Heir of Earth (Forgotten Gods) (52 page)

“Say the words, Faye. Save your friend.” His words were breathy and low, like a drug addict desperately waiting for his high to take hold. His brow quivered high above his eyes, and he ground his teeth as he looked me over, greedily taking stock of the new drug he was about to get.

My breath was gasping and shallow in my throat. I was terrified about what I was about to do. But there was no other way. I had to do this.

“I will stay…” The sound of something escaping from the forest distracted me, and, in an instant, his face disappeared, and I was staring at Christine. She cocked her head to the other side.

“Hey, Faye,” she said, as if she were seeing me for the first time. To our left, Dayne and the stranger were wrestling like two hungry lions. I grabbed Christine’s arm and pulled her with me to the edge of the clearing, behind the protection of a large tree trunk.

When I released her arm she immediately began to return to her captor.

“Christine! No!” I screamed and grabbed her arm, pulling her back to me, where I kept a firm grip on her arm since she certainly didn’t have the sense to stay away from him on her own.

I peered tentatively around the enormous tree trunk. The two bodies crashed into one another like thunder and then flew away from each other with alarming speed to ready for another attack. I had to close my eyes. I couldn’t watch. I took Christine by the arms and together we slid down the tree trunk and sat on the forest floor while the echoes of their fighting ricocheted through the treetops.

The forest fell eerily silent, and I was afraid of what lay on the other side of the tree. I looked at Christine, who still sat frozen like a china doll. Peeking around the tree, I saw that my nightmare was beginning again.

Dayne was slumped over, supporting the weight of his body with an arm stretched out to the forest floor. His breath was coming in heavy pants that made his entire body lunge back and forth with the effort.

“Why do you fight for her when you know she is mine?” He gasped between breaths.

“Because I can take her from you, and there is nothing you can do to stop it.” The man hung over Dayne, taunting him like a schoolyard bully. “All she has to do is say the words. Christine?” He looked toward where we were hidden, and Christine immediately rose.

“Christine, no!” I shouted again and grabbed her arm to bring her back to me. With a smile as sweet as honey, she reached out and took my hands. I was shocked when she lifted me off the ground instead of coming back to me. With a strength that defied logic, she easily picked me up and began to carry me to where Dayne lay defeated.

“Let me go!” I kicked and screamed, but it did no good. She held on to me with a tenacious grip and didn’t let go until she reached her master. She dropped me to the ground at his feet, and I looked to Dayne for an answer.

“Garyn, stop,” Dayne said from where he was struggling to regain his balance. “You have Christine. I did not protest when you took her. I said nothing, even though you know we are forbidden to take lives from so close to Ennishlough. But you cannot have Faye.”

“And what are you going to do to stop me? Your strength fails you because you are too weak to feed from humans as you should. If I want what you have, I will take it. I don’t think your mother would do much to stop me from solving this
problem
.” He sneered over his shoulder in my direction, clearly suggesting I was the problem. “She would probably thank me.” He reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me up to my feet before him. “Now, where were we, Faye? I think you were just about to promise to take Christine’s place, weren’t you?” The arrogant gloating in his voice was suffocating.

“I…I…” I babbled incoherently like a child. Everything had happened so fast, and I couldn’t really think of a way out of the situation I was in. I had planned on Dayne rescuing us like he always had before, but that didn’t appear to be an option. “I…I just need to say good bye to Dayne,” I looked to Garyn pleadingly.

“Weak humans,” Garyn disdained, and tossed me toward Dayne. He walked over to Christine and took her in his arms. It was the tiniest second of broken concentration, but it was all Dayne needed.

In an instant, he was by my side, and I stepped into his arms.

“Yes, Garyn, you may be stronger than me, but you’ll never be faster,” he said and leapt easily up to a tree branch with me in his arms. “Or smarter!” he added spitefully, as he slung me to his back and took off into the canopy.

I clung to Dayne’s as he swung through the treetops like Tarzan. He sprung off trees and just as I thought we would crash to the ground, a vine would find its way into his hands and we would swing further away into the distance. I couldn’t look down. The ground passed by too quickly and made me dizzy.

The sounds of a stream gurgled up from below and Dayne sprang from tree to tree, back and forth over its waters as it flowed along through LisTirna. When he finally stopped, we were perched on top of a rock that leaned out over the waterfall feeding the stream he plucked the wishing pearls from.

“Do you trust me?” He asked as he tightened my legs around his waist and held them securely in place.

“Yes,” I answered.

Before the “s” was out of my mouth, he sprung forward into the air, his arms out to the side, his legs out behind in the swan dive of a professional swimmer. We hung in the air, suspended in time as we began to freefall to the water below. We didn’t fall at a normal speed. Again, it was as if gravity didn’t exist in this world, and we slowly drifted to the water below like slow motion. The second before we hit the water, Dayne’s body spun beneath me so I lay against his chest.

We plunged into the water, and in an instant he was pulling me to the soft green grass of the bank.

“That’s better than a carnival ride!” I said laughing with disbelief as I looked at the waterfall towering a hundred feet above us.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he began to look me over.

“I’m fine, what about you?” I said running my hands over his face and arms, amazed that there were no scratches or bruises anywhere on him.

“I’m fine.” He pushed my hands away and stood up. “Why did you go with him? Did you not recognize him?” Dayne grabbed my hand and yanked me to my feet. I crashed into his side when he turned to look at the top of the waterfall to be sure we hadn’t been followed.

“I thought it was you,” I said wide eyed, shaking my head and turning around to face him. “I didn’t follow him. I followed Cotton into the woods. I didn’t think…” I grabbed my forehead with my hand rubbing at the temples as I tried to forget the cold blue of his eyes.

“He was Cotton?” Every bit of emotion drained from Dayne’s body and his head slowly turned to me.

“Yeah, why?” I whispered, knowing already that I didn’t want to hear his answer. Dayne’s eyes closed and he began to rub his own temples.

“That means he’s been watching us.” I watched the words fall slowly from his mouth as if in slow motion.

“I
have
been watching you.” We both jumped when Garyn’s voice rang out from the trees around us.

Garyn emerged from the cover of the forest and Dayne stepped in front of me, shielding me with his own body. The fear that had subsided surged back through me. This wasn’t over.

“You are faster, Dayne, but you are also predictable. You’ve gotten soft in your years as a human. Fighting you isn’t nearly as much fun as it used to be.” Garyn adjusted the sleeve of his shirt causally as he approached.

Dayne’s jaw clenched in anger.

“What do you want with her, Garyn? Why won’t you leave this alone?” Dayne’s arm reached protectively around me, and he crouched low, readying himself for an attack.

“Isn’t it obvious?” He tossed his hands dramatically into the air as if Dayne were stupid for not knowing his motives. “I want her because you want her.” He shrugged a shoulder and tossed his head in my direction. “And losing her will make you suffer.”

“Why do you want me to suffer?” Dayne shook his head as he stood back up to his full height. Dayne was bigger than Garyn, but I could tell by the size of his muscles, and the battles I’d witnessed, that Garyn was a warrior, too.

“Why do I want you to suffer?” Garyn snorted with disbelief. “Come on Dayne, you aren’t that stupid. I would never bow down to a king as unworthy as you, someone who would change our ways and the lives we live. Neither would the rest of LisTirna.” Garyn’s face twisted as if the thought made him violently ill.

“I don’t want that crown any more than you want me to have it, Garyn, but it isn’t our decision to make.” Garyn was circling us now, and Dayne moved expertly with him as he stalked us looking for an opportunity to pounce. “I would gladly leave this world to you if I could.”

“See? That’s exactly what I mean. You would betray this world just as easily as you betrayed your best friend.” he said, shaking his head. “You don’t deserve to rule over this world anymore than you deserve my forgiveness.”

“That was ages ago, Garyn. Isn’t it time you let our past go?” I pulled at the loosened folds of Dayne’s shirt as I moved to stay behind him. What had Dayne done in another age to make Garyn hate him so much?

“Uh–uh. I still owe you one for your betrayal, my friend.” Garyn’s lips snarled as he hunkered down before us. “And taking her from you might just make us even.”

“Never. Not while there is breath in my body,” Dayne hunkered down low like Garyn, fists clenched at his side.

Garyn laughed to himself as he circled us. “You always were stubborn, Dayne.”

“And you were always jealous.” Dayne’s voice was low and threatening.

Garyn let out a guttural growl. Dayne continued in the circle until his back was facing the safety of the woods. I looked up to the tree line where I saw Christine watching us. Without looking at me, his eyes fixed on Garyn, Dayne pushed me toward the safety of the trees. I knew what he meant and ran as fast as I could to the cover, not looking back until I reached the woods.

I realized how right Dayne was about this place. At first glance it had seemed perfect, but I hadn’t been here 24 hours, and it was quickly becoming an eternity in hell.

Dayne leapt at Garyn like a pouncing lion, and again the two men were rolling around on the ground, trying to defeat the other in some sick, twisted version of mortal combat. I couldn’t stand to watch this over again.

“Stop!” I finally screamed out when I couldn’t take it any longer. Dayne stopped and looked to me. Garyn seized the moment grabbed him around the neck in a chokehold. “No!” I screamed even louder when Dayne struggled for the breath that Garyn was squeezing out of him. I knew Garyn’s strength would kill him in an instant. There was no way he could escape from Garyn this time. It was all up to me.

“Stop! Please don’t hurt him. Please don’t. I’ll do it. I’ll do what you want. Just don’t hurt him!” I began to sob and Garyn eased his grip around Dayne’s neck.

“Faye, no!” Dayne managed to spit out as he gasped for the breath he needed to live. Immediately, Garyn’s grip tightened again.

“You’ll do what Faye?” Garyn asked as he walked over to me, dragging Dayne behind him.

“I’ll do what you want. I’ll take her place,” I said as the tears streamed down my face. I looked to the ground below me and realized I was giving myself a death sentence if Dayne wasn’t right about my powers. If I agreed to this and didn’t actually possess elemental powers, I was giving up my mortal life. But it somehow seemed worth it. I could save Dayne and Christine. All I had to do was say the words, and they would both be free.

“Christine?” Garyn called her name and in an instant she was by my side, reaching for my hands. The warm softness of her fingers slid into my palm. I thought about Mary, how happy she would be to have her daughter home. Then I immediately thought about Rose and how devastated she and Phin would be to find me gone.

I pulled my hands back and looked up at Christine. She smiled at me just as sweetly as she always had. Is this what I would become? Some dream-walking Barbie doll that didn’t have a clue about what was happening to her? It was funny how that thought gave me comfort. At least I would be blissfully unaware of what was happening to me, about where his foul hands rested on my body. Bile rose up my throat when I imagined his lips lingering on my neck, just as they had on hers.

I blinked the haze of my tears away, looking into the cold eyes where I saw not a single drop of remorse. He was nothing like Dayne, clinging to the old ways of protecting innocence. He would use me up and throw me away like a dirty needle if I didn’t have the power to get away from him. Dayne looked up at me from where Garyn held him at his side, tears in his eyes, too, as he did his best to shake his head to tell me no.

“I’m sorry. I’m doing it because I love you,” I said through my sobs and reached again to put my hands on Christine’s.

“I…I will stay…”

“What is going on here?!” A new voice boomed just before the final word that would have sealed my fate slipped from my mouth. I sucked my breath in to keep even the first sound of that dreadful word from leaving my lips.

“Arabette!” Garyn immediately dropped Dayne and fell to his knees. “My Queen!” Dayne sprung from his grip and landed beside me.

“Get up off your miserable knees, you pathetic thing. Do not mistake my brother’s weaknesses for my own.” Arabette’s voice dripped with a regal contempt for the miserable subject before her.