered if it had been the same oil as he had poured over Gwenllian. Striking flints together, he lit a fire. The forest ground was too wet to catch flame so quickly, but he could certainly burn the caer. And he was going to, if he ever wanted to hold Gwenllian again.

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Days passed. Gwenllian's little bit of strength and hope had long since disappeared, replaced by a want to curl up in a dark corner and go unnoticed forever. Spurius Sulpicius didn't forget her, however. If she'd hoped that he would soon tire of her and grant her some peace, she was sorely mistaken. The man seemed bent on wearing her out until she was an empty shell. If she had only herself to worry about, it might not be even half as bad as it was now, knowing what it did to Rhywallon. She couldn't help but wondering how it would have been had she hidden in the forest instead of at the sentry-post, but the only conclusion she could make was that he'd probably have been killed. She'd seen enough of the Roman camp to know that they were incredibly well-organized and that nothing short of an invisible man could find his way past them. Drawing circles on her knee, she sat on the stool. It was midday now, which meant that Silpicius would probably be busy. Not that she could know for sure; the man's comings and goings were as elusive as tendrils of mist.
How long had Rhywallon been gone, now? Days? Weeks? She could hardly keep track of the time, though she prayed almost every moment her mind allowed her enough breathing space from her bleak thoughts. Sometimes, she even directed a prayer towards the Fair Folk. Not that she expected they would listen, but she wanted Rhywallon to have every help he could get. Knowing that he'd return one day was just about the only thought that kept her sane. But - and there were those bleak thoughts again - how would he return? She had no idea what he'd been sent out to do, but it could not be healthy. Spurius Sulpicius would have made sure. Gwenllian wrung her hands together, wanting to cry but having no tears left.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Though he wanted to reach the camp before another sunset cast its hopeless light over the forest, Rhywallon lingered on the edge. He was still invisible, unless a scouting party would stumble upon him. She was there somewhere, locked and lonely inside the impressive tents. His body was yearning for her, craving to hold her against him, smell her scent…if she would still smell of Gwenllian. He hated the thought that the Roman had pressed his own scent all over her body. That he had touched it. Made it into an unholy shrine for their heathen gods. To storm in now would mean locking themselves up forever. No. He could not simply return. It took him an amazing amount of self restraint, it nearly tore his heart to shreds, but he remained where he was. This was going to be the mistake of Spurius Sulpicius. He had anticipated that he’d go and come as he was told, just like such a dog, for the sake of his love for Gwenllian. If he knew that love meant holding back, he had not anticipated this as he had proposed the bargain.
Rhywallon had stood and watched Two Lakes burn. There had been a lot of damage. No doubt people had died. Perhaps even the chieftain. The flames had not completely destroyed the place, for which he was grateful. It might as well have been just the caer itself that had taken most injury. There was some fate working here. Maybe the Roman had planned it so. Maybe it were the gods. Maybe it was bad luck. The burning of Two Lakes had reminded him so much of his own home that he had vomited. It had given him his only, desperate idea.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
With her hands red from clenching them together, she got up to walk past the far side of the tent. The first days she'd been so very sore with every movement she made, now there was only a dull feeling of discomfort. Gwenllian was starting to get afraid of something else; the moon still hadn't come upon her. Though she doubted the Roman's interest in her would suddenly disappear when she was bleeding, she would be spared being pregnant. Feeling weak in the knees at the thought, she pressed her fists into her abdomen as if she could force her period to start that way. With Higueid's constant violent abuse at least, she didn't need to be afraid of this.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
He waited until evening, then repeated the lighting of a torch. It would be hard to create a fire big enough for the forest to catch. It’d take time, maybe until well in the night. And he needed not just one fire – no, twenty would do, all around the camp.
So he moved from place to place as the time went by. Eventually he could straighten up with the scent of smoke in his lungs. From the other side, he saw the flames on several places, like beacons. It was dangerous to wait out here. But he did, and waited.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
It grew steadily darker. Gwenllian lit a single oil lamp; enough to let her move around the tent without stumbling into something. Spurius Sulpicius hadn't arrived yet, for which she was grateful. Any minute without the man was a peaceful minute. For as far as she had peace here. The soldiers outside moved around, a little more than she was used of them. She just didn't care enough to think of any particular reason. It was only much later when she heard a bellowed order that she started to get interested. Would the camp be under attack, by Siluri perhaps? Her heart suddenly caught in her throat and she got up, though she did not dare to move to the entrance and take a peak outside.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Ah. The camp stirred. He was very aware of their well-organized ways. There would be a group dispatched to still the fire almost immediately. But which fire? Some of them had grown like a consuming beast, despite the moist. Rhywallon licked his lips.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Within a couple of minutes, or so it seemed to her, the whole camp had come to action. What few Latin words she could catch amidst all the noise spoke of fire. She could now smell a very faint scent of smoke; it was probably worse outside the tent. Her heart was starting to beat even faster. If everyone was busy with that fire, whatever cause it had, perhaps she could make her escape? The thought was terrifying, yet intoxicating. But what if she could, and Rhywallon would return tomorrow to find her gone? Unless - no, she mustn't think like that. False hope had never gotten anyone anywhere. Gwenllian tiptoed to the entrance of the tent, at least wanting a peak outside.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
He slipped both his daggers from their sheaths. He’d need at least four more if he wanted to make sense out of this, but he simply hadn’t had enough hands. Rhywallon moved to the border of the camp, trusting on the smoke to hide him for a while. He was lucky the wind was right. He ran, ducking low, going from tent to tent. He had no idea where Gwenllian would be. Soldiers were bustling around, though not all of them had left their post. Even in times of distress, they were most admirably disciplined. The blades of his daggers were soiled before he even reached the heart of the place; the bodies would not draw much attention now, but he didn’t have that long. With a mouth dry from smoke and pure dread, he meandered about.
Then – there, that was Sulpicius’ tent. What would he do if the man was inside? They were still guarding it from the outside. Velocity was probably his best tool, now. He ran up to them, imagining himself as a demon appearing from the mist. Perhaps, for a fleeting second, they’d think he was a terrifying branch of the Fair Folk. The knife went up somewhere in a man’s socket. The other caught an artery, close to the throat. He kicked them away, violently moving the tent flap aside as he started to count down.
Twenty.
Nineteen
Eighteen….
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
Go to Next Page
« Previous Topic · Vale of the White Horse · Next Topic »
Add Reply


Theme created by vcd of the ZetaBoards Theme ZoneStyle District