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Vale of the White Horse
Topic Started: 5 Jan 2010, 13:03 (19,376 Views)
Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'I'm still to be married to him,' she corrected. 'When this is over and I'm back....' But, by then, her mother would almost have to deliver. She thought about the wan face in the water. The wail of the baby...her little brother or sister. Would it really steal her mother's life with it's birth? 'But I'm not sure what sort of husbands they make, Roman officers...'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'The worst kind,' he grunted. 'And when this is over, there will be no Roman for you to get married to.' He probably sounded a right sight angrier than he had intended to. It was just this side of infuriating, hearing a girl talk so lightly about wedding one of those vermin. Their influence, no doubt.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Yes, well,' she amended, glancing over to see his jaw set tight. 'I wasn't looking forward to that with my mother being so close to dy...' she faltered, found that she couldn't really say the word. The sun was rising swiftly now, as if morning light had suddenly bloomed between the trees like blossom in springtime. There was a clearing now. The water she had earlier streamed further down, cascading from small bedrocks down to the lower of the valley. She blinked against the sunbeams; they felt warm on her face. Warmth, at last. 'Uhm...I'm sorry. I won't talk about it again.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'What I don't get,' he said without paying attention to her words, 'is why your only concern for that marriage seems to be your mother. Marrying an intruder probably about thrice your age sounds to me like a rather unpleasant thing to contemplate.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
His words quieted her for a while. All she heard were their thudding footsteps over the forest earth, the water that rushed by like a whispering feyborn, the birds rustling overhead. Eventually, the silence had drawn out too long and she looked up. 'It is. So I rather think about my mother. Because I love her more.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He stopped in his tracks and turned around to face her. 'And you'll certainly do your mother a favour by allowing yourself to be buried in some distant post of the Roman garrison, while your husband enslaves your own people,' he said in a matter-of-fact sort of tone. 'All right. Certainly screams love to you, I'm sure.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She halted too, blinking. 'I...didn't - I don't expect that that man would love me. As you say.' It hurt, saying that aloud. She knew that accepting her father's wishes made her subject to a loveless marriage. It was not something she desired at all, but wasn't it good to obey her father? He was chieftain after all, and he was trying to maintain peace between his people and the Roman settlers.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Hmf.' He abruptly turned around and started walking again. 'Well, not on my watch. Keep moving,' he snapped, 'we've got a long way to go still.' Obedience was one of the virtues in a woman, but wasn't it supposed to be subject to common sense? If her father told her to spread her legs for money, would she do that, too? This was just another one of the reasons why he wanted the Romans out and he would go to any lengths to accomplish it.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Morcant was a man of little patience, the thought as she moved after him. He must really hate the Romans. She'd best no longer speak of that, then. Biting her lip, she thought of something to say, but found that she had lost the little of the bravery she'd felt just now. He probably wouldn't hurt her much; his intentions seemed purely to have her talk about her father's secrets. He probably expected her to tell them everything when he so much as pointed a dagger at her. And perhaps he was right to think that. He had removed the rope from her wrists because she had promised to be sweet, to be good and behave. Essylt flinched.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He walked on in stoic silence, until his bladder notified him that it was time to check if he was still a boy. He glanced over his shoulder at Essylt. 'Stay here,' he said curtly and moved behind a tree.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She halted abruptly. He sounded as if he were commanding a dog. Essylt looked around. The sun had properly risen now and she felt much better, like the tendrils of a nightmare had finally dissolved. The water still reminded her of a voice - not a human sound, but alluring and calling to her. And her mouth was dry. She had barely sipped from his water bag this morning. While he was still behind the trees, she moved until she was close, then crouched on her knees closer to the water's edge. It wasn't deep, but the current moved fast. She dipped her hands beneath the surface to drink from the water between her fingers. Then she brushed her face with her wet palms. It helped to clear her head, to forget about the Romans and the fact that she was in the middle of her own hostage. When she looked down, she saw something move. First, she thought Morcant had returned to stand behind her, but he wasn't there. It was another of those images. Not the girl with the stone, the girl that had looked so sad. Not her mother's dead face either. She moved her head closer, heart racing. A man, a tall man with broad shoulders. He wore a ponytail, the way Morcant did. He was sitting, kneeling in front of something that might be a pool or a lake. There was someone next to him. He was holding on to her arm, then his hand moved to her head and he pressed it downward, as if he wanted her to take a look at something. The girl had blonde hair that fell over her face and shoulders like locks of fine spun wool.
Essylt blinked, but the image remained.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Still a boy, Morcant stepped from behind the tree. At first he thought Essylt had bolted, but then he saw her kneeling at the edge of the stream. The curse died on his lips and he rolled his eyes. Figures. You just can't tell a woman what to do and expect her to actually do it. 'Oi,' he said, not bothering to even try and sound polite, 'if we want to arrive today, we best get walking.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'Wait,' she said. He had startled her, but the sudden sound of his voice didn't make the images dissolve. She didn't move to look back. 'Can you see this too?' She wanted him to tell her that he did.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
With a barely kept-back sigh of annoyance, he stalked towards her and took a look over her shoulder. 'See what?' he grumbled. All he saw were the pebbles and rocks underneath the quick-flowing surface of the stream.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
Essylt looked down unto the images for three heartbeats longer. 'Nothing?' She didn't know what she had hoped for. Perhaps her mother would tried to understand, and her sister would have listened to her, if she had still been alive. Now she was just alone with a stranger who wanted to drag her off. She moved back. 'Well, forget about it.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He wasn't going to just forget about it. Morcant eyed Essylt wearily, but it was clear that she wasn't going to explain it to him. He shook his head and turned about. 'Well, hurry up. I want to be there before they start on dinner.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
She shook it off, trying to ignore her racing heart. 'Yes, sir.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
The extra clothes Eiluned had brought her were only slightly too large. Gwenllian thought it was mostly due to her long travel, since her own clothes were getting a bit roomy as well. The bath had been wonderful, however. She could hardly remember the last time she'd been thoroughly warm, as she and Rhywallon had avoided settlements as much as they could after the evening of her nightmare. Even though she was more or less safe now, she was still rather nervous. What if they couldn't offer her shelter, with all these Romans around the caer? She stuck her head outside the door and looked into the hallway. When she saw no one, she stepped outside and started finding her way back to the main hall. She wondered where Rhywallon was.

-

Tudwrig leaned against the stone window-sill, gasping for breath. The curse had been bothering him for the past week now, and this was the first time he felt enough in control to be able to do his duties. It was unfair on Briallen that she had to deal with the Romans, and he'd have it another way if he could, but he just wasn't able to. Gods, the pain was nearly splitting his head in half. It seemed that every time he fought for control, the pain got that more unbearable.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
He had left before Gwenllian could possibly finish her bath. Now he was taking careful steps towards the settlement. It looked like a dead creature, half-decayed with a skeleton of partly finished houses spread here and there in rows. People noticed him for his face, but he was long used to this. So this was meant to be a place for the Romans to settle, he thought bitterly. Not only a military post, but men and women of the colonies. The higher ranks had settled themselves inside Caer March. Rhywallon looked up the hill. The settlement was built in it’s embrace. He saw the chalk white lines of the horse cut out through the grass, a testimony that time was persistent. The Romans had some guts to pick this place to build their filthy houses. He turned a corner, kicking aside a barrel. It rolled away until it halted, with a thud, into someones foot. Rhywallon turned around. He had the shadow of a roof and the corner of a finished house thrown over him as hiding. A tall, broad man with a sharp nose and graying hair glanced down at the barrel. He had his booted foot on it, as if he was holding down a slave that way. Rhywallon felt the fire on his face burn up suddenly, and the flames spread all through his chest so he could no longer breathe.

-

‘I know it is hard,’ Briallen said. She spoke softly so that only her husband could hear it. ‘Bit this girl fears for her life. How can we protect both her and have the Romans spill over through our home like mice?’
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
There was no one in the hall, which made Gwenllian feel just a little uncomfortable, like an intruder. After a few surreptitious glances around, she sat down on a wooden bench covered in rugs placed in front of the hearth. She licked her lips and started at very nearly every sound.

-

'I won't have it,' Tudwrig repeated his earlier statement from between clenched teeth. Was the curse going to drown him in terrible pains until he gave up forever? 'She'll have more to fear from me than from what's out there scaring her so.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'But Tudwrig...She's travelled all this way. You can't send her away like this!' Briallen looked up, tried to find his eyes but he kept his gaze distant. Was the pain so much? She didn't want to upset him, but did not want to send the girl back into her obvious nightmares either.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
He passed a weary hand over his face. 'I'm sure she didn't mean to travel from one nightmare into another,' he said quietly. 'The risk is just too great, Briallen. If she's travelled this far, it won't kill her to travel to the next caer. Or she can live in the Roman settlement, for all I care. Just not in this castle.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'You didn't send me back,' she said sharply.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I'd have a war on my hands if I had,' he said curtly. And if he allowed this girl, this Gwenllian to stay after she had run away from her husband - well, who was to say that he wouldn't have the chieftain of Cavern Hill to deal with when they found out? Just what he needed, he thought bitterly. He already had a curse and Romans.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'You're saying that was all, then?' Briallen crossed her arms, knowing that her face betrayed some hurt.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'Don't give me that,' Tudwrig said, hardly able to keep his voice in check; the pain was getting worse by the minute. 'You know it wasn't.' He shook his head. 'She just can't stay. That protector of hers will have to take her to some other caer.'
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'I understand.' At Shadow Well, this would not have happened. Her father had been a strong man and educated in the law. He would not have tolerated a girl to be abused by her husband. But then, she thought bitterly, her father had nothing to fear from another chieftain, should he decide to war against him. Nor did he turn into a beast. Briallen turned her head away. 'I suppose you will not tell her this yourself.'
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
'I need to talk to that Roman. I haven't been able to see him in a week and he'll be suspicious. After that, I don't know how much longer I can control..myself.' He still loathed talking about the curse in bare terms, that much hadn't changed yet.
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Marieke
Lief! <3 (and powerful!)
'It'll be bad manners if you never face her yourself,' she remarked quietly.
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Sonja
Red & dangerous! Rawr!
Another wave of pain struck him speechless for long moments. When it had subsided, he gave a long, shuddering sigh. 'All right,' he said weakly. 'If I have enough energy left after speaking to Marcus Iulius, I'll tell her myself. If I don't it's up to you, bad manners or not.'
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