The Mountains Rise

  Blue’s death brought out his own tears, and he began to cry along with her, letting the pain tear away the wall he had kept between himself and his emotions. He cried like a child, without shame or restraint, until there was nothing left. Still she clung to him.

  Her naked skin was smooth under his hands, but his baser instincts never rose to the fore. When they eventually separated and found their feet he looked at her, studying the dirt and bruises that had marked her lithe figure.

  She stared back at him, unashamed of her nudity. She wore her bare skin with the dignity of a queen.

  “We need to get him up to the house,” said Daniel, looking at Seth.

  “I wasn’t strong enough to drag either of you up the hill,” admitted Kate.

  That surprised him. He hadn’t realized he had been so completely unconscious. “How long was I out?”

  “Close to an hour,” she told him.

  “Damn.” Bending down he worked to arrange Seth’s limbs until he could get his arms beneath his friend’s knees and shoulders. Letting out a slow groan he stood, lifting Seth from the ground. “I think I can get him all the way,” he told her, “If you’ll carry…” His voice choked before he could say “Blue”.

  She nodded, understanding immediately, and together they carried Seth and the dog up to her house.

  Daniel worried about seeing Brenda when they got there, but he dismissed the thought instantly. There were far more important things to think about. “Does your mother know anything about wound tending?” he asked.

  “She isn’t home,” responded Kate. “Seth came by to tell me how she was doing.”

  “Seth?”

  “She’s staying at his house. His mother is taking care of her,” explained Kate.

  “Why?” asked Daniel, more confused than ever. “If she was sick, she could have asked my parents. We’re closer by.”

  Kate shook her head, “She wouldn’t hear of it.”

  “What was wrong with her?” he continued. He thought he could see why she might avoid his parents’ help, but things still seemed odd. He had been in town many times over the past few weeks, and none of the women in town had mentioned anything about Brenda Sayer being seriously ill.

  “Nothing wrong exactly, she was pregnant, Daniel. Seth came to tell me that I’ve got a baby sister,” said Kate at last. She said the words with both shame and wonder.

  They had finally reached the house, and once they were inside Daniel deposited Seth carefully onto Brenda Sayer’s bed. He stared at Kate, unable to find words.

  Before he could think of anything she went on, “She won’t say who the father is. That’s why she hid it. Seth’s parents promised not to tell anyone.”

  “Oh.”

  They made Seth as comfortable as possible, removing his shirt and using wet cloths to sponge the dirt out of the wound on the side of his head. It wasn’t bleeding any longer, and his breathing seemed normal. Not knowing what else to do, they withdrew.

  “You should probably put something on,” Daniel told her, glancing at her body. He hadn’t paid much attention before, but now he found his eyes drawn to the smooth curves that adorned her. Throughout their entire misadventure she had shown not the first sign of self-consciousness in front of him.

  “You’ve seen it before,” she observed.

  While he had seen many women naked over the past few months, he had never seen Kate bare-skinned. He was pretty sure he would have remembered that. Looking at her once more he reaffirmed that thought, I definitely would have remembered that.

  “No I haven’t,” he protested, and then he reconsidered. They had gone swimming together a few times as children. He didn’t think that counted, though. She had changed a lot since then.

  “The others,” she said plainly.

  Daniel looked away, suddenly understanding. The dark shadow began to close around his heart again. He hadn’t realized that she had heard the rumors.

  She left and returned a minute later, now wearing a plain white shift. It looked like the sort of gown she might use to sleep in. Taking him by the hand she led him to her room and indicated that he should sit on the bed.

  “I feel a lot better already,” he told her, thinking it would be better to clean the dried blood from her cheek before trying to make him lay up like an invalid.

  Kate pushed him down and sat close beside him. When he tried to rise she held onto him, using her weight to keep him there. “No. This is the first time since whatever happened at the dance that you’ve spoken a single word to me. I won’t let you go until you talk.”

  He looked away.

  She climbed in beside him and curled up, putting her head on his chest and throwing one leg over his. “If you don’t want to talk, that’s fine. You can lay there for the rest of your life if you want. We can both stay here, but you aren’t stepping one foot out of this room until you tell me everything.”

  The idea was a pleasant one. He thought he could easily spend his life that way. “If you knew the truth you’d be afraid to come within a mile of me, Kate. I stayed away because I wanted to protect you, and I didn’t talk because I couldn’t bear the thought of you hating me.”

  “Protect me from what?” she asked without a trace of fear.

  “From me.”

  “Is this something to do with what happened to Ronnie?”

  He nodded.

  “Was that really you?” she probed.

  Daniel shut his eyes, “I killed him.”

  “You’re god-touched,” she said suddenly. That was the term sometimes used for the humans who served the forest gods. The wardens often displayed strange abilities that had no easy explanation. Consequently rumors had sprung up that their close connection to the forest gods had given them powers of their own.

  “It’s nothing to do with the gods, Kate. There’s something evil inside me, something wrong. It isn’t just the power either. I barely understand that, but some of the things I’ve done. I’m turning into a monster,” he confessed.

  She pulled on his chin until they were face to face. “Open your eyes,” she ordered.

  “No.”

  She kissed him, not lightly, but with depth and passion. After a few second she drew back, “Open your eyes or I’ll keep doing that until you do.”

  “What is wrong with you?” he asked. “You’re playing with fire.”

  “Why?” she returned. “Because you’re a dangerous villain? Because you’re some sort of love demon that has seduced half the women in town? Because soon you’ll lose control and take hold of me with your evil power, tainting me as you have so many others?”

  Her words cut to the heart of him, and he stared at her aghast. Clearly she knew quite well what he was thinking, and just as clearly she knew a lot about his recent depravity. “Yes,” he answered.

  “That’s complete bullshit!” she told him fiercely. He was stunned to hear her swearing for the second time in one day. It was completely un-Kate-like behavior.

  “I’ve known you since we were barely able to walk. I’ve seen you caring for animals. I’ve seen you holding a newborn lamb after helping to turn it. We’ve run and fought and cried over the course of the years as we grew up. You’re possibly the kindest, most gentle man I will ever know. Whatever happened that has made you think you’re evil, or worthless, whatever it is—it’s false. And if that’s the reason you pushed me away and started sleeping with every depraved woman that was willing to spread her legs, then you’re an idiot!” she finished.

  Not for the first time Daniel realized that he had completely underestimated Catherine Sayer. She had not only discovered a large portion of his crimes, but she had in some bizarre way, already forgiven him for them, at least in part.

  She was obviously deranged.

  “The only part I don’t understand,” she continued, “is why some of them did it. Some of them seemed like good people, not the sort to take those kinds of risks.”

  “I was very persuasive,” he said simply.


  “You mean your new power?” she asked. “So you really do think you’re some sort of love demon?”

  He nodded.

  “When was the first time?” she asked. After a couple of minutes of waiting she prodded him again, “You might as well tell me. I already know a lot of it anyway. Talk to me!”

  “The first time I was with a woman?” he asked cautiously.

  She nodded, “The first time you used your gift to seduce someone.”

  Those were two different questions, but he wasn’t about to talk about her mother. “I think it was a month or two after the dance.”

  “Who was it?”

  “Alice Hayes. It was sort of an accident that time.”

  She gasped. “No one knew about her.”

  “No one?” He was beginning to wonder about the source of her information.

  “A lot of the women in town have begun to talk about you. Some confessed, others are just rumored to have been with you. They claim you bewitched them,” she explained.

  Now he was even more alarmed. “Do their husbands know?”

  She shook her head, “No, though some may suspect. So far the ladies of Colne have been keeping the gossip amongst themselves. If it had just been one or two, they might have let it get out, but I think you compromised so many of them they’re all afraid to tell anyone.”

  He tried to pull away from her again, but she refused to let go. “Why are you still holding onto me?” he asked as he relaxed again. “Any sane girl would run screaming in the other direction.”

  “Is that really the best way you can think of to apologize?”

  A spark of anger lit in him then, “Why would I do that?”

  “Because, of all the women you’ve known, I’m the only one you’ve ever loved, and I’m the only one who loves you. If you apologize to anyone, before we even consider all the rest, you should be apologizing to me,” she said bluntly. Her eyes had grown red as she spoke.

  “Don’t you remember what I told you at the dance?”

  “You were lying, Daniel Tennick. I’ve known you long enough to know when you tell the truth and when you lie and that was the first and worst lie you ever said to me,” she replied bitterly.

  The pain in her eyes made him sick, and thanks to his gift, he could see it in her aura as well. She burned with a storm of emotions even though she kept her outward appearance relatively calm. Anger, jealousy, and confusion fought with one another to dominate her heart, but beneath and above them all was love, an abiding devotion that denied them the power to control her. It lay within her like a fortress, refusing to move in the face of everything that threw itself against her heart. The surface waters were whipped up in a frenzy by the wind, but underneath them the still depths of her love lay undisturbed.

  In the face of that, he felt small indeed. “I’m so sorry, Kate. There’s nothing I could ever do to make this right, but I never meant to hurt you.”

  Swollen lids still held back the tears, but she couldn’t keep them for much longer. “That’s a start, but first you have to tell me the truth.”

  “I can’t,” he said, thinking at first that she meant the truth of what had started it all.

  “Say it!” she bit out fiercely, and then she repeated the words, beating his chest as she did, “Say it!”

  He finally understood. “I love you Catherine Sayer.” He started to kiss her, but she pushed him back.

  “Now tell me why.”

  “Why what?” he asked, thinking that she might mean his reasons for loving her.

  “Why did you do it?” She said hoarsely. “What could possibly cause all of this? Why would you sleep with every woman you could lay your hands upon, when you loved me? Why am I the only one you couldn’t be with? I’m the one who loves you, but you’ve gone to great lengths to seduce every single woman that was remotely attractive—except for me.”

  His original crime lay within his heart like a stone, and he knew it would have to remain there, even if it choked him to death with its poison. “No,” he answered. Even as he said it, he felt something else, something worrying the back of his mind.

  “No you won’t tell me?” she asked, “Or, no, you won’t seduce me?”

  He sat up, pushing her aside. He recognized what was bothering him now. Focusing his attention, he saw the rider clearly. “There’s a warden coming,” he informed her.

  Chapter 14

  “A warden? Why? Why here? Why now?” She was frustrated and angry that anything would interfere now that she had finally begun to get answers from him.

  “That should be easy to guess,” he told her. “I’ve been hiding my presence from him for a long while now.”

  “Then how did he find you? Ronnie?” she asked.

  Daniel nodded, smoothing his tunic as he went to the door. She caught him before he reached it. “We can run, Daniel, together, you and me.”

  “It’s too late for that, Kate,” he said sadly. “It was too late for that at the Harvest Festival, or I would never have done the things I did.” Staring at one wall, he added, “He’s almost here.”

  “What are we going to do?” she said, fear and courage both showing in her voice.

  “We aren’t doing anything. We never were. You stay here and watch Seth. I’ll meet him outside,” said Daniel.

  She glared at him, desperation in her eyes, “That’s stupid. You realize what he’ll do! Right?”

  “What he’s meant to do,” he answered, shoving her back and slamming the door while she recovered, “Cull the wicked from the faithful.”

  Without being sure how, Daniel used his power to call a leather thong he had seen lying on the table in the front room. He held the latch firmly in place while he used the strip of leather to secure the door. It wouldn’t hold long, especially considering his shoddy knot-work, but he thought it might be long enough.

  I don’t want her to see this.

  The door frame, and even the wall, were shaking as she threw herself bodily against the wooden barrier. “Let me out, you idiot!” she yelled before launching into an even more creative line of invective. Daniel was amazed at her vocabulary, and he began to suspect that there were facets of Kate’s personality that he was completely unaware of.

  Running to the front door he opened it and left the house. He had made it only ten feet from the porch when the warden rode up.

  The warden’s horse was breathing hard, a sign of just how hard they had been riding. He must have been miles away when Daniel’s power had flashed like a beacon. If he had controlled himself better, he might have gone unnoticed.

  “You,” said the rider as he dismounted. “Do not move.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  The stranger was dressed from head to toe in leathers, although their cut and fashion were unknown to Daniel. He drew a dark blade from its sheath, but the sound it made as it came free was dull, unlike the ring one would expect from a metal weapon. Staring at it, Daniel thought that it must be wood, just as Tom Hayes had said. His extra senses confirmed it, although he sensed a strange power infusing it, particularly the edges.

  “Kneel,” said the warden.

  “Are you going to…?” Daniel didn’t finish the question.

  “If you try to run, it will be messy and painful. I promise you that. Kneel and it will be quick,” the man gestured at the ground in front of him.

  Daniel knelt, bending forward to bare his neck. “Thank you.”

  The stranger grunted, “Don’t think I’ve ever heard that before,” and then he lifted his weapon high, preparing to strike the young man’s head from his shoulders.

  It’s over, thought Daniel with a mixture of fear and relief. He flinched as the warden shifted, thinking the blade was already descending, and then he became still again.

  His mind saw the rock flying through the air before he understood its source. He had partially withdrawn his senses and failed to see that Kate had escaped from her bedroom and exited the other side of the house. She had circled around
and found ammunition as she went.

  The stone that struck the warden’s head was almost the size of a man’s fist, and Kate had a strong arm. She and Daniel had practiced throwing over many long summer days when they were smaller. He knew she was quite capable of killing small game if given a good stone and a clear shot. She threw this stone with every intention of killing the warden.

  The man’s head was knocked sideways, and he staggered, almost dropping his weapon, but he didn’t fall. He wasn’t even bleeding. At the very least he should have been stunned, even if his skull was somehow hard enough not to have been cracked by the force of the heavy rock.

  “Bitch!” he muttered. “You’ll die for that.”

  Kate hadn’t finished, though. Her second stone struck him squarely in the face. “Run, Daniel!” she yelled.

  The warden wasn’t affected at all by the second throw. With his new senses Daniel could see that the man had a shell of some sort of energy around him, as though his aura had grown a hardened exterior. It had grown thicker and stronger after her first assault, and now it protected him against anything she could possibly muster. Their enemy smiled, and Kate stiffened before falling over sideways. Her face was covered by a translucent barrier of the same sort of energy, and more of it restrained her arms and legs. Daniel could tell she was struggling to breathe.

  “Let her go!” he told the warden, a low growl forming in his throat.

  “Or what, boy? You’ll bare your fangs at me? Learn your place, baratt!”

  He had no idea what the warden’s last word meant, but the derision in his voice made it clear it wasn’t a compliment. Moving forward Daniel feinted, as though he were about to throw a punch at the man.

  Laughing, his opponent waited, knowing the blow couldn’t touch him, but at the last minute Daniel slipped sideways and stepped behind him. Using his right arm, he pushed at the warden’s chest, hoping to trip him.

  I just need to break his concentration.